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23 May 2022

- Understand the French healthcare system, how you access it and how you are reimbursed - Useful if you are new to the French healthcare system or want a more in-depth understanding - Reader question and answer section Aimed at non-French nationals living here, the guide gives an overview of what you are (and are not) covered for. There is also information for second-home owners and regular visitors.
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There was an old Saturday Night Live fake movie trailer narrated by horror movie veteran Christopher Lee. John Belushi played a houseguest who couldnt take a hint from a couple that just wanted to go to bed. The husband tells Belushi, Look, I dont want to be rude, but my wife is VERY tired! Belushi responds by picking up the TV Guide and saying dismissively, Yeah. ... Hey, theres a good movie on tonight! I think Ill call up some friends and watch it over here!

Then came Lees creepy voiceover: It came without warning! They were just being POLITE! They didnt realize that theyd be stuck with ... The Thing That Wouldnt Leave!

John Kasich is this election seasons The Thing That Wouldnt Leave.

After investing everything in New Hampshire, Kasich came in second, doing worse than Jon Huntsman had in his race-ending performance in 2012. Kasichs response? He didnt just declare victory, he proclaimed, Tonight, the light overcame the darkness.

Since then, Kasich has lost some 30 contests and won one  in his home state of Ohio. But still, he just wont go.

Its not just that Kasich cant take a hint, its that he appears to be living in a kind of fantasy world, largely defined by three myths or delusions.

The first is the most endearing. Kasich has the best resume of the remaining candidates. Heck, he arguably had the best resume of the entire 2016 field, if by best you mean the longest and deepest government experience. Hes not delusional about that.

What he is confused about is the idea that a lot of people care that he was, say, the chairman of the House Budget Committee two decades ago. According to legend, a supporter once shouted at Adlai Stevenson, Governor Stevenson, all thinking people are for you! Stevenson shot back, Thats not enough. I need a majority! Even if Kasich is right that his resume makes him the best qualified to be president  a debatable proposition  the simple fact is that after nearly three dozen contests, relatively few voters agree with him.

Ah, but what about the delegates? If its a contested convention and neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz has enough delegates to lock up the nomination, wont they turn to Kasich?

Not necessarily. But dont tell that to the Ohio governor, who goes from interview to interview insisting that hed be the natural choice for the convention. Why would he be? Well, that answer varies.

Kasichs most frequently stated reason is that delegates will choose him because he beats Hillary Clinton in the polls. And its true that Kasich does marginally better than Cruz in hypothetical matchups against Clinton  and a lot better than Trump.

Left unanswered is why the delegates  many of them loyal to Trump and Cruz  would gamely back The Thing That Wouldnt Leave. After the second or third round of voting, delegates are free to cast their ballots for whomever they want. Theres little evidence that theyd want Kasich, and theyd be under no obligation to vote for him over, say, Paul Ryan or Marco Rubio  or, for that matter, Rush Limbaugh or Shaquille ONeal. Indeed, for many delegates it would seem either unfair or downright crazy to skip over bigger vote-getters and back Kasich just because he won his home state of Ohio.

Of course, what that leaves out is the fact that Kasich is running as a hopeful, positive, uplifting champion of light over darkness. That brings us to yet another Kasich delusion, and this one is shared by many of his backers as well. Call it the myth of Kasich the hugger.

In South Carolina, a college student asked the Ohio governor for one of his supposedly famous hugs. It wasnt until later that we learned the huggee worked for the huggers super PAC. More to the point, Kasich is simply not the touchy-feely guy hes pretending to be or perhaps thinks he is.

The man is famously irascible, pugnacious and sanctimonious. Hes prone to defending his policies, such as his expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare in Ohio, by insinuating that he cares more about his eternal soul than his critics. A lot of people talk about how unlikeable Cruz is. Well, Ive met both men, and Id much rather have a beer with Cruz.

Maybe Kasichs denial stems from the fact that hes never lost a race and cant contemplate failing this time. I really have no idea. All I know is that its time for him to go.
 



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HILLARY IS A NORMAL HUMAN PERSON

Earlier this week she was just a regular gal taking a ride on the NYC subway. This is a calculated attempt by her campaign to soften her image. The problem for Robbie Mook and the rest of her handlers is that it's not working. She comes off looking clumsy and unctuous when she interacts with actual people. And there's little they can do about it, though they haven't given up trying. So expect even more of the Hillary Normalization Tour on the way to November.

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Hillary tours a brewery in Wisconsin last week. She says something like:

Oh, I've drunk a lot of beer...

No kidding Hills, just check out the google image result for "Hillary Clinton beer"...
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Indian companies have now started terminating this style of appraisal system or tweaking it to be more flexible, rewarding and feedback-based. (Representational Image)

New Delhi: It is appraisal time again and employees can look forward to an average hike of 10-12 per cent, while top performers can eye as much as 25 per cent, but this once-a-year evaluation norm may change as firms are shifting to a more regular feedback culture, say experts.

Most companies have a bell curve system of management in place, which compares employees' performance relative to others and puts them in different rankings - top, average and bottom performers - with the vast majority being treated as average performers.

HR experts believe however that times are changing and more and more companies are planning a revamp of their appraisal systems, opting for a more regular feedback based review systems.

"Eliminating bell curve/forced distribution or going 'rating less' is undoubtedly catching a lot of attention with many organisations willing to test it as a pilot if not fully implement it," Willis Towers Watson India Director, Rewards, Talent and Communication, Shatrunjay Krishna said. Recently, companies like Accenture, Infosys, HCL, Axis Bank and KPMG announced plans to shift from the bell-curve appraisal system and more companies are expected to follow suit.

"Almost every major company wants to revamp their current approach. They want to make it intuitive, focused on feedback, and more developmental," Nishith Upadhyaya, Head-Advisory and Knowledge for SHRM India said adding that "the trick to get it right is to improve upon the curve that uniquely reflects the real driver of people performance in your organisation".

Regarding appraisals Kunal Sen, Senior Vice President, TeamLease Services said average salary hike will be about 11 per cent across sectors with IT leading the way at about 13.5 per cent, while, top talent should be getting 20-25 per cent hikes, he added.

"The average hike in 2016 will be 10-12 per cent where in top performers will end up getting 15-20 per cent specially in the industries like e-commerce, startup's wherein the increase is also the part of the retention policy since this particular sector has lot of poaching and business models are evolving," said Sunil Goel, MD GlobalHunt an executive search firm.

According to Joseph Devasia, Managing Director Antal International India "most Indian companies have now started terminating this style of appraisal system or tweaking it to be more flexible, rewarding and feedback-based".

Meanwhile, V Suresh Chief Sales Officer Naukri.com believes "the intent of any performance appraisal system is to identify and differentiate top performers and to nurture people to move to the next level. Bell curve is a tool used to achieve this intent and the tools may evolve basis the market dynamics but the intent will still be the same".
New Delhi: With banks having rejected Rs4,000 crore offer made by 'wilful defaulter' Vijay Mallya to settle dues of over Rs 9,000 crore, industry body Assocham has asked them to be open to negotiations and cut losses. In an apparent support to Mallya's offer, the industry body said the offer conveys his "intention to repay the loans", and asked banks to ignore the "public discourse against the purported wilful defaulters", and not be influenced by media reports.

Mallya's settlement offer has already been rejected by banks, who want something concrete on the table, while he has failed to appear before various investigative agencies like ED and SFIO despite repeated summons issued in connection with probe into alleged irregularities at his group.

"The banks must evaluate with open mind what offer is on the table. Even if Rs 4,000 crore, as reported in the media, needs to be revised, the banks should be open to negotiations irrespective of the fact whether the borrower is sitting in Delhi or Dubai, Mumbai or London. "Get your money back and cut your losses, if they occur," Assocham said. Mallya is reported to be in the UK after he left India on March 2.

"With so much shrill on the wilful defaulters, the banks and their principal shareholder, the Government of India, should take a dispassionate view of the case rather than being influenced by the media reports which at times get exaggerated in the 'right-or-wrong' debate," Assocham said in a statement.

It said the main concerns for the bank's consortium should be recovery of its assets which have become NPAs and all genuine efforts must be made towards that end. In the present situation, the difficult times have to be faced by all the stakeholders- industry (borrowers) and the banks, it added.

In the case of Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya, Assocham said it does not want to sit in judgement, but what it certainly wants is "let there not be a media and public trial as such a thing is not good for the industry, banks or even the countrys financial system".

A consortium of banks led by State Bank of India last week rejected the proposal in the current form offered by Mallya and his companies to pay Rs 4,000 crore by September towards settlement of his loan before the Supreme Court. The consortium had also asked the Supreme Court that directions be passed to ensure the presence of Mallya in the country to show that he was serious about settling the dues.
British foreign secretary Philip Hammond discussed the issue of over-capacity in steel production with his Chinese counterpart here on Saturday.

Beijing: Britian has pressed China to speed up its efforts to cut down steel production amid concerns that Chinese steelmakers are dumping excess on the global market, triggering a crisis in countries like the UK. British foreign secretary Philip Hammond discussed the issue of over-capacity in steel production with his Chinese counterpart here on Saturday.

I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production, he said. The UKs focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steel making at Port Talbot and across the UK, and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steel making, he said. Mr Hammond met Wang Yi on his way to Hiroshima for the G7 foreign ministers meeting.

China had said that plans to shut steel mills over the next five years would cut capacity to an estimated 1.13 billion tonnes by 2020, a figure that still far exceeds domestic demand.
The music composer has already begun working on the project.

Mumbai: Salman Khan, who is currently busy shooting for his upcoming film Sultan, has reportedly joined hands with music composer Himesh Reshammiya for the Kicks sequel.

As reported by SpotboyE, Salman Khan has approached Himesh Reshammiya to compose for the films sequel. Not only few songs but Himesh will compose the films entire soundtrack. Reportedly, the music composer has already begun working on the project.

Salman was so impressed with the composers work on his film Prem Ratan Dhan Payo that he decided to bring Himesh on board with Kick 2.

In case you dont know, Himesh and Salman had earlier worked together in Kick as well. Reports further reveal that filmmaker Sajid Nadiadwala was also satisfied with Salmans decision to have Himesh compose the entire album for the sequel.

The actor will start working on Kicks sequel after he wraps up shooting for Ali Abbas Zafars Sultan which also stars Anushka Sharma.
Known for her humanitarian works, Bollywood star Jaqueline Fernandez has geared up for another initiative. She has joined hands with Habitat for Humanity India, a global non-profit organisation, to build houses for the flood-affected families in Chennai. Despite her busy schedule, the actress found time and flew down to Chennai for a day.

She visited Padappai village and participated in the construction process, along with the local community and over 300 volunteers, who had assembled from across India. In an interview with DC, she opens about her campaign Jaqueline Builds, and her interest to act in South Indian films.

The actress, who has been instrumental in spreading awareness and raising funds for the relief work says, Being affiliated with Habitat for Humanity for five years has helped me to create the project Jaqueline Builds, and for the past two-and-a-half months, we have been working to help rehabilitate flood victims of Tamil Nadu. Weve got a fantastic response from donors and volunteers and its been a successful initiative.

This is just a beginning of what we can achieve  housing and shelter is a very important initiative for me, she says adding, Hrithik Roshan has been really generous by sponsoring an entire house for a family. Jacqueline also met the affected families and interacted with them, giving them strength and a new hope for a better future.

So, how does she balance acting and humanitarian work? It is not easy to balance time in any field you are in. Usually, people dont consider charitable work as an essential or important thing to do.

However, this year Ive consciously made effort to do some work and this is my first project so far. Im planning to engage in three more similar projects, says Jacqueline, who is also a part of UN Global Goals campaign.
musically yours: Kheta Khan and his group performed in the city on Saturday at the Hyderabad Arts Festival for the programme Sounds of the Desert  The Manganiyar Magic of Music and Dance.

All you had to do was close your eyes; the raag of Kesariya balam padharo maaro desh would instantly transport you to the deserts of Rajasthan. The cool summer Saturday night was just made much more better; thanks to the soothing music by Kheta Khan and his musicians from the Manganiyar community in Rajasthan.

Do you know how people get an idea that we have arrived in our village, asks Khan? And he goes on to answer, They simply listen to the music of our instruments and know!

For seven generations now, Khans family has been making music. We used to sing for the Kings and their families; there was nothing else we even thought of doing. Music has always been our life and my hands have only played music so far, says Khan.

The Manganiyar community follows the oral tradition and their songs are recorded, but in their hearts and minds. All the music and songs we have were taught to us and we have listened to so many compositions that we now just remember all the songs. We just have to listen to a song once and it stays with us, says Khan.

The community primarily comprises Muslims and their songs are in praise of the Hindu deities. Khan elaborates, Thats how it has always been. We belong to Jaisalmer where a Hindu Goddess is worshiped. There is one particular festival where a huge puja for the Goddess is held. The puja never commences until someone from the Manganiyar community sings, also the first prasad of the puja is given to us.

Manganiyars are travelling musicians who go from place to place, perform at weddings and festivals and liven up the place. Their songs are so famous that even the Hindi film industry uses them, which is a problem sometimes. Do you remember the Nimbooda song from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam?

Even before that movie was conceptualised, we had been performing that song. We sang it in a festival in the US in 1985. When Bollywood uses our songs, we dont feel bad, but the focus is never on the community that originally makes them. It is part of our tradition and I feel that we dont get credit, he rues.

The community is also unique with the kind of instruments they use. Whether it is the khartal, made of four logs of teak wood, the kamaicha, a 17-string instrument or the dholak, these have remained the same over the years.

The music sounds exactly the way it did 500 years ago; we have not altered any instrument. What has changed perhaps is the way we perform. But if you were to go back in time and check, the quality of music remains untouched. When you ask him how old the instruments he owns are, he thinks for a while before saying,

When I was a child, I asked my grandfather how we got the kamaicha and he told me that, he remembers asking his grandfather the same question; and he too got the same answer! Frankly, we dont even remember when these instruments were passed down to us.

The Manganiyars have always been a group of young men and Khan says that by tradition, women have stayed away from performing in public. But, they perform at weddings of family members. Their knowledge of music is so deep that we get inspired by them, he adds.

The families have all functioned in similar ways. Khan says, The kids get trained in music since their childhood. They grow up listening to us and they practise and pick up the right notes. But now, were also focussing on their education. We want them to be educated because they have the gift of music. At any given point of the day, if you come down to our house, even a five-year-old will play for you!
MALLUR (WARANGAL): Located 1,500 feet on a hillock, the Mallur Hemachala Narasimhaswamy temple is an attraction not just for pilgrims but also tourists. Many families come to this thickly forested spot for picnics. The temple is said to be more than 4,000 years old, dating back to the time of Satavahana king Dilipakarna, and the Kakatiyas were known to have revered the lord.

There are also ancient cave formations a little further in the forest. The idol of Ugra Narasimha Swamy here is the only one where the deity is in a standing position at a height of 9.2 metres. Visitors are amazed to see that when the priest presses his finger on the chest of the idol, the finger goes inside the rock. Once taken out, the trough formed due to the finger slowly fills back. The deity is believed to have incarnated from a volcano and the Lords body feels like a humans.

Even though the temple is located on a hillock, there is a waterfall, Chintamani jalapatham below the temple, which flows throughout the year. To this day, it is a mystery where this stream originates from. The water is also considered to have medicinal values.

Devotees and tourists in large numbers throng to the temple to offer their prayers to fulfill their wishes, to beget children or to redeem themselves of sins, said chief priest of the temple Ragha-vacharyulu Kamkaryam. Temple executive officer V. Rama Rao told DC that about 100 devotees visited the temple on weekdays and the number doubled on weekends. There is anna danam everyday for the devotees.
Kandi (WB): Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for accusing her party of corruption and dared him to send her to jail. She also expressed confidence to bounce back with massive mandate in the polls even from the jail.

The PM lies every now and then. Let him put me behind bars. Even then I shall bounce back in the polls with massive mandate, Banerjee said addressing an election campaign here in Murshidabad district.

During his recent election rallies in West Bengal, the Prime Minister had accused Ban-erjee of adjusting with corruption and misleading people with slogans for change. Stating that TMC stood for Terror, Maut and Corruption, Modi had told an election rally Narada sting operation against Trinamul Congress leaders was shown in TV. It was such big scandal but did Didi take any step against them or expelled them from the party. Didi has adjusted with corruption.

A day after Prime Ministers attack on her, Ms Banerjee said his comments do not behove the office he holds and termed his BJP Bhayanak Jali Party (Dangerously Fraud Party). Ms Banerjee also criticised the CPM and Cong-ress, who have forged an alliance in the state to defeat her party in the ongoing assembly poll.

Firing a salvo against Congress in WBPCC President Adhir Chow-dhurys bastion in Murshidabad district, she said, Congress has no power to fight on its own and is suffering from identity crisis.

Meanwhile, Election Commission is examining speeches by Prime Minister and West Bengal Chief Minister made this week in poll rallies in Asansol for any model code of conduct violation even as it censured Trinamul candidate Abdur Razzak Molla for his remarks.

CDs of their (Modi and Banerjee) election rallies have been sent to the Election Commission of India in Delhi. Our media certification and monitoring committee have video footage of their speeches, an official of the Chief Electoral Officer, West Bengal, said.

Also, it may be noted that western districts of West Bengal, including Burdwan and Bankura, which goes to the polls on Monday are reeling under heatwave with the Met office saying no respite is in sight for the next three to four days.
A view of a collapsed building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, north of Thiruvananthapuram, southern Kerala. (Photo: AP)

Kollam: At least 102 people were killed and 280 injured when a major fire broke out in the Puttingal Devi Temple complex at nearby Paravoor early on Sunday when sparks emanating from a fireworks display ignited a store room filled with crackers and pyrotechnic material.

Read: Conflicting versions on nod for fireworks display

The figures were confirmed by Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy. Those injured in the tragedy have been rushed to Trivandrum Medical College.

Offering his deep condolences to the deceased and their families, Chandy announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to kin of each of those killed and Rs 2 lakh for seriously injured.

As the temple festival was on, fireworks display had commenced at the temple precincts since midnight and hundreds of people had gathered to watch the show.

Read: Pak offers condolences over Kerala temple tragedy

As the fireworks and pyrotechnics display was coming to a close at 3 AM, an explosion is suspected to have occurred at the storeroom 'Kambapuram' filled with crackers and pyrotechnics materials, police said.

Read: Kollam fire: Centre sends team to probe storage of firecrackers

Thousands of people had gathered at the temple precincts to witness the fireworks display which were on since midnight when the fire broke out.

Read: Kerala fire: Situation at mishap site alarming, says Oomen Chandy

The whole area plunged into darkness as the power supply went off and people ran helter skelter, eyewitnesses said.

People gather near the mishap site in Kerala's kollam district. (Photo: DC/ Rakesh Nair)

Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

Chandy, who was on an election tour, has cancelled all his programmes to rush to the accident site.

Asked about the death toll, the Chief Minister said the number would go up as reports are pouring in from different hospitals, where the injured have been admitted.

The government would extend treatment facilities to the injured persons in the hospitals preferred by their relatives, he said.

Video footage of the moment the temple caught fire:

WATCH: Moment when fire broke at Puttingal temple fire in Kollam (Kerala) due to fireworks display, 75 dead.https://t.co/xXtBnZkgWX  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Authorities have released control room numbers: 0474-2512344, 9497930863, 9497960778.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to offer his condolences to the deceased and their families.

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

Have also asked my Cabinet colleague & Health Minister @JPNadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016 Modi also said that he will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the fire tragedy in Kollam. He also announced Rs two lakh each as compensation to the next of the kin of the dead in the temple mishap and Rs 50,000 to those who are injured. A case has been registered against temple authorities and explosive licenses in the temple mishap. Government has rushed the Chief Controller of explosives safety organisation PESO to probe the use and storage of firecrackers at the temple complex. Officials of Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), DIPP will work closely with district authorities to establish facts.

Fires and stampedes are common at temples and during religious occasions, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has expressed concern over the slow pace of dredging works on Jhelum river post the 2014 floods, and has asked officials to carry out the project speedily.

The Chief Minister reviewed the progress of the dredging of Jhelum from Anantnag to Baramulla district during a high-level meeting held at SKICC, an official spokesman said on Sunday.

This was the first review meeting of the Irrigation and Flood Control Department (IFC) which was chaired by Mehbooba after taking over as the Chief Minister of the state.

During the meeting, the spokesman said the Chief Minister was briefed about 'Dredging as a Component of Flood Mitigation', which is part of the first phase of comprehensive plan for flood management works on Jhelum, sanctioned recently by the Centre at a cost of Rs 399.29 crore. Mehbooba noted with serious concern the extremely slow pace of work by Kolkata-based Reach Dredgers, which has been tasked with mechanical dredging of 16,00,000 cubic metres along the Srinagar and Baramulla stretches of the river, the spokesman said.

He said the Chief Minister emphasized that weekly timelines be fixed to ensure that dredging works are carried out speedily in order to relieve people from perpetual fear of floods that grips them during heavy rains.

"People have waited for a long time and any further delay in dredging work will be totally unacceptable," she stated.

Presently, two master dredgers engaged by Reach Dredgers are carrying out mechanical dredging at Shivpora and Sopore.

However, only 2,000 cubic metres of dredging of Jhelum has been carried out since the work was allotted to the firm, the Chief Minister was informed.

The Chief Minister also asked the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir to issue directions to concerned Deputy Commissioners to provide support to IFC department in speeding up dredging in their respective districts, the spokesman said.

Mehbooba also directed the Chief Engineer IFC to immediately commence work on those stretches of land which have been retrieved from encroachers.
Kollam: Describing the fire tragedy here as "unimaginable", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday assured Kerala government and its people all help in the hour of crisis as he visited the mishap site near here and a hospital to see the injured people.

"This tragedy is very painful. The extent of the tragedy is unimaginable and such dreadful," he told reporters before concluding his brief visit during which he also held a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

He said the tragedy is such huge that it is difficult to express it in words as such a large number of people have been injured, with some being beheaded.

"This is an hour of crisis and the central government is ready to extend all help to Kerala government and the people of the state," Modi said.

Read: Rahul Gandhi visits fire accident site in Kerala

He said he had told the Chief Minister that if he wanted any injured people to be taken to Mumbai or Delhi for specialised treatment, the central government will immediately make arrangements for the same. He extended condolences to those who lost their kin and wished speedy recovery to the injured.

Read: Coast Guard sends ship, chopper along with medical team to Kollam

The Prime Minister also saw the concrete bars, twisted wires and cables. Later talking to reporters, Chennithala said the Prime minister had enquired about the unidentified bodies and said DNA tests should be done if necessary.

Chandy informed him that government had already taken steps in this regard. Chennithala said the PM also enquired about the compensation to be given to those affected. The Prime Minister later visited the Kollam district hospital to see the injured people.

Read: Russian President Vladimir Putin condoles loss of lives in Kerala temple fire

Earlier, Chandy said he was thankful to the Prime Minister for coming to Kerala to share the grief. He said he was also grateful to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi for visiting Kerala in this hour of grief.

Read: Kollam fire: Centre sends team to probe storage of firecrackers

Earlier in the day, Modi announced Rs two lakh each as compensation for the next of the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.

"Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured," the Prime Minister said in a tweet in the morning.

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

"Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter," he tweeted in the morning.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

Read: Kerala fire: Situation at mishap site alarming, says Oomen Chandy

The PMO said Modi was constantly monitoring the situation and was in touch with officials. He had directed that no protocol formalities be observed on his arrival in Kerala as focus should remain on relief and rescue operations in Kollam. Modi said he had also asked Health Minister J P Nadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam.

Have also asked my Cabinet colleague & Health Minister @JPNadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

102 people were killed and over 300 injured in a major fire that broke out in the Puttingal Devi Temple complex early this morning during a display of fireworks for which there was no permission from authorities.
Chennai: Lashing out at DMK president M. Karunanidhi for flaunting prohibition at the top of his poll promises at her mega campaign rally in Island Grounds on Saturday, Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said said he lacked locus standi to make such claims as it was he, as the chief minister in 1971, who had ended prohibition in Tamil Nadu.

Congress leader Rajaji had gone to Karunanidhi's house, braving heavy rain, to plead with him not go ahead with his decision to lift prohibition. But Karunanidhi justified his decision and encouraged the sale of liquor on various occasions, Jayalalithaa said.

She spoke seated behind a table fitted with mike placed on the dais while her 21 candidates for the Chennai, Kancheepuram and Thiruvellore districts sat in two rows at a level just below.

Ms Jayalalithaas comments and the promise on prohibition came in the wake of repeated demands from opposition parties and social organisations for total prohibition in the state. All the parties have pledged to close down tasmac shops if voted to power-there are 6,876 shops across the state, selling liquor worth about Rs 19,000 crore in a year and employing 28000 workers.

Quoting Mr Karunanidhi's speeches, inside and outside Tamil Nadu Assembly, against prohibition, the AIADMK supremo asked people to ponder over his sudden turn around to promise ban on liquor now. The DMK chief was also now saying that the people should not believe the AIADMK even if its manifesto promises prohibition.

This is Karunanidhi's way of misleading the people. Why should he say this? He encouraged drinking and more than one generation have grown with alcohol, she said, quoting statistics to claim that the sale of liquor increased when the DMK was in power during 2006-2011.

Ms Jayalalithaa's 45-minute speech focused on the excellent work done by the AIADMK government, especially in Chennai city and its suburbs after the people rejected family rule and voted for her party.

Gone are the days when the state witnessed 15-hour power cut. We have ushered in a new era of power surplus statethe government led by me has implemented numerous welfare measures to uplift the downtrodden, she said.

Introducing her 21 candidates to the public, she asked the people for a renewed mandate to deliver even more.She also referred to a survey done by the Union government that found Chennai to be the safest city for women in the

country.
A month from now, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah completes three years in office as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. Given the cut and thrust of politics in the state, many within the Congress party would see the end of the three years in government as not so much an occasion to celebrate but as a time for introspection.

With summer setting in and the temperature soaring, the political climate in the state also seems to be `hotting up'. It has often been argued that in Karnataka, the strongest adversary that a Congress government has consistently faced is the Congress party itself. In elections, no one defeats the Congress - the Congress vanquishes itself. Portends of this trend are today patently evident.

In a linked development, the BJP has anointed its former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa as its state party chief. This has been done in spite of the stiff opposition from a few state level leaders in the party. The battle lines for the 2018 Assembly elections are being clearly drawn. Over the last three years in power, the Congress government has had its fair share of factionalism. Given the fact that Siddaramaiah was a recent entrant into the Congress party, it was felt that one of the first steps that the Chief Minister would take would be to carry all factions with him.

Thirty six months in power has shown very little proof of such an effort. The senior ministers in government are rarely seen coming to the rescue of the Chief Minister and the government when important controversies break out or serious allegations are made against the government. A group of loyalists around the Chief Minister is left with the task of defending the government.

While a review of the performance of Ministers has been frequently promised at regular intervals, a reshuffle of the Council of Minister has been put off from time to time, citing a range of excuses. The sense of disquiet among Ministers, elected legislators and party workers is palpably visible. A number of factors and forces account for this drift within the government and the ruling party. When the Congress came to power in Karnataka in 2013, it secured a majority, riding a strong anti-incumbency wave against the ruling BJP. The emergence of Siddaramaiah as the Chief Ministerial choice of the Congress High Command, side-stepping the claims of Congress veterans like Mallikarjun Kharge indicated the strong support he enjoyed at Delhi. Having joined the Congress party less than five years prior to becoming Chief Minister, especially in a party wherein the loyalty test is critical, it was vital that the leadership took all segments of the party along rather than remaining a mere factional leader. Little proof was demonstrated of the same and the defeat in the Lok Sabha elections was an important warning bell. Factionalism reared its ugly head with frequent regularity and Ministers paid more attention to defending themselves and their limited personal political turf rather than project a positive image of the government.

One gets the impression that the Congress political leadership at the state level has adopted an approach of indifference towards strengthening the party in the state. The prevailing attitude appears to be one of carrying on as long as possible, exit when inevitable and let the future of the party be decided by those taking responsibility at that stage.

With the BJP now deciding to hand over the reins of leadership to Yeddyurappa, it clearly indicates that the party is making a serious and concerted bid to win the support of the electorate in the next round of Assembly polls. In the Congress, the gulf between the party and the government is huge.

Ever since the state Congress President was brought into the Cabinet as Home Minister, the focus on party building is on the back-burner. One has always noticed that whenever the state party head joins the government, it is imperative that a new leader be chosen to head the party so that adequate attention is given to addressing the issues and concerns in the ruling party. The growing dissidence in Karnataka among ruling party MLAs is a reflection of this trend. Even though the Congress is in power in the state, the mood among its elected representatives in the legislature is that a small coterie of leaders wield power and influence. This has also assumed a caste colour.

Prior to becoming chief minister, Siddaramaiah led the AHINDA movement that sought to bring together a segment of the non-dominant backward castes, minorities and dalits. After coming to power, it was hoped that he would broaden his base of political support. On the contrary many believed that it shrank further with only a few groups within the AHINDA movement having access to power and benefits.

A majority of the legislators in all Legislative Assemblies in Karnataka have hailed from the dominant castes (Lingayat and Vokkaliga). Today, there seems to be a strong sentiment among legislators from the dominant castes that these social groups are drifting away from the party. It is in this context the efforts of the BJP to appoint a senior leader from one of the dominant castes - the Lingayats - as party president needs to be seen. This community was strongly behind the BJP when it was in power but moved away from it during the 2013 elections, only to sway back towards the party in the Lok Sabha polls.

The Congress rode to power in Karnataka on a strong public sentiment against the alleged acts of corruption associated with the previous BJP government. One of the first assurances of Siddaramaiah as Chief Minister was to profess his government's commitment to a corruption free administration. The manner in which the government image has taken a beating on the Lok Ayukta fiasco is yet another sad commentary on drift in governance. Karnataka was credited with being one of the early states to have a strong and visible Lok Ayukta.

As a Minister in the Ramakrishna Hegde government, the present Chief Minister had been in the forefront of the movement for the creation of this Citizen Grievance Ombudsman. The fate that this institution has suffered in the recent past years, is ample testimony to the indecisive approach of the government. The government dragged its feet on taking action against a Lok Ayukta who did not deserve to hold the office and preferred to wait for him to finally resign. Though he resigned several months ago, the government has been unable to fill the vacancy. Further, the ruling party has got mired in controversies involving the Upa Lokayuktas in the state. To add fuel to the fire, the move of the Government to place the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) in the forefront has strengthened the public perception that the government wants to sideline the office of the Lok Ayukta.

It would be interesting to see how the BJP takes it campaign forward and wipes out the bitter memories of its performance of a ruling party between 2008 and 2013. The factionalism which the party witnessed continues to exist below the surface and has every potential of rearing its head as Yeddyurappa rakes over the party leadership at the state level.

Three years down the line, the ruling Congress government and party seems to be taking a path that seems all too familiar. The SM Krishna Government (1999-2004) witnessed a similar directionless drift half-way down its term. The earlier Congress governments (1989-2004) led by three different Chief Ministers saw the frittering away of the biggest ever mandate. The BJP on the other hand would like to wipe out all memories of its past acts of political indiscretion and present before the public a reformed face. Beyond doubt, they would try to focus on the track record of the Siddaramaiah government.

Will history repeat itself? Karnataka has seen the defeat of the ruling party in every election since the late 1980s. Or will the party in power and its government seriously attempts to refurbish its reputation and image over the next two years? Can the BJP project a picture of unity and make amends for the political indiscretion of its past by turning the focus on the track record of the Siddaramaiah government, is something that only time will tell. Two years and counting.....

The views in this article are personal.
The past 10 days have cruelly exposed the foreign policy pretensions of the Modi government as deep embarrassment has simultaneously been caused to India from three crucial quarters: Pakistan and China in our immediate neighbourhood operating in tandem, and internationally the United States.

With the US, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has sought to develop a global partnership  going beyond the mere strategic partnership of an earlier time  since President Barack Obama arrived in New Delhi as our chief guest for Republic Day last year.

The so-called global partnership regime might be usefully seen as the base camp to reaching the Mount Everest of being Americas strategic ally, or at least a non-Nato strategic ally. That honour has thus far been showered on countries like Egypt and Pakistan, the two biggest recipients of US military hardware, which are also military dictatorships in effect.

The direction in which Mr Modi wishes to travel to elevate Indias status in the world is thus clear. We must, of course, ask ourselves if the status of a leading power, let alone a global power or great power such as the US, China or the European Union, is achievable for a country mired in disquieting poverty for close to one half of its population, and burdened with a savings deficit to fuel the greatly enhanced investments required to maintain a place on the high growth path.

At the same time, India is having to endure on a sustained basis a worsening social climate on account of religious neo-imperialism being sought to be pushed by the Hindutva brigade indulged by the regime. Domestic peace and harmony, it cant be emphasised enough, is as great a requirement for achieving prominence and weight in the international system as accretion to economic wealth and development of military might for purposes of power projection.

In any case, strategies being pursued by this government to raise Indias position in the world  by dovetailing our strategic and security preferences to the overarching US vision, especially for the Indo-Pacific region,  have not been brought to the forum of Parliament for discussion, although it is possible that they have been gone over in the counsels of the RSS and the Sangh Parivar, of which the ruling BJP is an element.

The irony is worth noting that for many decades our neighbour Pakistan has also sought to derive its strategic solace by linking up with American dreams through the period of the Cold War in its effort to militarise rapidly and shore up its domestic economy. That trajectory has been widened for some years to attract the munificence of across-the-board Chinese assistance, as befits the description of all-weather friendship between Beijing and Islamabad.

Thus, Pakistan finds itself today in the coveted position of being cosseted by two permanent members of the UN Security Council who fulfil its military needs and its infrastructural requirements, and give it invaluable political manoeuvre room. At the cost of causing deep resentment in India, Washington recently cleared the supply of a fresh batch of F-16 fighter aircraft and attack helicopters to Islamabad, although it knows that historically Pakistani generals have aimed US-supplied military equipment at India.

Even as the Obama administration decided to go ahead with sending high-value military goods to Pakistan that will doubtless be used against this country, at his press conference after the Nuclear Security summit in Washington at the end of last month, which Mr Modi  for unfathomable reasons  attended with the air of a prancing bridegroom, Mr Obama berated both India and Pakistan, as if spanking two naughty boys together, for maintaining large nuclear arsenals while having military doctrines that were continually headed in the wrong direction.

The US leader disregarded Indias nuclear rectitude. He forgave Pakistan for acquiring its bomb-making capability on the clandestine nuclear supermarket. He stopped short of highlighting the danger of terrorists stealing from the Pakistani nuclear arsenal although this is a cause of openly voiced worry.

The truth is that indirectly, and very consequentially, Mr Obama was hitting out at Indias military doctrine of Cold Start, whose very mention frustrates and angers Pakistan, and providing the military generals in Islamabad a much-needed political ballast. Cold Start postulates that Indian forces will rapidly make a retaliatory conventional warfare move inside Pakistan and hold territory as a hedge against a likely Pakistani nuclear strike since Islamabad revels in its nuclear doctrine which underscores its nuclear first strike posture against India.

The governments reaction in New Delhi to Mr Obamas officious pseudo-moral posturing was far from angry. The Modi government was content to note that Mr Obama had shown a lack of understanding of the Indian military doctrine. Such a cavalier disregard of our crucial security concerns is hard to imagine. India has not before been known for a tail-between-the-legs attitude towards a great power.

It is in this background of extreme American solicitousness that Pakistan has just delivered India a diplomatic black eye. After India received a Pakistani technical team, which included a senior ISI officer, to investigate the Pathankot terrorist attack, and asked for a reciprocal visit to Pakistan by Indian investigators to interrogate Jaish-e-Mohammed leaders, including its notorious chief Masood Azhar, the Pakistani high commissioner in New Delhi announced that for now the talks between the two countries stood suspended.

In this period, when India tried to get Masood Azhar named in the UN list as an international terrorist  so that his movements and financial transactions could be tracked with a view to preventing future terrorist acts  China conspicuously stepped in to block the effort, thus proclaiming to the world its tight security embrace of Pakistan.

Since Mr Modi assumed office two years ago, much of his governments diplomatic energy has been expended on making high-profile forays into enhancing the spirit of ties with Washington, Islamabad and Beijing in a highly personalised manner, with contempt for institutional knowledge and experience.

This was being hailed as foreign and security policy alacrity by the RSS, BJP and the favoured bureaucrats of the top-tier, who have pointedly contrasted what they see as present-day innovativeness and dynamism with the diplomatic languidness of the Manmohan Singh years.

After the triple rebuff of recent days, one truly wonders. The much maligned

Dr Singh was at no stage in his 10 years in office humiliated by Washington, Islamabad and Beijing in quick order within a space of less than 10 days. Is it

Mr Modi who is being strong-armed, or is it India?
Washington: An international team of scientists has found evidence of a series of massive supernova explosions near our solar system, which showered the Earth with radioactive debris.

The scientists found radioactive iron-60 in sediment and crust samples taken from the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The iron-60 was concentrated in a period between 3.2 and 1.7 million years ago, which is relatively recent in astronomical terms, said research leader Dr Anton Wallner from The Australian National University (ANU).

"We were very surprised that there was debris clearly spread across 1.5 million years," said Dr Wallner. "It suggests there were a series of supernovae, one after another. It's an interesting coincidence that they correspond with when the Earth cooled and moved from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene period."

The team from Australia, the University of Vienna in Austria, Hebrew University in Israel, Shimizu Corporation and University of Tokyo, Nihon University and University of Tsukuba in Japan, Senckenberg Collections of Natural History Dresden and Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) in Germany, also found evidence of iron-60 from an older supernova around eight million years ago, coinciding with global faunal changes in the late Miocene.

Some theories suggest cosmic rays from the supernovae could have increased cloud cover. A supernova is a massive explosion of a star as it runs out of fuel and collapses.

The scientists believe the supernovae in this case were less than 300 light years away, close enough to be visible during the day and comparable to the brightness of the Moon.

Although Earth would have been exposed to an increased cosmic ray bombardment, the radiation would have been too weak to cause direct biological damage or trigger mass extinctions.

The supernova explosions create many heavy elements and radioactive isotopes which are strewn into the cosmic neighbourhood.

One of these isotopes is iron-60 which decays with a half-life of 2.6 million years, unlike its stable cousin iron-56. Any iron-60 dating from the Earth's formation more than four billion years ago has long since disappeared.

The iron-60 atoms reached Earth in minuscule quantities and so the team needed extremely sensitive techniques to identify the interstellar iron atoms.

The study appears in Nature.

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Johannesburg: South Africas wealthy Gupta family, accused of exerting undue influence over President Jacob Zuma, have left country for Dubai, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

The whole family is in the process of leaving, family spokesman Nazeem Howa told the City Press weekly. The paper said that Ajay and Atul Gupta, two brothers from the family of wealthy Indian immigrants who own a vast business empire with interests in mining, media, technology and engineering, were seen on Thursday evening at a Johannesburg airport boarding their private jet for Dubai.

One of their wives was with them as well as five assistants, with the party boarding the plane with enough luggage for 20 people, a witness told the paper.

On Friday, the family released a statement saying they were stepping down from the leadership of Oakbay Investments, a holding company with interests ranging from mining to media, in a move linked to the closure of the firms accounts by two major banks.

It is with deep regret that, following a period of sustained political attack on the Gupta family and our businesses... we have come to the conclusion that it is time for the Gupta family to step down from all executive and non-executive positions, the letter said.
Washington: A US newspaper has published a mockup of what a frontpage might look like should Republican frontrunner Donald Trump win the presidency, as it condemned his deeply disturbing and profoundly un-American vision.

Deportations to begin, President Trump calls for tripling of ICE (immigration and customs enforcement); riots continue, reads The Boston Globe's fake headline, dated 10 April, 2017.

It was posted on the editorial page, accompanied by a ruthless editorial article saying Trumps campaign demands an active and engaged opposition. The mockup was published just three months before the Republican National Convention confirms the partys nominee, with speculation growing over what Trump might do should he actually win the highest office in the land.

On the page are several articles, including one on US soldiers refusing to follow orders to kill the families of members of the so-called ISIS another on a Republican-controlled Congress passing a libel law targeting absolute scum in the press. A separate article details how Trump sparked a diplomatic crisis with China after naming his dog, a Shar-Pei, after Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan.

I dont know why shes so offended, I love cute puppies and I love women! It's not like I tweeted out a photo of a Rottweiler named (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel, he was quoted as saying.

A note from the editor at the bottom of the page warns readers that what you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action.

The accompanying editorial urges GOP to oppose Trump. Trump's vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American, it said.
Beijing: Sri Lanka sees huge potential in economic cooperation with China, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said. He is confident that key ventures like the Colombo Port City project will help transform his country into a financial hub in the Indian Ocean region.

"Both Sri Lanka and China are deepening reforms, in the process of which we see huge potential for cooperation," Wickremesinghe said as he concluded his four-day-visit in Beijing.

Sri Lanka and China share similarities in the way of thinking in various fields such as economic restructuring, he said.

"Sri Lanka is ready to seek more economic cooperation opportunities with China," he said.

"Infrastructure is just a start. The cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is expected to be intensified and go far beyond that," Wickremesinghe said.

"For example, the Colombo Port City will become a financial and business hub in not only Sri Lanka, but also in the whole region of the Indian Ocean," he said.

This is Wickremesinghe's seventh visit to China.

"It has been 37 years since I first visited China in 1979 when the country just initiated reform and opening up. The great achievement China has made proves only reform can make a country stronger," Wickremesinghe said.

Currently, the weak global economic growth requires all the economies to rely more on each other, and there is no exception for Sri Lanka and China.

"That is why strengthening cooperation is so important," he said.

Sri Lanka has shown its willingness to develop greater synergies between its own strategies and China's 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road initiative.

Projects such as the Hambantota Port and the Puttalam Coal Power Plant Project have become icons for the two countries' cooperation in infrastructure construction, Wickremesinghe said.

In a joint statement issued on Saturday, Sri Lanka announced the resumption of work of the Colombo Port City Project and expressed the willingness to facilitate and support the implementation of this project and to cooperate with Chinese companies to promote other major projects.

Wickremesinghe also spoke highly of the supply-side structural reform, one of the priorities in China's 13th Five-Year Plan, believing it will bring fresh impetus to China's economic development and that of Asia and the whole world.

"As China has become the second largest source of visitors to Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe expects tourism will not only facilitate people-to-people exchanges, but also attract more Chinese investors to make relevant infrastructure more developed in Sri Lanka," Wickremesinghe said.

Tourists from India constitutes highest number of tourists in Sri Lanka.
Sydney: In a chilling incident in Australia, a teenaged Islamic State supporter at a prison allegedly used a sharp object to carve out "e4e" into an ex-soldier's head, an apparent reference to the terror group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra.

18-year-old radical Bourhan Hraichie had been placed in the same cell as the veteran at the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre near Kempsey, New South Wales (NSW).

The teenager allegedly used a sharp object to carve "e4e" into the head of the ex-soldier, who served in East Timor, inside the jail on Thursday. The carving that read 'e4e' was

apparently a reference to the terror group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra.

"As a result of that I have decided to suspend the general manager of the correctional centre pending the outcome of this investigation," NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin said.

The 40-year-old victim was reported to be fighting for his life, but is now "close to being released back to a correctional centre", the Department of Corrective Services said.

Hraichie was a known supporter of the terrorist group and had been previously caught sending graphic images of beheadings via internal mail to other ISIS extremists housed in Goulburn's Supermax prison, senior prison sources said.

Hraichie has now been charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent and intentionally choking a person.

"It is alleged an argument began over religious beliefs between the two, resulting in the 18-year-old carving letters into the front and rear of the 40-year-old male victim's head,

before pouring hot water through a towel placed onto the victim's face," police said in a statement.

The younger man then alerted prison staff, who called paramedics, police said.

The teenager should have been placed in a high-risk management correctional centre and has now been transferred to one, Severin said.

The former soldier was taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital with significant wounds to his neck, head and face, and a broken sternum. He was put in an induced coma, police said.

Public Sector Association spokesman Steve McMahon said the department had not taken the alleged attacker's extremist views seriously, and should have placed him in segregation.

A full investigation into the management of radicalised prisoners will also be launched.

Corrections Minister David Elliott said he was outraged by the alleged attack.

The charged teenager will face Kempsey Local Court on May 23.
Suicide bombers claimed 32 lives when they blew themselves up at Brussels airport and at a metro station on March 22. (Photo: AP)

Algiers: French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday information that a Belgian jihadist cell planned another attack against France was evidence of the elevated threat to the country.

"It's extra proof of the very high threats to the whole of Europe and to France in particular," he said during a press conference in the Algerian capital. "We will not let our guard down," he added.

Belgium's federal prosecutor said earlier Sunday that the Islamic State group jihadists behind last year's Paris attacks had planned to strike again in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in.

Suicide bombers claimed 32 lives when they blew themselves up at Brussels airport and at a metro station on March 22, and left a trail for police that led directly to the November Paris attacks which killed 130 people.

"This means that the threat still exists and that we must be mobilised," Valls said.

"Ongoing investigations, taking place in perfect coordination with the French judiciary, will allow us to know more. At this stage, it is not necessary to engage in any further speculation," he added.
The grainy picture shows three men pushing trollies with suitcases past the check-in area at Brussels airport. (Photo: AFP)

Brussels: Belgian prosecutors on Saturday held Mohamed Abrini in connection with the Paris attacks and a new suspect in the Brussels attacks identified as Osama K, charging them both with terrorist murders.

But it was not possible yet to confirm that Mohamed Abrini indeed was the third suspect, the so-called man in the hat seen with the two suicide bombers at Brussels airport on March 22, the federal prosecutors office said in a statement.

Abrini and Osama K, whom the media have identified as Osama Krayem, were among six people arrested in raids on Friday across Brussels in an important blow to the cell believed to have carried out both attacks claimed by the Islamic State group.

Osama K was identified as the man who appeared with the suicide bomber at the Malbeek subway station and the one who bought bags used to conceal the bombs set off by two suicide attackers at the airport on March 22, the statement said.

It said both were charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the first in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks and the second in the Brussels attacks.

It said two people arrested with Abrini were released following a thorough investigation.

Another suspect who was arrested Friday at the same time as Osama K. was identified as 25-year-old Rwandan national Herve BM, who is suspected of having offered assistance to Mohamed Abrini as well as Osama K, the statement said.

He is charged with participating in the activities of terrorist group and complicity in terrorist murders, it said.

It added that another man, Bilal EM, was charged with participating in the activities of a terrorist group and complicity in terrorist murders over suspicions he helped Abrini and Osama K.
London: A 60-yr-old man who spent nearly 30 years in jail serving for crimes he did not commit was finally released from a Virginia correctional facility.

According to The Independent, Keith Allen Harward, 60, freed on Friday afternoon. After release he thanked his lawyers, whom he called heroes, and said that his parents could not see him walk free. Thats the worst part about this, is my parents. It killed them. It devastated them, said Mr Harward, holding back tears. He added that he was not allowed to attend their funeral because of the sentence. Somebody needs to pay for this.

Mr Harward was wrongfully convicted of murdering Jesse Perron and raping his wife near a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia,in 1982, where he was stationed as a sailor. A shipyard guard testified that he witnessed Mr Harward enter the premises covered in blood. The female victim, however, never identified him as her attacker, according to the AP.
He said ISIS propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to take the initiative to stage attacks in Germany. (Photo: AP)

Berlin: Islamic State (ISIS) wants to carry out attacks in Germany and the security situation is "very serious", the head of the country's domestic intelligence agency (BfV) told a Sunday newspaper, adding that he knew of no concrete plot to strike.

The militant group released a video on Tuesday suggesting it may carry out further attacks in the West after the Brussels bombings and Paris attacks, naming London, Berlin and Rome as possible targets. Hans-Georg Maassen told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag the group wanted to carry out attacks against Germany and German interests, but added: "At the moment we don't have any knowledge of any concrete terrorist attack plans in Germany."

He said ISIS propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to take the initiative to stage attacks in Germany. Maassen said there were several cases linking Germans returning from Syria to attack plans and warned that the danger posed by jihadists from Germany remained "virulent".

Germany arrests suspected Islamic State fighter after return from Syria

He said the country had avoided a big attack so far thanks to the successful work of security authorities and luck such as a bomb detonator not working properly on one or two occasions. In 2014, a German man described as a radical Islamist was charged with planting a pipe bomb -- which never exploded -- at Bonn train station in 2012. In 2006, two suitcase bombs left by Islamist militants on trains in Cologne failed to explode.

Asked how many Islamists in Germany were considered highly dangerous, Maassen said there were about 1,100 Islamists who were seen as a potential terrorism risk. Maassen said his agency was aware of about 300 attempts by Salafists and other Islamists to recruit refugees. "I'm particularly concerned about the many unaccompanied minors -- this group is being deliberately targeted," he said, adding that he saw a "huge radicalisation potential" in these attempts to recruit people.
Gordon Dean, 79, has been detained by police after the former victim raised a voice against him.

Liverpool: A paedophile has been arrested for raping a teenager, impregnating her and years later raping the child she gave birth to, according to a report in Mirror. Gordon Dean, 79, has been detained by police after the former victim raised a voice against him.

Dean has been accused of repeatedly raping and sexually abusing the minor girl for seven years, following which she got pregnant, said a court. The victim gave birth to Deans child. But years later, he raped her child too.

Earlier, Dean refused to accept any allegations against him. But, when police got sufficient DNA evidence, he pleaded guilty of raping the minor and her daughter. The court also said that Dean had threatened both the victims, saying that he intended to 'break them in.'

The court also booked Dean for physical abuse, stating that he has punched his first victim in the face and warned her of dire consequences if she told anyone about rape. Later, the woman's daughter also told police that how Dean sexually abused her too.

The victims daughter said, I felt dirty and worthless, the result of sin. I thought about ending my life with a bottle of pills, but being a Christian stopped me.

Dean's case is being heard in Liverpool Crown Court. If convicted, he will face at least 10 years in prison.
America, it is said, is suffering from intolerance. It is not. It is suffering from tolerance: tolerance of right and wrong, truth and error, virtue and evil, Christ and chaos. Our country is not nearly so much overrun with the bigoted as it is overrun with the broad-minded. The man who can make up his mind in an orderly way, as a man might make up his bed, is called a bigot; but a man who cannot make up his mind, any more than he can make up for lost time, is called tolerant and broad-minded.



...



Another evidence of the breakdown of reason that has produced this weird fungus of broad-mindedness is the passion of novelty, as opposed to the love of truth. Truth is sacrificed for an epigram, the Divinity of Christ for a headline in the Monday morning newspaper. Many a modern preacher is far less concerned with preaching Christ and Him crucified than he is with his popularity with his congregation. A want of intellectual backbone makes him straddle the ox of truth and the *** of nonsense, paying compliments to Catholics because of their great organization and to sexologists because of their honest challenge to the youth of this generation. Bending the knee to the mob rather than God would probably make them scruple at ever playing the role of John the Baptist before a modern Herod. No accusing finger would be leveled at a divorce or one living in adultery; no voice would be thundered in the ears of the rich, saying with something of the intolerance of Divinity: It is not lawful for thee to live with thy brothers wife. Rather would we hear: Friends, times are changing! The acids of modernity are eating away the fossils of orthodoxy.



Belief in the existence of God, in the Divinity of Christ, in the moral law, is considered passing fashions. The latest thing in this new tolerance is considered the true thing, as if truth were a fashion, like a hat, instead of an institution like a head.




from the link: "While not directly criticizing the Saudi Arabias judiciary, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said, I think when you look at the crime and the fact that now the victim is punished, I think that causes a fair degree of surprise and astonishment. It is within the power of the Saudi government to take a look at the verdict and change it.



why in the hell aren't we openly and directly criticizing it??? are we such wimps we can't tell these scumbags what vile scumbags they are for beating a rape victim almost to death!??? why are we allies with these barbarians??? islam at it's finest baby!!



they cut off thieve's hands so why don't they cut off these rapist's balls?
BEIJING - China's e-commerce giants are getting a hand in pharmaceuticals as the government directs prescription drug sales away from hospitals and into retail.

China's online pharmacy business has grown from virtually nothing five years ago to more than 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in 2014, accounting for 3 percent of all retail sales of medicine in the country, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) said in a report Thursday.

But analysts say the boom in online medicine sales is only a preview of explosive growth to come, provided that authorities allow online pharmacies to sell prescription drugs. So far online pharmacy sales consist mostly of over-the-counter medicine, which contributes very little to margins.

One of the key themes in China's ongoing medical reform is to reduce hospital reliance on drug sales for revenue. Over the long term this will enable patients to choose between hospitals and retail pharmacies for prescription drug purchases.

Authorities also consider allowing prescription drugs to be sold online, giving e-commerce firms such as Alibaba and JD.com the opportunities to get involved in the lucrative prescription drug business.

"E-Pharmacy business is changing very quickly in China with new regulations and different competitors entering the space. Each one is trying to grab a piece of the business," said John Wong, a partner for BCG's pharmaceutical practice.

While regulations are ushering more prescription drug sales toward retail channels, including online pharmacies, the pace of that transition remains uncertain.

Such uncertainties have forced Alibaba to scrap last week a plan to inject its online pharmacy business into its health subsidiary. Its plan to operate in the country's medical tracking system also drew backlash from brick-and-mortar pharmacies.

Online pharmacies are working with hospitals and local governments on separate trial programs to allow patients to buy drugs online with a doctor's prescriptions.

Access to prescriptions is the key for online pharmacies to get into prescription drug sales. Some local trials have managed to extend medical insurance coverage to online medicine purchases, an important incentive for patients to buy online.

But analysts are cautiously optimistic about potential nationwide trials, given that China's social security system is still managed by fragmented jurisdictions, creating discrepancies in coverage policies across the country.

Another challenge, says another BCG partner Magen Xia, is for authorities to figure out a way to cap expenditure online. Under the current scheme, the cap for insurance coverage has been maintained by hospitals that prescribe these drugs.

Regulatory challenge aside, Xia said online pharmacy cannot thrive in the prescription drug sale business alone. Given the importance of access to doctor's prescription, retailers need to penetrate upstream.

"Pharmacies can't just limit themselves to selling drug online. They have to either extend to consultations and diagnosis or find upstream partners that can refer prescriptions to them," Xia said.

Unlike the United States where brick-and-mortar pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens holds dominance in retail prescription drug sales, the lack of nationwide pharmacy chains in China puts them in a much weaker position. This creates opportunity for e-commerce to consolidate the fragmented national market through online platforms. And once they gain access to prescription, they can ask local pharmacies to become a distribution channel for prescription drugs.

"China's online pharmacy will grow, but whether it grows faster or slower depends on regulation on the separation between drug prescribing and dispensing," Wong said.

"Right now hospital still wants money from drugs but as soon as the government says 'stop' you will see the industry rapidly, rapidly transform," Wong said.
the end of the isis will cause the Armageddon



isis wants to wipe out christanity the world over while terrorist

fight agenst all that is not islam. isis wants a islam state so

if the isis dies all islan will come in the picture behind the isis

and pick up where the isis left off. the whole of islam and its faild state

will cause the need for russia the usa and europ to war agenst them.

it will start like ww1 did. i know my history not found in schools but

from living relitives that survived ww1 and ww2. mom was born after the ww1 ended

i was born when ww2 started. and those that came back told me as i grew

to prevent me from going to a war when i get older. i know this is comeing

like i knew about the dead fish i posted in here a month befor it happend.

Armageddon is a (FINAL) war between good and evil.
BERLIN  At the beginning of this year, the acting president of the council of the European Union asked the respected International Centre for Counter-Terrorism in The Hague, Netherlands, to figure out, among other things, exactly how many Europeans have gone to Syria to fight in a civil war thats entering its sixth year.

The request, on its face, seemed simple enough. It came from the governing council of the European Union, a collection of the heads of state of the 28 member nations in the EU. Its importance has been made clear by three deadly terror attacks in the past 15 months all linked to Syria and the Islamic State.

And yet, in the end, only a rough approximation could be done. There was no EU central database and, when asked, only 23 of the countries responded. Researchers were able to use open-source materials to figure out what was going on with another three.

When the report was issued last week, there was no information for Hungary or Greece. The estimate lies between 3,922 and 4,294, the report said. About 30 percent of those are thought to have returned to their homes in Europe.

Undercutting the accuracy of the estimate, the report noted, was that the EU lacks a common and agreed definition of what exactly makes a foreign fighter.

Bibi van Ginkel, a co-author of the report whos a counterterrorism expert in the Netherlands, said that in counterterrorism terms, the fighters and especially returnees who most mattered were those whod studied and fought with the Islamic State or other anti-Western terror organizations.

Bad numbers

But the numbers include those who joined the nonsectarian rebels, those who took one look and fled, and those who were broken by the experience, people who arent likely to be threats to European governments, she said. A common definition of exactly who we need to be most closely watching is needed.

But that is made more difficult by something that is not in the report. A common definition implies a common effort, and as is the case with all European intelligence-related issues, its pretty much every nation for itself.

Its always been a problem, she noted.

A potential terrorist who enters the European Union in Spain or Italy or Denmark or Poland can travel across the rest of the EU with the same ease that an American can drive from South Carolina to North Carolina. But when someone makes the drive in the United States, the FBI can handle the investigation in both states. In Europe there is, at best, a very limited shared security effort.

German intelligence is set up to serve German needs. French intelligence serves France. British intelligence serves the United Kingdom. Beyond the lack of a common definition on who constitutes a threat, the disconnect has wide-ranging ramifications.

Translation bug

For example: European intelligence agencies dont agree on the transliteration of Arabic names. That means a name thats spelled one way in France can be spelled another way in Germany, and on to potentially 28 different spellings in 28 different countries. A computer search is virtually worthless  even before the notion of false identification papers comes into play.

Magnus Ranstorp, an international security expert at the Swedish National Defense University, said the problems were well known but the cause wasnt easily overcome.

Especially in intelligence, knowledge is power, he said. No one willingly gives away power.

Its not really a secret that secrets are not shared. Hungary isnt really trusted. France is notoriously difficult to work with. German intelligence is a difficult-to-track mix of national and regional offices.

And thats just inside the EU. Consider the recent Brussels attacks, which killed 32 people and wounded hundreds. Not long after the attacks, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed that Turkey had deported Ibrahim El Bakraoui, who triggered a suitcase bomb at the Brussels Airport.

Erdogan said Turkish intelligence had warned Belgium that El Bakraoui had been detained at Gaziantep along the Turkish border with Syria. Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, Belgium could not establish any links with terrorism, he said.

Ranstorp, however, noted that its not simple for a European nation to act on a warning from Turkey. It wasnt long ago that many in European intelligence believed that Turkey at best turned a blind eye and at worst opened the doors to those looking to join the Islamic State.

Theres a very low degree of trust, he said. Turkey has an agenda. When they tell security forces hes a terrorist, the immediate reaction is Whats their angle? Intel sharing is notoriously difficult.

At the same time, Turkish intelligence has long accused European nations of turning a blind eye when their residents leave to join the fight. The English newspaper The Guardian quoted a Turkish security officer as saying, We were suspicious that the reason they want these people to come is because they dont want them in their own countries.

Adding to the confusion, no doubt, was that El Bakraoui was in fact sent back to the Netherlands, not Belgium.

Lack of organization

Paul J.J. Welfens, the macroeconomics chair at University of Wuppertal in Germany, whos been using his expertise to study international terrorism, said that to him it was absolutely clear that EU countries  particularly on the continent  are poorly organized in terms of anti-terror policies. The case of Belgium in particular is quite disappointing and dangerous.

From this perspective some necessary policy reforms are fairly obvious, Welfens asserted. As regards the EU, a functional security union requires centralized intelligence and therefore a political union.

The structural issues facing EU counterterror are obvious, and are not going away easily. Nations have different laws regarding privacy and surveillance. They have different criminal laws and punishments. They have different priorities.

Everyone is focused on their own file, Ranstorp said. And no one can see how it fits into the whole picture of Europe.
State-controlled PetroVietnam Marine Shipyard, or PV Shipyard, is ready to hand over Vietsovpetro the Tam Dao 05 jackup, which will be the biggest drilling rig to be ever built in Vietnam, in August this year, PetroVietnam-run Petrotimes said in a report April 8.

Leading oil producer Vietsovpetro awarded PV Shipyard the contract to build the $230-million rig in November 2013. Both of the two companies are subsidiaries of the Vietnams national oil and gas group. PetroVietnam has 51% stake in Vietsovpetro, the investor of the Tam Dao 05, with the rest held by Russia's state-run Zarubezhneft.

The 18,000-ton self-elevating platform will be able to operate in waterdepth of 120 meters and drill to depths of up to 9,000 meters.

The countrys first locally-made jackup Tam Dao 03, also owned by Vietsovpetro, was operational in 2012. It weighs 12,000 tons and can drill up to 6,000 meters. Vietsovpetro is the owner of Vietnams flagship oilfield of Bach Ho off the southern coast, which is aging.
The northern province of Thanh Hoa has detected about 8,300 of its residents having illegally crossed the border to seek jobs in China via Quang Ninh and Lang Son provinces.

All of its 27 districts and towns have illegal workers in China, despite multiple cases of arrest or even death. Among the 8,300 illegal workers, 600 have been seized and deported by Chinese authorities, nine have been brought to court, 16 have died from occupational accidents while many other female workers have gone missing.

This year has seen about 4,000 workers return home for family reunion during Tet (Vietnams Lunar New Year) while the rest remained illegally in China. The situation has become more complicated over the past three months with tens of thousands of the provinces residents attempting to illegally cross the border to work in China. The exact number is unavailable.

Last February, Hau Loc district police arrested ringleader Nguyen Van Hao while transporting 47 workers to China.
The ten-day water release by Dau Tieng lake, longest since beginning of the year, is an attempt to push back saline intrusion in Saigon and Vam Co rivers.

On April 9, Dau Tieng - Phuoc Hoa Water Resource Exploitation Company said that they were releasing water into Saigon River for the 7th time to push back saline intrusion. The release is to last ten days, starting from April 4. It peaked at 40m3/s from April 6 to April 10. For the remaining days, the release stands at 20m3/s.

The release is an attempt to save the downstream area of Saigon River affected by saline intrusion as well as to meet Tan Hiep Waterworks request for 7th and 8th releases of unprocessed water. The waterworks have experienced from several delays since the beginning of the year due to high salinity in Saigon River, at up to 600 mg/l, according to multiple samples, compared to the standard 250 mg/l.

At the moment, water level at Dau Tieng lake stands at 19 meters and 700 million cubic meter capacity. Meanwhile, the year-on level was 21.2 meters and 980 million cubic meters capacity. Due to this years low water availability, the Dau Tieng - Phuoc Hoa lake system was able to reserve only 70 percent to 80 percent of previous years capacities. The lake can only release 250 million cubic meters more before reaching dead-pool level.

Saigon Water Corporation (Sawaco) has recently proposed to Ho Chi Minh City Peoples Committee to build a reservoir with 1.35 million cubic meter capacity, totaling an area of 23 hectares, in Cu Chi district in the 2016-2017 period.

According to Sawaco, the city lacks unprocessed water and spare water processing facilities. Therefore, a large-scale reservoir will guarantee the supply of water for Tan Hiep Waterworks to work non-stop during a 1 to 3 day period of saline intrusion and pollution in Saigon River.

Salinity in Sai Gon  Dong Nai River has been on the rise, impeding Ho Chi Minh Citys water supply. Prolonged El Nino has resulted in very little rain in the South. In addition, high tides lasting until March pushed salinity deep into the estuary.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down on his faltering invasion by declaring martial law in four illegally annexed Ukrainian regions. In addition, he set the stage Wednesday for draconian new restrictions and crackdowns throughout Russia. The drastic escalation appeared to be prompted by the threat of more stinging battlefield defeats, sabotage and troubles with his troop mobilization. Putin's order effectively belies the Kremlins attempts to portray life in the annexed regions as returning to normal, with the latest example the removal of civilian leaders and installation of a military administration and a mass evacuation in Kherson. Local officials said Wednesday that 5,000 had been evacuated already, with plans to pull out a total of up to 60,000.
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

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Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

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There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

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The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
Arthur Aghabekyan: Armenian army is in place and is as efficient as ever

Deputy Prime Minister of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Arthur Aghabekyan, has made a Facebook post. In the past several days, we have met [in Artsakh] representatives of various initiatives, volunteers, representatives of show business, politicians and public figures whom I want to thank sincerely for their care and concerns about Artsakh. At the same time, I want to inform everyone that Artsakh has returned to its daily routine and Artsakh people continue to live and work in the same way as they did before the events of April 1. Yes, we need help to buy weapons and restore the destroyed communities. But you can rest assured that the Armenian army is in its place and is as efficient as ever and we can fully entrust our positions to our servicemen. We have a lot of work to do for our citizens and in order to ensure the peace and tranquility of our population we should guarantee the return of each volunteer to his home and family. P.S. In the coming days, I shall make a public statement about an important factor that negatively affects the combat capability of our military, Mr Aghabekyan said.
Concerns over Caspian pipelines grow as tensions surge along Karabakh frontline

The resurgence of violence between Azerbaijan and Armenians poses little immediate risk to the key pipelines that link European markets to the Caspian Sea, according to analysts from London to Washington, Artsakhpress reports citing Bloomberg. In a region where risk is the norm, these sorts of localized difficulties tend to get shrugged off in the current environment, according to Michael Hewson, a London-based analyst at CMC Markets Plc. Markets have not put any added risk premium on deliveries from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean, the focus instead remains on a global supply glut, he said. The fighting over the mountainous Nagorno-Karabakh enclave has killed and wounded dozens and raised concern that the conflict would spread in the region bordered by Russia, Turkey and Iran. A BP Plc-led underground oil pipeline, which carried 720,000 barrels a day from Baku to Turkeys Mediterranean port of Ceyhan last year -- about the equivalent of Turkeys total consumption in 2014 -- runs less than 30 miles from the conflict zone. The $45 billion Southern Gas Corridor, which will pump Azeri natural gas to Europe once completed, is at a similar distance. The battles threaten to reignite full-scale fighting in the Caucasus mountains, part of a new arc of instability along Russias border that stretches north and west from Nagorno-Karabakh through Georgia, Ukraine and further to Moldova. Fighting between Armenia, a Russian ally, and Azerbaijan, which has stronger ties to NATO member Turkey, would bring more turmoil to the region. Pipeline Threat The importance of the pipelines and the potential disruptions arent lost on the combatants. Levon Mnatsakanyan, defense chief of the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh republic, said that the oil pipeline would be one of the first targets of any new war. This is a very serious financial resource for Azerbaijan and we need to deprive them of these means, he said last year in an interview in the capital, Stepanakert. BP on Wednesday said the clashes havent affected operations at its pipeline. Brent crude prices have collapsed to almost a third of their levels previous to a 2014 decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to defend market share rather than cut supply. The full article is available here
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Armenia-Azerbaijan: EU sets up monitoring capacity along the international borders

PACE co-rapporteurs on Armenia concerned by reports of alleged war crimes or inhuman treatment perpetrated by Azerbaijans armed forces

There is still 35% gender pay gap: Sona Ghazaryan

Global Finance Names Ameriabank the Safest Bank in Armenia

Mikayel and Karen Vardanyans provided 136 million AMD support for the overhaul of the Myasnikyan statue, which was in unsafe state of disrepair

Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

Largest Corporate Bond Program at the Securities Market of Armenia Completed Successfully

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The statement of the Defender on the video of the execution of Armenian PoWs by the Azerbaijani armed forces

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STATEMENT BY SECRETARY ANTONY J. BLINKEN

This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments

Delegation by Nancy Pelosi Accompanied by Alen Simonyan Visits Tsitsernakaberd Memorial Complex

Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi Arrives in Yerevan

Armenian Revytech, global technology leader SAP and financial services software specialist SAP Fioneer sign a cooperation agreement

With 120 million drams donated by Mikael Vardanyan, the defenders of the homeland will be treated in a new building

OSCE Chairman-in-Office and OSCE Secretary General call for immediate cessation of hostilities along Armenia-Azerbaijan border

Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Artsakh

USA Embassy Message for U.S. Citizens

ANCA Issues National Call to Action to Stop Taxpayer Funding of Aliyevs Aggression
Procession of Silence: People march to Yerablur with numerous lit candles (video)

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians with burning candles in their hands marched to the Yerablur Pantheon on Sunday evening to pay respects to all Armenians who were killed on the Karabakh frontline during the large-scale military operations unleashed by Azerbaijan. Huge crowds of people gathered at Shahumyan Square to participate in the Procession of Silence that kicked off at 7p.m. We are going to pay tribute to innocent victims. We need to be united, said the participants. It is sad to see that part of our society stay indifferent to this situation. We must come together to make the international community recognize Karabakh's independence, said Arpine Stepanyan. "I cannot find the right words to console the victims' mothers. I represent the third generation of Armenians who survived the [1915] Genocide. Turks and Azeris are the same. There is no difference between them. They do not understand human language and they cannot be called human beings, said Nazik Zakaryan, a mother of two sons, who has four grandchildren to send for military service in the Armenian army.
Scene at the opening ceremony of the exhibition on Vietnamese press in Laos (Photo: VNA)

Many attendees said they were impressed with the comprehensive development and diversity of the media in Vietnam.

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Minh Hong said Vietnams media has grown substantially in both quality and quantity in recent years. Vietnam has 20,000 journalists, 858 newspapers, 66 radio and television stations, and thousands of websites offering news services.

The press has contributed significantly to national construction and external affairs, she said, adding that Vietnamese news agencies have covered a wide range of social, economic and political affairs in Laos, boosting mutual understanding and traditional ties between the two countries.

Savankhone Razmontry, Lao Deputy Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, expressed his appreciation for support from the Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications in hosting training courses for Lao journalists and reporters.

Representatives of Vietnamese press agencies in Laos have been quick to produce articles on major events here, he noted.

The exhibition is scheduled to run through to May 10th./.
Photo for illustration (Source: VNA)



They were detained during two different round-ups called Operation Perkasa Timur and Operation Marikh, about two hours after they were first spotted by the agencys patrol craft, the New Straits Time quoted MMEA Eastern regional director Khoo Teng Chuan as saying.

The MMEA seized two fishing vessels together with 450kg of fish and squid.

Khoo said that the two vessels were seized on their way back to Vietnam with their catch.

All of the Vietnamese nationals did not have any travel document. They were brought to shore for further investigation.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia has sent a diplomatic note and contacted relevant authorities to learn more about the case./.
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
A multistory parking lot that can be accessed by mobile phone app is expected to open in Beijing before the end of the month.

Similar parking lots may be introduced across the city to relieve serious traffic congestion and a severe shortage of parking spaces, according to the operator.

Ma Limin, chairman of Beijing Easy Parking Static Transport Investment Co, a private company in Beijing, said the lot provides 64 parking spaces and is located near a hospital in Tongzhou district.

It has passed an initial inspection by the district authority, Ma said.

Compared with traditional multistory lots, the new one is fully automatic and drivers can complete the process of locating parking spaces, parking their cars and retrieving them by accessing a mobile phone app developed by the company, Ma added.

Few of the multistory lots in Beijing are operated automatically, causing difficulties for drivers using them, according to media reports.

There were 2.9 million parking spaces for motor vehicles in Beijing by the end of 2014, but 3.8 million were needed, according to transportation authorities in the capital.

For drivers of electric cars, which are increasing rapidly in Beijing, each parking space at the new lot is equipped with a charging pole, Ma said.

Fees at the lot will be similar to or even lower than those at nearby lots, at about 4 yuan (60 US cents) an hour during the day, Ma said.

"We are considering negotiating with government departments in other districts to build more such lots in Beijing, so that we can provide 500,000 parking spaces," he said.

There were more than 5.5 million motor vehicles in Beijing by the end of last year, according to the transportation authorities, and severe traffic congestion and a lack of parking spaces has been a serious problem.

Chen Yanyan, a professor of transportation studies at Beijing University of Technology, said, "Such intelligent multistory parking lots can be useful in many places such as old residential areas, where it is difficult to build underground lots.

"If the new lot is well received, it may be adopted in some other areas of Beijing." Chen also said the supply of parking spaces in crowded central urban areas should be restricted to discourage the use of cars to ease serious congestion.
Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry attend a joint press conference in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, April 9, 2016. The visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday reiterated United States support to Afghan security forces and the people of Afghanistan. (Xinhua/Rahmat Alizadah)

KABUL, April 9 -- The visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday reiterated United Statessupport to Afghan security forces and the people of Afghanistan.

"The United States remains fully committed to the mission to train, advice and to assist the Afghan security forces as they combat the insurgency to protect their people," Kerry told a joint press briefing with Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani.

Kerry added that the U.S. will firmly continue to help Afghans in the fight against Taliban militants and Islamic State (IS) terror outfit, saying "we are also deepening our counter-terrorism cooperation."

The top U.S. diplomat arrived in Kabul earlier on Saturday for an unannounced visit.

The comments came as the violence has been on the rise in countryside as the spring and summer known as fighting season is drawing near. The Taliban insurgent group and IS militants have also increased their attacks since the drawdown of foreign forces over the past two years.

Nearly 13,000 foreign forces are currently stationed in Afghanistan within the framework of the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission to help Afghan forces in the field of training and advising.

He made the comments as two international conferences on Afghanistan are scheduled to be held later this year -- Warsaw in July and Brussels in October - - will focus on security and development on the top of its agendas respectively.

Regarding the presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 2016, Kerry said that the decision will depend on the evaluation of U.S. military commanders on the ground.

Replying to a question regarding the stalled peace process with the Taliban, Kerry said that there was still hope for the peace.

In February, a quadrilateral group of Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States had invited the Taliban groups to take part in direct talks with Kabul by the first week of March.

However, the Taliban rejected the offer.

"So again, today, we call on Taliban to enter into a peace process, legitimate process, the real process, they provides equal rights protection for all Afghans and brings to an end to violence in the suffering, that the people of this country have endured for so many years," Kerry said.

Earlier on Saturday, Kerry and Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani joined other high-ranking Afghan and U.S. officials to attend the third U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Commission meeting held in Presidential Palace.

They exchanged views on security and bilateral ties, and discussed the recent Afghan political and economic developments. The meeting aimed to review the progress in the above fields outlined in the Strategic Partnership Agreement signed by the two countries in 2012.

The meeting highlighted the continuation of the U.S. security presence beyond 2016 to carry out two important missions, including training, advising, and assisting Afghan forces and "cooperating bilaterally on shared efforts to counter terrorism."
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10



Trend:



Azerbaijani and Armenian sides have today exchanged the bodies of the soldiers killed in recent military operations.



The exchange of bodies took place on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops in accordance with an agreement reached through mediation of international organizations, AzerTac reported citing Azerbaijan's State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons Apr. 10.



The process was carried out by the State Commission through the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the OSCE.



During the process the Armenian side violated the ceasefire.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

Trend:

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has today facilitated the handover, between the sides, of the bodies of those killed in action following the recent escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ICRC told Trend April 10.



In two previous operations supported by the ICRC, on 8 and 9 April, bodies were retrieved by the sides of the conflict from the battlefield along the Line of Contact. These operations took place following an agreement between the sides and in coordination with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group and the personal representative of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) chairman-in-office.



"Our priority is to help the families of those missing in action who still do not know the fate of their loved ones," said Patrick Vial, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. "It was also important for the sides to have the bodies returned and so provide answers for the families."



The ICRC has been present in the region since 1992 in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As the conflict escalated on 2 April, the ICRC offered its services to respond to the humanitarian needs and to act as a neutral intermediary between the sides.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijn, April 10

Trend:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to RIA Novosti.

"The heads of the foreign departments welcomed the agreement reached on a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to contribute to the normalization of the situation in the region", Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 10

By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:

Ukrainian producers will supply 750 wagons to Turkmenistan, Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary state news service said April 8.

According to the contract, the Turkmen Railway Transport Ministry received the first batch of new freight cars, made in Ukraine. Among them 25 covered wagons and 25 open wagons for transporting various types of cargo.

Turkmenistan has been taking consistent actions to strengthen the material-technical base of the railway industry, playing a significant role in the national economy.

The fleet of freight and passenger wagons has been fully renovated.

"Turkmenistan is steadily consolidating its positions as an important transit-transport and logistics center having regional and continental importance," the statement says.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, April 10

By Demir Azizov - Trend:

The Uzbek and Chinese foreign ministries held consultations in Tashkent April 6-8, the Uzbek foreign ministry reported.

The delegations considered the legal base of the Uzbek-Chinese relations.

The Chinese delegation was headed by Guo Xiaomei, advisor to the law and treaty department of the country's foreign ministry.

The sides also exchanged views on the drafts of bilateral documents to be signed during the upcoming joint meetings.

According to the Uzbek foreign ministry, the diplomatic relations between the countries were established in January 1992.

The Uzbek-Chinese relations are governed by a solid package of intergovernmental documents.

Among them are the trade and economic agreement (1992), the program of intergovernmental cooperation in non-resource and high-tech areas (2010), the treaty of amity and cooperation, joint declaration on the establishment of strategic partnership (2012) and joint declaration on further development and intensifying of bilateral strategic partnership (2013), the program of strategic partnership development in 2014-2018, the agreement on encouragement and mutual protection of investments.
Tashkent, Uzbekistan, April 10

By Demir Azizov - Trend:

Uzbekistan plans to invest $595.9 million in the development of the food industry in 2016-2020, a statement published on the country's economy ministry's website said.

The development program approved by the country's leadership includes 180 investment projects on construction of new enterprises, reconstruction and modernization of existing enterprises.

The program will be financed through own funds of enterprises, loans of Uzbek banks and foreign direct investments.

According to the economy ministry, the program implementation will increase the export of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables by more than 2.7 times and use about 200 kinds of new products.

Some 15 trade and logistics centers with a total capacity of 60,000 tons, specializing in processing, storage and transportation of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, are planned to be established abroad during five years as part of the export intensification.

According to the ministry, the production of fruits and vegetables, grapes, melons and gourds increased by 1.27 times from 14.8 million tons to 16.3 million tons, meat - 1.24 times, milk - 1.33 times in Uzbekistan in 2011-2015. This increased the volume of manufactured processed products by 2.5 times, the range of products - 1.9 times up to 628 kinds.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, April 10

By Huseyn Hasanov- Trend:

A meeting with a delegation of the Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP), headed by project manager Ernest Robello was held in the Turkmen foreign ministry, the ministry said April 7.

CADAP is funded by the European Union (EU).

The sides stressed the high level of Turkmenistan-EU cooperation within the CADAP program.

Stressing the positive results of the joint work, the sides expressed their commitment to the further development of cooperation while working out new integrated approaches and national strategies to reduce the demand for drugs.

While expressing interest in carrying out joint activity and exchanging experience between the specialists of the Central Asian countries and the EU, the two sides emphasized the positive results in Turkmenistan in the fight against tobacco and drugs, the statement said.

CADAP promotes the development of effective, comprehensive drug policies, based on scientific evidence and EU best practice.

Turkmenistan cooperates with the UN in this area. Turkmenistan participates in three international conventions on combating illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, adopted by the organization in 1961, 1971 and 1988.

Turkmenistan has a border with Afghanistan. According to the UN, Afghanistan's area is widely used for the cultivation of drugs.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10



By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:



Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has described US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent remarks regarding a new arrangement for Iran's defense issue as baseless.



"Both, Mr Kerry and the US State Department know very well that Iran's missile program is not negotiable," IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying at a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart, Marina Kaljurand, in Tehran.



Saying that the US government understands that the defense issue is not a topic for discussion, Zarif ruled out any possibilities for holding negotiations similar to the nuclear talks on Iran's missile program.



Earlier during a meeting with the ministers of the Persian Gulf States Kerry said that the US was prepared to find a peaceful solution to Iran's missiles program.



He further criticized the US government for selling arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies saying those arms are used against innocent civilians in Yemen.



Zarif also touched upon extremism and terrorism issues in the region accusing the US allies of backing the IS terrorist group (ISIS,ISIL, Daesh) by providing the terrorist group with arms and purchasing oil from the IS.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10

By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for peaceful settlement of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region based on international law.

If the two sides involved in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would like, Iran is ready to help to restore tranquility in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Zarif said during a press conference in Tehran, IRNA news agency reported.

Saying that Iran welcomes measures to prevent creating new conflicts in the region, he added that Tehran also welcomes ending the existing conflicts.

He further said that Iranian officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have held talks with Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to exchange views on recent hostilities in the Caucasus region.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

If Syria's frontline defense falls, Iran will be forced to confront terrorist groups inside the country, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Ground Force Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour said.

"Today enemy tries to break through the front," Pakpour said, Tasnim news agency reported April 10.

"Syria and we try to prevent this," he said.

"We believe that if Iran fails to defeat terrorists in Syria, it will be forced to fight them inside the country," the commander said.

He further said that the Islamic Republic "nips any anti-security move in the bud" and does not permit it to become operational.

The Islamic Republic views the Syrian regime as its main strategic ally in the region, as well as part of an "axis of resistance" against Israel. Tehran has always expressed support for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Pakpour accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of supporting terrorist groups against Iran.

Saudi Arabia is providing organized financial support to terrorist groups to "endanger Iran's security," he said.

The Commander also said that the IRGC Ground Forces will hold a military drill next week.

The three-day military exercise named 'Security Drill of Great Prophet' will be held in Sistan and Balouchestan Province and South of Kerman Province in southeastern Iran, South Khorasan Province, northeastern Iran and east of Hormuzgan Province, southern Iran on April 12-14, he said.

The military exercises are aimed at maintaining the preparedness of IRGC forces, displaying the country's might, and ensuring security, Pakpour added.

He further said that the IRGC Ground Force Airborne Units that have recently been added to the IRGC Ground Force, will have an effective presence at the drill.

Pakpour said that every country displays parts of its capabilities and capacities to the world in military exercises, adding the drills serve as a deterrent factor against enemies.
Tehran, Iran, April 10

By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:

About three months after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (Iran's nuclear deal with powers) was put into force, the country has announced a range of activities in the non-military application of the nuclear energy.

"In Fordow nuclear facility we are working on stable isotopes with Russians and the job has made so much progress that in two to three weeks we will hold a bricklaying," Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Director Ali Akbar Salehi told the IRIB TV April 9.

The deal put an end into more than a decade-long dispute over Iran's nuclear program. While world powers accused Iran of running a military-minded nuclear program, Iran insisted that it wanted to make full use of the peaceful nuclear energy as an unalienable right.

"Regarding exploration of mines, we are using two helicopters to search the whole country. We have done 73 percent of the country's area and will finish the job in about two years," Salehi also pointed out.

Salehi further stated that Iran has started operational procedures of building a nuclear hospital.

"The budget needed for the hospital is available. We have bought the land already and will dispatch a team to Austria in a couple of weeks to procure the equipment," the nuclear chief said.

Touching upon uranium enrichment, he announced that Iran has added 220 kilograms to its stockpile of yellowcake since the JCPOA Implementation Day January 16.

Salehi also commented on the disputed Arak reactor. He said that in a few days a sample of fuel produced to be used in the redesigned reactor will be brought to Tehran Reactor to be tested.

Six world powers are to help Iran redesign Arak heavy water reactor to produce less plutonium is a crucial step for the full implementation of the nuclear deal.

Salehi also stated that American laboratories have okayed the quality of heavy water produced at the facility in Arak.
Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10

By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:

The UN Security Council resolution 2231 will not have any impact on Iran's decisions for purchasing military equipment, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific Affairs Ebrahim Rahimpour has said that there are no arm sanctions against Iran, ILNA news agency reported.

According to international law, there is no obstacle against Iran for purchasing arms, he added.

He further touched upon a contract between Iran and Russia for purchasing S300 missile system and said the contract has been finalized estimating that the first shipment of the system will be delivered in near future.

Iran and Russia have had ups and downs over the S-300 system deal which dates back to 2007. Iran filed a complaint against Russia at the International Court of Arbitration in 2010 as Moscow suspended the delivery of the system under the $800 million-deal due to the international sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program. However, with the scrapping of the international sanctions as part of a nuclear deal, which went into force Jan. 16, Iranian officials seem determined to receive the missile system.

Western sources claim that UN 2231 resolution forbids Iran from purchasing conventional arms for the next five years.
Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr. 10



By Farhad Daneshvar - Trend:



An Iranian court has issued a legal order requiring Shahindokht Molaverdi, Iran's vice-president for women and family affairs, to attend a trial session, an Iranian judiciary official said.



Iran's Judiciary spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, has said that the officials of Sistan-Baluchestan Province have filed a lawsuit in court against Shahindokht Molaverdi, ILNA news agency reported.



Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei further added that the vice president has been officially summoned to a court in Tehran Province.



The spokesperson did not provide further details about the trial session and allegations against the vice-president.



Back in February, Shahindokht Molaverdi expressed her concerns over the high number of execution in the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan suggesting the entire male population of a village in the province has been hanged due to involvement in drug-related crimes.



The provincial officials protested the remarks made by the vice-president describing them as baseless.



Despite the efforts made by Iranian law enforcement forces to stop it, drug trafficking still remains as a serious issue in the country.



An Iranian anti-drugs official earlier said that drug abuse annually inflicts a damage of 450 trillion rials (about $14.9 billion) to Iran's economy.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on the Taliban militant group to resume peace talks with the Afghan government, Press TV reported.

"We discussed our shared goal of launching peace talks with the Taliban," Kerry said on Saturday, during a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he landed earlier in the day without making prior announcement of his visit.

"We call on the Taliban to enter into a peace process, a legitimate process that brings an end to violence," he said, adding: "Of course there is hope for peace."

"Democracy requires credible institutions... Even more than that, it requires a willingness of people from different political and ethnic and geographic factions to be able to come together and work for a common good," Kerry continued.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Kerry said there was no change in President Barack Obama's plans about US troops in Afghanistan, saying, the president "always has said he will listen to his commanders on the ground."

This is while the US forces in Afghanistan are set to be almost halved to 5,500 from the current 9,800 by the start of 2017, and the new commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, is conducting a review of security before making his recommendations to Washington in June.

The visit comes at a time when the Taliban has regained momentum and started fresh terror attacks on the Afghan government offices and military installations.

On Saturday night, two blasts occurred in the diplomatic area of the country's capital shortly after Kerry left Kabul following meetings with Afghan officials.

The US and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity continues across the country, despite the presence of thousands of US-led troops.

Over the past months, Taliban militants have captured some key areas in the north and south of Afghanistan. The militants have also carried out attacks in Kabul.

This has prompted renewed efforts in the country and by neighbors to revive stalled negotiations between the Taliban and Afghan government.

The Taliban say it would not take part in peace talks with the Afghan government until its preconditions are met.

In a statement on March 5, 2016, the militant group said "until the occupation of foreign troops ends, until Taliban names are removed from international blacklists and until our detainees are released, talks will yield no results."
Over 5,000 military personnel from both countries will take part in Exercise Griffin Strike, the largest joint drill since the establishment of the CJEF in 2010, according to the ministry's statement, Sputnik reported.

"The next two weeks will see French and British servicemen and women training side by side on the sea, on land and in the air. Together with Admiral Laurent Isnard, my French counterpart, we are anxious to demonstrate that our military partnership is now on a new level and show how the combined UK-France Combined Joint Task Force in the most testing of circumstances, stands shoulder to shoulder," Standing Joint Force Commander Major General Stuart Skeates said, as quoted by the statement.



French troops have begun arriving ahead of the drills, which will take place in locations across the United Kingdom, such as North Yorkshire, the Salisbury Plain and off the south and west coasts of England, according to the ministry.

Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault Rafale multirole fighter jets will be involved in aerial exercises, while several French and UK assault ships, frigates and air defense destroyers will be deployed for naval drills. On land, the UK army's 3rd Division and the French army's 7th Mechanized Brigade will take part.

The CJEF is a deployable force that may be used in a wide range of scenarios, including combat operations. The force is mainly expected to be tasked with crisis management, evacuation operations, peacekeeping and humanitarian missions. In 2012, France and the United Kingdom said that the force was expected to reach full operational capacity in 2016.
At least one police officer was martyred in a PKK terrorist attack in southeast Turkey on Saturday, a security source said, according to Anadolu Agency.



A residential police compound in Derik, Mardin province, was attacked, also killing a passing civilian, the source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to the media.



The PKK - listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU - resumed its 30-year armed campaign against Turkey in July last year. Since then, more than 350 Turkish security personnel have been martyred and thousands of terrorists killed.


Chinese consumers can expect to receive in four days Japanese products bought from JD's overseas online marketplace following cooperation between JD and Yamato, a Japanese logistics company. (Photo : Reuters)

The cross-border delivery of goods bought on JDs overseas online marketplace is expected to speed up as Chinese online retailer JD.com has announced its collaboration with Japanese logistics firm Yamato, the Xinhua News Agency reported.



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JD said that through its cooperation with Yamato, goods shipped from Japan will be cleared by customs faster. Japanese products bought by Chinese consumers on JD's overseas online marketplace will also be delivered four days after the payment is made.



Amid competition from rivals such as Alibaba, the company launched JD Worldwide about a year ago to meet Chinese consumer demands for quality products, from luxury clothes and accessories to baby formula milk powder and snacks, which are sold in other countries.



Chinese consumers buy products from cross-border markets through foreign retailers which signed up with JD and Alibaba, and the products are either shipped from foreign countries or delivered from warehouses in China. One of these include Japanese retailer Rakuten, which set up an outlet on JD Worldwide. On the other hand, Costco and Amazon have signed up with Alibaba's Tmall global marketplace.



According to the report, JD managed to become competitive in the logistics sector by delivering customers' order faster, despite the great volume of Alibaba's merchandise. Through its cooperation with Yamato, JD is seeking to extend its services to cross-border deliveries.



To reduce delivery time, JD will enlist the support of China Post and Yamato subsidiary, Yamato Global Logistics, as well as the benefits of the State Council's new "E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zones."



A report by aircargoworld.com said that the pilot zones, which are exclusively set up for cross-border e-commerce businesses, have been launched in 12 cities in China in January, "featuring a slew of preferential tax policies and streamlined customs clearance procedures."



Yamato said it will consolidate and ship the products to a bonded warehouse in Shanghai, to be cleared by customs within 24 hours as part of the "all-year-round, 24-hours customs clearance scheme."



The report said that China Post will make the last-mile delivery, once goods are cleared. From the time the product is ordered on JD.com, the overall process will be reduced to four days, or about half the current average.


Those who are caught selling stolen personal data in China could serve seven years in jail. (Photo : Reuters)

Non-medical data of more than 200,000 children in Shandong Province have been stolen, leading panic-stricken parents to believe that a possible illegal data trade-off might be on the table.



Personal details, including names, contact numbers and addresses, belonging to patients in Jinan, East China's Shandong Province, have been leaked and are now being sold for 32,000 yuan or $4,900, the Global Times said, citing a Qilu Evening News report.



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The patients are all children who received services at unnamed hospitals in China.



"The data of newborn babies in Beijing, including 40,000 babies born since 2016, could be bought for 0.2 yuan per baby," according to the Global Times.



Raising more terror among parents is the accuracy of the illegally obtained data. Qilu Evening News managed to gather a sample data list of 29 children whose personal information got stolen. More than 60 percent of the information on the list proved to be accurate, after the newspaper called the children's families using the acquired contact numbers.



"Parents also complained that they have received many fraudulent calls, guessing that their information might have [been] leaked when their children were vaccinated at local hospitals," said the Global Times.



The families are not ruling out the possibility of extortion and kidnapping arising from the data theft.



China University of Political Science and Law's Zhu Wei said in an interview with the news website that both cyber-thieves and government workers conniving with sellers could be behind the crime.



He also said that unreliable data supervision from the government is one of the factors why criminals are unafraid to illegally acquire confidential information.



According to China Criminal Law Article 253, those who are caught selling these types of data could serve a maximum of seven years in jail.



This is not the first time non-medical data were stolen from hospitals. In 2014, U.S.-based Community Health Systems Inc. suffered a cyber theft from China, where personal details, including social security numbers, of 4.5 million patients were acquired illegally, according to Reuters.


Chinese Internet users have long criticized the use of the Great Firewall to block access to foreign sites. The system's creator was heavily mocked online when he himself got blocked by it. (Photo : Getty Images)

In what many observers are calling as an ironic turn of events, the creator of China's infamous "Great Firewall" censorship system ended up having to bypass it in public.



The incident happened during Chinese computer expert Fang Binxing's talk on Internet security at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang Province. During his talk, Fang tried to access a South Korean website to serve as a demonstration of another country that supposedly imposes the same Internet censorship as China.



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However, he was promptly blocked by the system from accessing the site and was redirected to a Hong Kong-based website. Fang was then forced to use a virtual private network (VPN) in view of the attending audience to re-access the site and complete his demonstration, the BBC reported.



VPNs are heavily regulated under Chinese Internet laws, with multinational companies using these to provide secure connections being required to register the networks with the government.



On the other hand, VPNs are officially banned for use by private users, with the government vigorously blocking access.



However, despite the government's efforts, it is estimated that almost a third of the 650 million online users in China used them to circumvent the Great Firewall and access sites from overseas.



Fang oversaw the development of the Great Firewall during the late 1990s to early 2000s.



Many Chinese Internet users have expressed their opposition to the system, saying that it has led to the country becoming more isolated from the outside world.



Many online users also expressed their opposition to new Internet regulations posted earlier this month effectively further blocking access to foreign websites.



Following the incident, Fang was heavily mocked online by users, Time reported. One Weibo user called the incident "too hilarious," while another chided him for "being so dedicated to his work that he didn't leave a back door even for himself."



The question and answer portion that was to follow Fang's talk was also canceled due to the incident.


Two wheels will do: Traditional bikes, motorcycles and electronic bikes or e-bikes continue to be a favorite mode of transportation in China. (Photo : Getty Image)

Electric-powered bicycles, beginning this week, are banned in 10 major roads in the capital city following new regulations from the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau, according to The Strait Times.



Some of the places where e-bikes can no longer ply include roads around Tiananmen Square and the extended Chang'an Avenue.



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The ban aims to ease traffic and reinforce road safety as the 10 roads specified by BTMB suffer from heavy traffic, often has no bicycle lanes and are considered accident-prone areas.



Statistics from the bureau indicated that in 2015, e-bikes caused the death of 113 people and 31,404 traffic accidents, which resulted in 21,423 injured people.



Same as last year, 114 people died in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, because of events involving e-bikes.



In Shenzhen, electric bikes that failed to meet certain requirements set by the local government have been banned since April 1, according to China News Service.



Quartz reported in 2013 that an estimated 90 percent of the worlds e-bikes are sold in the country, and in that year, 200 million units were sold.



The government promotes e-bikes that use lithium batteries and wants them to replace those that run on lead acid batteries, according to Bike Europe.



If lead-acid e-bikes will be phased out, it is probable that 10 million units of lithium batteries will be sold by 2019.



The Chinese Bicycle Association wants that more pedal-assist electric bikes, also called pedelecs, will be manufactured in the country, according to Electric Bike Report.



Qiu Baoxing, the former vice minister of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that the country needs more electric bikes more than electric cars, according to China Daily.



Qiu also said that the government should take note of the fact that sales of e-bikes in the country are higher than that of electric cars.



Electronics giant Xiaomi invested in iRiding, a startup that will introduce QiCycle R1, a $3,000-dollar smart bike, reported Tech in Asia on March 16.


(L) BGU President Rivka Carmi and JLU Executive Vice Chairman Li Cai sign an MoU to establish an R&D center. Standing behind are (L) Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Vice Premier Liu Yandong. (Photo : Council for Higher Education)

Four public research universities entered into an agreement to pursue one common goal: to establish a research and development center.



Plans for the establishment of the ECNU-UH Joint Translational Science & Technology Research Institute, a project between the East China Normal University in Shanghai and the University of Haifa in Israel, officially saw its beginning after leaders from both universities signed a cooperation agreement in Haifa on March 25, reported Shanghai Daily.



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The research institute will focus on biomedicine, ecological and environmental engineering, neurobiology, data science and pharmaceutical engineering.



The Chinese government invested $3 million for the construction of the building, which will rise at the Shanghai Zizhu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in Minhang District, according to the website of the University of Haifa.



ECNU President Chen Qun and University of Haifa Rector David Faraggi led the signing ceremony.



This is the second time the two universities have collaborated in the name of research.



On Feb. 18, 2015, Chen and Faraggi signed an agreement that led to the creation of the Shanghai-Haifa International Research Center in Shanghai, according to the website of the American Society of the University of Haifa.



The center serves as a venue for research works in computing and data management, education, environmental management, mathematics, neuroscience and technology.



This is an important step for the university that represents the importance of international collaboration with the worlds leading academic institutions and the high regard China has for Israeli research and academia, said Faraggi.



Established in 1972, the University of Haifa presents itself on its website as the leading university in Israel in the fields of the Humanities, Social Sciences, Law, Welfare and Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, Education and Management.



The university offers 20 international academic programs where English is the medium of instruction.



A major seaport, Haifa is Israels third largest city.



For the next pair of universities, it was their first time to engage in a joint project.



Jilin University and the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem on March 30 to build a research center for entrepreneurship and innovation, according to BGUs website.



According to BGU President Rivka Carmi, the research center will promote academic cooperation in research and teaching and will serve as a platform to encourage connections between Chinese and Israeli businesspeople, reported Times of Israel.



Li Cai, JLU Executive Vice Chairman of the University Council, and Carmi signed the MoU.



The Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, established in 1969 in the arid region of Negev, offers courses under Business and Management, Engineering Sciences, Health Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences and Natural Sciences.



Formerly known as the University of the Negev, it was renamed in 1973 after David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), founder of Israel and its first prime minister (1955-1963).


HTC 10 is the latest flagship smartphone from HTC. (Photo : Twitter/OnLeaks )

Every rumor that has surfaced in the past claiming that HTC 10 will be powered by a Snapdragon 820 has now been substantiated by Qualcomm itself. The giant mobile processor manufacturer verified this when it released a new teaser containing the "Power of 10" hashtag, which HTC is known for using in its promotion of the upcoming HTC flagship.



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Qualcomm posted on Twitter a photo showing a smartphone, accompanied by the "Performance 10" caption, which clearly hints that HTC will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, Android Headlines reported. The device will, as a result, join other flagship devices like Samsung Galaxy S7, S7 Edge, Xiaomi Mi 5, and the LG G5 that also carry the same processor.



The power of #Snapdragon meets the #powerof10. Are you ready for next week? pic.twitter.com/Gkf8jkWat1

 Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) April 7, 2016

Now, as far as the specs are concerned, HTC 10 flagship will, according to rumors sport a 5.2-inch (1920  1080) Quad HD display. Hearsays also hint that the phone may feature a Super LCD 5 panel and a simpler Sense UI. The inclusion of pressure-sensitive gestures is also a likely element.



Geekbench and GTXBench database entries are also showing other specs, hinting that HTC will be a high-end smartphone. According to the revelations, the device will come with massive 4GB of RAM and will start off with a 32GB storage variant, extending to bigger storages.



For the camera, the issue has remained unclear until recently when details about the department got confirmed. According to Phone Arena, HTC 10 will sport a 12MP camera with a larger sensor and a wider aperture, just like those of the Nexus 5X and the Galaxy S7.



In terms of connectivity, Wi-Fi 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, and a USB Type-C port are expected to be in tow. The phone is said to run on Android 6.0 Marshmallow operating system, wrapped up under HTC's Sense UI 8.



As for the price, the HTC 10 will range between $586 and $ 909 depending on the variant. The first rumored availability will be in Taiwan on April 15, just after its release on April 12. Other critical details are yet to be confirmed and enthusiasts are counselled to wait until HTC reveals more particulars.



Watch a clip of HTC 10 leaked photos here:






This is the first ever meeting between the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox and a Saudi monarch

Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Pope Tawadros II met Friday Saudi King Salman, in the first meeting of its kind, as the Saudi monarch continues a five-day visit to Cairo, state news agency MENA reported.

During the meeting, Tawadros expressed his gratitude for Saudi support of Egypt, emphasising the depth and strength of Egyptian-Saudi relations throughout history.

The Coptic pope also emphasised that religion is a relationship between man and god, and that all religions call for tolerance and coexistence.

Tawadros also expressed his appreciation for the care of the Saudi kingdom towards all Egyptian workers in the Arab Gulf country.

This is the first ever meeting between the head of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox and a Saudi monarch.

The meeting took place at the kings residence in Cairo.

Salman, who arrived in Cairo Friday, has signed a number of economic accords, including the framework for a number of loans signed in March, worth over $20 billion.

The king is expected to give a speech in front of Egypt's parliament Sunday.

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Egyptian air force units arrived Saturday to Ahmed Al-Jaber air force base in Kuwait for a joint training with Kuwaiti air forces, Egypt's army spokesperson Brigadier General Mohamed Samir said Saturday in a Facebook statement.

"Al-Yarmouk 2" Egyptian-Kuwaiti joint air force training is part of a plan that includes a series of training exercises between Egypt and Kuwait.

The training includes "planning and managing joint combat between the Egyptian and Kuwaiti air forces" as well as joint defence and attack exercises by combat aircraft from both sides.

"The training comes in the context of the military cooperation between both sister countries' armed forces," the statement read.

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The two presidents discussed recent international and regional developments

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met on Sunday with Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe in Cairo where they discussed developing bilateral relations and recent international and regional developments.

Following the talks, President El-Sisi praised Togo's role in hosting the upcoming Maritime Security and Development Conference in Africa to discuss maritime piracy.

He also added that the two countries signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding, including a deal to construct an Egyptian hospital in Togo.

The Togolese president praised Egypt's developing of relations with other African countries under President El-Sisi's rule.

He added that he discussed with his Egyptian counterpart the latest developments in the war against terrorism, stressing the importance of security and intelligence cooperation.

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In a landmark speech to the Egyptian parliament, the first-ever by a Saudi king, Salman stressed economic, political and military cooperation between the two countries

Saudi Arabia's King Salman said on Sunday that Riyadh and Cairo have agreed to set up a "free trade zone" in the Sinai Peninsula, adding that both nations will go on with efforts to form a pan-Arab military force to combat terrorism.

The Saudi monarch made the remarks during a "historic" address at the Egyptian parliament, the first time a Saudi king has addressed the chamber.

Parliament speaker Ali Abdel-Al welcomed Salman with a praising address that was repeatedly interrupted by enthusiastic ovation.

Abdel-Al's introduction highlighted strong ties, "integration" and anti-terrorism cooperation between the two Arab nations.

King Salman said Egypt and the Gulf kingdom have agreed to establish a free trade zone to develop Egypt's border Sinai region as part of a multitude of deals and memorandums the two countries have signed during the visit.

He added that the two "brotherly nations" are working together "to go ahead with setting up the joint Arab [military] force," which will allow both countries and their allies to intervene in regional areas of conflict.

Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi proposed in 2015 the creation of a joint Arab military force. Last February, El-Sisi said that the need for military force is growing every day as the region faces the threat of Islamist militancy.

During his six-minute speech, Salman urged the need to find "practical solutions to combat terrorism," while stressing that the two Arab allies will "cooperate to achieve common goals."

Salman added that an inter-continental bridge connecting Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be built across the Red Sea to "boost Saudi-Egyptian trade, provide job opportunities for youth in the region... and serve as a pathway for pilgrims."

The Saudi king arrived in Egypt Thursday on a five-day visit, his first to Egypt since ascending to the throne in January 2015.

International cooperation minister Sahar Nasr told Ahram Online on Sunday that Cairo and Riyadh signed final agreements during the king's visit worth over $24 billion, including $22 billion to finance Cairo's energy needs for the next five years.



Nasr added that Cairo and Riyadh signed other memorandums of understanding worth a total of around $20 billion.

While the two Arab nations have appeared at moments to be at odds over some regional issues including the civil conflicts in Syria and Yemen, parliament speaker Abdel-Al stressed that both countries enjoy "compatible visions on all Arab and regional issues."

Riyadh has been the main backer of President El-Sisi's government following the ouster of his predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013, giving billions of dollars in aid, grants and cash deposits to help shore up the country's ailing economy.

The oil-rich kingdom, along with Kuwait and the UAE, has also helped Egypt meet some its energy needs over the past two years.

Around 100 Saudi officials sat in official Saudi garb in the front rows of the chamber along with Egyptian MPs to listen the Salman's speech.

Some Egyptian lawmakers waved Egyptian and Saudi national flags while others chanted "welcome, welcome" and "all Egypt greets you."

Some parliamentarians also recited poems praising the king and the Egyptian-Saudi relations.

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Sporadic fighting gripped parts of Yemen on Sunday, just hours before a UN-brokered ceasefire aimed at laying groundwork for upcoming peace talks was due to take effect.

Chaos has ruled Yemen since Iran-backed Houthi rebels overran the capital in September 2014 and advanced to other regions, prompting a Saudi-led military campaign in support of President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi in March last year.

It is hoped that the new ceasefire, which enters into effect at midnight (2100 GMT) Sunday, will serve as the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal which will be negotiated between Yemeni warring parties on April 18 in Kuwait.

Fighting raged on Sunday in regions surrounding Sanaa, while the rebel-held capital itself, which has been regularly bombed by coalition warplanes, was quiet.

Huthi rebels and their allies exchanged mortar and artillery fire with pro-Hadi forces in the Sarwah region of Marib province, east of Sanaa, an AFP correspondent said.

Coalition warplanes carried out fresh air strikes to stop rebels seeking to take back a military base that pro-government forces had recaptured in late 2015, military sources said.

Clashes also went on further north in Nihm, around 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Sanaa, witnesses said.

Residents of Sanaa spent a quiet night without the sound of coalition aircraft, which have intensified raids in recent weeks, according to an AFP photographer in the capital.

The planned truce was only agreed by the warring sides after months of shuttle diplomacy by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The rebels and Hadi's government said this week that they have submitted their remarks to the UN mediator on the terms of the ceasefire, which will test their willingness to negotiate a peace deal at the Kuwait talks.

"We will go to the consultations (in Kuwait) to achieve peace," Hadi reiterated on Saturday, insisting however that the rebels must commit to UN Security Council Resolution 2216 which calls for their withdrawal from seized territories and disarmament.

Previous UN-sponsored negotiations between the rebels and the government failed to make any headway, and a ceasefire in December was repeatedly violated and eventually abandoned by the Saudi-led Arab coalition on January 2.

But analysts are more optimistic this time after mediation efforts have largely silenced guns along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia, while a Houthi delegation visited Riyadh for talks.

The Houthis and Saudi Arabia exchanged prisoners in March after unprecedented talks mediated by tribes along the frontier, where dozens have been killed in cross-border shelling.

"For the first time, the groups that can end major military operations, particularly the Saudis and the Houthis, appear to be more willing to do so," said April Longley Alley, a Yemen specialist at the International Crisis Group.

But "even if major combat ends, the road to peace in Yemen will be long and difficult and internal conflict is likely to continue for some time," she said.

Yemenis appear to have learned not to get their hopes up after previous ceasefires failed.

"I do not expect the truce to succeed," says Zayed al-Qaisi, a resident of Marib. "The Houthis have not honoured their commitments during the wars against the state since 2004."

The Houthis fought six wars with the central government between 2004 and 2010 that killed thousands. Their main foe then, veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted in 2012, is now their ally fighting the government.

"Even the government cannot force us to respect a ceasefire as we have not liberated our territories" seized by the rebels, said Qaisi, armed with a Kalashnikov rifle like most tribesmen in Yemen.

More than 6,300 people have been killed in the year-long fighting in impoverished Yemen, with about half of the victims being civilians, while 30,000 have been wounded, according to the United Nations.

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Iraqi Shia paramilitary forces have launched an operation to retake a town from which the Islamic State group launched a chemical weapons attack that killed three children, commanders said Sunday.

"The operation aims to liberate Bashir, after we succeeded several days ago in cutting off supplies to (IS) in the Bashir area," said Abu Ridha al-Najjar, who is leading the operation.

Sheikh Maitham al-Zaidi, the commander of Furqat al-Abbas, one of the groups involved, also confirmed that the operation had begun.

Najjar said that nine pro-government fighters were killed and 60 wounded in clashes with IS on Sunday.

The militant group fired rockets suspected of carrying a mustard agent last month from Bashir on Taza Khurmatu, another town in the northern province of Kirkuk.

The attack killed three children, wounded a large number of people and pushed thousands more to flee Taza out of fear that it would be repeated.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost significant ground to Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and training.

IS has used chemical agents in the past, a tactic which has caused few casualties and whose impact so far has been more psychological than military.

When faced with the initial IS offensive in June 2014, Baghdad turned to Shia paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed militias to help halt the onslaught and then to push the militants back.

These forces, organised under an umbrella organisation called the Hashed al-Shaabi, have been effective in fighting the militants, but some members have also carried out extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and destruction of property.

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Iraqi political blocs want to replace some or all of the premier's cabinet nominees, a move likely to continue the system of party-affiliated ministers he wanted changed, officials said Sunday.

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said that "fundamental" change to the cabinet is needed so that it includes "professional and technocratic figures and academics".

He presented a list of candidates for a slimmed-down government to parliament last week, but has faced major opposition from powerful political parties that rely on control of ministries for patronage and funds.

At least two of Abadi's nominees withdrew, and his cabinet reform efforts seem set for further setbacks.

"We presented three candidates and the other blocs will present their candidates to the government," said Hamid Maalleh, the spokesman for the Citizens' Bloc, a major Shiite grouping in parliament.

"Most of the blocs want the nomination to be through them," Maalleh said, adding that the aim is to hold a vote on the new cabinet on Tuesday.

"Every component is looking to have a presence in the cabinet," said Niyazi Oghlu, a parliamentary official.

Oghlu said that the finishing touches were still being put to a new list of candidates, and confirmed that a vote is to take place on Tuesday.

Samira al-Mussawi of State of Law, the largest Shiite parliamentary bloc, said: "The new candidates are not the same names proposed by the prime minister."

And Ammar Toma, the head of the Shiite Fadhila bloc, said that a special parliamentary committee "gave its assessment to not approve these nominations", referring to those presented by Abadi.

Toma said that the Kurdistan Alliance, made up of Iraqi Kurdish lawmakers, had yet to submit candidates, but two of the main Kurdish parties had already rejected Abadi's nominees.

"Any change in federal government institutions must ensure the share for the Kurds, and the Kurdistan political leadership will determine who represents Kurdistan," the two parties said in a statement.

Salem al-Essawi, a lawmaker from Ittihad al-Quwa, the main Sunni bloc in parliament, said that it had not put forward candidates as "we have (other) priorities" when it comes to reform.

Powerful Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr organised a two-week sit-in at Baghdad's highly fortified Green Zone, where the government is headquartered, demanding a new technocratic cabinet.

Sadr called off the sit-in after Abadi presented his nominees last week, and the Sadrists are the main political force backing Abadi's proposed cabinet changes.

"We demand that there be technocratic, independent candidates, and the most important is that the candidates be independent," Sadrist lawmaker Zainab al-Tai said.

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The Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed rebels in Yemen for more than a year said it would honour a UN-brokered ceasefire from 2100 GMT on Sunday.

"The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President (Abedrabbo Mansour) Hadi but reserves the right to respond" to any rebel attacks, it said in a statement.

On March 23, the UN's special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the conflicting parties "have agreed to a nationwide cessation of hostilities beginning April 10 at midnight in advance of the upcoming round of the peace talks, which will take place on April 18 in Kuwait".

This will be the fourth ceasefire since March 26 last year when the Saudi-led coalition began air strikes to support the government of Hadi, who fled an advance by Shia Houthis and their allies, elite troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Previous ceasefires failed to take hold and negotiations collapsed. Analysts said a more conducive atmosphere prevails ahead of next week's round.

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A UN-brokered ceasefire was due to take effect in Yemen late on Sunday ahead of a new attempt to reach a lasting peace deal in the war-wracked Arabian Peninsula country.

The Saudi-led coalition that has waged an air and ground campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels since March last year said in a statement it would respect the truce, the fourth since it intervened.

During the countdown to the midnight (2100 GMT) ceasefire, there were sporadic clashes around the rebel-held capital Sanaa, although the city itself was quiet.

Chaos has ruled Yemen since the rebels overran Sanaa in September 2014 and later advanced to other regions, prompting the Saudi-led campaign in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

It is hoped the new ceasefire will form the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal that can be hammered out between the country's warring parties from April 18 in Kuwait.

"The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President Hadi but reserves the right to respond" to any rebel attacks, the coalition statement said.

There was no immediate word from the rebels.

Ahead of the planned ceasefire, rebels and their allies exchanged mortar and artillery fire with pro-Hadi forces in the Sarwah region of Marib province east of Sanaa, an AFP correspondent said.

Coalition aircraft also carried out strikes to stop rebels seeking to retake a military base pro-government forces had recaptured in late 2015, military sources said.

A pro-Hadi commander in Sarwah, Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah Hasan, also told AFP that loyalists will "observe the ceasefire".

"But if the Houthis attack us, the situation will return to what it was" before the truce, he warned.

Further north, coalition jets struck Houthi positions in Jawf province, the rebels said.

There were also clashes in Nihm northeast of Sanaa, according to witnesses.

But residents of Sanaa spent a quiet night free of the sound of coalition aircraft, an AFP photographer said.

The planned truce was only agreed by the warring sides after months of shuttle diplomacy by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The rebels and Hadi's government said this week that they have submitted their observations to the UN mediator on the terms of the ceasefire, which will test their willingness to negotiate a peace deal in Kuwait.

"We will go to the consultations (in Kuwait) to achieve peace," Hadi reiterated on Saturday, insisting however that the rebels must commit to UN Security Council Resolution 2216 calling for their withdrawal from seized territory and disarmament.

Previous UN-sponsored negotiations failed to make any headway, and a ceasefire in December was repeatedly violated and eventually abandoned by the Arab coalition on January 2.

Analysts are more optimistic this time after mediation efforts have largely silenced guns along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia, and a Houthi delegation has also visited Riyadh for talks.

The Houthis and Saudi Arabia exchanged prisoners in March after unprecedented talks mediated by tribes along the frontier, where dozens of people have been killed in cross-border shelling.

"For the first time, the groups that can end major military operations, particularly the Saudis and the Houthis, appear to be more willing to do so," said April Longley Alley at the International Crisis Group.

But "even if major combat ends, the road to peace in Yemen will be long and difficult and internal conflict is likely to continue for some time".

Yemenis themselves appear to have learned not to get their hopes up.

"I do not expect the truce to succeed," said Marib resident Zayed al-Qaisi. "The Houthis have not honoured their commitments during the wars against the state since 2004."

The Houthis fought six wars with the central government between 2004 and 2010 that killed thousands. Their main foe then, veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted in 2012, is now their ally.

"Even the government cannot force us to respect a ceasefire as we have not liberated our territories" from the rebels, said Qaisi.

Sanaa resident Ali Mohsen doubted that Riyadh would commit to the truce.

"Saudi Arabia is just procrastinating and being deceptive," said the 50-year-old.

Umm Mohammed, waiting outside a central Sanaa school, agreed that the truce is "a deception. We tried it unsuccessfully before."

"I want a real end to the war."

The UN says more than 6,300 people have been killed in impoverished Yemen since March last year -- around half of them civilians -- and 30,000 have been wounded.

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A massive fire broke out during a fireworks display in a Hindu temple in south India early Sunday, killing more than 100 people and injuring at least 200 others, officials said.

The fire started when a spark from the unauthorized fireworks show ignited a separate batch of fireworks that were being stored at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, a few hours north of Kerala's state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, the state's top elected official.

Thousands had been packed into the temple complex when a big explosion erupted around 3 a.m., officials said. The blaze then spread quickly through the temple, trapping devotees within.

Most of the 102 people died when the building where the fireworks were stored collapsed, Chandy told reporters at the temple complex.

Local TV channels broadcast images of huge clouds of white smoke billowing from the temple, as fireworks were still going off in the night sky. Successive explosions from the building storing the fireworks sent huge chunks of concrete flying as far as a kilometer (a half mile), according to resident Jayashree Harikrishnan.

The temple holds a competitive fireworks display every year, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honoring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.

This year, district authorities denied permission for the fireworks display, Chief Minister Chandy said.

The state's High Court had earlier mandated that fireworks must be stored more than 100 meters (yards) from temples  orders that were flouted at the Paravoor temple, said Loknath Behera, a top police official.

"We will be investigating how the orders were flouted and who was responsible for the decision to go ahead with the firework display," Chandy said.

Krishna Das, a resident of Paravoor village, said he had started walking away from the temple as the fireworks display was about to end when a deafening explosion followed by a series of blasts went off.

"I had been in the temple just a few minutes before watching the fireworks," Das said. He said he saw scores of people running away, chased by fire and chunks of concrete and plaster from the temple building.

Das said as soon as the first explosion was heard, a power outage hit the complex.

"It was complete chaos. People were screaming in the dark. Ambulance sirens went off, and in the darkness no one knew how to find their way out of the complex," he said.

He said that six ambulances had been parked outside the temple complex as a precaution. They were used to rush the injured to hospitals in the nearby cities of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.

Local villagers and police pulled out many of the injured from under slabs of concrete.

Many of the buildings within a kilometer (mile) of the temple were damaged with cracks in the walls or broken window panes from the impact of the explosion, Das said.

By morning, firefighters had brought the blaze under control, officials said. Rescuers sifted through the wreckage in search of survivors, while backhoes cleared the debris and ambulances drove away the injured.

As day broke, thousands of anxious relatives reached the temple in search of their loved ones. Many wept and pressed police officials and rescue workers for information on their family members.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by doctors, was flying to Kerala to meet with the survivors and victims' families.

At one of the main hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram, senior physician Thomas Mathew said that judging from injuries, a stampede was also likely to have occurred at the temple.

"There were few women or children among the injured. Most were men," Mathew said.

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German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes.

"We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers".

Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing.

"If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag.

Earlier on Sunday, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers.

Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man.

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G7 foreign ministers on Sunday began two days of talks in Hiroshima, with John Kerry's visit to the atom-bombed city -- the first-ever by a US secretary of state -- overshadowing the broader agenda.

Kerry's landmark trip is seen as possibly paving the way for Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to journey to the thriving metropolis next month, when he visits Japan for the Group of Seven summit.

The Hiroshima meeting also includes top diplomats from nuclear-armed Britain and France, as well as Canada, Germany, Italy, host Japan and the European Union.

It is part of the run-up to the G7's rotating annual summit, scheduled this year from May 26-27 in the Ise-Shima region between Tokyo and Osaka.

Kerry arrived earlier Sunday at a US military base west of Hiroshima. He flew from Afghanistan after earlier stops in Iraq and Bahrain.

The US secretary of state, Britain's Philip Hammond, France's Jean-Marc Ayrault and other ministers were discussing issues including the Middle East, the refugee crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and global terrorism.

Host Japan also hopes to highlight other concerns, such as rising territorial tensions in the South China Sea where China and some Southeast Asian nations have clashed, and North Korea's nuclear sabre-rattling.

But what has captured the imagination of the Japanese public is the location. They hope it will promote greater understanding of Japan's staunch anti-nuclear stance as the only country to suffer atomic attack.

Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in parliament, also hopes to issue a "Hiroshima Declaration" at the meeting to promote nuclear disarmament.

"On this occasion, I want to send a strong message for peace and to realise a world free of nuclear weapons," Kishida said at a welcome reception.

Kerry and the other ministers are scheduled to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which houses the ruins of the iconic domed building gutted by the blast, and an accompanying museum.

The first American bomb on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima, including survivors of the explosion who died afterwards from severe radiation exposure. Three days later another blast killed some 74,000 people in Nagasaki.

Japan gave up the fight six days after Nagasaki, forswearing militarism and reinventing itself as an economic dynamo -- protected, ironically, by the nuclear-armed United States.

When asked about its place under Washington's nuclear umbrella, Kishida said ahead of the meeting that Japan is aware of the world's security realities, citing North Korea as a key threat.

Washington hopes to use Kerry's visit -- he will be the highest-ranking US official in Hiroshima since then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in 2008 -- to stress the tragedy of the war and highlight Obama's anti-nuclear stance, expressed in a famous speech in Prague in 2009.

"We can never separate disarmament from the global security environment or strategic stability considerations, or divorce it from our security commitments to friends and allies," Kerry said in a written interview with the Hiroshima-based Chugoku Shimbun newspaper.

"Progress on nuclear disarmament must be made in a way that reduces nuclear and security risks for ourselves, our allies and all humankind."

American tourist James Huddleston, visiting the memorial park with his wife and three children, said Kerry's visit was good for both the US and Japan.

"It's important," said the 36-year-old sales manager from Detroit.

"(This is) is a big part of the history of both countries."

Hiroshima resident Tatsumi Yamasaki, 78, said a visit by Obama would speak volumes.

"That act itself would mean a lot for people in Hiroshima," he said.

However, a small group of about 30 protesters gathered in front of the atomic dome on Sunday to condemn the G7's attitude and any Obama visit.

"They came all the way to Hiroshima to say they would get rid of nuclear weapons -- it's all lies," said Kyoko Taniguchi, one of the organisers.

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A rally to protest recent violence in the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh drew several thousand people Sunday to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The flare-up of recent weeks has left at least 92 people dead in the mainly ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan and marchers held a silent protest before heading to a monument commemorating the 30,000 victims of a 1990s conflict which assailed the region.

Participants held aloft Armenian and Nagorny Karabakh flags days after world leaders urged both sides to refrain from further violence amid violations on both sides of a Moscow-mediated truce which came into force last week.

"It pains me to see young people die but I am proud of them," one protester, 21-year-old student Goar Papikian, told AFP.

"They showed themselves to be true heroes .. our people will always remember them," Papikian added.

Aram Karapetian, 35, urged an amicable solution to the stand-off.

"We have to stop this war and sit down and talk. This four-day war has shown that Azerbaijan's weapons cannot resolve the issue of Nagorny-Karabakh, Karapetian said.

The bulk of the international community recognises the disputed territory as part of Azerbaijan.

The 1990s conflict ended in a Russian-brokered 1994 ceasefire but thw two sides never signed a peace deal.

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Algeria accused Le Monde newspaper Sunday of "gratuitously" damaging its president's image, as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls sought to resolve a row that threatens to overshadow key trade deals.

France and Algeria signed several economic agreements during Valls' two-day visit that saw him meet President Abdelaziz Bouteflika for talks on the fight against extremism and the chaos in neighbouring Libya.

But the premier's trip has been dogged by a dispute related to Le Monde's coverage of the leak of millions of financial records from a Panamanian law firm that prompted Algeria to deny visas to two French journalists.

The paper on Tuesday published a front-page photo of Bouteflika before later clarifying that his name does not appear in the so-called Panama Papers, which have shed light on the financial activities of the world's wealthy elite.

In response, Algiers summoned France's ambassador to complain about a "hostile campaign".

Valls' counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal said Sunday that Le Monde had "gratuitously... undermined the prestige and honour" of Bouteflika.

The row has seen Algeria refuse the visa applications of a Le Monde journalist and a reporter from the Canal+ show Le Petit Journal who were meant to cover Valls' visit, prompting several French media outlets to boycott the trip in protest.

It was not immediately clear why Algeria refused to grant a visa to Le Petit Journal, but the satirical show has frequently reported on the health of 78-year-old Bouteflika.

Valls spoke to Sellal earlier in the week to try to get the ban lifted, but without success, a source close to the French premier had said.

On Sunday, the French prime minister tried to draw a line under the controversy by saying Algeria and France needed to "look towards the future".

"We want to express our deep disagreement and our emotion over this decision... which seeks to punish the media," Valls said after meeting Sellal.

After meeting Bouteflika, Valls said he and the Algerian president had discussed cooperation in the face of "the terrorist threat".

"We know the Franco-Algerian relationship has to be strong to be effective in the fight against terrorism," he said.

"I am committed to regular cooperation on all these major regional issues -- Libya, Mali and also (Western) Sahara," he said.

France has a close relationship with its former colony but has in recent years lost out to China as Algeria's main commercial partner.

Among several agreements signed Sunday was the expansion of a railway equipment factory in Algeria owned by French firm Alstom.

"This economic partnership needs to continue to develop," Valls told reporters in Algiers. "This means France must remain the main economic partner of Algeria."

Other accords including the opening of a car production plant owned by French automotive giant PSA were due to be signed during Valls' trip.

French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, who is accompanying Valls, was expected to meet his influential Algerian counterpart Abdesselam Bouchouareb.

Le Monde has also reported, citing the Panama Papers, that Bouchouareb had an offshore company established in Panama in April 2015.

It said that the company's mission was to "manage a portfolio of real estate assets in the amount of 700,000 euros ($800,000)".

The press spat refused to disappear on Sunday, with Sellal telling reporters that it was "the duty of the Algerian government" to preserve Bouteflika's image.

"No Algerian would accept seeing the president vilified," he said.

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Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a meeting with British counterpart Philip Hammond in Beijing that G7 should not hype the South China Sea issue.

The G7 Foreign Minister's Meeting should not hype the South China Sea issue, Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.

Wang made the remarks while meeting with his British counterpart Philip Hammond in Beijing and called on United Kingdom not to pick sides but to take a fair and objective stance on the issue.

Wang's remarks came before the G7 Foreign Minister's Meeting scheduled to be held from Sunday to Monday in Hiroshima, Japan.

According to media reports, foreign ministers from US, UK, France, Germany, Japan, Italy and Canada will hold discussions on international affairs and will prepare for a later G7 summit. The host, Japan, wants to highlight tensions in the South China Sea and is trying to secure unity in the Group over the issue.

Bilateral relationship was in focus during Saturday's meeting in Beijing.

China and Britain are expanding their cooperation in all areas to implement President Xi Jinping's state visit results to Britain in last October, Wang said, and he hoped that both sides can work together to maintain frequent high-level exchanges, strengthen mutual trust and make sure the "Golden Era" of China-Britain relationship have a good start.

Hammond said the British government attaches great importance to building the "Golden Era" with China and London wants to implement the consensus reached by the leaders of the two countries and to strengthen coordination with China in international affairs.
Food companies buoyed the Saudi stock market on Sunday after better than expected results from the region's largest dairy food producer while a visit by the king of Saudi Arabia to Egypt failed to lift the Cairo bourse.

The Saudi index advanced 1.4 percent after dairy producer Almarai reported a slight rise in first-quarter net profit in a challenging market. Almarai's shares rose by 3.6 percent, helping the food sector to a 4.2 percent gain.

Savola, which has a 36.5 percent stake in Almarai, jumped 6 percent to 44.10 riyals and is Riyadh-based NCB Capital's top pick in the sector.

Shares in Jarir Marketing, one of the kingdom's largest retailers by market value, shrugged off a 29.5 percent drop in first-quarter net profit and gained 2.4 percent to 117.75 riyals.

Riyad Capital rates Jarir a "buy", with a target price of 189 riyals, citing its attractive dividend yield as a factor in its rating.

Construction and engineering contractor Alkhodari edged up 0.4 percent after it booked a 15 million riyal ($4 million) profit from the sale of some of its equipment last week. The revenue will be reflected in the second quarter.

The petrochemical sector was another strong performer, spurred by Friday's rebound in oil prices, with Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC) climbing 2 percent.

In Cairo, Egypt's main index EGX30 fell 1 percent, with investor caution prevailing despite the visit by Saudi King Salman.

"There are no direct indications yet of grants, aid or central bank deposits by the Saudis to Egypt," said Allen Sandeep, head of research at Cairo's Naeem Brokerage, adding that the market resumed the correction that began after Egypt's mid-March currency devaluation.

Bourse data showed that local and foreign traders were net sellers on Sunday, while non-Egyptian Arab investors were net buyers.

King Salman said Sunday during a "historic" address before the Egyptian parliament that Riyadh and Cairo have agreed to set up a "free trade zone" in the Sinai Peninsula.

Out of 163 stocks traded for the day, 51 saw gains and 82 went down.

Market bellwether Commercial International Bank (CIB) declined 1.28 percent to register EGP 39.18 per share.

The country's leading listed investment bank EFG Hermes dropped 0.92 percent to close at EGP 9.71 per share.

Telecom Egypt rose 0.60 percent to be sold at EGP 8.40 per share.



* This story has been edited by Ahram Online.

* An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the share price of EFG Hermes as EGP 4.16. We regret the error.

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Part of the building housing Cairo's Townhouse Gallery collapsed Wednesday, prompting authorities to order a complete demolition; Gallery to move to new location

A building housing Cairo's Townhouse Gallery partially collapsed 6 April, prompting the district authority and the police to order the evacuation of the building for "demolition on Sunday," Yasser Gerab, the Townhouses director for outreach told Ahram Online.

For the past 17 years, the four-floor Downtown Cairo edifice housed the Townhouse Gallery, a highly respected Cairo art space and a frontrunner in Egypts independent cultural movement.

While the Townhouse Gallery occupies four apartments in the block, the building is also home to families living in four other apartments while its ground floor houses a car mechanic and spare parts shop.

"The part of the building that collapsed includes one of the Townhouse Gallery spaces and administrative offices," Gerab clarified.

"Though only one wing of the building collapsed, we were all asked to evacuate so that authorities proceed with complete demolition," Anwar Mohamed, owner of the car spare parts shop, told Ahram Online, adding that he was reluctant to vacate his store as "this would mean we accept the demolition."

He added, however, that he was aware of the building's poor condition and knew that "something had to be done to avoid the collapse."

Gerab explained that, "What happened was really a surprise, because before the collapse of a part of the building we had engineering experts who were preparing a report about the building. The final report, which we received a day prior to collapse, stated that a part of the building needs restoration. But now, after what happened, we need another report to evaluate the current condition of the building."

Gerab went on to suggest that instead of immediate demolition, the Townhouse owners, building tenants and shop owners should agree on an action plan and its implementation, "So we all have a chance to restore the building."

He also revealed that for the time being the Townhouse will have to relocate to the space beside Rawabet Theatre, located in the gallery's vicinity.

"We expect our activities to be affected for some time, but definitely we will be back with a strong programme soon," Gerab explained.

The building's partial collapse comes some months after the Townhouse Gallery was closed by the authorities for several weeks.

At the end of December 2015, officials from the local municipality, the Censorship Authority and the Tax Authority closed the Townhouse Gallery after inspections reportedly showed administrative irregularities.

The gallery reopened mid-February.

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 municipal authorities had ordered the evacuation of the building for demolition due to safety reasons after a partial collapse

A visit by an official on Sunday to the Townhouse Gallery has put on hold a decision announced yesterday by municipal authorities to demolish the building that houses the popular gallery, according to Townhouse Gallery's Facebook page.

This morning, the Townhouse building was visited by the National Organisation for Urban Harmony (NOUH), who has halted the demolition of the building, read the Facebook statement.

"Procedures will now begin to study its future as a listed building. We would like to thank every person who was involved in the events of yesterday for their immense support and energy that helped make this happen."

The building housing Cairo's Townhouse Gallery had partially collapsed 6 April, prompting the district authority and the police to order the evacuation of the building for demolition on today 10 April.

Yasser Gerab, the Townhouses director for outreach, told Ahram Online that an official had visited the area this morning and informed residents and shop owners that the demolition would not take place.

According to Gerab, the official announced the addition of a wood structure to support to the rest of the building until a new report is drafted by engineering experts examining the possibility of restoration.

The details of the action plan are still not clear. We still don't know whether the Townhouse should proceed to form this committee of experts itself, or whether the municipal authorities will take care of that, Gerab added.

Gerab said they were grateful to Soheir Hawas, NOUH's consultant and a member of its board of directors, who supported us despite being out of Egypt.

According to the Cairo Urban Initiatives Platform (CUIP), NOUH "aims at applying the values of beauty to the exterior image of buildings, urban and monumental spaces, the bases of visual texture of cities and villages and all the civilized areas of the country including the new urban societies."

Once the report is drafted by engineering experts, NOUH "could help us by sending a recommendation to the municipal authority to restore the building," Gerab added.

He also said that the building's owner has been very supportive, adding that she wasnt pushing towards the demolition and extended authority to a lawyer who will represent the building's residents and shop owners and try to secure a restoration of the building.

For the past 17 years, the four-floor downtown Cairo edifice housed the Townhouse Gallery, a highly respected Cairo art space and a frontrunner in Egypts independent cultural movement.

While the Townhouse Gallery occupies four apartments in the block, the building is also home to families living in four other apartments while its ground floor houses a car mechanic and spare parts shop.

"The part of the building that collapsed includes one of the Townhouse Gallery spaces and administrative offices," Gerab clarified earlier.

For the time being the Townhouse will have to relocate to the space beside Rawabet Theatre, located in the gallery's vicinity.

"We expect our activities to be affected for some time, but definitely we will be back with a strong programme soon," Gerab explained.

The building's partial collapse comes some months after the Townhouse Gallery was closed by the authorities for several weeks.

At the end of December 2015, officials from the local municipality, the Censorship Authority and the Tax Authority closed the Townhouse Gallery after inspections reportedly showed administrative irregularities.

The gallery reopened mid-February.

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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Two Old Kingdom statues and a New Kingdom offering stele have been unearthed in Elephantine Island in Aswan

A Swiss excavation mission led by Swiss archaeologist Cornelius Pilgrim unearthed two headless statues and an offering stele during excavation works within the vicinity of Khnum temple on the Nile island of Elephantine in Aswan.

Nasr Salama, director of Aswan antiquities, said that early studies on the statues reveal that one of the figures, carved in black granite, belongs to the Old Kingdom Elephantine ruler prince Haqa Ib, though the second one is not yet identified as it does not bear any names or hieroglyphic text.

Salama added that the offering stele is carved in sandstone and decorated with scenes of offerings to ancient Egyptian deities. Early studies show that the stele is dated to the 18th dynasty of the New Kingdom, but its owner is still unidentified.

"Unearthing the Haqa Ib statue beside Khnum temple shows that Haqa Ib was a very important and sacred ruler in Elephantine," head of Ancient Egyptian Antiquities Department Mahmoud Afifi told Ahram Online.

Afifi added that Haqa Ib's importance extended into the Middle Kingdom as King Intef III of the Middle Kingdom ordered the construction of a shrine to commemorate the prince, which was unearthed 80 years ago.

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Members of the Oromo community continue their sit-in outside the UNHCR office in 6 October city for the 13th day in a row.

Oromo asylum seekers in Egypt are demanding UNHCR provide them protection by issuing them with the refugee registration card.

Dozens of protesters say they will continue their sit-in as long as it takes for the UNHCR to respond to their demands.

The UNHCR told Ahram Online Oromos are treated like any other nationalities that are registered with the UNHCR as asylum seekers and then get an interview for refugee determination.

"We have a large population of refugees but since 2014 we have implemented a new system where we make sure that the waiting period to sit for a refugee registration card interview will take about 18 to 19 months," Marwa Hashem, the UNHCR spokewoman in Cairo said.

This is based on an individual basis, not because you are Oromo or not. We have already met three times with Oromo representatives and I think we will still meet with them again. Their main concern is that they need to increase assistance by the UN."

Video by Rawan Ezzat
The VCs have been asked to put in their papers before 11.30 am on Monday, October 24.
#COVID-19 New COVID-19 cases post sharp on-week rise amid resurgence woes South Korea's new COVID-19 cases stayed below 30,000 for the fifth consecutive day Sunday, but the daily count recorded a sharp hike from the previous week amid rising concerns ove...

#illegal gambling China-based online gambling ring busted; 20 arrested Law-enforcement authorities here said Sunday they have busted an online gambling ring based in China for illicit operations in South Korea, worth a total of 5.7 trillion won (US$3....
Tonight, Ireland's film industry came together to honour its own with this year's IFTA Awards.

The big winner on the night was Lenny Abrahamson's Room, which scooped a total of seven awards, including Best Director for Lenny and Best Film.

So, on to the winners...

BEST DIRECTOR

Lenny Abrahamson, Room

BEST FILM

Room

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEAD ROLE

Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

BEST SCRIPT IN FILM

Emma O'Donoghue, Room

BEST DRAMA

An Klondike

BEST ACTOR IN A LEAD ROLE

Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

BEST DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Cathal Watters, Viva

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sarah Greene, Noble

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Tom Conroy, Legend

RISING STAR AWARD

Stephen Fingleton

BEST EDITING IN FILM

Nathan Nugent, Room

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

The Frankenstein Chronicles

BEST SOUND

Room

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Stephen Rennicks, Room

BEST ACTOR, DRAMA

Dara Devaney, An Klondike

BEST ACTRESS, DRAMA

Ruth Bradley, Rebellion

BEST DIRECTOR, DRAMA

Neasa Hardiman, Happy Valley

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

Mom And Me

IRISH DIASPORA AWARD

Roma Downey

OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA AWARD

Liam Neeson

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Joan Bergen, Vikings

BEST HAIR / MAKEUP

An Klondike

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA

Moe Dunford, Vikings

BEST SHORT FILM

Stutterer

BEST ANIMATION

Geist

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Jack Reynor, Sing Street

BEST SCRIPT, DRAMA

Marcus Fleming, An Klondike
Scientology's practices for dealing with those who have left the cult are well-known.

The process, known as Disconnection, involves essentially blanking former family members, lovers, friends and anyone who they believe to be a 'Supressive Person'. In some cases, it can go so far as harassment and even stalking.

Two parents in Las Vegas, Nevada, are now going to extreme lengths to reach their Scientologist children, whom they haven't spoken to in over two years. Phil and Willie Jones rented out a billboard space in Los Angeles' Echo Park near Dodgers Stadium. The parents, who are former Scientologists, attempted to erect a billboard near the Los Angeles Scientology Center on Hollywood Boulevard.

As Mr. Jones explained to THR, he's "pretty sure Scientology got to them on that. Then we found one on Hollywood Boulevard closer to La Brea, not far from where (Scientology leader) David Miscavige lives. We paid them in full, had the printing done, were one day from installation, and Scientology shut us down. They had one of their people call and offer to buy millions of dollars worth of billboard space all over the area just to shut us down."

Their two children, Mike (42) and Emily (38), are stilly deeply entrenched in the organisation after Phil's sister reported the parents to Scientology elders over doubts they had about the cult. The two were excommunicated immediately.

"If you leave Scientology and make any kind of critical remark at all, every Scientologist has to disconnect from you: family, friends, business. Because my wife and I were in it for so many years, our entire lives were surrounded by it. Literally overnight we were cut off from everyone, including our own children. Theres no recourse. You cant call the kids up and talk about it. Weve tried to phone, letters, we go to the building, and the security people come out: Youre not welcome here. We were at a loss as to what else to do, and thats when we came up with the billboard. We wanted to make a statement: We want our families back. Theyre holding them hostage."

Phil's son, Mike, was an aspiring musician and left home at 18 to travel to Los Angeles to make his name. However, he was then recruited by the Church and brought to their Celebrity Center in downtown Los Angeles. "They convinced him the music industry is insane and that he could only play guitar once the planet was clear. ... There are a lot of people who have developing careers who drop them when they join Scientology staff. The ones who have big careers - the Tom Cruises and John Travoltas of the world - they had their careers before Scientology."

The Church of Scientology has, of course, hit back at the Jones' claims, saying that "there is no fact checking with billboards. It is shameful that two people desperate for publicity would hook up with a reality TV producer to shamelessly exploit and harass their two adult children for money. It is equally despicable that these individuals would use a private family matter to promote anti-religious hate and bigotry and harm their kids."

The Jones admitted that they are working with a TV producer to document their story, however they were unable to talk any further about the documentary or what they're planning. Louis Theroux's documentary, My Scientology Movie, hasn't yet received a wide release - either online or through mainstream cinemas.

Via THR
If Hillary succeeds, Bill Clinton could be returning to the White House as... First Gentleman, is that it?

Either way, Bill Clinton's out and about as he stumps for Mrs. Clinton and, sure enough, he's had to take any number of selfies while he's at it. However, Clinton's yet to have a FaceSwap - until now, that is.

Business student Ivan Olivio managed to grab the shot with the 42nd President, however he frightened the poor guy when he saw the FaceSwap completed. "Afterwards, I put my phone down to add a caption and then I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and Bill asked me, What did you do to my face? One of his body guards backed me up and said that its just an app that the kids use nowadays," Olivo said.

"Bill looked at me, looked at the photo again, nodded, and kept taking photos with people."

JUST FACE SWAPPED WITH THE 42nd PRESIDENT OF THE U.S YY@billclinton pic.twitter.com/qRcDJgePMH  ivan. (@ivanolivo_) March 31, 2016

In fairness, it does look pretty freaky and if you're unfamiliar with FaceSwap, it looks genuinely terrifying. Also? Not cool doing an unsolicited FaceSwap.

Not cool at all.

Via Twitter
Charlie Cox says his return as Daredevil "still feels too good to be true"
Conan O'Brien's trip to South Korea has made for some pretty interesting television, to say the least.

As well as being greeted at the airport by huge numbers of fans - O'Brien's big in South Korea, apparently - he's also managed to land himself a pretty special visit to the De-Militarised Zone between North and South Korea.

The area itself is pretty outlandish, with only a number of cabins separating the two countries. It's all pretty crazy, but sure enough, O'Brien was more than capable of making it even more crazy. If it's not the Rhythm Nation-era South Korean guards, it's the fact that the cabins look like a low-rent business centre in a Ramada Hotel.

His words, not ours. We've never been inside a Ramada. Also, very cool that they got Steven Yeun from The Walking Dead to come with them.

There's something genuinely terrifying / hilarious about this video. You can literally see just how scared Conan and Steven Yeun are, but they're still going ahead with it anyway.

Via TeamCoco
Description

Port Washington resident Leo S. Ullman will appear at the Jeanne Rimsky Theater at Landmark on Main Street on Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 4 p.m. to share stories of how he and his family survived unimaginably harsh conditions while living in the Netherlands under German occupation. Ullman will give firsthand accounts of his time living in secrecy, and reflect on how

his childhood in Nazi-occupied Holland shaped his life.





Mr. Ullman has arranged for members of the family who hid and saved him to travel from the Netherlands especially for this occasion. They will join him onstage to discuss their experiences. After the presentation, a reception will be held at the Port Washington Public Library to provide attendees with an intimate setting to speak with Mr. Ullman and his war family.





Mr. Ullmans new book, 796 Days: Hiding as a Child in Occupied Amsterdam During WWII and Then Coming to America (ComteQ Publishing, 2015), is a mesmerizing first-person story of a young Jewish boy hidden by complete strangers for over two years, while his parents hid in an attic elsewhere, not knowing where their son was or if he was alive. The book chronicles Leo Ullmans life as a hidden child, as well as the stories of other family members and their miraculous survival. It contains unique photos, documents and correspondence, as well as historical context. 796 Days will be available for purchase and signing, with all proceeds benefitting Landmark on Main Street and the Friends of the Library.
Ships are docked at Piraeus port in Athens, Greece, on Feb 17, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

ATHENS - An agreement between Greece's privatization fund HRADF and China COSCO Shipping Corporation for the sale of the majority stake in Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) was signed on Friday in Athens.

Under the deal, the Chinese investors will pay 280.5 million euros to HRADF for the initial acquisition of a 51 percent stake, while it will pay another 88 million euros within five years for the remaining 16 percent, provided it has implemented the agreed investments in the port.

The agreement was signed by HRADF chief Stergios Pitsiorlas and COSCO Hong Kong CFO Feng Jinhua in the presence of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, China COSCO Shipping Chairman Xu Lirong and Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli at the office of Greek Prime Minister.

Welcoming Xu at his office, Tsipras said the agreement signing will "cut the 'Silk Road' shorter."

Addressing distinguished guests after the ceremony at the Zappeion Exhibition Center in Athens, Xu said China COSCO Shipping has always been committed to harmonious development in Greece and a win-win situation for all parties.

(L to R) COSCO PCT CEO captain Fu Chengqiu, Greek Potami (River) Party leader Stavros Theodorakis and Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli shake hands while taking a tour at COSCO's subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) premises at Piraeus port, Athens, Greece, on May 15, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

In addition, China COSCO Shipping will not only operate a port that will connect Asia and Europe trade, but will also create jobs and help invigorate the Greek economy, he added.

On the Greek part, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragassakis said these agreements are of strategic nature as they are not temporary, but can generate prospects for the next decades.

Chinese Ambassador to Greece Zou Xiaoli added that the agreement marked a historic milestone for Sino-Greek friendship and relationships at multiple levels.

Since 2009, China COSOCO Shipping's subsidiary Piraeus Container Terminal (PCT) has been operating Piers II and III at Piraeus port under a 35-year concession agreement, posting remarkable results, while PPA was running Pier I until today.

China COSCO Shipping's vision to turn Piraeus into a leading international transit hub for products and services from Asia to Europe has already attracted other major multinationals to the port which are cooperating with PCT to distribute their products in the region.
BRUSSELS - The original plan of Brussels attackers was to strike France again, but they decided in a hurry to launch attacks in the Belgian capital, the Belgian federal prosecutor confirmed Sunday.

"According to several elements of the investigation, the goal of the terrorist group was to strike again France and it's taken aback because the investigation strode, so they finally decided in the emergency to hit Brussels," said the prosecutor in a statement.

According to the Belgian broadcaster RTBF, it is Mohamed Abrini, arrested Friday in Brussels, himself that would have made these statements to investigators.

"The instruction judge specialized in terrorism has placed Mohamed Abrini under arrest in the file relating to the attacks of Brussels and Zaventem," said the prosecutor.

He is charged with participating in "a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murder", the statement said.

Abrini confessed to being "the man in the hat", the third member of the group that attacked the Brussels airport on March 22, confirmed Saturday night the prosecutor.
LISBON (Reuters) - Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos and Caixabank (CABK.MC) clinched a last-minute deal on Sunday for the Spanish bank to buy dos Santos' stake in Portugal's Banco BPI (BBPI.LS), which in turn will offload the controlling stake in its Angolan unit.

BPI, Portugal's second-largest listed bank, said in a short statement its two main shareholders "today successfully finalised their negotiations to find a solution to the breach of the large exposures limit" in Angola, and that they informed the European Central Bank and the Bank of Portugal of their deal.

Sunday was the deadline for BPI bank to get rid of its risky Angolan assets before new European rules kick in requiring banks to fully provision for such holdings.

BPI did not provide any details of the deal, saying they would be disclosed in the coming days.

Sources close to the process told Reuters that the deal called for Caixabank to buy dos Santos' 18.6 percent stake in BPI. Caixabank is already BPI's largest shareholder with a stake of 44 percent.

Dos Santos, Africa's richest woman according to Forbes, is the daughter of Angola's long-serving president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, and has various investments in Portugal.

An initial outline of the deal also envisaged that Unitel, the Angolan telecoms firm dos Santos controls jointly with state oil company Sonangol, would acquire a controlling stake in BPI's Angolan unit BFA, but one source said the final agreement was more complex as it now involved the listing of BFA shares.

Under the deal, BFA is to be listed on the Euronext Lisbon bourse, while Caixabank will have to launch a full takeover bid for the remainder of BPI, sources said.

BPI holds a 50.1 percent stake in Angolan bank BFA, while Unitel owns the other 49.9 percent.

Before reaching the deal, the two parties had been at loggerheads for months after dos Santos blocked the Spanish bank's bid last year for the 56 percent of BPI it did not already own.

(Reporting by Andrei Khalip and Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Peter Cooney)
Workers direct a crane lifting newly-made steel bars at a factory of Dongbei Special Steel Group Co., Ltd., in Dalian, Liaoning province, China, October 13, 2015. REUTERS/China Daily

(This story corrects to show steel capacity now at 1.13 bln tonnes, not to fall to 1.13 bln tonnes by 2020)

By David Stanway

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's total crude steel capacity currently stands at 1.13 billion tonnes, and the country needs to step up efforts to shut down poorly performing mills, a government official said on Saturday.

In February China announced plans to shut 100 million to 150 million tonnes of crude steel capacity in the next five years, as it tackles a price-sapping glut that has caused turmoil in the industry.

But more would need to close to achieve significant improvements, Luo Tiejun, the vice head of the raw materials department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), told a conference.

Luo said domestic steel consumption was forecast to stay between 630 million and 700 million tonnes in the coming five years, and if exports remained at 100 million tonnes, production levels would stay at around 800 million tonnes.

Restoring the sector to health would require taking out still more capacity, however.

"If production stays at 800 million tonnes, then we need to cut 200 million tonnes for the situation to become acceptable," he said.

Luo, who was discussing China's five-year plan until 2020 for the stricken sector, said as well as the 1.13 billion tonnes "some dead capacity" still remains. Capacity was previously estimated to stand at 1.2 billion tonnes, about 400 million tonnes over actual production in 2015.

Besides ordering closures, the February plan also banned new steel projects, but the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) had warned of a further rise in capacity this year.

China's steel firms have blunted some of the impact of overcapacity by selling their surpluses abroad, taking exports to a record 112 million tonnes in 2015.

But the flood of cheap Chinese steel on foreign markets has sparked protests and anti-dumping complaints, and Luo warned that China could not expect to scale up exports further to remedy overcapacity.

Story continues

China will focus on boosting industry efficiency in the next five years, aiming to raise utilisation rates closer to 80 percent, from a CISA-estimated average of 67 percent last year.

CISA secretary general Liu Zhenjiang said the flood of cheap exports posed a threat to China's attempts to secure market economy status.

The rebound in Chinese steel prices this year had created a "vicious circle", Liu said, spurring mills to ramp up output again, even though underlying demand remained weak.

"Cutting steel capacity is important, but controlling steel output is more important," he added.

(Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
(This story corrects to show steel capacity now at 1.13 bln tonnes, not to fall to 1.13 bln tonnes by 2020) By David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - China's total crude steel capacity currently stands at 1.13 billion tonnes, and the country needs to step up efforts to shut down poorly performing mills, a government official said on Saturday. In February China announced plans to shut 100 million to 150 million tonnes of crude steel capacity in the next five years, as it tackles a price-sapping glut that has caused turmoil in the industry. But more would need to close to achieve significant improvements, Luo Tiejun, the vice head of the raw materials department at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), told a conference. Luo said domestic steel consumption was forecast to stay between 630 million and 700 million tonnes in the coming five years, and if exports remained at 100 million tonnes, production levels would stay at around 800 million tonnes. Restoring the sector to health would require taking out still more capacity, however. "If production stays at 800 million tonnes, then we need to cut 200 million tonnes for the situation to become acceptable," he said. Luo, who was discussing China's five-year plan until 2020 for the stricken sector, said as well as the 1.13 billion tonnes "some dead capacity" still remains. Capacity was previously estimated to stand at 1.2 billion tonnes, about 400 million tonnes over actual production in 2015. Besides ordering closures, the February plan also banned new steel projects, but the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) had warned of a further rise in capacity this year. China's steel firms have blunted some of the impact of overcapacity by selling their surpluses abroad, taking exports to a record 112 million tonnes in 2015. But the flood of cheap Chinese steel on foreign markets has sparked protests and anti-dumping complaints, and Luo warned that China could not expect to scale up exports further to remedy overcapacity. China will focus on boosting industry efficiency in the next five years, aiming to raise utilisation rates closer to 80 percent, from a CISA-estimated average of 67 percent last year. CISA secretary general Liu Zhenjiang said the flood of cheap exports posed a threat to China's attempts to secure market economy status. The rebound in Chinese steel prices this year had created a "vicious circle", Liu said, spurring mills to ramp up output again, even though underlying demand remained weak. "Cutting steel capacity is important, but controlling steel output is more important," he added. (Reporting by David Stanway; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN--(Marketwired - April 08, 2016) - CleanSlate Centers, a leader in providing effective, physician-led outpatient treatment of opioid addiction, is launching several locations in 2016 throughout Indiana in response to the national prescription opioid and heroin addiction crisis that is gripping the country. CleanSlate plans locations in Indianapolis, Ft. Wayne, Anderson, Elkhart, and Merrillville, and has started hiring physicians, practice managers, medical assistants and care coordinators for each location. CleanSlate has also forged important relationships with two leading health plans in Indiana to treat their member populations battling addiction, which will help to rapidly expand CleanSlate's reach into Indiana communities.

Fatal drug overdoses due to prescription drugs and heroin once occurred in Indiana at a lower rate than the national average. That is no longer the case. According to the Indiana Pain Society Legislative Report on Pain Clinics and Opioid Prescribing in Indiana (2012), Indiana ranks 16th nationally in opioid drug deaths per 100,000 residents.

"Indiana's rates are accelerating faster than the national average. Shockingly, Indiana's drug overdose numbers have doubled in recent years. This trend is affecting people of all ages, including teens and women," stated Dr. Amanda Wilson, President and CEO of CleanSlate Centers. "Because addiction is a chronic brain disease, we approach treating patients who suffer from this devastating illness as medical professionals approach the treatment of Alzheimer's disease or Diabetes, utilizing a combined biological, psychological, and social approach. This evidenced based care has proven effective in helping those in need to succeed in managing this challenging disorder."

CleanSlate is seeking Indiana physicians seeking to help patients combat this epidemic. Hours are flexible, typically three hours every other week. CleanSlate is also seeking practice leaders, medical assistants and care coordinators. Compensation is highly competitive. Multiple job recruitment events are already scheduled in Ft. Wayne and Indianapolis April 12 and 13.

"Addiction to opioid prescription drugs such as Percocet, Vicodin, and OxyContin is on the rise dramatically across the country. Unfortunately, the state of Indiana is not immune to this growing epidemic, but statewide leaders are committed to addressing it, and CleanSlate is committed to making a difference with them," said Joan Erwin, who leads CleanSlates' Indiana expansion.

To help increase the available number of physicians, CleanSlate plans to extend its successful Start Treating Addiction Today (STAT) campaign to promote physician awareness of the opioid epidemic in Indiana. The STAT campaign is designed to encourage active physician involvement with evidence-informed methods for treating opioid addiction by encouraging physicians to seek their XDEA waiver, which allows them to begin treating patients.

About CleanSlate Centers

CleanSlate Centers was founded in 2009 in response to the growing opioid epidemic facing the country. A multi-state network of physician-led outpatient addiction treatment centers, CleanSlate provides medication-assisted treatment and related therapies for patients who have addiction and associated disorders using the highest quality, evidence-based practices.

CleanSlate's proven model of individualized care gives patients the tools and support they need to achieve long-term success. In recognition of their innovation and effectiveness, CleanSlate's treatment programs received the inaugural 2012 Science and Service Award for Office-based Opioid Treatment by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA.)

In 2014 CleanSlate partnered with Apple Tree Partners, a growth equity fund, to help expand efforts geographically and increase access to care in underserved communities with demonstrated need.
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Earnings season is here.

On Monday, the aluminum giant Alcoa will announce its first-quarter results and once again kick off the busiest few weeks of reporting from Wall Street.

Analysts are expecting a third straight quarter of negative earnings growth. But some think the first quarter was the bottom in earnings declines.

We'll start to find out this week.

"Given what we expect to unfold in the form of growth stagnation in the first quarter when the Q1 GDP is reported at months end, investors will be closely watching this weeks set of economic indicators for clues as to whether the American consumerthe pillar of support for the current economic expansionremains on steady footing or has begun to show some signs of cracking," Wells Fargo's Sam Bullard said in a note.

Top Stories

Q1 earnings on deck: "Analysts expect a third consecutive quarter of negative earnings growth (-9% YoY) that is expected to mark the trough as the macro headwinds abate in subsequent quarters  particularly from the stronger dollar and lower oil prices," wrote Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Savita Subramanian in her preview. The energy sector  still reeling from the commodities crash  is projected to report the biggest earnings decline. Analysts will also be watching the big banks, where a dearth of initial public offerings and dealmaking this year due to market volatility has shrunk revenues. Another important thing analysts will be looking out for is whether the drag from the strong dollar on corporate earnings will persist through the second quarter. Because the dollar's rally has slowed, "multinationals are seeing better estimate revision trends than purely domestic stocks for the first time since 2014, as well as better guidance trends," Subramanian said. "These stocks have outperformed the market by over 4ppt since the mid-February reversal, but after underperforming by nearly 35% over the past five years, there may be room for a bit of catch-up this earnings season."

Did the economy just shrink? Most economists don't say so, but think it was a close call. The release of weak wholesale inventories data for February and a downward revision to January on Friday had some experts cutting their forecasts for economic growth in the first quarter. Because the sales-to-inventories ratio has surged in prior months, there's concern that falling inventories or sluggish sales could act as a drag to GDP growth. Notably, the Atlanta Fed, which nailed the Q1 2015 print, cut its estimate to 0.1% from 0.4%. Also, there were revisions from Goldman (0.9% from 1.2%), JP Morgan (to 0.2%) and Barclays (0.3% from 0.4%.) Of course, the advance GDP print due April 28 will be revised two more times.

Oil producers meet: On April 17, OPEC and non-OPEC members are expected to meet in Doha to discuss a possible agreement to cut output. According to a statement from Qatar's energy minister, 15 OPEC and non-OPEC producers are in support of the plan, and they represent more than two-thirds of global oil output, according to Reuters. RBC's Helima Croft notes that Saudi Arabia has shown confidence in its ability to withstand low oil prices. However, this is at odds with its traditional allies. The UAE, Kuwait and Qatar have all spoken in support of an agreement. But Iran is against it until its output hits 4 million barrels per day, as it beefs up exports after years of economic sanctions.

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Economic Data

NFIB Small Business Optimism (Tues.): Economists estimate that the index of optimism rose to 93.9 in March from a two-year low of 92.9 in the prior month. The February survey showed that expectations for economic and earnings growth tumbled.

Producer Price Index (PPI) (Wed.): Economists estimate that the gauge of wholesale prices producers paid in March rose 0.3% month-on-month and year-on-year. Excluding volatile food and energy costs, they forecast that core PPI rose 0.1% month-on-month and 1.3% year-on-year. "Energy prices and food prices rose on the month, which should provide a modest boost to headline PPI," Barclays wrote.

Retail Sales (Wed.): Economists estimate that retail sales rose 0.1% month-on-month. Core retail sales are expected at 0.4%. Here's Wells Fargo: "For March, we project that the nearly 12% rebound in retail gasoline prices over the February average should provide some lift to headline sales. That said, the substantial drop in motor vehicle sales last month (down to a 16.46 million unit annualized pace from 17.43 million in February) should limit the gain in headline sales."

Beige Book (Wed.): The latest collection of anecdotes on the economy from the Federal Reserve's 12 districts will be released. It's prepared ahead of the FOMC meeting on April 26 and 27.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Thurs.): Economists forecast that the index rose 0.2% month-on-month, and 1.2% year-on-year. Core CPI is expected at 0.2% month-on-month, and 0.3% year-on-year. "While the CPI is a top-tier indicator for the financial markets, the near-term data may be somewhat less relevant given Chair Yellens recent emphasis on the broader global economy," Deutsche Bank wrote.

Initial Jobless Claims (Thurs.): Economists forecast that first-time filings for unemployment insurance rose last week by 270,000.

Empire State Manufacturing Survey (Fri.): This reading on economic activity in New York from the state's Fed is expected at 2.21 for April. In March, it turned positive, to 0.62, for the first time since last July. Barclays (who forecast a "payback" decline to -1.0) wrote: "Last months report contained sharp moves higher in new orders and shipments, which were then substantiated by positive readings across other regional PMIs and the national ISM. On net, recent data point to some stabilization in the manufacturing sector."

Industrial Production (Fri.): Economists estimate that industrial production rose 0.1% month-on-month in March. Manufacturing production is forecast to have increased at the same rate. "The ISM manufacturing index for March was encouraging, so perhaps there is a bit of upside potential, but the sector remains under pressure," Wells Fargo said.

UMich Consumer Confidence (Fri.): Economists estimate the preliminary index of consumer sentiment in March at 91.9. Here's Barclays: "Retail gasoline prices have flattened out in the past week and financial market volatility has broadly declined in recent weeks. As these factors have historically been positive for sentiment, we expect a modest move higher in early April."

Market Commentary

Last week, the $160 billion deal between Allergan and Pfizer imploded.

The two companies called off their merger on Wednesday, just after the Treasury department announced new rules against tax inversions and US President Barack Obama lashed out against them.

New York-based Pfizer had hoped to cut its tax bill by about $1 billion by being based in Ireland, where Allergan is.This deal was the largest example of an inversion-driven one yet.

The latest regulations target so-called earnings stripping, in which a US-based unit borrows internally from its foreign unit and enjoys interest deductions on the higher US tax rate. These deductions then go untaxed, saving the company money.

"Treasurys notice regarding tax deduction limits on transfer cost based interest expense on intracompany debt applies only to non US domiciled firms," wrote Deutsche Bank's David Bianco in a client note. He said only 25 S&P 500 companies are domiciled abroad.

And how does the tax rate impact S&P 500 profits? Here's Bianco:

Nearly all S&P 500 reported foreign profits are truly earned abroad, by providing goods and services to foreign customers. The notion that foreign S&P profits represent offshore manufacturing simply selling back to the US is unaware of how S&P 500 operate and the nature of todays global economy. Every 1% point change in the S&Ps effective tax rate changes its net margin by roughly 15bp, which affects y/y S&P EPS growth by 1.25-1.50%. This is because the S&P non- GAAP pretax profit margin is about 15% and tax rate changes affect how much of the pretax margin passes to the net margin. Every 25bp change in S&P net margins affects y/y S&P EPS growth by 2.25-2.50%.

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Will Smith

Former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, 34, was shot and killed on Saturday night in what the police are calling "an apparent road-rage incident" after a traffic accident.

In addition to Smith, who was shot several times, his wife was also shot in the leg and has been hospitalized, according to NBC News.

New Orleans Police Department spokesman Tyler Gamble on Sunday identified the suspect as Cardell Hayes, 28. Gamble said the investigation was ongoing but did not release further details. Online court records show Hayes pleaded guilty in 2014 to one count each of possessing an illegal weapon and possessing drug paraphernalia.

New Orleans Police said Smith's car was rear-ended by a Hummer H2 and then his Mercedes hit a Chevrolet Impala that was in front of him.

According to a police statement, "the male victim and the driver of the Hummer exchanged words at which time the driver of the Hummer produced a handgun and shot the male victim multiple times."

"It appears that it could possibly have been road rage," Officer Juan D. Barnes Sr. told a press conference.

The Saints released a statement, calling the incident "a senseless and tragic loss."

A senseless and tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with Will Smith - his wife Racquel - his children William, Wynter and Lisa.  Greg Bensel (@GregBensel) April 10, 2016

Smith played 1- seasons in the NFL, all with the Saints. He was a key player for the Saints during their 2009 Super Bowl season. Smith had 13 sacks that season.

Smith's career sack total ranks fourth in Saints history. He had 457 career tackles, 20 forced fumbles, seven fumble recoveries and two interceptions.

He last played in an NFL regular season game in 2012, finishing his career with 67  sacks.





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obama

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace pushed President Barack Obama to address why some Americans feel he is unserious about confronting terrorist threats.

In a rare interview on "Fox News Sunday," Wallace pushed Obama over his comments that more Americans die in bathtub accidents every year than by terrorist threats.

"Bathtub manufacturers arent trying to kill us, and theyre not trying to up the body count. I think its fair to say that some of the sharpest criticism of you, from both sides during your presidency, has been the way that youve responded, personally, not necessarily in policy, to terror attacks," Wallace said.

"And some people wonder  I think the concern is, do you worry about terrorism and feel the threat of terrorism the way they do?"

Obama countered, saying that keeping Americans safe is his "number one priority," and pointing out that his administration has worked extensively to kill and capture terrorists.

"There isnt a president whos taken more terrorists off the field than me, over the last seven-and-a-half years," Obama said.

Obama continued: "Im the guy who calls the families, or meets with them, or hugs them, or tries to comfort a mom, or a dad, or a husband, or a kid, after a terrorist attack. So lets be very clear about how much I prioritize this: This is my number one job. And we have been doing it effectively."

When Wallace rephrased the question, Obama said that in the wake of some terrorist attacks, he attempts to keep Americans calm.

"I think part of it is that, in the wake of terrorist attacks, it has been my view consistently  that the job of the terrorists, in their minds, is to induce panic, induce fear, get societies to change who they are," Obama said.



"And what Ive tried to communicate is, 'You cant change us. You can kill some of us, but we will hunt you down, and we will get you.'"

Though Obama's approval ratings recently reached their highest point in years, polls show many Americans feel the president has not effectively curbed terrorist threats. An NBC/Wall Street Journal survey conducted at the end of last year found just 34% of Americans approved of how the president has handled ISIS and the conflict in Iraq and Syria.

Story continues

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Johannesburg (AFP) - South Africa's wealthy Gupta family, accused of exerting undue influence over President Jacob Zuma, have left country for Dubai, a newspaper reported Sunday.

"The whole family is in the process of leaving," family spokesman Nazeem Howa told the City Press weekly.

The paper said that Ajay and Atul Gupta, two brothers from the family of wealthy Indian immigrants who own a vast business empire with interests in mining, media, technology and engineering, were seen on Thursday evening at a Johannesburg airport boarding their private jet for Dubai.

One of their wives was with them as well as five assistants, with the party boarding the plane "with enough luggage for 20 people," a witness told the paper.

On Friday, the family released a statement saying they were stepping down from the leadership of Oakbay Investments, a holding company with interests ranging from mining to media, in a move linked to the closure of the firm's accounts by two major banks.

"It is with deep regret that, following a period of sustained political attack on the Gupta family and our businesses... we have come to the conclusion that it is time for the Gupta family to step down from all executive and non-executive positions," the letter said.

"This follows the unexplained decisions by several of our banking partners and our auditors to cease working with us, and the continued press coverage of false allegations."

The closure of the bank accounts had made it "virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa," said the letter, which was signed by Howa, Oakbay's chief executive.

In recent weeks, this family, who moved to South Africa in the 1990s, has come under fire for wielding immense power behind the scenes over Zuma and ministers in his government.

Persistent rumours of the family's excessive influence over the president took concrete form in March when evidence emerged that they allegedly offered key government jobs to those who might help their business interests.

Story continues

Zuma, whose second presidential term ends in 2019, has also faced scathing criticism over his friendship with the Gupta family, with their relationship providing ammunition for the government's fiercest critics.

The Guptas arrived in South Africa in 1993 as white-minority apartheid rule crumbled and a year before Nelson Mandela won the country's first democratic elections.

As the country opened up to foreign investment, the Guptas -- previously small-scale businessmen in India -- began to build their sprawling empire.

They also developed close links with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and particularly with Zuma, well before he became president in 2009.
Kenya Central Bank Governor Patrick Njoroge speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office in the capital Nairobi, December 8, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

By George Obulutsa

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's central bank will provide a facility to any bank or microfinance institution that faces liquidity problems through no fault of its own, starting on Monday, Governor Patrick Njoroge said on Sunday.

Fears over the health of Kenya's banking sector have grown since the central bank put Chase Bank Kenya into receivership last week, the third lender to be taken over by the central bank in nine months.

Njoroge said the facility, for which he did not give the amount but said had no upper limit, would be available for as long as necessary to provide a sense of calm and reiterated that the financial sector was stable.

"From Monday, we will avail a facility to any bank or microfinance institution that comes under liquidity pressures for no fault of their own. We will avail this facility for as long as is necessary to return stability to the Kenyan financial sector," Njoroge told a news conference.

"I am sure depositors, once they know, that this support can be provided to their institutions, they will be calm, and calm will be restored."

The mid-sized Chase Bank was put into receivership after its gross non-performing loans rose sharply last year. Njoroge said the central bank was working to get Chase Bank open as soon as possible and that Chase had drawn the interest of both local and foreign investors, who he did not name.

"The way we are going about that is talking with shareholders. Also with interested parties, that is suitors, possible suitors. We hope there will a solution for Chase Bank as soon as possible," he said.

"In terms of this specific institution Chase Bank, yes there is a lot of interest and we hope that that would lead to a quick conclusion."

On Saturday, President Uhuru Kenyatta said he supported Njoroge's actions to protect depositors' money.

"We are really dealing with any fear, anxiety that is out there," Njoroge said.

(Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by Ros Russell)
Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa (L) and US Secretary of State John Kerry arrive at the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting in Manama, on April 7, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jonathan Ernst) (Pool/AFP)

Manama (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry said in Bahrain on Thursday that respect for human rights is "essential", as the Gulf kingdom faces persistent accusations of discrimination against its Shiite majority.

"Here, as in all nations, we believe that respect for human rights and an inclusive political system are essential," Kerry told a joint press conference in Manama with his Bahraini counterpart Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa.

Kerry said he and Sheikh Khalid "had the chance to discuss the ongoing effort to address and to reduce sectarian divisions here in Bahrain and elsewhere."

"I appreciate the seriousness with which he considers this issue," he said.

"We all welcome steps by sides to create conditions to provide for greater political involvement for the citizens of this great country," he added.

In 2011, the tiny but strategic island state, which is dominated by a ruling family drawn from the Sunni minority, crushed a Shiite-led uprising calling for a full constitutional monarchy with an elected prime minister.

Scores of Shiites were rounded up and sentenced to lengthy jail terms, including opposition chiefs.

Asked about a Shiite opposition activist who was taken into custody with her toddler last month after she was convicted in 2014 for tearing up a poster of King Hamad, Sheikh Khalid said: "This is a humanitarian issue and Zainab al-Khawaja will be released pending her case in the court."

"She is in jail and she chose to keep her child with her," said Sheikh Khalid.

"But of course she will be sent to her home," he said, without specifying when, adding that "the case will continue."

The daughter of prominent rights activist Abdulhadi al-Khawaja was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2014 after being convicted of insulting the king by ripping up a photograph of him.

An appeals court last October reduced her term to one year behind bars, while upholding a fine of 3,000 dinars (about $8,000).

Story continues

Khawaja had said she would keep her son, who is reportedly just over one year old, by her side if she was jailed, Amnesty International said in October.

Amnesty urged Bahraini authorities earlier this month to "immediately and unconditionally" release jailed opposition figures.

"The alarming erosion of human rights in Bahrain in recent years means that anyone who dares to criticise the authorities or call for reform risks severe punishment," said Amnesty's regional deputy director James Lynch.
Victoria Coates

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has made some of the most contentious foreign-policy statements of this election cycle.

The Texas senator has advocated "carpet bombing" terrorists in the Middle East and has called for the rules of engagement to be loosened  the former is typically considered a potential war crime, and experts say the latter could lead to more civilian casualties.

Behind those policies and more is a recently released list of foreign-policy advisers working on his campaign.

One name near the top was that of an art historian who took an unconventional path to a career in politics.

Victoria Coates has a Ph.D. in art history and previously worked at the Cleveland Museum of Art as a consulting curator. She recently wrote a book, "David's Sling: A History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art," about famous art that commemorates free societies.

But she always had an interest in politics  she studied the subject in college along with art history  and Coates started blogging for RedState after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Eventually, her work got noticed by the staff of former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Keith Urbahn, a former chief of staff for Rumsfeld, remembers that while Coates was blogging for RedState, she wrote a post about journalist Bob Woodward's book on some of George W. Bush's wartime strategy, "State of Denial."

"I thought it was a compelling piece and we sent it up" to Rumsfeld's speech writer, Urbahn told Business Insider.

Rumsfeld liked what he saw.

"It was immediately clear to me that she had a knack for smart analysis and sharp writing," Rumsfeld said in a statement to Business Insider.

Coates later met Rumsfeld at an event in Philadelphia, and after he left the Bush administration and decided to write a book, he called on her to work for him as a researcher.

It didn't matter that Coates wasn't traditionally trained.

Story continues

"She is someone who can talk about art history, US Russia policy, and the latest record of the Phillies with ease, humor, and smarts," Rumsfeld said. "She is meticulous, persuasive and forthright, which is a potent combination for anyone trying to weave their way through Washington."

Urbahn echoed this sentiment.

"The foreign policy think tanks  are an echo chamber in Washington," Urbahn said. He explained that decades ago, "there used to be a certain kind of person who sort of went back and forth between business, academia, and Washington."

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz speaks at the Kansas Republican Caucus at the Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center in Wichita, Kansas March 5, 2016. REUTERS/Dave Kaup

He suggested that Coates is reminiscent of a bygone era of Washington advisers.

"It's only in the last 50 years that you have this class of bureaucrats here permanently in Washington going back and forth between think tanks and public service," Urbahn said. "That's a new phenomenon."

He continued: "Traditionally we've always had people who had a broad understanding of literature and history and sort of brought that to bear when they were called to government service. That's kind of the staffer and public servant that she harkens back to."

Coates' role on Cruz's team has been met with criticism from some who argue that she lacks the requisite experience.

"We have a really superb team, retired military and foreign policy folks who we've built very carefully over the past few years," Coates told Business Insider of the Cruz campaign. "Folks who want to make me out to be some sort of rogue agent are really doing a disservice to a superb group who's really done wonderful work."

After working for Rumsfeld as a researcher on his book, Coates found positions as a foreign-policy adviser for two Texas Republican politicians who would go on to seek the presidency  former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Cruz. She was a foreign-policy adviser on Perry's failed bid for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

Coates focused on bringing in other foreign-policy advisers for Perry's campaign.

"For the governor we didn't have an existing apparatus in the subject area  so a lot of my job was assembling outside experts to advise him on various topics," Coates said.

Coates started working for Cruz long before he launched his 2016 campaign. They met at a RedState conference in 2009, and she's been advising him on national security since he took office in the Senate in 2013.

Coates started working for Cruz's presidential campaign after he asked her to "come down to DC for a couple of weeks," implying it would be a short commitment.

"He just wanted some help getting set up, and here I am," Coates said.

John Bolton George Bush

Influences and philosophy

Coates cites Elliott Abrams, a current fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who worked in the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan, and John Bolton, a former UN ambassador and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, as influences on her foreign policy.

Bolton, whom Cruz has tapped as a potential secretary of state if he were to win the White House, said Coates been able to maneuver DC politics well.

"Being in a campaign environment is no easy task, that's for sure," he told Business Insider. "The proof is in her performance and I think those in the foreign policy world who have dealt with her have nothing but good things to say about her."

Abrams, who is a foreign policy adviser for the Cruz campaign, denounced the implication that Coates isn't experienced enough to advise candidates on foreign policy.

"I think it's mostly snobbery on the part of the DC foreign policy crowd," Abrams told Business Insider. "What's the complaint? That being an art historian doesn't train you in national security matters? So explain to me how going to law school trains you in foreign-policy or national-security matters."

Abrams argued that it would be better if people in government "actually knew something other than the narrowest possible definition of foreign policy."

"She follows foreign policy questions very closely, so if you want to talk to her about Argentina, or Morocco, or Ukraine, she's up to date," Abrams said. "I think it's really odd that people now think that, 'Uh oh, a person with culture? This can't be permitted.'"

Coates might also count Jeane Kirkpatrick among her influences. She's known for asking new Cruz staffers to read Kirkpatrick's 1979 essay, "Dictatorships And Double Standards," which argued that former President Jimmy Carter should have supported dictators who were aligned with US interests, despite the murky human-rights records of autocracies. The essay is known for helping shape Reagan's foreign policy.

"It seems clear that the architects of contemporary American foreign policy have little idea of how to go about encouraging the liberalization of an autocracy," Kirkpatrick wrote.

"In neither Nicaragua nor Iran did they realize that the only likely result of an effort to replace an incumbent autocrat with one of his moderate critics or a 'broad-based coalition' would be to sap the foundations of the existing regime without moving the nation any closer to democracy."

Abrams is known to have a similar philosophy. Journalist Michael Crowley wrote in Slate in 2005 that Democrats "revile" Abrams as "the lead apologist for brutal Central American dictatorships in El Salvador and Guatemala." Abrams also reportedly declared Carter "hopeless" about confronting Soviet expansion.

Al Qaeda Nusra Front

Some of the themes of Kirkpatrick's essay, which focused on Iran, Nicaragua, and the Soviets, are playing out today in the Middle East.

The US is now facing the same questions of whether the country should intervene in conflicts  like the civil war in Syria  to depose dictators, risking the rise of Islamist militant groups and further destabilization, or let the conflicts play out on their own.

In two blog posts for RedState, Coates acknowledged the dangers in backing Syria's rebel factions, some of which had been infiltrated by extremists, but worried that Al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Syria could get their hands on weapons of mass destruction if the chaos in the country continued.

"Recent reports of Al Qaeda infiltration of the Syrian resistance have strengthened our national reluctance to intervene in the slow-motion train wreck that is the Syrian civil war," Coates wrote in 2012, shortly after the Syrian civil war started.

"After all, we hardly want to be in the position of arming our enemies (that didn't go so well with the Mexican drug cartels), and should they be successful an Al Qaeda-backed regime is one of the few things that would be worse than the Assad thugocracy that has oppressed Syria for so long."

The Obama administration has called for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have massacred thousands of civilians in the country, to step down. But the administration has stopped short of intervening to topple the regime.

Coates implied the US should take military action to oust Assad, comparing the crisis in Syria to the 2011 uprising in Libya. There, rebels won out over ruthless leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi after the US and other NATO countries intervened.

"In dealing with Libya and Syria, consistency need not be the hobgoblin of little minds but can rather be the hallmark of a consistent and coordinated foreign policy," Coates wrote in 2012. "There are equivalencies to be drawn between the two crises, and once these are recognized we should take equivalent action. It is not a decision to be taken lightly, but we would not be alone and the cause is just."

Coates doesn't consider herself a neoconservative or an isolationist, refusing both labels.

"There seems to be this binary choice that one is either an all-in hawk or an all-in dove, and the minute you say maybe you're not going to embrace a single doctrine but rather approach individual situations on their own merit, it's enormously confusing to people in the establishment," Coates said.

She continued: "As I look at it, you think about do I want another Obama term, do I want the third term of George W. Bush? I'm not sure I want either of those things right now."

Urbahn referred to Coates as a "Reagan conservative," explaining that "in some cases, that looks a little more like neoconservative, in some cases that looks more isolationist.

"It's a realism about when to use military force, to realize when you need to use it, but to be sparing most of the time when you do it," he said. "That is her world view, that was Reagan's, and it's a world view that the Republican party went away from for a period of about 25 years."

He added: "She's trying to bring back, to an extent, what Rumsfeld and [former Vice President Dick] Cheney exhibited in office."

ISIS Iradi security forces coalition

Cruz's foreign policy

During this election cycle, Cruz has become known for his calls to "carpet bomb" ISIS positions in the Middle East as part of his strategy to defeat the terrorist group (which is also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh).

Military experts have called this strategy into question, saying it shows a fundamental lack of understanding about warfare and the nature of how ISIS operates.

Coates suggested that Cruz's statements about carpet bombing were more rhetoric than substance.

"I think he is just using a very strong turn of phrase to signal  the kind of approach that he would take, which would be dramatically different" from Obama, she said.

Coates said that Cruz is trying to convey that the US needs "a really serious, concerted bombing campaign to make a difference here."

Bolton echoed this message, saying the US needs to have a "strong presence" in the world and protect its interests.

"It's unquestionably the case that we have to have a very forward defense of America, and to me that means what the president himself says the objective is," Bolton said. "His buzzword is to 'degrade and ultimately destroy' ISIS. I would delete the word 'ultimately.' I think the sooner we do it the better because ISIS is metastasizing."

One criticism of Cruz's proposed policies has been that they could lead to more civilian casualties.

"Obviously it's something one wants to avoid whenever possible," Coates said of civilian casualties. "But the alternative to that, that that is going to be your ultimate directive, is to not making any progress against the enemy."

Coates said that Cruz would do "pretty much the opposite of everything Obama is doing" in terms of fighting ISIS. She also set Cruz apart from his main Republican rival, Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the party's presidential nomination.

"You can look at a situation like Israel," Coates said. "You had Trump coming out and saying he wanted to remain neutral. Sen. Cruz believes very strongly that the obvious national security interest of the US is on the side of the Israelis  and I don't think we do any good by trying to tone that relationship down."

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PRINCIPOVAC, Serbia (AP)  Walking a winding path inside a thick oak forest at the border between Serbia and Croatia, Jiyan Ali cannot believe his misfortune: he barely made it to Europe across rough seas and rugged mountains, only to be abruptly halted just meters away from his dream destination  the European Union.

The 20-year-old Kurd from Rojava, Syria, has been stuck on the Serbian side of the frontier together with some 200 of his fellow refugees since early March when Balkan countries suddenly shut their borders for migrants escaping wars and poverty in their home countries.

Now there is no legal way for the group to move forward to the heart of Europe, or backward toward Greece or Turkey, and they are stuck living in a rundown former psychiatric hospital in a country that cannot offer them work or other opportunities they desperately seek.

As officials focus on the EU-Turkey deal to return migrants from Greece to Turkey and on the tens of thousands stuck near Greece's border with Macedonia, Ali and some 1,000 other Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis stranded in Serbia feel abandoned by the international community.

"We are forgotten," Ali said while making his daily routine with a few of his refugee friends.

The routine involves walking toward the border on a narrow dirt path to an old and rusty wire fence that marks the no-man's land between the two former Yugoslav republics, and to have some fun by jumping with one foot inside what they believe is Serbia and the other inside Croatia, an EU member state.

"Balkans, Europe, Balkans, Europe," Ali and his friends chuckle, with their laughter echoing inside the dense forest with blossoming spring leafs and wild flowers. No border guards were seen on Friday on either side of the border, which in the 1990s was a heavily mined frontier between the two Balkan wartime foes.

"I sometimes think, this is Balkans, this is Europe. I only need a few steps to cross," Ali said. "I don't know how smart is it to make that step, but maybe it is better to use the smugglers to make it there."

Story continues

With their hope, patience and money running out, the migrants stuck in Serbia are increasingly turning to people smugglers to try to get out of the impasse.

Local aid workers say that some 100 people try daily to cross from Serbia to Croatia or further north to Hungary, but most of them get caught. Also, some 130 new migrants arrive daily in Serbia, mostly through Bulgaria, using clandestine crossings, officials say.

"I am here for two and half months," said Amir Eskandari, a 17-year-old from Afghanistan who is traveling alone and wants to get to Germany. "I tried three times to Hungary, two times to Croatia. Police caught me every time. I'll keep on trying."

Over a million people have used the Balkan route to reach further into Europe since last year, mostly heading for Germany or other wealthy EU states.

Ehsan Rahmatjan, 20, from Herat, Afghanistan, says he has had enough of waiting for the borders to reopen. He just wants to go back home.

"I think I will decide to go back because I came up to here by smugglers ... I had lots of bad experiences, dangerous things. So, I don't want to try by smugglers again, it's dangerous, it's very hard. I don't know, maybe I go back."
IBM's New Upward Journey: Buyouts, Layoffs, and 2016 Turnaround

(Continued from Prior Part)

After five-year low, IBM is finally riding a high

So far in this series, weve discussed IBMs (IBM) acquisition as well as layoffs, both of which have become closely associated with the company. But its important for us to remember that IBM has been reeling under the pressure of revenue declines. Fiscal 4Q15 marked the fifteenth consecutive quarter that the company has failed to report revenue growth. Consequently, its stock touched a five-year low in late 2015, and following its fiscal 4Q15 results, the stock fell to one of its lowest levels since 2011.

Dollar appreciation, slow growth across BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) countries (except in India [INDA]), and the divestiture of IBMs Intel-based (INTC) x86 server to Lenovo (LNVGY) all contributed to IBMs falling revenues. However, as you can see below, IBMs stock recovered in February 2016 and is still heading north.

March was one of IBMs best runs

According to Bespoke Investment Group, March 2016 turned out to be the best month for IBMs stock in more than a decade. On March 31, 2016, IBMs stock closed at $151.45, which represents an increase of nearly 16.3% for the entire month.



Strategic imperatives and Morgan Stanleys upgrade

But if we look at the strategic imperatives that relate to IBMs investment in cloud, analytics, mobile, social, and security technologies, the contribution toward overall revenues grew from 22% in 2013 to 35% in 2015. IBMs total cloud revenue grew by 57% on a year-over-year basis to $10.2 billion in constant currency terms.

Although Amazon (AMZN) continues to lead overall in the cloud space, within the private and hybrid cloud space, IBM looks to be out front. Katy Huberty, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, believes that the market has, in fact, underappreciated IBMs growth potential, as reflected by its share prices.

Last week, Morgan Stanley reiterated its rating of IBMs stock as overweight. But IBMs price target has increased from the previous $140 to $168, and its very likely that such improved ratingsas well as the performance of its strategic imperativeshave provided a much-needed boost to IBMs stock.

Story continues

Continue to Next Part

Browse this series on Market Realist:
Even as overall U.S. health care spending grew by 5.3 percent in 2014  reaching a jaw-dropping $3 trillion -- the healthcare industry has made some important strides in trying to bend the overall cost curve in the coming years, according to some experts.

Since the advent of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, for instance, the move away from so-called fee-for-service that maximizes costs for insurers and patients by encouraging excessive billings has begun to make some inroads in overall spending.

Related: US Health Care Costs Surge to 17 Percent of GDP

Under the old approach, patients and insurers were charged for every individual service or procedure, and that encouraged doctors to order extra tests or require patients to spend more time in the hospital. Now many medical practices and hospitals are learning to coordinate their activities and bundle charges in a way that rewards quality of service over volume.

Health and Human Services officials have predicted that by 2016, fully half of all Medicare payments to providers will be tied to value-based reimbursements instead of fee for service. That could mean tens of billions in savings down the road.

At the same time, hospitals and doctors offices are taking some of the mystery out of medical costs through greater transparency or honesty in billing. And insurance companies and businesses are expanding their wellness programs to keep Americans healthy and away from the hospital for as long as possible.

I think it starts with the realization that weve been in a transformational period with health care for some time. And I have argued for a while that policy and technology have driven this transformation in large measure, said Tom Daschle, a former Democratic Senate Majority Leader from South Dakota and now a Washington public policy adviser to the hospital and health care industry.

Not exclusively, he added, but policy has unleashed a new environment and technology has allowed us to maximize the value of this new environment in a lot of different ways.

Story continues

Related: Why the U.S. Is Being Gouged on Drug Prices Compared to Other Countries

Daschle said during a recent interview in his office that the transformation would play out in the coming years under a new administration, Congress, the courts, the states and especially the private sector. He said there have been an explosion of innovation in the private sector at all levels. We have seen a sort of collective concern about the three greatest challenges in health care: cost, access and quality.

The breakthroughs in lowering the cost of health care will come through innovations both large and small. The innovations in billing and pricing, the movement towards greater teamwork, and cooperation and wellness programs have potentially massive long-term cost implications.

But taken together, a series of much smaller ideas can greatly contribute to the overall drive towards medical cost containment.

A 2014 report by RAND Health research highlighted small ideas that could save the nations health care system between $13 billion and $22 billion annually if properly implemented.

Related: Drug Company Profits Soar as Taxpayers Foot the Bill

Among those ideas:

Lowering treatment costs by reducing the use of anesthesia providers in routine gastroenterology procedures for low-risk patients.

Changing the payment policy for emergency transportation or ambulance service. Medicare currently pays vast sums for transporting elderly patients to and from the hospital.

Shifting care from hospital emergency rooms to retail clinics when appropriate.

Increasing the use of $4 generic drugs to help rein in runaway prescription drug costs.

Small ideas do not require systemic change; thus, they may be both more feasible to operationalize and less likely to encounter stiff political and organizational resistance, according to the report.

Another area that hasnt gotten much attention until recently is hospital labs and patient blood management units. Hospitals spend a total of $68 billion annually running those labs, but many of them are woefully behind in cost saving strategies.

By one estimate, 70 percent of patient diagnoses originate in hospital laboratories, yet most labs operate at 40 percent efficiency, with considerable space underutilized or ignored.

Related: Medicare Sees Striking Increase in Specialty Drug Costs

Jeff Osborne, a former Honeywell aerospace executive and industrial performance officer, concluded several years back that hospital labs were ripe for reform that could save the hospital industry billions if handled properly.

As the president and CEO of a San Diego-based consulting firm called Accumen, Osborne and his staff have contracted with more than 40 hospitals and health systems nationwide to overhaul their lab and patient blood management units, upgrade equipment and impose tough new cost-saving standards for lab employees.

These labs typically are responsible for performing routine blood and urine tests, anatomic pathology testing of human tissue and microbiology testing, along with maintaining blood banks. Many of the labs cost roughly $500 million a year to operate.

Osborne said in a recent interview that his company behaves more like a hospital player than a consultant does. Rather than advising the hospitals from afar, Osbornes technical teams literally are embedded in the hospital labs, often for several years, to help change the management and operational culture.

Related: Obamacare Insider: The Plans Need to Be More Affordable

What we have found is that lab folks are great care-givers, but they tend not to be business operators, Osborne said. So we teach them how to be good business operators.

The changes made can be as simple as driving harder bargains with suppliers to lower the cost of tubes, needles and chemicals. Hospitals can save as much as 20 percent to 30 percent a year on medical supplies simply by putting their foot down.

Or the reforms can be more challenging, such as changing long-standing practices in the labs, such as sending out blood tests to private labs instead of doing the work in-house more quickly and at a lower cost.

Osborne said that one of his clients saved $1.5 million a year by ending its practice of sending Vitamin D tests out to an independent lab. He also helped convince another healthcare system that it could save millions of dollars by cutting back on thousands of marginally useful or unnecessary blood transfusions that sometimes lead to patient infections.

Over the past year alone, Osborne says his firm has saved clients $60 million in lab operating costs. Clients that enter into three-to -five year transformational partnerships with Accumen can expect to reap 15 percent to 20 percent overall savings, according to Osborne.

Related: Employees Are Paying More  Much More  for Health Care

Daschle, a public policy advisor and lobbyist who represents Accumen in Washington, said that Osborne is helping to give new meaning and definition to the concept of coordinated care. Hes kind of like an orchestra director with all the different orchestra pieces, Daschle said.

Top Reads from The Fiscal Times:
A French Bank Societe Generale logo is seen on the facade of their building in Paris, March 3, 2016. REUTERS/Christian Hartmann

PARIS (Reuters) - French tax police searched Societe Generale's (SOGN.PA) headquarters this week as part of an investigation into offshore accounts revealed by the Panama Papers, the bank said on Sunday.

The searches on April 5 were a "normal development in the context of such an investigation", a spokesman for the bank said, declining to comment further.

According to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, the searches were ordered to try to identify holders of offshore companies set up by the bank via Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

A leak of millions of files from the firm has cast a global spotlight on the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens, implicating scores of politicians and business figures.

Societe Generale was identified by Le Monde earlier this week as the fourth most prolific creators of offshore shell companies via Mossack Fonseca, with 979 to its name.

Following Le Monde's initial report -- part of an international investigation by more than 100 news organizations -- Societe Generale accused the daily of using "inconsistent information which gives rise to outrageous misconceptions".

It added: "As of today, the number of active structures created via the firm Mossack Fonseca for clients amounts to a few dozen."

French Finance Mininster Michel Sapin said on Wednesday he had demanded a full enquiry into the disclosures and questioned the bank's Chief Executive Frederic Oudea.

Sapin also vowed to pay "particular attention" to decisions taken by Societe Generale since 2012, when it had pledged not to open any more offshore structures.

The bank's board reiterated its support for management on Friday and said Societe Generale was "especially vigilant" over the application of rules and safeguards against money laundering and tax evasion.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Keith Weir)
MADRID (Reuters) - Spain plans to ask the European Commission for an extra year to meet its public deficit targets, El Pais reported on Sunday, after missing the mark with its 2015 deficit and raising the prospect of further spending cuts to narrow the budget gap. The country last month reported a 2015 deficit of 5 percent of economic output, one of the largest in Europe and above the EU-agreed target of 4.2 percent. To reduce that to the 2016 target of 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the Spanish government will need to find about 23 billion euros (18.5 billion) through tax increases or spending cuts. The economy ministry declined to comment on the newspaper report, which cited government sources as saying that acting Economy Minister Luis de Guindos would include revised economic projections in the stability programme to be presented to Parliament on April 19. Unpopular austerity measures imposed during the economic crisis prompted many voters to turn away from the traditional political parties in the Dec. 20 election, leaving Spain without a majority large enough to form a government. The caretaker government, headed by acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, will ask Brussels to ease this year's deficit target to 3.7 percent of GDP when it presents its stability programme this month, El Pais said. Madrid, which must send its latest projections to Brussels before May, currently expects economic growth of 3 percent this year after GDP expanded 3.2 percent year on year in 2015. Spain was sucked into a five-year economic slump after its property bubble burst in 2008, sending public debt soaring to almost 100 percent of GDP last year, from less than 40 percent before the crisis. Deep budgetary adjustments by Rajoy have almost halved the budget shortfall since he took power in 2011 and a return to relatively strong economic growth since the second half of 2013 has also helped to boost the public coffers. However, additional spending and tax concessions in the lead up to the December election meant the government and regional authorities struggled to meet budget guidelines. In exchange for more time, the government will commit to additional savings at a regional level of between 0.5 percent to 0.7 percent of GDP, equating to between 5 billion euros and 7 billion euros, El Pais said. With new elections in June increasingly likely, any incoming government will have little time to make the necessary fiscal adjustments before the end of the year. (Reporting by Paul Day and Carlos Ruano; Editing by David Goodman)
A Turkish foreign ministry statement said a deal on normalising ties with Israel would be finalised at a meeting to be "convened very soon" (AFP Photo/Tobias Schwarz )

Ankara (AFP) - Turkey and Israel are on the brink of restoring their ties after a bitter falling-out five years ago, the Turkish foreign ministry announced early Friday after talks in London.

NATO member Turkey was a key regional ally of Israel until the two countries cut ties in 2010 over the deadly storming by Israeli commandos of a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, which left 10 Turkish activists dead.

After years of bitter accusations and inflammatory rhetoric the two sides held secret talks in December to seek a rapprochement, with another round taking place in February in Geneva.

"The teams made progress towards finalising the agreement and closing the gaps, and agreed that the deal will be finalised in the next meeting which will be convened very soon," the Turkish ministry said in a statement after the fresh round of talks Thursday.

An Israeli official told AFP on condition of anonymity that "the gaps are getting narrowed," without elaborating.

Ankara said the latest talks in London brought together powerful Turkish foreign ministry official Feridun Sinirlioglu, Joseph Ciechanover, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Israeli National Security Advisor Jacob Nagel.

In an interview with Turkish newspaper Vatan on Friday, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said "significant progress has been made", adding that the two sides were hoping to reach "a final stage" in the talks soon.

- Russia and gas needs drive talks -

Turkey had already said in February that the former allies were "close to concluding a deal".

But they had yet to agree on all of Turkey's conditions, with the main hurdle appearing to be the lifting of Israel's blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Israel apologised to Turkey in 2013, in what many thought would trigger a warming in ties, but tensions soared again the following year when Israel launched a massive military offensive in Gaza.

Story continues

Turkey's other condition is that victims of the Mavi Marmara be compensated, and has said that talks have advanced in this regard.

The Mavi Marmara was one of six ships which headed to Gaza in May 2010 carrying humanitarian supplies in a bid to break the blockade of the Strip which has been in place since 2007, shortly after the Islamist militant group Hamas won elections there.

The blockade has been branded cruel and inhumane by rights groups, although Israel argues it is necessary to stop weapons smuggling.

Turkey is a key backer of Hamas, and Erdogan has accused Israel of being "genocidal" in Gaza.

Analysts have suggested that Turkey's desire for a rapprochement has been accelerated by the drastic worsening in ties with Moscow since the shooting-down of a Russian warplane wrecked several joint projects.

Ankara relies on Russia for more than half its natural gas imports and Turkey now has its eyes on Israeli gas reserves.

In a highly symbolic encounter, Erdogan last week met representatives of Jewish organisations in the US to discuss the fight against terrorism and racism.

"Unfortunately, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic, xenophobic movements have been shifting from the periphery to the centre of politics. We have to struggle against them together," he said.

Another sign of a thaw in relations came when Israeli President Reuven Rivlin phoned Erdogan to thank him for his compassion after a suicide bombing in Istanbul last month left three Israelis dead.
A 3D printed Apple logo is seen in front of a displayed cyber code in this illustration taken February 26, 2016. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/Files

By Scott Malone and Joseph Menn

BOSTON (Reuters) - A U.S. magistrate judge in Boston ordered Apple Inc to assist law enforcement officers in examining the iPhone of an alleged gang member, according to a Feb. 1 court filing unsealed on Friday that is no longer binding.

"Reasonable technical assistance consists of, to the extent possible, extracting data from the device, copying the data from the device onto an external hard drive or other storage medium and returning the aforementioned storage medium to law enforcement," U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler wrote before a similar case in San Bernardino drew worldwide attention to law enforcement efforts to get around iPhone encryption.

As in the San Bernardino case, where the U.S. Justice Department sought access to a phone used by a gunman who fatally shot 14 people in December, Apple objected to the Boston order, an employee briefed on the matter said. The FBI has since said it has figured out a secret method for unlocking the model of iPhone in California.

The Justice Department withdrew the San Bernardino case and has not made an additional move in the Boston matter, though Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Pierce said that it could.

"Apple has represented that they were unable and unwilling to comply with the courts order, and no decision has been made by the government on whether to seek additional orders compelling Apples assistance, Pierce said.

(Additional reporting by Joseph Ax in New York and Dustin Volz in Washington)
A member of al Qaeda's Nusra Front climbs a pole where a Nusra flag was raised at a central square in the northwestern city of Ariha, after a coalition of insurgent groups seized the area in Idlib province May 29, 2015. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Some analysts regard Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate as a greater long-term threat to Western security than ISIS.

And the US might be missing out on a golden opportunity to move against the group.

Over the past month, residents of Syria's Idlib province have taken to the streets to protest not only the authoritarian regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad but also Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Qaeda's branch in Syria also known as the Nusra Front.

A partial cease-fire among regime forces, Syria's allies, and rebel groups (but not ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra) led to a break in violence that allowed civilians more leeway than they previously enjoyed.

The protests could provide a crucial opening for the US to support the moderate Syrian opposition and push for a political solution that includes Assad leaving power, but experts doubt that the US will make use of it.

Ahmad al-Soud, the commander and founder of the US-backed Free Syrian Army group known as Division 13, told Business Insider that residents of Maaret al-Nouman in Idlib wanted to send a message with these protests that they were opposed to Assad as well as to terrorist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra and ISIS, which is also known as the Islamic State, ISIL, or Daesh.

"Protesters wanted to show the world that they are against Al Qaeda's ideology, that they are  moderates and that as Syrians we reject Al Qaeda's ideology and support the FSA because they want a simple, secular state," al-Soud told Business Insider last month through a translator.

"[Protests were] all across Syria. It was all revolution flags," he said.

And since Jabhat al-Nusra is trying to lay deep roots in Syrian society by gaining popular support before cracking down on the population, it has been reluctant to treat protesters too harshly.

Story continues

Jabhat al-Nusra has been gaining support in Syria partly by helping moderate opposition groups fight the Assad regime, which these groups consider their main enemy even as the US and other Western powers focus on beating back ISIS.

But there's a big problem with Jabhat al-Nusra's strategy: It depends on continued fighting in Syria. Without a civil war, and without Assad in power, Jabhat al-Nusra would have a harder time gaining support and aligning with moderates.

Jabhat al-Nusra Nusra Front Assad

"What's been fascinating from the cessation of hostilities is that it's revealed for the first time the biggest weakness in Al Qaeda's strategy in Syria," Charles Lister, a fellow at the Middle East Institute who has written a book on the insurgency in Syria, said at an event in Washington, D.C., on Friday. "And that is that it is inherently dependent on a continued level of intense conflict in Syria."

He continued:

That intense conflict over the last five years has provided Al Qaeda with an opportunity to demonstrate its worth on the battlefield to the Syrian opposition and to the civilian support base. Without an intense level of conflict, the people came back to the streets and started chanting things, which fundamentally object or fundamentally contradict Al Qaeda's stated objectives in Syria.

Al Qaeda opposes any flag other than its own, but in Maaret al-Nouman, protesters were carrying the flag of the revolution.

"Everywhere people were protesting, they had the revolution flag," al-Soud said of the early days of the protests. "The revolution flag is something Nusra is against. They say any flag but 'there is no God but God' and their Al Qaeda trademark below it, that's the only flag you're allowed to fly in Idlib, according to Nusra."

This brought tensions between Jabhat al-Nusra and the moderate opposition to a head  the group reportedly made some illicit arrests and attacked FSA headquarters  but their attempt at a crackdown ended up backfiring.

The crackdown "has now sparked 20 days in a row of protests by women, children, the elderly, and young men against Jabhat al-Nusra's control of Idlib," Lister said. "This is something we've never seen before, and it's a huge opportunity to undermine Al Qaeda's long-term future in Syria. Unfortunately, as of now, there's very little that we as the West have done to take advantage of this."

Free Syrian Army Idlib

'Our options down the road are going to be significantly less'

The West has a small window to act, experts say.

"This is the first time this opportunity has arisen, and it won't be there for very long," Lister said. "Al Qaeda has taken a step back and it has refused to subjugate these protests so far. If it does, and it will one day choose to do so, those protests will end like that, and they'll probably never come back again."

Genevieve Casagrande, a Syria research analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, said that as the Syrian conflict dragged on, extremist groups like Jabhat al-Nusra would weaken the moderate opposition.

"The US is at large risk of losing potential partners in Syria," Casagrande told Business Insider. "Jabhat al-Nusra is eating away at these moderate groups, and they will one day succeed. It's only going to fuel further radicalization, and the spectrum is going to start inching farther and farther toward Salaafi-jihadi groups."

The best way to achieve a solution to Syria's civil war is through these moderate opposition groups, but if Jabhat al-Nusra moves to target these groups and remove them from the battlefield, "our options down the road are going to be significantly less," Casagrande said.

And as long as Assad stays in power, moderate rebels will be spread too thin to make a significant dent in the extremist groups on the Syrian battlefield.

"Right now the opposition is most threatened by the Assad regime, and at the end of the day, the opposition seeks to bring about the overthrow of the Assad regime, and so it is very difficult for any opposition group to justify attacking any group like Jabhat al-Nusra," Casagrande said.

Syria control map

Jabhat al-Nusra and its Islamist allies, however, in many cases outgun moderate opposition groups and could attack both them and the Assad regime.

"Jabhat al-Nusra is a stronger opposition group than any of these FSA-affiliated factions currently," Casagrande said.

"And if the US isn't willing to put incentives on the table" for these groups to fight Jabhat al-Nusra, she continued, "It's almost impossible to ask a group to go ahead and turn on Jabhat al-Nusra, especially with Jabhat al-Nusra's large number of allies in Syria, which include Ahrar al-Sham, which is one of the largest and most influential groups on the battlefield."

Al-Soud confirmed this line of thinking. He said the Syrian people "reluctantly allowed Nusra into Syria because our main enemy is the regime."

"After the regime is gone, we will continue to fight anybody who tries to implement their will against the people," he said.

While civilians in Maaret al-Nouman continue to resist jihadist influence, it will "become increasingly difficult" for groups like Division 13 to keep Jabhat al-Nusra out of its territory, Casagrande said.

Bloodstains are seen at a site hit by what activists said were three consecutive air strikes carried out by the Russian air force, the last which hit an ambulance, in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria January 12, 2016. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

Casagrande said that to turn the tide against the extremists, the US would have to take a firmer stance on overthrowing the Assad regime. It would also have to provide more support to the moderate rebels fighting the regime.

"If the US isn't willing to match what Jabhat al-Nusra is currently bringing to the opposition" in terms of fighting the Assad regime, "I don't see any other incentive that would be worth it or acceptable," Casagrande said.

There has been some discussion within the US government about how to support groups like Division 13 in undermining Jabhat al-Nusra, Lister said.

"Certainly this is an issue seen as urgent within administration circles," Lister told Business Insider. "My skepticism, though, lies in the fact that weve seen people talking about these things before and nothing very much ever happens."

He said that if the US didn't take advantage of the opportunity presented by the protests and the cease-fire in the short term, the government should start looking toward a long-term political solution to the civil war.

"I fear for the future unless we continue to take advantage of the fact that the moderate opposition still is there," Lister said.

"If we don't take advantage of that, those people will become so disillusioned with Syria and the future, but also ... with the international community," he continued. "We'll see more displacement, more refugees. They'll choose to leave the country because they've given up hope, and who will fill that vacuum? Groups like Nusra."

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Singapore, April 10 (CNA) Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Sunday he was "deeply saddened" by his younger sister Dr. Lee Wei Ling's accusation that he was abusing his power to commemorate the first anniversary of their father's death to establish a dynasty, stressing that meritocracy has been well established in the city state.
By Gregory L. Diskant April 8On Nov. 12, 1975 , while I was serving as a clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Justice William O. Douglas resigned. On Nov. 28 , President Gerald R. Ford nominated John Paul Stevens for the vacant seat. Nineteen days after receiving the nomination, the Senate voted 98 to 0 to confirm the presidents choice. Two days later, I had the pleasure of seeing Ford present Stevens to the court for his swearing-in. The business of the court continued unabated. There were no 4-to-4 decisions that term.Today, the system seems to be broken. Both parties are at fault, seemingly locked in a death spiral to outdo the other in outrageous behavior. Now, the Senate has simply refused to consider President Obamas nomination of Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, dozens of nominations to federal judgeships and executive offices are pending before the Senate, many for more than a year. Our system prides itself on its checks and balances, but there seems to be no balance to the Senates refusal to perform its constitutional duty.The Constitution glories in its ambiguities, however, and it is possible to read its language to deny the Senate the right to pocket veto the presidents nominations. Start with the appointments clause of the Constitution . It provides that the president shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint . . . Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States. Note that the president has two powers: the power to nominate and the separate power to appoint. In between the nomination and the appointment, the president must seek the Advice and Consent of the Senate. What does that mean, and what happens when the Senate does nothing?In most respects, the meaning of the Advice and Consent clause is obvious. The Senate can always grant or withhold consent by voting on the nominee. The narrower question, starkly presented by the Garland nomination, is what to make of things when the Senate simply fails to perform its constitutional duty.It is altogether proper to view a decision by the Senate not to act as a waiver of its right to provide advice and consent. A waiver is an intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege. As the Supreme Court has said ,  No procedural principle is more familiar to this Court than that a constitutional right, or a right of any other sort, may be forfeited in criminal as well as civil cases by the failure to make timely assertion of the right before a tribunal having jurisdiction to determine it. It is in full accord with traditional notions of waiver to say that the Senate, having been given a reasonable opportunity to provide advice and consent to the president with respect to the nomination of Garland, and having failed to do so, can fairly be deemed to have waived its right.Heres how that would work. The president has nominated Garland and submitted his nomination to the Senate. The president should advise the Senate that he will deem its failure to act by a specified reasonable date in the future to constitute a deliberate waiver of its right to give advice and consent. What date? The historical average between nomination and confirmation is 25 days; the longest wait has been 125 days. That suggests that 90 days is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for the Senate to consider Garlands nomination. If the Senate fails to act by the assigned date, Obama could conclude that it has waived its right to participate in the process, and he could exercise his appointment power by naming Garland to the Supreme Court.Presumably the Senate would then bring suit challenging the appointment. This should not be viewed as a constitutional crisis but rather as a healthy dispute between the president and the Senate about the meaning of the Constitution. This kind of thing has happened before. In 1932, the Supreme Court ruled that the Senate did not have the power to rescind a confirmation vote after the nominee had already taken office. More recently, the court determined that recess appointments by the president were no longer proper because the Senate no longer took recesses.It would break the logjam in our system to have this dispute decided by the Supreme Court (presumably with Garland recusing himself). We could restore a sensible system of government if it were accepted that the Senate has an obligation to act on nominations in a reasonable period of time. The threat that the president could proceed with an appointment if the Senate failed to do so would force the Senate to do its job  providing its advice and consent on a timely basis so that our government can function.Interesting argument. The Supremes would probably split on it, 4-4.
The prestigious PATA Travel Mart 2016, which is one of the international tourism industrys must-attend contract shows, will be held from 7th to 9th September 2016 at the brand new Indonesia Convention Center (ICE) venue at BSD City, Tangerang, in Banten Province, lying just at the outskirts of Indonesias capital city Jakarta.

BSD (short for Bumi Serpong Damai), although located in a separate province from Jakarta, may, however, be better described as a new suburban city on the fringe of this sprawling metropolitan city. BSD has beautifully laid out shady avenues, luxurious houses with green lawns, appealing malls and shopping centers with numerous restaurants and cafes, schools and clubs and its latest star addition, the huge Indonesia Convention Center which also provides ample space for exhibitions. Easily accessible by toll road BSD is just over half an hours drive from Jalan Sudirman, Jakartas main, central avenue.

Hosted by the Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia, the Province of Banten and PATA Indonesia Chapter, PATA Travel Mart 2016 is expected to attract over 1,000 delegates from more than 60 countries. The PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Travel Mart is Asia Pacifics premier travel trade show, featuring unparalleled networking and contracting opportunities to help travel and tourism organizations access decision makers from around the world, meet new clients, expand networks and build or maintain existing relationships. Held in September every year, PTM showcases travel products and services from the Asia Pacific region, drawing interest from a broad cross-section of world class experienced, pre-qualified buyers.

PATA Travel Mart (PTM) 2016 is the industrys B2B contract show particularly featuring established and emerging destinations in the Asia Pacific from China,, Japan, Korea to the ASEAN countries, Australia, the Pacific Islands and South Asian countries. It will feature two full days of over 10,000 pre-matched appointments across the event facilitated through PATAs custom business matching software, exclusive access to the 300+ community of qualified hosted international buyers, opportunities to engage with more than 1,000 delegates from over 60 destinations across the globe, and to socialize throughout the events at the Network Lounge, dinner receptions, late night functions and during the complimentary pre- or post-tours.

Participants can also keep abreast of industry updates at the Travel Innovation Forum, Responsible Tourism Forum, and the new Blogger Forum, alongside PTM Talks, a series of 20-minute power workshops/seminars on topical issues. PTM also features the PATA Youth Symposium  a half day forum offered to students and young professionals to engage with industry professionals during plenary talks and roundtable discussions. There will also be the prestigious PATA Gold Awards Ceremony which recognizes and rewards outstanding achievements in the travel industry in the Asia Pacific region in a broad range of categories.

Unlike other travel trade exhibitions, PTM offers delegates a different host destination each year, showcasing the rich cultural diversity of destinations across Asia-Pacific while bringing together a new set of buyers and sellers to every show. For PATA Mart 2016, Indonesia will this time highlight the countrys Marine Tourism resources and destinations since, as a huge archipelago Wonderful Indonesia offers magnificent and unforgettable underwater diving opportunities besides swathes of white sand beaches alongside great swell for surfing, and islands galore to explore by yachts or cruise ship.

More information available at: www.patatravelmart.com.
OVERLAND PARK, Kan., April 10, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Valley Animal Hospital, a full-service veterinary clinic in Overland Park, Kansas, recently launched a campaign to raise awareness about its pet grooming services. In addition to being available for regular checkups and a full array of veterinary services, the practice has a highly experienced pet grooming professional on staff and offers two packages, which makes it easy for people to find services that suit their needs and budgets. "We realized that a considerable number of our regular clients were unaware of our pet grooming services," said veterinarian Dr. Mary Gardner. "As a result, we've intensified our efforts to inform existing clients and residents of the local area that we offer first-class pet grooming services," she added.



Pet grooming services at Blue Valley Animal Hospital are handled by Jen, a highly skilled professional groomer with more than 20 years of experience. She has earned a reputation for providing top-notch care in a way that is calming and soothing to pets that may be a little nervous about being groomed by someone new. "Pets and their owners just love Jen," said Dr. Gardner. "She does impeccable work, and she has a natural knack for working with animals."

Although grooming is a way to keep pets looking and smelling their best, it's also an important part of maintaining their health. Over time, old fur builds up in layers, and it can cause the skin to become dry, itchy and irritable. Pets sometimes start scratching themselves too much and too hard, and they end up with injuries. "Pet owners sometimes consider professional grooming to be an extravagance," said Dr. Gardner. "However, our prices are very affordable, and having someone else handle this important job is both safer and convenient.

Blue Valley Animal Hospital offers two levels of pet grooming. The first consists of a bath and blow-out, and it includes a thorough brushing, washing and drying as well as nail trimming, ear cleaning and other bodily hygiene services. The pet's coat can be trimmed to the desired length as well. The full-service package includes everything from the bath and blow-out package and adds a premium haircut that is customized to suit the individual pet. The clinic also offers extras, including teeth brushing and FURminator SHEDless treatments, for an additional fee.

For the health and safety of pets, the clinic requires all pets who come in for grooming to be current on their vaccinations, flea and heartworm treatments and fecal tests. Blue Valley Animal Hospital can accommodate pets who have allergies or other sensitivities; pet owners must simply inform the clinic and they will use the appropriate methods and products.

Blue Valley Animal Hospital is located in Overland Park, Kansas. Local pet owners can learn more or schedule appointments by calling (913) 681-2818 or by visiting their website at http://bluevalleyanimalhospital.net/.

Blue Valley Animal Hospital, (913) 681-2818

http://bluevalleyanimalhospital.net/grooming.html
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MBA Resume- Mistakes You Can Avoid

Resume is a critical part of the MBA applications, yet it is often the most neglected one. Your resume demands as much of your attention as your essays do. In fact, resume is your first introduction to the Ad Com, so it should be impactful enough to make them want to know more about you through your essays. When working with applicants on their resumes, I often quote Ross Admission Director Soojin Kwon. For me, the resume is just as important as your essays.How you describe your experience matters. What you choose to highlight matters. Think of it as trailer of the movie about you. It needs to show there is substance there. I find that many applicants dont take enough care with their resumes, Kwon said.

The analogy is so apt. If your essays show a movie about you, your resume shows the trailer of that movie. True!! Your resume is a trailer of your career progression, accomplishments, leadership and team working skills, your interests, and extra-curricular activities that will be shown in detail in the movie of your essays. Therefore, in order to make a good first impression, you need to invest your time and effort to make your resume strong and impactful.

You can build a strong resume by avoiding the following most common errors.

1. Lengthy Resume:

2. Omitting dates:

3. Writing Sentences/ Paragraphs:

4. Use of Fancy Fonts:

5. Use of Jargon:

6. Lack of Strong Verbs:

7. List of job responsibilities:

8. Lack of Quantifiable Accomplishments:

 How much or by what percentage you reduced expenses?

 How many people were on the team that you supervised?

 How much or by what percentage you increased sales ?

9. Details of high school:

10. Omitting extracurricular activities/ interest:

11. Beginning with Education Section:

12. Additional Information /Skills:

13. Providing Personal information:

14. List of References:

Lastly, and most importantly, edit and proofread your resume multiple times before you submit it. You do not want to ruin your first impression by careless spelling, grammar, and style errors. Get it reviewed by a second a pair of eyes to ensure consistency and accuracy.





Email:poonam@myessayreview.com



MyEssayReview - A personalized and dedicated consulting serviceEmail:poonam@myessayreview.com Signature Read More

First, resist the temptation of writing a lengthy resume. Its about quality, not quantity, so make sure not to go over one page limit. Most schools want to see only one page resumes. Let your resume be short and sweet The resume should be the shortest document in your application but the most impactful one that provides an overview of not only your professional career and accomplishments, but also your interest and extra- curricular activities.Please use 10 or 11 font and do not try to squeeze in loads of information by using 8 font.When listing job positions, sometimes applicants forget to mention employment dates. Without specific dates, the Ad Com will not be able to garner your career progression and your promotions.Please do not write sentences or paragraphs even if you have a lot of information to convey. Instead use bulleted points. Each bullet should be limited to two lines of text, and there should be no more than five bullets per job position. You may use 2 bullet points for listing job responsibilities and 2-3 for job accomplishments.Typical fonts for a resume are Times New Roman, Verdana, Cambria and Arial, with Times New Roman being the most common. The business resume is not the place to use fancy fonts. So dont use crazy fonts or intricate borders.One of the most common mistakes applicants make is using technical terms of their industry. Do not assume that Ad Com will understand your industry jargon. This is not a job resume that you are writing for your prospective employer. This is your MBA resume that is scanned by the Ad Com of business schools for career progression, leadership qualities, team- working skills, initiative and other interests/activities of future business leaders. So make sure to make your resume jargon free. The following example is jargon free:Example: Created and implemented new checklists and guidelines, helping reduce the cost of the projects by 10-15%Do not start a bullet point with nouns or adjectives (e.g. responsible for or in depth understanding of). Begin with a strong action verb. Verbs make you sound like a dynamic individual who is always ready for action. Also, try to avoid overusing verbs like led, managed or developed, and consider using other verbs such as accelerated, delivered, established, implemented, initiated, or spearheaded etc. Use verbs that demonstrate your collaborative attitude e.g assist, contribute, support, provide etc.Example: Collaborated with multiple stakeholders and built a team of 7 analysts that resulted in revenue growth of $ 400K/ yearAnother most common mistake some applicants make in their MBA resume is making it a long list of job responsibilities. The Ad Com will not look at your resume for the number of years you have worked or for your simple job responsibilities. Instead, they will look for the quality of professional experience i.e. the skills you have acquired and the impact you have made on your organization. When listing your professional experience, follow the reverse chronological order so your current professional experience gets the utmost attention.Resumes that do not quantify the outcome of your accomplishments fail to make an impression. So please make sure to quantify your impact on your company/organization with measurable results or achievements.Try to provide specific details such as:Example: Spearheaded a flagship project - Change In Terms for the company built a team of 5 analysts, translating into revenue of $ 100KSometimes applicants fill precious space with high school accomplishments and grades. Please do not discuss your high school activities unless you did something exceptional for your age. You have come a long way after high school; and you are applying for graduate school, not college.Sometimes the applicants get so involved in the details of their professional experience that they tend to ignore extracurricular activities/community service and other interests/ hobbies. Please note that the schools are looking for well-rounded individuals, and not only professionals who have no interests beyond their work. So do not hesitate to include 2-3 hobbies that you feel passionate about and pursue in your non-work hours. Please do not include too many hobbies or interests. Also, include community service activities you have been involved in.Beginning with the educations section is one of the most common mistakes the applicants make. Please place your education section after professional career section and keep it short. It should show the schools you have attended,the areas of study, and accomplishments/ranking etc.If you have some certificates or awards, if you have learned some foreign languages, or if you possess advanced computer skills, you may use this section for this information. Also, if you have a long list of awards/ honors, you may create a separate section of Awards and Honors to include that information.Please do not provide your height, weight, date of birth, and marital status on your resume. Also, there is no need to provide your picture on your resume.An MBA resume is not a place for providing references. So do not use precious space in providing references or even mentioning References on request._________________
scorpio7 wrote:

The greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile.





(A) Columbus was the Incan highway, which, over 2,500 miles long and extending

(B) Columbus was the Incan highway, over 2,500 miles in length, which had extended

(C) Columbus, the Incan highway, which was over 2,500 miles in length and extended

(D) Columbus, the Incan highway, being over 2,500 miles in length, was extended

(E) Columbus, the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles long, extending





Meaning is crucial to solving this problem:

Concepts tested here: Meaning + Tenses + Grammatical Construction

A:

B:

C:

D:

because

someone

because

E:

Correct.

because

Hence, E is the best answer choice.

Dear Friends,Here is a detailed explanation to this question-Understanding the intended meaning is key to solving this question; the intended meaning of this sentence is that the Incan highway was the greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, and it was over 2,500 miles long because it extended from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile. The past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past, which took place at different times; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". The introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- extending in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship. Information that is vital to the core meaning of the sentence cannot be placed between commas.This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "extending" is a present participle ("verb+ing") acting as a noun modifier, there is no active verb to act upon the pronoun "which", the subject of the second clause of the sentence.This answer choice incorrectly uses the past perfect tense verb "had extended" to refer to one of two actions that took place simultaneously in the past - the Incan highway being the greatest road system built in the Americas prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus and the highway extending from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile; please remember, the past perfect tense (marked by the use of helping verb "had") is only used when a sentence contains two actions in the past, which took place at different times; the helping verb "had" is used with the action in the "greater past". Further, Option B incorrectly places information vital to the core meaning of the sentence - the fact that the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles in length - between two commas; please remember, information vital to the core meaning of the sentence cannot be placed between commas.This answer choice fails to form a complete sentence; as "was" and "extended" are both parts of a modifying phrase, there is no active verb to act upon the noun "the Incan highway".This answer choice alters the meaning of the sentence through the phrase "being over 2,500 miles in length, was extended"; the construction of this phrase reverses cause and effect, incorrectly implying thatthe Incan highway was over 2,500 miles in length,extended it from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile; the intended meaning is that the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles longit extended from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile.This answer choice acts upon the subject noun "the Incan highway" with the active verb "was" to form a complete thought, leading to a complete sentence. Further, Option E uses the phrase "extending from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile"; the use of the "comma + present participle (verb+ing" - "extending" in this sentence) correctly conveys the intended meaning - that the Incan highway was over 2,500 miles longit extended from northern Ecuador through Peru to southern Chile; remember, the introduction of the present participle ("verb+ing"- extending in this case) after comma generally leads to a cause-effect relationship. Additionally, Option E avoids the tense error seen in Option B, as it uses the present participle ("verb+ing" - "extending" in this sentence) rather than an active verb, such as "had extended" in Option B. Besides, Option B avoids the grammatical construction error seen in Option B, as it places no information between commas.To understand the concept of "Comma + Present Participle for Cause-Effect Relationship" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~3 minutes):To understand the concept of "Extra Information Between Commas" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~1 minute):To understand the concept of "Past Perfect Tense" on GMAT, you may want to watch the following video (~2 minutes):All the best!Team_________________
[UPDATE BELOW] A 30-year-old man was fatally stabbed at a party in the Bronx last night.

Police responded to a 911 call at the St. Mary Houses on Westchester Avenue just after midnight, where they found Julian Washington, 30, unresponsive with stab wounds to his neck and torso. Washington, a Manhattan resident, was treated by EMS and rushed to Lincoln Hospital, where he was declared dead.

A police source told the Daily News that Washington suffered the repeated stabbings after getting into an argument. The NYPD confirmed that no arrests have been made, and the search for Washington's killer is still ongoing.

Update 3:50 p.m.: Police have arrested a suspect in connection with the stabbing. Bronx resident Vernon Hubbard, 35, has been taken into custody and charged with 2nd Degree Murder, Manslaughter, and Criminal Possession of a Weapon.
Ahmed Ferhani, an Algerian-American man and Queens resident who in 2012 pleaded guilty to terrorism charges following an extensive NYPD sting, is now in a coma after attempting to take his own life. Attica Correctional Facility officials notified Ferhani's family about his attempted hanging Thursday morning.

In an extensive report by The Nation, Ferhani's life in prison leading up to his suicide attempt is described as a living hell, plagued by bigotry at the hands of Attica's staff and guards. "I have been denied food, water, telephone, recreation and law library services," Ferhani wrote in a letter to The Nation. "My personal and religious property has been destroyed and my mail thrown in the garbage. My life has been threatened countless times and I have been the victim of sexual harassment."

Ferhani also described being denied vocational and educational programs while at Attica, reportedly being told, "You will make a bomb." A supervisor at Attica reportedly suspended his Islamic education, telling an Imam, "Do you know what he is here for?!"

The police investigation that lead to Ferhani's arrest has been described as "predatory" by his legal team. Last year, attorney Gideon Orion Oliver described a larger trend of undercover NYPD officers working to investigate and indict Muslims in New Yorka trend that enveloped Ferhani's arrest. "The government and the undercover officers have significant roles in manufacturing what they then characterize as the defendants' plots," Oliver told Gothamist. Ferhani pleaded guilty to charges of terrorism and hate crime in what was characterized as an elaborate plan to dress as a Jew and bomb a synagogue in Manhattan. The Nation's new report points to holes in the investigation. "Days before his arrest, for instance, [Ferhani] told the undercover officer that instead of carrying out the plot, he wanted to just flip the guns they were going to buy for a profit," the magazine reports, going on to note that NYPD officers had to deliberately remind Ferhani to purchase explosives.

"The case against him was flimsy enough that the FBI removed themselves from the investigation in its early stages," The Nation writes. "The NYPD continued to pursue Ferhani, despite their knowledge of his history of mental illness and self-harm."

In his letters, Ferhani described being caught in a hopeless situation; he alleged that complaints of abuse to Attica staff only resulted in new agitations and attacks. In a March 30th note, he wrote "there is only one thing to do," while an earlier letter describes suicide as his only perceived means of justice: "If taking my own life is the only way to expose the evils that are practiced daily by corrections officers then I will be glad to do it."

Ferhani was rushed to an outside medical facility and induced into a coma following Thursday's suicide attempt. His attorney, Lamis Deek, cast blame solely on on what she sees as a bogus NYPD counter-terrorism sting. "If Ahmed dies, his blood is on their hands," she told The Nation. "It's an absolute outrage that this is the kind of person they're trying to turn into a terrorist to justify their funding for their department."
Business

Australias inflation expected to peak towards end of year: Official

Australias treasurer has warned that inflation in the country is expected to peak towards the end of the year and it will persist for a little bit longer because of the impact of the natural disasters and energy prices.
Names and faces

Craig Erickson of Great West Engineering recently received the American Grant Writer Associations Certified Grant Writer Credential. The Certified Grant Writer (CGW) Credential is the industry standard for professionals in the field of grant writing. The CGW credential documents that Erickson has demonstrated proficiency in grant researching, proposal writing, budgeting and professional ethics. Erickson has been an integral part of helping clients of Great West Engineering receive more than $147 million in grant funding.

***

Tyler Emmert has been promoted to Helena market president at Opportunity Bank. Emmert graduated from Carroll College in 2006 and worked as a licensed engineer until 2013 when he joined Opportunity Bank as a commercial loan officer. Emmert has also been wide receivers coach at Carroll College since 2007.

Miranda Spaulding has been promoted to second vice president financial reporting officer at Opportunity Bank. Spaulding has been employed with the bank since 2013 and has more than 15 years of experience in financial reporting for public companies. She holds a bachelors degree in business and a masters degree in accounting from Montana State University. She is a certified public accountant and a member of the Montana Society of CPAs.

Sheila Stoddard has been promoted to mortgage loan underwriting manager. She joined the Opportunity Bank of Montana family in September 2014 as a mortgage loan underwriter III. Stoddard has been involved with mortgage lending in some facet for more than 15 years. Stoddard has her FHA Direct Endorsement Chums Authority and her VA SAR/LAPP designation.

***

Denise Heigh has been promoted to vice president insurance operations support for Montana State Fund. She joined MSF in 1985 and has held a number of roles including claims examiner, claims supervisor, business unit director and most recently, director of IT insurance applications. In her new role she will oversee medical, claim quality assurance, underwriting services and training. Heigh has degrees and certifications in business administration, criminal justice and project management as well as an associate in claims from the Insurance Institute of America.

News and notes

Engineering firm part of U.S. delegation going to Germany

Utility Mapping Services, Inc. announced it is part of the U.S. delegation to Hannover Messe, the worlds foremost trade fair for industrial technology, taking place April 25-29, in Hannover, Germany. For the first time in the fairs history, the U.S. will be the partner country, a status that provides the more than 390 businesses and organizations in the U.S. delegation an unprecedented opportunity to be prominently featured throughout the event.

UMS, with joint venture partner Berenice International Group s.r.l. of Padua, Italy, will exhibit their GEO.works application suite.

Utility Mapping Services, Inc. and Berenice International Group, s.r.l. provide innovative practices and WebGIS tools for managing utility infrastructure during project development and for life-cycle-operations on facility campuses, industrial parks, easements, and public right of ways.

***

Tax deadline approaching

The Montana Department of Revenue is offering expanded hours at its call center to assist taxpayers during the days before the April 18 deadline for filing income tax returns.

Taxpayers who need assistance can call the departments call center toll free at 866-859-2254, or in Helena at 444-6900. Regular call center hours are Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center will have extended hours during the last days of tax season. Beginning Thursday and Friday, April 14 and 15, help will be available from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.; on Saturday, April 16, hours will be 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.; and Monday, April 18, hours will be 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

For electronic filing options, visit revenue.mt.gov and click Online Services.

In addition to the call center, taxpayers can receive assistance by visiting the Mitchell Building in Helena, 125 N. Sanders, Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. If taxpayers need help filing electronically, they can prepare their state income tax return on paper and take it to the office where well help them e-file at no cost.

There are also more than 100 volunteer tax preparation sites around the state through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance and AARP Tax-Aide Montana. To see a list of locations, visit montanafreefile.org. For more information, visit revenue.mt.gov.

***

2016 Assistance for Business Clinic

The Helena Area Chamber of Commerce will be sponsoring the 2016 Assistance for Business Clinic Wednesday, April 27, at the Radisson Colonial Hotel Helena. This is a great opportunity for bookkeepers, HR professionals and employers to gain the latest and greatest insights on reporting state withholding, UI tax requirements, workers comp coverage, tax incentives, minimum wage, overtime, new hire reporting, income withholding orders, USERRA laws and regulations.

Those interested should contact the Helena Area Chamber of Commerce at 442-4120 to get signed up; a registration fee of $40 applies to this clinic.

Awards and honors

Helena's Great Harvest Bread receives award

The Phenomenal Bread Award is earned through a competitive testing process judged by the Great Harvest Franchise Bread Tasting Board. Annually, each bakery in the system enters a loaf of honey whole wheat, which is scored on appearance (shape, size, color and design), smell, flavor and doneness or "the bake."

The top 10 percent of scores enter the final round and the top 3 percent, or six bakeries out of about 200, receive the Phenomenal Bread Award.

The Helena bakery was awarded the Phenomenal Bread Award for the 2015 entry by baker RaeLynn Schlicht.

***

Ash Grove Cement Co. wins awards

Montana City's Ash Grove Cement plant won two annual company-wide awards, the Ash Grove Energy Management (AGem) Outstanding Plant of the Year, and the Maintenance Excellence Program (MEP) award.

The AGem process evaluates the companys cement manufacturing plants and grinding facilities on energy use, efficiency and cost. Plant personnel work with local vendors, utilities, energy suppliers and contractors as well as local and state governments to identify, implement, finance or develop resource conservation ideas.

The MEP award is based on key performance indicators including the actual maintenance cost per equivalent ton of cement. The measures track both financial and functional performance as to how well plants improve their overall maintenance performance.

The Montana City plant employs 79 and began operations in 1964. The plant has earned numerous safety awards including the Ash Grove Presidents Gold Safety award.

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.
Five candidates have filed for three open K-12 seats on the Helena School Board of Trustees. The Independent Record is publishing the candidates' written responses to an IR questionnaire over the course of five days and this is the final installment of that series.

Other candidates include Tyler Emmert, incumbent Libby Goldes, John McEwen and Jon Rush.

You can review all the candidates responses, by checking this story online at helenair.com.

Mail-in ballots are to be mailed to voters by mid-April and must be received by the Lewis and Clark County elections office by Tuesday, May 3.

Name: Sanjay Talwani

Age: 49

Address: 719 Holter St.

Phone: (406) 422-3096

Education: BA in religion from Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut). Graduate work in journalism at University of Montana.

Occupation: Press Secretary for Montana State Auditors Office. Formerly, TV and newspaper reporter in Helena for five years.

Years lived in Helena School District: Six

Do you have or have you had kids in the school district? If so, which schools? Fifth-grader and third-grader at Hawthorne Elementary.

Why are you running for school board? With kids in the system, I want the best possible education for them and their peers. But the school systems impact goes well beyond the students to the entire community. We have a great school system (with some big needs), and I want to continue to empower teachers to reach all students the way they've reached my kids. Ive seen the value of walkable, neighborhood elementary schools  local treasures that help make Helena a unique place to live. If theres a way to save them, I want to help find it.

What makes you right for this position? First, thanks largely to my own children, I see the the products of our system. My two kids learn in very different ways, so I have a taste of how challenging teaching can be. Second, as a former local reporter, I found myself in the middle of divisive issues on a regular basis. It was my job to hear all sides of the issues and try to find some sense. And oftentimes, the answers werent where I thought theyd be. I wont be afraid to ask tough questions and take the heat.

What are the three key issues you believe are facing the school district? The first issue is our deteriorating facilities and deferred maintenance, and the need for more classrooms outside the city limits.

Last years $70 million bond failed for several reasons. First, it was just too big. For plenty of people, the increase in property taxes was just too huge a hit.

And the bond would have led to closure of some schools by over-building in some places and pulling students away from other schools, hastening their demise. The bonds failure showed that voters werent ready to give up schools that have been pillars of neighborhoods for decades  and especially not with a tax increase on top.

It may be that these small schools  including the one in my neighborhood  will ultimately have to close sooner rather than later if thats whats best for the education of students overall. But we need to look at every option for keeping them open, even if it means they serve new and different roles. And if a school does close, the district has a responsibility to make sure its done right, with a good plan for the future of the property. No one wants their school to end up the way Central is now.

We should restore Central School to usability and add classrooms in the valley, possibly adding a new new middle school or expanding Jim Darcy into a K-8 school.

And a bond can pass. Many of last years no voters had previously supported numerous school bonds and levies. If roughly one-seventh of all the people who voted against the bond vote yes on the next one, it can pass. The final answer wont be perfect, but we can find compromise and agreement that can move the district forward.

Second, we have a problem with transparency and trust. Trust in the board suffered because the public was never quite clear on the long-term plan. New trustees can help with that.

Meanwhile, heres one possible improvement: Why arent the board meetings live-streamed, and archived on the district website? Most parents dont have the time to attend meetings live and in-person. Technology can help, and the board can lead.

Third, the facilities crisis means a financial crisis. Along with better facilities, we need to maintain our high-quality staff and faculty. None of that will come cheap, and there will be tough decisions ahead. But if we dont pass a facilities bond soon, tackling the overall financial picture will only get harder.

What is the district doing well? What amazes me with my kids experience is the incredible creativity of the teachers in reaching students. Theres no one way, no single classroom model, that best unlocks every students interest and potential. Kids learn at different speeds and in different ways and keeping a child interested and on task can sometimes seem impossible. Yet again and again, teachers find ways to connect. And they do this in the context of plenty of rules and regulations, large classrooms and a long list of achievement goals. We need to continue to empower teachers to use their professional expertise and experience to find the best ways to reach kids. We need to keep trying new classroom structures and formats.

Whatever freedom individual teachers and schools have, Id like them to have more and be rewarded for innovation. And, we need to keep investing in their professional development so that they have even more tools in their toolbox.

How will you come up to speed on school board issues? The business of the board includes a lot of complex material. School funding in general is one of the most complex matters in our government. But I view this not as a chore but as an amazing  and even fun  opportunity to dig deep. For years as a reporter, Ive jumped into complex policy matters and tried to make sense in short order. Ive followed school issues closely in recent years so I have a good start, but I also know well I have plenty of study ahead.
Last week the Montana Federal District Court issued a stinging ruling that reverses the politically motivated decision by President Obamas U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to keep wolverines off the Endangered Species List. As one of a number of plaintiffs, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies applauds the extensive 85-page ruling for finding that the agency ignored the best science in the face of undeniable climate change -- and did so for political reasons.

The court's order on the wolverine case bluntly asked the seminal question: Why did the Service make the decision it did in the Proposed Rule, based on what it determined to be the best available science, and reject that decision eighteen months later? The court answered its own question with the damning conclusion: Based on the record, the Court suspects that a possible answer to this question can be found in the immense political pressure that was brought to bear on this issue, particularly by a handful of western states.

The fact that two Democratic administrations (federal and state) interjected political pressure on their wildlife management agencies is deplorable. But worse, its totally hypocritical. When President George W. Bushs administration overruled its scientists on critical habitat protection for bull trout, Democrats strongly criticized it. But in our wolverine lawsuit, the state of Montana, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks intervened to support the bad federal agency decision and Democrats didnt criticize President Obama or Gov. Bullock.

Its easy to understand why the oil and gas industry intervened since any attempts to slow down climate change could affect their profits. Its also easy to understand why Republicans would oppose protecting wolverines since they favor corporations over people and wildlife and believe global warming is hogwash. But it makes little sense for Democrats Obama and Bullock to oppose giving wolverines Endangered Species Act protection. As the court rightly surmised, science was simply run over by political pressure.

Shortly after Obama took office, The Economist had an article predicting the Democrats campaign plan for the Intermountain West was to move to the right on public lands issues. That prediction seems to have manifested as reality, as indicated by the following events:

Montanas Sen. Jon Tester sponsored and passed a rider on an unrelated appropriations bill to take wolves off the endangered species list even though the courts had deemed that action illegal under the Endangered Species Act.

The Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear has not been uplisted to endangered from threatened status under the Endangered Species Act even though the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has been saying for 20 years that this distinct grizzly bear population needs more protection.

For the threatened Canada lynx, FWS has steadfastly refused to protect critical habitat in the Southern Rockies and many areas of National Forests in the Northern Rockies.

Gov. Bullock nominated over 5 million acres of national forests in Montana be designated for fast-track logging, much of which is in habitat for the Cabinet-Yaak grizzly bear, wolverine, and lynx, all of which are already imperiled and harmed by logging.

Gov. Bullock, backed by some conservation groups such as Audubon, successfully lobbied the Obama administration to not list sage grouse under the Endangered Species Act because it would threaten corporate exploitation, primarily oil and gas development on public lands.

The sad truth is that Democrats are trying to beat the Republicans in a contest of who can be the most anti-environmental in the West. This is a losing game that Republicans will win because they dont even pretend to care about habitat for native species.

But Bernie Sanders string of winning Western primaries demonstrates there is strong political support for not pandering to corporations and indicates that most voters who support Democrats are not supportive of an ever-increasing shift to the right-wing.

Instead of trying to beat the Republicans in a contest to see who can clearcut more habitat (while losing thousands of taxpayer dollars on every acre they cut) and driving more native species into extinction, President Obama and Gov. Bullock should follow the example of past leaders like Teddy Roosevelt and Lee Metcalf who stood up to corporate exploitation of our public lands and fought to preserve native species for future generations.

Mike Garrity is executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies
DECATUR -- Dolores Kreszenz Pape age 84 of Bloomington IL and formerly of Decatur, IL passed away peacefully with her family by her side at 2:40 PM on Thursday, March 31, 2016 at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington IL. There will be no service or visitation.

Private inurnment will be at a later date at Sunset Memorial Gardens, Lemay, Missouri. Arrangements are being handled by Calvert & Metzler Memorial Home, Bloomington, IL. In lieu of flowers the family suggests memorials be made to charity of the donors choice, the Disabled American Veterans PO Box 14301 Cincinnati, Ohio 45250-0301, The Guiding Eyes For The Blind Gift Processing Center PO Box 97007, Washington, DC 20090-7007 or Kemmerer Village 941 N. 2500 East Road, Assumption, IL 62510.

Dolores was born April 6, 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri the daughter of Michael and Flora Zipfel Dandl. She married Earl E. Pape on July 5, 1952 in St. Louis, Missouri.

Also surviving Children, Cynthia (Cindy) Pape, Springfield; Michael (Teri) Pape, Bloomington; Grandchildren, Camila Pape, Decatur; Marci Pape and Nikki Pape, both of Bloomington.

Dolores was preceded in death by parents.

Dolores graduated from Grover Cleveland High School in 1949, where she participated in Special A Cappella Choirs, bowling, table tennis, German Club and served as Student Officer. Dolores was a good sport, a fun person, kind and considerate and always was of help or service to others.

She served as a candy striper at Deaconess Hospital and worked as a comptometer operator for Doan Agricultural, Hager Hinge and Sears-Roebuck all in St. Louis. Dolores served as a welcome Wagon Hostess in Granite City, IL and was a mezzo soprano with the Choraleers in Collinsville. Her hobbies were knitting, machine embroidering and crafting. Dolores enjoyed singing, fishing, boating, cooking and traveling. She traveled five times to Germany including other European countries. Dolores was a devoted housewife, mother, grandmother and homemaker. She was a good friend and always set a good example.

Please view the obituary and share your condolences and memories online at www.calvertmemorial.com

Obituary written by family members.
WASHINGTON -- The voters have spoken: Never Trump.

Wisconsin Republicans sent the nation a clear message Tuesday night in the drubbing they dealt the bilious billionaire. Republicans, and Americans, are better than Donald Trump.

The message goes well beyond the 13-point primary victory over Trump by Ted Cruz, himself a less-than-ideal candidate for Republicans. Not only did 65 percent of Republicans vote for somebody other than Trump, but four in 10 said they never would vote for him: They'll vote for a third-party candidate, support Hillary Clinton or stay home in November if Trump is the nominee. Thirty-five percent of Republicans said they'd actually be scared about what Trump might do as president, and an additional 20 percent colored themselves concerned.

Wisconsin confirms what voters elsewhere have decided. Trump has won only 37 percent of Republican votes nationwide, and he hasn't gotten an outright majority in a single contest, even as the field has shrunk. Take away some Southern states where Trump did particularly well and his share of the vote is even punier.

I'm not joining the parlor game of predicting whether Trump can get enough delegates to secure the nomination or can prevail at the convention. In a sense, it doesn't matter. We already know for certain -- and American allies around the world should recognize this, too -- that the majority of Republican voters, like the vast majority of Americans, want nothing to do with Trump.

Six months ago, when Trump was lapping the field in public opinion polls, I argued that he would ultimately fail because "American voters are more sensible than many poll-obsessed journalists and commentators give them credit for. Trump ... won't prevail in the Republican primary because voters, in the end, tend to get it right" and "will never choose a candidate who expresses the bigotry and misogyny that Trump has."

That prediction looked shaky for some time, but Trump's recent tumble rewards a faith that the voters, in the long run, almost always get it right.

It has been a wild ride, as Trump has gone from impossible to inevitable and now to questionable. There were long periods of despair, as the country came closer than it has in modern times to embracing an authoritarian leader and as Trump released waves of bigotry. Other Republican candidates, putting ambition before country, waited too long to clear the field to give voters a consensus alternative to Trump.

Is Trump done? "Donald Trump will lose the Republican presidential nomination," my colleague E.J. Dionne boldly forecasts. Another esteemed colleague, Eugene Robinson, looks at the delegate math and the polls and says "reports of Trump's demise are surely premature."

But, either way, it has become clear that Trump is ultimately doomed. True, he has a sizable lead in the upcoming New York primary, and he could secure the nomination without getting a majority of the popular vote. But Republican voters are correctly coming to understand that, even if he limps through the nominating process, his reckless candidacy will be a sure loser in the fall.

Wisconsin exit polls found that among Republicans whose top priority is a candidate who can win in November, seven in 10 picked Cruz and only two in 10 voted for Trump. Half of Cruz supporters and six in 10 John Kasich supporters acknowledged being "scared" of what Dangerous Donald would do in the White House. Half of Republican voters said Trump has run the most unfair campaign, while only three in 10 embraced Trump-style isolationism.

Cruz gained on Trump in Wisconsin among all types of Republican voters, even though fewer than 15 percent of Republicans said they were excited about Cruz. This is evidence that Cruz's support is largely a Never Trump phenomenon.

No doubt many factors contributed to Trump's unmasking: the violence at rallies, his talk of punishing women who have abortions, his campaign manager facing charges from an altercation with a female reporter, the cockamamie ideas Trump has offered to make Mexico pay for a border wall and to cut the debt in half.

But most likely the majority of Republicans were never willing to support him -- and this is becoming obvious only now because they're coalescing around Cruz. As Dionne put it, the "instinct that Americans would never choose as their president a clownish peddler of racial and religious stereotypes who made everything up as he went along was right from the start."

It was touch-and-go for a while. But you'll rarely lose money betting on the wisdom of the voters.
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One of the most important books in the history of Western Civilization is heading to Madison.

The First Folio, a printed collection of William Shakespeares plays that dates back to 1623, is scheduled to arrive in November. Shipped under conditions of top security and high-tech climate control, the book will be on display for nearly six weeks at the Chazen Museum of Art, with UW-Madison Libraries and UW Arts Institute as co-presenters.

The First Folio comes from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., as part of the First Folio! The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare tour, marking the 400th anniversary of Shakespeares death. All this year, priceless copies of the First Folio are visiting all 50 U.S. states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Madison stop will be the only one in Wisconsin.

This was a book that was printed by two of (Shakespeares) actor buddies seven years after he died, said Ron Parker, an Appleton high school teacher and founder and director of Wisconsins Summer Shakespeare Theatre. This is one of the greatest gifts that has ever been given, not only to the literary world, but to the world.

Parker is among many players in Shakespeare in Wisconsin 2016  a statewide celebration of Shakespeares work rooted in the First Folios tour to Madison. Parker, for one, is piloting materials in his own school district that he plans to soon send statewide, to help K-12 teachers next fall integrate Shakespeare into courses ranging from English and history to math, astronomy, natural sciences, music and even consumer education.

The idea is to see how pervasive this writer is, how much a part of  the fabric of our society he is, he said. We speak Shakespeare every day without even realizing it. We find him in advertising. We find him in pop culture. We find references to him every single day. By finding a way to connect Shakespeare to nontraditional subject matters, we can see just how large an influence this man has had over the past four centuries.

That cultural reach will be celebrated in a range of events throughout the year. Shakespeare in Wisconsin 2016 kicks off April 20 at UW-Madisons Memorial Union, with an appearance by the Young Shakespeare Players, drop-in events from American Players Theatre, and a one-hour lecture by the actress and playwright Anna Deavere Smith. Visitors can attend a late-night sonnet contest or make an artwork featuring one of the countless quotes from Shakespeare that pervade the English language.

Many more events will follow, including a 24-hour marathon of Shakespeare readings at APT in Spring Green on April 23, the day accepted as Shakespeares birth date in 1564 and also the date of his death in 1616.

Across the country, states are celebrating the First Folios voyage in distinctly local ways, said Folger director Michael Witmore.

New Orleans is holding a jazz funeral for the Bard. In South Dakota, Hamlets To be or not to be soliloquy is being translated into the Lakota language.

A library in Miami organized a hot-pepper eating festival followed by a reading of Shakespeares sonnets. In Denver, a planetarium is demonstrating what the night sky looked like in Shakespeares time.

Every community finds its own way in, said Witmore, who taught Shakespeare and English at UW-Madison before he was appointed to head the Folger in 2011.

The First Folio coming to Madison is actually one of 234 known copies worldwide (the discovery of the latest one, on a small Scottish island, was revealed only this week) and 82 owned by the Folger, which is home to the worlds largest Shakespeare collection.

When Shakespeare died in 1616, only about half of his plays had been published, and those were in small, one-play editions called quartos. Shakespeares friends and fellow actors John Heminge and Henry Condell published 36 of his plays in a larger format, called a folio.

Half of those plays  including Macbeth, Julius Caesar, As You Like It, and 15 others  had never been published before, and likely would have been lost if not for the First Folio. The significance of the book cannot be understated.

We have digitized the copies that are on the road, and if you see the exhibition, you can download an app that will let you browse the First Folio digitally, Witmore said. But that is not the same as the physical book that was responsible for transmitting these stories to us.

Theres something about the real thing that makes you feel the fragility of our connection with the past, but also the power of these objects that have survived, he said. The reactions have been very interesting. Sometimes people cry when they see the book  Ive seen that happen many times. Ive also heard a story about the visit at Oklahoma where someone proposed marriage at a First Folio exhibit.

When applying for a First Folio to visit Madison, UW-Libraries turned to the Chazen, which is equipped to meet the Folgers high requirements for controlling conditions of temperature, humidity and daylight. The book will be delivered to the museums second-floor Garfield galleries by a Folger courier, and displayed in a specially designed glass case. It will lie open to the page bearing Hamlets famed To be or not to be speech.

An opportunity of this sort is unheard of, said Susan Barribeau, a UW-Madison collections librarian who is coordinating Shakespeare in Wisconsin 2016.

The Folger has 82 First Folios, and these things simply do not leave the vault except for research purposes. So this is a huge undertaking, she said.

Cultural organizations also are responding in a huge way.

Madison Opera has programmed a November performance of the opera Romeo and Juliet, directed by Doug Scholz-Carlson, who is also artistic director of Minnesotas Great River Shakespeare Festival.

The popular Madison Early Music Festival will devote its week-long gathering of musicians in early July to Shakespeare 400  An Elizabethan Celebration. Workshops, a free public dance, and Shakespeare-related concerts by the Newberry Consort, the Baltimore Consort and others are among the offerings.

Randall Duk Kim and Anne Occhiogrosso, the founders of the acclaimed American Players Theatre, will appear at Shannon Hall Oct. 21 in an original performance.

Many more theater and arts presenters, large and small, are on board with Shakespeare Wisconsin 2016, Barribeau said. An open-source calendar  where groups and the public can add to a growing list of Shakespeare-related events across the state  is online at shakespeare.library.wisc.edu.

The Chazen show will include not only the First Folio itself with supporting materials from the Folger, but also an exhibit organized by Drew Stevens, the museums curator for prints, drawings, and photographs.

With Elizabethan-era art hard to come by, Stevens turned to the spectacular photo collection at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research, he said.

What I found was a vast trove of materials from Shakespeare productions, many of them Hamlet. That led Stevens to design an exhibit with works ranging from an 18th-century Richard Cosway drawing titled Portrait of John Philip Kemble as Hamlet, to a 1993 movie poster starring Mel Gibson.

Our goal is not to make Shakespeare a 17th-century dude, Stevens said. Its to show that his plays continue to be performed and enjoyed, and they continue to be approached by contemporary artists  both theater designers, and painters and printmakers.

These stories are stories that we already carry around with us, agreed the Folgers Witmore.

If youre a teenager and falling in love, you are Romeo, or you are Juliet, and you are going to go out on that balcony. If you are an outsider, you may someday feel like Othello, and youre going to have to meet and resist your Iago, who is whispering terrible lies into your ear.

These are situations that everyone faces, he said. These stories are already in our dreams and in our lives.
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] The use of violence against refugees is dangerous and reprehensible, Refugee Crisis Body spokesman says [01] The use of violence against refugees is dangerous and reprehensible, Refugee Crisis Body spokesman says The use of tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades from FYROM forces against vulnerable populations, and even without force majeure, is a dangerous and reprehensible practice," the spokesman of the Refugee Coordination Crisis Management Body Giorgos Kyritsis said in a statement to ANA-MPA on Sunday. "We urge the FYROM authorities to understand the potential risks from the use of violence against refugees and migrants," he stated. "We also call on the refugees not to believe rumors and false information from strangers, and to cooperate with the Greek authorities who will guarantee their safe trasnfer at an organized temporary accommodation centre," Kyritsis added. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-04-10 Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/> CONTENTS [01] Local administration is a cell of democracy that defends social cohesion, President Pavlopoulos says [02] Portugal's Prime Minister Costa to visit Athens on Monday [03] Progress achieved on many issues, FinMin Tsakalotos says [01] Local administration is a cell of democracy that defends social cohesion, President Pavlopoulos says President of Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos on Sunday stressed the important role of the local administration. Pavlopoulos was speaking at an official luncheon of the City of Delphi hosted in his honor on the 195th anniversary of the liberation of the castle of Salona (Amfissa). "The institution of the local administration is a cell of democracy, that defends the social cohesion at these critical times," Pavlopoulos underlined. "I believe that the country will soon get out of the crisis, with the help of everyone, because there are no differences in this effort, and this region will find what it deserves based on its history and its prospects," he added. [02] Portugal's Prime Minister Costa to visit Athens on Monday Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa will pay an official visit to Athens on Monday to support Greece at this critical time for the conclusion of the first program review. The Portuguese Prime Minister and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras are expected to sign a joint declaration on the future of Europe and the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries. On the sidelines of Costa's visit, Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva will meet with Greek Alternate Minister for Migration Policy Yiannis Mouzalas. During the EU summit on February, Costa sent a letter to Tsipras and other leaders of EU member states to inform them that Portugal is ready to receive up to 6,000 refugees from Greece in addition to those it has already agreed to receive. [03] Progress achieved on many issues, FinMin Tsakalotos says "Progress has been achieved on almost all issues while some pending issues will be discussed again on Sunday or early Monday the latest," Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said early on Sunday after the meeting with the heads of the institutions. Tsakalotos stated that progress has been made on pension reforms, bad loans and the last part of fiscal measures of 1 pct of GDP. A senior Finance ministry official had earlier noted that among the measures discussed to cover the 5.4 billion euro fiscal gap until 2018 is additional taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products. The negotiations lasted for more than 10 hours. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article
New Humanitarian Assistance for Iraq

Washington, DC - Today, Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the United States is providing nearly $155 million in additional humanitarian assistance to displaced and conflict-affected Iraqis within Iraq and throughout the region who are in urgent need of support. This new funding brings total U.S. humanitarian assistance for the Iraq humanitarian response to more than $778 million since the start of Fiscal Year 2014.

Since January 2014, more than 3.4 million Iraqis have been displaced. Out of a total population of 33 million, the UN estimates that 10 million people across the country are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, including an estimated three million living in ISIL-held territory. More than one million school-aged Iraqi children, or 20 percent nationwide, are out of school.

U.S. humanitarian assistance, provided from the Department of States Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration through the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN Childrens Fund (UNICEF), and other implementing partners, will help to provide for the urgent needs of millions of vulnerable individuals. Through UNHCR, and a number of international organizations and non-governmental organizations, this contribution will help offer shelter, protection, core relief items, camp coordination and management assistance; it will also provide much-needed water and sanitation, health care, and other vital food and non-food items. In addition to assisting conflict-affected Iraqis within Iraq, UNHCR also assists Iraqi refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and Syria.

This funding also will support UNICEFs goal to increase access to safe learning spaces, quality education, and sustained psychosocial support for the most vulnerable children, and to help meet UNICEFs targets of providing 550,000 displaced children with learning materials, assisting 22,330 displaced children with access to learning, and training 5,000 teachers.

Through other implementing partners, this contribution will support expanded child protection efforts in Baghdad, Diyala, Dohuk, Erbil, Kerbala, Kirkuk, Najaf, and Babil governorates which are estimated to reach more than 40,000 beneficiaries. This expansion will include additional protection monitoring focused on child protection issues and needs, and the establishment of three child friendly spaces offering psychosocial activities, protection monitoring, referrals, case management, and capacity building.

Through USAID's Office of Food for Peace, the United States will provide assistance that will enable the World Food Program (WFP) to locally and regionally procure food and provide voucher assistance to internally displaced people within Iraq. This contribution will allow WFP to provide family food rations for 1 million beneficiaries for 2 months and food vouchers for 370,000 beneficiaries for one month. This contribution also provides WFP with 589 metric tons of immediate response rations for as many as 140,000 beneficiaries per month for three months. These immediate response rations are provided to newly displaced persons during their first 72 hours of displacement, as well as those households reached through the Rapid Response Mechanism in hard-to-reach areas of Iraq.

Through USAID's Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance, the United States will support countrywide programs providing health, protection, and relief commodities for displaced populations, as well as humanitarian coordination. By working with UN and international partners, this contribution will provide immediate, life-saving supplies to families on the move as they flee conflict, reproductive health and newborn care services to camp and non-camp populations, services for survivors of gender-based violence, and investments in the coordination of humanitarian assistance to provide better programming and efficiency.

This contribution also includes assistance for early warning and preparedness activities for people at risk of severe flooding from a potential failure of the Mosul Dam. This includes preparedness and awareness activities for populations at risk of being affected by a potential breach, as well as strengthening and development of nationwide alert systems.

The United States urges all nations to contribute robustly to United Nations humanitarian appeals for Iraq. Despite continuing support from the United States, more needs to be done, and the international communitys help is urgently needed.
Joint Statement Encouraging Sudanese Parties To Agree on the AUHIP Roadmap

Washington, DC - The Troika (Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States) supports the efforts of the African Union High-level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) to create a Roadmap Agreement for ending conflict in Sudan.

While we welcome the Government of Sudans signing of the Roadmap agreement, we urge the government to clarify its commitments regarding the inclusion of other relevant stakeholders in the National Dialogue and to uphold the results of any National Dialogue preparatory meetings arranged by the AUHIP between Sudans National Dialogue Steering Committee known as the 7+7 Committee and opposition groups. Once that is done, we would urge the Justice and Equality Movement, the Sudan Liberation Movement-Minni Minawi, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N), and the National Umma Party to sign the Roadmap.

If agreed to by all parties to the conflicts, the AUHIP Roadmap could allow genuine political dialogue at both regional and national levels that is needed to address the underlying causes of the armed conflicts that have plagued Sudan for so long.

We are deeply concerned about the increase in fighting between Government forces and the SPLM-N in both Blue Nile and South Kordofan and urge both sides to show restraint and avoid ambushes, military offensives, rocket attacks, and aerial bombardments that negatively affect civilian populations.

We call on both sides to renew their unilateral cessation of hostilities commitments and to fully respect those commitments in order to create a more conducive environment for implementation of the AUHIP Roadmap. There is no military solution to Sudans conflicts. Further violence only serves to increase the suffering of the Sudanese people. The Troika calls on all parties at conflict in Sudan to seize this opportunity to end the wars and find a path towards lasting peace.
The bus went out of the driver's control and rolled down a gorge in Dhara in Doda district.

The bus went out of the driver's control and rolled down a gorge in Dhara in Doda district. (Photo: ANI)

By India Today Web Desk: Six persons were killed and 50 others injured when a bus fell into a deep gorge in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir today, police said.

The bus went out of the driver's control and rolled down a gorge in Dhara in Doda district, a police officer told IANS.

"A bus carrying 62 passengers, on its way to Rehand village in the district, suddenly fell of the cliff into a deep gorge, around 20 km away from the Doda town," Deputy commissioner of Doda, Bhupinder Kumar told PTI.



Indian Air force safely rescued 10 ppl after a bus travelling on Dhara-Doda road (J&K) had fallen down,earlier today pic.twitter.com/qU4xms9xwnANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

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The injured were taken to a hospital for treatment, and a case has been registered, the official said.

Road accidents often take place in the mountainous Doda district due to overloaded vehicles and bad road conditions.

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The World Water Development Report 2016 ranking water as the top most global risk in the next 10 years signalled the possibility of 1.5 billion people losing jobs.

World Water Development Report 2016 ranked water as the top most global risk in the next 10 years.(PHOTO: Reuters)

By India Today Web Desk: The World Water Development Report 2016 ranking water as the top most global risk in the next 10 years signaled the possibility of 1.5 billion people losing jobs.

The report, that draws link between water and jobs, has estimated that with increasing water crisis around the globe half of the world's workforce population may lose their jobs. Subsequently, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim have announced at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 the intention to create a High Level Panel on water to deal with the ongoing water crisis.

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Citing the examples of drought in California that costed around 3.8 per cent state farm's jobs and Maharashtra, where close to 3000 farmers committed suicide in 2015, the report validates its assertion over increasing vulnerability of water-related sectors, especially agriculture.

Recently, in Africa, SABMiller, a leading global brewing company, expressed its concern over mounting water crisis in Nigeria and Zambia. The company even hinted towards the relocation of their existing brewing operations due to crunch situation of the water resources in both the African countries.

Apart from agriculture, the report also places tourism in Asia-Pacific region under the knife. The report argues that 75 per cent countries are facing acute water crisis. Consequently, the tourism that employees around 284 million people in the region is bound to take a toll.

Shifting the focus on the impact of water crisis on human health, the report brings out that 1.8 billion people worldwide drink unsafe and contaminated water. Citing the report of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the report further claims that over half of the world's hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from water-related diseases.

Calling it merely 'scratch the surface', the report further pointed out that water and jobs is the theme for this year's World Water Day with efforts directed towards drawing world's attention towards creating a sustainable water management system.

ALSO READ:

India ranks 90th in terms of energy security: World Economic Forum report





--- ENDS ---
The political campaigning in Assam ahead of its second and last phase of polling concluded on Saturday. While development was the main agenda prior to the first phase, this time illegal immigration took the center stage.

By India Today Web Desk: The political campaigning in Assam ahead of its second and last phase of polling concluded on Saturday. While development was the main agenda prior to the first phase, this time illegal immigration took the center stage.

The long-simmering dispute over the illegal influx of migrants from the neighbouring Bangladesh came to the fore during campaigning for the upcoming phase, with several parties promising to weed out the issue.

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"Our party will form the new government of Assam and provide security to all. We will take strict actions against the Bangladeshi fugitives," Sarbananda Sonowal, BJP chief ministerial candidate said, promising to seal the India-Bangladesh border if his party came to power.

Assam and Bangladesh roughly share a 262 kilometre border. Hundreds of migrants from the neighbouring Muslim-majority country are allegedly illegally entering Assam every day and have become a major source of conflict and resentment in the area. Over the years, the issue of infiltration has snowballed into a huge crisis with the small state in the north east of the country allegedly turning into a gateway to migrants from Bangladesh.

The campaigning saw series of allegations and counter-allegations. While the BJP directed its guns at the ruling Congress and promised to oust the undocumented migrants, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), the major opposition party, asserted that harassment of Indians would not be tolerated in the name of identifying foreigners.

BJP also accused the ruling Congress of compromising with national security by shielding the Bangladeshi immigrants and indulging in vote bank politics.

However, refuting all allegations, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi hit back at the party, saying that it wasn't serious about the 'serious issue' at all.

"It is a lie that is the Congress who turned Bangladeshi's into Indian voters. There are a lot of rejected people on the voting list, most of them being the Bangladeshis. What has the Centre done in the last two years to solve the immigration issue? We made the NRC, the Centre did nothing" Gogoi said.

This is a mere election issue for the BJP. There are not serious about this serious issue," he added.

Meanwhile, the AIUDF also upped its ante against the Congress for encouraging illegal activities. "Illegal migrants have been brought by the Congress and nobody can give them identity other than the government," says MP from Dhubri and AIUDF Supremo Badruddin Ajmal.

Badruddin Ajmal, perfume baron, had founded the pro-Muslim AIUDF party six months prior to the 2006 Assembly polls and bagged ten seats on debut. Similarly, in the 2011 assembly polls, the AIUDF's vote share was 12.6 percent, increasing to 15 percent in 2014 and thereby becoming the principal opposition party in the state.

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There is no doubt that the AIUDF has spread its reach far and wide in Assam. In fact, it is the AIUDF which is going to play a key role in this year's polls. It is contesting with the RJD and the JDU and is optimistic to make the most of it. And if the previous development patterns are to be followed, then Badruddin's prediction of 30-35 seats in 2016 may come true.

"No vote bank politics have been done by the AIUDF. Our party is an individual team and not the B-team of any party," Badruddin said.

With a heavy presence in lower Assam, the Barak Valley and in some areas of the Bodoland Territorial Areas Districts, the AIUDF has managed to gain a strong hold over the Muslim population in Assam.

Now, the party is trying to rope in the other minor communities, including the tea tribes, on to their side. It is set to be the kingmaker in the electoral battle.

Assam holds a 34 per cent vote bank, with a considerable part of it exercising their franchise in this phase. The state predominantly consists of the minorities and it is this group who holds the key to the parties' success.

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However, the BJP appears to be unperturbed by this and is ready to take on both the AIUDF and the Congress on the battle field. The saffron party isoptimistic that they will be able to crack the code and make a dent in the minority, even if with a minor percentage.

"BJP has fixed an aim on mission 84 and the common people of Assam have made their decision already. As you have seen the people of Assam supported BJP earlier and

they will support us in the future again,"Sarbananda Sonowal said.

Looking at the state to increase its base, the party is confident of wrestling out the Congress and defeating the AIUDF.

"Badruddin Ajmal may have had an increase in his vote-bank, owing to the number of Bangladeshi migrants he invited to the polls for him. BJP has worked efficiently for the people and they are enthusiastic about casting their votes. BJP President Amit Shah has clearly stated that the BJP will never enter into an alliance with the AIUDF," Siddharth Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson for north east, said.

"Everybody knows that the AIUDF and the Congress have a secret understanding among themselves. We do not need the AIUDF with us. Our alliance will form the single largest government. Ajmal is afraid of losing the support from lower Assam. This time, the AIUDF is going to get seats in single digits," he added.



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Counting of the votes is slated for May 19.

ALSO READ:

BJP not to seek or extend support to AIUDF, Cong in Assam, says Amit Shah



--- ENDS ---
India is so culturally rich and diverse that one is often spoilt for choice. To make things easier, we recommend a few places that will help you experience India's age-old culture at its best.

By Simar Singh: The ghats of Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Picture courtesy: Flickr/Franx/Creative Commons

Vibrant and slightly chaotic, there's no better way to immerse oneself in the hustle of Indian life than by going down to one of Varanasi's ghats. Pilgrims mostly come here to offer their prayers and wash off their sins in the holy waters of the Ganges. Be prepared to be overwhelmed by the sight of babas, sounds of chanting and the energy of the crowds that throng the place at all hours.

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Also Read: On the Ganga trail: 5 destinations in India to witness the river at its best



Pushkar Camel Fair, Rajasthan

Picture courtesy: Reuters

Herds of camels, mustachioed contestants and vendors--all gather on the dunes of the Thar Desert in Pushkar during its annual livestock fair. Unlike what the name suggests, it is not only about camels. The area is filled with stalls selling textile, bangles and other trinkets, Ferris wheels, musicians and dancers, and competitions including that of the longest moustache. This year, the fair will be held between November 8 and November 15.



Temple festivals of Kerala



Picture courtesy: Reuters Picture courtesy: Reuters

Kerala is filled with gorgeous temples that host elaborate celebrations and rituals on different days of the year. Each temple has a set of traditions that are unique to it, and these colourful festivals are celebrated to pay tribute to the temples' presiding god. One of the main attractions is the parades of caparisoned elephants, which are usually accompanied by drummers and musicians. The entire year's calendar is filled with these festivals--this simply means that there's always something around the corner to participate in.



Qawwali Night, Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi



Picture courtesy: Flickr/Paul Simpson/Creative Commons

On every Thursday, Delhi's Nizamuddin Dargah becomes the stage for one of Delhi's liveliest and most culturally enriching evenings. Sufi singers belt out songs to a captivated audience after sunset, while other devotees continue to visit the shrine and offer their prayers. The qawwali night represents the rich Sufi heritage of India, combined with spirituality.



Rann Utsav, Gujarat



Picture courtesy: Reuters

Under the full moon, the sparkling white expanse of the Rann bursts into a never-ending cultural spectacle of dance and music every year during the Rann Utsav. Showcasing centuries of Gujarati culture and tradition, the festival is a feast for all visitors. The festival usually kicks off sometime in December.



Chokhi Dhani, Sonipat and Jaipur



Picture courtesy: ChokhiDhaniSonipat.com

Chokhi Dhani, in both Sonipat and Jaipur, allows one to effortlessly seep into the traditional Rajasthani village life. The resort has been built on the model of a typical Rajasthani village--right from the painted walls to the live display of folk music and dance to the food that is offered--Chokhi Dhani represents all elements of the state's art and culture.



--- ENDS ---
German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes.

By Reuters: German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes.

"We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

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Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers".

Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing.

"If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag.

Earlier on Sunday, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers.

Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man.

--- ENDS ---
With India, the "US' engagement is more strategic and serious than Pakistan'' in the region. And this came from none other than US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who minced no words in saying, "We have much more to do with India today than has to do with Pakistan... there is important business with respect to Pakistan, but we have much more, a whole global agenda with India, agenda that covers all kinds of issues.''

Barely a week after PM Narendra Modi's visit to the US for the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, the growing Indo-US engagement was endorsed from the highest levels in the US government.

By Maneesh Pandey: Barely a week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the US for the high-profile Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, the growing Indo-US engagement in key sectors, including defence and in Asia-Pacific regional security, was endorsed from the highest levels in the US government.

With India, the "US' engagement is more strategic and serious than Pakistan'' in the region. And this came from none other than US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, who minced no words in saying, "We have much more to do with India today than has to do with Pakistan, there is important business with respect to Pakistan, but we have much more, a whole global agenda with India, agenda that covers all kinds of issues.''

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Carter said this in a public interaction at the Council of Foreign Relations in New York. His statement is significant in the light of his upcoming India visit on Sunday. The US Defence Secretary said: "It's long past - we're long past the point in US policy-making where we look at the India-Pakistan dyad as the whole story for either one of them.''

He elaborated by saying that with Pakistan, "We have a big set of issues having to do with the border with Afghanistan where we continue to operate, with terrorism,'' adding quickly that, "both (India and Pakistan) are respected partners and friends."

But when it comes to India, the US has a larger picture of engagement. "The US-India relationship is destined to be one of the most significant partnerships of the 21st Century. Ours are two great nations that share a great deal: Democratic governments, multi-ethnic and multicultural societies with a commitment to individual freedom and inclusivity, and growing innovative, open economies.''

He came to his expertise - defence - and said: "Over the course of years in the Defence Department, I've have seen a remarkable convergence of US and Indian interests. What I call a strategic handshake. As the US is reaching east in its re-balance, India is reaching West and Prime Minister Modi's Look East policy will bring it farther into the Indian and Pacific oceans.''

Carter said that US sees this handshake reflected in the joint strategic vision statement of President Obama and Prime Minister Modi released last January. "And the 2015 framework for the US-India defence relationship, also a new thing, which Indian Defence Minister Parrikar and I signed last year in Delhi. This defence framework is foundational and it's going to guide the USIndia defence relationship for the next decade,'' Carter added. The US endorsement of India's place in the former's strategic foreign relations comes barely within a month of its energy department hailing India's role in making possible global Climate Change Agenda targets.

Carter told the gathering: "While in India, I'll meet with Prime Minister Modi and also Defence Mister Parrikar to discuss the progress we have made together by an aircraft carrier, jet fighter and jet engine collaboration. There is so much potential here, which is why we are seizing every opportunity we can. Last year, the Modi government reached out to the United States to discuss the possibility of launching joint production on a new platform to build on the work Lockheed Martin and Indian industry achieved on the C-130J project.''

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He said: "Boeing and the Indian industry will achieve the production of Apache and Chinook helicopters in India, as per the agreement signed in September 2015. Members of my team and the industry right now, as we are here in New York, are looking at the potential co-production of fighter aircrafts in India. These conversations represent the growing enthusiasm of US-India partnership.''

"Our gathering partnership in defence can also be seen in India's return to major joint exercises like Red Flag, our prestigious US Air Force-hosted aerial combat training exercise where all our top pilots, and those from countries like India, train together. India will again participate in RIMPAC, which is the world's largest international maritime exercise. And in the Malabar Exercise, Japan, India and the United States, all three have operated together at sea in critical training such as air defence and anti-submarine warfare," Carter added.

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He said: "To improve regional security, we're encouraging our allies and partners to actively develop their own interconnected security relationships. Many countries within the Asia-Pacific are strengthening their bilateral relationships with one another in enhanced ways that, we think, also enhance regional stability. But they're also creating their trilateral arrangements, the Japan-Australia-India trilateral meeting last June, for example, was a welcome development.''

Also Read

India-Pak talks: Abdul Basit kills peace process or has he been misunderstood?

US says it wants India-Pakistan to engage in dialogue to reduce tension



--- ENDS ---
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton have started their maiden visit to India on Sunday (April 10) from Mumbai. And in the evening, the royal couple will dine with an A-list of stars including cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

By India Today Web Desk: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and Kate Middleton have started their maiden visit to India on Sunday (April 10) from Mumbai.

ALSO READ: Royal tour 2016 - India welcomes Kate Middleton and Prince William

Currently, the two are observing and playing a cricket match for a charity and in the evening will dine with an A-list of stars including cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and Bollywood actors Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.

Prince William and Kate Middleton with Sachin Tendulkar during a charity program at Oval Maidan in Mumbai

Prince William and Kate Middleton with Sachin Tendulkar during a charity program at Oval Maidan in Mumbai

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On Monday (April 11), Kate Middleton and Prince William will travel to Delhi from Mumbai. In the national capital, they will pay respect to India's military contributions and honour the memory of Mahatma Gandhi. The couple will also visit Kaziranga National Park in Assam. They will finish their tour with the visit to Taj Mahal in Agra.

Earlier in the press release, Sir Dominic Asquith was quoted as saying that "The Duke and Duchess are most excited about their first visit to India, and we hope this visit will mark the start of a long friendship between them and this magnificent and diverse country."

The seven-day tour includes parties, dinners and meetings with government officials, business leaders, Bollywood stars, famous athletes and other luminaries, as well as visits to sites of historical interest and tourist spots.

(Photo Credits: Press Trust Of India)

--- ENDS ---
Following a request from the state government, Indian Air Force sent six helicopters, two AN32 transport aircraft and two business jets to Kerala.

The INS Sunayna, Kabra and Kalpeni set sail immediately from Kochi with 200kg of medical supplies and a medical team to provide succour at the site of the tragedy.

By India Today Web Desk: After at least 110 devotees were killed and over 350 injured in an illegal fireworks show which set off massive explosions and caused a huge blaze at Puttingal Devi Temple in Kerala today, the Indian armed forces pitched in with helicopters, aircraft, ships and medical teams to ensure quick treatment of the injured in the devastating fire.

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Following a request from the state government, Indian Air Force sent six helicopters, two AN32 transport aircraft and two business jets to Kerala, reported PTI.

Army medical personnel were rushed to Kollam from Trivandrum, the military hospital in Trivandrum also swung into action, army sources said.

The navy has dispatched six aircraft -- two Dornier fixed- wing aircraft, two ALH helicopters and two Chetak helicopters -- to the site of the tragedy that has claimed the lives of at least 106 people, a navy spokesperson said.

Two ALH with a nine-member medical team as well as three doctors, paramedics, supplies and equipment were rushed at 1130hrs to Kollam, where the tragedy occurred during a fireworks display organised at the Puttingal Devi Temple.

While the helicopters landed at the Ashramam Ground, Kollam, at 1200hrs, one Dornier aircraft from Kochi has been positioned at Trivandrum since noon. The rest of aircraft are on standby at Kochi.

The INS Sunayna, Kabra and Kalpeni set sail immediately from Kochi with 200kg of medical supplies and a medical team to provide succour at the site of the tragedy.



INS Kabra & INS Kalpeni carrying medical supplies and medical teams dock at the #Kollam harbour. pic.twitter.com/eUjVVQcEo3ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

INS Kabra and Kalpeni reached Kollam jetty at 1600hrs while INS Sunayna is off Kollam and awaiting instructions.

The medical supplies have been handed over to the local administration while the ships have kept blood donors ready to meet requirement of blood.

The Indian Coast Guard, too, sent in a helicopter with medical supplies along with one of its ship.

Also Read:

Kerala tragedy: PM Modi reaches Kollam's Puttingal temple where massive fire killed 108, injured over 300

Kerala tragedy: PM Modi extends help to victims of Kollam's temple fire

Kerala temple fire: PM Modi meets victims, offers to shift serious cases to Delhi, Mumbai

--- ENDS ---
Over 100 people dead and more than 300 injured after a fire broke out at a temple in Kerala's Kollam. A case has also been registered against the temple authorities.

A view of a damaged building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala on Sunday. (Photo: PTI)

By India Today Web Desk: Over 100 people have been killed and more than 300 injured after a major fire broke out at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala's Kollam district, police said.



The fire broke out at the temple at around 3.30 am today morning during festivities that involved firecrackers. The Air Force has deployed four helicopters to airlift the injured out of the temple site and take them to hospitals to Thiruvananthapuram. Meanwhile, Health Minister VS Shivakumar has directed to make all arrangements at Trivandrum Medical College and Kollam general hospital. In pics

Kerala: PM Modi at the accident site of Puttingal temple in #Kollam for on-the-spot assessment of fire tragedy. pic.twitter.com/AoCRhuxqeS ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

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#Kollam temple tragedy: PM Narendra Modi arrives in Thiruvananthapuram pic.twitter.com/2kH3kZYifrANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Rs 2 lakh each as compensation to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to those injured. Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has also announced financial assistance for the dead and the injured.



Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's office confirmed that they had not granted permission to the temple authorities to store or use crackers in the premises. District collector Shaina Mol also had denied permission for using fireworks. But despite the lack of permission, the fireworks were conducted in the run up to the Malayalam new year, Vishu, on April 14.



Chandy said the situation was "unprecedented and alarming". "Rescue operation at the mishap spot is over...The next main focus of the government is to provide best treatment to the injured," he said.



Reportedly, the Devaswom Board building in the temple premises have also been completely destroyed. In pics



"The normal practice is to store the high potency crackers in the building and from there it's taken to the place where their is light. A spark from a live cracker landed in the building that stored these massive crackers," Kunjumon, a local believer, said.

HELPLINE NUMBERS: 0474 2512344, 949760778, 949730869



WATCH: Moment when fire broke at Puttingal temple fire in Kollam (Kerala) due to fireworks display, 75 dead.https://t.co/xXtBnZkgWX&; ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

KERALA TEMPLE FIRE: WHO SAID WHAT

PM Narendra Modi:

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter.

Have also asked my Cabinet colleague and Health Minister JP Nadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh

The news of major fire at Puttingal temple in Kollam is deeply distressing. Extremely pained over the loss of lives in the accident.

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My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in Kollam accident. My prayers are with the injured.

Spoke to Kerala CM Sh. Chandy regarding the Kollam accident who apprised me of the situation. Assured him of all possible help from the Centre.

Kerala Health Minister VS Sivakumar on Puttingal temple fire

We're giving all possible support to the injured people.



BJP's Amit Shah

Pained beyond words at the loss of lives in fire incident in Puttingal temple, Kerala. My prayers with the family of those affected. Cancelling all my public programs scheduled in Kerala today.

--- ENDS ---
Over 100 people have been killed and more than 300 injured after a major fire broke out at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala's Kollam district, police said.

Narendra Modi visits Kollam District Hospital to meet the victims of fire accident, in Kerala.

By India Today Web Desk: In one of the worst tragedies to hit Kerala, over 100 people were killed and 383 injured in the major fire that engulfed the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi Temple complex in Kerala's Kollam district during a display of fireworks, for which no permission had been granted by the authorities. In pics

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced Rs 2 lakh each as compensation to the family of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to those injured.



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HELPLINE NUMBERS: 0474 2512344, 949760778, 949730869



The fire broke out at the temple at around 3.30 am today morning during festivities that involved firecrackers. The Air Force has deployed four helicopters to airlift the injured out of the temple site and take them to hospitals to Thiruvananthapuram. Meanwhile, Health Minister VS Shivakumar has directed to make all arrangements at Trivandrum Medical College and Kollam general hospital.

(Photo: PTI)

Here are the latest updates:

- Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif calls PM Narendra Modi, conveys condolences on Kollam fire tragedy: MEA

- Gulf-based Indian business tycoon M A Yousuf Ali said he will provide Rs one lakh to families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured

- One Dornier and two ALH being despatched from Garuda Naval Air Station, Kochi with medical teams from Southern Naval Command

- State government will do whatever is possible, if there's something needs to be raised in Parliament at Central level, we'll do that, says Rahul Gandhi

- Congress VP Rahul Gandhi meets injured persons at AA Rahim Memorial Hospital in Kollam

- I visited the site and the hospital today, my sympathies are with the kin of the deceased persons

- I have told CM that government of India will help if patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or Delhi, says PM Modi

- Government of India stands with the people of Kerala, we will help them in the best way possible, says PM Modi

- PM Modi arrives at Thiruvananthapuram Medical college

- One person, who had allegedly stored crackers and fireworks ten times more than the permit, was today booked by police

- BJP's Sreesanth outside Thiruvananthapuram Medical college

- INS Kabra and INS Kalpeni carrying medical supplies and medical teams reaches Kollam port

- Case has been filed in Taravur police station against the temple authorities

- Mata Amritanandamayi Math announces Rs 1 lakh to families of victims and Rs 50,000 to injured

- Rahul Gandhi and AK Antony visit the Puttingal Temple fire accident site in Kollam



Kerala: Congress VP Rahul Gandhi meets victims of #KollamTempleFire tragedy at AA Rahim Memorial Hospital pic.twitter.com/VaaFWzOVXSANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

PM Modi meets patients at Trivandrum Medical College. PM Modi meets patients at Trivandrum Medical College.

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The Mata Amritanandamayi Math has also said that all injured would get fee treatment at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (Amrita Hospital) in Kochi.

Another Gulf-based healthcare tycoon Azad Moopen rushed a ten-member medical team from his hospital Aster Medicity in Kochi to Kollam to help the victims.

"We shall also transport patients for advanced treatment to Aster Medicity, Kochi," Moopen said.



Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has also announced financial assistance for the dead and the injured.

Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy's office confirmed that they had not granted permission to the temple authorities to store or use crackers in the premises. District collector Shaina Mol also had denied permission for using fireworks. But despite the lack of permission, the fireworks were conducted in the run up to the Malayalam new year, Vishu, on April 14.

Chandy said the situation was "unprecedented and alarming". "Rescue operation at the mishap spot is over...The next main focus of the government is to provide best treatment to the injured," he said.

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Reportedly, the Devaswom Board building in the temple premises have also been completely destroyed.

"The normal practice is to store the high potency crackers in the building and from there it's taken to the place where their is light. A spark from a live cracker landed in the building that stored these massive crackers," Kunjumon, a local believer, said.

(Photo: PTI)

Attingal police said they have registered a case against the licensee, Surendran, who had stored about 150 kgs of crackers and fireworks material at the storehouse without valid permission.

Surendran had license to store only about 15 kg, police said. "It is a clear violation of license. So far no arrests have been made," police said.

Meanwhile, forensic experts, police and fireforce took evidence from the accident spot.

India Today asks: Who is accountable for the death of the death of 108 people in Kollam? If the state government denied permission, who decided to go ahead with the event? Was there a lack of security and safety checks in place at the temple? Why didn't the state government follow up to ensure the event didn't take place? Why didn't police stop the fireworks display when it began? Is it enough to book the temple authorities alone?

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KERALA TEMPLE FIRE: WHO SAID WHAT

PM Narendra Modi:

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter.

Have also asked my Cabinet colleague and Health Minister JP Nadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh

The news of major fire at Puttingal temple in Kollam is deeply distressing. Extremely pained over the loss of lives in the accident.

My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in Kollam accident. My prayers are with the injured.

Spoke to Kerala CM Sh. Chandy regarding the Kollam accident who apprised me of the situation. Assured him of all possible help from the Centre.

Kerala Health Minister VS Sivakumar on Puttingal temple fire

We're giving all possible support to the injured people.

BJP's Amit Shah

Pained beyond words at the loss of lives in fire incident in Puttingal temple, Kerala. My prayers with the family of those affected. Cancelling all my public programs scheduled in Kerala today.

Also Read:

Kerala tragedy: PM Modi reaches Kollam's Puttingal temple where massive fire killed 108, injured over 300

Kerala tragedy: PM Modi extends help to victims of Kollam's temple fire



--- ENDS ---
The panel will inquire into the sequence of events, all facts and circumstances relating to the occurrence of violence leading to loss of lives, damage to property - both private and public including roads, canals, railway stations, police stations and illegal felling of trees and violation of human rights from February 18 to 23, 2016 in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Jind, Hisar, Kaithal and Bhiwani.

The Jat agitation in February saw death of 30 & a massive loss to property.

By Ajay Kumar: Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar has appointed a two-member commission of inquiry headed by Chief Justice (Retd.) SN Jha, for the investigation of violence that took place during the Jat agitation in February this year.

The panel will inquire into the sequence of events, all facts and circumstances relating to the occurrence of violence leading to loss of lives, damage to property - both private and public including roads, canals, railway stations, police stations and illegal felling of trees and violation of human rights from February 18 to 23, 2016 in Rohtak, Jhajjar, Sonipat, Jind, Hisar, Kaithal and Bhiwani.

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Haryana witnessed massive destruction and violence during the agitation that claimed more than 30 lives and properties worth `35 thousand crore was damaged across districts. The role of state government officials, in police and civil departments, will also come under question as the government completely failed to stop the violence during the period.

Mass rape and molestation cases were also reported in Sonipat district.

"The commission would also inquire into existence of a deep rooted conspiracy, if any, to damage the social fabric of the society and any such matter as may be found relevant in the course of the inquiry," said an official spokesperson of Haryana government.

Khattar had announced judicial inquiry in recently concluded Haryana assembly budget session in Chandigarh.

Also Read

Haryana is not ready to deal with another Jat agitation

Jat leaders threaten to resume agitation if Khattar govt fails to meet their demands



--- ENDS ---
Some Indian fishermen returning home after spending time in Pakistani jails could be a security threat to India. Intelligence agencies fear that fishermen, who are imprisoned across the border are probably being radicalised and might be used by terror groups and spy agencies.

Police have been asked to keep a watch over those fishermen who have returned to India after serving a jail term in Pakistan.

By Ankur Sharma: Some Indian fishermen returning home after spending time in Pakistani jails could be a security threat to India. Intelligence agencies fear that fishermen, who are imprisoned across the border are probably being radicalised and might be used by terror groups and spy agencies. All states and intelligence agencies have been asked to closely monitor those who are returning from Pakistan after serving a jail term.

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"Keep a close watch on those who return from Pakistan after serving a jail term as they may have been radicalised. It is pertinent to mention the context here, which is - fishermen from Gujarat who are caught while fishing in territorial waters are lodged in Pakistan jail where they are susceptible to radicalisation," the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said in a letter reviewed by Mail Today.

The matter was also discussed in the security conference, which was also attended by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in Kutch, Gujarat, in December.

A senior government official said, "DGsP of all the states and UTs have been asked to keep a close watch on activities of those who return to India after serving a jail term in Pakistan. Also, cops have been asked to keep a record of their details like residence, movements, etc," the official said.

Goodwill gesture?

Last month, Pakistan released 86 Indian fishermen, who were arrested for allegedly trespassing into its territorial waters, as a goodwill gesture. The fishermen were freed from the Malir jail in Karachi. A majority of them belonged to Gujarat, while a few others were from Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Sources say that nearly 600 Indian fishermen are still lodged in Pakistani jails. They were held by the Pakistan Marine Security Agency while fishing along the International Maritime Boundary Line. Also, almost 900 boats of Gujarati fishermen are in the custody of Pakistani authorities. Each boat costs `40-45 lakh and fishermen suffered as the boats and trawlers were not returned.

State police chiefs have been asked to submit a plan by April on counter-radicalisation. The Ministry of Home Affairs is also closely following the de-radicalisation strategy of all states, sources said.

"Home minister, in a meeting attended by all security forces and intelligence agency heads, said a specific plan of action to counter as well as control radicalisation should be made. The plan should take into account the spread of radicalisation in neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and its consequent impact on India," an official said.

Also, the states affected by radicalisation are requested to prepare action plans to check the spread of radicalisation and send the same to the IB by April. Sources confirmed that after receiving the plans, a meeting of the police chiefs of the affected states, IB and R&AW would be organised to finalise the action plan which will then be shown to the Home Ministry.

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Counter Steps

The government has also asked forces to have different approaches to check radicalisation. Counter-radicalisation involving disengagement of the target from pursuing radical ideology, de-radicalisation aimed at changing beliefs and thoughts of affected individuals and security measures involving legal and penal action may be considered, according to a note on internal security challenges in the country.

Also, there is a need for an intelligence-based action plan targetting the leadership of radical organisations, forming specialised groups to tackle them in their area and ensuring speedy development to provide support to the population may also be considered, officials said.

Also Read

Pakistan arrests 88 Indian fishermen

Pakistan fishing boat Al Shenaz apprehended for illegally fishing on Indian waters



--- ENDS ---
Rising Pune Supergiants skipper MS Dhoni said that shifting IPL matches from drought-hit Maharashtra would not resolve the perennial crisis as that required a 'long-term' solution.

By India Today Web Desk: Rising Pune Supergiants skipper MS Dhoni on Sunday said that shifting Indian Premier League matches from drought-hit Maharashtra would not resolve the perennial crisis as that required a 'long-term' solution.

Dhoni's comments came amid the furore over holding the T20 league matches in the drought-hit state.

"If you see, all these questions are good to hear, I think for us it's more important to seek long-term solutions," said Dhoni when asked about his views about the prevailing drought in Maharashtra. (Drought not a problem only in Maharashtra, says Laxman)

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The dire situation over potable water in the state has sparked a raging debate over the suitability of playing IPL games in the state, besides leading to a PIL filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the use of large quantity of water for maintaining pitches despite the grave water crisis.

There have been demands to shift all IPL matches out of Maharashtra. (Dhoni's Supergiants rise up to the occasion)

Three big cities in Maharashtra - Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur - are to play host to a total of 20 games, out of which one has already been held on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium.

"Whether IPL's match number 5, 6 or 7 happens or not, I don't think it makes much of a difference," said Dhoni at the media conference where he was announced the brand ambassador of mobile handset Lava.

"But we have to look at a long-term solution... How we ensure water is sent to those areas where there is water shortage.

"From what I have seen on TV quite a few dams are there, where only one or two per cent water is left. So we have to look at a long-term solution," Dhoni said.

"I think people talking about whether matches should happen or not, it's more momentarily driven than anything else. I think what's important for us as a county is to see what the long-term solution is and we have to move in that direction," said the wicketkeeper-batsman.

(With inputs from PTI)

--- ENDS ---
M Ashwin looked at ease against top batsmen from the Mumbai camp and conceded only 16 runs from his four overs, picking the wicket of Shreyas Gopal in his very first over.

By India Today Web Desk: Impressed by Rising Pune Supergiants debutant Murugan Ashwin's performance in the Indian Premier League opener, former India captain Sourav Ganguly said the Tamil Nadu leg-spinner was not a bad find for MS Dhoni's side as they beat defending champions Mumbai Indians by 9 wickets at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday.

Batting first, Mumbai were restricted to 121 for 8 in 20 overs, thanks to a superb bowling performance by Pune. Harbhajan Singh (45 not out) was the top scorer for the home side. (Also Read: MS Dhoni prefers the new Ashwin over his old warhorse)



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In reply, riding on Ajinkya Rahane's unbeaten 66, Pune chased down the target comfortably posting 126/1 in 14.4 overs.

M Ashwin was bought by Pune for a whopping sum of Rs 4.5 crore after he made a mark in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy earlier this year. M Ashwin played only three first-class matches and two List-A matches, before he was picked by Pune.

However, on Saturday, he looked at ease against top batsmen from the Mumbai camp. The leggie conceded only 16 runs from his four overs and picked up the wicket of Shreyas Gopal in his very first over. (Also Read: Ajinkya Rahane, bowlers help Rising Pune Supergiants thrash Mumbai Indians)

"M Ashwin is not a bad find for Pune this season. He is probably one of the mystery bowlers and I think players will take a little bit of time to pick him," Ganguly told IndiaToday in an exclusive chat.

Dhoni's Supergiants are one of the two new franchises this season, replacing the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals, who have been suspended for a period of two years due to the involvement of their owners in spot-fixing.

Ganguly said he was not surprised by Pune's handsome victory over Mumbai and felt that they are a serious side. (Also Read: Rohit, Harbhajan blame Mumbai Indians' batting for loss against Pune Supergiants)

"That's the way IPL works. Most of the players get in the team right before the start of the tournament. It's not a problem. The thing is that they keep playing around the world.

"As I have earlier, Pune are a serious side. Kevin Pietersen is a terrific buy for Pune. He was exceptional. He was not under any pressure today because the opening stand and the low total didn't put much pressure on him. They look a good side to be honest," he said.



The former Kolkata Knight Riders' skipper also objected to Mumbai Indians' strategy of sending all-rounder Hardik Pandya to bat at No. 3. (Also Read: MS Dhoni's Pune Supergiants rise up to the occasion)

"Rohit doesn't need to panic. They are a good side. However, having Pandya at No. 3 is not a better option. He should instead come in at No. 6 because he is not technically that sound but he can hit ball a long way. So, he would like the ball to get old a bit and then hit through the line," he said.



--- ENDS ---

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Myanmar government on Saturday released nearly 200 political activists dismissing the cases registered against them. Suu Kyi called for the prisoner release through her new position as state counsellor.

By India Today Web Desk: Myanmar government on Saturday released nearly 200 political activists dismissing the cases registered against them.

The release came two days after Aung San Suu Kyi made commitment of releasing scores of political prisoners languishing in jails on priority basis.

"Police have dropped 199 cases against political activists around the country as of yesterday," the officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. The issue has personal resonance for Suu Kyi and many in her fledgling government, which is stacked with former activists once jailed under junta rule for their pro-democracy campaigns.

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Those freed on Friday included dozens of student activists in central Tharrawaddy who had been locked up for more than a year over an education demonstration they organised in March 2015.

In a statement later that night Suu Kyi said more political prisoners would be released following Myanmar's new year holiday, but that "necessary scrutinisation" would need to be completed first. The police officer told AFP more cases would be reviewed during the festival, which starts next week, and that other activists could be freed when the courts reopen.

Suu Kyi's administration is expected to seek the release of convicted political prisoners through a pardon signed by President Htin Kyaw, a close aide of hers who was sworn in last month.

Dissidents were routinely jailed by the brutal junta that strangled free expression in Myanmar for decades, one of many repressive policies that garnered global support for Suu Kyi's democracy struggle.

Friday's release of activists was applauded by international human rights groups, though many urged the new government to go a step further and amend legislation that allows authorities to round up peaceful protesters.

"We look forward to the release of all remaining political prisoners and their full rehabilitation," the European Union said in a statement. Watchdog groups in

Myanmar say there are still hundreds of activists facing trial or being held in the country's notorious prisons, many of them arrested under the quasi-civilian government that stepped down last month after five years of transitioning the country from junta rule.

Suu Kyi called for the prisoner release through her new position as state counsellor, which she was given despite vehement opposition from the still-powerful military whose charter bars her from the presidency.

ALSO READ:

Aung San Suu Kyi appointed as Myanmar's foreign minister

--- ENDS ---
US Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Afghanistan's national unity government could continue beyond September, a step that could irk the opposition even as he attempts to avert a brewing political crisis.

By Reuters: US Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Afghanistan's national unity government could continue beyond September, a step that could irk the opposition even as he attempts to avert a brewing political crisis.

Kerry's unannounced visit to Kabul was intended to demonstrate support for the national unity government headed by President Ashraf Ghani, victor of the disputed election of 2014 and his runner up Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

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The visit comes at a difficult moment for Afghanistan, with Ghani's government weakened by infighting between rivals, the economy sinking and the resurgent Taliban stronger than at any time since they were toppled from power in late 2001.

Underlining the precarious security situation, at least two explosions, apparently from rockets, hit the diplomatic zone of the capital shortly after Kerry's visit ended and his plane was preparing to take off from Bagram airport outside the city.

Kerry repeated an offer of peace talks with the Taliban and called on Afghanistan's fractious politicians to work together.

"Democracy requires credible institutions," he said. "Even more than that, it requires a willingness of people  from different political and ethnic and geographic factions to be able to come together and work for a common good."

Under the national unity deal, a loya jirga, or special assembly, was expected to be held to amend the constitution within two years of the September 2014 election, potentially allowing Abdullah to take the post of prime minister.

The approach of September's end of the two-year period has helped fuel growing political tension, with opposition politicians close to former President Hamid Karzai insisting that the unity agreement must be subject to broad consultation.

However Kerry said the agreement was valid for the full term of the government, suggesting that the U.S. believes it can continue even without a new constitutional deal.

"Let me make this very, very clear because I brokered the agreement  There is no end to this agreement at the end of two years, or in six months from now," Kerry told a joint news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

"This is an agreement for a unity government the duration of which is five years," he said.

Troop Withdrawal

The political difficulties facing Ghani have been racheted up by the deteriorating security situation, with NATO officials estimating that government forces have full control over no more than 70 percent of the country.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan are due to be almost halved to 5,500 from the current 9,800 by the start of 2017, and the new commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, is conducting a review of security before making his recommendations to Washington some time in June.

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Kerry offered no hint on whether the timetable may change, saying only that President Barack Obama would make his decision on the size of the force after listening to what commanders on the ground had to say.

With Afghanistan's shattered economy still on its knees and struggling with endemic corruption, Kerry said it was crucial for the country to secure international aid.

"It is essential for these next week's and months for Afghanistan to show how that money is well spent and how the purpose of Afghanistan and the unity is going to earn the support and respect of the rest of the world," he said.

In Warsaw in July, the NATO Western security alliance is expected to decide how to fund Afghanistan's security forces in the coming years and donor nations will gather in Brussels in October to make civilian aid pledges to Afghanistan.

Kerry said U.S. and Afghan officials needed "to make certain that we use the time between now and the meeting in Warsaw and the meeting in Brussels to make sure that we are putting Afghanistan's best foot forward".

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Noting the dates, Andrew Wilder, an Afghanistan expert at the United States Institute for Peace think tank, said: "The last thing we need is a big political crisis calling into question the legitimacy of the national unity government in September".

Ghani received a welcome boost on Saturday, when lawmakers confirmed a new interior minister and attorney general, two posts key to confronting the Taliban's growing insurgency and combating endemic corruption.



--- ENDS ---
In a letter addressed to Renzi, these prisoners asked him not to go to their oppressed country in order to prevent having a black spot in the history of bilateral relations based on his personal decision.

Referring to Irans human rights violations and repeated resolutions by the UN Human Rights Council, political prisoners said that unforgivable and painful point is the appeasement of the western governments toward the Iranian regime. These governments are very committed to human rights in their own countries but when it comes to oppressed nations like ours, they have no commitment because of oil and dollars, and instead they embolden them with economic contracts and trips and shaking their bloody hands.

The prisoners pointed out the economic situation in Iran and said: This regime has spent billions of dollars of this nations assets first for the war with Iraq, then building nuclear bomb and ballistic missiles, and by funding and military support for terrorist groups paved the way for domination of the region and the world.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran, in a statement on April 6, 2016, citing human rights violations in Iran, export of terrorism and violating the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and testing ballistic missiles, called for the cancellation of the Italian Prime Ministers visit to Iran.

The NCRI said: Visiting Tehran to shake hands with leaders of the Iranian regime without denouncing their crimes, while turning a blind eye to these undeniable facts, will certainly assist the detested theocratic regime ruling Iran and prolong the agony and suffering of the people of Iran and the region.

The Iranian Resistance calls on Italian political parties, the Parliament, and human rights advocates to undertake urgent measures to encourage Prime Minister Renzi to condemn violations of human rights and export of terrorism by the Iranian regime and cancel his visit to Iran.

Protest letter of political prisoners of Gohardasht prison in Karaj regarding Italian PMs visit to Iran

April 9, 2016

Honorable Prime Minster of Italy

On the verge of your visit to our occupied homeland, we political prisoners that have been enchained in mullahs dreaded dungeons for years bring your attention to the colossal crimes of this regime in our dear country, as well as in the region and the world. Of course we doubt that you may not be aware of these villainous activities, but we would like to once again inform you on a small segment of these innumerable crimes:

From the outset of the establishment of this regime and the spread of its dominion over this territory, in addition to economic pressures and usurpation of peoples wealth and selling off the oil and riches of this nation, this regime has resorted to flogging, torture, execution in the most abhorring manner, stoning to death, and splashing of acid on women and girls for mal-veiling, to respond to protests from any strata and class of the society, including even those close to the ruling clique who want a bigger share of the power.

It suffices to take a brief look at the resolutions adopted by the Human Rights Council and the UN Third Committee or statements of the human rights organizations and institutions. The repression of journalists, intellectuals, and ethnic and religious minorities is quite ordinary for this regime that spent billions of dollars of the nations wealth on its anti-patriotic [Iran-Iraq] war and then set on to gain dominion over the region by building the nuclear bomb and ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads.

It has also resorted to financially and militarily support the terrorist groups that it itself nurtured in order to intervene and pave the way for its dominion over the region and the world. Internally, it spread the use of narcotics among the youth and teenagers to rein in any climate for dissent.

The examples we gave provides a gateway to the mindset and ideology of this antihuman regime. We do not expect anything else from this regime since this is its soul. However, the painful and unforgivable part is the appeasement of this regime by western countries, including the Italian government; countries that do not mind misfortune if it is for their neighbors. In their own countries they are a hundred percent committed to human rights, but when it comes to the countries under the dominion of fascists, they suddenly have no commitment because of the oil and dollars. To the contrary, they encourage the fascists by inking colonialist deals, paying visits, and by shaking their bloody hands.

We therefore declare to you that shaking the hands of the mullahs and sealing contracts with them will surely blemish your reputation.

We are not calling on you to refer to the rights of us prisoners or the Iranian nation to save face since both you and the regime are utterly aware that the era of such repugnant face-saving measures are over.

We therefore strongly condemn your decision to set on this trip and we urge you not to visit the Iran under tyranny which will tarnish the history of the relations between our two nations by this act which is your personal decision.

Political prisoners of Gohardasht Prison

CC:

-Italian Prime Ministry Office in Rome

-Italian foreign ministry

-Italian Embassy in Tehran
Kerry acknowledged this fact in his remarks, saying for instance that Iran should change its policies to focus on pursuing a diplomatic solution in Yemen instead of continuing to send shipments of weapons to the Houthi rebels in that country. Last week, the US Fifth Fleet seized a cache of weapons believed to be in transit from Iran to Yemen. It was at least the third such seizure so far in 2016.

Kerry also admitted that the differences between Iran and other countries including the US and its Arab partners over the future of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was still the main obstacle to a permanent political solution to that countrys five-year civil war. More than a quarter of a million people have been killed in that conflict, and five million have been displaced. Moderate rebel groups including the Free Syrian Army continue to insist upon the ouster of President Assad, but Iran, which has been a participant in international talks on the issue, has maintained that it will not consider any alternative to Assad prior to post-conflict elections.

Despite Kerrys recognition of the discord on this issue, his broader remarks in Bahrain suggest that he believes that an effective compromise can be reached with the Iranian regime, which concluded an agreement last summer with six world powers exchanging relief from economic sanctions for limited constraints on the Iranian nuclear program.

The Obama administrations optimistic assessment of the prospects for further negotiations stands in contrast to statements by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who has urged his subordinates to avoid negotiating with the West over anything other than the nuclear issue. Irans adversaries, including the government of Saudi Arabia and the exiled dissident group the National Council of Resistance of Iran have seized upon such remarks to support their claims that Tehran is fundamentally unwilling to compromise on its regional ambitions.

The US has been at odds with its traditional Arab partners over Iran policy for some time, with the latter taking it upon themselves to join the Yemeni Civil War as a counterbalance to Irans influence there. On Friday, Breitbart cited Arab intelligence sources as saying that the Iranians intended to exploit this American-Saudi discord in order to increase their support for the Houthi rebels.

Breitbart also noted that forces loyal to Yemeni President Abed Rabu Mansour Hadi have reported the increased presence of the Iran-backed Lebanese paramilitary Hezbollah alongside the Houthi rebels. Similarly, The Tower reported on Thursday that Hezbollah has established a deeper foothold in Syria, fortifying a base of operations there and beginning the importation of its own heavy artillery and tanks.

This observation is supported by a report from the National Council of Resistance of Iran, indicating that the Iranian regime has accelerated deployment of Revolutionary Guards and proxy forces to Syria, in order to compensate for the reduction in supportive Russian forces following international negotiations. The NCRI report alleges that these forces are massing for a major offensive on the city of Aleppo, arguably undermining the Secretary of States notion that Tehran can be counted on to help bring an end to fighting amongst non-Islamic State forces.
Deployment of the regimes army in Syria

The latest deployments constitute the only large-scale foreign deployment of Iranian army since the Iran-Iraq War.. Amir Ali Arasteh, deputy coordinator of the armys ground forces, stated that forces from the 65th Commando Brigade have been dispatched to Syria and that other army units will join them as well. The 65th Commando Brigade, also known as Nohed, played a major role in suppressing dissent and enforcing the mullahs rule during and immediately after the 1978-79 Islamic Revolution.

IRGC headquarters in Damascus is located in a place dubbed Glass Headquarters near the Damascus Airport. IRGC Brigadier General Razi Moussavi is stationed there and is in charge of logistics for the IRGCs foreign expeditionary Qods Force.

The IRGC has taken over Sheibani, a large base situated between Damascus and Zabdani that formerly housed Assads Republican Guard. It has since been renamed Imam Hussein Base. Several thousand forces from the 19th Fajr Commando Brigade of Irans Fars Corps, as well as battalions from the Fatemiyoun and Lebanese Hezbollah have been deployed to this base. They current act as a reserve force protecting Assads palace.

Preparations for assaults around Aleppo

In recent days, the IRGC has begun to bolster its forces around Aleppo, and battalions of IRGC, Afghan Fatemiyoun, Lebanese Hezbollah, and Syrian militias have been massing in this region in apparent preparation for an assault against the Syrian opposition and FSA.

In March, two independent brigades of the Fars Corps were deployed to Syria. IRGC Colonel Mohsen Mandani, one of the commanders of this force, was killed on March 20 in Khaan Tuman region in southern Aleppo. His replacement, IRGC Brigadier General Mohsen Ellahi, was also killed in the same area a few days later, along with other Revolutionary Guards.

Additionally, forces in Syria from the Nabi Akram Division of Kermanshah Province have doubled, reaching 1000.

The IRGC has set up one of its headquarters in the town of Marea near the city of Nubl, and IRGC Commander Seyyed Rasool is stationed there.

IRGC mercenary militias amassing

By order of the Qods Force, Iraqi paramilitary forces such as Al-Nujaba, the Badr Organization, Saraya Khorasani, Asaib Ahl-al-Haq, Kataeb and Hezbollah have dispatched further forces to Syria. These mercenaries go from Iraq to Abadan, in Iran, from where they are flown to Syria in several daily flights by Mahan Airlines.

Qods Force offices in Tehran, as well as its offices in Irans eastern regions, employ enticement or coercion to compel Afghans residing in Iran to register to go to Syria. Toward this end, the IRGC exploits the extreme poverty of Afghan nationals and their need to obtain legal documents. In many cases Afghan prisoners including some who are facing death sentences are pardoned if they volunteer to fight in Syria.

Persons wounded in fighting in Syria are sent to Iran for medical treatment. They include not only IRGC members but also Syrian militants every week, around 30 wounded Syrians are flown directly to Rajai Hospital in Shiraz. The IRGC has dedicated Najafi Hosseiniyeh in Shiraz to the wounded Syrians and their families.
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Local health departments in Nebraska enjoy a special partnership with the communities that they serve and the policy makers that created and oversee their efforts to make Nebraska the healthiest place in America. We share a collective disappointment that our Legislature and Governor chose not to enact lifesaving tobacco prevention legislation ("Cigarette tax hike up in smoke," March 22). However, we are grateful and want to offer our praise to a stellar Nebraska public servant Mike Gloor the State Senator representing the Grand Island area.

Senator Gloors career of public health started in his own community as a health care administrator dedicated to the health of his community, well before his election to the Legislature. He brought those same values and beliefs to his work as a senator. During his time as a legislator, he has been an architect of health care transformation that has greatly improved Nebraskans lives and, like our work in public health, is often not seen. Senator Gloor has been relentless in his advocacy for patient centered medical care, a caring and sound economic approach to the guidance of the building of a new health care system in the 21st Century and improving access to health care.

The Senator is articulate in his advocacy for clean, smoke-free restaurants and public spaces and most recently introduced a proposal that if passed would have saved 12,100 young Nebraskans from becoming addicted to tobacco and preventing 7,000 premature smoking caused deaths, reducing the number of adult smokers by 12,300 and with a long term health care cost saving from adult and youth smoking decline of $493 million dollars. Senator Gloor will be missed but, before he leaves, all Nebraskans owe him a debt of gratitude for his good works. Thank you Senator Gloor for making Nebraska a better place.

Pat Lopez, Friends of Public Health, Lincoln
When Dan and I purchased our fixer-upper on a little lake in Kansas City, Missouri, we were drawn by the peaceful community and the serene views. And, the thought of turning this modest mid-century house into a cozy cottage, where we could live simply and grow old together, got my creative juices flowing big time. We knew the house would need a major renovation to transform it into the English country cottage in my mind. Im not going to lie: It was a long, messy process. But it was worth every agonizing moment because now Im home for good.

The decor -- My Atchison, Kansas, home was very formal, and it called for more elegant decor. But the cottage was just the opposite. To be true to its spirit, the design needed to be simple and understated, a cozy cocoon that wrapped its arms around you. I wanted it to feel like an 80-year-old family home that had been cherished by multiple generations, the scene of lots of love and memories.

One of the ways I gave our new home some cottage charm was using relaxed fabrics in my decorating. To dress down my formal upholstered furniture, I recovered the pieces in ticking, one of my favorite fabrics. In the winter, I accent the furniture with pillows and throws in buffalo checks and tartan plaids. In the summer, I bring in lightweight cotton prints in reds and blues.

While I kept many of the larger, dramatic pieces of artwork I cherished in my Atchison home, like the religious art Dan found years ago on a buying trip to Europe, I decided to cover the walls in the main living areas with simple artwork. For me, that includes lots of dishes and platters, hung on the walls or worked into tabletop displays. I have a weakness for charming platters and plates, especially antique French Limoges fish plates.

The built-ins -- When we were working with our architect to redesign the houses interior, I knew I wanted plenty of built-ins, including window seats. They just feel like an English novel come to live, with their beckoning view and tapestry of cozy cushions. I watch the sun come up on this little window seat in the dining room. We also included miles of bookcases for all of Dans books, as I blogged about last month. The only things we kept intact from the original house when we renovated were the stone fireplaces and the exposed wood ceiling in the living room  I fell under their spell!

I wanted the rooms to be light and warm, so we kept our hardwood floors light, adding just a drop of stain to the finish.

The kitchen -- Designing your kitchen is a big deal because there are so many decisions to make and it costs a lot, so you dont want to ever have to redo it. Luckily I went into our reno project with several of the big decisions already make. I knew I wanted butcher block countertops. Why? They are modest and functional, and the more beat up they get, stained and marked with lines, the more beautiful they become.

Similarly, I knew I wanted a marble countertop someplace in the kitchen. The kitchen island seemed like the perfect spot for this timeless and elegant stone. Since the kitchen sink faces our little dining nook, and the rooms flow one into the other, the architect used the island to create a small visual barrier between the two rooms. Honestly, I wanted to hide the dirty dishes piled up around the sink! You dont have to cook to make a mess in the kitchen, as Ive learned. All those carryout boxes are an eyesore.

Im in love with subway tile and picked it for my kitchen backsplash because its modest, sleek and timeless. I like how the tile, with its gray grout, gives my kitchen the feel of a 1920s bungalow.

Whether you are renovating your home or adding little decorative touches here and there, the end goal of every design decision you make should be the same: to create an oasis that fills your heart and soul. My little cottage on the lake does all that and more for me. Thanks for visiting!
Madhes agitation halted to infuse fresh energy: Mahanta Thakur

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Belgium attacks: Mohamed Abrini 'admits being man in the hat'

Belgian prosecutors say a terror suspect arrested on Friday has admitted being the "man in the hat" seen with the bombers at Brussels airport.
Cameron releases tax returns information amid row

David Cameron paid almost 76,000 in tax on an income of more than 200,000 in 2014-15, figures released by the prime minister have shown.
DPM Thapa says Hindu state, monarchy can make comeback

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Fresh protests on Morcha cards

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Govt devising protocol

The Ministry of Commerce is developing a protocol on the Transit Transport Agreement (TTA) signed between Nepal and China during Prime Min-ister KP Olis Beijing visit.
I saved Nepal Army from ruin: Ex-Prez Yadav

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Lessons from Pakistan

A theocratic monolithic system drove a wedge between the state and the people
Nepse ends week 25.88 pts higher

Of nine trading groups, four saw their indices rise. The insurance group (up 117.56 points) was the weeks top gainer
Not really secular

In Nepal, no religion can claim to have its followers from time immemorial
Philippines: 18 soldiers dead in clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants

The Philippines military says 18 soldiers have been killed in fierce fighting with Islamist militants in the south of the country.
Security guards warn of protests

Security guards have warned of stern protests from April 27 if authorities concerned fail to implement the minimum guaranteed salary published in the Nepal Gazette on February 1, 2016.
Sushila Karki recommended for chief justice

The Constitutional Council (CC) on Sunday recommended senior-most Justice Sushila Karki for the post of Chief Justice.
Three generations of a family denied citizenship

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Time for change

To provide quality healthcare to patients, doctors should be able to focus on clinical care
Visiting south and north

Nepal has to acquire a fair amount of knowledge about Chinese cultural nuances and diplomatic norms
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James La-Follette, his wife Heather, and their youngest daughter, Maryn, stand in the sanctuary of Cosperville Baptist Church.

La-Follette started his pastoral work at Cosperville Baptist Church in October and became the full-time pastor in February. He graduated from Grace Theological Seminary in 2014.
The predictions only get worse.

In 2007, a United Nations panel of scientists studying the rise of sea level related to climate change predicted that, if nothing was done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, seas could rise by about 2 feet by 2100. By 2013, the panel had increased its forecast to more than 3 feet, which would put major cities at risk of flooding and storm surge.

Yet all along, the panel emphasized what it did not know. It expressed particular uncertainty about what could happen to the ice sheet in Antarctica. To help fill in the gaps, it invited outside scientists to contribute their own research.

Now the outside research is bearing fruit  and the news is not good.

A new study published in the journal Nature painted perhaps the most ominous picture yet. It showed that, by the end of this century, sea levels could rise 6 feet or more  again, if nothing is done to reduce emissions  potentially inundating many coastal areas, submerging nations and remaking maps of the world.

The study focused on one of the most elusive aspects of sea-level science: What will happen to the West Antarctic ice sheet?

Scientists have long believed the ice sheet would melt from climate change and contribute to higher sea levels. But they believed that the melting, and rising sea levels it would cause, could occur over many hundreds or even thousands of years.

The new study, by Robert DeConto, a geoscientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and David Pollard, a geoscientist at Pennsylvania State University, based its finding on models it developed from studying ancient sea level and temperature changes. The scientists found that drastic sea level rise could happen within a lifetime.

As alarming as the study may have seemed to the public and to policymakers, Benjamin Horton, a coastal geologist at Rutgers University in New Jersey who studies sea level, said it did not surprise many people in his field.

In 2013, Horton led a survey of almost 100 sea level scientists that concluded that seas could rise almost 4 feet by 2100  higher than the United Nations panels worst scenario. But within that group, 13 scientists said there was a 17 percent chance that sea levels would rise by 6.6 feet, a figure in line with the study.

Why has it been so hard to predict sea level change?

Predicting changes involves measuring and modeling several different factors that then have to be blended together, Horton said. Those elements include an increase in volume from expansion caused by warming water, the melting of glaciers in places such as Alaska and the melting of ice sheets in places such as Greenland and Antarctica. Measuring sea changes from the first two, he said, is much easier than measuring what the vast ice sheets are doing.

What has helped improved our understanding of how ice sheets melt?

Satellite technology and imagery had made it easier to understand what is happening above and below the West Antarctic ice sheet, Horton said.

These ice sheets have this double whammy, he said. Theyre heated at the surface from air temperature and theyre heated at the base from ocean temperatures.

They retreat and then they become unstable and they retreat even further. They have all these feedback mechanisms that keep on making the situation worse.

The process involves what is known as cliff collapse.

Ponds of meltwater that form on the ice surface often drain through cracks, the article said. This can set off a chain reaction that breaks up ice shelves and causes newly exposed ice cliffs to collapse under their own weight.

How much water do the ice sheets hold?

Horton said that the Greenland ice sheet contains enough ice to raise sea levels more than 20 feet if they completely melted. Antarctica holds much more ice, enough to raise seas more than 200 feet. But this extreme scenario could happen only over thousands of years.

Even as the study released this week predicted potential catastrophe, it also emphasized that the West Antarctic ice sheet probably would cause little change in sea level if temperature increases can be held under 2 degrees Celsius.

The obvious solution, Horton said, is to move quickly away from burning fossil fuels that contribute to climate change and rapidly expand solar, wind and other renewable forms of energy.

We have a choice right now, he said. If we strongly mitigate against greenhouse gases, we can keep the sea level rise to a manageable level. These papers are not all doom and gloom. They are providing a warning and we as a scientific community are trying to stress the urgency on climate change.

This is a dire warning, a dire prediction, but we can do something about it.
WASHINGTON (AP)  As many in the United States hold their noses in the search for the next president, theyre increasingly warming to the president they already have.

Buoyed by some good economic news and a surge of goodwill from his base of supporters, President Barack Obama is seeing his approval rating rise. That puts Obama, who leaves office in January, in a position to remain a force in the political debate at a point in his final term when some others faded into the background.

For the first time since 2013, half of those questioned approve of the job Obama is doing in office, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey found the apparent uptick in approval extended across issues, including foreign affairs, immigration and, most notably the economy, where people said they felt slightly better about their own prospects and Obamas stewardship.

Asked about their opinion of Obama more generally, those surveyed were more likely to give him a positive rating than any of the candidates for president, Republican or Democrat.

Terry Trudeau, 66, said he preferred Obama to all of them running for the White House.

One of the qualities I like is hes been able to work with other countries and make deals, Trudeau said, citing Obamas climate change pacts with China as an example. Donald Trump will never be able to do that. He would try to bully them.

Obamas numbers remain modest.

Compared with his predecessors, hes well above Republican George W. Bush, who had about a 30 percent approval rating at this point in his presidency, but below Democrat Bill Clintons roughly 60 percent, according to polls conducted by Gallup.
3 rescued from deserted island  HONOLULU  Three men who had been missing for three days were rescued from a deserted Pacific island after a U.S. Navy plane spotted the word help spelled out in palm leaves on the beach, officials said Saturday. The mens families reported them missing Tuesday after they failed to show up at the Micronesian island of Weno, a U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman said. The men were traveling in a skiff from another Micronesian island when a wave overtook them, she said. The Navy plane spotted them on the small island of Fanadik, several hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea. Two hours later, a small local boat picked them up and took them to a hospital.

Mental hospitals to boost security  SPOKANE, Wash.  Washington officials promised Saturday they were working quickly to increase security at the states psychiatric hospitals after a week in which two patients escaped and another two went missing. A man accused of torturing a 20-year-old woman to death in 2013 was recaptured Friday night after a two-day, cross-state manhunt that some worried would not end peacefully. Garver, 28, escaped from Western State Hospital across the state in Lakewood on Wednesday night. He crawled out a window of a locked, lower-security unit with another patient, Mark Alexander Adams, 58, who was caught the next day.

Ex-FBI agent was gunman at Texas base  DALLAS  A former FBI agent who later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force was identified Saturday as the man who killed his commander at an air base in San Antonio before turning the gun on himself. A statement from the Air Force identified the two men as Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Bellino and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder. The statement did not name the gunman, but a federal official close to the investigation said Bellino opened fire Friday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. Authorities have not confirmed why Schroeder was targeted. He was commander of the 342nd Training Squadron.

Mississippi may resume Google inquiry  JACKSON, Miss.  Mississippis attorney general can resume an investigation into whether Google facilitates illegal behavior, an appeals court ruled. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a district judge who had sided with Google. U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate ruled last year that the unit of Alphabet Inc. didnt have to answer a subpoena by Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood. Hood began complaining in 2012 that Google wasnt doing enough to prevent people from breaking the law.

Keystone pipeline ready for restart  BISMARCK, N.D.  TransCanada Corp. said Saturday that it has completed repairs to its Keystone Pipeline, a week after the pipeline oozed thousands of gallons of Canadian crude into a South Dakota field. James Millar, a spokesman for the Calgary-based company, said the pipeline was expected to be restarted on Saturday. Its still not clear what caused a breech. TransCanada has estimated 16,800 gallons, or about 400 barrels of oil, leaked. The company said there was no significant environmental impact or threat to public safety.

Jury acquits white ex-deputy in black suspects beating  OCALA, Fla.  An all-white federal jury has found a white Florida sheriffs deputy not guilty in the beating of an unarmed black man who was being arrested. Jesse Alan Terrell was one of five former Marion County Sheriffs deputies prosecuted by the federal government for beating Derrick Price during a 2014 arrest on drug charges. The other deputies, who also were white, pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Each testified against Terrell.
Donald Trump's inflammatory statements about Mexican immigrants, Muslim refugees and women who get abortions may eventually be his campaign's undoing, some analysts say. But don't tell that to the many supporters such as Titus Kottke, attracted to the Republican front-runner specifically because he shoots from the lip.

"No more political correctness," said Kottke, 22, a cattle trucker and construction worker from Athens, Wisconsin, who waited hours last weekend to see the candidate in a line stretching the length of a shopping mall.

Trump is "not scared to offend people," Kottke said. He agrees with some of the views Trump expresses but likes the fact that the candidate shows the confidence to reject the dogma of political correctness. That "takes away your freedom of speech, pretty much. You can't say anything."

For years, conservatives have decried political correctness as a scourge of orthodox beliefs and language, imposed by liberals, that keeps people from voicing uncomfortable truths.

Now, some Trump supporters  many white, working-class voters frustrated with the country's shifting economics and demographics  applaud him for not being afraid to make noise about the things that anger them but that they feel discouraged from saying out loud.

"It's a cultural backlash," said Steve Schmidt, a Republican political strategist who ran Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign. "Millions and millions of people in this country, blue-collar people, feel that their values are under assault, that they're looked down upon, condescended to by the elites."

Trump rival Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has quit the 2016 race, are among the candidates who also have been outspoken in decrying political correctness.

But Trump has made defiance of the manners usually governing politics a signature of his campaign.

"The big problem this country has is being politically correct," he said in a debate in August, when pressed on his comments about women that brought criticism. "I've been challenged by so many people and I don't frankly have time for total political correctness. And to be honest with you, this country doesn't have time either."

In doing so, Trump tapped into a frustration shared even by many voters who disagree with him on other issues. In an October poll of Americans by Fairleigh Dickinson University, more than two-thirds agreed that political correctness is a "big problem" for the country. Among Republicans, it was 81 percent.

That sentiment is clear in conversations with Trump supporters.

"Let him be a man with the guts to say what he wants," said Polly Day, 74, a retired nurse from Wausau, Wis., who came to a Trump rally last Saturday in nearby Rothschild. "Should he tone down? He'll figure that out on his own. I like him the way he is."

At the same rally, Kottke said Trump's rejection of political correctness is one of the main reasons he supports him, along with the candidate's determination to improve security, protect jobs and keep Muslims out of the country.

Plenty of others agreed with him.

"Finally somebody's coming in that has the cojones to say something and to do something," said Ray Henry, another supporter. "I think he's saying what a lot of what America's feeling right now ... enough's enough."

Trump's flouting of political correctness has turned out to be a potent rhetorical weapon, political analysts say, but could prove troublesome.

"At its best, not being politically correct comes across as direct, unfiltered and honest. At its worst, not being politically correct comes across as crude, rude and insulting," said Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster who previously worked for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential campaign. Trump's supporters "may find it refreshing. That doesn't mean they would find it presidential."

Ayres and other analysts say Trump's rejection of political correctness appeals to voters frustrated by the setbacks of the Great Recession and the global economy; immigration that has made the country more heterogeneous; and cultural trends such as gay marriage and measures to fight discrimination against African-Americans, which make them feel marginalized.

"This doesn't fall out of left field," said Marc Hetherington, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University who studies polarization and voter trust. "But what these political actors have done, Trump and Cruz in particular, is give that ... worry and frustration a voice."

That frustration was made clear in a poll by Quinnipiac University, released Tuesday, that found a deep vein of dissatisfaction among Trump supporters.

Nine in 10 questioned said their values and beliefs are under attack. Eight in 10 said the government has gone too far in assisting minorities, a view shared by 76 percent of Cruz supporters. But Trump was unrivaled in claiming the largest number of supporters  84 percent  who agreed that the U.S. needs a leader "willing to say or do anything" to tackle the country's problems.

Political correctness entered the American vocabulary in the 1960s and 1970s. New Left activists advocating for civil rights and feminism and against the Vietnam War used it to describe the gap between their high-minded ideals and everyday actions.

"It was a kind of understanding that you can't be perfect all the time," said Ruth Perry, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wrote a 1992 article on the early history of political correctness. "It was an awareness of the ways in which all of us are inconsistent."

As it gained broader usage, political correctness came to mean a careful avoidance of words or actions that could offend minorities, women or others, often to the point of excess. Conservative critics have, for decades, pointed to it as an enforced ideology run amok.

"I think that the American people ... are sick to death of the choking conformity, the intellectual tyranny that is produced by political correctness," said Nick Adams, an Australian-born commentator who wrote "Retaking America: Crushing Political Correctness."

Adams, who has lived in the U.S. since 2009, said he believes many voters are drawn to Trump's rejection of that correctness, and his emphasis on reclaiming individualism, identity and self-confidence stripped away by it.

At the Wisconsin rally, a number of Trump supporters offered a similar appraisal.

"We have gone overboard with political correctness, everyone backtracking on their statements," said Chris Sharkey, 39, of Wausau, who says he chafes at behavioral strictures in his workplace, where human resource officers tell employees to avoid discussing politics.

The U.S., Sharkey said, needs to step up screening of Muslims trying to enter the country and bring back jobs employers have moved overseas  and Trump shouldn't have to apologize for saying so.

But some observers say Trump's appeal is less about speaking a particular truth than it is giving frustrated voters a means to vent.

"There's this sense of angry, white working-class discontent," said Patricia Aufderheide, a professor of communication at American University who edited a book of essays on political correctness.

"Trump has given people permission to say things out loud that are usually tucked in until after the third drink at Thanksgiving dinner," she said. "But I think they've always been there."
WASHINGTON (TNS)  Ten years after the federal government approved the first vaccines to combat the cancer-causing human papillomavirus, nine years after those vaccines were recommended for all adolescent girls, and five years after they were recommended for all adolescent boys, less than half of girls and only a fifth of boys are getting immunized.

Despite state efforts to raise vaccination rates, public health officials say that for a variety of reasons, mainly wariness over the HPVs association with sex, parents and especially doctors have not embraced the potentially life-saving vaccine.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as of 2014, only 40 percent of girls ages 13 to 17 had completed the three-vaccine course of HPV immunization. (And just 22 percent of boys had done so.) Thats well short of the 80 percent goal set in 2010 by the federal government in its Healthy People 2020 report, which established health objectives for the nation.

Even states that require HPV inoculation for school admission or mandate that schools teach students about the virus have fallen far short of the federal benchmark.

We think the rates are dismally low and very alarming, said Amy Pisani, executive director of Every Child by Two, a nonprofit that aims to reduce instances of vaccine-preventable illnesses. We clamor and clamor for a vaccine to get rid of these terrible diseases and yet we arent implementing them.

Some states fare significantly worse. In Tennessee, for example, the vaccination rate for girls was 20 percent  the lowest rate in the nation  and 14 percent for boys. Even the best-performing state, Rhode Island, one of only two states plus the District of Columbia that require HPV inoculation for school admission, has rates well below the national goal, with 54 percent of girls and 43 percent of boys receiving all three HPV vaccinations.

Particularly vexing to public health experts is the fact that the HPV vaccination rate lags far behind that of two other vaccines recommended for the same age group. The national rate for adolescents receiving the Tdap booster (to prevent tetanus, diphtheria and acellular pertussis) is 88 percent, and for the vaccine to prevent meningococcal diseases, the rate is 79 percent.

HPV is a group of more than 150 related viruses, which together are the most common sexually transmitted infections in the United States. According to the CDC, about 79 million Americans are now infected with HPV and 14 million people become newly infected each year. Nine out of 10 HPV infections resolve themselves within two years, mostly with no symptoms whatsoever, but 10 percent of the infections lead to cancer, especially cervical cancer, but also cancers of the vulva, vagina, penis, anus and throat. It takes years, if not decades, for a person with HPV to develop cancer.

The vaccines are nearly a hundred percent effective in preventing precancerous tumors (tumors that are not growing aggressively, killing surrounding tissue or spreading to other parts of the body, but are considered likely to do so), according to the CDC. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which makes inoculation recommendations to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, recommends the vaccine for boys and girls at 11 or 12, likely before they become sexually active and possibly exposed to HPV.

ACIP recommended the vaccine for boys in 2011. Boys were not included in ACIPs original recommendation for HPV vaccines because it took longer for medical researchers to find a reliable way to detect HPV-related precancerous tumors in males. ACIP now recommends the vaccine for women up to age 26 and males up to 21. In women older than 26 and men older than 21, the vaccine is much less effective.

That the HPV vaccine requires three inoculations over several months contributes to the low vaccination rates. CDC data show a dramatic drop-off between the first and last doses. But health policy experts also point to other factors, especially the discomfort over the association between the virus and sexual activity.

HPV is most commonly spread through sexual relations. When the vaccine was first approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2006 and recommended for all adolescent girls the following year, opponents argued that the vaccine would prompt young people to start engaging in sex by freeing them of the fear of contracting HPV.

At least one study shows no uptick in sexual activity in girls who have been immunized. Nevertheless, the concern prompted the Texas Legislature in 2007 to overturn the executive order issued by Republican Gov. Rick Perry, earlier that year, requiring all girls entering the sixth grade to be immunized.

The same fear doomed immunization bills in a number of other states. The exceptions were Rhode Island, where both boys and girls entering the seventh grade must be inoculated, and Virginia and the District of Columbia, where girls entering the sixth grade must be immunized  but not boys. Their laws were passed when the recommendation applied only to girls and have not been altered to reflect the change.

Immunization supporters also hurt their own cause with ill-advised strategic decisions. For example, some state legislators soured on immunization requirements after Merck & Co., the manufacturer of the first HPV vaccine, mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign in favor of the vaccine, prompting a backlash among parents, doctors and consumer advocates.

Walt Orenstein, a professor of medicine at Emory University and the former director of the National Immunization Program at the CDC, said federal and state public health officials also erred by focusing the early public information campaign on the sexual transmission of the virus, rather than on the vaccines life-saving benefit.

It should have been pushed out as an anti-cancer drug, Orenstein said. People didnt understand why their children needed this drug when they were still years away from being sexually active.

Many who study immunizations think that too few doctors and nurse practitioners discuss the HPV vaccine with parents in a way that conveys its importance. Some parents and providers are reluctant to engage in conversations about sex  especially when the child is a preteen.

Health care providers believe it will take a lot of time, that parents either arent interested or would give them a hard time about it, and physicians dont want to talk about sex when indeed they dont have to, said Noel Brewer, who does research on immunizations at the University of North Carolina and who has studied parental and provider attitudes toward HPV.

Pisani, the director of Every Child by Two, witnessed that attitude firsthand.

My son, when he turned 11, we went to see our pediatric nurse practitioner, Pisani said. She said, Hes due Tdap and meningococcal. Do you also want to get HPV? She made it sound optional, as though it was no big deal.

Pisani said a pediatrician talked her cousins 16-year-old daughter out of getting the vaccine until she was 26.

Aside from the sex-related issues, policymakers say medical providers may feel the HPV vaccine is not urgent because symptoms do not surface for many years and the virus poses no risk of being spread in an elementary or middle school, where students usually are not sexually active.

But Brewers research demonstrates that, contrary to what doctors may believe, parents are interested in the vaccine and a strong recommendation from a physician correlates highly with youngsters getting the full course of vaccinations.

Although health policymakers want to see more vaccinations, few argue in favor of adopting mandatory state vaccination laws. Such laws, they say, often prompt a backlash, as in Texas, and can cause the opposite of the intended effect by heightening suspicion and resistance.

Denying children entry to school when they arent dangerous to anyone else is poor public policy, said Debbie Saslow, director of cancer control intervention, HPV and womens cancers at the American Cancer Society.

Lets say youre in Tennessee and 80 percent of boys are not vaccinated and 60 percent of girls arent and you open school, and suddenly you have to keep more than half the school home, she said. They have low SAT scores and low grades and now youre making them sit at home? Youd be guaranteeing yourself a backlash.

Those who track immunization rates say mandatory immunization only helps marginally and, in the case of HPV, only in places where the rates were not abysmally low. Mandates are a last resort after youve built consensus that they are a good thing to do, Orenstein said.

At least a dozen states have passed laws mandating HPV education (Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas and Washington). But those expert in HPV doubt the laws have had much impact.

Instead, they believe the best way to raise immunization rates is to better educate health care providers. Much of that education occurs through a federally supported process: Through AFIX (assessment, feedback, incentives and exchange), state and local health officials visit pediatricians and internists who routinely administer immunizations to examine their procedures and suggest improvements. To varying degrees, most states participate in the process.

One promising strategy is for practitioners to send out reminders that children are due for their vaccinations or that they failed to come in for an appointment when they were due.

Health policy researchers say reminder and recall notices are one of the most reliable means of keeping patients up to date on vaccinations. Yet the practice is still not that widespread among doctors.

Somehow our dentists and vets know how to do it, but I never get anything like that from my doctor, Orenstein said.
An explosion caused by fireworks killed more than 100 people at a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala early Sunday.

Thousands of people had gathered at the temple near the coastal town of Paravur to watch the fireworks, part of a yearly religious celebration. Officials said some of the fireworks fell on a building where a large number of fireworks were being stored, causing explosions and a fire that spread quickly. Many more people were injured as they ran from the fire.

A government official said the temple had not been given permission to hold the fireworks display.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought a special team of doctors to the area to help those who were injured.

In a tweet, Modi called the fire heart-rending and shocking beyond words. He added, My thoughts are with the families of the deceased and prayers with the injured."

Im Jonathan Evans.

Anjana Pasricha reported this story from New Delhi. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.

_____________________________________________________________

Words in This Story

fireworks  n. a small device that explodes to make a display of light and noise -- usually plural
Ukraines Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday he is resigning. His decision may permit a new government to be formed, possibly ending the countrys political crisis.

Yatsenyuk spoke on television and wrote on the social networking site Twitter. He said he will give his resignation to parliament on Tuesday. He said he hopes his decision to leave office will permit Ukraine to make changes to its constitution and to its electoral and judicial systems. He said he hopes the country can then join the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Yatsenyuk has been criticized for not being able to improve the countrys economy and for not moving fast enough to make political changes.

If members of parliament are unable to choose a new prime minister, a new election could be held. But President Petro Poroshenko does not want another election. He believes a new vote could worsen the countrys security situation.

Im Jonathan Evans.

VOANews.com reported this story. Christopher Jones-Cruise adapted it for VOA Learning English. Hai Do was the editor.

We want to hear from you. Write to us in the Comments Section, or visit our Facebook page.
KEARNEY,Neb. - The Nebraska Society, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution held its 114th State Conference at the Holiday Inn Convention Center, in Kearney on March 31 through April 2.

The DAR Good Citizens Committee awarded two scholarships to Nebraska high school seniors who exemplify the qualities of a good citizen: dependability, service, leadership, and patriotism.

The first place winner of a $450 college scholarship was Jennifer Mack of Millard North High School in Omaha. She was sponsored by the Major Isaac Sadler  La Belle Vue Chapter of Bellevue,Nebraska. The second place winner of a $350 scholarship was Eva Martin of Lexington. She was sponsored by the Bonneville Chapter from Lexington.

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution was founded in 1890 to promote patriotism, preserve American history and support better education for our nations children. Any woman 18 years or older, regardless of race, religion or ethnic background, who can prove lineal descent from a patriot of the American Revolution, is eligible for membership. With more than 168,000 members in approximately 3,000 chapters worldwide, DAR is one of the worlds largest and most active service organizations. To learn more about the work of todays DAR, visit www.dar.org.
In La Vista Dr. Joseph Miller recently helped orchestrate a Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) event as the President of the Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians. The NAFP sponsored an all-day conference, MACRA, the Good, the Bad and What It Means for the Future of Health Care, on March 30, 2016 at the Embassy Suites La Vista Conference Center. MACRA, the Medicare Access CHIPS Reauthorization Act, will change how health care is delivered and reimbursed over the next 10-15 years. It is the second most important piece of federal legislation regarding health care next to the Accountable Care Act since Medicare and Medicaid.

At the event there were five national presenters to assist with educating participants on MACRA and the Future of Health Care including Paul Grundy MD, who is IBMs Global Director of Healthcare Transformation, a member of the IBM Industry Academy, member of the National Academy of Medicine (IOM) and a Director of the ACGME. Others speakers included: Douglas E. Henley, MD, FAAFP, the Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP);Ted Epperly, MD, FAAFP, the President and CEO of the Family Medicine Residency of Idaho, a large Federally Qualified Teaching Health Center comprised of seven clinics, three family medicine residency, programs, and four fellowships; Amy Mullins, MD, FAAFP, the Medical Director for Quality Improvement for the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP); Robert Wergin, MD, FAAFP who recently served as the 2014-2015 American Academy of Family Physicians President, is currently the AAFP Board Chairman and is also a practicing family physician in Milford, Neb. Calder Lynch the Director of the Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care for Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, was the sixth presenter. This event was well attended with over 270 participants from various physician disciplines, hospital systems, insurers, and legislators offices.

Following this event Miller also helped organize the 68th Annual Meeting and Scientific Assembly of the Nebraska Academy of Family physicians in Omaha on March 31-April 2, 2016. The event provides attendees with continuing medical education credits. The Nebraska Academy of Family Physicians is a Constituent Chapter of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Subjects covered during the meeting are of immediate interest to family doctors, both in their everyday practices and in their continual endeavors to keep abreast of the latest preventative advances in medicine. Members must complete 150 hours of mandatory continuing study every three years. This year Miller will serve on the Executive Committee and Nebraska Academy Board as the Immediate Past President.

Approximately one in four of all office visits are made to family physicians. That is 228 million office visits each year- nearly 84 million more than the next largest medical specialty. Today, family physicians provide more care for Americas underserved and rural populations than any other medical specialty. Family medicines cornerstone is an ongoing, personal patient-physician relationship focused on integrated care.
On most days, Pahlaj Nihalani deserves to be on every list of lampoon-worthy individuals in this country. He is, after all, a man with a track record of both stupidity and mediocrity, who does not deserve to be chairperson of Indias Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

Nihalanis statements, directives and actions since he took over that job have been bizarre, to say the least. He is the guy who released that slavishly obsequious short film this year with kids hailing a divine-looking Modi Kaaka as he meditates silently on a rock. This is a man whose filmography as a producer is exemplified by Andaz (1994) in which, after much orgasmic writhing about in a bed, Juhi Chawla springs up to prance around a human-sized train set while she sings to Anil Kapoor: Yeh maal gaadi, tu dhakka laga / Garam ho gaya injun iska / Tu dhakka deta jaa (This is a goods train / give it a push / The engine is hot / keep pushing it).

As you listen to these deliciously crass lyrics and watch the hero occasionally cup the heroines derriere in his hands, while they intersperse the suggestive thrusting of their crotches with the thrusting of their bottoms towards each other, it is hard not to feel utter contempt for Nihalani.

How can a reasonable human being not agree that he got the CBFC chiefs job solely because of his well-known devotion to Modi Kaaka and the RSS?

This, perhaps, is why so many people gave in to the temptation to mock him for his recent declaration that Disneys The Jungle Book is a scary film meriting a UA certification. When his interview was published in DNA a few days back, the social media erupted in a storm of bemusement, amusement and ridicule.

This was before the films release, and before even press previews had been held in India, so most of those commenting had not seen the film. Their reaction clearly stemmed from the fact that Rudyard Kiplings books on which the film is based are widely seen as childrens classics.

Besides, the international screen versions best known in India  the 1967 Disney animated feature and the Japanese TV series aired on Doordarshan in the 1990s  were carefree romps through a forest, packed though they were with multiple messages. For those with memories of both still fresh in their minds, CBFCs decision regarding the new Hollywood film must have seemed like yet another obvious Nihalani-ism.

It is not.

And so in the matter of The Jungle Book, critics of Nihalani would do well to take a deep breath, count to ten, step back from their reflex actions and read this.

After all, liberalism means acepting that sometimes the wrong person could be right. The thing about art is that every retelling is an interpretation. And director Jon Favreaus take on this beloved story is far more adult and grave than you might expect, with its chills further enhanced by the use of 3D. When the tiger Shere Khan first pounces on Mowgli and the panther Bagheera rises to the boys defence, the CGI is so good, the action so swift and the beasts so menacing, that it is truly a frightening moment, one of quite a few in this film. It almost feels as though Shere Khan is headed for a viewers throat.

So in this particular instance, as it turns out, we should heed Nihalanis words. Within the constraints placed even on liberals by the Indian film censorship system, UA is the most apt rating for this film. It is a different matter that Nihalani aint no liberal.

The more important point here is that the rules in India do not offer a more viable rating option to even the most open-minded advocates of creative freedom. The controversy over The Jungle Book could be a perfect starting point for a renewed debate on the absurdity of Indias film censorship system per se, a discussion that will get lost if we busy ourselves with laughing at Nihalani who, for a change here, has said and done what most liberals would be driven to say and do after seeing this film.

Forget him for an instant. Let us concern ourselves primarily with our cinema and our children. First, it is a measure of the widely prevalent public view of the CBFC that it is popularly known as the Censor Board although the word censor has officially not been in the name since 1983.

You cannot blame the public for this misconception. CBFC, after all, is a statutory body that is legally permitted to regulate even what Indian adults can see by demanding cuts in A-rated films.

Second, CBFC provisions for film ratings are too limited in number. They need to be expanded, keeping in mind, among other things, that under-18s are not a homogeneous lot. At the moment, Indias film ratings system assumes, for instance, that the maturity levels of 17-year-olds and 13-year-olds are the same.

The present rating options in India are as follows:

U  for unrestricted public exhibition.

UA  unrestricted public exhibition subject to parental guidance for those under 12.

A  for adults only.

S  restricted to specialised audiences such as doctors or scientists.

Compare this to the better developed, though certainly not flawless, options used by CARA, The Classification and Rating Administration in the US:

G  general.

PG  parental guidance is recommended since the film may contain some material parents may consider inappropriate for their children.

PG-13  parents are strongly advised to investigate the film before letting under-13s watch it.

R  under-17s not allowed unless accompanied by a parent or adult guardian.

NC-17  persons who are 17 and below are not allowed.

CARA is not a statutory body. Filmmakers voluntarily submit their works to CARA because theatres  spurred by public opinion perhaps  prefer such films. The agency in turn offers an explanation for the rating granted to each film. Producers are expected to prominently feature the rating and the reasoning on their publicity material. The idea is to help parents while they decide whether or not to let their children watch a particular film.

The Jungle Book, for example, has received a PG rating in the US with this addendum: Rated PG for some sequences of scary action and peril. Parents who permit their kids to regularly view CSI or Game of Thrones on TV are very likely to consider The Jungle Book childs play, but others may differ. The point is, well-meaning, responsible mothers and fathers may have different standards but they are all being provided with valuable details which they can use to make an informed decision in the best interests of their wards.

In contrast, here in India, UA is an umbrella that covers the entire swathe of ratings from PG to R in the US, without giving any specifics. What exactly does it mean? Does a particular film that has been given a UA contain implied violence or graphic bloodshed? Does it feature fleeting scenes of physical intimacy between characters or explicit sex? On a scale of 1-10, how fearsome is it?

What is a parent to make of the rating for The Jungle Book when you consider some of the other films that have been rated UA in India since Nihalani was appointed to the CBFC in January 2015? These include the Hindi film Kapoor & Sons which contained no violence, no scares, no sex, some very brief kissing and a vague allusion to a characters sexual orientation through a conversation. The innocence of Kapoor & Sons has been equated in the same year with the extreme violence in the same film industrys Jai Gangaajal and Ghayal Once Again, both of which also got UA ratings.

Over the years, long before Nihalani entered the picture, members of Indias film censorship system have displayed a conviction that it is better to expose minors to gruesome violence, crude sexual innuendo especially through the medium of song and dance, rape jokes and the trivialisation of sexual harassment on screen than to show them a mere reference to actual sex or let them become aware of even the existence of homosexuality. In 2014, for instance, the Hindi film Kick received a UA rating although the hero (played by Salman Khan) harasses the heroine in various scenes epitomised by one in which he laughingly lifts her skirt with his teeth, she is shown displaying her annoyance but a few seconds later merrily joins him in a song n dance routine. Apparently we do not mind our kids growing up with politician Sharad Yadavs attitude that stalking is a legitimate form of courtship.

In 2015, the Telugu film Bahubali was rated UA despite the hero being a stalker who assaults the heroine, an act of violence viewers are urged to accept unquestioningly since it is romanticised through beautiful music and choreography. On the other hand, Chauranga  a film in the Khortha dialect of Maithili  was rated A for a love-making scene in which the woman was a willing partner (the director was also asked to make cuts).

The CBFC alone is not the problem. In fact, the Indian censorship system is far more complex than the public realises. The first level of the rating process involves examining committees (ECs) at centres across India that watch, discuss and certify films. The Board is called in only when filmmakers contest the rating awarded to their film or cuts demanded by an EC.

In theory, the Central Government is supposed to choose eminent persons to be members of the CBFC and take their advice on the constitution of ECs since even a liberal Board can be weighed down by narrow-minded or cinema-illiterate ECs. This was a serious issue that insiders tell us hampered the work of the previous CBFC headed by Leela Samson  arguably one of the most liberal Boards the country has seen. In any case, successive governments have usually casually doled out CBFC and EC appointments as political favours, often to questionable individuals.

The only reason why the present CBFC has been singled out for particular criticism is that it marks an all-time low in terms of the artistic qualifications of its members and its chief.

Film ratings bodies in civilised nations should serve not as nannies for grown-ups but as guiding lights for parents. However, with the kind of powers bestowed on Indias CBFC, members of the central organisation and the ECs usually end up seeing themselves as guardians of the countrys collective morality. Their personal conservatism, their misogyny, casteism, homophobia and other prejudices then get reflected in their rating choices and scissoring tendencies.

The free rein given to the CBFC has resulted in a randomness that has been the biggest cause of clashes between Indias film industries and the Board for decades. This randomness has, not surprisingly, peaked under the present Board.

In December 2015, for instance, the Hindi-English film Angry Indian Goddesses was rated A but director Pan Nalin was still compelled to mute every single expletive used and the word sarkar (government) from a conversation in which the heroines discuss government interference in the private lives of citizens. In addition, he had to blur pictures of Hindu goddesses referenced by the film to celebrate woman power. That same week, characters in Hate Story 3 used the F-word and its variants seven times through the film  fucking idiot, who the fuck are you?, Im not a fucking coward and so on  without being subjected to beeps. This was in addition to their plentiful bedroom romps.

Nihalani certainly has a lot to answer for, even if he is on solid ground in the matter of The Jungle Book.

The larger problem that he represents though, will not go away merely by removing him. What is desperately needed is a complete overhaul of the system that governs the CBFC, an exercise that must be helmed by liberals with a deep understanding of the arts.

By focusing completely on Nihalani, well-meaning film buffs are reducing this entire discussion to a debate over an individual. Frankly, their single-mindedness suits those who appointed him.

Because this is what leads to people jumping the gun and passing judgment on his comments about The Jungle Book even before they saw the film. And because even if he is fired, the regulations will not change with the person, and while the government is most likely to replace him with another conservative, the fact is that even ultra-liberals on previous CBFCs have faced ridiculous systemic constraints.

It is tempting to mock the ever-mockable Pahlaj Nihalani over The Jungle Book, but if you really care about cinema, please concede that he is not off the mark in this case. Deride him when he deserves it, but let us focus first and foremost on our system of censorship instead.
The IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) fee hike has highlighted once again the very lopsided approach of the Indian government towards higher education. Much of this lop-sidedness has a lot to do with the vision of the first Indian prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru had lofty plans about large scale projects and the best of class universities. But in pursuing the best, he often forgot that the best can survive only when the base is sound. And at the base are the smallest of institutions that also need nurturing. Thus the salary of the policeman, the bureaucrat, the teacher and the judge was kept at the bare minimum. And the school was almost forgotten.

The governments intentions to finance all the sectors of education  primary, secondary and higher  was laudable. But it was impractical. As a result all the three have suffered. A glance at the table will throw some more light on this. Today, even though India talks about a demographic dividend, the total number of employable graduates in the country is pathetically low. If one were to put all graduates  arts science, commerce, medicine, engineering, law, etc  into one basket, the total number would account for just around 3.7 percent of Indias total population (Census 2001 numbers).

However, even this figure is misleading. At least half the graduates cannot even read or write in any language properly. Their numeric capabilities are not up to the mark. And if one goes by what McKinseys, Nasscom and recruiting heads have to say, not more than 20-30 percent of the graduates are employable in the skills they are supposed to have specialized in.

In other words, all the readers of this column, and the author, would belong to just 20 percent of 3.7 percent. We therefore belong to a wafer thin community of less than 1% of Indias population. While some may interpret this as a matter of pride; the fact is that this is a national shame. It means that 80 percent of the money that has been spent on higher education was not worth the expenditure. The outcomes do not justify this spend. But dont blame the colleges. The rot lies in the way our schools function. For the last 70 years there has been no national level evaluation of the competence of teachers. And nobody talks of one more test that is required. I may be competent, but may not be inclined to work. You need to create a method by which the incremental scores achieved by each student in the next higher class are attributed to the teacher. The teacher who managers to get positive outcome marks is good; the one who does not may need to be weeded out of the system.

But that will not be possible till teachers are paid a salary that is good enough to attract talent. This is not the case now. Ask the average child in college, and he or she would prefer to go into the financial services, work with an MNC, or with a good domestic enterprise. Teaching would be the last thing on his or her mind. As the saying goes, when no other option is left, the person finally opts to become a school teacher. Most schools have poorly talented teachers. The government needs to upgrade their skills by matching skills with higher pay. It needs to evaluate students at least twice during their ten year stint in schools, to find out the competence of schools. That will reduce the rush of students going to colleges. It will improve the quality of students taking admissions in colleges. Hopefully, in a few years time, almost 50 percent of graduates will be employable as against 20-30 percent now.

The poor state of schools is one reasons why the institutes of higher learning must learn to fund themselves. The money that the government spends on higher education could then be used to revamp school education. The first step for the likes of IITs to get their funds would be by increasing fees. Yes, SC, STs, and the meritorious may be allowed scholarships, but at no cost must the entry level standards be diluted. This is a condition that politicians often forget, very conveniently. An inept student is perfect fodder for campus politics and the most corrosive element when it comes to eroding educational standards.

The second step would be to upgrade teaching capabilities. Without good teachers, even the existing lot of graduates will drift towards unemployability.

The third step would be to allow more colleges and universities to admit foreign students who pay anywhere between 4-10 times more than resident Indian students. This is the practice in the US, the UK and Australia. So why has India shied away from it? We do it for tickets to museums or to monuments  where foreigners pay entry fees 10 times (or more) higher than what locals pay. Why not with education? That will allow foreign students to cross subsidise the cost of education for Indians. To do this, Indian institutes must become better at the business and craft of teaching and education. That is a key imperative.

As the fourth step, allow the IITs and the IIMs to set up campuses overseas. They have already requested the government for permission to do so. While private management colleges have done this, the IITs and the IIMs are still awaiting government clearance. What this does is that the campus gets global recognition. It also earns the ability to hire the best talent overseas, at globally benchmarked remuneration levels, because it can charge higher fees. In turn, such an arrangement allows institutes to send these teachers employed overseas as visiting faculty to their Indian branches at virtually no additional cost. The students get a global mix of teachers, and the teachers are exposed to various cultures. The benefit goes to the educational institution and the home country as well. For some unknown reason, the government has not allowed Indian institutes to grow. Instead, it has preferred to meddle in its administrative affairs.

Finally, cleanse the universities of archaic systems of evaluating research. Peer review by globally recognised academic leaders is a must if we have to create room for better research. It is only then that many other Indian institutes  like some of the best IITs in India  will start getting fully-funded research projects from the industry. That will become the next level of funding. As educational institutions gain in prestige, it will not be difficult for it to get its alumni to contribute to creating chairs and scholarships for their alma mater.

The possibilities of financing higher education are many. There is never a shortage of money. But there is always a shortage of good intentions, and good planning.

This is the final segment of our series on the IIT fee structure.

Part 1: IIT fees hike: Jump from Rs 90,000 a year to Rs 2 lakh is still not high enough and here's why

Part 2: Indian students abroad: The darker side of Indias higher education myopia
In a newsroom interaction with Firstpost journalists in March, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan shared some statistics pertaining to irrigation in the state. Of the land that is tilled, only 18 percent is irrigated. Now if you compare that, Punjab is 98 percent irrigated, Haryana is 90 percent, UP is 60 percent, Bihar is 60 to 70 percent or in that range. The national average of land that is irrigated is between 45 and 46 percent. We're at 18 percent. Only Kerala is lower than us. 18 percent is just bad.

What he didnt mention is that Maharashtra is also the state with the maximum number of dams. According to the National Register of Large Dams, available on the website of the Central Water Commission, Maharashtra has 1,845 dams (35 percent of Indias large dams). Madhya Pradesh comes next with 906 dams. Maharashtra is also ahead of every other state with regards to projects under construction. Currently, it has 152 projects underway. No other state manages to reach the three figure mark in this category. Jharkhand is the next best with 29.

How is a large dam defined? A dam with a height of more than 15 metres or a storage capacity of more than 60 million cubic metres, according to the National Register of Large Dams. Dams with heights between 10-15 meters are also included in the list.

Maharashtra has spent money building the largest dam infrastructure in the country, which has actually turned out to be the least efficient in terms of providing irrigation to cropped area. This is what Parineeta Dandekar of the organisation South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People calls the dam scam.

Lets compare Maharashtra with some of the states that Chavan mentions: Punjab has 16 large dams, Haryana has one, Uttar Pradesh has 130 and Bihar has 26. All these states have achieved greater irrigation efficiency with fewer dams.

So what has gone wrong in Maharashtra?

When a dam becomes an end, rather than a means to an end, what you get is a grand water and irrigation system on paper and water scarcity on the ground. The big-dams model of Maharashtra has largely worked in favour of the contractor lobby at the expense of needy farmers, water experts and activists that Firstpost interviewed said.

The overactive, pro-dam lobby is responsible for the state of affairs, Parineeta Dandekar said in a telephone interview. The lobby is influential among politicians, bureaucrats and the administration and is more interested in the infrastructure and contracts rather than water reaching the people.

Prithviraj Chavan told Firstpost that most of the rainwater in the maximum rainfall area of the Western Ghats is lost because it flows to the sea. A large part of the state sits atop the Deccan plateau, so water has to be pumped up, which in turn means expending energy. Given the topography, the big-dams model may not be the most efficient way to conserve water, though it may be the most efficient for skimming money.

The best way to conserve water would be to stop rainwater at different places through small structures like check dams and anicuts, water conservationist Rajendra Singh told Firstpost. Small structures are more efficient at holding water runoff, which in turn recharges ground water. A community-driven, decentralized water management system is the best system to stop corruption, encroachment, pollution and over-extraction of water resources, Singh said.

However, since a community-driven model involves a participatory approach and more transparency it is not in the interests of the contractor lobby. Also, the amount of money in constructing small structures is negligible compared to big dams. Singh, who has worked on water revival projects in Marathwada, said it costs between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 20 lakh to build a check dam or anicut.

Compare that to the costs involved in building large dams. A 2012 Maharashtra government report on irrigation gives details of the cost overruns. The original provision for the Renapur project in Latur was Rs 12.7 crore, which has increased to Rs 89.35 crore, a 700 percent increase. Similarly, the Bhima (Ujni) project in Solapur saw a 7,000 percent increase, from Rs 31.18 crore to Rs 2,184.17 crore. Time overruns are another issue.

Singh cited the example of a dam he visited in the Sahayadaris, which was commissioned four years ago. Not one inch of land has been irrigated by this dam, he said. As per his estimates, of the money skimmed off a dam project, 70 percent goes to contractors and 10 percent to politicians, while the remaining amount, or 20 percent, is the actual amount of work done.

Prithviraj Chavan told the Firstpost team that the most lucrative part of a dam is building the wall: The contractors are only interested in that. Whos interested in rehabilitating people?

Other factors responsible are unrealistic projections of the potential of irrigation projects and the shoddy construction work. Vijay Deevan, a civic activist and former member of the Marathwada Development Board, said the original project documents almost always overestimate the irrigation potential of projects. Jayakwadi dam, the largest in Marathwada, was envisaged with a capacity to irrigate 2,72,000 hectares of land when it was conceived in 1965. This was scaled down to 1,42,000 hectares. The dam actually irrigates around 28,000 hectares.

The current efficiency of big dams in Maharashtra is just 23 percent, according to Deevan. Increasing the efficiency of the current projects can bring more crop land under irrigation.

Pradeep Purandare, a water and irrigation specialist based in Aurangabad said, Those who have influence grab the land closest to the dam and the water for themselves, leaving nothing for the tailenders. The tailenders, in physical and socio-economic terms, are the small and marginal farmers.

The reason for the distribution system, the network of canals that take water to the fields, being in a mess is because the contractors dont do a good job, deliberately or otherwise. Money is paid out, fake bills are prepared, but the work is not done, Purandare said.

This is the fifth segment of a 13-part series on Marathwadas drought.

Part 6: A farmer-activist narrates his experience of interacting with families of farmers who committed suicide in Latur

Read the previous parts of the series here:

Part 1: Region is parched, impoverished and desperate, but it's a crisis of its own making

Part 2: In the midst of severe economic downturn, private water sellers reap profits in Latur

Part 3: Drought has brought the economy down and is forcing farmers to leave the region

Part 4: Water scarcity has created a region where trust has eroded and left the social fabric frayed
Legal reform in personal laws has been one of the critical yet neglected areas in Indian democracy. This reform is for the dignity and equality of women citizens and thereby all Indians  irrespective of religious background. The Sachar Committee appointed by the Prime Minister in 2005 said that Muslims (who comprise the largest minority) live in poverty, economic and educational backwardness. The findings also suggest that on an average only four out of 100 Muslims are graduates.

Now out of these four, how many are women, is open to questioning. On the one hand, Muslim women are excluded educationally and socio-economically owing to government neglect. On the other hand, they suffer from the near absence of any legal framework in matters of family, marriage, divorce, custody of children etc.

Unlike those from other communities, Muslim women are denied their legal rights in the personal realm despite Quranic injunctions. Practices such as triple talaq and halala persist in our society despite there being no sanction to these in the Quran.

This situation has arisen thanks to the way the Muslim personal law is understood and practised in India. The whole arena is mired in ambiguity, obfuscation and gross apathy owing to the stranglehold of conservative patriarchal elements who have hegemonised this space forever. Fourteen hundred years ago, the Quran gave clear rights to women in marriage, family, society and public life but in reality there has been a persistent denial of these rights. So much so, that a perception has arisen, that in Islam, men have superiority over women.

Within several conservative sections the dominant belief seems to be that Muslim women need to live a life of subjugation within the four walls of a home. The hegemony of the patriarchal forces has continued post-1947 till date. The attempts by Muslim women such as Shayara Bano and several others is a cry for justice and for a halt to rampant violations of their rights in marriage and family.

The absence of a comprehensive codified personal law in our country has resulted in Muslim woman suffering in matters of divorce, halala, polygamy, guardianship and custody of children, share in property etc. The Shariat Application Act, 1937 is silent on all these matters. It is claimed that Indian Muslims are governed by Shariat. But the Shariat as practised currently in different parts of the country is undefined and unwritten. It is subject to multiple interpretations and misinterpretations  which more often than not, are unfair to women.

Often the injunctions of the Holy Quran are violated in the name of Shariat; widespread incidence of triple talaq is the commonest example. Unfair practices pertaining to age of marriage, mehr, divorce, alimony, child custody, property are all passed off in the name of Shariat. It is anybodys guess as to how many ordinary Muslims understand the spirit of the Holy Quran or its underlying principles of gender justice!

It is not difficult to guess as to what is the perspective and understanding of some of those men dispensing justice in Shariat courts across the country! Most times, the verdicts in family matters end up being unfairly pro-men and entirely anti-women. This can hardly be said to be based on Quranic injunctions!

A comment on the role of various elected governments and this continued injustice is in order. In our country, Muslim womens quest for justice is viewed with skepticism or even hostility. By recognising only the conservative religious voice as the sole voice the democratic state has failed in enabling fair representation for all sections of population including women. The conservative sections are unaware and unconcerned about the issues of Muslim women and therefore, they cannot continue speaking for them.

A national study done by us revealed that Muslim women are fed up of this oppression and want immediate redressal. We found that 55 percent of the women surveyed were married before the age of 18 years, 47 percent women dont possess their own nikahnama and 82 percent women have no property in their name. An overwhelming 95.5 percent women have not heard about the AIMPLB  the all-India Muslim Personal Law Board. More than 40 percent women received less than Rs 1000 for mehr and 44 percent women did not receive the mehr at all. Most respondents were not aware of the empowering provisions about mehr and that it is their right to decide the amount.

An overwhelming 91.7 percent women spoke out against polygamy saying that a Muslim man should not be allowed to have another wife during the subsistence of the first marriage. Of the divorced women, 65.9 percent were divorced orally, 7.6 percent were divorced though a letter, 3.4 percent women were divorced on phone, 3 on email, 1 via SMS. In all, 78 percent women were divorced unilaterally.

The study indicates that an overwhelming 88.3 percent women are opposed to triple talaq and want the legal divorce method to be the talaq-e-ahsan method spread over a period of 90 days and involving negotiation and avoiding arbitrariness. An overwhelming 83.3 percent women felt that their family disputes can be resolved if the law is codified. 89 percent wanted the government to intervene in helping codify the Muslim personal law. Over 86 percent women wanted religious leaders to take responsibility for enabling Muslim women to get justice in family and they wanted these leaders to support in bringing about a gender-just law.

It needs to be mentioned here that patriarchal forces are attempting to project that court interference is a violation of the Constitutional right to religious freedom of the Muslim minority. This is a lie; actually the prevalent practice of triple talaq is a violation of Quranic injunctions and therefore violates the right to religious freedom of Muslim women. And this violation is being done by self-appointed custodians of religion.

Shayara Bano and other Muslim women are seeking an end to this violation of their Quranic rights. It is the Muslim conservative forces who are violating the Islamic principles of gender justice and the Muslim women are forced to go to courts. It is only incidental that they are in violation of the Constitutional principles too. Lack of legal recourse and discrimination is a very important aspect that calls for correction while addressing the Quranic rights as well as the citizenship rights of Muslim women.

Zakia Soman and Noorjehan Niaz are co-founders of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan which seeks reform in Muslim personal law
By Sanu George

Thiruvananthapuram: Like in the past, this time too quite a few interesting poll battles are lined up - more than a dozen in fact - for May 16 when the Kerala voters queue up to cast their vote. This time there are film stars pitted against one another, political veterans taking on one another, one-time friends battling against one another; and there are two TV journalists rivalling it out.

Though the fight in Kerala is mainly between the traditional rival fronts - the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), in a few constituencies there is a triangular contest, with the BJP-led NDA putting up a fight.

But the mother of all battles is taking place at Poonjar in Kottayam district, where it is a tough four-way contest. In at least 30 constituencies, it's a 3-way fight, reports The Indian Express.

Six-time legislator P.C. George, who has earlier been with both the traditional fronts and has now become a persona non grata for them, has decided to go it alone for the first time. George asserts he will win the seat.

Another battle never witnessed before in the state is at Pathanapuram in Kollam district, where the rival fronts have fielded veteran film stars.

For K.B. Ganesh Kumar, who is aiming for a fourth successive win, the only change is that this is the first time he is part of the LDF combination, moving out from the UDF. Taking him on is ace comedian Jagdish, the Congress candidate, while the BJP has fielded popular villain Bheemen Reghu.

The selection of Reporter TV channel journalist M.V. Nikesh Kumar by the CPI-M appears to be the biggest surprise. His father M.V. Raghavan till the '80s was the most firebrand CPI-M leader, and after being booted out of the party he has turned into its biggest enemy by becoming a minister on two occasions with the UDF.

Kumar is being fielded from Azhikode in Kannur district, the seat from where his father won in 1987 as a UDF ally. He is taking on sitting legislator K.M. Shaji of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), an ally of the UDF.

Kumar's colleague in the Reporter TV channel, Veena George, was another surprise choice by the CPI-M. She is taking on senior Congress legislator K. Sivadasan Nair at the Aranmula constituency in Pathanamthitta.

In the Kollam constituency, the CPI-M again sprang a surprise when it decided to drop its veteran CITU trade union leader and former minister P.K. Gurudasan. The party gave the seat to film star Mukesh, who is pitted against Sooraj Ravi, son of late legislator Thoppil Ravi, a close friend and party colleague of top Congress leaders like A.K. Antony, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.

Popular Congress leader, Raj Mohan Unnithan, who turned a film star late in his career and is known for his razor sharp tongue, is taking on former legislator and senior CPI-M leader J. Mercykutty in the Kundara constituency in Kollam.

For the Idukki seat, the fight is between three-time sitting legislator Roshy Augustine of the Kerala Congress (Mani), an ally of the UDF, and his party colleague till last month and former Lok Sabha member Francis George, who has formed a new party and joined the LDF.

The Thalassery seat in Kannur district - the seat that has seen veteran CPI-M leaders like former chief minister E.K. Nayanar and present party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan winning - will this time see two former friends in the CPI-M pitted against each other. Sitting Congress legislator from Kannur, A.P. Abdullahakutty (who quit CPI-M a few years back and joined the Congress) is taking on CPI-M youth leader A.N. Shamsheer.

Two other poll battles that appear to be closely watched by the BJP, which is yet to open its account in the 140-member Kerala assembly, is at Manjeswaram, the northernmost constituency in the state. Firebrand BJP leader K. Surendran, who finished in second place in the 2011 polls, is taking on sitting IUML legislator P.B. Abdul Razak.

The second one where the BJP is placing high hopes is in the Nemom constituency in the capital district where former union minister of state O. Rajagopal, a regular contestant in all elections since the BJP was formed in Kerala and who finished second in 2011 in Nemom, is being fielded. Rajagopal is taking on sitting legislator of the CPI-M V. Sivan Kutty.

At Thrissur, the home turf of former chief minister K. Karunakaran, his daughter Padmaja Venugopal is returning to active politics after a gap of 12 years and is taking on popular Communist Party of India (CPI) legislator V.S. Sunilkumar.

Another interesting constituency is Tripunithura in Ernakulam district where Congress Minister for Excise K. Babu, who came under a cloud in the bar scam, is taking on firebrand CPI-M youth leader M. Swaraj.

Besides these closely fought constituencies, the other glamour ones include where Chandy (Puthupally), CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan (Dharmadom) and former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan (Malampuzha) are contesting and where the outcomes can easily be predicted.
Kolkata: Once unknown beyond their immediate circles of family, friends and colleagues, they became crusaders due to difficulties and sorrow they experienced at a personal level. They all are now busy plotting the downfall of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who in the very first place is "responsible" for their 'celebrity' status.

Among these fighters working against the Trinamool Congress chief and her party in the West Bengal assembly elections is a Jadhavpur University professor, a widow of a green activist, two housewives, and a farmer.

Dubbed as Maoists or arrested for circulating an innocuous spoof, they all faced Banerjee's wrath at one or the other point of time. Now, they say, they are fighting to "reclaim democracy snatched away by the despotic Trinamool regime".

Ambikesh Mahapatra was leading a normal life as a chemistry professor at the Jadavpur University till April 12, 2012, when his arrest for circulating a spoof on the chief minister made him a household name in West Bengal and elsewhere.

Contesting as an Independent, he is taking on city mayor and Trinamool heavyweight Sovan Chatterjee from Behala East.

Mahapatra openly admits he owes his popularity to Banerjee.

"It is a fact that people know me in India and even abroad because of Mamata. But this popularity is as much an advertisement of the despotic and tyrannical regime that has robbed the entire state of democracy," Mahapatra told IANS.

"It's neither a personal fight nor a move to seek revenge, but to give voice to many people like me who suffered or continue to do so at the hands of this government," says Mahapatra.

He has formed 'Aakranta Aamraa' (We the Victims), a forum of alleged victims of human rights violations and atrocities under Banerjee rule.

Undeterred by his strong adversary Chatterjee, who won the seat in 2011 by a wide margin, Mahapatra has been extensively using the social media to circulate spoofs and jokes revolving around a Narada TV sting operation allegedly showing several Trinamool leaders, including the mayor, taking bribes.

"It's a shame that the mayor's post, once occupied by luminaries like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, now has somebody who has no qualms in taking bundles of cash as bribe," says Mahapatra.

Besides Mahapatra, the forum has fielded Pratima Dutta, wife of murdered green activist Tapan Dutta, from Domjur in Howrah district.

Lending them support is Shiladitya Chowdhury, a farmer branded as a Maoist and thrown into jail for daring to question Banerjee in public about the rising fertiliser prices.

Till then a nondescript famer from Binpur in West Midnapore, people saw on their TV sets police dragging away Chowdhury after Mamata ordered "Oke dhorun... ekkhuni dhorun (catch him... catch him at once)" during a public meet in 2012.

With the case still pending against him, Chowdhury has been going around both Behala and Domjur constituencies, telling people about his miseries and urging them not to vote for the Trinamool.

"My life has been ruined; it's been four years and I still have to do the rounds of court. And I'm not alone. There are many others languishing in jails on false charges just because they opposed the Trinamool in some way or the other."

"The entire state should teach her a lesson by not casting even a single vote for Trinamool which is nothing but a symbol of torture and tyranny," Chowdhury told IANS.

Tumpa Koyal and Mousumi Koyal would perhaps have spent their lives as housewives in a little-known village Kamduni in North 24 Parganas, but for the gruesome gang rape and murder of their friend and their branding as Maoist, allegedly by Banerjee.

Joining forces with 'Akaranta Aamraa', the Koyals have been seeking speedy justice and capital punishment for the guilty. They have even knocked the doors of top political and constitutional authorities, including the president, demanding that the trial be expedited.

Due to their untiring efforts, three people were handed out death sentences and three others life imprisonment in the rape-murder case.

Though hesitant to join the electoral din, the Koyals say they fervently hope Mahapatra and Dutta emerge as winners.

"We don't want to get entangled in politics. Our fight was for justice to our friend whose life was brutally snuffed out. But yes, we wish to see a chief minister who is more concerned about women security," Tumpa told IANS.

Nodding in agreement, Mousumi said: "Mahapatra and Dutta will be the real public representatives. Unlike politicians, they are more like us who have gone through pains and difficulties in life."

And Mahapatra is not alone in his fight against Mamata Banerjee. Not only his "fellow victims" but almost the entire opposition  the Left Front, Congress and the BJP as well as civil society members - have unequivocally extended support to him and Dutta.
Lebanon expects to charge seven people in the case of the bungled child recovery operation involving a 60 Minutes television crew in Beirut, a local newspaper has reported.

The country's reputable English-language Daily Star newspaper cited a judicial source as saying the case was referred on Saturday to prosecutors who would most likely charge seven people on Monday.

Two of the nine people originally detained had been released but it was not clear who those people were, the paper said.
An Australian television crew detained in Lebanon has not been charged and there is not expected to be movement in the case until Monday night Australian time, according to the Nine Network.

Journalist Tara Brown and a crew from 60 Minutes were arrested in Beirut on Thursday after the country's police alleged they were involved in an attempt to kidnap two children.

The network was reporting on an attempt by Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner to reunite with her children Lahela, 6, and Noah, 4, who were allegedly not returned to Australia after going to Lebanon on a holiday with their father Ali Elamine last year.
It was to be a quick fortnight stay in Sydney during which Miming Listiyani could say goodbye to her friends before she moved back to Jakarta.

Ms Listiyani, an advertising graduate from the University of Technology, Sydney, was "finally catching her dream", friends say, and was going home to set up a pastry kitchen.

But five days after she arrived back in Australia, police found Ms Listiyani's naked body floating in water near Cabarita ferry wharf, in Sydney's inner west, just before midnight on Thursday.
A Kansas man is suspected of child abuse after US police said his girlfriend's two-year-old son, who was in his care, was found not breathing because an octopus was lodged in his throat.

Police said the child's mother returned home from work on Tuesday night and discovered her boyfriend performing CPR on her son.

Police arrested a man after the child in his care was found unable to breathe due to an octopus in his throat Credit:Freeimages.com

The toddler had minor visible injuries and breathing issues, according to an incident report.

The child was rushed to hospital where "an obstruction was removed from his throat", according to the report.
The Boston Globe does not support Donald Trump's campaign for U.S. president.

The newspaper, one of the most prominent in the United States, published a page of fake articles Sunday that it said are a vision of how the United States will look if Trump wins.

"This is Donald Trump's America," the Globe said. "What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP (Republican) front-runner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action. Many Americans might find this vision appealing, but the Globe's editorial board finds it deeply troubling."

There is a long history of newspapers endorsing candidates in the United States, usually with an article written by the editorial board that lays out why voters should support that candidate and not their opponents.

The Globe's approach is unique, with the mock front page dated April 17, 2017, featuring a large banner headline declaring "Deportations to Begin."

The accompanying article has Trump calling on Congress to create a "massive deportation force" while protesters rally against his policies outside the White House.

Controversial campaign promises

The page further highlights Trump's most controversial campaign promises, including his plan to build a wall at the Mexican border and renegotiate trade deals.

One article notes a stock market plunge following the Trump administration's announcement of massive new tariffs on Chinese and Mexican imports.

Another article discusses the refusal of U.S. soldiers to carry out Trump's orders to kill the families of Islamic State militants.

The Globe satirically predicts Trump being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because of his work in uniting Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, presumably against the United States.

Trump's use of Twitter also gets some attention in an article about him angering China by naming his new dog after the country's first lady.

"I don't know why she's so offended, I love cute puppies and I love women!" the Globe imagines President Trump writing.

No immediate reaction

There was no immediate reaction from the Trump campaign to the satire. The page is not likely to soften Trump's stance toward the media, which he has often derided throughout his run for the Republican nomination.

One of the fake articles addresses Trump's stance, predicting a Republican-controlled Congress following through on his pledge to overhaul libel laws.

A more traditional editorial from the Globe calls Trumps vision for the country "as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American."

It calls on Republicans to use every legitimate roadblock to block Trump from being the party's nominee, and to choose "an honorable and decent man" such as House Speaker Paul Ryan or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter is in India during a wave of increased cooperation with Indias military.

The two countries defense ministers will discuss "a large number of activities, technology projects, exercises and so forth that reflect the closeness of the U.S.-India strategic relationship, Carter told reporters after arriving in Goa Sunday.

Carter is looking to improve defense technology and trade cooperation while increasing military-to-military cooperation through additional bilateral and trilateral coordinated operations.



We are doing things now with the Indians that could not have been imagined 10 or so years ago, a senior defense official said.

Technology coordination between the two countries is focused on aircraft carrier design and the co-production of jet fighter aircraft, according to a senior defense official.

Undersecretary of Defense Frank Kendall visited New Delhi ahead of the secretarys trip to discuss these projects, but another senior official told VOA Sunday the U.S. and India have not yet reached a formal agreement on this technology cooperation.

Carter said his Indian counterpart has stressed co-production and technology sharing rather than a simple model in which buys military systems from other countries."

The Indians have an indigenous capability there, James Clad, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia and a senior advisor for the Center for Naval Analysis, told VOA. They want to be in the rank of people with military capability that is kind of first world.

The visit aims to demonstrate the priority that the defense department has placed on the Asia-Pacific region.

Carter has touted the U.S.-India relationship as a strategic handshake, one that is destined to be among the most significant partnerships of the 21st century.

As the United States is reaching west in its rebalance, India is reaching east in Prime Minister (Narendra) Modis 'Act East' policy that will bring it farther into the Indian and Pacific Oceans, Carter said.

Clad told VOA the pivot has been a good way to formally display the inside-our-government attitude that gives Asia the priority many felt it deserved.

"Because we need to be enabled to focus unrelentingly on what is I think the single comprehensive challenge," Clad said, which is the way the Chinese are coming at us.

Carter has said the Asia pivot, however, is not aimed at any particular country and excludes no one. The secretary has accepted an invitation to visit China that is expected to take place later this year.

His India visit will likely ruffle feathers in (bother) neighboring China  whose aggression has caused concern in the Himalayas and the South China Sea  as well as in Pakistan, Indias rival.

Strengthening ties

Clad believes strengthening ties with Pakistans rival is a sensible move and doesnt care if it bothers the Chinese or the Pakistanis.

Pakistan has been an intervening drain on our resources, Clad told VOA. It's a country that's not really our friend. Its a country thats played a double and a triple game, vis-a-vis the Afghan war and all the rest of it.

Goa, Carters first stop, is the home state of Indian Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar. Senior defense officials say the visit to Goa underlies the close, personal relationship that Carter and Parrikar have developed.

I enjoy being with him, and hes become a good friend over several times weve been together now, Carter said during their first stop at the Manguesh Temple, one of the largest and most visited Hindu temples in state of Goa.

WATCH: Related video

Parrikar also showed Carter the Basilica of Bom Jesus, a UNESCO World Heritage site dating back to the 16th century that is said to hold the mortal remains of St. Francis Xavier.

Carter will head to New Delhi later in the week for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and other Group of Seven foreign ministers on Monday, the second day of their meeting in Hiroshima, visited Peace Memorial Park, a World War II memorial.

The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, which led to the end of the war. The bombing resulted in the deaths of about 140,000 people. Three days later, the U.S. dropped a second bomb on the Japanese port city of Nagasaki, killing about 70,000 people.

Asked if Kerry, the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Hiroshima, would apologize for the U.S. decision to bomb the city, a senior State Department official said, No.

There is no effort on the part of the people, the government of Hiroshima, the government of Japan to seek an apology from the United States, the official said.

The official said both countries were firmly focused on what is important, which is the future and ways for both countries to work together to secure that future.

Global security, the refugee crisis and political instability were focal points of discussion Sunday for the first day of the two-day ministerial meeting in Japan.

In an interview with a Hiroshima newspaper (Chugoku Shimbun), Kerry said most global threats to international peace require collective action.

"Gatherings, such as this one are important opportunities to help us address urgent international political and security concerns and to speak with one, clear voice on concrete actions needed," said Kerry.

The Group of Seven industrialized countries also includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

Kerry's visit to the country is also designed to lay the groundwork for President Barack Obama's May visit to Japan to attend the G-7 leaders summit.

President Obama has said he would be honored to visit Hiroshima, but has not done so during several trips to Japan while in office.

Several dozen protesters gathered near the Hiroshima memorial Sunday to protest the presence of the G7 meeting and G7 countries that had possessed nuclear weapons.

Kerry traveled to Hiroshima from Kabul, where he discussed issues including regional security and the status of efforts to hold peace talks with the Taliban. Kerry met with President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

U.S. officials say several rounds of explosions erupted nearly 200 meters from the U.S. embassy in Kabul shortly after Kerry departed. There were no injuries and no immediate indication that Kerry was a target.

Kerry is on a week-long tour of the Middle East and Asia that also included stops in Bahrain and Iraq. After Japan, he will attend a trade event in California before returning to Washington.
U.S. President Barack Obama is guaranteeing he won't intervene in the government's investigation of how the leading Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, used a private server email account while she was his secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.

Obama told Fox News Sunday in an interview taped last week that Clinton did not jeopardize national security through use of the private email server routed through her home in New York, rather than a government email system in Washington.

But he added that "there's a carelessness in terms of managing emails" that she has acknowledged.

For her part, Clinton has called her use of the private email system while she was the country's top diplomat a mistake, but said that she did not send or receive any documents marked as classified at the time, although dozens have subsequently been redesignated as secret or top secret material.

The top U.S. law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has for months been investigating whether her use of the private email server compromised classified government documents, leaving a cloud over her campaign to become the country's first female president.

Her Republican presidential opponents have often attacked her as endangering national security with the use of the email system.

Some critics have suggested the Democratic president would intervene to protect the chances for his fellow Democrat to win the November election and replace him when he leaves office next January.

But Obama rebuffed that idea.

"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case," Obama said.

Clinton has a substantial lead over her lone opponent, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. But Sanders has won eight of the last nine nominating contests, cutting into her lead in the race to claim a majority of delegates to July's national nominating convention.

Obama touched on several other issues during the interview, including the nomination of Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court and how he deals with the threat of terrorism.

On Garland's nomination, Obama said he will stick with him through the end of his term. "What I think we can't have, is a situation in which the Republican Senate simply says, 'Because it's a Democratic president, we are not going to do our job, have hearings, and have a vote,' " he said.

On terrorism, Obama said he doesn't think Americans have made too much of the threat of terrorist attack. He also said he hasn't let acts of terror disrupt some of his regular activities because it's important to communicate a message of resilience and "that we don't panic, that we don't fear."

On what he most looks forward to when leaving office: "Being able to take a walk outside."

On his best and worst day in office. Obama said the best was the day health insurance reform passed and the worst was the day he traveled to Newtown, Connecticut, after the massacre at Sandy Hook.

Some material for this report came from AP.

WATCH: President Obama's weekly address
A new cease-fire took effect in Yemen at midnight, local time, with all sides promising to stick to it.

The truce is aimed at giving peace talks scheduled for April 18 in Kuwait a chance to succeed.

"The Arab coalition is going to respect a cease-fire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President Hadi, but reserves the right to respond to any rebel attacks," a Saudi-led coalition statement says.

The Iranian-backed rebels also say it will adhere to the truce, but respond if attacked.

Fighting was reported in several areas as the hour for the cease-fire approached. One report says at least 20 people were killed.

Several other cease-fires in Yemen have failed and desperate civilians say they hope this one will last.

A government worker in the rebel-held capital of Sana'a told Reuters "I am tired of the fighting, the destruction, everything. The situation is very difficult for people without work, without electricity, without water and with the fear that at any moment, bombardment could kill those dear to us."

The Houthis took over Sana'a in 2014 and forced the internationally-backed government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi to flee to exile in Saudi Arabia before returning to the southern port of Aden.

A Saudi-backed coalition launched airstrikes against the Houthis last year and also sent in ground forces.

The airstrikes and fighting on the ground have killed about 6,000 people and created a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen.

The United Nations says about 80 percent of Yemeni civilians are in desperate need of food and medical aid.
The request for support made by Angola to the International Monetary Funds technical assistance, is intended to help design and implement policies and reforms to improve macroeconomic and financial stability, said the countrys Minister of Finance last week.

In the case of Angola this is not a request for economic recovery, as the debt of Angola is healthy, without pressure in the short term being more oriented to the medium and long term, the minister said, according to news agency Angop.

Armando Manuel added that, despite the adverse global economic environment, Angola was one of the few oil producing countries that quickly adjusted its fiscal framework, and one of the few who started a reform in order to improve the quality of public spending, especially to reduce subsidies to petroleum products.

Negotiations between the Angolan authorities and the International Monetary Fund should start during the spring meeting of the fund and the World Bank, taking place in Washington from April 15 to 17, after being proposed in Luanda. MDT/Macauhub
In 2009, Jasmine Li, whose grandfather was the fourth most powerful politician in China at the time, donned a floral Carolina Herrera gown and debuted at a ball in Paris. That same year, a British Virgin Islands company she would later come to own for USD1 was born in an aging building in a red-light district of Hong Kong, just one example of the citys key role in helping the worlds elite shuttle their wealth offshore.

The information about Li, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, comes from a tremendous cache of documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. Those records highlight the central role Hong Kong has come to play in designing offshore financial vehicles.

Hong Kong brims with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal.

But Hong Kongs offshore financial machinery works so well, and so discreetly, that it can be abused by those seeking to hide illicit assets or evade taxes. As traditional havens like Switzerland cave to years of grinding pressure from European and American tax authorities, unsavory money is drawn to Hong Kong, which despite reforms retains its reputation for secrecy, non-cooperation, and a light regulatory touch, watchdog groups and lawyers say.

Hong Kong attracts this type of hot money from across the region and globally, partly because of its perceived stability, said Iain Willis, a partner at Latymer Partners, a corporate intelligence advisory firm in London. Light-touch financial regulation, easy rules on company incorporation and limited transparency add to its appeal, he said.

Hong Kong was Mossack Fonsecas go-to spot for financial intermediaries, home to 2,212 accountants, banks and other middlemen Mossack Fonseca used to set up 37,675 offshore companies for its global clients from 1977 to 2015  more than any other place in the world, according to ICIJs analysis.

Chinas Foreign Ministry dismissed ICIJs reports as groundless, and the government has aggressively censored discussion of them.

Hong Kong tax authorities said in an email Friday that they would take necessary actions based on the offshore leaks, and work to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of enforcement as required.

Mossack Fonseca tapped a Hong Kong firm called P&P Secretarial Management  which is run by an accountant named Wai-hon Chiu, according to corporate filings  to register Harvest Sun Trading in the British Virgin Islands. P&P Secretarial is not listed in the telephone directory, and its contact details are not easy to find on the Internet. Its name is not among the three businesses listed at the entrance to the second-floor office it now occupies in Hong Kongs Wan Chai district. The front door opens onto a lone ivy plant stuck in a corner of two blank white walls. There is no receptionist, and unannounced visitors are not welcome.

The boss is away. He will be back next week, said a woman in a dark dress, who confirmed that P&P Secretarial did indeed have a presence in the office which did not bear its name. She refused to give her name.

Great fortunes run through small offices like this, and not just from clients of Mossack Fonseca, which derived nearly a third of its business from Hong Kong and China, according to ICIJ.

Its quite natural that Hong Kong would grow to play a significant role in the plumbing infrastructure of globalization, said Martin Kenney, an asset recovery lawyer in the British Virgin Islands. They are the architects, designers and engineers of the structures.

In part, the prominence of offshore vehicles in Hong Kong has to do with its special relationship with mainland China. Many investors set up offshore vehicles so they can sell mainland assets without being subjected to layers of government approval. Others have used, and sometimes abused, offshore structures to take advantage of Chinas tax breaks for foreign companies. More foreign direct investment to China between 1979 and 2014 ostensibly came from the British Virgin Islands than from anywhere else, aside from Hong Kong, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service .

Hong Kong does not tax income that originates abroad, a policy that supports the proliferation of foreign-registered companies. Hong Kongs independent legal system and effective escape route from mainland Chinas currency controls  its easier to move money between mainland China and Hong Kong than elsewhere  also add to its appeal, lawyers say.

The kind of political uncertainty that drove investors offshore before Hong Kongs 1997 handover persists today. The Basic Law, a mini-constitution that enshrines Chinas one country, two systems policy toward Hong Kong, expires in 2047. We are on borrowed time, said David Webb, a former investment banker and Hong Kong shareholder activist.

Offshore vehicles have become so commonplace that 75 percent of Hong Kong-listed companies are actually domiciled in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, according to an analysis by Webb.

But there are other, more controversial uses of Hong Kongs offshore machinery.

The Panama Papers, together with past leaks published by ICIJ, show how Chinas own political and economic elite use Hong Kong intermediaries to get their money out of China. While the leaks contain no allegations of wrongdoing, they are a sore spot for Chinas top leadership, which has been trumpeting nationalism and moral virtue as it tries to slow capital flight and fight corruption.

Much of the wealth that runs through Hong Kong comes from mainland China, which is widely seen as a growth market in the offshore industry. The top source of funds that Mossack Fonseca helped move offshore was China, according to an analysis of ICIJ data by the Guardian newspaper.

In 2009, when Chinese President Xi Jinpings brother-in-

law Deng Jiagui wanted to register two companies in the British Virgin Islands, his advisers at Mossack Fonseca turned to a Hong Kong firm called Wong Brothers & Co., according to ICIJs documents.

The firms lead partner is an accountant named Charles Chan-lum Chow. Chow was a member of the Chinese Peoples Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body, in southern Guangdong province from at least 2003 to 2013, according to state media reports and government websites. He spent 12 years on the board of China Aerospace International Holdings, the listed subsidiary of the main contractor for Chinas space program.

Chow did not respond to requests for comment.

Dengs companies went dormant before Xi took power, according to ICIJ, and no allegations of wrongdoing have been made. Its not clear what happened to whatever Xi family assets those companies once held.

Everybody in the elite needs Hong Kong, said Ho-fung Hung, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. Everybody. Even Xi Jinpings family needs it. They dont have an incentive to shut this channel to move money out.

Its not just Chinese running money through Hong Kong. When a company linked to Frances far-right National Front party wanted to move money out of the country, associates of party leader Marine Le Pen used shell companies in Hong Kong, according to a report in Le Monde newspaper based on the Panama Papers. The French daily has also linked a separate Hong Kong firm with family members of Algerias governing elite.

The company that helps run two of those firms, P&B Management Services, is housed in a dimly-lit office in Wan Chai district, according to Hong Kong corporate filings. Staff there declined to speak with a reporter.

Large-scale counterfeiters from Germany, Austria and Japan, as well as China, run off-shore structures out of Hong Kong to launder their money, said Douglas Clark, a lawyer at Hong Kongs Gilt Chambers.

Thats part of Hong Kong being a trading city and entrepot, he said. It welcomes everyone.

Despite a recent crackdown on secrecy, Hong Kong is still ranked as the second most secretive jurisdiction in the world, after Switzerland, by the Tax Justice Network, a U.K. advocacy group.

Rules are only as good as their enforcement, said John Christensen, Tax Justice Networks director, adding that Hong Kong has never had a strong supervisory culture.

In 2014, Hong Kong began requiring companies to have at least one real person serving as a director. This effectively barred the practice of creating impenetrable daisy chains of corporate ownership, in which one mysterious company was controlled by another mysterious company.

But clients can easily register companies under other peoples names. They can always find their relative as the nominee, said the director of a small incorporation firm also based in Wan Chai district, who would only give his surname, Lee, for fear of compromising client privacy.

He said most clients dont mind using their real names in filings. The big secrecy business runs out of the gleaming skyscrapers of Hong Kongs Central business district, where elite firms charge ten times his rates, he said.

Wealthy people, they wont come here, he said. Theyll go to Central. They dont mind paying a few thousand more for more secured, private service. Erika Kinetz, Kelvin Chan, AP
North Korea said Saturday it has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic rocket engine that will give it the ability to stage nuclear strikes on the United States.

The engines ground test, if true, would be a big step forward for the Norths nuclear weapons program, which saw its fourth atomic test earlier this year. But the North may still need a good deal of work before it can hit the U.S. mainland with nuclear missiles. South Korean officials say North Korea doesnt yet have a reliable intercontinental ballistic missile, let alone the ability to arm it with a nuclear warhead.

The test, announced by the Norths official Korean Central News Agency, is only the latest in a string of what Washington and its allies consider North Korean provocations, including last months launch of a medium-range ballistic missile that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit any ballistic activities by North Korea. It was the Norths first medium-range missile launch since early 2014.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner called on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations.

The North has also threatened pre-emptive nuclear strikes against Washington and Seoul and fired short-range missiles and artillery into the sea in an apparent response to ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and tough U.N. sanctions imposed over the recent nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier this year.

Some analysts think young leader Kim Jong Uns belligerent stance is linked to a major ruling party congress next month meant to further cement his grip on power. The outside pressure and anger caused by bombastic threats and repeated nuclear-related tests, the argument goes, is meant to rally the North Korean people around Kim as he stands up to powerful enemies trying to crush the North.

It is also possible that such efforts to promote military accomplishments to domestic audience are meant to make up for a lack of tangible economic achievements ahead of the Workers Party congress, the first since 1980, said Kim Dong-yub, a North Korean expert at Seouls Institute for Far Eastern Studies. AP
The Philippine military suffered its largest single-day combat loss so far this year when 18 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Abu Sayyaf extremists that also left five Islamic militants dead, including a Moroccan fighter, the military said yesterday.

At least 53 other soldiers were wounded in Saturdays daylong clashes with the Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka on Basilan island, regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan and other army officials said.

The large combat casualties were reported as the Philippines marked the Day of Valor Saturday to remember Filipino veterans who died in World War II.

Government forces were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, three military officials told The Associated Press Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the military assault.

Washington has offered a reward of up to USD5 million for information leading to Hapilons capture and prosecution.

The Abu Sayyaf militants, many of whom were armed with M203 grenade launchers, apparently managed to reinforce their ranks quickly as the fighting raged and gathered between 100 and 150 fighters, allowing them to inflict heavy casualties on government troops, the officials said.

The fighting lasted for more than nine hours, they said.

Among the slain militants was a Moroccan, who was identified as Mohammad Khattab, and a son of Hapilon, Tan said, adding about 20 other gunmen were wounded.

Its the largest single-day government combat loss this year in the south, where the military has been battling Muslim separatist rebels and extremists, and Marxist guerrillas.

Last year, 44 police commandos were killed in clashes with various Muslim insurgent groups in southern Mamasapano town while on a covert mission that was fraught with faulty planning and execution but nevertheless killed a top Malaysian terror suspect in Southeast Asia.

Outrage over the police deaths stalled a peace deal with the largest Muslim insurgent group some of whose fighters got entangled in the fighting.

The Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1991 in Basilan, about 880 kilometers (550 miles) south of Manila. With an unwieldy collective of preachers and outlaws, it vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, but lost its key leaders early in combat, sending it on a violent path of extremism and criminality.

The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for carrying out deadly bombings, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and beheadings of locals and foreigners, including Christian missionaries in the south.

More than a decade of U.S.-backed Philippine offensives have weakened the Abu Sayyaf, but it remains a key security threat.

The brutal group has been blamed for a spike in kidnappings for ransom in recent weeks, including the separate abductions of 10 Indonesian tugboat crewmen near southern Tawi Tawi province and four Malaysian tugboat crewmembers off Malaysias Sabah state on Borneo Island.

An Abu Sayyaf faction freed a former Italian missionary on Friday after six months of jungle captivity on Jolo island in Sulu province, also in the south. There has been speculation that a huge ransom was paid to secure the freedom of Rolando del Torchio, who was flown to Manila on Saturday, but the military said it was unaware of any such payment.

The militants are believed to be holding three Filipinos and 18 foreigners, including two Canadians and a Norwegian, mostly in their jungle encampments on Jolo Island. Jim Gomez, Manila , AP
BOISE  The staff at Your Health Idaho issued a bulletin to insurance agents on March 29, telling them what to do if a client cannot get treatment for a life-threatening illness or injury because of problems with health insurance.

Please be sure to include MEDICAL URGENT in the subject line as well as a detailed description of the clients situation in the message body, the bulletin said.

There were six medical urgent emails sent to the exchange from the day the bulletin was sent out through Wednesday, April 6. The exchange has received 14 since the first of the year.

Your Health Idaho, the states insurance exchange, is not an insurance company. It is a conduit, responsible for helping Idahoans buy health plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act.

This year, more than 100,000 people used the exchange to buy plans. Most of those customers qualified for federal subsidies, available only through the exchange, to help pay premiums because their incomes were too low to pay full price.

Idahos exchange operated with little turbulence and received praise for being lean and efficient after it opened in 2013, at first piggybacking on the federal exchange until Idaho built its own machinery to process tens of thousands of insurance applications each year. Now, however, some Idaho consumers and agents say the exchange is struggling to do its job.

Your Health Idaho is months late sending hundreds of Idahoans a document they need to file their taxes this month.

I cannot tell you how incredibly frustrated I am, said Rose Penwell, a Boise resident. It is an amazing system thats happening right now. And by amazing, I mean incredibly broken.

The exchanges call center no longer can help solve problems. Instead, callers are being told to file support tickets by email. After calling five to 10 times per week, Penwell sent an email March 7 and got a response 16 days later.

In some cases, people with medical emergencies or ongoing health needs still have not been enrolled in insurance plans  months after they signed up for coverage.

We are currently reviewing about 1,700 enrollment emails, Your Health Idaho spokeswoman Karla Haun told the Idaho Statesman. These emails range from questions regarding coverage dates and special enrollments to policy clarification. We are unable to categorize which of these are related to possible enrollment delays.

Train Wreck

Stanley Dean, an insurance agent in McCall, was in the middle of writing a letter to Your Health Idaho when the Statesman reached him by telephone at his office.

Fix your screwed-up system immediately. Peoples lives are at risk, he had written.

Dean has a client with diabetes. The client in January wanted to enroll in a health plan that cost more than $1,000 per month at full price. The clients income qualified him for subsidies to cover almost all of that premium. Under the Affordable Care Act, the federal government subsidizes premium payments by sending tax credits to insurance companies on a persons behalf.

But something went haywire in the enrollment process. Your Health Idahos system will not recognize the mans subsidy, meaning that in order to enroll, he must pay the full premium.

He makes $24,000 a year. Theres no way he can make the payment, Dean said.

Dean said he is spending hours trying in vain to resolve glitches and errors for his clients.

Right now, Ive got six cases that are virtually equal to this, Dean said. Its just an absolute train wreck.

Dean added that Idahos exchange is not alone. Im licensed in six states, and believe me, in the other five states, its even worse, he said.

Mountain Health COOP spokeswoman Karen Early said her insurance company, which sold 2016 plans to about 16,000 people through the exchange, occasionally has had critical situations arise, such as when people thought they had eligibility, and we had to work behind the scenes really quickly.

Most often, that comes to light when someone goes to the pharmacy to fill a prescription, she said.

Early said Your Health Idaho has worked with Mountain Health COOP to fix each problem. In some cases, the problems were due to people not paying their premiums or assuming that incorrect bills  for example, showing they owe the full premiums when they do not  would be taken care of by Your Health Idaho or the insurer.

Blue Cross of Idaho enrolled about 42,000 people through the exchange. SelectHealth enrolled about 35,000. BridgeSpan enrolled about 7,000.

Josh Jordan, spokesman for Blue Cross, said the company is happy and impressed with how smoothly 2016 has gone.

He said the Idaho exchange has been less problematic, and cost much less money, than the federal exchange.

In any large-scale enrollment or implementation some things come up, but those have been uncommon, and [Your Health Idaho] has been responsive and nimble in working toward a solution with us and our members, Jordan said.

BridgeSpan Health spokesman Lou Riepl said his company has seen confusion from members from time to time when an issue does arise  whether it should be solved through Your Health Idaho or with the carrier.

But that is less Your Health Idahos fault than it is due to consumers not understanding where the roles and responsibilities of the carriers and exchanges begin and end, he said. This is an issue that exists in all our markets.

Waiting on a 1095

Some Idahoans are paying out of pocket for medications because their insurance enrollment is stuck in limbo. Others are waiting on a piece of paper that stands in the way of thousands of dollars in subsidies.

This year, Your Health Idaho was required to send most people who bought insurance plans on the exchange last year a Form 1095-A. The one-page form is a month-by-month breakdown of a persons health insurance for the year. It shows how much the plan cost; the amount of premium assistance the person received; and the cost for the second-cheapest, second-tier plan available that year on the exchange.

Shannon Murray and Rose Penwell are among those who have yet to receive their forms.

Penwell said she and her husband want to take a trip for their 10th wedding anniversary in July, but they are budgeting around whether they owe, or are due, money from the Internal Revenue Service. The Penwells accountant will not file their taxes without the 1095-A in hand, she said.

Im so frustrated, because theres nothing I can do, she said.

Shannon Murray and her husband are self-employed. The Nampa couple had insurance for two months last year, purchased through the exchange. For months, they waited anxiously for the 1095-A form so they could file taxes, anticipating an $8,000 refund they needed to pay bills.

Murray has called the exchange and complained to the Idaho Department of Insurance. The form still had not arrived as of April 5.

While its hardly rare for people to procrastinate on filing taxes, one insurance agent noted that many exchange customers may be more eager than average to get their refunds. They, like Murray and her husband, are more likely to be small-business owners or self-employed with modest incomes.

Recently, Murray gave up on the 1095-A and filed her taxes, using her best estimate of what the form would say.

It [was] a real struggle for our family, knowing that were waiting on this money coming back to us, and because we didnt have the form, I didnt know if I could file, she said. Its a really big financial struggle ... . An emotional struggle, too, trying to keep our family afloat.

Your Health Idaho documents show the organization had issued more than 5,000 corrections to 1095-A forms as of late March. It was required to send out the forms by Jan. 31 and had issued more than 69,000 of them by then, said Pat Kelly, executive director of the exchange.

All Hands on Deck Not Enough

Kelly said the exchanges information-technology contractor is working around the clock to get consumers their 1095-A forms.

There is no penalty for Your Health Idaho having missed its deadline, Kelly said.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Idaho Department of Insurance have offered help, he said. Your Health Idaho has declined those offers, because the problem is very specific to Idahos technology and consumer experience, he said.

Jody Olson, communications director and a spokeswoman for the exchange, said much of the hold-up for 1095-As is due to the forms showing incorrect coverage dates.

This can be due to the [federal exchange] data migration and manual updates, Olson said. Controls have been and will continue to be implemented to mitigate these issues. This will ensure these issues dont arise in the future.

One member of the board that oversees Your Health Idaho downplayed the delay in issuing accurate 1095-A forms.

This is the first time these forms have been required, said B. Hyatt Erstad, who runs the Erstad and Co. insurance agency in Boise and sits on the Idaho insurance exchange board. As everybody deals with these new reporting requirements, I equate it to the W-2s when they first rolled out.

Idahos problem isnt new. Its a repeat of last year, when the federal exchange issued tax forms with bad information.

The exchange operated by at least one other state, Minnesota, also failed to issue 1095-A forms by Feb. 1 this year. And employers were given a two-month deadline extension to issue their versions of the 1095 to employees, because the new process was daunting.

Erstad noted the great demand in Idaho for insurance sold through the exchange, with the highest per-capita enrollments in the nation.

There are going to be hiccups as we implement a number of the rules that are out there, he said. I would say the exchange staff has done an exceptional job ... . Theyve had all hands on deck.

Short-Staffed? Short-Funded?

Early, who works for Mountain Health COOP, noted that health-insurance organizations have a unique staffing challenge because almost all of their business transactions are squeezed into a two- or three-month window.

Its difficult to have enough people on staff, who are well-trained enough, she said.

Dean, the insurance agent from McCall, added that some operational decisions left him scratching his head.

The deadline to enroll in a health plan this year was Feb. 15. That coincided with Presidents Day weekend, and the exchanges offices were closed Feb. 13 through Feb. 15, he said. The Idaho exchange, unlike the federal one, did not offer extensions to the sign-up deadline.

That was just the beginning, he said.

I think its just incompetence, Dean said. I think theyre overwhelmed, and theyre understaffed.

There are 27 people on staff at Your Health Idaho, not counting the technology contractor that runs the website.

Ten to 20 people at the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare also answer phone calls to the exchange when needed.

Asked whether Your Health Idaho is understaffed or needs a larger staffing budget, spokeswoman Jody Olson said no.

Kelly, the executive director, noted that Your Health Idaho has $6 million in cash reserves, which he attributes to being very fiscally conservative and smart about our decisions in terms of long-term expenses.

By law, Idahos exchange must be self-sustaining. It has received several million dollars in startup grants from the federal government for the past few years. After December, it will no longer have that money, which this year made up more than half its income.

The exchanges 1.99 percent fee on each insurance plan sold is up from the original 1.5 percent. Kelly said there are no plans to increase the fee again.

And the promise of that is were delivering a much more cost-effective program to Idahoans than if we were on the federal marketplace, Erstad said. It saved Idahoans $10 million.

Erstad said the board is aware of the problems with calls going unanswered, 1095-A forms being delayed and other complaints. He said Your Health Idaho may take a lesson and expand its call-center hours next year in the run-up to the enrollment deadline.

But, he said, Right now, I dont think there are that many issues going on, now that we are past the big push. ... The brokers who have contacted us, I think their problems were resolved in a timely manner.

We understand how important and vital these tax documents are, and they are our No. 1 priority here, and we understand the current situation is not the way customers deserve to be treated. Pat Kelly, executive director, Your Health Idaho
This appeared in Friday's Washington Post.

More than anything else, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, has based his campaign on attacking Wall Street - the millionaires and billionaires who, by his telling, wrecked the U.S. economy, dominate the political system and must be brought to heel. Given his commitment to the message, you might expect he would have some familiarity with the policy details and implications.

A New York Daily News editorial board interview with the candidate proved otherwise. The senator seemed to have no idea of what reformed banks should look like, or whether he would need new legislation, even though the government under his presidency would play a central role in tearing apart these complex financial institutions.

Sanders followed the interview with what was meant to be a clarifying statement. The treasury secretary would draw up a list of too-big-to-fail banks, Sanders explained, and break them up under the authority of the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. In an interview with us, Sanders policy adviser Warren Gunnels said that current regulators are not applying existing authorities aggressively enough and that. Sanders would pick a strong treasury secretary with no Wall Street ties to fill in many of the details.

It's astonishing that, on this of all issues, the campaign would need to issue a what-the-candidate-meant-to-say statement. Even then, the campaign has left a lot of essential questions unanswered.

Here's one: What is breaking up the banks meant to accomplish?

From what Sanders and his campaign have said, you could posit several possibilities: protecting taxpayers, safeguarding the financial system, making the financial sector less concentrated and reducing the financial sector's share of the total economy. Explaining that he wants to do all of these things is not sufficient, because policies differ depending on which goal you prioritize. Regulators working under Dodd-Frank, for example, have gone a long way to addressing the first two issues without breaking up banks, a step that many experts warn may not be worth the costs. If banking-sector concentration is Sanders's concern, then he should explain why addressing it would justify those costs; after all, countries such as Canada have more concentrated banking systems and yet weathered the financial crisis much better. If, on the other hand, Sanders wants to shrink the overall financial sector, he must explain how breaking up a few banks into a larger number of medium-size banks would contribute.

Many voters share Sanders's disdain for high finance and his nostalgia for an economy based more on manufacturing. But such prejudices, whether sound or not, provide an insufficient basis for remaking the world's largest economy. Former secretary of state Hillary Clinton has a banking-sector reform proposal designed to address the highest risks to the financial system that remain after the first round of reform. Sanders has yet to furnish anything of equivalent rigor. We hope he provides more clarity in next week's Democratic debate.
The Idaho Legislature seems to think theyve found the answer to Idahos physician shortage by embracing the proposed Idaho College of Oseotopathic Medicine proposed by the Burrell Group. This is far from the truth and will not address the physician shortage in the state. Furthermore, with the Dont Fail Idaho campaign running full bore, the Legislature ignores their responsibility to provide affordable, quality education for Idahos best and brightest.

For-profit Medical Education

I hold a doctor of osteopathic medicine with exceptionally strong ties to osteopathic medicine for granting me an opportunity to become a physician. Unfortunately, the American Osteopathic Association allows corporations with enough capital to start a new medical school based solely on finances. This is the case with the current proposal. The Burrell Group is a for-profit business designed to make a buck. The number of osteopathic medical schools has exploded in the last 25 years, all for-profit schools. The reason the proposed matriculating class of 150 has nothing to do with need in the state. The number has to do with profit margin.

Population and Medical School Matriculating Numbers

If ldaho is compared to our neighbors, population statistics and matriculating medical school numbers, the 150 students per class proposed is far above any of the current medical school numbers from surrounding states. Our closest neighbors with medical schools show numbers as follows: Nevada, population of 2.83 million matriculates about 66 students each year at University of Nevada, Reno; Oregon, population of 4.01 million matriculates 132 students each year at Oregon Health Sciences; Washington, population 7.06 million matriculates 200 students each year at the University of Washington, and this includes students from the WAMl program; Utah, population 2.94 million matriculates 93 students each year at the University of Utah, and this includes the seats purchased by the state of Idaho; South Dakota, population 858,500 matriculates 57 students at South Dakotas medical school; North Dakota, population 739,482 matriculates 63 students each year at their medical school. Idaho has a population of 1.63 million. An appropriate target number at a medical school, not for profit, and part of the state higher education system, based on the above numbers would be 70-75 students each year, far from the proposed 150 per year proposed currently by the for profit entity.

Four Years of Education

The current proposal fails to address one of the fundamental issues with medical school education and one of the downfalls of most of the newer for profit osteopathic medical schools. As mentioned the American Osteopathic Association basically requires a specific financial obligation to form a new medical school. Finding a structure and faculty for the first two years of medical education generally is not problematic. The third and fourth years of the medical education are much more difficult. The third and fourth years are the critical rotation years. Medical students are required to rotate through different medical specialties, both for the educational aspect of each area, and also to narrow their choices for residency. Most medical schools require core rotations in family medicine, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry, emergency medicine, pediatrics, general surgery, and in the case of osteopathic students, osteopathic manipulative medicine. The student then may choose two or three rotations in other areas of medicine, usually an area of interest to the medical student, and often at the site of a residency program the student will apply to for admission and graduate medical education.

Many of the newer for-profit osteopathic medical schools have little structure or the third- and fourth-year rotations. The medical students, through their medical school, may have some rotations arranged, but many times, must find their own rotations, often through the existing osteopathic medical education system at the established schools, or by lobbying for a rotation with a physician the student knows. Currently, Pacific Northwest University School of Osteopath Medicine has a satellite campus in Boise, with their medical students lobbying for rotations in southern Idaho. The for-profit school continues to collect the students tuition and the student is left to scramble for rotations. The physicians often are compensated little or, in most instances, nothing when teaching the students. The medical students are also competing with the online family nurse practitioner students (these students are in the same boat for clinical rotations), or in the case of Idaho, the physician assistant students educated through Idaho State University. The physician base in the state of ldaho cannot, and most likely will not, assume responsibility for educating 150 medical students each year at a for-profit medical school, and I have seen no plan to educate this medical student population.

Graduate Medical School Education

The state Legislature feels a medical school in this state will solve the physician shortage. The numbers quoted on one newspaper article indicated most students in medical school stay in the state in which they trained. The statistic is wrong. Most physicians graduating from residency program stay in the area in which they trained. A for-profit medical school will matriculate students from across the country to fill the 150 seats yearly. I am sure many will be from the state of Idaho, but I suggest well over half will be from hither and yon. Expanding Idahos graduate medical education opportunities will draw physicians with the probability of retaining adequate numbers to meet Idahos physician shortage.

How to Truly Meet Idahos Needs

As mentioned above, I feel the Legislature basically punted their responsibility by signing on to what appears to be an easy fix. I propose Idahos Legislature take a long hard look at what truly will serve the best interests of Idahos students, and Idahoans for years to come. First, bite the bullet and pay for a not-for-profit medical school for the state of Idaho that is part of the state education system. The cost a medical school education will be half or less what an ldaho student pays at a for profit institution. Idaho will control the matriculating student base and guarantee Idaho students will receive preference on selection. Medical schools that are part of the state education systems have limited seats for non-residents. If the state wishes to use the osteopathic model, look at Michigan State University (my alma mater), Oklahoma State University, or Ohio University, all state-owned universities with osteopathic medical schools. Second, as part of the medical educational system, develop appropriate training sites for third- and fourth-year medical students. This could be accomplished by using satellite campuses in our major metropolitan areas, Boise, Coeur dAlene, Pocatello, Idaho Falls and Twin Falls. If the medical student population is basically Idahoan, the medical students may be able to train in their third and fourth years close to home. If the state of Idaho established a not-for-profit medical school, with Idaho student cooperation from the physician base, the assist in education will be much stronger. That said, compensation in todays world may be a necessary part of the equation. Third, develop residency programs. Once again, for-profit schools have no interest in developing residencies as there is no profit in them. This will only be possible with a state-sponsored medical school. Idaho has population centers large enough for several residencies, general surgery, internal medicine, psychiatry, and possibly obstetrics and gynecology (all of these would probably be in the Boise area). The medical life blood for Idahos rural population will be family medicine, and with the support of a state-owned medical school the possibility for family medicine residencies in Coeur dAlene, Idaho Falls, a stand-alone residency in Twin Falls, to compliment the family medicine residencies in Boise and Pocatello could be a reality. Think of the opportunity to further the education for Idahos best and brightest with medical education starting and ending in this beautiful state, and keeping our best and brightest in Idahos borders.
Recently a group of Idaho business leaders, including myself, formed a group called Idaho 2020 which is dedicated to helping find policy solutions that invest in Idahos future. This group is a nonprofit think tank with the premise that using data as a driving force through world-class research and public polling can help better inform and support our state and local policymakers. Recent public opinion research we conducted shows both education and economic concerns dominate the issue matrix in Idaho. Also, while voters strongly support providing incentives to companies to create jobs in the state, they are unaware of where Idaho is positioned compared to neighboring states when it comes to both our tax and economic climates. One significant finding from our recent research that I would like to highlight is the link Idahoans make between education and the economy.

In Idaho 2020 polling, a near majority of Idahoans chose providing a better education as the most important initiative to growing Idahos economy. Education more than doubled tax policy, which came in second. Idahoans clearly understand the need to improve our education system as the way we grow our economy. They understand the need for our youth to have the skills and training necessary to hold the jobs of the future. States who ensure that their education system provides their kids with the needed skills and training will hold competitive and comparative advantages over other states.

The states that hold these advantages will attract new businesses, create new jobs and grow their economy.

The J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation recently also completed remarkable research that mirrors our findings on the importance that education plays in Idahos future economic growth. Titled The Peoples Review of Education in Idaho, the polling found that 79 percent of Idahoans believe if Idaho had better schools, we would attract more companies and the economy would be stronger. The citizens of Idaho highly value education, mostly because they understand it prepares their kids for future employment and economic success. Expanding vocational education classes, internships and work experience is what 80 percent of Idahoans believe schools should be doing more of to prepare our kids for the jobs in the future.

Idahoans are highly aware of the importance of education and what it means for the future of Idaho and their families. JKAF reports a broad range of Idahoans are dissatisfied with their local public school, with merely 42 percent giving their own communitys public schools a grade of A or B. These results are lower when compared to the national Gallup Poll that reports 56 percent give an A or B when asked the same question. In addition, only 48 percent of Idahoans would advise a family to move into their school district when looking for a top-notch school. These results highlight the particular importance of education in our state, and the simple fact that we have work to do.

The people of Idaho clearly recognize our states economic success depends upon the jobs that small business and companies bring  jobs that will be won or lost based on the quality of our local schools. Almost 80 percent of Idahoans fear Idaho is losing many of its best and brightest young people because there are not enough quality jobs.

The data and research confirm that our education system can do better. This will require increased learning options and innovation. Idahos economic future and our kids future job opportunities depend on it. Strengthening our education system is the key to ensuring that our kids have quality jobs right here in Idaho.
South Florida-based Carnival Cruise Line has enlisted itself as an agent of the apartheid regime in Havana, accepting as a condition of voyages to Cuba the banning from its passenger lists of U.S. citizens and residents who were born on the island.

Some protests by Cuban Americans have already started, others are planned. Lawsuits packed with cogent and convincing arguments against such blatant discrimination, on orders from a tyrannical dictatorship, are sure to follow.

Just don't expect anything to change. In fact, what Carnival is doing is likely to be followed by other American companies kowtowing to the dictatorship so they don't miss out on the chance to join in on the coming exploitation of all things Cuba. Some of them, like Carnival, are likely to not let the rights of American citizens stand in the way.

The protests won't go anywhere because Carnival and other U.S. corporations are cutting deals with Castro with the acquiescence, if not outright support, of the Obama administration, which sees the opening to Cuba as a big piece of its historical legacy. Such mercantile cronyism is bad enough, but when one of the beneficiaries is the dictatorship in Havana, the evil is compounded.

I have never taken a cruise, which is an absolute reflection of my desire to never cram onto a ship with a couple thousand strangers and whatever bacteria, viruses, etc. they might be carrying. And if in a moment of temporary insanity, I do get aboard an ocean liner, the destination won't be Cuba, if only so not a dime of my hard-earned money doesn't further incubate the virus that is Castro-style repression.

Unfortunately, companies like Carnival lining up to do business in Cuba are acting like they are immune.

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Via Facebook, Maria Werlau of the Cuba Archive suggests one way to protest Carnival Cruise:
Italy on Friday recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations to seek the truth about the torture and slaying of an Italian graduate student in the North African country.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni was recalling Ambassador Maurizio Massari for an urgent evaluation of more opportune initiatives to relaunch the commitment aimed at determining the truth about the barbarous murder of Giulio Regeni, the ministry said in a statement.

Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University doctoral student, was researching on Egyptian trade unions when he disappeared in Cairo on January 25.

Nine days later, Regenis mutilated body was found on the side of a highway. An autopsy conducted by Italy found that he had been tortured over several days and appeared to have died Feb. 1 or 2.

Authorities in Cairo later suggested that Regeni had been killed by a criminal gang, which had forced him to empty his bank account. But outside observers said the murder bears the hallmarks of a state-sponsored killing.

On April 9, the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, ordered Maurizio Massari to return to Italy, following two days of talks in Rome between Egyptian investigators and their Italian counterparts.

Urgent decisions are needed on the most proper actions, said a statement issued by the ministry on Friday. Massari will return to Rome for consultation and to discuss the way forward to ascertain the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni, the statement said.
Visiting King Salman announced Friday, on second day of his visit, the construction of a bridge to connect Egypt and Saudi Arabia, a project deemed historic by analysts.

The Saudi monarch who arrived in Cairo on Thursday made the televised announcement during the signing of several cooperation agreements.

This historic step to connect the two continents, Africa and Asia, is a qualitative transformation that will increase trade between the two continents to unprecedented levels, the Saudi King said.

Egypts president al-Sisi soon after the announcement proposed to name the bridge King Salman bin Abdel Aziz Bridge.

The two countries signed at least 17 agreements and memoranda of understanding, estimated at $1.7 billion.

Saudi Arabia will finance an array of projects including construction of a university, housing projects in South Sinai,and a power plant.

King Salman will also enter history as he is expected to meet the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Pope Tawadros II.
Djiboutis incumbent President Ismail Omar Guelleh on Friday won a landslide victory in an election criticized by opposition parties and civil society organizations.

According to our projections, we can say that the UMP candidate [Guelleh of the Union for the Presidential Majority] has been elected in the first round, Abdoulkader Kamil Mohamed, the Prime Minister, announced on national television.

Guelleh won 86.68 percent of ballots, according to the interior ministry.

The people of Djibouti have followed the path of wisdom, stability, security and development, Kamil Mohamed said.

Activists complained that Fridays vote was preceded by political repression and curbs on basic freedoms.

The closest opposition candidate won just 7 percent of the vote in a race where some 187,000 people were eligible to cast a ballot.

Guelleh, 68, has been Djiboutis leader since 1999, when he took over power from his uncle Hassan Gouled Aptidon, who led the country since independence from France in 1977.

The people of Djibouti have again entrusted me with the states highest office, Guelleh said in a speech on national TV.

While the Horn African nation is a relatively small country, its strategic location on the Bab al-Mandab Strait has attracted international interest from countries such as China, France and the US.

Recently, China has signed a deal to establish its first military base in the country to underscore Beijings growing global ambitions and raise the stakes for both cooperation and competition.
The EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy Johannes Hahn said during a visit to Tunisia on Friday the European Union will support Tunisia in 2016 with aid worth approximately 250 million.

The aid for Tunisia will concern, among other things, professional training and means to boost employment, a key factor for Tunisias development, marked by high unemployment rates.

Tunisias 2015 growth rate has been estimated at 0.3 per cent, with unemployment rate standing at over 15 per cent. The countrys vital tourism industry has been battered by two terrorist attacks last year.

The Commissioner declared on the eve of his visit: Tunisia is a privileged partner in our neighborhood. Tunisians are achieving a remarkable democratic transition but they are also facing unprecedented socio-economic and security challenges.

At the meeting with the Tunisia Minister of Foreign Affairs, Khemaies Jhinaoui on friday, Hahn affirmed that Europe is willing to back democratic development in Tunisia and support its economy.

He also discussed ways to expand the long-standing co-operation with Tunisia, which he called a key strategic partner.
A boy cries during a protest held by migrants and refugees to call for the reopening of the borders at their makeshift camp in the northern border village of Idomeni, on April 7, 2016

Having survived perilous escapes from war zones, refugees find themselves assailed anew in Europe by germs proliferating in crowded, unsanitary camps that could become outbreak hotspots, infectious disease experts have warned.

Their systems weakened by physical exhaustion, a lack of safe food, clean water and medicine, refugees are sitting-duck targets for entirely preventable diseases that can scar, maim, even kill.

Most of these illnesses have long been relegated to Europe's past: scabies, measles, tuberculosis, cholera and typhoid fever, concerned doctors and academics told a conference in Amsterdam this weekend.

But several have now reemerged, wreaking havoc among Europe's bulging migrant settlements, from where they could regain a foothold in the broader population.

"Maybe there is a problem in the future," warned Turkish infectious disease specialist Hakan Leblebicioglu.

"Regarding tuberculosis... polio and measles, these should be considered an emerging threat especially for the refugees, the region, and maybe Europe," he told delegates.

More and more refugees will arrive from countries where such illnesses remain widespread.

This while a growing anti-vaccine movement in Europe has left "gaps in vaccination coverage", according to Leblebicioglu, and resistance to antibiotics is a growing concern.

Europe has struggled to deal with the influx of refugees from countries in Africa and the Middle East ravaged by war and poverty.

According to refugee agencies, more than a million migrants arrived in the EU last year, and almost 180,000 so far this yearmany risking life and limb to cross the ocean in shoddy boats for a long shot at a better life.

Most spend extended periods in camps ill-equipped to deal with the unprecedented influx.

A major problem has been the lack of a coordinated European policy to screen new arrivals for contagious diseases, treat them, and vaccinate widely, the conference heard.

"It's very different in different countries. There's no pan-European standard," infectious diseases lecturer Nicholas Beeching of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine told AFP.

Screening happens randomly, "may not be based on much evidence, and may be a partly political response," he said.

Experts presented evidence of disease outbreaks in refugee camps: measles in France and Turkey, scabies in the Netherlands, salmonella in Germany, and MRSAa drug-resistant skin infectionin Switzerland.

The causes were multifold, explained Leblebicioglu.

"They live in unsanitary conditions, crowded populations, there is a problem with garbage accumulation in some countries."

'Risk for themselves'

Cultural and language barriers can divide refugees and health care providers.

Many "don't know how to access health care systems even if they have entitlement," said Beeching.

Furthermore, Europe's health systems were overburdened, the experts pointed out, calling for more money and a coordinated approach to disease screening and treatment.

It would be expensive, but well worth it, they argued.

"If you want to do it starting from zero, because that is where we are now, then you need to consider that the cost will be very considerable," said Italian public health expert Alberto Matteelli.

Only about a third of European governments have a policy on refugee TB screening, he remarked, and fewer than a handful did so consistently.

HIV is another concern.

Danish researchers reported that migrants not only had higher rates of infection with the virus that causes AIDS, but were also more likely to be diagnosed later.

This had consequences for public health, explained Laura Deen of the Copenhagen University Hospital's immigrant medicine section, "in terms of risk of transmission from individuals unware of their HIV infection."

Speakers stressed the real risk of refugees setting off disease outbreaks among host populations was negligible.

"The fact itself that they are marginalised and they do not integrate into the community in Europe is the cause of their disease, and protects the European community from being infected," said Matteelli.

"The risk is for themselves. They are a vulnerable population that needs to be protected."

The best course of action was to ensure speedy diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases among refugees, and provide access to the health systems of their host countries.

"If we do that we will get better health for refugees, for healthcare workers and also for hosting communities," said Matteelli.

Refugee health was the highlighted topic at a four-day conference of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases.

Explore further Health experts call for improved TB care for refugees

 2016 AFP
In Montana, one homicide occurs every 14 days, one rape every 23 hours, one robbery every two days and nearly five aggravated assaults occur each day. Crime victims are our family members, friends, neighbors and community members. This year, National Crime Victims Rights Week is April 1016 and the Montana Board of Crime Control joins local, state and national organizations in promoting victims rights and honoring crime victims, their survivors and those who advocate on behalf of victims, raising awareness of programs and services to meet the needs of Montana victims.

The theme for this years recognition week is Serving Victims. Building Trust. Restoring Hope. MBCC is proud to work in partnership with local agencies and organizations to identify and help to deliver services in the right place and at the right time; essential to supporting victims at the earliest stage of victimization and meeting unique needs in both rural and urban communities.

National Crime Victims Rights Week honors and celebrates the achievement of the past thirty years in securing rights, protections and services for victims. The bipartisan Victims of Crime Act, passed by Congress in 1984, created a national fund to ease victims suffering. Financed by fines and penalties paid by offenders  not tax dollars - the Crime Victims Fund supports services for victims of all types of crime including homicide survivors, survivors of child sexual abuse, victims of human trafficking, rape crisis centers and domestic violence programs.

The Crime Victims Fund dollars in Montana support a number of very important projects. Here in Missoula and surrounding areas, VOCA funds support vital victim services through programs like SAFE Harbor, victim witness programs and other victim programs in surrounding counties.

Another VOCA-funded project is the Crime Victim Legal Assistance Network Project, which seeks to improve access to comprehensive, coordinated and holistic legal services to crime victims statewide. Designed to improve access to civil legal assistance for victims across the state, this project is being implemented through a collaborative partnership between the Montana Legal Services Association, University of Montana and MBCC. To help inform this project, we invite those who have been the victims of crime, as well as service providers or other professionals who work with crime victims, to share feedback about their experiences accessing civil legal assistance in Montana. This survey can be completed online or by phone. For information, contact Melissa Fisher at (406) 543-8343 Ext. 221.

We salute the tireless efforts of justice professionals and victim service providers to bring criminals to justice and assistance to victims of crime; using funds paid by convicted offenders and not by taxpayers dollars! For victims and survivors of crime, all those who serve them are unsung heroes who deserve our appreciation and gratitude.

For additional information about the Board of Crime Controls victims services programs, the National Crime Victims Rights Week activities or ideas on how to serve victims in your community, please contact MBCC at (406) 444-3604 or visit http://mbcc.mt.gov/.
BEIHAI, China  In the darkness of the tropical waters of the South China Sea, the shabby, blue-hulled Chinese fishing trawler edged closer to what was almost certain arrest for Zhang Deren, the boats engineer. He was more than 1,000 miles from his home here in southern China.

Earlier that day, the Indonesian maritime police had boarded his boat, accusing the crew of fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. After the rest of the crew was ordered onto the police vessel, the Indonesians instructed Mr. Zhang, a 53-year-old with a weather-beaten face, to follow in the trawler.

At 2 a.m., after a 12-hour journey to the Indonesian shore, help suddenly arrived. A Chinese Coast Guard vessel, as big as a naval frigate, pulled alongside Mr. Zhangs boat, then rammed it, separating it from the Indonesian escort.

At that moment, I knew I was out of trouble, Mr. Zhang said, telling his tale after a weeklong voyage back to his home port here on the Gulf of Tonkin, close to Vietnam.
In the last few weeks, 10 of the cast-iron lampposts in Madison Square Park in Manhattan have grown a bit taller. Micah Silver was responsible. He is the one who put the little thingamajigs on them, on the tippy-tops. The finials, to those in the know.

Mr. Silver is an artist and a composer who is preparing an installation that is scheduled to go up in the park 10 months from now. It will have a visual component  pieces of fabric that he will design and place around the park  but it will really involve creating something that is heard, not seen: the sound that air makes as it rushes between the trees, over the benches and around the lampposts.

The fabric pieces are meant to reproduce the effects of the air  very low-tech. To know where to set them up in February, he decided to record the wind. To do that, he devised the thingamajigs  very high-tech. They are made of plastic. They are black, just like the lampposts. They look like two cups, stuck together, from an anemometer, a whirling instrument that measures the speed of the wind.

The idea is, wow, theres this other way to look at the park: airflow, Mr. Silver said. Its not about air quality in terms of pollution; its about air forms. The devices are not exactly artwork, he said. They are just going to be there, taking readings with sensors and transmitting the readings wirelessly. Unobtrusively. Unnoticed.
Phylicia Rashad was hoping for Medea. Instead, she found Shelah.

The actresss quest to play a tragic heroine has led her to a small downtown stage where, night after night, she is giving a blistering performance as a Job-like woman named Shelah whose deep Christian faith is challenged by a series of devastating losses.

Her performance, in Tarell Alvin McCraneys Head of Passes, has stunned audiences as, over the course of two hours, this regal actress seems to shatter, physically and emotionally. Ms. Rashad will be hard pressed to ever again top her work here, the critic Ben Brantley wrote in The New York Times. He added, It hurts to look into Ms. Rashads eyes at the plays end.

Even for an actress as loved and honored as Ms. Rashad  she became famous playing Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show, and then won a Tony Award for A Raisin in the Sun  the role is a rare treasure, and she is savoring it.

I dont feel exhausted after a performance. I dont feel depleted. I dont feel wasted, she said in an interview at the Public Theater, which is planning to extend the run of the play, based on the strength of Ms. Rashads performance, to May 1. I feel a little buoyant, to tell you the truth.
ATHENS  The Macedonian police used tear gas and rubber bullets on Sunday to disperse hundreds of migrants who tried to break through a border fence in a large refugee camp in the northern Greek town of Idomeni. It was the latest in a series of increasingly frequent uprisings by migrants stuck in Greece after countries sealed the main route they had been using to get to Germany.

Greek television showed migrants running from clouds of tear gas and falling to the ground as the wind blew toxic fumes into the encampment. More than 12,000 people, mostly women and children, have been stuck there for more than a month amid hopes that the border would reopen.
As the 2016 electoral game here ratchets up to nasty polemics, the US media is mainly focused on the carnival atmosphere of the Republican Party candidates. (The Democratic Party infighting is only now beginning to boil over.) Meanwhile, the Obama administration, free from scrutiny, continues its airstrikes in Somalia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere. The refugee crisis in Europe reverberates only when framed in the context of terrorist threat such as the carnage in Paris and Brussels. Except for Cuba, which Obama visited recently, and Syria, other peripheries of the Empire have been all but forgotten.

The Philippines, the only former Asian colony of the United States, is among those seldom remembered peripheries, synonymous only with Pacquiao the Boxer, Miss Universe 2015, or some terrifying natural disasters like Typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan. And despite over three million Pinays and Pinoys in the US  now the largest Asian-American group from a single country (unlike the Chinese who come from all over the world, not just China)  Filipinos tend to trail other Asians in their civic interventions, which are often reduced to wealthy Filipino doctors or businessmen trumpeting their tithes to local candidates.

During the years of the brutal Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986), in contrast, Filipinos were mobilized to join political rallies. Younger Filipino-Americans were also radicalized by the anti-Vietnam War and Central America-solidarity movements. But with the neoconservative resurgence, boosted by the 9/11 attacks, the old colonial mentality acquired over a half century of miseducation, called American tutelage by genteel academics, began to return. The result: persistent underdevelopment, flagrant inequality, deep impoverishment of 75% of over 100 million peasants and workers, chronic corruption, and the ruling oligarchys inveterate subservience to Washington reminiscent of the Cold War.

The Philippines is once again an operational US neocolony. While the US military bases were removed by strong nationalist protest in 1992, several hundred US Special Forces remain in the islands owing to mendacious executive agreements. The local military and police remain dependent on US aid and supervision, following US foreign policy toward US enemies (China, North Korea, Russia). Peace talks between the government and the communist-led insurgency have been stalemated (the US classified the communist New Peoples Army as terrorists) while the various Muslim guerilla forces (often stigmatized as all Abu Sayyaf bandits by the foreign press) are paralyzed by reformist schemes offered by the US-backed elite.

About 4,000-5,000 Filipinos leave the country every day. Subsisting on less than $2 a day, the majority are victimized by rapacious paramilitary groups and warlord gangs protecting multinational companies which plunder the land for minerals, lumber, and other resources. Local compradors and semifeudal landlords act as accomplices. The bloody March 30 dispersal of thousands of peaceful demonstrators by government troops in the starved rural corner of Kidapawan in southern Philippines follows a familiar pattern of violent repression, from the US campaign against the Huk peasant rebellion in the fifties, the Mendiola massacre of unarmed farmers by the Corazon Aquino administration in 1987, to the Hacienda Luisita murders by Benigno Aquinos kin in 2004.

Perennially judged criminal by Amnesty International and international agencies, the US-backed oligarchy in the Philippines still enjoy impunity. They live luxuriously amid continuing incidents of torture, detention, and killing of citizens demanding employment, decent housing, medical care, food and other forms of disaster relief, etc. Hundreds of political prisoners languish in jail. Politicians habitually raid the public treasury, earning the sobriquet of bureaucrat capitalists. The courts are useless, chiefly serving the rich families of landlords and compradors. Not a single official of the Marcos dictatorship has been tried and punished for ruthless human rights violations; impunity extends to his equally vicious successors. No wonder over 11 million Filipinos in desperation have fled to find work abroad, escaping the murderous status quo and disavowing the accursed land of their birth. (Their hard-earned currency remittances, however, ironically helps perpetuate the culture of impunity, not only keeping the economy afloat but also fuelling mindless consumerism and self-important slavishness to foreign fashions.)

Here in Washington, DC, most Filipinos I meet work as caregivers, domestics, and professionals in service industries (nurses, clerks, etc.), except a few of them who are here on special visas to take care of diplomatic families. In DC as in other cities in the US, issues such as tenants rights, unemployment, voter registration imbroglios, drugs and police abuse function as symptoms of the historically rooted racial conflict hiding permanent class warfare.

In DC, too, the legacy of the sixties survives in the militancy of Black Lives Matter. DC, after all, is less than an hour away from the still smoldering Baltimore battleground. Discontent seethes everywhere in the US, visible in urban riots and demonstrations against police abuse, mass incarceration policy, and the prison-industrial complex geared to control organized rebellion.

Frustrated dreams of success amidst inequality on the other hand lure an increasing number of ordinary white folks to neofascist calls for white-supremacist authoritarianism, hence the right-populist appeal of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Bernie Sanders has offered American voters a left-populist alternative to the Wall Street darling Hillary Clinton. But the Establishment machinery of both parties has so far managed to maintain hegemonic control  though the phenomenal voter approval for Sanders program betokens a glimmer of hope for radical systemic change.

What do we make of this conjuncture of events? Perhaps a comment from an experienced observer of the US political scene can clarify some of the hidden sociopolitical trends behind the largely pro-corporate bias of the mass media. Having moved to DC recently, I was fortunate in encountering our old friend from Boston, Bill Fletcher, Jr. In the seventies we were involved in diverse civil rights and anti-imperialist struggles. We collaborated in educational campaigns about the resistance to the Marcos dictatorship, in support of the free labor union movement in the Philippines. In 2012 he conducted an interview of Jose Maria Sison regarding the peace talks of the National Democratic Front and the Arroyo administration for AlterNet: Bill Fletcher, Jr., Revolutionary Jose Maria Sison on US Imperialism and a Way Forward for the Philippines (AlterNet, 22 January 2012).

Fletcher has been a well-honed activist since his youth. Upon graduating from college, he worked as a welder in a shipyard and became involved in the labor movement. Over the years he has been active in workplace and community struggles as well as electoral campaigns. He was a senior staffperson (first Education Director and later Assistant to the President) in the national AFL-CIO, after which he became the president of TransAfrica Forum. He is also an editorial board member of BlackCommentator.com. He is co-author (with Peter Agard) of The Indispensable Ally: Black Workers and the Formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, 1934-1941; and (with Fernando Gapasin) of Solidarity Divided The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice. His most recent book is Theyre Bankrupting Us!: And 20 Other Myths about Unions. This interview took place in DC on April 3-5, 2016.

ESJ: What do you think is the prospect of any change in Washingtons policy toward the Philippines?

BF: I do not anticipate any changes in the near future in the absence of a movement on the ground in the USA that pushes the USA on foreign policy generally and the US-Philippines relationship in particular. Frankly, the relationship is very comfortable for the USA and the ruling circles see no reason to change this. The guerrilla war, led by the New Peoples Army, seems to be stalemated and the government of the Philippines seems to be able to get away with tolerating (and promoting) human rights abuses against the popular movements. The US media gives precious little attention to the democratic struggle in the Philippines. Therefore, in order for a change to take place, there needs to be a broad movement built in the USA that is analogous to those built against US policy toward Central America and the US relationship with apartheid South Africa.

ESJ: And if Clinton succeeds Obama?

BF: There is very little incentive for Clinton to change policies. If the Republicans get in, we should expect a further militarization of the conflict. What may be especially dangerous, whether it is Clinton  should she receive the nomination  or any Republican, is the possibility that they might provoke a military confrontation with China, using as a pretext the territorial disputes between China and the Philippines.

ESJ: What is your sense of the US publics understanding of foreign policy with regard to the Philippines in confrontation with China and other powers in the Asian region?

BF: The US public has very little sense of the Philippines or, for that matter, foreign policy. Most foreign policy discussions in the USA focus on matters of Islamic terrorism or, periodically, the antics of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea). The US public neither understands the struggle for democracy in the Philippines nor the dispute with China.

ESJ: Do you foresee any change in the US publics consciousness of the US imperial war on terror in the near future?

BF: Fear is a driving force in the USA and the fear of terrorism obscures so much of what is really at stake in matters of foreign policy. In the recent nuclear conference held in the USA, for instance, much attention was focused on the possibility of terrorist groups getting nuclear materials and/or nuclear weapons. The bulk of the US public does not see the war against terror as an imperial adventure, irrespective of whether they support or oppose the war against terror. After 11 September 2001, the entire debate around US foreign policy shifted.

ESJ: Given the debate on tightening the borders, what is your opinion on the possible changes in immigration policy toward Filipinos and other Asians?

BF: Part of the answer depends on who wins the election and the balance in Congress. But, in general, Filipino migrants are not perceived as a threat in the same way that Latinos have been demonized as a threat. Part of this is the result of the nature of the occupations that Filipino migrants tend to occupy. Yet, there is job competition, so no group of immigrants is exempt from ultimate demonization. Ask Arabs. Before 11 September 2001, many of them felt quite secure whether they were born in the USA or migrated here.

ESJ: Do you see any effect of Bernie Sanders challenge to the Democratic Party Establishment? And of Trumps disregard for the old Republican elite?

BF: We are in the midst of a complicated systemic crisis, at least at the political level. There has been growing anger with the dysfunctionality of the system. The challenges led by Sanders are exciting and progressive, though there is a tendency for Sanders to limit his narrative to matters of economics. Increasingly he is speaking out on matters of foreign policy but he needs to be pushed. The support for Trump and Cruz, however, comes from a combination of factors that include frustration, but also the declining living standard for many white Americans and their refusal to accept that the cause of this decline is not the result of Jews, immigrants, Blacks, women, etc., but that the problem resides with capitalism and the manner in which it is working. To put it another way, white America looks at the crisis of US capitalism through the prism of racial lenses. To paraphrase a slogan from the 1992 Presidential campaign, white America does not quite get that its the system, stupid! rather than any of the myriad scapegoats.

ESJ: Finally, what is your diagnosis of the crisis of the US empire in the next decades? Would the Black Lives Matter movement develop into a larger mass movement that can challenge the corporate hegemony in the next five to ten years?

BF: To borrow from the late Dr. Manning Marable, we need a movement for a Third Reconstruction. The first was 1865-1877. The second, metaphorically, was the 1960s. We need a third which really moves to expand democracy, take on racial and gender privileges, address the environmental crisis, and alter US foreign policy. I do not think that this means that socialism is on the immediate agenda, though it is clear that socialism has risen in the polls recently. The Third Reconstruction is a metaphoric way of referencing a popular-democratic movement that actually fights for power and introduces major structural reforms. Movements such as Black Lives Matter, the immigrant rights movement, Occupy, etc. can all play a major role in the configuration of such a movement. Yet, to build such a popular-democratic bloc, there will need to be a political instrument, to quote Marta Harnecker, that is, an organizational formation on the Left that helps to bring such a bloc into existence. It will not happen on its own and it will not happen as simply a spontaneous reaction to increasing authoritarianism and right-wing populism. It must be consciously advanced. And, by the way, we are running out of time.

E. San Juan, Jr. was recently a fellow of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute, Harvard University; emeritus professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Ethnic Studies at Washington State University and Bowling Green State University; and professorial lecturer at Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Among his recent books are US Imperialism and Revolution in the Philippines (Palgrave), In the Wake of Terror (Lexington), and Between Empire and Insurgency (University of the Philippines Press).




I am an active Democrat. I know little about how Montana Republicans select the delegates to their national presidential convention but do understand the Montana Democratic Party approach.

As the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders intensifies, in the Democratic Party were hearing a lot about Super Delegates and see the passions of their supporters increase and the supporters strident rhetoric go up as well. People and the press have begun to focus on the heretofore esoteric, remote and uninteresting state and national party rules.

Even though I am not directly involved now, Ive spent a lifetime plowing this field. At age twenty-four I served on the Montana Democratic Partys Reform Commission, created after the disastrous 1968 election. Later as Executive of the Montana Democratic Party I was charged with implementing the commission results and developing Montana rules that conformed to national guidelines. I served about twenty years on the Montana Democratic Partys Rules Committee. For the twelve years I served on the Democratic National Committee and its Rules Committee.

National Democratic Party guidelines and requirements have been implemented in Montana to fit our state. Ive participated in state legislation to democratize our presidential delegate selection process while also making it reflective of the preferences of the electorate, thus minimizing internal conflict.

Back in 1968 Montana Democrats followed rules that were essentially winner take all, based not upon the direct vote of Democratic voters but upon who was elected to or sat on county central committees. It was truly was an insiders game. While it took about five years to implement, the first big change to improve that system created something called proportional representation. Simplistically stated, if a candidate had 60% of the votes in a county committee, he/she would get 60% of the countys delegates to the state convention. And the proportional support for that candidate at the state convention would be reflected in the percentage of the delegation to the national convention who supported that candidate. That change brought a lot more fairness to our process as compared to the old winner take all system.

But, the numbers still reflected an insiders political game. So, in 1974, Pat Williams and I drafted a bill to re-create a Montana presidential primary so that the base of the presidential delegate selection process could reflect the preference vote of all Montana Democrats. Pat was not yet a Congressman but was extremely knowledgeable about the issue. We asked a freshman legislator, John Landslide Murphy, to carry the bill, and it surprisingly passed. It allowed each political party to choose whether or not it used the presidential primary vote as the base of its delegate selection. The Montana Democratic Party did so.

By the way, the presidential primary has a colorful history in Montana, having been enacted by initiative in 1912, removed in a referendum in 1924, restored by referendum in 1954, and dropped by the legislature in 1959 before being re-enacted again in 1974. It has remained in use over the last 42 years.

The way we Montana Democrats use the presidential primary, when combined with proportional representation, has minimized intra-party conflict. Under Montana Democratic Party rules, the votes of the electorate for each candidate in the presidential primary are reflected upward through the entire delegate-selection process. The number of delegates each presidential candidate gets to have from Montana at the Democratic National Convention is proportionally baked into the cake as a result of the primary vote here. There are no longer any fights BETWEEN the supporters of presidential candidates over the number of delegates they will have. If there is any fighting it is WITHIN the supporter groups of each candidate over which supporter might get to go to the national convention, given the limited number of seats allocated.

This intra-group fighting is much less damaging than the inter-group fighting that used to occur before proportional representation and the presidential primary were in place.

So, as the race between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders intensifies, the Democratic Party rules here in Montana have significantly reduced the rancor and increased the accuracy of reflecting what the grassroots Democrat wants in terms of results.

Next time: the so-called Super Delegates.
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 []
The South Africa Bureau of Standards (SABS) is considering changes to the wiring code that would make a new plug standard semi-compulsory for new installations in South Africa.

Called SANS 1642, or ZA Plug, the standard has the same shape as the Europlug and has been the preferred standard for new installations since 2013.

It differs from the Europlug in that it allows for an earth pin  slightly offset from the middle of the plug, between the live and neutral pins.

While the ZA Plug standard hasnt been widely adopted in South Africa, it has been around for more than a decade.

It is based on the IEC 609061 standard which was published by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) in 1986.

South Africa is the only country in the world that adopted the standard as specified by the IEC.

This raises the question: Why is South Africa switching to a standard no one else uses, when standards like the European Schuko plug might serve us better?

Why ZA Plug?

When the IEC first began development on IEC9061, which became IEC609061, it was trying to establish a universal plug and socket system.

After long and often acrimonious discussions, the [committee] came to an acceptable solution, the IEC stated:

IEC 9061 (now IEC 609061) in 1986 for 250V installations using round pins.

IEC 9062 (now IEC 609062) in 1992 for 125V installations using the US flat pin design.

Despite its efforts, commercial and political interests caused the standardisation initiative to fail in Europe  and Brazil and South Africa are the only countries to have adopted the 250V standard.

However, Brazil deviated from the standard by delivering either 127V or 220V mains using the same socket.

Japan and the US have plugs and sockets that are compatible with IEC 609062.

Talk of adopting the new standard began in South Africa in 1993, and a version of SANS 1642 that dates back to 2006 is available online.

According to the SABS, the ZA Plug only appeared in South Africas wiring code much later.

Its first mention was in version 1.8 of the SABS standards for the wiring of premises, part 1: low-voltage installations (SANS 101421), which was published in 2012.

Benefits of ZA Plug

In addition to trying to adopt a global standard, the SABS said the new plug standard will be safer and eventually cheaper than our current IEC Type M plug.

Another benefit of the ZA Plug is that you will no longer need an adapter for devices that use a double-insulated two-prong Europlug.

Energy expert Chris Yelland has welcomed this, as he said such adapters are costly and often sub-standard.

No rush yet

While the SABS is considering making the new standard semi-compulsory for new installations from March 2018, this will not affect existing homes and businesses.

There is therefore no rush for South Africans to switch out their power outlets, for now.

More on South Africas new plug standard

South Africas new plug standard  soon a must for new installations

South Africas new plug standard: what to expect

The truth about SAs new electrical plug standard
Governments plan to merge Broadband Infraco with Telkom will reduce competition and be bad for consumers, Rapport reported.

Telecommunications experts and mobile operators have warned that the merger could lead to higher call costs if it is allowed to go ahead.

This comes after a BusinessDay report stating that Infraco and Telkom are likely to merge.

MD of World Wide Worx and industry analyst Arthur Goldstuck told Rapport that such a merger would entrench Telkoms telecommunications monopoly and tremendously weaken fair competition.

Not only does Telkom own a massive copper network used to supply ADSL and fixed-line telephone services, it also owns and operates South Africas largest fibre network.

With over 147,000km of fibre in the ground, Telkoms fibre network dwarfs anything its competitors has to offer.

A merger with Infraco will add another 14,676km of fibre to Telkoms already vast network, Rapport said.

It will also force Neotel, which prided itself on being able to offer its services without touching Telkoms network, to buy wholesale services from the state-owned company.

Neotel has been using the alternative fibre network since before it was entrusted to Infraco.

Cell C and Vodacom told Rapport that if government wants to get rid of Broadband Infraco, it must be sold through a transparent process in which everyone must have the opportunity to bid.

The full report is available in the Rapport of 10 April 2016.

More on Telkom and Broadband Infraco

Neotels massive Broadband Infraco headache

Telecoms minister avoids Telkom-Broadband Infraco merger questions

Telkom and Broadband Infraco merger on the cards: report

Telkom and Broadband Infraco in talks
"Till now India has supported a lot in the medicine system of Nepal, however, we want a better support in the field of homeopathy medicine," said Alam.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of International Convention on World Homeopathy Day here. The two day event will see participation of over 2,000 delegates from 25 countries, to discuss on integrating homeopathy in health-care.

Alam also said that the usage of homeopathy medicine started in Nepal some 100 years ago and India had a great role in it.

Among other prominent personalities present were India's AYUSH Minister Sripad Yesso Nayak, who inaugurated the event, and the health minister of Bangladesh Mohammad Nasim.

Speaking on the occasion Naik said the formation of AYUSH ministry has given a lot of support for the promotion of ayurvedic and homeopathic medicinal system.

He said that over the years homeopathy hospitals in India have increased to 235 while the number of dispensaries stands at nearly 1,000.

"India currently has 400 licensed homeopathy pharmacists," said Naik.

Health Minister of Bangladesh Nasim said the event will open the scope for better collaborations between different countries in the field of homeopathy.

--Indo-Asian News Service rup/rn

( 244 Words)

2016-04-09-18:03:32 (IANS)
Over 450 cases of different nature were settled amicably by Lok Adalats across the Kashmir valley, an official spokesperson said here today. He said a National Lok Adalat (NLA) was held at District Court Complex Bemina under the chairmanship of District & Session Judge Srinagar Rasheed Ali Dar. During the NLA 95 cases relating to family and labour matters were taken up out of which nine matrimonial matters and 28 labour cases were settled amicably. He saidan amount of Rs 1,27,700 was realized as settlement amount. In Pulwama the NLA was held under the chairmanship of Chairman District legal service Authority where 304 cases of different nature were taken up, he said adding 163 were disposed off and an amount of Rs 20,300 was recovered as fine. In Baramulla the District Legal Services Authority organised a NLA in court complex Baramulla and Tehsil headquarters under the chairmanship Chairman District legal service Authority Tawqeer Ahmad. Around 250 cases relating to Family disputes and labour were taken up for settlement in which various cases were settled amicably. In Kupwara NLAs were held during which 154 cases related to domestic nature were taken up for hearing, where in 44 such cases were settled amicably. During the hearings Rs 2.58 lakh were also collected as fine as well. In Bandipora a NLA was held under the supervision of chairman District Legal Services Authority Bandipora Mohammad Ashraf Malik in the district. As many as 219 cases related to Labour and Family matters were taken up in the NLA, out of which 188 cases were settled amicably. A settlement amount of Rs 15.48 lakh was also awarded under various cases.UNI BAS SHS PM1011 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-676135.Xml
Situation in Anantnag and Kulgam in the south Kashmir was however, normal.

Shops and business establishments, which otherwise remain open on Sundays, were also closed and traffic was off the roads in Shopian and Pulwama districts for the past four days. However, some private and passenger vehicles were plying on some routes.

Traffic on Srinagar-Jammu national highway, also passing through Pulwama district, was plying normally though additional security forces remained deployed alongwith Road Opening Party (ROP) at Pampore, Awantipora and other areas to prevent any untoward incident.

Additional security forces and State police personnel had been deployed in sensitive areas in both the district to prevent any demonstration.

A local militant of HM was killed in an encounter at Gadoora in Pulwama on April 5 evening while two militants of the same outfit were killed in Shopian in the wee hours on April 7, when a police vehicle was set on fire by demonstrators, raising pro freedom slogans.UNI BAS SHS PM1038

-- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-676152.Xml
Bollywood veteran actor Anupam Kher, who was today stopped on way to Srinagar's National Institute of Technology (NIT) by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, said that his visit should not be politicised as he was going there not to create problems but to give a sense of warmth to the students. "If they say this is a law and order situation, I will say that millions of people go to the university, it's an open place. Why should they stop me and as a citizen of this country I should be allowed to go anywhere. I am not going there to create problem. I am just going there to give them a sense of warmth," Kher told ANI in an exclusive conversation. "Anybody who talks in favour of things they become rhetoric and anybody who talks against the nation becomes news. I think we need to change that. It is always good to go back to Kashmir but today the purpose is different. Today the purpose is to meet the NIT Srinagar students to boost their morale. And as an individual, as an India I want to do that. We are at that time when some individual are saying things like 'desh ki barbaadi' etc. So, it is important to become voice of millions of Indians," he added. The actor further said that he would also like to meet Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to express his concern over the NIT unrest. "Sometimes things are symbolic. I believe in doing things rather than talking about it. I will also like to meet Mehbooba Mufti ji," he said. Kher categorically denied that he has connections with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "I have a very good relationship with Ghulam Nabi Azad ji. I appreciate (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji because he is a great leader. I don't want to criticise any government," he said. Kher had earlier said that he was visiting the NIT to express solidarity and provide moral support to the students. "I am visiting there at a personal level. It's a symbolic gesture as it is most important to show them solidarity. It's important to give NIT Srinagar students' moral support. I'm going there as a citizen to meet students," Kher told ANI here. "I am not going to flare-up this issue. I will visit there as a citizen, I don't have any political fan following. I will also try to meet Mehbooba ji. I have not informed anyone, I have no security arrangements, I am going as a passenger," he added. Asserting that safety of students was her prime concern, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani had earlier this week said that her ministry officials will ensure that all of their issues are looked into while. A fact-finding team of the HRD Ministry visited the institute's campus earlier on Wednesday for an on the spot assessment of the situation. The two-member team comprising a Director level and a Deputy Secretary level officer also spoke to the students to get their version of the events. Tension simmered at the NIT campus last week after India lost the World T20 semi-final to the West Indies. Some engineering students from outside the state claimed Kashmiri students had chanted anti-India slogans and burst firecrackers after India's defeat. (ANI)
All India Congress Committee (AICC) has served show cause notice to Congress legislator Sudip Roy Barman charging him for indulging anti-party activities and unwanted comments against Congress high command. Roy Barman however, claimed that he has not yet received any notice from AICC or Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC). Congress president Birajit Sinha admitted that AICC secretary and in-charge of TPCC V Narayanswami has issued notice against Roy Barman last night seeking his reply in 15 days of receipt. Roy Barman has been charged for revolt against Congress high command for forging alliance with CPI(M) in West Bengal. It also alleged that Roy Barman has blamed Congress supremo Sonia Gandhi for her proximity with CPI(M) that caused a disastrous result in Amarpur assembly by-election. Roy Barman after announcement of by-poll result on Feb 16 last, held AICC leaders responsible for forfeiting the security deposit of congress candidate in Amarpur. He had stated that policy shift of Congress leaders and peoples' understanding about closeness of congress top brasses with main opposition CPI(M), congress nominee got only 1,231 votes, which was 15,053 in 2013 assembly poll. In just concluded village council of Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (ADC) election, Roy Barman and most of the congress leaders were inactive because of the alleged pro-left attitude of congress leaders. Later, when congress initiated proposal of alliance with CPI(M), TPCC president Birajit Sinha, the then Congress Legislator Party (CLP) leader Roy Barman and other leaders of the party in Tripura unanimously opposed the move and requested Gandhi to refrain from any electoral understanding with the CPI(M) in Bengal. "We tried to convince congress high command that CPI(M) is the main enemy of Congress in Tripura and their relentless violence and on slaught on the anti-left supporters over past two decades in Tripura and Bengal never allows us to go for any deal with them. And it is bound to cast an adverse impact on politics in Tripura. But we failed," Roy Barman stated. He, however, pointed out that not in the past, even after forging electoral alliance in Bengal, Tripura CPI(M) leaders have continuously been abused the Gandhi family and Congress party and never recognised the party's contribution in nation building. Even in the assembly this week, Chief Minister and CPI(M) politburo member Manik Sarkar hit congress party and it's leaders below the belt and everything was reported to high command. Finally, on April 7 last after sine die of budget session of the state assembly, Roy Barman has resigned from CLP leader opposing the decision of congress high command in regard to West Bengal and more than 100 congress workers including TPCC working president Ashis Saha, youth Congress president Susanta Chowdhury, Viki Prasad have resigned followed by his resignation. Similarly, as many as 85 CPI(M) leaders have also resigned from the party on the same issue. The CPI(M) has also reviewing the situation following large scale resignation from the party and movement towards BJP. Narayanswami said, "I have spoken to PCC president Birajit Sinha on the issue and asked him to send a detail report containing newspaper clippings to me at the earliest". After getting the reply on the show cause notice, the AICC will take the final decision and it is almost certain axe will fall on Roy Barman for his act." He also indicated if Roy Barman and other leave Congress, the party will approach the Speaker to disqualify them from members of the state assembly under Anti Defection Law. UNI BB AKM SHS RAI1159 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-676200.Xml
Impressing upon the banks not to get swayed away by the shrill of public discourse against the purported willful defaulters, apex industry body ASSOCHAM today said that offer made by industrialist Vijaya Mallya should be considered carefully before rejecting it, because his offer does convey his "intention" to repay the loans taken from the public sector lenders."With so much shrill on the wilful defaulters, the banks and their principal shareholder, the Government of India, should take a dispassionate view of the case rather than being influenced by the media reports which at times get exaggerated in the 'right-or-wrong' debate," ASSOCHAM Secretary General D S Rawat said in a statement.He said, the main concerns for the banks' consortium should be recovery of its assets which have become NPAs and all genuine efforts must be made towards that end."Whether Mr Mallya has done something right or wrong should be left to the law enforcement agencies and the courts. The banks must evaluate with open mind what offer is on the table. Even if Rs 4,000 crore, as reported in the media, needs to be revised, the banks should be open to negotiations irrespective of the fact whether the borrower is sitting in Delhi or Dubai, Mumbai or London," the ASSOCHAM Secretary General said."Get your money back and cut your losses, if they occur," he said. He further said the real test should be as per the definition of the Reserve Bank of India of a wilful defaulter. "The default to be categorized as wilful must be intentional, deliberate and calculated," the chamber quoted the RBI Master Circular on the subject.Once it is established that the borrower intends to repay, the default cannot be deliberate." Besides, with excessive focus on the 'wilful defaulters', the India Inc is being projected in a bad light in the eye of the general public, whereas the fact remains, they contribute a large part of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment generation.In business cycles, difficult times do come about. At times, the entrepreneurs face a crisis like situation despite best of efforts.In the hindsight it does look as though the Indian industry, as was the case with the rest of the world, did over-step in expansions of capacities, stretching their balance sheets with high debts.But such an analysis is possible with the advantage of hindsight. Mr Rawat said in the present situation, the difficult times have to be faced by all the stakeholders- industry (borrowers) and the banks."The choice has to be between keeping the units alive by taking some hair cuts or squeezing it to suffocation. In the case of Kingfisher Airlines and Mr Mallya, the ASSOCHAM does not want to sit in judgement, but what it certainly wants is let there not be a media and public trial as such a thing is not good for the industry, banks or even the country's financial system," he added.UNI BM PS SHS 1259 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0421-676241.Xml
The royal couple arrived here on a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan, aimed at building strong bonds with the two countries.

The couple, who are on their first visit to India, will take off for Delhi on Monday.

In Delhi, they are scheduled to lay a wreath at India Gate and visit Gandhi Smriti.

Prime Minister will be hosting a lunch for the Duke and Duchess on April 12. "As you would recall, during our Prime Minister's visit to U.K. in November last year, the Queen had hosted a lunch in his honour at Buckingham Palace," said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup in a media briefing on Thursday.

After their stay in Delhi, the Duke and Duchess are scheduled to visit the Kaziranga National Park before they proceed to their visit to Bhutan.

They will be back in India to visit the Taj Mahal and will depart for the U.K. from New Delhi.

"The forthcoming visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is reflective of the continued high level engagement between India and the U.K., and demonstrates the accelerated momentum of the relationship after Prime Minister's very successful visit to United Kingdom in November 2015," Swarup added. (ANI)
In a city obliterated by a U.S. atom bomb more than 70 years ago, Japan kicked off a gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies with a call to end nuclear weapons.Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who presides over the two-day annual meeting this year, said on Sunday that ministers will also discuss anti-terrorism steps, maritime security and issues related to North Korea, Ukraine and the Middle East.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is set to join his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Monday to visit an atomic bomb museum and lay flowers at a cenotaph for nuclear bomb victims, becoming the first in his post to do so.The move could possibly pave the way for a never-before visit to Hiroshima by a U.S. president when Barack Obama attends the annual meeting of G7 leaders in Japan next month.During World War II, a U.S. warplane dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, reducing the city to ashes and killing 140,000 people by the end of that year.Three days later, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later.Maritime security is also on the cards after China rattled nerves in the region with its controversial reclamation work in the South China Sea.Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday called for the participating ministers not to "hype up" the South China Sea issue.Wang's comment was followed by a scathing article by China's official Xinhua News Agency on Sunday on the prospects of the G7 meeting discussing the South China Sea matter."(Kishida) has purportedly coordinated to outline a joint communique regarding the sovereignty disputes over the South China Sea, despite the fact that neither Japan nor any G7 member is a relevant party to the disputes," the article said."Long uncomfortable with China's rising influence in the region, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his administration have never passed up an opportunity to trip up and contain China," it said.Kishida is scheduled to hold a final news conference as chair of the G7 meeting of foreign ministers on Monday afternoon, and will announce several G7 statements on issues including nuclear disarmament and maritime security.REUTERS DS RAI1451 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-676458.Xml
According to an official release today said the deputy commissioner of Tuensang Alem Jungshi said several government programmes in the past could not bring desired results due to several reasons.

He, therefore, requested citizens to approach and avail government projects and schemes like PMFBY with honesty and dedication.

He further encouraged farmers to think differently to change the subsistent agriculture to market oriented one.

During the programme held on Thursday, different government programmes were delivered by department of agriculture, horticulture, sericulture and forest. This was followed by interaction session where several problems related to crops and animals were discussed.

Further, soil health card and folders on different aspect of crops and livestock were distributed to the farmers. The kendra also exhibited technologies tested and found suitable for the district during the programme.

Altogether 270 farmers, government officials and NGOs attended the programme, the release said. UNI AS AKM PY RK1448

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A boy was crushed to death by a tractor while his brother was injured at Nivi village in Madhya Pradesh's Morena district, police said. Sultan Baghel had gone to work in his farm last evening along with his sons Ankit (8) and Sumit (6). While Sultan was busy in his farm, the two siblings were playing nearby, when they were hit by Raju Kushwaha's tractor. Ankit died on the spot, while Sumit was injured and admitted to the District Hospital. Raju left the tractor behind and fled from the spot.UNI XC-PS PY RJ RK1545 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0044-676473.Xml
Bollywood actor Anupam Kher was today denied permission to visit National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, where non local students are on strike in support of their demands. Officials sources said as soon as Mr Kher landed at Srinagar airport he was stopped and not allowed to move out. Mr Kher was informed that he cannot visit NIT since there was apprehension of law and order problem, source said adding he was asked to return to Delhi. Earlier Mr Kher, a Kashmiri pandit, had tweeted "HOME' away from home. Will go to #NITSrinagar & meet the students & give them a warm hug & a special gift. :) After landing at the airport he further tweeted "I have been told by J&K Police that I cannot enter Srinagar city at all. I have asked them to show me the orders. Still at the airport. Mr Kher, who is being considered a strong supporter of BJP government at the centre said he was not going to NIT to create problems but to meet the students. He said he was going NIT as a citizen to meet the students and give them moral support. He further said at the aiport, "if government say this is a law and order situation, I will say millions of people go to university, it's an open place, why should they stop me." Mr Kher alleged that police did not even allow him to visit his ancestral house or Kheer Bhawani Temple in central Kashmir's Ganderbal district. The Bollywood actor, who opposed all those writes and others who returned their awards, alleging intolerance in the country after the BJP government headed by Narendra Modi took over in the country, was recently awarded Padam Shree.UNI BAS PY VN1508 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-676377.Xml
Nagaland state legal services authority conducted a National Lok Adalat throughout the state, on matter of labour, petty criminal, family and municipal, money suit, by the respective district legal services authority. Presiding judges were assisted by panel lawyers, para legal volunteers, municipal members for municipal matters, traffic police personnel for traffic cases. A total of 210 cases were taken up and total of 195 cases were disposed yesterday, with a settlement amount of Rs 49,880. The next national lok adalat is scheduled to be held either on May 14 or June 11 on cases relating to motor accident and claims of tribunal & Insurance at all the district headquarters. According to a release today by the NSLSA said, in Kohima district legal services authority (KDLSA) along with the rest of the district legal services authority of the state organised the national lok adalat on April 9 at the district court building, Kohima. Cases relating to municipals and labour, family matters etc were taken up. YM Imchen, NJS, chairman, KDLSA and district and sessions judge, Kohima, was the presiding officer and Thejapfutuo Khezhie and Keduvi Zhotso, panel lawyer (KDLSA) were the conciliators during the national lok adalat. Altogether 13 cases were taken up, out of which 10 cases were disposed during the national lok adalat, wherein eight cases were pending and two cases were prelitigation cases. Further, three money suit cases, which were pending before the court were taken up, however, none of the cases could be settled. The settled amount during the national lok adalat was Rs 1,800. The Dimapur district legal service authorities have organised yesterday vehicle checking with the traffic officials for the citizens' safety and to let the citizens know their rights traffic challan were given because citizens are duty bound to obey traffic rules and motor vehicle act, 1988. Dimapur district legal service authority penal advocate Zacharia Tetseo in a release informed that the same lok adalat as people's court for motor accident claims tribunal (MACT) cases will be held on May 14, 2016 at district legal service authority, Dimapur. Interested litigants are welcome to avail free legal service as nothing is there to be charged upon. More details of lok adalat schedule for the year 2016 is already notify by the national legal service authority, the release said.UNI AS AKM PY RK1532 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-676364.Xml
The Rongmei Naga People Organisation (RNPO) has formed Rani Gaidinliu monument committee, to execute projects in honour of Gaidinliu at her birth village Luangkao in Manipur's Tamenglong district. The committee was formed during the central executive meeting of RNPO held on March 8 in Imphal. According to a release from RNPO general secretary G Gwangphun today informed that after thorough ground study and consideration on the aspect of development that has widely been exercised in the name of Rani Gaidinliu by the Northeastern states, particularly Nagaland and Manipur, it was found out that not a single development project or grant has been appropriated at the birth village of Rani Gaidinliu till date. ''The concerned tribe of Rani Gaidinliu felt deprived, ignored and sidelined for too long. It is a matter of total negligence or refusal on the part of Zeliangrong society and India at large for not planting a project at Luangkao village and Tamenglong district as a whole to her honor," the release stated. Therefore, with much sense of pain and urgency, the apex authority has formed the committee to execute the planned program as envisioned, it added. RNPO further said the committee reserves the "right to assert and prevent any doubling projects from any quarter in the village." Meanwhile, the public have been informed and requested to cooperate and comply with the committee in the interest of the people, the release said. UNI AS AKM PY RAI1504 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0213-676374.Xml
The Congress has issued a show-cause notice to its Tripura unit leader Sudip Roy Barman, days after he resigned as the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader to protest the party's alliance with the Left Front in West Bengal. The party has warned Barman of disciplinary action if he failed to explain his position properly within a fortnight. Congress general secretary V. Narayanasamy in the show-cause notice to Barman said: "If you have any views on the Congress having an understanding with the Communist Party of India-Marxist in Bengal, you could have expressed your views to the Congress president personally." Narayanasamy, who is in charge of the party affairs in north-eastern states, told Barman that by criticising the party's alliance with ten Left Front through the media, he deliberately acted in a way calculated to lower the prestige of the Congress and carry out propaganda against the party leadership. Barman, who is the opposition leader in the Tripura assembly, on Thursday resigned as Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader in the assembly, protesting his party's tie-up with the Left Front n West Bengal. In his resignation letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, he said the alliance would prove "harmful" to the Congress. On Friday, four more Congress leaders quit party positions on the issue. They are Tripura Congress working president Ashish Saha, state Youth Congress president Sushanta Chowdhury, West Tripura Lok Sabha constituency Youth Congress president Viki Prasad, and East Tripura Lok Sabha constituency Youth Congress chief Rantu Deb. Meanwhile, Tripura Congress president Birajit Sinha and some others party leaders have said they would abide by central leadership's decision on the alliance with the Left parties. "We will abide by central leadership's decision on the issue. Congress leaders' resignations are unfortunate," said Sinha, a sitting lawmaker and former minister of Tripura. Informed sources said a few other Congress leaders close to Barman and Saha might quit party posts either to form a new party or join the Trinamool Congress of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Tripura. --Indo-Asian News Service sc/tsb/vt ( 350 Words) 2016-04-10-16:15:30 (IANS)
"We can defeat the forces who are engaged in conspiracy to create divide and conflict in the society only with the help of this strength of harmony and unity in the society," he said after offering a 'Chadar' (cloth sheet) at dargah of Sufi saint Hazrat Khwaja Moinuddin Chishty here on behalf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"This strength has always defeated the challenge of terrorism," he added.

The union minister of state for parliamentary affairs and minority affairs said that harmony and unity in the country guarantee India's prosperity.

Naqvi also read out message of the prime minister on the occasion in which Modi greeted the followers of the saint in India and abroad.

Modi, in his message, said Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti was an "amazing example" of our country's great Sufi traditions.

"Garib Nawaz considered service to the humanity as best form of 'Ibaadat' (worship). It is a source of inspiration for us even today," Modi said in the message.

The prime minister also wished happiness to all across the world.

--Indo-Asian News Service sk/sd/vt

( 218 Words)

2016-04-10-16:21:34 (IANS)
No one was injured in the fire that broke out in the Parliament Annexe premises this afternoon and all were evacuated safely, officials here said.According to police officials on the spot, the blaze broke on the second floor of the Annexe at Room No 212, at 1325 hrs. Nine fire tenders were rushed and pressed into service. The flames were doused within 20 minutes. All people trapped in the premises were evacuated safely. Despite Sunday, some employees had reported for work because of preparations for the Parliament session, which is scheduled to start on April 25.Preliminary queries found a short-circuit in the air-conditioning to be the cause of fire. Despite fire, the meeting to elect the new president of Janata Dal (United) continued without much interruption at the ground floor of the building.UNI PRA RJ 1614 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0384-676573.Xml
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) today condoled the death of more than 100 people in a temple festival fire mishap at Paravoor in Kollam district of Kerala. In a statement here RSS Sarsanghachalak Mohan Bhagwat and RSS Sarkaryavah Bhaiyya Ji Joshi expressed their deep condolences to the temple tragedy. "The fireworks mishap at the Paravoor Puttingal Devi Temple near Kollam in Kerala, during the temple festival early this morning that killed 105 persons and injured over 350, is highly shocking and painful'', they said. ''The agony of those who lost their kith and kin in the accident and that of those injured and their family members is beyond comprehension'', they added. ''We send our heartfelt condolences to all those who lost their kith and kin in their tragedy, and also express sympathy for those who are injured in the accident and wishing them speedy recovery'', the statement said. RSS Sangh Swayamsevaks and Sevabharathi Kollam swung intoaction and were actively participating in relief works and opened a help desk for assistance. The helpline numbers are 8086488168, 9446853975,9947302221.UNI GV KVV ADB1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0414-676666.Xml
Army has strongly rejected the allegation that troops vandalised graveyard in south Kashmir district of Shopian recently. Defence ministry spokesman Colonel N N Joshi said Army strongly rejects the grave and irresponsible allegation of "vandalising graveyard at Kareemabad" made by a separatist with an obvious intent to malign the fair image of the Army. ''The Indian Army, during the Kargil conflict, had given a befitting and honorable military burial to even Pakistani soldiers. Desecrating the 'graves' of our own youth, even if they are misguided, is unimaginable for a disciplined force with a proven track record in displaying due dignity to the adversary during and after combat. ''Such irresponsible allegations are only indicative of intellectual bankruptcy of ignorant and ill-informed'' minds, he said.UNI BAS ASM RJ RK1630 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0153-676494.Xml
President of Maldives Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom arrived here today for a two-day visit, which is expected to reset the relationship between the two countries after it had come under severe strain, following the sentencing and subsequent jailing of former President Abdul Nasheed last year.Mr Yameen's visit is taking place at a time, when there is worldwide concern over the treatment being meted out to Mr Nasheed and imprisonment of other political leaders by his government. The fact of Mr Nasheed being in jail in 2014 had in fact led to Prime Minister Narendra Modi skipping the Indian ocean archipelago from his itenerary of Indian ocean nations' tour. Mr Nasheed is currently in London on prison leave for medical treatment.External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited the Maldives in November, 2014 and again in October, 2015 for the India-Maldives Joint Commission which was held after 15 years.Mr Yameen had visited Indian in 2014 to participate in the swearing in ceremony of Mr Modi. After the official announcement of Mr Yameen's visit to India on Friday,The Maldivian Democeratic Party(MDP) of Mr Nasheed said it hoped that India would strongly take up the issue of persecution of Mr Nasheed with the Maldivian President, according to media reports from Male.Mr Yameen, who will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, will hold official talks with Prime Minister Modi tomorrow. He will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee in addition to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.Besides Dunya Maumoon, other members of Mr Yameen delegation are Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Dr Mohamed Shainee and three members of the Maldivian Parliament. The visit has come in a month in which the next meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) will be reviewing progress on several key demands including talks with Opposition parties, release of Opposition leaders.Mr Yameen had invited opposition leaders for talks but there was reported to be no progress as they demanded release of political prisoners before any meaningful dialogue could take place. The US Senate last week passed a resolution in which it expressed serious concern over the ''persecution and conviction of Mr Nasheed without due process.''The Senate urged the Mr Yameen's government ''to take necessary steps to redress this injustice and release all prisoners.''Meanwhile, the Ministry of External Affairs, while announcing the visit of Mr Yameen said here, "Both countries have historically had a close relationship, both as neighbours and friends in the Indian Ocean region. Ancient ties of trade, culture, linguistic and religious interfaces have provided the foundation for relations in present times.''India and the Maldives commemorated 50 years of diplomatic relations last year. UNI NAZ DS RJ 1700 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0177-676436.Xml
Bihar Chief Minister and senior leader of Janata Dal (United) Nitish Kumar was today unanimously elected the president of the party, replacing long-reigning veteran Sharad Yadav.The decision was taken at a national executive meeting of the party at the Parliament Annexe building here.Talking to reporters after the meeting, party spokesman KC Tyagi said the name of Mr Kumar was proposed by the outgoing party president and endorsed by several senior leaders. Mr Sharad Yadav had been party president for three consecutive terms. Mr Tyagi added that a national council meeting on April 23 in Patna will ratify the move to make Mr Kumar the president of the party. Many party leaders and workers, Mr Tyagi said, wanted to hand over this responsibility to Mr Yadav but after his refusal an emergency executive meeting was called to decide on the name of Mr Kumar.Elaborating on the decisions taken in the meeting, Mr Tyagi said,'' Party's objective is to assimilate like minded parties on one platform and defeat divisive powers in the coming Uttar Pradesh elections. Goal is not the year 2019 but 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections and this is the hidden fight that the party has to fight to emerge victorious in the UP polls.''Terming the decision of the party to severe ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party correct, Mr Tyagi said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not following the path of his predecessor Atal Behari Vajpayee. ''Not being able to fulfill his electoral promises, Mr Modi is trying to raise those issues which have met a dead end long ago,''the JD (U) spokesman added.MORE UNI SY RP1913 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0093-676895.Xml
Three days before British Royal couple, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are scheduled to visit Kaziranga National Park in Assam, a one-horned rhino fell prey to poachers. Official sources said here today that the poachers could not kill the rhino but cut off its horn. The pachyderm was now being attended to by the veterinarians, but is stated to be in a critical condition after the last night's incident. On earlier instances also, poachers had cut away horn from injured rhinos. Rhino poaching is a major concern at the Park, which will host Prince William and Princess Kate on April 12-13. UNI SG AD RJ VN1922 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-676888.Xml
With an eye on Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation election early next year,Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi is coming here on Tuesday to meet jewellers and slumdwellers in Deonar. Mumbai Regional Congress President (MRCC) Sanjay Nirupam told mediapersons here today that Mr Gandhi will visit the famous Jewellery Bazaar where he will meet representatives of jewellers, who were on strike for past 40 days to protest against imposition of one per cent excise duty on jewellery. Earlier, one goldsmith has committed suicide following losing his job.Mr Nirupam said in 2012, the same issue was raised and Mr Gandhi stood by jewellers and the then government had to roll back the levy.Mr Gandhi will also visit Deonar, where fire erupted in the dumping ground twice in past couple of months, resulting in residents of the surrounding area suffering from health problems. One child died of suffocation due to the fire, he added.UNI ST NP RSA RJ 1934 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0169-676747.Xml
Asserting that the state government was acting very decisively and swiftly over the deadly Kollam inferno that killed at least 105 people, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said that this was a tragedy for Kerala as well as the entire nation. "I have spoken to the Chief Minister and our leaders and our government is acting very decisively and swiftly. We have taken care of the people who are injured and hurt. I came here to see with my own eyes as to what has happened. I visited some of the patients and I went to the site. It's a time of tragedy and a very sad time for the country and we are with the people of Kerala," Rahul told the media here. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College where he met the particularly serious patients in the burns intensive unit. He said that he had assured Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of complete aid from the Centre and added that assistance would be provided if the serious patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or New Delhi for further treatment. "The incident that happened today is extremely saddening. Nobody can imagine that death can come in such a manner. So many people have been severely injured that too on such a large scale. I visited the site of the incident today, went to the hospitals where the injured have been admitted and also spoke to the Chief Minister," the Prime Minister said. Earlier today, the Prime Minister, accompanied by Chandy and Union Health Minister JP Nadda, visited the site of the incident and met the victims in the hospital. A team of 15 burn specialist doctors from All India Institute of Medical Science and other hospitals from Delhi accompanied the Prime Minister to Kollam. At least 105 people were charred to death in a fire accident at Puttingal temple during a festival at Paravur in Kollam district early this morning. 350 people have been injured and admitted to various hospitals. The fire broke out due to the explosion of crackers at the temple. The fire has now been brought under control. (ANI)
In the wake of the deadly inferno at the Puttingal temple in Kollam killing at least 105 people, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday wrote to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy asserting that bringing the guilty to book immediately must be the top priority and must be ensured without delay. "I write to you in this hour of devastating tragedy that has taken more than a hundred lives and injured so many more, to reiterate my grief and concern. The Congress Party, as indeed the entire nation, stands with the people of Kerala today," Sonia said in the letter. Stating that based on her prior conversation with Chandy over the phone, she expressed hope that the state government is ensuring all possible relief measures in terms of medical treatment, emergency protocols and compensation. "Providing medical relief, financial assistance and bringing the guilty to book immediately will, I am sure, be a priority, and will be ensured without delay. I pray for the peace of the departed souls and the well being and speedy recovery of the injured," the letter added. Earlier today, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi visited the site of the inferno and the victims of the fire in Kollam and expressed confidence that the state government was acting very decisively and swiftly in the matter. "I have spoken to the Chief Minister and our leaders and our government is acting very decisively and swiftly. We have taken care of the people who are injured and hurt. I came here to see with my own eyes as to what has happened. I visited some of the patients and I went to the site. It's a time of tragedy and a very sad time for the country and we are with the people of Kerala," Rahul told the media. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also visited the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College today where he met the particularly serious patients in the burns intensive unit. He said that he had assured Chief Minister Chandy of complete aid from the Centre and added that assistance would be provided if the serious patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or New Delhi for further treatment. "The incident that happened today is extremely saddening. Nobody can imagine that death can come in such a manner. So many people have been severely injured that too on such a large scale. I visited the site of the incident today, went to the hospitals where the injured have been admitted and also spoke to the Chief Minister," the Prime Minister said. At least 105 people were charred to death in a fire accident at Puttingal temple during a festival at Paravur in Kollam district early this morning. 350 people have been injured and admitted to various hospitals. The fire broke out due to the explosion of crackers at the temple. The fire has now been brought under control. (ANI)
Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was on a three-day visit to Sikkim from April 9 to 11. Ms Sitharaman visited the Temi Tea Estate in South Sikkim today. The workers and staff of the Temi Tea Estate and factory welcomed the Union Minister. She observed the tea processing in the Temi Tea factory and appreciated the quality of tea produced in the factory. The Minister also interacted with the workers and officials of the factory. The tea plantation area of Temi Tea Estate is 177 Hectares and about 90,000 kg of orthodox Organic tea is manufactured in the factory. Apart from that, there are about 200 small tea growers in the state of Sikkim who produce about 25,000 kg of hand-made organic teas. The Temi Tea Estate is planning extension of tea plantation areas in the state with the assistance of the Central Govt and Tea Board. They are also planning for replantation in the existing plantations to a limited extent. The Estate is also contemplating to extend housing facilities to the workers and their families. Tea Board India expressed keenness to extend the benefits of its various Schemes to the State of Sikkim Sikkim Tea is well appreciated in the international and domestic markets because of its quality. The Minister stressed the need for branding "Sikkim Teas" as a very niche product. She also emphasised upon setting up Integrated Tea Parks in North and South India, large-scale "Brand India Campaign" in key overseas markets and the importance of having more visibility of branded Indian teas in the export markets, including teas from the state of Sikkim. Ms Sitharaman, during her visit to Sikkim, called upon the Governor of Sikkim Shriniwas Patil and Chief Minister Pawan Chamling. The Union Minister held a stakeholders' meeting of Tea, Spices and APEDA today. She also laid the foundation stone of Spice Complex in Gangtok. The Chief Minister of Sikkim was also present during the stakeholders' meetings and the foundation-laying ceremony. Additional Secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Industry R R Rashmi, Joint Secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Industry and Chairman Tea Board Santosh Sarangi, Chairman of Spices Board Dr A Jayathilak, State Principal Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industries Arvind Kumar, and Chairman of APEDA Krishan Kumar accompanied the Minister during her visit. UNI BM AD RSA GC2108 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-677069.Xml
Acting on a tip-off, STF personnel arrested Pintu Tiwari, the main shooter of the Santosh Jha gang and Gautam Choudhary, another shooter of the gang, while they were loitering around Kargil Chowk.

STF sleuths are interrogating both to get vital clues.

Two engineers of construction company, BSC-CMC were shot dead in daylight at the construction site of a State Highway project at Sheogram village under Baheri police station area in Darbhanga district on December 26 last year.

The deceased were Project Manager Mukesh Kumar and engineer Brajesh Kumar.

Both employees of the construction company were killed when their company refused to pay extortion money of Rs five crore to the outlaws.UNI DH AD RSA AN2128

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Former Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, reacting over JD(U) installing Mr Kumar as its chief, said he had deserted Mr Yadav like Mr Fernandes 10 years back.

It was the style of functioning of Mr Kumar to ditch those who had once helped in his long political career, he added.

On Mr Kumar's projection as prime ministerial candidate, Mr Modi said, "Whenever people of Bihar voted him to power to serve the state, Mr Kumar began nursing ambition to play bigger role at national level."

He said Mr Kumar had taken the step of becoming the boss of the party to fulfill his dream of becoming a PM.

Mr Modi said there was the trend of centralisation of power in regional parties and Mr Kumar had added tothis syndrome by becoming JD(U) president.

Besides Mr Kumar, BSP supremo Mayawati, RJD president Lalu Prasad, AIADMK president J Jayalalithaaand AITC chief Mamata Banerjee were among those smothering inner democracy in their parties, he alleged.UNI KKS AD RSA AN2147

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Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today welcomed the announcement to probe into alleged cases of corruption of the present state government by BJP president Amit Shah at a press conference in Guwahati. In a statement here, the chief minister said he would be too happy if the present BJP-led NDA government at the Centre orders an inquiry into alleged cases of corruption by the state government as stated by Mr Shah. Terming the statement of the BJP president nothing but election gimmick, Mr Gogoi said he would be too happy if the present dispensation at the Centre institutes a probe into the corruption cases of the present state government. "If the BJP-led Government was so serious that the present state government had indulged in corruption and misappropriated central funds, then why it not institute a probe in the nearly two years of its tenure? This is nothing but an election gimmick" he added. Mr Gogoi said the present central leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have been raking up the foreigners' issue with an eye on the elections."As in the last Parliamentary election so also in the ongoing Assembly elections the BJP central leaders including the Prime Minister have been raking up the problem of infiltration from across the border. But once the elections are over, the issue will be put on the backburner," said Mr Gogoi. Questioning the Centre's seriousness into the problem of infiltration, Mr Gogoi alleged that it did virtually nothing to strengthen the borders in the past almost two years. "If infiltration is taking place, then it is the Central government's responsibility to stop it rather than passing the buck on the state government," he added. UNI SG AD RSA AN2212 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0108-677165.Xml
Speaking to the reporters, Mr Carter, who is on a three-day visit to India, said,'' We see India as a great partner. The interests India pursue and our interests overlap in many important ways. We want to work together to make the world safer and make it better for our children.''

Mr Carter, who visited Mangueshi Temple and Old Goa Church complex along with Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, said,'' My visit is very significant because India and US have many activities together to help secure this part of the world and other part of the world too.'' To a question, he said Make In India was very important thing.

''Yeah, Its very important thing. Make In India is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's priority. Mr Modi's efforts are being reflected on defence activities wherein there is stressing on co-production, co-development and technology share rather than simple model in which India buys military system from other countries. We want to share technologies,'' he said.

Earlier, Mr Carter who arrived at International Airport at Goa International Airport at Dabolim was received by the officials of Goa Government.

Mr Carter is scheduled to visit Karwar Naval base in Karnataka tomorrow.UNI AKM CJ RSA AN2243

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Notwithstanding the controversy over the appointment of new BJP state chief, Keshav Prasad Maurya will be given a rousing welcome on his arrival in the state capital tomorrow. Keshav Prasad will come to Lucknow via New Delhi in Shatabdi Express. He will pay floral tributes to the statues of Deen Dayal Upadhaya, Mahatama Gandhi, Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar and Maharana Pratap before addressing the party workers in office. "The new president will be accorded a historical welcome. Party workers have been asked to reach Charbagh station from where new party chief will be taken to the party office in a big procession," BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said. The road between Charbagh station and Hazratganj are adorned with make-shift gates, festoons and party flags. Big hoardings have also come up congratulating Keshav Prasad for his new assignment. The celebration has been marred by controversy over criminal background of Keshav Prasad. The issue took a serious turn after some office-bearers in Allahabad resigned from the party post to protest his appointment. Opposition has already started taking pot-shots at BJP saying appointment is a clear indication that party wants to communalise UP's politics before election. "There is no official communication about resignation of any party leader. The workers are happy over appointment of Keshav Prasad and he has also assured leadership of taking workers along with him. So, there is no question of any disturbance in the party," Pathak said. BJP in-charge of UP Om Mathur will also be present in Lucknow to welcome new state president. He will introduce him to the party office-bearers and also hold meeting with them. The Outgoing BJP president Dr Laxmi Kant Bajpai is expected to receive his successor at Charbagh station tomorrow noon.UNI MB CJ RSA 2316 -- (UNI) -- C-1-1-DL0400-677121.Xml
In a heart rending tragedy, at least 110 people were killed and nearly 400 injured in an explosion during a fireworks display at Paravoor Puttingal Devi Temple in this district of Kerala early today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushed to the accident site to supervise relief operations. Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and the Prime Minister. "The Russian head of state expressed condolences and support to the families and friends of the killed people, wished a speedy recovery to the injured," a statement at the Kremlin presidential website said. In a statement by the French Consulate here, Jean Marc Ayrault, French Minister for External Affairs and International Development expressed his deep condolences, following the untoward incident to the bereaved families. Mr Ayrault said, ''I offer my condolences to the authorities and people of India after the tragic fire that occurred in the state of Kerala. Our thoughts are with the victims and their family and we extend our encouragement to the injured''. As many as 383 injured were undergoing treatment at various government and private hospitals where the condition of 77 of them were stated to be serious. After visiting the mishap site and the injured in hospitals at Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, Mr Modi offered all assistance to Kerala in the hour of crisis. "This tragedy is very painful. The extent of the tragedy is unimaginable and such dreadful," he added. The Kerala Government ordered a judicial inquiry into the mishap, one of the worst in the history of the state. The state government sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs ten lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased and up to Rs two lakh each to the injured. The Central Government, which rushed in medical care and Army's assistance in rescue operations, also sanctioned a sum of Rs two lakh each to the families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured. Official sources said here that only 78 bodies could be identified so far as some of them were charred beyond recognition. ''A central medical team will assist the state government to conduct DNA test to verify the identity of the remaining deceased,'' Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affair Rajiv Pratap Rudy told newspersons at the Kollam District Hospital where more than 75 bodies were kept. Union Health Minister J P Nadda was asked to camp in Kollam to supervise medical care to the injured persons who were undergoing treatment at various hospitals. Earlier, the Prime Minister, who reached at the Kollam Ashramam Maidan after cancelling all his scheduled programmes, drove straight to the site of the fire and enquired about the details of the tragedy from Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala. He also visited the injured in the Kollam District hospital and interacted with doctors and the relatives of the victims. Later, Mr Modi chaired a high-level meeting at the Kollam Ashramam Guest House to coordinate relief operations. Addressing newspersons at Kollam after an emergency meeting of the State Cabinet, the Chief Minister said every step being taken to provide medical care to all the injured. It was one of the most massive rescue and relief operations launched in the history of the state. All the victims could be shifted to hospitals within three hours after the massive explosion which brought down a few buildings near the ground. Earth excavators were pressed into service to rescue the injured trapped inside the debris. High Court retired Judge Justice N Krishnanan Nair would inquire into the mishap. The Kerala Cabinet asked him to submit a report within six months. The state Crime Branch was also asked to inquire into it. The Chief Minister also directed the Additional Chief Secretary to frame stringent guidelines to allow fireworks display during temple festivals in Kerala in view of today's tragic incident. "The officials from Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), Ernakulam, are visiting theaccident site to assist the district administration in finding out the cause of accident and to suggest measuresto prevent recurrence of similar incidents in future," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in astatement in New Delhi. The team comprises S Kamal Chief Controller of Explosives, Nagpur, A K Yadav, Joint Chief Controller of Explosives, South Circle, Chennai, R Venugopal, Deputy Chief Controller of Explosives, Hyderabad,Thiagarajan, Controller of Explosives, Sivakasi, and S Kandasamy, Deputy Controller of Explosives,Ernakulam. EDS: Pls pick up suitably from earlier series.UNI Team RSA 2303 -- (UNI) -- C-1-DL0104-677216.Xml
Security forces and allied paramilitary Sunni tribal fighters fought fierce battles with IS terrorists on Saturday, as part of their offensive to drive out IS terrorists from the town of Heet, 160 km west of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The troops extended their grip and took control of al-Zaytoon area in the southern par to of Heet, Xinhua quoted the the source as saying.

However, sporadic clashes continued to clear remaining districts held by IS terrorists in the western parts of the town, the source added.

During the past few days, troops have been advancing slowly in the battleground town in order to give opportunity to thousands of civilians trapped in Heet to flee their homes.

Separately, US-led coalition aircraft bombarded IS position in Jazira area near the town of Khaldiyah, some 80 km west of Baghdad, leaving 17 IS terrorists killed, the source said.

Meanwhile, 12 soldiers were killed when a suicide car bomber detonated an explosive-laden car near a security position in Albu Bali area east of the provincial capital city Ramadi, some 110 km west of Baghdad, the source added.

--Indo-Asian News Service sku/

( 246 Words)

2016-04-10-03:11:29 (IANS)
Philippine soldiers battled a group of about 120 Muslim rebels linked to Islamic State in a ten-hour assault on a southern island that killed 23 people, an army spokesman said today.Major Filemon Tan said the military attacked a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Basilan led by Isnilon Hapilon, an insurgent for whom the US State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million."I can confirm 18 soldiers were killed and 53 were wounded," Tan said, adding that five militants, including a Moroccan, Mohammad Khattab, and Ubaida, a son of Hapilon, were killed in Saturday's incident, which wounded 20 rebels.There was no immediate statement from the small but violent Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines.The group has posted videos on social media sites pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, which have attracted foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the troubled Philippine south.The army has stepped up its offensive against the rebels since November, Tan said, when President Benigno Aquino ordered it to hunt down Abu Sayyaf over the kidnapping and execution of foreign nationals.On the nearby island of Jolo, the rebels on Friday released an Italian man from six months of captivity. Troops were also on alert as another Abu Sayyaf faction threatened to execute two Canadians and a Norwegian tourists after a ransom deadline expired.In March 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, promising to grant autonomy in the south and ending a 45-year conflict that killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million. REUTERS SHS PM0825 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0329-676101.Xml
Headlines screaming "Deportations to begin" and "Markets sink as trade war looms" top a parody newspaper front page the Boston Globe posted, with a scathing editorial denouncing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's candidacy.The mock-up, offering the Globe's satirical view of America under a Trump presidency, was set to run as the front page of the newspaper's "Ideas" section, followed on page 2 of that section by the anti-Trump editorial.The novel front-page spoof, says the editorial, is designed to take Trump's rhetoric and his policy positions to their "logical conclusion.""It is an exercise in taking a man at his word," the editorial says. "And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page."There was no immediate comment from Trump or his campaign.The editorial brands the billionaire businessman as a "demagogue" whose own political vision is "profoundly un-American."It casts his closest rival for the 2016 Republican nomination, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, as "equally extreme" and urges Republicans, if possible at the party's nominating convention in July, to draft a "plausible, honorable" alternative, suggesting U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.The mock Trump page was conceived and executed by the Globe's editorial writers, columnists and commentary editors, who make up the newspaper's editorial board, said Ellen Clegg, the newspaper's editorial page editor.Noting that she reports to John Henry, the Globe's publisher, Clegg stressed to Reuters in a telephone interview that the front-page parody "does not involve our newsroom."Clegg said she knew of no other such expression of political satire ever published by the Globe or any other major metropolitan daily in the United States during her 30 years at the newspaper. But it was reminiscent of the kind of parody regularly featured by the farcical online news outlet, The Onion.The mock front page envisions a host of political, financial and international scenarios ranging from disturbingly surreal to darkly humorous, all playing on Trump's real pronouncements about illegal immigration, Muslims, national security and the First Amendment.A color photograph of Trump making a speech is centered near the top of the page under a banner headline reading: "Deportations to begin," with a subhead reporting that Trump was calling for a tripling of immigration enforcement personnel as "riots continue."A top story on the page opens with the paragraph: "Worldwide stocks plunged again Friday, completing the worst month on record as trade wars with both China and Mexico seem imminent."Other mock entries include a story about unrest in the ranks of the US military as soldiers refuse orders to kill family members of Islamic State militants, and the headline: "New libel law targets 'absolute scum' in press."In a more tongue-in-cheek vein, a brief item reports Trump on the "short list" for the Nobel Peace Prize. "His feat? Healing a 1,385-year-old schism between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, which has fueled bloody conflicts across the globe for centuries."Clegg said it was not the first time the Globe, which tends to lean Democratic on its opinion pages, has editorialized against Trump, but it marked its most "resolute" opposition to his candidacy.REUTERS PS PM0956 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-676143.Xml
German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes."We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers".Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing."If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag.Earlier today, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers.Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it.Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man. REUTERS PS PM1040 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-676177.Xml
"I have seen with my own eyes that Taliban gets its orders from Pakistan and even Punjabis admired me many times for my hard work and gave me money," Tolo news quoted Hanafi as saying.

Hanafi said he regrets fighting against the Afghan Government for six years.

"When I transferred to Nangarhar I saw that all Pakistan's words are lies and they want to destroy my country and my home and I find out that they are wrong, so I decided to support government programs and I stopped fighting and I joined the peace process," he added.

Hanafi revealed that he has two brothers, both of whom were in the Afghan forces. One of his brothers died while battling Taliban.

He later called on other Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and join the peace process and take part in Afghanistan's reconstruction process. (ANI)
Peruvians are expected to favor Keiko Fujimori in the first round of a presidential election today, although critical voters who have not forgiven the authoritarian rule of her father are likely to ensure a June run-off.The US-educated former congresswoman has worked to distance herself from imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori after she lost the 2011 election. A center-right politician, she has vowed to preserve democracy and keep 25 years of free-market policies intact.The 40-year-old Fujimori enjoys a double-digit lead, but is believed to be about ten percentage points short of the simple majority needed for an outright win. Support for her slipped after tens of thousands protested against her on April 5, 24 years after her father shut Congress with the support of the army."Fujimori lost three points, probably because of the marches, and that makes a first-round victory increasingly more distant for her," said Alfredo Torres, head of Ipsos polling.An Ipsos poll yesterday evening gave her 35.8 per cent of valid votes, while Wall Street favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 77, had 21 percent, statistically tied with left-wing nationalist Veronika Mendoza, 35, with 20.1 per cent of votes.Peruvians go to the polls to choose the successor to Ollanta Humala with their country of 30 million on track to become the world's No 2 copper producer after nearly two decades of uninterrupted economic growth. Some question why poverty persists with such vast mineral wealth, however, and rising crime is a primary concern for others.Fujimori's father, a right-wing populist who is serving out a 25-year prison term for human rights abuses and corruption during his 1990-2000 rule, is fondly remembered by some for building rural schools and hospitals and implementing neo-liberal reforms that remain in place. Keiko Fujimori famously became Peru's first lady at 19 when her parents divorced."Keiko has strong proposals, she is not her father though not everything he did was bad," said Jorge Mendoza, 33, a court technician and Fujimori supporter in Lima.The elder Fujimori said his hard-line measures were necessary to defeat the Maoist-inspired Shining Path insurgency.In a reminder of that bloody conflict, rebels presumed to be remnants of the Shining Path ambushed soldiers in the Andes mountains early today, leaving three dead and six injured.ELECTION CRITICIZEDAfter dancing at her closing rally on Thursday, Fujimori told orange-clad supporters she is the only candidate with "the guts to put an end to crime."She has promised to boost economic growth threatened by falling metals prices by tapping a rainy day fund and to issue new debt to fund badly needed infrastructure.Underscoring the danger of Peru's roads, a bus carrying people to vote in the election plunged into a river on Friday, killing at least 23.Human rights groups say Fujimori's election would be an assault on hard-won democracy. They cried foul when two leading candidates were barred late in the process and said that decision favored Fujimori. The head of the Organization of American States warned elections would be "semi-democratic."Opponents of Fujimori are mostly split between former World Bank economist Kuczynski, and Mendoza, a congresswoman and trained psychologist from Cuzco who wants to scrap Peru's 1993 constitution and limit mining. Kuczynski has called for supporters of other minor candidates to rally around him as the only option for a "sensible center."Polls show Kuczynski has a better chance of beating Fujimori in a run-off, though at least one poll last week said Mendoza could tie with her in an eventual second round.REUTERS PS PM1346 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0421-676382.Xml
Many nations are pushing for swift ratification of a Paris agreement to slow climate change and lock it in place for four years before a change in the White House next year that might bring a weakening of Washington's long-term commitment.More than 130 nations with 60 leaders including French President Francois Hollande are due to sign December's pact at a UN ceremony in New York on April 22, the most ever for a UN agreement on an opening day, the United Nations said.Both China and the United States, the world's top emitters accounting together for 38 per cent of emissions, have promised to sign then. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to attend.But signing is only a step in a tortuous UN process for the deal to enter into force, which requires formal approval by at least 55 nations representing 55 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.In many countries, that needs a parliamentary vote.Some experts predict the 55 per cent thresholds can be reached this year, before President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017.But many developing nations want the Paris agreement to move forward as rapidly as possible on ratification, partly to lock in the United States if Republican candidates Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, who do not think that climate change is man-made, win the US presidency.Once the Paris accord enters into force, a little-noted Article 28 says any nation wanting to withdraw will first have to wait four years - the length of a US presidential term."I would expect non-compliance, but not necessarily a formal withdrawal," under a Republican president, said Oliver Geden, of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.And many nations see self-interest in signing up."Moving to clean energy is in every country's interest and I am confident that climate action is an historic inevitability," Maldives Environment Minister Thoriq Ibrahim, chair of the Alliance of Small Island States, told Reuters.NICARAGUAAll 195 nations in Paris agreed the deal except Nicaragua, which objected that it demanded too little of the rich. Some were reluctant such as OPEC oil producers led by Saudi Arabia.Still, the agreement could reach 55 per cent of emissions with support from just a handful of countries, for instance China, the United States, Russia, India, Japan and Brazil. The European Union, with a 12 percent share, is likely to lag because it first has to share out promised curbs among member states.Many nations want to avoid a repeat of the UN's previous climate deal, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which only entered into force in 2005 after years of disputes between Washington and its main allies.Kyoto dictated cuts in greenhouse gas emissions only for developed nations, unlike the Paris Agreement which involves both rich and poor but lets all countries set national targets.US President Bill Clinton's administration signed Kyoto but never submitted it to a hostile Senate for ratification. His successor, Republican President George. W Bush, stayed out, saying Kyoto would threaten US jobs.Obama says his administration can now join the Paris agreement without getting approval from the Senate."A lot has changed" since Kyoto, Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters, noting that prices of wind and solar energy have tumbled and scientists are ever more certain that burning fossil fuels causes global warming."Much is made by some of the politics in the United States but it seems unthinkable that, whatever political complexion is in the White House ... (they) cannot see the self-evident economic and social benefits" of reducing emissions, she said.And more countries say they are suffering heatwaves, desertification, downpours and rising sea levels.Several vulnerable nations have already ratified the Paris agreement, even before the signing ceremony, led by Fiji, the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Maldives."My sense is that it (ratification) will move fairly quickly, possibly this year," said Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists.Any Republican president might seek to undo Obama's domestic plans to cut emissions by 26-28 percent by 2025 below 2005 levels, he said. And Obama's plans to cut emissions from power plants also face legal challenges.REUTERS DS RAI1453 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-676463.Xml
The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying today, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.With a UN envoy due in Damascus in a bid to advance struggling diplomatic efforts, the "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by Russia and the United States came under new strain as government and rebel forces fought near Aleppo.The ceasefire came into effect in February with the aim of paving the way for a resumption of talks to end the five-year-long war. But it has been widely violated, with each side blaming the other for breaches. The fighting south of Aleppo marks the most significant challenge yet to the deal.Diplomacy has meanwhile made little progress with no compromise over the future of President Bashar al-Assad, his position strengthened by Iranian and Russian military support.A top Iranian official, in comments to Iran TV, rejected what he described as a US request for Tehran's help to make Assad leave power, saying he should serve out his term and be allowed to run in a presidential election "as any Syrian".Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers of preparations to "liberate" Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and opposition."We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia's upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation, told RIA news agency "Russian aviation will help the Syrian army's ground offensive operation".The deployment of the Russian air force to Syria last year helped tip the war Assad's way as it bombed rebels supported by his enemies including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. President Vladimir Putin last month withdrew some of the Russian forces, but maintained an air base in Latakia, and kept up strikes on the Islamic State group.Neither the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front or Islamic State are included in the partial ceasefire.Rebels have reported the resumption of Russian air strikes south of Aleppo, an important theatre where Iranian forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah are fighting in support of the army and the Nusra Front is deployed in close proximity to rebels.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 35 combatants had been killed on both sides in a 24 hour period in the area, where fighting has been raging for some 10 days. "ABOUT TO COLLAPSE"A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had "witnessed a serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse". Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche that a US-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was "powerless".The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the rise of Islamic State.Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said "in Aleppo there is a real collapse of the truce".The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on government violations."The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were," said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. A Syrian military source said: "The battles are raging because ... armed groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack."The Observatory also reported fighting today between government and rebel forces near the opposition-held town of Douma outside Damascus, and said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas north of Homs.Barrel bombs are oil drums filled with explosives. While the government denies dropping them, their use has been widely recorded, including by a UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria. IRAN REJECTS US "PRECONDITION"UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday evening, and is expected to meet Syrian officials tomorrow. He said last week he would go to Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition before beginning a new round of peace talks on Wednesday.De Mistura has said the next round of talks needs to "be quite concrete in the direction of a political process leading to a real beginning of a political transition".Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, said US Secretary of State John Kerry had asked "Iran to help so that Bashar Assad leaves."We should ask them: "What does this have to do with you? Shouldn't the Syrian people decide?'""From Iran's point of view Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us."In a sign of Assad's confidence, the Syrian government plans to hold parliamentary elections on Wednesday. Salim al-Muslat, opposition spokesman, said the vote was illegitimate."I don't know how they can really announce an election in Syria. In Idlib or in Aleppo or in Deir al-Zor or in Homs, can people go there and vote?" he said. REUTERS DS VN1748 -- (Reuters) -- C-1-1-DL0177-676740.Xml
The Doctor Dances

She said Testimony 2, which she described as a choreopoem, was already nine months in the making when she was told of the date for my dissertation defense, involving examiners from the United States, United Kingdom and Trinidad and Tobago.

I was bombarded by emotions, La Chapelle said of her feelings on learning that a date for her doctoral thesis had been fixed, days before the premiere of Testimony 2.

The acclaimed choreographer questioned the timing but then quickly resolved to get the job done.

This is what I have been working towards. This is my story, La Chapelle told Sunday Newsday.

Presented before a panel of five examiners on March 17 at the OMeara campus of the University of Trinidad and Tobago (UTT), La Chapelles thesis, Dancing the Mas... the Dancing Mobile as a Neo-Caribbean Performance Genre, explored the works of cultural luminaries Peter Minshall and Geraldine Connor as they relate to movement in the representation of traditional mas and art forms in the depictions of costumed characters, Man Crab, Tan Tan, Saga Boy, the Dove of Peace (from Connors Carnival Messiah), among others.

Focusing on Carnival art, design and choreography, the thesis presented the Dancing Mobile as a one-of-a-kind representation of authentic, Trinidadian artistic expression.

La Chapelle said the thesis was inspired by an awareness that we are the ones with the responsibility to declare our Caribbeaness and own our difference.

Scholarship is seen as activism through critique and constructive exploration that allows for this, she said.

The inquiry into performance demanded defining and managing perspective even with the aim to counter tokenism of the Caribbean contribution. La Chapelles response to her award of a doctorate, she said, was one of relief tinged with gratitude.

I said, Thank you, Lord...it was a favourable ending to increased purpose. The dancer said, though, that she wished her late parents, Winnifred and Frederick La Chapelle, were alive to share in her doctorate - the latest accolade in an already impressive list of accomplishments.

Elegant, intuitive and articulate, La Chapelle has been a leading proponent of the benefits that can be derived from a love and appreciation of dance for mind, body and soul.

I love to dance, to create using the body as the authentic instrument of expression - to make the body speak, she said. A dancers life is short-lived but I always wanted to be a creative force. La Chapelle said her ascent in the arena did not come easy, but was the result of years of sacrifice, perseverance and commitment.

The proud Newtown native, who holds a Master of Arts degree in Cultural Studies, started dancing at a venue on Frederick Street, Port-of-Spain, at the age of nine. She joked that in those early years, young girls of colour involved in ballet were virtually unheard of.

No Black kids did ballet but I said to my parents that I wanted to dance, she recalled.

And while her profound interest in dance was a hard sell for her parents, La Chapelle recalled that it was Winnifred, who despite family constraints, ensured that her daughter fulfilled her dream of becoming a dancer and choreographer. My mom just found the money to keep me in dance school, she said.

Under the tutelage of an English woman named Helen Mary Kay, whom she credited for her drive and technique, La Chapelle said she excelled in dance as a pre-teen.

She was an excellent teacher.

I received a good grounding and that is why I continue to be recognised time and time again. I always tell people who have noted my good technique, that it came from her, she said of Kay.

Later, at St Josephs Convent, in Port-of-Spain, La Chapelle continued to gravitate to the arts through the schools choir and theatre club.

She recalled that during that time she had successfully choreographed her first school production.

The recipient of several scholasrships, La Chapelle is a graduate of the London College of Dance and Drama, Darford College of Education and the University of London.

In the UK, La Chapelle said she formed meaningful friendships with her fellow students and dance tutors, so much so that she ventured fearlessly into the London dance circuit, where she was respected for her talent and spirit.

However, the dancer said she yearned to return to Trinidad and Tobago to share her wisdom and knowledge with up and coming practitioners at home and within the region.

I had excelled as a student, gotten many distinctions, and had many offers to get into dance, but I wanted to share what I had learnt, La Chapelle said.

The dancer hit a few stumbling blocks, though, when some in the local arts fraternity questioned her credentials upon her return. That unfortunate scenario, she said, reinforced her resolve. Apart from teaching at colleges and studios, La Chapelle also choreographed productions, judged competitions and served on several arts-oriented committees.

In the 1970s, La Chapelles passion for dance morphed into the formation of her own company  La Chapelles Creative Workshop. It evolved through Walcott and Trinidad Theatre Workshop, the La Chapelle Dance Company and now, Spirit Global.

Over the years, La Chapelles company has been featured in tours of the Caribbean, United States and Europe.

She said: I have established collaborations across the region and lecture and present workshops - the most current being the London College Network in September 2015. Of the numerous productions she has staged, La Chapelle said Revival, conceptualised on a flight to visit her ill mother, years ago, was one of her personal favourites.

She mentioned Sayamanda, Walcotts Odyssey premiere in Washington and the many incarnations of Geraldine Connors Carnival Messiah which, she said, offered scope to express work rooted in our culture. Vodou Nation, La Chapelle said, was also a special project, if only for the honour to work with Haitians in Haiti for that countrys celebration of 200 years of Independence and the subsequent tour to London.

La Chapelle also listed performing at Harvard for the Directors Invitational with costumes designed by Minshall and Redemption at Holders Season, in Barbados as two of her outstanding productions.

Her latest production, Testimony 2, she said, transcended dance and drama.

It is really theatre with a purpose embracing issues of rape, addiction and trauma, all of which are life threatening, she said.

La Chapelle, who served as the productions artistic director, led a creative team which included Greer Jones-Woodham (design); Leah Brown (musical director); and Benny Goes (lighting).

Regarding the state of dance and other artistic expressions in the country, La Chapelle said a comprehensive vision was desperately lacking.

The main challenge continues to be Where is the vision for the arts, even now with the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA), SAPA and TAPA? She also lamented the penchant of those in authority in inviting outsiders to direct a path for the arts.

Old habits die hard but we must target relevant talents and supply the means for development, funding included, she said.

When will we realise that significant persons like Beryl Mc Burnie, Minshall, (Winston) Spree Simon and Derek Walcott are national gifts and can supply foundations from which to build legacies, feed the institutions and crystallise contributions? La Chapelle also advocated a different approach to the quest for raw talent and potential.

We need to develop our own rich ancestry, accept those who have returned with skills and who recognise the validity of who we are, established homegrown artists, she said.
$1M WONT BRING HIM BACK

However, Marlene Benjamin lamented that no amount of compensation could bring back the life of her brother.

Marlene yesterday told Sunday Newsday that if the family receives the $1 million it would be a great start for Benjamins common-law wife Cherry Ann Foster, 33, and his five children. Foster had three children with Benjamin, called Benji by colleagues. Benjamin had two older children from a previous relationship.

The children have to continue to face each day knowing their father would never return, Marlene said.

It is a pain that would always be there, knowing that their father was killed and the manner he was killed. It is something you cannot erase and money cannot take away this pain, she said.

On April 4, at about 8.30 pm, Benjamin and a policewoman responded to a report of a robbery at Chao Yong Supermarket on Naparima Mayaro Road, St Clements, near Allamby Street, Ste Madeleine.

Benjamin was shot in the head by one of two gunmen as he tried to enter the building through a back door. The bullet was lodged at the base of his neck. Benjamin, a policeman for 16 years, died at 11.15 am last Thursday while at the Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital.

During Fridays sitting in Parliament, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said Government will pay $1 million in compensation, and put in place proper procedures and arrangements so that persons who lose their life in the line of duty will have that kind of comfort for their families. Marlene said she was aware of the announcement made by the PM but the family had not been contacted by any official.

We cannot even think along that line of money right now, we are just trying to cope with my brothers death,she said. The previous Peoples Partnership government had announced plans to pay $1 million to families of police officers killed in the line of duty, but had not implemented the policy before the last general election.

Recently, the Police Social and Welfare Association renewed calls for compensation following Benjamins death. Benjamins colleagues continued to grieve for him yesterday, with one officer saying, We lost a hardworking police officer and all this talk of compensation, no amount of money can bring him back. He was my colleague and also my friend. Another colleague questioned if the compensation would be adequate for the family.

He has five children, but I wonder for how many years that amount of money will sustain his children? Everyday in the line of duty we as police officers are not sure if it could be our last and yet we are not treated fairly, the officer said.

San Fernando Mayor Kazim Hosein, who visited the familys home in Pleasantville on Friday night, in a release yesterday agreed $1 million should be paid to the families of officers slain in the line of duty, once the right mechanism is put in place. Hosein said the San Fernando City Corporation will also help Benjamins family. Benjamins funeral is due to take place on Tuesday at St Pauls Anglican Church, Harris Promenade, San Fernando
PNM begged to remember Williams

He was speaking yesterday at the 35th Anniversary Wreath Laying Ceremony to the Memory of the Late Father of the Nation held at the Heliport in Chaguaramas.

He reported that Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley had informed the committee that he would be unavoidably absent and had asked Works and Transport Minister Fitzgerald Hinds to deputise for him. I have not seen the honourable minister as yet and I would not say that hes absent until the function is completed, he said.

He reported that President Anthony Carmona had also sent his regrets and Vidale awaited his attendance the following year.

He pointed to the lack of ministers at the function yesterday and commented that if it was not recognised in the last five years he expected this year that it would have been recognised in a positive and serious way.

He said if the Peoples National Movement Government does not see the wisdom in declaring a national day of remembrance then the ceremony would be no more not too long from now and yesterdays could even be the last.

Vidale explained he wants the remembrance day to be March 29, the day Williams died in 1981. He also criticised Caricom noting he had written the chairman three years ago questioning why Williams had not been given Caricoms highest award posthumously.

I want it now, he stressed.

He said there were those who were trying to dismantle the memory and legacy of Williams but that his memory and legacy are more relevant now than they ever have been. Vidale went down on one knee and begged for the national day of remembrance. He questioned who he could make the appeal to as no ministers were in attendance.

Vidale also said Williams was turning in his grave with the levels of school indiscipline and today we are seeing the total opposite of what he wanted. He asked the gathering to question a student - primary, secondary or tertiary -about who Williams was and they may be surprised at the answer.

Vidale recalled speaking to fourth-year university students who knew nothing about him.

He said some of them asked whether he was a dentist or a veterinarian.

Coincidentally, while Vidale was speaking of students being unaware of Williams legacy, a cadet collapsed onto the photograph of Williams at the centre of the memorial and had to be carried away. She was taken to the back and attended to.

Returning to school indiscipline, Vidale said the country must no longer have 11-year-old students peddling drugs, bullies and students beating principals.

Williams did not want that. It must not happen. The time has come for the nonsense to end immediately, she said, He suggested that the cases of deviant students be heard before magistrates and that the students then be sent to a Dr Williams Academy for Correctional Learning which he said should be built at Mount St Benedict.

He reported that in a few weeks, a memorial of Williams will be unveiled at Harris Promenade, San Fernando and he (Williams) will be in the company of leaders such as Marcus Garvey, Mahatma Gandhi and Simon Bolivar.

Tobago House of Assembly Deputy Chief Secretary Tracy Davidson Celestine, in her feature address, praised Williams as a visionary and a statesman and said that no dark skies could ever dull his meaning or contribution.

She said it is the responsibility of a grateful nation to look back and recognise that his passion for this country is worthy of emulation.
Health Minister woes investors for Childrens Hospital

This was revealed by Health Minister, Terence Deyalsingh, yesterday who said Government will soon be inviting requests for proposals from the private sector to undertake the task.

We have sent out the call to the private sector, the Minister told reporters as he toured the first annual Health and Wellness Fair hosted by the Couva/ Point Lisas Chamber of Commerce, Camden Road, Couva. Give us proposals where you can occupy an already built facility, where the state can provide you with the facility. You bring in the funding, you bring in the staffing, and you run and operate the thing and that is the most sensible position we can take now, with the price of oil and gas where it is. The Minister also signalled a similar approach for the provision of oncology services in the country, disclosing he had also spoken to someone at the Health and Wellness Fair about a proposal for oncology services saying the nation was facing and explosion of persons being diagnosed with cancers.

An oncology centre is being constructed at Mount Hope on the compound of the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.

In Trinidad and Tobago, we have an explosion of the rates for cancers and as people live longer, people dont change their life style, the Minister noted. We have increasing rates of lung cancer, cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, breast cancer, so we have an oncology epidemic brewing, and if we dont take action now, in five to 10 years we will not have the capacity to deal with it. The politics still entered his discourse with reporters about the Couva Childrens Hospital yesterday as he took a jab at the United National Congress which has been calling on the PNM administration to take steps to open the facility.

As far as the Couva hospital is concerned, that facility was originally supposed to be in Chaguanas, you know that, Deyalsingh stated. The original plan was to build that facility in Chaguanas together with a hotel and shopping mall. But the Minister pointed out, When the last government lost the Chaguanas West by-election to Jack Warner (former Chairman of the UNC and MP for Chaguanas West), they then took a decision to spite Jack Warner and the constituents of Chaguanas West to move it to Couva. Then they dropped out the hotel and they dropped out the shopping plaza. And they took a decision to build the hospital on a seismic fault zone, we know that, he continued.

They have left us with no budget for the Couva hospital; they left us with no staffing plan. Where am I going to get the staffing and the budget from to run Couva when the existing facility, the Couva District Health Facility has staff shortages and is crying out for financial resources, the Minister questioned. So it was an impossibility to staff and fund the Couva hospital.

He added, What we have decided to do as government policy, in an effort to use the asset, paid for by the taxpayers when oil was $100 a barrel, where oil is now 30-something dollars a barrel, it is to enter into public/private partnership. He pledged that the Couva Childrens Hospital will not be allowed to rot and is going to be used to provide health care services to citizens, Health Minister So it is the intention of this Government to use that facility which you the taxpayer paid for (it), Deyalsingh said.

We are not going to leave it there to rot.
Girl, 3, rescued from father

The girls father, a 41-year-old man wanted in connection with several shootings, along with another man, also wanted for various offences, were detained.

According to reports, the girls mother, who is estranged from the girls father and who lives in Tobago, arrived in Trinidad on Monday for a schedule appointment with a doctor.

However, the appointment was shifted to Thursday and the woman along with her mother and three-year-old daughter decided to stay in Trinidad to await the appointment.

On Thursday, the woman left the child in company with a relative as she went to her appointment.

The relative took the three-year-old girl to the Maraval branch of KFC to purchase lunch, when the girls father reportedly snatched her and took her to Gasparee islands.

A report was made to the Maraval police and a party of officers led by Snr Supt Basdeo Ramdhanny and ASP Prescott carried out enquiries.

Officers then contacted the Coast Guard and at about 5 pm on Thursday, the officers were taken by the Coast Guard to Gasparee islands where they surrounded a shack and rescued the three-year-old girl. The girls father and his friend were detained and taken into custody.

The two detainees have been suspects in crimes such as attempted murder, shooting with intent and other serious offences as well as drug smuggling, and are to be placed on identification parades.

The little girl was taken to a doctor where she was medically examined and reunited with her mother and grandmother. Investigations are continuing
Investor to pump $30M in veggie facility

He revealed the initiative in a brief interview with Sunday Newsday after delivering the feature address at a tree-planting ceremony to commemorate Run For Food 2016 at the Hollows, Queens Park Savannah, Port-of-Spain.

The event, a project of Massy Stores and the World Food Day Committee of the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries, sought to raise awareness about the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.

The tree-planting exercise preceded a five-kilometre run and Zumba session. Responding to concerns by the T&T Farmers Union and other groups that the Government did not address agriculture in its Mid-Term Review of the 2016 Budget in the Parliament on Friday, Rambharat said the groups proposed $30 million investment in the vegetable production facility will be just one of several initiatives aimed at enhancing the sector.

Saying the Government also intends to establish a 130-acre agro park in Wallerfield, Rambharat said Arawak Chicken has also expressed an interest in expanding its operations on a 90- acre site alongside the park.

There has been significant local private sector interest in making investments in agriculture as it relates to cocoa, coconuts, vegetable production, honey and aqua-culture, Rambharat said, adding that he would speak more extensively about the issue during his contribution to the debate on the Governments Finance Variation of Appropriation Bill 2016 in the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

Rambharat also said the ministrys allocation of $831 million in the 2016 Budget had not yet been touched. The Minister of Finance (Colm Imbert) also added to what he said before that further tax incentives would be applied to farms engaged in agro-processing.

So, there is no need for added funds in this fiscal year, he said.

Earlier, in his address at the tree-planting ceremony, Rambharat said the challenge confronting his ministry was to produce, package, chill (local commodities) side by side with imported content. He also urged the audience to adjust its notion of quality.

When I go to buy bananas and ripe fig, I always look for the ones with spots, he said, noting the colouring, chemicals, shape and size do not always ensure quality.

Chief Executive Officer, Massy Stores, Derek Winford and Lisa Martinez, a representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, also spoke.
Young dad dies in car crash

Isiah Williams, 24, of West Park, Cocoyea died when his body pitched out of the back seat of a red Toyota Yaris in which he was a passenger.

Police report that at about 6 am, Antonio Guerra, the driver, was proceeding south along the highway in the vicinity of the Brian Lara Stadium, Tarouba, when the car began to swerve and he crashed into a lightpole.

Williams body landed on the median and he died instantly.

Guerra and two other passengers were seriously injured and emergency ambulance personnel took them to San Fernando General Hospital where they remain warded.

Williams wife, Keneal Simon-Williams, 23, was too distraught to speak when Sunday Newsday visited yesterday.

Her mother Arlene Simon said the family remained in shock over Williams death.

I still cannot believe it. I still cant, Isaiah had such a bright future ahead of him. He loved his wife and his children so dearly. Now these two young children, my grand-babies are without a father, the emotional woman said. Williams resided with his wife and sons, Kyale and Kael.

These children are babies, Kyale is only one year and nine months and Kael has only four years. They loved their father so much. They were so close to him and he was always concerned about their upbringing and raising respectable young men, said Simon.

On Friday, Williams had left his home shortly after 10 pm to lime with a group of friends and they were returning home when the accident occurred.

I dont know exactly what happened, but I heard that the driver may have gotten a bad drive which caused the accident, Simon related.

She said police officers first contacted Williams mother, Allison, and told her he had been in an accident.

Allison then contacted me, it was not the news that I was expecting. We were not prepared for this, it is really really sad to know he is gone,she said.

Simon said Kael has begun to ask questions about his fathers death. His mother read a scripture from the Bible for him which says that we will see him (Williams) again because of the resurrection.

We have hope that he (Williams) would rise again and this is our comfort.she said. Williams was employed as a fabricator.

An autopsy is expected to be performed at the Forensic Science Centre, St James tomorrow. Police officers of the Mon Repos Police Station are investigating.
What a shame!

Henry, 32, who was among six inmates who allegedly sawed through the bars at the Forensic Ward of the St Anns Hospital, last month, to escape from the facility, has been charged with the August 19, 2004, murder of Anthony Lemessy, of Plaisance Road, Mayaro.

But apart from the murder charge, Henry, who was held by officers of the Coast Guard and Western Division Task Force in Chaguaramas on April 2, also faces 14 other charges, including possession of firearm, possession of ammunition, robbery with violence, robbery with aggravation, wounding with intent and possession of cocaine.

He claimed the matters had not yet begun in the court.

Henrys predicament has reignited debate about the flaws in the criminal justice system as it relates to the exceptionally slow pace with which the matters of inmates, particularly in the Remand Yard, are heard in the courts.

It is embarrassing to note, if it is indeed true, that an inmate in the Remand Prison cannot have his matter dealt with in the judicial system for 12 years, Ramdhanie told Sunday Newsday during an interview on Thursday.

Ramdhanie, in collaboration with criminologist Professor Ramesh Deosaran, has worked on joint research projects on the nations prisons system as well as the youth male prisons system at the Youth Training Centre (YTC).

He also has examined the operations of the Remand and all of the convicted prisons for both males and females. He said as far as researchers know, Henry was not the only one in this devastating and unfortunate situation. Persons who are charged by the police need their matters to be dealt with in one way or the other - innocent or guilty, he insisted.

To have matters dragging on for over a decade without any determination can be considered most inhumane.

The onus is on the criminal justice system to deal with matters in a reasonable time frame. Ironically, Henrys escape, recapture and subsequent complaints about the ills plaguing the criminal justice system, preceded last Wednesdays national consultation on prisons reform at City Hall in Port-of-Spain at which it was revealed that there are some 3,667 persons imprisoned in Trinidad and Tobago with each inmate costing the State between $20,000 and $25,000 per month to maintain.

It was also learnt that of the 2,235 prisoners currently housed in the Remand Yard, 11 percent have been incarcerated for more than a decade.

Alluding to the Henrys claim, Ramdhanie acknowledged that there were many inmates in the Remand Yard with matters pending for a decade and beyond.

However, he said while there were those with matters that were yet to begin, many had matters that are in progress in the court but have not yet been completed due to late starts, delays and adjournments.

Many matters also were awaiting appeals, he added.

According to Ramdhanie, a figure on the actual number of prisoners in the Remand Yard for more than a decade could be posed through the National Security Minister in the Parliament or directly to the Commissioner of Prisons but it may not be mandatory for him to provide such an answer. He also said such a question can be posed through the Freedom of Information Act. But, the salient point is whether one or 100 persons, it is one too much. No one should be faced with being in prison for such unreasonable length of time without trial or without having his matter determined one way or another, Ramdhanie added.

Principal of the Caribbean Institute for Security and Public Safety, Ramdhanie said clear targets and guidelines should be set for all criminal matters. For instance, should a simple larceny matter take six months? he asked.

Should a rape matter take two years? Should a murder matter take three years? Remember, these persons would have already been charged so there would have been some basis to do so. To come ten or more years after and not be able to determine the matter is ludicrous. To expedite the process, Ramdhanie said the entire criminal justice system needed to get its act together. We cant blame one part only. An efficient and effective case management system needs to be in place, he said.

Somehow, what is in place for criminal matters is malfunctioning.

We have been talking about this for decades but the resources need to be available. The criminologist said for criminal matters that were not serious in nature, issues such as plea bargaining and alternative dispute resolution including mediation centres, must play a larger role.

This is how justice systems have been going worldwide, he said.

He said the issue of having parttime magistrates and judges, with all the necessary checks and balances, should be examined as a way to expedite matters.

Ramdhanie also made a plug for the introduction of night court.

There was a pilot project on this several years ago in Trinidad and Tobago but what were the findings? he asked, adding that such a court can assist in several petty matters. Retired magistrates and judges, he said, could also be employed on a part-time basis to assist with the backlog of cases.

As a punitive measure for the inordinate delays and postponement of matters, Ramdhanie suggested that penalties be imposed.

Many times, for apparent frivolous reasons, court matters are consistently postponed, he said.

Even the current procedure of magistrates having to spend hours daily calling out names in courts is time wasting. Another procedure is badly needed. Ramdhanie said the entire prisons system in this country was in dire need of change.
Ministry confirms 13 Zika cases locally

The Ministry of Health confirmed this in a release issued on Friday. The ministry said the new cases were determined following consultation with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).

There are still no cases confirmed in Tobago.

The newly confirmed cases are a 26-year-old man from Gulf View, La Romaine and a 71-yearold woman from Tunapuna both of whom became ill with fever, rash, generalised pains and conjunctivitis. The Ministry said the Insect Vector Control Division, County Medical Officer of Health and local government agencies were informed and field work has commenced.

The first Zika case was that of a 61-yearold woman who had just returned from New Zealand.

Ollen Storey, 71, and her daughter, from Gulf View, La Romaine, raised the figure to three.

Other cases were confirmed in Diego Martin, DAbadie, St Augustine, St Anns, Port-of-Spain, Oropouche and Barataria.

The Ministry again urged citizens to take steps to prevent the infection.
Harris: Show Zika babies suffer

Harris was questioned, during a press conference last Friday at Archbishops House, Port-of-Spain, on recent statements made by Caroni East MP Dr Tim Gopeesingh that children born with microcephaly would have neurological deficiencies and may not be able to stand or walk, or speak or hear. Gopeesingh, a gynaecologist, said the people should decide if abortions, especially in medically high risk cases, should be legalised. Microcephaly has been linked to Zika, with Brazil recording scores of birth defects in babies whose mothers had the mosquito- borne virus.

Harris in response said even though the MP had said the people must decide, he questioned, who influences the people? Whose voices are they hearing? People dont just decide like that. Is it that we dont want to have the problem of dealing with people who are differently-abled people? He lamented that it was unfortunate that Trinidad and Tobago is a throw away society.

So what is not perfect, you throw away, a human life is not simply something to throw away, Harris said.

Speaking from personal experience, Harris said families who have had differently- abled children have brought a dimension of life into the family that didnt exist before.

He said to simply get rid of them because they are differently- abled is not the way to deal with the matter.

When we adopt that, we become a society that has lost the ability of mercy and a whole host of things, he said.

Addressing the topic of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LBGT) sex education into schools, priest Fr Clyde Harvey said the church was willing to discuss sex education.

We are open to talking about sex education but we have to set models for such education. We cannot hide our heads in the sand when it comes to the LGBT community because it is part of the society in which we live. However, he said the church holds fast that same sex relationships cannot be equated with heterosexual marriage and they would prefer marriage remains a heterosexual reality.

Harvey also said the church will be assisting families who are affected by retrenchment.

Some priests have started talking about it, and want people to become more sensitive about it because they are not as sensitive as they should be.

You can be sitting next to someone who has lost their job and they wont say anything so some of us as priests need to say it from the pulpit that if you need help, please say it, he said.
Donkey logic in the House

Prime Minister (PM) Dr Keith Rowley said he had reduced spending at the Office to the tune of millions in relation to functions and said there was no inconsistency between the procurement of the car at a discounted rate and focusing on the people.

Asked by Tabaquite MP Dr Suruj Rambachan whether it would have been more prudent to defer the purchase given the state of the economy, Rowley said, Well I think it was very prudent to have bought the vehicle for $900,000 and not $2 million. The PM continued, That purchase was in the pipeline and it was required to replace a vehicle that was nine-years old and that was in line to consume significant sums in while affecting its availability. And I have been advised subsequently that it also had security issues. But Rowley said other savings have been realised at the OPM.

We have set about to make significant savings in other areas, he said. These include a Divali dinner for $558,000 (down from last years $1.3 million); a Republic Day celebration was quashed (last year $1.2 million); there was no staff lunch/dinner (last year $1.2 million); a Christmas concert for religious heads was forgone (last year $1.5 million); a childrens Christmas party this year cost $400,000 (last year $1 million).

Answer the question! said Couva South MP Rudy Indarsingh.

Rowley replied, I am talking about prudence and this is how we are being prudent. The Prime Minister said a childrens Christmas party cost $452,000 (last year $1 million). A Shouter Baptist function cost $257,000 (last year $958,000).

We dont intend, as we celebrate Eid and Emancipation, to spend $1,120,000, Rowley said.

But Oropouche East MP Roodal Moonilal said he did not understand the Prime Ministers logic.

I am trying hard to follow his donkey logic, Moonilal said. Had those functions been cheaper, is it that the Prime Minister would not have bought a new car? Minister in the Office of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Stuart Young objected to the language used saying it was offensive.

He was overruled by Speaker Bridgid Annisette-George, who asked the Prime Minister to answer.

Rowley said, We have been extremely prudent with spending taxpayers money. To the extent that we have had considerable savings to the tune of millions of dollars. And that is why there was no problem with the replacement of a nine-year-old vehicle.
Nitish replaces Sharad Yadav to become the JD-U President

New Delhi, Sun, 10 Apr 2016 NI Wire

In a bid to polarize the votes in the coming Lok Sabha election in 2019, now Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is all set to give a boost for the fight. No he has been elected as the new president of the Janata Dal United who replaced Sharad Yadav as the party president.

Now it is clear that after becoming the president of the Janata Dal U, Nitish Kumar will give it more leverage across the country in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. He is the party's most popular face and familiar to voters across the country.

Nitish Kumar is the face for the opposition politics except BJP and Congress as other parties are also in race to support him for the same. JDU is in contact Ajit Singh in UP and with Babulal Marandi in Jharkhand to give a boost to the fight against Modi led BJP government in the coming 2019.

It is noted that Yadav was elected as the party president in 2006 when re replaced George Fernandes as the chief. He had been president for three terms and he was not interested for the foruth terms. Mr Fernandes, a former mentor of Mr Kumar, became the chief when JDU was formed following a merger between his Samata Party and Janata Dal faction headed by Mr Yadav in 2003.

In 2013, the party constitution was amended to enable Mr Yadav to become the chief for a record third time.
THE ATTACKS AGAINST TRUMP ARE NEVER ENDING

By Ronnie Herne

April 10, 2016

NewsWithViews.com

"Its the hardest thing in the world  to do what we want. And it takes the greatest kind of courage." Ayn Rand

This vituperative venomous anger being levelled at Donald Trump doesn't make sense. It isn't rational. It isn't reasonable. It isn't responsible. But it is bipartisan and it is Elite.

THE MAN

Look at Trump.

He is successful. He turned $1,000,000 from his father, Fred, into his multi-billion dollar Trump businesses. (Yes, he did inherit much more later on but he was his own success by then.) He, too, had failures but the man kept on going. He is a Presbyterian. He is keenly, proudly American, even born on Flag Day. He has recent immigrant roots. His grandparents on dad's side were from Germany. Mother Mary was from Scotland and became a citizen 4 years before Donald was born.

He is outspoken, confident, full of braggadocio, and a veritable master of repartee. He is married to a beautiful woman (three beautiful women over time, actually). He is additionally blessed with beautiful children from all three wives. So what's not to like?

MACHINATIONS, MANIPULATIONS, AND JUST PLAIN MEANNESS

Is it pure jealousy of his brilliant successes? His fabulous wealth? His proven abilities?

Is it unadulterated lust for his stunning wives?

Is it envy of his ascension to prominence? His bigger-than-lifeness? His ratings?

Or maybe it's old grapes clinging to older vines and there's a new vintner in town?

The National Review in January dedicated an entire issue to damning, dogging, and demeaning Trump and his supporters. Why?

The narrowly received National Review does not appeal so much to average people as to the Old Guard, the very ones responsible for the callous calculated lies and broken promises and grievous capitulations that created the gaping chasm of opportunity for Trump to enter. And for Trump to win.

Most of the National Review's writers were people I wouldn't read on a slow day. However, I was absolutely shocked to find Andrew McCarthy in the list! Is there anyone living today that knows more about the vagaries, the minutiae, the intrigues of the Middle East than Andy McCarthy? McCarthy should be an adviser to Trump, not an adversary.

However, while writing this it was announced that Donald Trump has secured the services of Walid Phares (pronounced Waleed Farris) as a Middle East policy advisor.

On March 3rd, 2016 Mitt Romney  Michigan born, Mormon bishop, one term governor of Massachusetts, 2012 failed candidate for president  unleashed a stinging diatribe on one of his 2012 supporters, Donald Trump. It was apparently okay to like Donald when Donald was lining Romney's pockets but not now when Trump looks like he's going to succeed where Mitt Romney utterly failed.

Mitt Romney's rant included calling Trump, very very not smart and A phony. A fraud. Romney stated that Trump, was playing members of the public for suckers. He added that Trump's domestic policies would lead to recession and that his foreign policies would make the world less safe.

In his smartmouth release Romney proclaimed, ...Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, John Kasich. One of these men should be our nominee. Of course Mitt and the Elite have Mitt's name included in there also along with the increasingly unpopular Paul Ryan, neither of whom has run this season.

Sea Island, Georgia, a very exclusive resort, just hosted a very private meeting including some of the very biggest Republican jet-setters: There was a conspiracy of oligarchs, War Party neocons, and face-card Republicans to reverse the results of the primaries and impose upon the party, against its expressed will, a nominee responsive to the elites' agenda. Patrick J Buchanan 3-10-16.



The Huffington Post, also on March 10th, 2016 ran a list of bigwig attendees to this secretive enclave of Republican mucky-mucks whose end purpose was/is to upend Donald Trump's nomination. Wouldn't it be a thought to put this much energy and direction into the running of the United States?

And then there was Dominionist Erick Erickson's March 17th meeting and subsequent statement for a call to unity among anti-Trump conservatives (participants not disclosed):

We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party. It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement, must confront. We call for a unity ticket that unites the Republican Party. Erick also stated that the will of the people be damned! Very Christian, Erick.

A unity ticket that's not Trump will be either from a brokered (translated: very tinkered with) Republican convention nomination or from a third party run which could easily split the vote enough to elect Hillary, an event that the Elitists, and the Dominionists, and the NWO-EU-NAUs, and the Socialists, and the haters of America from every stripe applaude and laud.

President Benghazi Babe -- Courtesy of Republican doublespeak.

And I offer a related side quote here on Dominionism, that Reconstructionist Christian overreach that is as poisonous as snakes from a viper's pit:

The most dangerous part of this entire [Dominionism] movement is the fact that Rushdoony [credited with founding Christian Reconstructionism] considered democracy to be heresy. That he felt power only came from God, to the anointed. Because he considered democracy to be mob rule, with individuals who might not be anointed by God voting and in power, it is better to sacrifice our freedom and become a dictatorship based on alleged anointed individuals who tell everyone what God told them, than to be free. Every aspect of society must become under theocratic rule. In other words  the United States must morph into a Christian Taliban..., SJ Reidhead, The Pink Flamingo

Let's read that again. From one Dominionist/Reconstructionist view, Democracy is heresy. (Forget the constitutional republic.) Power comes from God to the anointed. Sacrifice freedom for a dictatorship? Demand a Theocratic (God) power base that establishes their version of Christianity as the Religion of the Land? And become a Christian Taliban? Pretty breathtaking. Pretty Top-Down. Pretty unconstitutional.

Now let's remember that our Harvard-trained constitutional lawyer and presidential candidate Ted Cruz is both a blessed and anointed Dominionist. So are many others of his acquaintance. And Machiavelli's end justifies the means is taken to heart by many Dominionists. Medusa's snakes, indeed.

And notice the backing that's coming out of the Elite woodwork for Ted Cruz: Mitt the Loser Romney. Lindsey Amnesty Graham. Jeb the New World Order Bush. The cockroaches are coming out to inspect the garbage, Ted. Does that turn on any lights?

THE VOTERS

The tens of thousands, maybe millions of diverse American voters that Trump has brought to his candidacy are not, repeat NOT going to vote for the sore loser Mitt The Mouth Romney (and no, he is not a nice Mormon guy, he spews hatred).

And Donald Trump voters are NOT going to vote for House Speaker Paul Ryan (with his Muslim Beard and his 1.1 trillion dollar Obama budget package that includes 300,000 Muslim visas over 12 months. (Paris, Brussels, anyone?)

And Donald Trump voters are NOT going to vote for Gov John Kasich (with his reach-across-the-aisle socialist mentality and his syrupy purse-mouthed goody goody two shoes routine).

Trump voters will rip a vast hole in the GOP and the very fabric of America if they are denied, particularly if it's from Elite machinations of the rules. Maybe the Elite decide that both Trump and Cruz are ineligible because neither garnered 1,237 delegates? You understand what that says? That both of the top two delegate takers no longer matter? Screw the voters?

So, how about Donald Trump and Ted Cruz join forces? That is not impossible, as improbable as it may seem at this moment. Maybe 4 years of Trump? Maybe 8? Maybe 4 or 8 years of Cruz?

Can we live with a patriotic populist strong president supported by a Harvard trained Dominionist vice president? It's a big question, a very big question. The alternative may be Hillary Clinton. Does that make the decision easier?

And how are the delegates played out in all of this? Remember that the Republican Rules Committee is meeting in April. Also, they can change the rules right up to the July Cleveland convention. We're nowhere near the end of games and smears and tricks and lies in this election season.

IT ISN'T ALL OUT THERE

Sometimes it seems that all of this is happening out there somewhere. Recently, however, it was brought home. One neighbor screamed over her speakerphone that she was going to vote for whoever the Democrats put up, she would never vote for a Republican. Fair enough. Often I don't either.

Another, when I told her I was voting for Trump, exclaimed wildly: How could you?!? He's crazy! He frightens me! Haven't you heard what he says about women?!?

The only thing about Donald Trump that frightens me is him NOT being our next president. He's crazy, like a fox. And I've heard way too many times what he's said, or possibly said about women. And it is my humble opinion that back in the 90s when he was asked about partial birth abortion that he likely did not even know what it was. It's not a guy thing.

Then a local pro Rand Paul southwestern Oregon weekly newspaper yet once again revisited their ongoing Bash Trump theme. It's a fact that he had four failed marriages. No. That is not a fact. He married Ivana in 1977. He married Marla  yes, he cheated on Ivana with Marla  in 1993. And he married his current wife Melania in 2005. She became a citizen in 2006.

The newspaper continued, referencing Christians for Trump. The facts ought to make Christians run for the hills. He commonly uses foul language, is rude, resorts to name calling during debates, and is disrespectful to women. Plus he's heavily invested in casinos. They continued, ...The reality is that Trump isn't what he, or his supporters, say he is. The perception is that if they really, really wish it enough he will be that guy

SOME THREATS

During this election cycle it has come to light that Rand Paul is listed as a Dominionist. So, apparently, is Bobby Jindal. And blessed and anointed Ted Cruz is cited above. Dominionism is a dominating, deadly, political Theocratic cancer that is spreading wildly, and in some very high places.

The threats to American liberty are everywhere. The New World Order. The Mormon New World Order. The Muslim Caliphate New World Order. The Dominion Christian New World Order. The Zionist New World Order? Russia. China. North Korea. Iran. The Muslim invasion of Europe. The Muslim invasion of the United States?

The Council on Foreign Relations. The Bilderbergers. The Trilateral Commission. The United Nations. The Club of Rome. The E.U. Heidi Cruz's CFR & NAU. The free trade agreements. TSA. Open borders. International tribunals. The Law of the Seas Treaty. Global warming. CO2. The Patriot Act. Homeland Security. Lobbyists. Congress. EOs. The Fed. Fast track. Militarization of the cops. Santa Claus politics. Muslim immigration.

From without. From within. The overripe plum is ready to fall.

Atlas was the Greek Titan made to bear the weight of all the heavens on his shoulders.

Trump is the only Atlas we have.

Please, click on "Mass E-mailing" below and send this article to all your friends .

 2016 Ronnie Herne - All Rights Reserved

Ronnie Herne is a veteran having served from 1969 to 1973 as a Captain in the Air Force. She was a Flight Nurse stationed in the Philippines with C-141 flights to DaNang, Ton Son Nhut, and Cam Rahn Bay, all destined for Japan. In addition she spent eight separate weeks on the ground in VietNam.

She started her political activities in 1991 with NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement). She fought it but watched as Bush pushed it and Clinton completed it. She was a Perot Volunteer, active in United We Stand America, involved in the creation of the Reform Party of California.

She retired to Oregon and put her attentions on county government. With Agenda 21, regionalism, socialism, taxes, county land giveaways and other ills all present at the local level, she and a friend constructed a county Home Rule Charter to push back. It included property rights, water rights, veteran service, lower fees, no unelected county administrator, no Green code requirements, etc. It was a marvelous charter but failed. Agenda 21 marches on. So does Ronnie.

E:Mail: AuntRonnie@SadieGoat.com
Astrophysicists at the University of Bern have modelled the evolution of the proposed planet 9 in the outer solar system. They estimate that the object has a present-day radius equal to 3.7 Earth radii and a temperature of minus 226 degrees Celsius.

How big and how bright is Planet 9 if it really exists? What is its temperature and which telescope could find it? These were the questions that Christoph Mordasini, professor at the University of Bern, and his PhD student Esther Linder wanted to answer when they heard about the possible additional planet in the solar system suggested by Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

The Swiss scientists are experts in modelling the evolution of planets. They usually study the formation of young exoplanets in disks around other stars light years away and the possible direct imaging of these objects with future instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope. Therefore, Esther Linder says: For me candidate Planet 9 is a close object, although it is about 700 times further away as the distance between the Earth and the Sun. The astrophysicists assume that Planet 9 is a smaller version of Uranus and Neptune  a small ice giant with an envelope of hydrogen and helium. With their planet evolution model they calculated how parameters like the planetary radius or the brightness evolved over time since the solar system has formed 4,6 billion of years ago. The study was financed by the research project of the Swiss National Science Foundation PlanetsInTime and the National Center for Competence in Research (NCCR) PlanetS.

In their paper accepted by the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics the scientists conclude that a planet with the projected mass equal to 10 Earth masses has a present-day radius of 3.7 Earth radii. Its temperature is minus 226 degrees Celsius or 47 Kelvin. This means that the planets emission is dominated by the cooling of its core, otherwise the temperature would only be 10 Kelvin, explains Esther Linder: Its intrinsic power is about 1000 times bigger than its absorbed power. Therefore, the reflected sunlight contributes only a minor part to the total radiation that could be detected. This also means that the planet is much brighter in the infrared than in the visual. With our study candidate Planet 9 is now more than a simple point mass, it takes shape having physical properties, says Christoph Mordasini.

Simulated structure of planet 9. Christoph Mordasini, Esther Linder

Arxiv  Evolution and magnitudes of candidate Planet Nine (6 pages)

The researchers also checked if their results explain why planet 9 hasnt been detected by telescopes so far. They calculated the brightness of smaller and bigger planets on various orbits. They conclude that the sky surveys performed in the past had only a small chance to detect an object with a mass of 20 Earth masses or less, especially if it is near the farthest point of its orbit around the Sun. But NASAs Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer may have spotted a planet with a mass equal to 50 Earth masses or more. This puts an interesting upper mass limit for the planet, Esther Linder explains. According to the scientists, future telescopes like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope under construction near Cerro Tololo in Chile or dedicated surveys should be able to find or rule out candidate Planet 9. That is an exciting perspective, says Christoph Mordasini

Abstract

he recently renewed interest in a possible additional major body in the outer solar system prompted us to study the thermodynamic evolution of such an object. We assumed that it is a smaller version of Uranus and Neptune. We modeled the temporal evolution of the radius, temperature, intrinsic luminosity, and the blackbody spectrum of distant ice giant planets. The aim is also to provide estimates of the magnitudes in different bands to assess whether the object might be detectable. Simulations of the cooling and contraction were conducted for ice giants with masses of 5, 10, 20, and 50 Mearth that are located at 280, 700, and 1120 AU from the Sun. The core composition, the fraction of H/He, the efficiency of energy transport, and the initial luminosity were varied. The atmospheric opacity was set to 1, 50, and 100 times solar metallicity. We find for a nominal 10 Mearth planet at 700 AU at the current age of the solar system an effective temperature of 47 K, much higher than the equilibrium temperature of about 10 K, a radius of 3.7 Rearth, and an intrinsic luminosity of 0.006 Ljupiter. It has estimated apparent magnitudes of Johnson V, R, I, L, N, Q of 21.7, 21.4, 21.0, 20.1, 19.9, and 10.7, and WISE W1-W4 magnitudes of 20.1, 20.1, 18.6, and 10.2. The Q and W4 band and other observations longward of about 13 microns pick up the intrinsic flux. If candidate Planet 9 has a significant H/He layer and an efficient energy transport in the interior, then its luminosity is dominated by the intrinsic contribution, making it a self-luminous planet. At a likely position on its orbit near aphelion, we estimate for a mass of 5, 10, 20, and 50 Mearth a V magnitude from the reflected light of 24.3, 23.7, 23.3, and 22.6 and a Q magnitude from the intrinsic radiation of 14.6, 11.7, 9.2, and 5.8. The latter would probably have been detected by past surveys.
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Algerian authorities have refused to issue entry visas for Le Monde journalist to cover French Prime Minister Manuel Valls two-day official visit to Algiers in retaliation to the papers publication of Algerian Presidents photo on its front page beside photos of world leaders named in the Panama Papers leak.

Algerian authorities have refused to issue a visa for Le Monde journalist to cover Manuel Valls official visit to Algeria starting from Saturday, therefore preventing us from doing our work. That decision is related to our report on the Panama Papers, mainly the information we published about Algeria, Le Monde said.

Algerian authorities this week reacted angrily against the publication of the Head of States photo on the front page of the paper. The Algerian foreign ministry summoned French Ambassador to Algeria Bernard Emie to scold him, calling on Paris to clarify its position on what Algiers deems a hostile campaign against Algerian presidential institutions.

Reports also say that a team of Le Petit Journal of the French TV network Canal+ has also been denied visas.

French Premier Valls reportedly called his Algerian counterpart to intervene on behalf of the two media but Algerian authorities have stuck to their guns.

In face of Algerian authorities refusal, some French media namely Liberation, France Culture and France Inter have announced a media blackout on Valls visit in support to their sister media.

This boycott decision is made in solidarity with our colleague Le Monde, denied visa by Algerian authorities due to reports on the Panama Papers scandal by the French daily, mainly the information related to Algeria, Liberation said on its website.

Le Monde which participated in the analysis of the leaked papers, after its April 5 publication of the Algerian Presidents photo backtracked saying he was not named in the papers but his collaborators were indeed cited.

Algerian Industry Minister Abdesselam Bouchouareb cited in the papers for owning an offshore company Thursday rejected the claims adding that Algeria was victim of plot from within and outside.
The US will continue to support the Tunisian armys efforts to combat terrorism and tackle insecurity as the North African country battles against waves of terrorists crossing into the country to create mayhem, US ambassador to Tunis announced on Friday.

Ambassador Daniel Rubinstein met with Tunisian Defense Minister Farhat Horchani to whom he reiterated the US determination to support the Tunisian army in its drive to counter terrorism which has caused unspeakable problems to Tunisias peaceful territory and onetime prosperous economy, now completely in shambles.

Rubinstein underlined Washingtons pledge to bolster the Tunisian army with equipment, training, coordination, and exchange of information in matters of fight against terrorism.

The US diplomat according to the defense ministry statement hailed the operational capacity of the army, the security forces and the national guard and their success in neutralizing the terrorists during the Ben Guerdane operation.

For the US diplomat, the success over the terrorists is a message to the terrorist organisations in the region as regards the cohesion of the State and of the Tunisian people in front of terrorism.

Tunisia in its efforts to stem the flow of terrorists crossing its border with Libya has called for American military experts and technology.

The US also in March pledged $25 million to help Tunisia secure its border with electronic surveillance that will enable to detect illegal crossings along the lengthy border with Libya.

The US has also doubled its military aid to Tunisia. Estimated before 2014 at $40 million, the figure has reached $90 million in form of training and equipment.
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Photo: Albin Lohr-Jones/Pacific Press

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will take the Wyoming presidential caucuses, a contest he was favored to win. This is the latest in a nice winning streak for Sanders, who has won seven of the last eight primary contests in a row against rival Hillary Clinton.

Current projections indicate that Sanders will win with a little more than 56 percent of the vote, per CNN. Despite Sanderss rout, the two Democratic candidates will split the delegates evenly, each getting seven of the 14 available in Wyoming. Sanders is also still far behind Clinton in the overall delegate count.

Clinton did not campaign in Wyoming at all, though former president Bill Clinton paid the state a visit earlier this month. Sanders thanked his Wyoming supporters on Twitter:

We appreciate and thank the people of Wyoming so much for their support! https://t.co/5QKg7o5h9R  Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) April 9, 2016

Both Clinton and Sanders are campaigning Saturday in New York, the next primary state up for grabs. Sanders was in the middle of a speech at an event in Queens, when he learned of his victory in Wyoming from his wife, Jane. News bulletin, he yelled out to a cheering crowd, We just won Wyoming!

Long Island City, Queens crowd goes wild for Bernie Sanders announcement that he won Wyoming caucuses. #Bernie2016 #surreal  Howard Unger (@hmunger) April 9, 2016

New Yorks Democratic and Republican primaries, which finally matter, are both on April 19. On the Democratic side, there are a whopping 291 delegates for the taking. Clinton holds a decisive lead in New York, with a more than 15-point edge over Sanders, according to recent polling data, but its a margin that has shrunk considerably from early March polls, when she had about 30-point cushion over her rival.

This post has been updated to reflect the final delegate count.
Photo: YORICK JANSENS

The group of men who bombed Brusselss Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in March had originally planned to attack targets in France, according a statement released by the Belgian federal prosecutors office.

From the New York Times:

The specific targets in Paris were La Defense, a large office and commercial complex just northwest of Paris, as well as an unidentified Catholic association, said Claude Moniquet, a former French intelligence officer who now works in Belgium and who has been in regular contact with investigators. La Defense would be both a symbolic target and an important economic one for terrorists. Tens of thousands of people work in the large complex, which includes the offices of many of Frances major companies, including Areva, Total and Societe Generale. Many multinational companies also have substantial offices there. La Defense is also home to a sprawling indoor shopping mall and a train station for two of the busiest commuter lines in the Paris region.

Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again, said the Belgian prosecutors statement. Surprised by the speed of progress in the investigation, they took the decision to strike in Brussels. The announcement comes a day after the arrest of Mohamed Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian and Moroccan citizen who is believed to have played a role in both the Zaventem bombing and the attacks in Paris last November.
"Undoes the butt flap on his onesie."



wut...why would you wear a onesie at an awards show? I mean do you Tyler, but like wut.



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lol who takes the mtv movie awards seriously tho

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He took it off mid carpet and threw it to fans.

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The correct question is where are the pictures of his butt?

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mte

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wth is this child wearing no thx

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excusing you, posey is precious

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But has he tweeted Dylan yet to see if he's okay??

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lmao

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It's a better way to show you care!!



*shakes old lady fist* do kids these days know that phones can do more than instagram and tweet?

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Am I the only cynical one who wondered what Dylan was on during his accident? He's been looking rough.



I mean, I wish him total recovery and hope it doesn't leave lasting injuries of course.

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I wouldn't speculate on that re: the accident, but I've wondered about that at other times. I think he mentioned having anxiety issues at some point? Not everyone is made for a celebrity lifestyle. Maybe he self-medicates and got himself a habit.

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He's said he has anxiety and has had panic attacks and stuff. Also sleeping issues I think? He's also talked about rolling out of bed and straight to things like auditions and shit, so that might also be why he always looks a mess. i mean it could be drugs, but since I unfortunately too am always messing with my nose because it is runny 24/7 all year, and also sweat more then I'd like, and visibly so, while not taking anything, I'm tend to not take that as evidence. For things beyond weed I mean



Edited at 2016-04-10 11:52 pm (UTC)

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Stupid pants, I want to see his bare butt

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He's so sweet

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he kinda makes it work



and I mean, at least he's having fun on the red carpet and trying something different

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I am evil. I am leaving this post. Bye.

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i wonder when we'll get to see pictures of his face

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I had the same thought then felt so bad about that lol.

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I was actually wondering where Posey was during this whole injury mess. I love their silly little friendship so much.

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Hes very endearing.



Glad Dylan Obrien is recovering.

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The friendship they have is so darn cute.

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They really are sf cute <3 They really are sf cute <3

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Those are adorable. Thanks for sharing them, they really brighten my day.

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I love them, so glad they are still bros through it all.

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That girl asking the questions... After he said "stunt gone wrong" I'd ask about Tyler doing his own stunts, which one was his favorite, how does he prepare, etc.



I wonder how much they had to change the script to cut stiles from the first 3-? episodes.

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They started shooting in February, I believe. And he was already set to shoot the movie so I'm sure he'll be around for at least an episode or two?

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He's so far been in literally every single episode that aired. It's gonna be weird and jarring how they're going to cut him out of the story, BUUUUT they had no problems cutting Allison from her final season. She was barely in the first 5 episodes, and that was before she decided to quit the show.

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Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in Hello! Your entry got to top-25 of the most popular entries in LiveJournal!Learn more about LiveJournal Ratings in FAQ

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A report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has revealed that most of the worlds nations hiked their military budgets last year, marking the first increase in spending since the 2008 crisis. It seems that the only ones not taking part in this military spending hike are some of the worlds biggest oil producers.

While the United States is still the country with the largest military budget at $596 billion spent in 2015, this figure was actually a decline on the previous year. Saudi Arabia, according to Bloomberg, would also have cut its military budget if not for the war in Yemen. Russia, the worlds top oil producer, shrank military outlays in 2015 to $66.4 billion. Related: Huge Fire Erupts at ExxonMobil Refinery Near Houston

Oil is the most abundant commodity in the world. It fuels all economies, even those firmly on the path to a green future. It is a strategic commodity in every single part of the world, and it was only to be expected that a price slump as major as the one that started in the second half of 2014 would affect every industry, not least the military.

If oil prices are falling, this means lower oil revenues for producers, hence less money to spend on defense. Lower oil prices also mean net importers enjoy more spare cash. At the same time, there are heightened geopolitical tensions in different parts of the world. This is most notable in the Middle East, in Asiawhere China is laying aggressive claims to several islands in the oil and gas rich South China Seaand in Europe, following the Crimea annexation by Russia and its participation in the violence in eastern Ukraine. Related: Oil Stages Comeback On Bullish EIA Data

Chinas neighbors and China itself all upped their defense spending substantially last year. So did Russias neighbors. Both groups of countries, which, its worth noting, are not major oil producers (except China, of course) benefited from the low prices very directly: they spent less on buying oil for their energy needs, so they had more money to spare on defense.

Some observers of the energy market with a cynical bent say producers need a new war for prices to improve. This sentiment is in itself enough to motivate increased military spending. Coupled with ISIS activity in the Middle East, and the migrant crisis in Europe, the anxiety becomes stronger. And yet, this anxiety, and the plumper military budgets, has not yet had a profound effect on oil prices. The glut is just too deep. Related: Are The Saudis And Russians Deliberately Sabotaging Doha?

A new war, whatever this might entail in terms of location and participants, could indeed improve the price of oil if it is large-scale enough. It could be this hypothetical war that governments in Asia, Europe and the Middle East are preparing for. Lets just hope the conflict remains hypothetical. The market can rebalance itself without it; it will just take longer. Oil producers will just have to swallow this and wait.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Oil prices surged to close out the week on April 8, pushed up by a rash of news that provided a jolt to oil markets.

U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave a speech on April 7, dismissing worries that the U.S. was on the verge of a recession. Speaking on a panel with former Fed Chairs Ben Bernanke, Paul Volcker and Alan Greenspan, Yellen dismissed questions of the U.S. bubble economy, citing 5 percent unemployment and few signs of inflated asset prices. She also said that the rate hike in December was not a mistake. Yesterdays speeches by Feds Janet Yellen increased market optimism on the U.S. economy, Michael Poulsen, oil analyst at Global Risk Management, told The Wall Street Journal.

At the same time, oil traders are putting a lot of eggs in the OPEC basket. Oil prices have lurched back and forth following even the smallest comments related to the April 17 summit in Doha. Prices jumped whenever a top OPEC or Russian official sounded optimistic about coordinated action, but crude would also sell off sharply whenever someone downplayed the potential for an agreement, such as when Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia would only freeze production if Iran did as well. For now, crude markets eagerly await the outcome. Related: Oil Edges Up After Biggest Draw In U.S. Crude Stocks This Year

The market is in suspense until the meeting. Until then, unless there are sudden changes in rhetoric by the major players, the market will stay in a wait-and-see mode, Barnabas Gan, a commodity analyst at OCBC, said in an interview with the WSJ.

As Oilprice.com has repeatedly noted, the physical effect on oil market fundaments will be minimal. But that does not mean that prices wont move on the news from Doha, whether positive or negative. The market can be fooled, and we have been fooled, Ole Hansen of Saxo Bank A/S told Bloomberg. We have seen almost a 50 percent recovery in oil prices since the first signs of verbal intervention emerged back in January. So a lot has been achieved already without doing anything, so I think at this stage they will be very happy if they can just keep the market in the belief that action can be taken if necessary.

Appearances will likely matter more than the substance. If OPEC and Russia announce a deal, prices will jump, while a failure to do so will push oil back down into the mid- to low-$30s. Related: Canadian Oil Industry No Longer Sees Alberta Advantage

But there is also some concrete oil data to take note of. While the rally between February and March was largely driven by speculation rather than changes to supply and demand, there are finally some signs that the physical market is seeing some change.

The weekly data from the EIA is increasingly revealing a market that is on the mend, albeit slowly. According to the agency, the U.S. produced 9.008 million barrels per day (mb/d) for the week ending on April 1, down another 14,000 barrels per day from the week before. The monthly figures, which are more accurate but are released with a several month lag, show that U.S. production declined by another 56,000 barrels per day in January, dropping to 9.179 mb/d. The trend is moving in the right direction, and the U.S. has lost nearly 700,000 barrels per day in output over the past year. Those declines are expected to continue, and in the next few weeks the EIA could release data showing that output has fallen below the 9 million-barrel-per-day mark.

(Click to enlarge) Related:ExxonMobils Secret Weapon Against Low Oil Prices

Arguably just as important are the storage figures, which also point in the right direction, finally declining after two months of gains. For the week ending on April 1, U.S. oil inventories fell by 4.9 million barrels.

(Click to enlarge)

U.S. refineries are running at a higher rate than they were at this point last year as gasoline demand is near a record high for this time of year. With refineries pulling excess crude from storage, inventory levels are dropping, at least based on one weeks worth of data. And with fewer and fewer barrels coming out of the ground, storage levels could continue to decline.

(Click to enlarge)

In short, production is falling and demand is rising. It will take time, and day-to-day movements will be volatile, but the trajectory for prices is clear.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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TRIPOLIThe battle for control over Libya is the battle to control Libyas oil wealth, and it reached its climax on 7 April when the National Oil Corporation (NOC) in Benghazi put its full backing behind the new UN-backed government in neighboring Tunisia.

On Thursday, the NOC addressed a letter to the Fayez Serraj, head of the United Nations-backed Presidency Council, informing him that all oil revenues collected by the NOC would be sent to the new Councils approved bank account in what amounts to official recognition of Libyas new unity government.

This is a major victory for the new UN-backed government, because the NOC in Benghazi had supported the Libyas Parliament in Tobruk, in the countrys eastern region. And now that it has secured the commitment of the NOC to hand over the countrys oil revenues, there is an emerging positivism that business may be able to move forward.

But it could also erupt in civil war at any moment. After all, were looking at three governments here: The Tunis-based, UN-backed unity government with its Presidency Council (PC); the Islamist-leaning government that controls the capital, Tripoli; and the internationally recognized government based in the east, in the city of Tobruk. The assumption is that because the Benghazi NOC has thrown its support behind the Presidency Council, the government in Tobruk will, too. But thats not official yet, and its not necessarily a smooth process. And the Islamists are still hedging their bets in Tripoli. Related: Are The Saudis And Russians Deliberately Sabotaging Doha?

This is the end game now, and its all about who wins the legitimacy to sell Libyas oil. With the NOC backing it, the new government has money behind its international legitimacy, but it still holds no sway in the capital, Tripoli. There has been no official meeting to anyones knowledge between PC head Serraj and the NOC in Tripoli and no official contact prior to Thursdays letter.

The Islamist-leaning National Salvation Government and its militia allies have controlled Tripoli and most of western Libya since mid-2014. The New Presidency Council head, Serraj, has been in Tripoli since 31 March, having arrived by sea (the only way he could get through the Islamist front lines, so to speak).

Since his arrival, Serraj has met with many government officials, including Central bank of Libya (CBL) Governor Sediq Al-Kabir, all managers of commercial banks in Tripoli, up to 25 municipal mayors and key NGO activists, but no indications of any meetings with the chairman of the NOC in Tripoli, Moustafa Sanah Alaah.

Tripoli remains a tinder box.

The Islamist National Salvation Government headed by Khalifa Ghwell in Tripoli last week said he would resign; however, now he seems to have reversed his decision, declaring that his government was still functioning, and warning all government institutions against dealing with the Presidency Council. But the new Presidency Council has already started to make significant gains in Tripoli, picking up momentum through the support of the NOC in Benghazi, Libyas second largest city. Related: Oil Stages Comeback On Bullish EIA Data

Beyond control of the oil, there is yet another military situation that is proving problematic. The two key military leadersGeneral Khalifa Hafter, Supreme Commander of the Libyan National Army (LNA) assigned by the Parliament in Tobruk, and Ibrahim Jadran, commander of the Petroleum Facilities Guards (PFG)do not enjoy good relations.

Earlier on, PFG Commander Jadran had declared his support for the new Presidency Council. But Hafter is wobbling and clearly trying to hedge his bets before he commits to one or another side.

In the meantime, one of the military brigades controlling Libyas main oil fields announced earlier this week that they will only take orders from General Hafter, whose allegiance remains unclear. Haftar has vowed not to let the situation cross over into another civil war, but has suggested that the Presidency Council obtain official legitimacy from the parliament in Tobruk. That legitimacy, apparently, is all Haftar would need to throw in his own support. Related: Huge Fire Erupts at ExxonMobil Refinery Near Houston

In this process, a few more stones are being turned over much to the discomfort of the oil sector in Libya. And anyone caught on the wrong side of history in this conflict may have a price to pay as the newly put together UN-backed government makes its final bid for full control.

The letter was signed by NOC Benghazi Chairman Naji Al-Mughrabi and also takes some time to complain about the actions of international oil trader and Swiss mining giant Glencore Plc, which struck a deal with the government in Tripoli late last year. Mughrabi complains that Glencore uses unacceptable methods to get Libyan oilnamely, he said, by supporting the anti-Libyan oil corporation based in Tripoli. The NOC chairman describes Glencores activities as blatant interference in Libyas sovereignty.

For oil investors, this is D-Day for Libya and Libyan oil, and next week could bring us either closer to a unity government victory or closer to civil war. On Monday, the Parliament in Tobruk is scheduled to hold a session on whether or not to approve the Presidency Councils government headed by Serraj.

By Moutaz Ali for Oilprice.com

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                     ,  ,    ,       ,   .
Reprinted from WSWS

After a two-day battering by Democratic Party leaders and media interrogators, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders dropped his claim that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was "not qualified" to be president because of her corrupt relationship with Wall Street and her past support for the Iraq war.

In a series of media interviews, Sanders reiterated his longstanding position that he would support Clinton if she won the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sanders began the retreat Thursday evening in an interview with Charlie Rose of CBS News. He defended his comments about Clinton as a necessary response to Clinton's earlier attack on him, summed up in a Washington Post headline that read, "Clinton questions whether Sanders is qualified to be president."

Rose pressed him on the subject, clearly seeking to extract from Sanders a direct statement that Clinton was qualified to be president. The transcript of the exchange goes as follows:

Rose: "Do you believe Secretary Clinton is unqualified to be president?"

Sanders: "Well, does Secretary Clinton believe that I am unqualified to be president?"

Rose: "But why can't you simply say yes? She has a first-rate resume in terms of a life in public service. She's one of the most qualified people to run."

Sanders: "She has years of experience. She is extremely intelligent. You know, I have some experience too. I have a pretty good record in Congress, as a senator, as a mayor. I think I am qualified to be president. And so to answer your question, you're right. We should not get into this tit for tat."

Rose then pointed to Sanders' criticism of Clinton for her 2002 vote to authorize the war in Iraq and asked, "is that going too far to say she bears responsibility for Iraqi war deaths?"

Sanders replied, "Of course she doesn't bear responsibility. She voted for the war in Iraq. That was a very bad vote, in my view. Do I hold her accountable? No."

Rose prodded him again, saying, "I just want to come back to the Iraqi thing one second, and one more question. You have said that she voted for the Iraqi war. Other people did as well. Many other people. Do you hold all of them responsible for the deaths of Americans?" Sanders replied, "No."

Then came the following exchange:

Rose: "Come November 2016, if Hillary Clinton is the nominee, you will be supporting her?"

Sanders: "Sure, I will. Look, as I said a million times, I think the idea of a Donald Trump or a Ted Cruz presidency would be an unmitigated disaster for this country. I will do everything in my power and work as hard as I can to make sure that that does not happen. And if Secretary Clinton is the nominee, I will certainly support her."

Sanders repeated these assurances in an appearance Friday morning at a Manhattan town hall broadcast on the "Today Show" on NBC. He downplayed the mutual accusations of being "unqualified" and said he preferred to discuss what he called "real issues."


Economic Slavery

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In the search for the energy required to survive, two strategies compete for dominance. One strategy employs cooperation by divisions of labor based on merit (who can do the job best) where all share in the labor and the distribution of the results. Historically, this has been the most efficient means of production and of achieving a democratic social order. Social justice is difficult to achieve (or even agree upon) and easily corrupted.

The other strategy employs the appropriation of other people's labor by force (slavery), deception, or class systems that define who has the right to steal other people's labor (sanctioned extortion). The contest between cooperation (and sharing) and extortion has driven the struggle for social justice for centuries. Does natural selection determine which strategy dominates or are there other factors?

I ask that question because the argument between social justice advocates and free market advocates effectively renders people helpless to act on anything. Many consider the free market an independent force that government or anything else cannot and should not restrain. The fallacy of a free market as an independent force (like gravity) that governs economic realities has long been exploded.* In fact, markets do not define forces. They are defined by forces instituted by governments and those with the resources that private property and contracts create.

Clearly, markets do not define intrinsic values, the very thing needed to keep markets free of abusive practices that power can easily exploit. As the founding fathers expressed it, without a moral code of ethics, democracy would fail again.

The argument that government must be kept at a minimum offers no solutions because the market does not define any intrinsic values--only money. Profit provides the measure of all values. Making money is sanctioned regardless of how it is done. As a result, the folklore, the stories we tell ourselves to justify a culture of greed, acquire the authority of a religion that discloses God's plan.

One must prove themselves worthy of God in a merciless competition for money. God loves the winners and spurns the losers. Like natural selection, such contests may improve the specie's short-term adaptations. The losers provide the sacrifice necessary to maintain inequality. Comparisons with natural selection miss the point. Natural selection has no favorite value. It has rules, like diversity, that determine survival in any given environment. Short-term algorithms that use up long-term resources result in extinction.

Life is the only value that may serve as a means of identifying intrinsic values. The culture now in command blasphemes. It sacrifices life for power. Despair follows because the Faith requires a belief that we can survive as individuals without making others pay the price of our survival. Most religions treat despair as the cardinal sin. Without the Faith, there is no hope of social justice.

Natural selection provides an explanation for these unfortunate propensities. Define God as whatever we believe we must adapt to in order to survive and the result explains despair by way of the religion of money. Until recently, people were forced to adapt to the real world of finding food and fuel. Now that virtual reality and other technologies has us adapting to the business of finding money for everything we need (a games economy), money is the thing we must adapt to. Nothing serves that purpose better than the free market theory. We are what we adapt to. We know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

I will not repeat the well-established facts demonstrating just how prevalent sanctioned extortion has become in America.* I marvel at the fact that stand-up comedians do not joke about turning the government over to the mafia as a way of improving efficiency and a better distribution of wealth. Legal extortion far outstrips illegal extortion; hence the general ill-feeling in America. Something is wrong and we feel it. Big money gets supported and the poor pay.

What happened to the hue and cry we observed in the civil rights movement? The explanation lies in the culture described at the beginning of this essay. Culture has the power to shape thought, even to the point where people will abandon logic and self-interest-- like ending social security and universal health care. If God tells us that something is bad for us it overrules the mere laws and understandings of humans--a perfect environment for despots to invade.

People seldom recognize the motivation behind such inconsistencies. For many, they merely provide apologies for greed. Conservative think-tanks spend millions on propaganda to convince people that the poor deserve their fate and that government-aid weakens the race. The result has been a serious erosion of the empathy supporting the Faith, social justice and participation in public affairs. Most people do not even vote.

Herein lays the explanation for the power a small group of conservatives have gained in the last 60 years. They have taken over school boards, local governments, publishing and civic organizations to make grass root appeals more effective. Teachers are not allowed to teach anything not agreed upon by everyone. Logic and science are pre-empted. Children are bored to death and everyone is afraid because these conservatives take no prisoners.

Every election cycle the Republican Party provides, for your amusement, candidates less convincing than the last group that they know anything at all. But they know their catechism well. The God of money prevails and not a word is spoken of social justice or the survival of the species under the ravages of technology.

The basis for judging social justice flows from our experiences with other people and the consequences of our and their actions. Given that we do not inherit the same genes or families, statistics do not produce a clear means of comparing the well-being of individuals. Many people do not need a second car.

We all develop a sense of fair play that governs our view of what is right and who behaves accordingly. To gain our acceptance, laws and other protocols must not violate the standards we set for justice that our experience has determined is fair. Many relationships today break that rule. In particular, I refer the reader to the religion of money described here. It makes the new relative slavery ethic that I discuss here acceptable in spite of its failure to treat everyone as an equal under God.

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Reprinted from www.huffingtonpost.com

Why does President Obama think it's okay for 15 Arabs (and four of their friends) to come into our country, hijack our planes, crash them into our buildings, and brutally kill 3,000 innocent people?

Because those 15 Arabs were Saudis, that's why. And, Saudis are special. Saudis are apparently allowed to get away with murder -- or at least the financing of it.

I am a 9/11 widow. My husband Ron was killed while he was working at his desk for Fiduciary Trust Company on the 94th floor of Tower 2. Ron was 39 years old, I was 30, and our daughter was two. I watched the horror unfold on live worldwide television as I stood in my kitchen speaking to Ron. Moments later, I watched Flight 175 slice into his building, exactly where he stood on the other end of the line talking to me.

Since 9/11, my life has been spent fighting for truth, accountability, and lessons to be learned so that no other family would ever have to suffer such searing pain and tragic loss. Shamefully, my government has fought me tooth and nail along the way. Recently, it has become increasingly clear to me why my government has fought against such transparency, accountability, and revelation of the truth regarding the 9/11 attacks.

There are 28 pages of the Joint Inquiry of Congress (an investigation into the U.S. government intelligence failures prior to 9/11) that have remained classified and hidden away from the American public by both the Bush and Obama Administrations. These 28 pages allegedly prove that the Saudis had a controlling hand in funding the 9/11 attacks that killed 3,000 innocent people.

Now, it's more than fair to say that if these 28 pages blamed the Iraqis or the Iranians for financing the 9/11 attacks, they would have been released years ago. Unfortunately, since the 28 pages allegedly implicate the Saudis, they're likely to remain secret and kept away from the American public forever.

Knowing that evidence of your husband's murder is being specifically withheld from you by the president -- with the sole intent to protect the terrorists and their financial backers -- is not something any American should ever have to tolerate.

Unfortunately, the 28 pages aren't the only example of the U.S. government protecting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to the detriment of the 9/11 families.

For the past 15 years, the 9/11 families have also tried to hold the KSA accountable in a court of law. Most recently, the KSA was dismissed from the 9/11 case on grounds of foreign sovereign immunities protection under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA).

The FSIA was clearly not created with the intent that nations that sponsor mass terrorism should get away with it scot-free. Nevertheless, the U.S. government has wholeheartedly supported this perverted and warped use of the FSIA by the Saudis. In short, it seems that as long as you are an ally of the U.S. and not a named state-sponsor of terrorism, apparently you can underwrite all the mass murder you want and get away with it.

Obviously, the 9/11 families have fought very hard against the Saudis misuse of the FSIA and their dismissal from our case. In fact, several times we have petitioned for a writ of certiorari seeking Supreme Court review of our case. Each time, the U.S. Department of Justice (at the direction of President Obama) has written "Letters of Interest" recommending that the Supreme Court deny hearing our case thereby allowing the Saudis to remain excused from our case via their FSIA shield.

Why would President Obama recommend that the highest court in the land refuse to hear our case about the worst terrorist attack in the land? If he wasn't going to support us, couldn't he just have kept his mouth shut? Did he really need to intervene and kill our chances of Supreme Court review? And, why does President Obama, as well as certain other members, officials, and bureaucrats in our government, think it is more important to support and protect the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia rather than Americans who were victims of a terrorist attack?

Finding ourselves blocked by the president with regard to the release of the 28 pages, and with regard to the Supreme Court reviewing the dismissal of the KSA as a key defendant in our case, we turned to the U.S. Congress for help. And Congress answered our call with a vital piece of anti-terror legislation called JASTA(Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act).

JASTA ensures that no nation (including the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) that funds terrorism will be able to use the FSIA as a shield to their culpability. JASTA is the legislative response to the Saudi's misuse of the FSIA in our 9/11 court case. JASTA removes FSIA protections from the KSA and, as a result, the 9/11 families will finally be able to have our day in court against the Saudis.

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Perhaps the most important result so far of the Bernie Sanders insurgency is how starkly it has exposed the truly totalitarian nature of the 21st century American state.

Of course, this is not totalitarianism of the classic Orwellian variety. It is the "inverted totalitarianism" that the late political scientist Sheldon Wolin so brilliantly described in his book, "Democracy, Incorporated." In a system of inverted totalitarianism, there is no real distinction between state and corporate power. In this system, a carefully "managed democracy," as Wolin called it, is supervised by a technocratic elite in the general service of corporate interests.

In inverted totalitarianism, the outward forms of democracy continue to exist--enough to keep a deliberately uninformed populace under the illusion that they still live in a democracy--but the actual levers of government are tightly controlled by Wall Street and its associated industries--finance, armaments, energy and media.

What makes this system of totalitarianism "inverted" is that, instead of being ruled by a "strong leader," like you find in classic 1930s-style fascism--the earlier, more primitive version of the merger of corporate and state power--the system is instead governed by a consensus of corporate interests, with a puppet US president answering to the "phalanx of CEOs" that Bob Woodward once described as immediately surrounding every new American president.

And Bill Clinton, with his brilliant technocratic grasp of policy, and his enthusiastic embrace of so-called "free trade" agreements, and his ruthless commitment to American imperialism, and his welfare and telecommunications and banking "reforms"--all of which served to increase the share of global wealth owned by the 1 percent--proved himself a very effective "manager" of democracy indeed. So he was generously rewarded for his services to the elite with millions in post-presidential speaking fees, and millions more in donations to a foundation that primarily serves as a personal family slush fund, and was welcomed wholeheartedly into the 1 percent--his trailer trash background and habits notwithstanding.

It is therefore a natural development for the global elites who oversee the world's economic system to hire Bill Clinton's longtime "partner in power," with equal confidence in her ability to provide the certainty and stability that capitalism and the financial markets depend on, and with the knowledge that she will do her utmost to protect and maintain the status quo.

Making Hillary president has the added benefit for the ruling elites of making it appear as if the US is moving in a more liberal direction politically. This helps to disguise the tightening grip of transnational capital on the US government, not to mention those of democracies worldwide, and keeps liberals confused.

Meanwhile, a Hillary presidency will guarantee that Americans remain divided, as a Republican Congress--the likely result of a November enthusiasm gap--mine the files of the Clinton Foundation or, who knows, maybe Benghazi, for impeachable offenses, cheered on by those who have hated her with righteous fury ever since she was First Lady. And left and right will square off as enemies, rather than uniting as compatriots with a common foe: a corrupt American government that no longer functions either as a democracy or, in any meaningful sense, a republic. And a corrupt and unjust system will be protected from a united populace.

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Reprinted from The Unz Review

Who wants war?





Everyone sees what they want to see in the candidates for president. A recent survey on their foreign policies rated them with letter grades, but "foreign policy" is itself a bit of an elusive concept and the results tended to favor what the authors considered to be important. In my opinion the issue is actually much simpler: who among the candidates would be the most likely to lead the United States into another war or wars? Who would be least likely to do so?

The sovereign ability to go to war is the dark side of a nation's foreign policy. It means in practice that the government has been unable or unwilling to use nonviolent means of suasion to deflect perceived threats coming from a foreign nation or group of nations. The Nuremberg Tribunal established the principle that initiating a war is the ultimate crime against humanity as it brings with it every other imaginable evil. Those like America's own neocons who consider war as politics by other means fail to understand that war is a breakdown of civilized norms and is in a sense a type of anarchy in which the weak and helpless are inevitably the principal victims.

I have written before that the problem with Americans in general is that they have never experienced close up the full horror of modern warfare. The images of ruined buildings and the shattered lives in today's Gaza or Aleppo bear witness to what war means on the ground for those on the receiving end. That American presidential candidates can promote carpet bombing, annihilation of families and going to war to remove an undesirable government tells one that they are willfully ignorant of the consequences of their words.

I am assuming that our next president will be either a Republican or a Democrat. Casting a ballot for a Green, Libertarian or Conservative might provide some personal satisfaction but it would be a wasted vote in a year when the consequences of who assumes office might be very grave indeed. Whom I will be voting for in November comes down to only one issue -- who is less likely to start a new war.

Given today's geopolitical realities, a new war would mean either substantially increasing involvement in an ongoing conflict or a completely fresh initiative either with a current adversary or with an over-the-horizon competitor. The expansion of an ongoing conflict might derive from the "war on terror" and/or regime change in Syria/Iraq, though it would also have to include Iran, as all the candidates but Bernie Sanders have specifically targeted that country on behalf of Israel. The current adversary with whom war might become a distinct possibility would be nuclear armed Russia and the over the horizon threat would be China.

Bernie Sanders does not speak much about foreign policy as his primary focus is domestic but it is clear that his instincts are to avoid war, particularly any conflict in which the United States has to take the lead. He believes that ISIS presents a serious threat but also thinks that local countries most affected by it should do the heavy lifting in opposing it. He supports the nuclear agreement with Iran. He opposed both the first and second Iraq Wars but he did vote for what he perceived as the "humanitarian intervention" in Libya. He approves of the use of sanctions against Russia over Ukraine but opposes lethal assistance to the government in Kiev and would not escalate U.S. involvement. He opposes further expansion of NATO. He has taken no position on China. One assumes based on his track record and inclinations that he would instinctively resort to diplomacy in a crisis rather than saber rattling, and war itself would be a last option only when vital American interests are at stake.

Bernie is admittedly unlikely to become the Democratic Party nominee. That honor, unless she is derailed by emailgate, will go to Hillary Clinton. Hillary is an unreconstructed hawk, her inclinations invariably tending towards using military force whenever in doubt. Whether this derives from her desire to assert herself as a woman in a male dominated government or a paternalistic view of the U.S. global role really doesn't matter as the result is consistently to favor the military option in support of perceived interests. Hillary supported toppling Saddam Hussein and as Secretary of State she played a major role in the disastrous occupation and democracy building that effectively destroyed Iraq, a series of missteps that have produced many of the ills being experienced in the region to this day. She reportedly convinced a reluctant President Barack Obama to intervene in Libya, another foreign policy disaster.

Hillary would provide lethal aid to Ukraine and would expand NATO to include Ukraine and Georgia, a direct challenge to Russian national security. Her protege at the State Department for dealing with Russia was and still is leading neocon hawk Victoria Nuland, who would likely show up in a senior position in a Clinton administration. Hillary has endorsed no fly zones in Syria, which would increase U.S. involvement and risk of conflict with Russia and other participants in the fighting. She demands regime change to eliminate President Bashar al-Assad as a precondition for a peace settlement. Hillary accepts the nuclear agreement with Iran but she talks of strict enforcement of it, coupled by threats to reinstate sanctions. She calls Iran a threat to the entire region. Of all the candidates, she is genuinely closest to Israel and has repeatedly pledged taking the bilateral relationship to a "new level" while also deferring to Benjamin Netanyahu on issues claimed to be related to Israel's security.

Hillary would heighten tension with Russia and increase involvement in Syria and Iraq. She would rebuff any attempted normalization with Iran and would endorse and directly support any and all moves made by Israel in the region, to include attacks on neighbors to include Lebanon that would inevitably involve Washington. She would continue the "longest war" occupation of Afghanistan.

Donald Trump is the joker in the deck. He has spoken about waste and mistaken priorities in military spending and has pledged to cut the Pentagon budget. He has consistently criticized military interventions in Asia, to include condemning the Iraq War and Libya, based on their cost and failure as policies. He has rejected direct American boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq for the same reason but sees ISIS as a threat and has pledged to bomb them mercilessly, heedless of civilian casualties.

Trump believes he can get along with Vladimir Putin and does not see Ukraine as a vital interest for Washington. He is the only candidate willing to attempt detente with Moscow and even speaks of disbanding NATO, which he says has outlived its usefulness. He also believes he can work with the Chinese leadership. In the war on terror, Trump would reinstate torture against suspects and has even advocated killing the families of terrorists as an acceptable collateral cost. He clearly believes in taking the gloves off in terrorism cases where the target is well defined and is less willing to get engaged in a conflict that is more amorphous.

Regarding Iran, Trump would accept the nuclear agreement but he would police it rigorously and he has raised concerns with the Israel Lobby because he has said that he would be even handed in peace negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. Trump has told the Republican Jewish Committee that he doesn't need their money to run his campaign, suggesting to many that his commitment to Israel is not based on anything tangible. He might even be pragmatic, which would place U.S. interests ahead of those of Israel.

So The Donald would not be aggravating tensions with Russia or China and would not expand U.S. involvement in the Middle East. He might even be inclined to pull the plug on Afghanistan, which he has disparaged. He is not an ethical non-interventionist. His opposition is based on the fact that the wars cost too much and are unsuccessful. The fact that neo-conservatives hate him should be noted as a backhanded endorsement of what he stands for.

Ted Cruz wants to increase the Pentagon budget dramatically, wants to carpet bomb Syria to destroy ISIS, establish no-fly zones, arm Ukraine and directly support Kiev against Moscow. He does oppose the interventions in Iraq and Libya in hindsight because they were not successful and based on false intelligence. He would tear up the nuclear agreement with Iran and demand that the Iranians eliminate all their existing nuclear facilities. His zeal in "having Israel's back" is unmatched by any other candidate with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton and he models his own foreign policy on that of Netanyahu, whom he describes as "Churchillian."

John Kasich would punch Vladimir Putin in the nose, metaphorically speaking, by arming Ukraine and he has opposed any Russian role in Syria. He would create a no-fly zone and if Russian planes violated it he would order that they be shot down. He has advocated the use of military force against Beijing in its dispute with South Korea and Japan in the South China Sea. He "strongly opposed" the Iran agreement but now says that he would try to work with it while remaining hawkish in how he regards the regime of the Ayatollahs. Like Cruz, he is now dismissive of the Iraq War and Libya, but only in retrospect.


Bernie and Jane

(Image by Bernie Sanders) Details DMCA













Sanders has formally addressed not just income inequality, but the conditions that created impoverished Black communities. Decades of abject discrimination in housing, employment, inability to get loans for small businesses or homes, and inability to get take advantage of beneficial governmental programs like the GI Bill after World War II have black wealth on average as 5% of white wealth. Economist Richard Rothstein details how governmental policy forced African Americans to stay in inner city ghettoes, policies which remained in place throughout the nation and whose legacy affects African Americans today.

Bernie is the only major politician who has completely acknowledged how public policy created these ghettoes. His plan to undo this horrible policy is to encourage investment in low income communities. He does not support reparations, but supports government and private sector investment in low income communities of colors. Sanders, like Rothstein notes, as federal policy created the housing projects and inner city ghettoes, it will take a reversal of federal policy to end this. This means we need a government that doesn't allow corporations to hoard massive amounts of money, while offshoring jobs to the cheapest third world country available.





Not only has free trade further harmed poor Black communities, white working class communities now have rising mortality rates due to insufficient income as companies use offshoring, and outsourcing to temp agencies to further lower workers income and to completely end any sense of job stability for workers. Sanders goes much further than Clinton in challenging the corporate sector on these issues.





It should be noted the prior Clinton administration signed the NAFTA and WTO agreements that further devastated labor.





Reagan era attacks against labor, as well as the government giving excessive licenses to liquor stores in poor Black neighborhoods, offering at that time little in the way of treatment for addiction issues to poor people helped contribute to the crack cocaine era. The Clinton's response to this was the mass incarceration rates that created huge numbers of Black men unable to work due to their criminal records. Clinton's husband called the Black Lives activists criminals when they confronted him.




Congress Switchboard: 202-224-3121

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Don Brown, Founder, the International Wireless Industry Consortium (IWPC)
(Posted at Dailykos.com under user ARODB)

When I first heard this appointment mentioned by an author during an interview, I froze the program to check whether it was true. I know of Boykin well, so I doubted that Cruz would be so reckless as to identify with this man. But he has, and here's the link of his 23 member advisory board from the Cruz for President website.



The following are members of Ted Cruz's national security coalition: first 4 in alphabetical order deleted Lt. General William G. "Jerry" Boykin is a retired US Army Delta Force and Green Beret commander and the Executive Vice President of the Family Research Council.

New York State is not Mississippi. It is the where Republicans in recent memory included those liberals such as Senator Jacob Javits, who was one of the political descendants of a man who wouldn't be allowed past the entrance of their convention this July in Cleveland, trustbuster and environmentalist Theodore Roosevelt. As of now this story is not reaching those who will be voting in the primary April 19th (I had to search for it), so the N.Y. Republican will not know what a vote for Cruz would mean. With this appointment he hTed Cruz appoints Crusader General Jerry Boykin as Foreign Policy Advisoras tipped his hand, We are not faced with guessing whether he shares the religious extremism of his father, as he has by this appointment defined himself as the dominionist evangelical that is more than a tactical position, but a passion that overrides all other national exigencies.

Regime change in Iraq is certainly a short term (measured in decades) disaster, but it being an epoch defining catastrophe, as it may be, will only have been because Bush-Cheney and Rumsfeld allowed the process of debathification to be derailed by a perverse Christian--Jingoist agenda. The degradations of the Muslim "heathens" at the Abu Graibe prisons across the country, the seed for the Islamic Caliphate, were not an aberration, but the mission of those such as Ted Cruz' advisor. Crudely overt in Boykin, and now endorsed by this Presidential candidate.

For those who don't know who Boykin is, there is this extensive , section in Wikipedia of his dispensing Christian values as a reason for defeating Islamic Iraq - which may be fine over a beer at the mess hall, but quite different in formal speeches in full U.S. General's Uniform. I'll include a few excerpts:

This videoed speech is titled, "The Church must rise up" and within the first few minutes he shares his biblical mandate for Christians to resist enemies, interesting note, at 6 minutes, he warns that the danger is "they will hand you over to synagogues, and you will be put in prisons " I didn't bother to watch the entire 26 minutes, as I got the gist.

It is Boykin's mentality, and his public speeches that framed the Iraq War as being Christians against Muslims, that was one reason for the hatred that is now expressed by the Islamic Caliphate towards infidels. Cruz and Trump both know that what Boykin says in public is felt by a sizable chunk of those in the Republican party, but hopefully this is a minority of voting Americans.

Cruz has made a decision not to condemn this man, as Trump did belatedly of David Duke, but to affirm his position by bringing him into his team. The words he speaks are thus tacitly endorsed by the candidate for this country that does not have a national religion. Jerry Boykin never bought into that, and has during his military career spoken as if Christianity is America.

We now know Ted Cruz just a little bit better. His single minded unrelenting audacity has long been on display, which has made him hated among his peers. With this appointment, we have a clearer idea of what his goals are for this country .

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I had a call from Rosalie Kunoth-Monks the other day. Rosalie is an elder of the Arrernte-Alyawarra people, who lives in Utopia, a vast and remote region in the "red heart" of Australia. The nearest town is Alice Springs, more than 200 miles across an ancient landscape of spinifex and swirling skeins of red dust. The first Europeans who came here, perhaps demented by the heat, imagined a white utopia that was not theirs to imagine; for this is a sacred place, the homeland of the oldest, most continuous human presence on earth.

Rosalie was distressed, defiant and eloquent. Her distinction as one unafraid to speak up in a society so often deaf to the cries and anguish of its first people, its singular uniqueness, is well earned. She appears in my 2013 film, Utopia, with a searing description of a discarded people: "We are not wanted in our own country." She has described the legacies of a genocide: a word political Australia loathes and fears.

A week ago, Rosalie and her daughter Ngarla put out an alert that people were starving in Utopia. They said that elderly Indigenous people in the homelands had received no food from an aged care program funded by the Australian Government and administered by the regional Council. "One elderly man with end-stage Parkinson's received two small packets of mincemeat and white bread," said Ngarla, "the elderly woman living nearby received nothing." In calling for food drops, Rosalie said, "The whole community including children and the elderly go without food, often on a daily basis." She and Ngarla and their community have cooked and distributed food as best they can.

This is not unusual. Four years ago, I drove into the red heart and met Dr. Janelle Trees. A general practitioner whose indigenous patients live within a few miles of $1,000-a-night tourist resorts serving Uluru (Ayers Rock), she said, "Malnutrition is common. I wanted to give a patient an anti-inflammatory for an infection that would have been preventable if living conditions were better, but I couldn't treat her because she didn't have enough food to eat and couldn't ingest the tablets. I feel sometimes as if I'm dealing with similar conditions as the English working class at the beginning of the industrial revolution.

"There's asbestos in many Aboriginal homes, and when somebody gets a fibre of asbestos in their lungs and develops mesothelioma, [the government] doesn't care. When the kids have chronic infections and end up adding to these incredible statistics of indigenous people dying of renal disease, and vulnerable to world record rates of rheumatic heart disease, nothing is done. I ask myself: why not?"

When Rosalie phoned me from Utopia, she said,

"It's not so much the physical starvation as the traumatising of my people, of whole communities We are duped all the time. White Australia sets up organisations and structures that offer the pretence of helping us, but it's a pretence, no more. If we oppose it, it's a crime. Simply belonging is a crime. Suicides are everywhere. (She gave me details of the suffering in her own family). They're out to kill our values, to break down our traditional life until there's nothing there anymore."

Barkly Regional Council says its aged care packages get through and protests that the council is "the poorest of the three tiers of government and is very much dependent on [Northern] Territory and [Federal] governments for funds to provide such services to the bush. Barbara Shaw, the council's president, agreed that it was "totally unacceptable that people should be starving in a rich and well-developed country like Australia" and that "it is disgusting and wrong that Indigenous people experience deep poverty such as this."

The starvation and poverty and the division often sewn among Indigenous people themselves as they try to identify those responsible stem in large part from an extraordinary episode known as "the Intervention." This is Australia's dirty secret.

In 2007, the then Prime Minister, John Howard, sent the army into Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory to "rescue children" who, claimed his minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Mal Brough, were being abused by paedophile gangs in "unthinkable numbers."

Subsequently exposed as a fraud by the Australian Crime Commission, the Northern Territory Police and a damning report by child medical specialists, the "intervention" nonetheless allowed the government to destroy many of the vestiges of self-determination in the Northern Territory, the only part of Australia where Aboriginal people had won federally-legislated land rights. Here, they had administered their homelands with the dignity of self-determination and connection to land and culture and, as Amnesty reported, a 40 percent lower mortality rate. Distribution of food was never a problem.

It is this "traditional life" that is anathema to a parasitic white industry of civil servants, contractors, lawyers and consultants that controls and often profits from Aboriginal Australia, if indirectly through the corporate structures imposed on Indigenous organisations. The remote homelands are seen as an ideological threat, for they express a communalism at odds with the neo-conservatism that rules Australia and demands "assimilation."

It is as if the enduring existence of a people who have survived and resisted more than two colonial centuries of massacre and theft remains a spectre on white Australia: a reminder of whose land this really is.

I know these communities and their people, who have shown me the conditions imposed on them. Many are denied consistent running water, sanitation and power. That basic sustenance should join this list is not surprising.

According to the Credit Suisse Global Wealth report, Australia is the richest place on earth. Politicians in Canberra are among the wealthiest citizens; they like to hang Indigenous art on the white walls of their offices in the bleakly modern Parliament House. Their self-endowment is legendary. The Labor Party's last minister for indigenous affairs, Jenny Macklin, refurbished her office at a cost to the taxpayer of $331,144. During her tenure, the number of Aboriginal people living in slums increased by almost a third.

When Professor James Anaya, the respected United Nations Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous people, described the "intervention" as racist, the opposition spokesman on indigenous affairs, Tony Abbott, told Anaya to "get a life" and not "just listen to the old victim brigade." Abbott was promoted to prime minister of Australia; he was evicted last year.
Reprinted from Paul Craig Roberts Website

As I have emphasized since these "partnerships" were first announced, their purpose is to give corporations immunity from the laws in the countries in which they do business. The principle mechanism of this immunity is the granting of the right to corporations to sue governments and agencies of governments that have laws or regulations that impinge on corporate profits. For example, France's prohibitions of GMO foods are, under the "partnerships," "restraints on trade that impinge on corporate profits.

The "partnerships" set up "tribunals" staffed by corporations that are outside the court systems of the sovereign governments. It is in these corporate tribunals that the lawsuits take place. In other words the corporations are judge, jury, and prosecutor. They can't lose. The "partnerships" set up secret unaccountable governments that are higher and have power over the elected governments.

You can ask yourself how much money the representatives of the countries who "fast-tracked" this system were paid by the corporations and how much the bribes will be to get the agreements approved by the legislators. As you witness American, British, German and other government officials agitate in behalf of corporate rule, you will know that they have been well paid.

Peter Liley, Minister of Trade and Industry in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government and currently a Conservative member of the British Parliament, took the trouble of looking at the Trans-Atlantic partnership and is warning against it. As a politician he cannot speak as forcefully as he might like, but he gives you the picture. Here is Eric Zuesse's report.

No government representative who has the slightest bit of integrity and patriotism would have approved these agreements, and no legislative body that is not competely corrupt would hand its power and function over to global corporations.
Oregon Senate Republicans

Oregon House Republicans

On Friday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) delivered her 2016 State of the State Address at the City Club of Portlands Friday Forum.

Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli Responds to Governor Browns 2016 State of the State Address

Salem, Ore.  Senate Republican Leader Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) released the following statement following Governor Kate Browns second State of the State address held at the Portland City Club:

In February, Governor Brown and Democrat leadership failed to do the one thing Oregonians were counting on: take meaningful steps toward restoring transparency and accountability to state government.

Governor Brown promised in her inaugural State of the State to overhaul Oregons public records system and strengthen Oregons ethics laws. She has failed, just like she failed to deliver a bipartisan transportation package in 2015.

She and her Democrat colleagues failed to address critical missteps by state agencies resulting in high costs for taxpayers and the loss of trust in government services like our foster care system.

Instead, the Governor is praising her Democrat colleagues for back room deals that resulted in a slew of new mandates costing small businesses and working families.

How long will Oregon voters allow their leaders to say one thing and do another?

Oregonians deserve more than lip service. The reign of one-party rule in Oregon needs to come to an end before the quality of life we all value disappears.

Statement From House Republican Leader Mike McLane On Governor Browns State Of The State Address

Salem, Ore.  House Republican Leader Mike McLane (R-Powell Butte) issued the following statement regarding Governor Browns 2016 State of the State Address:

Despite the Governors sunny rhetoric, there are storm clouds on Oregons horizon. Our schools and local governments are just beginning to feel the weight of crushing PERS obligations, our transportation system is struggling to keep up with our growing population, our high school graduation rate remains one of the worst in the nation, and trust in our state government in the post-Kitzhaber era remains at an all-time low.

If the past year and a half has proven anything, its that Governor Brown and legislative Democrats lack the political courage necessary to tackle Oregons most pressing crises. At nearly every turn, theyve chosen the path of political expedience over sound governance and bold leadership. Oregonians expect and deserve better from their elected leaders.
Brother of Mumtaz Qadri Cancelled chehlum

RAWALPINDI: Brother of Mumtaz Qadri on Saturday announced that there would be no chehlum as it was already held on March 27 in consultation with the family and religious parties



Malik Dilpazeer Awan, the Qadris brother, made the announcement at a press conference along with a number of local religious leaders at Jamia Ghousia Ziaul Uloom in Rawalpindi.



Flanked by Sunni Tehreeks Shahdab Rizvi, Jamia Mohammadia custodian Pir Syed Ziaul Haq Shah, Pir Syed Jalal Shah, Pir Syed Inayat Shah, Mr Awan made it clear that there would be no chehlum of his brother on April 10.



We held the chehlum jointly and the reports in social media about divisions among religious parties and family of Mumtaz Qadri are baseless. We have decided to observe the death anniversary of Mumtaz Qadri on March 1 every year. But on every Monday, we will arrange special prayers at his grave, he said.



However, he said a group of religious parties had formed a political party, Tehreek Labaik Ya Rasoolullah. We have decided to register the party and launch a campaign for membership, he said.



Mr Awan said they had no links with elements responsible for damaging public and private property in Rawalpindi and Islamabad after the chehlum of Qadri on March 27. But we would participate in any movement launched by any political party over Panama Leaks, he said.



Shahdab Rizvi said the government fulfilled its promise of releasing 95 workers of his party. He said 10pc of the arrested workers were released on bail while cases against the others were being discharged.



In an anticipation of the chehlum and a protest rally to D-Chowk in Islamabad by the supporters of Qadri, the Red Zone of the capital was partially sealed on Saturday.



Containers were placed on different roads, including Murree Road, Khayaban-i-Suhrawardy, Third Avenue, Constitution Avenue and Jinnah Avenue.



Besides, heavy contingents of police were deployed in the area. Containers were also brought to the entry points of the capital adjacent to Rawalpindi, including Faizabad and I.J. Principal Road, to block them in case of any rally.



However, there was no protest gathering by the supporters of Qadri.



A police officer said the police met the family of Mumtaz Qadri on Friday night to inquire about their plan to observe the chehlum. The family assured the police that only relatives and villagers would attend the event.



Besides, the family also said they had nothing to with anyone who announced to observe the chehlum and stage a protest rally.



The officers of the police and the local administration also met a Pir from Rawalpindi who had announced to come to Qadris grave in the Athal village of Islamabad with a rally of 50,000 people, he added.



During the meeting with the Pir, the officers succeeded to get an assurance that he and his followers would not observe the chehlum and visit the grave.



Similarly, the officers also met a politician from Sargodha, who had announced to observe the chehlum and come to the grave along with a large number of seminary students. The politician also dropped his plan on the request of the officers.



Sources said Quran khawani was held in the mosque of Qadris village shortly after Fajr prayers on Saturday in which relatives, villagers and seminary students took part. Later, his family members and close relatives visited the grave.
Two former SC chief justices refused judicial commission on Panama Papers: Nisar Ali

ISLAMABAD: Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar said on Saturday that two former Supreme Court chief justices had refused to head the judicial commission instated to probe claims made by the Panama Papers regarding offshore assets belonging to the Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's family.



"So far the revelations coming out of the Panama leaks are just allegations. Russia, Britain, Argentina, and other countries have dismissed them as lies. It has only been the Prime Minister of Pakistan who took notice, addressed the nation, and announced a judicial commission to investigate the claims," said the federal minister.



"It was the government's wish that the commission should be headed by a former chief justice, but after criticism from the opposition, two candidates who had been contacted backed out. No former chief justice wants to be involved with these allegations."



Nisar added that the commission could have been formed sooner had the judges not refused.



The also minister said that for four days he had been trying to determine what offshore companies are. "If I did not know what offshore companies are, how would the nation at large know?"



In addition, the interior minister also announced that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) is also ready to investigate the claims against the Prime Minister's family arising from the Panama Papers.



"If Imran Khan wishes to have the FIA investigate the claims made by the Panama leaks, the Interior Ministry is ready for it, but this decision is not up to the Interior Ministry," said Nisar.



Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan had earlier called on the National Accountability Bureau, Federal Board of Revenue, and the Election Commission of Pakistan  but not FIA  to investigate offshore property held by members of the Sharif property.



"Any officer or team that Imran Khan picks will be given the authority to carry out investigations of the claims in the leaks. There should be no levying of accusations now." The Interior M



Chaudhry Nisar said that he had not already launched an investigation into allegations based on the Panama Papers due to past accusations of nepotism and exerting undue influence on FIA proceedings.



"Now that Imran Khan has called for an agency to investigate, I invite him to name a team or officer to investigate."



Discussing Khan's request to the Secretary Information of the state-run Pakistan Television to make arrangements for a live address to the nation, the Interior Minister also said the PTI chairman "has no right to" address the nation live on Pakistan Television.



"Nowhere in the world does a leader of the opposition address the nation on state television. Imran Khan is not even that, with only 30 seats in the National Assembly."



Remarking on the PTI chairman's calls for a march in Islamabad, the information minister said, "We have decided not to seal Islamabad, and won't allow any political party to stage protests at D-Chowk."



Imran welcomes offer

PTI chairman Imran Khan welcomed the Interior Ministers offer to nominate any FIA official and has requested to nominate Dr Shoaib Suddle to head an independent commission to investigate the Panama Papers claims.



"Shoaib Suddle holds great professional credibility and expertise in investigating white collar crime, and he should be given full authority to carry out an independent investigation into the Panama Papers," said Khan in a press statement.



Imran Khan, in a National Assembly session on Thursday, had demanded a judicial commission under the current chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) to probe Panama Papers.



"We demand an empowered commission under the chief justice of Pakistan, if the commission is not empowered, then there is no benefit of having one (judicial commission)," said Imran while addressing the chair in the assembly.
In this May 29, 2010, file photo, school children with tiger's ears headband gesture in front of a tiger poster during an event to encourage people to protect the endangered wild tiger species around Asia countries held at the National Animal Museum in Beijing, China. The world's count of wild tigers roaming forests from Russia to Vietnam has gone up for the first time in more than a century, in the latest global census, conservation groups said Monday, April 11, 2016. (AP Photo/Andy Wong, File)

The world's count of wild tigers roaming forests from Russia to Vietnam has gone up for the first time in more than a century, with some 3,890 counted by conservation groups and national governments in the latest global census, wildlife conservation groups said Monday.

The tally marks a turnaround from the last worldwide estimate in 2010, when the number of tigers in the wild hit an all-time low of about 3,200, according to the World Wildlife Fund and the Global Tiger Forum.

India alone holds more than half of them, with 2,226 tigers roaming reserves across the country, from the southern tip of Kerala state to the eastern swamps in West Bengal, according to its last count in 2014.

But while experts said the news was cause for celebration, they stopped short of saying the number of tigers itself was actually rising. In other words, it may just be that experts are aware of more tigers, thanks to the fact that survey methods are improving and more areas are being included.

Still, this is the first time tiger counts are increasing since 1900, when there were more than 100,000 tigers in the wild.

"More important than the absolute numbers is the trend, and we're seeing the trend going in the right direction," said Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of wildlife conservation at WWF.

The global census, compiled from national tiger surveys as well as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, was released a day before ministers from 13 countries meet for three days in New Delhi as they work toward doubling the world's wild tiger population from the 2010 low by 2022.

Not all nations are seeing progress, though. While Russia, India, Bhutan and Nepal all counted more tigers in their latest surveys, Southeast Asian countries have struggled. They are also behind the others in conservation measures, and do not yet conduct a tiger census on their own.

"When you have high-level political commitments, it can make all the difference," Hemley said. "When you have well protected habitat and you control the poaching, tigers will recover. That's a pretty simple formula. We know it works."

Cambodia is looking at reintroducing tigers after recently declaring them functionally extinct within its borders, meaning there are no longer any breeding tigers in the wild. Indonesia has also seen a rapid decline, thanks to having the world's highest rate of forest destruction to meet growing demand for producing palm oil as well as pulp and paper.

Tigers are considered endangered species, under constant threat from habitat loss and poachers seeking their body parts for sale on the black market. They are also seeing their habitats rapidly shrinking as countries develop.

The global tiger count is based on data from 2014. Here is the tally broken down by country:

Bangladesh, 106; Bhutan, 103; Cambodia, 0; China, more than 7; India, 2,226; Indonesia, 371; Laos, 2; Malaysia, 250; Myanmar, no data available; Nepal, 198; Russia, 433; Thailand, 189; Vietnam, fewer than 5.

The experts said the Myanmar government's count of 85 tigers in 2010 was not included because the data was considered out of date.

Explore further Cambodia to repopulate forests with tigers from abroad

 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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In a post on his Facebook page, the Deputy Minister posted aerial shots of the completed centre.

According to him, the opening of the centre will provide 10,000 direct and indirect jobs.

He insisted that the President, John Mahama is serious about job creation.

The construction of the $8.3 million project began in 2011 and was financed by the World Bank and the Rockefeller Foundation to create more jobs for the youth.

The facility is a collection of 12 old warehouses of the Public Works Department (PWD) that have been renovated into world class office buildings with each of the buildings occupying a space of 735 square meters, making a total of 8,820 square meters.
What is perhaps shocking in the report is the fact that child marriage is becoming a national issue.

It used to be an occurrence in the Upper East, Upper West and the Northern Regions. But according to the report, child marriage in the Western, Brong-Ahafo, and Central regions as well as parts of the Eastern Region are assuming alarming proportions.

Poverty cannot be eliminated. At best, it can be reduced. We must not allow parents to force the girl child, who is supposed to be in school like the boy child, into marriage.

If parents cannot afford school fees and learning materials, the state must intervene. I, like many others, hold the view that education in basic schools must be free and compulsory.

Families with educated women as the head manage resources well, and educated girls are more likely to use contraceptives and seek antenatal care.

Communal pressure that often coerces parents to give the girl child into marriage could be reduced if the child is sent to school and encouraged to be equals with the boy child.

The first family have at separate events voiced rejection for child marriage.

First Lady Lordina Mahama last month called for help to deal with child marriage, signalling that the phenomenon maybe out of control.

"The future of our children is very important and we must ensure that girls are allowed to go to school instead of being married off at tender ages, she said on a tour of the Brong Ahafo, one of the regions child marriage is growing.

"We hold it a duty as parents to support our children to climb the academic ladder and become responsible members in society before giving them away in marriage, she added.

President John Mahama in a similar comment at the 7th Africa Conference on Sexual and Health and Rights in Accra said: "There's a culture of silence among relatives often when a child is withdrawn from school or a child is married off into a forced marriage. And we need to establish systems that alert the authorities.

But until we apply the laws governing child marriage to the latter irrespective of whose ox is gored, child marriage will become endemic.

Political parties must tell voters ways they intend to deal with child marriage. It must feature on presidential debates.

Child rights activists must keep pushing for total elimination of child marriage.
In 2012, Messers Sonitra was contracted to construct the road but abandoned the project in 2015 for none payment of certificates since the start of the project.

According to the chief, the road is affecting the few businesses within community.

We dont have any particular business in our community, but the little that my people are doing, dust has taking over he told Kwahu based Agoo FM.

He maintained that there was no potholes on the Atibie town section of Nkwakwa-Atibie road and expressed dissatisfaction why the contractor did not complete the spoilt portion of the road before tackling the Atibie town section.
National Co-ordinator of the Coalition, Barima Akwasi Amankwaa, who was speaking at a seminar on the Right of the Child for people in the hospitality industry, transport sector, media and civil society organisations on Wednesday in Sunyani said the situation is unpleasant which required a concerted efforts to bring under control.

He disclosed that child marriages which were predominately in the three northern regions has taken a national dimension with the Western, Brong-Ahafo, and Central regions as well as parts of the Eastern Region assuming alarming proportions.

He cited poverty, parental and community pressure and outmoded traditional practices as contributory factors impeding the fight against child marriage.

Explaining further, he said a girl who showed signs of sexual development in the coastal areas is likely to be coerced into marriage unwillingly as a result of poverty and other external factors.According to him, the existence of legislation like the Criminal Code, Juvenile Justice Act, child protection policies and other United Nations Conventions on the Right of the Child had not been able to help address child rights abuses and exploitation.

READ MORE: Child marriage on the rise in Ghana - UNAIDSBarima Amankwaa called for strict enforcement of policies and legislation on child right protection to control the situation.

First Lady Lordina Mahama last month called for help to deal with child marriage, signalling that the phenomenon maybe out of control.

"The future of our children is very important and we must ensure that girls are allowed to go to school instead of being married off at tender ages, she said on a tour of the Brong Ahafo region, one of the regions child marriage is growing.

"We hold it a duty as parents to support our children to climb the academic ladder and become responsible members in society before giving them away in marriage, she added.

READ MORE:Mahama would kill if his underage daughter was married off
The Public Health Engineer and Head of Water Management of the AMA, Mr Anthony Mensah, made this known at a sensitisation programme to select beneficiary communities.

The beneficiary communities include Glefe, Gbegbeyise, Chorkor, Sabon Zongo and Mamponse in the Ablekuma South, West and Central districts.

The RRI would be undertaken by the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area - Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA-SWP).

Mr Mensah said the GAMA-SWP was being funded by the World Bank to construct 40,000 toilet facilities within five years and it was expected that 250,000 households would get their own toilets.

He said the project would be done in phases to ensure accelerated process and early completion.

Mr Mensah said sustainable awareness of the RRI as well as the promotion of hygiene among the people were important and urged the communities to register to improve on their sanitation.

Mr Graham Sarbah, an Engineer in-charge of the GAMA-SWP, told the Ghana News Agency that the project would cost 150 million dollars of which 50 million dollars would be used to construct sewerage channel for the household toilets.

He said all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the Greater Accra Region would benefit to reduce the insanitary conditions and outbreak of cholera.

Mr Samuel D. Amoah, the RRI Co-ordinator, called for vigorous education to eliminate cholera, adding; 'cholera is becoming an epidemic in some parts of the country, hence the need to devise strategies such as the RRI to address it and create awareness on good hygiene.'
The First Deputy Speaker, Mr Ebo Barton-Odro, in a discussion with a parliamentary and business delegation from Germany, said the Legislature in Ghana would keep an eye on the Ministry of Finance to spend within the approved budget.

The delegation, led by Mr Johannes Selle, a member of the German Parliament, is on a two-nation West African tour; Ghana and Togo, with the aim of strengthening Germanys bilateral ties with the two nations.

Mr Barton-Odros assurance was similar to the one by the Finance Minister, Mr Seth Terpker, in November last year when he delivered the 2016 Budget Statement during which he told the Members of Parliament (MPs) that the Government would ensure fiscal discipline, abide by planned expenditure, and would not be bulldozed by voters in this election year.

He expressed appreciation to the German Government for its economic, social and political support to Ghana and gave the assurance that the government would keep to her budget to avoid overspending.

Well make sure we do not go beyond, so that the assistance you give us will not go to waste, the First Deputy Speaker, who is also the MP for Cape Coast North, said.

The discussion centered also on public private partnership, the energy sector, the threat of international terrorism, religious co-existence and tolerance, decreasing supply of natural water and climate change.

The two sides highlighted the need to strengthen areas of co-operation between Accra and Berlin for mutual benefits.

Mr Selle pledged Germanys readiness to enhance its ties with West African countries and gave Ghana thumbs-up for being a model of religious tolerance between Christians and Muslims.
According to him, the enthusiasm and overwhelming reception that President Mahama received on this tour is a clear indication that he still remains a very popular leader who is appreciated by his people for the significant amount of work that he is doing to ensure their wellbeing.

Last Monday, President Mahama began his 'Accounting to the People' tour of the country ahead of the 2016 elections campaign which is expected to start in the next few months.

Contributing to a panel discussion on Radio Gold, the Deputy Minister narrated that during the tour, the President was ambushed by inhabitants of some communities who insisted that he address them or they were not going to pave way for his convoy to pass.

This, he said is indicative that Ghanaians are willing and receptive to the Presidents message at any time.

He said it also shows that all the investments the Mahama government has made in the various sectors of the economy have gone down well with our people and whereas there is room for further improvement, it is something that is appreciated; it is something that is impacting positively on the lives of the people.
Last week, there was a widely reported story in the South African media about him charging 5000 rand (which is about 1300 cedis) from his followers to see photos of him when he ascended into heaven with a smartphone. While that story has later been found to be a hoax, this has not stopped the endless mocking from social media users in the country.
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Offering an explanation for her action, the mother, from the southern USA, said: "My childrens lives are more important to me than any electronic on this earth.

"I refuse to have them influenced in negative ways.

"Contacting people they dont know, being involved in drama they dont need to be in, and being in trouble at school for having phones out," she huffed.
A witness says the gunmen brutalised the deputy chairman of the communitys council of chiefs, and then forced him to accompany them to the residence of the monarch where they blew the gate open with dynamites.

The motive behind the attack remains unknown but King Turner, an associate of Ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, was recently called in for questioning by state security operatives who had invaded his Abuja residence a few weeks ago over allegations of contract scam.

The gunmen, about 20 of them who dressed in military camouflage uniforms, were said to have stormed the community in two speed boats at about 12.55 a.m. on Saturday.

Though the monarch and members of his family were not around when the attack took place, the hoodlums were said to have ransacked the entire house and in the process destroyed several furniture and electronics.
This is contained in a statement issued by DSP. Dolapo Badmos, the commands Spokesperson.

It stated that a security guard in the area and some other persons whose names were not mentioned had been declared wanted over the case.

``We are on the trail of one Suleiman, other name yet unknown, a security guard in the area, with his colleagues now at large.

``They are suspected to have perpetrated the act, the statement added.
The people were tested and treated of various diseases, including malaria, typhoid fever, Hepatitis B, fever, Ebola and HIV.

Air Vice-Marshal Emmanuel Akogu, the Air Officer Commanding, Bayelsa Mobility Command, said on Sunday in Yenagoa that the free medical outreach was to commemorate the Air Force 52nd anniversary.

Akogu said the programme, which was held in Azikoro community, Yenagoa Local Government Area, was to contribute to the healthcare service of the people at the grassroots.

``The test and treatment were purely free of charge, ranging from the administration of drugs, among others.

``We also gave out free mosquito nets and about 1,000 people collected. I am still urging the people to take their health matters seriously because health they say is wealth.

``The Mobility Command will continue to contribute to the healthcare services of the nation, he said.

Dr Woruka Afochi, a Medical Expert in the command, expressed satisfaction with the peoples response to the programme, stressing that the outcome was a worthwhile.

Mr Cletus Ekpebidei, a resident in Azikoro Community, who benefitted from the exercise, commended the command for the free test and treatment.

Ekpebidei said; ``please, we want you to always inform us on time. We are happy to see this gesture in our community.
The allegations were levied against members of the IPOB led by Nnamdi Kanu by the SSS on Saturday, April 9, 2016.

In a report by Premium Times, the agency said IPOB carried out the massacre of the northern Nigerians as part of its efforts to destabilise the country.

Speaking on behalf of SSS, the spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo said the killing, which has revealed the gruesome activities of IPOB operatives, has triggered tension among different communities in Abia State.

The Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely , and at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State, Opuiyo said.

The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.

Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action, he added.

It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country.

Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country, Opuiyo said.
According to a report by Punch Newspaper, the hope of an early signing of the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law after the Senate and House of Reps passed a budget of N6.06tn, might have dimmed with the President's sojourn to China.

It was further reported that Buhari will be away from the country for one week as informed by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina.

Though the Appropriation Bill was forwarded to the Presidency within 24 hours of the passage by the National Assembly but the President had since declined signing insisting on reviewing and verifying all details as apportioned to each ministires before approval.
The Commandant of the corps, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri on Sunday.

Abdullahi said that the suspect was arrested at the post office area in Maiduguri, following intelligence reports.

He said that the 27-year-old former policeman, who gave his name as Hussaini Musa, was dismissed from the Kano State Police Command.

"The suspect is not holding any identification card so he uses some of his pictures to deceive people that he is an officer.

"He came to Borno State on a visit to his grandparents and decided to open his own police custody.

``He has had defrauded many people but the most recent extortion was N20, 000 extortion from one of his victims in Bulumkutu area.

"He was handling a case of land dispute and had already collected N30, 000 and was expecting the balance of N20, 000 when our men apprehended him.

"The suspect was said to have confessed that he had collected money from many people.''
In a report by Daily Trust, a resident noted that the current electricity supply is as a result of the government's strategic move to tapping from the power supplied to the Niger Republic.

The report further revealed how a resident analysed the reason for the steady electricity supply being enjoyed by Kebbi saying I think the good thing is that the state government is intelligent enough to link the state to it in order to boost the electricity need of its people. Not only that, I am aware the administration bought more transformers, assisted electric transmission and distribution agencies with necessary facilities and also created infrastructure to boost regular power supply in the state.

Another resident, who works in a manufacturing as a skilled worker said, We are enjoying electricity in Birnin Kebbi. Even though they sometimes take the light, it is just for some minutes. What we are witnessing now is different from how it was before this government came in. During the previous administration electricity was rationed. They would give us for five hours only, and then give to other areas of the town for another five hours. Sometimes it might not even come at all, leaving our businesses to suffer. But today it is different. I must say we are doing well now with steady power supply and we thank the government for it.

However, generator distributors are not totally happy about the move as this has deeply affected sales of the generators.

In the words of Abdulrasak, a the Sales Manager at Easy Way International Ventures, Since they fixed the electricity issue people no longer buy generators, and this has affected our business. There is nothing we can do since government has done what it wanted to do on power supply. Even though it is affecting us we just have to endure. I remember we made much sales and a lot of profit before this government took over. It was good for us then but since it is like this now we dont have to be selfish.

On how the governor was able to achieve this, an official of the distribution agency told Daily Trust that the governor's mission was to provide 24 hours uninterrupted power, hence, he bought over 200 transformers and other important electricity facilities that would make it possible for distribution company to supply regular electricity to Birnin Kebbi and the 21 local government areas of the state.
Reacting to the allegation in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Malam Garba Shehu, enjoined Shekarau to stop insulting the intelligence of Nigerians with his false and misleading allegations.

He noted that the ``audacity of Shekarau to preach about sensitivity is incredibly amazing, considering the large-scale stealing of public funds by the unseated PDP government at the expense of the welfare of the people.

``The greatest insensitivity to the welfare of the people is epic corruption for which the PDP had a notorious and unrivalled record in our recent democratic history of bad governance.

The Presidential aide explained that ``the greed of PDP leaders respects no boundaries of decency and rationality, so much that they could illegally steal any funds within their grip or reach, including monies meant for the security of Nigerians and the welfare of soldiers fighting terrorism in the Northeast.

According to Shehu, Shekarau's colleagues in the PDP government that he served have been coughing out monies that they illegally stole while in office, adding that "bringing misery to your fellow countrymen and women on account of your greed and thievery is the worst example of insensitivity."

He said that the wellbeing of the citizens was at the heart of the President and for this reason, "the administration is seeking permanent solutions, not temporary ones to the county's economic woes by first securing it, developing infrastructure and diversifying its economy.

On the current fuel scarcity, Shehu said the Buhari administration had saved one trillion naira on account of removing subsidy which was fraudulently making some cabals richer at the expense of the welfare of the people who were being short-changed.

He explained that the Buhari administration had significantly reduced the rate of corruption and frustrated people with corrupt and fraudulent tendencies.

According to him, those that benefited from subsidy fraud are using their illegal gains to finance smear campaigns against the Buhari administration on the social media and other forums.

Addressing the issue of insecurity, Shehu said the Boko Haram terrorist group had been so "thoroughly militarily weakened that they no longer have the capabilities and staying power to confront our troops, or occupy any part of Nigerian territory without being decisively expelled.

He recalled that markets and bus stations that were closed three years ago in the Northeast ``are now being reopened, thanks to the decisive restoration of relative peace in the area by our now motivated and reinvigorated troops.

"The Buhari administration is also proud to say that poor Nigerians that were once displaced by terrorist attacks are now returning to their liberated towns and villages, and this government won't relent until it rids the country of the vestiges of terrorism.
The leader of Niger Delta Vigilante, NDV, who spoke through his media aide, Ifeanyi Ogbonna said it was worrisome that the Biafra agitators were using the state to propagate their protests.

In his words, "Biafra agitators should leave Rivers State alone. I am a law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of this great country Nigeria. I have always prayed for peace in the country. So people should stop using my name and pictures for business gains.

Continuing, he said, 'Governor is God fearing and peace loving man and he has the interest of the people at heart. I advice the local government authorities to work with the governor in order to rid our communities of crime.
Tens of thousands of people were forced to flee Mpati in North Kivu province after fighting erupted there at the end of March between government forces and armed groups, the NRC said.

"There are more than 30,000 people displaced all over the place without support because we are for now unable to reach them because of the potential risk," Mickael Amar, NRC's head of mission in Congo, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"This is something common here in Congo, we are used to (stopping) activities because of insecurity and we go back after 10 or 15 days, but 10 or 15 days for a displaced person without any support is a lot," he said in a phone interview from Congo.

Amar said that although NRC has not yet been able to assess the exact needs of the displaced, they lacked food and shelter.

In January, the United Nations said a surge in kidnappings and general insecurity in North Kivu province in recent months had made delivering life-saving humanitarian aid a "Herculean task".

Congo's east has been plagued by instability since regional wars between 1996 and 2003 killed millions, most from hunger and disease. Dozens of armed groups continue to prey on the local population and exploit the region's rich mineral deposits.

Amar said that last week unknown people entered an NRC compound in Mpati and stole some of their assets, including phones and radio equipment.

"It shows that humanitarian access starts to be a bit complicated," he said.

"Today we've been informed that shooting took place in the same area ... No one has been injured because it was shooting in the sky (but) it creates a lot of confusion."

In January, medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) closed one of its projects in Congo following a December attack on one of their convoys and abduction of two of their staff.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mr Mark Toner, Deputy Spokesperson of the Department of State on Saturday.

It said any referendum if conducted under current rules and conditions in the region could not be considered as ``a credible expression of the will of the people of Darfur''.

``Insecurity in Darfur and inadequate registration of Darfuris residing in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps prohibit sufficient participation.

``Furthermore, the Darfur Referendum Commissions recent announcement that Darfuris residing outside of Darfur will be ineligible to vote disenfranchises millions of Darfuris, refugees, and IDPs,'' the statement said.

It said lasting peace in Sudan could only be attained through a political process that addresses the underlying causes of the Darfur conflict, secures a lasting cessation of hostilities, and creates the space for meaningful participation of Darfuri groups and all Sudanese in an inclusive and genuine national dialogue.

The announced Darfur Referendum, it said, would contradict these key objectives and the broader goal of peace and stability in Darfur.

The U.S. reiterated her support the people of Sudan who wish to advance peaceful governance and inclusive participatory politics for long-term stability in Sudan.
In a report by Al Jazeera, after the Panama-based law firm at the centre of the massive data leak released what has now been dubbed the Panama Papers, the El Salvador office was raided on Friday with personal supervision by Attorney General Douglas Melendez.

According to the report, Melendez said the government decided to raid the offices after Mossack Fonseca removed its office sign late on Thursday, a move he claimed raised suspicions.

An employee of the law firm later said the company was planning to move, the attorney general later tweeted.

The El Salvador office of Mossack Fonseca is not listed on the companys corporate website, hence the reason for the raid.Although the officials seized about 20 computers, some documents and interviewed seven employees, no one was detained, Melendez said.

At this moment we cannot speak about [any] crimes; all we can do at this moment is our job, he said.

He said the government would analyse all the confiscated information and examine its financial, accounting and legal aspects to see if any law has been broken.Mr Melendez said it appears Mossack Fonseca office in the country was helping to process information for clients worldwide.

The International Committee of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) coordinated investigations in at least 80 countries, exposing the shadowy offshore links of world leaders such as of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Bukola Saraki, David Mark and relatives of the prime ministers of Britain and Pakistan and the presidents of China and Ukraine.
Finding Peace of Mind: Discover These Five Places in Europe to Unwind
Agents with the Quad-City Metropolitan Enforcement Group, or MEG, have arrested a man in connection with an international methamphetamine operation that has ties to Mexico, Iowa, Illinois and Arizona among other places, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

Cesar Angeles Ballesteros is charged with conspiracy to manufacture, distribute and possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

Ballesteros was ordered detained pending trial during a hearing Friday in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

The investigation also resulted in the arrest of five other people.

According to an affidavit filed by MEG agents in federal court in support of the criminal complaint, in early November, agents used a confidential source to investigate the distribution of methamphetamine by Theresa Morales, who was living in Bettendorf.

The confidential source told agents that Morales received large amounts of crystal methamphetamine from a man named Cesar. The source, according to the affidavit, said Morales would travel to where Cesar was and obtain the methamphetamine, including a run to Las Vegas where Morales collected about 10 pounds of methamphetamine, rented and car and drove back to the Quad-City area.

On Nov. 10, according to the affidavit, agents determined that Morales had flown from Chicago to Phoenix and was returning in a particular vehicle.

On Nov. 13, agents located Morales on Interstate 80 and tried to initiate a traffic stop. Before stopping, Morales and her passenger had thrown about eight pounds of methamphetamine from the vehicle, documents stated.

During questioning, according to the affidavit, Morales told agents she traveled to Phoenix and got eight pounds of methamphetamine from two males working through Cesar Angeles Ballesteros. Morales states she had transported meth for Ballesteros about 12 times with the largest amount being 15 pounds.

On March 3, MEG agents interviewed a confidential source who had been arrested on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, according to the affidavit. The source had purchased at least 3.5 grams of meth per day from a woman named Kimberly Edwards and her boyfriend. The source was introduced to Ballesteros by Edwards.

Then, on March 17, the source contacted MEG agents, saying that Ballesteros had called. The source was told to drive to a Davenport hotel, where the source picked up Abraham Guevara-Ocampo. They then drove to a residence where Ballesteros was.

Later on March 17, MEG agents saw Guevara-Ocampo walk to a 2005 Dodge Caravan with Nevada license plates. He lowered the spare tire and placed it in the back of the van. Later, Edwards arrived in a 2007 Hyundai Entourage. Guevara-Ocampo then transferred the spare tire and a speaker box into Edwards car.

After initiating a traffic stop, agents discovered 12 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in the spare tire and in the speaker box, according to the affidavit.

During questioning, Edwards admitted to receiving methamphetamine for Ballesteros as recently as January.

Morales trial is set for June 6. She is to be tried along with two others, Ashley Marie Palmer and Douglas Ray Lairmore, on charges of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine, distribution of drugs and possession with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine. Morales also is charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Edwards and Guevara-Ocampo each are charged with conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine and possession with the intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine. A trial date has not been set for either Edwards or Guevara-Ocampo.
MCCs academic advisors and adjunct faculty members Molly Elizalde and Dave Carson were selected as presenters at the University of Iowas Diversity in Education Conference on March 31 in Iowa City.

The conference promotes research and pedagogy to promote diversity and its value in the classroom and on the college campus. Elizalde and Carsons presentation was titled "Refugee Hope on a Rural Community College Campus" and showcased qualitative research in the field of teaching and learning by Carson and Elizalde who are pursuing Ph.D. degrees in higher education at Iowa State University and the University of Iowa, respectively.

Elizalde and Carson were accompanied by three MCC refugee students. Daniel Luo, originally from Liberia, is in his first year studying agriculture at MCC and has plans to transfer to Southern Illinois University in agri-business. Adzovi Takpah, from Togo, is in her final semester at MCC before transferring to the Registered Nursing program at Scott Community College. Lee Wonten, from Liberia, is a graduate of Muscatine High School, and started his education at MCC before transferring to Kirkwood Community College this semester to be closer to family. Lee is working on an Associates of Arts degree and plans to transfer to Iowa State in computer science.

Although data is not kept, it is estimated that MCC is host to approximately 25 refugee students from Libera, Congo, Togo, Sudan, Burma and others.

The presentation and student panel discussed the challenges for refugee students in higher education. Because of negative publicity and the politicking of the refugee crisis, this group wanted to share that refugees have a lot to offer campuses, classrooms, and communities if their cultures are valued by administrators, faculty and student services. With the refugee crisis growing in Syria, Afghanistan, and continuing in West Africa, Carson and Elizalde emphasized that the community college is a wonderful place to cultivate this work ethic and hope for displaced populations.

The students agreed.

Muscatine will always be my American hometown. I felt a lot of love from so many people there, said Wonten.
A year after an earthquake devastated Nepal, a feature film set there will pay tribute to the country.

Amy Rowell, director for World Relief in Moline, said that Highway to Dhampus will show viewers the absolute beauty of the people and the country.

The movie will be shown one time only April 25 (tickets must be purchased online by April 18) exactly one year after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

More than 1,000 people died, said Rad Pandit of Bettendorf. He said 3.5 million people became homeless after the disaster. The earthquake made a huge negative impact on the whole country, he said. It was a really devastating earthquake.

Now, a year later, some residents of Nepal  especially those in rural areas  still live in tents and wait for help, he said. The people who suffer the most are people who have very little to start with.

Pandit said the Quad-City community helped us wholeheartedly and that schools, hospitals and orphanages already have been rebuilt. In fact, donations still are being taken at at the Quad-Cities Nepalese Society website, qcns.info.

Many peoples homes and shops were destroyed from the earthquake, and still to this day they struggle to rebuild all they once had, Rowell said.

Rowell, of Rock Island, said its important for people to see Highway to Dhampus so they understand what life is like for the people of Nepal. Additionally, some Americans may not understand how hospitable the Nepali are.

Even the Nepali Americans I have gotten to know are always smiling and willing to assist others, Rowell said. I have learned so much about hospitality. The Nepali people have been such a blessing in my life.

Much of the movie depicts the landscapes of the country, which Rowell describes as simply magnificent  the mountains, the valleys, the terrace farming and streams. It is truly God's creation.

Nepal is one of the prettiest countries in the world, said Kiran Basnet of Silvis, who hails from the eastern part of the country. He came to the United States in 2000 and operates the S & K Mini Mart on Kennedy Drive in East Moline.

Tourism, he said, is important to Nepals economy. If people go and see this movie, they may visit Nepal, he said.

Everywhere you go in Nepal, you see nothing but beauty, said Pandit. The movie shows what Nepal is all about. It helps peoples perception of the country.

Rowell first became interested in Nepal when a friend  a Bhutan refugee who had lived 20 years in Nepal  suggested that Rowell visit the country. While working with refugees from around the world, I quickly realized an opportunity I had by going to their countries to see first-hand what life may have been like prior to being forced out, she said. The beauty and love the people of Nepal have shown me over the past five years provides me such hope for this challenging world we are living in.
The Rock Island Arsenal Museum has been a jewel of Arsenal Island and an asset to the Quad-Cities for more than 100 years. In fact, I consider it one of the Eight Wonders of the Arsenal. The others include the Government Bridge, Lock and Dam 15, the Clock Tower, the Hydro Dam, our National Cemetery and Confederate Cemetery, Quarters No. 1, and the Davenport House/Fort Armstrong Blockhouse. The museum has evolved over time and is currently undergoing another period of significant change. Despite what you may have heard, though, these changes will not lead to the closure of the museum. It should continue to serve as a source of information about the history of the Arsenal, a research asset for professional historians and a welcome destination for visitors to our community.

The changes to the museum and plans for its future will be discussed at a town hall meeting which I will host at Rock Island Arsenal on at 5:30 p.m. on April 27 in the Museums theater. I am holding this town hall meeting to share information, answer questions from concerned members of the community and to correct misconceptions some may have about what is happening to the museum.

One thing that is happening is a reduction in the number of artifacts held in the Museums collection. Like all museums, the Rock Island Arsenal Museum has many more artifacts than it is able to display. All of these artifacts, whether on display or not, are the property of the U.S. Army Center of Military History, which has authority over the disposition of the artifacts.

Earlier this year, the Center of Military History directed that approximately 3,200 of the more than 13,000 artifacts currently housed in the museum be transferred from the Rock Island Arsenal collection to the Field Museum Support Center at Anniston Army Depot in Alabama. This move, which is being funded by the Center of Military History, is just a small part of an Army-wide consolidation of historic artifacts involving about 650,000 separate items currently held at more than 220 sites.

The support center at Anniston, which opened in March, will be a hub for all of the Armys Museum collections which are not on display, and a place where these valuable artifacts can be professionally organized and preserved in a climate-controlled environment that meets and exceeds archival standards.

The Rock Island Arsenal Museum is dealing with another Army-wide challenge affecting its present and future  reduced budgets and staffing. Cuts in funding have forced us to reduce the Rock Island Arsenal Museum from four staff members down to only one. This caused a reduction in the hours that the museum is open to the public and led to delays in the response time to inquiries received by the Museum staff. Im looking for ways to find new funding sources for the museum, augment its staff, and expand hours of operation so that the museum can once again be open to the public on weekends.

As Ive learned, many Quad Cities residents are very concerned about the museum and feel that they have a personal stake in its future. Please be assured that I share your concerns and that I, and others on the Arsenal, are doing all we can to maintain the second oldest Museum in the Armys inventory as a community asset and destination for today and for future generations. I encourage anyone with an interest in the Rock Island Arsenal Museum and its future to attend the town hall meeting on April 27 and to share any ideas you may have on how we can assure that the museum will remain a jewel of the Arsenal and the Quad-Cities for the next 100 years.

To ensure interested parties have no issues accessing the installation to attend this meeting, participants should enter the post through the Moline Gate where the guards will have special instructions to assist you.
Joop Bollen does not want the felony charges against him to curtail his national and international travel schedule, according to a letter from his attorney.

Bollen's lawyer, Reed Rasmussen, has sent a letter to the circuit court in Brown County seeking permission for Bollen to travel from April 10-14 to Las Vegas, and from July 21-26 to Costa Rica. The letter says the state Attorney General's Office has been consulted and does not object.

Bollen, who is free on a $2,500 bond, is charged with five counts of unauthorized disposal of personal property subject to a security interest.

The state charges that in 2012, he illegally transferred and made personal use of $1.2 million from an account that was intended to protect the state against financial obligations arising out of a contract with his company. He apparently put all but about $167,000 back into the account, and that amount remains unaccounted for, according to the investigator's affidavit filed in the case.
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.
Nepali Times - April 10th, 2016

PM gave us a lecture: NHRC

Prime Minister KP Oli summoned NHRC head Anup Raj Kafle and member Mohna Ansari to discuss three issues including the Geneva speech. All pics: Seulki Lee

Prime Minister KP Olias spat last week with senior functionaries of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has sent alarm bells ringing about the interference by the executive into an independent body responsible for upholding post-conflict transitional justice.

aIt was embarrassing. He delivered a lecture for more than one hour on human rights,a said Mohna Ansari, the NHRC member whose recent presentation in Geneva critical of provisions in the constitution seems to have irked Oli.

The Prime Minister summoned Ansari and NHRC head Anup Raj Sharma to discuss three issues: the human rights situation in Nepal, reconstruction after earthquake including the NHRC building, and the Geneva speech. Sharma, Ansari and three members and a secretary attended the meeting with the Prime Minister and eight members of his office on 3 April.

aPrime Minister tore apart the NHRCas statement in Geneva line by line,a Ansari told Nepali Times.

The one-page statement presented by Ansari at the 31st session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva summarised the commissionas concerns on basic human rights situation after the earthquake, womenas rights to transfer their nationality to their children, excessive use of force in Tarai, and the current state of impunity in Nepal.

aHis first remark was aLook, this is an NGO statement, not a NHRC statementa and his last was aDonat issue the statement, just call usa. We couldnat believe anybody would comment on the NHRC like that,a said Ansari.

The NHRC is an independent state body to monitor and safeguard the human rights of the citizens according to Nepal governmentas commitment to the various international treaties on human rights. The commission is responsible to undertake field research of human rights and evaluate the existing human rights situation of the country.

Interview with National Human Rights Commission member Mohna Ansari - Member of NHRC

Mohna Ansari, member, National Human Rights Commission.

Nepali Times: What happened at the meeting with the prime minister?

Mohna Ansari: It was embarrassing. On 3 April, he called us at 10, he came at 11.15 and it went on till 1.25pm. It was one-way with the prime minister giving us a lecture about human rights. This is like I know everything about human rights. I know he is an executive. We trust and believe and we know how to balance power-sharing so the east executive has the right to talk to us but not with this attitude.

What were his main points?

He said like aIam here to discuss three issues, situation of Human Rights, reconstruction after earthquake including NHRC building, and Geneva visit. And his first remark I remember was alook, this is an NGO statement, not a NHRC statement.a I couldnat believe anybody commenting on our NHRC like that. This is our jurisdiction. And whatever we speak we speak on the basis of our report.

Did it surprise you?

We were surprised because this is not personal but things turned on the personal level which I donat like. Iam speaking on behalf of the commission not on behalf of Mohna Ansari. And my chairperson also said aLook prime minister I have different opinion with you. I came from the judiciary, Iam the ex-chief justice and this is not the way to talka. He said that directly to the prime minister.

What else was the prime minister angry about?

The Prime Minister was angry with line by line (of the NHRC statement in Geneva). He asked questions about every line in the statement. He was angry particularly with two issues: how could the NHRC say that about fundamental rights and the mention on womenas rights, and why I shifted the issue to the citizenship. However, if you see the constitution clause of article 47 on the fundamental rights, it says Dalit have rights to participation in every state mechanism after the law is passed in three years. What it means is the fundamental rights are controlled by the law.

How did you react?

This is the first time that the PM has summoned the NHRC. If he called me alone the situation could have been much worse. After the meeting he even told us adonat go to the mediaa. He could have sent a letter to us, he could have said aI want to discussa. But we stand on the principles of human rights and NHRC is an autonomous and independent body. Iam worried about transitional justice and accountability. You know the transitional justice is a political bargaining agenda. Thatas why people had to wait for nine years to have the two commissions. The NHRC is looked upon as an enemy, they have to understand that we are partners, we want justice in society, we want the rule of law no one is above that.

Could you have worded the Geneva statement differently?

Actually there is nothing wrong in our Geneva statement, we have done our job. In his last question was about recommendations or proper investigation and prosecution to excessive use of force in Tarai, I said aread the statement carefully it says 55 people, including security personnel were killed during the political protest in Tarai due to the dissatisfaction with new Constitutiona. We did mention the killing of police. His concluding remarks not to go to the media and saying that we needed a line-by-line approval was unacceptable.
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Here are the Halloween and fall events happening in Salina

As people in Salina get ready for fall, there are several events happening on Halloween and the days before it.
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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 Death penalty abolition, broadened gun rights, heroin surge, police (mis)conduct, reduced sentences ... so many suspects in Chicago murder spike and NYC murder decline | Main | "Dont Just Get Kids Off the Sex Offender Registry. Abolish It" 

April 10, 2016

The many challenges of a fully nuanced understanding of the Clintons, crime, punishment and the 1994 Crime Bill

The notable interchange a few days ago between former Prez Bill Clinton and protestors (noted here) has brought renewed attention to the contributions of the 1994 "Clinton" Crime Bill to mass incarceration and the massive reduction in modern crime rates. Like every other important criminal justice story, there is considerable nuance to fully understanding (1) just what the 1994 Crime Bill did (and did not do), and (2) just what this single piece of federal legislation has produced with respect to crime and punishment two decades later. Also full of considerable nuance is the role and record of Prez Bill Clinton (and now Prez candidate Hillary Clinton) on criminal justice reforms past and present.

All the political, policy and practical dynamics of the Clintons' record and the 1994 Crime Bill justifies considerable scholarly commentary, and lots of important nuances cannot be fully captured by soundbites or brief blog postings. Nevertheless, I thought it might be useful here, in service to encouraging a richer understanding of all these matters, to collect below a number of notable commentaries I have seen that help highlight why any simple account of the Clintons, crime, punishment and the 1994 Crime Bill is likely to be simply wrong:

UPDATE: Here is another recent addition to this list via the New York Times: "Prison Rate Was Rising Years Before 1994 Law"

April 10, 2016 at 03:54 PM | Permalink

Comments

What I think that much of the debate over the 1994 bill misses is the cultural climate (as opposed to the political climate) that existed at the time. I don't doubt that the bill was well-intentioned and I don't doubt that the politicians were responding to real fears on the part of the public which was based on real on the ground events. What they failed to take into account was the existing ethos of police and prosecutors. These men (and a few women) did not care about the political side--what they saw was huge amounts of money following into their coffers and they saw it as a type of self-vindication for the way they had always done business: shoot first, shoot from the hip, never give the public an even break. So while there may have been legitimate moral motivations and reasonable public policy, Congress trusted too much in the men in blue and the judicial system as a whole to "do the right thing". Instead, police and prosecutors did what was in the best interest of police and prosecutors.

So there really isn't anything new to the 1994 crime bill. It is the way the politics in the this country usually works: the public complains, the politicians throw money at the problem, and then everyone prays. When the prayers' aren't answered, everyone looks for someone else to blame.

Posted by: Daniel | Apr 10, 2016 9:40:27 PM

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Sal Shafi, the father of 22-year-old Adam Shafi who was detained by federal authorities last year for attempting to fly to Turkey out of SFO with the alleged intention of joining a terrorist group, admits that he was the person who first alerted the government to his son's growing radicalization. He tells the New York Times that he is not religious himself, and that he always trusted the government, which is why he sought their help after he realized that his son had begun following radical imams online, and was attempting to travel to Turkey  a common gateway into Syria for those looking to join the Islamic State  for the second time.

We first learned about Adam Shafi's arrest, which happened on July 3, 2015, in December, when the FBI revealed charges against Shafi that included attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Shafi had been questioned four days earlier, on June 30, at SFO when he made it all the way to a boarding gate to get on a flight to Istanbul. The FBI had already been surveiling Shafi's cell phone for a year at that point after his father had put him on their radar, and they say he intended to join the terrorist group al-Nusra Front  an enemy of both ISIS and the Syrian government that is affiliated with Al Qaeda.

According to a grand jury indictment, Shafi talked about killing American soldiers, and said in one phone conversation, "I just hope Allah doesnt take my soul until I have at least, like, a couple gallons of blood that Ive spilled for him."

Shafi's father did not know about these conversations, and had told the government that he did not believe his son was violent.

It all started on a family trip to Cairo, as the elder Shafi, who is a Silicon Valley executive, tells the Times. Frantic to find Adam when he abandoned the family and disappeared for several days, secretly traveling to Turkey for unknown reasons, Sal Shafi reached out to the US Embassy in Cairo. There, he told officials that Adam had been grieving about what is happening to Muslims abroad, and said, Maybe he's been recruited. Maybe he is in Syria? Iraq? Gaza?

This was in the summer of 2014, and Adam, then 21, ultimately returned to his family and flew with them back to their home in Fremont. He said he had gone to Turkey to "witness the plight of refugees there."

The elder Shafi's attorney told him not to say anything else to the feds if they asked, but a few weeks later he received a visit from FBI agents and invited them in. Mr. Shafi admitted that he had fears about his son's depression, and allowed them to interview Adam at a coffeeshop. But by the time Adam got to SFO in June 2015, agents were already tracking his whereabouts. And while his father had hoped that the FBI would be sympathetic and perhaps be able to put Adam in some sort of radicalization deprogramming, such programs don't actually exist, and Adam now faces a possible 20 years in prison.

The family's attorney insists "There is no evidence that [Adam] was planning to do anything but fly to Istanbul, which is where he had been the year before for two days where he attempted to help the refugees and returned home. There is no statement by him that he was intending to go to Syria or join any designated terrorist group."

It appears the feds have been sympathetic to cases like Adam's in some cities  the Times notes that the government "has quietly and slowly embraced the notion of interventions" and that agents will "work with parents, mental health experts, community leaders and sometimes religious figures to help minors or mentally ill people who agents believe have the intent, but not the capability, to hurt people." But in Adam's case, there doesn't appear to be any sympathy, which is perhaps why Sal Shafi decided to talk to the New York Times.

He now says, warning any other parents of children they suspect of being sympathetic to radicals, "Dont even think about going to the government."

Previously: Feds Accuse Fremont Man Of Attempting To Join Syrian Terrorist Group
SIOUX CITY | According to national surveys, more college students are accessing on-campus mental health counseling services than in years past.

School counselors say the trend holds true at Briar Cliff University and Morningside College.

"They're more aware of it, so they're more willing to reach out and get help," said Jeanette Tobin, director of counseling services at Briar Cliff University. "The need has always been there, but maybe we're reducing the stigma a little bit and they're coming in."

According to the 2014 National Survey of College Counseling Centers, 86 percent of college counseling center directors reported a steady increase in the number of students arriving on campus already on psychiatric medication, and 94 percent reported an increase in students with severe psychological problems on their campuses.

College Students Speak: A Survey Report on Mental Health, a 2012 National Alliance on Mental Illness survey of 765 college students diagnosed with a mental health condition, found that 73 percent of respondents said they had experienced a mental health crisis while in college. Of those surveyed, 50 percent said they disclosed their condition to their college; and 55 percent said they accessed on-campus mental health services and supports.

Bobbi Meister, a full-time personal counselor at Morningside College, said today's college students seem to be feeling greater pressure to be successful and it's stressing them out. At the same time, she said they seem more comfortable accessing counseling services than college students in previous decades.

"I think there is a lot more anxiety and depressive-type symptoms going on in students. It just seems like they have a lot more that they carry on their shoulders," she said.

Tobin said the beginning of the academic year can be a very difficult time for students, especially freshmen. The weeks leading up to finals and graduation are also times when students readily seek out counseling services, she said.

Briar Cliff provides individual counseling sessions, and Tobin said she hopes to offer group counseling in the future. She said depression, anxiety, relationship troubles and academic stress bring students to her office for cognitive behavioral therapy.

"It's utilizing their skills and coming up with new coping skills," she said. "For finals time we bring in de-stressing activities -- yoga, synergy, some meditation."

Meister said getting involved in on-campus activities, building friendships and staying connected with family members are good ways to cure homesickness.

"It's OK to call (home) more frequently than you think is OK," she said. "Having some reminders of home like pictures or a stuffed animal makes it feel like home in their dorm room."

Not getting enough sleep, not eating well or spending too much time in front of screens can trigger problems, she said.

"I also encourage students to talk to their professors if they're struggling in any classes because they can get that one-on-one attention," Meister said. "A lot of times that does help when the professors understand what's going on with them because then they can come up with a plan of action for each individual course."

Tobin said Briar Cliff is partnering with local organizations such as Siouxland Mental Health Center and Catholic Charities to host seminars and in-class presentations to make students more aware of mental health conditions and the resources that are available to them.

"There's a lot of pressure on (students) to be successful," she said. "I definitely encourage them to reach out. More people are feeling the same things, and they can really connect with other people."
SIOUX CITY | The 2016 Siouxland Community Health Center's "Night on the Town" fundraiser on Saturday will honor two women who played a key role in the creation of the Health Center 25 years ago.

Those honorees are Amy Slevin, director of clinical development at Mercy Medical Center, and Bonnie Wiltse, retired vice president of patient services at UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's. They will be given the George Boykin Good Citizen award.

Slevin wrote the original grant to the U.S. Public Health Service that was approved and funded in October 1990. Afterward, Wiltse provided the board oversight that created the governance and clinical infrastructure allowing the Health Center to open its doors in 1991.

Slevin is now in her 19th year of service at Mercy. During her career, she has authored countless grants that have addressed key health care issues. Wiltse was a founding board member and board president of the SCHC. She worked for 37 years at St. Luke's, having retired in 1999 as vice president of patient services.

The sold-out dinner and auction will be at the Sioux City Country Club. There will be a reception at 6 p.m., followed by the dinner and program at 6:30 p.m. The fundraiser is presented by Mercy, UnityPoint and Jebro.
ASHDOD, Israel | Gilbert Chikli was rolling in money, stolen from some of the world's biggest corporations. His targets: Accenture. Disney. American Express. In less than two years, he made off with at least 6.1 million euros from France alone.

But he had a problem. He couldn't spend the money. A tangle of banking rules designed to stop con men like him stood between Chikli and his cash. He needed to find a weak link in the global financial system, a place to make his stolen money appear legitimate.

He found it in China.

"China has become a universal, international gateway for all manner of scams," he said in an interview with The Associated Press. "Because China today is a world power, because it doesn't care about neighboring countries, and because, overall, China is flipping off other countries in a big way."

A visionary con man, Chikli realized early on  around 2000, the year before China joined the World Trade Organization  the potential that lay in the shadows of China's rise, its entrenched corruption and informal banking channels that date back over 1,000 years. The French-Israeli man told the AP he laundered 90 percent of his money through China and Hong Kong, slipping it into the region's great tides of legitimate trade and finance.

Today, he is in good company.

Criminals around the world have discovered that a good way to liberate their dirty money is to send it to China, which is emerging as an international hub for money laundering, an AP investigation has found. Gangs from Israel and Spain, North African cannabis dealers and cartels from Mexico and Colombia are among those using China as a haven where they can safely hide money, clean it, and pump it back into the global financial system, according to police officials, European and U.S. court records and intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.

China's central bank and police refused repeated requests for comment.

In a regular briefing with reporters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said the government "places great emphasis" on fighting crimes such as money laundering and is working to expand international cooperation. "China is not, has not been, nor will be in the future a center of global money laundering," he said.

Chikli is widely credited in France with inventing a con that has inspired a generation of copycats. Chikli's scam, called the fake president or fake CEO scam, has cost companies around the world $1.8 billion in just over two years, according to the FBI. And the damages are rising fast.

Security cameras poke over the high wooden fence that encircles Chikli's property, a sleek, three-story home in Ashdod, a port city on the Mediterranean. Beyond that, a swing set, pink-and-purple tricycle and orange ball jumble his lawn. And then there is Chikli himself, tan and smiling at his massive front door. He was sentenced in absentia to seven years in prison by a French court last year and remains a wanted man, but here in Israel, he lives openly and talked about his criminal exploits with pride during four hours of interviews with the AP.

"It's the power of persuasion," he said. "It's not easy to turn the head of a bank president."

Dirty money has long washed through China, but has been viewed primarily as a domestic problem. Now, mounting evidence shows that non-Chinese criminals are learning to tap entrenched, sophisticated Chinese systems to move money illegally  largely beyond the reach of Western law enforcement.

China's underground financial systems are of rising concern to top policymakers there, who are struggling to stem massive capital flight as the economy slows. Despite strict currency controls, a record net $711 billion gushed out of China last year, not counting foreign direct investment, according to estimates by Fitch Ratings.

A lot of that money leaks out illegally. Corporations undervalue exports or overvalue imports to move capital abroad, for example. Money changers and underground banks routinely help mainland Chinese slip cash out of the country in excess of the official $50,000-a-year limit. Global Financial Integrity, a Washington-D.C. non-profit, ranks China as the world's largest exporter of illicit money.

"Wherever I go in the world, there is a growing Chinese presence," said John Cassara, a former financial intelligence agent at the U.S. Treasury Department. "It's only natural that the Chinese are going to bring their financial systems with them  their above-board financial systems and their underground systems."

"It's completely off the radar screen," Cassara said. "No one knows about it."

But Chikli knew.

"Gilbert Chikli knows that China is a springboard to be able to bounce money off of," said the con man, who often spoke of himself in the third person. "It's not a secret. The whole world knows that China is a hub for sending and receiving money."

THE 'FAKE CEO SCAM'

The first con, the one that made Chikli realize he had "the gift," began in Paris on the afternoon of July 25, 2005, with a phone call.

When Madame G., who ran a branch of La Banque Postale, picked up the phone, a man with a sure, powerful voice said he was the bank's CEO and needed her help on a top-secret terrorism investigation, French court documents show. He dropped details about past meetings that left Madame G., whose name cannot be published due to French privacy laws, convinced of his identity. The man told her a secret agent named Paul would be in touch.

Following instructions, Madame G. bought a burner phone to communicate with Paul. Over the next three days, he hammered her with 43 calls.

Some of the bank's clients, Paul explained, were suspected of running money for terrorists. Less than three weeks earlier, four suicide bombers linked to al-Qaida blew themselves up in central London, killing 52 people and injuring 700 more. Photographs of bloody, burned commuters staggering from the London Underground were everywhere.

Paul told Madame G. he needed the names of the bank's biggest clients. He wanted her to bring him cash. He would scan the bills to see if they were stolen, then they'd meet at a bistro on Rue de la Paix and he'd return the money. She was a key player in a major anti-terrorism operation.

He was counting on her.

On July 28, Madame G. stuffed 358,000 euros ($398,000) in a bag and took a taxi to a cafe in eastern Paris. She walked into a stall in the restroom. She heard a woman say the secret password. Madame G. passed the cash-filled bag under the stall. Mission accomplished.

Then she went to the bistro on Rue de la Paix and waited on the terrace. But where was Paul?

After she went to the police, investigators eventually traced the calls to Chikli. Paul was, in Chikli's telling, just one of his many stage names. The woman who took the cash in the bathroom was Chikli's mistress. Chikli's brother, Simon, drove the getaway car, according to French court documents.

Back then, it was a game to Chikli. But if he wanted to get more money than would fit in a sack, he had to take his criminal ambitions global.

Banks are supposed to know their customers  not just their identities, but also where their money comes from. To scale up his fraud, Chikli needed a way around international anti-money laundering norms.

He had a number of options for cleaning his cash. Chikli called HSBC and tricked an employee into sending money to one of his Hong Kong front companies, which bounced it to a guy in Fujian province, who told investigators that he often used his bank account to launder money for Israelis, in exchange for a 5 percent commission. Police traced tens of thousands in transfers from Chikli front companies to Bank of China accounts.

The Bank of China refused to comment.

But Chikli's preferred method, which he described for the first time in detail to the AP, was to use import-export schemes.

Such trade-based money laundering is a growing concern for U.S. authorities. Mexican and Colombian drug cartels laundered more than $5 billion in drug proceeds in part by exporting counterfeit goods from China, according to a U.S. Justice Department indictment against three Colombians based in Guangzhou.

Chikli ordered companies to send money to bank accounts around the world  often, he said, in Eastern Europe. Then, he'd bounce the funds to Hong Kong and China and arrange for them to be withdrawn in cash. The money was used to purchase merchandise  shoes, gold, steel, textiles  in China. For a commission, the Chinese vendor then issued highly inflated receipts to Chikli's shell companies, creating a "legal" paper trail. Typically, Chikli said, he'd actually buy some goods, while forwarding most of his cash to another account he controlled. He might purchase, say, 20 tons of steel, but bribe the vendor to give him a receipt for 100 tons.

Chikli sold the goods and then sent the money to Israel, where false invoices made the entire sum look like legitimate trading profits, he said.

"Everything is clean," he said. "Give me the documents and everything is fine."

THE WASHING MACHINE

Chikli used to run a clothing company in Sentier, a late 18th-century Paris neighborhood built atop a medieval slum. Sentier was once a neighborhood for strivers  first Jews from Eastern Europe and North Africa, then Chinese who moved into the wholesale textile trade. Chikli forged the idea for his scam on these streets.

The tools of his trade are simple: telephones. Chikli called the company that runs Disneyland Paris, pretending to be the CEO. He called French technology conglomerate Thomson SA and persuaded an employee to transfer millions to accounts in Russia, Switzerland and England. He called Barclays, Galeries Lafayette, American Express.

Eventually, French authorities caught up with him and put him on trial for dozens of attempted frauds, many thwarted only at the last moment. In 2009, Chikli posted 30,000 euros ($33,500) bail. His passport was confiscated and he was ordered to remain in France to stand trial. Instead, he chartered a private plane, he claims, and fled to Israel.

A French court found him guilty last May of defrauding La Banque Postale, LCL bank and HSBC, along with Thomson and Accenture, out of 6.1 million euros, and attempting to extract over 70 million euros from at least 33 others. But by then, he was living by the sea in Ashdod.

It was, perhaps, his most masterful con of all.

Israeli authorities would not say whether France had made a formal request for Chikli's extradition. French judicial officials have not responded to repeated requests for clarification on the status of any extradition request related to Chikli. Israel and France share no bilateral extradition treaty, but Israel has surrendered French citizens in some cases.

Israeli authorities also declined to explain why Chikli is able to live freely in Israel. A spokesman for the state attorney's office, Noam Sharvit, would only say that Israeli law enforcement is "doing all they can to fight and contain these criminal phenomena."

Law enforcement has not globalized as fast as crime, and the legal firewall that surrounds China has added to its appeal as a money-laundering hub.

Chinese authorities generally have done little to help Western companies defrauded in Chikli-style scams recover their money, according to European intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.

The U.S. State Department, in a report this month, reproached China for lackluster performance on money-laundering investigations.

Jay Bienkowski, an FBI supervisory special agent in Washington who has retired since speaking to the AP, said extradition is crucial for apprehending criminals across borders. But China and the U.S. do not have an extradition treaty.

Europol, the European Union law enforcement agency, has no cooperation agreement with China.

"For us it's a blind spot," said Igor Angelini, Europol's head of financial intelligence.

'MAYBE IT WAS GOD'

Chikli insists he no longer runs fake CEO scams. But a new generation of fraudsters is copying his technique. Using information gleaned from social media and hacking, they impersonate top executives and convince employees to route money to accounts they control, ostensibly to do business deals or pay suppliers.

The FBI said it received 13,500 complaints from fake CEO scam victims around the world  a rise of 270 percent last year.

The frauds hinge on delicate detail: A faked email ending in .co instead of .com. A name off by a single letter. The pressure is always relentless. A critical deal must be executed immediately, in total secrecy. A new supplier urgently needs payment.

The FBI traced fake CEO scam transfers to more than 70 different countries. "At the very top of that list is Hong Kong and China," Bienkowski said.

Some of the networks now running fake CEO scams are collaborating with Chinese migrants in Europe to launder their money, according to European intelligence documents reviewed by the AP.

"Non-Chinese criminal groups committing CEO frauds are sending money to China because Chinese criminal groups in Europe are giving them cash," Angelini told the AP. "The scale of this phenomenon is quite substantial."

Police believe Chinese migrants and Israeli con men first learned to work together in Chikli's old neighborhood, Sentier, forging a system for laundering money so elegant that today some migrants consider it "the fastest and most secure and most reliable method for Chinese merchants to transfer their funds to China," according to European intelligence documents.

The methods they've devised are a variation of the ancient Chinese system of fei qian (FAY ch'ien), or "flying money."

Chinese immigrants first give their cash to a trusted member of the local Chinese community in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium or Germany and indicate where their money should be remitted. That Chinese intermediary  the bagman  provides the Israeli contacts with the relevant bank account information. The Israelis then direct their stolen money to those accounts in China. Once the Chinese confirm the money has landed in the correct account, the bagman hands over their cash, in euros, to the Israelis.

The Israelis get euros in Europe, the Chinese get yuan in China. "It works like an offsetting operation between (the) Chinese community and crooks in Israel," according to the intelligence documents, which note that the Israelis usually charge a 2.5 percent fee.

France's financial crimes squad in June busted a similar money transfer network in a Chinese wholesale district in Aubervilliers, in the suburbs of Paris, where Chinese merchants are accused of laundering money for North African drug dealers.

While Chikli's copycats may have tapped into flying money networks, Chikli said he never used them himself. He claimed that many of the people running scams today are French Jews who have fled anti-Semitism in France and use the con to rebuild their lives in Israel.

"If it can help these families who have lost everything in France," he said, "then all the better. "Maybe it was God that gave me this idea."

'THANK YOU FOR CALLING'

At 50, Chikli's even, chiseled face is beginning to show signs of age. He insists his intention was never to harm people, but to take revenge on a financial system that lets the rich steal with impunity. He saw who wielded real power in the world: Corporations and the people that run them. And if the son of a poor Tunisian car mechanic could not be a CEO, he could at least pretend to be one.

"I understood that the bankers were never convicted," he said. "If the bankers were never convicted, then I needed to indirectly become an official banker."

As a scrappy 8-year-old, Chikli stole notebooks from school and resold them to his classmates. He later got into credit card fraud. "We would go shopping," he said. "It was pretty nice because we felt like we were the owners of something, which we were not."

He studied acting. Worked in advertising and real estate. But his true vocation was persuasion.

"The brain is the world's most dangerous weapon," Chikli said. "I learned not to control but to try to make someone believe that I was right. And from that moment, all the doors opened."

Chikli calls this "the gift." With it, extracting millions from some of the world's best educated and most privileged can be a matter of a single phone call. "It can last two hours. It can last four hours. It can last five minutes," he said. "It's cinema."

Chikli maintains that his real accomplices were the employees who took his calls and complied with his demands. He threatened them. He bullied them. He seduced them.

He said he made amends to about 30 people who executed his orders  some of whom lost their jobs  by sending credit cards linked to offshore bank accounts with about 50,000 euros ($55,800) each.

"Everyone took  everyone. There was not one who refused," he claimed. He said he gave one bank manager 18 roses. "She was pulverized," he said. "If I remember correctly, we sent her 180,000 euros. That's how we wanted to apologize."

Chikli would provide no evidence to support his claims.

Today, Chikli has himself amassed many trappings of a banker's life: White baby grand piano. Glass elevator. Fendi bedboard. A glam wife 19 years his junior tattooed with "Gilbert" in curling letters next to a heart on her slim wrist.

"I have six children," he said. "I take my kids to school. I am home at 8 p.m. every night. Sincerely, I am the most simple man in the world."

This fugitive from French justice is the hero of a new film starring Julie Gayet, the companion of French President Francois Hollande. Producer Isaac Sharry met Chikli while he was awaiting trial in a French jail and paid him for the rights to his story.

The heist-thriller based on Chikli's life, "Je Compte sur Vous," is also being marketed in English.

The title: "Thank You for Calling."
SIOUX CITY | UnityPoint Health -- St. Luke's staff members have honored Sally Smith, Siouxland PACE program manager, as St. Lukes Employee of the Month for April.

Eight years ago, Smith worked hard to bring Iowas first PACE program to Sioux City. Siouxland PACE, a program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, initially started with just five participants. Now, with 152 participants, they have moved to a new, much larger facility at 1200 Tri View Ave.

Sally is such a delight to work with, says Chad Markham, senior vice president of network development at St. Lukes. She is passionate about doing the right thing all of the time for her staff, the PACE program, and PACE participants.
Usefulness Content Freshness "Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity" is a straightforward book for leaders who are tired or scared of the same old "diversity workshop". This book challenges leaders to proactively work with the diversity inside and outside their organization for greater long-term success and profits in an increasingly diverse world.

If you buy something through our links, we may earn money from our affiliate partners. Learn more.

As author Dr. David Livermore observes in his book Driven by Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity, mention the word diversity to a group of leaders and youll get those who are afraid, tired or confused (even if they agree with the principles). Diversity, as a focus for business management, is here to stay.

The problem is that most leaders dont know what to do with it.

What Driven by Difference is About

Driven By Difference: How Great Companies Fuel Innovation Through Diversity introduces a new take on the topic. Livermores book suggests that instead of just embracing diversity, business owners can use it for a competitive and innovative advantage. The book delves into a specific model, the 5-D process, which takes into consideration a more comprehensive look at diversity and strategy for action.

The process goes far beyond the typical diversity for diversitys sake agenda pushed by many presentations on this subject. Livermore also delves deeper than the typical diversity workshop focus on skin color, gender or orientation. This traditional approach to diversity brings awareness, but it doesnt build an advantage for an organization unless your company knows how to use it.

Businesses who not only recognize, but successfully integrate diversity into their business processes will thrive in the more diverse world to come. As shared in Livermores book, this kind of integration is nuanced. As a business, you have to know when and how to adapt to the culture around you. For example, should your business adapt to the culture around you (like Starbucks tried to do in China with a focus on tea) or focus on remaining more uniform (like McDonalds using the same process to make fries everywhere)? These are the questions that fuel the processes your business should be developing and the decisions your company should be making in order to utilize diversity to its fullest benefit.

Livermore (@davidlivermore) is an author, consultant, speaker and researcher on cultural intelligence in addition to serving as president of the Cultural Intelligence Center.

What Was Best About Driven by Difference

The best part of Driven by Difference is the confident and comprehensive, yet nuanced, tone the author takes on diversity. Dr. Livermores extremely helpful insights shift the diversity conversation from lets talk about our differences to action, something that many business leaders scrambling to understand diversity should appreciate.

What Could Have Been Done Differently

With any kind of book on diversity, you have to be careful about cultural stereotyping, or assuming that you know a person based on preconceived notions. For the most part, Dr. Livermore stays clear of that, but its a warning that bears mentioning again.

The only other issue might be an extension of the Cultural Assessment following each chapter. The book goes through a lot of information in the chapter, but only has a slim set of options to check out in assessment.

Why Read Driven by Difference

Driven by Difference will best serve business leaders of any sized business who want a more comprehensive approach to understanding and working with diversity. The book is designed to open a readers eyes to the way we currently understand diversity and how we can proactively manage that knowledge for a more profitable future.

Get discounts and special offers on new and classic business books with an Audible Premium Plus membership. Learn more and sign up for an account today.
From accountant to CMO, small business owners are used to wearing a number of different hats and juggling myriad tasks. Its easy to become so immersed in the minutia of business that you forget about your surrounding community. Dont let this happen to you! It takes a village to run a successful business, and it takes passion for community to make a business successful.

Thats the lesson Tanya Klien, the VP of Anta Plumbing Inc. in Toronto, learned from more than 24 years running her own business. Recently, I had the chance to sit down with Tanya and learn more about how her passion for making a difference in the Toronto community has proven to be her secret sauce for entrepreneurial success.

Essentials for Success: A Passion For Community

Plumbing is a unique business. To be successful, you not only need to be a skilled professional, but you also need to truly enjoy spending time with people. Plumbers are the doctors for the house, said Klien. Even if you have the technical skills to be good at the job, if you dont have the people skills or a deep respect for the community, youll never succeed long-term.

Over the years, Anta has earned a reputation in Toronto as the premiere provider of quality plumbing, thanks to skillful management of the companys community relationships and customer service.

How to Build a Strong Online Community

Offer Real-time Chat on Your Website

The addition of a LiveChat service can have a tremendous benefit for customers.Our customers can describe exactly what plumbing problem theyre experiencing to the chat representative, who can then coordinate with our team to send out the right plumber with the right repair parts to get the job done correctly the first time. Talking the problem through online eliminates guesswork said Klien.

Whether you use LiveChat or another real-time chat service, live chat can be the boost your business needs to convert more prospects into customers. Kissmetrics reports that Forrester Research found that nearly half of all online customers (44 percent) say that having questions answered by a live person is one of the most important features a website can offer. And nearly two out of three customers (63 percent) say theyre more likely to return to a website that offers live chat, according to an eMarketer.com survey.

Bonus: Live chat representatives can talk to multiple customers at once, increasing efficiency and lowering customer service costs.

Encourage Online Reviews

While you can certainly never force someone to leave a review about your business, you can encourage positive reviews from satisfied customers. We always engage with customer feedback, no matter what the customer says. All feedback is ultimately positive because even if a customer has a complaint, by reading the review we can learn what went wrong, how to fix the problem for the customer right now, and then how to prevent this problem again in the future.

The biggest recognition doesnt come from industry peers, but from the community itself. A satisfied customer and a positive review mean more to me than any industry award ever could.

A double bonus: all those positive reviews also help with local search, too. When plumbing emergencies strike, people need immediate help and head straight to Google for a solution. Once youve nailed the basics of local search (NAP alignment across multiple listings), great reviews can give your business an extra bump.

Be Active in the Community

Customer care means going the extra mile for community members. Klien regularly leads the companys charitable efforts. These efforts include providing financial assistance for people in homes that have been destroyed by fire, as well as providing support for individuals who are sick with cancer. We do everything anonymously. The reward is in helping the community and strengthening our local ties with the people that make Toronto such a special place to live, said Klien.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important part of any contemporary business strategy, no matter the size of your business. Pick the right partner, identify opportunities for immediate community involvement, and structure for sustainability. Theres no need to rush your CSR. Start slowly and grow the program based on community feedback.

Conclusion

No man is an island, and neither is any business. In the rush to build your small business off the ground (or keep it going day-to-day), dont forget about your place within the community.
Wont you stay just a little bit longer?

Employee retention may not be what the 50s crooner Frankie Valli had in mind when he sang that iconic line from the song Stay, but it is a topic of concern for every employer who fears losing top-tier talent.

That is particularly the case for small businesses where the loss of a single employee may represent an entire job function or department. Add to that the strain involved in recruiting, hiring, and training a replacement  its a headache no employer wants.

Enter the Stay Interview

To prevent attrition among good employees, employers are now implementing a practice known as the stay interview, a one-on-one interview conducted by an employer or manager with a high-value employee who may be at risk of leaving.

The goal is to identify and reinforce positive factors that encourage an employee to stay and detect and minimize any triggers that may cause the employee to resign. Employers can also conduct stay interviews periodically throughout the year when there are no overt signs an employee has intentions to leave.

For companies, a stay interview is an opportunity to increase employee satisfaction and address any concerns they may have. A stay interview also gives employees a chance to share their concerns and goals, state what they like or dont like about their current role with the company and suggest ideas for improvement.

The Stay Interview is Not a New Concept

In an exclusive interview with Small Business Trends, Robin Schooling, a human resources executive and strategist, based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said that, although a stay interview is not a new concept, it hasnt been adopted on an organization-wide scale until recently.

Good managers have always conducted stay interviews even though they didnt call them that, Schooling said. They would have regular conversations with employees and ask the sorts of questions you would expect from a stay interview.

According to Schooling, organizations need to shift away from stay interviews as informal individual exercises to becoming a practice they undertake routinely and embed within their culture.

Its important enough to expect managers to conduct stay interviews with employees on a consistent basis, Schooling said.

How to Conduct a Stay Interview

A stay interview isnt required to be as formal or structured as annual employee reviews but can be as casual as a conversation over a cup of coffee.

Despite the lack of structure, stay interviews typically consist of four parts:

Introduction

Begin by praising the employees impact on the department or organization, then shift to an explanation that you, as the employer or manager, want to understand the factors that cause the employee to stay with the organization.

Say something like, Thank you for taking the time to have this discussion. As one of our key employees, I want to pose some simple questions that can help me understand the factors that cause you to enjoy and stay in your current role.

Ask Stay Questions

Ask a series of questions related to what the employee likes about his or her job and what motivates the employee to stay with the company. Also, ask for suggestions about ways the employee thinks the company can improve.

Ask Questions Regarding Frustrations or Concerns

Ask about any recent frustrations with the job the employee may have experienced or any related concerns. Further, ask what the employee thinks could be done to address those concerns.

Conclusion

End the meeting by thanking the employee for his or her honesty and with a plan to enhance the positives and address any concerns.

Questions to Ask During a Stay Interview

To gain the most benefit from a stay interview, Schooling recommends that employers include the following questions:

What keeps you here?

Even though that question sounds simplistic, according to Schooling it gets straight to the point regarding the employees motivations for staying with the company. It also provides insight into the factors related to the company culture that may be attractive, both for keeping good employees and drawing in new hires.

What do you like most about your job and work in our organization?

The question prompts the employee to outline the positive aspects of his or her job, which lead to staying with the company. It also sets a positive tone for the remainder of the interview.

What interests, skills or talents do you have that you would like to utilize that youre not?

Employers want to ensure that employees are sufficiently challenged and have the opportunity to grow professionally, which is what this question addresses.

What is it about working here that you wouldnt miss if you went elsewhere?

While you dont want the stay interview to go down the path of being negative, you do want to draw out any concerns the employee may have about the company or his or her job, Schooling said.

What motivates you to do your best work, and how can I support you in that?

This question gets the employee to reflect on and reveal what drives him or her to do good work. It also provides positive reinforcement and shows the employer or manager has an interest in helping the employee achieve that standard.

What suggestions do you have about how we can improve as an organization?

Asking the employee for suggestions gives her a sense of ownership in the company and reassurance that her opinions matter, which can strengthen the bond between the employee and her employer, Schooling said. Its also a good way to end the interview on a positive note.

Trust, a Factor in Stay Interview Success

Getting employees to open up during stay interviews and provide candid responses to questions comes down to a matter of trust, Schooling said.

Employers and managers who fail to build trust will struggle when conducting stay interviews, she said. Employees will also be reluctant to speak their mind. But employers can build trust by asking, listening, probing, taking notes and developing and following through on stay plans that meet the needs of each employee.

Schooling went on to suggest that stay interviews can, by themselves, be a good way to build trust and open the lines of communication between managers and employees.

A stay interview shows employees that you care about their well-being and can go a long way in developing a positive employee-manager relationship, Schooling said.
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
STEPANAKERT, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. Bodies of 18 Armenian soldiers were transferred to the Armenian side near Bash Karvend settlement in the sidelines of exchange of bodies faciliated by the ICRC, Spokesperson for the President of NKR, David Babayan told ''Armenpress''. ''Foreign Ministry of Artsakh Republic has already announced that exchange of bodies took place nearby Bash Karvend settlement. Bodies of 18 sericemen were transferred to us. The fate of one soldier remains uncertain'', Babayan said.

NKR MFA has issued a stetment that the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing persons of Nagorno Karabakh Republic carried out exchange of bodies of killed soldiers nearby Bash Karvend settlement in the sidelines of the agreement reached between Nagorno Karabakh Republic and Azerbaijan mediated by the ICRC and the office of the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office
Beuller?... Beuller?... Beuller?

 "Ferris Beuller's Day Off"

I'm a little bummed this week, because I had planned on taking Miss Maggie (the puppy) for a walk through Fillmore Glen. But once we looked outside it quickly turned into a better idea to grab a blanket, curl up on the couch and binge watch some Netflix.

Yes, it would have been nice to get outside, but it would also would have been nice to be born a millionaire. Point is, we made the best of a bad situation and ended up watching "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." For anyone who has never had the pleasure, this 1980's John Hughes classic is the story of a high school student who takes it upon himself to skip school with his best friend, Cameron, in order to have some shenanigans in Chicago, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has ever imagined blowing off their responsibilities for a day. And who among us hasn't had that daydream?

The odd thing, though, is that life seems to be imitating art lately, only it's not a random student trying his best to ditch class in an elaborate scheme but the parents who are suggesting the absence. Did you catch the full page ad this week addressing parents to opt out of having their kids take part in standardized tests? It's like my wish has been granted 30 years too late.

Essentially this is a social movement that feels students should be graded on year-long practice not just data points stemming from one day of testing. I'm sure it's more nuanced than that, and I probably should have done a bit more research into the matter, but let me ask you this: if you got to have a day to blow off work, without any consequences whatsoever, would you really waste time questioning the issue or instead ditch the power suit and briefcase for pajamas and a bowl of ice cream? If you said anything other than the latter, allow me to point out that your pants are now on fire.

Personally, I have to agree. Students should be preparing for lifelong learning, not just for a day of filling in circles. And I don't think teachers should be judged on those scores, either. I may be an angel now, but do you have any idea how much I put my teaches through? Fact is, standardized tests aren't something new. I had to bring a #2 pencil to class once, too. And what did I do? I filled in all the circles out of sheer boredom  and let me tell you that act of defiance led me to a fast trip on a very short bus.

Maybe I was just ahead of my time in opting out, or maybe the best way to tell if a student is learning is to find out how best they expand their minds instead of how well they can fit into a mold.
Robert Bob Riley, age 78, of Flagstaff, Arizona passed away on Wednesday, March 30, 2016. Bob was born in East Aurora, New York on May 6, 1937 to Carolyn and John Riley. After graduating from Amphitheater High School in Tucson, Arizona in 1956, Bob went on to serve in the United States Army, serving in Korea. After returning home in 1959 he began to work for Pima County. On February 13, 1971 Bob married Lorraine Kelly. In 1979 they relocated to Flagstaff, Arizona where Bob worked for Coconino County until his retirement in 2005. Bob enjoyed many hobbies, including amateur radio, building remote control cars, boats and airplanes, and also astronomy. Bob is survived by his wife, Lorraine; brother, Dennis, of Tucson, Arizona; daughter, Patti (Chris) and granddaughter, Lexi of Flagstaff.
Miami Beach had a 2016 pride season kick-off for the books with a weekend packed full of events, celebrities, camaraderie, and most important, community and equality.

The weekend officially began with a VIP reception held at the South Beach W Hotel on Friday evening. In attendance were big names from the celebrity world and locally.

World-famous drag queen, porn director and DJ Chi Chi LaRue, Parade Grand Marshal and Z100 nationally syndicated radio host Elvis Duran were both on hand.

Local LGBT community well-knowns also attended, including newly crowned Miss Miami Beach Gay Pride Kahla Mendoza, Miami drag queen Elaine Lancaster, Miami Beach Police Dept. LGBT liaison Juan Sanchez, state Rep. David Richardson and Lori Lynch of the LGBT Visitor Center on Miami Beach.

On Saturday, the pride festival on the beach opened to the public at Lummus Park, 11th to 14th Streets on Ocean Drive, with drag queen TP Lords MCing between music sets on the main stage.

The beach party featured exhibitors, community booths, food vendors and of course, alcoholic cash bars, in which 100 percent of proceeds go to support Miami Beach Gay Pride.

The mission of Miami Beach Gay Pride is "to bring together members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community, their friends, allies, and supporters in celebration of the unique spirit and culture of the LGBTQ community," according to the nonprofit's website.

Elvis Duran and his special guest Iggy Azalea hosted a VIP fundraiser to benefit Miami Beach Pride on Saturday evening at the W Hotel's Wall Lounge. Gay bar Score hosted the official pride dance party, which was late-night Saturday.

Sunday marked the biggest and what will likely be the most attended day of the weekend. The 4th Annual Interfaith Worship Gathering was held prior to the parade off 12th street on festival grounds, as was a private event hosted by Duran and TD Bank, in which both he and Iggy Azalea spoke to media.

"The world is watching Miami Beach Gay Pride, and I couldn't be more proud," Duran said before bringing out international pop star and rapper Azalea.

"I want to see music support the LGBT community, and I want to use my platform to do that," Azalea told reporters. She added how inspired, honored and proud that she is able to do so.

Miami Beach Commissioner Michael Grieco, who is heterosexual, was among a handful of equality-friendly and openly-gay politicians on-hand to also speak with media.

"This is the best place on Earth to be right now," Grieco said, noting that he had just returned from Disney World in Orlando and rushed to Miami Beach Gay Pride, which he said is his "favorite event" of the entire year.

The parade itself featured floats from area political and health LGBT organizations, South Florida gay night clubs and bars, LGBT-friendly for-profit businesses, as well as local police and fire departments.

People of all ethnicities, ages and sexual identities packed Ocean Drive to see the floats and get some free giveaways, which included pride trinkets, condoms, candy and more.

Mel Toledo, of Miami Beach, said this was her first time attending the parade.

"This is officially the first year that I get to be here as an adult, and as a bisexual, I feel welcomed," she said.

Soleil Santalla, of Miami, was also a first-timer. She called the event awesome, adding "Everyone's different but in the same way."

Justin Santoli, also of Miami, said the parade "brings the community together, and you can see the resources the community provides."

Sunday was the final day of pride weekend. Elaine Lancaster hosted the beach party, which featured a drag showcase with Miss Miami Beach Gay Pride. The music headliner for the main stage was Jordin Sparks.

Miami Beach Police Dept. spokesman Ernesto Rodriguez said that the crowd seemed larger than last year, but the final count will come from organizers next week. He added that no crowd disturbances or disorderly conduct had been reported.

In its 8th year, Miami Beach Gay Pride initially drew around 15,000 attendees. Last year, an estimated 130,000 attendees from all over the world came to the three-day weekend of events.

Miami Beach Gay Pride was established by former Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower as an initiative of the Miami Beach Gay Business Development Council.

Anthony Martinez Beven covers Miami-Dade County for SFGN. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
For example, two years ago the government in Stockholm accused Russia of sending its submarine to the Swedish waters to spy on them. Sweden mobilized all of its intelligence services trying to find the Russian submarine, but all of their attempts were in vain, as of course there were no submarine nor any traces of it being anywhere near Stockholm.

In another case, Wilhelm Unge, the chief-analyst at the Swedish Security Service (SAPO), said that one out of three Russians working at the Russian embassy in Sweden were spies gathering information while posing as diplomats and businessmen.

Meanwhile, these same people, who constantly scare the Swedish public with Russian spies and submarines, have an open-door intelligence sharing policy with Washington. It's worth noting that in the past the US government was caught spying on others, including its allies, and nothing was really done about it.

All the Americans need to do to find out about Swedish military secrets is to ask them and they'll be readily available, Gefle Dagblad reported.

The impudence with which Swedish citizens are told that the United States is their best ally and the guarantee of security against Russia is ludicrous, the author said, adding that Sweden must not join any military alliances outside of Scandinavia.

"A military alliance with the United States would be if not suicide then a serious risk of getting drawn into a war," Ljunbeck said, according to Gefle Dagblad.

If Sweden became a NATO member it would be forced to become involved in more wars and spend more money. The Swedish people should have a right to decide interdependently, without anti-Russian propaganda from mainstream media, who they trust more  the United States or Russia, Ljunbeck said.

Russia is Not Sweden's Enemy

Despite the attempts to vilify Russia and portray it as an aggressor, it was NATO, led by the US government and its allies, that created the ongoing problems with international terrorism and migrants in Europe, Ljunbeck said.

Many times the US government has violated international law and intervened into the domestic affairs of other countries, organizing coups and bloody revolutions across the world. The overthrow of Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya are just recent examples of the aggressive US foreign policy.
Talking about Saudi Arabias economy and whether it depends on anything else except for oil, Nazer said, Oil constitutes about 40% of the Saudi GDP but the petro-chemical sector which is somewhat oil related but is not technically considered part of the oil sector in Saudi Arabia is very promising. It wants foreign investors to come to Saudi Arabia and American companies in particular and other European companies as well.

The public sector needs to be reduced and private sector needs to play more of a role and all of that is very closely related to reducing the economys dependence on oil, Nazer said.

According to the analyst, the deputy crown prince spoke with refreshing candor about Saudi Arabias economy. The prince said that we are grateful that we have the oil and oil will continue to play an important role but it cannot be an engine of the Saudi economy for the foreseeable future.

Nazer said that he thinks the prince realizes that the current model needs to be changed to essentially address the economic and demographic realities of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi population has increased many folds from 1970 when it was 5 million to over 22 million right now. The demands for more jobs are constant. There are serious economic challenges that Saudi Arabia has to face, the analyst concluded.
"The United States' role has been instrumental to create and finance the trial," Amin explained. "They also provided it with everything necessary to operate. Even trial-related expenses have been adopted by the Iraqi Governing Council."

The trial was largely viewed as a show trial, with Amnesty International calling it "unfair" and Human Rights Watch referring to the proceedings as "flawed."

The security of defense lawyers was also a major issue.

Saddam Hussein's "chief lawyer was abducted and killed after the first hearing," Amin noted, referring to Khamis al-Obeidi, who was assassinated on June 21, 2006. "Saddam's other lawyers received threats or were killed. Nobody provided adequate security to defense lawyers. This raised questions as to how fair the court's decisions were."

Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging. The execution took place at Camp Justice, an Iraqi army base in northeast Baghdad on December 30, 2006, the first day of a major Muslim holiday, Eid al-Adha.
Shortly afterwards he left Russia. We hope he doesn't put himself in a similar situation again and that Washington will appreciate Damascus' gesture.

Thirty three year-old Kevin is a freelance photographer from California. He went missing in October 2012 in northern Syria.

The spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova told reporters that Obama appealed to Vladimir Putin with a personal request for assistance in search of the US citizens, who could possibly be in Syria.

As a result, it became clear that Dawes was kept under arrest for illegal entry into Syria and other offenses.

In response to Moscow's appeal to the Syrian authorities, Syria decided to show mercy and release the American on humanitarian grounds.

Zakharova also said that on April 1 Dawes was brought to Moscow by Russian military aircraft and was handed over to the representatives of the US embassy, after which he left Russia.
At a conference of the Syrian Kurds in the town of Rumaila (province Hasakah) on March 17, reportedly delegates made a decision of federalization. The federated district of Rojavi (West Kurdistan) and northern Syria, called to unite the scattered Kurdish communities.

On Tuesday, reports appeared citing the plans of the Kurds to declare a federation in Northern Syria which would remain a part of the country.

According to the Agence France-Presse news agency, three Kurdish-controlled regions voted to approve the establishment of a federal system, despite warnings from Syrian and Turkish authorities against such a move.
"Such a level of off-road performance was achieved thanks to the design of the track. It was based on the track of the BMP-2 infantry combat vehicles and modernized to deliver minimum pressure on the terrain," a representative of the Special Engineering Design Bureau told Zvezda TV channel.

Furthermore, the TM-140A is also amphibious. During tests, each vehicle is tested in the water.

The durability of the vehicle causes no doubt. According to Pavel Vesyoliy, director of Kurganmashzavod, the standard range of the vehicle before the first major repair is 24,000 km. In practice, the TM-140A can drive 70,000 km and even more, an outstanding result for a tracked vehicle.

Powered with a 250-hp engine, the vehicle can drive up to 800 km without refueling. It has a payload of up to four tons.
In addition, Breedlove has long urged to increase the US military presence in Europe to counter Russia. For its part, Moscow has repeatedly said that it is the bloc's increased war-games and anti-Russian rhetoric that could be detrimental to European security and stability.

Stars and Stripes newspaper described Breedlove as having "taken on a more prominent role than previous EUCOM/NATO commanders" when it came to commenting on Russia and the bloc's response to Moscow's policies.

"Along NATO's eastern flank, those pronouncements have been taken as a signal of solidarity and reassurance. Critics, however, say Breedlove's hard line on Russia has sometimes been too bellicose," the media outlet noted.

NATO's next supreme allied commander, US Army General Curtis Scaparrotti, is expected to succeed Breedlove this spring.

NATO-Russia relations deteriorated in 2014 over Crimea's reunification with Russia and Moscow's alleged role in the crisis in eastern Ukraine. Russia has always denied any involvement in the Ukrainian civil war and has made every effort to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means.
It all comes down to priorities and the message. The US, according to, the former advisor to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, has failed to properly address both of these issues. Washington has chosen an incorrect strategy that focuses on a limited military response to Daesh and has failed to craft a correct message explaining its campaign to the Iraqis.

The US has not focused on "creating political stability in the country or forging a new political path" following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, he explained. Washington has also failed to "come up with a proper alternative" to the Saddam regime after destroying it.

Instead, US leadership chose to engage with what Osman described as "the government of the day," often viewed by ordinary people as sectarian and not representative of all communities living in the country. In addition, the US-led anti-Daesh campaign has been conducted in a way that does not address core issues.
All of the above would bring the US and Russia into a "de-facto alliance," the article read.

That would have the effect of strengthening the positions of Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to analysts.

As Moscow and Washington step up their efforts to reach a final peace deal in Syria after a ceasefire they brokered in February, their interests are converging in the fighting against the notorious terrorist group, even amid American reluctance to legitimize Assad.

A successful military campaign in Syria would be crucial for Europe which has faced an unprecedented level of terrorist threat and is dealing with an enormous influx of refugees.

"Islamic State [Daesh] seized swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, which it has used as a base to expand across the region and plot terrorist bombings from Beirut to Paris and Brussels," the article read.

After last year the US  and then Russia  launched military operations against Daesh, the groups territory has shrunk by more than a quarter, according to the London-based research group IHS. Moreover, in late-2015 Russia and a US-led coalition carried out airstrikes on Daesh oil facilities, having significantly squeezed terrorists sources of revenue.
To press the EU to commit to the deal, the Turkish leader used threats promising to flood Europe with Middle Eastern refugees. That's not something Turkey would have done in the past, but Erdogan knows how to press all the right buttons to get what he wants, the newspaper said.

Ankara wants to be a force to be reckoned with in Eurasia, as the Ottoman Empire once was, especially in the Black and Caspian Sea regions, Limes reported.

The Turkish government fears that the reunification of Crimea with Russia changed the balance of power in the Black Sea, something that Ankara isn't comfortable with. To counter this shift, Erdogan chose to closer cooperation with Ukraine.

It was during his visit in Kiev that Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called Russia a "terrorist organization," according to the Italian newspaper.

The Caucasus are another region that Turkey sees as a place it needs to get closely involved by putting spokes in others' wheels.

"In Caucasus Turkey relies on Azerbaijan to counter Russia," Santoro wrote in Limes.
KIEV (Sputnik)  Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Sunday that he expected the European Commission to initiate legislation on granting Ukraine visa-free regime, despite the results of the Dutch referendum on the EU-Ukraine association agreement.

"The association agreement will not be changed, it is now already being used, starting with a free trade area. In the near future, in the next few days I'm waiting for the decision from the European Commission on the transfer of a legislative proposal to the European Parliament and the EU Council on the visa-free regime, and I hope that the Ukrainians will get it," Poroshenko said.

The EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, establishing a political and economic association between Kiev and Brussels, was signed in 2014. It commits Kiev to implementing vast reforms in order to meet the blocs high economic, political, social, legal and technical criteria. It also grants Ukraine expanded access to the EU single market.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik)  US Vice President Joe Biden held on Sunday a telephone conversation with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who announced his resignation earlier in the day, and thanked him for his activity during his term in office.

"The Vice President thanked Prime Minister Yatsenyuk for his partnership during a historic time for Ukraine. He congratulated the government of Ukraine on its accomplishments over the past two years, in particular on the strides it has made on difficult but necessary economic reforms, the signature of the European Union association agreement, and the work it has done to increase energy independence," the readout of US Vice President Bidens call said.

The US politician also commended Yatsenyuk "for his tireless efforts on behalf of Ukraine and his intention to remain engaged in the process of pursuing these and other reforms needed to ensure the stability, prosperity, and territorial integrity of Ukraine," the readout continued.
"It was a really great time for our scientists, when we were competing with America," Zelenyi said.

Bur finally, the US won the race, and then the American and Soviet lunar programs stalled, the article read. The last Soviet mission of that epoch was Luna-24 in 1976.

Russia revived its interest for lunar missions in 2009, after NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, equipped with a Russian-made neutron detector, orbited the earths satellite. The Russian instrument detected subsurface water ice on the moon.

"Russias leadership had rekindled dreams of putting cosmonauts on the moon and here was a potential source of water. IKI now has five lunar missions planned from 2018 to 2025, starting with Luna-25, a spacecraft that would land near the moons south pole," according to the article.

Nevertheless, the first manned lunar mission will take place only after 2025, Zeleniy said.

However, there are two other "cornerstones" of the Russian space revival  a mission to Mars and astrophysics, the article added.

In 2011, Russias Phobos-Grunt probe broke after launch and ended in the Pacific Ocean. But Russian scientists were not discouraged by this failure. Now, they are teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA) on the ExoMars mission.
The National Guard will be headed by Viktor Zolotov, formerly the commander of the Internal Troops, and the onetime head of the president's personal security detail.

Igor Korotchenko, editor-in-chief of Natsionalnaya Oborona (National Defense) journal, believes that the National Guard will focus on fighting international terrorism.

The National Guard is being created to prevent and combat existing and future threats, above all international terrorism, which is rearing its head in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. A series of attacks there by the so-called Terror International could spill over into Russian territory, and the National Guard will be able to respond to such a threat. This is the main reason it is being established, it is a preventive measure, Igor Korotchenko told Radio Sputnik.

He also underscored the importance of concentrating resources in the war against organized crime.

Alexander Perendzhiev, a Moscow-based political scientist, hailed the proposed reform as means of streamlining state control in the field of national security.

We need to draw a clear line between police functions and military operations against organized terrorist and criminal groups. The National Guard will be able to fighting organized crime, armed groups and terrorists, Perendzhiev told Radio Sputnik.

The decree of the National Guard is part of a major reorganization of the security forces.

In addition to the formation of the new service, Putin announced that Russia's Federal Migration Service and the Federal Drug Control Service would be merged into the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which already has ample experience in dealing with both drug crime and issues related to migration.
Five months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the US Congress launched a thorough investigation into the incident. While much of the 832-page report can be read by the public, the Bush administration made the controversial decision to classify 28 pages, a decision that has been maintained by the Obama administration. The pages are available, however, to members of Congress. While those individuals are sworn to secrecy, several have come forward saying that the American public deserves to see the 28 pages.

One of the main advocates of said top secret report is Bob Graham, the former Florida governor, Democratic U.S. Senator and onetime chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Graham says the key section of a top secret report he helped author should be declassified to shed light on possible Saudi support for some of the 9/11 hijackers.
Woodbine invader Double Olives prevailed in an exciting four-across finish in Saturday night's featured $10,000 Fillies & Mares Preferred 2 Handicap Pace at Flamboro Downs.

Bestulldotanite, a Preferred 2 winner on Wednesday night at Western Fair, was back in-to-go on Saturday with the betting public making her the heavy 1-5 favourite. Robert Shepherd sent the popular mare to the lead from post five and carved out fractions of :28, :58.4 and 1:28.1, but she couldn't hold off the late-closers in the stretch.

Doo Wee Rusty (J Harris) went first up from third at the third quarter mark and had Double Olives rallying off her cover approaching the head of the lane for Anthony Haughan. Topanga Canyon (Alfie Carroll) then shot through the passing lane from the pocket down the stretch and Cant Stop (Bob McClure) sprinted home the fastest from the back of the pack. Those top four finishers were separated by just half a length at the wire, with Double Olives on top by a head. The Dave Matson trainee's winning time was 1:57.3.

Blizzard Series champion Double Olives earned her third win of the year in nine starts and pushed her seasonal earnings to $48,418. The four-year-old Blissfull Hall-Up N Coming mare is owned by John Taylor of Toronto and breeder Jeffery Ruch of Innisfil, Ont.

To view Saturday's harness racing results, click on the following link: Saturday Results - Flamboro Downs.
WASHINGTON  So much of Americas future is at stake in the 2016 presidential election. But lets focus for a moment on just one area  energy and the environment  where the Obama administration has made startling progress that could be reversed if either of the GOP front-runners becomes president.

Energy Secretary Ernie Moniz, arguably President Obamas best Cabinet appointment, has been leading a quiet revolution in clean-energy technology. Innovation is transforming this industry, costs are plummeting and entrepreneurs are devising radical new systems that create American jobs  in addition to protecting the planet.

The leading GOP candidates, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, offer know-nothing denials of this march of science. Trump told the Washington Post last month that all thats happening is a change in weather. Im not a great believer in man-made climate change. Cruz told an audience in New Hampshire in January that climate change is the perfect pseudoscientific theory, propounded by big-government politician[s]. If either is elected president, you have to assume he will try to gut clean-energy programs.

Heres a suggestion for any fact-based, technology-respecting candidate in either party: Promise that, if elected, youll try to persuade Moniz to remain in place. An MIT physicist by training, he has proved to be one of this administrations most skillful players, as illustrated by his decisive, behind-the-scenes role in the Iran nuclear talks.

Moniz showed me the future of energy technology last month during a visit to one of his pet projects  the innovation summit of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, or ARPA-E, for short. As the name implies, it tries to do for energy what DARPA has done for defense science. A tour of the exhibits shows why the program is succeeding: It connects with the market. Since 2010, 45 projects that were initially ARPA-E seeded have received an additional $1.25 billion in follow-on private funding.

First, some Energy Department numbers that illustrate the transformation thats underway: The cost of purchasing energy-efficient LED lights has dropped 90 percent since 2008; the cost of producing large-scale solar energy has fallen 60 percent over that period; prices for wind energy and efficient batteries have declined by over 40 percent.

As costs have fallen, usage has increased radically. Since 2008, the number of LED light bulbs installed in the U.S. has increased from 400,000 to 78 million. Wind energy production has tripled; production of solar energy has increased nearly 20-fold. And scientists say were still fairly early in the cycle of innovation and cost reduction.

Moniz describes three ARPA-E projects he thinks are especially promising. One company is building an advanced photovoltaic cell that could, by 2020, reduce the cost of installed solar energy by 50 percent from its 2009 level. Another company is creating new systems that could significantly cut power use by electric motors, which currently consume about 30 percent of Americas electricity. A third company is building a new kind of airborne turbine that could capture enough wind energy to serve 85 percent of Americas land mass, compared with 15 percent today.

Wandering through the ARPA-E exhibition hall with Moniz  looking at a few of the more than 200 presentations  you get a sense of how fast new technology is being applied to big, real-world problems.

A company called Rebellion Photonics demonstrates a system for chemical imaging that can spot gas leaks and other potential problems before disaster strikes. A consortium of universities and private companies, dubbed TERRA, shows off robots that can assess biofuel crops and select the best genetic traits, doing in four hours what now takes seven days. A company called Local Motors pitches a car built with 3-D printing. And yes, youll be able to make a copy of the Mustang you drove back in high school, if you want.

This intense interaction between technology and the marketplace is what powers innovation in America. Contrary to right-wing myth, the government in modern times has been a key incubator and facilitator for business. DARPAs research spawned the Internet and its world-transforming networks, and its now helping to drive the astonishing progress of machine learning and autonomous systems. Thanks to Moniz, ARPA-E is having a similar catalytic effect with energy-related technologies.

This political season has been a horror show, making even those who are optimistic about Americas future begin to wonder. A visit to Monizs innovation summit was a bracing reminder of why, as Warren Buffett likes to say, people have never gone wrong betting on America. It also illustrates the importance of having world-class scientists like Moniz oversee the intersection of government and technology.
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Trai Chairman R S Sharma Friday said cost of activation of a new mobile connection can virtually come down to zero if electronic KYC of Aadhaar is implemented as authentication will be done digitally.

He said transaction costs are reduced substantially when Aadhaar is used as an authentication tool.

"If you are taking a mobile connection, currently the cost of activation of a mobile customer is Rs 150 because you have to fill a customer acquisition form (CAF), you have to give paper documents... if you use digital identity authentication, you can fill the customer form, digitally sign it and get your electronic KYC. So, essentially the cost is equal to zero," Sharma said at the annual growth Net summit in New Delhi.

Sharma has made recommendations to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to this effect and the latter has "apparently" accepted it.

After the government finalises the norms, it will enable instant identity verification using Aadhaar card bio-metric data for a new mobile connection.

When operators issue new connections using the Aadhaar card, it would speed up the verification process as everything will be done online, Sharma hoped.

He, however, pointed to the big gap between technology development and its implementation.

Sharma as the UIDAI Director General and then as Department of Electronics and IT (Deity) Secretary had earlier recommended to DoT on making the whole process paperless.

This, however, met with scepticism in some quarters on security issues.

"Now, what is happening is one person who takes your PAN card is able to give 20 SIMs to different people and if they commit a crime, you will be caught. You are not aware who is using or misusing your PAN card to get the SIMs," Sharma explained.

Citing the example of Peshawar attack in Pakistan which killed many children, the Trai chairman said there were six terrorists who had SIMs that were issued to a woman.

"Pakistan decided to authenticate all the SIMs with biometrics and they had completed the programme last year," he added.

PTI
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...
Congress banks on dev, BJP raises BD issue

THE ECONOMIC TIMES, GUWAHATI : As Assam readies for the second phase of polls on Monday, covering 61 constituencies, political parties in the state have been busy in last ditch efforts to woo the electorate in every way. While the Congress has been highlighting the development it has ushered in during its 15-year rule in the insurgency-ravaged state, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is playing on the threat of Moulana Badaruddin Ajmal becoming the state's deputy Chief minister in the event of a Congress-All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) government in the state. "People have witnessed the development our government has brought in the past 15 years. In 2001, the state was in a financial mess and people were scared to go out of their homes after dusk. Now people are roaming around freely and the financial situation has improved to a great extent," says Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Anjan Dutta. "The violence is now over and it is the Congress government that has brought most of the insurgent outfits to the negotiating table in the last 15 years," he said, asserting that the party is going to form the government again in the state. "People have seen the BJP government at the Centre in the last two years. If they are so interested in Assam why then has the government curtailed the special category status for Assam and slashed funds under different schemes?" Dutta asked. The APCC president refuted allegations of any understanding with the AIUDF and claimed that it is the BJP which has a tacit understanding with the AIUDF. The saffron party, which had made it big in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls in Assam by winning seven of the total 14 Lok Sabha seats, has intensified its attack on the ruling Congress party regarding the infiltration from Bangladesh. The BJP has said the party will seal the Indo-Bangladesh border if it comes to power in Assam. The party raised the issue of unemployment of the state and said that in 2001 there were only four lakh unemployed in Assam, which has gone up to 23 lakh now. It said the Congress government has failed to create job opportunities in the state.
Nizami`s review plea hearing now May 3

The Supreme Court (SC) on Sunday deferred the hearing until May 3 on the review petition against its verdict upholding the death penalty of war criminal Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami awarded by the International Crimes Tribunal .

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division, led by Chief Justice SK Sinha, fixed the date, as the court is set to go on the summer vacation from April 14 till May 2, after Nizamis lawyer Khandker Mahbub Hossain submitted a petition seeking four weeks time in the morning.



The Appellate Division on April 3 fixed today (April 9) for hearing on the review petition of Nizami deferring the date by one week.



The review petition was enlisted as item number 19 on Sundays cause list of the Appellate Division.



On March 29, Barrister Najib Momen, son of Nizami, who submitted the 70-page review petition with the Appellate Division, said there was a mention of 46 grounds, seeking the release of the convict in the war crimes case.



Earlier on March 15, the ICT issued a death warrant for Nizami for his crimes against humanity during the Liberation War in 1971 after the apex court released the full text of its verdict upholding his death penalty.



On January 6, a four-member bench of the Appellate Division, headed by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, upheld the death sentence of the Jamaat Ameer.



The Appellate Division upheld the ICT-1 order sentencing Nizami to death for the wartime crimes, including genocide and murder of intellectuals.



The apex court upheld his death penalty for three of the four counts of charges while he was acquitted for the rest one.



The SC upheld his life term imprisonment for two charges, out of four in connection with the arrest, detention, torture, and murder of three people, including headmaster Maulana Kasim Uddin of Pabna Zila School on June 4, 1971, complicity in torture, murder and rape at Mohammadpur Physical Training Institute in Dhaka, and murder of Badi, Rumi Jewel and Azad at Old MP Hostel in Dhaka on August 30, 1971.



The Appellate Division acquitted the Jamaat leader of two other charges.



On October 29, 2014, the ICT-1 sentenced Nizami to death for committing crimes against humanity during the Liberation War.



The tribunal sentenced Nizami, the 1971 commander-in-chief of Al Badr, a secret killing squad of Jamaate-e-Islami, the capital punishment each on four counts of charges of war crimes, terming Al Badr a criminal outfit.



Nizami filed an appeal with the SC on November 23, 2014 challenging the death sentence and claimed himself innocent and sought to be cleared of the charges. -- Dhaka, Apr 10 (UNB)
RALEIGH Europe faces a host of problems connected with mass immigration and globalization. Christopher Caldwell, senior editor for, says Americans can learn some valuable lessons from Europe's current plight. Caldwell dissected Europe's ongoing challenges during the 2016 John W. Pope Lecture at North Carolina State University. He shared themes from that lecture with Mitch Kokai for Carolina Journal Radio. ( Click here to find recent CJ Radio episodes.)You wrote about some of these topics several years ago ... in this [2009] book about Reflections on the Revolution in Europe. But more of these issues are coming to a head. I guess you were prophetic about what Europe has been facing - that we've been seeing in the headlines recently.Well, I wouldn't say prophetic because I don't like to make many predictions. But maybe for that reason, I don't see much reason to revise anything that I wrote in the book. I think what's going on now is you're seeing some of the problems I noted in kind of a concentrated form. You have a very large immigration coming that started from the war zone in Syria and Iraq.But that now has become sort of a lucrative, people-moving route. And once refugees discover how to move on it, people- guides, who take money from people to help them immigrate into Europe, and negotiate the bureaucracy and stuff - they can do it, too.So you now have this massive movement of humanity along this road, leading out of Turkey, across the Ionian Sea, into Greece, and up through former Yugoslavia, and into Austria and Germany. And that route is being followed not just by Iranians and Syrians, but by Pakistanis and Iraqis and Bangladeshis and even Southeast Asians. So you're getting the same immigration pressures but in a huge, concentrated, fast-moving form.Kokai: One of the more interesting points you made in this Pope Lecture was the fact that this seems to be evidence of the impact of globalization, and how it's really leading to two separate camps, and perhaps not the two camps people might think of off the top of their heads.Yes. I'm glad you got that point. You know, we tend to divide things into the rich and the poor. And during the lecture, I was trying to relate Europe's situation to America's. And, you know, it's tempting to say, "Well, the Republicans used to be the party of the elite. And now the Democrats are the party of the elite." And I think that is, roughly speaking, true.But the way I'd rather look at it is to say that the big divide in Europe, as in America, is between people who benefit from the global economy and people who don't. And if you go to a big city - you know, a big, successful city that's doing well under the global economy's terms, like say, Paris - you will find that it's inhabited by the masters of the universe, as Tom Wolfe used to call them, and immigrants. And so there's not much room for a middle class in such places.And so, as you were discussing in that lecture, you've got, basically, the folks who are well off, and then the immigrants who come in and take the lower-level jobs. And then there's, on the other side, everyone who gets left out.That's right. You've got half the city, ... they mesh into the global economy very nicely. But the rest of the country doesn't really. And so there's been an awful lot of interesting, you know, work by sociologists done in France, trying to explain why the people, who are mostly in the countryside, but you could also say they're in what you'd call the French equivalent of the exurbs, where their resentments come from, and why they feel left out of their society.You alluded to this earlier. You were tying what's happening in Europe into what we're seeing today in America. And especially in what we're seeing in the way our politics are dividing people. You mentioned that there really is a clear sign that what Europe is facing seems to be having an impact here, as well.I think that there are certain parallels. When you look at, let's say for the last 10 or 15 years, there has been a growing minority in each European country, that's kind of lost patience with the country's mainstream politics. And in Europe, it's taken the form of third parties. You've seen, in the countries where there were two big parties - you know, usually in France and Germany, you would have a roughly Christian Democratic Party and a roughly Social Democratic Party, and you have the Conservatives and Labour in Britain.Those parties used to command close to half the allegiance of the electorate, like the Democrats and Republicans here. But now, only about one-third of the people like one of the two parties. So it's 30 percent for left, 30 percent for the right, and 40 percent for the people who just don't see themselves in the country's politics at all.So that 40 percent is a rich place to go hunting for votes. And it's why in some of the elections, like the first round of last winter's regional elections in France, you know, the National Front was the largest party in France. And very often in the polls, you see that this is the largest party in France. It's what we would call a populist, anti-system, anti-immigrant party. And I see a great deal in common with our own, you know, [Donald] Trump movement, and perhaps to a slightly lesser extent, the [Bernie] Sanders movement.In seeing what has happened in Europe, and what's continuing to happen, what sorts of lessons should we take here, in the U.S., about how the mainstream politicians ought to be addressing these folks' concerns?Here's one lesson from Europe. ... We've all been so enamored with globalization, and the free market, and our victory in the Cold War, and the unquestionable advantages it has brought for us, and the wonders it has wrought. I mean, you know, you look around you, if you're in a big city, or in a university town, you see the things that you've gained by being able to hook into the global economy, and I don't just mean gainful employment opportunities, but I mean, you know, lattes from Starbucks, and 50 different kinds of cheese at a gourmet restaurant, and things like that.These are all wonderful things. But there's a tendency for the people who don't live in that world to become invisible to the people who do live in it. And that's happened in Europe, and it's a big crisis for these countries. And I think that there are signs that it's a big crisis for us here.
Brussels jihadists planned to new attack in France: Prosecutors

AP, Paris :

The attackers who struck Brussels on March 22 initially planned to launch a second assault on France, Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday.

But the perpetrators were "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation" and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead, the office said in a statement. It didn't provide any more details.

Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels Airport on March 22. A subsequent explosion at Brussels' Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 people the same morning.

Investigators have found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels attacks and the group that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

On Sunday's statement provides confirmation of what many have suspected: the series of raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacks - including the capture of key Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam - pushed the killers to action.

Belgian authorities detained four men in Brussels police raids Friday who were charged Saturday with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group" in relation to the Brussels attacks. One of them, Mohamed Abrini, has also been charged in relation to the Paris attacks, prosecutors said.

Abrini has been identified as the "man in the hat" spotted alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport. Surveillance footage has also placed him in the convoy with the attackers who headed to Paris ahead of the Nov. 13 massacre.
French Professor meets DU VC

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique exchanges views with Dr Boubakar Diawara, Professor of Research Institute of Chemistry of the University of Pierre and Marie Curie at the DU VC Office on Sunday.

Campus Report :

Dr Boubakar Diawara, Professor of Research Institute of Chemistry of the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, France called on Dhaka University (DU) Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique on Sunday at the latter's office of the university. Dean of the Faculty of Science of DU Prof Dr Mohammed Abdul Aziz was present on this occasion.

During the meeting they discussed regarding establishment of a new department titled "Department of Computational Chemistry" at Dhaka University. DU VC sought cooperation from French Professor to run this department. The delegate assured the VC of providing all possible supports in this regard. They also discussed the possibilities of introducing joint research programs on computation chemistry by the University of Dhaka and the University of Pierre and Marie Curie, France.


DIU distributes free laptops

Campus Report :

To prepare the students for the 21st century and to adapt them to the latest ICT friendly education which will develop their knowledge, skills and abilities to fit globally, Daffodil International University (DIU) distributed 800 laptops at free of cost among the students in the thirteenth phase at its continuous process of Laptop distribution today on April 09, 2016 at DIU Auditorium. Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Daffodil International University was present as the chief guest at the Laptop Distribution Ceremony. Presided over by Prof Dr Yousuf M Islam, Vice Chancellor, the function was addressed among others by Hamidul Haque Khan, Treasurer, Emeritus Prof Dr Aminul Islam, and Emeritus Prof Dr M. Lutfar Rahman.

Before distributing the Laptop Emeritus Prof Dr M. Lutfar Rahman conducted the oath taking part of the ceremony where the students Swire upon regarding the best use of the laptops in academic and education purpose. The authority of Daffodil International University has taken a gigantic initiative of "One Student: One Laptop" program which is one-step a head for digital Bangladesh. Every student admitted into Daffodil International University from Summer Semester-2010 and onward is getting a Laptop at free of cost. The Laptop will help the students to equip themselves with proper technical knowledge so that they can survive and secure respectable place in the society.

Through this initiative DIU students will get the opportunity to implement digital Bangladesh concept.


Hahnemans birth anniv celebrated

DC Chittagong Md. Mesbahuddin addressing the Homeopathy Day and Homeo Chetona Award giving ceremony at Hotel Paramount International auditorium as chief guest yesterday.

Chittagong Bureau :In observance of the birth anniversary of the founder of Homeopathy Dr. Samuel Hahneman , Homeopathic Day-2016 was celebrated with festivity mood and much enthusiasm in the port city yesterday morning. The colourful celebration was arranged by Homeo Chetona of Chittagong at Hotel Paramount International hall following the hugely attended rally in front of Chittagong Press Club yesterday morning with the Chief Editor of Homeo Chetona, and Rector of Azizur Rahman Homeopathic Medical college and hospital Principal Dr. Abdul Karim in the chair. The rally duly attended by the homeo physicians, students, govt, non-govt, political personalities and journalists and social elites paraded the city street which terminated infront of Hotel Paramount Interntional , near Chittagong railway station at about 11 am. Deputy commissioner of Chittagong Md. Mesbahuddin graced the occasion as chief guest. Editor of the Homeo chetona and govt member of Bangladesh Homeopthic board dr. Saleh Ahmed Suleman formally unveiled the discussion meeting on the occasion at the hotel premises . Dr. Mahbubur Rahman, Director of Govt Drug Administration was the principal speaker in the discussion meet. The speakers unanimously demanded to declare 10 th April as Interntional Homeopathic Day across the world. The Chief Guest in his address discussed the contribution of the founder of Homeopathy Dr. Hahneman and continuous development of homeopathy treatment. He also highlighted the effectiveness of homeo medicines. On this auspicious day , five homeo personalities have been awarded with Honourary Award by Homeo Chetona management. The award receipients are Dr. Karmuzzaman of Dhaka, Dr. Nazir Hossain of Pabna, Dr. Pran Hari Nath of Chittagong, Dr. syed Abu Sayeed of Khulna and the general secretary of BHMA Principal MA Quader of Dhaka. . The chief guest handed over these awards to the recipients. The chair of the meet and Chief Editor of Homeo Chetona Principal Dr. Abdul Karim in his concluding deliberations presented his valuable research papers and speech towards development of the homeopathy treatment. He also advised the doctors to carefully diagnosis the patients in prescribing the medicines. Dr. Karim also demanded establishment of one Homeopathy University across the country and one Govt Degree Homeo College in each division beside the upgrading the existing homeo colleges across the country. He also urged the govt to enlist the existing homeopathic colleges under MPA list like as College, Schools and Madrashas and allocation of govt fund to subsidy the Homeo college teachers upto 50% of their exisiting salary .Principal Dr. Karim also urged the Bangladesh Homeopathic Board to increase the contribution from the existing 20% to Homeopathic college teachers.Among others, President of Chittagong district unit of BHMC Advocate Dr. Samiuuddin , Princiapl of Zakir Hossain Homeopathic medical college Dr. Nurul Amin, Principal of Azizur Rahman Homeopathic Medical College Dr. Ferdousi Akhter,Principal of Khagrachari Homeopathic Medical College Dr. Kazi Tofael Ahmed , Principal of Laxmipur Rokeya N Islam Homeopathic Medical College Dr. .Fakrul Islam, Prof. Dr. Khurshid Jahan,Prof. Khudeza Aparajita, BHB member Dr. S.C Das, Dr. Pran Hari Nath, Dr. Nazir Hossain,General secretary of District Dr. Ismail Chowdhury, Dr. Ismail Chowdhury, Dr. Mridul Kanti Dey, Dr. S.M Saleh Jahangir, President of World Federation of Homeopathy, Chiitagong District Prof. Dr. Shariful Kabir and BHMA Prof Samiuddin also spoke in it as discussants.
Chumki, Mou working under Salauddin Lavlu`s direction

Sheikh Arif Bulbon :Viewers choice popular director Salauddin Lavlu has started to give direction of his new serial titled Sonar Pakhi Rupar Pakhi. Kazi Shahedul Islam wrote story of the serial which is based on family drama. Farhana Chumki and Tahmina Sultana Mou are working together in this serial. For the first time they are working in any serial. Shooting of the serial began at a residence at Pubail in Gazipur last week. In the serial, Mou is playing in role of elder daughter-in-law, while Chumki is acting in role of younger daughter-in-law. Mou is acting in role of that character who is always anxious and hot-tempered and also tries to control everything of the family. On the other hand, Chumki is playing in role of a gentle and polite daughter-in-law in the serial.While talking about the serial casting Chumki and Mou, Salauddin Lavlu told this correspondent, In fact, sorry to say that now who are stars in media they do not want read script before taking part in the shooting. They have an intention not to read the story and script but to work. They want to earn money in short cut method. For this reason, I wanted to cast them who will work sincerely and give time properly. From that point of view I have casted Chumki and Mou in my serial and they are doing really well.Chumki shared her feelings by this way, Nine years ago, under Lavlu Bhai's direction I worked in a play. He takes proper time while working in any play or serial which I didnt find in anybodys direction. I have really realised what is acting and I am really enjoying working in this serial.Mou said, In front of Lavlu Bhais camera I first stood in my life. After a break of long 16 years I have got the scope to work with him. It is really pleasure for me. I am feeling proud that he gave me a challenging role from his confidence.Salauddin Lavlu informed that this serial will go on air on Channel i soon. After 3.5 years Chumki has returned to acting by this serial, while Tahmina Mou has returned after more than one year.
The good side of CSR

Ryan Scott :

With the pile-up of data proving the bottom line benefits of employee volunteer and giving programs, more companies are clamoring to launch or escalate their own programs. As someone whose business helps organizations manage their corporate volunteering and giving, I'm delighted with this trend towards more employee-led philanthropy.

But I also see another trend: companies that try to do this all on their own and then wonder why they're not seeing the results they hoped for.

"When you're launching a business, you get experts to help with areas like legal, financial, marketing, and so on," says Charisse Browner, Business Development Director of America's Charities, a nonprofit that helps companies engage employees in greater giving. "So why do company leaders try to build impactful corporate philanthropy programs on their own? It's best to plan and execute these programs with those who make it their sole focus."

In fact, Browner observes that when company leaders wonder why their programs aren't as successful as they'd like, they may not even have the proper understanding to recognize what success should look like.

This time of year is a common one for evaluations of last year's line item wins and misses. Right about now is when America's Charities tends to be having a lot of conversations with clients and would-be clients about their volunteer and giving programs, as company leaders question whether their programs are hitting the mark.

"I've learned since working in this industry that companies may be focusing on one particular area as a measurement that doesn't necessarily relate to impact," Browner says. "Impact is not necessarily the participation rate. So many companies want to focus on participation rates, but that's not what I advise clients to look at. And even then, what defines participation? Some companies feel that participation is defined as the employee visiting the online volunteer platform. Employees are measured as participants not by volunteering or giving but just by clicking on the platform. Obviously, this has nothing to do with creating impact in the community. You want to know that what you're offering your employees is actually translating in the real world."

Many companies do tend to fixate on participation rates as the North Star of success. But just because 500 employees participate in a volunteer effort doesn't mean that the experience is necessarily impactful for the community or employee engagement.

Measuring impact has so many different variables. A press release may announce that 1000 employees just raised $50,000 for the Boys and Girls Club, but that doesn't tell the whole story of the question of impact. You go from 5 percent to 8 percent participation rate; great, but what does that mean? What kind of participation are we talking about and will it resonate in significant ways with employees and nonprofits?

"I remember a recent volunteering event at a food bank," Browner recalls. "The company sent approximately 200 volunteers to the organization to stuff bags, and most of those people happened to be engineers. The company coordinator looked around and was crestfallen at this realization. Imagine if you had those same 200 engineers taking time out of their day to build some sort of an infrastructure that the food bank desperately needed instead. Same people, same charity, greater impact that can be measured."

Cutting to the heart of impact is the focus of America's Charities. (Disclosure: America's Charities is a partner of Causecast.) Without the guidance of experts like America's Charities, it's easy to treat corporate philanthropy programs like feel good initiatives for companies to engage in now and then rather than fundamental value propositions of a company's mission. The problem is, the "feel good" mindset ensures that your program won't get very far or leave much of an impression on anyone it touches.

All of the research that has taken place in the last several years shows that CSR programs aren't charity. Smart volunteer and giving efforts deliver a measurable ROI, creating a culture that engages employees, attracts and keeps top talent, increases productivity, and builds brand loyalty - having nothing to do with the actual impact in the community.

One study sponsored by Verizon and Campbell's Soup, titled Project ROI, showed that corporate responsibility can increase productivity up to 13 percent; reduce the average turnover rate by 25 percent to 50 percent; and increase employee engagement by 7.5 percent. The study also found that improving CR performance has the same effect on retention as an increase in annual salary of $3,700 per year, and workers who were informed about a CR program were willing to accept a lower wage and were more likely to go "above and beyond" for the employer by doing extra work not required for payment.

Employees are rating your CSR and Millennials in particular are passing you by for other companies if they don't believe in your social mission. So whether you like it or not, the rest of the world is paying attention to how your company is giving back and that impression has a direct impact on your success.

Once companies accept that corporate responsibility - especially that which involves employees - is a priority that should be taken as seriously as any other business endeavor, it makes sense to bring in partners that can help define the proper direction. "It's not just about understanding the impact of your measurement of success," says Browner. "It's about understanding the measurement of success that will impact the charities your company may be partnered with."

Browner believes that if the person sitting down at the table with the charity organizations doesn't know the questions to get the best outcome, it's a wasted conversation. But most company leaders aren't having honest conversations with their charity partners about what success looks like to the charity, in part because companies and charities need a third party to create an environment in which these conversations can happen.

For example, too often, companies earmark exactly how funds they raise should be used by charities without truly understanding what is going to make the most sense for the charity. "Even Top Fortune 500 companies have this problem," Browner notes. "They give money to charity organizations for certain purposes and the charities take the money because they don't want to offend the corporation. A particular Fortune 500 company has told us that they know these charities feel uncomfortable being forthcoming with them but they don't know how to spark an honest discussion about their needs."

Understanding how charities can align better with companies and vice versa is an ongoing challenge, and also the key to a successful relationship that creates success as defined by myriad metrics. Experts like America's Charities make it their business to ask the right questions and devise targeted programs that increase funds raised, participation, skills-volunteering, and so many other areas that companies and charities want to enhance in smart ways.

"What we do has so much to do with education," says Browner. "We act as the agent or partner of the employer and are there as a consultant and guide, helping them increase their impact and most of all understand what success looks like for them, for their charity partners and for their community at large."

When companies are able to develop true partnerships with nonprofits and create a strategy for the goals and needs of all involved, that's when we see the kind of meaningful impact that reminds corporate leaders why volunteer and giving programs are so important to the vitality of their organizations.



(Ryan Scott is the Founder and CEO, Causecast)
Plan `in the offing to protect vulture`

UNB, Dhaka :The government will announce a 10-year conservation action plan to protect the country's endangered vultures from extinction, says a senior forest official."The 10-year vulture conservation action plan will be formulated involving all relevant stakeholders to make it a sustainable one," chief conservator of forests Md Yunus Ali told a workshop on Sunday.All relevant stakeholders like the Ministry of Environment and Forest, the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock, Department of Agriculture and the Drug Directorate will be included in the vulture conservation action plan, he said, hoping that it will help the Forest Department raise the country's vulture population.IUCN Bangladesh and Bangladesh Forest Department jointly organised the national workshop on 'Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan' at the auditorium of the Forest Department in the capital. The workshop was arranged to present the draft 'Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan' to scientists, experts and other stakeholders to receive their suggestions to finalise the proposed action plan.Chaired by project director of Strengthening Regional Cooperation for Wildlife Protection (SRCWP) Project Md Akbar Hossain, the workshop was addressed, among others, by additional secretary of the Environment and Forests Ministry M Nurul Karim, country representative of IUCN Bangladesh Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmad, zoology professor of Jahangirnagar University Dr M Monirul H Khan and bird expert Enam Ul Haque.Talking to UNB, principal vulture investigator of IUCN Bangladesh ABM Sarowar Alam said IUCN Bangladesh and the Forest Department will jointly finalise the draft Bangladesh Vulture Conservation Action Plan within a month and send it to the Ministry of Environment and Forests for its approval.
PM pays toll for travelling over Hanif Flyover

UNB, Dhaka :

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday paid toll for the vehicles of her motorcade while crossing the Mayor Hanif Flyover while going to Keraniganj to inaugurate of the newly-constructed Dhaka Central Jail and her way back to the capital.

"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina paid the toll for the use of the flyover by the vehicles of her motorcade,"

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told UNB. He said, Prime Minister's Military Secretary Major General Mia Mohammad Zainul Abedin paid the toll on behalf of the Prime Minister.
US, Israel warn of 'imminent' attack threat in Turkey

Al Jazeera News :The United States and Israel on Saturday warned their citizens of a high-level, imminent threat of attacks in Turkey, with Israel urging its citizens to immediately leave the country.Turkey has been rocked by four suicide bombings already this year, the most recent last month in Istanbul. Two of those have been blamed on Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while Kurdish fighters have claimed responsibility for the other two.The US embassy emailed what it called an "emergency message" to Americans, warning of "credible threats" to tourist areas in Istanbul and the resort city of Antalya. Israel announced "immediate risks"."The US Mission in Turkey would like to inform US citizens that there are credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya," it said.
80 pc dev work of Rooppur Plant near complete

Model of Rooppur nuclear power plant in Ishwardi in Pabna.

Anisul Islam Noor, back from Ishwardi :The first phase of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) is scheduled to start its trial operation from August 1, 2017. Meanwhile, 80 per cent of its infrastructure development has been completed. Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology Md Sirajul Hoque Khan disclosed this to a group of visiting journalists at the plant site at Rooppur in Ishwardi of Pabna district on Saturday.He said, Commissioning of the first unit is scheduled to be held in early 2019. Provisional take over of the first phase will be held in 2023 while the second phase in 2024 from Rosatom, a Russian nuclear firm which is implementing the project. Regarding a question, Khan said the sustainability of the plant would 50 years and could be extended by another 30 years.The second unit of the plant will come into trial operation in the middle of 2019 and its final taking over ceremony will be by the end of 2025.Five layer safety measures have also been in the plant along with the reactor, said Engineer M. Ali Zulquarnain, Chairman of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC).Primarily fixed cost of the project is US$13.2 billion (equivalent to Tk 101,200 crore of which 90 per cent is funded as loan by the Russian government.Bangladesh has to pay back the loan in the next 28 years with an eight-year grace period. In 2009, the Bangladesh government again started discussion with the Russian government regarding the setting up of the nuclear power plant. In February, 2010, the two governments signed a memorandum of understanding. Rosatom, the Russian firm had started the construction work by 2013.In 2013, a group of Bangladeshi scientists and the global diaspora voiced profound concern over the safety and economic viability of the plant. Several issues were raised from the unsuitability of the site to the obsolescence of the VVER-1000 model [citation needed] proposed, questionable financing arrangements and a lack of agreement with Russia over nuclear waste disposal.In 2015, the government has decided to install VVER-1200 in consultation with Rosatom which is third generation plus Water-Water-Energy-Reactor model with a capacity of generating 2=2400MW electricity. Sources said, ground preparation work of the plant commenced in 2016. The two units generating 2.4 GWe are planned to be operational in 2023 and 2024 respectively. Rosatom will operate the units for the first year before handing over to Bangladeshi operators. Russia will supply the nuclear fuel and take back spent nuclear fuelBy December 2015, the estimated cost of the plant had climbed to US$13 billion, from statements of around US$4 billion made earlier in the same year. Transparency International Bangladesh expressed concern on December 28, 2015 about the safety of the proposed plant, stating "Even reputed Russian environmentalists consider Russian nuclear reactors unsafe".The proposal was made in 1961. Government took 253.90 acres of land in that year to build the plant. In 1963 the plant was approved. Discussions took place with the Canadian government in 1964 and 1966. Discussions with the governments of Sweden and Norway were held in those years.
ENC TEA PARTY MEETING:

WHEN: Thursday, April 14

TIME: 6:15 pm (dinner and social to start at 5:30 pm)

WHERE: La Ribera restaurant (back conference room), in the Arlington Village (at the corner of Red Banks Rd. and Arlington Blvd) - Arlington Village, 658 E Arlington Blvd, Greenville, NC 27858



TOPIC: ARTICLE V CONVENTION OF STATES (and NC House Bill 366)

SPEAKERS: Wynne Coleman, founder of NoCOS NC

Please join the ENC Tea Party on Thursday evening, April 14, at 6:00 pm at La Ribera Mexican Restaurant to learn about the second option provided in the US Constitution for adding amendments - the Article V Convention of States (aka, Constitutional Convention, aka Con-Con). This option has never been used and as the 1787 Convention in Philadelphia proved to the world, once delegates from the several states meet in official convention, even if the purpose is strictly defined (as it was in 1787), there is the very real possibility that something very different will become the product. Currently, the NC state legislature is trying to move a very controversial bill forward - HB 366. HB 366 is a proposal drafted by Compact for America (an aggressive Convention of States group) for states to enter into a compact for the purposes of petitioning the US Congress, under Article V, to call a Convention of States to draft a Balanced Budget Amendment. If the bill passes, NC will be the 5th state to adopt such legislation and join the compact. While a Balanced Budget amendment sounds harmless and in fact, sounds like an important "check" on government spending, the effect could not be farther from the truth. The wording of the proposal, and HB 366, presents some very real dangers and evils, and opens the door, in explicit terms, for additional taxes on the American people. It also acknowledges that the US Congress can, indeed, tax and spend for whatever purposes it wants, which in no way at all serves to restore the legislative branch to constitutional limits. If you hope that your children and grandchildren will not be saddled with burdensome national debt, then you will NOT want the government to be given the explicit option under this proposed amendment to impose additional taxes on them.Now, the bill also provides that the states have to OK if the increase in federal spending is significant. Here is the reality on that provision. If the government wants to push its increased budget on the states, it will simply threaten to cut all funds ear-marked to the states. The states, which enjoy their parasitic relationship with the government, will never vote to cut off funding and so every increase will be approved.Our guest speaker will be Wynne Coleman, founder of No Convention of States NC (NoCOS NC), who is an expert on this topic and who has been following HB 366.Please join the ENC Tea Party on April 14 to learn about this potentially historic and potentially devastating movement that is tapping into the frustration of American taxpayers and threatening to erode our Constitution. There are other options available - ones that our Founders have taught and have promoted - and we will be exploring them in the very near future.House Bill 366 ( HB 366 ) -For information on Article V, the Convention of States movement, and HB366, please consult the several articles posted on this website (Categories: "Alerts" and "Education" and "Videos")
Rangpur interns threaten to stop emergency services

UNB, Rangpur :The interns at Rangpur Medical College Hospital, now on an indefinite work abstention, on Sunday threatened to stop emergency services and block roads around the hospital on Monday if no step is taken to meet their five-point demand by Sunday night.The interns led by President of Interns Association of the hospitalDr Mahmudur Rahman Rifat came up with the threat after a meeting with ASM Barkatullah, director of the hospital and Faruk, additional superintendent of police in the afternoon. During the meeting, the additional superintendent of Rangpur police assured them of establishing a permanent police camp and increasing security on the campus. Earlier, the interns staged a one-hour token hunger strike on the campus to press home their demands.
Bloggers trying to go abroad for safety

26 secular writers asked to remain alert

Joynal Abedin Khan :

A number of bloggers have started to go to foreign countries to safe their lives from the militants' attacks.

At least five bloggers newly expressed their interest to the cop personnel to go to abroad after the recent murder of Nazim Uddin Samad in the city.

Meanwhile, threatened ASM Niloy and 20 other bloggers, were left the country. They are now living in Germany, United States and Canada, Sweden and other countries, intelligence and city Ganajagaran Mancha sources said.

In this situation, the United States has condemned as 'barbaric' Nazim Uddin killing by religious extremists and said it is considering granting refuge to a select almost 50 bloggers who face imminent danger. At least five secular bloggers and publishers were killed in similar attacks in last year.

On the other hand, the members of different intelligence agencies asked at least 26 familiar listed bloggers to remain alert as the militants already have changed their attack policies.

They (bloggers) also were assured by the detectives to ensure all types of security measures under a close network to move their normal lives.

The detective men have increased the security measures for the bloggers and secular writers based on a recent filed-level study in the city and other districts.

The study report has recommended for special securities for the country's bloggers and secular writers as they were passing insecurity for their lives, intelligence sources.

It also suggested the blogeres to refrain to hurt the religious sentiment by their writings and posts on social media, they said.

At least six smart teams of intelligence agencies, including the Detective Branch (DB) and Counter Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP), are working to ensure the security of the blogger and free thinking writers after the recent murder of blogger Nazim Udding in the city, DB sources.

The cop personnel already have communicated with the bloggers and asked them to follow the secret polices of detectives, they said.

To leave from the country of the bloggers is a personal matter, but if they follow the suggestions of the detectives then they will live in the country with out any panic of attack, they further said, They claimed thatat least four targeted bloggers were saved from militants' killing by detectives following the secret prescription and network in February.

The militants are using high-level technology and aps (D-coding technology and telegram aps) to avoid the arrest, they said.

Monirul Islam, DMP Additional Commissiner and Head of the CTTC, said, "We have taken all necessary security measures for the enlisted bloggers by the militants. They have asked to remain alert over the security issues after the killing of Nazim Uddin. The name will not disclose to the consider their security measures."

The bloggers are now detective security web, the DMP spokesman said.

The enlisted secular writers were practiced the detectives' technical rules to avoid the risky of the militants, the police official said.

The militants also enable to check the posts of the bloggers and trace their position by using high technology.
Maya`s 13-yr jail upheld

SC rejects review plea

Staff Reporter :The Supreme Court has rejected the review petition of Relief and Disaster Management Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya, upholding 13 years' jail for him. A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the apex court headed by Chief Justice SK Sinha passed the order on Sunday following Maya's plea filed against the SC's order that scrapped his acquittal in graft charges. Abdul Baset Majumder stood for Maya in the court, while Khurshid Alam Khan was the lawyer for the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) that filed the corruption case. Khurshid Alam Khan, the ACC lawyer, said that with the rejection, the 13 years' jail term awarded to the Minister by the lower court would now remain in place.With the dismissal of the petition, the High Court would now hold further hearing to dispose the appeal filed by Maya challenging the lower court's judgement against him, said lawyers. Meanwhile, Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya in an immediate reaction after the apex court's order said that he would consult with his lawyers to decide on his next step. "The court has given its decision. And I respect the law," he told the media at his office in the Secretariat.On August 3 in 2015, Maya filed the petition seeking review of the Appellate Division's orderEarlier on June 14 in 2015, the Appellate Division quashed the High Court order that acquitted Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya of the graft charges. It also asked the High Court to rehear the appeal filed by the Minister challenging the lower court judgement.On June 13 in 2007, the ACC filed the case against the Awami League leader with Sutrapur Police Station accusing him of amassing wealth beyond his known source of income and concealing information about his wealth worth Tk 29 lakh.A special judge's court in Dhaka on February 24 in 2008 convicted Maya and sentenced him to 13 years' imprisonment in the case. It also fined him Tk 5 crore and ordered confiscation of about Tk 6 crore of his ill-gotten wealth.Maya filed an appeal before the High Court on May 25 in 2009. On 27 October in 2010, the High Court acquitted the Minister of the corruption charges and cancelled his conviction. Later, the ACC filed an appeal against the High Court order to the Appellate Division of the apex court. The Appellate Division in its quashing order said that the High Court had not applied its judicial mind in acquitting Maya of the corruption charges brought against him. Then Maya had filed the review petition.
CID faces flak over slow progress in Tonu murder probe

Father highly embarrassed as same type of questions repeatedly being asked

M M Jasim :The Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is yet to make any headway to the investigation into the Tonu murder case though it took the charge of the inquiry 13 days ago.CID investigators so far quizzed many people including Tonu's parents and some army personnel, but they could not find any vital clue nor identify anyone involved in the brutal murder.Sohagi Jahan Tonu, an undergraduate student of Comilla Victoria College was found dead near her home inside the Moinamati Cantonment on March 20. Tonu's father Yaar Hossain filed a murder case with Comilla Kotwali Model Police Station on March 21. Investigators initially suspected that she was raped before the murder. But the forensic team of Comilla Medical College did not find any sign of rape in the first autopsy conducted on Tonu's body. It also failed to ascertain the cause of Tonu's death. "It is very unfortunate that the investigators are yet to make any breakthrough in the probe into the Tonu murder case," Ayesha Khanam, a rights activist told The New Nation on Sunday.She said, the sensational murder sparked protest across the country with people demanding justice for Tonu's killing. But the slow progress into the probe disappointed the people. Criticizing CID's failure to bring any breakthrough over the case, she said we expected a speedy trial of the killers but they failed to come up with the expectation hindering the process to establish the rule of law.The unnecessary delay over the investigation has raised many questions in the minds of the people. Their perception is that the delay may be causing to divert the case in other direction. Another rights activist seeking anonymity told The New Nation yesterday that the mystery behind the Tonu murder is yet to be revealed as the police have been under pressure to hush up the case."Meanwhile there has been some progress in the case. It is hoped that they hoped the mystery would unfold soon," CID Special Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akhand told reporters at the Comilla CID office on Saturday. On Sunday, Deputy Inspector General of CID Mahbub Mohsin visited the murder spot and also quizzed two doctors. The CID took the charge of Tonu murder case investigation on March 29. The CID has so far interrogated eight people, including four army personnel on April 9. The CID quizzed her parents Yaar Hossain and Anwara Hossain, brother Nazmul Hossain and a cousin-sister on April 2. The CID team also interrogated Tonu's elder brother Nazmul Hossain, her cousin Laizu Jahan, friend Manisha, and cantonment board staff Ismail Hossain on April 8. The family members of Tonu, however, expressed resentment over the repeated questions by the investigators. "I was asked the same type of questions repeatedly. I am the plaintiff of the case but it seems that I am the accused," Yaar Hossain told The New Nation on Sunday night. "They (law enforcers) asked, "Why did we not marry her off? Did Tonu have any affair? How would she spend the money she earned from tuitions? he said, adding, "Such questions seriously embarrassed me". Tonu's family members were first questioned by Sub-Inspector Saiful Islam of Kotwali police. He submitted the findings to the DB police.The second investigation officer of the case, DB police OC AKM Manzul Alam, said that they had interrogated Tonu's family members to verify some information. The DB got the charge of the investigation on March 25.The Rapid Action Battalion and detectives in Comilla on March 27 quizzed the family members of Sohagi Jahan Tonu in connection with her murder a week earlier.Again in the afternoon, detectives took the family members from the Cantonment house to Kotwali Police Station for interrogation, said police.
Our women workers are abused in Middle East: Minister is to be blamed

In the face of the government's failure in creating jobs and stimulating private investors to generate new employment opportunities within the country, young men and women are desperately seeking to try their fate in migration by risking their lives. How much contribution the migrant workers are making for the economy by their toil and sacrifices and losing their honour does not matter to the government that explicitly reflects the government's reluctance to hail the unsung heroes of our economy. Based on their sweat and blood, the country is thriving towards a middle-income country and the steady GDP growth above 6.5 percent but in policy matrix and diplomatic strides the government is seemingly indifferent to their welfare.

A vernacular daily reported that while Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Philippines, India and many other developing countries abstain from sending their female workers as housemaids in Middle-East countries, especially Saudi Arabia, due to inhumane physical and sexual torture by their employers, Bangladesh has been sending an increasing number of female migrants to those countries. Such a rising number of women who may easily be subjected to unexpected abuses worries us. Is it worrying the government? The answer is a big no.

In February 2015, an agreement was signed with Saudi Arabia to send woman workers and 20,952 women were sent to the country in 2015. But, in the first three months of this year, 20,036 woman workers have already been sent to Saudi Arabia. Besides, 60,000 women migrated to Jordan, 50,000 to United Arab Emirates, 40,000 to Lebanon, 30,000 to Oman and 17,000 to Qatar in the last three years. Though, domestic violence in the Middle Eastern countries is nothing new, international human rights' organizations have been highlighting the issue for a long time. At least 112 such victims of domestic violence, including sexual harassment, in Saudi Arabia were brought back to the country by the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh with the assistance of two companies. The incident of torture is not limited to Saudi Arabia only, female workers are also being physically tortured in other Middle Eastern countries. There is a provision of defending the tortured housemaids in the agreement, but neither the government nor the recruiting agencies have taken any legal step to protect the migrants from the abusive behaviour of their employers. In very limited cases, our labour attaches or mission officials respond to emergencies with assistance sought by our migrants, but the response (or lack thereof) in most cases is not satisfactory.

Another daily reported that there is no body in the top position at the labour wings of Bangladesh Embassies in Riyadh, Manama, Abu Dhabi, and Kuala Lumpur for three years, reflecting serious negligence on the part of the government towards the migrant workers. In 2013, the government created the post of Minister (Labour) for joint secretary level officials to lead labour wings of Bangladesh missions in the major labour recipient countries, but no one has so far been recruited in the position. It is simply increasing the plight of labours in those countries.

From the beginning we have been asking the government not to send women workers to Middle East known for abusing women workers and many countries have stopped sending their women workers to these countries. But the government's greed for foreign exchange has put us all to shame. We condemn the Manpower Minister for the sufferings of our women workers in the Middle East. We know no minister has any accountability.
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.
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.
Overdosing on opioids, a classification that includes heroin and prescription painkillers, is a leading cause of unintentional death for Americans, and Southern Illinois has been hit hard.

Area prosecutors say they hope that drug-induced homicide and similar charges under different names, all of which can carry stiff penalties, send a message that dealing heroin wont be tolerated in their communities.

But in an era giving rise to a gentler war on drugs  through greater use of alternative sentencing that includes treatment, and Good Samaritan laws providing legal immunity in many situations for those who seek help for someone who has overdosed  the increase in drug-induced homicide charges seems to swing the pendulum in the other direction.

At the least, its a complex charge, used with increased frequency, that raises several questions. Among them: Who is at fault when someone chooses -- out of addiction, curiosity, a desire to fit in, or any number of other reasons  to take an illegal substance and then dies? What justice is served by locking up the last person in the supply chain who provided the drug, which is often a friend or acquaintance who is an addict, and using with the one who dies, when larger dealers up the supply chain go unscathed?

And what of the fact that many people overdose on legally obtained prescription opioids, such as OxyContin and Vicodin, and many others who fatally overdose on heroin first become opioid dependent from substances prescribed by a doctor following a surgery, injury or accident.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, opioids  heroin and prescription painkillers, obtained legally and illegally  killed more than 28,000 people in 2014, more than any other year on record. At least half of all opioid overdose deaths involve a prescription opioid.

'Shades of gray'

In regards to the decision to charge someone with distribution resulting in death, Jim Porter, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, said prosecutorial discretion is important because there are all kinds of shades of gray in fatal overdose incidents.

The fact that heroin was redistributed is something we take into account, Porter said. Another thing we look at, and its sort of a sliding scale, we look at the persons culpability.

In the case involving Keith Scott Brown, 27, of West Frankfort, who was recently sentenced to 23 years in federal prison, Porter said the fact that he left someone behind who was dying, or already dead, without calling 9-1-1 was a major contributing factor in his offices decision to seek an indictment related to the death of Steven Keith Scott, also 27, of Benton.

He also said availability of the charge can be a deterrent, though his office does not utilize it frequently.

He estimated the southern district, in the past four years, has sought convictions for distribution resulting in death about six times in the East St. Louis venue. Porter was not aware if there had been a case in the Benton venue prior to Browns conviction.

That case started under the direction of his predecessor, Stephen Wigginton, who has since returned to private practice.

Still, Porter said the heroin and pain pill abuse epidemic is not something the country can prosecute its way out of. He noted his support for President Barack Obamas recent proposals to increase both treatment options and access to them.

We need other programs. We're for that," he said. "In the end, there are certain people who have to be prosecuted because of the nature of the cases.

Owens: It's a deterrent

Franklin County States Attorney Evan Owens, who originally filed charges at the county level in Brown's case, said he felt very confident that the outcome of this case was a good one for the citizens he serves. It amounts to one less person who will be distributing heroin in the community, he said.

In this case, were comfortable to believe that we had a person that needed to be prosecuted, Owens said. The case was transferred to the federal level, he said, because the federal sentencing guidelines allowed for a stricter punishment. A drug-induced homicide conviction in Illinois is punishable by six to 30 years, he said, while a federal distribution leading to death charge is punishable by 20 years to life.

Owens said he hopes this sends a message to others who distribute drugs, and noted that distribution doesnt have to mean that money has changed hands, and can apply to a person who supplies it to a party, even if they do so free of charge to those participating.

Owens said that he believes that the vast majority of crime in Franklin County is attributable to illegal drugs, not only use and distribution, but the associated crimes, which can include robbery, theft, battery, domestic abuse, child abuse and others.

We strongly want to get dangerous drugs out of the county, and if theyre dealing and supplying, there are going to be consequences, he said.

Owens said his county has a drug court, and he thinks alternative sentencing that includes treatment is appropriate for some offenders. But while Owens said there are no absolutes, he believes charges are appropriate to the person who supplied the drug in most cases where there is an overdose death resulting from illegal substances.

When we find a death and we find that someone died as a result of illegal drugs, were looking to make a case for the person who provided it to them, he said.

Owens said he is proud of the fact that Franklin County, per capita, was recently listed as one of the leading counties in Illinois in terms of the number of drug-induced homicide charges successfully convicted. Not all were related to heroin, he said, and he was not immediately able to provide details and statistics.

Expert: Strategy ineffective

Kathie Kane-Willis, director of Roosevelt Universitys Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, countered that this is not a statistic worthy of boasting.

Just the opposite, she said, sending troubled addicts to prison for decades costs taxpayers handily. Browns federal prison stay is likely to cost taxpayers close to $1 million by the time hes released, based on average yearly costs, she said.

Theres no evidence to suggest that prosecuting people in this way will get rid of a health problem, she said. Its a health problem and we need to bring health solutions to it and they just need to be implemented.

When drug-induced homicide was first placed on the books in 1989 in Illinois, she said, it was intended to be used to go after people who intentionally caused harm, but in more recent years, as heroin use exploded again, has been rewritten to allow for more flexibility.

It also was meant to provide another tool to crack down on large-scale dealers when overdose deaths occur, but those people are rarely caught, she said, because its so difficult to prove the line of distribution further up the chain. She didn't speak to Brown's distribution charge, but specifically opposes charges of drug-induced homicide as it's commonly being applied.

Other communities, which perhaps saw the heroin epidemic surge earlier than in Southern Illinois, have developed programs and policies to respond to what should be viewed as a health problem, she said. That includes education about Good Samaritan laws, easier access to the drug naloxone, which can reverse the effects of opioids, greater use of alternative sentencing through drug courts, and an increase in programs to treat people who are addicted.

Some of those programs are in place in Southern Illinois, but many report gaps in the system.

Kane-Willis said that the roughly $1 million it will cost taxpayers to incarcerate Brown could be better served creating more programs to encourage addicts into treatment, and opening up access in an area where the substance abuse network reports being overwhelmed with the growing heroin problem.

She questioned whether there were any substantive efforts made to get Brown treatment assistance in the past, such as when he served time previously in state prison. Brown served time after he was convicted in June 2011 of burglary, when he was 22.
WASHINGTON  Imagine emerging from a rocky political week only to announce, as Bernie Sanders did, that, oh, by the way, the Vatican called. Actually, it was the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, but close enough, I suppose.

Hillary Clinton thought bubble: Hes Jewish for crying out loud. What am I, chopped liver? No, Im Methodist! But if I can become a New Yorker, I can become a Catholic!

Some people have all the kismet. Or, maybe sometimes people just happen to agree that communism isnt really so bad. OK, Im exaggerating, but only a smidgeon.

It should surprise no one that the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences  or especially Pope Francis  might find common cause with Sanders worldview. Both the pope and the Bern speak of helping the disenfranchised and the poor.

But Sanders is a democratic socialist who wants to be president of the United States. And the pope is, well, the pope.

A pastoral leader who washes the feet of the homeless and eschews the elaborate trappings of the corner office, hes the real deal, as in living as Christ did, spiritually if not physically. Also like Christ, hes a radical. Just ask Sanders.

People think Bernie Sanders is radical, Sanders said Friday on MSNBCs Morning Joe. Uh-uh. Read what the pope is writing [these days].

Whats radical about this pope is that he, like both Sanders and Jesus, says fresh, untraditional things that sound an awful lot like liberal ideas. What he says (and writes) is aspirational both in scope and application. As popes often do, Francis asks us to love one another, which makes us uncomfortable because loving others ultimately means sacrificing our interests to others. This comes naturally with our children but not so much with strangers, whose behavior probably annoys us and, oftentimes, costs us money.

Sanders, who thinks more or less as Francis does, just makes us nervous. Some of us, anyway.

The core difference between the two men is that one wants to raise consciousness about our obligation to the less fortunate; the other wants to restructure Americas economic institutions to ensure that money trickles down  mandatorily rather than charitably.

Theoretically, this is a noble concept. Its how you do it that causes taxpaying citizens to seek shelter. Lets face it, most of us work hard not for the satisfaction of a well-made widget but for a paycheck. As the taxman chisels away at such monetary rewards, where goes the incentive to work hard? This is common sense, obviously, but less common than it once was, judging by the popularity of Sanders proposals.

His bid to break up the too-big-to-fail banks sounds awesome enough: Lets stick it to the fat cats and watch em squirm. But will it really help the poor, or might such draconian action ultimately hurt more than it helps?

To the larger point, the highest priest urging morality in all human endeavors, including economic policies that fail to adequately address the needs of the poor, plainly comes from the heart. Its important for Francis to speak out as a messenger for the greater good. Its important, too, that we be reminded of our moral obligation to each other.

Its his job. Its our job not to conflate a popes message of Christian charity with a political candidates promise to remake Americas economic system. The rampant individualism that Francis condemns is precisely what has driven American ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and a level of prosperity unmatched in human history.

That more people are doing less well  and the middle class has suffered  means theres work to do, but it doesnt necessarily require radical restructuring. The striving for greater equality is always a proper operating principle, but what Sanders is aiming for without saying so is equal outcomes. The imposition of equality by third parties never works very well and inevitably carries the unwelcome penalty of less freedom. Greater effort toward raising the bottom rather than tearing down the top would seem a better approach than extreme measures that likely would have a destabilizing effect.

A pope neednt worry about such things and is free to ponder the universe through the pulpits lens. He is also free to chat with politicians who share his worldview, though it isnt clear whether he and Sanders will convene.

Still, a visit to the Vatican a couple of days ahead of the New York primary surely cant hurt. If Sanders wins, one might even say it was divine intervention.

Kathleen Parkers email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com.
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The Guardian has published Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UK Tahir Taghizade`s letter of response to an article recently published by the newspaper on recent escalation of tension on the line of contact between the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops. The following is the text of the letter:





"I agree with the points raised in Simon Tisdall's article (Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict is a reminder of Europe's instability, 4 April) and very much appreciate the author's insight into the history of Karabakh and the region," the Ambassador said in his letter.





"It is long overdue that the international community comes up with a plan to produce a peaceful and full solution to the conflict. However, the continuing presence of Armenian armed forces in the internationally recognized territories of Azerbaijan remains a key hurdle on the way to the peace. What makes the situation even more complicated is that international mediation, in the format of OSCE Minsk Group, has turned into an ineffective mechanism, leading to a stalemate."





"As a gesture of goodwill, and heeding the calls from the international community, Azerbaijan has acted responsibly and declared a unilateral halt to military operations. However, the refusal of Armenia to abide by this ceasefire is a clear reminder of the need for the heightened international pressure on Armenia."





"The break-up of the ceasefire in place since 1994 risks turning into full-blown military operations in the region, threatening Europe's stability. As you have rightly highlighted, this is happening against the backdrop of many other challenges facing Europe. It is therefore in the best interests of both Europe and the wider international community to put pressure on Armenia to withdraw its armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan, getting us closer to the eventual long overdue peace," said the Ambassador.




Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for peaceful settlement of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region based on international law.

If the two sides involved in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would like, Iran is ready to help to restore tranquility in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Zarif said during a press conference in Tehran, IRNA news agency reported.

Saying that Iran welcomes measures to prevent creating new conflicts in the region, he added that Tehran also welcomes ending the existing conflicts.

He further said that Iranian officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have held talks with Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to exchange views on recent hostilities in the Caucasus region.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry welcomed the ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh, according to RIA Novosti.

"The heads of the foreign departments welcomed the agreement reached on a ceasefire in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and agreed to contribute to the normalization of the situation in the region", Russia's Foreign Ministry said.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his call for reform of the UN Security Council on Saturday, pointing out the unfairness of the lack of a Muslim permanent member, Anadolu reported.

"The world is bigger than five," Erdogan said at an inauguration ceremony in Istanbul's Zeytinburnu district. "We cannot convict the fate of world's 196 states from the two lips of five UN Security Council permanent members. It was the circumstances of the World War I.

"Now the UN's functioning must be reformed. There is no Muslim country among the five - all of them are Christian, non-Muslim. What is that approach? Is it fair? It's not!

"We are looking for a fair world. We are fighting for a fair world."

Erdogan said Turkey raised the issue of Security Council reform at every international meeting and called for a body that represents all continents and religious groups.

The council, which has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security, has 15 members including five permanent members with veto power over any resolution - China, France, Britain, the U.S. and Russia.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has described US Secretary of State John Kerry's recent remarks regarding a new arrangement for Iran's defense issue as baseless.



"Both, Mr Kerry and the US State Department know very well that Iran's missile program is not negotiable," IRNA news agency quoted Zarif as saying at a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart, Marina Kaljurand, in Tehran.



Saying that the US government understands that the defense issue is not a topic for discussion, Zarif ruled out any possibilities for holding negotiations similar to the nuclear talks on Iran's missile program.



Earlier during a meeting with the ministers of the Persian Gulf States Kerry said that the US was prepared to find a peaceful solution to Iran's missiles program.



He further criticized the US government for selling arms to Saudi Arabia and its allies saying those arms are used against innocent civilians in Yemen.



Zarif also touched upon extremism and terrorism issues in the region accusing the US allies of backing the IS terrorist group (ISIS,ISIL, Daesh) by providing the terrorist group with arms and purchasing oil from the IS.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Turkey's Istanbul heading an expert delegation to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting.

While the meeting will be held on Thursday and Friday, Araqchi and his counterparts will be taking care of its agenda beforehand, IRNA news agency reported April 10.

The meeting will bring about the leaders of 57 countries. This year's event will address current states in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc.

Iran has not as of now announced at what level it will attend the meeting.
Uzbekistan plans to invest $595.9 million in the development of the food industry in 2016-2020, a statement published on the country's economy ministry's website said.

The development program approved by the country's leadership includes 180 investment projects on construction of new enterprises, reconstruction and modernization of existing enterprises.

The program will be financed through own funds of enterprises, loans of Uzbek banks and foreign direct investments.

According to the economy ministry, the program implementation will increase the export of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables by more than 2.7 times and use about 200 kinds of new products.

Some 15 trade and logistics centers with a total capacity of 60,000 tons, specializing in processing, storage and transportation of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, are planned to be established abroad during five years as part of the export intensification.
The Moroccan government has signed loan agreements worth $112.30 million with the African Development Bank (AfDB) to secure funding for the railway infrastructure projects being initiated by the National Railways Office (ONCF), said a report.



The funds will be used to boost the transportation line between Casablanca and Marrakech, and also improve the capacity and service quality on stations between Tangier and Casablanca to meet both the passenger and cargo traffic by 2020, reported the Morocco World News.



The agreements were signed by Yacine Fal, AfDB resident representative in Morocco, with Economy Minister Mohamed Boussaid and ONCF director general Mohamed Rabie Khlie, it stated.



Speaking at the signing ceremony, Boussaid lauded the country's ties with AfDB, underlining the diversity of the African bank-funded reform programmes and investment projects since the beginning of co-operation between the two parties in 1970.



The bank has 29 operations under way in Morocco amounting to 1.53 billion ($1.7 billion), said the report.
French carmaker Renault and component suppliers will invest 10 billion Moroccan dirhams ($1.04 billion) in Morocco to build an "industry ecosystem", the country's industry minister said on Friday.



Renault's ecosystem and its new plants will raise Renault's local sourcing of components to 65 per cent from 32 per cent and are projected to generate 20 billion Moroccan dirhams ($2.08 billion) in revenues, Moulay Hafid Elalamy told Reuters.



Renault already has two car plants in the kingdom. It has a modern plant in Tangier producing cars and body pressings for export and another older assembly plant in Casablanca.



"Renault ecosystem means that around Renault plants in Tangier and Casablanca, many other companies are coming to invest and make the parts that will shape a Renault car," the minister said, though he declined to say to give an exact figure on Renault's investment in the project.



The director of the company's Africa, Middle East and India region, Bernard Cambier, also declined to give details but said that at least 15 component makers are committed to invest in the project.



Cambio and Elalamy signed the deal inside the royal palace in Rabat.



Renault's Tangier car factory, the biggest in North Africa, required initial investment of 600 million euros ($683.70 million) and is expected to reach an annual production capacity of 400,000 vehicles in the coming years.



Morocco expects auto industry exports to reach 100 billion Moroccan dirhams ($10.39 billion) a year by 2020 as a result of PSA Peugeot Citroen's decision last year to build a 557 million euro factory in the country, slated to produce 200,000 vehicles a year.



The kingdom has attracted a number of big auto and aerospace investors in recent years, including Delphi, Bombardier and Eaton Corp.



Unlike many countries in the region, Morocco has managed to avoid a big drop in foreign investments in the wake of the global financial crisis and the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011, partly by marketing itself as an export base for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Reuters
Saudi Arabias Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Bayanat Al Oula (Mobily), a top telecom provider, signed an agreement with NEC of Japan for provision of network managed services for the upcoming three years.



The agreement represents an expansion in the scope of work between the two parties. Accordingly, NEC will provide the network managed services for (Microwave-PTP) networks as business solutions reflected on the control and management of daily operations, corrective actions, Proactive and preventive maintenance, and improving the operating system, as well as keeping pace with the latest developments of the system.



Mobily aims to enhance the competency of its network in the Kingdom and make the utmost of this agreement to provide the best services to its customers in the business sector.



Mobily owns reliable infrastructure that enhances its ability to provide the best services in this sector, and is always seeking to maintain its excellence in the provision of high quality services that exceed customers expectations, meet their needs and enrich their experience through operational efficiency and high quality of provided services, in addition to the achieved progress in major performance indicators of networks and services level agreements for its networks according to global industry criteria.



Maziad Al Harbi, chief technology officer at Mobily, said that the company works to hold different partnerships with global highly qualified companies that enables the company to provide the most advanced services to its customers, and to establish the principles of exchanging experience with international companies.



Kamal Nasr Aldeen, vice president, Sales and Business Development in NEC company Saudi Arabia Branch said: Under the current huge development in the field of Data Transfer and the increasing competition to provide the best services for customers, which requires developing of managed services industry to ensure full competency of the network and improve the operational standards which in its turn leads to upgrade the service standards and this guarantees for (Mobily) to be always at the forefront of operators in the field of data within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  TradeArabia News Service
UAE-based aluminium major Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) is the Diamond Sponsor of the Genius Reflections Competition 2016, the results of which will be announced tomorrow (April 11).



The Genius Reflections Competition, organised by Union Arab Photographers, Emirates Photography Society, Photographic Society of America, Society ARS Lumen and Global Photographic Union, attracts entries from professional photographers from around the world.



A total of 101 awards will be presented across the competitions five entry categories, said a statement from the company.



EGAs collaboration with the competition is part of a long-term commitment to offer financial resources and expertise to a broad range of events and activities that contribute to EGAs positioning as a responsible business, committed to sustainable development to the benefit of all stakeholders, it added.



Khalid Essa Buhumaid, senior vice president, government relations, said: EGA strives to make a positive impact in the communities where we operate. By sponsoring the competition, we are supporting an initiative that encourages creative expression and offers a valuable opportunity to showcase the growing arts culture in the UAE.



Community-based initiatives such as this support the UAE's socio-economic growth and set a good example for the countrys younger generation to follow their passion for the arts, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
A new study has listed `factories automation as one of the top three emerging trends in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the UAE in 2023. The other two upcoming trends for 2023 in the two GCC countries, according to the study by Poly, are smart liv
Hyundai Motor was recently honoured at the prestigious Red Dot Design Awards, with the forthcoming Ioniq eco-friendly model recognised for its outstanding design in the coveted vehicle category.



The Red Dot Design Award, granted by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Germany, acknowledges international excellence in product design, said a statement from the company.



In the Vehicles category, the 2016 edition of the awards recognised the future-orientated design of Hyundais first dedicated eco-friendly model, it added.



Officially launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March and due to be released in selected international markets during 2016, the Ioniq takes a new approach to green motoring. Rather than commit to a single combination of energy source and drivetrain, the ground-breaking Hyundai offers three different powertrain options within a shared vehicle architecture. These include parallel petrol-electric hybrid, where both engines work together to move the car; plug-in petrol electric hybrid, which offers a limited range using electric power, supplemented by a petrol engine for longer journeys; and a fully electric option for pure zero emissions motoring, it said.



In selecting the Ioniq, the Red Dot jury recognised Hyundai for presenting an evolutionary design, through a refined, sophisticated form, and for its application of new eco-friendly materials. The vehicle presents new possibilities for Hyundai Motors future mobility styling, with its purified shape led by aerodynamics, and its refined, clean lines and surfaces enhancing its coupe-like silhouette, said the statement.



Drawing on a jury of 38 experts from 25 countries - all high profile designers, professors and journalists - the Red Dot Design Award is recognised globally as one of the most sought-after marks for quality design. The 2016 contest attracted 5,214 entries from 57 countries, making the Red Dot Award the largest and most international product competition in the world, it stated.



Jin (James) Kim, vice president and head of Hyundai Africa and Middle East, said: The Ioniq is a unique concept in the market for greener motoring, with this latest award bringing further global recognition for the companys forward-looking design philosophy.



To date, alternative-fuel vehicles have committed to one technology, such as hybrid drive or pure electric. The Ioniq is flexible according to the needs of specific customers, which will contribute to the take-up of more environmentally friendly vehicles, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
The oil market is now poised to rebalance in the next six quarters and Brent crude price is likely to rally to $47 per barrel by mid-year, according to a new report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch.



The report titled Global Energy Weekly: Brent outpacing gasoline said the global oil supply glut that brought prices down from $115 to $27 per barrel is starting to clear.



Fuelled by gasoline, global oil demand grew by 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd) year on year in 2015 and the demand strength is expected to continue this year, the report said.



However, crude oil inventories could initially decline at a faster rate than product stocks, suggesting that Brent prices may recover faster than gasoline or diesel, the report said.



The recent shutdown of the 590,000 bpd Keystone pipeline that carries Canadian crude into the Midwest US as well as North Sea field maintenance could both exacerbate this trend.



Encouraged by the low fuel prices at the pump, Americans continue hit the roads. "We expect miles driven to set a new record this summer, lifting gasoline demand to record levels. Drivers in other countries are also doing their part. After all, global oil demand grew by 1.7 million bpd YoY in 2015, the second strongest rate in a decade, with gasoline accounting for half of that growth. The low prices should continue to shift consumer preferences towards larger and less fuel efficient cars, boosting gasoline demand in 2016 and beyond," the report said.



"For instance, YoY SUV sales growth in the US has exceeded 10 per cent in nine out of the past 11 months. As such, we expect global gasoline demand growth of 0.5 million bpd in 2016, 65 per cent above the 10-year average, and total oil demand growth to exceed 1.2 million bpd," it added.



While global gasoline balances are tightening structurally, many gasoline refining units are now returning from maintenance. Petroleum product stocks all around the world are also generally quite high due to the warm winter. Meanwhile US shale oil production is

now in freefall. Thus, as the global oil glut starts to clear, crude oil should lead the way, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch said. - TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Aramco will share its pipeline integrity management and technologies solutions at Pipeline Operations and Management Middle East (POMME) 2016, a major multi-track conference opening in Bahrain tomorrow (April 11).



The event will run at Gulf Convention Centre under the patronage of Dr Abdul Hussain bin Ali Mirza, Minister of Energy, until April 14.



The conference will bring together experts from within and outside the region to discuss some of the latest technologies and concepts for maintaining and operating oil and gas pipelines in the most efficient, cost-effective, and professional manner, while taking account of the environmental and other concerns of the communities through which they pass.



The conference will begin with topical workshops. A plenary session will formally open the main Technical Sessions on April 12, and will be accompanied by a major exhibition reflecting the widest interests of the pipeline industry. Topical tracks for the technical program of the event will include corrosion, repair, maintenance, design, operations, management, system integrity, etc.



Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, Saudi Aramco chief technology officer, will be keynote speaker of the event which will be attended by a number of engineers and experts from Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf region.



Mohammad Sultan Al-Qahtani, general manager Pipelines, Saudi Aramco said: POMME 2016 is a venue for pipelines professionals to share best practices and to discuss common issues of interest in a spirit of collaboration and knowledge-sharing. The event will provide added value and integrate asset owners with subject matter experts and vendors across the globe.



Saudi Aramco booth will provide visitors with information activities, solutions and best practices in pipeline operations and integrity management.  TradeArabia News Service
Air Arabia Jordan will launch a new route from Amman to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next week.



Starting from April 14, flights will be operational three times weekly. This will be Air Arabia Jordans first expansion in 2016 and Riyadh will be the third Saudi Arabian city to be serviced by the carrier after Dammam and Jeddah.



The flights will take off from Amman Queen Alia International Airport at 15:45 and arrive at Riyadh King Khalid International Airport at 17:50. Return flights will depart Saudi Arabia at 18:30 and land in Jordan at 20:15. They will be operational on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.



Commenting on the new route, an Air Arabia Jordan spokesperson said: We are excited to expand this year to Riyadh and continue increasing connectivity between the Levant and the GCC. We believe our proposition for being the best value carrier in the region will attract travellers to favour Air Arabia Jordan as their primary carrier. In a short span of time, we have grown significantly in Jordan and will continue to do so carrying forward into the year. - TradeArabia News Service
Etihad Airways is introducing three additional passenger flights per week between Johannesburg, South Africa, and Abu Dhabi from July to September to cater for the increased demand on the route during summer.



Complementing the airlines existing daily service between the two cities, the new flights will be operated by a combination of Airbus A330-200 and Boeing 777 aircraft, offering a total of 2,200 additional seats in Business Class and 21,500 additional seats in Economy Class over the three-month period.



These additional flights offer greater flexibility for the large numbers of guests travelling between the UAE and the GCC region, and South Africa over the summer period, said John Friel, Etihad Airways general manager, South Africa. They also provide our guests travelling from South Africa with greater access to a large number of popular holiday destinations across our global network, in Asia, the Indian Sub-continent, Australia and the US. - TradeArabia News Service
Kingdom Hotel Investments (KHI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Saudi Arabian conglomerate Kingdom Holding Company (KHC), has sold its 100 per cent interest in the InterContinental Lusaka, Zambia, to a private company for $35.9 million.



The transaction with QG Africa Hotel, a Mauritius-based fund managed by QG Investments Africa Management, closed on March 31.



Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, chairman of KHC, said: This transaction marks yet another success for KHCs value realisation strategy from growth market investments.



Sarmad Zok, chairman and CEO of KHI and Member of KHCs board of directors, said: The sale of the InterContinental Hotel Lusaka is part of KHIs ongoing value realisation mandate and speaks to the quality of our assets and our team execution. - TradeArabia News Service
After Flagstaff hospital officials noticed an unusual increase in the number of strep throat patients, they requested assistance from the Translational Genomics Research Institute in Flagstaff.

The health officials wanted to determine the strain so they could better treat and prevent the illness.

The nonprofit institute, also known as TGen North, solved the mystery by looking at the genomes of those infected  and it turned out the culprit evolved from a superbug. The institutes Pathogen Genomics Division also helped figure out the source of illness among child cancer patients in Chile by identifying a fungus in their medication, according to a study released by TGen in March.

Health departments  both locally and internationally  have utilized the institute more because of its technology and expertise. Most of the time when looking at genomes, the TGen team comes up empty-handed. So when they make a definitive identification like they did in Flagstaff, it can create a big change in the care of patients.

We definitely see being a part of the public health system as a part of our mission. The pressures on, said David Engelthaler, director of programs and operations at TGen North, and lead author of the study.

Strep throat in Flagstaff

The institutes scientists took apart strands of DNA and separated their portions, or islets, to compare their sequences to normal strands of DNA to check for mutations.

After observing six genome strains, the TGen team identified that the patients had an emm59 type of strep throat called group A streptococcus. The bacteria that causes this strain of strep throat can develop into necrotizing fasciitis in wounds, something the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls a flesh-eating infection that can result in a loss of limb or even death.

We worked directly with the hospital, and we were able to get strains of the group A strep, do the analysis and prove that there was an outbreak going on, Engelthaler said.

This strain of strep throat is thought to be evolved from an outbreak several years ago in Canada, and Engelthaler refers to it as a superbug. The same bug was also identified in patients in New Mexico.

The hospital can now use specialized treatment for the patients.

On one level, we hope the impact will be to eventually see fewer group A streptococcal disease cases, said Mare Schumacher, Coconino County Public Health Services District epidemiologist. Perhaps as importantly, we hope that cases of group A streptococcal disease are treated quickly and properly.

Schumacher said now that they have identified the strain, they hope to prevent the spread in two ways.

First, we are promoting hand washing, good care of wounds and staying home when you are sick, Schumacher said. This is somewhat difficult because the group A streptococcus bacteria are everywhere.

They also plan to prevent the spread by treating wounds quickly.

Other applications

Genomic sequencing is just one of the arrows that TGen has in its quiver.

Sometimes its helping solve disease outbreaks, both locally and internationally, but sometimes its developing new diagnostic tools or new monitoring tools for bio defense, or creating tools that go to the hospitals or the health-care systems to help better identify infections, Engelthaler said.

Engelthaler said the strep throat project and the pediatric cancer projects were some of the most rewarding the team of 35 has worked on.
Seven Catalina Foothills High School students have done what many have tried but few have succeeded at: launched their own theater company.

Acting Innocent, which performs out of The Community Playhouse, opens its second production, Leveling Up, next week.

The students select the plays, cast, direct, create scenery, sell tickets, raise money, act and design costumes  all tasks that have defeated older and more experienced artists.

They have done it with the intent to bring in younger audiences, discuss issues with after-performance talks and raise money for nonprofit organizations.

We are looking at shows that have a social implication and that we can talk about afterwards, and taking it a step further by donating profits to charities, said Griffin Johnston, the companys founding artistic director.

And its working.

Their first performance, Februarys Dog Sees God, which dealt with subjects such as drugs and homosexuality, started Acting Innocent on an encouraging note.

We sold out about half of our performances, says Johnston, an 18-year-old senior. We had enough attendance to see our efforts pay off and to hopefully continue.

Thats not surprising: The production was very good, with acting that was rooted and honest.

The show, which ran over three weekends and drew about 350 audience members made up of friends, parents and theater fans, both provoked and entertained.

They raised $165 for the Tucson Lesbian and Gay Alliance.

A project the students did together in the 2014-15 school year planted the seed for Acting Innocent.

The students produced the play The Boys Next Door, and entered it into the Arizona State Thespian Festival.

Though they represented Catalina Foothills High, the school had nothing to do with the production  the students did it all.

They got it into their heads they wanted to do the one-act play, recalls Terry Erbe, the students teacher at Foothills until this school year, when he left to teach in Kansas City, Missouri.

They adapted it themselves, rehearsed after school at each others homes, found all their own props and costumes.

They were the most highly self-motivated group of kids Ive ever seen, says Erbe, a longtime and well-respected actor and director when he was here.

Their staging of The Boys Next Door won the state title at the thespian fest.

That production dealt with social issues and treatment of special-needs individuals, Johnston says.

He realized that the thrill of creating theater independent of the school didnt have to end there.

I texted everyone and said we could produce our own play, he recalls. It started with just one play and molded into a full-fledged idea.

The idea of developing plays that spoke to younger audiences and staging works that inspired conversation about sometimes-difficult subjects was essential to the idea.

What appealed to me most was Griffins concept of putting on provocative shows, says Justyn Zeider, 16, the lone junior in the group.

I have always wanted social change, but its hard to do by myself. But then Griffin brought up the idea of social change through theater. I was skeptical, but the idea was really interesting.

That concept also sold Margot Vasquez, 17.

I think theater has always been one of the art forms that people connect to, she says. It forces you to think about a certain topic. It really makes you think and makes the mind work.

It has also given these teens an up-close-and-personal look at running a theater company. While each has a title, it is a formality: Everyone does everything. That helps them zero in on what they might want to pursue in college.

Ive learned I dont love the producing aspect, says Savannah Runge, 18. Acting Innocent has allowed us to branch out and experience more of whats out there.  Its a good way to understand that acting is not all that goes into the art.

It hasnt always been easy.

Its been a roller coaster, says Vaughn Sherman, 17. I was hesitant about doing it. Running a business while in high school seemed mind-blowing to me. But to do it with my friends and for a good cause has been awesome. And if you always keep in mind why you are doing it, its worth the headaches.

Headaches werent apparent at a recent rehearsal of Leveling Up at Johnstons home. He is sitting on the floor directing, furiously taking notes on a yellow pad as a few of the actors run through scenes. Those with backstage jobs sit around and watch. When a scene finishes, Johnston, with authority but no arrogance, makes suggestions. The others watching do the same. While Johnston is clearly in charge, they all seem to have equal say and power in the process.

We are a team, Johnston says. I oversee what everyones doing, but for the most part, everyone is very equal. We vote on things; its been cohesive and team-based. I dont think it could have been done any other way.

Since all but Zeider graduate next month, it begs the question: Will Acting Innocent go away when the bulk of the founders go off to college?

It would be a little intimidating to carry on, but I do want to, Zeider says. If we have new members, I definitely want to.

While most of the other founders are headed out of state, they dont plan to abandon Zeider and the company.

Vasquez, who will attend Arizona State University, said she will do what she can.

As will Runge, who wants to major in theater and do pre-med.

And then there is Johnston, who is undecided about which out-of-state school hell attend.

I want to give any support I can, he says. I really do love the company.

The founding members of Acting Innocent and their job titles:

Griffin Johnston, 18

Founding artistic director.

Whats next: I might go into producing, but my main focus is theater and/or acting, depending on the university. He is still deciding where to go. He has been accepted at Northwestern and Columbia universities, and California Institute of Arts. He is also on the Harvard University waiting list.

Vaughn Sherman, 17

General manager.

Whats next: His plan is to study musical theater, though he hasnt decided on a school yet. He is considering the University of Miami, Indiana University, Arizona State University and Collaborative Arts Project 21 (CAP 21) in New York City.

Gabriela Yadegari, 18

Technical director.

Whats next: Shell study filmmaking at New York University, an avenue she thinks will allow her to pursue her passion about social issues. I think film is similar to theater, but I think it can reach a lot more people.

Stefanie Tedards, 18

Outreach coordinator.

Whats next: Tedards is thinking about taking a gap year before going to college. Ive gotten into modeling, so Im hoping to pursue that and do some traveling.

Savannah Runge, 18

Educational director.

Whats next: I plan to major in theater and do pre-med. I dont want to decide, and those are two things I love, so Ive found programs that make that possible. Runge is trying to decide between Northwestern University and University of California, Irvine, though Wagner College (New York City) and ASU are still in consideration.

Margot Vazquez, 17

Marketing director.

Whats next: I just committed to ASU. My major is business and global politics  I am passionate about getting messages (about social change) out.

Justin Zeider, 16

Production manager.

Whats next: Graduation from high school next year, then college. Im not sure what I want to do. I think right now I want to pursue engineering, but I still would want to be involved with theater.
(70) passed away April 4, 2016. Survived by loving husband of 40 years, Chuck; daughters, Rosemarie (Jeff) Johnson, Holly Jones; grandchildren, Hannah, Sarah, Luke; sister, Elizabeth Courtney. Beautiful, wise, caring, and happy, Maryruth loved spending time with her husband and sweetie, daughters, son-in-law, and grandkids. She enjoyed reading, picnics, cooking, and being active. Always thoughtful and giving, she had a beautiful smile to share and enjoyed relaxing with family and a good beer. She loved yearly travel to San Francisco, La Jolla, the Pacific Northwest, and New Orleans. She looked forward to revisiting Ireland and the Cinque Terra. She is our best friend, hero, and sweet mom. She will be dearly missed. Arrangements by AVENIDAS CREMATION & BURIAL.
A series of immigration-related bills proposed in the Legislature have again spurred protests and threats by immigrant-rights groups to resume an Arizona boycott.

And Arizona is not alone. Amid the national rhetoric regarding immigrants, bills are cropping up across several states.

By the end of 2015, the number of enacted legislation dealing with immigration jumped by 26 percent with 216 laws, compared with 171 in 2014, the National Conference of State Legislatures reported.

Nationwide, terrorist attacks or violent crimes committed by immigrants have contributed to this type of legislation, said Ann Morse, the program director for the Immigration Policy Project at the National Conference of State Legislatures, which supports and analyzes state legislatures.

But the laws often do not address the nuanced issues involved, she said.

Some presidential hopefuls feed on these fears to strengthen their political platforms, said Isabel Garcia, a local attorney and human-rights activist with Coalicion de Derechos Humanos.

Republicans nationwide are emboldened to use the immigration issue to motivate their base of support, said Roberto Reveles, founder and president of the coalition Somos America.

Some of the bills introduced this session would withhold money from sanctuary cities, require mandatory maximum sentencing for undocumented immigrants and bar state resources from being used to resettle refugees.

As the legislative session winds to a close, some bills are unlikely to pass, such as those penalizing sanctuary cities and restricting funds for refugees. But a few could still make their way to Gov. Doug Ducey. On March 30, Ducey signed the first of these measures into law: HB 2451, a bill that prevents some prisoners with deportation orders from being released to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement before completing their sentence.

A week later, Somos America announced that it would consider resuming the Boycott Arizona campaign that started six years ago in response to SB 1070, Arizonas 2010 immigration-enforcement law.

Our record shows that when we focus on a campaign, we are successful, as we were with the previous boycott, Reveles said.

The previous boycott ended up hurting the Arizona state economy, with multi-million dollars of losses, especially the hospitality industry.

Back then, Arizonas business community wrote to the Legislature asking it to leave immigration reform to the federal government, and eventually the Supreme Court struck down much of the law, though some provisions remain.

After the controversy surrounding SB 1070, the Legislature has largely avoided bills targeting Arizonas unauthorized population. However, this session has seen an uptick.

Lawmakers proposing the bills say the laws have nothing to do with national trends, but are in response to the concerns of their constituents.

Republican state Sen. Steve Smith sponsored SB 1377, which would require undocumented immigrants convicted of crimes to serve mandatory sentences and make them ineligible for parole, probation or early release. It passed the Senate in February and is currently in the House.

He introduced the bill in response to the murder of 21-year-old Grant Ronnebeck by a convicted felon who was in the U.S. illegally but had been released on probation, he said.

Opponents say that increasing penalties for people based solely on their citizenship violates federal immigration law.

The bill is not targeting Mexican immigrants, Smith said, but people from any country who are in the U.S. illegally.

Before assuming the motivation is racism, he said, people should think about how this affects victims and their families. Its anti-illegal. Not anti-immigrant.
BISBEE

The bed Thomas Buck sleeps on is much like the ones he endured for 12 years in state prison: A thin mattress on loose springs, a bunkmate on a bed above.

Buck desperately wants to move to Texas to live, for the first time, with the woman he calls his soul mate. But instead he must make a Bisbee homeless shelter his home because, despite serving his entire term and foregoing early release, the state is keeping him under community supervision in Arizona for 17 months.

For him, overcoming that stretch feels like jumping across a canyon: Buck is 84 years old.

If I was 30 years old, 17 months wouldnt be too long. But for an 84-year-old man, 17 months could be a lifetime, he said. Im stuck here till May 20 of 2017.

Buck believes he was treated unfairly. He was misled, he says, by prison counselors who told him in 2014 that if he served out his entire 10-year term, rather than taking early release, he would not have to do community supervision  commonly known as parole  and could leave the state. Prisoners call that killing your number.

If a prison employee really gave such bad advice, thats a problem. But my research suggests the real problem is broader than one octogenarians case. Not only must a non-violent criminal like Buck serve 85 percent of his term under Arizonas excessive truth-in-sentencing laws, but he also must do court-ordered community service after the entire length of the original prison term is up, Arizona Department of Corrections spokesman Andrew Wilder told me, citing the statutes that seem to prove him right.

In other words, a person with a 10-year sentence may get out after serving 8 years of his prison term, spend the remaining 1 years under prison-required community supervision, and only then go on to the original term of supervision that the judge ordered, as required by state law. Statutes dictate that term as one day of supervision for every seven days of the original prison term.

For someone in Bucks situation, that feels like a life sentence.

Buck grew up in Montreal but moved to Texas as a young man. He married an American woman, became a citizen and spent years in a variety of businesses  banking, shoes, restaurants. He was living in Texas in 1980 when he met Patty Huffman and began an affair with her.

The relationship would prove to be the root of Bucks problems, as well as a dream come true.

We go through life and most of us dont have the luck to find that exact, perfect match, he said.

Unfortunately, that exact, perfect match was not his wife, whom Buck remained married to for the rest of her life, for decades after she first found out about the affair, he said. She died while he was in prison.

In 1989, Buck and his wife moved to Dewey, Ariz., and went into business with their son Todd, running a local chain of markets. In 1994, Buck said, he transferred ownership of the store to his son and began taking Social Security. That transfer turned Bucks unethical behavior into a crime.

The whole time the family owned the stores, Buck was secretly taking money from the stores. He was sending it to support Huffman in Texas, who was beginning to have health problems and was living on Social Security disability payments. That wasnt illegal as long as he owned the store, but when his son was owner, it became a crime.

In 2003, Todd Buck figured it out, called the police and had his father arrested. Convicted of theft, Buck was sentenced to 2 years in prison. But that was just an appetizer to the multi-course meal of prison life Buck was about to consume.

In 2006, Buck was indicted on similar theft charges, all stemming from the same pattern of sending store money to his mistress, just from an earlier period. Yavapai Countys justice system decided not only that it was a separate crime, but that his earlier conviction amounted to a prior offense and therefore worthy of harsher punishment. In July 2006, Buck got a 10-year sentence.

During that second sentence, Todd died. To ensure I understood a victims perspective, I spoke Friday with another family member, but she declined to speak for inclusion in this column and asked not to be named.

That 10-year sentence was a long time for a 74-year-old man, as Buck was on the date of his second sentencing. Whats amazing when you speak to him now, 10 hard years later, is his agility and mental sharpness. He showed me around the cramped, temporary shelter where he is living, excited about all the donations collected from area supermarkets to put in food baskets for the needy who show up for dinner at the Bisbee Coalition for the Homeless in the Tin Town neighborhood.

You want to get a laugh? he asked, pointing me into a narrow doorway where there was a tiny bathroom. Go ahead and look at that toilet and tell me if you could use that toilet very well. If I ever catch the architect who designed that, Im going to string him up.

Buck laughed as he said this, but becomes stern when he talks about prison. He doesnt excuse his crimes or even gripe about the long sentence he was given. In fact, he prefers not to talk about life in prison at all.

Ive left that in the past, he said. What he cant ignore is what he learned being on the inside.

I am absolutely appalled at the criminal justice system, he said.

The discovery that shocked him most is the fact that it is an industry, trafficking in human lives for profit. This is something that as an ordinary Arizona man, involved in business and everyday pursuits, he was never exposed to. Now it motivates him.

He didnt know about the private prisons guaranteed enough inmates to make a profit, about the 15-minute phone calls that cost $5, about the cheap prison food and services that the state pays for dearly. He was ignorant of the fact that inmates are paid 50 cents per hour for work they do outside prison, while the prison system collects the legal minimum wage for their work.

He considers the whole thing a racket. And now he sees his precious remaining days being stolen by the same syndicate.

I called but never heard back from Bucks public defender in Yavapai County on whether she thought he was being treated correctly. Two experienced criminal-defense attorneys I consulted in Tucson had not heard of the kind of treatment Buck was receiving and also were under the belief that if he served out his term, instead of taking early release at 85 percent of his sentence, hed be free to go.

The chief deputy county attorney in Yavapai County, Dennis McGrane, told me that understanding was incorrect.

To use prison parlance, there is no way to kill that number in prison, he said. If you look at it from a public-safety standpoint, they want to ensure theres a transition period between prison and total freedom.

There is a system for transferring inmates from supervision in one state to supervision in another, but Buck doesnt meet the requirements for mandatory transfers between states because he doesnt have family with whom he could live in Texas. What he hasnt taken advantage of, Wilder told me, is a system of discretionary transfers, where the inmate requests that another state take him under its supervision voluntarily.

That may solve Bucks problem in the end, but that doesnt solve the broader problem of criminal justice in Arizona that his case brings up. At 85 percent, the mandatory prison time for even non-violent offenders is extraordinarily long compared to almost every other state. And these little-known laws keep the states claws in some inmates long after theyve shown they are making it on the outside, keeping them from getting on with their lives.

In Bucks case, they are keeping apart a pair of star-crossed lovers who just want the chance to finally be together for a little while.

I bet I have a thousand letters from him, and hes got a thousand from me, Patty Huffman told me from the home in Wylie, Texas where she wants Buck to come live.

It seems like more than half of my life Ive waited on him, she said. It just seems like a dream that will never happen.
A Tucson couple says they have no choice but to give up custody of their troubled son to circumvent an insurance companys denial of high-intensity residential treatment.

The 14-year-old has started acting out his childhood sexual trauma on his peers, and his parents believe he could end up in prison as a sex offender if he doesnt stop getting bounced between low-level, temporary placements.

I dont want to see him become a predator because hes not getting the help he needs, said Vivian Bacon, 57, a retired intake support specialist at the Pima County Sheriffs Department. Hes already 14. Hes got four years left before hes out of our control.

Bacon and her husband, Don, believe the teenager requires a Level 1 residential treatment center, where children are kept in highly controlled, locked-down settings staffed by medical professionals and attend school on site.

Local experts say residential care for troubled children was overused in the past, and research shows improvements children make in those facilities often evaporate once they return home. Long stays, sometimes out of state, isolate children from their families for months or years.

But the pendulum has swung in the other direction: Approval for such intensive and expensive care can be hard to come by, and there are no Level 1 residential treatment centers in Tucson.

Cenpatico Integrated Care  the new behavioral-health-care administrator for children in Southern Arizona  has closed Devereux Arizonas 10-bed residential treatment unit.

Terry Stevens, Cenpatico CEO, said in most cases a robust network of wraparound support services for families is far better than institutionalizing a child.

Im really worried about traumatizing a child and removing them from a home and a community setting, in order to deal with disruptive behavior, Stevens said. Company policy prohibits her from commenting directly on the Bacons case, she said.

Cenpatico is Southern Arizonas regional behavioral health authority, or RBHA. In Arizona, RBHAs act like managed-care companies to coordinate and finance behavioral health care for children and adults enrolled in the states Medicaid program and to cover medical care for adults with serious mental illness.

The agency relies on referrals from providers like the Arizonas Children Association, which recommended Level 1 residential treatment for the Bacons son in December.

Member has been approved for Level 1 that can deal with his sexual maladaptive behaviors, its Dec. 21 referral said.

But in January, Cenpatico denied that request, and the company denied the Bacons appeal on March 11.

Since Cenpatico started operating in Pima County in October, Stevens has been vocal about her opposition to Level 1 residential care for children.

I dont believe in it, she said. That doesnt mean we dont sometimes use it. I just dont think its an effective therapeutic tool.

Cenpatico suggested alternative placements for the teen. But all of those agencies  many of which focus on children with substance-abuse issues and do not specialize in sexual trauma  rejected the boy because his needs were too great, Vivian Bacon said.

Cenpatico now recommends a therapeutic foster home  where the teenager is placed currently with one other child  authorized for 60 days at a time and intensive support services when he returns home, Bacon said.

Abuse began early

Three years ago, Vivian and Don Bacon took in  and eventually adopted  her biological nephew after the boy told a youth pastor about the sexual, physical and emotional abuse he endured at the hands of his father and stepmother. The Star is not naming the teen because he was a victim.

But the Bacons no longer feel safe having him in their home.

It got so bad I could not sleep at night for fear that this kid was going to come in and either kill us or hurt us, Vivian Bacon said.

The boy was physically aggressive with his parents and threatened to kill himself repeatedly. He broke two ceiling fans, kicked a hole in the wall, broke their collectibles and urinated on the floor. Hes been asked to leave three schools for disruptive behavior. He has at least five times made inappropriate sexual advances on other children  a reaction to the sexual trauma he experienced, his parents say.

The only way he knows to have a social relationship is sexually, Vivian Bacon said.

The Bacons describe their son as a survivor  with an artistic streak and a talent for computers  who is coping with trauma the only way he knows how.

After his father took custody of him at age 3, the boy experienced both abuse and neglect, according to reports from his therapists, which the Bacons shared with the Star. His home had no food, and the boy slept on the floor amid mouse droppings. When he arrived at the Bacons house, he hoarded food and they had to teach him to eat with utensils.

His father is now in prison for armed robbery, and his birth mother is homeless in Tucson, dealing with addiction, the Bacons said.

The teenager has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar I disorder, as well as depression and anxiety.

The Bacons believe placement in a highly controlled residential treatment facility  where he would get daily therapy and be constantly supervised  is the only way to give their son a chance at a productive life.

We just think he has a future. We know he has a good heart, Don Bacon said. We dont want to dump him in a residential-treatment center. But if he doesnt get these types of treatment, eventually hell be in and out of prison.

But after going into debt to pay for an earlier residential placement for their son last year, the couple cant afford another without approval, and payment, from Cenpatico.

A lAST RESORT

As a last resort, the family plans to file a dependency petition this week in Pima County Juvenile Court. The petition will ask the court to turn over custody of their son to the Arizona Department of Child Safety, which will investigate their claim that they cannot care for him.

The action will trigger a review and could compel Cenpatico to justify its denials to a judge, said Tucson attorney Thea Gilbert, who is representing the Bacons.

The court might order Cenpatico to approve residential treatment if the case is strong enough, said Gilbert, a contract attorney with Juvenile Court.

She said she has represented hundreds of children and parents in child-welfare cases.

At this point we have tried everything to get them (Cenpatico) to realize that the child needs more help than they are currently providing, Gilbert said. With a kid of this age, we have a very narrow window to get the behaviors under control, to teach him appropriate coping skills.

PHILOSOPHICAL DEBATE

Decades as a child therapist have convinced Cenpaticos Stevens that Level 1 residential treatment is never the best option.

I was watching child after child go into residential-treatment facilities and coming out worse than they went in, she said.

Cenpatico is pushing providers here to try every other option before resorting to institutionalizing a child.

The insurer is bolstering alternatives such as teaching parents behavior-management skills and providing intensive wraparound support by newly trained providers, Stevens said.

It has also implemented brief intervention programs  short-term, crisis-intervention placements  and is planning to open an assessment center in Tucson where children with extreme behavioral problems can stay temporarily and undergo psychological testing to determine the best treatment plan.

But Stevens acknowledges Level 1 residential treatment is sanctioned as valid by the states Medicaid agency, the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, or AHCCCS. Cenpatico has approved Level 1 residential care in the past, both in the rural region where it used to operate and now in the eight-county Southern Arizona region where it acts as the RBHA, she said.

Residential treatment should be the last resort, but there are cases where such a placement is appropriate, said Eric Schindler, child psychologist and CEO of Child and Family Resources in Tucson.

Its a philosophical debate, he said. Residential care had been overprescribed and is a very restrictive environment, and so I would agree that every attempt should be made to try intensive, wraparound services. But experts agree there are times where symptoms are so severe that residential care is the best option.

In the year before Cenpatico took over, the previous RBHA  Community Partnership of Southern Arizona, or CPSA  placed 64 Pima County kids in level 1 residential treatment, for an average stay of 23 days, said Neal Cash, who was CEO of CPSA. The agency has reorganized as Community Partners Inc.

Cash said he agrees that long-term residential placements arent in a childs best interest. But he supports having some local capacity for kids who need it short-term.

Devereuxs now-shuttered 10-bed Tucson facility usually had enough capacity to let kids stay near their families, he said. In 2015, each month between one and 12 kids were in residential treatment here, he said.

Now kids will have to go to another part of the state if they need that level of care. Thats increasingly likely as the states foster-care crisis continues, he said.

More than 18,600 children are in out-of-home care in Arizona  a staggering 92 percent increase since 2008.

You gotta have a little bit of capacity for residential treatment, Cash said. The pendulum has swung. When you say none, thats pretty extreme.

$40,000 treatment tab

Last year, before engaging with Cenpatico, the Bacons paid $40,000 to place their son at Eagle Ranch Academy, a licensed residential-treatment center in Utah.

The expense was hard on the retired couple, who live in a modest home near Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Don spent 30 years in the Navy before he met Vivian in the early 1990s, when he worked at the Sheriffs Department as a corrections officer.

Don, who is 75, cashed in a $100,000 life-insurance policy that he took out in the 1960s, which was intended to benefit his children . He got $18,000 from the policy.

The couple also took out a $25,000 loan that theyre still paying down.

After five months at Eagle Ranch, in November the teen was given 30 days to leave after making sexual advances on another child .

The boy needs a higher level of care with a sexual abuse and possible predatory component, his December discharge report said. He is also in need of coping skills to deal with sexually inappropriate behavior and urges. He needs a staff-intensive environment with behavioral interventions.

Rejected referrals

Stevens said residential treatment is approved only when kids have tried and failed at lower levels of care.

But, she said, I would never put a child in a lower level placement if I believed they were going to fail at it.

Casa de Tucson, a Level 2 residential-treatment center, was among the facilities that denied Cenpaticos referral for the teenager.

He appears to require one-to-one supervision and Casa de Tucson does not provide this type of high-level supervision, the facilitys clinical director wrote in a rejection letter.

Anne Howarth, administrator at Casa de Tucson, would not discuss this specific case. But she said since Cenpatico took over, Casa de Tucson has had to reject more referrals.

Were getting more referrals for clients that have a much higher acuity level than we normally take, she said. Of course our responsibility, number one, is going to be to community safety.
Alex R. Garcia Sr., former Pima County Planning and Zoning director whose work helped shape Tucsons development for more than three decades, died Thursday. He was 88.

Garcia died at his home of natural causes, said his son, Alex R. Garcia Jr. Shortly before his death, family members prayed the rosary with him, and he also listened to Big Band music by the Glenn Miller Orchestra, said his son.

My mother enjoyed that music, and her and my dad danced to it at El Casino Ballroom for years, said Garcia Jr. He said his father missed his wife, Grace, who died eight years ago, and he was ready to join her.

Garcia, a native of Nogales, Sonora, moved with his family to Tucson when he was age 4. He attended local schools and graduated from Tucson High School in 1946. While at Tucson High, he began working part-time as a draftsman for the then-Tucson/Pima County Planning Department.

He joined the Army after graduation, and that is when he became a U.S. naturalized citizen, said Garcia Jr. He said his father served with the 69th Topographic Engineers in Seoul and drew maps from aerial surveillance images. The maps guided troops and made missions safer for them.

After the service, Garcia Sr. returned to Tucson in 1948 and rejoined the city/county planning department. He contributed to writings about urban and regional policy and floodplain management systems, said Garcia Jr.

By 1964, Garcia Sr. was named Pima County Planning and Zoning director and helped with development of the county, and neighborhoods, including the establishment of historical districts. He also established airport ordinances for Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the Tucson International Airport.

My dad taught me integrity, said Garcia Jr. He recalled when he was a young boy that his fathers job included the approval of building permits. Developers would send gifts to the house, and my dad would send them right back unopened. He would tell us kids not to touch the gifts. My dad could not be bought, Garcia Jr. proudly recalled.

Tucson builder John Wesley Miller, 82, remembered the first zoning permit issued to him by Garcia Sr. cost $9. It was in the 1950s. Alex was a man of honor. A handshake deal with Alex was as good as a signed contract. He was a good man. I had a professional relationship and a friendship with him, Miller said.

Garcia Sr., who was inducted into the Tucson High Hall of Fame in 2009, also served on the board of directors for the Arizona Historical Society, was a founding member of the Pima Air & Space Museum and also of the Patronato San Xavier, an organization that promotes the preservation and restoration of Mission San Xavier del Bac.

He is survived by five children and seven grandchildren.

Services are Thursday, April 14, at St. Ambrose Catholic Church, 300 S. Tucson Blvd. A viewing is at 11 a.m. followed by a rosary at 11:30 a.m. The funeral Mass is at noon and burial will follow at Holy Hope Cemetery, 3555 N. Oracle Road.
Growing up on the San Xavier Reservation, Jacelle Ramon-Sauberan often heard about the late anthropologist, Bernard Bunny Fontana. She and her extended family lived very close to the Fontana home, off of South Mission Road, which was just steps outside of the San Xavier district.

But in that part of the world, as Fontanas neighbor and fellow anthropologist James Big Jim Griffith has said, being next-door neighbors means you dont hear people hollering; you can just see their house.

Through her mother, grandmother and other Oodham elders, Ramon-Sauberan knew about Fontanas groundbreaking work on Oodham life and culture, and the late 18th Century Mission San Xavier del Bac.

Fast forward to early 2014 when Ramon-Sauberan, now a graduate student in American Indian Studies at the University of Arizona, met Fontana. It was a meeting that was meant to happen, she said.

She began a series of interviews with Fontana, a prolific writer and scholar who passed away on April 2 at the age of 85. There are more than six hours of video and audio recordings of their conversations. They talked about his life, his extensive academic work, his exhaustive efforts to restore the fabled White Dove in the Desert, and his wider Southwestern studies.

But for Ramon-Sauberan the principal interest in Fontana was his respectful immersion into Oodham ways and his unique relationships with the Oodham from San Xavier to Sells, the Oodham capital, to the villages across the nation and in Sonora, Mexico.

If it werent for him, I dont think people would know who we are today, said Ramon-Sauberan.

The result of her interviews with Fontana, and those who worked with him, will be her masters thesis. It is the first biography of Fontana, which she will complete this semester.

In doing so, Ramon-Sauberan, will break new ground.

Im an Oodham native writing about a white academician who wrote about the Oodham, she said. Im writing from an Oodham perspective.

Ramon-Sauberan and I met up Thursday early afternoon at the mission. It was a sad day. That morning, visitors, restoration workers and Oodham church goers discovered the San Xavier was defaced with graffiti. Workers were finishing the cleanup while we sat inside the courtyard at the Missions entrance.

Friday, with the graffiti gone and the ground damp from an overnight rain, more than 300 people filled the 219-year-old baroque styled church and flowed out beyond its double wooden carved doors to celebrate Fontanas joyful life. Ramon-Sauberan was present.

Her thesis almost didnt happen, however. When Ramon-Sauberan first approached him about her idea, Fontana told her, you dont want to write about me, she said.

She insisted.

I was fortunate and honored, said Ramon- Sauberan, a Desert View High School graduate and the 27-year-old daughter of two teachers, Janice Ramon, an Oodham, and Clark Sauberan, a native of New York state.

Years before Ramon- Sauberan met Fontana, while a student at Pima Community College, she read his 1989 book, Of Earth and Little Rain: The Papago Indians, with photographs by former UA president John P. Schaefer.

That book was a powerful revelation to her. It was the first time she read about Oodham culture.

While Ramon-Sauberan was strongly connected to Oodham culture and its oral history tradition  she also spent time in Sells and other places in the nation, and her auntie Julie Ramon Pierson is known for her cultural work  literature about the Oodham was unknown to her.

I was like wow,  she said about reading Fontanas book.

He made cultural and historical connections for her. She was yearning to learn more, expand her knowledge. It was a perfect time in my life, she said.

And as it turned out it was a perfect time for Ramon-Sauberan and Fontana to meet. It was the last two years of his life. He embraced the young scholar, who will enter the UAs American Indian Studies doctoral program in the fall, as he had with numerous other scholars before her.

Hes a real good role model, she said.

She wants other Oodham to recognize Fontanas contributions and to appreciate Oodham Himdag, Oodham way of life.

I want others, younger than me, to read my thesis and understand what he did, she said.

He was sensitive to the Oodham, she said. He was friendly to everyone. He was genuinely interested in their stories which he generously shared, she added.

Mostly, she said, He was like the Oodham. He was humble.
The Pima County Sheriff's Department continues to search for a missing hiker in Sabino Canyon.

Mauricio Carreon-Maltos, 28, was last seen hiking in the Sabino Canyon recreation area Saturday morning.

The Rincon Valley Fire District received a report of the missing hiker around 10 p.m. Search and rescue teams for the Southern Arizona Rescue Association, Southern Arizona Mounted Search and Rescue, PCSD and the Department of Public Safety are assisting.

Two helicopters from the PCSD and Department of Public Safety are also being used in the search.

Carreon-Maltos is described as a Hispanic male, 5 feet 6 inches tall, 160 pounds, with black/brown hair and brown eyes.

He was last seen wearing green camouflage shorts and Nike or Puma style running shoes.

Mauricio Carreon-Maltos
University of Arizona President Ann Weaver Harts decision to join the board of a for-profit college firm could jeopardize efforts to win more state money for public universities, two legislators said Friday.

Controversy over Harts side job is overshadowing efforts to persuade Arizona lawmakers to restore tens of millions of dollars previously cut from the state university system, they said.

Her decision undermines our work as legislators to make up for the massive cuts to our three state universities, said Rep. Bruce Wheeler, D-Tucson, one of 21 lawmakers calling on Hart to resign from the UA.

She has displayed a total lack of understanding regarding the ongoing debate in support of our public education institutions, Wheeler said.

Members of the Arizona Board of Regents, who met in Tucson this week, made no mention of the controversy over Harts decision to join the board of DeVry Education Group.

The post pays $70,000 plus $100,000 in stock, on top of the $665,500 Hart is due to receive from taxpayers this year.

The parent firm of DeVry University faces a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit for allegedly deceiving students about their job prospects, and is under scrutiny by the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs, which has received nearly 150 complaints from military veterans.

The company denies wrongdoing. Hart has said she vetted DeVry thoroughly and believes the firm is sound.

Wheeler and other legislators opposed to Harts DeVry post said theyve received public support since they called for her resignation in an April 4 letter to the editor in the Arizona Daily Star.

Ive never received as much positive mail on any issue as I have on this one, said Rep. Macario Saldate of Tucson, who wrote a separate guest opinion in the Star asking that Hart choose between the UA and DeVry. He said hes heard from about 100 people who want Hart to step down or make a choice.

He agreed with Wheeler the situation could complicate efforts to convince the Legislature to start restoring university funding that was cut in previous years.

The Regents want an extra $32 million in state funds for the coming school year  $24 million more than the $8 million proposed in Gov. Doug Duceys budget. Regents President Eileen Klein said this week she expects a positive reception to the boards request.

Hart also has faced criticism from UA faculty members, donors and students since she joined the DeVry board. An online petition launched by a UA professor had 272 signatures as of Friday. However, none of Harts critics attended Fridays call to the audience at the Regents meeting to raise their concerns directly to her bosses.

Hart joined the DeVry board in February. She said she will work on her own time because she wants to help students who dont have the wherewithal to attend a university like the UA.

Hart is believed to be the only sitting university president in the country serving on the board of a publicly-traded for-profit education firm.

University of California-Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who joined the DeVry board at the same time as Hart, quit the post within days amid a public outcry.

Tucson Regent Rick Myers, in a recent email to some of Harts critics, said he has asked for a review of the Regents policy that allowed Hart to take the side job without board approval.

It isnt clear when such a review might take place. Regents staffers said Friday that no timeline has been set.
OPINION: "As a parent and teacher, I know the best way to address discord is to listen first and establish trust. As a neighborhood leader, I know how to work through differences by treating people with dignity and respect. As a mathematics teacher, I always taught my students that there is more than one way to solve problems," writes Theresa Riel, a candidate for the District 2 seat on the Pima Community College Governing Board.
Help India!

By TCN Staff Reporter,

New Delhi: Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi has been arrested by Uttar Pradesh police around midnight in Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida. He has been arrested under IPC 151 that is used when peace of an area is under threat by someone. The Bhatta Parsaul village has been boiling for last few days over the violent clashes between police and farmers.

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It is said that huge swath of land of the local farmers has been acquired by the state government for big companies on far cheaper price than the market rate.

Over few days many political leaders tried to visit the area but could not entre the main affected village. Rahul Gandhi sneaked into the village in the wee hours yesterday and had since been sitting on dharna demanding justice for the farmers.

Media reports say the young Gandhi icon was arrested around 11 pm in Bhatta Parsaul village. Along with Gandhi, Congress leaders Digvijay Singh and MP Raj Babbar have also been arrested. They have been taken to the Noida police lines. It is said he will be presented in the court today.


Help India!

By IANS,

Kanpur : Supporters of India Against Corruption (IAC) and the parents of jailed cartoonist Aseem Trivedi, who was charged with sedition by Mumbai police, Monday heckled union Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and sought his intervention in the matter.

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Hundreds of people gathered outside Jaiswals house and demanded that the case of sedition be immediately withdrawn and action be taken against the policemen. Parents of the jailed cartoonist said that Aseem was not only innocent but a die hard patriot.

We are amazed at the police action and suspect that his arrest and slapping of sedition charges is politically motivated, they said.

Jaiswal assured Trivedis family that he would look into the matter.

Twentyfive-year-old Aseem is a resident of Shuklaganj, on the outskirts of Kanpur, and has been at the forefront of IAC campaigns. He has been spearheading a Cartoons Against Corruption campaign on social media networks.

After Mumbai police registered a case against him, he had fled from Mumbai to New Delhi.

Aseems friends told IANS that a few days ago, his father Ashok was interrogated for over seven hours by Mumbai cops in Kanpur. Aseem cracked under pressure and telephonically informed Mumbai police that he would appear before them before Sep 9.

The sedition case against Aseem was filed by lawyer and local Congress politician R.P. Pandey.

Aseems father told IANS that his son is a patriotic man committed to a corruption- free India. We will not be cowed down by such acts. I am confident my son will win the case with his head held high.
Help India!

By Abdul Gani, TwoCircles.net,

Guwahati: As famous British poet Percy Bysshe Shelley had said If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? the state of Assam erupts in joy to welcome the spring like many, barring caste, creed and religion. Here it is called Rongali or Bohag Bihu which is the Assamese New Year. During the period of seven days the entire state is hovered with the songs of love and nature, leaving everything aside.

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The Muslim population, most of whom might have origin elsewhere, but gradually integrated with the society too has its role to play along with various tribes and communities including the Bodo, Rabha, Karbi, Mising, Dimasa, Gorkha, Sonowal Kochari and host of others.







Even the people residing the in char (river side) areas have been celebrating the Bihu with pride for a long time. The question of religion never arises when it comes to the celebration of Bihu. It has been the part and parcel of our lives. We welcome the spring and it is related to our lifestyle especially for the state which is basically depends on the agriculture, says Ismail Hussain, a noted author who is also a lecturer at Jorhat Engineering College in Assam.

People from east to west of the state, bathe their cows and wish for their health on the first day of the Bihu which is observed as Goru Bihu (Cattle Bihu). Cow is related to our way of life in the agriculture filed. So, religion does not matter here, he added. While, on the second day the elders bless the younger ones for prosperity and well being.







Hussain who has also been the chief advisor of Sontoli Ancholik Rongali Bihu Sanmilan (organizing committee of public Bihu celebration) says that these people have been observing the Bihu for a long time.

Sontoli is a small town in Kamrup district on the bank of Brahmaputra with 20 villages and 99 per cent of the population is Muslim.





Sherif Imdad, a Gauhati University student getting ready for the Bihu celebration.



Along with the entire state we the people of Sontoli also feel the warmth of spring and we are glad that we have completed the silver jubilee of our Bihu celebration. Even in the time of crisis in the state Bihu has been able to keep us united, said Azad Usman Goni, president of Bihu celebration committee and a local resident.

Youths sing and dance to the tunes of love and appreciation for the nature and their beloved during the festival.

Since our childhood we go around in our neighbourhood to perform husori (carol). My friends include Bengali speaking Hindu, Assamese Hindu, Muslims and even Bodos. But we never feel the difference. The level of enjoyment we do during the Bihu cannot be compared, said Sherif Imdad, a Gauhati University student as he joins his friends in his hometown at Dalgaon in Darrang district.





First day of the Bihu is observed as Goru Bihu (Cattle Bihu).



On the other hand, Sivasagar, the capital of Ahom dynasty witnessed the various colours of Bihu on the first day of first Assamese month Bohag. Various tribes and communities gleefully participated on the day long programme on the courtyard of historic Rang Ghar.





Jikir and Jari, a unique genre of music among the Muslim community in Assam, was propagated by 17th century saint Ajan Fakir, and has become an important part of Bihu celebration.



We feel proud to be a part of this festival here at Sivasagar. We performed Jari on the occasion along with forms of traditional items. I think such type of unity in diversity is nowhere to be found in the world, said Khairuddin Ahmed, son of Jikir and Jari exponent Kerimuddin Ahmed.

Jikir and Jari is a unique genre of music among the Muslim community in Assam which was propagated by the 17th century saint Ajan Fakir to unite the Hindu and Muslim communities.







Through Jari, Islamic tales are told while the Jikirs are the compositions that have social issues too along with Sufism. Though the content of the Jikir is Islam related, the form of expression is totally folk, based on Assam.







The people belonging to the Bodo community also observed the arrival of the spring with Baisago.

(Photos by Luit Chaliha and Abdul Gani)
Help India!

Meerut : Nithari killings convict Surender Koli, whose mercy petition was rejected by the president, may be hanged Monday morning in the Meerut jail, sources said Sunday.

Koli was transferred from the Dasna jail in Ghaziabad district to Meerut Sep 4 for the execution of his death warrant issued by the CBI court.

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Officials earlier said he was to be hanged any time between Sep 7 and 12.

Although jail officials were tight-lipped about the exact date of execution, speculation was rife that the Nithari killer may be hanged at 5.30 a.m. Monday, sources said.

Meerut jail superintendent S.M. Rizvi said the hook and loop to hang Koli had arrived from the Naini central jail.

Koli has also been informed about his impending hanging, and hangman Pawan Singh has inspected the hanging site, officials said.

Meanwhile, Koli has not asked permission to meet his family members. He Saturday changed the clothes he was wearing while in Dasna jail.

Official said although his behaviour seems to be normal, he was keeping quiet, and says only yes or no to any query.

In the last two days, Koli has not demanded anything from the jail staff.

On Saturday afternoon, he came out for 15 minutes from his cell but did not utter a word. He had his meal, did not speak to anyone and went back to his cell.

Koli is reading the Bhagavad Gita, which was provided by the jail staff.

On Saturday, I inspected Kolis cell. On being asked whether he was well, he simply bowed down his head, indicating yes. His face had a blank expression, Rizvi said.

As per jail rules, we cannot force further discussion if an inmate is not inclined to do so, he said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court in Ghaziabad issued a death warrant to Koli after his mercy petition was rejected by President Pranab Mukherjee.

Koli was shifted to Meerut because of the absence of hanging facilities in Dasna.

Koli was convicted for the murder of a girl Rimpa Halder who went missing in Noida in December 2006. After a police investigation, she was found to have been murdered by Koli.

During the probe, the skeletal remains of many other children were recovered from a drain adjacent to a house in Noida where Koli worked as domestic help for businessman Moninder Singh Pandher.

Both Koli and Pandher were sentenced to death, but later the Allahabad High Court acquitted Pandher and upheld the death sentence of Koli.

Kolis sentence was then upheld by the Supreme Court. He filed a mercy petition before the president which was turned down.
Help India!

Patna : Nearly 300 Mahadalits who had fled their Bihar village after being threatened by upper caste men returned home Sunday following assurances of security and protection.

Mahadalits finally agreed to return to their homes following repeated attempts by district authorities after Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhis instruction to ensure their return, police officer Pradip Kumar said.

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He said the Mahadalits had fled Pura village of Gaya district, about 100 km from here, Thursday following last weeks killing of Arjun Manjhi.

Arjun had filed nomination papers for the election to the post of president of the primary agriculture cooperative society and refused to withdraw despite pressure.

The Mahadalits fled following threats by upper caste residents for protesting Arjuns killing.

After they protested, some powerful people threatened to eliminate them like Manjhi. Fearing attacks, they fled the village, said another police official.

They had been camping in the block office in Tekari.

It is a big relief for all of us as it was a big challenge to convince them after they refused to go back to their village, he said.

Terrified Mahadalits had Saturday refused to return home, fearing that powerful upper caste men would attack and harm them.

Kumar said efforts of District Magistrate Sanjay Kumar Agrawal and Senior Superintendent of Police Nishant Kumar Tiwari bore fruit. Both were trying since Thursday to convince them.

The chief minister had instructed the police to file charge sheet in the case within seven days.

Five of six accused arrested in the case were Saturday produced in the Gaya district court which sent them to 14-day judicial custody.

Manjhi has also announced that Pura will be developed as a model village. A permanent police outpost has been set up in the village for providing security to the Mahadalits.


Help India!

Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood

ZakatIndia.org

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The citizens of India would be grateful to the Honble Supreme Court for very kindly taking note of the contents of this article vis-a-vis the ongoing matter regarding the minority character of the Aligarh Muslim University.

Recorded history

2. The nation and the world are quite aware from duly recorded history that in 1875 Sir Syed Ahmed Khan had established the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh. It was originally affiliated with Calcutta University and in 1885 its affiliation was shifted to the Allahabad University.

MAO College: Tool of Muslim modernization

3. Since the last quarter of the 19th century this institution began catalyzing the coming together of different schools of Islamic thought, accelerated their movement toward modernity and spearheaded the Indian Muslims intellectual and social renaissance. It thus came to be recognized as the fountain head of an intertwined dynamic Indo-Islamic consciousness and quintessence.

The Aligarh Movement

4. Such affirmative squirming and twitching of Indian Muslims  initiated by the legendary Sir Syed  came to be collectively known as the Aligarh Movement. One of the foremost objectives of this movement was to develop the MAO College into a university so that it could stand on its own and play a bigger role in nation building by ameliorating the Muslim educational backwardness. For that purposethe College added more and more programs to its curriculum. During the first four decadesof its working, the institution hadphenomenally grown up in academic diversity, reputation and size.

Enactment only procedural in nature

5. As per the norms of governanceprevalent at that time (which incidentally continue till date) the only method of upgrading a college to a university was to pass a statute to that effect in the legislature. For passing such a statute there was no requirement that the existing college should not have been established by a minority community. Thus the Aligarh Muslim University Act was passed in 1920.

Properties of MAO College became AMU properties

6. Section 4(i) & (iv) of this original Act of 1920 says, the Societies known as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh, and the Muslim University Association shall be dissolved, and all properties, movable and immovable, and all rights, powers and privileges of the said Societies and all properties, movable and immovable and all rights, powers and privileges of the Muslim University Foundation Committee shall be transferred to and vest in the University and shall be applied to the objects and purposes for which the University is incorporated. The instruments of bequest, gift and trust favoring any of the aforesaid bodies were made to construe as if the word University had replaced each one of them.

Mandatory promotion of Islamic studies

7. Section 5(2)(a) of the original Act of 1920 says The University shall have the powersto promote Oriental and Islamic studies and give instruction in Muslim theology and religion.

AMU seed money came from MAO College

8. The original Act of 1920 had also recognized that the seed money to run the University was to come mostly from its forerunner bodies. As per Section 7 the Universitys Reserve Fund comprised the capitalized value of all permanent and recurring grants of money which had been made to (i) the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, (ii) the Muslim University Association and (iii) the Muslim University Foundation Committee as well as (iv) the total income accruing from immovable propertieswhose ownership was transferred from the above mentioned entities to the University by virtue of this Act.

The 1971 & 1981 statutory clarifications

9. Later in 1981 Section 2(l) of the Act was amended to clarify and expand the definition of the Universityasthe educational institution of their choice established by the Muslims of India, which originated as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College, Aligarh and which was subsequently incorporated as the Aligarh Muslim University. The Act enjoins upon the University to specially promote educational and cultural advancement of the Muslims of India and through the amendment made in 1971 the Act recognized the University Mosque as the center of its campus.

1920 Act didnt establish but only upgraded the institution

10. It is, therefore, quite clear from the law and historical records that the land, money and human resources all were contributed by Indian Muslims and they established the MAO College in 1875 and they ran it as such for 45 years. Alongside, they made efforts to raise the status of this institution to university. But, the only prescribed method to do so was to enact a statute. Thus, the 1920 Act was only an enabling law just like we the people of India made efforts for Independence but that had to be granted by the empowered agency namely the British Government who issued the Declaration of Independence. Nobody would accept that because the Britishers issued this declaration therefore India was established by Britain. Hence there is no scope nor justification to doubt that the MAO Collegewhich was established by Muslims of India became the Aligarh Muslim University through the enabling legislation of 1920; by doing so the legislature did not establish the University, it only upgraded an existing institution to the level of a university.

Islamic logo

11. Even the logo of the Aligarh Muslim University carries a verse from the Holy Quran alongside a date tree, the sketch of Holy Quran and the crescent.All of these represent Islamic tradition and culture.

CJs obiter dictum

12. One wonders as to what else is required to accept theAMU as a minority institution. The observation of the Honble Chief Justice of India, as obiter dictum in another case, asking as to how a central university can have a minority character stares into the face of Article 30 of the Constitution which gives the fundamental right to all minorities to establish an educational institution of their own choice.

Dictionary meanings of institution

13. The Honble Chief Justice did not clarify as to why a central university, in his opinion, is excluded from the definition of Educational Institution as mentioned in Article 30.The Oxford dictionary defines an institution as an organization founded for educational, professional or social purpose. The Cambridge dictionary defines an institution as a large and important organization such as a university. The Constitution makers were clearly aware of these definitions of the word institution. Yet to leave no future doubt they prefixed the word educational to the word institution while giving this right to the minorities.

5-Judge SC bench clarification

14. Besides, in the famous TMA Pai case of 2002 the 5-Judge bench of the Supreme Court has given the required clarification. In that judgement Question no. 11 was as follows: What is the meaning of the expressions Education and Educational Institutions in various provisions of the Constitution ? The Supreme Court answered: The expression Education in the Articles of the Constitution means and includes education at all levels from the primary school level upto the post-graduate level. It includes professional education. The expression educational institutions means institutions that impart education, where education is as understood hereinabove.

SC urged to take note of this article

15. Thus, a large number of the citizens of India most respectfully urge the Honble Supreme Court to kindly accept that the Aligarh Muslim University is a minority institution manifesting the specific fundamental right given to the minorities in Article 30 read with the 5-Judge Bench clarification by the Supreme Court in the MA Pai case. The AMU isan educational institution which Muslims have established as per their own choice. The Constitution does not exclude a central university from the purview of educational institutions.

Appeal to PM & HRDM

16. The citizensalso urge the Honble Prime Minister and the Honble Minister of Human Resource Development to rise to the occasion and accept the above constitutional scheme as well as the fact that the MAOCollege was established by Muslims of India and that through the Act of 1920 the Parliament onlyprocedurallyupgraded the College to a University and these facts were duly clarified through the 1981 amendment. The central government would do well not to withdraw its appeal before the Supreme Court.

Respecting the constitutional precincts

17. The citizens of Indiaearnestly urge the nation to see reason and not to challenge the sentiments of millions of Indian Muslims and their sympathizers. Let us not test the nerve of the nation, let us not push any section of the population to the wall and let us remain confined within the sacred constitutional precincts.



Author is the president of http://www.ZakatIndia.org
Help India!

By Amit Kumar, TwoCircles.net

Chirang: William Tudu, a 60-year-old Santhal, is not sure who to vote for. He has been voting in the past elections too, hoping that one of these days, some leader might pay attention to their plight. But given that the front runner in Sidli Chirang constituency is a leader of Bodoland Peoples Front, he says it is unlikely that much will change for the Santhals in the near future.

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Chirang, one of the four districts of the Bodoland Territorial Area Distrcts (BTAD), has been peaceful of late, but it remains on tenterhooks given its violent and bloody past. This area has been seen unrest since the 90s on account of demands of a sovereign state by a section of the Bodos and as a result people from all communities have been internally displaced. Most of the people have had no option but to simply clear forest land and settle at places close to the water bodies.

One of the two streams that need to be crossed in order to reach Ranipur, a Santhal village.

December 2014 violence: 18 months later, no closure for locals

Romeshwar Basumatary remembers the afternoon of December 26. The area around his village Militha had been on high alert after the insurgent groupNational Democractic Front of Bodoland (Sonbijit)had attacked and burnt down the houses of Santhals. Basumatary, who is a Bodo, knew that there was a chance that the Santhals might attack their village and his fears were right. On December 26, about 30-40 Santhals attacked the Bodo village and burnt down close to 15 houses. Basumatary now lives a kilometre away from his previous residence; the remains of his previous house still visible from the courtyard of his new house. The Santhals had attacked us in retaliation to the NDFB attacks. I know the Santhals who live in this area and I could barely recognize one or two persons, so I can safely say that most of them were from far-off areas, he adds. He has no grudge against the local Santhals and blames the Bodo political forces for the unrest. We stayed in the Laimuthi relief camp for about three months and it took us nearly a year to rebuild our houses. How can they (NDFB) claim to be fighting for Bodos when we are also at the receiving end of their violence? he asks.

According to Militha village head Sukur Basumatary, the political leadership failed the Bodos as they did not even provide basic compensation to the affected people. When we were at the camp, I had asked the district administration to provide us compensation as all the parties had lost a lot of provisions like rice and some livestock in the fire. However, the administration refused to even acknowledge that we were displaced as the relief camp was only 3 kms from the village and we had been there only for a few months, he said. The only financial help that the families received was an amount of Rs 5,000 from a collective of NGOs. This amount, received in March 2015, remains the only compensation that they have received till date. Binod Guiari, who lost his house and around 100 kgs of rice, says that unless the leadership focuses on curbing the insurgents, there is little chance that they will not get displaced again.

Binod Guiari shows the certificate of the RS 5,000 he received as compensation from the NGOs.

For the Santhals, this period was more, if not equally, dangerous. Brought to Assam by the British to work in tea estates and the forests, they have been settled in this area and other parts of Chirang and Kokrajhar for around a century, but at least in Chirang, even finding their village can be nigh impossible for an outsider. From the Runikatha police station, one has to walk about 5 kms and cross two make-shift bridges to reach the Bodo village. From there on, to go to the Santhal village one has to walk a further 3-4 kms through mud tracks and cross two shallow streams, apart from hoping that a local tells you exactly which path to follow, to reach the first Santhal village called Ranipur. The village, which is home to 32 Santhal families, has homes on both sides of the river Laopani and the next Santhal village, Dordhora, is about a kilometre away. There is of course, no electricity, no water supply; the closest medical facility is in Runikhata and the closest school is also about 4 kms away. Worryingly, this means that the Santhal villages are mostly inaccessible every time it rains; the mud tracks and the streams make it impossible to visit and leave the village. For resident Nicholas Soren, however, these factors pale in comparison to the constant threat to their lives. What happened in December was just one more incident in a long list of atrocities that we have faced here. More than 70 families in Ranipur, Dordhora, and other Santhal villages were burnt and eight people died. Thousands were displaced and we were spread across four temporary camps in Mainagudi, Salbari, Kadamguri, Japaitola and stayed there for the whole of 2015, he says. For Soren, who had to leave his ancestral village Kunthalmuri about 10 years ago after it was attacked, the fear of displacement overshadows any hope he has from the coming elections. Not a single leader from any party has visited us to even ask for votes, let alone listen to our needs. Yes, I will vote but I dont expect that to change much, adds Soren.

William Tudu ( second from right) with Bimal Tudu (second from left)

Bimal Tudu, another resident of Ranipur, says he is lucky to be alive. The NDFB insurgents wore uniforms similar to the Army. They were shooting and I, along with some other people were running like crazy. We were at the crossroads between Balamguri and Dordhora and out of instinct, I entered someones house. The guy behind me kept running and was shot. He died on the spot, he says. Tudu added that while some of the families were paid a monetary compensation of Rs 50,000 by the Assam government, but the lack of political figures among Santhals means that even today, the threats they face remain as strong as ever.

Lack of dialogue adds to distrust among communities, helps political leaders

While both Bodos and Santhals, along with Assamese, Nepali and Bengalis have existed with each other in this area for a long time, there is a clear lack of dialogue at the community level. William Tudu, who is the village head of Ranipur, says that post 2014 attacks, whatever little interaction that existed on a personal level between the communities is now over. According to Sukur Basumatary, prior to the December 2014 incidents some of the Santhals used to find jobs as daily labourers in the fields owned by Bodos during the harvesting season. Now, they wont even do that as they are scared, he says.

Tudu says that the lack of dialogue makes it easier for political parties to keep them divided. We are still seen as outsiders, he says. He added that the Santhals take a longer route to go to Runikhata because the shorter route goes through a Bodo village.

Hemant Soren (in red t-shirt) with his family outside his home in Ranipur.

The result of internal displacement has also benefited the political and insurgent forces financially. The displaced people have no option but to clear forest land, which opens up more areas for the lumber industry. The encroachments are right in areas that were dense forests until about 10 years ago. Earlier, the entire area from Runikhata to the Indo-Bhutan border (30 kms) was forests. But now a massive area has been cleared and this is helping the businessmen make big money. Also, this helps the insurgents make a lot of money, said a Bengali shopkeeper near the Runikatha police station. Displacement is good for business, he added.
Help India!

By Anil Giri

Kathmandu : The complete ban on alcohol in Indias Bihar state seems to have come as a boon for small traders in Nepal who sell low-quality alcohol. Reports here say there has been a sudden rise in small huts along the India-Nepal border to target alcohol customers from Bihar.

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Authorities from Indias border districts have sought help and cooperation from their Nepali counterparts to check the possible smuggling of alcohol and increase in surveillance along the border.

Bihar imposed a complete ban on sale of alcohol from April 1.

At a recent meeting in Forbesganj in Bihar, Indian authorities sought help from their Nepali counterparts to curb the movement of people seeking alcohol from Nepal.

Toyam Rai, chief district officer of Sunsari district who led the Nepali team, said that due to the open international border, there was high chance of smuggling of alcohol from Nepal to India, and so the Indian authorities asked Nepal to cooperate in preventing the smuggling.

Himanshu Sharma, district magistrate of Araria in Bihar, local police chiefs and others also participated as part of the Indian side in the meeting.

Reports said mostly people from the working class come to the Nepali side to buy alcohol. But when there is a holiday, businessmen and youth also cross the border.

Local hoteliers say there has been a 2-3 fold rise in sale of alcohol in the past one week, since the ban in Bihar.

Nepali traders have now increased the prices of local alcohol, but reports said the quality was quite poor due to the sudden rise in demand.

With the ban on alcohol in Bihar, the Indian authorities have asked us to curb the smuggling of alcohol from Nepal. They are also concerned that after the ban, criminals may sneak into Nepal that will further invite security complications, said Sunsari Superintendent of Police Sandip Bhandari.

With this new unfolding situation, we may face new security threats along the border, said Rai. We have assured the Indian side about the security arrangements on the border.
Belgium says Brussels attacks 'man in a hat' found and charged Updated: 2016-04-10 02:41 (Agencies)

A suspect in the attack which took place at the Brussels international airport of Zaventem, is seen in this CCTV image made available by Belgian Police on April 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - A man held on terrorism charges in Belgium has admitted to being the "man in a hat" seen on security camera footage at Brussels airport alongside two suicide bombers after attacks in the city killed 32 people, public prosecutors said on Saturday.

Prosecutors said that after being confronted with footage prepared by an investigational unit, Belgian Mohamed Abrini said he was the man police had been hunting since the bombings at the airport and on the metro on March 22.

"He had no other choice," a spokesman for Belgium's public prosecutors said. He had been held since Friday evening.

Abrini had been on Europe's most wanted list since December, after he was caught by a security camera at a motorway service station with suspected militant Salah Abdeslam while they drove to Paris two days before the attacks there that killed 130 people in November.

With the arrests and deaths in Brussels since a raid on March 15 put police on the trail of Abdeslam, all of the main known suspects in the Paris and Brussels attacks appear to have been taken off Europe's streets.

After leaving the airport, Abrini had thrown his light coat in a dust bin and later sold his hat, prosecutors added.

"He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murder," the Belgian federal prosecutors office said in a statement.

Prosecutors charged four people, including Abrini, with terrorist activity for their suspected roles in the Brussels bombings and November's Paris attacks.

They were arrested on Friday, along with two others who were later released. Belgian police raided a suspected safe house in central Brussels on Saturday but found no weapons or explosives and made no further arrests.

Prosecutors said they also charged Osama K, who local media said was a Swede named Osama Krayem, adding they were able to identify him as the man present at the time of the attack on the Brussels metro station that same day.

Osama K was seen buying the bags used in the Brussels attacks in a shopping centre there, prosecutors said.

The other two were Bilal El Makhoukhi, who had already been convicted for working with jihadist recruiters, and a Rwandan named Herve B.M. on charges of helping Abrini and Osama K.
Suspect admits to being 'man in hat' in Brussels airport attack: Belgian prosecutor Updated: 2016-04-10 07:28 (Xinhua)

BRUSSELS - Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini who was arrested Friday in Brussels has confessed to investigators that he is "the man in the hat" caught in the Brussels airport security cameras on March 22, Belgian federal prosecutor said Saturday.

"He was confronted with the results of various expert assessments and admitted his presence," said the federal prosecutor in a statement. "The person told investigators that he had thrown his jacket in a trash can and then sold his hat."

Abrini was placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the federal prosecutor said.

Abrini, wanted for suspected involvement in the November terrorist attacks in Paris, was arrested Friday along with five others in Brussels, by Belgian police.

Among the arrested is Osama Krayem, who as Brussels bombings probe has revealed is the second man who was present during the Maelbeek Metro Station attack.

Krayem was also present in the City 2 shop center of Brussels when buying bags that were used in the attacks, reported the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

He was also placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

Another two suspects, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M., were charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders complicity.

Two more people, who were arrested along with Abrini were released after thorough hearing.
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Youth in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) province of ak Lak are planting a forest in Ea Sup Districts Ea Rok Commune, and naming it after the General Vo Nguyen Giap. Photo tinhdoandaklak.gov.vn

HA NOI Youth in Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) province of ak Lak are planting a forest in Ea Sup Districts Ea Rok Commune, and naming it after the General Vo Nguyen Giap.

Le Hong Hanh, deputy secretary of the districts Youth Communist Union, said: We want to remind younger generations of the late Generals great contributions to the country.

Under the project, the forest will cover an area of over 20,000 hectares of the Ea Sup forest, which is home to thousands of huge trees.

In the middle of the forest is the Cham tower Yang Prong, which was built in the 14th century. In 1991, the tower was recognised as a national architectural relic. But now it is in disrepair and needs to be preserved.

The union is working with local authorities to carry out the project.

During the rainy season, they will plant more trees around the forests edge, which local residents destroyed to cultivate crops.

After the restoration is completed, the Vo Nguyen Giap forest will become a destination for youth and students to learn more about the countrys history and culture.

The union will call for cooperation from local schools to send their students to the forest once a month, she said. They will have a chance to meet and make friends, as well as learn more about Viet Nams history.

The union also plans to organise the first meeting at the South Viet Nam liberation ceremony on April 30. The meeting will discuss General Giap and include a film screening on his life and career.

We are lucky that our plan has received great support from local authorities and war veterans, who want to join activities and share their stories with the younger generation, Hanh said.

We, members of the Youth Union, will try our best to take care of the forest as a way to encourage local people, especially youth, to protect our homeland, he added. VNS
by Thu Huong

Watching children grow up and learn new things in life brings great happiness to every parent.

However, the joy experienced by so many parents is a source of heartbreak for 63-year-old Nguyen Van Binh because his sons mind has not developed normally over the years. He has been deeply hurt many times upon seeing the boy, who has an intellectual disability, come home with bruises or injuries on his body after being beaten by others.

The great love of the old father for his son, Nguyen Binh Minh, now 26 years old, has led him to come up with an idea to protect him: writing his phone number and the line Please do not beat on his shirt.

On the busy Truong Chinh Street in Ha Noi last month, Minh, caught the attention of every passerby with his strange shirt. Despite his mature build, Minhs manner is just like that of a three-year-old child. He looks at the street bewildered or sometimes murmurs something nonsensical to himself, then plays with his fingers.

Minh then returns home. From afar, a thin figure of his father stands at the doorstep and silently keeps track of his movements, just like he has done for the past more than 20 years.

In 1990, Binh was pleased to welcome his first son, cute and chubby at birth like every other baby. He named his son Nguyen Binh Minh, which means "sunrise", and the boy filled his heart with love, hope and expectations. Minh is normal physically, but ever since he was small, his capacity for communication and movement was different from that of other children his age.

I did not think he was sick at that time, but thought he was less intelligent than others, Binh said.

When Minh was sent to school at the age of six, symptoms of an intellectual disability became more evident. He was restless, fidgeted all the time and easily lost his temper. Minh talked a lot, but could not be understood because his speech was illogical and fast. He could not memorise the alphabet.

I guessed my son had something mentally wrong, so I took him to the hospital to have a health check. The doctor confirmed to me that Minh was mentally retarded, Binh said.

He has taken his son to every doctor from north to south in search of a cure, but all he has received is disappointing news.

I even took Minh to the hospital to have a health check when CT scans and Magnetic Resonance Imaging were still brand new medical applications in Viet Nam. However, I was told that mental retardation was incurable, he said.

Minh could no longer attend normal schools, so Binh had his son study at Binh Minh Primary School in Hoan Kiem District, a school for children with intellectual disabilities, in hopes that his mental capacity would improve. There has not been much improvement over the years, so Binh decided to pull Minh out of school in 2005 and teach him at home instead.

Despite the pain and disappointment, the father has always tried to live happily with his son. He has never relinquished his goal of helping Minh learn and integrate into society.

I still ask Minh to take medicine to prevent convulsions and try to teach him many things, he said. I have hoped and been disappointed so many times in the past 26 years, but I have never had an intention of stopping his treatment, because I have not felt tired yet. I have set the target that before Minh reaches 30, he will comprehend more.

Incurable pain

Minhs mind functions differently, so he enjoys teasing other people, ringing doorbells or throwing stones into their houses.

While mostly harmless, Minhs antics have caused others to become annoyed, especially those who are unaware of his disability. They sometimes yell furiously at him, humiliate him, or worse, beat him.

Sometimes, Binh sees his son being chased and beaten at the doorstep. Other times, people throw cold water on him. Watching his sons cries, the old fathers heart is torn into pieces.

Binh sympathises with his son, but he still has to apologise to people who Minh has teased and explain Minhs disability.

One day, Minh even had a cut on his head and bled a lot. I kept crying while dressing his wound, he said. I had not cried after so many hard years raising him up, but that time I really could not help myself.

A way to cope

He says he has constantly seen his son beaten and humiliated over the past 20 years. Unable to be by his side all the time, the father came up with the idea of writing a plea for patience and understanding on his shirts  Please do not beat.

I have to write it on every one of his shirts, including the old and new ones, he said.

Binh said that as a result of wearing the shirts, Minh has suffered less.

I once caught him being bullied, but after seeing the line on his back, those bullies went away. Some others helped to prevent him from being bullied.

The phone number on Minhs back also helps him get back home after losing his way, which reinforces Binhs belief that there are still many kindhearted people around. Those shirts have also alleviated fears when his son goes out alone.

Now Binhs daily activities surround caring for Minh, like cooking, bathing him, preparing his medicine and doing therapy. He also reminds Minh to wear the special shirts and return home early when he goes out.

As soon as the door opens, Minh anxiously steps out while his fathers eyes trail behind him until his shadow disappears at the end of the lane. Despite the fear and trepidation, those special shirts have brought some peace of mind to the old father. VNS
Sweet, savoury and steaming hot are just some of the features of Ha Nois most esteemed

bowls of pho. Ha Nguyen learns that the broth is what makes or breaks a dish.

My friend Duong Quang Phong from Los Angeles arrived in Ha Noi for a trans-Viet Nam tour. He asked me to join him for pho, the most famous food inside and outside of the country.

We decided to start our breakfast at 49 Bat an, a bustling street in Ha Nois Old Quarter.

As soon as we entered the street, we smelled the aromatic fragrance of pho from the shop, rousing our appetites. Although many years had passed by, the shop maintained its same shape, doors, old tables and tools - particularly a long queue of diners patiently waiting for their turn, said Phong.

We joined the queue and heard curt words from the shop owner, Trinh Van Hieu, loudly asking guests about their orders and whether they wanted more or less rice noodles, or thick or light broth.

There was the familiar sound of a knife regularly chopping meat against a cutting board. Steam from big bowls of pho spiraled upward.

When our turns came, I ordered pho tai bap lan (stir-fried beef muscle), while Phong ordered tai lan (half done stir-fried beef).

The shop owner skillfully cut the beef and put it into a bowl with sliced fresh onions before scooping broth on top.

The shop is so crowded that we had to struggle to find a seat before joining the queue. After receiving our dishes, we returned to our seats in a corner of the shop.

Phong said the quality of the broth has remained the same for 20 years, when he returned to Ha Noi the first time.

Whether pho is tasty or not depends on the broth and rice noodle, and here, the combination was just right.

Hieu said he made the broth by simmering beef bone and organic spices such as ginger, cinnamon and sa sung (sand worms) from the northwestern province of Yen Bai and the port city of Hai Phong.

My rice noodle is made from the VN10 species of rice grown in the northern provinces of Thai Binh and Nam inh, Hieu said. The rice yields more powder, which makes our rice noodles whiter, softer and thinner, and helps it remain firm when it is dipped into hot water, compared with others.

We enjoyed the pho very much, although each bowl was rather expensive at VN 50,000-70,000.

Despite this, locals and foreigners continued patiently queuing for their turn to enjoy an aromatic and tasty pho.

Phong told me that he would like to enjoy more pho at other famous shops such as Pho Thin at 13 Lo uc Street and Pho at 10 Ly Quoc Su Street.

The next day we arrived at Pho Thin early in the morning.

We asked for two bowls of tai lan for VN50,000 each. We did not have to wait long because there were not so many diners compared with Bat an.

A server brought us two big bowls of pho, which was also full of rice noodles and stir-fried beef that was very fragrant. Although the servers were not so friendly, the service was quick and the quality of the food made us pleased.

The dish is fragrant and tasty because of the broth, which is greasy and quite sweet, while the tai lan is soft and sweet, too, mixed with ginger and garlic.

This helps shop owner Nguyen Trong Thin keep his trademark, which spread far and wide so that customers would never forget it.

Thin set up his shop nearly 40 years ago.

From the onset, he tried pho at many other famous shops in the city and thought of special spices to create a unique recipe of his own.

After a year, he decided to serve pho tai lan, in which the beef is quickly stir-fried over a big fire in a large pan with fat in it. After that, the thin beef pieces are put into the pan and stirred quickly. Ginger and garlic are added to the pan before it is scooped into the bowl.

In 2009, after 30 years of business, Thin was invited to Seoul to teach pho cooking techniques to a number of Koreans and Vietnamese working and living in South Korea who wished to open a pho shop there.

In Seoul, I made rice noodles, and chose beef and spices to cook more than 100 bowls of pho, Thin said. The food was so well loved that all the bowls were left empty.

A Korean general director of a large company told him he had never eaten such delicious food. He asked Thin to sell his secret for making pho. Thin agreed.

After three months of training, several pho restaurants opened in Seoul, including Tang Restaurant, a popular place for Vietnamese and foreigners alike to come and enjoy "pho Thin".

The next day, we tasted pho at 10 Ly Quoc Su Street. When we reached the shop, a crowd of locals and foreigners had already gathered.

With prices between VN40,000 and 50,000 per bowl, Phong said he could eat two bowls because the rice noodles seemed to be in smaller quantity compared with the other two shops, but the beef and broth were both excellent.

CNN has named Ha Nois pho as one of the top ten most delicious dishes in the world. -- VNS
Pakistan Army troops and Indian paramilitary Border Security Forces (BSF) exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Neza Pir sector Sunday morning.

The statement provided by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) claimed the Indian troops along the border "resorted to heavy unprovoked firing and shelling" at around 11:40 pm on Saturday, reports Dawn.

The statement further said the unprovoked firing continued until about 4:45 a.m., adding the Pakistan Army troops provided a befitting response.

According to the ISPR, no casualties have been reported so far.

Media reports suggest that the cross-border firing between the arch-rivals is the first instance in nearly six months.

Both countries had signed the border ceasefire agreement in 2003 and have frequently accused each other of breaching it.
India is willing to invest as much as $20 billion in setting up new petrochemicals, fertiliser and liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in Iran but requires land and cheaper natural gas for this, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said.

The minister, who is currently in Iran along with key officials of his ministry and a delegation of industry representatives, discussed with his counterpart many outstanding issues related to the petroleum sector.

"Pradhan conveyed to the Iranian side that Indian companies could invest up to $20 billion and were interested in setting up petrochemical and fertiliser plants, including in the Chabahar special economic zone (SEZ), either through joint venture between Indian and Iranian public sector companies or with private sector partners," the oil ministry stated.

"In this regard, he requested Iran to allocate appropriate and adequate land in the SEZ. He also requested the Iranian side for favourable treatment in the pricing of gas for India and also supply of rich gas at a competitive price and on a long-term basis for the life of the joint venture projects that Indian companies are interested in setting up," the statement added.

Pradhan expressed India's interest in setting up an LNG plant and a gas cracker unit in the Chabahar port.

He said the country is keen to import liquefied petroleum gas from Iran. The two sides discussed the award of rights to develop Farzad-B gas fields to Indian firms as well as the pending payment by Indian refiners toward oil purchases from Iran.

The ministry said the two nations are trying to cement ties, following the lifting of some sanctions in January. Iran wants India to ramp up crude import from Iran, while India is seeking attractive terms of purchase to continue.
High relative valuations amid weak earnings delivery is costing India its earlier tag of most-preferred destination among Asia and emerging markets (EMs).

In calendar 2013, 2014 and the better part of 2015, India was the highest recipient of global fund flows in EMs and Asia (excluding China and Japan). However, over the past few months, foreign investors have been preferring other regional peers and pruning their exposure to India.

As a result, the Indian markets saw more foreign outflow than others in January and February of 2016. In March, after an improvement in risk appetite, India saw foreign inflow of nearly $4.1 billion. However, it was less than Taiwan, which got $5.1 billion, and slightly more than South Korea ($3.1 billion) and Brazil ($2.2 billion). Brazil, however, had seen net inflow of $555 million in January and February, compared to $3 billion outflow from India and around $2 billion in South Korea.

In March, MSCI India rallied sharply but underperformed the MSCI EM for a third straight month.

"India has been the largest overweight position for global funds that invest in Asia and EMs. That is already on its way down and might continue. We are seeing growing appetite for Korea and also Asean (the 10-country Southeast Asian bloc). It doesn't mean investors start selling India but it could get a relatively small portion of incremental flows coming into EMs," says Herald Van Der Linde, head of equity strategy for the Asia-Pacific at HSBC.

Kotak Institutional Equities' quantitative analyst Saifullah Rais, who tracks foreign fund flow into various markets, says allocations to India by global EMs and Asia ex-Japan saw a "large drop" in February.

"We've been overweight India since the May 2014 elections. This largely worked, though not in the past three months," says Manishi Raychaudhuri, head of Asia ex-Japan equity strategy at BNP Paribas Securities. "There were several reasons for the recent underperformance. Earnings, for one, are still not picking up due to weak demand in the industrial and rural sectors. The government's legislative initiatives continue to be hindered in Parliament's upper house. Finally, a correction in India's egregious valuation premium to Asian and EM peers seemed overdue."



Following a sharp 10 per cent rally in March, the one-year forward price to earnings multiple for the Sensex has climbed to nearly 15.3. In comparison, the MSCI EM index and MSCI Asia ex-Japan index trade at around 12 times.

"Earnings growth expectations have to be much more realistic. At the moment, the consensus is looking at 17 per cent earnings growth in 2016-17. For us, five per cent looks more reasonable. So, if we see significant downgrades, that could be a time to take a relook at the Indian market," says Van Der Linde of HSBC.
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Two men injured in Dubuque fall





DUBUQUE (AP)  Two men are recovering after being injured in a 20-foot fall from scaffolding in downtown Dubuque.

The accident happened Friday afternoon.

Dubuque police said two Swift Plumbing employees  24-year-old Brett Cupps and 47-year-old Scott Weber, both of Dubuque  each reported ankle injuries.

Cupps refused medical treatmentsay Weber was taken by ambulance to UnityPoint Health-Finley Hospital.

Weber and Cupps were on a third-story catwalk between two buildings as they worked to remove a cast-iron pipe. The catwalk broke free, and the two fell to a second-story platform.

SE Iowan hit by car, dies





BARNES CITY (AP)  Southeastern Iowa law enforcement officials believe a pedestrian found dead on a Barnes City street died after being hit by a car.

The Mahaska County Sheriffs Office said it received a 911 call early Thursday morning reporting a victim in the street.

Deputies found the victim in the 1200 block of Yale Avenue in Barnes City.

3 counties want lawsuit tossed

SIOUX CITY (AP)  Lawyers for three northwest Iowa counties being sued by a Des Moines water utility are asking a judge to dismiss two of the lawsuits 10 claims.

In court papers filed last week, an attorney for Buena Vista, Sac and Calhoun counties said the U.S. District Court in Sioux City has no jurisdiction over claims that the counties violated the Clean Water Act and state laws.

The lawsuit filed last year by Des Moines Water Works alleges the three counties that oversee 10 agricultural drainage districts should be required to obtain federal water pollution discharge permits because they release pollutants into rivers much like regulated factories.

The counties filing to dismiss the claims say drainage districts have no regulating authority over landowners who install tiles to drain their fields.

The utility is seeking damages of more than $1.4 million it has spent for increased filtration methods to remove the nitrates from water. If nitrate levels remain high, utility officials have said, a new water treatment system costing $75 million to $175 million will be needed.Condo fire death called homicide

CEDAR RAPIDS (AP)  Cedar Rapids police are now investigating the death of a woman who was found in her burning condominium as a homicide.

Officials said Friday a preliminary investigation into the death of Robyn Furmanski, 62, revealed she may have sustained a traumatic injury before the fire. The new information from the State Medical Examiners Office has prompted police to begin a homicide investigation.

Fire crews responded to the March 31 fire at a six-unit, three-story building behind Garfield Elementary School. Firefighters found Furmanski inside a unit that was ablaze. She was pronounced dead at a hospital later that day.
Belgians find elusive man in the hat

BRUSSELS (AP)  After nearly three weeks of frantic searching, Belgian authorities announced Saturday they had finally identified the elusive man in the hat spotted alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport: It was Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini.

Belgiums Federal Prosecution Office said the recently detained Abrini  the last identified suspect at large from the deadly Nov. 13 Paris attacks, which killed 130  also confessed to being the vest- and hat-wearing man linked to the Brussels bombers whose image had been widely circulated by authorities.

Abrini, 31, was one of four suspects charged Saturday with participating in terrorist acts linked to the March 22 Brussels bombings that killed 32 people.

Teen arrested in Texas campus killing

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP)  The lives of 18-year-old University of Texas student Haruka Weiser and the teenage suspect in her killing differed dramatically.

Weiser grew up in a tight-knit community in Oregon, where she attended an arts magnet school and danced with the Portland Ballet.

By contrast, Meechaiel Khalil Criner, the 17-year-old runaway arrested in her death, was intellectually disabled, abandoned by his mother as an infant and in Texas foster care, his uncle, Leo Criner, said.

Authorities say Weiser and Criners lives intersected violently on UTs Austin campus, leaving Weiser dead in a creek on school grounds Tuesday and Criner jailed two days later.

Obama approval rating on the rise

WASHINGTON (AP)  Buoyed by good economic news and a surge of goodwill from his base of supporters, President Barack Obama is seeing his approval rating rise.

For the first time since 2013, half of those questioned approve of the job Obama is doing in office, according to an Associated Press-GfK poll. The survey found the apparent uptick in approval extended across issues, including foreign affairs, immigration and, most notably the economy.

Those surveyed were more likely to give Obama a positive rating than any of the candidates for president, Republican or Democrat.

Windows smashed after prank calls

COON RAPIDS, Minn. (AP)  A prank caller tricked workers at a Minnesota Burger King into smashing the windows of the restaurant to keep it from exploding, police said Saturday, mirroring similar deceptions at Burger Kings and other fast-food restaurants in other states in recent months.

Employees at the restaurant in the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids got the call Friday night from someone claiming to be with the fire department. The caller said the restaurant could explode from dangerous levels of gas, and they needed to relieve the pressure. The manager and other employees believed the caller and smashed all the windows on the ground floor.

Someone placed a similar call to a Burger King in Shawnee, Okla., on Thursday night, claiming there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the building. The window damage there was estimated at $10,000.

A similar call to Burger King in Morro Bay, Calif., about a purported gas leak in early February resulted in $35,000 in damage. And police in Tucson, Ariz., say several similar prank calls were placed to Jack in the Box restaurants there in early February, fooling workers at one store. A similar incident happened at a Wendys in Phoenix in late January.
WATERLOO  Mayor Quentin Hart and Cedar Falls Mayor Jim Brown were among the brave part in the Cedar Falls/Waterloo Polar Plunge on Saturday at George Wyth State Park.

The plunge was a fundraiser for Special Olympics.

The Cedar Falls/Waterloo Polar Plunge is presented by Lincoln Savings Bank and is sponsored by: Bowling RVs.com, Hy-Vee, The Enablers, TrekMan Racing, 105.7 KOKZ, Texas Roadhouse, Kohls Cares, Black Hawk County Sheriffs Office, Lederman Bail Bonds, Hawkeye Bail Bonds, Iowa State Sheriffs & Deputies Association, and Waterloo Fire and Rescue.

For more information or to register, go to www.soiowa.org/plunge.

Polar Plunge wild art package
WATERLOO  The Board of Education Monday is expected to give final approval to a $158.14 million 2016-17 budget, including a slight increase in overall tax collections.

A public hearing on the budget will be held when the board meets at 6 p.m. in the Education Service Center, 1516 Washington St. Approval of the budget is expected later in the meeting.

Tax revenues would grow to $41.07 million for Waterloo Community Schools property owners during the the fiscal year starting July 1, up from $41.01 million this year. That amounts to $57,331 more, or a 0.14 percent increase.

A 22-cent drop in the tax rate to $15.40 per $1,000 of taxable value helped minimize the overall increase despite growing district property valuations.

There is also a small drop in the residential rollback  a state-determined percent of assessed property value that taxes are calculated on.

For the owner of a $100,000 home, taxes would drop $14 to $857 on the districts portion of the bill. Taxes on commercial and agricultural property of the same value would drop, as well. Owners of commercial property would pay $1,386, or $20 less than currently, while taxes on agricultural land would decrease $12 to $699. Those numbers assume a propertys assessed value hasnt increased in the past year.

The largest source of revenue in the budget is state funding, which is growing by 2.25 percent next year. Supplemental state aid totals $81.2 million in the budget plus $11.54 million in other state sources and $1.35 million in commercial and industrial state tax replacement funds. Districts receive per-pupil funding based on enrollment from the prior fall. Certified enrollment dropped by 198 students this fall in Waterloo Schools, but the states 101 percent budget guarantee ensured it wont result in a loss of funding.

The board will also hold a public hearing on plans to replace the scoreboard at Memorial Stadium and authorize seeking bids on the project.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 09, 2016 | 11:08 PM | SEDALIA, KY

Four people, including a fugitive, were arrested in Sedalia Saturday after a disturbance.

The Graves County Sheriff's Department responded at 1:00pm Saturday to a call that someone had allegedly drawn a weapon on another person. When they arrived they were met by 26-year-old Stephen Blassingame of Cuba, who said he was attempting to load some tools onto a trailer at the home of 30-year-old David Sowers, when Sowers tried to run him over with a car.

Blassingame told deputies he pulled a gun on Sowers in self-defense, and Sowers called 911 to report the incident after leaving the area. The Sheriff's Department says Sowers was a fugitive who had been avoiding arrest for several days, including calling to say he was going to turn himself in, then failing to show up.

Deputies spoke to Sowers on the phone and convinced him to return to the scene. He allegedly told deputies he had recently used methamphetamine prior to his arrest for contempt of court, public intoxication and wanton endangerment.

Deputies searched Blassingame's vehicle and say they found methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia and two handguns. He was arrested on multiple charges, including possession of a handgun by a convicted felon.

A woman who lives with Sowers was in the home with her 2-year-old daughter. After 21-year-old Chelsea Martin allowed a search of the home, drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine were reportedly found, so she was arrested.

When 25-year-old Greg Tomasek of Mayfield arrived to pick up the daughter, a search of his vehicle revealed cocaine and a firearm, so he was arrested on drug possession charges.

All four people were taken to the Graves County Jail. Deputies say after Sowers got there, a search of his clothing was conducted by the jail staff and they found marijuana in his pants.

Mayfield Police K-9 officers and Kentucky State Police helped at the scene.
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Yesterday, we went and bought a computer. A desk top computer to replace the one that had a heart attack and breathed its last a day or so ago. I have it up and running, but I still have much to do. It has a 320 gig hard drive, butwe have two 1tb drives that I have to figure out how to squeeze into the system

That will give us 2.3 terabytes to allow Svetochka to save to her hearts content 

Computer is made by DEXP; The Dexp Company was founded in 1998 in Vladivostok (Russia) by a team of skilled engineers. We started with professional system integration service for business and desktop PC assembling

Nice computer and since assembled and built in Russia, a nice happy for poor people price also. I have almost shoehorned the two large drives into it and I do have one up and running. The other is going to take a special SAS to SATA cable and with that I can also upgrade the DVD/CD. Then Svetochka has a friend at work who has lots of computer stuff and she will try to see if he has at least one memory stick for the system we have. It has a 2gb stick, but will hold up to 8gb and I installed Windows 8.1 64bit and it is just simply borderline with only 2gb of RAM

Aliexpress has, it if I need to get it and it is not available anywhere else for us. I need it before I leave for the village again

I find it an interesting computer; it looks like a big tower computer, but everything inside is from and made for laptops. Everything but the case and because the case is full size, I have been able to make everything work, as I piece it together. I just have to work with the limitations of laptop components and several crucial areas missing; such as a PCI slot and or Bridge and such what knots that make computer building a piece of cake

I like it! DEXP makes a good product from what I see so far and this computer runs cooler, quieter and not as fast as the old one. This is a dual core Celeron and we had a Tricore AMD  2.4GHz compared to 3.3GHz

Svetochka is happy and that means even if it is an old Abacus Calculator, I am happy also (By the way, these abacus calculators are in use all over Russia! Thought you might want to know that)

WtR
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.

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A roundup of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.



Birmingham, Ala.: Preparer Donald E. Steele, 41, has been indicted for preparing false income tax returns and for intimidating witnesses contacted by the IRS to question about returns he had prepared.

He is charged with seven counts of aiding in the preparation of a false federal return in 2010 or 2011 and with four counts of witness tampering in 2011. At the time, Steele operated Max Tax, a tax prep business owned by his wife.

Steele is charged with making false claims and fabricating deductions on federal returns for five taxpayers. Among the charges is that in 2011 Steele prepared a 2010 tax return for H.N.D, fraudulently claiming an exemption for her disabled dependent brother, identified as K.L., when Steele knew that K.L. was H.N.D.s boyfriend and not disabled. Steele also claimed a $1,000 American Opportunity Tax Credit based on a false claim that K.L. was a student and had incurred $4,000 in education expenses during the 2010 tax year.

Regarding the witness-tampering counts, Steele is charged with calling K.L. some seven or eight times after learning IRS agents were inquiring about the preparation of H.N.D.s 2010 return and telling K.L. to lie to the agents and tell them that Steeles wife had prepared H.N.D.s return. Two other counts of the indictment charge Steele with preparing returns for A.E.T. for the calendar years 2009 and 2010, falsely claiming business losses for the taxpayer when she was not self-employed in either year and did not provide Steele any information pertaining to self-employment. Steele claimed a net business loss of $12,049 for A.E.T. in 2009 and a net loss of $11,938 in 2010, according to the indictment.

In another witness-tampering count, Steele is charged with contacting a former preparer at Max Tax and telling her that if IRS agents contacted her, she should withhold information and tell them that he did not prepare any returns and that his wife prepared and transmitted the returns.

The maximum for aiding in the preparation of a false federal income tax return is three years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The maximum for witness tampering is 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Los Angeles: Tax preparer Oscar G. Barabino, 56, has pleaded guilty to failing to report income totaling more than $421,000 on his 2008 and 2009 federal income tax returns, costing the government more than $140,000.

According to the plea agreement, for the 2008 tax year Barabino omitted some $296,987 from his total income, resulting in a tax loss to the government of approximately $102,932. For his 2009 return, Barabino omitted approximately $124,283 from his total income, resulting in a tax loss to the government of approximately $37,800.

As part of the plea agreement, Barabino has agreed to not prepare or assist anyone other than himself or his spouse in the preparation of any federal or California income tax returns during his period of supervised release. He further agreed to make full restitution to the U.S. for the tax losses.

Barabino faces a maximum of six years in federal prison and a fine of $500,000 when sentenced on July 25.

Providence, R.I.: A federal grand jury has returned a 70-count indictment alleging that tax preparer Belkis M. Guzman, 47, of Cranston, R.I., participated in schemes to prepare false returns claiming deductions that taxpayers were not entitled to and to file fraudulent returns using personal ID information of others without authorization.

The fraudulent returns allegedly resulted in refunds totaling more than $685,000, which were deposited into a bank account controlled by Guzman.

The indictment charges Guzman with 33 counts of preparing false income tax returns, eight counts of wire fraud, four counts of aggravated ID theft, 23 counts of forgery and one count of theft of government funds.

In one alleged scheme, for tax years 2009, 2010, and 2011 Guzman, then employed at El Centro Multiservices in Providence, filed at least 33 fraudulent returns by creating, inflating or falsifying clients dependents, exemptions, credits, deductions and expenses, with and without her clients knowledge.

The indictment alleges that Guzman also schemed to use others personal ID without their authorization to file fraudulent returns during tax years 2009, 2010 and 2011. It is alleged that refunds totaling $686,823.65 obtained through the filing of fraudulent returns were deposited into a personal checking account belonging to Guzman.

Birmingham, Ala.: Preparer Eunice F. Plummer, 36, of Demopolis, Ala., has been sentenced to 46 months in prison for filing more than $250,000 in false returns.

Plummer pleaded guilty in October to three counts of attempting to evade or defeat a large portion of the income tax she owed for 2011, 2012 and 2013. She also pleaded guilty to eight counts of filing false returns for others between 2011 and 2013.

According to the indictment and her plea agreement, Plummer operated Plummer Tax Services from 2010 to 2014, where she routinely inflated customers refunds by using such fraudulent information as wage amounts, child and dependent care expenses, education credits, and business losses.

Plummer also substantially underreported her income from operating Plummer Tax Services. Between the taxes she failed to pay on her own behalf and the boosted refund amounts from the fraudulent tax returns she filed for clients, Plummer cheated the IRS out of more than $250,000.

In January and February, while on bond awaiting sentencing following her guilty plea, Plummer re-activated her tax business under the new name Unique Tax Services, at the same location where she had operated Plummer Tax Services, and filed more returns that were fraudulent.

A judge told Plummer at sentencing that by continuing to file fraudulent returns after pleading guilty to that conduct, she showed disdain and disrespect to the court and acted like a thief and a con artist.

Tucson, Ariz.: Preparer Jose Jesus Gonzalez, 48, has received 21 months of imprisonment after pleading guilty to willfully filing a false individual income tax return. He was also ordered to pay more than $255,000 restitution and, separately, a $17,488 fine.

Gonzalez, doing business as Gonzalez Insurance and Tax Services, operated offices in Tucson from 2004 through 2009 and in Phoenix from 2009 through 2010. During the 2008 tax year, Gonzalez e-filed 90 income tax returns seeking a total of $651,500 in false claims for the First-Time Home Buyer Credit. The IRS disallowed a portion of the claims but paid $620,000 in false claims to taxpayers.

Little Rock, Ark.: A jury has convicted traveling minister Allen D. Miles, 58, on 14 counts for his role in a $4.8 million tax refund scam, specifically one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 10 counts of wire fraud and three counts of aggravated ID theft.

Miles, acting with Zinara Highsmith, engaged in a false tax refund scheme in which approximately 2,750 false returns were filed, claiming refunds of approximately $4.8 million. Miles obtained personal ID information from congregants and others by telling them that he could help them obtain money from an alleged government stimulus fund program. Miles did not tell congregants that income tax returns were going to be filed on their behalf.

After he obtained the information, Miles forwarded it to Highsmith, who with others then created the false returns that generated refunds based on certain credits for which the taxpayers did not qualify, such as the American Opportunity Credit, Making Work Pay Credit and the EITC.

For each refund, Miles collected a $125 commission and Highsmith, $275; the taxpayers received the balance. Miles received approximately $300,000 for his efforts in the refund scam, which operated between March and July 2011.

Sentencing is June 13.
By Catherine J. Frompovich

Sometimes researchers and writers wonder why things seem to just drop into their laps. Well, they do, and its apparent from the contents of resources that, coincidentally, there may be some credibility to them, particularly with whats called the Silent Weapons for a Quiet War An Introductory Programming Manual Operations Research Technical Manual, which, according to the website its posted on [1], claims it was found on July 7, 1986, in an IBM copier that had been purchased at a surplus sale.

It seems that in 1954 there was much concern about what was being planned to control the masses that were referred to steaks as you can read in this rather candid comment:

Although the so-called moral Issues were raised, in view of the law of natural selection it was agreed that a nation or world of people who will not use their intelligence are no better than animals who do not have intelligence. Such a people are beasts of burden and steaks on the table by choice and consent. [CJF emphasis added] CONSEQUENTLY, in the interest of future world order, peace, and tranquility, it was decided to privately wage a quiet war against the American public with an ultimate objective of permanently shifting the natural and social energy (wealth) of the undisciplined and irresponsible many into the hands of the self-disciplined, responsible, and worthy few.

If the game plan, aka Silent Weapons for a Quiet War, is not a legitimate OWO document, then whoever wrote it retrospectively certainly was able to reverse engineer whats manifesting currently. This ought to ring some bells:

In conclusion, the objective of economic research, as conducted by the magnates of capital (banking) and the industries of commodities (goods) and services, is the establishment of an economy which is totally predictable and manipulatable.

And for which U.S. citizens apparently fell hook, line, and sinker, especially buying into all the technology used to control us all while thinking were smart when, in actuality, we have enslaved ourselves to their control systemswillingly.

Heres what they mean by that:

Does that explain Common Core and all the dumb ass teaching methods since the 1960s?

The modus operandi couldnt be more clearly defined than this:

It [the silent weapon] shoots situations, instead of bullets; propelled by data processing, instead of chemical reaction (explosion); originating from bits of data, instead of grains of gunpowder; from a computer, instead of a gun; operated by a computer programmer, instead of marksman; under the orders of a banking magnate, instead of a military general. [.] Yet it makes an unmistakable noise, causes unmistakable physical and mental damage, and unmistakably interferes with daily social life, i.e., unmistakable to a trained observer, one who knows what to look for. The public cannot comprehend this weapon, and therefore cannot believe that they are being attached [? s/b attacked] and subdued by a weapon. [.] When a silent weapon is applied gradually to the public, the public adjusts/adapts to its presence and learns to tolerate its encroachment on their lives until the pressure (psychological via economic) becomes too great and they crack up.

How many people are emotionally disturbed and/or taking all sorts of mood controlling-elevating pharmaceutical drugs today? Even young children! In 2013-14 well over 70 million Americans were taking mind-altering drugs while another 60 million were abusing alcohol [2].

According to the IMS Health Vector One National Database for 2013, children ages zero to 17 years taking psychiatric drugs totaled 8,389,034 (thats millions!) [3].

The paper claims the silent weapon warfare was an outgrowth or expansion of the Rothschild scion Mayer Amschel Rothschilds (1743-1812) motto, Give me control over a nations currency, and I care not who makes its laws.

Expounding further on the Rothschild philosophy,

What Mr. Rothschild had discovered was the basic principle of power, influence, and control over people as applied to economics. That principle is when you assume the appearance of power, people soon give it to you. Mr. Rothschild had discovered that currency or deposit loan accounts had the required appearance of power that could be used to induce people (inductance, with people corresponding to a magnetic field) into surrendering their real wealth in exchange for a promise of greater wealth (instead of real compensation).

Is that not what we have today? The banksters, who engineer and control everything! Here is The Corbett Reports video on the Federal Reserve titled Century of Enslavement: The History of the Federal Reserve.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IJeemTQ7Vk&feature=player_embedded#t=10

Referring to apparent capital as a paper inductor, this prophetic statement rings loudly, especially regarding the huge college education debt students incur, only to find they have no jobs, or will flip burgers at some burger joint:

In this structure, credit, presented as a pure circuit element called currency, has the appearance of capital, but is, in fact, negative capital. Hence, it has the appearance of service, but is, in fact, indebtedness or debt. It is therefore an economic inductance instead of an economic capacitance, and if balanced in no other way, will be balanced by the negation of population (war, genocide).

To the above, you have to add this:

Eventually every individual element of the structure comes under computer control through a knowledge of personal preferences, such knowledge guaranteed by computer association of consumer preferences (universal product code  UPC  zebra stripe pricing codes on packages) with identified consumers (identified via association with the use of a credit card and later a permanent tattooed body number invisible under normal ambient illumination.

Chilling isnt it, how either the cited paper was reverse engineered or their plan is spot on point currently. Is that why tattoos had to be mainstreamed and are accepted by just about everyone? I often wondered about that, since tats really arent my thing.

Referring to the distribution of wealth, we find this:

In order to achieve such sovereignty, we must at least achieve this one end: that the public will not make either the logical or mathematical connection between economics and the other energy sciences or learn to apply such knowledge. This is becoming increasingly difficult to control because more and more businesses are making demands upon their computer programmers to create and apply mathematical models for the management of those businesses.

Under Economic Model, they say,

The Harvard Economic Research Project (1948-) was an extension of World War II Operations Research. Its purpose was to discover the science of controlling an economy; at first the American economy, and then the world economy. It was felt that with sufficient mathematical foundation and data, it would be nearly as easy to predict and control the trend of an economy as to predict and control the trajectory of a projectile. Such as proven to be the case. Moreover, the economy has been transformed into a guided missile on target.

On target, Id say; how about you? Why do we buy into it, plus put up with it, I offer.

There is so much that is offensive in the middle of the report, which I have to overlook, but refer you to the website http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/silentweaponsforquietwars.htm to read it, if interested in knowing how individuals will be monitored.

But, heres what I really find outstandingly on target for keeping to the plan, if its not been reverse engineered. Under Diversion Summary:

MEDIA: Keep the adult public attention diverted away from the real social issues, and captivated by matters of no real importance. [Arent Americans more interested in the sex lives of pop icons rather than whats going on in geopolitics?] SCHOOLS: Keep the young public ignorant of real mathematics, real economics, real law, and real history. [4] ENTERTAINMENT: Keep the public entertainment below a sixth grade level.



WORK: Keep the public busy, busy, busy, with no time to think; back on the farm with the other animals. [Do you consider yourself an animal? Apparently, the OWO elites do!]

Now, this really ought to frost your bananas:

Consent Coefficients: numerical feedback indicating victory status. Psychological basis: When the government is able to collect tax and seize private property without just compensation, it is an indication that the public is ripe for surrender and is consenting to enslavement and legal encroachment. A good and easily quantified indicator of harvest time is the number of public citizens who pay income tax.

I will leave the balance of what was recouped and transcribed from that photocopy machine for you to read, if so inclined. However, if the purported plan is factual, what are we going to do about it now that we know weve been had?

References:

[1] http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/silentweaponsforquietwars.ht

[2] http://www.wnd.com/2014/02/70-million-americans-taking-mind-altering-drugs/

[3] http://www.cchrint.org/psychiatric-drugs/children-on-psychiat

[4] http://www.naturalnews.com/048711_illiteracy_Mark_Dice_stupidity.html

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Catherines latest book, published October 4, 2013, is Vaccination Voodoo, What YOU Dont Know About Vaccines, available on Amazon.com.

Her 2012 book A Cancer Answer, Holistic BREAST Cancer Management, A Guide to Effective & Non-Toxic Treatments, is available on Amazon.com and as a Kindle eBook.

Two of Catherines more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into Whats Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008)

Catherines NEW book: Eat To Beat Disease, Foods Medicinal Qualities 2016 Catherine J Frompovich coming in Summer 2016
Chennai is facing acute water crisis this year too. At least, there are two months to monsoon reach at Tamil Nadu shore. If Tamil Nadu doesnt receive adequate rainfall this year too, then it will have to depend on neighbouring states. Always, Chennai had issues with water, either there is water scarcity or the city has to face floods like situation with excess water. This time its severe. Sometimes nature is too unkind to people and as TN is election bound state government too has limited resource because of model code of conduct. Recently, Chennai was dealing with problems like water stagnation and drainage during monsoons. The torrential rains this time magnified the problem manifold.

Like laymen, experts are also blaming the construction boom and unchecked cutting of mangroves. The fact is that only two small rivers are draining the rain water into the sea. The Buckingham canal mostly dumps the city rain water in the Adayar River. The Adayar River passes through the runway of the Chennai Airport causing the flooding at airport. The best way to tackle the periodical flooding and water scarcity is to divert the water from Adayar River west of airport by creating a weir and deepening the river and creating multiple canals like streets. Unless the water level in the rivers is kept low by diverging the rain water will not drain quickly from the city. Buckingham canal is an artificial canal built by British, so that they can ship Andhras products through Chennai port to their country. It is a canal which was built to loot Indian wealth. However, it became defunct in their regime only after laying railways track for faster mode of transportation.

Environmentalists said that the floods in Chennai are an impact of climate change and the unprecedented deluge that the city has witnessed is a reminder of increasing frequency of such freak weather events across the Indian subcontinent. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said that Chennai could have fared better if it had protected and preserved its natural water bodies and drainage channels. However, both the said problems are related to excessive construction which leads to poor recharge of groundwater aquifers and blocking of natural drainage systems. While, Chennai has been struggling to meet its water needs and has been even desalinating sea water at a huge expense, it allowed its aquifers to get depleted said the experts. CSEs research shows that Chennai had more than 600 water bodies in the 1980s, but a master plan published in 2008 said that only a fraction of them are in healthy condition.

According to records of the states Water Resources Department, the area of 19 major lakes has shrunk from a total of 1,130 hectares (ha) in the 1980s to around 645 ha in the early 2000s, reducing their storage capacity. The drains that carry surplus water from tanks to other wetlands have also been encroached upon. The analysis also shows that the stormwater drains constructed to drain flood waters are clogged and required immediate desiltation and Chennai has only 855 kms of stormwater drains against 2,847 kms of urban roads.

In November, the city had received 1,218 mm of rain, which was almost three times more than the average the city receives. A 2006 study by the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM) in Pune had said that extreme precipitation events were increasing in frequency and intensity in India during the period between 1950 to the 2000s. CSEs climate change experts point out that while detailed attribution studies needed to be done to find out more links between the Chennai catastrophe and climate change, existing scientific studies do establish the possibility of a connection.

Meanwhile, Chennai faced plenty of water crises, Jayalalitha urged Modi to intervene and advise Karnataka to make good the shortfall of about 27.557 TMC ft of water up to August 31, 2015. She also pointed out to her repeated requests for the formation of the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee. The sharing of waters of the Cauvery River has been the source of a serious conflict between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. The genesis of this conflict rests in two agreements in 1892 and 1924 between the erstwhile Madras Presidency and Princely State of Mysore. The 802 kilometres (498 mi) Cauvery River has 44,000 sq.km basin area in Tamil Nadu and 32,000 sq.km basin area in Karnataka. Decades of negotiations between the parties bore no fruit. The Government of India then constituted a tribunal in 1990 to look into the matter. After hearing arguments of all the parties involved for the next 16 years, the tribunal delivered its final verdict on 5 February 2007. In its verdict, the tribunal allocated 419 billion cubic.ft (12 cubic.km) of water annually to Tamil Nadu and 270 billion cubic.ft (7.6 cubic.km) to Karnataka; 30 billion cu.ft (0.8 cu.km) of Cauvery River water to Kerala and 7 billion cu.ft (0.2 cu.km) to Puducherry. The dispute however, appears not to have concluded, as all three states and Union territory deciding to file review petitions seeking clarifications and possible renegotiation of the order. Soon after the tribunal was set up, Tamil Nadu demanded a mandatory injunction on Karnataka for the immediate release of water and other reliefs. This was dismissed by the tribunal. Tamil Nadu, now went back to the Supreme Court which directed the tribunal to reconsider the states plea.

Karnataka was thus forced to accept the interim award and widespread demonstrations and violence broke out in parts of the state and Tamil Nadu following this. Thousands of Tamil families had to flee from Bangalore in fear of being attacked and lynched by pro-Kannada activists with the behest of the state government [citation needed]. The violence and show down, mostly centered in the Tamil populated parts of Bangalore, lasted for nearly a month and most schools and educational institutions in Bangalore remained closed during this period.

That time, Chennai was stalled over unbalanced water and floods across the state.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
Iran will never negotiate over its missile programme as it is a matter of national defence, the countrys Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday.

The minister told a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand that the US knows the missile issue and defence capabilities of the Islamic republic are not open to negotiations, Xinhua reported.

If the US is serious about the arms, it is better to reconsider the sales of the weapons to some countries which use them against the Yemenis and the Palestinians, he said.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US was open to a new arrangement with Iran for resolving the issues pertaining to the countrys missile programme.

Also, a senior Iranian military official dismissed on Friday the remarks of the top US diplomat on Irans missile programme as impudent.

Irans Deputy Joint Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, called on the countrys foreign ministry to respond firmly to Kerrys calls for missile talks with Tehran.

The missile power is non-negotiable, and for developing its defence capabilities Iran does not get permission from anybody, Jazayeri said.

The White House is critical of Irans missile programme and deems it a threat to regional and world peace.

However, the Islamic republic said its missile programme is for peaceful purposes and no measure can strip the Islamic republic of its legitimate and legal rights to boost its defensive capabilities and to safeguard national security.
Congress accused RSS of vitiating social atmosphere by seeking to scrap reservation to SCs and STs and said it will foil any bid by the BJP and its ideological mentor to alter the Constitution.

RSS and BJP are almost bent on destroying the crux of the Preamble and Constitution as they dont accept it. All India Congress Committee will foil any attempt by the RSS and BJP to change the constitution authored by Babasaheb Ambedkar, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Ashok Chavan, on the eve of party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhis rally.

Sonia and Rahul will participate in the concluding function of the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of dalit icon B R Ambedkar on Monday and a rally also has been lined up on the occasion.

He said the RSS has been unnecessarily raising the issue of scrapping the reservation to SCs and STs. RSS is vitiating the social environment, the senior leader said.

Sonia and Rahul will arrive on a special flight from Delhi at 3.30 PM on Monday and directly head to the historic Deekshabhoomi  where Ambedkar had embraced Buddhism in 1956  to pay homage to the architect of the Indian Constitution.

Thereafter, they will proceed to the state guesthouse -Ravi Bhawan Colleges  and meet leaders from Maharashtra.

At 5.20 PM, they will drive down to Kasturchand Park where the party is expecting a record turnout of people.

Chavan said while Sonia will fly back to Delhi tomorrow night Rahul will stay back and fly to Mumbai on April 12.

He will interact with striking jewellers in the commercial capital and also visit Deonar dumping ground there where repeated fires have broken out recently raising a health concern for residents.

Senior Congress leaders including Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former CMs Ashok Gahlot (Rajasthan), Ajit Jogi (Chattisgarh), Mahila Congress president Shobha Oza and All India Youth Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Brar will also be present in Nagpur.

Former Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde and the AICC general secretary Digvijay Singh have already arrived in city.
April 10, 2016

CAIRO  Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Ati, who took office March 23 as part of the Cabinet reshuffle by the government of Sherif Ismail, has told Al-Monitor that Cairo is studying various solutions to resolve the Renaissance Dam crisis with Ethiopia. While he wouldnt reveal details about these efforts, he indicated that Cairo is hoping for full cooperation with other Nile basin countries and would be focusing on solutions beneficial for all.

Negotiations between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan regarding the specifics of the dam have faced numerous challenges since they began years ago, and the tripartite talks are now stumbling on a new obstacle: the required technical studies. The studies are aimed at determining the extent of the damage the dam will cause downstream in Egypt and Sudan after operation begins.

The text of the interview follows:

Al-Monitor: You were appointed minister of water resources and irrigation at a time when the country is facing many crises involving water. What are your main goals when it comes to overcoming the crises?

Abdel Ati: First, I would like to clarify certain facts regarding the situation of water in Egypt, which is currently going through a critical phase. Egypt is a desert country that has no water resources except for the Nile, which provides 97% of our water supply. The Nile is our source of life and we will currently be focusing on treating sources of pollution  whether factories that dump their waste water in the Nile or [pollution from] the sewage system. This polluted water must be dealt with to improve water quality, since it is possible to recycle or reuse it six times, [something necessary] in light of the population growth. According to the last population survey in Egypt, the number of residents has reached 90 million, and by 2030 it will reach 130 million, while the rate of population in the other Nile Basin countries is also growing, and thus the demand of water is on the rise, which represents another challenge in managing the river system in order for everyone to benefit from its water.

Al-Monitor: A statement made by the Egyptian prime minister before parliament a few days ago spoke about alternative scenarios to deal with the Renaissance Dam crisis with Ethiopia. Is Cairo heading toward international escalation against Addis Ababa?

Abdel Ati: The political leadership in Egypt is convinced that a full cooperation with all Nile Basin countries will benefit everyone. We do not aim to achieve gains for Egyptians alone through our negotiations with Ethiopia; we do not want anyone to be a loser. There are indeed many solutions that are being studied in order to overcome the current crisis. I cannot give details about these scenarios but I can assure you that there are solutions and once agreed upon, they will be announced.

Al-Monitor: There are government reports that speak of a deficit of up to 40 billion cubic meters of water, used by Egypt for drinking, irrigation and development. Meanwhile, Ethiopia is planning to start storing water behind the walls of the Renaissance Dam. How will you cope with this?

Abdel Ati: Although our water management is good and the Egyptian irrigation systems efficiency is about 78%  the highest efficiency in Africa  the real average consumption of water is 105 billion cubic meters, and we get 55.5 billion cubic meters from the Nile. The remaining 80 billion cubic meters are covered by the reuse of wastewater [78% of 135.5 billion cubic meters is roughly 105 billion cubic meters]. We will work on clarifying the issue of water deficit, both at the domestic level in Egypt to spread awareness about water issues among the people, or at the level of external communication, because clarifying this issue is of great importance in our negotiations with the Nile Basin countries and Ethiopia. It is imperative that everyone knows that the Egyptians are not against development in the Upper Nile, but that they just fear the repercussions of the projects that do not take into account their share of water, which could include damages that directly reflect on water and food security, and affect the future of the coming generations.

Al-Monitor: Egypt has maintained the freeze on its membership in the Nile Basin Initiative, a decision that came in objection to the Entebbe Agreement signed by five Nile headwaters countries. Will this freeze mean the halt of implementation for any joint development projects in the Nile Basin?

Abdel Ati: Our position is clear when it comes to the Entebbe Agreement. We will not work in a context that goes against the Egyptian peoples interests. The common interests lie in achieving development on the banks of the Nile. This falls within the Egyptian governments priorities and we are achieving this through bilateral cooperation with all Nile Basin countries and to the fullest extent. The governments current plan relies on the fact that there is no ceiling for cooperation with the Nile Basin countries, and this is why there are many projects currently being implemented in the majority of the Upper Nile countries, whether through clearing the tributaries of the Nile or digging for clean drinking water wells in disadvantaged areas, in addition to the development of fishing marinas on the Nile. We are currently working on a special project to divert the course of the Nile from the Mediterranean Sea to Lake Victoria, to the largest shipping lane for trade.

Al-Monitor: Egypt recently announced an ambitious project to cultivate an additional 1.5 million acres using groundwater. How will Egypt procure the necessary water for this project amid alarming talk about water shortages?

Abdel Ati: The philosophy of the 1.5 million acres project relies on cultivating land of no more than 700,000 acres, while the rest of the space would be dedicated for urban and industrial development. We would use the groundwater in the early stages of cultivation only, because the majority of groundwater in Egypt is not renewable. Meanwhile, [future] water for the project would be provided through the wastewater resulting from the urban and industrial areas within the project; we would work on treating it and using it more than once. It is an integrated development project that came as a special solution to confront the climate change crisis and its expected impact on the sinking of the Delta areas. We will not leave the people who will be affected in these areas without planning alternative accommodation and jobs for them.

Al-Monitor: The low water level on the Nile  which resulted in crises at drinking water stations and mass fish deaths  recently has led to controversy among the public about Ethiopia starting to store water at the Renaissance Dam. What is the truth of this matter?

Abdel Ati: The truth is, there is a drought in the Nile Basin region and the amount of rainfall is below normal. We are hoping for an improvement over the coming months.
April 8, 2016

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The tradition of henna body painting has resurfaced among Palestinian women who paint their bodies and feet for ornamental purposes. This tradition vanished in the past decades, but it is gaining popularity again and has become a source of living for many women who help to make ends meet amid the deteriorating living conditions in the Gaza Strip.

Henna is a powder made out of henna tree leaves. It is sold in local perfume stores and can be prepared at home by crushing henna leaves and mixing them with water, then adding dyes to give them color. Women paint beautiful shapes on their hands and feet with henna, and the designs last for a couple of months before disappearing.

According to historian Naser al-Yafawi, henna painting is part of Palestinian heritage, and it was first used by the Phoenicians in the Levant in 1500 B.C., especially in Lebanon and Palestine. They colored the henna magenta to give it a nice color. The tradition then spread among Egyptians and other civilizations. Yafawi told Al-Monitor, Phoenicians tattooed their hands and faces with henna as part of pagan rituals. When people died, their palms were painted with henna before the burial. Later on henna became a part of womens ornamentation.

Yafawi said that henna tattooing has always been part of traditional rituals for Palestinian weddings. The brides hands and feet are painted with henna to resemble a mural on the night before her wedding in what is called henna night.

On her henna night on April 2, bride Mona Jaoude, 18, had a woman tattoo her body and feet with roses, butterflies and tree branches with henna. Upon seeing this, the other ladies were excited to have their own henna drawings.

Jaoude told Al-Monitor, Henna painting is considered part of our unforgettable customs. However, it is not limited to brides, as other girls can get their own henna tattoos. But when it comes to the bride, the advantage is the painting space, as the henna drawings can stretch from her palms to her shoulders and from her feet to her knees.

Henna painting is also part of the grooms celebration rituals, but in a different way. According to tradition, the groom dips his right hand in henna on his bachelor night, which precedes the wedding night and is equivalent to the brides henna night. This ritual distinguishes the groom from the other men, but beautiful shapes are not drawn on his body because they are considered feminine.

Henna painting has become a largely needed skill in Gaza because few people have mastered it. Meanwhile, women increasingly want henna drawings on their hands and feet, even without an occasion. This has pushed some women to master the skill and use it as a source of income.

Faiza Ahmad, who is skilled in henna painting, said that more women are demanding henna painting on their hands and feet to give them a beautiful look.

Ahmad told Al-Monitor, Henna painting has become a source of living for me. It provides me with a monthly income that reaches $150 on average. One henna drawing ranges from 5 to 20 shekels [$1.30-$5.30]. She noted that demand for henna painting increases in spring and summer, as weddings and occasions abound during that time of the year. The henna lasts for about two months.

How is henna prepared for painting? Ahmad answered, The henna powder is mixed with oils to become smooth. Then it is mixed with black or red dyes. Old women are a fan of the red color, while young ladies opt for black because they find red old-fashioned and not in line with the trending fashion. After dyeing, the henna is put in a special syringe and is ready for painting.

Ahmad welcomes customers at her house in Gaza City because renting a place is costly. She also visits the customers homes upon their demand.

Other women found Facebook a suitable space to promote their work and attract customers looking for henna painting. Fidaa Natshe, known as Umm Amid, created her own Facebook page and called it The newest Henna trends for brides  Umm Amid. The page has 3,500 followers.

Natshe told Al-Monitor, I have mastered henna painting for years, but I have few customers. When I created a Facebook page to promote my work and skills, my customers increased in number. She noted that she had two or three customers per day on average, but after creating a Facebook page, this number has reached seven.

Henna is not only used for ornamentation in Gaza. It is also used as medicine for problems that women suffer from. Alaa Ayech, manager of Al-Salam Herbal Stores, told Al-Monitor, In addition to ornamentation, henna is used to treat hair [loss] and weakness of the hair lock. Henna powder is mixed with lukewarm water and is left for three hours to ferment. Then it is applied to the hair for two to three hours. It is also used to kill fungi that appear on the cracks of the feet.

Ayech noted that local henna is not the best. Sudanese, Yemeni and Indian henna are better because they grow in a warmer climate. All types are available in local markets for customers and are exported from the countries of origin without any obstacles.

Despite the popularity of henna painting among women in the Gaza Strip, it is still considered a domestic profession because women find it hard to launch their projects or open beauty parlors due to lack of capital and the tough economic conditions.
April 7, 2016

The killing of a Palestinian terrorist by an Israeli soldier in Hebron on March 24 sparked a volatile and emotional debate inside Israels political leadership and within public opinion. In the Israeli ethos, the soldier is always in the right and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is the peoples army, as military service is mandatory and virtually every Jewish citizen sees or will see his/her children serving in the army. Indeed, a public opinion poll by Israeli TV Channel 2 on March 27 showed a strong majority in favor of the soldiers claim that he acted out of self-defense; 57% of the public believed that he should not have been arrested.

The response of the IDF was surprisingly stern. The soldier was denounced for not obeying IDF moral code. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot issued on March 30 a special letter to all the soldiers, ordering them to uphold both operational and moral standards of the army. He emphasized this point by quoting Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, who said that Israels security depends both on its strength and its morality. Eizenkot also committed the IDF to remaining the peoples army in a democratic and Jewish state.

This is a rare case where Israels head of the military stood up for Israels democratic values.

Eizenkot's stance was strongly denounced and defamed by right-wing politicians and public opinion, but supported by Minister of Defense Moshe Yaalon. This is quite reminiscent of the Turkish model  especially the stance taken by the Turkish army in 2002 when the Islamic Justice and Development Party first won the elections. At the outset of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogans rule, the army stood out to protect the stability of the democracy, out of concern for the religious, Islamic nature of the new regime.

Back to the West Bank. Palestinians were not very impressed with the show of democracy by Israels army. Democracy is the last thing that comes to the mind of any Palestinian when thinking of the IDF. A senior Palestinian security source involved in the investigation of the killing of the Palestinian stabber told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity that the Palestinian Authority describes the incident as a cold-blooded murder. Yet he claimed that there was nothing outstanding in this event and that 200 Palestinians have been killed by Israelis since the beginning of the current wave of violence. About two-thirds of them, according to the official, were executed as they were defenseless.

We have denounced to the United Nations, the United States and the European Union these executions as Israeli war crimes, the Palestinian source said. He described in very grim colors the situation in Hebron, saying, The army gives a green light to the Hebron settlers, the hilltop youth [young extreme-right activists] and the Kahane movement people [followers of extreme right activist Meir Kahane] to attack Palestinian civilians, destroy Palestinian property and businesses and erect roadblocks inside Palestinian neighborhoods. The official believes that the situation in Hebron is about to explode into much broader violence and that this was the reason in his view that Eizenkot came out against this soldier.

The Palestinian claims did not fall on deaf ears within the international community. Even before the Hebron incident, a group of US Democratic Congress members, led by veteran Sen. Patrick Leahy from Vermont, called on Secretary of State John Kerry in a letter dated Feb. 17 to investigate gross violations of human rights by Israel (and Egypt). The letter mentioned several cases of alleged extrajudicial execution by the IDF and the Israeli Police, and it was leaked to the press after the incident in Hebron. Such a letter is quite exceptional; for Israeli human rights violations to be equated with Egyptian human rights violations is a blatant message.

Israels democracy is coming under fire also within the US administration, due to its occupation policies. On April 1, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau expressed concern over Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which casts doubts as to Israels commitment to that two-state solution.

Israels democracy is in a crisis mostly due to its occupation policies. Its alleged executions of Palestinian terrorists, settlement expansion, demolition of houses and Palestinian land expropriations cast heavy clouds over Israels identity as a Jewish democracy. There is a regional and international price to pay for these flaws in the democracy. The Palestinians perceive themselves as the victims of these policies, and most of the international community is critical of the policies as well.

Israel prides itself as being the sole democracy in the Middle East. This is probably still the case. Yet when its government is tacitly criticized by the countrys leading general on the flaws of democracy, it must comprehend that Israel cannot have it both ways. It cannot remain democratic and remain the occupier of another people all at the same time.
April 8, 2016

Turkey has been making drastic decisions in different towns of the majority Kurdish southeast in the past few weeks. On March 21, Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government hastily passed legislation referred to as urgent expropriation of the Sur district of Diyarbakir province. On March 26, the government's Official Gazette announced all the addresses of the properties to be expropriated.

These decisions have been met with local opposition, which has been silenced swiftly. But the Sur situation generated global reactions because of the town's history  so much so that Galip Ensarioglu, a prominent AKP parliamentarian, told the press that the US Embassy had called him asking about the reports. Ensarioglu said the reports amounted to a smear campaign spreading false information about the confiscation process. Others beg to differ.

Indeed, the story of Sur evolves around historic churches and citadels of the town, which are on UNESCOs World Heritage List. Months of fighting with the Kurdistan Workers Party have left the region in ruins, and ambiguous government statements furthered the frustration of civilians who were obliged to leave their homes. One of the concerned groups is Armenian. About 110 years ago, the regions population distribution shows Sur was an Armenian majority town.

As aerial images of Sur expropriations started circulating on social media, Armenians all around the world became concerned, particularly about one church that was reopened only in 2011. Soon it became clear that several inalienable religious endowment properties, or waqf, along with the largest Armenian Church, St. Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church, were included on the list. About 82% of the district is estimated to have been expropriated by the government.

Raffi Bedrosyan, a Canadian-Armenian civil engineer and writer who was involved in the reconstruction of St. Giragos, spoke to Al-Monitor about its significance. According to Bedrosyan, St. Giragos is the largest Armenian church in the Middle East. "It dates back to the 14th century, and with several expansions, it served the large Armenian community of 100,000 in Diyarbakir until 1915, he said.

After the Armenians were forced to leave the city, the church was made to serve different purposes, from an army barracks to a warehouse. Constant attempts to keep it functioning as a church were futile until a waqf foundation was able to reclaim the property.

In 2009, a newly formed church charitable foundation showed the courage and determination to start reconstruction of [St.] Giragos. With organized fundraising from the Armenian community in Istanbul and worldwide Armenian diasporas, as well as some contribution from the local Kurdish municipal leaders, the church was renovated and opened in 2011, and more than 4,000 people attended, Bedrosyan said.

He added, It soon became a spiritual and cultural center for Armenian pilgrims from the diaspora and a meeting place for thousands and thousands of hidden Armenians living in the region, who are the descendants of 1915 orphaned Armenian girls and boys [who were] forcibly Islamized, Kurdified and Turkified. The [St.] Giragos Church Foundation also succeeded in having several properties  restored to church ownership.

In 2012, Bedrosyan gave a memorable piano concert at the church. The church became a catalyst, bringing Christians and descendants of Armenians from all around the world to Sur, and it also served as a spiritual refuge for hundreds of Islamized Armenian survivors.

Aline Ozinian is a regional analyst for the Armenian Assembly of America and a correspondent for Agos, an Armenian daily published in Turkey. She described for Al-Monitor how the news of expropriation resonated among Armenians.

First and foremost, it caused a loss of trust of the government. In the early years of the AKP, there was hope for a fresh start because the AKP appeared to be embracing the rhetoric of religious freedom. During the reconstruction process of [St.] Giragos, there was hope that, as citizens of Turkey, Armenians would have an achievement, Ozinian said. Yet with this expropriation decision, it is confirmed that this was a cheap illusion. The police mentality that yells at the Kurds You are all Armenians has now been institutionalized. The expropriation of [St.] Giragos symbolizes a punishment for both Kurds and Armenians. It is highly probable that the AKP is punishing Armenians, as some Armenians have voted for the pro-Kurdish HDP [Peoples Democratic Party].

The AKP has repeatedly denied expropriating churches. Ensarioglu vehemently rejected expropriation of any of the churches, saying, We are only here to repair the churches and give them back to the waqfs. Yet none of the locals seemed convinced by his statements. As the pressure built, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited Sur on April 1.

Ozinian said, Davutoglus first task at Sur was to pray at a mosque. This was a message. The church had rejuvenated the Islamized Armenians in the region, encouraging them to investigate their histories. It seems the Turkish government, intolerant toward differences, will resolve all problems by expropriating the church.

She also emphasized the sudden turn in Turkish press coverage. During the reconstruction process of the church from 2009 to 2011, the press coverage was extensive. The church was portrayed as a monument of the AKPs tolerance, yet the expropriation news barely made it into the mainstream media, and not to the headlines at all. In 1915, hatred removed and cleansed the Armenians from Sur, and now I fear a similar destiny awaits the Kurds.

Indeed, Ozinians concerns have been repeated by several columnists from the region who say they fear the government plans to empty the region of Kurds and settle Syrian refugees as a buffer zone between Kurdish areas. Another concern is the greed factor. The AKP has prepared a video showing what the future of the historic Sur district would look like. Davutoglu likened it to the reconstructed city of Toledo, Spain. I told my wife, we should own a house in Sur as well, he added.

Locals were not satisfied with his words, as prominent columnist Nurcan Baysal penned a searing column titled Take Toledo for yourself and leave Sur alone. Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the HDP, had already submitted an inquiry about the ancient church and has been seeking to halt its expropriation.

Many believe this move by the AKP is another lucrative gentrification project for construction companies belonging to AKP cronies. In the midst of all this, the country's biggest Armenian church appears to have met the same destiny as dozens of others in the region  it has become collateral damage.
A Forestdale man was convicted last week in the 2013 shooting death of another man.

James Kevin Mixon, 27, was found guilty by a jury Friday afternoon of reckless manslaughter. Mixon had been charged with murder, but after a week-long trial the jury returned with the verdict on the lesser charge.

The trial was held before Jefferson County Circuit Judge Tracie Todd.

Mixon was charged in the Sept. 7, 2013 shooting death of 20-year-old Andre Tyreece Davis. Both men lived in an apartment complex in the 200 block of Crabapple Lane in Forestdale, court records show.

Just before 12:30 a.m. that day Jefferson County sheriff's deputies responded to the apartment complex to investigate a report of shots fired. Witnesses told deputies that Davis and Mixon were talking when Mixon pulled out a handgun and fired at Davis several times. Davis was taken by car to UAB Hospital where he died a short time later.

Mixon, accompanied by a lawyer, turned himself in to deputies later that day.

"We're glad for the family of Andre Davis that they will see justice for Andre," according to a statement after Friday's verdict from Deputy Jefferson County District Attorney Riggs Walker. "The jury gave the case careful consideration and reached a good verdict. We appreciate the hard work and good detective work by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office."

Deputy District Attorney Holly Clemente also prosecuted the case.

Defense attorney Cynthia Umstead represented Mixon.

"Of course we were disappointed, as we felt Mr. Mixon acted in self-defense under the laws in the state of Alabama," Umstead stated in an email to AL.com. "However the jury worked very hard and diligently to arrive at their verdict of Reckless Manslaughter and we can respect that," she stated.

Mixon's sentencing is set for June 28, Umstead said.
A classic print by Andy Warhol was stolen from a Missouri museum.

One of the "Campbell's Soup Cans" prints was taken from the Springfield Art Museum sometime between 5:30 p.m. Wednesday and 8:45 a.m. Thursday. The print was part of a larger exhibition of the famous Campbell's Soup painting, ABC News said.

Museum employees have taken down the rest of the exhibit until the stolen piece is recovered.

Although one print was reported stolen, the museum director could not confirm if multiple were taken, according to The Springfield News-Leader.

The single stolen print is estimated to be worth over $30,000.

The News-Leader reported that the museum had been working on an emergency preparedness plan for the past six months, but the new security measures were not complete at the time of the heist.

City spokesperson Cora Scott told the newspaper, "We are constantly working on improving security measures and find it a challenging balance with keeping art accessible to the community. We appreciate the outpouring of support we are already receiving from our art patrons."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Interpol are searching for the art thief or thieves.
Donald Trump campaigning

Alicia Watkins of Gaithersburg, Md., left, smiles as she talks to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump after asking him for a job, while he was speaking during a campaign event in the atrium of the Old Post Office Pavilion, soon to be a Trump International Hotel, Monday, March 21, 2016, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

(Paul Beaudry)

The Boston Globe newspaper's front page parody features mock articles, all written by the Globe's editorial board, denouncing the GOP candidate, according to Reuters.

An editor's note on the bottom left corner of the page states, "This is Donald Trump's America," and imagines the future of America under a President Trump.

"The mock front page envisions a host of political, financial and international scenarios ranging from disturbingly surreal to darkly humorous, all playing on Trump's real pronouncements about illegal immigration, Muslims, national security and the First Amendment," Reuters reported.

The headline, above a picture of the Republican frontrunner, said "Deportations to begin," with a subheading of, "President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; riots continue."

Other articles on the page discuss libel laws, ISIS family members, and trade wars.

One even claims that Trump compared the Chinese first lady, Peng Liyuan, to a shar-pei puppy.

The Globe's editorial board is headed by Ellen Clegg, the editorial page editor. Her boss, the Globe's publisher John Henry, told Reuters via phone that the front page joke does not reflect the paper's newsroom.

The Trump campaign has not commented on the parody page.

To see the fake front page, click here.
Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt

Bruce Springsteen, center, Steven Van Zandt, second from right, and Patti Scialfa, right, are seen onstage at the 54th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 12, 2012 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)

A North Carolina congressman called Bruce Springsteen a "bully" after canceling a concert set for Sunday in Greensboro in protest of a new law many say discriminates against the transgender community.

"It's disappointing he's not following through on his commitments," U.S. Rep. Mark Walker said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter.

Walker said he may have to support other artists like Justin Bieber who have North Carolina shows on their concert schedule.

"Bruce is known to be on the radical left, and he's got every right to be so, but I consider this a bully tactic. It's like when a kid gets upset and says he's going to take his ball and go home," he said.

House Bill 2, which recently passed in the North Carolina State Legislature requires people to use bathrooms assigned to the sex on their birth certificates.

Many in Hollywood are speaking out and talking action against the state since the law passed.

Lionsgate moved the production of its Hulu pilot "Crushed" from North Carolina to Canada, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Director Rob Reiner has said he wouldn't film anything in the state until the law is repealed. Disney could also pull productions from North Carolina, Cinema Blend reported.

Springsteen issued a statement on his website on Friday notifying fans of the cancellation and the reason behind it.

It read, in part: "To my mind, it's an attempt by people who cannot stand the progress our country has made in recognizing the human rights of all of our citizens to overturn that progress. Right now, there are many groups, businesses, and individuals in North Carolina working to oppose and overcome these negative developments. Taking all of this into account, I feel that this is a time for me and the band to show solidarity for those freedom fighters. As a result, and with deepest apologies to our dedicated fans in Greensboro, we have canceled our show scheduled for Sunday, April 10th."

Steven Van Zandt, a member of Springsteen's E Street Band, defended the decision to cancel the concert in an interview with Rolling Stone on Friday.

"We just felt the issue was just too important," he said. "This really vile and evil discrimination is starting to spread state to state and we thought, 'We better take a stand right now and catch it early.'"
Baldwin County, the state's undisputed king of growth, added another 3,000 residents last year.

No other county in Alabama is rising faster. For mayors, schools, planners and families trying to put down roots, it's astonishing, nerve-wracking and challenging, all at the same time.

Baldwin's population has climbed by 21,444 since 2010, pushing it past 200,000, according to the latest Census data.

The next-quickest growers were Madison and Lee, at 18,278 and 16,697, respectively. Madison County is home to Huntsville, while Lee County includes Auburn.

In fact, those three counties have accounted for 49 percent of the state's population increase since 2010.

But it's Baldwin that stands out. The county - with a land mass larger than Rhode Island - features no single large metro. Instead, it's a proliferation of smaller cities and their residential surrounds.

The northern half of the county has remained quiet and largely rural. But the southern half is exploding, from Spanish Fort to Daphne and Fairhope, across to Loxley, Robertdale and Foley, and down to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach.

Shelby County outside Birmingham was once Alabama's standard-bearer for growth, but no more.

'Great choices'

According to statistics provided by the Baldwin County Association of Realtors, the county has experienced a 39 percent increase in the number of residential properties purchased since 2011. And during the period, sales in each new year topped the previous one.

A house is under construction in Spanish Fort, Ala. Baldwin County remains one of the state's fastest-growing counties. (AL.com file photo)

The average days on the market for a house in Baldwin County was 169 in 2011 and 173 in 2012. It fell to 158 in 2014, then to 145 in 2015.

At the same time, the median sales price went from $190,000 in 2011 to $233,007 in 2015.

"People are coming to Baldwin County because it is affordable and offers all the benefits without high crime rates and great choices in real estate," said Sheila Dodson, CEO of the Association of Realtors. She acknowledged the ongoing construction of new subdivisions on the Eastern Shore, namely in and around Spanish Fort, Fairhope and Daphne.

The proximity to Mobile is obviously a bonus for the Eastern Shore. Mobile boasts of the coast's major workplaces: Shipbuilder Austal USA employs 4,275, the University of South Alabama employs approximately 4,000 and Mobile's hospitals have 5,000 or more.

Airbus built its first North American aircraft assembly plant in Mobile. It opened in 2015 and is expected to add 1,000 workers in the next couple of years.

Baldwin civic leaders and boosters can cite a long list of attributes fueling the growth. They mention the lure of the beach, relative affordability, popular schools, a coastal vibe, and on and on. And they mention that Baldwin feels safe. The latter, for County Commissioner Chris Elliott, is a sometimes understated attribute.

"We'll have petty thefts, but compared to large cities, we just don't have the violent crime," Elliott said.

Sheriff Huey "Hoss" Mack said the county simply doesn't have many homicides. He believes that the record would be no more than a dozen. "On average, we will have three to four homicides a year. A big year for us is six," he said.

Westward across the bay, Mobile had 26 murders in 2015, and is on pace to exceed that figure in 2016. Eastward across the Florida line, Pensacola recorded 27 homicides last year.

"We're book-ended with two metropolitan areas with crime rates at the national averages or above," Mack said. "That's where you see the big numbers. You come to Baldwin County and see the low numbers."

That particularly stands out, he said, in light of the booming population.

'Our challenge'

At present, Baldwin is the seventh-largest county, but it's on track to leapfrog Tuscaloosa County to No. 6. Only 276 residents separates the two counties. Tuscaloosa County added 1,457 residents between 2014 and 2015.

"We're excited about the situation," said Heiko Einfeld, executive director with the Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, commenting on the growth in general.

But there are obvious challenges. Among the most critical is dealing with traffic congestion.

In the summer months, when the county's biggest draw - the white, sandy beaches - bring tourists from all over, highways such as Alabama 59 are jammed for miles.

"That's our challenge," Elliott said. "It could mess us up."

Baldwin leaders and lawmakers are pushing for funding to extend the Baldwin Beach Express from Interstate 10 to I-65, creating a wide new path for beach-bound families. The first 12.8 miles of the new road opened in 2014, linking the Orange Beach/Gulf Shores and I-10.

The full Beach Express' construction is included in a bill, sponsored by state Sen. Bill Hightower, R-Mobile. That bill would divert some of the state's $1 billion economic settlement in the BP oil spill case toward funding the construction of the 24.5-mile extension.

Coming Monday at AL.com

: A slideshow illustrating examples of Baldwin County's rapid growth.

County and city officials are also looking at ways to ease pressure on U.S. 98 and Alabama 181 on the Eastern Shore. For U.S. 98, a synchronized traffic light plan is being offered. For Alabama 181, a $3.5 million redesign of its I-10 intersection is in the planning stages.

Schools are another challenge. The countywide school system enrolled 16,000 in 1985-86; it overtopped 31,000 this year.

The 45-school school system pegs the growth rate at 500 students per year. That's about the size of one new elementary school annually. But Baldwin has built no new public school since 2009.

More than 90 portable trailer classrooms have been placed at school campuses to help cope with the crowding.

But last year, Baldwin voters overwhelmingly rejected new property taxes meant to pay for a $350 million school construction and renovation campaign.

With that plan scrapped, school leaders are looking at smaller fixes. The school board recently announced it would stick with a $15.5 million building plan that will add classrooms and cafeterias to six schools. The additions are expected to reduce the number of portables to 60-65.

"The growth has been tremendous," said Superintendent Eddie Tyler, who joined the school system last fall. "It's always encouraging but, there again, you have to figure out how to manage the growth."

He said, "We find ourselves in a situation with our facilities and money ... it's just difficult right now."

Elliot, the county commissioner, said the perception remains that Baldwin has quality schools, and thus is a good place for families. "Schools will continue to be a driver," he said.

But it's not just young families coming for the schools. Retirees are moving to beach cities and the Eastern Shore.

Herb Malone, president/CEO of Gulf Shores & Orange Beach Tourism, said the "quality of life" is the lure.

Said Malone: "Most people who have moved here attribute it to the overall lifestyle ... the great assets we have." He said, "To some it's the cost of living, to others it's about a nicer climate than where they are moving from. It's probably a little altogether."
Former Kamajor militia fighters work to protect and breathe life back into the endangered Gola Forest.

Gola Forest, Sierra Leone  Beneath the dense forest canopy, Vandi Konneh carefully picks his way along the rocky footpath. Beads of sweat gather at his temples as he scans the undergrowth for signs of the poachers who roam here. Working as a park ranger in the remote Gola Forest in southern Sierra Leone is a dangerous business, but Konneh is not afraid.

A muscular 36-year-old with piercing eyes and high cheekbones, Konneh is one of a small band of ex-militia fighters from the countrys 11-year civil war, who now use their skills and experience to preserve the forest.

Walking deeper into the trees, Konneh is alert as he examines the nearby plant life.

If we encounter any armed poachers, lie flat on the ground, he says. Just a month earlier, another ranger was treated in hospital after being slashed with a machete during an encounter with poachers.

Pausing, Konneh breaks a small branch from a shrub on the right of the path.

We ate this during the war to suppress our appetite and to help us focus, he says, chewing on the plants fleshy interior.

He was 17 when he was led into the Gola Forest to be initiated into the feared armed group, the Kamajor, that was formed of local hunters who used their magical potions and mystical knowledge of the jungle to combat the brutal rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). The RUF were notorious for their use of child soldiers and their predilection for amputating the limbs of their victims.

For several weeks he had lived in the forest, learning the secret rites of the Mende people  the dominant ethnic group in Southern Sierra Leone  and the supernatural powers that would make him, according to their beliefs, impervious both to the dangers of the forest and to the bullets of his enemies.

At one stage of the initiation, Konneh explains, the commanders fired directly at him to demonstrate how bullets were useless against him.

By 1998, the national army was in disarray in the face of the rebel onslaught, and Konneh and his Kamajor comrades became a significant force in the war assisting the failing army. Wearing bulletproof skins, magical amulets and ointments, and armed with shotguns and AK47s, the Kamajors helped reinstate the countrys president, Ahmed Tejan Kabbahand, and drove the rebels out of a large part of southern Sierra Leone.

[Local leaders] asked us to defend our territory, said Konneh. It was difficult  I was very young, and we were fighting for our survival.

The civil war ended in 2002, and for a time, Konneh became a teacher. However, when the Gola Forest was designated a national park in 2011, he found his skills in demand once again.

The last remnants of rainforest

Spanning seven chiefdoms and 70,000 hectares near Sierra Leones border with Liberia, Gola is one of the last remnants of the vast rainforests that once stretched for 2,000km along the humid West African coastline.

Spindly trees stretch up to a high canopy that casts its shade over the leaf-strewn forest floor. Clouds of delicate copper-coloured butterflies swirl drunkenly in the heat.

A global biodiversity hotspot, the park supports about 1,000 plant species, nearly half of which are endemic, as well as more than 330 recorded bird species, primates, forest elephants and the exceedingly rare pygmy hippos.

Sierra Leone poverty Life expectancy at birth  48 years Youth unemployed or under-employed  70 percent People below the national poverty line  60 percent Adult literacy rate  41 percent (Source: UNDP

But the forest is constantly under threat as a result of poaching by surrounding communities, for whom forest animals, such as primates, are a valuable source of protein. Illegal logging and gold mining also pose challenges.

Threat of poachers

One of the challenges is that a lot of people want to do mining and some people are solely dependent on hunting, said Mana Ibrahim Swaray, the parks acting manager.

Poachers are a very big threat to us.

Persuading the local communities not to exploit the forest is a continual challenge because most people living in grinding poverty. Subsistence farming in Sierra Leone is a precarious existence, and many rely on what they extract from the forest for their livelihood.

The Ebola crisis only made things worse. Amid fear of travel and contact with strangers, work across the country ground to a halt. In the Gola Forest, most of the conservation work was put on hold, and the closure of markets pushed local villagers further into poverty.

Species such as the white-necked picathartes , a peculiar looking bird with sleek black and white feathers and a distinct yellow face, which is endemic to the region, are now considered under threat due to poaching and loss of habitat due to logging. Likewise, the pygmy hippo, found only along a handful of West African river systems, is now estimated to number in fewer than 3,000 in the wild.

With the habitat growing increasingly vulnerable, the Kamajors have stepped in to help protect it.

Being a Kamajor helps us to be good rangers; it helps in so many ways, says Konneh, sitting on the steps of the ranger station, a former logging office, in the total darkness of the forest night. As he speaks, a distant gunshot rings out from somewhere deep inside the park.

It [being a Kamajor] protects me from all the weapons in the world. It gives me power, he says. Even if poachers are using machineguns against me, [my magic] gives me the power to stop them.

Protectors of the forest

Konneh said that his warrior training taught him the skills that enable him to patrol the forest alone in 12-day shifts, sleeping in hammocks and foraging for edible plants to supplement his meagre rations.

Its a far cry from the days when he himself used to poach these lands, hunting and eating monkeys during his youth. For the park authorities, it is an added benefit that the very people they have employed to protect the park were the same people that once exploited it.

Stephen Massaquoi, a 45-year-old Kamajor now working for the park, told Al Jazeera that he used to kill up to 100 monkeys during a single hunting excursion. It was after one of these trips that the Gola Forest authorities caught him red-handed, laden with his catch and his guns. They asked him on the spot to join their team.

WATCH: The Orangutan Whisperer

Ex-poachers know the forest terrain, said the national parks ecotourism manager, Mohamed Lumeh. By using their skills, they can track down these poachers.

With the Ebola outbreak now virtually over, park authorities are ramping up their efforts to safeguard the survival of the forest.

A new survey hopes to definitively assess the state of the parks wildlife, while another initiative is targeting local communities to encourage them to cooperate with conservation projects.

Park authorities are putting forth efforts to educate villagers on the importance of preserving the forest, while supporting alternative livelihoods to reduce their dependence on it.

In PICTURES: Wildlife warzones

My child asked me, What is a monkey?, said one former Kamajor ranger during a brief break from patrolling the forest.

If we still continue to hunt these animals, the next generation might not see them [in real life]  only pictures in books.
Dubbed the punisher, the controversial politicians tough stance on crime and corruption is winning hearts and minds.

Davao, Philippines  Guns line the walls of his home.

He is accused of killing suspected criminals. He kisses female supporters on the lips and litters his campaign speeches with an endless stream of obscenities  he has even cursed the pope.

Its hardly presidential behaviour, and he is not your average presidential candidate. But Rodrigo Duterte could be the next leader of the Philippines.

He's the most outrageous, the most colourful and the most interesting character in this upcoming presidential election... We like to compare him to Trump of the US because he likes to shock with his statements. He can be very irreverent and very reckless. by Marites Vitug, author and investigative journalist

I would rather lose the election than lose my identity, the unrepentant mayor of the southern city of Davao tells Al Jazeera.

Polls have consistently placed Duterte among the top contenders in the Philippines presidential elections scheduled for May 9.

He has won legions of fans for transforming Davao from a city plagued by drugs, gangs and murders into one of the countrys safest. But critics accuse him of using death squads to rid the city of suspected criminals.

Hes the most outrageous, the most colourful and the most interesting character in this upcoming presidential election, says Marites Vitug, an author and investigative journalist.

We like to compare him to Trump of the US because he likes to shock with his statements. He can be very irreverent and very reckless, she says.

Like US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Duterte knows how to make headlines, often using controversial claims to challenge the political establishment.

His entire style is unorthodox. Its 3am on a recent Tuesday night when Mr Duterte finally arrives for an interview with Al Jazeera.

Despite the late hour and his punishing campaign schedule, the 71-year-old is bright-eyed and energetic.

He is used to keeping late hours. Duterte regularly checks up on Davaos police and ambulance services at night to make sure no one is sleeping on the job. He demands excellence from civil servants and fires any official found guilty of corruption.

The punisher and his mission

Duterte has pledged to replicate his take-no-prisoners approach if elected to the highest office in the land.

I will solve drugs, criminality and corruption in three to six months, he says. I am the only remaining card left for the Filipinos to deal with the situation.

In one of Asias most crime-ridden countries, Dutertes tough-on-crime mantra has won him widespread support. His campaign rallies attract thousands of screaming fans, with women jostling for the chance to get within reaching distance of the man nicknamed the punisher.

His eclectic band of supporters includes members of a popular religious sect, the Kingdom of Heaven, which has a reported seven million followers and is helping to fund his campaign.

He is also popular with Mindanaos Muslim rebels, who have been locked in a decades-long battle with the government over land and resources.

During an interview in a remote jungle camp in rebel-controlled territory, Rolando Olamit, a commander with the Moro National Liberation Front, tells Al Jazeera why he wants to see Duterte elected.

We believe Duterte can provide peace, can help the conflict in Mindanao, especially the poor people of Mindanao  Weve been waiting for this moment for decades, says Olamit.

When it comes to politics, Duterte is very much an outsider. He doesnt come from the dominant family dynasties that have formed the countrys political elite. And unlike other presidential candidates, he has not been tarnished by allegations of corruption.

For many, that makes him a refreshing change in a country that has endured the corrupt excesses of leaders for generations.

Hes the one who can solve issues here in the country  A lot of presidents in the past just made promises, did nothing, and travelled abroad on our dime. I want a president who can help Filipinos. And mayor Duterte has shown that he can improve the lives of many, says Davao resident Violeta Hebthil.

Death squads and unsolved murders

But Duterte faces other serious accusations. Rights activists claim that he has used death squads to kill hundreds of suspected criminals.

He admits to killing three kidnappers but Duterte has never been charged with any crimes and denies ordering extrajudicial hits.

Thats impossible, I do not need to set up death squads, Duterte tells Al Jazeera.

You have to strike fear in the criminals, but you have to nurture this sense of security in the law-abiding citizens of the city or this republic. by Rodrigo Duterte, Davao mayor

But a string of more than 1,000 unsolved murders, with many of the victims teenagers, has raised doubts about Dutertes denials. Independent investigators have documented how many of those killed were innocent victims mistaken for criminals.

If he has a penchant for dismissing judicial process, a penchant for doing swift justice, then what does that say for his regard for popular decision-making  for popular processes or democratic processes? asks journalist Vitug.

Dutertes unabashed affection for Ferdinand Marcos, a former Filipino president who declared martial law in the 1970s, also has observers worried.

During Marcos reign, tens of thousands were arrested and tortured, and hundreds more killed.

Duterte has not really gone all out for martial law, but he has a tendency as a strongman to go towards this direction, says Vitug.

Duterte denies that he has a messiah complex and says the only people he plans to take action against are those who break the law.

You have to strike fear in the criminals, but you have to nurture this sense of security in the law-abiding citizens of the city or this republic, he says.

Having only served in politics at the local level, Duterte is untested when it comes to international affairs, but his approach to international diplomacy is already ringing alarm bells.

On one of the most controversial issues facing the region  the battle for control of islands in the South China Sea  Duterte says he will start talks with China. If negotiations break down, he vows to take the fight directly to Beijing.

I will bring the flag of the Philippines, and I will walk to their airport and plant the Filipino flag, he says.

If that fails, he says he will sail to the South China Sea to reclaim the islands himself.

I would not allow  the sacrificing of soldiers lives in the armed forces of the Philippines, I would rather go there and you can waste me if you want, he says.

Controversial and unapologetic, Duterte has told this nation of 100 million to either take him as he is or dont vote for him.

His uncompromising stance has ruffled more than a few feathers, but among an electorate that is tired of broken promises, Dutertes strongman reputation makes him a serious contender.

From the 101 East documentary Rodrigo Duterte: Guns, Goons and the Presidency  Watch the full film here.

Follow Steve Chao on Twitter: @SteveChaoSC

Follow Liz Gooch on Twitter: @liz_gooch
With around 100,000 households not connected to the electricity grid, could solar panels provide the solution?

Holbav, Romania  It sucks, says 12-year-old Sergiu Codrut Boboc about his life in Holbav, a hilly village in Transylvania, central Romania.

Theres no electricity. It really sucks, he repeats, sitting in the near-darkness of his living room  the only light coming from a couple of battery-powered LED bulbs on the ceiling above.

I am in a rush to finish my homework most days. After I return from school, I change my clothes, I eat and its already late. If we had electricity, I wouldnt be in a hurry when I write, so I wouldnt write so ugly any more. I would write slowly and much prettier, Sergiu adds with a sigh.

He is one of thousands of Romanian children growing up in darkness. According to government reports, 100,000 households in Romania, a member state of the European Union since 2007, lack electricity.

These houses, often located in remote mountain regions and inhabited by impoverished families, are not connected to the existing national electricity grid.

Sergius father, Sorin Boboc, is a construction site worker and shepherd who was born and raised in the same house in which his son is now growing up.

I had a battery from a scooter that stopped working. So I connected this small bulb to that battery, he says of the battery-powered bulbs.

I am happy now I have light in the house. Once a week I go down to the village to my brother-in-laws house to charge the battery. It charges in about three hours.

His brother-in-laws house is connected to the electricity grid, so Sorin also charges his mobile phone there each day. His sons drop the phone there on their way to school and then collect it on their way back, when its fully charged.

Romanias electricity landscape

The electricity market in Romania has public and private players, with Electrica, the state-owned company, as the largest provider. Currently electricity is harnessed from hydro, thermal, nuclear, wind, solar and biomass sources.

At the mayors office in Holbav, Mayor Oprea Lucian Vasile sits on a leather chair behind a desk.

The houses on the hills are far apart from each other, he explains, drawing a map of where the homes are located for emphasis. The law requires us to do a viability test [to check the return on investment] before we lay electricity cables up on the hills.

If we do that test, I am sure it will fail, he says.

The viability test is intended to ensure that the electricity provider finds it profitable to invest in installing transformers in sparsely populated regions.

The last electrification project in Holbav for 30 houses cost 150,000 euros [about $170,000], ie, 5,000 euros [around $5,700] for one house, the mayor says, frantically keying numbers into his calculator.

That project was partially paid for by Electrica and partially by the local administration.

However, with the law now requiring a viability test, the mayor believes no company will want to expand the grid, given the low return on investment. And I do not believe that with the money and budget we have at the local level, we can do that either, he adds, shrugging his shoulders.

According to the National Electrification Plan 2012-2015, the Romanian government was expected to invest 230,000 euros (about $260,000) in electrifying the 100,000 homes without power. Thats a mere 2.30 euros (about $2.96) for every unelectrified household.

But the mayor says he is yet to see any of that money allocated to his village.

Corruption in the energy sector

Last year, a fire at a Bucharest nightclub that killed 32 people led to anti-corruption protests against the government and resulted in the resignation of the then prime minister, Victor Ponta, and his government. Romania currently has a transitional technocratic government led by Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos.

The energy sector in Romania hasnt been immune from allegations of corruption. Daniel Befu, an investigative journalist, has been researching the subject for several years.

Via a Skype call from Timisoara county in the northwest of Romania, Befu said: If we talk about general contracts in Romania, the bribe is between 5 and 25 percent. In some industries, the bribe is even as high as 40 percent. Money is taken at all levels. Usually whoever generates the project takes most of the money.

Befu points to close links between politicians and companies involved in the energy sector.

The Energy Ministry declined Al Jazeeras request for an interview.

From darkness to light

Back in Holbav, a dog chained to a post barks as we approach Eugenia Fotas house. The single mother of five sits beside a table on which there are two torches.

We never had electricity in the house here. I dont know why, Fota says, as a black cat creeps into the room and squeezes under the bed. It is very bad. We have no light, we cant have a radio, we cant have a washing machine, let alone a fridge or anything else.

But things did improve last year, she explains. There were two boys who came one day and said they wanted to help us. The next day six boys came and installed the solar panel. At least you can see a bit now after dark, not like with the lantern, she says, pointing towards a strip of LED lights taped to the ceiling.

When we didnt have the lights, the kids had to take turns to do their homework next to an oil lamp, especially in winter or if they came back from school late. Now, with the LED light, they can do their homework at the same time.

The men who came to install the solar panels on Fotas roof were volunteers from the NGO Free Miorita, which has been running a programme called Light for Romania, providing solar panels to those without electricity.

On a Saturday morning, Iulian Angheluta, the founder of Free Miorita, and his colleague Ionut Vlad met us at a garage in a residential quarter of Bucharest.

Three years after the projects inception, they have raised 50,000 euros (about $57,000) in donations from private corporations and individuals and provided solar panels to 35 homes and four schools in rural Romania.

The law in Romania doesnt allow the use of public money on private properties. That means projects that involve setting up distributed energy systems, such as solar panels, on individual homes cannot be paid by for from government funding. The only way for the government to provide electricity is through the grid, even when its much more expensive, Vlad explains.

Theres no law or framework that encourages the government to think locally, like putting up solar panels or other renewable sources, instead of setting up a grid that is powered by a nuclear power plant or thermal energy, he says, adding: They arent thinking ecologically or socially. They are only thinking from a business perspective.

Even though solar panels have their limitations, especially during winter when there isnt much sun, Angheluta believes they are the way forward.

The ideal scenario would be for the government to be involved with us. We are talking about a large number of homes. Even to light up 1,000 homes will take us years. And there are 100,000 homes in Romania without electricity, he says, chuckling.

This content was produced with the support of the Access to Energy Journalism Fellowship and Discourse Media.
New novel about 19th-century Armenian merchant is a metaphoric reminder of the cosmopolitan character of our cultures.

In the city of my childhood Ahvaz, in Southern Iran, where I was born and raised, a modest Armenian church and its adjacent school and community were gently woven into our neighbourhood in the old part of the city. The church was on Ardeshir Street, between what was then called 24 Metri and 30 Metri Avenues, near Jundishapour Hospital. I would pass by this church when going to school and can still remember the aroma of Armenian cuisine on my way back home.

I was recently reminded of this neighbourhood while reading Three Kisses of the Cobra, a delightful novel by ZT Balian about a fictional Armenian trader named Vartan who travels around the world before he eventually settles in Singapore.





Armenians in my hometown and elsewhere in Iran, among them some of my own childhood friends very similar to the central character of this novel, were known for their amazing cuisines, legendary small cafes where they would serve Russian vodka and local beer with exquisitely wrapped mortadella and sausage sandwiches.

But their integration into our life, culture, and history was not limited to such delicacies.

Global modernity

Armenians were integral to ushering in global modernity into Iran and many other parts of the region, along with European drama, pioneering stages of Iranian cinema, and some leading Armenian revolutionary activists were in fact among the leaders of the Constitutional revolution of 1906-1911.

ALSO READ: The Arab, the Iranian, the revolutionary

Our communities were at once distinct and yet curiously connected. My mother had close Armenian friends who would join her on women-only religious festivities such as Sofreh Abolfazl in honour of a beloved Shia saint.

Set against the backdrop of the declining Ottoman and Qajar empires ... Three Kisses of the Cobra tells the story of Vartan Bantukhtian, an Armenian merchant who sails around the globe in search of his fortune. by

Although Armenian and Muslim boys and girls were prohibited by their parents from befriending the opposite sex in their adjacent communities, I know of a few passionate love stories that crossed these borders like those two star-crossed Montague and Capulet (one of them actually between a Juliet and a Farhad), though without the dramatic ending.

Vartan: A sailor merchant

Set against the backdrop of the declining Ottoman and Qajar empires, and right during the ascendency of the European imperial domination in their respective territories, Three Kisses of the Cobra tells the story of Vartan Bantukhtian, an Armenian merchant who sails around the globe in search of his fortune.

The odyssey at the heart of this novel traces the adventures of Vartan very much on the model of a travel narrative, many historical samples and scholarly study of which ZT Balian has in fact studied to give her novel an air of authenticity and realism.

Born in 1800, Vartan Bantukhtians narrative begins in 1858, when as a globetrotter entrepreneur he very much personifies the Armenian trading communities in the diaspora and around the world, from Madras to Singapore.

Balian is a gifted storyteller. She begins her novel by a fictive narrator receiving an email regarding a distant relative in Singapore who wishes to see her.

The bulk of the novel is therefore a story within a story, framing the travel narrative of one Khoja Vartan Bantukhtian as written down in a mixture of ecclesiastical Armenian and . . . local Erzurum, or an Anatolian Armenian dialect that had come down from the author to a distant relative of the narrator who has to travel from Beirut, where she lives, to Macau Singapore to receive it and immediately decides to translate it into English.

In this historical fiction, the full global spectrum of the Armenian worldly lives are put on stage, specifically in the early 19th century but with obvious roots extending much deeper around the globe.

The book thus navigates around the globe mapping out the life and adventures of this Vartan in the course of which we get to know about him and about a crucial period in mid-19th century navigational routes and commercial interactions.

Armenians in the world

Balians wonderful and engaging novel could not be timelier, when the resurgence of violence in Nagorno-Karabakh is yet again a reminder of the horrors of ethnic nationalism wreaking havoc in the region.

For millennia, Armenians have been integral to the vast spectrum of territories extended from the Mughal to Russian, Safavid and Ottoman empires.

ALSO READ: Hath not a Palestinian eyes?

The presence of these Armenian communities  proud, robust, self-conscious, industrious, cultured and worldly  reflected in many other parts of the world, is the most potent metaphoric reminder of the cosmopolitan character of our cultures.

The roots of the Armenian communities in the region ranging from the Caucasus to North Africa are of course very ancient, but it was in major cosmopolitan cities such as Isfahan, Istanbul, and Cairo that they assumed increased transnational significance.

Contradictory thoughts

Reading Three Kisses of the Cobra, two contradictory thoughts come together to embrace the idea of being Armenian: a deep sense of belonging and a widening horizon of expansive geography.

It seems the wider that horizon, the deeper that sense of belonging. It is as if Armenians had to be dispersed around the globe to discover who they are, and allow the rest of the world to discover itself in their company.

In an enduring way, Armenians in their diaspora have discovered a new sense of belonging to the world that makes the world homely for everyone around them. They are the insider outsiders, the familiar foreigners, the friend who makes you feel at home in your  and their  habitat.

I took a piece of my homeland in which I had Armenian neighbours with me away from Iran and anytime anywhere in the world I meet an Armenian (just as I met Vartan in this novel) I feel doubly at home  at home with the sense of Iran I took with me when I left my childhood neighbourhood, and a sense of home that the Armenian diasporic experience has invested in all of us, the sense and assurances that must be the Armenian dreaming in our soul.

Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
President Idriss Deby, who came to power in a military coup in 1990, is expected to remain in office.

Chadians voted on Sunday in a presidential election as the incumbent, Idriss Deby, sought a fifth term in office.

President Deby, who took power in a military coup 26 years ago, faces 12 challengers but is widely expected to win another term.

I call on Chadians to vote in calm and serenity. Our country is starting from a long way back but the future looks bright. I ask all politicians to respect the verdict of the ballot box, Deby told journalists as he voted.

Witnesses said thousands of voters cast their ballots at polling stations in the capital, NDjamena, in the first election the central African country has held using biometric data.

We came to vote for the president to guarantee peace in our country. Around us in the neighbouring countries there are too many problems, civil servant Fatima Zara told Reuters news agency.

Polling stations closed at 6pm (1700 GMT) and vote counting began, watched in some places by small crowds.

Results are not expected for two weeks, according to a timetable set out by the electoral commission.

READ MORE: Ex-Chad leader goes on trial in Senegal over atrocities

In recent weeks, protest marches have been banned and government opponents imprisoned. The opposition, which is fractured, boycotted the last election in 2011.

On the campaign trail, Deby, 63, has hammered home a vow to promote the emergence of Chad, where seven out of 10 people cannot read or write, and half the population of 13 million live below the poverty line despite new oil revenues.

Oil production started in 2003 and now accounts for 60 percent of export earnings. But Chad ranks fourth from last in the UN Human Development Index, and more than one child in 10 dies before the age of five, according to World Bank estimates.

Chad also faces significant security threats with two attacks in the capital last year.

Deby has tightened security to address those threats while maintaining a strong presence in a regional force fighting the Nigeria-based Boko Haram group.
Family has come under intense scrutiny over their alleged meddling in the countrys politics.

A South African opposition party has welcomed the reported departure of a wealthy business family, which is accused of having an undue influence over South African President Jacob Zuma.

The Economic Freedom Fighters party has been leading a campaign for the Gupta family to leave the country, repeatedly bringing up the issue in parliament, and making accusations that there is a corrupt relationship between the family and the South African president.

The family has come under intense scrutiny over the past few weeks over their alleged meddling in the countrys politics and excessive influence over the president.

Last month, Zuma was forced to clarify his relationship with the Guptas after Deputy Finance Minister Mcebisi Jonas said he was offered a ministerial post by the family, which is known for its vast business empire that includes mining, media and engineering.

Reacting to a report in Sundays City Press newspaper that the Gupta family had left for Dubai on Thursday, EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi told Al Jazeera that the party would not rest until Zuma himself stepped down

Zuma is the head of the snake and he has to be removed. The Guptas leaving doesnt mean we are leaving. We are coming for him and all other corrupt politicians, Ndlozi said.

If we remove Zuma, it will send a strong message of what democracy can do to corruption.

South Africa nose dives into Jacob Zumas pool

Zuma, who has been pressured over accusations he used state funds to upgrade his home, has repeatedly denied the allegations that the Gupta family had any political power.

Last week, Zuma survived an impeachment vote in parliament that was launched after the highest court in South Africa ruled that he had ignored an order to repay state funds spent on his private residence.

Political analyst Ebrahim Fakir told Al Jazeera that members of the Gupta family believed they got caught up in a political struggle, and were scapegoated.

The Guptas leaving is a narrow and very small victory  it doesnt solve anything, Fakir said.

Zuma has faced a barrage of criticism over his relationship with the Gupta family and Fakir says that while the criticism may have been warranted, the nature in which the Guptas were hounded out, sets a bad precedent.

It simply allows the next businessman to fill the space left by the Guptas and then we will look for the next victim. This wont solve the problems facing this country, he said.

Im asking why "Gupta filth" is different from other businesses & why you call for their removal & not white business https://t.co/kumdRzon5y  Pinky Khoabane (@pinkykhoabane) April 10, 2016

News of the familys departure from the country came after they released a statement on Friday, saying they were stepping down from the leadership of Oakbay Investments, in a move linked to the closure of the firms accounts by two major banks.

It is with deep regret that, following a period of sustained political attack on the Gupta family and our businesses  we have come to the conclusion that it is time for the Gupta family to step down from all executive and non-executive positions, the letter said.

The Guptas said that several banks and auditors refused to work with them following the critical campaigns launched by the press.

The closure of the bank accounts had made it virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa, the letter said.
At least 20 killed in battle between forces loyal to exiled government and Houthis before truce was due to take effect.

Fighting has broken out north of Yemens capital, Sanaa, and in the centre of the country, killing more than 20 people, hours before a truce was due to come into force to facilitate peace talks.

Heavy battles flared between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi fighters in al-Maton, north of Sanaa, residents said on Sunday.

The is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President Hadi but reserves the right to respond by Arab coalition

In the central Bayda province, battles in the districts of al-Sawadiya and al-Zaher killed more than 20 people, local officials and residents said, and fighting continued in the southwestern city of Taiz.

But the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels for more than a year said it would honour a UN-brokered ceasefire from midnight (2100 GMT) on Sunday.

The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President Hadi but reserves the right to respond to any rebel attacks, it said in a statement carried by AFP news agency.

On March 23, the UNs special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said the conflicting parties have agreed to a nationwide cessation of hostilities beginning April 10 at midnight in advance of the upcoming round of the peace talks, which will take place on April 18 in Kuwait.

Cessation of hostilities

The UN hopes the cessation of hostilities will lead to a more concrete, formal ceasefire with confidence-building measures.

This will be the fourth ceasefire since March 26 last year when the Saudi-led coalition began air strikes to support the government of Hadi, who fled an advance by Shia Houthis and their allies, elite troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Previous ceasefires failed to take hold and negotiations collapsed.

The war has killed more than 6,200 people, drawn in rival regional powers Saudi Arabia and Iran and triggered a humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab worlds poorest countries.



A breakthrough in Yemen?

In the capital, controlled for the past 18 months by the Houthis, residents said they desperately wanted this attempt at peace to succeed after two rounds of talks failed last year.

I am tired of the fighting, the destruction, everything, Hussein Ali, a 57-year-old government employee, told Reuters news agency.

The situation is very difficult for people without work, without electricity, without water, and with the fear that, at any moment, bombardment could kill those dear to us.

Hadi met his advisers in Riyadh on Sunday, Yemeni officials said.

They said the Houthis had not yet informed the UN about their latest position on the agreement to stop fighting. A spokesman for the Houthis could not immediately be reached for comment.
A fire and explosions during a fireworks display kills at least 106 and injures over 300 in southern Kerala state.

A massive fire has swept through a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala during a fireworks display, killing at least 106 people and injuring more than 350 others.

The fire broke out on Sunday morning, officials said, when a spark from the show ignited a separate pile of fireworks that was being stored at the Puttingal temple complex in the coastal town of Paravur in Kollam district.

Thousands of people were packed into the temple when an explosion was heard at about 3am local time. The blaze then spread quickly through the building, trapping people inside.

Local TV channels showed footage of huge clouds of white smoke billowing from the temple, as fireworks continued to explode in the night sky.

Keralas Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told Reuters news agency that 60 of the 100 dead had been identified while the number of people admitted to hospitals in Kollam and the state capital had risen to 383.

Al Jazeeras Divya Gopalan, reporting from Delhi, said daily celebrations were being held in the country to mark a Hindu festival.

Some of the celebrations take place without the authorities permission and without taking into consideration safety measures, which is what happened [on Sunday], she said.

The fire came as Kerala  governed by the Congress party, which is in opposition at a national level  prepares to head to the polls in one of five state elections being held in India this month and next.

The site has become a campaigning hotspot for many of the politicians who arrived at the scene of the fire, Gopalan said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with the large number of injured.

The fire at the temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words, he said in a Twitter post. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured.

Concrete hurled

Modi announced 200,000 rupees (about $3,000) in compensation for the families of those killed and 50,000 rupees for those injured.

Keralas Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the district administration had denied the temple authorities permission for the display and the government would investigate why they went ahead anyway.

There was no permission to even store the fireworks, he said.

Rescuers on Sunday morning were sifting through the wreckage looking for survivors, while diggers cleared the debris and ambulances ferried the injured to nearby hospitals.

The chief doctor at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College in the state capital said some of those pouring into the hospital had suffered serious injuries and many would require amputation of limbs.

Many have sustained burns of over 50 percent and the condition of some of them is quite serious, D Mohandas told the Hindu newspaper.

Navy spokesman DK Sharma said the helicopters would transport the injured to Thiruvananthapuram and also to the city of Kochi where the navy operates a hospital, with some of the injured currently being treated at small local medical centres.

Every year, the temple holds a competitive fireworks display, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honouring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples and during religious occasions, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.

Earlier this month, a flyover under construction in the eastern city of Kolkata collapsed killing more than 20 people, raising questions regarding safety measures.
Hundreds injured as Macedonian police fire tear gas and rubber bullets at refugees trying to cross over from Greece.

Hundreds of people were injured when Macedonian police fired tear gas on a group of refugees as they tried to break through a fence on the Greece-Macedonia border, the medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

On April 10, after the violent events at the border between Greece and Macedonia, Medecins Sans Frontieres medical teams treated hundreds, including around 40 people injured by rubber bullets. At least 10 people have reported to MSF teams that they were beaten by Macedonian police, MSF said in a press release on Sunday.

Achileas Tzemos, an MSF official, told the Associated Press news agency that the injured included about 200 experiencing breathing problems from the gas, and 100 others with cuts, bruises and impact injuries from non-lethal plastic bullets. He said six of the most seriously injured were admitted to a hospital.

UPDATE: We have treated over 300 #people at #Idomeni so far today  200 for exposure to tear gas and 30 for rubber bullet wounds.  MSF Sea (@MSF_Sea) April 10, 2016

A Macedonian police source said three officers were injured by stones thrown by the protesting refugees. Greek police observed from their side of the frontier but did not intervene.

Clashes continued into the afternoon, and the wind brought tear gas fumes into a nearby makeshift camp on the Greek side of the border holding more than 11,000 stranded refugees.

Many people, including small children, who were not involved in the clashes, were suffering from respiratory problems. Volunteer doctors were treating several dozen refugees with respiratory problems, slight injuries from the plastic bullets and facial injuries from close quarter clashes when the fence was temporarily breached.

Greece said on Sunday that the use of force against refugees was dangerous and deplorable.

The indiscriminate use of chemicals, rubber bullets and stun grenades against vulnerable populations, and particularly without reasons for such force, is a dangerous and deplorable act, said George Kyritsis, a spokesman for migration coordinators in the Greek government.

The clashes began soon after some 500 refugees gathered close to the fence.

Activists had distributed leaflets in Arabic calling for the refugees to gather at the fence on Sunday morning. A delegation of five refugees asked Macedonian police whether the border was about to open.

When Macedonian police denied this, more than a hundred refugees, including several children, tried to scale the fence.

Macedonia and other Balkan countries to its north have shut their borders, closing what was the busiest migrant route to central Europe.

The European Union has since put an end to the hopes of many refugees, saying it would only accept war refugees from Syria and Iraq as well as those from other countries who are eligible for asylum.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who survived a no-confidence vote in February, bows out after coalition partners walk away.

Ukraines embattled prime minister has said he is resigning, opening the way for the formation of a new government to end a drawn-out political crisis.

In his weekly televised address on Sunday, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that his resignation would be formally submitted to parliament on Tuesday.

Yatsenyuks cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in February, but two parties left the governing coalition to protest at the failure to oust the prime minister, who is under fire over the worsening economy and slow pace of reforms.

The withdrawal deprived the coalition of its majority in the Ukrainian parliament.

If politicians fail to form a new coalition and unite behind a new prime minister, that may lead to early elections, which President Petro Poroshenko has sought to avoid for fear of further destabilising the situation in the country.

From today I see my goals as broader than the powers of the head of the government, Yatsenyuk said.

He said that he would focus on passing a new electoral law, enacting constitutional and judicial reform, and ensuring the coalitions control over the course of a new government.
Warring sides say they will observe ceasefire despite reports of pockets of fighting in hours leading up to it.

Rival sides in Yemens year-long conflict began a tentative truce overnight on Sunday, saying they were committed to the halt in hostilities despite pockets of fighting in the hours leading up to it.

The conflict between the Yemeni army and rival Houthi rebels has killed more than 6,200 people and triggered a humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab worlds poorest countries.

The truce from Sunday midnight (2100 GMT) precedes peace talks on April 18 in Kuwait.

A spokesman for a Saudi-led military coalition, which has been carrying out air strikes over the past year, urged the Iran-allied Houthis to respect the agreement which he said the Yemeni government and the coalition would adhere to.

But if there is any violation of this ceasefire, we will have the right to retaliate, to assess the situation at that time and take whatever steps are necessary to stop these violations, Brigadier General Ahmed al-Asiri told the Reuters news agency by telephone.

He said Yemeni military officials and some militia representatives had met over the past two days in southern Saudi Arabia to prepare for the ceasefire and had signed agreements on how it would be implemented and monitored.

READ MORE: Humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Yemen  UN

The rival sides had formed committees to observe the cessation of hostilities and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, he said.

The military alliance will continue to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and monitor the Saudi-Yemeni border, territorial waters and airspace, he added.

A spokesman for the Houthis and their allies said that they were also committed to the truce but also retained the right to respond if it was broken by the other side.

Hours before the fighting was due to stop, heavy battles flared between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi fighters in al-Maton, north of Sanaa, residents said.

Tired of the destruction

In the central Bayda province, battles in the districts of al-Sawadiya and al-Zaher killed more than 20 people, local officials and residents said, and fighting continued in the southwestern city of Taiz.

The United Nations hopes that the cessation of hostilities will lead to a more concrete, formal ceasefire with confidence-building measures.

This will be the fourth ceasefire since March 26 last year when the Arab coalition began air strikes to support the government of Hadi, who fled an advance by Shia Houthis and their allies, elite troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh.



A breakthrough in Yemen?

Previous ceasefires failed to take hold and negotiations collapsed.

In the capital, controlled for the past 18 months by the Houthis, residents said they desperately wanted this attempt at peace to succeed after two rounds of talks failed last year.

WATCH: Is Saudi Arabia guilty of war crimes?

I am tired of the fighting, the destruction, everything, Hussein Ali, a 57-year-old government employee, told Reuters news agency.

The situation is very difficult for people without work, without electricity, without water, and with the fear that, at any moment, bombardment could kill those dear to us.
If there were a reward given for the most consistently underappreciated guitarist with the longest staying power, it would have to go to. Most known for his fifteen-year stint with Dizzy Gillespie back in the '80s and '90s, Cherry has been constantly active, but criminally undocumented as a leader throughout most of his career. Soul Tree is only his fifth album under his own name, but let's hope that Cherry has found a home with Posi-Tone that will make up for the deficit in years to come.To say that this is Cherry's best set to date is really saying something, as the guitarist is incapable of playing anything that is less than genuine or inspired. Much of the success of the session lies in the personnel and the choice of material. It is also notable that while producer Mark Free usually prefers to fill a date with many tunes at around five minutes in length, Cherry is allowed to stretch out here and it makes all the difference.Although he seemed poised to take the title of the next great jazz organist back in the '90s while working with Don Braden and Cecil Brooks III,has been heard from far too little in the subsequent years since. Unlike some of the current crop of organists that can at times try too hard to sound unusual and out there just for the sake of being different, Koehler is the real deal. His bass lines are solid, plus his use of stops and his fluid improvising are infinitely refreshing.A new name to this reviewer, Philadelphia drummerhas been making a name for himself recently via gigs with Orrin Evans' Captain Black Big Band. His work here is intensely musical and integral to the collective voice that emerges. His snare sound is crisp and his ride cymbal dry and complex, lending an earthy vibe to this distinctive combo. His tasty fills on "Central Park West" are worth a second or even third listen.Cherry uses many familiar lines, but manages to find new paths to explore. For example, both "Soul Eyes" and "Central Park West" are best known as ballad tempos. In the guitarist's hands, the former is delivered as a bossa nova and the latter moves at a medium swing gait. Kool and the Gang's "Let the Music Take You" is the funky groove number that opens the set so invitingly. Cherry's own "Rachel's Step" and "Little Girl Big Girl" are worthy of the rest of the material, providing fodder for all hands.A set highlight has to be Harold Land's seldom heard "Ode to Angela." Like Hank Mobley, whose sound was often described as warm and round, Cherry's tone is similar in its burnished afterglow. In fact, Cherry moves so effortless from fret to fret that he makes it sound almost effortless, even if we inherently know that much skill is involved. On a bigger scale, it could be wrongly suggested that this is yet another organ trio record. But one takes on such a mindset and misses this brilliant set at his own peril.
           2005     ..        
Albert Einstein, the pipe-smoking individual with unkempt hair and rumpled clothes, the violin player who loved Mozarts music, the resident in a very modest house on Mercer Street in Princeton, New Jersey, is universally regarded as one of the great personalities of the 20th century. For many he is the greatest mind of his time, and for others the greatest Jew of the last century.

What is now publicly added to the story of his legendary career is a previously unknown letter, to be auctioned on April 18, 2016, that he wrote on September 3, 1942 to Dr. Frank Kingdon, head of a group called Progressive Citizens of America. This extraordinary letter, in effect a devastating criticism of wartime U.S. foreign policy, was difficult for him to write since he was grateful to the U.S. for having provided refuge and protection in the country that was his home when he did not return to Germany after Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.

In 1905 as a young patent clerk in Bern, Switzerland, Einstein in what is one of the most remarkable and greatest contributions to intellectual history and to science, published four scientific papers. With their presentation in 1915 to the world in four lectures on space, time, and matter, the theories and brilliant insights of Albert Einstein changed the study of physics and the way people view the world.

Though few of us can fully understand Einsteins special and general theories of relativity, all can appreciate or are aware of him as a genius, the crucial figure in modern physics whose formula E=mc2 is worn on t-shirts at rock concerts.

Einstein was the prolific publisher of more than 300 scholarly papers, but he also published 150 non-scientific ones. He was a social activist, outspoken on many issues not directly related to theoretical physics or mathematics.

In his early days in Princeton, Einstein wrote that in his small town the chaotic voices of human strife barely penetrate. By his own actions Einstein proved the opposite was true. He directly influenced world history by signing on August 2, 1939, the letter that was written by fellow physicist Leo Szilard, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt warning that Nazi Germany might develop an atomic bomb. Einsteins argument, that experiments on uranium might develop a new source of energy, leading to a nuclear chain reaction, and the construction of a bomb, was heeded by the president. The experimental work on the problem was speeded up, as Einstein suggested, and the Manhattan Project was established. Ironically, Einstein was not able to work on it, probably because he was regarded as a security risk.

After World War II, Einstein, while still at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, working on unified field theory and quantum physics, was involved in, or was affiliated with, or was a sponsor or honorary chair of more than forty organizations, ranging alphabetically from Ambijan (American Committee for the Resettlement of Jews in Birobijan) to the U.S.-Soviet Friendship Congress. His primary concern was the need for international control of atomic energy and all weapons of mass destruction for which he called in an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists of September 1947.

Already in May 1946. Einstein, together with a group of scientists associated with the production of the atomic bomb, set up the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists to advance peacetime uses of atomic energy. As a corollary, he warned in the Bulletin in August 1947, of the danger of military control of U.S. institutions, and argued that the military should not be the agency to distribute funds to institutions for learning and research. He was very concerned about the danger of nuclear weapons and called for their abolition. He opposed the arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that he said had assumed hysterical proportions.



Much of this activity meant association with leftist or liberal causes and organizations. Early on he was a strong opponent of any form of racism and was active in the field of civil rights as a member of the NAACP in Princeton and of the American Crusade to End Lynching. He was a friend of W.E.B Du Bois, Paul Robeson and of the opera diva Marian Anderson. In 1937 he hosted her in his home when she was refused accommodation in the Nassau Inn in Princeton.

Among the many organizations with which he was aligned to some degree were the American-Soviet Friendship movement; the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee of February 1948 (along with Rita Hayworth and Irene Jolliot-Curie); the National Council of the Arts, Scientists and Professions; the National Council of American-Soviet friendship. Sadly, a number of these groups were Communist fronts and were anxious to use the name and prestige of Einstein, who was never a Communist himself.

Among political issues, he supported the Progressive Party of Henry Wallace whom he endorsed as a candidate for president in 1948. Einstein explained that Wallace, whom he invited to his home in Princeton, was a man who can save us in the threatening internal and foreign policy situation. He was a sponsor of the Committee of One Thousand that sought the abolition of the House Un-American Activities Committee which was investigating a number of Hollywood personalities. He sponsored and attended, along with Thomas Mann and many other fellow haters of Nazism, the Science and Cultural Conference for World Peace held in New York in March 1949.

Einstein was concerned with Jewish affairs, though he regarded himself as an agnostic and a believer in a pantheistic God. He endorsed the activity of the American Birobidjan Committee interested in the settlement of Soviet Jews in Siberia. He thanked the French government on August 11, 1947 for taking measures to prevent the epidemic of measles among Jewish refugee children aboard three British transports off the coast of France.

As a Labor Zionist, in essence a cultural rather than political Zionist, he approved Jewish settlement in the Palestinian area in the 1920s, and always also spoke of the need for a modus vivendi and peace between Jews and the Arab people. He helped set up the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was offered and declined the position of President of the State of Israel in 1952. He was honorary chair of the American Committee of Jewish Writers, Artists, and Scientists along with the writer Sholem Asch.

In the September 1942 letter, now to be auctioned, Einstein wrote of the new crimes (undefined) committed by the Nazis in France and the assistance given the Nazis by Vichy traitors.

Einstein was hesitant about approaching Washington on the matter, because he did not believe in the effectiveness of a lame and half-hearted lip service brought about by pressure from the outside. Einstein was very critical of the U.S. government, its failure to help loyalist republican Spain, its flirtation with Fascist Spain, the fact it had an official representative in Vichy France, its failure to assist Russia then in dire need, even its treatment of Finland. He did not believe the official explanations of these policies.

In what seems an anticipation of and resembles but goes beyond some of the rhetoric in the current presidential campaign, Einstein explained U.S. political behavior by the fact that it was controlled to a large degree by financiers whose mentality was similar to the fascist frame of mind. If Hitler were not a lunatic he could have avoided the hostility of the Western powers.

Yet, in spite of this sharp appraisal of U.S. policy, Einstein felt he could not participate in the enterprise that Frank Kingdon was proposing. He was more impressed by deeds and facts than by words. He praised Dr. Kingdon but showed by his own deeds his indefatigable efforts in what he called the service of humanity and justice. His 1942 letter makes one wonder which presidential candidate he would support today.
In Evenwel v Abbott, the recent Texas legislative apportionment case, the plaintiffs argued that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution requires that the boundaries of legislative districts be drawn so as to equalize numbers of CVAPs (Citizens of Voting Age Population), not total population.

A unanimous Supreme Court rejected the argument and upheld Texas use of total population. The Court refused to go further, and left open the question whether Texas could, consistent with the Constitution, use CVAP if it so chose.

Two concurrences (Thomas and Alito) emphasized that the choice of population base -- total numbers or CVAP -- is up to the state, but the majority refused to commit either way on this point, despite the fact that the general understanding has been that the state can choose.

The MSM and Progressive politicos promptly went on a triumphal parade: Supreme Court Deals A Blow to Conservatives (Huffington Post); Court Rejects Challenge on One Person, One Vote (NY Times); Today, the Supreme Court rejected a radical effort to diminish the voices of the American people in our democracy (Nancy Pelosi); Big Victory for Voting Rights (Election Law Blog); there are limits to what conservative opponents of minority representation can get away with (New York).

You can believe this spin if you want, but it is not really accurate. In fact, Evenwel was an advance for the cause of constitutional conservatism, and for the future of the Republic.

In a series of cases starting in 1962, the Supreme Court has laid down as constitutional mandate the principle of one person, one vote, which means that state legislative districts must be equally apportioned. There can be no more rotten boroughs, with legislative districts remaining frozen despite massive shifts on population.

A similar rule applies to U.S. congressional districts, which are also drawn by state legislatures. (For arcane legal reasons, the standards applicable to congressional districts are not quite the same as those for states, but to date the practical consequences of this have been minor.)

However, the metric for judging equality has never been entirely clear. Some cases refer to equality of populations, some to equality of voters. As the Court noted in Evenwel, every quotation mined out of the law books referring to equal numbers of voters can be balanced by one referring to equal populations.

The last time the Court addressed the matter directly was in 1966, when it said that the states have considerable choice in the matter, as long as racial discrimination is not involved. [No] decision [of] this Court suggested that the States are required to include aliens, transients, short-term or temporary residents, or persons denied the vote for conviction of crime, in the apportionment base -- Burns (but use of registered voters as the base would be suspect because it is subject to political manipulation).

Since Burns, lower courts have split, with the Fourth and Fifth Circuits ruling that the selection of the appropriate population base is up to the state, and the Ninth saying that it must be done by total population. The district court decision in Evenwel said: [This is] a choice that the Supreme Court has unambiguously left to the states...

The uncertainty about the appropriate population base could remain unresolved for half a century because it did not matter much. The differences in result from using total population as compared with the alternative of CVAP was not large enough to justify serious wrangling.

In consequence, according to the brief filed by the U.S. Solicitor General, all states currently treat total population as the proper metric  equality means equal numbers of human bodies in each legislative district.

Over the past couple of decades, two factors have made the question worth wrangling over.

The first, and most obvious, factor is immigration, especially illegal immigration. Aliens tend to concentrate, so counting them in the population base for purposes of legislative apportionment has the effect of diluting the votes of people in other districts.

The growing imbalances were described in an amicus brief in Evenwel by the city of Yakima, WA. The city has 91,000 people. Latinos constitute 41% of the total population but only 22.74% of the CVAP. In addition, only 54.51% of adult Latinos are eligible to vote, whereas 99.63% of non-Latino Whites and 97.65% of African American adults are eligible.

Consequences for California were described 25 years ago, in Garza, in which equalizing populations meant that District 1 has 707,651 eligible voters while District 3 has 1,098,663.

Clearly, the choice between total population and CVAP is important, and becoming more so.

The immigration issue interacts with factor number two, which is enforcement of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Enforcement is the hands of Social Justice Warriors, plucked from various lefty non-profits, so both the choice of targets and the remedies are selected with a heavy racialist thumb on the scale. In the Yakima situation, the remedies for alleged violations of the voting right of Latinos require the city to create serious imbalances in CVAP numbers, and these are treated as irrelevant because, to DOJ, only total population counts, whatever the Supreme Court may have said in the past.

In recent years, the Supreme Court has twice punted on the question of total population vs CVAP. In 2001, it turned down Chen despite Justice Thomas dissenting comment that as long as we sustain the one-person, one-vote principle, we have an obligation to explain to States and localities what it actually means. In 2012, the Court declined to hear another case raising the issue (Lepak), without a peep from any justice, and there the matter rested until Evenwel.

Speculating on the Courts motivations is always chancy, but the justices may well have regarded it as a dormant issue. While the precedents contained many statements that a state could use CVAP, no state is actually doing so. The Court may have decided not to bother with the question unless some state actually picked up on it, or it became unavoidable in the context of the VRA,

Such passiveness is readily understandable as a legal matter, but it had important political consequences.

Although a states right to choose CVAP was protected (probably) as a matter of formal legal doctrine, it seems safe to say that in the public mind the debate had ceased. One person, one vote was assumed to mean that populations must be equal, and not one CVAP, one vote.

To use a formulation currently in vogue, the Overton Window, the range of options considered acceptable for public discussion, was closing, even as the interaction of immigration and the VRA was adding urgency to the question, and even as, as in the Yakima situation, lower courts were not giving serious consideration to the claims of CVAP.

The Evenfel litigation was a response to this legal/political situation.

The case was sponsored by the Project on Fair Representation, which is involved in a number of apportionment and VRA cases. The Project was also involved in Lepak, which failed to make it to the Supreme Court, and Evenwel was filed by the same lawyers. Only this time they used a provision of the U.S. Code that a constitutional challenge to an apportionment scheme goes to a three judge court, and, from there, it is appealed to the Supreme Court, which must hear it unless the issue raised can be classified as insubstantial. Plaintiffs lost in district court, and the case went up.

Three positions were presented in the Supreme Court.

Plaintiffs argued that the Fourteenth Amendment requires a state to use CVAP. This position had zero chance of winning, because the Progressive justices were certain to oppose it, and even the conservatives were most unlikely to go beyond the position that a state had a choice.

The second position was presented by Texas: that its choice of population was constitutional, but so would be a choice of CVAP. This is the language of Burns, and is the view of courts of appeal, except the Ninth Circuit. However, it is not the standard that is being applied in VRA cases.

Almost certainly, the plaintiffs knew they had no shot at their maximum position, and the real goal was to get a Supreme Court re-affirmation of the Burns endorsement of the states right to choose so as to restore it as a live option in political discussion. This was a realistic hope before the death of Justice Scalia, but after that the chance of five votes was small, though not impossible.

The U.S. Solicitor General endorsed Texas argument that the use of population is constitutional, and urged the Court to rest its decision on this ground.

But he also presented a third option -- that states are required to use population and must ignore CVAP. However, this was not pushed because its resolution was not necessary to the case. The SG also argued that the VRA can over-ride a state choice to use CVAP, another issue that did not have to be decided.

The argument that population is the constitutionally-demanded metric is a clear foreshadowing of what is about to become Progressive dogma. The theory is that all inhabitants (and the Fourteenth Amendment protects all persons, not just citizen) are entitled to representation, so the one person, one vote standard demands protection even of non-voting populations. (This is the Ninth Circuit view.) This argument quickly morphs into a demand that illegal aliens have one person, one vote rights, but the dedicated Progressive is unlikely to be phased by this.

So what did the case gain, or lose, for the cause of constitutional government?

On the negative side, the four Progressives could well be ready and eager to say that CVAP has no place in apportionment decisions and the states must use total population. One must put a question mark on this, though, because it is easy to create reductio ad absurdum hypotheticals in which a few voters and many aliens get to dominate local elections, and even the Progressives might quail at this.

On the positive side, the Overton Window has been widened by the publicity given the case and by the clear SCOTUS statement that a state is not at present forbidden to use CVAP. It has also been widened by the two fine concurrences in Evenwel, by Alito and Thomas, addressing the constitutional issues and policy choices involved. (One should add to the reading list Judge Kozinskis dissent in Garza and Judge Garwoods opinion in Chen.)

Given the current prominence of immigration concerns, the widened window means that state legislators might well be persuaded to take a second look at current laws that require the use of total population, and the concurrences provide a solid foundation for political discussion.

Also on the positive side, it will be difficult for the Department of Justice and the courts to ignore CVAP in fashioning VRA remedies. If the states have the right to choose a population base, and if that right is protected as an attribute of state sovereignty, then DOJ cannot automatically reject the use of CVAP. And if it does so, then its VRA cases will be delayed for years while the matter is appealed once again.

The issues are complex, not only legally but morally and practically, and serious arguments can be made for either standard. As the concurrences note, they involve fundamental questions about the nature of democracy, the meaning of representation, the relationship of state and federal governments, and the interpretation of the Fourteenth and Tenth Amendments.

It may well be that the best solutions involve a blend of total population and CVAP, and the great benefit of Evenwel is that it leaves it open for states to experiment to fund the right mix.

But the big thing is that the Overton Window is open again, so on balance it was a good day for democracy.

James V DeLong lives in Quicksburg, VA. He is the author of Ending Big SIS (The Special Interest State) & Renewing the American Republic.
March saw a return of economic warfare against Israel, masked in discontent with Israels occupation of Palestine. On March 24, the United Nations Human Rights Council voted 32-0-15 to create a database of companies that have profited from Israeli settlements, which the Israeli government has called a blacklist. A petition by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace, CODEPINK, and others, which has surpassed 144,000 signatures, calls for Airbnb to [s]top listing vacation rentals in Israeli settlements built on stolen Palestinian land and deemed illegal under international law. On March 7, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on its members and all other countries to ban products produced in or by illegal Israeli settlements from their markets.

The occupation theme also made a recent appearance in the 2016 presidential race. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, in his first major policy statement on the Middle East, stated that peace will mean an end to what amounts to the occupation of Palestinian territory.

What these economic and political warriors dont seem to realize is that Israel is not occupying anything. There was never an Arab state known as Palestine. In fact, the Arabs have rejected multiple offers to establish such a state.

Before Jewish sovereignty was reestablished with the modern state of Israel in 1948, the (Turkish) Ottoman Empire ruled the Holy Land for approximately 400 years up until 1917. Following the defeat of the Ottoman Turks in World War I, the British and French administered it in a period of joint military administration (1917-1920). The San Remo Conference (1920) formally established the British Mandate of Palestines borders to encompass modern day Israel, Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and what is today often referred to as the West Bank.

Britain Created Palestine for the Jews

The legal document that created the Mandate recognized the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home and called for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People. The document also obligated the British to facilitate Jewish immigration and encouragesettlement by Jews on the land The British, with the approval of the League of Nations (the predecessor to the United Nations) took on the obligation to help Jewish immigration and settlement of the Mandate, which included the West Bank. Indeed, Jews lived in this area in historic (Hebron, todays East Jerusalem, Nablus/Shechem) and new (Gush Etzion) communities during the Mandate period.

And Then Gave 75% of it to the Arabs.

In 1922, Britain partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two separate mandates, Palestine (west of the Jordan River) and the Transjordan (east of the Jordan River). Transjordan eventually became sovereign Arab territory. Despite the partition, the land that is now known as the West Bank still remained within Palestine and was still slated to be included in a new home for the Jewish people.

The Arabs Rejected the West Bank Twice.

Arab leaders did not accept any further partitions. The Arabs rejected two offers (in 1937 from Britain and in 1947 from the United Nations) that would have established Arab independence from Jewish sovereignty west of the Jordan River, including the West Bank. The Jewish community in Palestine, on the other hand, accepted both of these offers. So, before Israels War of Independence (1947-1949), there was no Arab ownership of the West Bank, and no sovereign from which to occupy it.

1949 Green Line is Armistice Line, Not Border.

Transjordan captured the present-day West Bank in Israels War of Independence, and renamed itself Jordan, as it now had territory on both sides of the river. But once peace was reached between Israel and Jordan, both sides refused to recognize the armistice line, called the Green Line, as a formal border between them. In fact, the 1949 Israel-Jordanian armistice agreement stated that that line shall not prejudice the rights, claims and positions of either Party hereto, with the provisions of this Agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations. The armistice agreement thus did not settle the sovereign status of the West Bank.

Jordan Lacked a Legitimate Claim to the West Bank.

In a move that violated the status quo of the 1949 Armistice Agreement, Jordan annexed the West Bank in 1950. Britain and Pakistan formally accepted this annexation, while the rest of the world, including most notably the entire Arab world, did not. The international community, the original Mandate, and the subsequent partition of 1922 did not recognize a Jordanian claim to the West Bank. In 1988, nearly forty years following the annexation, Jordan relinquished its claim to the West Bank.

Israel Had the Best Claim to the West Bank Before 1967.

An Arab state west of the Jordan River could not claim the West Bank; the Arabs made sure, in their rejections of 1937 and 1947, that no such state came into existence. The Arab state east of the Jordan River (Jordan) did not have a legitimate claim to the West Bank, and regardless relinquished all claims to it in 1988. So Israel, based on the original Mandate, confirmed by the League of Nations, had the most legitimate claim.

Israel Took the West Bank (Back) in Self-Defense.

While many see Israels taking of the West Bank in the Six-Day War (1967) as one of occupation, Israel was in fact re-claiming, in an act of self-defense, what was previously granted to the Jewish State under international law. So how could Israel occupy territory that was rightfully hers?

The Arabs Refused the West Bank Another Five Times.

Despite the Arabs losing military control over the West Bank in a war that they had initiated, Israel and the world continued to offer the Arabs sovereignty in at least some of it. True to form, the Arabs continued to reject these offers. Opportunities for Arab sovereignty in the West Bank were rebuffed in 1967 (the Khartoum Resolution), 1967-1968 (the Allon Plan), 2000 (Camp David), 2001 (Taba) and 2008 (Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts offer to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas). The latter two offers would have granted Arab sovereignty to roughly 95% of the West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority Recognized Jewish Sovereignty Within the West Bank. The Arabs did accept sovereignty within the West Bank during the Oslo Accords in the 1990s. In the Oslo II Accord (1995), Israel recognized Arab sovereignty (Arab military and civilian control) in Area A, while the Palestinian Authority recognized Israeli sovereignty (full Israeli military and civilian control) in Area C, which is where the Israeli settlements are located. So, by signing this agreement, the Palestinian Authority recognized that Israel has a right to administer and build in Area C (given the above-mentioned international law, Israel already had that right anyway). In fact, building Arab structures in Area C (by either the Arabs or the Europeans) is a violation of the Oslo Accords.

So what does this mean? Israel is not occupying Palestine but is the legitimate heir to the British Mandate of Palestine. The West Bank is, at best, a disputed territory. That being said, Israel has every right to build in the West Bank, especially in Area C. Given their past history of rejectionism and instigation of wars, the Arabs, not the Israelis, should be pressured to make peace.
The governor of my home state of Georgia, Nathan Deal, has been soundly and frequently taken to task for his recent Craven Capitulation on religious liberty. I dont wish to rehash the merits of the very weak bill Deal rejected (it only protected churches, religious schools, and integrated auxiliaries), nor do I wish to highlight again the rampant ignorance and hypocrisy of those who lobbied Deal to veto religious liberty in Georgia. What I would like to do here is give some explanation as to why I believe Deal caved on the defining moral issue of his governorship.

Chelsen Vicari at the Institute of Religion and Democracy hinted at the problem when she wrote of Governor Deals veto, When corporate bullies dangling dollar bills is enough to cause a Baptist governor to veto a bill protecting freedom of conscience and speech, a bigger problem exits.

Vicari goes on to conclude, Gov. Nathan Deals veto of Georgias religious freedom bill represents a wider movement among Americas Christians to compromise Scripture and morality for the sake of votes and popularity. Unfortunately, many Evangelicals, Mainline Protestants, and Catholics are bowing down at altars of sexual liberation and political correctness, erected by cultural Leftists.

The wider movement Vacari references is especially prevalent in the Catholic Church and Mainline Protestantism. This eagerness to compromise Scripture and morality is due to the widespread embrace of what Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, calls near Christianity. It seems that Mr. Deal has been steeped in such wishy-washy theology for decades.

A day after Deals veto, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary president Albert Mohler described in a podcast Deals rationale for vetoing the religious liberty bill as a moral and political evasion. Dr. Mohler also pointed out that Deal is acting as an agent in the liberal theological agenda that is helping to progress the homosexual agenda.

Given the theology of Governor Deals church, this should come as little surprise. As Dr. Mohler also noted, Governor Deal is a member of The First Baptist Church of Gainesville, Georgia. Since the early 1990s, First Baptist of Gainesville has been affiliated with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF), a more liberal association of Baptist churches than is the Southern Baptist Convention.

On homosexuality, CBF declares, CBF does not issue official positions on homosexuality or other social issues because it violates the Fellowships mission as a network of individuals and churches. CBF values and respects the autonomy of each individual and local church to evaluate and make their own decision regarding social issues like homosexuality. In other words, CBF chooses to ignore Scripture and remain silent on one of the most pressing moral (not merely social) issues of our time.

After the infamous Obergefell ruling last year in which the U.S. Supreme Court abandoned the eternal truth on marriage, the pastor of First Baptist of Gainesville, Bill Coates wrote,

People of deep faith and convictions exist on both sides of the LGBT and gay marriage question. Ultimately, it comes down to how an individual interprets Scripture and how churches interpret Scripture. If read with strict literalism, one can always point to passages that appear to condemn many kinds of behavior Reading the Bible literally can lead us to the embracing of attitudes that in fact move us from Christlikeness.

Of course, when the Bible speaks literally, as it does on homosexuality, we are to take it literally. Dr. Coates, who has pastored First Baptist for the last 18 years, went on to write,

Each church will have to decide how to walk through this marriage equality debate. I think we should respect those who choose to allow their ministers not to perform same-sex weddings out of their own deep convictions, and I think we should respect churches that choose to allow their ministers that right, for they make their choice out of deep convictions, too I say this: I do not always know what the truth is, but I can always tell what love is. I believe love is the greatest of all, and to do the loving thing will always be the right thing. Most congregations will eventually find their way there.

Dr. Mohler concluded that Coates could only have meant that most congregations will eventually get to an affirmation of same-sex marriage in one way or another.

Jim Galloway, a long-time political reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC), recently reported on the Baptist-on-Baptist fight that resulted from Georgias religious liberty debate. Galloway asked Dr. Coates whether the governors veto reflected the values of the First Baptist Church of Gainesville.

Coates replied, My perception is that the great majority of our congregants are very supportive of Governor Deals veto of this bill -- primarily for two reasons. First, we hold to the strong historical Baptist principle of separation of church and state.

I suppose the only thing surprising here is that it took Dr. Coates this long to play the separation of church and state card. How tragically ironic that the pastor of a Baptist church in Georgia would resort to using eight words of Thomas Jeffersons letter to the Danbury Baptists in 1801 in order to justify denying his fellow pastors protection of their religious liberties.

Jeffersons letter to the Danbury Baptists was a reply to a letter the Baptists wrote on October 7, 1801 congratulating him on his election as U.S. president. Along with their congratulations, the Danbury Baptists expressed grave concern over the First Amendments guarantee of the free exercise of religion. These Baptists felt that inclusion of such in the U.S. Constitution implied that the right of religious freedom was government-given and not God-given.

Hence, they wrote, Our sentiments are uniformly on the side of religious liberty: that religion is at all times and places a matter between God and individuals, that no man ought to suffer in name, person, or effects on account of his religious opinions, [and] that the legitimate power of civil government extends no further than to punish the man who works ill to his neighbor. But sir, our constitution of government is not specific [T]herefore what religious privileges we enjoy (as a minor part of the State) we enjoy as favors granted, and not as inalienable rights. (Emphasis mine.)

Oh the irony of ironies! The Danbury Baptists, it turns out, wrote Jefferson in the name of religious liberty! Does it sound as if these Baptists would support the government forcing individual Christians, or Christian-owned businesses, or Christian-led institutions to accommodate the homosexual agenda?

And neither would Thomas Jefferson. Each of the original 13 colonies treated homosexuality as a serious criminal offense. Jefferson himself authored such a law for the state of Virginia, prescribing that the punishment for sodomy was to be castration. Why have modern courts ignored this?

Further demonstrating his lack of knowledge of the truth, three years ago, the Bill Coates-led First Baptist of Gainesville, along with three other liberal-leaning denominations in Gainesville, GA sponsored the appearance of the (late) infamous heretic Marcus Borg at a two-day lecture series on the campus of a Gainesville university. Borg was a fellow of the Jesus Seminar and a major figure in the heretical historical Jesus movement.

According to apologist Greg Koukl, the so-called scholars of the Jesus Seminar have rejected as myth the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, the virgin birth, all Gospel miracles, and a full 82% of the teachings normally attributed to Jesus -- all dismissed as legendary accretions with no historical foundation. For example, only two words of the Lords Prayer survive as authentic: Our Father. In other words, they are Christians who reject virtually every tenet of Christianity, and Nathan Deals pastor saw fit to promote such false teaching.

At the time, in the local paper, Dr. Coates flatteringly described Borg as someone who speaks of an emerging paradigm to see faith and practice faith in an age of science and technology. Coates added that, So many people dont believe today because they dont believe the basic doctrines or have trouble understanding the stories of the Bible. For people like that, Borg has a new approach, a new lens through which they can see those stories. Borgs new lens gives new meaning to the Apostle Pauls dim mirror.

Perhaps the most troubling news concerning Governor Deals church -- where he has served as both a deacon and a Sunday school teacher -- was revealed recently in a 2,800-word expose by the AJC. The First Baptist Church of Gainesville, GA, along with a former pastor (who served just prior to Dr. Coates), are being sued for their supposed role in hiding the sexual abuse committed by a former deacon, Fleming Weaver. While a Scout Leader for a Boy Scout troop sponsored by First Baptist of Gainesville, Weaver sexually abused multiple young boys.

In 1981, when some of his victims brought information to First Baptist, Weaver admitted to church leadership that he had indeed sexually abused several young boys. Reportedly, the church chose not to reveal Weaver's abuse to the Boy Scouts or to law enforcement and allowed Weaver to remain in church leadership. The alleged victim bringing the lawsuit accuses Weaver of raping him in 1985, when the boy was 15. According to the AJC, Dr. Coates acknowledged he had heard the rumors about Weaver, but there was never any kind of proof. Weaver, now 82-years-old, remained a deacon at First Baptist until just a few weeks ago when this story hit the news.

It should come as little surprise that a church that would allow an abuser of children to avoid the law and remain in leadership, that would sponsor the speeches of a heretic, that shrugged its shoulders at the legal redefinition of the oldest institution in the history of humanity, and that cites Jeffersons wall in order to justify not protecting the religious liberties of pastors, would also give us a Governor who would compromise Scripture and morality for the sake of votes and popularity.

Sadly, as is so often the case with those who are steeped in near Christianity, as another Baptist pastor in Gainesville, Dr. Tom Smiley, put it, with his veto of religious liberty, Governor Deal missed his moment. (In other words, he missed his Esther moment.) However, if the Georgia legislature has its way -- like Peter, Jonah, Samson, King David, and other trophies of Gods grace and mercy-- Governor Deal may get another shot at doing what is right.

Trevor Grant Thomas

At the Intersection of Politics, Science, Faith, and Reason.

www.trevorgrantthomas.com

Trevor and his wife Michelle are the authors of: Debt Free Living in a Debt Filled World

tthomas@trevorgrantthomas.com
Standards have fallen so far at the once-prestigious Boston Globe that the paper has resorted to a clumsy imitation of The Onion, publishing a purportedly satirical front page from 2017 displaying what it projects would be the news if President Trump took office. I can only conclude that a mental disability, Trump Derangement Syndrome, has overcome the editorial page staff. Brian Stelter, the CNN media critic who formerly had the media beat for the New York Times (which used to own the Globe) was too charitable, writing that it resembles an April Fools Day prank by a college newspaper.

Here is the front page:

And here is tweet from the Globe, proudly publicizing it, and demonstrating that the editorial page product could easily be confused with the news product, something that ought to disturb the news side of the paper deeply.

Via @GlobeOpinion - The front page we hope we never have to print. https://t.co/WCrPVojRHo pic.twitter.com/XeauiPHJWp  The Boston Globe (@BostonGlobe) April 10, 2016

It looks to me as if this stupid trick is backfiring on the Globe. Joe Concha of Mediaite, no Trump supporter, is scathing:

The Boston Globe  once a proud, profitable publication  is reaching the end of its rope. The New York Times once tried to save the Globe in 2001 and sold it three ago at a 95 percent loss (NYT paid $1.1 billion while only fetching $70 million upon selling it). Its delivery woes after hiring a new California-based company were so apparent this year that its own writers had to help pitch in to get the paper to their final destinations. Job cuts via buyouts and layoffs continue to shrink the paper to a skeleton of its former self. Circulation and revenue have suffered as a result, as the Globe doesnt even rank in the Top 20 on the circulation front, trailing much smaller cities/regions evidenced by it getting beat by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and Las Vegas Review. Most papers are struggling in a digital media age, thats understood. But the Globe has won 23 Pulitzers since 1966, including in 2003 after its investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that spawned 2015s Best Picture winner in Spotlight (my review here). Most impressive about the movie? The professionalism and meticulous nature of its reporters and their allergy to all-things sensational and phony. The Globe should be doing better than losing $85 million annually. And those two words serve as an appropriate transition to what the Globe has become as evidenced by its front page full of fake news this morning in its Ideas section in a pathetic effort to save a sinking ship (conveniently leaked to the Drudge Report yesterday to create buzz in advance). The sole focus, of course, is Donald Trump and what would happen to the country in the eyes of the Globe editorial board if he somehow won the presidency.

It would idiotic to do so, but one could, as an exercise, produce a similar page for President Bernie Sanders, detailing the flight of capital, the collapse of banks, the inability of pension funds to pay beneficiaries owing to the stock market collapse, the mass emigration of talented and ambitious people, the shuttering of businesses. And of course, the riots.

Embedded in the many assumptions the Globe makes is the notion that deportation of border violators is somehow radical. Havent they heard the Obama administrations (phony  because the metrics have been changed) claim to have deported more people than any previous administration?

I just wonder how much damage has been done to the Globes viability? Now that it is a joke, there is even less reason to subscribe. The Onion does a far better job.

And Boston has another newspaper, the feisty Herald. If I had to guess, the Globes loss will be the Heralds gain.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel employed undercover police several times over the last 3 years to spy on protesters and political opponents, according to records obtained by the Chicago Sun Times.

As Mayor Rahm Emanuel faced growing criticism last fall over the citys handling of police shootings, Chicago Police Department officials laid plans to have undercover officers spy on protest groups, records obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times show.

The police department already had been monitoring the actions and online postings of protest groups in the aftermath of the 2014 shooting of a black teenager by a white cop in Ferguson, Missouri.

Then, in October, the records show Ralph Price, the police departments top lawyer, signed off on a plan to send undercover cops to monitor meetings of four additional groups. They included Black Lives Matter activists, as well as churches and philanthropic organizations.

A month later  after the court-ordered release of police dashcam video showing a white Chicago cop, Officer Jason Van Dyke, shooting and killing a black teenager, Laquan McDonald  a top Emanuel aide went to the command center of the citys Office of Emergency Management and Communications to keep tabs on protests organized by the Black Youth Project 100, one of the groups spied on by the police.

Joe Deal, deputy chief of staff for the mayor, relayed information gathered by public safety officials to mayoral chief of staff Eileen Mitchell and the City Hall press team. Thats according to emails that were buried amid a trove of records released by the city in late December amid outrage over the video, which showed the teenager, who had a knife, being shot 16 times as he appeared to walk away from Van Dyke.

It was the seventh investigation opened by the police department since 2009 to monitor groups exercising their free-speech rights. The department requires investigators to justify such investigations in a First Amendment Worksheet outlining each proposed inquiry, which are supposed to be allowed only when theres a reasonable law enforcement purpose.
The Donald Trump operation in Michigan apparently combined forces with the Kasich team to freeze out Ted Cruz supporters from several important committee assignments.

Cruz may have tried to be too clever for his own good. Originally the Cruz team claims they had a deal with the Kasich operation to split 8 delegates for important committee assignments, including the all important rules committee.

But the Kasich team switched gears and sided with the Trump people to sideline the Texas Senator's delegate choices., The Kasich team claims Cruz tried a complete takeover of all 8 delegates at the last minute.

CNN:

The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats. The rules committee seats have become highly coveted prizes for their role in shaping a contested convention in Cleveland. After the delegates are selected in each state, they meet as a group and pick the members of four convention committees, the most important of which is the rules committee, which will ultimately decide who can be nominated president. Michigan Cruz leader Saul Anuzis said they were "double-crossed" by Kasich's campaign. The Kasich delegates were supposed to vote with Cruz delegates, he said, but switched sides and voted with Trump behind closed doors Saturday afternoon.



Kasich's delegate director in Michigan, Jeff Timmer, said the Cruz campaign broke their end of the deal when they tried to win all eight delegation seats. He said they finished their slate of Trump and Kasich candidates about 10 minutes before walking into the delegation meeting. "The Cruz campaign tried a takeover and they failed miserably," Timmer said. "It backfired and they ended up with nothing. There's been all these reports about how they're out-organizing everybody. Not here." Trump's national delegate director, Brian Jack, called it a "big win" for Trump. "The most important votes occurred this afternoon -- we went 5-0. Five delegates for Mr. Trump ran for committee assignments; all five were elected," Jack said. He added, "This was a big win for Team Trump. We won 25 delegates from Michigan last month, and now, at least 25 supporters of Mr. Trump will be delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Cruz had a lot more success in Colorado where he took all 33 delegates available at the state convention. It was a tour de force performance for the Cruz delegate team while the Trump operation was left spinning its wheels:

On Saturday, Trump backers passed out flyers at the convention site with official campaign slate of 13 delegates and 13 alternates accompanied by their three-digit number position on the 600-plus person ballot. Seven of the names, however, directed people to the wrong number and one delegate's name was misspelled. Other candidates did not have errors on their slates. In one case, an erroneous number corresponded with a Cruz supporter. A second flyer handed out by the Trump campaign contained four mismatched names and numbers. Among the names listed incorrectly on both flyers: Becky Mizel. It was the second major error concerning campaign materials this week. On Thursday, a Trump slate of three names in the 7th Congressional District convention contained two that weren't listed on the ballot. The campaign's state director, Patrick Davis, said they failed to pay the necessary fees to qualify.

Another disaster for Trump at the South Carolina GOP convention:

Trump, who handed the reins of much of his campaign this week to strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to shore up his operation before the nomination slips away, was swept out of delegate slots up for grabs at Colorados state convention. Adding to his woes, he picked up just one delegate of six on the ballot in South Carolina. The most painful result, though, may have been Trumps failure to capture two of three slots in his strongest South Carolina congressional district.



In fact, Trump lost five of the six delegate seats on the ballot in South Carolinas 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Ted Cruz nabbed a delegate in the 7th district, while another, Alan Clemmons, remained uncommitted despite Trumps dominant finish there in the states Feb. 20 primary. (The Manhattan billionaire won 43 percent of the districts vote, to Cruzs 20 percent and Kasichs 6 percent.) Cruz also won two of three delegates in the 3rd district, while a third  Susan Aiken, a supporter of Marco Rubio  will go to the convention as an uncommitted delegate.

Cruz is fighting tooth and nail for every single delegate. So far, he has had spectacular success. The hiccup in Michigan was more than offset by his gains in Colorado, South Carolina, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Arizona. It is likely that Trump will go on a winning streak later this month as primaries are held up and down the east coast. But as long as Cruz can continue to pick up a few delegates here and there at conventions, he will be able to stay within striking distance of Trump and deny him a delegate majority going into Cleveland.
The leftist domination of Americas elite campuses is so extensive that it has become notable when a speaker deemed controversial is not shouted down. If, wonder of wonders, a speech is delivered and an intelligent and probing discussion takes place with an exchange of views that is not merely civil but enlightening, it deserves note.

Such was the case when FBI Director James Comey delivered a talk at Kenyon College on April 7 (and made national news for his disclosure about the FBIs method in breaking into the iPhone used by the San Bernardino jihad attackers). Benjamin Wittes, editor of the Lawfare Blog and the Brookings Institution and Hoover Institution, noticed:

Barely a day goes by where we don't read some story about students at elite institutions trying to silence one another's, or faculty's or visitors', points of view. So I think it's worth noting publicly the model of student engagement on a serious, difficult, emotionally-laden issue on display last [Wednesday] night at Kenyon College when FBI Director James Comey spoke at this institution in Ohio. At this event, Comey gave a speech laying out his views of encryption and the Going Dark problem. He then spent a protracted period of time taking questions from students and members of the community. A few notable things didn't happen at this event: Nobody tried to shout him down or disrupt the event; nobody denounced Comey or used disrespectful language. No epithets were spat out. A few other notable things, on the other hand, did happen: People listened; and people engaged. The house was very full, and a lot of people--many of whom certainly disagree with what Comey is saying and trying to do--posed serious questions and got answers to them. The student questions were remarkably sophisticated, and tough. One young woman asked Comey whether the United States would some day have to apologize for FBI activities the way it finally apologized for the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Another asked him to comment on Foucault's panopticism and recommend he read Foucault (Money quote: "Look him up. He's a cool guy!"). This is an important form of intelligence oversight. And it only works if the atmosphere is tolerant of debate and discussion.

Wittes wonders what it is that Kenyon College is doing right that so many institutions of higher education are failing at so miserably these days? Its a good question, and deserves some thought. Here are some of my ideas, based on having attended Kenyon half a century ago and kept in touch with life on campus ever since.

A strong culture of engagement in serious discussion of ideas is essential. This is the classical goal of a liberal arts education. Unfortunately, it is no longer trendy in academe, and this malign current must be resisted. Kenyon, although not explicitly conservative like Hillsdale College, has stuck to this goal resolutely.

Kenyon has an unusually powerful local culture because it is relatively physically isolated, situated on a hilltop six miles from the nearest town. Its stunningly beautiful campus, which introduced the collegiate gothic architectural style to the United States, creates a slightly otherworldly atmosphere. When I was a student, we called it the "magic mountain," after Thomas Mann's great book of that title. It is always clear to students that they are at a distance from the broader society and culture, that they are on a four-year excursion into great ideas, an experience that is a rare privilege.

The faculty and administration have kept the faith in civil discussion in part because of mostly fortunate decisions in faculty and administrative hiring, in part because activist alumni have not hesitated to make their views known on preserving this culture, and because that is the nature of the setting. Faculty live within walking distance of the college, in the town of Gambier, which has nothing other than Kenyon sustaining it. A lack of civility has immediate and lasting consequences.

Kenyon is not in New England, not in the Bay Area, not on the way to anywhere glamorous -- it is not acampus that generally attracts those interested in basking in status and prestige. Faculty and students are attracted to it because of the intellectual intensity of the place. There is a pride that develops about being not trendy, not attund to the latest curents, but rather centered around a community where everyone knows everyone else (no anonymity or isolation is possible) and where superficialities fall aside as people live and study and think together.

These qualities were apparent to me when I visited the campus as a high school student in 1964, and I fell in love with it. And they continue to be apparent to me when I return for visits.

I conclude from all of this that these qualities were once dominant in higher education, but have been lost most places simply because of conformism in the wake of the leftist takeover of academia. Resisting these trends is difficult but not impossible. Kenyon shows that it can be done.
The HTC 10 (codenamed perfume) is all set to be announced in just a three days time, and as we get closer to April 12th, every day seems to be bringing a new set of information regarding the device that promises to be the next premium smartphone from the Taiwanese tech company. While most of the info regarding the HTC 10 is already out in the open, there are still a few things about the smartphone that are yet to be cleared up. One of those issues is now being addressed by prolific tipster, @LlabTooFer, through a pair of posts on microblogging site, Twitter.

According to the tweets in question, the upcoming handset from HTC will come in two different variants as far as support for wireless frequencies go. While the first model, 2PS620000, is believed to be the international model meant for the EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) markets, the other model, designated 2PS650000, is apparently meant for the U.S. with support for the LTE bands used by American carriers. Whats interesting is that the second version is also the model that is expected be released as the Developer Edition of the device, if @LlabTooFers tweet is anything to go by. Neither of the two tweets from @LlabTooFer, however, manages to shed any more light on the upcoming HTC flagship.

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Just as a recap of what all we already know about the HTC 10, the device is expected to be HTCs flagship smartphone for this year, and will be launched on Tuesday, April 12th. Thats just three days away, so even if there are a few things that are yet to be revealed about the upcoming handset, it shouldnt take a whole lot longer for those pieces of information to become public knowledge. We have already read that the handset will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC under the hood along with 4 GB of RAM and either 32 or 64 GB of built-in storage depending on the model. A 5.2-inch QHD display panel is also expected to be a part of the package, but whats really interesting are reports of Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) for the front camera on the upcoming device.


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By Heathcote Williams

I used to speak out against capital punishment

From a soapbox at Speakers Corner.

This was when it was thought that hanging people

Was helpful in maintaining order.

One day someone called Barry Trenoweth came over.

His father, Gordon, had been hanged for murder.

Hed killed a shopkeeper in Falmouth during the war

In a robbery that went wrong. A non-starter.

There was only four pounds ten shillings in the till

And Gordon didnt have the time to buy a drink

Before the police called at 3, Mutton Row, Penryn,

To take him away to Falmouths clink.

Gordon Trenoweth was put on trial at Bodmin Assizes

And then hanged at Exeter Jail

By Albert Pierrepoint, the hangman, famous for boasting

Of a craft he swore could never fail.

Barrys mother had suffered a breakdown after

And Barry was sent to an orphanage.

Hed wonder how he got there but was only told,

Youll learn when you reach a certain age.

At eighteen he was summoned by the Warden

Who informed him that hed had a family

But, the Warden said darkly, due to circumstances

Theyd had to forfeit their baby.

Barry was given the address of his motherAnd his grandmother, a Mrs. Rapson,Who looked after Barrys mother, Gladys, left shatteredIn a tiny cottage, two-up two-down.

There was no hot water, just an outside tap

And a tin bath in the front room.

Gran heated water from the hob and then poured it in.

Theyd turn the TV round so no one saw them.

Barry said he was shocked and distressed by their lives:

Theyd been innocent of any criminal action,

Yet their lives were destroyed and his life was scarred

By the laws vengeful chain reaction.

It was this that drew him to the campaign platform

When he was working in London, in a hotel 

Picking up guests shoes at night then polishing them,

While, as he put it, I tried to forget myself.

Was he, Barry Trenoweth, going to be a murderer?

Was he one day going to be hanged?
by Nirmala Carvalho

This morning a fire set off a store of fireworks that exploded. So far, 106 people are known to have died with more than 350 injured. Rescue operations are still underway. Card Oswald Gracias offered the Catholic Churchs prayers and help.

Paravur (AsiaNews)  A blaze sparked by exploding fireworks killed scores of people at a Hindu temple in the Indian state of Kerala.

Responding to the event, Card Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai and president of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (CCBI), expressed deep "pain and sorrow for the tragic loss of life.

The Catholic Church in India will extend all medical assistance to the more than 350 people injured, he told AsiaNews.

At around 3:10 am (local time), a major fire broke out near the Puttingal Hindu temple in Paravur, Kollam district, in the state of Kerala. At the time, about 15,000 were celebrating the beginning of the Hindu New Year watching an all-night fireworks display.

Suddenly a fire started when an explosion was set off in a store of fireworks, which resulted in the death of 106 people and the injury of another 350. The toll is expected to rise as rescue operations are still ongoing.

Upon hearing about the incident, Card Gracias expressed his "condolences towards and prayers to the families of the bereaved and shares the pain and anguish of the families of those wounded. The prelate also assured the injured of his spiritual closeness.
All of us Christians are called to pass on this message of resurrection to those we meet; especially to those who suffer, who are alone, who are in precarious conditions, the sick, the refugees, the marginalised.

Vatican City (AsiaNews)  Pope Francis appealed for the release of Fr Tom Uzhunnalil, SDB, who was abducted on 4 March in Aden (Yemen) and for all those abducted in areas of armed conflict.

The pontiff made the request before the recitation of the Regina Coeli "in the hope given to us by the Risen Christ", which "instils an intimate joy and invincible hope in the hearts of believers".

Francis told the 50,000 people in St Peter's Square that "Today's Gospel narrates the third appearance of the risen Jesus to the disciples on the shore of Lake Galilee, with the description of the miraculous catch (cf. Jn 21:1-19).

The story describes the daily life of disciples who went back to their land to work as fishermen, after the traumatic days of the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord. It was hard for them to understand what had happened. Although everything seemed to be over, it is still Jesus who tried to seek out his disciples again. This time he met them at the lake, where they had spent the night on the boats without catching anything.

Their nets appeared empty, a bit like their experience with Jesus. They had known him, had left everything to follow him, full of hope . . . and now? Yes, they had seen him risen, but they thought, He went away; he left us. For them, it was like a dream. But then, at dawn, Jesus showed up on the lakeshore. They did not recognise him (cf. v. 4).

To those tired and disappointed fishermen, the Lord said, Cast the net over the right side of the boat and you will find something (v. 6). The disciples trusted Jesus and the result was an incredibly abundant catch. At this point, John turned to Peter and said, It is the Lord! (v. 7). Upon hearing this, Peter jumped into the water and swam towards the shore, toward Jesus.

Those words, It is the Lord! carry all the enthusiasm of the paschal faith, full of joy and amazement, which contrasts sharply with the bewilderment, despair, and the sense of helplessness that had filled the minds of the disciples. The presence of the risen Jesus transformed everything: darkness was overcome by light, useless work became fruitful and promising again, the feeling of fatigue and neglect gave way to a new momentum and the assurance that He is with us."

"Since then, these same sentiments enliven the Church, the Community of the Risen One. We are all the Community of the Risen. If at first glance it may seem at times that the darkness of evil and fatigue of daily life have the upper hand, the Church knows with certainty that the light of Easter shines now everlasting on those who follow the Lord Jesus. The great proclamation of the Resurrection fills the hearts of believers with a profound joy and an invincible hope. Christ is truly risen! Today too, the Church continues to make this festive announcement resonate: joy and hope continue to flow into hearts, faces, deeds, and words. "

"All of us Christians are called to pass on this message of resurrection to those we meet; especially to those who suffer, those who are alone, those who are in precarious conditions, the sick, the refugees, the marginalised. To everyone, we bring a ray of light of the risen Christ, a sign of his merciful power. May He, the Lord, also renew in us the paschal faith. May He make us ever more aware of our mission in the service of the Gospel and our brothers and sisters. May He fill us with His Holy Spirit so that, supported by Marys intercession, and with the whole Church, we may proclaim the greatness of his love and the richness of his mercy."

After the Marian prayer, after the appeal for the release of Father Tom, the pope said that in Italy today was the National Day for the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, whose theme is I shall be there in the Italy of tomorrow.

"I hope, he said, that this great university, which continues to provide an important service to Italian youth, may carry on its educational mission with renewed commitment, upgrading it more and more to meet today's needs."
Hello: my friend from Kuwait, who holds an Iraqi passport, will be transiting through Australia on his way to meet me in Auckland. We know he will require a transit visa but his situation is complicated because he was refused a visitor visa to visit me in Australia a couple of years ago. The immigration people considered him to be a risk of overstaying his visa.

My question is: how easily do you think he would be granted a transit visa? Are they normally granted as a matter of course? His transit time would only be a couple of hours while the plane takes on passengers before continuing on to AKL.

Thanks!
We just have a bit of of confusion over what we could do.



Current situation:-



- Wife is on Student Visa 573 till June 2018.

- We have applied for a Partner Residence Visa (Class BS) (subclass 801). This has been granted a Bridging Visa A (Class WA) (Subclass 101).

- The student visa is in effect at the moment.

- Wife wants to change from courses to TAFE Childcare. She will complete her Diploma in Tourism this June.

- She will return to Thailand (home country) in June and then in Nov will go back to her brother's graduation.

- Bridging Visa A allows her to work and study (which she wants to do).



Just trying to work out what to do.



She has already left Australia so her Bridging Visa might not still be valid so need to call immigration about that.



The ultimate goal is to work, study in lower level course (Cert III in Childcare) and being able to leave the country and come back no problem.



If she can change from study course from Diploma to Cert III without changing her student visa status (573 visa to 572). Or cancel her student visa and stay on the Bridging Visa so she can study, work and leave country (so having the best of all worlds).



The Partner Visa won't be granted till probably Nov 16.



Big confused, not sure if you understand but it would be good to hear others if you can determine if what we want is possible.
The latest round of crash tests were conducted on four quadricycles including the made-in-India Bajaj Qute.

Bajaj Auto's Qute quadricycle scored a rating of one star in the recent round of crash tests conducted by Euro NCAP. The tests were conducted on four vehicles  the Aixam Crossover GTR, Bajaj Qute, Chatenet CH30 and the Microcar M.GO Family. Of this, the two-seater Chatenet CH30 was the only quadricycle to get an overall two-star rating, while the others earned a single star rating.

The Microcar M.GO by Ligier is the only model that comes with driver airbag as an option, but the tests showed this too to be ineffective.

The Global NCAP had introduced a specific star rating for quadricycles to help consumers in their purchase decision, and said that safety equipment is sparse in these vehicles and that the results showed little improvement from that of 2014.

All four vehicles were assessed using the same protocols used in 2014 when testing the first quadricycles. While some vehicles performed better than others, the standard of protection offered to the driver is still generally very low, leading to serious risks in collisions with other vehicles or obstacles.

Global NCAP is of the view that with relatively low-cost improvements, these vehicles could be made safer. Commenting on the latest test results, Euro NCAP secretary general, Dr Michiel van Ratingen, said: It is disappointing to see that quadricycles are still lacking basic safety features that are common in small cars. By not challenging the manufacturers to do more, legislators continue to give a false impression to consumers that these vehicles are fit for purpose.

He added, Simple design changes could lead to significant improvements, with little added weight or cost. Pursuing an environmental agenda is not an excuse for unsafe vehicles. Therefore, Euro NCAP again calls for safety to be prioritised for heavy quadricycles.
Instead of regular actors and a borrowed family, Chrysler will employ comedian Jim Gaffigan and his family for the new Dad Brand.Chrysler wants to attract customers to their new minivan with the aid of Gaffigan's comedy skills, which will include tongue-in-cheek fashion anecdotes, while highlighting the vehicle's functionality and versatility.The idea behind this different approach to commercial casting is creating an engaging and relatable series of sketches.Naturally, since this is an advertising campaign and not Seinfeld's Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, the entire series will not focus on the funny business, but will show how a regular family deals with day-to-day issues with the aid of a 2017 Chrysler Pacifica.The new campaign will have four 30-second spots, which will be aired on TV and published online. Thanks to this advertising strategy, viewers worldwide will be able to experience a different kind of brand spokesperson campaign.Instead of the usual scheme of some celebrity telling their life story in a tear-shedding video and mentioning how the car they are representing is so much like them but better, comedian and actor Jim Gaffigan plans to be playful with his image in the new campaign.Considering Gaffigan's impressive resume, it is easy to see why Chrysler chose him and his family for this commercial. Along with a Grammy nomination for his comedy, Gaffigan is a New York Times best-selling author, his two books having spent many weeks on the best sellers list. Furthermore, he has a television series in which he stars, and it's named after him.Chrysler officials stated that the new campaign targets Millennial families. From personal reading experience, we know that Millenials are a tough crowd for advertising, as they require a fresh approach and with memorable messages. The products advertised must also be desirable, which is a difficult task when it comes to selling a minivan, but Chrysler counts on the 37 minivan firsts implemented on the all-new 2017 Pacifica.
Richard Hogans Commuter Craft Innovator, which attracted crowds recently at the Sport Aviation Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, is on display at Sun n Fun this week and continues to attract the curious. The experimental canard airplane, which has been in development for a few years, first flew last September and now has about 30 hours on it, Hogan said. It has a 60-inch-wide cockpit, a twin tail with a boom, and a three-surface design that Hogan says is stall-proof and spin resistant. All of those qualities appeal to new pilots, Hogan said. The company is working on a builder-assist center in Cartersville, Georgia, where buyers will be able to take delivery of their kit. Hogan said he hopes to start deliveries in the second half of 2017.

Hogan said he has started to take $500 deposits from buyers, which is enough to reserve a position and lock down a price. As of early this week, he had 27 deposits, he said. The base kit, not counting engine, prop or avionics, runs about $50,000. Hogan said hes also working to create a builder mentor program to help ensure buyers make steady progress on their aircraft. Eventually he hopes to produce an LSA version of the airplane. AVwebs editorial director Paul Bertorelli shot video of the airplane at Sebring.
A new all-composite light twin built in Ukraine made its first appearance at Sun n Fun this week. The four-seat Softex Aero V24 is being sold in the U.S. as an experimental, with a builder-assist center in Washington, company representative Dara Voss told AVweb at the show today. About eight of the aircraft have been sold since 2014, Voss said. With a Lycoming engine, he added, the airplanes are for sale at $550,000, or a show special price of $375,000. Its also available with a Rotax ULS/S engine or a TP100 turbine. With the Lycoming, top speed is 205 knots, and it tops out at 276 knots with the TP100. The engines are mounted on pylons above each wing.

The Softex company operates from a 50,000-square-foot production facility, with 170 employees, according to its website. Besides the twin, the company also produces a light multipurpose helicopter. The Rotax version of the twin was type-certified in the Ukraine in late 2014. It has a range of 800 nm.
10 April 2016 10:30 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijanis who reside in Sweden, members of the Turkish and Turkmen communities have staged a rally in central Stockholm to protest the Armenian provocations on the line of contact of the Armenian and Azerbaijani troops.

The protesters observed a minute of silence to commemorate those who lost their lives in the recent fighting on the frontline. They chanted slogans such as Karabakh belongs to Azerbaijan, Armenia, stop invasion!, Karabakh is ours and it will be, Martyrs never die, Motherland wont be divided.

The protesters informed local residents about the Armenias` provocations that caused heavy casualties on the line of contact.

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10 April 2016 12:20 (UTC+04:00)

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for peaceful settlement of conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh region based on international law.

If the two sides involved in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict would like, Iran is ready to help to restore tranquility in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, Zarif said during a press conference in Tehran, IRNA news agency reported.

Saying that Iran welcomes measures to prevent creating new conflicts in the region, he added that Tehran also welcomes ending the existing conflicts.

He further said that Iranian officials including Iranian President Hassan Rouhani have held talks with Azerbaijani and Armenian authorities to exchange views on recent hostilities in the Caucasus region.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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10 April 2016 20:23 (UTC+04:00)

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has today facilitated the handover, between the sides, of the bodies of those killed in action following the recent escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, ICRC told Trend on April 10.



In two previous operations supported by the ICRC, on 8 and 9 April, bodies were retrieved by the sides of the conflict from the battlefield along the Line of Contact. These operations took place following an agreement between the sides and in coordination with the co-chairs of the Minsk Group and the personal representative of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) chairman-in-office.



"Our priority is to help the families of those missing in action who still do not know the fate of their loved ones," said Patrick Vial, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. "It was also important for the sides to have the bodies returned and so provide answers for the families."



The ICRC has been present in the region since 1992 in relation to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. As the conflict escalated on 2 April, the ICRC offered its services to respond to the humanitarian needs and to act as a neutral intermediary between the sides.

On the night of April 2, 2016, all the frontier positions of Azerbaijan were subjected to heavy fire from the Armenian side, which used large-caliber weapons, mortars and grenade launchers. The armed clashes resulted in deaths and injuries among the Azerbaijani population. Azerbaijan responded with a counter-attack, which led to liberation of several strategic heights and settlements.

Military operations were stopped on the line of contact between Azerbaijani and Armenian armies on Apr. 5 at 12:00 (UTC/GMT + 4 hours) with the consent of the sides, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry earlier said. Ignoring the agreement, the Armenian side again started violating the ceasefire.

The conflict between the two South Caucasus countries began in 1988 when Armenia made territorial claims against Azerbaijan. As a result of the ensuing war, in 1992 Armenian armed forces occupied 20 percent of Azerbaijan, including the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts. The 1994 ceasefire agreement was followed by peace negotiations. Armenia has not yet implemented four UN Security Council resolutions on withdrawal of its armed forces from the Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding districts.

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10 April 2016 12:37 (UTC+04:00)

The Uzbek and Chinese foreign ministries held consultations in Tashkent April 6-8, the Uzbek foreign ministry reported.

The delegations considered the legal base of the Uzbek-Chinese relations.

The Chinese delegation was headed by Guo Xiaomei, advisor to the law and treaty department of the country's foreign ministry.

The sides also exchanged views on the drafts of bilateral documents to be signed during the upcoming joint meetings.

According to the Uzbek foreign ministry, the diplomatic relations between the countries were established in January 1992.

The Uzbek-Chinese relations are governed by a solid package of intergovernmental documents.

Among them are the trade and economic agreement (1992), the program of intergovernmental cooperation in non-resource and high-tech areas (2010), the treaty of amity and cooperation, joint declaration on the establishment of strategic partnership (2012) and joint declaration on further development and intensifying of bilateral strategic partnership (2013), the program of strategic partnership development in 2014-2018, the agreement on encouragement and mutual protection of investments.

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Ukrainian producers will supply 750 wagons to Turkmenistan, Turkmen Dovlet Habarlary state news service said on April 8.

According to the contract, the Turkmen Railway Transport Ministry received the first batch of new freight cars, made in Ukraine. Among them 25 covered wagons and 25 open wagons for transporting various types of cargo.

Turkmenistan has been taking consistent actions to strengthen the material-technical base of the railway industry, playing a significant role in the national economy.

The fleet of freight and passenger wagons has been fully renovated.

"Turkmenistan is steadily consolidating its positions as an important transit-transport and logistics center having regional and continental importance," the statement says.

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10 April 2016 17:06 (UTC+04:00)

An Iranian court has issued a legal order requiring Shahindokht Molaverdi, Iran's vice-president for women and family affairs, to attend a trial session, an Iranian judiciary official said.



Iran's Judiciary spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, has said that the officials of Sistan-Baluchestan Province have filed a lawsuit in court against Shahindokht Molaverdi, ILNA news agency reported.



Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei further added that the vice president has been officially summoned to a court in Tehran Province.



The spokesperson did not provide further details about the trial session and allegations against the vice-president.



Back in February, Shahindokht Molaverdi expressed her concerns over the high number of execution in the south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan suggesting the entire male population of a village in the province has been hanged due to involvement in drug-related crimes.



The provincial officials protested the remarks made by the vice-president describing them as baseless.



Despite the efforts made by Iranian law enforcement forces to stop it, drug trafficking still remains as a serious issue in the country.



An Iranian anti-drugs official earlier said that drug abuse annually inflicts a damage of 450 trillion rials (about $14.9 billion) to Iran's economy.

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10 April 2016 18:00 (UTC+04:00)

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi arrived in Turkey's Istanbul heading an expert delegation to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting.

While the meeting will be held on Thursday and Friday, Araqchi and his counterparts will be taking care of its agenda beforehand, IRNA news agency reported April 10.

The meeting will bring about the leaders of 57 countries. This year's event will address current states in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, etc.

Iran has not as of now announced at what level it will attend the meeting.

The first OIC meeting was held in 1970 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

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On June 16, 1995, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens staged a joint concert at the Kern County Fairgrounds. It was the first time the twin pillars o
A local nonprofit group is honoring the memory of a Korean War prisoner of war by dedicating a St. Petersburg home in his memory.

Heaven on Earth for Veterans, Inc. dedicated one of its veteran houses in memory of Army Sgt. William Allen.

"He was always one to find a cause that wasnt being recognized and wanted to help, and this was definitely something we needed in this area, Allens granddaughter, Amanda Allen, said.

The house on 22nd Avenue South is one of eight the nonprofit has bought, rehabilitated, furnished and rented to homeless veterans. The homes can house 28 veterans at a time; over the past few years, they have helped at least 95 vets.

"The first step is truly having a safe roof over your head. Because even though you want to throw different resources at someone in need, you cant do that until they feel safe and have an address, said retired Army Lt. Col. Carol Barkalow, Heaven on Earth for Veterans' executive director.

The nonprofit provides a laundry room, cable, internet, television and appliances. The tenants share the living spaces and are only responsible for paying between $400-$600 a month for their room and providing their own food.

The house dedicated to Allen houses three men and one woman.

"It feels more like home here than being in a transitional house, because it gives you more a 'homey' feel. You have your own space, your own stuff, veteran Ana Agront said.

After serving in the Navy for 10 years, Agront said she fell on hard times. Since she found housing with Heaven on Earth for Veterans, she has enrolled in school and is studying criminology.

Agront said she feels inspired to pay it forward knowing Allen is now watching over her home.

"You know how when you feel lost? Well, now I have hope, Agront said.



Heaven on Earth for Veterans, Inc. has dedicated one of its St. Petersburg homes in memory of Korean War prisoner of war William Allen. (Sara Belsole, staff)
Remains found earlier this week belong to a Maine woman who had traveled to the Tampa Bay area in February and had gone missing, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said Saturday.

Judith Therianos, 52, had not been seen since March 14.

Deputies responded Thursday night to a wooded area near 6633 U.S. Highway 19 in reference to a possible decomposed body. There, they found a decomposed woman's body.



A cause of death and date of death for will be determined by the medical examiner.



Therianos and another friend had traveled from Maine to the Bay area Feb. 15, deputies said.

At some point during the trip, she was dropped off at a friend's house in Tampa, and she eventually made her way to a friend's house in New Port Richey. Deputies said Therianos may have met a man named Charlie at a bar in New Port Richey before she disappeared.

The case remains is under investigation.
The sequel to British blockbuster Trainspotting will start shooting in Scotland in May, actor Robert Carlyle has revealed.

Carlyle, who plays psycho Begbie in both movies, said the script for the new film is "absolutely fantastic" and stronger than the first film.

The actor joined Trainspotting's literary author Irvine Welsh at The Usher Hall in Edinburgh to mark 20 years since the original movie.

Carlyle said: "We start shooting, I understand, in the middle of May and I think it's going to be pretty much 50-50 between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

"I'm basing this on nothing other than the fact that the production office is on Bathgate. There's a clue there.

"What I will say is that all the characters are exactly where you would want them to be.

"The strength of this new script is the fact that the narrative is a bit stronger than it was in the original.

"In the first one, when you think about it, it's hard to remember what they did other than get together, the drug deal at the end, and then it's over.

"This has maybe got a wee bit more to it in terms of what they've been up to through these years.

"You learn a lot about Renton, Sick Boy and indeed Begbie and where their heads are.

"I think it's an absolutely fantastic script. John Hodge has done a wonderful job, as he did with the original.

"Fingers crossed people will take it on board and they will enjoy it."

Carlyle and Welsh said Begbie is a uniquely Scottish thug that cannot be found in their adopted homes in America.

Begbie relishes up close and personal violence, in contrast to the USA where violence is "all about the gun".
Flowers left at the scene for Lesley-Ann McCarragher aged 19, who died after a hit and run in Armagh on Saturday. Pic Pacemaker

Lesley-Ann McCarragher (19) from Armagh died in the early hours of Sunday morning following an hit and run incident on the Monaghan Road in Armagh on Saturday afternoon.

A 19-year-old student has died following a hit and run on the outskirts of Armagh.

Pedestrian Lesley-Ann McCarragher was airlifted to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast following the incident on the Monaghan Road in Armagh on Saturday afternoon.

However she died in the early hours of Sunday morning.

A 17-year-old boy has been arrested and is currently in custody assisting police with their enquiries.

Detective Inspector Brian Foster has appealed to anyone who was on the Monaghan Road, Armagh on Saturday around 12.30pm and may have witnessed this incident to contact police at Armagh.

He made a specific appeal for the driver of a white Saab car to come forward.

Lesley-Ann is a former head girl at the City of Armagh High School.

The school has expressed its sadness at her death.

"The school mourns the passing of past pupil and Head Girl Lesley-Ann McCarragher who passed away early this morning (Sunday)," the school said in a statement on its Facebook page on Sunday.

"So many people from the school have fond memories of Lesley-Ann and we would like to send out condolences to her family and many friends at this time."

Also paying tribute on Facebook, a teacher at the school wrote: Lesley-Ann was a beautiful, fun loving and outgoing young girl who put her heart into everything she did. It was a pleasure to teach Lesley-Ann at Aghavilly Primary School and to see the further commitment she made to her studies at City of Armagh High School, The Royal School, Armagh and more recently Loughry College.

She worked hard but always remembered how to have fun. You will be sadly missed Lesley-Ann.

Jackey Mitchell wrote on Facebook: "Lesley-Ann was one of the nicest most beautiful people I had the pleasure of knowing."

Expand Close Flowers left at the scene for Lesley-Ann McCarragher aged 19, who died after a hit and run in Armagh on Saturday. Pic Pacemaker / Facebook

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Whatsapp Flowers left at the scene for Lesley-Ann McCarragher aged 19, who died after a hit and run in Armagh on Saturday. Pic Pacemaker

Victoria McCarten added: "Thoughts and prays with her family at this sad sad time. I remember playing hockey with Lesley-Ann through school. Such a pleasant girl. Xx"

The teenager had also attended the Royal School, Armagh, and was studying at Loughry College before her death.

DUP representative William Irwin also extended his sympathies to Lesley-Ann's family.

"This is an extremely concerning and very sad situation for Lesley-Ann's family and I want to pass on my deepest sympathy and my prayers to the McCarragher family at this very traumatic and difficult time," he said.

"I would echo the calls by police for any members of the public who may have witnessed this incident and the vehicle involved, to come forward immediately with any information."
A barber shop and taxi office in the Andersonstown area of Belfast were destroyed in the incident

Police are investigating after a suspected arson attack in west Belfast.

A barber shop and taxi office at Bingnian Drive in the Andersonstown area were destroyed during the early morning fire.

There were also reports of an explosion which was believed to have been caused by a back draft.

Sinn Fein MLA Rosie McCorley described the attack as disgraceful.

She said: "The people who targeted these businesses need to realise they have put over 30 local jobs in jeopardy. I attended the scene this morning and met with the owner, who is totally devastated.

"I would appeal to anyone with information to bring it forward to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) immediately as the people who carried this out have nothing to offer our society but misery."

PSNI Inspector Mark Cavanagh has urged any witnesses to contact officers at Woodbourne on the 101 non-emergency number.
A2B Cabs and JJ's Barbers on the Glen Road Belfast were left damaged following an overnight fire. Picture Colm O'Reilly

A2B Cabs and JJ's Barbers on the Glen Road Belfast were left damaged following an overnight fire. Picture Colm O'Reilly

A2B Cabs and JJ's Barbers on the Glen Road Belfast were left damaged following an overnight fire. Picture Colm O'Reilly

The owners of two businesses in west Belfast which were destroyed in an overnight fire have been left devastated.

Premises belonging to A2B Cabs and JJ's Barbers in the on the Bingnian Drive area of have suffered extensive damage in the blaze.

It is understood that the fire started around 3am on Sunday morning.

A PSNI spokeswoman said police received reports of what is believed to be an arson attack at the premises at approximately 4.20am on Sunday.

There was also reports of an explosion which police believe was caused by a back draft, and not an explosive device.

Inspector Mark Cavanagh would appeal to anyone who may have noticed any suspicious activity in the area or who has any information to contact Police at Woodbourne on the non-emergency number 101.

Sinn Fein representative Rosie McCorley has condemned the incident.

"I attended the scene this morning and met with the owner who is totally devastated," she said.

"The man who has built up his local businesses over twenty years by servicing the community has seen two businesses, a barber shop and a taxi office destroyed.

I will be working with him in order to get these businesses alternative premises so we can minimise any potential job losses."
Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin has insisted minority governments can work - if people are willing to try.

Delivering an oration at the 93rd General Liam Lynch Memorial Mass in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, the Fianna Fail leader defended his party's refusal to enter a so-called "grand coalition" with long-term political foes Fine Gael.

Mr Martin said: "The insistence on a majority or nothing is a very Westminster-focused belief and completely out of step with countries similar to Ireland which have proportional representation and multi-party systems.

"Minority governments can work if people are willing to try - and they represent a much truer reflection of the need to change our politics than simply change titles. Three out of the four Scandinavian countries currently have minority governments. They are getting on with their business in stable, successful democracies."

There have been weeks of wrangling since February's general election threw up a massive schism in the electorate.

After exploratory talks on Saturday, both parties said they would discuss how a viable minority government could work when negotiators met again on Monday.

The ground-breaking proposal for a full partnership government would end more than 90 years of bitter civil-war era rivalry, and has overwhelming support from within Fine Gael ranks.

But Mr Martin said his party had campaigned to put Fine Gael out of power, adding that majority governments could be "arrogant, divisive and unfair".

Mr Martin also took a swipe at critics who have slammed the six weeks of political uncertainty.

"Finding a new way of reconstructing an old model of governing will simply represent carrying on and once again failing to deliver change.

"We are offering a major compromise. We are not refusing to change. We will agree to a process which can allow a government to be formed and for that government to have reasonable security based on a fully transparent framework.

"The greatest achievements of our country have come from responding to genuinely radical changes. The best way of responding to radical change in our politics is to be willing to change how we govern and not just shuffle the pack in a new way."

The Dail is due to meet on Thursday, when the shape of the new government may be made more clear.
Members of the SAS enter the Iranian Embassy in London on May 5, 1980, to end a six-day siege

Army badges stolen from an SAS hero hailed for his role in ending the Iranian Embassy siege have been returned to his family.

The SAS and Parachute Regiment cap badges belonged to John McAleese and were stolen during a burglary at his home.

Mr McAleese was part of the team which helped end the six-day siege after a group of six armed men stormed the embassy in London in 1980 and took 26 people hostage.

Millions of people watched the dramatic conclusion of the siege on television when SAS soldiers entered the South Kensington building in a raid known as Operation Nimrod.

The SAS badges were taken from the family home in Hereford and later recovered in the boot of a drug dealer's car in 2010.

Mr McAleese died in 2011 aged 62, before police could return the badges to their rightful owner.

West Midlands Police have now reunited the badges with the family after a former Army colleague responded to a Facebook message from an officer and put him in touch with one of Mr McAleese's daughters.

Pc Alan Reeves handed the badges to Mr McAleese's 19-year-old son Kieran and widow Joanna at Sutton Coldfield police station on Friday.

She said: "We're delighted to finally have the badges back.

"It's personal, sentimental items like these that people miss the most after a burglary.

"The badges were very dear to John's heart and he was gutted to find they'd been taken.

"They will be returned to pride of place in a glass display cabinet alongside other memorabilia from John's time in the SAS."

The cap badges were recovered in May 2010 following the arrest of a drug dealer in Erdington, Birmingham.

The man, who was found with wraps of heroin and crack cocaine, was jailed for four years, West Midlands Police said.

Pc Reeves said he was "delighted" to be able to return the badges to the family.

He said: "John was a colourful, larger than life character and these cap badges for the two regiments he served represent a significant part of our country's history, let alone being of sentimental value to the family.

"The drug dealer we arrested denied all knowledge of the burglary when we found them in his car so they were booked into a police property store - and when Mr McAleese died that's where they stayed despite my best efforts to find a next of kin.

"Thankfully one of my messages reached an old Army colleague of Mr McAleese's and he gave me the family's contact details down in south Wales."
A man has been charged over the death of Gordon Semple (Metropolitan Police/PA)

A 49-year-old man has been charged with murder after the decomposed remains of Pc Gordon Semple were found in a flat.

The body of Pc Semple, 59, was found at a property in Southwark, south London, on Thursday, a week after he was reported missing.

Stefano Brizzi has been charged with murder after he was arrested at the address.

The gruesome discovery was made after a neighbour alerted Scotland Yard to a "smell of death" coming from the flat.

A joint statement from the victim's brother Ronnie and partner Gary Meeks described him as "a much loved partner, brother, brother-in-law, uncle and cousin" and added "our world will be a worse place without him".

Brizzi, of Peabody Estate, Southwark Street, will appear at Bromley Magistrates' Court on Monday April 11.

Pc Semple, who had been with the Metropolitan Police for 30 years, left his home in Greenhithe, Dartford, to go to work in Westminster on Friday April 1, and visited the Shard's Shangri-La Hotel later that day.

He left at 12.30pm and was last seen on CCTV about two and a half hours later near London Bridge, a short distance from the property where he was found.

Thousands of people joined a Facebook group to help search for him, and his family spoke of their devastation following his death.

Pc Semple was born in Scotland and came from Inverness, working for the Bank of Scotland as a young man before joining the police.

Met Commander Alison Newcomb previously said it will "take some time" to establish the cause of death due to the condition of the body.
Furious Tory backbenchers were preparing to challenge the Government over the 9.3 million plan to deliver pro-EU leaflets ahead of the referendum as David Cameron issued a fresh warning about the security risk posed by Brexit.

Eurosceptic Conservatives have threatened to derail George Osborne's Budget in protest at the controversial taxpayer-funded leaflets, which will set out why the Government is supporting a Remain vote on June 23.

More than 200,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Government abandons the plan and Europe Minister David Lidington will be forced to defend the controversial move when he makes a statement in Parliament on Monday.

Veteran Tory Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash said he will table an amendment to the Finance Bill, which enacts the Budget, which could block its progress if passed in a Commons vote.

Sir Bill, chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said: "I am putting down a very big indicator of the anger and, I would go so far as to say, the fury of people who are being asked to pay - and there are millions of them in the country - for a pamphlet to 27 million homes."

He added: "You don't have to reinvent the wheel to discover that people really do resent being expected to pay for propaganda as a taxpayer."

Sir Bill accused ministers of "breaking the principle of fairness" over the conduct of the referendum.

As ministers prepared for a fresh round of conflict within the Tory party, Mr Cameron warned that the UK's security was at risk if the country voted to leave the EU at a time when "Western values" were under threat.

He also forecast an "economic shock" if the country voted Leave and accused Brexit campaigners of "gambling with our country's fortunes".

Writing in the i newspaper, Mr Cameron said: " Membership gives us security because it helps keep us safer. Why? Because we can work with our neighbours more effectively to share information on criminals and terrorist threats.

"And it makes Britain stronger, giving us strength in numbers, working with our partners to promote our values - standing up to extremism, supporting democracy and promoting free enterprise. Leave, and we relegate Britain to the sidelines while our neighbours take the big decisions about our continent."

He added: " At a time when the global economy is so volatile, we should do whatever gives our people the most financial stability. The world is increasingly divided, so it's vital we choose unity. Western values are under threat - we must stand with those who share them.

"And times are tough for young people. We must do everything we can to knock down the barriers to opportunity."

Mr Cameron insisted he was making the "pragmatic, patriotic, passionate" case for Remain as he warned against a vote to " turn our back on a key international relationship".

His comments come after Brexit-backing Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt warned that s taying in the European Union would be a "gamble" with the nation's security.

She claimed EU free movement rules mean the UK cannot turn away suspected Islamic State terrorists if there is no "concrete intelligence" about them.

The Armed Forces Minister said Europol estimates around 5,000 IS-trained fighters have returned to Europe.

She told BBC One's Sunday Politics: "Currently, unless we have concrete intelligence, we may have suspicions about an individual coming to our shores, we can't turn them back if they have an EU passport."

Ms Mordaunt added: "We risk nothing by taking back control of our borders and our laws that underpin this framework.

"It's not a gamble. Staying in is a gamble, because this is only going to get worse. We have to take back control. That is what is required to keep our nation safe."
A man walks carrying empty shells of fireworks past a collapsed building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, north of Thiruvananthapuram, southern Kerala state, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. Photo via AP

A view of a collapsed building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, north of Thiruvananthapuram, southern Kerala state, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Photo AP)

A view of a collapsed building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, north of Thiruvananthapuram, southern Kerala state, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Photo AP)

Officials put an injured person into an ambulance following a fire at a temple in Kollam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, early Sunday, April 10, 2016. A number of people were killed and many more injured in a massive fire that broke out in a temple caused by fireworks that had been stored in the temple in preparation for the Hindu new year festival Vishu, according to an official. (Asianet News via AP Video) INDIA OUT

A flash from an explosion from the ground during a fireworks show at a temple in Kollam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, early Sunday, April 10, 2016. A number of people were killed and many more injured in a massive fire that broke out in a temple caused by fireworks that had been stored in the temple in preparation for the Hindu new year festival, according to an official. (KK Productions via AP Video) INDIA OUT

Debris following a fire and explosion at a temple in Kollam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, early Sunday, April 10, 2016. A number of people were killed and many more injured in a massive fire that broke out in a temple caused by fireworks that had been stored in the temple in preparation for the Hindu new year festival, according to an official. (Asianet News via AP Video) INDIA OUT

At least 100 people have died following an explosion at the Hindu temple in the Indian state of Kerala.

The explosion and blaze are believed to have been sparked by fireworks.

The fireworks, which were to be used to celebrate a local new year festival, exploded about 03:30 (10.15pm GMT Saturday).

A building at the temple then collapsed, causing many of the deaths. More than 200 people were injured.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has flown to Kerala, said the incident was "heart-rending and shocking beyond words".

The fireworks had been stored ready for celebrations of Vishu, a Keralan festival marking the Hindu new year.

The local district magistrate had denied permission for the display to be held this year because of safety concerns and complaints from residents.

The Kerala government has ordered an investigation, and the police are planning to take action against the temple administration and the contractors who were putting on the display.

"There was no permission to even store the fireworks," Kerala's Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said.

The explosion happened as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived in Mumbai for a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan.

They had been informed about it and sent their thoughts to all who were assisting the victims, Kensington Palace said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will not say sorry for America's atomic bombing of Hiroshima when he visits a revered memorial.

A US official travelling with Mr Kerry to Japan ruled out an apology ahead of Monday's tour with other foreign ministers of the Peace Memorial Park and Museum in the city, where 140,000 Japanese died from the first of two atomic bombs dropped by America in the closing days of the Second World War.

Mr Kerry, who will be the most senior American government official to have visited the site, plans to lay flowers and is expected to express the sorrow that all feel upon reflection about the bombing - which was the first use of a nuclear weapon against an enemy in history.

The official said Mr Kerry intends to use the occasion to promote US President Barack Obama's vision of a nuclear-free world and the need to prevent proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Obama has yet to decide whether he might visit Hiroshima and the memorial when he attends a Group of Seven meeting of leaders in central Japan in late May, according to the official.

The president said in an interview during his first year in office that he would be "honoured" to travel to Hiroshima.

For many years, top US officials avoided going to Hiroshima because of political sensitivities. Many Americans believe the dropping of atomic bombs in August 1945 were justified and hastened the end of the war.

Japanese survivors' groups have campaigned for decades to bring top officials from the US and other nuclear weapon states to see Hiroshima's scars as part of a grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons.

No serving US president has visited the site. It took 65 years for a US ambassador to attend Hiroshima's annual memorial service, and six more years to win Mr Kerry's visit.

The US official said Japan did not seek an apology from Mr Kerry, and that neither side is looking to reopen the question of blame for the various atrocities of the war.

Instead, he said both countries want the event to show the strong ties they have developed since peace in 1945 and their shared efforts to promote a peaceful world.

The museum includes harrowing images of the destruction and shocking exhibits, including the torn clothing of children who perished and skin, fingernails, deformed tongues and other horrible examples of the exposure to the blast and its residual radiation.

Some explanations mounted on the wall, however, do not align with the views of all historians and experts in the United States or elsewhere.

For example, one suggests that the United States used the weapon in part to justify the extraordinary costs of the Manhattan Project to develop it. Disagreements over motivations and possible justification rage among historians, ethicists and others to this day.
The Duchess of Cambridge views a memorial to victims of the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/PA Wire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge view a memorial to victims of the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/PA Wire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, and his wife, the former Kate Middleton lay a wreath on the martyrs memorial at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Mitesh Bhuvad/Pool via AP)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, and his wife, the former Kate Middleton stand after laying a wreath on the martyrs memorial at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Mitesh Bhuvad/Pool via AP)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William, and his wife, the former Kate Middleton stand after laying a wreath on the martyrs memorial at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. (Mitesh Bhuvad/Pool via AP)

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge lay a wreath at a memorial to victims of the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/PA Wire

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have heard first-hand about the horrors of the Mumbai terror attacks, as Kate wowed India with an outfit that embraced both Britain and Asia.

William and Kate began their tour of India by having garlands placed around their necks as they arrived at Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace hotel - where 31 staff and guests were killed in the 2008 assault.

Dubbed "WillKat" by the Indian media, William wore a smart suit while the Duchess looked stunning in a red, paisley-themed outfit by Alexander McQueen that blended Indian colour with British couture. It had a skirt split at the front over a black underskirt - a feature borrowed heavily from Asian tradition.

The inaugural engagement of their first visit to India began in sombre mood when they laid a wreath at a memorial in the hotel to those who died on the premises.

The Duke and Duchess placed a floral tribute of white lilies between 32 burning candles, with the message: "In memory of those who lost their lives and those injured in the senseless atrocities at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. William, Catherine."

The royal couple are staying at the Taj as a show of support for the city in the wake of the attacks, which remain fresh in the memory eight years on.

At the memorial they were introduced to hotel chef Raghu Deora, 41, who was shot in the stomach and in the leg as he helped guests to safety.

The Duke asked him about what happened on the day, while the Duchess said: "It must have been a surreal time."

Mr Deora said: "The Duke asked me what happened to me and I explained how I was shot. He asked me how long I took to recover, and I said six months, with the last operation two years ago."

The Duchess asked him about his cooking, and if he had a speciality, to which he replied that he specialises in local dishes.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge watch a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duke of Cambridge gesturing during a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duke of Cambridge batting during a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge playing cricket during a visit to the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duke of Cambridge playing cricket during a visit to the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge playing cricket during a visit to the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge gets into position at the stumps as the Duke of Cambridge points during a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge bats as the Duke of Cambridge looks on during a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge watch a charity cricket match at the Oval Maidan recreation ground in Mumbai, India, on day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. Photo credit should read: Joe Giddens/PA Wire

Mr Deora also cooked the couple's lunch, which included a starter of vegetable kebabs and main courses including lentil curry with rice, ricotta cheese and okra.

He said: "It is all vegetarian because I was told that was what they preferred."

The couple were also introduced to Sunil Kudiyadi, the hotel's security manager, who called police and the security services to the scene and helped save guests' lives.

The Duke told him: "You're very brave, you saved a lot of lives. Well done."

The couple are just the latest royal guests at the hotel: King George V and Queen Mary stayed in 1905 and 1911 - the hotel's famous gateway was built specially for their visit - and the Prince of Wales stayed at the hotel in 2013.

In November, US President Barack Obama became the first foreign head of state to stay at the Taj after the attacks, and he described the hotel as "the symbol of the strength and the resilience of the Indian people".

William and Kate's arrival in India came as news broke that at least 100 people had been killed in an explosion and fire sparked by fireworks in the southern state of Kerala.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: "Upon their arrival this morning, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were informed about the tragic fire in Kollam.

"Their royal highnesses are saddened by the news and send their thoughts to all who are assisting the victims."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, plays with Indian children during a charity event at the Oval Maidan in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. The royal couple began their weeklong visit to India and Bhutan, by laying a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbais iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where 31 victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were killed. (Rafiq Maqbool /Pool via AP) AP The Duchess of Cambridge, the former Kate Middleton, gestures as she plays cricket during a charity event at the Oval Maidan in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. The royal couple began their weeklong visit to India and Bhutan, by laying a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbais iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where 31 victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were killed. (Rafiq Maqbool /Pool via AP) AP The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, right, chats with former Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar during a charity event at the Oval Maidan in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. The royal couple began their weeklong visit to India and Bhutan, by laying a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbais iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where 31 victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were killed. (Rafiq Maqbool /Pool via AP) AP The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA Local people look on ahead of a visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke of Cambridge during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke of Cambridge during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duchess of Cambridge during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Heathcliff O'Malley/Daily Telegraph/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA Wire PA The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge play football during a visit to the Banganga Water Tank in Mumbai, India, during day one of the royal tour to India and Bhutan. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Sunday April 10, 2016. See PA story ROYAL India. Photo credit should read: Arthur Edwards/The Sun/PA Wire PA / Facebook

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Whatsapp The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William, plays with Indian children during a charity event at the Oval Maidan in Mumbai, India, Sunday, April 10, 2016. The royal couple began their weeklong visit to India and Bhutan, by laying a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbais iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where 31 victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were killed. (Rafiq Maqbool /Pool via AP)
Chief Constable George Hamilton has gained a deserved reputation for straight speaking, but even so, his message to the relatives of the victims of the Enniskillen bomb sounds quite extraordinary.

In effect, he said they were unlikely to ever see the people responsible for the terrible atrocity in a courtroom.

It was either brave or crass for Mr Hamilton to travel to Enniskillen to deliver personally this blunt message, which appears to close the door on future legal action.

Criminal proceedings against the Omagh bomb perpetrators have so far failed, but at least there was a hearing. The relatives of the victims of the Enniskillen bomb have now heard the Chief Constable suggesting that they will never get their day in court.

Next year will mark the 30th anniversary of the attack, and that is a very long time to have to wait for justice and to live with the wounds and the grief caused by such a dastardly act.

However long justice is delayed, it should never be denied or be allowed to appear unlikely.

The police are currently facing severe shortages in resources, and there are no doubt great difficulties in pursuing a case that is nearly 30 years old.

Nevertheless, we are still seeing, albeit in a different context, former Nazis brought to the courts for offences committed during the Second World War.

The Chief Constable has stressed on numerous occasions that trying to solve the crimes of the past puts great financial pressure in dealing with the crimes of the present. However, it must never be reduced to a hard choice of doing one but not the other.

This newspaper has consistently urged that the PSNI should be given adequate resources to do both.

A determined drive to resolve the past, with all its hurt and constant grief, has to be a priority in our attempt to settle the issue and to secure a shared peace for the future.

It must be taken to heart that the relatives of the dead and injured at Enniskillen - and all affected by the Troubles - deserve nothing less than to be able to hope and to believe that those who killed and maimed their loved ones will one day be brought to trial and convicted for their crimes.

Only then will the burden be lifted and the way made clear for a better future for everyone.
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After all the fuss last year around the speed with which the energy minister was pushing through the country's nuclear programme, it seems that the procurement process have been quietly swept under the carpet for the time being.

On or off?

The Democratic Alliance (DA) was very quick to pronounce the programme mothballed after Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson informed a parliamentary committee that the April 1 deadline in the procurement process had not been met, and that no new date had been set.

Of course, the department of energy was equally quick to deny this, saying in a statement that the process to procure had been delayed for more consultations but had not stalled.

There is a consultation process with key stakeholders that the department of energy has undertaken before issuing the request for proposals (RFP).

This consultation process has not yet been concluded and the RFP will be issued as soon as this process is concluded. The process is continuing and should not be rushed, it said in a statement.

Not a popular choice

Besides the fact that the proposed six nuclear power stations would come with a price tag of R1trn, a number of interest groups, including the official opposition, voiced concerns about where the money was going to come from. There were also rumblings about the less-than-transparent way in which a Russian and Chinese service providers were being courted.

Questions were also raised about how realistic providing 9,6gW of nuclear power by 2030 is, given the continuous delays in getting the coal-fired station, Medupi, up and running.

On the other hand, the renewable energy procurement process has worked extremely well, with all projects being delivered on time. Begging the questions why renewables werent being considered as a serious contender to nuclear power.

Then theres also the concerns about safety following the Fukushima disaster a few years ago.

Eskom scrambling for solutions

Cash-strapped power utility Eskom, which relies heavily on coal for electricity generation, is scrambling to keep the lights on and raise the capital needed to build new coal-fired units and maintain its existing fleet of plants.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/04/2016 (2388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The president of a defunct oilfield fracking company, with an expensive cocaine habit to feed, became a con man who defrauded at least 20 victims, including a cancer patient who has since died.

He and others would approach victims with a sob story to get them to deposit cheques and give them cash, only for the cheques to bounce.

They took advantage of peoples good and trusting natures, Crown attorney Yaso Mathu said. Some people may call these victims naive, but that doesnt matter.

These people (the fraudsters) represented themselves as needing help and people were going to help them, and they completely took advantage of all these poor victims.

Justin Delaney Boyd, 27, pleaded guilty on Thursday to a dozen counts of fraud under $5,000, and to a charge of false pretenses.

Mathu said between April 2015 and January 2016, Boyd and two co-accused defrauded at least 20 people and two businesses on 30 occasions, taking a total of $14,000.

Boyd took the money to support his and his girlfriends cocaine addiction.

Mathu said Boyd was president and owner of a fracking company in the oilfield, but he hit hard times when the oil industry slowed and the company headed for bankruptcy. His girlfriend was his employee.

The company account was drained of funds within a week between April 1-7, 2015. Then, in the following 20 days, Boyd wrote 32 NSF cheques for $25,446.

A credit union closed the account on May 29, 2015, due to its suspicion of fraud.

Despite the closure, Boyd wrote another five cheques for a total of $4,365 between June 1 and Nov. 17, 2015.

When it came to targeting individual victims, the scam went like this:

Boyd would write cheques on the closed account.

Sometimes acting alone, and at other times with one or two accomplices, Boyd would approach a victim and ask them to deposit a cheque into their personal accounts and withdraw cash in the cheque amount for them.

When cash was withdrawn, Boyd or the other scammers would give a small amount, maybe $50, to the victim as thanks for their trouble.

In all cases, the cheques were returned due to insufficient funds, or because the account was closed, or the envelope given to the victims to deposit was actually empty.

And so the victims would be out the money theyd given to Boyd and accomplices.

Boyd and his girlfriend were eventually arrested by Shoal Lake RCMP in Dec. 2, 2015 for some frauds there, and then Boyd was rearrested on Dec. 16 for the Brandon fraud cases.

Mathu provided some examples of the swindles.

Sometimes Boyd and co-accused targeted their own friends with the rubber cheques. One friend was victimized twice, for example.

At other times they approached strangers in the street  people who appeared down on their luck and might need the thank you money.

The scammers would tell victims a story to get them to deposit cheques  they had lost their debit card, or were from out of town and needed gas money.

In one case, they defrauded a man who had cancer.

That man and the suspects entered a deposit amount into the ATM of $1,482.98, but the cheque in the envelope was written for $2,482.

For some reason, cash couldnt be drawn from the victims account using the ATM. Instead, the victim handed Boyd $700 from his wallet.

Boyd later went to the victims hotel room where the victim gave him another $400.

The victim later went to his credit union and found out the cheque was fraudulent.

The victim was a single dad of seven children. He had been in the hospital for a while and received the cash from his First Nation as assistance it was to cover the cost of a trip to Brandon with his family.

That man has since passed away, Mathu said.

In another case, its alleged that Boyds girlfriend deposited bad cheques at a rural credit union, then travelled to Brandon and withdrew amounts from various locations.

In that case, the credit union was out $3,028.

Despite the large-scale fraud, the Crown joined with defence lawyer Bob Harrison to recommend a conditional sentence given Boyds relative youth and limited record.

Harrison said his clients ability to pay for cocaine sank with falling oil prices.

His money dried up but his addiction didnt, Harrison said, adding Boyd was high when he scammed people.

Judge Donovan Dvorak sentenced Boyd to 15 months house arrest on top of the 60 days remand time served.

Boyd was also ordered to pay a share of restitution, including to the estate of the cancer patient.

Jessica Strahl, 25, is charged with 29 counts of fraud and one count of false pretenses. Dilon Strahl, 22, is charged with three counts of fraud.

The allegations against them havent been proven in court and theyre presumed innocent.

 ihitchen@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @IanHitchen
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/04/2016 (2387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  A federal promise to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a national child care system is not a sure thing  and advocates are wondering happens to the money if the Liberals cant reach agreements on a long-sought day care framework.

The government promised to spend $500 million next year on child care, tying it to ongoing talks with the provinces about a national child care framework that would establish the ground rules for federal involvement in an area of provincial jurisdiction, not unlike health care.

Included in that promise is $100 million for First Nations child care on reserves, an area for which the federal government has direct responsibility.

Federal officials say the money is intended as an incentive to the provinces to entice them into signing onto a child-care framework and to demonstrate that the federal government wants to be a willing partner in the child care system.

But what if there is no agreement by next year  or only a handful of provinces sign on to a framework?

Employment and Social Development Canada, the federal department overseeing the initiative, would only say that the details of the disbursement of unused funds are still being determined.

Don Giesbrecht, executive director of the Canadian Child Care Federation, said his group plans to hold the federal government to its promise for spending.

He sees no reason why the provincial, territorial and federal governments wouldnt be able to reach an agreement on child care.

The funding proposal matches what child care advocates quietly asked for behind the scenes in the months before the budget. But thats what they were hoping for in this fiscal year  not next  to help lower day care fees, among other issues.

We sort of thought, to use a phrase, there was some low-hanging fruit there that perhaps could have been addressed immediately, but it wasnt, Giesbrecht said.

Thats OK. Well build and work towards something that is really robust and progressive in terms of policy.

Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in February that he thought the provinces, territories and federal government were on a fast track to a child care framework, building on the work done a decade earlier when the Paul Martin government signed child care agreements with the provinces.

Duclos cautioned at the time that each province had unique needs and programs in place that meant the framework couldnt take a one-size-fits-all approach.

Carolyn Ferns of the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care said the families in those provinces have much in common. She said there are issues of affordability, accessibility and the quality of child care in every province.

The provinces are all a lot more the same than they are different, she said.

This flexibility talk  while it is important to be flexible, its also important to have a strong, principle-based framework that builds a program that will last.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/04/2016 (2387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  The limited services and programs in the Canadian justice system focused on aboriginals and the mentally ill pose obstacles to helping reduce the over-representation of both groups as offenders and victims, says an internal federal study.

The researchers underscore a need to address problems at four key points  in the community, from charge to sentencing, in prison and upon return to the community  and they say co-ordinated action is essential to sustainable change.

The study of the two vulnerable groups was prepared by Public Safety with input from eight other federal agencies including Aboriginal Affairs, Health Canada, Justice and the RCMP. The Canadian Press obtained a heavily censored version of the secret report through the Access to Information Act.

It found aboriginals and the mentally ill entangled with the justice system often ran into similar difficulties.

For both populations there is a need for better co-ordination between federal departments and between (the) federal and provincial government, a more effective use of existing resources, and a need for enhanced programs and services in the community and institutions to meet specific needs, the study says.

For many members of these populations, this is complicated by difficulty in accessing the limited services and programs that are available, often due to limited capacity, such as the lack of knowledge, understanding, ability, education and training.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has asked Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to review changes to the criminal justice system and sentencing reforms over the past decade to ensure public safety and value for money. In addition, Trudeau wants her to work with Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale to address gaps in services to indigenous Canadians and those with mental illness throughout the justice system.

The vexing issues have figured prominently in the reports of federal prison ombudsman Howard Sapers for many years. Its nice to see them being put squarely on the agenda of the ministers involved, Sapers said in a recent interview.

The study says the issues of greatest concern to indigenous people are complex and intertwined, as aboriginal communities, compared with others, struggle with poorer health, lower levels of education, underemployment, higher incarceration levels and higher suicide rates.

A multi-dimensional and long-standing problem such as aboriginal over-representation cannot be effectively addressed solely by the criminal justice system.

The study points out several challenges specific to aboriginals at various stages of the justice process  from the need for culturally appropriate programming in prisons to the fact aboriginal offenders tend to serve a higher proportion of their sentence in custody, compared to other offenders, before being released on parole.

The criminal justice system continues to be the default responder for a substantial number of people with mental-health needs, the researchers conclude.

However, mental health care and social services to address related problems such as substance abuse, domestic violence, homelessness, unemployment and lack of skills fall under provincial and territorial jurisdiction, the study notes.

The federal governments leverage to assure adequate access to an availability of these services is limited.

Time spent in pre-sentence detention without programming can make psychological illness worse. Jails and prisons, meanwhile, struggle to meet an increasing demand for treatment of sentenced offenders.

The numerous options in the study to address the various problems were withheld from release, though the researchers say they amount to a framework for federal action.

Follow @JimBronskill on Twitter
Micheal Martin has insisted minority governments can work - if people are willing to try.

Delivering an oration at the 93rd General Liam Lynch Memorial Mass in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, the Fianna Fail leader defended his party's refusal to enter a so-called "grand coalition" with long-term political foes Fine Gael.

Party Leader @MichealMartinTD is currently addressing the 93rd Liam Lynch Commemoration in Newcastle, Co. Tipperary pic.twitter.com/TEsUO2Dj4n  Fianna Fail (@fiannafailparty) April 10, 2016

Deputy Martin said: "The insistence on a majority or nothing is a very Westminster-focused belief and completely out of step with countries similar to Ireland which have proportional representation and multi-party systems.

"Minority governments can work if people are willing to try - and they represent a much truer reflection of the need to change our politics than simply change titles.

"Three out of the four Scandinavian countries currently have minority governments.

"They are getting on with their business in stable, successful democracies."

There have been weeks of wrangling since February's general election threw up a massive schism in the electorate.

After exploratory talks on Saturday, both parties said they would discuss how a viable minority government could work when negotiators met again on Monday.

The ground-breaking proposal for a full partnership government would end more than 90 years of bitter civil-war era rivalry, and has overwhelming support from within Fine Gael ranks.

But Mr Martin said his party had campaigned to put Fine Gael out of power, adding that majority governments could be "arrogant, divisive and unfair".

Mr Martin also took a swipe at critics who have slammed the six weeks of political uncertainty.

"Finding a new way of reconstructing an old model of governing will simply represent carrying on and once again failing to deliver change.

"We are offering a major compromise. We are not refusing to change. We will agree to a process which can allow a government to be formed and for that government to have reasonable security based on a fully transparent framework.

"The greatest achievements of our country have come from responding to genuinely radical changes.

"The best way of responding to radical change in our politics is to be willing to change how we govern and not just shuffle the pack in a new way."

The Dail is due to meet on Thursday, when the shape of the new government may be made more clear.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has been told by a Conservative Party minister that he needs to "build up" trust with the public following the row over his personal finances.

Mr Cameron took the unprecedented step of publishing details of his tax returns, but Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted he still had "big questions" to answer about an investment in an offshore trust set up by his father.

Downing Street also revealed that Mr Cameron had been given a 200,000 gift by his mother following his father's death, a move which could potentially reduce inheritance tax liabilities.

Number 10 said that the two payments of 100,000 in 2011 came on top of the 300,000 Mr Cameron inherited from his father Ian as the Prime Minister's mother Mary attempted to "balance" the sums received by their children.

The information about the Prime Minister's finances showed that he paid more than 400,000 in tax on an income of more than 1m over six years from 2009 to 2015.

The disclosure followed the furore over the Panama Papers data leak and the revelation that Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha made a 19,000 profit on shares in an offshore trust set up by the Prime Minister's father which were sold in 2010.

The Prime Minister has been angered by the focus on his father's offshore business interests, insisting it was a "fundamental misconception" that the Blairmore Holdings trust had been set up to avoid tax.

Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt told BBC One's Sunday Politics: "I don't think it's damaged his credibility.

"I think - I don't have any other insights other than you do, but I don't think he has done anything wrong.

"I think what this is about is trust. And he has to now demonstrate and build up that trust and rapport with the general public."

Asked if the Prime Minister had lost her trust, she replied: "I think that this will raise questions ... about politicians publishing further information about themselves, and I think although I understand arguments around privacy and security, if that is what the electorate require of their elected officials, I think that's what will have to happen."

Mr Corbyn said more people in public life should publish their tax returns and suggested the Prime Minister still had more to disclose, particularly about the period before he entered No 10.

He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I want to see the papers. We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return, we need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became Prime Minister.

"These are questions that he must answer. I think there is a question for Parliament there, there is a question for Parliamentary standards to question him on this.

"There is a question - big questions - that have to be put to him by Parliament and that surely is the function of Parliament."

He said the rules over inheritance tax may need to be looked at following the disclosure about the gift from Mr Cameron's mother.

The payments by Mary Cameron to her son in May and July 2011 were given tax free, and will only become liable to inheritance tax of up to 40% if the Prime Minister's mother dies within seven years of handing over the money. There is no suggestion that they have broken any rules.

Mr Corbyn said: "She has done that and that is within the rules, providing of course the person giving the money lives for more than seven years - and obviously we hope she does.

"The issue is one that it does actually reduce the level of inheritance tax that is available for the Exchequer as a whole."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics: "I don't personalise politics, this is about the system, and a system whereby someone can inherit, effectively, 500,000 from his mum and dad and not pay a penny on it, I think there's something wrong in the system that allows that to happen."

But Housing Minister Brandon Lewis pointed out that the gift from Mrs Cameron to her son was no different from similar arrangements used in other families, it was just a "larger sum of money".

He told Pienaar's Politics: "There's many thousands of people, at different levels and different amounts of money, whether it's grandparents giving their grandchildren a bit of money so they can see them enjoy it while they are alive, that happens every day.

"I appreciate we are talking about larger sums of money in this case, and if something happens obviously the tax will be paid - nobody is accusing the Prime Minister of not paying tax that's due, because there is no tax due on that money."

The information released by Number 10, in a schedule drawn up by accountants, showed the Prime Minister had a taxable income of more than 200,000 in 2014-15 and paid almost 76,000 in tax.

The information shows that Mr Cameron earned enough to benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p and reveals that the Notting Hill home vacated by the Prime Minister and his wife when they entered Number 10 has been let out for more than 90,000 a year.

Mr Cameron said he was publishing the information to be "completely open and transparent" about his financial affairs.
Refugees have clashed with Macedonian police after trying to scale the fence separating Greece from Macedonia in the border town of Idomeni.

Macedonian police used tear gas and stun grenades in an attempt to keep the migrants at bay, and they responded by throwing rocks at the police.

Greek media reported that plastic bullets were also used. Greek police were standing by, not interfering.

Volunteer doctors were treating several migrants with respiratory problems, Achilleas Tzemos, deputy field coordinator of Doctors Without Borders said.

The clashes began soon after some 500 of the more than 11,000 migrants stranded at a camp on the Greek side of the border responded to rumours that the border was about to open by gathering close to the fence.

A delegation of five migrants asked Macedonian police whether the border was about to open.

When Macedonian police denied the rumours, spread by activists since Saturday, more than a hundred migrants, including several children, tried to scale the fence.

Macedonia and other Balkan countries to its north have shut their borders, closing what was the busiest migrant route to central Europe.

The European Union has since put an end to the hopes of many migrants, saying it would only accept war refugees from Syria and Iraq as well as people from other countries who are considered in need of asylum.
TOKYO: Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market on Friday to buy yen for the second time in a month after the...
LONDON: Liz Truss came to 10 Downing Street vowing to be a disruptor. She U-turned on almost everything else, but...
TEHRAN: Iran has once again rejected allegations that it has supplied Russia with weapons "to be used in the war in...
Several churches and sewing groups have made dolls and stuffed toys for use by Childrens Disaster Services (CDS) in an upcoming training in Nigeria. CDS associate director Kathleen Fry-Miller and volunteer trainer John Kinsel will travel to Nigeria to train Nigerian Brethren women leaders to provide trauma healing for children.

Some of the churches held the dolls and animals in a short time of blessing and commissioning during their worship services as a time of thoughtfulness and prayer for the recipients of the dolls, reported CDS in a Facebook post.

One member who participated in one such time of sending reflected, This project has certainly added warmth and beauty and inspiration to our Lenten focus on how Jesus cared for the beloved community.

Fry-Miller and Kinsel have been working to create a Healing Hearts curriculum to use as a guide for the trauma healing workshops in Nigeria. They will be meeting and working with 10 women theologians of the Womens Ministry of Ekklesiyar Yanuwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) to provide a training of trainers.

As they are in their final weeks of preparation for Nigeria, they are grateful for the preparations also being worked on by Suzan Mark, EYN director of Womens Ministry, said the report on Facebook.

We are so grateful for prayers for this work and for the children of Nigeria.

Healing Hearts

The Healing Hearts curriculum is Bible-based, as is appropriate for use by EYN. It includes nine sessions based on the Beatitudes, and an accompanying Bible story to go with each session. The Bible stories are taken from Shine On: A Story Bible, a childrens story Bible published by Brethren Press and MennoMedia. Fry-Miller also will be taking donated copies of the Shine On story Bible to give to EYN.

Fry-Miller reported that the curriculum has been designed to be open-ended enough that stories and feelings could be shared. It also has been intentionally created for an area of the world where few additional materials may be available.

People seem to be really getting into sewing dolls and animals for us to take, she said. Im hoping the womens sewing group in Nigeria will also be interested in doing some of this as a project, as long as they can have access to the fabric/stuffing.

So far Ive gotten very positive feedback from Suzan Mark, she added. Im assuming it will be a very organic process once we get to Nigeria.

She anticipates that the two-day training of trainers may be followed by opportunities for the two representatives of CDS to do some direct work with children who have been affected by the violence in northeast Nigeria.

For more about the work of Childrens Disaster Services go to www.brethren.org/cds .

For more about the Nigeria Crisis Response, which is a joint effort of the Church of the Brethren and EYN, go to www.brethren.org/nigeriacrisis .
9.31am: There's been a three-car crash on the Barton Highway at Wallaroo. Emergency services are there and both directions of traffic are affected.

8.48am: We're hearing reports of a traffic jam on the Barton Highway near Kaveneys Road.

7.33am: An earlier crash on Gungahlin Drive near the turn into Koscuiszko Avenue in Palmerston is all clear.

6.50am: Watch out for a crash on Gungahlin Drive near the turn into Koscuiszko Avenue in Palmerston. Only one lane open southbound on Gungahlin Drive.

If you see any accidents or have any info on the morning commute, let us know whenever it is safe to do so. Email morningblog@canberratimes.com.au or tweet us @canberratimes.

Want to keep your kids active and entertained over the school holidays in a safe environment? The Australian Institute of Sport's school holiday program is on from April 11-22. See more here.

Using the National Museum of Australia's architecture for inspiration, children can design, make or draw their very own museum these school holidays. From April 11-22. For times see here.

Gather round the telly and bask in the glow of vintage ABC. From Play School to raunchy romps, see Australian life reflected on screen in Tuning IN: ABC TV 1964-76 at the National Archives of Australia. Free. From April 8 to May 15.

Secrets, Stories, Spaces exposes the secret spaces of the National Archives and its 82-year history as home to many government departments including the Postmaster General and ASIO. On Mondays and Wednesday from 4.30pm until April 13. Free.

Celestial Empire: Life in China 1644-1911 is on at the National Library of Australia brings together culture and tradition from two of the world's great libraries. Until May 22. Free.

See 2015's best political cartoons at the Behind the Lines exhibition at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House.

Bush Capital: The natural history of the ACT at the Canberra Museum and Gallery (CMAG) shows the natural history of the Territory with specimens, illustrations, photographs, works of art and sound. From March 12 to June 26. Free.

Touch or click through for more Pat Campbell

Today: Becoming cloudy. Light winds. Max 23.

Tuesday: Partly cloudy. Patchy fog in the early morning. Light winds. Min 8, max 21.

Wednesday: Partly cloudy. Light winds. Min 8, max 22.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission is talking to the Monetary Authority of Singapore about an agreement to ensure that regulation does not hinder the progress of fintech start-ups looking to operate across the countries' borders.

Fintech regulation has been a key agenda item at recent meetings of peak financial regulators across the globe and although the discussions between ASIC and MAS are at an early stage, it is understood both regulators are enthusiastic about seeing a deal come to fruition.

ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft will travel to the IMF spring meeting to talk fintech. Credit:Christopher Pearce

The agreement would be based on a similar co-operation agreement between ASIC and the UK Financial Conduct Authority, which was signed just before Easter and was the first of its kind internationally.

Under the ASIC/FCA agreement, each regulator will refer to the other fintech businesses seeking to enter the other's market, and provide support to start-ups that have been referred to them by the other regulator. Information about fintech innovation will also be shared between countries. "The forward-looking nature and the specific scope of the co-operation agreement are unique aspects of the arrangement, which it is hoped will drive innovation and collaboration across national borders," King & Wood Mallesons said in a note to clients.
Beijing: A further tightening of regulations imposed by Chinese authorities on foreign goods purchased over the internet has reinforced fears the policy honeymoon which has richly benefited the likes of Bellamy's Organic infant formula and Blackmores vitamins has ended.

Late Thursday, China's finance ministry signalled tougher requirements in determining which goods are allowed to be imported through cross-border e-commerce warehouses in pilot free trade zones across 12 cities, which were afforded preferential tax and customs treatment.

Chinese importers of popular Australian food, dairy and healthcare brands are worried about the lack of clarity in the new regulations, but believe the changes will likely result in significantly higher logistics costs being passed on to Chinese consumers, potentially denting demand.

"A lot of the Australian brands [are] going to have problems," said Natalie Zhu, founder of Ajyaguru which operates a cross-border warehouse in Shanghai, while stressing many of the new regulatory changes had yet to be explained fully. "I personally think there will be some products, especially healthcare products, that are going to be affected."
A bipartisan approach to tackling climate change is still possible if Labor and the Coalition can get past their "policy bonfire" and develop existing mechanisms to curb carbon emissions, a Grattan Institute report finds.

While an economy-wide carbon price remains "the ideal preferred future climate policy", the political reality excludes that prospect winning bipartisan support for now.

Cooling towers at the brown coal-fired Loy Yang power plant in Victoria's La Trobe Valley. Credit:Erin Jonasson

Still, sufficient flexibility exists within the major parties' platforms that a "sustainable policy phoenix can yet arise", the report argues.

The longer big parties threaten to dismantle their opponent's policy once in office, the less likely companies will have the confidence to fund long-term investments in low-emissions technology, making it harder for Australia to meet its carbon goals.
Clive Palmer has gone on the offensive ahead of the airing of an investigation into the "rise and fall" of his business empire, offering to appear live on the program "to answer allegations".

The ABC's Four Corners plans on airing its report on Mr Palmer, his business dealings and political career, in the wake of the voluntary administration of his nickel refinery, one of north Queensland's biggest employers, and his declining influence on federal politics.

"With Palmer's political influence plummeting and serious questions hanging over his companies, reporter Hayden Cooper talks to political players, former colleagues and the workers left sacked at the now closed Queensland Nickel refinery in Townsville. Many are speaking out for the first time," the ABC said in its preview.

But Mr Palmer, through his spokesman, has released a statement pre-empting the program, alleging it "contains a number of factual errors and if broadcast will cause substantial damage to Mr Palmer".
Spec Property  part of the diversified Samma Group empire  is reweighting its portfolio, offloading two inner-city sites in deals said to total more than $20 million.

In South Melbourne, the developer has entered advanced negotiations to sell one of the biggest sites within the 240-hectare Fishermans Bend precinct, in a rumoured $15 million-plus play.

The proposed development at 3-5 Shiel Street in North Melbourne.

The 3511-square-metre block has proven problemtic Since acquiring the site, Spec appealed to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal before getting eventual sign off from Port Phillip Council for a permit with towers between four and eight levels, containing 161 flats  far less than the 258 Spec initially applied for.

Instead of developing 51-59 Thistlethwaite Street and 476-484 City Road, Spec this year appointed CBRE and Lemon Baxter to sell. .
In January Coles and Woolworths went to war over cooked chook. Within a week both of Australia's dominant supermarket brands slashed the price of roast chicken from $11 to about $8.

The promotion had been months in the planning for Wesfarmers' Coles, which had negotiated with suppliers to ensure its supermarkets had enough birds to meet the expected spike in demand for the cut-price chook.

Woolworths managed to undercut Coles by 10, launching its $7.90 roast chicken within days of Coles' $8 cooked chook, reduced from $11.

However supermarket insiders claim Woolworths has battled to keep up with demand for its cut-price bird.
The upcoming purchase of submarines is of special interest to South Australians but the price tag, the intended purpose of the subs and the risks associated with the purchase should make it of interest to every taxpayer in Australia.

In my early years in the Senate Labor botched, badly, a tender for Coastwatch services. The whole thing was a disaster from beginning to end. The Commonwealth ditched its regular supplier and selected a new provider, Amann Aviation. The short version of the ugly saga is that Amann just wasn't up to the task. It didn't have, and couldn't get in time, the necessary aircraft. Experience and reliability are crucial when you're talking big dollars, and Amann didn't have it. The Commonwealth not only botched in choosing Amann, it botched getting out of the contract as well.

The lesson learnt for me is that unless the decision maker looks at everything that is relevant, and not just prices and promises, you're in risky territory. In the case of the subs, with billions at stake, my head is ringing with beware buttons beeping ... loudly.

In the early days of the Howard government I had responsibility for the biggest tender the Commonwealth had done outside of Defence: the outsourcing of the work done by the Commonwealth Employment Service. It was enormous, complex, and went without a hitch. The bureaucracy and the advisers in my office did a great job.
Several US art galleries have refused to exhibit Australian-American artist Illma Gore's painting of controversial magnate and Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump, who she portrays naked with tiny genitals.

However, the painting, in which Trump has his arms resting on one knee, will go on show within two weeks at the Maddox gallery in London's exclusive Mayfair district, the Los Angeles-based artist says.

Donald Trump by artist Illma Gore.

The young artist, who is known for her feminist creations and street art events, says with all the freedom of expression in the US, it's odd that she has to go to London to show her art.

The work, which is priced at about $1.87 million, is called Make America Great Again, which is Trump's campaign slogan
It's not enough to ask, "Is this interesting to the public?", or even, "Is this in the public interest?". When your story concerns an international custody dispute  affecting the lives of young children  you must consider: "Could our involvement make a bad situation worse?"

Sally Faulkner travelled to Lebanon to recover her two children, Lahala and Noah, from their father. Credit:Facebook

If it emerges that no money changed hands, 60 Minutes may argue it was merely documenting an ugly situation. If that's true  and in light of the political and diplomatic sensitivities  the producers should confirm it. Even so, that doesn't (necessarily) get them off the hook. Did their filming requirements, in any way, contribute to this disaster?

If 60 Minutes paid Ms Faulkner, and not the child recovery agency directly, they may try to wash their hands. After all, she can spend her money how she pleases. Whether that flies with the Lebanese authorities remains to be seen.

But if those authorities prove the program bankrolled this mess, they're in trouble. Especially if they confirm the agency is the same one linked to previous botched attempts. Did 60 Minutes do a background check before paying them? And just how responsible is it to fund a child snatch on a street in Beirut, of all places?
Seven Australian frog species are on the brink of extinction and will be wiped out by a killer fungus without immediate action, biologists have warned.

The scientists, from the University of Melbourne, Taronga Zoo, Southern Cross University (Lismore) and James Cook University, said that Australia still had a chance to save the frogs with a relatively small injection of funds for research and disease management.

"With a research and management program of about $15 million over five years, we believe we can save these frogs from extinction," said Lee Skerratt, lead author and principal research fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Hartcher wrote at the time that a creative financing option could be "value capture", where the government could exploit the rising land values that the rail-link would fuel, either through taxes or project equity. This form of financing has been well-used abroad, including for a redevelopment project in San Francisco. It was also proposed for London's Crossrail project. But don't rule out the private sector taking on the project. In February, Andrew Robb, the former Trade Minister, said he had been approached multiple times by companies wanting to build a Melbourne to Sydney link. Mr Turnbull could cast aside his ditherer tag by kick-starting the mother-of-all projects governments of all persuasions have dithered on for decades, and become a true infrastructure, nation-building Prime Minister. 3. 'Man-in-the-hat' says Brussels attack was meant for France Brussels terror suspect Mohamed Abrini. Credit:Belgian Federal Police/AP

The 'man-in-the-hat' has been found and arrested. His name is Mohamed Abrini and he's told Belgian authorities the Brussels attacks were meant for Paris. The BBC reports Abrini is said to have been filmed at a petrol station with Salah Abdeslam (who was arrested in Belgium just prior to the airport and metro bombings) two days before the Paris attacks last November. 4. Australia not serfs to America Former Howard government cabinet minister Amanda Vanstone has written a super interesting piece on submarines. As readers of Double Shot know, this is a $50 billion contract  the world's largest-ever single order  and a huge deal both domestically and geo-politically. If it was up to Tony Abbott, Australia would be buying Japanese made subs and the local industry would be dead following his Captain's Pick. Ms Vanstone, a good friend of moderate federal South Australian MP and cabinet minister Christopher Pyne (whose political fortunes in his seat of Sturt could ride on the subs decision), writes:

"There's been rumours about a wink and a nod from Uncle Sam in favour of Japan. If that is so, and I doubt it, we should politely suggest the Americans go first ... I am a big fan of the US, but we are friends not serfs." And, of course, Australia's foreign policy might be forced to give the appearance at least of a little more independence depending on the outcome of this year's US presidential election. 5. How Trump's win would be reported Alarmed at the prospect of a President Trump, The Boston Globe has mocked up how their front page might look if the result is yay for the potential Republican nominee.

6. UK spooks defend against the dark arts I can still remember the day I bought my hardback book, crept into my room and spent the whole day, between the laughter and the tears, battling desperately between yearning to know Harry, Dumbledore and Voldemort's fate, while at the same time wanting the final experience of reading a new Harry Potter for the first-time to never end. It amazed me that in the days of the internet, I was able to get to the book and find out for myself what happened without it being spoiled. Now, JK Rowling's publisher has revealed that a British spy agency helped keep crucial plots under wraps. The UK surveillance agency even alerted them when a copy leaked online in 2005. My favourite part in this utterly fabulous story is the quote for the agency, GCHQ: "We don't comment on our defence against the dark arts."
The apparent online abuse of a Greens MP by serving members of the NSW Police Force was "very serious" and would be investigated by one of two agencies, police said on Sunday.

The investigation follows the emergence of racist and sexist online attacks on the member for Newtown, Jenny Leong.

Fairfax Media revealed on Sunday that serving officers appeared to have harassed Ms Leong on social media following the Greens MP's campaign to repeal the state's sniffer dog drug detection policy.
The "complete failure" of prison managers to share critical information with the rest of the staff is to blame for a brutal attack allegedly carried out by an Islamic State supporter on his cell mate, the prison officers' union says.

The 18-year-old Islamic State supporter allegedly used a sharp tool to carve the letters "e4e" into the forehead of a fellow inmate imprisoned at the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre in Kempsey within hours of the pair being locked in a cell together on Thursday.

Steve McMahon, chairman of the Prison Officer's branch of the Public Services Union Credit:Channel Seven

The letters were an apparent reference to the terrorist group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra.
Does your neighbourhood seem to be crawling with kids? It could be, as new figures from the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages show.

The state's baby hotspots have been revealed, with the majority found in Sydney's west and south-west.

Blacktown is doing its best to boost the population, boasting the most babies born in any town or suburb for the third year in a row. There were 784 babies born to mothers living in Blacktown, Sydney's most populous suburb, in 2015.
Labor has defended a potential funding plan for its Cross River Rail project, despite not being able to confirm how it will pay for the $5 billion project, while the LNP has confirmed it supports public-private partnerships  but not the one Labor could potentially use.

In a confusing circular argument that began when Labor announced its new alignment for a CBD second river train crossing on Thursday, but not much else regarding the project, the government and opposition have been fighting over what could potentially happen.

Acting Premier Jackie Trad and Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe unveiled the third incarnation of the project, which has spanned three different governments, with the latest plan borrowing heavily from the Newman Government's proposed route but changing the proposed George Street station to Albert Street.

Mr Hinchliffe said that was largely to service the financial and business district of the city, but also hinted at development issues with the Queen's Wharf casino and resort taking up much of that end of George Street.
The LNP has decided on a Queensland federal candidate to run for seat of Wide Bay, currently held by National's leader Warren Truss.

Former Queensland deputy premier Jeff Seeney had expressed interest in the seat, which has been held by Truss since 1990, but withdrew from contention, leaving Fortescue Metals external relations director Tim Langmead, Tourism Noosa chief executive Damien Massingham and LNP vice-president and police officer Llew O'Brien to battle for the blue ribbon seat.

Llew O'Brien has been selected by the LNP for the seat of Wide Bay. Credit:Twitter

Mr Truss threw his support behind Mr O'Brien, a controversial figure within the LNP, who had been found to have "inappropriately accessed Queensland Police Service information pertaining to two Liberal National party pre-selection candidates for the seat of Nanango prior to the 2012 state election" by a police ethical standards command investigation completed in October 2014.

Mr O'Brien faced "managerial action" from the police service, but no adverse finding had been recorded on his police record.
Gable Tostee, the man accused of murdering New Zealand tourist Warriena Wright during a Tinder date on the Gold Coast will face trial in October.

Two weeks have been set aside for the trial, which is due to begin in Brisbane's Supreme Court on October 31.

The man accused of murdering New Zealand tourist Warriena Wright during a Tinder date on the Gold Coast will face trial in October. Credit:Facebook

Ms Wright fell to her death from Tostee's Surfers Paradise apartment after the pair had met through dating app Tinder last August.

AAP
The director of a Brisbane restaurant has agreed to change the business name after facing sharp criticism from the Vietnamese community over the weekend.

Uncle Ho, named after the communist dictator Ho Chi Minh, closed it's doors on Sunday after more than 100 members of Brisbane's Vietnamese community protested outside the Fortitude Valley establishment.

The restaurant, located on East Street just off Ann Street, had been open for 17 days.

During the Sunday protest, restaurant director Anna Demirbek posted to the restaurant's Instagram page that management and staff had received death threats and threats of damage to the business.
The owner of controversial Brisbane restaurant Uncle Ho has closed the venue for the day claiming to have received death threats.

The Instagram account attached to the business posted a photo with accompanying text saying the venue would close for the day after management received death threats as well as threats to burn down the building the restaurant is housed in.

"Over the past 24 hours management have received death threats and threats of burning down the building our business is housed in," a post on the account reads.

"This is unacceptable, bullying behaviour.
A body has been found in a burnt-out unit in Melbourne's southeast.

Firefighters responded to the blaze at Mordialloc at about 12.50am on Sunday and after putting the fire out found the body, which has yet to be formally identified.

While police were at the scene it is alleged a 35-year-old man was assaulted by a 49-year-old man, who was arrested.

Both men were taken to hospital with minor injuries and the arrested man is expected to be interviewed at a later date.
Developer Harry Stamoulis didn't get to be head of Australia's 95th richest family, with wealth of over half a billion dollars according to the BRW Rich List, without some good fortune.

But a decision taken by the Andrews government makes it clear how lucky Mr Stamoulis was to own - and sell - a Collins Street building under the previous planning minister, Matthew Guy.

Millionaire property developer Harry Stamoulis (left) in 2014 with then planning minister Matthew Guy and then premier Denis Napthine (right) at the opening of the Gods, Myths & Mortals exhibition at the Hellenic Museum in Melbourne.

The Andrews government's planning minister, Richard Wynne, has knocked back an application to build an 82-level tower on the site at the corner of Collins and King streets, opposite the Rialto.

Mr Wynne will also take a further, more dramatic step to reverse an unusual decision made by Mr Guy, who is now opposition leader, while he was planning minister.
A family who know the agony of having a child go missing joined the search for 15-month-old Sanaya Shaib and were the ones who discovered her little body in Darebin Creek.

The family of four whose own child once went missing  and was later found  spent the night looking for the missing toddler after hearing about the case through social media, police said.

The mother, father, their child and a sister searched parkland close to where Sanaya was abducted in Melbourne's north and made the horrific discovery in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Race has been ruled out as motivation for the Moomba riot which saw gangs of youths wreak havoc in Melbourne's CBD last month.

On Monday, police announced the arrests of 24 people they believe were involved in the March 12 riot that caused hundreds of bystanders to cower in fear inside restaurants and flee in panic.

Out of those charged, 20 were children, some of them as young as 14.

Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said there were three separate fights on the night, involving two groups of youths.
Detectives are searching for a small dark-coloured sedan as part of their investigation into the murder of Thomas O'Connell, whose body was found in a burnt-out car in February.

The 32-year-old man's remains were found in a white Kia Cerato hatch in bushland just off the Hume Freeway in Wandong, north of Melbourne, in the early hours of February 5.

Murdered: Thomas O'Connell

Homicide squad investigators believe Mr O'Connell was killed prior to the car being set alight.

Police are now searching for a small, dark-coloured, four-door sedan that was seen in the immediate vicinity of the car fire.
Warsaw: Poland's president and prime minister will for the first time take part in commemorations of the Smolensk plane crash after rejecting years of investigations into the tragedy that devastated a swath of the country's ruling elite.

The ruling Law and Justice party led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski is planning a new investigation into the 2010 crash in the Russian city, which killed 96 people including then-President Lech Kaczynski, his twin, as well as the head of the central bank and top military officials. The reopening of Poland's most painful event since World War II accompanies a government push for policies that have drawn criticism for undermining democracy.

Authorities inspect the debris on the site of the plane crash that killed then-Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife and other prominent leaders near Smolensk on April 10, 2010. Credit:AP

"The main difference is that the Polish president and premier are taking part, unlike during the past anniversaries," Beata Mazurek, spokeswoman of the Law and Justice parliamentary caucus, said by phone Friday. "Poland's most important leaders died in Smolensk and to date the authorities have been acting as if they didn't notice."

Mr Kaczynski and President Andrzej Duda will give speeches on Sunday to a gathering that organisers expect to swell to as large as 100,000 people. The march, also seen as a show of support for Law and Justice, which is pursuing family-oriented, euro-skeptic policies, may dwarf this year's protests by Polish opposition groups. They oppose sweeping changes to courts and other top institutions that fellow European Union members and US officials have criticised as endangering democracy.
Paris: Demonstrations around France against a draft labour reform law have turned violent, with at least seven police officers injured and 17 people arrested in Paris and Rennes, which saw the worst clashes.

Following changes to soften the bill, the broad-based protest movement has waned from its March 31 peak, when turnout estimates ranged between 390,000 and 1.2 million, suggesting French President Francois Hollande may be able to ride out the storm.

A demonstrator walks on the Place de la Nation during a protest in Paris. Credit:AP

Nonetheless, some 120,000 took part in Saturday's sixth day of protests around the country, according to the Interior Ministry.

Police clashed with groups of masked militants hurling projectiles in Paris as well as in Rennes and Nantes.
California: When California's aid-in-dying law takes effect this June, terminally ill patients who decide to end their lives could be faced with a hefty bill for the lethal medication. It retails for more than $3,000.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes the drug most commonly prescribed by physicians to aid patients who want to end their lives, doubled the drug's price last year, one month after California lawmakers proposed legalising the practice.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals, the company that makes the drug most commonly prescribed by physicians to aid patients who want to end their lives, doubled the drug's price last year. Credit:Nicolas Walker

"It's just pharmaceutical company greed," said David Grube, a retired a family doctor in Oregon, where physician-assisted death has been legal for 20 years.

The drug is Seconal, or Secobarbital, its generic name. Originally developed in the 1930s as a sleeping pill, it fell out of favour when people died from taking too much or from taking it in combination with alcohol. But when intended as a lethal medication to hasten the death of someone suffering from a terminal disease, Seconal is the drug of choice.
Latest News NAB reveals six market megatrends for brokers More opportunities for investors, first home buyers

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The condition of Australias rental market has become the topic of debate, with differing viewpoints emerging from two of the countrys biggest real estate data providers.Domains latest Rental Report, which covers the March quarter, paints a relatively positive picture of the rental market, with a continued rise in rents predicted.Despite the recent influx of home building, we can expect to see upward pressure on both house and unit rents in most capital cities continuing in the foreseeable future, Domain Group senior economist Andrew Wilson said.But analysis by CoreLogic RP Data isnt quite as upbeat, with its March Rental Review up a number of concerns for the market.According to CoreLogics findings, rents across the combined capital cities increased by just 0.2% during the month and fell by 0.2% in the 12 months to March, the first annual fall in rents on record.We have been tracking the annual change in capital city rents since 1996 and this is the first time we have seen rental rates falling, CoreLogic RP Data research analyst Cameron Kusher said.The extra accommodation supply, as a result of the current building boom, along with the recent record high levels of investment purchasing is adding substantial new dwelling supply to the rental market at a time when the rate of population growth is slowing from quarter to quarter. Furthermore, wages are increasing at their slowest annual pace, Kusher said.According to CoreLogic, the median combined capital weekly rent in March was $489 for a house and $469 for a unit.Those figures mean that during March house rents rose 0.1% while unit rents increased 0.4%.The past 12 months have also shown a difference in fortune for the house and unit markets, with CoreLogics figures showing a 0.5% fall in house rents in the year to march, while unit rents rose 1.5% over the same time.Over the year, Melbourne recorded the biggest increase in rents at 2.0% followed by Sydney at 1.4%, Canberra at 1.2% and Hobart at 0.3%.On the flipside, the cities to see a drop in rents included Darwin at 11.5%, Perth at 8.4 %, Adelaide at 1.0%, and Brisbane at 0.7% drop.With the current residential construction boom still wagging its tail, Kusher said landlords shouldnt expect to be able to increase rents anytime soon.[The] results also highlight a swift easing in rental market conditions over the past year. Weve attributed this ease to a variety of influences such as falling real wages, excess rental supply in certain areas and lower rates of population growth which have impacted on demand for rental accommodation.With dwelling approvals recently at record highs, construction activity set to peak over the next 24 months and many new properties still to settle, the rental demand weakness is expected to persist. In all probability, there wont be much scope for landlords to lift rental rates given current conditions have given greater negotiation opportunities to those in rental situation.
Phillies bash Padres in wild Game 4 to move to brink of World Series

Philadelphia hit four home runs in the win, overcoming a 4-0 deficit before they even came to bat against San Diego.
5 changes to you, your seafood and the Shore from warming Atlantic
Exactly 10 years ago, in April 2006, stories of American retail giant Walmart trying to enter India made the headlines.

Seven months later, in November that year, Walmart announced its intention to start a joint venture with the Sunil Mittal-led Bharti group in the wholesale space, as our foreign investment rules stopped the biggest retailer of the world from direct entry.

That set off alarm bells across the retail sector, as Walmart's move was seen as a precursor to the multinational getting into direct selling to consumers through the multi-brand route, once policy opened up. Traders were up in arms, fearing huge job loss if Walmart was to enter, prompting the then government to set up expert groups to study the impact of foreign investment on local trade before making any policy change.

Cut to 2016, and the fear factor is similar.

Only, the protagonist has changed. Instead of Walmart, Chinese internet major Alibaba is at centre stage, threatening the retail sector - both brick-and-mortar stores and e-commerce players.

Panic buttons were pressed when Alibaba recently announced it was exploring options to directly enter India. To put things in perspective, Walmart is yet to enter direct selling or multi-brand retail.

Alibaba seems to be the new Walmart for the Indian business, sector executives and analysts agreed.

Globally too, Alibaba, is pitched against Walmart like never before (see graphics).

Only a few days ago, Alibaba announced that its gross merchandise volume (GMV) - a sum of the value of goods sold on a platform - was $463.6 billion last year, and that it had surpassed the sales numbers of Walmart. Alibaba is yet to announce the last quarter results.

The US retailer recorded revenues of $482 billion in 2015, and its Chinese challenger could touch $490 billion by the end of FY16, according to analysts.

In India, foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail has often been equated with Walmart's foray into the country and fears that it might destroy corner stores because of the deep pockets of the US chain.

Although a report by think tank Icrier in 2008 said the fear was unfounded and UPA government permitted 51 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail in 2012, the fear of Walmart remains, a senior company executive said.

Now, Alibaba's likely entry is making businesses (both e-commerce and brick and mortar players) guard their turfs like never before, he added.

The tone was set by two leaders in Indian e-commerce - Flipkart Executive Chairman Sachin Bansal and Snapdeal Chief Executive Officer Kunal Bahl when they took to Twitter to run each other's down.

Bansal said, "Alibaba deciding to start operations directly shows how badly their Indian investments have done so far." (Alibaba has investments in both Snapdeal and Paytm).

Reacting to Bansal's tweet, Bahl retorted, "Didn't Morgan Stanley just flush $5 billion worth market cap in Flipkart down the toilet? Focus on your business, not commentary."



Bahl was referring to Morgan Stanley's recent markdown of its investment in Flipkart and therefore the valuation of the company.

While the government announced 100 per cent FDI in marketplace e-commerce soon after Alibaba made its intentions to come to India clear, retail industry has been protesting against the move.

Alibaba is the biggest threat because other e-commerce majors, most funded by marquee foreign investors, have been operating for long, according to industry representatives and analysts. Retail majors, including Future group's Kishore Biyani, may even explore legal options if there's no action from the government to check the policy violations by e-commerce companies, it is learnt.

Kumar Rajagopalan, CEO, Retailers Association of India (RAI), told Business Standard the industry's grouse was not against any individual company. "We are seeking level playing field." Retail is retail, whether its brick and mortar or e-commerce, he argued and if FDI is being permitted for one segment, it should be allowed in multi-brand as well.

The government is opposed to FDI in multi-brand retail.

Rajagopalan said, "Alibaba was successful in China because the Chinese government supported it. Now, the Indian government must support domestic ."



Praveen Khandelwal, who represents traders body CAIT, is more forceful in his protest against companies like Alibaba and Walmart. He calls them "devils". "The latest devil that the government has embraced is Alibaba," Khandelwal said.

He plans to give out a White Paper on the retail industry within a week to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister. "Yes, we were up in arms against Walmart and now we feel that if Alibaba comes, the implications for the industry will be the same."



Deep discounts will increase and India will become a dumping ground for cheap foreign goods, according to Khandelwal.

Walmart has been the biggest threat to retail everywhere in the world, says Arvind Singhal, founder of Technopak, a retail consultancy. But that has been overshadowed by e-commerce companies. "In that context, Alibaba is the new Walmart," he said. But both Walmart and Alibaba have not been able to replicate their home successes in many geographies, he pointed out.

Another e-commerce insider Sandeep Aggarwal, co-founder of Droom and Shopclues, says Alibaba is a modern history conglomerate but its role in India is yet to get clarity.

"I think Alibaba is over-hyped in India. It already has 450 million online consumers in China and it needs to find another destination for the next 150 million.''

A TALE OF TWO SELLERS

Alibaba

GLOBAL

INDIA

Largest investor in One97 Communications, which operates Paytm

An investor in Snapdeal

Operates B2B business

Walmart

GLOBAL

INDIA

1999, as an e-commerce company by Jack MaHangzhou, Zhejiang, ChinaAnnounced recently that it had surpassed Walmart in sales. Its gross merchandise volume last year was $463.6 billion; expected to hit $490 billion by end of FY16$25 billion in 2014$77.5 on NYSE as on April 8E-commerce in business-to-business and business-to-consumers, digital payment, price comparison sites, cloud computing, music service, South China Morning Post, among othersLooking at a direct entry into e-commerce1962, by Sam WaltonBentonville, Arkansas, USRevenue $482 billion in 2015$68.03 on NYSEChain of hypermarkets, department stores, grocery stores and online servicesAnnounced entry in 2006, and signed a JV with Bharti in 2007 for cash-and-carry stores; exited JV in 2013Runs 21 cash-and-carry stores; offers online services across 21 stores to businesses and organisations

Source: Companies, industry
One company that has lit up with the recent announcement on the petroleum package is Cairn India. It is hopeful the government will extend its production sharing contract. Mayank Ashar, managing director and chief executive officer, tells Jyoti Mukul the reform momentum should continue and the industry should do its part too. Edited excerpts:



How do you view the extension of contract periods to 28 fields with enhanced government share?

Our Ravva field is part of this. I see a structure and process in this, versus a one-off decision. We expect that (the) Barmer (oilfield), critical for Cairn, will be next for extension. Once we have clarity on timeline and terms, we can invest further. We believe that our production sharing contract (PSC) with the government provides automatic extension at the same terms and conditions.

Are you agreeable to parting with a higher share?



Our PSC has its own language and agreement. I can understand the government desire for consistency. However, the government and Cairn are bound by the legal agreement. We would suggest they follow the agreement. There are two issues --- timely resolution and adherence to the agreement. Our belief is the legal agreement is clear. So, we are looking for a 10-year extension at the same terms. We will see how the government decides.

For Reliance Industries (RIL), the governments condition is that it withdraw the litigation. Do you see this condition coming for Cairn, and going to court?



Hopefully not. Our case is different from RIL. I dont think going to the court itself spoils the case. It is all about timing.

Should the price flexibility under a ceiling given to high pressure, deep water and high temperature gas be available to other fields?



We get a regulated price for our Ravva and Cambay production. All producers struggle with a lower gas price. The thinking behind regulated prices will be that you will get the international benchmarks by using Russian, American and Canadian prices. Correct in principle but in commodities like gold and aluminium that are freely traded, the principle makes sense. In gas, Canadian gas is a third of European gas for the past five years. There are pockets in the world where supply is higher than demand and prices are extremely low. You have other pockets like those in Western Europe where supply is less than Japan.

In an attempt to keep prices very low, the government has used pockets of international prices that are very low. If theyd taken Japan, Western Rotterdam and another high price zone, they could have come up with a price two to three times higher. The issue is that these geographical centres do not accurately reflect the market prices.

Will the new norms for difficult fields help promote investment?



In terms of gas, it is a very good step, in continuum, to have an import equivalent for deep offshore, high pressure, high temperature. It gives clarity about investment and you have some sense of the market price. They are using as a market reference the import equivalent price of alternative fuel. However this is step one. There is still some clarity required on whether this is a true measure of market prices. Any time you have export or import equivalent, you are getting a good signal. There is a danger in using geographic prices for commodities that cannot be traded without friction.

For example, look at crude oil. The price in the US for equivalent crude, West European and Latin America, would be broadly equivalent, adjusted for quality. Freight for oil is two to three per cent of the cost but it is hugely different in gas. Sometimes, it can be 100 per cent. Gas trade has a friction cost and there is a danger in using market references, as these are local references from somewhere.

I commend the government for using the principle of import and export parity. They use the same principle for diesel and petrol because that gives you a good market reference. Nobody has a crystal ball to know what the price will be but if you know you will get import or export parity, the investor can think about investing in India, whether domestic or foreign. Even if you dont have full clarity, 95 per cent clarity on pricing means you could invest with confidence. What will happen with old production is different but for new investment, it takes away the risk. Most investors will not invest where the domestic price is half of import and export price parity. Fundamentally, it goes back to Adam Smith. Pricing is a very important signal for investors, citizens and the government (for the purpose of taxation). It prevents distortions that result in economic leakage, not only for investors and producers but even for citizens and the government.

The gas price for older fields has come down to $3.06, according to the 2014 formula. Does that worry your company?



I understand where the government is coming from but not necessarily agree. My sense is the government does not want to provide for windfall gains. There is also a segment of the citizenry that requires subsidised gas but there are other mechanisms to do it. I have empathy with the government because the absence of it results in premature death. Subsidised clean fuel is a necessity and for that, all citizens should be supportive. It is not a luxury. The key is that even for the existing fields, when you have prices, we shouldnt be afraid; there are other mechanisms to do it.

We shouldnt be afraid of letting businesses earn a return. That is a good thing. A healthy, prosperous business that makes money because of good investments and proper use of technology, and proper taxation that is competitive with the international regimes, is a win-win.

What should be the next steps for the government?



India is vulnerable to imports on oil and gas and it needs lots of investment, from within and foreign investors. If you dont get investment, you cant make domestic production. Indias demand for oil is going to be nine million tonnes a day in the future, as big as Saudi Arabia. It is number three in the world in terms of demand and is going to be number two. We are not blessed with geography like the Middle East and will be importing for a long time.

The question is, do you want to import all of it or want to reduce dependence for energy security. To reduce dependence, you need investment, and to invest more, you partly need market prices, as the government is not going to incentivise the price. Also, a simplified structure and a competitive fiscal burden.

What I see with these reforms is many steps along that way. We appreciate that these measures are more radical in the past 12 months than perhaps the preceding five years. They are necessary but we suggest that if our goal is to have significantly higher production, we need to do more and continue this journey. Thats the governments part and the industry also needs to do its part to bring technology and the know-how and best practices. Were in it together. The pricing and the rules need to be extremely attractive. Dont stop here; you will need investments.

Does the current oil price trend look good?



In 2014, it was a $120 a barrel world. In 2015, $60 was the high point. First quarter of 2016, prices have been sub-$30. At $30, the pain was very significant and we took the pain well. However, because our operational cost from core operations are so low, we were able to withstand that pressure -- Cairn is one of the most efficient producers in the world. The impact on cash flow was very significant and thats why we cut back in capital and operational cost. I am cautiously optimistic on the future but at sub-$30, production is not viable over the world, except some fields in the Middle East.

What will be Cairn Indias business plan in such a low price regime?



We will continue to focus on our core fields --- Bhagyam, Mangala and Aishwarya. Then, we have Ragheswari deep gas, where we will continue with production. The third is tight oil, not economic at $30-40 but we continue to do field work and are hopeful that the government reforms will address this the same way they have addressed high temperature, high pressure -- in terms of ensuring there is sufficient investment incentive in difficult formations across India. We will be careful with capital.

Cairn India has bailed out Vedanta group companies with commodity prices hitting their balance sheets but now even oil prices are low. Is Cairn in a position to continue doing that?



The company board looks at the needs of all shareholders, Vedanta and others. I dont really see a conflict. If you see what we are spending on capital, it is in line with what others are doing in any case for 2015-16. Compared to last year, prices are low, so we will be mindful of that but will continue to work on production growth, bring down costs and work on optimisation for tight oil.
About two-third of skilled workforce in jewellery sector has left for their hometown or switched to alternative means of livelihood due to the current strike over excise duty levy. These workers belong to West Bengal and Bihar. They have left for their hometown in large number. According to trade sources, workers have left from all across the country for their hometown.



Over 200,000 skilled and unskilled workers are employed largely on daily wage basis in the popular Zaveri Bazaar market alone. Normally, they get salary on weekly basis for the number of days worked and additional sum for overtime work they do. But, because of the ongoing strike, they have been facing survival problems as their weekly salary has stopped.

Read more from our special coverage on "JEWELLERS STRIKE"

Abrupt departure from the industry in bad taste would impact jewellery sector badly in the long term. Not only jewellery shop owners spend thousands of rupees on their training in a professional institute and retain them as loyal employees throughout their lives, but also their return to the jewellery industry becomes difficult once they move out.In usual course, they used to send money to their hometown after receiving salary which has stopped because of the ongoing strike. Now, workers do not see any ray of ending the strike in sight. Hence, around two-third of workers have left for their hometown and others are on the verge of doing so, said Kumar Jain, Director, Umedmal Tilokchand Zaveri, a Zaveri Bazaar based jewellery retailer.Thus, the jewellery sector is suffering from both sides. In one hand, their income has come to standstill because of shutting down their businesses for 40 days in protest of 1% excise duty levy, they fear acute shortage of labour once strike is called off.Neither the striking jewellers nor the government are inclined to step down from their position. Despite meeting with all top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), including the party president Amit Shah, the finance minister Arun Jaitley and road transport minister Nitin Gadkari to name a few, the government has not shown any signs of rolling back the excise duty as demanded by the striking jewellers.Interestingly, the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has turned down the jewellers request to meet him over the issue.Ashok Minawala, Director of All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation (GJF), argues that the levy of excise duty would bring back inspector raj as the inspector under the Central Excise Act will have a lot of powers. The government terms the levy as a step to curb black money in the system.To prevent Indians from buying gold considering the same as dead asset, the government raised import duty on gold to 10% in phases over two years ago. Still consumers appetite for gold remained unabated with the import of gold continuing at around 1000 tonnes through both official and smuggling route.We have relieved workers temporarily with an assurance to call them back after calling off the strike, said a jeweller on condition of anonymity. The Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley held the levy as an attempt towards the preparation for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The government attempted to levy Excise duty twice in the past but, rolled back under pressure from jewellers.Meanwhile, a certain section of jewellers are doing their business selectively to meet the demands of their customers for festive and seasonal demand. They are also selling jewellery to their loyal customers as usual. But they claim that they are not doing business with new customers as a mark of protest.

Rahul Gandhi to take up the jewellers issue



Meanwhile the Congress is seeing a good opportunity to fish in troubled waters. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to address striking jewellers at Zaveri Bazaar on Tuesday, said Sanjay Nirupam, Mumbai Congress Committee President. Earlier, the striking jewellers also met Uddhav Thackarey, Shiv Sena chief seeking support from his party.
The Supreme Court has quashed all criminal proceedings initiated against and its former chief executive, Raman Srikanth, in Hyderabad, in an order dated March 14.

Srikanth, who parted ways with Thiess in December, told Business Standard, "I am relieved that my innocence has been vindicated."



According to the order, commercial disputes between the Thiess group and Hyderabad-based Roshni Developers, which had initiated the proceedings against Srikanth and Thiess, were settled for $1.8 million (Rs 12 crore) through a court-appointed mediator. "As the amount has been deposited, the proceedings forming the subject matter of FIR No 274/2014... is hereby quashed," the order said.

The dispute related to a 2008 memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Thiess and Roshni.

In his petition, Srikanth had contended he was not even an employee or director of Thiess "when the negotiations took place culminating in the MoU dated 02.07.2008" and that he joined Thiess only in December 2010 and, therefore, the complaint against him was "misconceived".

The MoU inked in July 2008 was with regard to the grant of a sub-contract for the removal of overburden/waste in the Parki Barwadih Coal Project in Jharkhand.

"Alleging Thiess refused to enter into a contract in terms of the MoU and thereby went back on its commitment under the MoU, Roshni invoked arbitration against Thiess on 02.02.2012, seeking specific performance of the MoU or in the alternative for payment of Rs 187.68 crore as compensation."



Separately, Roshni filed a criminal complaint against Thiess, Bruce Munro, the then director of Thiess Minecs, and Srikanth. Based on this complaint, in May 2014, Srikanth was arrested by the Hyderabad police and later released on bail.

THE LEGAL TANGLE Jul 2008: Thiess Minecs and Roshni Developers sign MoU for waste removal contract in the Parki Barwadih coal project

Thiess Minecs and Roshni Developers sign MoU for waste removal contract in the Parki Barwadih coal project Nov-Dec 2010: R Srikanth becomes chief executive of and non-executive director of Thiess Minecs, a 90% subsidiary

R Srikanth becomes chief executive of and non-executive director of Thiess Minecs, a 90% subsidiary Feb 2012: Roshni initiates arbitration proceedings, claiming Rs 187 crore from Thiess

Roshni initiates arbitration proceedings, claiming Rs 187 crore from Thiess May 2014: Files criminal complaint against Thiess, Bruce Munro and Srikanth; Srikanth arrested and released on bail

Files criminal complaint against Thiess, Bruce Munro and Srikanth; Srikanth arrested and released on bail Nov 2014: Roshni loses arbitration matter, asked to pay SGD 2.3 million costs

Roshni loses arbitration matter, asked to pay SGD 2.3 million costs Jul 2015: High court dismisses appeals by Srikanth, Thiess; directs police to file investigation report in four months

High court dismisses appeals by Srikanth, Thiess; directs police to file investigation report in four months Dec 2015: Refers Srikanths appeal to mediation after Thiess Minecs impleads as a party

Refers Srikanths appeal to mediation after Thiess Minecs impleads as a party Jan 2016: Mediation meeting held in Delhi, attended by Syama Prasad Reddy, Srikanth and Thiess representatives

Mediation meeting held in Delhi, attended by Syama Prasad Reddy, Srikanth and Thiess representatives Feb: Mediation proposal cleared by court after Thiess agrees to deposit $1.8 million as full and final settlement in three weeks

Mediation proposal cleared by court after Thiess agrees to deposit $1.8 million as full and final settlement in three weeks Mar: All criminal cases against Srikanth and Thiess quashed Source: Supreme Court orders

In November 2014, an arbitral tribunal passed an award in favour of Thiess, directing Roshni to pay costs of SGD 2.3 million to Thiess.

Following this order, Srikanth and Thiess moved the high court in Hyderabad challenging the criminal cases. The matter reached the Supreme Court after the high court, in July 2015, dismissed these petitions and ordered completion of investigation in four months.

The Supreme Court issued notice on Srikanth's petition but dismissed the one filed by Thiess. The company, then, made an application for impleadment as a party in Srikanth's matter. Following this, in December, the Supreme Court sent the matter for mediation.

In a mediation meeting held in January, Syama Prasad Reddy of Roshni Developers, Thiess executive Suman Kumar Dey, Srikanth and their counsels agreed Thiess Minecs India would pay $1.8 million to Roshni in full and final settlement. Thiess also agreed to waive the costs (SGD 2.3 million) levied by the arbitral tribunal in its favour against Roshni.

"Both parties have incurred considerable expense on the litigation mentioned above and do not wish to incur any more expenses on such litigations," according to the terms of the settlement.
When ZoomCar launched a 'rent-an-auto' service many thought it was an April Fool gimmick. But, the start-up meant business. In the self-drive car business for three years, the company went in for the long haul.

It had branded the venture Zoom Auto and piloted it for a week. Customers were allowed to book an auto after a security deposit of Rs 5,000 and drive for 20 minutes within a radius of one kilometre. This is preceded by a 10-minute training by fleet executives.

"The company will work with transport regulators in various states to pursue the service," says Greg Moran, co-founder and chief executive officer. The project was launched to assess the demand.

ZoomCar, founded by Greg Moran and David Back, from the US, claims to be India's first and largest self-drive car rental service.

The journey



"I wanted to do something with technology which involved minimal visits to government," says Moran, who has a background in the financial and power businesses. They identified an opportunity in transport as less people own a car in India and there was a market for a new model - taking cars only when you need one, he says. They started the business in Bengaluru in 2013.

From seven cars in the city, the company has expanded to the National Capital Region, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and Chandigarh. It has 2,000 cars and sees 1,200 rides daily. About 1,50,000 users have availed of the service, travelling 20,000,000 km and 26,000 destinations, it claims.

It has around 20 models and one can take a car for an hourly, daily or monthly basis. Moran says the company has been able to make a profit in every city within a few months of launch. While it owns a majority of the cars, it is now moving an asset-light model with tie-up with fleet owners.

In 2013, the start-up raised around $1.5 million from Empire Angels and others. This was followed by funding of $8 million led by Sequoia Capital and others such as former Infosys chief finance officer Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain of Manipal Group in October 2014.

In July 2015, ZoomCar raised $11 million in a Series-B round from Sequoia Capital, Empire Angels and Nokia Growth Partners.

The company is planning to increase its fleet size to 50,000 cars in two years and expand to 30 cities. The focus, Moran says, will be on larger cities.

It is also simultaneously working on the Zoom Auto model. For this, it would talk to various state governments and local authorities, to clear the regulations for starting operations.

Sectoral experts say the challenge will be to improve customers' experience and satisfaction. Since the self-drive car rental is comparatively a new market, it is already crowded and customer expectations are high. There are several players directly competing in cities like Bengaluru and Delhi NCR.

For instance, Myles, a brand of Carzonrent, offers services in 21 cities with 1,000 cars. Revv is present in the NCR, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, while Autoriders International is in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Pune, among others. A few have also reached tier-II cities. Driven, which offers services in Hyderabad, is also present in Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada while U Drive reaches customers in Pune, Nagpur and Panjim.

Moran believes they have the first-mover's advantage, considering they introduced the self-drive car rental market and initiated several firsts in the sector. Customer experience, booking experience, whether on the website or on the app, depends on the technology," he says, indicating the company's focus.

FACT BOX

Meetu Bhasin

February 2013Self-drive car rentalAround $20 mn in three institutional rounds from investors, including Sequoia Capital, Nokia Growth Partners and Empire AngelsThe market for self-drive car rentals came into existence during 2010. There are Carzonrent, Avis India, ZoomCar, Car Club and Mi Car. Other significant players include Myles, Auto Riders and Eco Rent a Car.The business is still in nascent stage in India, whereas in China and Brazil, the market has reached the growth level.

In the US, the market has matured. During the financial years 2010 to 2015, revenue rose at a compounded annual rate of 45.4 per cent. Additionally, the advent of mobile apps is likely to be a major driving force for the segment in the coming years. ZoomCar has been performing well through its mobile application, launched in 2013.

It has partnered with auto manufacturers such as Ford and Mahindra, making it the first car rental company in India to offer an electric vehicle in 2013. It also works with locally established real estate developers, universities, hotels, and corporate information technology parks to secure parking facilitity for its vehicles and offer pick-up points to customers.

In November 2013, ZoomCar in collaboration with Uber and the Ashoka Foundation launched a month-long campaign in Bengaluru to encourage car-rental and discourage drunk driving.

Easy accessibility to the self-drive services at a reasonable cost along with rising disposable income and urban population, specifically middle-income groups, has prompted people to avail of self-driving cars on a rental basis for long distance leisure trips, leading to a spurt in the growth of the market over the past few years in A Grade cities.

Meetu Bhasin, director - strategy and planning, Ken Research, a market research company
Five people have been detailed in a firecracker accident case at the Paravur Puttingal temple in Kollam district, Kerala, in which at least 106 people were killed and 383 injured.A case has also been filed against the fireworks contractor, as the crime branch takes over the investigation.The explosion occurred as crackers and explosives kept in a storage house caught fire after a live cracker fell on the pile. The tremors of the loud explosion that followed were reportedly felt up to one-a-and-half km away. A large portion of the crackers were used before the explosion. Otherwise, more might have been killed.According to reports, Rs 8.4 lakh worth of crackers were ordered for a fireworks display at the temple, which is a competition between people from two areas in the region. The fireworks were in violation of the orders of the district authorities, reports said.The injured were taken to the Kollam district hospital, Thiruvananthapuram medical college, and other private hospitals.Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and other ministers rushed to the spot.

Later, after a special Cabinet meeting, Chandy announced a judicial probe under a retired judge as well as a Crime Branch investigation. He also announced Rs 10 lakh ex-gratia relief to the families of those killed, a compensation of Rs 2 lakh to those with serious injuries, and Rs 50,000 to those with minor injuries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the accident site along with Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, later met the injured in the hospitals. He announced Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia for the families of the dead and Rs 50,000 to the injured. The state government said it would take care of the treatment of those injured. The armed forces pitched in with helicopters, aircraft, ships and medical teams.

One team of the Disaster Response Force comprising 50 personnel including doctors, pharmacists and nursing staff have left for Kollam, said officials. A team of senior doctors and specialists with expertise in handling burn injuries from the All India Institute of Medical Science, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and Safdarjung Hospital have been flown in from Delhi, said Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda, who also visited the injured in the hospitals. Businessman M A Yousuf Ali said he would provide Rs 1 lakh to families of the deceased and Rs 50,000 to the injured.
With the High Court Committee (HCC) appointed by the Bombay High Court recommending audit of books of leading brokers in the Rs 5,600-crore Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam, suspicions are being raised over brokers role in commodity trading at the now-defunct spot commodity trading exchange. Trade sources do not deny the involvement of black money into the system.

The HCC appointed by the Bombay High Court had last week named eight brokers and seven individual traders on NSEL to audit their books over discrepancies found in the trade data collected from three different sources  that is NSEL, brokers and clients.

Read more from our special coverage on "NSEL SCAM" NSEL scam: Suspicion mounts on brokers routing black money

This is the second time that brokers face allegations of mis-selling and offering false assurance of attractive returns on investments.

Two years ago, a couple of executives of leading brokerage firms were arrested and later released on bail.

HCC has raised a very important aspect of the entire NSEL scam, which needs to explored, said an industry expert.

The HCC found brokerages guilty of submitting false data including the permanent account numbers of clients and trading on their behalf without their knowledge.

Also, in some cases, traded goods in brokerages books were found unmatched with that of clients and NSEL.

Afrom the Securities and Exchange Board of India, the Enforcement Directorate, the economic offences wing of the Mumbai Police are also investigating the case.

Since the scam broke out at NSEL around three years ago, brokers have faced little investigation so far despite playing a lead role in trading.

The source further said that while money trail has been discovered with defaulters, exploring source of funds at brokers end would be interesting to know.
On Monday, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter will land in Goa for the first leg of a three-day visit to India, his third since assuming office in February 2015.

Widely regarded as a staunch friend of India, Carter might achieve during his visit what his recent predecessors have failed to: signing the first of three "foundational agreements" that are billed as a springboard for the US-India defence relationship.

Hectic discussions between the US Department of Defense (DoD, or Pentagon) and India's defence ministry (MoD) over the past four months have brought two of those agreements close to the point of signature.

The first is a Logistics Support Agreement (LSA), which provides an accounting mechanism for the two militaries to replenish from each other's facilities and bases. This has been bogged down in controversy since 2006, when the Left Front parties convinced then defence minister, AK Antony, that the LSA would force India to replenish US military units engaged in operations that India had reservations about.

However, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has ensured that the discretion remains with India. The agreement will be signed under a new name, the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), to appear as an India-specific agreement, not a pro-forma LSA.

After Parrikar's visit to the US in December, the MoD asked the Pentagon to send out a team to address India's queries on all three agreements. In January 2015, a US legal team travelled to India. In rapid-fire exchanges since then, drafts of the LSA were exchanged, and New Delhi's concerns addressed.

Earlier, in end-2014, New Delhi had asked the Pentagon for a "Non Paper" on the foundational agreements. This had been provided but, until Parrikar's visit to the US, discussions had not progressed. While the LEMOA constitutes low-hanging fruit, the Pentagon is more excited about agreement on the more complex Communications and Information Security Memorandum of Agreement (CISMOA), that would allow India to obtain advanced radio and satellite communications equipment from the US.

CISMOA-protected category of communications equipment has been denied to India so far, even in advanced aircraft bought from the US - like the C-130J Super Hercules special operations transporters, and P8-I Poseidon maritime multi-mission aircraft. India chose to buy these with the original CISMOA-protected equipment replaced by commercially available radios of a lower order.

The US insists on CISMOA as a condition for supplying this equipment because it is afraid its advanced technology may leak out to India's other defence partners, especially Russia.

Says Ben Schwartz, the aerospace and defence head of the US-India Business Council: "Washington understands that India needs to maintain its defence relationship with Russia, but there needs to be a firewall between the cooperation that India does with Russia and its cooperation with the US. And that firewall doesn't exist at this point." In the absence of CISMOA, India has accepted greatly reduced operational capabilities in the aircraft it has bought from the US. For example, when an Indian Navy P8-I detects an enemy submarine, it needs to communicate that intelligence to an Indian submarine that can destroy the enemy vessel. However, the advanced radio needed for an aircraft to talk to the submerged submarine is protected by CISMOA.

Similarly, the C-130J, which carry Special Forces into enemy territory and make very precise night landings on tiny airstrips, do not have the encoded radios needed to communicate with the commandos who secure the airstrip. Instead, India has opted for commercially available radios.

New Delhi worries that CISMOA-protected communications might contain a bug that would allow the US (and potentially its allies) to detect and track Indian platforms equipped with those radios.

These apprehensions have been largely assuaged in the latest CISMOA draft. However, MoD officials may choose to sign only the LEMOA during Carter's visit, as a trial balloon to gauge the political reaction, with CISMOA signed later.

Meanwhile, there is no consensus on the third of the foundational agreements, the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement for Geospatial Information and Services Cooperation (BECA), which relates to digital mapping - a key component of military operations, especially accurate targeting with long-range missiles.

Government sources say the Pentagon wants digital sensors placed on Indian territory, which New Delhi finds unacceptable as it would allow the US military extremely high-resolution digital imagery of India. Since Washington is not providing the Indian military with imagery of Pakistan of that accuracy, New Delhi is not inclined to sign BECA.

Furthermore, given that India's own satellite imaging capability is of a very high order, New Delhi believes that we need not rely on US geographical information systems (GIS) that would become available through BECA. While India's security agencies have begun digitising the sub-continental landmass, this has been hampered by a lack of coordination. Government sources say each military service and security agency has been operating on a different GIS protocol, a lapse that is only now being corrected.

Consequently, when Indian military troops were deployed for earthquake relief operations in Nepal, they approached the US for local maps. Technically, the US could only supply digital maps to signatories of BECA. However, since this was a humanitarian aid mission, an exception was made for India.

Carter will also review the Defence Trade and Technology Initiative (DTTI), of which he has been a key driver. Business Standard learns that India is set to float a Request for Information (RFI) to US shipbuilders for cooperation in designing the navy's second indigenous aircraft carrier.

However, there is less progress on the second major partnership under the DTTI - the co-development of a jet engine for India's proposed Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft. This requires negotiation with a private US company, General Electric, rather than a government-to-government negotiation.
Around 200,000 tourists entered India using e-tourist visa (e-TV) in the first two months of this year. This is equal to 50 per cent of those who arrived in the country using this facility in 2015.

The Union government decided to extend the e-TV facility to travellers in 150 countries, up from the previous 113 countries, on February 26. The announcement, however, precedes the setting up of additional infrastructure and resources needed to manage the increased influx of tourists. This has led to long queues at the immigration counters, leaving both the passengers and officials exasperated.

Officials say a passenger takes three-four minutes to clear the entire immigration process - scrutiny of his travel documents, collection of biometrics and his initial security profiling. But, he ends up standing in a queue for 35-40 minutes waiting for his turn at the immigration counter. On weekends and peak hours - between 11 pm and 2 pm - the wait time extends to one-and-a-half hours. Officials blame it on the shortage of trained staff at immigration counters.

"We are understaffed by 15-20 per cent. Still, our performance is phenomenal compared to both the developed and the developing nations," said a senior immigration officer, requesting anonymity. The official reasoned that immigration was the first opportunity where they check a passenger's antecedent to avoid a situation similar to the David Headley episode.

Officials say there are 12-13 exclusive immigration counters for passengers arriving on e-TV at the Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport. The authorities want to increase the counters to 20 depending on the number of flights and passengers. This usually happens on weekends or when there is a bunching of flights, meaning two-three flights landing at the same time. Besides these e-TV counters, the Delhi airport has another 42-43 immigration counters for other passengers at arrival and departure terminals.

According to Union Tourism Secretary Vinod Zutshi, the reasons behind the long queues at airports include the increase in the number of passengers and shifting of more people to e-TV.

For instance, 1.69 million tourists arrived in India in the first two months this year against 1.55 million in the corresponding period last year, showing an increase of nine per cent. In February this year, 847,000 foreign tourists arrived in the country compared to 761,000 in the same month last year, recording an increase of 11.3 per cent. Overall, India received 6.97 million, 7.68 million and 8.03 million tourists in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively.

In November 2014, the government launched e-TV for which a tourist applies for visa online and gets an answer within 96 hours, to boost tourism and avoid inconvenience to travellers. Zutshi said a total of 450,000 e-TV holders visited India in 2015, while 200,000 people visited the country on e-TV in the first two months of 2016 alone. "We are certainly alive to the issue and are taking remedial actions," he added.

While Zutshi's ministry is planning to hold a joint survey of the airports along with the other stakeholders, there appears to be a blame game and abdication of responsibility. According to the tourism ministry, it's for the Union home ministry, which has administrative control of the Immigration Bureau, and the Airports Authority of India, to remove the bottlenecks.

Immigration officials say although they are in the process of raising more staff, they find a space crunch at the Delhi airport and have no control over the movements of flights. "We can't do anything if there is bunching of flights due to a variety of reasons. We also feel that the Delhi airport is reaching its saturation in terms of passenger capacity," said the senior immigration officer quoted above.

However, the Delhi International Airport (DIAL) disagreed with this view. "Immigration is a sovereign function, which is looked after by officials deployed by the government of India. As an airport operator, DIAL has provided adequate infrastructure to Immigrations at T3 arrivals. As of now, our total Terminal passenger capacity at IGI Airport is 62 million per annum against the actual traffic of 41 million passengers handled in FY15," said a DIAL spokesperson said in an email reply.

The situation is no different at the Mumbai airport, where only half the immigration counters are manned despite availability of space.

Subash Goyal of the Indian Association of Tour Operators says Prime Minister Narendra Modi might have proposed adding of more countries on e-TV, but the bureaucrats are failing to implement the same.

The situation might deteriorate further with more and more passengers opting for e-TVs and the government planning to launch this facility for those visiting India for business and medical tourism.
government has invited Chinese infrastructure company Gezhoba, which was associated with the construction of the famous Three Gorges dam in its country, to take part in the construction of the irrigation projects in the state.



This was the first time the state government has decided to open the irrigation projects to foreign construction companies. The state government has made a Rs 25,000 crore plan outlay for the irrigation sector, the largest ever allocation of budget in a single year.

Showing keen interest to take part in the construction of some of these irrigation projects, Gezhoba representatives have met with the chief minister and his team of officials and shared the details about their expertise in this area. The company also informed the government of its intent to bring upto Rs 10,000 crore investments into these projects, according to a government spokesperson.

While advising the company to participate in the tender process soon to be initiated for selecting the companies for the construction of Kaleshwaram, Tupakulagudem and Sitarama Project and other lift irrigation projects being proposed on River Godavari, the chief minister also instructed the department engineers to visit China to study the technology and practices used for such projects.



Growing interest among Chinese companies on infrastructure projects in Andhra Pradesh and has been visible for the past one year following the China visit undertaken by Chief Ministers N Chandrababu Naidu and K Chandrasekhara Rao of the respective states.



Last year a delegation from China Railway (CCRC) met with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and discussed possible areas of collaboration including the participation in the proposed metro rail projects. Chinese companies see opportunities in other areas like the development of new ports and airports and also the construction projects in the new capital city in Andhra Pradesh.

In May last year, GMR Infrastructure Limited had singed an agreement with Guizhou International Investment Corporation (GIIC), a consortium of three Chinese manufacturing companies for establishing an industrial park with a proposed investment of $500 million in its 10,000 acre Kakinada SEZ project. The home grown infrastructure company also had past experience in working with Chinese construction companies as it had roped in China construction as one of the contractors for the Hyderabad International Airport Project.

On Saturday, China Sichuan Province signed a MoU with Andhra Pradesh for mutual cooperation. Under this agreement Sichuan would facilitate hassle-free investments into the state for industry, trade, education among other areas.
Stepping up its energy ties with Iran, India has lined up $20 billion as investment in oil and gas as well as petrochemical and fertiliser projects in the Persian Gulf country subject to provision of concessional rights.

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, on a two-day visit to Tehran from April 9, also discussed with his Iranian counterpart the repayment of nearly $6.5 billion that Indian refiners owe to Iran, but there is no agreement yet on rights to develop Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf discovered by OVL.

The minister informed the Iranian side that Indian companies could invest up to $20 billion and are interested in setting up petrochemical and fertiliser plants, including those in Chabahar SEZ, either through a joint venture between Indian and Iranian public sector companies or with private sector partners.

"In this regard, he requested Iran to allocate appropriate and adequate land in the SEZ. He also requested the Iranian side for favourable treatment in the pricing of gas for India and supply of rich gas at competitive price on long-term basis for the life of joint venture projects Indian companies are interested in setting up," an official statement read.

Pradhan said India did a fine balancing act after Prime Minister's visit to Saudia Arabia earlier this month.

Accompanied by ONGC Videsh MD Narendra K Verma and Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Chairman B Ashok, Pradhan sought to engage with the leadership of the oil-rich nation that has stepped out of international sanctions.

This was the first visit by an Indian minister since the US and other western powers lifted sanctions against Iran in January.

Within days, Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Tehran, signing 17 accords and agreeing to increase bilateral trade by more than ten-fold to $600 billion in the next decade.

Keen not to rub Saudi Arabia the wrong way -- China's largest oil supplier -- Xi visited Riyadh and Egypt before heading to Tehran.

"Pradhan had meetings with Minister of Petroleum Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Senior Advisor to President of Iran on Free Trade Zones Akbar Torkan and Governor of Iranian Central Bank Dr Valliolah Seif," the statement said.

The two nations, it said, discussed developments regarding Farzad-B gas field and expressed confidence in concluding an agreement at the earliest.

"The issue relating to payment of dues by Indian refineries to Iran towards purchase of crude oil was also discussed. Pradhan conveyed that India is committed towards making payments as and when banking channels, acceptable to both sides, are available," the statement added.
The government is looking at a scheme for encouraging its employees to invest part of their 7th Pay Commission salary hike in a fund which would be used for recapitalisation of state-owned banks. High income government official, according to sources, could be roped in to invest in the fund by offering lucrative incentives like tax break or higher return.

According to the proposal, higher income government staff from the rank of Section Officer may be asked to shell out 50 per cent of increased salary towards bank capitalisation bonds, the sources said. Top officials of the finance ministry had preliminary discussion over the issue last week, sources said. However, no decision has been taken yet, they said, adding that Committee of Secretaries is looking into the matter and various alternatives are being considered. This proposal is being considered to find more resources for recapitalisation of public sector banks which are saddled with gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of Rs 3.61 lakh crore at the end of December 2015, as against Rs 39,859 crore in the private sector.

Gross NPA ratio as percentage of advances rose to 7.30 per cent while for private banks, it stood at 2.36 per cent as of December-end.

Reserve Bank of India has asked public sector banks to clean up balance sheets by March next year. Cleaning the books would require additional capital infusion than what has been envisaged in Indradhanush.

Last year, the government had announced a revamp plan Indradhanush to infuse Rs 70,000 crore in state-owned banks over four years, while they will have to raise a further Rs 1.1 lakh crore from markets to meet their capital requirements, in line with global risk norms Basel-III.

In line with the blueprint, public sector banks were given Rs 25,000 crore in FY16 and an equal amount is planned for FY17. According to the plan, Rs 10,000 crore each would be infused in 2017-18 and 2018-19.

It is believed that the government provided as much as Rs 70,000 crore in the Union Budget 2016-17 for implementation of 7th Pay Commission for 4.7 million government employees and 5.2 million pensioners.

While the Budget did not provide an explicit overall provision number, the government had said the Seventh Pay Commission hike has been built in as interim allocation for different ministries and Budget numbers were credible.

Implementation of the Pay Commission report in toto is to cost the government Rs 1.02 lakh crore.
After setting the power distribution segment on a reform road, the Union government is planning to rescue the languishing sector, with a three-pronged approach.

The first move would be to increase the ambit of small hydro projects to 100 Mw from current 25 Mw. This would help achieve the renewable energy (RE) targets of states and also bring a large number of projects under the net of government subsidy and other tax benefits.

The installed capacity of projects has remained 40,000 Mw for the past three years, while that of the renewable energy sector has increased about 20 per cent in the same period. In the past decade, RE (solar and wind power) has grown by 89 per cent, while hydro has staggered at 28 per cent.

During the preceding United Progressive Alliance government, projects were given a boost, with large allocations to the private sector.

Arunachal Pradesh had awarded about 60,000 Mw of hydro projects to 130 companies. But, legal and regulatory issues playing spoilsport, none of the projects were commissioned.

Since coming to power, the National Democratic Alliance has given a renewed push to RE, especially solar power. Now, hydro projects will also get a push.

"This would also make available the tax benefits and subsidies that small hydro enjoys to larger projects. This is done in hope of reviving private investment in the sector and also gives opportunity to small players to expand capacity at the same location," said a senior official at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

At present, subsidies of Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 20 crore per Mw are given to small hydro projects. Renewable energy also enjoys accelerated tax benefit. "Above all, renewable energy is focus area of this government. Sale of power is easier if hydro is defined as renewable power," said the official.

Close to 4,000 Mw of projects have installed capacity of 25 Mw, while around 6,000 Mw is in range of 25-100 Mw.

The power ministry is, on the other hand, mulling to involve a central procurement agency to buy hydro power from existing and upcoming plants. NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN), the power trading arm of thermal power giant NTPC, could be a probable agency. NVVN is best known for pulling off the first phase of the National Solar Mission in 2010 by procuring and bundling solar power. "The idea is to replicate the same model with small hydro. Hydel faces procurement issues. With a central agency, there is surety of off-take and payment," said a senior NTPC official, confirming the discussions.

The focus is on hydro-rich states - Uttrakhand, Arunanchal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Hydropower's share in the installed power capacity has declined to 15.5 per cent by the end of February this year, from 26 per cent at the end of March 2005. Share of renewable power has increased to 14.1 per cent of 275,912 Mw of total installed capacity from a mere three per cent in 2005.

Senior power sector experts said as the renewable energy capacity is being ramped up at such a large scale, hydro is the need of the hour. "Run-of-the river projects, which can kick start power generation and act as balancing power to renewable energy, are necessary more than ever. What is to be seen is how the government manages the power transmission," said a source.
Maharashtra is in the midst of formulating a Bill, to minimise property disputes. This comes in the wake of the legislative Assembly in Rajasthan passing (last week) a legislation with the same aim, on urban land. The city of Pune will see a pilot project. The city is also among the 20 selected by the Centre for the Smart Cities project.

A senior minister, who did not want to be named, due to the ongoing legislature session, told this newspaper: Once a property is registered with the proposed land titling centre, officials there would conduct a detailed title search, including past ownership, transactions and litigation history (if any), to establish non-encumbrance on the land. Thus, the buyer would have a clear understanding of the ownership issue and past record before purchase. This is a step towards guaranteed land titles. The government may consider handing over the title certificate to the owner in demat form.



A revenue department official hoped the proposed legislation would reduce around half the title disputes currently pending at the high court here. It would also simplify the maintenance of property records.

He said the government might consider initial titling for land under the control of the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority and Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation.

Titling of other lands to be considered is being discussed and will thereafter be incorporated in the draft Bill, he added.
With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) confident that it will get 25-35 seats in the first phase of the Assam Assembly elections on April 4, the stage is set for the second and final phase of the election on Monday when 61 of the 126 constituencies will go to the polls.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J began the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)'s official Assembly election campaign from her constituency, R K Nagar in Chennai, over the weekend. This week, she will campaign over the state. "Our plan is to schedule a visit by the chief minister to all districts, where voters and candidates would gather from all constituencies," said an AIADMK leader. "She will fly out from Chennai every day and return in the evening. Each trip is planned in such a way that she will be on the ground meeting people for at least five hours a day."


A massive fire and explosion occurred during public display of fireworks at Puttingal Temple, Kollam District, Kerala at about 3.00 AM on 10.04.2016. As per the preliminary reports, 84 people have died and over 250 sustained injuries. .

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The accident occurred during display of fireworks. Prima facie, from pictures seen on TV channels, it was observed that large quantity of fireworks items were used for the public display. It is mandatory to obtain a licence in Form LE-6 under Explosives Rules 2008 from District Magistrate for public Display of fireworks. .

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As per the Honble Supreme Courts directive Fireworks should be used only upto 10 pm. and as per as per Ministry of Environment and Forests Notification no. G.S.R. 682 (E) dated 05/10/1999 the noise level of cracker should not exceed 125 dB. .

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Necessary advisory have been issued from time to time by Petroleum & Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO), Ernakulam to all District Magistrates for grant of licences in Form LE-6 under Explosives Rules 2008 and safety measures to be taken. .

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Following officials from PESO are visiting the accident site to assist the district administration in finding out the cause of accident and to suggest measures to prevent recurrence of similar incidents in future. .

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Dr. S. Kamal Chief Controller of Explosives, Nagpur, Dr. A. K. Yadav Jt. Chief Controller of Explosives, South Circle, Chennai, Shri R. Venugopal, Dy. Chief Controller of Explosives, Hyderabad, Shri Thiagarajan, Controller of Explosives, Sivakasi T.N. and Shri S. Kandasamy, Dy. Controller of Explosives, Ernakulam. .

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A major fire was reported at the Puttingal Devi Temple in Kollam in the early hours of Sunday, 10 Apr 16 following which the Southern Naval Command at Kochi pressed into action medical team along with equipment and materials using ships and aircraft. .

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Six Aircraft (Two Dornier fixed wing aircraft, two ALH helicopters and two Chetak helicopters) and three IN ships namely Kabra, Kalpeni and Sunayna were earmarked for the requirement. Two ALH with a nine member medical team along with three doctors, paramedics, supplies and equipment was rushed to the scene at 1130 hrs. The helicopters landed at the Ashramam Ground, Kollam at 1200 hrs. One Dornier aircraft from Kochi was positioned at AF Stn Trivandrum since noon. The rest of aircraft were stand by at Kochi foe any emergent need. .

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IN ships Sunayna, Kabra and Kalpeni were sailed immediately from Kochi with 200 KGs of medical supplies and medical team. INS Kabra and Kalpeni reached alongside Kollam jetty at 1600 hrs while INS Sunayna is off Kollam awaiting instructions as per situation. The medical supplies have been handed over to the local administration. Ships have kept blood donors ready to meet emerging requirements of Blood. .

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A relief camp has been set up at Kollam to co-ordinate all relief activities by the Navy, which was visited by the Honble CM of Kerala. .

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Regular contact is being maintained with state officials. Ships as well as medical teams have been directed to remain at Kollam for rendering assistance. .

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Union Government commits for Bundelkhand (UP) development .

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Prime Minister directs a high level review of drought situation in Bundelkhand, Vidharbha and Marathwada. First such review about Bundelkhand was held in Prime Ministers Office on 09.04.2016. Chief Secretary UP and his team made a presentation and Secretaries of the concerned departments of Government of India were also present. .

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Relief Measures .

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High Level Committee chaired by the Union Home Minister has recommended Rs. 1304 crore for drought relief to UP under National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). The State Government would disburse the relief amount directly into the bank accounts of farmers within a week. It was decided that Government of UP will forward a Memorandum for Rabi 2016 soon. Ministry of Home Affairs will examine if an exemption can be given under SDRF on 25% limit and continuation of distribution of food component beyond 90 days. .

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Drinking Water : Chief Secretary, UP informed that a comprehensive contingency plan to address the drinking water situation in Bundelkhand region especially Mahoba, Chitrakoot and Banda districts of Chitrakoot division are ready. He further assured that drinking water will be made available. .

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Employment & Livelihood : Provision of extending mandays from 100 to 150 under MNREGS in the Bundelkhand for financial year 2016-17 was approved. State Government will ensure distribution of Rs. 700 crore released under the labour component of MGNREGS directly to the eligible beneficiaries via electronic payment system. .

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It was decided that to provide alternate source of income National Rural Livelihood Mission would be strengthened and intensified and coverage would be extended to all the blocks. .

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Food Security : Chief Secretary, UP confirmed that NFSA has been implemented w.e.f. 01.01.2016. Accordingly, food grain allocation has been enhanced in Bundelkhand. State Government was advised to ensure Aadhar seeding of MNREGS beneficiaries and ration cards on high priority. .

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Bundelkhand Package .

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During the meeting, implementation of previous Bundelkhand package was high on agenda.

It was brought to the notice that Rs. 264 crore was released by NITI Aayog on 31.03.2016 to complete the committed liabilities on ongoing projects in UP as a one-time grant. It was agreed that the State Government would ensure completion of all ongoing 37 Piped Water Schemes on priority. Further, the warehousing marketing infrastructure built under the package needs to be better utilized. .

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Drought Proofing .

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It was also decided that water tanks, building of dug wells, farm ponds would be taken up on priority under various projects and schemes for Bundelkhand. CEO, NITI Aayog in consultation with State Government will explore the possibility of taking up fresh projects for drought proofing from the resources available under the package for Bundelkhand region. .

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Agriculture .

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It was brought out that Sesame is the most important Kharif crop in Bundelkhand. It was agreed that MSP for Sesame for 2016-17 be announced expeditiously. A bonus of Rs. 20 for Bundelkhand region over and above the MSP shall be considered. State Government would finalise a procurement plan for Sesame in consultation with Secretary, Agriculture. .

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To focus on boosting agricultural production and productivity in Bundelkhand region State Government will send a proposal for introduction of a new sub scheme under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. .

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Crop Insurance : It was noted that the coverage of crop insurance scheme in UP is between 7 to10% only. However, the coverage in Bundelkhand due to distress situation is around 30 percent. More than 250 crores in Rabi 2014-15 and around Rs. 180 crore in Kharif 2015 has been distributed as claims benefitting around 3.34 lakh and 2.16 lakh farmers respectively. .

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State Government was asked to ensure maximum coverage of farmers in the recently launched Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and it was agreed that the State Government would hold district wise camps to ensure that both loanee and non-loanee farmers are covered in a campaign mode. .

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Irrigation .

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Secretary, Water Resources was requested to ensure release of funds on priority for the nine ongoing projects under Repair, Rejuvenation and Restoration (RRR) of water bodies. .

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CEO, NITI Aayog, Secretary (Water Resources), Principal Secretary (Irrigation), UP will meet on 12th April, 2016 to resolve various issues pertaining to Arjun Sahayak, Varuna and Banasagar irrigation projects. CEO NITI Aayog in consultation with State Government will also resolve the pending proposals of drinking water at the earliest. .

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Cooperative Federalism .

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It was also agreed that various development proposals especially under PMGSY, drinking water, village electrification etc. should have wider consultation with local public representatives especially Members of Parliament. .

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As per the Prime Ministers vision and in the true spirit of cooperative federalism, Government of India and the State Government will together work for long term sustainable solutions to address the problem of vulnerable regions in natural distress. .

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The Brussels-based Islamic State jihadists behind the Paris attacks planned a fresh strike in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in, the federal prosecutor said Sunday.

The prosecutor also announced that the so-called "man in the hat" Mohamed Abrini had been charged with "terrorist murders" over the attacks in Brussels last month.

Suicide bombers claimed 32 lives when they blew themselves up at Brussels airport and at a metro station on March 22 but left a trail for police leading directly to the November Paris attacks which killed 130 people.

"Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again," the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels," it added.

The prosecutor gave no further details but the Brussels onslaught followed the March 18 arrest of top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam after four months on the run.

The prosecutor also gave no details of the planned attack in France but late last month, French police arrested Reda Kriket near Paris, finding weapons and explosives in a flat he had used to suggest he was planning an attack of "extreme violence."



Belgium has arrested two suspects, identified as Abderrahmane A. And Rabah M, in connection with the Kriket case and on Thursday both were remanded in custody, along with three other suspects held in connection with the November Paris attacks.

Shortly after Kriket's arrest, French prosecutor Francois Molins had said that "while no specific target has been identified, nonetheless everything leads us to believe that the discovery of this cache (of weapons) has allowed us to prevent an action of extreme violence by a terrorist network".

In today's statement, the Belgian prosecutor said Abrini, the man seen in CCTV footage with the two suicide bombers at Brussels airport, had been charged with "terrorist murders".

"The investigating judge specialised in terrorism cases has put Mohamed Abrini in detention in connection with the investigation into the Brussels and Zaventem (airport) attacks," the statement said.

"He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders.

Yesterday, the judge leading the Belgian investigation into the Paris carnage laid the same charges against Abrini, who was arrested Friday.

The 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin confessed to being "the man in the hat" who calmly walked away from the devastated departure hall, the prosecutor said Saturday.

He then returned on foot to central Brussels, discarding his hat and coat on the way before disappearing into thin air as the police launched a fresh appeal to the public for help.

Abrini was a long-time petty criminal who grew up with Abdeslam in Belgium's troubled Molenbeek area, home to several other suspects who all share a similar story of getting on the wrong side of the law and becoming radicalised.

The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over their handling of the and the investigation, especially as it has emerged that many of the suspects were known to the police.

Critics say the government has not done enough to prevent extremists targeting Muslim youth in areas such as Molenbeek, with Belgium proportionately the biggest source of foreign fighters going to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris, was seen driving to the French capital with Abrini shortly before the attacks but he apparently balked at the same mission and fled back to Brussels.

Police finally arrested him not far from the family home in Molenbeek after apparently stumbling upon another jihadist safe house in the Forest area of the city.

There has been much recrimination in Belgium about how he and the were able to remain free for so long, with two ministers offering to resign.

Buoyed by Abdeslam's arrest, the police launched an increasing series of raids, mainly in Brussels, resulting in more detentions as they closed the net.

Abdeslam is now awaiting extradition to France.

"That is justice. He who does something must pay the price," Abdeslam's father, who has lived in Belgium for 40 years, told French radio Europe 1 on Tuesday.

"I hope everyone will speak now. We were there, we were happy, we had enough, we went out, had fun but now, we cannot even leave our house," he said.
British Prime Minister has paid almost 76,000 pounds ($107,350) in tax on an income of over 200,000 pounds ($282,500) in 2014-15, figures released by the premier showed.

He earned 46,899 pounds in rent on the London family home, the first such papers released by a British prime minister revealed on Saturday.

The papers showed he inherited 300,000 pounds when his father, Ian Cameron died, and the following year was given two payments of 100,000 pounds by his mother to balance out the legacy.

Cameron announced a new task force to investigate tax-dodging allegations.

Also on Saturday, the prime minister admitted he could have better handled the row over his financial affairs.

The revelations came after a week of questions and successive statements over whether Cameron had owned and sold units in an offshore fund run by his father.

Details of the Blairmore Holdings fund had been contained in a leak of 11 million documents, the 'Panama Papers', belonging to Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

They revealed Ian Cameron had been a client of Mossack Fonseca when establishing the fund for investors.
In business today, data has become a competitive advantage and a necessary component of product development. The influence of data on the process of product development is easily seen in every industry. While in an earlier decade data scarcity forced iteration based on gut feeling or unreliable and often outdated information ("I feel this ad film will work"; "I believe there is a gap in the market this product will fill"), now, organisation of data into insights is helping drive actionable business decisions in real time ("user feedback shows the product needs a tweak"; "reader feedback suggests people find the communication offensive"). That change can manifest in a number of forms depending on what the data is telling you. A brand might jettison a variant; change ad copy, serve different content within an app based on user selections, or change a website interface to inspire more action. Indeed, new research commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by IDC estimates that organisations could realise a "data dividend" of roughly $1.6 trillion in additional revenue, lower costs and improved productivity over the next four years by putting in place a holistic approach to data.

"Customers today are evolved, engaged, informed, digitally savvy and seek more value," says Peter Gartenberg, general manager, enterprise and partner group, Microsoft India. "To keep pace with the growing customer needs, attain the competitive advantage and expand the customer base, businesses are now looking for tools to not just address the market and customer demands, but also to be prepared to lead the way in future. With data being amassed at a rapid rate, it has created the demand for tools that are intuitive and simple for enterprises to be empowered with the ability to derive insights from the data."



Where did it all begin? Rapid digitisation has led to the availability of huge tracts of consumer data within and outside organisations. That apart, the falling cost of data storage and cloud-based solutions are enabling organisations to invest in data gathering and deployment. So businesses are increasingly leveraging business intelligence (BI) to churn out products faster, offer innovation and, above all, take better decisions. "The kind of intelligence businesses have today offer deeper information about consumer likes and dislikes unlike other traditional tools of gathering information such as focused group studies and one-to-one interactions. It is the robust and holistic consumer view offered by business intelligence that feeds into quality product innovation and marketing," says Sudarshan R, commercial marketing head, Dell India.

Since managers have access to real-time data on products, sales and marketing campaigns, they are better placed to take quicker decisions and shift focus midway. For instance, at Dell India, about 50 per cent of decisions on products and services are currently driven by BI. The company uses tools such as R and SAAS and undertakes statistical modelling around consumer behaviour. These tools provide management a reasonable view regarding the acceptability and success of a new launch. "Businesses across categories are increasingly adopting business intelligence tools as it helps them discover and analyse metrics and convert data into actionable information that can be shared and acted on," says Sridhar Iyengar, VP, ManageEngine.

BI has also helped Dell India market its products more effectively. During the launch of XPS laptop, for example, the team debated whether it should follow the Apple approach of putting the product at the flagship stores or it should stick to its standard practice of making the product available first on its website along with its traditional associates. A thorough analysis of potential and targeted customers threw up interesting insights. One, the consumer who will buy an XPS happens to be a The Financial Times reader; two, she prefers brands such as Samsonite and three, her preferred coffee brand is Starbucks. Joining the dots, the team accordingly decided on a marketing plan for promoting XPS.

"Any product innovation is incomplete without taking cognisance of consumer data spread across sales, marketing, customer care, supply chain management and social web data where valuable consumer insights are hidden for organisations to learn from," claims Rohit Verma, chief executive officer, iPredictt Data Labs, a Mumbai-based big data analytics company. In other words, in a digital-led economy and with shorter and shorter product lifecycles, any attempt to ignore new sources of data would spell disaster.

The country's leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki Indian Ltd (MSIL) ascribes a lot of its success to continuous monitoring of data emanating from the consumer. A recent and highly successful product from the carmaker's stable, Ertiga, is a product of such thinking. Sanjeev Handa, vice-president, marketing, MSIL, says, "Our research showed that as a family people wanted to travel efficiently and in luxury. They did not want a bulky product; instead they wished for a compact offering. This feedback came from consumers who already owned one or two vehicles."



Based on this feedback and a wide range of data points, Maruti Suzuki crafted Ertiga which created a segment of its own. Apart from product planning, the company uses consumer analytics extensively to generate leads and improve sales.

Handa says that intelligence helped the company sharpen its focus on selling. He explains that with a recent example - how the marketing team improved sales in Hyderabad. Data collected by the company showed that the business segment, particularly shop-owners in the city, did not favour the brand Maruti. The company executives looked into customer records and the mileage cracked by existing Maruti Suzuki customers. This exercise helped it identify a lot of potential buyers and the company reached out to them through sustained and targeted campaigns. During the campaign period itself, it managed to sell off close to 90 cars.

For its part, fast moving consumer goods company Marico has moved from BI to visual dashboarding with Tableau, on the back of columnar databases and ETL (extract-transform-load) tools. Using a platform-based interface and order management tools helped the company increase its order visibility, which aided fill rates and increased its topline sales. "The granular secondary data available in one consolidated place is also used for better customer analytics. Initial pilots are being done to provide a better assortment mix to our customers, further aiding sales. These pilots have led to higher upselling," points out Mukesh Kripalani, chief, business process transformation and IT, Marico.

Mobile phone maker Gionee uses self-developed BI tool GPulse. Country CEO and MD Arvind Vohra elaborates, "It has a built-in accountability matrix for various tasks (with timelines) to ensure managers get the required analysed information to aid in task completion." Technology company Ideapoke deploys proprietary technology using big data analytics and matching algorithms to crowdsource technology partners across the globe, connect the best solution providers, enabling customers to restructure, improve, evolve and solve their product and service development changes. Says Anup Sahoo, founder, Ideapoke, "BI taps into the collective intelligence by identifying relevant markets, profiling consumer needs and redefining product offerings, thus enhancing value for both consumers and companies."



In sum, transformation and innovation will play a pivotal in the success of any business. And as "always-on" business becomes the new normal, analytics will provide the perfect opportunity for BI to flex its muscle.

Breaking marketing myths

Raj Venkatesan

Marketing can be changed by real-time feedback: Marketing can now be considered a variable rather than a fixed cost. Online platforms provide managers instant feedback from customers about their promotion. Because of this managers can consistently improve their marketing campaigns based on that instant feedback. This is unlike traditional approaches where investments are made upfront in television campaigns that only provide feedback after several weeks or months and too often the feedback is received too late to change the marketing campaign.

Coupons are brand builders: Coupons are commonly used to provide discounts to consumers. Typically the success of coupons was assessed based on counting the amount of coupons that were used. With the arrival of BI managers are able to look at who are reading the coupons and who received the coupons, so they can track the behaviour of both the groups. It turns out that customers who received coupons but did not read them also increased their spending. So coupons are now acting as a form of advertisement in addition to being a discount.



Raj Venkatesan

Professor of business administration, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia
Water company Ion Exchange (India) Ltd, under its flagship brand ZERO B, has launched Kitchen Mate water purifier. This seven-stage reverse osmosis water purifier helps to remove heavy metals, chemical impurities, micro-organisms and other contaminants from the water. Priced at Rs 19,990, Kitchen Mate comes with hydro-pneumatic tank with storage capacity of eight litres, and provides pressurised water at a very high flow rate from the faucet.

Multiple connect



Quantum Hi Tech has introduced its four-port USB hub, QHM 6642, at Rs 250. Aided with LED indicator, the USB Hub is available with piano shiny finish in marble white and dark black and shall be available in leading retail stores and ecommerce portals. The easy-to-use USB hub supports up to 127 devices, and it is also backward compatible to USB 1.0 devices.

Running shoes



Adidas has introduced the Pure BOOST ZG, a running shoe designed for the urban male. The Primeknit upper is designed to provide a dynamic fit by naturally expanding with the foot, as well as reduce irritation while running. The BOOST cushioning keeps the shoe, priced at Rs 11,999, responsive and light. The three colourways featured on the Adidas PureBOOST ZG Prime debuts are black, white and red; black and white; and blue and white.

Smart device



Vivo has launched its new V series of smartphones  V3 and V3Max, priced at Rs 17,980 and Rs 23,980 respectively. V3 Max features a 5.5-inch full HD display with a resolution of 19201080 pixels, and is equipped with a Octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 652 processor and paired with 4GB RAM and 32GB ROM that is expandable up to 128 GB. V3 comes with a five-inch HD display and is powered by Octa-core Snapdragon 616 processor, coupled with 3GB RAM and 16GB ROM.
The Belgian authorities have after the arrest of another Paris attacks suspect, Mohamed Abrini, said that they identified the elusive "man in the hat" spotted alongside two suicide bombers, who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport on March 22.

The Belgian prosecutors in a statement yesterday said that 31-year-old Abrini, the last identified suspect at large from the Paris attacks, confessed to being the vest- and hat-wearing man in the video image.

"After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene," Guardian quoted the statement as saying.

Abrini, was arrested on Friday in a Brussels police raid and was one among the four suspects charged for "participating in terrorist acts" linked to the deadly Brussels suicide bombings that killed at least 32 and left over 250 injuries at the airport and at the city's Maelbeek subway station.

After the bombings, Abrini threw away his vest in a rubbish bin and sold his hat, said the prosecutors' office.

The 'man in the hat' was filmed alongside the two bombers just before the airport attack and was being looked out for by the authorities.

Three other suspects charged were Herve BM, Bilal EM and Osama K whose full name is Osama Krayem.

The prosecutors said that Osama K was identified as the man present at the time of the metro attack.

All four men were charged with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group". However, two other suspects arrested on Friday were released.

Abrini has been in Europe's most wanted list since being identified as one of two suspects seen on CCTV travelling by car to Paris two days before the attacks on the French capital in last November.

He had disappeared before 130 people were killed in coordinated attacks at the national stadium, bars, restaurants and the Bataclan concert hall.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has asserted that restoring long-term peace and stability in the country was among the topmost priorities for him and his CEO Abdullah Abdullah.

"Afghanistan is committed to reforms - we want to show visible gains at the two conferences so our people see change is coming. All Afghans want reform and war against corruption. We have made commitments to our international partners to fight the menace," Tolo news quoted Ghani as saying during a joint press conference with visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday.

Hailing the US military and financial cooperation to Afghan security forces, Ghani said that the United States Government proved its honesty to structure a strong and capable Afghan security force.

Acknowledging the strategic importance of relations between the US and Afghanistan, Ghani said that both Afghans and Americans had made sacrifices in the country while fighting terrorists over the past several years which outlined common goals.

He said that Afghanistan was committed in fighting corruption and bringing about transparency.

Meanwhile, Kerry, who made an unannounced visit on Saturday to Kabul, also highlighted the importance of bilateral relations between both nations.

Praising both Ghani and Abdullah for what he called good leadership, Kerry said, "The two leaders, despite being rivals in the elections, are united for the sake of the people."

Kerry said that he held solid discussions with Ghani and Abdullah on a range of issues relating to the two countries including security, war on terrorism, democracy, good governance, electoral reforms and strengthening the Afghan security forces.

Underlining the challenges faced by the current Afghan Government, he said the political faces and people are determined to cope with the issues.

"National Unity Government (NUG) has taken responsibility for security of Afghan nation. I appreciate the Afghan forces who work hard to maintain security," Kerry said, adding that NUG is moving in the right direction by adopting a reform agenda.

The US Secretary of State once again called on the Taliban hardliners to denounce violence, respect the Constitution and join the peace process.

"I again call on Taliban to join peace process, a process which guarantees equality for all Afghans," he said.

He said the US is committed to train, help and assist the Afghan security forces in their efforts against terrorism.

Talking about the time frame and duration of the political agreement between Ghani and Abdullah, Kerry said there was no time limit for the agreement and added that it could work for a five-year term.

Referring to the agreement he brokered in the wake of the 2014 disputed presidential elections, Kerry said the agreement between Ghani and Abdullah would not expire.

"US respects existence of opposition in democracy. What occurs in the structure of the NUG depends on Afghans including Ghani and Abdullah," he added.

Kerry also stated the United States will go with the decision on troops through 2017 on recommendations of General John W. Nicholson.

Kerry arrived in Kabul to ease tensions over Afghan unity pact.

Two explosions hit the diplomatic zone of the capital, shortly after Kerry left following his meetings with Ghani.
Bollywood veteran actor Anupam Kher on Sunday said that he was visiting Srinagar's Institute of Technology (NIT) to express solidarity and provide moral support to the students.

Kher, who was stopped on his way to the NIT, earlier told ANI that he did not like what happened in the campus.

"I am visiting there at a personal level. It's a symbolic gesture as it is most important to show them solidarity. It's important to give NIT Srinagar students' moral support. I'm going there as a citizen to meet students," Kher told ANI here.

"I am not going to flare-up this issue. I will visit there as a citizen, I don't have any political fan following. I will also try to meet Mehbooba ji. I have not informed anyone, I have no security arrangements, I am going as a passenger," he added.

Tension was simmering in NIT, Srinagar, after India lost the World T20 semi-final to West Indies, where some engineering students from outside the state claimed Kashmiri students had chanted anti-India slogans and burst firecrackers after India lost.

The NIT authorities said the campus has been closed and the students have been asked to vacate the hostel.

To control the situation, officials closed the institute's entrance and did not allow anyone to enter. The police had to be called in after efforts by the NIT officials to control the situation and disperse the crowd failed. The police baton charged the protestors and fired teargas to bring the situation under control.
Bollywood veteran actor Anupam Kher, who was today stopped on way to Srinagar's Institute of Technology (NIT) by the Jammu and Kashmir Police, said that his visit should not be politicised as he was going there not to create problems but to give a sense of warmth to the students.

"If they say this is a law and order situation, I will say that millions of people go to the university, it's an open place. Why should they stop me and as a citizen of this country I should be allowed to go anywhere. I am not going there to create problem. I am just going there to give them a sense of warmth," Kher told ANI in an exclusive conversation.

"Anybody who talks in favour of things they become rhetoric and anybody who talks against the nation becomes news. I think we need to change that. It is always good to go back to Kashmir but today the purpose is different. Today the purpose is to meet the NIT Srinagar students to boost their morale. And as an individual, as an India I want to do that. We are at that time when some individual are saying things like 'desh ki barbaadi' etc. So, it is important to become voice of millions of Indians," he added.

The actor further said that he would also like to meet Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to express his concern over the NIT unrest.

"Sometimes things are symbolic. I believe in doing things rather than talking about it. I will also like to meet Mehbooba Mufti ji," he said.

Kher categorically denied that he has connections with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"I have a very good relationship with Ghulam Nabi Azad ji. I appreciate (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi ji because he is a great leader. I don't want to criticise any government," he said.

Kher had earlier said that he was visiting the NIT to express solidarity and provide moral support to the students.

"I am visiting there at a personal level. It's a symbolic gesture as it is most important to show them solidarity. It's important to give NIT Srinagar students' moral support. I'm going there as a citizen to meet students," Kher told ANI here.

"I am not going to flare-up this issue. I will visit there as a citizen, I don't have any political fan following. I will also try to meet Mehbooba ji. I have not informed anyone, I have no security arrangements, I am going as a passenger," he added.

Asserting that safety of students was her prime concern, Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Smriti Irani had earlier this week said that her ministry officials will ensure that all of their issues are looked into while.

A fact-finding team of the HRD Ministry visited the institute's campus earlier on Wednesday for an on the spot assessment of the situation.

The two-member team comprising a Director level and a Deputy Secretary level officer also spoke to the students to get their version of the events.

Tension simmered at the NIT campus last week after India lost the World T20 semi-final to the West Indies.

Some engineering students from outside the state claimed Kashmiri students had chanted anti-India slogans and burst firecrackers after India's defeat.
Former Taliban commander Faridoon Hanafi, who recently joined the peace process, has said the group takes orders from Pakistan, which mobilizes and equips the militant outfit.

"I have seen with my own eyes that Taliban gets its orders from Pakistan and even Punjabis admired me many times for my hard work and gave me money," Tolo news quoted Hanafi as saying.

Hanafi said he regrets fighting against the Afghan Government for six years.

"When I transferred to Nangarhar I saw that all Pakistan's words are lies and they want to destroy my country and my home and I find out that they are wrong, so I decided to support government programs and I stopped fighting and I joined the peace process," he added.

Hanafi revealed that he has two brothers, both of whom were in the Afghan forces. One of his brothers died while battling Taliban.

He later called on other Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and join the peace process and take part in Afghanistan's reconstruction process.
A new study has found that human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination stimulates robust and sustained immune responses in girls and young women with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and those on dialysis, but less optimal responses to the vaccine were observed among those with a kidney transplant.

The findings suggest that HPV vaccination provides considerable benefits for kidney disease and dialysis patients but may not be as beneficial for kidney transplant recipients.

Thd team led by researchers Delphine Nelson and Jeffrey Fadrowski (Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) conducted a study that included 57 female patients aged 9 to 21 years, of whom 25 had CKD, 9 were on dialysis, and 23 had received a kidney transplant.

The investigators found that study participants with CKD and those on dialysis had antibody levels above the threshold that indicates protection from infection, but a significant proportion of patients with kidney transplants showed evidence of an inadequate antibody response.

"This is important information as it means that patients with a kidney transplant, whom we know are at increased risk of developing cervical cancer from HPV infection, may not be protected from HPV infections from the HPV genotypes included in the vaccine," said Dr. Nelson.

She noted, "The next step is to determine the best way to protect these young women. Some potential interventions include a higher dose of the vaccine, or an additional booster."

The work appears in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN).
Pakistan Army troops and Indian paramilitary Border Security Forces (BSF) exchanged fire along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Neza Pir sector this morning.

The statement provided by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) claimed the Indian troops along the border "resorted to heavy unprovoked firing and shelling" at around 11:40 p.m. on Saturday, reports Dawn.

The statement further said the unprovoked firing continued until about 4:45 a.m., adding the Pakistan Army troops provided a befitting response.

According to the ISPR, no casualties have been reported so far.

Media reports suggest that the cross-border firing between the arch-rivals is the first instance in nearly six months.

Both countries had signed the border ceasefire agreement in 2003 and have frequently accused each other of breaching it.
Will Smith was recently honoured at MTV Movie Awards as he was crowned with the MTV Generation Award.

The awards that took place at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California were hosted by Kevin Hart and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, reports E! Online.

While every prominent flick won something or the other, Charlize Theron bagged the Best Female Performance for 'Mad Max: Fury Road' and Leonardo DiCaprio took home the Best Male Performance trophy for 'The Revenant.'

Who won what, here's the complete list:

MOVIE OF THE YEAR: 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

COMEDIC GENIUS AWARD: Melissa McCarthy

TRUE STORY: 'Straight Outta Compton'

DOCUMENTARY: 'Amy'

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE: Daisy Ridley, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE: Ryan Reynolds, 'Deadpool'

Amazon Prime For Free - Thousands of Movies and Shows Anytime

BEST ACTION PERFORMANCE: Chris Pratt, 'Jurassic World'

BEST HERO: Jennifer Lawrence, 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2'

BEST VILLAIN: Adam Driver, 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'

BEST VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE: Amy Poehler, 'Inside Out'

ENSEMBLE CAST: 'Pitch Perfect 2'

BEST KISS: Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine, 'Pitch Perfect 2'

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At least nine people were arrested by the Chinese authorities in a recent milk powder scandal, which involved selling and production of fake baby formula under 'Similac' and 'Beingmate' brands.

China's Food Safety Commission under the State Council yesterday said that that Shanghai Police had transferred the arrested six to judicial organs for prosecution and was hunting for another suspect, reports Xinhua.

The probe was initiated by the Shanghai Police after it received reports in September.

The police have arrested nine suspects and seized about 1,000 cans of milk powder, over 20,000 empty cans and 65,000 fake

'Similac' trademarks since December 9, 2015 to January 7, 2016.

The fake products had been sold into four provinces, including Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei, according to deputy director of the Shanghai food safety office, Yan Zuqiang.

Food safety standard in the country became a sensitive issue after customers trust in baby formula products eroded following the 2008 case in which six infants died for consuming baby milk tainted by melamine.
With Zika virus reaching epidemic levels throughout South and Central America, southern Mexico and the Caribbean, a team of innovators has taken some old tires and turned them into a potential weapon against the deadly disease.

With Canadian Government funding, the team from Canada and Mexico successfully tested the low cost, environmentally-friendly way of destroying the eggs of the mosquito genus that spreads dengue and likely spreading the Zika virus.

The study, conducted in a remote, urban area of Guatemala, documents a cheap, easy system to reduce virus-carrying Aedesgenus mosquitoes by capturing and destroying its eggs.

The system includes an innovative Canadian-designed trap called an "ovillanta," created from two 50 cm sections of an old car tire, fashioned into a mouth-like shape, with a fluid release valve at the bottom.

Inside the lower tire cavity, a milk-based, non-toxic solution developed at Sudbury's Laurentian University lures mosquitoes. Inserted to float in the artificial pond is a wooden or paper strip on which the female insect lays her eggs. The strip is removed twice weekly, analyzed for monitoring purposes, and the eggs destroyed using fire or ethanol.

The solution, which now includes mosquito pheromone, the female insect's chemical perfume that helps others identify a safe breeding site, is then drained, filtered and recycled back into the tire. The pheromone concentrates over time, making the ovillanta even more attractive for mosquitoes.

Researchers found the rubber ovillanta significantly more effective at attracting the Aedes mosquito than standard traps made from 1-litre buckets.

During the 10-month study, the team collected and destroyed over 18,100 Aedes eggs per month using 84 ovillantas in seven neighbourhoods of the town of Sayaxche (population 15,000), almost seven times the roughly 2,700 eggs collected monthly using 84 standard traps in the same study areas.

Targeting mosquito eggs using the ovillanta, researcher Gerardo Ulibarri of Laurentian University says, is one third as expensive as trying to destroy larvae in natural ponds and only 20 percent the cost of targeting adult insects with pesticides, which also harm bats, dragonflies and the mosquitoes' other natural predators.

Canada's Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau said, "Innovation is a key driver underlying the Government of Canada's approach to international development. Innovative solutions that deliver improved global outcomes, such as for the fight against the Zika virus, are needed."

The results appear in the journal F1000Research.
Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in Poonch Sector in Jammu and Kashmir around early Sunday morning.

They fired mortar fire and automatics from around 4.30 p.m., which was responded "appropriately" by the India troops, said a statement issued by Defence PRO here.

However, no casualty or damage was reported, added the PRO.
Expressing his grief over the killing of 83 people and over 350 injured in the Puttingal temple fire in Kerala's Kollam district on Sunday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the incident is heart-rending and shocking beyond words, while announcing ex-gratia relief of Rs. 2 lakh to next of the kin of the victims and Rs 50,000 to critically injured.

"My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured. I will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the unfortunate fire tragedy in Kollam," he tweeted.

The Prime Minister also spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy to take stock of the situation arose of the temple fire. "Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter," he said in a tweet.

"The Prime Minister has announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh to next of kin to the victims and Rs 50,000 to critically injured. He will be leaving for Kerala shortly, where he will meet Chief Minister Chandy and injured people," a government spokesperson told ANI.

In the meantime, Prime Minister Modi directed Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda to rush to the scene. "Have also asked my Cabinet colleague & Health Minister @JPNadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam."

Stating the news of major fire at Puttingal temple is deeply distressing, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh added that he was extremely pained over the loss of lives.

"The news of major fire at Puttingal temple in Kollam is deeply distressing. Extremely pained over the loss of lives in the accident," he tweeted.

"My heartfelt condolences to the families of those who died in Kollam accident. My prayers are with the injured. Spoke to Kerala CM Sh.Chandy regarding the Kollam accident who apprised me of the situation.Assured him of all possible help from the Centre," tweeted Rajnath.

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah has cancelled all his public programmes scheduled in Kerala on Sunday. He will now be visiting Kollam later in the day.
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton on Sunday paid tribute to the victims of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks at the memorial at the Taj Palace Hotel here.

The royal couple arrived here on a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan, aimed at building strong bonds with the two countries.

The couple, who are on their first visit to India, will take off for Delhi on Monday.

In Delhi, they are scheduled to lay a wreath at India Gate and visit Gandhi Smriti.

Prime Minister will be hosting a lunch for the Duke and Duchess on April 12. "As you would recall, during our Prime Minister's visit to U.K. in November last year, the Queen had hosted a lunch in his honour at Buckingham Palace," said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup in a media briefing on Thursday.

After their stay in Delhi, the Duke and Duchess are scheduled to visit the Kaziranga Park before they proceed to their visit to Bhutan.

They will be back in India to visit the Taj Mahal and will depart for the U.K. from New Delhi.

"The forthcoming visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge is reflective of the continued high level engagement between India and the U.K., and demonstrates the accelerated momentum of the relationship after Prime Minister's very successful visit to United Kingdom in November 2015," Swarup added.
Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday dubbed the massive fire at the Puttingal temple in Kerala that killed over 100 people as tragic and assured all assistance to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy in this hour of crisis.

"This is a big tragedy. I spoke to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as soon as I received information about Kollam tragedy and took stock of the situation. I also assured him of all necessary assistance from the Centre. All necessary directions were issued keeping in view his request for two choppers," Singh told ANI here.

The Home Minister said that he gave all necessary instructions to Disaster Response Force (NDRF) Director General, O. P. Singh as soon as he received the news.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has convened an urgent meeting of his Cabinet at 3 p.m. in Kollam.

Meanwhile, the Indian Navy has also joined the rescue operation, dispatching one Dornier, two Advanced Light Helicopters (ALHs) and medical teams from Garuda Naval Air station near Kochi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs. two lakh to next of the kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those critically injured in the incident.

The Prime Minister, who will land directly here with a team of burn specialist doctors, instructed that no official welcome protocols should be followed on his arrival here.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will also be visiting Kollam this afternoon to meet the victims.
Abu Dhabi, April 10 (IANS/WAM) The Abu Dhabi Police Traffic and Patrols Directorate issued more than 100,000 'dangerous offence' tickets to motorists during the first quarter of 2016.

Khalifa Mohamed Al Khaiaili, acting deputy director of the directorate, said: "Exceeding maximum speed limits by more than 60 km per hour was one of the most frequently issued 'dangerous offence' tickets during the period, accounting for 14 percent of total offences, using mobile phones (up to 10 percent); failure to fasten seat belts (up to 18 percent); and the use of faulty worn-out tires (up to 8 percent)."

He also noted that the statistics included 78 tickets for racing on the streets, 3,616 for overtaking on the hard shoulder of the road, and 1,495 for sudden swerving.

Al Khaiaili highlighted the directorate's commitment to pursuing its efforts aimed at reducing offences that result in serious traffic accidents, as part of the efforts to make the emirate's roads safer, and reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries.

--IANS/WAM

ksk/vt
Eleven people were killed in a road accident in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam district on Sunday when a car hit a two-wheeler and then collided with a truck coming from opposite direction, police said.

The accident occurred on Chennai-Kolkata (national highway 16) highway near Kagita in Nakkapalli mandal.

The driver of the car, going from Visakhapatnam to Tuni, lost control apparently after a tyre got burst and the vehicle ran over the two-wheeler and hit the divider before crashing on the other side of the road and colliding with a truck coming from the opposite site.

Nine people travelling in the car were killed as well as both the people on the two-wheeler. The dead include three children and four women.

Such was the impact of the collision that car and the motorbike were badly mangled while the pieces of human flesh were seen strewn around.

The accident hit the traffic out of gear on the national highway.

Police said they were trying to identify the victims.

Deputy Chief Minister N. Chinnarajappa expressed shock over the tragedy. He directed officials to provide all possible help to the families of the victims.
At least 110 devotees were killed and over 350 injured when an illegal fireworks show set off massive explosions and caused a huge blaze in a Hindu temple in Kerala before dawn on Sunday in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi said was a "dreadful tragedy".

Many of those warded in hospitals were in critical condition. Modi, who visited the disaster-hit Puttingal Devi temple in Peravur town here, suggested that they could be flown to Mumbai or New Delhi for treatment.

Only two of the dead were women, police sources told IANS.

"The tragedy is unimaginable and dreadful," a sombre Modi said in Thiruvananthapuram just before taking a flight to Delhi. He announced Rs.2 lakh as compensation to families of each of the dead.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh to families of the dead, Rs.2 lakh each to the seriously injured and Rs.50,000 to those with minor injuries.

He also ordered a judicial probe and a simultaneous investigation by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police to determine how the fireworks show ended up raining death.

Dazed survivors said the disaster happened when stacks of explosives stored in a building a little away from the 100-year-old temple exploded, apparently after a spark from a firecracker landed on its roof.

The incident occurred just after 3 a.m. amid a dazzling and deafening fireworks display even after the local authorities had declined permission for it. The celebrations had begun the previous night.

K. Jayakumar, a travel agent, explained how the disaster struck.

"A fireball engulfed the entire area right before my eyes," he told the media. "A concrete slab came flying my way and hit the person sitting next to me. He died on the spot."

The impact of the explosion brought down the building where the crackers had been stored, trapping many.

Chunks of concrete flew at great speed, killing unsuspecting devotees who had gathered in thousands.

Lallu S. Pillai, a journalist who was on the terrace of a nearby house, told IANS that many died within minutes.

Once the building came crashing down, "we felt the place shake", he said. "After that it was absolute chaos."

Other devotees said people, frightened by the explosions, started to run, at times tripping over one another.

Several houses in a half-kilometre radius were damaged.

Prakashan, who lives near the temple, said he had been complaining for years against the fireworks display but was ignored.

Temple officials fled the spot after the tragedy. IANS tried to reach some of them on their mobile phones but they were switched off.

Police arrested five men linked to a father-and-son contractor pair who were responsible for the fireworks show.

The father himself was in a serious condition in a hospital while the son had suffered 50 percent burn injuries.

For hours after the tragedy, charred bodies and human remains lay scattered in the temple complex. Authorities then began clearing the heaps of debris.

Amid the election fever in Kerala, Chief Minister Chandy held an emergency cabinet meeting in Kollam. He said the incident "should open the eyes of all of us" vis-a-vis temple celebrations.

He said the government would bear the expenses of the injured.

Spiritual guru Mata Amritanandamayi Devi called for a ban on the use of firecrackers in temples or at least their minimum use, that too under careful supervision.

At the Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram, about 60 km away, 124 people were admitted, mostly with broken bones in their hands and legs. A few had burn injuries, indicating fire was not the only cause of death.

Within hours, the army, air force and the navy joined in rescue operations and to provide medical treatment. Ships sailed from Kochi while helicopters flew in from Tamil Nadu as well.

Making a brief statement at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, Modi said he was deeply grieved. "We stand by Kerala's grief and we will do everything we can to bring down the misery."

After spending about 10 minutes walking around the temple complex, Modi and Chandy drove to the Kollam district hospital where 185 of the injured are undergoing treatment.

All political parties on Sunday cancelled their election meetings as a mark of respect for the dead.
Sixty-one more political prisoners including activists and students facing trials were released after their cases were withdrawn, official sources said on Sunday.

The latest release brought the total of political prisoners freed to 199 including 36 women, Xinhua news agency reported.

They were released from prisons in Bago, Magway, Yangon, Mandalay regions on Saturday night.

The authorities' move was made in response to State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi' efforts to free political prisoners on the occasion of the upcoming Myanmar new year falling on next week.

The release is the first after the new government took office on March 30.

More releases are expected in the following days despite holidays ahead of Myanmar water festival which is to start on Tuesday.
The Congress' Gyan Singh Sohanpal is the oldest candidate in the West Bengal assembly polls, seeking his 11th term as a legislator at the ripe age of 91.

Fondly called "Chacha ji" (uncle) by one and all, Sohanpal is contesting from Kharagpur Sadar constituency in West Midnapore district, which has been sending him to the assembly since 1982.

He served as a West Bengal minister and briefly as the assembly speaker in the past.

Sohanpal's family belonged to Punjab but migrated to Bengal in early 1900s. He joined the Congress party during the Quit India movement for the overthrow of British rule in the country.

He won his first election in 1969 in independent India.

Since then, Sohanpal has kept the Congress flag high in all electoral contests, except in 1977 when the Left Front swept to power in the state.

This time he is pitted against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh and the ruling Trinamool Congress' Ramaprasad Tiwari, but has the backing of the Left Front which has an electoral understanding with the Congress in West Bengal.

The tie-up is a democratic necessity, says Sohanpal, once a fierce opponent of the Marxists.

" is about people and this tie-up is their demand and need. It is a necessity -- to oust the Trinamool," he says.

Sohanpal is proud of his amazing capacity for fighting elections and is hopeful of yet another win, hopefully the 11th.

"I have full faith in the people of Kharagpur; they will never let down Congress," he says.

To those who say he is no match to his rivals' physically exhausting campaigning in hot sun, Sohanpal retorts: "I am proud to be 91 years old and far more active than they are."

But Dilip Ghosh insists, the youth should now take over.

"It's not the age for him to work. The people of Kharagpur have already declared it's time for him to rest. I too want him to rest and bless me and let the youth lead the country," said Ghosh during one of his road shows in the constituency.

A high-decibel address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a massive road show by Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have raised the temperatures in the Kharagpur Sadar constituency, which votes on Monday.
The original plan of the Brussels attackers was to strike in France again, but they decided in a hurry to launch attacks in the Belgian capital, the Belgian prosecutor said on Sunday.

"According to several elements of the investigation, the goal of the terrorist group was to strike France and it's taken aback because the investigation strode, so they finally decided in the emergency to hit Brussels," Xinhua quoted the prosecutor as saying in a statement.

Mohamed Abrini, who was arrested in the Belgian capital on Friday in relation with the Brussels and Paris attacks, made these statements to investigators.

"The instruction judge specialised in terrorism has placed Mohamed Abrini under arrest in the file relating to the Brussels attacks," said the prosecutor.

Abrini is one of six men arrested on Friday. Four others have been charged with terror offences.

He is charged with participating in "a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murder", the statement said.

Abrini confessed to being "the man in the hat", the third member of the group that attacked the Brussels airport on March 22, the prosecutor confirmed on Saturday.

At least 130 people were killed and over 250 injured in the Paris attacks on November 13, 2015, while 34 people were killed in the attacks in Brussels on March 22.

The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility of both the attacks.
Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who beat world No.1 shuttler Chen Long of China to bag his 11th Malaysia Open title here on Sunday, is looking ahead to winning his first ever Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The 33-year-old had some tough time recently, after being eliminated from the All England Open and India Open in the first and second rounds, respectively, reports Xinhua.

Back home, the Malaysian fans gave their unwavering support to the two-time Olympic runner-up, who missed the last Malaysia Open due to a doping ban.

"Last two tournaments I was not playing well, somebody said Chong Wei was old and should retire," he said, "That's common, as an athlete I have to accept what people say.

"I would like to thank for the support and the trust from media and fans, this is one of my motivation to prepare for the Olympics in the next five months," he told a press conference.

"No matter how much the difficulties, this is the five months. I will try my best for the Olympics that I have waited for four years."

Chong Wei said he had promised to play until the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Malaysia next year, so this might be his last performance at the Malaysia Open.

He defeated Chen 21-13 and 21-8 in 42 minutes, extending his winning streak against the Chinese two-time reigning world champion to three games.

"I didn't expect a victory against Chen Long in two straight sets, and the second set I was leading by a wide margin," Chong Wei said after the match.

"Winning the first set gave me confidence which help me to forget the tiredness, so I can keep on attacking."

Despite losing the final on Sunday, Chen expressed his admiration toward Lee. "Keeping such a good form at this age would be a dream of every young players," he said.

Chen as well as Lin Dan, who defeated the Malaysian in the past two Olympic men's singles finals, will be the biggest opponents in Chong Wei's pursuit of the Olympic gold metal.

Both 27-year-old Chen and 32-year-old Lin have showed unstable forms recently, but Lee said he believed the Chinese shuttlers must have their own strategies.

"What's important is that I have my own strategy and be the best of myself," he said.
Dubbing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the head of "syndicate", the Congress on Sunday said that was the prime reason she could not take action against party leaders and MPs accused of indulging in corruption.

The Trinamool Congress hit back, wondering whether the words of Congress leaders carry any weight after they have sold their flags to those (read the CPI-M) who accused then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of accepting kickbacks in the Bofors gun deal.

Addressing the media, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam was a reality, and a minister belonging to the Trinamool has landed in jail.

Refering to the purported sting operation by the Narada News portal, Sharma said: "Their MPs have been seen... They have been caught on camera.

"But Mamata has taken no action against that. That's because she is the head of the syndicate. How can she then take action against her corrupt ministers and members of parliament?" he asked.

Sharma also dismissed as a "joke" and an "insult to the people" the Trinamool Congress's announcement that it would hold an internal inquiry on the Narada sting issue.

"The offer of having an internal probe is an insult to the wisdom of the voters of Bengal. It is a joke perpetrated on the people."

He also rejected the Trinamool's assertion that the probe will also look into the role of people like senior Congress leader Ahmad Patel.

"It is an accusation. It is without any substance. And I reject it with contempt that it deserves. They are in the dock. They have been caught on the camera," Sharma said.

Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said: "The so-called syndicate head Mamata Banerjee lives in a 6-feet by 6-feet room. What is the use of saying all these?"

He ridiculed the Congress for forging an alliance with the CPI-M led Left Front.

"They have sold their (Congress) flag to those who accused Rajiv Gandhi of having accepted kickbacks from Bofors. They have formed an alliance with those who called Indira Gandhi a witch. Do their words carry any weight?" Chatterjee wondered.
Eight Bangladesh-trained extremists surrendered to the BSF with foreign-made arms and ammunition on Sunday, an official said.

"Eight dreaded militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) fled their Bangladeshi hideout and crossed over to Tripura before surrendering to the BSF in the presence of Tripura Police on Sunday at a border out post in northern Tripura's Sewarampar," Border Security Force deputy commandant Lakshya Mehta said.

The guerrillas deposited sophisticated arms including one self-loading rifle and an AK-series rifle, six loaded magazines, three China-made grenades and a large cache of ammunition and sharp weapons.

The BSF official said the NLFT was currently facing scarcity of funds and the condition of lower rank cadres was miserable.

"The frequent joint operations by the Bangladesh Army and Border Guard Bangladesh in Rangamati and Khagrachari districts (in mountainous southeastern Bangladesh) are also creating a huge problem for the outfit for hiding and free movement," Mehta said.

He said the surrender was a big jolt for the NLFT especially at a time when the outfit is plagued by weak finances, disillusioned cadres and frequent rifts.

The surrendered rebels are being interrogated by police and intelligence officials here.

Members of NLFT and All Tripura Tiger Force (ATTF) undergo arms training in hideouts and covert camps in various parts of Bangladesh, which shares an 856-km border with Tripura.

Both outfits, banned in 1997 by the union home ministry, have been advocating secession of Tripura from India. But as most ATTF cadres have surrendered, the group is almost non-existent now.

Officials of Tripura and the union home ministry held two rounds of talks last year with the NLFT after the rebel group expressed willingness to hold peace talks.
Three people were injured when an explosion hit an overpass of a metro bus stop in Istanbul's Mecidiyekoy neighbourhood on Saturday night.

The blast was caused by a nylon bag left on the overpass, the Haberturk daily said. The Cumhuriyet daily said the cause was a stun grenade.

Police evacuated shopping malls nearby over the possibility of a second explosion, with special teams securing the area, Xinhua quoted the Haberturk as saying.

The police have launched a large-scale investigation, joined by anti-terror and crime scene investigation teams, the reports said.

The explosion came as Istanbul has been on edge over more possible terror attacks, since the metropolis and Ankara, the national capital, have come under six deadly attacks over the past eight months, with the last one hitting Istanbul on March 19 and killing four foreign tourists.

Israel and the US have issued alerts over the past two days about the risk of fresh terror attacks in Turkey, with the US Embassy in Ankara warning of threats to tourist sites in Istanbul and Antalya, a coastal city in the southwest.

Police in Istanbul have been on high alert following the US warning on Saturday, Turkish media said, as the city is scheduled to host the 13th summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation later this week.
It's a common trend that where social, political and religious systems fail, the judiciary steps in - as in the case of the entry of women to the Shani Shingnapur temple.

A centuries-old bastion of the patriarchal social construct was smashed to smithereens. The women activists from the Bhumata Brigade, led by Trupti Desai, were successful in entering the sanctum sanctorum of the Shani temple. Trupti hailed the decision of Shani Shingnapur temple trustees to open the gates of the sacred chabutra (platform) for men and women devotees, and said it was a prudent step on their part.

"Der aayad, durust aayad!" said a spirited Trupti and hoped the trustees at the Trimbakeshwar and Mahalaxmi temples in Nashik and Kolhapur too would follow suit to treat women devotees at par with men.

One would congratulate Trupti for her stoic resistance as it was after her activism that TV debates were generated and many storms raised in teacups besides the national print media highlighting the issue.

Priyanka Jagtap, another member of the Bhumata Brigade, celebrated the court's observation at the temple premises by distributing sweets. "It's a big victory for all the womenfolk of Maharashtra and the country. It is an occasion to celebrate," she said.

The main question that needs to be asked is whether this outburst of activism against ritualistic practices in Hindu temples is a legitimate effort to break the almost 400-year-old tradition.

What's unfortunate is that most religions talk about gender equality, but it is either totally defunct or reduced to lip-service as totem. The question is whether it is the followers of Hinduism or Islam or any other religion,who vie with one another to deprive their women of equal rights.

The aim of these lines is to convey a message to the custodians of women's rights - the men - to remind them of the cultural traditions that are mired in gender discrimination. In this context, whether it is Shani Shingnapur, Haji Ali Baba or Kerala's Sabarimala temple, all these famed religious places have banned the entry of women.

Politically, the BJP has been accused of vitiating the atmosphere in Sabarimala. However, it would be preposterous to suggest that all villagers in this temple town are BJP or right-wing activists. According to social commentator Sreemoy Talukdar, the patriarchal mores lie so deep that even women (and probably more so) were the first ones to take umbrage of the 'breach' which they fear will bring calamity on their families.

Talukdar feels that Kerala's Sabarimala temple authorities have stuck to their stand - in the face of legal scrutiny from the Supreme Court of banning all women between the ages of 10 and 50 from entering temple precincts citing ritualistic practices and traditions.

They claim Lord Ayyappa, who attracts more than 50 million devotees each year, is a sworn celibate. They do not want the apex court to interfere in religious practices.

In Mumbai's Dargah Haji Ali Baba, it is really something totally inexplicable that women are not allowed to enter the sanctum sanctorum in spite of the fact that Islam has granted equal rights to woman. During the days of Prophet Mohammed (PBUH), Muslim women used to go to the mosque to pray. However, after him, some myopic and orthodox Muslims asked women to stay at home.

Nevertheless, the larger question is about the general exploitation of women by men from all religions.

They are not given their rights and, at the slightest provocation, are maltreated, beaten, divorced and even murdered.

Trupti's campaign - that of challenging the patriarchal hegemony over religion, its practices and ending stigmas against women - would only materialize truly if the activism continues.

(Firoz Bakht Ahmed is a grandnephew of Maulana Azad and a commentator on social and cultural issues. The views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at firozbakhtahmed08@gmail.com)
A former village head has been booked on charges of threatening Dalits in Bamheta locality in Ghaziabad, a senior police officer said on Sunday.

The Dalits lodged a first information report after they were allegedly threatened by the accused along with his accomplices to pressurise a Dalit family to withdraw a rape case against two boys of a particular community.

Police had arrested Pushpendra alias Babloo and Amit alias Rencho on charge of raping a minor girl on March 29. Amit was charged with helping the other accused commit the crime.

The girl set herself afire following the incident and succumbed to her burn injuries in Safdarjung hospital in Delhi on April 6, 2016.

"On April 8, former village head Leele Pradhan barged into our house when a dozen-odd people from neighbouring Dalit families had come to offer condolences. Leele thrashed Gopal, a younger brother of the girl's father Balbir Singh.

"He warned that all Dalit families will be eliminated if the case filed against the two boys was not withdrawn," said Bhim Sen Gautam, a nephew of Gopal.

The families lodged a complaint at the Kavi Nagar police station and although station house officer Ashok Sishodia assured of action, the Dalits said, no action was taken.

Leele again threatened the Dalits of dire consequences if compromise was not reached with the rape accused, he said.

Gautam said that despite Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Yadav's assurance, no police action was forthcoming.

"The community members are living in fear. We will have no option but to convert to Christianity or Islam to survive in Bamheta locality," Gautam said.

SP City Salman Taj Patil said: "An FIR has been filed against Leele under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code as well as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. Arrest in the case is yet to made. The situation in the locality is normal."
After decades of concern, the outlook of foreign entities over India's intellectual property rights regime (IPR) is beginning to turn positive, thanks to a realisation in the country that innovation will be meaningless without legal protection for creativity, say experts.

"One of the most powerful things being done in 50 years is on intellectual property rights. The new policy (under consideration) talks about encouraging innovation. We have seen in the last two years huge changes in our approach in this area," said Pravin Anand of law firm Anand and Anand.

Modernisation efforts at patent offices, amendment of rules to streamline procedures, recruitment of a large number of examiners to handle the volumes of patent applications and efforts to reduce backlog are positive changes in this domain, he said.

"If this kind of a policy continues at the same momentum at which it is proceeding, then it will hugely change the perspective of Western investors. If foreign players are assured that they are safe here, then who wouldn't want such a fantastic market (like India)?" Anand queried to IANS.

Corroborating this, Andrew Bradshaw, director, Asian Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, said Western countries feel there has been a lot of difference in India's intellectual property rights protection after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive for a better regime.

"Since Modi took charge there is a lot of difference. I think it is a refreshing change. In the West, we can see that," Bradshaw, who is also global head brand protection, Superdry, told IANS.

He said law enforcement was equally important as India steps up the regime.

India's ranking globally on intellectual property has also not been encouraging.

According to the International Property Rights Index, published by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation's Property Rights Alliance, India was ranked 62nd globally in 2015. India's score in 2015 was 5.2 -- lower than its score of 5.5 in 2014.

The report analysed the regimes of 129 nations, both on the legal and political environments.

Regarding enforcement, Anand said it was important to ensure that strong laws that the country has on protection of piracy and counterfeiting should be taken to their logical conclusion by way of implementation.

"All bottlenecks must be removed. Conviction rates must go up if people are counterfeiting. Also, statutory damages should be introduced and granted by all courts. Currently it is the Delhi High Court that grants damages. It should be in every district court," Anand said.

"Making laws is not sufficient unless customers are educated by way of policy and advocacy. We must have shelter of law first. Then policy document must be in place. Government support via dedicated enforcement agencies is also needed," Pulin Kumar, legal expert at Adidas group, told IANS.

On the low patent filings in the country, Anand said: "The government must send a message to all business houses that their chief executives should have a budget for filing patents and should make simple targets for patent filing."

He added: "If that happens then the abysmally low filing, which is around 45,000 applications for the whole country in a year, would increase dramatically."

China files around one million patent applications per year.

Echoing the same concern, Bradshaw said: "Education is very important, especially for newcomers in the business. Educate these new brands so that they protect their intellectual property from the beginning through trademarks and copyrights, designs and patents."

(Aparajita Gupta can be reached at aparajita.g@ians.in)
Night life in Namphalong and Tamu towns in neighbouring Myanmar near the international border has undergone a sea change following commencement of power supply by India.

There was so far no power supply in these important commercial towns, which have traditionally been conduits for consumer items from China and other South and Southeast Asian countries.

Things changed from Friday when the Manipur government started supplying 3MW of power up to Tamu, just across the border from Moreh.

A Manipur government official told IANS that power supply will remain uninterrupted during night. However, there is heavy demand for power during the day time also as it is a hot region.

Manipur's border town Moreh in Chandel district has so far been without reliable power supply. In fact, there is no night life in the absence of assured power. However, there used to be three bars at Namphalong market just across the international gate where visitors from India could hang around till midnight.

One could guzzle canned beer and dance to western music. As there was no power supply in these two commercial towns, people and shopkeepers had to depend on power generators and solar lamps.

Moreh, Tamu and Namphalong markets display a high range of solar lamps and power generators. Residents of the north-eastern region, who have to contend with dark nights, buy these items like hot cakes.

Teenaged Mary Chang runs a family shop at Namphalong. One of the items the shop stocks is bottled foreign made liquor and beer in cans. She depends on power generators for chilling beer cans and other edible items.

mary told IANS: "Now that there is assured power supply, it will be convenient to run the business as I am told that I will get a power connection."

But other shop keepers and traders may not be as lucky as her.

In Myanmar, power connections and other government facilities are not given on mere asking for them and permission has to be secured from higher authorities. Though Namphalong has over 500 shops, hotels, kiosks and restaurants, only a few of them will get power connections, if at all.

About 30 years ago, Tamu -- about 20 km from the international gate -- was a nondescript, ramshackle village market with old and battered wooden shops.

People from Manipur had to trek the mountain bridle path and wade through a river during the lean season to reach Tamu since there was no road or bridge. However, a few years ago, it was transformed into a modern marketing complex the like of which is seen in advanced countries.

But it had so far been without power supply.

Chi and Suu -- two sisters who do not speak Hindi or English or Manipuri or any tribal dialect -- have been running a popular restaurant near Tamu.

In view of the language barrier, Indian visitors had to point to food items to order or for extra helpings. Since Indian Rs.10 equals to 100 Myanmarese Kyat, bills are always in figures running into thousands.

Using a Manipuri, who speaks chaste Myanmarese, as interpreter, Suu said the visitors had to be satisfied with generator-powered fans and most of the food items spoiled by night fall as there was no refrigerator. But now with power being supplied from India, shopkeepers like her stand to gain much.

An official said the power is being supplied in accordance with the commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Myanmar.

Manipur itself has been facing power shortage. The only source of power is the NHPC-run Loktak hydroelectric project which generates about 65 MW although the full capacity is 105 MW.

Out of that, Manipur gets a negligible share of power since other north-eastern states to have to be given a due share.

Accordingly, Manipur has been buying power from various sources to meet its own requirements.

Lukhoi, a resident of Moreh told IANS that there has been a slight improvement in the power supply -- which used to suffer numerous outages -- following the introduction of pre-paid meter system in Manipur.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh has said Tehran mulls joining in India, the country's Petro-Energy Information Network, SHANA reported on Sunday.

"Indian companies are skilled in petroleum engineering and meet standards in their work. Iranian companies may take this opportunity to boost their cooperation with their Indian partners," Xinhua quoted Zangeneh as saying.

Iran is in need of petroleum industry machinery and equipment, he said, adding that the Indian and Iranian companies can join hands to build the equipment for domestic use or to export them to the regional markets.

"There is a good market in the Central Asia and in the Persian Gulf region for the export of these kinds of equipment," he said.

Further, Iran has to take some measures to enhance its crude exports to India by attending in the country's refinery projects, said Zangeneh in an address to Iran-India business conference at Tehran Chamber of Commerce on Saturday, according to the report.

He expressed the hope that the grounds for long-term cooperation between Tehran and New Delhi in energy projects will be provided in the near future.
Iran on Sunday dismissed as "baseless" US Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks on Iran's alleged support of terrorism.

"These remarks are so baseless that nobody in the world takes heed of them," Xinhua quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as saying in a joint press conference with visiting Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand.

"The danger of terrorism and extremism, as the main risk threatening the region, is the result of the US occupation of and presence in Iraq over the past years," Zarif said.

Unfortunately, some regional states, which only think about their short-term interests, are also spreading the risk of extremism and the Islamic State (IS) in the region, he said, rejecting US allegations that Iran is destabilising the Middle East.

On Thursday, Kerry said in Bahrain that Iran should stop its destabilising behaviour in the Middle East and work with its neighbours to end the crises in Yemen and Syria.
Iran will never negotiate over its missile programme as it is a matter of national defence, the country's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said here on Sunday.

The minister told a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand that the US knows the missile issue and defence capabilities of the Islamic republic are not open to negotiations, Xinhua reported.

If the US is serious about the arms, it is better to reconsider the sales of the weapons to some countries which use them against the Yemenis and the Palestinians, he said.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US was open to a "new arrangement" with Iran for resolving the issues pertaining to the country's missile programme.

Also, a senior Iranian military official dismissed on Friday the remarks of the top US diplomat on Iran's missile programme as "impudent".

Iran's Deputy Joint Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, called on the country's foreign ministry to respond "firmly" to Kerry's calls for missile talks with Tehran.

"The missile power is non-negotiable, and for developing its defence capabilities Iran does not get permission from anybody," Jazayeri said.

The White House is critical of Iran's missile programme and deems it a threat to regional and world peace.

However, the Islamic republic said its missile programme is for peaceful purposes and no measure can strip the Islamic republic of its legitimate and legal rights to boost its defensive capabilities and to safeguard national security.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on Tuesday leave on a 10-day US visit to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, followed by an address at a UN session on the drugs problem, as well as an interaction with American investors.

Briefing reporters about the finance minister's US visit, an official source here said that during his stay in Washington, Jaitley is also likely to meet US administration officials.

The Spring Meetings will also be attended by Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian.

Jaitley will arrive in New York on April 17 for the second leg of his US tour, where he will address a Special Session of the UN on the World Drug Problem on April 19.

Later, Jaitley will hold meetings with the American business community and investors, the source added.

The IMF's historic quota and governance reforms, that for the first time place four emerging market countries -- Brazil, China, India, and Russia -- among its 10 largest members, came into effect in January this year after these were approved by the US Congress in 2015.

They had been approved by the IMF's Board of Governors in December 2010.

The reforms, pending for long, also increase the financial strength of the IMF, by doubling its permanent capital resources to SDR 477 billion (about $659 billion) from about SDR 238.5 billion (about $329 billion).

Other top 10 members of the 188-nation agency include the US, Japan, and four big European countries -- France, Germany, Italy and Britain.

The reforms represent a major step toward better reflecting in the institution's governance structure the increasing role of dynamic emerging market and developing countries, the IMF has said.

Currently, India has voting rights of 2.34 percent. In terms of quota, the country has a share of 2.44 percent.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday ridiculed the Congress, saying it was only looking for piggyback rides on alliances to stay in existence.

In the city to campaign for the West Bengal assembly polls, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader ruled out as a contender, the party which has tied-up with the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front.

"So far as Congress is concnerned, nothing can be expected from them. Both their and policies are opportunistic. Battling for existence, they are looking for piggyback rides. In search of a few seats, they aligned with JD-U and RJD in Bihar, in Tamil Nadu with the DMK and in Bengal with the Left Front," he said.

Jaitley even said the Congress's ambitions have dipped so low that they are content being the "tail-enders".

"In its battle for survival, Congress is content playing the second or the third fiddle. The level of its own aspirations have come down, its level of ambitions is so low that it doesn't mind becoming the tail-ender of an alliance. Be it Bihar, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, it is the tail-ender of the alliance," he said.

"Without any political or ideological stand, the Congress will never be a serious player," he said.

Charging the Left Front with "destroying Bengal" and accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress of belying the people's expectations, Jaitley batted for his party to usher in development in the state.
Karnataka plans to send a 10-member medical team to treat victims of the temple fireworks tragedy near Kollam in Kerala, Health Minister U.T. Khader said on Sunday.

"We are awaiting clearance from the Kerala government to send the team of specialist doctors and paramedics," Khader told IANS here.

An illegal fireworks show at a temple dedicated to Puttingal Devi at Peravur in Kollam early on Sunday set off a huge fire, leaving at least 110 people dead and over 350 injured, many critically.

As the news of tragedy reached here, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah directed Khader to send the medical team to Kerala.

"We have also kept aside medicines and blood to send with the medical team to Thiruvananthapuram, the nearest point (60km) to Kollam on the west coast," Khader said. He also spoke to his Kerala counterpart on the issue.
Kenya is fast tracking the development of disease free zones in order to boost livestock exports, an official said on Sunday.

Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries Principal Secretary Dr Andrew Tuimur told Xinhua in Nairobi that two disease free zones will be operational by the end of the year.

"They will enable the country to quarantine animals and test before being exported," Tuimur said. Currently Kenya exports livestock products to the Middle East, Mauritius and Seychelles.

The EU banned Kenyan beef products due to the high prevalence of livestock diseases such as Food and Mouth Disease and the Contagious Bovine Plueropnemonia.

"We hope to regain the EU market in 2017 after implementing measures to curb livestock diseases," Tuimur said.

He said that Kenya is also working closing with its neighboring countries such as Uganda, Tanzania in order to control the animal diseases.

"Most of the livestock diseases are trans boundary in nature, so we need regional collaboration due to the movement of livestock across the countries," he said.

"We are also working with international donors so as to reduce the incidences of the diseases," he added.
Like in the past, this time too quite a few interesting poll battles are lined up - more than a dozen in fact - for May 16 when the Kerala voters queue up to cast their vote. This time there are film stars pitted against one another, political veterans taking on one another, one-time friends battling against one another; and there are two TV journalists rivalling it out.

Though the fight in Kerala is mainly between the traditional rival fronts - the ruling Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI-M-led Left Democratic Front (LDF), in a few constituencies there is a triangular contest, with the BJP-led NDA putting up a fight.

But the mother of all battles is taking place at Poonjar in Kottayam district, where it is a tough four-way contest.

Six-time legislator P.C. George, who has earlier been with both the traditional fronts and has now become a persona non grata for them, has decided to go it alone for the first time. George asserts he will win the seat.

Another battle never witnessed before in the state is at Pathanapuram in Kollam district, where the rival fronts have fielded veteran film stars.

For K.B. Ganesh Kumar, who is aiming for a fourth successive win, the only change is that this is the first time he is part of the LDF combination, moving out from the UDF. Taking him on is ace comedian Jagdish, the Congress candidate, while the BJP has fielded popular villain Bheemen Reghu.

The selection of Reporter TV channel journalist M.V. Nikesh Kumar by the CPI-M appears to be the biggest surprise. His father M.V. Raghavan till the '80s was the most firebrand CPI-M leader, and after being booted out of the party he has turned into its biggest enemy by becoming a minister on two occasions with the UDF.

Kumar is being fielded from Azhikode in Kannur district, the seat from where his father won in 1987 as a UDF ally. He is taking on sitting legislator K.M. Shaji of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), an ally of the UDF.

Kumar's colleague in the Reporter TV channel, Veena George, was another surprise choice by the CPI-M. She is taking on senior Congress legislator K. Sivadasan Nair at the Aranmula constituency in Pathanamthitta.

In the Kollam constituency, the CPI-M again sprang a surprise when it decided to drop its veteran CITU trade union leader and former minister P.K. Gurudasan. The party gave the seat to film star Mukesh, who is pitted against Sooraj Ravi, son of late legislator Thoppil Ravi, a close friend and party colleague of top Congress leaders like A.K. Antony, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and state Congress president V.M. Sudheeran.

Popular Congress leader, Raj Mohan Unnithan, who turned a film star late in his career and is known for his razor sharp tongue, is taking on former legislator and senior CPI-M leader J. Mercykutty in the Kundara constituency in Kollam.

For the Idukki seat, the fight is between three-time sitting legislator Roshy Augustine of the Kerala Congress (Mani), an ally of the UDF, and his party colleague till last month and former Lok Sabha member Francis George, who has formed a new party and joined the LDF.

The Thalassery seat in Kannur district - the seat that has seen veteran CPI-M leaders like former chief minister E.K. Nayanar and present party secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan winning - will this time see two former friends in the CPI-M pitted against each other. Sitting Congress legislator from Kannur, A.P. Abdullahakutty (who quit CPI-M a few years back and joined the Congress) is taking on CPI-M youth leader A.N. Shamsheer.

Two other poll battles that appear to be closely watched by the BJP, which is yet to open its account in the 140-member Kerala assembly, is at Manjeswaram, the northernmost constituency in the state. Firebrand BJP leader K. Surendran, who finished in second place in the 2011 polls, is taking on sitting IUML legislator P.B. Abdul Razak.

The second one where the BJP is placing high hopes is in the Nemom constituency in the capital district where former union minister of state O. Rajagopal, a regular contestant in all elections since the BJP was formed in Kerala and who finished second in 2011 in Nemom, is being fielded. Rajagopal is taking on sitting legislator of the CPI-M V. Sivan Kutty.

At Thrissur, the home turf of former chief minister K. Karunakaran, his daughter Padmaja Venugopal is returning to active after a gap of 12 years and is taking on popular Communist Party of India (CPI) legislator V.S. Sunilkumar.

Another interesting constituency is Tripunithura in Ernakulam district where Congress Minister for Excise K. Babu, who came under a cloud in the bar scam, is taking on firebrand CPI-M youth leader M. Swaraj.

Besides these closely fought constituencies, the other glamour ones include where Chandy (Puthupally), CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan (Dharmadom) and former chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan (Malampuzha) are contesting and where the outcomes can easily be predicted.

(Sanu George can be reached at sanu.g@ians.in)
He stoutly defended the Marxist stronghold in 2011 when the Trinamool Congress ousted the Left Front. But five years down the line, CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra is fighting a tough battle in Narayangarh as he tries to usher in change in West Bengal.

The predominantly rural constituency in West Midnapore has been electing their 'Daktar Babu' unfailingly since 1991.

But Mishra -- one of the key architects of the Congress-Left Front tie-up and unofficial chief ministerial candidate of the alliance -- knows the going could be far from smooth amid a changed political scenario.

Especially when Trinamool Congress supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is walking the extra mile to wrest the seat.

The high-octane campaign reached a crescendo when Banerjee, canvassing at Mishra's 'home turf', personally appealed to the people of Narayangarh to defeat him.

"Defeat him and I will give you whatever you want. I will give you the moon. I will hold my first rally here after the elections," Banerjee said.

Pitted against Trinamool's Prodyut Kumar Ghosh and Krishna Prasad Roy of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mishra has been returning fire with fire.

"She has been promising to give whatever she can to ensure my defeat. She has realised that she will never return to power again. That is why she is making promises which she knows will never be fulfilled," said Mishra, known for his sarcastic retorts.

A total of over 2.20 lakh voters, including over one lakh women, will exercise their franchise across 269 polling stations on Monday.

While both the Congress and the Left have remained evasive on declaring the chief ministerial candidate, prominent Congress leaders Manas Bhunia and Abu Hshem Khan Choudhury not only have dubbed Mishra the face of the alliance on several occasions but also declared that "Mishra will be the chief minister" if the coalition came to power.

In 2011, Mishra was one of the handful of top Left leaders who retained their seats, albeit with a much reduced margin of a little over 7,000 votes against a namesake -- Surjya Kanta Atta. The soft-spoken man was named leader of opposition and attracted popular attention for his witty onliners, barbs and digs, directed mainly at Banerjee.

Signalling a "generational shift", Mishra last year became the CPI-M state secretary. He is only the second state party secretary to contest the polls since after Jyoti Basu.

However, he has his task cut out in Narayangarh. Since 2011, the Trinamool has virtually established its monopoly in the constituency by crushing all opposition in the 2013 rural polls and the Lok Sabha elections held a year later.

In the panchayat elections, the Trinamool snatched 13 of the 16 gram panchayats. Within a short while, the three gram panchayats won by the Marxists also went the Trinamool way, as the elected members defected to the ruling party.

The CPI-M suffered another jolt in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, as Trinamool candidate Sandhya Roy in Midnapore took a lead of nearly 27,000 votes from the segment.

However, the Communist Party of India-Marxist seems confident of coming up trumps on the strength of doctor turned politician's reputation and his rising popularity graph at the way he conducted himself as leader of opposition.

Local CPI-M leaders also attribute the Trinamool ascendancy over the past few years to rampant terrorising of the people and violence, and claim Mishra's presence this time has dispelled the fear factor, emboldening its supporters to hit the campaign trail.

Mishra is also pinning his hopes on grabbing the votes of Congress supporters.

Local Congressmen have been regularly participating in Mishra's campaigns, though it remains to be seen whether Mishra can ensure a transfer of all Congress votes to the CPI-M kitty.

--Indo-Asian news Service

and/ssp/tsb/vt
As China continues to increase its engagement with Maldives, the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's President Abdulla Yameen arrived in India on Sunday on a two-day bilateral visit.

"A maritime neighbour comes calling! President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom of Maldives arrives on an official visit," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Yameen is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Mohamed Shainee and three members of the Maldivian parliament.

In Delhi, President Yameen will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a working lunch on Monday. A number of significant MoUs are expected to be signed during the meeting.

Yameen, who had come to India on a bilateral visit in January 2014 and was among the South Asian leaders who attending the Modi government's swearing-in in May 2014, would also call on President Pranab Mukherjee on April 11, according to Swarup.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would call on him on the morning of April 11. She had met her Maldivian counterpart in Nepal on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meet last month.

Though India and Maldives completed 50 years of diplomatic ties last year and the two countries historically enjoyed a close relationship, Yameen's visit assumes significance because of New Delhi's discomfiture over China's increasing investments and influence in the Indian Ocean region.

Former Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was in New Delhi last month to deliver a lecture, said that his country found business and investment proposals from China more attractive.

"We have said so many times, businessmen from India are welcome, as business from other countries like Russia, China," he said.

Sushma Swaraj visited Maldives in November 2014 and again in October 2015 for the India-Maldives joint commission meeting, which was held after 15 years.

This year, ministerial delegations to India, led by the country's foreign minister, defence minister, tourism minister, and foreign secretary "have further strengthened bilateral ties between India and Maldives", said a Maldives high commission statement.

India has sought to deepen its relations with the Yameen dispensation following unease in ties that had crept in after New Delhi was seen backing former president Mohamed Nasheed. India had voiced concern over his prolonged incarceration, and Prime Minister Modi had also cancelled a visit to Male earlier.
The second phase of the Assam assembly elections on Monday will have at least two VVIP voters -- former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gurcharan Kaur.

The couple are voters in the Dispur constituency, and will cast their ballot at the Dispur Government High School polling station no.207 in Guwahati, a spokesman of the Assam unit of the Congress said on Sunday,

Manmohan Singh and his wife will arrive at the Guwahati airport around 12.30 p.m. and will head directly to the polling station.

"They are likely to cast their votes around 1 p.m. After casting their votes, the couple will go to Brahmaputra State Guest House in Guwahati for some time and will return to Delhi around 5.30 p.m.," the spokesman said.

Manmohan Singh is enrolled in the electoral roll as voter no.570, Gurcharan Kaur is enrolled as voter no.571.

Manmohan Singh has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1991.

The then chief minister late Hiteswar Saikia offered him a Rajya Sabha seat from Assam when he became the finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government.

Saikia also made him a tenant in his house and Manmohan Singh's address in the electoral roll is mentioned as house no.3989 in Sarumataria area of Guwahati.

The second phase of polls on Monday involves 61 constituencies.

Polling for 65 constituencies took place on April 4 and recorded 83.20 percent turnout.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Sunday afternoon and along with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy drove to the Puttingal Devi temple in Peravur town, where a fire left 110 people dead and over 350 injured.

Modi, who arrived in Thiruvananthapuram from Delhi on an Indian Air Force aircraft, reached Kollam on a helicopter.

Modi was received by Chandy at the Ashramam ground in Kollam. The prime minister asked Chandy to join him in his vehicle to the temple.

Modi spent about 10 minutes walking around the temple complex, and Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Lok Sabha member N.K. Premachandran were seen explaining to him the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

From the temple site, Modi and Chandy drove to the Kollam district hospital where around 185 of the injured people are undergoing treatment.

The tragedy occurred around 3.30 a.m. when a spark from a firecracker landed on a building where a large quantity of crackers was stored, setting off explosions and a massive blaze that caused destruction in no time, witnesses said.

Speaking to reporters at the accident site, Chennithala said the prime minister was very particular about the way unclaimed bodies were to be handled.

"He said special care and attention should be taken to see that DNA test is done on such bodies. He also asked about the compensation that the state government will pay. He will also hold a meeting with the chief minister after visiting the injured at the Kollam district hospital," said Chennithala.
Muslim scholars here on Sunday called for more efforts to combat and protect the image of Islam.

At a conference organised here by the Forum for Moderation in Jordan, Muslim scholars from several Arab and Islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt and Sudan, called for more efforts to protect the youth from radical and extremist groups, Xinhua reported.

They stressed upon the need for forming strategies to combat the propaganda of terrorist movements that seek to take advantage of social networking sites, such as Twitter, to recruit fighters and tarnish the image of Islam.

The representatives called for consensus among all humanity from all religions and religious schools to foster cooperation and ensure justice for all.

They also called for genuine efforts to attain peace and collaborative work for the advancement of mankind and removing all forms of oppression and injustice.
A once-in-a-lifetime experience for a bride requires a one-of-a-kind dress, and some of these dresses were on display in Canada's coastal city of Vancouver at the first-ever South Asian Bridal Fashion Week.

The three-day fashion show and expo, including more than 20 top international designers, on Saturday attracted hundreds of brides from Vancouver's large South Asian community, Xinhua reported.

They are here looking for unique bridal gowns from many top designers, including several from India.

Jai Singh, Bridal Week organiser, said brides nowadays want everything because they are more exposed and know the Western as well as the Indian trends. So, a bride now wants everything in one garment.

South Asian weddings are famously known as massive events. Even in Canada, they can often last several days, involving hundreds -- if not thousands -- of guests.

One local bridal gown-seller, Jas Chauhan, said such events and brides demand a customised dress that would not be replicated or even seen elsewhere.

"You want to be that one-of-a-kind bride. You don't want to be that bride that you know, you walk into a reception five years down the road, maybe a couple months down the road, and you see another bride that has a very similar outfit," Chauhan said.

However, making a South Asian bridal gown is no easy task, said one bridal gown designer, Tina Bhardwaj, who is visiting Vancouver from New Delhi. They often require a small army of highly-skilled dress-makers and a lot of patience.

"Everything that you see here is done by hand so it takes much longer than most of the other outfits. So it's hand embroidery on a cart, and there are about six to eight people working on it, and it could go on for two weeks, it could go on for three, it could even take a month, sometimes a month and a half," Bhardwaj said.

And when it comes to the right one-of-a-kind bridal gown, there is really no limit to how much money one can spend on it, as a unique dress tends to have a unique price.

"So it could be anywhere between $3,080 to $6,160, and the sky is the limit," said Bhardwaj. Yet these gowns sell well in Canada.
Having taken the English Premier League (EPL) by storm with his goal scoring exploits, Jamie Vardy has hit a dry patch of late, but Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri is confident that his team's title charge will not be affected.

Vardy has scored 19 goals this seaon and occupied the top spot in the scoring charts for several weeks. But the striker has not scored in his last six games for the Leicester and he has only netted four times for the EPL leaders since mid-December.

His only strikes last month came for England against Germany and Holland and he has only netted four times for the Barclays Premier League leaders since mid-December.

"Jamie in the last two or three matches he didn't score but made the final pass. I look always at the performance, if everybody links together and if everybody fights together. If everybody helps each other, that is my performance. After the goal, it's okay. If you imagine, Wes Morgan scored the goal (against Southampton)," Ranieri was quoted as saying by the Independent on Sunday.

"It's not important. Every time I talk to the strikers, it's not important if they score. Of course it's their job to score a goal."

Leicester currently sit at the top of the EPL standings with 69 points from 32 matches, seven points ahead of second placed Tottenham Hotspur. Despite Vardy's poor form in front of goal, Leicester have won their last four games 1-0 and Ranieri insisted the points are more important than any player's personal tally.

"It's not important who scores a goal. With (Danny) Simpson, no, last week he was so close? And I said to him 'don't worry, it will arrive next (week)'. It's not important who scores a goal. It's important that Leicester win the match," the 64-year-old Italian asserted.
Iran will not accept the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the next presidential elections in the country, a senior adviser to Iran's top leader was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"Iran believes that the government of Bashar al-Assad should remain in power until the end of his presidency term and the removal of Assad is a redline for us," Xinhua quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, the advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs, as saying.

Velayati dismissed the pressures on Assad's removal by the outsiders, saying that only the Syrian people can decide the future of their country.

The US authorities cannot tolerate Iran's influence in countries like Iraq and Syria, he said, adding: "At the request of these governments (Iraq and Syria), we support them against terrorists and it is none of Americans' business to say anything in this regard."

"Whether the Americans accept it or not, the time for their presence in the region is over," he said.

The US is behind the creation of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in the region, he added.

Tehran has emerged as a staunch regional ally of Damascus in the country's long-running conflict, and has said that its military advisers provide assistance to Syria in its fight against terrorism.

Earlier this month, Iran said it had deployed ground force commandos in Syria for an advisory mission.

Other units of the Iranian army ground forces had also dispatched advisers to Syria, said Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force for Coordination Brigadier General Ali Arasteh said.
Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing at Indian positions on the Line of Control (LoC) on Sunday in Poonch district of Jammu region.

"Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing at our positions on the LoC in Shahpur sector of Poonch district today. The ceasefire violation by Pakistan started around midnight and continued till 4.30 a.m.," Defence sources told IANS.

"They used automatics and mortars. Our troops responded effectively using same calibre weapons. There was no casualty or damage on our side," the sources said.

Same sources said it was being confirmed whether Pakistan firing was part of an attempt to facilitate an infiltration from across the Pakistan side into the state or not.

There had been calm on the LoC and the International Border in Jammu and for nearly six months.

Today's unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistan army has broken that welcome spell of peace on the border in Jammu and between India and Pakistan.

The brunt of such cross border firing and shelling between the two neighbouring countries has to be borne by villagers living close to the LoC and the International Border.

Peace being breached by Pakistan on the LoC today comes as a very bad news for thousands of villagers for whom the farming and cattle grazing season has just started after nearly four-month long winter in these areas.
Pakistan on Sunday expressed "deep condolences" over a fire tragedy in a Kerala temple that left around 100 people dead.

"The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from a fire in the temple," a foreign office spokesman said.

"Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people."
The district authorities in Kollam had denied permission for any fireworks display at the Puttingal temple in Kerala where a fire tragedy on Sunday left nearly 100 people dead.

The tragedy occurred around 3.30 a.m. when a spark from an exploding cracker fell on a building that stored a huge quantity of crackers.

Kollam District Collector A. Shinemol had clearly indicated to the temple authorities that there will be no permission for the firecracker display.

The collector reached the accident site soon after the episode and later called a meeting of officials to assess the situation.

CPI-M leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has blamed the government for not taking adequate safety preparations.

Addressing reporters here, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said all the expenses of the injured would be borne by the government.

"There was no permission for this fireworks display. The cabinet will meet at 1 p.m and decide on all issues related to this," he said.
In the Indian peninsula across the five southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana, water is a precious resource due to shortage, especially in densely-populated cities, as its sources are depleting owing to over-exploitation, vanishing lakes and ponds and encroachments preventing their conservation.

Unlike in the Indo-Gangetic plains across the northern and eastern states, where mighty rivers like the Ganga and the Brahmaputra flow perennially, thanks to the melting ice of the Himalayas, rivers and waterbodies across the southern states are rain-dependent during the southwest and northeast monsoons from June to December.

As the main source of water, major intra-state and inter-state rivers like the Cauvery, Godavari, Krishna, Palar, Pampa, Pennar, Periyar, Tungabhadra and Vaigai and their tributaries are rain dependent and their flow depends on how active the twin monsoons are through the second half of a year.

With the Cauvery flowing into Tamil Nadu and Kerala from Karnataka and the Krishna passing through Karnataka from Maharashtra to Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, sharing the natural resource has been a bone of contention among them over decades, resulting in protracted political and legal battles for fair distribution.

Lack of consensus and reciprocity over sharing the river waters in times of distress led to disputes on the Cauvery among Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala; on the Krishna among Maharashtra, Karnataka and Telangana/Andhra Pradesh and on raising water storage level in the Mullaperiyar dam between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

The disputes led the affected states to seek the central government's intervention and the setting up of tribunals and directives from the Supreme Court to resolve them.

Karnataka is also in dispute with neigbouring Goa over sharing of the Mahadayi river's water to meet the drinking water needs of people in the state's northern region.

Though Tamil Nadu succeeded in getting its share of Cauvery water from the inter-state tribunal, as notified by the central government in the final order on February 19, 2013, some issues remain to be sorted out.

The 800 km-long Cauvery, which originates at Talakaveri near Kodagu in the Western Ghats, flows southwards to Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala and empties into the Bay of Bengal in the east.

Despite pressure from Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalaithaa, the central government is yet to set up the Cauvery Management Board and the Cauvery Water Regulation Committee to implement the tribunal's award.

Earlier, Karnataka challenged the February 5, 2007, award of the Cauvery tribunal in the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. Tamil Nadu and Kerala also challenged the central government's 2013 order. The final hearing is on July 19.

Tamil Nadu has also opposed Karnataka's Mekedatu reservoir project across the river near Kanakapura, about 100 km from Bengaluru, ostensibly to generate hydel power and supply drinking water to the parched Chikkaballapur and Kolar districts.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah clarified that the dam was within the framework of the tribunal order and claimed that it was not for irrigation.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have been at loggerheads over the Mullaperiyar dam since 2014, when its water storage level touched 142 feet after three decades following copious rains in its catchment area, which lies in Kerala.

Though the dam across the Periyar, built under an 1886 accord by the then maharaja of Travancore and the British Raj, is located at Thekkady in Idukki district of Kerala, it is owned, maintained and operated by Tamil Nadu.

The Supreme Court, on May 5, 2014, decreed in favour of Tamil Nadu and permitted the state to raise the dam's water level to 142 feet from 136 feet.

Kerala, however, wants to build a new dam so that it will be under its control.

Likewise, the dispute over sharing of Krishna water fairly during distress years made the central government set up a tribunal in 1969 under the Inter-state Water Disputes Act.

As the peninsula's second biggest river, the 1,300-km-long Krishna originates near Mahabaleshwar in Maharashtra, snakes through north Karnataka and flows into Telangana and Andhra Pradesh before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.

Headed by former Supreme Court judge R.S. Bachawat, the Krishna Water Disputes Tribunal awarded 560 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet to Maharashtra, 700 tmc to Karnataka and 800 tmc to then undivided Andhra Pradesh in 1973.

When the award was notified on May 31, 1976, disagreements over the allotment forced the setting up of the second tribunal in 2004, which on December 31, 2010, re-allocated the resource - giving 1,001 tmc to Andhra, 911 tmc to Karnataka and 666 tmc to Maharashtra.

According to G.S. Srinivasa Reddy, director of the Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre, the failure of the monsoon in 2015 has led to severe water shortages across the state, with levels in rivers and reservoirs plunging to their lowest.

As the second largest arid state after Rajasthan, water shortage is acute in the dry and backward regions of northern Karnataka in the Deccan plateau. With lakes, ponds, tanks and water bodies drying up, borewells are being drilled up to 800-1,000 feet to supply drinking water to villages and towns in districts across the state.

The crisis among the southern states is also compounded by increasing demand due to steady migration of people to towns and cities where supply constraints force civic agencies to ration water.

Sharp falls in water levels in dams, drying up of reservoirs and the fast-depleting ground water table have led to acute drinking water problem in Telangana and Andhra due to the second consecutive drought year.

Farmers and their labour are the worst hit by the water crisis gripping the twin states. With no water to quench the thirst of cattle, their owners are forced to sell them in distress across the two states.

Unchecked urban growth and poor planning is forcing 50 percent of the denizens in cities to depend on borewells and tanker suppliers. The situation is grim in tier-two and tier-three cities, where daily water supply is a luxury.

According to a study by the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU), the state will face severe water scarcity by 2021, with a projected demand-supply gap of 1,268 billion litres.

Kerala State Biodiversity Board member-secretary K.P. Laladhas observed that the coastal state was going to face acute water shortage in future.

"As one of the wettest regions in the country, Kerala is lagging behind in per capita availability of drinking water. Many lakes and rivers, source of drinking and irrigation, have reduced to thin streams," Laladhas told IANS.

(with inputs from Venkatachari Jagannathan in Chennai, Mohammad Shafeeq in Hyderabad and Sanu George in Thiruvananthapuram. Fakir Balaji can be contacted at fakir.b@ians.in)
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he was "saddened" by the fire at a Kerala temple in which nearly 100 people were killed.

"Saddened by the Kerala temple fire tragedy. My heartfelt condolences to families of the deceased and prayers with those injured," the chief minister tweeted.

At least 96 people have been killed and over 300 injured in a massive blaze triggered by celebratory fireworks at Paravur town's Puttingal temple, about 60 km from Thiruvananthapuram capital city.
Vermont Senator and US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has defeated front-runner Hillary Clinton, his rival for the Democratic party nominations, in the Wyoming caucus, according to projections by major media groups.

With nearly all votes scrutinised, Sanders won on Saturday by a margin of more than 10 points in Wyoming, a state in the central US with a small, majority white population, EFE news reported.

However, Sanders' victory will not have much of an impact on his campaign as he secures just seven of the 14 delegates from the state.

In the Democratic convention in July, where the party's presidential candidate for the November elections will be nominated, Sanders is required to have 2,383 delegates, while he currently only has around 1,000.

Clinton, meanwhile, already has more than half the 2,383 delegates and enjoys a lead of more than 200 over the self-proclaimed democratic socialist.

The next caucus will be held on April 19 in the state of New York, which is considered to be crucial for all candidates and parties owing to the large number of delegates for grabs.

Last week, the primaries in Wisconsin dealt a setback to the frontrunners of both the Republican and Democratic parties, Donald Trump and Clinton, with Senator Ted Cruz and Sanders emerging victorious.
Pawan Kalyan-starrer Telugu actioner "Sardaar Gabbar Singh" raked in over Rs.30 crore on release day worldwide. However, the numbers have dropped on the second day across most locations, according to a trade expert.

"The film managed to collect Rs.31 crore on its first day worldwide. It's a phenomenal start, but the numbers dropped across major locations on Saturday, following the very bad initial response from fans and critics alike," trade analyst Trinath told IANS.

Since the opening weekend is crucial for most big releases, Trinath feels it's really important the numbers for "Sardaar Gabbar Singh" don't drop further.

"The numbers have dropped drastically in several overseas locations. While the Thursday premieres registered record opening, the numbers on Friday and Saturday don't look good and that's a bad sign for the movie," he said.

Directed by K.S. Ravindra, the film also stars Kajal Aggarwal, Sharad Kelkar and Kabir Duhan Singh in important roles.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that those who suffered serious burns during a temple fire disaster in Kerala could be shifted to Delhi and Mumbai.

After visiting Peravur town in Kollam district where more than 100 people were killed, Modi said his government stands with the people of Kerala.

Making a brief statement at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital after visiting the injured, he said he was deeply grieved over the incident.

"We stand by Kerala's grief and we will do everything we can to bring down the misery. The seriously injured can be shifted to hospitals in Mumbai and Delhi," Modi said before leaving for the airport to return to Delhi.

"I visited the temple site and the hospital. My sympathies are with the kin of the deceased persons. The tragedy was so horrific that it can't be expressed in words. People at a distance of 200 metres got injured. No one could have thought of such death," he said.

Modi arrived in the state capital earlier and took a helicopter to Kollam, about 60 km away, where he was received by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. He asked Chandy to join him in his vehicle to the temple.

The prime minister spent about 10 minutes walking around the temple complex, where Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala and Lok Sabha member N.K. Premachandran explained to him the sequence of events that led to the tragedy.

From the temple, Modi and Chandy drove to the Kollam district hospital where 185 of the injured people are undergoing treatment.

He then chaired a meeting with Chandy and senior officials and assured them all support from the central government.

The tragedy occurred around 3.30 a.m. when a spark from a firecracker landed on a building where a large quantity of crackers was stored, setting off explosions and a massive blaze.

Speaking to reporters at the accident site, Chennithala said the prime minister was very particular about the way unclaimed bodies were to be handled.

"He said special care and attention should be taken to see that DNA test is done on such bodies."
The fate of several political stalwarts, including CPI-M state secretary Surjya Kanta Mishra, will be decided as 31 constituencies spread over three districts vote on Monday in part two of the opening phase of the West Bengal assembly elections.

Thirteen of the constituencies are in West Midnapore, and nine each in Bankura and Burdwan.

Voters in 18 constituencies -- six in West Midnapore, nine in Purulia and three in Bankura -- exercised their franchise on the first polling day on April 4. That was part one of the Phase One.

An electorate of nearly 70 lakh (69,90,900) across 8,465 polling stations including two auxiliary stations is eligible on Monday to choose its representatives from a field of 163 candidates -- 21 of them women. High security marks the poling arrangements.

In the 2011 assembly polls, the Trinamool Congress had bagged 17, and its then ally Congress three of the seats now going for the balloting. The Left Front, then in power, won the remaining 11.

But the political alignments and allegiances have changed dramatically since then. While the Congress has now entered into a seat adjustment with the Left Front, the Trinamool has virtually established its monopoly in these areas in subsequent polls to the Panchayat and the Lok Sabha.

A case in point is Narayangarh of West Midnapore district, from where Mishra has been winning repeatedly since 1991. Five years back, despite the Trinamool wave that swept away the Left Front regime, Mishra retained the seat, albeit with a reduced margin of 7,109 votes.

However, since then, the Trinamool triumphed in the 2013 rural polls, snatching 13 of the 16 gram panchayats, while its candidate Sandhya Roy took a lead of nearly 27,000 votes from the segment a year later.

But the LF spearhead, Communist Party of India-Marxist seems confident of coming up trumps this time around on the strength of the doctor-turned-politician's reputation and his rising popularity graph at the way he conducted himself as leader of the opposition in the assembly.

At Sabang, neighbouring to Narayangarh, former state minister and former Bengal Pradesh Congress chief Manas Bhunia is fighting to retain his seat in a four-cornered contest.

An interesting battle is on the cards at Kharagpur Sadar, where 91-year-old sitting Congress lawmaker Gyan Singh Sohanpal -- affectionately called "chacha ji" of Bengal -- is seeking his 11th stint as legislator.

Opposing the nonagenarian are new state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and Trinamool Congress nominee Ramaprasad Tewari besides three others.

State Labour Minister and Trinamool contestant Moloy Ghatak is trying his luck from his old constituency -- Asansol North -- of Burdwan district.

Providing the glam touch is Bengali film actor Soham Chakraborty, who has thrown his hat into the ring from Bankura district's Barjora constituency on a Trinamool ticket.

The Trinamool is hoping to win a large chunk of the seats in the region on the strength of the social security schemes and development ushered in by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The opposition parties are harping on the issue of corruption by highlighting the Saradha chit fund scandal and the Narada sting footage (that purportedly showed some Trinamool leaders accepting money in return for extending favours to a fictitious company), besides raising the lack of new big-ticket investments in the Durgapur-Asansol industrial belt of Burdwan district, once called the Ruhr of India.

The Trinamool, the LF-Congress combine and the BJP are battling all the seats.

Among the LF constituents, the CPI-M has put up 19 candidates, followed by the Communist Party of India, Revolutionary Socialist Party, the All India Forward Bloc and the Democratic Socialist Party (Prabodh Chandra) one each. The Congress is in the race in eight constituencies.

Amid the soaring mercury, the political fever reached a peak in this region with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, host of union ministers like Sushma Swaraj, Ravi Shankar Prasad and Pyush Goel, BJP president Amit Shah, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury hitting the campaign trail.
Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini who was arrested on Friday in Brussels has confessed to investigators that he is "the man in the hat" caught in the Brussels airport security cameras on March 22, Belgian federal prosecutor said on Saturday.

"He was confronted with the results of various expert assessments and admitted his presence," Xinhua quoted the federal prosecutor as saying.

"The person told investigators that he had thrown his jacket in a trash can and then sold his hat."

Abrini was placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the federal prosecutor said.

Abrini, wanted for suspected involvement in the November terrorist attacks in Paris, was arrested Friday along with five others in Brussels, by Belgian police.

Among the arrested is Osama Krayem, who as Brussels bombings probe has revealed is the second man who was present during the Maelbeek Metro Station attack.

Krayem was also present in the City 2 shop center of Brussels when buying bags that were used in the attacks, reported the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

He was also placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

Another two suspects, Herve B.M. and Bilal E.M., were charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders complicity.

Two more people, who were arrested along with Abrini were released after thorough hearing.
Mohamed Abrini, the man arrested for links with the Paris and Brussels terror attacks, had planned to stage another attack in France, Belgian prosecutors said on Sunday.

Abrini, who was arrested in Brussels on Friday, also admitted to being the "man in the hat" seen with the bombers who attacked a Brussels airport, Xinhua cited Belgian prosecutors as saying.

Abrini was also wanted in connection with the November 13 Paris attacks that left at least 130 people killed and over 250 injured.

He is one of six men arrested on Friday. Four others have been charged with terror offences.

The attacks at Zaventem airport and a Metro station in Brussels left 34 people dead.

The Islamic State militant group has claimed responsibility for both of the attacks.
Khuzaima Qutbuddin, the claimant to the title of Syedna, or the spiritual leader of the Dawoodi Bohra community, who passed away in California on March 31, was on Sunday laid to rest here.

His son Taher Fakhruddin will be his successor.

Leading the funeral rituals on the grounds of Qutbuddin's residence at Darus Sakina near Yeoor Hills here, Fakhruddin recalled the services of his father to the community, his blessings and how he would remain the guiding spirit for the people for future generations.

He also announced he would lead the community in prayers and majlis during the 40-day long mourning period in memory of his father.

Earlier, Qutbuddin's coffin was taken in a helicopter to circle around the Raudat Tahera - the mausoleum of his half-brother, late Syedna Moahmmed Burhanuddin and their father, Syedna Taher Saifuddin, in south Mumbai. It was his deepest wish to pray and pay respects at the mausoleum, but he was prevented from going there since the passing away of Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin.

After the demise of his elder half-brother, Qutbuddin was subsequently embroiled in a bitter legal battle of succession after his nephew, Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin also claimed that his father, the late Syedna, had anointed him as the successor.
They are travellers, foodies, writers, lifestyle bloggers, amateur and professional photographers and filmmakers and more with a shared passion - travel and travel-related experiences. They have joined hands to popularise the unusual and unexplored India.

In a journey of just one year, the Travel Correspondents & Bloggers Group (TC&BG), comprising members pan-India, has aggregated over a million followers.

"What was a modest beginning by a couple of women travel writers a year ago has metamorphosed into a dynamic 400-strong community with a cumulative reach of more than a million followers today," Alka Kaushik, who along with Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu started the group, told IANS.

"In a span of 365 days, the Travel Correspondents & Bloggers Group has effectively bridged the gap between state tourism boards and promoters of new-age tourism and disseminated quality information," she said.

Members of the community share their experiences of the various programmes organized by the group, including trips to a number of destinations in Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh in the past one year.

"Ever since we founded the group, we have organised a number of familiarization (FAM) trips to offbeat destinations in close coordination with private players and public entities on a no profit, no expense basis," travel enthusiast, author and blogger Puneetinder Kaur Sidhu told IANS.

"This has resulted in an unimaginable amount of popularity for events, destinations, and individual efforts across varied media through the written word, delightful photographs and imaginative videos," she added.

The group now plans to convert its virtual property into print through publication of coffee table books and other mediums.

"We had a great opportunity to showcase the heritage arc of Uttar Pradesh to a group of TC&BG travel writers from all over India in Oct 2015," said Ram Pratap Singh, member of the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Promotion Board.

"During the last one year, Punjab Tourism partnered with the TC&BG to promote some of its destinations through two separate FAM trips. We are happy to note that this partnership is giving that extra thrust that Punjab Tourism needs and hope that it will yield even greater results in the future. Blogs and social media have become an important tool for promoting and marketing destinations," said Basanta Rajkumar, Executive Director, Punjab Heritage and Tourism Promotion Board.

"We have decided to focus on unexplored destinations and unsung events of our culturally rich and geographically vast country with a renewed commitment towards responsible, eco-friendly and educative tourism," Kaushik declared.

(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)
West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress on Sunday approached the Election Commission for appropriate action over the alleged murder of one its workers, blaming vendetta politics of the combined opposition of the CPI-M and Congress.

"We have urged them to take appropriate action. Since the opposition knows they have no influence, they are resorting to vendetta politics," Trinamool Congress (TMC) general secretary Mukul Roy told the media here after meeting Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta.

In addition, the party also urged the poll panel to ensure adequate security on the Jharkhand-Bengal and Odisha-Bengal borders during poll days, fearing presence of infiltrators.

On Saturday, the Trinamool demanded the immediate arrest of Congress candidate Manas Bhunia in the alleged murder of party worker Joydeb Jana in Sabang in West Midnapore.

"The Congress, CPI-M and the BJP know their campaign is having no impact on the ground. Hence they are resorting to bloody tactics of vendetta," the Trinamool said in a statement on Saturday.

"The local Congress candidate, Manas Bhuniya lodged a complaint against Joydeb Jana a few days ago. Even as late as yesterday (Friday) he was conducting enquiries, following up and plotting the murder. All evidence points to the fact. We demand he be booked as an accused in the case."
A major jolted parts of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India on Sunday, reportedly killing two people and injuring 10 in Pakistan.

In Pakistan, officials said the measured 7.1 on the Richter scale and hit parts of the country's northern and eastern regions.

Pakistan's meteorological department said the epicentre was determined at the Hindukush mountain range, located along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with a depth of 236 km.

The tremors were felt in capital Islamabad, parts of Punjab province and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province including the capital Peshawar as well as tribal areas.

The quake created panic among residents. Emergency was declared in hospitals in Peshawar for possible quake victims.

Media reports said two people were killed but provided no details.

In India, the authorities said the magnitude was measured at 6.8, and the depth at 190 km.

The tremors were also felt all across northern India, including Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Chandigarh, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.

People rushed out of their homes and offices in some parts of New Delhi and surrounding areas, residents said.

In Delhi, Metro services were briefly halted as a precaution. Normalcy quickly returned.

The tremors were felt in several Afghan provinces including Nangarhar, Kunar and Laghman in the east, Baghlan and Kunduz in the north and Takhar and Badakhshan in the northeast, Xinhua news agency reported.

However, no casualties have been reported so far in Afghanistan.

Sayed Abdullah Hamayon Dehqan, director of the Disaster Management Authority in Badakhshan province, told Xinhua that the epicentre was in the mountainous Ashkashim district.

The tremors were also felt in Xinjiang in northwest China.

The China Networks Center said the quake hit the Hindu Kush area at 6.28 pm (Beijing time) at 36.56 degrees north and 71.31 degrees east, at a depth of 200 km.

Residents of Kashgar, Hotan and Kizilsu Kirgiz prefectures of the autonomous region that borders Afghanistan felt strong tremors.

Deng Jiaping, a resident of Kashgar, told Xinhua that the building she lives in shook for less than a minute, toppling her desktop computer and sending neighbours running out for safety.

Some railway sections in the south of Xinjiang were closed for safety checks after the quake.
Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Sunday expressed grief over the fire tragedy in a Kerala temple that killed nearly 100 people.

The vice president has conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. He wished speedy recovery to the injured, an official statement issued here said.

The tragedy occurred early on Sunday morning when a fireworks display caused a blaze at the temple in the coastal town of Paravur, about 60 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
Once a favourite summer retreat of the erstwhile British rulers, Shimla is now so much in the grip of water scarcity that its hotels as well as guests have to fork out handsome amounts for every bucket they need.

"There is no water at all in the hotel we're staying at. I was charged Rs.100 for a bucket of water," Deepti Bhatnagar, a tourist from Lucknow, told IANS.

Her husband Pragya said: "This is probably the only tourist destination in the country that expects the tourists to carry their water with them."

In most of Shimla, taps stay dry -- water supply is restricted to once in two or three days. Some neighbourhoods receive tap water once a week.

The owners and managers of Shimla's 450 hotels, restaurants and guest-houses are a worried lot.

"We are buying a 3,000-litre water tanker for Rs.5,000 from a private supplier to meet our daily needs," D.P. Bhatia, the general manager of the Oberoi Group's Clarkes Hotel, told IANS.

Private suppliers bring water from natural sources located on the outskirts of Shimla to sell to the hotels, he said.

Civic authorities say water shortage has become more acute since January 2 when supply from Ashwani Khud was stopped following a recent outbreak of jaundice.

Ashwani Khud was the source of water for one-third of Shimla's population before the outbreak of jaundice, supplying nine to 10 million litres per day (MLD).

At an emergency meeting here on Thursday, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh directed officials to restore water supply from Ashwani Khud after taking measures to decontaminate the channel.

Shimla's demand for water is 42 to 45 MLD, but supply is in the range of 32-35 MLD, the state government informed the state assembly last week.

The town gets water only on alternative days for a duration ranging from 45 to 90 minutes, said the government.

Even that may be an exaggeration.

Many neighbourhoods get tapped water supply for only 20-25 minutes after three to four days, local legislator Suresh Bhardwaj, who raised the issue in the last session of the assembly, told IANS.

A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, which highlights inadequacies of the Shimla Municipal Corporation, says the quantity of water supplied is less than the prescribed limit of 135 litres per capita per day.

From 2009 to 2014, the corporation supplied 110 litres of water per capita per day.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court observed on February 26 that scant attention was paid by the successive governments to providing adequate potable water and that despite rationing, the supply was erratic.

The high court directed the state government to set up a statutory agency to provide adequate water to Shimla and the rest of the state.

Planned for a maximum population of 16,000 during the British Raj, Shimla is now home to 170,000 people.

According to tourism industry representatives, Shimla gets 20,000-30,000 tourists on an average every weekend during the peak season -- from May to June and November to January.

Irrigation and public health secretary Anuradha Thakur said work on pumping Satluj river water from Kol Dam in Mandi district is on with a view to relieving water shortage in Shimla.

"We are seeking early funding from the World Bank to construct a drinking water supply scheme from the Kol Dam," she said.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
This year, the United Nations will choose its next secretary general. We need the best possible candidate for the job.

It is often spoken of as the most impossible job in the world.

And given the fact that the next secretary general will take over on January 1, 2017, it is easy to see why: appalling conflicts and human suffering in parts of the Middle East, Africa and Europe; violent extremism that is threatening us all; continued discrimination against women and girls; a worrying rise in xenophobia; over 800 million people struggling to escape extreme poverty; close to 60 million displaced around the world; a unique window-of-opportunity to address climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals before it is too late; and an Organization that needs to adapt to the challenges and new goals the world is facing.

In its 70-year history, the UN, for all its flaws, has demonstrated that it can rise to such challenges. But to do so today, it must secure the best possible candidate as its next secretary general.

The role of the secretary general

Many have suggested that the UN's most senior official should either be a secretary or a general. This is too simplistic, for the secretary general must be both and more.

A person with strong moral courage and integrity; he or she - and I don't see why the best candidate should not be a woman - must be a voice for the world's most vulnerable people and embody the very ideals and purposes of the United Nations.

As the world's top diplomat, the secretary general must use his/her independence, impartiality and good offices to prevent conflict, broker peace and stand up for human rights.

He/she should be a person with political stature and strong leadership skills - with the authority to bring to the attention of the UN Security Council any matter which in his/her opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.

As the chief administrative officer of the UN, the secretary general must create a culture of integrity, fairness, competence and efficiency right across the UN family and oversee a huge organization with a budget of approximately $10 billion, a staff of over 40,000 and 41 peace operations worldwide.

The secretary general must be a person with strong inter-personal and communication skills - able to navigate smoothly in our increasingly multi-polar world and drive a global transition to sustainable development.

An archaic selection process

One might think, therefore, that the process for choosing the secretary general would be as vigorous, inclusive and transparent as possible.

But, to date, this has not been the case.

Previously, there has been no clarity on when the selection process actually started or, somewhat unbelievably, who was actually running for the job. Also, there has been no formal job description and no real opportunity for substantive and open engagement with the candidates - neither for the full UN membership nor the public.

The result: Recommendations negotiated behind closed doors - primarily by the five permanent members of the Security Council; eight secretaries general, not one of whom has been female; and a mostly symbolic appointment by the UN General Assembly. Therefore, secretaries general have, not always rightfully, been perceived to be beholden to the very powers that they must be most independent of.

A better way to choose the next incumbent

The UN Charter is clear on the respective roles of the Security Council and the General Assembly in the selection and appointment process and this must be adhered to.

But recent changes to the process itself, agreed to by all 193 members of the General Assembly, provide us with a genuine opportunity to make it more transparent, more robust, more inclusive and ultimately, more effective.

As president of that Assembly, it is my job to ensure that those changes are implemented.

So here's what's happening.

Last December, the president of the Security Council and I set the selection process in motion by issuing a call for candidates to be presented as early as possible.

We outlined the central features of the process. We pointed out some of the key criteria for the position and, in light of seven decades of male dominance, we encouraged member states to present both female and male candidates.

To date, eight candidates have been presented and their biographies and related information are now publicly available on my website. (www.un.org/pga/70/sg/)

But perhaps the greatest opportunity to truly break from the past comes in the form of open dialogues that I will hold with the candidates. These dialogues - referred to by some as the SG hearings - will begin on April 12.

Each candidate is expected to prepare a vision statement on the challenges and opportunities facing the UN and the next secretary general. They will present themselves for two hours of questions from the full UN membership as well as from civil society and each dialogue will be streamed live online. The dialogues will continue with new candidates until the Security Council makes its recommendation. And I expect everyone who is serious about becoming the world's next chief diplomat to engage openly and directly with the full UN membership and the people that he or she will ultimately serve.

An opportunity for change

Of course, these innovations will not directly transform our world and discussions continue on issues such as the length and renewability of the secretary general's term and whether the General Assembly should vote on an appointment or not.

But they do have the potential to establish a new standard of transparency and inclusivity in international affairs. They can increase our chances of securing the best possible candidate to lead the United Nations. And they represent, I believe, a moment in history when the General Assembly - the world's most representative and democratic decision-making body - reasserts itself.

Given the global challenges we face today, this could be a real game-changer.

So, please go online, participate on social media, make yourself heard and help us find the best possible candidate for the UN secretary general that our world needs.

(Mogens Lykketoft was elected last year as the president of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly. He has been the speaker of Denmark's parliament and a minister. The views expressed are personal.)
The government will bring in foreign faculty to improve the quality of higher in the northeastern region, union Minister of State for Human Resource Development Ram Shankar Katheria has said.

"The government will do everything, including bringing of foreign faculty and development of infrastructure, to improve the quality of higher in the northeastern states," Katheria told IANS.

"The northeast region is a priority area for the central government. We will make all-out efforts for the development of higher educational institutions in the region," he added.

Katheria, who was here this week and inaugurated a newly-constructed Golden Jubilee Knowledge Centre at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Agartala, and opened an academic building at the Tripura Central University, was speaking to IANS on the recent ranking of higher educational institutions in India.

"We will include higher educational institutions of northeast India with the global educational network for their advancement. In the coming years, you will see the improvement," the minister said.

Assam's Tezpur University, Guwahati's Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Meghalaya's North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), have figured prominently in rankings released recently by the union Human Resource Development ministry.

Of the eight northeastern states, higher educational institutions of Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh failed to feature in the first university rankings, done by the HRD ministry under its National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) programme.

Eight universities of northeast India featured in the 100 best universities picked up in the NIRF while four technical institutions of the region figured in 100 best engineering institutes (research and teaching).

The Rajiv Gandhi Indian Institute of Management in Shillong and the Department of Business Administration in Tezpur University (Assam) figured in the 50 best ranking of management institutions (Research and Teaching), while the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Assam's Dibrugarh University secured a position in the 50 best pharmacy institutes (research and teaching) in the national rankings.

The Tezpur University was recently judged the best university among 40-odd central universities and conferred the Visitor's award. The 22-year-old central university has made remarkable progress in the last two decades since its initiation.

Tezpur University Vice-chancellor Mihir K. Chaudhuri told IANS: "The university, despite its location in a far-flung area, has been steadily doing study and innovation works. We have a clear vision of the research and quality and we are working in that direction."

"We are happy to be ranked fifth among the universities in India. We feel optimistic that the combined hard work led by our vice-chancellor has been recognised nationally," Rajeev Doley, who is also Director of Centre for Inclusive Development in Tezpur University, said.

According to the NIRF, Tezpur University in northern Assam was in fifth place among 100 Indian universities, followed by NEHU in Shillong (15th), Guwahati University (22nd), Mizoram University (51st), Sikkim University (61st), Dibrugarh University (74th), Assam University in Silchar (77th) and Tripura Central University (88th).

In all, four technical institutions of the region figured in 100 best engineering institutes (research and teaching). These are Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati (11th), Tripura's National Institute of Technology (52nd), NIT, Shillong (57th) and NIT, Silchar (65th).

NIT Agartala director Gopal Mugeraya told IANS: "Though our NIT got 52nd position, our achievements among the 31 NITs in India are remarkable. The placement percentage in the NIT is over 85 percent. Among this year's 519 final year students, 477 have been already chosen by various government and private companies for jobs."

"Over Rs.16 crore research and development projects are being implemented by our faculties and students," Mugeraya said, sounding a little upset with the ranking of his institute.

Tripura Central University registrar Onkar Sadhan Adhikari told IANS: "Among the central universities in India, our university rank is 21st. Though we have to do a lot, among the 700 odd central, state and deemed universities in India, Tripura University is almost a front runner."

"In just eight years after becoming central university from a state university, we have achieved a lot. There would be remarkable improvement in the near future as we have undertaken a lot of programmes," Adhikari told IANS.

(Sujit Chakraborty can be reached at sujit.c@ians.in)
Bollywood's 'bad man' Gulshan Grover, who is exploring international showbiz nowadays, says that world cinema is "really evolving".

"I am doing a Malaysian, Australian and Italian film and I feel world cinema is really evolving, because it also talks about different cultures and has some amazing content. Working in different kinds of films teaches you a lot," Gulshan told IANS.

He is currently busy promoting his web movie "Badman", a comic caper wherein Gulshan relaunches himself in the Indian film industry, but this time as a hero.

"This is something new for me as well. I am exploring something new and I feel it's time to evolve. But nobody can say how it will unfold in years to come... We will get a better picture about web series and web movies," he said.

"Badman" is co-written by Soumik Sen, who is also the film's director, and comedian Anubhav Pal.
Calling the Mamata Banerjee government's policies a "mirror image" of the erstwhile Left Front which "destroyed West Bengal", union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday said the biggest disappointment has been the Trinamool Congress's vulnerability to corruption.

On a campaign trail in the state for the assembly polls, the BJP leader said one could find a scandal in every transaction by the Trinamool.

"It's not just the chit fund scam or some sting operation or a flyover collapse, you lift one transaction, and you will find a scandal in it," said Jaitley, referring to the controversies surrounding the Trinamool including the multi-crore-rupee Saradha scam and the recent sting operation in which many Trinamool leaders were purportedly caught taking bribes.

"The biggest disappointment has been the vulnerability of the Trinamool to corruption. Scandals have been emerging one after the other, but these are not isolated incidents. That one or two of the leaders committed mistakes, it's a pattern. All the cases display a pattern," Jaitley told mediapersons here.

"Their leadership is getting tainted in scandals one after the other," he said.

Castigating the Communist Party of India-Marxist spearheaded Left Front, Jaitley described as a "nightmare" their 34 years of rule in the state which came to end in 2011, when the Banerjee-led Trinamool came to power.

"Instead of giving alternative policies and alternative political culture, the Trinamool followed the Left's mirror image policies. Coupled with that are the syndicates, law and order collapse, vindictiveness, and widespread corruption.

"If the Left destroyed Bengal, the Trinamool belied the people's expectations.

"If the Left (rule) was a nightmarish experience, the Trinamool certainly has been a disillusionment," he said.

He also ridiculed the Trinamool for ordering an internal probe into the sting operation.

"Taking bribe is not an act of party indiscipline that they are conducting an internal probe. Through an internal inquiry, you can expel somebody from the party. But how can an internal inquiry deal with the penal consequences of bribery? It's a crime which needs to be investigated by police or the CBI," he said.

He also rubbished Trinamool leader and minister Chandrima Bhattacharya's bid to give a "donation" angle to the bribery scandal.

"Donations to a party are subjected to certain law and regulations which needs to be followed. The donor's name has to be given if the amount is in excess of Rs.20,000. The details need to filed with the Election Commission, have they done that? Let them do that first," he said.

Observing that Bengal was at a crossroads, Jaitley exuded confidence in the BJP emerging as a big player in the assembly polls and assured it will work for development as the Centre has been doing.
The death of a young man here in police custody, allegedly because he was tortured, triggered public outcry on Sunday and caused the authorities to order a judicial inquiry.

Police said Sunil Yadav, 20, was arrested here on Wednesday on the accusation of theft. He hanged himself in the lock-up late on Saturday night, but his family members asserted that police beat him to death.

Sunil Yadav died at the hands of the personnel of Umri police station who then hanged his body by a noose to make it look like a suicide, said the friends and relatives of the young man.

They staged vociferous protests and blocked traffic here against the alleged police torture and atrocity. Police then used tear gas to disperse the protestors.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Navnit Bhasin told IANS that Umri police station in-charge Rambabu Yadav and three other personnel have been suspended and a judicial inquiry will be conducted into the incident.

"The inquiry will be conducted in line with the guidelines of the National Human Rights Commission," he said.
CONSEQUENCE

A Memoir

Eric Fair

Henry Holt

240 pages; $26



The infamous photos of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq that became public in the spring of 2004 - a pyramid of naked prisoners, a hooded man forced to stand in a crucifixion-like pose, a cowering man on a dog leash - were evidence not of just a "few bad apples" among the prison guards but, as an Army investigation found, documentation of a systemic problem: Military personnel had perpetrated "numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses." The abuses had roots in decisions made at the highest levels of the Bush administration, which asserted that the United States need not abide by the Geneva Conventions in its war on terror.

Powerful and damning accounts of the Bush administration's determination to work what Vice President Dick Cheney called "the dark side" and its elaborate efforts to legalise torture (including arduous attempts to narrowly define torture as leading to "serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage" is likely to result) can be found in two essential books, The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, edited by Karen J Greenberg and Joshua L Dratel, and Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris. An important personal perspective is now provided by Eric Fair's candid and chilling new book, Consequence, which is at once an agonised confession of his own complicity as an interrogator at Abu Ghraib and an indictment of the system that enabled and tried to justify torture.

Mr Fair, who worked for CACI, a private contractor that provided interrogation services at the prison, participated in or witnessed physical abuse, sleep deprivation and the use of what he calls "the Palestinian chair" (a monstrous contraption that forces a prisoner to assume an excruciating "stress position"). He sees naked men handcuffed to chairs, stripped of their dignity and their clothes. He and his colleagues "fill out forms and use words like 'exposure,' 'sound', 'light,' 'cold,' 'food' and 'isolation'" - ordinary words that become shorthand for methods of inflicting fear and pain. He rips a chair out from underneath a boy and shoves an old man, head first, into a wall.

Of the Abu Ghraib torture photos broadcast by "60 Minutes" in April 2004, Mr Fair writes: "Some of the activities in the photographs are familiar to me. Others are not. But I am not shocked. Neither is anyone else who served at Abu Ghraib. Instead, we are shocked by the performance of the men who stand behind microphones and say things like 'bad apples' and 'Animal House' on night shift.'"



In 2007, Mr Fair says, he confessed everything to a lawyer from the Department of Justice and two agents from the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, providing pictures, letters, names, firsthand accounts, locations and techniques. He was not prosecuted. "We tortured people the right way," he writes, "following the right procedures, and used the approved techniques."



Mr Fair, however, became increasingly racked by guilt. He begins having nightmares. Nightmares in which "someone I know begins to shrink," becoming so small "they slip through my fingers and disappear onto the floor." Nightmares in which "there's a large pool of blood on the floor" that moves as if it's alive, nipping at his feet.

His marriage starts to unravel. He drinks heavily despite a heart condition that threatens his health. When his best friend from Iraq, Ferdinand Ibabao, is killed by a suicide bomber in Baghdad, Mr Fair thinks that maybe he, too, deserves to die there. He returns to Iraq for another tour - this time, in a job with the National Security Agency.

Some of Mr Fair's descriptions of Abu Ghraib and the National Security Agency facilities at Camp Victory recall the absurdities of "Catch-22" and "Animal Farm," but here the sense of the absurd is infused with real horror and injustice. He writes that he and his colleagues were encouraged by supervisors to be "creative," that they often struggled to understand what detainees were saying because of dialect problems, and that they learned to justify "the use of different forms of torture by calling them enhanced techniques and filling out the appropriate paperwork."



Mr Fair says he and Mr Ibabao often thought about quitting but didn't "want to be seen as the type of people who aren't cut out for doing their part" in the war. At home, he will come to realise that he needs to earn his way back as a human being: He does not believe he will ever be redeemed, but thinks he is "obligated to try."



He begins writing about what he did and what he witnessed - first, with articles for The Washington Post and The New York Times, and now, with this profoundly unsettling book. He is still haunted by voices: "the voice of the general from the comfortable interrogation booth, the cries from the hard site, the sobs from the Palestinian chair and the sound of the old man's head hitting the wall."



"It is nearly impossible to silence them," he writes. "As I know it should be."



 2016 The New York Times News Service
The government is finally showing some activity in response to the exports crisis. India's exports have fallen for 15 months in a row. The average (year-on-year) fall per month during that time is a sizeable 16 per cent. There are various explanations advanced for this. There is some suggestion that, in volume terms, they are not suffering - as Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman claimed last week. There is also the claim that this is driven essentially by the fall in the price of oil, given that refined petrochemicals are a major export category. However, this explanation founders against the suggestion that non-oil exports have also fallen for a similar length of time, with an average year-on-year fall of nine per cent. There are also the problems cited with world trade and overall demand. But India's peer countries when it comes to exports, such as Vietnam, Bangladesh and Malaysia, have grown exports in this period - Vietnam by almost eight per cent, year-on-year, every month.
An advanced life support ambulance under the 108 service, which was seen parked outside Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap's 10, Circular Road home - the official residence of his mother, former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi - till last week, is gone.

The health department had sanctioned the ambulance to the minister, though, according to rules, only the chief minister and governor are entitled to it. Pratap had said the ambulance had been allotted to him to serve poor visitors, who might need medical help.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party alleged that the minister was misusing his powers. Those in the know say the minister had asked the ambulance staff to take the vehicle away.
There are more than 750 cases in the Supreme Court that have been referred to constitution Benches of at least five judges. The issues involved are of high importance and benches of less than five judges have delivered conflicting judgments over the years. The number of such referred matters has recently gone up and resolution in such contrary decisions might take long. In the past few weeks alone, at least four issues have been referred to constitution benches because three-judge benches have doubted the correctness of the decisions made by other three-judge benches. Some of them are: quantum of penalty to be imposed on stock brokers for violations of the Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) regulations and the factors to be considered by the adjudicating officer under Section 15 of the Sebi Act (Siddhartha Chaturvedi vs Sebi); applicability of Sarfaesi Act to cooperative banks and societies (Pandurang Ganapati vs VPM Sahakari Bank); computation of the transaction value of goods supplied to customers in containers by manufacturers - whether the charge for providing containers should be taken into account for determination of duty (Commissioner of Central Excise vs Grasim). The problem of conflicting judgments arises because the 30 judges of the Supreme Court sit in 14 court rooms and each bench might have a view different from another. Legislation has also multiplied and amendments to economic laws and new trends in jurisprudence have changed the perception of the judges. Since some constitution bench cases have been waiting to be taken up for over a decade, the new cases will have to stand in queue far longer.
In March I was in London for a bi-annual talk at the Attlee room of the House of Lords to which tax heads of multinational companies and some lords and diplomats show up to listen and discuss the state of the world. Polite and seemingly enthusiastic as they always seem, this time I perceived a certain belligerence in their midst. Over the week, I perceived a similar discomfort among the British public and, placing them in the overall European context, Europe also seemed to be boiling over. What is happening there?



At the moment, the crucial matter in UK politics is Brexit or the referendum within the next couple of months that will decide whether Britain will be inside or outside Europe. Currently it is attracting opposite views. David Cameron, Prime Minister, comes on TV frequently to caution compatriots of the folly of leaving the European Union (EU). In turn, he was cautioned by Francois Hollande, French President, that, were Britain to jump ship, France may, in effect, throw open its Calais refugee camp that incarcerates would-be African and West Asian immigrants to the UK thus enabling them to swim across the English Channel to find jobs.
Deven Choksey, managing director of K R Choksey Shares and Securities, is looking forward to listing by general insurance companies. "Insurance is an age-old and proven business. I believe with rising per capital incomes, there will be more need for insurance cover. Listed insurance companies can have a market cap of Rs 2 lakh crore in the next five years. And, if Life Insurance Corporation of India joins the bandwagon, it can be even Rs 5 lakh crore," he says.

It is not only general insurance companies but a whole host of new segments will be entering the market in 2016-17. These include general insurance companies, a stock exchange (the BSE), a mutual fund (if UTI MF gets a nod from the government), e-commerce companies and payments banks.

Revival of the initial public offering (IPO) market is great for many companies which need the cash to grow. In 2015-2016, fundraising through IPOs touched a five-year high, 24 mopped Rs 14,500 crore. According to Prime Database, another 33 issues are lined up for 2016-17 to raise Rs 16,000 crore. "The pipeline is strong. If the markets remain good and the economy looks up, the amount raised this year could be significantly larger than the previous one," says Prithvi Haldea, founder and chairman, Prime Database.

For retail (mall) investors, all this is good news unless they are seeking only listing gains - a bad strategy. In 2015-16, 50 per cent or 12 companies have given positive returns since listing, whereas the rest have fallen. While the market's performance will depend on buoyancy in the secondary market, most financial planners say retail investors can put some money in these offers because good companies can often be bought at cheaper rates. How should retail investors gauge the situation?



Take cues from anchor investors

Underwriters nowadays make sure a portion of the offering is sold to anchor investors. This helps them in two ways. One, a certain portion gets subscribed beforehand and there is less dependence on the public. Two, when a company is able to attract high-profile anchor investors, it creates a positive perception in the minds of retail investors. Investors should closely look at the type of anchor investors participating in an . "The presence of anchor investors and their quality, is a very good indicator," says Haldea.

IPOs are open for three-four days. You may invest on any of the days without it affecting the probability of allotment. Always wait till the last day and gather as much information as possible about the IPO, including who the anchor investors are.

Bhargav Dasgupta

MD & CEO, ICICI Lombard



Analysts focus on the combined ratio, which is an indicator of profitability from core underwriting operations. This should be 100% or less. Though in India, we have an additional cushion of 8-9% returns from the investment portfolio, from a long-term perspective, general insurers need to move towards a combined ratio of 100% or lower. In addition, factors such as strength of franchise, the management team and quality of reserving need to be looked at

Rishi Gupta

MD & CEO, Fino PayTech



Factors like team and its experience in executing projects successfully in the past and relationship with customers and vendors will be key. From the financial point of view, business model, cost, revenue and break-even points will be crucial. Each payments bank will have their own model and it is only three-five years when definitive numbers and valuations can be ascribed to these companies



In most cases, where the quality is high - a quality business, with high-quality management - valuations are not inexpensive. The timing also determines valuations. "When promoters bring their IPOs in good times, they benchmark their valuations to those of already listed companies in the same sector. In such times, most companies are already trading at high valuations, so promoters also offer their IPOs at high valuations," says Jatin Khemani, Managing Director, Stalwart Investment Advisors, a Delhi-based wealth management firm. Of course, the higher the valuations, the lower your probability of making money from the issue. If you have checked the quality of the business and quality of the management, and found both good, you can pay a reasonable to high valuation for an IPO. However, remember that doing the valuation exercise for IPOs is hampered by limited information. With an already-listed player, you have many years of operational performance and stock performance history, both of good and bad times. At best, retail investors compare the IPO valuation with that of other listed companies in the same sector. Such comparisons are quite inadequate. Though two companies could be in the same sector, they could be very different in terms of promoter quality, operational efficiency, vision, execution capability, and so on.

Take advantage of Asba

Asba (applications supported by blocked amount) has turned out to be a boon for retail investors. Earlier, when you applied for an IPO, the money would get deducted from your account. Even if allotted only a small number of shares or none at all, your money remained blocked for a long time. Asba has made the application process a lot simpler because the money stays in your account, though it does get locked. Whatever allotment you get, that amount is deducted and the rest is unblocked. So, an investor can apply for as much as he wants (the current limit for retail investors is Rs 2 lakh) without worrying about his money getting blocked for a long time. The problem is that the Asba facility is not available at all branches.

As it gradually spreads to all bank branches, more retail investors will be able to avail of the benefits.

What about new businesses?

Several new businesses, never been listed before, could enter the primary market in the near future. In fact, Infibeam (e-commerce) and Equitas (small payments bank) have recently launched their IPOs and as mentioned earlier, more sectors are expected to come. While evaluating any business, have a look at its number and details. Investors can also draw comfort, especially in the case of new-age businesses, from the presence of private equity (PE) and venture capitalist (VC) investors. Their presence usually indicates a lot of due-diligence has already been done on the company, it is being mentored, and is likely to have a high quality of corporate governance. "Make sure the PE/VC investors are either not exiting or exiting only partly from the IPO, which means they see great value in the company in the future," says Haldea.

Finally, remember the primary market is a seller's market. The promoters and PE/VC know much more about the company than you do. Therefore, it pays to approach this market with a high degree of caution.

TIPS FOR ANALYSING NEW SECTORS

Ecommerce

Education

Age  less the better

Past businesses  serial entrepreneur is not a good sign

Past investors

Better quality investors, higher chance of success

Reasons for exit- whether mandated or operational issues

Higher cash burn with high growth is a negative sign

Negative perception in media is bad

MFs

Higher the better

Vintage of fund management team is important

Consistency of returns on risk adjusted basis

Large and easy online presence is going to be extremely important in times to come

Presence in large distribution houses

Payments banks

Education

Age  less the better

Past businesses  serial entrepreneur is not a good sign

Whether established corporate- chances of success are higher with established companies

Better quality investors, higher chance of success

Reasons for exit- whether mandated or operational issues

Capital requirements

Physical presence requirement- lot of physical presence requires cost, which will delay break even

Negative perception in media is bad

General insurance

Govt or private sector

Private sector has done better

Motor vs non-motor  non-motor is good

Level of underwriting profits tells one about intrinsic profitability of business
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Saudi Arabia visit, External Affairs Minister is set to travel to Iran. She will be in Teheran on April 16 for a joint commission meeting. The visit is important against the background of the rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran for leadership of the Islamic world. Western sanctions on Iran are likely to be lifted fully and India, with historical ties with Iran, is well positioned in Asia to leverage the economic opportunities from this. Modi has visited Riyadh but not paid an official visit to Iran.
One person was killed and two others were injured when a pipeline explosion triggered a fire in Beijing today.

An explosion in an underground gas pipeline in Haidian District at about 1 PM, started a fire in a neighbouring residential building, authorities said.

Fire fighters rescued eight residents trapped in the building and evacuated more than 160 others, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

The blaze was put out around 2:30 PM with the help of 22 fire brigades.

Initial investigations suggest that the explosion was caused by construction workers accidentally damaging the pipeline.
Eleven people, including four children, were killed today in an accident involving a car, a motorcycle and a truck near Nakkapalli in Visakhapatnam district this afternoon.

The accident occured when one the tyres of the car, proceeding from Visakhapatnam towards Tuni, suddenly burst on the National Highway (NH)-16.

As a result, the driver lost control over the vehicle and hit a motorcycle and pushed it under a lorry coming from the opposite direction, an official statement issued by the Andhra Pradesh Information and Public Relations Department said, adding that some of the bodies got crushed beyond recognition.

A father-son duo riding the bike and nine of a family travelling in the car were killed on the spot.

The inmates of the car -- four children, three women and two men -- were identified as the members of one Srinivas' family from Gopalapatnam near Visakhapatnam.

The father-son duo on the motorbike belonged to S Rayavaram mandal in the district and the father was identified as an employee with Hetero Drugs, the release said.

Senior revenue and police officials rushed to the spot and supervised the rescue operation.

The bodies were shifted to the government hospital in Nakkapalli for postmortem.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister N China Rajappa and Leader of Opposition Y S Jaganmohan Reddy expressed grief over the tragedy and conveyed their sympathies to the bereaved families.

Naidu spoke to Visakhapatnam district Collector N Yuvaraj and enquired about the accident.
Two members of a Uttar Pradesh-based gang were today arrested for allegedly possessing two pistols in Medak district here, police said.

One tamncha (pistol) and 11 live rounds of bullets were also recovered from the possession of the accused - Kishan Kumar Singh and Shyam Kumar - , both native of Varanasi, an official attached with the Rajgopalpet police station said.

Acting on a tip-off that five persons from UP were engaged in a fight last night near Siddipet, police reached the spot and apprehended the duo while three persons fled away, he said.

One of the accused who sustained injuries and was taken to a government hospital, the officer said, adding a case has been registered and investigations are underway.
In a joint operation with the SSB, the district police today arrested two smugglers and seized a 698 gm gold Buddha idol from Bahadurganj in Bihar's Kishanganj district.

SSB Commandant Ajay Kumar and Bahadurganj police station SHO Sajjad Hussain said the two smugglers have been identified as Monazir Hussain and Nauraj Alam, both residents of Dahuawari village under Amour police station limits of the district.

Acting on a tip off, the police arrested the smugglers and seized the gold idol from LRP chowk in Bahadurganj when they were waiting for the person with whom they had sealed a deal to sell the idol for Rs 25 lakh, Hussain added.
About 265 prefecture-level officials were investigated for corruption andindiscipline inChina in 2015, 2.5 times the number in 2014, state media reported today.

Another 1,386 county-level officials were also investigated, 1.65 times the figure for 2014 and 15 times the number investigated in 2013, the People's Daily reported.

As a result, 41 prefecture-level and 311 county-level officials were sanctioned by the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s organisational departments.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in late 2012, inspectors have completed eight rounds of checks, covering all major provincial-level governments, large state-owned enterprises and central financial institutions.

Expanding the supervision net, the inspection is extending to the provincial and municipal level to promote good work styles and fight indiscipline, including corruption, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Thousands of officials including some top officials were punished in the anti-graft campaign launched by President Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2013.
An alleged fake currency racket was busted with the arrest of a Delhi-based trio as counterfeit notes of a face value of Rs 2.82 lakh were seized from their possession, police said today.

According to police, the three accused -- identified as Harish Kumar, Pankaj and Kanwaljeet Singh -- used to route the fake currency via West Bengal and Bihar.

Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) of Rs 2.82 lakh -- in notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 denomination -- have been seized from the accused.

Police said that Harish, in his late twenties and a driver by profession, was arrested on the basis of a tip-off and fake currency of Rs 2.50 lakh recovered from his possession which was wrapped in Hindi and Bengali-language newspaper sheets.

Harish then led police to Pankaj and Kanwaljeet, from whom fake notes of Rs 18,000 and Rs 14,000 face value were recovered.

"Harish disclosed that he met one Arjun Sharma in Tihar Jail in 2013 who was arrested in an FICN case. Sharma asked Harish to meet him after his release.

"In August/September, 2015, Arjun Sharma met Harish and introduced him to Munna Bhaiya, the kingpin based in Bettiah of Bihar who lured him into joining the illegal syndicate," said Joint Commissioner of Police (crime), Ravindra Yadav.

Yadav said that Harish thereafter started bringing fake currency into the Delhi-NCR region and circulating the same in the various marketplaces.

Harish told police he had brought fake currency of a face value of approximately Rs 35 lakh into Delhi in about 10 consignments and had distributed it using his local network.
The men rescued in this tale of three castaways were not named Tom Hanks, or Gilligan, or Robinson Crusoe. Though they might as well have been.

In a scene straight from Hollywood, or a New Yorker cartoon, a US Navy plane spotted the word "help" spelled out in palm fronds on a beach on a deserted island in the remote Pacific.

The three men, missing for three days after a wave overtook the skiff they were traveling in, were found waving their orange life jackets on the tiny Micronesian island of Fanadik, several hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea, officials said yesterday.

The men's families reported them missing on Tuesday after they failed to show up at the Micronesian island of Weno, where they were traveling from their home island, Pulap.

"Fortunately for them, they were all wearing life jackets and were able to swim to the deserted island," US Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said.

A local boat picked the men up and took them to a hospital. McKenzie said she didn't have information on the men's condition Saturday, but officials told the Washington Post they were not injured.

Two bulk carriers searched a combined 17 hours for the men as part of AMVER, a US Coast Guard voluntary search and rescue program. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and ask them to help.

In the last two weeks, 15 people have been rescued in the Pacific with the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews, the US Coast Guard said.
Balloting will be held in 92 seats in Assam and West Bengal on day two of the high-stake Assembly polls tomorrow to decide the fate of 688 candidates.

61 of Assam's 126 constituencies will vote in the second and final phase, while electors in 31 seats will cast their votes in West Bengal.

525 candidates are in the fray for 61 constituencies in Assam where polling for 65 seats was held on April four.

The ruling Congress, led by Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who is hoping to return for a fourth term, is locked in a keen triangular contest with BJP-AGP-BPF alliance and AIUDF with the issue of infiltration from Bangladesh hitting the spotlight.

Congress is contesting in 57 seats, opposition AIUDF in 47, BJP in 35 while its allies--the Bodo Peoples' Front in 10 and the Asom Gana Parishad in 19. The CPI(M) is contesting in nine seats, the CPI in five, and Independents in 214.

Among prominent candidates in fray are cabinet ministers Rakibul Hussain, Chandan Sarkar and Nazrul Islam for the Congress, former two-time AGP Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta, AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal and former Congress minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who led a dissidence against the Chief Minister and joined BJP last year.

Over 50,000 polling personnel have been deployed for the second phase even as security has been tightened across the constituencies, particularly those in four Bodoland Territorial Area Districts where NDFB(S) ultras are active and in Goalpara district which witnessed a bomb blast recently.

The elections in West Bengal tomorrow for 31 seats will seal the fate of some top opposition leaders where 163 candidates, including 21 women, are in the fray in the 31 seats of West Midnapore, Bankura and Burdwan districts. The Assembly strength is 294. Polling for 18 Assembly constituencies was held on April 4.

Around 70 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes.

The hustings will witness a triangular contest among the ruling Trinamool Congress, Left Front-Congress combine, and BJP. All of them have fielded candidates in all the 31 seats.

Five-time CPI-M MLA from Narayangarh and Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra, senior state Congress leader Manas Bhuniya from Sabang are among the major candidates in this phase.

91-year-old Gyan Singh Sohanpal, the senior most member in the assembly, is in the fray again from Kharagpur Sadar seat where he is pitted against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

Two prominent newbies - Bengali film actor Soham Chakraborty and Col Diptanshu Chaudhury (retd), who had fought in the Kargil War - are trying their luck in politics on Trinamool Congress and BJP tickets respectively.
Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini has confessed to being "the man in the hat" caught on video with suicide bombers at Brussels airport last month, images that had sparked a massive manhunt.

Abrini made the admission yesterday, on the day he was charged with terrorist murders over the November attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead, prosecutors said.

Terror suspect Osama Krayem, a Swedish national, received the same charges over his role in a suicide bombing at a Brussels metro station on March 22, which occurred an hour after the airport blasts. A total of 32 people died in the coordinated attacks.

The latest arrests strengthened the theory that the same cell carried out both France and Belgium's worst-ever terror outrages, claimed by the Islamic State group.

The pair were among six arrested in raids across Brussels on Friday. Two were later released but the two others were charged with complicity for allegedly helping Abrini and Krayem.

The judge leading the Belgian investigation into the November 13 Paris attacks charged Abrini "with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

The Belgian of Moroccan origin was the last known Paris suspect still at large. He had been spotted on CCTV cameras at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks there. In the car with him was fellow Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who is now awaiting extradition from Belgium to France.

Prosecutors also confirmed Abrini's connection to the Brussels airport attack.

The 31-year-old "confessed his presence at the crime scene" when they confronted him with evidence, including footage of a mystery man in a hat and light-coloured jacket seen next to the two suicide attackers as they walked through the departure hall pushing trolleys loaded with bomb-filled bags.

"He is indeed the third man present at the Brussels national airport attacks," they said in a statement.

"He explained having thrown away his vest (jacket) in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterward."



The airport images had triggered a furious manhunt for the so-called "man in the hat", who swiftly became one of Europe's most wanted men.

Police stepped up the search on Thursday when they released a video tracing the fugitive's escape route after the blasts and appealed for the public's help in identifying him.

The new footage showed the suspect fleeing the airport and making his way on foot back to central Brussels, appearing calm and composed, before surveillance cameras lose track of him.
With mercury set to rise steeply in the coming months, air-conditioner makers such as LG, Samsung, Panasonic and Haier are expecting as much as 30 per cent surge in sales this season on the back of easy financing options and arrival of energy efficient models.

Makers are expecting metros to drive sales and hoping that high-end smart app-controlled units and inverter ACs would contribute up to 15 per cent to their sales.

"Overall, we are targeting 30 per cent and above growth in AC sales," LG India, Business Head AC, Vijaya Babu told PTI.

The makers are also unfazed about the unseasonal rains last month in the Northern region, which accounts around 35 per cent of the total sales of the industry.

"Temporary erratic weather condition in the first few days of March definitely brought down the temperature in North but this year has seen an early onset of summers, right from the month of February and this will bring surge in AC sales across India," said Rajeev Bhutani, Vice President, Consumer Electronics, Samsung India Electronics.

"The industry has seen sustained growth with positive sentiment in the market towards the end of 2015. While metros will sustain the momentum, non-metros will drive penetration in the coming year with easy financing schemes, which give customers the option to upgrade," Bhutani added.

According to President & CEO of Panasonic, India and South Asia, Manish Sharma: "Most of the weather reports predict highest ever temperatures this summer, which is an optimistic sign for the industry."



The companies are also expecting sales to grow in rural areas this season because of pent-up demand and factors such as easy financing schemes.

"In spite of droughts, the demand from rural markets is encouraging... The ratio of urban to rural AC sales is likely to be 60:40 this year," Sharma added.

Besides, makers are also expecting a good contribution to the sales volume from the online channel.

Haier India President Eric Braganza said, "We are looking 30 per cent growth in online sales and we have tied up with leading players such as Snapdeal and Flipkart."



The companies have lined up energy efficient models both in split and widows AC segments although consumers are now preferring split AC because it comes with a latest technology that helps save energy without compromising on cooling.

"We can see a paradigm shift in the consumer behavior, there is a shift or a trend from preferring window ACs to now split air conditioners, earlier the ratio was 50:50, wherein now the trend has skewed towards 70:30 across all the brands or competition," Braganza said.

Endorsing his views, Bhutani said: "Customers want their AC to look aesthetically good and run at minimum noise levels. The new trend of floral pattern has also made split ACs the first choice for customers.

Panasonic is expecting a good growth in the inverter AC



segment.

"The inverter AC segment has seen a good growth of 27 per cent last year and this trend is likely to continue. The app-controlled unit, which is still at a nascent stage, will grow steadily only in certain metro regions," said Sharma.

To boost sales, makers have started 360 degree campaign on TV, print and other medium.

"Branding and display have been a key initiative this season to highlight the presence at the ground level and the share of spending is 25 to 30 per cent more as compared to the last season," he said.
After a lull of nearly seven months, the ceasefire on the Line of Control was violated again today with army resorting to mortar shelling and firing in Poonch sector, a development that comes amid a fresh chill in relations between the two countries.

"The army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch sector of J&K," Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said here.

He said the army resorted to heavy mortar and automatic weapon fire in the Shahpur area of Poonch sector at 0430 hours.

"Our troops responded appropriately and no casualties or damage to our troops was reported," the spokesman added.

The ceasefire violation comes after nearly seven months as last such incident took place on September 18, 2015 in the Balakote sector of Poonch district.

"Today's ceasefire violation is the first major such incident of 2016," a senior army officer said.

Last year, 16 civilians were killed and 71 others injured in 405 incidents of cross-border firing by Pakistan, the officer said.

While 253 incidents of ceasefire violations took place along the International Border (IB), 152 incidents were reported along the LoC, he said.

Around 8,000 people were temporarily affected due to the ceasefire violations and had to be shifted to safer locations.

Introducing a fresh chill in ties between the two neighbours, Pakistan had earlier this month said the bilateral peace process stands "suspended" while indicating that it would not allow Indian investigators looking into the Pathankot air force base attack to travel there.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, Pakistan army accused India of resorting to firing across the LoC in the Neza Pir sector.

The Pakistan army said "heavy unprovoked firing and shelling" started at around 11:40 PM on Saturday and went on until about 4:45 AM.

It said that Pakistan Army troops provided a "befitting reponse" to the firing. No loss of life or property has been reported so far, according to Pakistan army.

The two countries had agreed to border ceasefire in 2003.
Regional carrier has said it plans to lease another five Embraer jets this fiscal, which will raise its fleet size to nine aircraft by March next year.

The airline expects to improve its operational performance going forward with the induction of new plane both in terms of passenger load factor and yield, a senior airline official said.

The airline will also phase out the fourth and last 67-seater E-170 plane with 110-seater E190 by this month end.

The Vijayawada based airline currently has four Embraer jets in the fleet, with three of them being E-190s and one E-170, with which it operates 32 daily services to nine domestic destinations.

"We are leasing the fourth E 190 by this month end, which will replace our last E170 in the fleet. With this induction we will have an all 110-seater E 190 fleet," an official told PTI.

"We are also in talks with our lessors for leasing of five more such planes as we are looking at a fleet size of nine planes in this fiscal to support our pan-India operations plans," the official said adding expects to receive national operator's permit from DGCA in the coming months.

National capital Delhi and Bhubaneswar are the two destinations, among others, which the airline has finalised to fly once the regulator's nod come by, he said.

The LEPL group promoted regional air operator had early in January 2014 placed a firm order for 50 jets with Embraer, in a deal valued at $2.94 billion under a 20-year fleet- management plan.

Air Costa has options for an additional 50 purchase rights for E190-E2 jets as well.

The delivery of these planes is expected to commence from January 2018.

"With the induction of higher seating capacity planes and proposed pan-India operations, we are expecting both our load factor and revenue earned per ticket to go up significantly this fiscal," the official said without any specifics.

On the issue of a higher rate flight cancellations, primarily in the first two months of this year, the official said that it was due to the phasing out of E170s from the fleet and replace them with E190s.

"Now when the exercise of fleet conversion is nearly completed, the entire schedule should be back to normal," he said.

In February, Air Costa did not operate almost 1/5th of its total services as its flight cancellation rate in that month stood at 19.95 per cent as against an industry average of 0.7 per cent.
Horrified by the suffering of the wave of refugees seeking shelter in Europe, the sitarist Anoushka Shankar has turned their plight into a musical journey.

Shankar, backed by collaborators including the actress Vanessa Redgrave and the rapper M.I.A., has offered an interpretation of Europe's migrant crisis on her latest album, "Land of Gold."



Yet the album is as much a personal reflection as a political statement. Shankar recorded the album soon after giving birth to her second child, Mohan, at a time when a historic number of people were entering Europe from violence-wracked Syria and other troubled nations.

"That incongruence of sitting in the safety of my own home being able to provide for my baby while seeing hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the most horrific situations of war, and so often being denied the basic right to safety after unimaginable journeys, that just felt so utterly heartbreaking," Shankar told AFP in New York as she started her global tour.

"Music is for me at least a way of responding to the world and processing my feelings, not always consciously," she said.

The 34-year-old five-time Grammy nominee is the daughter of Ravi Shankar, the late Indian maestro who introduced classical sitar to a Western audience.

Born in London, where she now lives, she was raised largely in Southern California with lengthy stints in India -- a cross-cultural background that gave her even more of a connection to the migration issue.

"It's a bit like a really scary lottery," she said of her upbringing.

"I have the fortune of living in freedom and being able to grow up across cultures," she said. "My life is certainly a product of that. I believe in a cross-cultural world where we can respect each other and live with each other.

"It sounds crazy to even have to say that.
Rapper Azealia Banks has called for the legalisation of marijuana across America, during her latest Twitter rant.

The 24-year-old "212" hitmaker thinks everyone should be permitted to smoke or use the illegal substance and took to Twitter to share her opinions with fans and suggest a number of other reforms for the country she thinks are long overdue, reported Female First.

"Just legalize ALL drugs in Vegas and Miami, impose a 10pm curfew for those under 18, impose a huge "party hardy tax"... Legalise marijuana in all states. America is missing out on lots of tourism money by not legalizing weed, I think," she tweeted.
Bangladesh's Supreme Court today deferred till May 3 the hearing of a petition filed by fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami seeking review of his death sentence upheld by the top court for war crimes during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan.

Four-member appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha deferred the hearing after the defence pleaded for more time.

"The Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) granted defence the time for the preparedness for the argument...But the court simultaneously said it would accept no petition seeking further deferment of the review hearing," attorney general Mahbubey Alam told reporters.

Nizami's chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said he prayed to the court to shift the date for hearing citing his personal difficulties.

72-year-old Nizami on March 29 filed the petition after the top court rejected his appeal seeking the revocation of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal's 2014 verdict.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on October 29, 2014 and after an appeal hearing the apex court upheld the verdict on January 6 this year.

The prison authorities on March 16 served Nizami the death warrant.

The option to seek presidential mercy provides the only remaining hope ahead of Nizami's execution if the apex court rejects the review petition after the hearing.

Nizami was a minister in the past BNP-led four-party alliance government with his Jamaat being its crucial ally.

Two ministers of the same cabinet Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of BNP and Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed were earlier executed for the war crimes.

Leader of infamous Al-Badr force in 1971, Nizami is the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity whose fate now hangs in the balance.

He was found guilty of systematic killings of more than 450 people alone in his own village home in northwester Pabna siding with the Pakistani troops during the liberation war.

Nizami at that time was also the chief of the student front of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.

(REOPENS FGN 22)



Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed, who was also Nizami's top aide in 1971, was executed on November 22 last year along with Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of BNP, currently the key-opposition outside parliament.

They were hanged after President Abdul Hamid rejected their mercy petitions.

Bangladesh has so far executed four war crimes convicts since the belated process to expose to trial the top Bengali perpetrators of 1971 atrocities in line with the electoral commitment of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2008.

Two others -- former Jamaat chief Ghulam Azam and ex-BNP minister Abdul Alim --- earlier were handed down "imprisonment until death" penalty instead of capital punishment on grounds of their old age as they exceeded 80.

They subsequently died in the prison cells of a specialised state-run hospital due to old age ailments.
Bangladeshi secular bloggers should "control" their writings, the country's home minister said today even as he asserted that home-grown militants and not the Bangladeshi branch of al Qaeda are responsible for the grisly murder of a 26-year-old secular blogger.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan's statement came days after Ansar al-Islam, the Bangladeshi division of al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent, claimed responsibility for the killing of blogger Nazimuddin Samad last week.

Samad's death marks the sixth time a Bangladeshi writer of atheist material has been killed in 14 months.

Khan said the issue is not freedom of expression but tolerance of other religions.

"The bloggers, they should control their writing," he told CNN.

"Our country is a secular state. ... I want to say that people should be careful not to hurt anyone by writing anything -- hurt any religion, any people's beliefs, any religious leaders," Khan said.

He said that home-grown militants and not the Bangladeshi branch of al Qaeda are responsible for Samad's murder.

Khan said authorities are investigating two to three people in connection with the attack, but have not arrested them because officials are still trying to confirm their involvement.

Bangladeshi authorities have previously denied that foreign terror groups such as al Qaeda or ISIS have taken root in the majority-Muslim country.

Instead, they have often claimed homegrown extremists are responsible for such attacks.

Samad, a graduate student, was on his way home from evening classes on Wednesday when three to four people circled him.

"First the attackers hacked Samad with machetes, then shot him," Dhaka Senior Assistant Police Commissioner Nurul Amin had said.

Police said the attackers then fled the scene on motorcycles. No arrests have been made.

In its statement claiming responsibility, al Qaeda accused Samad of being an "enemy of Allah." It listed three of Samad's posts on Facebook going back to 2013 as examples of his insults against Islam.

The group has effectively declared war against atheist writers who dare to challenge al Qaeda's strict interpretation of Islam.

It has also threatened to target judges, lawyers, engineers and doctors "who don't allow others to follow the rulings of the Islamic Shariah."



The Bangladeshi government has vowed to bring killers to justice.

But members of the besieged "free-thinker" intellectual community in Bangladesh say they do not trust the police, because in recent years authorities prosecuted several writers for "insulting religion" in their published work, the report said.
A terror suspect arrested earlier this week by Belgian authorities in connection with the attack on Brussels airport last month was scouting for possible targets in the UK last year, a media report here said today.

Mohamed Abrini, who has been described as the "man in the hat" airport bomber after his image was caught on CCTV at Brussels airport, had spent about a week in Britain in July 2015.

According to 'The Sunday Times', 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin came to Britain to look for potential targets for a "vast" jihadist network.

Images including railway stations and shopping centres were allegedly found on his phone.

Abrini was seen on CCTV before and after the attack on Brussels airport on March 22 and captured in Brussels on Friday after an international hunt.

"We confronted him with the video evidence. He had to admit it was him," a police spokesperson said.

Belgian prosecutors have said Abrini had also told police that he threw the white jacket that he was also wearing at the time of the attack into a rubbish bin and had sold the hat.

A statement said, "He [Abrini] is indeed the third man present at the Brussels national airport attacks. He explained having thrown away his vest [jacket] in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards."



Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were found in a Renault Clio used in the attacks in Paris in November as well as inside an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood of Brussels used by the airport bombers.
Ahead of Ambedkar's anniversary later this week, Congress today accused BSP supremo Mayawati of 'hijacking' Dalit community in the name of icons and said the party has exposed it through 'Bheem Jyoti Yatra'.

On the conclusion of third and last leg of 'Bheem Jyoti Yatra', UP PCC chief Nirmal Khatri accused Mayawati of not following the path shown by two Dalit icons -- Ambedkar and Kanshiram -- but instead functioning in her own style.

He said Ambedkar and Kanshiram wanted to abolish caste system, but Mayawati strengthened it.

Khatri said BSP possibly was the first political party to constitute caste based committees.

He alleged that Mayawati misled Dalits, but Congress exposed her through 'Bheem Jyoti Yatra' undertaken in 55 districts, covering a distance of 10,000 km during which more than 1,000 corner meetings were organised to propagate the ideals of Dalit icons and remove BSP's misgivings from the minds of the people.

To a query, Khatri said Congress would go it solo in the 2017 UP Assembly elections.

"We will have no electoral understanding with either ruling Samajwadi Party or opposition BSP in the state," he said, adding both the parties were dancing to the tunes of BJP.

About possibility of coalition with RLD and JD(U), he said if there was any such possibility, then he was of the view that it should not be shared with the media.

On allocation of tickets, he said it would completed by June.
British army dogs have now been equipped with goggles, boots and ear protectors to keep them safe while on front-line duty in harsh environment.

Each dogs from the 105 Military Working Dog Squadron (MWDS) now taking part in a major military exercise in Jordan has its own body armour, ear protectors which allow them to be exposed to loud noises and eye goggles, for sand-storms and helicopter landings.

They even have specially-developed dog boots, which allow them to safely walk over dangerous liquids and jagged ground - just like human soldiers, the Sun reported.

For example, six-year-old Scooby - who is trained to sniff out explosives in vehicles and luggage - wears the protective gear while out on patrol in the Jordanian desert.

The springer spaniel is one of 35 dogs from the MWDS based in Sennelager, Germany, currently taking part in Exercise Shamal Storm in the Jordanian desert, the biggest military training exercise in a decade.

Scooby, who has been working for five years, completed a tour of Afghanistan in 2012 as a search dog.

The training exercise is to test whether the British armed forces could successfully mobilise in the event of a full-scale operation, the report said.

The loyal animals are in the Middle East to undergo rigorous training and are being put through their paces so they are strong enough to deploy anywhere in the world, military officials said.

Warrant Officer Steve Hood said each of the 35 dogs will get through on average 600 grams of feed each per day, over 75 days.

"Everyone has got their own objectives to achieve out here. The units can find out how military working dogs can support them using our capabilities. Equally, it gives my handlers experience in working in these environments." Hood said.

"The dogs out here aren't panting, they are used to the environment and have adapted to it. Military working dogs are still so relevant in modern warfare. They are so adaptable," Hood said.

In the past, dogs have served alongside British troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The dogs protect soldiers on the ground by sniffing out explosives, weapons and ammunition and some can even alert their handlers when enemy fighters are on the approach.

Major Ross Curnick of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, said it is important for the army dogs to train away from their home base.

He said: "It allows you to practice moving your animals, your people, your equipment, to prove we have the ability and capability to deploy and work anywhere in the world.
Two brothers have been sentenced to life by a court here for killing their sibling more than 10 years ago.

Additional District Judge I D Dubey has sentenced to life Ashfaq and Azad for killing their brother Istakhar Khan in 2006 in Toly Mohalla of Naujhil town of the district, government counsel Virendra Lavania said today.

Besides Ashfaq and Azad, their brother-in-law Naseer was also awarded the same sentence.

In his order on Friday, the judge also slapped fine of Rs 20,000 each on the three convicts.

Istakhar was killed on January 10, 2006 when he was returning home with his daughter Ajum at about 10.00 AM.
India has full indemnity from its former promoter, Energy of the UK, against levy of any tax for past deeds, including the two-year Rs 20,495 crore retrospective tax demand, new owner Anil Agarwal has said.

India was in April 2014 slapped with a tax demand of Rs 20,495 crore for not deducting withholding tax on alleged capital gains made by its erstwhile parent company, Cairn Energy, in 2006-07 when it reorganised the India business.

Agarwals Vedanta Group acquired Cairn India in 2011 and in the sale purchase agreement Cairn Energy has indemnified it from any tax liability for past years, he told PTI here.

Our tax demand is purely on the basis of tax demand on the principal company, that is Cairn Energy. We have absolutely nothing to do with retrospective tax. It is between them (Cairn Energy and the income tax department), Agarwal said.

The tax notice on Cairn India came three months after the income tax department using retrospective legislation slapped a Rs 10,247-crore tax notice on Cairn Energy in January 2014. In February this year, the department issued a final assessment order seeking over Rs 29,000 crore in tax from Cairn Energy including Rs 18,800 crore in interest.

On the rationale for the notice on Cairn India when the capital gains were allegedly made by its erstwhile promoter, Cairn Energy, Agarwal said, The government probably as a precaution got to us.



They wanted to be sure that if something goes wrong there, they have something here, he said. It is not a liability at all for Cairn India nor are we party to it. It is purely of Cairn Energy.



Cairn India had moved Delhi High Court against the tax demand n April last year and the next date of hearing is April 18.

The tax demand was in respect of Cairn UK Holdings Ltd, a subsidiary of Cairn Energy Plc, transferring shares of Cairn India Holdings Ltd to Cairn India as part of an internal group reorganization in 2006-07, resulting in Rs 24,503.50 crore of capital gains, preceding an initial public offering (IPO) of shares by Cairn India.

Cairn India had also slapped an arbitration notice under the UK-India Investment Treaty but arbitrators or judges to decide on the tax case haven't been appointed yet.

"Just notice has been exchanged. Notice has gone. We are still looking at what happens to Cairn Energy," he said alluding to separate arbitration initiated by the British firm against the tax demand.

Asked if Cairn Energy should accept the government offer to settle the case by paying the principal tax amount with interest and penalties being waived off, Agarwal said, "it is for them to decide."



"Government is keen to settle the dispute. I hope something comes out. As far as we are concerned, our company is not the one which has defaulted," he added.
Amid the raging debate on nationalism and complaints about insult to the anthem and flag, the Centre has asked the states to ensure "strict compliance" of the relevant laws violations of which attract three years' imprisonment.

In a communication to all states and union territories, the Home Ministry has said it has received complaints from various quarters about disrespect being shown to the anthem and flag and asked them to ensure their honour is protected.

A copy each of 'The Prevention of Insults to the Honour Act 1971' and 'Flag Code of India, 2002' are enclosed to the letter to the states and UTs asking them to ensure "strict compliance of the provisions contained in the Act and the Flag Code".

The offence is punishable with imprisonment for a term of three years, or fine, or both.

The central government's missive came amid the contentious debate on nationalism which was triggered by an event at the Jawaharlal Nehru University to commemorate the hanging of Parliament attack case convict Afzal Guru.

"The of India is played or sung on various occasions. Instructions have been issued from time to time about the correct versions of the anthem, the occasions on which these are to be played or sung and about the need for paying respect to the anthem by observance of proper decorum on such occasions," the communication said.

The full version of the anthem and its playing time is approximately 52 seconds while a short version consisting of the first and last lines of the national anthem is also played on certain occasions. Playing time of the short version is about 20 seconds.

Referring to the national flag, the Home Ministry letter said its attention has been drawn to the national flag made of plastic being used in place of paper flags at important events.

Since plastic flags are not biodegradable like the paper flags, these do not get decomposed for a long time and are harmful to the environment.

Further, ensuring appropriate disposal of national flags made of plastic with the dignity it deserves is a problem.

"It may also be noted that as per Section 2 of 'The Prevention of Insults to the National Honour Act 1971', whoever in any public place or in any other place within public view burns, mutilates, defaces, defiles, disfigures, destroys, tramples upon or otherwise shows disrespect to or brings into contempt (whether by words, either spoken or written or by acts) the Indian national flag or any part thereof, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or fine, or with both," it said.
Congress today accused the Narendra Modi dispensation of indulging in "undemocratic" practices to "destabilise and dismiss" governments in the party-ruled states.

"The Narendra Modi government at the Centre has been indulging in worst kind of undemocratic campaign of destabilising and dismissing duly-elected Congress governments in states after BJP realised that it cannot achieve its dream of 'Congress-Mukt Bharat' through elections," AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni said.

She accused Modi and BJP President Amit Shah of destabilising and dismissing Congress-led governments in Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

"Imposition of President's rule is the most undemocratic way which amounted to murder of democracy," she said while addressing party workers here.

Soni asked BJP and PDP as to what transpired between the two parties for three months after the demise of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, which led to change of their hearts.

"The two parties need to explain to the people if there is any secret understanding. What happened to BJP's slogan of preventing PDP (Baap-Beti party) from coming to power? It exposes the political opportunism and its lust for power," she said.

On the developments in Srinagar NIT, Soni reiterated the demands of the party's state unit for a judicial inquiry.

Premier educational institutions should not be used for any kind undue political motives, she said.

Reiterating the commitment of Congress to ensuring adequate share to women in every sphere of life, Soni said it was Congress which formulated policies for their uplift and to ensure their participation right from panchayats to Parliament.

She expressed concern over the continued incidents of violenceagainst women in various parts of the country and said more effective steps are needed to check these.

Lashing out at BJP for its "divisive politics", she asked the party workers to defeat such designs and not allow the people to be misled by the "false propaganda" of BJP.

"After it failed to fulfil any of its poll promises, BJP is harping on other issues to divert the attention of the people, whereas Congress has a history of sacrifices for the sake of nation and it needs no lesson from anyone on nationalism," she said.
A cloth merchant was shot dead by unidentified persons here, police said today.

Rajesh Agarwal, who owned a cloth shop at Jhanda crossing, was shot at by unidentified persons after brief altercation last night, the police said.

Agarwal was rushed to the district hospital where he died during treatment, they said.

The traders closed their shops today to protest the gunning down of Agarwal and demanded immediate arrest of the culprits.
The country was today left shocked and saddened as it woke up to a massive temple tragedy in Kerala, with the President and the Prime Minister joining the people in mourning the loss of life in the incident, which brought into focus the question of fireworks safety.

At least 100 people were killed and 383 injured in the major fire at around 3.30 AM that engulfed the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi Temple complex packed with thousands of people near Kollum during a display of fireworks held by the temple management despite the authorities denying permission for it.

"Fire at temple in Kollam is heartrending and shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured," Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who visited the site, said. He said the horrific tragedy cannot be described in words.

President Pranab Mukerjee also conveyed "heartfelt condolences on loss of lives in Kerala temple fire".

Praying for the departed souls and well being of the injured, Congress President Sonia Gandhi asked Kerala government to ensure ample and immediate relief measures while party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi too visited the site and the hospital to inquire about the injured.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, BJP Chief Amit Shah, chief ministers, governors and leaders of various parties expressed grief over the tragedy.

Expressing shock and grief over the incident, CPI leader D Raja said the state government and temple authorities should answer if they had taken adequate safety measures.

"There are several issues which need to be answered by the state government and the temple authorities. ...Whenever there is temple festival, thousands of people gather but were there adequate safety arrangements."



National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said his thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. "God be with them in this hour of darkness & despair," he tweeted.

Indian Medical Association in Kerala decided to move the Kerala High Court seeking a ban on display of fireworks which are common in the state during festivals and political programmes.

IMA Kerala president Dr A V Jayakrishnan said their Thiruvananthapuram branch President R C Sreekumar would file a writ petition before the High Court, seeking to curb use of firecrackers.

The mishap occurred as sparks of the fireworks during the festivities fell on the store room 'Kambapura' where crackers were stored, leading to many explosions which were heard over a radius of one kilometre. The temple complex is around 70 kms from state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

A large number of people died when concrete chunks and iron grills from the structures fell on those who had gathered to watch the festivities, according to eyewitnesses.

Pankajakshi Amma, on whose complaint the Kollam collector had denied permission to the Puttingal Devi temple authorities to conduct the fireworks display, today said she would continue her fight and resort to legal steps to ensure a total ban.

Pankajakshi Amma's house, located about 50 metres from the tragedy site, was damaged too in the mishap.

She and her family had approached the district administration requesting a ban on the fireworks display this year.Though revenue officials had visited them to verify the complaint and take evidence and informed them that there was a stay on the display, it was, however, held, her son-in law Prakash said.
Democrat presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders today continued his winning streak against frontrunner Hillary Clinton in Wyoming as Republican Ted Cruz swept all delegates in Colorado against Donald Trump just days before the all-important New York primary.

The 74-year-old Vermont senator registered his stunning eighth win out of the last nine contests - including one that counted the votes of Democrats living abroad.

"All right. bulletin. We just won Wyoming," Sanders told supporters in New York amid cheers.

He finished 12 points ahead of the former secretary of state with 56-44 per cent of the vote in Wyoming, the smallest state in the Democratic nomination race.

The state - which is overwhelmingly Republican - only awards 14 delegates, meaning Sanders barely puts a dent in Clinton's more than 200-delegate lead.

Today's primary gives each candidate seven delegates. That helps Clinton maintain her lead over Sanders.

The former secretary of state has 1,287 delegates based on primaries and caucuses to Sanders' 1,037. When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton has 1,756, or 74 per cent of the number needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has 1,068.

Speaking later, Sanders - who locked horns with Clinton over trade and the so-called Panama Papers scandal this week - said: "I think it's fair to say that when we began this campaign we were considered to be a fringe candidate.

"I think that it is very fair to say that we were way, way behind during the first half of this contest, but we are having - to say the least - a very strong second half, and we are closing very fast."



Sanders has been consistently trying to chip away at Clinton's big lead in the number of delegates needed to secure the party's nomination.

The eventual margin of victory was slimmer than what some experts had anticipated but represented a convincing victory for the democratic socialist in one of the most conservative states in the country.

Meanwhile in the Republican camp, Cruz, the 45-year-old senator from Texas, finished Colorado's delegate fight with overwhelming victory, picking all 13 of the final delegates up for grabs to complete a clean sweep of the state as reward for a carefully organised campaign.

"Thank you Colorado for another resounding victory!" Cruz tweeted.

"Today was another resounding victory for conservatives, Republicans, and Americans who care about the future of our country," the Cruz campaign said in a statement.

Cruz has now won all 34 delegates up for grabs in the state and is now fewer than 200 delegates behind Trump in the race to the 1,237 needed to clinch the Republican nomination.

The latest victory of both Sanders and Cruz is seen as a big morale booster heading into the crucial New York primary on April 19.

Following the Colorado results, the CBS delegate



scoreboard stands at Trump 743, Cruz 540, and John Kasich 143. Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign, has 167 delegates.

Cruz told his supporters in Colorado that it is easy to talk about making America great again - "you can even print that on a baseball cap", in a jibe at Trump.

But that the more important question is, he said, which candidate understands "the principles and values that made America great in the first place".

In a report, CNBC called Trump's campaign as "disorganised and frustrated".

"Ted Cruz finished Colorado's delegate fight the way he started it: With overwhelming victory. Donald Trump finished it the way he started as well: With a disorganised and frustrated campaign plagued by mistakes," it said.

The report added that Trump's aides set expectations at rock bottom heading into the contest, citing the state's unfavorable demographics and a complicated process that empowers local party activists to vote on delegates.

It was clear in both the camps that the hopefuls have set eyes on big trove of delegates in New York, America's largest city and one of its most diverse.

There are 95 delegates up for grabs for Republicans and 291 for Democrats.

A raucous cheer went up as Sanders got word of his Wyoming win from his wife, Jane, midway through a rally in Queens.

Calling Wyoming "a beautiful, beautiful state", Sanders said: "Now that we are in the second half of this campaign, we are going to state after state which I think have a more progressive outlook.

"We are in this race to win."



In Brooklyn, Clinton said she needs to "win big" in New York's primary to become the Democratic presidential nominee and "go after Republicans full-time."



Speaking in the loft space in a heavily Hispanic neighborhood just hours after losing to Sanders in the Wyoming presidential caucus, she said that she wants to "send a strong message" in the New York primary and start unifying the Democratic Party.

Clinton also found a rare point of agreement with Trump on the matter of New York values but criticised Republicans for making anti-immigration statements a "core of their campaign".

She said election of Democrats will protect the US economy.

"It's a fact that our economy does better when we have a Democrat in the White House," she said.

Meanwhie, Cruz warned Jewish donors that Trump could trigger a general election "bloodbath" for the Republican Party.

"If Donald Trump is the nominee, it is an absolute disaster for Republicans, for conservatives and for the country," he said, adding that Trump would jeopardise control of the House and the Senate and tilt the balance of power at the Supreme Court away from conservatives.
National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) today said it will issue notices to the District Magistrate and Police Commissioner here, days after three Dalit siblings were allegedly barred from appearing in the final examinations by a private school as their father failed to deposit their fees.

"Not allowing Dalit students from appearing for the exam just because they couldn't pay the fees on time is a matter of grave concern. No school has the authority to deny any student permission to take exams just because they are unable to pay the fees," NCSC vice president Rajkumar Verka said.

"The Commission will soon issue notices to the District Magistrate and Police Commissioner and will seek report on the issue. It will take action against those responsible," he said, adding they "cannot play with the lives of these children."



Earlier, Balwinder Singh, a driver, had said that he had requested the St Soldier School authorities to give him time till March 20 to pay the pending fees of last two months but they agreed to wait till March 10 and, as he was unable to deposit it, his children were not allowed to appear in exams.

Meanwhile, school Principal Pratibha, refuting the allegation, said, "The students were not barred from appearing in the exam. They had appeared in the examinations conducted before March 10 but later they stopped coming to school on their own.
Amid allegations that CNG sticker is being sold for Rs 1,000, Delhi government has started close monitoring of the distribution of these stickers at a CNG station near CGO complex in Lodhi Road.

Delhi Transport Minister Gopal Rai said that government has installed CCTV cameras at the station to keep a strict vigil on the staff distributing CNG stickers and if any irregularities are found, strict action will be taken.

"Since the allegations emerged that irregularities are being adopted in the distribution of CNG stickers, government has started close monitoring of the CNG station from Friday.

"An official of Indraprastha Gas Limited has been suspended and government has registered an FIR against him for indulging in malpractice," Rai told PTI.

Ved Prakash, a member of Aam Aadmi Sena, a breakaway faction of Aam Aadmi Party, yesterday hurled a shoe at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a press conference when he was briefing reporters on the roll out of the odd-even scheme.

In the middle of CM's speech, Prakash stood up, asking what the government has done about a sting he had carried out on Friday in which he had allegedly caught the staff of the CNG station at CGO complex selling CNG stickers for Rs 1,000.

Under the odd-even scheme, it is required for CNG-run cars for having such stickers to get exemption from the road-rationing plan starting from April 15.

Chief Minister Kejriwal yesterday said that his government was seriously considering implementing the odd-even plan for 15 days every month.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia today ordered the termination of the services of five government school principals for allegedly being involved in financial irregularities.

Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, said the move is intended to send out "a clear message that there is zero tolerance for corruption" in the AAP government.

"Have decided to remove principals of five schools from their jobs after finding evidence of financial irregularities in school-welfare fund, scholarship fund, salary and admission," the deputy chief minister tweeted in Hindi.

An official statement said the services of the principal of the Government Boys' Senior Secondary School at Nithari has been terminated over his alleged role in irregularities to the tune of Rs 30 lakh.

The state government also decided to terminate the services of a former principal of Lajpat Nagar's Sarvodaya School who allegedly gave admissions in Std 11 on the basis of fake marksheets.

The three other cases involve misuse of funds of various government schools in the Tughlakabad Railway Colony, Hirankudna and Jangpura areas.

Sisodia, meanwhile, has decided to recommend to President Pranab Mukherjee that the pension of a former Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) who allegedly extended undue favours to one party in a property dispute case be stopped.
Actor Devon Murray has been ordered to pay his former agents USD 300,000 in commission fees from his work in the "Harry Potter" film franchise.

The star was recently sued by officials at Neil Brooks Management, who helped a young Murray land his role as Irish student Seamus Finnigan in the first two boy wizard movies, 2001's "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" and 2002's "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", reported New York Daily .

In the lawsuit, owner Neil Brooks claimed relations with the actor and his family broke down after they allegedly failed to pay commission, as agreed in a 1998 contract, and the Murrays then tried to ditch the talent agent after completing two more installments of the Potter series.

Brooks maintained he stopped receiving his share of earnings in 2005, and, as of March, was due more than USD 323,800 in fees.

However, Murray and his parents Michael and Fidelma, challenged the accusations, insisting they handed over more than USD 111,320.

Justice Michael Moriarty sided with Brooks, ruling the actor should pay up the USD 300,000. The judge also dismissed a USD 1,11,500 counterclaim filed by Murray and his family. He was also ordered to cover legal fees.

Addressing the ruling and reports he squandered his earnings on women, cars and partying, Murray said, "What's done is done now. There's nothing we can do. We're all gutted (disappointed) now. There's not a whole lot we can do. We have to get by whatever way we can now.

"There was an awful lot of things I put money into. I bought a lot of horses at the time... I bought property... It wasn't all just women, cars and drink. It wasn't all that.
India's largest realty firm has initiated the process to sell promoters' 40% in its rental arm, a deal estimated at Rs 12,000-14,000 crore.

had in October last announced that its promoters will sell their stake in the Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), which holds the bulk of office and retail complexes.

The realty firm would continue to own remaining 60 per cent stake in DCCDL.

According to sources, DLF's bankers have circulated the information memorandum to 18-20 global institutional investors that are keen to purchase this stake.

Blackstone, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Brookefield, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Qatar Investment Authority are among the prospective buyers, they added.

As per the memorandum, DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL) has about 25-26 million sq ft of leased commercial space with an annual rental income of about Rs 2,250 crore.

DCCDL also has 20 million sq ft of future development potential, sources said.

The equity value of this transaction is pegged at Rs 12,000-14,000 crore, sources said. Promoters -- KP Singh and family -- will re-invest a significant part of the amount realised from sale into DLF.

In February, DLF's Senior Executive Director Finance Saurabh Chawla had said that the company is targeting to complete this deal by July.

"With this proposed transaction, DLF will be able to achieve three of its main objectives -- removal of conflict of interest, creation of a rental platform with large financial investors and reducing substantial portion of debt," Chawla had said in October.

The company had a net debt of about Rs 21,400 crore at the end of the December quarter.

DLF has appointed JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley as merchant bankers for this deal. It has also roped in Pricewaterhouse Coopers as tax consultant and Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas as law firm to help execute this deal.

It had in December raised Rs 1,992 crore from GIC after the completion of its deal to sell 50% stake in two of its new projects in Delhi.

DLF reported 24% rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 163.95 crore for the quarter ended December against Rs 131.79 crore in the year-ago period.

Total revenue went up by 43 per cent to Rs 2,981 crore in the quarter ended December from Rs 2,080 crore a year-ago.

DLF has a land bank of 281 million sq ft, of which 37 million sq ft is under construction.
DMK today promised to increase the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy in phases to Rs 2,500 and Rs 3,500 per tonne for sugarcane and also announced other sops for farmers.

"The DMK government will fix the MSP for paddy at Rs 2000 per quintal initially and step by step increase it upto Rs 2500," the party said in its manifesto.

Stressing that the Centre had fixed Rs 2300 as MSP per tonne of sugarcane for 2015-2016, it said the AIADMK regime had announced "a mere Rs 550 (state advised price) inclusive of cartage totalling Rs 2850".

"Sugarcane farmers have been let down and to alleviate their suffering, the DMK (if voted to power) will increase the amount by Rs 1200, including cartage over and above the amount of Rs 2300 fixed by the Centre, totalling Rs 3500," it said.

It also said action will be taken for payment of full amount of sugarcane supplied by growers to sugar mills within three months from the date of delivery.

On other problems faced by them, DMK said "Due to the indifference of the present AIADMK regime, the Cauvery Delta farmers are resorting to only single crop (samba) instead of usual two annual crop season (kuruvai and samba).

The party further said agriculturists were unable to cultivate short-term crops. Similarly, due to the "failure" of the AIADMK regime to properly maintain irrigation sources, farmers were driven to "suicide".

"To protect the welfare of the several lakh farmers and to increase agricultural produce, a separate budget for agriculture will be prepared and presented in the Assembly," it said.

It also promised complete waiver of crop loans taken by small and micro farmers. Besides continuing to supply free power for farmers, power connection will be given within a time frame to all the farmers who have applied for it. Moreover, three phase power will be supplied to all agricultural pumpsets now in operation.

Free dhoti, saree and Pongal cash prize of Rs 500 will be given to small and micro farmers and agricultural labourers every year.

A 'Comprehensive Agriculture Produce Marketing Exchange', a separate division for organic farming in Agricultural Department, an Organic Farming Research Centre in the name of rganic farming pioneer Nammalvar will be set up. Subsidy up to Rs 10,000 will be provided for small and micro farmers for buying new electric motors.

A separate department for irrigation will be created and legislation will be brought in to set up a water management authority, it said.
A dog was blown to pieces when some unidentified material dumped with garbage exploded while the canine was rummaging through it for food at a village near T Surulipatti here, an area being closely monitored for naxal movement, police said.

They said samples from the site had been collected for chemical analysis.

Local councillor Ganesan who visited the spot said the blast, which took place yesterday, was powerful and at least two or three people would have died had they come in contact with the garbage before the dog rummaged through it.

He said waste from a temple is usually disposed at the spot.

The councillor said he had given an oral complaint to 'Q' branch inspector Murugan.

Murugan too confirmed it was a powerful blast, but declined to give further information.
Sindhi language should be spoken in homes and parents must speak to their children in their mother tongue, said Dubai-based NRI Asha Chand who has bagged several awards in the field of promoting language and culture.

Chand, who runs NGO Sindhi Sangat to promote the rich and ancient Sindhi language and unite the diaspora across India and the globe through Social Media, said she has organised a "Sindhi Nursery Rhyme Competition" for children below six years of age.

Of the Sindhi rhymes uploaded on www.Sindhisangat.Com, parents are required to select any one and shoot a film of their child reciting and enacting that poem and upload it on WhatsApp. Top 20 children will be awarded prizes, including a mini-Ipad, Chand told a press conference here on April 7.

About 500 video entries have already been received from India, Dubai, Indonesia, Hong Kong and Singapore for the contest which closes on April 15, she said.

"Our goal is to reach out to all Sindhi managed primary schools and play schools so that they announce this competition to young Sindhi families," Chand said.

Following this contest, two more competitions have been lined up including a story telling contest for children aged six to 14. Stories can be selected from the four animated Panchatantra tales that are available on YouTube uploaded by Sindhi Sangat, she said.

The third contest is targeted at university students who can produce their own creative video clips on the select nursery rhymes and win prizes including iPhone and other IT gadgets, Chand said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman have agreed to set up a USD 16-billion investment fund and settled a long-standing maritime dispute as the monarch continued his rare visit to the country.

A day after Salman announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, the heads of state met at the historic Abdeen Palace in Cairo to oversee the inking of a string of agreements Egypt hopes will help boost its battered economy.

In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo yesterday said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.

The 80-year-old Saudi monarch's visit to Egypt has been seen as a clear show of support for Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Since touching down on Thursday, Salman and his delegation have announced a slew of investments in Egypt.

A live Egyptian state television broadcast yesterday showed an official announcing the latest agreements, signed by a representative of each country.

The two nations agreed "to set up a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals (USD16 billion)," the announcer said, giving no further details.

More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion.

It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt.

Egyptian officials and media have heaped accolades on Salman, with state television welcoming him to what it called his "second country" -- a country Riyadh views as a cornerstone in its ambitions to be a regional leader against Iran.

But the agreement announced by the cabinet yesterday to settle the dispute over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, where thousands tweeted a hashtag accusing Sisi of selling the islands.

Tiran had historically been a Saudi island 'leased' to Egypt in 1950.

Earlier yesterday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.
Ace fashion designer Ritu Beri unveiled two books documenting her 25 eventful years in fashion amidst friends and family, in a nostalgic ceremony here last evening.

Beri has penned down her personal journey throwing light on the evolution of the world of fashion, in the two books titled, "The Designs of A Restless Mind" and "The Fire of A Restless Mind."



The books were launched by Bollywood actor Anupam Kher, Minister of Minority Affairs Najma Heptullah, BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi and Niti Ayog CEO Amitabh Kant among others, all of who she said, were her "very close friends."



The 38-year-old designer, who went on to become the first Asian designer to head the French fashion brand, Jean-Louis Scherrer, said, "I am feeling awesome. I have friends from all over the place. I have my friends from the fraternity, I have my mentor, my school teacher and my daughter here. It is a full circle moment. But, I still feel young and I think I have a lot to do."



"I want everybody to read the book. It is a fun book and a simple read," she said.

The designer is currently one of the advisors on Minority ministry's USTAD (Upgradation of Skills and Training in Ancestral Arts/Crafts for DevelopmentP) programme that is aimed at upgrading and promoting the skills of artisans from the minority community.

Taking cue from the titles of Beri's books, Heptullah



said, "She has a great restless soul which makes her do things out of the box. She has a real fire, not just in her heart but also in her eyes. Nobody ever thought the minority ministry will have Ritu Beri as one of its advisors!"



The evening also saw several of Beri's friends from different parts of India and abroad, reading parts from the book.

The city-based designer who had been awarded the French honour Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her contribution to the fashion industry, has dressed international names like former US President Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Moulin Rouge, Nicole Kidman, besides notable Indian celebrities like Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukherji, Preity Zinta, Parmeshwar Godrej and Shobha De among others.

She also penned and published India's most expensive book titled, "Firefly - A Fairytale," which was priced at Rs 1 lakh. Only 100 copies of the book were brought out in India. It chronicled Beri's experiences in Paris that were instrumental in shaping her fashion career, besides talking about topics like architecture, history, women and their beauty.

Lekhi who has known the designer since the beginning of her career in 1990 said, "She is someone who is a thorough professional. And for being a professional it doesn't mean the quality of exterior capacity but more of your intellect. And those are the qualities that make her a brand."



"She represents brand India to me and she represents what I would like India to be represented outside the country. Mostly people are selling poverty and here she is selling luxury to the outsiders," Lekhi said.

Actors Anupam Kher and Raza Murad, and bureacrat Amitabh Kant also chipped in with anecdotes from their respective experiences with the designer.

"I find her extremely charming and extremely gracious. She brings in energy, vibrancy and dynamism with her," Kant said.
Four youths drowned while one was rescued today when they went to take a bath in a lake on the outskirts here, police said.

The youngsters, aged between 17 and 18, residents of Tadbund area here, had entered the Umdasagar lake at around mid-noon, and drowned, Mailardevpalli Police Station Inspector S Venkat Reddy told PTI.

"A group of nine youths went to the lake and five of them had entered the water, though none of them knew swimming. Four of them drowned while another youth has been rescued," Reddy said, adding their bodies have been retrieved.

The youngsters were working as labourers.

According to police a case was registered and investigations are underway.
Two years after his return from South Africa, an England-trained barrister on April 10, 1917, alighted from a third-class compartment at Patna railway station to set foot in Bihar for the first time that will change the course of history of the entire country.

The barrister was 48-year-old Mohandas K Gandhi and the turn of events over the next few years including the Champaran farmers' movement led by him would earn him the exalted moniker of 'Mahatma'.

Starting this month, the Nitish Kumar government has planned year-long celebrations to mark the 100th anniversary of his first visit to Bihar and the Satyagraha movement led by Gandhi eventually united the whole nation in its fight for freedom.

The Tourism Department is also exploring ways to promote Gandhi circuit in conjunction with the Satyagraha centenary.

A whole host of activities, from seminars to workshops and exhibitions, have been planed from Patna to Motihari (district headquarters of East Champaran) during this period.

Gandhi came to Bihar at the invitation of indigo cultivator Raj Kumar Shukla who wanted him to take up the cause of the farmers who were forced to grow indigo by the British.

He arrived at Bankipore station (old name of Patna railway station) on April 10, and a framed painting showing him alighting from a third-class compartment, put up at the Patna Junction commemorates his first visit to Bihar's capital.

An interesting incident took place that day when Shukla took him to the residence of Rajendra Prasad, a Congress leader and a lawyer who had just started practising at the Patna High Court and went on to become the first President of the country.

"Shukla took Gandhi to the house of Rajendra Prasad, a lawyer, he and other indigo-growers had engaged. However,the lawyer was out of town, and judging Gandhi to be of low caste, did not allow him to draw water from the well or use the lavatory in the house," reminisces his grandson Rajmohan Gandhi in his book "Gandhi: The Man, His People and the Empire".

Patna-based noted historian Surendra Gopal says Gandhi travelled in a third-class compartment in humble clothing, and in India he had not arrived on the scene yet until the Satyagraha happened, so not many people saw him with such aura as he would enjoy soon for the rest of his life.

"Gandhi had known fellow barrister Mazhar-ul Haq from England days and sent a note to him about his arrival in Patna. Haq, then came immediately and took him to his palatial house on Fraser Road. The house known as 'Sikander Manzil' is still existing albeit obscured by construction of new buildings in its front portion, and I have requested the Bihar government several times to put up a plaque to commemorate his stay in Patna but of no avail," he said.
With six long weekends and three extended weekends in 2016, Goa and Dubai have become the most searched destinations for Indians, according to a report.

"This year is proving to be a splendid year for travellers with 6 long weekends to go, in which Goa, New Delhi and Mumbai have become the most searched domestic destinations for Indians, while Dubai, Bangkok and Singapore are the top three among the overseas places," according to a report by travel portal Hotels.Com.

"As the Indian traveller is conventionally a last minute planner, domestic weekend destination bookings are on the rise with double-digit, benefiting the hotel industry even in the lean travel period," Hotels.Com (India & SEA) Senior Marketing Manager Amit Agarwal said.

Short haul destinations are in top demand due to easy access of flights and that has fuelled demand, witnessing an evident over 50 per cent increase for the Gudi Padwa weekend as an example, he said.

In addition to major cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Goa, demand for south India's cities like Ooty, Chennai and Bengaluru are also on the rise, the report said.

Udaipur, Jaipur in Rajasthan, Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Canacona in South Goa are also popular among travellers this year.

Additionally, in outbound travel destinations Pattaya, Patong, Ko Samui and Krabi in Thailand and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia are also on the radar for Indian voyagers, it added.

Beside these short haul destinations, London in the UK and Paris in France have also featured in the list of searches by Indian travellers.
A day after poll campaign ended, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today went to a market here to buy fresh vegetables and herbs with 'Rongali Bihu' just round the corner.

Gogoi went to the weekly Beltola market here, one of the largest temporary markets in the city, where hundreds of small traders bring fresh vegetables and other products from different parts of the state and also from nearby Meghalaya.

The chief minister purchased some fresh vegetables like squash, drum stick, brinjals, gourd and a few local herbs.

Gogoi was also seen enquiring the vendors about their profit margins and where they had come from.

Some people, mostly women, also clicked selfies with the 80-year-old chief minister, who is fighting the ongoing Assembly elections to form the next government in the state for the fourth consecutive term.

While talking to media persons, who reached the spot after hearing about his being in the market, Gogoi said "Bihu is coming. So I have come out myself to buy some goods for Bihu celebrations in my home."



He also expressed happiness about the condition of the market and peoples' enthusiasm to buy products on the eve of Bihu, the main cultural festival to welcome Assamese new year.

When asked about election campaign, the senior Congress politician attacked BJP's slogan of 'parivartan' and said "We need change for the poor and for helping farmers, students and women. We need change for creating jobs to poor and increase income for all along with peace and harmony. That is the change we are seeking."



He accused the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance of trying to bring "destructive changes" in Assam.

"BJP is not able to bring any change in the country. How will they bring it in Assam? And AGP was in Assam before also. They brought changes by conducting secret killings," Gogoi said.
Government is committed to supplying Euro VI compliant fuel which will be at par with international standards, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said.

"Euro VI fuel will be supplied by the Petroleum Ministry complying to international norms," Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari told PTI.

Dismissing any apprehensions of diluting the fuel standards as false, the minister said government is making sure that "whatever standards have been fixed in the world for Euro VI, will be supplied here."



Automobile industry body Siam had recently criticised the BS VI fuel standards announced in the draft notification by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, saying it was diluted.

Siam alleged that BS VI fuel norms in the draft is "inferior" to Euro VI norms.

Terming the allegations "false" the minister said petroleum refineries were making a huge investment to supply Euro VI compliant fuel, which will minimise pollution that has become a big problem.

The government had earlier estimated that refineries in the country will invest about Rs 30,000 crore to upgrade to the Euro VI fuel standards.

Siam has demanded "exactly the same BS VI fuel as per Euro 6 fuel standards prevalent in Europe if it has to meet the BS VI norms for vehicles", saying "this requirement for the country should be non-negotiable".

Earlier, refusing to budge under pressure from auto industry on stricter fuel emission norms, Gadkari has said carmakers must follow the same standards in India that they do elsewhere.

"I do not agree with Siam. When the same car manufacturer can build cars following the same norms across the globe, then why can't they build it here? The government is not reconsidering its decision," Gadkari has told SIAM on their request to reconsider the decision to leapfrog to BS VI norms.

In a bid to curb vehicular pollution, the government in January decided to implement stricter emission norms of Bharat Stage (BS) VI from April 1, 2020 by skipping BS-V altogether.

At present, BS IV norms are followed in parts of India and by April 1, 2017, the whole of the country is scheduled to be covered under it.

The decision to leapfrog to BS-VI was taken at an inter- ministerial meeting chaired by Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, which was attended by Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Heavy Industries Minister Anant Geete and Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar.

In the commercial capital of the US, Gadkari will also



have a series of interactions with investors at the meets organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce, J P Morgan, Goldman Sachs and US Indian Business Council.

"Some of these interactions will be a follow up of the deliberations at the Maritime India Summit in Mumbai where a large number of US companies had evinced keen interest in promoting bilateral cooperation with India in Maritime sector," the statement said.

Gadkari will invite US companies for technology cooperation in road and highway building, road engineering, innovations in automobile sector, road safety and green fuels.

Gadkari will also visit St Louis to understand Inland Waterways System on world famous Mississippi River by undertaking a boat trip.

On the next leg of his visit to San Francisco, he will have talks with senior officials from the California Transportation Agency, and departments of International Affairs and business development.

He will also visit Tesla, manufacturers of electric cars, and hold a meeting with investors and interact with TiE Charter members over dinner.

TiE is a global organisation of entrepreneurs with over 12,000 members. He will also have interactions with and visit Oracle and Bloom Energy.

More than 150 projects were identified under the ambitious Sagarmala Programme at the recent Maritime India Summit in Mumbai.

India has 7,500 km long coastline, 212 ports, 70 coastal districts, one billion tone cargo handling currently, 111 waterways and 90 per cent of export-import trade (by volume) handled at ports.
After long-drawn deliberations, the government has decided against recommending a one-year fixed tenure for chief justices of the high courts amid concerns that judges nearing retirement age may fail to land the job despite seniority and an impressive track record.

While drafting the revised memorandum of procedure, a document which guides appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts, the Department of Justice had proposed a two-year fixed term for HC chief justices.

A fixed long tenure, the department felt, would help chief justices concentrate on the administrative side of their duties like improving case management system.

But the fixed tenure was reduced to one year by the Law Ministry which thought two years was too long and hence not practical.

Judges are appointed as Chief Justices of high courts and elevated to the Supreme Court based mainly on their seniority. While retirement age for a Supreme Court judge is 65 years, it is 62 in high courts.

The issue of a fixed tenure came up for detailed discussion at one of the recent meetings of the Group of Ministers headed by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj set up to finalise the document.

While some of the members of the GoM favoured a fixed tenure, others opposed the idea on the ground that those nearing the retirement age of 62 and having less than a year to go may lose out despite an impressive track record.

There was also a view that fixed tenure may give a "handle to certain judges to subvert the appointment of others," a senior government functionary said.

The GoM finally decided to remove the fixed tenure clause from the memorandum of procedure.

The revised document was handed over to the Chief Justice of India last month. The SC collegium comprising the CJI and four senior judges of the apex court will now have to ratify it before it replaces the present memorandum of procedure.

The SC had last year asked government to redraft the MoP while deciding on ways to make the collegium system, where judges recommend appointment of judges, more transparent.

A Constitution Amendment Bill, brought by the previous UPA government, to increase the retirement age of high court judges to 65 to bring it at par with that of SC judges had lapsed with the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.

The the retirement age of high court judges was raised from 60 to 62 in 1963.
With US-based seed giant Monsanto facing regulatory heat in India over monopoly concerns, the government has expedited work to bring out a local genetically-modified version of cotton seed by next year.

"The Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) has been doing research in GM cotton for quite some time now. In a recent meeting, the issue was discussed and CICR has been asked to expedite research work and come out with GM cotton as soon as by next year," Agriculture Secretary Shobhana K Pattanayak told PTI.

The direction to CICR has come at a time when pests like pink bollworm has developed resistance to Monsanto's second generation Bt cotton variety, Bollgard II, in some parts of India and caused crop damage.

Also, Monsato's Bt cotton is the only GM crop allowed for commercial cultivation in the country. A substantial level of the country's cotton contains Monsanto's hybrid technology, which has been sub-licensed to 49 Indian seed companies.

The Competition Commission (CCI) is investigating whether an Indian arm of the US-based technology major resorted to anti-competitive practices in the GM cotton seed market.

The probe follows two separate complaints filed against Monsanto's Indian arm -- Mahyco Monsanto Biotech India Limited (MMBL) -- one by three domestic seed companies and another by BJP Kisan Morcha that was forwarded by the Agriculture Ministry to CCI.

Another official in the Agriculture Ministry said that the institute (CICR) has been asked to develop non-hybrid Bt cotton variety as they are also a solution for the growing pink ballworm menace.

CICR could have come out with GM cotton many years back had the biotechnology regulator GEAC not prevented it from going ahead with research in the absence of clarity on patent rights on Monsanto's Bt cotton technology, sources said.

But last year, the NDA government clarified that Monsanto has patent rights on second generation Bollgard II technology and not on earlier version Bollgard I.

After the government's clarification, sources said many seed companies have approached CICR while others are doing research on their own to bring their non-hybrid Bt cotton seeds in the market in the next few years.

Meanwhile, the government has decided to promote cultivation of indigenous cotton varieties this year.

In 2015-16 crop year (July-June), there was a significant damage to cotton crop because of whitefly and pink bollworm pest attack in states like Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Three soldiers and a civilian have been killed, and seven others wounded, in two attacks by guerrillas in the jungles of central Peru, on the eve of presidential elections.

Authorities blamed remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group, which was largely crushed in the 1990s but still has members hiding in the jungle.

The three soldiers and a driver were killed yesterday as they were taking forces to guard voting stations in the central Junin region.

"Special forces and supporting aircraft were sent to take control of the area and remove the military personnel that still remains in place," the Joint Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement.

The guerrillas first struck at Hatun Asha, located in a jungle zone considered a stronghold of the guerrillas and a major coca-producing area.

In a second attack, they targeted a military ship on the Apurimac River in the south, wounding two soldiers, authorities said.

President Ollanta Humala condemned the "insane" violence.

"Terrorism and those who collude with it have no place in our society or in our family," said Humala.

Mariano Cucho, the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes, insisted that "this attack will not tarnish the elections."



Some 23 million Peruvians are called to vote today for a new president and members of congress.

Leading the polls is conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto Fujimori waged a fierce conflict against the Shining Path when he was president from 1990 to 2000.

Around 69,000 people were killed between 1980 and 2000 in the conflict with the Shining Path, according to the country's Truth and Reconciliation commission.

"Peru has lived through these violent periods and we are working to bring peace to the country," Humala told a conference.

"All these demented acts do is unite the Peruvian people more."



Authorities say remnants of the guerrilla group have joined forces with drug gangs and remain active in the remote mountains and jungles.

Peru is one of the biggest coca leaf and cocaine producers in the world, according to the United Nations and US authorities.
With over a year-and-half left for the Assembly elections in Gujarat, ruling BJP has started preparation in the home turf of Prime Minister Narendra Modi where it had received a jolt in last year's rural local bodies polls from Congress.

New chief of state BJP unit Vijay Rupani has taken the task to reinvigorate the party after the shock loss, while the state government, headed by Chief Minister Anandiben Patel, has also announced a slew of measures to woo rural voters, latest being implementation of National Food Security Act re-christening it as Maa Annanpurna Yojna.

The previous state Assembly election was held in December 2012 under the leadership of then chief minister Narendra Modi, while the next is likely to take place during the same time in 2017.

This time BJP will be fighting elections under leadership of Patel.

In the large scale local bodies polls held in December 2015, BJP received a jolt where opposition Congress won most of the district and taluka panchayats elections after a gap of 12 years. However, BJP secured wins in urban pockets.

Rupani after taking charge as new state BJP president on February 19 had stated that their goal is to win the 2017 elections.

After taking over the office, Rupani, with a focus on 2017 polls, has reconstructed the organisation team and also chalked out aggressive public programmes to reach out to people.

"We have completed the task of re-organisation of our party in the state and declared our new team from district level to the state level keeping in mind the 2017 elections. We have held several meeting of party workers to guide them to take the elections head on," state BJP spokesperson Harshad Patel said.

"At the same time we have also held various public



programmes like organising eight farmers' rallies, Bharat Mata rallies at 18 locations in different parts of the state and other public programmes to take the message of work done by the central and state government to the people," he said.

"This will be a continuous process from now on till the elections and will keep on giving one after another programme," added Patel.

Among the issues that BJP dispensation has been facing are Patel quota agitation and rural distress due to poor monsoon in the last two years.

The numerically strong Patel community in the state, especially the youths of the community, under the aegis of Hardik Patel, which is up in arms against the government for "crushing their movement and charging its key leaders with sedition".

Though the government has opened negotiation with Patel in jail, so far it seems they are yet to make any headway as the Anandiben Patel-led government has not made its stand clear on the 27 demands put forth by the agitators.

Issues related to rural distress and handling of water scarcity situation so far has also caused resentment among villagers.

The recent charges of corruption involving Anandiben's daughter Anar Patel, has also increased difficulties for the Chief Minister.

The party, however, hopes to overcome these challenges by their aggressive campaign and detailed preparation.

During his visit on April 9, BJP chief Amit Shah told party workers in Gandhingar to shed of disappointment of local body poll loss and the situation created due to Patel quota agitation, and focus on winning the 2017 polls.

"The 2012 win in Gujarat was the stepping stone for 2014 Lok Sabha win and in the same way 2017 victory will pave the way for win in 2019 national elections," Shah had said.
The Delhi High Court has directed the Centre to provide "all possible assistance" to a woman for obtaining the autopsy report of her husband, who died in July 2013 due to an alleged cardiac arrest in US, for initiating legal proceedings there.

Justice Manmohan passed the direction on a petition filed by Binu M K who had approached the court seeking a direction to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to make available the autopsy and medical reports of her husband Manoj M C.

The woman told the court her husband, who was working as an assistant security officer on a cruise liner 'Carnival Triumph' at Florida, had died of a cardiac arrest on July 28, 2013 while on duty.

Her counsel claimed the deceased's friends and co-workers had informed that there was gross negligence on the company's part as Manoj was suffering from acute pain for more than eight hours but the firm allegedly did not provide basic medical facilities to him.

The lawyer said she needed the autopsy and medical reports for taking legal action against the company.

The counsel appearing for the Centre handed over to the court an e-mail written by Consul General of India at Houston which stated that sharing of medical records in the US was an issue covered by strict privacy.

"We will approach the Ministry to allow us to hire an attorney to go through the legal/court process to obtain relevant medical records/autopsy report for the next of kin in accordance with local privacy laws," the e-mail said.

After the e-mail was handed over to the court, Binu's advocate said he wish to withdraw the petition with liberty to file proceedings in a court in the US.

The lawyer, however, requested the court that the MEA and Consul General of India at Houston be directed to provide all assistance to her.

"Consequently, the present writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn with a direction to the respondents (MEA and others) to render all possible assistance to the petitioner in accordance with law," the court said.
Amid reports that Hyderabad University's SC/ST Teachers' Forum members have resigned from administrative posts protesting against Prof Appa Rao Podile resuming duty as Vice-Chancellor, the varsity today claimed most of them have confirmed their continuation in office.

"The Vice Chancellor's office received an email on March 7 from convener of the SC/ST Teachers Forum conveying the decision of its members not to continue in administrative posts in the university. However, the Vice Chancellor requested the convener, in an email the next day (March 8), to convey to the members to continue in their respective office," a release from the university said.

If any colleague from SC/ST Teachers Forum is unwilling to consider the VC's request for continuation in an administrative office, the convener was requested to advice individuals to tender resignation, giving reasons, which will be considered by the university accordingly, it said.

The administration can act when individual members submit papers. VC's office has not received any communication from the individual members of the SC/ST Teachers Forum in this regard, the release said.

"In fact, most of the faculty members from SC/ST Teachers Forum confirmed their continuation in the office to serve the university in the best possible way," it said.

The university desires that the teachers understand the situation and cooperate in bringing complete normalcy on the campus rather than taking things emotionally, the release further said.

The University of Hyderabad, popularly known as HCU, has witnessed sporadic protests over the suicide of Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula, with protesting students demanding removal of Appa Rao from the VC's post.

Appa Rao has been booked under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act and for abetment to suicide of Vemula.

The university has been on the boil since Vemula committed suicide on the campus on January 17, subsequent to which VC Podile went on a leave amid protest by students.

Upon his return from two-month leave on March 22, the VC was met with protests on the campus, even as classes remained suspended for a few days in the university amid a clampdown on the entry of outsiders.

The university was again rocked by protests on April 6 when members of different student organisations made a failed bid to "barge" inside the varsity as part of the 'Chalo HCU' protest call.
In 2009, Jasmine Li, whose grandfather was the fourth most powerful politician in China at the time, donned a floral Carolina Herrera gown and debuted at a ball in Paris.

That same year, a British Virgin Islands company she would later come to own for USD 1 was born in an aging building in a red-light district of Hong Kong, just one example of the city's key role in helping the world's elite shuttle their wealth offshore.

The information about Li, who has not been accused of wrongdoing, comes from a tremendous cache of documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Those records highlight the central role Hong Kong has come to play in designing offshore financial vehicles.

Hong Kong brims with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services.

Offshore vehicles are used to minimise tax, mitigate political risk and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal.

But Hong Kong's offshore financial machinery works so well, and so discreetly, that it can be abused by those seeking to hide illicit assets or evade taxes. As traditional havens like Switzerland cave to years of grinding pressure from European and American tax authorities, unsavory money is drawn to Hong Kong, which despite reforms retains its reputation for secrecy, non-cooperation, and a light regulatory touch, watchdog groups and lawyers say.

"Hong Kong attracts this type of hot money from across the region and globally, partly because of its perceived stability," said Iain Willis, a partner at Latymer Partners, a corporate intelligence advisory firm in London.

"'Light-touch' financial regulation, easy rules on company incorporation and limited transparency" add to its appeal, he said.

Hong Kong was Mossack Fonseca's go-to spot for financial intermediaries, home to 2,212 accountants, banks and other middlemen Mossack Fonseca used to set up 37,675 offshore companies for its global clients from 1977 to 2015, more than any other place in the world, according to ICIJ's analysis.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed ICIJ's reports as "groundless," and the government has aggressively censored discussion of them.

Hong Kong tax authorities said in an email Friday that they would "take necessary actions" based on the offshore leaks, and work to "enhance the efficiency and effectiveness" of enforcement as required.
At least 260 people were hurt today when police fired tear gas at migrants as they tried to break through the Greek-Macedonia border, where over 11,000 people are stranded, a charity said.

It was the latest violence to erupt at the flashpoint Idomeni crossing, where huge numbers of migrants and refugees have been camped out since mid-February after Balkan states closed their borders, cutting off access to northern Europe.

Macedonian police accused the crowds of hurling stones and other objects at them in a bid to break down the fence, saying they had used tear gas to protect themselves.

"Two hundred people were treated by our medical unit for breathing problems, 30 for wounds caused by plastic bullets and 30 for other injuries," Achilleas Tzemos of French medical charity Doctors Without Borders told AFP.

The incident was sparked by fresh rumours that the Idomeni border crossing into Macedonia, largely closed since mid-February, was about to open.

According to a Greek police source, hundreds of migrants had gathered by the fence to demand the border be opened. When they tried to force the barrier, Macedonian police began firing tear gas.

At the scene, protestors with their faces covered with scarves or smeared with toothpaste as a makeshift protection against tear gas could be seen hurling rocks at the fence, an AFP correspondent said.

Part of the fence appeared to have been torn down.

Others ran for cover as tear gas grenades exploded nearby, sending clouds of gas wafting into the air.

Macedonian police, however, denied that anyone had been injured by plastic bullets.

"We are not using any kind of bullets as they are forbidden by law in Macedonia. We are not using batons as we are on the other side of the fence," spokeswoman Liza Bendevska told AFP.

"We are using all allowed chemical means."



Earlier, another spokesman said the mob had hurled stones and other objects at police, injuring three of them, and that they had used tear gas to try and break up the protest.

"A large group of refugees attempted to destroy the razor fence and enter Macedonia. They threw stones, metal things and other objects towards police," spokesman Toni Angelovski said.

Macedonian police had initially told AFP it was Greek police who were responsible, but Angelovski later confirmed they too had begun "using tear gas and all allowable means to protect (themselves) and the border".

"No single migrant managed to cross on Macedonian side, but (the situation) is still tense," he added.

An official at a migrant centre on the Macedonian side of the border said three 500-strong groups of people had tried to breach the barrier in three different places.
Hundreds of JD(U) workers and leaders welcomed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at airport on arrival from Delhi after he was elected as party's new national president today.

Hundreds of drum-beating workers and leaders were seen waving party flags with garlands and bouquet in their hands to welcome Kumar.

Kumar was unanimously elected to the top post at the party's National Executive meeting which brought an end to the decades-old tenure of Sharad Yadav who had ruled himself out for a fourth term.

It is for the first time that Kumar, JD(U)'s face in Bihar, has been elected President of the state-centric party.

Its two previous presidents--George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav--were from outside Bihar, the state they virtually made their political home.

The move to put Kumar in complete command of the party comes in the backdrop of it's move to expand beyond the state with regard to alliances and also help position himself as a rallying point for opposition parties against Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today congratulated his alliance partner and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for being elected as the new national president of JD(U).

"I extend my greetings and congratulations to Nitish Kumar for his election as new national party president of JD(U)," Prasad told reporters here.

There was no other alternative in the party except Nitish Kumar, Prasad said adding that Kumar would be able to lead the workers and leaders unitedly.

Taking a jibe at Nitish Kumar's election as new president, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that political power has been centralised in one more state centric party following Kumar's election as national president.

"Now Nitish Kumar too will have a pocket party like Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad. Kumar has neither faith in any leader nor believes in party's internal democracy," Sushil Modi - who served as Deputy Chief Minister under Nitish Kumar for eight years during NDA regime in the state - said.

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After sidelining George Fernandes, with whose support Nitish had evoled as a leader, Kumar has now sidelined Sharad Yadav, the senior BJP leader said.

"Whenever people of Bihar give huge mandate to Nitish Kumar to serve the state, he starts dreaming big to realise his ambition on national political scene," Modi claimed.
A husband cannot be held guilty of establishing physical relations with his wife, a Delhi court has said while acquitting a man charged with alleged kidnap and rape of a minor girl.

Additional Sessions Judge Gautam Manan acquitted the man, a resident of Jahangirpuri in north Delhi, noting that the prosecution failed to prove the charges against him.

"Accused, being the legally wedded husband of the girl, cannot be held guilty of establishing physical relations with his wife which as per the deposition of the prosecutrix are consensual," the judge said.

The court observed that the victim categorically stated that she went away with him voluntarily.

"In view of the material on record, it appears that prosecutrix was willing and consenting party and it seems that everything has happened with her will," it said.

According to the prosecution, a complaint was lodged by the alleged victim's mother claiming that her 14-year-old daughter was kidnapped by the accused on July 15, 2014.

The girl, who was missing for almost a year, was produced at the police station a year later by her mother and the accused was arrested for the alleged offences of rape and kidnapping under IPC besides the offence of aggravated sexual assault under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The girl, however, informed the court that she was a major and eloped with the man as she was in love with him.

The court also noted that the girl had even provided an affidavit to support her claims.

"Stand of the prosecution that the prosecutrix was a minor is not established by the documents relied upon by them," the judge said.

During the trial, the accused had denied the allegations and claimed innocence.

The judge, while acquitting him, observed that there was no evidence on record that the girl was enticed by him in any manner to go with him.
Ten IAF aircraft was today pressed into service to transport to hospitals the seriously injured in the major fire mishap at the Puttingal Devi temple near here which has claimed over 100 lives.

The Indian Air Force is making all out efforts to transport the victims as soon as possible to the nearby hospitals at Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram, a defence statement said.

A total of 10 transport aircraft and helicopters have been pressed into service.

All the aircraft have been deployed in Air Ambulance role to ferry the victims to nearby hospitals, it said.

The aircraft are operating in close coordination with local civil authorities under overall command of Southern Air Command at Thiruvananthapuram as the Nodal Operational Centre to provide succour to the affected people, it said.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams from Arakkonam near Chennai in Tamil Nadu and medical teams are also being brought to provide timely medical relief to the victims.

One hundred and two people were killed and over 280 injured in a major fire that broke out in the Puttingal Devi Temple complex early morning today during a display of fireworks for which there was no permission from authorities.
India and China will hold next round of (SR) talks on April 20 during, which NSA Ajit Doval is expected to raise the issue of China blocking move to get Pakistan-based JeM Chief Masood Azhar designated as terrorist.

The two-day talks in Beijing, 19th round of such parleys, will focus on boundary and strategic issues, official sources said here today.

Doval, who is the SR for Sino-India boundary talks, will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. He is also expected to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

At the 19th round of SR talks, the two sides are expected to review the status of the situation on the border and ways to maintain peace and tranquility there, the sources said.

"We want to move forward," a senior official said here about the ties with China.

The talks are taking place in the backdrop of China blocking at the UN India's move to get JeM chief designated as terrorist. Doval is expected to raise this issue with Yang.

Last week, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case "did not meet the requirements" of the Security Council.

This round of SR talks was earlier scheduled to be held in January but was postponed because of Pathankot terror attack on January 1.

The last round of talks was held in March last year after which it was reported that Doval and Yang "exchanged in depth their opinions on the boundary issue" and made "strategic communications" on bilateral ties as well as and regional issues of common interest.

The SR talks are designed not only to address the boundary question but also to facilitate exchange of views on subjects of common interest in regional and international developments.

The two countries share a 4,057 km long border on which they have differences of perception.

China says the border dispute is confined only to 2,000 kms mostly in Arunachal Pradesh whereas India asserts that the dispute covered the western side of the border spanning to about 4,000 kms, especially the Aksai Chin area annexed by China in 1962 war.
Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has said India and the US will discuss the further movement in and Trade Initiative (DTTI) during the three-day visit of US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter.

Carter will be on a two-day tour of Karwar in neighbouring Karnataka and Goa today and tomorrow before proceeding for New Delhi.

"The DTTI discussions will be held in New Delhi on April 12," Parrikar told reporters last evening here.

Carter will visit Mangueshi Temple and old Goa churches today, while he will be on board INS Vikramaditya, accompanied by Parrikar off Goa coast, tomorrow.

Parrikar said the DTTI talks will be held with the possibility to ensure that Centre's flagship initiative 'Make In India' is made an integral part of it.

"India wants to establish the best of defence cooperation with the US as both the countries are biggest members in this sector globally," the minister said.

Parrikar said India will make efforts to strengthen defence ties with the US.

"There are many important issues to be discussed. India wants to establish best defence cooperation with the US. Many issues of importance will be finalised in the bilateral talks in Delhi," Parrikar said.
Duke of Cambridge Prince William today revealed that his wife Kate Middleton wanted to visit India ever since they got married.

"It has been a wonderful and colourful evening. It has been a real treat to be welcomed to India in this way... When Catherineand I got married, India was the first place in her list which she told me she wanted to visit. Two children and five years later we finally made it and we are quite honoured to be here," he said.

The 33-year-old Prince said the relationship between England and India has evolved over the years but his family's regard for the country has remained unchanged.

"It seems fitting that we start our journey from here... A short distance from the Gateway of India where so many people including my great great grandfather had come," William said at the Bollywood gala night at the iconic Taj Palace Hotel here.

"Catherine and I embarked on a journey to get to know the vibrant India in the 21st century. We are so pleased that tonight's event will raise considerable sums for three Indian charities, working to overcome severe problems..." he said.

Heaping praise on India's culture and traditions, William said, "On a personal level, Catherine and I are full of admiration for this diverse and democratic society. No one can come here without being awed and amazed, without a sense of excitement for all that India has achieved in the past and the extraordinary promise it holds for the future."



He concluded his speech by saying, "Bahut dhanyawad (many many thanks)."



"India and the United Kingdom already have an unparallel understanding and affection for each other. But to stay close to each other and remain close friends that we are, we need to keep sharing and understanding each others culture, history and art. It is this which defines us and makes us who we are," director Karan Johar said at the event.

The Royal couple is on a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan, aimed at building up strong bonds with the two countries.
UK-based steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta says he is committed to saving the 4,000-odd jobs at the troubled Tata Steels Port Talbot plants, which are Britains largest, but has warned the countrys steel crisis will not abate any time soon.

The 44-year-old founder and chief of Liberty House Group, who evinced interest in acquiring the steelworks in Wales, has since held a series of discussions, including with UK business secretary Sajid Javid.

In an interview with PTI, he said saving nearly 4,000 jobs on the line were on his mind.

He said: There has been a lot of pressure and my number of sleeping hours has definitely gone down. Its a difficult moment and whether we go ahead or not, that crunch time will come in the next few weeks. If heavy job losses comes out to be the price to pay, we would not be the ones undertaking that exercise. We will undertake this exercise if we can sustain jobs, which we feel is possible at this stage.



His comments come ahead of the formal process for the sale of Tata Steels UK units, set to kick off on Monday, when the Indian steel giant is expected to invite interested buyers. Bilateral negotiations are set to begin only after a formal short-listing process.

Gupta admits the crisis in the industry is set to get worse before it gets better due to excess steel capacity around the world but remains optimistic of its turnaround.

I dont think the crisis will abate any time soon as the main issue is excess capacity, which will continue in the world for some time. But based on domestic demand, each country can make an efficient industry out of it (steel), he said.

And, he feels he has worked out the right formula if he were to acquire the Port Talbot works, with plans to switch from the giant blast furnace to electric arc furnaces to recycle scrap steel instead of importing raw materials, and then exporting scrap.

Asked if the government can do more to help, he said: Even if more was or is done, the model itself is to be questioned. The model based on countries (China) where there is no raw material and they are holding everything is the problem.



The Punjab-born graduate from Cambridge University is being dubbed the UKs new Man of Steel, after he emerged as a potential saviour of jobs if he were to acquire Tata Steels Welsh units, which went up for sale last month.

Both the governments (British and Welsh) are very helpful and cooperative. Then, it is a question of analysis, which we will have to undertake in-depth once we engage with Tata. That is when the model and concept we have clearly outlined and plan to pursue will be tested with real numbers, he said.

Against the backdrop of the current negotiations, last week also marked the official handover of keys by to Liberty House for the Indian giant's Scottish units at Dalzell and Clydebridge in Lanarkshire. The deal to acquire the two Tata plants has been in the works since late last year and was finally clinched last month.

"This particular deal was being negotiated since November last year. Now that we finally have the control and the possibility to get going, it's exciting," he said.

But asked if Tata's decision to exit the UK may impact future Indian investments, Gupta was categorical: "The point is the industry needs investments and India has a natural affinity with the UK, which is why to begin with all these investments were done by Tata, and that will continue."



Gupta, who struck upon the idea to set up a metals trading company from his student flat at Trinity College back in 1992, has the offices of Liberty House across London, Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore and a turnover of over 2 billion pounds.

He hit the headlines in the UK in October last year when he restarted hot-rolled coil production at a rolling mill in Newport, South Wales, after a 40-year hiatus.

Job security was again a primary concern when the firm had acquired the facility in 2013 during tough times, retaining the 150 staff over the intervening period in order to be ready to restart when market conditions allowed.

Liberty House also went on to make a series of acquisitions in the UK steel industry in 2015, including some of NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul's Caparo Industries units.

The hunger to strike tough deals seems to run in the family, with his father P K Gupta starting out in bicycle manufacturing before expanding into international commodities trading. Today the family owned group, SIMEC, has interests across metals and renewable energy with Liberty as a sister firm. SIMECrecently acquired asubstantial stake in the UK's Tidal Lagoon Plc to finance the development of full-scale tidal lagoons in the UK and India.

Gupta has a vision for "Green Steel", using renewable energy to melt the readily available supply of scrap in Britain, instead of relying on the import of iron ore and coal from far flung corners of the globe.

"Energy has always been central to our concerns," Gupta said.
Iran's foreign minister today said the country's missile programme is not up for negotiation with the United States.

The missile programme and "defence capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not negotiable," said Mohammad Javad Zarif after meeting with his Estonian counterpart, Marina Kaljurand.

He added that if Washington was serious about defensive issues in the Middle East, it should stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

A Saudi-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes and battling the Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen since March 2015.

Iran also supports anti-Israeli militant groups.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the US and its partners were telling Iran that they were "prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues."



He said Iran first had to make it clear to all involved that they were prepared to cease provocative ballistic missile launches and tests.

Zarif today also hinted that regional US allies are among those quietly supporting the extremist Islamic State group.

"The US needs to view regional issues more seriously than raise baseless and threadbare allegations against Iran," said Zarif. "Mr Kerry should ask US allies where the Islamic State's arms come from.
Iraqi Shiite paramilitary forces have launched an operation to retake a town from which the Islamic State group launched a chemical weapons attack that killed three children, commanders said today.

"The operation aims to liberate Bashir, after we succeeded several days ago in cutting off supplies to (IS) in the Bashir area," said Abu Ridha al-Najjar, who is leading the operation.

Sheikh Maitham al-Zaidi, the commander of Furqat al-Abbas, one of the groups involved, also confirmed that the operation had begun.

Najjar said that four pro-government fighters were killed and 40 wounded in clashes with IS on Sunday.

The jihadist group fired rockets suspected of carrying a mustard agent last month from Bashir on Taza Khurmatu, another town in the northern province of Kirkuk.

The attack killed three children, wounded a large number of people and pushed thousands more to flee Taza out of fear that it would be repeated.

IS overran large areas north and west of Baghdad in 2014, but has since lost significant ground to Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes and training.

IS has used chemical agents in the past, a tactic which has caused few casualties and whose impact so far has been more psychological than military.

When faced with the initial IS offensive in June 2014, Baghdad turned to Shiite paramilitary forces dominated by Iran-backed militias to help halt the onslaught and then to push the jihadists back.

These forces, organised under an umbrella organisation called the Hashed al-Shaabi, have been effective in fighting the jihadists, but some members have also carried out extrajudicial killings, kidnappings and destruction of property.
In a chilling incident in Australia, a teenaged Islamic State supporter at a prison allegedly used a sharp object to carve out "e4e" into an ex-soldier's head, an apparent reference to the terror group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra.

18-year-old radical Bourhan Hraichie had been placed in the same cell as the veteran at the Mid-North Coast Correctional Centre near Kempsey, New South Wales (NSW).

The teenager allegedly used a sharp object to carve "e4e" into the head of the ex-soldier, who served in East Timor, inside the jail on Thursday. The carving that read 'e4e' was apparently a reference to the terror group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra.

"As a result of that I have decided to suspend the general manager of the correctional centre pending the outcome of this investigation," NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin was quoted as saying by Australian agency AAP.

The 40-year-old victim was reported to be fighting for his life, but is now "close to being released back to a correctional centre", the Department of Corrective Services said.

Hraichie was a known supporter of the terrorist group and had been previously caught sending graphic images of beheadings via internal mail to other ISIS extremists housed in Goulburn's Supermax prison, senior prison sources were quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.

Hraichie has now been charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent and intentionally choking a person.

"It is alleged an argument began over religious beliefs between the two, resulting in the 18-year-old carving letters into the front and rear of the 40-year-old male victim's head, before pouring hot water through a towel placed onto the victim's face," police said in a statement.

The younger man then alerted prison staff, who called paramedics, police said.

The teenager should have been placed in a high-risk management correctional centre and has now been transferred to one, Severin said.

The former soldier was taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital with significant wounds to his neck, head and face, and a broken sternum. He was put in an induced coma, police told Fairfax Media.

Public Sector Association spokesman Steve McMahon said the department had not taken the alleged attacker's extremist views seriously, and should have placed him in segregation.

A full investigation into the management of radicalised prisoners will also be launched.

Corrections Minister David Elliott said he was outraged by the alleged attack.

The charged teenager will face Kempsey Local Court on May 23.
Israeli Prime Minister noted today a "significant decline" in Palestinian attacks on Israelis, after six months of near-daily violence that has cost more than 200 lives.

Speaking at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said ministers would be presented with data from the Shin Bet domestic security agency that show a "significant decline in the scope of terrorist attacks."

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Netanyahu attributed the trend to Israeli moves to lower the "success rate" of attacks, alongside "very strong actions against the incitement of the Palestinian public".

Shin Bet published in recent days its statistics on Palestinian attacks for March, counting 123 against Israeli civilians and security forces in Israel, east Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Most of the attacks in the tally were firebombings, but the data also covered stabbings, car-ramming attacks, gunfire, improvised bombs and grenades as well as projectile fire from the Gaza Strip.

February saw 155 attacks, compared with 169 in January, and in December the Shin Bet counted 246 attacks, twice the number for March.

The number of fatalities in the attacks has dropped accordingly, with one non-assailant being killed in March, American tourist Taylor Force.

Violence since October has left 200 Palestinians and 28 Israelis dead.

Most of the Palestinians killed were carrying out knife, gun or car-ramming attacks.

The last Palestinian killed in the violence was Abdul Fatah al-Sharif, shot in the head on March 24 while wounded and posing no apparent threat after stabbing and wounding another soldier.

The case is still being investigated, with the soldier facing possible manslaughter charges.
Italy's ambassador left Egypt today, Egypt's state-run agency said, two days after Italy said it is recalling its envoy to protest what it described as a lack of cooperation in the investigation of the killing of an Italian student in Cairo.

Italian doctoral student Giulio Regeni's body was found nine days after he disappeared on the fifth anniversary of the Jan 25 uprising which toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, when police were out in force to prevent demonstrations. His body bore signs of torture.

Egypt's Interior Ministry has denied security forces had any involvement in the killing.

Senior Egyptian prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Saturday that Egypt has rejected an Italian request to hand over phone records of mobile subscribers in the district where Regeni resided, saying that doing so would violate privacy laws.

Italy's foreign minister, in Japan for a G-7 ministers meeting, again stressed on Sunday that his government would be studying over the next few days what additional measures to take.

The meetings last week in Rome between Italian and Egyptian investigators "didn't yield the fruits we expected," Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni told reporters. Additional measures would be "a signal of dissatisfaction" with Egypt's cooperation in the case, he said.

He added that any steps would be "proportional" and "without unleashing world wars.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh today expressed grief over the Puttingal Devi Temple fire tragedy in Kollam.

In a condolence message, Mehbooba said she was deeply saddened by the loss of lives in the major fire that broke out in Puttingal Devi Temple Complex, in Kerala. At least 100 persons were killed and over 350 were injured in the fire which broke out early today.

The Chief Minister conveyed her condolences to the families who lost their beloved ones in the tragedy. She also prayed for speedy recovery to those injured in the incident.

She also expressed grief over the death of six persons in a bus accident in Doda district and conveyed her sympathies to the bereaved families.

She wished speedy recovery to those injured in the mishap and directed the divisional administration to immediately airlift the seriously injured to GMC Jammu for best possible treatment.

In a condolence message, the Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh conveyed his condolences over the Puttingal Temple tragedy and expressed solidarity with the people of Kerala.

He also conveyed sympathies to the families of those killed in the Doda bus accident and also hoped for speedy recovery of those injured.
Finance Minister will on Tuesday embark on a 10-day US tour during which he will participate in the IMF-WB meeting, address a UN session on drug problem and interact with investors.

In the first leg of his US tour, Jaitley will be in Washington to attend the Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

During his stay in Washington, the Finance Minister is also likely to meet the officials of the US administration, sources said.

The Spring Meetings will take stock of the global economic situation, which is yet to show signs of improvement.

IMF in its January update on World Economic Outlook had lowered the world growth projection for 2016 to 3.4% from 3.6%. For 2017 also it cut the forecast to 3.6% from 3.8%.

The Spring Meetings will also be attended by RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian.

Jaitley will leave Washington for New York on April 17.

During his second leg of his US trip, he will address a Special Session of the United Nations on the World Drug Problem on April 19.

In New York, Jaitley will hold meetings with business community and investors. The Finance Minister will hard sell India as an attractive investment destination and also seek funding for Investment and Infrastructure Fund, India's maiden sovereign wealth fund.
John Kerry will not apologise for the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima during his visit to the city for weekend G7 talks, a State Department official said today.

Speculation has been building that Kerry's planned visit to a Hiroshima blast memorial tomorrow could see the US secretary of state issue a first-ever apology for the wartime attack.

But a State Department official said a formal apology from America's top diplomat was not on the cards.

"If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no," the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters travelling with Kerry.

"If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."



Kerry is the first secretary of state to visit the Japanese city, which was obliterated by a US nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945 that killed 140,000 people, including those who died afterwards from severe radiation exposure.

Three days later another blast killed some 74,000 people in Nagasaki, in the closing chapters of World War II.

Kerry's landmark trip is widely seen as paving the way for Barack Obama to possibly become the first serving US president to visit the city, when he heads to Japan next month for a Group of Seven summit.

Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers are meeting this weekend to discuss a range of global hotspot issues, including the Middle East, the refugee crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and global terrorism.
arrived in Japan today for a Group of Seven meeting in Hiroshima, in the first-ever visit to the atomic-bombed city by a US secretary of state.

Kerry arrived at a US military base west of Hiroshima from Afghanistan for the two-day G7 gathering set to discuss a host of global issues including terrorism, Ukraine and North Korea, though the symbolism of his visit is overshadowing the broader diplomatic agenda.

During his stay in Hiroshima, Kerry and other G7 foreign ministers are scheduled to visit a park and museum dedicated to the August 6, 1945 destruction of the city by an American atomic bomb.

Kerry's trip is seen as possibly paving the way for Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to journey to the thriving metropolis next month when he visits Japan for the G7 Summit.

The Hiroshima meeting begins today and will also be attended by diplomats from nuclear-armed Britain and France, as well as Canada, Germany, Italy and Japan.

The gathering is part of the run-up to the G7's rotating annual summit, scheduled this year from May 26-27 in the Ise-Shima region between Tokyo and Osaka.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani today committed to pushing reforms after his picks for attorney general and interior minister won long-sought Cabinet confirmation, while US Secretary of State John Kerry pleaded with the government's power-sharing leaders to bury their "factional divisions" for the good of the country.

Yet Ghani could not cite progress toward ending a bitter feud with Afghanistan's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, that has hobbled the Kabul government for 18 months.

The unwieldy arrangement, which Kerry helped to forge, has left interim ministers in critical positions while the US ally struggles to confront lawlessness, corruption and the Taliban's resilient and perhaps expanding insurgency.

"Democracy requires credible institutions," Kerry told reporters at the end of his brief stopover in Afghanistan on his way to Japan for a meeting of foreign ministers.

"More than that, it requires people from different political, ethnic and geographic factions to be able to come together and work toward a common good."



Underscoring the unstable security situation, several rounds exploded about 650 feet away from the US Embassy in Kabul after Kerry had left the premises last evening.

A US official described the explosions as small, and said there was no indication the secretary of state was the target. Local media reported no injuries.

Ghani, at a conference, hailed the Cabinet votes in parliament as a political turning point. Progress on that front "assures us there will be fundamental, comprehensive reforms," he said through an interpreter.

Kerry backed him up and stressed the need for a unified approach between the competing Ghani and Abdullah camps, hardened still almost two years after a contested presidential election.

In the coming months, NATO and international donor summits could define long-term security and aid commitments critical to the Afghan government's survival, so Kerry sought clarity on Afghanistan's direction.

Kerry called on the Taliban to re-engage in peace talks dormant for almost a year, and said there was no change now in President Barack Obama's plans for troop levels in Afghanistan. There are 9,800 US forces on the ground in Afghanistan, and that number is set to fall to 5,500 next year.

"But he always has said he will listen to his commanders on the ground," Kerry said.

Gen John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is reviewing needs; Kerry said that would guide Obama's final decision.

Ghani declined to weigh in on what he said was a US matter.
Saudi King Salman called today for a joint fight against "terrorism" in the Middle East at a time when Riyadh is engaged in several conflicts the region.

The 80-year-old monarch is on a rare five-day visit to Egypt, a trip seen as a clear show of support for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The two leaders have already signed a slew of multi-billion-dollar investment deals, and yesterday Egypt agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia by officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.

"The other mission that we should work on together is the fight against extremism and the fight against terrorism," King Salman said in an address to the Egyptian parliament broadcast live on state television.

In December, Saudi Arabia announced the creation of an "anti-terrorism" coalition whose members it said would share intelligence, counter violent ideology and deploy troops if necessary to combat extremists.

The kingdom is part of the US-led coalition bombing the jihadist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Riyadh is also leading an Arab coalition, of which Egypt is a member, that has been bombing Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion.

It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt.

Yesterday, King Salman and Sisi agreed to set up a USD 16 billion investment fund, and also settled the long-standing maritime dispute.

Salman announced on Friday a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, and inked several other agreements Egypt hopes will boost its battered economy.

His visit follows months of reports in Saudi and Egyptian newspapers of strained ties over Cairo's unwillingness to participate fully in operations against Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Egypt had announced it would back Saudi Arabia with ground troops if needed, but appears to have balked at the prospect of becoming mired in the conflict.

For Saudi Arabia, which is in competition with regional rival Iran, keeping Egypt under its aegis is crucial, and it has played a key role in propping up Egypt's economy.
United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Lulu Group, which runs a retail chain of over 120 hypermarkets in the Middle East, has decided to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India over the next four years, largely for setting up shopping malls.

The group, promoted by Indian businessman Yusuff Ali M A, has already zeroed in on constructing mega shopping complexes in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Thiruvananthapuram.

"We are planning to invest Rs 5,000 crore in India over the next four years," said Ali, who is also managing director of the group which has operations in over 30 countries.

Ali, who hails from Kerala, also said his company has decided to open 12 hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia at an investment of Rs 2,700 crore in the next few years. The currently owns 14 hypermarkets in Saudi Arabia.

About investment in India, the promoter of the company with an annual turnover of $5.5 billion globally, said he was enthused by Indian government's decision to consider non-repatriable investments by NRIs as domestic investment.

"The business environment in India has improved significantly. A lot of restrictions are removed to facilitate investment. The best thing the new government has done to treat all NRI investment as domestic investment," Ali told PTI.

He said the decision will help India get investment from the NRI community.

The Forbes magazine had last year listed Ali, a first generation migrant to the Middle East, as the 30th wealthiest Indian and the 737th richest in the world.

Aiming to attract overseas funds, government recently decided that non-repatriable investments by NRIs, OCIs and PIOs will be treated as domestic investments and not be subject to foreign direct investment caps.

Investments by NRIs under Schedule 4 of FEMA regulations will be deemed to be domestic investment at par with the investment made by residents.

"We have got India's biggest shopping mall in Cochin. Now we have decided to set up one shopping mall in Thiruvananthapuram, one in Bengaluru, one in Chennai and one in Hyderabad. I am a shopping mall man," said Ali.

The has major businesses in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Yemen.

currently has 124 shopping malls. Globally, it employs more than 35,000 people. Lulu hypermarkets and department stores have a 32 per cent share of the retail market in Gulf Cooperation Council countries.
Macedonian police today fired tear gas at hundreds of migrants on the Greek side of the border as they tried to break through the fence, a Greek police source said.

The incident took place near the Idomeni border crossing in northern Greece where more than 11,200 people have been stranded after the Balkan states closed off the migrant route in mid February.
Even as the state reels under an acute-water scarcity like situation, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis today said his government was committed to provide drinking water to the people.

"The state at present is reeling under an acute water scarcity-like situation. The government is committed to provide drinking water to the people in any case," Fadnavis said after the inauguration of Krishi Vikas exhibition here.

"The government is also making efforts to make the land rich in water so that farmers get water for irrigation. Under 'Magel Tyala Shettale' (a scheme to provide farm-ponds), the government proposes to build five lakh farm lakes in next five years," the Chief Minister said.

Parts of Maharashtra especially the Marathwada region are reeling under severe drought.

Stating that the backlog in agriculture pump connections in Vidarbha and Marathwada regions has been completely removed, Fadnavis lauded the success of the 'Jalyukta Shivar Scheme'.

Jalyukta Shivar water conservation initiative, the flagship programme of Maharashtra government, involves deepening and widening of streams, construction of cement and earthen stop dams, work on nullahs and digging of farm ponds.

The Chief Minister further said for the first time in the history of the state, Rs 26,000 crore have been allotted for agriculture and allied sector.

Speaking on the occasion Union minister Nitin Gadkari called for deepening of rivers and nullahs around villages and towns and using excavated soil for laying 'pandan' roads (approach roads to farms.

The Union Highways minister informed that cement concrete roads worth Rs 2.50 lakh crore would be laid in Maharashtra this year.

Gadkari said the state has been given Rs 4,050 crore under Central road funds, which will help in increasing the length of national highways in the state to 22,000 km from the existing 5000 km.

He also said to boost dairy production in Vidarbha the government (Centre) has signed an agreement with New Delhi-based Mother Dairy which will soon be setting up a Rs 400 crore project in Nagpur.
Maharashtra government has no record at state-level of convicts who have been granted remission on account of good behaviour, an RTI query has revealed.

Additional Director General (Prisons) Bhushankumar Upadhyay said there are a large number of jails in the state but there is no provision to compile such records on a consolidated basis. However, the records are available at the prison-level.

The revelation comes in the backdrop of Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt's release from Pune's Yerwada Jail in February end, over three months ahead of his prison term, on account of "good conduct".

RTI activist Mansoor Darvesh had filed the query with the Law and Judiciary Department, seeking details of convicts who have secured early release from prison on account of their good conduct in the last five years.

He also sought the number of applications that are pending for remission and the reason for not acting on them.

In response to the query forwarded to the Home Department and then to the office of Additional DG and Inspector General of Prisons, it was stated the Department does not keep records of convicts granted remission.

"The information sought is not compiled and thus not available," the letter received from the office of Additional DG stated.

The letter provided a list of 43 prisons across the state and said necessary information can be obtained from there.

"Is it that the government only keeps records of celebrity prisoners who have been granted remission? Giving a list of 43 prisons and asking an applicant to contact each of them amounts to government shrugging off responsibility (in providing relevant information)," Darvesh said.

Upadhyay said remission is a "very important" and "well- documented activity" of a prison and anybody can simply contact the jail administration and seek details.

"Remission is granted at the level of jail authorities and records are not with the government as there are no provisions of keeping centralised records. But not keeping records does not mean nobody has been granted remission," he told PTI.
Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom arrived here today on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ways to expand cooperation between the two countries, particularly in areas of trade, investment and maritime security.

The Maldivian President was received at the airport by Minister of Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma.

Gayoom is accompanied by a delegation including Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Mohamed Shainee and three members of the Maldivian Parliament.

He will hold extensive talks with Modi tomorrow during which they are expected to explore ways to step up bilateral engagement in a range of areas including trade, investment and maritime security, sources said. The two sides would also ink a number of agreements to bolster bilateral engagement.

Gayoom will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee.

Amid concerns over militant groups like ISIS attempting to radicalise the citizens of the archipelago nation, Maldives is in talks with India for setting up a bilateral counter-terrorism mechanism.

India and Maldives commemorated 50 years of diplomatic relations last year.

President Gayoom's first state visit after assuming office was to India in January 2014. He was among the SAARC leaders who had attended the swearing-in of Modi in May, 2014.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited Maldives in November 2014 and again in October 2015 for the India-Maldives Joint Commission which was held after 15 years.
The minor boy, who had allegedly run over a 32-year-old man with his father's Mercedes in north Delhi's civil lines area, was today held under charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to juvenile justice home, the police said.

He will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board tomorrow.

The police today also arrested the man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of incident but did a volte-face after he got to know that victim Siddharth Sharma was dead.

The driver and the boy's father, who was arrested on Friday, were today produced before a city court and they were granted bail. The driver was arrested for the offence under section 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of the IPC.

Meanwhile, the police said that the juvenile, who turned 18 years old day before yesterday, along with his lawyers came to the court to surrender and his advocates moved a bail plea.

The police said that the court refused to grant him bail on the ground that it was a matter of the juvenile justice board (JJB).

Later, a juvenile welfare officer of the Delhi Police apprehended the boy and he was sent to juvenile justice home for a day. He will be produced before the JJB tomorrow.

The incident took place on April 4 when 32-year-old marketing executive Siddharth Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School and the speeding Mercedes hit him.

A case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) was lodged.

The boy was apprehended the next day and was released on bail as per legal provisions.

"During the later stage of the investigation, the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is cognizable and non-bailable in nature, was slapped and today the boy was apprehended under this charge," DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.

The police had said, "On examination of CCTV footage, the possibility of knowledge to the accused juvenile offender that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death cannot be ruled out."



"Further, during investigation it emerged that it was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by this accused juvenile. In the past too he was found driving in a rash and negligent way, thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle," it had said.

Last year, the minor was also challaned thrice -- for over-speeding in April and June and wrong parking in February.

The boy's father, an old-Delhi based businessman, was arrested under Sections 109/304 (abatement to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.

"There has not been a single step taken by the father of the accused in prohibiting him from taking the vehicle. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the said juvenile," a senior police official had said.

The car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

After the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled the spot, abandoning the car there.
Domestic handset maker will now integrate a new wallet offering, powered by Visa and TranServ, for its smartphone users as it looks to beef up its services business.

The Gurgaon-based firm, which had partnered TranServ in December last year, is relying heavily on payments as part of its overall service strategy.

"Payment is very critical to the overall service strategy for . Almost all the new smartphone products will have this wallet as natively integrated in them. Existing users of smartphones will also get this upgrade," Micromax co-founder Vikas Jain told PTI.

He added the company has partnered Visa and TranServ to offer unique digital solutions specifically designed to meet the demands of the "mobile-first" Indian consumers.

"VISA brings together the merchant ecosystem and TranServ takes care of the technical aspect, while Micromax already has strong service ecosystem and user base in place to use this service," he said.

Using the proposed payment solutions, Micromax users will be able to use mobile-based push payments using mVisa and make eCommerce payments on merchant and social media applications as well as interpersonal payments to personal contacts.

In the future, the will also look at launching mobile contactless payments in physical locations through NFC (near-field communications).

"The payment solutions will soon be available to Micromax smartphone users through the Udio app," he said.

Udio is a digital wallet enabled by TranServ. It allows consumers to shop using a Visa card number linked to the underlying prepaid wallet, wherever Visa is accepted.

"Digital payments is clearly an important part of our digital experience and services strategy. We are looking to provide an all pervasive payments layer to our services ecosystem enabling digitalisation of the lifestyles of our consumers," he said.

Chris Clark, Group Executive (Asia Pacific) at Visa, said mobile payments are part of the future of payments and their rapid adoption will be instrumental in helping India move towards a cashless society.

"With India being the world's fastest-growing smartphone market, we have a significant opportunity to combine the power, reach and security of the Visa network, with the strengths of our partners Micromax and TranServ, to create payment solutions tailored to local market needs," he added.

TranServ co-founder and CEO Anish Williams said the company is building solutions that will contribute towards a holistic and secure payments ecosystem.
A mother with her bawling kid, an infirm elder of the locality, and the owner of a grocery shop stand expectantly -- waiting for the 'mohalla clinic', seen as a radical promise in Delhi's primary health care, to throw open its doors.

The clinic, tucked away in a narrow lane of Patparganj's West Vinod Nagar locality, is part of 21 such facilities which were launched by the Delhi government on March 31. The AAP government plans to set up 1,000 such clinics by December 31.

The necessity of the initiative, still in its pilot phase, becomes clear by the hour, as on a Thursday morning, a steady stream of people troop in and out of its freshly painted rooms, their floors hastily tiled.

Dr Ranjana Saxena, in-charge of the Patparganj clinic, says that since its launch she has been attending to around 70 patients everyday during the four odd hours it remains open, between 9 AM-1 PM.

"We are paid per patient. Initially we were told that the government will bear the charge of any assistants we employ. But now ASHA workers have been attached with us instead," Dr Saxena says.

Soon after she admonishes 62-year-old Babulal Sharma, a patient of high blood pressure and thyroid for taking painkillers.

Sharma says earlier he had to visit Lady Hardinge Medical College for routine checkup.

"For minor ailments and routine checkups mohalla clinics have come as a blessing. Otherwise I have to travel all the way to the hospital for minor ailments, which occur frequently at this age," he says, the prescription clutched in his hand.

Meanwhile, Ranju Devi asks Seema, crouched with her six-year-old daughter, whether she is the last one in the queue while lamenting that the clinic has only one chair in its waiting room.

"My joints are paining for the last one week. I had visited a private clinic but it did not help. Someone told me the other day about this new 'sarkari' facility. Suna hai achha hai, dekhte hai (heard it's good, let's see)" Ranju says.

According to Dr Saxena, who has been given a six-months contract by the government, the facilities provided in the three-room clinic are "adequate" and that medicines are routinely "replenished".

The clinics, have in their entrances, clear announcements that they offer "free tests, free medicines, and free consultation". A private laboratory has been entrusted with collecting samples of over 200 kinds of tests.

"We not only collect blood samples or urine samples and send them to the labs head office, we bring the reports and hand them over to the patients as well. They don't have to spend a penny in the whole process," one of the assistants said.

Few kilometres away in Mandawali, another such clinic housed in a "permanent structure" will be opened in a few days, which will have facilities at par with the first mohalla clinic that was opened at Rajiv Gandhi JJ Punjabi Colony, a relief camp in Peeragarhi.

Government has rented the rooms for around Rs 12,000 per month in the short term as getting space for setting them up in permanent structures was proving difficult.

In a bid to decongest government hospitals and make healthcare accessible to all, Delhi government has adopted a "three-tier public health roadmap" involving mohalla clinics, polyclinics and hospitals.

Polyclinics will have specialists and will refer only patients who require surgery or hospitalisation to a multi-speciality hospital, a government official said.

Delhi government has earmarked Rs 5,259 crore for the health sector in its 2016-17 budget, a hike of close to 10 per cent over the allocation last fiscal.
A Pakistani bomb-making expert linked to the 2008 Mumbai attack is among scores of trained terrorists who slipped into the EU posing as refugees to join the Islamic State's plot to commit atrocities in Europe, a media report said today.

Muhammad Usman Ghani, who is linked to the Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror groups, is being held in Austria on charges of participating in a terrorist organisation, The Sunday Times said.

The "strike team" sent to Europe before last November's Paris attacks included Usman, the veteran bomb-maker from Pakistan.

LeT was behind the Mumbai attack that left 166 people dead.

The disclosure comes from sources close to a multinational investigation who warn more "large-scale" assaults on European countries, including Britain, are "imminent". Dozens of the operatives are still at large, the report said.

Usman, 34, and a suspected Algerian fighter named as Adel Haddadi, 28, have been questioned by Austrian and French authorities after being linked to the terrorist gang that killed 130 people in Paris last November.

Investigators believe both men are part of an unknown number of Isis "strike teams" that used the migrant flow to infiltrate Europe last year. A network of jihadists based on the Continent has provided extensive logistic support, from fake identity documents to safe houses.

Usman and Haddadi arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat as two of the Paris suicide bombers, known only by the fake names Ahmad al- Mohammed and Mohammad al-Mahmod. The pair blew themselves up in front of the Stade de France stadium on November 13.

All four men had obtained Syrian passports and travelled on a boat carrying 198 people, according to a Greek police report.

Adel Haddadi has been linked to the Paris attacks Usman and Haddadi were travelling under the names Faycal Alaifan and Fozi Brahi.

They were arrested by Greek police soon after arriving because their documents showed up on the EU's database of nearly 4,000 passports that had been stolen by Isis.

Greek police released both men on October 28 and allowed them to continue the journey across Europe.

Shortly after the Paris attacks, Usman and Haddadi resurfaced in Austria, applying for asylum at the Asfinag refugee shelter, near Salzburg, in late November.
The world's Islamic countries began their annual meeting today in Istanbul, where they are set to focus on the Palestinian cause, conflicts in member states and combating terrorism.

The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes once again at a time of turmoil in many Muslim nations, with conflicts in Syria and Yemen dragging on, and several states including Turkey, bloodied by militant attacks.

The 13th annual OIC conference began with senior officials adopting the agenda and will be followed by a foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Over 30 heads of state and government will attend the summit hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and Friday.

With guests set to include Saudi King Salman, the event is taking place under the highest security, with police stationed all around the venue in central Istanbul.

The OIC said the summit was to issue a resolution on the Palestinian issue and support for international efforts to relaunch a "collective political process".

The gathering comes at a time of rising Islamophobia in many western nations in response to a spate of attacks by the Islamic State group.

Islamic leaders will also "consider the situation of Muslim communities in non-OIC member States and the issue of combating terrorism."



Turkey has also been a victim of several bloody IS attacks, and the Istanbul summit comes a day after the US warned of a "credible threat" of attacks in the city.

Under Erdogan, who has made Islam one of central themes of his politics, Turkey has upped its economic and political influence throughout the Islamic world, particularly in lands in the Middle East once part of the Ottoman Empire.

However this policy has has not always met with success and frosty relations with several Muslim states, including Egypt, have led some analysts to conclude its aim of "zero problems with neighbours" ended up having exactly the opposite effect.

In a speech on Saturday, Erdogan hailed the role Turkey has played by hosting nearly three million refugees from neighbouring Syria.

"In the world, there is no state, no country that is capable of assuming such a burden. The events this year that targeted us will not deflect us from this path," he said.

A big question mark hangs over the level of representation from Egypt, which has had strained ties with Turkey since the ousting of Ankara ally Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's new de facto leader, has undergone an eye operation for cataracts, state media said today.

The state-controlled Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper cited sources in Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy party as saying the successful operation was performed at a special hospital in the capital, Naypyitaw.

Cataracts, a clouding of the lens in the eye, is usually associated with aging, and can lead to blindness if left untreated. Suu Kyi is 70.

The newspaper said the operation was performed Saturday, allowing her recuperation to take place over the extended traditional New Year holiday this week.

It said she will return for an operation on her other eye in mid-April, a standard practice.

By agreement of her party, Suu Kyi is the de facto head of government, taking up the newly created post of state counsellor. The military-era constitution does not allow her to be president because her two sons have British citizenship.

Shortly before her party won a landslide victory in November's election, Suu Kyi announced her intention to run the government by being "above the president.
Plagued with a long spell of underinvestment, Indian Railway is firming up a plan for infrastructure development with an ambitious target of pumping in more than Rs 8 lakh crore over the next four years.

The massive investment plan would involve high-speed rail connectivity, station redevelopment and capacity augmentation across the country.

We are drawing up concrete plans for investment of about Rs 8.5 lakh crore in the coming four years for modernisation of rail infrastructure, said a senior Railway Ministry official.

Hoping that a lot of opportunities for economic growth will follow modernization of the public sector behemoth, the official said the National Plan for Railway Infrastructure Development is being formed factoring in funding of projects for the coming years.

As per the plan, while part of the funding will come from the capital expenditure provided for in the Rail Budget, a major chunk is expected to come from outside the budget through PPP and multilateral funding.

Railways capital expenditure has increased from Rs 57,000 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 97,000 crore in 2015-16 and, in the current fiscal, it has been pegged at Rs 1.21 lakh crore.

Talking about huge opportunities for investment in the sector, the official said while LIC is lending Rs 1.5 lakh crore for rail expansion, avenues for funds from other countries are also being explored.

"We have agreements with 13 countries for cooperation in the rail sector. Railways has already signed a Rs 97,636 crore deal with Japan for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad high-speed rail project," he said.

Besides the Mumbai-Ahmedabad corridor, Indian Railway is planning to link all metros with high-speed trains as part of its Diamond Quadrilateral project which requires huge private funding.

On the station redevelopment front, he said there was a lot of scope as the public transporter is opening up 408 major stations for private sector participation.

The redevelopment plan envisages vertical growth of stations with opening of shopping malls, eateries, parking lots, among others. "The proposed stations will be offered through online auction shortly," he said.
The Opposition, led by Congress and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), would raise the "Rs 297-crore medicine purchase scam" in the Maharashtra Legislative Council this week, Opposition leader Dhananjay Munde said here on Sunday.

The NCP leader alleged that he had raised this issue during the monsoon session of the state legislature last year but the government had "brushed the scam under carpet".

"The medicine purchase scam in the department of public health is much bigger than what is being quoted in the media. I would expose the scam fully with proof on the floor of the Legislative Council," Munde, the NCP MLC, said in a statement here.

Read more from our special coverage on "DOCTORS' STRIKE"

Referring to Health Minister Deepak Sawant's statement that purchase of medicines is done at the level of director, health services, Munde said, "If the purchases are done at the level of director, health services, and at the lower level then let the secretary run the department, why have the minister?"

Munde, nephew of late Bharatiya Janata Party stalwart Gopinath Munde, alleged that the government is scared to order a probe into the "scam".

Munde asked, "If government so readily agrees to constitute a probe headed by a retired judge against a person like Padmashri Tatyarao Lahane..., then why is the government scared to probe this scam?"

He was referring to the resident doctors at JJ Hospital here calling off their six-day strike on Friday for transfer of hospital dean Lahane and ophthalmology department head Ragini Parekh.

The strike was reportedly called off on Friday after the government agreed to form a committee headed by a retired high court judge and two doctors from the Medical Association of Resident Doctors to look into the complaints of the resident doctors.

Stating that he had raised the "medicine purchase scam" in last monsoon session, Munde said, "However, like the Chikki scam, fire fighting equipment purchase scam, pulses scam or scam in purchase of great leaders, the government brushed this scam too under the carpet."

Sawant had already clarified that all powers to purchase medicines rest with central purchase committee and the issue of tenders does not come to him.

The minister had said that "if anything wrong has happened (in medicine purchase) then provide me the details, I will take action".

The alleged scam relates to haphazard purchase of medicines under the Urban Health Mission, in which allocation is given by the central government.

State Public Health Department had invited tenders for purchase of 549 medicines and for that allocation of Rs 297 crore was made.

The purchase was made for 26 municipal corporations, 65 municipal councils and four cantonment boards.

The advertisements for purchase of these medicines were issued in newspapers in far away Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Assam.

In order to ensure that the allocation does not get lapsed before March 31, mass orders were issued to suppliers who claimed that they got the orders much after April 15 last year.
With having rejected Rs 4,000 crore offer made by 'wilful defaulter' Vijay Mallya to settle dues of over Rs 9,000 crore, industry body has asked them to be open to negotiations and cut losses.

In an apparent support to Mallya's offer, the industry body said the offer conveys his "intention to repay the loans", and asked to ignore the "public discourse against the purported wilful defaulters", and not be influenced by media reports.

Mallya's settlement offer has already been rejected by banks, who want something concrete on the table, while he has failed to appear before various investigative agencies like ED and SFIO despite repeated summons issued in connection with probe into alleged irregularities at his group.

"The must evaluate with open mind what offer is on the table. Even if Rs 4,000 crore, as reported in the media, needs to be revised, the banks should be open to negotiations irrespective of the fact whether the borrower is sitting in Delhi or Dubai, Mumbai or London. "Get your money back and cut your losses, if they occur," said.

Mallya is reported to be in the UK after he left India on March 2.

"With so much shrill on the wilful defaulters, the banks and their principal shareholder, the Government of India, should take a dispassionate view of the case rather than being influenced by the media reports which at times get exaggerated in the 'right-or-wrong' debate," said in a statement.

It said the main concerns for the bank's consortium should be recovery of its assets which have become NPAs and all genuine efforts must be made towards that end.

In the present situation, the difficult times have to be faced by all the stakeholders- industry (borrowers) and the banks, it added.

In the case of Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya, Assocham said it does not want to sit in judgement, but what it certainly wants is "let there not be a media and public trial as such a thing is not good for the industry, banks or even the country's financial system".

A consortium of banks led by State Bank of India last week rejected the proposal in the current form offered by Mallya and his companies to pay Rs 4,000 crore by September towards settlement of his loan before the Supreme Court.

The consortium had also asked the Supreme Court that directions be passed to ensure the presence of Mallya in the country to show that he was serious about settling the dues.
Student leaders behind Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protests launched a new political party today and said it would campaign for a referendum to decide the city's future - including possible independence.

The semi-autonomous Chinese city is self-governing and retains many freedoms not seen on the mainland. But Beijing sees the concept of eventual independence as unthinkable.

Joshua Wong, 19, who announced the launch of the Demosisto party, was at the forefront of the mass rallies which brought parts of the city to a standstill as residents called for fully free elections for future leaders.

But the 79-day protest fizzled out without winning any concessions from the Hong Kong or Chinese governments.

"It is time to fight for our self-determination," Wong told a press conference at which the party - whose key policy is to push for a referendum - was launched.

"Independence should be one of the options inside the self-determination referendum," he said, adding he hopes it could happen in 10 years' time.

Nathan Law, another student leader of the so-called Occupy movement, said the party would collect views from the city's general public rather than engaging with Beijing.

"The truth is... We don't see any outcome when we communicate with the central government (Beijing), so for now we will not have any communication with the government," he said.

Hong Kong was returned by Britain to China in 1997 under a "one country two systems" deal that guarantees its freedoms.

But there are fears that those freedoms are being eroded, with Beijing tightening its grip behind the scenes.

More radical young activists are gaining a foothold in mainstream politics, with one student leader who calls for independence from China taking tens of thousands of votes in a recent poll.

The new party, which currently has about 30 members, will send teams to contest the city's legislative elections in September.

Wong cannot himself stand for election until he is 21.

Both Wong and Law face criminal charges over the 2014 mass rallies.

Wong said he expects a continuation of what he called the suppression of democratic activists.

"To us we feel being suppressed is something to expect...(but) Hong Kong people should decide the future of Hong Kong rather than allowing the Communist Party to determine our future," he said.

The referendum would include the option of Hong Kong staying part of China, he said.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in a visit to Hong Kong last week dismissed aspirations to independence as not a "realistic plan".
The National Green Tribunal has directed the Centre to provide financial assistance of Rs 17.5 crore for setting up two gas stations in Himachal Pradesh and asked the state to commence CNG bus services in eco-sensitive Rohtang Pass area "without fail" in the coming tourist season.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar asked the Ministry of Petroleum to look into the issue of setting CNG stations at Tahliwal and Manali and "consider" its case "objectively and purposefully".

"We direct Secretary of Ministry of Petroleum to consider the case of the state of Himachal Pradesh for financial assistance in relation to Rs 17.5 crore expenditure to be incurred in that regard.

"Under the federal structure of our Constitution, environment being central subject, it is expected that both the governments would put their means together to achieve the object of clean environment, which is a fundamental right of the citizens," the bench said, adding the activity would add revenue to state government and Centre.

The direction came after counsel appearing for Ministry of Petroleum told the bench that they do not have any policy to support the Himachal government for setting up CNG stations.

The green panel also directed Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum to convene a meeting within a week with Himachal Pradesh, Green Gas Ltd and other concerned to take a final view on the matter.

To minimise pollution in the Rohtang Pass area, the tribunal had cleared the decks for plying of CNG buses on the 51-km-long Manali-Rohtang highway.

The tribunal's nod to plying of CNG buses had come after Himachal Pradesh government told a bench that trial run was successful and the state has planned to introduce these buses for regular operation from Vashist to Rohtang Pass.

The tribunal had earlier directed the Centre and all the departments concerned of the state to extend their full cooperation for the project to protect Rohtang.

It said the CNG project needs to be dealt expeditiously in order to protect the eco-sensitive area of Rohtang which is one of the most beautiful part of the state.
Nigerian secret police have accused a Biafra separatist group of killing 55 people after discovering their bodies in shallow graves in a thick forest in the country's southeast.

The Department of State Service (DSS), Nigeria's domestic spy agency, said the graves were found in Umuanyi forest in Abia state, home to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement.

It issued a statemant late Saturday accusing IPOB members of playing a "heinous role" in the abduction of five Hausa-Fulani residents, although the claims were dismissed by another Biafran group.

"The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia state, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst 50 other shallow graves of unidentified persons," spokesman Tony Opuiyo said in the statement.

"Arrests and investigation conducted so far revealed that elements within the IPOB carried out this dastardly action," he said.

IPOB was founded by Nnamdi Kanu, who is currently on trial for treason in a high-profile case in Abuja.

He was arrested in October for operating pirate Radio Biafra where he was alleged to be broadcasting "seditious messages" against Nigeria.

Kanu has emerged as the new face of the campaign for a separate Biafran state, nearly 50 years after a previous unilateral declaration of independence sparked a brutal civil war.

The conflict from 1967 to 1970 left about one million people dead, many from starvation and disease, as Nigerian troops blockaded the fledgling Republic of Biafra.

IPOB supporters have staged a series of protests across the country in recent months to demand his release and call for a breakaway state for the Igbo people, one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa.

The leader of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), another pro-Biafra group defended the IPOB against the latest charges.

"The DSS allegation against the pro-Biafra agitators lacks merit and evidence because MASSOB and IPOB are non-violent organisations," Uchenna Madu told AFP.

"They want to blackmail us as violent or terrorist group in order to get evidence against Nnamdi Kanu," he said.

He vowed that action by pro-Biafran groups would continue until their objective of a sparate homeland for the Igbo people is achieved.
Nine persons have been arrested in China in connection with a recent milk powder scandal, which involved production and selling of fake baby formula under two popular brand names.

China's food safety commission under the State Council (Cabinet), said that Shanghai police had transferred six of the suspects to judicial organs for prosecution and hunting down another suspect.

The fake baby formula was sold under brands of "Similac", a popular formula line under New York-listed Abbott Laboratories, and "Beingmate", one of China's largest baby formula producers.

The latest scandal was a fresh blow to sensitive Chinese consumers, whose trust in baby formula products was eroded by a 2008 case in which six infants died for consuming baby milk tainted by melamine.

Shanghai police started to probe the case after receiving reports in September.

From December 9, 2015 to January 7, 2016, they have arrested nine suspects and seized about 1,000 cans of milk powder, over 20,000 empty cans and 65,000 fake "Similac" trademarks.

The fake products had been sold into four provinces, including Henan, Anhui, Jiangsu and Hubei, according to Yan Zuqiang, deputy director of the Shanghai food safety office.

According to the commission, three vendors in Hubei, Jiangsu and Anhui have voluntarily destroyed 3,300 cans after becoming suspicious of the powder, while Shanghai police have confiscated another 5,000 cans.

There are still 3,300 cans of fake "Similac" powder left unaccounted for, and another vendor in Anhui confessed 3,600 cans of "Beingmate" had been sold.

Authorities in provinces concerned are further tracing down the fake products, state run Xinhua agency reported today.

Meanwhile, a test of 14 key items found the fake products within national safety standards, the commission added.

Deputy head of the food safety commission Teng Jiacai said the agency will further improve food safety mechanism to strengthen regulation in the industry.
A weak market sentiment coupled with subdued demand led to decline in sales and production of the country's biggest iron ore miner in 2015-16.

The public sector undertaking reported sales of 28.87 million tonnes (MT) in 2015-16, down from the 30 MT it clocked in 2014-15.

It had reported sales of 30.87 MT in 2013-14 fiscal and 26.48 MT in 2012-13.

As for production, the 'Navratna' company reported an output of 28.32 MT last fiscal, down from record production of 30.44 MT in 2014-15.

In 2013-14, it had clocked an output of 30.02 MT, while in 2012-13 it was 27.18 MT.

Iron ore is the main ingredient used in making steel.

Analysts have attributed the decline in sales to the subdued demand for iron ore by steel makers.

They said that in India, as well as globally, the ore market has been hit by over production, while on the other hand steel demand has been softening.

However, they were of the view that iron ore market in the country will revive marginally in the short and medium term on the back of several infrastructure development projects launched by the government such as smart cities and housing for all.

A senior official from a mining company said sluggishness in iron ore prices is expected to remain for the next two years internationally.

However, after the measures such as minimum import price, safeguard duty and anti-dumping duty on steel products by the government, iron ore offtake by domestic producers is expected to increase a bit.

plans to invest Rs 40,000 crore over eight years to achieve a target of 100 MT per annum of iron ore from the current levels of little over 30 MTPA.

The firm will invest in developing new mines, steel plant (Nagarnar), Legacy Iron ore company (Australia) and the slurry pipe line 9 from (Kirandul to Vizag), among others.

The state-run miner also raised iron ore lumps and fines prices with effect from April 4, 2016.

It raised lump ore prices by Rs 150 to Rs 2,100 per tonne and that of fines was also raised by Rs 150 to Rs 1,860.

Last month, had raised the lump price by a little over 8 per cent to Rs 1,950 per tonne, its first hike for the higher grade of the ore in over one-and-a-half years.

The firm had also raised prices for iron ore fines by 10 per cent to Rs 1,710 per tonne for March. Last time, NMDC had raised the prices of fines in November 2015.
DMK today promised total prohibition, setting up Lokayukta, a cut in state-run Aavin Milk price by Rs 7 a litre, revival of the Legislative Council, and implementation of the Sethusamudram project in its manifesto for the May 16 Assembly polls.

DMK did not, however, announce any populist freebie schemes on the scale of free colour televisions it had made in 2006, though it promised a slew of concessions and waivers, catering to various sections of people.

It includes mobile phones for the poor at concessional prices, free wi-fi Internet for students, waiver on crop and educational loans, inclusion of free milk in nutritious meal scheme, and Rs 60,000 assistance to women for marriage.

DMK also promised improvisation in some ongoing schemes like marriage assistance plan.

Currently, the AIADMK government provides Rs 50,000 assistance and gold for mangalsutra.

It assured 'Anna (on the name of DMK founder and former Chief Minister CN Annadurai) Unavagam," in the place of Amma Unavagam, a cost-effective chain of state-run canteens.

Releasing the manifesto, Karunanidhi attacked AIADMK chief and Chief Minister Jayalalithaa over her promise of implementing prohibition in a phase manner and dismissed it as "deceitful".

He said the state-run liquor outlet - TASMAC - employees will be provided alternative employment.

He said Tamil will be introduced as "co-official language" in central government offices too in Tamil Nadu.

He promised waiver of crop loan for small and micro farmers, and a separate budget for agriculture.

A separate farm budget is a pet theme of the PMK.

DMK also promised waiver of educational loans for students.
The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC), under Ministry of Science & Technology, has entered into an agreement with a Bhopal based company for commercialisation of "test kit for microbiological quality of drinking water".

The kit has been developed byDefence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, DRDO, Ministry of Defence.

The company plans to take this technology across the country through a network of dealers.

The kit has been licensed to more than 20 companies in India so far and is useful to ascertain the quality of drinking water especially in developing countries.

The kit is used for detection of Hydrogen Sulfide producing organism in drinking water, which are present along with coliforms bacteria.

Waterborne diseases like typhoid, cholera,diarrhoeaand jaundice are caused by pollutedwater supply.

"It is an inexpensive, reliable and convenient method of testing in field conditions and is approved by World Health Organization (WHO).

The initiative of NRDC aids the Make in India Mission of the Government of India," said a statement from the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The formal license agreement was signed by Chairman and Managing Director, NRDC Dr H Purushotham, and General Manager, Ramashree Chemicals Pvt Ltd V K Joshi.
Pakistan today expressed "deep condolences" over a massive fire tragedy at a Kerala temple that has left more than 100 people dead.

"The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from a fire in the temple," Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.

"Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people," Zakaria was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.

More than 100 people have died and nearly 300 injured in the major explosion and fire at the Puttingal Devi Temple complex near Kollam in Kerala.

Thousands of people had gathered near the temple for a festival and to witness the fireworks show.

The blaze erupted when sparks emanating from the fireworks display ignited a store room filled with crackers and pyrotechnic material.
The Pakistan Army today violated the ceasefire by opening fire in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing retaliation from Indian troops.

"The Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation in Poonch sector," Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said.

He said the Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire in Shahpur area of Poonch sector by firing with automatic weapons at 0430 hours.

"Our troops have responded appropriately, no casualty or damage to our troops was reported", he said.
An unidentified Pakistani intruder carrying a large quantity of heroin was shot dead by BSF personnel along the Indo-Pak border in Bherowal when he crossed into Indian territory during the wee hours today.

Border Security Force night patrolling team saw some suspicious movement along the barbed fencing at the border outpost in Bherowal, a BSF official said.

The troops opened fire when the Pakistani intruder ignored their warning to surrender and kept moving towards them.

In the morning, the BSF launched a search operation during which the body of the intruder was found along with nine kilograms of heroin having a street price of Rs 45 crore, the official said.
Paris police says they've made eight arrests after demonstrators protesting the government's labor reforms went on a rampage across the capital, attacking a police building, damaging cars and vandalising bank offices.

The protesters tried in vain in the early hours of Sunday to get to the residence of French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who is on a trip to Algeria.

Police said later that the rioters consisted of about 300 people who came from a sit-in at Paris' Place de la Republique but it's not clear whether they had any affiliation to the loose-knit so-called "Night Rising" group there.

Police said the situation at the sit-in, which is ongoing, is now calm.

Saturday saw scores of rallies and demonstrations across France in opposition to the labor reforms.
Peruvians voted today on whether Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an ex-president jailed for massacres, should become their first female leader in an election marred by alleged vote-buying and deadly attacks.

Polls opened at 8:00 am (local time) and were due to close at 0230 IST, with 23 million of the South American country's 30 million inhabitants called to cast ballots in the compulsory vote.

Half the candidates have dropped out or been excluded from the running under a tough new electoral law that saw Fujimori and other leading candidates accused of wooing voters with gifts.

The 40-year-old daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori survived the charges and is likely to win about a third of the vote, according to three opinion polls published on Friday.

That would send her to a runoff vote in June against whoever finishes second.

Fighting it out for second place are ex-prime minister and Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 77, and left-wing lawmaker Veronika Mendoza, 35.

Nine other candidates have either been excluded for irregularities or dropped out for lack of support. One, Gregorio Santos, is running for office from a jail cell where he is detained on corruption charges.

The leader of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said the January electoral reform that allowed the candidates to be excluded risked turning it into a "semi-democratic election."



Alberto Fujimori's dark decade in power from 1990-2000 lives in the memory of many Peruvians, but that has not stopped his daughter from rising to top the opinion polls at the head of her Popular Force party.

"I have a firm conviction that with God's help I will become the first woman president of Peru," she told thousands of supporters waving orange flags at her closing rally.

The Fujimoris are among thousands of families of Japanese descent who immigrated to Peru in search of a better economic future.

Alberto Fujimori, now 77, is in jail for crimes against humanity. The courts held him responsible for the massacre of 25 people he said were terrorists in 1991 and 1992.

"Politics is dirty. I find it incredible that Keiko could be president," said Diego Ramirez, 25, a Lima bank worker.

"Her father was corrupt and a killer. She didn't do anything as a congresswoman. All she has is her family name."



But many voters praise Alberto Fujimori for crushing the Shining Path communist guerrilla group that carried out attacks and kidnappings.

"If Fujimori had continued as president, the country would be in a better state now," said taxi driver Felizardo Mogollon, 58.
The Philippine military suffered its largest single-day combat loss so far this year when 18 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Abu Sayyaf extremists that also left five Islamic militants dead, including a Moroccan fighter, the military said today.

At least 53 other soldiers were wounded in yesterday's daylong clashes with the Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka on Basilan island, regional military spokesman Maj Filemon Tan and other army officials said.

The large combat casualties were reported as the Philippines marked the Day of Valour yesterday to remember Filipino veterans who died in World War II.

Government forces were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, three military officials said yesterday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the military assault.

Washington has offered a reward of up to USD 5 million for information leading to Hapilon's capture and prosecution.

The Abu Sayyaf militants, many of whom were armed with M203 grenade launchers, apparently managed to reinforce their ranks quickly as the fighting raged and gathered between 100 and 150 fighters, allowing them to inflict heavy casualties on government troops, the officials said.

The fighting lasted for more than nine hours, they said.

Among the slain militants was a Moroccan, who was identified as Mohammad Khattab, and a son of Hapilon, Tan said, adding about 20 other gunmen were wounded.

It's the largest single-day government combat loss this year in the south, where the military has been battling Muslim separatist rebels and extremists, and Marxist guerrillas.

Last year, 44 police commandos were killed in clashes with various Muslim insurgent groups in southern Mamasapano town while on a covert mission that was fraught with faulty planning and execution but nevertheless killed a top Malaysian terror suspect in Southeast Asia.

Outrage over the police deaths stalled a peace deal with the largest Muslim insurgent group some of whose fighters got entangled in the fighting.

The Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1991 in Basilan, about 880 kilometres south of Manila. With an unwieldy collective of preachers and outlaws, it vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, but lost its key leaders early in combat, sending it on a violent path of extremism and criminality.

The US and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organisation for carrying out deadly bombings, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and beheadings of locals and foreigners, including Christian missionaries in the south.
Describing the fire tragedy here as "unimaginable", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today assured Kerala government and its people all help in the hour of crisis as he visited the mishap site near here and a hospital to see the injured people.

"This tragedy is very painful. The extent of the tragedy is unimaginable and such dreadful," he told reporters before concluding his brief visit during which he also held a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

He said the tragedy is such huge that it is difficult to express it in words as such a large number of people have been injured, with some being beheaded.

"This is an hour of crisis and the central government is ready to extend all help to Kerala government and the people of the state," Modi said.

He said he had told the Chief Minister that if he wanted any injured people to be taken to Mumbai or Delhi for specialised treatment, the central government will immediately make arrangements for the same.

He extended condolences to those who lost their kin and wished speedy recovery to the injured.
Dozens of people were hurt on Sunday when police fired tear gas on a group of migrants as they tried to break through a fence on the Greece-Macedonia border, the medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said.

"Dozens of people were hurt, mainly suffering respiratory problems, and three had to be taken to hospital," MSF official Achileas Tzemos told AFP of the incident near the Idomeni crossing, a frequent flashpoint.

A Macedonian police source said three officers were also injured by stones thrown by the protesting migrants.

Tzemos also said several of the migrants were injured by plastic bullets but Macedonian police denied using such ammunition.

"We are using all allowed chemical means," police spokeswoman Liza Bendevska told AFP.

"We are not using any kind of bullets as they are in Macedonia forbidden by law. We are not using batons as we are on the other side of the fence," she said.
A powerful 7.1 magnitude today jolted many parts of Pakistan including PoK, killing one person and forcing people to flee their homes.

The duration of the quake was around 10-15 seconds. The epicentre of the quake was in the border region of Afghanistan and Tajikistan in the Hindu Kush mountains having a depth of 236 kilometres.

The quake was felt in Khyber-Pakhtuknkhwa and Punjab province as well as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Gilgit- Baltistan regions.

An official of National Disaster Management Authority said that at least one person was killed in Buner area of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province while nine were injured in the provincial capital Peshawar due to the quake.

Pakistani authorities said the earthquake measured 7.1 on the Richter scale.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) measured the earthquake at 6.6 magnitude, putting the epicentre at a depth of 210 kilometres near Ashkasham in Afghanistan, close to Chitral near the Pak-Afghan border.
Russian President Vladimir Putin today expressed condolences to the top Indian leadership over a massive fire tragedy at a Kerala temple that left 100 people dead.

Putin expressed condolences to his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the death of a large number of people in the fire at a Hindu temple, the Kremlin press service reported.

The Russian President conveyed words of sympathy and support to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

At least 100 people have died and over 300 injured in the major explosion and fire at the Puttingal Devi Temple complex near Kollam in Kerala.

Thousands of people had gathered near the temple for a festival and to witness the fireworks show.

The blaze erupted when sparks emanating from the fireworks display ignited a store room filled with crackers and pyrotechnic material.
Railway wagons carrying water for parched Latur in Marathwada, which is battling the worst drought ever, reached Miraj in western Maharashtra today from Kota in Rajasthan.

"Railway wagons reach Miraj. Filling up of drinking water in process. Wagons to be sent to Latur soon," Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said.

"Maharashtra Government and Railway Ministry are working hard to bring relief to people in drought affected region of Maharashtra," the CM tweeted.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, "50 Tank Wagons steam cleaned reached Miraj for Latur."



"Water filling from Platform line 2-6 pm today on trial. We do our best for drought," he tweeted.

On April 8, one of two goods trains carrying 50 tank wagons of water for drought-affected areas of Latur departed from Kota workshop for Miraj in Pune division.

The second goods train consisting of 50 wagons is expected to be ready for water loading around April 15, a Railway official said.

"As per instructions from the Ministry of Railways, Kota workshop received two goods trains consisting of 50 tank wagons (BTPN) each for deployment in drought-affected areas of Latur during the summer season and the trips of the trains will be arranged as per the requirement," he said.

The carrying capacity of these wagons is 54,000 litres of waters per wagon.
The unauthorised use of the International Red Cross's name by entities listed in the Panama Papers poses "enormous" risks for its operations and staff, the head of the humanitarian body said in an interview published today.

Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), made the comments in Le Matin Dimanche, after the Swiss paper detailed how shell companies set up by Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca inaccurately listed the ICRC as their beneficiary.

"The (risks) are enormous. If we were found, for example, to be associated with an offshore company owned by an armed group, I dare not imagine what we could be implicated in," Maurer told the paper.

"We are going to do to everything in our power to stop this abuse," he added.

According to the Swiss paper, Mossack Fonseca set up two entities -- Brotherhood Foundation and Faith Foundation -- which it offered to clients as an asset holding body.

The ICRC was listed as a beneficiary of the two "foundations", without the ICRC's knowledge, a move reportedly allowed under a legal loophole.

"We have never had a relationship with Mossack Fonseca and we have never received money from them," Maurer told the paper.

The so-called Panama Papers scandal was sparked by the leak of an enormous cache of Mossack Fonseca's documents, which exposed the hidden offshore dealings of political figures and celebrities across the world.

Maurer said the ICRC faced specific risks by being falsely tied to mysterious or unidentified funders.

"The ICRC needs particular protection, because we work in war zones and in conflicts with many belligerents.

"The security of our staff is in part guaranteed because our name and our emblem are respected," he added.

Maurer said the ICRC counted on being synonomous with "neutrality, independence and integrity", a reputation which could threatened if it was perceived as receiving money from questionable sources.

Le Matin Dimanche also reported that the environmental charity WWF had similarly been listed as a beneficiary of entities created by Mossack Fonseca.
The law firm at the center of the Panama offshore accounts scandal routinely usurped the name of the Red Cross and other charities to help obscure the origin of millions of dollars in questionable funds, media reported today.

There's no suggestion that the charitable groups had any idea their name was being used in this way. International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Claire Kaplun told The Associated Press on Sunday that the revelation was "a total surprise and something we find extremely shocking."



France's Le Monde and Switzerland's Le Matin Dimanche said Mossack Fonseca created dummy foundations with high-minded names such as the "Faith Foundation" to hold shares in around 500 offshore companies. The foundation's beneficiary was routinely listed as "the Red Cross," a designation which served the dual purposes of hiding the firms' real beneficiaries and of draping them in an "NGO aura," the papers wrote.

Mossack Fonseca didn't immediately return an email seeking comment, but a leaked email cited by the publications appeared to lay out the firm's reasoning.

"Given that banks and financial institutions are today asked to obtain information about economic beneficiaries, it has become difficult for us not to divulge the identity of those of the Faith Foundation's," the email said, according to the papers. "That's why we've implemented this structure designating the 'International Red Cross.' It's easier that way."



Another email cited by the papers suggests Mossack Fonseca deliberately kept the Red Cross in the dark about the maneuver.

"According to Panama law, the beneficiaries of a foundation can be used without knowing it," the email said, according to the papers. "That means the International Red Cross doesn't know about this arrangement."



Kaplun, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said that using the group's name or logo without its permission is barred by international law and could put the group's staff in jeopardy.

"We work in conflict zones. We work without weapons. Our protection is our name, our emblem, the faith that people have in our reputation," she said in a telephone interview.

"Let's say this money was linked to a warring party in a conflict. Imagine what consequences that could have."



The newspapers' examination of the Faith Foundation turned up a host of questionable connections.

Both said that the Faith Foundation was a relay in the money trail leading back to former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded him in 2007. The foundation also played a role in a complex London real estate transaction involving Emirati leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the papers said, adding that another Panama-based foundation played a similar role in obscuring the finances of Elena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's ex-mayor and repeatedly listed as Russia's wealthiest woman.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge Prince William and Kate Middleton will be served Assamese cuisine as the royal couple will pay a two-day visit to the state on the eve of spring festival 'Rongali Bihu', Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said here today.

"We are very happy and honoured that Prince William and his wife will visit the Kaziranga National Park and we have decided to give them a taste of Assamese cuisine and hospitality," the chief minister said.

"Since they are coming during Bihu, pithas (rice cakes) and larus (sweet-meats) will be definitely served, besides other Assamese delicacies," Gogoi added.

The royal couple was scheduled to arrive at Tezpur airport in the evening of April 12 where they will be received by the chief minister and given a traditional welcome.

The couple will drive down to the Diphlu River Lodge near the Kaziranga National Park where they will stay the night and attend a programme on ethnic cultural traditions to be presented by local artistes in their honour.

The Duke and Duchess will visit the Kaziranga National Park, famed for the one-horned rhinoceros, the next morning and enjoy a jeep safari inside the Park.

The royal couple are interested to see how communities manage the conflicts that arise when humans and wild animals live in close proximity and will also meet park rangers inside Kaziranga, to discuss how the Park protects its animal populations from poachers as demand in other parts of Asia for rhino horns continues to rise, a release by the British High Comission said.

Meanwhile, the banned ULFA(Independent) in a statement has welcomed the visit of the royal couple and hoped that their visit to Kaziranga may be a "turning-point to save the rhinoceros whose plight in its habitat is a matter of great concern.
A senior Singaporean minister has asked Indian Institute of Management (IIM) alumini to work closely with the government for pulling together people and ideas to make the country a better place to live.

The two-day conference, which was held from April 8-9, the third edition of Global IIMPACT 2016, showcased elaborate advances in technologies in a new element called 'IIMaginarium'.

"We do hope that we will be able to harness the ideas and energy that you have...Please do work in partnerships with our organisations and the government," Singapore's Senior Minister of State at the Ministries of Finance and Law, Indranee Rajah said.

Rajah, who toured the high-end technology exhibitions, noted the 1,800-strong IIM Alumni presence in Singapore, the largest outside India, and highlighted"their creative processes, the thoughts and the energy."



Around 1,200 delegates, including pesonalities from India and entrepreneurs from around the world attended the conference here. It was streamed live to over 60,000 IIM Alumni located globally.

"You have been organising the IIMaginarium and have been pulling together people and ideas which will make the place we live in better," Rajah said.

Former Singapore President S R Nathan, who is IIMPACT patron, acknowledged the bold attempt by the IIM Alumni in "Re-imagining the Future" at the conference.

"IIM Alumni (Singapore) form an important element of our economic fabric and need to play an active role as they prepare us to face the future,particularly on the economic front", Nathan said.

IIMPact's focus is therefore on re-imaging and re-inventingcircles of life, work and social impact," he added.

"Technology is changing lives dramatically all over the world. This is a bold attempt by IIM Alumni to bring immersive experience to the delegates through interesting and potentially disruptive ideas from promising start-ups and global companies," Nathan said.

Rajah, who toured the high-end technology exhibitions, noted the 1,800-strong IIM Alumni presence in Singapore, the largest outside India, and highlighted"their creative processes, the thoughts and the energy."



"Highlighting the growing India-Singapore diplomatic relationships, the coming advancements in technologies that would change the sphere of banking and financial markets, health care, roles of drones and robotics," president of Pan IIM Alumni of Singapore (PIIMA) Sanjiv Aiyar said.
The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the delay in setting up a State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in the national capital and asked the government why it was taking so long.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to seek instructions from the Centre on a contempt petition filed by Indu Prakash Singh.

The petitioner contended that despite Delhi government completing the formalities and sending recommendation to the Lieutenant Governor, the Centre has not done anything till date.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, said the delay was on the part of Centre as the recommendation to set up the SHRC has already been sent by Delhi government to the LG.

The apex court last year had questioned why the SHRC had not been set up in Delhi and also directed Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland to set up SHRCs.

During the hearing, the bench enquired whether the northeastern states have complied with the direction to set up SHRCs.

To this, Gonsalves said he was not aware of the situation there, to which the bench said "you must not neglect the northeastern states".

The court in July last year had rejected the state governments' plea that setting up SHRCs was not mandatory for them. It had said, "The significance of human rights and the need for their protection and enforcement is beyond the pale of any debate.

On the Delhi government's endeavour to set up the rights



body, the Attorney General said it has not followed the proper procedure on the issue and before setting up the commission, it has appointed officials for it including retired Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court Shambhu Nath Singh as the chairman.

He said there are other disputes pending on the issue.

However, the bench said, "We are happy that the Delhi government has selected and recommended the names of members."



The Attorney General said, "We can ask the NHRC what can be done, qua Delhi."



The bench said, "It is obligatory for you to set up the commission. If Tripura which has 20 lakh population can have state human rights commission why can't Delhi."



When the bench said Attorney General was complaining that Delhi government has jumped the guns in appointing the chairman before setting up the commission, senior advocate Chander Uday Singh, appearing for the AAP regime, said, "They never told us about the jurisdiction since January."



"Now they are raising the issue," he said referring to the need of state commission to look after the concern of grave police action.

Singh said Delhi government would go by the judgement and stated that the Centre by its present application was seeking review of the judgement.

The Attorney General responded to his submission by saying that the bench should treat the application as a review petition.

The bench, which posted the matter for July 20, said larger issues are required to be addressed and asked the Centre "whether Delhi government has any objection if the Centre sets up the Human Right Commission".

The Centre in its application said despite having an elected government, Delhi remains a Union Territory administered by the President through the lieutenant governor.

"Inclusion of Delhi in the direction as State of Delhi may be due to an oversight of the fact that the Delhi government continued to be Union Territory despite having an elected government," it said.

"Since the NCT of Delhi is a Union Territory, it is administered by the President through an administrator (Lieutenant Governor) appointed by him under Article 239(1) of the Constitution," it said.

"Thus, the administration of UT of Delhi falls under the jurisdiction of the central government and there is no separate independent entity called 'state government' in the National Capital Territory," it said.

(Reopens LGD 29)



The Centre further said, "For all intent and purpose, state government for NCT of Delhi would imply the President acting through LG."



AAP government has been demanding administrative control over police and Delhi Development Authority.

The apex court had on April 18 disagreed with the Centre that the national capital does not need a State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) as it was a UT, asking whether UTs were 'Utopian ideals' where these rights were not violated.

The court was hearing contempt petition filed by social activist Indu Prakash Singh contending that despite Delhi government completing the formalities and sending the recommendation to the LG, the Centre has not done anything till date.

Last year, the apex court had expressed concern over the fact that there was no SHRC in Delhi for the last 22 years and asked the government to set up the same within six months.

It had questioned why the SHRC had not been set up in Delhi and also directed Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland to set up SHRCs.
BJP President Amit Shah, who was scheduled to address two rallies in Kerala today, cancelled his public events in the state in the wake of Puttingal Devi Temple fire tragedy.

"Pained beyond words at the loss of life in fire incident in Puttingal temple, Kerala. My prayers with the family of those affected.

"Cancelling all my public programmes scheduled in Kerala today," he said in tweets.

Shah was to address public meetings in Kannur and Pathanamthitta today in the poll-bound state.

Over 90 people were killed and 350 injured when a major fire broke out at the temple complex early today as sparks emanating from a fireworks display ignited a store room filled with crackers and pyrotechnic material.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif tonight called up Premier Narendra Modi to offer condolences over the Kerala fire tragedy.

Sharif called up Prime Minister Modi to express grief over the temple fire tragedy in Kerala, a PMO official said.

Expressing gratitude, Modi offered his condolences to Sharif over the loss of lives and property due to today's earthquake in Pakistan.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan had extended "deep condolences" over the pre-dawn disaster that has claimed 106 lives so far.

"The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from a fire in the temple," Pakistan's Foreign Office said.

"Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people," it said.
BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha today praised the Nitish Kumar government's decision of total prohibition in Bihar and urged the Chief Minister to give a serious thought on curbing tobacco consumption.

"Total prohibition is a progressive decision by the Nitish Kumar government to which everybody should extend a wholehearted support," Sinha told PTI.

The BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib made a strong case for similar concerted action against tobacco and its products like khaini, ghutka, zarda and beedi.

"We must kill tobacco before it kills us," said Sinha, who had launched a strong campaign against smoking and tobacco consumption as a Union Health Minister.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has marked tobacco as a leading killer. In India, tobacco related diseases like cancer and lung problems have been identified posing a grave threat.

Prohibition of tobacco along with the total ban on liquor would have a "cascading" effect on human health, he said.

Last Tuesday, the Nitish Kumar government had announced a complete ban on liquor, domestic and spicy, as well as Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) in Bihar.
Senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha is "happy" that his "friend and brother" Nitish Kumar has become the new JD(U) president.

"I am very happy to hear the elevation of Nitish Kumar as president of JD(U)," Sinha told PTI while commenting at the political development in JD(U).

"Nitish Kumar has gained popularity through his progressive policies. I see great hope in him becoming a national here," Sinha, the second consecutive term BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, said.

"His elevation is timely and will have a positive impact on national politics," Sinha popularly known as 'Bihari Babu', said in praise of the Bihar Chief Minister.

The senior BJP leader said his appreciation of Kumar was out of him being a son of the soil.

"Elevation of Nitish Kumar as president is an internal matter of the JD(U)," the BJP MP also said.

Upset at being ignored in the Bihar Assembly polls, Sinha had embarrassed the BJP during the polls by warmly meeting Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad, though on several occasions he had said it was personal and not political.

Sinha's biography "Anything but Khamosh" was launched in Patna by Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad also graced the function, but no BJP leader was spotted at the venue.

Nitish Kumar has also on numerous times praised Sinha by calling him the "pride of Bihar.
Amid the furore over holding IPL matches in drought-hit Maharashtra, India's limited over skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni today said shifting matches will not resolve the perennial crisis as it requires a "long-term" solution.

"If you see, all these questions are good to hear, I think for us it's more important to seek long-term solutions," said Dhoni when asked about his views about the prevailing in Maharashtra.

The dire situation over potable water in the state has sparked a raging debate over the suitability of playing IPL games in the state, besides leading to a PIL filed in the Bombay High Court challenging the use of large quantity of water for maintaining pitches despite the grave water crisis.

There have been demands to shift all IPL matches out of Maharashtra.

Three big cities in Maharashtra - Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur - are to play host to a total of 20 games, out of which one has already been held yesterday at the Wankhede Stadium.

"Whether IPL's match number 5, 6 or 7 happens or not, I don't think it makes much of a difference," said Dhoni at the media conference where he was announced as brand ambassador of mobile handset Lava.

"But we have to look at a long-term solution... How we ensure water is sent to those areas where there is water shortage.

"From what I have seen on TV quite a few dams are there, where only one or two per cent water is left. So we have to look at a long-term solution," Dhoni said.

"I think people talking about whether matches should happen or not, it's more momentarily driven than anything else. I think what's important for us as a county is to see what the long-term solution is and we have to move in that direction," said the wicketkeeper-batsman.
Union Minster General (retd.) V K Singh today said shifting NIT out of Srinagar was no solution to the problems prevailing in the institute and that efforts should be made to defuse the situation.

"Efforts should be made to defuse the situation and safety of the outside students should be ensured," the Union Minister of State for External Affairs told reporters here.

Stressing that India has adopted a "constructive" approach to solve all the outstanding issues with Pakistan, Singh said the neighbouring country was not reciprocating the gestureand continued to shift its stand on important issues like terror and border disputes.

The minister also expressed his anguish at the death of scores of devotees in the devastating fire which engulfed a temple in Kollam in Kerala.

Meanwhile, a delegation of ex-servicemen, led by its Palampur unit president C D S Guleria, met the minister and submitted a charter of demands, detailing the problems faced by the retired soldiers in this hill state.

The minister assured the deputation that their genuine grievances would be forwarded by him to the Defence Minister.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today expressed grief over the loss of lives in the temple fire tragedy in Kerala that has left over 90 dead.

Praying for the departed souls and well being of the injured, she has asked the state government to ensure ample and immediate relief measures.

The fire mishap at the Puttingal Devi Temple in Kerala's Kollam district during a display of fireworks has left 83 people dead and 350 others injured.
Instead of reading labels, consumers may soon be interacting with an electronic screen on packaging that displays information about the product, thanks to a new technology that could revolutionise the packaging industry.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in the UK collaborated with technology company Novalia to create a new way of displaying information on packaging.

This technology could be used in greetings cards or products where a customer could receive a simple message, researchers said.

More complex developments could include a countdown timer on the side of a packet to indicate when a timed product was ready - such as hair-dye, pregnancy tests or home-baking using a 'traffic lights' system, they said.

The team explain how a screen can be fixed onto packaging to display information.

The process involves printing electronic tracks onto paper and then fixing low-cost electronics and a polymer LED display to the paper using an adhesive that conducts electricity.

Researchers also designed and constructed a touch-pad keyboard on the paper that allows a user to selectively 'drive' the LEDs in the display.

The research testing so far has taken place on paper but the process could potentially be printed on other surfaces.

The team's next steps are to create fully flexible organic displays on a plastic substrate that then fix onto the electronic tracks. The LED devices need to be low-cost and flexible enough to be used on all packaging.

"Labels on packaging could become much more innovative, and allow customers to interact with and explore new products," said Professor David Lidzey from the university's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

"The use of displays or light emitting panels on packaging will also allow companies to communicate brand awareness in a more sophisticated manner," said Lidzey.

"The paper-based packaging industry is worth billions of dollars. This innovative system we have developed with the University of Sheffield could give manufacturers a way to gain market share by being able to distinguish its products from competitors," said Chris Jones from Novalia.

The research was published in the IEEE Journal of Display Technology.
Sri Lanka sees huge potential in economic cooperation with China, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said, voicing confidence that key ventures like the Colombo Port City project will help transform his country into a financial hub in the Indian Ocean region.

"Both Sri Lanka and China are deepening reforms, in the process of which we see huge potential for cooperation," Wickremesinghe said as he concluded a four-day visit here.

Sri Lanka and China share similarities in the way of thinking in various fields such as economic restructuring, he said.

"Sri Lanka is ready to seek more economic cooperation opportunities with China," he said.

"Infrastructure is just a start. The cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is expected to be intensified and go far beyond that," Wickremesinghe said.

"For example, the Colombo Port City will become a financial and business hub in not only Sri Lanka, but also in the whole region of the Indian Ocean," he said.

This is Wickremesinghe's seventh visit to China while first time since winning a parliamentary election in August last year.

"It has been 37 years since I first visited China in 1979 when the country just initiated reform and opening up. The great achievement China has made proves only reform can make a country stronger," Wickremesinghe said.

Currently, the weak global economic growth requires all the economies to rely more on each other, and there is no exception for Sri Lanka andChina.

"That is why strengthening cooperation is so important," he told state-run Xinhua news agency.

Sri Lanka has shown its willingness to develop greater synergies between its own strategies and China's 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road initiative.

Projects such as the Hambantota Port and the Puttalam Coal Power Plant Project have become icons for the two countries' cooperation in infrastructure construction, Wickremesinghe said.

In a joint statement issued on Saturday, Sri Lanka announced the resumption of work of the Colombo Port City Project and expressed the willingness to facilitate and support the implementation of this projectand to cooperate with Chinese companies to promote other major projects.

Wickremesinghe also spoke highly of the supply-side structural reform, one of the priorities in China's 13th Five-Year Plan, believing it will bring fresh impetus to China's economic development and that of Asia and the whole world.

"As China has become the second largest source of visitors to Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe expects tourism will not only facilitate people-to-people exchanges, but also attract more Chinese investors to make relevant infrastructure more developed in Sri Lanka," Wickremesinghe said.

Tourists from India constitutes highest number of tourists in Sri Lanka.
The stage is set for the second and final phase of polling in Assam that will decide the fate of 525 candidates in 61 Assembly constituencies with ruling Congress, BJP-AGP-BPF alliance and AIUDF locked in a keen contest.

The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 voters will be able exercise their franchise.

With over 50,000 polling personnel deployed for the second phase, security has been tightened across the constituencies, particularly those in four Bodoland Territorial Area districts where NDFB(S) ultras are active and in Goalpara district which witnessed a bomb blast recently.

Strict vigil was being maintained in Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh and Baksa sharing border with Bhutan.

The polling will witness mainly a triangular contest among the ruling Congress, AIUDF and the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance.

Congress is contesting in 57 seats, opposition AIUDF in 47, BJP in 35 while its allies--the Bodo Peoples' Front in 10 and the Asom Gana Parishad in 19. The CPI(M) is contesting in nine seats, the CPI in five, and Independents in 214.

Among prominent candidates in fray are cabinet ministers Rakibul Hussain, Chandan Sarkar and Nazrul Islam for the Congress, former two-time AGP Chief Minister Prafulla Mahanta, AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal and former Congress minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who led a dissidence against the Chief Minister and joined BJP last year.

Other key candidates include BPF's Chandan Brahma, Pramila Rani Brahma and Rihon Daimari, AGP's Ramendra Narayan Kalita and Kamala Kalita and their former colleagues who joined the BJP -- Atul Bora and Chandra Mohan Patowary.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who led the campaign for the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance in both the phases, addressed four rallies while his ministerial colleagues Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, BJP President Amit Shah and Chief Ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal also pitched in.

For the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, state unit chief Anjan Dutta, former UPA ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid and Sachin Pilot campaigned for its candidates.

The campaign in the second phase, which has a predominant minority population in several constituencies, focused primarily on the issue of infiltration.

The BJP pledged to resolve the infiltration issue by completely sealing off the Indo-Bangla border while Congress said there was no Bangladeshi in Assam and it was the Tarun Gogoi government that took initiative to update the National Register of Citizens to resolve the issue.

The AIUDF, on the other hand, highlighted its role as the king-maker.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" was a big winner at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards, taking home three awards out of its 11 nominations.

It took home the breakthrough performance award for Daisy Ridley, movie of the year, and best villain for Adam Driver.

"It feels especially amazing to be part of a film that reps all genders... Races and ages in such a positive and aspirational way," Ridley said.

"Deadpool" and "Pitch Perfect 2" took home two awards each.

While the former won best comedic performance for its lead star Ryan Reynolds and best fight, "Pitch Perfect 2" was given the ensemble cast award besides best kiss for Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine.

Charlize Theron won in the best female performance category for her role in "Mad Max: Fury Road."



The Oscar-winning actress, who played Imperator Furiosa in the film, paid tribute to Australian director George Miller as she collected her golden popcorn statue on stage at Warner Bros Studios here.

She also thanked her children, Jackson and August.

"I am so honoured and so humbled to work with such an epic visionary. I want to thank my beautiful son Jackson, who put a smile on my face every day as he was with me while I made this film... I accept this award on behalf of my own little Furiosa, my daughter August, and on behalf of all the Furiosas out there - you are the true warriors," she said.

Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio won best male performance for "The Revenant".

Hosted by Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart, the 25th annual show handed out big honours to Will Smith with the Generation Award and Melissa McCarthy for the Comedic Genius Award.

Smith debuted an exclusive clip from "Suicide Squad" with co-stars Jared Leto, Margot Robbie and Cara Delevingne during the ceremony.

Jennifer Lawrence won the best hero honour for "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2".

Amy Poehler won best virtual performance for her role as Joy in the Pixar film "Inside Out", which tells the story of a young girl's five emotions: Joy, Sadness, Fear, Anger and Disgust.

Chris Pratt received the award for best action performance for his role in "Jurassic World.
Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan-led Swaraj Abhiyan is likely to unveil plans to form a political party next week.

Swaraj Abhiyan, a group formed by Yadav and Bhushan after their expulsion from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) last year, completes a year on April 14.

"We will set the ball rolling for announcement of a political party. We are going to make our electoral intentions clear on April 14. We will announce plans that are necessary for forming the party like setting different committees," said a Swaraj Abhiyan leader.

"We will also make announcement that the new party will be under the purview of the Right to Information Act," the leader added.

Swaraj Abhiyan leaders have never said they will not venture into electoral politics, but always maintained that the current outfit is apolitical.

The announcement of the launch of a new party will be significant as many of its leaders are learnt to be in favour of contesting next year's assembly elections in Punjab. Aam Aadmi Party has already launched a high-pitched campaign in the state with its convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal spending quite a few days there recently.

Two of the four AAP MPs from Punjab Dharamvira Gandhi and Harinder Singh Khalsa were suspended in August last year for alleged anti-party activities and support Swaraj Abhiyan.

Swaraj Abhiyan has also decided to contest MCD by-elections, setting the stage for a direct electoral fight with AAP in Delhi.
Loyalist Syrian troops are preparing a major operation to retake control of the northern city of Aleppo with Russian air cover, Syria's Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said today.

"With our Russian partners we are preparing an operation to free Aleppo and block all illegal armed groups that have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," Interfax agency quoted Halqi as saying following a meeting with Russian lawmakers in Damascus.

He said that regaining control of Aleppo from rebels hostile to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad would allow government forces to advance east to Deir Ezzor, some 60 percent of which is under the control of the Islamic State group.

Damascus has vowed with the support of its Russian allies to drive IS out of the area after its recent victory over the group two weeks ago in the ancient city of Palmyra.

Aleppo, formerly Syria's economic capital and the country's second city, has since 2012 been divided into zones held between rebel groups and areas still under government control.

A February 27 truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, does not apply to the fight against jihadist groups, which Damascus is now concentrating on dislodging.

Around Aleppo "the ceasefire has all but collapsed along the main front lines" of the conflict, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Sunday.

The Observatory said earlier that 24 hours of clashes around Aleppo had left at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda's affiliate and allied rebel groups dead.

More than 270,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict first broke out in March 2011.
Telecom operator Telenor India, which positions itself as the most affordable network, expects to have 4G services ready in six circles by the end of this fiscal.

"As we speak, we have already swapped 7,000 mobile sites. They are LTE ready. Based on this transformation we have started offering LTE in Varanasi. We expect entire network will be upgraded by end of this financial year," Telenor India Chief Executive officer Sharad Mehrotra told PTI.

The company has awarded Rs 1,240 crore contract to Chinese telecom equipment firm Huawei for modernising all its 25,000 mobile base station in six telecom circles where it operates.

Telenor provides mobile services in UP (West), UP (East), Bihar (including Jharkhand), Andhra Pradesh (including Telangana), Maharashtra and Gujarat. Together, these circles account for more than 50 per cent of India's population.

The company has permit for Assam but is yet to start its services.

Mehrotra said 30 per cent Telenor customers are using data and rest are using voice.

"No doubt future is of high speed but at same time first time data users that are trying to experiment with internet on network like Telenor. We have our own target segment. As customer evolves they expect higher service. In future we have to have high speed data play. We are looking at spectrum auction very closely," Mehrotra said.

As per Trai data, Telenor had 7.24 lakh mobile subscribers at the end of January and was among top five telecom operators in terms of new subscriber addition.

He said the firm is working to build up digital products that its offers to customers as it ramps up network.
The Indian armed forces today pitched in with helicopters, aircraft, ships and medical teams to ensure quick treatment of the more than 300 people who were injured in the devastating fire which broke out in a temple in Kerala.

Following a request from the state government, Indian Air Force sent six helicopters, two AN32 transport aircraft and two business jets to Kerala, a spokesperson said.

While army medical personnel were rushed to Kollam from Trivandrum, the military hospital in the latter city also swung into action, army sources said.

The navy has dispatched six aircraft -- two Dornier fixed- wing aircraft, two ALH helicopters and two Chetak helicopters -- to the site of the tragedy that has claimed the lives of at least 106 people, a navy spokesperson said.

Two ALH with a nine-member medical team as well as three doctors, paramedics, supplies and equipment were rushed at 1130hrs to Kollam, where the tragedy occurred during a fireworks display organised at the Puttingal Devi Temple.

While the helicopters landed at the Ashramam Ground, Kollam, at 1200hrs, one Dornier aircraft from Kochi has been positioned at Trivandrum since noon. The rest of aircraft are on standby at Kochi.

The INS Sunayna, Kabra and Kalpeni set sail immediately from Kochi with 200kg of medical supplies and a medical team to provide succour at the site of the tragedy.

INS Kabra and Kalpeni reached Kollam jetty at 1600hrs while INS Sunayna is off Kollam and awaiting instructions.

The medical supplies have been handed over to the local administration while the ships have kept blood donors ready to meet requirement of blood.

The Indian Coast Guard, too, sent in a helicopter with medical supplies along with one of its ship.
Three people were wounded when a percussion bomb exploded near a bus stop in Istanbul, the Dogan agency reported.

The blast went off yesterday in the busy district of Mecidiyekoy in the European side of the city. The three wounded were hospitalised but were only lightly injured, the report said.

Police threw a security cordon around the area and a helicopter hovered above the scene, it said. There was no indication over who could be behind the blast.

The incident comes with Turkey's largest city on edge after a spate of deadly attacks in the country this year blamed on Kurdish militants and jihadists.

Earlier the US embassy had warned there was a credible threat of attacks to tourist areas in Istanbul and the resort of Antalya.

Suicide bombers who the authorities have said were linked to Islamic State (IS) jihadists have twice staged deadly attacks in Istanbul this year targeting foreigners.

There also a stepped-up security presence in the city as it prepares to host Muslim leaders from around the world for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit next week.

Percussion bombs make a loud noise, causing fear and panic but rarely serious damage or injury.
A Midnapore court today remanded in police custody two of the 11 accused arrested in connection with the murder of a ruling TMC worker and sent nine others to jail.

Acting Chief Judicial Magistrate Tanima Das ordered six days' police remand for Gurupada Manna and Bhim Karan and 14 days' judicial custody for others.

Police had yesterday detained 12 persons in connection with the murder of a Trinamool Congress worker Joydeb Jana (30) at Dubrajpur under Sabang assembly constituency in West Midnapore district which goes to poll on Monday.

While 11 of them were later arrested, another was let off after interrogation.

The 11 accused were charged with causing grievous injury to the victim and rioting.

Jana was attacked with sharp weapons, lathis and iron rods by a group of men allegedly belonging to Congress and CPI(M), when he was returning home on Friday night, a senior police official earlier said.

Jana was declared brought dead at the local hospital.

Jana's wife lodged an FIR with the Sabang police station against 22 people including former minister and Congress candidate for Sabang Assembly seat Manas Bhunia.

Local Trinamool Congress leader Amulya Maity alleged that Jana was beaten to death in the presence of Bhunia, which was denied by Congress leaders.
Tamil Nadu Governor K Rosaiah, Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, DMK chief Karunanidhi and other party leaders expressed grief over the fire mishap at a temple in Kerala's Kollam district in which over a hundred people were killed.

"I am deeply shocked and grieved to hear about the major fire accident at a temple in Paravoor, Kollam district, Kerala in which many have lost their lives and several others have been injured," Rosaiah said.

He conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Jayalalithaa said she was shocked and deeply grieved to learn of the "very unfortunate and tragic fire accident". "I convey my heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased," she said.

"The Government of Tamil Nadu stands ready to assist the Government of Kerala in the relief efforts in this hour of need," she said.

DMK chief Karunanidhi conveyed his condolences to the bereaved families and expressed words of solace to the injured.

PMK leader Anbumani Ramadoss said, "Though such fireworks during festivals is related to our culture, this big mishap reinforces the need for care and regulation," during such events.

MDMK general secretary Vaiko said, "Everybody should realise at least now the dangers involved in bursting powerful crackers in places of public congregation."



It was a heart-rending tragedy that befell people who had come to offer worship, he said.

CPI(M) state secretary G Ramakrishnan demanded legal action against those responsible for the tragedy.

Naam Tamizhar Katchi coordinator Seeman urged people of Tamil Nadu to extend all possible help to the affected.

Over a hundred people were killed and 383 injured in a major fire that broke out in the Puttingal Devi Temple complex near Kollam early morning today during a display of fireworks for which there was no permission from authorities.
The Toronto-based Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Azizi has been released in Tehran one year into a eight-year prison term, according to his family, having been convicted of spreading anti-regime propaganda.

"#Breaking: My father was included in an amnesty and has been RELEASED. Yohooooo!," the filmmaker's son, Arash, wrote on his verified Twitter account late Saturday.

"Thanks for all those who were with us in these tough times."



Parastoo Azizi, Arash's Toronto-based sister, confirmed the release of her 54-year-old father on Facebook.

"Finally after more than a year of nightmares!! After more than a year of struggles!! We shall sleep calm tonight!!! My father is free!," she posted, alongside a screen shot of her smartphone bearing a picture of him.

The filmmaker had returned to his birth country from Canada, where he has residency, to care for his ailing father, and was considering staying when he was arrested on February 1 last year.

"He wanted to move back to Iran," Arash told AFP shortly after his father's detention began.

"Especially after (Iran's government) said that Iranians abroad can return home, he was among many who wanted to use the opportunity."



Azizi was being held in Tehran's Evin Prison charged with insulting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and disseminating propaganda against the Islamic regime, according to his son.

The filmmaker's arrest may also have been related to social media posts he made, according to his son, who is a journalist at Manoto, a foreign-based Farsi satellite television network banned in Iran.

Hardline Iranian media accuse Manoto of being funded by Israel, Iran's arch-foe.
China too experienced strong tremors when a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck Afghanistan and Pakistan today.

The China Earthquake Networks Center said the quake hit the Hindu Kush area.

Residents of Kashgar, Hotan and Kizilsu Kirgiz prefectures of southern Xinjiang, the autonomous region that borders Afghanistan felt strong tremor, state-run Xinhua agency reported.

Deng Jiaping, a citizen of Kashgar, told Xinhua that the building she lives in shook for less than a minute, toppling her desktop computer and sending neighbors running out for safety.

Some railway sections in the south of Xinjiang were closed for safety checks after the quake.

Local authorities in Xinjiang are still assessing conditions in the affected regions.
Britian has pressed China to speed up its efforts to cut down steel production amid concerns that Chinese steelmakers are dumping excess on the global market, triggering a crisis in countries like the UK.

British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond discussed the issue of over-capacity in steel production with his Chinese counterpart here yesterday.

"I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production," Hammond said.

"The UK's focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steel making at Port Talbot and across the UK, and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steel making," he said.

Hammond met Wang Yi on his way to Hiroshima for the G7 foreign ministers' meeting and had an opportunity to talk about "issues of mutual concern".

As Chinese domestic demand for steel has fallen following a slowdown in the communist giant's economy, its steelmakers have been accused of dumping excess production on the global market.

China yesterdya said that plans to shut steel mills over the next five years would cut capacity to an estimated 1.13 billion tonnes by 2020 - a figure that still far exceeds domestic demand.

Cheap Chinese steel is one reason why UK-based producers, such as Tata and Caparo Industries, have found it harder to remain profitable. Higher energy costs in Britain compared with other countries are another factor.

China itself has been hit by massive overcapacity problems as steel prices and demand have plummeted. Tens of thousands of workers have been laid off as part of recent government-driven cuts in the steel industry.

The growing international controversy surrounding China's steel industry comes at an awkward time for the Chinese government, which is seeking to secure EU "market economy status" by the end of the year, the Financial Times reported.

China argues that the designation, which would make it harder to prove that Chinese steel plants were "dumping" their products overseas at below cost, should be granted automatically under the terms of its 2001 World Trade Organisation accession agreement, the report said.
A British war veteran has been jailed for four and a half years after driving his car on to a railway line and causing an accident, endangering the life of some 40 passengers.

The 36-year-old ex-soldier caused 500,000 pounds worth of damage by leaving his Vauxhall Insignia on the tracks.

Jonathan Mather left his car in the middle of the tracks at Claymills level crossing, Staffordshire, on July 20 last year.

Roughly 40 passengers escaped injury when the train crashed into the car at high-speed.

CCTV footage released by the British Transport Police captured the moment of impact, as glass and debris can be seen exploding into the air.

Mather, a Balkans veteran, pleaded guilty to maliciously endangering the safety of railway passengers.

He had denied a charge of deliberately obstructing the line with intent to damage or destroy any engine or carriage.

The driver saw the car and applied the emergency brakes, but the train struck the car which destroyed the vehicle pushing it off the track and train eventually stopped 500 metres down the line.

Mather was jailed for 56 months at Stafford crown court and must serve a further 12 months as part of a previous suspended prison sentence for offences of dishonesty.

Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Mark Eades described the incident as a "terrible crime which had threatened the safety of people going about their daily business using trains travelling at high speeds."



He added: "It was fortuitous that no one was badly hurt.

"For all you knew there could have been multiple deaths had the train been derailed."



He said Mather had been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in 2008 and had contact with the Combat Stress charity in 2011 and later, under a community order for other offences, had the opportunity of support.

"The court heard he had been given a 20 month sentence suspended for two years in 2014 for offences of false representation involving the sale of double glazing.

On July 9 last year - just 11 days before railway crossing incident - South Derbyshire magistrates gave Mather a community order for a similar offence.

Mather told police he could not recall anything after leaving work earlier in the afternoon and officers had found various prescription drugs in the wreck of the car.

These included morphine and anti-depressants and tests showed levels in his blood were well above therapeutic use and the level of alcohol in his blood at the time of the incident was almost three times the legal limit to drive.
Union Health Ministry today scrambled a team of 25 doctors and paramedics drawn from premier medical Institute AIIMS, Safdarjung and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals to assist in relief work in Kollam where 100 people were killed and 383 injured in a fire accident in Puttingal Devi Temple complex.

The doctors and paramedics mostly burn specialists, which include 11 experts from AIIMS, 10 from Safdarjung Hospital and five from Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital will be reaching Kollam soon, the Health ministry officials said.

Some of the specialists had gone with Prime Minister Narendra Modi while the others headed for site with necessary medicines.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda, who accompanied Modi to Kollam, also attended a meeting the Prime Minister had with Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy where senior officials of the district administration were also present.

The tragedy struck around 3.30 AM during display of fireworks at the temple complex, which is around 70 kms from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The display, for which no permission had been granted by Revenue and police officials, had started at midnight as part of an annual festival and thousands of people had gathered to witness it.

The mishap occurred as sparks of the fireworks fell on the store room 'Kambapura' and the fire crackers kept there exploded with a deafening noise, police said.

Charred bodies and human remains were strewn around the temple complex after the fire tragedy.
For the first time in the 70- year history of the UN, candidates for Secretary-General will participate in public discussions and be questioned by member states, "a game changing process" aimed at increasing transparency on how the world body's top diplomat is selected.

Each of the current eight candidates will be formally introduced to the General Assembly, which includes representatives from all 193 Member States and two Observers - the State of Palestine and the Holy See - in three days of informal dialogues beginning from April 12.

The general public can ask questions through civil society members and social media.

"This is a potentially game changing process. This will be yet another occasion to increase transparency around the whole machinery of the UN, through that also the influence of a broader public on what we do here," General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft said in an interview to the UN Centre.

The Secretary-General has traditionally been selected behind closed-doors by a few powerful countries but for the first time in its history, this year the selection will involve public discussions with each candidate campaigning for the world's top diplomatic post.

With no woman leading the organisation in its 70-year-old history, there is an unprecedented call from nations and civil societies to select a woman to lead the organisation.

Of the current eight candidates, four are women - former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pucic, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova from Bulgaria, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark who heads the UN Development Program and former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman.

Three of the candidates are from Eastern Europe, one of whom is a current UN official.

The other candidates are former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim, former Montenegro Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk and former UN refugee chief and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, 71, will step down from the post at the end of this year.

"While on the surface, informal public discussions do not



seem revolutionary, for a 70-year-old Organisation that has until now had only eight Secretaries-General, all of whom were selected in a relatively closed process by the 15-member UN Security Council, this is unchartered territory," the UN said.

India has repeatedly called for changing and improving the existing process of selecting the world body's chief, with its former UN envoy Asoke Mukerji saying last year that gender equality and regional rotation should be given due regard.

Informal dialogues with the candidates will begin on April 12 and continue for two days. The next round of dialogues will be in June and the Security Council will begin deliberations in July.

Opening up the selection process, each candidate will have a televised and webcast two-hour timeslot, starting with a short oral presentation. In addition, each candidate has already submitted, or will submit, a written statement layout of his or her vision for 2017 and beyond.

Following introductory remarks by each candidate, UN member states will have either two or three minutes to ask questions on behalf of their countries or geographic grouping.

Candidates have also been encouraged to take to social media and more than 500 questions have already been submitted for the candidates, ranging from 'what criteria would the candidate use to make senior appointments' to 'how will your measures end world poverty' and 'how will you bring peace to the Middle East.'



"Social media will play a very important role in this whole process. You will see civil society take a lot of additional initiatives to bring discussions with the candidates, maybe also between the candidates, in and outside these walls," Lykketoft said, adding that he hopes the candidates will take the time to answer all the questions in the coming weeks and months.

Lykketoft expressed optimism that all this will culminate "for the first time in United Nations history, in a very transparent process which hopefully also will lead to a much clearer formulation of what are we expecting from the membership of the UN of the challenges and competencies of the next Secretary-General".
Voting will be held tomorrow for the remaining 61 Assembly constituencies in Assam with the Congress, BJP-AGP-BPF alliance and AIUDF locked in a keen contest while 31 seats in West Bengal will also go to polls in the second part of the first phase of election in the state.

525 candidates are in the fray in this second and final round of voting in Assam. The constituencies spread across lower and central Assam will have 12,699 polling stations where 1,04,35,271 people will be eligible to exercise their franchise.

With over 50,000 polling personnel deployed for the second phase, security has been tightened across the constituencies, particularly those in four Bodoland Territorial Area districts where NDFB(S) ultras are active and in Goalpara district which witnessed a bomb blast recently.

Strict vigil is being maintained in Dhubri district bordering Bangladesh and Baksa sharing border with Bhutan.

Altogether 163 candidates, including 21 women, are in the fray in 31 seats of West Midnapore, Bankura and Burdwan districts in West Bengal with 70 lakh people eligible to exercise their franchise.

Tomorrow's polling will witness a triangular contest among the ruling Trinamool Congress, Left Front-Congress alliance and BJP in the state.

Five-time CPI(M) MLA from Narayangarh and Leader of Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra and senior state Congress leader Manas Bhuniya from Sabang are among the major candidates in this phase.

91-year-old Gyan Singh Sohanpal, the senior most member in the West Bengal Assembly, is in the fray again from Kharagpur Sadar seat where he is pitted against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

Two prominent newbies - Bengali film actor Soham Chakraborty and Colonel (retd) Diptanshu Chaudhury, who had fought in the Kargil War - are trying their luck in politics on Trinamool Congress and BJP tickets respectively.

Besides the Saradha chitfund scam, the Opposition has been targeting the ruling TMC on the recent Narada sting operation where party leaders were purportedly seen accepting bribe. Issues related to industrialisation and the 'Syndicate Raj' have also been haunting the dispensation.

On the other hand, Trinamool is making a determined bid for a second successive term by harping on 'development' and welfare schemes of the Mamata Banerjee government during its maiden five-year rule.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP president Amit Shah, Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury were among the star campaigners for the opposition parties.

For TMC, party supremo Mamata Banerjee, has urged people to vote thinking "I (Banerjee) am the candidate in all 294 seats", while campaigning extensively.

Polling will be held at 8,465 polling stations amid tight security.

The first phase of Assembly polls in West Bengal and Assam on April 4 passed off peacefully, with a high voter turnout of over 80 per cent.

Polling was held in 18 of the 294 Assembly constituencies in West Bengal and 65 of the 126 seats in Assam.

The polling in the this phase in Assam will witness mainly



a triangular contest among the ruling Congress, AIUDF and the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance.

Among prominent candidates in the fray are cabinet ministers Rakibul Hussain, Chandan Sarkar and Nazrul Islam for the Congress, former two-time AGP chief minister Prafulla Mahanta, AIUDF chief and Dhubri MP Badruddin Ajmal and former Congress minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who led a dissidence against Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and joined BJP last year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who led the campaign for the BJP-AGP-BPF alliance in both phases, addressed four rallies while his ministerial colleagues Rajnath Singh and Nitin Gadkari, BJP president Amit Shah and chief ministerial candidate Sarbananda Sonowal also pitched in.

For the Congress, party president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, state unit chief Anjan Dutta, former UPA ministers Ghulam Nabi Azad, Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid and Sachin Pilot campaigned for its candidates.

The campaign in the second phase, which has a predominant minority population in several constituencies, focused primarily on the issue of infiltration.

The BJP pledged to resolve the infiltration issue by completely sealing off the Indo-Bangla border while Congress said there was no Bangladeshi in Assam and it was the Tarun Gogoi government that took initiative to update the National Register of Citizens to resolve the issue.

The AIUDF, on the other hand, highlighted its role as the king-maker.

Notably, Elections in West Bengal are being held in six phases.
Rapper Kanye West's The Life of Pablo is about to debut at number-one on the US album chart - a whole two months after it originally dropped.

Thanks to West finally putting the record on sale on his website and Tidal last week, Pablo is now expected to hit the top of Billboard's April 23 sales listing.

The Life of Pablo racked up 90,000 sales for the week ending on April 7, despite previously being available for streaming only on Tidal since February 13.

West, 38, could also set a record as the first Billboard number-one where more than half of its sales were earned as streaming equivalent albums.

Janet Jackson's tour is officially postponed to 2017 The Life of Pablo officially went on sale on April 1 as a paid download on West's website and Tidal.

Its surprise release came hours after West finally released his newest tracks to streaming services Apple Music and Spotify.

This was a sharp reversal for the rapper, who originally vowed to "never" make The Life of Pablo available to Apple.
BJP raises the issue of infiltration from Bangladesh into Assam just like it flags the Ayodhya issue nationally ahead of every elections, according to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

He says BJP rakes up the illegal migration issue and Ram temple before each elections but does not want to solve them because of vote-bank politics.

"Actually, they (BJP) remember the infiltration issue always just before the election. In Assam, the issue is like what Ram Mandir is for them nationally. They will never solve it but will keep alive the issue for doing vote-bank politics," Gogoi told PTI in an interview.

In its bid to woo indigenous Assamese voters, BJP has given infiltration a major space in its campaign agenda during the ongoing Assembly polls and is attacking the Gogoi-led Congress government of encouraging illegal immigration from Bangladesh for getting votes of Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Questioning the role and motive of the saffron party, Gogoi accused the BJP-led NDA government of not doing anything to solve the problem despite being in the power twice.

"You (BJP) were at the Centre twice. Your partner AGP was in power twice in the state when you were at the Centre. Why did you not take any action?" said the veteran Congressman.

Gogoi said "you have your party units in every district and town. If there are so many infiltrators, then why are you not informing or complaining to the police or to the local authorities?"



Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, almost all BJP leaders have been attacking Congress of being sympathetic to Bangladeshi infiltrators, while Congress is claiming credit of expanding border fencing and updating the National Register of Citizens under the Supreme Court guidelines.

When pointed to the gradual change in Assam's demography, Gogoi said "yes, demography of Assam is changing. But is it changing because of influx or population explosion due to illiteracy? We have go and address the actual cause of this problem."



According to a 2011 Census report, Muslims constituted 34.2 per cent of Assam's population compared to 30.9 per cent a decade earlier. Assam's 9 out of 27 districts are now Muslim-majority, compared to six districts in 2001.
Maharashtra government will make efforts to ensure late Panjabrao alias Bhausaheb Deshmukh, first union Agriculture Minister, gets the highest civilian honour of the country for his contribution in the fields of education and agriculture.

"Bhausaheb (Deshmukh) was a visionary leader. He opened the doors of education to all of us. He is the true Bharat Ratna in the hearts of Vidarbhaites," Fadnavis said at a function to mark the 51st death anniversary of Deshmukh, the founder president of Shri Shivaji Education Society (SSES).

Fadnavis lauded Deshmukh's contribution in fields of education and agriculture and assured the gathering his government will make efforts to ensure the Amravati-born leader gets Bharat Ratna award posthumously.

Deshmukh, also a social activist and a prominent farmer leader, had served as the Minister of Agriculture in the first cabinet of then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952.

On this occasion, the CM inaugurated a library building of Panjabrao alias Bhausaheb Deshmukh Memorial Medical College.

District in-charge minister Pravin Pote, MoS for Home Ranjit Patil, SSES president Arun Shelke, local MLAs and others were present on the occasion.

Fadnavis appealed institutions to raise standard of education being imparted by them.

The CM announced an 'Adhyasan' (chair) will be set up in the name of Deshmukh and a government resolution will soon be issued to this effect.
Facing Opposition heat over Narada sting operation, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee today said she will not tolerate people who only "care about personal interests" in her party.

"TMC will not tolerate those who only care about personal interests. We don't have room for traitors in our party," Banerjee told at an election rally at Safanagar here.

"CPI(M) has ruined Bengal for 34 years. They intimidated farmers, looted their land and even opened fire on them. Again they are saying if they return to power, they will spill blood. But, they will never win again," the West Bengal Chief Minister said.

Taking potshots at the Left Front-Congress alliance, she said, "Both Congress and CPI(M) leaders are busy arguing among themselves sitting in television studios. They are not on the field. I have personally toured the districts and reviewed the projects a number of times."



"In a never-before move, I had brought the entire state secretariat to the districts," Banerjee said at the rally.

The TMC chief also addressed two other rallies in South Dinajpur district in support of party candidates, one at Gangarampur and the other at Khagra Kudi in Kushmandi. She briefly felt uncomfortable after drinking water at Kushmandi rally, but recovered soon.
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels vowed to respect a UN-brokered truce that began at midnight yesterday, joining other combatants in supporting the ceasefire.

The Huthis, along with allied troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, have sent the United Nations a letter committing to "cease land, sea and air military operations" throughout Yemen, according to a communique carried by the rebel-run Saba agency.
By Paul Taylor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - In Athens, walls have ears.

The leaking of a conference call of International Monetary Fund officials on Greece's latest bailout review has further undermined mutual trust in fraught debt talks, embarrassed the European Commission and infuriated the IMF and Germany.

At stake are the IMF's reputation as a stern enforcer of financial rescue programmes meant to make indebted states viable and the European Union's determination to hold the euro zone together and avert another damaging Greek crisis.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras exploited the leak at home to demonize the IMF, rally his left-wing Syriza party ahead of more painful sacrifices to secure the next slice of European loans, and try to put his conservative opponents in a corner.

But efforts to drive a wedge between the EU institutions and the IMF, and isolate IMF Europe director Paul Thomsen, a veteran of six years of acrimonious negotiations with Athens, fell flat.

"Each time Tsipras is going to have to compromise, he needs to create an external enemy," said George Pagoulatos, professor of European politics and economy at Athens University. "It's part of his old populist playbook.

"It's smart domestic politics even if it is dumb diplomacy."

After a transcript of the March 19 conversation was posted on Internet site WikiLeaks, Tsipras demanded the IMF explain whether it was plotting to push Greece to the brink of default to make it swallow harsher austerity measures. The text offers little support for such accusations, although the IMF officials do note that Athens only compromises when it runs out of money.

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde made clear whom she held responsible, backing her staff and writing to Tsipras: "It is critical that your authorities ensure an environment that respects the privacy of their internal discussions and take all necessary steps to guarantee their personal safety."

The leak highlighted known differences between the IMF and the EU over the state of Greece's third international bailout since 2010, and over how much more Athens needs to do to meet its fiscal targets and make its debt sustainable.

More damagingly, it laid bare the IMF staff's contempt for the European Commission, seen as too soft on the Greeks.

It undercut months of patient efforts by Tsipras and Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos to rebuild lenders' trust after the havoc wrought by former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who sparred acrimoniously with his euro zone colleagues and leaked documents to try to bounce them into concessions.

It also shone a light on a complex, three-dimensional chess game the IMF is playing to try to make Greece accept painful reforms of pensions, taxation and bad loans while pressuring Germany and its allies to grant Athens substantial debt relief.

Put simply, the IMF's position is that the Greek economy is in worse shape than rosy EU forecasts suggest, and that a necessary relaxation of fiscal targets must be balanced by greater debt relief from euro zone lenders.

Since the Europeans refuse an outright debt write-off, known as a "haircut", they will have to stretch out loan maturities for decades and give Athens a 20-year debt service holiday.

Otherwise the numbers won't add up and the programme is headed for failure, the IMF says.

"The bottom line is the debt will not be repaid in our lifetime," said Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.

"The IMF is gearing up for new clients in the emerging economies. That is not best done by being soft on Greece. They won't go to the (IMF) board to approve participation in a third Greek bailout without something they think is tough and credible," he said.

Brussels contends that both the economy and Greek compliance with the bailout programme are better than the IMF thinks, hence the first review should be concluded soon, allowing Athens to access the next 5 billion euros ($5.70 billion) of loans.

In the transcript, IMF Greece mission chief Delia Velculescu complains that the Commission agrees on joint positions only to back down to the Greeks the next day, giving Athens no incentive to make tough reforms.

Thomsen belittles tax increases proposed by Greece to plug the fiscal gap as "Mickey Mouse stuff". He also suggests German Chancellor Angela Merkel should be made to choose between giving Athens substantial debt relief or seeing the IMF pull out.

Germany, the biggest creditor, is the most reluctant about major debt restructuring. Its parliament insists on a continued IMF presence to enforce budget savings and minimize the need for stretching out loans and freezing interest payments.

How the three-way tug-of-war between the IMF, Greece and Berlin will play out remains uncertain. The sequencing will be tricky, but no side seems to have an interest in walking away.

The Germans are more dependent now on Greece to act as Europe's gatekeeper than they were during last year's crisis over a possible "Grexit" from the euro zone. Berlin needs Athens' cooperation to process and detain migrants and refugees until they can be send back to Turkey.

The Tsipras government has spent much political capital to keep Greece in the euro zone and reach the long sought debt relief negotiations. It cannot afford to alienate the lenders.

And the IMF too does not want to abandon Greece as a black mark on its record.

"Four of the five euro zone bailouts have gone pretty well - an 80 percent success rate. Yet if the IMF walks away from Greece now, everything they've done in Europe will be remembered as a failure," said Kirkegaard.

($1 = 0.8773 euros)

(Writing by Paul Taylor; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Japan's government and auto giants Toyota Motor Corp and Nissan Motor Co will join in an effort to develop by 2018, the Nikkei daily said, as competition heats up to improve the technology key for autonomous driving.

Japanese automakers, map-making companies, and the government will get together to generate standardised intelligent maps, with plans to incorporate driving data gathered by the automakers, the paper said on Sunday.

A Toyota spokesperson declined to comment, while officials at Nissan could not be reached immediately for comment.

Intelligent mapping systems supply information to control self-driving cars, which are equipped with street-scanning sensors to measure traffic and road conditions.

German auto supplier Bosch said on Friday it was in talks with high-definition digital maps company HERE, exploring whether to take a stake.

Volkswagen's Audi, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, BMW and car parts supplier Continental are also working on technologies for autonomous or semi-autonomous cars.

(Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Yeganeh Torbati and Sanjeev Miglani

GOA, India (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter began a three-day visit to India on Sunday, seeking to advance a relatively new defence relationship with a country Washington sees as a counterweight to the growing power of China.

In a sign of the importance Carter places on improving defence ties with India, the visit is his second in less than a year, and it kicks off in Goa, the home state of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar.

For India, closer U.S. defence ties would bring greater access to American technology, and it too has been alarmed by China's naval forays in the Indian Ocean. But India has been historically wary of drawing too near to any one country.

"India's very reluctant to be seen as too close to the United States, but the Pentagon is very bullish on this relationship," said Shane Mason, a research associate at the Stimson Center in Washington.

It is also a favored initiative of Carter, who established a special cell within the Pentagon last year to promote cooperation with India.

"There's no question about where the United States-India relationship is going," Carter said on Friday, at a talk at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "We can control and influence the pace, and I want to do that."

The U.S. military has made clear it would like to do more with India, especially in countering China's moves.

Last month, Admiral Harry Harris, the commander of U.S. Pacific Command, said the United States wanted to expand the naval exercises it held with India each year into joint operations across the Asia-Pacific.

But India, which has never carried out joint patrols with another country, said there were no such plans.

"The Indians are being careful because it's their neighborhood," said a U.S. congressional source familiar with U.S.-India military discussions. "It's been a long-standing Indian policy to deal with China on a bilateral basis."

DEFENCE MANUFACTURING

U.S. defence manufacturers hope closer ties will boost their own prospects in India, which is one of the world's biggest defence spenders but still has major gaps in its military capabilities.

India has been looking to rebuild its ageing air force and last week Lockheed Martin and Boeing pitched their fighter planes to its defence ministry.

In a statement, Boeing said it was in talks with India about the possibility of making F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft in India.

A Lockheed spokesman said the company also took part in talks last week between India and the United States on fighter jet production opportunities.

Separately, the two countries are negotiating India's request for 40 Predator surveillance drones, officials said, a possible first step towards acquiring the armed version of the unmanned aircraft.

But deeper security cooperation has been tricky, because India has for more than 10 years demurred at signing three "foundational" defence agreements that would streamline military interactions.

India is concerned that the pacts, including the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) that allows the two militaries to access each other's bases, could draw it into an undeclared military alliance with the United States.

Ahead of Carter's trip, an Indian defence source said both sides were eager to conclude the negotiations on the LSA.

"They're actually quite prosaic agreements," said Benjamin Schwartz, until last year the India country director at the Pentagon.

Nonetheless, signing them "would indicate that the Indian government is more willing to work with the U.S., even if it means that they're going to take some political heat," said Schwartz.

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Idrees Ali in Washington; Editing by Robert Birsel)
A couple of things stuck in my mind after attending the first Food Truck Festival in downtown Corpus Christi last weekend. One is that of all the foods that could be fried, I would have never guessed macaroni and cheese was one of them.

The other is that we have a lot of young people in Corpus Christi and so many of those young people have children. Lots and lots of children.

Toddlers, infants, kids hanging on to their dad's or mom's hand, others with one hand on a snow cone (technical term: a raspa) and the other tugging a sibling along  all these kids sliding in and out of a crowd just having a good time.

All those kids won a victory in the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, though they probably didn't have a clue. The court ruled that kids need political representation.

So do folks who have never voted in their lives and have never registered to vote. Even people who are illegally in the country need to be counted in apportioning representation.

That's the gist of the ruling in a case that challenged how legislative districts are drawn.

The ruling was a win for the Constitution. It was a win for the idea that every person needs the protection of government whether one is a voter or not. It was a win for our system of representative democracy. And the ruling was a win against the insidious effort to shrink the voting franchise.

Over the course of American history, the privilege to vote has continually been expanded. Instead of being limited to those with property, the franchise was given to those who had none. Limited to those of the white race, suffrage was extended to all races.

Limited only to males, the franchise was then extended to women. Voting was limited only to those who could pass literacy tests until such tests were themselves disqualified in the same way that poll taxes were thrown out. The age at which citizens are allowed to vote was lowered to 18.

That's why the case out of Texas, like the Texas Legislature's passage of the voter ID law, is counter to that history of an ever-expanding franchise.

Instead of expanding democratic representation, both initiatives are about limiting voting and limiting the protection afforded by such voting.

The case ruled on by the Supreme Court came from two Texas plaintiffs who argued that the state should base its legislative districts on the number of voters instead of total population, the so-called "one man-one vote rule."

Consider the impact of legislative districts in Corpus Christi based only on the number of voters.

According to the Census Bureau's Quick Facts section, about a quarter of Corpus Christi's population in 2010 was made up of kids below the age of 18, voting age. I don't imagine the relationship between kids and voting adults has changed much since 2010.

That means that for the purposes of apportioning how many state senators and representatives Corpus Christi would get, the population number would automatically shrink by a quarter.

It means that those kids would be shorn of representation when votes are cast in Austin on public school funding, on support of higher education, on laws that protect children from abuse and neglect and on laws that feed poor children.

It's difficult to say how many of the city's residents who are foreign born might be illegally in the country. But counting them in the population that must be counted in the population number used for apportionment makes sense, too. They live under the laws drawn by legislators as do their U.S.-born children.

The attempt to shrink representation is matched by the Texas legislature's move to shrink the electorate by the Texas voter ID law.

That law requires voters at their appearance at a voting location to show, in addition to a voter registration, one of an array of photo identification documents. The law is considered one of the most restrictive of several such laws in other states. Federal judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos found the law unconstitutional, saying it is discriminatory against the poor and minority voters. Texas is appealing. It is expected to be heard soon, maybe next month, by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. It is likely to eventually wind up before the Supreme Court.

All those children I saw at the festival deserve to be represented and so do their parents. And this young, aspiring segment of our community shouldn't have any obstacles put in their path on their way to the voting booth.

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.
SHARE Contributed photo The Fryderyk Chopin Society of Texas will host its Top Prize Winners Recital 12th Sonata Sonatina International Youth Piano Competition at 1:30 p.m. Sunday.

SUNDAY

THEATER: Harbor Playhouse will perform the Broadway musical "Chicago" at 2:30 p.m. at 1802 N. Chaparral St. The production features dazzling dance numbers and mesmerizing musical performances. Cost: $18, adults; $10, children younger than 13. Information: 361-882-5500, www.harborplayhouse.com.

CLASS: The Port Aransas Art Center will host its Wine Whine & Design class with instructor Arlene Hughes from 5-8 p.m. Cost: $40. Information: 361-749-7334.

SHOPPING: The Spring Fling Market will sell crafts, antiques, jewelry, arts, soaps, home decor and more from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Richard M. Borchard Fairgrounds, 1213 Terry Shamsie Blvd., Robstown. Cost: $5 or $4 with a can of food for the Food Bank of Corpus Christi, teachers, law enforcement, firefighters free with valid ID Information: www.springflingmarket.com

CONCERT: The Fryderyk Chopin Society of Texas will host its Top Prize Winners Recital 12th Sonata Sonatina International Youth Piano Competition at 1:30 p.m. at Holiday Inn Downtown Marina. Cost: Free. Information: 361-853-6807.

AIR SHOW: Wings Over South Texas will be from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Naval Air Station Kingsville at East General Cavazos Boulevard. Gates open at 8 a.m. Midway and Kid zone open at 9 a.m. Cost: Free. Information: www.wingsoversouthtexas.com.

TUESDAY

WOMEN: The YWCA will host its Equal Pay Day Luncheon at 11:45 a.m. at Dos Comales Cantina, 227 N. Water St. The goal of the event is to educate women about pay inequality, offer solutions to wage discrimination and encourage women to take action. Cost: Free if RSVP by April 5. Information: 361-857-5661 ext. 30.

AWARENESS: The Child Abuse Prevention Month Proclamation will be presented at 11:15 a.m. at City Hall, 1201 Leopard St. Cost: Free. Information: 361-878-3561.

SOFTBALL: The Javelinas will host St. Mary's in a doubleheader starting at 4 p.m. at Vernie and Blanche Hubert Softball Field, 700 University Blvd., Kingsville. Cost: $5, general admission; $4 public school students, seniors, military with ID; free, Texas A&M University-Kingsville students. Information: 361-593-4030.

MUSIC: The Sparkling City Chorus of Sweet Adelines International will host auditions at 7 p.m. to celebrate National Barbershop Quartet Day at Parkway Presbyterian Church, 3707 Santa Fe St. Cost: Free. Information: www.sweetadelines.net.

COMEDY: David Hart will perform at 7 p.m., at The NASA, 1613 Agnes St. Cost: $12. Information: 361-980-0440.
Mary Ann Beckett/Caller-Times The Caller-Times won first place for newspaper of the year and three more statewide awards in the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest.

SHARE Mary Ann Beckett/Caller-Times The Caller-Times' Behind Broken Doors series, which focuses on the effects of domestic violence, won first place for community service. Mary Ann Beckett/Caller-Times Reporter Matt Woolbright won first place for freedom of information for his story in the series on the effectiveness of protective orders in Nueces County. Mary Ann Beckett/Caller-Times The Caller-Times won first place for newspaper of the year and three more statewide awards in the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest. Woolbright

By Staff Reports of the Corpus Christi Caller-Times

EL PASO  The Caller-Times won first place for newspaper of the year and three more statewide awards in the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors annual contest.

The wins were announced Sunday, the last day of the APME conference in El Paso. The Caller-Times on Saturday received three star awards, six other first place awards and 18 more honors. In all, the newspaper garnered 32 awards this weekend. It competed against 13 newspapers in Class AAA.

"Our work reflects what's important to our community. We are dedicated to keeping our Coastal Bend audience well-informed," Editor Tim Archuleta said. "Those residents are better prepared to engage in our democracy."

The honors included:

The Caller-Times' Behind Broken Doors series, which focuses on the effects of domestic violence, won first place for community service. Reporter Matt Woolbright won first place for freedom of information for his story in the series on the effectiveness of protective orders in Nueces County.

The newspaper also earned an honorable mention Sunday for best online newspaper.

Among Saturday's award winners was Kirsten Crow, who received star reporter of the year. Gabe Hernandez won star photojournalist of the year, and Jorge Vidrio was named star designer of the year.

The first place wins also honored work by the Caller-Times on oil and gas developments in its Energy Effects franchise and its coverage of Police Chief Floyd Simpson's death and funeral. The newspaper won for design, video and photojournalism work.

Archuleta said the recognition of the staff's efforts was humbling.

"It does help our newsroom stay motivated to provide high quality journalism that has the potential to unite residents, expand human compassion and improve our community," he said.

The editing and design team was recognized for its work with the Caller-Times as well as other Gannett properties.

Class AAA had more than 1,000 entries submitted for judging this year. Next year's APME conference will be in Houston.

View the complete list of this year's winners at the Texas APME website.
GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Bashar Ghraowi transfers chocolates to a pan. The Ghraowi family has a long tradition in the Middle East as chocolatiers and now runs the Ghraowi Chocolate Company on Agnes Street.

SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Yazan Ghraowi looks through different molds to make chocolates. The Ghraowi family has a long tradition in the Middle East as chocolatiers and now runs the Ghraowi Chocolate Company on Agnes Street. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES From left, Mais Kayal, Yazan Ghraowi and Bashar Ghraowi pose for a photo. The Ghraowi family has a long tradition in the Middle East as chocolatiers and now runs the Ghraowi Chocolate Company on Agnes Street. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Yazan Ghraowi talks about the machine his father uses to make chocolates. The Ghraowi family has a long tradition in the Middle East as chocolatiers and now runs the Ghraowi Chocolate Company on Agnes Street. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Dark chocolate with cherry made by Bashar Ghraowi. The Ghraowi family has a long tradition in the Middle East as chocolatiers and now runs the Ghraowi Chocolate Company on Agnes Street. Related Photos Ghraowi chocolate factory

By Julie Garcia of the Caller-Times

Missiles whizzing overhead, the ever-present danger of explosions on the trek to school and constant checkpoints are realities the Ghraowi family faced the last few years in Damascus, the capitol city of Syria.

For the family of longtime chocolatiers, financial constraints eventually helped them make the decision to leave their beloved home.

"During war, no one is buying chocolate," said Yazan Ghraowi, the 19-year-old son of Syrian chocolatier Bashar Ghraowi and an immigrant to the United States. Bashar, his wife Mais Kayal and Yazan Ghraowi were granted a specific type of work visa to build a chocolate business in America while continuing to operate a candy factory in Damascus.

The family's business venture, Ghraowi Chocolate Company, hosted a grand opening celebration Saturday at its location on Agnes Street. In the Middle East, especially Syria and Lebanon, the Ghraowi name is synonymous with chocolate.

"I remember growing up and every time I went to a new class in high school or middle school, they would read my last name and say 'You're the chocolate people,'" said Nour Ghraowi, the 23-year-old daughter who attends the University of Texas at Austin. After two years at Austin Community College, she was accepted to UT and is majoring in English Literature and minoring in creative writing. She also writes for the Daily Texan, the university newspaper.

More than two years ago, Nour Ghraowi was accepted to the community college in Texas, but she was denied a visa three times before she was granted permission to come to the states. Her persistence was derived from a need for education, she said.

"It wasn't an easy journey coming here," Nour Ghraowi said. "It was hard leaving (my family) behind. I left my brother and sister in Egypt and didn't know if I would be seeing them any time soon. And then here, I had never lived by myself before.

"I would just call them, text them every day just to know if they were alive," she said.

It would be several months before Bashar Ghraowi, his wife and Yazan received the work visas necessary to come to America. Once they got them, they made the three-day road trip from Damascus to Beirut, Lebanon, before boarding a 16-hour flight to Houston.

"The business was not what it used to be. We left Syria in 2012 and went to Egypt for two years and then returned to Syria for a year," said Yazan Ghraowi. "Because of the war, 80 percent of my friends left Syria and now live all over the world."

Many of Yazan's friends, and friends of his family, are Syrian refugees living in Turkey, parts of Greece and Germany.

"I used to go to college under missiles and bombs, but you get used to it," he said. "(Damascus) is better than other places, because the capitol is where the president is. For more, it was not safe with checkpoints for the army."

The family chose Corpus Christi at the behest of Bashar's brother, Dr. Ayman Ghraowi, and his family, who have been in the city for more than 20 years. Ayman Ghraowi's wife, Sohair Sabawi, has helped the family rent the factory space in 1 Agnes Plaza, order essential chocolate-making equipment and start the next phase of their visa process to remain in the U.S. Their current visas are valid for another month if they are not extended.

"We started the process in April to submit their papers, but getting the documents from Damascus can take three times as long," Sabawi said. "We'll hear from them in two weeks (on the visa extension). But in two months, we have bought equipment, oversaw the vendors  it has been hectic."

For the near future, the business will be mostly through online sales via GhraowiChocolateCompany.com. But there could be a local counter selling the cocoa delicacies.

Claudia Hurt, baking and pastry instructor at Del Mar College and owner of FillinGood Bakery, and her husband, Darryl Hurt, want to sell them alongside their cakes and baked goods soon.

"We've sampled his stuff and it's phenomenal," Darryl Hurt said. "(Before we bought the shop), it was a gourmet chocolatier and people were very fond of it. It was a community staple for the area, so we knew we had to have some chocolate items."

Not every Ghraowi was reunited in Texas. The oldest daughter, Aala Ghraowi, was denied a visa and runs the chocolate factory and storefront in Damascus in her father's stead. Bashar Ghraowi's 94-year-old mother was also forced to stay in the country, but receives calls daily from her sons and grandchildren.

A contingency of Bashar's visa is that he will go back to Syria to run his business there and later return to Corpus Christi. His son, Yazan, was attending a university before the family left Syria and plans to obtain a degree in graphic design in America.

"We have to make sure the business takes off here and also continue the business back home," Sabawi said. "We have found a lot of really good helpful people who didn't feel competitive against us. Here, people help each other and have good ideas for us. "It has been lovely."

Twitter: @Caller_Jules

GHRAOWI CHOCOLATE COMPANY

Where: 1225 Agnes Street, Suite B-16

How to buy: www.GhraowiChocolateCompany.com
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Ximena and Scarlett Torres, who were both conjoined at the pelvis, will undergo surgery to separate them on Tuesday.

SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Ximena and Scarlett Torres, who were both conjoined at the pelvis, will undergo surgery to separate them on Tuesday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Silvia Torres poses just weeks before delivering identical triplets, two of whom are conjoined at the pelvis. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Silvia Torres holds her daughter Catalina at Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday. Catalina's two twin sisters, Ximena Jackeline and Scarlett Juliet, were born conjoined and will undergo surgery to separate them on Tuesday. COURTNEY SACCO/CALLER-TIMES Silvia Torres plays with her daughter Catalina at Ronald McDonald House on Wednesday. Catalina's two twin sisters, Ximena and Scarlett, were born conjoined and will undergo surgery to separate them on Tuesday.

By Chris Ramirez of the Caller-Times

Silvia Torres has prayed a lot the past 11 months.

The 22-year-old mom has leaned heavily on her faith to guide her through the challenges of both delivering and raising conjoined twins. More than anything, she has longed for the day when doctors could map out a way to safely separate her daughters, Ximena and Scarlett.

That day is Tuesday.

But Torres says her conversations with God aren't over.

"I just want whatever is good for my children, for a positive outcome," says Torres, as a happy-though-nervous grin spreads across her face. "I put all my faith in him."

Ximena and Scarlett were born fused at the pelvis. Tuesday they will undergo a grueling and risky separation surgery at Driscoll Children's Hospital.

For weeks physicians have been strategizing, conference calling, even conducting dry runs, figuring out how to perform the operation. Nine surgeons will perform the 12- to 18-hour procedure. They'll be assisted by about 10 nurses and up to eight anesthesiologists.

Waiting in another room will be Torres and her mother, clinging to hope during those tense moments that both children emerge from the procedure with a better shot at leading a normal life.

"I will be praying every minute they're in there," she says.

Getting to this point was a journey.

Torres and her husband, Raul, both of Brownsville, initially expected twins, but were later told they were going to have triplets. About three months into the pregnancy, the couple learned two were conjoined.

The Torreses, who also have a 3-year-old son, Raul Jr., came to Corpus Christi on vacation last April. Doctors said shortly after they arrived that she was in no condition to travel home.

Torres delivered Ximena and Scarlett, and a third daughter, Catalina, by cesarean section on May 16, just one day shy of 34 weeks.

Each girl weighed the same upon delivery  4 pounds, 11 ounces.

Ximena and Scarlett were born joined together by what doctors call a "skin bridge." They share a rectum, intestines, bladders and an umbilical cord.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Haroon Patel, who will head the procedure, said Ximena and Scarlett have grown normally, making them strong candidates for separation surgery.

The risks in such procedures often are very high.

Conjoined twins occur once in every 200,000 births, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Forty percent to 60 percent of conjoined twins arrive stillborn, and about 35 percent survive only one day. The overall survival rate of conjoined twins is between 5 percent and 25 percent.

The procedure was actually supposed to take place in March. It was postponed when the girls contracted a viral infection that would have made them prone to lung problems under anesthetic, Patel said.

Each day, Torres gets up at 4 a.m. and goes to Driscoll from the Ronald McDonald House, where she has been living since her daughters were born.

Quality time means reading books to Ximena and Scarlett and serenading them with rounds of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider," sung in Spanish.

In addition to mops of straight hickory brown hair, Ximena and Scarlett have also grown personalities  Ximena is often calm and sleeps a lot, while Scarlett is a bundle of energy who lights up when someone touches her.

They both get giddy at the sound of Idina Menzel singing "Let It Go" from Disney's "Frozen." Their little legs churn and their hands flail from the flower-pattern cradle, even if they can't see the TV screen.

"They love it," Torres said. "When we play the movie, they hear it and start dancing."

Torres said she and her husband are in the midst of divorcing. Raul Torres, 26, lives and works in Ingleside and said he will be at the hospital with his daughters during their procedure.

"I'm nervous because the doctor said it's a very risky surgery," he said.

Ximena and Scarlett were baptized Saturday at the hospital. Silvia Torres asked Michelle Horine, the Ronald McDonald House's executive director, and Rachel Martinez, its house manager, to be the girls' godmothers.

"They've been like family to me," she said.

Patel said Ximena and Scarlett will first be separated, then special team of doctors that will do reconstructive surgery on each of them.

The girls on Monday underwent a procedure to adjust a "tissue expander," a type of silicone implant that is inserted underneath the skin, enabling it to stretch over time. Patel said doctors will perform a mock surgery the day before the procedure. Once the separation is done, Ximena and Scarlett will likely need additional surgeries as their bodies grow and mature, he said.

Torres said while there have been moments of difficulty, knowing other people are pulling for her children's recovery helps.

Well-wishers already have taken to Facebook  on a page titled "Siamese Twins Hernandez Torres"  to offer prayers for the girls and the physicians caring for them.

More than 20,100 people have liked the page.

"We have left it to God," Torres said. "It's all in his hands."

Twitter: @Caller_ChrisRam

TIMELINE

May 16, 2015: Catalina Montserrat, Ximena Jackeline and Scarlett Juliet were delivered in Corpus Christi by C-section at 10:52 p.m., one day short of 34 weeks. Each weighed 4 pounds 11 ounces.

May 21, 2015: Silvia Torres, the triplets mother is released from Driscoll Childrens Hospital with Catalina. Ximena and Scarlett are kept in the hospitals neonatal intensive care unit.

September 2015: Doctors declare Ximena and Scarlett viable candidates for separation surgery.

February 2016: Separation surgery is postponed after the girls contract viral infection.

Tuesday: New surgery date.



BY THE

NUMBERS

9: Surgeons who will perform the procedure

10: Nurses will assist

8: Anesthesiologists will be on hand

Source: Driscoll Childrens Hospital
Saturday, April 9, 2016 at 11:37PM

Worried about cash and credit cards when youre traveling? Japan wants to ease your fears by letting you pay for things using only your fingerprints. The Japanese government hopes this new voluntary system will alleviate fears of the tourists and also help decrease crime. When you arrive in the country as a tourist, youll be able to register your fingerprints, personal data, and credit card information at a kiosk in the airport. This can then be used later for hotels and shops, go through tax exemption procedures, and help verify their identities.

Its set to kick off this summer in 300 shops, hotels, and restaurants in some of the countrys most popular prefectures and might spread across the country by spring of 2017, if the testing goes well. They aim to make it more widespread by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun | Via: Mashable
If you see any accidents or have any info on the morning commute, let us know whenever it is safe to do so. Email morningblog@canberratimes.com.au or tweet us @canberratimes.
"I run a courier company," Mr Ireland said. "I'm not a legal expert. It cost a bit [to have a lawyer lodge the claim] but I felt because of the warning QBE could be difficult it was worth it to do everything by the book."
But her story is more profound than that. Her calm presence helped a United States Marine keep a grip on humanity as he fought the Taliban in Afghanistan. She continues to help him as he lives with the impact of post-traumatic stress disorder after six deployments to the Middle East, the first as part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq when he was just 18.
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Unlike the late actors family lawsuits against Porsche, his sole childs settlement with another party has gone unnoticed.



This, Reuters reports, changed on Friday when Jeff Milam, Meadow Walkers attorney, announced that she has reached a settlement with the estate of Paul Rodas, the man who was driving the fateful Carrera GT at the 2013 accident that claimed both his and Walkers lives.

According to Reuters, it amounts to $10.1 million and will go into Walkers teen daughter trust fund. Rodas, stated Milam, was partially responsible for the 40-year old actors death and the sum his teen daughter will receive is a fraction of what her father would have earned as an international movie star had his life not been tragically cut short.

The settlement has been reached since December 2014 and, until Milams statement, remained unknown because it was filed under the name Meadow W. This, said the attorney, had nothing to do with the ongoing lawsuit against Porsche AG who the Fast and Furious stars daughter intends to hold responsible for producing a vehicle that was defective and caused Paul Walkers death.

This comes right after a federal judge ruled against Rodas wife Kristine lawsuit against Porsche AG, clearing the automaker of any wrongdoing. Rodas wife will file an appeal, and the ruling does not affect Walkers daughter and father separate wrongful death lawsuits.
Photo: Jen Zielinski

Dogs and wine  what could be better?

Thanks to a partnership between Kelownas Lakeshore wine route and the BCSPCA, pet owners will be able to enjoy a tasting with fido at their side.

The second annual Unleashed event is set to take place Saturday, April 30, from noon until 4 p.m.

Animal lovers are invited to tour the wine route of St. Hubertus, CedarCreek, Summerhill and Tantalus where a complimentary canape-paired wine tasting will be available at each winery.

There is a suggested donation of $20 that will benefit the SPCA along with any purchases made on the day.

However, this day out isnt just about the wine. The pooches will be pampered with vineyard walking tours, puppy portraits and, of course, doggy treats.

"This is our second season hosting the unleashed party and we consider ourselves very fortunate to be able to contribute to the initiatives that the BCSPCA supports," said Ezra Cipes, CEO of Summerhill Pyramid Winery. "With the help of St. Hubertus, Cedar Creek and Tantalus, and the fun activities we have in store, we anticipate an even bigger attendance this year".

Guests will be given a "pawsport" to collect stamps which allow them to enter in a draw to win a grand prize.

For more information click here.
Photo: Flickr

Uber, the popular ride-sharing company, is coming to Kelowna next week to share some information and build more support.

Unfortunately for fans of the company, the City of Kelowna cant allow the service in town until the province makes up its mind on Uber.

Until we know what the province (decides) and identifies what role local government has in that, its really speculative right now, said Stephen Fleming, City of Kelowna city clerk.

Despite the uncertainty, Uber will be in Kelowna on April 11 at the Royal Anne Hotel, conducting two information sessions for those interested in signing up as drivers if they are allowed to eventually operate in town. Registration is required for those looking to attend one of the sessions.

Fleming says municipalities like Edmonton, Ottawa and Toronto, where Uber currently operates, have different mandates from their respective provincial governments that allow them more freedom on these issues.

B.C. municipalities, on the other hand, dont have some of those powers that others across the country might.

Youll see a local government outside of B.C. might be doing something really interesting and innovative and the first thing weve got to figure out is, do we have the same authority, Fleming says. Weve certainly been following different jurisdictions, like we know what Edmontons been doing and Ottawa  Until we know what the provincial aspect is to it, its hard to speculate.

Kelowna city council has discussed the idea of Uber in town, but is waiting on the province to take a stand, one way or another.

Premier Christy Clark appointed Peter Fassbender, minister of community, sport and cultural development, in January to consult with municipalities on what to do about Uber.

Were looking to see what (Fassbender) comes up with and hopefully he comes up with some recommendations that we at the municipal level can work with, says Coun. Luke Stack.

Coun. Ryan Donn says on the surface, he is a big fan of Uber and the sharing economy as a whole, but he realizes the issue is more complicated.

We have a tough time in the evening in Kelowna getting people home safely from downtown because they cant get a taxi, he said. As a councilor, youve got to think getting people home safely sounds like the most natural thing to be supportive of.

Theres a balance that needs to be struck between allowing the safe transportation option to Uber while also respecting the folks that have invested tens of thousands into a taxi business that was the only option, he continued.

A petition on Uber's website supporting the company in B.C. has over 66,000 signatures.
This week's Trip Shot is by Jeff Stathopulos, who writes the weekly Castanet column, It's Your Life.

City of Light

Paris. Few cities will create an instant impression in peoples minds like this one, even for those who havent been there. To some, its just another collection of landmarks and museums, to others a place whose parts are equally as great as the whole.

Theres not much one can say that hasnt already been said. As a city known for its over the top fashion and excess, its also a place that runs on practicality and tradition. There is a way to do things, time is different here.

Everyone who has been, holds their own impressions. Rather than try to describe mine like a misspoken tour guide, Id like to pass on three stories that for me, are Paris.

The Espresso Bar

I woke at 3:00 am the night we first arrived. Rather than toss and turn, I decided to try and get some night shots. I grabbed my camera bag, told Tanya where I was going and slipped out the door before she could wake. I asked the front desk man where I might get espresso. He shook his head. As I started out the door, he called me back, he had an idea. He said to turn left at the corner and keep walking several blocks to where the Boulevard des Italiens meets Boulevard Haussman. He told me no cafes were open, but the clubs all served espresso.

As I walked, I passed the dark windows of the famous cafes: Le Grand Cafe, Cafe de la Paix and the Cafe Napolitan. Next the Palais Garnier  the Opera. Continuing, I soon heard music. Reaching the corner, I turned and saw a different city - not one of sleepy streets and closed shops but of ardent discourse and young passionate love. Like a B movie, there were entangled couples in every doorway.

I went to the first club I saw, the windows were open wide and burgundy canopies hung over the facade. A large man in formal wear waved me in. I explained I was looking for an espresso. He smiled, said yes, come in. With a hand on my shoulder, he directed me towards the back, then called out to the woman behind the carved wooden bar in French. I sat down. She pulled a double espresso, put it in front of me with a glass of water and carried on.

I drained the last of the crema and asked her for the bill. She smiled, shook her head and said no charge. I thanked her, grabbed my bag and went back out to the street. The large man tilted his head, smiled and bade me goodnight.

The Bikes

It was an early night. Waking up two hours later we realized wed missed dinner. It was only 10:30 pm so we decided to go out. On the corner was a row of cruiser bikes locked in a stand. We could rent the bikes right there. After paying, we chose our ride and started towards the Eiffel Tower. Between us and the Tower lay the Champs-Elysees. Riding along the cobblestone streets, we passed the Church of Madeleine, rode through the Place-de-la-Concorde and turned down the Avenue de Champs-Elysees. At the end stood the Arc de Triomphe. Below where outdoor restaurants filled with people; it was now close to midnight.

We chose one, waited in line briefly and were soon seated. While dinner wasnt amazing, dining at one in the morning on the Champs-Elysees, with the drift of foreign words, the scent of grilled food, and the mosaic of perfume is indelibly stamped.

We left for the Eiffel Tower. A few wrong turns, a bridge or two and we arrived at the base. There was only the aircraft warning lights on, the tall dark shadow of the Tower dwarfed everything. Trinket vendors still peddled their wares to anyone who would listen.

We started home and slowly rode back along the path following the Seine River. People strolled, the diesel engines of riverboats throbbed, the lights of the city danced on the rippled water. Lock filled bridges spanned the river along the way. We arrived back at our hotel near 3:00 am, sleep came easy this time.

The Little Black Dress

My final story is a shopping story. Wed found a small shop that Tanya loved. Filled with unique displays, awesome clothes and brilliant art, we spent quite a bit of time. There was one black dress Tanya couldnt decide so she didnt purchase it. The proprietor was a wonderful woman who knew exactly when to step in and when to stay away. Tan picked a few things and we paid at the counter. The shopkeeper carefully folded the clothes, wrapped them in paper, tied them with ribbon putting them in a stiff paper bag. She walked us to the door and thanked us.

Fast forward a month, Tanyas still thinking she should have bought the dress.

Her birthday was soon and I had the perfect idea. Remembering the name of the shop, Bouche B, I looked it up online. I called and attempted to explain, she remembered us though and more importantly, the dress. After a brief hold, she told me it was still there. I asked her if she could arrange shipping to Canada. She said if I would send the funds Western Union (they cant process credit card purchases over the phone), she would take care of the rest.

Three weeks later a yellow and blue package from La Poste arrived. Inside: the black dress and a handwritten note.

Paris is overwhelming, old, new, the famous and the not so famous. Of all the cities weve been to, it has left the deepest impression. The modern world tries to encroach it like ivy on a building. Yet just beyond the facade lays the foundation of a city whos roots date back almost 2,000 years. Long after the trendy restaurants, the neon signs and the corporate logos are gone, the heart that is Paris will still beat.

__________

Been on a trip lately? Around the world, around the country, around the block, or around anything that felt like a journey? If you took pictures and want to share, drop me a line. [email protected]

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Voltaic Systems A similar setup to the stolen gear.

A local developer is a more than a little miffed after a GoPro setup he had taking a time lapse of his new development was stolen.

The camera and solar panel setup had been taking a picture every hour for the past year at the Parkside at Clifton development.

AJ Hazzi was planning on piecing the images together once the Parkside development was complete, and produce a long time-lapse video of the construction.

Theres a lot of good footage on there, Hazzi said. So were trying to get it back.

Hazzi says he discovered it had been swiped Saturday morning, so it would have been stolen in the last few days.

The development is being built on Clifton Road, near Blair Pond.

Hazzi has yet to talk to police about the theft but says he plans to.
Photo: Contributed

UPDATE 6:22 P.M.

The fire reached 16 hectares and is currently in the mop up stage.

UPDATE: April 10

A wildfire burning near Cawston is holding at approximately five hectares Sunday morning.

Fire information officer Ryan Turcot says a member of the public discovered the brush fire between 6 and 7 p.m. Saturday evening, near the tiny Highway 3 community.

The fire is burning brush, grass and light timber.

There are currently 15 forest firefighters on site controlling the blaze. Turcot says crews hope to have it contained by the end of the day.

The fire is believed to be human caused and is currently under investigation.

There are no structures threatened at this time.

ORIGINAL: April 9

A brush fire ignited Saturday near the tiny Highway 3 community of Cawston.

The fire was first spotted about 2 p.m., four kilometres north of Cawston, along Fairview Road.

It was burning up a gully in bunch grass and was nearing the tree line as of 7 p.m.

No word on the fire's cause or its size was immediately available.
Photo: Twitter

Energized delegates at the NDP convention in Edmonton decide today whether Leader Tom Mulcair will stay or go.

After rousing speeches from Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and party elder Stephen Lewis on Saturday that presented divergent views on how the party should deal with climate change, the 1,700 delegates are expected to cast their votes in a critical leadership review this afternoon.

Rank-and-file members must decide if Mulcair is the right frontman to revive the party from its low standing in the polls and help the NDP redefine itself after a serious setback in last fall's election.

Mulcair maintains he can help facilitate a political comeback while a number of members are not so convinced.

Notley and Lewis gave the delegates plenty of food for thought.

To great applause, Notley told New Democrats they can stage a revival, pointing to her own experience leading the provincial party out of the doldrums and into power in a province few dared to predict would ever turn orange.

But she also pleaded with NDPers outside of Alberta to understand that thousands of families in her province depend on natural resources for their living, and need a pipeline and support for the oil and gas sector to maintain their quality of life  even while working to improve the environment.

Notley specifically took aim at the so-called Leap Manifesto  a policy document crafted by activists within the party that proposes quickly weaning Canada off fossil fuels and preventing future pipeline infrastructure.

Lewis, to equally raucous applause, presented a different vision  he stressed the importance of the discussion around the manifesto and suggested the dialogue could breathe life into the beleaguered party.

"Simply let the leap be the entry point to one of the great philosophic and pragmatic debates that engages democratic socialists in Canada," he said, while also recognizing the tension that will exist with Mulcair's leadership review.

Many New Democrats now find themselves struggling with the question of whether Mulcair can find a way to convey an impassioned message of his own  something many felt he failed to do during the course of the campaign.

"There was no coherent message, no optimism, no passion," former MP Peggy Nash wrote last week in the Huffington Post.

Are enough members willing to give him a second chance?

The leadership review will take place after an intense morning. Delegates will first vote on a joint resolution calling for a debate on the policies that could flow from the leap manifesto. Then, Mulcair will make his final pitch before delegates vote mid-afternoon.

The joint resolution urges the NDP to recognize and support the leap document as a high-level statement of principles that speaks to the aspirations, history, and values of the party.

It also calls for specific policies in the manifesto to be debated and modified on their own merits and according to the needs of communities and all parts of the country.

NDP President Rebecca Blaikie has suggested Mulcair will need about 70 per cent support from delegates to stay on as leader, although the party's constitution states that a leadership race only needs to be called if the leader receives less than 50 per cent.

Mulcair has refused to say what level of support would prompt him to resign.
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Natalie Craig is a 24-year-old fashion blogger who says she hopes she can inspire readers to own their look and feel confident.

Her relationship with the actual act of shopping is a little more complicated. Craig, who considers herself plus size, said the range of on-trend plus-size fashion options has been improving. But while it's clear brands want to court plus-size shoppers, she said, how well they do it varies widely, and in-store options remain sparse.

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"There are just so few options," said Craig, who lives in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood and edits a trade publication in addition to writing her blog, Natalie in the City. "At the end of the day, there are still times I feel there are no clothes for me."

The market for plus-size apparel in the U.S. is growing, with sales hitting $20.4 billion in the year ending in February 2016, up 3 percent from the year before, according to market research firm The NPD Group. Interest in the category is growing particularly quickly among teens and younger women, said Marshal Cohen, The NPD Group's fashion industry analyst. About a third of 13- to 17-year-old girls said they considered buying plus-size clothing in 2015, up from 19 percent in 2012 and 16 percent in 2010, according to an NPD Group survey.

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Americans of all ages tend to be heavier than in prior years, but Cohen chalks the rapid uptick in teens' interest in the category to the fact that more brands are starting to sell plus-size clothes younger shoppers might actually want to wear.

"Kids had to get creative before with the limited product that was available, which was stifling the true potential for growth," he said.

The past few years have seen steady growth in the range of plus-size options. Torrid opened a flagship Chicago store at 7 N. State St. in 2015, one of 60 it planned to open last year.

Online shops like ModCloth, Asos.com, Carmakoma and ELOQUII aren't pitched to teens, but make Teen Vogue roundups of brands that are fashionable, not frumpy.

ELOQUII  a size-14-to-28 fast-fashion e-commerce company initially owned, then shut down, by women's retailer The Limited, relaunched as a stand-alone business in 2014. ELOQUII announced raising $15 million in funding Thursday and said revenue grew 165 percent in 2015.

Fast-fashion retailers popular with teens also have launched or expanded plus-size lines.

In January, Forever 21's extended-sizes line, Forever 21 Plus, introduced a range of activewear with advertisements featuring plus-size model Ashley Graham.

Teen-friendly brand Charlotte Russe added a plus size-line in 2015. In 2012, H&M rebranded its plus-size collections  previously known in-store as "Big is Beautiful"  as H&M+, "meaning fashion will always come before size at H&M," the company said in a statement on its website.

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Not to be left behind, retail giant Target last year launched plus-size line Ava & Viv. Since then, plus-size apparel sales have grown 30 percent, said spokeswoman Jessica Carlson.

Craig said she didn't consider herself as plus size when she was younger, but also doesn't recall any trendy plus-size stores. She was 19 when Forever 21 Plus debuted and at first it was "very 'mom,'" she said, adding that it's since gotten considerably hipper.

But even though there are trendier choices, brands have been slower to put them in stores than Amanda Stilwell, who blogs about plus-size fashion at In the Thick of It, expected. Both she and Craig sometimes receive free merchandise from brands hoping to reach their readers.

During the recession, with consumers cutting back, many retailers also cut back on the range of products they offered, particularly when it came to teens with less disposable income, Cohen said.

Stilwell, 36, who lives in the Logan Square neighborhood, said it felt "like a big insult" when companies that experimented with stocking plus sizes moved them back online or shrunk selection to a rack or two in the back of the store. When she found cute spring outfits in both regular and extended sizes on a recent trip to Target, "it was bananas," she said.

Some teens out shopping on State Street on Thursday said they feel like they often fall on the edge of regular and plus sizes, making finding outfits that look good and fit well a challenge even at stores that have extended sizes.

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Marilyn Correa, 19, shopping at Target for a first-day-of-work outfit with her friend Maria Delgadillo, 19, said they like the funky patterns and '70s-inspired style at stores like Forever 21 and H&M. But the plus selection is often "super small," Correa said.

"You need a creative eye," Delgadillo said.

Then there's the debate over whether "plus size" should be a category at all, kicked up again this week when comedian Amy Schumer questioned her inclusion in a Glamour magazine edition celebrating women "chic at any size." In a series of tweets, Schumer eventually declared size labels "unnecessary."

Teens were more likely than any other age group to say they felt brands designed plus-size clothing as an afterthought and that plus-size clothing should be available in the same styles sold in smaller sizes, according to The NPD Group.

Both Stilwell and Craig said their ideal shopping experience would include walking into any store and finding the same apparel in their size as in sizes 0 to 4  and not in a "dimly lit, undermarketed corner," Craig said.

They also deemed the moniker useful. The new plus-size-specific brands are often the most on-trend and edgy, Craig said.

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"They put more passion into creating something you can feel sexy in," she said.

Dedicated plus-size brands also tend to be pricier, said Correa and Delgadillo, both college students on a budget. They're also often online-only, making fit a perpetual challenge, Craig said.

Angelo D'Agostino, vice president of brand marketing at teen-friendly Wet Seal, said the company hates the term. "A Wet Seal girl is a Wet Seal girl," he said. "If we're coming out with the next great thing, we want everyone to be able to wear it."

But it's how customers look for clothes, so it's a Catch-22, he said.

Wet Seal sold plus-size clothes in dedicated brick-and-mortar stores before its bankruptcy last year, D'Agostino said. Now plus-size apparel is only sold online, but as the retailer restructures under new ownership, it's working on expanding the range of choices  including the range of choices that are the same in standard and extended sizes  and would like to bring them back to stores.

But that's sometimes easier said than done, D'Agostino said. Some vendors they work with don't want to branch out into extended sizes, he said. And at a time when many retailers are shrinking store real estate, adding plus sizes means taking something else off the racks, he said.

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The share of teens who consider buying plus-size apparel is still less than half the 73 percent who say they buy junior apparel, according to The NPD Group.

D'Agostino declined to say what share of Wet Seal's business comes from plus-size apparel, but called it "a fair percentage." Many customers sign up for email alerts about both regular and plus-size lines, suggesting shoppers also switch between lines depending on fit, he said.

"It's big enough where if we didn't pay attention, there would be pain," he said.

The retailer might still be missing out. A 2014 survey conducted by ModCloth found 88 percent of plus-size women said they would buy more clothing if they had better options.

"I know there are millions of women who love to shop who are over a size 14. I don't know what the disconnect is," Stilwell said.

lzumbach@tribpub.com

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Jean-Claude Poilevey, chef of La Sardine and Le Bouchon, was killed in a traffic pileup on April 9, 2016. (CBS Chicago) (CBS Chicago)

Jean-Claude Poilevey, a chef and restaurateur who was an inspiration to Chicago's French restaurant community during his decadeslong career, was killed in a car crash early Saturday morning, according to Illinois State Police Sgt. P.J. Manno.

Poilevey was the sole fatality of a pileup, caused by snow and icy conditions, on the Eisenhower Expressway around 12:40 a.m. He was out of his car when he was struck in the accident. The crash involved 15 cars, including Poilevey's. Poilevey was returning home after working at his Bucktown restaurant, Le Bouchon.

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The accident took place near the Central Avenue exit. Poilevey lived in Oak Park; he was almost home.

"We've lost a very good friend," said fellow chef Carrie Nahabedian, of Naha and Brindille restaurants. "He's been part of the French dining community for 40 years. He's an icon."

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A note was tacked onto the front door of La Sardine in memory of chef Jean-Claude Poilevey, who was killed in a 15-car pileup on the Eisenhower Expressway on April 9, 2016, in Chicago. (Armando L. Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)

Poilevey came to the Chicago area in the late '60s, when he was hired by Arnie Morton to join the culinary staff at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wis. (The staff included, among others, a very young Jean Banchet.) Poilevey eventually relocated to the city, opening La Fontaine, near Clark Street and Fullerton Parkway, in 1973. Eventually, Poilevey bought out his partners and renamed the restaurant Jean Claude. He closed that restaurant in 1993, and opened Le Bouchon later that year. He added La Sardine, in the West Loop, in 1998.

His wife, Susanne Poilevey, focused on La Sardine, while Poilevey oversaw Le Bouchon.

"He cooked service every night," said Nahabedian of the 71-year-old chef. "If you walked by, you could see him in the window, making rabbit with noodles in that tiny kitchen."

We are heart broken. The world lost an incredible man, chef, and friend. https://t.co/0WTI6fa0eO  Le Bouchon (@BouchonChicago) April 9, 2016

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

A man and woman pulled up to La Sardine around 7:30 Saturday evening to celebrate a birthday.

The man, who didn't give his name, said La Sardine is their go-to place for celebrations. He said they hadn't heard about the accident but called it "very sad news."

"It makes missing a meal not so important," the man said.

At La Sardine, someone left a handwritten note: "Merci, Jean-Claude. Rest in peace."

La Sardine and Le Bouchon were closed Saturday night. Memorial services are pending.

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Phil Vettel is a Tribune critic.

Tribune reporters Carlos Sadovi, Alexandra Chachkevitch and Gregory Pratt contributed to this report.
Chef Jean-Claude Poilevey, owner of Le Bouchon and La Sardine restaurants in Chicago, was killed in a car pileup on the Eisenhower Expressway on April 9, 2016. The chef is shown here in 1993. (Val Mazzenga / Chicago Tribune)

An open-house memorial service has been scheduled for Chicago chef Jean-Claude Poilevey at one of his two restaurants later this week.

La Sardine, 111 N. Carpenter St., will open its doors from noon to 8 p.m. Thursday to welcome mourners who wish to pay tribute to the renowned chef and restaurateur who was an inspiration to Chicago's French culinary community.

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Poilevey, 71, was killed early Saturday in a 15-car pileup on the Eisenhower Expressway triggered by an ice storm. The chef was returning home from Le Bouchon, his other restaurant at 1958 N. Damen Ave., where he had worked Friday night.

His death shocked and saddened scores of chefs and patrons in Chicago; Poilevey, whose first Chicago restaurant opened in 1973, was a dean of French cooking, whose exacting standards influenced scores of culinary professionals and made him one of the city's guardians of classic bistro food.

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"He was one of those guys," said his wife, Susanne Poilevey, "who kept to a strict routine. He would get up, open La Sardine at 9:30, then open Le Bouchon after an hour and a half. He'd go home, watch some of his French TV, then return to Le Bouchon. He did the same thing every day."

Susanne Poilevey, who learned of her husband's death more than seven hours after the crash, closed Le Bouchon and La Sardine on Saturday night. Neither restaurant is open Sundays.

Eat. Watch. Do. Weekly What to eat. What to watch. What you need to live your best life ... now. >

On Monday, she said, both restaurants will resume regular hours. "We plan to keep both restaurants going," she said. "That's what he would have wanted."

Susanne Poilevey typically oversees La Sardine. Oliver Poilevey, one of the couple's three sons, has been Le Bouchon's chef for years. Nicolas Poilevey works as a wine importer in Oak Park. Henri Poilevey is a college senior in Olympia, Wash.

Jean-Claude Poilevey came to the United States in 1968, having been hired by the late Arnie Morton to join the culinary team at the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, Wis., which also included the late Jean Banchet, Chicago's first celebrity chef.

Poilevey's first restaurant was La Fontaine, at 2242 N. Clark St., which he opened in 1973. Later, he bought out his partners and changed the name to Jean Claude, which became one of the city's most popular French restaurants.

Rising real-estate prices inspired Poilevey to sell Jean Claude in 1993, but within months, he had opened the small but charming Le Bouchon in Bucktown. He opened La Sardine in the West Loop, across the street from Harpo Studios, in 1998.

pvettel@tribpub.com

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Paul Walker's daughter received a nearly $10-million settlement from the estate of the driver of the car involved in the fatal wreck that killed the actor in 2013. (Associated Press)

The daughter of "The Fast and The Furious" star Paul Walker reached a $10.1-million settlement with the estate of the man driving the car her father died in three years ago, court records show.

The estate of Roger Rodas, a longtime friend of Walker's who was driving the Porsche Carrera GT the two men died in after a wild 2013 crash, agreed to place more than $7.2 million in a trust for Walker's teenage daughter, Meadow, according to terms of a settlement that was reached in November 2014.

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Nearly $2.9 million was set aside for legal fees, records show.

Walker was on a break from filming the seventh installment in the "Furious" series when he and Rodas decided to drive away from a charity event in Valencia on Nov. 30, 2013. Investigators said the vehicle was traveling at least 90 mph when it smashed into several trees and a concrete light pole on Hercules Street. Both men died within seconds.

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It was unclear why the terms of the settlement became public this week. Walker's name is not mentioned in the court filings. Meadow, who was a juvenile at the time the order for settlement was granted, is listed as "Meadow W." in the court filings.

Meadow Walker and Rodas' widow, Kristine, have filed wrongful death suits against Porsche, claiming various design flaws or mechanical failings led to the crash. Investigators with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol both ruled that speed was the main factor in the wreck, but the lawsuits contend the vehicle was traveling slower than police indicated.

A judge threw out Rodas' suit earlier this week. An attorney representing Meadow Walker said Friday that news of the settlement with Rodas should have no effect on her pending suit against Porsche.

"Through his estate, Mr. Rodas, the driver of the car, took partial responsibility for the crash, which Paul Walker would have survived," attorney Jeff Milam said in a statement. "Our lawsuit on behalf of Meadow against Porsche AG -- a $13-billion corporation -- intends to hold the company responsible for producing a vehicle that was defective and caused Paul Walker's death."

In a response filed last year, Porsche said Walker was responsible for his own death, claiming the vehicle was misused and improperly maintained.

Follow @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in Southern California.

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A Taiwan-born Navy officer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen faces charges of espionage, attempted espionage and prostitution in a highly secretive case in which he is accused of providing classified information to China, U.S. officials said.

The Navy examined the charges against Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin in a preliminary military justice hearing on Friday. The service did not release his identity, but a U.S. official disclosed it Sunday under the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the case. Lin's connection to the case was first reported by USNI News.

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The Navy, which has not identified Lin by name, said the officer is assigned to the headquarters for the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, which oversees maritime patrol aircraft such as the P-8A Poseidon and P-3C Orion spy planes and the MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone.

A heavily redacted charge sheet released by the Navy states that the officer faces two specifications of espionage and three specifications of attempted espionage. He is accused of communicating secret information "with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the advantage of a foreign nation," hiring a prostitute for sex, committing adultery by having sex with a woman who was not his wife, not disclosing foreign travel to the U.S. government as required, and lying about it after the fact.

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It could not be determined who is serving as Lin's legal representation from the charge sheet released by the Navy. The military typically discloses the identity of a service member who faces a preliminary "Article 32 hearing like the one involved in this case, but the officer's name was redacted from the charge sheet released afterward "out of consideration for the service member's privacy," said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a Navy spokesman.

"Prior to a decision for the referral of charges, we are unable to identify the officer at this time," Hawkins said.

A U.S. official confirmed that Lin's personal story was highlighted by the Navy in 2008, as he became a naturalized citizen in a ceremony in Honolulu. He and his family came to the United States when he was 14 and spoke little English at the time, he said at the ceremony, according to a Navy account of the event.

"I was barely able to spell 'ABC.' The only name that I knew back then as an American name was Eddy," Lin said at the time. "Eddy was the name of my mother's dog . . . I was very fortunate that my mother did not name her dog 'Fluffy.' "

At the ceremony, Lin thanked other military service members who also were being naturalized for safeguarding their new nation.

"You have recognized that not only do citizens have rights, but citizens also have responsibilities. The responsibility you are performing even now as non-U.S. citizen," Lin said, according to the Navy account. "Extraordinary events made this nation and our military. People like you, men and women who stepped forward when their nation needed them accomplished these extraordinary events. I thank you for your decision to serve."

The top flag officer overseeing Lin's case as convening authority is Adm. Philip S. Davidson, the commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk. Lin is being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Chesapeake, Va. He was arrested about eight months ago, Newsweek reported Saturday.

The case remains under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI. Spokesmen for senior Navy officials, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, declined to comment on Sunday.
Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis and Chicago State University officials speak at a 'rally for higher education' held in conjunction with a one-day strike held by the Chicago Teachers Union, at Chicago State University, April 1 , 2016. (Anthony Souffle / Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis is so formidable that the union just canceled a scheduled officers election for lack of opposition candidates.

Congratulations, Ms. Lewis. You have earned another three-year term with a powerful mandate from your 25,000 active members.

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So where will you lead those members? That is the question on the minds of all Chicagoans, especially nearly 400,000 students and their parents.

Will you steer Chicago teachers next month into a second strike in four years? Or will you wield that clout to persuade your members to reach a compromise with CPS that acknowledges the mastodon at the negotiating table: The district is near bankruptcy. Its finances continue to deteriorate. The district says it has barely enough cash to finish the year.

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Negotiations toward a new contract, dragging along since last spring, will come to a head in the next few weeks.

An independent fact-finder will produce recommendations that could break the contract impasse between the district and the CTU. Those recommendations aren't binding, but they could be hugely influential if the fact-finder faces facts.

Fact 1: The district is broke. It can't afford significant teacher raises.

Fact 2: The district is broke. Teachers need to accept a phaseout of a lavish 7 percent pension payment pickup that the district no longer can afford. (The district still would pay the employer's share into the pension fund; the district is asking employees to pay their share.)

Fact 3: The district is broke. "Step and lane" raises that reward teachers who earn more degrees or add a year of seniority need to be scaled back if not eliminated.

In January, CPS and the CTU seemed to be on the verge of a deal. Ms. Lewis, you called the potential agreement a "serious offer" and said in a statement that its "basic framework calls for economic concessions in exchange for enforceable protections of education quality and job security."

But then the union's Big Bargaining Team, a group of about 40 union members that helps guide union demands, put a brick on the proposal.

"The real problem is the lack of trust in CPS," you said then of the city's offer. "There were a lot of things that were great. I'm not going to tell you they weren't. However, the things that will affect the classrooms the most  especially around the budget  were the ones that were concerning to people."

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Ms. Lewis, now that you've won: You can use your clout to convince skeptical members that a deal along the lines of the one you embraced in January is in the best interests of teachers  and students.

You can remind members that the district has cut central office positions, borrowed itself to the hilt and still needs $480 million to close this year's budget gap.

Years from now, Ms. Lewis, what will Chicagoans say about what you accomplished?

Did you use every ounce of your persuasive power to keep teachers in classrooms, to help them accept a reasonable compromise in a district choked by debt and overspending?

Or did you cheat students by leading your members on another strike, knowing that there's no treasure-trove for teachers at the end of that rainbow?

Your choices, Ms. Lewis. Your legacy.
A K-9 handler with the Transportation Security Administration walks his dog through lines of travelers approaching a security screening checkpoint at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle. Fliers will likely face massive security lines at airports across the country this summer, with airlines already warning passengers to arrive at least two hours early or risk missing their flight. (Ted S. Warren / AP)

Millions of Americans will soon descend on the nation's airports for the summer vacation season. Many of them will be flabbergasted by snaking security lines that could take an hour or more to navigate.

You can blame the Transportation Security Administration  and many people probably will. But the TSA is not the only culprit in the summer's expected Queuemageddon.

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You, Mr. and Ms. Air Traveler, contributed to the expected meltdown.

Remember the TSA's PreCheck screening program that you intended to join?

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The TSA vets your credentials ahead of time  and issues you a card  so that you don't have to wait in the long security line with the non-prechecked travelers. Instead you are whisked to the special lane that moves faster. You get to keep shoes, belts and light jackets on. Laptops and liquids stay in bags. And you pass through standard metal detectors rather than the explosives-detecting full-body scanners most people must pass through. You reach the gate with plenty of time, unlike thousands of travelers who have lately been stranded at airports because they didn't allow for at least two hours of security lines.

So you intended to join. But then there was the fee of $85 for five years. And you had to jump through some hoops, including an in-person appearance and fingerprint check at an application office.

So you procrastinated.

As of March 1, only 9.3 million people were PreCheck members  not the 25 million that the TSA had estimated would sign up.

At the same time, the number of fliers passing through checkpoints annually has grown from 643 million to more than 700 million.

One reason you may not have noticed that increase: Many travelers who hadn't applied for the screening program reaped its benefits anyway.

TSA found that its PreCheck lanes were underused in some airports, so the agency created workarounds to siphon passengers from regular lanes into this expedited screening. Travelers who flew more than 50,000 miles a year with an airline sometimes got the PreCheck designation on their boarding passes even if they hadn't joined the club. Others were waved through based on demographic information. (That is, those unlikely to be terrorists. This way, Sister Virginia Marie.)

But the TSA backed off those workarounds last year after the agency's inspector general highlighted several alarming TSA security lapses. One eye-opener: The agency improperly let a convicted domestic terrorist use PreCheck screening for a flight. (Heavens, no, not Sister Virginia Marie.)

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So all of you travelers who counted on the PreCheck designation even without getting the membership card, or who thought you could wink your way into the underpopulated fast lane, think again. You'll be in those long lines this summer and for the foreseeable future as TSA slowly ramps up its workforce.

Travelers, if you've been procrastinating, you have now been warned. There are several PreCheck locations around the Chicago area, including a new temporary application center that opened last Monday in the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 at O'Hare International Airport.

But if don't make your move, expect turbulence ahead: On spring break week last month, 6,800 American Airlines passengers around the country missed flights because of long checkpoint lines. If you don't want to join the stranded, take advantage of PreCheck (https://www.tsa.gov/tsa-precheck) or its cousin, Global Entry (http://www.cbp.gov/travel/trusted-traveler-programs/global-entry).

Either that or bring a good book for the line.
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Four crew members of a Chinese fishing boat which was sunk by the Argentinian Coast Guard last month are now on the way back home.

A Chinese fishing boat was sunk by the Argentinian Coast Guard on March 14, 2016. [Photo / Global Times]

They were among a crew of 32 on a Chinese trawler which was fired upon after Argentinian authorities accused it of fishing illegally in its territorial waters.

Twenty eight of the crew members were picked up by another Chinese fishing vessel which was nearby at the time.

The four, including the captain of the vessel, were picked up by Argentinian authorities and charged with illegal fishing and resisting arrest, prompting a demand for a response by the Chinese embassy in Buenos Aires.

Argentinian authorities say the incident is not likely to affect bilateral ties between the two countries over the long-term.
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Around 45 Pakistanis were reportedly stranded in Tashkurghan, northwest Chinas Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, primarily as a result of the bad weather conditions and cancellation of Rayan Air flight between Kashghar and Islamabad, according to Pakistan Embassy in Beijing.

The Embassy of Pakistan said it has been in contact with them for the last two days when it first learnt about this situation. It also sought help from Xinjiang authorities to provide relief to these Pakistanis and to explore various options for their early home returning.
The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly released their plan on robotic industry development (2016-2020) Wednesday.

"This five-year-plan focuses heavily on key parts of technology and breakthroughs in high-end products which the domestic robot industry lacks," said Guo Xuan, vice president of Yichuang Smart Robot Industry Research Institute.

The planning showed that China will focus on developing ten signature products in the robotic industry which have high added-value and a promising market demand.

Here are the ten kinds of robots in the plan.

1 Arc welding robot
Every morning at 8, a machete and a portable speaker in hand, Yu Yangsen and two colleagues leave their work station on foot to inspect a forest farm alongside the Yangtze River.

Yu, the deputy chief of the seven-person station, has worked as a forest ranger for 22 years after inheriting the job from his father. When spring comes and the air dries, the rangers are on high alert for any signs of wildfire.

Workers at the Chongqing Yunyang Yangtze River Shelter-Forest Farm, established in 1964, have planted more than 6,000 hectares of trees along 42 kilometers of riverbank to restore the ecological system on the Yangtze's upper reaches.

The farm, which has 33 rangers at seven stations  each in charge of 200 hectares of forest  is the largest of its kind along the river.

The world's third-longest river, the Yangtze runs for 6,300 kilometers from the glaciers of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau eastward through Chongqing, Wuhan and Nanjing before reaching the East China Sea at Shanghai.

The farm is known as the Leader Farm by the area's residents, as the late Chairman Mao Zedong gave the order to plant more trees there in 1958.

President Xi Jinping attached great importance to restoring the river's ecology. At a meeting earlier this year in Chongqing, he urged officials from provinces along the river to concentrate on ecological restoration and protection, and to avoid large-scale development.

More than 400 million people get their drinking water from the Yangtze, and water security has become a major issue in China's development. However, between 30 billion and 40 billion metric tons of sewage annually is discharged from petrochemical plants on the Yangtze, accounting for more than one-third of the nation's annual discharge.

Excessive deforestation means the foliage coverage rate on the river's upper reaches dropped from 30 percent in the 1950s to only 20 percent in the 1990s, according to the Chongqing Bureau of Forestry. The area of soil erosion increased from 360,0000 square km in the 1950s to 560,0000 square km in the 1980s.

With the river's ecosystem on the verge of collapse, a campaign was launched to protect it. Beijing also drafted a landmark program, to be launched this year, to restore the river's ecosystem.

Yunyang county, 310 km east of Chongqing, has been a vital ecological barrier on the upper reaches of the Yangtze, especially in the Three Gorges Reservoir area.

In 1959, soon after Mao's order to plant more trees, thousands of farmers joined a voluntary tree-planting project. But a lack of scientific guidance meant most of the trees died.

In 1964, the Chongqing forest farm was created to carry out professional forestry work, but funding was insufficient and the rangers were seldom paid.

Manager Sun Ye said: "The rangers used to live in caves and ate only sweet potatoes. They had to plant mushrooms in the forest and took these home as their salary. The early days were really tough."

In 2009, Chongqing launched the Yangtze River Ecological Barrier Construction Project, with Yunyang county one of four pilot areas.

With increased investment, the rangers' working conditions improved. In Yunyang county, the forest coverage rate on the river's banks has reached 70 percent, according to Peng Ming, deputy director of the Yunyang Bureau of Forestry.
Xie Xiaoyan, who has been involved in talks over the Iran nuclear situation and South Sudan, has just embarked on a demanding new mission  as China's first special envoy on the Syrian issue.

The 62-year-old, whose appointment was confirmed on March 29, said the post is a sign of China's greater involvement in resolving the issue and its willingness to contribute "wisdom and solutions".

Veteran diplomats said the increasing number of envoys comes from China's expanding involvement in global issues  including Syria  and its increasing national interests.

"It's because China upholds an objective and fair stance on the Syria issue that there are increasing calls from the international community for the Chinese to play a greater role," Xie said over the weekend.

Beijing has had a constant role in global efforts to tackle the Syria issue, communicating with both the Syrian government and the opposition to boost peace talks.

Xie takes his new title at a time when "special envoy diplomacy" is playing an increasing role in China's foreign affairs. The country now has at least six special envoys or representatives working on hot issues.

The United Nations and the United States have also appointed envoys  Staffan de Mistura and Michael Ratney respectively  to tackle the Syria issue, which has flared for five years.
Police officers detain a suspect during a raid in which fugitive Mohamed Abrini was arrested in Anderlecht, near Brussels, Belgium, April 8, 2016 in this still image taken from video. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - Belgium's public prosecutor on Saturday charged four people with being part of a terrorist organisation, including a man suspected of helping prepare the Nov 13 attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

They added it was still not clear whether the man, Belgian Mohamed Abrini, was also suspected of being involved in last month's Brussels airport bombings.

"He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murder," the Belgian federal prosecutors office said in a statement.

Prosecutors added it was still not clear whether Abrini was the "man in a hat" seen on CCTV footage with two of the suicide bombers at Brussels Airport on March 22.

Apart from Abrini, prosecutors said they also charged Osama K, who local media said was a Swede named Osama Krayem, adding they were able to identify him as the man present at the time of the attack on the Brussels metro station that same day.

Prosecutors also continued to hold a Rwandan national, identified as Herve B.M., and 27-year-old Bilal E.M., while two other people detained on Friday together with Abrini were released after being questioned.

Earlier on Saturday, Belgian police raided an apartment complex in central Brussels without further arrests being made. Prosecutors had suspected an apartment there to be used as a safe house though no explosives or weapons were found.

A man whom officials believe may be a suspect in the attack which took place at the Brussels international airport of Zaventem, is seen in this CCTV image made available by Belgian Police on April 7, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

The sixth person arrested late on Friday was Bilal El Makhoukhi, who was convicted in January last year for being involved in Sharia4Belgium, a now disbanded organisation which recruited people to go and fight alongside jihadist organisations in Syria and Iraq.

Originally sentenced to five years in prison, with three years suspended, El Makhoukhi was allowed to serve his remaining term at home under electronic monitoring and was released last month, Justice Minister Koen Geens told reporters.

"He was under electronic supervision and his sentence ended on March 15," Geens said on the sidelines of a government news conference.

El Makhoukhi was convicted last year after he had returned to Belgium after losing a leg while fighting in Syria.
DUBAI - The leading property developer of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) unveiled on Sunday a plan to build the world's new highest building.

Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of Emaar Properties and renowned architect Santagio Calatrava, said the new sky-scrapper, The Tower, is poised to be higher than the world's tallest tower, the 828-meter tall Burj Khalifa in Dubai, and is estimated to cost one billion U.S. dollars.

Alabbar said the tower will be "a notch higher than the Burj Khalifa, and will be completed before the World Expo 2020.

He also said that the exact height of the skyscraper will not be exposed until its completion.

Dubai is the first Arab city ever to hold the World Expo event.

"We wanted to create another landmark for our city as Downtown Dubai around the Burj Khalifa became a busy hotspot, a global landmark, and when we think 10 to 20 years ahead then we clearly need new landmarks in our city," said Alabbar.

The Tower will be located at the Dubai Creek Harbor on a plot of six square km "and it will offer a perfect view on the Burj Khalifa across creek waters, so we really created a viewpoint similar to a top view in Paris on the Eiffel Tower," said Alabbar.

Designed by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava, the building will harbor 20 to 80 usable floors whereas the architecture is a geometrical design which will harbor trees and greenery inside.

Calatrava said designing the tower is "a unique challenge in the history of architecture and we are proud that The Tower will also reflect the history of the Arab world and of the sheikhdom of Dubai."
The site of the Puttingal Devi temple fire is seen in the southern Indian state Kerala, on April 10, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

NEW DELHI - At least 110 people were killed and more than 350 others injured in a massive fire that broke out during a fireworks display at a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala early Sunday morning, a senior police official said.

"In fact, the fire started around 3 am local time during the fireworks display at a ground next to the Puttingal temple in the state's Kollam district, packed with 15,000 people attending a festival," he said, on condition of anonymity.

While 110 people were killed, those injured have been admitted to various hospitals in Kollam and other nearby districts, where makeshifts air-conditioned camps have been set up, the official said, adding that the death toll may go up as the condition of some are said to be critical.

Indian military choppers have been pressed into service to ferry the injured to the hospitals and the state government has cancelled the leaves of all doctors and demanding them to report to duty.

According to officials, a spark had actually ignited a stack of fireworks, triggering the fire.
Premier Li Keqiang welcomes visiting Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe before holding talks at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday. Feng Yongbin / China Daily

Chinese investment in Sri Lanka will not pose a threat to other countries, including India, according to the island nation's prime minister.

During Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's visit to Beijing, the Sri Lankan government sought more investment despite a compensation claim from a Chinese company involved in a major port project remaining unresolved.

Wickremesinghe, who wrapped up his first visit to China over the weekend, said on Saturday that his government is giving special status to the Colombo Port City project and that the port's profitable future has attracted many Chinese investors.

"The port city and megalopolis is not a threat to anyone. It's an opportunity for everyone to make money," he said.

"We met with many Chinese companies and they are all interested in coming into Sri Lanka," Wickremesinghe said.

The Port City project, contracted to State-owned China Communications Construction Co in 2013 with investment of $1.4 billion, is Sri Lanka's biggest single foreign investment. However, the project was suspended in January last year after the new Sri Lankan government ordered a review.

The Chinese company, which has estimated that the suspension will cause losses of more than $380,000 a day, has sought compensation of $125 million, according to the Sri Lankan government, which has said it cannot pay and wants to negotiate.

On Thursday, Premier Li Keqiang told Wickremesinghe that China will work with Sri Lanka to push for a resumption of the project.

Wickremesinghe said on Saturday that he did not discuss the compensation issue with Chinese leaders during his visit, as he did not think it was a major problem.

He said the port city is a joint venture involving Chinese and Sri Lankan companies, but Indian companies would be welcome to join it. His administration has had discussions on the issue with the Chinese government and Chinese banks.

The port city is part of a plan for a "megalopolis" with a population of 8 million, and there will be more opportunities for infrastructure development by Chinese and other companies, Wickremesinghe said.

"We welcome Chinese investment in areas including tourism, infrastructure and power," he added.

Describing Sri Lanka as the most important country in the Indian Ocean for China's Belt and Road Initiative, Wickremesinghe said his nation is reviving its position as an Indian Ocean hub, which is connected to the China-proposed 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.

Wang Qingyun contributed to this story.
Nobody ever said doing business with China would be easy.

My firms China lawyers have recently been hit with an influx of American tech companies with the following characteristics:

They have a good, but not great technology (chip, internet of things, environmental, hardware or software). They were heavily funded but they have only around six months of cash left, at their present burn rate. They are being wooed by massive Chinese companies that want the American tech companys technology. They are being wooed by massive Chinese companies that do not want to pay anything upfront for the American tech companys technology.

This post is going to focus on number 4, and on what we are seeing Chinese companys offer and with what American tech companies should counter.

Chinese companies are offering one of the following two things, both of which will typically be horrible for the American tech company for the following reasons:

1. A technology licensing deal that will pay the American tech company x percent or x dollars for every widget the Chinese company sells in the future that uses the American tech companys technology. This is usually a terrible deal for the American tech company, for two reasons. First, it is not likely to solve the American tech companys immediate cash problems as it is not likely the Chinese company will 1) incorporate the new technology into its product and 2) sell the product and 3) pay the American tech company for the product sales in time to save the American tech company. Second, and most important, it is usually very difficult/impossible for an American company to accurately (or even close to accurately) monitor the sales of a Chinese company. See 8 Tips for China Licensing Agreements.

2. A joint venture arrangement with the American tech company getting x percent in the joint venture. This is usually a terrible deal for the American tech company for two reasons. First, it is not likely to solve the American tech companys immediate cash problems as it is not likely the joint venture can be formed in less than 4-6 months and will likely take even longer than that if the American tech company is going to want its technology transfer to the joint venture to count as a contribution to the joint venture for equity purposes. Second, it is usually very difficult for an American company to accurately monitor the sales of its China joint venture entity. Lets just say that Id be rich if I had $1000 for every Western company who has called for help because it has been in a China joint venture for 5+ years and never made a penny and yet by all appearances the joint venture is thriving. See China Joint Ventures: A Warning.

What should these American tech companies do instead?

They should hold firm with the Chinese companies and require those companies pay a large upfront sum to license the technology. Nearly every time we have counseled our clients to do this and they have done so, the Chinese company has backed down and paid.
(Photo : Huseyin Nasir/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) ISIS militants have freed most of the 300 cement factory workers they kidnapped this week in Damascus.

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Islamic State (ISIS) militants on Saturday freed most of the cement factory workers they had kidnapped near Damascus this week after checking their religious status. Four workers, who belongs to the minority Druze community, a Syrian opposition, were killed by the millitant group, according to a news agency linked to this group.



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The report of the release of the cement factory workers surfaced two days after they were kidnapped from their work place in Dumeir on Thursday, April 7, after an attack on government forces.



The Druze, an Shiite Islam sect, made up 5 percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million. ISIS, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, regards the Shiites as heretics.



Reports surfaced on last Friday that a large percentage of the cement factory workers kidnapped were migrantss; most of them allegedly hail from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Yemen, Afghanistan and Oman.



ISIS frequently kidnaps people and asks for ransoms to return them back to their respective families or employers. Security experts say the group uses these earnings to purchase arms and ammunnations. The jihadist group is allegedly struggling to maintain its troops in the wake of US-led and Russian airstrikes on their oil infrastructure and other resources.



ISIS is also losing the plot to the US-led Kurdish alliance in northern Syria. Many experts believe that ISIS is fast losing its base, resources and will be forced to surrender if the airstrikes continue for a long time.



The Syrian army in a combined attack with the alliance of United States and others launched twenty seven strikes in both Iraq and Syria this week.



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TagsISIS, Syria, Druze
(Photo : STR/AFP/Getty Images) Indian officials and bystanders gather beside a collapsed building after an explosion and fire at The Puttingal Devi Temple in Paravur early April 10, 2016.

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Over 100 people have died and up to 350 others sustained injuries in a big fire mishap in the southern Indian state of Kerala during a fireworks display to mark the starting of the Hindu New Year on Sunday, 10 April.



Thousands of people had gathered at the Puttingal Devi Temple in the coastal town of Paravur in Kerala's Kollam district at midnight to observe the fireworks display when the fire broke out due to explosions of crackers at the temple. The horrific incident occurred around 3:30 am midnight on Sunday.



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According to eyewitness present at the scene, the unfortunate incident happened when a spark from a cracker landed in a building that stored some high potency crackers. The building caught fire and caused a massive explosion. The explosion was so powerful that many parts of the temple building collapsed. A bulldozer is currently trying to clear the area of the debris. Police, disaster management teams and fire brigade are also on the spot for rescue and relief work.



The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has rushed to the scene to support the local administration in the rescue operation. Rescue operations by India's Air Force are also underway with the use of 4 helicopters, including Mi-17 &ALH from Sulur (Coimbatore).



India's Prime Minister Modi noted on Twitter that, "[The] Fire at [the] temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured." He revealed that he will be travelling to the scene of the fire soon to take stock of the situation following the tragedy.



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TagsFire Tragedy, Kerala, India, temple, Kollam, Narendra Modi
(Photo : Getty Image) Chinese contractor to develop Maldives $800 million airport development project

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Maldives' government has officially inaugurated its controversial $800 million project to develop the country's main airport by a Chinese contractor, an initiative that would likely annoy its neighboring country India.



President Abdulla Yameen officially kicked off the project in a ceremony on Wednesday night at the Dharubaaruge convention center.



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"The president stated that with the expansion, the airport would become the economic backbone of the Maldives and that this would be the main gateway of modern day development," said an official statement issued by the government.



The government awarded the contract to China's biggest construction company, Beijing Urban Construction Group, in 2014 for the creation of the second runway of Ibrahim Nasir International Airport (INIA), which will extend up to 3.4 kilometers in length. The Chinese company is known for developing a number of airports in China and the Beijing National Stadium.



Maldives said that the expansion intends to accommodate the growing number of tourists to one of the world's top holiday and honeymoon destination. Moreover, with the upcoming development, an Airbus A380, which could carry around 7.5 million tourists per year, will then be able to land at the airport.



Adil Moosa, managing director of Maldives Airports Company (MACL), told news agency Haveeru that the contract allocated a 36-month timeframe for the project and is anticipated to be finished by the end of 2018.



MACL is looking at proposals submitted for the development of INIA's new terminal. Two other foreign contractors have expressed interest to the $300 million-worth project.



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TagsMaldives, china, Airport, India, Ibrahim Nasir International Airport, Maldives Airports Company
(Photo : Getty Images) UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

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In fresh bid to save struggling Tata's steel operation in the UK, London has made fresh plea to China to cut down its steel production.



The request was made during UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond's meeting with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing on Saturday. Hammond described his meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister as fruitful, with both countries discussing "issues of mutual concern."



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"I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production. The UK's focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steelmaking at Port Talbot and across the UK, and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steelmaking," Hammond told reporters.



The current crisis facing Tata Steel plants in the UK, which has left fate of more than 5,000 workers hanging in balance, has been largely blamed on China's excessive dumping of cheap steel in European markets.



Several steel factories in Europe are facing a threat of closure, as their steel products can not compete with highly cheap steels imported steel from China.



Experts say that China is resorting to excessive dumping due to a slump in demand in its local markets, mainly owing to ongoing slowdown in Chinese economy.



Meanwhile, ministers and officials from theCameron Government are currently busy striking deal with investors in bid to save Tata steel plants. People familiar with the matter have revealed that bailout deal to save Tata's plants in Scunthorpe and Lincolnshire could be announced as early as Monday.



However, there is no information whether the UK government has arranged any bailout deal for another Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot.



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Tagschina, UK steel crisis, China and UK, Tata Steel Uk, Tata Steel
(Photo : Getty Images) Ammann arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a state visit and held talks with Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese government officials before meeting with President Xi.

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China and Switzerland signed a number of cooperation agreements covering various sectors on Friday which include science and technology, innovation, work safety, education, trade, and environment.



Reports said President Xi Jinping and Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann presided the signing ceremony of two memorandums of understanding (MOU) between Guangzhou and Chengdu and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation that will implement the two sides' low-carbon city construction projects.



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President Xi has tagged Ammann as "an old friend of the Chinese people" as he recalled his meeting with his him in June last year when the latter visited Beijing for the signing of the China-backed Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)



Innovative strategic partnership.



Reports said that the two nations declared an innovative strategic partnership that will boost their trade exchange and economic cooperation, and enhance their educational partnership in the coming years.



The two countries celebrated the 65th anniversary of their diplomatic ties last year and so far, trade between the two sides have grown exponentially.



"The daily trade volume is now 26 times what it was annually in the first years after we established diplomatic ties," Xi said.



Economic benefits



Reports said China and Switzerland have enjoyed significant economic benefits over the years with trade volume between the two countries reaching $44.3 billion last year.



The Swiss nation is reportedly China's 7th largest trade partner in Europe.



Xi recalled the signing of the Sino-Swiss free trade agreement in 2014, saying it was China's first free trade pact with a European country.



Sino-European cooperation



"The free trade agreement with Switzerland set an example for Sino-European cooperation," Xi said.



Ammann said that his country would like to establish cooperation with China in the areas of environmental protection, science, finance, and education.



He also said Switzerland wants to get involved in China's "Belt and Road" initiative and participate in the newly-established infrastructure bank, the AIIB.



Ammann arrived in Beijing on Thursday for a state visit and held talks with Premier Li Keqiang and other Chinese government officials before meeting with President Xi.



Wang Shunqing, a top level diplomat of China's Foreign Ministry, said the meeting has been "significant" and "marks a new era" for the two countries.



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TagsSwiss-Sino relations, strategic partnership, Switzerland, china, cooperation agreements, President Xi Jinping, Swiss President Johann Schneider-Ammann, AIIB, Road and Belt Initiative
(Photo : Getty Images) The Austrian government is set to take over Adolf Hitler's birthplace in the outskirts of Germany.

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The Austrian government will bring a law to seize Adlof Hitler's birthplace after number of attempt to buy the property from its private owner did not materialize.



Hitler was born on April 20, 1889 in the town of Braunau am Inn, less than 500 metres from the German border. The government will compensate the owner of the house and take over the ownership.



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Karl-Heinz Grundbock, an interior ministry spokesman, said: "Given the unique nature of the building, its historic significance and the public interest, we've decided to begin discussions seeking to lay the legal groundwork for the seizure."



Currently, Hitler's birthplace is owned by Gerlinde Pommer. This historic home has been with the management of Pommer family since 1889. For a time, Martin Bormann, a high-ranking Nazi, bought and restored the building which became a place of attraction and even pilgrimage from 1938 until 1945. The Pommers bought the property back around 1952. According to Daily News, Gerlinde Pommer took over the control of the property in the year 1977. Pommer will now get a compensation amount, if the Austrian government would able to bring a law to take ownership of the birthplace of Hitler.



Austria began using the home as a day-care for people who had disabilities. However, in 2011, Pommer did not permit upgrades to the building. Currently, the house is unoccupied where Hitler. Pommer was paid an amount of $5,700 a month from the Austrian government as rent.



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(Photo : Reuters) China showed off its newest military hardware in multinational military exercises

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China showcased its newest military hardware manufactured by its own defense industries last Friday in a multinational live-firing military exercise at Zhurihe, north of the country.



China state media said, sophisticated attack helicopters and main battle tanks were featured and put to the test at the "Peace Mission 2014" drill participated in, by 7,000 personnel from China, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Kazakhstan, and Russia.



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The choppers and the battle tanks performed beyond expectations, showing the growing sophistication of China's military hardware manufacturing companies.



Reports said the military exercises at Zhurihe culminated the week-long joint training under the regional grouping known as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Zhurihe is China's largest and modern training base in Inner Mongolia.



The Communist Party's People's Daily said the latest range of the Type 99 main battle tanks and the Z-10 and Z-19 attack helicopters were taking part, for the first time, in the military exercises wherein live ammunitions were used.



China's air force said a new type of armed drone was deployed in the exercises and that it had successfully carried out a missile attack on a command vehicle.



Air Force Spokesman Shen Jinke said the drone is a very important and reliable tool in fighting terrorists since it can identify, monitor, and destroy objects in real time.



China had been highly dependent on Russia for its sophisticated weapon system before its own military hardware companies started to upgrade and improve their military materiel.



Reports said China has gone a long way in producing its own weaponry, mostly manufacturing variations of foreign models. Experts said China has made huge advances in developing its own weapon system and has cut a big percentage in its foreign purchases.



Reports said the Z-10 and Z-19 attack helicopters are modeled after the French Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin. The Type 99 version was based on the former Soviet T-72.



Most of China's drones strike a resemblance to the Global hawk, predator, and Reaper models used by the U.S. Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).



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Armour of God Launches Online Bookstore for Christians Worldwide Contact: Kimley Armour, Armour of God, 313-523-2646, kimley7@gmail.com



DETROIT, April 10, 2016 /Christian Newswire/ -- Armour of God has proven once again it is an organization with a heart for the word, with the launching of its online Christian bookstore. It provides top-rated Christian products at a very affordable price and is very easy-to-use. The website is loaded with a variety of books to fully serve individual, organizational and ministry needs. The goal of this online store is to spread the gospel of Christ to Christians worldwide. It is for Churches and ministry leaders such as Pastors, Evangelists, Bible students Bible scholars etc.



"We always have the largest selection of material on all the topics of the Christian religion from the bible to how to become a preacher. In this huge pile of knowledge you are bound to find a great book that can assist you in finding a greater connection with the bible and your God. The majority of us have only read pages and maybe a few books in the bible. But sometimes it is good to look elsewhere for inspiration. Look for it on Armour of God online Christian bookstore." -- Kimley Armour, Owner



There are different categories of bibles for all Christians, from children and teenagers to men and women, from ministry leaders and church pastors to bible scholars and the bible student. We even carry numerous large print Bibles for the elderly, and Electronic and Audio Bibles for the new generation. For mature believers, there are many Application Bibles, Parallel Bibles, and also Archaeological Bibles. In addition, we have gift bibles and award bibles for every occasion, from graduations and birthdays to weddings and anniversaries.



Perhaps you will find the inspiration you need in a great Christian book.



"God has given us a passion to take the gospel to the world. Armour of God is designed to take customers to their desired product category in one or two clicks just one click on any category of your choice from the menu," Kimley said.



About Armour of God

For many years, Armour of God has been reaching the world through God's word. We offer top-rated Christian products such as Bibles, Bible study guides and tools, and small group ministry resources through an easy-to-use online Christian bookstore. Our goal is to assist believers in growing spiritually, strengthening their faith in the Lord through studying God's Word individually, with their family, or in their church small groups, and live victorious Christian lives.



To learn more about Armour of God, visit www.armourofgod.info.

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Atheists' campaign for Christians to give up their faith worries Church of Denmark

A group of Danish atheists has gone beyond questioning the existence of God by launching a campaign to encourage the faithful to leave the Church of Denmarka move that has been worrying leaders of the church.

The Danish Atheist Society has placed large advertisements on the sides of public buses and has set up a website, www.udmeldelse.dk, which are both aimed to give short and easy instructions on how to withdraw from the Church of Denmark.

The website also automatically forwards the necessary paperwork for leaving the church to the parish priests who process these documentsgiving another level of convenience to individuals who want to quit.

In an interview with the newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, Anders Stjernholm, a member of the atheist group, said the campaign is gaining traction, with up to 3,000 online users having used the website, which highlights how each member can save 133,000 kroner or over $20,000 in their lifetime if they leave the Church of Denmark.

"We are satisfied with results so far. The bus campaign invites a discussion about faith, while the [website] withdrawal campaign is aimed at the many Danes who have long thought about leaving the church but have not done so because it is too much trouble," Stjernholm said in a report on thelocal.dk.

Thomas Frank, Dean of Viborg Diocese, acknowledged how the atheist group's campaign is already having an unprecedented effect on church membership.

"Every single withdrawal means something for us as a church. It is concerning that it is so easy these days to click ourselves away from each other online," Frank also told Kristeligt Dagblad.

"I have nothing against campaigns that encourage discussions about faith, but providing tools for withdrawal such as Atheist Society's website is, for me, wrong and ill-mannered," he added.

The Church of Denmark has already seen declining membership over the years. During the first quarter of this year, it has less than 4.4 million members or 76.9 percent of the population. Ten years ago, the church had a membership of 83.1 percent of the Danish population.
Behind LGBT people's 'seething hatred and anger' is a massive open wound that needs treatment, says Michael Brown

Christian radio host Dr. Michael Brown recently received angry comments on his Facebook page from a self-confessed gay who accused him of having "no moral values" and even wished for him to feel "the physical hate" of the gay community."

"I think it's high time Christians started getting beat for who they are. [Dragged] behind trucks. Tied to fences and left for dead. They deserve it. Filthy bigots," the angry critic wrote.

In an article for Charisma News, Brown writes that the comments hurt and saddened him. When another user asked the critic, "Why are you so hate-filled? Can you name something that a true Christian has done to you?"

The gay man replied: "My father, a Christian pastor, beat me almost to death and dumped me in the middle of the desert. Claiming [God] told him to do it. He spent the rest of his life in prison."

Brown says that behind the man's "seething hatred and anger" is a massive open wound that needs to be treated. The gay man's story might or might not be true, but Brown says it's clear that many from the LGBT community "spew venom against Christians, against God, and against the Bible" because they "have been wounded by professing Christians  by their words, their attitudes, and their actions."

Brown says it's important for Christians to respond to their anger in love, because it is the only way members of the LGBT community can find wholeness in the Lord. He is also urging people to resist the LGBT agenda with courage, and be reminded that behind their anger is a lot of pain.

"And as much as I am hated and vilified by many LGBT leaders, branded one of the nation's most vicious homophobes (among a multitude of other epithets, many too rancid to repeat), my heart continues to go out to them, longing for their repentance, longing for them to encounter the Father's love, and longing to see them come into the fullness of God's plan for their lives," says Brown.
Christians fear losing ancient churches in Turkey after government takeover

For centuries, Christians in Turkey, though a minority in the predominantly Muslim country, have maintained and protected their sacred places of worship. These ancient churches are even older than Islam.

Now, Christians in Turkey are fearful that they might lose six of these ancient churches after they were recently taken over by the government. These are the Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, the Surp (Armenian for "Saint") Sarkis Chaldean Catholic Church, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church, the Apostolic Armenian Surp Giragos Church, an Armenian Catholic church, and the Mar Petyun Chaldean Catholic Church.

Late last month, the Turkish government decided to expropriate 6,300 plots of land in the Sur district, located in Turkey's war-torn southeast.

Fatmagul Sari, the Minister of Environment and Urban Planning, said the state decided to expropriate these huge sections of property as a "last resort" to protect the area after being the site of an armed conflict between the Turkish armed forces and the militants of the Kurdish Workers' Party (the PKK) over the past months.

Gafur Turkay, a member of the Surp Giragos Foundation, however, expressed concern about the fact that the government did not specify a period as to when it will end its takeover of the property, and in effect, the churches.

According to an article on Charisma News, Turkay is discussing with lawyers on possible legal actions that could be taken to make sure that the churches will remain in the care and maintenance of worshippers.

Turkay would not be the first one to raise the issue of the government takeover of this crucial piece of land before the courts. The Diyarbakir Bar Association earlier argued in a complaint it filed that the government's decision to expropriate the area is unjustifiable.

"Among the expropriated plots, there are structures belonging to public institutions ... and places of worship and residences considered as historical and cultural heritage," the lawyers' group said in a statement, as quoted by Charisma News

"This decision, which seems to be made by the request of the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning without any reason or justification, is unacceptable within the limits of constitutional order," the association added.

Ahmet Guvener, pastor of Diyarbakir Protestant Church, is also considering filing a lawsuit, fearful that he may lose his place of worship.

"The government didn't take over these pieces of property in order to protect them. They did so to acquire them," the pastor said.
Christians gather in D.C., L.A. in 'solemn assembly' of unity to pray for America to return to God

Leading Christian leaders and pastors gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. and in Los Angeles City on Saturday to lead Christians in a "solemn assembly" of unity to pray for the healing of their divided nation and for America to return to God.

In the nation's capital, Christians braved the rains and the cold weather to listen to speakers during the United Cry DC 2016 event, WND reports. The speakers called on the nation's pastors to courageously address political topics including abortion, racial tensions, broken families and same-sex marriage among other pressing issues.

The event was electronically linked to a similar gathering in Los Angeles called AzusaNow, creating what organisers described as a "prayer umbrella of revival." The link-ups thus united Christians on opposite sides of the country in unity, reciting prayers in both English and Spanish. Americans of various racesAfrican-American, Caucasian, Asian, Native American and Hispanicattended the twin events.

The speakers harped on the theme that America is in crisis and that the nation is in a pivotal moment of its history. They called on Christians to pray, repent their sins and keep their faith in God.

The pastors reminded the crowd that Christianity and the truth must never be sacrificed for the sake of cultural expediency.

Other messages that resonated with the audience included:

 "When light stands next to darkness, light always wins."

 "Our problem is not skin, our problem is sin."

 "Passivity has never been, nor ever will be, a prescription for healing in this country."

 "The sin of racism is absolutely against the will of God."

Pastor Rafael Cruz, the father of Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, spoke about the need for America to return to God.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, urged Christians not to be afraid of taking a public stand for Jesus. "If we are afraid of what people say, we have lost our reverence for God," he said.

"What American needs today is not a fear of man, but a fear of god. ... It is time for you and I to leave with no fear of man, only a reverence for God. ... You and I in America today are not being asked to die for Jesus, we're simply being asked to live for Him," Perkins said.

Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn concluded the event in Washington with a stirring and powerful testimony and a message of hope.

Cahn reminded Americans of the many blessings given them by God. But he noted that God is now withdrawing His hand "because we are failing to keep God first."

But "as long as God lives, there is hope, the light will overcome the darkness," he said.

Other speakers included Anne Graham Lotz, the daughter of renowned evangelist Billy Graham; Robert Vernon "Bobby" Schuller, lead pastor on the "Hour of Power" worship broadcasts; Alveda King, niece of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.; Pastor Jim Garlow, author of the New York Times best-seller, "Cracking DaVinci's Code"; Pastor Harry Jackson Jr., conservative activist and commentator; Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership; and Lewis and Rachel Hogan, founders of United Cry.
Muslim rebels in 10 hour battle with Philippine soldiers

Philippine soldiers battled a group of about 120 Muslim rebels linked to Islamic State in a ten-hour assault on a southern island that killed 23 people, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

Major Filemon Tan said the military attacked a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Basilan led by Isnilon Hapilon, an insurgent for whom the US State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million.

"I can confirm 18 soldiers were killed and 53 were wounded," Tan said, adding that five militants, including a Moroccan, Mohammad Khattab, and Ubaida, a son of Hapilon, were killed in Saturday's incident, which wounded 20 rebels.

There was no immediate statement from the small but violent Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines.

The group has posted videos on social media sites pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, which have attracted foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the troubled Philippine south.

The army has stepped up its offensive against the rebels since November, Tan said, when President Benigno Aquino ordered it to hunt down Abu Sayyaf over the kidnapping and execution of foreign nationals.

On the nearby island of Jolo, the rebels on Friday released an Italian man from six months of captivity. Troops were also on alert as another Abu Sayyaf faction threatened to execute two Canadians and a Norwegian tourists after a ransom deadline expired.

In March 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, promising to grant autonomy in the south and ending a 45-year conflict that killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million.
Pennsylvania governor issues orders banning discrimination against gays, transgenders

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has signed two executive orders prohibiting state employees from discriminating against homosexuals and transgenders in state contracts and grants and for those who contract with the state from doing the same.

"These executive ordersone that applies to Commonwealth employees and the other that applies to grants and procurement, say that no agency under the governor's jurisdiction shall discriminate against any employee or applicant on the basis of race, color, religious creed, ancestry, union membership, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, AIDS or HIV status, or disability," Wolf announced, according to Christian News.

"The employment practices of the Commonwealth must be non-discriminatory. And all businesses contracting with the Commonwealth should use non-discriminatory practices in sub-contracting, hiring, promoting, and other labor matters."

The new orders, however, did not sit well with the Pennsylvania Family Council. The group said in a statement that such could cause problems for charities that receive contracts or grants from the Commonwealth and, therefore, must be withdrawn for being "unjust."

"Under two executive orders signed today, PA is closed for business unless you agree with Governor Wolf," said Council President Michael Geer.

"He's ordering something that could very well exclude thousands of good people from doing business with their own state in their own state."

"[T]hese executive orders will put the onus on many faith-inspired charities that serve needy Pennsylvanians to prove they are doing Governor Wolf's bidding or face complete cut-off of state funds," Geer said.

Wolf also urged lawmakers to pass legislation that would expand existing non-discrimination laws throughout Pennsylvania, saying his orders were only limited to the government level.

A non-discrimination bill, he said, would make it clear to the world that "Pennsylvania is a welcoming place for everyone."

"This is the right thing for us to do, just as it was right for William Penn to proclaim that Pennsylvania was a place for everyone regardless of your religion," the governor said.

Wolf said he is "troubled" that the legislature has yet to pass a law that provides protections for homosexuals and transgender residents.

"Pennsylvania needs to go on record to proclaim that all peopleregardless of sexual orientation, gender expression or identityare treated equally under Pennsylvania law," he said.

The 1682 "Great Law" of Pennsylvania, penned by its founder William Penn, required criminal penalties for those who engage in homosexual acts.
States accused of discriminating against Mississippi by issuing travel bans in protest over freedom of conscience law

A new law in Mississippi that allows businesses to refuse to serve gay people has annoyed many states in the United States, with Washington and New York being the latest to issue travel bans to the Magnolia State.

However, the actions taken by the governors of those states are likewise being criticised for discriminating against Mississippi.

The governors of New York and Washington banned state employees from most work-related travel to Mississippi after the latter's Gov. Phil Bryant enacted into law H.B 1523, "Protecting Freedom of Conscience from Government Discrimination Act," which seeks to protect people from conscience from being forced to participate in LGBT issues, including same-sex ceremonies. The state of Vermont earlier issued a similar ban.

New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday issued an executive order banning non-essential state-funded travel to Mississippi. The other week, he also banned travel to North Carolina over its religious freedom bill.

Earlier, New York and Washington banned certain citizens from traveling to Mississippi in an effort to economically blackmail the state, LifeSite News reports.

Cuomo described the Mississippi law as "sad" and ''hateful."

"I will not allow any state employee travel to Mississippi until the law is repealed," he told ABC News.

Washington's Governor Jay Inslee and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray have also barred state and Seattle city employees from traveling to Mississippi on official business, a week after issuing an identical executive order against North Carolina, where Governor Pat McCrory signed that state's Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law.

"It is the law of Washington state and the policy of my administration to demand equality for all persons," Inslee said.

Meanwhile, big companies such as PayPal and Levi Strauss & Co. have likewise joined the protest against the anti-gay law. PayPal said it will not proceed with plans to set up global operations centres in Charlotte, North Carolina which promises 400 jobs

"We believe equality and non-discrimination fosters talent and innovation," Levi Strauss & Co. tweeted in response to the Mississippi law.

But Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association, told LifeSite News that the states' travel ban in reaction to Mississippi's new religious conscience law "is absurd."

"This action offends thousands of Mississippians that have supported this legislation all along," Wildmon said.

"In this situation, Mississippi is being discriminated against."

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, also believes that leaders in Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas have chosen "to defend the fundamental freedom of their citizens to believe and live according to those beliefs, rather than capitulate to the economic threats."

The new Mississippi law is reportedly explicitly anti-LGBT. It allegedly proclaims that transgender identities aren't valid, marriage is exclusively heterosexual, and extra-marital intercourse is objectionable.

It requires schools and private businesses to specify gender-specific men's and women's "restrooms, spas, baths, showers, dressing rooms, locker rooms, or other intimate facilities."

It says businesses may not be forced by government to service same-sex ceremonies imitating weddings.

The new legislation restrains government from forcing religious organisations to hire employees "whose conduct or religious beliefs are inconsistent with those of the religious organisation."

The state cannot also force religious adoption or foster care agencies to deviate from placing children with sexually complementary couples.

Under the new law, individuals may also follow their conscience and sincere religious belief that sex belongs within committed, natural marriage by not renting homes to cohabitating couples.

The Mississippi law takes effect in July.
Temple fire kills 100 in India

A massive fire swept through a temple in India's southern Kerala state on Sunday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than 200 who had gathered for a fireworks display to mark the start of the local Hindu new year.

Thousands of devotees had packed into the Puttingal Devi temple in the coastal district of Kollam. The fireworks display began at midnight and went on for hours.

The fire started when one of the crackers fell onto a shed where the fireworks were stored, said residents near the temple site, about 70 km from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with the large number of injured people, moving swiftly to pre-empt criticism over lack of public safety.

"The fire at the temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words," he said in a Twitter post. "My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured."

Modi has faced public criticism in the past for failing to respond quickly to disasters such as the floods in Chennai late last year. Large parts of the metropolis were under water for days before government help arrived.

Kerala's Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said 97 people were dead in the temple fire, many of whom were trapped by flames in the temple building. He said 245 were injured.

Television images showed people, some clutching children with burn injuries, being taken to hospitals.

The federal government also ordered the military to help the Kerala state authorities with two navy ships sailing to Kollam with medical supplies.

With Kerala in the midst of an election for a new state assembly, the temple fire quickly turned into a political issue as local leaders demanded an investigation into the fireworks display.

In Kerala, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party trails its rivals the Congress party and the communists. The BJP has focused on building up grassroots strength in the state for decades.

Kerala's Chief Minister Chandy said the Kollam district administration had denied the temple authorities permission to carry out the fireworks display, and that the government will investigate how they went ahead.

"There was no permission to even store the fireworks," he said.

Police has registered a case against the temple authorities for negligence. The temple trust was not immediately available for comment.

Kerala is studded with temples, managed by rich and powerful trusts that often flout local regulations. Each year temples carry out fireworks displays, often competing to stage the most spectacular ones. There are judges who decide the winners.

Kollom district magistrate A. Shainamol said people living in the neighborhood of the temple had complained about the danger of these fireworks in the past.

The explosion from the fireworks was so strong that some parts of the temple roof caved in. Local media showed bulldozers trying to clear the area of the debris.

The Puttingal temple is one of the oldest in the state. It was built on the site of an ant hill where locals believe a goddess appeared centuries ago.
U.S. ministry sending $3-M worth of Bibles to Hong Kong, 2 other places to draw more people to Christ

A Michigan-based ministry is sending tons of Bibles and Christian books to Hong Kong and two other places in the hope of increasing the number of believers in those parts of the world.

Christian Resources International (CRI) said it will ship five containers of about $3 million used-book value of Bibles and Christian books not only to Hong Kong but also to Ghana and Kenya.

CRI's Jason Woolford said in a number of cases, there are Christian churches that don't have Bibles.

"There are 122,000 people who are getting saved or giving their lives to the Lord every day, but the majority of those people are attending a church where the pastor does not even own a Bible," he said, according to Mission Network News.

CRI is particularly excited about the shipment to Hong Kong where the majority are affiliated with Chinese religions like Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. There are only about 840,000 Christians in Hong Kong.

It is hoped that with the availability of Bibles and Christian books in Hong Kong, many will turn to Christianity.

The Roman Catholic Church in Hong Kong was established in 1841 and became a diocese in 1946, according to the Hong Kong government.

Hong Kong has about 379,000 Catholics served by 303 priests and 51 parishes.

There are also about 480,000 Protestant Christians in Hong Kong made up of more than 70 denominations and 1,450 congregations.

Ecclesial branches of denominations are also present in Hong Kong such as Adventist, Anglican, Baptist, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Methodist, Pentecostal and Salvation Army.

CRI is sending books and Bibles in English. While Hong Kong residents are known for speaking Chinese and English, a number of them prefer English-written books.

"We're told by some of the missionaries on the ground that [the people consider] it even more priceless that it's a Bible in English," Woolford said.

The ministry will line up the street with the literature and anyone is free to take them.

"It's had such an impact that the followers of Islam are now trying to copycat our ministry and do the same thing with the Quran and other things of that religion. And so, we know that we're having an impact because they're trying to beat us at our own game, so to speak," he said.

CRI spends about $10,000 to send a shipment of books, but each container holds about half a million dollar worth of books.
U.S. public education system seeking to replace Christianity with humanism in schools, says expert

Christianity is eroding in America and the nation's public education system is largely to blame, according to the co-author of the book "Crimes of the Educators."

In a recent WND interview, Alex Newman charged that the education establishment in America is "systematically destroying children's belief in biblical religion, in Christianity."

Newman noted a recent Pew Research Center report showing that while 78 percent of Americans identified themselves as Christian in 2007, only 71 percent did so in 2014. He said this is an indication that Christianity in America is decliningslowly but surely.

The Pew report also showed that today's younger generations are successively less Christian than those before them. Only 56 percent of younger Millennials consider themselves as Christians while 85 percent of the older generation regard themselves as Christian.

Newman said it is incorrect to think that American public schools are secular or impartial towards various religions. Actually, the international journalist and educator said public schools in the U.S. are trying to force a religion on children, but it's not Christianity; rather, it is humanism.

Newman said the Humanist Manifesto could best explain what this religion of humanism is all about. It reads: "Religious humanists regard the universe as self-existing and not created."

The manifesto rejects most Christian beliefs as it calls for a "socialised and cooperative economic order" to replace the "existing acquisitive and profit-motivated society."

Newman said these humanist beliefs are now being taught in the classrooms of U.S. public schools.

Foreign religious beliefs have also infiltrated the U.S. public school system in recent years, he said. For example, last year reports said students in Madison, Wisconsin, were assigned to pretend they were Muslims, while students in Florida were instructed to recite the Five Pillars of Islam as a prayer and perform other Muslim rituals. Students in Tennessee were reportedly assigned to write the Shahada  the Islamic conversion creed.

Schools all over America are also promoting Buddhist meditation which is similar to prayer, Newman said.

At the same time, Christian practices are being curtailed. The Supreme Court has long declared that school-sponsored Bible reading is unconstitutional. Recently one Florida school system banned a Christian group from offering free Bibles on National Freedom of Religion Day. In 2013 an official at a California college ordered a student to remove or hide her cross necklace while working at a freshman orientation fair. One elementary school in Texas banned any mention of Christmas at a "winter party" held in December 2013.

"Any religion that doesn't have Christ in it is fine in the schools and is promoted in the schools," Newman said. "So what's going on here is really a war on Christianity."
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.
NorShor Theatre, Historic Duluth Landmark, To Receive Renovation

NorShor Theatre, Duluth, Minnesota's historic movie palace and entertainment venue, is due to receive major upgrades. The city's renovation plan for the vaudeville-era building defines its future usage exclusively as a community theater and performing arts center.

The Duluth Economic Development Authority purchased the theater in 2010 in an effort to revitalize the property. As Duluth mayor Emily Larson told the Star Tribune, the city's intent is to use the space as an all-purpose arts venue for both regional and national talent:

"We really do need one more place to showcase not just our local efforts but touring opportunities that right now pass us by," she said. "I think this vision moving forward beautifully illustrates who we've become."

Prior to the city's purchase of the building, the theater had fallen into disrepair and was being used to house a strip club. A far cry from the building's original purposes, the city took it upon themselves to restore the artistic honor of the landmark.

The NorShor traces its origins to the early 20th century, initially called the Orpheum Theatre. Early construction evidencing the period's favored neoclassical architecture, it was Duluth's first movie theater and a popular vaudeville stop.

Movie showings in the 1920s featured live organ accompaniment, a prominent trait of the silent film era. After vaudeville, the theatre was renamed the NorShor Theatre and remodeled in the Art Deco style of the '40s. The building hosted first-run movies until 1982 and live music acts thereafter.

Overcoming budget issues and contract negotiations, the city is prepared to go ahead with its estimated $30.5 million renovation project. The new, 650-seat theater is expected to be the main venue for productions by the Duluth Playhouse.

The new structure will be handicapped-accessible, with plans to feature a skywalk connection to nearby Greysolon Plaza. Chris Eng, Duluth Economic Development Authority executive director, spoke to Duluth News Tribune about the project, highlighting the building's historic status and construction requirements thereof:

"Since the building is on the National Register of Historic Places, it has to meet state and national requirements," Eng explained.

Duluth has long been a wellspring of creative greatness. Birthplace of folk icon Bob Dylan, the city is also home to the indie slowcore legends, Low:

 2016 The Classical Art, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

TagsNorShor Theatre, Duluth, Minnesota, Low
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BrightEdge, of the Silicon Valley, plans to open a sales office in Cleveland.

(Courtesy photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Good news is happening for Cleveland's tech startup industry.

After several area tech companies have packed their bags the past year and left Cleveland for greener pastures, a Silicon Valley based tech company is looking to build a large part of its operations in the Sixth City, which means huge potential for job seekers. This excitement takes place all the while the city is quickly becoming a 3D printing hub, which makes so much sense given the area's

Michael C. DeAloia

industrial roots.

Bullish on Cleveland. BrightEdge is opening the company's central sales office in the Tower City complex within the next couple of months.

The company, founded in 2007 by Jim Yu and Lemuel Park, within three years had perfected its software as a service (SaaS) called Content Performance Marketing. The SaaS based service allows users to plan, optimize and measure content marketing campaigns based on actual content performance.

BrightEdge officials said they wanted to find a captivating city to place its sales hub. Under the guidance of Vice President of Sales Barrett Foster and Ariane Lindblom, vice president of product marketing, the company put together a short list of possible cities. Provided a tip by a Cleveland-based employee at Rosetta - BrightEdge started giving Cleveland the hard look. Both Foster and Lindblom were immediately impressed by the emerging talent base here, the robust energy of downtown and the favorable real estate environment. Measuring Cleveland against other cities, they said the decision came quickly.

BrightEdge is finalizing a lease agreement on a 10,000 square-foot-space with options for growth. Once scaled, it will be by far the largest sales team in the company with the prime directive to grow the sales team even larger. Both Foster and Lindblom were bullish on Cleveland in ways that would make even the hardest Cleveland cynic smile broadly.

BrightEdge now has 300 employees, up from only 10 in 2010. It's 1,300 global customers include the likes of 3M, Adobe, Microsoft, VMWare, Nike, Macy's, Wyndham, Marriott, Groupon, Audi, and Monster Energy.

As head of sales, Foster will be tasked with getting the office growing as quickly as possible. He noted the great energy that is emanating in the city and its ever expanding base of millennials who seek to be a part of something special. And for those looking for a fresh opportunity, the company is hiring. Check out available openings.

BrightEdge is a perfect example of how Cleveland has a competitive advantage for companies on both the coasts: superlative universities delivering a hoard of talent each year, and expenses are much lower here.

It's time for the City of Cleveland, Downtown Cleveland Alliance, Cuyahoga County, Greater Cleveland Partnership and others to form a new team that targets companies such as BrightEdge and help them move operations to Northeast Ohio.

Phenom Refresh. Phenom, a local startup that recently left Cleveland to try its hand in Silicon Valley, is half-way through the current class at the coveted 500 Startups and is feverishly working toward its demo day in mid-May. Getting great advice from the accelerator's advisor team, Phenom is tuning out all the noise about the company moving West and focusing on product, scaling the product down and improving on one metric and the drivers of that metric. The company developed a social media app for athletes to show off their skills and their apparel/equipment

The founders, Michael Eppich and Brian Verne, said during the first two weeks at 500 Startups they focused on growing user numbers only to learn that is not the number that matters - turns out that retention is the key to driving up valuation of the startup app company.

Investment thesis at 500 Startups is to find cool people and let them do cool stuff. Also the idea is to fail as many times as possible -- an indicator of success is failure. Couple that thesis with the belief that a region (or accelerator or ecosystem) must promote open-source entrepreneurship and great knowledge share - and you get the philosophical debate in which Phenom is at the center.

The Cleveland entrepreneurial ecosystem currently is bureaucratic, slow and too risk-averse. Phenom is flourishing out West and perhaps its time to ask why Cleveland's local startup environment is not doing the same.

3D-Printing Capital. Benesch, the venerable Cleveland law firm, is hosting its second annual 3D Printing Conference. 3D-printing is a process for making a physical object from a three-dimensional digital model, typically by laying down many successive thin layers of a material using an industrial printer.

The day-long conference, set for April 21 at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cleveland, will include talks from industry experts, Northeast Ohio leaders, presentations on the latest game-changing opportunities and challenges for this young but growing market.

The event was created by Mark Avsec - partner and vice-chair of Benesch's Innovation, Information Technology and Intellectual Property Group. Avsec has done a masterful job of positioning the 3D Printing Revolution conference as the must attend event in the 3D printing industry.

If anyone can pull this off it is Avsec. He is a well-respected lawyer and nationally celebrated musician. His practice focuses on complex technology licensing deals involving creative content, 3D-printing industry- related counseling, copyright, trademark, copyright and trademark prosecution, celebrity endorsements, and an expertise in privacy and data security compliance.

Before becoming an attorney, Avsec earned a living as a studio musician, producer and songwriter, writing more than 500 songs and producing or performing on more than 35 albums for, among other artists, Carlos Santana ("Angel Love"), Bon Jovi ("She Don't Know Me"), Donnie Iris ("Ah! Leah!" and "Love Is Like A Rock"), Mason Ruffner ("Gypsy Blood") and Wild Cherry ("Play That Funky Music, White Boy").

This event will literally rock because you have a rock-n-roll legend leading the charge.
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Bernie Sanders questioned Hillary Clinton's qualification after he struggled to explain to The Daily News editorial board how he would break up big banks.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- This week, Bernie Sanders questioned Hillary Clinton's qualifications to be president after he struggled to explain how he would break up big banks.

In an endorsement interview with the editorial board of The Daily News of New York, Sanders demonstrated he didn't have a good grasp of how big banks could be broken up under current law, or the consequences of that happening for bank employees.

Sanders incorrectly seemed to think that as president he could authorize the Treasury Secretary to force banks to break up under the current Dodd-Frank law, without new legislation being passed.

In light of Sanders struggles in the endorsement interview, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough asked Hillary Clinton if Sanders was "qualified and ready to be president of the United States." Clinton said, "Well, I think he hadn't done his homework and he'd been talking for more than a year about doing things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood, and that does raise a lot of questions."

That response also raised Sanders' sniping quotient. "She has been saying lately that she thinks that I am, quote-unquote, not qualified to be president. Let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don't believe that she is qualified if she is, through her super PAC, taking tens of millions of dollars in special interest funds."

In the interview with Scarborough, Clinton never actually said Sanders was "not qualified" as Sanders claimed. Clinton and other Sanders critics have long suggested Sanders' pie-in-the sky proposals lacked filling. Sanders himself confirmed that with his answers in the endorsement interview and then by incorrectly claiming Clinton said he was "quote-unquote" not qualified.

In an odd twist in an already twisted campaign, Sanders demonstrated he has something else in common with Trump besides crazy hair and rabid supporters. Like Trump, he's locked and loaded with quips and soundbites but short on details.

Sanders will point to his win in the Wyoming caucus Saturday as further proof that like the Republicans, the Democrats may have a contested convention. That's another pie Sanders is throwing up in the sky. Both Sanders and Clinton came out of the Wyoming caucus with 7 delegates each. Clinton still has 219 delegate lead and is ahead in New York. Sanders will have a tough time beating Clinton Tuesday, not just because it's her adopted home state. But because Sanders doesn't do well in states that truly have a diverse demographic and are closed primaries.

This week, Sanders and Clinton both showed that at the very least, they're qualified at distracting attention away from the candidates they should really be attacking -- Trump, Cruz and Kasich.
LORAIN, OHIO -- For some, 71 years is a lifetime. For the family of John Rozzano Jr. of Lorain, it's the time they had to wait before his 1945 death could be memorialized.

He was among hundreds who died in 1945 after one of the few Japanese subs still in service torpedoed their Portland-class cruiser, the U.S.S Indianapolis, 600 miles west of Guam. The date was July 26, 1945, little more than two weeks before Japan surrendered.

The mighty cruiser had just completed its secret mission, delivering components of the nuclear weapons that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, bringing World War II to an end.

Now remember this date, April 9, 2016. From this day on, it will be known as John Rozzano Day in Lorain. Mayor Chase Ritenauer made that official Saturday in the memorial that was held in city council chambers.

During the emotionally moving ceremony, the family explained that they had put off any kind of funeral or memorial because John's body had never been recovered. He was missing, and that meant he could be found -- and return.

Generations of Rozzanos and Fiorinos attended and showed how much they loved the movie-star handsome young sailor who never returned from the sea.

The families became one because two of John's brothers had already married Fiorinos, and he was engaged to one of their sisters, Laura Fiorino.

"It was one happy family; the word in-law was never used," said John Rozzano, namesake and nephew of the heroic mariner.

The Fiorinos lived in Chicago and the Rozzanos in Lorain, and both traveled back and forth between the two cities.

The younger Rozzano went to live with the Fiorinos because his mother had TB and was in a sanatorium for treatment.

He was 4 then, and remembers his three uncles at the Chicago home. "I had piggyback rides on demand," he said.

Rozzano said that his uncle at that moment "is probably looking down today thinking my life was worth living."

He reminded everyone that they were there Saturday because of Jaclyn Bradley Palmer, 36, the decedent's great-niece, who worked for 10 years to make the memorial a reality.

She said John had long been a part of her life, going back to early childhood when her grandmother, Fran Bradley of Lorain, shared stories about the man, the ship and how "their voyage ended the Second World War."

Her campaign began a decade ago, "when I found out there had been no obituary, no funeral, no memorial."

"I started as a girl with a mission,'' she said, and it turned her into a writer, editor, filmmaker and fundraiser.

One result is a 37-minute documentary she made that includes interviews with Indianapolis survivors. Johnny Rozzano slide show

Honor guard on Saturday was composed of members of the Italian American War Veterans, Disabled American Veterans and the American Legion Riders motorcycle group.

Taps was played by Michael Miller of the Cleveland Orchestra, punctuated by a rifle volley salute on the lawn outside council chambers.

Flags were presented to family members including one that flew over the U.S. Capitol and two that had flown in Indianapolis, Indiana.

After the memorial, everyone left city hall and crossed the street to Veterans Park, where a stone monument waited to be revealed. Then they went to a theater in Amherst to watch the documentary.

Some never forgot John Rozzano Jr.

Saturday, a family, a community and a nation remembered him as they should.
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East Cleveland police called off a chase of 23-year-old James Smith Jr. seconds before Smith crashed into the car driven by Hollis Crump, killing both men Saturday afternoon on Noble Road.

(File photo)

EAST CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Saturday afternoon car crash that left two men dead came seconds after East Cleveland police called off a short chase of one of the cars, East Cleveland Mayor Gary Norton said.

James Smith Jr., 23, and Hollis Crump, 56, both of Cleveland, were killed when Smith's car crossed the center line on Noble Road and struck Crump's about 4:20 p.m., the Ohio Highway Patrol said.

Crump was not involved in the chase.

Smith was rushed to University Hospitals in critical condition, where he died Sunday, the Patrol said. Crump was pronounced dead at the scene.

East Cleveland police tried to stop Smith in his 1999 Pontiac Bonneville at Hayden and Woodworth avenues, but Smith sped away from officers, Norton said.

Police chased after Smith east on Woodworth Avenue for about 20 seconds, before the officer stopped the chase at the direction of a supervisor, Norton said. The officer turned off his lights and siren and slowed down, Norton said.

Smith continued past East 152nd Street, Norton said, where Woodworth turns into Noble Road and curves south toward Euclid Avenue.

Crump was driving north on Noble Road near Euclid Avenue when Smith went left of center and crashed into Crump, the Patrol said.

East Cleveland police would not confirm whether their officers were involved in a pursuit and referred questions to the Patrol, who is handling the investigation.

Shaker Heights police have a warrant for Smith's arrest, according to Shaker Heights Municipal Court. Smith owes $394 plus court fees after he pleaded guilty to driving without a license and contempt of court charges in August, records show.
Alisa Johnson-Williams

Alisa Johnson-Williams, the mother of 11-year-old Shakira Johnson, died Thursday at her Bedford home. Johnson-Williams is shown here testifying in the 2004 trial of Daniel Hines in Shakira's murder. Hines was acquitted, and police have made no other arrests in Shakira's death.

(David I. Andersen)

Shakira Johnson

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The mother of Shakira Johnson died Thursday, more than 12 years after the murder of her 11-year-old daughter.

Alisa Johnson-Williams never saw Shakira's killer brought to justice, as the 2003 murder that shocked the city remains unsolved.

Johnson-Williams died at her Bedford home, according to the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner. She was 43 years old.

Laquan Johnson, Shakira's brother, confirmed his mother's death in a phone interview Saturday night.

"She was always looking for closure," Johnson, 25, said.

Johnson said it's unclear what killed his mother, but said the lifelong Cleveland resident had a history of breathing problems and had gotten the flu in the days before her death.

The family is awaiting autopsy results, Johnson said.

Shakira disappeared from a block party on East 105th Street and Union Avenue that September, spurring a door-to-door search in neighborhoods on Cleveland's East Side.

After a month of searching, Shakira's mutilated body was discovered in a weedy field off East 71st Street.

Cleveland police and Cuyahoga County prosecutors arrested and charged Daniel Hines, then 27 years old, in Shakira's death, but a jury acquitted him after a five-week trial.

Hines was later convicted of 16 sex charges involving two 14-year-old girls. He remains in prison.

Johnson-Williams and other members of Shakira's family sobbed in court when the jury's verdict was announced.

In the years that followed, Johnson-Williams turned to God, her son said. She married in 2005, and started writing a book to chronicle her pain and spiritual quest to cope with her daughter's death.

Her pain and faith were evident in 2005, as she and Johnson stood at the same street corner where Shakira disappeared two years earlier, and called for the girl's killer to step forward.

"I need to know who killed my baby," Johnson-Williams said as she wiped tears from her cheeks, the Plain Dealer Publishing Co. reported. "All I can do now is leave it in God's hands."

Johnson vowed Saturday to finish his mother's book, which he said was nearly completed. He also hopes to find a publisher.

"It's like the number one thing right now for me. That's all she talked about every day," he said.

The family had not finalized burial services Saturday night, but hope to hold services at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, the same church where Shakira's funeral was held.

Update: This post has been updated with information from Laquan Johnson.
Lackland Air Force base

U.S. Air Force Tech Sgt. Steven D. Bellino, 41, of Parma Heights, killed Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder and then himself at an Air Force base in Lackland, Texas, according to reports.

(John Davenport, San Antonio Express-News, via AP)

LACKLAND, Texas -- The gunman who killed a U.S. Air Force commander and then himself at a Texas base Friday was a native of Parma Heights, according to reports.

Air Force Tech Sgt. Steven D. Bellino and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder were found dead about 8:50 a.m. Friday inside an office of the 342nd Training Squadron Headquarters on JBSA-Lackland Medina Annex outside San Antonio, the Air Force said.

James Keith, spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office which handled the initial investigation, told CNN the killings were a murder-suicide.

Bellino is believed to be the gunman, the Air Force Times reported.

Bellino, 41, of Parma Heights, had been a student at the squadron since he was put on active duty in June 2015, according to the Air Force Times.

Schroeder was the commander of the training squadron, the Air Force said.

A man who answered the phone at Bellino's parents' home in Parma Heights Sunday morning declined to comment to cleveland.com.

Bellino spent two years as a special agent in the FBI before enlisting in the Air Force, CNN reported. Bellino was not assigned to the Bureau's Cleveland Division.

The San Antonio Express-News reported that Bellino was being escorted to a disciplinary hearing when he opened fire.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - We're past Opening Day (both of them), and winter's still got us in its grip.

So while we're all grumbling about the snow, take a look at the news you might have missed.

Looking for your snow shovel? So are we. Jackie Borchardt put together a look at this weird-weather winter, from a 60-some degree Christmas Eve to a summery Easter Sunday.

Looking to understand Pope Francis' treatise on family life? Sabrina Eaton includes excerpts from the English language version of the 246-page "Amoris Laetitia" document.

Looking for fun? Jack ThistleDown Racino opened its $70 million expansion Friday. Karen Farkas has a photo gallery of the new space, including a large plant wall and new restaurants.

Looking for a college? Payscale, an online salary, benefits and compensation information company, has ranked universities nationwide based on their cost and the salaries their graduates earn in its annual survey, Farkas reports.

Looking for investment advice? Financial advisers who help Americans save for retirement -- through individual retirement accounts and workplace 401(k) plans -- must put clients' interests first, under a rule released by the White House, Stephen Koff reports.

Looking to travel to North Carolina? You might be the only one. The North Carolina statehouse decided March 23 to ban protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in a response to a Charlotte law to allow transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with. Since then, governments, businesses and celebrities across the United States have boycotted the state and called for an end to the law. Sabrina Eaton looks at the response to North Carolina's decision.

Looking for a tiny house? Don't worry, they're safe from HUD regulation, Koff reports.

Looking to mail a letter? Stamps are 2 cents cheaper, starting today, Bob Higgs reports. Woohoo! That's where you'll find all the savings for your IRA.

Looking for Tribe gear? One Brunswick city councilman wants you to buy Wahoo, rather than the block C, Higgs reports.

Looking for time off? Ohioans would be eligible for paid family and medical leave under a bill introduced Tuesday in the Ohio House, Borchardt reports. Individuals could receive up to $1,000 a week for 12 weeks while caring for a family member, bonding with a new child or dealing with a health condition.

Looking for a state rock song? So is Chris Evans. And he doesn't like "Hang On, Sloopy."
Deserted Island Rescue

This photo provided by U.S. Navy released April 7, 2016 shows two men waving life jackets and look on as a U.S. Navy P-8A maritime surveillance aircraft discovers them on the uninhabited island of Fanadik. The three men were back to safety on Thursday, April 7, 2016, three days after going missing.

(U.S. Navy/Ensign John Knight via AP)

HONOLULU -- Three men who had been missing for three days were rescued from a deserted Pacific island after a U.S. Navy plane spotted the word "help" spelled out in palm leaves on the beach, officials said Saturday.

The men's families reported them missing Tuesday after they failed to show up at the

, U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said.

The men were traveling in a skiff from another Micronesian island when a wave overtook them, she said.

"Fortunately for them, they were all wearing life jackets and were able to swim to the deserted island," McKenzie said.

The men were waving their orange life jackets when the Navy plane spotted them on the small island of Fanadik, several hundred miles north of Papua New Guinea. Two hours later, a small local boat picked them up and took them to a hospital.

McKenzie said she didn't have updated information on the men's condition Saturday.

Two bulk carriers searched a combined 17 hours for the men as part of

. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and ask them to help.

In the last two weeks, 15 people have been rescued in the Pacific with the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
WESTLAKE, Ohio - An invoice has been sent by the Westlake Board of Education to the Ohio Department of Education to recoup excess money redirected to charter schools since fiscal year 2003.

The school board believes "the state of Ohio fails to fully fund the state formula student allocation in Westlake because funds are pulled to support local charter schools," according to an April 7 press release. District Chief Financial Officer/Treasurer Mark Pepera reported during the state of the schools address in March that cumulative state funding cuts impacting the Westlake City Schools have surpassed the $18 million mark since 2007.

According to district figures, the state provides $667 per student for Westlake public school children while allocating $5,800 for each charter school student. Board President Carol Winter feels that disparity is unacceptable and urges Gov. John Kasich and the Ohio General Assembly "to stop the unjust system of funding charter schools, which penalizes all local public school students in the state."

"The state legislature and our governor have really siphoned away a lot of money that would normally go to public schools to the charter school movement," said Winter during an April 8 interview. "We don't believe that's fair."

Winter added that research has yielded no evidence the charter school movement "fixes anything that they say is wrong with education as a whole."

"This is definitely an ocean liner going in the wrong direction," she said when describing education funding in Ohio. "The state has, in effect, balanced the state budget but taken money for public education and given it to unproven charter schools that don't share the same accountability as the public school districts."

But is the invoice to the state real or a symbolic gesture to spur action?

"This is not a stunt. Ultimately, we just want the state to make right by us," Winter replied. "The state legislature has been directed by the Supreme Court more than once to fix school funding in Ohio, and they have not done that."

The concept of creating competition isn't necessarily at fault, Winter said, but the "uneven playing field" is.

"It makes me wonder if they're really trying to un-fund public schools," she said. "What is the end game?"

Public school districts, she added, are doing what they can by developing strategic plans that enable quality education to be offered despite the state funding gap and shrinking public school budgets.

"At the end of the day, it's about making sure our kids are college and career ready," Winter emphasized. "I know life isn't fair, but our kids deserve a fair break when it comes to educational opportunity."

A phone call seeking comment from Ohio State Board of Education District 5 representative Roslyn Painter-Goffi was not returned prior to publication.
Storytime: What the pine and the elm can teach us
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By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal

Memphis police arrested a man and woman on Saturday in connection with a boat that was allegedly stolen in West Memphis.

Ned Stanley, 45, is being held at 201 Poplar, charged with theft of property between $10,000 and $60,000 and evading arrest.

Eunice Wells, 43, was charged theft of property between $10,000 and $60,000 and is being held at Jail East.

According to police, at 11:09 a.m., an officer responded to a call in the 6000 block of Macon Cove and noticed a U-Haul truck with Arizona tags parked at the Econo Lodge.

After additional units were called, a plainclothes detective at the scene noticed that the U-Haul had been moved to the nearby Budgetel Inn & Suites, also on Macon Cove.

Stanley and Wells were standing near the vehicle, but they ran as more officers arrived. After a "lengthy foot chase," they were caught and brought back to the scene.

The two were taken to the Appling Farms precinct, and the West Memphis police were contacted.
LaFollette, Tennessee, in Campbell County

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  Claiborne County could use some money for a new hotel and an industrial park. Campbell County is looking to expand broadband internet service into isolated and sparsely populated areas.

The two East Tennessee counties are hoping to tap into a reservoir of federal funding President Barack Obama's administration is making available to help communities struggling with the loss of coal jobs diversify their economies, retrain workers and attract new investment.

"It has been devastating," Claiborne County Mayor Jack Daniels said of the impact the coal industry's declining fortunes have had on the rural county and its residents.

In neighboring Campbell County, the loss of coal jobs and the lack of employment opportunities for out-of-work miners have been a heavy burden, County Commissioner Sue Nance said.

"There's not employment for them once those (coal) jobs go away," she said. "Many of the coal mining employees were great at the jobs they did, but didn't have job training in other areas. It's just unfortunate they weren't taken care of later."

To help coal communities and out-of-work miners get back on their feet, the Obama administration announced last month it is releasing $65.8 million to assist their transition to new economic opportunities.

The money comes from the administration's POWER Initiative, or Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization. The program works to invest federal economic and workforce development resources in communities and regions negatively impacted by changes in the coal economy.

In Congress, there's also a push to provide financial assistance to struggling coal communities.

A bipartisan bill filed by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., would speed up the release of $1 billion in available funding through an abandoned mine reclamation fund to assist communities that have relied on the coal industry for employment or have recently experienced significant coal job losses.

Under the plan, $200 million would be distributed to participating states annually for five years to not only help communities reclaim abandoned mines, but also to identify and fund economic development projects on those sites.

Tennessee would receive a little more than $11 million under the program, said U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr., a Knoxville Republican who is one of the bill's cosponsors.

"This funding can be used to clean up abandoned mines that do the most harm to the environment, and it will also create opportunities for economic development in the areas that have some of the highest unemployment rates in the state," Duncan said.

Environmentalists like the proposal because cleaning up abandoned mine sites not only will protect the health of the plant, "we're going to turn them into sites for businesses that have long-term economic benefits for our communities," said Bonnie Swinford, an organizer for the Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club.

"That has never been done through abandoned mine lands fund before," Swinford said.

In Tennessee, coal has never been the economic force that it was in states such as Kentucky and West Virginia. In 2013, Tennessee ranked fourth from the bottom among the 25 coal-producing states, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Still, in the Tennessee communities where coal is mined, it has often provided some of the area's highest-paying jobs. Coal miners in Tennessee earned an average of $64,200 in 2007  double the average pay for other workers in Campbell and Claiborne counties.

But competition from low natural gas prices, concerns about the environment and other factors have led to declining coal production across the country, including Tennessee. The Appalachian region's share of U.S. coal production has plummeted from 43 percent in 1997 to 28 percent in 2012.

"Like no time in recent history, Tennessee's rural coal producing counties face an uncertain future," concluded a January 2015 report by the University of Tennessee's Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy.

In 2009, Tennessee had 25 underground and surface mines operating in four counties  Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne and Fentress. By 2014, the number of active mines in the state had dwindled to just seven. All seven were in Claiborne and Campbell counties, both in northeastern Tennessee near the Kentucky border.

The diminishing number of mines has meant heavy job losses. Campbell County had just 46 coal industry employees in 2013, down from 151 in 2005. Claiborne County employed 533 people in the coal industry in 2005, but by 2013, those numbers had fallen to 267, according to the Baker Center report.

Besides putting miners out of work, the loss of coal jobs also means less revenue for the counties, which have seen their share of coal severance taxes fall off sharply.

Claiborne County's share of coal severance taxes has been cut in half over the past decade, Daniels said. To help make up the difference, the county recently enacted a $25 "wheel tax" on each vehicle registered in the county. The tax is expected to generate about $750,000 a year, which will be used for the upkeep of roads, Daniels said.

The county still needs new businesses to provide job opportunities for out-of-work miners, Daniels said.

"Our community, right now we could use a new hotel," he said. "We've got a perfect location for it."

The county also is working to create a new industrial park, which would help attract new businesses to the area, Daniels said. Federal funding could be used to help buy land for the park, he said.

Campbell County received $35,000 last year through the POWER initiative for a feasibility study on expanding broadband service into remote areas and is hoping to get additional funding to further those expansion efforts. Without high-speed internet service, it's hard to attract new businesses to those areas, Nance said.

Until new businesses come, reclaiming abandoned mine sites could put some miners back on the job, Nance said.

The cleanup work involves operating heavy machinery and trucks  some of the same skills they developed and used while working in the mines.
Susan Walsh/Associated Press files U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., went to the Senate floor last week to preach about the virtues of the filibuster and to try to stop a push by some Republican lawmakers to eliminate it.

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By Michael Collins of The Commercial Appeal

WASHINGTON  U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has had his hands on a lot of bills, but he believes none have been as far-reaching as the one he's working on now.

"I will probably never have a chance to work (again) on something this important as a U.S. senator," the Maryville Republican said.

Alexander and the committee he chairs completed work last week on the last of 19 bipartisan proposals that aim to speed up the approval of drugs and medical devices and boost funding for medical research into treatments and cures for diseases like cancer.

All of the proposals will be rolled into one bill and paired with a separate piece of legislation that would provide a one-time surge of funding for the National Institutes of Health to use on some of its research priorities.

If approved, Alexander said, the proposals will be the most important law enacted this year.

"There has never been a more remarkable time in biomedical research," said Alexander, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

"The reason the bill is so important," Alexander said, "is it has the promise of improving the health and quality of life of virtually every American by moving new treatments and devices through the investment and regulatory process more rapidly and accelerating research at National Institutes of Health."

From a political standpoint, the proposals are remarkable because they have managed to draw broad support from Democrats and Republicans in a contentious presidential election year.

President Barack Obama is on board. The bill would provide funding to launch his Precision Medicine Initiative, which seeks to tailor medication to an individual's specific biological needs, and provide additional money for innovative research as part of his "moonshot" initiative to eliminate cancer.

Beyond that, the bill would shorten the development of treatments to help people infected with life-threatening "super bugs" like MRSA, an infection caused by a type of staph bacteria that is resistant to many of the antibiotics used to treat ordinary staph infections.

It also will include funding to speed up research for a vaccine for the Zika virus and will enable scientists at the National Institutes of Health to concentrate on researching treatments and cures and spend less time on bureaucratic tasks, like filling out paperwork.

"We've heard from doctors that they spend half their time on paperwork and from patients who lug boxes of medical records from appointment to appointment," Alexander said.

"We've gotten rid of a lot of paperwork and unnecessary reporting that has wasted time and effort," he said.

Alexander hopes to send the bills to the Senate floor for approval within the next three or four weeks. But some issues still have to be resolved.

The U.S. House, for example, passed its own version of the legislation last year and named it the 21st Century Cures Act. The House bill called for $8.8 billion in mandatory funding over five years to support National Institutes of Health priorities.

The Senate has yet to agree upon a figure, and Senate Democrats are adamant that mandatory funding for the medical research center must be included.

Alexander said he's optimistic a deal can be reached. So is the committee's top Democrat, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington.

"If we can reach this agreement  and I believe that we can  we'd be able to make a real difference in the lives of patients and families across the country," she said.
Barney Sellers/The Commercial Appeal files April 10, 1957  More than 500 persons turned out at The Peabody on April 10, 1957, for a Chamber of Commerce banquet honoring the Memphis State College basketball team. Officials of the Chamber, the city and the county praised the Tigers, who compiled a 24-6 record and brought national attention to the city by reaching the finals of the National Invitation Tournament in New York before losing to Bradley, 84-83.

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April 10

25 years ago: 1991

The Chernobyl Burger was too hot to handle and the "Gorby" dolls haven't yet arrived, but the rest of the glowing "Catherine the Great" exhibition, from portraiture to piroshki, is in place for today's world premiere. As Catherine prepared to become the empress on the Mississippi, her Russian curators from the State Hermitage Museum in Leningrad nervously adjusted and readjusted gilded fittings that will greet first-day visitors from three continents at Memphis Cook Convention Center.

50 years ago: 1966

In a few short years, Memphis is going to have a big birthday and the Downtown Association of Memphis says it's time to start thinking about a celebration. The city will be 150 years old in 1969. It was laid out in 1819 and had its actual beginning then, the association noted, although the city was not incorporated until 1825. The city started as a village of 308 residents at Front and Overton. It was laid out by General Andrew Jackson, General James Winchester and Judge John Overton and was governed at first by Shelby County, which the Legislature established in 1819.

75 years ago: 1941

Erection of the first shipment of parking meters for downtown Memphis is expected to start on Main Street by the middle of next week, city officials said yesterday.

100 years ago: 1916

Despite the fact that the Memphis Chicks were batting against a "spitter" yesterday that seemed to be working perfectly, they hit harder than they have in any previous exhibition.

125 years ago: 1891

Prof. J. Randall Brown, the renowned mind-reader, will appear next Monday evening at the Grand Opera House. Prof. Brown is the most eminent exponent of his peculiar art and a most remarkable man.
SHARE Bernard LaFayette Jr. Rev. Bernard LaFayette (right), listens as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. tells an Atlanta news conference Jan. 16, 1968, that his planned march on Washington in April to demand jobs and income for the poor will be led by 3,000 nonviolent demonstrators. Rev. LaFayette is coordinator of the march. (AP Photo/Charles Kelly )

By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal

Leaders within a movement, according to Bernard LaFayette Jr., may have varied ideas on how to reach their goal, but they must all agree on the goal.

On Saturday, through a series of anecdotes and recollections, LaFayette reminisced for an enthralled audience on his time as a leader in the civil rights movement as a co-founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and his close association with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

LaFayette was the keynote speaker for the National Association of Black Journalists' Region III Conference, which drew journalists from across the country.

"The goal that you're trying to achieve must be reflected in your means. In other words, you must see the top of the ladder in every step that you take," LaFayette said. "That's how you know you're moving in the right direction."

During the movement, LaFayette was a student at American Baptist Theological Seminary in Nashville and was arrested 27 times. He marched on Washington, in Selma, Alabama, and was appointed by King to coordinate the national Poor People's Campaign.

LaFayette was at the Lorraine Motel with King when King was assassinated.

During the 1960s, the goal was to achieve the support of the majority population, "white folks," he said, which could only be done through nonviolence.

"The whole idea is to win people over. That's how you bring about change," LaFayette said.

He is now Senior Scholar Emeritus at Emory University in Atlanta and still works to train young people in nonviolent protest.

After his talk, LaFayette said he was proud of the Black Lives Matter movement and the newest civil rights movement being led by young people.

"Racism is a problem, oppression is a problem, oppression was always a problem. The question is what specific aspect of this oppressed condition are we going to address, and you've got to know what specific results do you want," LaFayette said.

He also assists The Truth Telling Project, a grass-roots initiative working to eliminate systemic racism, and knows from experience that young people need and want counsel but not direction.

The young adults who led SNCC, he said, did not take orders from the elders of Southern Christian Leadership Council.

Nearly 100 journalists attended the regional conference and also had the opportunity to take part in workshops with Investigative Reporters and Editors.

"I think it's wonderful. We had an amazing turnout, great seminars, great panelists, just an amazing event," said Siobhan Riley, local NABJ chapter president and a reporter with WREG-3.

Securing a civil rights icon like LaFayette to speak here was Memphis "magic," said Gayle Hurd, Region III director.

"I knew he was going to bring a message," Hurd said.

Across town Saturday, the Gandhi-King Conference brought together leaders in the social change community for training, education, networking and inspiration.

Held at the University of Memphis, the two-day event was hosted by the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, The Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change and the National Civil Rights Museum.
Mike Brown won an award for this feature photo: September 24, 2015 - Aerobatic pilot John Klatt flies high above the Mississippi River ahead of the Memphis Airshow in Millington Friday through Sunday. In addition to Klatt, other performers include the USAF Thunderbirds, Shockwave, the jet propelled truck, wing walker Teresa Stokes and many others. (Mike Brown/The Commercial Appeal)

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By Ron Maxey of The Commercial Appeal

The Commercial Appeal's in-depth examination of Memphis' financial woes won the Malcolm Law Memorial Award for investigative journalism Saturday at the 2016 Tennessee Associated Press Broadcasters and Media Editors competition in Nashville.

The award was one of several first-place awards captured by the newspaper, which also won for photography or graphics by Jim Weber, Yolanda James, Kim Coleman and Mike Brown.

"Our Financial Mess," by Marc Perrusquia, Daniel Connolly and Grant Smith, was a multipart series that explored the factors  soaring expenses and dwindling population  leading to the city's fiscal crisis.

The series also recently won the Society of American Business Editors and Writers (SABEW) award for explanatory reporting.

Other award winners included Weber, first place for Individual Achievement, Body of Work in Photo; James and Coleman, first place for Best Photojournalism; Weber, first place for Best Spot News Photography; and Brown, first place for Best Feature Photography.
Photo illustration based on photo by Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal "Just as Memphis has always been a tale of two cities, it remains so even today, and we ignore the realities of that fact at our own peril."

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By Smart City Memphis

The 21st century dawned with such hope, and chief among the reasons for optimism was the emergence of a group of young African-Americans determined to improve the community and its political opportunities for their generation.

That's why it's so disheartening in Memphis today to see what 15 years of hard work has done to so many of these gifted men and women.

Their optimism has been ground down for some by inertia that prevents substantive progress in increasing opportunity while decreasing inequality. The high expectations of their youth have been replaced by a world-weariness that stems from working in the trenches to create more inclusive economic development and to open up decision-making to more diversity.

Their aspirations have been tempered by the lack of progress on core issues where there is more lip service than action, and their confidence hasn't necessarily grown by seeing behind the curtain. Urged to get involved by white leaders, they find some of same people holding back when their support is most needed to make change happen.

But, most discouraging of all is the fact that some of them have given up, moving to other cities (while even more are thinking of joining them). In other words, for them, Memphis is at a make-or-break moment, a time to put up or shut up, a time to prove that it deserves their presence and appreciates their talents.

Waiting for the Verdict

Here's the thing: There's now a new generation of African-Americans who are looking to the generation just ahead of them for proof that they should stay, that they can make a difference in Memphis, that progress is being made and that the city and county is a place where they want to invest their lives.

When you ask them, you often hear a similar answer: The jury is still out.

The opinions of the generation ahead matter to these young professionals, who have seen them as role models and given their opinions special weight.

There are no rose-colored glasses. There is only the clear-eyed view of a city that talks about young professionals but doesn't do nearly enough to give them ways for their opinions to have real traction or to drive the agenda or to change things.

The 40-somethings have soldiered on although many times, it seems that the powers-that-be absorb their issues into their talking points but don't do much to address them, much less engage in the honest, no-holds-barred conversations about race and class that could inspire new understanding and breakthroughs.

For example, the conversations would reveal the feelings that neighborhoods that are celebrated for turning themselves around are not the ones where they were reared, which continue to struggle with blight, decline and population loss. It feels like that when talent is discussed and when programs are conceived to attract talent, people don't squarely address the fact that Memphis' competitive advantage is to be a hub of African-American talent. In addition, programs dedicated to attracting the "creative class" don't seem to aimed at people like them and all the encouraging, upbeat anecdotes about new buildings and new investments can't mask the realities of earning disparities, low wages attached to low skill jobs, and the poverty that remains a birthright for too many Memphis children.

The Flashpoint

About 15 years ago, the then 20-somethings thought the answer was to get into the rooms where the decisions were made, but it regularly feels that there must be other rooms because too little change is taking place in the rooms where they are.

All in all, this is why the lack of progress on minority business development has been a flashpoint of frustration for African-Americans.

After 15 years of talking about how important minority business is to our region, the percentage of total business revenues has done the impossible  they actually went down. In 2007, it was a meager 1.08 percent, and now, it's a pathetic 0.83 percent.

Meanwhile, Shelby County Government reported that 88 percent of funds spent for Shelby County Government contracts went to companies owned by white men  a staggering $168.2 million out of $190.5 million.

What had been a slow burn has now flared into the open, and because of it, how Memphis and Shelby County deal with this issue will be the proof of whether this community is serious about inclusive economic growth or prove that African-American talent should write their futures somewhere else.

Perilous Decisions

It's a harsh moment of truth, and for many people in positions of power, it sounds like an overstatement and unrelated to any of their experiences. And yet, just as Memphis has always been a tale of two cities, it remains so even today, and we ignore the realities of that fact at our own peril.

To many of us, the most troubling issues facing our community are abstract and merely statistical, but for so much of our city, they are facts of life that they come face-to-face with every day. Chief among those facts of life is that geography is too often destiny and that race and poverty are inextricably linked.

After all, children growing up in neighborhoods of concentrated poverty have a 3 percent chance of moving into the top 20 percent of American earners, and between 1970 and 2010, the number of high-poverty census tracts in Memphis climbed from 42 to 78.

Today, almost 50 percent of all African-American children in Memphis live in poverty, and it's hard to imagine that we would not have already done something dramatic and resolute if this were happening to Caucasian children.

The escape hatch from poverty should be a job, but between 1990-2012, low-wage jobs grew 40 percent. We have 6.02 times more cargo and freight agents than a typical metro, 3.24 times more laborers and freight, stock, and material movers, 2.45 times more shipping, receiving, and traffic clerks and 2.49 times more industrial truck and tractor operators.

When compared to seven peer cities  Birmingham, Little Rock, Louisville, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City and St. Louis  our GDP ranked No. 2 in 2001, No. 3 in 2005, No. 6 in 2010, and now it is No. 8  last. In 2001, the per capita Memphis metro GDP was $49,324; in 2005, it was $51,894, and in 2013, it was $47,014, which indicates the inequality in our region since 20 percent of Memphians live on less than $13,000 a year.

Begin With The First Step

Among the 50 largest regions, the Memphis region is No. 1 in individuals living in poverty as a percent of total population; No. 6 in income inequality; No. 44 in per capita income; No. 13 in the income gap; No. 42 in the change in gross domestic product per capita.

Here's the clincher: the Memphis region is dead last  No. 50  in social mobility.

All of this is why one of the most difficult experiences in Memphis today is facing young men and women aching for something better and knowing that structural problems place it out of reach for most of them, increasing the disconnect between who we are and who we want to be while spending too little time making sure that everyone can be part of the journey.

That journey begins by proving that we are serious about minority business. It means that economic development agencies have to double down and become uncompromising advocates for it with current and prospective businesses and the incentives they receive. It means that county commissioners don't hide behind flimsy justifications for closed meetings that keep the public from hearing the results of a public report paid with public money.

It means that corporations quit treating business with minority businesses as if they've done a good deed instead of good business. It means that the private sector quits looking to the public sector like it's supposed to bear primary responsibility for minority business  although both city and county government and their agencies' total budgets account for less than 4 percent of the total GDP.

It Begins With Honesty

Most of all, minority business and African-American talent have to be treated as opposite sides of the same coin. They are interlocking drivers of economic progress. More African-American businesses can accomplish so many of our economic objectives for Memphis, including accelerated jobs growth, spurring entrepreneurs, creating new tax revenues, rebuilding urban neighborhoods, expanding local tax bases, creating more customers and putting more money in cash registers, and inspiring young people that they have options for the future.

So, here's our modest recommendation. Solutions should be asked from the people who understand the challenges and opportunities best: African-American business and civic leaders.

Before we appoint lots of government committees or name new ad hoc committees for economic development agencies, someone should simply ask African-American business and civic leaders to convene honest, frank conversations about their ideas to create more minority businesses that make more money to hire more people. Then, release the recommendations to the community, driving a stake in the ground demanding action and accountability. This same group should review all reports in recent years to evaluate which recommendations and strategies can be acted on quickly, and also, they should consult with agencies that are getting it right, like Memphis Light Gas & Water Division.

Because concentrated poverty is amplified by challenges like economic segregation, sprawl and a languishing economy, there is no city in America with greater motivation than Memphis to create a culture of opportunity for every citizen. As a result, there is no city more appropriate for this kind of conversation about African-American business development than Memphis.

It Can't Hurt

If one thing is clear from our economic indicators, what we're doing isn't working. There's more and more research that indicates that U.S. cities have for decades been focused on types of economic growth strategies that can increase inequality and leave poor people behind. We remain in the lower rungs of the 50 largest metros on key measurements. We've run out of reasons that we can't do better in creating minority businesses and in increasing their business receipts.

We've said for years that it's hard to think of an economic development strategy that has more potential for transforming our economy than minority business development. It's time to translate all the talk into a detailed plan with both short-term and long-term objectives, and when we say short-term, we mean actions that can be taken within weeks.

The stakes could not be higher. The development of an actionable, ambitious, aggressive minority business plan is not just crucial for our economic health and fairness. It also may be the last and best chance that Memphis and Shelby County have to prove to two generations of African-Americans that this community deserves to be their home.
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The effort to get the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to be the lead agency investigating all shootings by law enforcement officers that result in death or critical injury of another person, and to get their investigations released to the public in a timely manner, continues to be a struggle in the General Assembly.

Given the public concern and outcry in recent years regarding law enforcement officers fatally shooting unarmed black men, including in Memphis, one would think the state's lawmakers, law enforcement heads and district attorneys general would welcome the increased credibility the TBI would give investigations into the shootings.

And, the timely release of the investigative files into those incidents would provide more public confidence in the impartiality of the investigative agency.

A House committee moved Wednesday to allow public release of TBI investigative reports on officer-involved shootings "after the completion of prosecutorial functions" in such cases.

Testimony in the House Criminal Justice Committee indicated that could be after a trial, if there is one, or after a grand jury declines to issue an indictment in an officer-involved shooting case.

There nothing wrong with that stipulation because it matches the current process of releasing police investigative records under the state open records law.

However, here is where the concern begins. The House amendment puts the bill on a different platform than the Senate version of the bill, which allows a TBI investigative report on an officer-involved shooting to be made public after it is turned over to the local district attorney who asked the TBI to investigate  but only if the district attorney and the local police chief agree to publicly release it.

That does not bode well for transparency in cities and counties where the DA and head police officials have a history of not releasing details of incidents in a timely manner or just the basics, if any information at all.

Both bills are now awaiting further review in the House and Senate finance committees.

Tennessee law currently makes all TBI investigative files permanently confidential, including investigations of officer-involved shootings, even after cases are closed.

When a liberal Democrat from Memphis and a conservative Republican from Germantown can agree on the importance having an independent body investigate such incidents and to have those files eventually open to the public, that should be a wake-up call for their legislative colleagues.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, and Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, originally required the TBI to be the lead agency investigating all shootings by law enforcement officers that result in death or critical injury of another person. But the sponsors have given up on passing that mandate during the current legislative session, leaving it to the discretion of local district attorneys to request TBI involvement in investigating shootings by local law enforcement officers.

In October, local officials signed a "memorandum of understanding," agreeing that the TBI will handle all inquiries into officer-involved deaths for both Memphis police and the Shelby County Sheriff's Office. In those investigations, the TBI reports factual findings, but offers no recommendations about whether the use of force was justified. It is up to the district attorney general, the sheriff or police director to pursue criminal or administrative charges against the officer.

We urge legislators to take a second breath and view this from the standpoint that the public is better off when there is confidence that allegations of police misconduct will be investigated in a fair, impartial and transparent manner.
Holding an American flag, a Donald Trump backer gets a boost as a pro-Trump group faces off with Trump protesters near a Trump rally in Bethpage, N.Y., last week. Craig Ruttle Associated Press

SHARE Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/TNS Body language is telling as Trump supporter Betty Robison debates with her son, Sean Kearns, 31, who differs on Trump, outside their apartment in Oildale, Calif., last month. Californians vote June 7, the last day of primaries.

By Dan Balz, Washington Post

After Sen. Ted Cruz's big victory in the Wisconsin primary, Republicans enter a new and critical phase in their volatile nomination battle, with Donald Trump's rivals and those in the party establishment who are determined to stop him sharing a single objective: to keep the GOP front-runner as far short of a first-ballot convention victory as possible.

The Wisconsin race represents a potentially important turning point in the Republican contest, one that will embolden Trump's opponents. A contested convention has become more probable. Whether that comes to pass will be determined by what takes place in the trench warfare that will play out over the next three months.

The Republican race is about to become granular. The coming battles will be waged in targeted congressional districts where Trump shows weakness regardless of his statewide appeal, in hand-to-hand competition at state party conventions where the delegates are being selected, and ultimately in a battle for the hearts and minds of the men and women who will go to Cleveland, bound or unbound on the first ballot but free agents after that.

Until now, the nomination fight has been portrayed, rightly, as a series of state-by-state contests, where victories beget momentum and bragging rights. In this competition, Trump has won more than anyone else  the most votes overall and the most delegates.

From here on, delegate accumulation matters above all. For Trump and Cruz, winning states certainly remains important. But every delegate denied to Trump will be considered a small but important victory by the anti-Trump forces.

At his victory rally in Wisconsin, Cruz said he is "more and more convinced" that he can win the nomination. "Either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland, we will win the majority of delegates," he said.

Cruz's clear victory in Wisconsin makes it exceedingly difficult for Trump to reach the 1,237-delegate threshold by the final day of the primaries and makes the senator from Texas the principal alternative. Ohio Gov. John Kasich hopes to hang in until the convention, but his weak showing in Wisconsin makes his case more difficult.

How close Trump comes to a first-ballot majority will have a huge influence on the behavior of the convention delegates when they gather in July.

"For us, it's how much more can we peel him back from that number," said Katie Packer, founder of Our Principles, an anti-Trump super PAC.

With Wisconsin in the books, about two-thirds of the convention delegates have been allocated. Only about 832 of the 2,472 total delegates are yet to be allocated. Only Trump has even an outside chance of getting to 1,237, but his path became narrower because of Wisconsin.

The immediate calendar appears favorable to Trump. The next contest, on April 19, will be held in the New York billionaire's home state. It seems the ideal place for him to rebound after two weeks of self-inflicted wounds  controversial foreign and domestic policy proposals, damaging statements about abortion and a campaign manager charged with misdemeanor battery  and now a serious setback in a key Midwest industrial state.

The most recent polls show him with a sizable lead statewide and support topping 50 percent. But New York's rules are less than ideal for Trump at a time when he needs to sweep up as many delegates as possible.

For starters, the state's 95 delegates will be awarded proportionally, rather than on a winner-take-all basis. Beyond that, 81 of those delegates are distributed on the basis of results in the state's 27 congressional districts.

Trump could gain 14 delegates if he wins more than 50 percent of the statewide vote. Otherwise, he will share those delegates with any rival who tops 20 percent. In any congressional district where he falls short of 50 percent, even if he has the plurality of votes, he will give up one of the three delegates awarded in each of those districts. If he runs second in any district, he would pick up just one delegate.

A week after that, the biggest prize is Pennsylvania, with 71 delegates. But only 17 of those delegates will be bound to vote for the winner of the primary. The other 54 will be elected individually, three for each of the 18 congressional districts. They are identified by the candidate they support, if they favor someone, and are not bound to vote for the winner.

Polls there show Trump, Cruz and Kasich as competitive  but Cruz's team believes its superior organization and attention to detail will pay dividends on the delegate front.

The biggest prize comes on the final day of the primary season, when California awards 172 delegates. California is a winner-take-all state, but it is both winner-take-all for the 13 at-large delegates awarded on the basis of the statewide results and the rest awarded to the winner of each of the state's 53 congressional districts.

"It's going to be congressional district by congressional district, now into June," said Russ Schriefer, a Republican strategist. "I also think that until [Trump] has a solid 1,237, this is going to be a very active campaign. And it can't be, 'We project he'll get to 1,237 because it's close.' He's going to have to point to who they are."

The other side of the battle could be just as important in determining the state of play heading into Cleveland. This is the delegate selection process, rather than the delegate allocation process, or what Republican strategists and election-law attorney Ben Ginsberg described on MSNBC on Tuesday as "the dirty blocking and tackling" of the nomination process.

As Republicans in state after state pick their delegates, the rival campaigns will do all they can to ensure that those delegates, bound or unbound, are as friendly as possible to their candidate. In this competition, Cruz has a strong head start, having spent months developing organizations in the states and with an attention to detail that has been far superior to that of Trump's campaign. Cruz's campaign has shown its prowess in Louisiana, North Dakota and Tennessee, and is confident that it can prevail in other states.

Trump has taken steps to improve his operation, hiring strategists with experience. But they are starting from behind.

"This is all a process that takes time and planning and knowledge of not only the rules but also the delegates," Schriefer said. "There are not a lot of people who are actually good at it."

Trump retains important advantages because of his performance this year. He can arrive in Cleveland short of a majority with a potentially persuasive argument that he deserves the nomination. A new McClatchy-Marist poll found that 52 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents said that if Trump has more delegates, even if not a majority, he should become the nominee.

"For Cruz and Kasich, if you go in well below a majority of delegates and having only won a handful of states, it becomes harder to say, 'Yes, we should overturn what the voters have done,' " said Republican strategist Mike DuHaime.

That is the second step of the process. The first is trying to stop Trump. The anti-Trump forces  and, in particular, Cruz  took an important step in that direction in Wisconsin. The results will change the conversation, but only that. Keeping Trump away from 1,237 is the ultimate game-changer.
Petronella Wyatt makes an interesting point about George Osborne and David Cameron in the extract from her new book in todays Mail on Sunday:

I liked George in a way I never liked David. Their private personalities are in direct contrast to their public ones. On a political stage, David is more commanding; not only clever, but sometimes deceptively charming, while George can seem as stiff as a martinet. In private, however, George is a gossip par excellence, amusing even. He appreciates opera and is a scholar of Americana. Yet he can be sensitive to pricks and stings, and in his personality there are flashes of darkness. To understand the Chancellor, you must understand what it is to be partly Hungarian. He first became interested in politics, aged 13 or 14, when his mother [who is of partly Hungarian descent] described the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, which was put down with harsh brutality. George has little of the Anglo-Saxon about him and much of the Magyar. His complexion is eastern, with the fish-belly pallor of Vlad the Impaler. His eyes have a Mongolian slant and his voice the twang of a gipsys zither. He is quick-tempered and, unlike most privately educated Englishmen, enjoys the company of women One of his defects as a politician is that it is difficult to like him if you dont know him, whereas David is easy to like until you do.

The Wyatt style can be as superheated and implausible as anything in Disraeli. But like that statesman, she discerns things which escape more stolid, unromantic observers.

And some other members of what used to be called the Notting Hill Set have made the same observation: that in private, they prefer Osborne to Cameron.

There is probably a divergence in most politicians  even in most people  between private persona and public performance. But a mask can also become so habitual that it becomes second nature.

In the first volume of his magisterial biography of Margaret Thatcher, Charles Moore observers that Margaret followed closely her mothers precept, Never leave the house looking untidy. Thatcher entered politics with pre-1960s ideas of how to dress and behave.

Moore adds that once she entered Parliament, she never once went into the Smoking Room unaccompanied, just as she never entered a pub alone. Her unwavering commitment to a certain middle-class idea of respectability was one reason why so many members of the intelligentsia despised and underestimated her.

They did not know, or want to know, of her tolerant attitude towards louche behaviour by members of her staff. Nor were they prepared to see past the 1950s clothes to her spiritedness as a political performer, her gift for dramatising whatever she was doing, and her ability to rise to the big occasion.

To her detractors, Thatcher was just a boring little housewife with a tin ear. How shocked they were when she exploded their patronising, patriarchal assumptions.

If there is a lesson for Osborne in this, it is a somewhat paradoxical one. Thatcher succeeded by looking like an old-fashioned suburban housewife, while taking decisions which were at the forefront not just of national but of global thinking. Like Harold Macmillan, she was a moderniser disguised as a relic of the past.

Is it too late for Osborne to look more old-fashioned too? A certain stiffness of manner would suit him: is in fact already part of his public manner, however charming he may be in private. Instead of struggling to eradicate all traces of hauteur from his demeanour, let him play up to these.

The way for him to look real is for him to turn, by degrees, into a continental caricaturists idea of an English gentleman: a tall, thin figure never seen without hat, umbrella, waistcoat, buttonhole and (the final touch, which needs to be in place in time for the next leadership contest) monocle.

We are tired of politicians trying to win our favour by pretending to be the same as us. We want them to dare to be themselves. If Osborne will not oblige, we shall have to send for Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Spirit of United Way United Way of Southwestern Indiana held their 2016 Annual Meeting and Volunteer Recognition Breakfast recently at Eykamp Hall on the University of Evansville campus. New board members were announced as well as various award winners were named. The "Spirit of United Way" Award for a company went to Vectren and Emily Millsap for an individual. Amy Canterbury presented the "Niel Ellerbrook Community Service Award" to Jim Muehlbauer. "I have enjoyed every minute I have devoted to the United Way and other community service work. It is so true that we get back more than we give," Jim Muehlbauer said.
One may as well begin with the impromptu vagina monologues.

Caller: "Hi there. I was just wanting to know if the governor could refer me to a good gynecologist?"

Assistant: "Ma'am, you know that's not something he can help you with."

That's one of the rare printable exchanges highlighted on "Periods for Pence": a Facebook group protesting Indiana's controversial abortion law. For a couple of weeks now, women involved in the cause have been calling Pence's office and swapping menstrual anecdotes with harried administrative assistants.

It's funny because asking Pence for advice on women's rights is liking asking a bulldozer for decorating tips. And it's sad for the same reason.

As you can see, political discourse in Indiana is going great.

It's been careening down a greased waterslide since Mikey Blue Eyes vroom-vroomed his big red truck into the governor's mansion. Last week, the ACLU of Indiana and Planned Parenthood joined forces to file a lawsuit to block the new abortion law. It's the second time in a year, after RFRA, that Pence's signature has dragged the state through the courts.

Pence's opponents are fed up. They are sick of a governor who is against same-sex marriage and who opposes abortion rights for women.

So on Nov. 8, they hope to change all that. They will saunter into polling places, the talons of perched bald eagles digging into their shoulders, and proudly vote for a man who is against same-sex marriage and who opposes abortion rights for women.

That's right. It's time for your semi-regular reminder that, when it comes to social issues, two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg is just Mike Pence with a teaspoon of logic and a shovel of mustache.

"It's time to bring back Mitch Daniels' truce on social issues so we can move Indiana forward again," Gregg, who identifies as pro-life, told the Indianapolis Star after Pence signed the bill. "Like so many other polices put forth by Mike Pence and the Republican legislature, this does nothing but further damage our state's reputation and divide our people."

Ah, yes. The shimmering era of Daniels' truce on social issues. Well, except for 2011, when Daniels signed legislation to block Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funds.

But other than that? Yes, the Democrat says. Bring back the golden days when the Republican was in charge.

Of course a moratorium on social issues would never happen. Mainly because the Indiana legislature, like Ted Nugent crashing a Hummer into a Sierra Club meeting, longs to alienate large groups of people.

Rep. Casey Cox authored the abortion bill; Sen. Jim Tomes offered a (failed) smaller-scope bathroom bill similar to the one currently ostracizing North Carolina; and Chuckles, the Statehouse cat, pushed legislation forcing dogs to only pee on hydrants previously marked by canines of their own breed.

You think Gregg, a Democratic governor, could force a moratorium on the GOP supermajority? Pence, a Republican himself, can't even get full tax cuts passed. And in an era in which there are whole organizations dedicated to drafting templates of conservative bills and subsequently feeding them to Republican lawmakers around the country, the tide of controversial legislation ain't gonna roll back any time soon.

But none of that matters anyway. Gregg doesn't want a "truce on social issues." On his campaign website, he calls for full civil rights for LGBT individuals. A repeal of RFRA. Equal pay for women.

The only issue he wants to avoid is abortion.

And hey, I get it. It's about the most divisive subject there is. My feelings on the matter are complicated and conflicted and I rarely discuss them because 1.) I don't like to ruin parties; and 2.) I don't have a uterus.

But Gregg isn't some redheaded yokel. He could be governor. His job would be to address controversial subjects head-on.

In his statement to the Star, Gregg said he would have vetoed the bill  not because it limited the rights of women, but because it "was not well thought out or properly vetted."

If you're a voter looking for the opposite of Pence, you need to look elsewhere.

But maybe I'm being unfair. Maybe Gregg's half-hearted-yet-measured social stances would keep Indiana from repeatedly being held up in the national press as a bastion for retrograde policies. Maybe, unlike his opponent, he wouldn't be a national embarrassment.

"He wouldn't be a national embarrassment." I guess that's the nicest thing you can say about a politician these days.
By Staff Report

An Evansville woman found dead at the scene of car crash in Warrick County Saturday afternoon died of a single gunshot wound to the head, according to Warrick County Coroner Sarah Seaton.

Seaton said Sunday investigators were still trying to determine where 30-year-old Beverly H. Karns died Saturday morning. The Warrick County Sheriffs Office stated Saturday they believe she was killed in Vanderburgh County.

The sheriffs office arrested a person in connection with her death but hasnt publicly identified them.

The results of an autopsy conducted Sunday morning show Karns died of the single gunshot wound between 10:30 a.m. and noon Saturday.

Warrick County authorities found her body at the scene of a crash in Northern Warrick County on Indiana 68 at Scales Road Saturday sometime afternoon.

The Warrick County Sheriffs Office stated in a news release Saturday the suspect fled the scene of the crash in a stolen vehicle. The person then reportedly led police on a chase into Dubois County.

While fleeing the scene of the accident in Warrick County, the suspect reportedly shot a person.

Warrick County Sheriff Brett Kruse said Sunday afternoon he did not have any new information to share with local media and likely wouldnt have any information to release Sunday evening.

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E.N. Johnson / Associated Press Members of a United Nations assault force move across Hwachon Reservoir in North Korea on April 11, 1951, enroute to the north side of the dam where they attacked defending communists.

SHARE A United Nations assault force loads into small craft for trip on April 11, 1951, across the Hwachon Reservoir in North Korea. Civilians carry supplies to be loaded on the light craft, some of which are powered by outboard motors. (AP Photo/E.N. Johnson) Cpl. Arthur Jean Ligon

By Jessie Higgins of the Courier and Press

A small group of Army Rangers silently crossed Korea's Hwachon Reservoir in the early morning hours of April 11, 1951.

Their mission  take the Hwachon dam.

It was the type of covert attack Cpl. Arthur Ligon  a young man from a little town in Kentucky  dreamed of when he joined the Rangers. The elite team would paddle to the opposite shore, crest a hill and surprise the Chinese soldiers at the dam before dawn.

That was the plan. It didn't happen that way.

"We got to the far shore around 4 a.m.," said James Carbonel, a Ranger who served with Arthur. "We climbed up a hill and we thought, from what they told us, we were going to go right down to the dam. But all we saw were more hills."

And in those hills, an entire division of Chinese troops was waiting for them.

The Rangers fought hard, but they were woefully outnumbered.

"By the afternoon we were running low on ammo," said Carbonel, now 86.

Carbonel wasn't there when Arthur got hit, but he later heard the stories.

"I got wounded around 3 p.m.," he said. "Arthur Ligon, he got shot a little before that. Shot in the stomach."

Arthur died somewhere in the forests of Korea. He was 20 years old.

There is no one left alive in his family who remembers much of Arthur. His cousin, Carolyn Blackwell, was 7 when he died. She recalls watching his wake from a distance. In those days, visitations happened in the family's home.

"I remember seeing so many people coming and going from the house all day," said Blackwell, now 71. "It was a little town of 2,000 people. The church was filled for the funeral."

The little town was Providence, Kentucky. Arthur grew up there in a well-known black family.

During his childhood, Prohibition was in full swing. Arthur's father, Arthur "Jack" Ligon, Sr., was a notorious local bootlegger. Even now, longtime Providence residents still remember Jack Ligon selling his liquor to their fathers.

"Uncle Jack was quite a dynamic person in the community for his bootlegging and his little joint," Blackwell said. "He had one sort of joint there people would go to."

At some point during Arthur's childhood, Jack went to prison  presumably for bootlegging  leaving his son fatherless. In his absence, Arthur became close with his older cousin, Lee Carey, a World War II lieutenant and engineer in the Black Army.

"When I was in the Army he was a youngster around the house," Carey said in a 1986 Courier article about Arthur. "He said he wanted to join up."

Arthur was no doubt eager for a place where he could belong. As a child in the 1940s, Arthur never quite fit in.

His family was black, but Arthur was born with fair skin and light brown hair. He looked white.

"That was during the Jim Crow days," Blackwell said. "He probably didn't have many role models, being that cross between black and white."

Arthur was ready to join the service in high school, but his mother insisted he graduate first.

According to family stories, Arthur became proud of his race during those years before he joined the service. Though he could pass for white, he insisted on riding in the back of the bus with his black friends.

During police raids, officers would try to let "the white boy" go, but Arthur would refuse to leave.

"He took pride in breaking all the stereotypes," said Arthur Carey, Lee Carey's youngest son. "He'd just tell them, 'No, I'm black.' "

That mentality must have changed when he joined the service. Arthur Ligon's enlistment papers show him as a Caucasian. The army was still segregated at that time, so he was put in an all-white unit.

"We didn't know he was African American," said Carbonel. "He was so quiet. If a group of us were talking, he would join the group but he wouldn't say hardly anything. He was almost invisible."

Carbonel does remember Arthur being incredibly hard working.

Arthur joined the Army in January 1949 and quickly advanced. He became a paratrooper after a year, and a Ranger the year after that.

"When he got in the paratroopers he thought he was in a tough outfit," Lee Carey said in the 1986 article.

"When he got in the Rangers he found out the paratroopers was about like being in the Boy Scouts. To be a Ranger you have to be the best the Army's got."

After he died, Arthur's mother brought him back to Providence to be buried. He was her only child.

Lee Carey's youngest son was born a year later. He named the baby Arthur so they would never forget.

For years, the family told stories of Arthur, the boy who was black and white. Arthur, the Army Ranger. Arthur, the war hero.

"They were incredible people," Blackwell said. "We think so, anyway. It's nice to know that somebody else does, too."
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By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press

As Ron Drake and David Orentlicher grapple with each other to represent Democrats in this year's 8th District congressional election, one issue keeps coming up.

It's not terrorism, although Drake calls for an end to "American intervention in the Middle East." It's not health care, although Orentlicher says he will work to lower the costs of health insurance.

It's where each candidate lives, and how long he's lived there.

Drake, an attorney and former state legislator, acknowledges commuting for the past 20 years between a home and law practice in Washington, D.C., and a family farm in Sullivan County. Orentlicher, a Harvard-educated physician and attorney who also served in the Legislature, says he moved from Indianapolis into an apartment in Terre Haute in December because he began teaching this year at the Indiana University School of Medicine there. Orentlicher also has taught at IU's regional medical school and law school in Indianapolis.

But each man sees in the other's living arrangements something more cynical than meets the eye.

Drake calls Orentlicher "a stranger to the 8th congressional district" who rented the Terre Haute apartment as a politically expedient claim to 8th District residency. If Orentlicher loses the May 3 Democratic primary election, Drake wrote on Facebook last week, "he will just fade away, away back to Indianapolis."

"There will simply be a vacant Terre Haute apartment to mark his brief temporary sojourn here," Drake wrote.

Orentlicher said he still teaches at the IU campuses, spending time in Indianapolis as well as Terre Haute, "but I do live in Terre Haute."

"It's normal when you're moving to a new city to start with an apartment so you get a sense of the town before you buy your house. Nothing unusual there," he said.

"It's surprising that (Drake) would make an issue of it, because he's lived, worked and voted in Washington, D.C. for 36 years, and he just moved back to the district this year."

Calling that half-right, Drake acknowledged he was voting in D.C., until a few months ago.

"Twenty years ago I came back, built a home on the farm and started operating a farm here and going back and forth (between Sullivan County and Washington, D.C.)," he said. "I did continue my voting residence in D.C., and registered here in December, I believe it was.

"The difference is, I live here and (Orentlicher) just got an apartment for that purpose."

But Orentlicher said if Drake was voting in D.C., he was living in D.C.

"The idea that (Drake) was really living in Sullivan County and commuting to D.C., when he never lists his Sullivan address as his official address, just doesn't add up," he said. "If he was really living in Sullivan County, he would have voted in Sullivan County."

The 8th District now is comprised of 18 counties  including Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson  plus a small piece of Crawford County. The district is represented in Congress by Republican Larry Bucshon, a former Newburgh heart surgeon who was elected in 2010. Bucshon has a GOP primary opponent, Jasper-based Dr. Richard Moss.

Drake and Orentlicher have political histories outside of the 8th District, too.

Drake, 78, traces his tenure in the Indiana Legislature back to the 1960s. He said he represented Sullivan and Clay counties from 1962 until 1966. He also sought a congressional seat in Georgia in 1976, unsuccessfully challenging then-Rep. Larry McDonald in a Democratic primary election. He said his close ties to then-Sen. Birch Bayh of Indiana helped him get a political appointment as an aide in the Office of Surface Mining in President Jimmy Carter's administration.

Orentlicher, 60, represented an Indianapolis district in the Indiana House between 2002 and 2008 before unsuccessfully seeking the city's 7th District congressional seat in the final year.

Orentlicher proclaims that "economic inequality has reached historically high levels in the United States." He says there is much Congress can do "to promote economic opportunity."

The government must ensure that children receive a "first-class K-12 education and graduate from college, (that) working Americans earn a decent wage, and companies invest more of their profits to create new jobs at home," Orentlicher declared on his website.

Drake readily admits he doesn't have the answer to ending American military involvement in such Middle Eastern danger zones as Iraq and Syria, but "it has to end."

"I just know that there's just no justification for shedding more American blood and treasure in a never-ending war that's been going on for centuries, and there's no hope for it to end," he said.
DANIEL R. PATMORE / SPECIAL TO THE COURIER & PRESS Close to 500 participants marched around the halls of the Health Professions building Tuesday evening April 7, 2015, for the 9th annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes on USIs campus in Evansville, Indiana.

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By Shannon Hall of the Courier and Press

The University of Southern Indiana will promote sexual assault awareness by having men walk in high heels Tuesday.

USI's Sexual Assault and Gender Violence Prevention Group and the Albion Fellows Bacon Center will host the 10th annual Walk a Mile in Her Shoes at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in Carter Hall.

"The focus is really about encouraging others to see that everyone on campus and in the community has a role in preventing sexual assault," said Catherine Champange, assistant director of student wellness. "I think this is a great opportunity for students, staff, and faculty to start thinking about the role they can play in ending sexual assault."

People can visit Carter Hall 5 p.m. Tuesday to register for Walk a Mile. Vanderburgh County Sheriff Dave Wedding, Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke and Evansville Police Department Chief Billy Bolin are scheduled to attend and possibly participate.

A short program with several speakers starts at 5:30 p.m., and then people will walk around the area at USI known as the quad, weather permitting.

"We really want to encourage students to recognize those red flags and if they see something concerning to them, if it's safe to do so, we're hoping people will step up and intervene a potential dangerous situation," Champange said. "It's one of those events that brings a lot of different groups together."

April is sexual assault awareness month.

Walk a Mile comes more than a month after the university reported its fourth rape allegation during the 2015-2016 school year. The alleged rapes have been reported within four months of each other. No one has been arrested or charged for any of the reports. University officials wouldn't comment on the alleged rapes.

Every year universities across the country have to report an annual safety report, which includes any sexual assaults on or off campus for a calendar year. In 2014, USI reported one forcible rape and one fondling incident. There were no reports of sexual assaults in 2013 while there were six forcible sexual offenses in 2012.
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By Thomas B. Langhorne of the Courier and Press

This summer's potentially crucial Republican National Convention just got a new batch of delegates from Southern Indiana. GOP leaders in the 8th Congressional District  which includes Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey and Gibson counties  named the district's contingent Saturday.

The convention will be held July 18-21 in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena.

The delegates are Rick Martin, chairman of the 8th Congressional District GOP; Brenda Goff, 8th Congressional District vice chair; and Bill Springer, Sullivan County party chairman. The alternates are Wayne Park, Vanderburgh County party chair; Mark Flint, Pike County party chairman; and Eric Bassler

The 8th District's total contingent in Cleveland will be small  just three delegates and three alternates, plus a presidential elector and an alternate. But local Republicans can still be tabbed by the state GOP for the party's 27 at-large delegate positions. The Indiana GOP's state committee will select at-large delegates on Wednesday.

The positions could be extremely important at this summer's convention if, as has been speculated, national GOP leaders attempt to wrest the party's presidential nomination from Donald Trump.

Trump would need 1,237 delegates at the convention to win the nomination. But if he doesn't get that many votes on the first ballot, local delegates will be free to vote their own preferences on subsequent ballots.

Rick Martin, chairman of the 8th Congressional District GOP, said Indiana party rules stipulate that 8th district delegates will be bound to vote on the first ballot for the candidate who won the district in the state's May 3 presidential primary.

"And similarly, the at-large delegates will be bound on the first ballot to vote for whoever gets the most votes statewide," Martin said.

Reporter Jessie Higgins contributed to this story.
Ingram Micro has become the first distributor in Australia for Dropbox for Business.

Dropbox head of global channel sales Hank Humphreys told CRN that the company would grow Dropbox for Business through the channel, while the consumer Dropbox products continues to be sold direct.

We want to grow our channel into a massive ecosystem; we want it to be very significant for our revenue, said Humphreys.

Wed be happy if 100 percent went through the channel, we just dont want to have a situation where we compete against our own channel.

Ingram Micro signed a global deal to distribute Dropbox for Business licenses in November. Ingram Micro Australia is still integrating Dropbox into its cloud portal, and is expected to go live this month.

We really wanted to go large with the channel, so we wanted to get the right partners and distribution, Humphreys said.

Going multi-tier distribution is a common strategy, but we didnt want to dilute ourselves or lose focus. We realised not all distribution partners are equal in their SaaS offering. This led us to Ingram Micro, who is a very strategic partner for future revenue streams.

Newly appointed Dropbox Australia channel manager Greg Kieser told CRN the ultimate goal was to have two sales teams in Australia - one selling direct and another for the channel.

Were structured so the sales team can sell through partners, but theres no incentives [for us] to go one way or the other, he said.

"Theyre route-agnostic because its more about aligning to customer values as fast as possible. If you talk about the channel model, we will service our partners through distribution.

He added that Dropbox will be sold like a traditional software-as-a-service offering with a resale margin on top.

In 2014, Dropboxs US head of revenue partnerships Adam Nelson told CRN that Australian partners could expect margins "anywhere between 15-25 percent. Humphreys said now that figure has been updated significantly.

While only two weeks into the new role, Kieser said hes very excited for the potential Dropbox has in the Australian channel.

Im firmly of the belief that the Australian market is absolutely ready for a comprehensive information management and collaboration managed service like Dropbox, said Kieser.

That tipping point has been reached and thats why Im here. I think its a tremendous offering and its what the market wants.

Prior to joining the cloud storage vendor, Kieser was channel and alliances manager at Infor, which he joined in March 2015. Before that, he was head of ANZ partners and alliances at Amazon Web Services for four years.
At 700 Canal St. in Stamfords South End, Serendipity magazine publishes quarterly issues focused on lifestyle topics germane to Fairfield County and Westchester County, N.Y. In fitting out a new lifestyle option of sorts for businesspeople on the buildings ground floor, John Arenas says it is only happenstance that his company shares the magazines name  but promises it will be a happy accident for Stamford, and soon other locations throughout Fairfield County.

A former senior executive with Regus, Arenas is opening a Serendipity Labs coworking space in Stamfords South End this July, taking space vacated this year by Eclisse Restaurant. It will be Serendipity Labs third location after its initial startup in Rye, N.Y., followed by a Chicago site, and with several more in the works in multiple states. The company has disclosed nearly $9 million in funding in Securities and Exchange Commission filings, with its backers including Steelcase, which sells office furniture, technology and interior design ideas.

Arenas likens his companys concept to a shared office with the welcoming feel of a hotel lobby, adding the vibe of a startup incubator with evening forums and meetups. He said members tend to be in their 30s and 40s with established business networks, looking for the flexibility to work as much as they want in a space that is close to where they live. Women comprise about 40 percent of Serendipity Labs membership base, a higher level than that seen by executive suites and startup incubators, he said.

Arenas was CEO of Stratis Business Centers for five years through its 2001 acquisition by Regus, where he was president of the United Kingdom-based companys Americas region that today runs nearly 3,000 business centers, 10 of them in Fairfield County, including two Stamford locations. Arenas left Regus to create Worktopia, an online platform for people to reserve space for meetings at hotels. The technology is now owned by Virginia-based Cvent.

What we learned in that process was a lot about delivering experiences, which is what the hospitality world does, Arenas said. It led me to, What if we took the workplace to the next level and brought it into delivering workplaces and experience, as opposed to just renting rooms and having a landlord-tenant experience? 

Through a mix of jointly owned and franchised sites, Arenas hopes to establish additional centers in Greenwich, Darien, Norwalk and Westport over the next 18 months. In Stamford, he hopes to see at least 200 members join, with the space available for use by companies for meetings.

Fairfield County has a rising count of shared workspaces, which in Stamford includes traditional office suites for rent like Regus, Stark Office Suites and BLT Business Centers; and more differentiated options like Workspace Stamford housed in the downtown Stamford Innovation Center; the new Workpoint facility at Shippan Landing; and Comradity, steps from Serendipity Labs location on Canal Street.

Bridgeport is home to B:Hive, the Bridgeport Innovation Center and CTech IncUBator at the University of Bridgeport, while others include Danbury Hackerspace, SoNo Spaces in Norwalk and the Westport Innovation Hub. In Fairfield, Kleban Properties is considering a redevelopment of General Electrics headquarters into a high-tech hub, possibly to include a shared workspace concept. In Stamford, Building and Land Technology is in the process of converting Pitney Bowes former headquarters in the South End into the tech-focused Silicon Harbor, though whether the massive building might include an office suite or shared workspace section is uncertain. Blossoming elsewhere is WeWork, which has 30 locations in New York City, where it was founded, as well as 60 more in cities internationally, and has yet to expand into suburban areas.

With so much in the works, is Fairfield Countys market for entrepreneurial hubs fast reaching market saturation? Workpoint founder Jeff Kay thinks the concept will find plenty of adherents, while acknowledging the challenges of getting home-based businesspeople to pay extra for shared space  even in a space like his in the former headquarters of Time Warner Cable with banks of windows overlooking Stamford Harbor and Long Island Sound, and space to accommodate 160 members at any point in time.

People have some really nice basements around here, Kay said. They say, Why do I need to leave my house? Well, I happen to think  and I come from many years of freelancing  that being in your house is isolating, (and) its also very distracting. And frankly, youre not meeting anyone.

A 2015 Harvard Business Review study determined people were more effective working in coworking spaces, earning a six on a seven-point scale versus a five for traditional office environments. Part of that was driven by the nature of the people seeking out such spaces  freelancers and others who are motivated by the short-term projects they have won to work on  but the communal, collaborative environment was touted by participants as helping to give them a boost, versus a more siloed experience in office suites or a solo existence in the home office.

Work has changed forever  people are mobile, yet connected, Arenas said. Were delivering a workplace experience at a corporate service-level standard so that you have that combination of hospitality, a place you can rely on  and a vibrant experience.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-964-2236; www.twitter.com/casoulman
If you havent made your 2015 IRA contribution, now is the time. And dont forget that young children who mow lawns, baby-sit or do other odd jobs also can benefit from contributing to their IRAs.

Lets go through some basic questions, but before taking any action, be sure to check with your tax adviser.

Q: What is an IRA?

A: IRA stands for an individual retirement arrangement, but most people call IRAs individual retirement accounts. Here is the IRS definition from Publication 590-A: An IRA is a personal savings plan that gives you tax advantages for setting aside money for retirement.

Q: IRA rules seem to change a lot. Whats the best way to stay informed?

A: Log onto www.irs.gov, the official Internal Revenue Service website, for the latest news on IRAs.

Your best resource is Publication 590, which was recently split into two parts: 590-A (Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements) covers contributions, and 590-B (Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements) deals with withdrawals (distributions). If you want printed publications mailed to you, call the IRS at 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).

When looking at Publications 590-A and 590-B, always start with Whats New for the year. For 2015, a very important change is a new limitation on rollovers. (Starting in 2015, no matter how many IRAs you have, you are limited to making only one rollover in any one-year period from any particular IRA. However, you can still make unlimited trustee-to-trustee transfers between IRAs because they are not considered rollovers.)

Q: Whats the last day you can fund your 2015 IRA?

A: This year, the deadline for filing your return is Monday, April 18, not April 15, so April 18, 2016, is the last day you can make your 2015 contribution to your IRA.

Be sure to advise your IRA custodian that the contribution is for the 2015 tax year. You can make your 2016 contribution at the same time, but make sure your custodian records the second contribution for 2016.

Q: If you file for a tax-return extension, can you fund your 2015 IRA after April 18, 2016?

A: No. You must make the 2015 contribution by April 18, 2016.

Q: Can you file your tax return before making an IRA contribution?

A: Yes. But be sure you make your 2015 contribution before April 18, 2016.

Q: What is the maximum you can contribute to an IRA for the 2015 tax year?

A: Whether you contribute to a Roth, which is tax-free, or a traditional IRA, which is tax-deferred, the maximum you can contribute for 2015 is $5,500 ($6,500 if you turned 50 or older in 2015). (This also is the 2016 limit.) If you earn less than $5,500 (or $6,500 if you are 50 or older), the maximum is limited to how much you earn. For example, a 16-year-old who earned $1,000 doing odd jobs in 2015 can set up a 2015 IRA and fund it with $1,000 (or less, but not more).

Q: Can you make a $5,500 contribution to a traditional IRA and another $5,500 contribution to a Roth IRA?

A: No. But you can contribute to both, if you qualify, as long as the combination is not more than the limits we discussed above.

For example, a 16-year-old who earned $1,000 in 2015 can contribute $500 to a Roth and $500 to a traditional IRA  however, at his age, it would be wiser to contribute the full $1,000 to a Roth to enjoy tax-free growth.

Next week, we will go over some more questions and answers.

On another note, if you live in the Stamford, Conn., area, you may want to attend one of my upcoming roundtables. Visit www.juliejason.com/events for details.

Julie Jason, author of The AARP Retirement Survival Guide: How to Make Smart Financial Decisions in Good Times and Bad, and Managing Retirement Wealth: An Expert Guide to Personal Portfolio Management in Good Times and Bad, is principal of Jackson, Grant Investment Advisers of Stamford. Email her with questions at readers@juliejason.com or write to her c/o The Advocate, 9A Riverbend Drive South, Box 4910, Stamford CT 06907. Copyright 2016 Julie Jason.
HARTFORD  Secretary of State Denise Merrill says state residents have been using the internet to register to vote in record numbers this year  with some help from President Obama.

Merrill said the states online voter registration system surged last week following Obamas appearance on the series finale of American Idol. The President encouraged viewers to register to vote via a portal that links state online voter registration services.
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STAMFORD  Thirty-one years after killing his boss by stabbing him 37 times and being held in Connecticuts most secure psychiatric hospital, a former Bridgeport man has been set free.

Superior Court Judge Richard Comerford ruled in Stamford last week that Bryan Giordano, 62, now of Meriden, will no longer be required to see a psychiatrist and take his prescribed medicine or get permission to leave the state  about the only vestiges remaining of his time in the states mental health system.

I cant tell you how bad I feel about what happened, Giordano told a supervising psychiatrist near the end of last year, according to court documents. It never should have happened. It was a terrible thing, and I feel horrible for the family.

I wasnt thinking right, he told the psychiatrist, who was examining him for a report on his current mental state. My mind was so twisted, and I couldnt think clearly. I am so sorry for what happened.

By June 1985, the delusions inside Giordanos mind had been building for more than a decade. It had been 11 years since Giordano, then 31, was discharged by the military after having a nervous breakdown overseas.

Several years before the killing, the Bridgeport resident began working for an old family friend, Hector Fraser, 56, at his Fairfield flooring company.

More Information Road to freedom June 17, 1985: Bryan Giordano charged with murder Sept. 23, 1985: Judge orders psychiatric evaluation for Giordano Jan. 30, 1986: Judges acquit Giordano, but commit him to maximum-security psychiatric hospital June 22, 1993: Giordano is approved for supervised visits with family October 2001: Transition begins to community outpatient psychiatric support services. July 7, 2011: Giordano is discharged from Connecticut Valley Hospital, rents an apartment in Meriden. April 8, 2015: Psychiatric Security Review Board recommends ending its supervision of Giordano. April 7, 2016: Stamford Judge Richard Comerford releases Giordano See More Collapse

During that time, however, Giordano became convinced he was a spy, and believed Fraser  a Scottish immigrant who lived in the same neighborhood as Giordano growing up  was a mole collecting U.S. secrets for the Russian KGB.

Giordano, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia years earlier, refused to take medications prescribed by doctors to control his fantasy that seemed to be growing more real by the day, according to records in his file.

On June 17, 1985, Giordano went to work as usual wearing army fatigues. But something happened in the afternoon, and Giordanos spy delusions got the better of him.

Giordano grabbed a knife and stabbed his boss 37 times, according to news accounts and reports in his court file. Fraser died within 24 hours from the knife wounds to his chest, abdomen and hands.

During a three-day trial in January 1986 at the Stamford courthouse, Giordano and his attorney, Richard Meehan Sr., put on a persuasive defense before a three-judge panel.

After 10 minutes of deliberation, the judges ruled Giordano intentionally killed his employer, but found him not guilty by reason of insanity. He was sentenced to the custody of the Psychiatric Security Review Board, which had the authority to keep him at a state mental hospital for up to 60 years  a period of time that still defines a life term in Connecticut.

No longer a danger

For the first time in nearly 30 years since the sentencing, Giordano returned to the Stamford courthouse three weeks ago to ask Comerford for his complete freedom.

Dressed in a gray suit with a white shirt and tie, a portly, balding Giordano appeared as different on the outside from that bloody June day in 1985 as he was on the inside, according to the psychiatrists who testified during the hearing.

Based upon the totality of the evidence, which the court finds to be overwhelming and uncontroverted, the court finds that Mr. Giordano is no longer a danger to himself or others, no longer requires the supervision of the Psychatric Security Review Board and can safely be discharged, Comerford said in his decision.

Supervisory Senior Assistant States Attorney James Bernardi agreed with the judges decision.

His decision would be consistent and mandated on the law and evidence, produced not only by the defense, but by the independent psychiatrist hired by the state, he said.

There are about 150 former criminal defendants under the states Psychiatric Security Review Boards supervision, according to Ellen Lachance, the boards executive director. State law gives the six-person board authority to order treatment, confinement or conditional release to people acquitted by reason of insanity.

After several years spent inside the Whiting Forensic Unit, the states highest security psychiatric hospital, Giordano chipped away at his mental disease, resulting in the review board reducing their supervision of him. The board recommended last April that Giordano be released from their watch after finding he was no longer a danger to himself or others.

But state law requires those under the boards authority to appeal to a Superior Court judge like Comerford, who can grant their unconditional release.

About five people each year request to be discharged from the boards jurisdiction, and most are granted the release, Lachance said.

That seems to be related to the fact that most acquitees do not proceed with an application for discharge unless they have substantial evidence, through testimony, documentation and years of stable living in the community, that they would not be a danger if no longer mandated to the board, she said.

A new life

Giordano now collects stamps, drives a car, and for the past four-and-a-half years, has lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Meriden, according to reports in his case file. He has spent three days a week in a treatment program at a community center, sees a psychiatrist once a month for medication management, a psychologist once a week for individual therapy and has visited a conditional release supervisor every week for updates on his disposition.

He had weekly visits with family for dinner at his sisters home and has enjoyed time with two friends, who are veterans in the same program he attends and are under the supervision of the Psychiatric Security Review Board.

Giordano didnt testify during the hearing, but two psychiatrists  one for the state and one hired by Giordanos attorney  told the judge he does not appear to be a danger to himself or others.

While Bernardi said both doctors testified Giordanos illness can never be cured, it is in remission.

Bernardi said if Giordano faces any setbacks, he could be held for 72 hours for a psychiatric evaluation. If he did not improve, Giordano could be sent back to Connecticut Valley Hospital for further treatment and placed in the Whiting unit.

Thats the way it is supposed to work, Bernardi said.

john.nickerson@scni.com
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The dam finally broke on Wednesday evening. David Cameron gathered in his Downing Street office with his senior advisory team  head of communications Craig Oliver, chief of staff Ed Llewellyn and principal private secretary Simon Case  and decided the time for damage-limitation had passed.

Wed been answering waves of questions, recounts a No 10 insider.

Is the PM benefiting from any offshore funds? No. Is the PM going to benefit from any offshore funds in the future? No.

'We finally realised were just going to have to get everything out there and do the historic stuff as well.

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David Cameron, pictured with his mother Mary, from whom a 200,000 gift has caused controversy

To most Westminster observers, this belated realisation that only full disclosure about the PMs financial relationship with his late father Ian Camerons offshore company Blairmore Holdings  and even more belated publication of his own tax returns  would end the media feeding frenzy, beggars belief.

Downing Streets press management had seemingly become a case study in how not to do crisis PR.

The golden rule is to get everything out in the open as quickly as possible to demonstrate you have nothing to hide.

No 10s approach appeared to be: Weve got nothing to hide, but were damned if were going to show youve weve nothing to hide.

But Im told there was a more personal reason behind the failure to effectively close down the Panama paper chase.

The PM was trying to manage the steel crisis and prep for the Euro referendum Q&A. And at the same time he was taking these calls from his mother who was becoming more and more upset that her late husband was being dragged through the media as a tax dodger.

Then the press began asking him, Whats going to happen to her investments when she dies?

'And at that point the human side kicks in. He starts becoming protective. Ive got to shield my mum, Ive got to shield my dad. 

David Cameron suddenly found himself and his family plunged into the middle of what was not just a domestic, but a full-blown international scandal, writes Dan Hodges

And these feelings were exacerbated by the fact David Cameron suddenly found himself and his family plunged into the middle of what was not just a domestic, but a full-blown international scandal.

He was switching on the news, and theres Putin and theres the Chinese and theres some African dictator.

'And theyre saying, These guys are being accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of pounds. And then a picture of his dad pops up right beside them, says a friend.

Understandable or not, David Camerons failure to come clean about the nature of his investments in Blairmore was a disastrous misjudgment, not least because its now clear he had very little to come clean about.

Cameron did not profit from tax avoidance. Its true Blairmore did not pay corporation tax as a result of being established in Bermuda, and that this in turn increased the dividends the Prime Minister and his wife received.

But they were also liable for full UK tax on those dividends, and duly paid that tax.

The scheme was properly registered with HMRC. There was no loss to the Exchequer, or, more significantly, the UK taxpayer.

We are not missing a single schoolbook or nurse as a result of the PMs investment.

Whats more, it seems Blairmore wasnt ever a tax-dodging vehicle at all. According to Graham Aaronson QC, the campaigning tax lawyer who once warned of riots in the streets if Ministers didnt cut down on aggressive avoidance, the scheme established by Ian Cameron was a perfectly normal type of collective investment fund, and it would be quite wrong to describe the establishment of such funds as tax avoidance.

The other charge levelled at Cameron is one of hypocrisy; that he pledged to act on tax avoidance while practising it himself.

But as we now know, he wasnt. And his commitment to cracking down on the sort of financial corruption revealed in the Panama Papers is real.

Next month, London hosts a major global anti-corruption summit.

Those associated with the project have told me theyre impressed with the Prime Ministers commitment to the issue, to the extent there are now rumours he is planning to make this the focus of his activities when he leaves Downing Street.

Hes looking at it as his legacy project, one insider said.

From the perspective of Camerons critics, none of this matters. They believe the golden sands of Bermuda have stuck to him.

Inside Jeremy Corbyns office theres a sense they have landed their first real blow on the Government  indeed, that they have landed a political double whammy.

Corbyns been pushing hard on this for two reasons, says a Labour MP. One is to damage Cameron, obviously.

'But another is to push tax avoidance up the agenda. He thinks some of the businessmen who are considering funding a leadership challenge have offshore interests, and its a way of neutralising them.

In any case, proving David Cameron guilty of illegality, or even immorality, was never the objective. The real strategy was simpler: to prove he was guilty of being rich.

For the Prime Ministers opponents  inside and outside his party  this has always been the strategy.

Paint him as rich. Paint him as posh. Paint him as out of touch. Do these things, so the theory holds, and you sow the seeds of his downfall.

Unfortunately for them, it has proved to be a flawed strategy. People know David Cameron is rich - Ive never hidden the fact that I am a very lucky person, was the slightly awkward way he phrased it in his ITV interview with Robert Peston  and theyve always known it.

They can hear how he speaks and see how he deports himself. Theyve seen his wife, and how she speaks, and deports herself.

And they know these are not two people who have just wandered up Downing Street from the set of The Only Way Is Essex.

It hasnt mattered  or if it has, it hasnt mattered enough, so long as the rich, posh boy kept the economy broadly on track and the country relatively safe.

The real damage of this affair is not that the Prime Minister has been caught with his hands in an offshore cookie jar.

Its that he currently cant seem to get his hands to grip anything; IDS, the steel crisis, the Panama Papers.

The sense is of senior Ministers lurching from one self-imposed disaster to another. At any other time, these blunders would be serious.

With the looming Euro referendum, they border on the suicidal.

David Cameron has done nothing wrong legally, nor morally. But he has made a serious error of judgment politically.

In his understandable desire to protect his fathers reputation he has inadvertently ended up damaging the reputation of his Government. And it cannot absorb much more damage like this.

That's one way to Spice up Brexit

She was the one they were all chasing. Victoria Beckham  Hollywood triple A-lister  had apparently backed the Out campaign.

The Euro bureaucrats are destroying every bit of national identity and individuality.

We must keep our individuality, the former Spice Girl, left, exclaimed in a Twitter ad sent on Saturday to 84,000 excited Leave.EU followers.

A Twitter ad campaign sent to 84,000 Leave.EU followers appeared to show Victoria Beckham backing Brexit

Sadly, all was not what it seemed. Was Mrs Beckham formally advocating a No vote, I asked a Leave.EU spokesman.

No, she was not. Was she aware the ad had been produced and distributed? No. Had she even been contacted by the campaign? No.

It emerges the quote is actually lifted from a 1996 Spectator interview, in which Geri Halliwell also weighed in on behalf of sceptics.

We travel throughout Europe. All those countries look the same. Only England looks different. That is why the Spice Girls are profoundly suspicious of Europe.

Faced with arguments like that, Remain are surely doomed.

Im told new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb is settling in well following his elevation from Welsh Secretary. But he nurses one regret.

He isnt going to be able to get to as many Wales rugby games now, says an insider, and hes a rugby nut. Thats how he came to break his nose. Playing, rather than watching, one hopes.

Another son of the Valleys is also in the ascendant. Stephen Kinnock  son of former Labour leader Neil  has won plaudits from Labour MPs for his deft handling of the steel crisis, which threatens thousands of jobs in his Aberavon constituency.

Keep an eye on him, one MP tells me. We could still get to see a Kinnock in Downing Street.
Prime Minister David Cameron has come under fire after it was revealed he avoided a 70,000 tax bill over money inherited from his late father Ian

This is a tense moment for the Prime Minister. He may not be out of danger yet. Coming clean is not as easy as it sounds, which is why most people make a mess of it. There are very few examples of major figures being willingly candid about their private affairs.

Of course the best thing to do is to reveal everything, immediately and cheerfully. But it is hard for a proud man to do so. These are matters most people like to keep to themselves.

Those suddenly caught in the searchlights never realised how their actions would look on a newspaper front page. Mr Camerons tax disclosures last night revealed no illegality or wrongdoing. But they managed to provoke more questions by not openly stating that he had received a large money gift nor explaining the means used to shelter it from tax.

It is a common estate management method used by some of our readers but somehow it sits uneasily with a Prime Minister. Trust is all.

For senior politicians who have long been loaded with praise and guarded from trouble by a phalanx of aides and supporters, it is quite hard to cope with prosecutorial questions implying that they are guilty of wrongdoing.

So it is no great surprise that David Cameron has not handled the Panama Papers affair well. The question is whether he can now recover, or whether it will continue to drag him down.

His greatest danger is that he and his affairs will become the central issue of politics, and the EU contest will turn into a referendum on his personal future.

There is no doubt that the campaign has left the Government divided, exposed and tense, and highly vulnerable to wobbles such as this.

So Mr Camerons performance from now on is not just about saving himself but about saving the Government and quite possibly British membership of the EU, a cause he values highly.

It would be absurd if such a major question were decided because of a row about offshore funds.

His publication of his tax returns is a wise step. It will now become standard practice for all senior politicians, as it is in the US. As it happens, we live in a country with unusually clean politics, but it is good to be able to see the proof. His wry acceptance that he could have done better was the right tone to adopt.

Thousands of people lined up outside Downing Street in London, pictured, to call for Mr Cameron to resign over the tax dealings after the 'Panama Papers' fall-out

Even so, sharks still circle. Parliament is back in session tomorrow and, while Jeremy Corbyn could sink any cause he takes up, the Prime Minister faces danger there from all sides, especially his own ranks. He had better be sure he really has told us everything.

There is no substitute for total clarity from now on. Any further revelation at this stage could be perilous.

The Mail on Sunday continues to expose the grotesque folly of Britains foreign aid splurge. This weeks discovery that we are pouring public money into tax havens which are sinking under the weight of private cash is especially laughable.
If you want to change someones mind, dont bother arguing with him. Get control of a major TV or radio soap opera and you are halfway there. I would love to infiltrate the scriptwriters of Coronation Street and insert a storyline about a bright young teenager who starts smoking cannabis and ends up hopelessly mentally ill, stuck on a locked ward as his weeping parents wonder why nobody did anything to enforce the drug laws.

Or EastEnders might feature the misery and disappointment of a bright child from a poor home, who was bullied and neglected in a vast state comprehensive and so had her hopes ruined by egalitarian dogma.

Or the BBC Radio 4 series, The Archers, might tell the story of an innocent couple targeted by social workers claiming falsely that they had abused their child, and snatching that child away forever in secret and deeply unfair court hearings.

If you want to change someones mind, dont bother arguing with him. Get control of a major TV or radio soap opera and you are halfway there

All these things happen in real life. But, of course, the broadcasting organisations, being in the hands of the Left, would not do this.

They are too busy re-educating us into right-on citizenship of our new peoples republic, with lesbian kisses to approve of, incest to be understanding about, a male- to-female transsexual (played by a real woman) and other heroes and heroines of Left-wing mythology to admire.

One recent drama, for instance, managed to make a sympathetic heroine out of an asylum seeker who broke the laws against taking paid work.

The Archers is currently harrowing its listeners with a heavy-handed melodrama about a bullied woman who eventually stabs her overbearing husband. I am not a regular listener, but as far as I could see she could have avoided the whole episode by leaving home before he got back from work. Yet the scriptwriters plainly want us to sympathise with the stabber.

Its no use saying its just fiction. These dramas have a huge influence on national thought. Thousands of people actually mix up their own schooldays with the plots of the ill-disciplined fictional comprehensive school Grange Hill, whose pupils were saturated in modern progressive thought. Back in 1998, when a non-existent Deirdre Rachid was sent to a non-existent prison in Coronation Street, the real Prime Minister and the real Leader of the Opposition vied with each other to call for her release.

If I had managed to work my way into the world of TV or radio soap opera, I might actually have got somewhere with all the causes I have failed to advance in years of public debate. How is it that this amazingly influential sector of broadcasting is not in any way covered by the rules on impartiality? Isnt it time we took it as seriously as it deserves to be taken?

Payback time for the tax zealots

David Cameron has only himself to blame for the fix he is in. He and his Chancellor have ceaselessly blurred the huge difference between criminal tax evasion and legal tax avoidance.

They have repeatedly referred to them as if they were the same. They have absurdly suggested that they can put an end to avoidance, which will continue to exist in any country which has tax laws and skilled lawyers paid lots of money to find ways around them.

They have also started warbling in the Left-wing choir which caterwauls that paying taxes is somehow a moral duty, rather than a legal obligation.

David Cameron has only himself to blame for the fix he is in for ceaselessly blurred the difference between tax evasion and legal tax avoidance

Its not true. Taxes are in many cases squandered on servicing foolish debts incurred by bungling Ministers who knew the taxpayer would bail them out. Or they are thrown away on the most appalling school system, or the most useless police force in the advanced world.

I will pay what I owe, because I believe in the rule of law. But if Im offered a legal way of paying less tax I will take it  and so will anyone, including quite a lot of prominent Leftists, especially in the media. Indeed, I believe a prominent Left-wing newspaper (you know who you are) recently managed to avoid a thumping great tax bill by using a tax-exempt shell company in the Cayman Islands.

The Left-wing tax zealots arent free to do this because they have publicly embraced this idea that tax is a type of goodness. If Mr Cameron disappears up his own anatomy thanks to his offshore fund, I shall laugh quite a lot.

But this has really happened because he is past the peak of his power. Seven years ago, when I tried to work up some interest about his record as one of Parliaments greediest claimers of expenses (1,700 a month on a 350,000 mortgage, close to the maximum possible, later dropping to 1,000 a month, plus  of course  council tax, gas, oil and insurance), nobody cared a bit.

Most people still arent aware of how their taxes helped a very rich man and his even richer wife buy a rather nice country home, now worth at least a million pounds. Whats moral about forcing a dinner lady or a hospital cleaner to contribute to Mr Camerons mortgage?

But thats the sort of thing tax does in modern Britain. I wouldnt blame any normal person for keeping what they can.

But Mr Cameron himself, a self-righteous taxation zealot who has personally done very well out of the public purse, deserves everything he now gets. I did try to tell you.

The 'rebels' without cause

What is it about The Rolling Stones? How is it that they have become one of the most lucrative business enterprises of modern times, and yet still manage to portray themselves as dangerous rebels?

Thanks to the opening of an exhibition about them, we can once again enjoy this picture of the original group (thats what we called them then) in 1963, wearing uniform. This was before they discovered that looking a bit dangerous and scruffy was better for trade. Its evidence of a remarkable flexibility.

Theres also the little matter of a catchy little song called Under My Thumb, in which Mick Jagger exults over how hes forced a girl who once pushed me around into changing her clothes and doing just what shes told. The squirming dog whos just had her day now keeps her eyes to herself while he can still look at someone else.

This is the sort of attitude that can get you liked by the Taliban or stabbed on The Archers. It certainly doesnt fit with the feminism of his modern fans. Does he sing it any more? As for rebellion, if the Stones made any gesture towards human freedom during their recent visit to the Cuban tyranny, I havent seen it reported. The brand isnt always the same as the reality.

What is it about The Rolling Stones? How is it that they have become one of the most lucrative business enterprises of modern times, and yet still manage to portray themselves as dangerous rebels?
A two-year-old cancer sufferer who became the face of an NHS appeal as he relied on blood transfusions to survive treatment is no longer showing signs of the life-threatening disease.

Sebastian Stevens, from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, has undergone six bouts of chemotherapy, major surgery and a painful form of radiotherapy in a bid to rid him of a rare type of bladder tumour.

His mother Natasha Louise Penney, 34, spoke out about her son's plight at the end of last year as she appealed for more blood donors to come forward as transfusions were keeping her son alive.

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Sebastian Stevens, who turned two on Thursday last week, is no longer showing signs of the bladder tumour and his mum Natasha Louise Penney (pictured) has reiterated her thanks to those who helped save him

The toddler from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, was diagnosed with a form of the disease so rare in children that his parents were told there were only a few cases in the UK each year

The brave child has endured six rounds of chemotherapy so far, major surgery to remove the tumour and a painful form of radiotherapy in which rods were placed inside him to administer the drugs

The chemotherapy he needs to save his life has ravaged his body and the damage to his bone marrow means he is unable to produce blood cells of his own.

And today she reiterated her thanks to blood donors and the many doctors and nurses that have overseen Seb's care after the family was told all signs of the tumour have disappeared.

Natasha, who is engaged to Seb's father Luke Stevens, 32, said: When we had the appointment, the consultant seemed to be avoiding the subject so we thought it was bad news, my heart was thumping really badly.

'And then she just said the scan was clear. We were so happy, it took me a minute to catch my breath. It was such amazing news, a massive relief.'

The incredible results came after brave Superman fan Seb endured major surgery to remove a third of his bladder and the cancerous tumour with it, followed by a gruelling three days of brachytherapy treatment, a form of radiotherapy.

It involved rods piercing through his skin to administer the radioactive material and he wasn't allowed to move in case anything fell out of place - meaning he couldn't even have a hug from mum or dad.

But since his operation and the radiotherapy, which required him to lay completely still for three days, he is up and about again - and has even enjoyed a trip to the park

Natasha said there is a 'massive difference' in him as he is no longer in pain, and says you wouldn't know there is anything wrong with him now

Natasha explained: 'We weren't allowed to touch him. For three days he had to lie flat with a brace on his chest and knees, and he was only 22 months old at that time. It was just awful.

'All the rods were sticking out so he couldnt move. The first day was horrendous, all he wanted was mummy cuddles and it was heartbreaking not to be able to give them to him. But the second day he just kind of accepted that that was how it was and didnt even moan.'

Natasha said Seb had been 'remarkable' throughout his treatment, despite now being terrified of doctors and nurses as he associates them with pain.

Sebastian, here with mum Natasha and dad Luke, has spent much of his short life in hospital but will now hopefully make a full recovery

He has three more rounds of chemotherapy to endure before he is placed under close observation for two years, with scans every three months

'When we get up in the morning, he doesn't want to get dressed in case he's going to hospital. He says: "no doctors" and "no ouchy ouchy",' she said

But it's now hoped Seb will make a full recovery after three more rounds of chemotherapy, with close monitoring for two years and scans every three months.

He also continues to have blood tests every four days to check he doesn't need another blood transfusion - he has already had eight in total.

The family of little superman fan Sebastian Stevens, who has bladder cancer, have urged people to donate blood to help others like him in 2016

When Seb was diagnosed, an ultrasound revealed he had a 5.6cm tumour growing on his bladder

And his family are eternally grateful. The difference in him is massive. Hes happy again, and not in pain. Hes even up and running around  since the weather has been a bit nicer weve even managed to get to the park, which has been a big achievement for us.

Its amazing that lives can be saved by people like this. Until you go through it you dont realise how massively important it is and the impact it has. So many people we know have signed up to give blood since Seb fell ill.'

Seb's family received the devastating diagnosis in early October, after the toddler, who turned two on Thursday last week, had been taken to hospital numerous times with what doctors assumed was a urine infection.

Natasha said Seb had been incredibly brave throughout his treatment, despite now being terrified of doctors and nurses as he associates them with pain

After spending most of December in hospital, the little 'superhero' was well enough to go home on December 24 and was with his family for six days over Christmas

He fell ill once again during a holiday to Spain and was rushed back to the UK where an ultrasound revealed he had a 5.6cm tumour growing on his bladder.

It is a cancer is so rare among children that his parents were told there are only a few cases in the UK every year.

'He was in such pain that we knew something was wrong,' said Natasha, who got engaged to Seb's father Luke Stevens after he popped the question over Christmas.

She said: 'Blood donation has saved his life, from the people who work in the blood donation clinic and those that give blood, to the people who transport it and the nurses that administer it.'

Natasha and Luke call Seb their 'little superhero' due to his resilience and the remarkable way he deals with his devastating illness

With less than three per cent of people aged 17 to 70 giving blood in the last year, NHS Blood and Transplant is urging people to sign up to donate and help children like Seb

'We're so massively thankful. I cant describe how grateful we are. It has kept our little superhero with us,' added Natasha, who works in the same secure children's care home as her fiance,

With less than three per cent of people aged 17 to 70 giving blood in the last year, NHS Blood and Transplant is urging people to sign up to donate.

Mike Stredder, director of Blood Donation at NHS Blood and Transplant, said: 'Seb and his family are inspirational and we hope the good news continues coming.

'We rely on our loyal donors to help patients like Seb and we always need new blood and platelet donors to come forward.

'We particularly always need donors with vulnerable blood groups such as O negative and B negative.'
Ask many women who Poppy King is and they'll know who you are talking about - the undisputed Lipstick Queen, of course, and founder of Poppy, the lipstick brand that saw the then-18-year-old Australian entrepreneur attain global success and her lipsticks stocked around the world.

While the 'Poppy' line of lipsticks is now defunct, more than 20 years later, Poppy King, originally from Melbourne, is doing better than ever.

It was announced just this week that her renowned 'Frog Prince' lipstick from her newer line, Lipstick Queen, is one of American beauty website, Birchbox's, top-selling beauty products.

FEMAIL met the Queen of the red lip and make-up millionairess, to talk about her comeback and, why, no matter the weather or her circumstances, red lipstick will always be Poppy King's 'comfort zone'.

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Famous face: It was announced just this week that Poppy King's Frog Prince lipstick is one of American website, Birchbox's, top-selling beauty products

Lipstick queen: King found success at 18 with the release of her lipstick line, Poppy

Poppy started her 'Poppy' range of lipsticks at the age of 18, when she was fresh out of school and couldn't find the right shade of lipstick to suit her classic movie star looks.

'There were all sorts of ups and downs at the start when I launched Poppy,' she says.

'But I couldn't believe how successful the Poppy line soon became,' she tells Daily Mail Australia, when recalling the dizzying heights of the early days.

Her Poppy lipstick line comprised of matte lipsticks, cleverly named after the seven deadly sins, and, in the Nineties, there was no one to rival Poppy King's expertise.

Ups and downs: Poppy started her 'Poppy' range of lipsticks at the age of 18, when she was fresh out of school and couldn't find the right shade of lipstick to suit her classic movie star looks (pictured)

Her company was turning over $8 million, and by 1994, sales were up by 1,500 per cent:

'I moved to new York City in 2002, where I worked at Estee Lauder for a period,' she says.

'And then in 2006, I left the Lauder corporation and founded my newer line, Lipstick Queen, which - this year - is ten years old.'

For a woman who grew up in the beauty limelight, Poppy says that, perhaps surprisingly, she hasn't changed that much about her new lipstick line:

'I've always tried to appeal to people's imaginations with my products,' she says.

New line: And after she moved to New York in 2002, and worked under the Estee Lauder corporation for a period, Poppy soon founded her second lipstick line - Lipstick Queen - in 2006 (pictured)

'That's how I market - with storytelling. Obviously now I live in the US, and that's a much bigger market, so that's different, and I also launched Lipstick Queen after the existence of the Internet, when people were all about lipgloss and I needed to make the concept of wearing lipstick modern.

But what I've learned through my time is that people need to see part of your story in order to like something you are selling them.'

Beauty might be a physical lottery, but glamour is something else. It's a mind and body connection that can let you show the world something different to what's on the inside

And Poppy's own story is writ large in every product she creates.

The 45-year-old says that her 'fascination' with lipstick came about when she was just seven years old.

'My father died and my reaction was to get dressed up and do my make-up,' she remembers.

'I think that's when I learned that glamour can make you feel better and that lipstick is one of the fastest connections to glamour.

'Beauty might be a physical lottery, but glamour is something else. It's a mind and body connection that can let you show the world something different to what's on the inside.'

Transformative powers: According to the make-up millionairess, how she markets so successfully is thanks to storytelling: 'I've always tried to appeal to people's imaginations with my products,' she says

One of Poppy's most successful lipsticks in her Lipstick Queen line is her 'Frog Prince' lipstick; one of the most successful launches the British cosmetics retailer, Space.NK, has ever had.

While on first sight it is ghastly and green in bullet form, it magically transforms to the colour of your lips according to the pH levels in your skin - think of it as a mood ring, but for your pout: 'I think Frog Prince did so well because of the story and the magic,' says Poppy.

'I came up with the idea one day when my friends and I were laughing at the idea that you have to kiss many frogs before you come across your prince.

'The message stuck with me long after our jokes, and I kept fixating on the idea of a frog turning into something wonderful.

'And thus, the 'Frog Prince' was born. It's all about the concept of becoming beautiful.'

'A mood ring, but for your pout': 'Frog Prince' lipstick; one of the most successful launches cosmetics retailer, Space.NK, has ever had - which transforms to the colour of your lips according to the pH levels in your skin

The science part: The blue Hello Sailor tints your lips a deep berry and plum hue, and makes your teeth look whiter

For Poppy, wearing lipstick is about more than making herself look beautiful:

Lipstick is so much more than a product. It's transformative

'My attitude is deep and meaningful. It's how I experience being female and how I connect to other women. My fascination is the same as when I started out 25 years ago.

'Lipstick is so much more than a product. It's transformative.'

And while, for the woman synonymous with a ruby red lip, red lipstick remains her 'comfort zone', Poppy says a woman should go and try on 'as many colours as possible, and go with whatever lights up your skin, eyes and hair' when buying a lipstick.

More than make-up: And for Poppy, wearing lipstick is about more than looking beautiful: 'My attitude is deep and meaningful. It's how I experience being female and how I connect to other women,' she says

What to buy: And while, for the woman synonymous with a ruby red lip, red lipstick remains her 'comfort zone', Poppy says a woman should go and try on 'as many colours as possible, and go with whatever lights up your skin, eyes and hair' when buying a lipstick

No one should ever feel they need anyone's permission to do what they love

'In recent times, there have been many darker, berry shades around, but I think now there's a subtle shift to something brighter and happier. I'm really interested in pink at the moment.

'As my brand grows and expands, that's what I'm looking at most.'

And for all the Australian women wondering whether Poppy will ever return home to Melbourne where she grew up, and bring the vanguard of her make-up wizardry back with her, for now it's a case of head over heart for the Lipstick Queen:

'I've settled in New York for the past 13 years,' she says.

'I do still consider Australia as where I was formed, but New York is home for now.

'The biggest lesson I've learned is that nothing gets swept under the rug, and you have to deal with problems as they arise.

'But no one should ever feel they need anyone's permission to do what they love - you just need to get out there and do it.'

Lipstick Queen is available in Mecca stores nationwide and online at Mecca.

Head over heart: And while Poppy looks back on Australia as the place that 'formed' her, she says that she is settled in New York where she has been living for the past 13 years
The sister of a mother murdered by her ex partner along with her two-year-old daughter has revealed how her family have tried to rebuild their lives after the shocking deaths.

David Oakes, 50, of Steeple, near Maldon, Essex, carried out a sadistic and sustained attack on Christine Chambers in 2011 before shooting their daughter in front of her.

He then shot Christine, 38, before turning the gun on himself in a botched suicide attempt which he survived.

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Jeanette Chambers reveals on Britain's Darkest Taboos how she and her family have coped after her sister and niece were murdered in horrific circumstances

Christine, 38, and her daughter Shania were both shot by David Oakes in 2011 after he broke into their Essex home in a jealous rage. Another of her daughters, then ten, was able to climb out of a window to escape

Oakes was given two whole-life jail terms in 2012 after being found guilty of the murders but died in prison of natural causes the following year.

Now Christine's younger sister, Jeanette, 40, from Essex, has spoken of how the family have tried to pick up the pieces following the horrific murder of her beloved sister and niece.

Christine left behind three children from a previous relationship who are facing the future without their mother.

Jeanette said on the CI channel show Britain's Darkest Taboos: 'Obviously it's affected Chris's kids in a major way, they've got no mum now and they've lost a sister.

'I've lost a sister, my kids have lost their aunt. We all lost a big something when Chrissie and Shania were taken.

'We miss them every day. I wish I could have them back.'

Jeanette adds that the horrific circumstances in which the pair were taken have also made their loss harder to bear.

Oakes, left, was given two life sentences after he murdered his partner and his daughter, right, then two. He died a year later in prison from natural causes

Christine had ended her relationship with Oakes after years of domestic abuse and they were battling for custody of their daughter.

Ahead of a court hearing which was likely to confirm Shania should be cared for by her mother, Oakes broke into the house in Braintree, Essex, one night and tortured Christine before killing her and his child.

When the case was heard at Chelmsford Crown Court in 2012 Jeanette said she had to leave the room as the details of how her sister had suffered at the hands of the former bouncer were so distressing.

It just makes me feel sick that someone could do that to another human being

During the three hour long attack, he struck her with an axe, beat her in the face with the butt of his gun and made her cut off her own hair.

He shot their daughter in the head at point blank range in front of her before shooting her multiple times.

Jeanette said: 'It's not nice knowing that your sister's had her life taken in such a tragic way and what she would have gone through. It just makes me feel sick that someone could do that to another human being.'

Christine had been able to help another of her daughters, then ten, who had been in the house at the time of the attack, escape and she raised the alarm.

Jeanette said of her niece's ordeal: 'Chris went into her eldest daughter's room, leant over and whispered to her, "when you can you get out of that window and call for help".

'Her dad lived up the road not too far, so she said "run over for help".

Christine, pictured, had to watch as Oakes shot their daughter before turning the gun on her. Jeanette said: 'It's not nice knowing that your sister's had her life taken in such a tragic way'

'Chris was leant over my niece and blood was dripping onto my niece from Chrissy and I don't know how but somehow my niece had managed to climb out of that window, drop down and raise the alarm.'

The brave ten-year-old's actions saved her own life but by the time the police arrived it was too late to save Christine and Shania.

The officers arrived to horrific scenes with the house covered in blood and Christine and Shania lying dead from their wounds. They found Oakes had shot himself in the face but was still alive.

When he recovered he was charged with the murders of his partner and daughter and pleaded not guilty.

David Oakes, pictured during his trial in 2012, had shot himself in the face after the murders but survived to face justice. He then died in 2012

The jury did not believe he was innocent and reached a unanimous verdict leading to him being convicted of double murder.

Mr Justice Fulford ordered Oakes to serve a whole life sentence, making him one of a limited group of inmates who would never be released from prison.

Describing Oakes, he said: 'A bullying and controlling man, who had frequently inflicted violence on Miss Chambers during the six years of their relationship, he killed his ex-partner and their young daughter simply because he knew she could not bear to be with him and wished to start a new life.'

Jeanette initially had no idea how bad things had become between Oakes and her sister as they had become estranged over the fact she had never liked him.

She said: 'He caused problems between me and Chrissy and we didnt talk, we didn't talk for six years, while she was with him.'

Isolating victims from their loved ones is a typical trait of those who commit domestic abuse and Jeanette had no idea how much Christine had suffered until they finally reconciled after she left him.

Jeanette said she was stunned and heartbroken to hear how much her sister had suffered.

'I always thought she was the stronger one out of me and Chrissie,' she said.

There's mixed emotions. I was pleased he was dead but he had only just started paying for what he's taken away. He got off lightly didn't he?

Christine had reported the abuse to the police and an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) after her death found that Essex Police missed chances to arrest Oakes before the killings.

The IPCC investigation cited a lack of adequate training, insufficient resources allocated to domestic violence cases and poor oversight by the force.

It said inadequate action was taken to arrest Oakes at the earliest opportunity when reports were made of him breaching a non-molestation order.

Jeanette is devastated nothing could have been done to save her sister and she said another injustice was Oakes' death in 2013.

She said: 'He was given two life sentences, he wouldn't have been coming out. He was in there for good but he wasn't was he. He was in there for about a year and died. No one was happy about that.

'There's mixed emotions. I was pleased he was dead but he had only just started paying for what he's taken away. He got off lightly didn't he?'
Last week, Gap was forced to withdraw its ad for childrens clothing, which showed a white girl resting her arm on the head of a smaller black girl.

There were complaints, too, that only one of the four girls was black. That the black girl was passive, while the others were doing gymnastics, DJing, or using a telescope.

One woman tweeted: GapKids proving girls can do anything unless shes black. Then all she can do is bear the weight of white girls. #EpicFail.

A Gap Kids ad for Ellen DeGeneres' clothing line has sparked a social media backlash for having a racial undertone after presenting the only black girl in the campaign as an arm rest

You wonder whether any of these modern-day Mary Whitehouses get any housework done, so busy are they being outraged.

If the black child had been the one doing gymnastics, Gap would have been accused of reinforcing the fact the only way out of the ghetto is through sport. DJing? Well, thats making the girl a cliche right there.

Sometimes, overzealous PC culture has a point and in the past has changed real wrongs. This is not a real wrong.

And Gap scurrying to acquiesce is dangerous. The problem with all this outrage is that because people can vent their spleen on social media, they are able to enjoy the illusion that they are participating in the world, and changing things.

But you have to pick your target or you become like Statler and Waldorf in The Muppets: heckling everything. I could have called Channel 4 and complained about the cartoons of monstrous horses promoting the Grand National, but I saved my energy for demonstrating in Liverpool on the day.

We are not allowed to utter one questionable word about minorities, Muslims, people who are transgender, or gay, or disabled. But we shouldnt mete out special treatment for fear of being insensitive.

Twitter users immediately called the company out on presenting the only black girl as a prop

After I wrote about how I told off a Somalian boy for beating his donkey with an iron bar, I received death threats. In Ethiopia, when I was about to fight several men in a market square who refused to give their mules water or shade, a charity worker wailed: They need more time! To which I replied: Theyre the oldest civilisation in history!

I remember working on an evening newspaper, and being sent to interview a white pop star. I asked about her black boyfriend. I put the fact he is black in the story. Back in the office, my editor made me take the reference out.

You have to pick your target or you become like Statler and Waldorf in The Muppets: heckling everything

But its interesting, I said. If he were Spanish, I would have asked her about that, too, how it works. Its as though we dont know whether race is irrelevant, or everything.

You can tell the police have been drilled in misplaced sensitivity of late. When I told an officer that I feel sorry for a deaf neighbour, he replied that that was wrong, and how would I like it if the deaf man said he felt sorry for me as Im a rich woman with no friends?

After I called a woman fat the other day, she retaliated that I have a flat, bony a*** and threatened to take me to a tribunal because I attacked a medical condition.

I had a row on Facebook a week or so ago with a woman who criticised my age, grey roots and facial hair, but I have no recourse. While even white van men are sacrosanct (viz, the sacking of Emily Thornberry), you can say what you like about post-menopausal white women.

I dont know what its like to be black. I married an Indian, but thats no defence because perhaps I merely found him exotic? In my case, I married a man because he was funny and clever. We learned from each other. He gave me King Leopolds Ghost, I showed him how to put on a duvet cover.
Confirms that her onscreen half-brother Jon Snow is dead 'for now'

The actress talks about the fantasy series as if it is a period drama

Last season saw her character being raped by her new husband

Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner who plays long-suffering Sansa Stark in the cult series has defended her character's controversial rape scene.

The shocking moment in which her character is forced into sex by her sadistic new husband Ramsay Bolton while her childhood friend is made to watch left even hardened fans asking if the show had gone too far.

But the 19-year-old, from Warwickshire, has hit back at the criticism, telling The Sunday Times Style magazine that the show never shies away from the reality of being a woman in Medieval times.

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Sophie Turner, pictured at the 2016 Academy Awards, has won praise for her role in HBO's acclaimed series, which is based upon the novels by George R R Martin

Sophie Turner, as Sansa Stark, pictured with her co-star, Iwan Rheon, who plays her sadistic husband, Ramsay Bolton.

The scene was deemed artistically unnecessary and gratuitous by critics who argued that Sansa wasn't sexually assaulted in in the novels, written by George R R Martin, upon which the series is based.

Critics also attacked the way the scene was shot, which did not show the rape itself but rather focused on the reaction of another male character, Theon.

Some viewers even declared they would stop watching the series, which is about to start its sixth season this month, in protest.

The demand for a boycott was led by US Senator Claire McCaskill, who declared her disgust with the show, which returns to Sky Atlantic on April 25, at 9pm.

The Democratic politician tweeted at the time: Im done with Game of Thrones, she wrote. Gratuitous rape scene disgusting and unacceptable.

Turner as Stark in the new series of Game of Thrones, which returns to Sky Atlantic on 25 April

Sansa Stark appears to be helping Theon, played by Alfie Allen out of a frozen river in a still for Series 6 of Game of Thrones

But she defended the inclusion of the scene, likening the fantasy series to historical fiction.

She said: 'The thing is, Game of Thrones does not shy away from the reality of what happened in those times.'

'The oppression of women happened and still happens, particularly in wars and arranged marriages.'

'Why is there so much attention when it happens on television and not when it happens in the real world?'

Turner is also starring in the X-Men: Apocalypse, which will be released in May this year, with co-stars Tye Sheridan and Kodi Smit-McPhee

She has been praised for her handling of the scene by her co-stars Alfie Allen, who plays Theon, and Iwan Rheon, who stars as her sadistic husband, Ramsay Bolton.

Welsh actor, Rheon described Turner's performance as 'mind-blowing' in an interview with Vulture Magazine.

Meanwhile, questioned over the biggest issue of GoT fans - whether Jon Snow is really dead - she remained tight lipped, saying only: 'For now, he's dead. Who knows about the future.'
Former New York City Mayor's daughter is a

Heiress Georgina Bloomberg took part in a prestigious show jumping event with her horse Lilli, yesterday.

Bloomberg, who is the former New York City Mayor's youngest daughter, put on a display of equine excellence at the Longines Global Champions Tour stop in Miami Beach.

The tour brings together the top 30 ranked show jumpers in the world who compete for prize money.

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Heiress Georgina Bloomberg took part in a prestigious show jumping event with her horse Lilli, yesterday

The 33-year-old professional equestrian and mother-of one arrived at the event with her two-year-old son Jasper,

The brunette chatted and smiled as she held her son - whose father is her ex, Argentine equestrian Ramiro Quintana - before taking the show jumping course and its 14 fences up to five feet tall on her horse, Lilli.

The passionate animal rights activist described her horse as 'mellow and lazy' to the Miami Herald.

She added that when the horse retires she'll be content to just 'hang out in the pasture and get fat.'

Nevertheless her steed is of top quality, worthy of competing against other animals that the Miami Herald reported are worth up to $15million (10.6million).

The competition is comprised of 12 teams of five people.

Georgina is the owner of the Miami Glory Team and chose to ride alongside Kent Farrington, Kimberly Prince, Scott Brash and Jessica Mendoza.

Other competitors include the daughters of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.

Bloomberg, who is the who is the former New York City Mayor's youngest daughter, put on a display of equine excellence at the Longines Global Champions Tour stop in Miami Beach

The tour brings together the Top 30 ranked show jumpers in the world who compete for prize money

However, this isn't Georgina's first competition, as she began the sport when she was four, and has already won over 50 Grand Prix titles and competed in 10 Nation Cup teams for the US.

She was also considered for the Olympics in 2008, is currently ranked 15th in the US Olympic Team and is hoping for a chance to go to Rio this summer.

She has said: 'If I make the Olympics, I can say, "Now I can retire and be an Olympian for the rest of my life".'

'I have no natural talent; I had to learn to work for it. I'm very proud of the fact that I've still accomplished what I have.'

Alongside riding horses, Georgina is also a proud animal rights activist and recently took a trip to Puerto Rico with The Humane Society of the United States to rescue stray dogs and help them find new homes.

Speaking of the trip on Facebook, she wrote: 'It's been an amazing experience helping out down here.

The 33-year-old professional equestrian and mother-of one arrived at the event with her two-year-old son Jasper, from her relationship with Argentine equestrian Ramiro Quintana

Wearing white jodhpurs and a tailored navy riding jacket, Georgina looked every inch the professional equestrian. Meanwhile her son, Jasper, looked smart in a straw boater, white shirt and Converse sneakers

'Heading home with ten incredible dogs who will be looking for home through the Monmouth County SPCA, and we'll be back in a few weeks for some more.'

Georgina showed her loved for animals again, yesterday, as she mounted her horse for the competition.

Wearing white jodhpurs and a tailored navy riding jacket, she looked every inch the professional equestrian as she glided over the fences.

Meanwhile her son, Jasper, looked smart in a straw boater, white shirt and Converse sneakers.

Georgina gave birth to her son in December 2013 with her longtime boyfriend Raimor Quintana, 38.

And despite separating since his birth, the pair remain friends and split parenting duties.

Georgina, pictured at the Longines Global Champions Tour in Miami yesterday, hopes to make the Olympics

This isn't Georgina's first competition, as she began the sport when she was four, and has already won over 50 Grand Prix titles and competed in 10 Nation Cup teams for the US

She has now found love with ESPN SportsCenter anchor Steve Weissman, and has shared a number of gushing pictures on social media.

But she has said getting engaged is not something at the fore front of her mind.

She said: 'I'm not against marriage, it just never mattered that much to me. But I love the idea of finding someone to be a great father figure to Jasper and to share my life with.
Victoria Beckham is the fashionista's favourite - not to mention the ever stylish mother of four, who seems to prove that women can have it all.

However, a new photo sweeping the web has onlookers wondering if even she was unable to escape the perils of a Photoshop fail.

In a series of stark images for Vogue China that show the designer with minimal make-up pulling bold poses, her Instagram followers have pointed out how one image seems to show a gap where a section of her upper thigh should be.

In her latest photoshoot, Victoria Beckham proved that even she couldn't escape the perils of a Photoshop fail, as Vogue China managed to accidentally remove one of her legs

Victoria posted the shots on her Instagram account yesterday, where they've been liked 152,000 times.

But the image left fans divided as many praised the pictures that see the mother-of-four showing off her lean, toned limbs and impressive flexibility, while others pointed out the 'Photoshop fail'.

In the offending picture, Victoria smoulders into the camera as she poses on her tip toe, holding her other leg close to her body.

But the 41-year-old appeared to be oblivious to the error as she shared the photo with her 9.8million Instagram followers, alongside the caption: 'Loved working on this shoot for @voguechina May issue.

'Thank u [sic] @inezandvinoodh, @wendyrowe, @georgecortina and @shayashual x vb.'

Some fans were quick to point out - what they interpreted as - an editing error.

As she stares seductively at the camera, Victoria appears blissfully unaware that part of her thigh is missing

Taylor_morcom, wrote: 'The pic when she is holding her leg the thigh of her back leg is missing'.

While Lorna_2109 added: 'Bad photoshop', Annahinchliff said: 'Photoshop fail', and Sakuraisme wrote: 'The detached leg tho.'

Friends of the star dismissed the speculation as 'nonsense', while others have said the effect is simply a matter of her skirt flying up at the back.

Estmanning wrote: 'Stunning!! Someone said the thigh of her back leg is missing but it's just her shirt.'

Pitrka added: 'She just have the white pans [sic] and it is look like missing leg [sic], you are silly ;).'

Josephinekent84, wrote: 'Her leg has been 'cut out' she hasn't it's the shorts coming underneath and between her legs.'

Shakyrajclaxton added that the 'Photoshop fail' was clearly just white knickers.

A number of fans were quick to pick up on the Photoshop fail as many questioned why part of her leg was missing

The followers assumed that the illusion of a missing leg was caused by bad Photoshop editing

The image left fans divided as many praised the pictures that see the mother-of-four showing off her lean, toned limbs

Nevertheless, most agreed that Victoria looked flawless in the rest of the snaps as her hair hung loose and wavy against a range of neutral garments.

And the former Spice Girl showed off her wilder side in bare feet and dramatic poses.

Fans also commented on how well the photos showed her personality.

Juliepurssey, said: 'These pictures make you look soft and stunning! Nice change from the hard exterior we see of you sometimes.'

The black and white images show the mum-of-four demonstrating her impressive flexibility in a range of quirky poses

Most fans agreed that Victoria looked flawless in the rest of the snaps as her effortlessly stylish blowdry swept elegantly against a range of neutral garments

Sources close to the star dismissed the speculation as 'nonsense', while others have said the effect is simply a matter of her skirt flying up at the back

Victoria posted the shots on her Instagram account yesterday, where they've been liked 152,000 times

The former Spice Girl showed off her wilder side in bare feet and dramatic poses. But even though she had a bit of fun with the shoot, Victoria still didn't crack a smile.

A representative for Victoria Beckham declined to comment.

MailOnline has contacted Vogue China for comment.

But even though she had a bit of fun with the shoot, Victoria still didn't crack a smile.

Victoria has focused on building a fashion empire, ever since leaving British pop group The Spice Girls.

Victoria has focused on building a fashion empire, ever since leaving British pop group The Spice Girls

The former Spice Girl showed off her her wilder side in bare feet. However, she didn't manage to crack a smile

It is normally Victoria's clothes that are shown off in front of the camera, rather than the designer herself

And it seems as though she wants to separate herself entirely from her former singing fame as it has been rumoured that she has also turned down requests to reunite with the Spice Girls, later this year.

It has also been suggested that she has rejected any interviews and appearances to do with the group.

A source told The Mirror: 'She's said no to every single suggestion.

'She's turned down performances, documentary involvement, even requests to be quoted on the anniversary.

'At the moment, her only priority is building the fashion brand.'
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 regulatory body for the Press set up in response to the Leveson Inquiry.

We aim to correct any errors as promptly as possible.

On December 7, 2014, we said Detective Constable Paul Alabaster had taken early retirement after failings in the Essex Police investigation of a sex attack on a five-year-old girl. We also wrongly suggested he decided the offence merited only words of advice. Although DC Alabaster was disciplined over a comment he made to the 12-year-old attacker, he had limited involvement in the case and was not responsible for its main failings or outcome. He retired for unconnected reasons having attained his full pension entitlement. We apologise for the embarrassment caused.

A report about foreign aid last week mistakenly said Conservative MP Anne Main is a member of the Commons International Development Committee. She is chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Bangladesh Group.

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-touse complaints form.

You can also write to Readers' Editor, The Mail on Sunday, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or contact IPSO directly at ipso.co.uk.
SUSANNA REID has reigned supreme for more than a decade on breakfast TV  and since joining forces with Piers Morgan on ITVs Good Morning Britain, ratings have soared. She talks to Richard Godwin about holding her own on the sofa and committed parenting post break-up

Susanna Reid wears JUMPER, Johnstons of Elgin. VEST (just seen), Asceno. JEANS, Gerry Weber. SHOES, Jones Bootmaker. NECKLACE, Bee Goddess. RINGS, Joubi, Sweet Pea and Merola

Susanna Reid has overslept only once in her career.

On most days, the presenter of ITVs Good Morning Britain sets her alarm for 3.20am  an hour she calls airport flight time, since most of us would only ever get up that early if there were the prospect of a holiday at the end of it.

She brushes her teeth, tosses something over her nightclothes and jumps into her waiting car.

The 15-minute drive is enough time to read the days headlines before she arrives at the studio at 3.45am, emerges from hair and make-up at around 6am and is ready to be on air at 6.30am  give or take three cups of coffee.

To say that Susanna, 45, faces the world with a sunny disposition would be an understatement. Its her job to be bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and bulletproof when most of us are still half asleep.

Were meeting at a South London photo studio at 9am on a Monday morning to discuss the Good Morning Britain Health Star Awards (for which she has nominated her mother, a former nurse).

She is wearing a slinky grey Ted Baker dress and a Whistles sheepskin jacket (both from the Good Morning Britain wardrobe  Im usually more of a TK Maxx woman).

What is so disarming on screen  firm handshake, professional smile  feels a little forbidding in real life.

Susanna wears JUMPER, VEST and SHOES, Topshop. JEANS, James Jeans. NECKLACE, Taylor Black. SILVER RING, Monica Vinader. GOLD RING, Merola

I wonder how she would go about dismantling this armour  what would Susanna Reid ask Susanna Reid if she happened to be sitting on her sofa?

Oooh! she ponders. Thats a good opener. The thing I get asked most of all is: Whats it like working with Piers Morgan?

What is it like working with Piers Morgan? The motor-mouth former tabloid editor, fresh from his not wholly successful spell in the US, joined the Good Morning Britain team permanently last November.

He and Susanna co-host Monday to Wednesday (she shares duties with Ben Shephard on Thursdays and takes Fridays off) and their on-screen chemistry has helped to turn around some disappointing ratings  over the past year there has been a five per cent increase in viewing figures and the programme gets peak audiences of more than a million. (Piers recently tried to stir up a bit of tension by asking: What would your kids say is your most shameful secret  other than Mummy fancies Piers?)

But she insists that shes unembarrassable on TV  You have to be!  however much Piers tries to rile her.

I describe him as a mini tornado. The chairs start spinning, the papers go everywhere, interviewees never know whats going to happen to them.

Has she learnt anything from him?

He always gives his interviews a bit of an edge. He takes them by the collar and shakes them until nuggets of headline fall out. We could all learn from that.

Susanna wears JUMPER, Chinti & Parker. JEANS, J Brand. NECKLACE, Bee Goddess. RING, Sweet Pea

I suspect he could learn just as much from Susanna, who was once voted the TV host the nation would most like to wake up to (one excitable reporter described her as the sexiest thing to come out of Croydon since Kate Moss).

I think of my style as positive. Why not make people feel good?

The co-hosts illustrated their easy chemistry after being thrust into the Sofa-gate debate (the BBC saw widespread criticism after Breakfast presenter Louise Minchin remained in the junior spot to the right of the sofa following the hiring of Dan Walker).

I didnt know there was a senior position, says Susanna, Piers is definitely the oldest presenter at the desk.

The pair even swapped seats live on air to see what difference it would make, I suddenly feel like I have more authority, Susanna joked.

She launched Good Morning Britain (successor to the disappointing Daybreak) in April 2014, having been poached from BBC Breakfast, where she was voted the shows most popular presenter ever, after 21 years at the corporation.

As for her influence on Piers, I calm down his excesses. We have a lot of respect for each other. People make a big deal about our banter and our

Flirting?

I dont flirt with Piers, but we are playful and antagonistic and it works.

And shes adept at coaxing male interviewees out of their shells. She once told Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys that she bet hed look good on the dancefloor, and she sucked her pen in what was deemed a lascivious manner while questioning David Cameron.

I describe him as a mini tornado. The chairs start spinning, the papers go everywhere, interviewees never know whats going to happen to them,' said Susanna of her Good Morning Britain co-presenter Piers Morgan

I didnt chew my pen for him  its just something I do, she says indignantly.

Does she detect a note of misogyny in these accusations? Male journalists get away with all kinds of behaviour without anyone questioning their integrity.

Im over it now, she says. In an interview, you aim to be disarming, interesting, engaged. Is that flirting? I dont know, but I hope its great telly.

She has a steely determination to get to the nub of things. Freddie Starr walked out of an interview when she asked him, after it was announced that he would not be charged with sexual abuse, if hed done anything that could have been misinterpreted. She also gave Ed Miliband a hard time over the cost of his weekly shop during last years election.

He was campaigning on the cost of living  and the estimate he came back with was out of kilter with what a family like his would spend.

She cites interviewing Cameron twice as a career highlight, but says that actor Will Smith was the most inspiring: Anyone will say that  his attitude is just so positive and delightful.

Shed most like to interview the Obamas, but, less obviously, Eminem.

Im a fan of his music and I think his life has been extraordinary.

Perhaps people underestimate Susanna because she makes it look so easy. Shes one of the few British presenters routinely called autocutie, a term usually reserved for U.S. anchors. I dont use an autocue, she says.

As for the cutie part, shes pretty upfront. We all do things to make ourselves look as good as we can; television is a visual medium.

The opportunity to move to ITV arrived at the right time, she says. She still feels great affection for the BBC and once said that the BBC runs through her like a stick of rock, but points out, If someone asks you to launch a new programme, you know that these opportunities rarely come up. The fact that it was 15 minutes from my home was a factor, but it wasnt the factor.

And if her current routine sounds gruelling, its a breeze compared to commuting to Salford three times a week as she did for her final two years at the BBC.

Susanna with her ex Dominic. Dom is one of my best friends, we see each other a lot, and were utterly committed to our boys,' she said

Back then, she made a point of coming home to pick up her children from school and cook dinner, so shed commute to Salford the night before, sleep in a hotel, record the show, then catch the train back at midday.

However, it was during this period that her relationship with Dominic Cotton, her partner of 16 years and the father of her three sons  Sam, 13, Finn, 12 and Jack, ten  ended, leading to speculation that the long hours away had taken its toll.

It was also cited as a case of the curse of Strictly; Susanna is one of a number of celebrities  including Natasha Kaplinsky and Denise Van Outen  whose relationships ended after they appeared on the show (she finished third in 2014).

Was it upsetting to have her relationship reduced to a tabloid cliche?

It is very neat for us in the media to make these associations. Actually, nobody knows whats going on. Things are much more complex.

The couple remained living under the same roof after the split and, while Susanna prefers not to go into the details for her sons sake, its fair to say that they still take a collaborative approach to parenting.

It was essential. Dom is one of my best friends, we see each other a lot, and were utterly committed to our boys. Were very open and loving with them.

'Nothing is off the table when it comes to discussing issues  I want them to know whats happening in the world and come up with their own opinions.

Susannas mum Sue as a staff nurse at Westminster Hospital, 1966

Susanna and Dominic are fortunate that both their mothers can help out with childcare  and its clear she sees her own mother as a role model.

Susanna grew up in Croydon as the youngest of three children and went to the fee-paying St Pauls Girls School.

Her mother Sue was a nurse and health visitor; her father Barry is a management consultant. They divorced when she was nine.

At the time, Susanna cried and cried, and says that the experience made her a commitment-phobe.

However, reflecting on it now, she doesnt feel that she lost out.

My mum was never a single mum. Both of them remarried. I always had two parents.

'Its like my situation  Im not a single mum. Im separated from the boys father but there are two parents involved.

Susanna recently brought her mother on to the Good Morning Britain sofa to talk about the Health Star Awards.

Sometimes you experience the most wonderful treatment but never get the chance to say thank you, says Susanna, explaining why she nominated Sue for the Community Health Star Award.

Shes the one any of us turn to when we have any kind of ailment. When I had my first son, she was there at the hospital with me. It was a long labour.

'I remember her turning to the midwives and saying: I think its probably time to get the baby out now, dont you? Sure enough, it was emergency caesarean time.

She credits her mother with sparking her ambition to become a journalist  Sue was once a section editor for Nursing Times magazine. Susannas juvenilia included a review of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at Croydons Fairfield Halls, which she submitted to the local paper aged ten.

It came back with a note saying thanks but no thanks. But I wasnt to be put off!

Later, she wrote articles for the St Pauls magazine, including an interview with The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick.

She said, Dont go to university. Be an entrepreneur. To this day, I regret not making that the headline  imagine the ripples that would have run around school.

At her mother's 75th birthday party earlier this year. Shes the one any of us turn to when we have any kind of ailment. When I had my first son, she was there at the hospital with me. It was a long labour,' she said

Susanna went to the University of Bristol, where she studied politics, philosophy and law, and edited the student newspaper, before completing a postgraduate degree in broadcast journalism at Cardiff University.

There is a long-standing rumour that she scandalised the Bristol campus by living with one of her lecturers, but she laughs this off.

He was never my professor and we only got together after I left. I remember that story coming out and thinking, Is that the best youve got? Woman has a relationship in her 20s? I must be pretty clean then, mustnt I?

Shes certainly unflappable.

Lets hear it for the healthcare angels The Good Morning Britain Health Star Awards is a brand new national scheme recognising those people who have gone the extra mile to help someones health or save a life, whether its a junior doctor, a GP, a community nurse or a member of the public. The three categories are Hospital Health Star, Lifesaver Health Star and Community Health Star, with entries nominated by viewers. The winners will receive their awards at a special ceremony on Thursday, to be hosted by Susanna and Piers Morgan at the Hilton Park Lane in London and airing on Good Morning Britain on ITV at 6am the following morning. Advertisement

One of the best pieces of advice that Bill Turnbull gave me was: When youre caught in a difficult situation, make it obvious that you know youre in one  and then get out of it.

'As soon as you pretend its not happening, you freeze.

Does that apply to life, too?

Oh my goodness, yes. Television is brilliant for teaching you life skills.

Susanna has a quick-witted, show-must-go-on approach to everything. When I ask her what scares her, she has to think hard.

Im a feel the fear and do it anyway person.

She does think up one incident, when she and the Good Morning Britain team participated in a charity event that involved her leaping off a high platform on to a zipwire.

But what Im even more scared of than heights is being defeated. I wasnt going to let it defeat me.

Nor is she scared of ageing, even in such a superficial industry as TV.

Things are changing. My closest friends are still doing great things  Carol Vorderman, Carol Kirkwood, Lorraine Kelly. If youre a brilliant broadcaster, why would you do anything else?

Has Piers inspired her to look to the U.S.? She seems startled at the idea.

I never look further than the next programme, she says. Ill be on the sofa tomorrow at 6am and who knows what will happen by 8.30am?

MUST REID

READING

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante. Shes an Italian writer and it was recommended to me by Sophie Raworth, my good friend from the BBC. I have since bought it for another friend; female friendship is important to me.

LISTENING TO

Jack Garratt, whom I heard perform live at the Brits. He plays loads of different instruments and is an incredibly talented singer-songwriter. I have his album Phase on repeat.

EXERCISE OF CHOICE

Zumba, because its dance that keeps you fit  its good fun and the music is great.

KENDALL JENNER OR KATE MOSS?

Kate Moss  shes from Croydon like me.

TAYLOR SWIFT OR ADELE?

Taylor when you want to bounce around and Adele when you want to wallow.

FAVOURITE CITY

London  its where I live and grew up; its where I love working.

LIFE MANTRA

Everything seems impossible until it is done. If you think something is tough then just imagine the point when you can look back and say I did that and it will motivate you.

FASHION ICONS

Debbie Dresses at Good Morning Britain because she picks our clothes and always chooses great stuff.

MUST-HAVE ACCESSORY

My wireless headphones because I listen to music all the time.

MAKE-UP BAG ESSENTIALS

A tiny pot of Vaseline because its great for glossy lips.

MOST TREASURED POSSESSION

Id love to say something emotional but Im afraid it would be my phone.

FAVOURITE FILM

I think all journalists love a film about journalism and my dream when I was young was to be a war correspondent, so I watch James Woods in Salvador regularly.
The current storyline in The Archers about a form of domestic abuse known as coercive control has transfixed listeners and sparked a surge in calls to a national helpline. But the subtle signs can be hard to pin down, as Anna Moore reports

She was a strong, feisty woman  independent enough to run her own award-winning business and raise a child alone by choice.

She met a handsome, old-fashioned alpha male and fell in love. They married in a whirlwind and she is now expecting his child.

And yet this is no happy ending  for the woman she once was slowly vanished. She became meek and isolated, entirely controlled by her husband.

Everything  from what she ate to where she went, to how she would give birth  was laid down by him because he loved her so much and only wanted what was best for her.

Only now, over two years since they met, is she beginning to grasp what is happening.

The intimate terrorism currently being played out between Helen Archer and Rob Titchener in the Radio 4 soap opera The Archers is gripping listeners across the country, precisely because so many women have encountered it in some form in real life.

The National Domestic Violence Helpline received 6,774 calls in February, up by nearly a fifth since last year.

The storyline has set social media ablaze and triggered a JustGiving rescue fund for the fictional Helen (more than 72,000 for the domestic abuse charity Refuge).

It has even forced Timothy Watson, the actor who plays Rob, to quit Twitter and Facebook to avoid the vitriol.

The intimate terrorism currently being played out between Helen Archer and Rob Titchener in the Radio 4 soap opera The Archers is gripping listeners across the country

Yet even for the most avid listener, its hard to pinpoint the moment the plot morphed from an intense love affair into a bone-chilling case of coercive control.

Was it when Rob succeeded in making Helen pregnant against her wishes in a carefully planned seduction? Or was it rape? (So hard to tell, when the act comes with compliments, kisses and refrains such as, Darling, youre so gorgeous, I just cant help it.)

Or was it when Rob decided pregnant Helen should stop driving, stop working and stop socialising because she was too tired? Or perhaps it was way before any of that, when Helen, newly in love, altered what she wore (from sexy to frumpy), what she ate and how she raised her son in her desire to please her man.

Coercive control  a form of domestic abuse which may involve no physical violence yet leaves the victim entirely controlled by the perpetrator  became a criminal offence last year, carrying a maximum prison sentence of five years.

For this reason, says Tim Stimpson, a writer on The Archers, there was a huge responsibility to get the fictional portrayal right.

The team has spent a great deal of time researching the issue, he says.

I had an incredibly enlightening meeting with a womens charity which reassured me that we were on the right track and also appalled me when I heard how extreme the manipulation can become.

Its a subtle, slow-motion stranglehold which creeps incrementally  perfect for radio.

Radio is intimate, says Stimpson. It can infiltrate our lives in much the same way that Rob has infiltrated Helens.

'The fact that The Archers is a daily story means we hear each tiny nuance and turn of the screw in real time.

According to Jane Monckton Smith, a criminologist who sits on the Home Office College of Policing scrutiny panel for domestic abuse, coercive control is the most dangerous form of household abuse  and the most sensitive time is when the victim begins to fight back.

People think of domestic violence as black eyes and broken bones, she says.

In fact, relationships where coercive control is present are nine times more likely to lead to homicide than relationships where theres violence.

'Coercive control is about manoeuvring someone into a position that makes it impossible for them to leave  getting you pregnant against your wishes, as Rob has done to Helen, is common as it makes you vulnerable so that it is harder to escape. And when you do try to get away, the danger level suddenly hits ten.

The National Domestic Violence Helpline received 6,774 calls in February, up by nearly a fifth since last year

So how exactly does it creep up? How can a middle-class, educated, feisty woman like Helen be subsumed by her partner?

Very easily, replies Clare Phillipson, director of Wearside Women in Need, the largest collection of womens refuges in the North East.

Though Phillipson has advised Northumbria Police on coercive control, what it is and how to spot it, she is adamant it could happen to anyone  even her.

Its partly the way were socialised, she says. When you meet a man who sweeps you off your feet, who makes you the centre of their universe, who sends you flowers every week, everyone will tell you how lucky you are.

'Everyone approves. If there are a few feelings of unease, you bury them because this is the dream.

Control slips in imperceptibly.

Youre all loved up and one day you tell your guy youre going out with your friends on Thursday night, says Monckton Smith.

He says, OK, maybe flashes a sad face. Then on Thursday night, just as youre about to leave, he turns up with flowers. Oh, he says, Id forgotten you were going out. Nine times out of ten, you cancel your plans. It has started. Youre being controlled.

From here, it can move quickly. One of the early steps for a perpetrator is to begin to isolate you.

Its often your parents first, says Monckton Smith. First, it will be, I dont think your mum likes me. Youll say, Of course she does Then itll be, Your mum hates me.

'Then therell be an argument, a misunderstanding, and hell say, I dont want her round when Im here, followed by, I dont want her here at all.

'You see his perspective because hes an arch manipulator. You back down for an easy life.

Slowly, others retreat into the background and your partners perspective becomes the only one (some psychologists have called this perspecticide).

You want to get the relationship back to those early, happy days so you make changes to meet his approval, to stop his sulks and silence sharp comments.

No sooner have you changed one area than hell encroach on another, says Phillipson. You try to reflect back to him what he wants to see and end up being a mirror of him. Your own reflection disappears completely.

Coercive control is a criminal offence, carrying a maximum prison sentence of five years

Monckton Smith uses the Stare acronym to help victims identify the common areas of control: Space, Time, Actions, Resources and Emotions.

Eventually, your access to the outside world is entirely mediated by the perpetrator, she says.

Where you go, what you do, how you dress, who you see and how you feel.

Katherine, now 41, a successful artist and mother of two, spent eight years in a marriage like this, and still finds it hard to pinpoint how she allowed it to happen.

My husband was very charming, successful, a high earner, the life and soul  Id been madly in love with him since art college, she says.

Over the years, though, he stopped her from working, claiming that the time she spent painting was ruining their relationship.

He drove her family away: whenever there was a family event, a wedding, birthday, Sunday lunch, hed find a last-minute reason they couldnt go, or make them so late as to cause offence.

She stopped seeing her friends as he got so jealous and the sulks werent worth it  though she remembers going to one 30th birthday party, dressed down, wearing her glasses to avoid accusations of flirting.

Katherines time was strictly monitored  if she became stuck in traffic on the way back from the supermarket, she knew thered be a scene (but only because he was so worried about her). Hed come home from work at lunch, or odd times, when she wasnt expecting him.

Sex became something she agreed to for an easy life  and the one time she said no, he forced himself on her anyway, then brought her a cup of tea next morning telling her she was the most beautiful woman in the world.

Gas lighting  a term inspired by the play Gas Light, in which a husband employed strategies such as dimming the lights to make his wife believe she was going crazy  was involved, too.

Hed hide my credit card or wedding ring, she says. Id be too scared to tell him, so hed watch me worry for days, constantly asking me, Are you missing something? I thought I was useless, friendless and losing my mind.

It can be a very long time before the lightbulb moment, says Phillipson.

The trigger can be anything  discovering he has said something about you to someone thats blatantly false, or quite often a betrayal. Or, even though hes jealous of you, you discover that he has been cheating.

Once it has happened, tread with great care.

First, talk to someone, says Phillipson. A trusted friend, your mum, a domestic violence helpline. Its absolutely essential that someone hears whats happening and helps bring you back to normality.

Monckton Smith agrees.

Seek expert advice, she says. At your local womens service, there are independent domestic violence advisors who can suggest ways of communicating safely.

Monckton Smith also advises keeping a diary. It will help you process your thoughts, understand what your partner is doing and, most importantly, provide evidence for a criminal prosecution once you are safely out of the relationship.

But do not keep it anywhere it might be found, she warns.

Always assume he monitors your phone and computer.

For Katherine, the beginning of the end came by chance, when her mother happened to notice Katherines husband flash Katherine a look  one that expressed disapproval.

By then, he could signal anything with a shift in his eyes, but my mum saw it and later asked me what it meant.

'I broke down and told her a few things. We arranged for me to go secretly for counselling once a week.

It took a year with Relate to unpick the abuse, build Katherine up and bring her back to reality before she was able to break away.

She began shifting clothes, toys and essentials to her mums house and arranging new school places for her young children. Her final escape is the stuff of any drama  her husband found out through spyware he had installed on a laptop.

He heard a recorded phone call to a friend in which Katherine discussed her plan to leave  and was racing back to the house just as she left in a hired van.

Though he contested the divorce and refused maintenance, Katherine obtained a restraining order and has never looked back.

Five years on, theyve moved on: he sees his children every other weekend and shes self-supporting, successful and utterly free.

She is also a loyal Archers listener.

When I hear Robs tight voice saying, Darling, I only want whats best for you, I want to scream, she says, but I think its brought the issue to life brilliantly. Im hanging on in there to hear Helen get away.

HOW TO SPOT COERCIVE CONTROL

A controller will try to manipulate you in these five areas:

S  SPACE

Can you go where you want  visit friends, your mum, go for drinks after work without consequences?

T  TIME

Does your partner insist on time limits when you want to do things, such as going to the shops?

A  ACTION

Can you do what you enjoy? Wear the clothes you want and eat what you like? Does your partner expect you to have sex when you dont want to, such as when you are ill, asleep, or otherwise unwilling?

R  RESOURCES

Do you have control over your money? Do you have unchecked access to a phone, car, computer, social networks?

E  EMOTIONS

Does your partner dominate how you feel? Can he influence if you are happy, afraid, worried?

Remember If your partner seeks control in these areas, and he feels better keeping you isolated, this could be dangerous for you  and your partner could be breaking the law.

Seek advice from the National Domestic Violence Freephone Helpline 0808 2000 247 (24 hours).




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The National Green Tribunal has appointed a local commissioner to inspect the premises of Coca Colas Hapur plant in Uttar Pradesh, and probe whether it was discharging effluents into a nearby pond.

The green panel directed Coca Cola to pay Rs 20,000 as fees to the Court Commissioner and asked him to and take pictures and video of the work done and file his report.

Considering the gravity of the allegations made against each other and its impact on the merits of the matter before us, we appoint advocate Palash Agarwal as a Court Commissioner to visit the premises of Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverage Pvt Ltd... He will carry out the local investigation as regards the boundary wall of the said company in the presence of the applicant and a representative of Respondent No 4 (Coca- Cola) and place before us the fact concerning the photographs, a bench headed by Justice UD Salvi said.

The Hapur plant is the third unit of the Coca Cola company to come under the green court's scanner

The direction came after petitioner Sanjay Kumar, who has sought restraint on the alleged illegal discharge of untreated waste water, submitted photographs before the bench showing effluents being released from northern side of the boundary wall of the premises into the pond.

The counsel appearing for Coca Cola refuted the claims and asked the tribunal to appoint a local commissioner to inspect the site in question and submit correct facts with regard to the boundary wall of the company.

The matter is listed for next hearing on April 21.

Coca Cola had come under the scanner of the tribunal after it issued notice to the company last year after finding alarming facts in an inspection report from the Central Pollution Control Board.

The green panel had also directed Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd (HCCBPL) to submit a drainage map of its plant in Hapur district giving details of sewage and trade effluents generated from the factory.

The Tribunal was hearing a plea by one Sanjay Kumar seeking restraint on the alleged illegal discharge of untreated waste water into the pond situated behind the Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages Pvt Ltd's plant in Hapur.

Meanwhile, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages may face disruptions at one of its bigger plants after environment watchdog National Green Tribunal issued a notice to the company seeking explanations on its plant's drainage and waste polluting the environment.

This is the third bottling plant of the top beverages maker to get embroiled in controversy over environmental issues, and going by past experiences it may impact its operations.

HCCB's plant at Plachimada in Kerala is no longer functional following local agitations while its plant in Varanasi is also facing local resistance over charges of ground water depletion.
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said measures will be taken to make the system "foolproof".

Responding to the vulnerability of its online service network, the Indian Railways is all set for a thorough cyber audit.

Identifying the passenger reservation system (PRS), online freight system, and railways communication network as the delicate areas, the ministry has ordered a zone-wise audit of the online system.

A meeting in this regard was held by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu on Friday. It was attended by Secretary (IT) Aruna Sharma and the Director General of Indian Computer Emergency Response System (CERT-IN).

We have ordered for a cyber audit of the entire online network linked with the rail operation in India. Audit will be conducted in each of the 16 zones of Indian Railways and measures will be taken to make the system foolproof, Prabhu said.

Sources said the audit has been triggered after a web page of the Personnel department in Bhusawal Division of Central railways was hacked, allegedly by terror outfit al-Qaeda in March this year.

The content of the web page was replaced by a message for all Indian Muslims to join Jihad and help in defeating America.

According to official sources, an average of 2,500 to 3,000 government websites are defaced by hackers every month.

A senior Rail Ministry official said the entire ticketing system of the railways is functioning online and any intrusion into the network would result in the collapse of the system, besides causing huge monetary losses.

Online freight booking, passenger reservation system and parcel bookings can be severely affected in case of a cyber attack. While these are mostly revenuerelated matters, an attack on the internal communication system can result in disruption of train operations, the official said.

Notably, internal communication between the train operators with operation controllers on stations is crucial for train operations.

Officials claimed an audit of various IT-related services in railways was conducted recently, but it is the first time that an audit of the complete railway system will be conducted.

The auditors will detect flaws in the system and suggest remedies, they said.

The agencies conducting the audit have professional expertise in cyber security and will work in collaboration with the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), which is responsible for ticket booking at railway counters.

Further, security and functional audits of the entire online ticket booking operations through Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will also be conducted.

Earlier, the IRCTC had conducted an audit of its system to check the misuse of the ticket booking website by touts.

Computer operations in Indian Railways started nearly 30 years ago with the setting up of the Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS), which develops and maintains most of the important information systems of Indian Railways.

However, since then, most of the zonal railways have failed to have an effective cyber policy in place that makes railways immune to such attacks.

Officials in the IT department said that IT Security encompasses understanding and management of risks involved; managing the network traffic and security, safeguarding IT assets, data, applications; infrastructure and personnel, selecting and implementing effective controls to ensure confidentiality, integrity and availability of the information and communication systems that store, process and transmit data.

Private web experts to help check crime

By Mail Today Bureau in New Delhi

Rajnath Singh recently said that cyber-assisted terrorism is the biggest danger to the world

Soon private cyber experts will work with the government to aid in cracking cyber crime cases.

These cases will not only be limited to tracking stalkers or women and child-related cases, as experts will proactively monitor snooping, data breaches and other high potential attacks.

The move by the Home Ministry came after the sharp increase of cyber attack cases, which have risen by 70 per cent in recent times.

As a first step, the Home Ministry has sought expressions of interest from organisations or parties working in cyber crime and the security domain, for participation in special presentations on April 12 and 19.

According to a senior official, interested companies will make a presentation on strategies to handle cyber threats and their capability to proactively monitor cyber space to prevent crimes against women and children.

India has seen a sharp increase in cases related to cyber staking, bullying and morphing images on social media websites. But the biggest fear looming over the country is how to defend it from international cyber spies and protect government infrastructure from malicious software, which could lead to a massive data breach.

We would like each of the companies to make a presentation to showcase their expertise in areas of fighting cyber crime and their understanding of cyber security, a Home Ministry official said.

Advanced tools and best practice in the management of cyber crime, companies' cyber crime security practice, and consulting experience are other areas on which interested parties can make their presentations.

Each company will be given a 45-minute slot to make their presentation.

Cyber attackers use masquerading techniques and hidden servers to launch snooping. As per government data, cases related to cyber crime in India have increased by 70 per cent in the year 2014 as compared to 2013. There was a 64 per cent increase in 2013 as compared to 2012.

But private experts believe that this is just the tip of an iceberg since government data only reflects reported cases, whereas most of the cases go unreported.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh had recently said that cyber crime and terrorism perpetrated through this domain are the biggest dangers to the world. The other face of terrorism is cyber crime. It is increasing rapidly. Cyber terrorists can hit any country from any part of the world.

These terrorists also target important installations and institutions through digital methods. The government recently stated that a Rs 400-crore cyber crime control hub, to be called Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (IC4), would be set up to check cyber crime, including child pornography and online abuse.

One of the top priorities of IC4 will be to check attempts by international gangs to penetrate the Indian governments official communication network and hack them, Singh said.

A security agency confirmed that recently a Mumbai-based payment gateway was targeted through a cyber attack. Indian companies tend to be secretive about such attacks. These attacks could expose loopholes in their security system.

The Managing Director (MD) of a popular ice cream manufacturing company in Hyderabad fell victim to cyber extortion as a hacker demanded $1,000 to free his data.

A malicious link to your email can cost you a fortune

By Shashank Shekhar in New Delhi

A Delhi-based pharmaceutical company may have to defreeze its computer data as hackers have seized control of computers and networks using malicious ransomware and are demanding $1.5 lakh in bitcoins (internet money) to unlock its data.

The company has not approached the police but has taken help from a private cyber security firm to secure the data.

According to an official related to the case, cyber criminals targeted the company by sending a malicious link via email, which helped them get access of companys data, eventually letting them unlock valuable information.

All the files have been encrypted and we could see it stored in the system but not access it. The minute we click on any file, it opens a decrypt browser, which asks for money. The hacker who has taken over the system is demanding $1.5 lakh to release the companys data. If we dont pay the amount they are threatening to double the amount, said a senior company official, adding that the computer network holds their clients data as well as the companys sensitive documents.

Cyber security experts claim that cases of Cyber extortions and Ransomware have increased many times, and that hackers are using malicious software to deny users access to their computers or files until they pay a ransom.

Mail Today recently reported that hackers demanded $500 from East Delhi-based businessman Prateek Sachdeva to get access to 500 GB of his companys data, personal pictures and videos stored in his laptop, which was locked using ransomware.

Sachdeva was left with no choice but to format his computer, thereby losing all the data.

In such cases, most of the leading companies resort to paying money to cyber criminals.

Hackers spread these malware devices using social engineering tricks, especially via email attachments. Once the computer is infected, the malware gets installed and scans the hard disk for documents. It then encrypts these files, converting them into an unreadable form.

Each time the victim tries to open a file, a pop-up message demands a ransom - adjusted according to the profile and worth of the victim - for the private key to decrypt files.

The message also displays a time limit within which the payment must be made or the entire data on system is destroyed.

Such cases are increasing at a fast pace and in most cases the victims do not come forward with complaints because they use non-licenced software. They also try to avoid the police as they fear negative impact and litigation by their clients for breach of privacy, Additional Superintendent of Police, UP-STF, Triveni Singh said.

Singh said most of the companies are paying the ransom amount, but there is never any guarantee that access to the locked data will be regained.

In the cases we have investigated, we found that they were being operated by organised gangs. Indian youths are also involved. Proxy servers are used for such attacks to show different foreign locations to confuse the investigators. These attackers track their potential targets on social media and other top sites and attack crucial persons in the organisation to get access of the computer network, Singh said.

Another senior officer of a central security agency confirmed that despite frequent cases of ransomware, no gang has been arrested in India so far due to lack of cyber infrastructure, and there have been no transfers of real money as in most of these cases, online money (bitcions) was used.
In the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight, there is a scene where Phil Saviano, the character who plays the child sex abuse survivor, narrates his story before the investigative team of Boston Globe.

I was not prayed for, but preyed upon, says Saviano, recollecting the trauma he had to endure as an 11-year-old at the hands of his parish priest.

It is not just physical abuse, it is spiritual abuse too, he says in a torrent of emotional outbursts.

A still from the Oscar-winning movie Spotlight which features a character who is a child sex abuse survivor.

Savianos narrative about priests using the collar to rape kids can be applied to a different category of abuse victims in India: conversion therapy survivors.

Conversion therapy is a highly discredited medical practice indulged in by a section of doctors that seeks to convert homosexuals into heterosexuals in a matter of months.

Like the priests who exploit the trust and vulnerability of kids and often get away with it due to their exalted position in society, the doctors who claim to cure (read abuse) gays too have little to worry about by way of any consequences for their actions.

The gay cure doctors exposed in an investigation last year epitomises this attitude.

Dr. Vinod Raina, a former doctor with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and one of the five gay cure doctors mentioned in the Mail Today report, shrugged off dismissively as nothing to be worried about, when asked about a Delhi Medical Council notice issued to him, based on our news report.

This is when, by his own admission, Dr. Raina, had treated over 1,000 homosexuals by fiddling with their hormones, a procedure which his fellow practitioners have dubbed as extremely hazardous.

If Dr. Rainas test tube remedy for homosexuality is hormone replacement therapy, there are doctors who resort to even more brutal methods in the name of curing gays.

A conversion therapy survivor this newspaper spoke to as a part of the story talked about how a total of 21 electric shocks were administered to his skull in vain by a psychiatrist over a period of three months to cure his homosexual tendencies.

Yet, despite clear violation of medical ethics and human rights why do these doctors think that they can get away lightly from any impending legal or disciplinary action from either the victims or the medical board?

The answer to that is, like pedophile priests, the gay cure doctors too take advantage of a society that regards them as next only to God and believes in shielding them from prosecution at any cost.

For a long time, the paedophile priests in America had little to fear from the courts. Thanks to a slew of Roman Catholic judges and attorneys, who believed that their primary responsibility was in protecting the diocese and in shielding the priests rather than ensuring justice to the victims.

Even today, after a public apology and promise of action by Pope Francis himself, any tangible impact of his talk on predatory prelates are negligible.

In the case of gay cure victims, the challenge is even bigger. To bring the unethical doctors to book, the victims first have to tide over the societal bias and prejudice of a largely homophobic society.

This is especially true in India. Unlike the Western system, we do not want to bring shame to our families, says Ashok Rowi Kavi, LGBT activist.

Our families, communities, do not want such (gay cure) stories to come out, he says.

This prevents conversion therapy survivors from coming forward and narrating their ordeal, as the shame such disclosures can bring on the entire family, far outweighs any presumed benefits.

The case of a homosexual man who approached the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in 2001, seeking relief for the shock therapy he endured at the hands of AIIMS doctors illustrates this apathy.

Despite stating that he suffered serious psychological and emotional trauma as a result of the treatment over a period of four years, the NHRC dismissed the complaint saying that homosexuality was a criminal offence in India.
Some Indian fishermen returning home after spending time in Pakistani jails could be a security threat to India.

Intelligence agencies fear that fishermen, who are imprisoned across the border are probably being radicalised and might be used by terror groups and spy agencies.

All states and intelligence agencies have been asked to closely monitor those who are returning from Pakistan after serving a jail term.

Police have been asked to keep a watch over those fishermen who have returned to India after serving a jail term in Pakistan

Keep a close watch on those who return from Pakistan after serving a jail term as they may have been radicalised. It is pertinent to mention the context here, which is - fishermen from Gujarat who are caught while fishing in territorial waters are lodged in Pakistan jail where they are susceptible to radicalisation, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) said in a letter reviewed by Mail Today.

The matter was also discussed in the security conference, which was also attended by Prime Minster Narendra Modi in Kutch, Gujarat, in December.

A senior government official said: Director General of Police of all the states and UTs have been asked to keep a close watch on activities of those who return to India after serving a jail term in Pakistan. Also, cops have been asked to keep a record of their details like residence, movements, etc, the official said.

Goodwill gesture?

Last month, Pakistan released 86 Indian fishermen, who were arrested for allegedly trespassing into its territorial waters, as a goodwill gesture.

The fishermen were freed from the Malir jail in Karachi. A majority of them belonged to Gujarat, while a few others were from Maharashtra and West Bengal.

Sources say that nearly 600 Indian fishermen are still lodged in Pakistani jails.

They were held by the Pakistan Marine Security Agency while fishing along the International Maritime Boundary Line.

Also, almost 900 boats of Gujarati fishermen are in the custody of Pakistani authorities. Each boat costs Rs 40-45 lakh and fishermen suffered as the boats and trawlers were not returned.

State police chiefs have been asked to submit a plan by April on counter-radicalisation. The Ministry of Home Affairs is also closely following the de-radicalisation strategy of all states, sources said.

Home minister, in a meeting attended by the heads of security forces and intelligence agency, said a specific plan of action to counter as well as control radicalisation should be made. The plan should take into account the spread of radicalisation in neighbouring countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and its consequent impact on India, an official said.

Also, the states affected by radicalisation are requested to prepare action plans to check the spread of radicalisation and send the same to the Intelligence Bureau by April.

Sources confirmed that after receiving the plans, a meeting of the police chiefs of the affected states, IB and R&AW would be organised to finalise the action plan, which will then be shown to the Home Ministry.

Counter steps

The government has also asked forces to have different approaches to check radicalisation.

Counter-radicalisation involving disengagement of the target from pursuing radical ideology, de-radicalisation aimed at changing beliefs and thoughts of affected individuals and security measures involving legal and penal action may be considered, according to a note on internal security challenges in the country.

Also, there is a need for an intelligence-based action plan targeting the leadership of radical organisations.
Rama Naga claims that his suspension was revoked on March 11

Jawaharlal Nehru Univeristy Students Union (JNUSU) general secretary Rama Naga on Saturday alleged that the university has denied him fellowship citing his suspension due to the Afzal Guru controversy, a day after another JNU scholar Shweta Raj had levelled the same allegations against the varsity.

University officials, however, said they will be able to look into the issue on Monday as the administration is closed over the weekend.

Rama claimed the university has denied his fellowship stating that he was still under suspension even as the University had revoked his suspension on March 11, after a high-level committee probing the issue submitted its report.

How could we attend classes if we were still under suspension. The administration told me that they can't disburse my fellowship because they do not have information about my suspension being revoked, Rama said.

Rama and Shweta are among those students who were suspended by the University, following an enquiry in connection with the event in campus against hanging of the Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Now there is also a notice by the hostel warden that we will not be given food if the bill is not paid, Rama said.

University Registrar Pramod Kumar said he wasn't aware of the issue of fellowships raised by the students.

I will look into why their fellowships have been denied or whether they have been denied on Monday as the office is closed over weekend. As far as the hostel notice is concerned, it is not for these students in particular but for everyone to clear their dues, he said.

Both the students have claimed that the fellowship amount question pertains to July 2015-January 2016 period and hence the university should have no grounds to deny that in connection with the February 9 event which happened much later.

The university is yet to decide on the punishment for the students in connection with the incident after the probe panel had submitted its report over the controversial incident.

Three students JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya were arrested in a sedition case over the event.

They are now out on bail. The Afzal Guru event had snowballed into a major controversy after six students, including Rama Naga, were arrested and booked for sedition.
MsB.R.writes: I came home from work at Tesco on December 14 to find a letter from a company called CCMCC saying that Merthyr Tydfil Borough Council had applied to my local county court for an order attached to my earnings.

I rang the council and found this related to unpaid council tax of 400, but I have never lived in Merthyr Tydfil. Apparently I have a county court judgment against my name and it is looking to collect 40 a month from my pay.

I am a single parent with three children and cannot afford this, nor can I afford a solicitor to fight it.

Wrong employee: The council and the Derby court knew that the real debtor worked for Tesco, so asked the supermarkets wages department for details - someone there set them on to you

It has taken a few months to unscramble this mess because of the number of people and organisations involved.

Meanwhile, you and your children had Christmas ruined  because you were frightened by the size of the debt and the threatened loss of income, and your children did not understand what was happening and were afraid you were going to be carted off to prison for failing to pay your bills.

CCMCC is not a company. It is the County Court Money Claims Centre. In effect, it passed on to you a message from Merthyr Tydfil council.

I asked the council what had led it to your door. Why did it believe you had lived there and owed council tax? Also, I suggested officials should call off their legal dogs unless and until they were 100 per cent certain you were the debtor.

The council pretty much pulled up its drawbridge. It told me it had contacted you to provide some clarity. It added an error has been made by another party. What did all this mean? What clarity? What other party? The council refused to say.

But behind the scenes, it contacted Derby county court, which had issued the original judgment, and told it: Any court action that has been taken against Ms B.R. must cease immediately.

It added: Her employer Tesco must be notified to cancel the attachment of earnings order. Any money deducted from pay should be refunded at once.

Demand: Merthyr Tydfil council chased the wrong person over a debt of 400

This was fine in as far as it went, but since you have never lived or worked in Merthyr or Derby, it did not explain why you were chased for someone elses debt.

The explanation came from an official at the Derby court. It seems it was given your name and address by Tesco, which has an employee with a name similar, though not identical, to yours. The council and the Derby court knew that the real debtor worked for Tesco, so asked the supermarkets wages department for details. Someone there set them on to you.

It is a shame no one made other checks, such as full name and address or national insurance number, which would have shown it had identified the wrong person.

Tesco told me: We take great care to ensure all our colleagues personal details are handled in the correct way at all times. In this instance, following a request from Merthyr council, our colleagues details were given in error.

The firm has apologised for the distress caused and next Christmas you will get three weeks leave with full pay to help make up for the shadow cast over last Christmas.

Can we release my husbands pension cash?

MrsJ.S.writes: Can you tell me if my husband has any hope of releasing his pension money, invested with Legal & General years ago.

We have been told the proceeds, about 36,000, were transferred to Nationwide Building Society in 1999, but we have been informed the account is now closed and the money is not available.

Your husband was the beneficiary of a retirement policy and in 1999 asked L&G for the proceeds so they could be credited to his Nationwide account. The amount sent was 36,634.

He told me that he has no recollection of using the account, and believes Nationwide closed it as dormant.

This should not happen, so I asked Nationwide to investigate. It found full records of the account almost immediately, and told me: Mr S paid the cheque from Legal & General into his Nationwide account in November 1999. Since then he has made a number of withdrawals, which has reduced the balance of the account.
Vodafone issue: Laura Harris, a freelance market researcher from North London, told of her shock 2,000 bill

A fight to leave the Vodafone network, even after contract tie-ins have expired, is a recurring theme for some customers.

Last year Laura Harris, a freelance market researcher from North London, told of her shock 2,000 bill triggered by a big spike in data usage on her mobile  16 times the usual.

After The Mail on Sunday intervened Vodafone cut the bill in half.

Following that experience, Laura stopped using the phone and cancelled her contract when it came to an end in November.

She paid what the customer service adviser told her was due and received a letter confirming the contract would be cancelled in 30 days.

But she continued to be billed for line rental and even received a letter from a debt collector. Despite calling Vodafone and being reassured that the matter would be dealt with, another bill arrived, prompting another lengthy call.

Laura, 36, says: Not only is this causing a lot of stress but it is affecting my credit rating and I am seriously fed up with Vodafones inability to cancel a contract properly  especially when we have done exactly what was asked of us and I havent used the phone for over a year.
Poor customer service is the Achilles heel of far too many firms in the personal finance world we diligently report on week after week.

Often, the bigger the company, the poorer the commitment to customer service. Think ScottishPower, Npower, big banks (take your pick).

Its so wretched it has spawned one of the countrys few thriving industries  ombudsman offices.

Deluge of complaints: The mantle for worst customer service provider of all (the wicked witch) must surely go to Vodafone

These independent arbiters are popping up everywhere and have never been busier as they deal with a deluge of complaints that should never have arrived at their offices.

Disputes that should have been resolved long before they got to an ombudsman but didnt because of non-existent customer service.

Yet the mantle for worst customer service provider of all (the wicked witch) must surely go to Vodafone. For the past ten months, The Mail on Sunday has winced at the inept way this phone giant deals with problems.

All companies  even those renowned for stellar service such as First Direct, Nationwide Building Society and Metro Bank  make mistakes. Most then go out of their way to resolve them, thereby repairing any reputational damage.

But not Vodafone. It makes mistakes and then perpetuates them. Rather than righting a wrong, it digs a hole for itself  and then keeps digging.

Like other companies that have suffered from woeful customer service  Santander in the past, Npower and ScottishPower more recently  a bungled IT upgrade is the root cause of the problems at Vodafone.

But it has perpetuated the fallout by failing to put in place an effective (well trained) customer service support operation to mop up the mess.

Snowballing errors: Vodafone makes mistakes and then perpetuates them and rather than righting a wrong, it digs a hole for itself

As a result, unhappy customers have had to run the gauntlet of an obscure complaints process, deal with staff powerless to help them, while pulling their hair out as their dispute is ping-ponged around Vodafone departments that seem determined not to speak to one another.

Its not good enough. Its not fair  and it can only be a matter of time before the company is given a multi-million pound fine by its regulator Ofcom.

Will Vodafone ever get its customer service act together? Maybe in time (maybe pigs will fly as well) although its probably too big, too beholden to its shareholders and too short term in its mind-set to ever take customer service as seriously as those providers that have fairness coursing through their veins.

By contrast, Yorkshire Building Society sent out a questionnaire last week inviting respondents to judge it on corporate responsibility  how fairly it treats customers, employees and supports communities.

It takes these issues incredibly seriously. Vodafone doesnt even know the meaning of the word fairness.

Finally, since my colleague Laura Shannon has been acting as a proxy complaints handler for frustrated Vodafone customers since June last year, The Mail on Sunday is tempted to send it an invoice for her services.

But then, the bill would probably get lost in the wreckage that is Vodafones customer service.

Different stance: Yorkshire Building Society sent out a questionnaire last week and invited respondents to judge it on 'corporate responsibility'

As with the meltdown at Vodafone, The Mail on Sunday has led the way in reporting about the devastating impact of bank branch closures on local communities.

The big banks have not been deterred. They continue unchallenged to remove a vital cog from many of the countrys high streets, even when the doomed branch is the last bank in a seemingly thriving community.

No wonder some experts believe that the banks are hurrying along the death of the high street.

In recent days it has been suggested that some 400 bank branches will be axed this year with HSBC leading the way.

Gone: HSBC has confirmed more branch closures this year than it carried out in the whole of 2015

Such a forecast seems about right. In February, we published a list of 80 branches that HSBC had either already shut this calendar year or put on notice of impending closure. On Friday, the bank told us that this list had grown to 110  54 already shut, 56 on death row.

In other words, with just over three months gone, HSBC has confirmed more branch closures this year than it carried out in the whole of 2015 when it shut a record 109.

Visit thisismoney.co.uk/hsbc-closures to discover if your HSBC branch is doomed. The probability of it being among the condemned 56 is six per cent.

At least there is a sliver of good news for those who like to stroll along Kings Road in Chelsea  or who are fortunate enough to live nearby. Metro Bank is going against the flow by opening a new branch there this Friday.
The Government is keen to get households to chase value for money, but many workers struggle to find the time to analyse every penny spent on energy or earned on savings.

Laura Shannon looks at services aimed at lazy switchers who want a better deal  for minimum effort.

Stress-free: Benjamin Bateson, with partner Danielle Powell, has his stock market investments constantly 'rebalanced' by experts and used his savings in August last year to put down a deposit on a home

Household bills

Gas and electricity bills have risen sharply in recent years. But few householders take their business to a rival supplier often enough  if at all  despite an opportunity to save hundreds of pounds a year.

A new company called Flipper says it will not only compare tariffs on your behalf, but organise the switch automatically too  up to four times a year.

The service costs 25 a year, rather than being free, because it neither takes commission from suppliers nor sells your data to third parties. And it will only apply the fee if it can find savings of at least 50 a year.

Once you hand over permission to Flipper, it handles all future switching.

Another company targeting those who like a simple life is Utility Warehouse, which aims to eliminate any need for switching altogether by undercutting rivals.

The provider has no mass marketing budget, relying instead on word of mouth to boost business. The late Sir Terry Wogan was an ambassador for the company, which is listed as Telecom Plus on the London Stock Exchange.

Utility Warehouse offers simplicity in the form of one bill for energy, mobile, broadband and landline.

Drowning in expensive bills? A new company called Flipper says it will not only compare tariffs from the 'big six' on your behalf, but organise the switch automatically too  up to four times a year

It manages the switch from existing providers and will pay up to 200 to help release homeowners from the clutches of an old mobile or broadband provider  which often charge penalties for ditching them before an introductory offer expires.

It guarantees savings on gas and electricity compared with the average of the cheapest variable tariffs offered by the big six suppliers  EDF, npower, British Gas, ScottishPower, Eon and SSE (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy).

So while it does not promise the cheapest deal available, the contract will always remain competitive. And if the big six lower their prices, you automatically pay less too.

You will still be told about cheaper tariffs, in case you get a burst of energy and want to switch yourself.

Hard work: The Government is keen to get households to chase value for money, but many workers struggle to find the time to analyse every penny

Utility Warehouse also helps with mobile contracts. Traditionally these are made up of a tariff plan, which includes your call and internet allowance, and the cost of a handset, which is spread over a number of months.

But users often continue to be charged a higher fee even after the handset is paid off. The price does not alter unless the customer remembers to do something about it.

With Utility Warehouse monthly costs do not rise mid-contract and customers will not continue to be charged for handsets once they are paid off  the bill falls without you doing anything.

The line rental that you must pay for home broadband and a landline is slightly lower than most major providers charge, at 16.20 a month. The cost of calls to landlines and mobiles in the UK is also guaranteed to be less than with BT, Sky, Virgin and TalkTalk.

If a customer signs up to the Double Gold bundle  which includes energy, mobile, broadband and landline  but makes no savings compared with previous providers, Utility Warehouse promises to refund double the difference.

Investments

Putting money into the stock market is a daunting prospect, especially for those with little time to research shares or funds.

Investment companies have come up with a solution  funds of funds, also known as multi-manager funds. If stock picking is the investing equivalent of flat-pack furniture, a fund of funds is the ready-built alternative.

Investors pool money in one fund, which a manager uses to invest in a range of other funds. Investments are selected according to how much risk you are willing to take with your money.

In theory, a fund manager can add or deduct funds to boost performance, without you needing to say what to buy or sell. Investments are switched for you.

They are offered by firms such as Standard Life, via its MyFolio range, and Schroders, through its multi-manager portfolios. They can be held in a tax-friendly Isa or self-invested personal pension.

Solution for those with limited time: 'Funds of funds', also known as 'multi-manager funds' allow investors to pool money in one fund, which a manager uses to invest in a range of other funds

However, investing in funds of funds is not always cost-effective and you still need to pick an overall fund you believe will do well.

John Blowers, head of investment website Trustnet Direct, says: Funds of funds allow you to diversify risk and harness the expertise of loads of different managers. But they have to cover the underlying fund charges and apply their own too, so they can be expensive.

Alternatively you can use a discretionary investment manager. This style of investing used to be reserved mainly for rich people, who could afford the bespoke fees, but now there are cost- effective online companies for ordinary people of modest wealth.

Much like a fund of funds, a discretionary investment manager asks for your risk appetite and builds a portfolio accordingly.

Among the newcomers are Nutmeg, SCM Direct and MoneyFarm. They invest primarily in exchange traded funds (ETFs), which are cheap, track an index and are traded on stock exchanges. Blowers says: Discretionary managers take all the decisions and manage everything for you so are hassle free.

> Our pick of the best and cheapest DIY investing platforms

Money help: A discretionary investment manager' asks for your risk appetite and builds a portfolio accordingly

On Thursday last week, Cardiff-based Wealthify was launched for anyone with a minimum 250 to invest.

Money goes into mutual funds as well as ETFs, and its team is made up of bosses from protection insurance broker ActiveQuote and a chartered wealth manager.

Such online discretionary management companies rebalance portfolios on a customers behalf.

This is why Benjamin Bateson opened a stocks and shares Isa with Nutmeg. The 27-year-old works in financial services and started saving with the online firm about three years ago, not long after its launch in 2012.

He used his savings in August last year to put down a deposit on a home in Dollis Hill, North-West London, which he bought with his partner Danielle Powell, 27. Now he is working to build his Isa savings again.

He says: I had clients who invested with the firm, which is how I came to learn about it before it became well known. I wanted to invest for better returns but didnt want to have to pick everything myself.

Yet another option is to get help from an independent financial adviser, who can assist in picking funds and give you a nudge when change is needed.

For help in searching for an adviser near you  and for guidance about how to find the right adviser in the first place, such as questions to ask in a first meeting, visit the website unbiased.co.uk.

Banking

Switching bank accounts is a burden few of us have patience for. But the Current Account Switch Service automatically changes direct debits and other payments, such as wages, with added protection.

David Black, an independent financial researcher at DJB Research, says: The service has made it easy to switch, and with its guarantees and timelines has removed worry and uncertainties. Many of the switching incentives offered by banks or comparison websites are restricted to those that use the switch service.

But your old account will be closed and that may not suit everyone.

More than 40 banks and building societies offer the guarantee, meaning most of the current account market is covered. The service is free to use.

Customers tell the new bank or building society that they want to use the service and choose a date for the switch.

Burden lifted: The Current Account Switch Service automatically changes direct debits and other payments, such as wages, with added protection when switching bank accounts

The process takes seven working days, with direct debits, standing orders, salary or pension payments and any savings transferred automatically to the new account.

Any stray payments to or from the old account are redirected to the new one for up to three years.

Should anything go wrong, resulting in bank charges or lost interest, the new bank will issue a refund. To find out more about how it works, visit simplerworld.co.uk.

What the service cannot do is choose an account for you. For this you can try price comparison website Gocompares midata tool.

It forms part of the Government backed midata initiative  designed to give consumers access and control over their personal information and financial history. This helps you find the right account for you.

Gocompares tool analyses a year of bank account transactions  including overdraft fees, foreign exchange charges and interest earned  to find the most competitive account.

> This is Money's five of the best current accounts

Savings

Many savers have received letters from their banks in recent weeks with the news that rates on their accounts have been cut.

Such disappointing reminders are so commonplace that few bother to move their cash, as the hassle appears major and the rewards small. But it can make a big difference in time, especially for those relying on their nest eggs for income.

Anyone with savings of 100,000 or more who does not regularly review rates should consider handing over responsibility to the concierge service of independent rate scrutineer SavingsChampion.

Timely: Andrew Nebbett's cash savings are run by a third party so he can focus on work

The online and phone-based firm (0800 010 6007) takes care of the research and paperwork needed to move your cash to a better paying deal  only your approval and signature is needed. You still have a direct relationship with each bank and accounts remain in your name. The service promises to be upfront if it cannot improve your wealth.

Savings are distributed between accounts to ensure every penny is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

An initial one-off fee of 0.1 per cent of savings applies, followed by a yearly fee of 0.2 per cent, charged quarterly.

Andrew Nebbett is ready to hand over the reins to SavingsChampion. He has long received its emails about best-buy accounts but never found time to act on them.

The 53-year-old runs his own furniture design and antiques business with wife Christine, 51. They have two sons, Joe, 18, and Kit, 15, and live near the workshop in Devon. He says: I work long hours and dont have time to constantly move money around, so we are delighted to hand the work to someone else.

Andrew knows that moving his savings would make a big difference over the years, but to do it himself he says he would need to be retired.

When youre working other things take priority, he says.
Don't ask fund manager Douglas Brodie for his view on Brexit and its potential impact on the UK stock market. Or for that matter his take on the US presidential election in November and its effect on American equities.

Why? Because you wont get detailed answers  hes not particularly interested.

While most of the investment community is busy pontificating about Brexit and the US election, Edinburgh-based Brodie prefers to focus on what he does best  hunting down the business success stories of the next decade. Firms which he reckons will transform the industries they are in.

Uninterested in Brexit: Edinburgh-based Douglas Brodie, fund manager at investment house Baillie Gifford, prefers to focus on what he does best  hunting down the business success stories of the next decade

Brodie, who works for investment house Baillie Gifford, says: Im a stock picker. The young businesses I invest in will not live or die according to the outcome of the referendum or the presidential election. Their future will be determined by the quality of management and of the underlying business.

He employs his stock picking skills as manager of investment fund Baillie Gifford Global Discovery, which he has managed since launch in May 2011, and more recently investment trust Edinburgh Worldwide.

With both vehicles, his mission is in theory simple  to scour the world for listed businesses with market values of less than $5billion (3.55billion) which he believes have the potential to become big, successful firms.

It involves painstaking research, travelling the globe to meet the heads of companies he is thinking of investing in, and then patience waiting to see if the investments pay off. Winners  his term for holdings that come good  are run with, even if their market values break the $5billion threshold.

So far, Brodie can hold his head high. With Global Discovery approaching its fifth anniversary, it has delivered returns of more than 80 per cent. Over the past three years, only one other fund in its global growth peer group  Fundsmith Equity, run by the legendary Terry Smith  has a better investment record.

Edinburgh Worldwides record is less impressive  up five per cent since Brodie took over in January 2014, though it is too early for hard and fast judgments to be made. Unlike the fund, the trust holds a small portfolio of unquoted companies.

Among his success stories for Global Discovery are Americas Tesla Motors, which he bought in early 2013 at $36 per share, and French biopharmaceutical firm Cellectis, bought in June 2013 at 4.8 (388p). Last week, they were $265 and 26 respectively.

High: With Global Discovery approaching its fifth anniversary, it has delivered returns of more than 80 per cent

I bought Tesla shares around the time it produced its first electric vehicles, says Brodie. It was a classic case of backing a business on the cusp of commercialisation. Its proved a winner. Equally, Cellectis has proved a winner as it revolutionises the way cancers are treated.

Both have changed the shape of the industries they are part of.

Global Discovery has recently made it on to fund broker Chelsea Financial Services list of 100 elite funds. Managing director Darius McDermott says it is not for the faint-hearted because of its strong growth bias, but the returns so far are excellent.

Brodie admits his approach is high risk, high reward, but says he strives to reduce individual stock risk by holding more than 100 firms in both Global Discovery and Edinburgh Worldwide.

Were not trying to beat an index by the odd percentage point, he says. Were looking to buy as many investment gems as possible in the hope of making multiple-times returns on our money.
Legal funding: Burford provides money upfront and is repaid  with extras  once cases have been settled

Burford Capital is an unusual business. It lends money to companies so they can fund lawsuits.

Lawyers are traditionally paid by the hour but, as litigation cases become increasingly expensive, businesses are looking for other ways to finance them.

Burford provides money upfront and is repaid  with extras  once cases have been settled.

The group employs 60 experienced commercial lawyers to make sure it lends to companies that are likely to win their cases and its record is impressive. For every 100 loaned, it has received back 170.

The company has funded itself largely through shares issued in 2009 and 2010 and a 90 million retail bond launched in 2014. Now it is back with another bond  offering 6.125 per cent interest and maturing in October 2024.

The amount raised will be fixed over the next week or so and the bonds are likely to be popular.

Midas verdict: Burford has done well so far and the interest on this latest bond is highly attractive. Sophisticated investors should take a closer look.
The Indian-born steel magnate planning a rescue buyout of Tata Steels British business has threatened to walk away unless a deal can be reached to make it profitable almost from day one.

Sanjeev Gupta, boss of international commodities group Liberty House, told The Mail on Sunday: I am not going to do anything that is not profitable almost immediately. If that is not the case, then I am not in.

The profit target sets a high bar for any rescue given that the business is losing Tata more than 1million a day and suggests a deal by Gupta is far from certain.

Tough times: Gupta is the only potential buyer named so far for the struggling Tata Steel UK business, which employs 15,000 workers, many at the Port Talbot steel mill in South Wales

It will also fuel doubts among those who have questioned whether Liberty House has the resources to take on the Tata UK steel business.

Gupta, however, said it was within his groups ability. I can do it. Whether I want to do it and whether it gives me a return, I need to find out, he said.

Gupta added that he would also not be interested if he concluded the business could not be rescued without job losses. I would not be able to handle it psychologically if I had to put people and their families on the street, he said.

Gupta is the only potential buyer named so far for the struggling Tata Steel UK business, which employs 15,000 workers, many at the Port Talbot steel mill in South Wales.

Tata Steel, which put the site up for sale late last month after struggling to sustain the operation in the face of low-cost imports from China, will send out an information memorandum tomorrow to up to 50 possible buyers.

Gupta said his focus so far had been on a business plan for the steel plants and he had yet to look in detail at energy costs at the sites and the 15billion Tata Steel pension fund.

But his demand for immediate profitability suggests he will want the company to be free from the pension fund and with lower electricity costs.

On the market: Tata Steel put the Port Talbot site up for sale late last month

Cambridge-educated Gupta plans to close Port Talbots blast furnaces and replace them with electric-powered arc furnaces. He said the swap would probably mean more, rather than fewer, jobs and he would plan to keep all workers employed and retrained.

Arc furnaces at Port Talbot would then be able to provide cheaper raw slab steel to the other Tata Steel operations which produce more refined products.

He added that he was primarily interested in these downstream operations and could yet decide to buy only parts of the business and leave behind Port Talbot.

His plan also involves sourcing steel and iron from British scrap to be turned into high-grade steel.

Gupta said he was unaware of any other bidders but said he expected others to emerge. It is thought the management of Tata Steel in the UK is preparing a bid backed by a mystery financier.

Local visit: Business secretary Sajid Javid visited Tata steel workers earlier this month in Port Talbot, Wales

Liberty House has operations around the world and turns over 2.5billion.

In recent years it bought up a major steel mill in Newport, South Wales, where it carried out a conversion to arc furnace production. Late last year it bought part of Caparo, an Indian-owned steel maker in the UK that had gone into administration.

All of the Big Four accountancy firms are engaged in working for Tata or related parties involved with the sale of its UK steel assets.

Sources said EY was last week hired by the Government to advise on its options, amid speculation the Government may provide some support to a buyer to keep the UK steel industry alive.

The Department for Business would only say it was in the process of appointing financial advisers.
Tesco is set to announce a surprise sales uplift this week as chief executive Dave Lewis gives a bullish appraisal of its prospects.

The supermarket giants management is understood to be increasingly confident that the business is gaining momentum.

Respected Tesco analyst Dave McCarthy at HSBC believes it may say comparable store sales, the Citys preferred measure of healthy demand, increased by more than 1 per cent in the past three months.

Turnaround: Tesco chief executive Dave Lewis is set to give a bullish appraisal of its prospects on Wednesday

The news, due on Wednesday, that Dave Lewis has a firm grip on the companys turnaround is likely to send a chill through rivals boardrooms.

Tescos sales momentum is set to continue building. Tesco is on a virtuous circle and is pulling many suppliers along with it to mutual benefit, said McCarthy in a research report.

Lewis, widely referred to as Drastic Dave, arrived in September 2014 to a business in turmoil.

Within a month he uncovered a 326 million accounting black hole, which resulted in the suspension of several directors and an ongoing investigation by the Serious Fraud Office.

The company may have benefitted from price cuts stimulating volume growth, McCarthy said.

He also said the way market research firms track Tesco sales, relating to the way big supermarkets redeem vouchers, could have masked Tescos recent sales performance.

Lewis expects operating profit  an underlying figure that strips out one-off costs  to be no higher than about 950 million for the year to February 2016 and has vowed to plough any additional funds raised straight back into the business.

Tesco lost 6.4billion the previous year on a pre-tax basis, which includes the costs of rescuing the business from its accounting crisis. Forecasts for this years pre-tax profit range from 294million to 897million.

Flying high: Analysts say that the supermarket's stabilisation is credible and important and that they expect to see a more resilient Tesco at the results presentation, one that is more confident about its future

Analyst Clive Black at stockbroker Shore Capital said: Given the shambles management inherited, the stabilisation is creditable and important. We expect to see a much more resilient Tesco at the results presentation, one that is more confident about its future.

Lewis hopes that its own-label Farm brands will establish a battle line to combat discounters Aldi and Lidl. He is also expected to say he cut debt to about 5billion by selling Tescos South Korean supermarket chain.

Analysts will be keen to hear how other changes to the business have affected its total liabilities, including debt, pension deficit and lease commitments, which were previously close to 20billion  a staggering sum when compared with Tescos 15.5billion market value.
Jayne-Anne Gadhia has never forgotten some startling advice she was given by a male boss early in her career. Now the chief executive of Virgin Money and one of the highest profile women in the banking world, she bristles as she recalls his comments.

I remember him calling me one day and saying: I think you could do quite well here Jayne-Anne, but youre too emotional and you dont have the skills needed to be a good sales person.

I asked what were the skills needed to be a good sales person? And he said: A thick skin and bull***t.

Gadhia, 55, says she only started to think about feminist issues at work after becoming a Government adviser on gender balance in finance and when she began to delve into the subject, the data was devastating

I remember feeling wounded and I went away thinking if that really is the quality that organisations want for their head of sales, no wonder they get themselves into trouble.

Gadhias career started after she trained as an accountant. She has been through a string of Britains leading finance firms including Ernst & Young (now EY), Norwich Union (now Aviva), Royal Bank of Scotland and now Richard Bransons finance group, where as chief executive she earned 1.6million last year and more than 3million the year before.

In March, Virgin Money said its full-year underlying pre-tax profit rose 53 per cent, helped by growth in its core mortgages, savings and credit card businesses which outpaced the market. Underlying pre-tax profit rose to 160.3million for the year from 104.8million a year earlier.

Gadhia, 55, says she only started to think about feminist issues at work after becoming a Government adviser on gender balance in finance. A report was commissioned by the Treasury last summer. It has become known as the Gadhia review.

She says: When I was asked to look into this issue I was surprised because I have never really been associated with feminist issues or the womens agenda. Ive never belonged to any womens groups.

But when she started to delve into the subject, the data was devastating. I was really shocked that financial services are much, much worse than any other sector in the UK economy for the progression of women, she says.

Is it because women go off and have their families and just dont come back to work? Absolutely not. Childcare is not the point. Because obviously women have children whatever job they do and financial services is still the worst for progressing their careers.

Her own board at Virgin Money is arguably a glowing example of equality with a 50-50 gender split.

Gadhia's recommendation that bosses bonuses should be linked to how well they get gender balance right has since had high-profile support, including from Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England

Gadhia, who lives in Edinburgh, cuts an imposing figure at 6 ft 1 but is warm and down to earth in demeanour. She has a daughter with her accountant husband Ashok.

Her recommendation to the banking industry, issued last year, hit where it hurts. Bosses bonuses, she says, should be linked to how well they get gender balance right.

It has since had high-profile support, including from Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England. But not everyone approves. She says: Sometimes men say to me, This is outrageous, why are you giving women our jobs?

I did a presentation a few months ago and at the end a man said: I feel really uncomfortable that youre saying that jobs should be made available for talented women. What about talented men? And somebody tweeted, Oh well, women wont get any jobs on merit then, to which the answer is: Yes, of course they will.

Theres this funny thing in our society where focusing on gender balance means some people think that dilutes capability, which is of course an outrageous comment. And probably demonstrates why we have the problem that we have to start with.

She says: My mother died recently and my father is very ill, so Ive spent a lot of time with the National Health Service and I reckon Ive seen more women doctors than men. It wouldnt occur to me that theyre either male or female. Theyre all just brilliant. We dont think were diluting the quality of doctors, do we?

Lloyds Banking Group has signed up to a new Women in Finance Charter alongside Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland to commit to adopting proposals in the review last month

Banks including Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland signed up to a new Women in Finance Charter to commit to adopting proposals in the review last month.

It is not just men who have questioned the idea. Newton Investment Management chief executive Helena Morrissey, founder of the 30% Club  a group of chairmen aiming to achieve at least 30 per cent women on FTSE 100 boards  warned that the focus on bonuses may backfire and cause resentment.

It has even been suggested that the campaign could deter women from working in the Square Mile.

Gadhia continues: I asked why dont we deal with the issue in the same way as any other target that firms are supposed to deliver?

If it was like any other target then somebody would have responsibility for it and if they missed the target theyd lose money.

If you are going to have a strategy and set targets, youve got someone accountable and the consequence is then part of your remuneration.

Gadhia says: 'Richard Branson was 100 per cent different to the "thick skin and bulls**t" - one of the things thats helped me is that Virgin has quite a feminine culture and that was quite empowering for me'

Gadhias first encounter with Richard Branson was 20 years ago when Virgin first entered financial services to offer insurance in partnership with Norwich Union, her former employer.

At the time it was a very tiny thing called Virgin Direct, she says. And the Branson culture was very different from the macho culture of thick skin and bulls***t.

Richard Branson was 100 per cent different to that. One of the things thats helped me is that Virgin has quite a feminine culture and that was quite empowering for me.

At Norwich Union Id definitely felt constrained by the organisation, she says.

But she admitted she still sometimes catches herself behaving like a man. She says: I notice what men do if they disagree with you is that they just keep talking loudly. I think in a meeting with women everyone has their go. You finish your bit and somebody else says something.

Theres a male thing Ive experienced where before you get to the end of your sentence, somebody doesnt agree with you and theyll talk over you.

To address that I respond in kind. Ill go: No, no, no. I WANT TO TALK LOUDER! Shut up and listen.
Nudge: Kaan and Beklem Azmi, with Kerem, left, Deren and baby Kayden

Kaan Azmi is happy to spend time finding better financial deals  but only since he discovered a tool that reminds him to do so.

He uses a free online bill management service, BeeMyMinder, which stores key financial documents in one place.

So when he needs to make comparisons using an old policy or deal as a benchmark, he does not have to waste time fishing out the information he needs.

Kaan, 36, lives in Bexley, Kent, and runs IT recruitment company Russell King Associates in Eltham, South-East London. He and his wife Beklem, 34, have three children, Kerem, 9, Deren, 7, and one-year-old Kayden.

He says: I started using BeeMyMinder when I was looking to switch home insurance over a year ago. Now I get reminders when it is time to renew and I have quick access to details such as my insurance policy excess  so I can compare like-for-like.

And I can add useful notes. For example, I have a record of companies I liked the look of last time, in case they come up with a competitive quote at renewal.

Or I can make a note of when I last provided my energy supplier with a meter reading.

Once you sign up for an account, you can either input the details of a bill manually or upload the documents direct from your computer.

BeeMyMinder  which claims to take the sting out of financial decision-making  encrypts data, meaning it is kept private. It cannot see the bills you upload.

It is listed on the Data Protection Register, as required by law, and does not store your bank account details. It makes money via commission, when customers take products from companies it partners with.

The service was developed by New Zealand-born Nigel Brokenshire after he paid twice for landlord insurance and also accidentally drove his car uninsured, forgetting that his policy had lapsed.

A separate tool exists for documents relating to your car. Previously known as Motoriety, it is now called Automyze and is part of vehicle recovery group the AA.
His accomplice in the robbery was paroled in February 2004

His failing health saw him placed in a medical unit a week ago

Jack Harry Smith (pictured), 78, died of natural causes on Friday 38 years after he was put on Texas's death row for killing a man during an armed robbery. He had always maintained his innocence

The oldest person on Texas's death row died of natural causes at the age of 78 on Friday - after 38 years waiting to be executed.

Jack Harry Smith was convicted 38 years ago in October 1978, after a fatal shooting during a $90 robbery of a Houston store.

'I feel that the system is waiting for me to pass away of old age,' Smith told Associated Press in 2001. 'I'm angry at the justice system, at the courts for wasting taxpayers' money for giving me this hospitality.'

Only three of about 250 prisoners now awaiting execution in Texas have been on death row longer.

Smith had been in poor health for years - in 2001 he told Associated Press he had cancer - and was taken from death row to the medical facility at the Estelle Unit in Huntsville a week ago.

He died Friday afternoon, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said.

Smith was on parole for a robbery-assault life sentence in 1978 when he and an accomplice were arrested for robbing a Houston convenience store known as Corky's Corner.

During the robbery, Roy A. Deputter, who lived behind the store and and used to help out the owner, pulled out his own gun and exchanged fire with the robbers.

He was shot in the heart and head, killing him.

A witness identified Smith as one of two gunmen - one armed with a shotgun and the other with a pistol - but Smith maintained he wasn't in the store when Deputter was killed.

The accomplice, Jerome Lee Hamilton, testified against Smith. Hamilton received a life sentence while Smith was given a death sentence.

Smith, a former welder who completed only six years of school, arrived on death row on October 9, 1978. He'd been there since.

He attempted to fight his conviction, but a federal appeals court rejected arguments by his lawyers and in 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court refused an appeal.

Smith had convictions for robbery-assault and theft in 1955 and another robbery-assault conviction in 1959 that earned him a life prison term. He also tried to escape prison in 1963.

The Supreme Court rejected a previous appeal from Smith in 1985, but little happened in the case after that. Unlike procedures now in place, no deadlines then forced appeals to move through the courts. Attorneys suggested the trial judge, who died in 1997, wasn't inclined to move the case forward.

Hamilton was paroled in February 2004. Smith said he was offered a life sentence before his trial but refused to plead guilty to a crime he said he didn't do.
The NTSB is now investigating to determine why the plane went down

Rescue crews could not reach crash site by helicopter so had to hike

Plane crashed in snow and high winds on top of a mountain

Morgan Enright, 21, was pulled from the wreckage and flown to a hospital

Pilot David Galla, 60, Greg Scheff, 61, and Thomas Siekawitch, 57, were killed when their Cessna 206 went down on

A 21-year-old woman is the lone survivor of a plane crash that left three people dead.

Pilot David Galla, 60, Greg Scheff, 61, and Thomas Siekawitch, 57, were all killed after the aircraft went down on Admiralty Island in south east Alaska on Friday.

Morgan Enright was pulled from the wreckage and flown to a hospital in Juneau in a critical condition.

The head of a rescue group that hiked on a snowy mountain to the wreckage of the Cessna 206 said it crashed around 20 miles southeast of the village of Angoon.

Morgan Enright, 21, (left) was pulled from the wreckage after a plane crash killed three people in Alaska. The aircraft (right) went down on Admirality Island

(Left to right) Pilot David Galla, 60, Greg Scheff, 61, and Thomas Siekawitch, 57, were all killed in the crash

High winds prevented rescue helicopters from landing at the crash site.

A Coast Guard helicopter crew was able to lower members of the Sitka rescue team to a location near the site, and they then hiked 400 feet up a mountain through snow to reach the plane.

Enright (left) is the daughter of Chere Klein, a longtime legislative staffer who ran for the Alaska state House in 2014. She was flown to hospital after the crash in a critical condition

The commuter airplane is owned by Sunrise Aviation in Wrangell.

A woman who answered the phone at Sunrise Aviation said the air charter company had no comment.

Sunrise Aviation offers sightseeing flights and transportation to lodges and commercial boats, along with other services, according to its website.

The six-passenger aircraft left Wrangell for Angoon in 23 mph winds gusting to 34 mph, the Coast Guard said in a release.

The plane's emergency locator beacon activated, alerting the Coast Guard that it was in distress. Sunrise Aviation also contacted the agency.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

It's not known what caused the plane to go down.

Enright was headed to Angoon to work on a ferry terminal project, according to the Alaska Dispatch News.

She is an equipment operator at Ketchikan Ready-Mix and Quarry. Her father owns the company.

Enright is also the daughter of Chere Klein, a longtime legislative staffer who ran for the Alaska state House in 2014.
28-year-old was charged with first-degree burglary and held without bond

Deputies did not find any clothes in the washer, use of the shower or Lemmings' phone in the house

Jarred Lemming (pictured) was found naked inside a Woodstock, Georgia, home

A 28-year-old man was found completely nude after he broke into a man's house in Woodstock, Georgia, by crawling through the dog door, authorities said.

Jarred Lemming told Cherokee County deputies he knew the homeowner and entered in order to shower, wash his laundry, and use the homeowner's WiFi.

Lemming was arrested and charged with first-degree burglary.

A neighbor called the sheriff's office on Wednesday and reported seeing a man climb out of a lawn company truck parked down the street.

He saw the man scale a fence and crawl through a pet door in the back of the Woodstock house, according to police reports cited by the Tribune Ledger News.

Lemmings was found completely naked inside, and initially resisted deputy orders to put his hands up because he was busy covering his genitals, according to WMAZ.

When asked why he was naked, Lemmings said he wanted to wash his clothes because they smelled of gas.

Lemming also claimed he was there to shower, even though police found no sign the shower had been used and no clothes in the washing machine.

Lemming's phone was found in the truck parked down the street, contradicting his comments about running out of data and needing to use the WiFi.

He told deputies he lived with the homeowner and helped him recover from surgery a year ago, police reports stated.

But Lemmings entered the house without prior notice because he 'did not want to bother him', WMAZ reported.

The homeowner, who has not been identified, confirmed he knew Lemming but said the 28-year-old did not have permission to be in his home.

He also told deputies he suspected a break-in earlier this year because he noticed the channel had been switched on his TV, according to the Tribune Ledger News.

His washer and dryer had also been left on different settings and his shower curtain had been drawn on the opposite side.

The 28-year-old was charged with burglary under the Family Violence Act since the two men had previously lived together.
11 per cent would back third party, four per cent would vote Democrat

In total 34 per cent said they may not vote Republican at general election

With Ted Cruz's upset victory over Donald Trump in Wisconsin last week, talk of a contested Republican convention reached fever pitch as the math seemed to stack up against the frontrunner.

Even Trump himself seemed to sense the mood change as he brought Paul Manafort, an expert convention planner, into the ranks of his campaign team this week.

But if the GOP are intent of dethroning Trump at a contested convention, they may want to think again as a third of the billionaire's supporters say they would turn their back on the party afterward.

A poll of Republican Trump supporters has revealed that 34 per cent of them could fail to support the GOP at a general election if he wins the delegate count, but is denied the nomination

That figure includes 11 per cent who said they 'don't know' what they'd do if Trump is denied the party nod, while another four per cent say they would vote Democrat to spite the party

Reuters and IPSOS asked almost 500 of Trump's Republican backers what they would do if Trump topped the delegate count, but did not get the nomination.

While 66 per cent of people said they would still vote for the party at a general election, 34 per cent were open to the idea of abandoning the GOP in the eventual contest.

Of those, 11 per cent said they 'did not know' what they would do if Trump were robbed of the nomination, while another 11 per cent said they would support a third-party candidate.

Six per cent of that group said they would not vote in the general election, while four per cent said they would back the Democrats in order to spite the Republicans.

Elizabeth Oerther, 40, a Trump supporter from Louisville, Kentucky, said: 'If you don't give it to him, I'm going to vote against them. They want to take away the choice of the people. That's wrong.'

Worryingly for senior GOP figures, 16 per cent of those polled said they would leave the Republican party altogether if the nomination is stolen from under Trump.

Chuck Thompson, 66, a Trump supporter from Concord, North Carolina, added: 'If they broker him out, I'll be fed up with the Republicans.

'The people want Donald Trump. If they can't deal with that, I don't need them.'

Worryingly 16 per cent of Trump supporters say they would leave the Republican party altogether if Trump does not get the nomination, a potentially devastating blow in a general election

'Never Trump' campaigners, whose hopes rest on Ted Cruz , are now faced with the possibility of nominating Trump, which they believe will hurt the party, or denying him the nomination, which would have the same effect

Donald Green, an expert on election turnout at Columbia University, said: 'If it's a close election, this is devastating news.'

He added that the departure of even a small number of Republicans would make it tough for the party to prevent the Democrats from winning the White House, especially if the election is again decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of battleground states.

Meanwhile Trump has spoken of 'riots' among his supporters if the nomination is taken away from him, a statement seen by his critics as a veiled threat.

Still, the polling suggests the so-called 'Never Trump' movement has found itself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
The Director of Public Prosecutions has vowed to bring to justice real-life Robs whose emotional abuse of partners has been highlighted by the storyline gripping The Archers five million listeners.

At least a dozen men have been charged with coercive control, the criminal offence introduced 15 weeks ago to curb manipulative behaviour by abusive partners.

And in tribute to BBC Radio 4s fictional treatment of an increasingly desperate Helen Titchener, who was driven to stab her husband Rob, Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders pledged: Real-life Robs are being brought to justice.

Helen Titchener, played by Louiza Patikas, right, and Rob Titchener, played by Timothy Watson, left, brought the issue of emotional domestic abuse to the forefront of public attention on The Archers

The Archers storyline on controlling or coercive behaviour has helped illustrate how incredibly destructive but nuanced this abuse can be.

In a relationship where one person holds more power than another, victims can suffer severe psychological and emotional abuse, even if the behaviour seems loving to the outside world.

The number of arrests was revealed by Phil Owen, an associate at the College of Policing, who specialises in teaching forces how to investigate the new crime and acted as an adviser to the radio soap.

He told The Mail on Sunday: I know its about a dozen cases so far, it may be more but its too soon for the figures to be collated nationally.

Forces are taking this issue very seriously and have upped their game to deal with perpetrators.

I have even been using the Archers plot when I have been doing my training sessions. Some police officers were aware of the Archers story. Coercive control is a real risk for men and women.

Some people dont understand why victims dont just leave the home, but officers have to understand how victims become trapped by controlling behaviour.

Until the new law  which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence  came into force on December 29 last year, police traditionally relied on a black eye, bruising or other physical injury to trigger investigation for domestic abuse.

Forces across the country have now been trained and encouraged to consider charges for a pattern of behaviour intended to threaten, degrade and remove freedoms to scare or punish a victim.

The offence set out under section 76 the Serious Crime Act 2015 (England and Wales) refers to controlling or coercive behaviour in intimate or family relationship.

Victims  whether women or men  may be deprived of a mobile phone or cash and isolated from friends and family.

Alison Saunders, director of public prosecutions, has vowed to bring domestic abusers to justice

They may also be criticised for poor parenting, cooking skills or their clothes, and even banned from leaving the home.

But Harry Fletcher, a criminal justice expert who helped draft the law, said he was concerned by the low number under investigation.

He said: There are about 1.2 million cases of domestic abuse a year and about half of victims complain of being coercively controlled.

Ive also been told its a dozen cases so far, and thats bitterly disappointing. But what weve also got to do is to ensure that the courts take this manipulative behaviour seriously and take into account the pressure, stress and anxiety the victim has gone through before committing an offence, being charged and prosecuted.

In two cases dealt with by the courts so far, both defendants admitted engaging in controlling or coercive behaviour.

A defendant at Carlisle Magistrates Court on March 14 was given a two-year community sentence and ordered to pay 145 in costs.

Another on March 15 at Taunton Magistrates Court in Somerset was given 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

In the Archers plot, however, Helen Titchener has been charged with attempted murder while Rob is being treated for stab wounds in intensive care.

Womens Aid and Refuge, which run a national domestic abuse helpline, report a 17 per cent increase in the number of calls over the past few weeks as the storyline gripped the nation.

Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs Council domestic abuse lead, said: It is important that we take the time to understand what is really going on, we listen to victims and their families and look for signs of coercion and control.

In the most complex situations where the perpetrator also becomes a victim, we must seek to understand the full picture.
British aid helped revive the economies of two of Chinas biggest steel-producing areas.

The Department for International Development (DFID) paid 21 million to fund a project aimed at turning around a number of loss-making state-owned businesses in Liaoning and Sichuan between 1999 and 2004.

The two provinces used to be areas of economic decline but now Liaoning is a major producer of pig iron and steel, while Sichuan is one of Chinas largest producers of coal, energy, iron and steel.

Burning issue: A steel factory in Liaoning province. British aid helped revive the economies of two of Chinas biggest steel-producing areas - Liaoning and Sichuan

China has been blamed for the crisis in the British steel industry by dumping cheap products into countries including the UK  threatening more than 40,000 jobs here.

A DFID spokesman said: DFID ended financial aid to China in 2011.

'A China/UK partnership on humanitarian emergency response has been set up to help boost resilience to disasters in developing countries in the Asia region.

But the British aid is still flowing. Figures seen by The Mail on Sunday reveal that taxpayers will send 1.4 million to China this year through this new partnership.
A restaurant called 'Uncle Ho' has been slammed by the Vietnamese community who claim the name is a 'culturally insensitive' reference to communist leader Ho Chi Minh.

Hundreds are expected to protest outside the Vietnamese-style street food eatery in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, and demand a name change.

Dr Bui Cuong, who escaped from Vietnam during the war, said the name gives refugees who fled the country 'nightmares'.

'The communist people called him Uncle Ho. That is Ho Chi Minh. He is a mass murderer, a dictator,' Dr Bui told The Sunday Mail.

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A restaurant called 'Uncle Ho' has been slammed by the Vietnamese community who claim the name is a 'culturally insensitive' reference to communist leader Ho Chi Minh

'I am very against the name Uncle Ho because that brings back the bad memories, the nightmares for people who lost their families. Every time they think about it, they cry.'

The restaurant has reportedly refused to change the name because it is 'too expensive' and argued that there's 'two sides to the story'.

'We love your passion for our food and drink and there's two sides to the story we think,' the owner wrote on Facebook.

Ho Chi Minh led the Vietnamese nationalist movement for more than three decades, fighting against Japanese, French and US-backed South Vietnamese forces.

Hundreds are expected to protest outside the Vietnamese-style street food eatery in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, and demand a name change

Dr Bui Cuong (left), who escaped from Vietnam during the war, said the name Ho Chi Minh (right) gives refugees who fled the country 'nightmares'

He remained president of North Vietnam from 1945 until his death in 1969. In July 1976, Saigon was officially renamed Ho Chi Minh City after the leader.

In the 20 years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, around two million people left the country in a mass exodus to escape the communist regime, with hundreds of thousands dying on the journey.

Dozens of people have vented their frustration at the name of the restaurant and said they would continue to protest until it is changed.

Kristina Vu told Seven News: 'It is completely disrespectful to the memory of those who died because of this person.'

One Facebook user commented: 'Why not open a restaurant called Uncle Osama bin Laden or Uncle Hitler.'

Another said: 'That is so culturally insensitive'.

Jade Pham, whose father was placed in a prison camp during Ho Chi Minh's regime, said the name was a 'slap in the face'.

'Ho Chi Minh was a dictator and murderer. Would this business owner have considered opening a Nazi-themed restaurant called 'Uncle Hitler'? I don't think so,' she said.

'Now seeing 'Uncle Ho' so lightly thrown around is like a slap in the face, adding insult to injury. My dad risked his life fleeing by fishing boat to get away from this man.'

The restaurant has been contacted for a comment.

In the 20 years after the Vietnam War ended in 1975, around two million people left the country in a mass exodus to escape the communist regime, with hundreds of thousands dying on the journey
A married Air Force squadron commander sacrificed himself when a former FBI agent opened fire at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, according to reports of the incident.

Lt Col William A Schroeder, a weather officer who commanded several Special Operation units over the past decade, was identified on Saturday as the man shot dead by Tech Sgt Steven D Bellino, a former FBI agent who later enlisted in the US Air Force.

A statement from the Air Force did not name the gunman, but a federal official close to the investigation said Bellino opened fire on Schroeder on Friday.

'Know that Bill went out swinging,' Matthew Nugent posted in a Facebook group, the San Antonio News Express reported.

'He selflessly gave his life to protect our (first sergeant) and countless others who were in the building.'

Lt Col William A Schroeder was shot dead on Friday morning at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in Texas

Schroeder was married to his wife Abby and had two sons, Noah, 7, and Mason, 3

It is not clear who Schroedr was protecting during the assault - he was married to his wife Abby and had two sons, Noah, 7, and Mason, 3.

Schroeder joined the Air Force in 1999 and in 2014 he became a commander of the 342nd Training Squadron.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person isn't authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Schroeder was killed in an apparent murder-suicide. The gunman has been named as Tech Sgt Steven D Bellino

Bellino was an FBI agent for less than two years before resigning in May 2013 and later enlisting in the Air Force, an official said. Pictured above are military and law enforcement personnel at the scene of the shooting

Bellino was an FBI agent for less than two years before resigning in May 2013 and later enlisting in the Air Force, the official said.

Schroeder was a weather officer who commanded several Special Operation units over the past decade, according to the Washington Post.

'The 37th Training Wing mourns the loss of our airmen and family members,' said Brig Gen Trent H Edwards, commander of the wing. 'Our primary focus at this time is to take care of the family and the men and women who are grieving our losses.'

It wasn't clear on Saturday how Bellino acquired his rank in a relatively short time with the Air Force.

The shooting sent the base into lockdown on Friday as authorities searched room to room to make sure there weren't additional victims

Two Bexar County Sheriff's Deputies, left, stand outside a building near the scene of a shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Friday, April 8, 2016, in San Antonio

A technical sergeant is a rank above a staff sergeant and below master sergeant. Bellino could have had prior specialized training that allowed him to enlist at an elevated rank.

The shooting occurred at about 8.30am on Friday in a first-floor office of Forbes Hall on the base.

Forbes Hall, which is a large building holding classrooms and a theater, is used by airmen in training for Special Operations.

The discovery of the bodies sent the base into lockdown on Friday, as authorities searched room to room to make sure there weren't additional victims.

Two Glock handguns were found near the bodies on Friday, and military officials are trying to determine whether Bellino was authorized to have a weapon on the base, where the possession of firearms is heavily restricted.

The firearm restrictions apply not only to Lackland but also to Fort Sam Houston, the Randolph air base and another installation that comprise Joint Base San Antonio, which has more than 80,000 full-time personnel and is the home of Air Force basic training.

The base was put on lockdown around 8:30am local time Friday morning. Above, an ambulance at the base

Officials confirmed that the focus of police activity was on Building 147 at the base

Military personnel are seen inside Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas April 8, 2016

FBI officials walk behind an military vehicle near the scene of a shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Friday, April 8, 2016, in San Antonio

First responders and FBI agents gather near the scene of a shooting at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Friday, April 8, 2016, in San Antonio

The base is home to several schools and day care centers, which were also placed on lockdown Friday morning

Lackland, established in 1941, is the only basic training base for new recruits of the Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve.

Friday's shooting, which the San Antonio Express-News reports caused officials to abruptly end a nearby military training parade with thousands of spectators, is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the last several years.

In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist before killing himself.

About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc Ivan A Lopez, who also killed himself.

And in the deadliest attack to occur at a US military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a shooting in 2009 at Fort Hood.

Nidal Hasan, a former US Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.
Kelless Twohearts Lory, 58, of Stone Mountain, Georgia, was treated for poison after he drank an unknown liquid in court on Thursday

A retired Georgia police officer convicted of molesting a nine-year-old girl drank poison in court as the guilty verdict was announced, authorities said.

Kelless Twohearts Lory, 58, of Stone Mountain, was treated for poison after he drank an unknown liquid from from an over-the-counter vitamin bottle in a DeKalb County Court on Thursday.

He had just been charged with two counts of aggravated child molestation and two counts of child molestation.

Lory was taken into custody following the sentencing and was transported to DeKalb Jail, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

It was at the jail that deputies learned that Lory had consumed a poisonous liquid and transported him to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Lory, who was arrested in December of 2014, faces two life sentences plus 40 years and will be sentenced at a later date.

He was found guilty of molesting the girl, who was a family member, between July 2011 and July 2012.

The victim, who testified at the trial, was nine years old when the abuse began.

Lory is a retired officer of the Chamblee Police Department. He previously worked for MARTA Police. He was retired when the abuse occurred.
A teenage Islamic State supporter has allegedly attacked a former Australian soldier in the prison cell they shared.

Bourhan Hraichie, 18, allegedly used a sharp object to carve an Islamic state message into the 40-year-old man's head during the attack at Kempsey prison in New South Wales on Thursday afternoon.

The carving read 'e4e,' an apparent reference to the terror group's 'eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth' mantra.

It is alleged Hraichie also poured boiling water onto a towel he placed on his cellmate's face, Nine News reported.

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Bourhan Hraichie (pictured) has allegedly attacked a former Australian soldier in the prison cell they shared

He allegedly used a sharp object to carve an Islamic state message into the 40-year-old man's head during the attack at Kempsey prison in New South Wales

Following the attack, the general manager of the prison was stood down.

'I have decided to suspend the general manager of the correctional centre pending the outcome of this investigation,' NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

'If you are radicalised and at risk of engaging in violent extremism, you need to be locked up.

'You need to be very highly controlled.'

The 18-year-old was a known supporter of IS and had been caught sending graphic images of beheadings to other IS extremists housed in Goulburn a senior prison source has said.

His cellmate was rushed to Port Macquarie hospital with serious burns to his face and injuries to his head and sternum. He has been placed into an induced coma.

NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin confirmed the attack and said he was appalled the two inmates were placed in the same cell.

'This was a serious mistake and is under investigation,' Mr Severin said.

Corrective services confirmed the teen had a hand-drawn ISIS flag in his cell but denied he sent graphic images to other inmates.

The 18-year-old was a known supporter of IS and had been caught sending graphic images of beheadings to other IS extremists housed in Goulburn a senior prison source has said

Corrective services confirmed the teen had a hand-drawn ISIS flag in his cell but denied he sent graphic images to other inmates

The 40-year-old former Toowoomba-based digger had a series of assault charges and a history of breaching AVOs.

Corrections Minister David Elliott said he was outraged by the alleged attack.

'I will ask the Inspector of Custodial Services for a full and thorough investigation of the management of radicalised prisoners in the system, including the assault,' Mr Elliott said.

Public Sector Association spokesman Steve McMahon said the department hadn't taken the alleged attacker's extremist views seriously, and should have placed him in segregation.

'The 18-year-old, in our belief, had presented enough information and bad behaviour to have been segregated, or at the very least, been put in a single cell,' Mr McMahon said.

The victim is said to be fighting for his life, while the teen has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm.

He will face Kempsey Local Court on May 23.

The victim was taken to Port Macquarie Base Hospital and placed in an induced coma after the attack (stock image)

The teen has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm, the victim is fighting for his life




The Labour Party stands for a vision of community which appeals to many British Jews. The party matters to them. And for the 2015 Election, my family donated 400,000.

But in a week where David Cameron is on the ropes, I have to question the very purpose of a leader who defends his brothers racist remarks rather than be seen by his supporters as being in any way soft on Israel.

I am not alone in my concern, and Labour should be deeply worried, too.

This year, no major Jewish donor has given a pound to the central Labour Party with many concerned about the direction the party is taking

In the run-up to the last Mays General Election, the Jewish community donated almost one-third of the 9.7 million that Labour received from private donors  and that despite recoiling from Labours parliamentary vote to recognise Palestine.

This year, no major Jewish donor has yet given one pound to the central Labour Party.

It is, in its way, a tragedy. The values of Judaism and the Labour Party are well aligned.

As late as 1997, 70 per cent of the British Jewish community, voted for the Labour Party. Today it would be less than 25 per cent and that is because the Jewish community cannot support a political party that, at its top levels, appears by its inaction to tolerate anti-Semitic speech and behaviour, from Labour students at Oxford to deputy party chairs in Woking who make crude anti-Semitic remarks.

Before anyone tries to claim that Piers Corbyn, Jeremys brother, is no racist by the way, just read his tweet  Zionists cant cope with anyone supporting rights for Palestine  and try replacing the words Zionists and Palestine with Blacks and White South Africa.

I and many other Jews who support Labour, have this year donated directly to Sadiq Khans campaign for London Mayor, to individual Labour councils fighting in the May elections, to local constituency Labour parties, but nothing to those who presently control the party. We would be foolish to donate to a cause whose leaders view us with contempt.

Before anyone tries to claim that Piers Corbyn (pictured), is no racist, just read his tweet  Zionists cant cope with anyone supporting rights for Palestine, claims former Labour party donor Michael Foster

The evidence is all too clear. Take Jeremy Corbyns statement last week about anti-Semitism in the Party: I wouldnt call it a crisis, he said.

To me that shows only his callousness and contempt for the history of the Jews in Europe.

Too many Jews in Britain had grandfathers like mine who confidently told my father that Hitler walking into Austria was not a crisis. Grandpa Heinrich was in Dachau within four days. There is not a synagogue in Britain today that does not have 24-hour manned security. Imagine that level of security around every church in England. The Jewish community has cause and reason to be vigilant.

No wonder it takes just one example of anti-Semitism from within the party of Her Majestys Opposition to have the Anglo-Jewish community up in arms.

There are claims that young Labour councillor, Aysegul Gurbuz, (pictured) described Hitler as the greatest man in history in a tweet

What are my fellow Jews to make of claims reported elsewhere in this newspaper that a young Labour councillor in Luton, Aysegul Gurbuz, described Hitler as the greatest man in history and hoped Iran would use a nuclear weapon to wipe Israel off the map?

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, is quite right to warn Jeremy Corbyn he will be unfit to govern unless he eradicates anti-Semitism from the Labour Party. Yet Jeremy Corbyn continues to ignore the problem  and that shocks me.

He makes no attempt at all to put at ease a Jewish community in Britain that for more than 100 years has supported Labour spiritually, politically and financially. The community look on in horror that a supposedly civilised man cannot understand the pain and fear that many on the Left of the Labour Party inflict without any worry of disciplinary action from the leadership. All Jeremy Corbyn dispenses are palliative statements, lumping anti-Semitism with racism.

Why would any of these ignorant people hold back on their attacks against individual Jews and the Jewish community when all through the Labour leadership election Corbyn would not distance himself from accusations the supported organisations calling for the destruction of Israel.

The Jewish community has protested clearly and often, and will continue to do so. Yet I will vouch that Jeremy Corbyn will do nothing.

He is too weak to stand up against the wing of the party on whose support he relies. These people have a Pavlovian reaction to Jews and Israel: see a Jew, see an anti-Palestinian.

They blend Israel and Zionism into the supposed demagoguery of the classic Jew, an all-controlling malevolent demon, and a rich one, intent on committing incremental genocide against the Palestinian people.

They believe that, without Israel, the Sunni will lie down with the Shia, the Taliban will stop growing opium in Afghanistan, and the Yazidi Christians of Syria and Iraq will be free from genocide. It is a fairy story.

Labour leader Mr Corbyn, pictured at this week's launch of his local election campaign, has faced repeated calls to speak out more strongly on anti-Semitism

I set this out only to expose the nonsense  and to expose Jeremy Corbyns crass, hateful and ignorant support for these people. People like his brother and like those Labour members in Liverpool who criticise their MP Louise Ellman for her supposed anti-Palestinian stance. Their evidence? No more than this: Louise Ellman is a Jew.

The Left is organised and disciplined. The growing number of incidents since Jeremy Corbyn took over the party machine is too great to be a coincidence. Jeremy has emboldened these people because he clearly leans towards Hamas, the violently anti-Israel Palestinian party that governs Gaza. Hamas have included the anti-Semitic libel, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in their constitution.

Ultimately, this is about how safe the Anglo-Jewish community feels in Britain. This year I witnessed a child of mine getting up to speak at a political meeting at a leading university only to see the argument drowned out by hooligan white male students shouting: Zio, Zio, Zio.

It was as if these thugs held my child personally responsible for the extremes of the very questionable treatment by Benjamin Netanyahu the Israeli Prime Minister, of Palestinian and Israeli Arabs. The word Zio for those not used to the language of the young is not a shortened reference to a Zionist but slang for Jew.

There are many Anglo Jews like me; yes of course we worry. History tells us we are not wrong to do so.I am the first male in four generations going back to 1860 who has not yet been driven from their country of birth by political anti-Semitism.

Those of us who are committed socialists, committed supporters of Labour, will fight both for the Labour cause of justice and fairness in our society. We wont be defeated by ignorance, hate and a godless totalitarian black-and-white view of the world that so many on the Labour Left possess.
The man who preceded Justine Greening as International Development Secretary has criticised her failure to stick up for Britains 12 billion foreign aid spending.

In an outspoken interview with The Mail on Sunday, Andrew Mitchell claims she never wanted the job in the first place and rebukes her for failing to hit back at claims that huge sums of foreign aid have been lost in corruption and waste.

He also claims that:

Controls imposed by him to curb corruption are being undermined;

His pledge to stop doling out large sums to charities and force them to give better value for money has been abandoned;

Ministers risk being accused of using aid as a slush fund to give to their favourite causes.

Outspoken: Andrew Mitchell makes his points during his interview. He claims Justine Greening never wanted the job in the first place and rebukes her for failing to hit back at claims that huge sums of foreign aid have been lost in corruption and waste

Mr Mitchell defends his key role in the Tory pledge to spend 0.7 per cent of the UKs income on aid. But he says the 215,000 Mail on Sunday readers who have signed a petition protesting against it are right to demand to know how every penny is spent.

Mr Mitchells two years as International Development Secretary were the high point of his career; weeks after he was moved to become Chief Whip in 2012, he became embroiled in Plebgate.

Accused of calling a No 10 policeman a f****** pleb, he had to quit the Cabinet. He then sued for libel and lost humiliatingly, leaving him with a legal bill estimated at 3 million.

His City earnings saved him from bankruptcy, if not his reputation. But theres nothing that cheers up a politician more than seeing their successor making a hash of things.

While Ms Greening has retreated to her Whitehall bunker after this newspapers expose of the aid scandal, former Royal Tank Regiment officer Mr Mitchell has come out all guns blazing.

I hear the PM defending it [foreign aid] but I dont hear many other Ministers defending it, he says archly. If they dont, the public will presume this is a taxpayer-funded slush fund that Ministers give to their favourite causes.

Some people think the best thing is to lie down and let the issues roll over you. Im the sort who marches towards the sound of gunfire. He adds with a grimace: Though its not always been to my advantage  a nod to Plebgate.

He says Ms Greening must get out there and argue for the aid budget. So why hasnt she?

I have no idea, you will have to ask her. She inherited a department absolutely at the top of its game. Im told she didnt awfully want the job.

He isnt finished. Was it true that when David Cameron moved Greening to the Department for International Development (DFID), she told the PM: I didnt come into politics to give money to poor people  a claim she strongly denies.

Parroting Francis Urquhart, the fictional Chief Whip from the original British TV political thriller House Of Cards, Mitchell says: You may say that  I couldnt possibly comment. Yes, he really did say it.

At times Mr Mitchell is a caricature of the former Rugby School pupil nicknamed Thrasher.

As Shadow International Development Secretary from 2005 to 2010 his preferred mode of making fact-finding trips to developing countries was on Conservative millionaire Michael Ashcrofts luxury private jet, like a latter day Tory viceroy.

Mr Mitchell has criticised Justine Greening's failure to stick up for Britains 12 billion foreign aid spending

Yet there is no doubting his genuine zeal over foreign aid  or his expertise. His views are much closer to those of Clare Short, a Labour predecessor as International Development Secretary, than Ms Greening. Mr Mitchell and Ms Short teamed up on an initiative for Syrian refugees only weeks ago.

Some say Mr Mitchell was over-enthusiastic at the DFID  for example writing a cheque for 16 million of taxpayers money to his own pet cause, Rwanda, on his final day in the job. He insists it was all above board.

SIGN OUR PETITION The Mail on Sunday is giving you the chance to have YOUR voice heard by forcing a Commons debate. Heres what to do... 1. First you should go to mailonsunday.co.uk/foreignaid on your computer or smartphone. If you havent got one, you can use the computer at your local library or an internet cafe. 2. This page will direct you to our petition on the Governments official online petition website. 3. You will be asked to confirm that you are a UK resident or citizen, and for your name and postcode. Dont worry  any personal information is for verification, not for passing on or for publication. You will receive an email containing a link that you must click on to complete the process. 4. You can tell friends, family and colleagues to join in  and keep an eye on the magic number by heading back to the petition page where a tally will be shown. Advertisement

Mr Mitchell gives the Ms Greening knife another twist when asked if the disclosure last week by this newspaper that DFID overspent the 0.7 per cent target by an astonishing 172 million last year will lead to a further loss of public support. Yes, he replies. Furthermore, Ms Greening should be forced to pay back the 172 million to taxpayers  from this years budget.

In another swipe, Mr Mitchell suggests the DFID watchdog he set up to investigate aid corruption  the Independent Commission on Aid Impact (ICAI)  is being undermined by Ms Greening.

If you give a Minister a choice between being highly accountable and not, they will always opt for the latter. ICAI needs more monkey glands not fewer, a phrase that matches the African artefacts scattered around his study.

He also points the finger at Ms Greening for failing to implement his plan to stop writing blank cheques to charities  so-called core funding  in order to force them to put in specific aid project bids.

He proposes what he calls an overseas aid version of the buy one get one free offers in supermarkets, whereby charities bid for Government cash for individual projects  to stop them splurging it on fat-cat charity chiefs wages and fancy offices instead of getting young girls in Afghanistan into schools.

He cant wait to defend the 0.7 per cent target in the Commons debate set to be triggered by our readers petition.

If Ms Greening doesnt come out of hiding, Mitchell might have to stand in for her. Unlike her, he would be confident of thrashing all dissenters.

Last week Justine Greenwood said in a statement: 'The UK aid 0.7 per cent commitment is part of the 2015 manifesto on which this Government was elected. We made a promise to the electorate and we are keeping it.

'DFIDs work, whether it is helping to prevent deadly diseases like ebola coming to the UK, or enabling Syrian refugees and other would-be migrants to stay in their home region, is about creating a more stable and secure world.

'Like Mail on Sunday readers, and as a qualified chartered accountant, I want to make sure that taxpayers money is being spent by DFID in the right way. Thats why I have done a root and branch review of every element of how DFID operates  changing the way we work in many countries and focusing on the poorest and most fragile, cutting programmes that dont deliver. Ill continue that value-for-money and results approach in DFID.'

Last week The Mail on Sunday put ten questions to Justine Greening (pictured)

...but STILL the Aid Minister stonewalls

Last week The Mail on Sunday put ten questions to Justine Greening. They were:

1. Do you back the call for a fresh debate over the fixed aid target?

2. Why it is necessary to give away almost double a slice of Britians wealth compared to the next most generous G20 nation?

3. The aid budget will grow another by 4 billion over the next four years. Why is it fixed?

4. If a fixed rate is a good idea, why is yours the only department with one?

5. How do you justify giving 1.1 million for projects such as teaching foreign nationals to sing?

6. The Palestinian Authority admits supporting salaries for suicide bombers and terrorists. So why are we giving it 25 million?

7. Do you understand concern over cuts at home, only to see billions being sent overseas?

8. Do you have concerns about charities receiving taxpayers money paying six-figure salaries?

9. Polls have found aid to be the favoured area among voters to see reduced if there must be cuts. Instead you are increasing it. Why?

10. Economist Angus Deaton says aid often ends up hurting, not helping, the poor. Is he wrong?

Ms Greening did not answer the Mail on Sunday's questions but did provide the following statement:

'The UK aid 0.7% commitment is part of the 2015 manifesto on which this government was elected.

'We made a promise to the electorate and we are keeping it.

'DfID's work, whether it is helping to prevent deadly diseases like Ebola from coming to the UK or enabling Syrian refugees and other would-be migrants to stay in their home region, is about creating a more stable and secure world.

'Like Mail on Sunday readers, and as a qualified chartered accountant, I want to make sure taxpayers money is spent by DfID in the right way.

'Thats why I have done a root and branch review of every element of how DfID operates - changing the way we work in many countries and focussing on the poorest and most fragile, cutting programmes that dont deliver.
But Roca Rey walked away with minor injuries and is believed to have only been grazed on the thigh by the horn

He wrestled himself free of the bull as blood poured down his leg and fellow fighters ran into the ring to help

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This is the shocking moment a matador was gored in the buttocks by a bull, but incredibly walked away with just minor injuries.

Andres Roca Rey, 19, was lucky to survive after the 1,176lb bull he was taking on appeared to impale him through the bottom.

There was panic inside the La Maestranza bullring in Seville, Spain, as the animal lifted Roca Rey up with its left horn, shaking him like a rag doll as the fighter screamed in agony.

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Ouch! Matador Andres Roca Rey, 19, was gored in the buttocks by a bull, but incredibly walked away with just minor injuries

Pain in the bum: Roca Rey, 19, was lucky to survive after the 1,176lb bull he was taking on appeared to impale him through the bottom

Graphic footage shows blood pouring down the Peruvian bullfighter's left thigh as he is tossed around, while fellow matadors stream into the ring to try to help.

Roca Rey wrestles himself free of the horn and falls to the ground, with the bleeding bull backing away as the fighter covers his head with his hands.

While these horrific pictures appear to show the bull's horn goring Roca Rey through the buttocks, he was able to walk away with minor injuries.

It is believed that the bull's horn grazed the matador's thigh, but miraculously avoided more delicate areas as he rode on top of the animal's head.

The blood seen on Roca Rey is thought to be that of the bull's, rather than his own. Bulls are routinely stabbed in the back and shoulders before entering the ring to make them more angry but also to ensure they are weaker by the time they face a matador.

The shaken fighter took a victory lap after the mauling and was applauded by the thousands in the crowd, including the former king of Spain, Juan Carlos.

The shaken fighter took a victory lap after the mauling and was applauded by the thousands in the crowd, including the former king of Spain, Juan Carlos. Pictured, Roca Rey takes on a bull earlier on Saturday

Roca Rey is due back in the ring on Tuesday and a statement put out on his official website following the scare made light of the brush with death. Pictured, Roca Rey takes on a bull earlier on Saturday

Roca Rey is due back in the ring on Tuesday and a statement put out on his official website following the scare made light of the brush with death.

It was not the first time Roca Rey has cheated death in the bullring.

In November last year, he lost two teeth after a bull thrust its horn through his mouth.

Footage of the incident after the strike showed Roca Rey with blood on his face as he was treated by an organizer.

The bullfighter was taken to a local hospital for treatment and medics said he had been lucky not to have suffered a more serious injury.

He had false teeth fitted weeks later and returned to the ring shortly afterwards.

Time for a new job? It was not the first time Roca Rey has cheated death in the bullring. In November last year, he lost two teeth after a bull thrust its horn through his mouth

The bullfighter was taken to a local hospital for treatment and medics said he had been lucky not to have suffered a more serious injury
A California man who deliberately started a wildfire that torched 100,000 acres of forest and destroyed a dozen homes in order to take a selfie video has been jailed.

Wayne Allen Huntsman was sentenced to 20 years in jail and fined $60million on Friday for starting the King Fire in 2014, one of California's worst fires that year.

Huntsman had initially denied starting the blaze, but on Friday changed his plea to guilty, sobbing as he told the court: 'I plead guilty because I did it.'

Wayne Allen Huntsman, from California, was sentenced to 20 years in jail and ordered to pay $60million to victims after he admitted starting the 2014 King Fire in order to take a selfie video (pictured)

In the video Huntsman can be seen surrounded by flames as he brags to the camera about being in danger

Huntsman was caught after he filmed a selfie video of himself surrounded by the fire, telling the camera: 'Listen, I got fire all around me. I'm stuck in the middle, babe.'

After fleeing the scene of his crime, Huntsman bumped into a Good Samaritan motorist who offered to give him a ride away from the flames.

Huntsman showed the driver the video, who filmed it on his own cell phone, before turning the evidence over to the authorities.

Huntsman started the fire on September 13 2014 in the Eldorado National Forest in the central Sierra Nevada mountain range.

Huntsman fled the scene of the fire before being picked up by a Good Samaritan driver who filmed him as he showed off the video (right) before alerting the police

The King Fire, one of the worst of 2014 in California, burned almost 100,000 acres of forest and destroyed 12 homes and around a 100 other buildings (pictured)

it took thousands of firefighters almost a month to bring the blaze under control, but not before it had destroyed vast swathes of forest.

A dozen homes were torched in the blaze along with 100 other structures. A handful of firefighters who attended the blaze suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

Tom Boscow, whose house was consumed by the fire, told KCRA: 'He sure screwed my life up. Two months before the fire my insurance that I'd had for 24 years cancelled me.'

Colin Smith, a retiree who bought 89 acres of timber that was burned in the fire as an investment, added: 'That was going to be me retirement it was going to be my grandson's college education.

'Its gone. The guy made a mistake and it cost a lot of people a lot of heartache.'
A Georgia man whose donated sperm was used to create 36 children duped 26 families into believing he was the healthy man he advertised on his sperm-bank profile.

Chris Aggeles, a now 39-year-old man from Georgia, advertised on the site that he was healthy - other than color blindness on his dad's side - and working on his PhD in neuroscience engineering.

But in June 2014, couple Angela Collins and Margaret Elizabeth Hanson of Port Hope, Ontario, discovered Aggeles, whose real name is James Christian Aggeles had schizophrenia and a criminal history that led to him serving time in jail. He was also a college dropout and struggled to hold down jobs.

In addition to schizophrenia, court documents also show that he was diagnosed with bipolar and narcissistic personality disorders, and he has self-described himself as having schizoaffective disorder.

In June 2014, couple Angela Collins and Margaret Elizabeth Hanson of Port Hope, Ontario, discovered their sperm donor was not who they thought he was

Chris Aggeles, a now 39-year-old man from Georgia, advertised on sperm-bank site Xytex that he was healthy and well-educated. Families who used his sperm later found out he was a college drop out, had a history of mental illness and criminal activity

Aggeles' sperm has been used to create 19 boys and 17 girls from 26 families, a 2014 email to Collins from Georgia-based sperm bank Xytex Corp revealed

Aggeles sold his sperm to Xytex between 2000 and 2014, and some was stored to be made available after 2014

Aggeles' sperm has been used to create 19 boys and 17 girls from 26 families, a 2014 email to Collins from Georgia-based sperm bank Xytex Corp revealed, according to The Star.

Nancy Hersh, a San Francisco-based crusader on women's health issues who is representing many of the families affected, believes there could be more out there.

Aggeles sold his sperm to Xytex between 2000 and 2014, and some was stored to be made available after 2014.

Collins, a 45-year-old teacher from this quiet town east of Toronto, said she felt physically ill when she discovered that the life of her son, who was created with Aggeles' sperm, 'could just turn on a dime in puberty'.

'It was like a dream turned nightmare in an instant,' she told The Star.

She and Hanson intend to file a lawsuit against Xytex from Toronto, and more Canadian families might join in the legal action.

Hersh intends to file additional lawsuits in the US on behalf of affected American and British families.

Allegations against Xytex, which include fraud and negligent misrepresentation, have yet to be proven in court. The company denies any wrongdoing.

Xytex lawyer Ted Lavender said the company will 'vigorously defend' itself against any lawsuits.

Collins and Hanson tried to sue Xytex in Georgia a year ago, but the case was dismissed because it was considered a 'wrongful birth' claim, which is not recognized under the state's law.

Collins and Hersh have reached out to the public in hopes of pressuring sperm-banks and the government to make changes in the industry.

'Given the current state of affairs in the sperm-bank industry, it is strictly a matter of luck if a sperm donor is an upstanding and healthy individual, not a matter of testing, screening, regulating or legislating,' Collins told The Star.

Xytex texts donors for infectious diseases including HIV, hepatitis B and C and syphilis, and requires a physical exam and psychological exam. In compliance with Health Canada regulations, they are also tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea.

Donors must also complete an extensive questionnaire that goes deep into personal and medical history. They must also go through genetic testing for a number of conditions, including cystic fibrosis.

Collins and her partner Beth Hanson intend to file a lawsuit against Xytex, accusing the company of fraud and negligent misrepresentation

They are required to update their medical history and undergo a physical exam every six months.

Collins said she chose 'donor 9623' because he was 'the male version of my partner'.

Like Hanson, the man in the profile was blue eyed, intelligent and musically talented.

The profile said donor 9623 had an IQ of 160, a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience, a master's degree in artificial intelligence, and was working on his PhD in neuroscience engineering.

The profile said he was an internationally acclaimed drummer.

In a six-page health questionnaire asking if he or any blood relative had any of the 143 medical conditions, donor 9623 answered no to all but one - he said his father was color blind.

When asked if he had schizophrenia or manic depression (bipolar disorder), the donor said 'no'.

In an audio interview of donor 9623, Xytex corporate donor counsellor Mary Hartley calls him the 'perfect donor'.

He further details his intelligence in the recording, saying he speaks five languages and reads four or five books a month, according to The Star.

Collins was impregnated with Aggeles' sperm through artificial insemination at a Toronto fertility clinic. She gave birth to her son in July 2007.

The mothers who used donor 9623's sperm learned of the man's real identity in 2014 when Xytex released information inadvertently and 'in a breach of confidentiality'.

Through their own research, the women who used the sperm then found that he had dropped out of college and had been arrested for burglary, and that his pictures had been doctored to remove a large mole from his cheek.

Aggeles was charged with one count of burglary in 2005 and his case was discharged in May 2014 under terms of the First Offender Act, said Kimberly Isaza, spokeswoman for the Cobb County District Attorney's office.

The Constitution Journal reported that he served eight months in jail, with the rest of his 10-year sentence on probation, ending in May 2014.

Aggeles' stepfather said in a testimony that Aggeles started suffering from psychotic episodes when he was 19 years old.

Collins, pictured avobe with her son, said she chose 'donor 9623' because he was 'the male version of my partner'. The mothers who used donor 9623's sperm learned of the man's real identity in 2014 when Xytex released information inadvertently and 'in a breach of confidentiality'.

Before that he was a bright student who was attending the University of Georgia on a full scholarship.

'High stress situations and lack of medication cause him to have psychotic episodes . . . With supervision with medication, I think he is a productive citizen,' the stepfather told the court.

When Aggeles was in court on a burglary charge, his mother testified that he had trouble holding down jobs, but things 'finally' were turning around.

She said 'for the first time in ten years' he was taking care of his mental health, education and employment.

Aggeles finally graduated from UGA last year, two decades after he began at the university. He received a bachelor's in cognitive science, minoring in computer science, according to The Star.

He's currently working on his master's in artificial intelligence and working at UGA as a research assistant.

Social media shows he got married last year and plays the drums in an indie rock band.

Xytex is adamant that it has done nothing wrong, and that the company relied on the honor system when it comes to medical and social histories of the donors.

Xytex president Kevin O'Brien said in an open letter that the company is upfront about the aforementioned information to would-be parents.

'He (Aggeles) reported a good health history and stated in his application that he had no physical or medical impairments. This information was passed on to the couple, who were clearly informed the representations were reported by the donor and were not verified by Xytex,' O'Brien wrote, referring to Collins and Hanson when mentioning the couple.

Collins and Hersh want sperm banks to have more more rigorous vetting systems for donors, and specifically want them to get applicants to sign released granting medical-record access.

They also want the sperm banks to do criminal and education background checks.

Hersh is in contact with 16 of the families who used Aggeles' sperm to have 23 children. She told The Star that none of them were informed by Xytex about problems with donor 9623.

Collins also wants the Canadian government to amend the 2004 Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which made it illegal to pay sperm donors, egg donors and surrogates anything but expenses.

She also worries about the future of her son, who is now a healthy eight-year-old.

'The most important entity to me is potentially facing a very debilitating lifestyle,' she said.
A stream of 37 'suspicious' voter enrolment forms faxed from the same number sparked the electoral fraud probe into controversial deputy major Salim Mehajer, it has been claimed.

Mehajer, who is currently suspended from his western Sydney local authority, stands accused of forging documents to rig the 2012 Auburn Council ballot that got him elected.

The faxes, which were allegedly written in the same handwriting and listed addresses which don't exist, were sent on 29 March 2011 - 18 months before the local government election.

They were also sent from the same Auburn-based fax number and had a 3cm-wide light grey toner strip on each page, the Daily Telegraph reported.

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A stream of 37 'suspicious' voter enrolment forms faxed from the same number sparked the police probe into controversial deputy major Salim Mehajer (pictured), it has been claimed

Mehajer, whose lavish wedding to his wife Aysha (pictured together) shut down parts of the western Sydney suburb, is currently suspended from his role

In July 2012, a further 57 online enrolments were submitted in just one hour from Mehajer's home and office computers, police will allege.

It has been claimed that some of the names and addresses matched the 37 sent to the office 18 months earlier.

The 57 forms were received on the deadline day for residents to be enrolled to vote in the September local government elections.

A further 26 application forms sent earlier that day had also come from Mehajer's IP addresses, an internal review by the Australian Electoral Commission found.

Mehajer, whose lavish wedding to his wife Aysha shut down parts of the western Sydney suburb, allegedly changed his details claiming he 11 other people in a three-bedroom apartment in Auburn.

He was charged with using forged documents and using false or misleading documents last December and could face 10 years in jail.

They had their 'wedding of the century' in August last year, which closed Frances Street in Lidcombe and featured four helicopters, a brigade of Lamborghinis and Ferrari

Mehajer lives in a mansion (pictured) in Lidcombe, western Sydney, with his wife Aysha

Charges have also been laid against his sister Fatima Mehajer and five other associates who ran as candidates in the council poll.

It is alleged the Mehajers used 76 forged electoral enrolment forms in the lead-up to the 2012 council elections.

Both Mehajer and his sister have pleaded not guilty.

Police spoke to a number of the owners of the home listed in the allegedly fraudulent enrolment forms.

Mehajer recently posted photos of himself and his wife on social media claiming the pair's relationship is 'unbreakable' following recent rumours about their marriage.

The controversial politician posted the words: Our love. True love. One love separated by a heart and crown emoji.

He shared another snap of his wife, Aysha, later, captioned: 'my best friend, my soul mate, my love of my life.'

Suspended Auburn deputy Mayor Salim Mehajer (left) has posted a photo of himself and his wife Aysha, (right) on social media claiming the pair's relationship is 'unbreakable'

This comes after Ms Mehajer posted a photo if herself on her wedding day captioned 'Take Me Back' to the couple's shared Instagram account on Saturday evening.

The message comes after her husband tried to douse rumours they were living separately by posting a photo of the pair to Facebook captioned: 'Today is April fools day. Believe nothing, and trust no one like every other day'.

It was reported Ms Mehajer had packed her bags and left their mansion in Lidcombe, western Sydney, to stay with family in the NSW Illawarra region.

The report by A Current Affair said friends of the couple claim the controversial property developer and suspended Auburn deputy mayor had been constantly phoning and texting his wife in an attempt to get her back.

An Instagram account using both their names is reportedly run by Mr Mehajer. In recent days the page has been bombarded with seven-month-old photos of their wedding and declarations of love.

Initial reports suggested she had made her transformation for her husband, but Ms Mehajer told New Idea in October it was a 'personal preference'.

Mr Mehajer was fined $220 by Auburn City Council in August following an urgency motion over their extravagant wedding in August last year.

The fine related to the closure of Frances Street in Lidcombe because of the traffic chaos caused by the ceremony, which featured four helicopters, a brigade of Lamborghinis and Ferraris.
A bikie who allegedly fled from police in a stolen Audi A4 with his model girlfriend stashed the vehicle in his grandmother's garage where it was found by officers.

The pair allegedly went on the high-speed joyride in Brisbane early in March and after evading police, hid the car at his grandmother's property until it was found after they were located by police and arrested a few days after the incident.

Nomads member Drew Gerard Roberts, 24, is accused of fleeing from police in the Audi, which had fake number plates, with Mikaela Jayde Banditt, 23, the Courier Mail reported.

Nomads member Drew Gerard Roberts (right) and girlfirend Mikaela Jayde Banditt allegedly fled from police in Brisbane in a stolen Audi A4 in March

Roberts claimed he didn't know the car was stolen, and said he'd been given it by relatives of Ms Banditt (pictured)

Police claimed he'd admitted to being a member of the gang.

Court documents stated the vehicle had travelled at such speed it was unsafe to continue the pursuit, and it was swerving in and out of traffic, narrowly missing another vehicle.

It's also thought to have mounted a median strip.

Investigations found the only Audi A4 reported stolen in Queensland had been taken from Windsor in Brisbane in July 2015, the Courier Mail reported.

A stock image of an Audi A4

The month before a key for the car was stolen from the address, and police believed the offenders then returned for the car.

Roberts allegedly had the car for two-three months before being charged.

But his lawyer said he had no idea it had been stolen, and that he'd been given it by one of his girlfriend's relatives.

He fled from police because he believed he was unlicensed, lawyer Adam Magill said.

'My client instructs me he is entirely innocent in relation to being knowingly in possession of a stolen vehicle. However, he has conceded there could be a case to answer in relation to unlicensed driving.'

The pair allegedly fled after police tried to stop them in the Brisbane suburb of Eagle Farm (stock image)
An Aldi social media post asking customers to comment with their 'best animal joke' has backfired with hundreds slamming the supermarket over its continued sale of caged eggs.

The supermarket posted a picture of some farmyard animal-shaped plant pots on Facebook with a caption saying: 'What did the cow say to the pig? Moooove over! Tell us your best animal joke.'

But instead of commenting with humorous one-liners, customers vented their frustration at the supermarkets policy and called for caged eggs to be withdrawn from sale.

Melinda Young said: 'What did the chicken say to Aldi? Please let me out of the cage, forever and for always.'

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An Aldi social media post asking customers to comment with their 'best animal joke' has backfired with hundreds slamming the supermarket over its continued sale of caged eggs

Summer Long: 'Why did the chicken, oh wait, that chicken is stuck in a cage supplying eggs to Aldi. Aldi get with it, free your hens.'

Priya Schiavoni: 'What did the chicken say to Aldi? Please, please Aldi end our unnecessary suffering by ending your support for caged eggs.'

Bec Wowk said, 'Why didn't the chicken cross the road? It couldn't, it was stuck in a cage supplying eggs for Aldi'.

Lisa Chalk posted: 'Oh Aldi ... not a great day to be making animal jokes when it's just been exposed that your animal welfare policy is a joke...'

A recent post advertising deals on a colourful range of cooking utensils attracted dozens of comments

It comes days after a number of other posts were hijacked by customers calling on the supermarket to sell free range.

A recent post advertising deals on a colourful range of cooking utensils attracted dozens of similar comments.

Pam Swain wrote: 'Love the colour, but I certainly won't be using them to cook Aldi caged eggs. Keeping hens caged and so cramped is just too cruel and should be banned altogether. surprised the RSPCA haven't stepped in.'

Paul Crossley posted: 'Just saw the Animals Australia video on ALDI eggs. This cruelty is appalling. ALDI needs to lift it's (sic) game immediately.'

The RSPCA has started a campaign calling on Aldi to stop selling caged eggs,

'It's been two years since Coles stopped selling cage eggs under its own branded lines and Woolworths will phase out ALL cage eggs by 2018.,' a spokesman said.

'Sadly, the other major Australian retailer, ALDI, has remained silent on this important issue.'
Nine reportedly paid $115,000 for the operation, but this is

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is remaining tight-lipped about a 60 Minutes TV crew locked up in Lebanon after a bungled child snatch attempt.

The Nine Network crew, including senior journalist Tara Brown, a producer and a cameraman, have been detained by Lebanese authorities since Thursday after filming the alleged attempted kidnapping of two children by their mother Sally Faulkner in Beirut.

Mr Turnbull declined to comment extensively on the situation on Sunday but said that the TV crew are receiving consular help as they wait to learn if charges will be filed against them.

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PM Malcolm Turnbull is remaining tight-lipped about a 60 Minutes TV crew detained in Lebanon with mother Sally Faulkner (pictured) since Thursday after filming an alleged kidnapping attempt of Ms Faulkner's children

Ali el-Amien with he and Ms Faulkner's children, Noah, four, and Lahela, five. Both children have been returned to Mr el-Amien in Lebanon after Ms Faulker was arrested for allegedly attempting to kidnap them

Mr Turnbull (pictured) declined to comment extensively on the situation on Sunday but said that the TV crew are receiving consular help as they wait to learn if charges will be filed against them

'We are seeking through the usual diplomatic channels to ensure that they are kept safe and will be able to return,' Mr Turnbull said.

'But you have to understand that in situations like these, often the less I say, the better it is for the people that are at risk or in these difficult circumstances overseas.'

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has spoken to her Lebanese counterpart and says she expects the question of charges will be determined soon.

Ms Bishop said earlier this week that her department was trying to confirm the 'alleged involvement' of the TV crew, Fairfax reported.

On Saturday Ms Bishop said that there was a compassionate element to the case because it involves children.

'We are providing as much support as we can, meeting with officials within the Lebanese government and doing what we can to ascertain what is proposed, in relation to the crew and the alleged involvement of the crew in this case,' she said.

Ms Faulkner travelled to Lebanon to allegedly kidnap her children from a previous marriage, who are living in Beirut with their father, and left her three-month-old infant with her new husband, Brendan Pierce, at home in Brisbane.

Sally Faulkner, from Brisbane, hired a controversial child recovery agency to snatch her children - Lahlea, 5, and Noah, 2 - back from their father

Ms Faulkner claims her ex-husband took their children to Beirut on a holiday last year and then refused to bring them back home to Australia, allegedly telling her that she wouldn't see the kids again.

Lebanese authorities reportedly have evidence that Channel Nine paid for the abduction of two children, who were snatched off the street in Beirut in a botched child recovery operation.

The authorities say they have a signed statement from a member of the 'recovery team' who says Channel Nine paid $115,000 for the operation, reported the ABC.

However, the evidence and signed statement is unconfirmed.

The children's father, Ali el-Amien said he was 'disappointed' by the recovery attempt, but has reiterated he won't be pushing for charges against Ms Faulkner.

'I told her that I'm not going to file anything. She is the mother of my children,' Mr el Amien told The Guardian.

Ms Faulkner said she agreed for her ex-husband Ali el-Amien to take the children to Lebanon for a holiday last year but a day after they left he told her that Noah and Lahlea would not be returning

The mother has previously said she did not know about her ex-husband's intention to take her children

'I saw her and I was thinking, 'Oh what did you do? What were you thinking'?

'I wasn't angry. I was disappointed. You could have just showed up and said you wanted to see the kids. She knows that.'

Mr el-Amien also said he had access to his ex-wife's emails and knew that a recovery operation was being planned.

The ABC reported that the area where the two children were grabbed is monitored by Hezbollah and Amal, two powerful Lebanese political and militia organisations.

Mr el-Amien's father's family is al reportedly politically connected.

The children have both since been reunited with their father, who says he is 'disappointed' by the recovery attempt

Footage release by Channel Nine after journalist Tara Brown and her crew were detained in Lebanon while filming a story about the recovery shows a scuffle break out in a busy street of Lebanon's capital, Beirut

Mr el-Amien has previously told media he believes the recovery attempt put the children's safety in jeopardy, with security camera footage appearing to show them being bundled into a car by several people in southern Beirut.

The two children were snatched by a child recovery team while they were waiting with their grandmother at a bus stop, according to local police and media outlets.

Ali el-Amien told the ABC the alleged kidnapping was reckless and dangerous move.

'What if someone armed passed by and saw the scene and started to fire? We are in Lebanon here. If they started to shoot, they could have hit one of the children. They could have shot my mother,' he said.

Once Lahela and Noah went to Beirut, Mr el-Amien told allegedly Ms Faulkner she would never see her children again

Before the controversial alleged snatch and grab operation, Ms Faulkner hadn't seen her children for more than ten months

'I want to come back,' Lahela could be heard saying as she sobbed to her mother

Ms Faulkner said Lahela feels isolated and she now lives with family members like her grandmother who only speaks Arabic, and no English

He said the family, including Ms Faulkner, had lived in the country until 2013, when she decide it was no longer safe and left for Australia.

'When all the bombings took place, she wanted to go and visit her parents. She arrived there and tore up the children's passports.'

He claimed she told him when he wanted to see the children, to come to Australia.

Despite trying to live in Australia, neither had work there, and their income came from Lebanon, he told the ABC.

Australian consular officials visited the four Australians, who are in good health, in prison on Thursday night.

Nine Network director of communications and public relations Victoria Buchan told Daily Mail Australia while the crew were being detained they hadn't been arrested.

Ms Faulkner told A Current Affair last year that she would do 'anything' to get her children back

It is understood by Daily Mail Australia some of the same crew members with Brown (pictured) were set upon by thugs while reporting on the European refugee crisis with fellow reporter Liz Hayes in Sweden last month

Dramatic security camera footage broadcast on Lebanese TV and on the Nine Network appear to show the children being bundled into a car by several people on a busy street in southern Beirut.

Two women, believed to be Noah and Lahlea's grandmother and nanny, can be seen standing in the street with two small children when a commotion ensues.

A flurry of people jump out of a large parked car and approach the children.

They pick them up and shove bystanders out of the way as they rush back to the car to stuff them in the back seat.

The person left behind on the street makes an attempt to chase after the car.

In Skype call, both Ms Faulkner's children can be heard begging to be returned to their mother's side

Her brother Noah said he wanted to return to Australia but that his father had dodged his pleas

The children's grandmother claims she was hit on the head with a pistol.

'It's their mum that kidnapped them, and that's what we know. She contacted me and told me she has the kids,' their father, Ali Zeid al-Amien, said soon after the incident.

Later, the children were returned to their father.

A British citizen from the child recovery agency involved has been detained on suspicion he planned to smuggle the children out of Lebanon on a boat, according to police.

Officers also seized an expensive boat they believe was intended for the job.

Lebanon, unlike Australia, is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction which allows for children normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a relative.

'Lahela is not coming back, Sally. She's staying here with me. Alright? Lehla and Noah,' Mr el-Amien said on a Skype call

Ms Faulkner said she trusted her ex-husband before he left with the kids

In a tearful interview last October, Ms Faulkner told Daily Mail Australia 'It's literally like a living hell'

Both children were born in Australia and Ms Faulkner let them travel to Lebanon with their father because she had no reason to suspect they would not come back from the holiday

Ms Faulkner said that while her relationship ended on bad terms, she had never tried to keep the children from their father and had no idea why he would do that to her

Tara Brown (above) , 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice and sound operator David Ballment are believed to have been detained by Lebanese police

Brown and her crew are understood to have been in a car with Ms Faulkner while the two children were snatched from their paternal grandmother
Al Sharpton made an appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight to discuss the presidential candidates and skewer Donald Trump's contentious relationship with African American communities.

Kenan Thompson who was playing Reverend Al Sharpton in the skit, brought on the actual Sharpton as statistical analyst Charles Richards.

He first tells Thompson: 'I expected you to be thinner'.

The pair then move on to discuss the presidential candidates and Richards' algorithm, the Black Approval Rating Scale.

SNL brought on Al Sharpton as statistical analyst Charles Richards to discuss the black approval rating of each presidential candidate with Al Sharpton, played by Kenan Thompson

The pair discuss the presidential candidates and Richards' algorithm for the election, the Black Approval Rating Scale

Richards, played by Sharpton, says each candidate gets a number based on his or her standing in the black community

'Each candidate gets a number based on their standing in the black community,' the real Sharpton, as Richards, says. '[Hillary] Clinton gets a 7.2 rating with black voters because her husband is Bill Clinton, who despite recent outbursts is beloved in the black community.

As for Bernie Sanders, he 'gets a strong 6.3. Yes he was active in the Civil Rights movement, but he seems like the kind of guy who still calls Muhammad Ali "Cassius"'.

The pair then moved into the Republican party.

'Sen [Ted] Cruz gets a 2.1 on the Black Approval Scale Rating. Because look at him, you just know he's up to something,' Sharpton, as Richards, says.

As for Trump, the pair go back and forth saying 'Come on!' several times before Sharpton, as Richards, announces the presidential candidate's black approval rating.

He give Donald Trump a -1,048 black approval rating and insists that the number could go down even further

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton got a rating of a 7.2, 'because her husband is Bill Clinton' is 'beloved in the black community'

As for Sanders, he 'gets a strong 6.3. Yes he was active in the Civil Rights movement, but he seems like the kind of guy who still calls Muhammad Ali Cacius'

'Come on now. Right now Donald Trump has a black approval rating of -1,048. But that could go down,' he says.

Then Thompson, as Sharpton, responds: 'Black people should never trust a white person whose hair is more processed than theirs.'

This week's SNL also poked fun at Hillary Clinton tonight with an opening sketch that mocked her recent losses and love of New York.

Kate McKinnon played Hillary Clinton in the skit, which featured her wearing a Mets cap as well as a Yankees cap with the tags still on, pretending to eat a hot dog and nuts.

Following Clinton's recent loss to rival Bernie Sanders in the Wyoming caucus, the skit discusses Clinton's streak of several primary losses.

'It's true, I have not been winning as of late. In fact I have not won a state in about three weeks, but that was the plan!' she says in the skit.

McKinnon as Clinton attempts to say 'You win some you lose some', but struggles to say 'lose', gives up and says, 'close enough'.

The opening skit featured Kate McKinnon playing Hillary Clinton, where she discussed her recent losses and love of New York

In the skit she sports a Yankees cap with the price tag still on before changing into a New York Mets baseball cap (pictured)

The clip makes fun of Clinton's subway gaffe from earlier this week, where it took the presidential candidate several tries to get through the turnstile

She says the losses 'humanize' her as a presidential candidate.

'I'm the underdog, now,' she says. 'I'm this election's Rudy, and I like that.'

McKinnon as Clinton then moves on her her love for New York, as the actual candidate continues to campaign around the city ahead of next week's primary.

'Right now my focus is here in New York,' she says after mentioning her losses. 'God, I love being back here in the fat apple. It's my home state except for Illinois and Arkansas, but they already voted for me so we're cool.'

She added that she was going to 'Take in that hot new Broadway show that's got everyone a buzz - Chicago!'

The clip makes fun of Clinton's subway gaffe from earlier this week, where it took the presidential candidate several tries to get through the turnstile.

She tries several times to swipe her card in the clip before attempting to climb over the turnstile. After failing again, she opts for a cap.

Actor Russell Crowe was the guest host on this week's Saturday Night Live.
Critics have hit out online over a controversial new book that depicts Thomas Jefferson's relationship with his slave mistress as a love story.

While little is known about the actual relationship Jefferson shared with slave Sally Hemings, with whom he had six children, readers have slammed the new book as glorifying rape.

Critics and historians argue that it is impossible for sexual consent to be given in any relationship in which one human owns the other.

While it is well documented that Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with slave Sally Hemings and fathered children with her, whether that relationship was consensual is a matter of debate explored in a new book (right)

As a result author Stephen OConnor has found himself as the subject of some harsh words online for his new book Thomas Jefferson Dreams Of Sally Hemings.

In the book, which has received largely positive reviews, O'Connor imagines Hemings as consenting to the relationship and explores the extent to which she was complicit in making it happen.

One passage, quoted by NPR, features Hemings speaking to Jefferson and reads: 'I want us always to be as we are here, where we are only our eyes, our hands, those parts of us made for each other by nature, where our only words are the ones we whisper in the little caves we make between pillow, cheek and lips.'

However, that depiction has caused outrage on Twitter. One user, going under the handle Electro Phi Beta Jay wrote: 'I dream of a day where people stop looking for ways to glorify white people who owned slaves and sexually assaulted them no matter their age.'

Twitter users have lashed out at author Stephen OConnor over his new book Thomas Jefferson Dreams Of Sally Hemings which depicts their relationship as mutual and affectionate, saying it glorifies rape

Zophia Edwards added: 'Novel reimagines Jefferson repeated rape of Sally Hemings as a love story?! Oh hell no!'

Maureen Mo Bryant, writing under the hashtag 'ICallBulls***', says: 'Blood boiling "take" on slavery rape. Thomas Jefferson raped his slave Sally Hemings. O'Conner [sic] treats it as a love story.'

It is well-established that Jefferson had a relationship with Hemings, who was 24 years his junior.

It had been rumored since at least 1802, by disaffected Jefferson ally James T. Callender, that the pair had children together, but the fact was not proved until relatively recently by DNA testing.

It is also believed that Jefferson kept his six children as slaves until they came of age, at which point he freed them one by one. Hemings, however, was never freed.

Since then critics and scholars have been attempting to reconcile the image of Jefferson as a founding father who penned the words 'all men are created equal' with a man who would keep a mistress as a slave and enslave his own children with her, for a period of time.

Little is known about the nature of Jefferson's relationship with Hemings, but critics argue that the 24-year age gap between the pair and the fact that Jefferson owned her means it cannot have been consensual

These conclusions are complicated by the fact that Hemings left no written account of the relationship herself, perhaps meaning that she was not literate.

Hemings is mentioned occasionally in Jefferson's own writings, but not in a way that distinguishes her from the rest of his family.

It is known that Hemings was born in 1773 and served Jefferson at his plantation in Monticello, Virginia, where she acted as nursemaid to several of his children with wife Marla.

Jefferson is thought to have started his relationship with Hemings following Marla's death in in 1782 and likely continued it until his death in 1826.
Seven inmates including an alleged rapist and accused murderer are set to be released in New Orleans because the state of Louisiana cannot afford to represent them.

Judge Arthur Hunter ruled that seven suspects should be freed because they cannot afford attorneys and are being denied the right to one by state authorities.

Among the accused are suspected killer Darrian Franklin, 40, and alleged rapist Henry Campbell, 21.

Seven inmates including an alleged rapist and accused murderer are set to be released in New Orleans because the state of Louisiana cannot afford to represent them. Pictured, alleged rapist Henry Campbell (left) and suspected killer Darrian Franklin (right)

Some of them have spent months in jail without any legal representation, which the judge ruled was unconstitutional. Pictured, alleged robbers Alex Bernard and Malcolm Smith (left and right)

The five other men - Alex Bernard, Malcolm Smith, Donald Gamble, Joshua Vaughn and Benny Walker - are all alleged robbers, with four of them accused of using a firearm.

Some of them have spent months in jail without any legal representation, which the judge ruled was unconstitutional.

Hunter ordered the release of all seven of the inmates, but the men will remain in jail for at least the next 10 days.

The judge stayed his decision so District Attorney Leon Cannizzaro can consider filing an appeal, which his office says he has the full intention of doing.

Hunter ruled that each of the seven men's Sixth Amendment rights had been violated, The Advocate reported.

'The defendants' constitutional rights are not contingent on budget demands, waiting lists and the failure of the Legislature to adequately fund indigent defense,' he wrote.

The judge stayed his decision so the district attorney can consider filing an appeal, which his office says he has the full intention of doing. Pictured left to right, Benny Walker, Joshua Vaughn, Donald Gamble

Judge Arthur Hunter ruled that seven suspects should be freed because they cannot afford attorneys and are being denied the right to one by state authorities

'We are now faced with a fundamental question, not only in New Orleans but across Louisiana: What kind of criminal justice system do we want? One based on fairness or injustice, equality or prejudice, efficiency or chaos, right or wrong?'

The district attorney's office said releasing the men 'poses a clear and present danger to public safety' and that the ruling would be appealed.

The accused's cases were rejected by Chief Public Defender Derwyn Bunton because of a gaping hole in his office's budget.

Hunter then gave the cases to private attorneys, who have refused to work until they are paid.

Bunton said: 'Obviously, the charges involved in these cases are really serious, so I do think folks should be concerned about public safety.

'We wouldn't need to be in this position if they provided the resources that are necessary under the constitution. You can only prosecute as fast as you can defend, and if you can't defend, you can't prosecute.'
John Lovell, who began his legal career in the early 1990s at the height of the war on drugs, prosecuted Lewis Clay in 2003 after he was hired by the US Attorneys office in Atlanta, Georgia

John Lovell, who began his legal career in the early 1990s at the height of the war on drugs, prosecuted Lewis Clay in 2003 after he was hired by the US Attorneys office in Atlanta, Georgia

An attorney who put a man away for life on a drug trafficking sentence has revealed his regret over the sentence.

John Lovell, who began his legal career in the early 1990s at the height of the war on drugs, prosecuted Lewis Clay in 2003 after he was hired as a special assistant to the US Attorneys office in Atlanta, Georgia.

Clay, then-36, was found guilty of drug trafficking for selling 57 grams of crack and was sentenced to a mandatory minimum of life in prison.

After leaving prosecutorial work in 2006 to become a defense attorney, Lovell re-evaluated his stance on aggressive drug sentences and wrote a letter to Clay and decided to make it a goal to work toward getting him out of prison.

On March 30, Clay was one of the 61 prisoners who had his or her sentence reduced by President Barack Obama.

'Its thrilling to know Lewis is going to get out and have another chance at life,' Lovell told The Marshall Project of Clay's reduced sentence. 'Now Im thinking about what I can do to help him transition. He will be on probation for ten years.

'He has to stay crime free, and part of that is being gainfully employed, so now Im going to do what I can to help him find a job.'

Lovell said that during his time in Georgia, he was focusing on places 'where there was major drug trafficking', particularly a 'really rough neighborhood in Atlanta where a lot of dealers were selling crack'.

He said that the goal at the time was to give out harsh sentences and ultimately 'win the war on drugs'.

Clay was caught selling 57 grams of crack, which is about two ounces. In another court case in which he was defending, Lovell compared the weight to a back of M&Ms to 'demonstrate to the judge how small of quantity we were talking about'.

But in Clay's case, the 57 grams required a mandatory sentence of ten years. With a prior conviction, the sentence was doubled to 20. In Clay's case, because he had two prior convictions, the strike-three rule came into play and the sentence resulted in life without parole.

Lovell said he reached out to Clay's attorney shortly after he was arrested asking if he wanted to try to cut down the sentence, but the attorney turned him down.

Clay went to trial and was convicted in 2003. He was sentenced to life.

'Hes the only person I prosecuted who got a life sentence for selling drugs. He could have entered a plea and been given 17 years,' Lovell told The Marshall Project. 'But he didnt want to take that.

'He made a mistake, but the fact that he rejected that offer shouldnt have moved it from 17 all the way to life.'

Lovell and Clay are only two months apart in age. Lovell said that each year on his birthday, he would think of Clay sitting in prison.

'Every year, as I looked forward to the rest of my life, I thought, This just seems like too long for this man to sit in prison for something he did in his mid 30s,' he said.

On his 40th birthday, Lovell decided to step away from prosecuting and in 2006 began a private practice as a defense attorney.

He reached out to Clay by writing him a letter to tell him he no longer believed he should be spending his life in jail.

He said that he would do all he could to get Clay's sentence reduced. Clay wrote back quickly, accepting his offer.

Lovell said that when the Clemency Project was announced in 2014, he saw it as an opportunity to get Clay's sentence reduced.

About a month before Clay's reduced sentence was announced, Lovell was contacted and gave a favorable recommendation for Clay's clemency.

'I thought it was in the bag, but being in this business, I was cautiously optimistic,' he told The Marshall Project. 'I didnt want to tell Lewis until we were sure, because the government has a way of snatching away good news sometimes.'

It is unclear when Clay will be released from prison, but it appears to be soon.

And now that his sentence is reduced, Lovell is looking forward to helping Clay adjust back into the world.
Her parents were hairdressers in a small town in Connecticut - so it wasn't exactly written in the stars that Lynsey Addario should become one of the world's best known war photographers.

Even after her Italian-American family got her a Nikon camera for her 13th birthday, she thought 'photographers were crazy rich kids' with time on their hands.

But fate was about to deal Addario the first of many strange hands that would take her to Afghanistan before September 11 turned the world upside down, and then from one war zone to the next.

Steven Spielberg's new film will center on the Pulitzer Prize winning photographer Lynsey Addario and her kidnapping in Libya in March 2011, when she was held with four other New York Times journalists

'I never set out or wanted to cover war,' the 42-year-old, who has continued to cover conflicts since becoming a mother five years ago, told AFP.

In her book, It's What I Do, Addario tries to make sense of what got her into one of the world's most dangerous professions.

Despite several scrapes with death documenting wars from Iraq to Congo, 'I didn't think anyone would read the book,' she said. 'It felt really uncomfortable... egotistical (even). I thought, who would possibly care about my life?'

Steven Spielberg for starters. He is about to tell her story in a new film in which she will be played by Hollywood's hottest property, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence.

It will center on her kidnapping in Libya in March 2011, when she was held with four other New York Times journalists by soldiers loyal to Colonel Kadhafi as large parts of the country rose up against him.

That nightmare which included beatings, death threats and Addario being molested by her captors, ended with the journalists being released after a few days.

Their driver Mohammed, who had been 'frantic' with fear as they lingered amid sniper fire to photograph rebels along the road to the besieged town of Ajdabiya, was not so fortunate.

'I didn't want to be the cowardly photographer or the terrified girl who prevented the men from doing their work,' Addario wrote later, questioning their actions.

As they were taken away, Mohammed was shot by the roadside.

It was his death, and that of her friends and fellow photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros who were killed in Kadhafi's hometown Misrata the following month, that pushed Addario to put pen to paper.

'After I was released I wanted to do a photo book. I was thinking about the work I had done, and going through my old work, and it was then that I found out that Tim and Chris had been killed,' she said.

Addario (pictured, left) will be played by Jennifer Lawrence (right) in the Hunger Games-style movie

That nightmare which included beatings, death threats and Addario being molested by her captors, ended with the journalists being released after a few days. Addario (pictured in Libya in 2011) won the Pulitzer in 2009

Addario, pictured with the Times team in Libya in 2011

'I had this sort of moment of reckoning. I wanted to write... to communicate what I went through in Libya after my friends were killed. It just seemed a better way.'

As she tells it, Addario - who won a Pulitzer prize as part of a New York Times team in 2009 - is an accidental war photographer.

It all began after she was sent to Afghanistan in 2000 to photograph life for women under the Taliban. The following year, a country which most Americans could not have found on the map, became a national obsession as the hunt began for Osama bin Laden.

'I never set out or wanted to cover war. I started it because I'd been working so much in Afghanistan on the Taliban. It was natural that I went back there.

'Then I wanted to be in Iraq so I started to cover wars regularly, but it was because the stories brought me there, not because of war itself.'

It was in Iraq where she met the sisters of the then leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, out of whose group the Islamic State grew.

'I do think it's always been a great advantage being a woman in this job,' she told AFP during a visit to Paris, where her book has just been published in French.

'But because I work in the Muslim world I have access to both women and men. I can go into people's houses and interview the mothers and the sisters,' she said.

'I had tea with Al-Zarqawi's sisters because I was a woman, so I was thrown in with the women!'

Despite having a five-year-old son, Lukas, to whom she dedicated her book, Addario has continued to go work in war zones.

'I want people to see how other people live and to be sort of a messenger, I want to connect the dots, to give people perspective.'

For her the choice is simple.
An expectant mother got the shock of her life when she arrived at hospital with stomach pains only to find a porn movie being shown in the waiting room.

The 24-year-old was waiting to see a doctor when the explicit film featuring a couple started to screen on the TV at Northwick Park Hospital in North London.

The bemused mum, who is 23 weeks pregnant, was with her husband at the time.

A 24-year-old expectant mother was waiting to see a doctor when an explicit film started to screen on the TV at Northwick Park Hospital in North London (above). The bemused mum-to-be, who is 23 weeks pregnant, was with her husband at the time

'It is disgusting. It is wrong - it is not appropriate,' she told the Daily Star Sunday.

She added: 'We were put in a waiting area of the maternity ward for about 20 minutes where there was porn on the TV.'

The mum, from North London, said she could not see any staff to complain about the situation but she had no complaints about her medical treatment.

Hospitals bosses have now issued an apology for the explicit mix-up.

A spokesman for the hospital said: 'We would like to apologise to the couple concerned for the upset caused.

Hospitals bosses have now issued an apology for the explicit mix-up. A spokesman said: 'This was a genuine error with a digital TV channel having been on which, between 2am and 3am, broadcast material of an adult nature' (FILE PHOTO)

'This was a genuine error with a digital TV channel having been on which, between 2am and 3am, broadcast material of an adult nature.

'If our staff had been made aware then they would have changed the channel immediately.'

Earlier this year a grieving family were left horrified when a pornographic video was accidentally played during a service for a father and his baby son.

It took nearly four minutes to switch off the 'hard-core' video at the funeral of Simon Lewis, 33, and his baby boy, Simon Lewis Jnr, who were killed in a car crash, with the 'very loud noise' reverberating round the crematorium.

Following the blunder, Cardiff council, which runs the crematorium, launched an urgent investigation.
David Cameron is planning to offer Boris Johnson a top Cabinet job after the EU referendum in a bid to unite the Tory party after months of infighting.

The move is part of a plot to avoid the Prime Minister being ousted by the London Mayor after June's EU vote.

The job offer will be part of a 'reconciliation reshuffle', which will also see fellow Brexit campaigner Michael Gove offered a senior role.

But it comes as the pressure on Mr Cameron intensified this morning following revelations that he stands to avoid a 70,000 tax bill on his inheritance bill because his mother Mary gave him an extra 200,000 months after his stockbroker father died in September 2010.

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David Cameron (pictured left at the Tory spring conference yesterday) has reportedly offered Boris Johnson (right) a 'big job' in the Cabinet after the EU referendum

Those disclosures followed one of his toughest weeks in Downing Street as he was forced to admit he had a 30,000 stake in his father's Blairmore offshore fund.

In a plot to save the Prime Minister's career, however, he has told Mr Johnson through a government intermediary that he will be offered a 'big job' in the Cabinet, according to the Sunday Times.

The Mayor of London is the favourite to succeed Mr Cameron, who has pledged not to serve a third term.

A source close to the Mayor of London told the newspaper: 'Boris will still get a big job. That message has been conveyed directly by the PM to someone close to Boris.'

Meanwhile a Number 10 source said the Prime Minister has 'gone out of his way to ensure Boris feels included'.

David Cameron faced calls to quit as Prime Minister and hundreds of protesters took to the streets following last week's revelations about his tax affairs

Boris Johnson (pictured left) and Michael Gove (right) are reportedly being offered top Cabinet jobs following the EU vote as Downing Street attempts to unite the Tory party after months of infighting

Mr Cameron offered Mr Johnson a senior Cabinet post as part of his efforts to persuade him to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU but that offer was believed to be off the table after Mr Johnson defied him by joining Vote Leave.

But as the Prime Minister seeks to recover from a series of setbacks that threaten his premiership, Mr Johnson could be offered the job of Home Secretary, if Theresa May wants to move on, or could replace Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary.

REBEL TORY MP THREATENS TO BRING GOVERNMENT 'GRINDING TO A HALT' IN 9M EU LEAFLET ROW Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government grinding to a halt in protest at David Camerons 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at David Cameron's 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot. And anti-EU MPs plan to boycott a Tory 'away day' hosted by the Prime Minister this week. The moves mark the increasingly acrimonious Conservative rift over the EU referendum. Sir Bill will tomorrow lead an attempt by Eurosceptic Tory MPs to sabotage the Budget by forcing a Commons vote on the Finance Bill. 'The Government's decision to spend more than 9million on pro-EU propaganda is outrageous and we demand a change in the Budget to provide similar funding for an anti-EU leaflet,' said Sir Bill. 'I do not rule out similar actions over coming weeks. If the Government comes grinding to a halt it has brought it on its own head.' Fellow rebel Tory Andrew Bridgen said anti-EU MPs are also planning to snub a gathering of Conservative MPs on Thursday at a hotel near Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire home. 'Many of us do not feel like 'bonding' with colleagues who have abused the democratic process,' said Mr Bridgen. However, allies of the PM played down tensions. 'It is unreasonable to argue the Prime Minister does not have the right to explain to the electorate why he believes we should remain in the EU.' Advertisement

The role of Foreign Secretary is not an option due to his Brexit stance, while Philip Hammond is favourite to replace George Osborne as Chancellor if he moves to leave the Treasury.

Many expect Mr Cameron to be forced aside even if voters opt to stay in the EU and the revelations about his tax arrangements over the last week have shortened the odds on his departure from Number 10.

And some Tories have admitted the damage to his reputation from the Panama Papers revelations makes his future as Prime Minister untenable beyond the June 23 referendum.

It also emerged that Mr Cameron's aides met with their counterparts from Mr Johnson's campaign for 'peace talks' in a Westminster bar.

They reportedly agreed a common approach to the local elections to ensure the Tories do not suffer as a result of divisions.

According to the Sunday Times, Downing Street will reach out to the Eurosceptic wing of the party after the referendum by allowing Mr Gove to announce flagship plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights in the summer.

And Mr Cameron will use the Queen's Speech in May to announce measures to boost the 'life chances' of the poorest in an effort to create a legacy of a 'one-nation' Prime Minister.

The relationship between the Prime Minister and London Mayor has soured considerably since Mr Johnson defied Mr Cameron by deciding to join the Brexit campaign after Mr Cameron secured his EU renegotiation in February.

He infuriated the Prime Minister by informing him of his final decision just nine minutes before he went public.

Mr Johnson has further irritated Mr Cameron by criticising his 'project fear' tactics in the EU referendum.

Mr Cameron enraged his party's Eurosceptic MPs further last week over his controversial decision to spend 9million on sending a government-promoted leaflet to 27million British households setting out the case for staying in the EU.

The Prime Minister's close friend Mr Gove branded the leaflet a 'one-sided propaganda'.

It has led leading Eurosceptic Tories to demand spending limits be lifted for the Out campaign. Sir Bill Cash, will tomorrow table an amendment to the Budget calling for the spending limits to be 'equal' between the In and Out campaigns.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Commons committee that oversees campaign spending, said he will support the amendment to the Financial Bill.

More than 200,000 voters have now signed a petition against the 9.3million taxpayer funded leaflet.

The fresh EU row came as Mr Cameron revealed new details about his personal wealth last night when it emerged he stands to avoid a 70,000 tax bill following his father's death.

His mother Mary gave him an extra 200,000 months after stockbroker Ian Cameron died in September 2010, having left his son 300,000 in his will. It meant the money was paid to the Prime Minister free of Inheritance Tax (IHT).

If his father had left him 500,000 in a lump sum, 70,000 of it would have had to be paid to the Inland Revenue.

All bequests over 325,000 are subject to a 40 per cent tax levy.

A source close to the Prime Minister vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying: This is the kind of sensible, perfectly legal and proper tax planning that millions of ordinary people do.

The source said Mr Cameron had no idea his mother planned to give him and his two sisters extra money after their fathers death.

After receiving 300,000 in his fathers will in December 2010, the PMs mother gave him two additional sums of 100,000  tax-free  in May and July 2011.

He used 137,500 to buy the field adjoining his house in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Cameron is said to have given the extra amount to the Prime Minister  with similar amounts to his sisters  to even out the division of their fathers wealth among his four children.

Mr Camerons elder brother Alexander was given ownership of the main family home in Oxfordshire in 2006, worth 2.5 million.

This appears to have been designed to take advantage of the seven-year rule which can reduce  or wipe out  IHT.

When she looked at things after her husbands death, the Prime Ministers mother felt it was important to even out the way the money was shared between all four children, said the source.

The source said the Prime Minister had no idea his mother intended to give him the money, nor had he been involved in any family discussions about the matter before his fathers death.

Asked if the Prime Minister believed he or his family had done anything wrong, the source said: The Prime Minister believes everyone should obey the tax law at all times and he has done.

But the disclosure will increase pressure on Mr Cameron after it was revealed he had a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker fathers Blairmore offshore fund.

Labour is certain to step up claims of hypocrisy against Mr Cameron, who four years ago described a Jersey-based tax avoidance scheme used by comic Jimmy Carr as morally wrong.

Amid fears in No 10 that the row over the PMs tax affairs could affect the result of the EU referendum in June, Mr Cameron yesterday became the first British Prime Minister to publish his tax returns.

It shows he earned 200,307 last year. However, the 200,000 gift from Mary Cameron was not part of the tax documents released yesterday.

The information was disclosed separately by officials in an attempt to come clean about all of the Prime Ministers finances.

Yesterdays documents show a total of 46,899 came from his share of letting out his and wife Samanthas home in West London, which they vacated to move into No 10.

It indicates the couples combined rental income from the property was 93,798  equal to 1,800 a week.

Officials were quick to point out that for the last four years, Mr Cameron has waived a 20,000-a-year Prime Ministers Allowance paid to all PMs on top of their salary.

He decided it was inappropriate to receive this money from taxpayers, said one Downing Street official.

However, it will do little to avoid further questions about the way IHT was avoided when Mr Cameron received a total of 500,000 within ten months of his fathers death  in three tranches.

When Mr Cameron seniors will was published six years ago, there were raised eyebrows at the 300,000 left to the Prime Minister  a relatively modest sum bearing in mind his fathers estimated wealth of up to 10 million.

It is also understood all three have benefited to the tune of 500,000. That still leaves them way behind Alexander Cameron who owns the family pile.

But Mary Cameron, who moved into a lodge in the grounds of the family home, will be able to use her own will to further even out the proceeds to her offspring.

And, as a result of the familys shrewd use of tax laws, there is likely to be more to share out.

Commenting on Jimmy Carrs tax avoiding scheme, the PM once said: There is nothing wrong with people planning their tax affairs to plan their pension and retirement.

But some of these schemes are morally wrong.

And in 2013 he declared: Very aggressive tax avoidance schemes are wrong and we should persuade people not to do them.
Seven people are expected to face charges in Lebanon over their involvement in a botched child recovery operation allegedly orchestrated by an Australian mother and a 60 Minutes television crew.

Sally Faulkner and four members of a 60 Minutes crew, including senior journalist Tara Brown, were detained by Lebanese authorities in the nation's capital of Beirut on Thursday.

Lebanese police allege the crew paid for and filmed the attempted kidnapping of the Brisbane mother's two children Noah, four, and Lahela, five, after their father Ali el-Amien moved them to the Middle East without her permission.

A judicial source has told a local newspaper that two of the nine people initially detained over the snatch and grab operation have been released while seven others will likely be charged on Monday.

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Seven people are expected to face charges in Lebanon over their involvement in a botched child recovery operation allegedly orchestrated by an Australian mother Sally Faulkner (pictured) and a 60 Minutes crew

Lebanese police allege the crew paid for and filmed the attempted kidnapping of the Brisbane mother's two children Noah, four, and Lahela, five, after their father Ali el-Amien moved them to the Middle East without her permission

A judicial source has told a local newspaper that two of the nine people initially detained over the snatch and grab operation have been released while seven others will likely be charged on Monday

It is not known if Ms Faulkner or the Australian television crew were among those released.

The Department of Foreign Affairs told the Sydney Morning Herald that the case has been referred to Mount Lebanon general prosecutor Judge Claude Karam but have not confirmed any details about the pending charges or reported releases.

A spokesperson for Ms Bishop's department were unable to verify if any Australians have been released but said they remain in 'close contact' with Channel Nine about the crew's welfare.

'Australian Embassy officials in Beirut are continuing to visit the Australians in detention to confirm their welfare and are providing consular assistance.'

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has spoken to her Lebanese counterpart and says she expects the question of charges will be determined soon.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull declined to comment extensively on the situation on Sunday but said that the TV crew are receiving consular help as they wait to learn if charges will be filed against them.

'We are seeking through the usual diplomatic channels to ensure that they are kept safe and will be able to return,' Mr Turnbull said.

'But you have to understand that in situations like these, often the less I say, the better it is for the people that are at risk or in these difficult circumstances overseas.'

Mr Turnbull (pictured) declined to comment extensively on the situation on Sunday but said that the TV crew are receiving consular help as they wait to learn if charges will be filed against them

On Saturday Ms Bishop said that there was a compassionate element to the case because it involves children.

'We are providing as much support as we can, meeting with officials within the Lebanese government and doing what we can to ascertain what is proposed, in relation to the crew and the alleged involvement of the crew in this case,' she said.

Ms Faulkner travelled to Lebanon to allegedly kidnap her children from a previous marriage, who are living in Beirut with their father, and left her three-month-old infant with her new husband, Brendan Pierce, at home in Brisbane.

Sally Faulkner, from Brisbane, hired a controversial child recovery agency to snatch her children - Lahlea, 5, and Noah, 2 - back from their father

Ms Faulkner claims her ex-husband took their children to Beirut on a holiday last year and then refused to bring them back home to Australia, allegedly telling her that she wouldn't see the kids again.

Lebanese authorities reportedly have evidence that Channel Nine paid for the abduction of two children, who were snatched off the street in Beirut in a botched child recovery operation.

The authorities say they have a signed statement from a member of the 'recovery team' who says Channel Nine paid $115,000 for the operation, reported the ABC.

However, the evidence and signed statement is unconfirmed.

The children's father, Ali el-Amien said he was 'disappointed' by the recovery attempt, but has reiterated he won't be pushing for charges against Ms Faulkner.

'I told her that I'm not going to file anything. She is the mother of my children,' Mr el Amien told The Guardian.

Ms Faulkner said she agreed for her ex-husband Ali el-Amien to take the children to Lebanon for a holiday last year but a day after they left he told her that Noah and Lahlea would not be returning

The mother has previously said she did not know about her ex-husband's intention to take her children

'I saw her and I was thinking, 'Oh what did you do? What were you thinking'?

'I wasn't angry. I was disappointed. You could have just showed up and said you wanted to see the kids. She knows that.'

Mr el-Amien also said he had access to his ex-wife's emails and knew that a recovery operation was being planned.

The ABC reported that the area where the two children were grabbed is monitored by Hezbollah and Amal, two powerful Lebanese political and militia organisations. Mr el-Amien's father's family is al reportedly politically connected.

Mr el-Amien has previously told media he believes the recovery attempt put the children's safety in jeopardy, with security camera footage appearing to show them being bundled into a car by several people in southern Beirut.

The children have both since been reunited with their father, who says he is 'disappointed' by the recovery attempt

Footage release by Channel Nine after journalist Tara Brown and her crew were detained in Lebanon while filming a story about the recovery shows a scuffle break out in a busy street of Lebanon's capital, Beirut

Once Lahela and Noah went to Beirut, Mr el-Amien told allegedly Ms Faulkner she would never see her children again

Before the controversial alleged snatch and grab operation, Ms Faulkner hadn't seen her children for more than ten months

'I want to come back,' Lahela could be heard saying as she sobbed to her mother

Ms Faulkner said Lahela feels isolated and she now lives with family members like her grandmother who only speaks Arabic, and no English

He said the family, including Ms Faulkner, had lived in the country until 2013, when she decide it was no longer safe and left for Australia.

'When all the bombings took place, she wanted to go and visit her parents. She arrived there and tore up the children's passports.'

He claimed she told him when he wanted to see the children, to come to Australia.

Despite trying to live in Australia, neither had work there, and their income came from Lebanon, he told the ABC.

Australian consular officials visited the four Australians, who are in good health, in prison on Thursday night.

Dramatic security camera footage broadcast on Lebanese TV and on the Nine Network appear to show the children being bundled into a car by several people on a busy street in southern Beirut.

Two women, believed to be Noah and Lahlea's grandmother and nanny, can be seen standing in the street with two small children when a commotion ensues.

A flurry of people jump out of a large parked car and approach the children.

They pick them up and shove bystanders out of the way as they rush back to the car to stuff them in the back seat.

The person left behind on the street makes an attempt to chase after the car.

Ms Faulkner told A Current Affair last year that she would do 'anything' to get her children back

In Skype call, both Ms Faulkner's children can be heard begging to be returned to their mother's side

Her brother Noah said he wanted to return to Australia but that his father had dodged his pleas

The children's grandmother claims she was hit on the head with a pistol.

'It's their mum that kidnapped them, and that's what we know. She contacted me and told me she has the kids,' their father, Ali Zeid al-Amien, said soon after the incident.

Later, the children were returned to their father.

A British citizen from the child recovery agency involved has been detained on suspicion he planned to smuggle the children out of Lebanon on a boat, according to police.

Officers also seized an expensive boat they believe was intended for the job.

Lebanon, unlike Australia, is not a signatory to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction which allows for children normally resident in one location to be returned if taken by a relative.

'Lahela is not coming back, Sally. She's staying here with me. Alright? Lehla and Noah,' Mr el-Amien said on a Skype call

Ms Faulkner said she trusted her ex-husband before he left with the kids

In a tearful interview last October, Ms Faulkner told Daily Mail Australia 'It's literally like a living hell'

Both children were born in Australia and Ms Faulkner let them travel to Lebanon with their father because she had no reason to suspect they would not come back from the holiday

Ms Faulkner said that while her relationship ended on bad terms, she had never tried to keep the children from their father and had no idea why he would do that to her

Tara Brown (above) , 60 Minutes producer Stephen Rice and sound operator David Ballment are believed to have been detained by Lebanese police

Brown and her crew are understood to have been in a car with Ms Faulkner while the two children were snatched from their paternal grandmother
David Cameron (pictured yesterday) is under pressure to release more details about his tax affairs to reveal the extent to which he benefited from investing in an offshore fund

David Cameron will be confronted face-to-face by angry MPs tomorrow over his private tax affairs as he makes a statement to Parliament over tax evasion.

He buckled to increasing pressure and announced he will make a statement to the House of Commons as he faces calls to reveal the extent to which he benefited from investing in an offshore fund.

Although the statement will address fresh government measures to crack down on offshore tax avoidance following the Panama Papers disclosure last week, it will allow MPs to grill the Prime Minister on why he had a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's Blairmore offshore fund but failed to disclose this information until Thursday.

Today he came under fresh pressure to release more details this morning, despite taking the unprecedented step to become the first Prime Minister to publish details about his tax affairs.

It revealed new details about his personal wealth and details that shows he stands to avoid a 70,000 inheritance tax bill following his father's death.

But he has yet to publish any tax returns and only disclosed details of his tax affairs since he entered Downing Street in 2010 - after he sold his 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's Blairmore offshore fund.

Jeremy Corbyn demanded this morning that he must goes further and publish the actual tax returns stretching back to when he first became an MP in 2001.

The Labour leader said the public must know 'why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010'.

He called for all people in public life to be forced to publish their tax returns following the unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca - known as the Panama Papers - which have revealed how elites from across the world managed to hide their money in tax havens.

Mr Corbyn said he will publish his own tax return 'as soon as possible' and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined other party leaders north of the border in publishing their own tax returns.

Jeremy Corbyn (pictured speaking on the Andrew Marr Show from Edinburgh) demanded David Cameron publish all his tax details stretching back to when he first became an MP

Mr Cameron's disclosure of his tax details have now put pressure on all other Cabinet members to publish their own tax returns, with the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson demanding ministers declare any links with offshore tax havens.

Even former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lawson said Mr Cameron had 'made a mess of handling' the fallout from the revelations, but then dismissed the Prime Minister's tax affairs as 'pretty trivial'.

And Mr Cameron was told by Tory defence minister Penny Mordaunt that he needs to 'build up' trust with the public following the most damaging week of his premiership.

But Mr Cameron's loyal Energy Secretary Amber Rudd defended the Prime Minister this morning and rejected demands from Mr Corbyn and Mr Robertson for all public officials to disclose their tax returns.

'I think we have to think very carefully about the balance between transparency and privacy,' she said.

Mr Cameron said he paid UK tax on earnings from his 30,000 stake in the offshore fund but faced questions over why he chose not to declare the investments to parliamentary authorities.

Mr Corbyn said all MPs should be forced to declare all offshore investments and also said the rules over inheritance tax should be reviewed following the disclosure that Mr Cameron received a200,000 gift from his mother.

His mother Mary gave him an extra 200,000 months after stockbroker Ian Cameron died in September 2010, having left his son 300,000 in his will. It meant the money was paid to the Prime Minister free of Inheritance Tax (IHT).

Even former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lawson (pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning) said Mr Cameron had 'made a mess of handling' the fallout from the revelations, but then dismissed the Prime Minister's tax affairs as 'pretty trivial'

If his father had left him 500,000 in a lump sum, 70,000 of it would have had to be paid to the Inland Revenue.

All bequests over 325,000 are subject to a 40 per cent tax levy. A source close to the Prime Minister vehemently denied any wrongdoing, saying: 'This is the kind of sensible, perfectly legal and proper tax planning that millions of ordinary people do.'

The source said Mr Cameron had no idea his mother planned to give him and his two sisters extra money after their father's death.

Mr Cameron's loyal Energy Secretary Amber Rudd (pictured on the Andrew Mar Show this morning) defended the Prime Minister this morning and rejected Mr Corbyn's suggestion for all public officials to disclose their tax returns

The revelations about his involvement in an offshore fund - which came after new details of his father's Blairmore fund was published in the Panama Papers leak - generated the most damaging week for Mr Cameron of his six-year premiership and led calls for him to resign.

Demanding full disclosure of Mr Cameron's tax returns, Mr Corbyn told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show this morning: 'I want to see the papers. We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return, we need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became Prime Minister.

'These are questions that he must answer. I think there is a question for Parliament there, there is a question for Parliamentary standards to question him on this.

'There is a question - big questions - that have to be put to him by Parliament and that surely is the function of Parliament.'

His comments were echoed by the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who said that if Mr Cameron failed to make a statement to MPs in Parliament tomorrow, his party would apply for an urgent question.

He demanded all ministers now come clean by publishing their own tax returns.

'I have particular concerns about the wider UK Government, because of course it's the UK Cabinet that sets the framework of legislation, that discusses what UK policy is and we have heard absolutely nothing about other members of the cabinet,' he told Sky News.

'Where is the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, has he made a declaration that he has never ever benefited from offshore trusts, what about other Treasury ministers, have they ever benefited from offshore trusts?'

But justice minister Dominic Raab said it was 'crystal clear' the Prime Minister had done nothing illegal or improper and dismissed Mr Corbyn's comments as 'grotesquely whipped up'.

He told Sky News: 'Frankly some of the personalised attacks on him, on his father, have been deeply unsavoury.

'Jeremy Corbyn came in saying as leader of the Labour party he was going to introduce a kinder politics and yet he's been whipping up a mob mentality and engaging and leading these attacks, whipping up Labour MPs who, some of them are behaving like, frankly, hyenas.

HOW CAMERON'S FAMILY CARVED UP THE INHERITANCE CASH FOUR YEARS BEFORE HIS FATHER DIED The Prime Minister's brother Alexander Cameron QC (pictuted) was given the 2.5m Cameron family home Four years before Ian Cameron died, his Oxfordshire family home was transferred to his eldest son Alexander, a wealthy QC. As part of the deal, Mr and Mrs Cameron senior moved into Alexander's smaller home next door. Because it was handed over more than three years before Ian died, the full 40 per cent inheritance tax on the 2.5 million home would not be payable: the rate 'tapers' down to nothing if the deceased survives for more than seven years. At the time, only the first 325,000 of an estate was free of inheritance tax, so if the house's value was taken in isolation from the rest of the estate, Alexander would have paid 24 per cent on the 2.1 million of the house which was taxable. Separately, David Cameron's two sisters, Tania and Clare, were jointly left in the will a 1 million London house. The two women, who shared the house equally, had already been gifted a stake of unknown value in the property in advance of Ian Cameron's death. Advertisement

'I think it's grotesque hypocrisy given what he's said and really it's just about scoring political points, there's no substance to any of this at all in relation to trying to suggest the PM has done anything wrong.'

This afternoon Ms Sturgeon published her tax return, revealing that she paid more than 31,551 in tax on an income of 104,000.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson published their details yesterday, revealing MSP salaries of 52,000 and tax of just over 10,000.

Mr Corbyn said there was 'possibly' a case for looking at inheritance tax rules, hinting that he would close down loopholes that allow families to avoid paying death duties on their estate if he becomes Prime Minister.

He said 'non-payment' of tax starved the taxpayer of crucial money to fund public services.

Asked about the revelations that Mr Cameron stands to avoid paying up to 70,000 in death duties following the 200,000 'lifetime gift' from his mother - given just months after his father died - Mr Corbyn said: 'She has done that and that is within the rules, providing of course the person giving the money lives for more than seven years - and obviously we hope she does.

'The issue is one that it does actually reduce the level of inheritance tax that is available for the Exchequer as a whole.

'Is there a case for looking at inheritance tax rules? Possibly, but I think what's more important this week is actually looking at the whole question of tax havens, of British dependent territories, of the way in which huge sums of money are placed in these havens to evade tax in Britain.

'There's a moral case: if you earn money, you pay tax. If you earn a lot of money, you pay more tax.

'Non-payment of tax means underfunding of public services as a whole, that's what the Panama Papers have shown. The moral case has to be made.'

After receiving 300,000 in his father's will in December 2010, the Prime Minister's mother gave him two additional sums of 100,000  tax-free  in May and July 2011.

He used 137,500 to buy the field adjoining his house in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Cameron is said to have given the extra amount to the Prime Minister  with similar amounts to his sisters  to 'even out' the division of their father's wealth among his four children.

Mr Cameron's elder brother Alexander was given ownership of the main family home in Oxfordshire in 2006, worth 2.5 million.

This appears to have been designed to take advantage of the 'seven-year rule' which can reduce  or wipe out  IHT.

'When she looked at things after her husband's death, the Prime Minister's mother felt it was important to even out the way the money was shared between all four children,' said the source.

A source close to the Prime Minister had no idea his mother intended to give him the money, nor had he been involved in any family discussions about the matter before his father's death.

Asked if the Prime Minister believed he or his family had done anything wrong, the source said: 'The Prime Minister believes everyone should obey the tax law at all times and he has done.'

But the disclosure will increase pressure on Mr Cameron after it was revealed he had a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's Blairmore offshore fund.

Lord Lawson, also speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, criticised Mr Cameron's handling of the revelations and said the Panama Papers showed the need for a global clamp down on tax avoidance rather than through the EU.

Jeremy Corbyn told Andrew Marr this morning that David Cameron had not gone far enough in showing transparency over his tax affairs

'David Cameron has himself admitted that he's made a mess of his handling of it, but I think it's pretty trivial, there are more important issues behind it,' he said this morning.

'This arose out of the revelations in the so-called 'Panama Papers' and this shows beyond any shadow of a doubt that international cooperation nowadays needs to be global.

'The idea it can be just European is crazy and the idea that you need to be a member of some political entity or union in order to have international cooperation is also completely mistaken.'

Labour stepped up claims of hypocrisy against Mr Cameron, who four years ago described a Jersey-based tax avoidance scheme used by comic Jimmy Carr as 'morally wrong'.

Yesterday's documents show a total of 46,899 came from his share of letting out his and wife Samantha's home in West London, which they vacated to move into No 10.

It indicates the couple's combined rental income from the property was 93,798  equal to 1,800 a week.

Officials were quick to point out that for the last four years, Mr Cameron has waived a 20,000-a-year 'Prime Minister's Allowance' paid to all PMs on top of their salary.

'He decided it was inappropriate to receive this money from taxpayers,' said one Downing Street official.

However, it will do little to avoid further questions about the way IHT was avoided when Mr Cameron received a total of 500,000 within ten months of his father's death  in three tranches.

When Mr Cameron senior's will was published six years ago, there were raised eyebrows at the 300,000 left to the Prime Minister  a relatively modest sum bearing in mind his father's estimated wealth of up to 10 million.

It is also understood all three have benefited to the tune of 500,000. That still leaves them way behind Alexander Cameron who owns the family pile.

But Mary Cameron, who moved into a lodge in the grounds of the family home, will be able to use her own will to further 'even out' the proceeds to her offspring.

And, as a result of the family's shrewd use of tax laws, there is likely to be more to share out.

Commenting on Jimmy Carr's tax avoiding scheme, the PM once said: 'There is nothing wrong with people planning their tax affairs to plan their pension and retirement.

'But some of these schemes are morally wrong.

And in 2013 he declared: 'Very aggressive tax avoidance schemes are wrong and we should persuade people not to do them.'

David Cameron 'offers Boris Johnson a top Cabinet job in plot to stop London Mayor from ousting him as PM after EU vote'

David Cameron is planning to offer Boris Johnson a top Cabinet job after the EU referendum in a bid to unite the Tory party after months of infighting.

The move is part of a plot to avoid the Prime Minister being ousted by the London Mayor after June's EU vote.

The job offer will be part of a 'reconciliation reshuffle', which will also see fellow Brexit campaigner Michael Gove offered a senior role.

But it comes as the pressure on Mr Cameron intensified this morning following revelations that he stands to avoid a 70,000 tax bill on his inheritance bill because his mother Mary gave him an extra 200,000 months after his stockbroker father died in September 2010.

David Cameron (pictured left at the Tory spring conference yesterday) has reportedly offered Boris Johnson (right) a 'big job' in the Cabinet after the EU referendum

Those disclosures followed one of his toughest weeks in Downing Street as he was forced to admit he had a 30,000 stake in his father's Blairmore offshore fund.

In a plot to save the Prime Minister's career, however, he has told Mr Johnson through a government intermediary that he will be offered a 'big job' in the Cabinet, according to the Sunday Times .

The Mayor of London is the favourite to succeed Mr Cameron, who has pledged not to serve a third term.

A source close to the Mayor of London told the newspaper: 'Boris will still get a big job. That message has been conveyed directly by the PM to someone close to Boris.'

Meanwhile a Number 10 source said the Prime Minister has 'gone out of his way to ensure Boris feels included'.

David Cameron faced calls to quit as Prime Minister and hundreds of protesters took to the streets following last week's revelations about his tax affairs

Boris Johnson (pictured left) and Michael Gove (right) are reportedly being offered top Cabinet jobs following the EU vote as Downing Street attempts to unite the Tory party after months of infighting

Mr Cameron offered Mr Johnson a senior Cabinet post as part of his efforts to persuade him to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU but that offer was believed to be off the table after Mr Johnson defied him by joining Vote Leave.

REBEL TORY MP THREATENS TO BRING GOVERNMENT 'GRINDING TO A HALT' IN 9M EU LEAFLET ROW Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at David Cameron's 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at David Cameron's 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot. And anti-EU MPs plan to boycott a Tory 'away day' hosted by the Prime Minister this week. The moves mark the increasingly acrimonious Conservative rift over the EU referendum. Sir Bill will tomorrow lead an attempt by Eurosceptic Tory MPs to sabotage the Budget by forcing a Commons vote on the Finance Bill. 'The Government's decision to spend more than 9million on pro-EU propaganda is outrageous and we demand a change in the Budget to provide similar funding for an anti-EU leaflet,' said Sir Bill. 'I do not rule out similar actions over coming weeks. If the Government comes grinding to a halt it has brought it on its own head.' Fellow rebel Tory Andrew Bridgen said anti-EU MPs are also planning to snub a gathering of Conservative MPs on Thursday at a hotel near Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire home. 'Many of us do not feel like 'bonding' with colleagues who have abused the democratic process,' said Mr Bridgen. However, allies of the PM played down tensions. 'It is unreasonable to argue the Prime Minister does not have the right to explain to the electorate why he believes we should remain in the EU.' Advertisement

But as the Prime Minister seeks to recover from a series of setbacks that threaten his premiership, Mr Johnson could be offered the job of Home Secretary, if Theresa May wants to move on, or could replace Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary.

The role of Foreign Secretary is not an option due to his Brexit stance, while Philip Hammond is favourite to replace George Osborne as Chancellor if he moves to leave the Treasury.

Many expect Mr Cameron to be forced aside even if voters opt to stay in the EU and the revelations about his tax arrangements over the last week have shortened the odds on his departure from Number 10.

And some Tories have admitted the damage to his reputation from the Panama Papers revelations makes his future as Prime Minister untenable beyond the June 23 referendum.

It also emerged that Mr Cameron's aides met with their counterparts from Mr Johnson's campaign for 'peace talks' in a Westminster bar.

They reportedly agreed a common approach to the local elections to ensure the Tories do not suffer as a result of divisions.

According to the Sunday Times, Downing Street will reach out to the Eurosceptic wing of the party after the referendum by allowing Mr Gove to announce flagship plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights in the summer.

And Mr Cameron will use the Queen's Speech in May to announce measures to boost the 'life chances' of the poorest in an effort to create a legacy of a 'one-nation' Prime Minister.

The relationship between the Prime Minister and London Mayor has soured considerably since Mr Johnson defied Mr Cameron by deciding to join the Brexit campaign after Mr Cameron secured his EU renegotiation in February.

He infuriated the Prime Minister by informing him of his final decision just nine minutes before he went public.

Mr Johnson has further irritated Mr Cameron by criticising his 'project fear' tactics in the EU referendum.

Mr Cameron enraged his party's Eurosceptic MPs further last week over his controversial decision to spend 9million on sending a government-promoted leaflet to 27million British households setting out the case for staying in the EU.

The Prime Minister's close friend Mr Gove branded the leaflet a 'one-sided propaganda.

It has led leading Eurosceptic Tories to demand spending limits be lifted for the Out campaign. Sir Bill Cash, will tomorrow table an amendment to the Budget calling for the spending limits to be 'equal' between the In and Out campaigns.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Commons committee that oversees campaign spending, said he will support the amendment to the Financial Bill.
Despite the identity of the celebrity and their famous spouse being revealed in the US, a ruling has banned their names being exposed in the UK

The married celebrity granted an injunction over an extra-marital affair with another couple has been named in Scotland today.

It comes after details emerged this morning that the celebrity had allegedly had another affair with a different lover five months after meets up for a threesome with two others.

The latest twist in the injunction saga comes amid rows over whether or not the celebrity and their famous partner were wrong to use the courts in an attempt to hide the extra-marital activities.

Despite the identity of the well-established figure and their famous spouse being revealed in the US, a controversial ruling has banned their names being exposed in England and Wales.

However the injunction has no power in Scotland, leading to the names being revealed north of the border.

Within hours of the story going to print in the US, however, his name became readily available to Britons on social media and online, and posts have once again flared up following the latest revelation of the star's activities.

The lover told the The Sun On Sunday: 'When you see them in the media they give this illusion of a perfect family life.

'It's a sham and upsets me a lot. If I could I would tell the star to remember their roots and where they came from  and keep your fingers out of the cookie jar.'

The unfaithful partner sought the injunction after learning a national newspaper in the UK intended to reveal details of his affair with two others.

A High Court judge initially turned down the application for a privacy injunction because his infidelity contradicted his public portrayal of marital commitment.

But he then went to the Court of Appeal, which ruled infidelity was a private matter under human rights law.

Lord Justice Jackson said the couple had an open relationship and the spouse accepted the celebrity had other sexual encounters from time to time.

Judgment: The Court of Appeal in London has blocked the naming of a celebrity in the UK even though it can be read in the United States

DAILY MAIL COMMENT: YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW Millions of Americans will be talking about it, after a paper reported the full story. And inevitably, social media chatrooms all around the globe will be abuzz with the names. Yet thanks to a Court of Appeal injunction, the once-free Press of the UK remains banned from revealing the identity of the celebrity married couple who flaunt their happy family lives, with the aid of expensive PRs, while one of them is said to have indulged in an extra-marital threesome. Could anything more starkly expose the laws failure to keep up with the age of the internet, in which no judges ruling can stop stories from flashing round the world within seconds? Indeed, the laws inability to understand the phenomenon was shown by Lord Justice Leveson, who devoted barely 20 pages to social media in his 2,000-page report on the Press. Yet this didnt stop him recommending a draconian crackdown on British newspapers, which are expected to compete with mega-sites on the internet. But its the hypocrisy of it all that stinks. Celebrities spend fortunes on promoting an image to appeal to their devotees, who in turn enrich them beyond dreams. Yet the moment an uncomfortable truth threatens to shake their fans trust, they run for an injunction. Whatever happened to the publics right to know? Advertisement

The ruling meant the press was banned from running the story but it has been reported in a US publication in full with photographs of all those involved.

Their names are also instantly accessible on Twitter while a political website featured the couple, indicating they were the individuals who had the injunction.

TWEETERS WHO NAME MYSTERY CELEB COULD BE PROSECUTED The Attorney-General has warned people on social media that they could face prosecution for naming the celebrity at the centre of a injunction. Jeremy Wright, QC, issued a statement last night stating: 'Anyone who breaches an injunction through comments posed online or otherwise may have contempt of court proceedings brought against them.' Despite the identity of the well-established figure and their famous spouse being revealed in the US, a controversial ruling has banned their names being exposed in this country. Within hours of the story going to print in the US, however, his name became readily available to Britons on social media and online. Advertisement

The latest details of the sexual encounters comes after one of the people involved in the threesome, who has been gagged from talking about the relationship, accused the celebrity couple of using their wealth and children to hide from the truth.

The well-known couple have posted dozens of pictures of their children on social media and have given a number of magazine and television interviews about them and their joy at becoming parents.

Lawyers warn the injunction is untenable and brings the law into disrepute. Tory MP Philip Davies said earlier this week that the farce was making an ass out of the law.

Bob Satchwell, executive director of the Society of Editors, said: If people are embarrassed if something is revealed, why do it? And if they argue that their children will suffer, that is for them to decide before they carry out the activity.

The courts are already crowded and when an injunction cannot be seriously and properly enforced because of the internet and social media, it just seems like a complete waste of resources.
Staff are calling for an ice addict to be removed from a Sydney hospital after he left a nurse with permanent brain damage, flipped a hospital bed, and threatened to kill staff and patients.

The 38-year-old Blue Mountains timber worker, who has an extensive criminal history and mental health problems, has been repeatedly admitted to Nepean and Hornsby hospitals over the past two months.

Security guards were forced to hold down the man with eight restraints and doctors kept him unconscious for eight days, using 'all the Valium in the hospital' to knock him out, a source told the Daily Telegraph.

Pictured: Nepean Hospital in Sydney, NSW, where a string of ice-related incidents have occurred

Frightened staff are now threatening to quit their jobs unless he is transferred to Cumberland Hospital or Long Bay Correctional Centre.

'Someone will get killed sooner or later,' a staff member told the Daily Telegraph.

'He has already given a nurse at Cumberland Hospital permanent brain damage and broken another patient's femur. He's too much of a risk.'

As an inpatient in the past, the man allegedly assaulted people in the community, threatened to kill hospital staff and patients, and flipped a hospital bed in Nepean's emergency department.

Hospital documents reveal that the man has an 'extremely high risk of violence and assault', and has since been housed in the Western Sydney hospital's mental health high dependency unit after threatening staff on March 27.

'The management is not looking after staff,' the hospital source told the Telegraph.

'It is not right to have him in this hospital where lives are being threatened. He should never have come into this hospital in the first place. My colleagues are so distressed because they fear for their lives.'

On Tuesday a crisis meeting was held on how nurses and security guards should deal with the ice-affected patient.

This comes after a string of ice-related incidents, including a patient who shot security guard Barry Jennings, 48, and Senior Constable Luke Warburton in the leg at Nepean Hospital on January 12.

The number of ice-affected people admitted to NSW hospitals increased more than sevenfold between 2009 and 2014.
Findings to feature in the documentary 'What British Muslims Really Think'

Half stated that it was unacceptable for a gay person to teach their children

British Muslims disagree with the rest of the country on a range of key issues such as sexuality, freedom of speech and polygamy, according to new research.

A poll carried out by ICM discovered that more than half of Muslims disagree with homosexuality being legal in Britain, while a quarter support Sharia law being introduced into parts of the country instead of British law.

The full findings will feature in a Channel 4 documentary presented by Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday.

More than 80 per cent of Muslims surveyed said they felt British and were happy living in the country. Pictured is British Muslim Mo Farah

ICM carried out interviews with 1,801 adults compiled from a random sample who categorised themselves as being Muslim

The full findings will feature in a Channel 4 documentary presented by Trevor Phillips, pictured, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, on Wednesday

Entitled What British Muslims Really Think, the programme will investigate the 'split' between Britons who follow Islam and the rest of the population.

I thought Europe's Muslims would gradually blend into the landscape. I should have known better. Former equal rights chief Trevor Phillips

Among the most startling findings by the research was the attitude of Muslim men and women to the treatment of wives.

A third of those polled said it was acceptable for a British Muslim to keep more than one wife, while 39 per cent said wives should always obey their husbands.

Nearly half of those questioned said it was unacceptable for a gay or lesbian person to teach their child, with the majority also opposing gay marriage.

Former equal rights chief Phillips, who speaks to several members of the Muslim community on their views during the documentary, states that 'the integration of Muslims will probably be the hardest task' the country has ever faced.

He told The Sunday Times Magazine: 'I thought Europe's Muslims would gradually blend into the landscape. I should have known better.

'Britain desperately wants us to think of its Muslims as versions of the Great British Bake Off winner Nadiya Hussain, or the cheeky-chappy athlete Mo Farah.

Nadiya Hussain, pictured middle, became a national treasure last year and something of a poster girl for British Muslims after winning The Great British Bake Off, claiming she was just 'as British as anybody else'

British Muslim and Olympic hero Mo Farah after winning double gold representing Team GB at London 2012

'But thanks to the most detailed and comprehensive survey of British Muslim opinion yet conducted, we know that just isn't how it is.'

More than 80 per cent of Muslims surveyed said they felt British and were happy living here, yet conceded they were more likely to stay within their own communities, especially when it came to relationships.

The ICM figures reported that more than half mix with non-Muslims each day, normally through work or education, but one in five never enter a non-Muslim household.

Phillips, who was head of the equal rights commission from 2006 and 2012, published a report on Islamophobia twenty years ago, in which he underestimated the number of Muslims that would be living in the UK.

Nearly three million Muslims currently call Britain home, half of which were born abroad, while it is projected that at least six million will live in Britain by 2050.

As part of its research, ICM carried out interviews with 1,801 adults compiled from a random sample who categorised themselves as being Muslim.
Now his stepson has revealed details of his stepfather's philanderings

Sir Anthony's dying wish was to see his Archbishop son one last time

The Archbishop of Canterbury has discovered the man he grew up thinking was his father is not his biological parent

The Archbishop of Canterbury's secret father did not go to church and was a man 'brought alive like an old dog by beautiful girls with good brains', his stepson has said.

Round-the-world yachtsman Paddy Macklin, one of Justin Welby's new-found relatives, spoke out following the revelation the archbishop was Sir Anthony Montague Brown's illegitimate son.

Talking about his stepfather, Macklin said: 'Let me put it this way: le coq was tres sportif.'

Welby, 60, confirmed yesterday that a DNA test had shown Sir Anthony was his real father, while it later emerged Winston Churchill's private secretary had a dying wish to see the priest one last time.

Macklin's mother Shelagh married Montague Brown and became Macklin's stepfather.

Montague Brown died in 2013, and his final wish was allegedly to meet his illegitimate son.

Macklin had grown suspicious that his stepfather had fathered the Archbishop.

In early 2013, in a nursing home, Sir Anthony said he would like to meet Welby, who was Bishop at the time.

Macklin phoned the Bishop's office and made the request to Welby and also told him that he thought Sir Anthony, who was a friend and former colleague of his mother Jane Welby, was his father.

The Archbishop (left) discovered Anthony Montague-Browne (right) was his biological father. Montague Brown's stepson has since described his stepfather as 'an old dog'

Anthony Montague-Browne (pictured) was described as a womaniser by his stepson Paddy Macklin

The surprised priest reportedly listened carefully but said he will discuss it further once the process of him becoming Archbishop of Canterbury was all over.

On March 21 that year he was installed as Archbishop and the next day Macklin showed his step-dad a picture of the ceremonial process.

Speaking in French so the care home assistants did not understand, a frail Sir Anthony revealed that he was Welby's father.

The newly-crowned Archbishop approached Macklin two weeks later to say he would meet Sir Anthony. But it was too late - his real father had passed away on April 1.

Montague-Browne (centre) was private secretary to Winston Churchill (left), and is pictured here in a helicopter with the former Prime Minister and US President Dwight D. Eisenhower (right)

Paddy Macklin, 56, is the son of Lady Shelagh Montague Browne from a previous marriage and is a renowned round-the-world yachtsman

Macklin, 56, told The Sunday Times: 'Anthony was a thinker, but he was more agnostic that anything. I've never been to church with him and my mother all the years they were married.'

And he revealed that though he was certain Montague-Brown had had other women, he did not believe there were any other illegitimate children.

The Archbishop discovered last month that the late Montague Browne was his biological father and not Gavin Welby.

After finding out for sure in a DNA test last month, Welby insisted yesterday he was not disturbed by the discovery.

'In the last month I have discovered that my biological father is not whisky salesman Gavin Welby but, in fact, the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne - who worked for Churchill between 1952 and 1965.

'This comes as a complete surprise,' Welby said in a highly unusual statement issued through the Church of England.

Sir Anthony (left) was devotedly loyal to the former Prime Minster Winston Churchill, and is pictured here helping him feed deer in Richmond Park

'I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes.'

Despite the rumours, Welby had still assumed that his father was Gavin Welby. But The Telegraph approached him saying it had found evidence suggesting that Montague Browne was actually his father.

Montague Browne had one other child, a daughter named Jane Hoare-Temple.

According to the newspaper, the family had long discussed the striking resemblance between the Archbishop of Canterbury and Montague Brown - and Welby himself was aware of the rumours.

He had even met Montague-Brown as a child.

Welby, left as a young man, had heard rumours that Montague Browne was his father previously

The Telegraph then discussed what they had discovered with Welby, who decided to take a DNA test.

A comparison between a swab from his mouth and hair samples from Montague Browne's old hairbrush showed a 99.9779 per cent probability that they were father and son.

Shelagh Montague Browne had kept the hairbrush, untouched, so it contained full follicles which provide clear DNA results.

Welby, who is currently in Zambia for a month-long clergy event, said both his mother Jane and Gavin Welby had been alcoholics, although he stressed that his mother had not touched alcohol for nearly 50 years.

'To find that one's father is other than imagined is not unusual. To be the child of families with great difficulties in relationships, with substance abuse or other matters, is far too normal,' he said in his statement.

HIS REAL FATHER... WAR HERO NAMED IN WINSTON CHURCHILL'S WILL Standing proudly behind Sir Winston Churchill, this is the real father of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Sir Anthony Montague Browne was a decorated war hero turned civil servant, who was later remembered in Churchills will. He was born in 1923 and educated at Stowe and Oxford. He came from three generations of military officers and joined the RAF. Montague Browne (standing back) was private secretary to Winston Churchill (bottom) in his later years On a tour of duty as a Beaufighter pilot in the Far East with 211 Squadron, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for missions over Japanese-occupied Burma. After joining the Foreign Office in 1946, he married his first wife Noel in 1950. In 1952, aged just 29, he began working as Churchills private secretary. Already working there was Jane Portal  Churchills personal secretary who would become Jane Welby  and the two became close friends. A year later, Sir Anthonys wife gave birth to a daughter, whom they called Jane. Despite what is now known to have been a particularly intimate relationship, he only mentioned Miss Portal once in his memoirs, which were published in 1995. He said she had not been chosen for her family connections. Speaking about her and another secretary, Elizabeth Gilliatt, he wrote: Their efficiency was undoubted and their discretion and personalities endeared them to WSC. By early 1955 Churchill was in poor health and Miss Portal was dating Gavin Welby  who would become her husband. She left her role in March 1955 as Churchill stood down. He was Churchills last private secretary and, apart from Lady Churchill, saw more of the wartime leader during the final decade of his life than anyone else Sir Anthony, who was honoured for his service at No 10, briefly returned to the Foreign Office but he was seconded to return as Churchills private secretary for the rest of his life. When Churchill died in 1965 he left Sir Anthony 10,000  almost four times his annual salary. Queen Elizabeth II also appointed him a liaison officer between the royal household and the BBC and ITV. The broadcasters made documentaries about royal life. Later in life, Sir Anthony went on to work in the city as managing director of Gerrard and National. He was also a trustee of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. He split from Noel in 1970 on the grounds of adultery. He was allegedly unfaithful with Shelagh Macklin, Clementine Churchills personal secretary, whom he later married. Sir Anthony met Justin Welby a number of times and lived just long enough to see him installed as Archbishop. He died days later in 2013, at the age of 89. The Archbishop's mother Jane, personal secretary to Winston Churchill, pictured at the New York World Fair, with Philip George, arranging an exhibition of mementos of Churchill He was Churchills last private secretary and, apart from Lady Churchill, saw more of the wartime leader during the final decade of his life than anyone else. Sir Anthony had arrived at Downing Street in October 1952. Churchill, then aged 77 and in his second spell as Prime Minister, wanted a new private secretary to succeed David Hunt, and picked Sir Anthony from a shortlist supplied by the Treasury. Churchills first words to him were: I dare say we will get on very well together. Sir Anthony accompanied Churchill on many overseas trips. He recalled a visit to Monte Carlo, where the Prime Minister dabbled in gambling. He described one evening when Frank Sinatra and his entourage walked by Churchills table. He said Sinatra stopped and vigorously shook Churchills hand before declaring: Ive been waiting to do that for ages. After he left, Sir Anthony recalled, Churchill turned to his friends and asked: Who the hell was that? Advertisement

'Although there are elements of sadness and even tragedy in my father's (Gavin Welby's) case, this is a story of redemption and hope from a place of tumultuous difficulty and near despair in several lives.'

Welby's mother Jane also issued a statement yesterday saying the news had come as an 'almost unbelievable shock', admitting to The Telegraph the liaison happened 'fuelled by a large amount of alcohol'.

'It appears that the precautions taken at the time didn't work and my wonderful son was conceived as a result of this liaison,' she added.

She said that after leaving her job and getting married, she did not see Sir Anthony again for a long time.

Justin Welby as a schoolboy during his days at Eton, and the man he thought was his father, Gavin, who died when the future Archbishop of Canterbury was just 21

Gavin Welby and wife Jane with Justin Welby at his christening. He had always assumed he was a honeymoon baby

THE LIFE OF JUSTIN WELBY January 1956: Born in London 1959: Mother Jane divorces Gavin Welby 1974: Leaves Eton 1977: Gavin Welby dies 1978: Graduates from Trinity College, Cambridge 1978-1989: Works in the oil industry 1983: Daughter Johanna dies in a car crash 1989: Retires after hearing calling from God 1989-1992: Studies theology 1993: Ordained as priest 2007: Becomes Dean of Liverpool Cathedral 2011: Becomes Bishop of Durham March 2013: Becomes Bishop of Canterbury April 2013: Bioloigical father Anthony Montague Browne dies March 2016: Discovers true parentage Advertisement

'After Gavin and I broke up in 1958 Anthony and I met occasionally but although he may have asked how Justin was, there was nothing that gave me any hint that he might have thought he was Justin's father,' she said.

At the time, Sir Anthony was married to his first wife, Noel Arnold-Wallinger, who he would separate from in 1950 on the grounds of adultery. He married his second wife Shelagh Macklin the same year.

Four years ago, it was revealed Welby senior had been a master of reinvention, changing his name and even his date of birth during his lifetime.

He was born Bernard Gavin Weiler in Ruislip, in the West London suburbs, in 1910. The family Anglicised the name four years later, with the outbreak of war.

In 1929, his mother gave him 5 and put him on a ship bound for New York - which is where he began to build his fortune, illegally trading in whisky during the Prohibition years.

He married his first wife in 1934, a marriage which lasted just a year.

Welby senior returned to London, and a home in Onslow Square, Kensington, in 1950. After a failed attempt at romancing John F Kennedy's sister in about 1952, he met Jane Portal.

Welby's mother Jane also issued a statement saying the news had come as an 'almost unbelievable shock', admitting to The Telegraph the liaison happened 'fuelled by a large amount of alcohol'

The tryst took place in about March 1955, shortly before she married Gavin Welby. Jane was secretary to Churchill from 1950 to 1955

RULE CHANCE MEANS HE KEEPS HIS JOB Until the 1950s, canon law said that bishops had to be born in wedlock. But this rule against illegitimacy was abolished in the 1950s by Geoffrey Fisher, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961. Section C.2.4 of the canon laws of the Church of English now states: No person shall be refused consecration as bishop on the grounds that he was born out of lawful wedlock. Archbishop Fishers revisions of the law were conducted alongside a Canon Law Commission, brought about in 1939 to review the 151 canons. It sat eight times between 1943 and 1947. An entirely new set of canons was then accepted by the Church of England Convocation by 1969. Advertisement

They were married by April 1955.

She has described her ex-husband Gavin Welby as 'a very strong, possessive character', adding: 'At the end of March 1955 he was bullying me to leave my job as personal secretary to the Prime Minister and run away with him and marry him in the United States where his divorce was being finalised.

'At the age of 25, as I was, the pressure became too great and in the end I found myself unable to resist.

'One feature of this pressure is that I was already drinking heavily at times. Although I could then ensure that this did not affect my work, it was later to develop into serious alcoholism during the 1960s which only came to an end when I entered rehab in 1968. I have not drunk alcohol since.'

Jane split from Gavin Welby in 1958, married Baron Williams of Elvel in 1975.

Gavin Welby died 'as a result of the alcohol and smoking' in 1977 when the Archbishop was 21.

The bishop lived with Gavin in London while his mother Jane lived in Norfolk
Police are hunting for a Walter White lookalike who stole items left on a charity shop's doorstep.

The donations had been left by members of the public outside The Children's Society shop in Newark, Nottinghamshire, overnight on March 20.

The callous thief - who is a spitting image of the Breaking Bad main protagonist - is described as being white and in his mid-40s.

The Walter White lookalike (pictured) is being sought after the theft on March 20. He is described as being white and in his mid-40s

He has a large moustache and was wearing a black fedora hat - just like Brian Cranston's 'Heisenberg' character in the hit US crime drama series.

The suspect was also dressed in a black jacket, grey or black trousers, black shoes and was carrying a green holdall and a black handbag.

A police spokesman said: 'Officers would like to speak with the man pictured in connection with the theft of items which were left on the door step of a charity shop in Middlegate, Newark.

'If you recognise the man or think you can help in any way please call Nottinghamshire Police on 101 quoting occurrence number 16000059782 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.'

The Childrens Society is a national charity that runs projects helping vulnerable children and young people.

The charity, which was founded in 1881, has more than 100 high street shops across the UK.

The show Breaking Bad, created by Vince Gilligan, starred Brian Cranston and Aaron Paul, who teamed up to manufacture and distribute huge quantities of meth in New Mexico.

The theft took place outside The Children's Society shop in Newark, Nottinghamshire (pictured)

The fictional Walter White is a chemistry teacher who cooks the drug to support his family after he is diagnosed with terminal cancer.

It ran for five seasons and Cranston won four Emmy awards for the role.

A real-life Walter White was caught by police in Alabama in 2012.

White, who shares his name with the fictional meth dealer, was found in an inpatient treatment facility after being sought for a meth-related charge.

He had a 2008 conviction for manufacturing methamphetamine and was placed on the sheriff's most-wanted list.
Muhammad Ali has attended a star-studded event in his honour to raise money for the fight against Parkinson's Disease.

The frail former heavyweight champion who suffers from Parkinson's has rarely been seen in recent years and his appearance electrified guests at the gala in Phoenix, Arizona.

Ali received a standing ovation at the 22nd annual Celebrity Fight Night, which raises money for research into the disease, after a video tribute to the star was played.

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Muhammad Ali has attended a star-studded event in his honour to raise money for the fight against Parkinson's Disease. It was headlined by singer Carrie Underwood

The frail former heavyweight champion who suffers from Parkinson's has rarely been seen in recent years

Singer Carrie Underwood headlined the event and sang country music hits. The 33-year-old wore a highly-embellished sleeveless minidress and large diamond chandelier earrings.

The annual gala, held at the Marriott Resort, raises money for the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute.

The 74-year-old, who has been battling Parkinson's disease for many years, has been advised not to travel by his doctors and has made few public appearances because of his condition. He was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1984.

Last month he has pulled out of a trip to Britain because his family believed the cold weather and long haul flight would place too big a strain on his body.

Ali received a standing ovation at the 22nd annual Celebrity Fight Night, which raises money for research into the disease, after a video tribute to the star was played

For a good cause: Former CNN talk show host Larry King and his wife Shawn (left) and Bo Derek (right) lent their star power to the 22nd annual Celebrity Fight Night gala in honour of Ali

He was intending to attend the opening of an exhibition about called 'I Am The Greatest', opens that is running at the O2 in London, which recounts the story of the former boxer inside and outside the ring.

Veteran celebrities including former CNN talk show host Larry king and his wife Shawn travelled to Phoenix for the fundraiser.

And actress and philanthropist Bo Derek joined Underwood on the red carpet for the event. The ageless star of '10' looked stylish in a silver sequinned evening jacket.

Linda Thompson, the former spouse of Bruce - now Caitlyn - Jenner and ex-wife of music producer David Foster, also attended the event.
Reg Keys, whose son died in Iraq in 2003, warns that the vetting process will make the report a 'whitewash' unless it is overseen by a 'referee'

But not before its findings are vetted by national security officials

The long-awaited inquiry into the Iraq War is set to be vetted by British spies, it emerged today, sparking fears the published findings will be a 'whitewash'.

The Chilcot inquiry  launched seven years ago  is expected to finally disclose its findings in the summer  after June's EU referendum .

But there are now demands for it to be published next month after it was revealed that security officials will run their eyes over the report before it is released to the public.

Sir John Chilcot (pictured) is finally expected to publish the seven-year report in the summer but it has now emerged that security officials will now run their eyes over the findings before publication

According to reports in the Sunday Telegraph, a team of British security officials will launch a national security vetting process at the offices of the Chilcot inquiry next week.

Up to 150 former ministers, civil servants and military figures are expected to be criticised in the report but the news that the findings are set to be vetted has fuelled fears that some of the most embarrassing disclosures will be censored.

Reg Keys (pictured), whose 20-year-old son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys died in an ambush in Iraq in 2003, said an independent official must oversee the vetting process to ensure was not a 'whitewash'

The team of security officials met with John Penrose, the minister in charge of the Government's response to the Chilcot inquiry.

Mr Penrose said the vetting process will only take two weeks to complete.

Reg Keys, whose 20-year-old son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys died in an ambush in Iraq in 2003, said an independent official must oversee the vetting process to ensure was not a 'whitewash'.

He told the Telegraph: 'There needs to be a referee almost  if someone says 'I am taking this out it needs to be shown to an independent person' otherwise it will be a whitewash, it will be sanitised.'

But a source close to the inquiry told the newspaper: 'It is not deleting or redacting anything that is embarrassing it is just taking out or checking that anything genuinely secret is not left in.

'It is his [Sir John's] report - all we get to do is to check that he is not inadvertently and unintentionally revealing national secrets.'

Mr Penrose said: 'Nobody wants this to take any longer than it has already. The process of checking by security officials will take no more than two weeks to complete.

'Sir John can then complete the process of preparing his report for publication on the timetable set out in his letter to the Prime Minister last October. We look forward to seeing the final report then.'

Last summer Sir John Chilcot insisted he understood 'the anguish of the families of those who lost their lives in the conflict'.

In a statement he said: 'We take the responsibility we were given as an independent inquiry extremely seriously, and understand the need for Government, Parliament and the public to see our report as soon as possible.'
The young woman whose body was found floating in shallow water was 'finally catching her dream' to become a pastry chef before her death.

Police found Miming Listiyani's body naked at Cabarita Wharf, on Parramatta River in Sydney's west on Thursday night and arrested her alleged murderer - also believed to be her partner and Bali Nine associate - Khanh Thanh Ly, 35, nearby.

According to friends, Ms Listiyani, 27, was studying at the prestigious culinary school Le Cordon Bleu Australia at Ryde and had aspirations to open her own pastry kitchen in Indonesia, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

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Miming Listiyani (pictured with chef Adriano Zumbo) was 'finally catching her dream' as a pastry chef before her death

Police found Miming Listiyani's body naked at Cabarita Wharf, on Parramatta River in Sydney's west on Thursday night and arrested her alleged murderer Khanh Thanh Ly, 35, nearby

According to friends, Ms Listiyani was studying at a prestigious culinary schooland had aspirations to open her own pastry kitchen in Indonesia. Pictured: one of her creations

The advertising graduate's social media accounts are full of pictures from Sydney restaurants, as well as images of her own creations.

In June, 2014, she uploaded a picture of herself and renowned pastry chef Adriano Zumbo.

'Just before she flew back to Sydney she was talking to me about setting up her own pastry kitchen,' a friend of Ms Listiyani said.

'She was so happy she was finally catching her dream.'

Police were alerted by reports of an assault and a woman screaming 'don't kill me,' in Sydney's west on Thursday. They arrived to find a naked man standing over her body before attempting to flee.

After delayed questioning, Ly was charged with Ms Listiyani's murder. He did not apply for bail when he appeared in Parramatta Local Court on Saturday via video link.

Ms Listiyani is believed to have just returned to Australia from Indonesia, and was Facebook friends with the man accused of her murder

The advertising graduate's social media accounts are full of pictures from Sydney restaurants, as well as images of her own creations (pictured)

NSW Police are now trying to piece together the strange circumstances that led to the death of Ms Listiyani, forensically examining a number of different crime scenes

Ms Listiyani's Instagram page is full of photos of desserts she baked as training to become a pastry chef

Mr Ly was taken to Burwood Police station for questioning on Friday

Khanh Thanh Ly, 35, (right), has been charged with the murder of Indonesian woman Miming Listiyani (left)

He is expected to appear in court again in May.

Ly was sentenced to seven years in jail in 2007 for links to the Bali Nine drug syndicate. According to friends, Ms Listiyani and Ly were 'close friends.'

Ms Listiyani is believed to have just returned to Australia from Indonesia to tell her friends about her plans to open a pastry kitchen.

Police have been piecing together evidence to determine the events which led up to finding the body of Ms Listiyani, from Indonesia, about 11.30pm on Thursday.

Pools of blood, a bank card and a pair of women's shoes led police to another location in Breakfast Point, a suburb near Cabarita Wharf - a popular night-time spot known as 'Lovers Lane'.

Several bloodstains were washed from the footpath and a car in the street before police re-opened it to residents. A pair of shoes and bank cards were also found at the scene.

Leonato Tattoli said police focused their search around his car, which was found with blood on it.

Mr Tattoli said he parked outside the home about 10.30pm and saw a man sitting in another car nearby.

According to friends, Ms Listiyani, 27, was studying at the prestigious culinary school Le Cordon Bleu Australia at Ryde (pictured) and had aspirations to open her own pastry kitchen in Indonesia

A pair of shoes and bank cards were also found at the scene, just two kilometres from Cabarita Wharf

Police investigating the scene (pictured) said the man, aged 35, and the woman, 27, were known to each other

Police established a crime scene near Cabarita Wharf and forensics specialists are continuing to investigate

Another resident, Bill Langton, said he heard screams just after 11pm.

'Rather disturbing, last night heard what I thought were three screams, on the news this morning a woman found murdered in the river next to Breakfast point,' he wrote on Facebook.

Carmen Muno, who lives in the home where police focused their attention on Friday morning, said she didn't know the victim or the alleged attacker or why they were in front of her home.

'The shoes were over near the bush and the blood was on the footpath,' she told Fairfax.

'I don't usually come out the front exit but I did this morning and saw all the blood and thought 'what has happened?'

Police searched the Ly family home in Sydney on Friday, removing evidence from the house and a gold hatchback car outside, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A man, believed to be Ly's father, told Fairfax media to 'go away' as it wasn't their business.

An Audi was removed from the vicinity of Carabita Wharf and forensic specialists were examining several scenes.

Superintendent Mark Jones told media earlier on Friday a murder weapon hadn't been found at that point.

'It's a tragic, tragic event. She appears to be a very nice young lady who unfortunately has been murdered,' he said.

She was found floating naked in the water at Cabarita Wharf in Sydney's inner west on Thursday night

Emergency services arrived at about 11.30pm to allegedly find Mr Khanh, naked, standing over the body of Ms Listiyani on the waters edge. He attempted to flee but was arrested

Mr Ly was arrested and charged with murder. He was refused bail and will appear in court on Saturday

Superintendent Mark Jones told media: 'It's a tragic, tragic event. She appears to be a very nice young lady who unfortunately has been murdered'

He said at the time the pair knew each other, but would not elaborate on the nature of the relationship.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Ly also has links to the Bali Nine drug syndicate.

The publication reported that after pleading guilty to conspiring to import drugs in 2004, Khanh Thanh Ly, 35, was sentenced to seven years jail in 2007 in Brisbane's Supreme Court.

Before the Bali Nine were arrested in 2005, Ly, a high school friend of ringleader Myuran Sukumaran, was one of six people arrested in Sydney and Brisbane in relation to the syndicate.

The Daily Telegraph reports that this friendship did not stop Ly - known also by the nickname 'Buddha' - from giving evidence against others arrested in the infamous syndicate.

Ly, who acted as a 'lieutenant' for the drug ring, travelled to Bali three times under Sukumaran's orders.

He said he helped organise Australian drug mules there for the Bali Nine, which included executed members Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Ly has been refused bail and the case will return to court next month.

Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran arrive at the Denpasar Courthouse in 2006 for their part in the Bali Nine drug syndicate. They have since been executed for their crimes. Sukumaran and Ly were friends at school

'Bali Nine' enforcer, Myuran Sukumaran (left) and mastermind Andrew Chan in a holding cell at Denpasar Court after they were sentenced to death for heroin trafficking in Denpasar, Bali, in 2006
A violent gunman responsible for one of Australia's longest police sieges is set to be released from jail despite fears he still poses a threat.

Tony Grosser staged a two-day siege in 1994, shooting Senior Constable and STAR Group officer Derrick McManus 14 times after he had arrived at the South Australian property to serve a summons, 7NEWS reported.

Grosser remained holed up in the Nuriootpa home, in the Barossa Valley, 60 kilometres northeast of Adelaide, for 40 hours as the siege unfolded.

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Pictured: Tony Grosser is responsible for South Australia's longest siege in 1994

Grosser shot Senior Constable Derrick McManus (pictured) in the siege as he arrived to serve a summons

Grosser was sentenced to 22 years in jail after the siege, and is due to be released in eight days.

But his victims fear he hasn't been rehabilitated and still poses a threat to them.

South Australia's Attorney-General John Rau will reportedly seek parole-like conditions for Grosser's release.

Police cars arrive at the scene of South Australia's longest siege

Grosser was holed up in the Nuriootpa home, in the Barossa Valley, 60 kilometres northeast of Adelaide, for 40 hours as the siege unfolded

Under the new High Risk Offenders Act, Mr Rau will request an extended supervision order in a legal first, in an attempt to reassure the victims of Grosser's crimes.

Mr Rau will also request that Grosser wears a permanent GPS tracker and reside at an approved address.

It is possible he may also be subject to treatment orders, travel restrictions and drug, alcohol and firearms bans.

But if Grosser breaches a condition of the orders, he will be sent back to prison, the Daily Telegraph reports.

Grosser was sentenced to 22 years in jail after the siege, and is due to be released in eight days

But his victims fear he hasn't been rehabilitated and still poses a threat to them. South Australia's Attorney-General John Rau will reportedly seek parole-like conditions for Grosser's release




The teenager charged with murdering dance student Haruka Weiser, 18, suffers from a range of mental health disorders  including schizophrenia.

Meechaiel Criner, 17, was arrested on Thursday and charged with killing the Portland ballerina who was in the first year of her studies at the University of Texas in Austin.

Now Daily Mail Online can disclose that last week's arrest was far from being the teenager's first brush with the law.

Files seen by this website shed light on Criner's chaotic and frequently violent upbringing in Texarkana  which included a 2009 incident where he was left with both eyes swollen shut after being attacked by his grandmother.

As a result, the local police department have compiled a lengthy case file charting the teenager's troubled life and frequent attempts to run away.

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Meechaiel Criner (left), 17, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with killing Haruka Weiser. The teen had a chaotic upbringing that included an incident where he was attacked by his grandmother, Mary Wadley (right)

Meechaiel Criner suffered from a range of mental health disorders  including schizophrenia. He was once described as a promising student who 'had fallen on hard times'. Pictured here in December 2014 as part of an interview with Texas High School student newspaper

The document, seen by Daily Mail Online, includes a description of the 6ft teenager  and a list of his medical conditions, among them schizophrenia, autism and depression.

He is also described as wearing prescription glasses and has his occupation listed as a student at Texas High School.

More disturbing, however, are a list of incidents connected with his name  in nearly all of which, he was the victim.

One, in May 2009, saw his grandmother, 62-year-old Mary Wadley, arrested and charged with injuring a child, after a neighbor spotted her beating him with a belt outside their home.

When police arrived, they found Criner, then aged ten, with two black eyes  Wadley claimed he had turned unexpectedly, causing her to hit him in the face with the garment.

According to the case report filed by Texarkana police department, the child's eyes were left so swollen, he was unable to open them without using his fingers.

He also had bruising on the right side of his face.

Although his grandmother claimed to be disciplining the boy, when asked why he was being punished, Criner appeared not to know.

The police file, seen by Daily Mail Online, adds: 'Criner spoke as if he were mentally handicapped and 'slower' than normal children. At no time was he taken for medical treatment.'

An addendum to the report, written by Criner's CPS case worker, says Wadley described her actions as 'whooping' him and, when asked why, became irate but later said it was because the boy had been 'acting up'.

Haruka Weiser (pictured) was found dead in a creek on University of Texas at Austin campus Tuesday. Criner is suspected of killing her

Case files seen by this website shed light on Criner's chaotic and frequently violent upbringing in Texarkana  which included a 2009 incident where he was left with both eyes swollen shut after being attacked by his grandmother, Mary Wadley (left)

She also refused to take him to hospital, although Criner was later taken for medical attention by his mother  a feckless drug addict from whose care he and his siblings had earlier been removed.

Criner's grandmother, although initially booked into the local jail, was later freed with a warning and a $2,000 fine.

A further incident came in November 2013  with the 62-year-old this time accused of attacking one of his sisters.

This time, Criner was listed as a witness in the police report in which Wadley is claimed to have pushed and pulled the hair of 26-year-old Lawellai Criner.

However, neighbors who witnessed the disturbance said the intended victim was Criner himself, with the boy set upon by his sister.

In his statement, he says: 'She [Lawellai] started going crazy and kick [sic] the door and push me. I was trying to tell her to calm down and help my grandmother in getting her out.'

On that occasion, no charges were pressed.

More recent files concern Criner's multiple attempts to run away from home, the first time in January 2015.

According to his grandmother's statement, she and the teenager had had an argument and she had asked him to leave the house to calm down.

When she went to look for her grandson, the boy, who was wearing nothing more than a pair of black and grey pajamas, had gone.

The police file, seen by Daily Mail Online, adds: 'Criner spoke as if he were mentally handicapped and 'slower' than normal children. At no time was he taken for medical treatment.' Above he is pictured in custody

Weiser (pictured right) was a first year theater and dance student at the university and originally from Portland

Although Wadley told police she thought he might have gone to California, where his mother was then living, Criner instead went to the home of his 23-year-old sister Ariana in Houston.

Returned to his grandmother after being picked up by police, Criner went missing for a second time on August 16 2015.

Wadley, however, failed to report her grandson missing for another five days  only doing so because the new school term was about to begin.

In an affidavit made by the attending police officer, Wadley explained that she needed a police report to avoid getting into trouble when Criner failed to show up in class.

She also told the officer that she had no idea of her grandson's height and weight but revealed that he had been arrested in Seagoville  a small town just south of Dallas  the day before.

According to Seagoville police records, Criner was released after telling officers that he was planning to head for Austin, where he is now in jail.

When informed of his plans, Wadley was apparently mystified and told police that he knew nobody in the city.

Criner's grandmother's Texarkana home (pictured) is where he had been living up until he ran away in August

This is reportedly the abandoned building described at 2911 Medical Arts Street in Austin, where Meechaiel Criner allegedly tried burning items belonging to the victim, according to an affidavit released to the media

Wadley, who made no further effort to find her grandson, has also been speaking to the media about Criner and, in an interview on KSLA yesterday, claimed he had a 'violent' temper.

'He would get along until you made him mad and then he snapped. His temper...he snapped real fast,' she said.

'He's real intelligent, but he has a problem. He talks to himself and he walks back and forth like he's fighting.'

Precisely what Criner was doing between leaving Wadley's home August last year and his arrest last Thursday is unclear, although he is thought to have been squatting in a derelict building close to the University of Texas campus.

It was at the Medical Arts Street address that he was picked up by police on Monday and again on Thursday  following a call from the fire department who were putting out a small blaze at the property.

When Daily Mail Online visited on Saturday, traces of human habitation could still be seen within, while locals said Criner is thought to have smashed the lock before moving in.

Police maintain a presence near the crime scene on the University of Texas campus in Austin

Tributes to Haruka Weiser near the wooded area of Waller Creek by the Alumni Center on the University of Texas campus in Austin

It is there that he is thought to have burned some of Weiser's possessions, although some of her things  including part of one of her Doc Marten shoes  were found intact.

He then spent the following three days at the Lifeworks Center; a local shelter that specializes in helping troubled, homeless children.

Director Susan McDowell said that his arrest, in front of other occupants of the home, proved a 'severely traumatic experience' for all concerned.

She added: 'The youth at the Center are grieving for Haruka and counsellors are working with the children involved.

'For many of them, this has brought back traumatic memories.'

Criner is now in jail and has subsequently been charged with the first degree murder of dance student Weiser.

Video footage of the night she was killed appears to show him brandishing a 'sharp silver object', although Austin police have refused to confirm whether or not she was stabbed.
after doctor was unable to remove pellet from jaw

and shot him with air pistol in 'unprovoked attack'

A man has been shot in the face with a BB gun after attempting to strike up a conversation with a group of strangers while walking home from a friend's house.

The victim, a 21-year-old man from Hornby in Christchurch, was walking down Colombo Street just after midnight on Friday when he came across three men gathered in a carpark.

After hearing footsteps when he stopped to roll a cigarette, the victim turned around to find one of the men holding up an air pistol and was forced to run and hide in nearby bushes after he was shot in the jaw, Stuff.co.nz reported.

A man has been shot in the face with a BB gun after attempting to strike up a conversation with a group of strangers while walking home

'At first I didn't know [what had happened]. It felt like a bee sting,' he said.

The 21-year-old said he had merely asked the men how their night was going before he was attacked.

The gunman fled in a silver sedan and the victim said he hid in the bushes for around an hour, terrified the group would return to 'finish him off'.

'I'm fuming about it. At the end of the day he [the gunman] could have killed me over absolutely nothing. I was just trying to be friendly,' he said.

The victim, a 21-year-old man from Hornby in Christchurch, was walking down Colombo Street, near Thorrington Rd, just after midnight on Friday

The victim said he did not realise a pellet was lodged between his molars until a friend told him to get an X-ray.

A surgeon attempted to remove the pellet on Friday but was unsuccessful and the victim requires more serious surgery under general anaesthetic.

According to police, the shooter was wearing a bright orange polar fleece vest and black trousers.
Former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, 34, was shot dead on Saturday night

A former police chief who dined with New Orleans Saints star Will Smith just hours before his death was named in a lawsuit by the alleged shooter, it has emerged.

Smith, 34, was shot dead on Saturday night and his wife Racquel, also 34, was shot twice in the right leg in New Orleans' Lower Garden District.

He was shot in the back and side after exchanging words with the driver of a Hummer H2 that rear-ended his Mercedes G63 SUV, causing him to strike another vehicle, police said.

Cardell 'Bear' Hayes - a 28-year-old former security guard for the Saints - has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

Just one hour before his death, Smith was pictured with former New Orleans Police Department commander Billy Ceravolo and former New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas.

There is now speculation that the shooting was a revenge attack after it emerged that Ceravolo was named in Hayes' lawsuit against the city for a police shooting that killed his father, Anthony Hayes, in 2005.

Anthony Hayes was shot dead just 500 yards away from where his son allegedly shot Smith 11 years later, with both shootings taking place on intersections of Felicity Street.

Hayes' ex-attorney confirmed that the former police captain was one of the defendants in Hayes' case against the city after his father was shot dead by police 11 years ago.

Ceravolo - a 25-year veteran of the force who retired in 2013 and was friends with Smith and Thomas - told WWLTV he was not at the scene of the shooting.

He added that he was not aware that Hayes had named him in his federal lawsuit.

Last night Hayes' attorney John Fuller told NBC News that his client was 'not the aggressor' and 'is not guilty'.

'He is completely competent and completely aware of what he did,' Mr Fuller said.

Smith (right) was pictured dining with former New Orleans Police Department commander Billy Ceravolo (left) and former New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas (center) before his death. The alleged gunman was suing New Orleans over the police shooting of his father and named Ceravolo in the legal documents

Smith died slumped behind the wheel of his car but his wife, who was shot in the leg twice, was transported to a nearby hospital and is expected to recover. She came out of surgery and was 'doing well' this evening

Anthony Hayes was shot dead just 500 yards away from where his son allegedly shot Smith 11 years later, with both shootings taking place on intersections of Felicity Street

Mr Fuller said someone else may have fired the gun that killed Smith and that another car could have collided with the former Saints star's vehicle.

'Hayes began following the car to read the license plate,' Mr Fuller said.

'I talked to several witnesses today. The story that's real is different than what's [being] reported.'

Hayes' allegedly mentally unstable father, Anthony, got into an argument with an employee at a pharmacy while holding a pocket knife in 2005.

Police said he lunged at an officer and sergeants Jeffrey Walls and Jeffrey Hochman and officer Gary Kessel shot him dead.

A judge later ruled that legal force was justified.

Hayes was arrested (pictured) at the scene of Smith's murder for allegedly fatally shooting Smith and shooting his wife Racquel Joseph Smith in the leg

Ceravolo (right), who considered Smith (left) and Thomas 'personal friends', said he did not know he was named in the lawsuit

Anthony Hayes (circled in 2005) was shot and killed by New Orleans police in 2005 after they say he lunged at them with a pocket knife

Ceravolo (circled) served the New Orleans Police Department for 25 years and was captain of the force when he was named in the lawsuit. He retired from the NOPD in 2013

Hayes was suing the city and named six officers in the shooting, according to Fox News, saying non-lethal force such as a stun gun should have been used to subdue his father, but police did not have them.

The lawsuit filed on behalf of Hayes' son had sought $4million in damages.

That case was settled in 2011 for an undisclosed 'large' sum, attorney Ike Spears said.

Police had no information to suggest that the fatal shooting of Hayes' father in 2005 had any link to the killing of Smith, NOPD superintendent Michael Harrison said.

'Our investigation continues as to motive of the shooting, and whether or not Smith and Hayes knew each other prior to this incident,' Harrison said.

Hayes was arrested after he rear-ended Smith's car and allegedly shot the Super Bowl winner multiple times.

The crash, which happened around 11.30pm Saturday night, caused Smith's $115,400 Mercedes Benz G-Class SUV to rear-end the Chevy Impala in front of him, driven by his friend, according to CBS News.

Smith then walked over to confront Hayes and the two men exchanged words, NOLA.com reported.

It is unclear when Smith walked back to his car after confronting the 28-year-old, but Hayes allegedly pulled out a handgun and unleashed a barrage of bullets at Smith and his wife, Racquel R. Joseph Smith.

Smith died slumped behind the wheel of his car but his wife, who was shot in the leg twice, was transported to a nearby hospital and is expected to recover. She came out of surgery and was 'doing well' this evening.

Officers arrived at the scene within four minutes of the shooting, Harrison said, according to the Advocate.

Racquel (pictured, center) was taken in an ambulance to a nearby hospital for the two gunshot wounds to her right leg. She is now recovering

On his Facebook, Hayes' profile picture is an image of a red H2 Hummer, which appears to be the same one he hit Smith's car with

Hayes was booked into the Orleans Parish jail at approximately 9.15am on Sunday and is being held on a $1million bond

'The driver of the Hummer shot Smith multiple times and his 34-year-old wife twice in the right leg,' NOPD spokesman Juan Barnes said in a statement.

Hayes stayed at the crime scene until police arrived, the New York Daily News reported.

A second man, who was in Hayes' car, was questioned but later released by detectives.

A witness at the scene, Janis Baehr, a tourist in town for the French Quarter Festival, said she was walking near the intersection and heard six to eight gunshots, NOLA.com reported.

She said she heard Smith's wife howling in pain and ran over to help.

'I kept her company until the paramedics came because she was screaming,' Ms Baehr said.

Smith's bullet-ridden vehicle was towed away shortly after the shooting by police.

Hayes' gun was the only one confiscated from the scene and three cars were searched by police. Police are trying to determine whether the handgun was legally owned.

Hayes has been charged with second-degree murder, which implies that police believe the shooting was not premeditated.

He is being held at BKG Booking in New Orleans on a $1million bond and is yet to submit a plea.

Defense attorney Mr Fuller asked for low bond Sunday night, noting that Hayes had waited for police, owns a towing business and is raising his five-year-old son.

Magistrate Brigid Collins said she understood but, according to the warrant, said 'I've also got a gentleman who was shot in the back.'

Hayes has just one other arrest on his record. He was charged with illegal carrying of a weapon, illegal possession of codeine and possession of drug paraphernalia, among other charges, in 2010.

Hayes pleaded guilty in June 2012 to the weapons charge and possession of codeine. He was given a 5-year prison sentence but it was immediately suspended.

He withdrew his guilty plea the following month and in June 2013 rejected a plea offer from prosecutors.

In January 2014 he pleaded guilty to a reduced weapons charge and to a count of possession of drug paraphernalia and was given a suspended six-month sentence, records show.

Hayes rear-ended Smith's Mercedes Benz SUV, which caused the former football player to rear end a Chevrolet Impala being driven by a friend of his

Smith exited his vehicle and confronted Hayes, who then pulled out a hand gun and unleashed a wave of bullets on Smith and his wife

Former New Orleans Saints running back Pierre Thomas was distraught at the scene of the murder and had just come from dinner with Smith prior to the incident

Cardell 'Bear' Hayes, who has been arrested on second degree murder charges in connection with the shooting, posted a photo to his Facebook with a man he says is Wyatt Russell - son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn - when he was an extra in the film 22 Jump Street

Hayes' Facebook page is filled with pictures of him on the set of comedy movie 22 Jump Street, including one of him hugging a man he says is Wyatt Russell, son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.

'Tbt on the movie set wit da big bro big fav and Wyatt Russell,' Hayes wrote on the set of three photos, one of which is no longer visible.

Hayes, who has long, distinct dreadlocks, can be seen dressed in blue and orange gear in the background of a big football scene in the film.

In his real life, he was also a football player with potential.

As recently as 2015, Hayes was playing for a local developmental team in New Orleans called the Crescent City Kings.

Hayes can be seen in the background of shots on 22 Jump Street in a football scene towards the end of the movie. His distinct dreadlocks make him easy to pick out

Hayes, who also played football and was a top prospect in Louisiana in 2004, waited at the scene where he allegedly shot Smith (right) until police arrived to arrest and charge him

He was given six months in jail for a weapons charge, which was his first offense ever, in 2014 but the sentence was suspended

Just hours before his death, Smith posted this image of himself and wife Racquel to Instagram saying they were 'having a blast' at New Orleans' French Quarter Festival

WILL SMITH'S NFL CAREER Will Smith began his football career at Ohio State where he won a national championship. He was drafted to the Saints in 2004 as the 18th pick in the 1st round. He had a fantastic rookie year and gradually established himself as one of the premier defensive ends in the NFL. Smith worked his way to become one of the top defenders in the Saints' franchise history. No Saint has had more than his 67.5 sacks, which ranks fourth in club record books (since 1982, when sacks were first recognized), since Smith joined the team. He led New Orleans' quarterback takedowns in four seasons, as the first Saint to top the team in sacks three years in a row (2005-07) since La'Roi Glover from 1998-2000. Smith appeared in 139 games with 120 starts and has recorded 608 tackles, caused 19 fumbles and recovered seven. He was a five-time defensive captain, sets the tone for the entire unit with his rugged play and intensity. Though often double-teamed, he notched 67 stops (39 solo) last season, posting six sacks, one pass defense and one fumble recovery, according to the Saints website. He was a driving force behind the team's 2009 Super Bowl win. Advertisement

He was also a top prospect football player in New Orleans at Warren Easton High School in 2004 - the same year Smith was drafted to play with the Saints.

Hayes studied at University of New Orleans, breeds pit bulls and works in vehicle recovery.

Smith and Racquel R. Joseph Smith have three children together.

Instagram posts from Racquel show the family, two sons and a daughter, beaming smiles as they lounge on a couch and pose for snaps on vacation.

Just hours before his death, Smith posted on Instagram that he and Racquel were 'having a blast' at the city's French Quarter Festival.

NBC New Orleans Sports anchor Fletcher Mackel posted an image of Thomas with Smith and former New Orleans Police Department commander Billy Ceravolo.

Thomas was on scene when Smith died and was seen looking distraught over his friend's death.

The photo, allegedly taken an hour before Smith's death, showed Thomas wearing the same shirt as he was when photographed at the scene of Smith's murder.

Smith, a native of Queens, New York, played defensive end for the New Orleans Saints for 10 years and graduated in 2005 with a degree in criminology.

He was drafted in 2004 and left in 2014 to spend one year with the New England Patriots.

According to SportsRac, his final contact with the Patriots paid him $870,000 for the year.

The site estimates he earned roughly $53.5million during his career in the NFL.

Smith was at the center of the NFL's bounty probe in 2012, the last year he played in an NFL regular season game.

The league concluded that Smith and fellow defensive captain Jonathan Vilma helped run a locker-room pool that paid cash bonuses for heavy and even injurious hits.

Smith successfully appealed a four-game suspension, though coach Sean Payton was suspended the entire 2012 season.

A year earlier, however, Smith served a two-game suspension for using a weight-loss product that included a diuretic banned by the league for masking steroid use.

Smith leaves behind three young children, Lisa (center) and Wynter (left) with his wife Racquel, and another child from a previous marriage (right). Instagram pictures show the happy family on outings and lounging around the house

Family man: A statement released on behalf of the family called Smith a 'devoted husband, father and friend'

New Orleans Saints spokesman Greg Bensel wrote on social media that the death of the player was a 'senseless and tragic loss'.

'Our thoughts and prayers are with Will Smith - his wife Racquel - his children William, Wynter and Lisa,' Bensel wrote in a tweet.

Friends of the star athlete, who was instrumental in the Saints 2009 Super Bowl win, have tweeted out their heartbreak over losing Smith.

'Sick to my stomach! This one hurts,' San Francisco 49ers running back Reggie Bush said.

'Devastated. Lord please be with the Smith family at this tragic time. Nonsense man...' said Saints running back Mark Ingram II.

As the news of Smith's death broke, celebrities, football stars and fans tweeted out their heartbreaking sadness due to the athlete's death

New Orleans native, singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr tweeted: 'Praying for the wife and family of @Saints will smith... RIP.'

A statement released on behalf of the Smith family called the football star a 'devoted husband, father and friend'.

'On behalf of the Smith family, we are thankful for the outpouring of support and prayers.

'We ask that you continue to respect the family's privacy as they grieve the loss of a devoted husband, father and friend,' the statement read.

Smith played at Ohio State and played nine seasons with the Saints after being selected 18th overall in the 2004 NFL draft, NBC News reported.

He was sidelined for the 2013 season with a knee injury then signed by the New England Patriots in 2014.
A World War Two bomber pilot has been separated from his wife of 25 years after her council-funded home care was withdrawn at short notice.

Graham Brown, 92, from Wells, Somerset, has had to travel nearly an hour every day to see his wife Julia Brown, 78, after she was moved to a care home two weeks ago.

For the past five years Mrs Brown, who cannot walk unaided, has relied on daily home visits from carers after a hip operation in 2011 left her bedridden.

Graham Brown, 92, (left) from Wells, Somerset, has had to travel nearly an hour every day to see his wife Julia Brown, 78, (right) was moved to a care home. For the past five years Mrs Brown, who cannot walk unaided, has relied on daily home visits from carers after a hip operation in 2011 left her bedridden

But last month the couple were told the visits would be permanently stopped because of a shortage of carers.

Mrs Brown has now been moved to a care home eight miles away, leaving her partially-blind husband with a difficult journey to be by her side.

Mr Brown, who flew Wellington bombers in raids over Italy during the war, described the move as 'disgusting'.

The grandfather-of-four said he struggles to make the 40-minute journey to his wife's care home.

Graham Brown (center) during his RAF days with navigator Reg Perfect, bomber Don Burrows, rear gunner Jim Briggs and Ken Haynes (left to right), at Foogia, Italy in 1945. For the past five years Mrs Brown, who cannot walk unaided, has relied on daily home visits from carers after a hip operation in 2011 left her bedridden

He usually goes by bus and has to walk for 15 minutes to get there, but sometimes relies on taxis to get him there at a cost of 35 for a round-trip.

The retired civil engineer said: 'Other than spells in hospital we haven't spent time apart since we were married.

'I think it's disgusting that care can just be stopped, it's despicable.

'My wife thinks the same as me - after five years, just a few days notice. It's terrible.

'The reason for the care being stopped is apparently due to a shortage of carers but in my opinion this is just poor management.

'If more carers are needed they should be employing more, if they are leaving then management should be looking at why.

'It's worrying - very worrying. We don't know how long she is going to be there.

Last month the couple, pictured on their wedding day in Draycot, Somerset in 1991, were told the care visits would be permanently stopped because of a shortage of carers

'The whole situation is awful.'

Candlelight Care, who are based in Glastonbury, had been organising carers to visit Mrs Brown in the couple's flat for five years.

The Browns claim they were told the care would be stopped on Easter weekend and it was too late to arrange alternative care at home.

Mrs Brown, who has mobility issues, was moved to Arthur's Court care home care in Street on March 29, and will stay there indefinitely.

Candlelight Care said they could not comment on individual cases but care packages are organised by Somerset County Council.

A spokesman for the council said: 'Mrs Brown was receiving temporary support from two carers following her discharge from hospital.

Mr Brown, who flew Wellington bombers in raids over Italy during the war, described the move as 'disgusting'

'We have been working with Mr and Mrs Brown to find suitable care and equipment to support their needs in their own home.

'There is currently a shortage of home care available in the Wells area but we are hopeful that appropriate support can be sourced locally to allow Mrs Brown to return home.'

Mr Brown added: 'It is quite a nice care home and the staff are excellent, but she would absolutely love to be home again.

'We were originally told the move would only be for two weeks while social services decided what to do but now we have been told it will be longer.'

Mr Brown was an RAF bomber pilot for four years in the Second World War and was based in Foggia, Italy after training in Canada.

He met Julia after the death of his first wife Diana, in 1990, when they discovered they shared the same birthday.
Social media has gone into overdrive after a man posted chilling footage of his 'haunted' university dorm room, which he claims is possessed by the ghost of a former student.

But his video has prompted some viewers to question its authenticity, with some sceptics claiming it is an elaborate hoax rather than a terrifying paranormal episode.

Uploaded by YouTube user Paddy C, the clip shows the student's door mysteriously opening at random intervals.

Chilling footage of this door appearing to open at random intervals has sent social media into overdrive

Uploaded by YouTube user Paddy C, the clip shows the student's door mysteriously opening at random intervals

The footage appears to show his door opening of its own accord, and when he opens it to show what is inside, only the contents of the wardrobe can be seen.

Viewers can also hear knocking coming from inside the cupboard.

He claims his lodgings are haunted by a demon, however some have suggested the door is simply opening because of air pressure in the room.

His video - and a second follow up in an effort to prove the authenticity of the occurrences - have since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and sparked online debate.

Some believers have suggested he throw holy water around his room in an effort to clear it of evil spirits.

However some viewers have suggested the door is simply opening because of air pressure in the room

His video - and a second follow up in an effort to prove the authenticity of the occurrences - have since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and sparked online debate

In a blog accompanying his video, shot in America, the student wrote: 'I started my first year of college in September.

'The building I'm currently living in is the oldest on campus. Like, old enough that there's a bomb shelter in the basement.

'The place makes you feel dread the second you step in. My first night there, I'm hanging out with my roommate Rob.

'Suddenly we hear some slight knocking. I get up, open the door, nobody is outside, I immediately forget this happened.'

The video has prompted some viewers to question its authenticity, with some claiming it is an elaborate hoax rather than a terrifying paranormal episode

The student suggests his bedroom is haunted by the ghost which is repeatedly opening the door

Some believers have suggested he throw holy water around his room in an effort to clear it of evil spirits

He added: 'Over the next few weeks we were woken up several times by knocking late at night. With each occurrence, the knocking gets louder and more disruptive. Then, one night, I realize that the knocking isn't coming from the hall. It's coming from my closet.

'I get up, put on my phone light, and timidly open the door. The thing creaks open to reveal, surprise, nobody is inside.

'Not long after this, we both go home for winter break. When I get back, I find out Rob has moved out and I now have the whole room to myself.

'Except I guess I don't.

'The knocking returns in full force. It seriously sounds like a SWAT team is trying to bust through my closet, almost every single night. Sometimes I'd wake up to find the doors wide open.

'At this point I'm so used to it that I don't care that much anymore, but a while ago I left my camera running pointed at my closet around the time that the knocking usually starts.'

He tries to show the door cannot easily be opened and films it on several occasions, and throughout the night
SNL veteran Kate McKinnon has reprised her role as Hillary Clinton to mock the Democratic front-runner's race for New York against Bernie Sanders.

This week's show opened with Clinton wearing a Yankees cap - which still has its price tag on - as she pretended to eat a hot dog and nuts to prove what a real 'New Yorker' she is. She later switches her cap for a Mets one.

The clip also makes fun of Clinton's subway gaffe from earlier this week, where it took the presidential candidate several tries to get through the turnstile.

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SNL veteran Kate McKinnon has reprised her role as Hillary Clinton to mock the Democratic front-runner's race for New York against Bernie Sanders

The clip makes fun of Clinton's subway gaffe from earlier this week, where it took the presidential candidate several tries to get through the turnstile

In the clip, McKinnon, playing Clinton, gives up swiping her card and attempts to jump the turnstile. Eventually she gives up and takes a cab

'The subway. I love to ride. I'm comfortable riding it,' said Clinton before swiping several times with no success.

She then attempted to climb over the turnstile only to get stuck and give up.

'I'll just take a cab,' she added.

Following Clinton's recent loss to rival Bernie Sanders in the Wyoming caucus, the skit discusses Clinton's streak of several primary losses.

'It's true, I have not been winning as of late. In fact I have not won a state in about three weeks, but that was the plan!' she says in the skit.

McKinnon as Clinton attempts to say 'You win some you lose some', but struggles to say 'lose', gives up and says, 'close enough'.

She says the losses 'humanize' her as a presidential candidate.

The opening skit featured Kate McKinnon playing Hillary Clinton, where she discussed her recent losses and love of New York

In the skit she sports a Yankees cap with the price tag still on before changing into a New York Mets baseball cap (pictured)

'I'm the underdog, now,' she says. 'I'm this election's Rudy, and I like that.'

McKinnon as Clinton then moves on her her love for New York, as the actual candidate continues to campaign around the city ahead of next week's primary.

'Right now my focus is here in New York,' she says after mentioning her losses. 'God, I love being back here in the fat apple. It's my home state except for Illinois and Arkansas, but they already voted for me so we're cool.'

She added that she was going to 'Take in that hot new Broadway show that's got everyone a buzz - Chicago!'

McKinnon as Clinton then moves on her her love for New York, as the actual candidate continues to campaign around the city ahead of next week's primary.

'Right now my focus is here in New York,' she says after mentioning her losses. 'God, I love being back here in the fat apple. It's my home state except for Illinois and Arkansas, but they already voted for me so we're cool.'

She added that she was going to 'Take in that hot new Broadway show that's got everyone a buzz - Chicago!'

SNL brought on Al Sharpton as statistical analyst Charles Richards to discuss the black approval rating of each presidential candidate with Al Sharpton, played by Kenan Thompson

The pair discuss the presidential candidates and Richards' algorithm for the election, the Black Approval Rating Scale

Richards, played by Sharpton, says each candidate gets a number based on his or her standing in the black community

Actor Russell Crowe was the guest host on this week's Saturday Night Live.

Al Sharpton also made an appearance on Saturday Night Live tonight to discuss the presidential candidates and skewer Donald Trump's contentious relationship with African American communities.

Kenan Thompson who was playing Reverend Al Sharpton in the skit, brought on the actual Sharpton as statistical analyst Charles Richards.

He first tells Thompson: 'I expected you to be thinner'.

The pair then move on to discuss the presidential candidates and Richards' algorithm, the Black Approval Rating Scale.

'Each candidate gets a number based on their standing in the black community,' the real Sharpton, as Richards, says. '[Hillary] Clinton gets a 7.2 rating with black voters because her husband is Bill Clinton, who despite recent outbursts is beloved in the black community.

As for Bernie Sanders, he 'gets a strong 6.3. Yes he was active in the Civil Rights movement, but he seems like the kind of guy who still calls Muhammad Ali 'Cassius''.

The pair then moved into the Republican party.

He give Donald Trump a -1,048 black approval rating and insists that the number could go down even further

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton got a rating of a 7.2, 'because her husband is Bill Clinton' is 'beloved in the black community'

As for Sanders, he 'gets a strong 6.3. Yes he was active in the Civil Rights movement, but he seems like the kind of guy who still calls Muhammad Ali Cacius'

'Sen [Ted] Cruz gets a 2.1 on the Black Approval Scale Rating. Because look at him, you just know he's up to something,' Sharpton, as Richards, says.

As for Trump, the pair go back and forth saying 'Come on!' several times before Sharpton, as Richards, announces the presidential candidate's black approval rating.

'Come on now. Right now Donald Trump has a black approval rating of -1,048. But that could go down,' he says.
The Young Turks host was kicked off an American Airlines flight following a dramatic altercation with staff over his flight's four-hour delay.

Cenk Uygur posted a series of videos on his Facebook that documented his and fellow passenger' anger over being stuck at LAX on a Friday night.

But while the whole plane seemed to share the host's dismay over the delay, only he and the man filing were refused boarding, after being told 'the captain didn't feel comfortable' with him on the plane.

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Cenk Uygur (pictured filming himself at LAX) was kicked off an American Airlines flight following a dramatic altercation with staff over his flight's four-hour delay

Uygur posted a series of videos on his Facebook that documented his and fellow passenger' anger (pictured in departures lounge) over being stuck at LAX on a Friday night

But things get worse for Ulygur, who is then not allowed to board the flight after it arrives four hours later. In a separate video, a supervisor (pictured) directs him to customer service before admitting that he's not allowed to be on the flight

In the first video - a full 21-minutes-long - Uygur tells the camera that it's 'not funny' anymore and that 'American Airlines sucks - they decided to screw everyone on this flight'.

He then launches into a ten-minute rant about how much it 'sucks' to be waiting for a flight in the middle of the night.

While he concedes that 'there's things much, much worse in the world' he continues: 'But when it's late at night and you're gonna go on a redeye and some people aren't even gonna get to sleep on this flight - and they have no answers.'

He says he feels powerless and that the only thing he can do is to make this video and 'tell everyone that American Airlines sucks'.

A zoom around the departures lounge shows a room of waiting passengers and one man stuck in an argument with the front desk.

Uygur explains: 'People are mad , it's not just me who is mad.'

The video continues in this vein for another 10 minutes, and ends with a shot of several passengers having it out with American Airlines staff.

Uygur tells the camera that it's 'not funny' anymore and that 'American Airlines sucks they decided to screw everyone on this flight'.

Ulygur is the host of liberal news show The Young Turks the largest online news show in the world

But his already 'traumatic' night was about to get a whole lot worse.

In a separate video, a supervisor directs him to customer service before admitting that he's not allowed to be on the flight.

In the next video, the liberal talk show host tells the camera: 'Guess what just happened, they kicked me off the plane, isn't that unbelievable?'

According Uygur, he was told 'the Captain didn't feel comfortable' with him on the plane.

He continues: 'They kicked me off the plane because their feelings were hurt over the enormous incompetence of its staff.

'Never ever get on an American Airlines flight. They will make you wait four hours and then when you complain about it you will be kicked off your flight and they will rob you of your money.'

Though it is now 2 am, Uygur books himself onto another flight - this time with budget airline JetBlue.

In separate video, Ulygur notes that one of the attendance staff at the American Airlines desk did a great job and was 'calm in the midst of the storm'.

He said: 'I really gotta give this brother credit'.

Uygur live streamed from LAX (pictured) Friday night as he waited for the American Airlines flight to Miami

Ulygur tweets about how powerless he feels and asks why airlines are allowed to get away with 'mistreating customers'

It emerged that Uygur had not been refused boarding because he was being unruly, but because he had been filming the situation play out

The live-streaming captured the attention of social media and the hashtag #cenkonaplane was trending on Twitter on Saturday morning.

One user joked: 'No one puts Cenk in a corner. #cenkonaplane'

While another said: 'Did I really spend half my Saturday watching videos about #cenkonaplane?'

Following his arrival in Florida, Uygur filmed another video telling viewers that American Airlines had left a voicemail on his phone saying 'their social media department had contacted them'.

It emerged that Uygur had not been refused boarding because he was being unruly, but because he had been filming the situation play out.

The airline told him that it was 'against policy' for their staff to be filmed.

Ulygur noted that this was a 'tiny example' of how the establishment don't like to be 'watched' or 'challenged' and a more poignant example would be how 'cops don't like wearing cameras'.
The Taliban has claimed John Kerry was the target of rocket attacks that shook Kabul.

The blasts the terror group have claimed responsibility for hit Afghanistan's capital city on Saturday just an hour after the Secretary of State left after an unplanned state visit.

There were no casualties from the explosions, but highlighted the volatile security situation.

The rounds exploded around 650 feet away from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul after Kerry had left the premises Saturday evening.

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The Taliban has claimed John Kerry was the target of rocket attacks that shook Kabul. He is pictured shaking the hand of Afghanistan's Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah during an unplanned visit

A U.S. official described the explosions as small.

Officials suggested there was nothing to indicate that Kerry was the target.

According to CNN the Taliban's claim has not been verified.

In the coming months, NATO and international donor summits could define long-term security and aid commitments critical to the Afghan government's survival, so Kerry sought clarity on Afghanistan's direction.

Kerry called on the Taliban to re-engage in peace talks dormant for almost a year, and said there was no change now in President Barack Obama's plans for troop levels in Afghanistan. There are 9,800 U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan, and that number is set to fall to 5,500 next year.

'But he always has said he will listen to his commanders on the ground,' Kerry said.

Gen. John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is reviewing needs; Kerry said that would guide Obama's final decision.

Ghani declined to weigh in on what he said was a U.S. matter.

For Kerry, the stop in Kabul was his second visit in as many days to a country that the United States long has wished to stabilize. On Friday in Baghdad, Kerry backed efforts by Iraq's prime minister to settle a political crisis and stressed the importance of having a 'unified and functioning government' to confront the Islamic State group.

Kerry met alone with President Ashraf Ghani and then included Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah in a lengthy three-way discussion on a porch in the presidential compound. Kerry also participated in separate talks with the foreign minister on security, governance and economic development.

The blasts the terror group have claimed responsibility for hit Afghanistan's capital city on Saturday just an hour after the Secretary of State left. Earlier in the day he met US troops still stationed in Kabul

'We need to make certain that the government of national unity is doing everything possible to be unified and to deliver to the people of Afghanistan,' Kerry said at that event, calling on Ghani and Abdullah to move past 'factional divisions.'

The challenges in Afghanistan are not unlike those Kerry encountered in Iraq.

The U.S. invaded both countries under President George W. Bush and hoped to foster stable democracies.

It has not happened, even though the U.S. has spent some $2 trillion so far and several thousand Americans have died in military operations.

Governments in both countries lack control over significant areas. Afghanistan's war against the Taliban is entering its 15th year. Iraq is still trying to muster the strength for an assault on Mosul, its second largest city, and other places held by IS.

Sectarian and personal rivalries threaten both governments. Security vacuums in each threaten the United States.

Despite Obama's pledges to end both wars, American troops cannot just leave. In Iraq, there are 3,780 now.

Obama has less than 10 months to leave both places in better shape, but the strategies differ: In Iraq, the U.S. seeks the destruction of IS; in Afghanistan, it hopes to draw the Taliban into peace talks.

It is not clear why the Taliban would seek out negotiations at a time the militants appear to making gains in the south, and the fighting season is only just beginning.

First, however, the Kabul government might need to reconcile its own divisions.

The Ghani-Abdullah partnership has never been defined and the government is in disarray, with fears it could collapse due to corruption and incompetence.

The bitterness stems from a belief in Abdullah's camp that the election was stolen and gifted to Ghani  an anthropologist who lived in the U.S. for three decades  as someone with whom Washington could more easily do business.

The leaders also are seen as pandering to different constituencies: in Ghani's case, the majority ethnic Pashtuns, and in Abdullah's, the Tajiks.
Hillary Clinton refused to reveal what exactly she said to her husband after he shouted down Black Lives Protesters at a rally Thursday in Philadelphia.

'No,' she replied when asked by CNN's Jake Tapper, 'are you going to tell me what you said to him when you saw that video?'

'I mean, he believes that people need to talk and listen to each other,' Hillary Clinton said today on State of the Union. 'And he is often very clear, I will listen to you, but then you have to listen to me respond, and we need to get back to doing that.'

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Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down today with Jake Tapper and wouldn't divulge what she said to her husband in the aftermath of his shouting match with Black Lives Matter protesters

Former President Bill Clinton engaged in a testy back-and-forth exchange with Black Lives Matter protesters who blame he and his wife Hillary for mass incarceration of black men in the United States

On Thursday, Bill Clinton most memorably called out to protesters: 'You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter,' the former president told those yelling at him from the crowd.

The former president has been forced to defend his 1994 crime bill, which many point to as the start of mass incarceration of black men in the United States.

Politicians on both sides of the aisle have endorsed criminal justice reform, including Hillary Clinton, who brought that up today when talking to Tapper.

'On the very first day of this campaign I gave a speech about criminal justice reform and ending the era of mass incarceration,' Hillary Clinton said.

She reminded Tapper that 'there were a lot of people very scared and concerned about high crime back in the day.'

'And now we've got to say OK, we have to deal with the consequences,' she said, noting that one of the greatest is the many people who ended up in the criminal justice problem, who have addiction and mental health problems instead.

'They have committed a low level offense, a non-violence offense,' she noted.

In the past, Bill Clinton has also suggested his crime bill went too far, but on Thursday he defended it aggressively after being periodically interrupted in Pennsylvania, which holds a primary later this month.

Former President Bill Clinton touted some of the statistics that went alongside his 1994 crime bill, suggesting that the legislation - which incarcerated many black men - also saved the lives of African-American children

Former President Bill Clinton laid out a number of counterpoints - including reminding the audience that Hillary was first lady at the time and didn't vote for the controversial crime bill

Protester Rosco Farmer is corralled in the back of the auditorium by civil affairs officers near the end of Bill Clinton's rally for his wife

'Can I answer?' he said, stopping his stump speech because of shouts. 'Now, you see, here's the thing, I like protesters, but the ones who won't let you answer are afraid of the truth. That's the simple rule.'

Clinton noted that his crime bill had had a lot of support within the African-American community.

'I talk to a lot of African-American groups, they thought black lives matter, they said "take this bill because our kids are being shot in the street by gangs,"' he said.

'Because of that bill we had a 25 year low in crime, a 33 year low in the murder rate and listen to this because of that and the background check law, we had a 46 year low in the deaths of people by gun violence and who do you think those lives were? That mattered,' he continued.

'Whose lives were saved that mattered?' he added.

That explanation wasn't enough to satisfy the protesters who continued to interrupt the Democrat from the crowd.

'Now you're screaming, so let's do another one,' Clinton said.

'I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African-American children,' he noted.

'Maybe you thought they were good citizens,' he added, before railing against the hypocrisy he suggested that the protesters represented.

He punctuated his throaty response with, 'tell the truth!'

Throughout the course of the back-and-forth, Clinton also noted that his record and his wife's should not be looked at the same.

'Can I answer?' Bill Clinton said, stopping his stump speech because of shouts, and then rebutting Black Lives Matter protesters

'Hillary didn't vote for that bill because she wasn't in the Senate,' Clinton stated.

'She was spending her time trying to get healthcare for poor kids,' he continued.

'Who were they?' he asked aloud. 'And their lives matter.'

Today Tapper asked the Democratic candidate if there's ever a conflict for Bill Clinton when it comes to both supporting his wife's bid for the nomination and also defending his own record as president of the United States.

'Well, hes not only a former president hes my husband and he does take defending and protecting me very seriously and I appreciate that, and I think he has a great legacy,' Hillary Clinton answered.

She reminded Tapper that her husband had said the NAACP last summer that while the crime rate decreased after the passage of the 1994 crime bill, some things happened that were ' not foreseen.'

'You know, you dont do something and never keep asking is it working, is it having unintended consequences,' Hillary Clinton said.
Unseen images show convicted drug mules Michaella McCollum and Melissa Reid posing with Peruvian police - at a time they claimed they were in fear of their lives from a 'kidnapping gang'.

The snaps were taken from two Blackberry phones and a camera seized by police at Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport airport after they uncovered over 11.5kg of cocaine in their bags.

Initially, the pair told investigators that they had been held hostage by a group of drug traffickers and that they were in fear of their lives.

But the two women appear to be having the time of their lives as they posed for the photographs.

Michaella McCollum (left) and Melissa Reid (right) pose for a photograph taken from the evidence Peruvian police compiled against them after they were caught with 11.5kg of cocaine at Lima's international airport

Here the two pose for a photograph next to a young local boy around the time they claimed they were being held hostage by kidnappers and living in fear of their lives

In another photograph, McCollum is seen posing for a photograph with a group of anti-riot police officers

It had also been revealed that text messages between the two women show they were close pals before travelling to Peru - and not strangers like McCollum claimed.

When quizzed about the photos found on their phones, McCollum told Peruvian cops: 'A photograph can hide what you really feel inside.'

The self-described model and dancer from County Tyrone, in Ireland also said that the police had asked her and pal Melissa to pose for the pictures.

'The police asked us to take photos with them, we were too scared to tell them [they were allegedly under duress] because if we told the police he was going to call to make a statement about it,' she said in her official declaration.

'And also, Enrique [a drug dealer who the pair say organised their trip] had pictures of my family and a photocopy of my passport.'

The photos were taken around the Inca world heritage site of Machu Picchu (pictured), near Cusco in Peru, on August 2 and 3, 2013

Investigators then asked why she and Reid had such a 'cheerful attitude' in the photos if they were in fear of their lives.

The former photography student replied: 'A photograph can hide what you really feel inside. Enrique had told us to take photos showing happiness.'

The photos were taken around the Inca world heritage site of Machu Picchu, near Cusco in Peru, on August 2 and 3, 2013.

The pair flew from Lima to the popular tourist destination for four days before returning on August 4.

Authorities believe the trip was booked to make the duo look like regular tourists.

It also emerged through text messages on their phones that the pair were close friends. McCollum claimed the pair had only just met in Majorca airport.

When asked about the 'friendship, enmity or kinship' she shared with Reid, she said: 'The first time I met her was at the airport in Mallorca, accompanied by a Peruvian man.'

This was despite the fact that the pair did not travel to Peru at the same time. Revealed in messages stored on their phones we can see a deep friendship that appears far more than two days old.

One Blackberry phone each was seized from both girls. Reid had one sim card, while McCollum had two. They say they were bought for them by Enrique.

In the messages, McCollum reveals just after arriving that she says she does not like the country that she has called home for the last three years.

The state's prosecutor has revealed Interpol and immigration officers will monitor McCollum during her remaining time in Peru.

Melissa Reid (left) from Scotland, and Michaella McCollum (right) from Ireland, pictured following their arrest in 2013, were arrested for drug smuggling at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru

Chief Public Prosecutor for drugs Sonia Medina has said the 23-year-old will be watched while she serves out her parole.

Speaking from her office in Lima, Ms Medina stressed that neither McCollum or her accomplice Melissa Reid, 23, were victims in any way.

'These girls are not a major case for us. It is one of thousands we have on our books. At the moment, it is one of 93,000 my office is handling,' she said.

MICHAELLA MCCOLLUM AND MELISSA REID'S TEXT MESSAGES The first message, dated July 31, 2013, is from Reid. Reid: 'Prepare yourself. I just arrived. All ok with you xxx.' McCollum: 'Oh Really ?' Reid: ' Yes you will be fine.' Reid: 'Basically I have gone back in time it's 5am here. Don't know how I thought it could be five hours to South America, silly Meldo, haha.' McCollum: 'You just arrived. Wow. We are in travel agents now. Not 100pc what time I fly XX.' McCollum: 'I'll have a great sleep on the flight. 12 hours.. Perfecto Haha. ' Reid: 'Ok sweet cheeks' A slew of messages between the duo ensues, with Reid trying to direct McCollum to her location in the airport. Reid: 'The princess has arrived. Just walk along to the last check in door before domestic arrivals and you will see me. Buzzing to see you girl and only separated for like two days.' McCollum: 'I know, I can't wait to see you.' Advertisement

'That being said, what they have done is far-reaching and very serious. They have knowingly contributed to an illegal operation that affects every member of this state and other countries.

'You can say they are stupid, you can say they were naive, but the bottom line is they knew exactly what they were doing, and they were going to be very well paid for it.'

The prosecutor went on to note that McCollum and Reid, did not have a leg to stand on legally after an investigation found the cocaine they had been carrying was linked with a top Peruvian drug dealer.

Ms Medina said the duo identified the man, known as 'Uncle Charlie,' when they visited his apartment in Lima.

She added this visit 'may' pose a threat to their safety, but added this was unlikely, with officers from Interpol and the immigration service watching the former photography student.

Ms Medina noted that Interpol's interest stemmed mainly from the dancer's interaction with the 'very famous' drug dealer.

'All the time we knew they were lying,' said Ms Medina. 'We knew all of these stories about being kidnapped were nonsense.'

McCollum, an aspiring model and photography student from Dungannon, was released on parole at 5pm last Thursday after serving two years and three months of her six-year eight-month sentence.

A judicial process will now determine what, if any, conditions are attached to McCollum's parole.

It had been reported that moves are being made to repatriate her to Northern Ireland, but sources said this would probably not happen until the end of the year.
A woman who was kept in a horrific Maoist cult has returned to view the house - but still insists that her jailed captor was innocent.

Aravindan Balakrishnan, 75, known as Comrade Bala, brainwashed his cult into thinking he had God-like powers and could read their minds, and subjected them to decades of abuse.

He was jailed for 23 years in January after being found guilty of four counts of rape, six counts of indecent assault, two counts of ABH, cruelty to a child under 16, and false imprisonment.

Josephine Herivel has returned to view the house that was home to a Maoist cult, led by Arivindan Balakrishnan

Balakrishnan was jailed in 23 years in January this year for raping two of his followers and keeping his daughter Katy Morgan-Davies a prisoner in the commune

One of his followers, Josephine Herivel, 57, returned to the three-bedroom home she was kept in in Brixton, South London.

Ms Herivel - who was rescued from the house alongside Katy Morgan-Davies and Aisha Wahab - has continued to support Balakrishnan since his imprisonment.

After viewing the house, which has been the subject of a police investigation, she said: 'This was our home and theyve shown a complete lack of respect.

The house, in Brixton, south London, is full of squalor - with clothes still hanging over the bath in the bathroom

Katy Morgan-Davies' room still has a childlike quality, even though the woman was kept trapped in the home until she was in her thirties

'Aravindan is 75 and should be with friends and family, not in prison for something he did not commit.'

At Balakrishnan's trial, Ms Herivel shouted: 'This is political persecution' from the public gallery.

After he was sentenced, Ms Herivel refused to condemn her 'teacher's' actions, hailing him as an 'Edward Snowden' character who had brought people together 'from different colours, creeds and cultures'.

She added that she had been betrayed by the authorities who began meddling in their 'family affair', adding: 'There are problems in any family.'

It was Ms Herivel who had originally sounded the alarm over the cult, when Balakrishnan's daughter told her she wanted to leave - but she has since said she regrets her actions.

The daughter of a Bletchley Park code-breaker, Miss Herivel, originally from Northern Ireland, told how she had decided to phone the charity after Balakrishnan's daughter confided in her that she wanted the leave the commune house.

The devoted follower, who came to London to study the violin at the Royal College of Music, said she had no desire to leave with her but that she felt compelled to phone for help, because she knew she would find it difficult to survive in the outside world.

But she said that she told the charity that she did not want police to be involved because it was a 'family affair'.

She claims she was then 'kidnapped' by police who subjected her to 'psychological terrorism' because they wanted 'revenge' on the man who was 'always fighting for justice'.

Josephine Herivel, 57, has supported Balakrishnan since his conviction - even though she was the person who originally reported him

Drawings found in the house, believed to have been created by Katy Morgan-Davies, read: 'Worship me or die' and 'I hate all bullies and dark witches'

Since the trial, she has moved in with Balakrishnan's wife Chandra - who was arrested at the same time as her husband but later released without charge.

The squalid house is filled with litter and clutter, but there are telling signs of the trials that Balakrishnan's victims had to endure.

A drawing of Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter series was accompanied by the phrase 'Worship me or die'.

One of the bedrooms - that of Balakrishnan's daughter Rosie, was childlike with a rainbow bedspread and a poster of dogs.

Both the kitchen and the bathroom of the property were filled with junk, showing the shocking conditions Balakrishnan's slaves were forced to live in for years.

Pots and pans still remain on the stove in the kitchen, which is filled with clutter and junk

Magazines, books and carrier bags litter the bed in Katy Morgan-Davies' room. The 33-year-old has since begun a new life in the North of England

The cult was discovered in late 2013, and Balakrishnan and his wife were arrested

Ms Herivel was accompanied to the house by Balakrishnan's wife, Chandra.

Both women continue to support him, and Mrs Balakrishnan has told of how she has visited her husband in Wandsworth prison.

Mrs Balakrishnan said: 'I think hes been in complete shock at what has happened over the past few months. He is still numb, to be honest.'

Balakrishnan ran his tiny south London cult, the Workers' Institute of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, with an iron fist - banning his daughter from leaving the house or mixing with other children, and sexually assaulting two of his followers 'by appointment.'

His daughter Katy Morgan-Davies, formerly known as Rosie Davies, was kept hidden away in the extreme Left-wing commune for three decades, beaten and psychologically abused.

She was left so far removed from the world that she did not know how to cross the road or use keys when she finally escaped.

Aravindan Balakrishnan arriving to his trial accompanied by his wife Chandra. She has stood by him since he was jailed

Josephine Herivel in her younger years. She joined Balakrishnan's cult after her and her boyfriend met Balakrishnan when they used to sell the Morning Star

Other areas of the house show complete disarray, including boxes and huge piles of books and magazines

Miss Morgan-Davies' mother, Sian Davies, died in 1997 after falling out of a top floor bathroom window.

As her father was jailed, Miss Morgan-Davies, bravely decided to waive her right to anonymity and reveal her true identity - as she revealed the torment of living 'like a caged bird' in the sect.

She said Balakrishnan looked up to the Communist dictators 'as Gods' and wanted to emulate them.

She branded him a 'narcissist and a psychopath' who was 'obsessed about control' and plotted world domination.

'The people he looked up to were people like Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot and Saddam Hussein - you couldn't criticise them either in the house,' she said.

'They were his Gods and his heroes. These were the sort of people he wanted to emulate.'

While Balakrishnan idolised these tyrants - who together are responsible for the deaths of up to 100 million people - he also wanted to be superior to them.

Katy Morgan-Davies waived her anonymity after her father's trial and has since begun a new life in Leeds

The site of the former commune in Brixton, south London

His daughter said: 'Sometimes he would say he didn't like Mao, because he saw Mao as a rival to him as well.

'So he sort of followed them and wanted to be like them, but at the same time he didn't want them to be worshipped, except as secondary to him.

'(He wanted to be) bigger than all of them.'

During his three-week trial bizarre and harrowing details of life inside the south London communist household were exposed - mainly through the meticulously-kept diaries which Balakrishnan forced his followers to write on a daily basis.

Set up in the 1970s, he spent the following four decades manipulating and terrorising his small band of female followers into thinking he was God-like and could read their minds.

He invented an invisible war machine called Jackie which he said could kill and trigger natural disasters if his will was flouted.

He also sexually abused cult members 'by appointment' when his wife left the house, telling one he was giving her the 'elixir of life', and encouraged his 'comrades' to denounce one another if they fell foul of his strict rules.
Bernie Sanders told crowds in Harlem he understands how it feels to be racially victimized because he is Jewish.

The Vermont senator, who rarely discusses his Jewish heritage in campaign speeches, described crying as a child when he heard his father's family was obliterated by the Nazis in the Holocaust.

That moment, he said, was a pivotal moment that drove him to become a politician to fight racism and hatred.

'I am proud to be Jewish', he added, though he said he feels 'uncomfortable' talking about himself and his background.

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Bernie on racism: The Vermont senator, pictured on Saturday in Harlem with Erica Garner as he described crying when he was a child and heard that his father's family was obliterated by the Nazis in the Holocaust

He also said he is a 'strong defender of Israel' but believes that 'we have got to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinians', the New York Times reported.

Sanders was speaking alongside Erica Garner - whose father Eric was killed by police in an arrest that galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement - in New York's Apollo Theater on Saturday.

Garner and fellow panelist Harry Belafonte, a prominent activist, both urged the crowd to back Sanders.

'A whole bunch of Democrats said "black lives matter" or "Eric Garner"... well where are they?' Erica said. She also slammed Clinton's affiliation with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who she accused of 'covering up murders'.

Sanders is battling his rival Hillary Clinton for the black vote. Both have won endorsements from key figures in the NAACP.

Al Sharpton even mocked the well-documented contest between them in a cameo on Saturday Night Live this weekend, saying: 'Each candidate gets a number based on their standing in the black community.

'[Hillary] Clinton gets a 7.2 rating with black voters because her husband is Bill Clinton, who despite recent outbursts is beloved in the black community.

As for Bernie Sanders, he 'gets a strong 6.3. Yes he was active in the Civil Rights movement, but he seems like the kind of guy who still calls Muhammad Ali "Cassius"'.

'A whole bunch of Democrats said "black lives matter" or "Eric Garner"... well where are they?' Erica (right) said. She slammed Clinton's affiliation with Mayor Bill de Blasio, who she accused of 'covering up murders'

Sanders (pictured going to hug Ohio State Senator Nina Turner at the event on Saturday night) is battling his rival Hillary Clinton for the black vote. Both have won endorsements from key figures in the NAACP

Harry Belafonte (right), a prominent activist, was also at the event and urged the crowd to back Sanders

Both candidates are also vying for a win in New York's primary this month, storming the city with huge rallies and speeches.

Clinton, whose campaign headquarters are based in Brooklyn, was mocked by Saturday Night Live for trying to portray New York as her home state.

Sanders, meanwhile, has gone to great lengths to remind voters it is his home state, even hosting a photo call at his childhood home in Midwood, Brooklyn.

And he has launched a new ad directed by Harlem-born director Spike Lee.

It comes amid a winning streak for Sanders, who has won seven of the last eight primaries against Clinton.

On Saturday he took Wyoming, which has a total of 14 delegates to add to the race.
A powerful earthquake has struck South Asia today shaking buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India.

The 7.1 scale quake was centred about 25 miles west of Ashkasham in remote northeastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan.

Residents left their homes in Kabul and Islamabad when the quake struck, with buildings swaying for more than a minute in both capitals.

Similar reports were received from across northern and central Pakistan with the quake measuring to a depth of 130 miles.

A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 has struck South Asia today shaking buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India

The 7.1 scale quake was centred about 25 miles west of Ashkasham in remote northeastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan

Residents left their homes in Kabul and Islamabad when the quake struck, with buildings swaying for more than a minute in both capitals

A man helps an injured boy to a hospital after an earthquake hit Peshawar, Pakistan

In Pakistan's northwestern frontier city of Peshawar, Khalid Khan, emergency director at the city's main Lady Reading Hospital, said three people were treated for 'multiple injuries'.

Media pictures showed two children who appeared to have been injured in the quake.

People in Lahore in Pakistan's east, 390 miles from the epicentre, also reported they had felt the tremors.

A Reuters witness in Chitral said the tremor was strong but there was no major damage visible.

A 7.5-magnitude quake struck the area on Oct. 26 last year, killing more than 300 people and destroying thousands of homes.

Tremors were also felt in the Indian capital and in Kashmir, witnesses said, with some people working in high-rise buildings in the Indian capital rushing into the streets

A young child waits to receive further treatment for his badly injured arms after being caught up in the earthquake in Pakistan

The Hindu Kush area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan is a seismically active area, with quakes often felt across the region

In Kabul, Omar Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said officials were collecting information but no reports of casualties or damage had been received so far.

Tremors were also felt in the Indian capital and in Kashmir, witnesses said, with some people working in high-rise buildings in the Indian capital rushing into the streets.

The Delhi underground system was also halted briefly, commuters told the NDTV channel.

The Hindu Kush area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan is a seismically active area, with quakes often felt across the region. Just over a decade ago, a 7.6-magnitude quake in another part of northern Pakistan killed about 75,000 people.

Indian policemen examine a residential house which was damaged after a powerful earthquake that shook Indian administered Kashmir and northern Afghanistan
An off-duty SWAT officer who shot and killed an armed robbery suspect in the Philadelphia suburb of Olney Saturday afternoon appears to have been justified in shooting him, investigators announced Sunday morning.

At around 2:30pm on Saturday the cop, wearing blue jeans and a black sweatshirt, saw a man in his twenties robbing an elderly man and told the suspect to stop and raise his hands - but the suspect instead opened fire on the officer, officials say.

The officer returned fire, hitting the shooter at least once, NBC 10 reported. The man ran away, but fell down in a nearby parking lot.

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Down: Cell phone footage shows the off-duty cop (pictured, in black sweatshirt) pointing a gun at an armed robbery suspect (blanked out). The officer had previously shot the suspect twice while returning fire

Backup: Other police arrive and cuff the prone man, who was later pronounced dead. Officials said Sunday morning that an early investigation suggests the officer's shooting was justified. The investigation continues

He allegedly reached for his gun again while on the ground and the cop fired again, hitting him a second time - then the suspect ran again.

This time, officials say, the suspect collapsed at the corners of Broad and Chew streets. The officer then kept his gun pointed at the man while he waited for backup to arrive.

Witness Bryan Hines told ABC 6, 'You could see where he got shot at on the hip. He wasn't moving. [The officer] kept saying don't move, but we knew he wasn't going to move.'

Once police backup arrived, Hines said, an officer removed a firearm from the suspect's body.

'I watched them take the gun off him,' he said. 'He had like a chrome .32 or something - a chrome revolver.'

The suspect was taken to Einstein hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:06pm, according to ABC.

The police investigation is ongoing, NBC reported, but that at this early stage the officers actions appeared to be justified.

The robbery victim was injured in the initial incident and went to hospital for stitches, police told NBC 10. No police officers were hurt.

Officials had declined to release the names of anyone involved at the time of writing.
A nutrient found in a 'tomato pill' could supercharge sperm by up to 70 per cent and offer new hope to childless couples, scientists believe.

The compound lycopene which gives tomatoes their red colour, is now the focus of a study at Sheffield University to measure the boost to male fertility offered by an over-the-counter modified lycopene supplement known to double blood lycopene levels.

The Sheffield team led by Professor Allan Pacey, one of Britain's leading experts on male infertility, is recruiting 60 healthy male students and university staff aged 18 to 30 to take part in the three-month study.

Professor Allan Pacey, Aisling Robinson, Madeleine Parker and Dr Elizabeth Williams (left to right) from The University of Sheffield. A nutrient found in a 'tomato pill' could supercharge sperm by up to 70 per cent and offer new hope to childless couples, scientists believe

Aisling Robinson and Madeleine Parker (left to right) from the Department of Oncology and Metabolism at The University of Sheffield. Professor Pacey says a number of other studies have indicated that lycopene can slow down the progression of prostate cancer and the enlargement of the prostate that causes bladder problems in older men

The study comes as Britain faces an epidemic of childlessness with one in six couples unable to conceive.

Half of the problem is believed to be caused by men having poor quality sperm.

The first half of the group will receive twice-daily capsules of the over-the-counter supplement called XY Pro, and the other half will receive identical dummy capsules.

Professor Pacey said: 'Studies elsewhere in the world have shown that the antioxidant properties of lycopene seem to have a beneficial effect on sperm quality and we want to investigate this further.

'Production of sperm takes three months.

'This study will tell us if lycopene improves the quality of sperm already in development by reducing DNA damage, and whether it produces an overall increase in the number of mature sperm.

The compound lycopene, which gives tomatoes their red colour, is now the focus of a study to measure the boost to male fertility offered by an over-the-counter modified lycopene supplement (above) known to double blood lycopene levels

The study comes as Britain faces an epidemic of childlessness with one in six couples unable to conceive

'There is enough evidence out there to indicate this study is worth doing and I am cautiously optimistic.

'If it works in the volunteers we would then consider testing it in infertile patients.'

A recently published study by fertility specialists at America's prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, showed lycopene can boost sperm quality by 70 per cent.

Professor Pacey says a number of other studies have also indicated that lycopene can slow down the progression of prostate cancer and the enlargement of the prostate that causes bladder problems in older men.

He added: 'We know lycopene seems to have a beneficial effect on the health of the male reproductive system and I'm cautiously optimistic our trial will show a benefit for sperm production.

A recently published study by fertility specialists at America's prestigious Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, showed lycopene can boost sperm quality by 70 per cent

'If it is the next step will be to offer the treatment to men with fertility problems.'

Professor Roger Kirby, a London specialist in men's reproductive health, also says he has long recommended the use of lycopene.

He said: 'I have been prescribing for it for many years, and I would welcome more trials to measure the benefit and prove how it works.'

Nigel Iskander, spokesman for Cambridge Nutraceuticals, the Cambridge University spin off which manufactures XY Pro, under the brand, Future You Health, said the company is working with a number of other universities around the world to prove the value of lycopene supplementation.

He added: 'We know this compound is very beneficial and we are anxious to garner as much scientific evidence as possible for its use.'

Professor Roger Kirby, a London specialist in men's reproductive health, also says he has long recommended the use of lycopene (above)
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Incredible footage filmed from the top of a tram travelling down bustling George Street in 1906 has emerged - proving why the tram network was once one of the largest in the world.

The black and white clip, uploaded to Facebook on Sunday, shows tram cars travelling alongside horse-drawn carts on the crowded street, transporting Sydney-siders back and forth to work.

Just 55 years later, New South Wales is spending $2.1 billion to replace the rail throughout the city and southeast, forcing the closure of the famous street for up to three years.

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Incredible footage filmed from the top of a tram travelling down bustling George Street in 1906 has emerged

The black and white clip, uploaded to Facebook on Sunday, shows tram cars driving next to horse-drawn carts on the crowded street

Bright orange cones and detour signs now decorate the inner city and the trek to get home for people who drive is now longer.

Construction on the 12km city and southeast rail network will take three years and trams are expected to be running by 2019.

A spokesman for Transport for NSW said they could not comment on why the previous rail had been removed, or if the lack of foresight is frustrating.

'We're just dealing with what is in front of us right now,' the spokesman said.

The issue is severe congestion in the city during peak hours and a rapidly growing population.

'Currently, on every weekday morning, more than 1,600 buses enter the CBD, causing congestion and lengthy delays. CBD streets simply cannot cope with the extra buses needed to meet Sydney's forecast growth,' he said.

One of the busiest streets for transportation in the early 1900s was George Street (pictured) and it remains to be a transportation hub Sydney, which is why the new tram system runs directly down the street

In 2016, just 55 years after the historic system shut down in the 1960s, construction on a new $2.1billion light rail system to rebuilt the former system has forced George Street to close (pictured)

Just 55 years later, New South Wales is spending $2.1 billion to replace the rail throughout the city and southeast, forcing the closure of the famous street

Sydney's bustling tram network peaked in the 1930s and 1940s when it was carrying more than one million people to and from work every day. A tram travels down George Street in 1890 (pictured) - one year after the first electric tram travelled down the busy street

A tram travelling down George Street - Sydney's main road in the business district - in the early 1900s (pictured). Construction is now underway on the same street more than 100 years later to replace the tram system that was shut down in the 1960s

Horse-drawn carts carry businessmen down George Street near Town Hall (pictured) in the late 1800s. Sydney and Australia's first tram was a horse-drawn car that ran down Pitt Street from Railway station to Circular Quay

In January, a series of black and white photographs of tram cars travelling along the famous street alongside horse-drawn carriages in the 1960s emerged.

Sydney and Australia's first tram was a horse-drawn car that ran down Pitt Street from Railway station to Circular Quay.

By 1898, the city's trams became electric and most of the system was converted from steam by 1910, according to railpage.com.au.

The system began to close down section by section in the late 1950s and the last tram ran in 1961, exactly 100 years from the opening of the first city tram.

Better efficiency, crowded roads and carts were listed by the city as reasons to shut down the system and replace the trams with buses.

The King's Cross area in 1900 (pictured) when trams drove alongside horse-drawn carts. By 1898, the city's trams became electric and most of the system was converted from steam by 1910

The construction on the new system is expected to be complete in three years and the rail will be up and running in 2019

The construction of the new line has caused delays and general chaos (pictured)

Within a few years it was apparent to the city council that the buses were not sufficient but it was too late to go back as the trams had been destroyed and many of the rails were covered.

The tram system isn't the only new feature being added to George Street.

The city has pitched in $220 million for the tram but also to expand the footpaths to create more space for cafes and restaurants and to improve surrounding laneways.

Bright orange cones and detour signs now decorate the inner city (pictured)
to have been caused by a lit cigarette or candles

A grieving man who witnessed his brother die in a horrific house fire was arrested shortly after for lashing out at his neighbour.

Dean Zuijdwijk, 49, could hear his brother Warren desperately screaming his name from inside their Mordialloc unit, in Melbourne's south-east, after the home became engulfed in flames around 1am on Sunday.

Mr Zuijdwijk tried to break down the door to free his brother and their pet dog but the heat was too intense and the 52-year-old perished in the flames.

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Dean Zuijdwijk, 49, could hear his brother Warren desperately screaming his name from inside their unit, in Melbourne's south-east, after the home became engulfed in flames early Sunday morning

Mr Zuijdwijk tried to break down the door to free his brother and their pet dog but the heat was too intense

'I tried to get back in there and the heat just blew me back out the door,' he told Nine News.

'That's when I knew he was gone.'

The fire department contacted police once a body was recovered, with neighbours stating the inferno was so intense the man 'didn't even have a chance'.

Mr Zuijdwijk was arrested a short time later after he allegedly attacked a neighbour who he said had pulled out an extension chord that powered a night light on the property, according to Nine News.

Warren Zuijdwijk, 52, could not make it out of the house and perished in the flames

Mr Zuijdwijk was arrested a short time later after he attacked a neighbour who he said had pulled out an extension chord that powered a night light on the property

The Mordialloc resident and his 35-year-old victim (pictured) were taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries

Mr Zuijdwijk was arrested but no charges have been laid over the alleged attack

He said if the light had of been left on he may have made it to his brother in time.

The Mordialloc resident and his 35-year-old alleged victim were both taken to hospital and treated for minor injuries.

The Fire Department assessed the damage on Sunday and said the blaze was likely caused by a lit cigarette or candles.

The second story unit is so badly damaged that it will need to be demolished.

Mr Zuijdwijk said his brother was a beautiful bloke' and that they moved in together to look after each other.

The 49-year-old has not been charged.
Convicted drug smuggler Melissa Reid could be home within weeks - after spending more than two-and-a-half years in a South American prison

Convicted drug smuggler Melissa Reid could be home within weeks - after spending more than two-and-a-half years in a South American prison, the Mail on Sunday can exclusively reveal.

The Peruvian judiciary has set a court date for the 22-year-old Scot's expulsion hearing - at which a judge will be asked to rule if she can return to the UK.

The news comes just a week after Miss Reid's co-accused Michaella McCollum, 23, was granted parole by a court in Lima.

However while McCollum from Dungannon, County Tyrone, must stay in the Peruvian capital, Reid - if successful - will fly back to her family in Scotland a free woman.

The pair were jailed in December 2013 after admitting trying to smuggle 24.2lb (11kg) of cocaine worth 1.5 million from Peru to Spain.

A judicial official in Lima confirmed Miss Reid's hearing 'would take place later this month'.

During the closed hearing, the judge will be presented with her prison record, evidence that all civil fines have been paid and proof of her home address.

If approved, she will not be required to serve any jail time in the UK.

Last night, Reid's father Billy said at the family home in Lenzie, Dunbartonshire: 'We have been waiting some time for a hearing and are hopeful we could finally get Melissa home.'

'She has has been left on her own now that Michaella is out. They were together from the start and this week has been hard for her.

'We are worried about her and are just praying her case will be heard as soon as possible and have a positive result.'

The head of the Peruvian prison service has also signalled that the young women, dubbed the 'Peru 2', should now be sent back to their home countries.

Speaking from the INPE headquarters in downtown Lima, President Julio Magan called on the Peruvian courts to deal with the young women's cases swiftly to help combat prison overcrowding in the country - where drug trafficking remains a serious problem.

The Peruvian judiciary has set a court date for the 22-year-old Scot's expulsion hearing - at which a judge will be asked to rule if she can return to the UK

He said: 'The conduct of these two girls was punishable under our criminal code but I am for short sentences for people like them who are not heads of drug gangs.

'They are just the people who are paid to transport the bags.They have been used and I do not think they will reoffend.

'I think they have been punished enough.They have had good conduct in prison, doing study and work, and their reports are good.'

The news comes just a week after Miss Reid's co-accused Michaella McCollum (pictured), 23, was granted parole by a court in Lima. The pair were jailed in December 2013 after admitting trying to smuggle 24.2lb (11kg) of cocaine worth 1.5 million from Peru to Spain

'Melissa has applied for expulsion and I would also encourage Michaella to do the same. Parole is faster but Michaela will have to comply with a set of rules and if she breaks them she could end up back in prison.

'They are both first time offenders and have completed a third of their sentence so are eligible

'It is the state that suffers having to pay for all these criminals. If people meet the criteria, we should wrap it up.'

Three years banged up in an eight-bed cell in the middle of the Peruvian desert: The cautionary tale of two traffickers who paid a heavy price after falling for the lure of Ibiza's vicious drug trade

By Kirsten Johnson in Lima

They were inseparable following their high profile arrests for drug trafficking in summer 2013.

Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, Dubbed the Peru 2, spent almost every minute together as they came to terms with the prospect of a lengthy jail term in South America.

However they were separated last week when 23-year-old McCollum was granted a shock release from prison on parole after serving just over a third of her sentence.

Melissa Reid and Michaella McCollum, Dubbed the Peru 2, spent almost every minute together as they came to terms with the prospect of a lengthy jail term in South America (pictured upon their arrest in 2013)

Since then, the former model has been enjoying the bright lights of of the Peruvian capital, Lima - sporting a new wardrobe and dyed blonde hair as she wanders around the city's trendiest district with mother Norah and her siblings.

McCollum has told friends she is 'making the most of the time I have with my family' while living in a luxury rented apartment in the Miraflores area of the city.

A promenade looking out to the Pacific Ocean is just short stroll from the property and McCollum has been spotted making the most of her newfound freedom, walking by the waves and enjoying a takeaway coffee.

Peru's National police released this photograph of food packages allegedly containing cocaine and found in the women's luggage

They 'Peru Two' were eventually separated last week when 23-year-old McCollum was granted a shock release from prison on parole after serving just over a third of her sentence

In sharp contrast, her former cellmate Miss Reid, 22, from Lenzie, East Dunbartonshire, remains on basic rations of oatmeal, beans and rice at the notorious Ancon 2 prison.

Temperatures in the desert jail two hours north of Lima centre can be sweltering and the women are forced to share space in cramped eight bed cells.

Unlike the newly chic McCollum, prisoners are barred from wearing black - as it is the colour of the uniform of the Peruvian prison service. Mini skirts and high heels are also off limits as Reid and her fellow inmates spend their days in flip-flops, leggings and T-shirts.

McCollum has told friends she is 'making the most of the time I have with my family' since her release

The only luxuries the Scot receives are in grocery deliveries organised by her parents - and even then the focus in on keeping her supplied with bottled water and Corn Flakes.

It is understood Reid has been able to call McCollum's new smartphone from prison but her family are growing increasingly concerned for her wellbeing as she waits behind bars to hear her fate.

When McCollum's family fly home to Northern Ireland next week, she will be staying with a 73-year-old Irish-American church missionary and his wife in their modest three-bedroom apartment in Miraflores.

Bishop Sean Walsh from the Eastern Catholic Church of Lima put himself forward as her parole sponsor after visiting her at Ancon 2.

But she has told friends she hopes it will only be 'temporary' to allow her to 'find her feet'. She may move on to live with a group of young European women who were also recently released on parole.

McCollum will be paid minimum wage - around 800 Peruvian Soles (170) per month - by the bishop to carry out administrative work and will also help produce the church magazine, New Hope.

The bishop has also put her forward to volunteer with Father Cathal Gallagher, a Columban missionary, who works with people with HIV and Aids.

He said: 'This is only the second time I have acted as a sponsor for someone but I felt compelled to help this young woman. She is a good person and is sorry for what she did.

'I attended the parole hearing and told them I would make sure she had a place to stay and work. She also stood up and spoke very well and showed she was repentant.

When McCollum's family fly home next week, she will be staying with a 73-year-old Irish-American church missionary and his wife in their modest three-bedroom apartment in Miraflores. Bishop Sean Walsh (pictured, with his wife Emma) from the Eastern Catholic Church of Lima put himself forward as her parole sponsor

The former model will live with Walsh in their three-bedroom flat in Lima, and will be paid a small wage to work on the 'church' magazine

'While she is in Lima she will have the Irish community here supporting her and looking after here and she can live with me as long as she wants.'

In an interview with Irish TV station RTE last week, McCollum said: 'I was very naive. I was so young. I was very insecure. A lot of times I didn't know how to say no to somebody and I kind of just followed along with it. I guess part of me wanted to be something that I'm not.

'Obviously I regret the harm that I have done and so much suffering I have caused to my family.

'I made a decision in a moment of madness. I'm not a bad person and I want to demonstrate that I'm a good person.'
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The magnificent Grade I listed country mansion which was gifted to the family of Horatio Nelson after he died in the Battle of Trafalgar is on sale for 12million.

Originally called Standlynch Park, Trafalgar Park was renamed after the famous 1805 battle which cost the legendary Royal Navy officer his life

It was acquired by Act of Parliament and renamed in 1813 before being presented to Nelson's surviving brother, the 1st Earl Nelson.

Trafalgar Park was given to Horatio Nelson's family after the Royal Navy officer died in the Battle of Trafalgar. It presented to Nelson's surviving brother, the 1st Earl Nelson, William

The sprawling country home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, was the home of the Nelson family for more than 100 years and was most recently owned by business executive Michael Wade

The 35,000 sq/ft property, which is split into main house, south wing and north wing, has almost 100 rooms, including a stunning saloon baroque hall, library and drawing room

The sprawling country home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, was the home of the Nelson family for more than 100 years.

In more recent times it has been used as a wedding venue and also featured in a number of films including period drama Sense and Sensibility and zombie horror 28 Days Later.

Michael Wade, a business exec who has spent a significant amount restoring Trafalgar Park as his family home, is now selling the glorious property.

He has put it on the market with Savills for 12 million - making it one of the most expensive homes for sale outside London and the South-East..

It is twice the price of any other home currently for sale in Wiltshire.

The 35,000 sq/ft property, which is split into main house, south wing and north wing, has almost 100 rooms, including a stunning saloon baroque hall, library and drawing room.

In more recent times it has been used as a wedding venue and also featured in a number of films including period drama Sense and Sensibility and zombie horror 28 Days Later

'During my tenure we have enjoyed and recorded opera and instrumentalists in the Baroque Hall, had the Globe Theatre Company perform Shakespeare - not to mention film stars and zombies for the films' said owner Michael Wade

Trafalgar Park - formerly called Standlynch Park, and at 12million It is twice the price of any other home currently for sale in Wiltshire

Mr Wade said the beautiful building's 'ongoing architectural restoration has been a labour of love' and said it had a 'unique place in Greek Revivalism'

There is also a stable block and Standlynch Church. The estate is set in around 33 acres.

Mr Wade said: 'Trafalgar Park is a wonderful family home, and its ongoing architectural restoration has been a labour of love.

'It has a unique place in Greek Revivalism, a rich history - and it is a place of great fun.

'During my tenure we have enjoyed and recorded opera and instrumentalists in the Baroque Hall, had the Globe Theatre Company perform Shakespeare - not to mention film stars and zombies for the films made at Trafalgar Park.

The 1995 version of Jane Austen classic Sense and Sensibility was filmed on the rolling green lawns surrounding the manor house

The Nelson family remained living on the 33-acre estate until 1946 when they were forced to sell up due to death duties and the cancellation of the annual Government Nelson Pension

'For me, it is time for a new chapter and to find a successor custodian for this magnificent piece of art set, as it is, in a beautiful landscape affording complete privacy yet so convenient for London.'

The historic home, near Salisbury, was built in 1733 for Sir Peter Vandeput by John James of Greenwich.

Henry Dawkins MP bought the home in 1766 and substantially extended it, adding the North and South wings along with a portico.

In 1813 parliament voted to give it to the heirs of Admiral Lord Nelson and commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar. The Nelson family remained at the home until 1946.

The historic home, near Salisbury, was built in 1733 for Sir Peter Vandeput by John James of Greenwich and substantially extended in 1766

They were forced to sell up due to death duties and the cancellation of the annual Government Nelson Pension. It then had a number of owners before Michael Wade purchased it in 1995.

The stunning music room was decorated in the 18th Century by Giovanni Battista Cipriani and featuring murals of Shakespeare, Venus and the Arts.

When Mr Wade bought the home he had four Italian craftsmen spend three months restoring the room.

Crispin Holborow, Country Director of Savills Private Office, says: 'Trafalgar Park is an architectural gem, and represents the cream of the crop of fine country houses to be marketed in 2016.

'It has astonishingly fine rooms in a beautiful peaceful location.'

THE BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR Admiral Nelson, portrayed in a print from A print from Her Majesty's Navy Including its Deeds and Battles by Lieut Chas Rathbone Low Fought on 21st October 1805, the Battle of Trafalgar is one of history's most epic sea clashes. Not only did it see Britain eliminate the most serious threat to security in 100 years, but it also saw the death of British naval hero Admiral Lord Nelson. This was not before his high-risk, but acutely brave strategy won arguably the most decisive victory in the Napoleonic wars. Nelson's triumph gave Britain control of the seas and laid the foundation for Britain's global power for more than a century. Despite signing a peace treaty in 1903, the two nations were at war and fought each other in seas around the world. After Spain allied with France in 1804, the newly-crowned French emperor Bonaparte Napoleon had enough ships to challenge Britain. In October 1805, French Admiral Pierre-Charles Villeneuve led a Combined French and Spanish fleet of 33 ships from the Spanish port of Cadiz to face Nelson and Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood. Nelson, fresh from chasing Villeneuve in the Caribbean, led the 27-ship fleet charge in HMS Victory, while Vice Admiral Collingwood sailed in Royal Sovereign. Battles at sea had until then been mainly inconclusive, as to fire upon the opposing ship, each vessel had to pull up along side one another (broadside) which often resulted in equal damage. Nelson bucked this trend by attacking the Combined Fleet line head on - and sailed perpendicular towards the fleet, exposing the British to heavy fire. He attacked in two columns to split the Combined Fleet's line to target the flagship of Admiral Villneuve. 11. 30am Lord Nelson famously declared that 'England expects that every man will do his duty', in reference to the command that the ships were instructed to think for themselves. The captains had been briefed on the battle plan three weeks before, and were trusted to bravely act on their own initiative and adapt to changing circumstances - unlike their opponents who stuck to their command. Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood led the first column and attacked the rear of the line, and broke through. Nelson sailed directly for the head of the Combined Fleet to dissuade them from doubling back to defend the rear. But before he reached them, he changed course to attack the middle of the line - and Villeneuve's flagship. Speeding toward the centre of the line, HMS Victory found no space to break through as Villeneuve's flagship was being tightly followed - forcing Nelson to ram through at close quarters. In the heat of battle, and surrounded on three sides, Nelson was fatally shot in the chest by a well-drilled French musketeer. The Combined Fleet's vanguard finally began to come to the aid of Admiral Villeneuve, but British ships launch a counter-attack. Admiral Villeneuve struck his colours along with many other ships in the Combined Fleet and surrendered. 4.14pm HMS Victory Captain Thomas Masterman Hardy dropped below deck to congratulate Nelson on his victory, to which he replied 'Now I am satisfied. Thank god I have done my duty.' 4.30pm With the knowledge he has secured victory, but before the battle had officially concluded, Lord Nelson died. 5.30pm French ship Achille blew up signalling the end of the battle - in all 17 Combined Fleet ships surrendered. Advertisement
Hillary Clinton has slammed President Barack Obama's bid to slash federal counter-terrorism funding by half as she warns it will have grave implications for New York City.

The presidential hopeful, who served as Obama's Secretary of State, made the dig at her former boss in an interview with the New York Daily News as she battles to win over the East Coast state.

New York City remains the city deemed most likely target for a terrorist attack 15 years after 9/11.

However, a White House report released in February proposed to cut funding to the Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI) - which assists high-threat areas with resources to prevent, respond to and recover from acts of terrorism - from $600 million to $330 million.

It would trim the funding for New York City from $180 million to $90 million after a vote in June. The city relies on the money to maintain terrorism prevention and response infrastructure as well as help offset local municipalities' security expenditures.

'We need it, we need it! I want it! I dont agree with the Obama administration on that,' Clinton exclaimed in her sit-down with the Daily News.

She also intimated she would do a better job than Obama at getting the economy 'running'.

SCROLL DOWN FOR VIDEO

Hillary Clinton, pictured in Queens on Sunday, slammed Obama's bid to cut counter-terrorism funding

She added: 'I have a great confidence in and commitment to making sure that New York has all the homeland security funding that it needs from the federal government and I believe that its request is reasonable and I would very much want to see the Obama administration produce that $90 million it has otherwise decided to withhold.'

On the economy she told the Daily News: '[Obama] did dig out of the ditch that he inherited. He got us standing again. Were walking, but we need to be running.

'I dont think were making the right investment in our most important asset, which happens to be the American people.'

Clinton's call against the anti-terror cuts echoes fierce rebukes from NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton, Mayor Bill de Blasio, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro and New York's Senator Charles Schumer who jointly slammed the measure at a news conference in Manhattan in February.

Bratton blasted the plan as unconscionable, considering the city is a top terror target', adding that the money was vital to keeping more than eight million New Yorkers safe.

New York City remains a top terror target. To cut funding - for a city that the entire federal government acknowledges is the top terror target - is indefensible, he said.

Bratton said the proposed cut would effectively eliminate the NYPDs intelligence analyst program, as well as vapor wake bomb-sniffing dogs, cameras monitoring high-profile locations and radiological and chemical sensors.

Who thought this would be a good idea? he added.

Mayor de Blasio said the city cannot afford to lose funding in the face of heightened threats.

Anti-terror funding is no place to cut corners, he said.

Its no secret that New York City is one of the worlds top terror targets - and the Urban Area Security Initiative helps ensure that we will be prepared for whatever dangers arise.

NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton speaks at a news conference on Wednesday

NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton (left on Wednesday) called President Obama's (right) plan to slash anti-terror funding unconscionable considering New York City is a top terror target

As a city and as a nation, we cannot afford to lose this essential funding at a time when we face increased threats.

New Yorks tireless police force and first responders have done their part  now its time for our leaders in Washington to do theirs.

U.S Senator Schumer said the UASI is the cornerstone of effective preparedness in the United States in the wake of terror attacks at home and abroad.

He said it makes no sense to slash funding, and referenced the recent ISIS-inspired attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, as proof that we must make sure America has the resources it needs to remain protected'.

Schumer said: Ive said it before, and I will say it again, UASI is the cornerstone of effective preparedness and prevention against terrorist threats and enables the NYPD to do all they can to keep New Yorkers safe and secure.

With ISIS-inspired attacks and terrorism on the rise all across the globe, we must make sure that America has the resources it needs to remain protected.

It makes no sense for the administration to slash critically needed anti-terrorism funding, especially at a time when we are all on high alert.

Upset: (left to right) Sen. Charles Schumer, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Department of New York Commissioner Bill Bratton hold a press conference criticizing the White House's proposed budget

Commissioner Bill Bratton with NYPD units funded in part through the Urban Area Security Initiative grant, which is funded through the Department of Homeland Security, after the press conference on Wednesday

Members of the NYPD Strategic Response Group, which is funded in part through the Urban Area Security Initiative grant, stand outside NYPD headquarters today

I pledge to fight tooth and nail in Congress to make sure that UASI funds are increased in New York City and across the country.

Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said the funding cut would have an immediate and potentially dangerous impact on the city.

Nigro said that the funds have helped the FDNY train first responders to better respond to hazardous materials incidents and public health outbreaks like the Ebola virus, which reached the city last year, as well as terror attacks.

The White House previously said the plan still contributes robust funding to combat terror.

Schumer said a vote on a Homeland Security appropriations bill would likely happen by June.

Bratton (pictured) said the proposed cut would effectively eliminate the NYPDs intelligence analyst program, as well as vapor wake bomb-sniffing dogs and cameras monitoring high-profile locations

A man watches television screens inside the New York Police Department's Joint Operations Command room, which is funded in part through the Urban Area Security Initiative
Employment minister Priti Patel (pictured) said the figures - released by the Office for Budget Responsibility - prove why the EU favours multinational firms but penalises smaller businesses and taxpayers

British taxpayers could lose as much as 50billion due to EU judges overruling the UK's tax laws.

HMRC has already been forced to pay back 7.87billion in the last decade after European Court of Justice cases ruled certain business tax rules in Britain illegal.

Documents from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) reveal that HMRC will be forced to pay back a further 7.3billion before 2020.

The rules deemed illegal by EU judges were drawn up by Treasury officials and implemented after being approved by MPs in the House of Commons.

The figures, unveiled by the Vote Leave campaign, expose the extent to which multinational firms use the European Court of Justice to cut their tax bills and reclaim billions of pounds from the UK taxpayer.

The amount HMRC sets aside to settle litigation concerning taxes subject to challenge has increased from 34million in 2005/06 to 7.2billion in 2015/16, the OBR figures reveal.

Brexit campaigners said the money HMRC was forced to pay back to firms was enough to pay for 25 fully-staffed hospitals and two more Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.

The bill could soar even higher, however, if the Treasury loses ongoing court cases at the European Court of Justice, with another 35.6billion at risk - nearly half the UK's annual deficit.

The types of taxes the EU declared unlawful include a form of corporation tax on profits distributed by a subsidiary to a parent company and stamp duty serve tax - a levy raised on electronic paperless share transactions.

EU judges also blocked the UK government from reducing the time limit on businesses claiming for overpaid tax.

Leading Brexit Cabinet minister Priti Patel said: 'The EU may be good for some big multi-national businesses, but the truth is it's bad for smaller firms and UK taxpayers,' she said.

'People will be shocked that big business is taking British taxpayers to court in Europe where unelected judges are overruling the decisions of our parliament on tax rules - costing us all billions. 'That's on top of the 350 million we already hand over to Brussels every single week. We need to Vote Leave to stop this abuse.

'And this is no small matter - there are staggering amounts involved in these cases.'

But a Government source dismissed Vote Leave's analysis of the figures, saying: 'This is completely disingenuous and bears no relation to reality.

'The Leave campaign is suggesting that the UK government will lose every single case it is currently contesting. This is absurd scaremongering.

'The government pays out less than 3 per cent of the amount the Leave campaign is claiming.'

The details of the EU's burdensome strain on the Treasury's tax collecting powers come as a fresh row erupted over David Cameron's decision to spend 9.3million on sending a pro-EU leaflet to 27million UK households.

Justice Secretary Michael Gove branded the leaflet a 'one-sided propaganda' and it has led leading Eurosceptic Tories to demand spending limits be lifted for the Out campaign.

Leading Tory rebel Sir Bill Cash, will tomorrow table an amendment to the Budget calling for the spending limits to be 'equal' between the In and Out campaigns.

Documents from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) reveal that HMRC will be forced to pay back a further 7.3billion before 2020 due to EU judges deeming UK tax rules illegal

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Commons committee that oversees campaign spending, said he will support the amendment to the Financial Bill.

More than 200,000 voters have now signed a petition against the 9.3million taxpayer funded leaflet.

Sir Bill Cash today threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at the pro-Brussels mailshot.

And anti-EU MPs plan to boycott a Tory 'away day' hosted by the Prime Minister this week.

The moves mark the increasingly acrimonious Conservative rift over the EU referendum.

Sir Bill will tomorrow lead an attempt by Eurosceptic Tory MPs to sabotage the Budget by forcing a Commons vote on the Finance Bill.

'The Government's decision to spend more than 9million on pro-EU propaganda is outrageous and we demand a change in the Budget to provide similar funding for an anti-EU leaflet,' said Sir Bill.

'I do not rule out similar actions over coming weeks. If the Government comes grinding to a halt it has brought it on its own head.'

Fellow rebel Tory Andrew Bridgen said anti-EU MPs are also planning to snub a gathering of Conservative MPs on Thursday at a hotel near Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire home.

'Many of us do not feel like 'bonding' with colleagues who have abused the democratic process,' said Mr Bridgen.

However, allies of the PM played down tensions. 'It is unreasonable to argue the Prime Minister does not have the right to explain to the electorate why he believes we should remain in the EU.'

Responding to the 50billion bill faced by taxpayers, Ukip's finance spokesman Steven Woolfe MEP said: 'The ECJ is making a full frontal attack on UK tax sovereignty and a lunge for the pockets of British taxpayers.

'It's outrageous that an EU court can overturn a settled decision made by our parliament.

'OBR figures for 2016 show that the UK made a contribution post-rebate of 15.3 billion.

'These latest paybacks enforced by the ECJ on British tax authorities should be added to the UK contribution figures so voters have a true idea of how much EU membership is costing us each year.
For more of the latest New York news visit www.dailymail.co.uk/nyc

When they took hostages, they gave them $20 as hush money

In a new book he reveals how the mobsters planned to shoot and kill cops, and spoke to the New York Post while in a witness protection program

He is now in witness protection after giving information on a mob hit

One of the mobsters behind the notorious $28million heist at The Pierre hotel is telling his story of the robbery from witness protection, in an account told to the New York Post.

Nick Sacco, 76, is the last living member of the gang who stole a hoard of jewelry and cash from vaults and a safe deposit box at the upmarket New York address in 1972.

It boasts Aristotle Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Yves Saint-Laurent as former residents.

The eight men caught after one of the jewels ended up in the hands of a FBI informant, but a bribe-taking judge meant ringleaders Bobby Comfort and Sammy Nalo were the only robbers who served time.

Nick Sacco, 76, (not pictured) the last living member One of the mobsters behind the notorious $28million heist at The Pierre hotel is telling his story of the robbery from witness protection. Detroit FBI agent Neil J. Welch is seen with jewelry worth $750,000 that was taken from the hotel after the heist in 1972

Doors of safe deposit boxes in the vault at New York's Pierre Hotel hang open January 2, 1972 following the robbery. Sacco revealed how the robbers planned to gun down police if they showed up, how they would help guests if they called up the front desk, and how they paid off each of the hostages with $20

Sacco, who pocketed $2million from the robbery, is collaborating on a book with crime writer Daniel Simone.

In the book, he reveals how the robbers planned to gun down police if they showed up, how they would help guests if they called up the front desk, and how they paid off each of the hostages with $20.

He also describes his 'lonely' life in witness protection and how he misses making money.

'We decided we weren't going to give up. We were going to shoot first,' Sacco recollects in the account for the Post.

The group robbed the hotel at around 4am on January 2, 1972. They pulled up to the hotel in a limo, driven by a man dressed in a chauffeur and announced the name of their reservation, Dr Foster.

The rest of the group wore tuxedos with fake beards and wigs.

Sacco told The Post the robbers had meticulously researched the hotel's regimen and habits of the staff.

They learned the doors were locked at night, so the only way in was a reservation.

After a security guard confirmed the booking, one of the mobsters put a gun to his head. They then walked through to the front desk and abducted the night clerk.

They then started rounding up the staff and taking them hostage. They used handcuffs and sat them on the floor of the lobby.

The Pierre (pictured in 2011) is one of the most elegant hotels in New York. It boasts Aristotle Onassis, Elizabeth Taylor and Yves Saint-Laurent as former residents

Comfort took over the phones. Sacco recalls: 'If we got any calls  say, somebody needed pillows, or whatever they might be  I would go up and give it to them.'

He insisted they were there just to take the boxes, they didn't plan to hurt the hostages.

One elderly patient said he was suffering chest pains, so one of the mobsters searched a list of guests and found a doctor was there at the time.

They called him down and he was taken hostage. In the weeks building up to the heist, some of the mobsters researched old newspapers in the New York Public Library to find out who stayed there.

They learned through gossip columns and past stories that it was home to some very wealthy residents.

'We knew, approximately, who patronized The Pierre,' Sacco told The Post.

They then started going through the safety deposit boxes.

One box had $500,000, in bundles marked '$10,000,' '$20,000' and '$30,000.' Another had $3 million in $500 bills.

They also found boxes of jewelry. Sacco says that probably the most valuable item was a $750,000 Harry Winston diamond necklace that belonged to Baroness von Langendorff, who still lives in the hotel

They went through the safe, but couldn't take everything.

He said: 'We had at least 75 to 100 boxes we didn't open.'

After two hours, Comfort handed each of the hotel staff being kept as hostages $20 bills and told them to wait before they called the police.

To them it was a kind of 'hush money'. In the aftermath none of the staff said a word and didn't identify the robbers.

Benjamin Fradkin (holding checked hat left) Dominick Paulino, (second left) Bert Stern (holding hand to his forehead) and ringleader and Robert Comfort (right in checked coat) are charged with the criminal possession of stolen property following the robbery, a far lesser charge than armed robbery

By 6.45am they had gone, just fifteen minutes before the start of the day shift.

Sacco told the Post how contacts in New York's jewelry districts ground down the gems and removed any identifying marks.

They were then set into new items and sold across the country.

The amounts the gang stole differed in media accounts in the weeks following.

Some said the men got away with $3 million, far less than the $28 million Simone believes was taken.

Simone told the Post there could be several explanations.

One is that Comfort and Nalo didn't disclose the full size of their take because they didn't want to share it all with other criminals.

Another is that they simply may not have realized the value of some of the jewelry.

The rich victims of the robbery may have had reasons for not fully reporting their losses because of the looming IRS and the large bundles of cash.

Von Langendorff's necklace ended up in the hands of a Detroit mobster who was an FBI informant.

That led the NYPD to arrest Comfort five days after the robbery. Nalo was taken into custody 24 hours later.

They took a plea deal to a burglary charge  a big reduction from armed robbery and a host of other charges that could have arisen from gunpoint hostage-taking.

Sacco told the Post that the plea deal was arranged via a $500,000 bribe to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Andrew Tyler.

Tyler sentenced the men to seven years in prison, three years more than he had promised. But the seven-year terms were thrown out by the Appellate Division.

Sacco entered the Witness Protection Program in 1975 after telling authorities what he overheard in jail about a mob triple murder.

He is now collaborating on book about The Pierre heist with crime writer Daniel Simone.

They speak on the phone and share documents via Sacco's post-office box in California, but they've never met in person.

Sacco is sorry his days as a crook are over.
For more of the latest on David Cameron visit www.dailymail.co.uk/pm

Those earning more than 150,000 were given 5p tax cut in the 2012 Budget

David Cameron (pictured at the Conservative party's spring forum yesterday) saved himself 5,000 over the past two years due to the Government's decision to cut the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p in 2013

David Cameron saved himself 5,000 over the past two years due to the Government's decision to cut the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p in 2013.

The details were revealed after the Prime Minister took the unprecedented step of publishing his private tax affairs following the revelations last week that he held a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's Blairmore offshore fund.

The disclosure of his tax arrangements revealed how he personally benefited from George Osborne's announcement in his 2012 Budget that the top rate of tax for those earning more than 150,000 would be cut from 50p to 45p.

At the time the tax cut proved highly controversial as it came alongside significant cuts to public spending and Mr Osborne's slogan that 'we're all in this together'.

The 5p tax cut came into effect a year later, in 2013. Figures released by HMRC last month revealed that the tax cut generated a huge windfall for the taxpayer - totalling 8billion.

Mr Osborne claimed it vindicated his decision to cut the top rate of tax and defied Labour predictions that the move would cost the Treasury at least 2billion a year.

But the Institute for Fiscal Studies later warned that the uplift in revenue was probably due to top earners delaying their previous years' salary payments to take advantage of the 5p tax cut.

Today's disclosure of Mr Cameron's tax returns revealed he has declared nearly 1.1million in earnings over the past six years.

It is the first time a British Prime Minister or political leader has published private tax details.

It came amid fears in Number 10 that the row over the Prime Minister's tax affairs could affect the result of the EU referendum in June and was seen as an effort to draw a line under the issue after a week of damaging headlines.

But it revealed fresh details about his personal wealth and showed how he stands to avoid a 70,000 inheritance tax bill following his father's death.

Months after his stockbroker father Ian Cameron died in September 2010, his mother Mary gave him a 200,000 gift. This was in addition to an inheritance left to him by his father of 300,000 - a sum just below the threshold for death duties.

It means the Prime Minister could inherit 500,000 without paying any tax on it.

David Cameron yesterday faced mass protests after a damaging week in which he admitted to holding a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's offshore Blairmore fund

If his father had left him 500,000 in a lump sum, 70,000 of it would have had to be paid to the Inland Revenue.

Mr Cameron is yet to have published any tax returns and only disclosed details of his tax affairs since he entered Downing Street in 2010 - after he sold his 30,000 stake in Blairmore.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn this morning demanded the Prime Minister go further and publish the actual tax returns stretching back to when he first became an MP in 2001.

The Labour leader said the public must know 'why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010'.

He called for all people in public life to be forced to publish their tax returns following the unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca - known as the Panama Papers - which have revealed how elites from across the world managed to hide their money in tax havens.

Jeremy Corbyn told Andrew Marr this morning that David Cameron had not gone far enough in showing transparency over his tax affairs

Mr Corbyn said he will publish his own tax return 'as soon as possible' and Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon joined other party leaders north of the border in publishing their own tax returns.

Mr Cameron's disclosure of his tax details have now put pressure on all other Cabinet members to publish their own tax returns, with the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson demanding ministers declare any links with offshore tax havens.

HOW CAMERON'S FAMILY CARVED UP THE INHERITANCE CASH FOUR YEARS BEFORE HIS FATHER DIED The Prime Minister's brother Alexander Cameron QC (pictuted) was given the 2.5m Cameron family home Four years before Ian Cameron died, his Oxfordshire family home was transferred to his eldest son Alexander, a wealthy QC. As part of the deal, Mr and Mrs Cameron senior moved into Alexander's smaller home next door. Because it was handed over more than three years before Ian died, the full 40 per cent inheritance tax on the 2.5 million home would not be payable: the rate 'tapers' down to nothing if the deceased survives for more than seven years. At the time, only the first 325,000 of an estate was free of inheritance tax, so if the house's value was taken in isolation from the rest of the estate, Alexander would have paid 24 per cent on the 2.1 million of the house which was taxable. Separately, David Cameron's two sisters, Tania and Clare, were jointly left in the will a 1 million London house. The two women, who shared the house equally, had already been gifted a stake of unknown value in the property in advance of Ian Cameron's death. Advertisement

Even former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lawson said Mr Cameron had 'made a mess of handling' the fallout from the revelations, but then dismissed the Prime Minister's tax affairs as 'pretty trivial'.

And Mr Cameron was told by Tory defence minister Penny Mordaunt that he needs to 'build up' trust with the public following the most damaging week of his premiership.

But Mr Cameron's loyal Energy Secretary Amber Rudd defended the Prime Minister this morning and rejected demands from Mr Corbyn and Mr Robertson for all public officials to disclose their tax returns.

'I think we have to think very carefully about the balance between transparency and privacy,' she said.

Mr Cameron said he paid UK tax on earnings from his 30,000 stake in the offshore fund but faced questions over why he chose not to declare the investments to parliamentary authorities.

Mr Corbyn said all MPs should be forced to declare all offshore investments and also said the rules over inheritance tax should be reviewed following the disclosure of Mr Cameron's 200,000 gift from his mother.

Demanding full disclosure of Mr Cameron's tax returns, Mr Corbyn told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show this morning: 'I want to see the papers. We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return, we need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became Prime Minister.

'These are questions that he must answer. I think there is a question for Parliament there, there is a question for Parliamentary standards to question him on this.

'There is a question - big questions - that have to be put to him by Parliament and that surely is the function of Parliament.'

His comments were echoed by the SNP's Westminster leader Angus Robertson, who said that if Mr Cameron failed to make a statement to MPs in Parliament tomorrow, his party would apply for an urgent question.

He demanded all ministers now come clean by publishing their own tax returns.

'I have particular concerns about the wider UK Government, because of course it's the UK Cabinet that sets the framework of legislation, that discusses what UK policy is and we have heard absolutely nothing about other members of the cabinet,' he told Sky News.

'Where is the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, has he made a declaration that he has never ever benefited from offshore trusts, what about other Treasury ministers, have they ever benefited from offshore trusts?'

But justice minister Dominic Raab said it was 'crystal clear' the Prime Minister had done nothing illegal or improper and dismissed Mr Corbyn's comments as 'grotesquely whipped up'.

This afternoon First Minister Nicola Sturgeon published her two-page tax return (pictured above and below) revealing that she paid more than 31,551 in tax on an income of 104,000

He told Sky News: 'Frankly some of the personalised attacks on him, on his father, have been deeply unsavoury.

'Jeremy Corbyn came in saying as leader of the Labour party he was going to introduce a kinder politics and yet he's been whipping up a mob mentality and engaging and leading these attacks, whipping up Labour MPs who, some of them are behaving like, frankly, hyenas.

'I think it's grotesque hypocrisy given what he's said and really it's just about scoring political points, there's no substance to any of this at all in relation to trying to suggest the PM has done anything wrong.'

This afternoon Ms Sturgeon published her tax return, revealing that she paid more than 31,551 in tax on an income of 104,000.

Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale and Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson published their details yesterday, revealing MSP salaries of 52,000 and tax of just over 10,000.

Mr Corbyn said there was 'possibly' a case for looking at inheritance tax rules, hinting that he would close down loopholes that allow families to avoid paying death duties on their estate if he becomes Prime Minister.

He said 'non-payment' of tax starved the taxpayer of crucial money to fund public services.

Asked about the revelations that Mr Cameron stands to avoid paying up to 70,000 in death duties following the 200,000 'lifetime gift' from his mother - given just months after his father died - Mr Corbyn said: 'She has done that and that is within the rules, providing of course the person giving the money lives for more than seven years - and obviously we hope she does.

'The issue is one that it does actually reduce the level of inheritance tax that is available for the Exchequer as a whole.

'Is there a case for looking at inheritance tax rules? Possibly, but I think what's more important this week is actually looking at the whole question of tax havens, of British dependent territories, of the way in which huge sums of money are placed in these havens to evade tax in Britain.

'There's a moral case: if you earn money, you pay tax. If you earn a lot of money, you pay more tax.

'Non-payment of tax means underfunding of public services as a whole, that's what the Panama Papers have shown. The moral case has to be made.'

After receiving 300,000 in his father's will in December 2010, the Prime Minister's mother gave him two additional sums of 100,000  tax-free  in May and July 2011.

He used 137,500 to buy the field adjoining his house in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Cameron is said to have given the extra amount to the Prime Minister  with similar amounts to his sisters  to 'even out' the division of their father's wealth among his four children.

Mr Cameron's elder brother Alexander was given ownership of the main family home in Oxfordshire in 2006, worth 2.5 million.

This appears to have been designed to take advantage of the 'seven-year rule' which can reduce  or wipe out  IHT.

'When she looked at things after her husband's death, the Prime Minister's mother felt it was important to even out the way the money was shared between all four children,' said the source.

A source close to the Prime Minister had no idea his mother intended to give him the money, nor had he been involved in any family discussions about the matter before his father's death.

Asked if the Prime Minister believed he or his family had done anything wrong, the source said: 'The Prime Minister believes everyone should obey the tax law at all times and he has done.'

But the disclosure will increase pressure on Mr Cameron after it was revealed he had a 30,000 stake in his stockbroker father's Blairmore offshore fund.

Lord Lawson, also speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, criticised Mr Cameron's handling of the revelations and said the Panama Papers showed the need for a global clamp down on tax avoidance rather than through the EU.

Even former Conservative Chancellor Lord Lawson (pictured on the Andrew Marr Show this morning) said Mr Cameron had 'made a mess of handling' the fallout from the revelations, but then dismissed the Prime Minister's tax affairs as 'pretty trivial'

David Cameron 'offers Boris Johnson a top Cabinet job in plot to stop London Mayor from ousting him as PM after EU vote'

David Cameron is planning to offer Boris Johnson a top Cabinet job after the EU referendum in a bid to unite the Tory party after months of infighting.

The move is part of a plot to avoid the Prime Minister being ousted by the London Mayor after June's EU vote.

The job offer will be part of a 'reconciliation reshuffle', which will also see fellow Brexit campaigner Michael Gove offered a senior role.

But it comes as the pressure on Mr Cameron intensified this morning following revelations that he stands to avoid a 70,000 tax bill on his inheritance bill because his mother Mary gave him an extra 200,000 months after his stockbroker father died in September 2010.

David Cameron (pictured left at the Tory spring conference yesterday) has reportedly offered Boris Johnson (right) a 'big job' in the Cabinet after the EU referendum

Those disclosures followed one of his toughest weeks in Downing Street as he was forced to admit he had a 30,000 stake in his father's Blairmore offshore fund.

In a plot to save the Prime Minister's career, however, he has told Mr Johnson through a government intermediary that he will be offered a 'big job' in the Cabinet, according to the Sunday Times .

The Mayor of London is the favourite to succeed Mr Cameron, who has pledged not to serve a third term.

A source close to the Mayor of London told the newspaper: 'Boris will still get a big job. That message has been conveyed directly by the PM to someone close to Boris.'

Meanwhile a Number 10 source said the Prime Minister has 'gone out of his way to ensure Boris feels included'.

David Cameron faced calls to quit as Prime Minister and hundreds of protesters took to the streets following last week's revelations about his tax affairs

Boris Johnson (pictured left) and Michael Gove (right) are reportedly being offered top Cabinet jobs following the EU vote as Downing Street attempts to unite the Tory party after months of infighting

Mr Cameron offered Mr Johnson a senior Cabinet post as part of his efforts to persuade him to campaign for Britain to stay in the EU but that offer was believed to be off the table after Mr Johnson defied him by joining Vote Leave.

REBEL TORY MP THREATENS TO BRING GOVERNMENT 'GRINDING TO A HALT' IN 9M EU LEAFLET ROW Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at David Cameron's 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot Rebel Tory MP Sir Bill Cash last night threatened to bring the Government 'grinding to a halt' in protest at David Cameron's 9 million pro-Brussels mailshot. And anti-EU MPs plan to boycott a Tory 'away day' hosted by the Prime Minister this week. The moves mark the increasingly acrimonious Conservative rift over the EU referendum. Sir Bill will tomorrow lead an attempt by Eurosceptic Tory MPs to sabotage the Budget by forcing a Commons vote on the Finance Bill. 'The Government's decision to spend more than 9million on pro-EU propaganda is outrageous and we demand a change in the Budget to provide similar funding for an anti-EU leaflet,' said Sir Bill. 'I do not rule out similar actions over coming weeks. If the Government comes grinding to a halt it has brought it on its own head.' Fellow rebel Tory Andrew Bridgen said anti-EU MPs are also planning to snub a gathering of Conservative MPs on Thursday at a hotel near Mr Cameron's Oxfordshire home. 'Many of us do not feel like 'bonding' with colleagues who have abused the democratic process,' said Mr Bridgen. However, allies of the PM played down tensions. 'It is unreasonable to argue the Prime Minister does not have the right to explain to the electorate why he believes we should remain in the EU.' Advertisement

But as the Prime Minister seeks to recover from a series of setbacks that threaten his premiership, Mr Johnson could be offered the job of Home Secretary, if Theresa May wants to move on, or could replace Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary.

The role of Foreign Secretary is not an option due to his Brexit stance, while Philip Hammond is favourite to replace George Osborne as Chancellor if he moves to leave the Treasury.

Many expect Mr Cameron to be forced aside even if voters opt to stay in the EU and the revelations about his tax arrangements over the last week have shortened the odds on his departure from Number 10.

And some Tories have admitted the damage to his reputation from the Panama Papers revelations makes his future as Prime Minister untenable beyond the June 23 referendum.

It also emerged that Mr Cameron's aides met with their counterparts from Mr Johnson's campaign for 'peace talks' in a Westminster bar.

They reportedly agreed a common approach to the local elections to ensure the Tories do not suffer as a result of divisions.

According to the Sunday Times, Downing Street will reach out to the Eurosceptic wing of the party after the referendum by allowing Mr Gove to announce flagship plans to replace the Human Rights Act with a Bill of Rights in the summer.

And Mr Cameron will use the Queen's Speech in May to announce measures to boost the 'life chances' of the poorest in an effort to create a legacy of a 'one-nation' Prime Minister.

The relationship between the Prime Minister and London Mayor has soured considerably since Mr Johnson defied Mr Cameron by deciding to join the Brexit campaign after Mr Cameron secured his EU renegotiation in February.

He infuriated the Prime Minister by informing him of his final decision just nine minutes before he went public.

Mr Johnson has further irritated Mr Cameron by criticising his 'project fear' tactics in the EU referendum.

Mr Cameron enraged his party's Eurosceptic MPs further last week over his controversial decision to spend 9million on sending a government-promoted leaflet to 27million British households setting out the case for staying in the EU.

The Prime Minister's close friend Mr Gove branded the leaflet a 'one-sided propaganda.

It has led leading Eurosceptic Tories to demand spending limits be lifted for the Out campaign. Sir Bill Cash, will tomorrow table an amendment to the Budget calling for the spending limits to be 'equal' between the In and Out campaigns.

Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the Commons committee that oversees campaign spending, said he will support the amendment to the Financial Bill.
During the Second World War, it was a place of unimaginable horror, where thousands of people died under the brutal watch of the Nazi SS.

But today the site of Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, near Nordhausen in central Germany, was a place of quiet reconciliation, as a crowd gathered to remember the 71th anniversary of its liberation by U.S. troops.

Former inmates and other survivors of Nazi persecution laid flowers at the site of the labour camp, which is now a memorial and museum.

Survivors Yaakov Handeli (left) and Pinhas Klein (right) laid flowers during commemoration ceremonies at Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, near Nordhausen in central Germany

Those attending included Herman Rols, 98, from France, and Albert van Hoey, of Belgium.

Mittelbau-Dora originated as an external unit of Buchenwald, one of the first and largest concentration camps on German soil.

It was established as a concentration camp in its own right in the summer of 1943 - when it was known as Dora - and existed for just over a year and a half.

The site was used to produce V-2 rockets - the powerful missiles that the Germans used to attack Allied cities - after a RAF bombing raid destroyed the factory where they were previously made.

Inmates were initially housed by the SS in the Mittelwerk, as the tunnels intended to be the new underground rocket production site were called.

Concentration camp survivors Albert van Hoey of Belgium (left) and Herman Rols of France, 98, embrace each other during the commemoration event

Mittelbau-Dora was used to build V-2 rockets. It was liberated by U.S. soldiers on April 11, 1945

Marian Wach, from Poland, shows his Auschwitz sign on his left arm as he attended an event to mark the liberation of Mittelbau-Dora by the US Army

Although some prisoners were moved to an above-ground barracks when they were completed in January 1944, many carried on sleeping underground until much later.

With no means of sanitation except oil barrels - and alongside the punishing labour of digging the tunnels - conditions were terrible, and many inmates died of hunger and thirst.

People from concentration camps around Germany were specially selected and moved to Dora to begin production of the rockets in January 1944.

The exhausted prisoners who had built the tunnels were shipped out to a group of approximately 35 sub-sites, which together were known as the Mittelbau-Dora complex.

Inmates were mainly political prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union and France.

Former concentration camp inmate Pinhas Klein stands next to the memorial in the grounds of Mittelbau-Dora. The camp housed mainly political prisoners from Poland, the Soviet Union and France, alongside Jews and Roma

There were also people from races the Nazis saw as 'inferior', including Jews and Roma.

The number of Jews dramatically increased towards the end of 1944, as the Nazis began to evacuate camps to the east because of the advancing Red Army.

With a population boom straining resources, and combined with horrendous winter conditions, the death rate shot up.

In early 1945, as the Nazi regime began to collapse, guards evacuated the inmates of Mittelbau-Dora to other camps including Bergen-Belsen in northern Germany.

During these horrendous death marches, people who could not keep up were simply shot, and many others died of starvation.

Due to these evacuations, there were very few inmates left when the Americans finally liberated Mittelbau-Dora on April 11, 1945.

Out of approximately 60,000 people who had worked in the camp complex, some 20,000 died.

Today, they are remembered in a bronze memorial in the grounds.

THE BOMBS THAT RAINED DOWN DEATH: NOTABLE STRIKES BY V-2 ROCKETS The first ever V-2 strike came on the morning of 8 September 1944, landing in Charentonneau a Maison-Alfort on the edge of a newly-liberated Paris, and killing six people. A few hours later that same day, a V-2 struck Chiswick, in west London, killing three and injuring 17. A third strike just a few seconds later hit a field outside Epping, Essex, leaving no-one hurt or injured. Clean-up crews salvage what they can from the ruins of buildings destroyed by a V-2 rocket in Hornsey, north London, in November 1944 Initially British politicians tried to cover up the new threat, blaming gas explosions, but this ruse was quickly seen through, and people began to refer to V-2s sardonically as 'flying gas pipes'. On 8 March 1945, a V-2 hit Smithfield Market in London. Many of the victims fell through the ruined building onto the railway below. Women and children who had gone to the meat market to buy rabbits were killed, putting the final death toll for the bomb at 110. The worst attack on Britain came on 25 November 1944, when a V-2 hit a Woolworths department store in New Cross, south-east London, mid-afternoon, killing 168. A re-made German V-2 rocket pictured during a test flight at White Sands proving grounds, New Mexico. The rockets were 46-foot long and weighed 14 tonnes Advertisement




Jody Marie Watson (left), 38, was shot to death Thursday inside her Alabama home in front of her children

Police say a mother-of-three was murdered in front of her children in Alabama during a suspected domestic violence incident.

Jody Marie Watson, 38, was shot to death inside of her Jefferson County home Thursday afternoon, AL.com reported.

Her boyfriend, Jeremy Hardin, 39, was arrested and released from the Jefferson County Jail after posting $50,000 bond, as he has not been formally charged yet.

Authorities say Hardin called 911 Thursday and said he shot Watson, his girlfriend.

At the same time of his 911 call, a second call came in from a neighbor who said the woman's two children, boys aged seven and 10, came to their home to ask them to call for help because their mother had been shot, AL.com reported.

When police arrived, they found Watson dead in the kitchen around 3.30pm.

Chief Deputy Randy Christian said there were two small children in the home at the time of the shooting, but they were not injured and left with relatives later, AL.com reported.

The mother also had an older son who had not returned home from school yet.

Hardin is not the father to any of the children who lived inside of the home that belonged to him.

Christian said the two children witnessed the shooting and said Hardin walked up behind Watson and shot her in the head.

Tragic: Watson (left) was found dead by police in the kitchen of the Jefferson County home Thursday afternoon. Her boyfriend, Jeremy Hardin (right), 39, was arrested and released from the Jefferson County Jail after posting $50,000 bond

Hardin reportedly told authorities that they had a history of fighting and that he just wanted it to end.

Police have responded to the home on three previous occasions for domestic violence incidents, with the latest taking place on March 9, AL.com reported.

Watson declined to prosecute, despite claiming to be the victim of domestic violence at the hands of her boyfriend, Christian said.

Hardin, who is employed as a systems operator for Alabama Power, does not have any prior criminal charges.

'This is a heart-wrenching case. How a man can take the life of someone he professes to care about is beyond understanding. To do it in front of her children is purely dark-hearted,'' Christian told AL.com.
Nearly 200 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Austin, Indiana, as a heroin epidemic continues to cripple the small town.

The figures released this week offer a glimpse into the rocketing rate of diagnoses since the issue came to light just over a year ago.

There were 30 confirmed HIV cases in February 2015, and 55 a month later.

Now, despite measures brought in by the CDC to distribute clean syringes to addicts, that figure has climbed up to 190 in a town of just 4,000 inhabitants.

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Nearly 200 people have been diagnosed with HIV in Austin despite attempts to curb the opiate epidemic

Officials maintain they are making progress to combat the issue, one of the most rapidly-evolved health crises America has ever seen.

'I think we have a lot of really good things that came out of the HIV outbreak,' Brittany Combs, a public health nurse in a neighboring city, told USA Today. 'We still have a long way to go.'

Opioid-abuse has ravaged the entire state of Indiana, with outbreaks of HIV, hepatitis-C and other diseases well-documented in at least four major counties.

State officials predicted the numbers would dwindle after legalizing the needle-exchange program - where addicts swap dirty needles for clean syringes - last May.

However, on legalizing the program, lawmakers also banned state funding, which health officials slammed as a severe obstacle.

The four counties  Fayette, Madison, Monroe and Scott  that won state approval for their exchanges after the law took effect are cash-strapped and in largely rural areas.

They now rely on nonprofits, foundations, donations or county coffers to run the programs.

But public health workers are calling on the state to amend the funding restrictions.

Paula Maupin, Fayette County's public health nurse, expects the number of drug users enrolled in her program to multiply by 10 from seven to 75-100 participants in the next year or so.

'What we've got, it's fine for now. But when we have the amount of people I'm expecting, we're going to burn through that money pretty quick,' Maupin said in an interview with the Associated Press last month.

State Rep. Ed Clere, a New Albany Republican, acknowledged that the state funding ban is 'a real barrier' that counties must overcome, but that it was necessary to win the votes of lawmakers.

'Without the change in law, syringe exchanges wouldn't have been possible, period,' he said of the legislation he authored, which requires the state health commissioner to review and either approve or reject the creation of exchanges for counties that seek them.

Clere said he's hopeful that Congress' move in December to soften a longtime ban on federal funding for needle exchanges, made in response to the nation's opioid abuse crisis, will open a flow of federal dollars to help the county exchanges pay employees' salaries, rent office space and support other aspects. That money, however, can't be used to buy clean needles.

Small town: Despite measures brought in by the CDC to distribute clean syringes to addicts, the number of HIV diagnoses has climbed up to 190 in Austin, Indiana, (pictured) - a town of just 4,000 inhabitants

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still drafting rules for applications for federal funding. 'The devil will be in the details' of the CDC's process to identify priority areas for funding, said Beth Meyerson, co-director of the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention at Indiana University.

'Obviously they're not going to have funding for every county that wants to initiate a syringe exchange locally. And many of these counties are very poor,' she said. Fayette County is among them, having seen several factories close in recent years. And Meyerson said she expects more than 20 other Indiana counties to seek approval for a needle exchange.

Scott County, about 30 miles north of Louisville, Kentucky, was at the heart of the HIV outbreak that spurred the change in Indiana's law. It's operated its exchange since April 2015  initially under an executive order signed by Gov. Mike Pence and later under the new law. Two hundred people are actively participating in the county's exchange, public health nurse Brittany Combs said, and nearly 400 have signed up to take part.

Combs said the HIV outbreak  the worst in Indiana history with nearly 190 people infected and driven largely by people abusing a liquefied form of the prescription painkiller Opana  has 'definitely been stopped' by the needle exchange and robust local education efforts targeting IV drug users.

It has remained afloat with grants and donations from several groups, including $10,000 from the Indiana Family Health Council, but will need much more in the years ahead. She hopes federal dollars can arrive sometime this year to boost the county's efforts.
She also says Bambaataa was unaware of the men who offered a bribe and that they did not have authorization to speak on his behalf

He also claims to have recordings of men offering him money to shut up

Savage says he has only just now gained the courage to speak out

He alleges that he was molested on several occasions

Afrika Bambaataa, hip-hop pioneer and creator of breakthrough 1982 track 'Planet Rock,' has been accused of child molestation by a New York judicial delegate, who says Bambaataa, then in his early twenties, abused him on multiple occasions when he was a teen.

Ronald Savage, now 50, told NY Daily News that he first met the DJ and producer in 1980. At that point Savage, then 14, was one of many 'crate boys,' kids who would carry around crates of records for DJs in Bambaataa's Zulu Nation hip-hop collective.

'It was just about fun, hanging out, listening to music,' says Savage of those heady Bronx days. But according to his story, all that was about to change.

Accused: Afrika Bambaataa (pictured in 1986), one of hip-hop's 'founding fathers,' has been accused of abusing a 15-year-old boy in the 1980s, when he was in his twenties. He created hip-hop collective Zulu Nation

'Victim': Ronald Savage (pictured), now 50, said that he was molested on multiple occasions and that he has since developed intimacy problems. He says he's only now been able to speak out about it

Savage, who had the nickname 'Bee-Stinger,' was the youngest member of the Zulu Nation, a group dedicated to politically aware hip-hop that threw parties across Manhattan.

'I had a big name on the street. I was the youngest of the Zulu Nation. Nobody bothered me back then because nobody messed with the Zulu Nation,' he told the NY Daily News.

But one day when he was 15, Savage said, he cut class and went to Bambaataa's home - and things turned nasty.

'I was in the living room, another gentleman was there, and they was DJing,' he told the paper. 'Bam told me I could go into his bedroom 'cause the TV was on.'

Savage said he was in the bedroom for around three or four minutes before Bambaataa took out his own penis and began touching himself. Savage alleges the DJ then performed the same act on him.

He said that Bambaataa then left the room and another man entered with his penis already out. At that point, Savage said, he fled.

But Savage accuses Bambaataa, now 58, of molesting him on a number of occasions. At one time, he says, Bambaataa came to his house and made Savage lie on the bed with his legs crossed while the DJ performed a sex act on him.

'I bugged out,' he said, 'It confused me 'cause I had never had sex before in my life and... my first time being touched was by a man.'

The judicial delegate said that the experiences left him uncomfortable with close physical contact, hurting his relationships with girlfriends, as well an instinctive suspicion that other male friends might try something similar, something he said he has trouble shaking off today.

Savage claimed that he didn't know who to trust with the information as his friends were in the Zulu Nation, and that he feared for his family's life. Only now, he said, has he been able to come forward.

'I'm not looking for any compensation from Afrika Bambaataa. That's not what this is about,' he said. 'The only thing I wanted was for this man to answer my question - why me?'

Denial: Bambaataa's lawyer denies all of Savage's claims, saying Savage 'seeks publicity' from her client (pictured above in 2015), who is now 58. Savage says he just wants to know 'Why me?'

Bambaata's lawyer, Kimi Tozaki, issued a rebuttal to Savage's remarks last week. 'Defamatory statements were published seeking to harm my clients reputation so as to lower him in the estimation of the community while deterring others from associating or dealing with him,' she wrote.

'The statements show a reckless disregard for the truth, were published with knowledge of their falsity, and are being made by a lesser-known person seeking publicity,' she added.

Savage released an autobiography - 'Impulse Urges And Fantasies: Life Is a Bag of Mixed Emotions, Vol. 1' - in 2014.

However, court records from restraining order made by Savage against an ex-girlfriend's new partner, Daniel Harris, suggest that he had already discussed his Bambaataa claims with her before 2011, the NY Daily News said.

The records say that Harris told Savage in a July 2011 phone call, 'I know about the Bambaataa thing,' according to the paper.

The publication also claimed to have heard recordings of 'two high-ranking Zulu Nation officials' offering Savage $50,000 to drop the claims, and that Savage can be heard on the recordings 'repeatedly' saying that he doesn't want the money.

Tozaki told the NY Daily News that Bambaataa was unaware of the men's actions and that neither of them were 'given authority to speak on Bams behalf.'

'My reason for coming forth is that something needs to happen,' Savage said to the paper. He added that he had sought legal council but that he was told the statute of limitations on the allegations had expired.

New York state has some of the strictest child abuse laws in the country. As a felony crime there it has a statute of limitations of five years, sometimes starting only when the child discloses the crime, and ending when the child turns 18 at the latest.

For civil cases, a suit must be filed by the time the victim turns 23.
Orange Is the New Black star Dascha Polanco has revealed that she was the victim of an extortion plot that almost brought down her career

Orange Is the New Black star Dascha Polanco has revealed that she was the victim of an extortion plot that almost brought down her career.

The 33-year-old Dominican star, who plays Dayanara Diaz in the hit Netflix prison drama, was targeted by her 17-year-old neighbor Michelle Cardona, who was allegedly having an affair with her fiance.

The single mother of two told the New York Post how she received a phone call in August from a detective in the NYPD, asking about an incident at her Washington Heights apartment building on July 29.

A shocked Polanco was accused of scratching, punching and pulling the hair of Cardona after she showed up at her door, thinking she was seeing Polanco's fiance.

From then she was subjected to a horrifying eight months, that included a legal battle and a struggle with depression.

The case was closed two weeks ago after she accepted a plea deal, promising to stay out of trouble for six months.

She would not elaborate on what happened on that day, but denies the charges against her.

According to court documents, Cardona said Polanco struck her 'about the face and head with a closed fist at least three times, pull[ed] Ms. Cardona's hair, and [struck] Ms. Cardona's arms.'

On advice from her lawyer, she went to her preccint to talk to cops. They then took her fingerprints and then asked for selfies with her.

'They took my fingerprints. I wanted to die,' she said of the experience.

For months, Polanco says, Cardona harassed the actress. She said she would approach people who knew me saying, 'Tell her to give us this amount and we'll drop [the charges].' '

In all, the actress alleges there were six requests for $5,000 to $6,000. Finally, a friend of Polanco's taped Cardona on the phone.

The 33-year-old Dominican star, who plays Dayanara Diaz in the hit Netflix prison drama, was targeted by her 17-year-old neighbor Michelle Cardona, who was allegedly having an affair with her fiance

She said that she wanted money for plastic surgery.

In the aftermath she says brands that would normally dress her for red carpet events refused to be associated with her.

She was also concerned it would impact her part in the film Joy, where she plays Jennifer Lawrence's best friend.

Describing her emotions at the premiere, she said: 'I was so saddened and depressed. It was hard for me to show my face.'

She says she is still paranoid as a result and believes it has impacted her socially.
She is one of the most powerful women in the news, watched by millions of fans each day and capable of piercing every interviewee with a killer question - including Donald Trump.

But on Sunday, Megyn Kelly appeared to be in family mode as she stepped out with her husband Douglas Brunt and their three children.

The news anchor and her family were spotted in New York visiting a Petco store - maybe stocking up on supplies for her two beloved Shih Tzus, Basha and Bailey.

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On Sunday, Megyn Kelly appeared to be in family mode as she stepped out with her husband Douglas Brunt and their three children

The news anchor and her family were spotted in New York visiting a Petco store - maybe stocking up on supplies for her two beloved Shih Tzus, Basha and Bailey

Kelly donned a pair of heeled, knee high boots, a black jacket and a red beanie to keep out the cold on the surprisingly chilly April morning.

Her husband, a noted novelist, looked relaxed in a black bomber jacket and blue jeans, while their children Yardley Evans, Edward Yates and Thatcher Bray, wore colorful jackets in pink and blue.

The couple held hands with their children as they walked along the sunny New York's streets in the Upper West side.

Kelly has recently hinted that she could leave Fox News, the network where she has worked for the last 12 years, at the end of her contract.

But insiders told Page Six that the host is unlikely to bolt, and is using the threat as a bargaining chip to push her salary closer to that of male rivals, such as Bill O'Reilly, who earns $15million.

The source said: 'This sounds like a negotiating tactic. Megyn will take meetings with others but she has the best platform at Fox News.

'[Kelly will demand] a salary as high as other top men in the news business and equal to that of her rival, Bill O'Reilly.'

Fox News hosts earn a basic salary with large financial incentives linked to their ratings, a table which O'Reilly has topped since 2001.

According to Page Six, O'Reilly regularly earns between $15million and $17million per year, compared to Kelly's $9million.

The family were pictured leaving the pet store carrying plastic bags from the shop

Kelly donned a pair of heeled, knee high boots, a black jacket and a red beanie to keep out the cold on the surprisingly chilly April morning

The magazine quotes their source as saying Kelly is unlikely to garner that kind of wage from any other network, and so will likely stay put.

Kelly criticized O'Reilly recently, saying she was hurt he failed to defend her against Trump's attacks when he pulled out of the Iowa debate she moderated in January.

Kelly did however say: 'I think Bill did the best he's capable of doing in those circumstances.'

On Wednesday Kelly hinted that she might leave Fox after being asked by a Variety reporter if she's decided whether or not to stay at the network after the election.

Kelly responded: 'I haven't'. The 45-year-old journalist went on to say that she loves her boss, Fox News CEO Roger Ailes, but that her job causes a lot of 'brain damage'.

'Never say never. I dont know whats going to happen. Ive had a great 12 years here, and I really like working for Roger Ailes. I really like my show, and I love my team.

'But you know, theres a lot of brain damage that comes from the job. There was probably less brain damage when I worked in the afternoon. I was less well known. I had far less conflict in my life.

'I also have three kids who are soon going to be school from 8am to 3pm I come to work at 3:30. I like to see my children.

'Having said that, my boss has been good about working with me to make me happy - he knows Im a hard worker. Ive had few problems here where I couldnt talk to him and say, Can we work something out?, and come away happy,' Kelly said.

Kally's husband, a noted novelist, looked relaxed in a black bomber jacket and blue jeans

Their children Yardley Evans, Edward Yates and Thatcher Bray, wore colorful jackets in pink and blue

Kelly was spotted taking hold of her child's hand as she helped them to cross the street

Kelly has recently hinted that she could leave Fox News, the network where she has worked for the last 12 years, at the end of her contract

Kelly's public profile was raised this year when she incited the fury of Donald Trump for her tough questions at the first GOP debate in August.

Since then, the Donald has continued to call Kelly a 'bimbo' and other disparaging comments on Twitter, putting the network in the difficult position of defending their star anchor, while at the same time maintaining an open line of communication with the Republican front-runner.

While Kelly says she doesn't blame Ailes for not condemning Trump more for his abuses against her, she says the situation has nonetheless been awkward.

'Fox News has been in a tough position. They care about me and they are not afraid of a fight, but were in unchartered territory.

'Ive had many conversations with [Ailes] about the situation. I think its been hard on him, too. I dont think hes enjoyed one piece of this.

'He can see what happens in my life when Trump starts off. He really wants him to stop, but on the other hand, hes not going to run a news channel that doesnt provide access to the Republican frontrunner for president,' Kelly said.

When pressed about what options she sees in her future, Kelly pretty much shot down hosting a daytime talk show or morning news.

Kelly's public profile was raised this year when she incited the fury of Donald Trump for her tough questions at the first GOP debate in August

Kelly says she's thought about hosting her own talk show but isn't sure 'what the market looks like for that in 2016' and just doesn't think 'that's the perfect thing for me'.

As for co-hosting a morning show like NBC's Today, Kelly said she's tried that before and she's not much of a morning person.

'You have to wake up so early. The alarm goes off at 3:30am. When I did Americas Newsroom, which started at 9am, I remember saying to the makeup artist at the time, "If you could only know the afternoon me, youd like me so much better,"' Kelly said.

If Kelly does indeed decide to leave her long-time network, one thing is certain - she won't be unemployed for long.

After her performance during the first GOP debates, several executives at rival networks told Daily Mail Online that Kelly was a hot commodity who could be the next Barbara Walters or Diane Sawyer.

'Because of her commanding presence at the debate, Megyn's the hottest property in TV News for now and into the future,' revealed a news executive for one of the three networks who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak.

Another network news executive, a powerful female, who watched the debate on rival Fox network said, 'It's clear Ms. Kelly was the star of the evening, and my news division would kill in a New York minute to have her anchoring the evening news and doing special reports. She's worth many millions a year.'

Insiders say Kelly, pictured with her children, does not want to leave but is using the threat as a bargaining chip to push her salary closer to that of male rivals, such as Bill O'Reilly, who earns $15million

Fox News hosts earn a basic salary with large financial incentives linked to their ratings, a table which O'Reilly has topped since 2001

Kelly had a landmark year in 2015, with her show The Kelly File the second-highest rated cable news program behind only Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor, which also airs on Fox News.

She also recently landed the cover of Vanity Fair and moderated a Republican debate. which earned massive national coverage in the days before with threats from Donald Trump that he might drop out, which he eventually did do.

The presidential hopeful and members of his campaign team have frequently attacked Kelly over what they believe was her unfair treatment of the billionaire businessman in the first debate of the primary season.

She is also set to receive $10million for her first book - which puts her on a par with the amount Amy Schumer is getting.
A suspected Pakistani bomber linked to an attack that killed 164 people is one of scores of terrorists who posed as refugees to enter Europe and are now an 'imminent' threat, investigators claim.

The Pakistani man, along with another, are believed to have arrived in Europe with two suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France in November.

It has also emerged that they were initially arrested in Greece after police realised their passports were among a batch stolen by Isis - but were released the continue their journey across Europe.

They were arrested in Austria after the Paris attacks, but it is feared they too had been plotting atrocities in Europe.

Muhammad Ghani Usman (left) and Adel Haddadi have been arrested at a refugee centre in Austria and are believed to be linked to terror groups and the suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France in Paris in November

Usman, linked to terror groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Haddadi arrived on the Greek island of Leros (pictured) on October 3 on the same boat as two of the Paris suicide bombers

Muhammad Ghani Usman, who is believed to be a veteran bomb-maker for the Pakistani terror group behind the Mumbai bombings in 2008, has been detained near Salzburg, in Austria.

In a series of explosions, 164 were killed, along with nine of those responsible, and investigators believe he is a member of the group that claimed responsibility, Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Usman, 34, is being held on charges of participating in a terrorist organisation, along with Adel Haddadi, 28, a suspected Algerian Isis fighter linked to the terrorist gang behind the Paris attacks.

Investigators believe that both men are part of an Isis 'strike team' who have been sent to Europe to plot atrocities, posing as migrants to obtain entry, reports The Sunday Times.

A multinational investigation has also found that there may now be scores of terrorists who used the migrant flow to get into Europe.

A source close to it has warned that 'large-scale' attacks on European countries including Britain are now 'imminent'.

There is evidence that a specialist terrorist network based in Europe has been providing support to get more jihadists into the continent, including safe houses and fake documents.

Members of the gangs responsible for the November Paris attacks and those in Brussels in March were found to have used a network to get in and out of Europe, and to find safe haven when they arrived.

Usman, linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba and other group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, and Haddadi arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat as two of the Paris suicide bombers.

A Greek police report says they all arrived on Syrian passports on a boat carrying 198 people, and Usman and Haddadi were travelling under the names Faycal Alaifan and Fozi Brahi.

The two men were arrested shortly after arriving at Leros (pictured) as police realised their Syrian passports were among 4,000 seized by Isis, but they were later released and allowed to carry on into Europe

The bombers used fake names Ahmad al-Mohammed and Mohammad al-Mahmod, and later blew themselves up at the Stade de France, part of co-ordinated attacks that killed 130 in France.

Usman and Haddadi were arrested soon after arriving in Greece as their passports were among 4,000 stolen by Isis and came up on a database accessed by Greek police.

However, they were released on October 28 and allowed to carry on with their journey across Europe, and applied for asylum at the Asfinag refugee shelter in Salzburg after the Paris attacks.

Phone records have linked the men to the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud (pictured)

But they were arrested again in December when a fingerprint search linked them to the passports stolen by Isis.

Investigators searched their phones and found that they had dialed numbers used by the Paris attackers, and the alleged ringleader of the attack, Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

This ringleader, who was killed after a shootout with police, had boasted to a friend that he had helped get 90 more jihadists into Europe as refugees, according to French investigators.

Two more asylum seekers at the Austrian centre were also arrested in connection with the search through the two suspects' phone.

Usman and Haddidi deny the charges but have been questioned by the French intelligence services and are expected to be extradited to France.

Investigators are trying to establish if they had intended to be involved in the Paris attacks but their arrests in Greece prevented them from doing so.

The international French investigation found that most terrorists in Europe obtained entry as refugees, travelling from Turkey to Greece on Syrian passports.

They then meet with Isis fixers who gave them fake Belgian ID numbers, and this allows them to travel freely thanks to the Schengen agreement, allowing Europeans to travel freely inside the EU.
Ivanka Trump shared a precious photo of her two eldest children in honor of National Siblings day on Sunday.

The adorable snap shows four-year-old Arabella hugging her little brother, two-year-old Joseph, so tight that she lifts him off the ground.

She captioned the photo, Happy #NationalSiblingsDay! accompanied with a heart emoji.

Earlier in the day, Ivanka shared a photo that encapsulated Arabellas great bond with her new little brother, Theodore.

'Happy #NationalSiblingsDay!': Ivanka Trump shared a precious photo on Sunday of four-year-old Arabella hugging her little brother, two-year-old Joseph

Sibling bond: Ivanka Trump shared a cute picture of her four-year-old daughter Arabella lovingly cradling her tiny, newborn brother Theodore James in her arms

The latest image was uploaded just a week after Ivanka shared video of Arabella, pictured above cradling her newborn brother, holding Theodore James and singing

Lullaby: Isabella, pictured holding Theodore as she sings, gave a tuneful version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

The 34-year-old, who gave birth on March 27, shared a cute photo Arabella lovingly cradling the tiny boy in her arms.

Alongside the image, she wrote: 'Sunday morning cuddles.'

In the picture, Arabella looks down at her little brother who appears to be sound asleep.

The new images come just a week after Ivanka uploaded an image of her daughter singing Theodore a lullaby.

The video, posted to Ivanka's Instagram account, shows Arabella sitting on a sofa holding the little over one-week-old baby and sweetly singing Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.

She manages to hold the baby confidently for most of the song but at one point the baby's neck is unsupported and a pair of hands come into view to help.

Sibling love: Ivanka captioned the sweet clip, featuring the four-year-old and her newborn brother: 'Arabella serenading her new baby brother'

Helping hand: Arabella, pictured holding Theodore, needed assistance after her baby brother's head became unsteady

Smiles: Theodore, pictured being held by Jared Kushner, center who is being embraced by Arabella in hospital a couple of days after the birth, was born little over a week ago on Sunday

Ivanka posted the video with the caption: 'Arabella serenading her new baby brother.'

Within two hours of posting the video it already had more than 10,000 likes.

Earlier in the day, she shared a picture of husband Jared Kushner, 35, and their two-year-old son Joseph looking lovingly at the newborn - a day after his circumcision ceremony.

Ivanka, Donald Trump's eldest daughter, converted to Judaism before she married Jared seven years ago.

In keeping with their beliefs, Theodore was circumcised in a ceremony on the eighth day of his life, also known as brit milah.

Ivanka gave birth just one week ago on Sunday but appeared looking trim in a figure-hugging white and pale pink dress paired with a matching pink handbag.

Arabella was dressed to co-ordinate with her mother in a white patterned dress worn under a pale pink coat.

'Sweet moments': Ivanka shared the video of Arabella singing soon just hours after posted a picture, above, of Jared, 35, leaning over the one-week-old's bassinet while Joseph looks down at his baby brother

Tradition: It comes after the newborn had his circumcision ceremony on Sunday in New York, attended by Ivanka, pictured leaving with Arabella and Joseph

Matching: Ivanka and Arabella, pictrued hand-in-hand, wore matching outfits to Sunday's ceremony

Jared meanwhile left the family's apartment in Trump Park Avenue on Manhattan's Upper East Side with a car seat holding baby Theodore who remained out of sight under a blanket.

Joseph later stepped out hand in hand with his father and dressed in a white shirt and black suit.

Ivanka's mother, Donald's first wife, Ivana Trump, was also seen going to the ceremony which was carried out at an undisclosed location in Midtown, Manhattan.

The 67-year-old wore a furry blue coat and a scarf around her head.

It was not clear however if her ex-husband attended his grandson's circumcision as he spent Saturday campaigning in Wisconsin before the state's primary on Tuesday.

Despite pregnancy, Ivanka has been a presence on her father's campaign trail - following him when she physically could.

Ivana Trump, pictured, was spotted arriving for the ceremony in a blue furry coat and headscarf

Trio: Ivanka and Jared, pictured far right and far left, arrived at the ceremony hand-in-hand with Arabella
Istace now hopes to hold online classes for those outside Calgary

They cost $12 for an hour - including a drink ticket for a beer

Yoga was originally practiced as way to 'open your body and clear your mind', but fast forward 5,000 years and things have developed dramatically.

'Rage yoga' invites students to become 'zen as f**' while attaining good health and flexibility.

Started by unconventional yogi Lindsay Istace, the classes involve heavy metal music, swearing, yelling and alcohol.

Istace, 24, created Rage Yoga after going through a painful breakup, when she realized the practice she had been doing for the last five years had evolved dramatically.

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Lindsay Istace (pictured) started Rage Yoga after going through a painful break up. Classes involve heavy metal music, swearing, yelling and alcohol

'Rage yoga' invites students to become 'zen as f**' while attaining good health and flexibility

She told Huffington Post: 'Suddenly, there was a lot more swear words and a lot more crying.

'By allowing myself to have this space where I'm able to be super honest about my emotions... it was incredibly therapeutic.'

The idea started as a joke with a friend but then she decided to try out her first class - and realized the concept really did connect with people.

She has been leading the classes since January in the dimly lit basement of Dickens Pub in Calgary, Canada and they have been a big success so far.

Her website asks: 'Want to better your strength, flexibility and become zen as f***? Enjoy the occasional f-bomb or innuendo? You've come to the right place.'

She said she found it appealed to first-timers who were intimated by the 'usual yoga culture' but also to experienced yoga students who wanted 'something a little less serious'.

It costs $12 for a class and the price includes a free beer ticket - students are invited to take 'hydration' breaks at the bar.

While it it may not appeal to everyone, Istace hopes that it connects with people who haven't found a class that is the 'right fit for them'.

She has been leading the classes since January in the dimly lit basement of Dickens Pub in Calgary, Canada (pictured)

She said she found it appealed to first-timers who were intimated by the 'usual yoga culture' but also to experience yoga students who want 'something a little less serious'

She also hopes to widen the practice for those living outside of Calgary and will soon be offering classes online, following a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised over $7,500 to help 'bring the project to life'.

Istace is a contortionist, fire-eater and juggler and told CBS: 'When I started going to yoga classes, I felt like I didn't really fit in at a lot of those different studios. [They have a] very deadpan, serious, overly serene approach to things. And that's just not how I roll.'

Much of Istace's practice seems to go against traditional yoga - most particularly drinking alcohol during class.

But Istace told Munchies: 'We don't have problems with people getting drunk. At most, participants might finish a pint during class.'

Istace says Rage Yoga helped her deal with her own addiction problems and claims it actually has an ameliorative effect on her students
Frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have an edge in the two most delegate-rich states left on April's primary calendar.

Both are leading their respective rivals in New York and Pennsylvania, though Trump has a bigger advantage in the two states, according to new polls from Fox News.

That being said, Clinton still has a double-digit lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders in New York, a state that both she and Sanders, along with Trump, have considered home at points in their lives.

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Republican frontrunner Donald Trump (left) and Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton (right) are ahead by comfortable margins in both New York and Pennsylvania new Fox News polls show

Donald Trump, a Manhattan real estate mogul, is way out in front of his competitors in his home state, which votes on April 19

She has a double-digit advantage in Pennsylvania over Sanders too.

In New York on the Republican side, Trump leads the field with 54 percent.

While Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had a convincing win this week in Wisconsin, Ohio Gov. John Kasich is slightly ahead of Cruz in the Empire State with Kasich receiving 22 percent to Cruz's 15 percent.

That gives Trump a 32-point advantage.

A Fox report notes that while the voters who describe themselves as 'very conservative' tilted toward Cruz in Wisconsin at 65 percent, those voters favor Trump in New York at 61 percent, with just 19 percent of very conservative voters favoring the Texas senator.

Trump previously joked about loving the 'poorly educated' voter, but in New York he earns 13 percent support more from those without college degrees than with those who have college degrees.

Trump supporters are also more likely to be men, while women are responsible for Kasich's second place showing.

New York's Republican women support Kasich 2-to-1 over Cruz, while the two candidates get male support fairly evenly.

'It's not just the statewide results that offer bad news for Cruz,' said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the poll for Fox News alongside Democratic pollster Chris Anderson. 'Even outside of New York City and its suburbs, he's running way behind Trump and even a tad behind Kasich.'

In New York, where the two Democrats will duke it out for the next nine days, Hillary Clinton currently holds a 16 point lead over rival Bernie Sanders

'That means Trump could sweep nearly all of the state's delegates,' Shaw added.

The Democratic race in New York is a tad tighter, though Clinton still leads by 16 points.

In the state, where she was elected twice to the U.S. Senate, Clinton receives 53 percent to Brooklyn-born Sanders' 37 percent.

Clinton has a huge advantage among women  61-to-30 percent  and non-whites  56-to-31 percent.

Men give Sanders just a slight edge with 47 percent supporting him and 43 supporting Clinton.

But it's young voters that really give Sanders a bounce. He's up by 11 points among those under the age of 45, with 52 percent supporting the Vermont senator to 41 planning to vote for the former secretary of state.

He's up by 30 points among those under 35-years-old, 63 to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, Clinton has a 27-point lead among voters over age 45.

Clinton is also winning the majority of union households, along with Catholic and Jewish voters.

'Sanders has a lot of work to do if he's going to make this race a close one,' said Anderson. 'He's currently losing among every demographic group with the exception of men and voters under age 45. Many more middle-age New Yorkers are going to have to feel the Bern for Sanders to have a chance of catching Clinton.'

New York holds its primary on April 19.

Donald Trump is easily beating his rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz in Pennsylvania - with Kasich, who grew up in Pittsburgh and governs the state next door, in second place

Hillary Clinton is still double-digits ahead in the two biggest states - New York and Pennsylvania - where voters head to the polls in April

Hillary Clinton has an edge in Pennsylvania, currently besting Bernie Sanders by 11 points. According to pollsters, it's women that are giving Clinton the support she needs in the Keystone State

After that, it's Pennsylvania where the candidates will likely devote their most energy, as voters in that state head to the polls on April 26.

On the Republican side, Trump is again ahead, with Kasich  who grew up in Pittsburgh and governors the adjacent state  again coming in second, though he's only up by two.

In the Keystone State, Trump is earning 48 percent of support, to Kasich's 22 percent.

Cruz is last with 20 percent.

There's again a gender gap in Pennsylvania with the male vote split up 53 percent for Trump, 20 percent for Kasich and 19 percent for Cruz.

Women, on the other hand, went 42 percent Trump, 25 percent Kasich and 20 percent for Curz.

'With Cruz and Kasich splitting the non-Trump vote, Pennsylvania could give the real estate mogul one of his most decisive victories,' Anderson told Fox News.

'His 26-point lead in our poll is the second largest of the states he's won, next to Massachusetts which he won by 31,' Anderson said of Trump's numbers.

In Pennsylvania for Democrats, Clinton is out in front with an 11-point lead.

She carries the Keystone State with 49 percent support, versus Sanders' 38 percent.

And according to the pollsters, it's women that win Clinton Pennsylvania.
At least 24 young people have been charged following a violent gang-related riot in Melbourne that shut down parts of the city and terrorised the public.

Police have identified more than 40 people, some as young as 14, who were involved in the riot at Melbourne's Moomba festival on March 12.

More than half of those have already been arrested and charged with affray and riotous behaviour.

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Police have identified more than 40 people, some as young as 14 years old, who were involved in a violent gang-related riot at Melbourne's Moomba festival on March 12

Seventeen robberies and thefts of personal belongings are also being investigated and one person has been charged with two counts of theft.

A number of the teenagers arrested have claimed to be part of the notorious Sudanese Apex gang, but police say many are normal young people who haven't ever had run ins with the authorities.

Those charged so far range from 14 to 40 years old.

Police say some of the children were charged after they were brought in by their own parents, the Herald Sun reports.

'They come from good families who have either brought them to us or have arranged for when they should come and speak to us,' Assistant Commissioner Stephen Leane said.

'With some of the communities, there's a level of shame that their sons particularly have been involved in this matter,' Mr Leane said.

At least 24 young people, some who claim to be part of the Sudanese Apex gang, have been charged following a violent gang-related riot in Melbourne that shut down parts of the city and terrorised the public

Police say some of the children were charged after they were brought in by their own parents

A number of the teenagers arrested have claimed to be part of the notorious Sudanese Apex gang, but police say many are normal young people who haven't ever had run ins with the authorities

'Somehow, they've got sucked into going along with the group or the gang or the group mentality on the day.'

Police, who set up a taskforce following the violent brawl, say they are continuing to work through CCTV and expect to lay further charges in the coming days.

The initial fight broke out between a group of adults and a group of children at Birrarung Marr in central Melbourne at about 7.50pm, police say.

Two further fights then allegedly took place between two groups of youths at Federation Square at 10.20pm and City Square at 10.45pm.

The cause of the fights and the associations between the two groups of youths are still under investigation.

Police have ruled out race as a motivation for the violent riots.

Police, who set up a taskforce following the violent brawl, say they are continuing to work through CCTV and expect to lay further charges in the coming days
The pair were staying with family as Ms Nikat separates from her partner

Ms Nikat, 22, was taken by welfare workers to speak with investigators

Police spent four hours scouring family home after discovery of her body

Her mother, Sofina Nikat, said her daughter was snatched from her pram

Detectives investigating the death of a toddler, who was found dead in a creek after she was snatched from her pram, have spent four hours scouring the family home as welfare workers took the child's mother to police who she was helping with their inquiries.

Police are continuing to speak to family members of the 15-month-old Sanaya Sahib whose mother Sofina Nikat, 22, told investigators a man who smelt of alcohol and not wearing any shoes took her daughter as they walked through Olympic Park in Heidelberg West, in Melbourne's north.

Ms Nikat was seen leaving her home with two welfare workers on each arm as she was escorted to speak with police on Sunday, Ten News reported.

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The body of Sanaya Sahib, who was 15 months old, was found 'partially submerged' in a creek after her mother said she was snatched from her pram in a Melbourne park

Ms Nikat was seen leaving her home with two welfare workers on each arm as she was escorted to speak with police on Sunday

The family home that Ms Nikat was staying in with her 15-month-old toddler near the park where she was taken

The man, who Ms Nikat said followed herself and Sanaya in the park before pushing her to the ground and running off with her daughter about 10am on Saturday, was described as African in appearance, between 20 and 30 years old and about 1.8 metres tall.

But the mother did not see his face.

Less than 24 hours later, the toddler's body was found 'partially submerged' in Darebin Creek just before 3am on Sunday by a family who had seen social media posts about her disappearance and wanted to help.

They were looking for the child so early in the morning because they themselves had been victims of a child disappearance, but lucky for them their loved one was returned.

A car is seen parked out the front after police spent most of Sunday looking through the house

Police recover what is believed to be the body of a 15-month-old girl who was found in Darebin Creek after being abducted in Heidelberg West

Police are continuing to speak to family members, including the toddler's mother (centre above with welfare workers)

Sanaya was last seen wearing a short-sleeved white top with pink and yellow hearts, koala print pants, socks, and a black necklace with an oval locket

Ms Nikat was placed in a car before being driven away from the family home

No one has been arrested and the investigation will continue, a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.

Detective Senior Sergeant Stuart Bailey said on Sunday it was not known how long the toddler's body had been in the water, and appealed for anyone who saw the incident, the child or her blue and yellow pram to come forward.

'It is obviously extremely concerning for Victoria Police if this is a random abduction,' he told reporters.

'But we're not closing off any lines of inquiry.'

It is believed Sanaya and her mother, from Mitcham in Melbourne's east, were staying with family in Heidelberg West near the former 1956 Olympic Village following a separation from the tot's father.

Both parents are said to be extremely distressed and have been helping police.

Emergency workers put up a plastic sheet to cordon off the location where Sanaya was found

Both parents are said to be extremely distressed and have been helping police. Above police are collecting evidence from the crime scene

The bridge over Darebin Creek where the little girl was found on Sunday

Police tape cordons off the scene, with a trolley acting as an anchor point

Locals have started to lay tributes for the little girl at a makeshift shrine where her body was found

Mourners carry a teddy bear and flowers for Sanaya on Sunday morning

The pile of tributes are growing at Darebin Creek as police continue to investigate Sanaya's death

Family members of the toddler have also pleaded with the public to come forward if they know her whereabouts

Two emergency services workers are seen at the area in Heidelberg West, near Melbourne, where the 15-month-old was snatched and last seen alive by her mother

The body is yet to be formerly identified and a post-mortem examination was due to be carried out on Sunday night.

Locals said they were shocked at the grisly incident, which shook the tight-knit community.

'It's really scary. You would hope someone would have seen it,' local Sophie said, according to the Herald Sun.

'It's so scary that it could happen with so many people around. I don't want to say it's an unsafe neighbourhood, but it definitely makes you more mindful.'

Other residents have started to lay flowers at the park in tribute to the baby girl.

Police and rescue workers are seen putting an orange tarp up around the site where a body was found on Sunday morning

Police are seen searching a garbage bin while looking for Sanaya, who went missing on Saturday morning and was found dead on Sunday in Darebin Creek

One message from locals read 'our heart breaks' with your family

A knitted stuffed toy sits next to a small bunch of flowers on Monday

Following the discovery of her body, Mr Ali told Ten News the family were 'shocked, worried and devastated'. Above are more tributes from the makeshift shrine

Following the discovery of her body, Mr Ali told Ten News the family were 'shocked, worried and devastated'. Pictured is the creek

Police tape have cordoned off a large area around the creek in Melbourne

Sanaya's uncle Habib Ali claims the mother arrived home after her child was snatched, holding grave concerns and was screaming 'somebody took my child, somebody took my child', 9News reported.

Following the discovery of her body, Mr Ali told Ten News the family were 'shocked, worried and devastated'.

Ms Nikat was reportedly sitting on a bench when she noticed an African man in his mid 30s keeping a close eye on her, the Herald Sun reported.

'She said someone was standing and watching her...but she didn't make anything of it,' Mr Ali said.

Although Ms Nikat lived in Mitcham, about 20 minutes north-east of Heidelberg, Mr Ali said his sister visited frequently as he and his family were helping her through a separation with her partner.

Victoria Police detective Stuart Bailey said officers are searching for a man who was not wearing shoes and 'smelt heavily' of alcohol when he allegedly abducted the baby on Saturday

Officers closed off Olympic Park in Heidelberg West (pictured) overnight on Saturday as part of the search

SES volunteers looking for Sanaya on Saturday before she was found early on Sunday

The little girl vanished from Olympic Park in Heidelberg West, north-east of Melbourne, about 10am on Saturday

The toddler's mother claims she was pushed to the ground by a man in his 30s who then took her child from her pram and ran away

SES volunteers aided police during the search by scouring the area and searching through rubbish bins in hopes of finding evidence
Attacks were echoed by Trump who blasted the Republican party for trying to subvert his campaign with 'crooked

He has been at the helm of Trump's delegate team for just three days, but Paul Manafort has already shown he will be pulling no punches when it comes to the billionaire's rivals.

Speaking to NBC's Meet The Press on Sunday, Manafort accused Cruz's team of 'Gestapo tactics, scorched-earth tactics' when it comes to the scrap for delegates.

Manafort also suggested that the Texas senator's team have been resorting to threats and intimidation in order to secure backers.

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Paul Manafort, Trump's new top aide, accused Ted Cruz of attempting to cheat his way to victory in the Republican race on Sunday, adding that he is using 'Gestapo' intimidation tactics to win delegates

Manafort's comments were echoed on the campaign trail by Trump, who blasted the political process and accused the Republican party of 'disenfranchising' the voters

Asked whether threatening delegates in order to win them over was fair game, Manafort responded: 'It's not my style, and it's not Donald Trump's style, but it is Ted Cruz's style.'

Without mentioning specific incidents, he added: 'We're going to be filing several protests because reality is, you know, they are not playing by the rules.'

While this is the first time Manafort has hit out at Cruz, his rhetoric simply echoes the message the Trump camp has been putting out since voting started.

Following Cruz's win in the Iowa caucus, Trump's team accused Cruz of stealing the vote by suggesting that Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, when he was in fact still running.

Since then The Donald has dubbed Cruz 'Lyin' Ted', a moniker he repeats often both on his Twitter page and in person at his rallies.

Later on Sunday, Cruz put out a statement refuting Manafort's claims, and accusing him of attempting to distract from Trump's recent defeat in Wisconsin primary.

The loss, by a margin of 13 points, was particularly humiliating for Trump coming after a week of bad press in a state he once led in polls.

Cruz said: 'It's no surprise that Trump's team will lash out with falsehoods when facing a loss to distract from their failure, as they have the entire time.

'We have earned our success by working hard to build a superior organization and are working within the process and rules that have been established- which has led now to four consecutive wins, 12 wins total.'

Perhaps sensing the nomination slipping from his grasp as the possibility of a contested convention looms ever larger, Trump lambasted the electoral process at a rally in Rochester, New York.

Cruz hit back at Manafort, accusing him of spreading 'falsehoods' in order 'to distract from their failure' following Trump's defeat in the Wisconsin primary, a state where he once led in the polls

Trump has long attacked Cruz for his tactics on the campaign trail, accusing him of cheating after the first caucus in Iowa, and more recently branding him 'Lyin' Ted'

Speaking to a crowd of thousands inside a frigid aircraft hangar, Trump said 'it's not right' that the person who wins the most votes may not be the nominee.

He said: 'You know what? They're taking your vote away. They're disenfranchising people.

'I say this to the RNC and I say it to the Republican Party: You're going to have a big problem, folks, because the people don't like what's going on.

'What we have going is a movement. Now, they're trying to subvert the movement. They can't do it with bodies. They can't do it with people because they don't have near the people that we have.

'So what they're trying to do is subvert the movement with crooked shenanigans. And we're just not going to let it happen.'

Before the appointment of Manafort, Trump's campaign team appeared to be outwitted by the finer points of the political process when it comes to securing delegates.

For example in Louisiana, where the billionaire won with an unexpected three per cent margin, Cruz may secure more delegates because his staffers showed up to take part in the Republican Party's post-election procedural wrangling.

Trump added: 'We've got a corrupt system. It's not right. We're supposed to be a democracy. We're supposed to be: You vote and the vote means something, all right?

'You vote, and the vote means something. And we've got to do something about it.'
Wanted to take her son to an alternative treatment facility in Asia

A mother who was ordered by the courts to let her young son undergo chemotherapy in a bid to save the boy's life has admitted she 'doesn't understand' the treatment.

Oshin Strachan was diagnosed with medulloblastoma last December, however his parents, Angela Kiszko and Colin Strachan made the agonising decision to deny him treatment.

In an interview with 60 Minutes on Sunday evening, the six-year-old's mother said she doesn't want her son's brain 'fried with radiation' and did not agree with the treatment despite it's potential to drastically extend his life expectancy.

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Perth mother Angela Kiszko said she doesn't want her son Oshin Strachan to undergo chemotherapy because she 'doesn't understand it'

Oshin was diagnosed with medulloblastoma last December and underwent surgery for it

Angela Kiszko (left) and Colin Strachan (right) wanted to send their son to a treatment facility in Asia

'I don't understand it, and I've said that to the oncologist if I could understand your treatment I'd be for it but in my head I just cannot understand it', Ms Kiszko told Liz Hayes.

'They're treating cancer with a carcinogenic, or two carcinogenics, it doesn't make sense to me and I find it really difficult to see that that's called a treatment.'

The interview comes just days after a judge ruled the young boy must be given chemotherapy to treat his life-threatening brain tumor, despite his parent's opposition.

A judge in the family court of Western Australia ruled that despite the parents' opposition treatment would be enforced on the child.

Last week a judge ruled that Oshin undergo chemotherapy and radiotherapy despite his parents' concerns

'I don't understand it, and I've said that to the oncologist if I could understand your treatment I'd be for it but in my head I just cannot understand it', Ms Kiszko said

Angela Kiszko (middle) and Colin Strachan (back), from Perth, were told last week by the Western Australian Family Court their six-year-old son, Oshin, had to start the medical care

Oshin's mother said that she would have preferred to treat him in an alternative clinic in Asia, despite the facility having no scientific backing.

'I don't want my son's brain fried with radiation, the effects are too harsh, too damaging, and I find it really difficult to even call it a treatment,' she told the program.

'As parents we know our child better than anyone.'

Professor Brian Owler, a neurosurgeon from the Australian Medical Association, said Oshin's chance of survival after surgery if he undergoes both chemotherapy and radiation therapy could be as high as 60 per cent.

He said the risks of the treatment were present however many children 'survive not only the tumor but get treatment and go on and live happy and fulfilled lives.'

A judge earlier ruled Oshin (pictured), has to be given intense chemotherapy for a brain tumour, despite his parents objecting to the treatment

Mr Strachan posted an emotional message on social media last week, saying he was 'watching young Oshin getting sick' once the treatment started and he couldn't stop it

Earlier Ms Kiszko spoke about how she and her husband wanted to put Oshin on palliative care rather than see him in an our of hospital.

'Children with medulloblastoma go through years of what I see as torture, medical treatments, relapses, just to get this  maybe  five years,' Ms Kisko told the Sydney Morning Herald.

She told the newspaper: 'I would like to offer Oshin peace, love and some fun times while we still can.'

The court was told Oshin would die in the next few months without treatment, however they admitted the chances of him surviving more than five years even with the treatment were slim.

Family Court chief justice Stephen Thackray was told the six-year-old had a 30 per cent chance of surviving more than five years on chemotherapy, and a 50 per cent chance on chemotherapy and radiotherapy, according to the West Australian.

The court was told Oshin (pictured) would die in the next few months without treatment, however they admitted the chances of him surviving more than five years even with the treatment were slim

Despite it being against the odds, Judge Thackray said the chance of a cure in the future 'is the matter that most heavily must weigh in the decision'.

Ms Kiszko said she did not want to put her son through the treatment after seeing what it had done to her mother and step-mother - both of whom died of cancer.

'I have watched and learned what all these children and their families go through and it is nothing short of toxic hell,' she said, according to the West Australian.

'The children are not really alive, they are completely drugged and exhausted and on the verge of death.
The Senate passed a set of amendments earlier this week bolstering the vetting of airport employees

Told reporters he couldn't say 'for sure' the attacks could have been avoided in the US

He had just touched down in Brussels when the bombs went off in March

Travelers can expect more random searches and more police officers

Air travelers flying through the US this summer should brace themselves for increased security checks in the wake of the Brussels bombings.

Peter Neffenger, the head of the Transport Security Administration (TSA) said travelers would encounter more random searches, more police officers and more bomb-sniffing dogs.

'This is one of the highest-volume travel years we've ever seen,' he told reporters on Friday according to the Washington Post.

'That means we're going to have lots of people moving through the airports. Get to the airports early, because even if I can move you efficiently through the line, you're still going to find long lines there.'

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TSA head Peter Neffenger (pictured in September last year) told reporters on Friday that the agency would ramp up security measures this summer after the Brussels attacks last month

Neffenger had just touched down at Brussels Airport when two bombs went off, killing 16 people on the premises.

Security officials in the US were doing everything they could to prevent a similar attack, he told reporters on Friday.

Neffenger believes there is more patrolling in public areas in America than in Brussels, and said the country can rely on a vast national intelligence network.

'If you've made a reservation, your name is automatically bounced against databases,' he said.

But he couldn't tell for sure whether those measures could have prevented an attack similar to the Brussels bombings last month.

'Would that have been enough to have caught that? I can't say that for certain, but I will tell you that there's a lot of attention being paid to just that kind of potential happening,' Neffenger said.

Travelers can expect to see more police officers in the country's airports in the coming months, as well as more bomb-sniffing dogs as soon as they can be trained.

'Their effectiveness rate, though classified  I will tell you they are the best mobile explosive technology around,' he said according to the Washington Post.

'I certainly want to see dogs in all the major airports. I think we could put 500 dog teams to use.'

TSA currently has 320 dogs. All can be used to sniff cargo and 140 have also received training to control passengers.

Travelers flying across the US can expect more random searches of their luggage (file picture), especially those carrying large items

The agency will increase random bag checks at the entrance of the airports and at security checkpoints, especially for passengers carrying large items.

Certain airports might also conduct searches in cars and taxis approaching the airport, as is already the case in Los Angeles.

Neffenger wants to think of airport security as a process that begins when someone makes a reservation and continues as they arrive to the airport.

'What you have to think about is a security environment that gets more and more secure as you get closer and closer to the aircraft,' he said.

The Senate approved a series of bipartisan amendments regarding airport security on an aviation bill on Thursday, agreeing to double the number of visible security teams patrolling airports with bomb-sniffing dogs.

The amendments also plan to bolster the vetting of airport employees, allow TSA to donate security equipment to foreign countries with flights to the US and increase security at baggage claim and check-in points, Reuters reported.

Florida senator Bill Nelson grilled Neffenger ahead of the vote on Wednesday during a hearing in Capitol Hill.

'The only person that is going to get the airports off their duff to limit the access into their airports is going to be you and your administration,' Nelson said.

Neffenger told reporters on Friday that airport security was a shared responsibility involving a lot of players, including the police and those who employ airport workers, Politico wrote.

'I think that's a shared responsibility,' Neffenger added. 'There's no way that TSA could  we don't have the current resources to physically check everybody.'
The body of Judith Therianos, 52, was found off of US Highway 19 in Florida, a little less than a month after her disappearance

The body of a missing Maine woman was found off of US Highway 19 in Florida, a little less than a month after she disappeared.

Judith Therianos, 52, had been missing since March 14.

Therianos left Maine on February 15 and traveled down to Florida, where she was visiting friends.

Thursday night deputies went to a wooded area near 6633 US Highway 19 after someone reported a decomposed body.

The Pasco County Sheriffs Office confirmed Sunday that remains found in New Port Richey, about 30 miles northwest of Tampa, had been identified as Therianos, according to the Bangor Daily News.

Therianos, who had originally went to Florida to take care of a sick friend, was last seen by another friend who lives in Florida.

The friend said she last saw Therianos picking up her clothes from the friend's home, according to a Facebook page dedicated to finding the missing woman setup by her family and friends.

The post said that Therianos was 'riding in a newer SUV with an older man'.

The man was described as having long white hair and a long white beard and mustache.

'He was very skinny and went by the name Charlie.'

At that point Therianos had a black eye, according to the Facebook post, and her friend asked her how she got it.

Therianos replied that 'she had fell but hinted to her with eyes and body language that he [Charlie] had something to do with it'.

The friend tried to convince Therianos to stay with her, but she declined.

She told the friend things with Charlie were 'cool now' and that he had a boat, according to the Facebook page.

The cause and date of her death has not yet been determined by the medical examiners office, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Therianos had traveled to Florida with her friend Glenda Cook, who returned to Maine as Therianos decided to stay behind and visit other friends.

Cook said last month that it was highly unusual for Therianos not to maintain contact with family and friends in Maine, including her three children.

Charlie is believed to be traveling in a rented late-model white SUV.

Cook said that Therianos had planned to find work through a temp agency in Florida to earn money to return to Maine.

'She was a fun-loving and adventurous person,' Cook told the Tampa Bay Times.

'She's unforgettable. Once you met her, she truly touched your heart.'
British Muslims are becoming a nation within a nation, according to Trevor Phillips, former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (file picture)

British Muslims are becoming a nation within a nation, the former equalities watchdog warns today.

Trevor Phillips says many hold very different values from the rest of society and want to lead separate lives.

Most worryingly, those with separatist views are far more likely to support terrorism. The former head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission advocates the monitoring of ethnic minority populations on housing estates to stop them becoming ghetto villages.

He says schools may have to consider a 50 per cent limit on Muslim or other minority pupils to encourage social integration.

And he says disturbing survey findings point to a growing chasm between the attitudes of many British Muslims and their compatriots.

In a no-holds barred article for the Daily Mail ahead of a television documentary on Muslim attitudes in Britain, Mr Phillips also warns:

Extremist ideas have flourished while politicians claim only a tiny minority hold dangerous views;

An estimated 100,000 British Muslims admit having sympathy with suicide bombers fighting injustice;

Many believe it is divinely ordained that a woman should always obey her husband;

Large numbers do not accept the values and behaviours that make Britain what it is.

Mr Phillips intervention comes after he was asked to analyse the findings of a major survey on Muslim attitudes in the UK, which will form the basis of Channel 4s documentary, What British Muslims Really Think, which airs on Wednesday night.

The documentary will portray the UKs Muslims as a nation within a nation that has its own geography and values.

Mr Phillips warns of a life-and-death struggle for the soul of British Islam.

He insists: The reason why our fellow Britons seem so far out of line with mainstream opinion is that too many live in a different Britain to the rest of us.

A fifth have not entered the home of a non-Muslim in the past year. The poll found that 39 per cent of the 1,081 Muslim adult men and women questioned for the survey agreed that wives should always obey their husbands.

One in three supports the right of a man to have more than one wife, even though it is illegal in the UK. Twenty-three per cent support the introduction of sharia law.

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A new survey on Muslim attitudes in the UK showed many oppose gay marriage and support bigamy (file picture)

Fifty-two per cent of the Muslims surveyed did not believe that homosexuality should be legal, and even more opposed gay marriage.

Almost half thought it was unacceptable for a gay or lesbian to teach their children.

And young Muslims were found to be nearly as far removed from the rest of British society as their elders.

Mr Phillips says most Muslims in this nation-within-a-nation reject violence in defence of their faith.

But 4 per cent, equivalent to 100,000 British Muslims, had sympathy for those who used violent ends to defend Islam.

The equalities campaigner pointed to the recent killing of Glasgow newsagent Asad Shah by a fellow Muslim.

This life and death struggle: In a stark analysis, former equalities chief reveals how extremist ideals have been allowed to flourish

By Trevor Phillips

Britain is in many ways a better place than its ever been  more prosperous, more diverse, more liberal.

But for some of our fellow citizens, were heading in entirely the wrong direction. So much so that some of them would rather live under a wholly different system.

Indeed, a significant minority of Britains three million Muslims consider us a nation of such low morals that they would rather live more separately from their non-Muslim countrymen, preferably under sharia law.

This sobering conclusion comes from the most comprehensive survey of British Muslims ever conducted, commissioned by Channel 4.

Having been asked to examine its results, I believe it holds a grim message for all of us.

Mr Phillips, pictured, said the survey on Muslim attitudes holds a 'grim message for all of us'

There is a life-and-death struggle for the soul of British Islam  and this is not a battle that the rest of us can afford to sit out. We need to take sides.

For the most part, Britains Muslims share most peoples preoccupations  jobs, homes, a future for their families. Nearly nine out of ten say they feel British.

One of the reasons they like Britain is freedom to practise their religion as they see fit.

But below the surface, the pollsters told us that a chasm was developing between the attitudes of many British Muslims and their compatriots, driven by their adherence to their faith.

More than half of Muslims think lesbian or gay relationships should be illegal. Almost a third of British Muslims think polygamy  currently illegal  should be permitted. Young Muslims are nearly as enthusiastic for it as older Muslims.

Two fifths (39 per cent) of Muslims say a woman should always obey her husband, compared to 5 per cent of non-Muslims.

These views are not regarded as old-fashioned  they are seen by those who hold them as divinely ordained.

Unfortunately, so is the Koranic injunction that a man may chastise his wife. Its hard to avoid the conclusion that the instruction to obey tells women that they should accept domestic abuse without complaint.

Finally, theres the small matter of the Jews: 35 per cent of British Muslims  compared to 8 per cent of others  believe Jewish people have too much power in Britain.

The reason why these fellow Britons seem so far out of line with mainstream opinion is that too many live in a different Britain to the rest of us.

A fifth have not entered the home of a non-Muslim in the past year. This may not be their fault  I recall being shut out of white friends homes as a child  but the outcome is disastrous for integration.

Sadly, many British Muslims are keen to embrace this status. One in six would prefer to live more separately; almost a quarter would like to see areas where sharia law took precedence over British law.

Most people in this nation-within-a-nation eschew violence in defence of religion. Not all, though.

We have recently seen the murder of a leading Scottish Muslim, the killer citing disrespect of the faith.

Four per cent  the equivalent of more than 100,000 British Muslims  told the researchers that they had sympathy for people who take part in suicide bombing to fight injustice.

Asked if they knew that someone was involved with supporting terrorism in Syria, just one in three would report it to the police.

There is one truly terrifying finding. Muslims who have separatist views about how they want to live in Britain are far more likely to support terrorism than those who do not.

And there are far too many of the former for us to feel that we can gradually defeat the threat.

Liberal-minded Muslims have been saying for some time that our live-and-let-live attitudes have allowed a climate to grow in which extremist ideas have flourished within Britains Muslim communities.

Our politicians have tried to reassure us that only a tiny minority hold dangerous views.

All the while, girls are shipped off to have their genitals mutilated, young women and men are being pressured into marriages they do not want, and teenagers are being seduced into donning suicide vests or becoming jihadi brides.

'We have understood too much, and challenged too little', said Mr Phillips

We have understood too much, and challenged too little  and in doing so are in danger of sacrificing a generation of young British people to values that are antithetical to the beliefs of most of us, including many Muslims.

In my view, we have to adopt a far more muscular approach to integration than ever, replacing the failed policy of multiculturalism.

In the case of British Muslims it means ensuring that schools  such as those in the Trojan Horse case in Birmingham where hardliners tried to impose an Islamist agenda  are not taken over by any single minority group.

That could mean changing catchment areas, as has taken place in Oldham, much to the towns benefit; or even limiting the presence of any ethnic minority group to no more than 50 per cent.

It will mean strict monitoring of the ethnic composition of housing estates to prevent them becoming ghetto villages, little islands separate from the rest of their districts.

It will mean political parties no longer turning a blind eye to appalling misdemeanours in return for votes from community leaders  so-called silence-for-votes deals which created havoc in Rotherham and Rochdale and contributed to the grooming scandals in those towns.

Some will find such steps distasteful. One Left-wing commentator has already claimed that our analysis reveals attitudes no different from those of elderly white Britons  or indeed some Conservatives.

This entirely underestimates the seriousness of what Britains Muslims are telling us.

Muslims want to be part of Britain  but many do not accept the values and behaviours that make Britain what it is; they believe that Islam offers a better future.

And a small number feel that these sincerely held beliefs justify attempts to destroy our democracy.

Britains liberal Muslims are crying out for this challenge to be confronted.

The complacency weve displayed so far is leaving them to fight alone, and putting our society in danger. We cannot continue to sit on the fence in the hope that the problem will go away.
Profession: Dr Elvira Blakemore (pictured) has been cleared by the General Medical Council after she was exposed by the Daily Mail as a bigamist

A doctor exposed as a bigamist and lover of sadomasochistic sex is free to continue working as a GP.

Dr Elvira Blakemores passion for Fifty Shades Of Grey-inspired spanking sessions saw her end up in court accused of assaulting her wealthy fiance.

After she was cleared, a Daily Mail investigation discovered that the Chechnya-born 42-year-old, who holds a Russian medical qualification, had once been married to two men at the same time.

However the General Medical Council has decided that Dr Blakemore, who had worked as an 85,000-a-year GP in Suffolk, can remain on the official register of doctors with a licence to practise family medicine.

GMC investigation officer Reena Pundu said Dr Blakemore, the mother of young twins, would face no further scrutiny of her apparently bigamous marriage as the ceremony took place more than five years ago.

The regulator also declined to investigate questions over her honesty and integrity, including concerns that her behaviour is incompatible with her role as a GP charged with caring for the sick and vulnerable.

Dr Blakemore was at the centre of a colourful scandal last October when her multi-millionaire lover James Austin accused her of violently assaulting him in a Fifty Shades Of Grey-style spanking game.

Businessman Mr Austin, 57, had met Dr Blakemore via an internet dating site in April 2012 and proposed on only their fifth date, at a five-star hotel in Paris.

She moved into his 3.6million mansion on a private gated estate in Locksbottom, near Orpington, Kent, and the couple had twin sons.

Later, they began to experiment sexually, with 5ft 5in Dr Blakemore said to have shown an interest in Fifty Shades Of Grey.

After meeting multi-millionaire James Austin, Dr Blakemore was said to have shown an interest in erotic novel Fifty Shades Of Grey and engaged in sado masochist games (pictured a scene from the film adaptation)

But one night police answering a 999 call discovered Mr Austin at his mansion covered in dozens of bleeding welts. One officer said Mr Austin told him: I asked her to stop, but she didnt. She had a look of hate in her eyes, but I love her.

Mr Austin told the court that Dr Blakemore had hit him so hard with a bamboo cane that it snapped.

Dr Blakemore insisted the caning of Mr Austin (pictured) was consensual and that he urged her 'Go on baby', while they were enjoying the act

She insisted the caning was consensual and that Mr Austin had urged her: Go on baby.

A jury took just 15 minutes to clear her of assault.

But the Daily Mail subsequently discovered that Dr Blakemore, whose maiden name was Akhmetova, had been married at least twice before, once bigamously.

In March 2003, she married entrepreneur Colin Blakemore at Colchester Register Office and moved into his home in Suffolk.

She went through with the ceremony even though in September 2001 she had married US casino croupier Mark Dunow, whom she does not appear to have divorced until 2006  by which time her relationship with Mr Blakemore had ended.

The GMC said an assistant registrar considered the bigamy allegations against Dr Blakemore and ruled that a complaint could not proceed as one of its rules states that no allegation shall proceed further if... more than five years have elapsed since the most recent events.

The regulator appears to have ignored the spanking court case.

The GMC register says Dr Blakemore still has a licence to practise and is on the GP register.

Dr Blakemore now lives in Holland-on-Sea, Essex. She has also run clinics offering non-surgical cosmetic treatments in Essex and the Swiss ski resort of Verbier. She did not respond to requests for comment.
David Cameron was yesterday accused of dodging a grilling by senior MPs over the Governments 9.3million taxpayer-funded pro-EU leaflet.

The Prime Minister has rejected an invitation to appear before the liaison committee  made up of every select committee chairman  ahead of the EU referendum on June 23.

Mr Cameron has written to Andrew Tyrie, Tory chairman of the liaison committee, saying that sadly heavy diary pressures in the coming months meant he could not take questions from the MPs before the in-out referendum.

The Prime Minister has rejected an invitation to appear before the liaison committee  made up of every select committee chairman  ahead of the EU referendum on June 23

Cameron has written to Andrew Tyrie(pictured), Tory chairman of the liaison committee, saying that sadly heavy diary pressures in the coming months meant he could not take questions before the referendum

Mr Tyrie said Mr Cameron should face scrutiny over the controversial mailshot, which has been dismissed by Leave campaigners as propaganda.

I am surprised and disappointed that the Prime Minister is currently refusing to appear before the committee to answer questions on the EU referendum, he said.

This is all the more disappointing given that the Prime Minister recently launched a 14-page Government document  to be sent to 27million households  setting out his, and his Governments, case for remaining in the EU.

Mr Tyrie, who is remaining neutral on the referendum because of his role, said the public wanted to get beyond the slogans and exaggerated claims made during the debate so far. The MP, who also chairs the Treasury select committee, added: The decision to call the referendum was his [Mr Camerons]. He led the renegotiations. So it is his views and explanations that matter most, and are most worthy of careful scrutiny.

Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, who back the in campaign, defended the leaflets and urged Tories to reconsider the Finance Bill amendment

Europe Minister David Lidington will today face furious MPs to give a Commons statement about the Governments decision to use 9.3million of taxpayers money to create, print and deliver the pro-EU pamphlet and produce an associated website.

Mr Lidington pledged last year that there was no question of the Government undertaking any paid advertising or promotions such as billboards, doorstops, leaflets or newspaper or digital advertising. But his vow only applied to the final 28 days ahead of voting day.

Eurosceptic MPs have called for the spending cap on the Out campaign to be lifted, after the Government exceeded the 7million maximum allowed for each side by sending out the leaflet.

Veteran Tory MP Bill Cash will today attempt to use an amendment to the Budget to scrap the limit for those supporting Brexit.

He said his amendment to the Finance Bill would be backed by MPs from all parties because many felt the lack of impartiality in this document is absolutely atrocious.

Public fury over the leaflet has also mounted, with almost 200,000 signing an online petition calling for the leaflet to be pulped.

But Energy Secretary Amber Rudd, whose brother Roland plays a leading role in the Britain Stronger In Europe campaign, defended the leaflets and urged Tories to reconsider the Finance Bill amendment.
Chinese firms accused of dumping steel that have led to the destruction of the British industry have been given loans by the European Investment Bank.

A loan of 40 million was made to one of the worst culprits of the practice, the Wuhan Iron & Steel Corporation  which has the Chinese communist government as its main shareholder.

Cheap steel imports, mainly from China, have brought the British steel industry to its knees, threatening to close the remaining operations.

A labourer marks steel bars at a mill of Wuhan Iron & Steel Group on the outskirts of Wuhan. The company got 40million in loans from the European Investment Bank for a greener plant

It has been one of the main factors in the decision of Indian owners, Tata Group, to put its Port Talbot plant up for sale.

The European Commission has threatened to stop Wuhun from dumping steel by imposing tariffs of 36.6 per cent.

But EU bankers gave the firm a loan of 40 million five years ago to put towards a Euro Combined Cycle Plant as part of a climate change deal.

The money is meant to go towards lower emission technology to reduce pollution and energy costs.

The Shaogang Songshan plant in Guangdong also received EU subsidies. It got 30 billion in European Investment Bank funds to improve its energy efficiency in 2008.

Peter Lilley, a Eurosceptic Tory and the former Trade and Industry Secretary told the Sunday Express: I never cease to be amazed by the capacity of self-harm by European institutions, particularly when they become embroiled in climate policy.

We are not allowed to employ non-commercial support to our own industry, yet the EU has been doing exactly that for China.

Simon Boyd, director of Reid Steel and South-west chairman of the Eurosceptic group, Business for Britain, said: This is insane. Already, thanks to our EU membership, weve lost control of our trade policy and lack any ability to support the competitiveness of our steel industry.

Wuhan 'dumping' steel at a loss to send the price tumbling crippled the British steel industry and is one of the main factors in Tata's decision to close the Port Talbot plant (pictured) in Wales

Now we learn that the EU has been making loans to state-owned Chinese steel makers, who are then able to sell below cost back into the EU and our UK government has been powerless to intervene as it should have done due to the EU state-aid rules.

We hand 350million a week to Brussels, thats money we should spend on our priorities, not Chinese steel.

Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, has visited his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, Wang Yi, to discuss the crisis of steel dumping.

Mr Hammond said: I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production.

He added: The UKs focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steel making at Port Talbot and across the UK, and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steel making.
The infamous former drug smuggler Howard Marks has died of cancer at the age of 70.

Also known as Mr Nice, Marks became notorious as an international cannabis smuggler following a series of high-profile court cases, before launching a career as a best-selling author.

He revealed his battle with inoperable bowel cancer last year, stating he had 'no regrets' following the diagnosis. He died surrounded by family members at his Bridgend home in the early hours of Sunday.

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The renowned former drug-smuggler Howard Marks, pictured, has died of bowel cancer at the age of 70

Photos revealing the different disguises and personas utilised by Marks during his days smuggling cannabis

His Mr Nice alias, one of just 43 that he utilised, was born after he bought a passport from convicted murderer Donald Nice and it stuck in the public's imagination

The Welshmen's days as a drug smuggler began in the 1970s, soon after he had graduated from Oxford University with a degree in physics.

Marks was arrested in Spain in 1988 as part of a drugs bust led by the US Drug Enforcement Agency and extradited to Florida.

He was eventually handed a 25-year sentence in the US in 1990 following a conviction of smuggling cannabis, later retelling his story in an autobiography entitled Mr Nice.

In it, he spoke about serving his sentence at the Terre Haute federal penitentiary, which he called 'America's toughest', before he release from prison on parole for good behaviour in 1995, having served seven years.

At the peak of his smuggling days Marks would allegedly take on consignments of drugs as large as 30 tons.

His Mr Nice alias, one of just 43 that he utilised, was born after he bought a passport from convicted murderer Donald Nice and it stuck in the public's imagination.

A family statement after his death read: 'He fought the illness with grace and humour.

'His death was 21 years to the day since his release from prison in the United States, his second bout of imprisonment for cannabis smuggling since his miraculous acquittal at the Old Bailey in 1980.

'One of his last acts was to set up the Mr Nice foundation, to ensure the causes dear to him continue to receive his support.'

Talking about his illness last year, Marks spoke of how he had enjoyed an 'incredible life', which included him spending time with 'musicians, DJs and other lovers of dope'.

'I've come to terms with it in my own way  which for me was about learning how to cry,' he said.

Marks was arrested in Spain in 1988, pictured, left as part of a drugs bust led by the US Drug Enforcement Agency and extradited to Florida. After his time behind bars he became a successful author, right

THE LIFE OF MR NICE: FROM DRUG SMUGGLER TO BESTSELLING AUTHOR In 1996, Marks' memoir Mr Nice sold more than a million copies Howards Marks was born in 1945 in Kenfig Hill, south Wales, the son of a merchant navy sailor and a teacher. He attended grammar school in his country og Birth and secured good enough grades to get an interview at Balliol College, Oxford, where he would read physics from 1964 to 1967. It was during his student days in Oxford that Marks was first introduced to drugs and, most significantly, cannabis. His fascination and love of the drug would eventually led to him missing many of his classes as he skipped lessons for long sessions getting stoned, but he managed to get his catch up before the end of the year to secure passes in his finals. It was after leaving university that Marks graduated from taking the drug to dealing and selling it, starting out in London, Brighton and Oxford. He soon made contacts in Europe, who were impressed with his ability to evade authorities and used him to transfer money over borders given his lack of a criminal record. His involvement in smuggling cannabis soon escalated and eventually took him around the world, forcing him to rely on multiple identities and a well-connected network of friends to evade justice. By 1972, he was making 50,000 with each shipment, some of which would weigh up to 30 tons. By the end of the year he was approached by MI6 agent and university friend Hamilton McMillan, who recruited Marks to work for the intelligence agency thanks to his connections in Lebanon, Pakistan and Afghanistan, for his ability to seduce women and for his IRA contacts. In 1980, Marks was arrested by Customs Officers in the UK for his part in importing 15 million of cannabis. Upon his arrest he was in possession of numerous pieces of incriminating evidence, including 30,000 in cash. Marks famously pleaded not guilty, claiming that secret agencies had set up an identity as a drug smuggler for him in order to close the net on other criminals. Marks with his wife Judy, who met in 1970 before splitting in 2003 The jury found him innocent of drug smuggling, but guilty of using false passports and Marks was sentenced to two years imprisonment. However he would only serve another fives in prison after his sentence, having served the majority of it while in custody before and during his trial. During the 1980s, he would utilise as many as 43 aliases, 89 phone lines and 25 companies trading worldwide as fronts for money laundering. Marks was once again arrested in Spain in 1988 as part of a drugs bust led by the US Drug Enforcement Agency and extradited to Florida. He was eventually handed a 25-year sentence in the US in 1990 following a conviction of smuggling cannabis, later retelling his story in an autobiography entitled Mr Nice. In it, he spoke about serving his sentence at the Terre Haute federal penitentiary, which he called 'America's toughest', before he release from prison on parole for good behaviour in 1995, having served seven years. After prison he released a further three books and regularly toured a one-man show in which he recounted stories about drug smuggling and his time behind bars, eventually securing a legacy as a cultural icon. As well as the film version of Mr Nice, he had cameo roles in the 1999 movie Human Traffic and appeared on TV shows including Never Mind the Buzzcocks. The Welshman met his future wife Judy at a party in Brighton in 1970 when she was a 16-year-old schoolgirl and he was 10 years older. She would eventually become Marks' accomplice and joined him on the run from authorities for nearly a decade, before deciding to set up a permanent home for her three children Amber, Golly and Patrick. In 1980, the pair married but would go on to split in 2003 following accusations that Marks was in the midst of a two-year affair. They divorced two years later. At the time of his death he was with long-term partner Caroline Brown. Advertisement

The father-of-four stood for election to Parliament in 1997 on a single-issue ticket of reforming cannabis laws

'It's impossible to regret any part of my life when I feel happy and I am happy now, so I don't have any regrets and have not had any for a very long time.'

Marks, who was born in south Wales, was diagnosed with the disease in the autumn of 2014.

The cancer then spread to his liver and lungs. He completed eight cycles of chemotherapy and initially responded well to the treatment, but later his condition worsened.

Mr Marks was being cared for by his long-term partner Caroline Brown and battled in his last years to promote the legalisation of marijuana.

His strength of view would lead the father-of-four to stand for election to Parliament in 1997 on a single-issue ticket of reforming cannabis laws.

In 1996, his memoir Mr Nice sold more than a million copies and was later made into a film starring his friend and fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans.

Howard Marks, who became a best-selling author following his release from prison, reads to children in the bandstand at Camp Bestival in 2014
There has been a British presence in Argentina since Victorian times. And as if to reaffirm those links, The Rolling Stones were in Buenos Aires, wowing fans at La Plata stadium, when I returned to the country for the first time in more than 30 years.

I was last there in 1982, covering the Falklands conflict for the BBCs Newsnight programme.

Even in those dark days there were constant reminders of the historical links between our two nations. Buenos Aires had its own Hurlingham Club, where the wealthy played polo, a Harrods, and a mini version of Big Ben in a place they called Britannica Square.

Natural wonder: John and his wife Lynn at Iguazu Falls (above), one of the seven natural wonders of the world

Today, Harrods is gone, but the Hurlingham remains, while the square and the clock tower have been renamed. And nearby there is a memorial to the young Argentines who never returned from war.

But with its beautiful parks, elegant boulevards and stunning architecture, the city has lost none its charm.

Its most famous landmark is the Casa Rosada, or Pink Palace, where Eva Peron triumphantly announced the release from jail of her husband Juan Peron.

It is still a government building and today some locals joke that it is pink because it is blushing over what goes on there  a reference to the scandals that dog the nation.

Passionate: Tango dancers in Buenos Aires. John and his wife enjoyed a show at the Faena Hotel in the city

Bizarre as it may seem, the cemetery at Recoleta is also a must-see, if only for the elaborate nature of its granite and marble mausoleums, including one where Eva Peron is laid to rest.

But the big difference between the 1980s and now is the nightlife. Always a lively city, Buenos Aires now positively buzzes. There are clubs that open at 2am, and a swish new waterfront at Puerto Madero, lined by hotels and restaurants.

If you are looking for more authentic cafes and bars, head to the lovely old districts of Palermo Hollywood and Palermo Soho.

And no trip to Argentina would be complete without a night at a tango show  we saw a cracker at the Faena Hotel.

Our visit to Argentina came at the end of a two-week South America tour which started in the impressive Chilean capital, Santiago, before crossing into Argentinas stunning lake district

Lago Nahuel Huapi (Lake Nahuel Huapi) and the Llao-Llao Hotel in Patagonia's Lake District is surrounded by snow-capped mountains

There we sailed across the crystal-clear waters of Nahuel Huapi, surrounded by snow-capped mountains and volcanoes, to the gorgeous Llao Llao hotel at Bariloche, in the midst of Argentinas Little Switzerland.

After that came one of the seven natural wonders of the world  the dramatic waterfall at Iguazu on the Argentina-Brazil border and a stay at the plush Belmond Das Cataratas. They gave us unforgettable memories. And, oh yes, Jagger and the gang were sensational too.
Here, MailOnline Travel picks the favourite island beaches of wild swimming and Scotland experts

offer beaches to rival almost anywhere in the world for beauty

Beach lovers in search of white sandy beaches often overlook Scotland's islands in favour of the

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Every year, Brits travel thousands of miles to sink their toes into the white sands of the Caribbean and south-east Asia, ignoring some of the finest beaches in the world on their own doorstep.

The islands off the coast of Scotland offer miles and miles of pristine beaches and crystal clear waters that could rival almost anywhere in the world for beauty.

Here, we pick some of the favourite island beaches of wild swimming and Scotland experts, which feature aquamarine waters, white sand and coral reefs.

Mull, Inner Hebrides

The Isle of Mull is famous for both its wildlife and beautiful beaches. Pictured is the island's Fidden beach, which overlooks the Iona archipelago

Mull is the second largest island in the Inner Hebrides after the Isle of Skye, which is famous for both its wildlife and beautiful scenery.

Fidden beach on the Isle of Mull overlooks the Iona archipelago.

The large white sandy bay is surrounded by pink granite outcrops and boasts some of the clearest waters in Britain.

The beach is a favourite of Daniel Start, who wrote the book Hidden Beaches, who said: 'The waters have an ethereal turquoise hue.

'At low tide you can wade across to Erraid, Robert Louise Stevensons Treasure Island, with more secret beaches.'

St Ninian's Isle, Shetland

The white sand beach tombolo leading to Saint Ninian Island from Shetland, which is the largest active tombolo in Europe

St Ninian's Isle is a small island connected to Shetland by the largest active tombolo - or land-connecting mound - in Europe.

The tombolo is a blue flag beach that is often used in promotional pictures for Shetland.

Shetland.org said of it: 'Composed mostly of shell sand, its symmetrical curving form is particularly striking when seen from above.'

West Beach, Isle of Berneray

West Beach is a three-mile long white shell sand beach at Beasdaire, Berneray, in the Outer Hebrides

Between Harris and North Uist lies the Isle of Berneray, one of fifteen inhabited islands in the Outer Hebrides.

According to lovescottishislands.com the island has some of the best beaches in the whole of the UK.

It said: 'West Beach is around three miles long with crystal clear white sand and looks out to the nearby island of Pabbay and the open Atlantic.

'It is such a beautiful beach that the Thai tourist board used a picture of it to promote holidays in Thailand.'

The Isle of Coll

Tropical colours in May at the crescent-shaped Feall Beach on the Island of Coll, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland

Coll is an island that is famous for its sandy beaches and sand dunes.

Welcome To Scotland said of the island: 'This remote Hebridean isle may be fairly flat, but it packs a serious punch with its necklace of clean sandy beaches.

'There are over twenty to choose from on this bijou isle and you can just drive, cycle or walk between them picking one that suits or indeed one you can have all to yourself.'

Eriskay, Outer Hebrides

Prince's Beach from the Barra Ferry Terminal on Eriskay, in the Outer Hebrides, is possibly Scotlands most historic beach

Eriskay is a tiny island in the Outer Hebrides in northern Scotland that is only 2.5 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.

Lovescottishislands.com said of the island: 'Eriskay, for such a small island, has some outstanding beaches.

'Princes Beach is possibly Scotlands most historic beach. It was here that Prince Charles Edward Stewart (Bonne Prince Charlie), aged 24, landed with a few companions on 23rd July 1745 after an 18 day voyage from France.'

North Uist, Outer Hebrides

Traigh Vallay near Malaclete, North Uist, has lagoons on one side and swell on the other

North Uist is an extremely popular island for beach lovers and a magnet for nature lovers wanting to do a spot of wild camping.

Wild Beaches author Daniel Start said: 'Ribbons of snow-white sand drift down the islands Atlantic sea board and collect in endless sweeping bays.

'Traigh Iar is a sandy isthimus, with lagoons on one side and swell on the other. Complete with its own hill fort, you are unlikely to meet another soul.'

The Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye was voted 4th best island in the world by National Geographic Magazine. Pictured are the Coral Beaches in Dunvegan

Skye was voted 4th best island in the world by National Geographic Magazine and is famous for its mountains, but its beaches are equally awe-inspiring.

Daniel Start has a preference for the Coral Beaches, Dunvegan, saying: 'An other-worldly beach made entirely of twisted, bleached white coral pieces.

'Tis is no tropical coral, but Scottish coral, composed of the fragments of billions of bleached red algae skeletons that grow at the bottom of the ocean nearby.'

Islay, Inner Hebrides

Islay is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Pictured is Machir Bay, which is described by Scottish travel writer Robin McKelvie as 'a jaw dropping wildscape that curls around in a huge sweep of pristine sand'

Islay is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland and is also known as The Queen of the Hebrides.

It is famous for its whisky, but Scottish travel writer Robin McKelvie also rates its beaches, saying: 'Beyond its eight famous distilleries there lie some seriously attractive beaches.

'The stand out for me is Machir Bay, a jaw dropping wildscape that curls around in a huge sweep of pristine sand shrouded by a natural amphitheatre of hills and ocean.

'Sitting watching the sun come down here with a wee Islay malt after a day on the beach is a sublime experience.'

Iona, Inner Hebrides

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the Ross of Mull that is said to be so beautiful that visitors often have a spiritual experience

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides off the Ross of Mull that is said to have such beautiful beaches that visitors often have a spiritual experience.

Robin McKelvie said: 'The sand is cream white, the views of neighbouring isles towering and many people often find something spiritual in the air here no matter their beliefs.

'The beaches are certainly worth a pilgrimage in their own right.'

Colonsay, Inner Hebrides

Colonsay is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland that is often overlooked by tourists

Colonsay is an island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland that is often overlooked by travellers.

Robin McKelvie said that tourists often head off to more famous islands.
A surge in tourism to Cuba after relations improved with the US could be about to see the country run out of beer.

The ubiquitous fridges that dispense beer in Cuba's bars, cafes and gas stations are running out of the island's favorite Cristal and Bucanero brands in recent weeks, as a surge in American tourists and new private watering holes strain the main brewery.

Brewer Bucanero needs a new plant to keep pace with demand from tourists and a burgeoning private restaurant sector that competes with state-run outlets for supplies, Mayle Gonzalez, a sales executive at the company told state media on Friday.

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A surge in American tourists and new private watering holes is beginning to strain the main brewery in Cuba

Fridges that dispense beer in Cuba's bars, cafes and gas stations are running out of the island's favorite Cristal and Bucanero

As well as its namesake, Cerveceria Bucanero makes the Communist-led country's most widely consumed brew, Cristal. The company is a government joint venture with the world's largest brewer, Belgium's Anheuser Busch InBev.

After U.S. President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions to Cuba in his bid to end more than 50 years of enmity with the Caribbean nation, American tourists are arriving in significant numbers on the streets of Old Havana.

Hundreds will step off a cruise ship from Miami into the city next month, the first such voyage since the U.S. embargo that followed Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

While the embargo remains in place, ordinary Cubans have warmed to their 'Yanqui' neighbors, especially after Obama's visit to Cuba last month, the first by a sitting U.S. president in 88 years.

Brewer Bucanero needs a new plant to keep pace with demand from tourists and a burgeoning private restaurant

Cuba received a record 3.5 million visitors last year, up 17 per cent from 2014. American visitors rose 77 per cent to 161,000, in addition to hundreds of thousands of Cuban-Americans, testing the country's supply of hotel room, rental cars and beer.

The most recent tourism figures, for January, showed a similar pace of growth.

Small restaurants that cater to both tourists and Cubans have blossomed on the Caribbean island since President Raul Castro five years ago formalized changes designed to remove the Communist state from many small-scale economic activities.

'Private bars can go out and find supplies where they can, I can only sell what the government gives me,' said the manager of a state-run bar that ran out of beer, while a private locale upstairs had a fridge full of cold bottles.

At its seventh Communist Party congress next week, Cuba's leadership is expected to push ahead with economic reforms outlined in 2011, although the tight-lipped party has given little sign of what will be discussed.

The congress is the country's main forum for defining leadership and economic policy for the next five years.
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There was no shortage of glamour on the 2016 MTV Movie Awards red carpet.

The ceremony held in Los Angeles on Saturday night made room for some of the biggest names in entertainment including movie beauties Charlize Theron and Jessica Chastain and modelling starlets Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

Charlize, 40, stunned in a black lace Alexander McQueen dress with jewel-encrusted butterflies adorning her plunging neckline while her other superstar counterparts also opted for low-cut numbers.

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Hollywood beauties: Gigi Hadid, Charlize Theron, Jessica Chastain and Kendall Jenner upped their style game for their turn on the red carpet at the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night

A pretty pleated skirt flashed her black undergarments but stopped just at her knee keeping the look super sophisticated.

The Mad Max: Fury Road star wore her blonde tresses pulled tight in a chic bun to highlight her razor-sharp cheekbones.

Completing the look the South African beauty elevated her already lofty 5ft 10in frame in elegant black stiletto heels and carried a small satin clutch.

Jessica, 39, also brought movie star style to proceedings in a beaded black Givenchy fishtail gown which also featured a corseted bodice.

See more of the latest Kendall Jenner updates as she sizzles with Gigi Hadid on the 2016 MTV Movie Awards red carpet

Intricate frock: Charlize, 40, stunned in a black lace dress with jewel-encrusted butterflies adorning her plunging neckline

Dramatic look: Jessica, 39, boosted her assets in a corseted Givenchy gown with intricate beading

Ravishing redhead: The Martian beauty sported sheer lace sleeves which added a delicate touch to the look to offset the dramatic flowing skirt

Star quality: The redheaded beauty wore her lobbed locks loose in gentle waves and wore a deep pink lipstick with shimmery grey eye-shadow

Elegant duo: The duo posed backstage as the ceremony kicked off. The show will air on Sunday night

Meeting the fans: Kendall proved she has not forgotten who got her where she is by stopping to scrawl some autographs for fans

Sheer lace sleeves added a delicate touch to the look to offset the dramatic flowing skirt.

The redheaded beauty wore her lobbed locks loose in gentle waves and wore a deep pink lipstick with shimmery grey eye-shadow.

Reality star-turned-model Kendall Jenner stunned in a black asymmetric gown with thigh-high lace-up stilettos and matching lace-up on the bodice of the halterneck garment.

The split on the sheer gown ensured that every inch of her slender model figure was on show, while the racy boots added a slight dominatrix feel to the racy look.

Leggy look: Kendall Jenner, 20, stunned in a halterneck gown with sexy lace-up stilettos

Readjusting? Kendall was quick to fix her sexy shoes before posing up a storm once again

Kendall wore her raven tresses in a low bun with tendrils framing her face, while her make-up was kept simple yet striking.

The 20-year-old star's BFF Gigi Hadid opted for something a little different as she arrived in a pinstripe suit with lace bra peeking out from underneath.

Her suit was smart and stylish, giving a business feel to a glamorous affair, yet she ensured she upped the sex appeal to full by flashing her underwear - a look a supermodel could pull off with ease.

The stunning star, also 20, looked striking as she showed off her newly sheared fringe - a look which made her look more than slightly like 1960s screen siren Brigitte Bardot.

She means business! Gigi Hadid rocked a pinstripe suit and ankle-strap stilettos as she arrived on the red carpet

Poised and polished: The 20-year-old model sported soft bangs which framed her face

Beauty in black: Cara Delevingne looked amazing in a velvet catsuit with sheer cut-outs

High fives! The Brit beauty was in great spirits as she greeted some fans

Shimmering: Farrah Abraham, 24, went for all-out Hollywood glamour in a sparkling strapless number as she arrived at the event

Mean Girls star Lizzy Caplan shimmered in a sequin-encrusted halterneck gown with sheer skirt.

The 33-year-old actress sported pretty waves in her brunette bob and carried a black and gold box clutch.

Halle Berry was another actress to sport black lace at the event.

The 49-year-old beauty donned a figure-hugging pencil dress with sheer panel at the waist and teamed it with satin heels.

Brunette beauties: Halle Berry looked amazing in a fitted dress with lace panels while Lizzy Caplan shimmered in sequins a sheer skirt

Shine bright like a diamond! Teen Mom 2 star Jenelle Evans, 24, wore a glittering halterneck dress for the event

Hot date: The reality star was joined by boyfriend David Eason on the red carpet

Packing on the PDA: The duo couldn't help but share a smooch for cameras

Pretty in pink: Kat Graham flattered her figure in a lace-up corset-style satin dress with silver stilettos

Sun-kissed look: The Vampire Diaries beauty sported long glamorous hair extensions

The blonde beauty wore soft bangs framing her face and accessorized with a gold detail box clutch.

Teen Mom star Farrah Abraham was one of the first stars to pose on the red carpet and brought shimmering Hollywood glamour to proceedings in a gold strapless dress.

The strapless number hugged her curvaceous figure to accentuate her assets.

The 24-year-old reality star opted for soft curls in her thick brunette locks and she added some colour with scarlet red lipstick.

Mermaid chic! Singer Halsey wore a skimpy sequin-encrusted look with metallic platforms

Radiant on the red carpet: Game of Thrones beauty Emelia Clarke was super chic in a shimmery patterned midi-dress

Blooming lovely! Actress Chloe Bridges looked gorgeous in a hot pink mini dress

Red carpet couple: The 24-year-old beauty posed alongside her boyfriend, Workaholics star Adam DeVine, 32

Taking the plunge: Pitch Perfect beauty Brittany Snow was vibrant in a red mini dress with gold clutch

Farrah's fellow Teen Mom star Jenelle Evans also chose a sparkling number and showed off her tan in a halterneck dress encrusted with jewels.

The brunette mother-of-two was joined by her boyfriend David Eason and the loved-up duo couldn't help but share a smooch for cameras.

Celebs gathered on Saturday night at Warner Bros. Studios for a pre-taping of the ceremony to toast another year in movies as they were honoured by fans who voted for their favourite stars and films in various categories, which will air the following night on Sunday.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the leading nominees going into the awards show. The sci-fi hit competed with Creed, Deadpool, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Straight Outta Compton for movie of the year.

Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart host the show in the lead up to the release of their action comedy Central Intelligence on June 17.

Hosts with the mosts! Kevin Hart and Dwayne Johnson posed up a storm

Family first: Kevin was joined by his fiancee Eniko Parrish and also posed with his children Hendrix and Heaven

Say cheese! Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds and artist/actor Common huddled together for a photo

Working it: Host of MTV's Ridiculousness gave it some attitude in a black corset with colourful two-piece

Strike a pose! Common and some of the Straight Outta Compton cast worked the cameras

They haven't changed a bit! Nineties hip-hop icons Sandra 'Pepa' Denton, DJ Spinderella and Cheryl 'Salt' James of Salt-N-Pepa looked great

Heading in! Amy Poehler and Anna Kendrick posed outside on the Warner Bros. studios lot where the event was held on Saturday

Back together! Anna joined her Pitch Perfect 2 co-stars for a group photo on the red carpet

Here come the boys! Chris Hemsworth and Chris Evans posed for a snap backstage (left) as Andy Samberg, Jason Mitchell and Jorma Taccone hammed it up for cameras (right)

Low-cut chic! Liz Hernandez, Vanessa Maran, Kailyn Lowry and Chrissie Fit kept it chic and sexy in black

The 11 bids for The Force Awakens include multiple nominations for stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

Ridley is nominated for four awards; best female performance, breakthrough performance, best hero and best fight scene - all for Star Wars.

Coming in a close second for number of combined nominations is Deadpool with eight nods including best performance for stars Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin as well as best kiss between the duo.

The MTV Movie Awards added two new categories this year: True Story and Documentary. Fans can vote for their favorites in all categories online.

Comedy duo: Actors Jordan Peele (L) and Keegan-Michael Key played up for cameras as they arrived at the awards show

Having a laugh! Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey stood out in a red MTV onesie

Casual club! Actors Miles Teller, Seth Rogen and O'Shea Jackson Jr. rocked sneakers and varsity jackets

Hot stuff! Miles, 29, was joined by girlfriend Keleigh Sperry who wore a flattering black jumpsuit

Classic LBD! Aussie Actress Rebel Wilson sported asymmetric style in a little black dress with patent pumps and was joined by actor Hugh Sheridan

Cute couple: Workaholic star Blake Anderson and his wife Rachael Finley kept it colourful and quirky

Oscar winner Spotlight was snubbed in the true story category and instead Will Smith's Concussion goes up against Joy, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, The Big Short and The Revenant.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has six nominations in categories including movie of the year, best hero and best villain.

For best female performance, Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander gets a nod for Ex-Machina while Anna Kendrick is nominated for Pitch Perfect 2.

The duo are up against other contenders Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Morena Baccarin (Deadpool).

Movie hunk! Chris Pratt looked great in blue leather and jeans

Fan favourite: The 36-year-old actor signed autographs for some of the fans waiting outside in the cold

Bit of all-white! Actress Laura Marano wore a cute strapless dress while Awkward star Molly Tarlov opted for a lacy look

Into the blue: Musician Andrea Whitt, actress Holland Roden and vlogger Lilly Singh showed their fashion flair with stylish one and two-piece ensembles

Their style is black and white! Nargis Fakhri and Carrie Keagan sported monochromatic ensembles and elegant up 'dos

Shimmering style: Actress Katie Stevens, TV personality Egypt Criss and actress Ta'Rhonda Jones all sported beaded and embellished outfits which showed off their fabulous legs

Academy Award winner Leonardo Di Caprio will battle it out for best male performance against Chris Pratt (Jurassic World), Matt Damon (The Martian), Will Smith (Concussion), Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool).

'What has always been so cool about the MTV Movie Awards is that it's about blockbuster movies that audiences line up to see; comedies, superheroes, science fiction, fantasy, action,' said Casey Patterson, Executive Producer after the nominees were announced.

'This show is about fandom and the stars come out to celebrate that. The nominees and the content are naturally diverse and eclectic because we're a true reflection of real movie-going audience.'

The 2016 MTV Movie Awards will air 8pm ET on MTV.

Photo op! The MTV Real World Cast gathered on the red carpet

How low can you go! TV personalities Renee Bargh, Jenna Thomason and Nessa took the plunge with their sexy outfits

Flirty frills: Jillian Rose Reed opted for a dramatic silhouette in a black and white asymmetric frock with bold print

Mixing it up: Canadian beauty Keltie Knight opted for an embroidered dress with lace leggings
There's no doubt she had tough competition in two typically male dominated categories at the MTV Movie Awards on Saturday.

And although she wasn't photographed at the ceremony, Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence was announced as the winner of Best Hero, beating out muscle man Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson for his part in San Andreas.

As well as Dwayne, the 25-year-old star had been up against Star Wars heroine Daisy Ridley, Chris Evans for his portrayal of Captain America, Charlize Theron for Mad Max: Fury Road and Ant-Man Paul Rudd, in the category.

Tough competition: Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Hero award at Saturday night's MTV Movie Awards. The 25-year-old actress is pictured at the Vanity Fair Party in February

JLaw plays Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games franchise which wrapped last year with Mockingjay - Part 2

JLaw was recognised for her role as protagonist Katniss Everdeen in the last installment of the Hunger Games franchise.

In Mockingjay - Part 2 Katniss teams up with her closest friends, including Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Gale (Liam Hemsworth) and Finnick for the ultimate mission- to liberate the citizens of war-torn Panem and assassinate President Snow.

The actress was also nominated in the Best Action Performance category which went to Chris Pratt for last year's blockbuster smash Jurassic World.

Meanwhile Dwayne, 43, was photographed on the red carpet before he took to the stage to host the big event alongside comedian Kevin Hart.

See more Jennifer Lawrence updates as she scoops Best Hero at the MTV Movie Awards

Pipped to the post! JLaw beat stars such as Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, pictured at Saturday night's event before he jumped on stage to host with Kevin Hart

The MTV Movie Awards was taped at Warner Bros. studios in Los Angeles ahead of its broadcast on Sunday evening.

The ceremony saw some of Hollywood's most glamorous female stars go head-to-head with serious musclemen in various action categories.

In the Best Action Performance category Jennifer was competing against veteran silver screen warriors Dwayne and Vin Diesel (Furious 7).

In a progressive move the awards ceremony did not divide the action categories into the traditional binary divisions.

Action star: Vin Diesel was also up for Best Action Performance for Furious 7 but lost out to Chris Pratt for his role in Jurassic World

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the leading nominees going into the awards show. The sci-fi hit competed with Creed, Deadpool, Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Straight Outta Compton for movie of the year.

The 11 bids for The Force Awakens include multiple nominations for stars Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

Ridley is nominated for four awards; best female performance, breakthrough performance, best hero and best fight scene - all for Star Wars.

Coming in a close second for number of combined nominations is Deadpool with eight nods including best performance for stars Ryan Reynolds and Morena Baccarin as well as best kiss between the duo.

The MTV Movie Awards added two new categories this year: True Story and Documentary. Fans can vote for their favorites in all categories online.

Oscar winner Spotlight was snubbed in the true story category and instead Will Smith's Concussion goes up against Joy, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, The Big Short and The Revenant.

Avengers: Age of Ultron has six nominations in categories including movie of the year, best hero and best villain.

For best female performance, Oscar-winner Alicia Vikander gets a nod for Ex-Machina while Anna Kendrick is nominated for Pitch Perfect 2.

The duo are up against other contenders Jennifer Lawrence (Joy), Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road), Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) and Morena Baccarin (Deadpool).

Academy Award winner Leonardo Di Caprio will battle it out for best male performance against Chris Pratt (Jurassic World), Matt Damon (The Martian), Will Smith (Concussion), Michael B. Jordan (Creed) and Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool).
He is known for his musical talent and his handsome, good looks.

And Harry Connick Jr. isn't the only attractive member of his family, as he proved during the American Idol finale on Thursday.

The reality show judge brought along three special dates for the evening: wife Jill Goodacre, 52, and daughters Charlotte and Sarah Kate.

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All in the family: Harry Connick Jr., 48, brought along three special dates for the American Idol finale: wife Jill Goodacre, 52, and daughters Charlotte (far left) and Sarah Kate ( far right)

The 48-year-old star looked dapper in a classic, black-and-white tuxedo.

Stunning daughter Charlotte, 13, showed off her pretty features in soft curls and simple, evening makeup.

She was styled in an off-the-shoulder ensemble and accessorized with layered necklaces and hoops.

She completed her look with a pair of grey wedges.

Classic look: The Jazz crooner looked dapper in a black-and-white tuxedo

Simple elegance: Harry's wife Jill wore similar attire as their daughter, styled in a monochromatic, black look

Harry's wife Jill wore similar attire as their daughter, styled in a monochromatic, black look.

She layered a loose-fitting blouse over a skirt, and added a dressy shrug over her look.

Middle daughter Sarah Kate, 18, was the pop of coulour among the family, dressed in a floral print dress and cage heels.

One last time: Harry walked his last AI carpet during the show's finale

Last walk: Fellow judges Jennifer Lopez, 46, and Keith Urban, 48, were also present, crowning Trent Harmon as the winner of season 15

The famed jazz singer's family came out in support of his show's reported last episode.

Fellow judges Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban were also present, crowning Trent Harmon as the winner of season 15.

Former show contestants and judges came out for the final live show, including Simon Cowell, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, Colton Dixon and Danny Gokey.

Dynamic duo: Carrie Underwood, 33, sang her heart out as Keith joined her on stage

The first: Season one winner Kelly Clarkson, also 33, gave a beautiful medley of some of her biggest hits
It's been a busy few days for Terry Biviano and Erin Holland.

On Friday night, they attended the Asia Pacific launch for Longines DolceVita in Sydney, but on Saturday, the two women stepped out once more at a slightly different sort of event.

To celebrate the launch of Swarovski's Crystal Creations, Terry, 41, and Erin, 27, cut stylish figures at Dendy Cinema, Opera Quays in Sydney for a Frozen sing-a-long.

Cool and collected! Terry Biviano cut a cool figure as she attended the Swarovski Frozen sing-a-long in Sydney on Saturday

NRL WAG Terry opted for street cool, with a pair of denim shorts with a frayed hem, coupling it with a crisp white shirt and draping a leather jacket over her shoulders.

She accessorised with a pair of black, over-sized sunglasses and a signature Chanel quilted bag, with a pair of lace-up sandals.

Her long raven locks were styled dead straight with a blunt middle part and placed behind her ears so as to show off her large diamond stud earrings.

Biker chic! She accessorised with a pair of black, over-sized sunglasses and a signature Chanel quilted bag

Little Elsa's! Accompanying Terry to the event was her two-year-old daughter Azura (left) and TV presenter Kelly Landrys daughter Charlize Bell (right)

Accompanying Terry to the event was her two-year-old daughter Azura, whom she posed with on the blue carpet along with TV presenter Kelly Landrys daughter Charlize Bell.

Erin meanwhile opted for a frock that was a little more in-theme, with a white frock by ae'lkemi that featured voluminous feather detailing around the waist and on the skirt.

She donned a pair of simple nude sandals, but her necklace was the centrepiece that certainly turned heads, which was made up of large aquamarine and purple crystals.

More in theme: Erin wore a white frock by ae'lkemi that featured voluminous feather detailing

Her makeup was subtle yet luminous, and her short blonde locks were styled in wispy waves

The former beauty queen also performed on the night, singing the Oscar winning song Let It Go from Disney's hit animated musical, released in 2013, much to the delight of the young audience.

Erin shared a quick video of the performance with her 161,000 Instagram followers, writing in the caption: 'Let it go went OFF'.
She once cited Marilyn Monroe as the reason she didn't want a public Instagram account.

But it seems with age comes change, as Elle Fanning debuted a public account on the social media platform as part of the celebration for her 18th birthday on Saturday.

Within an hour of the post, the photo had already garnered almost 2000 likes, while her follower count had ballooned to 117,000.

Birthday bash: In the sweet snap, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning can be seen looking mischievously past a massive birthday cake covered in gold frosting and ribbons

In the sweet snap, the younger sister of Dakota Fanning can be seen looking mischievously past a massive birthday cake covered in gold frosting and ribbons.

'Elle 18' is also emblazoned in gold on the front, while a doll of a ballerina queen is perched atop the epic pastry.

Elle herself was looking like quite the lady in a pink spaghetti strap dress.

The Maleficent actress sported several delicate gold necklaces around her neck, while her blonde tresses were down and fell just beyond her shoulders.

Growing up: Earlier this year, Elle posed up a storm for Vogue Australia and discussed the notion that as her 18th birthday approached, she would put her child years behind her

Some eyeliner and candy pink lip gloss adorned her otherwise makeup free visage.

Her caption was quite straightforward and read, 'I decided to give myself a birthday present... a public Instagram... SURPRISE!'

Earlier this year, Elle posed up a storm for Vogue Australia and discussed the notion that as her 18th birthday approached, she would put her child years behind her.

Some slight denial: 'Everyone's saying I'm adult now... [but] I'm not grown up, I want to be a girl forever!' she said

'Everyone's saying I'm adult now... [but] I'm not grown up, I want to be a girl forever!' she said.

At the time, she was credited with possessing maturity beyond her years for refusing to create a public Instagram account, and cited a Hollywood legend as inspiration for her mysteriousness.

'Can you imagine Marilyn [Monroe] on Instagram? Would she still be this figure if we knew all this information about her? Who knows.'

By joining Instagram, she joins her older sister Dakota on the service, who only joined back in March.
There could hardly be a more fitting place for the opulent opening reception of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges tour of India than the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

For the luxurious venue is owned by a family with close links to British industry that have come under the spotlight of late  the Tatas.

William and Kate are to stay at the hotel on arrival in Mumbai, as they kick off their week-long official tour of India and Bhutan today. Remarkably, however, I am told that the couple will not be meeting Tata chairman Cyrus Mistry or any of the Tata family at the 25,000-a-table charity dinner they are hosting this evening. And the Duke and Duchess have also turned down the chance to stay in the hotels grand presidential suite  a room reserved for visiting royalty, world leaders or members of the Tata family.

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There could hardly be a more fitting place for the opulent opening reception of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridges (pictured in LA) tour of India than the Taj Mahal Palace hotel

Kate and William will meet 150 members of the so-called Boligarch set at tonights gala, including Bollywood A-listers such as Bride And Prejudice actress Aishwarya Rai  Indias answer to Angelina Jolie

Their mysterious decision to avoid the 9,500-a-night, 15-room suite has prompted speculation that the Royal couple were put off by its unfortunate name  the Tata suite. After a year of awkward PR disasters, they could hardly afford to have their names linked so closely to a family which is preparing to sell off its entire UK steel operation at the potential cost of thousands of British jobs.

Nor did they feel comfortable staying in the most luxurious suite in the Tata-owned hotel  even though it was good enough for American President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle.

So instead, the Duke and Duchess  who are travelling without their two young children  are practically slumming it by opting for a normal 700-a-night suite at the hotel, where even the most basic of accommodation is over and above most peoples wildest dreams.

The venue is opposite the Gateway of India which was erected to commemorate the visit of Williams great-great-grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary, in 1911.

Kate and William will meet 150 members of the so-called Boligarch set at tonights gala, including Bollywood A-listers such as Bride And Prejudice actress Aishwarya Rai  Indias answer to Angelina Jolie.

But although several representatives from the Tata group will be at the gala dinner, the Royal couple will not be meeting anyone from Tata Steel.

What they're missing

William and Kate must have found it hard to resist the Tata suite at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel.

The grand presidential collection of 15 rooms is described by the hotel as an expanse fit for kings and heads of state. The 5,000 sq ft apartment is a treasure trove of priceless art, rugs, antique furniture and historic objets dart.

It costs 9,500 a night, though it is unlikely the Royal couple would have been handed a bill. Barack and Michelle Obama stayed there in 2010.

The grand presidential collection of 15 rooms in the Tata suite at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (pictured) is described by the hotel as an expanse fit for kings and heads of state
She was crowned Miss Universe Australia back in 2010.

And on Saturday Jesinta Campbell proved she's still a photographer's dream, showing off her runway ready pins in a stunning social media snap.

Taking to Instagram, the 24-year-old model shared an image in which her toned legs were on display thanks to a stunning fitted skirt she wore, featuring a sultry side slit.

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Leggy lady: On Saturday Jesinta Campbell proved she's still a photographer's dream, showing off her runway ready pins in a stunning social media snap

'Saturday's in @viktoriaandwoods #viktoriaandwoods,' the fiancee of Lance 'Buddy' Franklin captioned the photo, in which she posed on a set of stairs.

Teamed with Jesinta's tan coloured suede skirt was a light sweater and a complementing coat draped over her shoulders.

Furthermore a pair of sky-high black heels accentuated her model height.

She completed her look by pulling her brown tresses back in a loose bun, and wearing a pair of sassy shades.

A day earlier: Jesinta's social media snap comes after she attended the the Women of the Future Awards launch in Sydney on Friday afternoon

In good company: She cut a statuesque figure posing next to Liberal Party deputy leader Julie Bishop and First Lady Lucy Turnbull at Kirribilli House

Jesinta's social media snap comes after she attended the the Women of the Future Awards launch in Sydney on Friday afternoon.

She cut a statuesque figure posing next to Liberal Party deputy leader Julie Bishop and First Lady Lucy Turnbull at Kirribilli House.

Jesinta looked simply stunning in a double-breasted brown coat by Camilla and Marc.

She finished off her catwalk-ready look - courtesy of her celebrity stylist sister Aleysha Campbell - with a pair of ankle strap black platform heels which accentuated her model height.

Meanwhile, the Gold Coast-born beauty styled her long brunette hair in a simple ponytail and accessorised with a matching brown belt.

High achievers: Jesinta, 24, was also joined by School For Life founder Annabelle Chauncy OAM (left), 2015 NSW Young Australian of the Year Genevieve Clay-Smith (second from left), and PE teacher Row Gilbo (right)
Series five of Call The Midwife came to a heartbreaking end back in March.

But fans now have something to look forward to since the cast of the gripping BBC drama were pictured filming a Christmas special in South Africa.

In the episode, residents of Nonnatus House help out a mission hospital called Hope Clinic that is facing closure after they send an SOS message.

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Festive season: The Call The Midwife cast have been spotted filming a Christmas special in South Africa - where the storyline sees them help out a mission hospital

Doctor Turner, played by Stephen McGann, features in the episode along with Sister Julienne, played by actress Jenny Agutter and Trixie Franklin, who is played by Helen George.

And former Coronation Street actress Helen appears to confirm the exotic location of the filming through snaps posted to her Instagram account.

The 31-year-old posted a sizzling shot of herself posing in front of a colourful building in South Africa.

Showing off her lean legs, she wore a tan suede skirt and black camisole in the photo which she captioned simply: 'Lowveld South Africa'.

'Lowveld South Africa': Helen George seemed to confirm the exotic location of the series as she posted this sizzling shot of herself in South Africa

And the Birmingham-born beauty shared another shot of what looked like her with a glass of wine on a plane two weeks ago.

She wrote alongside the teasing picture: 'Celebrating the start of an African adventure Off to look for lions and tigers and bears. (obviously not bears).'

it has been reported that Neal Street Productions, the creators of the series, have employed around 900 locals while filming 30km north of Cape Town - including two babies.

A BBC insider told the Daily Mirror: 'In the spirit of the Christmas special, the production company wanted to give something back to locals so they were keen to donate something.

Exciting project: Nurse Trixie Franklin played by Helen George (right) appears in the special episode

'They've been very considerate of the locals. The show's midwifery advisor, Terri Coates, has been with the crew to oversee filming with the babies in the exact same way she does in the UK.

They have their mum's and chaperones and are paid well above the standard wage in that part of the country.'

Marcella actress Sinead Cusack has joined the cast for the Christmas special. She plays Dr Myra Fitzsimmons, who runs the threatened Hope Clinic.

Miranda Hart's character Chummy appears briefly in it, but hasn't travelled to South Africa for filming.

Meanwhile series five, set in 1961, saw the conclusion of the Thalidomide storyline, involving Doctor Turner learning that the drugs he has prescribed are responsible for the spate of birth defects.

SOS: In the episode, the cast help out the hospital, called the Hope Clinic, after they ask for aid

Call The Midwife proved hugely popular with fans and critics alike once again this series.

Jenny Agutter, who plays compassionate Sister Julienne, recently explained the quality of the writing is what lures viewers in.

She told the Daily Mail: 'It's wrong to assume the only way now to entice a TV audience is by sexualising a show.

'I think the viewers will come if the quality of the writing and the acting is good enough in the first place.

'People look for good programmes and I think sometimes being commercial means ticking boxes, but not always the right boxes.'
She had just worked up a sweat in the gym.

So a little extra wetness didn't make a difference to Jennifer Garner as she braved the soggy weather on Saturday.

The 43-year-old stepped out to grab an iced latte from Alfred Coffee with a friend on what was a rare rainy day in Los Angeles.

Sipping in the rain: Jennifer Garner braved the wet weather to grab an iced coffee aftera gym session in Los Angeles on Saturday

Whatever the actress is doing in the gym is clearly working, as her fabulously fit figure was showcased in her tight workout outfit.

The Miracles From Heaven star wore a fitted black tracksuit top with matching toga pants, and a splash of colour in her aquamarine trainers.

And although the sun was nowhere to be seen for a change, she kept her shades on nonetheless.

Good nick: Whatever the actress is doing in the gym is clearly working, as her fabulously fit figure was showcased in her tight workout outfit

Matching the weather: The Miracles From Heaven star wore a fitted black tracksuit top with matching toga pants, and a splash of colour in her aquamarine trainers

The day before Jen was spotted out and about in the rain once again, as she took her seven-year-old daughter Seraphina to lunch with one of her friends at the Country Mart in Brentwood.

The Texan also shares ten-year-old Violet and four-year-old Samuel with estranged husband Ben Affleck, who was spotted heading to an office building across town in Santa Monica on the same day.

The Batman V Superman star actor is currently contemplating renting a sizable property in London in the hopes that Jennifer and the kids will join him while he shoots upcoming Marvel flick Justice League: Part One in Hertfordshire's Leavesdon Studios, according to reports.

mainstay: Although the sun was nowhere to be seen for a change, she kept her shades on nonetheless

'Ben and Jennifer are a very strong cohesive unit. They have created a new normal, which will continue while they are living in London,' a source told The Sun's Dan Wootton.

'Ben wants his family close when he's working, and staying together in a new country will be a great experience, despite himself and Jennifer being no longer a couple.'

The pair split announced their split on June 30, one day after their ten year anniversary.

Two in a row: The day before Jen was spotted out and about in the rain once again, as she took her seven-year-old daughter Seraphina to lunch with one of her friends at the Country Mart in Brentwood

Ex: The Texan also shares ten-year-old Violet and four-year-old Samuel with estranged husband Ben Affleck, who was spotted heading to an office building across town in Santa Monica on the same day

Raining on her parade: The actress protected herself in a waterproof hooded top
She entered a mental health treatment facility in March following a battle with postpartum depression.

And Catelynn Lowell has completed her stay at an Arizona treatment center, according to a social media post by husband Tyler Baltierra.

The MTV star shared a sweet snap of himself along with the couple's daughter, Novalee. The duo were on their way to pick up the 24-year-old, to make their family complete again.

'Off to Arizona!': Catelynn Lowell has completed her stay at an Arizona treatment center, according to a social media post by husband Tyler Baltierra, 24. He is pictured with the couple's daughter, Novalee, one

'Me & Tootie are off to Arizona to go get @catelynnmtv I can't wait to come home with my wife & my whole family together again,' began the doting dad.

In the snap, Tyler is seen holding his precious daughter Novalee, one.

'This past month has been a little rough by myself, but nothing I wouldn't do all over again for my family.

'Cate's health, safety & security, has & always will be my main priority. I love you Babe & can't wait to kiss your face & hold you in my arms again! #BaltierraFamilyStrong,' wrote the star.

In March, Catelynn, 24, entered an Arizona mental health facility, after battling personal struggles. She is pictured with her family on Novalee's first birthday in January

In March, Catelynn entered an Arizona mental health facility, after battling personal struggles.

'Just let [fans] know that Im just seeking help for my anxiety and depression at the moment,' she revealed to In Touch Weekly.

During that time, Tyler asked fans on social media to 'please keep praying for my wife.'

'For better or for worse...through sickness & in health...I will NEVER stop fighting for my wife. Keep her in your prayers...thank you,' he followed up, in another separate tweet.

Red carpet love: The couple attended the MTV Movie Awards in LA in April 2015

On Wednesday, the Teen Mom OG star gave fans an update in regards to her current situation.

'Just wanted to know I'm doing great! Best decision I have ever made for myself.. I'll b home soon #thankyouforyoursupport,' she wrote.

Catelynn and Tyler have been members of the MTV family since 2009, when they first appeared on the 16 & Pregnant spin-off, Teen Mom.

During the show, the couple gave up their first child, now six, for adoption.
A dinner date descended into a foul-mouthed screaming match between Jackie Gilles and Pettifleur Berenger on Sunday nights episode of The Real Housewives Of Melbourne (RHOM).

While the RHOM ladies looked classy in their best holiday themed frocks for their evening catch-up on a holiday in Dubai, their behaviour was anything but - especially Jackie and Pettifleur, who swore at each other across the table in an expletive-ridden war of words.

The heated fight began when Jackie questioned the successful property developer about why she had been dubbed her the mean girl of the group.

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No you are! Jackie Gillies and Pettifleur Berenger accused each other of being the 'mean girl' in an expletive-ridden screaming match on Sunday's episode of The Real Housewives Of Melbourne

I'm very a straight forward person, Jackie said to the 51-year-old.

You think I have bad energy, that I have changed and that I'm a mean girl. How is it I'm the mean girl? she asked across the dinner table set in a private tent in the middle of the desert.

Pettifleur shouted back: You are a mean girl because of your behaviour. Youre condescending. You snigger behind my back. You say things like I'm annoying . But you don't tell me why I'm annoying.

Keep it classy! While the RHOM ladies looked classy in their best holiday themed frocks for their evening catch-up on a holiday in Dubai, their behaviour was anything but  especially Jackie and Pettifleur, who swore at each other across the table in an expletive-ridden war of words

Why? The heated fight began when Jackie questioned the successful property developer about why she had been dubbed her the mean girl of the group

The sassy psychic couldn't bare to listen to the Melbourne socialites harsh words, saying: I'll tell you why you are annoying. We have a beautiful girl named Chyka [Keebaugh] that you told looks too frumpy in a white dress. You say she needed to change her lipstick and make it darker.

'Now that's a mean girl. Youre the mean girl honey. Not me.

'You call her a black widow [while pointing at fellow co-star Gamble Breaux]. Do you know how mean girl that is. You actually said to her why should I come to your wedding.

'You're the mean girl honey': Jackie said Pettifleur is annoying, by confessing, 'I never tell people what to wear. I never b*****d behind your back and I never discuss what you do even though I see it as crude, rude and ignorant. You degrade people'

Pack a punch: Gamble Breaux said Pettifleur isn't a 'mean girl'. While Gina says the property developer rubs people up the wrong way

'I never tell people what to wear. I never b*****d behind your back and I never discuss what you do even though I see it as crude, rude and ignorant. You degrade people.

'I used to wash windows and vacuum floors. I at least know where I come you. You think you are king s***. You started crying because no one said you look f*****g fabulous,'

The mother-of-two asked the 35-year-old to stop it.

But her request for the bickering to stop didnt succeed with the other women jumping into the argument to add their two cents about the Switch The B**** author.

Fear: Gina had a panic attack while riding a camel in Dubai

Get me off: The sun-kissed brunette told the other women she needed to get off the large animal now and that she was scared

Gina Liano stated: You do have a way of rubbing people up the wrong way.

While Gamble in her piece-to-camera said: She isnt a mean girl. Shes just a b***h.

The shouting match between all eight housewives ended with Pettifleur throwing down her fork down at the plate and shouting at all the women, saying: I cant f**k**g handle it. Calm the f**k down.

Earlier on in the explosive episode, Gina had a panic attack while riding a camel.

While on the desert tour, the sun-kissed brunette told the other women she needed to get off the large animal now and that she was scared.

I dont like camels,' she said in her piece-to-camera before her very short camel ride. 'Ive been around one before. It smelt hideous and it kept making the most dreadful noises.'

She added: Im glad it had a muzzle. Saliva and s**t was going down my leg.

Girl talk: Gamble confided in her fellow co-stars that her friendship with Gina is deteriorating

Meanwhile, Gamble confided in her fellow co-stars that her friendship with Gina is deteriorating.

Speaking to Jackie, Chyka Keebaugh and Janet Roach about her feeling towards the criminal barrister, she confessed: I feel a bit pushed out. I mean I felt we were really close. I feel like I'm competing with Lydia and now Pettifleur.

Adding in her piece-to-camera: I dont think Gina is leaving me. I'm not that precious. I do feel that her time is being monopolised by a bunch of needy women.

Opening up: Gina also revealed her concerns about her friendship with the former model to Pettifleur, Toorak socialite Susie McLean and interior decorator Lydia Schiavello over coffee

'I dont like the dripping, clingy and the neediness': The criminal barrister tells her friends that she like 'clingy' people

Are you sure? Gina tells her friends that she is a 'low maintenance friend'

Gina also revealed her concerns about her friendship with the former model to Pettifleur, Toorak socialite Susie McLean and interior decorator Lydia Schiavello over coffee.

'I'm a low maintenance friend,' she said to the small.

'I dont need you to ring me. I dont need you to see if Im OK and Im the same with you. You know I dont like too much. I dont like the dripping, clingy and the neediness,' she told the women.

Despite the screams and the shouts, Pettifleur did manage to overcome her fears of 'cold water' and 'stingrays'.

Pettifleur joined Susie and Janet on a visit to the aquarium.

During the outing to the marine park, the three women stripped down to their ity-bity bikinis and jumped into a shark tank.

Worried: The 51-year-old mother-of-two was concerned about diving in the shark tank, saying: 'I'm scared of the stingrays not the sharks. That's what got Steve Irwin'

Screams: Pettifleur screamed and lifted her legs up high as a large sting rushed past her

The 51-year-old mother-of-two was concerned at first, saying: 'I'm scared of the stingrays not the sharks. That's what got Steve Irwin.'

Australian conservationist, Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray in September 2006 while snorkelling near Queensland, Australia.

But after diving into the tank and seeing the marine animals up close, Pettifleur declared she had overcome her fears of the placid underwater creatures, as well as the cold water.
Renee Bargh was certainly dressed to impress when she arrived at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday.

Stepping out at at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, the 29-year-old Extra presenter took the plunge in a racy ensemble.

The beauty wasn't afraid to reveal a glimpse of her cleavage while sporting a crisp white blazer featuring a daringly low neckline.

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Red carpet ready: Renee Bargh was certainly dressed to impress when she arrived at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles

The Natalie Chapman number featured a choker element to add some sophistication to the outfit, and of course a pair of matching trousers completed the ensemble.

Posing on the red carpet in a pair of nude coloured heels, Renee knew exactly how to work her best angles for the cameras.

Her luscious golden locks were slicked back off her face, so as not to retract attention from her show-stopping outfit.

Meanwhile some jet black eyeliner and a slick of light pink lipstick accentuated her picture perfect facial features, while of course her gorgeous smile was her best accessory on the night.

Flaunting it: Stepping out at at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, the 29-year-old Extra presenter certainly took the plunge in a racy ensemble

Taking the plunge: The beauty wasn't afraid to reveal a glimpse of her cleavage while sporting a crisp white blazer featuring a daringly low neckline

No doubt stoked to be at the event, the media personality took to Instagram with a snap of her red carpet attire.

She wrote: '#MTVMovieAwards - feeling like a boss lady wearing @nataliechapmannc Hair: @hairbydarbie MU: @makeup_ali'.

Meanwhile MTV Australia presenter Kristian 'Krit' Schmidt shared a snap of the pair posing on the red carpet.

Next to the fun snap he wrote: 'Fellow Australian host @reneebargh working the #MTVMovieAwards red carpet. He-ey. Australians tune in tomorrow at 1000 only on #MTV. Wearing @boohooaus @general_'.

White on the mark: The Natalie Chapman number featured a choker element to add some sophistication to the outfit, and of course a pair of matching trousers completed the ensemble
He's set to romance a bevy of beauties when The Bachelor Australia kicks off later this year.

And Richie Strahan has now got the tick of approval from former star of the show Laurina Fleure.

Speaking to Daily Mail Australia at the Longines DolceVita Asia Pacific Launch in Sydney on Friday night, 31-year-old Laurina from Blake Garvey's season of The Bachelor said Richie would 'make an awesome partner for anyone'.

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She approves: Former The Bachelor Australia star Laurina Fleure (L) has given the series' newest main star Richie Strahan her tick of approval

'He's gorgeous,' brunette beauty Laurina admitted.

'I mean he's really down-to-earth and he seems like an honest, loyal, very devoted potential partner. I think he'll make an awesome partner for anyone,' she continued.

Laurina shot to fame after starring on the 2014 season of The Bachelor Australia starring Blake Garvey.

Meanwhile 30-year-old Richie appeared on Australia's first season of The Bachelorette last year starring Sam Frost.

Quite the catch: Laurina, who is from Blake Garvey's season of The Bachelor, said Richie would 'make an awesome partner for anyone'

She knows what she wants: For Laurina, Richie is not exactly her cup of tea but she sees the wider appeal of the blond Perth-based hunk

After finishing in third place, the rope access technician from Western Australia has commenced filming for the 2016 season of The Bachelor, in which he will be the eligible stud calling the shots as a series of single ladies line up for a chance to win him over.

For Laurina, who is now dating Melbourne entrepreneur, Lewis Romano, Richie is not exactly her cup of tea but she sees the wider appeal of the blond Perth-based hunk.

'I like tall, dark and handsome. I've never been with a blonde,' she admitted.

'Richie's gorgeous but he's not my type.'

Reality star: Richie appeared on Australia's first season of The Bachelorette last year starring Sam Frost

Recently Laura Claire Williams, a contestant on the current series of The Bachelor, reportedly told a KIIS FM reporter that Richie had been intimate with more than one of the girls on the show.

But Laurina says there is no way any contestant could get merely close to the bachelor without any cameras on them.

'It's not possible at all,' Laurina told Daily Mail Australia.

'From when I was on The Bachelor I can tell you, you do not get a moment alone without the cameras on you to even kiss.

'You're completely separated from The Bachelor the whole time.'

Back in 2014: Laurina shot to fame after starring on the 2014 season of The Bachelor Australia starring Blake Garvey

Earlier this month Sam Frost made a similar comment.

Speaking on her 2DayFM radio show with Rove McManus, the cheeky brunette said: 'Let me guarantee, you do not have an opportunity to be able to do anything like that.

'If someone was going to have sex on the show, it would be me and I would push it.'

'I used to push the boundaries so hard but they're so strict. There's no way it would possibly happen,' she continued.
Having children at any age can take its toll on the body.

But Teen Moms have the advantage of having Dr Miami on speed dial.

Kailyn Lowry debuted her impressive post-surgery figure at the MTV Movie Awards on Saturday night.

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Taking the plunge: Teen Mom star Kailyn Lowry debuted her impressive post-surgery figure in a VERY low-cut dress at MTV Movie Awards on Saturday night

The 24-year-old looked fantastic in a long black dress with two teasing thigh-high slits.

She flaunted her enhanced assets in a neckline that plunged almost to her navel.

Like many of her Teen Mom cast mates, Kailyn is a customer of Dr Michael Salzhauer - AKA Dr Miami.

Flaunt it: The 24-year-old looked fantastic in a long black dress with two teasing thigh-high slits

While she previously had he boobs done, she visited the famous plastic surgeon in January to have a Brazilian Butt Lift and tummy tuck combo.

The 43-year-old documents many of his surgeries on Snapchat; and despite requiring a very strong stomach to watch, it is one of the top three most followed accounts in the world, with 1.2million views every day.

His other MTV reality clients include Briana DeJesus, her sister Brittany and - most recently - Lindsey Harrison, who just this week jumped from an a-cup to double Ds.

Co-star: Joining Kailyn on the red carpet was ex boyfriend Jo Rivera, with whom she shares six-year-old son Isaac

Client list: Like many of her Teen Mom cast mates, Kailyn is a customer of Dr Michael Salzhauer - AKA Dr Miami.

Earlier: The reality star pictured on October, before her Brazilian Butt Lift and tummy tuck

While her post-surgery pictures, which showed her bruised - yet shapely - new buttocks might have made fans wince, and she certainly had a gingerly gait upon leaving the surgery afterward, her beaming smile on Saturday night seemed to confirm she was delighted with the results.

Joining Kailyn on the red carpet was ex boyfriend Jo Rivera, with whom she shares six-year-old son Isaac.

She also has a two-year-old son Lincoln with her husband Javi Marroquin.

Spot the difference: Her post-surgery pictures, which showed her bruised - yet shapely - new buttocks might have made fans wince

No pain no gain: Kailyn was walking a bit gingerly after her procedure in January
She's not afraid to flash some skin during the odd photoshoot.

And now, Olympia Valance has put on a leggy display as she partied at Melbourne nightclub Bond on Saturday night.

Wearing a leather mini-skirt, the 23-year-old turned heads in a grey knitted top which featured a plunging neckline, completing her daring look with black knee-high boots.

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Night on the town: Olympia Valance turned heads in a leather mini-skirt as she partied the night away at Melbourne nightclub Bond on Saturday night

The Neighbours actress wore her brunette tresses up in a high bun, while keeping her make-up look simple with slick eyeliner, bronzed cheeks and a nude lip.

Olympia posed for photos with friends as she enjoyed herself at the Melbourne hot spot.

Earlier in the day, the model took to social media to wish her Neighbours co-star Scott McGregor a very happy birthday.

Posting to Instagram, the friends posed for a selfie together while Olympia sat on the handsome actor's lap and wraps an arm around his shoulders.

Strike a pose: The 23-year-old hung out with friends at the Melbourne hot spot, giving party goers a glimpse of her cleavage in a knitted grey top which featured a plunging neckline

'Happy Birthday to this absolute legend! Even though you can be a real poo head sometimes, I treasure our friendship more than anything. Love you @scottymcgregor,' Olympia wrote captioning the shot.

While it's unknown when the picture was taken, the genetically blessed pals sat in the sun with Olympia showing off her ample cleavage in a black low-cut crop top and accessorizing with a pair of tortoiseshell sunglasses.

Meanwhile, Scott looked effortlessly handsome in a grey T-shirt and black sunglasses.

Birthday wishes: Olympia took to social media on Saturday to wish Neighbours co-star hunk Scott McGregor a happy birthday, posting a selfie of the two enjoying a sunny afternoon together

The brunette beauty has only recently returned to Australia following a holiday on the tropical Indonesian island of Gili Trawangan.

Olympia documented the trip on social media, posting enviable holiday snaps regularly as she showed off her toned figured in skimpy swimwear.

In one shot, the starlet wore a revealing lace bikini as she sat underneath a palm tree and sipped on a fresh coconut.

Going make-up free for the picture, with her wet locks dripping at her shoulders after a quick dip, Olympia soaked up the sun as she relaxed back in a blue lounge chair with her healthy beverage.

Seemingly enjoying her tropical paradise, Olympia captioned the shot, 'So many coconuts.'

'So many coconuts': Olympia flaunted her ample assets in a skimpy lace bikini as she sipped on a fresh drink during her tropical getaway to Indonesia
There was certainly a running theme to Russell Crowe's sketches on SNL.

The 52-year-old made his first appearance as host on Saturday night.

The Oscar winner is set to make his comedy film debut in The Nice Guys - but based on his most recent performance it looks like co-star Ryan Gosling will be left doing much of the funny lifting.

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Debut: Russell Crowe tried his hand at comedy as he hosts Saturday Night Live for the first time

One of the first gags he made during a very brief monologue was his being widely known for his comedic roles... including a clip of him impaling a fighter to death in Gladiator.

'Cracks me up every time i see that,' he chuckled. 'I used two swords! I could've used one. And I was wearing a dress.'

The Kiwi featured in four sketches on the night, with three of them featuring vagina gags, and none of them drawing much laughter.

Bizarrely, the writers didn't bother including any of Crowe's famous characters in any of the skits; an interactive museum hologram of Henry VIII being the closest thing to a nod to Man of Steel's Jor-El.

LOLs: One of the first gags he made during a very brief monologue was his being widely known for his comedic roles... including a clip of him impaling a fighter to death in Gladiator

Short and sweet: 'Cracks me up every time i see that,' he chuckled. 'I used two swords! I could've used one. And I was wearing a dress.'

The opening sketch saw him answering historical questions from males visitors, while he accosted every female visitor by demanding they 'bear me a son!'

'The only sounds I wish to hear from a woman's mouth are the screams of labour as she bears me a son,' he told one, and demanded another 'open your legs and take my seed in your moist...' before trailing off.

As he groped a third, he told her he longed 'to see your bosom swell with my son's breakfast'.

Running theme: The opening sketch saw him answering historical questions from males visitors, while he accosted every female visitor by demanding they 'bear me a son!'

Boob: As he groped one, he told her he longed 'to see your bosom swell with my sons breakfast'.

That skit petered out to lead into his second, in which he played Freud-esque 'smart professor from Germany' on a dating game... while the theme of the jokes stayed the same.

When asked what he would do to make the selecting contestant feel special, he replied 'Massage your labia majora, before a focused effort on your clitoris'.

When asked his greatest fear, he answered 'throat cancer from cunnilingus'.

'If i mount one more box, choff one more carpet, I will end end up like Michael Douglas,' he continued. 'No man is fine if you take away that what he loves - chomping muff.'

Low brow: In the second sketch he played Freud-esque 'smart professor from Germany' on a dating game... while the theme of the jokes stayed the same

Glad he ate her: When asked what he would do to make the selecting contestant feel special, he replied 'Massage your labia majora, before a focused effort on your clitoris'

And he wasn't nearly done with the vagina gags yet.

His third sketch - the least funny one yet - saw him play 'your uncle's friend Terry', the supposed 'loved one' of a hapless Survivor-type game show contestant.

As part of a challenge, he had to eat a duck's vagina, which he summarily wolfs down.

Dipping: His third sketch - the least funny one yet - saw him play 'your uncle's friend Terry', the supposed 'loved one' of a hapless Survivor-type game show contestant

More vaginas: As part of a challenge, he had to eat a duck's vagina, which he summarily wolfs down

Besides the always funny Weekend Update, the only source of laughter on the show came from another of Kate McKinnon's spot on impressions of Hillary Clinton, not lamenting the ground she is losing to Bernie Sanders.

She did however appeal to the people of the 'Fat Apple' to get behind her, a True New Yorker, which she proved by donning a just-bought Yankees cap and pretending to eat a hot dog.

And as for Sanders backer Susan Sarandon, she had this message: 'Why don't u take Tuesday to drive off another cliff?'

Top of class: The only source of laughter on the show came from another of Kate McKinnon's spot on impressions of Hillary Clinton, not lamenting the ground she is losing to Bernie Sanders
Mother and son team Anna and Jordan were revealed as winners of the latest challenge of My Kitchen Rules on Sunday night.

The pair cooked up an octopus and kale dish, which meant that it has been added to judge Colin Fassnidge's menu at his Sydney restaurant, 4Fourteen.

Upon hearing the news from Colin, Jordan, 23, turned around and exclaimed to his shocked mother: 'Anna, you're a gun!'

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Success! Mother and son team Anna and Jordan were revealed as winners of the latest challenge of My Kitchen Rules on Sunday night

'Thank you, thank you!' he added, pointing at Irishman Colin.

Colin then praised Anna and said she should think about a new career as a chef, like she's always dreamed.

'Anna, I know you've dreamed of being a chef, it's not too late to change careers,' Colin said.

Fancy treat: The pair cooked up an octopus and kale dish that meant it has been added to judge Colin Fassnidge's menu at his Sydney restaurant, 4Fourteen

'It's not too late to change careers': Colin then praised Anna and said she should think about a new career as a chef, like she's always dreamed

Anna was in shock and replied: 'I've always wanted to be a chef, but I don't know,' which made Jordan add: 'she's retired.'

The teams had to cook up a dish in Colin's restaurant, to be judged by the judges Colin, Pete Evans and Manu Feildel, as well as ten of Colin's chefs from the restaurant.

The winner would see their dish placed on the restaurants menu, while two teams would be sent to sudden death.

Colin commended the winners, saying: 'My staff said they wouldn't fault it.'

Another challenge: The teams had to cook up a dish in Colin's restaurant, to be judged by the judges Colin, Pete Evans and Manu Feildel, as well as ten of Colin's chefs from the restaurant

Top picks: For the challenge, the six teams were pulled into two groups to make a main dish in the restaurant in 90 minutes

Colin then informed them that they also get an advantage for the next challenge, with Jordan saying how good that is.

'That could put us in the top five, and that's scary close,' he said.

Just before the announcement was made and the judges gave some feedback of everyone's dishes, Colin commended the teams for serving up some quality food.

Getting to Anna and Jordan, Colin said: 'There was silence of pleasure eating the dish.'

Pete said how he enjoyed the kale despite not being too keen on it when he saw them make it.

'When I saw you do it, I was like, oh now, you killed the dish. But I was completely wrong. It made the dish, it was spot on,' he said.

When the dish was initially being tasted at Colin's restaurant, Colin commented how he wouldn't change anything about it, but Manu said he'd make the kale juice thicker.

Taking on the challenge! Anna described the opportunity as a dream come true, saying how much she wanted to be a cook her whole life

What a treat: Before they found out that they had won, Jordan said on a piece to camera, 'Can you imagine...It's something you write on your tombstone, my dish was on Colin's menu'

Yummy: The mother and son team cooked charred octopus in kale juice

For the challenge, the six teams were pulled into two groups to make a main dish in the restaurant in 90 minutes.

Ahead of doing so, Jordan and Anna described the opportunity as a dream come true, with Anna saying how much she wanted to be a cook her whole life.

Before they found out that they had won, Jordan said on a piece to camera: 'Can you imagine...It's something you write on your tombstone, my dish was on Colin's menu.'

Anna and Jordan were in the kitchen with legal eagles Zana and Gianni and Eve and Jason.

Tasty: Zana and Gianni cooked up salt baked rainbow trout with sauce vierge and heirloom tomatoes

Not bad: About their food, the judges remarked how the fish was cooked well but they found the sorbet on the side pointless

The mother and son team cooked charred octopus in kale juice, with Zana and Gianni going for salt baked rainbow trout with sauce vierge and heirloom tomatoes, and Eve and Jason making lamb liver and onions with crispy black pudding and sweet potato.

The three other teams were then sent into the kitchen to cook their dishes.

Carmine and Lauren served Balsamic glazed Pork Ribs with parsnip puree and red cabbage pickle, Tasia and Gracia whipped up Pan Roasted duck with turnips, apple and miso, and Mitch and Laura made Sous vide lamb with crispy brains and caramelised onion puree.

Sent to the sudden death was Eve and Jason and Carmine and Lauren.

Tough competition: Carmine (left) and Lauren (right) will be sent to sudden death on an upcoming episode of My Kitchen Rules
Zana Pali complained about husband Gianni Romano when they competed in the sudden death round of My Kitchen Rules last week.

And once again on Sunday night, the confident brunette lawyer was hands-on in the kitchen and bossed her man about in a bid to win the latest cooking challenge and prevent them from going into another sudden death.

The pair prepared fish for their main dish and at one point, she even put pressure on herself when she said: 'just burn those hands!'

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'Burn those hands!' Zana Pali complained about husband Gianni Romano when they competed the latest cooking challenge on Sunday's My Kitchen Rules

She and her man were in the process of taking off the skin off the hot and cooked fish to be deep fried and adhere to Colin's nose to tail cooking philosophy.

The teams had to cook up a dish in Colin's restaurant, 4Fourteen, to be judged by the judges Colin, Pete Evans and Manu Feildel, as well as ten of Colin's chefs from the restaurant.

The winner would see their dish placed on the restaurants menu, while two teams would be sent to sudden death.

Oh dear: The pair prepared fish for their main dish and at one point, she even put pressure on herself when she said, 'just burn those hands!'

Feeling the pressure: She and her man were in the process of taking off the skin off the hot and cooked fish to be deep fried and adhere to Colin's nose to tail cooking philosophy

Zana and Gianni cooked up salt baked rainbow trout with sauce vierge and heirloom tomatoes.

When first in the kitchen, Zana started working on the raw fish while Gianni peeled the tomatoes.

'I need you to work faster, you're stressing me out big time,' Zana said to Gianni at one point.

'Gian, you need to get onto the sorbet,' she says, before then jumping in and helping him out.

At another point, Gianni was still working on the tomatoes while Zana put lemon in a frying pan for the sauve vierge.

'I need you to work faster,' she said.

It caused her to say on a piece to camera with Gianni: 'I'm very fast in the kitchen and in court and in any other job, I ever do. So far, I've done the pickle and liquid and I've stuffed all the fish and I've done the sorbet and you're still working on those tomatoes.'

Another challenge: The teams had to cook up a dish in Colin's restaurant, to be judged by the judges Colin, Pete Evans and Manu Feildel, as well as ten of Colin's chefs from the restaurant

Top picks: For the challenge, the six teams were pulled into two groups to make a main dish in the restaurant in 90 minutes

She later added to camera: 'We're big on reputation and the last thing I want to do is have the judges say they are disappointed in us.'

When the fish was cooked in the oven, Gianni noted they needed to be taken out causing Zana to say: 'Help me, do it!'

She then grabbed the dish and said to him to 'move.'

On a piece to camera, Zana said 'thank god' the fish was cooked.

'I need you to work faster': When first in the kitchen, Zana started working on the raw fish while Gianni peeled the tomatoes

Tasty: Zana and Gianni cooked up salt baked rainbow trout with sauce vierge and heirloom tomatoes

Gianni said, 'don't thank god, thank us,' before his wife dryly talked over him saying, 'Thank me!'

Anna and Jordan and Eve and Jason were in the kitchen with legal eagles, Zana and Gianni.

About their food, the judges remarked how the fish was cooked well but they found the sorbet on the side pointless.

'Have a look at this flesh...the sorbet on the side, I don't think it needs it...I'm loving the crispy skin,' Pete Evans said.

Meanwhile, Manu Feildel commented he thought they should have just served the fillet of fish and not the whole fish complete with head and tail because of all the tiny bones that were covered in sauce.

Last week they competed in the sudden death round and were saved from going home.
Guy Ritchie is currently locked in a bitter custody battle over his son Rocco with ex-wife Madonna.

Yet the esteemed director looked as though he did not have a care in the world as he enjoyed a morning stroll with his wife Jacqui and their brood in London on Sunday morning.

The 47-year-old filmmaker and his stunning spouse, 34, jaunted along with their sons Rafael, four, 20-month-old Levi and daughter Rivka, three, after returning from a sun-soaked Maldives getaway.

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Family trip: Guy Ritchie looked as though he did not have a care in the world as he enjoyed a morning stroll with his wife Jacqui and their brood in London on Sunday morning

Jacqui was at the helm of the stroll as she pushed Levi's buggy while looking super-stylish in a pink jumper with a grey gilet to top off the look.

She paired the look with simple black trousers and sporty trainers while confirming her superstar status with a huge pair of sunglasses.

Despite the low-key nature of the walk, Jacqui's hair was preened to perfection, tumbling in perfectly highlighted waves, yet she went make-up free to flaunt her holiday glow.

Pushing the buggy: The 47-year-old filmmaker and his stunning spouse, 34, jaunted along with their sons Rafael, four, 20-month-old Levi and daughter Rivka, three, after returning from a sun-soaked Maldives getaway

Stunner: Jacqui was at the helm of the stroll as she pushed Levi's buggy while looking super-stylish in a pink jumper with a grey gilet to top off the look

Appropriate ensemble: She paired the look with simple black trousers and sporty trainers while confirming her superstar status with a huge pair of sunglasses

Guy went for a smart-casual look in jeans with a grey suit jacket with a thick scarf, while the pair were flanked by a team of companions - unknown whether they were staff or friends.

The group certainly made an impact on the street as each child had their own wheeled device including the buggy, a micro-scooter and a small push-along bike.

The low-key day out comes after Madonna, who married Guy in 2000 before splitting eight years later, touched down in London to hold crisis talks over Rocco's custody.

Family day out: Jacqui looked relaxed and glowing as she ambled along

Stylish: Guy went for a smart-casual look in jeans with a grey suit jacket with a thick scarf, while the pair were flanked by a team of companions - unknown whether they were staff or friends

The whole gang: The group certainly made an impact on the street as each child had their own wheeled device including the buggy, a micro-scooter and a small push-along bike

Madonna reportedly made plans to come back so that she could get Rocco back in school following his term-time Maldives holiday with Guy and Jacqui.

The trip was no doubt a welcome break from the ongoing custody battle, in which Madonna has already won the right for the hearing to be conducted in New York rather than London.

A source told The Sun newspaper last Monday that Rocco's mother is concerned for his education following his term time holiday.

Walking along: Guy clutched his son's hand for the duration of the walk in a mark of fatherly love

Holiday blues? Madonna reportedly made plans to come back so that she could get Rocco back in school following his term-time Maldives holiday with Guy and Jacqui

Scooting off: The kids were using an array of wheeled goods and seemed ready to share

The insider said: 'She has said she is prepared to fly over to London when Rocco gets back and take him to school herself.'

They continued: 'Madonna is concerned Rocco is going to be missing so much school. She wants Rocco to relax but his education is very important.'

Rocco has been living in London with filmmaker Guy and his new wife Jacqui, along with their three young children, ever since reportedly abandoning his mother before Christmas.

The family: Rocco has been living in London with filmmaker Guy and his new wife Jacqui, along with their three young children, ever since reportedly abandoning his mother before Christmas

Close: Guy's look was certainly smarter than the rest of the clan as he rocked brogues and a suit jacket

The teenager is said to have walked out on the global tour when she took away his phone because she wanted him to focus on his studies, The Mirror reported in January.

Rocco is now living in the British capital with his filmmaker Guy, stepmum Jacqui and their children, spending weekends at Guy's Grade II listed Ashcombe House in Wiltshire.

Madonna and Guy later entered into a custody battle with hopes of coming to an amicable agreement over their son.

Back to reality: The trip was no doubt a welcome break from the ongoing custody battle, in which Madonna has already won the right for the hearing to be conducted in New York rather than London
She soared to fame in the Nineties as Posh Spice, one fifth of the Spice Girls.

And Victoria Beckham appeared to be feeling nostalgic in a sexy snap shared with her 9.8million Instagram followers on Saturday night while she enjoyed a trip to Las Vegas.

The 41-year-old fashion designer looked incredible as she reclined atop a piano while her celebrity hairdresser pal Ken Paves tickled the ivories behind her.

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Belting out the hits: Victoria Beckham appeared to be feeling nostalgic in a sexy snap shared with her 9.8million Instagram followers on Saturday night while she enjoyed a trip to Las Vegas

Victoria, who is also joined by husband David on her Sin City trip, opted for a risque ensemble for her sexy snap, in which she flaunted a mass of cleavage.

She wore a super-skimpy black jumpsuit which boasted thin spaghetti straps and cut-outs under the bust - flashing a mass of cleavage and a hint of taut torso.

The Wannabe hitmaker's trousers were slightly fitted, permitting a glance at her super-slim legs, while her toned arms were on display due to her contorted pose.

Her brunette tresses were styled into an elegant chignon with tendrils surrounding her face - the work no doubt of her hairdresser pal.

See more of the latest Victoria Beckham updates as she returns to her pop starlet heyday

Back in the day: Victoria soared to fame in the Nineties as one fifth of the Spice Girls

They know how to party...A previous show saw Ken and Victoria pretending to DJ while seemingly in a hotel room

Putting passion into her pose, the singer, who also enjoyed a successful solo career, pointed her perfectly made-up face up to the ceiling.

Closing her eyes with her mouth slightly ajar, Victoria hilariously posed as if she was about to break into song, while holding a phone as a fake microphone.

She added the hilarious caption on the image: 'For one night only Los Vegas! VB and Ken!! Live!!!!! #reunion @davidbeckham @kenpaves #funinvegas!!!x'

She knows how to Insta... The Harlow-born beauty's fun Instagram post comes as no shock, as she is known to litter her feed with playful shots, including an impressive image showing her flexibility

Victoria joined the Spice Girls in 1993 and the group sold 55million records worldwide before disbanding, after which she went solo.

She enjoyed relative success as a solo artist running from 2000 to 2004, peaking at number six in the UK charts, before turning her career to fashion.

The Harlow-born beauty's fun Instagram post comes as no shock, as she is known to litter her feed with playful shots, including an impressive image showing her flexibility.

A previous show saw Ken and Victoria pretending to DJ while seemingly in a hotel room.
It has been one of the biggest TV success stories of the year so far.

But fans of The Night Manager are set to face an upset as the BBC drama's leading star has ruled out a return for a second series.

Tom Hiddleston, who plays undercover spy Jonathan Pine in the gripping series, has quashed reports that there will be more episodes to come.

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No more! Tom Hiddleston has quashed rumours of a return for a second series of The Night Manager, as he says the 'story feels complete'

There had been reports that the BBC were considering a follow-up to the hit John le Carre adaptation, but the 35-year-old said 'the story is complete' as he promoted the show in the US along with his co-stars.

According to The Sunday Mirror, Tom - who is now hotly tipped as the next James Bond - said: 'As it stands, Pine exists for six hours in a mini series. The story feels complete.

'I know the rumours about it extending, but none of that is real.'

Tom's co-star Hugh Laurie, who played arms dealer Richard Roper, agreed with this sentiment during the panel: 'It's based on a novel, we've got to the end of the novel and John le Carre has yet to write another novel, so in cold practical terms, no, we're done.'

Top role: Tom, 35, played undercover spy Jonathan Pine in the six-part series, which won him new legions of fans during its Sunday primetime spot on BBC One

Stellar cast: Tom was joined in the John le Carre adaptation by Hugh Laurie, Elizabeth Debicki, Olivia Colman and Tom Hollander

The fate of Pine and Roper was left open at the end of the series, with the latter being driven away by a gang of angry Cairo businessmen, leaving many fans hopeful for a sequel.

The Night Manager was based on le Carre's novel of the same name and although he has not written a follow-up novel, there were reportedly advanced talks with The Ink Factory, the production company run by his two sons, for another series based on the same characters.

The BBC's 20 million adaptation of his 1993 novel already featured many changes, including the setting, ending and the gender of Olivia Colman's character Angela Burr.

The hit series also featured the stunning Elizabeth Debicki as Jed Marshall, Tom Hollander as Major Lance Corkoran and David Harewood as Joel Steadman.

No more: Tom's co-star Hugh Laurie - who plays arms dealer Richard Roper - agreed with the sentiment, adding 'we're done'

Meanwhile, if fans are disheartened by Tom's unwillingness to return to the role - which caused a media storm during its broadcasting on Sunday evenings in the UK, thanks to his repeated topless moments and a very raunchy sex scene with his co-star Elizabeth Debicki - they are certainly no doubt thrilled by rumours that he'll be the next James Bond.

Fans of the handsome Brit have called for him to replace Daniel Craig as the new 007, and that pressure has only increased since his role in The Night Manager.

As the final episode of The Night Manager aired, his admirers flooded Twitter in an adoring flurry as they called for Tom to be named the next Bond.

Tom did nothing to quell rumours that he could be in line to fill Daniel Craig's shoes, after his character ordered the secret agent's signature drink in the drama's finale episode.

TV fans were sent into meltdown after he was heard uttering the words: 'Excuse me, sir? Can I have a vodka martini please?'
He was one of Hollywood's most successful - and popular - performers.

So it's perhaps not surprising that experts predicted Paul Walker had the potential to earn up to $80 million over the rest of his career.

In a report by TMZ, they detail how court documents filed by the late star's 17 year-old daughter, Meadow, estimate the scale of his lost earnings as part of her recent settlement claim.

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Loss: Paul Walker had the potential to earn up to $80 million over the rest of his career, experts estimat

The article asserts that Universal film executives 'had already committed to three more Fast and Furious films while Paul and company were filming the seventh installment'.

According to Meadow, these projects - combined with other projects he inevitably would've been offered - would've increased his net worth by anything from $30-80 million.

The news surfaces just days after she was granted a $10.1 million settlement.

Compensated: The daughter of late Hollywood actor Paul Walker (left), Meadow Walker (right, now aged 17), was reportedly awarded a $10.1 million settlement in 2014, though details have only just come to light

Earlier this week the court reportedly found in favour of Meadow Walker, 17, in 2014 when Roger Rodas, the man driving the car in the fatal accident, was found 'partly to blame for fatal accident.'

Reports say Meadow was awarded around $7 million while Attorney Jeff Milam received $3 million, but details of the case have only just come to light, two years on.

It is as yet undetermined whether the money was received from the insurance company or from Rodas' estate.

Most notably in this case - originally filed under 'Meadow W' - it was agreed that Rodas was 'not directing the car through any particularly unsafe maneuvers when it went out of control.'

It was deemed a 'small fraction' of what Meadow should have received and she is determined to press on with a case against car manufacturer Porsche for 'design defects', the website claims.

Just a small fraction: The ruling was considered 'just a fraction' of what she should have received, considering his status as a Hollywood moviestar

News of the ruling comes after a judge acting on behalf of Roger's widow Kristine Rodas cleared Porsche of any wrongdoing in their deaths, just last week.

In a separate case, Kristine filed a wrongful death/product liability lawsuit alleging a combination of four defects had caused the horrific 2013 crash that killed her husband and the Fast And Furious star.

However, the court's decision does not undermine the case of Paul's daughter Meadow, her attorney went on to say in a statement.

Jeff Milam said Rodas was killed instantly upon impact, adding, 'Meadow's father... was a passenger in the car. He survived the crash but was trapped and burned to death because of the vehicle's defects.'

Ruling: Just last week, a judge cleared Porsche of any wrongdoing in the death of Paul's friend Roger Rodas, after the pair were killed in a horror smash in November 2013

The 2005 Carrera GT was being driven by Rodas, the owner of an auto racing shop, when it spun out of control on a city street in Valencia, near Los Angeles, and burst into flames after hitting a power pole and several trees.

Walker, who was 40, and Rodas, 38, both died at the scene.

Kristine claimed the car had a faulty suspension, lacked a racing fuel cell, and did not have a 'racing cage' meaning it could not withstand an impact from the side.

According to TMZ, the argument that the car was ill equipped to handle side impact was moot, since the fatal force came from the front when it hit the lamppost - as her own expert confirmed.

At fault: Meadow is reportedly due to press on with a case blaming Porsche for design defects but Rodas' widow Kristine recently failed in a very similar wrongful death/product liability lawsuit against the car manufacturer

US District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez also rejected the front impact argument because 'Rodas' fatal injuries occurred when he actually was hurled into Paul Walker.'

He also rejected the fuel cell argument, finding that it was not the cause of the fire, and held that Rodas' lawyers had not presented evidence demonstrating the crash was caused by a defective suspension.

Kristine had concurrent cases in both the State and Federal Courts against a number of defendants in the manufacturer and supplier chain; but Monday's Federal summary judgement against her may doom her State case as well.

Her attorney, Mark Geragos, said the ruling will be appealed.

RIP: Walker, who was 40, and Rodas, 38, both died at the scene

Last month Radar reported that Porsche had attempted to have the case thrown out, labeling Rodas' claims as 'nonsense'.

It also attempted to block Kristine's introduction into evidence of the testimony from a man named Jeff Westphal regarding her late husband's 'skill and competency as a driver' as well as his 'history of race car driving' in an attempt to prove human error was not a factor.

'The mere fact that Mr Rodas had driven with some skill in race does not mean that he always drove with skill on the street and was incapable of losing control of a car,' documents filed by Porsche stated.

'One does not need to be a NASCAR or Formula One fan to know that expert drivers lose control and crash with great frequency.'

Bad omen: Lawyers for The Fast And Furious star's daughter Meadow will continue to press her outstanding claim against Porsche




The TOWIE girls are rarely seen looking anything less than flawless.

Yet Megan McKenna led the pack of reality starlets in ditching their usual preened style in favour of a rock chick look as they headed to the punk-themed wrap party on the ITVBe series on Sunday.

The 23-year-old beauty flashed a mass of cleavage as she transformed into a rocker for the day as they vacated Essex to head to London's trendy Egg nightclub for filming.

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Rock on! Megan McKenna led the pack of reality starlets in ditching their usual preened style in favour of a rock chick look as they headed to the punk-themed wrap party on the ITVBe series on Sunday

Megan went all out for the themed evening as she slipped into an extremely sexy, plunging grey leotard which flaunted the fact she opted to wear no bra for the night.

A minuscule black mini skirt showed off her endless legs, while risking exposing more than intended, as she slipped into a pair of thigh-high suede boots with a teetering heel.

The topper on her punk chick look was her red tartan Harrington jacket - a staple in the wardrobe of any rocker, while she wore a choker and a host of intricate chains.

The former Ex On The Beach star backcombed her long tresses into oblivion while rocking her typically heavy-handed make-up look with dark lipstick to enhance her rocker vibes.

Cheeky! The 23-year-old beauty flashed a mass of cleavage as she transformed into a rocker for the day as they vacated Essex to head to London's trendy Egg nightclub for filming

Strutting her stuff: A minuscule black mini skirt showed off her endless legs, while risking exposing more than intended, as she slipped into a pair of thigh-high suede boots with a teetering heel

Dolled up: The former Ex On The Beach star backcombed her long tresses into oblivion while rocking her typically heavy-handed make-up look with dark lipstick to enhance her rocker vibes

Joining Megan was her one-time nemesis Kate Wright who upped the sex appeal to full in a bra-flashing lace crop-top which showed off her plentiful assets.

Despite sporting such a sheer look, the blonde beauty appeared slightly conscious of her appearance as she wrapped her arms around her bust in a coy manner.

She paired the look with high-waisted disco pants which helped flaunt her incredibly small waist and hourglass shape.

Enhancing the look with a choker, a studded wrist band and delicate crucifix earrings - she certainly fitted the criteria, atop her slick of black lipstick.

Hourglass frame: Joining Megan was her one-time nemesis Kate Wright who upped the sex appeal to full in a bra-flashing lace crop-top which showed off her plentiful assets

Scared? Despite sporting such a sheer look, the blonde beauty appeared slightly conscious of her appearance as she wrapped her arms around her bust in a coy manner

Not so rock and roll! Enhancing the look with a choker, a studded wrist band and delicate crucifix earrings - she certainly fitted the criteria, atop her slick of black lipstick

Equally as racy was Georgia Kousoulou who sported a leather waistcoat with a sheer lace top underneath while flashing her red bra.

She added thigh-high boots with the look while slipping into a pair of leather hot pants - a sexy rock look which would certainly turn heads.

The pretty star seemed to have attended the same hairdresser as Megan as her hair-raising style was almost identical to the pretty star's.

Strutting her stuff: As Kate vacated the building a pair of flip-flops were visible in her bag - no doubt to keep her feet at ease in breaks between filming

Great from all angles! Equally as racy was Georgia Kousoulou who sported a leather waistcoat with a sheer lace top underneath while flashing her red bra

Oozing sex appeal: Georgia strutted into the hot spot with Chloe Lewis, who went for a very similar look as she wore tiny denim hot pants with a thick leather belt cinching in her waist

Something to hide? A patterned T-shirt was partially concealed by her leather jacket which she slipped over her shoulders and coordinated perfectly with her peep-toe leather boots

Georgia strutted into the hot spot with Chloe Lewis, who went for a very similar look as she wore tiny denim hot pants with a thick leather belt cinching in her waist.

A patterned T-shirt was partially concealed by her leather jacket which she slipped over her shoulders and coordinated perfectly with her peep-toe leather boots.

Danielle Armstrong appeared slightly confused over the definition of punk, as she sported a skin-tight little black dress with opaque tights and demure stilettos.

Her look was certainly shocking upon closer inspection, as it was revealed her dress was entirely see through while she was showing off the entirety of her derriere.

She helped give a punk edge with the help of her wildly curly blonde hair and lace fingerless gloves.

Having a laugh: The girls looked like bosom buddies as they strutted their stuff down the street in their leathers

Enjoying the job: The girls couldn't help but giggle as they hit the road together

Strutting her stuff: Her look was certainly shocking upon closer inspection, as it was revealed her dress was entirely see through while she was showing off the entirety of her derriere

Flashing it all: Her look was certainly shocking upon closer inspection, as it was revealed her dress was entirely see through while she was showing off the entirety of her derriere

New girls Chloe Meadows and Courtney Green opted for sexy looks both showing off their long legs.

Courtney was sporting a loose white shirt, over which she layered a chain body harness, with a leather waistcoat over the top and teetering strappy sandals.

Chloe meanwhile threw herself into the theme in a skin tight sheer crop top adorned with silver stars all over the look, a leather mini skirt and a red checked shirt tied around her waist.

Striking choices: New girls Chloe Meadows and Courtney Green opted for sexy looks both showing off their long legs

Rocking on: Courtney (left) was sporting a loose white shirt while Chloe (right) wore a sheer crop top adorned with silver stars all over the look, a leather mini skirt and a red checked shirt tied around her waist

Knows how to rock: Courtney looked edgy in her ensemble as she strutted her stuff outside the venue

Legs eleven: Chloe will certainly make an impact on the TOWIE cast as she settles in from being a newcomer

Girls night out: The whole crew were out in force with Nikki Blackwell, Lydia, Debbie and Georgia Bright all throwing themselves into the theme

Lydia Bright went for a similar look as she wore a shredded vest top with cycling shorts and a thick studded belt - while slicking on jet black lipstick.

It was quite the family trip as she was accompanied by her mum Debbie and sister Georgia who were both rocking similar ensembles.

The family trip was joined by Liam Blackwell's mum Nikki, who went for a super raunchy look by clipping safety pins to her chest from beneath an orange string vest.

She knows how to rock: Lydia Bright went for a similar look as she wore a shredded vest top with cycling shorts and a thick studded belt - while slicking on jet black lipstick

Edgy stuff: Lydia was accompanied by her mum Debbie who went into rock star mode for the night

While the girls certainly went all out the TOWIE boys' efforts were more understated, such as Dan Edgar who arrived wearing skinny jeans and a bomber jacket.

Michael Hassini went for a leather bomber jacket with acid wash jeans, a slightly edgier look yet still not quite the Sex Pistols in their heyday.

Joining them in basic looks was new boy Jon Clarke who wore a suede biker jacket with an all-black ensemble, simple and understated.

Not so punk: Dan Edgar arrived wearing skinny jeans and a bomber jacket while Michael Hassini went for a leather bomber jacket with acid wash jeans

Rock on... Joining them in basic looks was new boy Jon Clarke who wore a suede biker jacket with an all-black ensemble, simple and understated

Throwing himself into things: The boys who did get in the spirit included Bobby Norris who went all out with silver streaks in his hair and lashings of black eye make-up dribbling down his face

Rocking out: James Lock wore a sleeveless white shirt with extremely ripped jeans Pete Wicks was already prepared due to his long locks yet arrived in a rather lacklustre baggy T-shirt and jeans

The boys who did get in the spirit included Bobby Norris who went all out with silver streaks in his hair and lashings of black eye make-up dribbling down his face.

James Lock appeared to have used the party as a chance to exhibit his muscles rather than go punk as he wore a sleeveless white shirt with extremely ripped jeans.

The show's resident rocker, Pete Wicks was already prepared due to his long locks yet arrived in a rather lacklustre baggy T-shirt and jeans.

Sexy stuff: The whole gang seemed focused on looking sexy as opposed to rocking on

They know how to party: The TOWIE girls combined sex appeal with the rock chick look

Kiss pose: Megan seemed to borrow her pose off Kiss rocker Gene Simmons
She's been in NYC enjoying a romantic break with her fiance Brooks Laich.

And it was back to business for Julianne Hough, 27, as she arrived at LAX on Saturday, flashing her huge engagement ring.

The dancer, singer and actress put her best foot forward in cool casuals, as she landed back on the West Coast solo.

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Bling: Julianne Hough, 27, arrived at LAX on Saturday, flashing her huge engagement ring

The former Dancing With the Stars judge shunned jewellery - apart from her conspicuous six-carat Lorraine Schwartz sparkler from her NHL professional hockey player fiance, Laich, 32.

She showed off her toned legs - the results of two hours a day working out - in slim-fitting black jeans.

The beauty wasn't caught off-guard by the sudden cool weather in the city, as she added a chunky grey scarf over her sweater.

Cool casual: The Grease! Live star spends plenty of her life in gym gear or glamorous heels, so looked only too happy with her flats - a pair of patent leather loafers

Rock: The former Dancing With the Stars judge sported a conspicuous six-carat Lorraine Schwartz sparkler from her NHL professional hockey player fiance, Laich, 32

The Grease! Live star spends plenty of her life in gym gear or glamorous heels, so looked only too happy with her flats - a pair of patent leather loafers.

Make-up free, she covered her piercing blue eyes with the customary dark glasses, and swept her signature blonde locks into a cute up-do.

The professional choreographer shared images from her NYC mini-break with the hunk, as they were seen cuddling up together as well as seeing Claire Danes' new play Powder.

In February 2014, it was revealed they were dating, and the couple announced their engagement on August 18, 2015.

Julianne hasn't revealed any of their wedding plans and joked to Good Morning America in January that she's the 'worst bride ever.'

Pretty: Make-up free, she covered her piercing blue eyes with the customary dark glasses, and swept her signature blonde locks into a cute up-do

'I haven't done anything,' she told them

The Dirty Grandpa star recently revealed she maintains her great figure with two hours of exercise a day.

'Monday through Friday, I really try to start my day off right. If you dedicate two hours to yourself in the beginning of the day, youre gonna be so much happier,' she explained.

Cute: She's been in NYC enjoying a romantic theatre break with her fiance Brooks Laich
He is one of Hollywood's most talented performers from his time, gaining a legion of supporters through his roles in iconic films such as When Harry Met Sally (1989) and City Slickers (1991).

And actor Billy Crystal has announced he will be touring Australia in July and August of this year.

The 68-year-old acclaimed comedian will conduct a number of live comedy shows across four cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, in what will be his first visit Down Under in almost a decade.

Coming Down Under: Billy Crystal has announced he will be touring Australia in July and August of this year

The nine-time Oscar host will be paired on stage with one of Australia's most renowned comedian and entertainer, Andrew Denton.

The shows will take the format of a sit-down interview and will include some stand-up, spoken word stories and retrospective flashback material.

The tour begins with a July 10 performance in Sydney and conclude with dates in Melbourne.

Billy has said that each show is going to be different, but in each he will discuss his life, family, grandchildren, politics, as well as big issues.

'This show is more relaxed and unpredictable,' he says. 'It's very informal and personal; it's a different, intimate way to be with an audience. And it will be funny,' he told The Sydney Morning Herald.

Return: The 68-year-old acclaimed comedian, will conduct a number of live comedy shows across four cities - Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, in what will be his first visit Down Under in almost a decade

Hilarious duo: The nine-time Oscar host will be paired on stage with one of Australia's most renowned comedian and entertainer, Andrew Denton

Last time Billy came to Australia was in 2007. The comedian performed a sold-out one man Tony award winning play 700 Sundays in Sydney and Melbourne.

However at the time he was worried audiences wouldn't understand his New York Jewish humour.

'I thought - they're not going to get it. It's about my Jewish family, it's New York stories - well they got everything,' he told The Daily Telegraph.

Adding: 'Even better than some American cities.'

Tickets for An Evening of Sit Down with Billy Crystal go on sale April 18.

Funnyman: The shows will take the format of a sit-down interview and will include some stand-up, spoken word stories and retrospective flashback material
It's clear her children are tight-knit.

And on Sunday Jennifer Garner must have been full of pride as she watched her eldest daughter Violet, aged 10, take her little brother Samuel, four, by the hand during an outing in the Pacific Palisades.

The youngsters were joined by seven-year-old sister Seraphina and another pal as they strolled out into the sunshine ahead of their doting mother.

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Slow and steady: Jennifer Garner didn't seem to mind letting her children another friend take the lead as they stepped out in the upmarket community

Aww: Garner kept an eagle eye trained on daughters Seraphina, seven, Violet, ten, son Samuel, four, and another friend during an outing in Pacific Palisades on Sunday

The siblings were fashionably dressed, with Seraphina sporting a salmon pink dress and white sweater as her big sister donned a jean skirt and soft sweater.

Samuel, meanwhile, kept it comfortable in sweatpants and a sky blue top.

Their mother was also stylishly dressed as usual for the outing as well.

Jennifer took advantage of the perfect spring weather in her chic sleeveless dress, which put her toned limbs on full show.

Burst of energy: The youngster at one point playfully jogged ahead of his mother, perhaps straight towards his sisters

She also wore a pair of beige sandal heels, had a black tote slung over her shoulder, and pulled her brunette hair back into a no-fuss bun.

The Alias actress also appeared to go with very minimal makeup, instead letting her skin breathe.

Jennifer's three children are from her marriage to Ben Affleck.

Her little one: Samuel snuggled against his mother's shoulder

Smile! The Daredevil actress couldn't contain her smile after church with her family

The former couple - who were married for 10 years - announced their plans to divorce last June.

Jennifer's outing comes amid reports that the Argo actor is contemplating renting a sizable property in London in the hopes that Jennifer and the kids will join him while he shoots upcoming Marvel flick Justice League: Part One in Hertfordshire's Leavesdon Studios.

'Ben and Jennifer are a very strong cohesive unit. They have created a new normal, which will continue while they are living in London,' a source told The Sun's Dan Wootton.

'Ben wants his family close when he's working, and staying together in a new country will be a great experience, despite himself and Jennifer being no longer a couple.'
Claire Danes made the best of a drizzly spring day in New York City as she headed out bundled up from head-to-toe on Saturday.

The Emmy winning actress, who is just days away from her 37th birthday, donned a black down jacket and grey knit beanie.

Claire looked to be on her way to the Public Theater, where she had an afternoon and evening engagement of her off-Broadway play Dry Powder.

Don't rain on her parade! Claire Danes made the best of a drizzly spring day as she headed out in New York on Saturday, bundled up from head to toe

Claire held her cell phone as she gave her undivided attention to the call with her white earbuds.

The Homeland actress ditched the makeup routine and had her blonde locks tucked inside the turtleneck of her thick, fur-lined jacket.

She also had her purse comfortably slung across her body, and donned a pair of dark trousers and ankle boots.

The native New Yorker looked to be walking at a brisk pace, no doubt ready to get out of the cold and back to work.

Name in lights: Claire looked to be on her way to the Public Theater, where she had an afternoon and evening engagement of her play Dry Powder

Claire - who is currently starring in the off-Broadway play Dry Powder - is juggling her theatre commitments with being a mom to her three-year-old son Cyrus with husband Hugh Dancy.

Her play at Public Theatre is directed by Hamilton's Thomas Kail, and is about a man named Seth (John Krasinski), who sets a desperate man up with a win-win investment which is then complicated by his counterpart.

The production, which also stars Hank Azaria, is scheduled to run through May 1 at the Public Theater in NYC.

Red alert: The star was spotted after her show (R) with a slick of red lipstick and a new coat on

Meanwhile, Claire is signed up to return as Carrie Mathison for a sixth season of her hit Showtime series this September 2016.

It was recently revealed that the upcoming season of Claire's popular series would shift focus to be more 'domestically' based.

When asked for details, Showtime president David Nevins revealed at the Television Critics Association press tour: 'It will be set domestically, primarily in the New York area.'

The plot thickens: Her play at Public Theatre is directed by Hamilton's Thomas Kail, and described as a 'viciously, deliciously funny new drama about the people shaping, and skewing, the American economy'
Natalie Zea welcomed her first child, a daughter named Reygan Zea Schuldt, five months ago.

And already the 40-year-old actress is showing off a very slim frame.

The Texas native was spotted at the Deadline panel on Sunday in LA where she promoted her new TBS comedy The Detour, which premieres on Monday.

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In great shape: Natalie Zea looked very slim just four months after welcoming her daughter as she stopped by the Contenders Presented by Deadline panel on Sunday in LA

Yes, she had a bump here: Zea barely looked pregnant in September at her baby shower, which was co-hosted by Matilda Jane

The actress, who was last on FX's Justified for five years, wore a leather shirt in beige and worn-in skinny jeans.

Beige pointy pumps finished off the former Vogue model's look.

Zea also wore her hair half up and had on pretty pale makeup including pink lipstick.

Natural beauty: The 40-year-old Justified vet wore her blonde locks partially up and had on pretty pink lipstick

Her screen husband: The Texas native posted with Jason Jones, who plays her spouse on The Detour

In the hot seats: The wife of Scrubs vet Travis Schuldt on the panel with Jones as they spoke to Pete Hammond

The star, who is wed to Scrubs vet Travis Schuldt, will play Robin in The Detour. She stars as the wife of Jason Jones, who was last seen on The Daily Show.

Jones' wife Samantha Bee of Full Frontal, is also a writer on the show.

The series is based on their own experiences with family getaways. Together they have three children.

They have kids on TV too: Jones and Zea with the actors who play their children

Ready for some dysfunction? The Detour debuts Monday, April 11, on TBS

'The genesis was our relationship with our children and the blunt, honest nature of the way we speak to our children,' Jones told The Daily Beast this week.

'We look at each other as not only family, but friends.

'We wanted that relationship put on camera. And I think with a lot of these sitcoms nowadays its always, "We hate each other" but then there is some sort of forced, "But we love each other" at the end of the episode.'

With their stage kids: The stars with Liam Carroll and Ashley Gerasimovich who play their kids in January

Jones also said: 'Whereas we just wanted this couple and this family that really, truly love each other, who bicker like crazy throughout it, but at the same time really do enjoy each others company.

'And what a better journey to go on this family with than a physical journey?' he asked.

In the pilot, the family takes a road trip to Key West. Jones plays dad Nate, who joins wife Robin and two young kids for a 24-hour road trip to the Florida town. Their vacation then takes a 'hellish turn.'

The series has already been picked up for a second season.

The Detour debuts Monday, April 11, on TBS.
Syrians return to Palmyra after IS expelled

Clutching her Barbie doll and a teddy bear, six-year-old Marwa trod carefully as she accompanied her parents on their first visit to inspect their home in Syria's Palmyra since the Islamic State group was expelled.

They were among thousands of residents who fled as IS overran the ancient city in May last year, and among hundreds who returned Saturday, two weeks after the Russian-backed Syrian army regained control.

For the past 10 months, they have been living in the provincial capital Homs, where they sought shelter from jihadist rule.

Syrians inspect their homes upon their return to the modern town of Palmyra, adjacent to the ancient Syrian city, on April 9, 2016 Louai Beshara (AFP)

On Saturday, they returned to the city known as the "Pearl of the Desert" on board 25 government-run buses, some of the passengers overcome with emotion.

"I can't find some of my toys in the house. All I found was my Barbie, my teddy bear, a necklace and a notebook," Marwa said.

"I'll come back to look for the rest," she added.

Her father Jamal, 55, meanwhile packed a bag with some of the family's belongings.

"The main reason why I came back to Palmyra today, despite the dangers, was Marwa and her toys," said Jamal, a driver.

He added that the family was also keen to rescue their sewing machine. "My wife uses it for work, and it is a source of income for us," he told AFP.

- 'Nowhere like home'-

On March 27, the Syrian army recaptured the city and its world famous antiquities, in a major symbolic and strategic coup for President Bashar al-Assad's regime and its key backer Russia.

Once home to 70,000 people, Palmyra has been scarred by Syria's five-year war and retreating jihadists sowed traps around the city.

As Marwa's parents and the others inspected their homes and gathered personal belongings, Russian sappers could be seen clearing mines and powerful blasts could be heard in the distance.

Many apartment blocks are partially collapsed while others have been totally demolished, AFP journalists said.

Some of the returnees wept at the sight of the damage to their city, overcome with grief.

Still, many were determined to return home for good against all odds.

"There's nowhere like home," said Marwa's mother Hayat.

A local official told AFP that residents would not be allowed to spend the night until infrastructure is repaired and demining operations are completed.

"We will need at least three weeks to rehabilitate the city's infrastructure to the extent that residents will be able to spend the night in their homes," the official said.

But Hayat is keen to return despite the damage.

"It's true that there's no water or electricity, but if we were allowed to we would have stayed there despite the rubble, dust and chaos," she said.

Khudr Hammoud, a 68-year-old retired civil servant, was also determined to return.

"The first thing I checked in the house was the roof," he said.

"The walls, the windows and the door are also still there, and that's enough for me to get my family ready to return to Palmyra," he told AFP.

In Hammoud's home all the windows have been shattered, and some of the walls, although they are still standing, are riddled with bullets.

- 'There's nothing left' -

Hammoud said he left his family back in Homs because he did not want them to see the damage and destruction.

But before boarding one of the buses chartered by the authorities he made a dash for his son's room to pick up a toy.

"I promised Abdu that I would bring him the toys he wanted, which he had left in his room," he said.

For some of the city's residents, all that remains today is grief.

"My husband died at the beginning of the war," said Umm Khaled, a mother of two. "Everything is gone. Nothing is left."

In a poignant symbol of the brutality of the civil war, three painted slogans vie for prominence on a Palmyra wall.

The first is a salute to Assad's ruling Baath party, the second hails IS and the last pays homage to the elite Republican Guard army unit.

Palmyra was a key tourist destination before the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011 known for its celebrated ancient ruins, including colonnaded streets and 2,000-year-old temples.

But IS destroyed some of Palmyra's most striking monuments and used the ancient amphitheatre as a venue for public executions.

Syrians inspect their homes upon their return to the modern town of Palmyra, adjacent to the ancient Syrian city, on April 9, 2016 Louai Beshara (AFP)
Islamic militants kill 18 Philippine soldiers in worst clashes this year

A Philippine offensive against the extremist Abu Sayyaf group after a spate of kidnappings has left 18 soldiers and five fighters dead in the worst violence in the troubled south this year, authorities said Sunday.

Saturday's clashes on the strife-torn island of Basilan came after an April 8 ransom deadline set by Abu Sayyaf, who had threatened to behead some of their foreign hostages.

At least four soldiers were beheaded in the fighting, which involved about a hundred Abu Sayyaf rebels, regional military spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.

A soldier stands next to a damaged vehicle after a gunfight with Muslim rebels along a highway in Datu Saudi Ampatuan town, in the southern island of Mindanao on February 17, 2016 Ferdinandh Cabrera (AFP/File)

Military chief General Hernando Iriberri, who flew to the southern command base in Zamboanga city, 44 kilometres (27 miles) from the violence, said the fighting lasted almost 10 hours.

"The whole armed forces is grieving," he told reporters.

He said a Moroccan national who was with the gunmen was killed in the clashes, identifying him as Mohammad Khattab, an instructor in making improvised explosive devices as well as an "Islamic jihadist preacher".

"He wanted to unify, organise all kidnap-for-ransom groups to be affiliated with an international terrorist organisation," the general said.

He would not identify the international group the Moroccan was allegedly working for.

Iriberri said operations were continuing, adding that "even as we speak, there is an encounter going on in the same place".

Military spokesman Colonel Noel Detoyato told GMA television in Manila that "our standing order... is no let-up in our combat operations so we expect in the next few days, there will be many more encounters".

The military spokesman for the unit involved in the battle said the soldiers were on their way to attack an Abu Sayyaf hideout when they were hit.

"Our group was heading to attack them. On the way, they were ambushed," Colonel Benedict Manquiquis told radio station DZRH.

"The enemy had the high ground so no matter where our soldiers fled to seek cover, they could still be hit by the heavy firepower and improvised explosive devices of the members of the Abu Sayyaf group."

Major Tan said that 53 soldiers and about 20 Abu Sayyaf had also been wounded in the violence.

- Slain soldiers' remains -

A live screening of Filipino boxing legend Manny Pacquiao's last fight taking place in the United States, which was scheduled to show at a military gym in Zamboanga, was called off as the facility prepared to receive the bodies of the slain soldiers.

The clash came shortly after a retired Italian priest being held hostage by Abu Sayyaf was freed on Friday.

The militant group had also threatened to kill a Norwegian and two Canadian hostages and a Filipina they kidnapped in September if a ransom was not paid by Friday.

The military said there has been no word on the hostages' fate since the deadline passed.

Eighteen other foreign hostages are being held in the Philippines, most or all of them thought to be in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

The Abu Sayyaf, a small group of militants known for kidnapping foreigners and demanding huge ransoms, was established in the early 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

It has been blamed for the country's worst terror attacks, including a 2004 Manila Bay ferry bombing that claimed 116 lives.

Its leaders have in recent years pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group that controls vast swathes of Iraq and Syria.

They are based in the southern islands of Basilan and Jolo, which both have large Muslim populations.
Syrian rivals race to retake territory from jihadists

The Islamic State group is under growing pressure on several fronts in Syria as rival forces battle to wrest territory from the jihadists, who are excluded from a six-week-old ceasefire.

The scramble by the regime, anti-government rebels and Kurdish militia to recapture areas from IS has been given added urgency by the prospect of a possible federal system.

"The three sides are racing to grab as much of the pie as possible, not just at the expense of the Islamic State group but also ... from other key players," said Thomas Pierret, a Syria expert at the University of Edinburgh.

A Syrian soldier sits amidst the debris as civilians return to their homes in the modern town of Palmyra, adjacent to the ancient Syrian city Louai Beshara (AFP)

The jihadists have suffered a series of setbacks in Syria in recent weeks, losing the ancient city of Palmyra and the IS bastion of Al-Qaryatain, both in the central province of Homs, to Russian-backed government forces.

In the northern province of Aleppo, US- and Turkish-backed rebels have seized the town of Al-Rai, the jihadist group's main entry point from Turkey.

In the south, meanwhile, rival jihadists from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra Front and their rebel allies have captured three towns from IS.

And in the northeast, the mainly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces are pressing an advance towards the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor, which the regime also has its sights set on.

- Sharing the pie -

With a new round of peace talks due to get under way in Geneva on April 13, experts say the scramble for territory has taken on increasing importance.

When the regime recaptured Palmyra, "it understood the diplomatic advantage it would gain in negotiations" with the opposition, Pierret said.

Rebels trying to advance along the Turkish border meanwhile have twin aims -- pushing back IS and preventing Kurdish militias from expanding their territory, he said.

"For the moment, the pie is big enough for everyone" fighting IS, Pierret added.

"The coming stages will be more complicated: to the east of Aleppo, there are areas that the regime, the Kurds and the rebels are interested in controlling."

It is easy to see the allure of IS-held turf -- which covers about 40 percent of Syria, and is rich in oil, gas and agricultural wealth.

But with every victory over IS, there is a growing risk of renewed confrontation between non-jihadist rebels and the regime, who have observed a fragile ceasefire since February 27.

"I don't think the Russians and the Americans will be able to stop their allies from fighting each other forever," said Romain Caillet, a French expert on jihadist movements.

The truce brokered by Washington and Moscow has brought a lull in clashes between the regime and non-jihadist rebels.

In the unlikely event that the jihadists' enemies continue to refrain from fighting each other, the recapture of IS territory "will see the organisation return to totally clandestine activity", Caillet said.

- Raqa, the prize -

Syria's regime and opposition categorically rejected a Kurdish declaration in March of a federal region in areas under their control in the country's north.

But their backers Russia and the United States are not opposed to such a plan, according to Fabrice Balance, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute.

"The United States and Russia seem to agree on federalism for Syria," the Syria expert said.

"One way to weaken Assad is to agree on the distribution of zones of influence."

With IS on the defensive, the big question now is: who will be the first to recapture IS's de facto Syrian capital Raqa?

A diplomat from a European nation participating in the US-led anti-IS coalition said there would be consequences for the opposition and its Western supporters if Russian-backed regime forces seize the jihadist stronghold.

"If the Russians and the regime do take Raqa, we do consider it will be a critical step. It will prove that they have won the war, to be frank, and that the opposition is only a small pocket in the north," the diplomat said.

The jihadists have suffered a series of setbacks in Syria in recent weeks, losing the ancient city of Palmyra and the IS bastion of Al-Qaryatain, (pictured) both in the central province of Homs, to Russian-backed government forces Max Delany (AFP/File)

Displaced Syrians wait in the central Syrian city of Homs for buses made available by the government to take them back to their homes in the town of Palmyra Louai Beshara (AFP)
King Salman calls for joint fight against 'terrorism'

Saudi King Salman called Sunday for a joint fight against "terrorism" in the Middle East at a time when Riyadh is engaged in several conflicts in the region.

The 80-year-old monarch is on a rare five-day visit to Egypt, a trip seen as a clear show of support for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The two leaders have already signed a slew of multi-billion-dollar investment deals, and on Saturday Egypt agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia by officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.

Saudi King Salman (left) is on a rare five-day visit to Egypt, a trip seen as a clear show of support for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013 STRINGER (Egyptian Presidency/AFP/File)

"The other mission that we should work on together is the fight against extremism and the fight against terrorism," King Salman said in an address to the Egyptian parliament broadcast live on state television.

In December, Saudi Arabia announced the creation of an "anti-terrorism" coalition whose members it said would share intelligence, counter violent ideology and deploy troops if necessary to combat extremists.

The kingdom is part of the US-led coalition bombing the jihadist Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

Riyadh is also leading an Arab coalition, of which Egypt is a member, that has been bombing Iran-backed Huthi Shiite rebels in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion.

It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt.

On Saturday, King Salman and Sisi agreed to set up a $16 billion investment fund, and also settled the long-standing maritime dispute.

Salman announced on Friday a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, and inked several other agreements Egypt hopes will boost its battered economy.

His visit follows months of reports in Saudi and Egyptian newspapers of strained ties over Cairo's unwillingness to participate fully in operations against Huthi rebels in Yemen.

Egypt had announced it would back Saudi Arabia with ground troops if needed, but appears to have balked at the prospect of becoming mired in the conflict.
Shebab raid Kenya police post, three injured

Scores of Shebab fighters stormed a Kenyan police post near the Somali border early Sunday, injuring three officers and torching nearby shops as they fled, Kenyan police said.

About 100 "terrorists" attacked the station in Diff, a district of Wajir county in northeastern Kenya in a pre-dawn raid, police said in a statement.

"The officers put up a stiff resistance till about 5 am when they were outflanked and the terrorists managed to sneak into the camp," the statement said, adding that three officers were injured.

Radical islamist Shebab fighters have in recent months carried out several similar raids on police posts in rural areas controlled by the group near the Somali border Mohamed Abdiwahab (AFP/File)

The police added the Shebab had fled in a police Landcruiser which they used to extricate "the many casualties they suffered."

Police added police and army units had set off in pursuit of the vehicle which it was believed had escaped across the border into neighbouring Somalia.

Radical islamist Shebab fighters have in recent months carried out several similar raids on police posts in rural areas controlled by the group near the Somali border.

The group has carried out several bloody attacks in Kenya since troops from the African Union Mission to Somalia (Anisom) crossed into Somalia in 2011 to confront the jihadists.

Kenya suffered a severe military setback last January when a heavily-armed Shebab force attacked an African Union base manned by some 200 Kenyan peacekeeping troops at El-Adde in southwestern Somalia.

Some 100 Kenyans were killed in the assault, according to the Shebab. Nairobi has not given a casualty figure but regional security sources say the Shebab tally is credible.
Obama 'guarantees' Clinton email probe's independence

US President Barack Obama said Sunday that the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state is taking place without political interference.

The controversy over the Democratic presidential frontrunner's management of her official correspondence as US top diplomat from 2009 to 2013 has provided a staple Republican line of attack during the campaign for the White House.

"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department or the FBI, not just in this case but in any case. Period," Obama told Fox News Sunday.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, who is leading the Democratic campaign against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has said that none of the emails sent over her private server were classified at the time Kena Betancur (AFP/File)

"I do not talk to the attorney general about pending investigations," he added. "I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations."

Asked by journalist Chris Wallace whether Clinton would be treated differently were she to win the Democratic nomination, Obama said, "How many times do I have to say it, Chris? Guaranteed."

Obama, who leaves office in January, restated his view that although Clinton in her own words had shown a degree of "carelessness" over her official emails at the State Department, "she has not jeopardized America's national security."

Calling on the former first lady's critics to "keep this in perspective," he said she had done "an outstanding job" during her four years as secretary of state.

Clinton, who is leading the Democratic campaign against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has said that none of the emails sent over her private server were classified at the time.

She has handed the State Department 52,000 pages of documents relating to her correspondence.
Powerful quake rocks South Asia, one dead

A powerful earthquake rocked large parts of South Asia Sunday, with one person killed by falling rocks in Pakistan and tremors felt in at least four countries.

The 6.6-magnitude quake struck northeast Afghanistan at a depth of 210 kilometres (130 miles) at 2:58 pm (1028 GMT), the US Geological Survey said.

It was felt for a few seconds in the Afghan capital Kabul 282 km to the south and in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, where some residents evacuated apartment blocks after tremors shook ceiling fans and furniture.

An injured Pakistani boy reacts as he arrives at a hospital following an earthquake in Peshawar on April 10, 2016 A Majeed (AFP)

In the Indian capital New Delhi, buildings in the centre swayed and the metro train system was halted temporarily as a precaution.

People rushed out of their homes in the northern region of Indian-administered Kashmir.

In Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan which borders northern Afghanistan, tremors were felt but there were no immediate reports of damage.

One man was killed in Pakistan's mountainous northern region of Gilgit-Baltistan when he was hit by falling rocks in the town of Chilas, an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Authorities in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar said 28 people were brought to the government-run Lady Reading Hospital.

They were discharged after first aid, said spokesman Jamil Shah.

An official of the provincial disaster management authority in Peshawar said they have received reports of 12 other people injured in Swat, Bunair and upper Dir districts.

There were no casualties in Afghanistan according to an initial assessment, said Aslam Sayas, deputy director of the country's disaster management authority.
Kerry apology for Hiroshima bombing not on table: US official

John Kerry will not apologise for the US atomic bombing of Hiroshima during his visit to the city for weekend G7 talks, a State Department official said Sunday.

Speculation has been building that Kerry's planned visit to a Hiroshima blast memorial on Monday could see the US secretary of state issue a first-ever apology for the wartime attack.

But a State Department official said a formal apology from America's top diplomat was not on the cards.

US Secretary of State John Kerry (3rd R) and Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (2nd R) talk during a tour of the Itsukushima Shrine on April 10, 2016 Jonathan Ernst (Pool/AFP)

"If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no," the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters travelling with Kerry.

"If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."

Kerry is the first secretary of state to visit the Japanese city, which was obliterated by a US nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945 that killed 140,000 people, including those who died afterwards from severe radiation exposure.

Three days later another blast killed some 74,000 people in Nagasaki, in the closing chapters of World War II.

Kerry's landmark trip is widely seen as paving the way for Barack Obama to possibly become the first serving US president to visit the city, when he heads to Japan next month for a Group of Seven summit.
New party to seek vote on possible Hong Kong independence

Student leaders behind Hong Kong's 2014 pro-democracy protests launched a new political party Sunday and said it would campaign for a referendum to decide the city's future -- including possible independence.

The semi-autonomous Chinese city is self-governing and retains many freedoms not seen on the mainland. But Beijing sees the concept of eventual independence as unthinkable.

Joshua Wong, 19, who announced the launch of the Demosisto party, was at the forefront of the mass rallies which brought parts of the city to a standstill as residents called for fully free elections for future leaders.

Student protester Joshua Wong (C), pictured on March 20, 2016, announced the launch of the Demosisto party in Hong Kong Anthony Wallace (AFP)

But the 79-day protest fizzled out without winning any concessions from the Hong Kong or Chinese governments.

"It is time to fight for our self-determination," Wong told a press conference at which the party -- whose key policy is to push for a referendum -- was launched.

"Independence should be one of the options inside the self-determination referendum," he said, adding he hopes it could happen in 10 years' time.

Nathan Law, another student leader of the so-called Occupy movement, said the party would collect views from the city's general public rather than engaging with Beijing.

"The truth is... we don't see any outcome when we communicate with the central government (Beijing), so for now we will not have any communication with the government," he said.

Hong Kong was returned by Britain to China in 1997 under a "one country two systems" deal that guarantees its freedoms.

But there are fears that those freedoms are being eroded, with Beijing tightening its grip behind the scenes.

More radical young activists are gaining a foothold in mainstream politics, with one student leader who calls for independence from China taking tens of thousands of votes in a recent poll.

The new party, which currently has about 30 members, will send teams to contest the city's legislative elections in September.

Wong cannot himself stand for election until he is 21.

Both Wong and Law face criminal charges over the 2014 mass rallies.

Wong said he expects a continuation of what he called the suppression of democratic activists.

"To us we feel being suppressed is something to expect...(but) Hong Kong people should decide the future of Hong Kong rather than allowing the Communist Party to determine our future," he said.

The referendum would include the option of Hong Kong staying part of China, he said.
Janet Jackson promises 2017 tour after family delay

Pop superstar Janet Jackson, who turns 50 next month, has promised to resume her world tour in 2017 after abruptly suspending all dates and saying she was starting a family.

Jackson, who started what was to be a major global tour last year but has only played once since November, said Wednesday that she was indefinitely staying off the road as she and her husband, Qatari business mogul Wissam Al Mana, were "planning our family."

Jackson on Saturday posted on Twitter that her tour was "postponed until 2017" with all tickets to be honored but refunds available.

US singer Janet Jackson performs on March 26, 2016 in Dubai Karim Sahib (AFP/File)

She linked to an article in celebrity magazine Us Magazine in which her promoters were quoted as saying that 2017 dates would be announced at a later time.

Jackson notably put off the entire European leg of her tour.

The pop star has offered no further details about her family plans, but it comes at an age at which natural pregnancies are possible but extremely rare.

Her reticence at explaining the initial reasons for postponing concerts had sparked widespread speculation, leading her to deny that she had cancer.

Jackson last year released "Unbreakable," her first album since the 2009 death of her brother, King of Pop Michael Jackson, and since her quiet marriage to Al Mana in 2012.
Sanders seeks more 'balanced' US Middle East policy

Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders called Sunday for a more balanced US Mideast policy, describing Israel's actions in the 2014 Gaza war as "disproportionate."

Sanders, who if elected would be the first Jewish US president, was asked on CNN to explain his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- which is far more nuanced than is typical in US politics where support for the Jewish State is historically strong.

"Of course we are going to support Israel," the Vermont senator said. "But you cannot ignore the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza right now."

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders addresses a rally at the Bronx Community College in New York on April 9, 2016 Kena Betancur (AFP/File)

"Whether you're Jewish or not Jewish, I would hope that every person in this country wants to see the misery of never-ending war and conflict ended in the Middle East," he said.

Earlier this month, Sanders criticized Israel's role during the 2014 Gaza war in a widely read interview with the New York Daily News, saying he believed more than 10,000 innocent people died in the conflict.

Though he admitted to not being sure about the number during the interview and accepted a correction that the figure was actually just over 2,100 people, his statement came under fire from Jewish groups.

Asked about the reaction by CNN, he stood by his criticism of Israel.

"Was Israel's response disproportion disproportionate? I think it was."

"Israel has 100 percent -- and no one will fight for that principle more strongly than I will -- has the right to live in freedom, independently, and in security, without having to be subjected to terrorist attacks," said Sanders, a secular Jew who spent time on an Israeli kibbutz.

"But I think that we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect."

Israel launched the seven-week conflict in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to the group's firing of rockets into southern Israel.

More than 70 percent of the 2,130 Palestinians killed in the conflict -- which destroyed infrastructure and residential buildings -- were civilians, the United Nations estimates. Israel puts the number at around 50 percent.

"Their community has been decimated," Sanders said. "You can't ignore that fact."
Madagascar appoints new PM in bid to end political turmoil

Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Sunday appointed a new prime minister, two days after the island nation was plunged into confusion when the previous premier denied having stepped down.

The new head of government was named as current interior minister Olivier Solonandrasana, according to a statement read out by Roger Ralala, secretary general of the presidency.

The development comes after the presidency on Friday announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo following weeks of political conflict, only for Ravelonarivo to swiftly deny the claim.

Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina delivers a speech during the opening day of the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21), on November 30, 2015 at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of the French capital Paris Alain Jocard (AFP/File)

The president sought to clarify the situation on Sunday, telling reporters he "had received the prime minister's resignation".

According to local media, Ravelonarivo and Rajaonarimampianina had for weeks been at loggerheads over issues including the poor condition of the island's main roads and rising crime in the capital Antananarivo.

Solonandrasana, 51, is expected to form a new government in the coming days.

The Indian Ocean island nation has endured several years of turmoil after Marc Ravalomanana was ousted as president in a 2009 coup that led to the withdrawal of foreign investment and donor money.

In 2013, a presidential election that was designed to resolve complex power struggles brought Rajaonarimampianina to power.

Ravelonarivo took office as prime minister last year.

Madagascar remains one of the world's poorest countries, heavily dependent on foreign aid, and any renewed political trouble could threaten development.
Yemen ceasefire takes hold, raising hopes for talks

A UN-brokered ceasefire was taking hold in Yemen on Monday despite sporadic clashes, raising hopes that peace talks due next week may finally resolve the country's devastating conflict.

Forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, the Shiite Huthi rebels who drove his government out of the capital, and the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen last year all pledged to honour the truce that took effect at midnight on Sunday.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, called the ceasefire "a first step in Yemen's return to peace".

Forces loyal to the Saudi-backed Yemeni president stand guard in the Aden on April 11, 2016 Saleh al-Obeidi (AFP)

"This is critical, urgent and much needed. Yemen cannot afford the loss of more lives," he said.

Previous efforts to stop the fighting in Yemen -- which has killed thousands and forced more than two million people from their homes -- collapsed amid mutual recriminations.

The conflict in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation has ruined large parts of the country and raised Middle East tensions, with Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies backing the government and Shiite powerhouse Iran supporting the rebels.

Jihadists including from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the powerful Yemeni branch of the extremist network, have exploited the conflict to seize territory and gain influence.

But pressure had been building for the ceasefire and there are hopes it can be the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal that can be hammered out at talks taking place from April 18 in Kuwait.

- 'Step back from brink' -

General Mohamed Ali al-Makdashi, the chief of staff for Hadi's forces, said early Monday the ceasefire was largely holding despite some violations by rebels.

"The truce has not collapsed and we hope the rebels end their attacks and respect the ceasefire," he said, alleging breaches in several areas including the cities of Taez in the southwest and Marib east of Sanaa.

Loyalists accused Huthis of 25 violations around Taez, where one civilian was killed in rebel bombing.

The rebels, meanwhile, said in a statement there was at least one coalition air strike in Taez province, and accused loyalists of being behind 33 truce violations north and east of Sanaa, as well as in the south.

Five soldiers were killed in clashes with rebels in Marib province and Taez, military sources said.

A committee of representatives from both sides will try to ensure the ceasefire is respected.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri earlier described the violations as "minor".

"It is the first day and we should be patient," the top Saudi officer told AFP. "Day by day, it will be better."

An AFP photographer in Sanaa said the rebel-held capital has not been targeted by coalition warplanes since Sunday.

Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher also played down violations, saying that the truce "seems good", adding after meeting the UN envoy in Riyadh that "we want a durable peace".

A UN spokesman said the cessation of hostilities was "largely holding", while noting "some pockets of violence.

- Rebels commit to truce -

The Huthis, allied with troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, also committed to the ceasefire in a letter sent to the United Nations, according to a statement carried by the rebel-run Saba news agency.

The Huthis, a northern minority that has long complained of marginalisation, descended on the capital Sanaa from their mountainous region in September 2014, seizing the city with little resistance.

As they advanced into other areas, Hadi and other officials fled first to the main southern city of Aden and eventually to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of mainly Sunni Arab allies launched air strikes in March last year against the Huthis and later sent ground troops to support pro-government forces.

The loyalists have since managed to reclaim large parts of the south, establishing a temporary capital in Aden, but have failed to dislodge the Huthis from Sanaa and other key areas.

The coalition has come under fire from rights groups, which allege its air war has caused heavy civilian casualties.

The United Nations says more than 6,300 people have been killed in Yemen in the past 12 months, around half of them civilians.

Analysts said the ceasefire is part of the most promising attempt yet to end the conflict.

"For the first time, the groups that can end major military operations, particularly the Saudis and the Huthis, appear to be more willing to do so," said April Longley Alley, a Yemen specialist at the International Crisis Group.

"Even if major combat ends, the road to peace in Yemen will be long and difficult and internal conflict is likely to continue for some time."

Yemeni boys jump off a pier in the southern city of Aden on April 11, 2016 Saleh al-Obeidi (AFP)

Yemeni loyalist forces man a checkpoint on a road in Aden's Tawahi neighbourhood on April 11, 2016 Saleh al-Obeidi (AFP)
Rule The World wins the Grand National

LIVERPOOL, England (AP)  Teenage jockey David Mullins won the Grand National on his first ride in the world's toughest steeplechase, steering home 33-1 shot Rule The World with a strong finish on Saturday to write the latest chapter in his family's horse-racing dynasty.

"What an aptly named horse," said mud-splattered 19-year-old Mullins, who only turned professional 17 months ago.

Rule The World was third after jumping the last of the 30 fences, and outpaced The Last Samuri  the 8-1 joint favorite  and Vics Canvas  a 100-1 outsider  in a thrilling chase to the winning post in front of about 70,000 fans at Aintree.

David Mullins celebrates as he wins the Grand National horse race on Rule The World at Aintree Racecourse Liverpool, England, Saturday, April 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Rule The World achieved his first victory in 14 races over fences in arguably the biggest of them all. Winning such a grueling race in wet conditions was all the more the remarkable given the 9-year-old horse previously broke two pelvises that nearly ended his career.

"When you consider the injuries he has been through, you can only call him a horse of iron," said trainer Mouse Morris, who got the biggest win of his career less than a year after his son, Christopher, died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning while traveling in South America.

"It's like Disneyland, fairy-tale stuff. Someone is looking down on me."

Mullins is the nephew of leading Irish trainer Willie Mullins, and the grandson of Paddy Mullins, who is best known for training the great mare Dawn Run to a victory in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1986. His father, Tom, is also a trainer.

Despite his family's links, David Mullins never really liked horse racing and only got into it at the age of 15 because he did not know what else to do: "I wasn't the cleverest kid in the class, I was no good at any sport, and my dad was giving me a kick up the backside every Saturday morning telling me to go and do a bit."

He barely remembered walking the Grand National course with family members as a nine-year-old, but he won't forget his first ride on it.

Mullins followed pre-race orders in staying on the outside of the field and keeping Rule The World out of trouble, all the more important given the heavy ground that led to 23 of the starting horses falling.

Rule The World moved into contention toward the end of the second circuit of the 4 1/2-mile (7,200-meter) course and recovered from a mistake at the fourth-last. His finishing kick was too strong for Last Samuri, who had to settle for second place six lengths back.

Rule The World's owner, Michael O'Leary, won the Cheltenham Gold Cup last month with Don Cossack but said he never expected to back that up with a winner of an even more globally recognized race. It was only his second entry for the Grand National.

"I don't know what to feel, I'm numb," said O'Leary, who is the boss of Irish budget airline Ryanair.

None of the 39 starters was hurt, with the three-day festival having been marred by the death of four horses over the first two days.

Many Clouds, the 2015 winner, started as the joint-favorite with The Last Samuri and led after 17 fences, raising the chances of jockey Leighton Aspell winning an unprecedented third straight Grand National.

He ended up trailing home last of the 16 finishers.

Rule The World ridden by David Mullins wins the Grand National horse race at Aintree Racecourse Liverpool, England, Saturday, April 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Jon Super)

Coleen Rooney, centre, wife of Manchester United footballer Wayne Rooney, watches the second race of the day with her child Kai before the Grand National horse race at Aintree Racecourse Liverpool, England, Saturday, April 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Iran says missile program is not negotiable

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)  Iran's foreign minister said Sunday the country's missile program is not up for negotiation with the United States.

The missile program and "defense capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not negotiable," said Mohammad Javad Zarif after meeting with his Estonian counterpart, Marina Kaljurand.

He added that if Washington was serious about defensive issues in the Middle East, it should stop supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

A Saudi-led coalition has been conducting airstrikes and battling the Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen since March 2015. Iran also supports anti-Israeli militant groups.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday the U.S. and its partners were telling Iran that they were "prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues." He said Iran first had to make it clear to all involved that they were prepared to cease provocative ballistic missile launches and tests.

Zarif on Sunday also hinted that regional U.S. allies are among those quietly supporting the extremist Islamic State group.

"The U.S. needs to view regional issues more seriously than raise baseless and threadbare allegations against Iran," said Zarif. "Mr. Kerry should ask U.S. allies where the Islamic State's arms come from."

___
Syrians struggle to find place to bury their kin in Lebanon

BAR ELIAS, Lebanon (AP)  When Saada Khalaf, a Syrian refugee in Lebanon, lost her husband to a long illness earlier this year, she could not find a place to bury him in the eastern Lebanese town where the couple had lived since they fled the civil war back home.

The nearest cemetery where she and her relatives were allowed to bury him was in the village of Dalhamiyeh, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the town of Bar Elias.

Some 1.5 million Syrian refugees who fled their country's conflict are believed to be living in Lebanon, equal to about a third of the Mediterranean country's population of 4.5 million people.

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Saada Khalaf, 45, who fled from the city of Homs, Syria, walks in the cemetery in the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads  just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the country's pre-war population.

"Syrians have become a burden whether they are alive or dead," said Riad Rashid, a refugee from the Syrian city of Homs.

Khalaf, who fled from Homs after Syria's crisis began in 2011, only remembers that her husband, Ali Jomaa, died on a Monday morning a few months ago. She says she is illiterate and does not know exact dates.

She and their neighbors had brought him to a clinic that morning, suffering from asthma-related breathing problems, and he died shortly afterward.

During the funeral in Dalhamiyeh, she did not attend the funeral  as a woman and in accordance with Muslim tradition  while male members of the family took the body for prayers and burial.

Later, when she first went back to the cemetery, she could not find his grave. Two weeks ago, she went again with her brother and an Associated Press crew and the brother pointed out the burial place, at the edge of the cemetery.

Khalaf burst into tears. The grave, which she said cost her $100, had no marker on it like those of Lebanese who were buried at the cemetery.

She walked toward the grave and started touching the red sand on it.

"My heart is burning. He went and left me alone," said the 45-year-old woman, who has no children, as she wiped her tears with her brown headscarf. "May God give him mercy. He was good to me. He never upset me."

Many Syrians say they increasingly face prejudice from the Lebanese, who claim the refugees have drained Lebanon's resources and put so much pressure on the country's infrastructure that even burying their loved ones is becoming a problem.

Back in Bar Elias, the town's Mayor Mohammed al-Jammal said his people have nothing against the Syrians, adding that the main cemetery is full and cannot take any more people from outside the town. He said each family in the town has its own block of land reserved at the cemetery.

Al-Jammal said more than 35,000 Lebanese live in the town, as well as about 60,000 Syrians who are spread among 51 illegal camp settlements in Bar Elias.

"We are not against Syrians being buried here," al-Jammal said, speaking at his office in the busy town center.

As for Ali Jomaa, he added: "I am not against burying him here but I don't have a place to bury him."

Rashid, who lives with his family in two tents in one of Bar Elias' unofficial refugee camps, said there is almost a death in the camp every day, people just die of natural causes.

"We suffer every time a Syrian dies," said the 45-year-old father of six girls and seven boys whose ages range between four months and 24 years.

"What we wish most of all is to go back to our country and die in our country," Rashid added.

___

Follow Bassem Mroue on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bmroue

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, a Syrian refugee camp is seen from the cemetery of the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Saada Khalaf, 45, who fled from the city of Homs, Syria, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press as she sits in front of her tent, at a Syrian refugee camp in the town of Bar Elias, in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Lebanese women arrange their veils as they clean graves in the cemetery of the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Lebanese Mohammed al-Jammal, the mayor of Bar Elias town, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press, in the town of Bar Elias, in the Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016, a general view of the cemetery of the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, as a Syrian refugee camp is seen in the background, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Saada Khalaf, 45, who fled from the city of Homs, Syria, cries near the grave of her husband Ali Jomaa, in the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

In this Tuesday, March 29, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Saada Khalaf, 45, who fled from the city of Homs, Syria, cries near the grave of her husband Ali Jomaa, in the eastern village of Dalhamyeh, in the Bekaa valley, Lebanon. With many cemeteries almost full, Syrians are facing difficulties finding places where they can bury their loved ones who die in Lebanon. Most are not able to take them back for burial in Syria because of the dangers and closed roads _ just some of the results of the five-year civil war that has killed more than a quarter million people and displaced half the countrys pre-war population. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Feud bursts into the open between Singapore PM, sister

SINGAPORE (AP)  A rare and unexpected family feud has burst into the open between Singapore's prime minister and his sister over the anniversary of the death of their father, the city state's founding leader, Lee Kuan Yew.

In a Facebook post Sunday, Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a well-known neurosurgeon, said the government was trying to use the occasion of her father's one-year death anniversary to "hero-worship" him, according to Channel News Asia, a government-supported television station and news website. It said Dr. Lee suggested that her brother, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, was "abusing his power" by conducting elaborate anniversary events, and trying to establish a political "dynasty."

Channel News Asia said the post was taken down from Facebook later Sunday. But then Lee fired back at his sister in his own Facebook post a few hours later, saying he is "deeply saddened" by her accusations, which he said "are completely untrue."

FILE - In this Sept. 1, 2015 file photo, Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, secretary general of the ruling People's Action Party, makes his way to the election nomination center with other party members in Singapore for a general election scheduled on Sept. 11. In a Facebook post Sunday, April 10, 2016, his sister Dr. Lee Wei Ling, a well-known neurosurgeon, said the government was trying to use the occasion of their father Lee Kuan Yew's one-year death anniversary to "hero-worship" Lee Hsien Loong, according to Channel News Asia, a government-supported television station and news website. It said Dr. Lee suggested that her brother was "abusing his power" by conducting elaborate anniversary events, and trying to establish a political "dynasty." (AP Photo/Joseph Nair, File)

"The idea that I should wish to establish a dynasty makes even less sense. Meritocracy is a fundamental value of our society, and neither I, the PAP, nor the Singapore public would tolerate any such attempt," he wrote, referring to the ruling People's Action Party.

The PAP has been a solidly united political entity since it came to be headed by the late Lee in 1954. It has continued to rule since then, crushing all opposition in every general election.

Lee was prime minister from 1959 to 1990, and remained an influential figure in the government for several years thereafter. In the past, Lee had sued critics for defamation for suggesting nepotism in his government, so for such an accusation to come from within his own family is a political bombshell for Singaporeans.

Lee died on March 23, 2015, and the government carried out a host of public programs this year to commemorate his death.

"The first anniversary of a person's passing is a significant moment to remember him and reflect on what he meant to us. The more so with Mr. Lee Kuan Yew," the prime minister said in his Facebook post. He added that that his government recognized the "strong desire" of many in Singapore to show their respect for Lee, and agreed that the events and observances were "generally appropriate."

Channel News Asia said that in her Facebook post, Dr. Lee had reproduced her correspondence with the editors of The Straits Times over the draft of an opinion piece on the anniversary programs she had written. The opinion piece was not published by The Straits Times, and was eventually posted in full on Dr. Lee's Facebook page, Channel News Asia said.

It said that in one of the emails released by Dr. Lee, she said that she and her brother "are at odds on a matter of principle" with regard to the commemoration, and that her brother had "no qualms (about) abusing his power to (have) a commemoration just one year after Lee Kuan Yew died".

She added: "Let's be real, last year's event was so vivid, no one will forget it in one (year). But if the power that be wants to establish a dynasty, LKY's daughter will not allow LKY's name to be sullied by a dishonourable son."

Channel News Asia said the posts were taken down on Sunday, but it was not clear by whom.

It quoted her as saying she will no longer write for the Singapore Press Holdings group, which publishes The Straits Times, saying its editors do not allow her "freedom of speech."
Ukraine's embattled prime minister resigns

MINSK, Belarus (AP)  Ukraine's embattled prime minister announced Sunday that he is resigning, opening the way for the formation of a new government to end a drawn-out political crisis.

In his weekly televised address, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said his resignation would be formally submitted to parliament on Tuesday. The same day, parliament was expected to vote to elect the current speaker, Volodymyr Groysman, as the new prime minister.

Yatsenyuk's Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in February, but two parties left the governing coalition to protest the failure to oust the prime minister, who is under fire over the worsening economy and slow pace of reforms.

Last week Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk (pictured) resigned after a failure to tackle the real corruption in which the country is neck-deep

The withdrawal deprived the coalition of its majority in the Ukrainian parliament. If lawmakers had failed to form a new coalition and unite behind a new prime minister, that could have led to early elections, which President Petro Poroshenko had sought to avoid for fear of further destabilizing the situation in the country.

"From today I see my goals as broader than the powers of the head of the government," Yatsenyuk said. He said he would focus on passing a new electoral law, enacting constitutional and judicial reform, and ensuring "the coalition's control over the course of the new government."

Yatsenyuk said the two factions remaining in the coalition  one led by him and the other by Poroshenko  had won the support of a sufficient number of other parliament members to restore their majority in the 450-seat parliament. He said Poroshenko's party has nominated Groysman as his replacement.

Political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko said it was now clear that Groysman would become prime minister, a step that should help to restore stability.

"I am confident that Yatsenyuk consulted with the Western partners and was told that now the matter of political stability in Ukraine needs not games around the post of prime minister but a quick resolution of the political crisis," Fesenko said.

Yatsenyuk became prime minister after Ukraine's former Russia-friendly president was chased from power in February 2014 following massive street protests. Poroshenko was elected several months later with broad support and a seal of approval from Western leaders.

In recent months, political tensions have risen and some respected reformers have resigned, citing disenchantment with the government's cronyism and entrenched corruption.

Ukraine has remained locked in a bitter tug-of-war with Moscow, which annexed the Crimean Peninsula om 2014 and supports a pro-Russian insurgency in eastern Ukraine, where fighting has killed more than 9,000 people since April 2014 and devastated the nation's industrial heartland.

In February, former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced that her faction was withdrawing from the governing coalition.
How stealthy is Navy's new destroyer? It needs reflectors

BATH, Maine (AP)  The future USS Zumwalt is so stealthy that it'll go to sea with reflective material that can be hoisted to make it more visible to other ships.

The Navy destroyer is designed to look like a much smaller vessel on radar, and it lived up to its billing during recent builder trials.

Lawrence Pye, a lobsterman, told The Associated Press that on his radar screen the 610-foot ship looked like a 40- to 50-foot fishing boat. He watched as the behemoth came within a half-mile while returning to shipbuilder Bath Iron Works.

FILE - In this March 21, 2016 file photo, Dave Cleaveland and his son, Cody, photograph the USS Zumwalt as it passes Fort Popham at the mouth of the Kennebec River in Phippsburg, Maine, as it heads to sea for final builder trials. The ship is so stealthy that the U.S. Navy resorted to putting reflective material on its halyard to make it visible to mariners during the trials. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

"It's pretty mammoth when it's that close to you," Pye said.

Despite its size, the warship is 50 times harder to detect than current destroyers thanks to its angular shape and other design features, and its stealth could improve even more once testing equipment is removed, said Capt. James Downey, program manager.

During sea trials last month, the Navy tested Zumwalt's radar signature with and without reflective material hoisted on its halyard, he said. The goal was to get a better idea of exactly how stealthy the ship really is, Downey said from Washington, D.C.

The reflectors, which look like metal cylinders, have been used on other warships and will be standard issue on the Zumwalt and two sister ships for times when stealth becomes a liability and they want to be visible on radar, like times of fog or heavy ship traffic, he said.

The possibility of a collision is remote. The Zumwalt has sophisticated radar to detect vessels from miles away, allowing plenty of time for evasive action.

But there is a concern that civilian mariners might not see it during bad weather or at night, and the reflective material could save them from being startled.

The destroyer is unlike anything ever built for the Navy.

Besides a shape designed to deflect enemy radar, it features a wave-piercing "tumblehome" hull, composite deckhouse, electric propulsion and new guns.

More tests will be conducted when the ship returns to sea later this month for final trials before being delivered to the Navy. The warship is due to be commissioned in October in Baltimore, and will undergo more testing before becoming fully operational in 2018.

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Transit systems eye Uber, Lyft for savings on the disabled

BOSTON (AP)  Several U.S. transit systems looking to defray costs of providing services for the disabled are weighing partnerships with Uber and Lyft, unsettling some advocates who note that ride-hailing services have themselves faced criticism over accessibility.

Paratransit, better known under names like "The Ride," ''Access-a-Ride," or "Dial-a-Ride," is required under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act. But the costs, which include door-to-door pickup and drop-off, can be steep.

The average cost of operating a single paratransit trip is about $23 in the U.S., compared with less than $4 for the average trip on bus or light rail. In Boston, the average cost per ride is about $45, in Washington, about $50, and in New York, nearly $57, officials said.

In this Tuesday, April 5, 2016 photo, Sarah Kaplan, of Lynn, Mass., rides an elevator to board a bus outside her place of work, in Boston. Transit systems in major U.S. cities are required by federal law to provide specialized services for disabled passengers. In Boston, the deficit-laden MBTA is considering ways of reducing service for the disabled and outsourcing more of it to taxis and ride-hailing services like Uber. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Transit agencies nationwide logged about 223 million paratransit trips at a cost exceeding $5.1 billion  about 12 percent of total transit operating costs  in 2013, according to the most recent data from the American Public Transportation Association. The price tag is particularly high in major cities, where agencies struggle with regular service and maintenance.

"I understand there are budget concerns. But for me this is a quality-of-life issue," said Sarah Kaplan, 32, who was born with cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. She rides a vehicle operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to get to and from her job as internship coordinator with the Boston Center for Independent Living.

"I want the right to leave my house like everyone else," Kaplan said.

In 2012, the MBTA doubled fares from $2 to $4 for The Ride, triggering protests; several people chained their wheelchairs together and blocked traffic. Fares were later rolled back to $3 for most rides.

The deficit-ridden agency now hopes to cut $10 million in annual paratransit costs by expanding an existing taxi voucher system and contracting with ride-hailing services.

The plan, not yet finalized, would charge customers $2 per ride, while the MBTA contributes up to $13 for the trip. If a trip costs more than $15, the passenger would pay the difference.

A potential incentive for riders: Uber or Lyft can be summoned immediately with an app; trips on MBTA vehicles must be scheduled a day ahead.

"My guess is it will be very appealing to people who need to go shorter distances where the fares are under $15 and they can get an on-demand ride as opposed to booking 24 hours in advance," said Brian Shortsleeve, the agency's chief administrator.

But convenience comes with a catch.

With a limited number of wheelchair-accessible vehicles, the ride-hailing services would be available largely to people who can walk. And while a majority of individuals certified to use paratransit fit that bill, advocates worry about creating an unfair and possibly even illegal two-tiered system for the disabled  one serving people who can walk, the other those whose needs the private vehicles can't accommodate.

"We don't want racial segregation, and we also don't want disability segregation," said Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst for the California-based Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund.

Uber and Lyft have both cited efforts to improve offerings for disabled riders. But the services have argued they are technology, not transportation, companies, meaning they are not required to provide accessible vehicles. Advocates for the disabled have filed a handful of lawsuits.

In January, a coalition including disability rights groups and labor unions wrote to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, known as Metro, expressing alarm over the agency's interest in contracting with companies such as Uber or Lyft.

"This is of grave concern to our coalition for many reasons, most importantly because neither company has adequate access to wheelchair accessible vehicles," the letter stated. Passenger safety and inadequate driver training were also cited as concerns, though activists did applaud Metro for seeking alternative forms of transportation.

The system already supplements its MetroAccess service with alternatives such as Transport DC, which offers $5 taxi rides to the disabled, including wheelchair-accessible cabs.

Metro hopes to solicit formal proposals from ride-sharing companies this summer but will pay careful attention to how such a program is structured, said Christian Kent, assistant manager of access services.

Pace, which operates the Chicago-area paratransit system, has had preliminary meetings with Uber and Lyft, said agency spokesman Doug Sullivan. He cited as a potential barrier the strict federal guidelines that drivers for Pace  or any company under contract with Pace  must meet for training, and drug and alcohol testing.

A spokesman for New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the nation's largest transit system, declined to say whether it had reached out to ride-hailing services but did say no agreements were in place.

The San Francisco Examiner reported last year that Uber was in talks to take over that city's paratransit system, something that didn't come to pass.

Uber did not provide details of current paratransit proposals, but the company has pointed to disability outreach efforts such as UberACCESS that connects riders with wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
The Latest: $1 million bond for suspect in ex-Saints death

NEW ORLEANS (AP)  The Latest on the shooting death of ex-NFL player Will Smith (all times local):

6 p.m.

A New Orleans magistrate has set bond at $1 million for the man accused of killing former New Orleans Saints player Will Smith. Magistrate Brigid Collins noted that Smith was shot in the back and side.

FILE - In this Dec. 9, 2012, file photo, New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith appears before an NFL football game against the New York Giants in East Rutherford, N.J. Smith was fatally shot after a traffic accident in New Orleans. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun, File)

Defense attorney John Fuller said after Sunday's hearing that 28-year-old Cardell Hayes is not guilty of the second-degree murder charge on which he's being held.

He implied that Hayes fired because he believed Smith was going for a gun of his own.

Fuller says the accident that police said touched off the shooting was the second within moments. He says a hit-and-run driver had just run into the back of Hayes' Hummer, and Hayes had called 911 and was following the other vehicle to get its license plate number.

Fuller won't say whether Hayes identifies Smith's Mercedes as the vehicle that hit the Hummer.

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3:30 p.m.

The New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame says defensive end Will Smith had been unanimously voted into the hall last month.

Hall of Fame President Ken Trahan (TRAY-han) says the announcement had been scheduled next month. He says the museum "expresses its deepest condolences and heartfelt prayers" to Smith's wife, Racquel, and their three children, William, Wynter and Lisa.

He says Smith was a superb player for the Saints for nine seasons, and an integral part of a team that won the 2009 Super Bowl.

He says a formal announcement and induction will be held, but has not yet been scheduled.

Police say Smith was shot and killed late Saturday in what appears to have been road rage. Twenty-eight-year-old Cardell Hayes has been arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in the case.

Conviction would bring an automatic life sentence.

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2:15 p.m.

New Orleans' police chief says investigators don't have any evidence that former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith and the man accused of killing him knew each other, or that Smith was targeted.

Superintendent Michael Harrison says that so far, it appears just to be an accident turned violent.

At a brief news conference Sunday, he would not say whether 28-year-old Cardell Hayes claims he shot Smith in self-defense. He says he doesn't want to say anything that might compromise the police investigation or weaken the case against Hayes.

He says Hayes shot Smith and Smith's wife during an argument after Hayes' Hummer rear-ended Smith's Mercedes about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Harrison says Smith's wife was shot once in the leg.

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2:15 p.m.

New Orleans' police chief confirms that people who dined Saturday night with former New Orleans Saints Will Smith included a former officer who had been sued by the man accused of killing Smith.

But Superintendent Michael Harrison says he cannot say whether that played any part in the crash and shooting. Spokesman Tyler Gamble says the former officer, William Ceravolo, was not among those present at the time of the crash.

Harrison says that so far, it appears just to be an accident turned violent.

Police have said 28-year-old Cardell Hayes shot Smith and Smith's wife during an argument after Hayes' Hummer rear-ended Smith's Mercedes about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Ceravolo was among six officers sued by Hayes after police killed his father, Anthony Hayes, in December 2005. Police settled the lawsuit in 2011.

Attorney Ike Spears, who represented Hayes, says the settlement was confidential.

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1:20 p.m.

The man accused of killing former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith had once sued city police after they shot and killed his father on Dec. 26, 2005.

Cardell Hayes, 28, and the city settled the federal lawsuit in September 2011, while attorneys were preparing for trial in the case. Court papers don't describe the settlement.

According to the lawsuit, several people told the officers that Antonio Hayes had a history of mental illness.

Police said they shot Antonio Hayes after he lunged at them with a 3-inch-long knife. Bystanders had video of officers surrounding Hayes, but not of the shooting. Six officers were defendants in the lawsuit, which said Anthony Hayes was shot at least nine times.

Cardell Hayes was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Smith, who was shot and killed Saturday after a traffic accident.

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10:45 a.m.

The New Orleans Saints have released a statement following the death of former defensive end Will Smith, who was shot and killed late Saturday in New Orleans.

Executive Vice President and General Manager Mickey Loomis says that the entire organization is deeply saddened by Smith's death and noted that he was "an important contributor to numerous charitable causes" and a "cornerstone" of the team that won the Super Bowl in 2009.

Among Smith's charitable causes was the Smith Family Christmas event that provided 60 needy families with holiday meals, gifts and a behind-the-scenes tour of the club's practice facilities.

A suspect has been arrested and charged with second-degree murder. Smith was shot to death after a traffic accident in New Orleans. His wife was shot in the leg and was being treated at a local hospital.

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9:30 a.m.

Police say a suspect has been arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in the death of former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, who was shot and killed Saturday night.

New Orleans Police Department spokesman Tyler Gamble on Sunday identified the suspect as Cardell Hayes, 29. Gamble said the investigation was ongoing but did not release further details.

Authorities say Hayes killed Smith after the two argued following a traffic accident in New Orleans late Saturday.

Police say Smith's wife was also shot and taken to a local hospital for treatment.

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6:10 a.m.

Former New Orleans Saints player Will Smith was shot and killed late Saturday after a traffic accident.

An emailed statement from New Orleans city coroner Jeffrey C. Rouse said that Smith died "of multiple gunshot wounds" after a traffic accident on Camp Street. The former defensive end was 34 years old. No other information was released.

A tweet from the verified account of Greg Bensel, Saints vice president of communications and broadcasting, expressed condolences to Smith's family.

Smith leaves behind a wife, Racquel, and three children.

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The 9:30 a.m. story has been corrected to show that Hayes was arrested on a charge of murder, rather than being charged with murder.

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Correspondent Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

This Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo provided by the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office shows Cardell Hayes. Police say Hayes has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith, who was shot and killed Saturday night. (Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office via AP)
Djokovic's French Open bid begins with Monte Carlo defense

MONACO (AP)  Novak Djokovic's bid to finally master clay and win the elusive French Open title starts with his title defense at the Monte Carlo Masters, where Rafael Nadal once crushed the competition.

The top-ranked Serb has won 11 Grand Slams but the French Open continues to elude him, having lost the final to Stan Wawrinka at Roland Garros last year and twice to Nadal.

"I don't like the word 'obsession' because it doesn't come from the right emotion," Djokovic told reporters Sunday. "But of course being the only Grand Slam I haven't won gives me even more incentive to give my best there this year."

Few would bet against Djokovic winning in Paris given his red-hot form but part of his renowned discipline involves stopping from looking that far ahead.

"When you need to operate as a human machine, you need to do that only in the present moment and the present time," said Djokovic, who sets aside time to perfect his inner balance. "Not Buddhism, specifically, but mindfulness, this holistic approach that allows me to maximize my being from every aspect. Not just physical but mental, emotional, spiritual. I try to be disciplined with all these different exercises that I do on a daily level."

Nadal, who lost to Djokovic in the Monte Carlo semifinals last year, won eight straight titles here from 2005-12 until Djokovic ended the Spaniard's run in the 2013 final.

Winning Monte Carlo was always the springboard that led to victory in Paris, and he thinks it will be tough to stop Djokovic doing the same.

Since beating Djokovic in the 2013 U.S. Open final, Nadal has lost 10 of their 11 meetings  the only win in that time coming when he beat Djokovic in the French Open final two years ago.

"He's going to be the favorite for every tournament (until) somebody shows something different," Nadal said Sunday with an air of inevitability. "He is (playing) with an unbelievable dynamic."

Since 2015, Djokovic has reached 19 finals in 21 tournaments, winning 15 and losing four finals.

In late February, he lost to Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in the Dubai quarterfinals  where Djokovic retired with of an eye infection after losing the first set.

That leaves big-serving Croat Ivo Karolovic as the only other to beat him outside of a final in that time, winning a hard-fought quarterfinal on outdoor hard courts in Doha, Qatar, in January 2015.

Djokovic's recent win at the Miami Masters was a record 28th in Masters  one more than Nadal  and saw him equal Andre Agassi's six titles in Miami as well as clinching the Indian Wells-Miami double for a third successive year.

"From one side, yes, I am pleasantly surprised with what I have achieved in last two years," Djokovic said. "From the other side, I've always expected myself to be at this level. Everybody peaks at different stages of their careers and for me it's right now."

Nadal has been swept away by the meteoric ascension of Djokovic, who is closing in on $100 million in career prize money.

The 28-year-old Djokovic, a year younger than Nadal, has 63 career titles. He is only four behind Nadal, who has yet to win one this year and won just three last year compared with 10 in 2013.

Djokovic leads Nadal 25-23 in their career head-to-heads; has a 23-22 lead over Roger Federer and a dominant 22-9 record against two-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray.

Djokovic did not drop a set in Miami and only dropped one set on his way to a second Monte Carlo success last year, against Czech Tomas Berdych in the final.

"What he's achieving right now is just exceptional. It's just the same as when Roger was at his peak," Berdych said. "One season I think (Federer) lost three or four matches so it's quite similar to Novak last year and like Nadal did one year. Within 10 years each of them took three years of that domination."
Want to graduate college debt free? Teach in a rural area

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP)  The teacher shortage in poor, rural districts in South Carolina is so bad, the state is considering offering would-be instructors a way to graduate from college debt free.

The catch? They have to spend eight years in the state's neediest districts, where turnover is the worst and the closest Wal-Mart can be up to 45 minutes away. There's another, perhaps even bigger, hurdle with Gov. Nikki Haley's proposal: The state doesn't have enough teachers interested in its current $5 million loan-forgiveness program.

"We're in deep trouble," said Melanie Barton, director of South Carolina's Education Oversight Committee. "We used to go to Ohio and Pennsylvania a lot to get teachers. Now those states don't have surpluses."

In this March 8 2016 photo, fourth-grade teacher Lori Clarke prepares for her students at Lonnie B. Nelson Elementary in Richland School District 2 in suburban Columbia, S.C. South Carolina's Career Changers loan-forgiveness program nearly covered the cost of Clarke's master's degree in education from the University of South Carolina. After graduating, $45,000 worth of loans were erased over three years of teaching at a high-poverty school in the Columbia area. She now works in a nearby school district. (AP Photo/Seanna M. Adcox)

The teacher shortage is nationwide. In South Carolina, colleges are graduating about 2,000 fewer teachers than needed. Many college students don't want to become teachers and the ones that do typically don't want to work in remote places. States are offering to wipe away college loans or increase salaries, but the incentives haven't enticed enough teachers.

In Indiana, the Legislature recently passed (March 22) the "Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship," rewarding students who commit to teaching five years in any public school with up to $30,000 off their college tuition. But the program is limited to 200 students yearly who graduate in the top 20 percent of their high school class.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, a Republican who sponsored the measure, called the program an "innovative way to encourage high school students."

"In today's economy, we realize our top-performing students have many college and career options," he said.

California faces one of the nation's most severe teacher shortages: Enrollment in college education programs has dropped more than 70 percent over the last decade, according to the Learning Policy Institute.

A bill to reinstate a program slashed during the recession offers loan forgiveness to graduates who spend four years in a disadvantaged or rural area teaching a subject where there is an identified shortage. But to get to pre-recession levels, California districts will need to hire 60,000 new teachers.

"You really can't afford to be a teacher if you owe $20-25,000 in student loan debt," said bill sponsor, Sen. Fran Pavley, a Democrat, adding California's high cost of living in many cities makes being a teacher even more challenging.

A state task force in Idaho, on the other hand, determined it would be more effective to increase average teacher salaries, said Blake Youde, spokesman for the Idaho State Board of Education.

Under the South Carolina governor's proposal, students could get $30,000 worth of student loans erased by working in one of 20 districts where teacher turnover ranged from 11 percent to 34 percent last year.

"There's nothing worse for a child to see teachers come and go, because it makes them feel it's not worth teaching in their school," said Haley, who grew up in Bamberg, a town of 3,500 people. The teachers will "become part of the community, so it may not have a movie theater and may not have a restaurant, but it has a community they fall in love with, and that's what we're going to focus on."

The existing Teacher Loan Program, created in 1984, offers less money  up to $20,000 for tuition  but the loan is erased in as few as three years if the graduate teaches a hard-to-fill subject, such as science, in a "critical" school. If the job doesn't fit both criteria, the loan's forgiven in five years.

And that doesn't require teaching in a rural district, since high poverty rates mean 70 percent of schools statewide are "critical." Yet, since 2013, a drop in applicants has left the program unable to spend the $5 million legislators provided in the budget.

Thelma Sojourner, superintendent of Denmark-Olar schools, said she's optimistic about the new rural teacher proposal. Her district of 700 students, nearly all of them living in poverty, posted a teacher-turnover rate last year of 20 percent.

She said she is lucky to keep a teacher for three years.

"Their eyes are always looking to see, 'How can I get to a larger district with more to offer?' If the opportunity comes, they take off," said Sojourner, a Denmark native who's worked in the district for 45 years, the last six as superintendent. "If they are a good teacher, look at how many lives they can touch in seven or eight years. It would make a tremendous difference in terms of student performance."

Haley asked legislators to put $13.5 million into the rural initiative. The South Carolina House instead put $8.2 million in its budget toward the plan and an additional $9 million to poor districts to be used as one-time teacher signing or performance bonuses. The Senate hasn't taken up the plan yet.

In South Carolina, first-year teachers make just slightly more than graduates' average debt of $29,000.

"Money isn't everything," said Jane Turner, director of South Carolina's Center for Educator Recruitment, Retention and Advancement. "But if you've got a student loan to pay back, you have to look at starting pay. That's why we're looking at ways for people to become teachers without incurring a lot of debt."

The Associated Press tried unsuccessfully to talk to teachers in the current loan forgiveness program. Messages left with multiple district officials were not returned.

Fourth-grade teacher Lori Clarke, who went back to college from the business world to become a teacher, got $45,000 worth of loans forgiven through the state's separate Career Changers program.

Those loans were erased in three years of working in a high-poverty school in the Columbia area. She ended up staying for 11.

"You kind of fall in love with it, where they need you so much," said Clarke, who now teaches in a nearby district. "My colleagues there really acted as a family, not only to each other but to the children they taught."

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Associated Press Writer Christine Armario in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
Phoenix voters reflect on botched presidential primary

PHOENIX (AP)  The fiasco that was Arizona's primary election may be the only issue that voters across all parties agree on.

Democrats and Republicans alike in the state's largest county that's home to Phoenix are still incredulous over election officials' decision to operate 60 polling sites on March 22, down from the normal 200.

That created six-hour waits, voter registration mix-ups and voting after hearing a winner get called.

FILE - In this March 22, 2016, file photo, people wait in line to vote in a primary election in Chandler, Ariz. Democrats and Republicans alike in the states largest county thats home to Phoenix are still incredulous over election officials decision to operate 60 polling sites on March 22, down from the normal 200. (David Kadlubowski/The Arizona Republic via AP, File) MARICOPA COUNTY OUT; MAGS OUT; NO SALES; MANDATORY CREDIT

Another aggravating factor was many independent overs  who were not allowed to vote in the closed primary but are the state's largest voting bloc  went to the polls anyway. They cast provisional ballots, a process that takes on average five minutes.

While some voters called for the firing of county officials, many agree that at a minimum they have to do better.

Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell has taken full responsibility but refused calls to quit. She said she grossly miscalculated turnout and voter interest. Gov. Doug Ducey is now supporting opening primaries to independents.

Secretary of State Michele Reagan, the state's top elections official, will hold public meetings beginning Monday on the primary.

Here are a few experiences from suburban Phoenix voters who went out and voted  or at least tried to  and their frustrations with the democratic process.

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Ron Landon, 68, waited 4-1/2 hours to finally cast his vote for fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton. But what he will remember is the man selling bottled water to people in line while a woman gave pallets of bottles away.

Landon said the experience has left him charged up about voting and making sure the county makes some changes, including firing county Elections Recorder Purcell. He said the lack of preparation really "shortchanges democracy."

"This is one of the most important functions of democracy that makes America what it is," Landon said. "If people are going to undersell voters like this or play these kinds of games, they do not deserve to be in the positions they're in."

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The primary marked Clayton Varvel's first time voting. The Chandler student, 18, was looking forward to actually going down to the polls to physically vote as a kind of "homage to the past and the history of voting."

What he thought wouldn't take more than 30 minutes took nearly two hours. Varvel estimates a few hundred people were ahead of him. Many around him were visibly frustrated. He eventually cast his vote for Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.

He said people may walk away with the idea that election officials, in deciding to cut back on polling sites, were OK with longer lines. "In reality, they didn't see the collateral damage that a lot of people wouldn't be voting because of it," he said.

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Melissa Dunmore, 26, double-checked that everything was in order before heading to the polls. She went on a state website and verified that she was correctly listed as a Democrat.

After an hour of waiting to vote, she finally reached the head of the line, where a poll worker told her she was coming up as not registered to any party. As a result, she could only cast a provisional ballot for Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Dunmore said she later confirmed with the elections office that she was a registered Democrat and that she shouldn't have been given a provisional ballot.

Still, even if her vote did not count, the symbolism of voting meant something. Her father is African-American, and remembers a time when nobody in his family could vote. "Even if the symbol is all we have, I'm gonna participate," Dunmore said.

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Victoria Bryand, 34, received praise from others for sitting out a horrendously long line at a downtown Phoenix polling site.

After standing in heels for 30 minutes, Bryand remembered she still had camping chairs in her car. She shared them with two other women in line. During their four-hour wait, they got relief from strangers handing out bottled water and frosted animal cookies.

When her turn finally came, Bryand was told that she had no party affiliation. Polling workers could not be swayed by an email she had confirming that she had updated her voter registration for the Democratic Party.

She had to settle for a provisional ballot for Bernie Sanders, and later learned her vote wasn't counted.
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John Kerry became the first US secretary of state to travel to Hiroshima more than 70 years after the atomic bomb was first used, but he will not be offering an apology on his trip, officials said.

Kerry visited the revered memorial to Hiroshima's atomic bombing on Monday to offer a message of peace and pay his respects to the 140,000 Japanese who died after the US deployed the nuclear weapon on August 6, 1945.

Kerry is visiting the city with other Group of Seven (G7), including Philip Hammond, the British Foreign Secretary, as well as foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, raising the possibility that Obama will pay an unprecedented visit in May as he attends the annual G7 summit in Kashiko Island.

John Kerry became the first US secretary of state to travel to Hiroshima after the atomic bomb obliterated the city in 1945. He visited with other Group of Seven (G7) ministers including from British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, third from left, and other foreign ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy as well as Japan

Kerry (left) didn't speak publicly at the ceremony, though could be seen with his arm around Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (right), a Hiroshima native, and whispering in his ear

The otherwise somber occasion was lifted by the presence of about 800 Japanese schoolchildren waving flags of the G7 nations, including that of the United States, and cheering as the ministers walked past

Nancy Pelosi, who was the Speaker of the House of Representatives, remains the highest-ranking US official to have toured the museum during her 2008 trip. Kerry is the highest ranking official within the executive branch to visit.

'If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologize, the answer is no,' a senior U.S. official told reporters late on Sunday.

THE BOMBING OF HIROSHIMA Hiroshima became the first city in history to be targeted by a nuclear weapon when the U.S. Army dropped an atomic bomb on it on the morning of August 6, 1945. The bomb, containing a destructive power never before witnessed, directly killed an estimated 80,000 people, while some 160,000 - almost half the city's population - are thought to have died due to injury and radiation. Three days later a second atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki, causing a similar number of deaths. The massive scale of destruction and killing led to Japan's surrender. The two bombings remain the only instances of nuclear weapons targeting cities during warfare. While some have called for the U.S. to apologize, many believe the bombings were justified and helped avoid thousands of deaths by speeding up the end of the war. Advertisement

Instead, the ministers laid white flower wreaths, as the exposed steel beams of Hiroshima's iconic A-Bomb Dome stood in the distance. The ministers also departed with origami cranes in their national colors around their necks.

Kerry did not make a speech at the event, but wrote in the museum's guest book: 'Everyone in the world should see and feel the power of this memorial.

'It is a stark, harsh, compelling reminder not only of our obligation to end the threat of nuclear weapons, but to rededicate all our effort to avoid war itself.'

'War must be the last resort  never the first choice,' he added. 'This memorial compels us all to redouble our efforts to change the world, to find peace and build the future so yearned for by citizens everywhere.'

Asked later if this meant Obama should come, Kerry said: 'Everyone means everyone. So I hope one day the president of the United States will be among the everyone who is able to come here. Whether or not he can come as president, I don't know.

'It is a stunning display. It is a gut-wrenching display,' he said. 'It is a reminder of the depth of the obligation everyone of us in public life carries... to create and pursue a world free from nuclear weapons,' he told a news conference.

Kerry's appearance completed an evolution for the United States, whose leaders avoided the city for many years because of political sensitivities.

No serving U.S. president has visited the site, and it took 65 years for a U.S. ambassador to attend Hiroshima's annual memorial service.

Many Americans believe the dropping of atomic bombs here on Aug. 6, 1945, and on the Japanese city of Nagasaki three days later were justified and hastened the end of the war.

Nevertheless, Japanese survivors' groups have campaigned for decades to bring leaders from the U.S. and other nuclear powers to see Hiroshima's scars as part of a grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons.

As Kerry expressed interest, neither Japanese government officials nor survivor groups pressed for the U.S. to say sorry.

'If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologize, the answer is no,' a senior U.S. official told reporters late on Sunday. Instead, the ministers laid white flower wreaths (pictured, Kerry, fourth from right, Hammond third from right)

The exposed steel beams of Hiroshima's iconic A-Bomb Dome stood in the distance. Kerry wrote in the museum's guest book: 'Everyone in the world should see and feel the power of this memorial. It is a stark, harsh, compelling reminder not only of our obligation to end the threat of nuclear weapons but to rededicate all our effort to avoid war itself'

Obama still hasn't made a decision about visiting the city and its memorial when he attends a Group of Seven meeting of leaders in central Japan in late May, according to the senior U.S. official (Kerry, pictured center, with German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier, right)

The otherwise somber occasion was lifted by the presence of about 800 Japanese schoolchildren waving flags of the G7 nations, including that of the United States, and cheering as the ministers walked past

John Kerry and British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond wave to children after laying wreaths at the Memorial Cenotaph

Kerry points out to Japan's Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida a passage about friendship in a replica of a letter between the two countries in 1861

'I don't think it is something absolutely necessary when we think of the future of the world and peace for our next generation,' Masahiro Arimai, a 71-year-old Hiroshima restaurant owner, said of an apology.

Yoshifumi Sasaki, a 68-year-old, longtime resident, agreed: 'We all want understanding.'

Both wished for Obama to follow in Kerry's footsteps next month.

The president still hasn't made a decision about visiting the city and its memorial when he attends a Group of Seven meeting of leaders in central Japan in late May, according to the senior U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter and demanded anonymity.

During his first year in office, Obama said he would be 'honored' to do so.

Shortly before the ceremony, Kerry called it 'a moment that I hope will underscore to the world the importance of peace and the importance of strong allies working together to make the world safer and, ultimately, we hope to be able to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction.'

'And while we will revisit the past and honor those who perished, this trip is not about the past,' Kerry said as he met with Kishida. 'It's about the present and the future particularly, and the strength of the relationship that we have built, the friendship that we share, the strength of our alliance and the strong reminder of the imperative we all have to work for peace for peoples everywhere.'

The museum includes harrowing images of the destruction and shocking exhibits, including the torn clothing of children who perished and skin, fingernails, deformed tongues and other horrible examples of the exposure to the blast and its residual radiation.

Kerry's appearance completed an evolution for the United States, whose leaders avoided the city for many years because of political sensitivities

Japanese survivors' groups have campaigned for decades to bring leaders from the U.S. and other nuclear powers to see Hiroshima's scars as part of a grassroots movement to abolish nuclear weapons. As Kerry expressed interest, neither Japanese government officials nor survivor groups pressed for the U.S. to say sorry
Palestinians hope for Obama change of heart with UN vote

JERUSALEM (AP)  With President Barack Obama in his last months in office, the Palestinians are hoping he will follow up his historic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba with a push for their cause as well.

The first step is reintroducing a United Nations Security Council resolution the United States vetoed back in 2011 seeking "accountability" for Israeli West Bank settlement building.

In an interview, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the hope is that Obama, freed of re-election concerns, will break with American protocol and refrain from vetoing it this time around.

File - In this March 4, 2016 file photo, Israeli soldiers stand guard at Gush Etzion junction near a cluster of settlements in the West Bank. With President Barack Obama in his last months in office, the Palestinians are hoping he will follow up his historic breakthroughs with Iran and Cuba with a push for their cause as well. The first step is reintroducing a United Nations Security Council resolution the United States vetoed back in 2011 seeking "accountability" for Israeli West Bank settlement building. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean, File)

"There are indications that President Barack Obama may try to put a basis for a new era regarding the Palestinian-Israeli issue before leaving the White House after his achievements in Iran and Cuba," Malki said. "Thus the U.S. administration may surprise Israel by voting in favor of a Palestinian resolution or at least not to use the veto against it."

The draft, which Malki said stresses the "violence and terrorism of the settlers," still needs approval from Arab nations before the Palestinians would consider presenting it. But the move signals a renewed effort to get back on the agenda.

The last round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks broke down some two years ago, and the Palestinians have struggled to attract international attention as the world focuses on the Syrian civil war, the migrant crisis in Europe and the U.S. election.

The Palestinians have long sought to press their case in the United Nations, where they enjoy widespread support. In 2012, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly accepted the Palestinians as a nonmember state, giving them upgraded status that, among other things, has allowed them to push for war crimes charges against Israel.

A Security Council resolution is generally considered legally binding and would add even more pressure on Israel.

Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast War. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but nearly 600,000 Israeli settlers remain in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The Palestinians claim all three areas for a future state, a position that has wide global support. Similarly, the international community widely sees Israeli settlements as illegal or illegitimate, and a major obstacle to peace.

Israel's closest ally, the United States, also opposes new settlements, but has consistently opposed moves in the Security Council against Israel, arguing it would complicate peace negotiations.

Asked last week about the latest Palestinian proposal, U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington had no position, saying the draft is still at a "very early stage."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has dismissed the Palestinian efforts at the U.N. as an attempt to impose a solution on Israel and circumvent negotiations.
The Latest: Syrian insurgents assault government positions

BEIRUT (AP)  The Latest on Syria's complex civil war (all times local):

9 p.m.

Activists say Syrian insurgents have launched an offensive against government forces north of the western city of Hama.

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, says opposition factions assaulted government positions in the Sahl al-Ghab plains, which lie east of the government's Latakia province stronghold.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside the country, says hard-line Islamist groups are leading the offensive, alongside al-Qaida's Syrian affiliate, known as the Nusra Front, and the jihadist group Jund al-Aqsa.

A Lebanese TV station close to the Syrian government, Al-Mayadeen, says government forces have repelled the assault. The Observatory says there are reports of several casualties as the fighting continues.

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8:15 p.m.

A top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader says the removal of Syrian President Bashar Assad from power is a "red line" for Tehran.

State-run press TV on Sunday quoted Ali Akbar Velayati as saying that "Iran believes that the government of Bashar al-Assad should remain in power until the end of the presidency term."

Velayati, a senior foreign policy adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stressed that only the Syrian people can decide the future of their country and their president.

Assad was re-elected in 2014 to another seven-year term in elections held in territory controlled by his forces. The vote was widely condemned and boycotted by the opposition.

Iran has been a key ally of Assad's government throughout the five-year Syrian conflict.

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8 p.m.

Russia's Foreign Ministry says U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have stressed the need for more cooperation between their two countries to strengthen the cease-fire in Syria.

The ministry statement said that during Sunday's phone conversation, Lavrov and Kerry also discussed efforts to fight the Islamic State group, the al-Qaida-affiliated Nusra Front and other terrorist organizations, agreeing to take additional measures to halt the flow of militants and weapons from abroad.

Lavrov's office also said the two diplomats expressed support for the efforts of the U.N. envoy to Syria, Staffan de Mistura, to convene the next round of talks in Geneva between the Syrian government and the opposition.

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7:30 p.m.

Activists say airstrikes around the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State group, have killed several civilians and militants.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the airstrikes on Sunday killed three IS leaders and 21 other militants as well as eight civilians.

Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, a group of activists with contacts inside the city, says a prominent IS judge was among those killed.

It says Fawaz al-Hassan, also known as Abu Ali al-Shari, had been kicked out of IS over his extreme legal interpretations, but was later brought back into the fold to frighten potential defectors. It says 20 civilians were killed in the strikes.

Russia, Syria, and a U.S.-led international coalition have been bombing IS territory for months. It was unclear who was behind Sunday's strikes.

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4:15 p.m.

Syrian activists say the Islamic State group has launched a major offensive along the Turkish border, seizing two villages near a border town captured by Western-backed rebels two days ago.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside the country, says IS militants seized Sheikh Reeh and al-Bal on Sunday.

The activist-run Azaz Media Center, based in a northern town of the same name, says the extremists exploded seven bombs around Marea and other villages and towns, calling it the fiercest IS offensive in a year.

The IS-linked Aamaq News Agency claims the capture of the two villages and says a suicide operation targeted rebel fighters in opposition-held Kafr Shousha.
Former cartel boss Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa was shot dead outside a mall in Dallas and had been living in the city for two years

A top cartel boss who was slain at a mall in Dallas was hiding in a $1million home in the city for two years while on the run from rival gangsters who wanted him dead, according to court documents.

Juan Jesus Guerrero Chapa moved to his suburban home in Southlake in 2011, two years before he was allegedly assassinated by three men who prosecutors claim had been stalking him for months.

Chapa was murdered in May 2013, when a masked gunman walked up to his Range Rover and shot him several times at close-range with a 9mm pistol.

According to the FBI, three rival gang members - who are all related - traveled from Mexico and spent months tracking Chapa down.

Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Cepeda, his son Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano Jr and cousin Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes allegedly set up CCTV cameras around his neighborhood to track his movements before the shooting.

While most cartel kingpins are believed to hide from the law in Mexico, where authorities can be bought off, Chapa had decided he was safer in the U.S..

He moved to north Texas because he was wanted by rival gangsters, but was living in fear because 'he had been found by people who wanted to kill him', court records show.

The court filing by lawyers for Ledezma-Cepeda claims Chapa used to be head of the notorious Gulf cartel.

Chapa rose to power after the gang's former leader Osiel Cardenas-Guillen was extradited to the U.S. in 2007 and jailed for 25 years for his involvement in drug trafficking, attorneys said.

Chapa moved to his suburban home (pictured) in Southlake in 2011, two years before he was allegedly assassinated by three men who prosecutors claim had been stalking him for months.

Chapa rose to power after the gang's former leader Osiel Cardenas-Guillen was extradited to the U.S. in 2007 and jailed for 25 years

'Chapa ran a large criminal enterprise whose activities included murders, narcotics trafficking, kidnapping, extortion, bribery, money laundering and torture,' the court document says.

He was only head of the cartel for a short transitional period, Ledezma-Cepeda's attorney Wes Ball said.

Federal authorities have said Chapa was Cardenas-Guillen's lawyer before his arrest and was a principle figure in the cartel's operation.

The Gulf cartel controls most illegal drug imports into southern Texas, according to the DEA, including Houston, San Antonio and Austin.

However, Dallas - a key city for traffickers because of its transport links to the rest of Texas and other southern states - is under the control of the Sinaloa cartel, most commonly associated with its notorious leader Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman.

El Chapo is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. after his capture in Mexico following a bizarre meeting with actor Sean Penn.

Cartels often have lower-level members living in the U.S. to broaden drug-trafficking efforts, DEA spokesman Russ Baer said.

These operatives are usually in the United States for limited periods and then rotated back to Mexico to avoid law enforcement scrutiny.

However, upper-level leaders usually do not live in the U.S. due to the increased likelihood of capture, Mr Baer said.

Ledezma-Cepeda, his son Jesus Gerardo Ledezma-Campano Jr and cousin Jose Luis Cepeda-Cortes face trial for the killing of Chapa.

Their trial is expected to offer a rare insight into cartel operations.

'Most of your cartel heads never go to trial, they almost always plead guilty,' Mr Ball said. 'So public trials where all the nitty gritty details are laid out is actually pretty rare.'
2 ousted executives defend work at Wounded Warrior Project

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP)  Two men ousted from top executive positions at Wounded Warrior Project say their leadership upheld the intent of donors who contributed millions to one of the nation's largest veteran support groups.

Al Giordano and Steve Nardizzi want the Jacksonville-based charity's board of directors to publicly release the results of an independent review of its records.

The board announced late March 10 that Nardizzi was no longer chief executive officer and Giordano was out as chief operating officer. Amid news reports alleging wasteful spending, the board hired outside legal counsel and forensic accounting consultants for a records review.

The board has named retired Maj. Gen. Charlie Fletcher as interim chief operating officer and launched a national search for a new CEO.

Since their ouster, Nardizzi and Giordano have been defending their work in media interviews, op-ed pieces and posts on their blog, www.thewoundedtruth.com.

"The two most painful (allegations) are that somehow we're not treating donor dollars appropriately and that we're not taking care of warriors," Nardizzi told The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/1YnaGF4) in an interview. "For me, watching the news reports, those were the most personally painful allegations, and obviously untrue."

In a statement Friday, the board said the independent review's findings were submitted orally and summarized in the March 10 announcement, and there was no written report to be released.

"The board continues to implement changes that will move the organization forward and do everything necessary to support the thousands of men and women who rely on WWP on a daily basis," the statement said.

Former Marine John Melia launched Wounded Warrior Project in 2003 and later recruited Giordano, a longtime friend, and Nardizzi, a lawyer who never served in the military, to the charity. Melia left in 2009, and Nardizzi and Giordano were credited with subsequently building the organization into a major fundraiser.

Nardizzi said there were some things he should have done differently, such as not choosing a luxury resort in Colorado for an annual employee conference in 2014. He also regretted rappelling down the side of the resort during the opening night of the conference, an action caught on video.

"I would change that so you wouldn't have the ability to misportray that event as something that it wasn't," he said.

The board tallied the conference's costs at $970,000, instead of a reported $3 million, but still pledged to cut back on such events.

Complaints from employees, veterans and charity watchdogs about the organizations lavish spending emerged in reports by The New York Times and CBS News in January.

Nardizzi and Giordano said their fundraising is helping veterans cope with a variety of injuries, but headlines about the board's decision to fire them made it seem like the independent review had found serious wrongdoing.

"We understand that we work for the board of directors," Giordano said. "It's at-will. Jacksonville is a big Navy town. I'm sure you've heard in Navy speak 'loss of confidence in command,' and that's OK. But I think the way it was handled was poorly done."

The Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance suspended its charity seal designation for Wounded Warrior after the board cut ties with Nardizzi and Giordano. Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer for the alliance, said it's seeking more information about the review and determining whether the nonprofit meets the BBB's standards.

The board said Friday its commitment to the alliance's standards "remains unchanged," and it also is cooperating with U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has questioned the charity's spending practices.

Nardizzi, 45, and Giordano, 54, said they remain interested in serving veterans and supporting Wounded Warrior Project.
Archbishop of Canterbury "not embarrassed" over new father

LUSAKA, Zambia (AP)  Britain's Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, says he is not embarrassed over the revelation that he was born from an extra-marital affair between his mother and one of Winston Churchill's assistants.

Welby, in Zambia for the 16th meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the news should not change his status in the church.

"It certainly does not invalidate my consecration. We did check the rules," he said. "It does not make a shred of difference. People will judge me on who I am and on what I do, not my genetic makeup."

FILE- In this Friday, Jan. 15, 2016 file photo, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, addresses the media during a press conference in Canterbury, England. The archbishop of Canterbury said, Saturday, April 9, 2016, DNA tests have identified his real father, but the revelation hasnt shaken his sense of identity. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

Welby said he is "not embarrassed in any way" by the news that he was fathered by Sir Anthony Montague Browne, not by Gavin Welby who raised him. "It has not changed me in any way. ... I have the same life history I had before, the same friends I had before. Nothing has changed. ... I am who I am in Jesus Christ and nothing more or less than that. Nothing changes."

After hearing that genetic testing determined that he was the son of Montague Browne, the archbishop said he called his mother the next day. "My mother is someone who is extraordinarily courageous. She is one of these people who look facts in the face. She said if that is reality then we had better deal with it. She was obviously shocked. She said that in her own statement. So we then sat down and looked at how we would deal with it."
Clinton, Trump push to rebound in Northeast

WASHINGTON (AP)  Front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump pushed for big wins on friendlier terrain in the Northeast Sunday as they tried to build challenge-proof delegate majorities ahead of their nominating conventions against rivals who won't go away.

Both Trump and Clinton campaigned in New York ahead of its April 19 primary which offers a large trove of delegates who will select the parties' nominees at their national conventions in July.

Trump is seeking to rebound in his home state after a decisive loss to his main rival, the ultraconservative Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, last Tuesday in Wisconsin.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton exits after speaking at New Greater Bethel Ministries during a campaign stop, Sunday, April, 10, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/Bryan R. Smith)

The billionaire real estate developer remains well short of the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the Republican nomination. His campaign is now focusing on developing a delegate-centered strategy akin to the one that Cruz has pursued for months.

"A more traditional approach is needed and Donald Trump recognizes that," Paul Manafort, Trump's new delegate chief, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Even so, Trump later in the day complained that the system is "corrupt" and "crooked" and said it's unfair that the person who wins the most votes may not be the nominee.

"What they're trying to do is subvert the movement with crooked shenanigans," Trump told a crowd of thousands gathered in a packed airport hangar in Rochester, New York. "We're supposed to be a democracy," he added.

If denied the Republican nomination, he went on to warn, "You're going to have a big problem, folks, because there are people who don't like what's going on."

Clinton, who lost Wyoming Saturday night to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, is trying to maintain her commanding lead among delegates no matter how many states Sanders wins  or how much "momentum" he claims. Key to her drive is a victory in New York, which she represented in the U.S. Senate. Sanders, who was born in Brooklyn, can claim New York as his home state.

After stops in New York City churches, Clinton headed to Baltimore for her first campaign rally in Maryland, where she picked up the endorsement of popular local congressman Elijah Cummings.

Maryland, where Clinton is favored, holds its primary on April 26 along with Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut.

Clinton's campaign is looking for big wins across the Northeast, in an effort to gain what they've termed an "all but insurmountable" lead in the delegate race.

"I was honored to serve as your senator for eight years. I worked hard with so many leaders," Clinton told parishioners at Greater Allen Cathedral in Jamaica, Queens on Sunday morning. "I'm now running for president to continue the work we've done all those years."

Sanders, behind Clinton by hundreds of delegates, is pointing to statewide wins in seven of the last eight state contests. But his latest victory in Wyoming did nothing to help him in the delegate chase: Both Sanders and Clinton got seven delegates.

On CBS, Sanders noted that the contest has moved from the conservative South  "Not a stronghold for me"  into states like New York, Pennsylvania and California where he expects to do well.

Clinton has 1,287 delegates based on primaries and caucuses, compared to Sanders' 1,037. When including superdelegates, or party officials who can back any candidate, Clinton has 1,756, or 74 percent of the number needed to clinch the nomination. Sanders has 1,068.

On the Republican side, Trump continued to try to catch up to Cruz's ground operation, which is months ahead and trying to eat into Trump's home state support in conservative pockets of New York. Manafort said the Cruz campaign was using a "scorched earth" approach in which "they don't care about the party. If they don't get what they want, they blow it up."

He spoke a day after Cruz completed his sweep of Colorado's 34 delegates by locking up the remaining 13 at the party's state convention in Colorado Springs. He already had collected 21 delegates and visited the state Saturday to try to pad his numbers there.

For Ohio Gov. John Kasich, it's about winning enough delegates to keep all candidates from locking up a majority of delegates, thereby forcing a contested convention. And that means sowing doubts about the effect that a Trump or Cruz nomination would have on the party. He said there's "great concern" not just about how each would represent the Republican Party, but about the prospect of a blowout loss up and down the ticket in November.

"We would lose seats all the way from the statehouse to the courthouse"  meaning races all down the ballot, Kasich told CBS's "Face the Nation."

Trump still has a narrow path to nailing down the Republican nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7, but he has little room for error. He would need to win nearly 60 percent of all the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination before the convention. So far, he's winning about 45 percent.

Following Cruz's sweep of Colorado's remaining delegates on Saturday, the Associated Press delegate count stands at Trump 743, Cruz 545, and Kasich 143. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign, has 171 delegates. To clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is joined on stage by Harry Belafonte as he speaks at a campaign event at the Apollo Theatre, Saturday, April 9, 2016, in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition spring leadership meeting, Saturday, April 9, 2016, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Anthony Joshua wins IBF world heavyweight title after stopping Charles Martin

Anthony Joshua has stopped Charles Martin in two rounds to win the IBF heavyweight title in only his 16th professional fight at London's O2 Arena.

The Olympic gold medallist, who has long been considered the most promising fighter in the heavyweight division, needed only one minute and 32 seconds of the second to end the unconvincing American's first title defence and begin what is hoped will be a lengthy reign as world champion.

A fast and powerful right hand, like so many which had stopped each of Joshua's previous 15 opponents, put Martin to the canvas midway through the second and left Martin clearly uncertain.

Anthony Joshua is the IBF world heavyweight champion

The challenger subtly celebrated the first knockdown in a show of confidence he knew the fight would imminently be over.

He threw another another almost immediately after Martin was back to his feet, and this time he failed to beat the count, ending the fight as quickly and clinically as the challenger had threatened.

Martin's finest chance came in exposing the 26-year-old Joshua's inexperience and the fact he was yet to fight a southpaw throughout his professional career.

Instead he appeared what most had long suspected: a limited fighter who may never have become champion had Vyacheslav Glazkov not suffered a serious knee injury in the third round the January evening he won the vacant title.

The attempts to counter the one-dimensional style Joshua has previously shown which Martin had promised never materialised, owing to the fact the challenger's speed and reflexes were superior.

A cagey opening minute was followed by Joshua landing with rights to the body, and while Martin remained composed, his opponent grew in confidence and pursued him with greater intent from the second.

His swift and destructive finish did little to demonstrate whether he had learnt from the mistakes that almost cost him victory against Dillian Whyte in December, and only to highlight the devastating power he retains.

The suspicion remains that without further time to develop he will struggle when matched with one of the division's rangier, smarter or more mobile fighters, and as the new champion time is one of the few things which he will be short of.

As had long been expected, he arguably becomes the active fighter with the greatest earning potential given likely future fights against WBO and WBA champion Tyson Fury or David Haye likely in the coming 12 to 18 months.
Jordan Spieth takes one-shot advantage into final round at Augusta

A dramatic late stumble from defending champion Jordan Spieth threw the 80th Masters wide open on Saturday, even though Rory McIlroy suffered a hugely disappointing third round at Augusta National.

McIlroy began the day just a shot off the lead but evoked memories of his final round collapse in 2011 as he stumbled to a 77, failing to card a single birdie for the first time in 81 major rounds.

However, playing partner Spieth also bogeyed the 17th and double bogeyed the 18th after wild drives to card a 73 and finish three under par, just a shot ahead of fellow American Smylie Kaufman.

Jordan Spieth takes a one-shot lead into the final round of the Masters

The 58-year-old Bernhard Langer was just a shot further back alongside Hideki Matsuyama and in contention to become the oldest major champion ever by a decade, with world number one Jason Day, Dustin Johnson and England's Danny Willett on level par.

Lee Westwood, Soren Kjeldsen and Brandt Snedeker were a shot further back, with McIlroy five shots behind Spieth on two over as he looks to complete the career grand slam.

"I climbed back nicely to get two under on the day and I thought even par was a fantastic score in those winds when we were warming up," said Spieth, who still became the first player to hold the outright lead for seven straight rounds. "So two under with three to go and the wind at your side, I just got really wayward from there.

"I just have to absolutely throw it away, the finish to this round, pretend it's a new round, everyone is tied and you have to shoot the best score to win. (I have to) understand it's the position I wanted to be in after 54 holes and not think about the finish to this round."

Langer, who won his first green jacket 31 years ago and the second three months before Spieth was born, utilised all of his experience to shoot 70 and believes he can surpass the 48-year-old Julius Boros as the oldest winner of any major. Jack Nicklaus was 46 when he became the oldest Masters champion in 1986.

"I've been saying it's going to happen sooner or later," Langer said. "W e have guys like Davis Love, Vijay Singh and Fred Couples who are all long enough to win majors. I'm not in that category but I try to make up for it in others and tomorrow I'm going to give it my best. That's all I can do."

Spieth, who is looking to become only the fourth player after Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods to win back-to-back Masters titles, began the day with a one-shot lead into the round and edged further in front thanks to a two-putt birdie on the par-five second, where McIlroy missed from eight feet having being forced to lay up from a fairway bunker.

It looked as though Spieth would give the shot straight back when he drove wildly into the trees on the third, but he punched out to the back of the green and got up and down for par, and instead it was McIlroy who bogeyed after his approach from a fairway bunker span back off the green and he failed to get up and down.

McIlroy sensed a great chance for a two-shot swing on the seventh with Spieth struggling to make par after driving into the trees and finding sand with his approach, but the Northern Irishman three-putted from 25 feet and saw his playing partner scramble a matching five.

Spieth was nowhere near the form which saw him set records for the most birdies (28) and lowest 36 and 54-hole totals last year, but was grinding out a score and birdied the eighth after pitching to four feet.

McIlroy had found another fairway bunker off the tee and had to settle for par to fall four behind, and then brought back memories of his collapse in 2011 by hooking his drive into the trees on the 10th.

Although the ball bounced out towards the fairway, the resulting bogey dropped him further behind and the 26-year-old's chances then looked to be over when he found water with his approach to the 11th after a risky second shot from the pine straw, only for Spieth to also make a double bogey after taking four to get down from short of the green.
David Cameron to face MPs after Labour questions bank of 'mum and dad' payments

David Cameron will face questions from MPs on Monday for the first time after the row over his personal finances.

The Prime Minister will make a statement in the Commons on steps to investigate the Panama Papers revelations and tackle tax evasion as MPs return to Westminster following the Easter break.

In an attempt to be transparent about his own finances, Mr Cameron took the unprecedented step of publishing details of his tax returns, but Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted Mr Cameron still had "big questions" to answer about an investment in an offshore trust set up by his father.

David Cameron paid 76,000 in tax in 2014-15, figures show

Downing Street also revealed that Mr Cameron had been given a 200,000 gift by his mother following his father's death, a move which could potentially reduce inheritance tax liabilities.

Number 10 said that the two payments of 100,000 in 2011 came on top of the 300,000 Mr Cameron inherited from his father Ian as the Prime Minister's mother Mary attempted to "balance" the sums received by their children.

The information about the Prime Minister's finances showed that he paid more than 400,000 in tax on an income of more than 1 million over six years from 2009 to 2015.

The disclosure followed the furore over the Panama Papers data leak and the revelation that Mr Cameron and his wife Samantha made a 19,000 profit on shares in an offshore trust set up by the Prime Minister's father which were sold in 2010.

The Prime Minister has been angered by the focus on his father's offshore business interests, insisting it was a "fundamental misconception" that the Blairmore Holdings trust had been set up to avoid tax.

Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt told BBC One's Sunday Politics: "I don't think it's damaged his credibility. I think - I don't have any other insights other than you do, but I don't think he has done anything wrong.

"I think what this is about is trust. And he has to now demonstrate and build up that trust and rapport with the general public."

Asked if the Prime Minister had lost her trust, she replied: "I think that this will raise questions ... about politicians publishing further information about themselves, and I think although I understand arguments around privacy and security, if that is what the electorate require of their elected officials, I think that's what will have to happen."

Mr Corbyn said more people in public life should publish their tax returns and suggested the Prime Minister still had more to disclose, particularly about the period before he entered No 10.

He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show: "I want to see the papers. We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return, we need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became Prime Minister.

"These are questions that he must answer. I think there is a question for Parliament there, there is a question for Parliamentary standards to question him on this.

"There is a question - big questions - that have to be put to him by Parliament and that surely is the function of Parliament."

He said the rules over inheritance tax may need to be looked at following the disclosure about the gift from Mr Cameron's mother.

The payments by Mary Cameron to her son in May and July 2011 were given tax free, and will only become liable to inheritance tax of up to 40% if the Prime Minister's mother dies within seven years of handing over the money. There is no suggestion that they have broken any rules.

Mr Corbyn said: "She has done that and that is within the rules, providing of course the person giving the money lives for more than seven years - and obviously we hope she does.

"The issue is one that it does actually reduce the level of inheritance tax that is available for the Exchequer as a whole."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell told BBC Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics: "I don't personalise politics, this is about the system, and a system whereby someone can inherit, effectively, 500,000 from his mum and dad and not pay a penny on it, I think there's something wrong in the system that allows that to happen."

But Housing Minister Brandon Lewis pointed out that the gift from Mrs Cameron to her son was no different from similar arrangements used in other families, it was just a "larger sum of money".

He told Pienaar's Politics: "There's many thousands of people, at different levels and different amounts of money, whether it's grandparents giving their grandchildren a bit of money so they can see them enjoy it while they are alive, that happens every day.

"I appreciate we are talking about larger sums of money in this case, and if something happens obviously the tax will be paid - nobody is accusing the Prime Minister of not paying tax that's due, because there is no tax due on that money."

The information released by Number 10, in a schedule drawn up by accountants, showed the Prime Minister had a taxable income of more than 200,000 in 2014-15 and paid almost 76,000 in tax.

The information shows that Mr Cameron earned enough to benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p and reveals that the Notting Hill home vacated by the Prime Minister and his wife when they entered Number 10 has been let out for more than 90,000 a year.

Mr Cameron said he was publishing the information to be "completely open and transparent" about his financial affairs.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage ruled out publishing his tax return.

"The answer from me is no. Big no," he told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour.

"I worry where we are going with this. If we want to have party leaders publish their tax returns then presumably all MPs must do so.

"Presumably then all councillors must do so, bishops of course must do so, generals must do so, BBC presenters must do so.

"Actually, I think in this county what people earn is regarded as a private matter. Neighbours would hate the though that the people at number 32 knew what their income was."

Chancellor George Osborne has also faced demands from the SNP and Labour to release his tax returns.

A Treasury source said: "W e have been clear that the Chancellor has never had any offshore shareholdings or other interests.

"His income and interests are straightforward and declared publicly: his salary, rental income from a property in London and a shareholding in his father's firm, Osborne and Little.
Tory backbenchers to challenge Government over pro-EU leaflets ahead of poll

Furious Tory backbenchers were preparing to challenge the Government over the 9.3 million plan to deliver pro-EU leaflets ahead of the referendum as David Cameron issued a fresh warning about the security risk posed by Brexit.

Eurosceptic Conservatives have threatened to derail George Osborne's Budget in protest at the controversial taxpayer-funded leaflets, which will set out why the Government is supporting a Remain vote on June 23.

More than 200,000 people have signed a petition demanding that the Government abandons the plan and Europe Minister David Lidington will be forced to defend the controversial move when he makes a statement in Parliament on Monday.

Lord Lawson appears on the BBC One current affairs programme The Andrew Marr Show (BBC/PA)

Veteran Tory Eurosceptic Sir Bill Cash said he will table an amendment to the Finance Bill, which enacts the Budget, which could block its progress if passed in a Commons vote.

Sir Bill, chairman of the Commons European Scrutiny Committee, said: "I am putting down a very big indicator of the anger and, I would go so far as to say, the fury of people who are being asked to pay - and there are millions of them in the country - for a pamphlet to 27 million homes."

He added: "You don't have to reinvent the wheel to discover that people really do resent being expected to pay for propaganda as a taxpayer."

Sir Bill accused ministers of "breaking the principle of fairness" over the conduct of the referendum.

As ministers prepared for a fresh round of conflict within the Tory party, Mr Cameron warned that the UK's security was at risk if the country voted to leave the EU at a time when "Western values" were under threat.

He also forecast an "economic shock" if the country voted Leave and accused Brexit campaigners of "gambling with our country's fortunes".

Writing in the i newspaper, Mr Cameron said: " Membership gives us security because it helps keep us safer. Why? Because we can work with our neighbours more effectively to share information on criminals and terrorist threats.

"And it makes Britain stronger, giving us strength in numbers, working with our partners to promote our values - standing up to extremism, supporting democracy and promoting free enterprise. Leave, and we relegate Britain to the sidelines while our neighbours take the big decisions about our continent."

He added: " At a time when the global economy is so volatile, we should do whatever gives our people the most financial stability. The world is increasingly divided, so it's vital we choose unity. Western values are under threat - we must stand with those who share them.

"And times are tough for young people. We must do everything we can to knock down the barriers to opportunity."

Mr Cameron insisted he was making the "pragmatic, patriotic, passionate" case for Remain as he warned against a vote to " turn our back on a key international relationship".

His comments come after Brexit-backing Defence Minister Penny Mordaunt warned that s taying in the European Union would be a "gamble" with the nation's security.

She claimed EU free movement rules mean the UK cannot turn away suspected Islamic State terrorists if there is no "concrete intelligence" about them.

The Armed Forces Minister said Europol estimates around 5,000 IS-trained fighters have returned to Europe.

She told BBC One's Sunday Politics: "Currently, unless we have concrete intelligence, we may have suspicions about an individual coming to our shores, we can't turn them back if they have an EU passport."

Ms Mordaunt added: "We risk nothing by taking back control of our borders and our laws that underpin this framework.
Promoters Matchroom plan to stage the first defence of Anthony Joshua's reign as IBF heavyweight champion at Wembley Stadium on July 9 - the same night Tyson Fury is scheduled to fight Wladimir Klitschko.

The 26-year-old clinically stopped defending champion Charles Martin in the second round at London's 02 Arena on Saturday, just six miles from where he won his Olympic gold medal at the 2012 Games.

His emergence as a world champion leaves him well placed to become one of Britain's most popular sporting figures in the coming months.

Anthony Joshua, pictured, is the IBF heavyweight champion after defeating Charles Martin in two rounds

There is a danger, however, that his first title defence could be overshadowed by WBA and WBO champion Fury's rematch with Klitschko.

Joshua's challenger will almost certainly not be as decorated or seasoned as Klitschko and the weekend of July 9 and 10 is already packed with top-level sport, with the Wimbledon singles finals, the Euro 2016 final, the British Formula One Grand Prix and the UFC 200 rematch between Conor McGregor and Nate Diaz all taking place over those two days.

"July, it was always going to be the ninth," said Eddie Hearn, when asked of his plans for Joshua's first title defence.

"We'll have to take a look at the top 15 (of the IBF heavyweight rankings), a lot of the guys are taken up (by fights that have already been arranged).

"If he's ready, I don't see why we can't get back early July. That's the plan. That was why Sky turned down the Fury-Klitschko fight (which will be on BoxNation) - they see AJ as the future.

"The plan would be to build AJ as a pay-per-view fighter in America as well. Wembley's where we were looking to go."

Though he showed no apparent vulnerability to fighting a southpaw for the first time in his professional career - Saturday fight's was only Joshua's 16th bout in the paid ranks - the swift and destructive nature of the finish meant he was unable to demonstrate if he had learnt from the mistakes made in his previous fight with Dillian Whyte.

The likelihood is Joshua remains more raw than Saturday suggested and will therefore require further time to develop before facing one of the heavyweight division's biggest names.

Fights with David Haye and Tyson Fury will become more probable in the next 12-18 months and generate significant mainstream interest and therefore money, and Joshua said: "George Foreman, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier fought; Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis fought...

"Me, Tyson Fury and David Haye, we have to fight. We can't get through this whole era without fighting, that would be silly, we will get it on at the right time. It's just bound to happen at some stage."
Vereniki Goneva helps Leicester set up European Cup semi-final against Racing 92

Vereniki Goneva's try brace helped Leicester Tigers thump woeful Stade Francais 41-13 at Welford Road to book their first European Cup semi-final for seven years.

Manu Tuilagi, Freddie Burns, Mike Fitzgerald and Telusa Veainu all crossed as Leicester racked up six scores in securing comfortable passage to the European Champions Cup semi-finals.

The Tigers will now meet Racing 92 at Nottingham's City Ground on Sunday, April 24, after the Paris club dethroned three-time champions Toulon 19-16.

Vereniki Goneva starred for Leicester Tigers

Richard Cockerill's Leicester will have to raise their level considerably to extend their quest still further for their first European crown since 2002, such was Stade's malaise in the East Midlands.

England battering ram Tuilagi was again deployed at inside centre in his battle to master the 12 berth, but this clash was far too staccato to make any lasting judgements on his suitability for that new role.

Fly-half Burns suffered a calf injury, but Leicester were otherwise largely untroubled, Stade simply not up to scratch.

A curiously free-form game was ushered in the minute Djibril Camara misread the bounce on Burns' grubber - and even that followed a cute interception from Peter Betham.

As Camara was bundled into touch, Tigers fly-half Burns was first to both feet and ball and fired a quick line-out to Tuilagi.

The inexcusably static Stade defence could do nothing to stop the England centre coasting in for perhaps the easiest score of his career.

Morne Steyn landed two penalties to Burns' one as both sides ground through a scrappy middle-third to the half.

Finally Leicester stopped conceding needless penalties and sharpened up their attack, sufficiently enough at least to free Goneva for the second score.

Harry Thacker linked well with Burns to fashion an unlikely midfield opening, only for prop Dan Cole to stem the move unwittingly by joining the line at the wrong time.

The move ought to have died there and then, but Betham's blindside switch reignited the attack.

The Australian centre caught Stade cold again, feeding Goneva to send the Fijian winger home amid woeful defence from the Parisians.

The visitors had three defenders in place to cover Leicester's two-man strike but lost their bearings thanks to Betham's guile.

Before the break Leicester had time to strike again, with Burns intercepting a poor pass from Steyn to coast under the posts.

Leicester took a 24-6 lead into the interval without ever finding fluency.

Former Leicester scrum-half Julien Dupuy nipped in for Stade's sole try to start the second half, but any thoughts of a recovery were quickly extinguished.

Captain Mathew Tait's break set the Tigers back on the prowl, before Ben Youngs exploited a woefully-open blindside to send Goneva tearing away for his second score of the afternoon.

Owen Williams replaced Burns at fly-half just ahead of the hour, quickly striking a post with a penalty - that ultimately led to Leicester's fifth try.

Tait countered Stade's clearance with pace, allowing Brendan O'Connor and Veainu to combine well on the right.

Marcos Ayerza's astute tap-pass opened space on the left and Goneva sent flanker Fitzgerald home rather than chase his hat-trick.
Support for Rousseff's impeachment ebbs in Brazil poll

BRASILIA, April 9 (Reuters) - A smaller majority of Brazilians favor the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff compared to last month, while more than half want her immediate successor to be impeached too, according to a survey released on Saturday by polling firm Datafolha.

The poll also showed growing support for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a potential 2018 presidential bid, another boost for the ruling Workers Party as it fights opposition leaders' efforts to impeach Rousseff.

The survey was the first to gauge support for a possible impeachment of Vice President Michel Temer, who will become Brazil's president if Rousseff is suspended in coming weeks to face impeachment hearings. Many analysts have questioned his capacity to muster a stable coalition with little popular support and many leaders of his PMDB party under investigation for alleged corruption.

According to Datafolha, 61 percent of Brazilians want Rousseff to be impeached by Congress, compared to 68 percent in March. Fifty-eight percent want Temer to have the same fate.

If both are impeached and thrown out of office, 79 percent of Brazilians favor early elections, in which Lula would likely be a strong candidate.

Voting intentions for Lula rose to between 21 and 22 percent, depending on the election scenarios, Datafolha said. In all cases, he was competitive with environmental activist Marina Silva and outperformed leaders from the main opposition party, the PSDB.

Temer has between 1 and 2 percent of voting intentions.

The survey suggested a sharp division between Lula's supporters and opponents. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they would not vote on Lula under any circumstances. However, 40 percent rated him as Brazil's best president ever, well above the second in the list, his predecessor Fernando Henrique Cardoso, with 14 percent of mentions in the poll.

The lower house of Brazil's Congress is expected to vote April 17 on whether to impeach Rousseff as she faces charges that she manipulated budget accounts in 2014 to boost her reelection prospects.

If two-thirds of deputies vote for impeachment, the measure would move to the Senate. If half the Senate votes for impeachment, Rousseff would be temporarily suspended from office pending a full trial in the Senate.
Philippine troops clash with Muslim rebels; 23 killed, 73 hurt

MANILA, April 10 (Reuters) - Philippine soldiers battled a group of about 120 Muslim rebels linked to Islamic State in a ten-hour assault on a southern island that killed 23 people, an army spokesman said on Sunday.

Major Filemon Tan said the military attacked a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Basilan led by Isnilon Hapilon, an insurgent for whom the U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million.

"I can confirm 18 soldiers were killed and 53 were wounded," Tan said, adding that five militants, including a Moroccan, Mohammad Khattab, and Ubaida, a son of Hapilon, were killed in Saturday's incident, which wounded 20 rebels.

There was no immediate statement from the small but violent Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines.

The group has posted videos on social media sites pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, which have attracted foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the troubled Philippine south.

The army has stepped up its offensive against the rebels since November, Tan said, when President Benigno Aquino ordered it to hunt down Abu Sayyaf over the kidnapping and execution of foreign nationals.

On the nearby island of Jolo, the rebels on Friday released an Italian man from six months of captivity. Troops were also on alert as another Abu Sayyaf faction threatened to execute two Canadians and a Norwegian tourists after a ransom deadline expired.
Egypt has high hopes for tourism despite grim statistics, setbacks

By Michael Georgy

CAIRO, April 10 (Reuters) - Egypt is confident of luring back millions of foreign visitors and putting a smile on their faces, according to its new tourism minister, despite heavy first quarter losses and setbacks including a bomb that brought down a Russian passenger plane.

Yehia Rashed said the ancient land of the pyramids and Red Sea resorts was determined to secure a strong recovery even though the number of foreign tourists fell by 40 percent in the first quarter of 2016, compared with the same period last year.

The most populous Arab nation aims to attract 12 million tourists by the end of 2017 with a six-point plan, he said.

"I am very hopeful, optimistic about the future of tourism into Egypt," Rashed told Reuters in an interview. "I want to get that smile that you are smiling into the faces of everybody. We want to stay positive."

Egypt tourism revenue has taken a heavy hit since a Russian plane crashed in the Sinai last October, killing all 224 people on board in what President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called an act of terrorism. Islamic State said it planted a bomb on board.

Rashed said Egypt had improved airport security since the crash. "These people have worked day and night," he said. "Egypt is safe."

The torture of Italian graduate student Giulio Regeni, whose body was dumped on the side of a road in February, has also hurt Egypt's image.

Human rights groups say torture marks on his body fit a pattern that suggested Egyptian security services had killed him, an allegation the government has strongly denied.

Asked if Egypt would take action if it was determined that a policeman had killed Regeni, as widely suspected among human rights groups, Rashed said "justice is justice".

"We care big time about human rights. The best way, actually, is to create positive vibes in the mind of people that Egypt is safe and it is worth visiting," he added.

The Regeni case has brought allegations of widespread police brutality in Egypt under sharper focus.

HURTING EARNER

Egypt's tourism industry, a cornerstone of the economy and critical source of hard currency, has been struggling to rebound after the political and economic upheaval triggered by the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule.

More than 14.7 million tourists visited Egypt in 2010, dropping to 9.8 million in 2011.

"The first quarter is down about 40 percent compared to last year. However, there is a positive with every negative. The Gulf business is up about 45 percent from last year," said Rashed.

Egyptian tourism has survived hard times in the past.

In 1997 Islamic militants killed 58 tourists and four Egyptians at a temple in Luxor, on the Nile.

Rashed seemed optimistic. He said the new six-point plan to boost tourism would include increasing the presence of national carrier EgyptAir abroad, working with low-cost airlines and the improvement of services.

Asked how the state would fund these projects, he said:

"We are not doing new things what we are doing is stimulation programs. Taking from the current funding and putting it into where our bread and butter is," said Rashed.
Italy govt calls meeting Monday to finalise bank fund plan - sources

By Stefano Bernabei

ROME, April 10 (Reuters) - Italy's largest banks will meet the Treasury and central bank on Monday to thrash out a plan to set up a state-backed fund to buy bad loans and plug capital shortfalls at its ailing banks, five sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Italy's government is anxious to assuage concerns about its banking system, which fared badly in financial stress tests carried out by the European Central Bank and is groaning under the weight of 360 billion euros ($410 billion) in bad loans.

The fund's precise mandate still needs to be decided, the sources said. Possibilities include buying non-performing loans and helping recapitalise weak banks.

An announcement could be finalised as early as Monday.

The fund would have a maximum capitalisation of 5 billion euros, one of the sources said, adding state holding company Cassa Depositi e Prestiti would contribute no more than 300 million euros.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government wants the fund to be majority-owned by private investors, to seek to comply with European rules limiting state aid.

The chief executives of Italy's two biggest banks, Unicredit and Intesa Sanpaolo, will attend Monday's meeting, two of the sources said.

The Treasury did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Unicredit chief executive Federico Ghizzoni said on Thursday his bank would invest in the fund provided it was set up to support the whole sector and not just help out a few banks.

The plan also envisages contributions from Italy's banking foundations, investment funds and pension funds, a source said last week.

The government is keen to have the plan ready as soon as possible, to head off worries about capital shortfalls and bad loans which have dragged banking stocks down 40 percent this year.

If the fund is set up quickly, its first test would be a 1.76 bln euro capital increase at Banca Popolare di Vicenza, due to be completed by May 10, which is facing weak market demand.

UniCredit is currently the sole guarantor for the capital increase and its own capital ratios could suffer if it ended up having to take on a lot of unsold shares in the rights issue. ($1 = 0.8773 euros)
Spain to ask Brussels for extra year to meet deficit target

MADRID, April 10 (Reuters) - Spain plans to ask the European Commission for an extra year to meet its public deficit targets, El Pais reported on Sunday, after missing the mark with its 2015 deficit and raising the prospect of further spending cuts to narrow the budget gap.

The country reported a deficit of 5 percent of economic output in 2015, one the largest in Europe and above the EU-agreed target of 4.2 percent. To reduce that to the 2016 target of 2.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the Spanish government will need to find about 23 billion euros ($25 billion) through tax increases or spending cuts.

The economy ministry declined to comment on the El Pais report, which cited government sources as saying that acting Economy Minister Luis de Guindos would include revised economic projections in the stability programme to be presented to Parliament on April 19.
Israel says half-year surge in Palestinian street violence wanes

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM, April 10 (Reuters) - A half-year-long surge in Palestinian street attacks against Israelis is waning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, while Hamas accused the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership of treachery for helping Israel stem the violence.

Since October, Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens in knife, car-ramming and gun assaults. In recent weeks, these have slowed from near-daily occurrences to more sporadic incidents. The last fatal attack took place on March 9.

During this wave of violence, Israeli forces killed at least 190 Palestinians, 129 of whom Israel says were assailants. Many others were shot dead during clashes and protests. Palestinians and foreign critics have accused Israel of excessive force.

Drivers behind the bloodshed include Palestinian bitterness over long-stalled statehood negotiations, greater Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, and Islamist-led calls for Israel's destruction.

In public remarks to his cabinet, Netanyahu said Israeli security forces' "very firm action against incitement" and their foiling of assaults had led to "a significant drop-off in the scale of terror attacks".

But he told the forum: "I say this with great caution, because the trend can be reversed."

Netanyahu made no mention of Israel's security cooperation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's U.S.-backed administration in the occupied West Bank, where much of the violence has occurred.

Israeli and Palestinian officials on several occasions cited a degree of security cooperation without going into details. Israeli media has reported close monitoring by both sides of social media in a bid to identify would-be assailants.

Many Palestinians regard security cooperation with Israel as collaborating with the enemy.

Palestinian experts say many of the young and often leaderless assailants have lashed out in solidarity with others who were killed carrying out attacks, with social media and cellphone footage of the incidents amplifying popular outrage.

Hamas, the powerful Islamist group that exercises de facto control of the Gaza Strip, on Sunday condemned as "very grave" what it described as the arrest of three West Bank Palestinians by Abbas's forces on suspicion of planning to attack Israel.

"Such cooperation aims to abort the Palestinian uprising and targets the resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.

But Palestinian authorities in the West Bank played down the case, saying the three were tracked down at the request of their families after their went missing.

The last instance of a Palestinian carrying out a fatal attack in Israel occurred on March 9, when an American tourist was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv. The assailant was killed.
Syrian PM says Russia to back new Aleppo attack; opposition says truce near collapse

By Tom Perry and Vladimir Soldatkin

BEIRUT/MOSCOW, April 10 (Reuters) - The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.

With a U.N. envoy due in Damascus in a bid to advance struggling diplomatic efforts, the "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by Russia and the United States came under new strain as government and rebel forces fought near Aleppo.

The ceasefire came into effect in February with the aim of paving the way for a resumption of talks to end the five-year-long war. But it has been widely violated, with each side blaming the other for breaches. The fighting south of Aleppo marks the most significant challenge yet to the deal.

Diplomacy has meanwhile made little progress with no compromise over the future of President Bashar al-Assad, his position strengthened by Iranian and Russian military support.

A top Iranian official, in comments to Iran TV, rejected what he described as a U.S. request for Tehran's help to make Assad leave power, saying he should serve out his term and be allowed to run in a presidential election "as any Syrian".

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers of preparations to "liberate" Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and opposition.

"We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia's upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation, told RIA news agency "Russian aviation will help the Syrian army's ground offensive operation".

The deployment of the Russian air force to Syria last year helped tip the war Assad's way as it bombed rebels supported by his enemies including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. President Vladimir Putin last month withdrew some of the Russian forces, but maintained an air base in Latakia, and kept up strikes on the Islamic State group.

Neither the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front or Islamic State are included in the partial ceasefire.

Rebels have reported the resumption of Russian air strikes south of Aleppo, an important theatre where Iranian forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah are fighting in support of the army and the Nusra Front is deployed in close proximity to rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 35 combatants had been killed on both sides in a 24 hour period in the area, where fighting has been raging for some 10 days.

"ABOUT TO COLLAPSE"

A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had "witnessed a serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse". Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche that a U.S.-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was "powerless".

The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the rise of Islamic State.

Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said "in Aleppo there is a real collapse of the truce".

The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on government violations.

"The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were," said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. A Syrian military source said: "The battles are raging because ... armed groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack."

The Observatory also reported fighting on Sunday between government and rebel forces near the opposition-held town of Douma outside Damascus, and said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas north of Homs.

Barrel bombs are oil drums filled with explosives. While the government denies dropping them, their use has been widely recorded, including by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

IRAN REJECTS U.S. "PRECONDITION"

U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday evening, and is expected to meet Syrian officials on Monday. He said last week he would go to Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition before beginning a new round of peace talks on Wednesday.

De Mistura has said the next round of talks needs to "be quite concrete in the direction of a political process leading to a real beginning of a political transition".

Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had asked "Iran to help so that Bashar Assad leaves.

"We should ask them: "What does this have to do with you? Shouldn't the Syrian people decide?'"

"From Iran's point of view Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us."

In a sign of Assad's confidence, the Syrian government plans to hold parliamentary elections on Wednesday. Salim al-Muslat, opposition spokesman, said the vote was illegitimate.
Flying Fijians beat All Blacks to win Hong Kong Sevens

, April 10 (Reuters) - Fiji retained the prestigious Hong Kong Sevens title after beating New Zealand 21-7 in the final on Sunday to move clear in the World Series standings.

Fiji, who thrashed Australia 34-5 in the semis after edging Kenya with a last minute try in the quarters, bounced back from 7-0 down in the final thanks to tries by Jerry Tuwai, Kitione Taliga and Semi Kunatani.

The 22 points for winning the seventh leg of the 10 stop series stretched the defending champion's lead in the standings to five points over the New Zealanders, who went second one point ahead of South Africa, who lost 12-7 to the All Blacks in the last four.

England beat United States 19-0 to win the second tier Plate, while Argentina thrashed Scotland 26-0 to land the Bowl and Russia edged Canada in the Shield.
Beirut airport workers held over terrorist contacts

BEIRUT, April 10 (Reuters) - Lebanese authorities have detained two Lebanese employees of a Beirut airport service company over contacts with "terrorist parties", security sources said on Sunday. The sources gave no further details as the suspects were still being questioned.

Public Works and Transport Minister Ghazi Zeaiter said last month that Beirut airport needed at least $24 million to address pressing gaps in security, including a new perimeter wall and baggage inspection equipment.

Interior Minister Nohad Machnouk has said safety procedures at the airport are inadequate, comparing it to Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh airport, where a bomb planted on a Russian plane killed 224 people in October.

The Islamic State militant group and the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front have both mounted suicide bomb attacks in Lebanon since the eruption of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
South Africa's AMCU union accepts Sibanye Gold new wage offer

JOHANNESBURG, April 10 (Reuters) - South Africa's Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union(AMCU) said on Sunday it had agreed to take a new wage offer from Sibanye Gold and had called off a strike.

AMCU national treasurer Jimmy Gama said the union hoped to sign an agreement with the mining company most probably this week.

"We as AMCU accept Sibanye Gold's new wage offer as voted for unanimously ... by our members today," AMCU said on its official Twitter account after a mass rally.

The hardline union had voted in October to strike in the gold sector, including at Sibanye, but agreed not to down tools immediately.

On Wednesday it suspended a planned boycott at Sibanye Gold to allow for further talks.

"Since the members have accepted, it means that the strike is not going to commence," Gama told Reuters on Sunday.

Sibanye, which is in the process of acquiring Anglo American Platinum's labour-intensive Rustenburg mine and Aquarius Platinum, signed an agreement with three smaller unions and extended the wage deal to AMCU members.

AMCU has said it aims to get the salaries paid to its members in the gold sector to match the higher wages in coal and platinum.
Italy's ruling party slips in poll after influence-peddling scandal

ROME, April 10 (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's party has slipped in voters' estimation in recent weeks since a minister quit in connection with an influence-peddling probe, a poll indicated on Sunday.

Renzi's Democratic Party (PD) recorded its lowest rating since last summer in the Demos poll, published in La Repubblica newspaper, which indicated it would get 30.1 percent of the vote if an election were held now.

Federica Guidi resigned as industry minister last month after police released phone taps appearing to show her assuring her partner that the government would pass legislation that favoured his energy business.

Guidi is not under investigation in the case, but Renzi appeared to acknowledge on Saturday that revelations trickling out in the press had caused him discomfort.

"It has been a difficult week," he told a meeting of young party members in Rome.

Renzi remains Italy's most popular political leader but his personal approval rating has dropped slightly since February and by almost half since summer 2014, shortly after his party won a resounding victory in European elections.

A separate survey in Corriere della Sera found 80 percent of people thought the probe was undermining the government's credibility to some extent, although a majority of those who followed it closely agreed with Renzi's statements about it.

The Demos poll had the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement snapping at the heels of the PD, which is still Italy's largest party, closing the gap to less than three points.

Just before Guidi resigned, another scandal had been prompted by a minister's family connections to a failed bank. Forty-five percent of people surveyed said the government had too many conflicts of interest and should step down.

The survey also found that, in the second round of voting that could be triggered by electoral reforms passed last year, the PD would have a very slim lead over the fractured centre-right, but be defeated by the 5-Star Movement.
MIDEAST STOCKS-Food sector and firmer oil price lifts Saudi index, Egypt market dips

By Celine Aswad

DUBAI, April 10 (Reuters) - Food companies buoyed the Saudi stock market on Sunday after better than expected results from the region's largest dairy food producer while a visit by the king of Saudi Arabia to Egypt failed to lift the Cairo bourse.

The Saudi index advanced 1.4 percent after dairy producer Almarai reported a slight rise in first-quarter net profit in a challenging market. Almarai's shares rose by 3.6 percent, helping the food sector to a 4.2 percent gain.

Savola, which has a 36.5 percent stake in Almarai, jumped 6 percent to 44.10 riyals and is Riyadh-based NCB Capital's top pick in the sector.

Shares in Jarir Marketing, one of the kingdom's largest retailers by market value, shrugged off a 29.5 percent drop in first-quarter net profit and gained 2.4 percent to 117.75 riyals.

Riyad Capital rates Jarir a "buy", with a target price of 189 riyals, citing its attractive dividend yield as a factor in its rating.

Construction and engineering contractor Alkhodari edged up 0.4 percent after it booked a 15 million riyal ($4 million) profit from the sale of some of its equipment last week. The revenue will be reflected in the second quarter.

The petrochemical sector was another strong performer, spurred by Friday's rebound in oil prices, with Saudi Basic Industries (SABIC) climbing 2 percent.

In Cairo, Egypt's main index fell 1 percent, with investor caution prevailing despite the visit by Saudi King Salman.

"There are no direct indications yet of grants, aid or central bank deposits by the Saudis to Egypt," said Allen Sandeep, head of research at Cairo's Naeem Brokerage, adding that the market resumed the correction that began after Egypt's mid-March currency devaluation.

Bourse data showed that local and foreign traders were net sellers on Sunday, while non-Egyptian Arab investors were net buyers.

Orascom Telecom and investment company Qalaa Holding each fell by 2.6 percent.

UAE GAINS

Dubai's index added 1.4 percent to a five-month high of 3,434 points, with trades mainly concentrated in mid-cap stocks.

Builders Arabtec and Drake and Scull, which accounted for 40 percent of total volumes, added 4.1 percent and 1 percent respectively.

Arabtec, which has yet to report earnings, closed at 1.80 dirhams and is now considered overvalued by analysts. The average target price in a Reuters poll of eight analysts was 1.10 dirhams.

Real estate-related stocks helped to propel the Abu Dhabi index 0.7 percent higher ahead of this week's Cityscape exhibition, at which a number of developers are expected to announce new projects. Eshraq Properties jumped by 8.9 percent.

Energy stocks also performed well. Dana Gas and Abu Dhabi National Energy (TAQA) surged by 11.1 percent and 3.9 percent respectively.

SUNDAY'S HIGHLIGHTS

SAUDI ARABIA

* The index added 1.4 percent to 6,346 points.

EGYPT

* The index fell 1 percent to 7,404 points.

DUBAI

* The index gained 1.4 percent to 3,434 points.

ABU DHABI

* The index advanced 0.7 percent to 4,381 points.

QATAR

* The index edged down 0.4 percent to 10,129 points.

KUWAIT

* The index edged up 0.4 percent to 5,251 points.

OMAN

* The index increased 0.8 percent to 5,652points.

BAHRAIN

* The index edged up 0.1 percent to 1,118 points.
Warring Yemen sides begin truce, warn against violations

By Mohammed Ghobari and Sylvia Westall

CAIRO/DUBAI, April 10 (Reuters) - Rival sides in Yemen's year-long conflict began a tentative truce overnight on Sunday saying they were committed to the halt in hostilities despite pockets of deadly fighting in the hours leading up to it.

The conflict between the Yemeni government, backed by Saudi Arabia, and its Houthi rebel enemies has killed more than 6,200 people and triggered a humanitarian crisis in one of the Arab world's poorest countries.

A halt in fighting from Sunday midnight (2100 GMT) precedes peace talks set to begin on April 18 in Kuwait.

A spokesman for a Saudi-led military coalition, which has been carrying out air strikes over the past year, urged the Iran-allied Houthis to respect the halt in violence which he said the Yemeni government and alliance would adhere to.

"But if there is any violation of this ceasefire, we will have the right to retaliate, to assess the situation at that time and take whatever steps are necessary to stop these violations," Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Asiri said by telephone.

Pan-Arab TV channel al-Arabiya later reported clashes in an area around Taiz in southwestern Yemen in the early hours of Monday. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm this.

"This truce is in its early stages, violations may occur in the beginning, but we hope the next few hours will see more discipline towards the ceasefire," Yemen's foreign minister Abdel Malek al-Mekhlafi told the channel from Riyadh.

He added events were being monitored to see if they were systematic violations requiring retaliation.

In his comments to Reuters earlier, coalition spokesman Asiri said Yemeni military officials and some militia representatives had met over the past two days in southern Saudi Arabia to prepare for the ceasefire and had signed agreements on how it would be implemented and monitored.

The rival sides had formed committees to observe the halt in hostilities and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid, he said.

During the halt in fighting, the military alliance will continue to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, he said, and monitor the Saudi-Yemeni border, territorial waters and airspace.

A spokesman for the Houthis and their allies said they were also committed to the truce but also retained the right to respond if it was broken by the other side.

Hours before the fighting was due to stop, heavy battles flared between forces loyal to President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and Houthi fighters in al-Maton, north of Sanaa, residents said.

In the central Bayda province, battles in the al-Sawadiya and al-Zaher districts killed more than 20 people on Sunday, local officials and residents said, and fighting continued in Taiz.

The United Nations, which is involved in efforts to end the conflict, hopes the current cessation in hostilities will lead to a more concrete, formal ceasefire with confidence-building measures.

In the capital Sanaa, controlled for the last 18 months by the Houthis, residents said they desperately wanted this attempt at peace to succeed after two rounds of talks failed last year.

"I am tired of the fighting, the destruction, everything," said Hussein Ali, a 57-year-old government employee.

"The situation is very difficult for people without work, without electricity, without water, and with the fear that, at any moment, bombardment could kill those dear to us."
Biden presses Ukraine on sticking to economic reform plan -White House

WASHINGTON, April 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, who announced his intention to resign on Sunday, about the importance of continuing the economic reforms and moves toward energy independence that Kiev has undertaken, the White House said.
Australia PM to lead 1,000-strong business delegation to China

SYDNEY, April 8 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who last month criticised Chinese military deployments in the South China Sea, leads 1,000 business leaders to China next week, hoping to build on a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries.

Turnbull will hold talks with both President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang in Beijing, hoping to capitalise on China's transition from an export-based economy to a major consumer spender, his office said on Friday.

It did not say if the South China Sea would be on the agenda, but China's assertiveness in its claims to most of the waters has raised concerns in the West and among China's neighbours.

Western capitals have criticised China for militarising the South China Sea with the deployment of advanced weaponry there. China says the United States is militarising the region with its frequent patrols.

Turnbull last month called China's military deployments "counterproductive", an unusually forceful rebuke.

China claims most of the South China Sea, where about $5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have claims.

The trade visit - the largest ever by an Australian leader - comes amid a slowing of growth in the Chinese economy, which is crucial for Australian jobs.

The FTA came into effect in December, cutting tariffs across many economic sectors.

"The China-Australia FTA has opened up even more opportunities for trade and engagement between our two countries," Turnbull's office said in a statement.

"As China continues its transition towards a more consumer-led and services-based economy, more and more Australian businesses are finding new markets and new opportunities in China."

A delegation of 15 corporate chief executives from each country will join a round table headed by the Business Council of Australia and the China Development Bank. The prime minister's office declined to name the companies taking part.
Bank of Italy conducting supervisory inspection at Bank of China offices

By Lisa Jucca

HONG KONG, April 11 (Reuters) - The Bank of Italy is carrying out an on-site inspection at the Italian offices of Bank of China, a Chinese state-owned bank already facing accusations of aiding illicit money flows from Italy to China, a source familiar with the situation said.

Italian prosecutors are seeking to bring 297 people, mostly Chinese, as well as the Milan branch of Bank of China to trial on charges of allegedly smuggling more than 4.5 billion euros ($5.12 billion) into China between 2006 and 2010. A judge in Florence is in the process of deciding whether they should be indicted and face a trial.

Part of the probe, code named 'River of Money', focuses on the relationship between Bank of China and defunct Chinese money transfer operator Money2Money, which used to dominate the market for Chinese remittances from Italy, a prosecutors' document reviewed by Reuters shows.

The source said the supervisory inspection, which started a few days ago and is continuing, had been triggered by the judicial investigation in Florence. But the Bank of China denied there was a link.

It confirmed that the inspection was taking place: "Bank of China is providing full cooperation to the Italian Supervisory Authority," the bank said in written answers to questions from Reuters.

The Chinese bank said the inspection was a routine procedure, which takes place every three to five years and covers all business and management fields of the bank.

"It is not connected to the M2M (Money2Money) issue," the Chinese bank said, declining to divulge further details given the ongoing nature of the inspection.

The Bank of Italy, which oversees banks and financial operators active in the country, declined to comment as it said supervisory activity was secret.

SANCTIONS CAN BE TRIGGERED

On-site inspections are a powerful tool the Italian central bank uses to safeguard the integrity of the financial system and to prevent illegal practices, including money-laundering.

If management irregularities and regulatory violations are discovered in the course of off-site reviews and on-site inspections, sanction procedures are triggered against bank directors that could result in administrative penalties, mainly fines, the central bank says on its website.

In the request for the indictment, Italian prosecutors allege billions of dollars, including proceeds from counterfeiting, exploitation of illegal labour and tax evasion, were sent to China and split into small sums to avoid being detected.

Half of the amount allegedly smuggled, or 2.2 billion euros, was sent via BOC's Milan branch, the request says.

Bank of China has consistently denied any wrongdoing.

Between 2008 and 2009, the Bank of Italy's financial intelligence unit (UIF), which fights money laundering and the financing of terrorism, had identified hundreds of suspicious transactions from Italy into China that were carried out by Money2Money, the Bank of Italy told Reuters.

Some went through Bank of China but the Bank of Italy did not impose sanctions on Bank of China's directors at the time.

UIF sent all relevant details to prosecutors in Florence in 2011 and 2012, the Bank of Italy said.

In 2011, UIF carried out an on-site inspection at Bank of China's Italian offices and fined two bank employees "for failure to transmit suspicious transactions," the Bank of Italy told Reuters.

Bank of China immediately appealed and the result of that is till pending, the Chinese bank says.

It said the penalties do not refer to violations of anti-money laundering legislation, but to the bank governance.

The Chinese underground economy in Tuscany was brought into focus in 2013 when a fire killed seven workers in their sleep at a workshop in Prato, centre of a network of often-illegal garment workshops.

($1 = 0.8791 euros)
The circus has begun. And it's getting bigger.

Barely hours after the first reports of the massive tragedy at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala's Kollam district emerged, we have politicians of all hues "rushing" to the site.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is "on his way". BJP president Amit Shah has "reached" and Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi "will come".

Why are they all making a beeline for the temple?

For heaven's sake, how is a Narendra Modi, or an Amit Shah, or a Rahul Gandhi going to help?

The bodies of victims are still lying strewn around the site and politicians have started to address the media already. They are playing to the galleries, egged on and encouraged by hundreds of television channels, all of them vying for TRPs.

The bodies of victims are still lying strewn around the site and politicians have started to address the media already.

Has anyone realised how the presence of SPG-protected VVIPs and individuals having so-called "Z" category security will hinder relief and rescue? They are visiting the accident site, hospitals, and meeting the victims' families, doing all that they can to get themselves in the picture.

After all, it's election season and everyone wants to make a killing by being in the picture.

The politics has started; the blame game will begin soon. Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy and the Congress government will be blamed for the huge loss of life, and the BJP will be hoping that will swing votes in its favour in the upcoming elections in the state.

National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams, specialists, experts, the Navy and Air Force being pressed into duty is all right and the natural response that any nation would resort to, but there is no need for the prime minister, the BJP chief and the Congress vice president to be at the site, at least not now.

A week from now, and we would have forgotten about the accident and the loss of life. But, in the run-up to the elections, the politicians are hoping to tom-tom "god's will" and throw barbs at one another.

What have we as a nation come to?
In August 1941, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill met for two days on the U.S.S. Augusta off Argentia, Newfoundland. It was the first of their frequent World War II meetings and marked the beginning of Americas defense alliance with Europe that has lasted more than half a century.

Now a leading Republican presidential candidate proposes scrapping NATO, the alliance with Europe that grew out of the war and that eventually won the Cold War. The charge is that Europe is now rich enough to pay for its own defense, that stationing of thousands of American forces there is unnecessary and a drain on the U.S. economy.

This argument is not new: After the Cold War ended in 1990, critics claimed that NATO was not needed to defend Europe.

How important is European security to the United States in 2016? The answer is contingent on two key factors:

 Europes willingness to continue progress toward unity within the European Union.

 The EUs ability to forge a unified foreign policy, and defense policies that are consistent with U.S. strategic objectives in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

European unity: By any measure, Western Europe made remarkable strides toward economic integration during the 40 years, 1950-1990, that encompassed the Cold War. This was a period when NATO was locked in armed confrontation with Moscow over supremacy in Europe.

After Germany was reunited in 1990 and the Warsaw Pact collapsed, NATO offered membership to Poland, Hungary and other former Soviet satellites.

Post-Cold War years also saw progress toward European political union. German and French leaders initiated the process in 1992, and it quickly gained support from other Western European countries. Although Britain was skeptical of stronger political ties with the continent, it too joined. Poland, Hungary, Greece and others were admitted later to EU membership.

Finally, after 50 years, the ideal of an integrated Europe, supported by the United States, became reality. In 1999, the process was significantly enhanced by introduction of the euro as Europes common currency. Britain, however, decided to keep its own pound sterling. Now Europe needs to decide whether to hold together in the EU, or return to competing national states.

U.S. strategic interests: For 50 years, from 1947 when the Marshall Plan was proposed by President Truman, Americas top security interest was protecting Western Europe against the military and ideological threat of the Soviet Union. Large U.S. forces were deployed in West Germany and other states.

The North Atlantic Pact, founded in 1949 by 12 members that included Canada and the United States, formed NATO in the 1950s. It built an integrated defense organization that now comprises 28 members from Eastern and Western Europe, including Turkey, a non-European country.

Even though the Soviet threat to Europe ended in 1990, it was replaced by a diminished Russia whose current leader, Vladimir Putin, hopes to restore Russias influence in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Now the new security threat of ISIS terrorism haunts Europes capitals.

Still, critics have a point when they say Europeans arent pulling their weight in providing security against both the Russians and terrorists. Even though Germany and most NATO members increased defense budgets for the coming years, only four currently meet the 2 percent of GDP target set by NATO: U.S., Britain, France and Poland.

For the U.S., defense spending exceeds 3 percent of GDP, but this country has worldwide commitments that other NATO states do not.

From a strategic standpoint, Europe remains a vital national interest of the United States. But its future value is contingent on its willingness, and ability, to support U.S. strategic objectives.

A crucial test will come June 23 when British voters decide whether Britain should withdraw from the EU. If their answer is no, we can hope that Europe will stay together and meet the threats posed by Russia and ISIS.

But if Britain decides to withdraw from the EU, the U.S. will need to re-evaluate its options and perhaps downgrade Europe as a vital national interest. The reality is that without Britains participation, the EU will become a more insular Europe and be a less cooperative partner of the United States.

Donald Nuechterlein is a political scientist and author of books on US foreign policy. He resides near Charlottesville.
Washington: When it comes to assessing attractiveness, women judge their overweight peers more harshly than men, as per a recent study.

The research from the University of Surrey and University of Oxford has described the relationship between attractiveness, BMI and gender, showing that while women are the harshest judges of weight in relation to beauty, they are also judged negatively by both men and women for being overweight.

When these findings are applied to trends in wages, there is evidence that anthropometric attributes play a significant role in wage regressions in addition to attractiveness, showing that body size cannot be dismissed as a simple component of beauty.

Researchers assessed how male and female interviewers scored the attractiveness of interviewees of both genders, looking at how BMI affects perceptions of beauty. They found that female interviewers would judge both men and women with higher BMIs as less attractive, whereas men would judge their fellow gender much less harshly.

Professor Sonia Oreffice explained that this is the first study that looks at the relationship between BMI and attractiveness, from both gender's perspective.

She concluded, "While we are not entirely surprised with the results that correlate BMI and attractiveness, what is remarkable is that gender of the interviewer makes a difference and that body size matters for wages not simply as proxy for beauty."

This should prompt future researchers to seriously consider and account for the gender of the interviewer in any beauty analysis. This contributes to bridge the gap between studies on the economics of anthropometric measures (including height and BMI), on one hand, and the economics of beauty, on the other, estimating the relevance of body size and beauty.

The study is published in the journal Economics and Human Biology.
Both China and India are expected to review the status of the situation on the border and ways to maintain peace and tranquility there, the sources said. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: India and China will hold next round of Special Representatives talks on April 20 during which National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is expected to raise the issue of China blocking move to get Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar designated as international terrorist.

The two-day talks in Beijing, 19th round of such parleys, will focus on boundary and strategic issues, official sources said here on Sunday. Doval, who is the Special Representative for Sino-India boundary talks, will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi. He is also expected to meet Chinese Premier Li Keqiang.

At the 19th round of SR talks, the two sides are expected to review the status of the situation on the border and ways to maintain peace and tranquility there, the sources said.

"We want to move forward," a senior official said here about the ties with China. The talks are taking place in the backdrop of China blocking at the UN India's move to get Jaish-e-Mohammad chief designated as international terrorist. Doval is expected to raise this issue with Yang.

Last week, China stopped UN sanctions committee from designating Azhar as terrorist, maintaining that the case did not meet the requirements of the Security Council. This round of SR talks was earlier scheduled to be held in January but was postponed because of Pathankot terror attack on January one.

The last round of talks was held in March last year after which it was reported that Doval and Yang "exchanged in depth their opinions on the boundary issue" and made "strategic communications" on bilateral ties as well as international and regional issues of common interest.

The SR talks are designed not only to address the boundary question but also to facilitate exchange of views on subjects of common interest in regional and international developments. The two countries share a 4,057km long border on which they have differences of perception.

China says the border dispute is confined only to 2,000 kms mostly in Arunachal Pradesh whereas India asserts that the dispute covered the western side of the border spanning to about 4,000 kms, especially the Aksai Chin area annexed by China in 1962 war.
New Delhi: India is likely to raise the issue of China blocking its move to get Pakistan-based militant group Jaish-e-Mohammads (JeM) chief Masood Azhar designated as an international terrorist in the United Nations (UN), during the next round of Special Representatives (SR) talks scheduled on April 20 between both the nations.

During the course of the talks, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is expected to raise the issue with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, official sources said. The two-day talks in Beijing, which would be the 19th round of such parleys, will mainly focus on boundary and strategic issues, sources added. Mr Doval will hold talks with Mr Jiechi.
Crowds arrive to have a loot at the the defunct airplane that had crashed at Begumpet while it was being transported by road. (DECCAN CHRONICLE)

Hyderabad: Air Indias Central Training Establishment has finally taken a decision to dismantle the aircraft and take it to its premises, an exercise that ought to have been carried in the first instance.

There were no gas cutters or other equipment with Durga Cranes, which was shifting the exercise. It was only after the accident that the company workers began looking for equipment to dismantle the aircraft.

The aircraft will now be dismantled into five parts and transported. Air India officials will assess the situation after the aircraft is dismantled and take a decision," a senior official from Air India said.

Though CTE and Durga Cranes officials refused to give details, sources said the overall cost of dismantling and transporting the aircraft by road works out to nearly Rs 50 lakh. Dismantling of the aircraft continued late into night and it is expected that it would be transported by Monday morning.

Officials deny giving nod to moving aircraft as whole

It was not clear just who gave the permission to transport an entire aircraft by road, Air India CTE director Soman Atul said they had applied to the Ranga Reddy district collector and all permissions were in place from the southern discom, law and order and traffic police. But the district collector said they had only applied, permission was not given.

It is true that the Air India CTE management approached us and we forwarded the application to all the departments concerned seeking their response, Ranga Reddy collector M. Raghunandan Rao said adding that the local tahsildar has been asked to report.

DCP, North Zone, N. Prakash Reddy said they received information only on Saturday about the transporting of the aircraft. ACP (Traffic-I) A. Muthyam Reddy said they were told that permissions were taken at the top level. Discom assistant engineer Suresh said engineers had accompanied the crane.
BENGALURU: Within hours of being nominated as the new head of the BJP's state unit, taking over after a gap of five years, former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa made it clear that he was going to up the ante against the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, describing him as an irresponsible Chief Minister who is not bothered about problems of the people.

I can only say that our party will fight against this corrupt government, he said on Saturday, buoyed by hundreds of party workers who gathered to cheer him on at the party office. Announcing plans to tour the state extensively to strengthen his party, Mr Yeddyurappa said the Congress is disunited compared to the BJP.

There is no unity among their ministers, and hardly any enthusiasm among bureaucrats to work. The Opposition is strong and will fight against the corrupt Siddaramaiah government by strengthening the BJP in next two years before the state faces Assembly polls.

We are strong, he said, rubbishing suggestions that central leaders had picked him only to destabilize the government headed by Mr Siddaramaiah.

Yeddyurappa rises from the ashes

Well before he formally ascends the top position in the state unit of Bharatiya Janata Party, Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yeddyurappa, will take the first step at strengthening his partys support base in Bengaluru by addressing everyone who matterfrom Members of Parliament to legislators and corporators on Sunday.

For, the IT hub has been a bastion of his partythree of the four MPs, most of the representatives of 28 Assembly seats, and 100 corporators belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Therefore, with his sight set on elections to the Legislative Assembly in 2018, the Lingayat strongman seems keen to galvanize his party colleagues beginning Sunday so that the party could record a clean weep in all Assembly seats two years hence.

Meanwhile, sources in the party explained that Mr Yeddyurappa was picked ahead of other contenders because he was a crowd-puller and one who could take up the cause of farmers through protest rallies across the state.

His colleagues had managed to put the state government on the mat on many issues inside legislature but had failed to make the most of anti-incumbency factor in recent local body polls because of lack of a strong leader like the former chief minister, sources added.

Congress DKS to checkmate BSY?

Will Congress leaders pick energy minister D.K. Shivakumar to checkmate former chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa who has been appointed as state Bharatiya Janata Party president?

With central leaders of BJP making the first move on selection of the new state unit chief, the focus has now shifted to the state unit of the ruling Congress where home minister Dr G Parameshwar has completed more than five-and-half years at the helm.

Though sources maintain that central leaders would take a call on completion of Assembly polls in five states, Mr Shivakumar has been tirelessly lobbying for the post.

Sources said that just as Mr Yeddyurappa could go to any extent to win political battles, Mr Shivakumar, who has deep pockets, could match Mr Yeddyurappa in machinations. He has successfully managed to cut of the roots of H.D. Kumaraswamy in Ramanagara district, sources said.
The India-Pakistan talks train has arrived, once again, at a familiar station: The Rawalpindi Impasse. Through their man, High Commissioner Abdul Basit, Pakistans military bosses made it known earlier this week that they are not about to let the Narendra Modi-Nawaz Sharif bonhomie track lead to substantial talks, let alone peace between the two nations. How did the Modi government get it so wrong on Pakistan? What can it do to put the peace process back on track?

No one seems to know where the Modi government's Pakistan policy is, or where it is going. It has jerked up and down for a while and now the vehicle has come to a juddering halt. It began propitiously with the Prime Minister inviting his counterpart Nawaz Sharif for his inaugural, along with other SAARC leaders and reached its high point with Modi's surprise visit to Lahore on Christmas Day. But the Pathankot attack derailed that momentum and things haven't been the same since then. The key Foreign Secretary level talks, aimed at defining the future dialogue have yet to be held since they were called off in August 2014 following Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit's insistence in meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders on the eve of the talks.

Prime Minister Modi sought to pick up the threads in the SAARC summit in Kathmandu in November 2014 when he reportedly had an hour-long secret meeting arranged by businessman Sajjan Jindal. However, at the public level they merely exchanged a handshake. Finally, the two sides had an official meeting at the Russian city of Ufa at the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in July 2015. The five-point outcome included a meeting between the National Security Advisers to discuss all issues relating to terrorism; early meetings of the heads of the border guarding forces and the military operations departments; the release of fishermen and boats within 15 days and discussions of means to expedite Mumbai case trial.

Also Read: Defiance, denial, deception & delusion

This was envisaged as the beginning of a process which would culminate in Modi's attendance of the SAARC summit in Islamabad in November 2016, which would also mark the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister since January 2004 when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Islamabad for an earlier SAARC summit, and which inaugurated the peace process that has now come to a total halt. However, the proposed meeting of the NSA's which was to be held in Delhi in August 2015 was again postponed following the Pakistani insistence in talking to the Hurriyat. Modi and Sharif took the opportunity of the Paris Climate Summit, to have a quick exchange at the conference centre's lobby on November 30, 2015 which led to the meeting of the NSAs in Bangkok on December 6. Simultaneously, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj visited Islamabad to attend the "Heart of Asia" conference relating to Afghanistan. All this flurry of activity culminated in Prime Minister Modi's surprise stopover in Lahore on his way back from an official visit to Afghanistan.

But the hype generated by the Lahore visit on Christmas Day came crashing down a week later following the attack on Pathankot Air Force Base by Pakistani militants, allegedly belonging to the Jaish-e-Muhammad. This led to yet another deferment of the long-awaited Foreign Secretary level talks. And since then, the India-Pakistan relationship is in a state of stasis. To add another volatile ingredient to the witches brew of India-Pakistan relations has been the arrest in March 2016 of Commander (retired) Kulbhushan Jadhav in Pakistan for allegedly supporting Baloch nationalists and financing terrorists and seeking to destabilise Pakistan.

In all this, the visit of a Pakistan Joint Investigation Team to Pathankot would have been a sideshow, but for a report in a Pakistani paper that it had concluded that the Pathankot attack was a "false flag operation," in other words conducted by the Indians themselves to defame Pakistan. This has played out badly in India, especially since the Pakistan High Commissioner has said that the JIT visit would not automatically lead to a reciprocal visit by the Indian National Investigation Agency to Pakistan.

India and Pakistan have sought to square the circle of fighting terrorism together beginning with the Joint Terror Mechanism set up in the wake of the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in Havana in 2006. But given Pakistan's complex approach to religious extremism-sheltering and supporting extremists who target Afghanistan and India and attacking the extremists who are targeting Pakistan-makes this a difficult task.

India's current views on relations with Pakistan were summarised by Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar in his speech at the inauguration of the India chapter of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on April 6. He said that India was determined to keep "the focus firmly on the central issue of terrorism." In response to a question he said that "the change this government has brought in, is the centrality of terrorism in the dialogue." This, he said had been underscored by the Indian approach in Ufa, the dialogue at Bangkok and will also inform the bilateral dialogue "when it happens."

This centrality is somewhat puzzling. Figures, say with the South Asia Terrorism Portal, show that Pakistan-origin violence, whether it is terrorist strikes in India, or militant action in Kashmir, are at an all time low and have been steadily declining since the Mumbai attack of November 2008. Yet, to hear the government and its spokespersons, one would imagine that India was the focus of global terrorism. The Prime Minister has gone out of his way to chide the world community for not pressing on with an international convention on terrorism. In his visit to Brussels in the wake of the recent terrorist attack, Modi lashed out against the UN and warned that it would become irrelevant if it did not develop a response to the problem.

Insiders say that the emphasis on terrorism is a means of isolating Pakistan in the international community. But if that is so the policy is a spectacular failure. In the past year, Pakistan has regained its centrality to the geopolitics of the region with the US and China backing Islamabad to deliver on peace in Afghanistan through what is called the Quadrilateral Cooperation Group. The US is supplying a new tranche of military aid to Pakistan, and China has stepped up its economic relations through the new China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. Worse, Russia is now cosying up to Islamabad and has lifted its long time arms embargo on Pakistan. So far from isolating Pakistan, New Delhi has isolated itself from the geopolitics of the AfPak region.

The contortions in Modi's Pakistan policy can be explained if you see them as an effort towards a short-cut in India-Pakistan relations. Since Rajiv Gandhi's time, India has sought to simultaneous contain and engage Pakistan. Indeed, it has believed that to contain Pakistan, which means to restrict and restrain the efforts of Pakistan's security enclave which obsessively targets India, New Delhi needs to engage the other parts of Pakistan, that's the civilian politicians, its businessmen and civil society.

Of course, the security enclave is aware of this and seeks to foil all efforts which would, in the long run, undermine its own standing. Now, India seems to have developed its own security enclave which thinks that engaging Pakistan is a waste of time and is paying back Pakistan in its own coin by supporting the Baloch and Gilgit-Baltistan separatists. So we now have a recipe for violently fluctuating relations, held hostage to our respective security enclaves. The bottom line is that the India-Pakistan process requires deft and firm political leadership. It is a no-brainer that India needs a peaceful and stable Pakistan for its own benefit. Because Modi is much stronger in his domestic context than Nawaz Sharif, it behoves on him to take leadership of the process. He has shown he is capable of expending political capital for his Pakistan policy. What he needs to do now, is to take charge of it and work out a clear-cut roadmap and stick to it.

The writer is a Distinguished Fellow, Observer Research Foundation
Wickremesinghe made the comments on the final day of his visit to the Asian giant, where he is seeking to restructure some of the cash-strapped islands $8 billion Chinese debt and convert some of its loan burden into stakes in infrastructure projects.

Hong Kong: A port project being built in Colombo by the Chinese is not a threat, Sri Lankas prime minister said Saturday amid concerns Beijing is trying to boost its influence in the Indian Ocean.

The $1.4 billion Port City represents the biggest single foreign investment received by the island, adding 233 hectares (575 acres) of real estate in the congested capital.

But it is controversial, as Beijing has been accused of seeking to develop facilities around the region in a String of Pearls strategy to counter the rise of rival India and to secure its own economic interests.

The Port City is not a threat to anyone, its an opportunity for everyone to make money, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told a news conference. The Chinese have not asked for any military base in Sri Lanka.

Wickremesinghe described Sri Lanka as a small country before adding: Sri Lanka will not allow in any way the security of other countries to be threatened by third parties. Sri Lanka is committed to the freedom of navigation in the Indian Ocean.

The mega project was initiated by Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014 and is expected to include real estate, a marina and a Formula One racetrack.

Wickremesinghe made the comments on the final day of his visit to the Asian giant, where he is seeking to restructure some of the cash-strapped islands $8 billion Chinese debt and convert some of its loan burden into stakes in infrastructure projects.

Sri Lankas president suspended the Port City plan shortly after taking power in January last year, before recommending last month that it be resumed.

Former president Mahinda Rajapakse, who is under investigation over allegations of corruption during his decade in power, relied heavily on China to rebuild the countrys infrastructure after the end of the islands decades-long ethnic war in May 2009.

The present administration has accused the previous government of agreeing to unfavourable terms for the loans.

China, the largest single lender to the island, secured contracts to build roads, railways and ports under Rajapakses regime.
The grainy picture shows three men pushing trollies with suitcases past the check-in area at Brussels airport. (Photo: AFP)

Brussels, Belgium: Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini was charged on Saturday with "terrorist murders" and confessed he was the man in the hat seen with the suicide bombers at Brussels airport, Belgian prosecutors said.

Another man was also charged with "terrorist murders" over the Brussels subway bombing as investigators linked more clearly than ever the terrorists involved in both France and Belgium's worst ever terror outrages, claimed by the ISIS group.

Two other men suspected of helping both of them were charged with complicity following raids across Brussels on Friday that netted all four. Two others arrested with Abrini were released on Saturday.

"The investigating judge specialized in terrorism cases who is in charge of the investigation into the Paris attacks ... has put Mohamed Abrini in detention," the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said.

Read: Watch: Belgium releases video of suspect fleeing after airport bombings

"He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders," it said in a statement.

In a later statement, prosecutors said "Abrini is indeed the third man present at the Brussels national airport attacks" after they confronted him with expert examinations that included closed circuit television footage.

"He confessed his presence at the crime scene. He explained having thrown away his vest (jacket) in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterward," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Abrini was arrested in the Brussels neighbourhood of Anderlecht, the prosecutor's spokesman said on Friday.

Local television stations aired footage purportedly of Abrini's arrest, showing a man pinned to the ground by several armed plain-clothed police who then bundled him into an unmarked car.

Abrini, a Belgian of Moroccan origin and the last known Paris suspect still at large, was seen at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks with Salah Abdeslam who is now awaiting extradition to France.

Belgian police on Thursday released a video showing a man wearing a hat and light-coloured jacket who was seen with the two suicide bombers in the departure hall.

While they blew themselves up, he fled and made his way on foot back to central Brussels, appearing calm and composed before disappearing.

Camera evidence

The two airport bombers have been identified as Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui, believed to be the cell's bomb maker.

Ibrahim's brother Khalid blew himself up at Maalbeek metro station not far from the European Union quarter in Brussels.

Osama Krayem has been identified as the man seen on closed circuit television with Khalid El Bakraoui moments before the latter blew himself up at the Malbeek station, prosecutors said.

Krayem is also the one caught on camera buying bags used to conceal the bombs set off by the two airport bombers, they added.

The investigating judge has "charged him (Osama Krayem) with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist muders," the statement said.

A Swedish link?

Swedish media said Osama Krayem, 23, who grew up in the southern city of Malmo, and published photographs of him holding a Kalashnikov assault rifle in front of an ISIS flag said to have been taken in Syria.

In both the Paris and Brussels massacres, several of the suspects came from the largely-immigrant Molenbeek neighbourhood of Brussels, including Abdelhamid Abaaoud, said to have played a key role in Paris, along with Salah Abdeslam who was arrested on March 18.

The Brussels attacks left a total of 32 people dead while the November 13 Paris automatic rifle attacks and suicide bombings killed 130 people across the French capital. Hundreds more were wounded in each event.

Abdeslam himself took part in the Paris attacks but unlike his brother Brahim, who blew himself up, he escaped and fled back Brussels, eluding a vast police dragnet for four months.

The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over their handling of the attacks as it emerged many of the suspects were known to police for a long time.

Critics say the government has not done enough to prevent radicalisation of Muslim youth in areas such as Molenbeek, with Belgium proportionately the biggest source in the European Union of foreign fighters going to join ISIS in Syria.

Two Charged With Complicity

Evidence linking the attacks in the two cities deepened further on Saturday.

Another suspect who was arrested on Friday was identified as 25-year-old Rwandan national Herve BM, who is "suspected of having offered assistance" to both Abrini and Krayem, prosecutors said.

He is charged with participating in the activities of terrorist group and "complicity in terrorist murders," it said.

It added that 27-year-old Bilal EM was charged with participating in "the activities of a terrorist group and complicity in terrorist murders" over suspicions he helped Abrini and Krayem.
The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on October 29, 2014 and after an appeal hearing the apex court upheld the verdict on January 6 this year. (Photo: AFP)

Dhaka: Bangladesh's Supreme Court on Sunday deferred till May 3 the hearing of a petition filed by fundamentalist Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami seeking review of his death sentence upheld by the top court for war crimes during the 1971 independence struggle against Pakistan. Four-member appeals bench led by Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha deferred the hearing after the defence pleaded for more time.

"The Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) granted defence the time for the preparedness for the argument...but the court simultaneously said it would accept no petition seeking further deferment of the review hearing," attorney general Mahbubey Alam told reporters.

Nizami's chief counsel Khandaker Mahbub Hossain said he prayed to the court to shift the date for hearing citing his personal difficulties. 72-year-old Nizami on March 29 filed the petition after the top court rejected his appeal seeking the revocation of the Bangladesh International Crimes Tribunal's 2014 verdict.

The International Crimes Tribunal sentenced Nizami to death on October 29, 2014 and after an appeal hearing the apex court upheld the verdict on January 6 this year. The prison authorities on March 16 served Nizami the death warrant.

The option to seek presidential mercy provides the only remaining hope ahead of Nizami's execution if the apex court rejects the review petition after the hearing.

Nizami was a minister in the past BNP-led four-party alliance government with his Jamaat being its crucial ally. Two ministers of the same cabinet Salauddin Quader Chowdhury of BNP and Jamaat's secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujaheed were earlier executed for the war crimes.

Leader of infamous Al-Badr force in 1971, Nizami is the last remaining top perpetrators of crimes against humanity whose fate now hangs in the balance. He was found guilty of systematic killings of more than 450 people alone in his own village home in northwester Pabna siding with the Pakistani troops during the liberation war.

Nizami at that time was also the chief of the student front of Jamaat, which was opposed to Bangladesh's 1971 independence.
The battle for Assam is the most keenly watched contest this election season. A rainbow alliance led by the BJP has a realistic chance of snatching power from the ruling Congress and bringing an end to 15 years of Congress regime under Tarun Gogoi. While the BJP and its allies have campaigned hard, promising to safeguard the rights of the sons of the soil and drive away 'illegal migrants from Bangladesh', the Congress has focused on its achievement of 15 years. The stage is witnessing a tough political battle.



The first phase of the election for 65 of Assams 126 Assembly constituencies on April 4 saw a record 82% polling, which supersedes the earlier records. A higher turnout is generally considered as bad news for the incumbent party. However, there could always be an exception depending on the context and the level of political consciousness.



Undoubtedly, this election has a national significance as two major national parties are in direct competition. The BJP seems to be desperate to win in Assam after its defeat in Delhi and then Bihar. It set in motion the realignment process of political forces keeping in mind Assams multi-ethnic population pattern. It has also showed resilience and an ability to form alliances with regional forces like the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF) to ensure its ascendance in the state.



The Congress has made a seat adjustment with the United Peoples Front representing indigenous communities in the state in four seats of tribal-dominated Kokrajhar. Although some may believe a Maha understanding among the non-BJP parties would have been a plausible design to arrest the growth of the saffron party, it should be noted that the factors that made such an alliance a success in Bihar are not present in Assam. The electoral salience of regions within the state primarily restrains parties from forging alliances. The third major player, the AIUDF, has allied with the Janata Dal (U) and the Rashtriya Lokdal to cement its secular credentials.



Assam has been a Congress stronghold for decades. However, the 2014 Lok Sabha election results marked a significant shift with the BJP making notable inroads. The trend continued with the two local elections held in the urban and tribal-dominated areas in early 2015. Though both the elections remain deeply embedded in local politics, a political shift is quite apparent. The anti-incumbency wave and the electoral stagnation of the regional parties, in particular, have helped the BJP.



Four major trends mark this political shift: First, challenging the Congress dominance; second, electoral stagnation of the leading regional party, the AGP; third, the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) remains regionally concentrated; and finally, the increase in the BJP support base across the regions. Under these circumstances, it remains to be seen whether the Congress can revive its fortunes or the BJP emerges as a winner.



It goes without saying that the dynamics of Assembly elections are very different from Lok Sabha elections. The BJP definitely has reasons to be optimistic on account of its performance in the state. From a meagre 1% of votes in the 1985 Assembly elections, the party has steadily improved its position in Assam. In the last two Assembly elections of 2006 and 2011, the BJPs vote share went up to around 12%, though the party won only 5 seats in 2011. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections witnessed a massive rise in the BJPs vote share, to 36.51% with victory in 7 of 14 segments.

Geographically, the regions within the state  upper Assam, lower Assam and the Barak valley  shape the nature and pattern of electoral competition in Assam. Its ethnic demography impinges on electoral politics. It is difficult for a political party to win an election without a support base among dominant groups in any constituency.



In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP made electoral gains in all three regions compared to the 2009 results. However, its biggest gains came from upper Assam, where the partys vote share went up from 13% to 45.2%, which is more than a three-fold rise. It won the 4 additional seats from the region. The BJP mainly attracted the Hindu votes, including those of the Assamese Hindus who had once constituted the AGPs backbone throughout its consistent stand against Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants.

Multiple hurdles



The rising dominance of the BJP in the region has come at the cost of the Congress. The dissidence within the Congress government was partially responsible for the partys debacle. The Congress tally went down from 4 to 1 in upper Assam, while its vote share fell from 41% to 34%. But the party that lost the most was the AGP. Upper Assam had been its bastion for long. The decimation of the AGP, in a way, led to the BJP's success.



But it is not going to be a smooth sail for the BJP. Although, the saffron partys version of nationalism appears to have gained ground, there is no reason to ignore the rapid rise of ethnic nationalism in the state. As long as issues like security, social justice, poverty, uneven-development remain unaddressed, ethnic nationalism will thrive.



The central governments notification granting citizenship to Hindu migrants from Bangladesh has already touched the nerve of the nationalist quarters of the state. It reveals the complexity the BJP faces in trying to propagate Hindu nationalism while accommodating ethnic nationalism. The electoral success of the BJP will definitely depend on how much it is able to appease the regional anxieties while pushing its own political agenda.



For the Congress, too, the road ahead is tough. Although some improvements are under way, the actual outcomes, based on growth and development indicators like unemployment, skilled education, health, rural poverty etc, certainly present a dismal picture. The party in power has failed to fully utilise the Centrally-sponsored schemes for rural and urban development, communication and infrastructure development.



The pro-poor schemes are hit by corruption and inept execution. It is a fact that there is no wave against any political party in this election. Yet, it is difficult to come to any conclusion about the revival of the Congress.



In a polarised contest, the AIUDF is expected to reap major electoral dividend and, therefore, it remains regionally concentrated. But the Assamese-speaking Muslims were not pleased with the recent intentions of the party and seemed to be distancing themselves from it.



Besides, the party has been hit by large-scale dissidence. It is likely that its vote-share and seats actually may come down in this election. The worse it gets for the AIUDF, the better it is for the Congress in terms of getting back much of the states share (35%) of Muslim votes.



The upcoming election is another testimony moment for major political parties in the fray. Apparently, therefore, electoral outcome in the state will depend less on short term political exigencies but definitely more on the matters of good governance, accommodation and policy initiatives. The present political scenario is very fluid. One has to wait till May 19.



(The author is professor at the Department of Political Science, Guwahati University)


Maulana Badruddin Ajmals political journey started much before

the formation of the AIUDF in October 2005, when he was the Assam unit president of the politically assertive socio-religious organisation Jamiyat Ulema-E-Hind since 2002.





At a state convention of the organisation in Guwahati, the then All India president of the Jamiyat, Syed Asad Madani, sitting next to Tarun Gogoi on dais, reminded him of his poll promises to minorities. Madani set a 6-month deadline for Gogoi to solve the long-standing problems of the minorities failing which he threatened to oust him from power! Exactly after 6 months, Ajmal formed the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).



Within the next 6 months, the party bagged 10 seats in the 126-member Assam Assembly. The tally increased to 18 in 2011 when the AIUDF emerged the principal opposition party. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the party shocked the political pundits by winning 3 seats, equal to the Congress tally in Assam.



In Assam, there are more than 2,200 char villages or river islands. Socio-economic surveys conducted by the state government revealed a downward spiral of crucial development indicators like poverty, literacy etc. Average literacy rate was recorded as low as 19%. Moreover, 68% of char dwellers lived below the poverty line.



The percentage of BPL families skyrocketed from 49% to 68% and literacy rate went down compared to the previous survey in 4 districts. It has been over a decade since the last socio-economic survey was conducted, in 2002-03. The government couldnt gather courage to conduct the third round of survey, fearing more uncomfortable findings.



As per the 2011 census data, Uttar Godhani, a char village in Barpeta district, has the lowest literacy rate in the state with only 2.15% female and 5.13% male literates. People who live the subhuman life in the char areas, without basic services like health, education, water, housing and proper means of livelihood, became the strongest political capital of perfume baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, whose political arena is widening with every passing election.



He is emerging as the undisputed leader of over 34% Muslims in Assam. Majority of them are branded as illegal migrants from Bangladesh despite the facts that migration of Muslim peasants from undivided Bengal (and later on East Bengal) happened under the patronage of British colonial administrators and the community officially adopted Assamese as their mother tongue in 1951.



Ajmals political trajectory has been largely dependent on fear psychosis and growing demand for civil, political and human rights by the Muslims. In 2006, Ajmal offered the most-needed political platform to the Muslims who were scared after the Supreme Court scrapped the IMDT Act, which protected them from being persecuted and harassed on char-ges that they were Bangladeshi migrants.



Tarun Gogois famous question, Who is Badruddin Ajmal? made him a celebrated politician among mainstream Assamese after the epic failure of student leader-turned-politician Prafulla Kumar Mahanta. Ajmal, meanwhile, slowly started eroding the traditional Muslim vote bank of the Congress in Assam. The AIUDF won 10 Assembly seats in the very first election it fought. However, Gogoi continued to ignore Ajmal and remained a pro-Assamese nationalist.



Turning point



During his second term, Gogoi initiated the process to update the National Register of Citizens to identify illegal foreigners. The All Assam Minority Students Union (AAMSU) and other minority organisations, along with the AIUDF, opposed the pilot project in Barpeta and Chaygaon and demanded changes in the application form, which they called as insulting to Muslims of Bengali origin.



On July 21, 2010, a large number of Bengali-origin Muslims, under the banner of AAMSU, protested against the project in Barpeta. The protest turned violent and 4 people were killed in police firing. Though Tarun Gogoi was forced to suspend the project due to unprecedented public outrage, the momentum gave an extraordinary political mileage to both the Congress and AIUDF in 2011 Assembly election.



The Congress achieved an absolute majority in the Assembly whereas the AIUDF won 5 segments in Barpeta district, where it hadnt won a single seat in 2006. The AIUDFs tally in 2011 reached 18. The partys surprising performance in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was again linked to large-scale violence and displacement of Muslims in lower Assam.



The 2016 Assam Assembly election has a different dynamics but Ajmal will continue to benefit from fear psychosis and religious polarisation. The Congress is trying to get closer to Muslim voters of lower Assam, but the BJPs poll campaign, which has focused on illegal migrants, will create ground for the AIUDF.



Himanta Biswa Sarma, once a powerful minister in Tarun Gogois cabinet who joined the BJP recently, is threatening to disenfranchise Muslims who fail to provide papers proving their residence in India since before 1951.



Ajmal, on the other hand is waving the flag of equality, civil rights and inclusive development, besides giving a clarion call to all Muslims to unite against the BJP. He has given the much-needed Jamaat and Jhanda to one of the most marginalised and persecuted communities in Assam.



The Muslims of Bengali-origin, who are perceived as illegal migrants from Bangladesh and blamed for every misfortune of Assam, are now gaining confidence to assert their identity, demand their rights and entitlements.



The communitys backing may as well make Ajmal the kingmaker of Assam. However, the Jamaat and Jhanda approach has miserably failed to address the core issues of poverty, illiteracy, lack of health services, etc.



Most importantly, the AIUDF is yet to attract a large chunk of educated and liberal Muslims of Assam. In the meanwhile, charges of corruption and nepotism are engulfing the party.



(The author is TISS-UNICEF Research Fellow based in Guwahati)
The father of the teenager accused in Civil Lines Mercedes Benz case has been arrested on graver charges of abetting culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Another glaring fact has come out that it was not the first offence of rash driving by the boy, who turned 18 on Friday.





The Mercedes driven by the boy killed a 35-year-old pedestrian in north Delhi on Monday. Eight minor boys as young as 10 years were in the car. The boys father, Manoj Aggarwal, was produced before court on Saturday and sent to a day in police custody.



On examination of CCTV footage, the possibility of knowledge to the accused juvenile offender that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death cannot be ruled out, said Deputy Commissioner of Police (North) Madhur Verma.



In the past also, he has been found driving in a rash and negligent way thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle, he added.



On the basis of the investigation so far, police have added charges under section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code. The charge earlier was under sections 279 (rash driving) and 337 (causing hurt) of the IPC.



Police also said there has not been a single step taken by Aggarwal in prohibiting him from taking the vehicle. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the juvenile, Verma said.

The Aggarwal family lives at Oberoi Apartments in Civil Lines. Initially, Aggarwal had claimed that the car was with his driver.



Aggarwal car, Mercedes-Benz C 200 Kompressor  DL 2F CM 3000, was earlier booked for speeding and rash driving thrice in the past. A notice for speeding was issued last month and two challans in April and June 2015.



The victim, Siddharth Sharma, was pursuing BBA from a private college in south Delhis Lajpat Nagar.



The footage of CCTV cameras in Civil Lines reveal the kids walking away from the spot. They didnt help Sharma and just calmly stood there. They made calls. For a long while. Then, two of them walk away. The accused is one of the two. They dont run, they just calmly walk away, said Saj, Sharmas friend.



On Sunday, an event demanding strict action against the juvenile and his father will be held at 5 pm at Connaught Places Central Park.
Two teenagers shot dead a 51-year-old Uber cab driver after an altercation in west Delhis Mundka on Wednesday. The juveniles were detained on Friday with the help of details provided in Uber app, police said.





The taxi was found on Thursday and driver Kuldeep Thakurs body recovered near Hiran Kudna village in Mundka on Friday. There were bloodstains on the drivers seat and the number plate was missing.



According to the police, the class 11 students  one 16-year-old and the other 17  had booked Thakurs cab at 4 pm on Wednesday. The booking was made from west Delhis Najafgarh.Thakur sustained two gunshot wounds. His body was dumped after which the boys left with the car, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwestern Range) Deependra Pathak.



The boys told police that they had an argument with Thakur as he was not aware of the roads in west Delhi. The boys also made fun of Thakurs hometown.The argument led to a scuffle in which Thakur was shot in his head and neck.



Police were informed by locals after the taxi was found parked on a road for hours in Najafgarh. A team of local police tracked the last users of the taxi. On being questioned, the boy who booked the taxi confessed to have killed Thakur.



The two boys then led the police team to the spot where Thakurs body was dumped. The accused do not have any criminal record. Currently, the investigators are trying to find out the source of the firearm used by the boys.



Our thoughts are with the family of our driver-partner, the victim of this mindless violence. We have pro-actively shared details with the police to assist them with their investigation, said Uber North India general manager Gagan Bhatia.
A Pakistani bomb-making expert linked to the 2008 Mumbai attack is among scores of trained terrorists who slipped into the EU posing as refugees to join the Islamic State's plot to commit atrocities in Europe, a media report here said today.





Muhammad Usman Ghani, who is linked to the Lashkar-e- Taiba (LeT) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terror groups, is being held in Austria on charges of participating in a terrorist organisation, The Sunday Times said.



The ISIS "strike team" sent to Europe before last November's Paris attacks included Usman, the veteran bomb-maker from Pakistan.



LeT was behind the Mumbai attack that left 166 people dead.



The disclosure come from sources close to a multinational investigation who warn more "large-scale" assaults on European countries, including Britain, are "imminent". Dozens of the ISIS operatives are still at large, the report said.



Usman, 34, and a suspected Algerian ISIS fighter named as Adel Haddadi, 28, have been questioned by Austrian and French authorities after being linked to the terrorist gang that killed 130 people in Paris last November.



Investigators believe both men are part of an unknown number of Isis "strike teams" that used the migrant flow to infiltrate Europe last year. A network of jihadists based on the Continent has provided extensive logistic support, from fake identity documents to safe houses.



Usman and Haddadi arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat as two of the Paris suicide bombers, known only by the fake names Ahmad al- Mohammed and Mohammad al-Mahmod. The pair blew themselves up in front of the Stade de France stadium on November 13.



All four men had obtained Syrian passports and travelled on a boat carrying 198 people, according to a Greek police report.



Adel Haddadi has been linked to the Paris attacks Usman and Haddadi were travelling under the names Faycal Alaifan and Fozi Brahi.



They were arrested by Greek police soon after arriving because their documents showed up on the EU's database of nearly 4,000 passports that had been stolen by Isis.



Greek police released both men on October 28 and allowed them to continue the journey across Europe.



Shortly after the Paris attacks, Usman and Haddadi resurfaced in Austria, applying for asylum at the Asfinag refugee shelter, near Salzburg, in late November.



Local police then arrested the men on December 10 when a fingerprint search linked them to the passports commandeered by Isis.



Investigators are trying to determine whether the arrests in Greece had prevented them from joining the Paris attackers, or whether they were planning a separate assault.



An examination of phones in their possession in Austria revealed that the suspects had dialled numbers used by their suicide bomber travelling companions, as well as associates of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of the terrorist cell behind the attacks.



Abaaoud, who was killed in Paris in a shootout with police on November 18, boasted to an associate he and another 90 fighters had slipped into Europe as refugees, according to French investigators.



While in detention in Austria, Usman and Haddadi have been questioned by members of the DGSI, France's internal security service  the equivalent of MI5.



Both men are expected to be extradited to France to stand trial on charges relating to the Paris attacks. They are denying the charges.
The minor boy, who had allegedly run over a 32-year-old man with his father's Mercedes in north Delhi's civil lines area, was today held under charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to juvenile justice home, the police said.



He will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board tomorrow.



The police today also arrested the man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of incident but did a volte-face after he got to know that victim Siddharth Sharma was dead.



The driver and the boy's father, who was arrested on Friday, were today produced before a city court and they were granted bail. The driver was arrested for the offence under section 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of the IPC.



Meanwhile, the police said that the juvenile, who turned 18 years old day before yesterday, along with his lawyers came to the court to surrender and his advocates moved a bail plea.



The police said that the court refused to grant him bail on the ground that it was a matter of the juvenile justice board (JJB).



Later, a juvenile welfare officer of the Delhi Police apprehended the boy and he was sent to juvenile justice home for a day. He will be produced before the JJB tomorrow.



The incident took place on April 4 when 32-year-old marketing executive Siddharth Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School and the speeding Mercedes hit him.



A case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) was lodged.



The boy was apprehended the next day and was released on bail as per legal provisions.



"During the later stage of the investigation, the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is cognizable and non-bailable in nature, was slapped and today the boy was apprehended under this charge," DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.



The police had said, "On examination of CCTV footage, the possibility of knowledge to the accused juvenile offender that his extremely fast driving in a residential area can cause a death cannot be ruled out."



"Further, during investigation it emerged that it was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by this accused juvenile. In the past too he was found driving in a rash and negligent way, thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle," it had said.



Last year, the minor was also challaned thrice -- for over-speeding in April and June and wrong parking in February.



The boy's father, an old-Delhi based businessman, was arrested under Sections 109/304 (abatement to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.



"There has not been a single step taken by the father of the accused in prohibiting him from taking the vehicle. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the said juvenile," a senior police official had said.



The car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.



After the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled the spot, abandoning the car there.
When Apple first released the iPhone in 2007, I wrote a blog post with the headline: Why my phone wont be an iPhone. I laid out several reasons I would not be giving up my Palm Treo 700p for Apples gadget, including the poor voice and data service of Apples lone wireless partner, AT&T, and the lack of third-party apps.



The iPhone has obviously come a long way since then. It can now be used on any carrier. Its voice and data quality are stellar. Some of its built-in apps, such as Apple Pay, are best in class. There are 1.5 million apps created by outside developers.

I have finally caved: My phone is now an iPhone.



And I got there the way that many others have: by switching from an Android-based smartphone. About six weeks ago, I swapped my two-year-old Samsung Galaxy S5 for a new iPhone 6S to better understand Apples flagship product as I began a new assignment involving the company.



Faced with slowing sales growth, Apple is counting on millions of people like me to give up their Android phones, which can be bought new for as little as $30 (Rs 1,996) in some countries, to purchase iPhones, which cost $400 (Rs 26,619) or more.



We were blown away by the level of Android switchers that we had last quarter, Apples chief executive, Tim Cook, told Wall Street in January. We see that as a huge opportunity.



As someone who has since 2010 used high-end phones based on Googles Android operating system, I have experienced a rocky transition, like moving to a faraway city. The landmarks are unfamiliar, the customs are different, and I miss my old haunts even as I explore new ones.



Switching phone operating systems should in theory be simple. First you transfer your data from the old phone to the new one. Then you reinstall your favourite apps. Finally you customiSe the settings for features like ring tones and notifications and learn the quirks of your new device.



Apple has a detailed guide and a special app to help those switching from an Android. Apple also offers assistance at its retail stores as well as 90 days of free telephone support. Google, which does not itself sell most of the phones that run on Android, has a Web page of tips for those switching to an Apple.



But as I learned, many things can go wrong, and my experience is not unusual.

Youre going to have to go through the things that are most valuable to you and make sure its all there, said Jonathan S. Geller, editor-in-chief of BGR, a tech news site that reviews phones and writes frequently about switching. For a normal consumer, its reasonably frustrating.



Heres what happened when I switched:



Data transfer



The problems began at the outset. I downloaded Apples switching app, Move to iOS, to my Samsung and paired the two phones. The app got stuck in the middle of the data transfer and eventually froze.



Verizon, my mobile carrier, offers its own method of transferring data called Verizon Cloud. I tried it but could not get the two phones to sync directly. I had to back up the Samsung to the cloud, then download the data to the iPhone.



A lot of contacts and photos never made it through. It was as if a moving company had lost half my stuff during a cross-country haul.



Apple later told me that I could have called a toll-free number for help, gone to an Apple store or erased everything and started over. The company lent me another iPhone 6S to try the Move to iOS app again  and this time it did transfer my data. But it failed to do the other half of the job: download the Apple versions of my Android apps to the new iPhone.



Apps



As many phone switchers do, I had to manually reinstall my apps. Popular apps like Facebook, Uber and Amazon were easy to find. But some of my standbys  including a simple public transit app, BART Runner  were not available for the iPhone, and I have yet to find a perfect replacement.



On the flip side, I can now communicate with my relatives on FaceTime, Apples video chat service, and read missed issues of The New Yorker during long commutes, something that is much harder to do on Android.



I am also now more likely to get early access to cutting-edge apps, since U.S. app makers tend to build for the iPhone first. Last year, for example, when I wanted to try Twitters new Periscope live-streaming app, I had to borrow my wifes iPhone because Periscope was not yet available for Android.



Look and feel



The most fundamental difference between iPhones and Androids is the level of conformity dictated by each company. This is where personal preferences play a big role in customer satisfaction.



Apple exercises great control over the look, feel and features of iPhones to deliver its idealised version of what it thinks people want. Android is free-form and adaptable  so much so that the look and feel can vary widely from one phone maker to the next, especially in Asia.



One consequence of Apples approach is that the iPhone is more stable. Every Android phone I have ever used has suffered mysterious hardware and software problems like random reboots and crashing apps. These happen much more rarely in iOS.



But Apples control has its downsides. The company makes its apps the permanent default options for common services like maps, Web browsing and email.



Google also requires most phone makers to make its services the initial default on Android phones, but Android users can change those defaults. For example, if you dont want to use Google Maps for navigation, you can set your phone to automatically access Here Maps or Waze every time you encounter an address.



In my case, I have a Windows laptop; my employer, The New York Times, uses Googles enterprise apps; and I depend on Googles search technology to find airline tickets, email addresses and old photos stored in my various digital pockets. My life is deeply enmeshed in the Google ecosystem.



To make my iPhone more familiar and my data easier to find, I put my favorite Google apps on my home screen and mostly use them instead of Apples apps. Google has knitted its iPhone apps together so that Gmail uses Googles browser, Chrome, when you click on a link in an email, and Googles calendar uses Google Maps when you click on an address.



Bottom line



Given the headaches of switching, most people avoid it.

Michael R. Levin, partner and co-founder of Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, which surveys smartphone users in the United States, said only about 1 out of 5 people activating a new iPhone or Android was switching from the other platform. In the past two years, the loyalty and switching rates have gotten very, very set, he said.



Overall, I am getting more comfortable with my iPhone. I like Apples fingerprint reader and have finally figured out how to align my fingertips precisely enough to unlock the phone (at least most of the time).



Will the iPhone ever feel like home? Check back in two years, when I am due for my next upgrade.






The law firm at the center of the Panama offshore accounts scandal routinely usurped the name of the Red Cross and other charities to help obscure the origin of millions of dollars in questionable funds, media reported today.





There's no suggestion that the charitable groups had any idea their name was being used in this way. International Committee of the Red Cross spokeswoman Claire Kaplun told The Associated Press on Sunday that the revelation was "a total surprise and something we find extremely shocking."



France's Le Monde and Switzerland's Le Matin Dimanche said Mossack Fonseca created dummy foundations with high-minded names such as the "Faith Foundation" to hold shares in around 500 offshore companies. The foundation's beneficiary was routinely listed as "the Red Cross," a designation which served the dual purposes of hiding the firms' real beneficiaries and of draping them in an "NGO aura," the papers wrote.



Mossack Fonseca didn't immediately return an email seeking comment, but a leaked email cited by the publications appeared to lay out the firm's reasoning.



"Given that banks and financial institutions are today asked to obtain information about economic beneficiaries, it has become difficult for us not to divulge the identity of those of the Faith Foundation's," the email said, according to the papers.



"That's why we've implemented this structure designating the 'International Red Cross.' It's easier that way."



Another email cited by the papers suggests Mossack Fonseca deliberately kept the Red Cross in the dark about the maneuver.



"According to Panama law, the beneficiaries of a foundation can be used without knowing it," the email said, according to the papers. "That means the International Red Cross doesn't know about this arrangement."



Kaplun, the Red Cross spokeswoman, said that using the group's name or logo without its permission is barred by international law and could put the group's staff in jeopardy.



"We work in conflict zones. We work without weapons. Our protection is our name, our emblem, the faith that people have in our reputation," she said in a telephone interview.



"Let's say this money was linked to a warring party in a conflict. Imagine what consequences that could have."



The newspapers' examination of the Faith Foundation turned up a host of questionable connections.



Both said that the Faith Foundation was a relay in the money trail leading back to former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, who succeeded him in 2007. The foundation also played a role in a complex London real estate transaction involving Emirati leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the papers said, adding that another Panama-based foundation played a similar role in obscuring the finances of Elena Baturina, the wife of Moscow's ex-mayor and repeatedly listed as Russia's wealthiest woman.


Twenty years ago, when New Yorkers asked me where I was from, all Id say is that I grew up in Britain. Mentioning that I was born in Bangladesh drew only more questions, and New Yorkers simply wanted confirmation of what was to them the distinctive cultural marker: my British accent.



That accent was learned from imitating BBC News announcers on a cassette recorder. As a boy, I read about the destruction of millions of Jews and was gripped by fear: If white Europeans could do that to people who looked like them, imagine what they could do to me. So I adapted, hoping to make myself less alien to these people so ill at ease with difference. I grew up not so long ago in a Britain that spat at nonwhites, beat us and daubed swastikas on walls.



Britain frightens its natives with the specter of a fifth column, and exhorts immigrants to integrate better and adopt British values. Do it and youll earn your stripes. But the promise is hollow, for Britain has no intention of keeping its side of the bargain.



Recently, I was invited onto the judging panel for the PEN Pinter Prize, English PENs award (honouring the playwright Harold Pinter) for a writer who casts an unflinching, unswerving gaze upon the world, and shows a fierce intellectual determination to define the real truth of our lives and our societies. Salman Rushdie and Tom Stoppard are past winners.



The announcement of the panel, which included Peter Stothard, the editor of The Times Literary Supplement, described me thus: Born in rural Bangladesh, Zia Haider Rahman was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and at Cambridge, Munich and Yale Universities. He has worked as an investment banker on Wall Street and as an international human rights lawyer.



The Man Booker Prize administration released a statement congratulating Stothard, a former judge of its award, and mentioning the 2 other appointees: Vicky Featherstone, artistic director of the Royal Court Theater, and Zia Haider Rahman, a Bangladeshi banker turned novelist.



I have no idea what citizenships my fellow panelists hold; unhelpfully, Man Booker did not provide that information. I was, however, surprised to learn that Im Bangladeshi. I dont have a Bangladeshi passport, though I do hold a British one. In fact, Ive lawfully held two valid British passports (to facilitate travel to so-called incompatible countries, like Israel and Jordan).



Clearly, holding two British passports doesnt make me doubly British. But surely, for a bastion of the British establishment to call me Bangladeshi, it should have sufficient reason to believe that I am precisely that. Shall we put the error down to mere ignorance of the fact that millions of British citizens were born in, or are descendants of people born in, the post-colonies? Of course, keeping me Bangladeshi has the advantage of enabling some people to tell me to go back to my own country.



The issue is not what I choose to call myself but what the supposedly educated Briton chooses to call nonwhite British citizens. Britain has a problem with otherness. This problem is not exclusively a British one. Although the Brexit campaign over a referendum to determine Britains exit from the European Union has revealed a nasty undercurrent of hostility towards other Europeans, the British do share something with the continent.



I recently appeared on Buitenhof, a political programme on Dutch television, to argue that Europes colonial history has left a stain on its psyche, an animus against foreigners. Afterward, aside from the usual racist mail, there were messages from nonwhite Dutch people, most taking issue with one thing. Apparently, I neednt have qualified my remarks by saying things were worse in Britain. They were just as bad in the Netherlands. Life for immigrant Europeans is a daily confrontation with micro-aggressions and gestures of alienation.



I have been cosseted in Amsterdam for several months, where I am a writer in residence at the university and my novel is a national best seller. Last month, I attended the annual Boekenbal, a gala celebrating Dutch publishing, the main purpose of which, I learned, is to generate gossip about who is deemed worthy of tickets. In other words, its function is to establish an inside group.



My publisher invited me to a dinner before the gala at a restaurant. Midway through, I remembered my coat: On arrival, Id left it somewhere and forgotten about it. When eventually a member of the staff and I found it, valuables still present, I thanked him. It is a pleasure to have you here, he replied. Slightly odd formulation, I thought, putting it down to translation.



No, sir, he added, lowering his voice, I mean it is an honour to have you here. I looked at the man again. I saw you on Buitenhof last week, and everything you said was right. But the Dutch wont understand it because they cant see it.



Whats your name? I asked. Emile, he said, shaking my hand. Its the name I use at work. My parents are Egyptian, but I was born in the Netherlands. Im the sommelier here and I know everything there is to know about wine. I speak Dutch fluently, he went on, in English. I know more about Dutch culture than most Dutch people. I am Dutch, but Im never really accepted as Dutch. The encounter moved me, and I stepped out into the cold Amsterdam night to recover my composure.



Nothing is enough



These days, when New Yorkers ask me where Im from, sometimes I might say, for the hell of it, I was born in Bangladesh. Unfailingly, its not enough. Often, bless em, they say, Yeah, but youre British, right? I have to cross the Atlantic to hear this. Ive learned to cope. But when I think of the children in the projects where I grew up, and in the underprivileged school in Londons East End where I sat on the board, I know that taking refuge in the novelists seclusion would be an abrogation.



Every battle of ideas is fought on the terrain of language. To the white Briton, the hyphenated identity  Bangladeshi-British, Pakistani-British  only highlights otherness. Each side regards the hyphenated identity as a concession to the other, rather than both rejoicing in a new stripe in a rainbow nation.



It does not come easily for white Britons to speak, face to face, of a nonwhite Britons nationality. The shuffling feet, the throat-clearing, the unmet eye give it away.

It is Britains inherent cultural problem with otherness that makes it difficult for the native to call me British, difficult even for those who, one might naively hope, should know better.



If youre not going to call me British when I grew up in Britain; when I hold a British passport and dont hold a Bangladeshi one; when I dont even speak Bengali; when, good citizen that I try to be, I help an elderly neighbour with his Ikea bed, or dig out the old lilac that another cannot uproot; when I was educated in Britain, worked in Britain, was a body of Englands, breathing English air/Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home when I wash the dishes at the local churchs fund-raiser for the homeless and again  it bears repetition  when I hold a British passport without let or hindrance, then you cant be surprised if, doubting your good faith, I grab my bags and get the hell out.



After all, how much more can I integrate? What more is it you want from us? To be white? To be you?




Agumbe, which was considered the Cherrapunji of South India not so long ago for its record rainfall, is not only receiving less rainfall during monsoon now, but is also staring at a water crisis during summer in the last three to four years. Cherrapunji, at one time, held the record for the highest rainfall in India. Experts say this is a manmade crisis.



Deforestation





Deforestation, encroachment of forest land for agriculture and unscientific afforestation with acacia trees are said to be the major reasons.



According to the statistics from the meteorological department, the average annual rainfall at Agumbe has been 8,000 mm.



In 1962, it recorded 11,343 mm, the highest in the last 53 years. However, in 2015, the Agumbe station recorded only 5,000 mm of rainfall, the lowest ever in the area. In the last two decades, Agumbe has received above-average rainfall for only four years.



Agumbe, which is part of the Western Ghats, plays a vital role in maintaining the balance of bio-diversity in entire South India. The Western Ghats, which constitute only 5% of the total Indian landscape, ensure not only water security, but also food security. Therefore, harming this region is showing a repulsive effect on bio-diversity, says Dr T V Ramachandra, an ecological scientist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, who has done an extensive study on the Western Ghats in Shivamogga, Uttara Kannada and Chikkamagaluru districts.



Several villages around Agumbe are facing a water crisis, said S K Hegde, Assistant Executive Engineer of Shivamogga Rural Water Supply. The next two months of summer are very critical for us as most of the streams and rivulets have dried up in the area. We have been instructed to supply drinking water by either re-energising borewells after sinking them deeper or by sinking new borewells, wherever necessary.



Despite receiving an average 6,500 mm of rainfall in the last five years, Agumbe is not able to hold water because of deforestation, says Dr Ramachandra. The land has lost its seeping capacity. And to top it, the Forest department has been planting acacia trees, which consume nearly four to five times more water than a native tree.



Experts say these trees not only lead to depletion in groundwater but also affect the health of the soil.



Encroachment



According to Agumbe Deputy Conservator of Forests, Vaanathi M M, more than 12,668.20 acres of forest land has been encroached upon by the farmers, and another 10% of the total forest land is being used for cultivation of acacia.



In Agumbe forest range alone, of the total 15,000 hectares of forest land, nearly 1,400 hectares have acacia plantation, which is being used as timber and firewood.



The state government imposed a ban on the plantation of acacia and eucalyptus in forest land in 2011 for their harmful qualities. Yet, Vaanathis department has planted these saplings this year, too.



T V Ramachandra, ecological scientist at IISc, Bengaluru: The Western Ghats, which constitute only 5 % of the total Indian landscape, ensure not only water security but also food security. Therefore, harming this region is showing a repulsive effect on bio-diversity.




Director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (Nimhans), Dr B N Gangadhar said even if a small group of 10 patients with Parkinsons Disease can come to the Institute, yoga sessions can be arranged for them.



Speaking at an awareness programme that was organised by the Parkinsons Disease Society of Karnataka on Sunday to observe World Parkinsons Day, he said that yoga therapists from the Nimhans Advanced Centre for Yoga could take time for an hour to teach the patients.



Dr Gangadhar urged the caretakers of patients as well to practise yoga to help relieve themselves of the physical and mental stress.



Recalling from a study that was conducted by Nimhans on the elderly, he said changes in the hippocampus were noted among a group of people who practised yoga regularly for six months.



There were positive effects on the Hippocampus in the brain, he added.

Meanwhile, former director of the Institute, DR P Satish Chandra said the government has recently included Parkinsons disease for income tax exemptions up to Rs 50,000 per year.



Speaking at the event, Ameeta Patel, president, Parkinsons Disease Society of Karnataka said they hope to start more centres in Bengaluru in addition to the existing two in Jayanagar and Okalipuram.



As part of the programme, yoga and Tai Chi sessions were organised for patients and their caretakers.


Garbage crisis in HSR Layout



In HSR Layout, Sector-6, all the houses sport garbage in their fronts as the BBMP collectors have not turned up in a long time. The road sweepers appear once in a blue moon. Many sewage chambers are overflowing for the last many years and the BWSSB expressed total helplessness in this matter.



There is a big leakage in the Cauvery waterline on the 3rd Main Road and we do not know who will stop it.

Dr A Obireddy,

HSR Layout



Broken slab over drain

A cement slab covering drains of the eastern footpath on Devegowda Road, Ward No 46, has broken and fallen in. During a power shutdown in the night, pedestrians will fall into the drain and break their limbs. I request the BBMP officials concerned to replace the cement slab before any untoward incident.

Nazir Ahmed



Clean storm water drain

There is an open storm water drainage (SWD) near Kamakhya theatre in Kamakhya Layout. The drain water from Thyagarajanagar, Vidyapeetha, Banashankari 2nd Stage and other areas flows through this SWD. The drain has not been cleaned in 6 years. An unbearable stench emanates from it and the mosquito menace has increased. The residents around the drain are facing health issues and a few have even moved away because of the drain.

Balakrishna Rao,

Kamakhya Layout



Desilt drains before monsoon

The BBMP claims that it is ready for the monsoons. But the SWD which needs to carry rain water is filled with sewage and whenever it rains, the road in front of Ramanasri Enclave in Bilekahalli is waterlogged with one foot of sewage.

Also the SWD near the Raj Lake View Apartments needs to be de-silted. We are in constant fear of sewage water entering our houses during rains.



Also, the road is in a very bad condition and is a permanent source of dust, leading to respiratory problem for residents. Drains inside our layout are filled with sewage water and the stench is unbearable. I request the authorities to desilt the drains near Ramanasri Enclave and asphalt the road.



Aggrieved residents



Overflowing manhole

A manhole at the end of Cline Road is overflowing onto the main road causing quite a stench and a potential health hazard. The run-off from this manhole is bound to end up in the underground water system. Could the authorities concerned get the manhole repaired at the earliest?



Aggrieved residents



Garbage dumped at corner site

Garbage is being dumped at the corner of the junction of 50 Feet Road and 4th cross in KG Layout, Banashankari 3rd Stage. The waste is also set on fire and the fumes are causing health hazards to the residents. Previous requests to authorities have not yielded any results. The BBMP should also educate residents to not dump their garbage and measures should be taken to clear the dumped waste.

G S Kumar



Post office lacks facilities

Kamakshipalya Post Office, located in a strategic location on the busy Magadi Main Road is helpful. However, the facilities currently available at this post office need immediate attention to help ensure better services for the customers. The post office is situated on the first floor in a single room and lacks seating arrangements for visitors.



This makes it difficult for many customers, including senior citizens and differently-abled people, to access the post office.



The maintenance of this congested one-room post office is also not up to the mark. Lack of parking space on the busy main road also causes great inconvenience to the public. I suggest that the postal department make arrangements to shift the post office to a spacious ground floor accommodation with parking facility.

Varun Dambal,

Nagarbhavi 2nd Stage



Property tax payment an ordeal

I tried using the BBMP Property Tax website for the year 2016-17. The columns like sub-category and sub-groups do not opening in the website. The description of zones is absent, making it unable for users to identify the zone under which their property falls. The BBMP should take note of these errors and rectify them at the earliest.

S Ashwini, Srinagar







Need a hand? Write to us





Letters of grievances are pouring in and we are doing our best to accommodate as many as possible. Readers may write in to highlight civic problems affecting their locality and we will help address them in an interactive and effective manner.



Grievances and issues related to public utility agencies such as Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB), Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) and Bangalore Electricity Supply Company Limited (Bescom) would be highlighted in the weekly column.



The writeups, which could be accompanied by photographs highlighting the problems, will be published on Mondays.



Mail your grievances to: peoplesproblems @deccanherald.co.in
In a bid to take complete control of the party, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday became party president of the Janata Dal (United).





He took over from Sharad Yadav who resigned after heading the party for 10 years.

In an urgent meeting of National Executive, Yadav declared his resignation from the post and proposed the name of Kumar. The national executive unanimously elected Nitish as president of the party. The decision will be ratified by the national council which is scheduled to meet on April 23 this year at Patna.



The change has come at a time when party elections are on and office-bearers are to be elected in next two months up to the level of block units. According to party sources, this was the prescription of Prashant Kishor, campaign advisor of the Bihar Chief Minister.



Kishor last week met Yadav and believed to have suggested him to resign from the post to make it easy for Kumar to project himself as the prime ministerial candidate for 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Yadav has been assured that he would again be sent to Rajya Sabha after he retires in July this year.



Briefing the media after the election, general secretary K C Tyagi indicated the same.



The failure of the Modi government has sent the common people into a deep depression. The disappointment among the people has reached to the level of pre-2014 Lok Sabha polls. Our party wishes to put forward an alternative to the BJP government which has surrendered before the divisive and anti-national forces, he said.
Actor Anupam Kher was on Sunday stopped by Jammu and Kashmir Police at the airport here and not allowed to visit the National Institute of Technology (NIT), which recently witnessed clashes between local and outstation students.





He (Kher) was stopped at the airport and not allowed to visit NIT, a police official said.



He said Kher was asked to return to Delhi as there were apprehensions of law and order problems.



Kher reached the airport on Sunday morning and was scheduled to visit NIT to give moral support to the students.



Landed in Srinagar. HOME away from home. Will go to #NITSrinagar & meet the students & give them a warm hug & a special gift. :) Kher tweeted.



I have been told by J&K Police that I cannot enter Srinagar city at all. I have asked them to show me the orders. Still at the airport, he wrote on Twitter.



He said he was not going to NIT to create problems but to meet the students.

I was going there as a citizen to meet students and give them moral support. If they say this is a law and order situation, I will say millions of people go to university, its an open place, why should they stop me, Kher said at the airport.

I was not going there to create problems.I was just going there to give them a sense of warmth, he said.


The State Congress has decided to postpone the KPCC executive committee meeting scheduled for April 16 in the wake of party MLAs demanding that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah immediately reshuffle his Council of Ministers.





Sources in the party said senior leaders advised the party not to hold the executive committee meeting at this juncture. A section of MLAs have a lot of resentment against many of the ministers. The party will face embarrassment if the disgruntled leaders make use of the forum to air their grievances. Hence, the party decided to postpone the meeting indefinitely, the sources added.



The executive committee was convened to discuss, among others, the partys poor performance in the recently-held elections to zilla and taluk panchayats and byelections to three Assembly constituencies and other organisational issues.



About 25 like-minded Congress MLAs met Siddaramaiah on Saturday and demanded that he should drop at least 25 non-performing ministers and give an opportunity to the loyal legislators. Such an exercise, the legislators believe, is necessary for the party to improve its image and prepare itself for the 2018 Assembly elections in the State.



CM to visit Delhi



Besides, the chief minister is likely to visit Delhi for two days on April 15 and 16 to discuss the reshuffle with the high command. Siddaramaiah is likely to hold a preliminary discussion in this regard with AICC general secretary incharge of Karnataka Digvijaya Singh, who is scheduled to visit Bengaluru on April 13. Singh is scheduled to attend a one-day seminar the KPCC will be organising on B R Ambedkar in Bengaluru on April 13, the sources said.



This apart, Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara are scheduled to visit Nagpur on Monday to take part in the concluding function of the 125th birth anniversary celebrations of B R Ambedkar. Senior leaders of the party, including Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Congress vice-president, are scheduled to attend the Nagpur event.




Former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa on Sunday decided to formally take charge as the new BJP State president on April 14 at Palace Grounds in Bengaluru on the sidelines of Dr B R Ambedkar Jayanti.





The party will organise a public rally at Gayatri Vihar in Palace Grounds to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar. Yeddyurappa will assume charge on the occasion. About 20,000 people are expected to attend the programme. A decision to this effect was taken at a meeting held by Yeddyurappa with the party legislators from Bengaluru. Union Ministers Ananth Kumar and D V Sadananda Gowda were also present.



The issue of severe drought in the state was also discussed in the meeting, and it was decided to tour the entire state after April 21. Separate teams of leaders will be formed for this purpose. Leaders will try to educate people about failures of the government in providing drought relief, sources in the BJP said. This apart, Yeddyurappa has decided to hold a separate meeting with BJP corporators of the BBMP on April 16. He will interact with the corporators on issues related to Bengaluru development and other organisational issues, the sources added.
Mines and Geology Minister Vinay Kulkarni has said that the rising prices of iron ore has increased cost of production at Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Limited (VISL) and that he would make sincere efforts to bring down the production costs by providing the ore from state-run mines at cheaper rates.





He said this, speaking to reporters after visiting the VISL here on Sunday. VISL is currently procuring iron ore at Rs 5,700 per tonne from Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. I will try to provide ore at Rs 2,500 per tonne from the state-owned mines. This will bring down the cost of production at VISL, a unit of Steel Authority of India Ltd, the minister said.



The production in the VISL was stalled due to lack of iron ore. Because of which the factory is sufferring losses, he said adding that he would get a mine sanctioned to the VISL.

A mine near Ramandurga has been identified. I will make sincere efforts to get a captive mine sanctioned to the VISL, Kulkarni said.
Official sources said deaths of about 90 people were recorded across the eight hospitals in Kollam district and 13 at the Medical College Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.





At least 15 of the dead are yet to be identified. The Kollam District Hospital where most of the injured were brought in recorded at least 50 deaths. At the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, 126 people were brought in till about 8 pm. The hospital has recorded deaths of 13 people, two of them brought dead.



Vishnudath (18), Saju (24), Pramod (29), Pradeep Anil (50), Sethubabu (42), Jnanasundaram (53) and Anil (35) are the seven people identified as dead at the hospital.



Eleven of the injured are admitted in the hospitals surgical ICU.



Union Health Minister J P Nadda is camping in Kollam to coordinate the administrative measures. An All India Institute Of Medical Sciences team of 26 including doctors and paramedical staff have flown into the state.



A team of plastic surgeons from the Kanyakumari Medical College Hospital has also arrived in Thiruvananthapuram.
The next session of Parliament, beginning April 25, is expected to witness a face-off between the Modi government and the opposition on issues ranging from the imposition of Presidents Rule in Uttarakhand to the failure of the NDAs Pakistan policy.





The session beginning April 25 could have been the second part of the Budget Session, but the Modi government decided to prorogue both Houses of Parliament to enable promulgation of the Appropriation (Vote on Account) Ordinance for Uttarakhand that was placed under Presidents Rule on March 27.



Furious at the unseating of its government in Uttarakhand, the Congress has decided to raise the issue of murder of democracy by the Modi government in Parliament.



Pakistans announcement about suspension of the peace talks with India and refusing permission to Indian investigators to visit Islamabad to probe the Pathankot terror attack has also come handy for the opposition.



Congress leaders Anand Sharma and Abhishek Manu Singhvi have declared that they would question Prime Minister Narendra Modis Pakistan policy in Parliament.



Getting the approval of Parliament for the imposition of Presidents Rule in Uttarakhand will be a difficult task for the government as it lacks the numbers in the Rajya Sabha.
Mandeep Singh, a 26-year-old from Amritsar had not anticipated that the new excise policy will land him in jail a day before his wedding.





Last week Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had imposed total prohibition of alcohol in the state.



The prospective groom, Mandeep, who was on way from Punjab to Asansol (in West Bengal), was anxious about his Saturday wedding. But his addiction for booze landed him in jail after the railway police arrested him at Danapur (near Patna) for consuming liquor in the train passing through the state capital.



According to railway sources, the groom along with his friend from Australia, was travelling by Amritsar-Howrah Punjab Mail and was supposed to get down at Asansol where his wedding was to take place a day later.



However, the two friends, were found consuming liquor in the AC compartment of the Punjab Mail. The railway police conducted raid after the co-passengers informed the police about their illegal activity.



An open bottle of Indian made foreign liquor, besides huge cash, was recovered from the duo. The two apprehended persons were booked under the new excise law and the Indian Railway Act, and sent to jail.6 trainee constables held But then its not only the groom who has been put behind bars after the imposition of prohibition. At least six trainee police constables in Banka, who last week had pledged not to consume alcohol, were found fighting with a road-side hotel owner in an inebriated condition.



The incident took place when these cops went to Deoghar, in neighbouring Jharkhand, without informing seniors to consume alcohol as it is not banned in Jharkhand. While returning to their work-place (Banka in Bihar), they, under the influence of liquor, got engaged in brawl at a road-side dhaba.



When complained about them, the Banka SP asked for medical examination of the cops. After finding the charges (of consuming liquor) true, the trainee cops were forwarded to judicial custody.


Public health professionals are worried about the consequences of the NDA governments decision to sack the foreign-funded consultants from the public health schemes as they shoulder bulk of the workload in executing the government programmes.





The consultants were the backbone behind the success of the polio programme. The decision appears to have been formulated without any idea on what consequences it would bring. I have no idea how the government would manage the national programmes without them, a senior official at Public Health Foundation of India told Deccan Herald on the condition of anonymity.



More than a week ago, the central government ordered removal of 45 consultants from the service by June as they served more than three years. By December, another 70 experts will leave, while others, who have worked for less than three years, face a government screening committee to decide if they are needed.



On the instructions of the Prime Ministers Office, the finance ministry prepared a list of about 500 consultants employed by the foreign agencies across all sectors. More than 50% of these consultants are in the health sector alone that faced manpower crisis. They are paid by the agencies like WHO, UNICEF, USAID, DFID and Bill Gates Foundation, but work with the government.



Traditionally Indian governments investment in public health is on the infrastructure in terms of building and infrastructure. There were not enough people to run these centres and execute the government schemes, said Bobby John, executive director, Global Health Advocates of India.


Ten hours after huge explosions left a trail of death at the Puttingal Temple in Paravur, scenes of shock and despair continued to play out with anecdotes on near-death experiences in and around the town.



People were seen looking for missing friends even while holding close to them dear ones who did manage to come out unhurt.



Late evening, efforts were on to take bodies identified at eight hospitals in Kollam district to their homes. P Madhavan, a businessman from Kollam, said at least five people he knew were missing since the incident. They were here for the festival on Saturday night but have been untraceable since morning. We are now heading for Thiruvananthapuram because we couldnt find them in the hospitals here, he told DH.



Friends of Vishnu, a 23-year-old mechanic from nearby Ithikkara, said pieces of concrete hit him, leaving him with injuries on his head and face.





In the temple compound, people were seen walking around the rubble, reliving the horror.



The blasts brought the building, owned by the temple trust, down in seconds. The power went off and there were cries for help even as the explosions continued.

People were in a state of shock and since there was no power, rescue works were a bit delayed. The first efforts were from the police and people who came in private buses and other vehicles, said Ravindranath, a resident of Paravur.



Reactions

I was watching the fireworks from the terrace of a nearby house. There was a huge blast and commotion. I was walking away when a piece of concrete hit my head and brought me down,-Meenu (17)



I was standing near the building where the explosives were stored. I heard a mild blast; then a man who was carrying a lit firecracker, shocked by the impact, threw it away. It started a chain of explosions. Pieces of concrete were flying all around; one chunk of concrete hit my arm. There was also a stampede; my brother and I managed to get out of the temple compound and a bike rider helped us by taking us to the hospital. My brother has also suffered leg injuries.- Kiran (17)






Talks between the State government and protesting PU lecturers, who have boycotted evaluation work seeking hike in salary, broke down yet again on Sunday.





After the talks failed, the lecturers set April 13 as the deadline for the government to fulfil their demands. They have threatened to go on a hunger strike from April 13 if government fails to agree to their demands.



Primary and Secondary Education Minister Kimmane Ratnakar said, The talks have not ended as the negotiations are still open. The government is ready to spend an ex-gratia amount of Rs 250 crore annually for the lecturers. However they are not agreeing to this.



The lecturers have been demanding the implementation of the G Kumar Naik Committee report that recommends that the basic salary be hiked from the present Rs 22,800 to Rs 25,300.



When asked if there would be a delay in the declaration of the second year PU results, Ratnakar said the matter has to be resolved by April 13. It will take a total of 15 days for the evaluations to be completed and the matter with PU lecturers needs to be resolved by April 13. There will be no delay in the results at all, the minister said.



A H Ningegowda, general secretary, State PU Lecturers Association said the protest will go on till the government fulfills their demands. As many as 20,000 lecturers under the association are on the strike since April 3.


Miscreants broke into a lawyers house at Shyampura in DJ Halli and made away with gold valuables and cash.





The police said that the complainant Ramamurthy, a lawyer, along with his family members travelled to Mulbagal to attend the funeral of their relative on April 5. On the morning of April 9, Ramamurthy received a phone call from his tenants informing him that someone had broken into his house.



Ramamurthy and his family came back and found that the main door was broken and the police were informed.



The miscreants had ransacked the house and had stolen gold and silver valuables and Rs 40,000 cash, all worth a total of Rs 14 lakh.



The fingerprint and dog squad were pressed into service. The theft is the handiwork of someone who had kept a close watch on the house, added the police.

A case has been registered in DJ Halli police station.


COLORADO SPRINGS  Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz effectively won Colorado on Friday, as he claimed a majority of the states 37 national delegates.

The Texas senator dominated the seven early delegate contests at the congressional district level, a clean sweep that earned him 17 bound national delegates and an additional four unpledged delegates who declared support for his campaign.

To officially win the state, according to party leaders, he needs 19 bound delegates: a mark he is expected to reach Saturday at the state GOP convention in Colorado Springs.

Cruz makes his Colorado debut at the party confab Saturday at the Broadmoor World Arena, where he is expected to win a significant share of the 13 national delegates at stake. The final three delegates in Colorados delegation are unpledged party leaders.

The Cruz campaigns primacy showcases how Colorados GOP leaders united with the states diehard conservative activists against Donald Trump, whom party purists regard with skepticism.

Trump, the Republican front-runner, managed to claim only two alternate delegates in the 4th Congressional District, and Ohio Gov. John Kasichs campaign left empty handed.

We worked hard for many months leading up to this, and it shows, said Regina Thomson, a leading grassroots organizer for the campaign. Hes the conservative that most Republicans are looking for.

Colorado Republicans awarded a dozen delegates Friday in a chaotic atmosphere that drew hundreds of party activists to a hotel ballroom  and overflowed into a courtyard. The candidates who competed for a seat at the national convention in Cleveland put on a show as they tried to stand out. One woman sang the first few words of God Bless America while others wore patriotic costumes and shouted conservative slogans.

Im pro-God. Im pro-gun. And Im pro-life, said Jarilyn VanAtten, an unpledged delegate from Broomfield in her 10-second pitch for national delegate in the 2nd Congressional District convention.

The step-by-step complicated process is necessary after the state Republican Party canceled its binding straw poll at the March 1 caucus. The move put the decision in the hands of party activists  and left the vast majority of Republican voters out of the process. But Colorados delegates are now a prized commodity because the partys nomination is still in question and unbound delegates would offer a unique prize at a contested convention.

Neither Trump nor Kasich will make the trip to the state convention, but both sent surrogates to preach their messages.

Trump is investing the bare minimum in Colorado  after the campaign made a strategic decision not to invest heavily in a place it felt favored party insiders.

The process here doesnt lend itself to our kind of campaign, said Alan Cobb, a senior Trump adviser based in Kansas who is on the ground in Colorado Springs. Our expectations are really low. If we get a delegate number higher than zero, its going to be a success.

Kasichs campaign sent former New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu to Colorado to campaign on his behalf, but he received a rough reception at the 5th Congressional District convention.

For Republicans to win the White House, Sununu told potential delegates, there is only one way to do it, and that is to make John Kasich our nominee.

The crowd booed.

Listen, ladies and gentleman, he implored, you need to treat all the speakers fairly, and you need to think long and hard about what this election means to this country.

A minute later, Sununu added: He rolled back regulations on small businesses, created 400,000 jobs in Ohio. Did Donald Trump create 400,000 jobs? No!

Four million, a Trump supporter in the crowd shouted.

Sununu said Colorado risks losing the U.S. Senate race, as well as both chambers of the legislature in November, if Trump is the nominee.

The Kasich campaign is putting forward a slate of delegates for the state GOP convention  but his advisers shifted tactics Friday as he opted to promote potential national delegates who want an open convention with no backroom deals, instead of delegates pledged to the candidate.

There are so many unpledged people feeling the heavy hand of Cruz and  theyve got the guns to their head: You will do this,  said Amy Stephens, former state House GOP leader from Monument. So we said this: We support an open convention, its going to happen. And so we all might as well get used to this.

John Frank: 303-954-2409, jfrank@denverpost.com or @ByJohnFrank
Colorado lawmakers have rejected an initial effort to cap the potency of marijuana that customers can buy at recreational pot stores.

Rep. Kathleen Conti, R-Littleton, had proposed barring stores from selling marijuana and marijuana products  including concentrates  that contain more than 15 percent THC. That amount is below the average potency of products currently sold in recreational stores.

Late Wednesday, lawmakers on the House Finance Committee narrowly voted down the proposal, on a 6-5 vote. But that decision may not be the end of the debate  for this year or for next.

The proposed limit was pitched in an amendment to a bill  House Bill 1261  reauthorizing Colorados rules for recreational marijuana stores. Wednesdays hearing was the bills first, meaning there will be multiple other opportunities this legislative session to try again to insert the amendment.

And even those who voted against the amendment on Wednesday expressed support for some type of potency cap, after more study.

Well be revisiting this next year, for sure, Rep. KC Becker, a Boulder Democrat who was a no vote on the amendment, said at Wednesdays hearing.

The available potency of marijuana products has boomed in Colorados commercial market. A study by the state last year found that the average potency of raw marijuana sold in Colorado stores is 17.1 percent THC. The average potency of concentrated marijuana  a form increasingly popular with experienced consumers  is 62.1 percent THC.

Those numbers concern lawmakers and others who worry about the impacts of such potencies, especially on teens who may be illegally acquiring the products.

We do not know how this affects the brain, especially the developing brain of our kids, Conti said Wednesday.  I think we need to proceed with caution.

Marijuana industry supporters, though, testified during Wednesdays four-hour hearing that capping potency could drive consumers to the black market or could lead to people trying to make volatile concentrates at home, creating the risk of explosions. Another possibility, they said, is that consumers would simply consume more of the lower-potency marijuana.

Lawmakers also raised questions about how state officials would police the potency limits.

I just dont see how this would work, said Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver.

After rejecting the potency cap, lawmakers on the Finance Committee unanimously passed the rules bill.

In addition to reauthorizing the rules for recreational marijuana stores, the current version of the bill also gets rid of an added limitation on out-of-state customers. Right now, people without Colorado identification can only buy up to a quarter-ounce of marijuana at a time. If the bill passes as it now stands, that would change and out-of-state customers could buy up to one ounce, the same as customers from Colorado.

The bill is scheduled to be heard next in the House Appropriations Committee.

Meanwhile, a proposed ballot initiative that would also cap potency of marijuana products at recreational stores is still going through the approval process to be placed before voters.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or @johningold
COLORADO SPRINGS  Colorado crowned Ted Cruz as the runaway winner in the states Republican presidential contest Saturday  and moved the GOP closer to a contested national convention.

The Texas senator won all 34 delegates awarded in Colorado in what amounts to a stunning rebuke of Republican front-runner Donald Trump.

Cruz completed the sweep by winning all 13 delegates at the state convention in Colorado Springs  the largest in history with nearly 8,000 in the crowd  where he gave what amounted to an victory speech earlier in the day.

If it we continue to stand united, Cruz declared, we are going to win this Republican nomination.

His landslide victory in Colorado, combined with recent wins Wisconsin and Utah, increases the likelihood that no Republican candidate reaches the 1,237 delegates needed to secure the partys nomination.

Surrounded by supporters in bright orange shirts, Cruz said the momentum behind his campaign will only continue as the final states vote in the next two months.

We are here today because our country is in crisis, Cruz said in his opening. All across the country, people are waking up and help is on the way.

In an interview with The Denver Post ahead of his speech, Cruz said he is preparing for a battle on the convention floor in Cleveland with Donald Trump to see who can earn a majority of the delegates.

He called a contested convention a very significant possibility and labeled the 21 delegates he won in early congressional districts in Colorado vital in his push. The strategy reflects a shift from earlier in the campaign, when Cruz expressed confidence he could win before the July convention.

I am confident we are going to win in Cleveland at a contested convention, he said.

The candidates visit to Colorado is the first this election cycle and a signal of how much energy the campaign put into winning the states 37 national delegates. After Cruz swept the congressional district conventions in the past week, he expressed confidence he would win a portion of the 13 statewide delegates awarded Saturday.

Front-runner Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich did not attend the state convention, sending supporters in their place. Both campaigns invested little in the state, sensing that the states caucus process run by hard-core party insiders did not favor their campaigns.

Cruz criticized Trump for skipping the event, suggesting he was scared.

They knew he wasnt going to do well, Cruz said. Donald doesnt handle losing well.

The visit to Colorado forced Cruz to address Colorado issues, including the legalization of marijuana. If elected president, Cruz told The Denver Post that he would not interfere with the states pot legalization.

I think on the question of marijuana legalization, we should leave it to the states, Cruz said before addressing the GOP activists at the state convention here.If it were me personally, voting on it in the state of Texas, I would vote against it.

The people of Colorado have made a different decision. I respect that decision, he continued. And actually, it is an opportunity for the rest of the country to see what happens here in Colorado, what happens in Washington state  see the states implement the policies, and if it works well, other states may choose to follow. If it doesnt work well, other states may choose not to follow.

Cruz declined to make a judgment about the first two years of legalization in Colorado. Im going to give that some time to let the facts and evidence play out, and ultimately that will be a decision for the people of Colorado, he said.

On the question of banking for the marijuana industry, Cruz said he hasnt studied the issue and needed to learn more before taking a position.

On the concourse at the convention at the Broadmoor World Arena, party activists studied red-checkered ballots that resembled horse track racing forms. Most picked national delegates based on which presidential candidate they favored.

You dont know most of the people, so you have to pay attention and go with your gut, said Helen Escobedo, a retired school teacher and Cruz supporter, eating a hamburger while she perused the ballot. You look at who they are supporting, and you hope theyll stick with it.

Earlier in the day, Sierra Stieb of Colorado Springs handed out Trump fliers.

I wouldnt necessarily say I support Trump, but he does have some qualities I support. I like his business acumen, his entrepreneurial spirit, Stieb said. He speaks his mind. Hes very strong and he doesnt back down in the face of adversity. But those qualities also have a negative attribute.

But Trump supporter Harold Giles of Colorado Springs said a brokered convention would break the party.

Elections matter, he said. If the people elect Trump, he should be our guy. Id rather lose on election than sacrifice what the ballot means.

John Frank: 303-954-2409, jfrank@denverpost.com or @ByJohnFrank
COLORADO SPRINGS  In a major upset that upended the U.S. Senate race, El Paso County Commissioner Darryl Glenn emerged from the state Republican Party convention Saturday as the only candidate to win a slot on the partys primary ballot.

State Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, entered the convention as the favorite  backed by a powerful gun rights organization  but he failed to win the 30 percent needed to advance.

An inspiring 10-minute speech to the delegates, interupted often by standing ovations and hitting conservative high notes on immigration and Iran, boosted the Air Force veteran to the front of the pack of 10 candidates who competed at the convention level.

All lives matter, said Glenn, one of three black Republican candidates in the race, announced to his loudest roar of applause.

For the June 28 primary, Glenn will join four other candidates  Colorado Springs businessman Robert Blaha, former Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier, businessman Jack Graham and former state Rep. Jon Keyser  who submitted ballot signatures to qualify for the ballot.

Glenn is little-known outside party circles and will need to appeal to a much broader swath of Republican voters to win the primary against the four better-funded challenges. But he said his choice to work through the state caucus process, rather than collect petitions, will give him an edge.

Weve been working hard since Day One, he said moments after the results were announced. Weve laid out a plan and the plan was to recognize the importance of the grassroots.

And he didnt hestitate to look past the GOP primary to Democratic U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

I can unify the party, and I believe once we actually focus on the issues, Michael Bennet is going to have to run on his record, Glenn said. He isnt going to be able to pander to the other side saying were all racist, sexist homophobes.

Neville remained upbeat and gracious in defeat, saying he would continue to fight for liberty.

El Paso County Commissioner Peg Littleton, who finished third at the convention, said the large number of candidates in the race was a factor. Still, she credited Glenn for his passionate pitch.

Quite honestly, Darryl gave a great stump speech, and people were motivated and inspired by that, she said with tears in her eyes. Whether they knew about him or his record or think he can win against Bennet, apparently stump speeches work.

The field of candidates shattered the Colorado GOP into factions of supporters.

The other candidates in the contest were Charlie Ehler, Jerry Eller, Jerry Natividad and Erik Underwood. All preached to the choir about fiscal responsibility, repealing Obamacare and fighting terrorism.

Natividad, a Hispanic businessman and party activist, called himself a humble, determined man, his brown, sun-weathered face fitted with black rimmed glasses and a well-shaped pompadour outlined in gray.

One person asked what Natividad liked best about Obama. That was an easy one, folks: term limits, he said.

He blasted the media for obsessing about the presidential race and reinforced his opposition to Trump.

America deserves a heck of a lot better than Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, Natividad said.

Neville billed himself as a true constitutional conservative and cited his established reputation for slowing down and stopping bad legislation.

My record proves I will do the same thing in Washington, too, he added.

Neville called for tougher border enforcement to stop illegal immigration and the abolishment of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Eller, a disabled Army veteran, called marijuana the number one reason Im in this race, saying areas of the sate have a marijuana problem.

Littleton emphasized her gender as the quality that made her stand out. If you want to send a good ole boy to Washington, I am not your gal, she said.

Still, she added, the race was too serious to crack jokes about Clinton. Instead, Littleton read the preamble of the Declaration of Independence.

Littleton told the crowd she is the mother of an Air Force major and daughter of a World War II veteran, She then asked all the veterans in the audience to stand up and encouraged the crowd to applaud them.

We must secure our borders now, she bellowed in a pointed tone that suggested, Charge!

Glenn, an Air Force veteran and El Paso County commissioner, gave the most rousing speech from the Senate candidates. His speech was peppered with clear applause lines that did not fail to deliver at least a dozen times.

With all these teleprompters I thought President Obama must be here, he said.

Though just a few miles form a mass shooting at one of its clinics in December, Glenn called out, listen here, Planned Parenthood, then vowed to defund the organization if it funds abortion.

Glenn was the only Senate candidate to speak Saturday who called for the repeal of the Iran nuclear deal, and he was alone in calling for cutting federal money to sanctuary cities, a label that is loosely assigned to Denver by Republicans and opponents of illegal immigration.

All lives matter Glenn, one of three black Republican candidates in the race, announced to his loudest roar of applause.

An 11th-hour entry into the race, Underwood vowed, Theyre not going to take your guns away if you elect me to the United States Senate.

Ehler, an Air Force retiree and political newcomer, made a clear pitch.

We have to get rid of the Democrats who are impeding our prosperity, he said in his conclusion, setting up a popular Southern catchphrase. Git r done.

He was only speaker to criticize Common Core education standards.

Underwood referred to his time as an aide in the U.S. Senate as an aide for Ohio Sen. George Voinovich.

Underwood dropped the names of politicians he knew, such as Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch: We need someone whos able to lead from day one.

Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or @joeybunch
Two window washers were rescued by firefighters Saturday morning when the basket they were standing in failed, leaving them dangling 100 feet above the ground.

Denver firefighters responded at about 8:30 a.m. to a medical office building near East Iliff Avenue and South Havana Street to find the scaffolding being used by window washers dangling by one side.

Firefighters arrived on the scene just three to four minutes after they were called, and were able to rescue the men in approximately 10 minutes.

Lt. Mike Pylar, acting as a fire department spokesman, said firefighters had to stretch their 105-foot tower ladder almost full length to reach the men who were dangling eight stories up.

No one was injured. Pylar said the workers were wearing their emergency equipment.

It went pretty smoothly, Pylar said.

Yesenia Robles: 303-954-1372, yrobles@denverpost.com or @yeseniarobles
GREAT FALLS, Mont. (AP)  The U.S. Air Force is being criticized for a decision to relocate military air tanker equipment used to fight wildfires to Nevada instead of Montana.

Montana Sen. Sen. Steve Daines sent a letter to the Air Force asking why Nevada was chosen for the Modular Airborne Firefighting Systems, which includes equipment that can be installed in C-130 cargo plans to drop retardant on wildfires.

According to the Great Falls Tribune (http://tinyurl.com/z4yhu7g ), the system can be used by governors where the Air National Guard flight crews operate it. That also includes Wyoming. Colorado uses an Air Force Reserve Command unit. The Department of Defense provides the aircraft.

A National Guard spokesman says all Air National Guard C-130 units were considered, including the Montana Air National Guard.



Information from: Great Falls Tribune, http://www.greatfallstribune.com
It was a big deal when Imani Shannon, a 7-year old at Denvers Polaris at Ebert Elementary School, decided to run for student council. She was the only first-grader to vie for a seat.

A classmate decisively shattered Imanis excitement when she said she refused to vote for her because shes black.

It was really hard as a parent to see that happen, said Quincy Shannon, Imanis dad.

Shannon, from Denvers Park Hill neighborhood, said Imani is one of a handful of black students in her school. Ever since his daughter enrolled in Denvers school for gifted and high achieving students, hes noticed a change in her demeanor that he attributes to the fact she has few black peers and teachers.

I know shes an extreme extrovert, he said. But at school, shes introverted, and she isolates herself. Its apparent when she comes to school that shes alone.

Shannon was one of 300 people who attended a Saturday conference that addressed the needs of black students in the classroom.

Educating, Connecting with and Loving our Black Children offered sessions for parents, students and educators to learn about how to connect with black students in the Denver Public School System.

This came about because of some of the challenges black boys and girls have in schools, said Darlene Sampson, DPSs director of culturally responsive education.

Sampson said many teachers dont appreciate the way black students communicate and express themselves.

Our kids dont check their culture at the door, she said. The task of educators is to embrace it.

She also noted that personal biases and stereotypes lead some educators to make assumptions about what students can accomplish in the classroom. The result is a low standard of achievement.

The greater costs are drop-outs, push-outs and sad and disconnected kids, Sampson said.

Sheila Smith, whos been an educator in Denver public schools for 14 years, said shes seen these challenges firsthand.

It holds them back, Smith said. People assume they dont care or dont want to learn.

Rhonda Juett, who works to address the social and emotional needs of students, said shes noticed disproportionate treatment of black students in the classroom, especially when it comes to discipline.

Just look at the suspension rate of black students, she said. We need to work on our own mindset of how were working with children of color and build a respectful culture in our schools.

Katy Canada: 303-954-1043, kcanada@denverpost.com or @KatySusanna
Since 55 percent of Colorado voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2012, Colorado has experienced record economic growth, record tourism, and record job creation. In addition, Denver was recently named the best city to live in the United States by U.S. News and World Report based on factors such as quality of life, low crime rate, and job prospects.

The doomsday predictions of the prohibitionists never came to pass. Colorado is experiencing near record low traffic fatalities, and teen marijuana usage has remained relatively stagnant.

In other words, Coloradans have enhanced their civil liberties and created a new, legal industry while maintaining public safety and boosting the economy.

Despite this good news, marijuana prohibitionists are trying to overturn the will of the voters. With some polls showing more than 60 percent of Coloradans now support legalization, prohibitionists know that an overt effort to make marijuana illegal again would likely fail. So their plan is to undermine the program and make it impossible for legal businesses to operate.

Their proposal would ban all marijuana above 15 percent THC. And because most growers have spent years breeding strains that exceed this arbitrary threshold, growers would be forced to destroy their strains and start over, something thats not economically or practically feasible.

In addition, the ban would essentially destroy the market for concentrates, which are the distilled essential oils of the cannabis plants and are used to make many products such as tinctures, sprays, edibles, drinks, topicals and transdermal patches. Concentrates can be dosed and consumed without burning. Thus, the ban would also likely force people to smoke and could eliminate many products people use for chronic pain, skin conditions and more.

So most legal marijuana would be banned, legal businesses would be forced out and, in essence, Amendment 64 would be overturned.

It is important to remember that Colorado has more than 500 pages of marijuana law and rules that are regularly updated. These regulations created a closed-loop system that requires local and state licensing, establishes good moral character standards for ownership and employment, and mandates rules for security and surveillance aimed at eliminating illicit activity.

The regulations also require testing for potency and harmful contaminants, child-resistant packaging, potency dosing on edibles, and extensive labeling that identifies the THC percentage of the product. These regulations allow consumers to know exactly what they are purchasing.

According to a new study, 70 percent of marijuana sales in Colorado are done through licensed, regulated and taxed businesses instead of the black market. If this ban passes, marijuana sales would move back into the black market.

Unlike the licensed businesses, black market dealers dont pay taxes, test their products, or label. Outlandish restrictions of the regulated market only empower the black market dealers, who dont check IDs and have no qualms about selling to minors. The best way to prevent children from accessing marijuana is to continue to weaken the black market.

In addition, this ban will have a major negative effect on Colorados record economic growth, and could mean that many of the more than 20,000 people employed at licensed marijuana businesses lose their jobs.

Colorado created a program that is being replicated across the world. While there is still work to be done, every issue has a solution through thoughtful regulations and public education.

Dont be deceived by the prohibitionists. This initiative is simply their latest attempt to repeal marijuana legalization in Colorado.

Michael Elliott is executive director of the Denver-based Marijuana Industry Group.

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
A new entrant to the North Sea sector is set to join existing small-cap explorers in snapping up low-cost oil assets in the aftermath of the global oil market collapse. Mayfield Energy has emerged as one of a handful of independent players in a position to benefit from the oil price crash by cherry-picking oil assets from the heavily indebted incumbent groups which are under pressure to shore up their battered balance sheets. The new firm is backed by a board of North Sea industry veterans who have already begun talks to pick up oil fields, and stakes in existing projects, up to $400m in value. - The Sunday Telegraph

A top adviser to the Chinese government has warned that Beijing risks a currency blow-up akin to Britain's traumatic ordeal in 1992, if it continues trying to defend its exchange rate peg amid a deepening deflation crisis. Yu Hongding, a director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said China is caught in two concurrent "deflationary spirals" that are feeding on the other. A major devaluation and a blast of well-targeted fiscal stimulus will be needed to break out of the trap. - The Sunday Telegraph

English farms have seen the steepest fall in their value since financial crisis, as investors worry about the risk of a loss of farm subsidies in the event of Britain voting to leave the European Union. Values fell 3.0% in the quarter to March in a farmland index by estate agent Kinght Frank, the largest quarterly drop since the end of 2008, ending a bull run of spectacular farmland returns. Average values have risen by nearly 180% in the pasty decade, Knight Frank said. - Financial Times

Australian investment giant Macquarie is set to cash out of Thames Water a decade after it bought Britains biggest water company in a controversial debt-fuelled deal. It is understood that Macquarie has hired Nomura, the investment bank, to find a buyer for its 26% holding in the company. - The Sunday Times

The global growth slowdown has no end in sight as policymakers drag their heels on reforms and a robot revolution threatens living standards, the World Banks chief economist has warned. Ahead of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring meetings this week, Kaushik Basu said he expected the global economy to expand by just 2.5% this year. This is down from the World Banks forecast in January of 2.9pc and well below the 4pc growth seen just before the crisis. - The Sunday Telegraph

The owner of BHS joined a secret company in Panama with a convicted fraudster weeks after buying the struggling department store chain for 1 from Sir Philip Green. Dominic Chappell, a former racing driver and two-time bankrupt, and Paul Sutton, his on-off business partner, each owned 50% of Clarberry Investments. It was incorporated in the tax haven on April 1 last year  less than a month after Chappells consortium, Retail Acquisitions, took over BHS from Green, the billionaire owner of Arcadia Group. - Sunday Times

At least 9,000 pupils in Edinburgh have nowhere to go at the end of their Easter break after the emergency closure of 17 PFI-built schools due to safety concerns. Councils across Scotland have been asked to check their school buildings as fears grow that all schools built under the same private finance initiative could pose a safety risk to children and staff. - The Guardian

George Osborne is facing calls to reveal whether he has ever benefited from offshore tax havens, after David Cameron bowed to public pressure over the Panama Papers by releasing a summary of his tax returns over the past six years. Angus Robertson, the SNPs leader in Westminster, has written to Cameron to demand that all cabinet members make statements in the wake of the scandal triggered by the biggest leak in history. - The Guardian

Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and other leading figures campaigning for Britain to leave the EU could be offered senior cabinet roles after Junes referendum, under plans being considered by the prime minister. Sources have told the Guardian that David Cameron is keen to undertake a unity reshuffle in an attempt to heal wounds in the party, whose Eurosceptic wing is furious at the governments handling of the plebiscite. - The Guardian
Threes acquisition of Telefonicas O2 is on the skids after the owner of the former, Hutchinson Whampoa, failed to turn the heads of the European competition authorities, with potential ill consequences for BT Group , the Financial Timess Lex column said.

Hutchinson argues that a move towards three competitors, down from four, would spur infrastructure investment, but EU competition chief Margrethe Vestager is unconvinced.

Indeed, research from Ofcom, the UK regulator, points in exactly the opposite direction, competition begets investment, not the other way around.

If the deal went through, Three would become the largest player in the space, when measured on the basis of revenues.



Unfortunately, BT also stood to gain from having one less competitor in the UK market. Over the past two weeks, as the O2 deal appeared increasingly less likely to gain the regulators blessing, BTs share price fell rapidly.

Should the EU finally decide to shoot down the deal, BTs stock price will share the pain, Lex concluded.

Burberrys drive to expand its footprint in the beauty space, such as through its new cologne Mr.Burberry, is one of many levers being pulled by its boss Christopher Bailey to get the company moving in the right direction again, said The Sunday Timess Danny Fortson.

However, the economic slowdown and a crackdown on excess by the Communist government in China have likely hit it hard. The impact on the sector was reflected in a profit warning from rival Hugo Boss just a couple of months ago.

Cost cuts are also running out of steam as conditions in the States worsen.

The share price has gained just 13% since Bailey took over at the helm from Angela Ahrendts and at 18.3 times earnings are already trading at a premium versus its peers.

Nevertheless, that is probably more of a reflection of the companys past glories under Ahrendts than of the outlook, which is uninspiring.

The company will seek to turn the tide on Thursday when it gives a second-half trading update. This could get ugly. Sell, Fortson recommended.
Decker: Was corrupt ex-Columbus vice officer's sentence too light?

Former Columbus vice cop Steven Rosser mocked the Constitution and his oath to protect and serve. Is 18 months in prison really enough?
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CANTON -- An aspiring engineer and president of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) student chapter at SUNY Canton received a Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence.Codi D. McKee, a Civil and Environmental Engineering Technology major from Barker, received his citation from SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher at a special awards ceremony held Tuesday, April 5, in Albany. He will be recognized again at SUNY Canton's 2016 Commencement Ceremony."This award is our way of saying 'thank you' to stand-out SUNY students whose achievements reflect their own impressive hard work as well as the support of their families and friends, and SUNY's world-class faculty and staff," Zimpher said.McKee is one of the most active students at the college and in the School of Engineering Technology. He is the Engineering Club president, and helped design the ASCE chapter's competition-ready steel bridge. He's also the Student Government Association sergeant-at-arms and has been a resident assistant. He helped construct an outdoor remote-control car racetrack on campus, initiated the ASCE Student Chapter's Adopt-A-Highway Program and received the Ogdensburg Boys and Girls Club Helping Hands Award."When you are at school, you aren't only learning from your classes," McKee said. "You learn from other people and the experiences you have."He received the SUNY Canton Academic award for the highest grade-point average (GPA) in his discipline three times. He also received the Richard W. Miller Excellence Award, Canino Prize for Academic Excellence, and is a National Science Foundation S-STEM Scholar. He has been on the President's List for his entire SUNY Canton career and has received multiple scholarships. He is a member of the Tau Alpha Phi National Honor Society and the Golden Key International Honor Society.McKee is a member of the St Lawrence University Wind Ensemble, SUNY Potsdam Campus Community Band section leader, Jack Kelley's Little Big Band, and even directed a small jazz ensemble at SUNY Potsdam.After graduation, McKee is planning to attend graduate school and then earn his professional engineer's license.The college produced a student spotlight video about Mckee and shared it with the college community, available below.
(Photo: Reuters / Mike Hutchings)South Africa's President Jacob Zuma celebrates his re-election as party president alongside newly-elected party deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa (L,) at the National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in Bloemfontein Dec. 18, 2012. South Africa's ruling ANC re-elected Zuma as its leader, setting him up for seven more years as head of state of Africa's biggest economy

South African religious leaders have called on the ruling African National Congress to compel President Jacob Zuma to resign following a damning indictment issued by the country's highest court against him.

Representatives of the South African Council of Churches and the National Religious Leaders Council made their April 8 call for Zuma to go during a meeting with top officials from the ruling African National Congress.

The campaign to force Zuma's resignation is a drama that also involves a family originally from India who immigrated to South Africa in 1993 and was drawn into its politics.

They are accused of intefering in the country's governance and of calling the shots in appointments made by Zuma in what was dubbed as "State capture."

The Gupta family became a powerful economic force and personal backers of Zuma, but they deny any wrongdoing, saying they are caught up in local political crossfire.

The combined religious leaders are the latest group in a rebellion against the president that is gaining momentum within the ruling African National Congress, in a political crisis that may lead to his ousting.

ANC veterans, church and civil-society organizations and business leaders have intensified recent calls for the 73-year-old Zuma to step down.

The calls have accelerated since the South African Constitutional Court ruled on March 31 that the president "failed to uphold, defend and respect the constitution."

The current predicament for Zuma erupted in December when he fired his finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, leading to an economic crisis triggering a selloff of the rand currency.

The Constitutional Court ruled that he violated the constitution for failing to repay taxpayers' money spent on his private home.

Even the ANC is looking into the Guptas, investigating allegations they offered cabinet positions for concessions.

The Guptas had on April 8 quit management and board positions in companies they control, saying they faced "a sustained political attack." And then two of the Gupta brothers left South Africa for Dubai on April 7, City Press newspaper reported April 10.

South African Council of Churches general secretary, Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, said the faith-based community could not sit and do nothing when the country was imploding.

It had to ask Zuma to think about the implications of his continued stay in the high office.

"We requested the ANC leadership to assist Zuma to resign. We also requested a one-on-one meeting with the president. We would like the president to think about his continued stay in the office," Mpumlwana said during a media briefing in Johannesburg.

Zuma and the deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa did not attend the meeting so the religious leaders have requested to meet Zuma in the coming week.

A number of key South African personalities have called for Zuma to step down before the church leaders made their call.

Ahmed Kathrada, 86, who shared prison cells with Nelson Mandela when they were jailed in 1964, said the "crisis of confidence" in the country's government can only be solved by Zuma stepping down.

"I know that if I were in the President's shoes, I would step down with immediate effect," Kathrada wrote in an open letter.

"I believe that is what would help the country to find its way out of a path that it never imagined it would be on, but one that it must move out of soon."

Thabo Makgoba, Desmond Tutu's successor as the Archbishop of Cape Town, had also issued a stinging critique of the state of affairs in South Africa.

"We live in a society based on fear. Our members of Parliament are too scared to hold the executive properly to account," he told university students in Johannesburg on March 31.

"Those in the executive or in public service who are alleged to have been approached by a well-known family living not too far from here - and who have allegedly been offered blandishments in return for business favours - have been too afraid to speak out about it."
(Photo: Ecumenical News / Peter Kenny)Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Desmond Tutut, the former Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town speaking at the World Council of Churches in Geneva on April 20, 2008.

Christian leaders in South Africa including Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Catholic bishops have blasted the government over poor leadership in a scandal involving improvements to the private home of President Jacob Zuma costing millions of dollars.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Tutu said he is deeply sad about the South African government's exoneration of Zuma for spending $24 million of taxpayers' money on home improvement work.

Tutu said he is dismayed at Zuma's joking in the national Parliament about the issue, the State-run SABC reported May 30.

A May 25 report by South African Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko found that the construction of a swimming pool, cattle enclosure, amphitheater and a chicken coop as well as improvements to his homestead, was legitimate.

He said these were security features, and that the president would not be required to reimburse any money.

Former South African Anglican leader Tutu said that instead of setting a good example, lawmakers are humiliating themselves, the country and its people by trying to defend the indefensible.

"When the South African government denied His Holiness the Dalai Lama a visa to attend the Nobel Laureates Summit in Cape Town last year, I called them a lickspittle bunch," said Tutu in a statement, Agence France-Presse reported.

"Our police minister's performance in clearing the President of any responsibility for the Nkandla spending, gave new meaning to the word."

The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference on June 2 also denounced the poor ethical leadership of Zuma, RDM News Wire reported.

The bishops' Justice and Peace Commission said, "the release of the report by police minister Nathi Nhleko last week' and its determination that Zuma is not liable for any non-security upgrades to his private residence at Nkandla' has been met with dismay."

The commission' established by the Catholic Church to fight for social justice and human rights' said there "are a lot of legal and constitutional matters that are being contested in relation to the Nkandla affair."

"Our role is to remind our political leaders of their ethical responsibility'" said commission chairperson Bishop Abel Gabuza.

"In this role' we wish to remind our political leaders that' at a time when millions of our people are struggling to make ends meet' it is morally unjustifiable for the government to spend excessive amounts of money - R246 million ($24 million) - on one person and on non-security items highlighted by the public protector's report."

PUBLIC PROTECTOR

If Zuma fails to implement the remedial action the Public Protector suggested in her own report on his private home in Nkandla, the matter might be taken to court said on June 1.

Public Protector Thuli Madonsela in 2014 found that Zuma had "unduly benefited" from the work on his private residence at Nkandla.

Madonsela, the country's ombudswoman, had ruled in March 2014 that Zuma and his family had "benefited unduly" from the work on his personal home in the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province.

President Zuma had in May 2014 deflected criticism by Tutu of the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which has been the governing party since 1994.

"My understanding is that bishops and pastors are there to pray for those who go wrong, not to enter into political lives," Zuma told journalists after the Anglican archbishop who was a thorn in the side of the apartheid rulers questioned the calibre of the country's leaders.

Former Congress of South African Trade Unions general-secretary Zwelinzima Vavi also weighed in saying May 31 the police minister's report is a blight on South Africa's constitutional democracy.
February 24, 2022, the day of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, will go down as a tragic date not only for the Ukrainian people, but also for the whole civilised world.
It looks like Maddie Ziegler is leaving the show that has made her a household name - for bigger and better things. New reports indicate that her dance instructor and 'Dance Moms' star Abby Lee Miller is none too happy over rumors that Ziegler wants to distance herself from the reality television show while she is looking for projects to better help her break into Hollywood.

According to Star Magazine on Friday, even though Maddie herself hasn't made the official confirmation just yet, it looks like her fellow dancers are spilling the beans for her.

"Melissa finally dropped the bomb," Jill Vertes said referring to Melissa Ziegler's statement that "after this season, Maddie is not going to be on the team anymore."

And because the news didn't come straight from the horses mouth, it upset Abby even more. "Don't you guys realize the magnitude of this?" she said.

The news shouldn't come as that much of a shock as Maddie missed the first half of this season's Dance Moms to shoot 'The Book of Henry." What's more, she's also been making huge waves by starring in a series of Australian pop star Sia's music videos.

Abby, meanwhile, is currently being investigated for multiple counts of fraud and tax invasion. It's unclear whether or not she'll be returning to the show next season as well.

Keep up with Enstars for all the latest news on Maddie Ziegler, Abby Lee Miller and all of your favorite reality television stars right here.
Are Kate Middleton and Prince William trying to have a Band-Aid baby? That's what the rumor seems to be as there's a new report that says the Duchess of Cambridge is desperate to save her marriage by getting pregnant with a third child.

Apparently the couple has been fighting about everything lately - from Prince William's recent trip to Kenya to attend his ex-girlfriend's wedding to their royal obligations and state trips. Yet, Kate isn't ready to pull the plug on their marriage yet and is hoping that another royal baby might help save their family.

According to Celebrity Dirty Laundry on Sunday, blogger Grace Gerard thinks that Kate is also trying to get pregnant so she can get out of her royal duties too, including her upcoming trip to Brazil to attend the Olympic games this summer.

She writes, "Prince William may be surprised by Kate's alleged baby news, but we'll bet the Duchess of Cambridge isn't all that shocked. And if Kate thinks another baby will fix what is wrong with her marriage then the future queen is sadly mistaken."

So far Buckingham Palace has not made any comments about the report. The Duke and Duchess already have two children, 2-year-old Prince George and Princess Charlotte, who will be turning one next month. They are also celebrating their five-year wedding anniversary this month.

Keep up with Enstars for all the latest news on Kate Middleton, Prince William and all of your favorite British royal celebrities right here.
Washington, D.C. (4/10/2016) - State and federal regulators use a variety of evaluation systems intended to improve teacher quality by "holding teacher education accountable" through assessments and ratings or rankings - of states, institutions, programs and teacher candidates themselves.

A new Boston College study of four leading systems used to evaluate teacher preparation programs has found the systems lack evidence-based policies in their core designs, which questions the validity of methods used to assess tens of thousands of prospective teachers and thousands of college and university programs that prepare them to teach.

"We found that although these accountability policies demand that teacher education programs make decisions based on evidence, the policies themselves are not evidence-based," said Boston College Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools Marilyn Cochran-Smith, the study's lead author, who will present the findings today at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in Washington, D.C.

"We concluded there is good reason to question their validity as policy instruments that will improve teacher education quality and teacher quality," said Cochran-Smith, whose study, Holding Teacher Preparation Accountable: A Review of Claims and Evidence, was published by the National Education Policy Center.

In all, there are more than 2,200 teacher education program providers in the U.S., each reporting to state officials, who in turn report to the U.S. Department of Education.

The Boston College team evaluated the U.S. Department of Education's annual state and institutional reporting requirements; the accreditation process of the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP); the National Council for Teacher Quality's (NCTQ) Teacher Prep Review; and the edTPA, a performance assessment for teacher candidates required for licensure in multiple states.

"The four initiatives are governed by different institutions and agencies, including governmental offices, professional associations, and private advocacy organizations," said Cochran-Smith. "All of them set out standards or evaluation criteria and then see how providers of pre-professional preparation measure up. The intention is eventually to close down preparation programs that don't measure up."

But across three of the four initiatives (HEA regulations, CAEP accreditation, and NCTQ's reviews), there is only thin evidence to support the claims proponents make about how the assumed policy mechanisms will actually operate to improve programs, the researchers found.

The fourth initiative, edTPA, has more evidentiary support, but widespread implementation and professional acceptance may be challenging to accomplish, they concluded.

In addition, while all four evaluation programs are trying to reduce educational inequality, they wrongly assume that school factors, particularly teachers, are the major source of that inequality. In fact, persistent out-of-school factors play a much greater role.

The researchers say the systems are grounded in "thin equity."

"'Thin equity' refers to the equity goals of the initiatives and policies like the ones we analyzed," said Cochran-Smith. "They are intended to create equity in students' opportunities to be taught by high-quality teachers who know how to get good results on standardized achievement tests. But they assume that teachers are the primary, or even the sole solution to the equity problem. This viewpoint ignores the fact that teachers account for a relatively limited portion of the overall variance in student achievement, and it does not acknowledge that inequality is rooted in and sustained by much larger, long-standing, and systemic societal inequalities.

Cochran-Smith was joined on the study by Lynch School of Education researchers Rebecca Stern, Juan Gabriel Sanchez, Andrew Miller, Elizabeth Stringer Keefe, M. Beatriz Fernandez, Wen-Chia Chang, Molly Cummings Carney, Stephani Burton, and Megina Baker

Cochran-Smith said the team will expand their analysis in a forthcoming book, folding in other accountability initiatives, and proposing new, evidence-based approaches to improving teacher education quality.

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This news release is available in French.

Montreal, April 7 2016-- Skin tests traditionally used to predict allergies to amoxicillin, one of the most commonly prescribed antibiotics in children, are ineffective according to a new study led by a team at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) in Montreal. The findings, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics this week, determined that oral provocation or challenge test, with appropriate follow up, was a more efficient and safer screening method for diagnosing non-life threatening reactions to amoxicillin in children.

"Our study suggests that skin tests are essentially useless as diagnostic tests, and that we should go directly to the graded provocation test that is highly sensitive and specific," says study's lead author Dr. Moshe Ben-Shoshan, who is an allergist at the Montreal Children's Hospital at the MUHC (MCH-MUHC) and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at McGill University. "This is a game changer in the way physicians assess amoxicillin allergy in children given the fact that skin tests are still the recommended screening method in hospitals."

Provocation or challenge (PC) tests are performed with the suspected allergen (for example pollen, food or drug) which involves gradual introduction of the allergen to the patient. Challenge tests are performed in a hospital or clinic, where any serious reactions can be safely managed.

Up to 10 per cent of children develop rashes while on antibiotics. "The majority are diagnosed without further evaluation as allergic to the implicated antibiotic," explains Dr. Ben-Shoshan who is also a researcher from the Infectious Diseases and Immunity in Global Health Program of the RI-MUHC. "Most of the patients continue to avoid the suspect antibiotic in favor of alternatives which may be less effective, more toxic, and more expensive."

The researchers conducted the largest study of its kind to assess the use of a graded PC in children who presented with a rash due to suspected amoxicillin allergy. They assessed 818 children who presented to the MCH-MUHC Allergy clinic from March 2012 to April 2015. Unlike previous studies all children had to undergo a graded PC. Researchers observed that 94.1 per cent were tolerant to the graded PC for amoxicillin. From all the study's participants, only 17 had an immediate positive reaction to amoxicillin, and only one within this group had a positive skin test. Indeed for many antibiotics (including amoxicillin), skin tests can have a high false-negative rate. Thirty one had non-immediate reactions developing more than one hour after challenge. All non-immediate reactions were mild and manifested mainly as skin eruptions. "Our study is the first to determine the percentage of immediate and non-immediate amoxicillin allergy in all children presenting with a suspected amoxicillin induced rash through a graded PC," says Dr. Ben-Shoshan. "Further, we showed that in children with a negative PC, amoxicillin can be safely used in the future, although under 10 per cent may develop mild cutaneous symptoms upon subsequent exposure.''

According to the researchers, future studies are required to assess factors associated with specific PC outcomes, and in particular researchers should investigate specific association with genetic markers to accurately determine future risk for antibiotic allergic reactions.

About the study

The study Assessing the Diagnostic Properties of a Graded Oral Provocation Challenge for the Diagnosis of Immediate and Non immediate Reactions to Amoxicillin in Children was co-authored by Christopher Mill, Marie-Noel Primeau, Elaine Medoff, Christine Lejtenyi, Elena Netchiporouk, Alizee Dery, and Moshe Ben-Shoshan from the McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; and by Andrew O'Keefe from the Memorial University, St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada.

About the RI-MUHC

Media contact

The Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) is a world-renowned biomedical and healthcare research centre. The Institute, which is affiliated with the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University, is the research arm of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC)  an academic health centre located in Montreal, Canada, that has a mandate to focus on complex care within its community. The RI-MUHC supports over 460 researchers and close to 1,300 research trainees devoted to a broad spectrum of fundamental, clinical and health outcomes research at the Glen and the Montreal General Hospital sites of the MUHC. Its research facilities offer a dynamic multidisciplinary environment that fosters collaboration and leverages discovery aimed at improving the health of individual patients across their lifespan. The RI-MUHC is supported in part by the Fonds de recherche du Quebec  Sante (FRQS). rimuhc.ca

Julie Robert

Public Affairs & Strategic planning

McGill University Health Centre

julie.robert@muhc.mcgill.ca

514 934-1934 ext. 71381

facebook.com/cusm.muhc | @cusm_muhc

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A new study suggests that Neanderthals across Europe may well have been infected with diseases carried out of Africa by waves of anatomically modern humans, or Homo sapiens. As both were species of hominin, it would have been easier for pathogens to jump populations, say researchers. This might have contributed to the demise of Neanderthals.

Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes have reviewed the latest evidence gleaned from pathogen genomes and DNA from ancient bones, and concluded that some infectious diseases are likely to be many thousands of years older than previously believed.

There is evidence that our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals and exchanged genes associated with disease. There is also evidence that viruses moved into humans from other hominins while still in Africa. So, the researchers argue, it makes sense to assume that humans could, in turn, pass disease to Neanderthals, and that - if we were mating with them - we probably did.

Dr Charlotte Houldcroft, from Cambridge's Division of Biological Anthropology, says that many of the infections likely to have passed from humans to Neanderthals - such as tapeworm, tuberculosis, stomach ulcers and types of herpes - are chronic diseases that would have weakened the hunter-gathering Neanderthals, making them less fit and able to find food, which could have catalysed extinction of the species.

"Humans migrating out of Africa would have been a significant reservoir of tropical diseases," says Houldcroft. "For the Neanderthal population of Eurasia, adapted to that geographical infectious disease environment, exposure to new pathogens carried out of Africa may have been catastrophic."

"However, it is unlikely to have been similar to Columbus bringing disease into America and decimating native populations. It's more likely that small bands of Neanderthals each had their own infection disasters, weakening the group and tipping the balance against survival," says Houldcroft.

New techniques developed in the last few years mean researchers can now peer into the distant past of modern disease by unravelling its genetic code, as well as extracting DNA from fossils of some of our earliest ancestors to detect traces of disease.

In a paper published today in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Houldcroft, who also studies modern infections at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and Dr Simon Underdown, a researcher in human evolution from Oxford Brookes University, write that genetic data shows many infectious diseases have been "co-evolving with humans and our ancestors for tens of thousands to millions of years".

The longstanding view of infectious disease is that it exploded with the dawning of agriculture some 8,000 years ago, as increasingly dense and sedentary human populations coexisted with livestock, creating a perfect storm for disease to spread. The researchers say the latest evidence suggests disease had a much longer "burn in period" that pre-dates agriculture.

In fact, they say that many diseases traditionally thought to be 'zoonoses', transferred from herd animals into humans, such as tuberculosis, were actually transmitted into the livestock by humans in the first place.

"We are beginning to see evidence that environmental bacteria were the likely ancestors of many pathogens that caused disease during the advent of agriculture, and that they initially passed from humans into their animals," says Houldcroft.

"Hunter-gatherers lived in small foraging groups. Neanderthals lived in groups of between 15-30 members, for example. So disease would have broken out sporadically, but have been unable to spread very far. Once agriculture came along, these diseases had the perfect conditions to explode, but they were already around."

There is as yet no hard evidence of infectious disease transmission between humans and Neanderthals; however, considering the overlap in time and geography, and not least the evidence of interbreeding, Houldcroft and Underdown say that it must have occurred.

Neanderthals would have adapted to the diseases of their European environment. There is evidence that humans benefited from receiving genetic components through interbreeding that protected them from some of these: types of bacterial sepsis - blood poisoning occurring from infected wounds - and encephalitis caught from ticks that inhabit Siberian forests.

In turn, the humans, unlike Neanderthals, would have been adapted to African diseases, which they would have brought with them during waves of expansion into Europe and Asia.

The researchers describe Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that causes stomach ulcers, as a prime candidate for a disease that humans may have passed to Neanderthals. It is estimated to have first infected humans in Africa 88 to 116 thousand years ago, and arrived in Europe after 52,000 years ago. The most recent evidence suggests Neanderthals died out around 40,000 years ago.

Another candidate is herpes simplex 2, the virus which causes genital herpes. There is evidence preserved in the genome of this disease that suggests it was transmitted to humans in Africa 1.6 million years ago from another, currently unknown hominin species that in turn acquired it from chimpanzees.

"The 'intermediate' hominin that bridged the virus between chimps and humans shows that diseases could leap between hominin species. The herpesvirus is transmitted sexually and through saliva. As we now know that humans bred with Neanderthals, and we all carry 2-5% of Neanderthal DNA as a result, it makes sense to assume that, along with bodily fluids, humans and Neanderthals transferred diseases," says Houldcroft.

Recent theories for the cause of Neanderthal extinction range from climate change to an early human alliance with wolves resulting in domination of the food chain. "It is probable that a combination of factors caused the demise of Neanderthals," says Houldcroft, "and the evidence is building that spread of disease was an important one."

###
Written by ACM

*Strasbourg/Angelo Marcopolo/- The latest Results in 3 Strategic German Lander, key for next year's (2017) National Elections, (which will follow in Berlin shortly after Paris' own Presidential and Parliamentary votes, both obviously crucial for Europe), heavily commented throughout EU and Worldwide, may be, in fact, very much Differend from what many believe at first sight :



- Instead of just threatening to reduce Chancelor Angie Merkel chances for the 2017 National Elections, as it's often claimed, on the contrary, these and other relevant recent developments, may considerably extend further her possibilities for various eventual political Majority coalitions and space for manouvers, advancing well beyond what used to be the case in the Past.



Indeed, for more than a Decade now, the Governing ChristianDemocrats of Merkel were obliged to form successive Coalitions mainly with SocialDemocrats and sometimes with Liberals, until Obama's USA pushed the FDP out of the Bundestag on 2013, because of its alleged Refusal of a Military Intervention in Syria, (Comp., f.ex., CNN-Europe1 Invitation of "Eurofora" in Paris for a Media debate on German National Elections: ....).



Back on 2013, after a landmark campaign launched on August at Ludwigshafen, (Comp. "Eurofora"s NewsReport from the spot, at ....) with Popular issues such as against "Multi-Kulti", but for Integration, support to revigorate Families, as well as a strong Germany and Europe in the World (etc), Merkel notoriously succeeded to approach an Autonomous Majority of Votes for CDU/CSU, in the National Elections of September 2013, with about 40%.



=> Immediately afterwards, at the October 2013 EU Summit in Brussels, she made a landmark appearance, inspiring a Dynamic and autonomous European policy, particularly on Digital High-Tech, artfuly associated to the popular then issues of the need to Protect Private and Personal Data, Internet Freedoms, etc., (in the middle of the Snowden affair revelations about NSA Mass Spying from the USA, etc), linking EU Economic development and innovation, (including also modernisation of Industry by Information/Communication Technologies and automatisation), with Topical concerns of EU Citizens in their everyday Lives. She appeared to have reached her Geo-Political apogee...



However, overnight, during the counting of full electoral results, ChristianDemocrats' leadership was unexpectedly curtailed with - 4 MPs less than an Autonomous Majority, pushing again towards another CoHabitation in the next Government, (even in the absence of Liberals from the Bundestag: Comp. Supra).



Certainly, there are even Recent Examples, Worldwide, of some Governments which managed to rule Autonomously their country for several Years even with the Addition of just 4 Independent MPs, as, f.ex., in Australia, etc.



But, in Germany, after an interesting and unprecedented 1st Attempt to form a Christiandemocrat-"Green" Government, (which could break New Ground if it was focused also on crucial topical issues of modern BioEthics, etc, : Comp. "Eurofora"s relevant NewsReports, already since 2009, but mainly from the 2010 CDU and Greens' Summits at nearby Karlsruhe and Freiburg, as well as from Pope Emerite Benedict's 2011 landmark Speech at the Bundestag, followed by his visit also to Freiburg and relevant Statements of Vatican's Press Director Frederico Lombardi to "Eurofora", plus Winfried Kretschmann's Replies to "Eurofora"s Questions on 2010 and 2011, etc), that was undermined by some and hindered, possibly also because it might have been Precosious, practicaly resulting into a kind of "RDV" given for further, fresh consideration around 2017, Merkel, (despite the Edaty Scandal on the pederastic habits of SPD's Anti-Rightist Mediatic Star), was obliged to Return Back to a "Gro-Ko" with the Socialists again.



On December 2013 EU Summit in Brussels, the Internet, NSA, Snowden and Private/Personal Data (etc) issues are practically Forgotten, (See, f.ex., French President Hollande's reply to a relevant "Eurofora"s Question there).

On the Contrary, since November 2013, the Ukranian Conflict starts to emerge, doubled with Criticism of Russia, etc. Vainly Merkel anounces (during her Press Conference in Brussels : Comp. "Eurofora"s NewsReports from the spot) her intention to meet soon with all relevant Top Politicians in order to seek a mutually positive solution, including, f.ex., on the EU - Russia Trade relations, (which might unfold into a Portugal - Vladivoctoc large Trade Area, according to some Austrian, Finnish, a.o. Officials). Instead of that, onn January 2014, an unprecedented incident, at an International Swiss Hotspot, obliges her to walk with Crutches, (some collegues obviously suspecting an eventual sly aggression), and on February 2014, during a Paris' Franco-German Summit, a Bloody Ukranian Division and Civil War-like clash Starts, (particularly after the Non-elucidated yet Killings by strange "Snipers" at Kiev, and the subsequent Tank/Air Bombing attacks against Autonomists at Donetsk/Luhansk Regions, making a dramatically Growing number of Civilian Victims), seriously affecting Europe's Values, Peace, Unity and even Economy, (amidst the infamous ..."F..k the EU !" Phone calls of US under-Secretary of State Mrs Nuland, etc).



Last, but not least, later-on, during CDU's Annual Summit in Berlin towards the End of 2014, Chancelor Merkel reveals her Anger for Socialists' controversial move to follow the "Linke" (Left) at a Regional Lander coalition, even as Minor Partner, (See relevant "Eurofora"s NewReport at: ...).



=> All this, might explain what followed, shortly Afterwards :



- Intead of being cornered always in an obligatory cohabitation with an unfaithfull SPD, suiddenly, Merkel's CDU policy starts to practically provoke the emergence of various Other, New or Old Political Actors, at the Right side of Germany's Political Spectrum, who grow Fast, and become (at least theoratically (and/or "Technicalluy") possible coalition partners able to support anOther Majority, practically Ending CDU's "isolation" among the center-Right:



Thus, f.ex., FDP's Liberals, according to the latest, March 2016 partial Regional Elections' results, are comming back to the main Political Game. A new "Alternative for Germany" (less focused on uro than in the Past, and more concerned about Identity, Security and Integration, etc) marks unprecedented results, (added also to various independent a.o. players). "Greens" stand firm, at least in certain Key Regions, (such as the nearby Baden-Wurttemberg Lander, etc), while, on the contrary, SPD often Falls Down to levels making the continuation of some cohabitations of the Past, practically Impossible, from now on, (f.ex. in BW, Sachsen, etc).



In consequence, ChristianDemocrats' technically possible partners appear to suddenly Multiply, (particularly towards the Right side of the Political spectrum), so that Merkel could have much More possible Choices to consider in view of Next Year's 2017 National Elections than in the Past.



F.ex. :



- FDP's Liberals seem to return back into the mainstream Political Game, almost everywhere, and could be useful Partners anew for ChristianDemocrats.



- SPD's eratic movements, (f.ex. Falling too low in some Regions, but strong in others, obviously make another Gro-Ko more Difficult than in the Past, but not always impossible.



- "Greens" are strengthened mainly at nearby Baden-Wurttemberg, where Winfried Kretschmann can have a large Majority together with CDU's Guido Wolf, (but no more with the Socialists, who fell too low for that). Such a move, (possibly driven by New, Renewable Energy Technologies and respect of Nature, including Human BioEthics, (Comp. Supra), could also be in relative Harmony with the neighbouring Strasbourg's new Big East Region's President, experienced former Minister Philippe Richert's recent Election, which was obtained, for the 1st time, also with a small but crucial contribution by "Green" politician Sandrine Belier, former MEP (See: http://www.eurofora.net/newsflashes/news/franceregionelelectionsrepublicanswithgreensorfnrightistsforstrasbourg.html).



+ New political Party "Alternative for Germany", (AfG - Rightists), obviously wins a lot of more Votes, almost everywhere, while its leaders reportedly don't exclude eventual cooperations with the CDU/CSU, technicaly possible, (See relevant Electoral Results).

In this regard, (as it happened, already, also for an eventual CDU - Greens Coalition at BW, etc), verbal denials from one or another side cannot resist to political realities, neither to the Democratically expressed will of the German People.



=> Moreover, it's interesting to note the unexpected and unprecedented Fact that, if Merkel wished so, after the latest Regional Elections in 3 Key Lander, her Christiandemocrats could, in theory, be the Leaders of Majority Coalitions at the Right side of the Political Spectrum,, together with the "Alternative" and the Liberals, in ALL cases :



- Not only in Saxony-Anhalt, with almost 30% CDU and 25% AfD and 4% FDP, (i.e. an absolute Majority of some 59% in overall), but also in Rheinland-Palatinate, with about 32% CDU, 13% AfD and 6,5% FDP, (i.e. a Total of more than 51%), and even in Baden-Wurttemberg with 27% CDU 15,1% AfD and 8,5% FDP, (i.e. beyond 50,5%).



In terms of Elected Representatives, this could give absolute Majorities of 77 Seats against 66 in Baden-Wurttemberg, 56 Seats against 45 in Rheinland-Palatinate, and 54 against 33 in Saxony-Anhalt.



Even if all that is, at least for the Time being, rather a pure Mathematical possibility and nothing more, however, it's also a Fact that becoming theoreticaly able to Lead 3 new Absolute Majorities of 50,5%, 51% and 59% of Votes, (and much More in the number of Elected Representatives : Comp. Supra), in all Three Lander where the latest Regional Elections took place, is not really a mark of a so-called "Setback", contrary to what some critics claim, but rather a mark of a new, unprecedented Strength of the Right side of the Political Spectrum among German People.



Isn't it, with a Total of 187 Seats of Elected Representatives for the Right, against only 144 for the Left, in those three key German States ?...







(../..)

-------------------------------------------------



***

("DraftNews", as already send to "EuroFora"s Subscribers/Donors, earlier. A more accurate, full Final Version might be Published asap).



***






The latest example of murky dealings concerns the privatization of MKB Bank. Formerly owned by BayernLB, Hungarys sixth-largest lender was on the verge of bankruptcy when it was taken over by the central bank (MNB) in July 2014.

At the time, the government promised to return the bank to the private sector once it had been restored to health. Permission was subsequently obtained from European authorities for a restructuring, and MKBs distressed assets were spun off into a special purpose vehicle. The bank was then put up for sale early this year.

So far, so unexceptionable. In March, however, worrying rumours began to surface about the likely buyers of MKB. Reports suggested that the bank was destined to end up in the hands of several controversial foundations belonging to the MNB.

The announcement of a successful conclusion to sale at the end of the month did little to reassure the doubters. The main buyers were named as a newly created Hungarian private equity fund called Metis and Blue Robin Investments, an obscure Luxembourg-based fund said to be backed by Chinese and Indian investors.



Viktor Orban

All involved in the deal vehemently deny suggestions of a connection between the funds and the MNBs foundations. Nevertheless, many in Budapest continued to speculate that the central bank  which has been run since 2013 by Georgy Matolscy, a key ally of prime minister Viktor Orban  was represented on the buy side as well as the sell side of the transaction.

Suspicion

In most European markets, gossip of this sort should be at worst a temporary annoyance or embarrassment for the authorities. In due course, assuming everything to be above board, publication of the accounts of the MNB and its foundations would be enough to dispel suspicion of inappropriate dealings.

In Hungary, however, that is no longer the case. At the start of March, Fidesz politicians rushed through legislation allowing the central bank to withhold information from the public that it deems potentially damaging to monetary or foreign exchange stability.

Meanwhile, the activities of the six foundations, which have attracted criticism over the past two years for lavish purchases of assets including real estate and fine art, were completely exempted from public scrutiny.

Under any circumstances, such a move would be cause for concern. In Hungary, where allegations of cronyism are already rife, it reinforces suspicions that policymakers see civil institutions as vehicles for self-enrichment rather than as the cornerstones of a democratic state.

If the MNB has nothing to hide, there can be no good reason for refusing to allow public access to its accounts and those of its foundations. If it fails to do so, it risks irreparable damage to both its own reputation and that of the companies it controls  which, since November, include the Budapest Stock Exchange.

Hungarian politicians should be warned  withholding information can be as dangerous as releasing it.
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GALVESTON  On the National Geographic Channel, Buddy Guindon and his family navigate high-seas dramas and the cutthroat business of commercial fishing.

Guindon, called Hurricane Buddy on the reality show Big Fish Texas, has a new challenge: blocking offshore fish-farming in the Gulf of Mexico, the first U.S. waters to win government approval to grow millions of pounds of fish in cages far out in the ocean.

His success  or lack of it  will have an impact not just on the seafood industry but also on consumer choice and perhaps on the environment of one of the worlds most productive fisheries.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, without fanfare, earlier this year issued the first such set of regulations for deep-ocean aquaculture in the Gulf. The rules put the federal government imprint on a policy mapped out years ago by the five-state Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council.

As many as 20 offshore operations are permitted, with a total harvest of 64 million pounds annually  roughly the amount of wild fish caught now in the Gulf.

Ocean aquaculture could become a new Gulf industry, transforming the seafood trade, creating jobs and paving the way for fish-farming in other U.S. waters.

It may or may not happen soon. A NOAA spokeswoman said last week that her agency had received inquiries about permits but no formal applications, which carry a $10,000 fee. The rules went into effect Feb. 12.

Industry officials say companies may be waiting for the outcome of a lawsuit in federal court filed by Guindon and alliance of fishing interests and environmental advocates from across the Gulf.

Beyond Hurricane Buddy, ocean fish-farmers also are considering the risks of real storms in a hurricane hot spot. They also are weighing prospects of coexisting with the oil and gas industry and the burdens of dealing with bureaucracy inexperienced with sea farms, industry experts say.

Like other recent batches of federal regulations, this one arrived absent congressional approval and bearing controversy.

Proponents  many in government  cast the offshore aquaculture as a matter of national security and a means to preserve over-exploited oceans. They lament wasted opportunity in Americas 3.5 million-square-mile exclusive economic zone, to them a massive farm lying fallow. They use a phrase from the 1960s: the blue revolution.

Fishermen and environmental advocates dont buy the imagery. Their coalition, which stymied congressional approval, is challenging NOAAs authority in U.S. District Court in Eastern Louisiana. Plaintiffs that include Texas commercial and charter fishing groups argue that sea farms amount to industrial aquaculture, which NOAAs National Marine Fisheries Service has no power to regulate.

Photos by Kin Man Hui / San Antonio Express-News

Guindon, 60, a bearded, blunt-spoken ex-Marine, heads the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders Alliance, which represents commercial fishermen. Hes fast becoming a celebrity from Big Fish Texas, which premiered in February. The show revolves around his family-owned Katies Seafood, on Pier 19 in Galveston. They handle a quarter of the red snapper and deep-water grouper in the Gulf.

Guindon has testified in Austin and Washington. He helped establish a Gulf Wild label that enables buyers to trace when and by whom red snapper were caught. He traveled last year to Japan to take stock of fish health in waters near the ruined Fukushima nuclear plant, site of reactor meltdowns after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

He seems forever seeking to slow down with a lot swirling around him.

If theyd pick somebody else to save the world, I'd be out here every day," he remarked from the helm of a boat in an episode of Big Fish Texas.

Guindon says he worries about more than upheaval in the seafood industry. Among his concerns, he says, are currents in the Gulf that could prove insufficient to flush out sea farm pollution.

Im not afraid of the competition. What I worry about is the destruction of habitat in the Gulf, he said while overseeing the unloading of fish.

Our fishery is in really good shape right now. Seven years ago, you worked really hard to catch 2,000 pounds in a day. Now you can catch 10,000 pounds in a day, he said.

What will happen when you concentrate fish here like they do in the Atlantic and other oceans? What effect will that have on the natural stocks of fish? I dont believe they have a broad view and are taking enough precautions. My fear is that nobody has really looked at what happens if we make a mistake here, he said.

Possible adverse effects

Fish that might be farmed in federal waters  in Texas from nine to 200 miles offshore  include cobia, almaco jack and red drum, also known as redfish. Cobia, a sharklike species with mild, white flesh, has been the choice in recent ventures elsewhere because of its extraordinary growth  10 pounds or more in a years time.

Moored, floating net cages, the most popular, vary in size depending on the species grown. A cage 100 feet in diameter would support roughly 60,000 full-grown red drum or 20,000 cobia. One company offers custom-built cages three times as big, the diameter the length of a football field.

The prospect of tens of million pounds of fish hitting the market  and industry players already say that limit needs to be raised  is panicking some fishermen. NOAAs comments accompanying the new rule suggest they may have reason to worry.

Depending on whether export markets can be found, fishing communities could experience adverse effects, such as loss of jobs and revenue due to decreased prices, NOAA acknowledged.

Fisherman, commercial and recreational alike, are forbidden to pass through restricted waters around aquaculture sites let alone fish there, another issue causing friction.

They worry, too, about how much of the feed will come from menhaden and other forage fish that sustain the Gulf fishery. The practice of feeding fish to other fish is known in the trade as FIFO  Fish In, Fish Out  an indelicate phrase the industry would prefer to avoid by adding more soybeans and plant proteins to the feed.

Changing the diet of ocean carnivores provides yet another argument for Gulf fishermen.

They might look exactly like our fish but the quality is not going to be the same, argued Capt. Bill Wright, unloading 5,000 pounds of snapper in Galveston from his 60-foot trawler, the Alice Mae.

Fragile waters

With effects lingering from the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010, environmentalists contend that the Gulf shouldnt be a locale for operations unproved off the U.S. coastline.

They argue that any benefits arent worth the risk of degraded water quality from feed and fish wastes, which add nutrient pollution to a body of water already plagued by dead zones from farm fertilizers flowing out of the Mississippi River. Last summer, the expanse of oxygen-deprived waters in the Gulf measured 6,474 square miles.

The Environmental Protection Agency echoed conservationists concerns in comments to NOAA in 2009. An EPA letter questioned NOAAs authority and noted an array of potential impacts on diverse, complex and increasingly stressed and increasingly fragile ecosystems.

Fish-farmers in the Gulf must secure an EPA discharge permit as well as approval from the Army Corps of Engineers before getting go-ahead from NOAA. The federal agencies are working together toward what NOAA calls a coordinated permitting process.

Last year, NOAA approved three offshore mussel farms, two off Massachusetts and one off California. Salmon farms operate close to shore in state waters off Maine and Washington. But no commercial fish farms have been allowed in federal waters.

Depending on the speed of federal regulation, the Gulf could be a testing ground for federal policies in other U.S. waters.

In California, a partnership between Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute and investors that include Walmart billionaire Christy Walton hopes to farm fish off Carlsbad in San Diego County.

That plan, under study by the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, has met with controversy. The city of San Diego worries about water quality and the U.S. Navy in a letter raised serious concerns about sea cages interfering with military operations.

Government backing for a practice banned up to now reflects the economics of Americans appetite for seafood. More than 90 percent of the fish and shrimp consumed in the United States is imported  adding $20 billion annually to the trade deficit. About half of those imports are farmed.

Michael Rubino, who directs NOAAs aquaculture office, also pointed to government dietary guidelines recommending that Americans eat twice the amount of seafood.

Wheres all that going to come from? Rubino asked in an interview.

Rubino discounts threats of pollution from well-run operations. He argues that fishermen stand to benefit.

In the Gulf, theres an opportunity for fishermen and seafood farmers to work together to market a U.S. product, he said.

Announcing the new rules, NOAA administrator Kathryn Sullivan referred to a tremendous opportunity to create jobs, which would be welcome in a state where plunging oil prices have taken a toll.

But NOAA and the industry have sent mixed signals. NOAA  on record as saying jobs could be lost in fishing communities  points to an 8-year-old study concluding that anywhere from 300 to 3,000 jobs could be created when factoring in employment in hatcheries, equipment supply and distribution.

Industry experts speak of labor-saving technology.

Neil Anthony Sims, who heads an aquaculture trade group called Ocean Stewards Institute, described an operation in Hawaiian state waters monitored remotely with feed supplied automatically from a barge.

With his iPhone anywhere in the world, my head of research could pull up streaming video of fish, turn on a generator and regulate the feed rates, Sims said. Growing fish out 50 or 100 miles from shore isnt rocket science. We landed a robot on a comet; so surely we can control feeding at a fish farm.

He added: There are tremendous job opportunities, but theyre going to be more sophisticated, technical positions.

A Bush initiative

NOAAs policy has its roots in the George W. Bush White House, a period when seafood imports were spiraling upward by more than 100,000 tons a year. His administration sought authority from Congress to write regulations. Bill after bill died.

Joe Hendrix, an aquaculture consultant from Houston, became a driving force for aquaculture after the Bush administration appointed him to the Gulf of Mexico Marine Fisheries Council. When he and two other new members from the recreational fish industry were installed in 2002, commercial fishermen on hand turned away in silent protest.

Seven years later, the council approved an aquaculture plan despite objections by some in Congress. But the fish-farming could not begin without the set of federal regulations which took seven more years for NOAA to complete.

I started the whole thing, said Hendrix, 65, who no longer sits on the council.

The rest of the world, Europe and even Africa, has already figured it out. This idea of depending on mother nature to supply an increase in the harvest is just not an option, said Hendrix, who was appointed last year by NOAA to an aquaculture task force.

Hendrix said he knows of companies looking seriously at operating in the Gulf and that he hopes to be involved. He lamented missed opportunity in delays.

The opportunity for the U.S. over and over again has been shot down by the media and environmental groups and commercial fishermen. Its a sad story, Hendrix said.

Douglas Boyd of Boerne, a current member of the Gulf of Mexico council, doesnt share Hendrixs enthusiasm.

At this point, Id have to know more about how theyre going to do it and what they are injecting into their fish via their food, he said.

I think if its done correctly, it might not be a bad thing. But its going to have to be policed. We cant just turn everybody loose to do it.

Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Fishbreaks

Leakage of fish from cages or mass escapes  fishbreaks, theyre called  is a fact of life in aquaculture. European and South American nations with offshore aquaculture instituted rules for disclosure rules when fish get loose. The U.S. regulations, too, require notification within 24 hours of major escapes.

Impacts, scientists say, can range from spreading infectious agents to altering the genetic makeup of wild fish. NOAA regulations forbid farming of species not already established in the Gulf. They also prohibit genetically engineered fish such as the fast-growing salmon approved for commercial sales in November by the Food and Drug Administration.

Mass escapes from cages because of storms, equipment failure and human error are well-documented.

As many as 12 million Atlantic salmon are believed to have swum away after an earthquake in Chile in 2007. A storm in Norway in 2005 set free a half-million salmon. Two years ago, a company in Scotland reported the escape of 154,000 salmon after a mooring failure. In Canada in 2014, 14,000 rainbow trout got loose when a boat propeller damaged a net.

Last year, escape of aggressive cobia from new offshore cages in Ecuador brought warnings from scientists of potential irreversible damage to marine ecology in the eastern Pacific.

Among those scientists was D. Ross Robertson, of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Robertson researches threats from nonnative fish, such as the appearance of damselfish in the southern Gulf of Mexico, possibly from relocation of an oil platform.

Escaped cobia would not present a problem in the Gulf given that they already are present, and Robertson believes generally that fish farms operate carefully. But, he said, escapes are a sure thing in offshore fish-farming.

When you do this in the sea, in cages, they leak fish. Youre guaranteed to let fish out, 100 percent of the time, even if its not in mass numbers, he said.

Under NOAAs rules, cobia must be farmed from stock already present in the Gulfs U.S. waters. To head off genetic changes in other species, companies could grow red snapper only if they originate within 62 miles of the cages. Red drum must come from no farther than 82 miles.

Reducing fishprint

The aquaculture industry argues that modern cages minimize escapes and allow operations farther from shore, where ocean currents can better disperse nutrients and fish waste.

Nonetheless, aquacultures fishprint  nutrient pollution from feed and from the fish themselves  remain part of the debate.

Beyond legalities, cost and public acceptance, industry experts are taking stock of other obstacles. Scientists have noted that the Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010 and chemicals used to disperse the oil likely would have caused significant damage to any nearby fish farms.

Daniel Benetti, a University of Miami marine scientist and adviser to aquaculture companies, in the past cautioned about the financial risks of operating in the Gulfs tempestuous waters. He changed his tune recently, he says, because of newly designed submersible cage systems that can withstand storms.

Were getting to the point where the technology to do this right is happening. Its only now when were finishing this technology, he said. Finally, the regulatory system is moving fast and the stars are aligning.

Eight miles off Panama, Brian OHanlons Open Blue Sea Farms is the worlds largest open-ocean farm, producing 3.3 million pounds of cobia annually in submersible cages in water 200 feet deep. OHanlon, 37, a New York native and the third generation of his family in the seafood business, sells those fish in North America and Europe.

I have a very high interest in operating in the United States, he said without committal when asked about the Gulf. As a nation we have an obligation to produce our own fish  as a general obligation and as a matter of national security.

OHanlon believes environmental advocates havent kept abreast of technology advances. Commercial fishermen, he contends, are acting out of self-preservation.

I think well see some small operations (in the Gulf), but its going to take time. This is not something thats going to pop up overnight, he said.

bill.lambrecht@hearstdc.com
Department of Agriculture clarifies that Seed Act does not apply to non-commercial seed libraries

MILLHEIM, Pa.  The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has clarified that seed libraries and other non-commercial seed exchanges are not subject to the licensing, labeling and testing requirements required of commercial seed distributors in the Seed Act of 2004 (Seed Act).

A statewide coalition, led by the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Grow Pittsburgh, the Public Interest Law Center, and members of the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, as well as individual growers and organizations, worked with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture to clarify protocol about the Seed Act.

Background

The Act was originally applied to a seed library at the Joseph T. Simpson Library in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, which officials say severely limited its operations.

Seed libraries are nonprofit, community-based organizations. Through seed libraries, growers maintain and increase biodiversity, as they save seeds from season to season, and share seeds with one another.

The number of seed libraries has surged in recent years; there are an estimated 26 seed libraries across the Commonwealth, with more than 350 nationwide.

Asked for clarification

Concern about the compliance with the Seed Act has been a deterrent to seed library operations in Pennsylvania. In 2015, the coalition sent a letter to Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture, Russell C. Redding, urging that PDA makes clear its position.

In the letter, the coalition argued the licensing, labeling, and testing requirements under the Seed Act were being misapplied to seed exchanges like the one proposed by the Simpson Library. Because seed exchanges, operate on a noncommercial basis and do not sell, offer for sale, expose for sale, or transport seeds, the letters cosigners contend, nonprofit seed exchanges are not subject to these sections of the law.

Upon review of the letter, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture determined the Simpson Library does not meet the definition of a distributor as defined in the Seed Law because, they are not selling, offering for sale or exposing seed for sale, concluding that the edicts of the Seed Law do not apply.

Next step

In addition to clarifying its earlier decision, the department has invited a representative from Grow Pittsburgh to participate with a PDA staff member in a non-commercial seed-sharing work group organized by the Association of American Seed Control Officials (AASCO).

The working group is drafting a proposal for the Recommended Uniform State Seed Law (RUSSL) that formally exempts non-commercial seed sharing from the cost-prohibitive licensing, labeling, and testing required of commercial seed exchanges.
SOUTH AFRICA-MULTI MILLION DOLLAR DAIRY ON MAURITIAS.

KwaZulu-Natal dairy farmer Stuart MacKenzie spotted a gap in the Mauritian milk market and investor support was immediate from an island importing almost 400 000 of milk daily. Robyn Joubert reports on efforts to kick-start this multi-million rand dairy project.

In 2005, Johannesburg investment banker Stuart MacKenzie decided to return to the quiet of his familys third-generation farm Loskop in Karkloof, Pietermaritzburg.

As the fourth generation to farm Loskop, Stuart immediately decided to look for ways to increase milk production from the 180-cow Holstein herd. He bought in more Holstein cows and then 200 Ayrshire cows.

His 600 cows increased milk production from 3 000 a day to 11 000 a day. Not satisfied, Stuart looked for more land to buy in the Karkloof area. But it proved exceedingly hard to come by. In August 2007 Stuarts wife Sue dropped the seed of an idea onto fertile ground. "Sue joked about having a dairy farm on a tropical island somewhere," says Stuart. "After searching the internet I realised there was a huge gap in the dairy market in Mauritius."

Milk production on the island is only about 2 000 a day, produced mainly by small farmers with between one and five cows. Consumption is about 400 000 a day, so the balance is imported. Stuart e-mailed the Mauritius Board of Investments with an idea to start a dairy. He got a swift response. "They gave me the names of potential investors," explains Stuart. "I e-mailed a few of them and Suren Surat, the owner of a fresh fruit and vegetable distributor, the SKC Group, replied within 24 hours."





Putting the plan in motion

Three months later, in October 2007, Stuart found himself presenting his dairying idea in Mauritius to a group of 40 people, among them government officials and Suren.

The SKC Group was perfect, offering infrastructure, a distribution network, marketing and expertise in cold chain management, as well as a chain of Freshland retail outlets. And Suren recognised the benefits of an experienced and technically-savvy partner running the dairy. "Nothing would be possible without a partner on the island. They dont get the inflated prices foreigners are quoted and they know what to do and how to source things."

A partner to assist

In May 2008 the two parties formed SKC Dairy Fresh & Co, a 50/50 joint partnership. Stuarts cousin Andre Fox is a minority shareholder on Stuarts side. A synergy of interests has also been established between Stuart and the government. It realised the dairy would help it reach its target of producing 10 000 a day by 2015. Stuart didnt want handouts or subsidies, despite the estimated cost of the project at about 75 million rupees (R22 million). What he wanted was access to land. "Acquiring land is a major issue in Mauritius," says Stuart. "Much of it is owned by private sugar estates and I knew I would never get my hands on it without help."

Cattle on an island

In June 2008 the minister of Agro-Industry and Fisheries, Dr Arvin Boolell, was at the signing of a 15-year lease between Rose Belle Sugar Estate and SKC Dairy Fresh. The lease is for 100ha of mountainous land at Le Val, renewable for two 15-year terms with the possibility of expanding to 300ha. "It is not flat, Rolls Royce land," says Stuart. "But Ill take my chances on the mountains." The land had been planted to sugarcane at the time of signing the lease, which made it difficult to conceptualise where to build the dairy. The first time Stuart saw it properly was in August 2008 after the sugarcane had been harvested.

Setting up the dairy

Earthworks began in October when the site for the feed shed and dairy was levelled and construction began on 15 December. While the building phase progressed well, in spite of heavy rain, Stuart struggled to get his herd of 250 pregnant Holstein and Ayrshire heifers onto the island. "We needed to charter a ship, but were quoted the ridiculous amount of US0 000 (R4,9 million)," says Stuart. "The going rate was US0 000 (R1,3 million). We were then told a company shipping livestock to Mauritius for meat had booked the ship for five years to prevent us from using it."

It turned out the company felt threatened by Stuart importing breeding animals onto the island. "It seemed the only way to get the animals onto the island was by plane," says Stuart. "We were going to fly them over, 20 at a time, in the cargo hold of a passenger plane. The Mauritian government even organised an old plane for us. Then Stuart offered the company holding up the ship all his bull calves and they finally agreed to allow him access to it.





"It was a nightmare to organise because the charter company kept changing the departure date," says Stuart. "Timing was a hassle because we were dealing with inoculations and pregnant animals. We finally got a departure date in January 2009, only to experience hassles from South African officials about taking the animals out of the country."

Stuarts newly appointed South African farm manager Keith Hutton went with the cattle on the seven-day voyage. "Keith has all the right experience," says Stuart. "He does a lot of veterinary work, which is important as theres only one vet on the island. Theres no support system in terms of research and information into large animals and the new hired staff have no experience working on a dairy farm."

As with his Karkloof farm, Stuart initially focused on macro aspects of the business, such as getting proper infrastructure in place, including the dairy, roads and pasture as well as staff management and animal husbandry. From there he moved onto micro aspects such as feeding systems and getting the best output from his resources."

The climate is hot and wet, so Stuart plans to keep the cows in a shed in the heat of the day and let them graze at night. Stuart timed heifer conceptions so they would calve at a rate of about 30 a month, and hes hoping to get an average milk yield of about 20/day/cow. Milk production is expected to start in April 2009 when the dairy should be complete, and it will be officially launched in May or June.

Limited competition

Another group of Mauritian investors are also setting up a dairy on the island to produce milk and cheese. But their cows are kept permanently in a shed and fed a total mixed ration. Stuart is unfazed by the competition. "Well stick to producing fresh milk and cream," says Stuart. "We dont want to compete with big companies exporting long-life products to the island. As it is, interest in our milk is so fierce some of the SKC Groups fresh produce customers are already placing orders." Stuart says the new venture has been very exciting, but exhausting. "Ive had four months away from my family since August 2008 and over that period my third daughter was born," says Stuart. Contact Stuart Mackenzie on 082 495 5172 or e-mail stuart.mackenzie@telkomsa.net. |fw

Doubling up for guaranteed cream

Stuart Mackenzie milks about 400 Holstein and 230 Ayrshire cows on 400ha in Karkloof. Although both the Holstein and Ayrshire milk goes to Fairfield Dairy, its kept strictly separate. Each group is milked in its own parlour and has its own milk tank. Fairfield processes the Ayrshire milk for Woolworths, and the Holstein milk for Pick n Pay. Stuart will replicate the design of his 30 swing-over dairy parlour in Mauritius, and is using the same DeLaval equipment. "If Keith has a problem with the equipment in Mauritius, we can both stand in front of the same equipment and I can telephonically talk him through problems from Karkloof," says Stuart.

He decided to ship heifers from both breeds to Mauritius. "Ayrshires have good traits for overall health," says Stuart. "Holsteins milk well, but
Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is set to hit the big screen this summer and will see Jennifer Saunders and Joanna Lumley reunite.

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

Saunders and Lumley will reprise their iconic roles as Edina and Patsy and they feature in the fantastic new poster for the film.

As well as returning as Edina, Saunders has also penned the screenplay for the film while Mandie Fletcher is in the director's chair. Fletcher has worked on the television series and Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie will be her first big screen feature since Deadly Advice back in 1994.

There are other series favourites to watch out for as Julia Sawalha, Jane Horrocks, and Julia Sawalha are back as Saffy, Bubble, and Mother.

In true Ab Fab style, the cast will be joined by a host of A-list stars from the acting, music and fashion worlds. Rebel Wilson, Gwendoline Christie, Cara Delevingne, and Kate Moss are all set to make an appearance in the film.

Appropriate for their big screen debut, Edina and Patsy are still oozing glitz and glamour, living the high life they are accustomed to; shopping, drinking and clubbing their way around London's trendiest hotspots.

Blamed for a major incident at an uber fashionable launch party, they become entangled in a media storm and are relentlessly pursued by the paparazzi. Fleeing penniless to the glamorous playground of the super-rich, the French Riviera, they hatch a plan to make their escape permanent and live the high life forevermore!

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie is released 1st July.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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We love Helen Mirren here at FemaleFirst and she is set to return to the big screen this week in new war drama Eye in the Sky.

Eye in the Sky

The movie sees Mirren take on the central role of Col. Katherine Powell, a military officer who is in charge of an operation to capture terrorists in Kenya. This is a very different kind of role for Mirren and it is great to see this kind of character cast as a woman. I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to seeing her in action.

There's less than a week to go until Eye in the Sky hits the big screen and we have a trio of fantastic new clips for you to take a look at:

Eye in the Sky marks the return of Gavin Hood to the director's chair for his first feature since Ender's Game back in 2013. This movie also marks the first time that he has collaborated with Mirren.

However, this movie is tinged with sadness as it will be the last time that we will see Alan Rickman on the big screen - he has lent his voice to Alice Through The Looking Glass, which will be released later this year.

Rickman was one of the greatest actors of his generation and we will get to enjoy his acting skill one final time. Aaron Paul, Barkhad Abdi, Jeremy Northam, Iain Glen, and Phoebe Fox make up a terrific and talented cast list.

London-based military intelligence officer Colonel Katherine Powell (Mirren) is remotely commanding a top secret drone operation to capture a group of dangerous terrorists from their safe-house in Nairobi, Kenya. The mission suddenly escalates from a 'capture' to a 'kill' operation as Powell realizes that the terrorists are about to embark on a deadly suicide mission.

From his base in Nevada, American drone pilot Steve Watts (Paul) is poised to destroy the safe-house when a nine-year-old girl enters the kill zone just outside the walls of the house. With unforeseen collateral damage now entering the equation, the impossible decision of when to strike gets passed up the 'kill chain' of politicians and lawyers as the seconds tick down.

Drone warfare is a topic that has been explored quite a few times on the big screen over the year and Eye in the Sky will explore the legal and ethical dilemmas presented by this particular way of fighting a war.

Eye In The Sky is released 15th April.

by Helen Earnshaw for www.femalefirst.co.uk

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The Royals have arrived! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate are visiting India and Bhutan for a crisp 7 day tour. This marks their first trip to India, the purposes being  to pay respect to the relationship our nation shares with England and to understand todays India. They royal couple arrived in Mumbai this morning and this is what their first day in the city of dreams looks like

1. The couple will stay at the historic Taj Palace Hotel and pay tribute to the 2008 attack memorial.

2. They will then make their way to the Oval Maidan and meet representatives and beneficiaries of a couple of charitable organization like Magic Bus, Doorstep, and India's Childline. Theyll also spend some time with kids from nearby slums.

3. Their next stop will be the Banganga Water Tank where theyll interact with the workers of the charitable foundation called SMILE.

4. Theyll then head back to the Taj Palace Hotel to celebrate the citys film and creative sphere. The evening will be glitzy, glamorous and high octane event. Bollywood will be majorly involved.

5. All the attendees have been told to arrive at the venue at 7:30 pm sharp.

6. The fabulous duo of Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will introduce the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. They will prep for the big night from 4 pm onwards.

7. Sonam Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan and many other Bollywood celebrities will make their presence felt to honour the royalties. And from what we hear, Sonam Kapoor is leaving no stones unturned to put her best fashion foot forward, she even got her fittings done a day prior.

8. Karan Johar will give the vote of thanks.

9. Shankar Mahadevan and son Sidharth Mahadevan will do a special performance.

10. Shiamak Davar troupe will show off their groovy skills.

The media accreditation on the red carpet is being done by UK Government. So theres no gate crashing happening, guys! But worry not, well be covering the grand event live so watch for our feed on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Stay tuned.
Ex-Qubool Hai actor Karan Singh Grover who got separated from Saraswatichandra actress Jennifer Winget, is getting married to Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu. Recently, KSG and Bips took to social media to announce their wedding date.

Posting an image snapped with Bips, Karan wrote, "We are happy to finally share the good news with everyone . 30th April 2016 is the big day and we cannot thank our family,friends, fans and well wishers enough for all their love and support. The wedding will be a private intimate affair .Our deepest gratitude for respecting our privacy this far .We hope to have your continued blessings and warm wishes as we embark on this new journey together."

Click on 'View Photos' To Check Out KSG & Bips Wedding Invite; Also Check Out KSG Snapped With Ex-Wives Shraddha & Jennifer



Recently, Bips also shared her pre-wedding photoshoot with partner KSG. Soon after the official confirmation pictures of their wedding invite started doing the rounds in the social media (slide 2).

Karan started his television career with the show Kitni Mast Hai Zindagi on MTV India. Later, he did Dill Mill Gayye (DMG), where he played the role of Armaan Malik. KSG became an instant hit and a teenage icon with the show.

KSG went on to participate in the reality shows like Zara Nachke Dikha, Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa 3, and others. His last show on TV before jumping to Bollywood was Qubool Hai, where he played the role of Azad Ahmed Khan. His tough look and his love story with Zoya played by Surbhi Jyoti were liked by all.

It was also said that KSG would be back on television as a host. It was reported that he would host the upcoming season dance reality show Nach Baliye.

In his personal life, KSG got married television actress, Shraddha Nigam in December 2008. But their relationship did not last long as it ended up in divorce within 10 months of married, due to Grover's extramarital affairs.

In 2012, KSG married another television actress Jennifer (who was his co-star in DMG). Again, it was said that his affair with Bips (who was his co-star in his debut Bollywood movie, Alone), ended his and Jen's relationship.

Well, Bips and KSG are getting readly for their big day. Hit the comment box to congratuale the couple...
CFO Advisory firm StraitsBridge Advisors adds to industry honours in 2016; APAC CIO Outlook names StraitsBridge one of the "25 Most Promising Business Intelligence Solution Providers" in their March report

SINGAPORE and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CFO advisory & business intelligence solutions provider StraitsBridge adds to industry honours in 2016 with recognition within the Business Intelligence Analytics industry-- garnering a new profile in APAC CIO Outlook's special edition, '25 Most Promising Business Intelligence Solution Providers 2016,'published in March 2016.

StraitsBridge has continued to break new ground in Business Intelligence within the past year benefiting its customers through continuing excellence in delivering top-notch solutions. The firm helps financial institutions get the most value from their BI investments, inspiring confidence that they are getting required insights to make informed decisions.

Sanjay Uppal, Founder & CEO of StraitsBridge, said: "Our bespoke models and methodologies have continued to deliver superior Business Intelligence solutions. To be recognized among leading BI solution providers by today's industry experts is very rewarding indeed."

Shripad Keni, Head of Business Intelligence & Finance Systems at StraitsBridge, added: "Our top priority is to deliver innovative services that exceed our customers' expectations and help them gain competitive advantage. This recognition is a testament to our team's commitment to maximizing value for client's investments in business intelligence & analytics."

Industry analysts at CIO Outlook praised StraitsBridge for their end-to-end Business Intelligence solutions that help financial institutions formulate effective business strategies. In characterizing StraitsBridge's strengths, they further noted how professionals at StraitsBridge seamlessly bring together their global experience in Financial Services, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Analytics platforms to deliver effective BI solutions.

About StraitsBridge

StraitsBridge delivers advisory & execution services across CFO domain in financial institutions - helping create value and architect transformation for its clients. StraitsBridge's professionals bring their global experience to work with financial institutions to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges. In January 2016, StraitsBridge was recognized among '20 Most Promising Enterprise Performance Management Solution Providers 2016' by CIOReview. StraitsBridge has its headquarters in Singapore with additional offices in Dubai & New Delhi.

For more information, visit: http://straitsbridge.com/ and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Media Contact

Lydia Anuar

+65-6408-0501

lydia.anuar@straitsbridge.com
SHANGHAI, April 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

CNOGA Medical Ltd., a developer and manufacturer of medical devices, today announces that it has received an approval for its TensorTip' MTX' and VSM' non-invasive multiple bio parameters measurement devices from the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA).

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20151115/287424 )



CNOGA Medical Ltd. is expecting to launch the TensorTip' devices during Shanghai's CMEF exhibition, April 2016.

CNOGA TensorTip' devices use a real time color image sensor and unique algorithms to accurately measure more than a dozen bio parameters such as fingertip blood pressure, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit and Blood Gases from the patients' fingertip blood capillaries.

The TensorTip' product family optionally integrates with CNOGA's SINGULAR cloud base architecture, further enhancing the users' control over his health and wellbeing.

Dr. Yosef Segman, Founder and CEO of CNOGA states: "Securing CFDA approval in China is a significant milestone towards achieving our long term global expansion goals."

Dr. Segman added; "China is the largest market for noninvasive e-health monitoring at home as well as hospitals and clinics. In 2014, medical device sales in China totaled CNY 255.6 billion (EUR 36 billion) a year with a yearly increase of 20%, according to the China Medical Pharmaceutical Materials Association[1].

The following milestone represents a substantial growth opportunity for CNOGA with expected commercial agreements in China valued at tens of million dollars in the upcoming year. Recently, CNOGA established a diversified presence in China with a CNOGA HQ in Shanghai and an R&D center in Changzhou, Jiangsu," concluded Dr. Segman.

About CNOGA Products

TensorTip' Matrix' (MTX) noninvasive measurements of Hemodynamics (Pulse, Blood Pressure, Cardiac Output, stroke Volume, MAP (Mean Arterial Pressure), blood gases (pH, PCO2, PO2, CO2, O2), Blood Chemistry, Hemoglobin (Hb), Hematocrit (Hct) and Red Blood Cell (RBC)

TensorTip' Vital Sign Monitor (VSM) Measures Vital signs such as blood pressure, Pulse and SPO2 (saturation).

About CNOGA Medical Ltd.:

CNOGA Medical Ltd. , a privately held international company, with offices in Israel, China, Germany & Brazil, was founded in 2004 by Dr. Yosef Segman, a technology innovator and entrepreneur, who has led the product development from the early stages through a strategic partnership with Texas Instruments Inc., to commercialization. The company Medical Advisor is Prof. Dr. Uriel Trahtemberg, MD/PhD Hadassah Ein-Kerem Hospital

--------------------------------------------------

1. http://www.ccilc.pt/sites/default/files/eu_sme_centre_report_-_the_medical_devices_market_in_china_may_2015.pdf

Press Contacts:

Mr. Liu Wei

liu.wei@cnoga.com

+86-13338617896

Mr. Steven MacWan

steven@CNOGA.com

+972-544-465614

http://www. CNOGA.com
HKTDC Communication and Public Affairs Department Joe Kainz Tel: +852 2584 4216 Email: joe.kainz@hktdc.org

HONG KONG, Apr 10, 2016 - (ACN Newswire) - Organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), the eighth Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Spring Edition) concluded yesterday at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. The four-day fair (6-9 April) featured more than 1,300 exhibitors from 11 countries and regions. Nearly 20,000 buyers from 108 countries and regions took part in the fair, up 3.6 per cent over last year. Among overseas buyers, attendance from the Chinese mainland, Malaysia, Korea, Singapore and Indonesia had the most significant growth, recording a double-digit percentage increase. Buyer attendance from the United States and the United Kingdom also saw considerable growth."Despite the lingering global economic uncertainties and challenges, the Spring Lighting Fair this year still showed a considerable increase in buyer attendance," said Benjamin Chau, HKTDC Deputy Executive Director. "It reveals that buyers remain optimistic in purchasing. Hong Kong companies are encouraged to grasp the opportunities brought about by the Chinese mainland and Asian markets."The HKTDC commissioned an independent on-site survey during the fair, interviewing more than 342 exhibitors and buyers about their views on industry prospects. The survey found that 64 per cent of respondents expect overall sales this year to increase or remain unchanged. As for product trends, respondents consider LED & green lighting to be the product sector with the best growth potential in the sales/export market (35%), followed by household lighting (23%), commercial lighting (15%) and smart lighting & solutions (10%). It also showed that customers are increasingly concerned about product quality (90%) and practicality (90%), as well as after-sales service/maintenance (89%) and product price (87%).High quality LED products remain popularThe applications of LED products in the lighting industry have become increasingly prevalent. Besides consumers growing more environmentally conscious, the price drop of LED products and their easy integration with smart lighting systems helped the LED market to continue thriving and maintain a strong demand.The Viribright brand under Hong Kong's Matrix Holdings Ltd has been participating in the Spring and Autumn Lighting Fairs with their energy-efficient LED bulbs since 2009. Eric Leung, Director of Matrix Holdings, stated that their latest LED product, the Viribright A19 bulb, has a colour rendering index (CRI) of 90 and a wide beam angle of 320 degrees, close to that of natural light. Buyers from the US, Australia and Europe had expressed their interest in the product.Russian buyer Andrey Egoshin, Product Manager, UNIV(R)ERSAL, was primarily looking for LED bulbs, floodlights and panel lights. He said he had business negotiations with more than 30 suppliers from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong. He pointed out that, as customers in Russia were becoming more price-sensitive, he was looking for products with prices and quality that met their requirements. He expected the company's first order with each new supplier to amount to US$100,000.Smart home display attracts buyer attentionThe "smart city and smart home" is recognised as a major development in the technology sector. The survey found that 92 per cent of respondents believe the development of smart technology will facilitate the lighting industry in the next two years. In particular, household lighting systems that are compatible with or controllable by smart phone/tablet applications are seen to have the greatest development potential (49%), followed by smart, energy-saving lighting systems for household/industrial/commercial purposes (46%) and industrial/commercial lighting systems that are compatible with, or controllable by smart phone/tablet applications (26%). The new Smart Lighting Product Display at this year's fair showcased a simulated home environment with a smart lighting system. Buyers could try out the applications of smart lighting products before making any decisions.Hong Kong's Tronico Technology Co Ltd joined the fair for the first time this year and presented its KUJU Smart Home System and Devices, a DIY wireless home automation solution that can control household appliances through the Internet of Things (IoT). "The new Smart Lighting Product Display set up by the HKTDC allows buyers to see for themselves the strengths and features of our home environment," Alex Chan, General Manager, Tronico Technology, said. "Indeed, it is highly effective in promoting our product and attracting more customers to visit our booth. We have connected with buyers from Southeast Asia, Europe and the US. About five to six buyers from Southeast Asia are interested in KUJU products. We expect them to confirm their orders after testing our samples."Mario Alter, President, Aller Iluminacion, from Argentina visited the display area. He said he had talked with some of the smart lighting solutions suppliers. Smart lighting is something new in Argentina, and he said he would like to bring it to the market as smart lighting is the next big trend.New October expo to meet outdoor and industrial lighting demandThe fair featured various themed zones. The Hall of Aurora showcased lighting collections from more than 230 renowned brands, and LED & Green Lighting gathered energy-efficient products for indoor and outdoor uses from over 430 companies. The World of Professional and Industrial Lighting zone also attracted a good deal of attention from buyers with its display of situation-specific professional lighting fixtures and systems including emergency and safety lights, large-venue lighting and industrial environments.The Australian company Lumn, an exhibitor at the World of Professional and Industrial Lighting zone, manufactures mainly commercial and industrial lighting including a complete range of high bay lights that are suitable for use in warehouses, distribution centres and retail stores. The high bay lights are currently sold only in Australia. Alistair Bailes, Director, Lumn Pty Ltd., noted that this was the first time it had taken part in the Lighting Fair and it was looking to develop partnerships with distributors. "Buyers from the Chinese mainland, the Middle East, the UK and the US have expressed interest in our high bay lights, and some of them will become our distributors after further negotiations. We are happy with the results so far. We have decided to have our first exhibition at this year's Autumn Lighting Fair." He said.In view of the strong demand for outdoor lighting, the HKTDC will organise the first Hong Kong International Outdoor and Tech Light Expo from 26 to 29 October at AsiaWorld-Expo. Outdoor lighting, industrial lighting, advertising display lighting and lighting accessories and parts will be showcased at the fair to suit the market's needs. Meanwhile, the 18th edition of the HKTDC Hong Kong International Lighting Fair (Autumn Edition) will take place on 27-30 October at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.Fair Website: http://www.hktdc.com/hklightingfairse/enDownload Link: http://bit.ly/1qfVlLsTo view press releases in Chinese, please visit http://mediaroom.hktdc.com/tcAbout HKTDCA statutory body established in 1966, the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) is the international marketing arm for Hong Kong-based traders, manufacturers and services providers. With more than 40 offices globally, including 13 on the Chinese mainland, the HKTDC promotes Hong Kong as a platform for doing business with China and throughout Asia. The HKTDC also organises international exhibitions, conferences and business missions to provide companies, particularly SMEs, with business opportunities on the mainland and in overseas markets, while providing information via trade publications, research reports and digital channels including the media room. For more information, please visit: www.hktdc.com/aboutus. Follow us on Google+, Twitter @hktdc, LinkedIn.Google+: https://plus.google.com/+hktdcTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/hktdcLinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/hong-kong-trade-development-councilSource: HKTDCContact:Copyright 2016 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved.
For the last week or so women in my neighbourhood have flinched each time we walked down the street where new movie posters are usually plastered at a magnificent scale.

Usually, these big walls are our preview to the films speeding to the local theatres. Standing in front of these walls we recently giggled over the pun in the movie title Uppi-2 (which kept up a fine punning tradition, from movie star Upendra who named his house Summane to the movie where the heroes fight over a woman called Kaveri H20. Please consult your nearest Kannada-speaking friend for an explanation). Passing these walls wed also wondered whether the Kannada movie Bullet Rani had anything to do with the Hindi Revolver Rani. Occasionally, Ive made some hazy plans to steal a particularly beautiful print, like a monochromatic blue poster of a Tamil-dubbed James Bond movie. It wasnt quite the street-length full-career poster retrospective we get to enjoy when theres a Rajnikanth or Kamal Hassan movie on, but deeply satisfying anyway.

Now that Ive told you what we usually feel, its difficult to describe what weve been feeling this week when we passed the posters of the forthcoming Kannada movie Dandupalya 2.

The posters feature images of the female lead Pooja Gandhi being tortured by the police. A policemans shoe is in her mouth, anothers is on her head, her arms are twisted behind her. One poster is a profile shot from the sequence while another is a frontal shot, which also somehow engineers a display of Gandhis cleavage.

The images, like I said, make woman after woman flinch. Even when I decided I wanted to write about the posters I wondered how I was going to do it without sharing the images. For a while people used Do Not Link to link to an article thats offensive or obviously trawling for hate-hits, without actually contributing to its page views (and in turn to the coffers of the publisher). Negative reviews of a business, we now know, can contribute significantly to its Google search rankings. Thats as far as the desire to be a certain kind of canny, skeptical customer goes. But how do you unsee images once seen?

A friend suggested one solution  the blacking out of the woman in these images. Was it censoring, we wondered. No, its the crude visual equivalent of Do Not Link, we decided. And that is what weve done to the images you see on this page. Its bad enough that Ive described them to you. You dont need to flinch like I did.

There has been a lot of discussion around the high frequency of rapes in the television show Game of Thrones (GoT). The show even has instances of sex that were consensual in the books changed mysteriously into rape in the television adaptation. Fans and defenders of the show have always piously cited realism. The world is misogynistic and violent towards women. The past, such folks believe, was even more misogynistic and violent. And it is the bounden duty of this art to share the burden of realism with our flinching eyes.

Plenty of folks have laughed at the fantasy series right to even say aloud the word realism, a position best captured in this tweet:

I dont need feminim sorry but the defenders are right Game of Thrones needs those added rape scenes because of REALISM ignore the dragons  WomanAgainstFeminism (@NoToFeminism) May 18, 2015

Miles of columns have concluded that the largely male creators and moneybags of television continue to believe that violence against women is necessary and catnip for male viewers. Because its not like the realism of these shows feel the pressure to have scene after scene of sewage, diarrhea, famine or pestilence. Its not like Don Draper ever becomes fat from all that drinking and sitting around. Grit is always restricted to the production of rape, with the best practices borrowed from porn.

This is not to say that we must not have rape in the movies or on television. We definitely should. Just that we should not deepen misogyny with casual depictions of rape or graphic violence against women for shock and gratification.

The aftermath of violence on women, and what the women feel, barely ever features in cultural products at home or abroad. Anyone who has deployed even the truly basic criteria of the Bechdel test will discover that women often simply do not feature in movies any more than furniture. And for those who think Bechdel is too basic, you should look at Polygraphs newly released data journalism on Hollywood scripts. It will convince you, if you needed it, that violence against women is only one avatar of the misogynistic gaze of cinema. Cinema is equal to a male gaze, said an annoyed young friend recently.

In the case of Dandupalya 2, theres a further twist. Several promotional images, other than the ones I described, exist. One, for instance, features the male actors playing the Dandupalya criminal gang naked in a row in a police station, their crotches covered only by their chained hands. A moment of humiliation? No, they all (including actor Makarand Deshpande) retain their swagger. Yet another image features a miserable looking Pooja Gandhi scarfing down a meal in prison. As far as I can see, neither of these images seem to have made it to the walls of Bangalore, and its interesting to contemplate why.

The author is Editor of the online womens magazine The Ladies Finger
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday described the fire at Kerala temple that killed 86 people as "heartrending and shocking". "Fire at temple in Kollam is heartrending and shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured," Modi said in a tweet. He also said that he will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation.

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

I will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the unfortunate fire tragedy in Kollam.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

At least 102 people were killed in an accident on Sunday due to a firework display which caused a massive blaze at the Puttingal temple in the coastal town of Paravur located about 60 kms from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

The gruesome incident occurred around 3.30 am on Sunday.

Eyewitness said that the fireworks display started close to midnight and when nearing its close, a spark from a cracker landed in a building that had stored some high potency crackers and it caught fire causing a massive explosion.

"The normal practice is to store the high potency crackers in the building and from there it's taken to the place where their is light. A spark from a live cracker landed in the building that stored these massive crackers," Kunjumon, a local believer, said.

Following this, the building collapsed and that was the prime reason for the number of casualties to increase.

Those in the know of things revealed that generally there is firework display competition, but according to local legislator PK Gurudasan, there was no competition but it was just a firework display, generally associated with any temple festival and one is not clear if there was any sanction for this display.

State Health Minister VS Sivakumar said around 60 injured have been brought to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital.

"Numerous people are under treatment in hospitals at Kollam. The health department is fully geared to provide the necessary treatment," said Sivakumar.

Meanwhile, Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala announced financial assistance to the dead and the injured. He said judicial probe would be ordered soon.

The fire has been brought under control.
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According to CNN-IBN, no permission had been given to the Puttingal temple by the district collector for holding the fireworks display which caused the massive tragedy. In fact, the competitive fireworks display had been stayed after the locals complained.

No permission was given to the temple to conduct competitive fireworks display

Reports are now saying that the death toll has risen to 86 and the number of people injured has also risen to 300.

"Huge pieces of concrete were flying through the air. Chunks landed in our yard," she said.

Local TV channels broadcast images of huge clouds of white smoke billowing from the temple, as fireworks were still going off in the night sky. Successive explosions from the building storing the fireworks sent huge chunks of concrete flying as far as a kilometre (a half mile), according to resident Jayashree Harikrishnan.

The fire started when a spark from a fireworks show ignited a separate batch of fireworks that were being stored at the Puttingal temple complex, according to Associated Press . Thousands had been packed into the temple complex when a big explosion erupted around 3 am, officials said. The blaze then spread quickly through the temple, trapping devotees within.

The explosion had sent huge chunks of concrete flying as far as a kilometre away

Expressing deep anguish and shock over the disaster, he directed the Indian Air Force to ferry the injured to hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram for treatment.

He also announced Rs 50,000 each for the injured in the tragedy.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced Rs 2 lakh each as compensation for the kin of the dead in the Kollam temple fire, reported PTI.

PM Modi announces compensation for the family of the deceased and the injured

"We hope a detailed inquiry will be conducted. It is a matter of investigation," said Congress leader Manish Tewari. "There is a strong case to go into the reasons why this tragedy took place. Whoever is responsible should be punished."

According to Times Now, an FIR has now been filed against the temple authorities.

According to reports, the death toll has now climbed to 102. The Hindu also reported that over 350 people have been injured.

Here are the helpline numbers for the temple fire tragedy: 0474 2512344, 9497960778, 9497930869. Blood donors are needed at the hospitals for the injured.

According to PTI, Kerala CM Oommen Chandy said, "102 persons are confirmed dead in Kollam temple fire mishap, at least 280 have been injured."

The report added that between 3 and 3.30 am, one of th fireworks called 'amittu' fell on the ground and the sparks spread to other fireworks and caused an explosion.

This fireworks face-off takes place between two groups of people. "The competition is to see whose fireworks are more grand, the explosions louder and the sights magnificent," the report said.

The report added that it is not just a fireworks display but also a competition in which judges watch the fireworks and declare a winner every year.

This old tradition is supposed to be a visual treat for the people and thousands of people gather at the temple every year to watch the fireworks.

According to this report in The News Minute , a massive fireworks display takes place every year during Vishnu celebrations at the Puttingal temple in Kollam.

Here's what exactly happened at the temple

For the past four years, local residents living close to the temple had complained about fireworks, saying their homes were getting damaged. Earlier this year, before the festival began, they formed a Resident Committee and approached the District Collector. This petition was forwarded to Tahsildar. Permission was denied for fireworks in the temple but it went ahead anyway. 80% of the houses nearby were destroyed. Luckily, no one was present in these houses. They usually go stay with relatives elsewhere during the festival season as it is too much of a disturbance for them.

According to Firstpost correspondent Sandhya Ravishankar, the festival honouring the Bhadrakali deity in the Paravur temple has been going on for almost a century. Bursting fireworks on the last few days of the festival is a local custom. It is a 10-day festival and is very popular. People from Coimbatore and other areas of Tamil Nadu too throng here.

Here is the letter which denied permission for fireworks at the temple

"Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people," said the Pakistan MoFA statement.

Pakistan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in a statement said that Pakistan "expresses its deep condolences on loss of precious lives, resulting from fire breakout in temple in South Kerala", according to ANI.

Our sympathies are with the bereaved families: Pakistan on the tragedy

The concrete building in which crackers and pyrotechnic materials were stocked was completely destroyed in the explosion which was so massive that cement slabs were found even 10 metres away from the accident spot, said 63-year-old Vijayan, an eyewitness. - PTI

Lalu said he immediately rushed to the spot and found about 10-15 people dead.

"I saw a huge fireball and then a thundering sound. Electricity in the area went off and I heard people screaming. It was a very chilling experience," he said.

Lalu, a television journalist who was watching the fireworks from the terrace of a nearby building, said the mishap occurred towards the end of the festivities.

Giving an account of her experience, Girija, whose house is situated about a kilometre away from the temple, said she felt tremors soon after a massive explosion.

This was the account of Girija who said such an incident had never occurred earlier.

At around 3.30 am, there was a massive explosion followed by tremors which were felt even a kilometre away from the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi temple near Kollam as a massive fire tragedy struck there.

Tremors caused by the explosion were felt even a kilometre away

According to Xinhua , the death toll in this tragedy has now climbed to 110.

The Kerala government has announced Rs 10 lakh will be given to the families of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh will be given to the seriously injured and Rs 50000 will be given to those with minor injuries, reported CNN-IBN.

He also said that a blanket ban on such fireworks display and festivals was not possible. "A blanket ban on such fireworks or such festivals is not possible. Stringent guidelines must be brought in and we must ensure that these stringent guidelines are followed," said the CM.

As the Kerala cabinet meeting ended, CM Oomen Chandy addressed reporters and said that the government has ordered a crime branch probe into the Kollam tragedy. "We will get into all aspects of the case," he said.

A case has also been registered against the father-son duo of Surendran and Umesh who had organised the fireworks display. Both are being treated at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.

Top officials of the Puttingal Devi temple in Kerala have reportedly gone missing after the tragedy, police sources said, reported IANS.

"The locals said they had received oral permission. The temple authority did not have the permission and we did not give them any permission," he said. - PTI

However, Kollam City Police commissioner P Prakash, said police did not given permission for the display of fireworks.

Local people in the area told PTI that late at night, the ban was lifted following a 'mutual agreement'.

Pankajakshi alleged that temple authorities had threatened her after the complaint was filed.

They claimed a ban had been imposed on a complaint by one Pankajakshi, a resident near the temple complex against holding fireworks display.

While the office of Kollam District collector A Shainamol's office told PTI that no permission was granted to conduct the fireworks display, local people claimed the ban was lifted later in the night.

Conflicting versions are emerging on permission being granted for conduct of fireworks display at the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi temple complex.

Contradictory claims emerge on the issue of permission granted for fireworks display

Rahul Gandhi arrives in Kollam to take stock of the situation

Surendran had license to store only about 15 kg, police said "It is a clear violation of license. So far no arrest have been made," police told PTI - PTI

According to PTI, Attingal police said they have registered a case against the licensee, Surendran, who had stored about 150 kgs o crackers and fireworks material at the storehouse without valid permission.

One booked for storing fire crackers 10 times more than permitted limit

Speaking about the impact of the explosion, he said that people as far as 200 meters from the site were injured.

He further added " The Indian government is with Kerala and the families in such times and will assist anyone who wants to be shifted to Mumbai or Delhi for any kind of treatment."

After having reached the Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) Medical college with his team of doctors and taking stock of the situation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the media. He said " I am very sadden by the incident. My sympathies are with the families of the deceased, my prayers with the injured"

Seven people had been killed during another explosion at the storehouse where firecrackers had been kept for the famous Thrissur Pooram festival in 2006. - PTI

A cracker, which accidentally fell on spectators, claimed six lives in Thrissur in 1978.

As many as 20 people had been killed in another cracker blast during a church festival in Thrissur district in 1984 and 26 people had died during a blast in the storehouse of crackers at a temple in Malanada in Kollam in 1990.

The cracker blast at the premises of Sabarimala Lord Ayyappa temple in 1952 had claimed at least 68 lives.

Though cracker blasts, especially during religious festivals, are not new in the state, Sunday's tragedy is the worst in over last 50 years of the state's history.

The Puttingal Devi temple fire mishap is one of the worst such tragedies witnessed by Kerala, where display of fireworks are an integral part of religious and cultural festivals.

Puttingal Devi temple fire tragedy was the worst such tragedy in Kerala in the last 50 years

According to The Times of India , the death toll has now risen to 112. The report further said that nearly 400 other people had been injured.

Once the order was issued, it was vetted by Collector Shainamol, so the pressure started mounting on her. A senior minister called her to demand a change in her stand and asked whether she really wanted to upset religious sentiments of a section to which she does not belong. Local Hindu groups also used it against the ruling party, and eventually, police and politicians decided to make the fireworks happen despite a ban, the report quoted an officer as saying.

What is worse is that communal slurs were used against the two officials, who are Muslims.

According to this report in Indian Express , Additional District Magistrate A Shanavas and District Collector A Shainamol, who were two of the officials who had denied permission for the fireworks display, were bullied and threatened by local politicians and Hindu groups.

Officials who had opposed the Kollam fireworks display were bullied

According to The Times of India , the death toll has now risen to 112. The report further said that nearly 400 other people had been injured.

Once the order was issued, it was vetted by Collector Shainamol, so the pressure started mounting on her. A senior minister called her to demand a change in her stand and asked whether she really wanted to upset religious sentiments of a section to which she does not belong. Local Hindu groups also used it against the ruling party, and eventually, police and politicians decided to make the fireworks happen despite a ban, the report quoted an officer as saying.

What is worse is that communal slurs were used against the two officials, who are Muslims.

According to this report in Indian Express , Additional District Magistrate A Shanavas and District Collector A Shainamol, who were two of the officials who had denied permission for the fireworks display, were bullied and threatened by local politicians and Hindu groups.

Officials who had opposed the Kollam fireworks display were bullied

ANI reports that fire and rescue teams are now inspecting the site of the tragedy which killed 112 people.

A case has been registered against 30 people, including the Puttingal temple board members, according to NDTV.

TV news reports said that the five organisers who had been detained by the police are now being questioned by them.

But the task is being made more difficult by the fact that some of the more than 100 people killed are unrecognisable. - AFP

At hospitals, morgues and police stations, families are involved in a heartwrenching search for loved ones feared swept up in the blast that tore apart concrete buildings.

"My father had gone to the festival with his friend. We were able to find the body of his friend but have yet to get any information on my father," the weary-looking Anoop said, before heading off to yet another hospital.

"I don't know if he is alive or dead. All I want is to see him, we are ready for the worst but this search is painful," he told AFP after questioning ICU staff at a medical college hospital in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

But in the chaotic hours after the explosion that ripped through the Puttingal Devi complex, the increasingly desperate 32-year-old could find no trace of his father, Vishwanathan, and feared the worst.

Like thousands of others, his father had gone on Saturday night to the Hindu temple in southern Kerala state, renowned for its beaches and tranquil backwaters, to see the annual fireworks display.

After scouring six hospitals and three morgues, NP Anoop is no closer to finding his father who was caught in a massive blast and fire at an Indian temple that claimed more than 100 lives.

According to ANI, a seven-member team led by Chief Controller Explosives Sudarshan Kamal inspected the tragedy site.

It's correct that we denied permission for fireworks display: Chandrakumar, Circle Inspector #Kollam pic.twitter.com/lySg4xD0Lc

'It is correct that we denied permission for fireworks display'

Yechury also said that this disaster "definitely merits to be considered a national calamity."

"The guilty should be punished," he added. "The Prime Minister was here. I chose not to come here yesterday because the priority of the administration should be to provide relief. When that was over, I decided to come here," he said.

"Monetary compensation is not enough. The state government should announce employment for the kin of victims so that they have some future," Yechury told reporters after meeting the victims.

Sitharam Yechury met the injured and the families of the deceased and said that the state government should provide employment to the injured and the kin of the deceased.

They have flouted many rules. As per SC guidelines one cannot ignite fireworks after 10pm: Sudarshan Kamal pic.twitter.com/49wo6JcR7m

"We have drawn some samples which will be sent for testing. We will be able to say what type of chemicals were used only after testing," Chief Controller Explosives Sudarshan Kamal said.

Over 80 people were killed and several others injured when an explosion took place at the Puttingal Devi temple during a festival at Paravoor in Kollam at around 3 am on Sunday, police said.

As the temple festival was on, fireworks display had commenced at the temple precincts since midnight and hundreds of people had gathered to watch the show.

As the fireworks and pyrotechnics display was coming to a close at 3 am, an explosion is suspected to have occurred at the storeroom 'Kambapuram' filled with crackers and pyrotechnics materials, police said.

Men, women and police officials are among the dead, they said.

Fifty of the injured have been rushed to Trivandrum Medical College in the state capital and five persons died after being brought there.

Nearly 200 people got injured in the mishap and have been admitted to various hospitals in the district and nearby Thiruvananthapuram, police said.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy termed as "unprecedented" and "alarming" the situation at the Puttingal Devi temple.

Chandy, who cancelled all his scheduled poll programmes, is on his way to the accident site.

"Rescue operation at the mishap spot is over...The next main focus of the government is to provide best treatment to the injured," he told PTI.

Asked about the death toll, the Chief Minister said the number would go up as reports are pouring in from different hospitals, where the injured have been admitted.

"This is an unprecedented and alarming situation," Chandy said.

The government would extend treatment facilities to the injured persons in the hospitals preferred by their relatives, he said.

The State Chief Secretary has been asked to write a letter to the Election Commission for necessary sanction to exclude the treatment facilities to the injured from the ambit of the Election Code of Conduct, he said.

State Health Minister VS Sivakumar said directives have been issued to hospital authorities to make necessary arrangements for the injured.

State Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said Director General of Police (DGP) Senkumar is monitoring the rescue operations.

"A comprehensive probe will be conducted into the incident. Adequate compensation would be given to the victims of the accident after consulting with the Election Commission," Chennithala said.

Local media reports quoting Kollam district authorities say the temple authorities ignored warnings issued against holding a huge firework in the area vulnerable to such accident.

District Collector Shinamol, who visited the spot, said evacuation and rescue operations were going on full-swing. People trapped in the concrete structure, which was completely destroyed in the mishap, were taken out, police said.

Eye witnesses told television channels that the accident took place at 3.30 am.

The sound of the explosion in the store-room was heard in around two-km radius of the temple, they said.

(With inputs from PTI)
The famous sociologist MN Srinivas said prohibition of alcohol was actually a sanskritic act, like cow slaughter. What he meant was that whatever justification was given, the Indian instinct to ban and prohibit came from a Brahminical, upper caste sensibility.

It should therefore not surprise us that the makers of India's constitution debated these two issues  beef ban and alcohol prohibition  on the same day, 24 November 1948.

I am writing this because another state in India, Bihar, has implemented a ban on all alcohol. Kerala is already going that route, joining Gujarat and a couple of states in the Northeast. Bihar is ruled by Nitish Kumar. He claims that his ideology is Lohiate, meaning that it comes from Rammanohar Lohia. I have Lohia's collected works in nine volumes and in them there is not much mention of prohibition, only casual references. Unlike Gandhi, Lohia does not offer us lectures on how terrible alcohol consumption is. In one place (Volume 6) Lohia attacks the president of India for being patron of the Calcutta Club, a place, he writes, whose main activity centres around wine drinking.

However Lohia's point is hypocrisy not moralism. He says "that the President of an alcohol-repressing republic should be the patron of an alcohol drinking club, is a measure of the fraud and perfidy which India's higher castes are practicing upon the country and themselves."

Elsewhere he describes the prohibition as a "fringe detail" which interests Congress leaders. Perhaps Lohia knew that prohibition has not succeed anywhere in the world. Its three primary effects are to send the alcohol economy underground (depriving the state of revenue), to criminalise the casual drinker and to criminalise the police. In America in the 1920s prohibition produced big Mafia gang-leaders like Al Capone, who corrupted the police in cities like Chicago.

In Gujarat, which has had prohibition for decades, alcohol is freely available because the police has been compromised at every level. The state has desperately made exceptions because total prohibition is impossible. Middle class Gujaratis carry 'permits' which allow them to drink for 'health reasons'. This is of course mostly fraudulent. I was surprised to see that in Pakistan, there are government licensed liquor stores in Karachi. Today it is possible for the Indian tourists to drink legally in Pakistan but not in Gujarat, which I find remarkable. If prohibition keeps failing, why do states keep trying to achieve it? Out of the belief that it produces a better and more moral society. This is also a bogus argument. Look around the world at the nations of Europe, which have no prohibition, and those of the Arab world, of which many do. Which are more moral and better societies? And which one of them does India want to emulate?

In 1948, the argument against eating beef was two fold. First there was the insistence (now proved to be wrong) from members like Professor Shibban Lal Saksena that cow slaughter should be banned for economic reasons. That cattle were an asset, the cow for milk and the bullock for tilling. Mechanisation and tractors has made that argument irrelevant. Only a handful of farmers till their land today with the bullock. Dr Raghu Vira of Central Provinces and Berar produced the real argument. This was located in Hindu dharma and said that 'Brahma hatya and go-hatya' were equal. Meaning that killing a learned man and scientist (i.e a Brahmin) brought the same punishment as killing a cow. Hindutva kept creeping into that Constituent Assembly debate on prohibition also. Bombay's BG Kher said that "drinking of liquor is one of the five deadly sins which the Smritis have laid down." The smritis have also prohibited Patels from reading and writing. Should we accept that? We are fortunate that a good constitution was produced despite such crude thinking.

Two excellent speakers opposed prohibition. BH Khardekar of Kolhapur, making his first speech, said that "one argument put forth was that all communities want it. Parsis and Christians also were included in that list. Sir, I happpen to know Parsis and Christians a little bit and I think, Sir, definitely they are not in favour of prohibition." Jaipal Singh of Bihar also opposed prohibition, speaking in favour of the Adivasi communities that traditionally brewed and consumed alcohol. He said, among other things, that "here, Sir, I submit by the back door we are trying to interfere with the religious rights of the most ancient people of this country."

I would say that the same thing applies for those Hindus who follow Shaivism and consume cannabis as bhang, charas or ganja, which have become criminalised because of a sanskritic attitude. Prohibition will, of course, ultimately fail in Bihar as it has failed in Gujarat. It may remain as a law, but drinkers will find a way around that law, the police will become criminalised and the state will miss out on revenue. Everyone will lose, but at least the Lohiaites will feel they tried to do the right thing.
Kolkata: The Congress' Gyan Singh Sohanpal is the oldest candidate in the West Bengal assembly polls, seeking his 11th term as a legislator at the ripe age of 91.

Fondly called "Chacha" (uncle) by one and all, Sohanpal is contesting from Kharagpur Sadar constituency in West Medinapur district, which has been sending him to the assembly since 1982.

He served as a West Bengal minister and briefly as the assembly speaker in the past.

Sohanpal's family belonged to Punjab but migrated to Bengal in early 1900s. He joined the Congress party during the Quit India movement for the overthrow of British rule in the country.

He won his first election in 1969 in independent India.

Since then, Sohanpal has kept the Congress flag high in all electoral contests, except in 1977 when the Left Front swept to power in the state.

This time he is pitted against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh and the ruling Trinamool Congress' Ramaprasad Tiwari, but has the backing of the Left Front which has an electoral understanding with the Congress in West Bengal.

The tie-up is a democratic necessity, says Sohanpal, once a fierce opponent of the Marxists.

"Politics is about people and this tie-up is their demand and need. It is a necessity -- to oust the Trinamool," he says.

Sohanpal is proud of his amazing capacity for fighting elections and is hopeful of yet another win, hopefully the 11th.

"I have full faith in the people of Kharagpur; they will never let down Congress," he says.

To those who say he is no match to his rivals' physically exhausting campaigning in hot sun, Sohanpal retorts: "I am proud to be 91 years old and far more active than they are."

But Dilip Ghosh insists, the youth should now take over.

"It's not the age for him to work. The people of Kharagpur have already declared it's time for him to rest. I too want him to rest and bless me and let the youth lead the country," said Ghosh during one of his road shows in the constituency.

A high-decibel address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a massive road show by Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have raised the temperatures in the Kharagpur Sadar constituency, which votes on Monday.
The surprise appointment of 46-year old Lok Sabha MP from Phulpur in Allahabad, Keshav Prasad Maurya  a dark horse  as the BJP president of Uttar Pradesh underlines the fact that in the real battleground its still the caste strategy that rules the roost and not just the development plank.

Maurya, whos considered a Hindutva hardliner in UP, has not been selected merely due to his long association with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), but on the basis of an arithmetic strategy centered on caste politics. Hes an OBC candidate from the Kushwaha community that has a sizeable presence of around 8% in the state.

His positioning as BJP president in this arithmetic calculation is important due to the fact that on one hand the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) has a complete hold over the Yadav community and on the other the Dalit population is loyal to Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). With an eye on the 2017 Assembly polls in UP, the BJP leadership has tried to target the rest of the OBC population comprising Kurmi, Kohri and a section of Baniyas etc, with the appointment of Maurya.

People close to Maurya and in the know of UP politics said, In the past, Kalyan Singh had been a successful chief minister of UP. He gave a tough competition to the SP by using his OBC vote bank. Now, the BJP wants to follow his caste-strategy by pitching in Maurya as the state BJP president. He hails from Allahabad that borders eastern UP and there is a sizeable population of Kurmis and Lodhs in this region. Maurya has a good hold over them.

These calculations ensured that Maurya emerged as the best choice among other frontrunners for the post. For the BJP, the 2017 election is going to be a matter of life and death, more than for any other party, because not only Prime Minister Narendra Modi won Lok Sabha election from Varanasi in the state but also because the BJP swept the Lok Sabha polls in UP, giving it heft in its national numbers.

However, Maurya doesnt want to give credit to caste-based arithmetic for his selection as the states party president.

BJP is a broad-based democratic party, with a strong leadership at the top and strong network of workers across the country. Im grateful to the party leadership which considered a common party worker like me for the post and entrusted faith in me. Within the party, one can try for a post or a candidature till the last minute, but once a candidate is finalized for a job, all the workers and members across the party line join hands to achieve the goal. BJP has never been into caste-based politics, Maurya told Firstpost in an exclusive interview on Saturday.

Besides, having a right-wing hardliner brand attached to his name, who ran a Go-raksha chowki (Anti-cow slaughter campaign), Maurya has also been known for criminal antecedents, including a murder case registered against him. The affidavit filed by him with the Election Commission during Lok Sabha polls 2014, shows there were 11 criminal cases against him, including one related to murder.

The BJP placed its trust in Maurya in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, who was a sitting MLA from Sirathu in the neighbouring district of Kaushambi, and announced his candidature to contest from Phulpur constituency. This brought him to limelight, especially after he won to become the first-time MP. Phulpur constituency has witnessed candidates right from nations first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to SP candidate and mafia don-turned-politician Atique Ahmed.

In politics, these kind allegations are there. The court has absolved me of these charges. Ive been working amongst the masses with an objective to do good, he emphasized.

During a free-wheeling chat with Firstpost, Maurya shared his views on his forthcoming strategy, including the Ram Mandir issue.

On strategy

Well win the 2017 Assembly poll on the same agenda with which we had won 73 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha election. Our aim is to achieve the target of winning 265-plus seats given to us by the partys national president (Amit Shah). Well emerge as the winner. Both the SP and the BSP will contest for the first and second positions, but ultimately the BJP will bag the first position, and the other two parties will compete for the second and third slots.

Ill be going to Lucknow for an important meeting on 11 April with the state leaders and workers, and thereafter with further discussions with the top leadership, strategy will be chalked out on how to proceed in UP.

On competitors forming alliances and a grand alliance

Even in the past, alliances-grand alliances were formed. In UP, the BJP is well-equipped to face any challenge. I dont think the role of alliances or a grand-alliance is of any consequence in UP politics at present. There are 1.2 lakh booths in the state  out of which the BJP has made its reach up to one lakh booths. Were working hard to reach out to the rest at the earliest possible. Ill be meeting our party president soon and chalk out a strategy in this direction as well. Let the opposition parties do their work, well do ours and give them a befitting reply at the right time.

At the moment, the people of UP are frustrated and angry over mis-governance and poor law & order situation in the state. Neither the farmers nor the youth are happy. Its a golden opportunity for the BJP and well utilize it in our favour.

On Ram Mandir issue

As a VHP worker, Maurya had been actively involved in the Ayodhya Ram Janmabhoomi movement.

Ram Mandir will be built on the basis of Supreme Courts verdict and a consensus. Its not a religious or political issue; its a matter of faith. BJP wont do anything against this. Once the BJP comes to power in UP, itll be easier for us to build the temple  again on the basis of consensus, especially with the NDA government at the centre.

On nationalism and Bharat Mata ki Jai

I fail to understand why people living in Bharat (India) dont want to acknowledge it. Whats wrong in saying Bharat Mata ki Jai. Youre hailing your own nation. Weve been saying it and continue to do so. I dont want to comment on those who dont say it and on their anti-national stand. But, neither the people of this country nor of UP will tolerate any politician, who speaks against his/her nation.

On BJPs message to people ahead of UP election

Our slogan and message to people is Sabka saath, Sabka Vikas. Na goondagardi, Na bhrashtachaar; Hum denge achchi sarkar (No hooliganism, no corruption; Well provide a good government).
Kolkata: The battlegrounds may have shifted from the harsh terrain of Kargil to the coal belt of West Bengal's Asansol, but for BJP candidate Col. (retired) Diptansu Chaudhury contesting the assembly polls is another way to serve the nation.

Tasked with operational logistics planning during the Kargil War, Chaudhury's mission, if he wins, would be to ensure drinking water to the water-starved households in the Asansol South constituency in Burdwan district. Here, he is pitted against sitting Trinamool Congress legislator Tapas Banerjee and his challenger Hemant Prabhakar of the Communist Party of India-Marxist in a five-cornered contest.

"For over 20 years, I worked for the nation on government pay. Now, it is time to give back to society. If I win, my agenda will be to solve the water management issues in my constituency and bring drinking water and running tap water in all homes," Chaudhury told IANS ahead of the polls in his constituency on Monday.

Likening an army cantonment to a civic authority (municipal corporation) in terms of management, the 44-year-old political rookie dislikes being called a "war veteran".

"I have a long way to go in public service and BJP is the right platform for me. It thinks for the nation, whereas the other parties are knee-deep in corruption and that is not my cup of tea," he asserts, brushing aside the criticism against the BJP over the intolerance debate as "manufactured" by a section of people.

Since the poll notification, Chaudhury, now based in Kolkata, has covered 22 wards and seven villages as part of his campaigning, going door-to-door and in particular "feeling the pain of the womenfolk" among the over-2.44 lakh voters in the constituency.

Does his newcomer tag and the fact that his service life as an Indian Army officer took him to 11 states, disconnecting him from Bengal, dim his chances?

"The irony is that people don't know the sitting MLA. My opponent was away from people all these years. I am ahead of him," the IIM-Indore alumnus said.
The need of the hour is to bridge the divide between different kinds of students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar. The way it is being mishandled is likely to increase the divide between those who think of themselves as ranged against each other on Kashmiri versus non-Kashmiri lines.

This could have very negative consequences, not only at this NIT but at educational institutions across the state and the country. Every effort must be made to encourage students to talk to each other and to think of themselves as students of an institution in which they collectively have a stake.

Although there was nothing wrong in principle with a delegation from the Union Human Resources Development ministry going to NIT, the way they conducted themselves is objectionable. They have only deepened the divide.

The team ought to have interacted with all kinds of students, informally at first. Instead, they set themselves up as a sort of appeals board to which non-Kashmiri students could address themselves. According to reports, they expelled Kashmiris from the tent under which they set themselves up on a rostrum. Using security to do the expelling was a particularly distressing way to go about it.

This is as mindless as the various high-spend but counterproductive initiatives of the Home Ministry over the past few years to divide Kashmiri students in various institutions where the government makes arrangements for their admission. At several colleges, Kashmiri Muslims are housed in separate hostels.

The government even proposed a separate hostel at the Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi. That sort of ghettoisation leads to the sort of destructive sloganeering that occurred at JNU on 9 February. Instead, the effort should be to encourage various kinds of students to live and learn together.

In the process, minds could be opened to 'other' cultures, to acceptance and mutual respect, if not to imbibing and so constructing new and more inclusive cultures. That is what Farid, Kabir, Khusro, Lalla Ded, Noorudin Wali, Nanak, Gandhi and Gautam did through this subcontinents history.

None of those exemplars would have used the sort of VIP court of appeals manner of the Union ministrys team to deal with the crisis at NIT. That team was flanked by an inordinate number of security men in battle fatigues, as if they had come to preside over a war.

Divide and rule mindset

This sort of behaviour smacks of the British divide and rule policy, which helped to reconstruct 'Hindus' and 'Muslims' as mutually exclusive and antagonistic categories in the subcontinent during the late 19th century.

In 1931, similar mishandling turned an ego-based rivalry between Pandit and Muslim landlords of Kashmir into a violent rebellion by Muslim Kashmiris against the Dogra regime. In March that year, it was only a rivalry over how prominently Muslim and Pandit landlords would be represented at a reception for the maharaja. By July, it was a rebellion that reverberated in Lahore, Shimla (the Empires summer capital). By September, it echoed in Westminster.

One of the key mistakes of that summer, was the invitation from GC Wakefield, who functioned as the maharajas prime minister, to the Muslim and Hindu elites of Kashmir to present their grievances to the maharaja, separately. It was a divisive tactic, the price for which is still being paid.

Later that year, the maharaja sacked Wafefield, suspecting him by then of having covertly forced the crisis to suit British interests. Sheikh Abdullah, who was catapulted to leadership by the agitations of that summer, told his biographer many decades later that he too suspected Wakefields role.

If Wakefield had meant well, it would have been much better for him or his colleagues to have visited the disgruntled feudal elites of Kashmir and brought them together peaceably.

So also would it be much more conducive to peace and long-term harmony for those in authority  in the NIT administration, the state government, the Union Ministry, and in civil society  to bring together the divided student community at NIT, and to make peace among them.

It is a thoroughly counter-productive strategy that civil society peacemakers who want to do just that are being prevented from even entering the NIT campus. The place has been locked down with an extraordinarily heavy deployment of troops.

Using the police is bound to deepen the divide. Since the police, more so in Kashmir than elsewhere in the country, is used to violent repression, their actions are likely to be seen in them versus us terms by either group of students.
New Delhi: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Sunday elected as JD(U) President, a move that would put him in complete command of the party as its seeks to expand beyond the state and prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

His unanimous election to the top post at the party's National Executive meeting brought an end to the decade-old tenure of Sharad Yadav, who had ruled himself out for a fourth term. It is for the first time that Kumar, JD(U)'s face in Bihar, has been elected president of the state-centric party.

Its two previous presidents--George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav--were from outside Bihar, the state they virtually made their political home. Kumar's name was proposed by Yadav and seconded by the party's secretary general K C Tyagi, general secretary Javed Raza, among others, party leaders said following the meeting.

The Bihar Chief Minister, who made a spectacular return to power last year after his party was bruised and battered in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, told the executive about efforts being made to bring parties with similar ideologies together as he accepted the new responsibility, Tyagi said.

Having spearheaded the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance to a massive win over BJP-led NDA in the last year's state assembly polls, his party is in talks with Ajit Singh-led RLD and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi's Jharkhand Vikas Morcha for a merger.

A similar merger move to bring together six Janata Parivar outfits including the Samajwadi Party had come to nought last year ahead of the Bihar polls after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav walked out of the talks and his party contested the state assembly elections on its own.

JD(U) sees the next year's Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as a major battle before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Tyagi said, as he underlined the importance of the merger attempts to take on BJP. "We stopped them (BJP) in Bihar and we are working to stop them in UP," he said, noting that sweeping the Lok Sabha polls in these two states was the key to the emphatic win of the saffron alliance.

Asked if JD(U) would make another attempt at merger with Samajwadi Party, he noted that Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as BSP supremo Mayawati had made it clear they will go it alone in the elections.

Party sources said the presence of Kumar, the preeminent party leader, at the helm, will help JD(U) make swift moves with regard to alliances and also help position himself as a rallying point for opposition parties against Modi in the Lok Sabha polls.
DUBAI Dubai's Emaar Properties plans to build a new tower in the emirate to surpass the Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building, Chairman Mohamed Alabbar told reporters on Sunday.

The new project comes as Dubai developers continue to announce new schemes despite a softening real estate sector, with the Emaar-built Burj Khalifa expected to be usurped by a tower currently under construction in Saudi Arabia.

Alabbar would not confirm the height of the proposed new tower, saying only that it would be "a notch" taller than the Burj Khalifa, which stands at more than 828 metres.

Supported by a matrix of cables, the futuristic tower will anchor the redevelopment of the Dubai Creek, the heart of old Dubai where traditional dhow boats continue to ferry goods.

The tower, designed by Spanish-Swiss neo-futuristic architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, is slated to have a rooftop courtyard, residential units and a link to a retail plaza.

The building is expected to be completed for the Dubai Expo trade fair in 2020, the same year that the kilometre-high Kingdom Tower in Jeddah is due to overtake the Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building.

Funding for the $1 billion project will be 50 percent equity and 50 percent debt, Alabbar said, undeterred by a residential property market that consultancy Cluttons says has softened for at at least five quarters.

The balance between supply and demand is very encouraging, Alabbar said. He declined to give figures, but said: "I don't see a pullback. We are doing better than 2015."

(Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by David French and David Goodman)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
PARIS Demonstrations around France against a draft labour reform law turned violent on Saturday, with at least seven police officers injured and 17 people arrested in Paris and Rennes, which saw the worst clashes.

Following changes to soften the bill, the broad-based protest movement has waned from its March 31 peak, when turnout estimates ranged between 390,000 and 1.2 million, suggesting President Francois Hollande may be able to ride out the storm.

Nonetheles, some 120,000 took part in Saturday's sixth day of protests around the country, according to the Interior Ministry.

Police clashed with groups of masked militants hurling projectiles in Paris as well as in Rennes and Nantes.

Paris police chief Michel Cadot said his officers had encountered "300-400 extremists" at the head of the union-organised protest in the capital.

The draft labour law seeks to introduce more working time flexibility and rein in labour tribunal challenges and payouts.

After some watering down in a parliamentary committee, Prime Minister Manuel Valls is expected to propose limited further adjustments on Monday following a meeting with student leaders at his Matignon office.

The public protests have posed an additional headache for Hollande, whose popularity ratings were already the lowest of any serving president in modern French history.

Dissent amid his governing Socialists last week forced Hollande to scrap plans to strip French citizenship from those convicted on terrorism charges, a climbdown from his tough stance in the wake of November's attacks.

And in a further challenge to his reelection chances for 2017, the party's national council announced on Saturday that it would back a primary contest to select a single presidential candidate for the broader French left - a prospect that is likely to embolden potential Socialist challengers.

The capital also saw the 10th outing for nocturnal protesters from the "Nuit Debout" movement ("Up all Night"). It began on the margins of the March 31 demonstrations and has since gathered every evening on Place de la Republique, spawning its own online radio station and field kitchens.

(Reporting by Pierre-Henri Allain and Yves Clarisse; Writing by Laurence Frost; Editing by Toby Chopra)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
BERLIN German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes.

"We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers".

Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing.

"If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag.

Earlier on Sunday, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers.

Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it.

Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man.

(Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

This story has not been edited by Firstpost staff and is generated by auto-feed.
Jammu: After a lull of nearly seven months, the ceasefire on the Line of Control was violated again on Sunday with Pakistan army resorting to mortar shelling and firing in Poonch sector, a development that comes amid a fresh chill in relations between the two countries.

"The Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Poonch sector of J and K," Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said here. He said the Pakistan army resorted to heavy mortar and automatic weapon fire in the Shahpur area of Poonch sector at 0430 hours.

"Our troops responded appropriately and no casualties or damage to our troops was reported," the spokesman added. The ceasefire violation comes after nearly seven months as last such incident took place on 18 September 2015 in the Balakote sector of Poonch district. "Today's ceasefire violation is the first major such incident of 2016," a senior army officer said.

Last year, 16 civilians were killed and 71 others injured in 405 incidents of cross-border firing by Pakistan, the officer said. While 253 incidents of ceasefire violations took place along the International Border (IB), 152 incidents were reported along the LoC, he said.

Around 8,000 people were temporarily affected due to the ceasefire violations and had to be shifted to safer locations. Introducing a fresh chill in ties between the two neighbours, Pakistan had earlier this month said the bilateral peace process stands "suspended" while indicating that it would not allow Indian investigators looking into the Pathankot air force base attack to travel there.

Meanwhile, in Islamabad, Pakistan army accused India of resorting to firing across the LoC in the Neza Pir sector. The Pakistan army said "heavy unprovoked firing and shelling" started at around 11:40 PM on Saturday and went on until about 4:45 AM.

It said that Pakistan Army troops provided a "befitting reponse" to the firing. No loss of life or property has been reported so far, according to Pakistan army. The two countries had agreed to border ceasefire in 2003.

The ceasefire violation could have been aimed at aiding an infiltration bid by terrorists, the senior officer said. "We have received inputs that heavily-armed terrorists are waiting at various launching pads to infiltrate across either the IB or LoC and today's ceasefire violation could have been aimed at aiding such a bid," the officer said.

Shortage of manpower and weapons has become a major concern for the militant leadership across the border and it is waiting for an opportunity to push militants and weapons into the Indian side, he said. "The discovery of a cross-border tunnel this year shows how desperately they (militants) have been trying to infiltrate," the officer added.

Army, meanwhile, said that to minimise the loss of lives on the Indian side in the event of a ceasefire violation by Pakistan, concrete bunkers are being constructed along the International Border which can each hold over 500 persons.

Data till 30 September 2015, shows that over 92 infiltration attempts were made by militants, the officer said, adding that "some of the attempts were successful while one led to the capture of Mohd Naved Yakub, who was part of a fidayeen mission that attacked a BSF convoy in Udhampur".
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin today expressed condolences to the top Indian leadership over a massive fire tragedy at a Kerala temple that left 100 people dead.

Putin expressed condolences to his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the death of a large number of people in the fire at a Hindu temple, the Kremlin press service reported.

The Russian President conveyed words of sympathy and support to the families and friends of the victims and wished a speedy recovery for the injured.

At least 100 people have died and over 300 injured in the major explosion and fire at the Puttingal Devi Temple complex near Kollam in Kerala.

Thousands of people had gathered near the temple for a festival and to witness the fireworks show. The blaze erupted when sparks emanating from the fireworks display ignited a store room filled with crackers and pyrotechnic material.
Kiev: Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk announced his resignation Sunday in the wake of a months-long political crisis that has paralysed the government and frozen the release of vital Western aid.

"Having done everything to ensure stability and make a smooth transition of power possible, I decided to step down from the post of prime minister of Ukraine," the 41-year-old pro-Western cabinet chief said in a video address.

The tough-talking prime minister's decision comes barely two months after he survived a no-confidence vote in his government.

He said President Petro Poroshenko's party had already nominated parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman to his post and that he would not stand in the way.

"From today onwards, I see my goals in a broader light than just heading the government," said Yatsenyuk.

He vowed to push through "new election legislation, consitutional reform, legal reforms, a coalitions controlling the future government's course, international support for Ukraine, and its membership in the European Union and Nato".

But he failed to mention what possible future role he saw for himself in Ukrainian politics.

His condemnation of Russia's alleged backing of the two-year pro-Moscow uprising in eastern Ukraine and ability to clinch a crucial IMF rescue package in early 2015 helped Yatsenyuk's party become parliament's second largest in October 2015 polls.

He formed a parliamentary coalition with the president's bloc and several junior partners that was able to push through some tough and very unpopular belt-tightening measures prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.

But his party's approval rating has slumped to a mere two percent both because of the painful economic reforms and his perceived inability to tackle state graft.

Yatsenyuk's decision means that Ukraine will in the coming days be headed by a brand-new government that has also vowed to persue the former Soviet nation's current pro-Western course.
It may have seemed like a long shot 20 years ago, when California became the first state to allow doctors to prescribe marijuana for compassionate medicinal use, but today the marijuana industry has grown into a veritable giant.

In just the past two decades we've seen 23 states (including California) legalize the prescription of marijuana for certain ailments. The list of qualifying diseases and disorders for a medical marijuana prescription tends to vary from state to state, but many types of terminal cancers and glaucoma are commonly accepted ailments where medical marijuana may be of use.

Beginning in 2012 we also saw residents in Colorado and Washington vote to legalize recreational marijuana. In the 2014 elections, Oregon and Alaska joined as well. Recreational marijuana sales have generally left medical sales in the dust, with Colorado reporting $996.2 million in legal recreational and medical marijuana sales in 2015. Of this nearly $1 billion in sales, $587.8 million came from recreational marijuana, according to Colorado's Department of Revenue, an 88% year-over-year increase, and about $180 million more in sales than medical marijuana.

The quicker the marijuana industry expands, presumably the more credence Congress will need to pay it. Colorado's legislature certainly can't complain, with the state bringing in about $135 million in tax revenue and licensing fees in 2015. Some of this money will be earmarked for state schools, with other funds being diverted to law enforcement, drug abuse programs, and a General Fund.

Putting marijuana's sales in context

These are great numbers, but they don't offer any context to suggest how big these sales really are (namely because marijuana hasn't been legal before). For that we'll turn to infographic-based data aggregating company Statista, which has a brand-new way of allowing the consumer to visualize just how big the marijuana industry has become.

Statista's solution was to examine how legal marijuana sales in 2015 compared to nine various popular household food and beverages brands in 2014 in terms of annual sales as reported by their respective companies. These aren't necessarily cherry-picked brands, either. These are popular household items, including Oreo cookies, DiGiorno pizza, Pringles chips, and even Girl Scout Cookies, as well as Dasani water. The results are astonishing.

Legal marijuana sales are more than three times greater than Dasani's annual sales, more than four times higher than Girl Scout Cookies' annual revenue, nearly five times higher than Oreo's annual sales, and almost seven times that of Pringles. In fact, you'd need to add the sales of Twizzlers, Nabisco Wheat Thins, Blue Diamond, Pringles, Blue Bell ice cream, Oreo, and Girl Scout Cookies together just to more or less equal the annual sales total of legal marijuana in 2015.

And like most estimates, Statista and Marijuana Business Daily anticipate the legal marijuana industry will grow even larger this year, to an estimated $4.3 billion.

Some analyses have called for even more robust marijuana sales growth, with ArcView Market Research suggesting that legal marijuana sales could gallop higher by 30% per year between 2016 and 2020 to approximately $22 billion. Most of these estimates assume no nationwide legalization, but if the federal government does change its mind, some estimates on marijuana market value could reach as high as $35 billion.

Not so fast

But before you jump at the chance to throw your money at what appears to be America's fastest growing industry, you'll want to keep a few things in mind. Namely, that there are a handful of big-picture issues that could stymie the success of marijuana businesses despite the continuing growth in legal marijuana sales.

The primary issue for the marijuana industry is that there are genuine safety concerns that are still left unaddressed. Concerns exist regarding marijuana users driving while under the influence of the substance and how that might impair their reaction time. Additionally, there are worries about how regulators will keep a tight lid on marijuana-infused foods, known as edibles. When marijuana looks like a bud it's relatively easy to track, test, and keep tabs on; however, when it looks like a Rice Krispies treat or brownie it's a completely different ballgame. Ensuring edibles stay out of the hands of adolescents, and that the THC content in edibles is consistent from one batch to the next, remains a regulatory priority that's not yet been resolved.

There are logistical nightmares to marijuana's expansion as well. In Colorado, for instance, residents legalized the use adult use of marijuana. But that didn't stop three-quarters of the jurisdictions within the state from banning marijuana sales. It makes enforcing the law extremely tough when the laws governing legal marijuana sale and use can literally change from town to town or county to county.

Of course, there are also the two gravest concerns for potential investors: the inherent disadvantages marijuana businesses face while the federal government sits on its laurels.

Because marijuana businesses are selling a substance the federal government considers illegal, they're disallowed from taking normal business deductions, such as rent, when preparing their taxes. This sets marijuana businesses up to pay a much higher tax rate than any normal business would.

The other component here is that financial institutions want nothing to do with marijuana businesses. Banks fear the federal repercussions of offering basic banking services to a business involved in a substance that the federal government finds to be illicit and without any medical benefits. Even though some states do have laws in place allowing banks to work with marijuana-based companies, nearly all banks have chosen to just avoid the industry altogether. Without access to bank accounts and credit, security becomes a major concern for marijuana businesses.

This is a monstrously large group of obstacles for the industry to overcome -- and there's no telling if it'll be able to do so, even with the support of the public. Until we see genuine progress on legalization from Capitol Hill, you'll probably want to temper your investable expectations for marijuana.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing fast, and there's no slowing it down. By 2020, there will be 50 billion Internet-connected things, and those connections will be worth $1.3 trillion by 2019. And that's got Verizon Communications (VZ -4.46%) and AT&T (T 2.15%) linked in an epic battle for control over the wireless waves that connect those devices.

That's probably why Verizon's vice president of IoT Connected Solutions, Mark Bartolomeo, recently told FierceWireless that the carrier is seriously considering offering flat-rate, unlimited data plans for IoT connections next year.

The new IoT plan would not only be Verizon's only unlimited data plan (since it dropped its smartphone unlimited data plans five years ago), but it has the potential to significantly expand Verizon's Internet of Things position against AT&T.

Connecting the unconnected things on the cheap

Verizon said it wants to connect things to the Internet that are currently too expensive to connect. The carrier gave the example of smart manhole covers that could tap into unlimited data transfers to inform cities when they're opened or closed. That doesn't sound all that exciting to you or me, but for cities looking to improve how they manage the mundane aspects of city blocks, it's music to their ears.

Of course, it's not just manhole covers that Verizon is interested in. Verizon is already testing out smart city solutions in places like Savannah, Georgia, and has smart city solutions monitor energy usage, pollution, and even remote electricity monitoring, so power companies can switch a home's power on and off without sending someone out to the house.

These smart city projects are more than just a show of technical know-how. North America is the dominant market for connected cities, and it's only expected to grow. "North America is expected to hold the largest market share and dominate the IoT in [the] smart cities market from 2015 to 2020, with the growing number of smart city projects and increasing grants from the U.S. government," according to a report from Markets and Markets.

Offering smart city customers cheap and flat-rate pricing could spur new interest in bringing devices online, and help Verizon outpace AT&T's smart city efforts. "The more devices and people on the network, the more value that's being created," Bartolomeo told FierceWireless.

But don't expect AT&T to take this sitting down.

AT&T's smart city efforts

AT&T is making a big play in the connected city market as well, and has launched a slew of new initiatives over the past six months. The wireless carrier already has 10 cities lined up to partner with for some of its new smart city projects, and recently announced five new cities that will be part of its smart city framework.

The carrier is teaming up with Cisco, Ericsson, GE, Intel, Qualcomm, and others to test out smart city solutions, including sensors for water usage and leaks, smart city parking, energy usage, and lighting.

AT&T says it's the IoT leader in North America, and cites its 25 million connected devices as of Q3 2015. But despite AT&T's impressive connection numbers, the company doesn't break out IoT revenue like Verizon does. Verizon brought in nearly $690 million in IoT revenue in 2015 (an 18% year-over-year increase), and another $200 million in fiscal Q1 2016.

Foolish thoughts

For investors considering each carrier's IoT position, I think it's worth noting that Verizon is clearly communicating its Internet of Things revenue for its investors, while AT&T is holding back. If AT&T wants to be a leader in the IoT space then it needs to start coughing up some more details in its quarterly filings.

With Verizon on the brink of releasing a new, unlimited plan for IoT devices, I think AT&T will likely have to match Verizon's offering. Verizon has the potential to set the pace for IoT connection in the U.S., and AT&T doesn't want to fall behind.

If the nation's largest carrier starts offering unlimited IoT plans -- and AT&T fails to do the same -- then Verizon could grab a big lead in IoT connections in the same way it did when it launched 4G LTE ahead of its competitors.
When it comes to entitlement programs, Social Security tends to hog all of the glory, as beneficiaries see the tangible benefits of the program on a monthly basis in the form of a payment. But don't discount the importance of government-sponsored Medicare, even if you may not see benefits from the program every month.

Medicare, which has been in place for more than 50 years now, is designed to help protect American seniors' physical and financial health during their golden years by ensuring they have access to medical care when they need it.

16 things you probably don't know about Medicare

But the truth is that many seniors, and even pre-retirees for that matter, don't have a very good understanding of the Medicare program. With that in mind, here's a list of 16 important things you should know about Medicare.

1. Medicare isn't just for seniors

First and foremost, Medicare isn't designed solely for seniors. The disabled, as well as patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), qualify for Medicare coverage. Back in 2007, based on AARP data, about a sixth of Medicare beneficiaries were disabled, while another 0.5% of Medicare members were covered for having ESRD.

2. Seniors are enrolling at an incredible pace

That said, make no mistake about it -- this program is primarily here for our nation's growing population of seniors. With roughly 48 million current beneficiaries, the program is expected to grow to an estimated 79 million beneficiaries by 2030. With every day that passes, roughly 10,000 seniors becomes eligible for Medicare.

3. When you can enroll

Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is when eligible consumers can enroll. For original Medicare, the enrollment period runs from Oct. 15 to Dec. 7. Thankfully, these dates have stayed the same since 2011, and they're likely to remain the same for the foreseeable future.

Additionally, there's a special period between Jan. 1 to Feb. 14 each year that allows enrollees in Medicare Advantage plans (we'll get to what these are in a moment) to switch back to original Medicare. However, the opposite -- switching from original Medicare to a Medicare Advantage -- is not allowed during this time period.

4. What each part covers

You may also be wondering what the sum of Medicare's parts actually covers. Part A, also known as hospital insurance, covers inpatient hospital stays, hospice, and skilled-nursing facility stays. Part B, which is known as medical insurance, covers outpatient services, such as preventative care, laboratory tests, ambulance services, medical equipment, and necessary doctor services. Part D helps to cover the cost of eligible prescription drugs for seniors. Part C is the fancy name given for Medicare Advantage plans. We'll have more to say about Medicare Advantage plans further down this list.

5. How much Medicare pays

Part A and Part B, which cover basic medical services, will pay 80% of your eligible medical expenses after you've paid your deductible. This means you're responsible for paying the remaining 20% -- and it should be noted that there is no annual out-of-pocket limit on expenses when it comes to Medicare. Also be aware that some services will cost you extra, while others might not be covered at all. You can check Medicare.gov to find out whether a particular service is covered.

As for Part D, the amount Medicare will cover depends on your plan and the prescriptions you purchase.

6. Part A may require a premium

Part A, the hospital insurance portion of Medicare, rarely requires consumers to pay a premium. However, beneficiaries who don't have enough work credits over their lifetime may have to pay.

In order to enjoy Part A benefits without paying a premium, beneficiaries must have at least 40 work credits (the same number required to receive Social Security retirement benefits). Workers can earn a maximum of four credits per year, with one credit in 2016 equating to $1,260 in earned income. In simpler terms, if you make well beyond $5,000 per year for 10 consecutive years, then you'll qualify for free Part A when you become eligible for Medicare. Beneficiaries with 30 to 39 work credits pay $226 per month for Part A coverage, while those with less than 30 lifetime work credits pay the maximum $411 per month for Part A in 2016.

7. If you buy this, you have to buy that

Medicare has some funny intricacies you'll need to be aware of, and choosing what you buy and what you don't buy is one of those quirks. For example, you can enroll in Part B for medical insurance and not enroll in Part A for hospital insurance. However, if you enroll in Part A for hospital insurance, you must enroll in Part B for medical insurance. Yet to get Part D you only have to be enrolled in Part A or Part B.

8. Part B covers more than you think

Known traditionally as medical/outpatient insurance, Medicare Part B actually covers more than you'd think. In 2013, Part B paid out $20.9 billion to cover drugs (mostly of the injectable type) administered by physicians within the office setting. Part D will still cover the vast majority of your prescription drugs, but in-office drug administration just might be covered by Part B.

9. The wealthy will pay more

If you make a lot of money, you're liable to pay more for Medicare. To be clear, while Part A has no premium for the vast majority of people, Part B does come with an attached premium -- and if you make too much in annual income, you'll pay an additional surcharge.

For 2016, the standard Part B premium for individuals with incomes below $85,000, and joint-filers with incomes below $170,000, is $121.80. However, for single filers earning between $85,000 and $107,000, the surcharge jumps to $48.70 per month; those earning between $107,000 and $160,000 pay another $121.80 per month; and those earning $160,000 to $214,000 pay a surcharge of $194.90 per month; and any income above $214,000 would increase the surcharge to $268 per month. Similar (though much lower) surcharges exist for Part D plans.

10. Wait on Part D and it'll cost you -- forever

If you're thinking about cutting costs and holding off on purchasing Part D coverage, keep in mind that this could have some lifelong consequences. For every month you delay enrollment, you'll incur a penalty when you eventually purchase Part D -- and you'll pay that penalty each month for the rest of your life.

11. Skilled-nursing facility stays can be costly

Should you need to stay in a skilled-nursing facility following a qualified inpatient hospital stay of three or more days, you'll want to be aware of just how costly it could be if you need extended skilled-nursing care.

Assuming you qualify for skilled-nursing facility care in the first place, the first 20 days are covered by Medicare Part A at no cost to you. Each additional day up until the 100th day (days 21-100) requires a $161 coinsurance charge. Beyond that, all costs fall back onto the patient.

Additionally, should you refuse skilled-nursing facility care or therapy, you could lose your skilled-nursing facility coverage.

12. Medicare doesn't cover all services

It's important to note that while Medicare is designed to be there for seniors during their golden years, it can't do everything. In fact, Medicare does not cover preventive vision, dental, or hearing services. Seniors who need some or all of these services will need to enroll outside Medicare to obtain coverage.

13. Medicare won't work out of country

Thinking of taking a trip to Europe or Asia? Finally ready to embark on that African Safari you've always dreamed of? Keep in mind that as soon as you leave the confines of the United States, Medicare ceases to cover your medical needs. If you're planning to vacation or leave the country for any extended period of time, then you might want to consider a supplemental health insurance plan from a private insurer.

14. Options exist beyond Medicare

Original Medicare is, in a sense, a one-size-fits-all package. There is no competition. Consumers simply choose whether to enroll in Part A and Part B or not. However, an alternative option does exist: Medicare Part C, or Medicare Advantage.

Medicare Advantage plans are run by private insurers, which means the consumer has more choices available to find the plan that best suits their needs. Medicare Advantage plans also roll Part A, Part B, and Part D into one plan, often with options for adding vision, dental, and/or hearing coverage. Furthermore, Medicare Advantage plans have annual out-of-pocket limits on Part A and Part B expenses of $6,700 as of 2016.

There can be disadvantages with these plans, too. Doctor networks tend to be smaller and more prone to change with Medicare Advantage plans, and out-of-pocket costs can sometimes be higher for certain services. There's also no limit on out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drugs.

15. You're getting way more than you're paying for (on average)

In general, you're probably making out like a bandit in terms of how much you'll pay into the Medicare program over your lifetime versus how much you'll receive in benefits.

Among single Medicare beneficiaries who turned 65 years old in 2010 and earned an average of $44,600 per year (in 2012 dollars), the average contribution is $61,000 over their lifetime, according to the Urban Institute. On average, though, Medicare will provide single males with $180,000 in lifetime benefits, and single females with $207,000 in lifetime benefits (as women have longer average life expectancies than men). This gap between benefits paid versus benefits received is only expected to grow as time passes.

16. Medicare is in trouble

Last, but not least, Medicare is in hot water. All eyes might be on the Social Security program's anticipated cash reserve exhaustion by 2035, but the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust is slated to burn through its remaining cash reserves by 2030. Baby boomers are retiring en masse, our population is living longer than ever, medications and procedures are rapidly growing more expensive, and the aforementioned pay-versus-benefits gap is widening. These are all reasons why the HI Trust could be in trouble.

What's your biggest Medicare question/concern? Share it in the comments below.
It's getting harder to find great income-producing stocks these days. Companies just don't pay dividends like they used to, with many hoarding cash or buying back stock instead of sending quarterly checks back to investors. Because of that, and the fact that the market continues to set records, the average dividend yield of stocks in the S&P 500 is down to just 1.85%, which is less than half the historical average.

However, while there are fewer options available, there are still some compelling dividend payers out there. Three excellent choices with yields above 4% are Enbridge (NYSE: ENB), Brookfield Property Partners (NYSE: BPY), and Occidental Petroleum (NYSE: OXY). Here's a look at what makes this trio stand out from the crowd.

Let the dividends flow to you

Canadian energy infrastructure behemoth Enbridge should top any income-seekers' list these days. Thanks to a 15% dividend increase earlier this year and a head-scratching double-digit slide in its stock price, this pipeline giant currently offers a desirable dividend yield right at 5%. Further, that payout is on solid ground since Enbridge backs it with stable cash flow -- 96% comes from predictable sources like fee-based contracts, and the company only pays out about half that cash in dividends each year.

However, Enbridge's current yield is only part of the draw. The other is that the company plans to increase it by a 10% to 12% annual rate all the way through 2024. Backing that view is a whopping 31 billion Canadian dollars' ($24.4 billion) worth of primarily fee-based expansion projects it has underway, which should steadily increase cash flow and its ability to grow the dividend. That visible growth makes Enbridge an excellent income stock to hold for the long term, since investors get a rapidly growing income stream with upside as the stock rises in value along with its cash flow.

Cashing the rent checks without doing any work

Global real estate partnership Brookfield Property Partners also offers investors an attractive payout today with visible growth over the next several years. At the moment, the real estate giant yields about 5.2%, and it has plans to increase that payout at a 5% to 8% annual rate over the long term.

Driving that growth is Brookfield's three-fold plan to maximize the value of its vast real estate holdings. First, the company expects to grow earnings by 2% to 3% per year via built-in rent increases on existing leases and by signing new contracts for higher rates. Second, the company has several billion dollars of new construction and redevelopment projects underway that should grow its earnings capacity. Finally, it plans to sell about $1 billion of properties each year and reinvest the proceeds into higher-return opportunities. These factors should combine to drive 8% to 11% annual cash flow growth, which should easily support mid-single-digit yearly dividend increases.

Pumping out a hefty dividend even at lower oil prices

U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum currently yields an attractive 4.8%, which is much higher than the average oil company. One reason is that many of its rivals slashed their payouts during the recent oil market downturn to conserve cash flow. However, instead of cutting its payout, Occidental continued increasing its dividend, recently notching its 15th consecutive annual increase. Several factors fueled Occidental's ability to keep boosting the payout, including its top-tier balance sheet and the overall stability of cash flow due to the makeup of its portfolio, which gave it the financial resources to continue investing in growth projects even as oil slumped.

Occidental Petroleum remains committed to raising its payout each year, though it doesn't offer the same visibility into future increases as Brookfield or Enbridge. However, the company is currently working to get itself to the point where it can pay its current dividend and generate enough excess cash to grow oil and gas production by 5% to 8% annually as long as oil is around $50 a barrel. Once Occidental reaches that point, it will likely be able to increase the dividend at a rate that matches production growth. In addition to that growing income stream, Occidental Petroleum also offers investors untapped upside to a recovery in oil prices since its cash flow would skyrocket if crude heads higher, likely taking its stock up with it.

The best of both worlds

What makes Enbridge, Brookfield Property Partners, and Occidental Petroleum such compelling stocks to buy today aren't just their above-average yields, but the fact that all three expect to increase those payouts each year. Because of that, income-seekers can collect steadily growing cash flow streams alongside healthy capital gains as their stock prices rise in value alongside earnings. That income with upside could quickly compound wealth for investors, making them glad they didn't settle for just any high-yielding stock.

10 stocks we like better than EnbridgeWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Enbridge wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys.

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Matthew DiLallo owns shares of Brookfield Property Partners. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Enbridge. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
SOURCE: FLICKR USER TAXCREDIT.NET.

If you're retired and you're looking to benefit from tax-savvy moves, then you might want to consider whether you qualify to contribute to a Roth IRA. Contributing to a Roth in retirement can significantly increase the size of your estate, and in some cases, it can go a long way toward justifying claiming Social Security early. But not every retiree can contribute to a Roth IRA. Read on to find out if you're one of the lucky ones who can.

A little backgroundRoth IRAs are a retirement savings vehicle that allows people to stash away $5,500 per year, or $6,500 per year if over age 50, in after-tax money that can grow and be withdrawn tax free. But only people with earned income can contribute to a Roth IRA. So if you -- or your spouse -- aren't still working at least part-time, then you won't be able to contribute to a Roth IRA. Social Security income, pension income, and investment income don't count as earned income. Sorry.

However, if you or your spouse does generate earned income, either from working for yourself or for someone else, then you can contribute up to 100% of the Roth IRA contribution limit as long as you earn at least as much money as you contribute.

For example, let's say Mary is a married 65-year-old who consults part-time and earns $13,000 per year. As long as she files her taxes as married filing jointly, Mary can contribute $6,500 to her Roth IRA and another $6,500 to her spouse's IRA, or a combined total of $13,000.

SOURCE: FLICKR USER STOCKMONKEYS.COM.

Retiree advantages of a Roth IRAContributing to a Roth IRA can make a lot of sense for retirees, because unlike traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs don't require minimum distributions at age 70.5. Therefore, contributions to Roth IRAs can be made throughout your retirement as long as you're earning enough income.

Contributions to a Roth IRA grow tax free, and they can be withdrawn at any time to pay for unforeseen expenses, such as medical costs. Earnings on contributions can grow tax free, too, and they can be withdrawn without a penalty or income tax as long as the account owner is over 59.5 and the Roth IRA has been in existence for at least five years.If money doesn't have to be withdrawn from a Roth IRA, a Roth can be a great way to pass along money tax-free to heirs, too.

After an account holder's death, a Roth IRA becomes an inherited IRA, and that means the required tax-free minimum distribution must begin. However, those distributions will be based on the heir's life expectancy. Therefore, any money that person didn't withdraw every year can be left alone to continue growing tax free throughout the person's expected lifetime. If the heir is young enough, this can translate into tax-free income for decades.

To make use of this strategy, the initial account holder needs to list his or her spouse as the sole Roth IRA beneficiary. Then, when the account owner dies, the spouse should put the Roth IRA in his or her name and then list any heirs as the new beneficiary.

Once the heir inherits the Roth IRA, that person will need to take the first annual minimum distribution by Dec. 31 of the year following the spouse's death. He or she then can stretch out those Roth IRA minimum distributions using one's own life expectancy table.

A Roth IRA and Social Security strategyIf there are other sources of retirement income, including earned income, then investing, rather than spending, Social Security income can make taking Social Security at age 62 a good decision.

To recap, a total $13,000 can be contributed to a couple's Roth IRAs every year as long as they're earning that much in earned income.

Therefore, taking Social Security early and then investing as much of it as possible into a Roth IRA and investing any remaining money into taxable investment account can result in a nest egg that's bigger than waiting until age 70 to opt into Social Security.

That's because the power of compound interest, or the ability for interest earned to earn interest in the future, can outweigh the benefit of delayed retirement credits, which boost monthly Social Security income if the recipient waits until age 70 to begin receiving Social Security payments.

For example, a person born in 1960 would receive 100% of his or her Social Security monthly benefit at age 67, which is the person's full retirement age. If that person decides to begin receiving Social Security checks at age 62, he or she would receive 30% less than at age 67. Waiting until age 70 to opt into Social Security would deliver an amount equal to 124% of what the person would receive at age 67.

Let's do some math. Assuming someone's full retirement age Social Security income is $1,000 per month, taking it at age 62 would result in $700 in Social Security income per month, or $8,400 per year. Of that amount, $6,500 could be put in a Roth IRA, and the remainder could be invested in a spouse's Roth IRA, or a taxable investment account. Overall, if that $8,400 earns a hypothetical 6% interest, it would grow to be worth $259,610 at age 80.

Now, let's assume that retiree waits until age 70, and therefore, he or she receives $1,240 per month. If that person puts as much as possible into a Roth IRA and then invests the remainder in a taxable account, then that $1,240 per month would grow to be worth $196,132 at age 80.

Obviously, this strategy isn't for everyone, and there's no guarantee what an investment will earn in the future, but it does help demonstrate how this strategy might help a retiree who has enough earned income to make Roth IRA contributions.

Regardless, the key to using a Roth IRA in retirement is earned income, and because of that, it may make sense to consider working part-time as a consultant or picking up some shifts at a local store every week just so you can still take advantage of this great tax savings tool during retirement.

The article I'm Retired. Can I Still Contribute to a Roth IRA? originally appeared on Fool.com.

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.
In the first three months of 2016, United Continental has ordered 65 737-700 jets from Boeing to replace 50-seat regional jets that will be retired in the next few years. According to numerous analyst reports, Boeing may have given United Continental a discount of more than 70% on these purchases.

United has ordered 65 Boeing 737-700s this year -- at a steep discount. Image source: The Motley Fool.

Discounts from list price are normal for aircraft purchases, but they are typically closer to 50%. At the estimated sale price of $22 million to $24 million per aircraft, Boeing is probably losing money.

Boeing has stated that it offered such aggressive pricing to "block" Bombardier from gaining a foothold at a major airline for its new CSeries jet. Most analysts have assumed this was the rationale, as well. However, Boeing may have an even bigger aim: dislodging the Airbus A320 from United's narrowbody fleet.

The Boeing-Airbus battle at UnitedIn the early 1990s, United Airlines was Boeing's biggest customer -- and an extremely loyal one at that. The cozy relationship had deep historical roots. During the early 1930s, Boeing and United Airlines were part of the same company (United Aircraft and Transport Corporation), before federal regulators forced the conglomerate to split into three parts.

That made it all the more shocking when United Airlines made a deal with Airbus in 1992 to lease 50 A320s. United and Airbus executed a follow-up deal for the smaller A319 a few years later.

United Airlines now operates more than 150 A320-family aircraft. Image source: The Motley Fool.

Today, United Continental remains primarily a Boeing operator. However, it has 152 A319s and A320s in its fleet and plans to add another 14 used A319s over the next two years.

The Airbus fleet is agingWhile United has a substantial Airbus fleet today, the A319s and A320s are about 17 years old, on average. In fact, United's youngest Airbus planes were built in 2002. (The used A319s it will be leasing beginning this year are somewhat newer.)

Up until 2013, United Continental had planned to replace the bulk of its Airbus fleet between 2016 and 2020. By upgrading its A319s and A320s with larger overhead bins, slimline seats, satellite Wi-Fi, and streaming video, United has been able to keep these planes in service longer.

The drop in fuel prices over the past two years also makes it more economical to keep older planes flying. Nevertheless, United will need to replace all of its Airbus planes within the next 10 to 12 years or so.

Will United stick with the 737?Including its A320-series fleet, its 757 fleet, and its older 737s, United Airlines will probably need to replace at least 300 narrowbodies between now and the late 2020s. Aside from its order for 100 737 MAX 9 planes, United doesn't have any planes coming that are earmarked for this purpose.

As United Continental adds more and more Boeing 737s, it will become increasingly tempting for the company to simplify its fleet by standardizing on the 737 family for all of its narrowbody aircraft needs. That would put Boeing in line for hundreds more 737 MAX orders over the next decade.

Boeing has a shot at convincing United not to order any A320neo family planes. Image source: Airbus.

This seems like a more sensible explanation for why Boeing was willing to be so aggressive in selling 737-700s to United. Sure, Bombardier's CSeries is a small threat to the 737, but Airbus' A320 family is the key competitor in that segment.

With every 737 it sells to United today, Boeing gets a little bit closer to moving one of its biggest customers back to a single narrowbody fleet type. If United ever moves to an all-737 narrowbody fleet, there is little chance that it would later reverse course, as it would then lose the productivity benefits of simplifying its fleet.

As a result, Boeing has a realistic shot at turning United into an "annuity-like" customer that will need 20 to 30 new 737s every year. That's the kind of opportunity that can justify selling a few dozen airplanes below cost today.

The article Can Boeing Push Out the Airbus A320 at United Airlines? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of The Boeing Company and United Continental Holdings, 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 downside of being self-employed is having to pay your Social Security taxes in full, as opposed to splitting the bill with your employer. The plus side, however, is getting to set your own schedule and, in many cases, work out of your own home. In fact, if you conduct much of your business from home, you may be eligible to claim a home office deduction on your tax return. Here's what you need to know about this somewhat controversial deduction.

Do you qualify for a home office deduction?

The IRS doesn't let just anyone take the home office deduction. To be eligible, you'll need to meet two basic conditions.

IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

First, you must have a dedicated space in your home used solely for business purposes. Though it doesn't need to be a separate room per se, the space you claim as your home office can't serve another function. As an example, if you're a writer and tend to set up shop in your dining room to do your work, you can't take the deduction -- even if you work there almost every day and only use the room for dining purposes once or twice a week.

In addition, the space you claim as your home office must constitute your primary place of business. Now this doesn't mean that you can't do any work elsewhere. It does, however, mean that a good part of your business must be conducted out of your office, and that your office must serve as a centralized location for your business activities. Say you're a marketing consultant who works from home but travels to meet with clients a few times a week. You can take a deduction because your home office still qualifies as your principal place of business.

How to claim the home office deduction

There are two options for taking your home office deduction -- the simplified method, and the standard method. Though the latter is more complicated to calculate, it tends to be the more lucrative of the two.

Under the simplified method, you get to claim $5 per square foot of office space, up to a maximum of 300 square feet, or $1,500. With the standard method, you'll need to tally up your direct and indirect expenses for the year to come up with your deduction.

Direct expenses are those incurred to maintain your office or do your job. For example, if you install new lighting in your office to make it easier to work there, you can deduct that expense in full.

Indirect expenses are those needed to keep your home running, and they include things like homeowners' insurance, property taxes, electricity, gas, water, and sewer service. To calculate your deduction based on these expenses, you'll need to figure out how much space your office takes up relative to the rest of your home and then claim the proportionate amount.

If your office takes up 200 square feet of your 2,000-square-foot home, and you spend $30,000 on eligible home maintenance and repair costs, you can deduct 10% of your total costs, or $3,000, on your taxes. Since you have the option to choose between the simplified and standard method when taking your deduction, it pays to run both calculations to see which benefits you the most.

Be careful with the home office deduction

Because the home office deduction is fairly easy to manipulate, the IRS tends to monitor it closely -- which means that if you use it to pull a fast one on your tax return, there's a good chance you'll get caught. The things you need to be the most careful about are exaggerating your office's square footage and claiming illegitimate expenses. If, for example, you have a 100-square-foot office and you claim that it takes up 250 square feet of space, you could get in trouble if the IRS chooses to look more closely. Similarly, while you're allowed to claim a percentage of home repairs you make during the year, be careful about claiming home improvements that aren't made directly to your office.

You might, for example, get away with claiming a portion of the cost of a standby generator in your home, because although that's an improvement and not a repair, it's also something that ensures you can do your job during a power outage. But if you install a new deck or patio, you'll have a harder time justifying that expense if your office is inside your home.

None of this should be taken to mean that you need to worry about claiming a home office deduction. Just make sure you limit your deduction to legitimate expenditures and keep a record of every expense you claim. This way, you'll have a leg to stand on if the IRS chooses to further investigate.

The $16,122 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. For example: one easy trick could pay you as much as $16,122 more... each year! Once you learn how to maximize your Social Security benefits, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after.Simply click here to discover how to learn more about these strategies.

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When Costco demanded better rewards from its co-branded credit card, American Express waved the white flag. Image source: iStock/Thinkstock.

It's now clear why Costco dumped American Express in favor of a Visa co-branded card issued by Citigroup . As members of the warehouse giant learned this week, the rewards program on the Citigroup-backed Visa went beyond what American Express was willing to match.

You can see this by comparing the terms of the two cards. Users of the American Express TrueEarnings card earn 3% cash back on purchases of gasoline, 2% cash back on travel and restaurant expenditures, and 1% cash back on everything else.

This 3-2-1 structure has, in fact, become a popular framework for other rewards cards. Wal-Mart offers a case in point. Its recently announced 3-2-1 Save cash back program offers 3% back on Wal-Mart.com purchases, 2% back on purchases of fuel at Wal-Mart or Murphy USA stations, and 1% back on everything else, including purchases made at Wal-Mart stores.

It's thus no surprise that Costco's upcoming Citigroup-backed Visa uses a similar rewards structure. The difference is that it's much more generous than its predecessor.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

The Citigroup-backed Visa raises most of the reward tiers from the American Express by 1 percentage point each. Cardholders will now earn 4% cash back on purchases of fuel as opposed to 3%. And instead of rewards-eligible fuel purchases being capped at $4,000 a year, the rewards will continue to accrue up to $7,000 in annual gasoline expenditures.

In terms of travel and restaurant purchases, cardholders will now earn 3% cash back, instead of 2% under the legacy American Express card. The 2% rewards tier under the new Visa covers all purchases made at Costco and on Costco.com. And for all other purchases, cardholders will earn 1% cash back.

On top of this, as my Foolish colleague Adam Levine-Weinberg notes here, Citigroup has essentially agreed to forgo card acceptance fees from purchases made at Costco. The resulting savings, says the warehouse giant, will be passed onto its members.

When you take all of this into consideration, then, it's obvious why American Express wasn't willing to match Citigroup's terms. American Express is a high-margin business. It's long sought out the wealthiest cardholders and supplements its fee-income from processing payments with interest income from financing the underlying loans.

Citigroup, meanwhile, is a volume business. It's long aimed to be a financial supermarket along the lines of Wal-Mart, not Whole Foods. On top of this, Citigroup is in the midst of a transformation, brought on by its missteps in the lead-up to the financial crisis. One area it's focusing on is building out its consumer credit card business in the United States. This seems to explain why the $1.7 trillion bank was willing to go so far in order to secure the Costco co-branded card.

The difference between the two models is immediately obvious when you compare their respective profitability. Over the past 12 months, American Express has generated a 24% return on equity, according to YCharts.com. Citigroup's return on equity over the same period, by contrast, was a mere 8.5%.

In sum, while American Express had a lot to lose by accepting narrower margins in its credit card business, Citigroup had everything to gain. It's for this reason that American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault said previously that the more generous terms didn't make "economic sense for us and our shareholders."

The article We Now Know Why Costco Chose Visa Over American Express for Its New Co-Branded Credit Card originally appeared on Fool.com.

John Mackey, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Maxfield has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Costco Wholesale, Visa, and Whole Foods Market. The Motley Fool recommends American Express. 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.
What:Shares ofNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. were riding a high tide in the cruise industry in March, gaining 12% according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. As you can see from the chart below, the three major cruise ship companies all rose in tandem as excitement built for the opening of Cuba. The stocks also surged toward the end of the month on a strong report byCarnival Cruise Lines.

NCLH data by YCharts.

So what:President Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Cuba in nearly 90 years last month, marking a watershed moment in relations between the Cold War-era adversaries. Among the American constituents that stand to benefit from the opening is the American travel industry, especially hotels and cruises. Airbnb has already begun listing properties in Cuba, andStarwood Hotels & Resorts is in talks to build three hotels in Havana. Not surprisingly, the cruise industry is also excited about this opportunity as the Caribbean is the most popular cruise destination for Americans. Last month, the federal government removed Cuba from its list of insecure ports, clearing a major hurdle for cruises.

Carnival Cruise has already set up its first voyage to Cuba this May, and Norwegian has applied for licenses to sail to Cuba as well. Norwegian CEO Frank Del Rio is especially bullish on the impact of the island being open to Americans, noting the proximity of the island to Florida, its unique history, and the pent-up demand to visit it.

Now what: Cruise stocks had fallen sharply in the early market sell-off as the companies are closely connected to the macroeconomic environment, but the stocks have recovered soundly as the market has bounced back. Low fuel prices have also helped to improve earnings and the stock jumped when Carnival reported nearly doubled first-quarter earnings figures. The industry also seems to be resisting the kind of discounting that can hammer profits during boom times.

Toward the end of the month, Norwegian also said it ordered a new ship for its Seven Seas Cruises brand, its first new order for that brand in 14 years. Expected to be completed in 2020, the new ship shows a further sign of bullishness from the company.

If recession concerns remain sidelined and oil prices stay low, profits should continue to soar for the cruise industry, pushing stock prices higher.

The article Why Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. Shares Rose 12% Last Month originally appeared on Fool.com.

Jeremy Bowman 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.
Image source: Royal Gold.

What: Royal Gold's shares rose over 10.5% last month. That beat out streaming competitors Silver Wheaton and Franco-Nevada , which ended the month with gains of 5% and 3%, respectively.

So what: Royal Gold, Silver Wheaton, and Franco-Nevada are streaming companies. That means they provide miners up-front cash payments for the right to buy gold and silver at reduced costs in the future. It's a pretty good deal for Royal Gold and its peers, since they get to lock in low precious-metals costs without the need to do any of the hard work of mining. And right now, miners love these deals because they're struggling financially amid low commodity prices and, quite simply, need the cash. Basically, it's a good time to be a streaming company. That's why this trio has been able to ink streaming deals and grow their "production."

All of that said, there wasn't any particular news out of Royal Gold that explains why it gained so much more than its direct competitors last month. However, Royal Gold is the only streaming company that hasn't issued shares so far this year, one of the main ways these companies raise capital to fund deals. Silver Wheaton just sold $550 million worth of shares, and Franco-Nevada sold over $900 million worth in late February.

Although issuing shares is good in the sense that both streaming companies are investing in future production, there are near-term impacts, too. For example, Silver Wheaton's investment is in an early stage mine that won't provide much return in the near term despite the issuance of stock. It's also worth noting that Silver Wheaton has plans to buy back shares because it believes its stock is undervalued, an odd juxtaposition with the stock sale. Meanwhile, the size of Franco-Nevada's stock sale was increased by over 66%, well more than it needed to fund its recent deal. In other words, there's likely to be some near-term dilution at these companies.

Royal Gold isn't in the same boat, since it hasn't issued any stock this year. So it's understandable that investors looked just a little more favorably on the shares last month.

Now what: Streaming companies such as Royal Gold have had a "golden" opportunity to take advantage of miners the past couple of years. That's been good for the businesses, even though low precious-metals prices have been hampering their top and bottom lines. Although Royal Gold is far from a wallflower, it hasn't done anything on the deal front so far this calendar year. That's not good or bad, but it means that Royal Gold also hasn't sold any stock, something that appears to be a mixed blessing at peers Silver Wheaton and Franco-Nevada. If a good deal comes along, however, Royal Gold will certainly join the party, so don't get too caught up in the March machinations. It's still full stream ahead (sorry, it had to be said) for Royal Gold and its peers.

The article Why Royal Gold, Inc.'s Shares Moved Up 10.6% in March originally appeared on Fool.com.

Reuben Brewer has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Silver Wheaton. (USA). 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.

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The shadow battle for Republican convention delegates turned to Colorado Saturday, where a days-long selection process culminated in Texas Sen. Ted Cruz once again having the edge.

While Donald Trump still holds a wide delegate lead in the GOP presidential primary race, his Achilles heel has been a perceived weakness in his ground game. Seeking to capitalize on this, Cruz has outmaneuvered Trump lately in the behind-the-scenes battle for delegates in places that don't assign them through traditional primaries or caucuses.

Enter states like North Dakota, and now Colorado.

All 13 of the delegates in play on Saturday have been pledged to Cruz. This means that all of the delegates elected here today are committed to Cruz on the first ballot at the convention in Cleveland.

Seven "alternate" delegates each pledged themselves to Cruz and rival Trump.

Both North Dakota and Colorado eschewed traditional primary elections and instead held conventions -- where delegates not necessarily bound to any candidate are selected. Cruz saw this as an opportunity anyway to get allies elected to the slate, banking on their support in the event of an open convention.

The candidate, after picking up more likely delegate allies than Trump in last weekend's North Dakota convention, has been on a roll in Colorado.

Thirty-four delegates total are at stake in the Centennial State's convention process.

In Colorado, delegates can pledge themselves to a candidate or run unbound.

His team has been masterful in being able to use their influence and power  to pull the delegates in, Jeanne Zaino, professor of political science and international studies at Iona College, told FoxNews.com LIVE.

Trump has been trying to beef up his team's delegate expertise, recently hiring convention veteran Paul Manafort to organize and implement his convention push.

While Trump is not scheduled to appear in Colorado, the campaign recently replaced their state director, and their new operative on the ground, Patrick Davis, told Breitbart News they are distributing Trump slates and "talking with convention delegates face to face [and] changing minds."

But Cruz will appear in person, while Ohio Gov. John Kasich has dispatched former New Hampshire Sen. John E. Sununu.

Weve seen very little sign of Donald Trump, and a lot more Kasich stickers than Donald Trump stickers, Andrew Boucher, a chief convention strategist for John Kasich, told FoxNews.com.

Cruzs in-person appearance is part of a wider strategy to dominate the states nominating process. Colorado Republican operatives say that, just by winning the local gatherings, Cruz could lock down a majority of the 34 delegates up for grabs, even before Saturday's convention.

"Cruz has the big upper hand here," Ryan Lynch, a Colorado-based Republican told The Associated Press. "They're the only ones really organized."

Although the 34 delegates up for grabs may seem paltry compared with the 95 in New York and 172 in California -- both upcoming primary contests -- strategists point out that every delegate Cruz gets is one more step toward holding Trump under the necessary 1,237 delegates in the event of a contested convention.

While Trump is leading in several upcoming states like New York and Pennsylvania, Cruz is pulling out all the stops with strategies to capture delegates in order to get to a contested convention, Ron Bonjean, an unaffiliated Republican strategist, told FoxNews.com. Every delegate that is picked off in places like Colorado is a win for Cruz and makes it harder for Trump to be the nominee.

Kasichs team is also taking a long-view approach, planting the seeds with unbound delegates that the Ohio governor could be the best choice at the convention in Cleveland in July.

We are actively reaching out them. We are planting the seeds, Boucher said. Its a long process.

Trump to date has 743 delegates, while Cruz has 520 and Kasich has 143. Cruz was boosted by his Tuesday win in the Wisconsin primary, though Trump is favored to win the next bout in New York.

FoxNews.com's Adam Shaw and Fox News' Serafin Gomez and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich would not have signed the controversial religious freedom law passed in North Carolina, he said Sunday.

In an interview on CBS' "Face The Nation," Kasich told host John Dickerson that he "probably" wouldn't have signed the law in North Carolina that aims to keep transgendered people out of women's bathrooms.

Kasich said that Ohio isn't dealing with a similar issue and he hadn't studied the issue closely, but he was not inclined to push for a new law to protect religious beliefs in his state.

"Everyone needs to take a deep breath, respect one another," Kasich said. "The minute we start trying to write laws, things become more polarized, they become more complicated."

Read more on WashingtonExaminer.com
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Saturday won the Wyoming Democratic caucuses to extend his winning streak, while Sen. Ted Cruz completed his sweep of Colorados 34 delegates.

Sanders had 56 percent of the vote, compared to 44 percent for primary frontrunner Hillary Clinton, with 96 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press, which called the race for Sanders.

Sanders got word of his Wyoming win from his wife, Jane, midway through a rally in Queens, part of a four-stop swing through New York City. A raucous cheer went up from the New Yorkers, but the Wyoming vote was a draw from a delegate perspective: Sanders and Clinton each picked up seven.

Sanders has won seven of the last eight contests. Wyoming had only 14 delegates at stake, but another victory would help Sanders fuel that narrative about his campaign having momentum and potentially upsetting Clinton in the New York primary on April 19.

Its a beautiful state, Sanders said at LaGuardia Community College, on the campaign trail in New York. Thank you Wyoming.

Cruz locked up the 13 remaining delegates at Colorado's state convention, adding to the 21 that were pledged to him on Friday.

Today was another resounding victory for conservatives, Republicans, and Americans who care about the future of our country. Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and tonights incredible results in Colorado have proven this: Republicans are uniting behind our campaign because they want a leader with real solutions who will bring back jobs, freedom, and security, Cruz' campaign said in a statement following the delegate decision.

Cruz was the only GOP White House candidate to speak at the convention, though front-runner Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich each sent surrogates.

Well see morning in America again, Cruz told the convention crowd in a speech full of conservative touchtone like reigning in the EPA and defeating radical Islamic terrorists.

Cruz on Friday won every assembly in the state's seven congressional districts, which began April 2 and culminated Friday.

Following the Colorado results, the Associated Press count stands at Trump 743, Cruz 545, and John Kasich 143. Marco Rubio, who suspended his campaign, has 171 delegates. To clinch the nomination by the end of the primaries, a GOP candidate needs 1,237 delegates.

Of Cruz's Colorado delegates before Saturday, only 17 were formally pledged to him. But they were all included on the senator's slates and are largely state party officials who said they were barred from signing a formal pledge for Cruz but have promised to back him in balloting at the convention.

Cruz's sweep increases the chances of a contested Republican convention this summer. Trump still has a narrow path to clinching the GOP nomination by the end of the primaries on June 7, but he has little room for error. He would need to win nearly 60 percent of all the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination before the convention. So far, he's winning 46 percent.

The complex Colorado process inherently favored Cruz, the Trump campaign charged, and suspicions among supporters mounted after the results were announced Saturday night. The official Colorado Republican Party account tweeted: "We did it! #NeverTrump." Colorado GOP spokesman Kyle Kohli said the tweet was unauthorized and it was swiftly deleted. The party was investigating who wrote the tweet.

Cruz supporters argued that their candidate didn't just have an organizational edge but that the Texas senator was a better fit with the state's socially conservative, libertarian-minded Republicans. "The Donald Trump caustic politics just doesn't resonate in Colorado," said Tom Peterson, an engineer and delegate from rural Elbert County.

Trump supporters were frustrated by Colorado's arcane process, which involved a series of caucuses at different locations before the convention. "It doesn't seem like a real fair system," said George Rosel, 60, an engineer and Trump supporter who came to the convention from the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch. "It seems kind of rigged."

In Wyoming, Democrats in 23 counties caucused. The 14 delegates that were up for grabs are among the states 18 that will go to the Democratic National Convention, also in July.

Once the inevitable frontrunner, Hillary Clinton has now lost her seventh straight contest," said Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "This embarrassing string of defeats to a 74-year old socialist from Vermont is another reminder of what a desperately flawed candidate she is, and how beatable she will be in November if she becomes the nominee."

Before Saturday, Clinton had 1,280 delegates compared to 1,030 for Sanders. And the count was 1,749-to-1,061 for Clinton when adding in super delegates. Either will need 2,383 delegates to win the nomination.

They both made stops Saturday in New York City, including Clinton at the famous Original Juniors restaurant in Brooklyn and Sanders at a diner in Long Island City and Bronx Community College.

At the college, Sanders essentially stuck to the major points of his campaign including calls for a more fair tax system. While he appeared to stop the recent attacks on Clinton, he did go after Trump.

Donald Trump -- not that smart, Sanders said. Thats what demagogues like Donald Trump do. And don't give him too much credit. He didn't invent it. He's not that smart. They (are) trying and divide us.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Two Denver window washers endured several terrifying minutes suspended 100 feet above the ground after a scaffolding collapse.

The workers were on scaffolding several stories high at a building Saturday morning when a cable snapped, Fox 31 Denver reported. The Denver Fire Department posted photos of the harrowing rescue.

Construction workers managed to get one man down safely with a cherry picker, KMGH-TV reported.

Firefighters rescued the other worker.

Fire Lt. Mike Pylar told The Denver Post firefighters had to stretch their 105-foot tower ladder almost full length to reach the scaffolding.

10065 E Harvard- High Angle Rescue- 2 workers rescued! No Injuries. pic.twitter.com/xZv4Xn5H9x  Denver Fire Dept. (@Denver_Fire) April 9, 2016

The workers were wearing safety harnesses.

It went pretty smoothing, Pylar told the Post.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration was investigating the incident, KMGH reported.
Tammy Barnett said she figures her new job will be a lot like her old one.

With one notable exception: Shell be the first female to do it.

The 25-year-old Louisiana police officer is set to report to basic training as the Armys first female infantry recruit, The Army Times reported.

Barnett will serve in one of the military occupational specialties opened to women on April 1. She made her initial visit to recruiters in November, took her oath on Thursday and will report to Fort Benning, Georgia for basic training in June 2017.

She initially planned to enter the military police, but infantry is similar, she told The Army Times. And they are more on the front lines, like law enforcement here, and I said, thats what I want to do.

Barnett said she planned to celebrate her oath by going fishing with her family.

I hope that I give them the courage, because Im a small female, she told KSLA. If I can do it, they can do it, too. This could give them the courage to step out of their comfort zone.

The long delay until she begins basic training is so For Benning can properly prepare for new trainees by having trained female officer and [noncommissioned officers] in position, Army Recruiting Battalion Baton Rouge public affairs chief Roger Hamilton told The Army Times in an email.

I have served the front lines in my hometown, Barnett said in a statement, and now I am going to serve the front lines for my country.
Three women and two toddlers were killed when their small car slammed into an oncoming pickup truck on a two-lane highway in Northern California.

The five dead were all in a Honda Civic that was in a passing lane on State Route 12 near Rio Vista about 40 miles southwest of Sacramento at about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, the California Highway Patrol said.

Trying to get back into her own lane, the driver of the Civic lost control and ended up back in the passing lane, and the oncoming Chevy Silverado slammed into it, CHP Officer Michael Bradley said.

The three women and one girl, about two or three years old, died at the scene, Bradley said. The second child, a 3-year-old boy, died a few hours later at a hospital, he said.

The four people in the Silverado, a married couple and two older children, were hospitalized but not seriously injured, the CHP said. All were wearing seat belts, and the truck's air bags had deployed.

It was unclear whether the people in the Civic were wearing seat belts. There was only one child seat found inside, Bradley said.

No names have been released.

The area had periodic rains on Saturday, but it wasn't clear if a slick road was a factor in the car losing control.

The highway was shut down in both directions for several hours.


A former FBI agent who later enlisted in the U.S. Air Force was identified Saturday as the man who killed his commander at an air base in San Antonio before turning the gun on himself.

A statement from the Air Force identified the two men as Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Bellino and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder. The statement did not name the gunman, but a federal official close to the investigation said Bellino opened fire Friday at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the person isn't authorized to speak publicly about the case.

The official said Bellino was an FBI agent for less than two years before resigning in 2013 and later enlisting in the Air Force. Authorities have not confirmed why Schroeder was targeted. He was commander of the 342nd Training Squadron.

"The 37th Training Wing mourns the loss of our airmen and family members," said Brig. Gen. Trent H. Edwards, commander of the wing. "Our primary focus at this time is to take care of the family and the men and women who are grieving our losses."

It wasn't clear Saturday how Bellino acquired his rank in a relatively short time with the Air Force. A technical sergeant is a rank above a staff sergeant and below master sergeant. Bellino could have had prior specialized training that allowed him to enlist at an elevated rank.

Two Glock handguns were found near the bodies Friday, and military officials are trying to determine whether Bellino was authorized to have a weapon on the base, where the possession of firearms is heavily restricted.

The firearm restrictions apply not only to Lackland but also to Fort Sam Houston, the Randolph air base and another installation that comprise Joint Base San Antonio, which has more than 80,000 full-time personnel and is the home of Air Force basic training.

Friday's shooting, which the San Antonio Express-News reports caused officials to abruptly end a nearby military training parade with thousands of spectators, is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the last several years.

In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist before killing himself. About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, who also killed himself.

And in the deadliest attack to occur at a U.S. military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a shooting in 2009 at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.
A dog was found on a Long Island highway Saturday with its muzzle taped shut  and the Suffolk County SPCA is offering a $2,000 reward to anyone who can help find the person responsible.

The male German shepherd was found with duct tape wrapped over its mouth on Montauk Highway in Lindenhurst, the SPCA said in a statement. The dog is now in the care of the Babylon Animal Shelter.

To leave this dog unable to eat or drink, abandoned and frightened on a busy road is heartbreaking, said Chief Roy Gross of the SPCA.

Click here to read more from The New York Post.


Irans foreign minister said Sunday the Islamic Republics ballistic missile program is not open to negotiation with the United States, seemingly spurning an overture from Secretary of State John Kerry.

Kerry said Thursday during a visit to Bahrain that the U.S. and its regional allies were prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to the dispute over recent Iranian ballistic missile tests.

The missile tests are not covered by the U.S.-Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, agreed to this summer; however, the U.S. and its allies contend the launches go against a U.N. Security Council Resolution. Iran denies the launches violate the U.N. resolution.

Some Western experts fear the missiles could one day be used to deliver nuclear payloads.

But Foreign Minister Javad Zarif rejected Tehran making any concessions to the international community on the missile topic.

Secretary Kerry and the U.S. State Department know well that Irans missile and defense capabilities are not open to negotiation, Zarif said. The Tehran Times reported the remarks which were first made public by the countrys ISNA news agency.

Framing the launches as an issue of self-defense, Zarif said There would be no JCPOA for defense issues, The Guardian reported.

Instead, Zarif countered that the U.S. should halt the selling of weaponry which are used to slaughter the defenseless Yemeni people or employed by the Zionist regime [in Israel].

Zarif also suggested the U.S. should be concerned that some of its allies were arming ISIS.

The U.S. needs to view regional issues more seriously than raise baseless and threadbare allegations against Iran, Zarif said, The Guardian reported. Mr. Kerry should ask U.S. allies where the Islamic States arms come from.

Iran has tested ballistic missiles in October and March. The U.S. has responded with some sanctions on individuals and businesses, but not broad-based national sanctions, which some administration critics have called for.

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon said last week during congressional testimony that one of Irans primary purposes for continuing the ballistic launches was to assuage hard-liners in the country who were upset by the terms of the nuclear deal. He also said missile tests would likely to continue.

Iran is intent on pursuing a ballistic missile program, Shannon said. It sees it not only as part of its larger strategic weapons program, but it also plays a larger political role in Iran, especially in the aftermath of the JCPOA.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Republicans lawmakers who led probes into the Obama administrations botched Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking operation are criticizing the court-ordered release Friday of related documents, saying they are only a fraction of those requested in subpoenas.

What we need from the president is an explanation of why he felt these documents couldnt have been seen by the American people and why there has been no real accountability for the officials involved, said Rep. Darrell Issa, who as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform led congressional investigations.

Was he protecting the failed gun  operation or the cover-up?" the California Republican asked Friday.

Issa made the announcement hours after the Justice Department said that it had given to Congress additional documents related to Fast and Furious.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation from 2006 to 2012 allowed gunrunners to buy weapons along the southwestern U.S. border in hopes that tracking the firearms would lead federal agents to drug lords and break up Mexican gun-smuggling rings.

However, only about one-third of the roughly 2,000 guns have been recovered and at least some were found at crime scenes along the U.S.-Mexico border, including where U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in 2010.

Reports about such incidents created a political firestorm and set off a documents dispute between then-Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress that resulted in Holder being held in contempt of Congress.

The administration had for the last four years refused to provide the records to the GOP-led House, invoking a claim of executive privilege.

But a federal judge in January turned aside that argument, saying a blanket assertion of executive privilege was inappropriate since the Justice Department had already disclosed through other channels much of the information it had sought to withhold.

Given that even after years of stonewalling these are only a fraction of the documents that were subpoenaed by the House of Representatives, at this point, the usefulness remains to be seen, Iowa GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley said Friday.

Grassley began asking questions in January 2011, after whistleblowers came to him alleging the administration was allowing illegal gun-walking.



I look forward to seeing what was actually produced, and what President Obama continues to refuse to be transparent about, Grassley continued. It shouldn't have taken a lengthy court battle to get this far. The rest of the documents should be turned over so that the litigation can end.

Issa also said in his statement Friday that Obama has failed to fully comply with the subpoenas.

In a letter Friday, the Justice Department said it was moving to end the legal dispute with the House oversight panel, despite disagreeing with the order from Judge Amy Berman Jackson.

"In light of the passage of time and other considerations,  the department has decided that it is not in the executive branch's interest to continue litigating this issue at this time," Assistant Attorney General Peter Kadzik, wrote in a letter to new committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, a Utah Republican.

House Republicans sued in 2012 to obtain thousands of emails related to the failed effort.

The Justice Department had already produced tens of thousands of pages of documents, but Congress continued to seek records that the department argued it was entitled to withhold.

The department said that, in producing the documents Friday, it had completed its obligations under the court order.

Chaffetz said in a statement that while the department had turned over "some of the subpoenaed documents," the committee remains entitled to "the full range of documents for which it brought this lawsuit."

He said the committee was appealing in hopes of getting additional documents.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Authorities in Southern California arrested a man Friday in connection with the death of a woman whose body was found inside a suitcase and left in a trash can outside a hotel.

Joshua Matthew Palmer, 33, was taken into custody in Grantville on suspicion of murdering 21-year-old Shauna Haynes, Fox 5 San Diego reported.

Prayers up for sure, thats one of the saddest things Ive heard in my life, Tommy Gunz, a tattoo artist who worked with Haynes, told the station.

Gunz said that Haynes was a nice girl and that Palmer and the girl both entered the tattoo parlor in February for a session.

San Diego police Lt. Ray Valentin said a guest at the Chadwick hotel in San Diego discovered the suitcase with the womans body inside it near a row of trash cans alongside a parking area at the rear of the building.

The guest called authorities when he noticed something that looked like hair hanging out of the suitcase. Officers confirmed the death and then called in a homicide team, Fox 5 San Diego reported.

The initial investigation revealed that the luggage containing Haynes body had been dumped into one of the trash cans next to which it was found, Valentin said. A man who brought the bins out to the curb told authorities the can was unusually heavy.

According to the Los Angeles Times, it was originally feared the woman had been dismembered but acting Lt. Manuel Del Toro said Thursday the womans body was fully intact when found in the suitcase.

Detectives said its unclear who removed the suitcase from the trash bin. Officials have yet to determine the cause of death or release a motive for the murder.

Palmer was booked into San Diego Central jail and will be arraigned Tuesday.

Click for more from Fox 5 San Diego.
The Navy and Coast Guard have launched a search-and-rescue mission after a junior sailor on board the USS Carter Hall was reported missing, according to reports Sunday.

The sailor is presumed to have fallen overboard Saturday, the Navy Times reported. The dock landing ship was on a training mission off the coast of North Carolina.

The ship immediately began its search after a female third-class petty officer was discovered missing around 4:20 p.m. Saturday, the Navy Times reported, citing an internal Navy report.

A pair of boots with a note was reported found on deck near the rear of the ship, the report said, according to the Navy Times.

Several Navy and Coast Guard units are assisting in the search and rescue effort, a Navy spokesman said Sunday.

"Were doing everything we can to find and rescue the sailor and our thoughts and prayers are with our shipmates and their families," Navy Lt. Michael Hatfield told The Virginian-Pilot.

The Carter Hall is conducting routine training operations in support of the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group Composite Training Unit Exercise of the coast of Cape Hatteras, WTKR-TV in Hampton Bays, Virginia, reported Sunday.

The name of the sailor wont be released until 24 hours after next-of-kin has been notified, the station reported.

The USS Carter Hall is home ported at Joint Expeditionary Base Little CreekFort Story in Virginia Beach, according to the station.
An Ohio police officer was in critical condition Sunday, hours after he was allegedly shot by an accused arsonist while the officer was serving a warrant, authorities said.

The suspected gunman, Lincoln Rutledge, allegedly opened fire on SWAT officers who were serving a felony arrest warrant around 3 a.m. Sunday morning, officials told FOX28.

SWAT officers came under fire when they attempted to move near to the suspects apartment with an armored vehicle. Thats when the unnamed officer was hit. That Columbus Police Officer was described only as a veteran officer who was well-liked and respected.

Our officer is in very critical condition, Police Chief Kim Jacobs said. We wont know what happens to him for some time at this point in time. We do need everyone to pray for him.

A fire erupted at Rutledges apartment complex during the standoff, displacing six families, The Red Cross said. The 44-year-old Rutledge finally gave up around 7:15 a.m. after a loud bang was heard inside the apartment that police say was part of a strategy to end the standoff.

Rutledge, who was wanted in connection with a fire at a home on Saturday, was eventually arrested after a standoff. Hes been charged with attempted murder for the shooting of the police officer. Rutledge was treated for smoke inhalation and an apparent gunshot wound.

Jacobs said the SWAT team was present because of what she called "erratic behavior" by the suspect and because police knew he had access to guns.

She said it was difficult to explain why the suspect decided to open fire, but emphasized it's a dangerous time for police.

"There are some very desperate people out there, very dangerous people out there," Jacobs said. "Sometimes they choose to go out in a certain way and-or take us on in a certain way."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Oklahoma police are investigating after a fight outside a local convenience store showing a retired police officer being sucker-punched was caught on video.



The Owasso Police Department said Saturday it is investigating the alleged assault. It took place Friday afternoon in front of a QuikStop -- across the street from Owasso High School.

The video seems to depict two students fighting each other, the Tulsa World reported Sunday. Moments later the retired officer steps into the frame and attempts to break up the fight.

The video then shows the peacemaker shoving one of the combatants and then being surrounded. The video then shows the retired cop being shoved and punched in the side of the head while he is not looking, the paper reported.

There have been no arrests.

Owasso Police said on its Facebook page that officers have seen several videos of the incident and they are working to identify these suspects from said videos.

Owasso QuikTrip Fight VideoOn Friday, April 8th 2016 Owasso Police responded to a report of a physical fight at the... Posted by Owasso Police Department on Saturday, April 9, 2016

They said the suspects could be students.

When officers arrived at the scene they encountered a crowd of 50 teens and young adults, Fox 23 News reported.



KOTV in Tulsa identified the retired officer as Gary Stephenson of the Tulsa Police Department.

The station reported that Stephenson went to the QuikTrip with his grandson and tried to break up the fight because he didnt want to see anyone get hurt.

A video of a fight at an Owasso QuikTrip is causing controversy across the web.Why police say no one has been arrested on FOX23 News at 5. http://www.fox23.com/news/retired-officer-assaulted-at-owasso-quiktrip/204583150 Posted by FOX23 News on Saturday, April 9, 2016

Its upsetting when you see your father trying to do something good and you see somebody hit him, said Stephenson's son, Robert Stephenson. Yeah I got upset.
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Keeping up its press for the "truth" in the torture and slaying of an Italian graduate student in Cairo, Italy on Friday announced it was recalling its ambassador from the Egyptian capital for urgent consultations.

Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni was recalling Ambassador Maurizio Massari for "an urgent evaluation of more opportune initiatives to relaunch the commitment aimed at determining the truth about the barbarous murder of Giulio Regeni," a ministry statement said.

The 28-year-old student, who was researching Egyptian labor movements, disappeared on Jan. 25, the fifth anniversary on the Egyptian uprising, when police and other Egyptian security personnel were out in force in Cairo to discourage protests. His body was found near a Cairo highway on Feb. 3. Italian officials said an Italian autopsy found signs of "protracted" torture over several days, and that Regeni appears to have died on Feb. 1 or 2.

Italy's foreign ministry said the decision to step up diplomatic pressure by recalling the ambassador was taken after meetings Thursday and Friday in Rome between visiting Egyptian investigators and Italian prosecutors and police.

Although the ministry statement wasn't more specific, the recall was widely seen in Italy as a sign that the meetings failed to satisfy Italian authorities. Rome-based prosecutors have insisted that Egypt turn over records of Regeni's cell phone use from the time of disappearance and other information, including surveillance camera video from the near the metro station where he was last seen.

The ministry didn't suggest what other initiatives the Italian government might take against Egypt, which is a big trading partner. Italian energy company ENI has decades-long extensive dealings with Egypt.

Last week, Regeni's anguished parents said Italy should declare Egypt "unsafe" for Italians to visit, saying their son was only one of many torture victims in the north African country.
As police in Belgium continued to dismantle a terror cell believed to have carried out the Paris and Brussels attacks with new arrests, authorities said there may be other active terrorist groups in the country.

Jan Jambon, the countrys interior minister, warned Saturday there are perhaps other cells that are still active on our territory. Brussels remains under the second-highest terror alert, meaning an attack is considered likely.

His comments came as Mohamed Abrini was positively identified as the man in the hat connected to the Brussels airport bombing last month.

Abrini was one of four suspects charged Saturday with "participating in terrorist acts" linked to the deadly suicide bombings that killed 32 people and wounded 270 others at the airport and at the city's Maelbeek subway station.

Prosecutors identified the others as Osama Krayem, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M. Two other suspects arrested in the last couple of days were released "after a thorough interrogation," it said.

The arrests could give investigators new insights into the ISIS cell believed to have carried out the Belgium and Paris attacks.

Abrini was one of five men arrested Friday. He is also a suspect at large from the Nov. 13 Paris attacks that killed 130 people. The sixth person was arrested Saturday.

Krayem is known to have left the Swedish city of Malmo to fight in Syria.

He was filmed by security cameras at a shopping mall where the bags used by the airport bombers were bought. French authorities also suspect Krayem of having links to the Paris attacks.

Krayem had earlier been identified posting photos from Syria on social media, according to Magnus Ranstorp, a counterterrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College.

"He also tried to recruit people in Malmo," Ranstorp told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors described Herve B. M. as a Rwandan citizen and said he is accused of offering assistance to both Abrini and Krayem

The detentions were a rare success for Belgian authorities, who have been pilloried for mishandling leads in the investigation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Saudi Arabia's king has addressed the Egyptian parliament on the fourth day of a landmark visit that saw the oil-rich kingdom pledge billions of dollars in investment and aid to Egypt.

In his six-minute address Sunday, King Salman said Egypt and Saudi Arabia have agreed to build a bridge linking the nations across the Red Sea and to work together to create a pan-Arab defense force, an Egyptian idea first floated last year.

Lawmakers received Salman with deafening applause and a standing ovation. Some lawmakers waved the kingdom's green flag, while others chanted "all of Egypt greets you."

Saudi Arabia has been a traditional source of economic and political support to Egypt, but the kingdom significantly stepped up its backing after the military's 2013 ouster of an Islamist President.
Spain's Socialist Party says there is still a chance of arriving at an agreement with far-left Podemos to form a coalition government.

Socialist negotiator Antonio Hernando said there is 70 percent agreement with a 20-point proposal submitted by Podemos aimed at breaking "the political logjam and enable a government."

Hernando said the Socialists objected only to two points related to Podemos' commitment to allowing northeastern Catalonia to hold a secession referendum, and its insistence on excluding business-friendly Ciudadanos from a coalition.

The Socialists reached a coalition agreement with Ciudadanos in February and the two parties could form a government with Podemos' votes, or abstentions, in the 350-seat lower house of parliament.

A new government must be in place by May 2 or another election will be held on June 26.
The terror group that carried out the March suicide bombings at an airport and subway station in Brussels originally planned to launch a second attack on France, Belgiums Federal Prosecution Office said Saturday.

The office said in a statement that the terrorists were surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead. Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at a Brussels Airport on March 22. A subsequent explosion at Maelbeek subway station killed another 16 people the same morning.

Investigators have found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels attacks and the group that killed 130 people in Paris on Nov. 13.

The prosecutors statement confirmed what many suspected: the series of raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacks  including the capture of key Paris attacks fugitive Salah Abdeslam  pushed the terrorists to action.

The allegation that the killers in Brussels planned a rerun of the Paris attacks comes a day after Belgian authorities charged four men with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group" in relation to the Brussels attacks.

They included Mohamed Abrini, who they said had been identified as the "man in the hat" spotted alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport.

He explained having thrown away his (explosive) vest in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterward, the prosecutors office said Saturday.

Surveillance footage has also placed Abrini in the convoy with the attackers who headed to Paris ahead of the Nov. 13 massacre.

Abrini was a childhood friend of Brussels brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks, and he had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the Paris attackers' ringleader who died in a French police raid shortly afterward. Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in the Paris bombings while Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels on March 18  four days before the attacks there  after a four-month manhunt.

Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were not only in a Renault Clio used in the Paris attacks but also in an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighborhood of Brussels that was used by the airport bombers. Abrini was also believed to have traveled to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic State's Francophone brigade.

He traveled multiple times to Birmingham, England, last year, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity, a European security official has told The Associated Press.

The other suspects charged Saturday were identified as Osama Krayem, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M.

Krayem is known to have left the Swedish city of Malmo to fight in Syria.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The U.S. issued a dire warning to its citizens Saturday about credible threats to tourist areas in Turkey on the same day Turkish authorities exploded a roadside bomb in Istanbul.

The emergency message from the U.S. Consulate urged Americans to exercise extreme caution in public squares and docks in Istanbul and the Mediterranean beach resort of Antalya.

"The U.S. Mission in Turkey would like to inform U.S. citizens that there are credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya," U.S. officials said in the statement. "Please exercise extreme caution if you are in the vicinity of such areas."

The small bomb was left near an overpass in the Mecidiyekoy district, the Anadolu Agency reported. It was designed to create a loud noise. Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries, the report said.

Turkey has been decimated by four suicide bombings this year. The most recent one came last month in Istanbul. Two of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State and the other two were claimed by Kurdish militants.

A large police presence responded around roads near a Hilton hotel. Armed special police units were deployed outside other foreign consulates, including the German and Italian missions, Reuters reported.

Turkey has joined the U.S.-led air campaign against the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, while fighting Kurdish militants in the southeast where a proposed ceasefire collapsed last July. The U.S. also has ties to the Kurds who have been helping in the fight against ISIS, which has also complicated Ankaras relationship with Washington.

The U.S. and its allies targeted militants in Iraq and Syria, the Pentagon said Saturday. Four strikes in Iraq were targeted near Hit and one strike in Syria destroyed seven ISIS rockets system near Manbij.

Earlier Saturday, the U.S. announced it is deploying B-52 bombers in Qatar. Its the first time the aircraft will see action in the Middle East since the Gulf War.

The announcement came a day after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry vowed to "turn up the pressure further" against ISIS during an unannounced visit to Baghdad Friday to meet with Iraqi's Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as well as Kurdish and Sunni leaders.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from Reuters.
New Garage Door Repair & Installation YouTube Channel Launches For Los Angeles

Bell Garage Door launches a new YouTube Channel focused on providing information and advice for consumers needing garage door repair or buying a new garage door. The channel and the video content can be found at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ixNf7NTv83QzwEDmHGByA

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Los Angeles Home and Business Owners looking for the latest information on Garage Door Repair & Garage Door Installation are invited to subscribe to the all-new YouTube channel by Bell Garage Door. This new channel promises to provide expert guidance and information on Garage Door Repair & Garage Door Installation , on a regular basis.

This new YouTube channel was created specifically with the needs of Los Angeles area Home and Business owners needing a new garage doors, garage door repair services, repair tips and instruction. Bell Garage Door welcomes and encourages input from the community on which topics to explore.

Ronald Payne, Manager at Bell Garage Door said: "The new channel is intended to do much more that highlight the companies sales and service. The intent is to connect with the community by offering valuable and actionable advice that can benefit anyone in need of the services we provide.New videos being scheduled are of the do it yourself repair instructional format with simple and easy to follow steps. An easy 8 step trouble shooting guide video designed to help folks fix or identify what's wrong with their garage door or opener.

Bell Garage Door's Manager goes on to say: "The new YouTube Channel not only educates people about what Bell Garage Door has to offer as garage door installation and repair experts but also to provide solid actionable information to consumers so that they can make informed and educated decisions regarding the repair or purchase of garage doors. Feedback provided by viewers and subscribers will be incorporated into future videos.

Anybody interested in Garage Door Repair & Garage Door Installation and current Bell Garage Door fans and supporters, can subscribe to the YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3ixNf7NTv83QzwEDmHGByA

Some of the planned subjects for upcoming videos include:

Fast Response Garage Door Repair - How to repair broken garage door springs - Expert Garage Door and Opener Installation - Garage Door Trouble Shooting Guide - Residential & Commercial 24/7 Service

Further details on the channel, the trouble shooting guide for home owners, the companies installation and repair services, and any other information on Bell Garage Door itself can be found on their website: www.bellgaragedoor.com

For more information about us, please visit http://www.bellgaragedoor.com

Contact Info:

Name: Bell Garage Door

Email: info@bellgaragedoor.com

Organization: Bell Garage Door

Address: 2016 Imperial St

Phone: 2132673131

Release ID: 110067

For more information visit r



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Greenville Roofing Contractor Provides Free Online Roof Repair Quotes

Drake Exteriors is celebrating the launch of their new website for their South Carolina location in the Greenville area by providing Greenville with a superior online roof repair quote form. Further information can be found at http://DrakeExteriors.net.

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In a slightly different approach to launching its new website for their South Carolina location, Drake Exteriors, a Roofing Contractor in Greenville has decided it will providing Greenville and surrounding South Carolina cities with a superior roofing company, and this is expected to take place Mid-April.

Where most roofing companies tend to want the customer to call them, Drake Exteriors has decided to make it easier for their customers with it's new website for their South Carolina location launch.

Travis Turner, Owner at Drake Exteriors, says: "We wanted to be exciting with our new website for our South Carolina location launch because we love the residents of Greenville, South Carolina and wanted to make online roof repair quotes easy to obtain - especially in times when emergency roof repairs are needed due to storm and/or hail damage.

It should be really worthwhile and we're hoping local home owners and commercial business owners appreciate the ease of getting an Expert Roofing Project Manager from Drake Exteriors to their home or business. It should go great unless the internet stops working!"

Drake Exteriors has always made a point of standing out when compared to other Roofing Contractors in the Greenville area. This website launch celebration is just one of the many ways it does so.

This is a great chance for Greenville residents to get immediate and professional roof leak repairs and support an expert local business.

Drake Exteriors has a combined 55 years of roofing experience and has been providing roofing services since 2009. To date it has served over hundreds customers and has become recognized as professional and friendly roofing contractor. It can be found on Milestone Way near Pelham Road.

Travis Turner also said in relation to helping their customers with storm damage roof repair insurance claims: "While Drake Exteriors may not be the only business with this kind of offering, local residents are choosing Drake Exteriors because we do everything FOR our customers, but nothing WITHOUT the customer's approval. We are insurance claims specialists and make the whole process incredibly easy for homeowners."

When asked about the new website for their South Carolina location, Travis Turner said: "We think it's going to be a hit because Greenville is ready for a top-notch roofing company that they can easily contact via out website 24/7".

Further information about Drake Exteriors can be discovered at http://DrakeExteriors.net.

Feel free to request a free roof repair quote with this form.

For more information about us, please visit http://www.drakeexteriors.net

Contact Info:

Name: Travis Turner

Organization: Drake Exteriors LLC

Address: 152 Milestone Way Suite D Greenville South Carolina 29615

Phone: 1-888-601-8870

Release ID: 110109

For more information visit r



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CFS Fire Protection, Inc. Receives 2016 Best of Service Award in Roseville, CA

Roseville Award Program Honors the Achievements of CFS Fire Protection, Inc. being selected for the 2016 Best of Roseville California Award in the Fire Protection Services Category. This is a consecutive award. Find more information about CFS Fire Protection, Inc. on their Website: http://cfsfireprotection.com.

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ROSEVILLE April 2, 2016 - Roseville Award Program Honors the Achievements of CFS Fire Protection, Inc. being selected for the 2016 Best of Services Roseville California Award in the Fire Protection Services category by the Roseville Award Program.

This is a consecutive award for CFS Fire Protection, Inc. substantiating the Professional Fire Protection Services (Fire Extinguisher and Fire Suppression System Fire Code Compliance Inspection, Testing and Certification for Commercial Buildings, Restaurant Kitchens, Food Trucks and Fire Hydrants.) they consistently provide to their Customers throughout Northern California.

Each year, the Roseville Award Program identifies companies which have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community. These exceptional companies help make the Roseville area a great place to live, work and play.

Various sources of information were gathered and analyzed to choose the winners in each category. The 2016 Roseville Award Program focuses on quality, not quantity. Winners are determined based on the information gathered both internally by the Roseville Award Program and data provided by third parties.

About Roseville Award Program: The Roseville Award Program is an annual awards program honoring the achievements and accomplishments of local businesses throughout the Roseville area. Recognition is given to those companies that have shown the ability to use their best practices and implemented programs to generate competitive advantages and long-term value.

The Roseville Award Program was established to recognize the best of local businesses in the community. The Roseville Award Program organization works exclusively with local business owners, trade groups, professional associations and other business advertising and marketing groups. The Roseville Award Program's mission is to recognize the small business community's contributions to the U.S. economy.

Further information about CFS Fire Protection, Inc. and their Professional Fire Code Compliance Inspection, Testing and Certification Services is available on their website at http://CFSFireProtection.com.

SOURCE: Roseville Award Program, Email: PublicRelations@awardconnections.org, URL: http://www.awardconnections.org

For more information about us, please visit http://CFSFireProtection.com

Contact Info:

Name: Rory Bateman

Email: Rory@CFSFireProtection.com

Organization: CFS Fire Protection, Inc.

Address: 8102 Wachtel Way, Orangevale, Ca 95662

Phone: (916) 519-7112

Release ID: 89649

For more information visit r



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Since the end of the second world war, a broad consensus in support of global economic integration as a force for peace and prosperity has been a pillar of the international order. From global trade agreements to the EU project; from the Bretton Woods institutions to the removal of pervasive capital controls; from expanded foreign direct investment to increased flows of peoples across borders, the overall direction has been clear. Driven by domestic economic progress, by technologies such as containerised shipping and the internet that promote integration, and by legislative changes within and between nations, the world has grown smaller and more closely connected.

This has proved more successful than could reasonably have been hoped. We have not seen a war between leading powers. Global living standards have risen faster than at any point in history. And material progress has coincided with even more rapid progress in combating hunger, empowering women, promoting literacy and extending life. A world that will have more smartphones than adults within a few years is a world in which more is possible for more people than ever before.

Yet a revolt against global integration is under way in the west. The four leading candidates for president of the US  Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz  all oppose the principal free-trade initiative of this period: the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Proposals by Mr Trump, the Republican frontrunner, to wall off Mexico, abrogate trade agreements and persecute Muslims are far more popular than he is. The movement for a British exit from the EU commands substantial support. Under pressure from an influx of refugees, Europes commitment to open borders appears to be crumbling. In large part because of political constraints, the growth of the international financial institutions has not kept pace with the growth of the global economy.

Certainly a substantial part of what is behind the resistance is lack of knowledge. No one thanks global trade for the fact that their pay cheque buys twice as much in clothes, toys and other goods as it otherwise would. Those who succeed as exporters tend to credit their own prowess, not international agreements. So there is certainly a case for our leaders and business communities to educate people about the benefits of global integration. But at this late date, with the trends moving the wrong way, it is hard to be optimistic about such efforts.

The core of the revolt against global integration, though, is not ignorance. It is a sense, not wholly unwarranted, that it is a project carried out by elites for elites with little consideration for the interests of ordinary people  who see the globalisation agenda as being set by big companies playing off one country against another. They read the revelations in the Panama Papers and conclude that globalisation offers a fortunate few the opportunities to avoid taxes and regulations that are not available to the rest. And they see the disintegration that accompanies global integration, as communities suffer when big employers lose to foreign competitors.

What will happen next  and what should happen? Elites can continue pursuing and defending integration, hoping to win sufficient popular support  but, on the evidence of the US presidential campaign and the Brexit debate, this strategy may have run its course. This is likely to result in a hiatus in new global integration and efforts to preserve what is in place while relying on technology and growth in the developing world to drive further integration.

The precedents, notably the period between the first and second world wars, are hardly encouraging about unmanaged globalisation succeeding with neither a strong underwriter of the system nor strong global institutions.

Much more promising is this idea: the promotion of global integration can become a bottom-up rather than a top-down project. The emphasis can shift from promoting integration to managing its consequences.

This would mean a shift from international trade agreements to international harmonisation agreements, where issues such as labour rights and environmental protection would take precedence over issues related to empowering foreign producers. It would also mean devoting as much political capital to the trillions that escape tax or evade regulation through cross-border capital flows as we now devote to trade agreements. And it would mean an emphasis on the challenges of middle-class parents everywhere who doubt, but still hope desperately, that their kids can have better lives than they did.

The writer is Charles W Eliot university professor at Harvard and a former US Treasury secretary

Letters in response to this article:

Elites had better heed the malcontents / From Robert W McGee and Yeomin Yoon

Conserve the gains and compensate the losers / From P K M Tharakan

Stagnant wages drive anti-globalisation in US / From Desmond Lachman
Farmland values fell in the first quarter of 2016 as weak agricultural commodity markets and EU uncertainty made buyers more picky.

English values of bare arable and pasture land fell 3% in quarter one of this year compared to the last quarter of 2015, to average 8,000, according to data from Knight Frank.

The agent said it was the largest quarterly fall on its farmland index since 2008 when values fell 5% following the collapse of Lehman Brothers bank.

See also: Checklist: What to consider when selling your farmland

However, farmland values were still 32% higher than five years ago and a huge 176% higher than 10 years ago.

EU membership uncertainty

Given the significant issues weighing on the market at the moment, a period of readjustment is perhaps unsurprising, said Andrew Shirley, head of rural research at Knight Frank.

Agricultural commodity prices remain low with little prospect for a strong rebound in the short term, while the potential implications of a UK exit from the EU are adding further uncertainty Andrew Shirley, Knight Frank

Agricultural commodity prices remain low with little prospect for a strong rebound in the short term, while the potential implications of a UK exit from the EU are adding further uncertainty.

But whatever the outcome in June, the company was still seeing strong demand from farmers who were either not reliant on EU subsidy payments or had taken the long-term view that expansion was necessary, said Mr Shirley.

However, Mark McAndrew, head of national farm sales at Strutt & Parker, said that while the upcoming EU referendum had caused uncertainty, with less land coming to the market in recent months, average prices had remained relatively stable.

Many of these sales were agreed before the date of the referendum was announced, however, it does feel like the threat of Brexit is having less of an impact on land values than some commentators had predicted, he said.

He said location was becoming increasingly important in the market where lifestyle buyers and farmers with rollover funds from development land were influential, and that farmers were given closer consideration to whether they should invest in land or not.

Scottish BPS payments impact market

In Scotland, delayed BPS payments were making some buyers more choosy, said James Butler, associate in the companys Edinburgh office.

There is a limited number of buyers for smaller, livestock units, but demand is there for extensive, well-balanced stock farms James Butler, Strutt & Parker

Buyers are being more price sensitive in Scotland due to the delay in their basic payments and poorer commodity prices.

However, prime arable farms remain in short supply and buyers are prepared to pay a premium for quality offerings.

There is a limited number of buyers for smaller, livestock units, but demand is there for extensive, well-balanced stock farms.

Strutt & Parker also released its farmland figures this week, showing a quarterly fall of 3% on the value of English arable land in the first three months of this year.

The average price of arable land in England dipped down to 9,668/acre in quarter one of 2016, said the agent.
Many members of farming families dream of writing a book.

Whether its country memoirs, local history, a Jilly Cooper-style bonkbuster or a high-tech thriller, these nine simple tips can help you turn that dream into a reality

1. Start

Procrastination is the enemy of authors, so dont wait for inspiration.

Every minute you procrastinate is one less minute youre writing.

Once you have something down on paper (or more likely your computer), you have something to edit.

Easier said than done, admittedly, but just try to get going.

See also: Farmers Weekly journalist has novel published by Penguin

2. Write about what you know

Whether your story is about a contemporary forensic pathologist or a 1930s farming family, pick topics and characters you are interested in, inspired by and informed about.

Right now, farming and food are hot topics with the public, so it might just be the perfect time to write that rural-based blockbuster.

3. Get a routine

You might allocate one day every weekend to the task. You might prefer to lock yourself away for a few unbroken weeks at a quiet time every year.

You might even take your iPad with you on the tractor and type for half an hour every lunchtime.

Whats important is finding a routine that works for you and sticking to it.

Farming people are good at multiskilling, so youre already well-placed in this respect.

4. Set targets

Its good to give yourself goals and it makes the task less intimidating if you break it down into manageable chunks.

Can you get a draft of the first chapter done by the end of the month? The first three by Christmas? You could be halfway through it by the time you are lambing next year.

5. Listen to feedback

Show your work to people whose advice you trust and listen to what they say. Be true to your own vision, but take constructive criticism on board.

6. Edit

Then edit again. Then edit again. Then edit again.

7. Be persistent

They say you have to be an optimist to be a farmer, so channel this approach as you battle the odds.

Dont get discouraged when you hit setbacks.

The path to publication will be full of ups and downs.

Those stories of famous writers getting rejected dozens of times before achieving success are true.

8. Draw on your other skills

Publishers and agents like professional people. Youll be more appealing to them if you appreciate the business realities of the book trade.

Meet deadlines, be professional and be a nice person to deal with.

9. Stay positive

Remember why youre doing this. Its because the act of writing is fun (and, of course, because you want Steven Spielberg to snap up the film rights). If he does, youll buy a bigger, better-equipped farm and a holiday home in the Bahamas (in that order). Celebrate your milestones.

Enjoy the ride. Good luck.
More than 200 community members and neighbors packed the Tunison Community Room beyond capacity Saturday afternoon to voice their concerns about a proposed homeless camp site on Highway 99W.

The project, known as First Camp, would allow for a six-month privately funded pilot program for a fenced-in legal campsite on the 60- by 360-foot slice of land for up to 30 people. Organizers recently received permission from property owner Ole Ersson to use the 0.5-acre parcel of open field just north of Southwest Rivergreen Avenue between Rivergreen and the B&R Auto Wrecking facility.

First Camp cannot open without city approval because of code prohibitions against camping inside city limits. Organizers previously presented the proposal to the City Council and received support from the Housing Opportunities Action Council. Saturday was the first presentation to neighbors and the first session in which a site has been discussed.

After hearing dozens of concerns related to childrens safety, law enforcement, fire dangers and declining property values, co-organizer of the plan and former Benton County Commissioner Barbara Ross agreed that a lot of work still needs to be done.

Obviously, people are afraid. Theyre very concerned about their safety and the whole reputation of their area. They want south Corvallis to be respected, Ross said. This site is not perfect. There are definite disadvantages to this site so I can appreciate their positions to this. At the same time, we had a number of people tell us they liked this idea, even if they dont think this is the right site.

Neighbor Nancy Rohn said she was in favor of trying to find further solutions to help homelessness in Corvallis, but she said allowing camping in the proposed field would create far too many problems for her to support.

Im one of the bleeding heart do-gooders who want to help, and I think theyre trying to do the right thing. I think this idea is wrong and they would be doing the homeless a disservice, she said. This is not the way I want to see these people treated.

Rohn, who lives less than a mile from the site, said she was also concerned that neighbors didnt receive proper notification of the meeting. Organizers distributed notices only to neighbors within 500 feet of the site.

I found out last night because of another neighbor, she said. We have buildings in the area sitting empty. Come on, there are places to put these people indoors and out of the elements. We can do a lot better than this camp.

Neighbor Larry Mullins said he also had far too many questions to support the idea.

I think everybody does appreciate how complex this problem is. I think what we all have to ask is the question of is this the best location? Mullins said. And is a camp really, honestly, the best solution? If youre talking about trying to rehabilitate peoples lives, you have to give them a good starting point, and I dont think a camp is the best solution.

Several in attendance voiced support of the idea and the location, including neighbor Jamie Altman, who said he was once homeless but now lives three driveways from the proposed site.

I am for this program for that period of six months. I would like to see how it is run in this town. Its not a complete solution and its never going to be a complete solution. But it is step one, he said.

I understand its in our backyard and that south town has been wanting grocery stores and infrastructure. Someone asked why not put it on Timberhill. Whats the difference between Timberhill and south town? People in south town are more giving and caring about community. They care about each others neighbors.

Donna Lattin, who said she co-owns part of the field adjacent to the proposed camp site, could not agree with the camp site location but saw it as a part of a larger solution to reduce homelessness.

This is a short-term fix. For it to work, it needs to be part of a larger continuum of care and long-term plan, she said. We need a place that is safe and is going to provide shade and a dignified place, but this is not the right place. And the only way a camp like this could succeed is if it has buy-in from the adjacent property owners and neighbors. Im committed to making a comprehensive, long-term solution work.

After the meeting, Ross said that organizers did not expect such a turnout but that she was happy to see so many people show interest.

In spite of the fact that it was overrun, many people got a chance to say what was on their minds," she said. "Many people said that although this not a good site, there need to be solutions. And a number of people showed respect for this population. So I thought it was a really good mix of valid opinions.

Ross noted that the group was open to hosting another meeting in a larger venue to keep the dialogue going unless the City Council gives the group an indication at its next meeting April 18 that it doesn't think the proposal should move forward.

Its possible well get an indication from the City Council that theyre not going to do anything with this, she said. If it was the consensus of the council and city staff that they wouldnt move forward with this, then we would try to get them to put it on the record on the 18th so people could relax.

Councilor Zach Baker, whose Ward 3 includes the site, said he invited neighbors to contact him with their concerns and that he planned to address the council on the issue.

My understanding is that the project as proposed could not go in without change to the municipal code or land development code, which means it would be the City Councils court, he said. Im happy to talk to whoever would like to talk about this.
Aid shipment

The story: A group of international students at Oregon State University collected roughly a ton of winter clothing for Syrian refugees living in Erbil, Iraq, during a campus-wide donation drive in January and February. Members of the Ettihad Cultural Center, which represents students from Southwest Asia, North Africa and the Middle East, launched a fundraising campaign on the Go Fund Me website with a goal of $6,300, enough to cover the cost of air freight and truck transport plus Go Fund Mes fees.

The latest: The fundraising campaign fell short of its goal, bringing in $5,333 ($4,890 after Go Fund Me took its cut), according to Amarah Khan, associate director of global diversity initiatives at OSU and the faculty adviser to the Ettihad Cultural Center. However, that was enough money to send the clothing by sea. The ship carrying the donated garments left the Port of Portland on Thursday and is expected to arrive in Iraq after a three-week journey.

Bennett Hall

Credit union HQ

The story: Oregon State Credit Union broke ground in April on a new three-story headquarters building in the Sunset Research Park. The 62,000-square-foot structure at Southwest Research way and Technology Loop, across the street from the Sunset Shopping Center, will house administrative offices as well as a credit union branch and a large community meeting room.

The latest: The building should be ready to occupy by late June, according to Mike Corwin, the credit unions assistant vice president for public relations and business development. The branch is expected to be up and running by early July, and the credit union plans to host and open house and other community events there in August and September.

Bennett Hall

Climate action plan

The story: A Corvallis task force chaired by Ward 3 Councilor Zach Baker is working on a climate action plan to fulfill one of the six City Council goals for this two-year cycle. The seven-person committee started with three councilors  Baker, Ward 1s Penny York and Ward 2s Roen Hogg  and community members Kirk Bailey, Cindy Dahl, Marge Stevens and Brandon Trelstad. The council passed a resolution Feb. 16 authorizing Mayor Biff Traber to expand the committee, no longer require councilors to occupy three spots and to limit the number of community members to five.

The latest: Adding Ramon Martinez and Gordon Zimmerman to the panel to replace Hogg and York put the community member component at six. Traber, noting in hindsight that not limiting community membership would increase flexibility, asked the council to pass a new resolution eliminating the community limit. Councilors did so during their April 4 meeting.

James Day
Arms Official Tried to Sell Weapons Secrets to US Firm, Turkey Says

by Uzay Bulut April 08, 2016

A top official of Turkey's state-run arms company was arrested this week while trying to sell weapons production plans to a U.S. firm owned by a Turkish national, Turkish authorities said.

Mustafa Tanriverdi, manager of the Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) Kirikkale factory, was detained Thursday by Turkish undercover police at an Ankara restaurant, where he was to meet an official of the unnamed U.S. company, according to Turkish media reports.

Tanriverdi is being held on charges of espionage, exploiting state secrets and disloyalty to the state, Turkish officials say.

MKE is a government-funded corporation that produces equipment and materials for the Turkish armed forces and also for the civilian sector.

Tanriverdi allegedly tried to sell the design and production plans of the Turkish-patented MP-5 submachine gun and the newly produced domestic infantry rifle MPT-76 for $200,000 and $300,000, respectively.

Police say they were tipped off to Tanriverdi's plans by a Turkish weapons trader, identified only as K.K., according to the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News. He later told authorities that he was not selling state secrets but making a legal deal with an arms trader, Turkish media reported.

"I've made a mistake in this incident. I know what I've done and I regret it," Tanriverdi said after his arrest, according to a transcript of court testimony obtained by Turkish media.

"I've known the person named K.K. for almost a year and a half," he testified. "I know that he does weapons trade legally and will set up a weapons factory for civilians in the U.S. He told me that he will set up a weapons factory in the U.S. and he wanted to use my experience. I've made a mistake and believed what he told me."

Officials at the Turkish foreign and defense ministries and police headquarters in Ankara did not respond to VOA requests for comment.

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Turkish weapons factory director caught selling state secrets to US

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 12:49AM

The head of Turkey's state-owned Mechanical and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKEK) weapons factory has been arrested on charges of trying to sell weapon designs to a US company.

According to Turkish media, Mustafa Tanrverdi was detained in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday while trying to sell the design and production plans of the MP-5 gun and the newly produced domestic infantry rifle MPT-76 to a US company official for USD 200,000 and USD 300,000, respectively.

Tanrverdi (pictured below) was caught red-handed at a restaurant in Ankara by Turkish security officers posing as the US company's agents, said a report by Turkish Haber Port daily. The company had noticed Turkish authorities of his plan to sell the designs.

The MKEK head is charged with receiving bribes, exploiting state secrets and disloyalty to state services.

"I've made a mistake in this incident. I know what I've done and I regret it," said Tanrverdi in his testimony in court, while claiming that the information does not qualify as state secret.

The MPT-76, which is composed of some 200 parts, is expected to replace the Heckler & Koch G3 battle rifle in the Turkish army. The first batches of the MPT-76 were delivered to the Turkish armed forces in 2014.

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Indonesia Launches Four Vessels to Combat Illegal Fishing

by Ahadian Utama April 08, 2016

Indonesia launched four ships equipped with fishing vessel inspection systems Friday in Jakarta.

Described by officials as the largest such monitoring vessels the country has ever acquired, their launch from Tanjung Priok Harbor comes amid increased tensions over maritime territorial disputes in the South China Sea.

"We developed the Indonesian Fisheries Inspectorate Vessels System as proof of the seriousness of the government," said Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti. "The government will continue to guard the sea so perpetrators of illegal fishing could not steal our fish."

The vessels are expected to patrol the Arafuru Sea between Papua New Guinea and Australia, along with waters off Sulawesi and the Natuna Islands, which have been the site of repeated conflict between Indonesian and Chinese fishing boats.

"Our mission, according to the regulations, is to monitor, inspect and take action against those ships that, when inspected, are proven to have conducted illegal fishing," said Captain Agung Tri Wibowo, skipper of the newly launched Orca 02.

The four new Orca monitoring vessels  60 meters in length and 8.2 meters wide, capable of 25 knots and equipped with S-band navigation equipment  add to Indonesia's fleet of 31 vessels already patrolling the country's maritime borders.

Susi says her ministry plans to build two to three new Orca vessels annually over the next five years.

Jakarta claimed in mid-March that a Chinese boat was illegally fishing just over four kilometers off the coast of the Natuna Islands and inside waters Indonesia claims as its exclusive economic zone. In that incident, the Chinese vessel Kway Fey was being towed by Indonesia coastal officials when a Chinese coast guard vessel collided with it, allowing its escape.

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Indonesian service.

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Defense Secretary: US Wary of China's S. China Sea Actions

by VOA News April 08, 2016

U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said Friday that the United States had serious concerns about China's actions in the disputed South China Sea.

In a speech on Asian security in New York, Carter said countries in the Asia-Pacific region were voicing concern about China's military actions, which he said "stand out in size and scope." He said those countries were expressing their concerns to the United States both publicly and privately, and at the highest levels.

He said that although the United States had disagreements with China, Washington was committed to working through them in ways that do not destabilize the region.

Also in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, a policy institute in New York City, Carter said placement of a U.S. missile defense system in South Korea was "going to happen," despite China's objections. He said that the defense system was a "necessary thing" to protect U.S. forces and their allies, and that it had "nothing to do with the Chinese."

South Korea decided to discuss the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense System, or THAAD, after North Korea claimed to have successfully launched a satellite into space.

'Consequential' region

Carter called the Asia-Pacific region "the single most consequential region for America's future." He urged Congress to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact, saying it would bind the United States more closely with Asia and would unlock economic opportunities for all countries involved.

Carter also highlighted the U.S. relationship with India and the Philippines, where he will be traveling next week.

While in India, Carter said he would meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar to discuss recent collaborations over military equipment, including the purchase of U.S. jet fighters, and to talk about new projects. He said the U.S.-India relationship was destined to be one of the most significant partnerships of the 21st century.

From India, Carter will travel to the Philippines, where he said he would witness military exercises involving the United States and the Philippines.

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Djibouti President Guelleh Wins Disputed Re-Election

by VOA News April 08, 2016

Djibouti's minister of the interior has announced that President Ismail Omar Guelleh has won Friday's presidential election with nearly 87 percent of the vote.

Interior Minister Hassan Omar Mohamed told VOA (Somali service) the vote count is complete and President Guelleh has won outright in the first round of the election, giving him another five-year term in office - his fourth consecutive term since 1999.

His nearest rival was Omar Elmi Khaire of the Union for National Salvation, who got just over 7 percent of the votes.

Some opposition parties boycotted the election after Guelleh, who was always the clear front-runner, went back on his earlier decision not to run.

Opposition supporters dispute the vote, saying some voters were turned away from polling stations. Opposition leaders have complained of police brutality in the weeks leading up to the election, and say the media covers them unfairly.

Djibouti is very small, but it carries influence internationally because of its location as a port on the Gulf of Aden, one of the world's busiest shipping routes. The U.S. military has its only permanent base in Africa in Djibouti.

Complaints surfaced about election irregularities when polls opened early Friday. Two opposition politicians accused the government of removing their representatives from polling stations. They also accused soldiers of voting in stations where they are not supposed to.

"The irregularities have started after 9 a.m. There are 4,000 soldiers brought deployed in Ali Sabeih to vote at polling stations, our delegates were removed from the polling stations," said Omar Elmi Khaire of the Union for National Salvation (USN) opposition umbrella.

"In Obolley (village) there are only 55 people who are registered to vote but there are now 500 soldiers who are voting, our delegates were ejected," he said.

Another opposition politician, Mohamed Muse Tourtour, an independent candidate, repeated similar accusations. He told VOA (Somali) that he reported the issue to the Interior Ministry, which he says assured him the claims be will investigated.

The main opposition coalition is being further hampered by fractures in leadership. Guelleh's two main opponents, Mohamed Daoud Chehem and Omar Elmi Khaireh, both claim to represent the USN opposition coalition.

The seven-party opposition coalition has also experienced a split in its ranks, with three of its member parties breaking from the planned election boycott.

Opposition leaders are particularly concerned about the legitimacy of the election oversight agency, which they say is rife with fraud. In 2013, following the parliamentary elections that saw Guelleh's party win with 49 percent of the vote, his rivals demanded that an independent election commission be established. The commission has not been created.

Guelleh won his last election in 2011 with 80 percent of the vote. In order for Guelleh to win that election parliament had to change the country's constitution because presidents were limited to two terms.

VOA Somali service contributed to this report.

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIL in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, April 9, 2016  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant terrorists in Iraq and Syria yesterday, Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of the latest strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

Attack aircraft conducted two strikes in Syria:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, one strike destroyed an ISIL oil separator.

-- Near Manbij, one strike destroyed an ISIL rocket rail, seven ISIL rockets and an ISIL mortar system.

Strikes in Iraq

Attack, fighter, ground attack and remotely piloted aircraft and rocket artillery conducted 21 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq's government:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike destroyed an ISIL heavy machine gun.

-- Near Albu Hayat, a strike destroyed two ISIL rocket rails and 22 rockets.

-- Near Habbaniyah, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL mortar system and suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Haditha, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions.

-- Near Hit, four strikes struck a large ISIL tactical unit and destroyed 10 ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL heavy machine gun, an ISIL artillery piece, an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, 30 ISIL boats and an ISIL tactical vehicle.

-- Near Kirkuk, a strike destroyed an ISIL fighting position.

-- Near Kisik, two strikes destroyed an ISIL command and control node and an ISIL tunnel system.

-- Near Mosul, three strikes struck an ISIL tactical unit and an ISIL financial storage center and destroyed three ISIL rocket rails.

-- Near Qayyarah, four strikes struck an ISIL weapons storage facility, destroyed two ISIL vehicle bombs and denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Sinjar, a strike suppressed an ISIL tactical unit.

-- Near Sultan Abdallah, a strike denied ISIL access to terrain.

-- Near Tal Afar, a strike struck an ISIL headquarters.

Task force officials define a strike as one or more kinetic events that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single, sometimes cumulative, effect. Therefore, officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIL vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against buildings, vehicles and weapon systems in a compound, for example, having the cumulative effect of making those targets harder or impossible for ISIL to use. Accordingly, officials said, they do not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

The strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to eliminate the ISIL terrorist group and the threat they pose to Iraq, Syria, and the wider international community. The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the terrorist group's ability to project terror and conduct operations, officials said.

Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Iraq include the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Jordan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Coalition nations that have conducted strikes in Syria include the United States, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

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President promotes peace during visit to islet near Diaoyutais

ROC Central News Agency

2016/04/09 22:41:57

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou () unveiled a monument to his East China Sea Peace Initiative during a visit to an islet near the disputed Diaoyutai Islands Saturday, as part of his efforts to promote peace in the region.

On arrival on Pengjia Islet on an S-70C helicopter, Ma hosted a ceremony to unveil the monument, which is inscribed with the words "Peace in the East China Sea and our national territory secure forever."

His goal was to make clear the Republic of China's resolve to seek peaceful resolutions to disputes in the contested area, he said.

It was Ma's second visit to Pengjia, which is located just over 30 nautical miles north of Keelung City in Taiwan and 76 nautical miles west of the Diaoyutais in the East China Sea.

The 1.14 square km islet, which comes under the administrative jurisdiction of Keelung City, is Taiwan's northernmost territory and the closest to the uninhabited Diaoyutais.

During his visit there on Saturday, Ma highlighted his East China Sea Peace Initiative, which was proposed in August 2012 amid escalating spats among neighboring countries over the Diaoyutai island chain, which is currently controlled by Japan, but is also claimed by Taiwan and China.

In light of the disputes in the region, Ma said, he was again advocating shelving differences, pursuing peace and reciprocity and working together to explore resources there.

The president noted that he laid out details of his East China Sea Peace Initiative while visiting Pengjia Islet for the first time in September 2012.

At that time, he called for Taiwan, China and Japan to first conduct three parallel tracks of bilateral dialogue, and then move to a single track of trilateral negotiations to explore the possibility of jointly developing resources in the region, in order to achieve an "East China Sea Peace Agreement," he recalled.

In his speech Saturday, Ma also noted that a historic agreement was signed between Taiwan and Japan on April 10, 2013 to address their long-standing fishing disputes in waters near the Diaoyutais.

The agreement has largely reduced the number of fishing disputes, and allowed Taiwan to stick to its stance of "no comprise on sovereignty while expanding fishing rights," he added.

Asked if he was worried that his initiatives would not be continued under the new government, Ma said he did not envision that the incoming president would go against achievements like the fishery agreement with Japan.

On the South China Sea issue, Ma again spoke about his peace proposal that calls for all parties concerned to take action to reduce tensions, abide by international law, ensure freedom of navigation and overflight and seek a peaceful resolution to disputes.

He said his trip to Taiping Island in January, during which he announced a roadmap for his South China Sea Peace Initiative, was aimed at demonstrating the ROC's resolve to address disputes in the region through peaceful means.

Taiping, also known Itu Aba, is the largest island in the Spratlys in the South China Sea and is controlled by Taiwan.

Peace policies are welcomed everywhere, Ma said.

"That's because there's no winner in conflict, and there's no loser in peace," he said, highlighting his administration's efforts to promote peace in the Taiwan Strait and the East China and South China seas.

Meanwhile, Ma revealed that Taiwan will hold a conference in Taipei on April 14 to discuss South China Sea issues and that after the conference, participating experts will be given the opportunity to visit Taiping.

In addition to Ma and senior government officials, a group of activists who advocate defense of the disputed Diaoyutais also visited Pengjia on Saturday.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Elaine Hou)

ENDITEM/pc

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Ma vows to closely follow Diaoyutai issues after he steps down

ROC Central News Agency

2016/04/09 19:17:56

Taipei, April 9 (CNA) President Ma Ying-jeou () said Saturday that even after he steps down in May, he will maintain a keen interest in matters related to the disputed Diaoyutai Islands in the East China Sea.

During his second visit as president to Pengjia Islet near the uninhabited Diaoyutai Island chain, Ma unveiled a monument to his East China Sea Peace Initiative and stressed the importance of addressing territorial disputes through peaceful means.

Such an approach will deliver win-win results, while conflict will only lead to loss for all parties concerned, he told reporters.

Pengjia Islet, located just over 30 nautical miles north of the northern Taiwan city of Keelung and 76 nautical miles west of the Diaoyutais, falls under the administrative jurisdiction of Keelung City.

In September 2012, Ma visited Pengjia for the first time as president and laid out the details of his East China Sea Peace Initiative amid escalating spats among several countries in the region over the Diaoyutais, known as the Senkakus in Japan.

While reaffirming Taiwan's claim to the Diaoyutais, the proposal calls for all claimants to shelve their differences, pursue peace and reciprocity and jointly explore the resources in the area.

In response to a reporter's question Saturday on the possibility for him to visit the Diaoyutais, Ma said it would be premature to think about such a visit.

He said however, that he will continue to closely follow all relevant issues in the disputed East China Sea area after he steps down.

On the question of whether his visit to Pengjia Islet was aimed at leaving a historical legacy following his recent trip to Taiping Island in the contested South China Sea, Ma said it was meant to coincide with the April 10 anniversary of a historic 2013 agreement between Taiwan and Japan to address fishing disputes in waters near the Diaoyutais.

Due to weather conditions, however, the Pengjia trip was moved up one day, the president said, adding that his Taiping visit in January was made on 70th anniversary of the Republic of China's recovery of the island from Japan.

With more than one month left before he steps down, Ma said he will do as much as he can.

Asked if he would serve as a peace ambassador for Taiwan after he leaves office, Ma said he would be willing to share his experience of promoting peace in the Taiwan Strait and in the East China and South China seas.

The Diaoyutais, some 100 nautical miles northeast of Taiwan, have been under Japan's administrative control since 1972 but are also claimed by Taiwan and China, which calls them the Diaoyu Islands.

(By Hsieh Chia-chen and Elaine Hou)

ENDITEM/pc

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U.S. Department of Defense

Press Operations

News Transcript

Presenter: Secretary of Defense Ash Carter April 09, 2016

Remarks on "America's Growing Security Network in the Asia-Pacific" (Council on Foreign Relations)

STAFF: Well good afternoon. I'm Richard Haass, and I want to welcome everyone in the room and watching from afar, to the Council on Foreign Relations. And today, we are fortunate and honored to have with us the 25th secretary of defense, or if you prefer, SecDef of the United States, Ashton Carter.

Now, I realize ours is a country of about 320 million people. But if there ever was one person meant to be secretary of defense, it is Ash. He is the consummate scholar practitioner. He's held any number of influential positions in the five-sided building, including that of deputy secretary, but beyond that has degrees in medieval history and theoretical physics.

I find it difficult to think of a better preparation --

(Laughter.)

-- oh, you don't even know what I'm going to say. I find it hard to think of a better preparation for what is happening or could come to happen in today's Middle East. He's about to take off, probably not on JetBlue for India and the Philippines. And that is a very good thing. The Asia-Pacific region is the world where a lot of this century's history will be written.

Now, I understand the Middle East gets the lion share of the headlines. But time spent in the Far East is time well spent. It is essential that the urgent not crowd out the important. Full disclosure, Ash and I have been friends from in college for over three decades now. We first got to know each other well in the 1980s when we were both faculty at Harvard's Kennedy school.

One way or another though, that collaboration was destined to end in 1989, as he was either heading off for a big job in the Dukakis administration. Or I was going to work for then Vice President George H.W. Bush. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today's meeting will begin with Secretary Carter delivering extensive remarks on the Asia-Pacific. This will then be followed by a conversation between the secretary and Mary Boyce who is, among other things, not just a prominent lawyer, but also a member of our board of directors and someone with extensive knowledge of and experience with the U.S. military.

Then the secretary will take a few questions after -- from Mary from you, our members. The plan is to wrap up by about 3:15, or as the secretary likes to call it, 1515. With that, Secretary Carter.

(Applause.)

SEC. CARTER: Appreciate it. Well, good afternoon everyone.

And Richard, thanks. Thanks so much for those words, for decades of friendship, for your leadership here at the council and for above all, for your public service. Which continues, Richard is a member of the Department of Defense's defense policy board. We count on him for advice on all subjects all the time.

He and I were just talking shortly before this about some things that he is preparing to give us some advice on in just a few weeks time. It is nice to see a lot of old friends here at the ouncil. Many of you. I looked at the list of attendees coming in and it was like a homecoming in many, ways. Great to visit all my friends and be here at the counsel. Because for generations, the council's hosted the debates and supported the thinkers and ideas that have shaped America's relationship with the world.

And those ideas are as important as ever as we enter a new, strategic era. Indeed, today's security environment is dramatically different from the one that we have had for 25 -- the last 25 years. In this era, we fight -- we face no fewer than five evolving, major immediate challenges: countering the prospect of Russian aggression and coercion, especially in Europe, managing historic change in the vital Asia-Pacific region, including China's rise, which we welcome.

And some of its actions, such as in the South China Sea, about which we share the serious concerns of all in the region. Strengthening our deterrent and defense forces in the face of North Korea's continued nuclear pursuits and provocations. Checking Iranian aggression an malign influence in the Gulf, and protecting our friends and allies, especially Israel.

And accelerating the defeat of ISIL and its parent tumor in Iraq, and Syria and everywhere it's metastasizing around the world, as well as protecting our people here in the homeland.

The United States and the Department of Defense must and will address all five of those challenges. To do so is going to require some new strategic and operational approaches, a new force posture in many places, and large investments in new and enhanced capabilities. And all of this, we're doing.

But today, I want to talk to you about how we're meeting the challenges and seizing the opportunities in the Asia-Pacific -- and in particular, our growing security network there.

Almost all of the nations there are asking us to do more with them bilaterally and multilaterally.

Tomorrow, as Richard said, I leave for India and the Philippines, and I'm going to highlight today some of the advances we'll be announcing along the way.

The Asia-Pacific is -- and Richard made this point -- the single, most consequential region of the world for America's future. And we have long played an essential and pivotal role in that region, and we're working today, both individually and with our allies and partners to ensure the Asia-Pacific remains a region where everyone -- everyone -- can rise and prosper.

That has been America's objective and practice for decades. Regardless of what else was going on at home or in other parts of the world, during Democratic and Republican administrations, and times of surplus and deficit, war and peace, the United States has played a pivotal role economically, politically and militarily in the Asia- Pacific.

Along with a wide variety of allies and partners, for decades, we have stood tall for enduring principles, including peaceful resolution of disputes, the freedom of navigation and over flight. We've helped ensure that countries can make their own security and economic choices, free from coercion and intimidation. And we have promoted free trade and the rule of law to support development and unprecedented growth.

Of course, fundamentally, sustaining this human progress requires, as a foundation, security and stability. And the United States has helped provide both with its strong defense engagement in the region. The highly capable men and women, the American armed forces, and our unique technology and assets, coupled to our values, have long provided the necessary reassurance -- an attractive, an appealing reassurance -- and worked to keep the peace in the Asia- Pacific.

And because we have done so inclusively, and in a principle and a respectful way, we have developed alliances and partnerships all over the region.

These relationships, nurtured over decades, tested in crisis and built on shared interests, value -- values and sacrifice form the bedrock of our role in the Asia-Pacific, and accordingly, its stability and prosperity.

The results have been extraordinary. In the interest of, and to the benefit of all nations, including the United States -- since World War II, millions have been lifted from poverty and into the middle class.

And even though there is still room for improvement, democracy and freedom have spread to places across the region. And economic miracle after economic miracle has occurred in the region. First in Japan, then Taiwan, South Korea, Southeast Asia rose and prospered. And now, today, China and India are doing the same. This progress creates opportunities for the region to continue to grow. But of course dramatic change can also produce some negatives.

And recently, not all the news out of the of Asia-Pacific has been positive. Indeed, in the South China Sea, China's actions in particular are raising regional tensions. That is why countries across the Asia-Pacific are voicing concern with militarization. And especially over the last year with China's actions, which stand out in size and scope.

They're voicing those concerns publicly and privately at the highest levels, regional meetings and global forums. That is why many of these countries are reaching out anew to the United States to uphold the rules and the principles that have allowed the region to thrive. That is why we support intensified regional diplomacy, not increased tensions, the threat of force, or unilateral changes to the status quo.

And that is one reason why we're making enormous investments in our capabilities. Why so many are asking us to do more with them. And why we'll continue to fly and sail and operate wherever international law allows, because we must continue the progress that has helped so many in the region to rise and prosper.

President Obama launched the rebalance to the Asia-Pacific to ensure that we do our part to make that bright opportunity come to pass. While, I of course, absorbed myself with the defense component of the rebalance, I should be clear that one of the most important, strategic parts of the rebalance is the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact. TPP will bind the United States more closely together with 11 other economies, and unlock economic opportunities for the United States and many of its allies and partners.

And TPP will help reinforce the open and inclusive economic approach that has benefited so many in the Asia Pacific. TPP should be ratified because of its economic and strategic benefits, and because we must recognize what the alternative to TPP really is. A regional economy, the largest in the world, with standards that do not serve American interests. And one that's carved up by lopsided, coercively negotiated, lower standard deals. That is why I've said the TPP is strategically important to the rebalance as an aircraft carrier. And I strongly urge Congress to approve TPP this year. Military, the Department of Defense is operationalizing the next phase of the rebalance and submitting it for the long term. We're enhancing America's force posture throughout this vitally important region to continue playing a pivotal role: from the sea and the air and under the water, as well as to make our posture more geographically distributed, more operationally resilient and more politically sustainable.

To do so, we continue to bring the best people and platforms forward to the Asia-Pacific. Not only increasing the number of U.S. military personnel in the region, part of some 365,000 assigned to the Asia-Pacific today, but also sending and stationing some of our most advanced capabilities there. That includes F-22 and F-35 stealth fighter jets. P-8A Poseidon Maritime Surveillance Aircraft, continuous deployments of B-2 and B-52 strategic bombers.

And also are newest surface warfare ships, like the amphibious assault ship USS America. And all three of our newest class of stealth destroyers, the DDG-1000, which will be all home- ported with the Pacific fleet.

And all the while, we're bringing America's regional force posture into the 21st century by rotating American personnel into new and more places -- like Northern Australia and new sites in the Philippines, and modernizing our existing footprint in Japan and the Republic of Korea.

How we're doing this a reflection of a shift we're making across the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marine Corps after 15 years of intensive effort in counter insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan, toured full-spectrum operations.

And in our 2017 defense budget, which I've presented to Congress over the past few weeks, we're making investments critical to the rebalance. One is our surface fleet, which under our budget grows both the number of ships, and importantly, above all, their capabilities to deter -- and if deterrence fails, defeat even the most advanced potential naval adversaries, and protect the maritime security we all depend on.

Just one new example of how we're making our ships capabilities increasingly the fullest by maximizing production of the SM-6 missile, one of our most modern and capable munitions, which now has a brand new, anti-ship capability. And I could go on.

We're also investing to ensure our continued air superiority and global reach, including with over $12 billion for the new B-21 Long- Range Strike Bomber.

Another investment is in undersea capabilities, where we continue to dominate, and where we're investing over $8 billion just next year to ensure ours is the most lethal and most advanced undersea and anti- submarine force in the world.

That includes new undersea drones in multiple sizes and diverse payloads that can, importantly, operate in shallow water, where manned submarines can't.

We're also making large new investments in cyber and electronic warfare, space capabilities, a total of $34 billion just next year.

Among other things, this will help us build our cyber mission force, develop next generation electronic jammers, and prepare for the possibility of a conflict that extends into space.

And more is coming, including some surprises.

We're also strengthening our alliances and partnerships, which will be the focus of my trip this coming week.

And in that regard, let me take you on a brief tour of what we're doing with partners around the region, and then focus on India and the Philippines, where I'll be traveling next week -- and important advances are being made that occasion my trip.

Our alliances and partnerships are, and will remain one of our most important, strategic assets. Our allies around the world, including those in the Asia-Pacific have stood with and fought with us time and again, most recently in Iraq, Afghanistan and against ISIL.

And we're just as committed to them. As history has shown, we fought with our friends and allies, and to defend the principles and values we share in the Asia-Pacific, in Europe, in the Middle East and elsewhere.

And while I can't take the time to detail it today, both Japan and the Republic of Korea are strengthening their own militaries, and changing how they operate within our alliances in fundamental and forward-looking ways.

We're sharing our best and newest capabilities, including the F- 35 Joint Strike Fighter, which will soon begin to operate with both Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Meanwhile, we're developing newer partnerships with Vietnam, with Malaysia, with Indonesia and others, while also enhancing our already high-performing relationship with Singapore.

And we're holding more numerous and more sophisticated exercises with a growing network of partner countries. None larger than this summer's RIMPAC, which will bring together more than two dozen Navies, nearly twice that participated just six years ago, to develop the relationships that are critical to ensuring the safety and security and peace of the region's ceilings.

You can see the breadth and depth of our bilateral efforts with one of our key, growing partners, India, where I'll arrive a short time from right now. The U.S.-India relationship is destined to be one of the most significant partnerships of the 21st century. Ours are two great nations that share a great deal: democratic governments, multiethnic and multicultural societies with a commitment to individual freedom and inclusivity, and growing innovative, open economies.

Over the course of years at the Defense Department, I've have seen a remarkable convergence of U.S. and Indian interests. What I call a strategic handshake. As the United States is reaching West in it's rebalance India's reaching east and Prime Minister Modi is at east policy that will bring it farther into the Indian and Pacific oceans.

We see this handshake reflected in the joint strategic vision statement of President Obama and Prime Minister Modi released last January. And the 2015 framework for the U.S.-India defense relationship, also a new thing. Which Indian Defense Minister Parrikar and I signed last year in Delhi. These -- the defense framework is foundational and it's going to guide the U.S.-India defense relationship for the next decade.

And there is another handshake between our countries as well, a technological one. In 2012, the United States and India created the Defense Technology and Trade Initiative, to leverage the convergence between our industrial and technological abilities in an unprecedented way. This after a half a century since Indian independence of separation of our militaries and our industrial systems.

That initiative grasped hands with Prime Minister Modi's Making India campaign, to expand the nation's industrial and defense base. That it will lead to greater production and co-production -- excuse me -- and co-development of defense capabilities. While in India, I'll meet with Prime Minister Modi and also Defense Mister Parrikar to discuss the progress we have made together by an aircraft carrier, jet fighter and jet engine collaboration. And we'll talk about exciting new projects, the details of which I can go into this afternoon, but stay tuned when I'm with Mister -- Minister Parrikar. There is so much potential here, which is why we are seizing every opportunity we can. Last year, the Modi government reached out to the United States to discuss the possibility of launching joint production on a new platform to build on the work Lockheed Martin and Indian industry achieved on the C-130J project.

And with Boeing and Indian industry, will achieve in the production of Apache and Chinook helicopters in India, recently purchased. Members of my team and industry right now, as we are here in New York, in India are looking at the potential co-production of fighter aircraft. These conversations represent the growing enthusiasm of U.S.-India partnership.

And even more than that, it's promise. While these negotiations can be difficult and global competition is high, I have no doubt that in the coming years, the United States and India will embark on a landmark co-production agreement that will bring our two countries closer together and make our militaries stronger.

As our strategic and technological interests have drawn together, so too have our military ties. We're coming together operationally across domains, by air, land, and sea, to collaborate in humanitarian assistance, disaster relief, maritime security, and maritime domain awareness.

This week we'll also conclude several important agreements, including one on commercial shipping information exchange, which will make many new things possible in the future.

Our gathering partnership in defense can also be seen in India's return to major joint exercises like Red Flag, our prestigious U.S. Air Force-hosted aerial combat training exercise where all our top pilots, and those from countries like India, train together.

India will again participate in RIMPAC, which, as I mentioned, the world's largest international maritime exercise. And in the Malabar Exercise, Japan, India, and the United States, all three have operated together at sea in such critical training as air defense and anti-submarine warfare.

From India I'll travel to the Philippines, with which we have one of our longest relationships in the region. We share much history and many common ties with the Philippines.

And our long-running defense alliance has been a cornerstone of peace and stability in the region for more than 65 years. And as President Obama has made clear, our commitment to the Philippines is ironclad.

Today our alliance is as close as it has been in many years thanks to two major recent steps forward that occasion my visit in coming days.

First is the U.S.-Philippines Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement, the so-called EDCA, which is a landmark agreement that was ratified in the Philippines in January.

And also the new U.S.-Southeast Asia Maritime Security Initiative, by which we, that is, the Department of Defense, is helping to fund these changes in the Philippines and other partners in the region.

As part of EDCA's implementation, we're supporting modernization of the Philippine armed forces, and strengthening mutual defense, an arrangement that will allow our force, at the invitation of the government of the Philippines, to conduct regular rotational training, exercises, and activities.

We recently announced an initial slate of five agreed locations for those alliance activities. Locations arrayed throughout the archipelago that will offer the opportunity for increasingly complex bilateral engagements.

And I plan to visit two of those locations next week. First, Fort Magsaysay, and Antonio Bautista Air Force -- "say-say" I should say. And Antonio Bautista Air Force Base.

At Fort Magsaysay, the former home of the Philippines Army's premier training facility, we previously made use of limited prepositioned disaster relief supplies that supported our response to Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.

EDCA will enable us to augment these stocks and add new ones to the airbase, thereby improving our ability to respond to future disasters. I'll be discussing both of these things at these sites when I arrive in the Philippines.

And last year, at the region's Shangri-La Dialogue, I announced our Maritime Security Initiative. This initiative represents a $425 million five-year commitment by the Defense Department to help countries like the Philippines share information, identify potential threats, and work collaboratively to address common challenges in the region.

We've just released the first tranche of this money, nearly 80 percent of which is going to the Philippines.

There it will help modernize the technology and train the staff at the Philippines National Coast Watch Center, enhance an information network to enable the sharing of classified communications between the U.S. Pacific Command in Hawaii and key Philippine maritime command centers, provide an aerostat reconnaissance platform, and outfit the Philippine Navy patrol vessels with better sensors so they can do more in the region's waters.

These two things, EDCA and Maritime Security Initiative, will take the U.S.-Philippines alliance capability to a new level, one that has not been seen in decades.

I will also see some of this firsthand in Exercise Balikatan 2016, our premier exercise with the Philippines. Balikatan is going on right now. And it includes over 7,000 personnel from every military service in both countries, dozens of American aircraft, vehicles, and vessels, including one of our aircraft carriers.

And several important components, including a simulated gas and oil platform recovery raid in the South China Sea.

Balikatan signals shared resolve. It enhances our shared capabilities. And it demonstrates once again America's dedication to standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the Philippines.

Like our alliance with the Philippines and our developing partnership with India, America's bilateral relationships remain the bedrock of our present engagement in the Asia-Pacific.

But in the large and interconnected region, especially one with so many strong, capable, and dedicated players, it makes sense to network and link relationships, and produce gains for all. And that's what we're doing.

Unlike elsewhere in the world, peace and stability in the Asia- Pacific has never been maintained by a region-wide alliance like NATO. No comparable formal structure. That has made sense for the Asia- Pacific, its unique history, geography, and politics.

Instead, regional security, stability, and prosperity have required nations working together less formally. And the United States has been an important builder, cement, and participant in this arrangement.

Today, as the region changes, the United States is augmenting our bilateral relationships and alliances with trilateral and multilateral arrangements. We're weaving these partnerships together to more effectively bolster American and regional security.

This network, with its shared values, habits of cooperation, and compatible and complimentary capabilities will expand the reach of all, responsibly share the security burden, and help ensure peace and stability in the region for years to come.

This burgeoning network builds in three ways. First, the Department of Defense is strongly emphasizing trilateral mechanisms to bring together likeminded allies and partners to maximize individual contributions to regional peace and security, and link together nations that previously worked with us mostly separately.

For example, the U.S.-Japan-Korea trilateral partnership helps us all work together as well as share information and coordinate responses to, for example, North Korean provocations.

Last month's trilateral meeting between President Obama, Prime Minister Abe, and President Park on this topic was historic.

The U.S.-Japan-Australia relationship is also expanding practical cooperation, enhancing exercises, training, and information-sharing, and building capabilities.

And our burgeoning U.S.-Japan-India trilateral relationship is evolving from a strategic dialogue, where it began, through joint activities like the Malabar Exercise, to real practical security cooperation that spans the entire region from the subcontinent right around to East Asia.

Second, to improve regional security, we're encouraging our allies and partners to actively develop their own interconnected security relationships.

Many countries within the Asia-Pacific are strengthening their bilateral relationships with one another in enhanced ways that we think also enhance regional stability. But they're also creating their trilateral arrangements, the Japan-Australia-India trilateral meeting last June, for example, was a welcome and brand new development.

Third, we're helping create an interconnected regional architecture from end of the region to another, through engagement and activities in multilateral fora, such as the ASEAN defense ministers meeting.

In this way, the United States is helping strengthen relationships and building partner capabilities on key issues like maritime security, humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief.

Singapore has shown great leadership in this area by hosting an operations center to coordinate activities across ASEAN.

It's important to remember that our bilateral, trilateral, and multilateral relationships, and the developing network they comprise is not aimed at any particular country.

Rather, it demonstrates that the region wants cooperation, not coercion, and a continuation, not an end, of decades of stability, peace, and progress.

The network is not closed, it excludes no one. We want cooperation and shared leadership so that other nations want to contribute to regional stability and security, they can work with the other nations of the region to do so.

For example, important example, we have disagreements with China, but we are committed to working through them in ways that do not destabilize the region.

That's one reason why we will continue to pursue a military-to- military relationship with China, focused on risk reduction and practical cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

This network overall demonstrates the United States' commitment to remaining a pivotal and essential leader in the Asia-Pacific for decades to come.

By operationalizing the rebalance, by transforming old alliance and new partnerships, and by networking security, we can gather force and respond to any manner of crisis, manmade or natural disaster, and continue to promote and defend the principles that have allowed so many in the region to rise and prosper for so long.

Let me close with a few words about who makes that possible. As I stand here, there are hundreds of thousands of men and women serving and defending our country right now in every time zone, every domain, in the air, shore, and afloat.

They're the ones who are operationalizing the rebalance. They're making the network work. They need always to be in our minds.

And you know, they say that security, frequently this is said in this region, is like oxygen, when you have enough of it you pay no attention to it. But when you don't have enough, you can think of nothing else.

America's service members provide that oxygen, the security that allows millions upon millions of people, not just in America, and not just in the Asia-Pacific, but in so much of the world, to be safe to raise their children, to dream their dreams, to live lives that are full.

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines take grave risks to provide that security, and some make the ultimate sacrifice. They do so not just because they were ordered to and they do so not only because they want to protect their buddies, they do so because they know that they help make the world a better place through American leadership.

In a new strategic era and in a time of great change, we must and will continue to play that essential principle role in the Asia-Pacific. We will work with new partners and old allies, we'll network our security relationships.

We will invest and innovate, we'll change how we plan, how we operate, even how we fight. But we will never change what we're willing to fight for. For our safety and freedoms, and that of our of friends and allies, and for the values, principles and rule-based order that produced security, stability and prosperity for all.

Because we do so, we will continue to ensure that the Asia- Pacific remains region where everyone can rise and prosper for generations to come. Thank you.

(Applause.)

MS. BOIES: Thank you Mr. Secretary.

SEC. CARTER: Thank you Mary.

MS. BOIES: And welcome, to everyone, at the CFR Corporate Conference.

You stated in the defense posture that was released, I believe last month, that, and I'm going to quote, "We expect China to uphold President Xi's pledge not to pursue the militarization of the Spratly Islands of the South China Sea." There are reports of mounting evidence that the Chinese are doing in the Scarborough Shoals, exactly what they were doing in the Spratly Islands. That is, namely building an island around some kind of maritime feature or rock.

The Shoals have -- are also claimed by the Philippines, who have bought an arbitration in The Hague. The Shoals are a 140 miles off the coast of Manila. Has the president of China broken his pledge?

SEC. CARTER: Well, we'll see but the President of China did make that pledge. But let me say back up a little bit, because the South China Seas is a places that is very much in the focus of many in the region, to which I'll be traveling over the next few days. China is one of many claimants to various features throughout the region, many of which have taken steps that we oppose, namely militarization.

But over the last year, the scale and scope of, as I indicated, of China's have been - have out stripped anybody else's. The United States' position on this is we don't take any position on the claims themselves, but we do take a position on militarization by anyone, but especially by China in this particular context.

It won't affect our operations, but it disquiets the region when this occurs. This has the effect of causing us to react, which will be a -- in ways that I described, in terms of our own preparations. But also of having -- what I also described, which is many countries in the region want to work with us more. So that is the effect of this, but you know, our approach, Mary, is that things in the South China Sea should be a reflection of our overall approach to the region.

Which is, this is a region that has had it good for 70 years, and this would be a serious mistake for all of us to allow that to unravel. And for militarization to lead to tension, to lead to conflict. So, we're trying to prevent that. That is the, the position we come to this from and we certainly have been given to believe that the president of China shares that you have made that commitment but we will see.

MS. BOIES: The critics have argued that our response has been rather weak. We have done some freedom of navigation operations within the 12 mile limit of features -- or islands that China declares are there's.

But then we've confused the issue by characterizing them as innocent passage, which does not suggest that we are disputing the ownership. And we've had various of these operations and they do not seem to have a clear signal. Is there a reason for that?

SEC. CARTER: Well, their purpose isn't to signal, their purpose is they've been going on for decades now and we continue to do that. There are differences between different kinds of passages. You indicate we know what we're doing.

But the basic point here is that the United States, here and everywhere around the world, whether it is the Arctic, whether it is the horn of Africa, we, along with virtually everyone else, insists upon freedom of navigation consistent with international law.

So that is how we operate. And you're saying, what are we doing, we're generally in the region. Well, that's what I describing there. Which is trying to work with others to include China and that's an important point, to widen the network of security cooperation in a region where, remember, there is no NATO. Where the wounds of the past never healed and so it is it is important.

And the United States plays an important role, but with respect to China, but also with respect to Japan, South Korea, India. I mean, just walk around. And that is what we are doing there. We're committed to that, we've played that role for decades. we want to keep a good thing going, me and everybody else in the region.

MS. BOIES: And there are many areas in which we have found a lot of cooperation with China: on areas of climate change, perhaps in areas of cyber -- it's probably too early to see there.

Certainly to an extent with North Korea. Although North Korea, nonetheless, still seems to be persisting in developing its programs. It did a nuclear warhead test in January, more missile testing in February, just of this year. And the question there is our deterrence working? It doesn't seem to be.

SEC. CARTER: Well, our deterrent of conflict has worked for over 60 years and we continue to strengthen that. We have a slogan for U.S. forces, Korea which stand on the DMZ everyday, fight tonight. That's not -- they don't want to fight tonight, but they are ready to fight tonight. That is why we're doing so much and I won't go into it here, but you can read about it, to strengthen and transform the U.S.-ROK alliance and really, in fundamental ways.

It's command and control, it's basic structure, it's approach to deterrence on the Korean Peninsula and that deterrence has been strong now for 50 years, 60 years. We intend to keep it that way. Now, it presents new challenges for deterrence when the North Koreans build missiles and test nuclear weapons. And to get to your point about China has been a party to the talks where, in which people in the region, not just us, but China also, South Korea, Japan and also Russia, have tried to get the North Koreans to turn back.

China has, logically speaking, by far and away the greatest leverage over North Korea by dint of geographic proximity, economic relations and so forth. They have been unsuccessful so far. And certainly we have been unsuccessful in getting China -- North Korea to stop. What's that causing us to do is, where we are reacting in terms of how were protecting ourselves, our forces on the Peninsula. That is what the THAD missile defense system is about on the Korean Peninsula. And the various changes we're making to our defensive strategy and the -- our deterrent plans of the Korean Peninsula.

We don't like to have to be doing that, but we're doing that. And we have to do that, as we have for decades, because we've got to keep deterrence strong.

MS. BOIES: You mentioned the THAAD system, the Terminal High-altitude Defense System. And that is an area where the Chinese now are vigorously objecting. Should that system be deployed in South Korea, which at the present time, it is not. Tell us what the risks and benefits that you see in that particular endeavor. Is it going to happen or are we going to find out?

SEC. CARTER: Oh, it's going to happen. No, it's a necessary thing. It is between us and South Korea, it's part of protecting our own forces on the Korean Peninsula and protecting South Korea. It has nothing to do with the Chinese. And I do wish the Chinese would work with us. Or really work bilaterally with North Korea more effectively. Although it is easy to say that, but dealing with North Korea, for anybody, is a challenge.

And heading off their missile challenge in the first place, but we need to defend their own people. We need to defend our own allies and we're going to do that.

MS. BOIES: The Chinese ambassador to South Korea said that should the THAAD missile system be deployed in South Korea, that will, -- it was translated, in an instant, end the good bilateral relations that have been built up over the -- at least the last three years between China and South Korea. Is that just an idle threat?

SEC. CARTER: Well, I -- that would be sort of illogical. I can't speak for the Chinese ambassador. But we're actually quite encouraged to see the Republic of Korea and China strengthening their own relationship. And that has had its own ups and downs. And it goes -- when you go back in the history of this whole region, there is a lot of history there. Including between China and Korea. So actually, we think that is a good thing, and part of this network of security that we encourage China, South Korea, and us, all together.

Obviously North Korea is not joining that right now, and I can well see why it is concerning to the Chinese. But I think we've seen in President Park and President Xi, as well as President Obama, as I mentioned, a real desire to join Korea -- now South Korea, I'm talking about, in China and get over some of their previous history. We are supporters of that.

MS. BOIES: Do we have a redline with North Korea? They do not yet have the ability of hitting the United States, but they are certainly working on. Do we have a point at which we will not just stand for their activity?

SEC. CARTER: Well, we certainly have a defensive play in, but it extends beyond the Korean Peninsula with respect to North Korea's. I said, their behavior is unpredictable. It would -- I would be imprudent as a secretary of defense, to assume that North Korea isn't going to continue to make progress. Now we will ourselves and with the help of the Chinese, try to make that less likely.

But we're taking -- and we actually made this decision several years ago, to increase the number and the capabilities of our defenses, including our missile defenses, of the continental United States, of Alaska, of Hawaii, and so forth.

So we're taking steps in this. So it definitely has consequences for us. And we're doing what we have to do as part of our investments in our posture for the future there.

MS. BOIES: You mentioned India, and you have certainly personally put a lot of time and attention into building what for us would be a very important and relatively new strong alliance.

You say that we may have what you characterize as difficult negotiations over co-production and co-development of military capabilities such as fighter airplanes.

What is India going to want that we're not going to give them?

SEC. CARTER: Well, it's just difficult in the sense that it's business.

MS. BOIES: And there's technology transfer issues involved.

SEC. CARTER: There are. There are. In these cases I think that there are some of those issues, but really you've got to understand the challenges here, I think, are surmountable. But they derive from history more than derive from today's logic.

And the history goes like this. The United States and India, for 50 years, since after Indian independence essentially lived apart. India's policy was one of non-alignment in the Cold War.

They wouldn't do with us the kinds of things that we're doing today -- together today. To the extent they had a technology relationship -- military technology relationship with another country was mostly the Soviet Union.

So their entire military-industrial system and ours grew up very differently and remain quite different. So you're talking about taking two things that are really quite different and trying to match them up and make them work together.

And a lot of the difficulties that in just making the U.S.-India defense relationship go forward are simply of that nature.

But there's no difficulty in principle either with the idea, in our minds, that India is an enduring partner, or, in their minds, their willingness to work with us, although in a way that retains their independence, which is important.

And, of course, we don't have any problem with that. When it gets down to issues of co-production and co-development, I mean, there you get into, you know, situations where it's not just technology, but these are American companies, and we don't do the negotiations for those companies, they do themselves.

But, you know, my job is to make those kind of negotiations less difficult by making sure that this 50 years of history is overcome in the bureaucratic and administrative reflex sense, and that the tremendously bright opportunity of this huge place, a billion people, and the United States in decades to come, as I've said, I used the word destiny.

I see there's no question about where the United States-India relationship is going. We can control and influence the pace. And I want to do that.

MS. BOIES: My personal view is that you will go down as the most effective multi-tasker in the history of secretaries of defense.

(Laughter.)

SEC. CARTER: Nice of you to say that.

MS. BOIES: And in that regard you have started consortiums with Silicon Valley, you've enlisted Eric Schmidt to chair a committee that will do a lot of future looking. Just the other day you were at MIT announcing a consortium to develop fabrics that will be of military use.

Tell us about these innovative projects and what we can look forward to seeing.

SEC. CARTER: Well, one of the strengths -- you know, what makes ours the finest fighting force the world has ever known, well, first it's our people. And I have to tend to that so the 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now -- it's an all-volunteer force. We don't make anybody do this.

We continue to attract and retain great people. But the second thing that has made the American military great over decades and decades is technology.

In the old days, in the old Sputnik days much of the technology of consequence for military purposes was born in the United States and actually under the United States government.

We still do a lot. We're spending $72 billion on research and development this year. That we're still -- that's more than twice what the major tech companies combined spend on R&D in a year.

So we're still a big dog. But it's a much more diversified industrial and technological landscape. And, of course, it's more international and it's more commercial.

So if we're going to stay great in that sense, we need to reach out. And that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to build new bridges to what we know is a new innovative culture. It's not the same as it was in the '50s and '60s and '70s.

And glorious as our history is with satellite communications and the internet and all the things that were born from defense innovation, it's going to be different in the future. And I need to connect with those people.

When I do so, and that's what I was up there doing in Boston in this area of fabrics, which may sound like a niche, but it's not really if you think about being able to wear clothing that will be your batteries, charge your batteries, and make it difficult to detect and see you, and regulate your temperature whether it's cold.

I mean, all these things are now possible. So it's just one -- and by the way, one that is of importance to the economy more generally.

So where I can create that unity in a new way, I really need to do that, I owe that to my successors and my successors' successor.

I find when I do that that the tech community -- of all kinds, it's not just Silicon Valley and it's not just tech-tech, you know, the IT sorts, it's biotech. Boston is a big hub of that, manufacturing technology, which the purpose of manufacturing institute that we funded up in the Boston area, which is number eight of eight that we've done of that kind.

I find that the innovators of America are very welcoming of that. And they -- first of all, they recognize that it's serious business. Security, it's not a game. And they recognize that.

And secondly, these are people who like to do things that matter. And protecting our people and leaving a better world for our children, that really matters.

So I find the uptake is really high. And it's just -- and, you know, every time I'm doing something in family programs, women in the military, and someone will say, why are you doing these things?

I'm doing them because I want to make sure that we remain the finest fighting force the world has ever known. To that I need to keep up with how generations change, how technology changes, and make that, as I constantly tell our people, we're thinking outside of our five-sided box of the Pentagon.

MS. BOIES: I would like to open for questions. Please state your name and your affiliation, and please try to keep your question shorter and more to the point than mine.

Yes, sir.

Q: (inaudible), National Committee on American Foreign Policy, thank you very much, Mr. Secretary.

I wonder, in your deterrence and our deterrence policy, what role does Taiwan play?

SEC. CARTER: Well, Taiwan is a good trading partner of the United States. Our policy there derives from, and this gets now into the sort of lure of past times, but it still is the basis of our policy, has been for decades, and it has worked, goes back to the so-called three communiques between the United States and China, which settled between us the issue of was Taiwan part -- was there one China and so forth.

And that policy has been established now, it goes back to several administrations, and has been sustained through that time and by successive governments of Taiwan and by successive governments in China. And is a good thing.

And the other is the Taiwan Relations Act which instructs us and me as the secretary of defense to maintain the capability to assist Taiwan in its own defense.

So we do that. But in the main our policy derives from the three communiques. And that situation has been a peaceful one now for a number of decades. And if you go back to the 1950s, you remember, there was a real prospective of conflict over Taiwan.

So it's an example, if you like, of something that takes a long time, and, of course, it hasn't been landed yet, but we've kept the peace in a way that has allowed Taiwan to certainly develop in its own way, and kept it peaceful, and the peace between the United States and China and Taiwan and others in the region.

So that's the story.

MS. BOIES: I'm going to take two questions. Yes, sir, in the front. And yes, sir, in the middle.

Q: I don't have a microphone so I'll speak loudly.

MS. BOIES: You need a microphone, sir.

Q: (inaudible), president of the International Bar Association.

I applaud your work with India. You didn't mention at all how it might impact our relations with Pakistan, which are so important for many other reasons. So I was wondering if you could talk about that for just a minute.

SEC. CARTER: Sure, sure. Well --

MS. BOIES: Before you do, can I get another question in?

SEC. CARTER: Yes.

MS. BOIES: You in the middle, sir.

Q: Mr. Secretary, (inaudible) from Inside Defense.

As the department thinks about this region, I wonder if you could say a word or two about a relatively new entity set up in the Office of Secretary of Defense called the China Strategic Initiative, about its composition, its role in policy-making, and planning and budgeting, thank you.

SEC. CARTER: OK. Well, first of all, with respect to Pakistan, that also is an important security partner. A whole lot of issues of which counter-terrorism looms largest. And we work with the Pakistanis all the time on that.

It's long past -- we're long past the point in U.S. policy-making where we look at the India-Pakistan dyad as the whole story for either one of them. We have much more to do with India today than has to do with Pakistan.

There is importance business with respect to Pakistan, but we have much more, a whole global agenda with India, agenda that covers all kinds of issues.

With respect to Pakistan, once again, totally different. We have a big set of issues having to do with the border with Afghanistan where we continue to operate, with terrorism, both on the territory of Pakistan and also obviously cross-border into Afghanistan, including affecting U.S. service members there.

And so I'm sure I'll be asked about it in India, but I think the first thing one needs to say from an American policy point of view, these are both respected partners and friends. They find themselves in very different situations.

And the days are gone when we only deal with India as the other side of the Pakistan coin, or Pakistan as the other side of the India coin.

I know that there are those in India and Pakistan who are still glued to that dyad way of thinking. But the United States put that behind us some time ago.

MS. BOIES: And then the question about China.

SEC. CARTER: Well, I don't know specifically what is being referred to there. But we have a number of ways I've described -- they weren't described today, but the things that we're doing to underwrite our ambition to have a stronger relationship with China in the military- to-military area.

Q: (off mic.)

SEC. CARTER: I believe that's possible.

Q: (off mic.)

SEC. CARTER: Well, I'm afraid I don't know. There are lots of teams around, and particularly one looking at China, so I don't know what this particular one is. I hope it's doing good work.

(Laughter.)

MS. BOIES: My cheap watch does not match the clock, how are we for time? We've got -- do we have time for more questions?

STAFF: (off mic.)

MS. BOIES: OK. We have a hard stop, I am very sorry to say.

Mr. Secretary, thank you so much.

SEC. CARTER: Thank you. It was good to be with you, appreciate it.

(Applause.)

http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/717107/

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Daesh- affiliated terrorists kill 18, wound 52 soldiers in Philippines

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 11:1PM

At least 18 Filipino forces have been killed by Daesh-affiliated terrorists during heavy battles in southern Philippines, officials said.

At least 52 more soldiers were also wounded in the Saturday skirmishes with Takfiri militants from Abu Sayyaf group backed by allied militiamen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka on Basilan Island, AP reported citing three senior military authorities who spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to the officials, only four of the militants were killed in the fighting which lasted for more than nine hours.

The government troops had been deployed to kill or capture an Abu Sayyaf commander identified as Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Daesh terrorist group and has been hunted for years for suspected involvement in a number of terrorist attacks, the officials added.

They further stated that many of the 100-150 Takfiri militants were armed with M203 grenade launchers and managed to swiftly reinforce their ranks and inflict heavy casualties on government forces.

The report added that last year 44 police commandos were also killed in battles with various Takfiri militant groups in southern Mamasapano town while on a covert mission that was fraught with faulty planning and execution. However, they managed to hunt down a top Malaysian terror suspect in Southeast Asia.

The Abu Sayyaf group has also been blamed for a surge in kidnappings for ransom in recent weeks, including the separate abductions of 10 Indonesian tugboat crewmen near southern Tawi Tawi province and four Malaysian tugboat crewmembers off Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo Island.

On Friday, an Abu Sayyaf faction released a former Italian missionary after six months of captivity in Jolo Island in southern Sulu province.

There were speculations, however, that a huge ransom was paid to secure the freedom of Rolando del Torchio, who was flown to Manila on Saturday, though the military claimed it was not aware of any such payment.

According to the report, the terror group is also suspected of holding three Filipinos and 18 foreigners, including two Canadians and a Norwegian.

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US deploys strategic bombers to Qatar against 'ISIL'

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 1:29PM

The United States military has sent an unspecified number of strategic B-52 bombers to the Persian Gulf littoral state of Qatar to join what it calls the fight against Daesh (ISIL).

The US deployed B-52 bombers to Qatar on Saturday to fight Daesh in Iraq and Syria, the US Air Forces Central Command said.

The deployment is the first of the kind in the Persian Gulf region since the end of the US-led war against Iraq in 1991 following the former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

The US Air Force said it last flew the long-range bombers operationally in the Middle East in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, and during a US-led military exercise in Jordan in May 2015.

"The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on Daesh and defend the region in any future contingency," said Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Brown, commander of US Air Forces Central Command.

Lieutenant Colonel Chris Karns, spokesman for the Central Command, said he could not provide the exact number of B-52 bombers to be based at the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar due to "operational security reasons," Reuters reported.

Washington's decision to deploy B-52 bombers to Qatar came as the US military claims to have stepped up the fight against ISIL in Iraq and Syria.

US officials have recently told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the administration of President Barack Obama is weighing a proposal to accelerate "recent gains against" ISIL terrorists in Syria and "greatly increase" the number of American special forces deployed there.

Currently there are dozens of US special operations forces in Syria, who are working closely with a collection of various armed groups that are trying to topple the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A CNN report said Friday that the United States was considering deploying 250 additional special forces in Syria as part of a broader effort to ramp up military operations against ISIL.

Last month, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford said the Pentagon was planning to deploy additional American combat troops in Iraq to accelerate military operations against Daesh terrorists.

Pentagon had previously announced there were 3,500 US forces on ground in Iraq to 'train and equip' local security forces.

Daesh terrorists, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

US warplanes have been conducting airstrikes against ISIL in Iraq since August of 2014. Some Western states have also participated in some of the strikes in Iraq.

Since September 2014, the US and some of its Arab allies have been carrying out airstrikes against Daesh inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or the United Nations.

The US-led coalition stands accused of having done little to stop Daesh's advances in parts of Syria and in Iraq.

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Five civilians die as Saudi jets hit new areas in Yemen

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 9:48AM

At least five civilians have been killed in a new series of Saudi airstrikes against Yemen's southwestern province of Ta'izz.

Saudi Arabia launched an aerial assault against the Dhubab district of the province, located about 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of the capital, Sana'a, on Saturday, leaving five people dead, Yemen's al-Masirah TV channel reported.

The report added that there were three women as well as a child among the victims.

Also on Saturday, Saudi warplanes launched two airstrikes against al-Ghil district in the northern Yemeni province of Jawf. A similar assault was also carried out in al-Aqaba area of the province.

There were no immediate reports of possible casualties and the extent of damage inflicted in the latter airstrikes.

Separately, Saudi jets hit several areas in the Sirwah district of the central Yemeni province of Ma'rib, though no information on possible fatalities and the scope of damage was available.

Elsewhere, in the Ahwar district of Yemen's southern Abyan Province, members of al-Qaeda terrorist group launched an offensive and killed 15 soldiers loyal to former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has exploited the volatile atmosphere and the breakdown of security in Yemen since the beginning of the Saudi war to tighten its grip on parts of southeast Yemen.

The Takfiri Daesh terrorist group has also gained ground in and around the main southern city of Aden as a result of the Saudi war.

Ansarullah fighters, along with allied army units, are fighting the Takfiri militants and countering the Saudi aggression against Yemen.

Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against Yemen on March 26, 2015, in a bid to bring Hadi  who is a staunch ally of Riyadh  back to power and undermine the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

More than 9,400 people have been killed and at least 16,000 others injured since the onset of the aggression.

The Saudi strikes have also taken a heavy toll on the country's facilities and infrastructure, destroying many hospitals, schools, and factories.

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Sudan to hold referendum in restive Darfur amid surge in fighting

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 6:13AM

A referendum will be held in Sudan's conflict-ridden Darfur region on Monday on whether to unify its five states into one, as long demanded by rebels seeking greater autonomy, amid a recent surge of clashes there.

While the 3-day vote is expected to uphold the five-state system  as desired by the Sudanese government  ethnic minority insurgents, who have been staging an armed rebellion against Khartoum since 2003, say the vote cannot be fair due to the ongoing fighting.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has, however, emphasized that the situation in Darfur, western Sudan, is stable enough to conduct the referendum.

"It is the people of Darfur who choose whether they want states or one region and we are holding this referendum so that no one else can come and say we want this or that," Bashir said last week as quoted in the report.

The United Nations peacekeeping chief said earlier this week that intensified fighting in Darfur has forced 138,000 people to flee their homes since mid-January, adding that there is no end in sight to the 13-year conflict in Sudan's largest region.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operation Herve Ladsous further said on Thursday before the UN Security Council that the Sudanese government has blocked the access of the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force (UNAMID) and humanitarian organizations to conflict zones.

Nearly 2.5 million people in Darfur have already been displaced from the region according to the latest UN figures, which also show that over 300,000 people have died there since 2003.

Meanwhile, Washington has imposed trade sanctions against Sudan since 1997, citing the situation in Darfur. By holding the referendum, Khartoum hopes to urge the lifting of the trade embargo, which has hit Sudan's already-battered economy hard.

Darfur was a united region since its incorporation into Sudan in 1916 until 1994, when President Bashir divided it into three states. He added two more in 2012.

The country's ruling National Congress Party insists that the five-state system can better serve the people of Darfur.

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US military proposes 250 more special forces in Syria: Report

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 4:20AM

The United States is considering deploying 250 additional special forces in Syria as part of a broader effort to ramp up military operations against Daesh, according to a report.

The troops would be advising US-backed militant groups on how to accelerate the pace of the fight against Daesh terrorists, a Pentagon official said Friday, CNN reported.

The goal is to dislodge the terrorists from their strongholds in Raqqah, Syria, and Mosul in neighboring Iraq.

President Barack Obama underscored the importance of that goal after a meeting with top US military brass at the White House earlier this week.

"One of my main messages today is that destroying ISIL continues to be my top priority and so we can no longer tolerate the kinds of positioning that is enabled by them having headquarters in Raqqah and in Mosul," the president said. "We are going to squeeze them and we will defeat them."

The White House is weighing a set of new proposals by the Pentagon regarding the military strategy against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

If approved, the new deployment would grow the current Special Operations force level of up to 50 troops which Obama authorized for Syria late last year.

As the Obama administration looks to ramp up the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria, the idea of an increased reliance on small teams of Special Operations troops is gaining traction.

However, some military officials have cautioned that the proposed strategy carries the risk of exposing US troops to enemy fire as it requires additional transportation and supply support that might become visible.

The US military has also resumed a highly-criticized program to train new groups of militants to fight Daesh in Syria.

In Iraq, the Pentagon has recently announced plans for sending additional US combat troops to the country to help local forces battle Daesh terrorists.

Efforts to increase the pace of the Daesh fight have been given added urgency as Europe has faced a wave of terror attacks in recent months.

Daesh terrorists, who were among the militants initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria. They are engaged in crimes against humanity in the areas under their control.

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Blasts Heard In Kabul After Kerry Called On Taliban To Restart Peace Talks

April 09, 2016

by RFE/RL

At least two explosions have been reported in Kabul's diplomatic area, shortly after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry left the Afghan capital following an unannounced visit during which he called on the Taliban to restart direct peace talks with the government.

"A rocket landed near a girls' school," Kabul police chief Abdul Rahman Rahimi said late on April 9. "There are no casualties."

Gunshots were also heard at the time of the explosions.

No groups have claimed responsibility for the assault, but Taliban insurgents had previously attacked official and foreign targets in the city.

"We call on the Taliban to enter into a peace process, a legitimate process that brings an end to violence," Kerry earlier said at a joint press conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

Ghani said they all hoped the Taliban would engage in peace talks and craft "a legitimate process that brings an end to violence."

The calls came as the Taliban has refused to hold negotiations until preconditions it has set, including the withdrawal of foreign troops, are met.

A four-nation group has been trying to set up direct peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban.

The so-called Quadrilateral Coordination Group -- which includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, and the United States  expected a meeting between the Taliban and the Afghan government in March.

Kerry's visit to Kabul, which was not announced publicly beforehand, came amid growing political infighting in the national unity government headed by President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah.

Kerry told reporters on April 9 that the Washington-brokered agreement that created the national unity government has no set expiry date despite widespread expectations it would end in September.

"In no way does the agreement itself have some particular termination," Kerry said in the joint conference with Ghani.

The national unity government agreement was widely expected to end before parliamentary elections due to take place in October.

However, many observers believe that vote will have to be postponed until next spring because promised electoral reforms have not been implemented.

Under the agreement, Abdullah's role as chief executive was to segue into a prime ministerial role after the parliamentary elections. The accord was brokered by Kerry after disputed presidential election in 2014, in which both Ghani and Abdullah claimed victory amid mutual charges of widespread fraud.

Kerry also said on April 9 that President Barack Obama will be guided by the views of U.S. commanders on the ground in taking any new decisions regarding reductions in the number of American troops in the country.

The United States currently has about 9,800 soldiers in Afghanistan. They have been officially limited to a training and advisory role since the end of their combat mission in 2014.

The number of troops had been scheduled to be almost halved to 5,500 by the start of 2017.

With reporting by Reuters and AFP

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-kerry- unannounced-visit/27663991.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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US Deploys Strategic B-52 Bombers in Qatar to Combat Daesh

Sputnik News

17:17 09.04.2016(updated 17:38 09.04.2016)

US Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs said that United States' B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers arrived at an airbase in central Qatar to join the international coalition's fight against the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The United States' B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers arrived at an airbase in central Qatar on Saturday to join the international coalition's fight against the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, the US Air Forces Central Command Public Affairs said.

"The B-52 will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired airpower effects. As a multi-role platform, the B-52 offers diverse capabilities including delivery of precision weapons and the flexibility and endurance needed to support the combatant commanders' priorities and strengthen the coalition team," Lt. Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the commander of US Air Forces Central Command and Combined Forces Air Component, was quoted as saying in a statement.

The subsonic warplanes landed at Al Udeid Air Base in central Qatar, according to the statement.

"This deployment is the first basing of the B-52s in the US Central Command area of responsibility in 26 years," the statement added.

The B-52 is a long-range heavy bomber able to carry out various missions, including strategic attack, air interdiction, close-air support as well as maritime operations.

Daesh, a radical Sunni terrorist group, is considered to be one of the major threats to global security. Over the last three years, the extremists managed to seize large swaths of land both in Iraq and Syria. The jihadists are also trying to spread their influence to North Africa, particularly Libya.

 Sputnik

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Nagorno-Karabakh Crisis Could Get Messy If New Arms Suppliers Emerge

Sputnik News

14:19 09.04.2016(updated 15:08 09.04.2016)

According to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, if the world hopes to circumvent the escalation of the armed conflict currently pitting Azerbaijan against an ethnically Armenian enclave within its borders that's had de facto independence for over two decades, it shouldn't arm either side.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The situation in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh may get complicated if Azerbaijan and Armenia get new arms suppliers, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday.

The latest violence in Azerbaijan's breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, mostly inhabited by Armenians, intensified on April 2, leading to multiple casualties before Armenia and Azerbaijan reached a shaky ceasefire deal three days later. Russia has condemned the violence, calling for a peaceful settlement and urging both sides to observe the ceasefire.

"I am not sure that the arrival of new arms suppliers to this market would ease the situation. I think that the situation is most likely to become more complicated," Medvedev said during an interview on the Vesti v Subbotu program on the Rossiya television channel.

Russia will continue military cooperation with Azerbaijan and Armenia, Medvedev added, stressing that weapons acquired by both countries can become a deterrent to further escalation of the conflict.

On Friday, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said that Russian arms deliveries to Azerbaijan are being implemented according to the existing contracts between the two countries.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the Armenian-dominated autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991.

 Sputnik

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Both Sides to Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict Using Mortars, Heavy Ammunition

Sputnik News

08:56 09.04.2016(updated 10:13 09.04.2016)

The Armenians are using different weapons against Azerbaijani positions in Nagorno-Karabakh region including mortars, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Saturday.

BAKU (Sputnik)  The Armenian army is attacking Azerbaijani positions with mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns in the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said Saturday.

"The Armed Forces of Armenia are using 60 mm mortars, grenade launchers and heavy machine guns in firing at Azerbaijani positions on the contact line in Karabakh," the ministry said in a statement.

At the same time, Azerbaijani side reciprocated by firing mortars too, violating the cesefire between two sides, the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic's (NKR) Defense Ministry said Saturday.

"Following the truce declared earlier for gathering bodies of those killed, Azerbaijani forces at night again violated the ceasefire on the contact line, using 60-mm mortars," the ministry told RIA Novosti.

Azerbaijan does not recognize the ethnically Armenian self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) and considers the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army to be a part of the Armed Forces of Armenia.

Hostilities in Nagorno-Karabakh have continued throughout the week despite a ceasefire resumption agreement reached on Tuesday.

The violence in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on Saturday. Baku and Yerevan have accused each other of provoking hostilities that led to multiple deaths on each side.

The conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh began in 1988, when the autonomous region sought to secede from the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, before proclaiming independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The warring sides agreed to a cessation of hostilities in 1994.

 Sputnik

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CNN: Carter to Visit Site Near Archipelago Claimed by China

by VOA News April 09, 2016

During an upcoming trip to Asia, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter will visit sites in the Philippines where the U.S. plans to station troops, including one base close to the disputed South China Sea.

CNN reported Saturday that the secretary would visit the base about 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) from the Spratly Islands archipelago, which China claims.

But Carter will not visit the key player in the dispute, China. He had accepted an invitation to visit Beijing after he met with the country's defense minister last year. But when the Pentagon released details about the trip Friday, China was not included.

Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said a "complicated schedule did not allow for it [a stop in China] to take place during this trip."

Carter will also travel to India next week, followed by Middle East stops in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

China claims almost the entire South China Sea, believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims to parts of the waters, through which about $5 trillion in trade is shipped every year.

Beijing's more assertive pursuit of its claims over the past year or so has included land reclamation and the construction of air and port facilities on some isles and reefs.

In a speech Friday, Carter said countries in the Asia-Pacific region have been voicing concern about China's military actions, which he said "stand out in size and scope." He said those countries had expressed their concerns to the United States both publicly and privately, and at the highest levels.

He said that although the United States has disagreements with China, Washington is committed to working through them in ways that do not destabilize the region.

The secretary called the Asia-Pacific region "the single most consequential region for America's future."

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Al-Qaida Militants Kill 15 Yemeni Soldiers

by VOA News April 09, 2016

Al-Qaida militants in southern Yemen have ambushed and executed at least 15 soldiers after stopping their convoy in the province of Abyan.

Local reports say armed al-Qaida members stopped the soldiers, who were riding in civilian vehicles, in the town of Ahwar. The militants ordered the soldiers to get out of their vehicles and then shot them in the early-morning incident.

Local officials told Reuters news agency that 17 more soldiers were wounded but are believed to be alive, although their location is unclear.

US bombs

On Thursday, Human Rights Watch released a report saying bombs used in a Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a Yemeni market were supplied by the United States. At least 100 people were reported killed in the March 15 attack.

The death toll included 25 children, according to the rights group. Forty-seven people were wounded in the airstrike; the deadliest yet in the year-long war in Yemen.

The release of the report coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Bahrain. Kerry declined to comment on the situation, saying, "I don't have any solid information, any documentation with respect to what weapon might have been used."

Although Saudi officials say the majority of casualties in this strike were Houthi rebels, Human Rights Watch said the attack caused "disproportionate loss of civilian life, in violation of the laws of war.

Such unlawful attacks when carried out deliberately or recklessly are war crimes," the rights group said.

Other countries supplying weapons

Human Rights Watch has also indicated that if the U.S., Britain and France continue supplying weapons to a non-compliant Saudi Arabia, they may be held responsible as being complicit in the unlawful airstrikes.

Multiple human rights groups have criticized the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. The United Nations says 60 percent of the 3,200 civilian deaths during this conflict have been the result of airstrikes which have hit markets, clinics and hospitals.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen's capital, Sana'a, in September 2014, and the war that followed has left 80 percent of the country in dire need of food, leaving it the poorest nation in the Arab world, according to the U.N.

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Tanzania Opens Warm Diplomatic Relations with Rwanda

by Peter Clottey April 09, 2016

A new chapter of warm relations has opened between the governments of Tanzania and Rwanda after Tanzanian President John Magufuli officially participated in the 22-year remembrance of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, according to Tanzanian Foreign Minister Augustine Mahiga.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame was among the very first African leaders to congratulate Magufuli shortly after the electoral commission of Tanzania declared him the winner of last year's presidential poll. Kagame also participated in Magufuli's installation.

Foreign Minister Mahiga says the administrations in Dodoma and Kigali have had frosty diplomatic relations since a disagreement between Kagame and former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete. This, after Kikwete urged Rwanda to hold discussions with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) - a Hutu rebel group based in the Democratic Republic of Congo -- to end its insurgency.

Magufuli's visit to Rwanda

But Mahiga says President Magufuli's visit to Rwanda marks a significant step towards improving relations between the two neighboring countries.He also says bilateral relations between the two East African countries could enhance the free movement of people, goods and services across their borders.Tanzania currently holds the rotating chair of the East African Community (EAC).

"This time, I think relations have become extremely warm and a new chapter is being opened, and there have been a tremendous amount of goodwill and assurances from both sides, and I think we are on a totally different trajectory in terms of relations between Tanzania and Rwanda," said Mahiga.

"Tanzania is a neighbor of Rwanda and Rwanda goods go through Dar es Salaam. Up to about 75 percent of their imports and exports go through the port of Dar es Salaam. So both sides are really important trading partners and there is a historical relationship between the two countries. So, it is important that we maintain goodwill, political understanding between the leaders of the two countries, [and] between the people of the two countries. And at this time, what brought this visit had precisely to do with the trade and economic relations between the two countries, from a bilateral perspective, but also in the context of the East African Community."

Regional cooperation against terrorism

He says Tanzania is cooperating with neighboring countries to combat terrorism as well as help resolve instability in the region.

Attempts have been made by regional leaders to resolve the conflicts in South Sudan and Burundi as well as combat the security threat posed by the Somali-based Islamist militant group al-Shabab. The rebel group often launches attacks in parts of Kenya and Somalia as well as attack the internationally-backed African forces in Somalia known as AMISOM.

Mahiga says al-Shabab poses both a regional and international threat. He says Tanzania is committed to the full implementation of the standing protocols between the countries in the region to enhance regional cooperation on security to combat terrorism.

"It's absolutely important that for economic development and for economic relations and cooperation between the countries of East Africa, there has to be peace and stability and if there are any conflicts those conflicts have to be resolved," said Mahiga.

"It is for this reason that through the extent possible, Tanzania as chair has to maintain excellent relations in the context of good neighborliness with the neighboring countries like we have just done with Rwanda, we continue to do with other neighbors. We have excellent relations with Kenya, Uganda, with Burundi, and now we have admitted South Sudan into the East African Community. Although we don't share a border, but we have a responsibility as the chair of the community to make sure that the current ongoing conflict particularly in two countries, Burundi and South Sudan goes through a process of reconciliation and a resolution as quickly as possible."

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Ash Carter to visit military base near South China Sea

Iran Press TV

Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:59AM

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter is planning to visit the Philippines and sites where the US plans to deploy troops, including one base bordering the South China Sea, an American news channel says.

According to a Saturday report by the CNN, Carter's visit to the Philippines is part of an Asia tour, set as of April 10, which will include India, and then the Middle East. Carter is also to visit a base about 160 kilometers (about 100 miles) from the Spratly Islands archipelago, which China claims.

In a speech on Friday, Carter made remarks on countries in the Asia-Pacific region that have been voicing concern about China's military actions, saying, "Recently not all the news out of the Asia-Pacific has been positive: indeed, in the South China Sea, China's actions  in particular  are raising regional tensions,"

"That's why countries across the Asia-Pacific are voicing concern with militarization, and especially  over the last year  with China's actions, which stand out in size and scope they're voicing those concerns publicly and privately, at the highest levels, in regional meetings and global fora," he added.

Carter said that although the US has disagreements with China, Washington is committed to working through them in ways that do not destabilize the region.

He called the Asia-Pacific region "the single most consequential region for America's future."

The South China Sea has become a source of tension between China, the US, and some regional countries who are seeking control of trade routes and mineral deposits.

The disputed islands are claimed by countries such as Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Brunei, which all have overlapping claims with China over the territories in the South China Sea, including the Paracels, Spratly Islands, Pratas Islands and Scarborough Shoal.

Washington and China's rivals have been accusing Beijing of attempting to take advantage of the situation and gradually assert control in the South China Sea.

Beijing, however, rejects the allegations and accuses Washington of meddling in the regional issues and deliberately stirring up tensions in the South China Sea.

The South China Sea serves as a crossing for more than $5 trillion worth of annual maritime trade.

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Militants Attack Military Convoy in Peru

Sputnik News

03:42 10.04.2016

At least two Peruvian were killed in an attack on a military patrol vehicle in jungles of Peru.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  At least two Peruvians, including one soldier, were killed in an attack on a military patrol vehicle in jungles of Peru's central Junin region, local authorities reported.

The Saturday attack was reportedly carried out by members of the Peruvian communist guerrilla group Shining Path in an area considered to be the organization's stronghold.

"We are conducting operations to recover our deceased and injured personnel. It is difficult but our staff will get them out of the conflict zone," the Peruvian Army's Gen. Fernando Acosta said, as quoted by the El Comercio newspaper.

The convoy was heading to guard local voting stations and deliver materials for upcoming presidential elections, according to the media outlet.

On Sunday, Peruvians are set to elect a new president and members of congress.

 Sputnik

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Turkey Claims Azerbaijan 'Patient' Over Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Sputnik News

00:49 10.04.2016

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that Baku shows restraint in regard to provocations from Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

ANKARA (Sputnik)  Baku shows restraint in regard to provocations from Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

"Twenty percent of the Azerbaijani territory is occupied, it was assessed by many international organizations, including the United Nations and PACE. However, Armenia continues provocations against Azerbaijan Azerbaijan in this matter is acting patiently," Cavusoglu told the Turkish A Haber broadcaster in an interview.

The top Turkish diplomat added that the OSCE Minsk Group, which had been mediating the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement since 1992, failed to meet the international community's expectations, as the issue could have been resolved within a week if mediators showed any interest.

Ankara also expressed hope that Baku would make required steps toward the peaceful settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.

The violence in Nagorno-Karabakh, a breakaway region of Azerbaijan with a predominantly Armenian population, escalated on April 2. Baku and Yerevan have accused each other of provoking hostilities.

Armenians and Azerbaijanis both ceased fire Tuesday at noon on the frontline in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, following five days of clashes that led to fatal casualties on both sides.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country supported Azerbaijan in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

 Sputnik

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Man in the hat in footage of Brussels airport attack arrested

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 11:19PM

Belgian authorities say they have arrested "the man in the hat" who was captured in CCTV footage along with the two bombers who carried out the recent deadly attacks in Brussels airport.

Mohamed Abrini confessed to being the hat and vest-wearing man present in the widely circulated footage captured at Zaventem airport shortly before the attack, read a statement released by the Belgian federal prosecutor's office on Saturday.

"After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene," read the statement. "He explained having thrown away his vest in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards."

On March 22, three bombings happened in Brussels' main airport and a metro station. Thirty-two people were killed and over 300 others were wounded in the attacks claimed by the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group.

Abrini, who was arrested on Friday in Brussels, has also been implicated in the November 13 Paris attacks, which killed around 130 people and injured hundreds more.

"It's one of the most significant advances in the case," said Brussels intelligence officer, Claude Moniquet. "Today we can say that all the important members of the Paris cell and Brussels cell are dead or in jail. Potentially it's the end of this part of the story."

Earlier in the case, authorities announced that Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were found in two safe houses in Brussels and in a vehicle linked to the Paris attacks.

Along with Abrini, Osama K., Herve B.M. and Bilal E.M. were charged for "terrorist murders" and "participating in terrorist acts," added the statement.

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Paris Attacks Suspect 'Man in the Hat' at Brussels Airport

by VOA News April 09, 2016

Belgium's federal prosecutor said Saturday that Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini has admitted that he was the "man in the hat" seen accompanying two suicide bombers at Brussels Zaventem airport on March 22.

In a series of raids Friday, Belgian police arrested five people, including Abrini, 31, a Belgian of Moroccan descent suspected to be linked with the Paris and Brussels attacks.

Belgian prosecutors charged four more suspects Saturday linked to the deadly suicide bombings in Brussels last month that killed 32 people and wounded many others.

Detained suspects, identified as Mohamed Abrini, Osama K., Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M. were charged with participating in "terrorist murders" and "activities of a terrorist group" in the March 22 attacks on Brussels' airport and on a metro station, prosecution officials said in a statement.

More arrests

Earlier Saturday, Belgian authorities confirmed the arrest of a sixth person in connection with the Brussels attacks, without giving further details.

A police raid was conducted Saturday in the central Brussels district of Etterbeek, but no arrests were made there.

Two other suspects arrested this week have been release "after thorough interrogation," the statement said.

Despite multiple arrests in connection with the November 13 attacks in Paris and the deadly Brussels bombings in March, Belgium's capital remains under the second-highest terror alert, because of the likelihood of another attack.

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SpaceX launches inflatable space habitat to ISS, rocket lands on droneship for 1st time

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 09:42, April 09, 2016

WASHINGTON, April 8 -- U.S. space firm SpaceX resumed its resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, carrying aboard an experimental inflatable space habitat that might be crucial for future deep space explorations.

The California-based company also made history by landing the first stage of its Falcon 9 rocket on a droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, after it launched the Dragon spacecraft at 4:43 p.m. (2043 GMT) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

This was SpaceX's eighth cargo mission to the ISS. It also marked the first flight of Dragon to the ISS since June, when the Falcon 9 rocket exploded about two minutes after liftoff.

As usual, SpaceX attempted to land the Falcon 9's first stage on the "Of Course I Still Love You" droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean off the Florida coast.

Minutes later, the company posted a photo via Twitter in which the first stage is clearly seen standing on the deck of the ship.

NASA offered a congratulation via Twitter to SpaceX for the successful landing and sending the unmanned Dragon to the orbiting laboratory.

It's the first time SpaceX has been able to stick a landing on a droneship after four previous such attempts ended in failure. It also achieved one successful soft landing on a land-based pad at Cape Canaveral in December last year.

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Carter says THAAD missile system 'going to happen' in S Korea

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 7:6AM

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter says the United States will go ahead with the proposed deployment of a US missile system in South Korea despite Chinese complaints.

The US and South Korea began official discussions last month on possible deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to combat the threat of North Korea's missiles.

"It's going to happen," Carter said Friday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. "No, it's a necessary thing. It's between us and the South Koreans. It's part of protecting our own forces on the Korean Peninsula and protecting South Korea. It has nothing to do with the Chinese."

North Korea tested its fourth nuclear bomb in January and launched a long-range rocket the next month, prompting harsh reactions from the US and the South.

China agreed to tough new sanctions on North Korea at the UN Security Council, but has said it is "firmly opposed" to the deployment of the THAAD system, which has a range that would extend far beyond the Korean Peninsula.

Beijing sees THAAD deployment as part of a broader US strategy to contain China and has expressed concern that the advanced missile system might be used to "target China."

Washington has said the proposed deployment is designed purely to counter the threat of North Korean missiles and would not harm China's strategic deterrent.

Carter said in his remarks that the US would like to see China "work bilaterally with North Korea more effectively."

"But we need to defend our own people, we need to defend our own allies, and we are going to do that," the Pentagon chief said.

The Korean Peninsula has been locked in a cycle of military rhetoric since the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953. No peace deal has been signed since then, meaning that Pyongyang and Seoul remain technically at war.

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US Needs 18 More Russian Rocket Engines for Its Military Satellites

Sputnik News

12:53 09.04.2016(updated 16:22 09.04.2016)

The US isn't going to have the rocket engines it needs for its military satellites for another six years, and Russia remains a reliable partner in providing an affordable means into space, the Pentagon says.

The US Department of Defense may need to buy up to 18 Russian RD-180 rocket engines over the next six years to launch their military satellites into space, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work told Reuters news agency on Friday.

Saying that US needs the engines, which provide an "affordable and reliable means into space," Work added that the Pentagon "just [doesn't] see any way you can get a new engine in anything less than six years."

"And so, therefore, in the transition period, we believe strongly that we need RD-180 space engines. No more than 18 but, you know, that's our position."

In 2014, US lawmakers passed a law demanding that Washington phase out its reliance on the Russian-made rockets after 2019, following the rupture in the relations over the ongoing crisis in Ukraine.

However, in December 2015, the ban was lifted, to the outrage of Republican Arizona Senator John McCain, the main proponent of the ban.

Last month, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Armed Services Committee (which McCain chairs) that the early suspension of US use of the Russian RD-180 could cost US taxpayers up to $5 billion.

Moreover, lawmakers said that they feared that a premature phase-out could cause United Launch Alliance, a joint venture between Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to go out of business, leaving only the privately held SpaceX to lift US satellites into space.

 Sputnik

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Belarus Develops New 'Color Revolution-Crushing' Military Doctrine

Sputnik News

21:48 09.04.2016(updated 22:06 09.04.2016)

Despite the recent warming in relations between Belarus and the West, President Alexander Lukashenko remains wary of any attempts to overthrow his government via a Western-sponsored color revolution. Subsequently, his government has strengthened the relevant security architecture in a new military doctrine.

Last Monday, the Belarusian parliament adopted the country's new military doctrine. According to Defense Minister Andrei Ravkov, the old doctrine, adopted in 2002, had fulfilled its strategic purpose, and no longer takes account of the realities facing the country. The revised doctrine, he says, accounts for changes in the military-political situation around the country, including the range of threats that Belarus faces.

"Objectively, in military-political terms, the world, Europe and our country have seen significant changes which the existing [2002] doctrine can no longer account for in full," Ravkov explained, cited by the Belarusian Telegraph Agency.

Accordingly, he added, "our military doctrine has been deeply reworked, and is now a new document which, nevertheless, maintains a completely defensive orientation." This, the minister noted, is exemplified by the provision stipulating that Belarus's armed forces shall not be used in operations abroad.

At the same time, "a particular emphasis has been placed on the negative trends associated with developments in the concept of color revolutions, and mechanisms aimed at changing the constitutional order and violating states' territorial integrity by provoking internal armed conflicts."

The new doctrine, Ravkov noted, takes account of a series of new external and internal threats, including factors which, though formally outside the military sphere, significantly affect the country's defense. Subsequently, the range of measures that can be implemented by the state to ensure its security against these threats has been expanded.

The document takes account of "all possible forms of aggression against Belarus, including at the stage of internal armed conflict, provoked from the outside by means of hybrid warfare. Today, in additional to classical warfare, it has become common practice to use a strategy of indirect action. This strategy provides for warfare by proxy, the massive involvement of radical extremist and terrorist groups, private military campaigns, and the widespread use of civilian protest potential."

Ultimately, Ravkov emphasized, the new doctrine should not be taken as an indication that Belarus has decided to shift its position in the world. "We advocate that all contentious issues are resolved by peaceful means, through negotiation and diplomatic channels. We do not consider any of our neighbors an enemy, so long as they do not pursue an aggressive policy against Belarus."

In recent years, Belarusian officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko, have repeatedly warned that they would be willing to use the country's army to combat the threat of color revolutions and hybrid warfare.

Asked to comment on the implications of the new doctrine, Vadim Trukhachev, a professor of the Department of Foreign Regions at the Russian State University for Humanities, said that it is an indication that Belarus remains wary of the threat of Western-sponsored color revolutions.

"In spite of the improvement in relations with the West, Lukashenko did not become 'one of their lads'," Trukhachev said, speaking to Russia's Svobodnaya Pressa newspaper. "He is not completely loyal, and plays his own game, while the EU and the US would prefer to see the countries that border the EU fully controlled by leaders who entirely share the Western line and weaken their ties with Russia."

"Belarus has already faced numerous attempts at creating a 'Maidan scenario' in the country, and each time Lukashenko has firmly suppressed them. He's not afraid of sanctions and other prohibitions, and will be ready to use force if any attempts at a Ukrainian scenario are attempted in his country. He won't touch an opposition rally so long it doesn't attack government institutions. But as soon as such an appeal is made, the rally will be dispersed."

Trukhachev said that he agrees with the idea that the situation in Ukraine has offered Belarus a powerful 'immunity shot' against Maidan-style revolutions, at least temporarily. "For Belarusians, Ukraine is a close, fraternal country, and they have seen what happened there following the events of Maidan."

At the same time, he noted, this kind of 'vaccination' cannot last forever, and the country's leadership is preparing ahead of time for any scenario that might arise, from protests arising from a deterioration in the standard of living, to questions involving the country's Polish minority.

For his part, Stanislav Byshok, a political commentator and analyst at the CIS-EMO Election Monitoring Organization, hinted that Belarus's new military doctrine may be connected in some way to the partial lifting of Western sanctions against the country.

As far as the doctrine's updated assessment of the threats facing Belarus is concerned, Byshok noted that it is logical, "and associated with both the aggravation of Russia-West tensions, and the development of new military and informational technologies allowing nations to achieve their military and political objectives using non-military or 'part-military' means."

At the same time, the analyst warned, color revolution technology is not the only tool Western countries may use against Minsk. "In Belarus there are hundreds of grant programs funded by European and American structures. They are aimed, most notably, at the development of self-governance. The color revolution is just one technology for a change of power in one country or another. But there are other tools, ones which are more subtle, which could be employed in Belarus."

Thankfully, Byshok explained, at least Belarus, unlike many other post-Soviet countries, does not have any territorial disputes with its neighbors. Therefore, the problem of separatism, which enemies might use to create conditions for hybrid warfare, is not an issue. "In this context, the term 'hybrid war' can be interpreted very broadly, and can include the concept of 'information war'. In this kind of war it is possible, if necessary, to organize the activity not only of local opposition, but of foreign NGOs working in the country as well."

 Sputnik

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Exclusive: N. Korea Uses Overseas Restaurants for Information Gathering

by William Kim April 08, 2016

North Korea is gathering information from foreigners, mostly South Koreans, through its global network of restaurants, a former worker of a North Korean restaurant abroad told VOA.

North Korea reportedly runs about 130 restaurants around the world, mostly in China. They serve traditional North Korean dishes, employ North Korean staff and have long been seen as one of the country's few instruments of soft power. But they also are suspected of serving as fronts for other activities.

Some South Korean and Western news media outlets have speculated Pyongyang was using the restaurants for illicit activities such as money laundering.

The former restaurant worker said North Korean waitresses at state-run restaurants overseas secretly collect information on customers and send it to their homeland. The worker asked to be identified only by the initial "J" because of safety concerns, although VOA did verify J's links to the overseas restaurant business.

South Koreans targeted

"The waitresses should gather customers' personal information and report it to their supervisors," J told VOA by hard copy mail. "They pay particular attention to South Koreans."

The information-gathering mission is supervised by officials dispatched from the State Security Ministry, North Korea's body that handles security and intelligence matters. Each official monitors 10 to 20 waitresses.

The North Korean offshore business depends on affluent South Korean tourists and businessmen.

"Between 60 percent and 80 percent of the customers are South Koreans," J said. "Without them, they can't survive."

It is unclear how much money the restaurant enterprise generates. The bulk of the earnings, however, go to the government, leaving little money for the workers, according to J, who said waitresses are paid $10 to $15 a month for working more than 12 hours per day. They receive $2,500 and house appliances such as a television set or a washing machine upon returning home after a four-year assignment.

Hard work for little pay

The waitresses work under heavy supervision and enjoy little personal freedom.

"You see the world that is quite the opposite of what you are taught," J said. "Then you begin to wonder if you will ever have a chance of living freely as a true human being."

North Korea's overseas restaurant businesses have become an important source of hard currency for Pyongyang amid increased international sanctions over the country's nuclear development.

Recently, the restaurants faced financial trouble after South Korea asked its citizens to avoid them. The South Korean move followed a North Korean nuclear test and long-range-missile launch.

13 defectors

On Friday, South Korea's Unification Ministry announced that 13 North Koreans working at the same restaurant overseas had defected to the South.

Jeong Joon-hee, a spokesman for the Unification Ministry, told reporters at The Atlantic Wire that the number was higher than usual for group defections.

"We've seen cases of one or a couple of employees working at North Korean restaurants coming here, but not this many," he told The Atlantic, refusing to divulge the country from which the defectors had come to South Korea, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

"They said they had a chance to learn about the true aspects of South Korea through South Korean TV news, soap operas and movies as well as via the internet while living outside their country," the spokesman said. "They also realized the truth about Pyongyang's false propaganda."

This report was produced in collaboration with VOA's Korean service.

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Kim Jong Un Guides Ground Jet Test of New-type High-Power Engine of Inter-continental Ballistic Rocket

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- The DPRK succeeded in the ground jet test of a new type high-power engine of inter-continental ballistic rocket designed and produced by the scientists and technicians in its field of national defence.

Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, first chairman of the National Defence Commission of the DPRK and supreme commander of the Korean People's Army, issued an order to conduct the ground jet test of a new type high-power engine of inter-continental ballistic rocket and personally came to the Sohae Space Center to guide the test.

He gave an order to start the test.

The moment the engine spewed out huge flames with deafening boom.

The results of the test proved that the high-power engine, designed and manufactured by the scientists and technicians in the field of national defence with their own efforts and technology in the Korean style, satisfied all scientific and technological indexes.

He was greatly pleased with the results of the test and highly praised the scientists and technicians for having brought about another epochal event in demonstrating the dignity and the inexhaustible power of the great Paektusan nation by putting into practice the intention and will of the party to adorn the Seventh Congress of the Workers' Party of Korea as a golden age in bolstering up the Juche-oriented national defence.

The great success made in the test provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the U.S. imperialists and other hostile forces and made it possible to have access to more powerful means capable of reacting to nukes in kind, he noted, adding: This is an eye-catching event which demonstrated our national defence capability before the world and another great victory achieved by our people in the drive for glorifying the Seventh Congress of the WPK with unprecedented successes.

Now the DPRK can tip new type inter-continental ballistic rockets with more powerful nuclear warheads and keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the U.S. mainland within our striking range and reduce them to ashes so that they may not survive in our planet, he said, stressing the need to diversify nuclear attack means at a higher level to cope with the ever-more increasing nuclear threats and arbitrariness of the U.S. imperialists and thus decisively counter nukes in kind.

He expressed great expectation and belief that scientists and technicians in the field of national defence would give full rein to their inexhaustible creative efforts true to the party's line of simultaneously developing the two fronts and its plan for building the nuclear force and thereby bring about manifold changes in the development and production of Juche-oriented weapons and bombs capable of firmly guaranteeing the ever-lasting future of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea and remarkably reinforce the nuclear arsenal of the Supreme Command.

He was accompanied by Ri Man Gon, department director of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, Jo Yong Won, Hong Yong Chil and Kim Jong Sik, vice department directors of the C.C., the WPK, and General Kim Rak Gyom, commander of the Strategic Force of the KPA. -0- (2016.04.09)

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U.S.-S. Korea Nuclear War Maneuvers No Longer Tolerable: Rodong Sinmun

Korean Central News Agency of DPRK via Korea News Service (KNS)

Pyongyang, April 9 (KCNA) -- Key Resolve joint military exercise, combined command drill staged with all U.S. nuclear weapons and special operation forces involved came to an end in south Korea but mobile Foal Eagle 16 is still going on.

The U.S. imperialists and south Korean puppet forces are openly committing this saber-rattling with main emphasis on carrying out their hideous criminal scenario targeting the headquarters of the great Paektusan nation.

Rodong Sinmun Saturday observes in a commentary in this regard:

This is the most blatant challenge to the great and sacred dignity of the supreme leadership of the DPRK and an open declaration of a war against it.

The irrepressible resentment of the Korean army and people at the U.S. imperialists and the Park Geun Hye group of traitors and their resolution to take revenge upon them are running high.

The U.S. has completely lost a monopoly of the right to preemptive nuclear strike on the Korean peninsula.

Now the U.S. mainland is not free from the deadly strike of the armed forces of the DPRK.

All our service personnel and people can no longer pardon the madcap nuclear war maneuvers of the U.S. imperialists, the sworn enemy of the Korean people, and the south Korean puppet forces.

They should not ignore the DPRK's repeated warnings.

If they wish to survive on this earth, they should roll back their nuclear confrontation policy at once. -0-

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US rips North Korea over ICBM program

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 4:39PM

The United States has censured North Korea over 'destabilizing' the region with what Washington has described as Pyongyang's Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) program.

"We have seen the reports of North Korea's claims to have developed new engine technology for its ICBMs," said a statement by State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner.

"We call on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that further destabilize the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its commitments and international obligations."

The statement follows an earlier announcement by North Korea on Saturday in which Pyongyang said it successfully tested an engine designed for an ICBM that will give it the ability to stage nuclear attacks on the United States.

"The great success ... provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the US imperialists and other hostile forces," North Korea's official news agency, KCNA, quoted leader Kim Jong-un as saying.

The alleged test followed Pyongyang's firing of a missile into the sea off its eastern coast on April 1.

The tests were conducted in defiance of sanctions by the UN Security Council that ban North Korea from carrying out activities related to ballistic missile.

Following the North's fourth nuclear test in January and an alleged satellite launch the next month, the US and China formed a front in the UN to slap new sanctions on Pyongyang.

On Friday, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the United States will go ahead with a proposed deployment of a US missile system in South Korea despite Chinese complaints.

Carter said the plan was necessary to protect both American forces on the Korean Peninsula and South Korea from the North.

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North Korea says successfully tested new engine for ballistic missile

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 1:48AM

North Korea says it has successfully tested an engine designed for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that will give it the ability to stage nuclear attacks on the United States.

North Korea's official KCNA news agency reported early on Saturday that the engine's test was ordered and personally monitored by leader Kim Jong-un. It did not say when the test was conducted.

"The great success ... provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the US imperialists and other hostile forces," Kim was quoted by the KCNA as saying.

Now, Pyongyang "can tip new-type intercontinental ballistic rockets with more powerful nuclear warheads and keep any cesspool of evils in the earth, including the US mainland, within our striking range," he added.

It was the latest in a series of North Korea's claims of great achievements in both its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs.

The alleged test followed Pyongyang's firing of a missile into the sea off its eastern coast on April 1.

The tests were conducted in defiance of sanctions by the UN Security Council that ban North Korea from carrying out activities related to ballistic missile.

Following the North's fourth nuclear test in January and an alleged satellite launch the next month, the US and China formed a front in the UN to slap new sanctions on Pyongyang.

Last month, the Security Council imposed its "toughest" sanctions on North Korea, targeting the country's military, mining, trade, and financial sectors. But the North responded by firing a number of rockets into the waters off its eastern coast on several occasions.

Pyongyang has also stepped up its anti-US rhetoric over the past few weeks, threatening Washington of preemptive nuclear strikes.

The country bills its nuclear and missile programs as deterrence against plots by the US and its allies to overthrow the regime in Pyongyang.

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China Blasts North Korea in Deleted Editorial About Nuclear Missile Program

Sputnik News

19:40 09.04.2016(updated 19:43 09.04.2016)

The People's Daily in China criticized North Korea this week, urging it to reconsider its nuclear weapons program as the Chinese ally announced tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile engine. The post was later taken down.

An editorial in China's People's Daily argued North Korea is risking stability by continuing their efforts to develop intercontinental-capable nuclear weapons, according to China Cheat Sheets. The post even questioned Pyongyang's military capability, comparing tensions between North and South Korea to the chaos in Syria.

"Syria's turmoil came about as the result of a population of only 20 million or so people," the editorial read before it disappeared. "Just imagine what it would be like for the Korean peninsula with [about] 80 million?"

"With inadequate economic, military, technological and management capability, should there be any nuclear leaks, like those that occurred in Japan [at Fukushima]  what would happen to northeastern China's security?"

North Korea announced Saturday the successful testing an engine that would radically increase the range of ballistic missiles could be mounted with nuclear warheads, an act that would violate UN sanctions.

The North Korean news agency KCNA said in a report that the engine would "guarantee" the People's Democratic Republic of Korea's ability to strike the US.

Earlier this year in January, North Korea conducted their fourth nuclear-weapon test which several governments condemned including Beijing. Disregarding the criticism, the next month, North Korea launched a long-range rocket designed to put a satellite into orbit.

The People's Daily editorial stressed that the relationship between China and Pyongyang has worsened since the nuclear test. China went so far as to impose new sanctions corresponding with the UN's call to ban significant imports. Those include coal, iron ore, gold, titanium and other rare elements as well as a range of products including jet fuel.

Such sanctions are designed to deplete Pyongyang's ability to fund the ballistic-missile program, the results of which analysts believe Pyongyang will start to take effect between six months to a year from now.

Still, many experts have responded that they do not believe Chinese and North Korean relations are in any danger of collapsing any time soon.

"North Korea still relies heavily on China via normal economic development despite UN sanctions and China will continue to uphold good neighborly relations with North Korea," Cui Zhiying, a Korean affairs expert at Shanghai's Tongji University, told South China Morning Post.

 Sputnik

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North Korea Reports Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Engine Test

Sputnik News

02:01 09.04.2016

North Korea claims it has successfully tested a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile, under direct supervision of leader Kim Jong Un.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued an order to conduct on Saturday the "jet test of a new type high-power engine of inter-continental ballistic rocket and personally came to the Sohae Space Center to guide the test," North Korea's Central News Agency (KCNA) said as quoted by South Korea's Yonhap news agency on Saturday.

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula escalated after North Korea successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test in early January and put a satellite into orbit a month later, violating UN Security Council resolutions and triggering condemnation from the international community.

Kim Jong Un said on Saturday that the new ballistic missile engine test was a "great success" and "provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the U.S. imperialists and other hostile forces and made it possible to have access to more powerful means capable of reacting to nukes in kind."

North Korea has reportedly allocated 15.8 percent of the 2016 state budget for defense purposes.

In March, North Korea conducted multiple short and medium-range rocket launches.

In response to North Korea's recent activities, South Korea and the United States have launched large-scale military drills in the region. The exercises, expected to last through April 30, include rehearsals of strikes on North Korea's missile and nuclear facilities in case of war.

Pyongyang has labeled the drills as provocation.

 Sputnik

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Sub-Continental Divide: India-Pakistan Relations Return to Square One

Sputnik News

13:21 09.04.2016(updated 13:26 09.04.2016)

India  Pakistan relations are on a topsy-turvy path again: despite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's diplomatic efforts to mend ties, things are not going in the right direction.

The initial seriousness shown by the Pakistani establishment to punish the masterminds of the 2016 terror attack on India's Pathankot Air Force Station now seems to be waning.

The visit of Pakistan's Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe the Pathankot terror attack was an excellent gesture on the part of Islamabad. During their visit to India, their hosts provided ample support to the JIT and it was agreed that India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) will visit Pakistan as part of a further probe into the Pathankot terror attack. But after the JIT returned home, Pakistan's position changed, as the JIT rejected India's claim that terrorists had come from Pakistan to carry out the terror attack.

Additionally, Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit commented that the Indo-Pakistan talks have been suspended, adding fuel to the fire.

Now Indian opposition parties have started criticizing Modi's diplomatic parleys with Pakistan and are raising questions about the efficacy of the visit of Pakistan's JIT.

"India started talks with Pakistan without any preparation and without consulting other parties. Most importantly, why we allowed Pakistan's JIT to visit Pathankot; instead NIA should have visited Pakistan first. Due to Modi's ill-planned Pakistan policy, we have lost the strategic advantage over Pakistan that we had earlier. These incidents have tarnished India's image internationally," Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh told Sputnik.

While defending his party's stand on Pakistan, ruling Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Shrikant Sharma told Sputnik "These all are media reports, we are waiting for the official communication from the Pakistani government after the successful visit of the JIT."

Analysts are also not particularly optimistic about the normalization of India-Pakistan relations happening any time soon. Major General (Rtd) Afsir Karim told Sputnik in an exclusive interview that "there is a total breakdown in the relationship. We are not on the same page. Our focus in on terrorism and we want to talk mainly about terrorism but their focus is Kashmir and not terrorism. This is the reason they are saying that talks have been suspended. The peace process between India and Pakistan is on paper only, while on the ground Pakistan is promoting terrorism. It is not a new thing for Pakistan, in fact we were expecting the same."

The fact is that apart from the government, the army is another power center in Pakistan. As far as the country's relations with India are concerned, it's a known fact that the Pakistani army is against a thaw in India-Pakistan relations. It appears that Pakistan's army is also trying hard to derail the peace process between the two.

 Sputnik

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Salami: US officials not qualified to discuss Iran's missile might

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 9, IRNA -- Deputy Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) slammed US Secretary of State John Kerry for his interfering remarks against Iran's missile program, warning that the American officials are in no way entitled to comment on the issue.

'The missile capability is a backup for Iran's prestige, honor, survival and dignity and will never be negotiated, compromised and dealt with,' Brigadier General Salami told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.

He blasted Kerry's Thursday comments that Washington was open to a "new arrangement" with Iran for peacefully resolving disputes, including Tehran's ballistic missile tests, and said, 'They are not entitled to talk about our defense requirements.'

Salami underscored Iran's determination to make further advancements in the missile industry under the Supreme Leader's supervision.

Also, in response to Kerry's comments, Deputy Chief of Staff of Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazzayeri on Friday warned the US officials that Iran's missile power is a redline which can no way be encroached.

'Iran's diplomatic apparatus which hammered out a Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on its nuclear program to deal firmly and transparently with the US meddling in Iran's affairs, specially in the domain of defense,' General Jazzayeri told reporters on Friday.

"We are stressing what has been said several times that is the missile power is non-negotiable and among the redlines of the Iranian nation and is meant for developing its defense capabilities, Iran doesn't get permission from anybody," he added.

2050**2050

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Iran's armed forces are neither adventurous nor conservative

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, April 9, IRNA -- Secretary of the Expediency Council Mohasen Rezaei has said Iranian armed forces are neither adventurous nor conservative.

Rezaei, former commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), said Saturday that the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not initiator of any war.

The Iranian forces are not adventurous but if any country dreams of military attack on Iran, they will chase it as far as the enemy's territory, he added.

The world should know that no one must play with lion's tail, he stressed.

1483**1771

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US not in position to comment on Iran's missile might: Cmdr.

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 2:45PM

A senior Iranian commander has rejected US Secretary of State John Kerry's call for missile negotiations with Tehran, saying Washington is not in a position to make comments about the Islamic Republic's missile capabilities.

It is outside the purview of US officials to talk about Iran's defense requirements, Brigadier General Hossein Salami, second-in-command of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), told reporters on Saturday.

"Our missile capabilities will never be up for negotiations or compromise," Salami said.

He added that Iran's missile industry supports the nation's dignity, survival and glory, emphasizing that the Islamic Republic will proceed with boosting its missile might.

Salami's reaction came after the US secretary of state suggested on Thursday that Washington was open to a "new arrangement" with Tehran for peacefully resolving disputes such as its recent ballistic missile tests.

Kerry said the US and its partners were telling Iran that they were "prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues."

The IRGC successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles on March 9 as part of military drills to assess its capabilities. The missiles dubbed Qadr-H and Qadr-F were fired during large-scale drills, code-named Eqtedar-e-Velayat.

On March 8, Iran fired another ballistic missile called Qiam from silo-based launchers in different locations across the country.

The US claims that Iran's missile tests violate the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed a nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries  the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany  on July 14, 2015.

Iran, however, has repeatedly announced that the missile launches were not against the Security Council resolution.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on March 30 said Iran must strengthen its defense capabilities in the face of enemy threats.

"If the Islamic establishment seeks technology and negotiations but does not have defensive power, it will have to back down in the face of any petty country that threatens [it]," the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei emphasized, however, that Iran's negotiating skills must also be boosted.

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US must stop supporting terrorism, leave region: Iran

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 1:8PM

Iran has lashed out at US Secretary of State John Kerry for accusing Tehran of destabilizing the Middle East, saying Washington needs to stop supporting terrorist groups and pull out of the region if it seeks to help regional security.

"If they [the US officials] really intend to create stability in the region, they should leave the region and stop supporting terrorists," Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehqan told reporters on Saturday.

Washington has no choice but to stop interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and put an end to their presence in other regions if it seeks welfare, stability and peace in the world, he added.

"If John Kerry thinks about these issues for a few minutes, he would no longer utter such nonsense and foolish words," the Iranian minister pointed out.

Dehqan's remarks came after the US secretary of state on Thursday accused Iran of conducting "destabilizing actions" in the Middle East.

Speaking in a joint press conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Kerry said the US calls on Iran to "constructively join in the efforts to make peace and to work toward a cessation of hostilities."

In response to Kerry's remarks, Dehqan said the US statesmen have always sought to put a cap on Iran's missile and defense capabilities.

"The recent remarks by their secretary of state show the US inability and frustration in the face of the Islamic Republic of Iran's defense capabilities," he said.

Washington can no longer back its allies

Elsewhere in his remarks, Dehqan said the US is no longer capable of supporting its allies.

"They (Americans) are trying to make regional countries dependent on them through the sale of weapons and spreading this notion that these countries' survival depends on implementing the US policies," he said.

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia used US-made cluster bombs in two recent airstrikes on a busy market in Yemen, which killed scores of civilians.

The HRW said that its investigators traveled to the northwestern Yemeni town of Mustaba in Hajjah Province the day after the attack and found fragments of a GBU-31 satellite-guided bomb as well as its guidance equipment supplied by the US.

The US has backed the Saudi military campaign in Yemen, which started on March 26, 2015. In November 2015, Washington approved a USD 1.29 billion rearming program for Riyadh, including thousands of smart bombs.

Nearly 9,400 people, among them over 2,230 children, have been killed and over 16,000 others injured since the onset of the Saudi military raids on Yemen.

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Myanmar frees 113 political prisoners, jails two Muslim activists

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 8:50AM

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has issued an amnesty order for the release of 113 political prisoners, amid the sentencing of two Muslim peace activists to jail terms.

Suu Kyi issued the amnesty order as her first official act following her rise to power as de facto leader after her party won a landslide victory in elections last November, state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Saturday, citing police authorities.

The release of the prisoners across the country came along with a general amnesty for common convicts ahead of the country's traditional New Year festival, often the occasion for freeing prisoners.

The amnesty order on Friday, however, coincided with the sentencing two Muslim peace activists to two years in prison each, with hard labor for alleged activities that allegedly brought them into contact with an anti-government ethnic group, AP reported.

A court in the central city of Mandalay sentenced Zaw Zaw Latt and Pwint Phyu Latt under a law barring associating with an unlawful organization for their contacts with the Kachin Independence Army, a militant group in Myanmar's far north.

Both had already been sentenced in February to 2-year jail terms for alleged immigration law violations. They are members of an interfaith religious organization, and have said that they were making efforts to keep refugees from fighting.

The case of the two Muslims was generally overlooked in the euphoria over the release of prisoners, especially more than 60 students and activists in central Myanmar who had been held captive for a year pending trial after being detained for protesting against changes in education policy.

Muslims are a religious minority in Myanmar; Rohingya Muslims have faced pressure and harsh violence in recent years in the overwhelmingly Buddhist country. Myanmar's government refuses to recognize Rohingya Muslims as citizens and labels them as "illegal" immigrants.

Rohingya Muslims have been denied Myanmar citizenship since a new citizenship law was enacted in 1982, and there have been a number of attacks against Rohingyas over the past years.

Suu Kyi, who holds the specially-created post of "state counselor," announced in a Thursday statement that the release of political prisoners was a priority.

She is effectively the head of the government. The military-era constitution does not allow her to be president because her two sons have British citizenship. Shortly before her election victory, she had declared her intention to run the government by being "above the president."

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Russian envoy doubts breakthrough in NATO relations

Iran Press TV

Sat Apr 9, 2016 5:59PM

A Russian envoy says Moscow's relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will not improve as long as the military alliance continues a "containment policy" towards the country.

Russia's Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko said on Saturday that a breakthrough in diplomatic relations should not be expected this month at a forum that will bring Russian and NATO representatives together for the first time since the Ukraine crisis in 2014.

"There cannot be a return to 'business as usual' with NATO as long as the alliance does not reconsider its containment policy towards Russia and does stop bloating the myth of a military threat from Russia," Grushko said.

He said holding further meetings with NATO would depend on Moscow's conclusions once it has analyzed the results of the upcoming meeting of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) in the Belgian capital, Brussels.

The NRC was established in 2002 in order to create a forum for talks on security issues between Russia and NATO members. On Friday, the two sides agreed to hold talks at ambassador level in Brussels in the next two weeks.

No date has been fixed yet for Russia-NATO meeting.

The agenda of the meeting includes the implementation of the ceasefire deal in Ukraine, known as "Minsk-2", the Russian official said in reference to the two rounds of peace efforts agreed in the Belarusian capital but which have yet to be fully implemented.

Under the peace deal, Kiev and the Pro-Russia forces were expected to withdraw heavy weaponry from conflict zones and start negotiations on holding local elections in the restive eastern areas.

"I don't expect any breakthrough from this meeting," Grushko said, adding, "But we hope for an earnest discussion, including about the root causes of the crisis - not only in Russia-NATO relations, but ... also about the ones that led to the worsening of regional and European security."

Relations between Russia and NATO soured after Crimea separated from Ukraine and rejoined the Russian Federation following a referendum in March 2014.

The military alliance ended all practical cooperation with Russia over the ensuing crisis in Ukraine in April 2014. The fighting between the Ukrainian government troops and the pro-Russia forces in eastern regions of Donetsk and Lugansk has left over 9,000 people dead.

The United States and its European allies accuse Moscow of destabilizing Ukraine and have imposed a number of sanctions against Russian and pro-Russia figures. Moscow, however, rejects having a hand in the Ukrainian crisis.

Russia has also repeatedly slammed NATO's military buildup near its borders, saying such a move poses a threat to both regional and international peace.

Russian officials have time and again accused the United States and its allies of attempting to maintain their dominance in global affairs through pursuing "a policy of containment of Russia."

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Russia's Novak Says Ready To Freeze Oil Output At January Level

April 09, 2016

by RFE/RL

Russian Energy Minister Alexandr Novak says Russia is ready to freeze oil production at January's level of 10.9 million barrels a day in an agreement with other major producers this month.

But he said other nations at a meeting of OPEC and non-OPEC producers on April 17 in Doha may propose freezes at different levels, such as February's output levels, and Russia is open to that as well.

"January is being discussed, as we agreed... But we will consider it in case there are proposals" at February or March levels, he told a news conference in Moscow. His comments helped spark another 6 percent surge in crude prices on April 8.

Novak said he is still hopeful that the Doha meeting will end with an output freeze agreement among major producers, even though Iran has said it will keep raising production and will not sign on to such a deal.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Venezuela agreed in February to try to galvanize support around an output freeze in an effort to put a floor under falling oil prices.

Novak's comments came as Latin America's main oil exporters met and endorsed their efforts to stabilize prices.

Delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Mexico, and Venezuela met in Quito, Ecuador, on April 8 and issued a statement calling on "OPEC and non-OPEC producers to take necessary actions to stabilize the world petroleum market."

Mexico and Colombia, like Russia, are not members of the OPEC oil cartel, so their participation in the meeting was notable. Mexico has been one of the world's top producers.

However, Mexico said it was only participating as an "observer," and its energy ministry pointed out that the country's crude output has already declined by more than a million barrels a day in the last decade.

Thus, Mexican officials said they cannot freeze or cut output in any kind of coordinated strategy to support prices. Mexico's oil output has been falling for over a decade due to underinvestment in its aging oil fields.

Ecuadoran Hydrocarbons Minister Carlos Pareja, who hosted the Quito meeting, said an agreement in Doha is urgently needed.

Oil prices at "less than $30 are incompatible with the cost of production, and don't allow us to make new investments, begin new projects, recover investment," he said. "That's a problem for all producers, OPEC and non-OPEC alike. No one escapes."

Talk of a production freeze continued to bolster world oil markets on April 8, pushing up the price of Brent Sea premium crude by 6.4 percent to $41.94 in London trading.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, and TASS

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-novak- freeze-oil-output-opec/27663957.html

Copyright (c) 2016. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Mysterious Lab Guarding Russia's Nuclear Secrets Marks 70th Anniversary

Sputnik News

19:38 09.04.2016(updated 19:55 09.04.2016)

April 9 marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the nuclear institute at Sarov, which would become one of the most important and sensitive military facilities in 20th and 21st century Russian history.

The facility, formally known as the Russian Federal Nuclear Center of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Experimental Physics (RFNC-VNIIEF), was formed in April 1946 in Sarov, a closed city in central Russia. It would become the heart of the Soviet, and later Russian nuclear research program. The facility was so secret that until 1991, the town was referred to only as Arzamas-16, and was not listed on public maps.

Marking the historic occasion, RFNC-VNIIEF director Valentin Kostyukov sat down with Russia's RIA Novosti news agency to discuss the institute's glorious past and its plans for the future. In any case, he suggested, it wouldn't be exaggeration to say that the famous institute, which remains shrouded in mystery to this day, was and remains "the pride of Russia."

The institute, first known simply as KB-11 ('Design Bureau-11'), "became our country's first nuclear center," Kostyukov recalled. "The achievements of its professionals laid the foundations to our country's nuclear deterrence capabilities, which continue to serve as the crucial foundation of Russia's military technical security to this day."

In August 1949, scientists at KB-11 developed the RDS-1, the first Soviet nuclear warhead. "This test," Kostyukov noted, "demonstrated that our country had mastered one of the key technology sets of the 20th century. The 1950s saw the testing of thermonuclear weapons, whose development laid the foundation for the creation of the [security] guarantee of nuclear deterrence."

Scientists at the center had to put forward and to implement dozens of original and ambitious ideas, which enabled the USSR to eventually catch up to the US's nuclear capabilities, despite America's vast superiority of resources.

"The unique system of labor organization at KB-11, which concentrated not just outstanding scientists, but also talented designers, engineers, technologists, and managers, all of whom passed through the school of industrialization and the Second World War, quickly led to the creation not just of individual nuclear weapons, but their mass production."

The institute's achievements, Kostyukov noted, serve to illustrate the tremendous technical and scientific achievements that are possible when the right conditions are met. These, the director said, include the existence of a "supertask" of momentous, life-changing importance, the unification of the efforts of top specialists, and the necessary support from the state.

Today, Kostyukov pointed out, the institute remains one of Russia's most important centers of high technology, working in areas including nuclear weaponry, conventional high-tech weaponry, and innovations for the civilian economy. The latter include innovations in the field of IT, including Russian-made supercomputers, the associated software, and information security technologies, primarily for use by state institutions, in both the defense, state, space and civilian sectors.

Ultimately, Kostyukov noted, "it can be said without exaggeration that the RFNC-VNIIEF is the treasure and pride of Russia."

 Sputnik

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Why Syria Election Will Hand Assad Victory

by Jamie Dettmer April 08, 2016

There won't be much need to stay up late to find out the results of the April 13 parliamentary elections in Syria as the outcome is a foregone conclusion, say opposition politicians and independent election experts, who dub next week's wartime poll a PR stunt.

The elections being held next week in Syria  or at least in government-controlled areas  won't be nail-biters, they say, and will see the ruling Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party of President Bashar al-Assad and its political allies storm to inevitable victory, thanks to a careful selection of candidates and the fact that the polls will only be held in regime-controlled districts.

French President Francois Hollande has dubbed the elections "provocative" and "totally unrealistic."

And the main Western-backed political opposition to Assad, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), has called on Syrians in areas where they can vote, to boycott the polls, arguing the country's five-year-long civil war won't be ended "through unilateral projects" but only by a negotiated political transition involving all Syrians.

SNC officials argue the election is an effort by Assad to project a political legitimacy he doesn't have  part of a bid to rehabilitate his regime in the eyes of the international community.

Lots of candidates = free elections?

Just before the cessation of hostilities was negotiated in February, President Assad announced his intention to hold parliamentary elections on April 13, issuing a decree for polls to be held for the country's 250-member legislature, known as the People's Council, whose members are elected for a four-year term.

In the last few days in regime-held areas - especially in the capital Damascus - streets have been plastered with campaign posters by the almost 12,000 candidates competing for seats. President Assad has pointed to the "unprecedented" number of candidates as evidence that the elections are anything but a sham.

Ba'ath party official Wael al-Imam argues it demonstrates Syrians "believe in democracy and will use the chance to make their voices heard in a free manner."

But independent election experts say there is little free or fair about these elections. "It would not be in line with any international standards," says Vladimir Pran, a consultant for the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), a Washington-based non-profit that provides technical assistance for elections in new and emerging democracies. IFES frequently partners with the United Nations to organize post-conflict elections.

"No one in the international community will recognize the April polls," he told VOA when Assad announced his intention to hold the polls.

Candidate screening, other hurdles

Next week's polls will be the third time the regime has held elections since the uprising against Assad erupted.

In 2012, the country held parliamentary elections, and in 2014, there was a presidential poll. The 2012 vote was the first since the ruling Ba'ath Party came to power in 1972 that allowed non-Ba'athist candidates to run - a reform highlighted by the regime, which said the introduction of a multi-party contest was an historic step.

But candidates still had to go through a careful screening process to be eligible to stand.

The same is the case with next week's polls.

Half of Syria's parliamentary seats are reserved for laborers and farmers who have no party affiliation. Various committees whose members are appointed by either Assad himself or provincial governors, determine who is a non-affiliated farmer or laborer.

Candidates also have to jump through other hurdles to get on the ballot paper, further undermining the democratic nature of Syrian polls, say Assad opponents.

In addition, the Ba'ath party and political allies benefit from a block vote system used in Syrian elections, says Pran and other election experts.

Several seats are assigned to each constituency. Under Syria's current law, the voter has up to as many votes as seats available and the candidates with the highest vote totals win the seats.

This gives an advantage to the more developed and established parties - in Syria's case, the Ba'ath party. Even in a free and fair election environment, the block vote system works against the opposition if it is fragmented, as it is in Syria, and gives the party that has even a slight lead in the popular vote an overwhelming number of seats.

Presidential election?

In 2012 most of the 250 parliamentarians elected were Assad supporters, either Ba'ath members or of groups aligned with the ruling party. In that election the Ba'ath party and its allies won 168 seats in the 250-seat legislature. The opposition received just six seats with the remainder going to non-partisan farmers and laborers, most considered regime placemen.

But as in 2012 and 2014, the regime will likely point to next week's polls as evidence of the legitimacy of Assad's rule. In the brief election campaign that has been allowed in the run-up to next week's polls, no major criticism of Assad has been launched by the candidates vying for to secure a seat, say political activists.

That is hardly surprising. To do so would risk arrest. Under Syria's penal code, it is illegal to make public statements that "weaken national sentiment."

On March 31, Assad raised the possibility of holding an early snap presidential election, too, telling a Russian media outlet that he was ready to do so, if the Syrian people wanted it. "This depends on the Syrian people's stance, on whether there is a popular will to hold early presidential elections," he said. Assad didn't explain how that "popular will" would be communicated.

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Russia Speeds Up Syrian Reconciliation Process - Syrian Minister

Sputnik News

21:37 09.04.2016(updated 22:44 09.04.2016)

Syrian State Minister for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar said that over six months since joining the fight against terrorism on the Syrian territory, Russia has accelerated the process of reconciliation in the country.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The presence and actions of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria has contributed to more speedy process of reconciliation in the country, Syrian State Minister for National Reconciliation Affairs Ali Haidar said Saturday.

"Over six months since joining the fight against terrorism on the Syrian territory, Russia has accelerated the process of reconciliation in the country," Haidar stressed.

Russia has also prompted many armed opposition groups to accept the ceasefire regime, he noted.

Some of the neighbouring regional powers aim to hinder the ongoing peace process in Syria, Haidar added.

"Most of all, this process is hampered by Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar that through various channels continue to support the militants in Syria," the state minister explained.

According to the data provided by the Syrian politician, over 50 Syrian settlements, home to at least 1.5 million people, have already signed the agreements stipulating the ceasefire observance by now.

The Russian Aerospace Forces started counterterrorism operations in Syria in September 2015, at the invitation of Syrian President Bashar Assad. On March 15, Russia began a major withdrawal of its forces from Syria after accomplishing its objective, while leaving a small residual force.

 Sputnik

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Over 2,000 Syrians Plan to Return to Palmyra, Al-Qaryatayn

Sputnik News

21:12 09.04.2016

The administration of the city of Homs in Syria has prepared 46 buses to Palmyra and two buses to Al-Qaryatayn, it's planned to send a total of over 2,000 temporarily displaced Homs citizens back to their homes, according to a source in the Homs Mayor's Office.

DAMASCUS (Sputnik)  The Homs authorities have prepared 48 buses for more than 2,000 Syrians wishing to return home to the liberated cities of Palmyra and al-Qaryatayn, a source in the Homs Mayor's Office said.

"The administration of the city of Homs has prepared 46 buses to Palmyra and two buses to Al-Qaryatayn, it's planned to send a total of over 2,000 temporarily displaced Homs citizens back to their homes", a source told RIA Novosti.

On March 27, the Syrian army, backed by militias and Russian Aerospace Forces, fully liberated Palmyra, which was under the control of Daesh since May 2015.

The predominantly Christian town of Qaryatayn was captured by the Daesh in August, 2015, and liberated in early April, 2016, by the Syrian government forces, with support of the Russian air group.

Syria has been mired in civil war since 2011, with forces loyal to Assad's government fighting numerous opposition factions and extremist groups. The Daesh emerged in 2013, overrunning swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014. It is a militant jihadist organization outlawed in most countries, including Russia.

 Sputnik

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LINCOLN, Neb.  The North Dakota State men's track & field team broke school records in three of the four throwing events at Saturday's Husker Spring Invite, and in the fourth event, the Bison men posted a mark that ranks No. 2 in school history.It certainly was a day for the record books.NDSU saw its school records extended in the javelin, shot put and discus  all by the existing record holders. Junioradded 10 feet to the javelin record, throwing 248-8 (75.79m) to win the event. Mortimore's toss broke the Nebraska facility record, and it ranks him sixth in the NCAA this year.Bison juniorextended his NDSU shot put all-time best for the second straight week, posting a mark of 61-07.00 (18.77m) for the win. Renner moved up to No. 15 on the NCAA performance list in the event.Sophomorethrew 179-3 (54.63m) in the discus, tacking another three and a half feet onto the NDSU record he set at the Stanford Invitational one week ago. He also entered the national top-50 in the event this season.In the hammer throw  the only throwing event in which the NDSU men didn't set a school record on Saturday  juniorposted a career-best of 202-4 (61.68m) to take first place and move up to No. 2 in school history. Schwarzkopf also notched an outdoor personal-best of 57-04.25 (17.48m) in the shot put to rank fourth all-time at NDSU.NDSU also showed off its tremendous depth in the throws, with the success spanning much further than the records at the top of the results sheet. The Bison men claimed four of the top six finishers in the shot put, hammer throw and javelin.Seniorthrew a lifetime-best 220-11 (67.34m) in the javelin, ranking him sixth in NDSU history. Seniorplaced fourth in the shot put and hammer, and juniortook fifth in the discus with a season-best 162-9 (49.62m).NDSU seniorhad a new outdoor personal-best of 47-06.25 (14.48m) in the triple jump for a runner-up finish. Sophomoreclocked a season-best 53.16 for second place in the 400m hurdles.clocked a new personal-best of 48.49 in the 400m dash for third place  a time that ranks him third in The Summit League., a Bison freshman and the reigning North Dakota high school state champion for Bismarck Century HS, ran a season-best 49.13 in the 400m.Redshirt freshmanplaced fourth in the 1500m in a PR of 4:01.35.took eighth in the 800m in an outdoor personal-best of 1:54.37, and freshmanplaced ninth in 1:55.17.Freshmanfinished seventh in the 100m dash in 10.92 seconds and took ninth in the 200m in a season-best 21.86.
Since January, Ive been writing about how we, as a region, must build our middle class and develop pathways out of poverty if we want to compete in this 21st century global economy. This month, I want to take a look at why and how we need to recruit, develop and support a full range of entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is part of the answer to our future but it is not the answer.

When I graduated from college more than 40 years ago, very few of my classmates thought about becoming entrepreneurs. Most of us wanted jobs in large organizations. Most of us visualized prosperity as working for a corporation, government or nonprofits. Few thought about creating their own businesses.

Today, when many people complete college, theyre already entrepreneurs. They have become entrepreneurs because they want to own their own business and, sometimes, because they must create their own job.

The world has changed and our region must change along with it. For many of us, the best way to find a good job may be to create it. That requires that we become entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurship is a term that is tossed around by economic developers and others but I think everybody has a different vision of what kind of person is an entrepreneur.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary says an entrepreneur is a person who starts a business and is willing to risk loss in order to make money.

You know someone who has done that at one point or another. They started a business and took a risk. This is as complicated as entrepreneurship needs to be.

This is an area rich in entrepreneurial history though many would not call it by that name. Farmers, by nature, are entrepreneurial. Whenever they plant a crop, they are taking a risk. The many business owners around the area are entrepreneurial by choosing to open their doors. This is a region that has been built by people who decided to take a risk for a larger reward to support their families and support their community.

Some would argue that when we became a company town, we lost some of our entrepreneurial drive.

Maybe so, but today in order to create positive economic change throughout our region, we must return to our entrepreneurship culture.

There isnt just one type of entrepreneur. In fact, there are at least four types of entrepreneurs and small businesses that would help this region:

 A non-employee business that is a one-man operation. The freelancers and others hustling multiple gigs often to make ends meet and to improve their own economic security;

 A Main Street business that serves customers and other local businesses;

 Suppliers serving other business in the trade sector; and

 High-growth organizations that are fast growing, innovation-driven businesses.

By understanding that there are many types of entrepreneurs with many levels of needs, the Dan River Region can position itself to be the location that works alongside entrepreneurs to bring their visions to life, cheer on their progress, celebrate their successes and regroup after the first, second or multiple failures.

To do this, there are three important things the Dan River Region must do. First, we must become more supportive and encouraging of smart risk taking. Who in your family wants to start their own business? Encourage them and help them. It is almost guaranteed that the business will not go according to plan. But that is what smart entrepreneurs do  adapt, preserve and then succeed.

Second, we must organize our resources to support entrepreneurship and to help connect the dots for those just starting out.

An important effort is underway, involving approximately 15 business, government, educational and nonprofit organizations. Their goal is to help more entrepreneurs start right, take smarter risks and succeed faster.

We have a number of great partners in this region working toward this goal. From the Danville Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce and the Longwood Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at Danville Community College offering small business support to area banks, Virginia Community Capital and the Virginia Small Business Financing Authority that can help finance businesses.

The Launch Place provides high level consulting to businesses and potential seed capital to high growth, high tech firms. The Dan River Business Development Center is serving as an incubator for startup firms that have great potential for this region.

For agricultural innovations, the Virginia Cooperative Extension is a good place to start and if your idea needs some research and testing, RCATT and IALR are equipped to fill that need.

Starting your own business is very hard. By building a collaborative supporting structure, our region will make business start-ups easier but not easy. Collaboration is hard but its worth the effort, if we are to encourage more start-ups and expansions.

Third, we must build a culture where all young people believe that their future doesnt depend on someone choosing them to be successful. They must believe that they can choose success themselves and that their success is not contingent only on economic forces beyond their control.

What does that look like? Well, it starts with things like the chambers successful Young Entrepreneurs Academy and ultimately gets our young people to start building things.

IdeaFest, created by a group of Middle Border Forward Fellows, is now in its third year. It highlights great ideas from local and regional entrepreneurs. By no means limited to young people, many of the participants are great models to our region about turning ideas into opportunities and then businesses.

We are building a new economy. Every community and region that will survive and prosper going forward has to do the same.

In saying this, I have no desire to demean the past. The past, good and bad, is the foundation of the future. Even if we wanted to, we cant change the past. But the future is different. Communities that have successful entrepreneurs are much more likely to be successful places.
Gold awards for Melbourne whisky label Starward are helping Australian whisky gain traction internationally. Photo: Shaiith

When it comes to making whisky, the airfields of Essendon are a long way from the misty Isles of Scotland, both in distance and in romance. But Melbourne whisky label Starward is lapping up praise after winning Best Craft Distiller Whiskey at the recent San Francisco Global Spirits Competition for its wine cask matured single malt.

The same whisky also received a Double Gold medal, which means it received top marks from each of its category judges. "I'm very proud of the team and what we've achieved," says founder David Vitale, 42, whose New World Distillery started producing whisky out of its headquarters in a former Qantas maintenance hangar in Essendon Fields, six years ago.

"You have to start a race thinking you'll win and we come to market with what we think is the best product in the world. But to have it validated by other people is always really nice."

David Vitale of Starward Whisky in Essendon. Photo: Simon Schluter

In a "double-win" for Victorian distillers, Healesville gin Four Pillars also received a Double Gold medal (its second) at the awards, which received a total of 1899 entrants. Starward also picked up gold for its Solera single malt and, at the World Whiskies Awards held in London a few weeks earlier, it won two gold medals and Best Australian Single Malt Whisky.

Starward is one of only three Victorian-made whiskies (there's Bakery Hill in Bayswater and Timboon Railway Shed Distillery in Timboon) but Australian whiskies are slowly gaining overseas traction.

In 2014 Tasmania's Sullivan's Cove was named world's best single malt at London's World Whiskies Awards and this year Lark Distillery won Best Australian Single Cask Single Malt Whisky; Perth's Limeburners single malt received a bronze.

Starward's recent competition success comes on the back of a $10 million capital injection late last year, which included the backing of global alcohol beverage company Diageo, behind global brands such as Johnny Walker.

Part of their success, says Vitale is due to Melbourne's notoriously changeable weather. "Our four-seasons-in-a-day is our secret weapon. It creates a richer, mellower whisky in a shorter time frame because those barrels are working so hard every day."

Wild temperature rides like the ones we've been experiencing recently cause the whisky liquid to rapidly expand and contract inside Starward's used Australian red wine barrels, fast-tracking alcohol evaporation and flavour extraction. Consequently, Vitale says mainland whiskies like his only require two-and-a-half-to-three years to mature, unlike drops from more stable and cooler climates that typically need at least four.

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"If we're talking Scotch whisky it's eight years of capital you've got to lay away before you see a return on that investment," says Vitale. "In that timeframe we turned over that inventory twice. It's a huge time-to-market advantage, which gives us the ability to scale quickly."

New World Distillery currently produces nearly 1000 bottles of whisky per day, seven-days-a-week. Although they are not selling the equivalent of that yet Vitale says they have established an export base in the UK and plan to double production in October. Next year he hopes to break into the lucrative US export market.

For the time being, though, Vitale says knowledge about Australian whisky remains limited to the "tweed jacket-wearing, pipe-smoking big moustaches and beards brigade".

"We've still got a long way to go to build awareness so these awards are fantastic from that perspective."
The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed piece on April 5 by Paul H. Tice with the headline "Kicking the Oil Business When It's Down."

Tice, senior managing director and head of the Energy Capital Group at USCA Asset Management LLC points out that crude oil prices have declined drastically and the industry is struggling. Thousands of workers have lost jobs, companies have cut budgets and tried to refinance debt, and bankruptcies are back in the news with more to follow.

"Despite the strategic importance of oil and gas production to the U.S. economy and even its national security, however, the Obama administration has continued to push its climate-change agenda, leading to new rules, regulations and restrictions on fossil fuels," Tice wrote. "The net effect will be to raise companies' operating costs and limit their financing options."

Since 2015, there have been an overwhelming number of new regulations proposed by bureaucratic agencies.

The Environmental Protection Agency has taken the lead with its Clean Power Plan, ozone restrictions, a methane rule for new equipment that was quickly expanded to include all oil and gas operations, changes to the "waters of the U.S." regulation, and it continues with its study of hydraulic fracturing.

The Bureau of Land Management has issued new drilling and hydraulic fracturing requirements on federal and Indian lands, which is being challenged in the courts.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has hundreds of animals and plant species listing proposals that threaten development activities and a newly proposed definition of "critical habitat" that would greatly increase the agency's authority to expand areas that receive designation. The agency justifies the change as being part of the administration's climate change initiatives.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration have modified several regulations that expand liability for violation of its rules throughout the oil and gas industry with criminal penalties in some cases. OSHA has changed its regulations of oil field operations to make the operators of the wells liable for accidents on the lease even if the injured person is a subcontractor.

It also issued an alert for possible health hazards associated with tank gauging and exposure to silica.

The president even went so far as to propose a new $10.25-per-barrel tax on oil produced in the U.S. when oil was selling for about $30.

Tice states that the most damaging threat to the industry comes from the administration's pressure on the banking system, which has dampened the credit available for energy companies.

"Oil and gas development is capital-intensive and marked by a depleting resource base and a continuing need for external financing, particularly when commodity prices are low," he said. "Access to credit is the industry's Achilles' heel."

The Obama administration is behind bank regulators' current aggressive approach to energy lenders.

President Obama proclaimed early in his administration that he was going to change the way we use energy. Little did we know that he would try to achieve these goals by regulating the oil industry out of business through the power of federal bureaucracies.

Alex Mills is President of the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers. The opinions expressed are solely of the author.
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By Glenn Dromgoole

Dallas ophthalmologist Dr. Rob Tenery has written "Chasing the Ponytail" ($15.95 paperback), a very readable story about his coming of age in the 1950s and early '60s in Waxahachie as he pursued the love of his life, Janet Forrest, through high school and college.

Rob was almost 16 when he laid eyes on Janet, just 14, at the country club swimming pool and instantly was smitten. He was about to be a high school junior, she a freshman. Their on-again, off-again courtship eventually would lead them to the altar six years later, but Rob found he had a lot of growing up to do along the way.

The book is listed as nonfiction, though Tenery admits up front that "some of my recollections may be subject to interpretation and even embellishment." So perhaps "Chasing the Ponytail" falls into that nebulous category of "creative nonfiction," in which the writer  while sticking to the larger "truth"  might take a few liberties with the facts. And one would assume that he may have changed a few names to protect the guilty and keep from being sued.

In any case, Tenery doesn't pull any punches as he relates mischievous episodes about growing up in what was then small-town Waxahachie. Fortunately, the statute of limitations has long since expired on his various juvenile shenanigans, which landed him in jail on at least one occasion and easily could have derailed his plans to become a doctor.

In fact, during his sophomore year in college, his grades and behavior were such that the dean put him on strict academic and social probation. Rob's dad  the town's beloved Dr. Mayo Tenery  finally ran out of patience and issued him an ultimatum.

Fortunately, Rob got his priorities in order, earned his degree (barely), was accepted into medical school, won the girl (they've been married 52 years) and has enjoyed a fruitful career in medicine, as his father and grandfather did before him.

Tenery wrote about the three generations of doctors in his family  and the changes in the medical profession  in another book, "Dr. Mayo's Boy: A Century of American Medicine," published in 2009. That same year the Texas Medical Association honored him with its Distinguished Service Award.

We're Number Four: Abilene has moved up from fifth to fourth in Lone Star Literary Life's second annual online ranking of the top 10 "bookish" destinations in Texas, behind Austin, Houston and Dallas. Midland-Odessa came in fifth, followed by San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso, Denton and Waco. Read more about it at lonestarliterary.com.

Glenn Dromgoole is co-author of 101 Essential Texas Books. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS A polymer jetting machine uses the additive manufacturing (3-D printing) process to make a prototype of a Joint Service Aircrew Mask Chem/Bio mask on March 16 in Edgewood, Md. Engineers at U.S. Army's RDECOM's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center are using 3-D printing technologies to make rapid prototypes.

SHARE Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS Kevin Fritz, Obscuration and Nonlethal Engineering Branch Chief, displays a Chemical Reconnaissance Explosive Screening Set (CRESS) that shows a positive present of Nitrate, an ingredient for making explosives, on March 16 in Edgewood, Md. Engineers at U.S. Army's RDECOM's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center are using 3-D printing technologies to make rapid prototypes. Kenneth K. Lam/Baltimore Sun/TNS Ryan Gilley, Engineer Technician, uses a laser to scan a helicopter bracket on March 16 in Edgewood, Md. The scan is the first step in replicating the part using 3-D printing's additive manufacturing technique. Engineers at U.S. Army RDECOM's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center are using 3-D printing technologies to make rapid prototypes.

Units may simply print items needed

By Ian Duncan, The Baltimore Sun (TNS)

BALTIMORE  Say you're a soldier sent on a mission into hostile territory. You'd like to have a drone to keep an eye out for ambushes. Maybe there's one on hand, but it's not quite right for the job. Or maybe there's nothing available at all.

Researchers at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland want to help, and they think 3-D printing is the answer.

By giving soldiers kits of electronic parts, and equipping bases with the printers, they envision a future in which troops in the field could build their own drones in a matter of hours.

It's already possible to print a drone in a day. Eric Spero, an engineer at the Army Research Laboratory, said the approach would enable units in the field to adapt on the go.

"Going from nothing to a flying vehicle within 24 hours is pretty amazing," Spero said.

The 3-D-printed drone is just one example of how the emerging manufacturing technology is letting commanders rethink how they equip troops. Officials hope that printing gear will give front-line fighters more say in the equipment they carry, make it easier and far cheaper to repair aging vehicles, and minimize the impact when enemies cut supply lines.

And by enabling the military to make what it needs in-house, the technology also has the potential to reshape the relationship between defense contractors and the government.

Navy Capt. Frank Futcher, who is working to make 3-D printing widely available to sailors, foresees systems deployed on ships around the world, churning out parts on demand.

"It's transformative," he said. "We need to stay ahead of the curve and figure out how we're going to implement this as quickly as possible."

The technology can cut both ways. While there is interest across the military in the potential for printing, its adoption by America's enemies and rivals could present major challenges.

Retired Marine Col. T.X. Hammes, a researcher at the National Defense University, said the combination of 3-D printing and other technologies, such as cheap cellphones and more powerful explosives, could cut into the advantage offered by fighter jets or submarines that cost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

"All of these things are coming together very, very quickly, and that changes power structures," Hammes said.

In a recent paper, Hammes said a 3-D printing plant could cheaply churn out tens of thousands of drones a day, which could be used as flying bombs guided by cellphones to strike U.S. aircraft sitting on runways. The printers would not only build the drones, but make it much easier to manufacture a key component used in improvised explosive devices.

"It shifts the power," he said. "How do you protect every airfield in the world?"

The ability to print objects in three dimensions  more properly called additive manufacturing  has been around since the 1980s. But patents have expired in recent years, unleashing a wave of innovation.

Commercial printers, available for a few hundred dollars each, squirt hot plastic layer by layer to build up an object.

"Think of it as building a loaf of bread one slice at a time," said Brad Ruprecht, a technician at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

In a space once used to teach soldiers how to maintain vehicles, Ruprecht oversees a collection of large and much more sophisticated 3-D printers.

In one room, there's a machine that works like an inkjet printer. It can print in several shapes and materials at once. It uses ultraviolet light to turn liquids solid, forming layers much thinner than a human hair. Last month, its printing head moved back and forth as a gas-mask emerged beneath.

A machine nearby used lasers to turn powdered nylon into strong bars of solid plastic. Motors whined as mirrors fluttered backward and forward to guide the laser melting the plastic. A roller pushed a fresh layer of powder over the top, before the laser made another pass.

Elsewhere, a pair of machines shot laser beams into a pool of plastic goo, turning liquid into solid parts for a model vehicle.

The engineers at the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center have had access to the printers for decades, but branch chief Rick Moore said demand for the quick turnaround jobs for which the machines are suited has boomed in recent years.

"After 9/11, things changed and we had our hands in a lot of different projects," he said.

The Edgewood team used 3-D printing to help build a system to destroy a stockpile of chemical weapons in Syria, to make a prototype kit for detecting bomb-making materials that is now being used in the field, and to design a gadget for reading medical test results.

The Navy has also been exploring the possibilities. Futcher said mobile labs are deployed on three ships, getting sailors used to the idea of designing their own parts. In one case, the Navy printed molds for metal filters to go on torpedo tubes. Before 3-D printing, they had been cannibalizing parts from decommissioned submarines.

Currently, the use of 3-D printing is limited mostly to the design phase of a new product or making spare parts. The printers in some cases are still slower than traditional manufacturing methods, the size of parts is limited by the size of the printer and the layering means the finished product can have weaknesses.

The Air Force has shown that some parts of a rocket engine can be printed. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University are testing whether they perform as well as the components currently in use.

"We've got a little bit of figuring out to do," said Peter Zeender, a researcher at Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering.

Defense industry analysts said 3-D printing is still a ways off from upending how the military shops. But contractors are thinking through the implications. Military officials and business leaders plan to meet this spring to figure out how the military would buy data to print urgently needed parts.

Mark Vitale, a consultant at Deloitte, which is to be involved in the session, described the underlying concept as "let's replace inventory with information."

The technology is growing more sophisticated. One approach that has Ruprecht and Moore excited would be much faster and essentially do away with the layers; another uses robotic arms to make much bigger parts. Engineers are looking at how 3-D printing can be used to make finished products.

Scott Thompson, an aerospace and defense expert at the consulting firm PWC, said the military will likely be able to design and build small systems on its own, but won't be able to cut contractors out completely.

"When it comes to major weapons systems, they still need the major contractors' engineering talent," he said.
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Critics doubt validity of statistics

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

HOUSTON  Border Patrol agents and customs officers have used force less frequently this year as they face fewer assaults, with just seven uses of firearms in the first five months of the fiscal year, according to figures released Thursday.

But the official tally omitted at least one fatal shooting in El Paso involving multiple agents, calling into question its accuracy and highlighting the need for more detailed reporting, civil rights advocates said.

"It speaks to a lack of confidence in the statistics themselves. I don't think there are that many firearm incidents that you can't have a tabulation of what happened," said Chris Rickerd, policy counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington, adding that until more detailed numbers are released, "it's very hard to have faith in these statistics."

He said critics have long demanded more transparency and accountability from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. "For the largest law enforcement agency in the country, these are vital things."

The agency reported 28 uses of force involving firearms last fiscal year, 29 the year before.

For the first time on Thursday, the agency broke down use-of-force figures by geographic sector for Border Patrol, although two other agencies within CBP responsible for three gun and 18 less-lethal incidents  the Office of Field Operations and Air and Marine Operations  were not included in the breakdown.

The breakdown showed that the Border Patrol's use of firearms during the first five months of the fiscal year starting in October was spread among the Rio Grande Valley (one), San Diego (one) and Tucson, Arizona, (two) sectors.

On Feb. 4 three Border Patrol agents on patrol in downtown El Paso heard gunshots, found someone fatally wounded on the ground and pursued a man fleeing on foot, according to a Border Patrol statement. When the man pointed a gun at a passing driver, then at one of the agents, the agents opened fire and shot the man, who later died.

Only one agent opened fire during the incident, which would mean one use of force report. But no uses of force involving firearms were reported for El Paso sector in 2016.

After the Los Angeles Times contacted the agency, spokesman Carlos Diaz said an error in merging databases had resulted in the omission. He said the total would be updated Thursday to eight firearm uses of force.

In the Tucson sector, a suspect who assaulted a Border Patrol agent and fled from a truck carrying more than a ton of marijuana was shot and wounded by an agent Jan. 25 near the New Mexico border, according to an agency statement. The agent suffered minor injuries.

In the Rio Grande Valley sector two agents on patrol near the Rio Grande spotted four men attempting to cross on a raft from Mexico, heard gunshots and returned fire in Fronton, Texas, on Jan. 11. No injuries were reported, according to an agency statement.

The new numbers show a decrease in the use of what Border Patrol calls "less lethal" weapons such as pepper-ball guns and stun guns. There were 185 uses of less lethal force during the first five months of the year compared with 756 in all of last fiscal year, 1,008 the year before.

Less lethal force was concentrated in several sectors: the Imperial Valley's El Centro (59), Tucson (30), El Paso (21), Rio Grande Valley (19), San Diego (17) and Laredo (16). Texas' Rio Grande Valley has been the epicenter of child and family migration for the past few years.

The reason for the overall decrease in use of force was unclear, although agents face an ongoing surge in families and children crossing the border illegally and are seeing fewer assaults.

Assaults on border officers and agents decreased so far this year for the first time in several years, down to 176 compared with 390 all of last year and 373 the year before.

The numbers were released ahead of the busy summer season, when illegal migration usually increases.

It was not clear from the government figures how many of the uses of force resulted in deaths.

A half-dozen people were killed in altercations with Border Patrol agents along the U.S. border last calendar year, four the year before, according to a tally kept by the ACLU's Regional Center for Border Rights, based in Las Cruces, N.M.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been under pressure to reverse what its own experts consider a pattern of excessive force by agents.

New guidelines on weapons were announced last year, and officials have pointed to reductions in the use of force as evidence that agents are using better judgment in the field.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, the head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, announced new training and guidelines last year to reduce abuses and changes in how use of force is investigated.

"CBP has implemented and continues to implement significant policy, procedural, training and programmatic reforms that have equipped CBP law enforcement personnel to carry out their duties more safely and effectively," the agency said in a statement that accompanied the new figures.
Joe Medina's bail is set at $500,000.

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By Michael Kelly

The grand jury filed 72 other indictments in a list released Monday. Among them:

Armando Billy Rene Pena, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Alfred Esqueda, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Malcolm Jamel Hunt, accident involving serious bodily injury or death.

Juan Luis Pinon, intoxicated assault with a vehicle.

Lino Munoz Rios, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Two San Angelo men have been indicted on charges that they conspired to murder a woman in September.

Joe Ventura Medina, 21, and Macario Medina, 26, are alleged to have conspired to bind up and beat Ashley Galindo, a San Angelo resident, at a location in Tom Green County in an attempt to kill her, according to complaints filed with the grand jury by Texas Department of Public Safety Officer Mark Martinez.

The grand jury filing stated Joe Ventura Medina, under instructions from Macario Medina, bought handcuffs, duct tape, a length of chain and a lock "to assist Macario Medina in causing the death of Ashley Galindo and to decrease the risk of others becoming aware that Macario Medina was causing the death of Ashley Galindo."

A complaint filed with Justice of the Peace Eddie Howard by Martinez stated Macario Medina caused "serious bodily injury" to Galindo by striking her with his hand "and other objects unknown."

The two men are cousins. Both remain in Tom Green County Jail. Joe Ventura Medina's bail is set at $500,000; Macario Medina's bail is set at $750,000. All files for the case have been forwarded to the 51st District Attorney for prosecution. District Attorney Allison Palmer declined to comment on the case, other than to clarify the charges.

"A conspiracy to commit murder charge is an allegation that two people agreed together to do acts that would lead to causing the death of an individual, but that does not necessarily mean that individual was killed," Palmer said.

Trial dates have been set for both men: Joe Ventura Medina, represented by San Angelo attorney Melvin Gray, is scheduled for trial June 17, and Macario Medina, represented by San Antonio attorney Gary F. Churak, is scheduled for trial May 13.

Conspiracy to commit murder is a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison.

Reporter Jennifer Rios contributed to this story.
What has Gov. Abbott done about the six mass shootings on his watch?
In this March 2, 2016 photo, a man is reflected on the glass display with an image of the night skyline in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has emerged as a major design center for offshore vehicles, a place brimming with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers here teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk, and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

SHARE In this March 2, 2016 photo, people are reflected in a glass displaying a poster featuring a 100 dollars Hong Kong colonial bank note in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has emerged as a major design center for offshore vehicles, a place brimming with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers here teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk, and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung) In this March 2, 2016 photo, a man uses his smartphone in Central, a business district of Hong Kong. Hong Kong has emerged as a major design center for offshore vehicles, a place brimming with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers here teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk, and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

By ERIKA KINETZ and KELVIN CHAN, Associated Press

HONG KONG (AP)  The same year Jasmine Li, whose grandfather was the fourth-ranked politician in China at the time, donned a floral Carolina Herrera gown and debuted at a ball in Paris, a company called Harvest Sun Trading Ltd. was born in an aging building at the edge of Hong Kong's red light district. The next year Li bought the company for $1.

The revelations come from a tremendous cache of documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Hong Kong was Mossack Fonseca's go-to spot for financial intermediaries like P&P Secretarial Management, home to 2,212 accountants, banks and other middlemen Mossack Fonseca used to set up 37,675 offshore companies for its global clients between 1977 and 2015  more than any other place in the world, according to ICIJ's analysis.

Hong Kong has emerged as a major design center for offshore vehicles, a place brimming with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers here teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk, and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal.

But Hong Kong's offshore financial machinery works so well, and so discreetly, that it can be abused by those seeking to hide illicit assets or evade taxes. As traditional havens, like Switzerland, cave to years of grinding pressure from European and American tax authorities, unsavory money is drawn to Hong Kong, which despite reforms, retains its reputation for secrecy, non-cooperation, and a light regulatory touch, watchdog groups and lawyers say.

"Hong Kong attracts this type of hot money from across the region and globally, partly because of its perceived stability," said Iain Willis, a partner at Latymer Partners, a corporate intelligence advisory firm in London. "'Light-touch' financial regulation, easy rules on company incorporation and limited transparency" add to its appeal, he said.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed ICIJ's reports as "groundless," and the government has aggressively censored discussion of them.

Hong Kong tax authorities said in an email Friday that they would "take necessary actions" based on the offshore leaks, and work to "enhance the efficiency and effectiveness" of enforcement as required.

Mossack Fonseca tapped P&P Secretarial Management  which is run by an accountant named Wai-hon Chiu, according to corporate filings  to register Harvest Sun Trading in the British Virgin Islands. P&P Secretarial is not listed in the telephone directory, and its contact details are not easy to find on the Internet. Its name is not among the three businesses listed at the entrance to the second-floor office it now occupies in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district. The front door opens onto a lone ivy plant stuck in a corner of two blank white walls. There is no receptionist, and unannounced visitors are not welcome.

"The boss is away. He will be back next week," said a woman in a dark dress, who confirmed that P&P Secretarial did indeed have a presence in the office which did not bear its name. She refused to give her name.

Great fortunes run through small offices like this, and not just from clients of Mossack Fonseca, which derived nearly a third of its business from Hong Kong and China, according to ICIJ.

"It's quite natural that Hong Kong would grow to play a significant role in the plumbing infrastructure of globalization," said Martin Kenney, an asset recovery lawyer in the British Virgin Islands. "They are the architects, designers and engineers of the structures."

In part, the prominence of offshore vehicles in Hong Kong has to do with its special relationship with mainland China. Many investors set up offshore vehicles so they can sell mainland assets without being subjected to layers of government approval. Others have used, and sometimes abused, offshore structures to take advantage of China's tax breaks for foreign companies. More foreign direct investment to China between 1979 and 2014 ostensibly came from the British Virgin Islands than from anywhere else, aside from Hong Kong, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service .

Hong Kong does not tax income that originates abroad, a policy that supports the proliferation of foreign-registered companies. Hong Kong's independent legal system and effective escape route from mainland China's currency controls  it's easier to move money between mainland China and Hong Kong than elsewhere  also add to its appeal, lawyers say.

The kind of political uncertainty that drove investors offshore before Hong Kong's 1997 handover persists today. The Basic Law, a mini-constitution that enshrines China's "one country, two systems" policy toward Hong Kong, expires in 2047.

"We are on borrowed time," said David Webb, a former investment banker and Hong Kong shareholder activist.

Offshore vehicles have become so commonplace that 75 percent of Hong Kong-listed companies are actually domiciled in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, according to an analysis by Webb.

But there are other, more controversial uses of Hong Kong's offshore machinery.

The Panama Papers, together with past leaks published by ICIJ, show how China's own political and economic elite use Hong Kong intermediaries to get their money out of China. While the leaks contain no allegations of wrongdoing, they are a sore spot for China's top leadership, which has been trumpeting nationalism and moral virtue as it tries to slow capital flight and fight corruption. Much of the wealth that runs through Hong Kong comes from mainland China, which is widely seen as a growth market in the offshore industry. The top source of funds that Mossack Fonseca helped move offshore was China, according to an analysis of ICIJ data by the Guardian newspaper.

In 2009, when president Xi Jinping's brother-in-law Deng Jiagui wanted to register two companies in the British Virgin Islands, his advisers at Mossack Fonseca turned to a Hong Kong firm called Wong Brothers & Co., according to ICIJ's documents.

The firm's lead partner is an accountant named Charles Chan-lum Chow. Chow was a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body, in southern Guangdong province from at least 2003 to 2013, according to state media reports and government websites. He spent 12 years on the board of China Aerospace International Holdings, the listed subsidiary of the main contractor for China's space program.

Chow did not respond to requests for comment.

Deng's companies went dormant before Xi took power, according to ICIJ, and no allegations of wrongdoing have been made. It's not clear what happened to whatever Xi family assets those companies once held.

"Everybody in the elite needs Hong Kong," said Ho-fung Hung, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. "Everybody. Even Xi Jinping's family needs it. They don't have an incentive to shut this channel to move money out."

It's not just Chinese running money through Hong Kong. When a company linked to France's far-right National Front party wanted to move money out of the country, associates of party leader Marine Le Pen used shell companies in Hong Kong, according to a report in Le Monde newspaper based on the Panama Papers. The French daily has also linked a separate Hong Kong firm with family members of Algeria's governing elite.

The company that helps run two of those firms, P&B Management Services, is housed in a dimly-lit office in Wan Chai district, according to Hong Kong corporate filings. Staff there declined to speak with a reporter.

Large-scale counterfeiters from Germany, Austria and Japan, as well as China, run off-shore structures out of Hong Kong to launder their money, said Douglas Clark, a lawyer at Hong Kong's Gilt Chambers.

"That's part of Hong Kong being a trading city and entrepot," he said. "It welcomes everyone."

Despite a recent crackdown on secrecy, Hong Kong is still ranked as the second most secretive jurisdiction in the world, after Switzerland, by the Tax Justice Network, a U.K. advocacy group.

Rules are only as good as their enforcement, said John Christensen, Tax Justice Network's director, and "Hong Kong has never had a strong supervisory culture."

In 2014, Hong Kong began requiring companies to have at least one real person serving as a director. This effectively barred the practice of creating impenetrable daisy chains of corporate ownership, in which one mysterious company was controlled by another mysterious company.

But clients can easily register companies under other people's names. "They can always find their relative as the nominee," said the director of a small incorporation firm also based in Wan Chai district, who would only give his surname, Lee, for fear of compromising client privacy.

He said most clients don't mind using their real names in filings. The big secrecy business runs out of the gleaming skyscrapers of Hong Kong's Central business district, where elite firms charge ten times his rates, he said.

"Wealthy people, they won't come here," he said. "They'll go to Central. They don't mind paying a few thousand more for more secured, private service."

___

Associated Press reporter Raphael Satter in Paris and researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

___

Follow Kinetz on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ekinetz

Follow Chan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/chanman






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GREENSBORO - Members of Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church are being encouraged to attend a rally Tuesday in support of House Bill 2.

The notice was published in the church bulletin, which was distributed at mass today.

It says the rally will be from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Governmental Plaza in downtown Greensboro, according to the notice.

The notice says:

"A prayer rally has been scheduled in downtown Greensboro and you are encouraged to attend and bring all your friends, family and church members. Thank God for the leadership of Governor Pat McCrory and the General Assembly in passing HB2 to protect women and children from having to share bathrooms, locker rooms and showers with grown men.

"Our state is being bullied by the media, corporations and the federal government for rejecting a gender policy that the American College of Pediatricians calls 'child abuse.' It's time for us to stand up and pray."

It's unclear from the notice who is sponsoring the rally. The person listed as a contact didn't immediately return a call from the newspaper this afternoon.

The American College of Pediatricians is conservative, anti-LGBT group that formed in 2002. It has been designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-LGBT views.

It is not associated with the American Academy of Pediatrics, which has more than 60,000 members and is the primary professional association for pediatric workers in the United States..

HB 2 prevents cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination ordinances to protect lesbian, gay and transgender residents.

Legislators passed the bill last month during a one-day special session. It overturned an ordinance adopted in Charlotte that would have allowed transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
Whitley French was asleep in her childhood bed on the second floor of her parents house for the first time in a month. Just after midnight, she awoke to feel the mattress sink beneath her.

Opening her eyes, she struggled to focus on a shadow.

Someone lay heavily on top of her, a hooded figure. In the darkness, she couldnt determine if the invader was a man or a woman, only that there was weight on top of her. She didnt know if the hooded sweatshirt was gray or black. She only knew she was in trouble.

She started to scream.

A hand reached to silence her, but it was too late.

Troy and LaDonna French heard the terror in their 19-year-old daughters scream and came running from their bedroom downstairs.

Whitley French could hear them on the floor below. So could the intruder, who climbed off of her and ran out of her room and toward the staircase.

She chased close behind. When she reached the top of the stairs, she watched the intruder a few steps below raise a weapon she had not seen and take aim at her mother, who looked up from the foyer.

LaDonna French threw up her hands in defense. It was a futile instinct.

Whitley saw the flash of what later would be described as a 9-mm handgun.

She watched as a bullet tore through her mothers upraised wrist.

The intruder kept firing. Another shot struck her mothers hand.

A third bullet pierced her shoulder.

LaDonna French stood only 5 feet 1, but she was known to be a fighter. And despite her wounds, she still was standing.

Until the next shot struck her just above her heart. She fell to the floor as another shot from still closer range plowed into the right side of her head.

That was the bullet that killed LaDonna French. Her 186-pound body fell lifeless, her head resting against the houses front door.

From a few feet away, near the living room, Troy French watched his wife fall and saw his daughter standing on the stairs.

Then the intruder turned toward him.

A bullet struck him in his chest.

Dressed only in boxer shorts, Troy turned and ran toward the kitchen, at the back of the house.

As he approached an island that separates the kitchen from the living room, he fell, overcome by his injury.

The intruder, following behind, fired a bullet into Troys back as he lay on the floor and turned again toward Whitley French but did not fire.

Then, as she watched, the hooded figure dashed past her. The door had to be unlocked and LaDonna Frenchs body moved before the intruder could disappear into the darkness.

Whitley French grabbed her cellphone and dialed 911. It was 2:12 a.m.

Please hurry, my parents are shot, she pleaded with the operator, her voice rising with each word.

While frantically giving information to the operator, she begged her father to tell her where he was wounded.

Just more than 6 minutes into the call, she told operators she didnt think her father had a pulse, but Whitley stayed by his side, providing basic CPR as the operators gave her instructions, even when the 911 operator asked her to check on her mother.

In the foyer, LaDonna didnt make a sound. When Whitley finally went to her mother, she screamed.

I didnt know she was shot in the head, she yelled to the operator.

Four minutes after the intruder left the Frenches home at 791 Pinewood Road, just west of Reidsville, dispatchers first alerted law enforcement that something had gone terribly wrong in the wintry, predawn hours of Feb. 4, 2012.

The deaths of Troy French, 48, and LaDonna Moseley French, 45, that Saturday morning would become one of the most discussed and analyzed murder cases in Rockingham Countys modern history. For four years, investigators  their case once seemingly cold  have tried to determine exactly what happened that night and the identity of the hooded intruder who fired those lethal shots.

The Frenches lived at the eastern corner of Pinewood and Brown roads in a community called Bethany, a large collection of farms and rural homes owned by some of the areas more well-to-do residents, with shade trees and ponds dotting the countryside.

When gunshots echoed through Bethany that night, dogs began to bark and residents began to wake. The neighborhood would not be quiet for a very long time.

Several of the houses belong to the Moseleys, including LaDonna Moseley Frenchs parents and sister. Generations of Moseleys have grown up, fallen in love and raised their families on land given to them by Moseley parents and grandparents. The church where Troy and LaDonna French were married  and are buried  is 2 miles north on Brown Road.

LaDonnas parents, Donald and Nancy Moseley, live across the street from her house. They werent awakened by the gunshots, but the lights and sirens of the sheriffs deputies and emergency responders who raced 9 miles to his daughters house roused Donald Moseley from the recliner where he was sleeping.

Investigators found Whitley French alone with her dead parents, blood soaking into her clothes, still on the phone with the 911 operator. Her brother, Hunter, 14, was away on a swimming trip for Rockingham County High School, where he was a freshman.

North Carolina Highway Patrol Trooper Richard Collie heard the scanner traffic. Even though he was off duty, he knew the house was nearby, and he headed for the scene, the first emergency responder to arrive.

He heard Whitleys screams as he drove up to the house.

Nearly 11 minutes had passed since she had called 911.

Theyre here, she told the operator.

When Whitley answered a side door to the driveway, Collie noticed blood soaking into the front of the left sleeve of her white shirt.

He had heard on the scanner that the person who had called 911 had been shot in the arm. He asked Whitley what had happened, and then he looked past her into the foyer.

From just inside the door, Collie could see Troy French. His legs were jutting out into the living room near the entrance to the kitchen.

He could see LaDonna French in the foyer, her head leaning against the front door. Blood seeped from her ears onto her pink pajama top.

Collie went to Troy, checked his condition and took over performing CPR.

Medical reports of the shootings would indicate some of the gunshots were fired from a position above both Troy and LaDonna French.

The bullet that entered Troy Frenchs chest traveled 45 degrees right and downward, cutting through his left lung, heart, diaphragm and liver before stopping in the soft tissue of his abdomen.

The second bullet pierced the middle of his lower back and also traveled right and downward before exiting through his right hip.

The bullet that entered LaDonna Frenchs head fractured her right cheekbone and severed her spinal cord, causing hemorrhages at the base of her brain and skull.

Donald Moseley, now fully awakened by the lights from his daughters house, walked into his bedroom and woke up his wife.

I think theres an accident at the crossroads, he told her. Im going to see whats going on.

Nancy Moseley nodded and rolled over. Accidents on the dark, rural, four-way stop at Brown and Pinewood were common.

But when he neared that intersection, Donald Moseley saw that the ambulances and police cars werent surrounding pieces of torn-up metal but instead lined the perimeter of his daughters property.

He spoke with deputies, then returned to wake his wife a second time.

Whitleys at the hospital, he told her.

Nancy Moseley asked him about her daughter and son-in-law.

At the house, he told her and said nothing more.

Because of her injuries, Whitley French had been taken by Rockingham County Emergency Medical Services to Annie Penn Hospital in downtown Reidsville, about 10 miles away. Donald Moseley got into his car and sped to the emergency room.

Ann French-Faucette, Troy Frenchs mother, who lived in Reidsville, was jolted awake by her telephone at 3:30 a.m.

A nurse from Annie Penn Hospital was on the line.

Mrs. French, would you come? the nurse asked. Whitleys been hurt.

A few hours earlier, French-Faucette had what would be her last conversation with Troy French, when he had called to ask if she wanted to drive with him to Goldsboro that morning to attend his sons swimming meet.

Mom, I love you, and Ill see you tomorrow, he had told her.

French-Faucette headed to the aid of her granddaughter, not knowing what had happened to her son and daughter-in-law. But word was spreading.

Her other son, Craig French, was awakened by his sister, Lisa French Moore.

Theres been a break-in, she told him. Their oldest brother had been shot.

Craig French jumped into his truck and drove to his brothers house, about 10 minutes away. As he approached the house, there were lights from too many patrol cars, lights that reflected crazily off cars that lined the road. This could not be good, he thought.

A deputy stopped him, and he rolled down his car window. The deputy told him that Troy French was dead, that his niece had been taken to the hospital.

Investigators wouldnt let Craig French near the house, so he, too, drove to Annie Penn Hospital.

Troy Frenchs mother, his brother, his sister and brother-in-law and father-in-law gathered at the hospital, where they initially were given few details about what had happened.

They were joined by members of Reidsville Bible Chapel, the small church where Troy and LaDonna were members.

Donald Moseley yelled at anyone who would listen until a Rockingham County deputy sheriff took him to his granddaughters room.

Investigators photographed Whitley French as doctors were tending to her injuries. What deputies had been told was a gunshot wound turned out to be a small cut on the front of her upper left arm. There was a burn mark on her upper chest. Two stitches closed the cut.

Donald Moseley spoke briefly with his granddaughter, then left for home to wake his wife one more time.

As he departed to deliver the news of the night to his wife, Craig French and Lisa French Moore and their spouses started off on the more-than-2-hour drive to Goldsboro, to reach Hunter French before the sun rose on Pinewood Road and the news of his parents death reached him.

Todd Moore, Lisa French Moores husband, teaches math at Rockingham County High. When the siblings decided to travel to Goldsboro, Moore thought that the coaches needed to know something was wrong. He called Buford Fox, the athletics director.

Were on our way to the meet to discuss a very serious family matter with Hunter, Todd Moore had told Fox.

At 6:30 a.m., assistant swim coach Dennis Paschals phone began to ring. It was Fox. Members of the French family were coming to talk to Hunter about a serious family matter, he told Paschal, who was with team members, already awake to prepare for their meet.

Paschal quickly gathered the students phones to prevent Hunter from learning anything through social media or text messages.

When Hunters aunts and uncles arrived at the hotel, they and Paschal walked Hunter to his hotel room and told the teenager the worst news he possibly could hear.

Hunter, your parents are dead.
In the Internet age, theres no excuse except willful ignorance  what once was called sorriness  for disparaging Muslim Americans over not denouncing terrorism without doing a search for American Muslims who condemn terrorism. Sure, its easier to parrot lies from Fox News commentators, but this mental and moral trashiness gives one the intellectual status of those foes of civilization who happen to be Muslim, and we can celebrate our superiority only because we still have enough civilized citizens to dilute our crazies latent barbarism.

Its also easy to forget that Jews and Christians went through periods of similar mindless slaughter, hardly limited by there being fewer unbelievers around and less effective weapons to murder them with, and excused only by those who believe divine inspiration gives them justification to do what is otherwise insane and inexcusable.

In the case of Christians, this attitude began with mob assaults and assassinations against civilized pagans, continued through the forced conversion of much of Europe, excused the depopulating of the Americas and the enslavement of Africa, and extended at least through the horrors of the Congo at the turn of the 20th century. This past is unlearned or ignored.

Christopher C. Tew

Greensboro
State lawmakers are looking at another way to transfer tax money to private school managers. This would be done through a concept called Achievement School Districts. A legislative committee last week heard a report from experts at Vanderbilt University in Nashville who said an ASD program in Tennessee hasnt worked well, but legislators were undeterred.

A North Carolina proposal would choose five low-performing elementary schools for inclusion in an ASD, although local boards of education could choose two other options: closing the school or adopting a principal turnaround reform model. Some school boards, including Guilfords, have applied that model to struggling schools, such as Oak Hill Elementary in High Point.

The ASD would become a new little bureaucracy under the State Board of Education. It would have an ASD Superintendent Selection Advisory Committee headed by the lieutenant governor, who would appoint its other members. It would hire a superintendent, who would recommend participating schools and operators for those schools.

The operators would be private companies that either have a record a running successful schools in other states or just a good plan for doing so. Selected firms would receive a five-year contract, although that could be terminated early if the schools didnt make academic progress.

If experience in Tennessee is a guide, the ASD schools wont show larger gains than other schools with similar student populations. Theyll have similar teaching staffs, similar resources, similar materials in a similar environment. The main difference will be that a private operator, possibly from out of state, will walk away with some North Carolina tax dollars.

It may be that some operator will find a magic formula and perform miracles. If so, the State Board of Education should apply the same formula to all struggling schools.

But such a formula isnt a secret. Smaller class sizes, reading tutors, teacher training and coaching or mentoring and up-to-date instructional materials make a difference. After-school and summer programs can help students retain what they learn each day. But this requires adequate funding.

Legislators seem eager to jump at every new idea as if there are shortcuts to success  charter schools, vouchers for private schools, virtual charter schools and now these achievement districts. Some are interested in Education Savings Accounts, which simply hand out tax money to parents, letting them spend it for private schools, home schooling, tutoring, educational supplies or related expenses. For whatever merit any of these ideas may have, theres one thing in common: They drain money from traditional public schools.

Theres nothing wrong with trying new strategies. Schools do it all the time. But new strategies should be tested and outcomes should be measured. Hiring unproven management companies to run North Carolina schools with tax money is less an experiment than a gamble.
/ contributed: Columbia University

GREENWICH  A Columbia University professor will discuss terrorism and foreign policy at the Greenwich Public Library later this month.

The event on April 25 is being co-sponsored by the World Affairs Forum.
contributed / contributed

St. Vincents College, a leader in quality health science education, will host an Open House on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. Featuring financial aid experts and information on the recently opened Stamford campus, the Open House will take place at St. Vincent's Medical Center, 2800 Main St., Bridgeport. Registration for the Open House is encouraged; to register call 203-337-3491.

St. Vincents College, a subsidiary of St. Vincents Medical Center, is the only institution in southern Fairfield County offering an associate degree program for radiography. Associate degree programs also are offered in Nursing, Medical Assisting, and General Studies. The College offers bachelors degree completion programs in Nursing and Radiologic Sciences as well as a wide range of online courses and short-term certificate programs leading to health careers.




Haiti - Humanitarian : $200M call for funds to help the most vulnerable





Thursday, the Government of Haiti and the Humanitarian Country Team of the United Nations launched a call for funds of $193.8 million to meet the critical humanitarian needs of 1.3 million people. This humanitarian planning document aims at ensuring protection and access to basic services to the most vulnerable people, and also strengthening the resilience of the population and the Haitian institutions.



"We appreciate this effort to put together priorities and coordinate the response between national authorities and members of the humanitarian community. The plight of thousands affected by these multiple factors, especially by food insecurity, requires a rapid and effective response to prevent the deterioration of the humanitarian context in a moment where we are laying the foundations of a sustainable development of the country "said Aviol Fleurant, Minister of Planification and External Cooperation.



The ultimate goal of the plan is to reduce the vulnerability of 1.3 million targeted people. Although the priority concerns the most basic humanitarian needs, the plan also anticipates the implementation of structural measures to reduce the vulnerability of the population in need, as well as to advance towards the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

"Structural problems associated with multiple emergencies continue to increase the vulnerability of millions of Haitians. We must act together to allow them to recover, said Mourad Wahba, Humanitarian Coordinator and Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary General in Haiti.



To achieve this objective, the 2016 Humanitarian Response Plan identifies a number of humanitarian needs that must be addressed. Thus, it aims to address the severe food insecurity that affects more than 1 million (U$ 105.5 million in needs expressed) and to ensure the protection and basic services to more than 120,000 deportees / returnees from the Dominican Republic (U$ 21.2 million) and to 62,000 IDPs living in post-earthquake camps (U$ 38.2 million). Moreover, the plan envisages providing a rapid and effective response to cholera epidemics and to counteract the vulnerability to cholera in high-risk areas (U$ 20 million). Lastly, funds will be mobilized to support the preparation for natural disasters (U$ 4.1 million) and strengthen the humanitarian coordination (2.9 millions). As part of this response, 100,000 people amongst the 500,000 that may be affected by natural disasters in 2016 are also targeted.



In a global context with increasingly large humanitarian crises, funding for humanitarian aid in Haiti risks to diminish. Hence, the humanitarian community calls for the strengthening of the commitment of partners. "We urge Haiti's partners to have a sustained commitment to the country. This deepened commitment will help to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities and to maintain the progress achieved in the recent years. In addition, it will help to initiate a sustainable exit from the multiple humanitarian challenges while continuing the process of sustainable development for the country", concluded Mr. Wahba.



See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-17067-haiti-politic-the-new-minister-of-planning-part-of-the-continuation.html

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-16646-icihaiti-flash-critical-situation-among-farmers-affected-by-drought.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16645-haiti-politic-drought-usa-alongside-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16607-haiti-agriculture-the-country-hit-by-the-worst-drought-in-35-years.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16354-haiti-agriculture-an-improvement-in-access-to-basic-foods-is-not-for-tomorrow.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16048-haiti-humanitarianalert-to-food-insecurity-cco-haiti-provides-support.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16022-haiti-social-food-alert-more-than-3-million-affected-in-haiti.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-15108-haiti-agriculture-drought-alarming-situation-in-the-country.html



HL/ HaitiLibre






















Haiti - Security : New Director General to the PNH





On Friday, the Prime Minister, Enex Jean-Charles also Head of the Superior Council of the National Police (CSPN) and Me Camille Junior Edouard, the Minister of Justice and Public Security have proceeded to the installation of Michel-Ange Gedeon as new Director General a.i. of the National Police of Haiti [Acting pending ratification by the Senate]. He takes over from Godson Orelus in function for a little less than 4 years, which will receive a new assignment. Note that Michel-Ange Gedeon was promoted late February, Director Central, to the Central Directorate of Administrative Police.Previously he had been Commissioner of Grand-Goave (2004), Carrefour (2005), Port-au-Prince (2006-2011) and Departmental Director of the West Police (2011-2014).



Saturday, Michel-Ange Gedeon, accompanied by the Chief Commissioner of Delmas Mario Aubergiste went in a hospital of the capital, to visit a police officer gunshot wounded in the arm the day before by 3 armed bandits while trying to assist a person who returned from the bank. Pursuant to this incident one of the bandits was arrested, one pistol seized.



New DG of the PNH also visited on the same day the widow of the deceased police officer Francois Gerald (38) killed in service at bicentenaire, near the National Theater on March 2 https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-16769-haiti-security-attack-on-2-police-officers-one-dead-and-one-wounded.html to bring food and miscellaneous items to twins of the widow. He promised to take all measures to continue to support the family and to support all the other widows who are in similar situations.



S/ HaitiLibre


















Published on 2016/04/09

South Korea's ScreenX excites advertisers, find out what film festivals are taking place this spring, keep an eye on Variety's coverage of the Jeonju International Film Festival, and CJ CGV absorbs Turkey's biggest cinema chain.

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"Academic Paper on the Immersion Capability of ScreenX"

It should come as no real surprise that while Korean cinema and the stories it tells are popular around the world, the country is also a leader when it comes to the technology driving the movie industry. CJ CGV's "ScreenX" is one such cutting-edge technology that has interesting implications for how we experience moving images and has exciting implications for advertisers: "Park argued that ScreenX maximizes the physiological reaction of the viewers watching film trailers, and generates more favorable response for the products in the commercial films".

...READ ON KOBIZ

"Spring, Full of Film Festivals"

What better way to celebrate cinema that with festivals! Kobiz mentions four festivals to go and support between the mouth of March and May, including the Seoul Independent Documentary Film & Video Festival, the Busan International Short Film Festival, the Green Film Festival in Seoul, and the Jeonju International Film Festival! What a pleasure!

...READ ON KOBIZ

"JEONJU INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL"

The 16th Jeonju International Film Festival is Korea's second-largest film festival after Busan. And if you want to stay in the loop, keep an eye on this page on Variety for their world-class coverage of this fantastic spring festival. Better still, plan your own trip to Jeonju and see for yourself!

...READ ON VARIETY

"CJ CGV, Partners to Pay $688 Million for Mars Cinema"

Wow, Korea's largest cinema operator, CJ CGV, has recently purchased Turkey's biggest cinema company (Mars Cinema Group) for $688 million: "CGV already operates 249 multiplex theaters with a total of 1,853 screens in South Korea, the U.S., China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar. CJ Group is among the family-run conglomerates known locally as the chaebol, that dominate South Korea's corporate landscape".

...READ ON BLOOMBERG
Published on 2016/04/09

My Korean Kitchen has steps for making a spicy seafood noodle soup for all seasons, two bloggers have a video that highlights some of the differences between South and North Korean food, find out what South Korean cuisine has to offer aside from kimchi, and is the country's coffee boom finally coming to an end?

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"KOREAN SPICY SEAFOOD NOODLE SOUP"

Sue over at My Korean Kitchen has a spicy treat for those who enjoy their seafood and noodles. Sue writes that every now and again she has a craving for this delicious and hearty dish, and although it's obviously a spice one, it's also refreshing! "Because the soup is served hot, which you can interpret in both ways, it is particularly suitable when the weather is cooling down or still hasn't recovered warmth yet. Whichever season you might be facing now, I would suggest you go for this noodle soup!"

...READ ON MY KOREAN KITCHEN

"Coffee wars: South Korea's cafe boom nears saturation point"

It appears South Korea's coffee boom is slowing down. Over the past decade or so the number of coffee ships in the country has grown dramatically as more international chains and independent stores have tapped into a thirsty Korean market. The Business Day checks the pulse on the country's coffee surge...

...READ ON STUFF

"NORTH KOREAN vs. SOUTH KOREAN food (vs Vietnamese food)"

What differences are there between South Korea cuisine and North Korea's? These two bloggers have some answers for us because, well, it's not easy or convenient to find authentic North Korea food to compare! No problem though, because there are a growing number of North Koreans who now have their own food stalls and restaurants outside their homeland to give us some insight.

...WATCH ON CATH NEWS KOREA

"Seoul Food: Hitting the streets in search of Octopus"

The first food that comes to mind when thinking about Korean food is, naturally, kimchi! No doubt this spicy cabbage is a national treasure, to be tried the first chance you get, but there is so much more to South Korean food than Kimchi. In this post, The Indian Express hits the streets of Seoul to find out what else is on offer...

...READ ON THE INDIAN EXPRESS
Published on 2016/04/10 | Source

About half of the fare dodgers on Seoul subway line Nos. 1 to 4 are over 50 years old.

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Seoul Metro in a crackdown on fare dodgers from March 7 to 18 nabbed 961 of them and fined them a combined W39.7 million (US$1=W1,142).

Some 24.4 percent were in their 50s, 19.5 percent in their 60s, 16.9 percent in their teens, 14.1 percent in their 20s, 11.6 percent in their 30s, and 11.8 percent in their 40s.

Fare dodging was most virulent on line No. 2 with 538 cases or 56 percent. Line No. 4 had 253 cases, line No. 3 88, and line No. 1 82.

More women than men were caught, accounting for 62 percent.

The number of nabbed fare dodgers overall rose by 30 percent from 14,538 in 2014 to 21,431 last year.
WYTHEVILLE, Va.  Billed by many political watchers as the bellwether of what Virginia will ultimately send to Ohio this summer, the gathering of the GOP at George Wythe High School didnt disappoint.

And the divide between Ted Cruz supporters and those backing Donald Trump was visible, from the buttons and stickers each camp wore prominently to the signs and T-shirts on display.

After an eight-hour day of politicking, including nearly three hours of steady vote counting, 9th District Republicans had their slate of delegates to send to the Republican National Conventions in Cleveland, Ohio, July 18-21.

Party faithful, around 200 of them, picked Kyle Kilgore of Gate City, Jordan Labiosa of New Castle and Landon Davis of Grundy as their delegates.

Alternate delegates, the fourth- through sixth-highest vote-getters from the field of 15, were Robert Taconet of Salem and wife and husband attorneys Tamara and Flux Neo of Tazewell.

The 9th Districts gathering to select delegates for the national convention was the first in Virginia, drawing eyes of those watching the fight between Trump and Cruz to line up delegates. Convention delegates are bound to cast their votes to the winner of the primary, in the 9th District, Trump, but can vote differently on subsequent ballots.

Some of those picked as delegates, like Labiosa, signaled their allegiances. The head of the Craig County Republican Party is a Cruz backer but told The Roanoke Times that no matter who wins, the party establishment loses.

The conservative base has already won this nomination, he said.

At the convention, Labiosa promised to oppose any rule that would prevent Trump or Cruz from being the partys nominee.

Others, like the Neos, did more than signal.

Trump carried the 9th, Flux Neo said. Period.

Neo and his wife said while theyd love to see Cruz on the vice presidential ticket or as a Supreme Court nominee, they are committed to Trump completely in round one, round 10 and round 100.

Tamara Neo, the former Buchanan County Commonwealths Attorney, is the co-chair of the Trump district campaign. Flux Neo recently lost a bid to become the Tazewell County Commonwealths Attorney.

As pro-Trump as the Neos are, Patrick Muldoon, who did not receive enough votes to go to Ohio, is pro-Cruz. The Giles County native who lost to Rick Boucher in a 1996 bid for Congress and ran a 2009 long-shot campaign for the Republican lieutenant governor nomination, losing to Bill Bolling, told the crowd that a vote for Muldoon today is a vote for Cruz in Cleveland.

Taconet is the youngest of those heading to Ohio by a good margin. The 18-year-old Bland County native said he attended his first Republican meeting four years ago, getting his father involved so he could unofficially vote.

Taconet, who said hes supporting Cruz, told the crowd at George Wythe that President Obama has let his generation down and that hes getting involved to show the country that conservatives are alive and well.

Despite his age, Taconet has a long history  as long as an 18-year-old can have  of working in politics. In 2012, he served as a Senate page out of Bland County. He later interned for state Sen. David Suetterlein, Nancy Dye and U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte.

Others in vying for the three delegate and three alternate positions were Charles Anthony of Bassett, Caleb Cruey of Cedar Bluff, Jay Gregory of Stuart, Kayleigh Hall of Radford, Howard McCready of Pulaski, Patrick Muldoon of Hoges Chapel, Mark Rose of Cleveland, John Seaborn of Bristol, Virginia and Aaron Smith of Pulaski. Judi Lynch of Christiansburg withdrew on April 3, and Lynette Rash of Tazewell pulled out the next day.

The 9th District Republicans also picked a presidential elector, giving the nod by a wide margin to John Rainero of Bristol, Virginia, over Vernon Hayes of Pulaski and Joseph Painter Jr. of Blacksburg.

The 9th Congressional District, a mostly rural and conservative part of Virginia, contains all of Lee, Wise, Dickenson, Buchanan, Scott, Russell, Tazewell, Washington, Smyth, Bland, Giles, Grayson, Wythe, Pulaski, Montgomery, Carroll, Craig, Floyd and Patrick counties, portions of Alleghany, Roanoke and Henry counties and the cities of Bristol, Virginia, Galax, Martinsville, Norton, Radford and Salem.

In the March primary, 9th Republican voters outnumbered Democratic voters in every locality save one  Martinsville  and Trump supporters vastly outnumbered Cruz, Rubio or Kasich backers in every single locality, often by landslide digits. Overall in the district, Trump took 47 percent of the Republican vote.

Things were more favorable in many of the counties. In Wythe County, where the local convention was held Trump received 54 percent of the votes. Marco Rubio, who finished second, claimed 19 percent. The results were even more favorable in the coal-producing counties, like Buchanan, where Trump received 70 percent of the vote to Rubios 14 percent and Cruzs 12 percent. Even in the less rural Montgomery County, home to Virginia Tech, Trump bested the field, claiming a narrow 33 percent to 32 percent victory over Rubio.
Kind of a drag if you miss The Buckinghams concert Wednesday

The Buckinghams, a Chicago-based pop rock band that exploded onto the charts in 1967 with Kind of a Drag, are coming to the Maryland Theatre.
Will high school cross country competition be different in 2023?

Proposal calls for elimination of one postseason race, leaving several options for new format and what that might mean for small schools
Broadly defined, democracy can apply to the admirable examples in Europe as well as to a fledgling case like Pakistan. Notwithstanding such a generous characterisation, Myanmar cannot as yet be included in this category.

Last month, Indias eastern neighbour swore in its first genuine civilian president for 54 years  Htin Kyaw. He will, though, defer to decision-making by the Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of his party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).

Suu Kyi was effectively appointed Prime Minister by the passage of a bill in Myanmars parliament which made her state counsellor, thereby circumventing the countrys military dictated constitution, which prevents her  for her late husband was and sons are foreign nationals  from formally being president.

In the lower house of the legislature, lawmakers representing the armed forces  who constitute 25% of the chamber  boycotted the vote, calling the motion unconstitutional.

Suu Kyi will also hold charge of the cabinet portfolios of foreign affairs and the presidents office. The president  a trusted associate of Suu Kyi  has therefore reduced himself to a rubber stamp.

However, the National Defence and Security Council in the country has hitherto been the final arbiter. How this body, where the military will maintain a majority, regardless of Htin Kyaw and Suu Kyi becoming members, adapts to the new scenario is uncharted territory.

At the same time, the armed forces would be acutely aware the people of Myanmar want a termination of international isolation and parity with the rest of the ASEAN by way of economic development.

Suu Kyi, who campaigned for 28 years against military rule, decided to strike while public esteem for her is at a peak; when obstruction from unelected institutions is likely to be frowned upon both within and outside Myanmar.

In his address, immediately after being sworn in as head of state, Htin Kyaw made the NLDs intentions clear by declaring: We have a duty to work for the emergence of a constitution that is appropriate for our country and also in accordance with democratic standards.

But the respected Cambridge and Harvard historian and author of a fascinating book on Myanmar entitled Where China Meets India, Thant Myint-U underlined: They (the armed forces) are in no hurry to amend it (the constitution). The NLD on the other hand have placed constitutional reform towards a more democratic government front and centre of their agenda. He notably added: Both sides for now would like amicable relations. But how relations will look in say a year or two only time will tell.

The military will continue to control the ministries of home, defence and border affairs. The civil service in Myanmar deep down to the districts reports to the home department. Consequently, it could hold the key to implementing NLD policies.

Myanmar's new President Htin Kyaw greets members of the old cabinet during the handover ceremony at the presidential palace in Naypyidaw on March 30, 2016. (AFP)

Read | India welcomes Myanmars Suu Kyi-led transition towards democracy

To come to the point, what does all this mean for New Delhi? Buddhism, which is all-pervading in Myanmar, spread from India. Civilisationally the two countries have much in common. Yet, barring the brief bonhomie between Jawaharlal Nehru and Suu Kyis father, the independence hero General Aung San  cut short by the latters assassination  relations between the two nations have oscillated between being unexciting to being uneasy, until former prime minister Manmohan Singh accelerated Narasimha Raos decision (supported by Atal Bihari Vajpayee) to forsake Rajiv Gandhis principled but counter-productive policy of opposing the generals.

If truth be told, Indians settled for generations in Myanmar were rendered uncomfortable in the 1950s and after the 1962 military coup made to feel distinctly unwanted.

Diplomacy, though, has paid dividends, including containing secessionist tendencies in states bordering Myanmar. Moreover, the country is a sizeable, mutually beneficial economic opportunity for India.

A consolidation of commercial ties can bring prosperity to Indias north-east and revitalise Kolkata and other eastern ports. But from Naypyitaws perspective a well-entrenched China cannot be side-lined in the foreseeable future; and if Suu Kyi delivers on economic reforms, Japan, the US and the European Union would expand its options.

The policy under Thein Sein, the general who switched from khakis to civvies (and now temporarily to a monks robe) to pave the way for todays partial democracy, was to reduce dependence on China. The succeeding strategy will, in all likelihood, attempt to prevent dominance by anyone. But if India plays its cards in good faith, there is potential of a bountiful strategic relationship emerging in the future.

India would, though, be wise to persevere with its political engagement with Myanmars military and widen the recent naval co-operation to other spheres, while enhancing its financial assistance and lines of credit to the new government.

Furthermore, to clinch Myanmars confidence India must complete its current infrastructure projects before the agreed deadlines.

Sadly, the Indian private sector has done precious little to take advantage of the opportunities created by a series of bilateral initiatives under Manmohan Singh.

Irrespective of living and studying in India for several years, the inspiration she draws from Mahatma Gandhi and being impressed by Nehru, Suu Kyis approach as minister of foreign affairs can be expected to be cautious.

She will not upset China and may want Japan to play a pivotal role in Myanmars development. She cannot be oblivious of overtures from the US and the EU, especially Britain, either. After all she spent over 20 years of her life in England, including being married to an Oxford academic and has two sons who are Britons.

Suu Kyi is not easily accessible. She tends to meet people on her own terms. India will have to work on her sensitively to secure results.

Ashis Ray is a London-based journalist and creator of www.bosefiles.info

The views expressed are personal
Once the most popular political party in the country, the Pakistan Peoples Party is nowhere near the power it wielded in the 1970s, when it swept the polls twice under the dynamic leadership of its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

In the 1980s and 1990s, the PPP played a leading role in the movement to restore democracy and swept the polls again under Bhuttos daughter Benazir.

Though it came to power again in the 2008 polls on the strength of a sympathy wave generated by the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the PPP has been relegated to a provincial party, its members disheartened and its leadership in disarray.

One of the reasons for this is that after the death of Benazir Bhutto in 2007, the partys reins were handed over to her husband, Asif Zardari. In a will that is contested by many, Benazir is believed to have instructed Zardari to take charge till her son, Bilawal, came of age.

Supporters of ruling Pakistan People's Party (PPP) carry the posters of Pakistan's president Asif Ali Zardari, late former premier Benazir Bhutto, and his son Bilawal during rally in front of the Presidential Palace to celebrate the victory of their leader in Islamabad. (AFP)

But in less than 10 years, the PPPs complexion has been changed by Zardari, who has been reluctant to hand over power to Bilawal despite the fact that he is now 27.

Zardari has raped the PPP, says Naheed Khan, one of Benazirs closest aides and her political secretary. I am sorry but there is no other way to describe it.

Khan, who was with Benazir when she was assassinated after an election rally in Rawalpindi, and her husband, Safdar Abbasi, were among the leaders removed from the PPPs powerful central executive committee (CEC) after Zardari took charge.

Today, the CEC is stuffed with those faithful to Zardari, including his two sisters and some business associates, although some of the old guard remains.

However, the infighting within the CEC and the manner in which the party has governed under Zardari has broken the PPP. It made a poor showing in the 2013 general election and is now in power only in the southern Sindh province, for long its traditional bastion. At the centre, the PPP had won 119 seats in 1998, but by 2013, the number plunged to 45.

The partys strength was that it won seats in all provinces of Pakistan. Between 1997 and 2013, this distinction was ended as the party came to be seen as ineffective and corrupt, says journalist Tahir Najmi.

During his stint as president, Zardaris biggest achievement was managing to complete his term and to oversee a peaceful general election in 2013 that led to a handover of power to another elected administration  another first in Pakistans troubled tryst with democracy.

But this came at a price, says Najmi. Zardaris tenure as president, which ran almost parallel with the PPPs rule at the centre, was mired by politics of compromise and accusations of widespread corruption.

Deals were cut with other parties for the PPP to stay in power and to keep the army at bay. At the same time, Zardaris businesses were expanded at the cost of the party, says Najmi.

It was these rumblings against Zardari which led to one of his closest allies, Zulfiqar Mirza, to revolt. Mirza, a home minister in Sindh, accused the PPP chairman of corruption and nepotism in 2011. With Mirza went other party faithful.

But the PPPs losses did not result in gains for any other party. Despite 10 years of poor governance in Sindh, the PPP remains the favourite. Mirza and others flirted briefly with Imran Khans Tehreek-e-Insaf party but did not shift loyalties.

At the national level, the PPP has suffered considerably and it now remains to be seen whether it can regain its strength. Zardari left Pakistan because of fears he would be arrested and now runs the PPP by remote control.

The only silver lining is that Bilawal Bhutto is now on the ground in Pakistan. Since it was founded, the PPPs fortunes were tied to those of the Bhutto family. Zardari was the first non-Bhutto to lead the party.

With Bilawal has come a breath of fresh air. In the past he tried to sack Zardaris corrupt cronies but could not succeed as his father blocked such moves. Observers say Bilawal is treading carefully but is slowly gaining control of the party.
Two workers were killed and as many injured critically when an underground coal mine collapsed in Umaria district on Saturday late evening.

A senior police officer said there is no confirmation whether more miners are trapped inside the mine.

The collapse was reported around 8 pm in the coal mine operated by the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) in Pipariya area, 10 km from the Umaria district headquarters.

Heavy vibrations due to drilling work is suspected to have caused the collapse, putting under doubt the safety of miners in underground mines.

Superintendent of Police, Umaria, Chandrashekhar Solanki said the deceased were identified as mining overman Mukesh Tripathi and co-worker Dayaram Rai.

Sohan Kol and Sohan Kumar were rushed to a Jabalpur hospital in critical condition, he added. Sohan Kol is feared to have suffered paralysis down the waist.

The Umaria SP is supervising rescue work at the South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) coal mine.
Bollywood stars Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi Kapoor, Emraan Hashmi and many others took to Twitter to express their sadness at the loss of lives in the Kollam temple fire tragery. A major fire broke out in Puttingal Devi temple complex near Kollam in Kerala early on Sunday, killing 102 people and injuring over 280.

Thousands of people had gathered at the temple precincts to witness the display of fireworks which was underway since midnight when the blaze erupted at around 3.30 am. The mishap occurred as sparks of the fireworks fell on the store room Kambapura and the fire crackers kept there exploded with a deafening noise.

Read: After the fire | Torn clothes, smell of death, dogs at Kerala temple

Read: Kerala fire | Temple officials go missing after police book them

Sad. #Puttingal #Kollam #Kerala. Heartfelt condolences to the families of the deceased, Rishi tweeted.

Hashmi wrote, My deepest condolences to families who lost their beloved ones & prayers for the injured. Strength and power to you all. #Kollam.

My deepest condolences to families who lost their beloved ones & prayers for the injured. Strength and power to you all. #Kollam  emraan hashmi (@emraanhashmi) April 10, 2016

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan retweeted emergency helpline numbers following the tragedy.

Abraham said, Devastated knowing about the innocent lives lost at the #Kollam fire, my condolences to their families & prayers for all the injured!

Devastated knowing about the innocent lives lost at the #Kollam fire, my condolences to their families & prayers for all the injured!  John Abraham (@TheJohnAbraham) April 10, 2016

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur appealed for control over fire works.

People go to pray and celebrate life. Come away in wake of death and tragedy #fireworks getting dangerous and must must be controlled #Kollam.

People go 2 pray and celebrate life. Come away in wake of death and tragedy #fireworks getting dangerous and must must be controlled #Kollam  Shekhar Kapur (@shekharkapur) April 10, 2016

Actor Dia Mirza blamed the tragedy on negligence.

When tragedies are struck by human apathy and negligence it makes it so much more painful...so many innocent lives lost. Gutted. #Kollam.

When tragedies are struck by human apathy and negligence it makes it so much more painful...so many innocent lives lost. Gutted. #Kollam  Dia Mirza (@deespeak) April 10, 2016

Heart goes out to all who lost a loved one in #KollamTempleFire.. deepest condolences. Hope lessons will be learned re firework safety, actor-director Farhan Akhtar posted.

Heart goes out to all who lost a loved one in #KollamTempleFire .. deepest condolences. Hope lessons will be learned re firework safety.  Farhan Akhtar (@FarOutAkhtar) April 10, 2016

Filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra said, #KollamTempleFire temples and shrines were built before the population explosion. We have failed to accommodate with time. We are all guilty.

#KollamTempleFire temples and shrines were built before the population explosion We have FAILED to accommodate with time WE ARE ALL GUILTY  Rakeysh Mehra (@RakeyshOmMehra) April 10, 2016

Actor Anupam Kher said, Sad to hear about the fire in a temple in Kollam, Kerala. My heartfelt condolences to the families for d loss of their dear ones. #Tragic.

Sad to hear about the fire in a temple in Kollam, Kerala. My heartfelt condolences to the families for d loss of their dear ones. #Tragic  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) April 10, 2016

Sad visuals of the fire breaking out at the Kollam Temple. Heart goes out to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy, wrote Riteish Deshmukh.

Sad visuals of the fire breaking out at the Kollam Temple. Heart goes out to the families of the victims of this terrible tragedy.  Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) April 10, 2016
With banks having rejected Rs 4,000 crore offer made by wilful defaulter Vijay Mallya to settle dues of over Rs 9,000 crore, industry body Assocham has asked them to be open to negotiations and cut losses.

In an apparent support to Mallyas offer, the industry body said the offer conveys his intention to repay the loans, and asked banks to ignore the public discourse against the purported wilful defaulters, and not be influenced by media reports.

Mallyas settlement offer has already been rejected by banks, who want something concrete on the table, while he has failed to appear before various investigative agencies like ED and SFIO despite repeated summons issued in connection with probe into alleged irregularities at his group.

The banks must evaluate with open mind what offer is on the table. Even if Rs 4,000 crore, as reported in the media, needs to be revised, the banks should be open to negotiations irrespective of the fact whether the borrower is sitting in Delhi or Dubai, Mumbai or London. Get your money back and cut your losses, if they occur, Assocham said.

Mallya is reported to be in the UK after he left India on March 2.

With so much shrill on the wilful defaulters, the banks and their principal shareholder, the Government of India, should take a dispassionate view of the case rather than being influenced by the media reports which at times get exaggerated in the right-or-wrong debate, Assocham said in a statement. It said the main concerns for the banks consortium should be recovery of its assets which have become NPAs and all genuine efforts must be made towards that end. In the present situation, the difficult times have to be faced by all the stakeholders- industry (borrowers) and the banks, it added.

In the case of Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya, Assocham said it does not want to sit in judgement, but what it certainly wants is let there not be a media and public trial as such a thing is not good for the industry, banks or even the countrys financial system.

A consortium of banks led by State Bank of India last week rejected the proposal in the current form offered by Mallya and his companies to pay Rs 4,000 crore by September towards settlement of his loan before the Supreme Court.

The consortium had also asked the Supreme Court that directions be passed to ensure the presence of Mallya in the country to show that he was serious about settling the dues.
At a time when venture capitalists and angel investors are reluctant to park their money in Indian startups, Oyo Rooms has raised $100 million in its fifth round of funding.

The hotel rooms aggregating platform has raised the money from existing investors, including Japans Softbank, and an international sovereign fund, a person with knowledge of the deal said. Other investors are Sequoia Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Greenoaks Capital, DSG Consumer Partners and Venture Nursery.

The term sheet has been signed and the company is looking at expanding its operations domestically, the person said.

In the three years since it was founded, Oyo has emerged as the largest aggregator of hotel rooms in India. It has 65,000 rooms in 5,500 hotels across 177 cities. The company has already raised a total of $125.65 million in four rounds earlier. It recently acquired rival Zo Rooms, which made almost similar revenue, and was funded by Tiger Global.

The business of hotel aggregation is not new, but the entry of players such as Oyo and Zo have also got incumbent online travel agencies, including Makemytrip, Cleartrip, Expedia and Yatra, worried. In the past six months, there has been a lot of focus on hotel business since the margins are higher compared to what they earn from selling flight and train tickets.

Oyo typically picks up 10-15 rooms in an existing budget hotel, refurbishes them, standardises the look and feel, and ensures quality a tad better that what the hotel gives.

In January it launched its Malaysian operations. In India, the company will focus on pockets of profitability, the person added. For example, ahead of the Mahakumb festival, Oyo has ramped up its inventory in holy city of Ujjain.

The hotel booking industry has an online penetration of just 15%, and the budget hotel business is worth $20 billion. This gives Oyo a lot of headroom.

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Britains Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed that it opened a criminal investigation into the activities at one of Tata Steels units in December 2015, as the process to sell the companys UK assets is set to begin on Monday.

After intially declining to confirm reports of investigating Tata Steel, the SFO said: The Serious Fraud Office confirms it opened a criminal investigation in December 2015 into activity at Speciality Steels, a business unit of Tata Steel (UK) Ltd. We can make no further comment at this time.

It was announced after a meeting between business secretary Sajid Javid and Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry in Mumbai that the formal process to sell the UK assets will begin on Monday. Sanjeev Gupta of commodities firm Liberty House is one of the potential buyers. Javid has said his government will make every effort to secure a serious buyer for Tatas Port Talbot plant in Wales and other assets, with up to 15,000 jobs put at risk by the sale plans.

The SFOs investigation relates to charges of falsifying certificates on steel composition at Tata Steels Yorkshire site. The allegation is that some company employees may have falsified certificates detailing the composition of its steel before sale.

Tata Steel said it had reported the inappropriate testing and certifications procedures to the SFO after an internal investigation. The company took immediate action and ensured that the practices were stopped, it added.

A detailed investigation was carried out by a technical team from outside the Speciality Steel business and its conclusions were verified by independent experts. The investigation found that the steel affected and supplied was always well within safety margins, the company said. Affected stock was quarantined and assessed, and was either scrapped, transferred to another order or released as appropriate.A number of Speciality Steels personnel were suspended.

Tata Steels Speciality Steels produces around 225,000 tonnes of steel, comprising around 3% of Tata Steel Europes total output, and 275 million of turnover.

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Just outside Dwarka Sector 10 Metro station, on a small patch of greenery, visitors are greeted by the sight of over 50 nests of the baya weaver bird hanging from branches of babool trees.

Environmentalists are ecstatic about these signature nests in a heavily concretised corner of the Capital and say there is a need to raise awareness about the baya weaver to save similar havens across the city.

Activist Diwan Singh, who is part of the Dwarka Water Bodies Committee, said every year since 2010 the baya weavers have been coming to the area  spread over about one acre  during breeding season.

The male baya weaves a nest with super craftsmanship to secure it from predators, and water with sufficient heat shield. The female inspects the nest and if it finds it to be good enough, it accepts the advances of the male bird. These birds, whose original habitat is Delhi, are the last of their species in the city. The habitat of these marvellous architect birds needs to be preserved, Singh said.

It remains a mystery as to why and how these birds select this locale for nesting, he says. Such a busy neighbourhood with human and vehicular disturbance is the most unlikely choice for any bird to breed. But these birds seem to have trusted us unconditionally. We have a moral duty to match up to the trust they have shown in us. And fight for whatever little habitat is left, the environment activist said.

Locals say the number of birds has gone down over the years. A dozen trees are left on the stretch which earlier had over 50 full-grown babools. In a similar proportion, the number of nests has shrunk from 200 in the past to about 50.

Ecologist CR Babu of the Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystems, who assists the Delhi Development Authority in biodiversity projects, says wetland conservation needs to be done to provide habitat to these birds.

Around 692 wetlands were identified in Delhi. However, over 95% of these have dried up. The baya weaver nests on trees like desi babool and Indian date palm. These are found near water bodies, marshlands, rivers and canals. To sustain these birds, you have to preserve these water bodies, Babu said.

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The Class 12 student who allegedly mowed down a 32-year-old man with a Mercedes was detained on Sunday on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to a juvenile home, police said.

The teenager was produced before the juvenile justice board, which will also decide if he can be tried as an adult as is being demanded by police and the victims family, on the orders of a city court that refused him bail.

A law that allows children aged between 16 and 18 to be tried as adults for heinous crimes came into force in January. The boy turned 18, which is also the legal age for driving, on Friday, four days after he allegedly ran over Siddharth Sharma in north Delhis civil lines.

Giving himself up before the city court, the boy said reports he had fled Delhi were incorrect. He applied for bail but was denied by the court, which told police to produce him before the JJ board, which hears cases of children in conflict with law.

The case, which has caused widespread outrage, has brought the focus back on the menace of underage driving, as it emerged that the teenager was involved in at least two crashes and was also reported for speeding this year.

The boy was detained after the accident but was granted bail because he was a minor. He was booked for causing death due to negligence but police added the more serious charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder after they found the teenager was a repeat offender.

The maximum punishment for the crime is life imprisonment but the most a minor serves  for any offence  is three years and that too in a special facility.

The boys father, who owns a printing business, was given bail on Sunday. He was arrested April 8 after traffic records showed four fines against the car in the last eight months. Police accuse the father of failing to stop his underage son from driving.

Bail was also granted to the familys driver Kapil Mishra few hours after he was arrested for giving a false statement. After the accident on April 4, Mishra had walked into the local police station and said he was the one driving the car. When police told him that Sharma had died, Mishra accused the boys father of forcing him to take the blame for his son and fled. DCP (North) Madhur Verma said Mishras employer would be questioned.

In the evening, Siddharth Sharmas friends and family held a protest demonstration in Connaught Place, demanding that the boy be tried as an adult. Families of other road accidents also joined them.

Sharma was a student of information technology at Stratford Universitys branch in Lajpat Nagar. He was to leave for the US later this year for higher studies.
New Delhi

Its 5 pm. Albisiya Kerketta, 23, is out shopping at DLF Galleria in Guragon. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair hung loose, she has come to the market straight from her spoken English class. Later in the day, she plans to go to a movie with her roommates.

I love fashion, movies and shopping, says Kerketta in English, her voice wavering. My English is poor but I have been learning the language for the past three years and hope to be fluent soon.

Kerketta is a domestic help in Gurgaon.

She is one of the thousands of domestic workers who are radically different a typical bai they are aspirational, seek their rights and are moving out of shanties to live in rented accommodation, thanks to rising employment standards.

Kerketta, who has studied till class 5, works from 8am to 2pm at a house in Gurgaon, cleaning and cooking. At 3pm, she goes to an English-speaking class. She is active on Facebook and updates her account with photos of parties with friends.

I do not want to look like a poor exploited bai; I believe in looking good when I go to work. It creates good vibes at the house where I work. For me its just any other employment, says Kerketta, who earns about Rs 9,000 per month for six hours of work a day.

Karketta has an appointment letter that mentions her salary, her working time, the leaves  four weekly offs, holiday on national festivals and 10 sick leaves . She gets a conveyance allowance and commutes to work by auto.

She got a job through The Maids Company , one of the many new players changing the dynamics of the domestic work sector through training. They find jobs for domestic workers who want to be seen as employees, not servants.

Young girls from rural areas entering the domestic workforce in cities already have exposure to urban environment through television and other mediums. They seek rights and dignity and we ensure that they get them. A lot of young domestic female workers now live in PG accommodation like any other young working girls, said Gauri Singh, founder of The Maids Company.

The demand for trained workforce has led to better pay  anything between Rs 9,000 and Rs 18,000 per month depending on skill, location and working hours.

Reshma Jamadar, 22, gave up her job as a sales girl to work as a nanny six months back.

Domestic worker Albisiya Kerketta at Galleria Market in Gurgaon. (Ravi Choudhary/HT Photo)

I worked as a sales girl at a Metro station in Gurgaon where I earned about Rs 8,000 per month. Now I earn almost twice that amount, get a 10% hike every year and have a pick-and-drop facility. But eventually I want to work as a receptionist at a big company, says Reshma, who has studied till class 10.

Many of these workers have bank accounts and health insurance. Sangeeta Chaudhury, 26, who works in Kailash Colony in south Delhi, earns Rs 18,000. Her company, has given her health insurance for Rs 1 lakh, she says.

Before I underwent training for cooking and housekeeping, I earned Rs 7,000. I deposit my salary in my bank and try to save as much as I can for my children, says Chaudhury who lives in Gandhi Colony in south Delhi in a two-room rented house. She is an employee of GDH Workforce, the company that trained and placed her.

Anjana Kumari came to Delhi from Nepal three years ago and started working for Rs 5,000. Six months back, she got a job through a website for blue-collar jobs. Now I earn Rs 17,000, travel by Metro and get Rs 1,500 as conveyance allowance. I want to be a house manager, says Anjana, who lives in Jasola and works in Andrews Ganj.

Many online players such Babajobs and Nanojobs serve as marketplaces for blue-collar jobs, connecting job-seekers to employers.

Then there are other companies such as The Maids Company, GDH Workforce and Help For Comfort that work both offline and online, train and place domestic workers. They claim to have created new avenues for professional growth of workers. A domestic help, they say, can rise to become a cook, a speciality cook, a training supervisor and even a house manager with corresponding rise in perks and salary.

A woman during a training session. (Sushil Kumar/HT Photo)

Many domestic workers who got employed through us as maids rose through the ranks to become house managers. We are trying to increase employability of semi-literate and illiterate domestic workers and offer them growth, says Murali Bukkapatanam, who founded GDH Workforce, a company that provides professionally trained helpers for households in Delhi and Hyderabad. Salaries for domestic workers in Delhi-NCR are much higher than in Hyderabad.

Many of these companies have training facilities to hone the skills of workers in housekeeping, cooking, cleaning, childcare, health & hygiene, etiquette, kitchen hygiene, and safe food storage. GDH has its training centre in Dwarka and Help For Comfort has a facility in Mundka.

We have a database of one lakh workers and we run a strict check on the people we hire and place. We train about 50 domestic workers every day at our training facility in job specific ecosystem. The candidates who clear the final training assessment are recruited. They are our employees, says Navpreet Singh Randhawa, co-founder Help For Comfort.

Certainly, domestic workers are happy that they are someones employees.

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Uncertainty looms large for students even as the culprits of the MP Vyapam scam rejoin society after serving their jail terms.

Before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had even concluded its investigation, several students were evicted on suspicion of being beneficiaries of the multi-layered scam.

An accused in the Vyapam scam and jailed till three-and-a-half-months back, Laxmikant Sharma may resume his political career and another accused may be at the helm of his mining business, said an MBBS student of Gajra Raja Medical College (GRMC), Gwalior. But our future is bleak. We have been punished even before the court pronounces its judgement.

Being thrown out of college has hit students with education loans particularly hard.

I cant pay fees of `35,000 annually but the investigative agency says I had paid lakhs of rupees to an impersonator to get through PMT, said 2009 batch medical student. I have been expelled. Now, the bank is seeking repayment of the loan.

I AM SHATTERED

Affected students claim to be innocent victims of the slow-progressing probe. The scam broke in July 2013, but the investigation continues almost three years later.

The ramifications of the scam go beyond the education of those accused.

A girl suspected to have benefited from the scam was set to be married when the scam broke. Her to-be husband called off the marriage until she is cleared by the investigating agency.

The future of my daughter is at stake but even after two-and-a half years, we are waiting for the completion of investigation, not to say of the courts verdict, which may take several years, said the girls mother.

PUNISH US OR ALLOW US TO STUDY

After being suspended from college, several students moved the Jabalpur high court and were allowed to resume studies. However, the colleges sought and the students signed affidavits that they would not act against the college administrations decision, whatever that may be.

We didnt know the college administration was playing a trick, said a student of GMRC who was expelled on March 4. After about a month or so, we were expelled from the college saying that the special investigation team, Gwalior, looking into the scam found some concrete evidence against us.

The signed affidavit is now a security blanket for the college, preventing the students from filing a contempt petition in court.

We believe in justice but when will it be delivered? said another student. If we are found guilty, punish us. But if we are not a guilty, who will be responsible for this irreparable loss caused to our career.

The students are demanding that they be allowed to complete their education, but their degrees be held until a final verdict.

More than 100 medical students and junior doctors have even sought permission from the government to kill themselves because they were denied justice due to the slow pace of the probe.

TRAUMA STILL FRESH

The trauma of persecution still haunts the lucky few who were suspended but later cleared by the special investigation team.

In the probe of the college-level committee, my photo was found mismatched with that on the admit card and registration form, said a third-year medical student at GMRC.

When the SIT called me for interrogation, I had collected all my photographs from the past 10 years. I got a clean chit from SIT, but I still keep photographs with me as I cant trust the college administration.

Students said being cleared of the charge has not stopped the harassment.

I am going to sit on hunger strike from Monday as harassment by the college is not coming to end, said Raghvendra Singh, an MBBS student. Now, the college has withheld my result. When I got clearance once, why are they questioning the validity of my admission?

A large number of students were expelled if their names appeared in a list released by the Madhya Pradesh Professional Examination Board, or Vyapam. Many others were removed on the findings of a high-level committee set up by the medical colleges.

The college-level committees were formed in 2009, four years before the Vyapam scam broke. They found some students guilty on the basis of their photographs not matching with those on their admit cards or registration forms. But after the Vyapam scam, the Directorate of Medical Education decided to carry out a separate probe of the admission process during the 2008-12 academic years.

CASE STUDIES

26-year-old former MBBS student of Gwalior: He cant forget the day he was asked to leave college in his pre-final year. When he returned to his village in Bhind, villagers who used to respect him now avoided him. Facing criminal charges, he spends most of his time with lawyers and police. Im facing social stigma and suffering from mental trauma. In fact, my career is ruined. , I want to work as a labourer as I have to repay my loan. The bank is after my life, he said.

A third-year medical student: He was cleared of all charges and started studying again at Gajra Raja Medical College in Gwalior. Yet, he cannot get rid of the pain he suffered. He was one of 10 students suspended by a committee set up by the college. At least our future is secured. We may not regain the trust of fellow students and teachers in the college, but we can start a new life after we get the degree, he said.

THE SCAM

The Vyapam scam is an admission and recruitment scam involving politicians, senior officials and businessmen in Madhya Pradesh

The scam involved 13 different exams conducted by Vyapam for selection of medical students and state government employees. The exams were taken by around 3.2 million students.

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Chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Sunday assured residents that he will make Gurgaon a super smart city.

Addressing a public rally at Kankrola-Bhangrola village in Badshahpur constituency, Khattar said Gurgaon could not find a place in the list of smart cities selected by the Central government but the state government will make it a super smart city.

Khattar said that the government will try to constitute a Gurgaon Development Authority (GDA) by bringing a Bill in the Assembly after addressing objections raised by the Supreme Court.

Gurgaon is already of the path of progress. We are trying to bring metro rail up to Manesar. Work on three more roads connecting the city with Delhi is already on, Khattar said, adding that the Centre has given an in- principle nod for modernisation of the Gurgaon railway station.

He said that there is no dearth of money in the state, but the sanctioned money is not being used.

We will not tolerate corruption, neither at the higher nor the lower level. We are introducing a social audit system where public representatives will decide the fate of schemes, he said.

Public works department and forest minister Rao Narbir Singh said Gurgaon generated highest revenue in the state but got the lowest funds for development. He handed over a list of demands to the chief minister, some of which Khattar agreed to fulfil.

After the rally, the chief minister held a meeting of the grievances committee at the mini-secretariat.

Here, some angry Gurgaon residents complained that basic amenities such as water and roads were missing in some areas and action should be taken against errant developers.

A group of flat buyers shouted slogans against a builder over alleged delay in completion of a project.

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The office clock at the Puttingal temple in Kollams Paravur remained stuck at 3.10am, a grim reminder of the exact time a huge fire that killed 110 people broke out on its premises early on Sunday .

Burnt clothes, slippers and body parts lay strewn across the place.

A lone stray dog could be seen struggling to make a meal of a half-burnt human body slumped against a wall.

Until reports last came in, authorities had identified as many as 48 of the deceased people.

Residents said the incident occurred when a live cracker fell onto a godown filled with high-intensity fireworks. The explosives, worth 10 lakh, were meant for a fireworks competition between two religious groups to celebrate the start of the local Hindu New Year.

Video: Fire at Kerala temple

Live coverage: 110 dead in Kerala temple fire, Modi to visit Kollam hospital

Jayakumar K, a travel agent, said it was by pure luck that he survived the incident. I was sitting on a chair outside the temple to watch the fireworks when there was a sudden commotion. A fireball engulfed the entire area right before my eyes. A concrete slab came flying my way, and hit the person sitting next to me. He died on the spot, he said.

Lallu S Pillai, a journalist covering the temple festival for Asianet News, was standing on the terrace of a nearby house when the fire broke out. Only half hour was left for the fireworks display to get over when a spark from an exploding cracker landed on a concrete building, where high potency crackers had been stored, Pillai told IANS.

In a few minutes, the building came crashing down and we felt the place shake.

He described the scene as one of absolute chaos, with chunks of concrete raining down on people in a radius of 500 metres. Even as distraught relatives bemoaned the loss of their loved ones, RSS activists wearing trademark khaki shorts could be seen helping volunteers in their rescue efforts.

An elderly NRI woman staying in the locality squarely blamed the authorities for the tragedy. Stating that her son had earlier filed a complaint over fireworks stored at the temple posing a danger to their dwellings, she said, All our please fell on deaf ears. This was an avoidable tragedy.

People walk past debris after a fire broke out at a temple in Kollam in Kerala. (REUTERS)

Even as condolences poured in from all sides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with treating the large number of injured people. The fire at the temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words, he said in a Twitter post. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured.

With the assembly elections looming over Kerala, the temple fire quickly turned into a political controversy. Chief minister Oommen Chandy sought to absolve his government of blame by stating that the Kollam district administration had denied the temple authorities permission to conduct the fireworks display. The probe will be conducted in the incident, he said, adding that there was no permission to even store the fireworks.

Police have registered a case of negligence against temple officials, who absconded soon after the incident.

Thiruvananthapuram Medical College principal Thomas Mathew said as many as 100 injured people were being treated at the institution. Forty-five have been admitted, and most suffer from fractured hands and legs. While 11 people were brought dead, two more succumbed after reaching here, he said.

At least 10 hospitals are dealing with the emergency.

(With agency inputs)

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Pakistan opened fire along the LoC in Poonch on Saturday night in the first ceasefire violation in six months.

An Army spokesperson said Pakistan troops started firing heavily on Saturday night which continued until Sunday early morning. Indian troops retaliated in equal measure.

The firing resumed after Pakistan suspended talks between the two nations last week. There have been no instances of firing in the Rajouri-Poonch areas after brigadier level talks between the two armies last October.

The talks were held to diffuse tension along the LoC after six people had died in Pakistan firing last August.

Read: The time has come for India to be firm with Pakistan

Pakistan says talks with India suspended, hints wont allow NIA visit
India is ready to invest $20 billion in the development of Irans Chabahar port and has requested it to allocate adequate land in the Chabahar Special Economic Zone (SEZ), state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) said in a statement on Sunday.

Indias intent to invest was made by Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Bijan Zangeneh in Tehran on Saturday.

Pradhan conveyed to the Iranian side that Indian companies could invest upto $20 billion and were interested in setting up petrochemical and fertiliser plants, including in the Chabahar SEZ, either through joint venture between Indian and Iranian public sector companies or with private sector partners, the statement said.

In this regard, he requested Iran to allocate appropriate and adequate land in the SEZ. He also expressed Indias interest in setting up a LNG plant and a gas cracker in the Chabahar port, it said.

He also requested the Iranian side for favourable treatment in the pricing of gas for India and also supply of rich gas at competitive price and on long term basis for the life of the joint venture projects that Indian companies are interested in setting up, it added.

In May 2014, India and Iran signed an MoU to jointly develop the port once the international sanctions against Iran were lifted.

Chabahar is located in the Gulf of Oman on the border with Pakistan, and Iran plans to turn it into a transit hub for immediate access to markets in the northern part of the Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

The statement said Pradhan also expressed Indias interest in importing LPG from Iran and said that companies from both sides could, if required, discuss setting up an extraction plant in Chabahar.

On the final day of his two-day visit to Iran on Sunday, the first visit by an Indian minister to the country since sanctions against it were lifted earlier this year, Pradhan and his delegation visited the Chabahar free trade zone and port and discussed the facilities and incentives which could be offered to Indian companies, it added.

The Iran visit is to be followed by Pradhans official tour of the UAE on April 11-12.
At least 110 people died and more than 350 were injured when an unauthorised fireworks display at a century-old temple in Kerala set off blasts and a blaze early on Sunday, underscoring recurring safety breaches at places of worship in India.

The tragedy at the popular Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam districts Paravur, 70km south of state capital Thiruvananthpauram, occurred around 3.10am when more than 10,000 people had gathered in and around the shrine complex.

The temple organises a fireworks competition in which two religious groups contest in front of thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honouring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of Kali.

But the district administration denied clearing the temple authorities request to conduct this years show, which also marks Hindu New Year celebrations in mid-April.

No permission for any kind of fireworks was given, district collector A Shainamol told PTI.

Residents said the catastrophe happened when a live cracker fell on a storeroom inside the shrine complex filled with high-intensity fireworks  an illegal stash worth Rs 10 lakh. The explosion was so strong that some parts of the temple roof caved in and caused maximum casualties while shockwaves were felt 2km away.

Charred bodies, dismembered limbs, and blood-stained clothes were strewn around the temple complex in a densely-populated neighbourhood after the incident.

We are investigating how the orders were flouted and who was responsible for the decision to go ahead with the fireworks display, said chief minister Oommen Chandy, who cancelled his campaign for the May 16 assembly polls and rushed to the spot. He announced an ex gratia of Rs 10 lakh to families of the dead.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with treating the mass of injured people. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured, he tweeted.

Spoke to Kerala CM Sh.Chandy regarding the Kollam accident who apprised me of the situation.Assured him of all possible help from the Centre  Rajnath Singh (@BJPRajnathSingh) April 10, 2016

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, whose party is seeking to retain power in the state, visited the temple site. BJP chief Amit Shah cancelled his public functions in Kerala and rushed to the Trivandrum medical college, where many of the critically injured were shifted.

Top officials of the temple have reportedly gone into hiding after police registered a case of culpable homicide against them.

An IANS report said a case has been registered against the inured father-son duo of Surendran and Umesh, who had organised the show. Both are treated at Trivandrum medical college.

Residents said concrete pieces went flying and one such projectile reportedly hit a two-wheeler driver a km away.

Police, disaster management teams and the air force carried out the rescue that was hampered in the absence of proper roads and a blast-triggered outage. The navy too joined the effort in the coastal town. Many of the injured were airlifted to hospitals.

Eyewitness said the fireworks display started close to midnight and the tragedy happened 30 minutes before the programme was scheduled to end.

Like everyone else, an elderly woman from the locality blamed the authorities for the tragedy. She said her son had filed a complaint over fireworks stored inside the temple complex but no one paid heed. This was an avoidable tragedy.

The Kerala high court too had issued directives on fireworks safety at temples to prevent accidents. The rules were broken with impunity, police officer Loknath Behera said.

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples and during religious occasions in India, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.

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(With inputs from agencies)

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The Indian Navy and the IAF have deployed six helicopters and one Dornier aircraft to help in rescue operations at the Kerala temple where a fire has left over 100 dead.

The IAF has deployed four choppers including Mi17 and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).

The Indian Navy is deploying one Dornier and two ALH with medical teams from the southern naval command.

Pics of Navy ALH & Dornier involved in Kerala temple fire rescue. Air Force & Army also helping out. pic.twitter.com/AZTudFStEk  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) April 10, 2016

Pics of relief/med eqpt loading on IN ships Kabra & Kalpeni earlier today. pic.twitter.com/dym8LAB9rt  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) April 10, 2016

Some more pics of relief teams loading & onboard Naval ALH. pic.twitter.com/TsAcAdauuk  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) April 10, 2016

It has also deputed three Naval ships -- INS Kabra, Kalpeni and INS Sukanya with medical stores to Kollam coast to give medical assistance to the injured.

They will be deployed in consultation with local administrative authorities, a Navy spokesperson said.

Surgical teams have also been put on standby at the Naval command hospital in Kochi.
At least 110 people were killed and scores injured when an unauthorised fireworks show at a temple in Kerala set off blasts and a blaze early on Sunday, in yet another accident blamed on safety norms violations at places of worship in India.

The tragedy at Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam districts Paravur, 70km south of capital Thiruvananthpauram, occurred around 3:10am when more than 10,000 people were present.

The temple organises an annual firework display competition, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honouring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.

This years competition was taking place even though there was no permission from district authorities, said Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy, who cancelled his campaign for polls that start in May and rushed to the spot.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he will reach Kerala soon. He directed Union health minister JP Nadda to immediately reach the site.

Read | Kerala temple fire: Situation at site alarming, says CM Oommen Chandy

As it happened

5:35pm: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visits the accident spot.

5:35pm: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi arrives in Kollam.

5:35pm:PM Modi, Kerala CM Chandy and Union health minister JP Nadda hold a meeting to take stock of the situation.

5:30pm:PM Modi, Kerala CM Chandy and Union health minister JP Nadda hold a meeting to take stock of the situation.

5:20pm: PM Modi visits AA Rahim Memorial Hospital in Kollam where injured people are being given medical assistance.

3:35 pm: PM Narendra Modi meets Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy. Modi arrived in Kollam in a helicopter with a team of doctors.

3:30 pm The central government has asked Kerala home secretary to look into the fore racks and explosive laws to make it more stringent.

3:16 pm Kerala CM announces ex-gratia relief of 10 lakh to kin of each of those killed in fire tragedy, 2 lakh for injured. Earlier in the day, PM had announced ex-gratia relief of 2 lakh to the kin of each of those who died in the fire and 50,000 for the injured.

3:00 pm Judicial probe ordered, Modi reaches Trivandrum

A judicial probe has been ordered into temple fire tragedy and the report will be submitted within six months, says Kerala Chief Minister Oomen Chandy.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reached the Trivandrum airport and is expected to reach the Kollam General Hospital at 3:30 PM.

2:30 PM Rescue ops on in full swing

Personnel of the Air Force, Navy and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) joined the Kerala Police, disaster management teams and fire brigade on the scene for rescue and relief work.

Four Air Force choppers, including Mi-17 and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH), joined the rescue operation from Sulur in Coimbatore.

The Indian Navy joined the rescue operation, dispatching one Dornier, two ALHs and medical teams from Garuda Naval Air station near Kochi. One additional Dornier and two Chetaks have also been pressed in by the Navy.

INS Kabra and INS Kalpeni with medical stores on board are being sent to Kollam shortly, while INS Sunayna has already been sent.

The India Coast Guard ICG dispatched one ship loaded with medical team, while another team on its way to Kollam via road and one chopper was positioned at Trivandrum.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi being received by the Kerala governor Justice P Sathasivam and the minister of state for road transport and highways and shipping P Radhakrishnan(PTI)

2:00 pm Pak offers condolences over Kerala temple tragedy

Pakistan expressed deep condolences over a massive fire tragedy at a Kerala temple that has left more than 100 people dead.

The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from a fire in the temple, Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria said.

Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people, Zakaria was quoted as saying by Radio Pakistan.

1:25 pm Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy said Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit the Kollam General Hospital at 3.05 pm. Chandy will meet the PM at 4.10 pm at Kollam Guest House.

1:20 pm Post-mortem will be carried out: Chandy

Oommen Chandy also said that post-mortem will be carried out expeditiously so that the bodies are handed over to their kin at the earliest.

Asked whether any action will be taken against temple authorities for conducting the display of fireworks since the authorities had denied permission for it, the Chief Minister said a decision regarding this will be taken at a Cabinet meeting to be held shortly.

1:10 PM Locals tell HT that the fire spread after a live fire cracker fell on the godown in which high-intensity crackers were stores. Locals added that crackers worth 10 lakh had been obtained for the event .

As it happened: 110 dead in Kerala temple fire, Modi meets CM Chandy(HT photo)

12:45 pm Karnataka to send 10-member medical team with drugs and blood to Kollam

Karnataka government said it would send a 10-member medical team with drugs and blood to Kollam in Kerala to provide relief to victims of the tragedy at Puttingal Devi temple complex.

Health Minister UT Khader said state government officials are in touch with Kerala and the Central government and that the government would be sending additional help, based on the requirements.

The team will comprise doctors and paramedical staff.

12:30 pm Nirmala Sitharaman instructs chief controller of Explosives to rush to Kollam

6. firecrackers/explosives. Contrllr of Explosives, Kochi has reached the #KeralaTempleFire already. Controller from Chennai also to join in  Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) April 10, 2016

4. Instructed the Chief Controller of Explosives (PESO) to rush to the #KeralaTempleFire site to check on legal/illegal storage/ use of...  Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) April 10, 2016

12: 10 pm: BJP president Amit Shah visited Trivandrum Medical College where the people injured in the fire have been receiving treatment.

12:06 pm: Four IAF helicopters have reached Trivandrum and are ready for the task. 2 AN32 aircraft will take two NDRF teams from Arakkonam

Pics of Navy ALH & Dornier involved in Kerala temple fire rescue. Air Force & Army also helping out. pic.twitter.com/AZTudFStEk  DPR (@SpokespersonMoD) April 10, 2016

Directed the health officials at Kollam and Trivandrum to be fully prepared to handle the situation.  Jagat Prakash Nadda (@JPNadda) April 10, 2016

11:53 am Kerala CM Oommen Chandy confirmed that the death toll has risen to 102 while the number of injured has gone up to 280.

11:32 am Modi leaves for Kollam

11:15 am DC had not given permission for fireworks

The Kerala government has ordered a probe into the incident. Television channels reported that the District Collector did not give permission to the temple authorities for fireworks. According to CNN IBN, Competitive fireworks display was also stayed after complaints from local residents.

NewsMinute has accessed the Kollam Additional District Magistrate (ADM) report which shows that the temple had been denied fireworks for the competitive fireworks in which two temple priests attempt to outdo each other with the kind of fireworks they have in their kitty.

Chief minister Chandy said the temple officials had gone ahead with the fireworks display despite being denied permission because of safety concerns.

That is correct. District collector of Kollam denied sanction for this fireworks (display), he said when asked after whether permission had been given.

11:08 am: Kerala chief Minister Oommen Chandy has reached Kollam. The Prime Minister is taking a team of doctors specialising in treating burn injuries along with him. Modi will be directly landing in the town where the mishap took place.

Delhi: A team of burn specialist doctors board flight to #Kollam, PM to leave shortly #KollamTempleFire pic.twitter.com/hBmiwDqcR3  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

All protocol including the governor and the chief minister receiving the Prime Minster at the helipad has been waived.

Modi has directed IAF and Navy to divert all helicopters in the command for ferrying injured to major hospitals in nearby cities

10: 44 am: INS Kabra & INS Kalpeni with medical stores being sailed to Kollam shortly, INS Sunayna also being sailed a little while later

10:30 am: PM Modi has asked for mobilization of Air Force and Navy assets in the area to assist in rescue and relief, ANI reported. He has also instructed that no official welcome protocols should be followed on his arrival in Kollam.

10:15 am Case registered against temple authorities

The temple manager VS Jayalal and two other officials have been booked. A case has also been registered against explosives licensees.

9:40 am Death toll crosses 10, PM announces 2 lakh compensation for the next of kin of the dead

The death toll from a fire that swept through a temple in Indias southern Kerala state during a fireworks display on Sunday may have crossed 100.

The home ministry has so far confirmed 83 dead and more than 200 injured. PM has announced two lakh each as compensation to the next of the kin of the dead in Kollam temple fire; 50,000 to those injured. The PM is to leave for Kerala shortly. He will meet CM Oommen Chandy, will also visit people who got injured in Puttingal fire tragedy.

Eyewitnesses said dismembered bodies lay on the premises. (HT Photo)

9:17 am: The death toll has risen to 92 after a massive explosion at a temple in Kollam where crowds had gathered for a fireworks display. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to reach the spot by 3:30pm today.

9:05 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be in Kerala shortly to take stock of the situation

I will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the unfortunate fire tragedy in Kollam.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) April 10, 2016

9:00 am: District Collector had denied permission for fireworks

According to initial reports, the district collector had denied permission for fireworks, citing safety issues since the temple is situated in a congested area.

8:45 am: Prime Minister and home minister Rajnath Singh both expressed their condolences, and said that the Centre would assist the Kerala government in any way possible

The state government has sought the centres help to deploy army helicopters to evacuate the injured. Prime Minister Narenda Modi said that the centre has made arrangements to ensure helicopters are arranged to transport the injured to the hospital.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) 10 April 2016

Spoke to Kerala CM Sh.Chandy regarding the Kollam accident who apprised me of the situation.Assured him of all possible help from the Centre  Rajnath Singh (@BJPRajnathSingh) 10 April 2016

Tragedies caused by fire and stampede in places of worship are common in India.

With a large number of people gathering in small premises, evacuation in case of emergencies becomes a challenge for officials.

7:55 am: 86 people have died in the fire, state DGP confirms.

Pictures of fireworks display that caused massive fire at Puttingal temple in Kerala claiming 75 lives&injuring 200 pic.twitter.com/VcieMcBles  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

7:45 am: Kerala health minister VS Sivakumar said the injured have been taken to TVM medical college.

As it happened: 110 dead in Kerala temple fire, Modi meets CM Chandy(Photo Courtesy: Google Maps)

7:30 am: Death toll increases to 80.

7: 15 am: Kerala government has sought the Election Commissions permission to disperse relief.

7:00 am: Fire has been brought under control.

Police blocked traffic at various areas to take the injured to the hospital. (ANI Photo)

6:45 am: At least 67 people are feared killed and 200 injured in the fire. Reports said many are still trapped under the debris.

3:30 am: Fire breaks out in Puttingal Devi temple of Kollam district, Kerala.

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From Gandhigiri to threatening jail, several Uttar Pradesh districts have declared a war against open defecation.

Officials in Mathura have created an internal WhatsApp group where they will circulate photograph of offenders being garlanded to keep a track of those who defecate in the open.

In Agra, the new steps to end the menace are: first time offenders will be garlanded to embarrass them but repeated violations could land them in jail along with fines ranging from Rs 250 to Rs 2,500.

Kanpur school children will ring a bell or beat metallic plates on seeing a person carrying a lota  a specific kind of pot that people carry to fields  who appear to be going to defecate in the open.

A report from Bareilly said those defecating in the open in Lodhipur village of Shahjahanpur district will be disturbed and shamed by volunteers who will blow whistles and make noises pointing towards the offender.

Open defecation poses a major concern for hygiene and even safety after a number of women have been attacked when they went to fields to relieve themselves.

The problem is rooted in poverty, with many unable to build lavatories.

Speaking to Hindustan Times, chief development officer (CDO), Mathura, Manish Kumar Verma said government officials and employees have been tasked to movearoundinspecificareasinthe morningandeveningtokeepavigil on those defecating in the open, and persuade them to not do so.

Those going for open defecation are presented flowers or garlanded and asked to not defecate in the open, even as some officials click their photographs and post them on the WhatsApp group, said Verma. He also clarified that photographs will not be clicked while any one is defecating.

He said in the first phase efforts were on to make 18 villages of Mathura free of open defecation by April 15.

Similarly, in Agra, district magistrate Pankaj Kumar has issued instructions to officials to make all villages in the district open defecation free by August 15 this year.

Officials said those who did not have toilets in their house would have to get the same constructed using their own money. Once the construction was complete, they could claim Rs 12,000 from the government.
Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif on Sunday called up Premier Narendra Modi to offer condolences over the Kerala fire tragedy.

Sharif called up Prime Minister Modi to express grief over the temple fire tragedy in Kerala, a PMO official said.

Expressing gratitude, Modi offered his condolences to Sharif over the loss of lives and property due to Sundays earthquake in Pakistan.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan had extended deep condolences over the pre-dawn disaster that has claimed 106 lives so far.

The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from a fire in the temple, Pakistans Foreign Office said.

Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people, it said
The central government stands by Kerala in this hour of crisis, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said after visiting a temple in Kollam where more than 100 people died on Sunday during a display of unauthorised fireworks.

Modi visited a hospital where the injured are undergoing treatment and described the tragedy as unimaginable and dreadful.

I have told the CM (Oommen Chandy) that the government of India will help if patients are needed to be shifted to Delhi and Mumbai (for better treatment), Modi said.

This tragedy is very painful, he told reporters before concluding his brief visit during which he held a meeting with Kerala chief minister Chandy.

PM @narendramodi meeting CM Oommen Chandy & local administration officials. Health Minister @JPNadda is also present pic.twitter.com/4qcmPiuAIy  PIB India (@PIB_India) April 10, 2016

Read: After the fire: Torn clothes, smell of death, dogs at Kerala temple

Fireworks during a festival at Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam districts Paravur, around 60km from capital Thiruvananthpauram, set off explosions and a blaze around 3:10am.

The display, for which no permission was granted, started at midnight as part of an annual festival and thousands of people had gathered to witness it.

The mishap struck at a time Kerala -- governed by the Congress party, which is in opposition at national level -- heads to assembly polls next month.

Modi has directed Union health minister JP Nadda to co-ordinate with the state government for best treatment for the injured.

A team of 25 specialist doctors were deployed from premier facilities --- AIIMS, Safdarjung and Ram Manohar Lohia hospitals --- in New Delhi amid reports of horrific burn injuries. The navy and air force also sent helicopters to evacuate the most critically injured, officials said.

Modi announced Rs 2 lakh in compensation for the families of each of those killed and Rs 50,000 for those injured.

In Kollam, CM Chandy received Modi after the latter arrived in a helicopter. The PM asked Chandy to join him in his vehicle to the temple.

Modi spent about 10 minutes walking around the complex, where state home minister Ramesh Chennithala and Lok Sabha member NK Premachandran explained to him the sequence of events.

From the temple, Modi and Chandy drove to the Kollam district hospital where 185 of the injured were admitted. He then chaired a meeting with the CM and senior officials.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi too visited the site. He was accompanied by Congress leader AK Antony and minister Chennithala.

This is a tragedy for Kerala and the whole country, Gandhi said.

Read: Kerala fire: Temple officials go missing after police book them
Washington may not realise it, but the United States practice of holding primary debates in the run-up to the elections is catching the fancy of village panchayats deep in the Bihari hinterlands.

Ahead of the local body polls in April-May, a panchayat in Madhubani district has directed seven prospective candidates for the post of mukhiya to participate in a public debate on April 24. During the event, they will be required to articulate their vision for the next five years and spell the ways in which they plan to develop the villages and empower people.

Madhubani will go to the polls on April 28, as part of the ten-phase panchayat elections starting April 24.

We have asked the mukhiya candidates to attend the public debate. Even voters insist on this when candidates visit their house to seek votes these days. Once the debate is over, the entire panchayat will take a call on whom to vote for, said DM Diwakar, the main proponent of the idea.

Diwakar, a social scientist heading the AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences in Patna, said the idea was accepted by all the seven candidate of the Andhra Thari panchayat. There are 7,000 voters in this panchayat, consisting of Jalsain, Eraji Dumra, Bhagwatipur, Tharuwahi , Thathari, Madanpatti , Madna , Gotam and Jamaila villages.

Its a new experiment to strengthen the gram sabhas (village committees), comprising residents of each village. The voters should know what their candidates have to offer, he said.

The 10-phase panchayat polls will be one of the biggest poll exercises in the state, with around five crore rural electorates casting their franchise to elect people to 2.58 lakh posts ( including sarpanch) in rural local bodies.

Read: Shaken and stirred, Bihars booze addicts get support from families

The panchayats have the mandate to implement development schemes at the grassroot level, be it MGNREGA, Indira Awaas, PMGSY, sanitation and education schemes.

The post of mukhiya  who heads a panchayat with an average of seven to eight villages (comprising 6,000 to 7,000 voters)  is quite a lucrative one because the elected person has large funds at his disposal and also wields substantial political clout. The polls are likely to witness a large number of women voters because 50% of the total posts have been reserved for female candidates.

So, are the candidates pleased with the idea of a Jan Samwad (public debate)? Why not? It is an initiative that will bring us closer to the people, said Rajesh Kumar Mishra, a contender for the mukhiyas post. He claimed to have prepared a manifesto that promises better roads and empowerment to weaker sections through the provision of jobs cards and Indira Awaas Yojana (IAY) house units.

Another contestant, Yogendra Yadav, maintained he would attend the public debate at all costs. When my rivals are going, why would I stay behind? I will talk about my priorities for the panchayat and convince them to vote for me, he said. His manifesto includes better road connectivity, safety for women, cleanliness and a corruption-free environment.

With just weeks to go for the D-day, social workers are busily going about the task of preparing the venue for the public debate. Public participation is expected to be huge. We want the debate to have a great impact on the voting, said Diwakar, adding that election officials have been informed about the experiment too.

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The Supreme Courts case load is set to increase as it is unlikely to get new judges till some of the over 400 vacancies in the 24 high courts are filled.

The top court has 25 judges, against a sanctioned strength of 31, to deal with over 60,000 pending cases. The last judge to be elevated to its ranks was justice AK Roy, way back in February 2015. Four judges are due for retirement by December-end.

But there will be no fresh appointment before May, sources privy to the process told HT. With summer vacations starting mid-May and going on for most of June, it may get pushed back even further.

The SC collegium  a panel of five senior judges responsible for appointments to the top court and high courts  has put on hold the elevation of at least five high court chief justices.

This, sources said, is primarily because elevating them would disturb the collegiums in their respective high courts, affecting appointments and disposal of cases there.

The high courts are already struggling with a backlog of 40 lakh cases.

It was felt the appointment process for high courts would get delayed if the present chief justices are elevated. A new head (transferred from a different high court) takes time to settle down before short-listing candidates, the sources said.

Also, its difficult to find suitable candidates to fill 400 vacancies.

The SC collegium headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur is, therefore, keen on dealing with the high court vacancies before tacking its own, even though this means an increase in its workload.

The high court chief justices being considered for appointment to the top court are Ashok Bhushan (Kerala), Manjula Chellur (Calcutta), Sanjay Kishan Kaul (Madras), Dhananjaya Chandrachud (Allahabad) and AM Khanwilkar (Madhya Pradesh).

Shortage of judges has been a perennial problem in India. But it was compounded after a law setting up a National Judicial Appointments Commission  which gave the government a say in judicial appointments and replaced the collegium system  was challenged before the Supreme Court in January 2015. Except for justice Roys elevation, no appointment took place while the matter was in court.

In October, the top court finally struck down the NJAC as unconstitutional, saying it violated judicial independence by allowing executive interference in the appointment of judges. Since the beginning of this year, the collegium has cleared few names for appointment to the high courts and ordered the transfer of some.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday termed as heart-rending and shocking the fire at a temple in Kollam and said he is rushing to Kerala to take stock of the situation.

Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured, he said in a tweet.

I will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the unfortunate fire tragedy in Kollam, he said.

Live: 92 killed in Kerala temple fire

The Prime Minister has also asked Health Minister J P Nadda to reach the site of the mishap.

At least 92 people lost their lives and 350 others were injured when a fire broke out at a temple in Keralas Kollam district during display of fireworks.Helicopters were being used to ferry the seriously injured to hospitals. The Prime Minister spoke to the Kerala Chief Minister about the mishap.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter, he said.

Thousands of people had gathered at the temple precincts to witness the fireworks display which were on since midnight. The mishap occurred as sparks fell on the storeroom Kambapura and exploded with a thundering noise at around 3.30am, police said.
A 60-year-old woman was attacked by unidentified assailants while she was asleep in her house in Nagaur district and a piece of black cloth with ISIS written on it left behind apparently to mislead the investigators, police said on Sunday.

Nathi Devi was sleeping with her minor grandson in Bhim area when she was attacked yesterday. Her husband found her in an injured state following which she was rushed to the district hospital, they said.

Police also found a piece of black cloth with ISIS written on it with white paint in the backside of the house.

It appears that the accused left it with an intention to mislead the investigation, police said, adding the matter is being probed.
In his inaugural rally at Shivaji Park 10 years ago, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray spoke about the colours of his flag  the saffron, blue and green.

People asked me, why I chose colours like blue and green in my flag. For many, these might mean that I am wooing different communities but I am not. The good people in each community will have to be taken along, he had said.

On Friday, he made a U-Turn.

The blue-saffron stands for Hindutva, and the green stands for APJ Abdul Kalam and AR Rahman. It doesnt stand for the people of Bhendi Bazaar, Behrampada and Bhiwandi, he said at the rally on Friday.

For 10 years, Thackeray had refused to take a hardline Hindutva stance, one that would jeopardise the backing of the Muslim community especially the youth that he had received. But, on Friday, Thackeray may have broken that unspoken rule of his own.

Political observers say that Thackeray is making a subtle, yet fundamental shift in his partys strategy  from attacking Muslims, to aggressively wooing Dalits, to slamming the RSS for the first time and solely targeting the BJP and its tallest leader Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In the hour-long speech, he barely mentioned his favourite bugbear-rival the Shiv Sena and cousin Uddhav.

Many insiders believe that this space might be Thackerays best bet to draw the MNSs voters back ahead of the 2017 civic polls. Data from the 2014 Assembly polls had showed how erstwhile MNS strongholds saw strong voting for the BJP. Is this, then, Thackerays attempt at getting the voter who migrated to the BJP, back?

If Thackeray sticks to this, it will be an interesting departure from his rather-tested strategy of attacking the rival Shiv Sena and trying to draw out core Sena supporters to his side. This also leaves the window open for a post-poll tie up with the Sena, in the eventuality that the BJP and the Sena dont fight polls together.

Thackeray is probably trying to woo those voters who supported Modi but are probably disgruntled with his performance and may not want to back him again. Interestingly, by trying to take a hardline vis-a-vis Muslims and the RSS, he is trying to attract both categories of voters  one which cares about Hindutva and the other which doesnt, said Prakash Bal, journalist and political commentator.

Insiders believe that this probably is a safer bet to have, ahead of next years polls, rather than trying to whip up sentiments and draw back the core Sena sympathiser. The general air is that of discontentment against the BJP. There is a sizeable section which voted for us in 2009 and then went to the BJP in 2014. This could be an effective way of getting that vote back, said a city-based party leader.
With an eye on the assembly elections, the much-hyped Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana launched by the state government for farmers offering them Rs 5 lakh insurance cover along with and free health cover up to Rs 50,000 to the farmer and his family has received a lukewarm response in the district.

Of the over 50,000 farmers in Kapurthala district, the agriculture department had managed to register only around 20,000 farmers for the free insurance scheme despite active awareness campaign by the government.

Chief agriculture officer, Kapurthala, Jugraj Singh said there were 53,532 farmers in the district and only 19,896 had opted for the scheme since December 2015.

Agriculture department records reveal that 4,223 farmers in Kapurthala, 6,141 in Sultanpur Lodhi, 3,864 in Bholath, 2,162 in Dhilwan and 3,506 in Phagwara have applied for the scheme.

A district-level function will be organised by the district administration at Virsa Vihar on Monday to distribute cards to the beneficiaries. Cabinet minister Ajit Singh Kohar would preside over the function in which 8,000 Bhagat Puran Singh Sehat Bima Yojana cards will be given to farmers in the first phase.

However, most of the farmers who are worried about their wheat crop have termed the scheme eyewash. The say schemes are launched by governments just before elections to get votes.

A farmer from Bholath, Sukhwinder Singh, said the government was making a fool of the farming community for the past several years. Politicians make promises and forget them conveniently. If the government was serious about the farmers welfare, the scheme should have been launched two-three years back, he added.

Another farmer of Phagwara, Raminderjit Singh Aulakh, said: The government had even failed to give adequate compensation to the farmers whose crops were damaged due to rain and hailstorm last year. Some farmers got cheques for Rs 250 to Rs 500. The government has launched the scheme just to get farmers votes.

District Mandi officer Pal Singh said they had been making the farmers aware about the scheme. Farmers can also apply for the scheme after showing a J form, document that has the record of the sale of the crops with district mandi and Aadhaar card, he added.

Meanwhile, on Friday, Kapurthala deputy commissioner Jaskiran Singh held a meeting with officials of the health and agriculture departments and district administration regarding the scheme and to review preparations of district-level function.

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The life of Chand Kaur, who served the Namdhari sect for 70 years before being murdered on April 4, was showcased through 150 huge photographs exhibited at the Bhaini Sahib gurdwara at the bhog ceremony on Sunday.

The photo frames dotted the entire gurdwara premises from the entrance till the enclosure where the bhog was held. From a black and white photo of young Chand Kaur  in her 20s  holding a child, who later grew up to become Satguru Uday Singh, to a coloured frame showing her lifting bricks at an under construction site and a photo showing her baking a dough at the gurdwara langar, showed her selfless love and devotion to the sect.

The photos also threw light on early days of the Namdhari sect when Chand Kaur first came to the gurdwara after getting married. The photos showed Chand Kaur serving at a langar, providing solace to a patient on a hospital bed, receiving a flower from a child, cleaning a bucket of rice and people touching her feet.

The followers were in awe of photographs and were pained to see that the pious woman was now no more. I am deeply moved on seeing the photographs. Mataji devoted her life to serve us... its painful what happened, said Satwinder Kaur, a Namdhari sect follower.

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Leader of opposition Charanjit Singh Channi faced an embarrassing moment when he was stopped during his address at the bhog ceremony of Namdhari sect matriarch Chand Kaur at Bhaini Sahib on Sunday.

Speaking from the dais, Channi attacked the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) government for failing to check crime in the state. He said the police have failed to arrest the killers of Chand Kaur and questioned why the special investigating teams (SITs) have failed to solve cases in the nine years of the present regime.

It is unfortunate that Chand Kaur has been murdered in the evening of her life. The attack could have been prevented. Till now, no one has been arrested... the government only form SITs and the cases remain unsolved, he said.

Innocent lives have been lost in road accidents involving buses owned by family members of chief minister Parkash Singh Badal... drugs are being smuggled into the state... and SITs are formed to hush up cases, he said, much to the chagrin of the Namdhari darbar members, who then cut short his speech and asked him to be seated.

This is not an occasion to indulge in politics and attack the government. We have gathered here to pay tribute to a departed soul, said a Namdhari sect member.

War of good versus evil

Namdhari Sect head Satguru Uday Singh today said the murder has raised a question on womens safety in the state. She was the mother of mankind as she helped one and all and served the panth for 70 years. The attackers should be ashamed to have killed a pious soul. Even the Mughals never killed their mother, he said.

I am not criticising the government, but women should feel safe and secure in todays world, he added.

In an indirect attack on his estranged brother Thakur Dalip Singh, Satguru Uday Singh said everyone knows who the killer is. I will not spoil the occasion by taking his name, but this is the fourth attack on us and who else could have done this. There is no property dispute, we only believe in selfless service and her (Chand Kaur) sacrifice will not go waste. Its a war of good verses evil, he added.

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Former Haryana minister and Congress MLA Karan Singh Dalal has accused the BJP government in the state of misusing IAS officer Ashok Khemka to harm former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress MLA from Palwal said while the BJP government had ordered a CBI investigation into the purchase of Raxil fungicide at Khemkas behest, the fact was that Khemka, as director agriculture in 2007, had promoted use of the fungicide.

Dalal, who was addressing a press conference on Friday, quoted a communication from additional chief secretary, excise and taxation, Roshan Lal to Haryana chief secretary DS Dhesi, in which Lal has raised the issue of Khemka not only promoting the use of branded fungicides  Vitavax, Bavistin and Raxil  for wheat seed treatment but also getting advertisements issued in newspapers stating treatment of wheat with Raxil also controlled Karnal Bunt disease in the crop.

Demanding that Khemkas role also be investigated by the CBI in the Raxil case, the Congress MLA said he had written to the Haryana governor in this regard. Khemka himself promoted the use of Raxil fungicide and later on alleged a scam in its purchase just to gain cheap publicity, Dalal wrote in his letter to the governor.

The state government should seriously consider the facts stated by Roshan Lal, an IAS officer who has an impeccable track record, he said.

The Palwal MLA said certain actions of the BJP government in the state clearly indicated a quid pro quo (give and take) between the saffron party and Khemka. Dalal said Khemka was promoted to the rank of principal secretary despite the fact that a vigilance inquiry was pending against him, which was in violation of the rules. When asked to comment on Dalals statement, Khemka didnt reply.
Husband is among the five members of a family booked for molesting and beating a 20-year-old woman at Kot Dharam Chand Kalan village falling under the Jhabhal police station.

On the complaint of the woman, a case has been registered against Charanjit Singh (husband); his brothers Manjinder Singh and Bhupinder Singh; mother Ajit Kaur and father Chain Singh under Sections 323 (causing hurt), 354 (sexual harassment), 506 (criminal intimidation), 427 (mischief), 148 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly) of Indian Penal Code at the Jhabhal police station.

In her police complaint, the victim told the police that she got married to Charanjit Singh a year ago and a month after the marriage, he went to Singapore.

In absence of my husband, my husbands younger brother Manjinder Singh molested me, following which I went to my parents home. On April 5, my husband returned and took me along to his house where he and other members of his family beat me up and threatened to kill me, she said.
Peace may be the only battle worth waging but when it comes to talking peace between India and Pakistan it may seem that it is easier to wage a war than peace. It takes a statesman to build peace but unfortunately there are no statesmen in both countries. What hope can there be from the media which is concerned more with commerce?

These were the thoughts shared by media experts at the international seminar on the Role of media for peace in South Asia that opened at the Chandigarh Universitys Gharuan campus on Saturday. The seminar was held in collaboration with the Society for Promotion of Peace.

Coming in the wake of Pakistan unilaterally suspending the peace process between the two nations, it saw nearly two thirds of the delegates pulling out of the seminar. Chanchal Manohar Singh, chairman, Society for Promotion of Peace, said a large number of delegates dropped out fearing backlash following media reports quoting the Pakistani envoys announcement of suspension of the peace process. It is here that the media could play a more responsible role rather than adding to the trust deficit between the two countries, he said.

Delivering the keynote address at the seminar, Editor-in-Chief, The Tribune, Harish Khare said, It is not a propitious time to talk of peace. I speak only on from my position in India that making peace or war is a statesmans job and we have no statesman. We in the media should help political leadership from sinking in the quagmire of antagonism and pull them back from war. He added that, If we cant have peace, we certainly dont want war.

Sharing the ups and downs of being involved deeply in the peace process between the two countries, Hindustan Times political editor Vinod Sharma talked about the trust deficit and the information deficit between the two countries adding Its sad that this is so in the present age of information. As for the media on both sides, the easy way is to sensationalise because that draws people. The effort is to standardise the minds. He gave the example of the film Bajrangi Bhaijaan which was a ray of hope for warming Indo-Pak ties but regretted the fact that a copyright issue arose over a qawaali sung in the film by Adnam Sami. He, too, regretted the absence of statesmen in both countries and added that media should not question the efforts of the respective prime ministers of the two countries in making an effort towards peace. The voice of the peacenik has to be resurrected not just in South Asia but all over the world.

Senior journalist from Islamabad Mohammad Ishfaq Chaudhary from Rawalpindi laid emphasis on the shared cultural heritage of the two countries and said, As a Punjabi, I am all for peace for it concerns us most as at the time of Partition in 1947 some 25 lakh Punjabis were killed. He decried the re-writing of history by right-wing historians on both sides as well as the divisive reporting especially on electronic media.

Hope lives on, say Pak scribes

Imran Yaqub, (Daily Express, Islamabad) We must not consider the suspension of the peace process as the end. We need to work for its revival.

Shakila Jaleel, (Daily Voice of Pakistan, Islamabad) The role of media on both sides cant be undermined and the effort should be to calm down the situation rather than adding fuel to the fire.

Adeel Raza, (Dawn, Islamabad) Media can play a significant role in presenting a softer image of the two countries and now we have more choices that are not state- owned.

Asiya Mughal, (Development writer) The film Bajrangi Bhaijaan and the Zindagi channel has brought the people of the two countries closer. We need more such initiatives.
Why dont you use kerosene instead of petrol in your car? Why not in your bike at least? These are questions no other baba will ever be able to ask with such conviction. But Saint Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh Ji Insan is no ordinary baba, as you may have noticed by now if you have been able to see through all that bling.

And dont answer those questions. He is not selling kerosene. He is sau-par-sent, 100%, pure, after all, only selling the MSG brand of food products in an advertisement made with all the finesse of Bollywood from the 80s. Lets cut to it. Heres how it goes.

Papa-G is seated at the head of a royal-looking table, complete with a basket of fruits and a girl sporting a tiara; takes a spoonful of food into his mouth, and then proceeds to ask a man on his right about why he does not use kerosene in his car or bike. This man, for some reason, wants to look like a poor mans Aamir Khan from Dil Chahta Hai, only older. In real life, he happens to be the spokesman of Papa-Gs Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda. Fun fact: He is an eye doctor trained from a top institute, sufficiently skilled in making people see things more clearly. He can also be found on YouTube taking on none less than That Man Who Defends the Nation Every Night at Super Prime Time.

Here, in character, this man tells Papa-G that he wont destroy his car or bike by using kerosene in place of petrol. Why are you destroying your family then? asks the Poppins Pants Preacher. The food youre eating is jeher (poison), laced with pesticides, baba informs him, and proceeds to peddle products that are organic too. This is not the Heavily-Haired Hermits first foray into showbiz, of course, or even into the retail business. The dera has under its wings some skin gels, soaps and pickle already, but baba believes in growing relentlessly.

He has already graduated from being a bhajan-singing guru to a certified rockstar to a movie phenomenon that cant tire counting its crores. And, move over Priyanka Chopra, Love Charger is the latest Indian export to Hollywood, featured on the marquee The Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon. Do not overthink. It may seem unfortunate that it was played in a segment called Do Not Play, but there too it remained number one.

People are now being unfair and ascribing motives to his FMCG mega-plans. Some say he wants to make a lot of money. But, you know, money wont matter to him, especially since his latest movie, MSG-2, has reportedly earned over Rs 500 crore. Its simple. Papa-G is a peace-loving soul whose bodily manifestation only wants to make a divine intervention and popularise organic food.

Most headline-writers, however, say the MSG product line is competing with Patanjali, the line of products sold by yoga guru Ramdev. But the babas are on the same side. In any case, tell me, honestly, why would anyone, no matter how superhuman, compete with a man who would cut off the heads of lakhs if only the law didnt hinder his intentions? No noodles can fortify your head so much that it cant be cut off, I guess. Or maybe wed have to wait for the next MSG ad to know. Watch this space, as usual, for any updates. Right now, I am just tripping on his new hairstyle!

(aarish.chhabra@hindustantimes.com)

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The Shiromani Akali Dal on Sunday flayed the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi over demolition of a piao (water kiosk) at Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib.

In a statement, SAD spokesman Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said the piao was of historical importance and the Delhi governments action has deeply hurt the Sikh community.

Read: SAD will hold protests to expose anti-Punjab face of Kejriwal: Cheema

He told Kejriwal that it was easy to send bulldozers mindlessly to places of heritage, historic importance and institutions of faith, but its repercussions should also be kept in mind.

Read: HC firm on its stand, says remove kiosk

It is shameful that the Delhi government could not bring to the notice of Delhi high court the heritage value of the piao sahib, Cheema said.

He said the Kejriwal government has miserably failed to protect the institutions of faith and was now trying to put the blame on the court.

We have planned protest rallies and will expose Kejriwal, added Cheema.

Read: Kejriwal should apologise for hurting sikh sentiments: Majithia
The police on Saturday arrested two PUSU student leaders who shot at campus president of Student Organisation of India (SOI)  the student wing of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)  on Friday evening.

The accused have been identified as PUSU (Panjab University Students Union) state president Resham Godara and campus president Navaldeep Singh, whereas Randeep Kharod, Rinda and Shusham Nonia, who have also been named in the firstinformation report, are yet to be arrested.

The police are conducting raids at different places to nab them.

Deputy superintendent if police (central) Satish Kumar said an old rivalry could be the reason behind the attack and the accused, during preliminary investigation, claimed that during a fashion show at the university law auditorium, the assailants had got into an altercation with the victim over some issue.

We have already deputed three different teams to nab other accused. We are yet to recover the weapon used in the crime, he added.

The police have booked five persons by name and several unidentified youths under Section 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting), armed with deadly weapon), 149 (every member of unlawful assembly guilty of offence committed in prosecution of common object) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Indian Penal Code at the Sector 11 police station.

To take stock of the situation, PU registrar Col GS Chadha (Retd) held a meeting on Friday. Several recommendations like banning the entry of twowheelers emerged after the meeting.
The seeds of sibling rivalry were perhaps sown early on. A doting grandfather, Satguru Partap Singh always wanted to see young Thakur Dalip Singh on the throne. But that was not to be. And the bitter elder brother, whose modest dera at Sirsa in Haryana is in sharp contrast to the sprawling one of his younger brother Uday Singh, the Namdhari sect head at Bhaini Sahib, in an interview to HT says he is an ascetic who has denounced material possessions and never staked a claim to the guru gaddi (holy seat).

Q: You have given a call for uniting the faith but why have you been holding parallel programmes accusing your brother of usurping the holy seat?

You wouldnt ask this if you knew about the atrocities inflicted on me, my parents and followers. He (Uday Singh) threw out not just me but his own mother from Bhaini Sahib. He issued an advisory in deras newspaper Satjug that meeting our father should be avoided. He dragged his own mother to the court. How can a son be so ruthless against his own parents? What was their fault? They got me thrown out of Mastangarh dera too. He wanted everything and I wanted nothing. Yet he banished anyone and everyone associated with me.

Q: With so much of bad blood, how is unity possible?

A heart can change anytime. Even a small incident can bring an awakening. And we are real brothers. If Sonia Gandhi and Atal Bihari Vajpayee can come together at Ramlila Maidan for unity of the country, why not two brothers for unity of their country.

Q: Were you offered a truce deal by Chand Kaur that you set up a parallel dera at Jeewan Nagar?

I treated her like my mother. Will you accept something from your father, if it comes through someone else? Some people came to me with the offer. She never conveyed it to me.

Q: Will RSS and Akal Takht broker peace?

If two brothers have to end differences, they dont need any intermediaries. If they want to pitch in, they are most welcome.

Q: You could have set up your own parallel dera?

It would have divided the community forever. I live the life of an ascetic who has denounced material possessions and never staked a claim to the guru gaddi. I have nothing and even my daughters do jobs for their living and I am proud of them.

Q: Has the killing of Chand Kaur made you opt for a truce?

I have tried to bring unity and offered to touch his (Uday Singhs) feet earlier too. It is the faith which is suffering. The deep divide is dividing families too --- there is tension between even husband and wife and brothers in some families as one supports me and the other him. This war has to end to save the faith.

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The Border Security Force (BSF) shot dead two Pakistani intruders and recovered nine packets of heroin after an encounter near the Bharopal border outpost in the Amritsar sector in the wee hours of Sunday.

BSF deputy inspector general (DIG, Amritsar sector) Sumer Singh told the media that based on intelligence inputs, BSF jawans were put on high alert along the border. The troops detected some suspicious movement along the barbed wire fencing at the border outpost and noticed two persons crossing the international border. The intruders ignored the BSF warning and opened fire after throwing heroin packets over the fence. The BSF jawans retaliated and shot dead one of the intruders and injured the other.

One of the intruders from Pakistan who was shot dead by BSF near border outpost being carried by BSF jawans. (Sameer Sehgal/HT Photo)

The DIG said the injured intruder managed to return to the Pakistan side where he died. He said blood trails of the second intruder could be seen from the Indian side of the fence and his body was taken away by Pakistani Rangers.

Later, the BSF launched a search operation during which the body of one intruder was found along with nine packets of heroin weighing one kilogram each. The street value of the contraband is estimated to be Rs 45 crore, a BSF official said.
Last month, on the long Holi weekend, we decided to make a few changes to our lifestyle. We traded in the blinding lights of this metropolis for a moonlit farm full of fireflies. We ditched those spotless plates and fancy cutlery for lovely green banana leaves. We bid farewell to Mumbais smoggy mornings to embrace breezy evenings and enchanting sunsets. And we skipped the rat race, to watch baby Olive Ridley turtles make a dash for the sea, as part of the Velas Turtle Festival 2016.

Velas is a small village in the Ratnagiri district thats located roughly 220km from Mumbai. Its biggest claim to fame is its turtle-watching event, for which hundreds of people flock here every year. For those few months, from February to April, the village turns into a tourist hotspot that is buzzing with hipsters, city slickers, and children, all enjoying the traditional village experience.

This is also because there are no hotels here; at least not in the immediate vicinity. So, you can choose one homestay or another. The amenities, of course, remain limited. After all, this is the real deal, with the cows, mosquitoes, not-so-spotless bathrooms, and the smell of fresh cow dung in the morning. Needless to say, we enjoyed every bit of our two-day-long stay.

Safety in numbers

The route around the Kalbhairav Temple. (Serena Menon)

Various travel communities organise weekend trips to Velas for a set cost that usually includes meals, accommodation and travel arrangements. This is also the recommended mode of travelling here. We visited with a group of 20 people, and it cost us Rs 3,650 per person for three days. Apart from the above-mentioned requirements, our itinerary also included a fair bit of sightseeing, since the turtle-watching phenomenon is limited to twice a day  at 7am and 6pm. This event is organised by members of the Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra, which also has the support of the states forest department. If youre travelling to Velas on your own, make sure you book a homestay for yourself, as on weekends, they tend to get booked out. Sahyadri Nisarga Mitras website has a lot of related information.

Slow and steady

Inside the Velas village. (Serena Menon)

At a five-minute walk from our homestay was a small road that went off towards the beach, which was another five minutes away. On the beach is an enclosure to protect the precious turtle eggs. Different nests, with the eggs, are buried deep in the sand. High above the nests, on the surface, stand sticks depicting the location of each. The sand around these sticks, and in the enclosure, is evened out daily, so if there is any movement below, a depression is formed on the sand, which lets the conservationists know when they can expect baby turtles.

The turtle must not be disturbed or distracted when it moves towards the sea. It has a natural, in-built geotagging mechanism that will ensure, if it is a female, that it returns to this same beach 20 years later, or even later, to lay eggs, Mohan Upadhyay of the Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra, told the 100-odd people standing around the enclosure.

Unfortunately, like is the case with all wildlife sightings, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will see even one. During our four trips to the beach, we saw a total of four turtles. Although sea turtles are the cutest, the experience can be slightly underwhelming if youre expecting the beach to be swarming with tiny fins. In fact, the first time, we saw only one turtle being released into the sea. The moment was almost comical. We all stood huddled around it, with our eyes affixed, as cameras clicked away like Shah Rukh Khan had suddenly appeared. Some people even cheered and clapped when it reached the sea. In the name of nature, we, too, joined.

The turtle enclosure. (Serena Mohan)

Everything there is to see around Velas is located approximately two hours away because of the winding roads. During our visit, we went to the Bankot Fort, the Harihareshwar beach and Kalbhairav Temple, and the Kadyavarach Ganapati temple. Despite the soaring temperatures, we were able to appreciate most of these attractions thanks to our air-conditioned mini bus. We suggest you insist on that too. But what we enjoyed the most on this trip was the fantastic Maharashtrian food at our homestay. These home-cooked meals would be such a hit in Mumbai, but then again, we cant imagine how hard it will be to say goodbye to those fireflies, those sunsets, that fresh air, and the banana leaves.

Also visit

Bankot Fort : Tourists who know nothing about this fort will return with absolutely no new information, because there is no board or any signage around it. Several online sources claim that this fort has been around since the 15th century. Like is the case with many such unkempt forts, there are several stories surrounding this one too. Apparently, it gets its name from the fact that it was Shivajis 52nd fort.

The Harihareshwar beach. (HT Photo)

Harihareshwar: According to the Maharashtra tourism website, Harihareshwar is also called the Kashi of the South due to the presence of an ancient Shiva Temple called the Kalbhairav Temple. A parikrama of the temple is considered a sacred activity. There is also the Kadyavarach Ganapati temple located nearby for devotees of the elephant God.

Take a trip to Velas with a travel community

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Vancouver resident Jaskirat Kaur Mann will spend two to three months at the end of this year in her native Punjab. The objective is not to escape the Canadian winter but to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the Punjab assembly elections expected in early 2017.

Across Britain, AAP backers have launched programmes to enlist support and funds for the partys campaign in Punjab, hoping to repeat their contributions before the Delhi assembly elections in February 2015.

The BJP might have more supporters in the Indian diaspora around the world but AAP has garnered loyal and enthusiastic followers in countries such as Britain and Canada, home to large numbers of migrants from the Punjab.

AAP coordinator Prayas Chaudhary told Hindustan Times in London that after the success of the Flame Of Hope programme across Britain before the Delhi polls, a similar programme  Flame of Hope for Punjab  was launched in four cities in February.

Two AAP legislators from Delhi, Adarsh Shastri and Jarnail Singh, toured Britain and participated in public events in Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Leicester and London. A street procession in Southall was well received and the MLAs appeared on Sikh TV and radio stations to outline their future plans to incorporate a Punjab Dialogue Commission.

The February campaign was aimed at mobilising volunteers, meeting the public and answering their questions, communicating AAPs agenda in Punjab and telling NRIs how they can support clean politics.

The public events were attended by Sikhs and non-Sikhs, who asked the two MLAs a range of questions on the challenges facing the aam admi in Punjab.

Chaudhury said: Teams for a more aggressive and focussed UK-wide campaign are being formalised and we are hoping to have teams for each city declared very soon.

Read: With eye on Punjab, Swaraj Abhiyan to unveil plans for party launch next week

Aviral Vatsa, an AAP supporter, said: Punjab will witness immense support from UK NRIs, if the enthusiasm during the Flame of Hope for Punjab campaign is anything to go by.

Jaskirat Kaur Mann, the convenor of AAPs Canada unit, said a big group is working to mobilise support for the party founded and led by Kejriwal, who stunned established parties with his emphatic victory in last years Delhi assembly election.

We will be going out there and doing all we can for the campaign. So far, we have around 3,000 people already committed, but there could many others going personally, said 35-year-old Mann, who is originally from Bhatinda and runs a trucking company.

The movement wont be unidirectional. Kejriwal is expected to visit the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver this year.

Were still thinking what will be the right time, Mann said, since organisers want his arrival to have maximum impact prior to the polls. Another expected visitor is AAP MP Bhagwant Mann.

More immediate are plans for participation at nagar kirtans marking Vaisakhi. The Vancouver unit will be at the Vaisakhi Day Parade on April 23, marching under the AAP banner.

Canada has been fertile territory for AAP. Between Toronto and Vancouver, the party raised nearly Rs 2 crore for the Delhi election.

There are also plenty of volunteers engaged in phone banking activities. Mann expects even more involvement for the Punjab polls: For Delhi, there was some language barrier. Thats not the case with Punjab.

Read: Before water, our blood will flow in SYL canal: Bhagwant Mann

AAP has chapters in 10 Canadian cities across five provinces. Overall, Mann estimated there were approximately 10,000 people signed up.

The partys effort in Canada commenced in January, almost a year before the Punjab polls, with the Dollar-A-Day Campaign focussed on collecting that amount from individual supporters each day until the election is completed.

In February last year, there was plenty of vigour among AAP volunteers in the Greater Toronto Area. More than 50 of them gathered to track the results of the Delhi polls. One of them had a special cake ready, and the icing read AAP ki Sarkar.

We got it earlier, we were so confident, said 25-year-old Kiranbir Kaur, an accountant, originally from Ludhiana.

Volunteers made almost 17,000 calls and collected nearly Rs 90 lakh. As the Punjab polls approach, they could easily outpace those numbers.

Fund-raising is equally important for AAP supporters in Britain.

A total of Rs 15 lakh was donated through the partys website by Indian passport holders before the Delhi polls. Several AAP volunteers from Britain also travelled to Delhi for the election.

The party has had an office in Ealing, west London, since January 2014. Donated by an AAP supporter, the office is funded by backers of the party in Britain. AAPs supporters in Britain mainly comprise professionals from the IT, finance, retail and medicine sectors.

Punjabis in UK have given an overwhelming response to this campaign. This goes on proving that their heart still beats for Punjab  for its progress and well being, said Ramanpal Singh Anand, an APP supporter.
Amid mounting pressure, UK Prime Minister David Cameron released his personal tax returns and ordered a new taskforce to probe tax-dodging allegations in a bid to defuse the Panama Papers row over his investment in his late fathers offshore business.

Cameron, who became the first British leader to document his financial affairs due to the unprecedented move, paid almost 76,000 pounds in tax on an income of more than 200,000 pounds in 2014-15, figures released by the prime minister have shown.

Cameron, 49, earned 46,899 pounds from his 50 per cent share of rent on the London family home in Notting Hill, the three-page summary of the prime ministers earnings since 2009 showed.

The disclosure comes hours after Cameron admitted that he could have handled the tax row arising out of the Panama Papers leak better, saying he will imminently publish details of his personal tax affairs.

I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them, he had said.

He also announced a new taskforce to investigate tax-dodging allegations which is unlikely to spare him despite the confession.

The force will be led by the HMRC (Her Majestys Revenue and Customs) tax authority and the National Crime Agency. The taskforce will investigate the leaked files to identify clients of the Panama firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion and publish its findings later this year.

Camerons office confirmed he had received two gifts of about USD 160,000 each from his mother in 2011. That was the year after the prime ministers father died and those gifts did not appear on his income tax returns.

British newspapers questioned whether the gifts were an effort to avoid paying inheritance tax on his late fathers estate. Camerons office declined further comment on the gifts.

The Panama Papers revelations have sparked political reaction around the world, including India, where high-profile figures have been implicated for tax avoidance. Cameron had been under increasing pressure as he refused to give details of his familys money held offshore in a Caribbean tax haven.

His late father Ian Camerons name is allegedly named in the over 11 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that were shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with 107 media organisations around the world.

According to the Consortium, Ian Cameron used Mossack Fonsecas services to shield profits from his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc, with a series of expensive and complicated arrangements.
Accused of exerting undue influence over President Jacob Zuma, South Africas wealthy Gupta family was reported to have left country for Dubai by a newspaper on Sunday.

The whole family is in the process of leaving, family spokesperson Nazeem Howa told the City Press weekly.

The paper said that Ajay and Atul Gupta, two brothers from the family of wealthy Indian immigrants who own a vast business empire with interests in mining, media, technology and engineering, were seen on Thursday evening at a Johannesburg airport boarding their private jet for Dubai.

One of their wives was with them as well as five assistants, with the party boarding the plane with enough luggage for 20 people, a witness told the paper.

On Friday, the family released a statement saying they were stepping down from the leadership of Oakbay Investments, a holding company with interests ranging from mining to media, in a move linked to the closure of the firms accounts by two major banks.

It is with deep regret that, following a period of sustained political attack on the Gupta family and our businesses... we have come to the conclusion that it is time for the Gupta family to step down from all executive and non-executive positions, the letter said.

This follows the unexplained decisions by several of our banking partners and our auditors to cease working with us, and the continued press coverage of false allegations.

The closure of the bank accounts had made it virtually impossible to continue to do business in South Africa, said the letter, which was signed by Howa, Oakbays chief executive.

In recent weeks, this family, who moved to South Africa in the 1990s, has come under fire for wielding immense power behind the scenes over Zuma and ministers in his government.

Persistent rumours of the familys excessive influence over the president took concrete form in March when evidence emerged that they allegedly offered key government jobs to those who might help their business interests.

Zuma, whose second presidential term ends in 2019, has also faced scathing criticism over his friendship with the Gupta family, with their relationship providing ammunition for the governments fiercest critics.

The Guptas arrived in South Africa in 1993 as white-minority apartheid rule crumbled and a year before Nelson Mandela won the countrys first democratic elections.

As the country opened up to foreign investment, the Guptas -- previously small-scale businessmen in India -- began to build their sprawling empire.

They also developed close links with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, and particularly with Zuma, well before he became president in 2009.
US newspaper Boston Globe published a mockup of what a frontpage might look like if Republican frontrunner Donald Trump wins the presidency, condemning his deeply disturbing and profoundly un-American vision.

Deportations to begin, President Trump calls for tripling of ICE (immigration and customs enforcement); riots continue, read The Boston Globes fake headline, dated April 10, 2017.

It was posted on the editorial page, accompanied by a ruthless editorial article saying Trumps campaign demands an active and engaged opposition.

The mockup was published just three months before the Republican National Convention confirms the partys nominee, with speculation growing over what Trump might do should he actually win the highest office in the land.

On the page are several articles, including one on US soldiers refusing to follow orders to kill the families of members of the so-called Islamic State group, another on a Republican-controlled Congress passing a libel law targeting absolute scum in the press.

A separate article details how Trump sparked a diplomatic crisis with China after naming his dog, a Shar-Pei, after Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan.

I dont know why shes so offended, I love cute puppies and I love women! Its not like I tweeted out a photo of a Rottweiler named (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel, he was quoted as saying.

A note from the editor at the bottom of the page warns readers that what you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action.

A major section of the Americans support Trump for his proposed policies against migrants, Muslims and Mexicans in US, which otherwise may not be openly accepted by many. A placard from one of his rallies speaks the same. (AFP)

Dangerous deal

The accompanying editorial urges Republicans to oppose Trump.

Donald J Trumps vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American, it said, warning that Trump could be one of the worlds next demagogic strongmen.

The satirical frontpage is an exercise in taking a man at his word. And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page, the editorial said.

It requires an opposition as focused on denying Trump the White House as the candidate is flippant and reckless about securing it.

It pointed to Trumps winks and nods at political violence at his rallies, among other controversies.

If Trump were a politician running such a campaign in a foreign country right now, the US State Department would probably be condemning him, it added.

For now, Republicans ought to focus on doing the right thing: putting up every legitimate roadblock to Trump that they can.

Urging Republican leaders to pick an alternative nominee, such as House Speaker Paul Ryan or businessman and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, the Globes editors noted: It is better to lose with principle than to accept a dangerous deal from a demagogue.
Male chauvinism, gender stereotypes and struggles to balance home and passion for music are some of the major challenges identified on Thursday by leading Indian artistes in classical music from India, Britain and the US, shedding rare light on their path to fame.

The unique symposium on Women in Music at the Nehru Centre brought together performers such as Meeta Pandit (Gwalior gharana vocalist), Swati Natekar (vocalist), Jyotsna Srikanth (violin), Priti Paintal (western classical piano) and Manju Mehta (sitar).

Hailing from music families with prominent siblings (Pandit Ajay Pohankar, brother of Natekar; Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, brother of Mehta) or generations of male exponents (such as Meeta Pandit, the sixth generation of the legendary Pandit family of Gwalior gharana), each of the eight performers narrated their struggles and the support they received from families.

I lived in a joint family of 25 members and had to practice on the terrace early in the mornings. The family always came first; we have to sacrifice for children. The atmosphere was not always favourable for women in Rajasthan, Mehta told the audience.

Organised in collaboration with leading arts organisation Sama, the event featured Indian and Indian-origin artistes who have been performing at various London venues as part of the organisations Women in Music Festival.

Natekar, Srikanth and Supriya Nagarajan (vocal) narrated their experience of moving from India after their husbands got jobs in England, while Paintal (of Delhi origin), recalled how race and class continues to affect non-white and women performers in Britain.

Srikanth said: There is lot of gender bias in music in south India. Men do not want to share the stage with women who accompany on violin or mridang or tanpura. They think it is below their dignity to perform with women.

A former banker, Nagarajan said she did not regret giving up her profession to focus on her passion for music, and recalled balancing family commitments and mentioned work on her latest international project focussing on lullabies.

London-based arts promoter Suman Bhuchar told Hindustan Times: I found this symposium really interesting listening to the stories of how these amazingly talented Asian women made their mark in music and dance. As women they always had to juggle family and their own career desires.

The artistes included Krishna Chakrabarty (vocal), Preetha Narayan (violinist), Nahid Siddiqui (dance), Deepa Nair Rasiya (vocal).

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Under fire for allegedly benefiting from an offshore account in Panama, Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday sought to defuse the row by releasing a summary of his income tax returns for the last six years, but critics claimed it raised further questions.

Considered an unprecedented step, the release showed the various sources of Camerons income running into hundreds of thousands of pounds. He is also set to announce a task force to examine the revelations made in the Panama Papers on Monday.

The summary, prepared by his tax accountants, covers Camerons income as the leader of opposition and the last five years as prime minister. It reveals that he earned only 3,089 pounds as royalties for his 2008 book, Cameron on Cameron.

However, he soon faced questions over whether his family took elaborate steps to minimise the amount of inheritance tax that would eventually be due on their estate after his father, Ian Cameron, passed away in 2010.

Responding to the tax summary, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Cameron was not finished yet and still had questions to answer about his finances. Corbyn has promised to publish his own tax returns very, very soon.

On Camerons shares in his fathers Blaimore Holdings, Corbyn said on Sunday television that he needed to explain what benefit he or his trust received before 2010, as well as why the money was put in an overseas tax haven in the first place.

We need to know what hes actually returned as a tax return. We need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place, and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became prime minister. These are questions that he must answer, he said.

Cameron is under pressure to make a statement to parliament on the issue on Monday.
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While heading towards the North Pole typically means going north, this might soon change, as a new study headed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) has revealed that climate change is changing the way that Earth wobbles on its polar axis, moving its North Pole towards England.

The study suggests that as global warming continues to affect the planet, melting ice sheets, particularly those in Greenland, alter the distribution of weight on Earth, causing both the North Pole and wobble - also known as polar motion - to shift course.

Scientists and navigators have regularly monitored Earth's true pole and polar motions since 1899, revealing a migration towards Canada for most of the 20th century. However, the new results suggest that climate change this century has led to a shift in course towards England.

"The recent shift from the 20th-century direction is very dramatic," said Surendra Adhikari, lead author of the study and a member of NASA's JPL.

Although most scientists agree that the shift is not a danger, many believe that it should still be noted.

Jonathan Overpeck, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona who wasn't involved in the study, said that the finding "highlights how real and profoundly large an impact humans are having on the planet."

How exactly is climate change affecting Earth's North Pole and polar motion?

Since 2003, Greenland has lost more than 272 trillion kilograms of ice each year, in turn altering the way that Earth wobbles on its axis. Eirk Ivins, a NASA scientists and co-author of the study, compares it to when a figure skater lifts one leg into the air while spinning.

Another factor lies in West Antarctica, which loses 124 trillion kilograms of ice each year, and East Antarctica, which loses around 74 trillion kilograms per year. Each of these losses exacerbate the wobble. Adhikari noted that this process pulls polar motion toward the east.

Despite these unique changes, Jianli Chen, a research scientist from the University of Texas' Center for Space Research who first connected the pole shift to climate change back in 2013, doesn't believe that we have anything to fear.

"There is nothing to worry about," said Chen, who wasn't involved in the current study. "It is just another interesting effect of climate change."

The findings were published in the April 8 issue of the journal Science Advances.

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
America's first uterus transplant was botched by a vaginal yeast infection, doctors who performed the surgery revealed Friday.

Twenty-six-year-old Lindsay McFarland of Lubbock, Texas, received the transplant Feb. 24, only to have the organ removed two weeks later on March 8 because of a sudden, unspecified complication. McFarland's doctors at the Cleveland Clinic revealed Friday that they had to remove the organ because of a yeast infection.

"Preliminary results suggest that the complication was due to an infection caused by an organism that is commonly found in a woman's reproductive system," the Cleveland Clinic said in a statement. "The infection appears to have compromised the blood supply to the uterus, causing the need for its removal. The health of our patient is and has always been our primary concern."

McFarland's surgery comes after a successful line of uterus transplants from live donors done in Sweden. After undergoing a successful nine-hour uterus transplant from a deceased donor on Feb. 24, everything seemed to be going fine for the the mother of three adopted children. McFarland had been born without a uterus, but she had wanted to experience her own pregnancy.

McFarland was recovering fine for nearly two weeks until she suddenly started bleeding heavily on March 7. After she was rushed to the hospital, doctors found that her bleeding was caused by an infection that had spread to the artery that provided blood flow to the uterus. Doctors said that McFarland's uterus transplant had to be removed because the infection had seriously damaged the artery, was causing clots, and could have led to life-threatening complications.

Doctors later revealed that the mysterious infection that led McFarland's transplant to be removed was caused by the the most common species of yeast- Candida albicans.

"The complication was an infection with a fungus called candida albicans, which is ubiquitous in a lot of parts of the body, particularly female organs," Cleveland Clinic transplant surgeon Dr. Andreas Tzakis said Friday. "Normally it resides in people without causing a problem. If someone is immunocompromised it can cause an infection."

Tzakis added that McFarland is currently "doing well" after her operation to remove her uterus transplant.

"(She) is a wonderful young lady, with a very powerful personality, an excellent family and able to handle this extremely well," he said. "She is a pioneer and her heart is all in."

@ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Late in August 2015, it became clear that thousands of refugees would soon arrive in Vienna. They were enduring great difficulties in Hungary, Austria's eastern neighbor, which has been ruled by the conservative Fidesz party for over five years, and has displayed hateful behavior towards Roma, Jews, LGBTQ and other minorities with increasing frequency. The nights had started getting colder, and I realized these people were sleeping in fields without anything, near the border, around 60 miles southeast of my apartment.

I couldn't sit comfortably, especially since at that time in Vienna, elections were looming in October. There were demonstrations in support of the refugees, but we still feared the worst: The far right populist FPO party was polling very high, could even become the ruling party, and would use the refugees as a scapegoat to gain more support. The elections went OK in the end, but at the time, we were worried.

I was concerned about the people fleeing war. As an American living in Vienna, I myself am a migrant: At age 20 I began to learn German, studied abroad for a semester while at Rice, came back on a Fulbright Scholarship, moved here after graduate school in the States, and have now lived in Austria for 18 years as an independent artist.

Everything I had learned about the Syrians told me that there were many conscientious objectors among them, young men not willing to die in a war, or kill their fellow citizens. These people were fleeing ISIS. What better way not to practice war, than to visit my local train station and help those fleeing it? I had chosen Vienna for its history and its legacy, yet its centrality in eastern Europe was suddenly again of momentous importance.

I first went to donate a suitcase with clothing, sleeping bags and shoes to the Train of Hope, at Vienna's new Hauptbahnhof (central station). The organization was new. I had found them on Facebook: a diverse group of private citizens joined together to form an organization that would grow exponentially that September. I returned a second time with a bag of medication and hygiene products, and met a lot of bright people there planning and executing all sorts of things, while a quiet intensity emanated from the social media desk.

Early in September, trains were arriving from Hungary, often jam-packed with young men and families. The situation reminded us of photos documenting the mass transit of prisoners, and yes, the Holocaust flashed before our eyes a bit. But this time it was different: the Hungarian government had put many onto trains and then left them stranded, sometimes for days; many were exhausted and at wit's end, but the young men surprised me, and they were often the majority on board. They seemed to be very cool, real guys. They'd experienced a lot, yet were still calm for the most part. Most had heartfelt humor and style.

The first trains arrived with little advance warning and with no information about passengers. We learned they planned to continue to the German border, but knew this was no longer possible, and the flow of refugees would be regulated by Austrian and German authorities together (neither of whom had much of a plan, or at least not one worth communicating). As trains usually stopped at our station for just five minutes, we had limited time to help identify those who wanted or needed to stay.

Ours was their first stop since Hungary. We gave them water, sometimes shoving it in through the windows, along with sandwiches, granola bars and bananas. The center they were headed to at the west train station, with 2,000 beds, run by Caritas and the Diakonie (Catholic and Protestant charities), would fill up at some point. We saw a lot of little kids, young families, sometimes three generations traveling together.

Once we identified the language spoken, we would shout "Arabisch" or whatever language necessary, to get translators to quickly come visit to find out if anyone needed urgent medical care or wanted to get off the train for any reason. They could now; they were safe. While our message was translated on the platform, I was able to watch the folks' reaction to it. Many didn't believe us; they were confused as to where they were. The words "No, you're not in Germany yet" fell from my lips more times than I tell most Austrians.

Kerstin Joensson/AP

I met a lot of Western-looking young guys, usually minors, in flip-flops. They were as young as 14 or 15, often from Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, but mostly from Syria: Damascus primarily, and also from Aleppo, Homs, Idlib and Latakia. (I would learn that from all the walking, their feet had swollen and arches had fallen, and could no longer fit into their original shoes.)

Over the days and weeks I met and helped dozens of refugees get shoes and proper clothing, visit the doctor, get their cellphone charged, a new sim card, legal advice, find out if they knew of someone missing. I got them some food, donated by Sikh Help Austria, who cooked for many thousands, and gave many people their first warm meal in days, if not longer. We helped by even funding their future trips, and clarified, as best we could, their immediate future.

In just weeks, Train of Hope became a self-organized group of individuals who collectively formed their own organization to respond to problems not solved by the government. As best we could, we refused to let this become a crisis, at least our part of it. Our self-sufficient Lazarett (field hospital), staffed by a team of off-duty medical physicians, was central to this effort. Funding was donated by private individuals. We organized and coordinated places for them to sleep, as well as the buses to get them to mosques or halls donated by churches or the city. Hundreds were able to sleep nearby, in a large bank lobby that had to be cleared out at 7 a.m. for business. The refugees were kind, considerate, and even sometimes too proud to want to accept our donations or offers.

I admire Train of Hope's generously positive attitude, including their relations with the police and the Austrian Railways (OBB), which was as compassionate and respectful as possible. We remained apolitical as an organization, as a democratic group of varying opinions on many topics. We enjoyed an average answer time of nine minutes for social media requests: If a woman needed a stroller and we didn't have one, it took less than 10 minutes on average for a reply, and usually within an hour, the item was already delivered, donated.

In the space of three months, we helped around 150,000 people. We were a hard-working, generous and quite pleasant Erstversorgungs-Station, the first place refugees could receive care after what was for most a traumatic, long, dangerous and dearly expensive journey. For this work, we were awarded the Human Rights Prize from the Austrian Judges' Association in December.

I learned first-hand that by 2015, Damascus was basically emptied of its men under 50 who do not want to fight war. Of course not all of those are well-educated, but many are.

I have gotten to know three brothers of a family from Damascus, a family with five children. All three are now safe and comfortable in Germany. Through Facebook and Skype I've met the whole family now; we've become close friends, like brothers. I visited them last month, just to see how things are for them. In general, they're thriving, through good deeds that have brought them far. The others in the family are spread out, with the parents and youngest sibling still near Damascus. To see such lovely people as separated as they are now, it hurts, for sure. But it also comforts to be able to act as a big brother to those in need.

There are many more refugees who could use friends, and some of them simply cannot be as lovely as those I've met. But chances are good that new friendship is possible, if you open yourself up to it. With Houston being the top destination for Syrian refugees, and it being easier than ever to make contact online with groups helping out, Houstonians have a real opportunity in the coming years to show a good welcome to a people that will certainly appreciate your attention.

Erik Leidal, a 1994 graduate of Rice University (B.A. English literature, B.M. music history), works as a musicologist and freelance musician in Vienna, Austria, specializing in early music and theater. He teaches a course on Music and Politics at IES Abroad Vienna.
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It can be difficult to measure innovation, but researchers at Monash University and LaTrobe University in Australia have taken a novel approach by examining the value and quality of in-house patents at several companies, and how they correlate to workplace culture. They found that the better employees are treated by their employers, the number and quality of ideas they have at work increases significantly. The companies who enjoyed the biggest benefits were those with an employee recognition program or treatment scheme in place. The researchers concluded that treating employees well facilitates the idea generation process, and those organizations that are good at it are quite simply more likely to pursue a coherent innovation strategy. Companies that are disconnected from employees tend to follow weaker strategies, lacking the unity of purpose and collective effort an engaged workforce brings. High Caliber You cant really order someone to be innovative and expect results  people dont work that way. True innovation occurs organically, and it needs to be coaxed rather than extracted. Creating an environment where innovation can thrive is the goal. The way you treat your employees is directly correlated with the caliber of your ideas. The authors of the study use Google as a prime example: Anecdotal evidence from the high-tech industry suggests that treating employees well is an essential component of innovati...
The importance of flexibility to your rewards technology platform Just for fun, I looked up the words flex and flexible as they might relate to an employee incentive program technology platform. Several words jumped out at me. For flex it was the words stretch and bend. For flexible, it was the words agile and nimble. I dont know about you, but I cant think of any better descriptors for what well need from emerging technology for our employee recognition programs in 2016. Where is Recognition Technology Today? What were seeing is the convergence of social media, mobile devices, cloud computing, and Big Data all coming together at the speed of light. The organizations that cannot adapt to this tsunami of information are just not going to survive. Companies are going to have to bend and stretch like never before; agile and nimble will become the new watchwords. How Can We Adjust? This is all very high minded, but what does this mean practically speaking for our technology platforms? Quite simply, it means that flexibility will rule and systems that cant easily adapt and/or accommodate this new imperative will spell disaster for employee rewards programs. Employee recognition is the cornerstone of an organizations ability to attract, motivate, engage and retain top talent. Our technology tool...
As an HR professional, you know better than anyone what the employees at your company need to be happy with their jobs. You work closely with every new hire and current employee to help them through paperwork and procedures, make sure reviews and evaluations go smoothly, and keep the entire office running as one successful unit, but coming up with new ideas to boost office morale and onboard new hires can be a struggle. Thats where corporate team building activities come in handy. Many people turn to the typical happy hour or office potluck when looking for ways to bring employees closer together. These events can be fun, but they also carry with them a few risks and negative opportunities. What if someone drinks too much at the happy hour and says something that could jeopardize their job? Will employees get upset and take it personally if no one eats their dish at the potluck? With team building activities, these concerns arent an issue. If your employees are stuck in a rut, or your company is hiring multiple new faces at once, team building activities can help set the tone for a happy and productive office environment with co-workers who trust and respect (and even get along with) each other. These events can transform any office by presenting new ways for employees to work together and teaching new skills while building on existing strengths. Team building activities also promote synergy and bonding between employees and team members,...
This is a Guest Blog Post by:

Charli Carpenter, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

On April Fool's Day, Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders did an interview with the New York Daily News, perceived by many to have been a botched performance. Yesterday, the New York Daily News followed up with a piece entitled "Bernie Sanders Doesn't Know Enough About Foreign Policy, Pros Say." (The 'pros' quoted were various Clinton foreign policy advisers who will reportedly be circulating a letter saying as much in the next days.) As an IR educator I'm delighted that foreign affairs is looming large in a national primary - for once! But the early emphasis on foreign policy minutiae also raises fascinating questions about how we evaluate Presidential candidates.

The need to do more homework on foreign affairs is a fair critique of Sanders, even if you're not a Clinton supporter. But then again, it's a fair critique of anybody. None of us "knows enough" about foreign policy to single-handedly run a powerful country, not even the experts. Heck, I'm a Full Professor of International Relations and still consider myself only a true expert in a narrow few areas, where I constantly work to stay caught up with a rapidly changing world. If I were running for Commander-in-Chief I would surround myself, as all the candidates including Sanders have done, with formal and informal advisers,* on different intersecting issues, to help weigh multiple foreign policy options and formulate agendas.

So on balance, I think it's amusing that Sanders is taking such heat from foreign policy "pros" on his lack of early policy detail, for two reasons. First, the New York Daily News itself got a lot of details wrong, both in the way it reported on Sanders' critics and the way it asked questions in the original interview. Second, Sanders' answers - even on Gaza - were more appropriate and discerning than has been widely acknowledged, precisely because they hinge not on details but on his wider principles and vision.

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And that's not a surprise: at an early stage of a Presidential campaign few candidates have sorted out all the details of their future policies. As James Joyner points out, it is unreasonable to expect a commitment to too much nuance too early on from Presidential candidates, due to the nature of the US electoral process and political system. President Bartlett may have played well on TV, but a US President in real-life does not need to be a walking encyclopedia of facts.

What matters more - and what should matter for any candidate in my mind - is a consistent and appropriate overall vision, and (crucially) a willingness to seek out and listen to her/his advisers about how to execute. Sanders consistently demonstrated both these qualities in his NYDN interview. Overall, this moment tells us more about his foreign policy chops than critics admit: that Sanders thinks before he decides, is not afraid to ask for information he doesn't have, and sees foreign policy through the lens of his core principles: restraint, diplomacy and shared humanity.

Consider Sanders' much-maligned remark on the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza. The Anti-Defamation League criticized Sanders for inflating the number of deaths; former Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren accused him of committing "blood libel." (In a diplomatic overture, Sanders quite appropriately apologized for his mis-statement.)

But note what Sanders actually said was not a statement of fact at all but a qualified statement of his best 'recollection':

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"I don't remember the figures, but my recollection is over 10,000 innocent people were killed in Gaza. Does that sound right?"

What the reporter later said was:

Okay, while we were sitting here, I double-checked the facts. It's the miracle of the iPhone. My recollection was correct. It was about 2,300, I believe, killed, and 10,000 wounded.

So who was actually "correct"? In a sense, maybe both. One way to view this is that Sanders made a simple semantic mistake, referring to deaths instead of "casualties" (which include wounded as well as killed). That's a common error among non-specialists - had he said "casualties" the 10,000 number would have actually been an under-statement.

But there are other ways to look at this. Was Sanders referring only to deaths in Operation Protective Edge in 2014, where best estimates are, as the unnamed NYDN reporter stated, in the range of 2,000 dead civilians depending on who you ask? Or had Sanders meant to refer to the total number of civilians killed in Gaza by Israel since the beginning of the second intifada in 2000, including Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012? Or, for that matter, going back to the first intifada in the 80s and before? Depending on how you measure it, that number may indeed be closer to 10,000 than to 2,000, according to statistics from B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights NGO widely considered to be the most neutral source on the subject.

Then again maybe neither of them had the right number. The real truth is, civilian casualty estimates are always disputed - even the most neutral number crunchers disagree on who the real civilians are, for one thing - and there is no international authority on this, so there is no "true" number. What struck me about the difference between Sanders and the NY Daily News reporters was not that one of them had the "right facts" and the other didn't, but that the reporters were willing to claim they had the "correct" facts (or could find them easily by Iphone, in a cyber-sea of disputed statistics), whereas Sanders was willing to admit he might have the number wrong.

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Ultimately, haggling over exact death tolls is a distraction, because the exact number doesn't actually matter to Sanders' larger (and largely uncontroversial) point: that disproportionate use of military force is both unethical and counterproductive.

I think most international observers would say that the attacks against Gaza were indiscriminate and that a lot of innocent people were killed who should not have been killed... I believe 100% not only in Israel's right to exist, a right to exist in peace and security without having to face terrorist attacks. But from the United States' point of view, I think, long-term, we cannot ignore the reality that you have large numbers of Palestinians who are suffering now, poverty rate off the charts, unemployment off the charts, Gaza remaining a destroyed area. And I think that for long-term peace in that region, and God knows nobody has been successful in that for 60 years, but there are good people on both sides, and Israel is not, cannot, just simply expand when it wants to expand with new settlements. So I think the United States has got to help work with the Palestinian people as well. I think that is the path toward peace.

The point is, Sanders' strength and moral compass - like any Presidential candidate's - come from his larger vision, not his command of brute detail. And that vision in this case surely makes some sense, in terms of articulating a progressive foreign policy, whether 2,000 or 10,000 civilians died or were killed+wounded in Gaza, in 2014 or between 2000-2016, or whether Sanders is talking about Israel or any other country. Indeed, in his remarks on drones, Sanders applies the same standard to US military power as he does to our allies:

Drones are a modern weapon. When used effectively... that's pretty impressive. When bombing wedding parties of innocent people and killing dozens of them, that is, needless to say, not effective and enormously counterproductive. So whatever the mechanism, whoever is in control of that policy, it has to be refined so that we are killing the people we want to kill and not innocent collateral damage.

Overall, this is a doctrine emphasizing restrained and lawful use of force, an emphasis on diplomacy, and a recognition of the interdependence between human security abroad and national security at home. These are important principles that fit with what many experts know about how to achieve the kind of long-term goals all the candidates espouse.

Yes, he's still vague on details (frustratingly so to subject matter experts like me as well as to his critics). But if Sanders doesn't know enough about foreign policy (yet) at least he's willing to say so.

Ultimately Sanders is taking most heat because he refused to bullshit his way through places where he felt out of his depth. But as a foreign policy expert, I was heartened by his willingness to say, "I haven't thought enough about that yet," and his comfort in acknowledging and correcting mistakes of fact or semantics. I see this as a strength, not a weakness - in my students, in my colleagues, in people generally and certainly in a Presidential candidate. The world is a complex place and none of us are or can be experts on everything. Indeed, as someone who lived under the rule of George W. Bush - a President who also knew precious little about the world but acted as if he didn't need guidance from experts - this foreign policy "pro" finds the humility of Sanders' stance, coupled with the sensibility and morality of his vision, not a little reassuring.

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*Full disclosure: I am among those who have provided foreign policy advice informally to the Sanders campaign, though I have not endorsed Sanders or any candidate. The views in this piece are my own and do not represent the position of the campaign or the candidate.
When I started this blog, I was surprised at how much there is to learn and write about the mixed race experience. I'm excited but also encouraged that more and more people are waking up to the idea that mixed does not mean half-caste, or confused or some or all of nothing. Although there are the struggles that mixed race people feel when out in the world battling to 'fit in' and identify themselves in the carefully chosen boxes that exist, there's so much more that our mixed race kids will experience and can explore because of their multiple heritages. Here are a few of my favourites:

Exotic and Amazing Holidays (with the excuse of going to visit family)

Like any family, after we had kids it became that much more important for us that we have our families (parents, brothers, sisters, cousins) close by. We want our children to not only know their extended families but also to know where they are from, where their parents grew up, their family histories. The fact that our families live on different continents makes for some amazing holidays and a cultural experience that we may not have anywhere else- the food, the celebrations, dare I say it- the fuss made over us- all make it better than any other holiday abroad.

The Ability to Blend In

With exposure to so many different cultural norms, our kids can easily blend in anywhere. I think they get, on a gut level, that different families, countries and cultures have different sets of greetings, languages, food and celebrations. They get it because they've been exposed to it from such a young age. They know that when they see their Nigerian grandparents they should kneel to greet, when they see their Bababozorg (on their Iranian side), the adults greet with three kisses on the cheek and their English Grandma will give them a hug. They'll know about respect for elders, removing shoes, different types of food and ways of behaving. For them, it's normal to look for the signs and follow their parent's lead. This should get them far in life when they're visiting new countries. They'll expect that different cultures will do things differently and, who knows, with their myriad of cultures, they may even be familiar with some cultural practices that span different countries.

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The best of both worlds

This is perhaps one of the best things I love about our mixed family. As we've travelled more and lived and experienced the benefits of so many different cultures, countries, climates, and histories, I've realised that when people ask the question, where do you prefer to live the most? I'm stuck. I love the mountains and outdoors of Canada, the beauty and history of England, the richness and intensity of Nigeria, and the proud culture of Iran. My girls can proudly lay claim to all of these and call each one of them home.

Open minds= Tolerance

With so much exposure to difference and sometimes conflicting ways of getting to the same end, it's no wonder that people say that being mixed lends itself to careers in diplomacy, politics and foreign relations. Being mixed brings with it an inherent sense of tolerance and an open mind to 'others' because of who they are. Even where cultures and countries are at war, children born of an interracial relationship can be the healing and tolerance families and countries need.

Multiple festivals/ holidays and celebrations

With multiple excuses to celebrate and feast, this is by far the greatest advantage of a mixed race family. From an entirely greedy and fun-loving perspective, we get twice the number of festivals and celebrations as anyone else! For my family, we go from Nowruz (Persian New Year) to Easter in one week! If you're Chinese, you get to celebrate Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year so close together you might as well permanently eat chocolate! With so many festivals and celebrations bringing together family, friends, food and often music, your kids will get to experience the richness and diversity of multiple cultures. And that's never a bad thing.

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An Inherent Globalised World View

My family's everyday is splattered with jokes and comments that are indicative of a family that comes from multiple cultures. When there's a power outage in Canada, my daughter is asking, "Did Nepa take light?" (Nigerian's way of describing the frequent electricity failures that plague the country). When winter comes in England, my daughters want to know if they can go shovel the snow like we do in Canada. And when we have rice, the girls want to know if they can have the biggest piece of tahdig (Iranian crunchy bit at the bottom). People we meet and their behaviour they see are always accompanied by questions about where they're from- near Nigeria? Close to Canada? Or "look Mum, they're speaking farsi!"

Unique (Standing out)
The Blog Sunday Roundup

This week the presidential circus rolled into Wisconsin, with Ted Cruz scoring a big victory against a stumbling Trump. New York Magazine's Gabriel Sherman suggested those wobbles might be due to burnout. "People who know Trump say they've never seen him so tired," he wrote. Supporting evidence comes from modern science, as sleep deprivation symptoms include lack of judgment, inability to process basic information, irritability, mood swings and a paranoid tendency to spout conspiracy theories. Sound familiar? Trump's biggest contribution to the discourse might be as a cautionary tale about exhaustion, and the resulting consequences of lack of impulse control. And as the campaign heads to the city that never sleeps, I'll be heading west on a different campaign, to change the way we think about sleep -- that includes a college tour and a campaign against drowsy driving with Uber. In the meantime, all the candidates could do the electorate a favor and get some sleep.
A serial about two artists with incurable neurological disease sharing fear, frustration and friendship as they push to complete the most rewarding creative work of their careers.



Read Episode Sixteen: The Patient Will See You Now

Or, start at the beginning: An Illness's Introduction

Find all episodes here.

"Do you think you'd be able to manage such a large commission?"

In early November 2012, this was the question someone asked Hadley about the Montana State Capitol Building mural project. Hadley was the only Montanan -- in fact, the only Westerner -- in the group of three finalists, and her work was well known; so was her Parkinson's diagnosis, because of her organization, Summit for Parkinson's. Now, Hadley herself was wondering if it was reasonable for her to remain in the competition.

Later that day on the phone, Hadley and I mulled this over. On the one hand, she was so tired and slow-moving that it was difficult for her to imagine physically executing the mural if she were to win the competition. On the other hand, she still didn't have a clear diagnosis and the finalist selection was a year off; she could be fine in a year, for all anyone knew. She decided to be optimistic and stay her course. If she were to win it, the mural commission would be the most exciting project of her career.

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Hadley continued work on the Missoula Catholic Schools murals, grappling with her increasingly bothersome symptoms. Since all of her movements were slow and stiff, her dexterity was worse, climbing scaffolding to work on the large panels was becoming difficult, and she had trouble getting up from a squatting position without support. All it took for her to lose her balance was someone tapping her on the shoulder from behind. She fell several times, luckily without injury. In addition, she was struggling with focus and concentration and her field of vision seemed to be narrowing.

Fortunately, Hadley's Missoula neurologist, Dr. Reid, was still very much in her corner. Dr. Bright's diagnosis of Parkinson's and Dr. Youngman's dismissal of both Parkinson's and MSA, and his embrace of upper motor neuron disease still didn't make sense to Dr. Reid. She felt it was time to call in the big guns -- the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

The Mayo could take Hadley in late November and scheduled her for a series of appointments during a ten-day period over Thanksgiving. Hadley wanted John to stay in Missoula during her first week at the Mayo so that Sarah and he could spend the holiday as they usually did. John would join her the second week so that he could be with her at the important appointments summarizing the Clinic's findings. To break up the stretch of time Hadley would be alone, I decided to fly to Rochester on the Saturday after Thanksgiving to be with her for a few days.



Rochester, Minnesota, five o'clock, late November 2012. Looking forward to our movie, Hadley and I paid for our mojitos and hustled out of the bar into the slipstream of the crowded mall. The drinks hadn't been strong, but we must have appeared a little drunk anyway, with our awkward walks. For both of us, maneuvering through crowded spaces had become trickier. To make matters worse, for diagnostic purposes, Hadley had stopped taking levodopa for the duration of her time at the Mayo. I could tell she was concentrating hard on not running into the racks of scarves and hats and people swimming toward us in their fat coats and boots.

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But at least, unlike me, she knew where we were going. Many times in the past six days she'd traversed the underground arteries that branch from the mother ship Mayo; they minimize a person's contact with Rochester's harsh winter temperatures that average between 12 and 27 degrees. Fast food, fast souvenirs, fast art -- in the mall, they're all available for the 35,000 people who work at the Mayo and the thousands of patients who are killing time between heart-pounding visits to the medical specialists who'll send them back to Riyadh or Rome, Marseille or Missoula with the most costly souvenir of all: a diagnosis that will change their lives.

The teeming tunnel spewed us into the lobby of the Mayo. I took a deep breath as the soaring glass curtain wall lifted the compression in my chest. The Gonda building is the newest in the 3.5 million square foot medical center and has the ambiance of a five-star hotel or corporate headquarters; a sea of beige marble, bronze statuary and medusa-like glass Chihuly sculptures make it easy to believe that it really is The Best Medical Center In The World. On Monday morning, Hadley and I would be back here at nine a.m. for her appointment with the movement disorders specialist. But now, we were just passing through to the garage, hoping to get to the movie on time.

I climbed into the driver's seat of a rented red Chevy Impala and Hadley sat next to me, navigating with her iPhone. The Galaxy 14 Theater was 5  miles south on route 63, a road lined with warehouses and malls, devoid of landmarks -- unless you counted Target, which I soon learned people there do.

Hadley was subdued. Finally, she asked, "Do you want to hear what that one doctor wrote in her report about me?"

I did. Hadley scrolled through her emails on her phone. Mayo reports are sent to the patient within a couple of hours after each appointment. Hadley had told me that the first doctor she met with six days ago, a general neurologist, had given her a "probable" diagnosis of multiple system atrophy. But the next day, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist reported inconsistencies in Hadley's exam that might suggest she didn't have an organic disease at all. This was the report that was bothering Hadley.

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"I felt like she was trying to trick me," Hadley said. "Listen to this: 'Though she has definite organic problems, she has inconsistencies on her examination. During handwriting, she wrote small, but she has excellent coordination and grasp/relax of the pen. While I was typing my notes, she was toying with the ring on her finger, moving her fingers in a normal and fairly rapid way without difficulty that seems very different than her formal exam findings. She has broad based ataxic, stiff-legged gait with decreased arm swing and very turgid trunk and pelvis. However, her gait as she left the examination room was at least 50% better than during the exam.'"

Hadley slapped her phone down on her lap. "In a half-mile, take a left turn," the phone instructed us. "You see what I mean? It's like she was looking to trip me up."

"Wait," I said. "Read it to me again. I think I know what you mean, but I need to hear it again."

When Hadley had finished reading, I understood; the doctor clearly had been looking for contradictions in Hadley's movements. Why? I wondered.

"That whole thing about me having a better gait when leaving the exam?" Hadley said. "Of course I did. She had me walking back and forth in this tiny room, every two steps having to turn, and turning is always hard for me. When the appointment was over, I got to walk straight out the door, which is a whole different thing." I knew this difficulty Hadley was talking about; changing directions when walking can often feel precarious to me. "And when she was watching me twirl my ring?" Hadley went on. "That's a small repetitive movement, a habit like a twitch almost, completely different from the bigger hand movements she'd asked me to do. Also, my decent coordination with the pen is because I've been working with an occupational therapist on my grip so I can keep painting." Hadley sighed. "But she believes all this is proof that it's all in my head. It's like she's saying, 'Gotcha! It's functional!'"

"Functional" was clearly the hot-button word for Hadley, but I wasn't familiar with it.

"It's a movement disorder brought on by psychological causes, not organic," Hadley explained.

"Listen to this part -- she's so evil! 'Alert, appropriate affect, excellent historian. Admits I am not the best patient.' Totally out of context!" Hadley says, before reading on: "'She was told she had Parkinson's disease and had been pretty comfortable with that until this summer when things changed. She has moments when she is very overwhelmed. She expresses a lot of self-doubt. Depression is likely. She may need further psychological evaluation and counseling relative to the functional overlay.'"

Hadley groaned. She was flushed and furious. She suspected this doctor's report had biased the movement disorders specialist she saw the next day who wrote in his report:

Impression:

Gait disorder and rigidity. The patient has a very unusual exam. This is not a classic disease of anything. I agree we need to consider things like stiff person syndrome and primary lateral sclerosis. I am not comfortable with the diagnosis of multiple system atrophy. I find the signs of her parkinsonism to be unusual, and I think a functional etiology needs to be in the differential diagnosis for her problem.

It seemed MSA and PD were no longer even on the table, having been blown off by the gust of a suggestion: functional movement disorder.

I found myself thinking again about Munchausen syndrome, in which a patient invents symptoms and travels from doctor to doctor, changing her medical story. Could this "functional" word suggest something like that? I didn't buy it. Once again, I felt indignant on Hadley's behalf. Despite the fact that no doctor in recent years had doubted she was afflicted with an organic disease, I could see her confidence was shattered and she was in the grip of all the memories of doctors who hadn't taken her symptoms seriously.

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Hadley's phone announced that we'd reached the Galaxy 14. We parked in the nearly empty parking lot and the insides of my nose froze as we ambled toward the theater's entrance. Inside the huge, red-carpeted lobby there were only the ticket seller, popcorn scooper, soft drink dispenser, Hadley and me. I ordered some popcorn for us, trying to cop some much-needed feeling of fun. I began to worry whether the movie would be okay for Hadley. Although there were fourteen theaters in this one building, we'd only considered two of the movies playing, deeming the others too stupid, too violent or too sad. We'd finally nixed the Bond movie for potentially being too stimulating after Hadley's exhausting days at the Mayo. That left "The Sessions." "Heartwarming" the reviews said, which to me sounded prescriptive.

There were three other people in the cavernous theater. Who would come to watch a movie about a man in an iron lung on a 14-degree Monday night? I wondered. Loneliness settled over me and I knew Hadley felt it, too. She pulled out her phone and it lit up her face like an old friend.

"The Sessions" is based on the true story of Mark O'Brien, a polio victim who spent most of his life in an iron lung. In his thirties, he hired a sex therapist with whom he could lose his virginity. The film was touching, poignant, but I wasn't watching it through my own eyes, I realized ten minutes into it; I was trying to see it through Hadley's. Could it be entertaining to watch someone else's cruel medical plight when you were seeking a diagnosis for your own?

Hadley leaned into me. "I'm worried that after all this, I'll leave the Mayo without knowing anything more," she whispered. "What do you think of what the rehab specialist wrote?"

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How could I possibly have imagined with everything on her mind that Hadley would be able concentrate on a movie? In my head, I tried to rationalize the doctors' reports, reminding myself that this was the Mayo after all, and I should keep an open mind and let the professionals do their work. Besides, I hadn't yet had a chance to research what this "functional" diagnosis really meant. But then my intuition blared: "functional movement disorder" simply did not fit Hadley's case.

"Forget about that doctor," I whispered. "She just has something to prove. No one will pay attention to her report."

When Hadley laughed and said, "Right? Oh good," I knew I'd said the right thing.

Still, she barely touched the popcorn. Occasionally, she checked her phone. Then for a while she seemed to settle into the movie. Helen Hunt sweetly caressed her disabled client; witnessing the movie's intimate scenes in such an empty theater, I felt more like a voyeur than part of an audience. I wondered if Hadley was wondering, as I was, whether this man's horizontal life was better or worse than her life would be. Was his condition or hers the worst thing?

Each time the caged man laughed, it signaled a little victory for humankind -- a testament to how, if only for a moment or two, we can rise above even the most challenging circumstances.
Montreal Protocol Parties poised to eliminate warming from one of six main climate pollutants



10 April 2016, Geneva - In the first test of post-Paris climate mitigation, Parties to the Montreal Protocol made significant progress last week to eliminate warming from super greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, used primarily as refrigerants in air conditioners and other equipment. HFCs are one of the six main greenhouse gases.

This follows agreement by Montreal Protocol Parties last year in Dubai, just before the Paris climate agreement, to resolve a list of issues early this year while working towards an amendment to phase out HFCs with high global warming potential in 2016. The Montreal Protocol is the world's only treaty with universal membership. It is widely considered the world's most effective environmental treaty, phasing out Freon and other fluorinated gases to put the stratospheric ozone layer on track to recover by mid-century, while also providing more climate mitigation than any other agreement--the equivalent of more than 135 billion tons of carbon dioxide.

In Geneva last week the Parties reached tentative agreement on a four-year, potentially renewable exemption for Gulf States and other countries with high-ambient temperature in three sectors. This is to ensure availability of HFC substitutes that cool as efficiently as HFCs. Efficiency is critical, as up to 90% of climate impacts come from the fossil fuel used to provide electricity for air conditioners and other appliances. Saudi Arabia, for example, currently uses up to 70% of its peak electricity for air conditioning, India up to 50%. The Parties are considering how to promote efficiency gains for air conditioners and other appliances, which can avoid up to 100 billion tons of carbon dioxide by 2050, roughly the same as the mitigation from reducing HFCs.

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Building on language from the 54 countries of the Africa Group, the Parties also reached tentative agreement on text to ensure that the Montreal Protocol's dedicated funding mechanism covers appropriate incremental costs for converting to climate friendly alternatives, and to support training for service technicians. (The agreed Geneva text is subject to final agreement on the other aspects of the proposed phase-out of the HFCs with high global warming potential, including when the phase-out will begin and how fast it will go.)

The Parties directed the treaty secretariat to prepare a consolidated negotiating text, based on the four pending proposals to control HFCs, as submitted by island states, the first to propose the strategy, North American Parties, the European Union, and India.

The Parties made progress on other issues as well, but in the end the clock ran out, the interpreters went home at the stroke of midnight, and discussions were suspended a little after midnight, to resume two days before the next scheduled negotiating session in Vienna July 18-21.

By all accounts, the Geneva meeting was the most constructive negotiations to date on the HFC amendment and sets the stage for victory in 2016.

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The Montreal Protocol will hold an extra-ordinary Meeting of Parties in Vienna 22-23 July, and another Meeting of Parties in Kigali, Rwanda in October.

Following the success in Paris last December, Parties to the UN climate agreement are now turning to the Montreal Protocol for fast near-term mitigation in the pre-2020 period, as described in a recent editorial by Christiana Figueres, head of the UNFCCC secretariat, and Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Program.

The HFC amendment is a priority of President Obama, and further efforts to ensure success this year are expected in several other venues, including in New York 22 April when more than 130 countries gather to sign the Paris Agreement.
"I was a conscientious objector who refused induction during the Vietnam War, but I've been thinking about war and warfare all my life. How do you go from being a killer of human beings (with ease) to ingratiating yourself in society and saying, 'No, that is a wrong activity now, even though it was right before, and it could be right again?'

Macbeth is so troublesome to me. It's a burning question of how you can go off and kill (in hand-to-hand combat) so many humans and get such high praise for doing so, and then come back and say 'Well, why is it bad now? If I perceive this person to be my enemy, and I could be king -- as I seem fated to be -- why is it a bad thing to exercise my skill in taking him off?'"
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi's brutal regime in rare gestures towards his opponents has twice this year recognized the potential street power of his country's militant, street battle-hardened soccer fans. In doing so, the regime has implicitly acknowledged that security forces rather than the fans were responsible for past violence and provided ammunition for calls for wholesale reform of law enforcement.

The Sisi regime's latest gesture came this week when for the first time in five years allowed thousands of members of the Ultras White Knights (UWK), hard-line supporters of storied Cairo club Al Zamalek FC who played a key role in the 2011 toppling of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and protests against subsequent governments, to attend an African Champions League match against Algeria's Mouloudia Olympique de Bejaia better known as MO Bejaia.

The decision to allow UWK into the stadium followed warnings by the group and its arch rival, Ultras Ahlawy, the militant support group of Al Ahli SC, that they would defy the interior ministry's ban, implicitly risking yet another deadly clash with security forces.

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UWK subsequently said that it wanted to prevent what happened in February 2015, the last time authorities agreed to allow larger numbers of fans into a stadium, when some 20 UWK supporters were killed in Cairo by security forces.

Last year's incident followed the death of 72 Ahlawy members in Port Said in 2012 in an incident that was widely seen as an attempt gone awry by the security forces and the military to teach the ultras a lesson and cut them down to size.

Mr. Al-Sisi's first implicitly acknowledged the power of the fans in February of this year when he a day after Ahlawy's commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the Port Said incident phoned into a television program to invite the ultras to appoint ten of their members to independently investigate the incident. Ultras Ahlawy declined the invitation saying it could not be accuser and judge at the same time but kept the door to a dialogue open.

Mr. Al-Sisi's gesture was all the more remarkable given that Islamist members of the UWK and Ultras Ahlawy formed the backbone of student protests in universities and flash demonstrations in popular neighbourhoods of Cairo against the general-turned-president's overthrow in 2013 of Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's first and only democratically elected president. The protests were brutally suppressed as the regime turned universities into security force fortresses.

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Scores of UWK members are being held in detention for violating Egypt's draconic anti-protest law. An Egyptian court acquitted in March a leader of the UWK, Sayed Ali Moshagheb, on charges of establishing an illegal organization, the UWK, while another court sentenced him to a year in prison for attacking the Zamalek club house. Mr. Moshagheb has filed an appeal against the court's verdict.

Fans have been banned from stadia for much of the last five years because authorities feared their ability to turn the pitch into venues of mass political protest. The regime made exceptions for international matches to avoid being blamed for a club or team's potential poor performance but largely ensured that militant fans or ultras were admitted at best only in small numbers.

The fact that the fans attended this week's match in large numbers without incident strengthens their argument that the burden of guilt for years of violent confrontations lies with the security forces rather than the supporters. UWK alongside other groups of ultras has long called for a lifting of the ban, noting that they have been attending their club's training sessions as well as competitions in other sports practiced by Zamalek without incident.

The UWK's ability to maintain its capacity to mobilize was demonstrated during the African Championship match. It persuaded the government and its minions in the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to continue to keep stadia closed.

"It was expected that only 2,500 supporters would attend the game, but we were surprised when 8,000 people or more were in attendance. The high number of fans present was due to poor organisation at the entrance to the stadium," the head of the EFA's Competitions Committee, Amer Hussein, said after the match.

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Mr. Hussein drew a distinction between international matches and domestic league games. "It's preferred to keep the crowd ban on the domestic games as I am not optimistic by the (return of this large number of fans) .... Fans entered the game without tickets, Zamalek could be fined. There were no inspections for fans before entering the stadium, so there is still a threat," Mr. Hussein said.

Clubs as well as the national team suffer not only financially from the lack of ticket sales and reduced sponsorship as a result of the ban but also from the absence of the support of the fans, an important driver of performance.

"Zamalek were finally boosted by heavy fan support at home for the first time in months as they claimed a 2-0 home victory over Algeria's MO Bejaia to move close to a place in the African Champions League group stage on Saturday. Thousands of hard-core supporters, who belong to ardent fan group Ultras White Knights, took their seats in the northern stands of Cairo's Petrosport Stadium and feverishly cheered on Zamalek... Their presence appeared to spur on Zamalek's players who celebrated with the fans following the final whistle," state-owned Al Ahram newspaper and online news service reported.

The UWK's performance in the match against the Algerians takes on added significance given their troubled relationship with the controversial, larger-than-life chairman of Zamalek, Mortada Mansour. A politician and member of parliament, Mr. Mortada has accused UWK of trying to assassinate him and has unsuccessfully thought to persuade Egyptian courts to ban ultras groups as terrorist organizations.

The government and EFA's fear of the ultras and the fans' demonstrated ability to mobilize and control their ranks coupled with the recent brutal murder in Cairo of Giulio Regeni, a Cambridge University PhD student of the Egyptian labour movement, highlights the need for wholesale reform of Egyptian law enforcement. Italy this month recalled its ambassador from Cairo amid widespread belief that the torture marks on Mr. Regeni's body had all the hallmarks of Egyptian security force practice.

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Despite a few recent cases in which Mr. Al-Sisi has allowed law enforcement personnel to be put on trial for alleged abuse, there is little indication that he is willing to tackle a structural problem that in the view of Yezid Sayegh, a scholar of Arab security forces and militaries, can only be addressed in a transparent, politically more liberal environment.

"Increasing social polarisation in many Arab states over the last two decades has impeded consensus on how to restructure and reform policing. Marginalisation of up to 40% of the population, who live at or below the poverty line, has fuelled political challenges, in turn subjecting entire social segments to targeting by official security bodies. Furthermore, the determination to crush dissent affects the urban middle classes, which might otherwise be the strongest proponents of security-sector reform in this area. Both Egypt and Syria are prime examples of this," Mr. Sayegh said.


The tiny, impossibly steep vineyards of the Valtellina

The Nebbiolo grape variety has long been associated with Italy's Piedmont region. There it is used to produce two of Italy's greatest wines, Barolo, the long heralded king of Italian wines, and its equally distinguished cousin Barbaresco. Nebbiolo has established small, far flung outposts in such diverse locations as Australia, Argentina and California. There is one other kingdom, however, where it reigns supreme. This region, largely unknown to international wine enthusiasts, is Lombardy's hidden valley: the Valtellina.

The Valtellina is a long narrow alpine valley on the Rhaetian side of the Alps in the province of Sondrio at the far north of the Lombardy region along the Swiss-Italian border. The valley, about 60 miles northeast of Milan, runs along a 132 mile east-west axis from the village of Berbenno to the village of Tirano. The valley was carved out by the Adda River out of the hard granite of the local mountains.



The Valley of the Adda in the Valtellina

The wine producing region however is only about 30 miles in length, 15 miles on either side, roughly, of the town of Sondrio along the right bank of the river. Tiny vineyard plots, averaging only .65 acre in size, are spread out along the south facing slopes of the mountains at altitudes of 750 feet to 2,500 feet above sea level. The total area under cultivation is slightly more than 2,100 acres

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This is one of the most dramatic vineyard landscapes in the world, invoking comparisons with the unlikely terraced vineyard plots of Germany's Mosel, Portugal's Douro, and Italy's Alto Adige. If they were connected end to end the stone retaining walls of the terraces, called muretti, (little walls), would form a continuous wall 1,500 miles long. This is the largest terraced wine region in Italy. It has been nominated to be a UNESCO world heritage site. Only grapes planted on the south facing terraces, preferably with a western aspect, have any chance of ripening here.

The soils in the valley are sandy and gravelly, well drained, alluvial soils rich in silica. Large stones on the surface absorb heat during the day, much like the galets of the Rhone's Chateauneuf du Pape region, releasing it at night. Much of the sand and gravel soils in the terraces was hauled up the back breaking slopes in baskets from the valley bottom. The large diurnal variation in daily temperatures, typical of vineyards at altitude, promotes acidity while the heat retaining gravel soils helps promote ripening.



The Valtellina Region

Warm dry summers with long days of sunshine help to maximize sugar levels in the grapes, creating an ideal mix of sugar, acidity and bright vibrant cherry scented fruit. The Rhaetian Alps on the north side of the valley block the cold northern winds while the Orobie Alps on the south side of the valley block winds from the south. The la breva, a warm gentle wind that originates over Lake Come moves warm air into the Valley and helps promote pollination in the spring and reduce fungal diseases.

Historically, the Valtellina has been vigorously fought over by Europe's political powers. The valley was conquered by the Carolingian Empire in the 8th century and became part of the Frankish kingdom. The region hosts the Alpine passes that connect Lombardy and the plains of Italy's Po River with the Danube River watershed, a key trade route between northern Italy and central Europe. During the Thirty Year's War, Catholics and Protestants engaged in a genocidal religious cleansing of the valley. The Catholics won.

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During the Second World War the Valtellina's remote location led Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to consider the valley for his last stand. Mussolini was convinced that with 50,000 of his Blackshirt supporters, he could hold out indefinitely in the Valtellina. He was in fact captured by Italian partisans in the town of Dongo on the northwestern shore of Lake Como; only a few miles from the Valtellina.

The tiny vineyards of the Valtellina

Wine production in the Valtellina dates back more than two millennium, to the Etruscans and Ligurians, and predates Roman times. The Nebbiolo grape was first introduced into the Valtellina in the early Middle Ages. Its introduction was most likely the result of Benedictine Monks moving into the valley in the 12 century.

The Nebbiolo grown in the Valtellina, an ancient clone of the modern Nebbiolo grown in Piedmont, is called Chiavennasca. The name is an adaptation from the local dialect, Ciu Venasca, meaning "more winey". Over time Nebbiolo/Chiavennasca came to replace the other indigenous grape varieties and today it represents 90% of the grapes cultivated in the region. Other local grape varieties include Brugnola (a very remote clone of Nebbiolo), Rossola, and Pignola.

The Rosso di Valtellina DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllatra) is the foundation of the quality pyramid in the Valtellina. This wine can be produced throughout the valley of the Adda. The Valtellina Superiore is designated a DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllatra e Garantita), Italy's highest ranking for wines of superior quality.

"Superiore" wines are limited to a maximum yield of approximately 3.3 tons/acre. The wine must consist of at least 90% Chiavennasca/Nebbiolo produced from vineyards with a planting density of at least 1,600 plants per acre. The wine must be aged for a minimum of 24 months of which at least 12 months must be in wooden casks of any size. The alcohol level must be at least 12%. These wines can only be produced in specific sub-districts of the Valtellina.

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Chivanesca Grapes in the Valtellina

The Valtellina Superiore DOCG is divided into 5 different sub-districts.

From west to east these sub-districts are Maroggia, Sassella, Grumello, Inferno and Valgella.

Maroggia is the smallest of the sub districts with only about 60 acres under cultivation. Only about 10,000 bottles are produced. The wines from Maroggia have an intense ruby red color featuring cherry, raspberry and blackberry aromas along with typical Nebbiolo aromas of rose petal and violet. Maroggia wines tend to be balanced, full, and dry, with soft light tannins and good acidity. These wines have a long and elegant finish.

Recommendations

Cantina Sesterzio, Maroggia Valtellina Superiore, DOCG Italy ($20)

Cooperativa del Vino, Maroggia Valtellina Superiore, DOCG Italy ($19)

Sassella is the most prestigious of the Valtellina's wine districts. It covers an area of approximately 325 acres. It produces around 600,000 bottles a year. The vineyards are located at the foot of a large, steep slope that bulges out of the Valley wall. These vineyards have excellent drainage and a particularly sunny southerly aspect. The gravelly soils contain large stones, sassi in Italian, which gave the sub-region its name. Sassella wines have a bright ruby color featuring aromas of cherry and raspberry jams, roses and ripe black cherry. On the palate the wine is full, with smooth soft tannins, complex, nuanced flavors and an elegant finish with notes of prune and spices.

A typical vineyard in the Valtellina

Recommendations

Aldo Rainoldi, Sassella Riserva, Valtellina Superiore DOCG, Italy ($25)

Ar.Pe.Pe, Stella Retica Riserva, Sassella Valtellina Superiore, DOCG, Italy ($35)

Grumello is a 200 acre district northeast of the city of Sondrio, It takes its name from the Grumello castle which has towered over the valley since the 13th century. Annual production is around 300,000 bottles. The vineyards rise to an altitude of 2,200 feet above sea level, 1,200 feet above the valley floor and are among the highest in the Valtellina. Grumello wines are a light, elegant, ruby color and exhibit many of the typical Nebbiolo aromas of potpourri, spice, tar and leather. These are medium to light bodied wines, with smooth light tannins, crisp medium acidity underscoring tart juicy red fruit with hints of tobacco and even some minerality. Typically they are faster maturing than those of neighboring Sassella.

Recommendations

Aldo Rainoldi, Grumello, Valtellina Superiore Grumello, DOCG, Italy ($18)

Nino Negri, Sassorosso Grumello, Valtellina Superiore, DOCG, Italy ($15)

Inferno, meaning hell in Italian, is a 140 acre sub-region. Annual production is around 350,000 bottles. The terrain here is particularly uneven and difficult to farm. Tiny terraces, some as little as 500 square feet stretch between the villages of Poggiridenti and Treviso. The slopes here are also believed to retain more heat than other parts of the valley and may be the origins of the name inferno. These wines tend to be a dark garnet in color and show riper fruit with pronounced notes of dried red and black fruit and flowers aromas with hints of spice and tobacco. Like other Valtellina wines it has a medium body with bright crisp acidity and fine smooth tannins.

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Recommendations

Aldo Rainoldi, Inferno Riserva, Valtellina Superior, DOCG, Italy ($33)

Nino Negri, Inferno, Valtellina Superiore, DOCG, Italy ($22)



A barrel of Sforzato della Valtellina

The easternmost district in the Valtellina is Valgella, about 10 miles east of Sondrio. Stretching from the villages of Chiuro to Teglio, the sub-region covers over 340 acres and is the largest of the sub-regions. Yearly [production is around 130,000 bottles. It sits in the Val Fontant valley, a side valley of the Valtellina, surrounding the tiny village of Valgella. These wines tend to be a bit more tannic while exhibiting the typical Nebbiolo aromas of cherry, roses and dried red and black fruit with hints of earth and tobacco. These are medium bodied wines with crisp acidity and sharp tart sour cherry and cranberry flavors.

Recommendations

Balgera, Valgella, Valtellina Superiore, DOCG, Italy ($30)

Sandro Fay Ca Morei, Valgella, Valtellina Superiore, DOCG, Italy ($27)

The Valtellina produces three other categories of wines on a region wide basis. These are the Rosso di Valtellina DOC, Terazze Retiche di Sondrio IGT and the region's most famous wine, Sforzato di Valtellina.

The Rosso di Valtellina is also a Nebbiolo based wine although local varieties are typically blended in up to a maximum of 10%. It is typically aged for 7 months and it cannot be released before the July after the harvest. It is a dry, light ruby colored red wine with a minimum alcohol content of 11%, although most wines are bottled at between 12.5% and 13%. The total vineyard area devoted to the production of Rosso di Valtellina is around 540 acres.

Recommendations

Aldo Rainoldi, Rosso di Valtellina, DOC, Italy ($15)

Ar.Pe.Pe, Rosso di Valtellina, DOC, Italy ($30)



A magnum of Sassella Reserva

The Terazze Retiche di Sondrio IGT is a catch all designation that allows for the production of Sparkling, (yes they make sparkling Nebbiolo in the Valtellina) as well as sweet rasinated desert wines and late vintage wines. They also make rose and white wines in the Valtellina, including white wines made from Nebbiolo.

The Valtellina's most famous wine however is the Sforzato di Valtellina, also written as Sfursat. This is the first rasinated Italian dry red wine to obtain a DOCG classification. Obtained in 2003, it preceded Italy's more famous rasinated dry red wine, Amarone by 7 years.

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The practice of rasinating red wines for several months before vinifying them is an ancient practice that dates back to classical antiquity. These wines have traditionally been referred to in Northern Italy as vini di paglia, wines of straw; a reference to the practice of drying the grapes for several months on mats of straw. The drying or "rasinating" would concentrate the sugars and acids in the grape allowing for the production of a more robust and concentrated wine. In ancient wines such wines were prized both for their concentration of flavor and for their superior holding ability.



Chivannesca grapes drying in a frutaio. Picture courtesy Consorzio vini della Valtellina

The Sforzato di Valtellina is made from a selection of the finest Nebbiolo grapes. These are usually picked about a week or so earlier than the main crop. Immediately after harvesting they are placed on wooded lattices to dry in a climate controlled room called a fruttaio. Increasingly, the practice is to use plastic trays as they are more hygienic.

The grapes are typically left to dry for a period of 2 to 2.5 months, depending on the particular practice of the producer. During this period the grapes will lose about 40% of their volume concentrating the juice and the acids and sugars it contains. The rasinating process also modifies the acidity and enhances the aromatic characteristics of the wine. The grapes cannot be pressed until at least the 10th of December

After vinification, the wine is aged for 20 months first in wood for a minimum of 12 months and then in bottle before being released. Wood casks can vary from 5,000 liter botti to 225 liter French barriques. Historically, the practice was to use large wooden containers made of the local chestnut or Slavonian oak.

This practice is being replaced by the more innovative producers with smaller, traditional 225 liter barrels made from French or Slavonian oak. Chestnut imparts more tannins to maturing wine while smaller oak barrels produce smoother, finer, less tannic wines. The result is a strong red wine that is at least 90% Nebbiolo and with a minimum alcohol level of 14%. Approximately 275,000 bottles are produced yearly.

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The combination of the Nebbiolo grape and the process of rasinating it for several months would suggest that the resulting wine would be a big, powerful concentrated red wine, something of a cross between Piedmont's Barolo's and the Veneto's Amarone. The result is in fact surprising.

While Sforzati wines exhibit more concentration than their Valtellina brethren, they still show the lightness and elegance; the crisp bright acidity and pronounced, tart, black and red fruit flavors typical of the Valtellina wines. The thin skin of the Nebbiolo grape, unlike the varieties used to make Amarone, and the practice of minimizing the amount of tannin extracted during vinification, unlike the traditional style of vinifying Barolo, creates a Nebbiolo wine unlike any other. This is a Nebbiolo truly in a class by itself.

Recommendations

Nino Negri, Sfursat 5 Stelle, Sforzato di Valtellina, DOCG, Italy ($75)

Aldo Rainoldi Sfursat, Sforzato di Valtellina, DOCG, Italy ($35)

There are approximately 40 wine producers in the Valtellina. Among the top wineries to look out for are: Nino Negri, the largest of the Valtellina producers and Aldo Rainoldi, one of the most innovative wine producers in the valley, Also worth looking for are Ar.Pe.Pe, Conti Sertoli Salis, Sandro Fay and Triacca.



For die hard aficionados of Nebbiolo, the Valtellina offers an alternative version of Nebbiolo, one completely different than the traditional styles of Piedmont's Barolo or Barbaresco wines. This is Nebbiolo like you have never seen it before, a light to medium fruity wine redolent with a bouquet of sour cherry and floral aromas, with crisp bright acidity and smooth delicate tannins.
Susan Tepper has been a writer for twenty years and dear Petrov (Pure Slush Books, 2016) is her sixth book. An award-winning author, Tepper's stories, poems, interviews and essays have been published worldwide. Her column 'Let's Talk' runs monthly at Black Heart magazine. She is the founder and host of FIZZ, a reading series at KGB Bar, NYC, sporadically ongoing these past eight years. She lives in the New York area with her husband and her dog, Otis. Discover more of her work at her website.

Loren Kleinman (LK): Who is Petrov?

Susan Tepper (ST): Petrov, in strict literary terms, is a career soldier in Russia circa late 19th Century. However, as many reviewers have suggested, Petrov could be a lot of other things. Perhaps he is an idealization in the mind of my desperately lonely female protagonist living out her life in a most solitary fashion in rural Russia. Or, maybe Petrov doesn't exist at all in literary corporeal form. That has also been bandied about. Whatever he is, or isn't, he has a profound influence on the story.

LK: Can you talk about how you chose the cover art? How is it important to the book's foundation?

ST: Irene Koronas painted this picture which I stumbled upon accidentally. I'm a great fan of her artwork. She was poetry editor at the Wilderness House Literary Review during the same period that I was the fiction editor. So I've known Irene for some time. The moment I saw this little hut-house in the midst of all the snow, looking so solitary and forlorn, I knew I had to have it for my book cover. Irene graciously handed it over to me, and she also did the line drawings inside the book which illustrate the stories with a delicate touch.

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LK: Can you talk about the intersection between flash and poetry?



ST: Actually I never thought of it in those terms but there is an intersection going on in certain instances. Some flash will always present as pure fiction while other pieces have those surreal elements that label them poetry. As for dear Petrov many of the previously published pieces came out in fiction magazines, while other editors took them as prose poems. It's kind of a cross-breed, I suppose. It wasn't my intention to write them as any specific genre. I jumped into the protagonist and she did all the deciding.

LK: How is dear Petrov like or unlike your other books?



ST: Loren, my books run the gamut. I have written the traditional long novels, which I enjoyed doing very much at the time. I love getting into a long narrative flow and living with the characters as they go through their trials and tribulations. Since I did a lot of acting from an early age, I believe the diversity of roles has turned me into a diverse writer. My book 'From the Umberplatzen' is structured somewhat like dear Petrov. Again it is a female protagonist, but in that earlier book it is a 're-telling' of a love affair from the past, and the male character does speak quite a lot and very effectively. What makes these books similar is the structure. In From the Umberplatzen I also used short pieces that connect into a much larger story, as is the case with dear Petrov. It's a lot of small moments that shape a life. And, in this case, the book. It's not a planned out thing. I sit down to write and the form comes on its own. Writing and life are really so beyond our control.



LK: Can you tell us what you're up to next?
Startup RewardStock Has Devised A Solution For Two Problems, But It Needs To Show How The Software Works

Who hasn't heard the expression "time is money?"

Millions of people think about this expression whenever they receive an offer that from a strictly financial perspective is just too good to refuse. Many people are inundated with great offers promising huge discounts on a product or service. Sometimes, the offers come via mail. Sometimes, they come via e-mail or a phone call. Oftentimes, the offers are part of an invitation to accept a new credit card.

Then, the recipient of the offer begins reading the fine print. Yes, the offer is valid, but it also requires too much work to collect. "Who has the time to do all of this?" many people think to themselves. "My time is valuable. Saving money isn't worth it if I have to spend a lot of time on this."

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A new startup in Raleigh, North Carolina called RewardStock claims it has solved the problem of consumers spending too much time trying to figure out how to get discounts on travel. In this videotaped presentation, RewardStock CEO Jonathan Hayes explains that credit card companies often offer seemingly great discounts via points collected by using credit cards, but people often don't take advantage of the offers because they're too complicated. RewardStock, he adds, has figured out a way to make collecting points -- and discounts -- much simpler.

"We only show you an offer when it solves the travel goal that you have already told us you have," Hayes told his audience.

Unfortunately, Hayes didn't detail in his presentation how RewardStock has figured out how prospective travelers will save money via points discounts. He did detail how he has saved a tremendous amount of money on trips to numerous locales, including Barcelona, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, London, Miami, New Orleans, Paris, and San Diego. His point was that millions of people could save money traveling to their favorite destinations. If RewardStock could do that for people, it does indeed have a tremendous service, but the devil is in the details.

Reporters who have interviewed Hayes have provided more detail than he did in his presentation. The highly-regarded newspaper The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C. reports that the RewardStock website will help prospective travelers "find the best way to use those rewards for the trip they have in mind" and will "outline strategies for obtaining additional points." The prospective travelers pay zero for this service so it appears to be a great deal.

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In addition, Hayes told a technology news publication named Xconomy in this article that RewardStock software can "recommend which new (credit) cards will offer rewards that will best help a user reach his or her travel goal." This sounds like a fabulous service for travelers AND the credit card companies.

It should be pointed out that Hayes is marketing RewardStock as a solution for two problems -- the problems that prospective travelers have getting discounts and the problems that credit card companies have finding prospective cardholders. Essentially, he is seeking to kill two birds with one stone by hooking up travelers and credit card companies that are selling travel packages.

In his presentation, Hayes notes the incredible prices that you can find via travel discount offers. He detailed two trips that he took that cost him only a few hundred dollars because he used points offered by credit cards. If he had to pay cash, he said, the trips would have cost him several thousand dollars.

The Xconomy article corroborates that there is a huge market for consumers who earned reward points from credit card companies, but didn't use them.

"Consumers are leaving a lot of rewards points on the table," the article reports. "Colloquy, a research firm focused on loyalty marketing, counted 578 million members in credit card reward programs in 2015. Of some $48 billion in rewards value issued annually, $16 billion goes unredeemed, according to a 2011 Colloquy report."

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Hayes also noted in his presentation that credit card companies spend $17 billion marketing their products, largely in an effort to sign up new customers. The RewardStock business plan includes the company getting paid by a credit card company whenever it approves a new customer who applied for the card via a link on the RewardStock website.

"We are a strategic financial planning tool for users and a highly targeted marketing tool for the credit card issuers," Hayes said.
My work colleague (who is a hard-core Republican married to a German lady) used to call me "commie," a somewhat endearing term that he always used when teasing me about my childhood spent growing up in socialist Yugoslavia. Tito was a dictator and all who lived in Yugoslavia were oppressed, according to him. Dark dungeons, KGB/Russian-type arrests and Stalin-era dark unhappy days were a constant for the Yugoslavs at the time, based on his perspective.

I have not worked with this person for several years now, but ever since Bernie Sanders entered the presidential race, I remembered the days I spent defending the socialist regime in ex-Yugoslavia. I argued that we've lived pretty good, with high levels of education and freedom of travel that were available to everyone. My father could take sick leave every time I did not feel well and he had to take care of me, up to three days, no questions asked (only a note from the doctor). At one point I remember reading that the Yugoslavian "red passport" was the most frequently stolen passport of all the countries (including the US and other European countries, such as England and France). The reason was that Yugoslavians could travel equally without restrictions to America and to Russia. They could travel to China and South Africa. Tito was well received and respected by the rulers of pretty much every country, NATO members or not. So, passports used to be stolen; they were forged and the illegal Yugoslavs were able to travel everywhere. So, if I look upon those days of old Yugoslavia and wonder how it would be to grow up in this system that had one political party (a communist party) well, call me a communist. I guess now if this was '40s or '50s Hollywood I would be arrested for defending the concept of socialism and communism.

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What reminded me of the misunderstood days of socialism and the definition of communism here in the States was, of all things, a Google search. I had an idea to write a blog post about human alienation (I am still working on this) and I wanted to glance and see what internet had to offer. I toyed with concepts but wanted some references before I headed to the library. When I typed "human alienation" I came across a website containing a translation of the Karl Marx's work "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844" where he described a concept of human alienation within the system where property-less workers felt alienated from the society as they were being impoverished through their struggle to obtain a fair pay from the "property owners/capitalists" who formed a circular relationship with the workers. Owners tugging to increase profits, thus putting the strain on the workers who would eventually lose the battle in the race to the top. Workers would "in the extreme case" bear no fruits of their labor, majority of their work input going to benefit those on top. Thus, the workers would feel alienated and estranged from their labor objects and eventually they would become alienated from the society to which they contributed.

What I am describing above is a very loose explanation of what Mr. Marx wrote about. In all honesty, even while living in Yugoslavia, I was just too young when I left that I never really had a chance to read his works in full. Now, the beauty of America and the state where I live in is that I could type Karl Marx's name in my library catalog after my Google search and boom, I was able to reserve a copy of the manuscripts for leisurely reading. I am mentioning this to make sure that my post should not be misunderstood to be a rant, me complaining about freedoms I enjoy in America. However, I do want to bring forth the understanding that what Karl Marx is writing about is a very extreme case of capitalism where corporations or very rich individuals would eventually take advantage of the workers, similar to the royalty/feudalism system that was in place prior to the 18th century social and political revolutions in Europe, but through bear exploitation of the workers and taking the freedom of choices they once had.

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As a working mother, an engineer, and an immigrant I have a firsthand experience in the present corporate structure of America. Now, my post is missing a crucial contribution from those who work in sectors such as fast food service industry, retail industry, construction, etc. These groups are even less fortunate than the likes of me, who is presently working in an office-type of a job. On the surface it would seem that I make a decent wage, I own my own house, my children are well dressed, we have medical insurance -- however, if you dig a bit deeper it will become obvious that the middle class to which I apparently belong too is threatened to become alienated from the objects/products of their labor inputs. In reality, the bank owns my home, and my medical insurance has a very high deductible, so if two years in a row it happens that we have something marginally serious happen to one of the members of my family (such as an emergency room visit), we could rack up a debt of $12,000. One could argue that we should always try and live within our means and avoid the possibility of going into bankruptcy and being pressed to work more hours just to support our lifestyle, but the fact is that even if we are being frugal (and we are) it takes a small twist of fate to quickly take away any sense of security we might have had while we were living our normal lives. Which is Marx's point. I would like to argue that middle-class America no longer owns their own destiny, regardless of how hard they work.

My family is fortunate, we live better than many. I cannot speak for those who make lower wages, only they can speak about the struggles they have, but that is just my point. How close are we to Marx's proclaimed alienation of workers from society? My family does not own the fruits of our labor, our bank does; government does not provide any amount of relief or protection from accidental healthcare cost incurrence. Those making minimum wage are at the mercy of the capitalist corporations. No matter how hard they work, they will not be able to get ahead and become equal to the "owners of the products."

When I read about the failed Pfizer deal to merge with Allergen and move the headquarters to Ireland, allowing them to evade paying US taxes, I think that I may be discussing a possible future for the US market. Large corporations are not interested in the common good of human beings that support their large profit-making machine. In my mind, we could be very close to the extreme that Marx is talking about. Bernie is certainly onto something. So, how do we reach utopia? Marx's argues through a pure communist system?

So, my colleague who called me a "commie" would probably say that corporations should not be worried about the common good of their workers, but once the human input becomes angry and dissatisfied and they feel that they are only part of a large money-making machine that does not contribute to their well being, they will likely seek change. This is what happened in 18th century Europe. I would not want to live through that.
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It isn't unusual to hear of sexist jokes passed off as 'light humour', and the latest to join the big joke are restaurants in the national capital. The best you can expect, apparently, is a lame attempt at an apology, and only after you tell them it's wrong.

Just days after the restaurant chain Nandos got into trouble for a sexist advertisement in national newspapers, Imperfecto, a restaurant and bar in Hauz Khas Village in South Delhi, has landed in a soup for a similar reason.

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Imperfecto had a chalkboard sign earlier this week that said We dont serve women. You must bring your own.

Noted film critic and writer-director Raja Sen posted this picture on Twitter, and immediately, the restaurant faced a lot of online backlash.

Many shared the post on Twitter and Facebook asking people to boycott the restaurant.

This is a board outside Imperfecto Hauz Khas Village. Shameful. We cannot let them get away with this. Sprawling... Posted by Kavita Krishnan on Saturday, 9 April 2016

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The National Commission for Women chairperson Lalita Kumaramanglam told The Hindu that they are considering writing to the restaurant. She also suggested that women should boycott such restaurants as the only thing these establishments would understand would be the loss of business.

After much backlash, one of the owners of the restaurant, Sharad Madan, decided to apologise on his Facebook page. However, the apology sounds more like, 'sorry, but not sorry.'

"To begin with we would like to apologise if we hurt any sentiments. It was a post we saw online and felt like sharing. It was completely unintentional. However our intention was just the light humour," he wrote.

Light humour, sir?

Let's get this straight  apparently, whoever saw it online and 'felt like sharing' it, didn't realise that women are not objects. And that it is really, really not funny to crack sexist jokes. No sir, let me spell it out for you  it's not ' just light humour', it's just wrong.

Madan said that the restaurant frequently used quirky one-liners, and this time it was without understanding what the consequences would be.

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However, the owner had a strange of way of justifying that they respect women: "Our head chef and co-founder is a woman and a mother figure to all of us."

Of course, you can only respect women when you make them the 'mother figure.' Right?

By the end of the post, Madan decided to justify why the board was put out in the first place.

"At the same time if you consider the glass to be half full, the quote can also refrain those that come with wrong intentions from harbouring the same while at Imperfecto and Hkv," he wrote.

Now, we are not quite whether's it's really an apology. Or just a way saying that it was funny, but you didn't get it.

I wish this was the first time food portals and restaurants thought sexism is funny. But, alas.

Recently, Nando's India shared a picture of a grilled chicken dish with a message that said: "We don't mind if you touch our buns, or breasts or even our thighs. Whatever you're into, enjoying any Nando's meal with your hands is always recommended". After much outrage on the Internet, the restaurant chain apologised.

In January, Food Talk India, a Facebook group had put up a highly sexist photo post on their Facebook and Instagram accounts where they suggested that an 'arranged marriage wife' will make round rotis but a 'love marriage wife' will make burnt ones. They later removed the picture and apologised for the same.

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Now, Imperfecto's response to the criticisms has pointed out a major problem. Are these people apologising because they genuinely understand that it's not funny to crack sexist jokes, or are they just doing it because their business may take a hit?

If it's the latter, then it's scary and it's time for restaurant owners and advertisers to learn what's funny and what's just not acceptable.
Reuters Staff / Reuters Rugby Union - England v Fiji - IRB Rugby World Cup 2015 Pool A - Twickenham Stadium, London, England - 18/9/15Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (L) watch on during the opening ceremony Reuters / Russell CheyneLivepic

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, landed in Mumbai on Sunday for a tour of India. They are expected to meet underprivileged children as well as Bollywood celebrities.

The Duke and Duchess have just touched down in #Mumbai! #RoyalVisitIndia is underway!   Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 10, 2016

According to reports, actor Shah Rukh Khan is going to introduce the royal couple at the Bollywood gala.

"There will be lot of actors and friends so it will be fun. I think it's a big honour to be there and introduce them. We will decide if they want to see my film Fan or not. In England they still watch our films. So hopefully...let's see," Khan, 50, said.

But before the festivities, the royal couple stopped by the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, which was destroyed during the 2008 terror attacks.

The Duke & Duchess arrive @TajMahalMumbai and lay a wreath to remember the terror attacks of 2008 #RoyalVisitIndiapic.twitter.com/8M6JYIOvFr  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) April 10, 2016

Twenty-five years ago, William's mother Princess Diana, had made international headlines when a photo of her sitting on a bench during a solitary sightseeing trip to the Taj Mahal, a monument to love, was widely interpreted as a symbol of the irreparable state of her marriage to Prince Charles, according to Reuters.

The couple divorced in 1996 after 15 years of marriage, a year before Diana was killed in a car crash in Paris.

In contrast, her son William is excited about his trip to India and Bhutan with his wife, according to the official Kensington Palace Twitter handle.

"The Duke and Duchess are very much looking forward to their tours of India and Bhutan." pic.twitter.com/RHbMQnOHTk  Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal) February 26, 2016

Here are some glimpses of the royal couple's Indian visit so far:

ASSOCIATED PRESS Britain's Prince William gets out of a car upon his arrival at Hotel Taj in Mumbai. ASSOCIATED PRESS William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, visited this iconic hotel which was one of the prime targets of the 2008 terror attacks on the city. Times Now/Twitter This is William and Kate's first visit to India. ASSOCIATED PRESS Britain's Prince William, left, along with Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, talks to the staff members at Hotel Taj in Mumbai. Times Now/Twitter Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will next go to see India's famous monument Taj Mahal in Agra, almost two decades after Princess Diana was pictured sitting pensively by herself. Kensington Palace/Twitter William and Kate also laid a wreath to remember the terror attacks of 2008. Times Now/Twitter The royal couple is also set to attend a Bollywood gala in Mumbai.

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Reno County sees a spike in drug and alcohol overdoses during October

The 27 overdoses through Oct. 21 is an average of more than one a day, the highet average since officials began tracking the data real time.
Schaft, one of the Google X robotics companies, has unveiled an armless bipedal robot capable of carrying heavy loads and climbing stairs at a New Economic Summit, NEST 2016, in Tokyo.

Rather than a large orchestrated announcement, the new and as yet unnamed robot, which has obviously been under development for some time, was part of a keynote given by Andy Rubin, who left Google eighteen months ago.

About a meter tall, the robot is a very strange sight - it is essentially a pair of almost entirely straight legs which pivot from the top. An ankle mechanism is used to ensure that the robot lands with a flat foot. It was accompanied on stage by Yuto Nakanishi who gave a commentary on a video that shows the robot climbing stairs, walking on snow and across a rocky beach, and staying upright when a rod is used in a deliberate attempt to trip it. The video was recorded by a member of the audience and posted on YouTube:

The only other detail available about this robot as yet is that it can carry up to 132 pounds.

Schaft, previously came to our attention in December 2013 when it unexpectedly won the DARPA Robotics Challenge with its off-the-shelf HRP-2 robot. This success came within months of the Japanese company, which originated in the University of Tokyo's JSK Robotics Laboratory, being acquired by Google as one of eight robotics outfits that were merged into its portfolio, including the high profile Boston Dynamics.

Google's move into Robotics was spearheaded by Andy Rubin, who prior to founding the company behind Android had started his career as a robotics engineer for the German manufacturing company Carl Zeiss and has a passion for building intelligent machines. Rubin ran Google's robotics effort, called "Replicant" until he left Google in October 2014 to form, Payground Global, a hardware incubator.

The Schaft demonstration comes within weeks of the news that Alphabet, Google's parent company, is looking for a buyer for Boston Dynamics. Among the speculation surrounding this move to divest itself of the most prominent of its robotics acquisitions is the idea that humanoid bipedal robots, such as Atlas which was recently shown in action in a video, are seen as threatening. While the new Schaft robot looks weird it is in no way humanoid and its short stature makes it much less intimidating than Atlas.

Another reason for parting company with Boston Dynamics while continuing to foster developments like the new Schaft robot is that the former's range of robots are not likely to become a mass market commodity whereas there is a more credibly fetching and carrying role for the latter.

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Proposed Mezcal Regulation Impacting Trade and Exports

Washington, DC - Proposed Regulation Impacting Trade and Exports - Mexico (Alcoholic beverages, mezcal (HS 2208.90.05) MEX/301)

The notified draft Mexican Official Standard establishes technical requirements governing the appellation of origin "Mezcal", which is owned by the Mexican State under the Industrial Property Law. The draft Standard has been issued pursuant to the following: the second article of the "Resolution granting the protection provided for in the Industrial Property Law to the appellation of origin "Mezcal", which is applicable to the alcoholic beverage of the same name", published on 28 November 1994 in the Mexican Official Journal; the subsequent amendments to the aforementioned Resolution; and paragraphs II, XII, XV and XVIII of Article 40 of the Federal Law on Metrology and Standardization. In order to meet the specifications laid down in this draft Mexican Official Standard, the manufacture of the product covered by the Standard must comply with the relevant laws and involve the use of raw materials and ingredients of sanitary quality and the application of good manufacturing practices that ensure the product is fit for human consumption.
Study supports single-question alcohol screen for adolescents

Washington, DC - A single screening question about drinking frequency in the past year could help doctors identify adolescents at risk for alcohol problems, according to a new study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health. Conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, who collaborated with a network of rural primary care practitioners, the study also supports the use of the age-based screening thresholds put forward in NIAAAs Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioners Guide.

Primary care physicians are encouraged to screen adolescents for alcohol problems, yet many do not, citing time constraints and other issues, said NIAAA Director George Koob, PhD. This study demonstrates that simple screening tools such as those in NIAAAs Youth Guide are efficient and effective.

Researchers led by Duncan B. Clark, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, asked nearly 1,200 young people ages 12 through 20 at primary care clinics in rural Pennsylvania about their alcohol use and screened them for alcohol use disorder (AUD) using a computer-based questionnaire. They found that 10 percent of rural youth over age 14 met the diagnostic criteria for AUD in the past year, as specified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5). The new findings are now online in The Journal of Pediatrics (link is external).

Adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age who reported drinking at least one standard drink on three or more days in the past year were most at risk for alcohol problems. Among those who drank at this level, 44 percent were found to have AUD. Screening for AUD based on the 3-day guideline demonstrated 91 percent sensitivity  indicating that a youth with AUD was likely to be detected by the screen  and 93 percent specificity  meaning those without AUD were likely have a negative result. A negative screen (fewer than three drinking days in the past year) effectively ruled out AUD, with 99 percent not having the disorder.

For adolescents ages 18-20, the researchers found that the best screen for alcohol problems was to ask whether individuals had engaged in 12 or more drinking days (i.e., a day in which at least one standard drink is consumed) in the past year. Thirty-one percent of those who reported drinking at this level had AUD.

This finding confirms that a single question can be an effective screen for AUD, said Dr. Clark. We found that this information could be readily collected through our tablet computer system in busy rural clinic settings.

Dr. Clark and his colleagues also assessed screening methods outlined in the NIAAA Youth Screening Guide, which uses age-specific alcohol frequency questions to identify moderate and highest levels of AUD risk. Moderate risk is defined as one or more drinking days in the past year for ages 12-15, three or more days per year for ages 16-17, and 12 or more days per year for 18-year-olds. Highest risk is defined as three or more days per year for youth ages 12-15, 12 or more days for 16-year-olds, 24 or more days for 17-year-olds, and 52 or more days for 18-year-olds.

Researchers found both sets of NIAAA guidelines to be effective screens for AUD. The moderate risk guidelines showed 85 percent sensitivity and 87 percent specificity, while the highest risk guidelines showed 91 percent sensitivity and 93 percent specificity.

The researchers note that, as national studies document higher rates of alcohol use among rural youth, identifying problem drinking is of particular importance for primary care providers in rural settings. They conclude that an alcohol use frequency screen followed by a diagnostic evaluation for those who screen positive would be a simple, brief, and cost-effective clinical assessment procedure.

The NIAAA Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioners Guide is available at http://niaaa.nih.gov/publications/clinical-guides-and-manuals/alcohol-screening-and-brief-intervention-youth

About the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the primary U.S. agency for conducting and supporting research on the causes, consequences, prevention, and treatment of alcohol abuse, alcoholism, and alcohol problems. NIAAA funds the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) to determine the effects of problematic alcohol use on the developing adolescent brain and examine brain characteristics that predict alcohol use disorder. NIAAA also disseminates research findings to general, professional, and academic audiences. Additional alcohol research information and publications are available at www.niaaa.nih.gov.
Hispanics/Latinos at higher risk for cardiac dysfunction, heart failure

Dallas, Texas - Hispanics/Latinos have higher rates of cardiac dysfunction but are rarely aware they have the heart-pumping problem that can lead to heart failure, according to new research in the American Heart Associations journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

Researchers found that about half of the 1,818 adults in their study of middle-aged and older Hispanics/Latinos had cardiac dysfunction, yet fewer than 1 in 20 participants knew they had a problem.

Cardiac dysfunction is particularly serious because it can develop into heart failure, a chronic disease in which the heart pumps less blood than the body needs to remain healthy.

The perception has been that Hispanics/Latinos are a low-risk group for cardiac dysfunction, but that is not true, said Carlos J. Rodriguez, M.D., M.P.H., study senior author and associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

He noted that the only other large study of cardiac dysfunction in the United States looked at an older, largely non-Hispanic white population and found that about a third had cardiac dysfunction.

In the Echocardiographic Study of Hispanics/Latinos (ECHO-SOL), researchers used ultrasound images of the heart to identify cardiac dysfunction in adults, age 45-74, living in the Bronx, Chicago, Miami and San Diego. Among participants who had high rates of risk factors for cardiac dysfunction:

half were obese;

half had high blood pressure;

two-thirds had diabetes;

two-thirds reported low levels of physical activity; and

one fifth were current smokers.

Researchers noted that these risk factors, along with heart attack, were the same risk factors for progression of cardiac dysfunction to heart failure.

Given the studys findings, Rodriguez said, health professionals should have a high level of vigilance when it comes to monitoring the health of their Hispanic/Latino patients and a low threshold for intensifying preventative therapies to avoid the possibility of heart failure down the road.

He added that the earlier the intervention, the better, noting that some studies have suggested that cardiac dysfunction can be reversed by aggressive reduction of risk factors.

ECHO-SOL diagnosed two types of cardiac dysfunction: left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) and left ventricular diastolic dysfunction (LVDD). In LVSD, the left ventricle, the hearts largest chamber, does not push blood out to the body as forcefully as it should. In LVDD, the left ventricle is too stiff when relaxed between beats to gather enough blood in its chamber.

Researchers said that the prevalence of the second type, LVDD, was particularly high among Latino-Americans from Central America, whose risk was nearly double that of Mexican-Americans. Researchers said that they did not know whether ancestry or environment explained the difference.

Rodriguez said that because Hispanics/Latinos have been overlooked in previous studies, there are no reliable estimates of how many with cardiac dysfunction will develop heart failure. Researchers plan to continue following ECHO-SOL participants to begin to answer that question.

Given that Hispanics/Latinos are the largest ethnic minority in the United States, with over 51 million people, they are likely to have a big impact on the heart failure epidemic, he said.

Co-authors are Hardik Mehta, M.D.; Anderson Armstrong, M.D., MSc.; Katrina Swett, M.S.; Sanjiv J. Shah, M.D.; Matthew A. Allison, M.D.; Barry Hurwitz, Ph.D.; Shrikant Bangdiwala, Ph.D.; Rupal Dadhania, B.S.; Dalane W. Kitzman, M.D.; William Arguelles, Ph.D.; Joao Lima, M.D.; Marston Youngblood, Ph.D.; Neil Schneiderman, Ph.D.; Martha L. Daviglus, M.D., Ph.D.; Daniel Spevack, M.D.; Greg A. Talavera, M.D.; Ajit Raisinghani, M.D. and Robert Kaplan, Ph.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute supported the study.
Physicists discover rare brown dwarf, essential for testing theoretical models

Notre Dame, Indiana - A team led by Justin Crepp, the Frank M. Freimann Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Notre Dame, has discovered a rare brown dwarf, a faint object with properties in between that of a star and planet. In addition to taking its picture for the first time, Crepps team also determined the brown dwarfs mass, age and composition - essential information that can be used to benchmark the study of these elusive objects.

Brown dwarfs are objects thought to have initially begun the process of forming a star but were somehow interrupted before they accumulated sufficient mass and core pressure to ignite nuclear fusion  the process by which the Sun ultimately releases energy in the form of light. An important developmental bridge between bona fide stars and exoplanets, brown dwarfs are very difficult to study because their faint glow fades with time due to a lack of sustained nuclear reactions. The discovery of the object, which goes by the name HD 4747 B, was facilitated by 18 years of precise spectral measurements of the star that indicated it hosts an orbiting companion.

We suspect that these companions form at the same time and from the same material, Crepp said. As such, you can infer physical properties of the brown dwarf from its parent star, like age and composition. There are no other objects for which we know the mass, age and the metallicity simultaneously and also independent of the light that the companion gives off. We can therefore use HD 4747 B as a test-bed to study brown dwarfs, enabling precision astrophysics studies for a directly imaged substellar object.

In the past, brown dwarf masses have been estimated using theoretical evolutionary models. Crepps team instead calculated the mass of HD 4747 B directly using observations of its orbit in an attempt to help refine brown dwarf models. It is expected that this work will in turn help to inform models for extrasolar planets. Based on a three-dimensional orbit analysis, HD 4747 B has a mass of about 60 Jupiters (a mass of 80 Jupiters is required to ignite nuclear fusion), well below the theoretical estimate of 72 Jupiters, although still within uncertainties. Forthcoming measurements acquired by Crepps team will provide yet more stringent tests of the models used by astronomers for brown dwarfs.

This field is transitioning from Hey, I found something neat to Hey, I know the mass to within a few percent. Now, we can test theoretical models, Crepp said.

The team detected the object using the Keck telescopes in Hawaii, and published their results in a paper describing the discovery.

The study has been submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. Co-authors of the study include Erica Gonzales and Eric Bechter, both in the Department of Physics at the University of Notre Dame; Benjamin Montet at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the California Institute of Technology; John Asher Johnson at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; Danielle Piskorz at the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology; Andrew Howard at the Institute for Astronomy at the University of Hawaii; and Howard Isaacson at the University of California Berkeley.
Third Meeting of the U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Commission Kabul

Kabul, Afghanistan - Today in Kabul, Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry convened the third meeting of the U.S.-Afghanistan Bilateral Commission to review progress in the bilateral relationship and chart a course for future cooperation. This meeting, called for by the Enduring Strategic Partnership Agreement (SPA) between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, reaffirmed the commitment of both governments to Afghanistans future as a strong, stable, democratic, and self-reliant state.

The Bilateral Commission highlighted the continuation of the U.S. security presence beyond 2016 to carry out two important missions: training, advising, and assisting the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) in coordination with international partners; and cooperating bilaterally on shared efforts to counter terrorism.

The Bilateral Commission welcomed the U.S. commitment to provide continued financial support to the ANDSF via NATOs Afghan National Army Trust Fund and the UN Development Program-managed Law and Order Trust Fund for Afghanistan (LOTFA), and to provide significant levels of development assistance during Afghanistans Transformation Decade. The participants looked forward to the NATO Summit in Warsaw in July and the Brussels Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan in October as opportunities to solidify these join with the international community in renewing international security and development assistance pledges, respectively.

The Bilateral Commission reaffirmed the reform objectives in the New Development Partnership (NDP) decided in August 2015 and the joint commitments established in the Self-Reliance through Mutual Accountability Framework (SMAF) launched at the Senior Officials Meeting (SOM) in Kabul in September 2015. The Commission reiterated the important roles played by civil society including womens groups in helping to chart a democratic future for Afghanistan and ensuring respect for human rights and the rule of law.

Recognizing Progress in the Strategic Partnership

The Bilateral Commission discussed cooperation in the areas of defense and security; democracy and governance; and economic and social development. Ahead of the Bilateral Commission meeting, U.S.-Afghan working groups for these three areas met to review progress on the specific objectives set during the March 2015 visit of President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah to Washington and to identify goals for the future. Minister Rabbani and Secretary Kerry welcomed the following specific accomplishments:

Defense and Security

Secretary Kerry and Minister Rabbani acknowledged the sacrifice and resolve of the ANDSF, U.S., and Coalition forces and called for an end to insecurity and violent attacks that resulted in over 11,000 civilian casualties in Afghanistan in 2015 alone. To weaken and defeat terrorists, while denying them safe haven, both sides reaffirmed their commitment to strengthen the security and stability of Afghanistan.

As part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the Afghan security forces, the United States announced that 14 MD-530 attack helicopters and eight A-29 aircraft have been successfully integrated into the Afghan security forces. The addition of 14 more MD-530s before August 2016 will further enhance the operational capabilities of the Afghan Air Force. U.S. and Afghan officials also noted the completion of the semi-annual Program Management Review to validate our long-term security cooperation partnership and to continue efforts to develop an effective, affordable, and sustainable ANDSF.

The Afghan security institutions are building capacity in systems and processes to staff, equip, and sustain an ANDSF that is capable and combat-ready. The challenges the ANDSF face are complex. Train, Advise, and Assist efforts continue to be required to develop the necessary capacity to build institutional knowledge and expertise in the areas of budgeting, force generation, personnel management, maintenance, logistics, and procurement.

The U.S. participants commended Afghanistans participation in the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism (GICNT) and its active cooperation in developing a strategic trade control system and associated border controls that help prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Noting that a negotiated political settlement is the best and surest way to bring peace to Afghanistan, Secretary Kerry and Minster Rabbani welcomed the efforts of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) in creating an environment conducive to bringing the Taliban and its affiliates to the negotiation table with the goal of creating a lasting peace in Afghanistan. Minister Rabbani appreciated the United States contribution of $5 million to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) for supporting the Afghan Peace and Reintegration Program (APRP) in 2015, as well as the United States commitment to provide further support in 2016 for the implementation of the APRP reforms plan.

The United States welcomed Afghanistans membership in the 66-nation Global Coalition to Counter ISIL and Afghanistans commitment to counter violent extremism and terrorism in partnership with other like-minded countries around the world. The ANDSF, working closely with the United States, has already made significant progress against the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), Daeshs affiliate in Afghanistan.

Democracy and Governance

Secretary Kerry commended the Afghan governments commitment to combat corruption and promote democracy and good governance in Afghanistan. Both sides welcomed progress on electoral reforms and noted the importance of ensuring credible, inclusive, and transparent elections. The Afghan side acknowledged that Parliamentary elections are overdue and should take place as soon as possible once necessary electoral reforms have been implemented.

Minister Rabbani emphasized the importance of institutionalizing and enforcing Afghanistans constitutional commitment to human rights, including the equal rights of all citizens, with particular attention to women and minorities, and persons with disabilities. He noted the government is revising the penal code, developing child protection legislation, and taking steps to implement the law on Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The participants welcomed the Afghan governments continued commitment to womens rights, the signing of the Global Call to Action, and the June unveiling of the National Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security, which will implement UNSCR 1325. The commission also applauded the anti-sexual harassment regulation approved by the Council of Ministers and signed by President Ghani in September, as well as efforts to remove barriers to womens economic empowerment and participation.

The United States is the largest single contributor of humanitarian aid to Afghans displaced within Afghanistan and across the region, providing nearly $213 million in fiscal years 2015 and 2016 to date. A key priority for the U.S. and Afghan governments is facilitating the integration of Afghan returnees into development programs.

The participants acknowledged that drug production and trafficking is driven by global demand for narcotics, which transnational organized criminal networks produce in permissive environments like that of Afghanistan, undermining governance, security, and public health throughout the world. Hence, both sides emphasized the importance of increased multilateral cooperation in support of Afghanistans efforts to address the global challenge of drug production and trafficking, under the provisions of the UN Security Council Resolutions 1817 (2008) and 2195 (2014).

Both sides highlighted the recently released Afghan National Drug Action Plan, which offers a balanced, comprehensive, coordinated, and sustainable approach to combatting illegal drug production, trade, and use through 2019.

The participants welcomed the ranking of Afghanistan by the World Press Freedom Index 2015 as having the freest media in the region, and noted important progress on the protection of journalists and access to information. In January, President Ghani instructed the Attorney Generals office to re-investigate unsolved cases of murdered journalists and instructed key ministries to develop legislation to better regulate the classification of and access to government information. The Afghan government also created the Mass Media Commission, to support freedom of speech and rights of journalists.

Economic and Social Development

Secretary Kerry and Minister Rabbani underscored the fundamental importance of economic and social development to future stability and security in Afghanistan.

Since the March 2015 visit of President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah to Washington, the United States and Afghanistan have collaborated on a private sector driven by an economic development agenda. Our New Development Partnership was established to incentivize reforms and provide up to $800 million in funding to the Afghan government via a World Bank-administered trust fund. The Afghan government achieved key benchmarks and received the $180 million of the total $200 million available in 2015.

The Afghan government demonstrated its commitment to fiscal and financial sector reforms through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Staff Monitored Program (SMP), which concluded in March, and development of the Public Financial Management Roadmap II and its implementation plan. Afghanistan also demonstrated its commitment to self-reliance by achieving record revenue collections in 2015, facilitated in part by the introduction of electronic payments for customs in Kabul. These gains can be expanded through additional improvements in tax compliance and an economic expansion. The commission participants also praised the Afghan government for substantially increasing mobile payments of government salaries.

Technical advisors from the U.S. Department of Treasury are working with Afghan counterparts to improve financial management, combat financial crimes, and strengthen banking supervision. Treasury completed a consultation on managing government revenue collection with the Afghan Revenue Department in March 2016 that identified key areas for technical assistance.

The U.S. government congratulated Afghanistan on the approval of its application for WTO membership at the Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 17, 2015. The U.S. and Afghan governments stressed the importance of Afghanistan accomplishing its legislative agenda to meet the terms for WTO accession by June 30, 2016. The U.S. and Afghan governments also reviewed the progress of their bilateral Energy Working Group, established as an outcome of President Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullahs 2015 visit to Washington. This group, which met twice, once in November and once in January, serves as an effective forum for discussion and cooperation on Afghanistans energy priorities, including developing domestic energy production and technical capacity, expanding and securing energy infrastructure, and facilitating greater regional energy integration.

The United States also fulfilled its commitment to nearly double the number of Afghan scholars pursuing graduate-level studies in the United States through the Fulbright and Junior Faculty Development exchanges, increasing Afghanistans capacity in higher education and key professional sectors.

Charting the Way Forward

Minister Rabbani and Secretary Kerry discussed avenues for future cooperation to continue to build effective and professional Afghan security forces, to make progress in advancing democracy and improving governance and to build on economic and social development gains.

Defense and Security

Secretary Kerry and Minister Rabbani emphasized the importance of the continued development of Afghan security forces that are able to defend the territorial integrity of Afghanistan, provide security for the Afghan populace and operate consistently with Afghanistans international human rights obligations and commitments. The United States welcomed Afghan commitments to continue combatting gross violations of human rights and to prevent abusive practices.

To help counter the continuing threat of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the United States and Afghanistan decided to develop a strategy to build upon existing IED exploitation efforts; consider ways to improve information-sharing related to exploitation of IED components; and conduct an assessment of the current public awareness program and expand it as appropriate.

The planned resumption of the Security Consultative Forum in 2016 with the U.S. Secretary of Defense and Afghan Ministers of Defense and Interior will further these strategic goals and serve as the security component of the Bilateral Commission framework, reaffirming the U.S. and Afghan commitment to a mutually supportive defense relationship.

Democracy and Governance

The commission participants concurred that over the coming months, the United States will support Afghan efforts to advance electoral reforms. They also concluded that strengthening sub-national governance, combatting corruption, and ensuring effective delivery of services to the population were crucial to peace and stability.

The Afghan government noted that its efforts to improve human rights will include implementation of the Afghan governments plan to eliminate torture and a commitment to safeguard freedom of the press, including combating violence against journalists.

Rule of law reforms will include a focus on completing and implementing the ongoing penal code revision, as well as continued cooperation to advance gains achieved through counter-narcotics initiatives.

Economic and Social Development

The United States and Afghanistan will continue to focus on policies that support trade and revenue generation, strengthen the Afghan economy, nurture robust private sector development, promote integration in regional markets, and develop domestic energy production, all of which will lessen Afghan reliance on donor assistance. The two governments noted that the New Development Partnership would continue, and achievement of reform benchmarks could result in additional funding for Afghanistan. The U.S. side welcomed continuing discussions on Afghanistans progress in meeting SMAF goals, establishing a new IMF program, improving its business and investment climate, and fostering conditions for long-term economic growth and fiscal sustainability, including the aggressive scale up of mobile salary payments and further roll-out of e-payments for customs.

The United States and Afghanistan remain committed to the implementation of the CASA-1000 project and other regional energy projects which expand regional cooperation in energy markets and promote economic growth in Afghanistan and in neighboring countries.

Both governments acknowledged the interdependency between economic growth, health, agriculture, and education and plan to collaborate in all these areas. The two governments reaffirmed their support for increased access to quality education throughout the country at all levels, with an emphasis on quality higher education, technical and vocational training, and continued expansion of educational access, including community-based learning. They also recognized the importance of Afghanistan preserving its rich cultural heritage, emphasizing that the countrys economic development must include protecting cultural heritage sites of significant national and international historical value.

Secretary Kerry welcomed the recent initiative by the Afghan government to launch a Jobs for Peace Program, which intends to provide short- to medium-term employment opportunities for Afghanistans youthful population.

Conclusion

Minister Rabbani and Secretary Kerry reaffirmed their resolve to advance the Afghan peoples desire for a stable, secure, and sovereign Afghanistan, governed on the basis of the Afghan Constitution, including respect for human rights, the rule of law, and democratic values. They underscored that cooperation between Afghanistan and the United States continues to be based on mutual respect and shared interests, and affirmed their intent to continue these high-level bilateral consultations to further strengthen our partnership on the basis of the Strategic Partnership Agreement. To that end, they agreed to announce the specific date for convening the Fourth Meeting of the Afghanistan-U.S. Bilateral Commission in Washington-DC as soon as possible, while the three Working Groups should regularly meet throughout the year to ensure consistent cooperation and coordination between the two sides.
U.S. Expresses Serious Concern Regarding Darfur Referendum

Washington, DC - The United States expresses serious concern regarding the Government of Sudans plans to conduct a referendum on April 11-13 over the political future of Darfur. If held under current rules and conditions, a referendum on the status of Darfur cannot be considered a credible expression of the will of the people of Darfur. Moreover, it will undermine the peace process now under way.

Insecurity in Darfur and inadequate registration of Darfuris residing in internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps prohibit sufficient participation. Furthermore, the Darfur Referendum Commissions recent announcement that Darfuris residing outside of Darfur will be ineligible to vote disenfranchises millions of Darfuris, refugees, and IDPs.



Lasting peace in Sudan will only be attained through a political process that addresses the underlying causes of the Darfur conflict, secures a lasting cessation of hostilities, and creates the space for meaningful participation of Darfuri groups and all Sudanese in an inclusive and genuine national dialogue. The announced Darfur Referendum will contradict these key objectives and the broader goal of peace and stability in Darfur.



The United States will continue to support the people of Sudan who wish to advance peaceful governance and inclusive participatory politics for long-term stability in Sudan.
'We Got Robbed': Pakistani Twitter Had a Meltdown Over 'Controversial' No Ball to Virat Kohli
Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse Loughrey Get our The Life Cinematic email for free Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy notice Thanks for signing up to the

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Kingsman: The Secret Service was by far and away a surprise hit, wowing audiences across the world, so of course a sequel The Golden Circle was going to be made.

With the cast already quite sizeable - Colin Firths character having been confirmed to return - it looks set to expand yet again as Game of Thrones Pedro Pascal has been cast as the aptly named Jack Daniels.

Having won over legions of fans playing Oberyn Martell, this will mark Pascals first major role in a Hollywood blockbuster.

His character is reportedly a swaggering, sharpshooting cowboy who will work closely with Halle Berrys character - the head of the American equivalent of The Secret Service, Statesmen.

Films to watch in 2016 Show all 30 1 /30 Films to watch in 2016 Films to watch in 2016 Hail, Caesar - 5 February The Coen brothers' latest film might be their most ambitious yet. Telling the story of a Hollywood fixer struggling to keep A-listers in line, it has a movie within a movie, an amazing cast, and, judging by the first trailer, some luxurious visuals Films to watch in 2016 Deadpool - 12 February Comic book superhero movies have been getting slowly more self-referential and self-parodic lately, and Deadpool looks to be taking itself even less seriously than Guardians of the Galaxy or Ant-Man. It looks as though fans will finally be getting the comic book-faithful, foul-mouthed version of the character they wanted, but it remains to be seen whether Deadpool will actually be funny, or just descend into toilet humour Films to watch in 2016 Zoolander No. 2 - 12 February Zoolander's return was derailed somewhat by backlash over a trans/gender fluid character played by Benedict Cumberbatch. The long-awaited sequel will no doubt do well at the box office, but I'm not sure if the fashion industry is as fertile for satire now as it was in 2001, and the trailer relies too heavily on honouring old gags rather than creating new ones Films to watch in 2016 Knight of Cups - 4 March A new film from Terrence Malick should have been a huge cause for celebration, but Knight of Cups has been swimming in post-Cannes purgatory for months now. In March it will finally get a theatrical release. Starring Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett and Natalie Portman, it sees a man return home from New York and get sucked into the hollow hedonism of LA, fighting to extricate himself from it Films to watch in 2016 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot - 4 March Based on journalist Kim Barkers 2011 memoir The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, this dark comedy sees Tina Fey play a foreign correspondent reporting in the Middle East during Operation Enduring Freedom, where she develops a weird relationship with a fellow journalist played by Martin Freeman Films to watch in 2016 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - 18 March The wind seems to have gone out of the sails of the Man of Steel series in spite of the addition of a new Batman, and there's a more palpable anticipation for Suicide Squad (which arrives later in the year) Films to watch in 2016 Everybody Wants Some - 15 April Coming off the back of multi-Oscar winner Boyhood, this Richard Linklater film looks a lot like Dazed and Confused if it was set in the 80s, albeit pitched more towards comedy Films to watch in 2016 The Jungle Book - 15 April Disney is trampling on its own hallowed ground with this live action remake. Elf and Iron Man director Jon Favreau is a fairly safe pair of hands though, and Idris Elba, Ben Kingsley, Scarlett Johansson, Lupita Nyong'o, Christopher Walken, Giancarlo Esposito and Bill Murray are all on board Films to watch in 2016 Money Monster - 13 May 'Financial TV personality Lee Gates, who offers up stock advice on his hit show "Money Monster," is held hostage by a viewer, Kyle Budwell, who lost all of his money following a bad tip from Lee during his show' Films to watch in 2016 Snowden - 13 May Platoon director Oliver Stone takes on a very important and timely story. But can he make it entertaining the way The Big Short did with the financial crisis? Films to watch in 2016 X-Men Apocalypse - 27 May 2016 will see a ninth X-Men film. Ninth. Every cast member you would expect will be back to collect their paychecks, which might require a crane Films to watch in 2016 Finding Dory - 17 June The Finding Nemo sequel will focus on Ellen DeGeneres' forgetful blue tang fish. It's expected to have an anti-SeaWorld message, which should make it strike a chord with parents as well as children Films to watch in 2016 Independence Day: Resurgence - 24 June Will Smith isn't in it. Moving on Films to watch in 2016 The BFG - 1 July There's still a lot of love for Roald Dahl's stories, and this one is being adapted by none other than Steven Spielberg. There hasn't been a huge amount of buzz around it but it's early days, and Mark Rylance is an interesting casting for the titular Big Friendly Giant Films to watch in 2016 La La Land - 15 July There's a lot of expectation on director Damien Chazelle's shoulders following the success of Whiplash, one of the smallest films ever to have been nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. La La Land will certainly be different, a musical comedy-drama about a young pianist and an actor played by Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone respectively Films to watch in 2016 Ghostbusters - 15 July This is something of a question mark. On one hand, it's landed a cast of incredibly funny actresses, but on the other, another reboot? Really? There's also thought to be a very meta all-male version in the works from the creators of Jump Street, set in the same universe as Men In Black no less Films to watch in 2016 Star Trek Beyond - 22 July If you thought Abrams' Star Trek films were bad, feast your eyes on the trailer for the next one from the director of the Fast & Furious franchise. Expect major face-palming from Trekkies in July. Hopefully the new TV show will offer something a bit less action-orientated and a bit more cerebral Films to watch in 2016 Untitled fifth Bourne film - 29 July The Bourne series completely went off the boil with Jeremy Renner as its lead, but now both Matt Damon and original director Paul Greengrass are back to steady the ship. This might well be Jason Bourne's last outing, so I hope they send him off in style Films to watch in 2016 Suicide Squad - 5 August Harley Quinn was one of the most popular Halloween costumes this year, despite the holiday falling months before the release of the film she's in. That says a lot about the hype over this comic book adaptation, which revels in the villains rather than the heroes for once and sees Jared Leto step into Heath Ledger's size 58 boots as the new Joker Films to watch in 2016 Sully - 9 September Friendly-looking dad named Chesley Sullenberger who saves a plane load of people? Tom Hanks is your guy. Clint Eastwood will direct this biopic, about an airline captain who was hailed as a national hero in the US after successfully executing an emergency water landing on the Hudson River off Manhattan Films to watch in 2016 Bridget Joness Baby - 16 September It's 2015 and Bridget is now pouring her soul into an iPad rather than a diary. This sequel might perfectly skewer the frustration of growing up in an increasingly youth-orientated world, or it might just serve to tarnish the originals like with Sex and the City 2 Films to watch in 2016 The Magnificent Seven - 23 September I'm not convinced there's the demand for Westerns that Hollywood seems to think there is. We'll find out in September with Antoine Fuqua's remake of 1960's The Magnificent Seven. Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke are among the gang Films to watch in 2016 Masterminds - 30 September Based on the 1997 Loomis Fargo Robbery in North Carolina, this comedy comes from the man behind Napoleon Dynamite. Owen Wilson, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Wiig and Jason Sudeikis form a strong cast, but there are no trailers to go on yet Films to watch in 2016 The Girl on the Train - 7 October That book everyone was reading on the commute inevitably makes it cinemas in October, with Emily Blunt playing Rachel Watson, an alcoholic whose husband left her for his mistress, and who witnesses a murder and starts to realize that she may have been involved in the crime Films to watch in 2016 Doctor Strange - 4 November Doctor Strange might not have been the most obvious character to take to the big screen, but by this point Marvel could make $1billion at the box office from a comic an exec once scrawled on a piece of toilet paper Films to watch in 2016 Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - 18 November J.K. Rowling makes her screenwriting debut adapting her own book here, with a film that takes place in the Harry Potter universe but is well removed from Hogwarts Films to watch in 2016 Rogue One: A Star Wars Story - 16 December Disney is releasing a Star Wars movie every year between now and 2020. This first standalone 'anthology' film centres on a Death Star heist, but may prove to just be filler while Star Wars 8 is in production Films to watch in 2016 Passengers - 21 December 'A spacecraft traveling to a distant colony planet and transporting thousands of people has a malfunction in one of its sleep chambers. As a result, a single passenger is awakened 60 years early. Faced with the prospect of growing old and dying alone, he eventually decides to wake up a second passenger' Films to watch in 2016 Jumanji - 25 December Is nothing sacred? Everyone is so pissed about this remake of the Robin Williams cult hit that it will be a miracle if it escapes a critical drubbing Films to watch in 2016 Silence - sometime in 2016 Martin Scorsese's next film doesn't have a mafioso or corrupt banker in sight. Liam Neeson and Andrew Garfield star, playing two Jesuit Portuguese Catholic priests who face violent persecution when they travel to Japan to seek out their mentor and spread the teachings of Christianity

Chances are theyll team up with the British service to defeat Julianne Moores brilliantly written villain.

The first Kingsman film grossed over 260 million at the global box office early last year, with Samuel L Jackson starring as evil billionaire Richmond Valentine.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle is expected to reach cinemas on 16 June 2017. Read everything we know so far about the film, here.
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During this years first Britains Got Talent audition show, viewers were left stunned when Moldovan-born sword-swallower Alex Magala performed his three-minute routine.

In the performance, the 26-year-old climbed a pole - sword in throat - turning face down and sliding towards the ground at an insane pace.

While many viewers turned away in fear, perhaps they would have been less likely worried if they had seen his past performances.

In the show, Magala did not shy away from revealing he had been performing on the talent show circuit for some time, having previously appeared on Americas Got Talent, Ukraines Got Talent, Italys Got Talent (no clip available), Frances Got Talent and Russias Got Talent.

The risk taker even featured at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014. To say hes got experience is to put it lightly.

However, that shouldnt take away from how monumentally risky putting a sword down your throat is; according to his website, the blade is just one inch away from his heart. In other words, dont try this at home.

Britain's Got Talent past winners Show all 8 1 /8 Britain's Got Talent past winners Britain's Got Talent past winners 2014- Collabro English boyband Collabro celebrate winning BGT with their musical theatre performances. Rex Britain's Got Talent past winners 2013- Attraction Hungarian shadow dance act Attraction won 2013's contest after a British-themed display including the voice of Winston Churchill. Cowell described their victory as "a bit of a surprise". PA Britain's Got Talent past winners 2012- Ashleigh and Pudsey Ashleigh and her loveable dancing dog Pudsey met the Queen after winning 2012's Britain Got Talent. Simon Cowell loved this act so much he made Pudsey: The Movie. Reuters Britain's Got Talent past winners 2011 - Jai McDowall Jai McDowall has faded into obscurity since winning Britain's Got Talent in 2011. He took victory from Ronan Parke but his subsequent career was short-lived after its debut solo album Believe failed to make an impact. Rex Britain's Got Talent past winners 2010 - Spelbound Another dance group followed Diversity in the form of Spelbound, who won in 2010. They became the first act to perform at the new Olympic Stadium and appeared twice at the closing ceremony. Many of the original members have since left. Rex Britain's Got Talent past winners 2009 - Diversity Diversity dance group took the Britain's Got Talent title in 2009 after a dramatic final showdown with singer Susan Boyle. Diversity have toured multiple times and performed at several high profile events since their triumph. Getty Images Britain's Got Talent past winners 2008- George Sampson George Sampson won Britain's Got Talent in 2008 after winning fans with his impressive dancing in the rain. The youngster, now 19, has since appeared on stage and in Natwest advertising campaigns. He made his cinema debut in Streetdance 3D and went on to star in Waterloo Road and Mount Pleasant. Rex Britain's Got Talent past winners 2007 - Paul Potts Paul Potts won over Simon Cowell with his rendition of Nessum Dorma and went on to become Britain's Got Talent's first victor. Potts has enjoyed a successful operatic career since the competition, with Harvey Weinstein even making a biopic of his life starring James Corden in the lead. Getty Images

Simon Cowell previously explained why contestants were from all over the world this year: This year we have a tonne of people entering from around the world. In fact, they have even entered other shows and won other Got Talent shows.

But they all say the same thing, that theres something about the British show that they want to be on and want to win. They have worked hard, the producers on this show, and we have a track record with people like Paul Potts, Susan Boyle and Diversity, that you can actually go on and have a career off the back of this show.

In other TV talent contest news, The Voice came to an end, with the BBC being accused of 'fixing' the results by viewers disappointed Cody didnt win.
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While The Night Manager may have finished over here in the UK, in the US the BBC drama has yet to show. The cast and crew are therefore scurrying around the country, promoting the six-part series wherever they can.

Speaking at a For Your Consideration event (via Variety), stars Hugh Laurie and Tom Hiddleston revealed the research they did for their roles in the show.

Laurie, who plays the dastardly Richard Onslow Roper, spoke first, telling of how corporate lawyers had warned him against revealing why he was researching arms dealers: If it ever came to their attention that the worst man in the world was based on them, being sued by them would be the least of our problems.

This is not fun and games, this is an enormous industry involving astronomical degrees of violence. Theres a lot at stake, and these are not people you want to cross lightly. I discovered that much.

Tom Hiddleston and Elizabeth Debicki in The Night Manager (BBC)

On the other hand, Hiddlestons research was decidedly less dangerous: It was much easier for me to go to Night Managing school, I think. Im not likely to get sued by the Night Manager that I shadowed at the Rosewood Hotel.

The High Rise-actor explained how working in the London Hotel was comparable to working in a theatre: There is an upfront and a backstage, and its chaos backstage and its infinitely less glamorous, and the whole thing is being run so precisely in a way that I never couldve conceived.

There was a wedding going on in the ballroom in the basement and there were people on the first floor complaining about the music, and myself and the Night Manager had to keep both parties happy.

They keep notes on everybody, and everybodys got a psychological profile  truly. If somebody asks directions to the bar, you say allow me to escort you, as opposed to up the corridor and turn right. It was a very surreal night.

Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Show all 10 1 /10 Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Taking on the role of Coriolanus in William Shakespeare's play of the same name at The Donmar Warehouse, London, in 2013 AP Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage As Loki, the Norse god of mischief, in Thor:The Dark World (2013) AP Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Hiddleston, left, and Chris Hemsworth in a scene from Thor: The Dark World (2013) AP Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Playing depressed musician Adam in Only Lovers Left Alive (2013), which also stars Tilda Swinton AP Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage In an amorous clinch with Rachel Weisz as forbidden lovers Freddie and Hester in The Deep Blue Sea (2011) Rex Features Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Playing Posthumus to Jodie McNee's Imogen in Cymbeline, performed by Cheek by Jowl at the Barbican Theatre, London, in 2007 Rex Features Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage As the tragic Captain James Nicholls (right) in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011), alongside Benedict Cumberbatch (left) and Patrick Kennedy (centre) Rex Features Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage As Loki in The Avengers (2012) Rex Features Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Looking dapper in the role of F Scott Fitzgerald alongside Alison Pill in Midnight in Paris (2011) Rex Features Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage Tom Hiddleston on screen and stage A fresh-faced Hiddleston in Joanna Hogg's Archipelago (2010) Rex Features

Executive producer Stephen Garrett added that Hiddleston had learnt his trade so effectively that when we were filming the scenes in episode one [in the Egyptian hotel] we were way back, preparing for a wide shot  and this was a real hotel that was still alive that we were filming in  and people kept trying to check in with him.

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Over the course of the night, eight people approached him and were rather irritated that he was unable to check them in and show them to their rooms.

Hiddleston added that, during the course of filming, he ended up helping out a couple of guests by returning their keys: The real Night Manager behind the screen didnt notice.

In a recent interview, the actor said he wants people to stop asking him about playing James Bond in the future: "I feel like, I want to just make it stop, because I have no power over it, but that's what being famous is. You have no power over other people's opinions.

The Night Manager premiers in the US on 19 April, while it is available on DVD now in the UK.
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Scientists have expressed alarm at the devastating impact of climate change on the world's coral reefs.

More than a third of Earths reefs are now under threat due a process known as bleaching, in what could be the worst crisis ever to hit these vital ecosystems.

Bleaching, where the symbiotic relationship between algae and small animals called polyps breaks down, can occur under heat stress and has been linked to multiple weather events including the latest severe El Nino phenomenon. The process can kill off coral at an alarming rate and the damage may be irreversible.

Kim Cobb, a marine scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told The New York Times of the damage to the Pacific Oceans Kiritimati Island reef.

After visiting it on a recent dive, Ms Cobb said: The entire reef is covered with a red-brown fuzz, It is otherworldly. It is algae that has grown over dead coral. It was devastating.

Coral bleaching happens when high temperatures and bright sunshine cause the metabolism of the algae to accelerate massively until they start creating toxins. The algae are what give coral reefs their vivid colour.

Justin Marshall, the director of Coral Watch at Australias University of Queensland, added: This is a huge, looming planetary crisis, and we are sticking our heads in the sand about it.

Coral reefs in danger of being destroyed Show all 2 1 /2 Coral reefs in danger of being destroyed Coral reefs in danger of being destroyed 327443.bin ALAMY Coral reefs in danger of being destroyed 327442.bin ALAMY

Mark Eakin, the Coral Reef Watch coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Maryland, said: We are currently experiencing the longest global coral bleaching event ever observed. We are going to lose a lot of the worlds reefs during this event.

The health of coral reefs is essential to the oceans ecosystem. They provide food and shelter to 25 per cent of marine species and support enough fish to feed more than one billion people. Around 30 million small-scale fishermen depend on reefs for their income, according to estimates.

Everywhere from Hawaii in the Pacific to Reunion, off the coast of Madagascar, to East Flores, Indonesia, and the Florida Keys in the Atlantic, damaged or dying reefs have been found.
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Britains spy agency GCHQ intervened to prevent the sixth instalment of the Harry Potter book series being leaked on the internet, it has emerged.

Nigel Newton, the founder of Bloomsbury Publishing, was contacted by GCHQ  better known for locating terrorists  a decade ago to relay fears that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince may have been leaked on the internet before its official publication date.

In an Australian radio interview last week, Mr Newton said: We fortunately had many allies GCHQ rang me up and said, Weve detected an early copy of this book on the internet. I got them to read a page to our editor and she said, No, thats a fake.

A source at GCHQ told the Sunday Times: We dont comment on our defence against the dark arts.

Excitement over the books publication over a decade ago led to heightened security at the publishing site that included guard dogs and security personnel.

A report in The Independent, from 2005, detailed how two men were charged with firearms offences and handling stolen material after a dramatic operation to recover stolen copies of the Half-Blood Prince. Two copies of the book - one of the most eagerly anticipated publications at the time - were offered to tabloid newspapers at pre-arranged meeting in Northamptonshire.

However, both copies of the book were recovered and the incident promoted author JK Rowling to obtain an injunction, forbidding the men from leaking any details for the novel
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Britains intelligence agencies are preparing to vet the final version of the Chilcot Inquirys report into the Iraq war ahead of publication this summer.

A team of security officials at MI5, MI6 and the Cabinet Office are expected to be given access to the two-million word document at the beginning of next week.

Some of the families of those who were killed in Iraq have expressed concern that the process could result in some of the key elements of the report being watered down. However, this has been categorically denied by both the Government and Sir John Chilcot himself.

Sir John said the checking process was a necessary and normal procedure in inquiries that have considered a large volume of sensitive material. He added its purpose was to ensure that the Government met its obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights and for the protection of national security.

The team who will carry out the vetting recently met John Penrose, the minister in charge of the Governments response to the report, and is now said to be all set to start work.

Mr Penrose told The Sunday Telegraph that the process would take just two weeks to complete; however, the report would not be published until June or July because of the time needed to prepare it for publication and printing.

The delay may also be due to pressure from the Government not to publish such a controversial and distracting report before the referendum on Britains membership of the European Union.

Nobody wants this to take any longer than it has already, Mr Penrose said. The process of checking by security officials will take no more than two weeks to complete. Sir John can then complete the process of preparing his report for publication on the timetable set out in his letter to the Prime Minister last October. We look forward to seeing the final report then.

But Reg Keys, whose son 20-year-old son Lance Corporal Thomas Keys died in an ambush in Iraq in 2003, said he wanted to know who was going through the report and how ministers would ensure that embarrassing findings were not edited out.

Mr Keys added he was worried that there could be cohorts of Tony Blair and Alistair Campbell going through the report, adding the group had to be politically neutral. There needs to be a referee almost  if someone says I am taking this out', it needs to be shown to an independent person, otherwise it will be a whitewash, he said.

Mr Keys said it was absolutely absurd that Sir John and the Government were sticking to a publication date of June or July to allow time for type-setting and proof-setting.

He said he was worried that the reports publication would be overshadowed by the European Union referendum on 23 June. If it is held up to after the referendum, it will be a good day to bury bad news," he said. "Does the Prime Minister want to be juggling two heavyweight news items at the same time?

The news comes ahead of a House of Commons debate this week when MPs will put pressure on the Government not to allow national security vetting to delay publication.

The Iraq War: A timeline Show all 16 1 /16 The Iraq War: A timeline The Iraq War: A timeline 11 September 2001 Terrorists belonging to al-Qaeda use hijacked aeroplanes to kill 2,996 people in attacks on the east coast of the US. AP The Iraq War: A timeline 12 September 2001 Tony Blair promises George W Bush that the UK will support the US, whatever the President decides to do. AFP/Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline 25 March 2002 Jack Straw, Foreign Secretary, warns Blair that invading Iraq would be legally dubious. Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline June 2002 Tony Blair asks defence officials to outline options for UK participation in military action against Iraq. afp/getty images The Iraq War: A timeline 24 September 2002 The government publishes a dossier about the threat from Iraqs weapons of mass destruction. A foreword by Tony Blair states that Saddam Husseins military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them. It is subsequently alleged that this dossier was sexed up for political reasons. Getty The Iraq War: A timeline 2 October 2002 Congress authorises President Bush to use military force against Iraq. Getty The Iraq War: A timeline 8 November 2002 UN Security Council passes resolution 1441, insisting that weapons inspectors be allowed back into Iraq and calling on the regime to give up its WMD or face the consequences. Simon Walker/AP The Iraq War: A timeline 18 July 2003 David Kelly, an expert in biological warfare, is found dead after being named as the source of quotations used by the BBCs Andrew Gilligan to suggest that the dossier of September 2002 had been sexed up. Lord Hutton is appointed to chair a judicial inquiry into his death. GETTY IMAGES The Iraq War: A timeline 13 December 2003 Saddam Hussein is captured near Tikrit, after nine months in hiding. REUTERS The Iraq War: A timeline 2 March 2004 Bombings in Baghdad and Karbala kill nearly 200 people: the worst attacks since the fall of Saddam. Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline 14 September 2005 Bombs in Baghdad kill 160 people and injure more than 500. EPA The Iraq War: A timeline 30 December 2005 Saddam Hussein is executed. Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline 28 May 2009 The last British combat troops leave Iraq. Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline 24 November 2009 The Chilcot inquiry holds its first public hearing. Getty The Iraq War: A timeline 2 February 2011 The Chilcot inquiry holds its final public hearing. AFP/Getty Images The Iraq War: A timeline 21 January 2015 Sir John Chilcot confirms that his report will not be published before the general election in May 2015. Getty Images

David Davis MP, the former Conservative shadow Home Secretary who is leading the debate, urged the Government to ensure the report is published as soon as possible. He said any delay was frankly outrageous. This foot dragging has been going on long enough. The whole country is fed up waiting for answers".

Writing in yesterdays Sunday Telegraph, Mr Davis wrote: "The families of those 179 British soldiers who died fighting for their country in Iraq have already waited long enough for answers. They have suffered for years as the inquiry has dragged on and on. Making them wait months longer, just because the Government is worried about what (if any) impact the report may have on the referendum, would be unspeakably cruel.

This is not about pinning blame on people, it is about facing up to the mistakes we made as a nation. It is about giving those who have suffered great loss some solace in the truth.

The Chilcot Inquiry started work in November 2009 and took its last oral evidence five years ago in February 2011.

By contrast, the last major report on the conflict  the Butler inquiry into the intelligence behind the decision to go to war  started work on 3 February 2004 and was published five months later.
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Land belonging to railway stations in towns across the country is set to be developed in "the biggest programme of rail improvements since the Victorian age".

The Department for Communities and Local Government hopes the project, to build on Network Rail property, will create numerous jobs and up to 10,000 homes.

However, the scheme would be locally led, with no Government-imposed targets on affordable housing.

Recommended Read more Network Rail earmarks 18 major stations for privatisation

It is as yet unknown who could benefit most from the developments, likely to be extremely lucrative for developers given the prime location of many railway stations in town centres.

Though it is making funding available for developers and Starter Homes, the Government has insisted local areas will decide their own needs for each project area, meaning the sites could all be very different to one another.

York, Taunton and Swindon councils have already identified railway sites that could be used to deliver housing and other regeneration.

Neither the Taunton or Swindon proposals mention affordable housing in their pitches, but focus on the creation of vibrant areas which will improve local business, leisure and market-rate housing options.

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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. 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The York proposals are more detailed, suggesting that land at York Central station can support up to 2,500 homes. While the York proposals mention the inclusion of Starter Homes and community facilities, it does not commit to a number or specify details. In addition to housing, the council predicts the development of 100,000 square metres of office and commercial space which could support over 6,600 jobs.

Local councils across the country are being called on by the Government to take part in the scheme.

Communities Secretary, Greg Clark, said: "Rail stations are a hub of communities, connectivity and commerce and should be making the most of their unique potential to attract investment and opportunities.

"With record numbers of people travelling by train, it makes sense to bring people closer to stations and develop sites that have space for thousands of new homes and offices."

The Government believes the project will help improve commerce and give the taxpayer value for money. Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said: We are delivering the biggest programme of rail improvements since the Victorian age.

As a one nation Government we are determined to ensure further opportunities are grasped to put stations at the heart of wider community regeneration. This will help deliver thousands of new homes and jobs and deliver a substantial return to the taxpayer.

Im pleased to see that exciting visions for regeneration at Swindon, Taunton and York are being developed, with the potential for hundreds of additional homes and new businesses.
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Northern Ireland is coming under growing pressure to stop prosecuting women for having abortions following a series of high-profile cases week which have focused international attention and outcry on the region's abortion ban.

Despite being part of the UK, Northern Ireland is exempt from the 1967 Abortion Act which covers the rest of the country and instead women face up to life in prison for having an abortion.

Leading MPs and Northern Irish women spoke to The Independent about how the laws affect lives locally and urged Northern Ireland to urgently stop prosecuting women. The United Nations Human Rights Committee also issued a fresh call for the UK to change the laws "as a matter of priority."

Recommended Read more A woman has just been sentenced for the crime of abortion in the UK

The case which exposed the harsh reality of the laws involved the prosecution of a 21-year-old woman in a Belfast court.

The woman told the court she was 19 when she had a crisis pregnancy and had tried to find enough money to travel to England for a legal procedure, but did not manage to and so ordered abortion pills online instead. When her housemates found blood-stained clothes and foetal remains in a bin, they reported her to the police and she was arrested.

It subsequently emerged that a second woman had appeared in a Belfast court and was due to stand trial on April 27 accused of helping her daughter access abortion pills.

Local media has reported that prosecutors are considering two further files relating to abortion charges.

Why is Northern Ireland's abortion legislation different from the rest of the UK? Unlike the rest of the UK, the 1967 Abortion Act does not apply to Northern Ireland. Terminations are a criminal offence with a jail sentence of up to life in prison unless a womans health is in imminent and serious threat of permanent harm. Very few women seeking abortions meet these strict requirements. It is estimated that around 1,000 Northern Irish women travel to Great Britain for abortions every year. Following a High Court ruling this summer, Northern Irish women are not entitled to free NHS England abortions and must pay privately for the procedure when they arrive. It is believed that a growing number of women may be buying abortion pills online and having them shipped into Northern Ireland. In November, Belfast High Court ruled that the abortion ban is a breach of international human rights legislation. However, in February, the Northern Ireland Assembly voted to keep the ban regardless.

A spokesperson for the United Nations Human Rights Committee told The Independent the organisation was "concerned" by the prosecutions following a review of Northern Ireland's abortion ban.

They said: "The Committee is concerned about the highly restrictive circumstances in which termination of pregnancy is permitted by law in Northern Ireland and about the severe criminal sanctions for unlawful abortion, which put women's life and health at risk and force them to travel in order to seek an abortion.

"The State party [UK] should, as a matter of priority, amend its legislation on abortion in Northern Ireland with a view to providing for additional exceptions to the legal ban on abortion, including in cases of rape, incest and fatal foetal abnormality."

Speaking to The Independent, MPs Yvette Cooper, Caroline Lucas, Liz Kendall and Jess Phillips urged the Northern Ireland Assembly to stop prosecuting women, calling the prosecutions appalling and shameful.

Yvette Cooper MP said: These are deeply troubling cases. It is appalling that any woman should have been forced through the criminal courts because she couldnt afford to travel a few miles across the sea for an abortion. The law in Northern Ireland is way out of date and goes against the Human Rights Convention. Its high time the Northern Ireland Assembly changed the law.

Caroline Lucas MP said: This case shows the grim realities of the harsh restrictions on the right to choose in Northern Ireland. Women should never face this kind of draconian crackdown. Its time that Northern Irelands abortion laws were updated and that womens right to choose is upheld.

Liz Kendall MP said: We must end the criminalisation of women in Northern Ireland who, often in desperate circumstances, decide to terminate their pregnancy. Currently, women wishing to terminate a pregnancy are either forced to travel to other parts of the UK, or, if they dont have the money, attempt an abortion themselves, putting their safety at risk. That is no choice. Women in Northern Ireland should have access to safe abortions, in hospitals or clinics, like women in the rest of the UK.

Jess Phillips MP said: I am appalled that in the country where I live such a discrepancy of rights exists. The criminalisation of any woman who chooses to take control of her own body in the UK brings shame upon us all. This young woman deserved love, care, support and understanding- I am only sorry she faced the exact opposite. We will all suffer the shame of this until we fight for and achieve change for every British woman and all the women in the world.

What life is like for Northern Irish women under the ban

Seven women shared their personal experiences with The Independent of living under Northern Irelands abortion ban. Names have been changed to protect the womens identities as many fear prosecution by police.

Niamh*

"I have a serious health condition and when I became pregnant, my doctor told me that there was a risk the baby could be born with no limbs, spina bifida or Downs syndrome. If I were in any other region of the UK, I would have been recommended an abortion as a medical treatment.

Although I could afford to travel to England for a termination, I didnt know how I could explain to midwives and doctors why I was suddenly no longer pregnant. I ordered tablets instead.

Waiting for the tablets to arrive was terrifying. I was convinced the police had intersected my post and were waiting to arrest me. When the tablets arrived, I took them but soon realised something was seriously wrong. Blood was gushing out of me like a tap. I went to hospital but couldnt tell the medical staff what Id done. I lay bleeding on the hospital floor for six hours. I still think about what harm I will have caused myself in the long run, and Ive no way of knowing.

Life for women in Northern Ireland is difficult to describe. I live in fear. Despite no longer being pregnant I still worry about the consequences, Im not sure how to move on. The fear of being arrested stays with me and Ive no idea how long it will take until Im comfortable knowing that Im safe."

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Public Prosecution Service in Belfast to argue that the prosecutions do not meet the 'public interest' threshold (Getty)

Deborah*

"My work colleague became pregnant and I travelled to England with her for the termination. She was a single mother already and had to take out a loan to cover the cost of the flight and procedure.

We had to travel back on the same day as the procedure because we couldnt afford to stay over. My friend almost fainted in the airport toilets and the journey home was horrendous, she was in such pain and discomfort. If the abortion ban was not in place, she could have stayed in her home country, received better care and not endured that terrible journey."

Lauren*

"I was suffering from post-natal depression after giving birth to my son when I became pregnant again. I knew that mentally, emotionally and financially I couldnt cope with another child. I couldnt buy pills online so I force-fed myself a large amount of vitamin C pills in the hope of bringing on a miscarriage.

It didnt work and thankfully a friend lent me around 1,000 for the procedure in England. Flying home afterwards was an ordeal no woman should have to endure. The cramps, the blood and air hostesses and strangers and the tiny little airplane toilet trying to look after myself- it was all such an unnecessary ordeal.

I am blown away by how anti-women our country is. The prosecutions this week make me ashamed to be Northern Irish."

Protesters carry a banner outside Belfast's Public Prosecution this week stating 'Break the stigma, all women should have a right to choose' (Getty)

Ciara*

"I would have had to consider suicide had I been forced to continue with my pregnancy. I was not a victim of crime or rape but someone who just could not handle having a baby.

I travelled to Manchester for an abortion and was so lucky that I was able to do so."

Natasha*

"I was lucky, although Im from Northern Ireland I was studying at an English university when I became pregnant. I do not regret it. I never have. Im not sure I ever will.

However, it was very much on my mind that my own country did not want me to have the choice that I did. Northern Ireland denies women and girls the right to choose how to live their lives. The government did not trust me. The government in Northern Ireland does not trust women.

The conviction this week sickened me. It makes me ashamed to say that I am from Northern Ireland."

The protesters claim that the trials do not meet the 'public interest' threshold for prosecution (Getty)

Paula*

"I was 16 when I took the plane to London. I was distressed and terrified and I had to take time off school to go. I was very lucky that my parents went with me. We stayed in a hotel afterwards and I was so fortunate that I didnt have to fly home, in pain and bleeding.

The thought of that poor young woman who was prosecuted this week had to go through with no support doesnt bare thinking about."

Rebecca*

"I travelled to Liverpool for an abortion and had a miscarriage while I was waiting for the procedure. This is the first time I've ever been open with anyone about what happened.

A nurse sat with me and held my hand while it happened and said: "I'm sure you just wish you were at home." I did wish I was home instead of having to fly over to England and would have given anything to be able to have it done at home.

I wanted to be in Northern Ireland so I could have returned safely to my own home afterwards, sleep in my own home that night- instead of in a cheap hotel room, terrified of staining the sheets. I got the plane home to Northern Ireland the following evening, still in pain and still bleeding.

The recent events here with the trials haunt me and sicken me."
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The Mayor of London Boris Johnson has told people to stop bashing the super-rich, comparing them to hard-pressed minorities like the homeless, Irish travellers or ex-gang members.

Mr Johnson accused everyone from the Archbishop of Canterbury to Nick Clegg of bullying the group he defined as zillionaires  and said the most rich of all should receive automatic knighthoods.

The comments come from an article Mr Johnson wrote for the Daily Telegraph, and appear just a day after the BBCs The Revolution Will Be Televised programme criticised the capitals mayor for his career in show business  confronting him and asking when he would move into politics.

Mr Johnson said the rich deserve our humble and hearty thanks for their contributions to charity and the exchequer  quoting figures that say the top 1 per cent pay 29.8 per cent of all UK income tax.

 Boris Johnson knocks over kid playing rugby in Japan

It is my duty to stick up for every put-upon minority in the city  from the homeless to Irish travellers to ex-gang members to disgraced former MPs, Mr Johnson wrote.

But there is one minority that I still behold with a benign bewilderment, and that is the very, very rich.

These are the people who put bread on the tables of families who  if the rich didnt invest in supercars and employ eau de cologne-dabbers  might otherwise find themselves without a breadwinner, Mr Johnson said.

We should stop any bashing or moaning or preaching or bitching and simply give thanks for the prodigious sums of money that they are contributing to the tax revenues of this country, and that enable us to look after our sick and our elderly and to build roads, railways and schools, he said.

The London Assembly's Labour group leader Len Duvall responded to the mayor's article, saying: Many hard-pressed Londoners will find Boris views on the super-rich difficult to stomach, at a time when people are struggling with the cost of living crisis his comments are deeply offensive.

Rather than cosying up to the 0.1 per cent he should be spending his time using his position as our Mayor to ease the burden on ordinary Londoners.

On Twitter, Mr Johnsons comments were backed by the Spectator editor Fraser Nelson, who said: Hes right, but which other politician would dare say so?

But Adam Bienkov from Politics.co.uk compared the mayors comments to the fact that the number of homeless in London has doubled over the past five years  despite Mr Johnsons promise to end rough sleeping in London by the end of 2012.

Paul Isemonger said the comments were an absurd anachronism, while student activists Peoples Assembly Against Austerity from Kings College, London said: Boris Johnson has suggested that the super rich are an oppressed minority. These people just don't get it, do they?
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David Cameron needs to "build up" trust with the public following the row over his personal finances, a Conservative minister has said.

When the Prime Minister took the unprecedented step of publishing details of his tax returns, it was revealed he had been given a 200,000 gift by his mother following his father's death - on top of 300,000 inheritance from his father.

In a second blow to the Conservative Party leader, the gift was criticised as an attempt to reduce inheritance tax liabilities.

Penny Mordaunt, defence minister, told BBC One's Sunday Politics that the trust of the public had been damaged by the revelations.

"I don't think it's damaged his credibility. I think - I don't have any other insights other than you do, but I don't think he has done anything wrong," she said.

"I think what this is about is trust. And he has to now demonstrate and build up that trust and rapport with the general public."

Number 10 said the two payments of 100,000 in 2011 from Mary Cameron was an attempt to "balance" the sums received by their children.

The information about the Prime Minister's finances showed that he paid more than 400,000 in tax on an income of more than 1 million over six years from 2009 to 2015.

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The revelations came after a huge leak of documents from the Panama-based firm Mossack Fonseca, a law firm and corporate services provider which appears to have enabled clients to hide billions of dollars in tax havens.

After initially saying his investments were a "private matter", Mr Cameron was forced to admit that he and his wife Samantha made a 19,000 profit on shares in an offshore trust set up by the prime minister's father.

Mr Cameron has been angered by the focus on his father's offshore business interests, insisting it was a "fundamental misconception" that the Blairmore Holdings trust had been set up to avoid tax.

Asked if the Prime Minister had lost her trust, Ms Mordaunt said a move towards greater transparency would be necessary.

"I think that this will raise questions ... about politicians publishing further information about themselves," she said.

"And I think although I understand arguments around privacy and security, if that is what the electorate require of their elected officials, I think that's what will have to happen."

The information released by Number 10, in a schedule drawn up by accountants, showed the Prime Minister had a taxable income of more than 200,000 in 2014-15 and paid almost 76,000 in tax.

He has also earned enough to benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p - and lets out his Notting Hill home for more than 90,000 a year.

Mr Cameron said he was publishing the information to be "completely open and transparent" about his financial affairs.

Additional reporting by the Press Association
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Government ministers are actively considering plans to water down celebrities ability to prevent the British media from publishing material through court injunctions, according to reports.

It comes after a well-known public figure took out an injunction to prevent the Sun on Sunday from publishing details of an extra-marital three-way sexual encounter and details of an open marriage with their partner.

The individual is referred to by the initials PJS and their partner is referred to as YMA in the case. The couples identity, however, was revealed in American publications and circulated on social media. The Sun on Sunday had wanted to publish an account of their sexual exploits with others.

Conservative MP Philip Davies condemned the injunction and said that the situation is a farce and has made an ass out of the law in the UK.

But speaking to the Sunday Telegraph, a Whitehall source said: Its an issue which has been under active consideration,

According to the newspaper the source said the government was looking to re-balance the law so injunctions are more difficult to obtain using right to private life claims under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said to The Independent the department "does not comment on stories from unnamed sources".

The principal issue in this appeal is whether the first instance judge, who refused to grant an injunction, properly balanced the competing rights which are in play, wrote Lord Justice Jackson in his ruling regarding the well-known public figure.

Justice Jackson said he and Lady Justice King had decided to allow their appeal after balancing their human right to respect for family life and the newspaper's right to free expression.

Lord Justice Jackson said publishing the story would be devastating for the claimant under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and would generate a media storm  saying the couple's two children would become the subject of increased press attention.

Lord Justice Jackson said both PJS and YMA had been in an "open" relationship but were committed to each other and their children.

They maintained that they had not courted publicity about their private life. They said that the various press articles about them were substantially true. They had been in a relationship for many years. The relationship was an open one.

YMA accepted that from time to time the claimant had sexual encounters with others. The relationship between the claimant and YMA was one of commitment. They provided a loving home for their children.
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Jeremy Corbyn has insisted that Labour is "absolutely resolute" about tackling "abhorrent" anti-Semitism after the Jewish Board of Deputies called for him to take action against racism in the party.

The Labour leader said there was "no place for any racism of any sort" and promised swift action in any cases which come to light.

He was speaking after councillor Aysegul Gurbuz was suspended by the party over messages posted on her Twitter account claiming that Hitler was the "greatest man in history" and suggesting that Iran could develop a nuclear weapon to "wipe Israel off the map".

On Thursday UKs main Jewish organisation accused Mr Corbyn of failing to deal with anti-Semitism after what they described as a stream of clear cut cases which cant just be fobbed off as differences over Israel.

Asked about the issue on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show Mr Corbyn said he would ensure that the party took robust action against any member expressing anti-Jewish sentiments.

"Anti-Semitism is absolutely abhorrent and wrong, he said.

Anyone that commits any act of anti-Semitism, that makes anti-Semitic remarks, is auto excluded from the party and an inquiry follows immediately.

"We have suspended, we will suspend, any member that behaves in that way."

The allegations over Ms Gurbuz follow a series of incidents involving anti-Semitic comments by Labour activists, including one who was suspended after posting tweets referring to Jews with "big noses" and describing Hitler as a "Zionist God".

The chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club recently resigned, saying a "large proportion" of its members had "some kind of problem with Jews".

Luton councillor Ms Gurbuz suggested her sister may have posted the now-deleted comments on her Twitter account.

The Mail on Sunday reported that she told the Campaign Against Antisemitism: "It was a joint account I had with my sister so I don't know if she's gone out and tweeted that, but I'm absolutely appalled right now."

"Where I live we've got very good cohesion with the Jewish community... I'm absolutely shocked."

A Labour Party spokeswoman said: "Councillor Gurbuz has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation."
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David Cameron had a taxable income of more than 200,000 in 2014-15 and paid almost 76,000 in tax, an unprecedented release of his personal finance details show.

The figures show that, on top of his income as Prime Minister, his 50 per cent share of the rental income on the Camerons' family home in London amounted to 46,899, he received 9,834 in taxable expenses from the Tory party and 3,052 in interest on savings in a high street bank.

The figures reveal that when he first entered Downing Street in 2010 he took advantage of a 20,000 tax-free allowance as part of his 142,500 salary.

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He also inherited 300,000 when his father died in 2010 and was also given two payments of 100,000 by his mother in May and July 2011 in an attempt to balance out the legacy left between the Prime Minister and his siblings.

Mr Cameron's disclosure - a four-page document compiled by his accountants - raises as many questions as it answers  could his mother's gift could allow the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 worth of inheritance tax, for example?

The information, first promised in 2012 but released following the furore about Mr Cameron's shares in an offshore fund set up by his father shows that Mr Cameron earned enough to benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p.

The cut, announced in 2012 for people earning more than 150,000, came into effect in April 2013.

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Mr Cameron said he was publishing the information to be completely open and transparent about his financial affairs.

The disclosure came after he admitted botching the handling of the row over his finances, telling Tory activists it had not been a great week.

The Prime Minister and his wife Samantha also made a 19,000 profit from their sale in 2010 of shares in the Blairmore Holdings fund set up by Ian Cameron.

The Prime Minister and his wife made 19,000 from the sale of shares in Blairmore Holdings (Getty)

The 9,501 declared as Mr Cameron's share of the profit in the schedule released by Downing Street fell below the threshold for capital gains tax, which stood at 10,100.

The tax return figures show that in 2009-10, while leader of the opposition, Mr Cameron paid 43,483 income tax on a total taxable income of 129,225.

In 2010-11, after entering Downing Street, he paid 56,155 on a taxable income of 157,286 - benefiting from the little-known 20,000 tax-free prime ministerial expenses deduction.

Thousands march on Downing Street calling for Cameron to resign over Panama Papers scandal

In 2011-12 his income rose to 200,919, boosted by his share of the rental income from the Notting Hill home vacated by the Camerons when they moved into Downing Street, and he paid 77,987 in tax.

In 2012-13 Mr Cameron paid 72,472 tax on an income of 189,506; in 2013-14 he paid 76,288 on his 200,735 income. Although Mr Cameron's gross salary as Prime Minister stood at 142,500 between 2010 and 2015, the variations in the taxable amount came through the way his pension contributions were treated and the different approaches taken to the 20,000 tax-free allowance.

The Prime Minister voluntarily cancelled out the allowance by declaring the equivalent amount as taxable income between 2011-12 and 2013-14 before waiving it entirely from 2014-15.

The figures show that the Camerons receive rent of more than 90,000 a year on the Notting Hill property.Mr Cameron's 50% share of the net rental income, minus expenses, was 45,041 in 2011-12, 46,700 in 2012-13, 47,764 in 2013-14 and 46,899 last year.

Interest from his high street savings accounts amounted to 26 in 2009-10, 87 in 2010-11, 365 in 2011-12 before rising to 2,701 in 2012-13, 6,681 in 2013-14 and 3,052 in 2014-15.

Mr Cameron's savings benefited from the sale of 72,000 of shares when he entered No 10, with the gains on some shares wiped out by losses on others, resulting in a capital loss of 2,507, and around 40,000 in cash from an account with a stockbroker.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would publish his own tax return very, very soon and insisted there were no surprises there as he demanded action to crack down on tax havens.

PA
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Brazils President Dilma Rousseff could soon see impeachment proceedings brought against her, as congress legislators are expected to vote on starting the process today. However, media coverage of the political turmoil is causing alarm among some leading journalists who claim the countrys democratic process is under threat from a perniciously partisan press.

Whatever the outcome of the indictment  which accuses Ms Rousseff of mismanaging the economy, and which could see her either being ousted, resigning or surviving  media experts argue the persistent distortion and manipulation of the news coverage of the political crisis by the country's mainstream media has handed an overwhelming advantage in the opinion stakes to forces aligned against the countrys first female President.

Bia Barbosa, a journalist and coordinator of the Brasilia-based National Forum for the Democratisation of Communication (FNDC) told The Independent: The media has used the power of images and words to build a narrative designed to influence public opinion. What we are suffering, on a daily basis, is an absence of parity in the press and this is threatening our countrys fragile hold on democracy.

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Brazils media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few domestic conglomerates which dominate the market, and are owned by a wealthy elite with historic allegiances to right-wing parties. These same political parties failed four times to defeat Ms Rousseffs Workers' Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores) at the polls.

And even as the two-year investigation, known as "Car Wash"into allegations of bribery, corruption and money laundering at the countrys publicly-owned oil company Petrobras implicates politicians in all parties, the focus has predominantly been on Workers' Party members as well as the former President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva. Mr da Silva denies any wrongdoing, while Ms Rousseff herself has not been implicated in the Car Wash probe.

To date, far less has been reported in the media on the 37 politicians facing charges of corruption and other serious crimes who are sitting on the 65-member impeachment commission who will votes on the Presidents future. The impeachment process is expected to culminate later this month.

According to Boaventura de Sousa Santos, Professor of Sociology at Portugals University of Coimbra: Brazils political right has hijacked the [Car Wash] investigation and along with its media accomplices, turned a legitimate judicial investigation into a [constitutional] coup attempt.

Instead of portraying the issue in its varying shades of grey with its complicated and ethically ambiguous areas, the FNDC claims media outlets have dumbed down arguments into a simplistic narrative, polarising the population into good guy versus bad guy camps and for or against-the-government supporters.

There are thousands of people who dont fall into either area, Ms Barbosa said. They are the ones who see the bigger picture and are fighting to defend democracy and the legitimate election of a government voted in by 54 million people.

Since the high-profile detention of former President Mr da Silva just over a month ago, which was leaked to the press turning the incident into a media circus, the FNDC has been analysing coverage of the political scandal. Rede Globo, the largest media company in Brazil with TV and radio networks, newspapers, news websites and pay TV operations, Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper and Vejo magazine have come under particular scrutiny.

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. 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Our monitoring reveals we urgently need plurality of voices in society so that people can get a diversity of information and build their own opinions. This is our right," said Ms Barbosa.

Alex Solnik, a journalist with over three decades reporting in the Brazilian media, recently cancelled his 30-year subscription with Folha de Sao Paulo. He said a once impartial and balanced publication now overtly politicises the news stifling debate.

The oversimplification of the issues has provoked angry rallies with thousands taking to the streets over the past few weeks bearing banner slogans with Nao vai ter golpe (There will be no coup) and Globo Golpista (Globo coup-instigator) which accuses Globo TV of plotting to overthrow the government. The protests have included demonstrations outside Rede Globos headquarters across the country with assaults on its journalists and vandalism and burning of the networks vehicles.

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Anti-Globo protests have surfaced online and are reportedly causing alarm among major Rede Globo advertisers who fear the growth of the movement against the media organisation could impact on their brands and the consumption of their products.

An advertising executive is reported to have said Globo is professional but its journalism is instigating a [boycott] movement in social networks which cannot be allowed to grow".

In a statement, Globo said: "[We] only fulfil [our] mission to inform the people...[we are] backed by the constitution and will continue to do so, calmly, and with nothing to fear".
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Staff at a Burger King restaurant smashed its windows after a prank caller warned the building may explode unless "pressure was relieved".

A man claiming to be from the fire department called the restaurant in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, on Friday night to say there was an explosive gas inside the building and that staff should break the windows to allow it to disperse safely.

Police officers arrived to find windows being broken by employees of the restaurant, in an effort to let out air, Coon Rapids Police Department said in a statement.

The manager was frantic and actually believed the building was going to blow," Sergeant Rick Boone told local newspaper Star Tribune.

The store had received a phone call from a male who identified himself as a fireman, Sgt Boone said.

The caller said there were dangerous levels of gas in the building and [that staff] had to break out all the windows to keep the building from blowing up."

"The employees ran out to their cars and got tire irons to break out the restaurant windows", Captain Tom Hawley told CNN.

"About 20 windows were busted out... He [the caller] was very convincing. He seemed to have knowledge of fire suppression systems and acted like he was monitoring the building remotely.

One employee suffered a minor cut while breaking the windows, according to police. No other injuries were reported.

"I guess I was a little scared, Burger King employee Ethan Grewe told CNN-affiliate TV station WCCO.

My other co-workers were doing it, so I just followed along.

The smashed windows have been boarded up, and the drive-thru section remains open for business.

Officers are investigating the identity of the caller. Residents who receive a phone call claiming to come from the fire or police departments are asked to consider it a prank and call 911 immediately.

A Burger King restaurant in Oklahoma reportedly received a similar call the previous night, warning staff there were high levels of carbon monoxide in the building. Employees smashed windows, incurring an estimated $10,000 damage, reported local TV station KFOR-TV.

"It is a little upsetting that they would try to give the fire department a black eye," Thomas Larman, of the Shawnee Fire Department, told the station.

"We would never do anything like that. We're here to serve the public, protect the public."

The prank is just a waste of time for everybody, Christa Jones, mother of a Burger King employee in Coon Rapids, told CNN.

It costs everybody money.

Another such call to a California Burger King restaurant in February resulted in $35,000 damage and one employee ramming his car into the building. Fast food restaurants Jack in the Box and Wendys have received similar calls this year in Arizona.
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Cubans are facing a shortage of their favourite brands of beer Cristal and Bucanero, as a surge in American tourists and proliferation of new private watering holes put the islands main brewery under strain.

Cubas main brewer Bucanero is considering opening a new plant to keep up with the demands of thirsty tourists descending on the country  last year Cuba welcomed a record 3.5 million visitors, up 17 per cent on the previous year. American visitors, meanwhile, rose 77 per cent to 161,000.

The most recent tourism figures, for January, showed a similar pace of growth.

American tourists have been visiting the Communist-led country in their droves since US President Barack Obama eased travel restrictions to the country in a bid to end 50 years of enmity. It is expected that hundreds will step off a cruise ship from Miami into Havana in May, the first such voyage since the US embargo that followed Fidel Castros 1959 revolution.

Mayle Gonzalez, a sales executive at Bucanero, told state media the new plant would help keep pace with a growing demand from tourists and a burgeoning private restaurant sector that competes with state-run outlets for supplies.

Bucanero, a joint venture between the Cuban government and Belgiums Anheuser Busch InBev, also makes the countrys most widely consumed brew, Cristal.

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Local media reported that Cubas breweries signed contracts this week for more than 33 million cases of beer at a business in Havana, considerably more than their current production capability will allow. Bucanero is reportedly planning to import three million cases of beer from Dominica to keep up with demand.

Small restaurants that cater to both tourists and Cubans have blossomed on the Caribbean island since President Raul Castro five years ago formalised changes designed to remove the Communist state from many small-scale economic activities.

Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Show all 20 1 /20 Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man rides his modified bicycle past a vintage American car in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A taxi sits parked by Ancon Beach waiting for returning bathers in Trinidad Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Afrocuban carnival group "Los componedores de batea" performing in the streets of La Habana Vieja Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Pastel colours for an ice-cream place and a vintage American car in Cienfuegos after sunset Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man on the phone in a bookshop in Old Havana (Habana Vieja) selling books and displaying propaganda poster of the Cuban Revolution Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Street Musicians in Santiago De Cuba Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man works to repair his classic American car after it broke down along the Prado, a wide avenue that runs from Parque Central to the Malecon seafront highway, in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Members of the 'Ladies in White,' a group founded by the partners and relatives of jailed dissidents that regularly protests against the Cuban government, demonstrate on the streets of Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Street vegetables vendor in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba The sun setting through the palm trees and creates long shadows on the pool deck at this resort in Cuba Varadero Rex Pictures of everyday life in Cuba General view of a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A girls plays on a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Girls walk past graffiti art along the Paseo de Marti, the wide boulevard that runs through the heart of the historic Old Havana neighborhood in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A woman smokes her Havana cigar Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba A man harvests tobacco leaves for drying at a tobacco drying house on a co-op plantation in Pinar del Rio Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Men play chess on a street in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Locals take part in a gay parade in Havana Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Scene of the Memories Paraiso Azul resort in Santa Maria Key Getty Images Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Beach on the Bay of Pigs, Zapata Peninsula Pictures of everyday life in Cuba Divers swimming above coral reef in Caribbean Sea Rex

Private bars can go out and find supplies where they can, I can only sell what the government gives me, said the manager of a state-run bar that ran out of beer, while a private bar upstairs had a fridge full of cold bottles.

But it is not the first time the island has had to come to terms with a shortage in beer supplies: in August 2014, during one of the hottest summers on record, a sharp fall in production and thirsty beer enthusiasts led to greatly inflated prices.

Reuters
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When American Apparel moved to its Downtown Los Angeles headquarters in 2000, the historic core of Americas second-largest city was still a shabby archetype of urban decay. But in the time it took the clothing manufacturer to grow from a modest wholesale business into a global hipster behemoth, much of Downtown was revitalised, gentrified and transformed back into LAs beating heart.

Now, the companys controversial founder, Dov Charney, has made the grand claim that he was personally responsible for the areas rehabilitation, as he outlined his ambitions for a new clothing business, which he intends to locate in another long-neglected neighbourhood: South Central LA.

Downtown LA, I made it cool, the Canadian-born entrepreneur said last week, in an interview with PBS host Tavis Smiley. But since he can no longer afford the rejuvenated real estate prices there, he went on, The next place I intend to make cool is south of the 10 freeway, right on the banks of Downtown.

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Mr Charney, who is 47, said he had been looking for a suitable site to build a garment mill in South LA, a sprawling patchwork of underprivileged communities still best known to many outsiders as the crucible of gangster rap and the epicentre of the 1992 LA Riots. To Mr Charney, though, it is the most exciting neighbourhood in the United States with all the ingredients for creative combustion.

Though he did not disclose the finer points of his plan, Mr Charneys new firm would sell US-made t-shirts and underwear, initially as a wholesale concern, but later expanding into retail. Just like American Apparel, its workers would be paid above minimum wage and potentially be part-owners. We hope to create a brand that captures the attention of the world, he said. It will be irreverent and authentic.

While South LA residents would undoubtedly welcome the new job opportunities, many are also wary of what occurs when a neighbourhood becomes known as cool. South Central doesnt need anyone to make it cool, the South LA community group SAJE (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy) said in a statement.

In pictures: American Apparel Show all 22 1 /22 In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel came under fire when this picture was posted on their website to advertise their mini skirts Twitter/ @anygirlfriday In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel 'Teen diva' Brendan Jordan is the new star of American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel is reportedly airbrushing out the nipples and pubic hair of its lingerie models americanapparel.net In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel Another American Apparel ad gets banned AmericanApparel In pictures: American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel Meet Buttercup, American Apparel's latest model americanapparel.com In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures Yoel Weisshau wears a traditional Jewish fur hat known as a shtreimel in an American Apparel campaign American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures American Apparel's latest campaign featuring Hisidic Jewish man Yoel Weisshaus American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures ...the model has the traditional flowing hair and beard, along with a skull cap worn American Apparel In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures 'Jackie in floral lace lingere' - American apparel has used a 63-year-old model Facebook/ American Apparell In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures American Apparel's 'back to school' campaign In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures Mannequins with pubic hair are displayed in the window of an American Apparel shop on Houston Street in the Soho section of Manhattan in January 2014 in New York Getty Images In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures In pictures: American Apparel American Apparel in pictures

What makes South Central great are the people who live here and lift up the community. The people need good jobs and affordable homes so they can stay in their neighbourhood as gentrification sweeps through. If Mr Charney were to support a community-led effort to build local wealth and stop displacement  that would be cool.

Despite his success with American Apparel, Mr Charney has a mixed reputation, both as a businessman and as a boss. In 2011, four female former employees filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment, including claims he sexually assaulted one of them during a job interview. In 2012, he was accused of physically and verbally assaulting an American Apparel store manager in a wrongful termination suit.

He was said to have bought sex toys for employees as gifts and strode around the factory floor wearing only underpants. Yet the lawsuits were settled, and the firm publicly backed its founder in both cases. It was a testimony to his success, Mr Charney said at the time, that he was a target for baseless lawsuits.

At its peak in the mid-2000s, American Apparel enjoyed $600m in annual sales and operated almost 300 stores around the world, according to Bloomberg. Among major leading clothing retailers, it was unique in its commitment to Made-in-America. With some 2,600 employees, its LA base is the largest clothing factory in the US.

But by the time of the lawsuits, the firm was floundering. In 2014, Mr Charney was ousted as CEO over charges of misconduct and later fired altogether by the board. Last year, American Apparel filed for bankruptcy. Its founders attempt to buy it back with the help of two investment firms was denied. The company recently emerged from bankruptcy, but this week reportedly laid off at least 100 factory workers.

Mr Charney, meanwhile has resolved to pursue his new venture, several blocks to the south. I think its very noble if he opens a factory there and pulls it off. The area is underemployed and they need more businesses with the guts to open there, said Ira Kalb, a Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern Californias (USC) Marshall School of Business, which is itself in South LA.

In marketing you look for uniqueness, and he will get attention by identifying with an area that you wouldnt expect a business to go into, Professor Kalb added, though he disagreed with Mr Charneys claim to have made Downtown cool: A lot of people made Los Angeles cool. It was cool long before Dov Charney arrived, he said.

South Central has undergone major changes since it achieved worldwide notoriety a quarter-century ago. In the 1990s, approximately half the areas residents were black. Today, two-thirds of those who live there are Latino.

In 2003, after some community members voiced concerns that South Central had become synonymous with poverty, crime and gang culture, the Los Angeles City Council officially renamed the area as South Los Angeles. More recently, some have begun to refer to the region just south of Downtown as SoLA, to mimic the abbreviations of desirable neighbourhoods such as New Yorks Soho, Noho or Nolita.

The negative stereotypes for South Los Angeles are a little one-sided, said Cynthia Strathmann, Executive Director of SAJE, Just because people are in low-income and high crime circumstances, doesnt mean they cant be good neighbours, that they dont really believe in the place that they live. Theres a sense in which South LA has improved, but theres also a sense in which it was never as bad as people imagined.

It might once have seemed inconceivable, but South Central is displaying the early symptoms of gentrification. A new metro rail line running straight through South LA along Crenshaw Boulevard is set to open in 2019, and will eventually link the so-called Crenshaw Corridor to more affluent neighbourhoods including Beverly Hills.

Middle-class professionals and their families, priced out of Silver Lake or Santa Monica, have started moving into pockets of South LA including Leimert Park, West Adams and Inglewood. New developments are springing up near downtown, including the proposed SoLA Village, a $1.2bn complex of condos, hotels and shops that critics fear could end up displacing thousands of current residents.

Too often people say theyre investing in a neighbourhood, but theyre really using the neighbourhood as an investment vehicle, which is very different, said Ms Strathmann. What weve seen in parts of Los Angeles and around the country is that you bring in development and investment and the ordinary people who already live in the area get pushed out.

The sprawl south of Downtown remains troubled. Violent crime is considerably higher than in other parts of the city. Homelessness and unemployment are common, overcrowding is chronic. Those who are employed often earn minimum wage, and three-quarters of the local population are renters, making them especially vulnerable to gentrification. South Central may yet become cool, but for whom?
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A British mother and her son, who have admitted to having a sexual relationship, have gone into hiding following warnings they could face up to 15 years in prison.

Kim West, 51, and her son Ben Ford, 32, who live in Michigan, have been in a relationship since 2014 when they met for the first time since Ms West put her son up for adoption a week after he was born.

The couple are now in hiding after warnings from US authorities they would be forced to investigate their relationship if made aware of it by the public , according to the Mirror.

In Michigan state consensual incestual relationships between adults are a third degree felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison. Those convicted are required to sign the sex offenders register for life.

A spokeswoman for Michigan State police told the Mirror she was not aware of a complaint regarding to the couple.

Ms West, from Islington, became pregnant while studying in California and gave her son up for adoption aged 19, after which she returned to the UK.

In December 2013, Mr Ford  who at the time was married and living in Colorado  wrote to his mother in an attempt to track down his biological parents.

Two years later, Mr Ford, a freelance computer coder, left his wife and began to live with his mother in Michigan.

The pair told the New Day their relationship is not incest, but Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA)  sexual attraction between close relatives who meet first at adults.

The term was coined in the late 1980s by Barbara Gonyo, the founder of Truth Seekers in Adoption, a Chicago-based support group for adoptees and their new found relatives.

In a book written about the subject, Ms Gonyo says romantic and erotic arousal maybe the delayed consequence of missed bonding" that normally takes place between a mother and her new born infant, or between siblings, had they not been separated by adoption.

Ms West said: This is not incest, it is GSA. We are like peas in a pod and are meant to be together.

Mr Ford added: When I met Kim, I couldnt think of her as my mum but instead as a sexual being.

I had seen a therapist at an adoption support group and had learnt about the GSA phenomenon.

The couple say they would like to marry and have children.
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Bernie Sanders has called on former President Bill Clinton to apologise over comments he made defending a controversial crime bill that had a dramatic and devastating impact on African Americans.

Earlier this week, Mr Clinton was confronted by Black Lives Matter protesters as he campaigned for his wife in New York. The activists held banners that read Clinton Crime Bill Destroyed Our Communities.

Mr Clinton pointed at the protesters and said: I dont know how you would characterise gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out on the street to murder other African-American children.

Mr Sanders was speaking during a rally at the Apollo Theatre in New York (AP)

Referring to his wifes stance, he added: Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didnt.

Throughout the Democratic primary process, activists have sought to raise Ms Clintons role in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which passed through the Senate with the help of Joe Biden, now the Vice President but who then served as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Ms Clinton spoke in support of the bill in 1996, saying that the young people being jailed were not just gangs of kids anymore.

Many believe the bill, which toughened sentences for the use of drugs such as crack cocaine, promoted longer sentences, expanded the death penalty and included the notorious three-strikes rule, led to era of mass incarceration in which African American constitute 1 million of the 2.3 million people behind bars, and which Ms Clinton now rails against.

Mr Sanders supported the 1994, which was signed into law by Mr Clinton. He said he did so because he supported certain elements within he bill which helped increase legal protections for women from domestic violence.

On Saturday night, at campaign event at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, ahead of the New York state primary on April 19, Mr Sanders was asked about Mr Clintons comments in the week.

I think the president owes the American people an apology for trying to defend the indefensible, he said. The philosophy was to get votes by beating up with the poorest people in the society, by cutting benefits. We are not going to do that.

Mr Clinton later said he regretted the way he defended the 1994 bill.

I know those young people yesterday were just trying to get good television, Mr Clinton said on Friday. But that doesnt mean that I was most effective in answering it.
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During his first interview as president with Fox News Sunday, Barack Obama found himself in a very predictable situationdefending Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton amid her ongoing email controversy.

More than 2,000 classified emails were redacted from Clinton's private email server, but President Obama said that his former secretary of state would have never intentionally done anything to put the United States at risk.

Heres what I know, Hillary Clinton was an outstanding secretary of state. She would never intentionally put America in any kind of jeopardy, President Obama told Chris Wallace, the shows host.

Theres classified, and then theres classified, he added. Theres stuff that is really top-secret top-secret, and theres stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get in open-source.

President Obama also said that his administration would not interfere with the Justice Department and FBIs investigation into Clintons email server, which is expected to conclude by next month.

Clinton has maintained her innocence throughout the investigation, and has said there is no chance of her being indicted for the use of a private server.
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It wasnt delirium exactly, but many Republicans felt something close to it last week when voters in Wisconsin rebuked Donald Trump and offered real hope that his rambunctious lunge for the partys nomination might yet be repelled. But there was also a problem. The cavalry in this case was a certain Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. Were they trading one nightmare for another?

To be clear, even after his Tuesday loss, Mr Trump is still better positioned than anyone to become the partys nominee. But the chances are increased that he wont get the number of delegates he needs before the party convention in July, which would trigger a possible floor fight over who to choose. In that instance, Mr Cruz would be the most obvious alternative.

On paper, Mr Cruz should be just the man to restore sanity. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard, he climbed the political pole in the most of traditional of ways. First by clerking in the Supreme Court and also working for George W Bush, both in his administration and on his first election campaign; then, before winning his Senate seat in 2012, by serving as the Solicitor General of Texas. He is also the son of Cuban immigrants, surely a boon for a party desperate to appeal to the Hispanic vote.

Recommended Read more Ted Cruz is the only man who can stop Donald Trump

But a traditional Republican he most certainly is not. Like a tent preacher of the Old West, Mr Cruz oozes biblical piety and sanctimony. Its a style that has opened him to ridicule from Mr Trump, who contends that Mr Cruz is a peddler of untruths. He is Lyin Ted, Mr Trump told 17,000 fans at a rally last week, but you have to spell it right. Its L-Y-I-N apostrophe. Lyin Ted. The bible held high, he puts it down and then he lies.

His other scripture is the US constitution. As a schoolboy, Mr Cruz could recite it from memory, and today still asserts that the founding fathers creed, and its assorted amendments, should find literal interpretation in the countrys laws, including those on gun ownership, a stance that delights his conservative followers but which could straightjacket him, should he become the Republican nominee.

Republican presidential nominations Show all 9 1 /9 Republican presidential nominations Republican presidential nominations Jeb Bush Who he is: Brother of former President George W. Bush and son of former President George H. W. Bush, Mr Bush has formed a Political Action Committee and is exploring a presidential bid. He was the governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. The issues: Mr Bush has indicated that his campaign would focus on the economy, foreign policy and energy. He is also known as a proponent of education reform. Getty Republican presidential nominations Marco Rubio Who he is: Mr Rubio is a US senator from Florida who has served since 2011. He is an early favourite to receive heavy donations from ultra-rich donors the Koch brothers. The issues: Mr Rubio has said the biggest issue facing the US in the near future is foreign policy and dealing with threats from China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. AP Republican presidential nominations Ben Carson Who he is: Dr Carson is a retired neurosurgeon, who became one of the most prominent physicians in the US. He has no political experience, but has formed a PAC to consider a run for president. The issues: A big proponent of smaller government, Dr Carson holds a tough stance on illegal immigration and is staunchly opposed to government involvement in health care. Getty Republican presidential nominations Ted Cruz Who he is: Mr Cruz has served as a US senator from Texas since 2013 and previously was the solicitor general of the state from 2003 to 2008. The issues: Mr Cruz is strongly against illegal immigration and figures to offer a presidential campaign heavy on foreign policy. He supports tough sanctions on both Russia and Iran. EPA/SHAWN THEW Republican presidential nominations Carly Fiorina Who she is: Ms Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a former executive at AT&T. She also was a 2010 nominee from California for the US Senate. The issues: Ms Fiorina, should she run, will campaign as a pro-business candidate whose background as chief executive of a major company proves she can handle the US economy. Getty Images Republican presidential nominations Mike Huckabee Who he is: Mr Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas from 1996 to 2007 and ran for president in 2008. An ordained Baptist minister, he also hosted a talk show on Fox News until early this month. The issues: Mr Huckabee supports tax reform and often touts the FairTax, which would eliminate income and payroll taxes in favour of a uniform sales tax. getty images Republican presidential nominations Rand Paul Who he is: Mr Paul has served as a US senator from Kentucky since 2011. He is a libertarian and son of former US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The issues: Mr Paul supports balanced spending by the government, unlike some of his peers in the Republican Party who oppose most government spending. He has been called an isolationist by some political pundits. AP Republican presidential nominations Scott Walker - OUT Who he is: Mr Walker has served as the governor of Wisconsin since 2011 and has long been mentioned as a potential presidential candidate. Mr Walker this week launched a PAC to prepare for a presidential run. The issues: Mr Walker opposes compromise with Democrats on key issues and would encourage increasing the fight against Isis. AP Republican presidential nominations Rick Perry - OUT Who he is: Mr Paul has served as a US senator from Kentucky since 2011. He is a libertarian and son of former US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The issues: Mr Paul supports balanced spending by the government, unlike some of his peers in the Republican Party who oppose most government spending. He has been called an isolationist by some political pundits. Getty

The minute that Mr Cruz joined the Senate, the most exclusive club in the land, he made clear he wouldnt play by its rules. Nor did he show any interest in making friends. It escapes the attention of no one that, even now, with Wisconsin surely the high watermark of his campaign so far, only two other Republican senators have actually endorsed him. Thats on account of one thing: there are very few people on Capitol Hill who can abide Senator Cruz.

Not forgotten is the all-out effort Mr Cruz made in 2013 to withhold funding for ObamaCare  the healthcare insurance system passed in 2010  even to the point of forcing a shutdown of the entire government. Many of his own colleagues saw his antics as self-aggrandising and doomed to fail from the start. A whacko bird, Senator John McCain called him.

Also still festering is the offence caused when he turned on Senator Mitch McConnell last year, the leader of his own party in the US Senate, calling him a liar on the floor of the chamber in a spat over the future of the Export/Import Bank. Asked this week if he would take it back now, Mr Cruz demurred. That ain't gonna happen, he told CNN. If the Washington lobbyists want see that happen they can hold their breath for a long, long time."

When Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, once a candidate himself, became the second Republican in the Senate to formerly endorse Mr Cruz, he likened his decision to making a choice between being shot or poisoned. Enthusiastic, he was not. But the realisation that Mr Cruz is both a marginally better option than Mr Trump, and is the only person positioned to stop him is slowly dawning on the rest of the party. True, the hard conservatism of the Texan might doom the partys chances of retaking the White House this year, but at least it might stand to fight another day. Nominating Trump might destroy the Grand Old Party entirely.

The Senator therefore also faces a dilemma. Does he take whatever love (and money) the establishment is now willing to give him and adapt and expand his platform, in hopes of broadening his appeal beyond his base of constitutional and evangelical purity? Does he become less of a firebrand?

Is he prepared, for instance, to forego his claim that there is zero recorded warming of the planet and his assertion that the climate change lobby is an attempt by power-greedy politicians to crimp American prosperity? Will he moderate his opposition to gay marriage and withdraw his pledge to outlaw abortion even in cases of rape or incest? Will he tone down his disdain for the gun control movement and stop saying things like: You dont get rid of the bad guys by getting rid of our guns. You get rid of the bad guys by using our guns.

There is no evidence that he will do any of these things; arguably for good political reason. Any suggestion of his going soft now could destroy the brand he has so painstakingly created: Cruz versus the Washington Cartel and all who belong to it. Ask his supporters why they love him and they will tell you its because while most Tea Party candidates promised to tread an uncompromisingly conservative path in Washington they didnt; however, he actually delivered. Mr Cruz recently put it this way: The Lord tells us we shall know them by their fruits.

Mr Cruz is expected to fare poorly in New York when it votes on 19 April, in part because he attacked Mr Trump several weeks ago for embodying New York values, as if it that were a terrible thing, though there are many in Middle America who surely think just that. But it is also because his extremist positions on social issues, and his sleeve-worn Christian zeal, simply wont sit well in the state.

But there is plenty besides in the Cruz book of promises to give all but the most conservative of voters pause. He wants to eliminate the Internal Revenue Service and introduce a ten per cent flat tax, which, according to most economists, would explode the budget deficit. To beat Isis he envisages carpet bombing parts of Syria and Iraq. I dont know if sand can glow in the dark, but we are about to find out, he commented. As for Syrian refugees, he would discriminate based on religion. Those who are fleeing persecution should be resettled in the Middle East in majority Muslim countries, he recently offered, while Christians targeted for genocide should be provided safe haven in the US. Oh, and this may sound familiar, he also wants a wall between the US and Mexico.

Mr Cruz, in other words, is an extremist too. Republicans who fear that nominating Mr Trump would wreak havoc on their party  and if he was to later win the White House, on the country and on the world  can be forgiven for feeling the pull of Mr Cruz as their last, best chance of salvation. But they had better be careful of what they wish for.
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Members of the crew on board a cruise ship moored in Hong Kong bay have described being stuck in "prison"-like conditions there for six months.

The 46 seafarers have told local media they are owed at least five months' pay since the authorities detained the vessel for failing an inspection, and are too poor to leave the ship.

The New Imperial Star used to ferry rich Hong Kongers into international waters where gambling is not illegal, but suffered from a police crackdown on the practice.

"I just want to get my wages and go home," one crew member told the South China Post, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

"The ship is really a prison," said another.

Human rights attacks around the world Show all 10 1 /10 Human rights attacks around the world Human rights attacks around the world China Escalating crackdown against human rights activists including mass arrests of lawyers and a series of sweeping laws in the name of national security. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Egypt The arrest of thousands, including peaceful critics, in a ruthless crackdown in the name of national security, the prolonged detention of hundreds without charge or trial and the sentencing of hundreds of others to death. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Gambia Torture, enforced disappearances and the criminalisation of LGBTI people; and utter refusal to co-operate with the UN and regional human rights mechanisms on issues including freedom of expression, enforced disappearance and the death penalty. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Hungary Sealing off its borders to thousands of refugees in dire need; and obstructing collective regional attempts to help them. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Israel Maintaining its military blockade of Gaza and therefore collective punishment of the 1.8 million inhabitants there, as well as failing, like Palestine, to comply with a UN call to conduct credible investigations into war crimes committed during the 2014 Gaza conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Kenya Extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances and discrimination against refugees in its counter-terrorism operations; and attempts to undermine the International Criminal Court and its ability to pursue justice. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Pakistan The severe human rights failings of its response to the horrific Peshawar school massacre including its relentless use of the death penalty; and its policy on international NGOs giving authorities the power to monitor them and close them down if they are considered to be against the interests of the country. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Russia Repressive use of vague national security and anti-extremism legislation and its concerted attempts to silence civil society in the country; its shameful refusal to acknowledge civilian killings in Syria and its callous moves to block Security Council action on Syria. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Saudi Arabia Brutally cracking down on those who dared to advocate reform or criticise the authorities; and committing war crimes in the bombing campaign it has led in Yemen (pictured) while obstructing the establishment of a UN-led inquiry into violations by all sides in the conflict. Getty Images Human rights attacks around the world Syria Killing thousands of civilians in direct and indiscriminate attacks with barrel bombs and other weaponry and through acts of torture in detention; and enforcing lengthy sieges of civilian areas, blocking international aid from reaching starving civilians. Getty Images

Arising International Holdings, the registered ship owner, has reportedly promised to pay the wages but so far it, along with two other companies involved, have not rescued the mix of international workers suffering in "dire" conditions onboard.

Rick Mak Ka Yan, director of the ship's technical managing company Skywill Management Limited, reportedly hung up the phone when contacted by Quartz about the ship while the crewing management company, Sun Junhao Limited, appears to have been evicted from its office for unpaid rent.

The Burmese, Ukrainian and Chinese crew onboard, whose anxiety is heightened by being unable to communicate well, are growing unwell in the hot and dirty conditions inside the bowels of the steel ship.

"Many people complained of having stomach problems, and some people are seriously ill," said a crew member.

The International Transport Workers' Federation, a global union of transport workers, and The Mission to Seafarers, are trying to help the crew retrieve their pay.

A representative of Arising International Holdings, whose surname is Wong, is reportedly in Beijing trying to find new investors to rescue the struggling business.

Yet many are simply hoping the ship will be arrested by the Chinese authorities so that the owner is forced to pay the workers and they can return home.
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At least 100 people have been killed and 240 injured after a fireworks display at an Indian temple complex went wrong.

Despite being banned by state authorities, the display went ahead in the village of Paravur in the district of Kollam in the Southern Indian state of Kerala.

The fire started when a spark from the pyrotechnics show ignited a separate batch fireworks that were being stored at the Puttingal temple complex.

Every year, a series of temples across Kerala compete with each other for the biggest fireworks display in celebration of the Hindu new year.

Thousands had were assembled in the temple complex when the big explosion happened at around 3am, according to officials.

The blaze then spread quickly through the temple, trapping devotees within.

Kerala Police Chief, TP Senkumar, told the BBC many of the dead were so charred they would have to be identified by DNA tests.

Krishna Das, a resident of Paravoor village, said he was walking away from the temple when the first explosion went off followed by a series of blasts.

He said: "I had been in the temple just a few minutes before watching the fireworks."

The rubble where the temple complex once stood (Reuters)

Witnesses say they saw people running away being chased by fire and chunks of concrete and plaster from the temple building.

Mr Das said that as soon as the first explosion was heard, a power outage hit the complex.

He added: "It was complete chaos. People were screaming in the dark. Ambulance sirens went off, and in the darkness no one knew how to find their way out of the complex."

An injured father carries his son to hospital for medical attention (Reuters)

Local villagers and police pulled out the injured from under slabs of concrete after the building where the fireworks were stored collapsed.

By morning, firefighters had brought the blaze under control, officials said. Rescuers were sifting through the wreckage in search of survivors, while backhoes were clearing the debris and ambulances driving away the injured.

Prime Minister Narenda Modi tweeted: "The fire at the temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words.

"My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured."

Kerala state's Chief Minister Oomen Chandy said the majority of the victims were trapped by the fire inside the temple complex.
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The terror cell which carried out the Brussels bombings last month had been planning to launch a new attack on Paris, the Belgian prosecutor has said.

Those who launched the 22 March attacks which killed 32 people decided to rush their plans and target Brussels instead, prosecutors claimed.

The terror cell was "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation", the office said.

Investigators have said there are close links between the perpetrators and the Isis terror cell which killed 130 people in Paris on 13 November.

Brussels attacks victims Show all 11 1 /11 Brussels attacks victims Brussels attacks victims CONFIRMED DEAD: Adelma Tapia Ruiz Ms Tapia, 37, was from Peru and had lived in Brussels for six years. She was at the airport with her husband, Christophe Delcambe, and their twin four-year-old daughters, Maureen and Alondra. They were checking in to fly to New York to visit Ms Ruizs sisters when the blast struck. The death of Ms Tapia was confirmed by the Peruvian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and her brother Fernando Tapia Coral has told Peruvian radio that she had planned to return to Peru later this year. In a Facebook post, Mr Tapia called her death incomprehensible in a Facebook post. Her husband and children survived, but it has been reported that one of her daughters was injured by debris Brussels attacks victims CONFIRMED DEAD: Leopold Hecht Mr Hecht was a young Belgian student working towards a qualification in law at Saint-Louis University in Brussels. The university confirmed in a Facebook post that he was one of the victims of the Maelbeek metro bombing Brussels attacks victims CONFIRMED DEAD: Oliver Delespesse Mr Delespesse, 36, was confirmed dead in the metro bombing by his employers Wallonie Bruxelles Federation, an organisation which represents French speakers in the region. One of his colleagues, Olivier Dradin posted a tribute on Facebook: "I wanted to pay tribute to him and to his family and to all the other victims" Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Sasha Pinczowski A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Alexander Pinczowski A brother and sister from New York, who were at Zaventem to fly back to the US at the time of the blasts, are also missing. Sascha and Alexander Pinczowski were on the phone to their family when the phone went dead, according to Dutch media. Ms Pinczowski studied business and had previously completed an internship at the UN Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Aline Bastin Ms Bastin, 29, a former employee of the European Chemical Industry Council, was on the metro at the time of the attacks. Her friends have launched an appeal on Facebook for news of her whereabouts Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Raghavendran Ganesan Mr Ganesans brother has set up an appeal for information on the whereabouts of his sibling, who was on the metro at the time of the attacks. He wrote on Facebook that he had spoken to the Indian embassy, who were still searching for Mr Ganesan Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Sabrina Fazal There has not been word of Ms Fazal, a 25-year-old Belgian student, since yesterday morning. She would have been on the metro at the time of the attacks, on the way to the Haute Ecole Galilee in central Brussels, where she is studying Brussels attacks victims MISSING: David Dixon The family of Mr Dixon, a computer programmer from Nottingham, has not heard from him since he left for work yesterday morning. He is believed to have been on the metro at the time of the blast. Its just waiting, which is heartbreaking, the sister of Charlotte Sutcliffe, Mr Dixons partner, told Radio 4s Today program. His friend Simon Harley-Jones told the BBC that Ms Sutcliffe had been driving around hospitals in the hope of finding him Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Bart Migom Mr Migom, 21, was on his way to Athens, but never arrived. He was texting his girlfriend, Emily Eisenman, from the train to Brussels airport however she haven't heard from him since the attacks. His cell phone rings, she said but there is no answer Brussels attacks victims MISSING: Justin and Stephanie Shults An American couple who lived in Brussels are among the missing, their family have confirmed. Justin and Stephanie had just dropped Stephanies mother, Carolyn Moore, off at the Brussels Airport when the blasts occurred. Mrs Moore, survived the attack, but the couple has not been found

The Brussels attacks involved two suicide bombers at Zaventem Airport and another at Brussels' Maelbeek metro station the same morning.

Four other men have been charged by Belgian authorities with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group" in connectection to the attacks.

They include Mohamed Abrini, who prosecutors have identified as the so-called "man in the hat" who was seen walking alongside the two airport bombers.

The other three suspects have been identified as Herve B M and Bilal E M and Osama Krayem, a Swede known to have travelled to fight in Syria.

Additional reporting
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Macedonian police have fired tear gas at more than 500 people attempting to break through a border fence at the Idomeni camp in Greece.

A number of photos and videos on social media appear to show refugees running from gas canisters and stun grenades thrown by officers in riot gear. Others showed people being carried away unconscious. Medecins sans Frontieres said it treated more than 300 patients, including 200 for exposure to tear gas and 30 for rubber bullet wounds.

Witnesses said there were a number of loud explosions, as helicopters flew overhead and rubber bullets were fired. They said the fence had been breached at two points.

Laura Samira Naude, an officer at refugee charity Lighthouse Relief, said she witnessed horrific scenes.

Ms Naude told The Independent: The police were firing so much tear gas and rubber bullets too. Young babies had to be treated.

Some of the refugees were told that the border would be opening up at 9am today. Hundreds of families had their bags packed, ready to leave. They said they dont want to stay here because otherwise theyll die.

Horrific scene here in #Idomeni as people are being relentlessly tear gassed #refugees pic.twitter.com/LCwnbfC8O0  Lighthouse Relief (@LighthouseRR) April 10, 2016

The asylum system is frankly quite ridiculous. People have to lodge their applications through Skype, but in the camp its just not plausible. So their asylum requests arent even being processed.

Jonas Hagensen of Medecins Sans Frontieres told The Independent they were treating people for respiratory problems, open wounds and suspected fracture. The charity revealed they were treating pregnant women.

Mr Hagensen said staff were "badly affected" by the tear gas, and that one patient claimed to have been taken to a room by Macedonian police and beaten for an hour.

Wolly Ahmed, a volunteer at the Idomeni camp, said initially the refugees waited peacefully on a nearby set of train tracks.

Mr Ahmed said a group of five refugee leaders went to hold discussions with Macedonian police, but they returned unsuccessful.

He added: They began surging towards the fence and managed to cut through in two different parts."

Fotis Filippou, director of campaigns at Amnesty International, called on the Macedonian police to "fully comply" with international policing standards.

Mr Filippou added: "The scenes we are seeing are the expected and unavoidable result of thousands being trapped in Idomeni and elsewhere in Greece - abandoned by Europe - in awful conditions and with little hope of getting protection.

"Greece and the EU must work on real solutions as a matter of urgency: these must include adequate reception conditions in Greece and access to relocation and other schemes that will allow refugees to find sanctuary in other EU member states."

Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Show all 15 1 /15 Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to break a Greek police cordon in order to approach the border fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees flee tear gas fire by the Macedonian police, after trying to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to break a Greek police cordon in order to approach the border fence at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees in the northern Greek village of Idomeni approach the Greek-Macedonian border as they try to enter Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Macedonian riot police officers stand next to part of the border fence brought down by protesting stranded refugees and migrants during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees try to bring down part of the border fence during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees break an iron fence and throw stones from the Greek side of the border as Macedonian policemen push them back, near the southern Macedonian town of Gevgelija AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A girl cries as she flees clashes during a protest at the Greek-Macedonian border, near the Greek village of Idomeni Reuters Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees try to broke an iron fence from the Greek side of the border as Macedonian police stand guard, near the northern Greek village of Idomeni AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Stranded refugees and migrants in the northern Greek village of Idomeni approach the Greek-Macedonian border as they try to enter Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A man helps children to run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas at a group of refugees who tried to push their way into Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A woman carries a child on the Greek side of the border as they run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas at a group of refugees who tried to push their way into Macedonia AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February Refugees run away after Macedonian police fired tear gas AP Refugees break through Macedonia border fence in February A woman falls as refugees with their children run away after Macedonian police Getty Images

The 28 European Union member states last month voted to shut down the so-called Balkan route, leaving 42,000 refugees stranded on Greek soil. The Greek interior minister Panagiotis Kouroublis said the conditions at Idomeni, where more than 11,000 refugees currently live, are comparable to Nazi concentration camps.

International aid charity Medecins sans Frontieres estimated more than 30 per cent of the refugees in the Idomeni camp were children, many of whom were struggling with infections and illnesses.
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"Raping the Yazidi women was part of [the Isis] plan. Destroy the women, destroy the culture, Haveen, a 22-year-old Kurdish fighter says as she scans the road ahead.

Dressed in the green guerilla uniform synonymous with Kurdish armed groups, Haveen and her friend Denis keep watch, as two members of a unit of fighters within the YBS - a Kurdish civil defence militia. The all-women or jin unit based in Kananshor village near Sinjar mountain is home to a rotating group of female fighters made up of local Yazidi women and Kurds from nearby Turkey and Syria.

"I have been fighting for a long time now. I was on the frontline but I was injured by an IED [Improvised Explosive Device]," Haveen explains, pointing to a scar near her eye.

Recommended Read more Isis keep closer eye on enslaved Yazidi women after dramatic rescues

Denis, an energetic 30-year-old fighter from Turkey, said the women set up in Sinjar after Isis stormed the region in August 2014. Thousands of women were taken captive as Isis seized control of Sinjar in north-western Iraq, home to hundreds of thousands of members of the minority religion Isis has labelled as infidels. Isis abducted younger women and children and murdered men and older women. Those who could not flee were killed and buried in mass graves.

"After what happened to the Yazidi women it's important to have all women units here, Denis says.

Denis said for Kurdish women who grow up with "Apo's" ideology becoming a fighter is usual. "We never played princesses as little girls," the 30-year-old joked (Diego Cupolo)

The YBS is an offshoot of the People's Protection Units (YPG)  the paramilitary wing of Syria's Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). The YPG, who have been one of the most effective forces fighting Isis, say they are training Yazidi women to fight against any further incursions into Yazidi land.

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

We have to support these women and help them to protect themselves. Isis took those women and children because they wanted to destroy their honour. We help train the Yazidi women to defend themselves and then they can control their own future. Thats why were here, Denis says.

The women fighters live in separate quarters from the men, and romantic relationships are strictly forbidden. We live separately but thats the only difference, Haveen says. On the frontline we are all the same.

The womens base is adorned with pictures of female martyrs and brightly coloured carpets. It boasts a strategic vantage point, with a clear view of all cars entering the Yazidi village. Leaning out the window, Denis erupts into laughter when asked how successful the womens units have been in the battle against Isis.

"They are so scared of us! If we kill them they can't go to heaven. It makes us laugh.... We make loud calls of happiness when we see them to let them know we are coming. Thats when they become cowards, she says. Under the strict interpretation of Islam by Isis, if a fighter is killed by a women he cannot go to heaven, a fact the women clearly relish.

I like that when we kill them they lose their heaven. I dont know how many of them Ive killed, Haveen says as she takes a drag of her cigarette. Its not enough. I wont be happy until theyre all dead.

Three hours away in a predominantly Arab village close to the Syrian border, Kurdish fighters explain how they retook the village  which had been held by Isis - two weeks ago.

We waited in the mountains for weeks... We lost 15 fighters, 14 men and one woman, a young guerrilla who gave his name as Dilsan explains.

 Young Yazidi girl gives powerful speech at UN

The YBS has attracted young fighters from neighbouring Syria.

I came to kick Isis out of these lands, an 18-year-old fighter named Rozaline explains. I came for the Yazidi women. I saw them cutting womens heads off in Rojava [what Kurds call the three Kurdish enclaves just south of the Turkish border in Syria]. I saw so many awful things. I dont want to see any more cutting and killing.

The former medical student left her studies to spend three months training with the YPG in the mountains in Syria. A recent recruit to the frontline - she arrived four days ago after Isis launched an attack to retake the village - Rozaline says she is there to avenge the Yazidi women.

I must protect the Yazid women from those animals. I hate them so much but Im not afraid. Kurdish women sing when we go into battle. We know they are cowards, she says, while the other jin fighters let out the shrill celebratory uluation call they use in battle

The women are in high spirits - but Isis fighters are just a few kilometres over the horizon. Two suicide bombers recently drove a car loaded with explosives to within 500 metres of the groups base. Fragments are scattered all over the village, as our YBS driver weaves his way through carefully through the sandy terrain littered with recently removed IEDs set by Isis.

They came to destroy our base but one of our fighters shot them, Amara a Syrian fighter says.

'This is why we fight,' young fighter Haveen is determined to avenge the Yazidi women. In Sinjar mass graves are being discovered on a daily basis. The International Commission on Missing Persons are about to begin the exhumation process. Mass graves are scattered around Sinjar (Diego Cupolo)

On the road back to Kananshor the car passes a militia base where Kurdish fighters are evaluating their last offensive against Isis. A small woman shouts into a microphone, assessing the group's strengths and weakness. Dozens of young guerrillas sit listening to the speech, a common occurrence after an Isis offensive.

Passing through areas of Sinjar mountain we see how the exposed bones of Yazidi women in mass graves are slowly being fenced off by members of the US-based Yazda group  an NGO which aims to support the Yazidis. In the nearby city of Duhok the International Commission for Missing People (ICMP) prepare to exhume the remains of those massacred by Isis, in order to build a genocide case - a gruesome task that has enlisted a team of international experts and forensic anthropologists.

Denis, who has already spent a large part of her life as a fighter, says protecting the Yazidi women is just one step in their plan to defend womens rights globally.

"You and me, we are free, I am a fighter, you are a journalist but our sisters around the world - they suffer under the power of men, In Africa, in Asia, in Europe and American women suffer like the Yazidis. The fight of our women is a fight for all women," she says.
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The Saudi-led coalition which has been bombing Yemen for over a year has said it will adhere to a cease fire agreement.

The cessation of hostilities with Houthi rebels is due to come into effect from midnight on Sunday.

However, Saudi security forces have said they will retaliate to any breach of the agreement.

The move comes in anticipation of United Nations brokered peace talks scheduled for 18 April in Kuwait. Talks were planned for January but were called off after negotiations broke down.

Recommended Read more Starving child shows terrible consequences of Yemen war

The UN hopes the cessation in hostilities will lead to a more concrete, formal ceasefire, allowing for the development of confidence-building measures.

In the capital Sanaa, residents said they desperately wanted this attempt at peace to succeed after two rounds of talks failed last year.

"I am tired of the fighting, the destruction, everything," said Hussein Ali, a 57-year-old government employee.

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. 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"The situation is very difficult for people without work, without electricity, without water, and with the fear that, at any moment, bombardment could kill those dear to us."

Amal Ahmed, a 16-year-old student said: "I hope that when I wake up in the morning, the war has stopped and I can go to school, my classmates too, without being afraid of raids and death."

Leaders in the Saudi-coalition are also hoping for a successful outcome.

"We hope the other parties, Houthi militias and those with them, abide by this truce," said Brigadier-General Ahmed al-Asiri, spokesman of the Saudi-led coalition, to Saudi broadcaster al-Arabiya.

"The alliance retains the right to respond if breaches occur in the coming days. We hope to succeed and let's be optimistic that the coming days will be positive."

The cease fire commitment comes as fighting in Yemen intensified on Sunday. Just hours before the cease-fire was to go into effect, Yemeni security officials said there were clashes between the Shia Houthi rebels and forces allied with the internationally recognized government, led by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

 War-torn Yemen faces water emergency

The officials said Sunday's clashes took place in several areas, including the provinces of Jawf, Sanaa, and Taiz, where the Houthis have gained ground despite Saudi-led airstrikes.

The Saudi-led coalition has been supporting President Hadi against the Houthi rebels, in a war that is seen by many as a proxy conflict between the regional Sunni and Shia powers of Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The Saudi-led coalition, comprised of mostly Arab countries, launched its campaign against the Houthi rebels in Yemen in March 2015, several months after the Houthis overran the capital Sanaa and forced the internationally-backed government into exile.

Since then, more than 6,200 people in Yemen have been killed. Sporadic cross-border shelling has also killed and wounded civilians in Saudi Arabia.

Additional reporting by agencies.
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On the face of it, the Panama Papers don't look good for Russia. Reporters investigating the huge leak of financial data from a Panamanian legal firm have suggested that up to $2 billion in offshore bank accounts could be linked to a circle of friends closely associated with President Vladimir Putin.

For many, this information seems to corroborate what has long been rumored: that Putin is corrupt, on a huge scale.

After a few days of silence, the Russian president himself has taken aim at the allegations, suggesting they were part of a broader U.S. plot to destabilize Russia.

But another very different theory is making the rounds in the Russia-watching world. In short, the theory says that Moscow isn't a victim of a Panama Papers plot.

Instead, perhaps it is the Russians who are behind the leak.

Okay, it sounds far-fetched, but this particular idea is especially noteworthy because of who has advanced it: Clifford Gaddy, an economist who works with the Brookings Institution.

Gaddy is one of the foremost Western experts on Russia's economy and a former adviser to the Russian Finance Ministry in the 1990s. Along with Fiona Hill of Brookings, he is one of the co-authors of a well-regarded book on the personality of the Russian leader, Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin.

Recommended Read more The corruption revealed in the Panama Papers opened the door to Isis

In a blog post published Thursday on the Brookings website, Gaddy outlined his thoughts on the matter. You should read it all for yourself, but I'll break down his idea into four quick points.

1) It was a hacker backed by the Russian government who emailed the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung to offer the leak in early 2015, the initial contact that would eventually lead to the release of the Panama Papers.

2) There's deliberately little information within the Panama Papers that harms Putin: While the $2 billion figure has been reported widely, the link to Putin is relatively obscure, and the Russian president has survived far worse accusations of corruption.

3) Meanwhile, there's plenty of information in the Panama Papers that has already proven extremely embarrassing for other world leaders. At the least, Gaddy argues, this makes Putin and his reputation for corruption seem like less of an outlier and more of standard operating practice.

4) The fact that so few Americans have been linked to the Panama Papers could suggest that their details were deleted from the documents given to Suddeutsche Zeitung and passed on to other media outlets. If this is true, Gaddy suggests that the lack of this information in the release means that it could be being held back for blackmail purposes.

It's a bold claim, Gaddy admitted in an email Friday, and one that he isn't totally sure of himself.

"It's certainly not a theory, hardly even a 'hypothesis,'"Gaddy wrote, adding that it was more a suggestion of something that ought to be seriously investigated.

Even so, this suggestion has caused a bit of a stir in the Russia-watching world. Karen Dawisha, an academic who also studies Russian corruption closely, tweeted that despite her respect for Gaddy, his latest idea has failed to convince her.

Others offered carefully worded praise. Russian American journalist Masha Gessen called it excellent conspirology on Facebook, while Brian Whitmore of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty suggested in a tweet that Gaddy was "trolling" the Kremlin.

There are certainly parts of the idea that make a lot of sense. For one, it seems clear that the $2 billion stuff hasn't really hit Putin hard, while some other world leaders who have fraught relations with Russia  for example, Britain's David Cameron and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko  are being seriously rocked by their own links to the scandal.

World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Show all 15 1 /15 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Petro Poroshenko President of Ukraine World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Ayad Allawi Allawi Iraqs Vice-President between 2014 and 2015, and the countrys interim prime minister from 2004 to 2005 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Salman bin Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Saud King of Saudi Arabia World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan President of the United Arab Emirates, Emir of Abu Dhabi World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sigmundur Davi Gunnlaugsson Prime Minister of Iceland World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sergey Roldugin Close friend of Vladimir Putin World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Emir of Qatar 1995-2013 World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Li Xiaolin Daughter of Li Peng, the former Premier of China (The current vice-president of state-owned power company China Datang Gorporation and former CEO of China Power International Development, she has been nicknamed Chinas Power Queen World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Rami Makhlouf Cousin of Bashar Assad, the President of Syria World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hafez Makhlouf Cousin of Bashar Assad, the President of Syria World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Clive Khulubuse Zuma Nephew of Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Maryam Nawaz Sharif Safdar Daughter of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hasan Nawaz Sharif Son of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Hussain Nawaz Sharif Son of Nawaz Sharif, prime minister of Pakistan World leaders linked to 'Panama Papers' Alaa Mubarak The eldest son of ousted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Read more here

Why isn't Putin facing a domestic scandal? Well, part of it is simply that Putin is an enormously popular figure in Russia, and it would take a seriously enormous financial scandal to really knock him down. Additionally, many critics are already sure Putin is corrupt  allegations of the Russian president's wealth go as high as $200 billion, which would easily make him the richest man on earth  and it's hard to see how the relatively loose links between Putin and the $2 billion moved through Panama could really shift anyone's thinking on the matter.

Of course, there are other parts of the idea that don't fit together. For one thing, while the lack of U.S. citizens has been widely noted, there are, in fact, a few American links to the Panama Papers. (See this article from McClatchy for details.) It's also possible that more names could come out as more scrutiny is given to the vast amounts of data in the leak. Or perhaps it's just that Americans prefer tax havens other than Panama (as The Washington Post's Scott Higham reports, U.S. citizens are thought to favor more secure havens such as the Isle of Man, the Cayman Islands and Switzerland).

Gaddy himself acknowledges all of this. However, he also says that even if more and more information is found in the leaks, he's still always going to wonder what might have been left out.

"How can we ever know if they are complete? So far everyone seems only to be asking, what secrets are in the Panama Papers?" he wrote. We should also ask, are there secrets [in Mossack Fonseca's original files] that are NOT in the Panama Papers?"

Perhaps after years of studying Russia's information wars, it's only reasonable to be a little conspiratorial. Gaddy said he's seen how Putin has used financial secrets "to destroy or to control" people within Russia. And now, when he sees financial secrets creating huge problems for world leaders, he has to wonder if Putin is back to his old tricks again.

 Washington Post
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Fourth class has arrived on high-speed trains between Paris and Brussels. As The Independent revealed recently, the new low-grade option is being sold under the Izy brand - along with a slightly less uncomfortable third class.

Passengers have the usual options of second and first class, sold by Izy as Standard and Standard XL respectively. But there is also a choice of third class, in the shape of a Folding Seat option, and fourth class  costing as little as 10, and called Non-Guaranteed Seat.

Passengers are expected to stand in the unused buffet car area for a journey of over two hours, unless the train manager assigns them an empty seat. Cue wry smiles or groans from long-suffering commuters on some busy British rail lines, for whom this is a daily occurrence.

Izy is hoping to lure passengers from budget coach operators such as Megabus

If you happen to be familiar with the existing Thalys service between the French and Belgian capitals, you may be relieved to learn that this operation, taking just 90 minutes is unaffected. The new no-frills train is an offshoot of Thalys, and uses its re-configured rolling stock. Izy also borrows techniques from low-cost airlines: online booking only, with fares that vary according to demand, and extra charges for substantial baggage.

Then theres the schedule - only two or three trips a day, each way. And because Izy keeps away from the busy high-speed line for most of the way through France, the journey takes up to an hour longer than Thalys. By now youre probably wondering what this development might possibly have to do with business travel? While Izy does battle in the lower reaches of the inter-city market with the likes of Megabus and BlaBlaCar (a French ride-sharing service), executives can continue to work or rest in the comfort of real Thalys - with all the flexibility that paying a premium fare affords.

Except that the one certainty about the future of business travel is that it will be different from the present. Let me take you back 20 years. In April 1996, easyJet was an odd little airline, shuttling two or three times a day from Luton to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Established carriers such as British Airways and British Midland regarded the garish orange planes as strictly for students, pensioners and other low-income folk - not frequent flying business people.

Today any smart organisation will fly its executives on easyJet and Ryanair as well as legacy carriers. The budget airlines offer high frequencies between major business centres, with fares that allow flexibility. And with carriers such as British Airways increasing the seat density on short-haul services, the comfort gap is narrowing.

So back to the future of European inter-city trains. Izy may find, as easyJet did, a ready market among price-sensitive travellers, including start-up businesses keen to conserve every euro. Thalys might then switch more capacity to the low-cost subsidiary. It could assign some valuable slots (known as paths) on the high-speed line to Izy. As frequency builds, more business travellers will start to notice. And thats when class consciousness comes into play.

On trains, as on planes, the notion of class warfare is ridiculous. We all need each other. If business (or Standard XL) class is full on Monday morning and Friday evening with executives paying top whack, operators can sell off the inferior seats cheaply to the benefit of budget travellers. Conversely, remember that those upstanding fourth-class passengers represent almost free money for Izy. If the train firm can stimulate a price-sensitive market and boost passenger numbers, the extra demand could help boost frequency for the benefit of business travellers.

Give Izy a try next time you and a colleague are travelling between those two great cities. I calculate that a pair of Standard XL seats, plus some sushi and a decent bottle of chablis picked up at the station, will still leave a business a couple of hundred euros better off compared with normal first class on Thalys. And you can toast the standees for their part in making your journey possible.

Turkish policemen after the suicide bomb attack in Istanbul last month (EPA)

One minute, three alerts: the business travel news you need in 180 words

Turkey alert

The series of terrorist attacks in Ankara and Istanbul has led Australia to step up its warning for the Turkish capital and main business centre. The latest bulletin from Canberra advises citizens to reconsider their need to travel to Ankara and Istanbul due to the high threat of terrorist attack. It is the first Western government to issue such a strong alert.

Uber happy

Seattle has become the latest US airport to allow shared-ride operators such as Uber and Lyft to pick up passengers from outside its terminals - though they must pay a $5 per-person fee and meet strict environmental rules, such as limiting the number of deadheads (ie empty rides). For downtown Seattle, the Metro remains an excellent option.

Not quite BA

Some British Airways passengers flying from London to Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Copenhagen this summer will find themselves aboard a Danish airline, Jet Time. BA is chartering in a Boeing 737 to help fill gaps in its fleet schedule. The airline says it is confident passengers will enjoy their flight with the carrier.
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The tax row engulfing David Cameron is a golden opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn. On the BBCs Andrew Marr Show this morning, the Labour leader suggested that he can exploit it. He insisted that it was not about class war but openness.

Calmly, he articulated the anger of ordinary people  the care workers, cleaners and nurses who are fined if they dont pay their taxes, and cannot negotiate how much they pay with HMRC like the rich. Such a measured approach, if maintained, will strike a chord with middle-class voters too.

Mainstream parties across Europe are losing votes to anti-establishment parties on both left and right, as they capitalise on the anger of ordinary people struggling since the financial crisis while they see the rich still get richer. But could Labour under Corbyn buck that trend?

Corbyn and John McDonnell, the shadow Chancellor, campaigned for tax justice years before it became flavour of the month. Voters know Corbyn is a million miles from New Labour, which might work to his advantage while politicians finances remain in the headlines.

Whatever else people think of Corbyn, they know he is unlikely to have benefited from an offshore trust fund. His tax return, when he sorts out his paperwork, is likely to be boring indeed.

Cameron allies hope that, in the absence of damaging revelations in the tax returns summary he has published, the public will judge that they have not learnt much new. They insist his rich background was factored into the price when voters made Cameron prime minister last year. His allies argue that voters think that politicians of every hue are in it for themselves. And so, when the dust settles, they hope that nothing much will have changed.

But the dust may not settle quickly. Other Conservative ministers, and possibly all MPs, will surely now have to disclose their tax returns for past six years too. There are bound to be further revelations, and they could easily blow apart Camerons hopes of ending the Tories' image as the party of the rich.

Voters might view Corbyn as not like most politicians  after all, he is not. The authenticity that shined through during the Labour leadership contest could now reach the parts of the electorate he has not yet reached.

The timing of the Panama Papers leak could be the first real bit of luck for Corbyn in his six months as Labour leader. His early months were dominated by foreign and security issues on which he was at odds with a majority of his MPs.

There is no reason for Labour to argue with itself about tax avoidance. However, Corbyn will have to ensure that his enthusiastic supporters are not tempted to wage class war, which might repel many of the voters Labour could win over in these new times.

Dave Brown on David Cameron Show all 11 1 /11 Dave Brown on David Cameron Dave Brown on David Cameron 4 March 2016 Boris Johnson campaigns for Brexit Dave Brown on David Cameron 20 January 2016 Cameron's response to Tata Steel job cuts Dave Brown on David Cameron 5 January 2016 Cameron's reaction to Saudi Arabia executions Dave Brown on David Cameron 3 December 2015 Cameron called the opponents of military action in Syria "terrorist sympathisers" Dave Brown on David Cameron 2 December 2015 Cameron and the Syria bombing vote Dave Brown on David Cameron 19 November 2015 Cameron moves toward a second vote on bombing Syria Dave Brown on David Cameron 21 October 2015 Xi Jinping is lauded at a state banquet as British steelworkers lose their jobs, largely as a result of cheap Chinese steel imports Dave Brown on David Cameron 8 October 2015 Tory conference responds to Camerons keynote speech Dave Brown on David Cameron 6 October 2014 Clegg attempts to distance himself from Cameron Dave Brown on David Cameron 27 June 2014 Cameron and EU re-negotiation Dave Brown on David Cameron 1 December 2012 Cameron, Murdoch and the Leveson Report

If Labour plays it right, the party could do better, and the Conservatives worse, than expected in next months elections for London Mayor, local authorities, the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly.

Paradoxically, that would not please many Labour MPs. A strong Labour performance would make it harder for Corbyns critics in parliament to go ahead with their plans to oust him this summer. To head off an attempted coup, he may also need to up his game at Prime Ministers Questions and land some serious blows on Cameron. That could tip some wavering Labour MPs against joining a revolt against him this year.

But he will have to be forensic and effective. If he missed the open goal, as he did after Iain Duncan Smiths resignation, it would play into the hands of his critics, reinforcing their message to party members that their leader is simply not up to the job.

For Corbyn, as well as Cameron, the stakes in the great tax controversy are very high.
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The Everything Store sounds like a pretty brutal place to work. An in-depth report by the New York Times on Amazon last year exposed a culture of borderline harassment from line managers, stupidly long hours, vicious evaluation sessions, a high staff turnover rate and a cult-like atmosphere personally imposed by the internet firms founder Jeff Bezos.

Purposeful Darwinism was one word used to describe the Amazon culture by a human resources director. Amazon contested the bleak picture painted by the report. And yet Amazons boss Jeff Bezos sounds like hes rather pleased with it.

People self-select he wrote in his letter to shareholders last week, in an indirect reference to the New York Times report. Over the last two decades weve collected a group of like-minded people. Folks who find our approach energising and meaningful. In other words, the unsuited get selected out of existence at Amazon.

Theres something about the idea of Darwinian natural selection as a description of the business world that people who lead companies (particularly those in the fast-changing world of consumer-facing technology) find compelling. And one can see why. They are often faced with an array of strong competitors; consumers can switch their spending easily and quickly; a company has to be better, perhaps more adaptable, than the rest of the pack if it wants to make a profit. Bosses must feel as if they are in a constant battle for survival.

Yet, as a metaphor for business activity, this is rather misleading. In Charles Darwins great hypothesis it was random phenotypical traits resulting from genetic mutations that gave certain creatures an advantage in the struggle for survival in their particular natural habitat. So, for example, if a finch happens to be born with a certain shaped beak well suited to cracking open nuts common on a particular island that bird will survive, reproduce and pass down its genes. And over the generations the island may, ultimately, become populated by a species of finch with that particularly useful shaped beak.

It wasnt that original finchs brains, or anything it had control over, that gave it an edge, or meant it got selected to pass on its physical traits to future generations. The idea that it is the smartest, or the most energetic, or those with the best culture, that thrive and survive owes more to the pseudo-science of social Darwinism, as outlined by 19th century sociologists such as Herbert Spencer, than anything from Darwins The Origin of Species.

Free markets are Darwninan in a truer sense, in that selection is often much more about luck than judgement. Andy Grove of Intel wrote in his book, Only the Paranoid Survive, that: Most companies don't die because they are wrong; most die because they dont commit themselves. They fritter away their valuable resources while attempting to make a decision. The greatest danger is in standing still.

Grove, who died last month, was a truly exceptional businessman, but on this point he was wide of the mark. Most companies, over the long run, die because technology moves on and patterns of consumption shift  and theres nothing their managements can really do about it. Its story not so much about the quality of leaders or their innovative corporate cultures, but the inexorable disruptive power of markets.

Nothing a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages had done upon the invention of the car would have saved the businesses (in its original form) from oblivion. Look at the composition of a stock market index of the worlds largest companies. It has changed almost beyond recognition over the decades.

Some firms are undoubtedly better run than others. Some are more innovative than others. But even the most successful are merely small boats bobbing on the surface of a great and treacherous ocean.

Amazon's electronic book turns a new page in the history of the written word Show all 2 1 /2 Amazon's electronic book turns a new page in the history of the written word Amazon's electronic book turns a new page in the history of the written word 8397.bin Amazon's electronic book turns a new page in the history of the written word 8398.bin AP2007

One day they will all be capsized. And others will take their place as new markets open. It will happen to Intel. It will happen to Amazon, too. And when it does, its unlikely to be a result of a lax corporate culture or employees who werent prepared to work weekends.

To be fair to Bezos, he readily admits in his letter that luck plays an outsized role in every endeavour and I can assure you that weve had a bountiful supply. He also stresses that Amazons culture is not the way all firms should be. Its simply the one he believes will deliver the best results for Amazon.

Perhaps hes right. He can certainly point to his companys stunning rates of growth from zero in 1994 to todays $275bn behemoth as evidence to support his methods. But he may well be wrong.

Perhaps different methods would actually produce better results. Theres evidence that workplaces in which people have a decent work-life balance are more productive and innovative. We can never really know.

The good news for those looking for a job in the technology sector is that the defining feature of competitive markets is diversity; meaning there are always lots of different firms and potential employers. It may feel like The Everything Store has become the everywhere store, but Amazons global workforce is still only 230,000. Compare that to the 1.5 million people who work for McDonalds worldwide.

Thankfully, no one has to work at Amazon, or any place where the law of the jungle reigns.
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Oh what a tangled tax web David Cameron has woven. The question is just how much did he set out to deceive us?

Having now remembered he did profit from an off shore trust set up by his father, Cameron says he doesnt know if some of his inheritance upon his fathers death could have been profits from the off shore venture. He also claims in 2010 he sold his stake in the Trust so that he could be transparent. Why? It is perfectly legal under the UK law to invest in an offshore trust (including tax free investments)and to hold an offshore bank account. Cameron would have known this when he invested in Blairmore. So why did he personally intervene to prevent a tax crackdown on offshore trusts? Did he have something to hide, or was he acting on behalf of crony donors?

Tax avoidance is a billion pound industry that Cameron and the Chancellor, George Osborne, have allowed. If both were serious about tackling it then Vodafone would have paid their 6bn tax bill and Google would be stumping up 1bn not 100m. There is a more interesting question, however. If transparency on entering Number Ten means one should not own any part of any offshore company or investment trust, as Cameron implied, does this disbar Osborne from becoming a future Prime Minister? What about Camerons cabinet? Why are they allowed to have shares in companies but serve in the cabinet  especially when those same companies get awarded government contracts? And why are so many such contracts awarded to companies that avoid paying taxes within the UK?

David Cameron claims he has never pretended to be something hes not but, in light of the stance he recently took over tax transparency, that is clearly untrue. What else has he lied to us about? There is something rotten in the state of Westminster, and it stinks.

Julie Partridge

London, SE15

While it may be surprising that the details have emerged so suddenly, it is not surprising that David Cameron should have inherited tax-dodging dealings from his family, since he heads a government of friends, associates and supporters  ie. a class  of finance capitalists whose speculations crashed the economy, but which his government is propping up through austerity measures inflicted on the rest of us.

What is surprising is that the opposition Labour Party  which, under its new leader, is supposed to be against austerity  is not pointing this out much more clearly.

Patrick Ainley

London, SE25

Please can someone explain to me the purpose of David Cameron publishing his tax return? What will that reveal about his financial affairs?

What we need to see are his 'non-tax' returns. Presumably he has never had one; had one but did not benefitted from it; or sold it before he was caught, depending on what day the question is asked.

John Broughton

Calver, Derbyshire

Now that David Cameron has disclosed information about his tax returns since his move into Number 10 Downing Street in 2010 (but, noticeably, not before), isn't the responsibility now on the rest of Parliament as public servants to disclose theirs? I have the feeling that we have only seen the small tip of a very large iceberg.

Sarah Pegg

Seaford

As Jeremy Corbyn has yet to make public his tax returns, it seems somewhat hypocritical for him to demand further details of the Prime Minister's financial affairs when Mr Cameron has already published his.

John Eoin Douglas

Edinburgh

How odd to hear Nicola Sturgeon questioning whether the Prime Minister had revealed enough about his personal finances. This at the same time as we wait for the full truth to come out over the 10bn memorandum of understanding she signed on behalf of the Scottish government with a Chinese consortium whose credentials are in doubt.

For all that she plays it down, saying there are no proposals on the table, the leader of the consortium that signed the deal claims three quite specific projects have been discussed.

Well, which is it First Minister? And is your interest in David Camerons affairs simply an attempt at distraction?

Keith Howell

West Linton, Scottish Borders

Struggling to hear the echoes of Stalinsim

Robert Fisks article (Echoes of Stalinism abound in the very modern Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict, 9 April) was so off the mark that it left me bewildered. Virtually every anecdote or fact he brought up was either wrong, twisted or irrelevant. Stalin did in fact give Karabakh to Azerbaijan well before he was General Secretary of the USSR years later. He was able to transfer it in his role as Commissar of Nationalities in the 1920s. Armenians never fought a war over Karabakh because "it contained some of the nation's oldest churches", nor was it an "excuse" to take it back. The war was fought because the region had a 92 per cent Armenian population when Stalin gave it to Azerbaijan, and though the percentage had dropped by 1988, it was still overwhelmingly Armenian majority. The Armenians of Karabakh had many grievances over Azeri rule and wanted to be joined with Armenia, or become independent, like the Irish Free State had.

Too many civilians did die in Khojaly, but this exception to the rule was full of extenuating circumstances. The civilians had been told to flee the attack and a corridor was left open for them to escape. That they did not flee before the attack, and that when they did flee they did so with armed fighters scattered among them, set the stage for this disaster.

There is no event parallel to this one during the entire six years of fighting on the Armenian side, though the Azeri pograms of Armenians that proceeded it in Sumgait, Kirovabad, Maraga and Baku were conveniently left out of your article. Four more reasons why Armenians did not feel safe remaining a part of Azerbaijan.

I'll agree that it's a bit confusing that Armenian leaders of the Karabakh War were buried near the Armenian Genocide Memorial, but that's irrelevant to any of this.

Raffi Kojian

Yerevan, Armenia

Legitimate questions about parentage

Archbishop Welby is not alone. DNA research estimates that around one third of all British children born during the Second World War were illegitimate.

Dr John Cameron

St Andrews

Please write to letters@independent.co.uk. Letters may be edited before publication
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Five years ago I heard a software billionaire speak at a seminar organised by Downing Street. It was a riveting discussion, but one thing in particular stuck in my mind: his warning that privacy would be dead within little more than a decade. The thoughtful entrepreneur was not saying this was good or bad, merely an inevitable legacy of the unfurling technology revolution. His message was that citizens, businesses and governments should prepare for a world of total transparency.

This sounds like science fiction, some dystopian vision of the future from a Hollywood script writer. Yet the news in recent days has been dominated by three stories that underscore some truth in that warning. The least important was a famous father taking out a super-injunction to keep news of an alleged threesome out of British headlines. He is a rich celebrity, able to afford costly lawyers to get strict restrictions on the media imposed by a judge. Yet anyone could find his name in seconds with a swift search of social media, underlining the futility of heavy-handed attempts to prevent bad news seeping around the planet these days.

Far more important were the Panama Papers, giving another glimpse into the sordid sphere of super-rich tax dodgers and their scavenger advisers. An astonishing 11.5 million documents were leaked, dwarfing the levels of data exposed in similar recent incidents involving Luxembourg tax files and HSBCs secret Swiss accounts. The ramifications rippled around the world from Argentina to Zimbabwe, highlighting the fragility of secrecy even for those prepared to pay vast sums to hide their wealth from prying eyes. And yes, it is great to see those gilded walls come tumbling down.

This was just a single firm in a solitary tax haven. Yet it has already brought down one prime minister and caused embarrassment for another. The result was David Cameron issuing his tax return on Saturday, the third of these linked tales. This is, without doubt, a significant change for British politics. Already Jeremy Corbyn is promising to publish his financial details and, with bovine inevitability, suggesting all politicians and public figures should do likewise.Scottish leaders have already done so. An arms race of disclosure has begun, which is likely to deter more good people from public life.

Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Show all 12 1 /12 Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Edward Snowden NSA leak Articles in The Guardian revealed that the US and the UK spied on foreign leaders and diplomats at the 2009 G20 summit. Reuters Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak In 2009, former US soldier Chelsea Manning, downloaded hundreds of thousands of classified US Government documents, and passed them on to Jullian Assange's whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. Among the documents were 250,000 State Department diplomatic cables. One disclosed the close relationship between Russian President Vladimir Putin and then-Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, the Guardian reported. Allegations included "lavish gifts", lucrative energy contracts and the use by Berlusconi of a "shadowy" Russian-speaking Italiango-between. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak: In a revelation which bruised the UK's 'special relationship' with the US, WikiLeaks published conversations by US commanders criticising Britain's military operations in Afghanistan. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak: One document disclosed startling levels of corruption in Afghanistan, including an incident involving the then vice-president, Ahmad Zia Massoud, who was reportedly stopped and questioned in Dubai when he flew into the emirate with $52m in cash. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak Another cable documented fears in Washington over Pakistan's nuclear weapons programme, in a volatile country with a strategic position in the Middle East. PA Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade WikiLeaks' US diplomatic cables leak Day four of the gradual drip of leaks exposed allegations that Russia and its intelligence agencies are using mafia bosses to carry out criminal operations, with one cable reporting that the relationship is so close that the country has become a "virtual mafia state". Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Edward Snowden NSA leak In 2013, The Guardian published classified US National Security Agency (NSA) documents, from a then anonymous whistleblower. Four days later he was exposed as former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. A month after the initial leak, the New York Times allegeded that the NSA received emails, video clips, photos, voice and video calls, social networking details, logins and other data held by a range of US internet firms. Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Edward Snowden NSA leak Since Snowden revealed that the US had eavesdropped on German Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone, German-US relations have been strained. In May 2014, Mrs Merkel said still had significant differences with the United States over surveillance practices and that it was too soon to return to business as usual," according to the New York Times. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Edward Snowden NSA leak On 7 June, The Guardian published the Presidential Policy Directive 20, whcih included a list of potential targets for cyber-attacks by the US Government. Rex Features Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Samy Kamkar iPhone and Android expose In April 2014, hacker and researcher Samy Kamkar revealed that Android phones collect user location data every few seconds. Files are then transited to Google several times an hour. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Samy Kamkar iPhone and Android expose It is believed Apple and Google are using the data to better target adverts to smartphone users, according to The Guardian. Getty Images Whistleblowing controversies of the last decade Samy Kamkar iPhone and Android expose The two companies have since justified the collection of data. In a letter to the US congress Apple confirmed it collected the data and said that, in order to be useful, "the databases [of tower and network locations] must be updated continuously". A Google spokesman told the Guardian Android phones explicitly asked to collect anonymous location data when users turned them on. Getty Images

Perhaps we will end up like those Scandinavian countries that publish everyones income and tax declarations. It is not necessarily a bad thing to break British bashfulness over financial concerns since it would help identify tax dodgers, thieves and hypocrites and might assist in tackling intractable issues such as boardroom greed and the gender pay divide. Yet it is also one more way in which the digital age is chipping away at privacy; even an army of intruders, after all, could not have removed a fraction of those devastating documents from Mossack Fonsecas office.

Yet the internet and technology revolution remains in its infancy, despite the way it is disrupting one industry after another with such dramatic consequences. The iPhone is not yet ten years old but already we are moving beyond smartphones to the Internet of Things. We will have cars that drive themselves, fridges that restock their contents, clothes monitoring our health, shoes nagging us about fitness. One leading consultancy estimates there are 6.4 billion connected devices already in use, with 5.5 million more joining global networks each day. In just four years, it predicts 20.8 billion linked machines. Anyone attempting to analyse the ultimate impact is simply writing science fiction.

Many advances will benefit humankind by saving energy, conserving supplies, reducing accidents, aiding health and improving safety - just as political openness about personal finances is ultimately democratic. When everyones lives lie exposed online, it might ultimately lead to more tolerance for other peoples foibles and proclivities, for all the trolls currently polluting social media. Yet if privacy is really being eradicated this heralds a huge change in the human condition, one with which we have barely begun to grapple. Tussles over unlocking a terrorists smartphone, deleting offensive Twitter accounts and erasing indiscretions from Google searches are just early skirmishes in a struggle to redefine relationships with each other, the state and businesses that control the data.

 May on Snoopers' Charter

Privacy, after all, is defined as a fundamental human right, protected by laws dating back to the fourteenth century in this country and enshrined by international convention. Yet already our movements can be tracked by our phones, while with each click on the computer we give away personal information. Soon sensors will be everywhere and machines will monitor us at all times - and transparency, while fundamentally a positive force, comes with a heavy price. We should not just fear Big Brother or the behemoths of Silicon Valley; in the evolving world, similar powers could belong to groups of ordinary people as privacy dissolves and the power of connectivity grows.

That technology titan said something else memorable in his talk: that hypocrisy is not always a bad thing. He pointed to historical events such as the Northern Irish peace process that needed the cloak of secrecy at the start. Academics have also pointed to the need for personal space to develop our characters, evolve our ideas, extend our friendships and explore our relationships. Certainly the idea of living in a world devoid of privacy is challenging, to put it mildly. So by all means celebrate the exposure of sleazy tax dodgers and extension of political transparency. Yet at the same time, ponder far more the full implications of living in an age of full disclosure.
Micheal Martin has insisted minority governments can work - if people are willing to try.

Delivering an oration at the 93rd General Liam Lynch Memorial Mass in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, the Fianna Fail leader defended his party's refusal to enter a so-called "grand coalition" with long-term political foes Fine Gael.

Mr Martin said: "The insistence on a majority or nothing is a very Westminster-focused belief and completely out of step with countries similar to Ireland which have proportional representation and multi-party systems.

"Minority governments can work if people are willing to try - and they represent a much truer reflection of the need to change our politics than simply change titles. Three out of the four Scandinavian countries currently have minority governments. They are getting on with their business in stable, successful democracies."

There have been weeks of wrangling since February's general election threw up a massive schism in the electorate.

After exploratory talks on Saturday, both parties said they would discuss how a viable minority government could work when negotiators met again on Monday.

The ground-breaking proposal for a full partnership government would end more than 90 years of bitter civil-war era rivalry, and has overwhelming support from within Fine Gael ranks.

But Mr Martin said his party had campaigned to put Fine Gael out of power, adding that majority governments could be "arrogant, divisive and unfair".

Mr Martin also took a swipe at critics who have slammed the six weeks of political uncertainty.

"Finding a new way of reconstructing an old model of governing will simply represent carrying on and once again failing to deliver change.

"We are offering a major compromise. We are not refusing to change. We will agree to a process which can allow a government to be formed and for that government to have reasonable security based on a fully transparent framework.

"The greatest achievements of our country have come from responding to genuinely radical changes. The best way of responding to radical change in our politics is to be willing to change how we govern and not just shuffle the pack in a new way."

The Dail is due to meet on Thursday, when the shape of the new government may be made more clear.
This file photo taken on February 23, 2016 shows an anti-government protester holding up his iPhone with a sign "No Entry" during a demonstration near the Apple store in New York. Photo: AFP/Getty

Apple's fight over privacy with the US isn't over yet, even after the federal government dropped a demand for the company's help in accessing a Californian Isil mass killer's iPhone because someone else had found a way to crack it.

Washington has said it will keep fighting to get the company's help in getting data off a phone in Brooklyn, New York that belonged to a drug dealer because Apple had provided assistance in accessing such devices earlier. In a court filing on Friday, the government said it was going ahead with an appeal of a judge's order, denying its request for Apple's help.

The battle between the world's most valuable tech company and the US government over encryption and data privacy has sparked a global debate, with dozens of companies and organisations siding with Apple, while law enforcement has generally taken the government's side.

FBI boss James Comey has called it the most difficult issue he has faced in government. Politicians are also split on the issue.

Donald Trump had called for an Apple boycott over its refusal to help.

 Bloomberg
Small and medium business owners who survived the economic crash are now being hit by a "second tsunami" owing to the sale by banks of their loans to so-called 'vulture funds' and other international investors, according to Liam Griffin - the hotelier and former All-Ireland-winning hurling manager with Wexford.

Mr Griffin, whose Griffin Hotel Group operates the five-star Monart Spa Hotel, four-star Ferrycarrig Hotel, and four-star Hotel Kilkenny, is just one of thousands of Irish business owners now getting used to dealing with new lenders after decades of doing business with Irish banks.

The sale by the Ulster Bank of a number of the Griffin Group's loans as part of its Project Coney portfolio to Sankaty Advisers - an affiliate of the US private equity giant Bain Capital - is among the 974 individual transactions filed with the Companies Registration Office (CRO) since January 2013.

An examination by the Sunday Independent of these files shows how hundreds of small and medium businesses, such as pubs, petrol stations, newsagents, hair salons, hotels and even nursing homes, have seen the loans they took with their local bank snapped up by international investors, in most cases for fraction of their original value.

Referring to his own relationship with his banks prior to the recession, Liam Griffin said: "I'm a long time in business. I have been on my own in business since 1974. Through all of my life dealing with the banks, I have always done what I should have done. I've complied in every manner, shape and form."

Commenting on the consequences for business owners of the banking system's collapse in 2008, he added: "The banks were hit by a tsunami that you can argue they contributed to themselves, but the unfairness of it all was scandalous with the number of people who lost their businesses."

The Griffin Hotel Group chief believes the banks' efforts to restore their balance sheets through the rapid sale of their loan books to international investment funds poses a major threat to those businesses who survived the initial crash.

He said: "When the economy tanked, a new system was brought in to cleanse the banks' balance sheets. What's happening now is a second tsunami where those who managed to survive are being hit. It may have suited the banks to have a quick cleansing of their books, but the impact it is having on ordinary people in business is like another tsunami."

In acquiring Ulster Bank's Project Coney portfolio, Sankaty Advisers took control of loans associated with companies behind numerous well-known Dublin pubs including Houricans of Leeson Street, Brady's pub in Terenure and The Weavers on Lower Clanbrassil Street.

Also included in the Project Coney sale were loans taken out by the leading Dublin publicans Larry Crowe, Brian Flannery and Robin Payne in connection with the Camden Deluxe Hotel and Palace night club on Camden Street.

Elsewhere in the files held at the Companies Office are records relating to the sale by Permanent TSB of a 481m commercial loan book to Cheldon Property Finance - a subsidiary of the US-based private equity fund, CarVal.

Included in the transaction were a range of loans taken by the kind of businesses that meet the everyday needs of their towns and villages, existing as part of the glue that binds communities together.

Browns Checkout - the company behind Browns Checkout and Browns Off Licence on the Dublin Road in Portlaoise - is a good example, as is Allen & Company, which owns and operates a petrol station and convenience store in Belgooly, Co Cork. Both companies saw loans they took from Permanent TSB acquired by CarVal.

Also included in the Permanent TSB sale were loans extended to Jabeth Ltd, the company behind the House of Hair hairdressing salon in Lucan, Co Dublin and Ken Dressing, the company behind a family-owned tailors, Sew Alterations on Dublin's South Anne Street.

The US private equity giant, Cerberus, also appears in the records with filings from several of the Irish subsidiaries it established to manage the loans it took ownership of as part of its acquisition of Ulster Bank's sale of its non-performing Project Aran loan portfolio.

While Cerberus subsidiary Promontoria Aran came to prominence last year on foot of the Sunday Independent's revelation that it had taken control of borrowings secured by Independent TD Mick Wallace's Italian restaurant, La Taverna Di Bacco, the Project Aran sale also saw it acquire the ownership of debt linked to some 5,400 other properties.

Dealing with Cerberus could prove to be more challenging for some clients than it does for others. Take the case of Newlyn Homes - a company owned by Christopher Dowling, Robert Kehoe and George McGarry, who also are indebted to Nama. The difficulty in dealing with two lenders with a limited lifespan will invariably require skilful negotiation skills and navigation.
Former Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery has requested Bank of Ireland to provide him with the full file on his 1996 purchase of a house in London's Primrose Hill.

Lawyers for Mr Flannery have sought the documents in an effort to unravel the mystery of how the mortgage on the house, which Mr Flannery and his wife bought for Stg615,000 allegedly came to be secured by a Stg250,000 deposit held by a third party in a bank account in Jersey.

Information in relation to the alleged loan security, provided by International Funding Promotions for Mr Flannery's acquisition of his former London home, emerged as part of the so-called 'Panama Papers'.

"I'm going to try and find out how on earth it (my house purchase) came to be associated with this and how it turns up in places like Panama and how it came to be associated with Jersey," Mr Flannery told the Sunday Independent.

The Panama Papers detail the offshore services provided by the law firm Mossack Fonseca to thousands of clients worldwide, allowing them to minimise their tax liabilities with absolute confidentiality.

While the mechanisms employed by the firm are perfectly legal, the fallout from the leak to the media on such an unprecedented scale of files relating to the financial affairs of many of the world's political and business elite has already seen the Icelandic prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson step aside for what his office has termed "an unspecified amount of time".

The British prime minister David Cameron has come under fire and calls for his resignation on foot of his admission that he benefited from an offshore fund set up by his late father, Ian.

Having his own name associated with the Panama Papers is, unsurprisingly, proving to be a cause of deep concern to Mr Flannery. He said: "The whole thing is too grave, far too serious and has crossed every kind of boundary. It's too profound a matter to be pussyfooting around with.

"I've now gone somewhere I've never gone before. I have a strong legal team in place and I'm taking this very, very seriously. That's the arena it's going into now.

"Obviously, the main parties involved will all be engaged with by me, the people in Panama, the people in Bank of Ireland and the people in the Irish Times."

Mr Flannery said he had never heard of International Funding Promotions, the company behind the Stg 250,000 deposit in Jersey which Bank of Ireland Private Banking had allegedly relied on for security when it gave him a mortgage.

He said he and his wife had taken out a 100pc mortgage on the house, which they later paid off with financing from another bank.

Mr Flannery sold the Primrose Hill house for Stg2.8m in 2012.
'The fund will provide investments of up to 10m to Irish small and medium businesses with strong growth prospects. It will also be available to UK companies which have the potential to grow in Ireland.' Stock photo: PA

New Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital has launched its first fund to be invested in small and medium businesses in the UK and Ireland.

The Causeway Capital Partners I LP Fund has secured cornerstone investments from the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF) and AIB, as well as funding from a number of private investors. Some 50m has been raised and the fund remains open to additional investors up to a ceiling of 60m.

The fund will provide investments of up to 10m to Irish small and medium businesses with strong growth prospects. It will also be available to UK companies which have the potential to grow in Ireland.

Causeway Capital operates from offices in Dublin and London and say it has plans to expand its team in both locations.

Its founders are David Raethorne and Matt Scaife, who were previously involved with a number of successful businesses including Helix Health and Smiles Dental.

Founded last year, their firm has so far completed two investments - in BB's Coffee and Muffins (March 2015), and earlier this month in Bizimply. BB's Coffee has opened six new stores since then and has plans to grow the estate to 100 locations by 2020.

Bizimply, which raised 2m from Causeway and Dave McClure's venture capital firm 500 Startups, will use the cash injection to double its team and open UK and US offices.

"Irish SMEs are some of the most innovative, successful and resilient businesses," said Scaife. "There is a real need for this sort of funding to help them grow in Ireland and overseas."
Ryanair chief executive Michael OLeary plans to expand the number of UK locations served by the airline, but the carrier has ruled out Heathrow as a Ryanair destination Photo: Bloomberg

Ryanair will focus on significantly enhanced digital retail services, as well as more improvements for business travellers as it rolls out the next phase of its self-styled 'Always Getting Better' campaign on Tuesday.

It's the latest major push by the airline, headed by Michael O'Leary, to improve its image and suite of offerings as it continues its march across Europe with a huge expansion of its fleet.

Chief marketing officer Kenny Jacobs told the Sunday Independent that the airline will unveil retail solutions that are a first in the airline industry, and some that are not even offered by current mainstream retailers. He declined to give specific details, however.

But the airline has embraced digital innovation to ensure it remains the leading European low-cost carrier.

It created its Ryanair Labs division to spearhead digital development for the carrier. It employs close to 200 people.

The head of that unit, John Hurley, has even previously indicated that Ryanair would contemplate acquisitions in the technology sector that would add value to the airline's development strategy.

Mr Jacobs also told the Sunday Independent that Ryanair will also roll out non-ancillary improvements aimed at business customers, for instance, that will include elements of in-flight service, but also focus on its fare products.

Ancillary items, on the other hand, include anything from sandwiches and cups of tea sold on board, to insurance products bought by customers when booking their flights.

Ryanair has engaged in a huge push to attract business travellers as it targets more primary airports to help fuel growth. Mr Jacobs said "anywhere but Heathrow" is a likely candidate for Ryanair flights. Last week, Ryanair said that it will open its 84th base - at Prague, in the Czech Republic - in October.

The airline has also been scheduling frequencies to primary airports that make it viable to use the airline for business travel that's often completed within one day.

Ryanair launched a major image and service revamp in 2013, following much debate at executive level about what the airline needed to do to spur growth.

Rival Easyjet had fundamentally changed its approach to customers before Ryanair, and the Irish airline took lessons from that evolution.

The continuing process has seen Ryanair redevelop its website to make it easier and quicker to book; ditching or slashing the cost of penalties for things like re-issuing a boarding pass; allowing flyers to take a second, small bag on board free of charge; and even a baby bottle warming service as it tries to entice more families to fly with it.

Mr Jacobs said the next phase of the Always Getting Better Campaign will include about 75pc innovation, compared to previous iterations that were split 50-50 between fixing and improving existing services and functions, and introducing fresh innovations.

He said there will be "constant improvement" of the initiatives it has already introduced.

The transformation campaign has so far paid huge dividends for Ryanair, which has credited the Always Getting Better programme with helping to boost its profits and passenger numbers.

The airline carried 101.4 million passengers during the 2015 calendar year, and has predicted that will be carrying 120 million by 2019, and 180 million by 2024. It recently took delivery of its 400th aircraft, and will have more than 500 in its fleet by 2024.

The airline expects to make to have posted a profit of about 1.2bn in the 12 months to the end of March this year, compared to 867m in the previous financial year.

One of its main geographic targets for growth is Germany. The airline wants to capture a 20pc share of the market there by about 2020. It ended 2015 with a 5pc share.

Mr Jacobs said last month that Ryanair is so far ahead of target in terms of growth in Germany, and expects to have between an 8pc and 10pc share of the market there this year.
American investors in a manufacturing firm that was once owned by Sean Quinn held a private summit with him in Dublin last week as boardroom tensions escalated.

The US investors flew into town for a Quinn Industrial Holdings Ltd board meeting on Thursday, but also held a private side-meeting with Sean Quinn in the city.

It is believed that the former tycoon was asked to settle his business differences with the management team who now run the company.

The US investors are also believed to have hired a Dublin public-relations firm.

The Bishop of Kilmore, Leo O'Reilly, met Sean Quinn at his office in Ballyconnell last month.

A spokesperson for the bishop said the meeting was personal. Sources said there were growing concerns in the community over the bitter fallout of the tensions between Sean Quinn and his former management team.

Separately, the Northern Ireland businessmen, Ernie Fisher and John Bosco O'Hagan, who are part of the consortium to buy back Sean Quinn's businesses, and John McCartin, the chairman and Fine Gael councillor, sent an internal email, appealing for the criminal damage to stop.

The email, which was sent late last month and signed by the three men, "implored all parties to focus on rebuilding broken reputations, desist from criminal damage threats and defamation and look to a productive future.

"We note with sadness, the sabotage, defamation and intimidation directed at the business and its senior management over the last few months.

"It is our belief that this has done immense damage to Sean Quinn and his family."

A leaked email revealed that Sean Quinn, who lost control of his empire to Anglo Irish Bank, is in a battle for control of the company that is run by his former management team and backed by American investors.

According to the email, Quinn is unhappy with his role as an adviser to the business and wants to acquire ownership in QIHL.

The tensions have coincided with the resumption of attacks and criminal damage to businesses in Cavan and Fermanagh that used to be owned by Sean Quinn.

Workers at a wind farm previously owned by Sean Quinn have received a number of death threats.

Cross-border police investigations are continuing into threats against Liam McCaffrey, the chief executive, and director John McCartin, the Fine Gael councillor who helped persuade American investors to bring the old Quinn businesses back under local control.

The Quinn family issued a statement last week, condemning the acts of violence or intimidation.

It added: "Sean has a good working relationship with the US Investor Group and all discussions between those parties are private and confidential."
Ivan Yates has said he made his decision to take a break from his high-profile media career over a year ago - and expressed disquiet at an attempt to "spin" the story to suggest it had anything to do with the 1.6m judgement AIB has been granted against his wife, Deirdre.

While news of the former Fine Gael agriculture minister's intention to step down from his main role as a presenter on Newstalk's Breakfast Show has been met with surprise by the public, Mr Yates confirmed to the Sunday Independent that he informed the station's bosses that he would be leaving "in late March of last year".

"I don't know who tried to spin that it is to do with my wife's affairs. It's nothing to do with that. It's absolutely to do with our personal situation and actually agreed with Newstalk in late March of last year that I would be leaving at the end of June this year.

"This isn't a sudden thing. It's for all the personal lifestyle reasons that I've given."

His withdrawal from public life will also see Mr Yates stepping down from his roles as a presenter on TV3's Sunday AM programme and as a columnist with the Irish Independent.

He confirmed that the additional two-year period during which the trustee overseeing his UK bankruptcy was entitled to seek to recover monies owed to AIB and his other creditors had come to a conclusion and that his departure from his various media roles was unrelated.

Mr Yates said: "I was very satisfied with the whole legal treatment and the nature of the discharge from the UK. I was treated very fairly by the UK authorities and I just got on with my life.

"The whole point of the UK bankruptcy is that you can make a fresh start. This is now three years on and it's a completely different situation."

Commenting on the AIB's judgement against his wife, Mr Yates added: "In relation to AIB, there is a stay of execution. The court determined on Deirdre's judgment.

"Either way, it's pretty irrelevant because she has minimal income and no assets. I said at the time of that judgment that there was no necessity for it; it didn't advance anything for the bank. That remains the situation.

"This is just to do with our lifestyle and our life situation. It's as simple as that."

Mrs Yates's debt arose out of a guarantee she provided on loans that her husband obtained from AIB for his then business, Celtic Bookmakers, which ultimately went into liquidation in 2011.

While she told the court that she didn't realise her provision of such a guarantee would give the bank the right to pursue her for her family home in Co Wexford, that argument was rejected. The court found she had no defence and granted judgement against her for 1,648,147.

Following his departure from Newstalk this summer, Mr Yates and his wife intend to go travelling for the next year together. It is understood the couple will visit the United States as part of their plans.
'Future Finance currently provides loans to students in the UK and Germany and plans to expand elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Ireland. It has loaned out around 25m (31m) to about 3,500 students so far.' Stock photo: PA

A new online student loans provider intends to enter the Irish market as early as this summer.

Dublin-based financial technology company Future Finance has applied to the Central Bank for a consumer credit licence.

The company was founded in 2013 by Chicago native Brian Norton and moved to Dublin last year with the assistance of the IDA. It employs a team of 55 across its Dublin headquarters and two smaller offices in London and Munich.

Future Finance currently provides loans to students in the UK and Germany and plans to expand elsewhere in Europe, as well as in Ireland. It has loaned out around 25m (31m) to about 3,500 students so far.

The company has raised 185m (234m) in total for growth and lending capital, following a 119m raise last month from investors such as Colchis Capital, Ridge Road Partners, DW Partners, Fenway Summer Ventures and the Blackstone Strategic Opportunity Fund.

Norton told the Sunday Independent that if granted authorisation by the Central Bank his company will make loans available both to Irish students and international students studying in Ireland.

The loans will cover tuition and "stealth tuition" costs like registration fees - most Irish undergraduates pay around 3,000 every year in registration fees to universities. Finance will also be made available to students to cover day-to-day expenses. The cost of living in Dublin is one of the highest of any EU city.

"The cost of living is often the main expense that deters people from doing an undergraduate or graduate degree," said Norton.

"We want to launch in Ireland because third level education offers a really good return on investment for Irish students, and the ability to pay after graduating is what is key for lenders.

"Irish universities and graduates are well regarded internationally and there are lots of good jobs available in this country for graduates."

Students will be able to apply online, with no face-to-face meetings necessary.

In the UK and Germany, Future Finance offers customers up to 10-year loan terms with no early repayment charges and the possibility of payment holidays. Loans of up to 40,000 per academic year are available, though the average loan is around 8,000.

"Almost uniquely, we are not piggybacking on any other lender," explained Norton. "We are lending ourselves. We are building a long-term, world-leading business."

The company will seek to work with Irish universities. In the UK it has partnerships with around 35 universities.
Ireland's meat and livestock sector now accounts for close to 40pc of our gross agricultural output and nearly 30pc of all food and drink exports. With some 10,000 people employed directly in the sector and as many more in indirect employment, the industry is one of the most important for our economy.

At the heart of this is a thriving beef sector - Ireland is currently the fifth-largest exporter of beef in the world and the largest exporter of beef in Europe. And so last week I found myself travelling to Co Westmeath to meet the owner of one of Ireland's smaller but most impressive meat-processing businesses.

Based not far from Tyrrellspass, near Mullingar, Troy's Abattoir was set up by Bernard Troy in 1992. Today, the company employs 30 staff and this year is on target to achieve an annual turnover of more than 10m.

It's early afternoon when I arrive into the company's front car park where I am greeted by Bernard, his wife Pauline and their two sons James and Brian, both of whom work full-time in the business.

In the corner of the car park, a tent has been set up and I am immediately taken by the tantalising smell of a barbeque that Bernard and his team have organised. It's something they do regularly as a treat for staff, customers or visitors to the place. Today, it's my turn.

Tucking into my unexpected lunch, I get my first taste of what this business is all about - service and an unrivalled commitment to quality. Full of passion and enthusiasm for what he does, Bernard is quick to tell me that the meat I am eating comes from animals reared on his own farm and processed in his own facility.

"As a business, we are very committed to traceability and 'farm to fork'," says Bernard. "Our focus is on quality and on the care and welfare of our animals - something that's not just good to do, but good for business."

The company supplies a variety of restaurants, hotels and butchers' shops throughout the country, as well as a number of specialised distributors and food service companies (such as La Rousse, Country Crest and Ballymaguire Foods).

It even supplies TV chef Nevin Maguire, who runs his hugely popular restaurant, MacNean's, in Blacklion, Co Cavan. More recently - and with the help of Bord Bia - it has also begun exporting to customers in the UK, Germany, France and Holland.

"We only kill and process prime heifer beef and lamb," explains Bernard. "We avoid cows, steers and bulls, as the meat from these can be tougher and less flavoursome," explains Bernard. "All animals are either reared by us here on the family farm or sourced from other quality farmers locally.

"We know the farmers we buy from, what feed they use and the high level of care they give their animals, all of which is important when trying to achieve the right flavour and the right level of fat content."

Sourcing animals locally is important. Important because it means that they do not have to travel long distances in large cattle trucks to get to the abattoir - something that causes them considerable stress, the consequences of which can be detected in the quality of the meat they produce.

"If an animal becomes stressed or agitated, it leads to a build-up of lactic acid and a higher PH level in their muscles, which in turn causes the meat to be darker and less tender or flavoursome," explains James. "In fact, when animals arrive here, they are immediately placed in fresh straw beds, so they can remain calm and unstressed."

Inside, I am brought to the killing hall. Though not for the faint-hearted, it's an unavoidable part of the process and every effort is made to treat the animals humanely.

Next, we visit the boning hall, where teams of staff in white coats and blue aprons carefully chop and trim the various cuts of meat. I get a quick education on the difference between fillet, sirloin, strip-line and rib-eye.

There's even a cote de boeuf (a type of rib-eye on the bone that they export to France, where it's very popular). I get to see the fridges where the dry aged beef is left for 35 days and where the moisture content is removed, allowing the fibres in the meet to break down, giving an incredibly tender and tastier steak.

"In terms of breeds, we kill mostly Charolais and Red Limousin heifers, as we find they produce the best yield, texture and flavour and make for better cuts," explains Bernard.

And Bernard should know because he actually started out his career as a butcher.

Growing up in Kilbeggan, his father worked as a cattle dealer and so from a very early age Bernard was accustomed to being around cattle. After school, he completed an apprenticeship at a local butcher. However with ambitions to be his own boss, he left in 1978 to open his own butcher's shop in the nearby village of Tyrrellspass. His 'farm to fork' strategy for the business emerged soon after.

"Business grew steadily, so we bought the farm and began rearing our own livestock.

"Not long after that, we built a small abattoir here and began slaughtering our own animals, as well as doing contract slaughtering for other local butchers," adds Bernard.

"In fact, the abattoir got built before our own family home," interjects Pauline, who used to deliver the meat to local shops in the early years.

The move from the butcher's shop to the abattoir proved so successful that in 1992 Bernard closed the shop to concentrate on the wholesaling business. In 2005, his son James joined the business straight from school and in 2008 James was joined by his younger brother Brian. James now looks after sales and marketing, while Brian looks after the farming and livestock management side.

"Since then, we have continuously expanded and upgraded the facility. We became Bord Bia-approved and are now preparing for the wider European BRC accreditation," explains Bernard.

"We also recently built a state-of-the-art lairage (a place where cattle and sheep can be rested before their trip to the abattoir), as well as a new kill floor and several large fridges and chill rooms. While we currently slaughter up to 150 cattle or 900 lambs each day, we have ample capacity to cater for our planned expansion."

What about future plans?

"We want to increase our turnover to around 30m over the next three years," explains Bernard. "We aim to achieve this by continuing to grow in the Irish market as well as by harnessing our export potential.

"In this regard, we have hired a new general manager with vast experience and contacts right across Europe."

As I look around Troys' Abattoir, it's easy to see that the foundations for this level of growth are already in place. They have a state- of-the-art processing facility, vast experience and a well-earned reputation.

Above all else though, the Troy family care about what they do. They care about producing quality meats. They care about their animals, their customers and their staff.

As I say my goodbyes, I find myself really rooting for this lovely family and their growing business.

For further information: www.troys.ie
Walk into any web-centric multinational or start-up around Dublin and youll probably see motivational slogans plastered, printed, floating or chalked on the edifices around you...

What happens when your major Irish jobs announcement gets lost in a global story about your company being a cliche?

Ask global email marketing firm HubSpot. What should have been a triumphant week for them in Ireland turned into something different.

If you missed it, the Boston-based multinational announced last week an expansion of its Dublin base with an extra 320 jobs on the way here.

But all anyone was talking about was the highly unflattering expose of the firm written by veteran tech journalist Dan Lyons. Lyons, a former Newsweek journalist, was hired by the company in 2013 and spent a year at its Boston headquarters. He has now written a book about it called Disrupted.

His experience reads like a beginner's guide in how to cram every shallow cliche into a tech start-up. It ranges from cult-like employment terminology to foosball tables and 'candy walls'.

"Everyone works in vast, open spaces, crammed next to one another like seamstresses in Bangladeshi shirt factories," he wrote. "Only instead of being hunched over sewing machines, people are hunched over laptops. Nerf-gun battles rage, with people firing weapons from behind giant flat-panel monitors, ducking and rolling under desks. Teams go on outings to play trampoline dodgeball and race go-karts and play laser tag."

And there is much more, from dogs roaming HubSpot's hallways to "bros" meeting for communal push-up sessions. Everyone, he says, is told that they are part of a "revolution" and are "changing the world".

Lyons' experience may be towards the more exuberant end of start-up culture. And, for the record, I have found HubSpot's co-founder Brian Halligan to be a thoughtful, clear-headed person when I have interviewed him.

But much of what Lyons is relaying - particularly in the quasi-religious sermons that managers give workers - rings true for hundreds of tech companies located here.

Walk into any web-centric multinational or start-up around Dublin and you'll likely see motivational slogans plastered, printed, floating or chalked on the edifices around you.

Facebook, for example, has a series of giant posters hanging in the reception area of its Dublin office that say things like 'what would you do if you weren't afraid?' and 'proceed and be bold'.

Indigenous start-ups have become equally zealous on such sloganeering, with Powerpoint slide decks about corporate culture treated as holy artefacts. Mantras about 'missions' are repeatedly drilled into new recruits.

And then there are the names. It has become de rigeur to for many tech companies to add an 's', 'ers' or similar suffix to their trading name to describe the collective of people who work for them. This mean that you're a HubSpotter, a Googler or a Whateverer.

(At the opening of Yahoo's Dublin office, I asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny about what he thought of being surrounded by so many Yahoos, which is that company's authorised employee denominator. He refrained from making the obvious joke after tentatively looking at the wide-eyed, eager company executives around him.)

For many young staff, all of this becomes gospel, an identity that is embraced like a religious affiliation. At Google, a number of recruits walk around with corporate badges, pins and T-shirts. I once asked one of these younger staff members whether all of the corporate metal pins he was wearing was weighing his T-shirt down. "No," came the straight-faced response. "I like these. They're part of who I am."

Is this real passion, manipulation or something in between? How inseparable is it with the positive side of start-ups - encouraging productive risk, enterprise and wealth creation?

I recently asked Eoghan McCabe, co-founder of Intercom, about this. Intercom is one of the most successful Irish tech companies in some time. Last week, it closed a 44m funding round (bringing its total to 102m). It is about to go on another hiring spree, with a doubling of its workforce to 500.

On the surface, it has a few of the usual tech affectations: minor motivational decorations, branded fleeces and the word 'Intercomrades' for staff members. On the other hand, it is a genuinely respected company with a serious product that is highly sought after.

"All companies have rituals and traits," he told me. "Some are conventional, some aren't. You can totally criticise it, you can poke holes in it. But these rituals are the things that bind people together. They help maintain solidarity between thick and thin. Frankly, they also make it a little bit more fun."

McCabe says that some of the top-down cultural commands in the tech world amounts to "bullshit". But some of it is genuinely uncynical, he says.

Perhaps the moral of the HubSpot story is as a message of things to come for the rest of us. The HR techniques of tech companies usually spread to other industrial sectors. So don't be surprised if logo'd T-shirts and 'company culture' placards start landing at an office near you soon.
Irish technology start-ups are seeing an unprecedented surge in cash as international investors cool their interest in mega-companies, such as Dropbox and Snapchat.

In the week that Dublin software firm Intercom closed a landmark 44m fundraising round, research by the Sunday Independent shows that Irish tech firms have more than doubled the amount of money they raised, compared to a year ago.

In the last 12 months, the top eight Irish tech fundraising rounds have brought in 220m of investment - more than twice the 99m recorded by the top tech firms in the previous year.

In a sign that Irish tech companies are starting to compete more seriously with international rivals, the majority of the new funding is coming from US and European venture capital firms looking for alternatives to overheated US tech stocks.

Three companies alone - Limerick's waste-management firm AMCS, Dublin chip design company Movidius and Intercom - raised 127m in the period, which is the highest annual Irish investment tech haul in recent history.

The fillip in funding here comes as many Silicon Valley tech companies are experiencing sharp falls in their valuations through a series of weak IPOs and fundraising 'down rounds'.

Some international indices show an acceleration in Irish commercial technology activity that is outpacing other countries.

A global analysis by UK-based Mooreland Partners shows that Ireland had the second-highest number of tech company 'exits', or sales, per capita in 2015.

In the last 12 months, the cream of Ireland's private indigenous tech companies have seen an average investment of 27.5m per fundraising round, up on the previous year's average of 12.4m.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent after his company's 44m funding round, Intercom vice-president Paul Adams said that the current cooling-off in tech valuations had not affected the five-year-old firm's prospects in raising money from major Silicon Valley backers.

"Because our growth is so strong, there has been a lot of interest," he said. "The terms looked good. We are now fully funded and will not need to raise money again."

Intercom's co-founder and chief executive, Eoghan McCabe, said that the company had turned down five acquisition offers "so far".
One of the peculiarities of the looming threat of a British exit from the European Union is just how quiet so many businesses have been on the subject.

Britain is overwhelmingly Ireland's largest trading partner; some 1bn worth of goods and services are bought and sold between the two islands every week.

Ireland's dependence on its next-door neighbour - and the potential for damage posed by that neighbour stepping out of well-established free-trade agreements - can't be overstated, says John McGrane.

He is director general of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, an organisation which has found itself in the middle of the maelstrom of a once-in-a-generation referendum that could shape the way the European Union does business for decades to come.

The chamber was set up in May 2011 to coincide with Queen Elizabeth's historic visit to Ireland, alongside a pledge by the British and Irish governments to do more to facilitate trade between the two states, though it is privately funded. It is a networking, lobbying and promotion group with a big membership, a who's who of household business names on both sides of the Irish Sea. They employ around two million Irish and British people and span virtually all sectors and sizes, from ABP Food Group to London City Airport, their variety a testament to just how much business the two islands do.

A smattering of Irish companies and top executives have made their feelings clear on the issue in recent months, like AIB chairman Richard Pym. At a chamber reception, Pym warned that "a border fence could have to go up between the Republic and Northern Ireland and a leave vote in the UK will almost certainly trigger a new referendum in Scotland".

But many have stayed silent, declining to express a view for fear of angering customers or business partners.

"That will probably change", McGrane says, as the referendum gets closer. "Look at the Scottish referendum - businesses made their voices heard quite late in the day, but when they did, it made a big difference to the result."

McGrane was one of the founders of the chamber, while working as head of product and services sales at Ulster Bank's corporate markets division, alongside companies like Fyffes, Glen Dimplex, Lloyds, Kingspan and PwC.

"Most people now know that Britain is Ireland's largest trading partner by a long shot. But for a time it was taken for granted. Proof of that is the fact that we didn't have a chamber until five years ago," he says.

And while many firms are reluctant to get involved in the debate just yet, there is a clear consensus forming among the chamber's members.

"Our members have diverse views on this. But the consensus is that Britain should stay - in a reformed, stronger EU" McGrane says. "Many of our members feel the EU needs a lot of work. A lot of that has to do with the single market and the fact that there are lots of goods and services that can't trade freely at all. There are lots of local standards still in existence.

"When a truck takes mushrooms from Monaghan to Milan, that should essentially be one interruption-free journey right across the continent. That's the idea of the single market.

"In practise the driver has to get out of the car too many times to present documents at different border posts and to pay local levies for road usage, because the market is different in different states. That's a basic example.

"Or the trading of renewable energy. The wind comes in off the Aran islands, it goes through a turbine and through a cable and under the Irish sea and through a cable in England, and it boils a kettle in Ketterington. That trade goes through numerous different regulations where there really should just be one set of rules. That's a big deal because energy costs are a very big part of our competitiveness.

"Or digital services. Look at geoblocking - media providers in one country barring access to their content to customers in other countries. That is not free movement.

The other big issue is speed, he says. "The EU needs to be able to move a lot faster. If you are a company in Manhattan looking at opening a foreign office, you can do it practically anywhere on earth now, particularly if you are selling services.

"While the EU does very well in winning some of those deals, we miss some others. That's because, people say, costs are too high, competitiveness is too low, there's an ageing demographic that is not properly funded and there are major security and defence issues.

"Is Europe in good order? Europe has a lot to do to take care of its business. There's no doubt it has been a bad few years, PR-wise, for the EU."

McGrane took the chamber's director general job after a 40-year career in banking. He grew up in Drogheda in the Sixties and Seventies, "a wonderful place to grow up and very focused on trade, given its location between the north and south and its busy port".

He moved to Dublin and joined Ulster right after leaving school in 1974, starting in its Dundrum branch.

He quickly realised he would need third-level education to go further, so studied for a BComm with UCD at night over five years, with professors like John Teeling.

He tried all of the traditional branch banking roles and developed an aptitude for business banking.

"At that stage, in the late Eighties/early Nineties, Ulster Bank was a distant third behind AIB and Bank of Ireland for business banking. We significantly grew market share, partly by building relationships with business groups like the Small Firms Association and the Institute of Certified Accountants."

He was lucky at Ulster Bank to work with "really brilliant" people, he says, like former chief executive Cormac McCarthy, who went on to be CFO of Paddy Power, and Ulster Bank Northern Ireland boss Ellvena Graham, who recently became chairwoman of ESB.

McGrane's predecessor at the chamber was Steve Aiken, who is now running for the Northern Ireland local assembly.

The group also has a president, which changes regularly; its latest is Lloyd's of London's Irish head Eamonn Egan, who is taking over from GlaxoSmithKline vice president Aidan Lynch.

Then there is its patron, Niall Fitzgerald, the former CEO and chair of Unilever and chairman of Reuters.

"When he speaks, people listen," McGrane says. "He is a surgically brilliant business practitioner".

There are a lot of organisations that seem to do similar things - Ibec, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland and the Department of Foreign Affairs among them. It begs the question - why was there a need for another?

What makes the chamber unique, he says, is that it is the only group that represents both sides - businesses on both sides of the Irish Sea. "There was nobody neutral, working for both."

One of his biggest tasks is to get his members, and their views, in front of government and decision makers. British secretary of state Philip Hammond recently hosted the chamber at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Later this month it will bring some of its members to the House of Commons for an audience with MPs.

Its lobbying work is "mostly to do with regulation, often with the aim of reducing regulatory interference in trade."

He lives with wife Irene, a heritage tourism consultant, in Dublin's Donnybrook. They have three children who live across two continents - daughter Valerie works for KPMG in New York, Mary is a fundraising manager for a Dublin charity and Jack lives in Canada.

He is a member of the board of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and musical charity Music Network, having just retired from the board of the National Concert Hall.

Wedding his passion for music and Dublin city is a campaign to rename part of the capital the 'National Concert Hall Quarter,' to better promote its musical heritage.

He also runs a technology start-up, NSI Technology, founded after he left Ulster Bank.

The company provides non-profit organisations like trade bodies and charities with technology to help them organise and cut costs.

"Just because they are voluntary organisations doesn't mean they shouldn't be strong on costs and operate a strong business model," he says.

He spends about half of his week in Britain, some of that in the North.

"We are doing a lot of work in Northern Ireland at the moment, because it is the most exposed of any part of the UK to a Brexit scenario. 60pc of its exports go to the EU including the Republic of Ireland.

"The net cost the UK pays to be in the EU, to access a market of 500m people, is less than 9bn.

"Whereas it costs the UK more than 11bn a year to subsidise Northern Ireland, for around 2m people. Both are very good value for Britain."

The chamber's job is not to tell people how to vote on June 23, he insists. "We do not tell people how to vote. We respect that the decision lies with the people who have a vote.

"What we are committed to is providing as much information as possible and providing a platform for debate so that people are informed, and encouraging as many of them to vote as possible.

It will be a tight race. "It is neck and neck right now. You can take your pick among the polls. Between 20 and 30pc of the UK population are in the 'don't know' category' and those votes are very important."

"We estimate there are between 1-1.5 million voters who either have dual citizenship or close relationships with Irish people, either through family or neighbours or similar, who could be the difference between that yes and no vote."

Brexit should be perceived as an opportunity as well as a threat, he adds.

"We are poised at an opportunity to bring about the European Union we always wanted."
It was a precisely-targeted financial drone strike. The new tax rules published on Monday by the US Treasury were aimed squarely at the $160bn Allergan/Pfizer merger, which would have deprived Uncle Sam of billions of dollars of tax revenue.

President Obama and his Treasury Secretary Jack Lew had Ireland Inc firmly in their sights when they gave the order to fire last week. Acquirer Pfizer quickly announced that it was walking away from the deal, which could have yielded it annual tax savings of up to $1.3bn. Direct hit, target destroyed, mission accomplished.

So why do we in Ireland find ourselves in the Obama administration's sights?

The US has one of the highest company tax rates in the world at 35pc. This compares to the Irish company tax rate of 12.5pc. Even more onerous is the fact that US companies are liable for tax on their worldwide income, while companies registered in most other countries, including Irish companies, only pay tax on the profits made in that country.

America's extremely high company tax rate and the fact that US companies are liable for tax on their global income has created all manner of distortions. Washington-based advocacy group Citizens for Tax Justice calculates that US companies are sitting on up to $2.4 trillion of unrepatriated foreign profits (the equivalent of more than 12 times Irish GNP). They prefer to leave these profits pile up overseas, another $200bn in 2015, rather than bring them home and pay US tax on them.

Apple, which employs over 4,000 people in this country, is the biggest hoarder of overseas profits with CTJ estimating that it had $200bn of unrepatriated profits stashed away at the end of 2015, up $42bn over the previous 12 months. Pfizer was in second place with CTJ estimating its total unrepatriated profits at $193bn at the end of 2015, an $18bn increase on the 2014 figure.

Unrepatriated profits is only one of the distortions caused by the extremely high US company tax rate. The other major distortion is so-called "tax inversions", where a smaller overseas company purchases a US company and the enlarged company switches its tax domicile to that of the acquiring company.

With much lower company tax rates in other countries and not just Ireland - the UK company tax rare will fall to jut 17pc by 2020 - many US companies have been "taken over" by smaller overseas companies in recent years and moved their tax domicile offshore. This is despite the fact that the vast bulk of their operations and senior management remain stateside.

Although the first tax inversions took place as far back as the 1980s, the phenomenon has gathered pace in recent years with M&A website Dealogic recording 40 major tax inversions since 2012. This is despite two previous attempts by the Obama administration to crack down on inversions, one in 2014 and a second effort last year.

Even by the standards of recent mega-deals, the Pfizer/Allergan tax inversion was a whopper - at $160bn it would have been more than twice as big as what had previously been the largest transaction. Almost certainly too large. Faced with the prospect of most of the US pharmaceutical industry fleeing the American tax system and with its previous more modest efforts to rein in inversions having failed, the Obama administration sent in the drones.

Under the new rules to qualify for a tax inversion, not alone will shareholders of the acquiring company have to own at least 40pc of the merged company but, and here's the twist, any shares issued by the acquiring company in the previous three years will be disregarded when calculating this 40pc threshold.

This look-back provision prevents foreign-domiciled companies artificially "bulking up" in order to meet the 40pc limit. If this means that the new rules look like they were drawn up to specifically target so-called "serial inverters" such as Allergan - an Irish-domiciled company that operates out of a Boston suburb and was largely created by three previous inversion deals over the past three years - it's probably because they were.

Just for good measure the new rules will make it extremely difficult for overseas companies acquiring US companies to engage in "earnings stripping" by forcing the American company to pay excessive interest on loans from its overseas parent.

We in Ireland are in the eye of the tax inversion storm. While Ireland hasn't been the only jurisdiction to which US companies have relocated their tax domicile, several major inversions have also gone to the UK and the Netherlands, we have been getting more than our fair share with six of the top 10 inversions recorded by Dealogic involving Irish-domiciled companies.

The timing of the announcement of the new rules was curious. On the face of it the two events were separate but the US Treasury unveiled the new inversion rules on the very same day that the Panama Papers, detailing tax avoidance, tax evasion and money laundering on a massive scale by political leaders and other well-connected individuals and organisations, were leaked.

Indeed, the President himself appeared to link the Panama Papers and tax inversions in his remarks announcing the new rules, saying that "tax evasion is a big global problem", describing inversions as an "insidious tax loophole" and accusing inverting companies of "gaming the system".

While it has yet to be seen if the new rules will stamp out inversions altogether, it seems reasonable to assume that we won't be seeing deals on the scale of the Pfizer/Allergan merger again any time soon. Which leaves Pfizer facing a major strategic problem.

The collapse of the Allergan deal is the second time in less than two years that Pfizer chairman Ian Read has failed to consummate an inversion deal. In 2014, Pfizer unsuccessfully attempted to acquire UK pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca in a transaction that would have been worth up to 69bn. That deal foundered amid concerns over the security of AstraZeneca's UK jobs, particularly in research and development.

In common with most of the other major pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer is confronted by the "patent cliff" as many of its best-selling drugs and remedies come off patent - and face competition from much cheaper generics.

The patent on its anti-cholesterol drug Lipitor (with total sales of almost $125bn, the best-selling patented drug in pharmaceutical history) expired in 2011 - while the patent on its best-selling erectile dysfunction drug Viagra, most of which is manufactured in Ringaskiddy, Co Cork, expired in most European countries in 2013 and will expire in the USA in 2019. For drug manufacturers and patients alike the consequences of a drug coming off patent are dramatic. For the manufacturer, the end of patent protection typically means a drop in sales of up to 90pc. Annual sales of the Pfizer drug Protonix, which came off patent in 2010, fell from more than $1.9bn in 2007 to just $480m three years later.

The pharmaceutical companies' loss is patients' gain. I have some personal experience of the patent cliff. When I was first prescribed a medication in 2011 I was paying 32 a month for the Pfizer-branded product - not, I hasten to add, Viagra! Five years later I am paying 18 a month for the chemically-identical generic.

So what does Mr Read do now? The good news for the embattled Pfizer boss is that the Allergan deal was deeply unpopular with investors who felt that Pfizer was paying over the odds for the Botox manufacturer. When news of the collapse of the deal broke the Allergan share price fell by almost 20pc while the Pfizer share price actually rose by 3pc.

This buys Mr Read some time. With Allergan now off the agenda, Pfizer will probably press ahead with previously-announced plans to split its research-led branded pharmaceutical businesses from its generic arm, something that could now happen before the end of the year.

"We plan to make a decision about whether to pursue a potential separation of our innovative and established businesses by no later than the end of 2016", said Mr Read.

However, hiving off the generics business will be no more than a quick fix for Pfizer. Mr Read will have to do more, probably a major acquisition, if he is to keep investors happy.

While last week's rule change doesn't completely block the inversion route, it does dramatically reduce the number of likely candidates. In practice there are now probably only two companies that fit the bill for Pfizer, AstraZeneca and the other major British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. AstraZeneca has already rebuffed Pfizer while many of the factors that helped scupper the proposed AstraZeneca takeover, not least the security of British jobs, would also apply if Pfizer bid for GSK.

At the very least Pfizer will have to pay top dollar if it is to acquire either of these two companies. With the next US administration, regardless of which party wins the White House and Congress in November, likely to start cutting US headline company tax rates, would the tax savings still be sufficient to justify such a high price tag?
Old Etonian David Cameron ignored many chances to make a full disclosure of his offshore history Photo: PA

British Prime Minister David Cameron had a lot on his plate last week. In the middle of a battle to keep the UK in the European Union, the Panama papers exploded on his radar.

Whatever about him fudging questions about whether he had benefited from his late father's offshore investment vehicle, the Brits were the stars of the Panama show when it came to tax avoidance.

Mossack Fonseca's 11.1 million documents showed British overseas territories were the firm's favourite locations for setting up offshore companies. More than half of the offshore companies set up by the Panamanian law firm were in the British Virgin Islands.

Other British overseas territories such as Bermuda and the Cayman Islands are also major tax havens. While not subject to direct rule, these territories are dependencies of the UK.

In fact, the British Virgin Islands was the fifth largest recipient of foreign direct investment globally in 2012 with inflows of $72bn. The British island of Jersey is custodian to 1.2tn in wealth. The Cayman Islands is the world's leading centre for hedge funds.

It was only 18 months ago that British Prime Minister David Cameron got stuck into Ireland about our corporate tax arrangements. Speaking about Irish tax restructures, he said: "There is the so-called Double Irish, the parsing of profits through other low-tax or no-tax regimes. That is now being cracked down on and about time too".

The Panama papers show many tax avoidance activities that are legal while also putting structures in place for clients which they might choose to abuse in various illegal ways.

Given that Cameron has presented himself as tough on tax avoidance, it is ironic that the UK and its dependencies featured so strongly in the papers, not to mention Cameron's dad.

The UK is one of the world centres for wealth management. The activities of the dependencies are plugged into the entire wealth management industry in the UK and into the wider British economy.

There is little political will to radically alter disclosure levels given the fact that Cameron himself intervened in 2013 with a letter to the EU pushing to have family trusts exempted from new disclosure rules.

Undoubtedly the world of Corporation Tax is changing. The UK, however, wants to protect the financial industries built up in its dependencies while not alienating Brussels.

This moves the debate into Brexit territory. Exiting the EU will take a lot of pressure off the UK when it comes to offshore tax havens but it will lose out in Europe. Staying in could heighten tensions between Brussels and London.

Ireland has used tax policies to attract foreign multinationals. The UK, unhappy about some of our policies, is nevertheless better placed to clean up the global wealth management industry.

That phrase about glass houses and stones comes to mind.

DAA's 'chocks away' with second runway

The Dublin Airport Authority must have deliberated for a long time on how best to proceed with its new runway.

It has planning permission. It has the money and the go ahead from the regulator to add a little on to its passenger fees to pay for it. The rationale for building it and the demand also appear there.

The problems are these restrictions about flight movements. An Bord Pleanala decided to restrict early morning and night-time flight movements as part of the permission when it was granted several years ago.

So according to the planning permission, there can be only 65 flight movements from 11pm to 7am. Right now, there are 99.

Residents' concerns seem well founded. Who wants to live with greater noise? But there is something odd about building a second runway and having fewer night-time flight movements.

The investment is enormous, with the cost likely to hit 320m for the runway and ancillary works, plus a further 50m cost to the Irish Aviation Authority to build a new - taller - control tower.

The logic of the planning would seem to suggest that if a second runway is built, residents will have fewer flight movements at night and the early morning than they have right now. This would add to timetable pressures during the day which could undermine the return on the investment.

Yet, noise levels can affect residents in approach flight paths to the airport even where they are not even close to the facility. The noise is a lot less, but can be heard quite a distance from the airport.

The DAA says it is going ahead but wants to contest those two conditions. It isn't prepared to say that it will not proceed if it doesn't get them changed. So what happens if it isn't successful in getting the conditions removed or at least amended.

Expect a protracted compromise to surface here eventually and a second runway to go ahead. Willie Walsh's IAG alone could keep it going if his plans for Aer Lingus work out.

Perhaps the most thorny issue will be that 320m. Airlines will scrutinise the cost in the belief that they will end up paying for it.

Why Ireland is better off without Pfizer inversion

The cancellation of the mega $160bn Pfizer/Allergan merger during the week was all about tax.

Irish tax advisers may have been marketing the tax advantages of Irish-based inversions for years - but the approach at home was to blame the Americans.

Junior finance minister Simon Harris said back in 2014 "inversions are of no benefit to this country. They don't bring jobs. They don't bring tax here. In fact there is a potential cost here."

This was just after we had changed our own rules which allowed some companies registered in Ireland not to be tax resident anywhere. Ireland has dallied with reputational damage on this front for years.

It started in 2004 when then finance minister Charlie McCreevy introduced special incentives to encourage international companies to set up holding companies or headquarters in Ireland.

The measures had nothing to do with attracting serious foreign direct investment, but were about helping to create a handful of jobs for accountants and lawyers here, as well as having directors of large multinationals fly into Dublin once a month to make some decisions.

It really annoyed the British, and it didn't play well in Berlin either. I remember a senior partner in a major Dublin law firm at the time telling me it was a mistake. He said his firm would benefit from it, so he would not say it publicly - but Ireland was courting trouble for very little real investment gain.

He was absolutely right. Yet when Brian Cowen was finance minister, he introduced fresh initiatives in that broad area around Capital Gains Tax and tax on foreign dividends. He slashed the tax rate on certain foreign dividends by 50pc which prompted British companies to examine shifting domicile to Ireland.

The end of the tax driven inversion is actually good for Ireland. It isn't the kind of "investment" we should seek to attract. It was of some Corporation Tax benefit but didn't yield much by way of jobs.

Pfizer will now have to come up with an alternative strategy to achieve growth - one that is built on the drug industry rather than the tax avoidance industry. Tax-driven mergers don't pass for a long-term future strategy, as Pfizer may be about to find out.

Ever since Lipitor, the biggest-selling drug ever, went off patent in 2011, Pfizer profits have not been the same. Its sales this year will be about $10bn lower than 2011.

This is after spending over $20bn on acquisitions and shelling out $44bn in share buy-backs in the last five years to steady its earnings per share figure.

Given the circumstances, having Pfizer/Allergan executives fly into Dublin for board meetings and other key decision-making would not have been worth the wider reputational flack we were taking - even if it wasn't our fault.
Will Smith was hailed as a "champion for diversity" as he was honoured at the MTV Movie Awards.

The actor received the Generation Award recognising his film career after starring in blockbusters ranging from Independence Day and Men In Black to Muhammad Ali biopic Ali, and I Am Legend.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was named movie of the year, while the film's British star Daisy Ridley was awarded a golden popcorn statue for breakthrough performance for her role as Rey.

Smith, who was joined at the ceremony in Los Angeles by sons Trey and Jaden, joked that he thought his honour was "code for the old-ass dude award".

"This is absolutely beautiful," he said. "I released my first record when I was 17. I'm 47 years old now. This June marks 30 years in this business.

"I'm dedicated to being a light in this world."

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close Actress Lizzy Caplan arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Producer David Wolthoff and guest arrive at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Actress Emilia Clarke arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Actor Miles Teller arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Actress Charlize Theron arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Actor Seth Rogen arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Model Kendall Jenner arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Jessica Chastain arrives at the MTV Movie Awards at Warner Bros. Studios on Saturday, April 9, 2016, in Burbank, Calif. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP) Actress Rebel Wilson arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten Model Cara Delevingne arrives at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, California April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Phil McCarten / Facebook

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Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, who presented Smith with his award, said: "Will is a champion for diversity in Hollywood, blazing a path for actors by showing that someone of any colour can play any role, and can open any movie and win any award and be the biggest freaking movie star in the whole world."

Actress Queen Latifah also paid tribute to Smith and described him as the "king of all blockbusters".

Ridley beat her Star Wars co-star and fellow Briton John Boyega to win the breakthrough performance award.

The 23-year-old Londoner said: "It feels especially amazing to be part of a film that represents people of all genders, all races and all ages in such a positive and aspirational way."

Melissa McCarthy became the first woman to receive the Comedic Genius award, while Straight Outta Compton, which told the story of gangsta rap pioneers NWA, won the True Story Award.

The cast referred to their Oscars snub on stage as they were joined by the group's original member DJ Yella.

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Jason Mitchell, who played Eazy-E in the film, said: "I want to thank the Academy..." before he was interrupted by co-star O'Shea Jackson Jr, who portrayed his own father Ice Cube.

Comedian Kevin Hart and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who hosted this year's event at Warner Bros Studios, performed a comedy song together about The Revenant, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, with the lyrics: "Leo got f***** by a bear.".

Pitch Perfect 2 stars Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine shared a passionate moment on stage after winning the best kiss award. The pair locked lips and rolled around on the stage floor, recreating their movie romance.

Chris Pratt received the award for best action performance for his role in Jurassic World, and thanked a long list of Hollywood action heroes including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Liam Neeson and David Hasselhoff.

The Parks and Recreation star, who played raptor wrangler Owen Grady in the dinosaur blockbuster, also paid tribute to his wife, actress Anna Faris.

"Our son was destined to be tough, but thanks to you he's going to be smart, too," Pratt said.

Ryan Reynolds won best comedic performance for superhero film Deadpool and was introduced on stage by female hip hop group Salt N Pepa.

"We had a blast on this movie but it wasn't all unicorns and cocaine," he said. "This cast and crew gave their last drop of blood to make the most authentic Deadpool movie as humanly possible."

Reynolds also thanked his wife, actress Blake Lively.

"Everything I do is to make her laugh, especially the sex," he said.

Charlize Theron won best female performance for her role in Mad Max: Fury Road, while Amy Poehler won best virtual performance for her role as Joy in the Pixar film Inside Out.

The show will be aired on MTV UK on Monday at 8pm.

Here is the full list of winners at the 2016 MTV Movie Awards.

:: Movie of the Year - Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

:: MTV Generation Award - Will Smith

:: Comedic Genius Award - Melissa McCarthy

:: True Story - Straight Outta Compton

:: Documentary - Amy

:: Best Female Performance - Charlize Theron (Mad Max: Fury Road)

:: Best Male Performance - Leonardo DiCaprio (The Revenant)

:: Breakthrough Performance - Daisy Ridley (Stars Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)

:: Best Comedic Performance - Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool)

:: Best Action Performance - Chris Pratt (Jurassic World)

:: Best Hero - Jennifer Lawrence (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2)

:: Best Villain - Adam Driver (Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens)

:: Best Virtual Performance - Amy Poehler (Inside Out)

:: Ensemble Cast - Pitch Perfect 2

:: Best Kiss - Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine (Pitch Perfect 2)

:: Best Fight - Ryan Reynolds and Ed Skrein (Deadpool)
Well-known criminal defence lawyer Jerry Buting has said he has "no difficulty" in saying that Steven Avery is innocent of murder.

The lawyer, from Wisconsin, USA, visited Belfast for the European Young Bar Association spring conference.

He is best known for defending Steven Avery in the Teresa Halbach murder trail on the popular hit Netflix documentary Making a Murderer.

The Netflix documentary hit has become addictive viewing for millions around the world.

Steven Avery served 18 years in prison after being arrested in 1985 for sexual assault, he was wrongly accused and released after DNA proved his innocence in 2003.

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Shortly after this, Avery was arrested for a second time, this time for the murder of photographer Teresa Halbach.

The Avery case is under appeal and Defense attorney Kathleen Zellner took on the case in late January 2016.

Lawyer Jerry Buting said today: I dont have any difficulty in saying, personally, I think he is innocent.

Mr Buting is in Belfast for the European Young Bar Association Spring conference where he is guest speaker.

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Solicitors and barristers from around Europe will attend the conference where they will address Northern Ireland's position as "a hotbed of investment" according to hosts, the Northern Ireland Young Solicitors Association (NIYSA).

Invest NI and representatives from international law firms will complement the list of speakers. The European Young Bar Association Spring Conference will take place at Belfast's Ten Square from April 7-9.
Three fishermen were rescued in a dramatic operation off the Cork coast by the RNLI and Irish Coastguard when their vessel lost power and was driven onto rocks.

The 20 metre trawler fought desperately to get away from rocks off the entrance to Kinsale harbour at Moneypoint but high winds and difficult seas left the crew with no option but to issue a distress call.

Three fishermen, all understood to be Portuguese nationals, abandoned the vessel as it drifted dangerously close to a rocky outcrop shortly 6pm.

Incredibly, all three were rescued unharmed by a joint RNLI-Irish Coastguard operation.

The Irish Coastguard's Sikorsky rescue helicopter was launched in support of the operation.

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The lifebThe RNLI lifeboat dropped anchor within metres of the trawler but couldnt get close enough for the three fisherman to jump straight on.

They had to jump into the water and then get pulled into the lifeboat. Our lifeboat had got as close as they could, a spokeswoman said.

They got in the water, and the lads got them out, they couldnt swim in it, because it was just too rough. It was so rough, that our boat couldnt get alongside theirs, otherwise it would have hit the rocks too, she added.

The fishermen were then brought back to the Kinsale lifeboat station in the galeforce conditions and are said to be in shock, but not injured.

Theyve lost all of their belongings and theyve nothing. We had to have big ring around the town and lots of people have brought down clothes and shoes for them, the spokeswoman said.

A local hotel has also provided accommodation for the three men.

Two of the three members of the highly skilled lifeboat crew, Nick Fearls and Jim Grennan were also among the heroes who rescued 30 people from historic tall ship, Astrid after it sank off the Kinsale coast in July 2013.

The other rescuer was Matthew Teehan.

Locals paid tribute to the RNLI and Irish Coastguard officials who successfully conducted the rescue operation in very difficult conditions.

The trawler drifted onto rocks and was being monitored last night. The vessel will be assessed today when sea conditions ease as to whether it can be towed to safety for repairs.

A Cork tug will be brought to the scene together with marine engineers in a bid to bring the trawler to Cork harbour for emergency repairs.
The Republic of Ireland is the deadliest place to live in the Irish and British isles - startling new figures have confirmed.

An Independent.ie analysis of homicide rates over the last decade reveals that you are almost six times more likely to be shot and killed in the 26 counties as you are in England/Wales.

And, contrary to popular belief, the gun homicide rate in the Irish Republic was more than double that of Northern Ireland for the ten years from 2005 to 2015.

A top criminologist has now claimed "Ireland stands at the abyss" when it comes to violent murderous crimes generally and "specifically involving guns".

John O'Keeffe, Head of the School of Psychology & Criminology, City Colleges' Dublin, said An Garda Siochana has not been given the necessary tools to face dangerous crime gangs.

"Gang members know that if they are confronted by gardai they will almost certainly have the upper hand when it comes to firearms.

"Irish police have extendable batons and pepper spray - Irish criminals have Glochs and AK47's - there can only be one winner.

"Modern Irish criminals regard An Garda Siochana and their tools as play things - in the meantime, people get eviscerated in the cross fire generated by these gun toting savages."

Expand Close Criminologist & Forensic Psychologist John O'Keeffe / Facebook

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Mr O'Keeffe said it is time for people in Ireland to wake up to the reality of our gangland culture: "Dublin and Ireland prides itself on having a routinely unarmed police force while other EU countries look on in disbelief."

Independent.ie can reveal that in the last decade there were 201 gun murders or manslaughters in the Republic of Ireland between 2005 and 2015 (statistics below).

The corresponding figure for Northern Ireland was 37; for Scotland it was 34; and - where the figures are merged - there were 420 gun homicides.

The per capita rate for Scotland was 0.064 per 100,000 per annum; Northern Ireland was 0.204; and England/Wales was 0.075. Incredibly the rate in the Republic at 0.437 (see above) was more than double that of the North and almost six times the English and Welsh figures.

Independent.ie also crunched the numbers for overall homicide rates and while the differences aren't as stark the Republic still has highest per capita rate.

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We had 970 killings (average of 2.11 per 100,000 per annum) in the period; Scotland had 889 (1.68 per 100,000 per annum); Northern Ireland with 252 (1.39 per 100,000 per annum); and finally police in England/Wales recorded 6,123 (1.09 per 100,000 per annum).

The overall homicide rates have dropped across all four states over the last 10 years.

Asked to explain that dramatic differences in the rates Mr O'Keeffe explained that Irish people have almost come to accept a violent gun culture.

"When guns are used in "mainstream" crime, Irish society always regards it as a one off event, shakes its head and moves on.

"The reality is, it is no longer a one off or unusual event for a gun to be used - the use of guns in 'regular' crime has now become a 'normal' conclusion to a crime event in Ireland."

He added that there is no lasting back bone in the Irish criminal justice system.

"Crises such as these are always met by one off, band aid solutions - either from a policing or a legal perspective.

"Ireland is a society that deals in waves of success and failure when it comes to the economy or crime - we appear to have no will to create a moderate platform on which we can build real change for the better when it comes to regular and especially organised crime."

He added that our depleted police force, the prevalence of drugs and the "clannish" culture in Irish organised crime all contribute to our alarmingly high rate.
CASUALS: Members of the Fine Gael parlimentary party, Eoghan Murphy, Frances Fitzgerald, Simon Harris, Josepha Madigan and Leo Varadkar, pictured outside the Alexander Hotel in Dublin yesterday. Photo: Frank McGrath

Negotiations: The rural Independent deputies, from left, Noel Grealish, Mattie McGrath, Denis Naughten, Dr Michael Harty and Michael Collins arriving at Government Buildings for talks with the acting Taoiseach Enda Kenny TD and Fine Gael negotiators on the formation of a new government. Photo: Tom Burke

Enda Kenny's plan to form a Fine Gael-led minority government has been dealt a serious blow this weekend after a group of rural Independent TDs decided not to support his nomination for Taoiseach.

The Sunday Independent has learned that the so-called 'rural Independents' agreed by a four-to-one majority in a teleconference on Friday night not to back Mr Kenny for Taoiseach this week or in any future vote.

The development increases pressure on Mr Kenny ahead of crucial talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail this week.

Last night Fine Gael and the Fianna Fail leader, Micheal Martin, issued simultaneous statements to confirm that both parties will meet next week to "discuss how a viable minority government would work".

The statements followed what were described as "exploratory talks" which took place at a secret location yesterday,

Late last night Fianna Fail negotiator, Barry Cowen, raised the prospect of another general election.

He said Fianna Fail would "continue to seek to support" from Independent TDs and "in the event of Fianna Fail getting most support from Independents, Fine Gael will have to support a Fianna Fail-led minority government - otherwise there will be an election."

But Mr Cowen also said that in the event that Fine Gael got more support from Independents, Fianna Fail was "willing to consider options to support that minority government".

The Taoiseach Enda Kenny has, to date, ruled out the possibility of Fine Gael supporting a Fianna Fail-led minority government.

A Fine Gael spokeswoman yesterday sought to play down the prospect of an election. She said Mr Kenny was "trying to do the best for the country" and that "another election isn't it".

However, the decision by the 'rural Independents' to withold support from Mr Kenny raises the prospect that he may be forced to go to Aras an Uachtarain on Thursday to ask President Michael D Higgins to dissolve the Dail. In that event, the President could well refuse to do so.

The historic talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail are expected to focus on this issue of Fine Gael's refusal, to date, to confirm it would support a Fianna Fail-led minority government.

Another key sticking point will be the duration of any such a minority government.

Fine Gael yesterday suggested the duration of such a government may be based on targets, rather than a timescale.

Yesterday, Mr Martin said it would be "impossible to predict" how long such a minority government could "administrate", adding: "No one is going to get a guarantee of anything in that sense (duration)."

The outcome of this week's talks between Fine Gael and Fianna Fail will prove crucial to Mr Kenny's third attempt to be re-elected Taoiseach, scheduled to take place this Thursday.

Should be fail to secure a minimum 58 votes, his continued leadership of the party is expected to become a more public issue. Mr Kenny is currently guaranteed 50 Fine Gael votes and of former Fine Gael TD, Michael Lowry.

Last night, a 'rural Independent' TD told the Sunday Independent: "Fine Gael is not necessarily the problem. Enda Kenny is the problem."

An Independent Alliance TD also said: "A Fine Gael change of leadership would certainly change the dynamic."

The Sunday Independent has also learned that the former attorney-general and justice minister, Michael McDowell, this weekend advised the 'rural Independents' in relation to the constitutional powers of the Presidency.

The former Fine Gael TD Denis Naughten, of the Rural Alliance, is understood to have not supported the decision of his colleagues to rule out supporting Mr Kenny.

However, the loss of the votes of four 'rural Independents' at a crucial stage in the government-formation process will come as a serious blow to the acting Taoiseach and a significant setback to the formation of the next government.

There are between 15 and 20 TDs who want to remove Mr Kenny as Fine Gael leader but fear publicly criticising him.

Fine Gael is this weekend still attempting to shore up support among other Independent TDs and the Independent Alliance.

Fine Gael continues to seek to increase pressure on Fianna Fail and Independents to support a Fine Gael-led minority government under the leadership of Mr Kenny.

But last night an Independent Alliance TD said he believed that Mr Kenny stepping aside would "make it easier" for Fianna Fail to accept a Fine Gael partnership government.

However, Mr Martin has firmly ruled out such an arrangement and is strongly supported by the vast majority of his parliamentary party.

Yesterday Leo Varadkar insisted Fine Gael's offer of a partnership government "still stands". "We still believe that is the option to provide lasting government for the country and also to implement the policies to keep the economy strong," he said.

Independent TDs want Fine Gael and Fianna Fail resolve issues in relation to Irish Water and the abolition of the Universal Social Charge, as well as a budgetary breakdown and rules on how the new Dail will operate under a minority government.

In the unlikely event that all of these issues will be resolved, the possibility exists that Thursday's vote for Taoiseach may be postponed until next week.
Marie Kenny took three photographs within minutes of each other

Just when you thought the Irish weather couldn't become any more unpredictable, these three photographs come along.

The three images were taken within five minutes and less than three miles of each other yesterday afternoon near Longford town.

Independent.ie reader Marie Kenny sent in the photographs which appear to show scenes from three different seasons, but were in fact taken just minutes apart.

"It was like lines had been drawn on the road," Marie said of the changeable weather.

The area in Longford experienced heavy rain, snowfall and gale force winds within a few hours.

Meanwhile, a status orange weather warning remains in effect this evening nationwide after some parts of the country experienced torrential rain and gale force winds today.

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Rain is expected to spread to northern and eastern areas overnight, but the rapid downfalls have left parts of the country flooded.

The high spring tides and heavy downpours resulted in flash flooding in Skibbereen in west Cork with Bridge Street having to be closed to traffic.

Flash flooding in Skibbereen pic.twitter.com/pq52HnjpA4  Denis O'Driscoll (@DenisODriscoll1) April 10, 2016

Damage was also caused to a number of low-lying properties.

Meanwhile, three fishermen were rescued when their boat got into difficulties off Kinsale during the inclement weather.

The men - all understood to be Portuguese nationals - were rescued by RNLI and Irish Coastguard units shortly before 6pm.

The Irish Coastguard helicopter was launched in support of the rescue operation.

Gardai appealed to motorists to drive with extreme caution given the enforced closure of a number of roads in north and west Cork due to flooding.
Cork suffered flooding today as the combination of heavy rainfall and high tides caused tidal damage in some low lying areas.

The city remains on orange alert for flooding with a further high spring tide at 8pm this evening.

Cork is expected to receive up to 70mm of rainfall in a 24 hour period up to 10pm this evening.

High spring tides this morning caused flooding in low lying areas including Morrisons Quay, Lavitts Quay, Sharman-Crawford Street,

Union Quay and Georges Quay.

Flooding was also reported in areas of Oliver Plunkett Street, the South Mall and South Terrace.

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A number of roads in Cork county were also left impassable due toflooding with the worst hit areas including Kinsale and Carrigaline.

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Cork City and Co Councils had issued a flood warning early on Saturday.

Crews inspected drains and all vulnerable areas in a bid to minimise the flooding.

However, property owners were also warned to take every possible precaution to protect against any flooding that might occur.

Cork traders have repeatedly warned that the proposed 50m flood plan for the city needs to be accelerated.

Irelands most flood-prone city wont have its new protection scheme fully in place for another four years.

Cork traders said they dont believe construction work will begin until 2017  meaning the flood defence network wont be fully operational until 2019.

Cork Business Association (CBA) chief executive Lawrence Owens expressed concern that traders have up to four years and the

flood-threat of three winters to wait before full protection is in place.

I dont think money is the issue, he said.

I think it is just the process and the best guestimate at this stage is that we may be in a construction phase sometime around 2017.

Unfortunately, it will not be before then, he declared.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) repeatedly warned that the Cork scheme is extremely complex with a significant number of challenging design details.

The 50m flood defence plan will replace railings and low river walls with quays of up to 1.5m (4.5ft) in height.

Cork has been hit four times over the past six years by disastrous floods, one of which inflicted an estimated 100m in damage in 2009.

However, the Government and OPW opted for a 50m flood protection plan based on riverside defences rather than a Thames-style tidal barrier because the latter could cost as much as 1bn.

The OPW plan includes major embankments for the Lee Fields, flood walls by the Mardyke and increasing the height of all existing low

city centre quay walls with structures of between 1.2m and 1.5m in height.

It also includes the covering of some vulnerable culverts and work to both bridges and drains to enhance water flow at peak discharge periods.

All open railings around the city quays will either be replaced with walls or supplemented by portable flood barriers.

The scale and complexity of the scheme has meant plans have taken much longer than expected to prepare.

The OPW plan will also involved careful water management between Cork councils and agencies such as the ESB which operate dams in the upper Lee valley.

Areas such as Grenville Place, Morrissons Island, Penrose Quay, Sharman-Crawford Street and Lapps Quay are all earmarked for high

quay walls aimed at keeping floodwaters back.

However, that will involve doubling the height of some existing walls or replacing metal fences with stone walls of 1.5m in height.

The OPW insisted that their plan will protect the city and its vulnerable suburbs.

This scheme will provide protection for Cork city against floods from the river with a return period of about 100 years on average, an OPW official explained

It will also help with floods from the tide with a return period of about 200 years on average.

That is the best international standard and practice in terms of providing flood relief defence for a major urban area.

Former OPW Minister Brian Hayes admitted that Ireland urgently had to ramp up its national flood defence spending given the increasing threat facing vulnerable Irish cities, towns and coastal communities.

However, Cork business groups expressed deep concern that the city will have to face up to four years of flood threats before modern defences are fully in place.
A MUM has told how she fears for her childrens safety after her home was subjected to a series of vile racist attacks.

In the latest sickening incident thugs scrawled black c**ts several times across front door of Meriam Ajayis home in Ballybeg, Waterford.

The distraught mum-of-two (45) said this is the fourth attack and she has now pleaded with the authorities for help.

I need all the support I can get to help me get out of the place, she said. I cant take it anymore because this isnt the first, the second or the third incident. There have been so many incidents and I have just had enough.

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The kids are terrified and we are living in fear

She continued: My children are looking up at me and my husband and we just feel at this stage that we are not able to protect them. We look like failures to them. We are just sick of it.

Mrs Ajayi, who is currently in a Community Employment scheme, has lived in Waterford for nearly 15 years with her husband and their two sons Yomi (14) and Kabelo (11).

She explained that their car was destroyed in an arson attack around five years ago and windows have been broken at her home in the last number of weeks.

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Mrs Ajayi, who is originally from South Africa, said the family are perplexed over who is targeting them: I get along with everyone, I dont cause trouble with anyone. It is hard to point finger on anyone when you have not seen anything.

It is like there is this secret group out to get us.

Local councillor John Hearne (SF) visited the home today and viewed the graffiti.

Its just a vile racist attack, he said. We dont have it in Waterford and we should put it down at the first sign of it.

We are getting a couple of lads to go down to the house in the morning with buckets of paint. We are going to clear it up.
The first anniversary of the brutal murder of Irish student nurse Karen Buckley will be marked by special ceremonies next week.

The memory of the 24-year-old Cork woman, whose murder shocked the country, will be honoured both home in Ireland and in Scotland on Friday

Karen's family have planned a special anniversary Mass for the tragic young woman in her native Mourneabbey in north Cork.

Father Joe O'Keeffe, who stood by the Buckley family through the ordeal of the search for Karen, will celebrate the Mass.

The parish cleric also supported the devastated clan during the trial and sentencing of her killer, 21-year-old Alexander Pacteau.

Pacteau is serving life in prison for the horrific murder of Karen last April 12.

A special memorial, involving Karen's former Glasgow Caledonian University friends and classmates, will also be held in Scotland.
Tipperary TD Mattie McGrath stressed that it was still all to play for as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael court independents over intensifying bids to form a minority Government.

The independent TD, speaking as Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin unveiled a 1916 memorial plaque in Newcastle, Co Tipperary, admitted that he was more impressed by Fianna Fails policy proposals to date.

However, he confirmed he was prepared, like other independents, to vote against both parties forming a minority Government this week unless they had first hammered out an agreement on supports as demanded by independents.

I will be waiting to see what happens. We have the vote on Thursday. I will have to vote No for both of them if they havent come to an agreement, he said.

If they have come to an agreement and that is there, it will make is easy to vote for one or the other.

I have abstained on the last two occasions and I hate abstaining. It is not my style. But we will have to wait and see. I think there is a real possibility of both parties putting a group (minority Government) group together.

To be honest, the policies I saw from Fianna Fail, probably because they were in Opposition with us for five years, was easy to read through.

But we are not ruling anything in or ruling anything out at this stage. It is all to play for.

Mr McGrath warned that it was crucial the two main parties reach an agreement or road map on how either would treat a minority administration lead by the other.

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There has been a small bit of an improvement, he said.

At least Fianna Fail and Fine Gael are entering into talks albeit too late. But at least they are engaged in talks with a view to showing us (the independents) the road map which is what we were looking for all the time.

This will explain how a minority Government will function if either of them were to go into Government.

I think it is going to come down to that. They have ruled out partnership, Fianna Fail has. It is a pity, I think. So I think it will be a minority Government.

At least if we have that road map we will know what the rules of engagement are before we vote for either party.

Before we can support a minority Government we have to have some idea about what the rules of engagement are  how many budgets will be passed and how will votes be held. It is not rocket science.

He said he believed Ireland was moving closer to a minority Government with little appetite in the 32nd Dail for a fresh election.

There are only a few core issues  there will be votes lost in this Dail several times. It is really only about the budgets and the votes of confidence. No more than five core issues or so, he said.

It shouldnt be impossible to reach that parity of esteem between the two parties  to agree to support one or the other.
The PSNI have appealed for information

The PSNI has questioned six teenage boys over an incident at a school in Derry.

The incident the boys were arrested over took place on Saturday.

PSNI Inspector Tony Moore said all six boys have been released on bail pending further inquiries.

The six male youths aged from 13 to 17 years old arrested by police investigating an incident at a school in the Trench Road area of Derry yesterday, Saturday, 9 April have been released on bail pending further police enquiries.

It is understood that police received reports of people being on the roof of a school in the area on Saturday morning.

Police have appealed for anyone who was in the area at the time to contact them on the non-emergency number of 101.
Over 70 million people around the world claim Irish ancestry and, for many, the desire to forge deeper connections with their ancestors is strong. At home, the centenary of 1916 may have prompted many Irish people to delve into the rich past of their forefathers. But just how do you go about tracing your ancestors and finding what can seem like the proverbial needle in a haystack?

A good place to start is to chat to older family members and relatives about what they remember - there's always someone in the extended family who sees themselves as the custodian of family lore. And it's often worth exploring with family members what they know, or remember, or remember hearing. Of course it's always a source of regret when people have not asked relatives pertinent questions before they pass away.

There are, however, many surviving pathways into the past and in many cases it's a case of knowing where to look. While the destruction of so much of our records in the Four Courts Fire in 1922 severely reduced the range of sources useful for family history, it also means that it's easy to get an overview of the main records. Apart from the surviving censuses, there are only three main areas to look at: Church records, civil records (the State registrations of births, marriages and deaths) and property records (Griffith's Valuation and the Tithe Books).

STATE RECORDS OF BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES

State registration of non-Catholic marriages began in Ireland in 1845. From 1864, all births, deaths and marriages were to be registered. While compliance was spotty in the early years, from around 1880 registration became very thorough.

Civil registration in the Republic is now part of the Department of Social Protection. The General Register Office (GRO), under the auspices of the department, maintains a family research facility at Werburgh Street in Dublin City. At this office members of the public can, for a prescribed fee, search the indexes to the registers and purchase photocopies of records identified in the indexes. A digitisation programme in progress for more than 15 years has covered all registers of births since 1864, deaths since 1891 and marriages since 1882. But for the moment only the GRO staff have access.

In Belfast, the General Register Office for Northern Ireland, maintains the North's records. For a cost of 7 you can conduct your own research at its research rooms and stay as long as you like. Other costs apply - if you want a certificate, for example.

Operated by the Deparment of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, the website www.irishgenealogy.ie is a great first port-of-call for anyone to begin the search for their Irish ancestry. The website is home to the online indexes of the civil registers of births, marriages, civil partnerships and deaths.

The birth records indexes date from 1864 to 1914, the marriage records indexes date from 1845 (1864 for Roman Catholic marriages) to 1939 and the death records indexes date from 1864 to 1964.

CONTACTS

* The General Register Office, Werburgh Street, Dulin 2.

www.certificates.ie

Tel: (01) 6354000

* The General Register Office for Northern Ireland, Oxford House, 55 Chichester Street, Belfast BT1 4HL

www.nidirect.gov.uk

Tel: 00 44 300 200 7890

See also: www.irishgenealogy.ie

CHURCH RECORDS

Because nearly all 19th-century census returns are gone, before the start of civil registration in 1864 practically the only direct sources of Irish family information are local parish registers.

Roman Catholic registers' starting dates vary from around the 1780s to the 1850s, with the earliest registers in the more prosperous eastern region and the latest in the west.

Last July, the National Library of Ireland launched an online archive of its holding of Catholic parish registers dating from the 1740s to the 1880s. The library's holding of parish records are considered to be the single most important source of information on Irish family history prior to the 1901 census. Up to July 2015, they had only been accessible on microfilm and, as such, those interested in accessing the records had to visit the National Library. This web resource provides unlimited access to all members of the public to records covering 1,086 parishes from throughout the island of Ireland. This access to the parish records has been transformative for genealogy services, in particular as they allow those based overseas to consult the records without any barriers.

In the last number of years many church records have become available for free at www.irishgenealogy.ie. In addition to these records, digital images of the originals of these church records are also available to view on this website.

Anglican or Church of Ireland records are more problematic as many were in the Public Record Office destroyed by fire in 1922. However, records are available with the largest single collection at The Representative Church Body Library in Dublin. A detailed list of the information held by the library is available online and much of this information is also available at www.irishgenealogy.ie.

The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) has an excellent collection of records of all denominations in the nine counties of Ulster. You can search its catalogues online or call into the PRONI offices in Belfast where you can search records free of charge.

While Presbyterian records can be hard to track down, the best collection is at PRONI with material also held by the Presbyterian Historical Society.

CONTACTS

* National Library of Ireland, Kildare Street, Dublin 2

Tel: (01) 6030200

www.nli.ie

* Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, 2 Titanic Boulevard, Titanic Quarter, Belfast, BT3 9HQ

Tel: 048 9053 4800

www.proni.gov.uk

* Representative Church Body Library, Braemor Park, Churchtown, Dublin 14

Tel: (01) 923979

www.ireland.anglican.org

* Presbyterian Historical Society, 26 College Green, Belfast

Tel: 048 9072 7330

www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com

PROPERTY SURVEYS

Because of the loss of the 19th-century censuses, two property surveys have become vitally important for family history research; the Tithe Applotment Books and Griffith's Valuation.

The Primary Valuation was the first full-scale valuation of property in Ireland. It was overseen by Richard Griffith and published between 1847 and 1864. It is one of the most important surviving 19th-century genealogical sources.

It listed every single property on the island down to the smallest mud-walled cabin and recorded who was in occupation at the time of publication. The aim was to lay the basis for a property tax so any family information you can glean is indirect but the valuation is incredibly thorough. It remained the basis for local taxation in the Republic until 1977 and all revisions from publication to that year are available at the Valuation Office. The original valuation, together with corresponding Ordnance Survey maps, is available for free at the website www.askaboutireland.ie.

Likewise the Title Applotment Books are a vital source for genealogical research for the pre-Famine period. The books are the result of a multitude of local surveys carried out by Church of Ireland clergymen between 1823 and 1838 to identify who owed them tithes and how much. Since the Church of Ireland was the State church, tithes were payable by everyone, not just by members of their own congregation.

While far from comprehensive, they are for many areas the only surviving record of who lived where during this period. The books have been digitally imaged and a database giving surname, forename, county, parish and townland has been created at the National Archives. All of these fields can be searched and there is a browse facility which allows users to survey entire parishes and townlands.

The population of Ireland was recorded in 1841 as 8.2 million. It would have been somewhat less than this during the 1820s and 1830s, when the Tithe Applotment Books were compiled.

The books for Northern Ireland are held in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, but there are microfilm copies in the National Archives which can be consulted in its Reading Room.

CONTACTS

* National Archives of Ireland, Bishop Street, Dublin 8

Tel: (01) 4072300

www.nationalarchives.ie

* The Valuation Office, Irish Life Centre, Abbey Street Lower, Dublin 1

Tel: (01) 8171000

www.valoff.ie

MINOR RECORDS

Vital clues to your ancestry are not just contained in the formal surveys and census information but can also be found in photographs, wills, bills, memorials and even stamps. In the case of photographs, they can often be dated with the names of the people in the photograph written on the back. In other cases the picture may show something recognisable like a landmark.

Another good starting point is to look at the surname. Often surnames are synonymous with a particular area. For example the surname Doherty is predominantly found in the north of Donegal where the original O'Doherty clan came from. It's not an exact science but often it can be a good place to start. This won't reap as many benefits if the surname is Murphy, for example.

GRAVEYARDS

Irish death records are usually very uninformative but graveyards themselves can often contain excellent information. Gravestones can record multiple members of a family, along with addresses and ages. For many areas, the inscriptions have been transcribed and published. The cemetery's own burial records can be even more helpful. These generally only exist for the larger graveyards but they can give lists of individuals not recorded on the gravestone as well as names and addresses of next of kin.

The records of Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin are by far the most extensive, dating from 1928 and are online at glasnevintrust.ie. Those from Mount Jerome, from 1836, remain at the cemetery with a microfilm copy at Dublin City Library and Archive.

CONTACTS

* Dublin City Library and Archive, 138-144 Pearse Street, Dublin 2

Tel: (01) 6744999

OCCUPATIONAL RECORDS

If your ancestor was an RIC man or a Church of Ireland clergyman or a soldier in the British army, there are good records available. The RIC original records are in the English National Archives in Kew with a microfilm copy of the service registers in the National Archives of Ireland.

Sources for Anglican clergy are all in the Representative Church Body Library in Dublin and British army records are also held at Kew.

Many other occupations kept useful records - coastguards, lighthouse keepers, teachers, railwaymen, prison warders and postmen.

IRELAND'S MILITARY ARCHIVES

The country's military archives, which are held at Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines in Dublin, became available online for the first time in 2012. Available at www.militaryarchives.ie, the site was launched in conjuction with the National Archives of Ireland.

The military pension records of those involved in the historic events of the 1916 Rising, the War of Independence and the Civil War were released online for the first time in 2014.

The collection, which is also housed at Cathal Brugha Barracks, contains almost 300,000 files relating to some 80,000 individuals. In the main the files relate to applications by individuals and/or their dependents for the award of pensions and gratuities.

OTHER SOURCES

In many cases, trawling the internet with the help of Google can turn up interesting information. Local libraries are a rich searching ground along with websites like www.corkpastandpresent.ie and www.dublinheritage.ie.

The National Archives have a free Genealogical Advisory Service staffed by professional genealogists available in its reading room between 10am and 1.30pm from Monday to Friday.

In addition, the National Library of Ireland's (NLI) Genealogy Advisory Service offers free advice on resources for tracing your family history.

The NLI also holds published family histories and local history society publications, and provides free onsite access to a number of useful subscription websites. The NLI also regularly offers talks and workshops of interest to anyone carrying out family history research, as part of their ongoing events programme.
Thomas Burke, in centre at the back with arms crossed, with Republican comrades taken around 1921.

The Brady bunch: Every black and white picture intrigued me, says Paul. I kept asking myself, Who are these people, how are they related to me, what did they do in life? Photo: Colin ORiordan

Amid the confusion, Edward Brady's superior approaches and tells him to make this telegram his last. It's Easter Monday 1916 and the GPO, where the 30-year-old is employed in the telegraph office, is being taken over by Padraig Pearse and the rebels.

Around the same time as Edward departs his place of work, a building which would be unrecognisable within a week, a young nurse called Elizabeth 'Lillie' Burke is preparing to enter.

Later in the week, her services will be badly needed as the Helga begins to shell the building on Sackville Street. Elizabeth (nee McGinty) is a member of the Cumann na mBan central branch and during Easter Week she'll do her best to save lives and tend to the wounded rebels. On Friday of that week she ferried wounded men to Jervis Street Hospital, evading capture.

They wouldn't have known it at the time but a century on, Edward, who went out one door of the GPO, and Elizabeth who came through another that historic week, would be tied together in Paul Brady's family history.

Edward is his grandfather - Elizabeth his Great Great Aunt.

"It's incredible really and the more I learn about my family's involvement in Irish society and politics at the time the more intriguing it is. Like some of my mother's ancestors would have lived in Dublin tenements while the Bradys, my father's side, had large houses with servants. It's incredible now to think there was such a gulf between them," explains Paul from his home in Dublin.

In recent years he has attempted to build his family tree with special attention to those who left their mark. He's perused census records, visited graveyards, enlisted the help of a genealogist, sought information from extended family members and used an online site to assist in his quest for more information.

One man in particular stands out. Thomas Burke, Paul's Great Great Uncle (brother of his Great Grand Father) served as a member of the Volunteers' C-Company at Jacob's Biscuit Factory during the 1916 Rising.

Thomas was a brother to Elizabeth and also to Annie, who was leader of the Drumcondra branch of Cumann na mBan, and to Jimmy who was the fourth member of the one family involved in the Rising.

"We knew that there was a link between Thomas and 1916 but it was only when I really started to look into it that I learned how extensive it was. It's amazing to think that four members of this same Dublin family risked so much for what they believed in at the time," explains Paul.

In his possession, Paul now has a picture of Thomas, presumably taken in the years that followed the Rising when he was still heavily involved in the struggle for Irish independence, which shows him and a group of comrades posing with revolvers in hand.

The legend of his Great Great Uncle grows. With the help of a cousin, Eimear Burke, who Paul only met for the first time in the last month at Glasnevin, a fuller picture of Thomas is forming. Paul explains:

"At the end of January, my brother Declan got married and at the wedding I was talking to my parents, John and Marie, about trying to find direct descendants of Thomas Burke. Low and behold a few days later Eimear gets in touch with me through Ancestry.com. She is the grand-daughter of Thomas Burke and has been able to tell me more about his life," says Paul.

In his possession is a copy of a letter written by republican, politician and former President of the FAI Oscar Traynor. Written in 1936 it confirms that Thomas Burke was a prominent republican and Traynor paid tribute to his comrade saying, "I can testify to his courage and coolness on all occasions."

Indeed as Burke attempted to evade the onrushing British soldiers at the end of Easter week, he was wounded. An account given in a witness statement acquired by Paul Brady reads:

"When the surrender was decided it fell to my duty to gather the men from the various positions of the main building. In one of the positions I came across a young volunteer, later Commandant Thomas Burke of the 2nd Battalion, Dublin Brigade, leaning on a shotgun and in floods of tears. Feeling that he required some heartening I spoke to him, and, much to my surprise, was turned on with the bitter retort: 'I came out to fight, not to surrender.'"

Before Paul reads these words aloud, he pauses. He warns me, "I find it hard to read this passage. They're very powerful and emotive words, bear with me."

Given the massive contribution his ancestors played in the Rising, it's very understandable that this year's commemorations to mark 1916 were especially poignant for him and his family.

It was after taking on a family project four years ago that Paul, who owns a petrol forecourt business in Dublin, began to delve fully into his past.

"Our family were always great at taking pictures but they weren't filed as such. I thought I'd get them all together and scan them so we had an online copy in case anything happened to the originals," he explains. What started off as a bit of DIY archiving soon snow-balled.

Paul continues: "Every black and white picture intrigued me. I kept asking myself, 'Who are these people, how are they related to me, what did they do in life?' After I'd scanned all the relevant pictures my parents had, I started asking other relations for their pictures and it went from there."

A devotee of the Who Do You Think You Are? TV programme, where celebrities trace their roots with the assistance of experts, Paul took down the name of a researcher after one such programme.

He contacted Julia McConville from UCD's School of History and Archives, and she was able to piece Paul's family tree together compiling two reports in 2013 which opened so many doors. So intrigued was Paul that he recently considered taking a year out to focus on filling in the remaining gaps.

While Paul was able to connect his lineage on his mother's side there was a parallel quest - one linked to a tragic and heart-breaking story.

"My father wanted to trace a living relation with the Brady name outside of his direct family. His help on this journey has been huge and he discovered so much as well," explains Paul.

It was when Paul's grandfather, Edward, was a child living in Cork city that tragedy was to strike the Brady family.

"My grandfather's father died at the end of the 1800s and it seems that soon afterwards his mother sent him to stay with her family in Killarney while she left on her own for New York. She would never see him again. From the day she left on the boat for America there was never any communication from her as far as we know. We simply don't know what happened to her," says Paul.

He continues: "I've spent a lot of time searching records trying to find what happened to Lizzie but so far haven't been able to get the answers. Did she take on a new life using her maiden name? That would be the holy grail for me - to find her final resting place and discover what became of her."

Perhaps one of the most sensational discoveries was actually made by Paul's father John when he went to the Navan County Council Offices hoping to find out about Bradys who lived in the area as far back as the 1700s.

To his delight he was showed a copy of the 1811 census which contained details of his ancestors. A partial census, rather than a nationwide one, it was one of few to have survived from the entire 19th Century.

The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, probably because of the paper shortage. And the returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War.

For Paul's father John to have traced his relations via this census was needle in the haystack stuff and it got better. The present day Bradys located and visited the graves of the Navan Bradys of two centuries ago in a small rural graveyard.

In Cork, too, Paul and his father located the final resting place of ancestors and with every passing season another nugget of family history gold is discovered.

Paul found out that his Great Great Great grandfather, Edward Brady, had a brother (Sir) Francis Brady who was a successful lawyer in Dublin and went on to become the Chief Justice of Newfoundland in 1847 and then went on to be knighted by the Prince of Wales.

Indeed Francis' father, a Catholic, had to swear allegiance to the King to allow his son study law at the staunchly Protestant Trinity College Dublin. Other siblings who'd go on to achieve acclaim in the world of apothecary and medicine also took advantage of the loophole.

On his mother's side Paul also traced and found the graves of his ancestors, the Tyrrells, who lived during famine times in Blessington, Co Wicklow.

"It's been such a hugely interesting and satisfying experience building the family tree, finding out who I am I suppose and about where I come from," Paul told Review this week. "I'd strongly advise people to try and find out more about those faces in the old pictures - because once you start asking questions you might well be amazed by what you find out."
The censuses of population are vital sources of information for anyone doing family history. For future generations, the Census of 2016, which will take place on Sunday, April 24, will act in the same way. But the census also helps provide vital information for today and in planning for the country's needs.

What is the Census?

The census is a detailed account of everybody who is in the country on census night. On the night of April 24, everybody in Ireland is required to enter their details on a census form.

When was the last Census?

The last census took place on the night of April 10, 2011.

Why do we have a Census?

The results of the census will provide valuable information on not only population size for the country as a whole but also about the make-up of the population of towns, villages and other small areas across the country.

As well as collecting information on the age and sex of population, a range of different questions relating to households and individuals are also asked such as where and what people work at, how people travel to work, school and college, languages spoken, disabilities, families, housing and lots more. All this information provides a detailed picture of how we live now and helps guide planning policy and decision making at local and national government level.

What is the Census used for?

At national level, population statistics are essential for planning for the provision of education, healthcare and employment. Regional figures are crucial for determining regional policy and for the operation of regional authorities.

The greatest strength of the census is the provision of detailed population figures at local level. These help to identify likely demand for schools and healthcare facilities, public transport needs, areas of high unemployment and the best location for new services.

Article 16.2 of the Constitution (Bunreacht na hEireann) lays down that the total membership of Dail Eireann depends on the population as measured by the census (1 TD per 20,000 to 30,000 persons).

Constituency reviews normally take place once the definitive results of the Census have been published.

The census is also the only means of accurately measuring the exact extent of migration. By comparing the results of successive censuses and taking account of the number of births and deaths that have occurred over the same period, we get an accurate measure of net migration (the difference between inward and outward migration).

Do I have to do it?

Yes. Everybody present in the country on census night must be included. This is the law. But it's in everyone's interest to be included. It means being included in Irish society and making sure you are taken account of in the decisions that will be made about our future. If you are not included, you are invisible and the knowledge we have about who we are will be wrong.

So what do I have to do?

Your census enumerator will have delivered your form to your dwelling sometime in the last 3-4 weeks. You should keep this form in a safe place until Census Day. On the night of April 24 you should complete the form in respect of each person in your household and sign the declaration at the end of the form when it's complete.

Your enumerator will call again in 2-3 weeks after Census Day to collect your form. They will also be able to help you if you have had any difficulty in completing the form. You may satisfy yourself of the identity of the enumerator by asking to see their ID.

What happens to my data?

All the forms are securely returned to Census HQ. Over the following months, each form is scanned and all the data you have provided in response to each of the census questions is recorded and checked. When all the data has been recorded, it is analysed to provide meaningful reports on a wide variety of statistics.

Do I have to give my name?

Yes, it is necessary to give your name to ensure that everyone in the household is included. Names may also assist in the identification of families within households.

How do you protect my data?

All the information you will provide on your census form is completely confidential. This is guaranteed by law.

When will the results be published?

Preliminary population data will be published within three months of Census Day. By the end of 2017, the full data will be available online.

Why are so many questions asked?

Every census includes questions on basic demographic and social topics such as age, sex, marital status, education, employment status and occupation. The census is a unique opportunity to gather valuable data and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) tries to maintain a balance between, on the one hand, the need for information and, on the other, minimising the burden on respondents. The household form contains questions relating to household characteristics and individuals. The responses to the questions provide important information on the quality of the housing stock.

Who carries out the Census?

The census is organised by the CSO which employs a temporary field force of nearly 5,200 people to carry out the census at local and regional level. Census forms are distributed to every household and communal establishment (eg hotels) by enumerators who also collect the completed forms. All census enumerators carry ID forms.
The Fitzwilliam Hotel offers cosmopolitan calm right at the heart of the city, says a very relaxed Nikki Cummins.

Set the mood

As my head hit the pillow in the Fitzwilliam Hotel, it was hard to believe that only two minutes earlier my husband and I were battling the hustle and bustle of Grafton Street.

Set near the corner of St Stephen's Green and Dublin's busiest shopping street, we stepped into a lobby styled with Barcelona sandstone, splashes of purple and a slick, pewter-countered bar (the interiors were designed by Sir Terence Conran).

Staff and surrounds made me feel a million miles away from the stresses of city life - there wasn't a trace of the madness of outside. That's my favourite thing about this five-star hotel - you get the best of both worlds.

Guilty Pleasure

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If you feel like some snappy, seasonal nosh, try the spring menu at Citron restaurant. Priced at 39 for three courses, it boasts dishes like crab with carrot, fennel and orange for starters, rump of spring lamb with artichokes and peas as a main, and profiteroles with salted caramel for dessert.

It comes second to Thornton's (the hotel's other, highly acclaimed restaurant), but is definitely worth a visit if you want to minimise the food miles between bed and table.

For another dose of decadence, try afternoon tea (35pp) at the Fitzwilliam's Inn on the Green. It includes a dessert cocktail of Hendrick's gin, elderflower liqueur, lime juice, muddled cucumber and mint bitters.

Cheap Kick

My husband is an avid runner, so it was a real treat for him to have St Stephen's Green on the doorstep for a morning run. I thoroughly enjoyed the hot chocolate I was chugging while feeding the ducks as he lapped around (hotel staff are happy to provide bread - perfect if you have kids along).

Just steps away, the Little Museum of Dublin (littlemuseum.ie; 8) is another great way to spend an hour. It now has over 5,000 items on display, ranging from Joyce's death mask to Alfie Byrne's personal archive.

Top tip

Check out South William Street, Dublin's best strip for coffee, brunch and people-watching. It has loads of great hair salons, or you could treat yourself to a cheap 'n' cheerful mani-pedi at Saoirse Ronan's favourite nail haunt, Tropical Popical.

Insider Intel

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Head around to EDEN bar and grill (edenbarandgrill.ie) for a cocktail or glass of wine before going back to your comfy bed. Their latest venue at 7 South William Street is described as "21st Century Belle Epoque", and a fab early bird has three courses for 26.50 (Sun-Weds all evening; Thurs-Sat 5:30-6:45pm). Keep your eye out for the great and good; it's rumoured to be a major celeb hotspot.

Glitches

The Fitzwilliam doesn't have a pool - it would be nice to take a dip after braving a run or walk around the park. There's a compact gym on site which is quite basic, but they do offer a pass to a local gym, at 10, for gym bunnies.

Get me there

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The Fitzwilliam (01 478-7000; fitzwilliamhoteldublin.com) is practically the most straightforward hotel in Ireland to get to because it's right on St Stephen's Green (above). The Luas green line is probably the nicest way to travel, but there are many buses that will leave you in close proximity.

An overnight stay with bed and breakfast starts from 249, with B&B and a four-course meal at Citron on special from 309 for two people.

See visitdublin.com for more.
President Obama's visit is the latest step on Cuba's modern journey. Gillian Tsoi flies solo on a bucket list trip.

Many say the best way to travel is alone.

I'd never embarked on a trip on my own - from start to finish, anyway - so I decided now was the time to scratch it off the bucket list. But where to go?

I wanted to fly somewhere diverse, steeped in culture. Being a 30-something female, a destination where I would feel safe was a must. So I settled on Cuba, the colourful Caribbean island known for its rum, beaches, vintage cars, Communist rule and, of late, winds of change.

After 50 years of animosity, Cuba signed a deal with the US in December 2014 that set off a major thaw in diplomatic relations. The US embassy has reopened. The Rolling Stones have played. President Obama has visited, calling for US Congress to lift a decades-old trade embargo. US airlines and ferry companies are eyeing up new routes and itineraries.

Cuba seems bound to undergo significant change in the coming years and many fear its uniqueness may be diluted. Now, I figured, was a good time to go.

Day 1

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I arrive in Havana at night, and catch a taxi at the airport to my hotel. I've no idea why there are two men in the front of the cab and as we navigate through the dark streets of Havana, I'm struck with a sense of panic as I imagine the headline: 'Irish journalist disappears in Cuba.' But as my driver and his companion sing along to cheesy Latin music, my worries abate.

I arrive at the hotel safely and find two souls waiting for me in my room - a humongous cockroach beside my bed and Laura, a Finnish marketing executive who will be my room mate. We've both booked our trip with G Adventures and chat for a bit before falling asleep, excited about the adventure ahead.

Day 2

After breakfast, we meet the rest of our 16-strong group. Coincidentally, about half are Irish, including three Cork lads, a honeymoon couple and a teacher from Dublin. The average age is about 30. We journey from Havana to Vinales, a pretty little village of colourful painted houses, where we will be staying in Cuban homestays (or casa particulars). Our 'Bean an Ti' offers a warm welcome before we go explore the town.

That night, a delicious lobster dinner sets us back about 10 and we venture to an open-air bar for some live Cuban music, cigars and rum.

Day 3

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After a hearty breakfast of eggs, warm bread, fresh fruits and mango juice, we set off on a four-hour trek. We hike through a beautiful, lush green valley as a local guide talks us through the local fauna and flora.

Later, we take a refreshing dip in a lake and visit a tobacco plantation, where the farmer gives us a cigar-rolling demonstration.

Afterwards, we travel to a restaurant in the surrounding hills, where we feast on a banquet of fish, lamb, chicken, salads, sweet potatoes and the staple Cuban dish of black beans and rice. The rum flows freely as the tunes kick in.

Day 4

Another early morning and we leave Vinales to visit a cigar factory in Pinar del Rio. The cigar-rollers, or 'torcedores', work skilfully in the unrelenting heat, cooled only by fans. Air conditioning would only interfere with the quality of the cigars, which remain one of Cuba's leading exports, we are told.

On board our air-conditioned bus, Ivan, our knowledgeable guide, speaks passionately about his country. He boasts about its healthcare system: with one doctor to every 170 people, Cuba has the second-highest doctor-to-patient ratio in the world after Italy. Last year, it became the first country to eradicate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, which the WHO lauded as "one of the greatest public health achievements possible".

Day 5

I get to grips with a mild, rum-induced hangover as we embark on an eco tour around Guanahacabibes National Park near the seaside town of Maria la Gorda. Its UNESCO beach is a haven for scuba-divers, rich in coral reefs and marine life.

The sun is beating down and several group members are dealing with dodgy stomachs. I'm itching from mosquito bites, but later perk up at a visit to a beautiful deserted beach, where we cool down with a dip in the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. Bliss!

Day 6

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Today we travel to Soroa, a resort town near Havana. After checking into our hotel, the group relaxes on sun loungers by the pool, watching fork-lightning illuminate the sky over the nearby mountains.

Cuba's recent deal with the US is likely to see Wi-Fi introduced into the homes of the masses, but for now, it is mainly limited to pricey hotels and special government telecommunications offices. I've been forced to go cold turkey on my smartphone addiction, but the lack of connectivity is refreshing and my stress levels are down.

Day 7

We travel back to the melting pot that is Havana for a walking tour. The capital offers a feast for the eyes with its colonial architecture and vintage cars.

It's our last night and we finish up in style at a show by the Buena Vista Social Club - the Grammy award-winning Cuban musicians. Our group has built up a great sense of camaraderie, so as we bid each other farewell, we promise to stay in touch... as soon as we all get back on the information super-highway.

What to pack

Insect repellent to stave off the mosquitoes (Cuba has reported sporadic transmission of the zika virus) and over-the-counter stomach tablets, just in case you're hit with a sick tummy. Visitors need a visa (Tourist Card) and a passport valid for six months after arrival.

Getting there

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G Adventures' Cuba Libre tour includes an array of "immersive activities", including accommodation in local homestays, salsa classes, market visits, beach trips and nature excursions. It costs from 799pp, excluding flights.

Contact (01) 697-1360 or gadventures.com.

Where to stay

Casa particulars (Spanish for 'private houses') are inexpensive homestays where B&B costs 25-30. They're the best way to get a real taste of how the Cubans live, with cheap homecooked meals available at your request. Try homestay.com or cuba-junky.com for options. Airbnb.ie is also now operational in Cuba.

3 must-dos...

Hit the road

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Rent a 1952 hot-pink Chevrolet for about 25 an hour. The driver will whisk you around the major sights of the city, allowing you to hop out and take pics at your will. You can also rent cars by the day, from around 100 within Havana and 116 outside the city, with classiccarsincuba.com.

Havana's Grand Hotel

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Visit the historic Hotel Nacional, a luxury hotel situated on Taganana hill just metres from the sea, overlooking Havana Harbour. Since it opened in 1930, guests have included Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Ava Gardner, Marlon Brando and Ernest Hemingway. See hotelnacionaldecuba.com.

Walk the Malecon

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Take a walk on Havana's seafront highway, the Malecon, as the sun sets - an experience of a lifetime. Officially called Avenida de Maceo, the esplanade stretches 8km from the harbour in Old Havana, ending in the Vedado neighbourhood. All of Cuban life is here... and then some.
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Dan O'Brien Opinion While we catastrophise about Covid, we ignore risk of running out of cash

We Irish view the world in an increasingly strange and unhealthy way. We catastrophise about Covid in a way other European countries do not. We focus on how bad the effects of the virus could get, on how many more restrictions might be imposed by Government and how helpless we are in the face of the virus.
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New hospital for a tenner may come at too high a price

The Taoiseach is under a lot of pressure  the kind of pressure that leads to costly mistakes. It perhaps explains why he has been saying things that are not quite true. Micheal Martin is in a tight political corner. From all sides hes being told he has to get the contract signed for the new National Maternity Hospital.
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.
Over the last two weeks, I have been buried in a bubble of love. Suddenly, all my political foes have become uncannily cuddly. Those who have been happy to hurl insults across the Dail floor have been welcoming me into Government Buildings. The past is forgiven and forgotten. We are now, supposedly, all in this big mess together. The narrative in the Department of the Taoiseach is being hammered home: it is our joint "responsibility" to bury the hatchet and form a government. Anyone who does not subscribe to this doctrine is betraying the people.

The mating game began soon after the General Election. Unfortunately, the choice of partners was limited. Many TDs did not want to become "contaminated" by the process. They feared being sucked into it. They could never vote for either Enda Kenny or Micheal Martin for Taoiseach, so why turn up at Government Buildings to take part in what they regarded as a farce?

I am part of what Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and others have recently branded a "charade".

The absence of Adams's party, the Social Democrats, the Anti-Austerity crowd, the Greens, the Labour Party and various Independents has not reduced the negotiations to nought, but has certainly limited the combinations for government.

Yet the absentees have done the participants a favour. We are permanently reminded by them of the intoxicating temptations of power, the moment you enter Government Buildings. The atmosphere is dangerously seductive.

We are negotiating in comfort and in privileged surroundings. The path from Leinster House to Government Buildings is almost seamless, through a tunnel open to ministers, TDs, senators and top civil servants. Every day, we have been treated to a lunch of fresh sandwiches or even a hot dish. One day, we even sampled eclairs and other pastries. Break-out rooms have been made available to every group in the talks.

Coffee, tea and biscuits flow throughout the day. All the luxurious rooms have high ceilings, the walls are covered by wooden panels and the carpets are inches deep.

Lunch gives us an opportunity to rub shoulders with normally unapproachable and distant ministers. Today, nothing is too much trouble for them.

They all seem to have been to charm school in recent weeks. I became particularly worried about myself last Wednesday when I began to warm to Richard Bruton, Simon Coveney and Frances Fitzgerald. I positively liked the company of junior minister, Simon Harris. Enda Kenny was warm in his conversations and generous in his hospitality. All that was lacking was vodka or caviar.

A "them and us" atmosphere was being created by continuous back-patting, heaped on us by our hosts for taking part in the "process". We were constantly being complimented on our political courage and the "risks" we were taking "in the national interest".

We were in danger of becoming political insiders. Never in the history of the State have the bellies of Independent TDs been so well filled nor tickled more vigorously.

Momentarily, we enjoyed the attention, the flattery and the comaraderie. The unwritten script was obvious: you could be permanent occupants of this modest palace within weeks. By implication, those outside the process (and the comfort of Government Buildings) lacked our patriotism, our self-sacrifice and were not interested in government formation.

The detractors are partly wrong. Dialogue is essential, however distasteful or even hopeless, but if everyone behaved the same way as Adams and his crew, no government could possibly be formed.

But the detractors are right when they warn that those participating are in danger of being politically neutered by the experience. Some could even be captured, overcome by Stockholm Syndrome.

Some, but not all. Not Michael Healy-Rae, who was incensed last week when the Cabinet kept us waiting for 45 minutes. The Kerry TD announced that he was leaving the talks following the snub, demanding: "Who do they think they are?"

Minister of State Simon Harris promptly headed for the cabinet room to summon the big wigs to heed Healy-Rae's call. The ministers hurriedly arrived into the talks within minutes, apologising, as ministers never normally do.

For a few short weeks, the tables have turned. Ministers are at the beck and call of ordinary TDs.

Politicians who would happily have plunged a bayonet in our backs three months ago are asking us politely if we take sugar with our tea. Three months ago, many of us would have demanded a taster before drinking it.

Down at the competing talks back in Leinster House, Fianna Fail hosts a far more Spartan event. The atmosphere is less formal and lacking in its rival's creature comforts. The trappings of opposition are hardly as enticing. There is no tea, no biscuits, no coffee. The room is pokey, too small for the large table. During the proceedings there is no flowery flattery. It is all business.

While the Fine Gael bash is full of rapporteurs, party officials and advisers on tap, only two members of staff sit alongside Micheal Martin and TDs Barry Cowen, Jim O'Callaghan, Michael McGrath and Charlie McConalogue. There is less of an aura of power around the table as only Martin has ever been a minister.

The party leader dominates the entire proceedings with his command of nearly all topics, probably due to his vast experience in various cabinet posts. At the Fine Gael-hosted events, the Taoiseach makes strategic interventions but leaves most of the spade work to Simon Coveney, the man driving the process. While Martin chairs the Fianna Fail gig, Fine Gael has employed outside consultant Lucy McCaffrey as an independent in the hot seat.

Despite the theatrical behaviour of Enda and Micheal last week, the work of the talks is carrying on in the background. Both political parties have produced papers on issues that make some welcome concessions to the radical-change agenda.

Whether that is due to conviction or political necessity is not immediately obvious. Yet progress is limited. The warring parties will have to travel far further down the reform road. Promises are one thing, implementation is another. The sight of shell-shocked, old-style politicians championing 'new' politics is hardly credible.

The real obstacle to the reform agenda is the political mindset. At the beginning of the talks in Government Buildings progress was painfully slow. Reform proposals prompted a united chorus of government and civil service resistance. Token concessions were offered.

In one case, when I was advocating a radical change in the law, the opposition across the table was so instinctively and unanimously dismissive that I questioned my own judgment. I was almost captured by the consensus.

The moment I escaped from the bubble that evening, I realised that I had been in danger of being blindsided into submission.

A few days later, the establishment made further concessions. Then the full-blooded seduction began in earnest.

The love-bombing was suffocating. Fine Gael fragrance has an unfamiliar scent. But the constant courting did not extend to the Dail chamber.

While ministers bit their tongues and paid public tribute to the Independents in the search for support last Wednesday, not all their backbenchers were on message. When Danny Healy-Rae was in flow during the debate on electing a Taoiseach, deep in injury time, the Ceann Comhairle interrupted him to say that he was now eating into Deputy Ross's speaking time. A voice from the Fine Gael benches - quick as lightning - heckled loudly: "Keep going."

Old habits, like old politics, die hard.
When I heard about the case of the 21-year-old who received a three-month suspended sentence after procuring abortion drugs online, I felt worse for the baby than for her. Reading about her flatmate coming upon a fully formed baby with 'fingers, little toes' in a bin was difficult to digest. The woman admitted to feeling sick and damaged mentally, as did I.

I can't say many online commentators shared my opinion. They were on the #notacriminal Amnesty organic-cotton T-shirt open-top bus to Dail Eireann.

Don't get me wrong, I think every woman should be allowed to have an abortion in her own country, but can we not take a common-sense approach to this? When it comes to abortion, is it okay to be on the fence?

Abortions are a fact of life and will happen whether they are illegal or not, so they need to be made safe and available. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't honour the unborn child without getting labelled as a pro-life god freak by the pro-choice militia. Being openly emphatic towards the "pest", as the mother allegedly called it, means you're pro-choice rather than pro-abortion.

In the United States, a large percentage of pro-lifers are pro-death penalty. I'm not with them either. They sound like a confused bunch. No women should be punished for doing something that is no one's business, especially some fanatical Bible twat with a banner.

I asked 'Orla' (we changed her name) about how she feels, having had an abortion many years ago. "At the time I thought I had no choice, but now, 20 years later, I realise I did," she said. "I've suffered severe anxiety since then. It only went away when I had a child later on." Like many Catholic girls in the early 1990s, 'Orla' was visited by members of the pro-life campaign at school. "They used to show videos of abortions and then ram the whole killing people thing down your throat. It was awful," she recalled. "They'd give you these gold baby feet badges. After I had my abortion, I saw someone with one of them and I nearly got sick."

'Grace' (52), who had three abortions and one child, says there's more stigma attached to being a single parent or teenage mother. "There needs to be more support for them. No one stands outside Dail Eireann supporting single parents," she said. She's right. It's not just the women on low incomes who can't pay rent, it's higher earners too, who get treated like criminals when they go to social welfare looking for much-needed support.

When it comes to abortions, 'Grace', like many others, has no regrets.

"All my abortions were at six or seven weeks," she said. "Yet I find it inhumane to allow abortions up to 24 weeks, unless there's a medical issue. It sounds so hypocritical, because it's not any less a murder when you have them earlier, but I think a lot of people feel like that."

Establishment figures say it's murder if the baby is aborted without good reason, but if it's a product of rape, incest or a case of foetal abnormality, is that not murder too? Why punish one and not another?

Just because it needs to be decriminalised doesn't mean everyone wants to buy the organic cotton #shesnocriminal T-shirt or get on the abortion open-top bus.

For some people, like me, the photos of women with abortion pills on their tongue were crass. It reminded me of the early Nineties' acid house rave look gone wrong.

In Berlin this weekend, people protested with signed underpants in their hands. At the end of last year women tweeted Enda Kenny details of their menstrual cycle. Twelve women a day get on a ferry to the UK, yet just like the marriage referendum last year, everyone has to get their oar in and give their tuppence ha'penny, even if it doesn't affect them at all.

There are a lot of men and women who want to have children but can't, people without partners or families who lost babies, or others who made decisions they regret. Do they have to have their faces rubbed in it?
The former Fine Gael TD, Denis Naughten, of the so-called Rural Independents, sat down to lunch with Enda Kenny last Thursday March 31: "Look," said Naughten, "when you're talking to Micheal Martin you might suggest a Fine Gael, Independents, Fianna Fail partnership government."

As a central figure in the painstaking negotiations between the two Civil War political parties and an array of Independents, Naughten had gathered from his contacts that such a 'partnership' arrangement might be a runner.

So this was the moment, then, on the last day in March, over lunch in the Dail with an erstwhile colleague, that the putative deal - what Fine Gael would subsequently present to the public as an "historic opportunity" - first began to crystallise in the feverish mind of the acting Taoiseach.

Until then, he had been uncertain which way to turn, in effect, to save his own political career and emerge triumphantly as an historic figure in his own right - the first Fine Gael leader ever to be re-elected Taoiseach in successive governments, which he may yet do.

At that point, March 31, Fine Gael had secured the support of just four of the eight Independents it needed to assure the relative stability of a Fine Gael-led minority government.

The four were Michael Lowry, Denis Naughten, and Michael Fitzmaurice, all of whom have an association with Fine Gael to varying degrees, Fitzmaurice through the former Fine Gael TD for his Roscommon constituency, John Connor. The fourth was Michael Healy-Rae, who at that stage was odds-on to be the new Minister for Rural Affairs in a Fine Gael-led minority government; but as it would turn out, blood, bones and the deep run of the Civil War meant he just could not go there in the end.

In a moment of high drama, the lesser known of the two brothers would exert the influence of an older sibling: Jackie Healy-Rae would turn in his grave, or words to that effect were uttered by Danny Healy-Rae, and over the dead bodies of all that went before them, would a Healy-Rae from Kerry ever vote for a Fine Gael Taoiseach.

An emotional Michael Healy-Rae would last week tell his Independent colleagues that he could not support Enda Kenny, and with that - puff - the position of Minister for Rural Affairs in a Fine Gael-led minority government would vanish back into the thin air from whence it came.

It was scarcely noted last Wednesday, the day of the second vote for Taoiseach that the Healy-Raes did not abstain, but voted against Enda Kenny for Taoiseach: the brothers would subsequently hitch their wagon to the Rural Independents, who in comfortable majority more support Fianna Fail than Fine Gael.

But on Thursday, March 31, as Fine Gael tried to put together the eight Independents it needed, the belief was that the newly elected Independent TD Katherine Zappone would follow those other Independents most minded to vote for Enda Kenny, particularly if Fine Gael gave certain commitments in relation to a referendum to repeal the 8th Amendment, which Kenny was prepared to do. The pro-life acting Taoiseach saw such a commitment as an opportunity, or mechanism to possibly re-engage the Labour Party to support the minority government he was so desperately trying to put together.

Whether Labour would bite, or not - that party has its own issues at the moment - Fine Gael's negotiators, regardless, still had to put together the eight Independents needed, at a minimum, to form a minority administration, but no matter what way they looked at it they were coming up short.

With 157 available votes in the Dail, excluding the Ceann Comhairle, a minimum of 58 in support of Kenny's nomination would be required to demonstrate that he could become Taoiseach again if Fianna Fail abstained.

To the four, or possibly five Independents if Zappone were included, Fine Gael was hopeful of the backing of Sean Canney and Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, although neither of these men are over the line at that or this stage, far from it, indeed; and even if one or other did commit, Fine Gael would still be one or two short - and that was before the Healy-Raes took their deeply personal decision.

After lunch with Naughten, the acting Taoiseach reached out to another experienced Rural Independent, Noel Grealish, who is on friendly terms with Kenny's close associate, Senator Paddy Bourke from Mayo. Grealish confirmed to Kenny that it was also his opinion Fianna Fail might be open to this putative Fine Gael, Independents, Fianna Fail arrangement.

The following night, however - that is, on Friday week last April 1, Fianna Fail would stick a spanner in that particular works.

But on the Thursday, the upshot was that the acting Taoiseach had two irons in the fire - a Fine Gael-led minority government, or the grand 'partnership' arrangement with Independents as a buffer between the two main parties.

He was certain of neither; in fact, both looked like coming up short to put him over the line, and with that the ever-decreasing certainty of his continued leadership of Fine Gael would weaken further, and with it his place in history.

The truth is, Enda Kenny has been living on borrow time from election day itself, from the moment the results began to tumble in, the outcome of which was that the man who had won 113 votes to be elected Taoiseach five years ago could only be certain of 50 votes five years later. By any yardstick, it was a resounding defeat, other than the yardstick that he clung to: Fine Gael still had more seats than anybody else, and that was a mandate he could stand on.

On RTE News on election night Kenny spoke solemnly of his responsibility, his constitutional duty no less, to try to form a government, but from the look in his eyes, his body language alone, seasoned observers began to conclude, wrongly as it turned out, that he would make such an effort and then resign as leader of Fine Gael and ultimately as Taoiseach.

The opposite happened. Driven by his own sense of destiny, his place in history to be assured, Kenny quickly pressed Paddy Bourke into action, pitching directly to the heart and soul of all TDs, with the offer of high office - Cabinet positions, Ministers of State, Oireachtas committee chairmanships.

It was enough to buy him time, and to turn their heads, most notably of Naughten, Fitzmaurice and Michael Healy-Rae, who in subsequent negotiations with Micheal Martin would have an adviser directly ask the Fianna Fail leader whether there would be "ministries going" as were on offer from Fine Gael.

On Thursday, March 31, as Fine Gael was totting up its head count hoping to reach the magic number of eight Independents, Fianna Fail was also filling in its own ledger.

The party needed not to reach 58, but 54, eleven Independents, enough to secure the tentative viability of a Fianna Fail-led minority government in the expectation that a reciprocal abstention arrangement could be reached with Fine Gael in opposition.

Fianna Fail had, and continues to have four of the five Rural Independents - Noel Grealish, Mattie McGrath, Dr Michael Harty and Michael Collins, and probably the fifth, Denis Naughten, if push came to shove; it also believes it could turn Canney and 'Boxer' from Fine Gael, to add to Finian McGrath and Shane Ross of the Independent Alliance. In short, Fianna Fail believes it could put together just about enough to form a Fianna Fail-led minority government. As events would transpire, the two Healy-Raes are now also likely to follow.

Throughout the entire process, however, the Independents have remained cautious to both parties and they remain so: while they were always aware Fianna Fail was willing to support a Fine Gael-led minority government, albeit tacitly - the Independents are unsure for how long and in what circumstances - no such reciprocal commitment was forthcoming from Enda Kenny, despite repeated confirmation requests by them to him behind closed doors.

But the acting Taoiseach was and remains in no form to facilitate the creation of a 'safe space' for the Independents, to ease their anxiety that whichever party may lead such a minority government, that the other, in opposition, would give the administration a fair wind.

The alternative would be the collapse of such a government after six months, or less, or more, exposing the Independents to the possible retribution of an electorate prepared to strike out at every opportunity.

In fact, Enda Kenny had gone out of his way to state that Fine Gael would not support a Fianna Fail-led minority government, a "threat" subsequently publicly confirmed by Richard Bruton and Eoghan Murphy on the national airwaves.

Indeed, last Wednesday, as he concluded his final meeting with the Independents before the second Dail vote, and before his fateful meeting with Micheal Martin, the Independent TD, Mattie McGrath, who Kenny knew to be on the side of Fianna Fail, again asked the acting Taoiseach for a 'safe space' commitment, but it was not forthcoming. Instead, Kenny challenged the Independents, in effect, to make up their minds as to whether they were up to it, ready, willing, or able to support a Fine Gael-led minority government - but no 'safe space' either then or now was he willing to create.

For him to do so would be to risk the almost certain flight of the majority of Independents to Fianna Fail, probably enough for that party to lead a minority government, a result that would immediately bring about the end of Enda Kenny's political career.

At that stage, last Wednesday, Kenny had full reason to believe Fianna Fail had him in its sights anyway; not to mention the lion's share of his own parliamentary party which has now allowed Kenny seven weeks, and two, possibly three attempts by Thursday, to form the government he had asked of them for time and space to do.

The acting Taoiseach formed his reason to so suspect the motivations of Fianna Fail after he had set about exploring the Fine Gael, Independents, Fianna Fail 'grand partnership' option laid out to him by Denis Naughten at that lunch on Thursday, March 31.

The next day, April 1, follow-up conversations took place between Noel Grealish and Barry Cowen of the Fianna Fail negotiation team and, separately, Mattie McGrath and Michael McGrath, also of the Fianna Fail team.

That night, both Cowen and Michael McGrath intimated to these Independents that, well, yes, maybe Fianna Fail might be open to such a deal, but that the head of Enda Kenny would be the price.

This can be interpreted in two ways: Fianna Fail was telling Kenny 'over your dead body' would the party do a deal - in other words, not a chance; or, well, yes maybe such a deal could be reached, but that Enda Kenny would have to go, otherwise it would never wash with the Fianna Fail grassroots.

Into this heady mix came a Sunday Independent/Millward Brown opinion poll last weekend which heaped even more pressure on Enda Kenny: the poll showed the public did not want him as Taoiseach, preferred a Fianna Fail-led minority government and that Fine Gael might lose further seats in the event of another election. Fine Gael formally requested, and received, a copy of that poll, and background data, on Wednesday, the day of the Dail vote, and before Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin met.

However, the Sunday Independent had released details of the poll to both Fianna Fail and Fine Gael negotiators last Saturday evening, shortly before publication. Micheal Martin came on the telephone almost immediately to state that Fianna Fail was "up for it", that is, for the first time he dispelled the notion that the party was not really interested in going in to government.

Later last Saturday, this newspaper then received from several independent sources details of the proposed Fine Gael, Independent, Fianna Fail 'grand partnership' proposal, but with the Fianna Fail condition attached: "Kenny must go."

At that stage, the Fine Gael negotiator to whom we had also released the poll data on Saturday was aware of the 'grand partnership' plan, but was firmly of the view that "Fianna Fail won't go for it", and also of the belief that it was a possible ruse to woo even more Independents to the Fianna Fail side. Whatever Fianna Fail's motivations then, the prospect of the party going for such a deal now are slim to none.

That awareness in Fine Gael did not stop Enda Kenny walking into his fateful meeting with Micheal Martin on Wednesday with a stick of unexploded dynamite in his hand: he offered Martin the 'grand partnership' deal, even though he knew Fianna Fail would not accept it, and would most certainly not accept with Kenny still in situ.

Then Kenny let off his bomb: it was a 'grand partnership' or nothing; minority governments would not work and was off the table - boom! In one blast he exploded all before him, the 'safe space' craved by the Independents and the new form of minority government extolled by Micheal Martin on the floor of the Dail a few hours earlier.

It was a stunt: Fianna Fail has been presented in the media (and damned by commentators) for turning down an "historic opportunity" which, as our poll showed, only 22pc of the electorate want anyway, and which Fianna Fail did not want at all, and certainly not with Enda Kenny around; furthermore, the Independents are left with what was also presented as the only show in town, a Fine Gael-led minority government - either that, or an election none of them want, which only a few would enter with confidence.

As presented, Fianna Fail has been outmanoeuvred by Enda Kenny, the master of not senior, but ground hurling and with hard pulling at that; but this weekend, Fianna Fail is still talking to those majority of Independents minded to back Micheal Martin, and Fine Gael is assessing how much longer it can allow Enda Kenny remain leader - which is not much longer after this Thursday if there is no breakthrough. Hence the current flurry of activity.

The President, Michael D Higgins, meanwhile, is sitting by the telephone in Aras an Uachtarain, in keen anticipation of having his say. Constitutional lawyers have also been drafted it. This is far from over. Another election seems more likely now than before Wednesday last, but is still not inevitable. There are several twists and turns left in this yet. Watch this space.
Sir - We are told that to hide money from the tax man is breaking no laws. Well that's a new one one me. I was under the impression that "you pay your taxes or we'll be down on you like a ton of bricks", or in the case of the super wealthy, "a ton of gold bars".

The Panama Papers are slowly revealing the true extent of some people's greed.

It's a fact that ever since we came down from the trees and formed ourselves into tribes the powerful emerged as leaders and with that position came the rewards. This has evolved into what we now call capitalism - it's a basic instinct to hang on to as much of it as you can so you will be wealthy beyond compare, so too will your kids and their kids after them. So when does enough become enough? When does the urge to keep on accumulating vast wealth start to diminish?

I often wonder do they see the same TV adverts that we see for Goal or Concern? Images of children with swollen bellies, flies crawling in and out of their eyes and, in many cases, little more than hours to go before their sad existence on this planet comes to an end. Or the vast sways of humanity assembled at borders throughout Europe? The look in the children's eyes, "why?"

Estimates put the lost revenue at $2tn. Surly this would go a long way to solving at least some of the world's problems.

Denis Healey once said: "The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison cell wall."

Mike Burke Sixmilebridge, Co Clare

It's time politicians faced up to reality

Sir - It's time for politicians to realise 'the buck stops here' and face reality. If an ordinary citizen, after presenting their credentials for a top public appointment with an excellent salary and expense account, were to obtain the job, would they doodle around for four or five weeks, rather than dig in and prove their abilities and capabilities? Certainly not.

Also, is it fair that party leaders, in whom the decent people of Ireland pledged their trust, continue to hold them to ransom, for personal considerations - over a similar length of time - rather than going ahead and forming a stable and sustainable government?

They are acting like a bunch of unruly schoolchildren.

Which reminds me of a light-hearted story I just heard. The schoolteacher put a sum to little Harry: "If I gave you two bunnies and another two bunnies and another two - how many would you have?" "Seven," was the reply. She put the question to him a second time, again getting the same answer.

"Now Harry, if I gave you two apples and two apples and another two, how many apples would you have?"

"Six," he replied. "Very good! So if I gave you two bunnies and two bunnies and two more bunnies, how many would you have?" "Seven" he replied.

The teacher, trying to hold her cool asked him why he said seven? "I already have a pet bunny at home" he replied.

A little huffed this time, the teacher couldn't resist asking: "Since when did you become so bright, Harry? "My mum puts it down to the bowl of porridge in the mornings, Miss" was the witty reply.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if our mentally and physically lethargic politicians tried the recipe?

James Gleeson,

Thurles, Co Tipperary

We only have ourselves to blame

Sir - It is now well over a month since the General Election and there is still no sign of a government being formed. Both Enda Kenny and Micheal Martin are in discussions with a variety of independent TDs of all diverse political opinions.

I feel this is all a game being played by both leaders. They are going through the motions of forming a government and no doubt promising ministerial posts to all concerned.

But it is all a sham. What I guarantee will happen is that FF and FG will eventually go into a two-party coalition and the Independent TDs will be once again left out in the cold.

We are facing a government of two conservative right-wing parties and five more years of austerity. Taxes, water charges, USC etc will not be used for the public good but handed over to the European banks and bondholders as per the norm. We will only have ourselves to blame.

Mike Mahon,

Templeogue, Dublin 6W

Labour needs to seize the day

Sir - Eoin O'Malley gives an excellent analysis of where Labour stands after it's disastrous election result ('Labour would drown in sea of opposition noise', April 3). In fact, it is so good I think everyone in the Labour Party should study it carefully.

The arguments made for Labour entering government are worthy of consideration. Despite Labour's small number of seats and proportional size in relation to Fine Gael, it still has the potential to have many of its policies implemented.

This can be seen all the more clearly when you think of the time that Fine Gael is devoting to Independents. It may be small in relation to Fine Gael, but as a single party speaking with one voice, it is seven times as large as an individual Independent.

An Independent is an Independent, irrespective of whether they are in an 'alliance' or 'group' of TDs.

We need only look back a few years to see how much influence a very small party can have in government. The Progressive Democrats arrived with a blast in 1987 with 14 seats and entered government straight away. In 1989, despite losing eight seats, they were back in government again with Fianna Fail. They weren't in government after the 1992 election because Fianna Fail had lost nine seats and needed Labour.

However, they were in government after the 1997 and 2002 elections with four and eight seats respectively and even got back into government after the 2007 election with only two.

If Labour were to enter government, they would stand a real chance of re-asserting their identity, especially on social issues on which they are strong. With an improving economy, they would stand a better chance of having more of their policies implemented.

After all, wasn't the state of the nation's financial affairs the reason it often gave for not being able to implement much of its pre-election manifesto in the last government?

If I can quote Mary Harney, who was leader of the aforementioned Progressive Democrats for 14 years, she said: "The worst day in government is better than the best day in opposition."

Tommy Roddy, Salthill, Co Galway

The President and the 1916 centenary

Sir - Eilis O'Hanlon's attack on our President was disingenuous (Sunday Independent, April 3). Michael D, like the rest of us, had to listen to endless debates on radio and television on whether we would have been better off waiting for the fruition of the Irish Parliamentary Party's efforts under the great 'pacifist' John Redmond. We listened to contributors stressing their opinion that the "advanced thinkers, selfless men and women who died so that the children of the future would live in prosperity" were in fact stupid egomaniacs, seeking adulation for their blood sacrifice.

I would respectfully suggest that Eilis read the prologue (all 14 pages of it) written by John Redmond for the recruitment book The Irish at the Front, published in 1915, which brings 'blood sacrifice' to new heights.

On the question of British imperialism, she should read Stuart Laycock's recent book All the Countries We Ever Invaded.

British historians are fully capable of recognising that the UK in modern history invaded 90 different countries but are evidently incapable of recognising that militarism had been a prominent feature of Irish life.

Finally, she talks about what does not happen on Bastille Day in France or on the Fourth of July in the USA.

I suggest that no president of France would ever suggest that the French Revolution should not have happened or that France should bring back the monarchy. Similarly, a US president would never say that the American revolution should not have taken place or that Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin were acting without a mandate when declaring both independence and war on the greatest military force of its time - Great Britain.

Hugh Duffy

Cleggan, Co Galway

Words that express everything I feel

Sir - I wish to congratulate Eilis O'Hanlon on her superb article.

I couldn't even begin to explain the situation in the higher office of our Presidency as clearly as she did, from her chronological explanation of events to her final paraphrasing statement the President quoted from Bertrand Russell: "If a crowd has gathered, particularly if music is playing, you can get them to believe in anything."

Thank goodness there are still journalists who see life from the perspective of the average person.

It was a terrific piece of writing, woven with care into a piece of exquisite silk and totally encapsulated everything I feel.

Liz Barnwall

Gorey, Co Wexford

The problem with parking at hospital

Sir - I always enjoy Dr Maurice Gueret's column in Life magazine and I am sure the contents of last week's article would have been familiar to hospital outpatients and visitors alike.

The last time we visited a local hospital it took 40 minutes to find a space to park and then, as my husband has difficulty breathing, it was a slow stop-go

walk to the relevant department. We were then obviously late for the appointment. There are spaces provided for disabled badge holders but none were available at that time.

We now have a plan for our next visit: we intend to park for free at the nearby shopping centre and get a taxi to the hospital door. It will be a bit more expensive but will be time-saving and a lot less stressful.

Norah Brown Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary

Michaella knew the consequences

Sir - Hardline drugs are devoid of sympathy, clemency or mercy; the ramifications for those who become dependent on using them are dysfunctional and ruined lives. Families are more often then not torn apart by the knock-on effects and in many desperate cases death is the last and final fix for the user.

The people who gain from the misery of addiction can only be described as people with little conscience, with little or no moral fibre or decency.

Michaella McCollum, and her cocaine smuggling cohort Melissa Reid, were shown leniency and compassion by the Peruvian legal system by not having to complete the full prison term they were rightly sentenced too.

What normal law-abiding society doesn't require is to give publicity and media coverage to the likes of McCollum and Reid, who knew full well the consequences of their actions but were still content to profit if their trafficking venture was successful.

McCollum's crocodile tears admissions would have been no antidote to the heartache, wretchedness and carnage her actions, with Reid, would have ultimately caused.

Vincent O'Connell

New Ross, Co Wexford

Misery music for the masses

Sir - The Irish country and western music scene used to be the preserve of gaunt middle-aged men with ponytails, playing to backing tracks in grim smoke-filled pubs. Those lads were the absolute antithesis to flashy blouse-wearing tycoon Michael Flatley - at a time when Flatley was practically president. But now it's all greased-up young lads who look like Flatley's children peddling the country music. It's come fully into the mainstream - like Sinn Fein.

Is it a coincidence that when we had loads of money, we were into opulent spectacles like Michael Flatley, but when the money and Mercs were rapidly replaced by ghost estates and banking scandals, we turned to the misery of country and western?

Is it a sort of strange Irish coping mechanism? Consoling ourselves that there's always someone worse off out there?

K Nilic, Mohill, Co Leitrim

Democracy at the whim of the powerful

Sir - Your correspondent Eoghan Harris rightly condemns the atrocities committed by Germany during the invasion of Belgium during WWI ('President fails to deal with Pearse's lack of mandate', April 3). However, he then goes on to infer that the British were the better imperialists. He should be aware that little over a decade before WWI and the Easter Rising, the British engaged in a bloody invasion of the small independent states of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Driven by unbridled greed for gold, they adopted a scorched earth policy under Kitchener, burning Boer homes en masse and incarcerating Boer families in concentration camps in which over 26,000 Boer women and children died. Not to mention the unrecorded thousands of native Africans who also died in British concentration camps during the conflict.

Incidentally "little" Belgium during that period was the brutal coloniser of the Congo, whose native peoples were suffering even worse atrocities at that time. Obviously "democracy" in the early 20th century only existed at the whim of the imperialist powers. The only reasonable conclusion to draw is that all European imperialists at that time without exception were very bad indeed.

Michael Keane

Ovens, Cork

Politicians' fine way with words

Sir - It is amazing that some Fianna Fail deputies consistently mispronounce the name of the political party that they have been crossing swords with for the past 80 years. The first word in the title of Fine Gael is routinely pronounced in an anglicised fashion as if they are referring to 'fine weather'or 'fine dining' or, indeed, singing along with the Clancy Brothers song, Fine Girl You Are.

Anne Rabbitte, the newly elected TD for East Galway, got it wrong on numerous occasions during a radio interview last weekend and, despite a gentle reminder from a fellow panelist, she carried on regardless.

That old party war-horse from Limerick, Willie O'Dea, is another culprit in this regard. It should be said, of course, that this distortion of language is not exclusive to Fianna Fail. Deputies Michael Healy-Rae and John Halligan, please take note!

Perhaps the Soldiers of Destiny could go back to basics and brush up on the Irish language, the restoration of which is, after all, one of the party's aims. Regular oral Irish sessions with repeated emphasis on rhyming words such as 'tine' and 'rinne' might just do the trick!

John O'Donovan,

Ballon, Co Carlow

They gave their lives for freedom

Sir - In light of State 1916 Centenary ceremonies honouring "all who died" and the unveiling of a memorial wall for all in Glasnevin, we wish to state for the record and in the interest of historical accuracy: The O'Rahilly was wounded in a charge up Moore Street upon evacuation of the GPO and was left to die on the street overnight without medical assistance.

Fourteen leaders, including a wounded James Connolly, were executed by firing squad in the Stonebreakers Yard in Kilmainham Gaol.

All gave their lives in the cause of Irish freedom and should be remembered and honoured for that reason and no other.

Proinsias O'Rathaile, James Connolly Heron,

Ranelagh, Dublin 6.

The past is a good way away

Well, my anti-ageing cream obviously isn't working. My granddaughter asked me if I was alive during the Easter Rising!

Patricia Keeley

Dublin 6W
Will Smith was hailed as a "champion for diversity" as he was honoured at the MTV Movie Awards.

The actor received the Generation Award recognising his film career after starring in blockbusters ranging from Independence Day and Men In Black to Muhammad Ali biopic Ali, and I Am Legend.

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was named movie of the year, while the film's British star Daisy Ridley was awarded a golden popcorn statue for breakthrough performance for her role as Rey.

Smith, who was joined at the ceremony in Los Angeles by sons Trey and Jaden, joked that he thought his honour was "code for the old-ass dude award".

"This is absolutely beautiful," he said. "I released my first record when I was 17. I'm 47 years old now. This June marks 30 years in this business.

"I'm dedicated to being a light in this world."

Oscar-winning actress Halle Berry, who presented Smith with his award, said: "Will is a champion for diversity in Hollywood, blazing a path for actors by showing that someone of any colour can play any role, and can open any movie and win any award and be the biggest freaking movie star in the whole world."

Actress Queen Latifah also paid tribute to Smith and described him as the "king of all blockbusters".

Ridley beat her Star Wars co-star and fellow Briton John Boyega to win the breakthrough performance award.

The 23-year-old Londoner said: "It feels especially amazing to be part of a film that represents people of all genders, all races and all ages in such a positive and aspirational way."

Melissa McCarthy became the first woman to receive the Comedic Genius award, while Straight Outta Compton, which told the story of gangsta rap pioneers NWA, won the True Story Award.

The cast referred to their Oscars snub on stage as they were joined by the group's original member DJ Yella.

Video of the Day

Jason Mitchell, who played Eazy-E in the film, said: "I want to thank the Academy..." before he was interrupted by co-star O'Shea Jackson Jr, who portrayed his own father Ice Cube.

Comedian Kevin Hart and wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who hosted this year's event at Warner Bros Studios, performed a comedy song together about The Revenant, which starred Leonardo DiCaprio, with the lyrics: "Leo got f***** by a bear.".

Pitch Perfect 2 stars Rebel Wilson and Adam DeVine shared a passionate moment on stage after winning the best kiss award. The pair locked lips and rolled around on the stage floor, recreating their movie romance.

Chris Pratt received the award for best action performance for his role in Jurassic World, and thanked a long list of Hollywood action heroes including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Liam Neeson and David Hasselhoff.

The Parks and Recreation star, who played raptor wrangler Owen Grady in the dinosaur blockbuster, also paid tribute to his wife, actress Anna Faris.

"Our son was destined to be tough, but thanks to you he's going to be smart, too," Pratt said.

Ryan Reynolds won best comedic performance for superhero film Deadpool and was introduced on stage by female hip hop group Salt N Pepa.

"We had a blast on this movie but it wasn't all unicorns and cocaine," he said. "This cast and crew gave their last drop of blood to make the most authentic Deadpool movie as humanly possible."

Reynolds also thanked his wife, actress Blake Lively.

"Everything I do is to make her laugh, especially the sex," he said.

Charlize Theron won best female performance for her role in Mad Max: Fury Road, while Amy Poehler won best virtual performance for her role as Joy in the Pixar film Inside Out.

The show will be aired on MTV UK on Monday at 8pm.
Joe Medicine Crow, who has died aged 102, was a descendant of Lt-Col George Custer's favourite scout; a war chief and historian of the Crow nation of American Indians; and one of the last links with those who fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn of July 1876, when Custer and 263 of his men died in a "Last Stand" against the Plains Indians.

Inspired by his ancestors' martial spirit, Medicine Crow enlisted for active service in the US army during World War II. Under traditional tribal rules, to qualify as a 'pipe carrier' (war chief), a Crow warrior must accomplish four acts of bravery in battle: touch an enemy without hurting him; take an enemy's weapon; lead a successful war party without losing any followers; and capture an enemy's horse. As a scout with the US 103rd Infantry in Europe, wearing war paint under his army uniform, Medicine Crow achieved all four, including setting off a stampede of 50 horses from a stable run by the Nazi SS.

His bravery earned him the US Bronze Star and the French Legion d'honneur. More importantly, he became the only living member of his tribe whose wartime exploits qualified him to be a war chief - with the name of High Bird.

Crow country once sprawled over 30 million acres of Wyoming and Montana. Today, the reservation has been reduced to 2.3 million acres. Yet while the perils of unemployment, alcoholism and illiteracy have taken their toll on other American Indians, the Crow tribe has proved resilient. Tribal elders argue that is because the Crows were never conquered. In his best-known book, From the Heart of Crow Country (1992), Medicine Crow highlighted the tribe's decision to establish friendly ties with white settlers, based on a 100-year-old prophecy that resistance would lead to disaster, and an 1825 treaty with Washington that was consummated by the ritual touching of a knife blade to tongues.

The alliance with the white man also had something to do with the old enmity between the Crow and the Sioux and Cheyenne, which led the tribe to side with the US authorities in the so-called Great Sioux War of 1876-7. Medicine Crow maintained that during that conflict, the Crow saw themselves as using, rather than being used by, the whites.

The cause of the conflict, of which the Battle of Little Bighorn was one of many skirmishes, was the desire of the US government to obtain ownership of the Black Hills of South Dakota, where gold had been discovered, but which had been confirmed as belonging to the Sioux under the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. As white settlers began to encroach, the Sioux and Cheyenne, under the leadership of Sioux Chief Sitting Bull and his warrior, Crazy Horse, refused to cede ownership. One government official complained that they "set at defiance all law and authority" and the US army, the report went on, would need to "whip them into subjection".

George Custer became a mythic figure, glorified in highly fictionalised accounts of the Last Stand. Six Crow scouts served in his ranks and witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn, when Custer led a force of some 700 men in an attack on several thousand encamped Cheyenne, Sioux and Arapaho warriors. Four of the scouts, including Joe Medicine Crow's great-uncle, White Man Runs Him, rode with Custer's column while two others rode with Major Marcus Reno.

As they prepared for the battle, the scouts were said to have warned Custer that the enemy was too numerous, but were ignored. When the scouts changed out of their blue uniforms and donned tribal regalia, "to die as Indians," an angry Custer released them from duty. Medicine Crow recalled White Man Runs Him telling him, "we looked back and saw Custer still fighting" on a distant slope to the north.

All of Custer's Crow scouts survived the war, which ended in 1877 in victory for the US, and all except one lived into the 1930s. So Joe Medicine Crow, born on the reservation at Lodge Grass, Montana, on October 27, 1913, knew them well, listened to their stories, and walked the battlefield with them.

He was brought up by maternal grandparents in the Crow warrior tradition at a time when life for the Crow people was extremely tough. The tribe was down to about 2,000 members, devastated by disease, hunger and government attempts to suppress their traditional way of life.

Told by a tribal chief that only education would make him the equal of the white man, he became the first male member of his tribe to go to college, taking a degree in Sociology and Psychology from Linfield College in McMinnville, Oregon, in 1938, followed by a master's degree in Anthropology from the University of Southern California in 1939.

After the war, he returned to the reservation where he worked as a land appraiser with the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Although designated tribal historian by the Crow tribal council soon after returning from the war, it was only after his retirement that he began writing in earnest, transforming the stories he had been told as a child into nearly a dozen books on the Crow tribe's pre-reservation way of life and history.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
Belgium police officers search the area during a police operation in Etterbeek, near Brussels, Belgium, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

The terror group that hit Brussels in March initially planned to launch a second attack on France, Belgium's federal prosecution office says.

But the office said on Sunday that the perpetrators were "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation" and decided to rush an attack on Brussels instead.

Two suicide bombers killed 16 people at Brussels Airport on March 22. A subsequent explosion at Brussels' Maelbeek metro station killed another 16 people the same morning.

Investigators have found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels' attacks and the group that killed 130 people in Paris on November 13.

Expand Close In this Belgian Federal Police hand out picture made available Thursday April 7, 2016 he third suspect, of the recent attack on Brussels airport is shown, indicated in box, during his escape from the airport after the blasts. (Belgian Federal Police via AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp In this Belgian Federal Police hand out picture made available Thursday April 7, 2016 he third suspect, of the recent attack on Brussels airport is shown, indicated in box, during his escape from the airport after the blasts. (Belgian Federal Police via AP)

Sunday's statement provides confirmation of what many have suspected: the series of raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacks - including the capture of key Paris attacks' fugitive Salah Abdeslam - pushed the killers to action.

On Saturday, Belgian authorities charged four men with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group" in relation to the Brussels' attacks. One of them, Mohamed Abrini, has also been charged in relation to the Paris attacks, prosecutors said.

Abrini has been identified as the "man in the hat" spotted alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport. Surveillance footage has also placed him in the convoy with the attackers who headed to Paris ahead of the November 13 massacre.

Abrini was a childhood friend of Brussels' brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks, and he had ties to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the Paris attackers' ringleader who died in a French police raid shortly afterwards. Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in the Paris bombings while Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels on March 18 - four days before the attacks there - after a four-month manhunt.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Belgium police officers search the area during a police operation in Etterbeek, near Brussels, Belgium, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman Belgium police officers secure the access during a police operation in Etterbeek, near Brussels, Belgium, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman / Facebook

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Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were not only in a Renault Clio used in the Paris attacks but also in an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood of Brussels that was used by the airport bombers.

Abrini was also believed to have travelled to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic State's Francophone brigade.

The other suspects charged Saturday were identified as Osama Krayem, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M.

Krayem is known to have left the Swedish city of Malmo to fight in Syria.

Expand Expand Previous Next Close Belgium police officers secure the access during a police operation in Etterbeek, near Brussels, Belgium, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman Police investigate an area where terror suspect Mohamed Abrini was arrested in Brussels (AP) / Facebook

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Whatsapp Belgium police officers secure the access during a police operation in Etterbeek, near Brussels, Belgium, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

The weekend's developments represent a rare success for Belgian authorities, who have been repeatedly criticised for bungling the bombings investigation.

Despite the arrests and charges, Brussels remains under the second-highest terror alert, meaning an attack is still considered likely.

"There are perhaps other cells that are still active on our territory," Belgian interior minister Jan Jambon told RTL television on Saturday.
David Cameron had a taxable income of more than 200,000 (248,000) in 2014-15 and paid almost 76,000 (94,200) in tax, an unprecedented release of his personal finance details show.

The figures show that, on top of his income as Prime Minister, his 50% share of the rental income on the Camerons' family home in London amounted to 46,899(58,135), he received 9,834 (12,190) in taxable expenses from the Tory party and 3,052 (3,783) in interest on savings in a high street bank.

The figures reveal that when he first entered Downing Street in 2010 he took advantage of a 20,000 (24,791) tax-free allowance as part of his 142,500 (142,500)salary.

The information, first promised in 2012 but released following the furore about Mr Cameron's shares in an offshore fund set up by his father Ian, shows that Mr Cameron earned enough to benefit from the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p.

The cut, announced in 2012 for people earning more than 150,000 (185,938), came into effect in April 2013.

Mr Cameron said he was publishing the information to be "completely open and transparent" about his financial affairs.

The disclosure came after he admitted botching the handling of the row over his finances, telling Tory activists it had "not been a great week".

Speaking at the Conservative Party's spring forum in central London, he said: "It has not been a great week. I know that I should have handled this better, I could have handled this better.

"I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them.

"Don't blame Number 10 Downing Street or nameless advisers, blame me."

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he would publish his own tax return "very, very soon" and insisted there were "no surprises there" as he demanded action to crack down on tax havens.

Labour seized on the gift from Mr Cameron's mother, which may mean avoiding inheritance tax on the 200,000.

A Labour Party spokesman said: "The week started with a moral crisis at the heart of the Tory party and has now ended with a scandal at the very top of Government.

"The Prime Minister has been forced to admit that not only had he benefited from a company that paid no tax in 30 years, but that he may also have paid hardly any tax on benefits potentially gained from the same company.

"David Cameron can't hide any more, he needs to come to Parliament on Monday and put the record straight."
The island of Lesbos tends to go to town when celebrities descend. The last time it welcomed a VIP, the razorwire running along large parts of its infamous detention centre was hastily removed.

Angelina Jolie got a brief glimpse of it as she walked in, but reportedly not as she later walked around the camp greeting migrants and refugees. The superstar special envoy of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees was instead given an edited view of the camp, volunteers say.

It will be different when Pope Francis flies in on Saturday. The purpose of the Pontiff's visit is to see the migrant emergency up close, and the authorities are keen that no blinkers are involved. This time, the island on the frontline of the biggest movement of people in modern times intends to show it as it is.

"We won't be changing anything," says mayor Spyros Galinos when asked if municipal workers will at least clean up the graffiti on the camp's walls. "His visit has huge symbolism. It is what we have wanted, what we have seen in our sleep, what we have dreamed of for years," he said.

For four hours, Francis will grant that wish when he arrives in Greece for what will be a rare papal visit. The leader of the worldwide Catholic church will be accompanied by the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, Bartholomew I, and Ieronymos II of Athens, head of the Greek Orthodox church.

It will be a whirlwind tour of the island traversed by many of the 1.1 million men, women and children who streamed into Europe last year - mostly from Syria but also from other parts of the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

By highlighting the "precarious living conditions for thousands of refugees and migrants" who have reached Lesbos, Francis hoped to offer a "Christian response to the tragedy that is unfolding".

It is a response that will begin in Moria, the hilltop village beyond which the island's barbed wire topped detention centre stands. The camp - sealed off from the outside world and guarded around the clock - opened as a registration centre but under a controversial plan that saw its first detainees being deported back to neighbouring Turkey last week, is now a closed facility more resonant of a high security prison.

Amnesty International, given access on Tuesday, described conditions as appalling, saying the 3,150 people locked inside were victim to "growing uncertainty, fear and despair" under the deal the EU has done with Turkey.

In an excoriating report, the human rights group said inmates - including more than 1,200 migrants and asylum seekers held in equally squalid conditions on the island of Chios - had no access to lawyers, or adequate healthcare, blankets and a respectable quality of food. Detainees, who included up to 100 vulnerable people, needed urgent medical care.

Standing outside the camp last week, Maria Manavi and Giota Tasiou, volunteers with the international humanitarian organisation Medecins Sans Frontieres, shook their heads in disbelief. Until the group's decision to withdraw from the facility - for fear of being associated with a system of mass expulsions - Moria had chemical toilets and cleaning staff.

"When we moved out we took all the toilets and 47 cleaning staff with us," sighed Tasiou. "Before, Syrians and Afghans had separate showers. There was a sense of peace and cleanliness. Now we're hearing nightmare stories about what's going on inside."

Lesbos's mayor says he hopes the Pope will help illuminate the message of peace and solidarity that the island wants to share. "We are a speck on the map but through this crisis we have come to see ourselves as a lighthouse of human values," he says. "Europe is at a critical juncture. It either treats these people humanely and follows a path of solidarity and cooperation or takes a dark, fascistic turn."

Galinos is the first to say he would like to see Moria closed. "It is," he insists, "very difficult to see people who are decent, who have risked their lives to get here, who have been exploited by human smugglers, being treated like this. They're not dangerous, they're not criminals."

Not everyone is convinced that Francis can ultimately do much to change the fate of those now poised to be forcibly returned to Turkey.

"His visit is not going to do anything for one single refugee in this country," laments Alison Terry-Evans who runs Dirty Girls, a people-powered organisation in Lesbos that launders blankets distributed by the UNHCR and the wet clothes of arriving refugees.

"It is so hypocritical that a man who heads a multi-billion dollar corporation like the Vatican is unlikely to take any action that will contribute financially. That is the pity of it. "

 Observer
Migransts exit through a broken fence after a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

A migrant woman stands among tents at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

Migrant boy looks through the border fence toward Macedonia, during a protest against the closed border at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

Refugee children walk along railway tracks in a makeshift camp at Idomeni border station on the Greek side of the border with Macedonia, photographed from the Macedonian side of the border line (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

Children play behind the fence, in a makeshift camp at Idomeni border station on the Greek side of the border with Macedonia, photographed from the Macedonian side of the border line (AP Photo/Boris Grdanoski)

A migrant man carries his daughter during a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

Migrants have clashed with Macedonian police after trying to scale the fence separating Greece from Macedonia in the border town of Idomeni.

Macedonian police used tear gas and stun grenades in an attempt to keep the migrants at bay, and they responded by throwing rocks at the police. Greek media reported that plastic bullets were also used. Greek police were standing by, not interfering.

Volunteer doctors were treating several migrants with respiratory problems, Achilleas Tzemos, deputy field coordinator of Doctors Without Borders said.

The clashes began soon after some 500 of the more than 11,000 migrants stranded at a camp on the Greek side of the border responded to rumours that the border was about to open by gathering close to the fence.

Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Expand Previous Next Close A migrant boy cries as his mother washes him at the open field near their tent at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Saturday (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Migrants clash with Greek police during a protest against the closed border with Macedonia, at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Migrants clash with Greek police at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Migrants enter to Macedonia through a broken fence after a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric) Migrants carry a wounded man in a blanket during a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric) A migrant man runs behind a fence during a protest at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece (AP Photo/Amel Emric) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A migrant boy cries as his mother washes him at the open field near their tent at the northern Greek border point of Idomeni, Greece, Saturday (AP Photo/Amel Emric)

A delegation of five migrants asked Macedonian police whether the border was about to open. When Macedonian police denied the rumours, spread by activists since Saturday, more than a hundred migrants, including several children, tried to scale the fence.

Macedonia and other Balkan countries to its north have shut their borders, closing what was the busiest migrant route to central Europe.

The European Union has since put an end to the hopes of many migrants, saying it would only accept war refugees from Syria and Iraq as well as people from other countries who are considered in need of asylum.
Police have arrested five people in connection with the incident and are now appealing for any witnesses

Police are appealing for information about a white car seen leaving the area where an aspiring musician was stabbed to death.

Rapper Myron Isaac Yarde, known as MDot, was stabbed in broad daylight after a scuffle involving 16 boys in New Cross, south London, on April 3.

The 17-year-old was found lying in a pool of his own blood in nearby Camplin Street at around 7.40pm and died less than two hours later in hospital.

Police have arrested five people in connection with the incident and are now appealing for any witnesses.

Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Reeves, who is leading the investigation, has urged anyone who saw who was involved in the clash to come forward.

She said: "Witnesses have told us that some of the young men who were present during the disorder arrived or left on bicycles. Were you there? Did you see them?

"In addition, I am interested in any information concerning a white or light-coloured car that was seen travelling away from the scene shortly after the murder.

"This vehicle seems to have headed north along Camplin Street, away from New Cross Gate, but it is not clear whether this car left the area straight away.

"The support we have received from the local community and Myron's family has been outstanding and I would like to thank everyone who has already spoken to us and provided vital information.

"We have made five arrests so far and have many lines of inquiry that we are following, so I would reiterate all our previous appeals for witnesses and anyone with information about Myron's death to come forward."

A 15-year-old boy appeared at Bromley Youth Court on Saturday charged with Myron's murder.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, will remain in custody until his next appearance at the Central Criminal Court on Tuesday.
REVELATIONS: Justin Welby sits in the Chair of St Augustine as the Dean of Canterbury takes him by the hand during his enthronement service as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2013. Photo: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire

It was, perhaps, one of the more unusual statements to have been issued by a modern Archbishop of Canterbury.

"I have discovered," wrote the Most Rev Justin Welby, "that my biological father is not Gavin Welby but the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne [Sir Winston Churchill's last private secretary].

"This comes as a complete surprise."

It certainly did, and not just to Mr Welby.

But by the end of his headline grabbing statement, the Archbishop had rallied.

"At my inauguration service three years ago, a young member of the Canterbury Cathedral congregation, said: 'We greet you in the name of Christ. Who are you?' To which I responded: 'I am Justin, a servant of Jesus Christ'... What has changed? Nothing!"

A generation ago, of course, everything would have changed. Mr Welby would have had to stand down as Archbishop of Canterbury.

It was only in 1969 that new Church of England canon law lifted the ban on anyone who was born illegitimate becoming a bishop, let alone an archbishop.

And for that, Mr Welby has to thank one of his predecessors, and, perhaps more indirectly, King James I, his bishops, and their obsessions with wearing nightcaps and pale stockings.

It was Geoffrey Fisher, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1945 to 1961, who made reforming canon law, including the rules on who could be a bishop, "the most absorbing topic of my archiepiscopate".

That he felt compelled to do so, owed something to the fact that when he was appointed, the Church of England was still working to canon laws drawn up after the death of Queen Elizabeth in 1603 and agreed by King James I.

By the 20th century these were often being ignored, not least because they still incorporated injunctions like those against "newfangleness of apparel", which stated: "No ecclesiastical person shall wear any coif or wrought night-cap, but only plain night-caps of black silk, satin or velvet... and that they wear not any light-coloured stockings."

The 1969 rationalisation, then, swept away the prohibitions on colourful nightcaps, yellow stockings and illegitimate children growing up to become Archbishop of Canterbury.

But it was hardly the beginning or the end of the Church's long struggle with "newfangleness" - especially when it came to matters sexual.

Indeed, it could be said Mr Welby's case is a reminder that the Church of England has long had problems with sex, adultery and divorce, even if its founder King Henry VIII was pretty keen on all three.

A striking modern example came during the Abdication Crisis of 1936, when Mr Welby's predecessor, Archbishop of Canterbury Cosmo Gordon Lang, was unhappy with Edward VIII's intention to marry double-divorcee Wallis Simpson.

Three days after the abdication, Lang broadcast to the nation about the former king: "From God he received a high and sacred trust. Yet he has ... surrendered the trust ... because of a craving for private happiness... in a manner inconsistent with the Christian principles of marriage."

That not everyone agreed is suggested by the popular rhyme soon that started circulating:

"My Lord Archbishop what a scold you are!

"Oh! Old Lang Swine, how full of cant you are!"

It took until 2002 before the C of E removed the blanket ban on divorcees remarrying in church if their former spouse was still alive - and even now the vicar retains the final say in whether or not to go ahead with the ceremony.

So there were still problems in 2005 when Prince Charles - the next Supreme Governor of the Church of England - wanted to marry Camilla Parker Bowles, with whom he had admitted committing adultery.

The 2002 rules still prevented couples marrying in church if their relationship was a direct cause of the breakdown of a previous marriage.

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams decided on a civil ceremony, followed by a service of "prayer and dedication" - and faced demands from die-hards that the royal couple "repent" their adultery.

When it comes to illegitimacy, what many might consider the Church's slow progress was illustrated by debates surrounding another rule change from which Mr Welby could have benefited (had his mother and biological father ever married).

Introduced when Mr Welby was three, the 1959 Legitimacy Act permitted the legitimisation of children born as a result of an adulterous extramarital affair by one or both their parents - provided mother and father subsequently married each other.

In 1959 Lord Chorley told the House of Lords why the provision had taken so long and been kept out of the 1926 Legitimacy Act.

"I believe," said Lord Chorley, "It was the then Lord Archbishop of Canterbury who persuaded your Lordships that it would be a dangerous innovation."

Archbishop of Canterbury Randall Davidson won the day in 1926 - possibly against the grain of public opinion, given that Lord Chorley also noted there was "a great deal of opposition" from MPs in the Commons - including from Winston Churchill, whose last private secretary would go on to father Mr Welby.

Nor has the current Archbishop of Canterbury been spared his own struggles with "newfangleness".

It took years of controversy before the General Synod voted to allow women bishops in November 2014.

And the issue of gay marriage is still causing Mr Welby problems.

He opposed the Same Sex Marriage Bill in 2013, telling the House of Lords that if it became law: "The idea as marriage as covenant is diminished; the family in its normal sense, and as our base community of society is weakened."

A few weeks later, however, he was telling the General Synod that he, his fellow bishops and other opponents of the bill had been "utterly overwhelmed".

He was, he insisted, not proposing gay marriages in churches, "but we must accept that there is a revolution in the area of sexuality".

Some in his audience approved, or even criticised him for not going further. Others were appalled, and by April 2015 evangelical leaders from the US and Africa were meeting in London to consider a "parallel" Church in protest against women bishops and gay marriage.

Perhaps, like Archbishops before him, Mr Welby has discovered the problem with newfangleness: it might keep you in a job when it comes to unexpected revelations about your paternity, but when it comes to the Anglican Church, it's unlikely to make your life easy.

Independent
Image taken from video showing debris following a major fire and explosion at a temple in Kollam, in the southern Indian state of Kerala (Asianet News via AP)

A man walks carrying empty shells of fireworks past a collapsed building after a massive fire broke out during a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple complex in Kerala state, India (AP)

A massive fire broke out during a fireworks display in a Hindu temple in south India early Sunday, killing more than 100 people and injuring at least 200 others, officials said.

The fire started when a spark from the unauthorised fireworks show ignited a separate batch of fireworks that were being stored at the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, a few hours north of Kerala's state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, said chief minister Oommen Chandy, the state's top elected official.

Thousands had been packed into the temple complex when a big explosion erupted at about 3am, officials said. The blaze then spread quickly through the temple, trapping devotees within.

Most of the 102 people died when the building where the fireworks were stored collapsed, Chandy told reporters at the temple complex.

Local TV channels broadcast images of huge clouds of white smoke billowing from the temple, as fireworks were still going off in the night sky. Successive explosions from the building storing the fireworks sent huge chunks of concrete flying as far as half a mile, according to resident Jayashree Harikrishnan.

The temple holds a competitive fireworks display every year, with different groups putting on successive light shows for thousands of devotees gathered for the last day of a seven-day festival honouring the goddess Bhadrakali, a southern Indian incarnation of the Hindu goddess Kali.

This year, district authorities denied permission for the fireworks display, Chandy said.

The state's High Court had earlier mandated that fireworks must be stored more than 100 meters from temples - orders that were flouted at the Paravoor temple, said Loknath Behera, a top police official.

"We will be investigating how the orders were flouted and who was responsible for the decision to go ahead with the firework display," Chandy said.

Krishna Das, a resident of Paravoor village, said he had started walking away from the temple as the fireworks display was about to end when a deafening explosion followed by a series of blasts went off.

"I had been in the temple just a few minutes before watching the fireworks," Das said. He said he saw scores of people running away, chased by fire and chunks of concrete and plaster from the temple building.

Das said as soon as the first explosion was heard, a power cut hit the complex.

"It was complete chaos. People were screaming in the dark. Ambulance sirens went off, and in the darkness no one knew how to find their way out of the complex," he said.

He said that six ambulances had been parked outside the temple complex as a precaution. They were used to take the injured to hospitals in the nearby cities of Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram.

Local villagers and police pulled out many of the injured from under slabs of concrete.

Many of the buildings within a mile of the temple were damaged, with cracks in the walls or broken window panes from the impact of the explosion, Das said.

By morning, firefighters had brought the blaze under control, officials said. Rescuers sifted through the wreckage in search of survivors, while machines cleared the debris and ambulances drove away the injured.

As day broke, thousands of anxious relatives reached the temple in search of their loved ones. Many wept and pressed police officials and rescue workers for information on their family members.

Prime minister Narendra Modi, accompanied by doctors, was flying to Kerala to meet the survivors and victims' families.

At one of the main hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram, senior physician Thomas Mathew said that judging from injuries, a stampede was also likely to have occurred at the temple.

"There were few women or children among the injured. Most were men," Mathew said.
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.
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By Frances Parrish of the Independent Mail

Even though the fiscal year begins July 1, school districts are already discussing next year's budget, and some Anderson County superintendents are happy about the projected numbers.

Based on the South Carolina House of Representatives' proposed budget, teachers and bus drivers are looking at salary increases.

Teachers are expected to get a 2 percent cost of living raise and another step increase, which Anderson superintendents say is much deserved.

"They should have done that awhile back," said Anderson School District 2 Superintendent Richard Rosenberger. "I'm pleased with the increased retirement step, which will help our veteran teachers."

Districts will pay 1 percent of the teacher salary increase and the state will pay the other 1 percent.

There is also talk about bus driver pay increasing to a minimum rate of $10 an hour, which district officials hope will help them recruit more drivers.

"It's more difficult to find bus drivers," Rosenberger said. "We're really thrilled about the increase."

The state pays part of the bus drivers' salary while the districts pay the remainder.

The full-day 4K program funding is also projected to see an increase, which will benefit the districts who provide those programs to students.

At a recent Anderson School District 5 board meeting, Amy Heard, finance director, went over preliminary numbers for the 2016-2017 fiscal year budget.

Mandated costs by the state for salary increases, retirement and health insurance for the upcoming year will be $2.66 million for the district

Other expenses the district will pay for are $475,550 in step increases for nonteacher personnel and $645,650 for the raises for nonteachers.

Even with the mandated costs, District 5 officials hope to balance the budget without raising taxes or taking money from the fund balance.

"It's my goal to balance the budget without a tax increase," Superintendent Tom Wilson said. "There are some things to examine, but it's doable."

The base student cost, provided by the state, is proposed to increase $180 to $2,350 per student. That would generate just over $2 million for District 5.

"The base student cost went up, and we are appreciative of that," Wilson said.

However, state law says the base student cost should be $2,933.

"It would have been nice to have more base student cost," said Anderson School District 3 finance director Keith Martin. "They haven't fully funded it in years. But we are thankful for what we get."

Follow Frances Parrish on Twitter @frances_AIM
Arun Chittilappilly, Managing Director Wonderla Holidays , recently attended an interview with ET Now where he revealed details about the companys earnings growth from the Hyderabad Park. He also revealed details about the launch of other parks.The manager talked about the investment in the third amusement park and revealed that the park would open in the following weekend. He also stated that the firm was not completely ready for the launch so it would be more of a pre-launch. The director also revealed that the tickets would be priced at Rs 650 in the first two weeks until April 20. He further went on to state that the ticket pricing would go up to about Rs 1,100 once the park is launched.Mr. Chittilappilly also stated that Wonderla Holidays expects topline growth of roughly Rs 65 crore from the new park alone in its first year of operation. Topline growth is also expected to grow to Rs 110 crore by the fourth year. He also stated that the Hyderabad Park is expected to start making profit in its first year of operations at EBITDA level. The firm also hopes that it will be profitable at PAT level by the fourth year.The managing director also acknowledged that an improvement in performance is expected in the summer season. He added that temperatures in the summer will be high, and that is generally good for outings and amusement parks. The parks are currently experiencing stable growth and the company hopes that the Hyderabad Park will also experience good growth.Mr. Chittilappilly also talked about investment plans for Chennai where he stated that investments in Chennai will commence once the Hyderabad Park is launched. The director also stated that the acquisition in Chennai was still work in progress and the firm will secure the necessary approvals as soon as the acquisition is complete. He also revealed that the company will commence construction of the park in Chennai as early as this year.Wonderla Holidays Ltd ended at Rs. 376.85, down by Rs. 1.45 or 0.38% from its previous closing of Rs. 378.3 on the BSE.The scrip opened at Rs. 380 and touched a high and low of Rs. 383 and Rs. 375.2 respectively. A total of 41821(NSE+BSE) shares were traded on the counter. The current market cap of the company is Rs. 2129.23 crore.The BSE group 'B' stock of face value Rs. 10 touched a 52 week high of Rs. 430.4 on 23-Dec-2015 and a 52 week low of Rs. 241.65 on 09-Jun-2015. Last one week high and low of the scrip stood at Rs. 390.9 and Rs. 373 respectively.The promoters holding in the company stood at 70.99 % while Institutions and Non-Institutions held 14.76 % and 14.25 % respectively.The stock traded above its 100 DMA.
Manish Sabharwal, Chairman Team Lease Services, held talks with ET Now, where he talked about his company's outlook for the future.



The Chairman stated that India possesses one of the highest temporary staffing percentages. He revealed that in Indias case, the countrys labor force contributes 29% and the informal sector contributes only 1%. This means that only one million out of 130 million people are in the informal sector.



Mr. Sabharwar stated that companies that have identified the risks involved in dealing with the informal sector. Team Lease has been employing someone every five minutes for the last five years according to the chairman. He also revealed that the number of kids who went to the company looking for jobs is only 5%, which translates into 95,000 kids each month, and only 4,000 to 5000 of them are able to secure job positions. He also believes that the staffing in the formal sector will rise by 30 to 60 million over the next few years.



The chairman also mentioned that the labor market has been facing three diverse problems. One of these is related to supply and demand. There is a mismatch between supply and demand and the pipeline problem. He also stated that his company plans to sustain 25% growth rate, which has prevailed for the past few years. He expects this growth to continue for the next few years. Team Lease Services is only 1% of the market and that is a small percentage.



According to Mr. Sabharwar, the growth rate will be 25%, and the global margins will be between 3% and 5%. The company's margins are between 1% and 1.5%. HR services, transformation, and scale are some of the drivers of global margins.




In the era where breakups and divorces take place at a mere drop of a hat, there are some inspiring stories that end up reviving our faith in true love.

One such story is of Emily Chavda

Emily, a 41-year-old lady from America fell in love with Hitesh Chavda, a 23-year-old guy from India. Hitesh resides in a slum in Ahmedabad. The two met each other on Facebook.

thesun.co.uk

You must be wondering how did they manage to interact, considering the biggest barrier being the language, right? That's where technology snuck in.

Google Translator came to the rescue of the couple.

Emily, who worked as a health coordinator in Montana decided to visit India to meet him after countless online interaction. The two finally met in Hiteshs hometown and the rest as they say is history.

The couple ended up tying the knot on the same day they met in India.

Talking about their beautiful relationship, Hitesh said:

thesun.co.uk

"Neither of us knew each others language so I would copy and paste her messages using Google Hindi translation to understand what she was trying to say. I would then compose my own message in Hindi, translate into English and then send it to her."

The marriage took place according to Hindu rituals.

Just like every other Indian family, Hiteshs parents were skeptical of Emily. After witnessing their love and dedication towards each other they eventually understood and gave the couple their blessings.

Hitesh says that he fell in love with her innocence and simplicity.

thesun.co.uk

"When we met in person for the first time, I fell in love with her simplicity and innocence. She was so much in love with me that she even decided to learn Indian cooking."

Emily was elated to be dressed up in a traditional bridal wear.

thesun.co.uk

"I liked his innocence and simplicity. He never tries to hide anything from me. This is why I decided to to marry him."

Their golden love-story does not end at that. The two have decided to go to USA for their honeymoon, following which the couple will settle in India for good.

True love does exist, fellas!
If you thought movie-like situations seldom happen in real life then this piece of news might change your perception. In a full filmy style, three men stranded on an uninhabited Pacific island for three days were safely rescued after using a trick which you might have come across in a couple of films. According to US Coast Guard Officials, the men used Palm tree branches to write HELP in the sand and thus were successfully rescued.

US Coast Guard/FB

The three friends set out on a trip from Pulap, an island from the Federated States of Micronesia, on April 4. Unfortunately, a wave reportedly crashed into their boat and the 19-foot boat got swamped. The trio then swam nearly two miles in the dark and ended up on the Island of Fanadik.

US Coast Guard/FB

The U.S. Coast Guard received a call for a search and rescue mission around 11 a.m. the next day. According to a press release, two vessels were then sent on a rescue mission who then conducted a combined 17-hour search of 178 miles.

On April 7, a Navy crew from a Japanese air base joined the rescue mission, and spotted the men holding life jackets right next to the big makeshift sign.

US Coast Guard/FB

A vessel was then sent to rescue the men.

Our combined efforts coupled with the willingness of many different resources to come together and help, led to the successful rescue of these three men in a very remote part of the Pacific, said Lt. William White, a Sector Guam public affairs officer.

Coast guard officials also said the ingenuity of these men to build their sign and the preparedness of having lifejackets also contributed to their safe rescue.

Well, this is one reel- inspired real life story!
When the shoreline receded during the 2004 tsunami, tourists in Mamallapuram swore they saw a long row of granite boulders emerge from the sea, before it was swallowed again as the water hurtled forward. More than a decade later, a team of scientists and divers have uncovered what eyewitnesses saw on that fateful day - vestiges of an ancient port.

messagetoeagle

In a discovery that could lead to more underwater explorations off the historic town of Mamallapuram, a group from National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) has found the remains of a port or ruins of one of the six shore temples which, according to legend, went under water. The 10-member team, comprising divers, geologists and archaeologists, found a 10m-long wall, a short flight of stairs, and chiselled stone blocks scattered on the seabed. They were found 800m from the shoreline at a depth of nearly 27ft.

Rajiv Nigam, head of the marine archaeology unit of NIO, said the divers found it difficult to identify many of the structures as they were covered with thick aquatic growth. "Some of them are badly damaged due to strong underwater currents and swells. However, we could make out that they were part of a building complex," said Nigam, who led the exploration from March 10-18.

Archaeologists on board the vessel that bobbed around a 12sqkm area, where the remains were found, believe the structures could be around 1,100 to 1,500 years old. "We also found some brick structures, which were sighted more during the Sangam period (300 BC- 200 AD)," said Nigam, who also pitched in with research after a team in 2001 stumbled upon a 9,000-year-old underwater town in the Gulf of Cambay near Gujarat.

Nigam, a geologist, embarked on the project in Mamallapuram after studying the history of sea-level pattern. "From the Gujarat experience, we know the sea level around 3,500 years ago was lower than what we see now. But 6,000 years ago it was higher. We wanted to see if the pattern is the same at other coasts," he said.

T Sathyamurthy, former superintending archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Chennai Circle, said such explorations are gradually proving myths as fact. In April 2005, ASI and the Navy began searching the waters off the coast of Mahabalipuram (Mamallapuram) by boat, using sonar technology. "We discovered that the row of large stones people had seen immediately before the tsunami were part of a 6ft-high, 70m-long wall. We also found remains of two other submerged temples and one cave temple within 500m of the shore," he said. However, the team wasn't equipped to take underwater images. Historians say many of these structures, including the port, could have gone under water because of a tsunami-like event that took place in 952AD.

timesofindia

Geophysical survey data from past explorations also confirm the submergence of a large area comprising a building complex, which, they say could be possible remains of a submerged township. A global sea level rise of even 1-2 mm per year would inundate up to several hundred metres of coast line over a period of 2,000 years. Other reason for submergence of these structures could be soil erosion and tectonic movement.
In what is being considered a major achievement in the fight against Naxals, 188 Maoists and their sympathisers surrendered in front of security forces on Saturday in Malkangiri area in Odisha.

timesofindia

The Naxals surrendered in presence of officers of 202 Cobra unit of CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) and state police.

Those who surrendered include 25 Militia members of Naxals, 10 village committee members and 154 Maoist sympathisers, said officials.

This comes two weeks after a major attack was done on a CRPF convoy in Chhattisgarh in which seven officials were killed when they were travelling to save a sniffer dog's life.

Officials say that security forces have been mounting huge pressure on naxals and their sympathisers over past few years and a large number of them have surrendered, especially in Odisha.

ddinews

Chhattisgarh, officials say, still remains a cause of worry for the forces, where it is believed that about 1,500 militia is present in jungle while some 10,000 sympathisers assist them.
Anupam Kher was all set to visit NIIT Srinagar to meet the students when he was stopped at the airport. According to Anupam Kher, he said that he was visiting Srinagars National Institute of Technology (NIT) to express solidarity and provide moral support to the students.

In an interview, he said:

"I am visiting there at a personal level. Its a symbolic gesture as it is most important to show them solidarity. It's important to give NIT Srinagar students moral support. I'm going there as a citizen to meet students."

ANI

However, on Saturday night, around 150 students, who left Delhi for NIT Srinagar with Tricolors, were detained by police in Lakhanpur of Jammu and Kashmir.

Reports now claim that Bollywood actor Anupam Kher too was stopped today morning at the Srinagar Airport. He was further told by the Jammu police to not enter the city at all.

Here's what Kher tweeted:

Asked J&K Police if I can visit my ancestral home or Kheer Bhawani temple. Even that is not allowed. Basically it is #AirportArrest  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) April 10, 2016

I have been told by J&K police that I cannot enter Srinagar city at all. I have asked them to show me the orders. Still at the airport.  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) April 10, 2016

Dear #NITSrinagar students: Your courage has been Loud & Clear. Now show victory with your exam results. I send you my love from d airport.  Anupam Kher (@AnupamPkher) April 10, 2016
Every year, the Puttingal Temple, in Kerala's Kollam district, holds a competitive fireworks display where different groups putting on successive shows for thousands of devotees gathered to celebrate the last day of a seven-day festival honoring the goddess Bhadrakali.

Last nights mishap occurred as sparks fell on the storeroom 'Kambapura' and exploded with a deafening noise at around 3.30 AM, police said.

The sound of the explosion could be heard over a km radius and the whole area plunged into darkness as the power supply went off and people ran helter-skelter.

Pictures of fireworks display that caused massive fire at Puttingal temple in Kerala claiming 75 lives&injuring 200 pic.twitter.com/VcieMcBles  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Indian Coast Guard dispatched a ship loaded with medical team to Kollam. Another team is on its way via road, while choppers are positioned at Trivandrum.

IAF's 2 Business Boeing jets carrying medical teams are en-route Trivandrum from Delhi.

Four helicopters, including Mi-17 and Advanced Light Helic Copter from Sulur (Coimbatore), being used

#KeralaFireTragedy

Indian Navy pressed into action immediately. Pics of assistance and efforts on in #Kollam. pic.twitter.com/5GcDpNNi47  Geeta Mohan (@Geeta_Mohan) April 10, 2016

First images of Navy choppers deployed in Kollam. #Kollam pic.twitter.com/uY20bwNbuW  Vishnu Som (@VishnuNDTV) April 10, 2016

#Kollam Fire: Picture of Indian Navy's dornier which was dispatched from INS Garuda Naval Air station near Kochi pic.twitter.com/yNSjnR6nPR  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

The Center has promised all possible assistance to Kerala government.

PM Modi along with a team of 15 doctors and medical teams from AIIMS, RML and Safdarjung hospital, including burn specialists, have left for Kerala. An additional team of Indian Coast Guard is on its way to #Kollam to donate blood

Delhi: A team of burn specialist doctors board flight to #Kollam, PM to leave shortly #KollamTempleFire pic.twitter.com/hBmiwDqcR3  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Delhi: A team of burn specialist doctors board flight to #Kollam, PM to leave shortly #KollamTempleFire pic.twitter.com/hBmiwDqcR3  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

One additional Dornier and two Chetaks have been deployed to Kollam by the Navy.

Additional DM's had denied permission to hold firework display

A case has registered against temple authorities, and the police has already raided the godown of the people contracted for the fireworks display at the temple.

Kerala temple fire: Additional DM's letter denying permission to hold firework display with @TimesNow pic.twitter.com/VdGwZQacGg  TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 10, 2016

Naval ships INS Kabra, Kalpeni and INS Sunayna have been deployed, with medical supplies on board

#Kollam: Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala visits site of Puttingal temple fire tragedy that claimed 83 lives pic.twitter.com/837uRdklXy  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Unexploded fire cracker found at the site of Puttingal temple

CORRECTED caption: Unexploded fire crackers found in Puttingal temple, #Kollam pic.twitter.com/lm4e9nfDyH  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

#Kollam Fire: Picture of Indian Navy's dornier which was dispatched from INS Garuda Naval Air station near Kochi pic.twitter.com/yNSjnR6nPR  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

PM Modi has announced Rs 2 lakh ex gratia to the kin of deceased and Rs 50,000 to critically injured.

NDRF men have deployed for speedy rescue

Pics from a local hospital in Paravur, Kollam (Kerala), where ppl injured in Puttingal temple fire hv been admitted pic.twitter.com/ZkbEN4QHNU  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

Pictures from Puttingal temple in Kollam (Kerala) when fire broke out that claimed 75 lives, 200 injured. pic.twitter.com/v0pyVFNcVB

PM Modi has expressed his condolences and is on his way to visit the site of tragedy.
Prince William and Kate Middle have arrived at Mumbai and look like theyre totally enjoying their tour! After digging in pictures of the royal couple, we could make out that both are liking India a lot.

Twitter

After a State Lunch, the couple later went to an NGO after which they laid a wreath at a memorial Sunday at Mumbai's iconic Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where 31 victims of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks were killed.

For the 48 hours that theyll be spending in Mumbai, the couple has a planned schedule and since they have a lot to do, sightseeing is sadly not on their list! We're quite excited about the grand and lavish reception cum dinner that has been organized for the couple where they'll be seen with Bollywood celebrities and some renowned dignitaries.

After spending 2 days in Mumbai, Prince William, and Kate will be travelling to Delhi and their capital visit includes places like India Gate and Gandhi Smriti.

Here is a pictorial round-up of Kate and Prince Williams first day at Mumbai!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

Twitter

#6

(Pictures: Twitter)
Will the invitation to lunch by PM Narendra Modi on April 12 bring up the old issue of the Duke of Cambridge Prince William's Indian  specifically Gujarati  ancestry that surfaced three years ago? Mitochondrial DNA that passes down from the mother's side, links Prince William to the half-Armenian, half-Indian Eliza Kewark of Surat.

ivillage

In 1812, she gave birth to Katharine Scott Forbes, his great-great-great-great grandmother from Princess Diana's side. That, as royalty watchers calculate, makes the future British King 1/256th Indian, perhaps even Gujarati.

While the Indian population of Britain no doubt warmed to this desi tadka in their future monarch, the prince has not inherited any affinity for spice. His wife told Indian students in London this week that she likes spice but he has a hard time with it. So a traditionally mild and sweetish Gujarati farsan would be doubly appropriate for the PM's lunch.
Speaking out on women's roles in the workplace and society, PepsiCo's India-born CEO Indra Nooyi said she "hates" being called "sweetie" or "honey". Instead, she said women should be respected as individuals and not addressed by such names.

theweek

"We still have to have equal treatment. I hate being called sweetie or honey at times which I still am called. All that has got to go. We have got to be treated as executives or people rather than honey, sweetie, babe. That has to change," Nooyi said yesterday at the Women In the World Summit presented by renowned journalist and author Tina Brown in association with the New York Times. Nooyi said women have been in the "revolution mode" for many many years, from getting entry into the "boys club" to demanding parity in pay.

She said women have "clawed" their way into the workplace by getting their degrees, good grades in school, which made the male counterparts "take note of us." "We clawed our way into the revolution in this work place. Then we needed parity in pay, not yet there we are still fighting for that," she said. Nooyi, however, lamented that women do not help other women in the workplace as much as they should and asked women to make sisterhood more strong.

"There is a bigger issue we have to talk about. I don't believe women help women enough in the workplace. Let's figure out how we can help each other way more than we are today," Nooyi said.

She said experts need to address why women compete with women too much at the workplace when they should instead be helping each other out. She also pointed out that women often do not take feedback from other women positively.
The ninth edition of the Indian Premier League is already underway and some big hitting is expected as the competition goes forward.

BCCI

The likes of Chris Gayle, Glenn Maxwell and David Warner have always lighted up the matches with their huge shots. The crowd can expect some of that in the course of the tournament.

Here is a look at 7 players who can hit the ball deep into the stands and are expected to destroy any bowling attack almost at will:

1. Rohit Sharma

BCCI

He may have failed in the opening game but make no mistake, the right-hander can hit it a long way when the situation demands.

2. Chris Gayle

PTI

The southpaw has been known to put the long handle to good use as the top of the order.

3. AB de Villiers

AFP

The South African's innovative stroke-play helps him manufacture shots which can clear the boundary.

4. David Warner

PTI

The Aussie opener has the knack of clearing the rope and is the key to giving his team good starts.

5. David Miller

TOI

He just swings and lets the bat do the rest. More often then not, the ball ends up somewhere in the stands.

6. Glenn Maxwell

BCCI

Playing ground shots is almost a sin for this Australian. When given the chance, he does his best to ensure the ball does not touch the ground.

7. Carlos Brathwaite

AFP

West Indies' World T20 hero Carlos Brathwaite can turn on the tempo when needed as he demonstrated in the final against England.
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With Nigerians groaning under the effects of lingering fuel scarcity, the government destroyed more than 400 illegal refineries in three months, a security official said.

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Bayelsa said it destroyed more than 400 illegal mini refineries operated by oil thieves in the state.

The Bayelsa Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr Desmond Agu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa, the state capital on Sunday that the illegal refineries were destroyed between January and March.

Mr. Agu said that the command now had a gunboat to fortify its operational capacity and had intensified patrols in the coastal settlements and waterways in the state.

He said that the intensified patrols by the command had led to the arrest of ex-militant leader and his gang, whom he said, were being prosecuted.

Agu said that the corps had deployed its personnel to provide security to critical national assets and oil facilities across the state.

We are on ground to ensure safety and protection of vital oil infrastructure and property within the command.

The command is determined to deal with the oil thieves and end their illegal businesses.

We have made some arrests concerning the recent cases of vandalism at Agips oil fields in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The corps recovered the bodies of the three oil workers that died in the explosion in one of the fields on March 26. We have handed over the bodies to Agip.

The case has also been handed over to the Bayelsa State Police Command because it involves death and falls outside our mandate, the NSCDC Commandant said.

Dr Peter Idabor, Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), had earlier attributed the death of the oil workers to poor safety procedures at the oil field.

Meanwhile, officials of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Bayelsa and its parent company, Eni, have declined comment on the Easter Sundays explosion.

Mr Fillippo Cotalini, Media Relations Manager, Eni, has yet to respond to the request sent to him through e-mail for a reaction on the explosion.
The Buhari Media Support Group (BMSG) has hailed the leadership, and men of the Nigerian Armed Forces for their recent exploits in the Boko Haram-ravaged North East region of the country, which it said has given a new lease of life to the people of the region.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the BMSG specifically drew attention to the feat performed by the Army in locating and rescuing a total of 11,595 men, women and children held captive by Boko Haram.

It said the feat was in addition to the continuous routing of the terrorists in many parts of the region which has transformed the once invincible terrorist sect into a fleeing band of fighters with the attendant surrender of many Boko Haram members to the Army on a regular basis.

The BMSG noted that there is a new dawn in the area of national security whereby the Nigerian Army frequently updates Nigerians on the developments in the theatre of war.

According to the group, gone are the days when information from the Army on the war against Boko Haram is received with skepticism by the majority of Nigerians. All that has changed as information from the Army can now be verified by any interested person.

The group insisted that the reason for the positive outcome in the fight against Boko Haram is responsible and focused leadership provided by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, which is now rubbing off on the Armed Forces and other sectors of the nations life.

The BMSG, therefore, urged Nigerians to continue to support the Army in its fight against the terrorists and the change agenda of Mr. President.
The Department of State Services, DSS, on Saturday said it had uncovered mass graves of Hausa-Fulani residents abducted and murdered by suspected members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, in Abia State.

The DSS said IPOB carried out the massacre of people of northern Nigerian origin as part of its efforts to inflame ethnic distrust in the country.

IPOB is in the vanguard of the renewed agitation for the emergence of Biafra and its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, is currently facing trial in Abuja for treasonable felony charges brought against him by the DSS.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, the DSS said the killing of the Hausa-Fulani residents has triggered tension among different communities in Abia State.

Although Mr. Opuiyo said five men were killed alongside several other unidentified persons, only the names of four individuals were provided.

The Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed Gainako, Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State, Mr. Opuiyo said.

The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.

Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action, he added.

Mr. Opuiyo said he was alerting Nigerians to the divisive and gruesome activities of IPOB operatives.

It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country.

Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country, Mr. Opuiyo said.
The Department of State Security DSS have arrested a notorious member of the Boko Haram terrorists, Khalid AL-Barnawi, alias Kafuri/ Naziru/ Alhaji Yahaya/Mallam Dauda/Alhaji Tanimu.

A statement by the spokesman for the DSS, Tony Opuiyo, says Khalid AL-Barnawi was apprehended on April 1st in Lokoja, Kogi State, while hiding under a false cover.

AL-BARNAWI was a founding member of the Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid Dawah Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jamaat Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS). Khalid AL-BARNAWI is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.

He was involved in many terrorist attacks in States of the Federation, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja. This resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this Country. ALBARNAWI is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26th August, 2011; the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar RAUPACH in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jamaare, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.

He would soon be charged to Court to face his charges after investigation is completed. In another development, the Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed GAINAKO, Ibrahim MOHAMMED, Idris YAKUBU, and Isa Mohammed RAGO at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State.

The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.

Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action. It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country. Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country.

DSS warns that the Service will not hesitate to act decisively within its statutory mandate to ensure that the sponsors and perpetrators of this action are apprehended and prosecuted for their crime. Tony OPUIYO DSS, Abuja. 9th April, 2016

Source: Linda Ikejis blog
The Department of State Services (DSS) yesterday broke its silence over the arrest of Mohammed Usman also known as Khalid Al-Barnawi, described as a founding member of the Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid Dawah Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jamaat Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS).

Since his reported arrest over a week ago in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, there has been no official confirmation of the development, which has been hailed in security circles as a major breakthrough in the war against insurgency.

Al-Barnawi, who has a bounty of $5 million placed on his head by the United States Government, is said to be the mastermind of the August 26, 2011 bombing of the United Nations building, Abuja.

The DSS, which confirmed the arrest in a statement by its spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, described it as a major milestone against terrorism.

The DSS said Al-Barnawi used to move around under various aliases such as Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Mallam Dauda and Alhaji Tanimu.

It said further of him: Khalid Al-Barnawi is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.

Subject was involved in many terrorist attacks in states of the federation, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja; this resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this country.

Al-Barnawi is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26th August, 2011; the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar RAUPACH in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jamaare, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.

He would soon be charged to Court to face his charges after investigation is completed. This arrest is a major milestone in the counter-terrorism fight of this Service; this arrest has strengthened the Services resolve that no matter how long and far perpetrators of crime and their sponsors may run, this Service in collaboration with other sister security agencies, will bring them to justice.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, did not travel in a private jet to bury his mother last week, a statement by the apex bank said on Saturday.

The denial was in response to reports especially in the social media that Mr. Emefiele was in the habit of flying private jets to attend meetings locally and internationally.

In the statement signed by its acting Director of Communications, Isaac Okoroafor, the CBN said: Mr. Emefiele and his family flew a commercial Arik flight from Lagos to Benin for their mothers burial.

Okoroafor further explained: In 2015, in response to the economic downturn and cost-cutting stance of government, Mr. Emefiele ordered the stoppage of the use of chartered flights by the bank.

Since then, neither Mr. Emefiele nor any of the Deputy Governors has used the services of private chartered flights and the CBN has not paid a kobo for private jet services.

The statement added that the governor and other principal officers of the CBN have religiously maintained the modest disposition of using regular flights, including doing several trips by road to and from different parts of the country.

It insisted that no private jet was used by the CBN governor, his immediate family or other principal officers of the bank during the burial of Emefieles mother.

For several years in the past, the CBN, Okoroafor said, used private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote, not easily accessible locations or in cases where timing might be critical to matters of urgent national importance.

This practice, he pointed out, was in place long before Emefiele took over.

In fact it is on record that the past two CBN governors actively used chartered private jet services to meet urgent national assignments.

Okoroafor added that in recognition of this critical need in its smooth operations, the CBN had in the 1990s acquired a dedicated jet for this purpose and urgent currency movement.

He said it was, however, taken over by the military administration when there was a more urgent need for it at the State House.

Thereafter, the CBN occasionally used the chartered services of private operators and those of the Presidential Fleet when available, both of which were paid for, he added.

All accounts still point to the fact that the Emefieles mothers burial was a model in cost-cutting and an uncommon demonstration of his modest, made-in-Nigeria philosophy, Okorafor said.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Saturday denied using private chartered flights, saying it was the target of a smear campaign by some sections of the media who are trying to tarnish the image of the CBN governor.

Mr. Emefiele and indeed other principal officers of the CBN have religiously maintained the modest disposition of using regular flights, including doing several trips by road to and from different parts of the country, the banks Ag. Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said in a statement over the weekend.

It is also important to note here that no private jet was used by Mr. Emefiele, his immediate family, or indeed other principal officers of the Bank during the burial of Mr. Emefieles mother. All accounts still point to the fact that the Emefieles mothers burial was a model in cost-cutting and an uncommon demonstration of his modest, made in Nigeria philosophy.

The CBN has, for several years in the past, used private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote, not-easily- accessible locations or in cases where timing might be critical to matters of urgent national importance.

This practice was in place long before the assumption of office of the current Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

Indeed, in recognition of this critical need in its smooth operations, the CBN had in the 1990s acquired a dedicated jet for this purpose and for urgent currency movement. This was however taken over by the military administration when there was a more urgent need for it at the State House.

Thereafter, the CBN occasionally used the chartered services of private operators and those of the Presidential Fleet when available, both of which were paid for.

However in 2015, in response to the economic downturn and the cost-cutting stance of Government, Mr. Emefiele ordered the stoppage of the use of chartered flights by the Bank. Since then, neither Mr. Emefiele nor any of the Deputy Governors has used the services of private chartered flights and the CBN has not paid a kobo for private jet services.

 Mr. Emefiele was the one who terminated the use of private jets for local movements in the Bank even though it is a policy that has been in place since the 1990s?

 Mr. Emefiele has been steadfastly flying local commercial flights like every other Nigerian within the country?   Many persons see him regularly in local commercial flights in and around the country?

 As Group Managing Director of one of the countrys largest banks, Mr. Emefiele had full access to private jets and should have been commended for the courage to terminate the contract as Governor of the Central Bank?

If the publishers of the story were truly up for the truth, have they investigated the use of private jets by other currently serving senior government officials? This campaign of calumny against Mr. Emefiele by these Palm wine drinkers would do anyone no good and has to cease immediately or else the Bank would be forced to shamefully unmask the persons and groups behind this. We have better ways to move Nigeria forward rather than targeting someone just because you do not like him.

For the avoidance of any doubt, it should be noted that Mr. Emefiele and his family flew a commercial Arik flight from Lagos to Benin for the mothers burial. All accounts still point to the fact that the Emefieles mothers burial was a model in cost-cutting and an uncommon demonstration of his modest, made in Nigeria philosophy, Okorafor said.
Fuel scarcity may be easing across the country but it may return soon as money deposit banks have been selling foreign exchange above the official rate of N197 to a dollar to oil marketers.

The Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Mr. Femi Olawore, said banks are selling to his members at above N300 to a dollar, adding they had already made official complaint to the Central Bank of Nigeria through the Minister of Petroleum, who is already discussing the matter with the banks.

According to him, only two International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in the upstream and downstream of the oil and gas sector are ready to assist with needed foreign exchange for the offshore purchase of the commodity.

The Ministry of Petroleum is talking to the IOCs for assistance on forex. For now, only two of them are assisting with forex. They are the ones operating upstream and downstream. The Minister is talking, and we hope the assistance would be constant and massive enough for us to bring the fuel, he said.

Olawore stressed that forex is essential in ending the lingering fuel crisis in the country but banks are not helping.

Forex must be made available for fuel to be available. All major marketers have concluded arrangement to bring in products, but we need forex to back up the arrangement. We have the naira, but we dont have forex. Banks are giving us forex at above N300 to a dollar. We appeal that the Minister will continue his engagement with the IOCs. And we will be glad if the President comes into the matter, because we are not getting forex from banks at the official rate. We are discussing with the Central Bank and we hope they will oblige us because it has since stopped allocation of forex to marketers. They should give us more priority, Olawore said.

He prescribed a permanent solution to the persistent fuel crisis, saying it is the deregulation of the oil and gas sector, backed with strong regulatory framework. Deregulation is a song we have been singing and we will continue to sing. That is the only way to go. We only need to put in place a strong regulatory framework, so that people dont misbehave.

The MOMAN Executive Secretary also condemned the previous arrangement, which made the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) the major importer of petroleum products, saying, NNPC alone cannot do it. There has to be partnership and there should be no junior partner in the arrangement.

According to him, NNPC has no infrastructure to play the role of major importer of petroleum products. Their pipelines are bad. They dont have storage facilities, so they need us, he said.
The seasons pass but Aliko Dangote remains grand, like the nurturant guardian whose tenderness and warmth blesses the land. In 59 years, Dangote has blossomed into a man of affluence and integrity. Fifty nine years may be a tiny fraction of time, yet the Chairman of Dangote Group looms large across generations into eternity.

The story of his exquisite manhood resonates with a pleasant peal. To his staff members, family, friends, beneficiaries and other loved ones, his smiles have been their anchor, his shoulders their rampart of comfort. Dangotes citizenship of humanity, they claim, depicts his love of life and undying compassion for the needy and less privileged.

Born on April 10, 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family in Kano State, he studied Business at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and thereafter returned to Nigeria to borrow from his uncle, Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata.

The uncle (Dantata) eventually gave him a loan of N500,000 when he was just 21 years old to start his own business.

Thus the Dangote Group, which started as a small trading firm was established in the year 1977. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with operations spread across neighbouring African countries including Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo.

Theres no doubt that he has done well for himself in the socio-political and economic milieu. As he turns 59 today, his best friend, also a Forbes certified billionaire, Femi Otedola, Chairman of Forte Oil, is hosting him to a private dinner.

Source:ThisDay
Former Niger Delta militant leader, Chief Tom Ateke, has warned pro-Biafra agitators to steer clear of Rivers State.

The founder of the defunct ethnic Ijaw militia group, Niger Delta Vigilante, NDV, said it was worrisome that the Biafra agitators were using Rivers, which he described as a peaceful state, in their protests.

Mr. Ateke gave the warning on the heels of reports that he was backing the pro-Biafra agitators in their move for secession.

He, however, maintained that the issue of Biafra was national and has nothing to do with him, a Niger Deltan.

He, therefore, cautioned people to desist from using his name and pictures unnecessarily in the protest.

Ateke said there is general insecurity and the problem (insecurity) should not be restricted to Rivers State alone.

He also disclosed that he has had cause on several occasions to arrest and hand over criminals and kidnappers over to the police.

The former militant leader spoke through his media aide, Mr. Ifeanyi Ogbonna on Saturday.

Biafra agitators should leave Rivers State alone. I am a law abiding citizen of the Federal Republic of this great country Nigeria. I have always prayed for peace in the country. So people should stop using my name and pictures for business gains.

Governor Nyesom Wike is God fearing and peace loving man and he has the interest of the people at heart. I advice the local government authorities to work with the governor in order to rid our communities of crime.

The whole country is not stable now. The security situation even in other states is very bad and so if you check it you will see that our state, Rivers State, is very peaceful for now. The state is peaceful so people should stop using the state as head line news to fight for political gains.
The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called for the resignation of the Senate President Bukola Saraki, saying that for the upper arm of the National Assembly to play a constructive role in the ongoing anti-corruption crusade, its leadership must be sanitised.

A legislative arm, which condones stinking corruption at the leadership level, can never be in tandem with Nigerias new elixir for anti-corruption, MURIC said, warning that the Nigerian public is disenchanted with a legislature that cannot satisfy all righteousness.

MURIC Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, said the admonition is imperative in view of shocking revelations emerging from the trial of Saraki, which began at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), last Tuesday.

Saraki must go. Those who come to equity must come with clean hands. We cannot afford to have an icon of credibility at the Nigerian apex of the executive only to have the exact opposite in the higher chamber. Perhaps, that is why very little progress has been made since May 29, 2015. Saraki is a Trojan horse, Akintola said.

MURIC expressed displeasure over the fact that more than 60 Senators accompanied Saraki to the CCT on his first day of appearance. The picture has been largely the same during other appearances. The business of Senate ground to a halt on each occasion with the attendant waste of taxpayers money.

While we salute Senators for this manifestation of camaraderie, several attempts by the embattled Senate President to resist trial suggest that he probably has skeletons in his cupboard.

The recent revelations during court proceedings where staggering amounts of money were alleged to have been surreptitiously deposited in bank accounts or siphoned outside this country by the Senate President through his agents also call for caution, concern and sober reflection.

The rights group appealed to the Senators to save Nigeria from the impending doom. Our Senators must prove to Nigerians that no single person is greater than Nigeria. It is time for pendulum swing. Distinguished Senators, are you going to be loyal to a particular person or to Nigeria?

The group called the attention of honourable members of the Nigerian Senate to the serious and damning implication of this ugly development, adding: The integrity of Senate is at stake here and something needs to be done and very urgently too.
The Presidency and the Federal Executive Council (FEC) have identified eight major ways in which the National Assembly tampered with the 2016 Appropriation Bill sent to President Muhammadu Buhari last Thursday for his assent, The Nation reports.

The infractions were detected by the ministers at their Fridays emergency meeting called to vet the budget details.

In contention are funds proposed by the executive for key infrastructure projects but which were either removed from the budget or slashed drastically by the National Assembly in the details presented to him. One of these is the Coastal Railway project which the President plans to discuss with the Chinese government during his visit to the country this week.

Government earmarked N60 billion counterpart funds for the project but the National Assembly removed it completely from the budget details.

The Nation gathered that President Buhari had planned to assent to the Appropriation Bill yesterday but the strategic and fundamental errors/ oversights in the details may now delay it by a week as the president will be away in China this week.

The Presidency also found that the NASS expunged the Calabar  Lagos rail line project from the budget details; reduced allocation to the completion Idu-Kaduna rail project by N8.7b; slashed allocations for the completion of all major road projects across the country; proposed new roads for which studies have not been conducted; dropped proposals for the purchase of essential drugs for major health campaigns like Polio and AIDS; cancelled or reduced allocations for diversification projects under Agriculture and Water Resources; and diverted funds for rural health facilities and boreholes for which provisions had been made elsewhere.
A group known as the New Initiative for Credible Leadership (NILC) has cautioned Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State against going ahead with his alleged plan to sponsor a protest in Port Harcourt, the state capital, this coming Thursday.

The group said the planned protest was aimed at instigating Nigerians against President Muhammadu Buhari.

The group was reacting to announcement by facilitators of the protest tagged Occupy Nigeria Season 2, which they revealed was being staged against federal governments inability to solve the perennial fuel scarcity in the country.

A statement from NILC signed by Rev Steven Onwu, dismissed calls for the protest saying it was apparent that the mass action was being sponsored by Wike because President Buhari consistently maintained his neutrality in the states rerun poll.

This thing between the Minister of Transport and immediate past governor, Rotimi Amaechi and Governor Nyesom Wike has reached its limit. It is the reason Wike is sponsoring the so called Occupy Nigeria Season 2 to both embarrass and sabotage the Federal Government.

If this is Wikes strategy of getting at President Buhari for not taking sides in the re-run elections then it is very sad. Mr President displayed the maturity expected of a statesman by neither siding with Amaechi nor Wike so why should the governor now be trying to burn the state simply to spite the FG, it noted.

The NILC urged all those invited for the protest to ask critical questions before making themselves available as expendable cannon fodder for someones political vendetta.

Our advice to student bodies, NGOs, CSOs, CBOs and any other person or group that has been contacted for this paid protest is that they should read between the lines and understand what it is they are asking for. The economic situation in the land and the associated fuel crisis are already being dealt with from what is being reported in the media so what else is the protest meant to achieve? the statement queried.

It further expressed concern for the safety of the citys residents as it pointed out that violence leading to loss of life had been unleashed on the people under less volatile situations in the past.
The Presidency has dismissed the allegations by former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State that the Muhammadu Buhari administration is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

Shekarau, who was the immediate past Minister of Education, had while addressing supporters of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at his residence in Kano last week, said the All Progressives Congress-led federal government has failed Nigerians.

Reacting to the comments in Abuja yesterday, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the President, Garba Shehu, enjoined Mr. Shekarau to stop insulting the intelligence of Nigerians with his false and misleading allegations.

He noted that the audacity of Shekarau to preach about sensitivity is incredibly amazing, considering the large-scale stealing of public funds by the unseated PDP government at the expense of the welfare of the people.

The greatest insensitivity to the welfare of the people is epic corruption for which the PDP had a notorious and unrivalled record in our recent democratic history of bad governance.

The Presidential aide explained that the greed of PDP leaders respects no boundaries of decency and rationality, so much that they could illegally steal any funds within their grip or reach, including monies meant for the security of Nigerians and the welfare of soldiers fighting terrorism in the Northeast.

According to Mr. Shehu, Mr. Shekaraus colleagues in the PDP government that he served have been coughing out monies that they illegally stole while in office.

Bringing misery to your fellow countrymen and women on account of your greed and thievery is the worst example of insensitivity, he said.

He said that the wellbeing of the citizens was at the heart of President Buhari and for this reason, the administration is seeking permanent solutions, not temporary ones to the countys economic woes by first securing it, developing infrastructure and diversifying its economy.

Mr. Shehu reassured that the several measures put in place by the Buhari administration would begin to bear fruits in a matter of time.

On the lingering fuel scarcity, Mr. Shehu said the Buhari administration had saved one trillion naira on account of removing subsidy which was fraudulently making some cabals richer at the expense of the welfare of the people who were being short-changed.

He explained that the Buhari administration had significantly reduced the rate of corruption and frustrated people with corrupt and fraudulent tendencies.

According to him, those that benefitted from subsidy fraud are using their illegal gains to finance smear campaigns against the Buhari administration on the social media and other forums.

Addressing the issue of insecurity, Mr. Shehu said the Boko Haram terrorist group had been so thoroughly militarily weakened that they no longer have the capabilities and staying power to confront our troops, or occupy any part of Nigerian territory without being decisively expelled.

He recalled that markets and bus stations that were closed three years ago in the Northeast are now being reopened, thanks to the decisive restoration of relative peace in the area by our now motivated and reinvigorated troops.

The Buhari administration is also proud to say that poor Nigerians that were once displaced by terrorist attacks are now returning to their liberated towns and villages, and this government wont relent until it rids the country of the vestiges of terrorism.

According to the presidential aide, the commitment of the Buhari administration to fighting corruption is firm and irrevocable, and that every stolen kobo would be recovered and channelled into improving the welfare of Nigerians.

(NAN)
The Presidency has denied reports that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo was greeted with protests by Kano residents when he visited the state on Saturday.

There were reports hundreds of Kano residents bombarded the vice president, who was on a state visit, with tales of their sufferings under the All Progressives Congress-led government.

We are suffering, no fuel, no power, no money, PREMIUM TIMES reported some of the protesters as chanting.

The online medium further said residents in Sabon Gari town were seen carrying placards with different inscriptions lamenting the current economic situation in the Norths economic nerve centre.

But in a rebuttal, the presidency said the reports were inaccurate.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Vice President on Media and Publicity, Laolu Akande, said Mr. Osinbajo was warmly received in Kano, and that there was no protest of any kind.

No one carried placards, Mr. Akande said. There were no protesters and the VP did not address them since there were none. His spoke with and to the people that gathered around when he visited the market.

On the contrary, the crowds response was very friendly all the way, like I tweeted from location. I have even seen videos of cheers during the trip, the spokesman added.

Mr. Akande also sent photos to back up his claim of a warm reception accorded Vice President Osinbajo during the Kano visit.






The Ondo State Police Command has confirmed the attack on Chief Olu Falaes farm along Igbatoro Road in Akure, the Ondo State capital penultimate Saturday.

Mr. Falae, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, has recently been a victim of untoward happenings.

Last October, he was abducted on the same farm by Fulani herdsmen and spent days in captivity before he was released after his family reportedly paid a ransom of N5 million. The alleged abductors were subsequently arrested by the Department of State Services, DSS, and have been charged to court.

In the latest attack on his farm said to have been perpetrated by yet another group of herdsmen numbering about 10, one of the security guards, a member of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, was subdued and taken away but his lifeless body was found a day later at a pool, a few kilometres from the farm.

Confirming the attack yesterday in a chat with PREMIUM TIMES, the Ondo Police Commands spokesman, Femi Joseph, said they are yet to confirm if the masterminds were actually herdsmen.

He, however, said that the police were on the trail of the hoodlums.

Our men are searching for those who perpetrated the act and I am sure they will soon be found, Mr. Joseph, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP, said.

We cannot tell now whether they are Fulani herdsmen or not, when we get them we will know what ethnic group they belong, he added.

The police spokesman also assured that the command had provided adequate security for the elder statesman.
A Youngstown, Ohio, woman has been ordered to repay the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC) nearly $94,000 in workplace injury benefits she collected illegally.

The Ohio BWD reported that Zelma Forro pleaded guilty to workers compensation fraud in the Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas.

BWCs Special Investigations Department began investigating Forro after receiving an allegation from a confidential source who reported she was working for Home Savings and Loan bank during the same period of time she was on permanent total disability following a workplace injury. The source reported that Forro was working in the capacity of an independent contractor for this business, rather than a direct bank employee.

BWC investigators obtained documented evidence supporting the allegation that Forro was employed as an independent contractor for Home Savings and Loan bank. Forro was assessing distressed properties, completing property inspections, evaluating the general condition and obtaining the current photographs of such properties. Investigators relied on financial records, surveillance operations, and field interviews to substantiate this allegation.

Zelma Forro pleaded guilty Jan. 29 to a fourth-degree felony count of workers compensation fraud. She was sentenced March 11 to 18 months in jail, suspended for three years of community control under the condition that she pay restitution totaling $93,912.24.

Source: Ohio BWC

Topics Workers' Compensation Fraud Ohio
A former top official at Minnesotas Department of Commerce is suing the state over alleged sexual harassment and retaliation from a fellow agency executive whom he says ordered his staff to destroy documents  a possible violation of state law.

Timothy Vande Hey filed his lawsuit on April 7, months after he abruptly resigned from his post leading the agencys insurance division last summer, Minnesota Public Radio News reported.

Vande Hay accuses the regulatory departments second-ranking official, Deputy Commissioner Anne OConnor, making overtly sexual advances and jokes over his three years at the department. Vande Hey also she ordered his staff to destroy or delay the release of documents before they could be disclosed as part of a records request, and that Commissioner Mike Rothman failed to respond when alerted to the concerns.

I feel strongly that Commissioner Rothman has lost his way and that he should resign as a result of all this, Vande Hey said in an interview. Vande Hey is seeking monetary damages for lost income, emotional distress and being a whistleblower.

Rothman dismissed the allegations as simply false in a statement, calling OConnor an outstanding person.

I am confident that the legal process will demonstrate that this suit has absolutely no merit, Rothman said. The department declined a request to interview OConnor.

Its just the latest brush with controversy for the regulatory agency, which has a heavy hand in overseeing MNsure. In 2014, the Department of Commerce faced weeks of questions from skeptical lawmakers about whether department negotiators exerted undue pressure on an insurance company to lower their prices, leading to their eventual exit from the state-run health exchange.

Vande Hey did not specify in his lawsuit what documents were allegedly directed to be destroyed, but he told MPR that he bristled at the idea that the state should try to dodge its responsibilities to turn over public information.

In my 20 years, Ive never felt the need to bend, let alone break, the law to protect citizens, he said. I didnt agree with destruction of records. I told my people were the good guys, we dont do that.

When he raised that concern with Rothman, he said he was ignored and later punished, with reports from his staff were undermined and requests to fill vacancies blocked.

The agency has 20 days to respond with its own court filing. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swansons office did not return a voicemail seeking comment.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Legislation Minnesota
The amount of opioids prescribed to injured Ohio workers has fallen significantly since the states insurance fund for injured workers created a pharmacy management program amid concerns about painkiller usage.

Fewer than 4,800 workers have been deemed opiate-dependent after exceeding 9,300 five years ago, John Hanna, the state Bureau of Workers Compensation pharmacy program director, told The Columbus Dispatch.

We had to draw a line in the sand, Hanna said. Injured workers do not go back to work when theyre medicated into a stupor. They dont go back when theyre dead.

Opioid doses for injured workers have since dropped by more than 40 percent.

The drop is due to education, Hanna said, as well as a closed prescription drug formulary that was included with the pharmacy management program, which was implemented in 2011.

The newspaper said Ohio and Washington are the only states that have a closed formulary, which lists specific drugs and dosages allowable in workers compensation cases.

The insurance fund now wants Ohio to become the first state to write opioid prescription guidelines and workers compensation rules into the states administrative code.

Doctors would create and monitor a treatment plan, as well as document its effectiveness. There would also be guidelines on weaning injured workers off opioids.

One section of the proposed rule focuses on recording clinically meaningful improvement in function to justify giving a worker opioids weeks following the injury or surgery.

The proposal is heading to the bureaus board of directors and to a legislative panel for review.

Its important not to go too far, said Dr. Kort Gronbach of Mount Carmel Health, a pain-management specialist who serves on the bureaus pharmacy and therapeutics committee and who supports the proposal.

Gronbach said some doctors are refusing to treat chronic-pain patients with debilitating conditions.

Its as sad as Ive ever seen it, Gronbach said. Its been so vilified that my patients, on a daily basis, come in crying.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Workers' Compensation Ohio Drugs
The federal government says an Illinois tank cleaning companys violation of safety rules killed a New Orleans employee and injured two others in October.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is proposing $226,000 in fines against Dedicated TCS LLC. Its based in Lansing, Ill., and also has cleaning facilities in New Orleans and Channahon, Ill.

OSHA says the company failed to test the atmosphere inside a railroad tank car before workers went inside to clean it, and failed to make them attach rescue lines to their harnesses.

OSHAs Baton Rouge area director, Dorinda Folse, says this is OSHAs fourth citation against Dedicated TCS. She says, the companys inaction has cost a man his life.

A worker who would not give her name says Dedicated TCS wont comment.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Workers' Compensation Louisiana Training Development
Healthcare exchange-traded funds (ETFs) invest in a basket of stocks of companies that provide medical services, develop medical equipment or drugs, offer medical insurance, or facilitate the provision of healthcare to patients. Some notable companies in the healthcare sector include UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), Pfizer Inc. (PFE), and Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK).

Because the majority of healthcare services and products are often seen as necessities rather than as discretionary purchases, the healthcare industry is considered noncyclical. This can make healthcare ETFs a strong position in a defensive portfolio.

Key Takeaways The healthcare sector outperformed the broader market over the past year.

The healthcare exchange-traded funds (ETFs) with the best one-year trailing total returns are IHF, PPH, and XLV.

The top holdings of these ETFs are UnitedHealth Group Inc. for the first and third fund, and Mckesson Corporation for the second fund.

On Jan. 31, 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) fully approved Moderna Inc.'s (MRNA) vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age or older. The vaccine, which has been available under emergency use authorization (EUA) since December 2020, is now being marketed as Spikevax. It was the second COVID-19 vaccine to gain full approval from the FDA after the vaccine co-developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE (BNTX), marketed as Comirnaty, was approved in August 2021. In May 2022, the FDA placed limits on the COVID-19 vaccine created by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), citing safety concerns related to a rare blood-clotting condition.

The healthcare ETF universe is composed of about 33 distinct ETFs that trade in the U.S., excluding inverse and leveraged ETFs as well as funds with less than $50 million in assets under management (AUM). As of Aug. 29, 2022, the healthcare sector, as measured by the S&P 500 Health Care sector index, has outperformed the broader market with a total return of -4.6% over the past 12 months compared with the S&P 500's total return of -9.3%.

The best healthcare ETF, based on performance over the past year, is the iShares U.S. Healthcare Providers ETF (IHF). We examine the top three healthcare ETFs below. All figures below are as of Aug. 30, 2022.

One-Year Trailing Total Return: 1.5%

Expense Ratio: 0.39%

Annual Dividend Yield: 0.55%

Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 61,958

Assets Under Management: $1.5 billion

Inception Date: May 1, 2006

Issuing Company: BlackRock Financial Management

IHF tracks the Dow Jones U.S. Select Health Care Providers Index, which measures the performance of various health service organizations. IHF is a blended multi-cap fund. It provides exposure to domestic companies that specialize in healthcare, diagnostic research, and medical devices. The fund is primarily composed of the health and commercial service sectors.

The top three holdings of IHF are UnitedHealth Group, a company focused on healthcare plans for individuals and businesses; CVS Health Corporation (CVS), which provides health insurance benefits and operates various retail locations focused on goods like pharmaceuticals and self-care products; and Elevance Health Inc. (ELV), a health benefits company that helps customers find various care solutions.

Performance Over One Year: -5.2%

Expense Ratio: 0.35%

Annual Dividend Yield: 1.63%

Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 181,843

Assets Under Management: $552.0 million

Inception Date: Feb. 1, 2000

Issuer: VanEck

PPH aims to track the MVIS U.S. Listed Pharmaceutical 25 Index, which gauges the performance of companies operating within the pharmaceuticals industry. The ETF provides exposure to U.S. and international companies involved in the research and development, production, and sales of pharmaceuticals. It focuses on the most liquid companies based on market capitalization and trading volume. The fund follows a blended strategy of investing in a mix of growth and value stocks across developed markets.

The top three holdings of PPH are McKesson Corporation (MCK), a company that produces pharmaceuticals and other medical devices; Astrazeneca PLC Sponsored ADR (AZN), a British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biotechnology company; and Eli Lily and Company (LLY), a healthcare company that produces and distributes pharmaceutical products.



One-Year Trailing Total Return: -5.9%

Expense Ratio: 0.10%

Annual Dividend Yield: 1.36%

Three-Month Average Daily Volume: 8,391,262

Assets Under Management: $38.1 billion

Inception Date: Dec. 16, 1998

Issuing Company: State Street

XLV seeks to track the Health Care Select Sector Index, which gauges the performance of the healthcare segment of the U.S. equity market. The market-capitalization-weighted ETF provides exposure to companies that offer healthcare equipment, supplies, and services, as well as companies that operate within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. It is focused on large-cap growth stocks.

The top three holdings of XLV are UnitedHealth Group; Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), which develops medical devices, pharmaceuticals, and consumer packaged goods; and Pfizer, a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.

The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed herein are for informational purposes only and should not be considered individual investment advice or recommendations to invest in any security or adopt any investment strategy. Though we believe the information provided herein is reliable, we do not warrant its accuracy or completeness. The views and strategies described in our content may not be suitable for all investors. Because market and economic conditions are subject to rapid change, all comments, opinions, and analyses contained within our content are rendered as of the date of the posting and may change without notice. The material is not intended as a complete analysis of every material fact regarding any country, region, market, industry, investment, or strategy.
T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS) shares surged above a 15-month trendline in reaction to a New York Post report that suggested smooth sailing for the telecom giant's proposed merger with Sprint Corporation (S). A second take on the news raised doubts about regulatory intentions, but the stock held its ground, exhibiting relative strength that could presage a breakout above the 2017 bull market and all-time high at $68.88.

Sprint stock turned higher as well, but the company faces many layers of overhead supply, indicating that its larger and more profitable suitor will likely generate stronger upside. Also, a government decision isn't expected until 2019, allowing speculation to control price action instead of facts or spreadsheets. The setup is often a money maker with controversial acquisitions and mergers, taking pressure and eyeballs off quarterly performance.

Key Takeaways T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS) shares surged above a 15-month trendline.

The setup is often a money maker with controversial acquisitions and mergers, taking pressure and eyeballs off quarterly performance.

T-Mobile's former incarnation came public as MetroPCS in April 2007, adopting the current T-Mobile brand and price chart through a 2013 merger arranged by German parent Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGY).

Highs posted between August 2017 and April 2018 have also carved a horizontal resistance line around $66.

TMUS Long-Term Chart (2007  2018)

T-Mobile's former incarnation came public as MetroPCS in April 2007, adopting the current T-Mobile brand and price chart through a 2013 merger arranged by German parent Deutsche Telekom AG (DTEGY). The IPO opened at $25.10, attracting immediate buying interest that peaked at $40.87 in July 2007. That marked the highest high for the next eight years, ahead of a downtrend that accelerated during the 2008 economic collapse.

It bottomed out at $5.52 in February 2010, nearly a year after the bear market ended, and bounced to 2009 resistance in the upper $20s in the first half of 2011. Aggressive sellers took control into 2012, generating a successful support test that completed a multi-year double bottom reversal. The stock surged above the 2011 high in May 2013, right after it posted a one-for-two reverse split needed to complete the PCS merger.

The uptrend reached the prior decade's high in 2014, yielding a pullback, followed by a June 2015 breakout that generated a series of new highs into May 2017's all-time high at $68.40. The stock then entered a multi-wave correction, finding support in the mid-$50s in November. A June 2018 test at that level attracted committed buyers, while the uptick into August has pierced the correction's trendline of lower highs.

TMUS Short-Term Chart (2017  2018)

Highs posted between August 2017 and April 2018 have also carved a horizontal resistance line around $66. This week's buying surge reversed at that level, reinforcing the next line in the sand for bullish power. The barrier isn't likely to break before a multi-week consolidation and testing period that may include several failed breakout signals. A decline into the bottom of the filled April 20 gap between $63 and $64.50 could mark a low-risk buying opportunity in that scenario.

The on-balance volume (OBV) ended a multi-year accumulation phase in May 2017 and rolled over into November. It surged to a new high in April 2018 and reversed at the same time the stock reversed at the horizontal resistance line. The indicator is now ticking back toward that level, perfectly in sync with price action, signaling a balanced tape that could still generate active selling pressure.

As a result, it makes sense to stand aside here and wait for a breakout above $66 or a decline that shakes out market players who jumped in after the New York Post report. A reversal at the bottom of the filled gap near $63 could then generate a positive feedback loop that brings the 2017 high into play. Conversely, a failure to hold that pullback level would expose a trip into the aligned 50- and 200-day exponential moving averages (EMAs) near $60.50 while negating this week's bullish technical signals.

The Bottom Line

T-Mobile stock surged higher and broke a significant trendline in reaction to a positive catalyst but could get stuck in the lower to mid-$60s before a multi-year breakout opens the door to the triple digits.

<Disclosure: The author held no positions in the aforementioned securities at the time of publication.>
Hedge funds in the 1990s and 2000s were touted as the darlings of Wall Street, attracting trillions of dollars in assets under management. Then, from 2018 to 2019, evidence mounted that hedge fund managers might be the captains of a sinking ship, one that had already struck an iceberg and couldn't take on much more water.

Fast forward to 2021, and hedge funds weathered the recent volatility of 2020 remarkably well, particularly considering the 2020 financial crisis. Thus, hedge funds are, once again, making their mark on Wall Street. These ups and downs lead us to ask: will hedge funds still be around in 10 years?

Key Takeaways Once high-flying alternative investments, hedge funds lagged behind much of the market over the past several years.

More recently, however, hedge funds have proved resilient throughout the volatility caused by the 2020 crisis and are attracting significant investor attention.

Overall, the consensus is that hedge funds will continue to grow but will adapt to lower fees, greater use of technology, and increased access to retail investors.

Understanding Hedge Funds

It isn't easy to claim hedge funds are dying out or thriving because hedge funds don't really have a set definition. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says the term "hedge fund" first popped up in 1949 but that the term "is not statutorily defined." The SEC gives "selected definitions of a hedge fund," but no universally accepted meaning. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) argues hedge fund-style instruments have been around 2,500 years and tries to define them with four attributes: a focus on absolute (rather than relative) returns plus the uses of hedging, arbitrage, and leverage.

This general strategy of hedge funds, so defined, is clearly not dying out. Plenty of successful investment vehicles use hedging, arbitrage, and leverage. Plenty of successful fund managers are compensated based on performance, not on a fixed percentage of assets.

For simplicity and clarity, today's hedge funds can be grouped by a few characteristics: they are privately organized as investment partnerships or offshore companies; they are subject to less regulation; and they build their investor bases with high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) and institutional investors.

Hedges are not likely to go away, and it seems increasingly likely that the 1980s- and 1990s-style hedge fund management will adapt to survive more volatile times.

How Hedge Funds Have Weathered Recent Volatility

According to Hedgeweek, investor allocations to hedge funds fell for the third consecutive year in 2020. EY reported in its annual "Global Alternative Fund Survey" that in 2018, hedge funds made up 40% of allocations. That figure dropped to 33% in 2019, and to 23% in 2020. Why was there such a steep decline?

For several years, according to EY, other investments have shown better performance than hedge funds, such as private equity (e.g., venture capital), real estate and, credit. Nevertheless, although hedge fund strategies have shrunk as a proportion of investor portfolios, they exhibited impressive outperformance during the crisis in 2020. Painting an even more rosy picture for hedge funds, Preqins "Future of Alternatives 2025" study predicts that hedge funds will surge over the next few years as actively-managed hedge fund strategies perform well in a volatile environment.

The Effect of the Coronavirus Epidemic

The coronavirus epidemic changed the work practices of fund managers. Portfolio construction, investor engagement, due diligence, and talent acquisition were all curtailed as business waned and more people worked from home or not at all. The result was that alternative investment managers relied on technology, automation, digitalization, and outsourcing to serve clients. According to EY, the strength in operations during this uncertain period has shined a light on future possibilities via enhanced investment and leveraging of data, technology, and remote working capabilities, resulting in many managers re-imagining the future work environment.

This factor is encouraging the optimistic outlook for alternative investments and hedge funds. Particularly, EY reports that investments in environment, social, and governance almost doubled over the past year. This is a growing area for investment that is gaining visibility partly due to the social problems that have come increasingly to light during the epidemicfor example, inequality and racial bias. However, EYs survey also found that although diversity appears to be a priority of corporations, less than 25% of hedge fund managers consider improving ethnic and gender diversity one of their top three priorities.

Besides ESG, another cultural phenomenon that gained steam during the pandemic is the democratization of investing online. That is how meme stocks and meme crypto tokens emerged to invest contrary to what hedge funds shorted. GameStop and AMC are two high profile stories about hedge fund bets gone wrong and their losses experiences at the expense of the crowd.

The Next Decade for Hedge Funds

What does the next 10 years look like for hedge funds? The recent technology disruption and global pandemic have shown the hedge fund industry to be highly adaptable and resilient. Tom Kehoe, Global Head of Research and Communications for the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), sees two trends emerging regarding hedge funds over the next few years.

The first is that hedge funds will respond to the demand from investors and policymakers to incorporate sustainability, climate change, and social concerns into their investment products. The second trend is that hedge fund firms will increasingly use technology, such as machine learning, big data, and ultra-high frequent trading (HFT). Technologies like these may lower costs because technology is more efficient and less expensive than human employees.

Another possibility is that there may be a loosening of restrictions concerning who is allowed to invest in hedge funds. To date, most funds require large (often six figures or more) initial investments and are only able to accredited investors and HNWIs. However, lower barriers to entry are already on the horizon with publicly traded hedge funds and retail-oriented funds that have far smaller minimums.

In quantitative terms, Preqin predicts that global alternative assets will remain the second-largest alternative asset class after private equity and will reach $4.3 trillion by 2025. A senior research associate at Prequin stated, Hedge funds proved their risk mitigation strategies through the pandemic-induced market crash this year, reminding investors why hedging is valuable.

The CFA Society of New York, which cohosted an event with the AIMA in October 2020 called "The Future of Hedge Funds, concluded the following: "Hedge funds offered a unique and valuable way for investors to access strategies, returns, and alpha that are not typically accessible through more traditional structures, such as long only, and are highly accretive to more traditional portfolios. Though incentives are currently aligned, there is still room for greater alignment between general and limited partners, and the hedge fund industry continues to move in that direction.
Saoirse Ronan, Ciaran Hinds and Jim Norton co-star in an utterly spell-biding new staging of Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible on Broadway. Playing Abigail Williams, the ruthless teenage manipulator who sends half a town to the gallows, Ronan's new role is about as far from Brooklyn's sensitive Eilis Lacey as it's possible to get. Cahir O'Doherty reviews Ronans sterling Broadway debut.

From the moment she first appears in Arthur Miller's classic play The Crucible, it's obvious to the audience that Abigail Williams, the teenage girl with a glint of steel in her gaze, spells trouble. In fact, she spells it out in capital letters.

As played by Saoirse Ronan, 21, Abigail is a force of nature, the kind of nature that knocks down anyone in her path. Abigail, we learn, is the former maid to farmer John Proctor (Ben Whishaw) and his wife Elizabeth (Sophie Okonedo) and was instantly (and understandably) relived of her duties when it became clear she was having an affair with John.

It doesn't take the audience long to figure out that Abigail has not, as they say, moved on. Instead she has asked Tituba, a kindly black slave from Barbados, to perform a voodoo spell to kill Elizabeth so that she can take her place at John's side.

So in one sense Ronan's playing a kind of 17th century mean girl, about as far from her recent Oscar nominated turn as young emigrant Eilis Lacey in Brooklyn as it's possible to get.

But in another sense she's just a heartbroken lover who was cruelly misled by an older and much more experienced man, one who didn't even have the strength himself to break things off before they got too heated (or the strength to resist the temptation in the first place).

How you feel about Abigail, how you feel about what happens to her and what she does to extract her revenge are really at the heart of the play and this production. From the outset Miller doesn't make it easy on the audience, reminding us that, no matter how ruthless Abigail becomes, there are multiple sides to this tragic story.

Things are set in motion early when Abigail invites some of the local girls to join her in her magic ritual deep in the woods to remove her romantic rival. But they are spotted mid-act by Reverend Parris, the busy-body minister of Salem's church. Parris breaks up their ritual only to discover that one of the girls, Ruth Putnam, has fallen into a weird and unshakable trance.

Is she bewitched? Is she in shock? Or is she just a victim of the hysteria with which her community responds to magic? Abigail knows the truth about Ruth, but she waits until she's unobserved to command her friend to snap out of it.

As the play progresses Ronan shows us some unforgettable glints of the hard steel that's lurking just below Abigails innocent schoolgirl demeanor in moments that are both unexpected and unsettling. Smart as a whip, she's used to finding the strings and pulling them in any gathering, and when she's not in control she's plotting how to take control.

It would be easy for Ronan to make her character a one note out and out villain, but instead she gives us someone who is unmoored by the ferocity of her own desire. Lust can be almost as potent a force as love Ronan reminds us, and Abigails passion for John Proctor is complicated by the simple fact that it's just as molten and returned.

The heat that erupts between Ronan and Whishaw onstage shows us what no one else in Salem knows: that all of the calamity that's about to fall on the town has it's origins in a thwarted affair. Whishaw's Proctor is both attracted and repulsed by Abigail's erotic intensity, seeing the danger but unable to stop himself.

But Reverend Parris' meddling has already set the events in motion, since he's called in Reverend John Hale, a sanctimonious witch-finder who's involvement creates a cycle of accusation and persecution that can't be stopped.

Rumors have reached the village that the girls have conjured demons and the public won't be satisfied until everyone involved is brought to trial and hanged. Of course it's Abigail who first recognizes the power she has just been handed. All she has to do is claim that anyone in the community is a witch to have them tried and executed.

It's not long before Elizabeth Proctor finds herself named in court. This is Abigails endgame, and Ronan shows us every side of her manipulating, controlling persona. Watching her, the way she riles up the town and plays to all their deepest prejudices (the better to suit her own ends) is to understand why some people find Donald Trump such a magnetic figure. Abigail is remorseless. She plays on other people's weaknesses like a piano. She can get them to say and do things that they know are not right.

In the background characters like the elderly Giles Corey (Jim Norton) help put a human face on Abigails rapidly increasing number of victims. Giles is a simple man who cannot understand his wife's interest in reading books, and because he says so he accidentally casts a cloud of suspicion over her until she finds herself fatally accused.

Norton, one of Broadway's most dependably brilliant actors, brings humor, humanity and great pathos to each scene he appears in and helps anchor the whole production. He's powerfully assisted by Ciaran Hinds who plays Deputy Governor Danforth, the man who oversees all the Salem witch trials.

Hinds slowly mines the fanaticism that's underneath his characters placid surface in a slow-burn performance that is perfectly judged. When Danforth reveals he would rather hang ten thousand people than flout one line of the law, most of what we need to know about his pitiless nature is starkly revealed.

The cast is uniformly excellent and they trust Miller's text, which stands among the most important works of theater of the 20th century, to speak for itself. But director Ivo van Hove can't resist some theatrical tinkering of his own.

He has a girl fly into the air inexplicably. He has writing appear by magic on a school blackboard, and he even has a wolf like dog take to the stage, all in service to an eerie atmosphere.

But Miller and his central characters know that Abigails charges are all fraud, and they are somewhat undermined somewhat by van Hove's dramatic images. If they know -- and we know -- that none of this is real, why is a girl flying, why are strange words appearing on blackboards, and how and when exactly have Abigail and her bewitched friends worked out complex choreography moves that are timed in perfect unison?

It's a dangerous gambit for a play that reminds us that what looks good is not necessarily a corollary for what is good. Thankfully, though, there are few of these overly directorial moments in the production, and instead van Hove trusts his actors to carry the magnificent text.

As Elizabeth, John Proctor's tragic wife, Okonedo is superb as a wronged woman who grapples with her own anger as she is asked to forgive her errant spouse. Whishaw's heartbreak at having disappointed her is equally moving, and all the while Miller shows us what happens to good people when fraud and political calculation overrule good sense.

Ronan has proved she has the skill to command a Broadway house on her first theatrical outing. That's a remarkable debut for the two time Oscar nominated actress, who can put the anxiety of wondering how she'd fare in live performance behind her now. The Crucible is a triumph.

The Crucible is now playing at the Walter Kerr, 219 West 48th Street, New York. For tickets call 877-250-2929.
A major gathering of OKeeffes from all over the globe is in the works.

The massive get-together will be held in the Barony of Duhallow, Co. Cork, Ireland on September 9th-11th, 2016.

We are calling on O Keeffes and their descendants from all over the world to come to Dromtarriffe, Kanturk, Co Cork, Ireland to visit their ancestral home, said event organizers.

Duhallow has been the principal home of the O Keeffes. Many O Keeffes immigrated from Duhallow and made their mark all around the world. As the the O' Keeffe travelled throughout the world the spelling of the O' Keeffe name has been adapted, for example, O' Keefe, O Cuiv, O Caoimh, and Keefe.

Come and celebrate our roots with us. Meet long lost family and friends.

During a welcome reception on Friday, Clan Chieftan Dan Joe OKeeffe will officially open the weekend, which will include a program of events.

Guided bus tours to local historical sites of interest to the OKeeffe Clan are planned for Saturday, as well as a clan banquet dinner in The Wallis Arms Hotel later that evening. Following the buffet dinner, there will be music, song, dance, and story telling.

There will also be a history exhibition in Dromtariffe Community Hall, with a genealogist in attendance to assist visitors with an interest in researching their Irish ancestors.

Sunday will include Mass, lunch, a history lecture and a group visit and commemoration at Dromagh Castle.

More information on the gathering can be found at http://okeeffeclans.com/ and on the Facebook page O Keeffe Clan Rally 2016.
Microsoft made a mistake at its recent developers conference when it didn't use the opportunity to push customers to buy new hardware, an analyst said today.

"On behalf of the Windows 10 team, we're happy to welcome all of these customers to Windows 10, whether they have a new PC, a five-year-old PC, or a Mac [emphasis added]," said Terry Myerson, the executive who leads the company's devices and operating systems group, after touting a new number of active Windows 10 users.

Carolina Milanesi, principal analyst at Creative Strategies, picked up on Myerson's "five-year-old PC," and didn't like what she heard.

"While Microsoft stated it is fine with some of those users having five-year-old PCs, a clear response to Phil Schiller's recent comment on the topic during Apple's last launch event, we strongly believe Microsoft should actually be concerned about the issue," Milanesi wrote in an analysis published on Creative Strategies' website.

Milanesi referred to Schiller -- Apple's head of marketing -- because during the unveiling of the 9.7-in. iPad Pro two weeks ago he trumpeted the device as "the ultimate PC replacement."

"There are over 600 million PCs in use today that are over five years old. This is really sad. These people could really benefit from an iPad Pro," Schiller said, taking one of Apple's trademark shots at the competition.

Microsoft, not surprisingly, saw things differently, as Myerson welcomed older systems to Windows 10. But he also heralded the new. "Our hardware partners ... have launched more than 500 new devices designed for Windows 10," Myerson said.

Milanesi thought talk of "old" illustrated Microsoft's fixation on getting current users to upgrade to Windows 10 and signaled that the company is not focused enough on convincing customers that they should purchase a new PC.

Her premise is simple: Those with newer machinesaere more likely to actually use the PC, and thus the OS, than people who had let their system age without replacement. In other words, by fixating on upgrades rather than new machine purchases, Microsoft has acknowledged that it's attracting a less-valuable audience.

According to Creative Strategies' research, consumers with a PC less than a year old were much more likely to use it for tasks like social networking -- Facebook, Pinterest and the like -- playing video games, and running productivity software, than were people who had hung onto the same system for five or six years.

That makes sense: Those with older PCs haven't upgraded because they've transferred many tasks, and the time they spend on devices overall, to smartphones, tablets or a mix of the two. Likewise, new owners bought because they wanted to use their PCs for more chores.

But since Windows 10 is essentially PC-only -- Milanesi said Windows tablet sales were flat, and the state of Windows on phones was dismal -- if users aren't engaged with a personal computer, they're not engaged with Windows 10.

And Microsoft should be paying more attention to that engagement.

"While [customers] might upgrade to Windows 10 -- the upgrade is free, after all, if they have kept their software up to date -- they might not be curious enough to experiment and discover," Milanesi said. "This is especially true when it comes to Universal Windows apps. In return, this will create less stickiness to the OS and lower even more the need to upgrade to new form factors like 2-in-1s."

Microsoft is counting on Windows 10 usage to bolster its bottom line through app purchases, ad sales on Bing and service revenue. But sans engagement, that goal may be unattainable.

"The mix still skews heavily to software upgrades. If [Microsoft] had good numbers for new machines they would have certainly mentioned those," Milanesi said in an email reply to questions today. "My point is that looking at how many software downloads there are does not paint the full picture. Microsoft cannot risk to be blinded by software upgrades. If people do not have new machines in their hands, Windows 10 will not make a huge difference long term when it comes to consumers loving Windows, not just using it."

About a quarter of the PC users surveyed by Creative Strategies used a system five or six years old. Of those respondents, 61% said that they had no plans to upgrade their machine in the next 12 months, reinforcing the engagement decline.

But even those with newer PCs lose interest in over time. "There is an increase in managing files and content, but a decrease in social [networking] and editing photos," said Milanesi of consumers with PCs aged two to four years. "You see users doing more at the start but then keeping [to the more] traditional PC tasks [on] the PC, diverting the rest mostly to the phone. This makes engagement even more important for Windows 10."

Microsoft has talked about Windows 10 engagement and cited some statistics on the subject, but not with enough consistency for outsiders to analyze and interpret. At Build, for example, Myerson claimed, "Customers are more engaged than ever before," and touted the statistic of 75 billion total hours of activity logged by Windows 10 users since launch.

While Microsoft has called out hours of activity previously -- in early January it said the OS had logged 11 billion hours during December -- as part of an effort to cast Windows 10 as a service, it had not issued a total number before. That makes it impossible to get a sense of whether usage has been increasing, decreasing or flat when compared with the number of devices.

Clearly, the pool of the most engaged users -- those who recently purchased a PC -- has shrunk. Research firm IDC recently forecast that the industry will ship 261 million personal computers in 2016, representing a 100 million device decline from "Peak PC" in 2011, with annual shipments through the rest of the decade of about 250 million units annually.

But it's unclear what Microsoft could do to boost sales of new PCs, which, especially on the consumer side, have plummeted over the last several years. The Redmond, Wash. firm has already beaten the drum about technologies coming to Windows 10, including pen support in the mid-summer anniversary upgrade, that require new hardware.

Milanesi's suggestion?

"Microsoft needs to find a way to make these users reconnect with their PC so they [realize] the limitations their old hardware has on their desire to take full advantage of what Windows 10 has to offer," she said.
This Week in Review

A weekly review of the best and most popular stories published in the Imperial Valley Press. Also, featured upcoming events, new movies at local theaters, the week in photos and much more.
Is it time to think about which college to go to? Surely, educational ranking and course availability is required as well as the affordability of the program. However, some consider campus safety to be a major choice.

Millions of American students are now thinking about which college or university to go to. They are weighing their options about where to spend the next four years of their lives, according to Time.

One such source of information, called the Princeton Review, helps students assess which college or university is best fit for them, based on the data collected for the past thirty years. However, campus safety is not included in their data bank.

Is this school safe? How safe? How likely is it that any given student-myself, my child-will experience sexual assault? What is the count of students being attacked or assaulted?

Colleges often do not answer these questions sufficiently. News reports have made it clear that children are being exposed to violence and can turn on their own peers. If these parents' children are going to a different state, they want to be assured that they are well taken cared of.

Sexual assault remains both underreported and epidemic in the United States' college campus. The AAUW reports that 1 in 5 women, and 1 in 16 men, are being sexually assaulted on college campus. These survivors of such assault go to court and hold the college itself responsible for the safety of the students.

Families and students are trying to make informed choices. Which is why schools are being asked to update their system to include such information. Questions like "What is the institution's record on and approach to crime and sexual assault? What is the administration doing to keep the campus safe?" should be answered.

Institutions, from ranking entities to colleges themselves, need to take positive action for us to see culture change and actual impact on the conduct of colleges and the safety of students. Time ends with a critical note - that students and their parents have a right to know.
Having a co worker out to get you for any reason is stressful and can be hazardous to your career and even your mental health. Recognize the signs that Monster gives in this article.

As general advice goes, make sure you document anything you need you will need later (emails, for example) that prove that a colleague or God forbid a superior is out for your blood.

Also learn to recognize when they are going too far and who you can talk to for help if necessary.

Drama at the office is more common than you might think, and usually stems from dissatisfaction of a stressed workforce. Or, of course, it could just mean there's someone toxic on staff.

Know the signs of this alarming event in case this happens to you.

1. Someone has been tampering with your computer

If you get a message that warns you against entering the wrong password too many times and it wasn't you, someone may be trying to access private files. Change your password frequently and try not to mis-enter so that wrong entries are caught with ease.

If you find someone has been trying to open or modify or delete something of yours, they may be looking for something to use against you. Be careful.

2. Someone at work makes it a point to highlighting your errors

Is someone trying to insult and humiliate you every chance they get? Is a co-worker highlighting the smallest of your mistakes and trying to blow them up to everyone? This is a big red flag, especially when the mistakes do not have big consequences - and also when they are being broadcast to the superiors.

3. Are people telling you a colleague is talking behind your back?

Maybe he/she is trying to get people against you and on they are probably trying to undermine you and ruin your credibility to leas to your ultimate ruin.

Also watch out for colleagues downplaying your success.
Allergan PLC finalized a multi-million licensing deal with Heptares Therapeutics of U.K. after its $150 billion merger plans with Pfizer was scuttled by the new inversion laws of the United States.

The new deal involves the development of drugs for Alzheimer's and other neurological conditions. This move shows the determination of the U.K.-based company to move on and stay as a stand-alone drug firm.

The contract with Heptares requires Allergan to pay up front $125 million to the Japanese-owned company, and another $665 million in milestone payments if they successfully complete clinical trials of the drugs they manufacture.

Heptares Therapeutics is wholly owned by Sosei Group Corp., the parent company based in Japan.

Another $2.5 billion in milestone payments apart from royalties will be due, depending on the potential success of the drugs. Allergan also committed to invest $50 million for a joint research and development program to promote a number of drugs to mid-stage human trials.

Brent Saunders, Allergan CEO, stated that his company is capable of delivering "sustainable growth" on its own. He added that it has strong brands and a drug pipeline with much potential. The company is also expecting to close the sale of the Actavis generics business to Teva Pharmaceutical Industries for $40.5 billion in June.

Teva Pharmaceuticals has offices in North Wales, and employs over 2,000 workers in the Philadelphia region.

Allergan's initiatives will allay the fears of investors that the sudden collapse of its merger with Pfizer will disrupt its conduct of business at Dublin, Ireland.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the United States Treasury Department rallied against criticisms pointed against its new tax inversion rules.

It stated that these new regulations are shutting down loopholes or unfair provisions that enable large corporations transfer their tax affairs to countries with lesser levies by combining with smaller companies.

Sources:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/allergan-completes-licensing-deal-after-pfizer-bid-collapses-1460031574

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20160407_New_federal_rules_squash_Pfizer_deal__other_area_firms_unaffected.html
BOONE  The top academic officer at Appalachian State University says the school's chancellor wants to meet with students protesting a new state law limiting anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Provost Darrell Kruger says Chancellor Sheri Everts aims to meet with campus protesters Monday, after she recovers from surgery. Protest spokeswoman Rachel Clay said about 50 students were occupying the ground-floor lobby of the school's administration building Saturday, two days after dozens of students began their sit-in.

Clay says students will keep occupying the building until Everts denounces the new law.

College campuses across the state have seen protests against the law, which blocks some anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people. The law also requires transgender people to use only public bathrooms matching their biological sex.
Rachel Olson holds a photograph of infant daughter Finley, who authorities say was killed by a caregiver in January. To honor her daughter and to try and do something positive to help others, Rachel continues to pump her breast milk and donates it to a milk bank. Credit: Gary Porter for the Journal Sentinel

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On Jan. 13, around 5 p.m., Finley Rae Olson arrived at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin with a fractured skull.

She was 6 months old. Twenty-eight inches tall. Seventeen pounds. Blood pooled in her brain.

Finley had blue eyes. Like those of her mother, Rachel. Like those of her father, Will. Like those of her 3-year-old brother, Ryder. Rachel says people used to stop her all the time to comment on Finley's eyes. On her eyes, and also on her smile.

"Happy baby," they said.

At the hospital, Finley was placed on a bed that, to Rachel, seemed much too big for a baby, for anyone's baby. How could this be? Finley's body was a little clearing in a forest of tubes and wires and machines. Rachel wondered: How could this be?

And then, two days later, the tubes and wires were removed, the machines were taken from the room, and Rachel and Will spent a few quiet hours with their daughter as she died. Her heart was beating, Rachel says. Then it stopped.

Rachel and Will drove their empty car home.

"It was hard to drive away from the hospital," she says. "To leave her on that bed. I thought about the hospital staff moving her to some room. And then to the morgue.

"I had no idea what we would do when we got home. How do we go home and do normal things? We don't know how to do this."



A 30-year-old woman from Cudahy  Carrie A. Heller  is charged with killing Finley.

Heller had been Finley's caregiver for all of 11 days. According to court records, she's given police several different stories of what happened. She said she was changing Finley's diaper and the baby appeared to have had a seizure. Then she said she shook the baby a little. Then she said the baby fell off a couch. Then she said she dropped Finley. Then she said she accidentally hit Finley in the head with a highchair tray.

Heller has pleaded not guilty to first-degree reckless homicide charges. Rachel and Will attend all the hearings.

There was one on Thursday. Rachel watched Heller come into the courtroom, dressed in blue garb, handcuffed between two deputies, eyes to the floor.

Rachel says their eyes never meet.

She tries to imagine why this woman would do such a thing. Why?

"Why Finley," Rachel says. "Why any baby?"

There is no "why," she's decided.

Nothing explains it.



When Rachel and Will got home from the hospital that day, she pumped her breast milk. Actually, she doesn't think of it as her breast milk. It's Finley's milk, she says.

She couldn't bring herself to throw it away. She poured it into packets for storing breast milk  each packet holds 5 ounces  and put them in a freezer.

She already had a two-week supply. And so she began to add to it. Packet by packet.

Pumping breast milk is not exactly a treat. Even less so when the milk only accumulates. No baby to watch grow. Only a growing supply of frozen packets.

Then she heard about Mothers' Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, which provides pasteurized human milk to hospitals for premature and critically ill babies and provides support to mothers who are able to donate their milk because their babies have died.

The milk is an elixir, says Cindy Ruz and nurse and lactation specialist at the Women's Pavilion at the Aurora West Allis Medical Center, where Finley was born.

And there is never enough.

Rachel went through the milk bank's extensive screening process and continued to save her milk, one 5-ounce packet at a time.

On Thursday, after Heller's hearing, Rachel loaded her packets of milk into a blue cooler and met Ruz at the hospital.

The hospital is a depot for the milk bank. Ruz took possession of 83 packets.

"Such a wonderful gift," Ruz said. "Such a loving act."

As she drove to the hospital, Rachel says, she didn't really think of Heller. Finley would have turned 9 months old that day. Instead, she thought about that.

"I know she would have been crawling," Rachel says. "I imagined her crawling, with Ryder leading the way, laughing."

Rachel dropped off the milk, then drove home.

She thought of the milk as a gift, one that came from Finley. It honored her daughter. It honored them both.
Some teacher education programs in Wisconsin have 20% to 40% fewer students than they had a half dozen years ago. Credit: Michael Sears

The invocation at a dinner Thursday night at Alverno College was given by a student, Edna Gonzalez, who said she hopes to teach algebra or geometry in an inner-city school.

"We'll hire you," called out a school administrator in the audience.

That got a laugh. But the underlying point was not funny. There's a big need for teachers in certain subjects. Math is one of them.

Overall, I don't think there are two words I can say in conversation with school leaders that get a bigger reaction currently than these: teacher pipeline.

In other words, where are schools going to get the teachers they will need in coming years? Enrollment is down in university and college teacher education programs across Wisconsin and across the United States. Some programs in Wisconsin have 20% to 40% fewer students than they had a half-dozen years ago.

Reid Riggle, a professor at St. Norbert College in DePere and president of the Wisconsin Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, told me there has been some rebound recently, but shortages in specific subjects (science, math, special education and working with English language learners) persist. It's also easier to recruit teachers to work in suburbs than in urban centers or thinly populated areas such as northern Wisconsin, he said.

According to the most recent figures available, there were 8,867 people enrolled in teacher preparation programs in Wisconsin in the 2013-'14 school year. In itself, that would be enough to fill all the expected teacher openings in coming years.

But things aren't so simple. As Riggle said, the interests students have don't fully match what's needed out there.

There is also the delicate but important matter of who is going into teaching. In many cases, the upcoming teachers are hardworking, capable, talented and idealistic. And in some cases, they aren't so strong in at least a couple of those areas.

And then there is the matter of how to do better in preparing people to become teachers.

All of this brings us to Linda Darling-Hammond, a professor at Stanford University who has a list of titles and involvements that amount to saying she is one of the foremost figures in teacher education in the country. At the Alverno dinner, she received the college's Sister Joel Read Outstanding Educator Award for her overall impact and accomplishments. (I need to disclose that I was on the committee that selected her for the award and I moderated a conversation with her at the dinner.)

In an interview, Darling-Hammond said teacher shortages are cyclical, often with links to economic downturns. But there's more going on than just the ups and downs of interest in teaching jobs, she said.

Issues to deal with

The nation needs to deal with fundamental issues involving teacher preparation and ways to lead them to be more successful on the job. She listed some of them:

Teachers are paid less than other college graduates and less than teachers in other countries. Overall, teachers are paid 60% of what other college graduates make. Money isn't everything, but if we want top teachers, we need to make the job an attractive choice, including financially.

Working conditions are difficult. She emphasized that American teachers as a whole spend much more time in front of students and are given much less time for planning, collaborating with other teachers and developing their abilities than teachers in nations that have generally better records on international tests than the U.S. has.

"We've had teacher bashing," she said, and that doesn't help. You know the litany of snarky remarks about teachers. (She didn't focus on Wisconsin specifically, where the battles over pay, benefits and union rights in 2011 left teacher morale damaged.)

"We don't have a strategic perspective" nationwide on how to improve teaching. Darling-Hammond said, "The federal government has been missing in action in a very troubling way in recent years" in funding programs to encourage people to go into teaching, especially in high needs fields and locations. Many of the things that have been advocated, such as merit pay and using test scores to evaluate the quality of teachers, just don't work, she said.

The general needs of children, especially in impoverished communities. "Our children are the least well-cared for in the industrialized world," she said. "The teacher pipeline issue is a symptom of a much larger set of problems that this country has allowed to take hold for children, families and urban communities."

What about teacher preparation programs? Darling-Hammond is a forceful advocate of traditional teacher training programs  when they're done well and when they include a lot of student-teaching or similar work in which someone learns to teach under the wing of a skilled, experienced teacher.

In a 2006 book, "Powerful Teacher Education: Lessons from Exemplary Programs," Darling-Hammond focused on seven higher education programs around the country that were, in her assessment, doing things right. One of them was Alverno, which has a distinctive "abilities-based" program.

She wrote in the book that she was convinced "that a large part of the answer to poor schooling in this country is to understand what strong preparation for teachers looks like and can do, and to undertake policy changes needed to ensure that all teachers can have access to such preparation."

She told me that maybe a quarter of education schools in the U.S. had programs of that quality. Many are OK, but not at that level. And some should not be in the business. She said there should be minimum requirements for the quality of teacher education programs.

But, she added, "If there's been a lot of teacher bashing, there's been even more teacher education bashing." Don't count her in on that. Do count her in on standing up for teachers, for good teacher training and for supporting teachers so they have the most positive impact.

Alan J. Borsuk is senior fellow in law and public policy at Marquette University Law School. Reach him at alan.borsuk@marquette.edu.
Ryan Freund, his wife Melissa, and their 18-month-old daughter Adair enjoy family time at home in New Berlin. Credit: Michael Sears

SHARE For Teddy Blondheim, an Oshkosh boy who turns 3 in July, DNA sequencing revealed a rare genetic disorder that makes it unlikely he will reach adulthood. Family photo Nic Volkers case marked a turning point in medicine. Journal Sentinel files One in a Billion A boy's life, a medical mystery: A three-part series about a little boy with a rare, devastating disease. In a desperate bid to save his life, Wisconsin doctors must decide: Is it time to push medicines frontier? Read the series

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Late last year, DNA sequencing revealed that Teddy Blondheim, who turns 3 in July, has a rare genetic disorder. Teddy's parents also learned there is no treatment, and that most affected children have an average life span of three years.

But the Oshkosh parents say they're grateful for the clarity, and for finding a small online community with members from Australia, Poland and other parts of the United States who have children with the same disorder.

DNA sequencing produced no diagnosis for 18-month-old Adair Freund, forcing the New Berlin girl's parents to confront the fact that, for now, her heart problems, hand deformities and hip dysplasia will remain a mystery.

"We were able to rule out a ton of stuff," said Ryan Freund, Adair's father. "We're pretty fortunate some of these things got ruled out."

With millions of Americans now discovering the ways in which genomic medicine may change their lives, Adair's family has learned that her inconclusive result does not close a door; there is still a chance to probe even more deeply their child's genetic script. Scientists had sequenced Adair's exome, the protein-coding portion of her genes, which constitutes less than 2% of her genome.

The two children, both sequenced at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, are among hundreds of thousands of patients around the world whose lives have been touched by a new kind of medicine, ushered into practice more than six years ago when doctors in Wisconsin successfully diagnosed a young Madison-area boy's mysterious disease and used the knowledge to treat him.

Nic Volker's case marked a turning point in medicine. The long string of chemical bases that spells out our traits  from hair and eye color to the odds of acquiring many diseases  had been used to improve human health.

Not surprisingly, in the years since Nic's sequencing, efforts to drill into the genetic code for answers to complex human conditions have produced results across the spectrum, from lifesaving triumphs to frustrating failures.

"If you start with Nic Volker, I would emphasize that what was at the time a novelty is now relatively routine," said Eric Green, director of the National Human Genome Research Institute. "There are hundreds and hundreds of cases in which patients are getting exome sequencing relatively early in the diagnostic process."

Sequencing has begun to affect the lives of a new generation at birth  and even before birth.

Researchers in Kansas City and San Diego said in September that they had cut to 26 hours the amount of time needed to diagnose critically ill newborns using a new technology to analyze genomic data.

"Diagnosing acutely ill babies is a race against the clock, as even one day of waiting can be a matter of life or death," Stephen Kingsmore, the study's senior author and president and chief executive officer of the Pediatric Genomics and Systems Medicine Institute at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, said at the time.

Interesting ethical issues

Tests of placental DNA circulating in the blood of pregnant women are now helping thousands of mothers avoid the need for amniocentesis to determine whether their child has a chromosomal abnormality such as Down syndrome, according to prenatal geneticist Diana W. Bianchi at Tufts Medical Center.

The blood DNA test was first offered clinically in China early in 2011 and in the U.S. in October of the same year, Bianchi said. One such test, developed by Medical College of Wisconsin faculty members Aoy Tomita-Mitchell and her husband, Michael Mitchell, came on the market in 2012.

"It's been amazing in just over four years how much this has penetrated into clinical care," Bianchi said. "At least 2 million women worldwide have received the test."

As with many applications of sequencing, the placental blood test has raised interesting and potentially tricky ethical issues. Unlike other genomic sequencing tests, this one contains the DNA of two people, both mother and child. So a mother trying to determine whether her baby has an abnormality may inadvertently discover that she has cancer or some other illness, a point made by Bianchi and colleagues last summer in the Journal of The American Medical Association.

DNA sequencing has also spread into other key areas of medicine, helping health investigators track outbreaksof Ebola, Zika and other viruses, and providing hospitals with a way of more precisely monitoring antibiotic-resistant infections, Green said.

In April 2015, researchers from the United Kingdom and Canada carried a new type of compact DNA sequencing system in standard airline luggage to Guinea and used it to monitor the spread of the Ebola epidemic in real time. The sequencing took as little as 15 minutes, and the researchers were able to generate results less than 24 hours after receiving a sample.

However, experts stress that genomic medicine is still in its early days. As Nic Volker's doctors had foreseen in 2009 when they first discussed sequencing the child in an attempt to determine the cause of his intestinal disease, the problem remains analyzing the enormous amount of data in the human genetic script.

"We've gotten a lot better at interpreting, but it's still early days and that's still the bottleneck," Green explained.

Part of the problem remains a basic science question: What does the vast majority of the genome actually do?

"We've gotten reasonably proficient at understanding the protein-coding regions, the exome," Green said. "We're still fairly amateurish at dealing with the other 98% of the genome."

Evolving quickly

Howard Jacob, who made the decision to sequence Nic Volker while heading the genomics center at Medical College of Wisconsin, said that back in 2009, sequencing was a research tool. Now it's a clinical tool.

"When we sequenced Nic, we had trouble getting published because everyone thought we were irresponsible," said Jacob, now chief medical genomics officer at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Ala. "Now, I'm not going to say it's standard of care, but it's becoming much more common."

About 200,000 human genomes have been sequenced for clinical purposes, according to estimates by Illumina Inc., a California company that dominates the DNA sequencing technology market, Jacob said.

As many as 400,000 human genomes have been sequenced when you add in those done for research purposes, said Jonathan Groberg, an analyst at UBS, in a recent report titled "The World is Changing, Are You Ready?"

However, the number of genomes sequenced to date is meager, in the early stages of what Groberg calls a "genomics big bang."

"The whole era of personalized medicine is only just beginning to become a possibility because of this technology," said Donald Basel, interim chief of the genetics division at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, which runs a genomic medicine clinic that sees four to six patients a week.

The HiSeq X Ten system, introduced by Illumina in 2014, can sequence more than 18,000 human genomes a year.

"The bottom line is that the raw cost of sequencing (without analysis) has plummeted to the point where a patient can be fully sequenced for about $1,000," said Kevin Davies, author of "The $1,000 Genome" and founder of the journal Nature Genetics. "But it's the interpretation and analysis where more work needs to be done," he said.

When Jacob and his team sequenced Nic, it cost more than $75,000 to examine just his exome. Six years later, Jacob's recently opened Smith Family Clinic for Genomic Medicine in Huntsville is now using the Illumina HiSeq X Ten system to sequence patients' entire genomes.

Total cost to patients for sequencing, analysis and interpretation: $6,500.

Sequencing results in an immediate diagnosis about 25% of the time, according to a recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. At the Medical College of Wisconsin, sequencing provides an immediate diagnosis 32.5% of the time, Basel said.

Checking the boxes

The Freunds and Blondheims both said that even though they weren't familiar with DNA sequencing, they had no hesitation about having the Medical College's Human and Molecular Genetics Center perform the test.

"We had the appointment on Friday, mailed the forms back on Monday and checked all the boxes," said Kerry Blondheim, Teddy's mom.

By checking all the boxes on the Children's Hospital form, something the Freunds also did, they chose to know about all treatable and untreatable childhood and adult conditions revealed through sequencing.

The Freunds reasoned that the information  whatever it was  would allow them to plan, said Ryan Freund, Adair's dad. Even if they were facing their daughter's death, they decided they wanted to know.

"Then in the short-term we wouldn't be chucking money into a 401(k)," Freund said. "We'd be chucking it into making memories with our little girl."

Freund said he and his wife, Melissa, relied on their faith as they worked through how they would respond to different results. They had discussions with members of their extended families, asking if they wanted to be told about any results they could act on. Half wanted to know; half didn't.

"It's hard for people to understand the conversations we're having at home," Freund said.

Insurance covered Adair's sequencing, but it is unclear whether it would cover whole genome sequencing. So the Freunds are now weighing whether to spend the money to get the more comprehensive test.

"Is knowing worth the monetary implications, or do we watch how she develops?" Freund said. "She's the happiest girl in the world. The only thing I care about is if there are ways to figure out what's good for her."

Families eligible for sequencing often struggle to get insurers to pay for the test, which the companies view as expensive for the incremental gain in results.

"Insurance is still a nightmare," Jacob said. "It's hand-to-hand combat with the insurance companies."

Insurance also covered Teddy Blondheim's sequencing. In his case, the first clue there was something wrong was when he started having seizures shortly after he turned 5 months old. Other issues surfaced, developmental delays, poor muscle tone and the inability to walk independently.

As the mystery of Teddy's condition deepened, he was referred to Children's Hospital's genomic medicine clinic. Teddy's sequencing results, received in late 2015 when he was 21/2 years old, revealed a diagnosis of multiple congenital anomalies-hypotonia-seizures syndrome-1, a syndrome that can be found only through sequencing.

Teddy was only the 15th patient in the world to receive this diagnosis, which was discovered in 2011, his parents said. They've found more affected individuals since then through the small community on Facebook.

"To be able to connect with that Facebook group has been the best thing that came out of sequencing," said Kerry Blondheim, Teddy's mom.

For now, Teddy is relatively healthy and has made tremendous progress, Blondheim said. Many of the children in the Facebook group aren't doing as well. During a recent family trip to California, his parents wrote on their Teddy's Triumph and Trials blog that he babbled  something none of the others have done.

As for Nic Volker, whose 2009 sequencing provided a diagnosis that led to a treatment, his mysterious disease has not reappeared. However Nic, now 11, has experienced setbacks, including being diagnosed with epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder, both side effects from treatments and years in the hospital.

Amylynne Santiago Volker, Nic's mom, often wonders how the course of his life might have been affected if he had been born later and had the benefit of DNA sequencing as a newborn.

She has formed a nonprofit  The Nicholas Volker One in a Billion Foundation  to raise awareness, help families grapple with undiagnosed, rare and threatening medical conditions, and advance the practice of genomic medicine.

"The message really is 'let's do this,'" Santiago Volker said.

PODCAST:

Behind the Headlines

To hear reporters Kathleen Gallagher and Mark Johnson talk about this story, listen to this week's Behind the Headlines podcast, available Sunday at jsonline.com/behindtheheadlines, or subscribe in the iTunes store or through Stitcher Radio.

Book explores the beginning

"One in a Billion: The Story of Nic Volker and the Dawn of the Genomic Age" debuts on Tuesday. An expansion of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series by Mark Johnson and Kathleen Gallagher, the book tells the remarkable story of Nic Volker, the young boy with a never-before-seen disease, and the Wisconsin doctors who took a bold step into the future of medicine to save him.

Johnson, Gallagher and Amylynne Santiago Volker, Nic's mom, will be at a book launch event at Discovery World on April 16. The book event is in conjunction with Discovery World's Unlocking Life's Code exhibit. For more information and to RSVP for the book launch, go to eventbrite.com and search for "One in a Billion book launch."

Johnson, Gallagher and Alan Mayer, the doctor who pushed scientists to sequence Nic's genes, will be at Boswell Books for a signing on May 26.

GROWTH OF SEQUENCING

The Medical College of Wisconsin's Human and Molecular Genetics Center sequences DNA for patients at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Froedtert Hospital and other health care institutions. Since Nic Volker, it has sequenced the DNA of 1,695 patients.

2011: 13

2012: 7

2013: 166

2014: 777

2015: 732
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A study of bus rapid transit service between downtown Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center in Wauwatosa is considering possible routes that combine a stretch of W. Wisconsin Ave. with either W. State St. or W. Blue Mound Road, Milwaukee County transportation officials said.

Wisconsin Ave. between N. Hawley Road and N. 89th St. has been removed from proposed routes because the street narrows through a primarily residential neighborhood and there would not be enough space for separate, exclusive bus lanes required for the service.

Transit planners prefer to keep bus rapid transit, or BRT, on routes with a mix of businesses and residences, Milwaukee County Transit System spokesman Brendan Conway said.

A seven-mile east-west corridor was selected for the proposed BRT due to the concentration of employers along the alignment and at both ends, county transportation officials say in a study update. The report is available on a special project website, www.EastWestBRT.com.

The new transit service is needed to reduce congestion of motor vehicles on roadways in the corridor, and improve access to jobs and health care, officials said. Those goals will become even more critical during planned reconstruction of I-94 between 16th and 70th St. The freeway work could begin in 2019.

A revised map of remaining routes under study and descriptions of bus rapid transit service will be displayed this week at three public meetings.

The largest employment centers in southeast Wisconsin would anchor both ends of the BRT route, according to the study update.

 Downtown Milwaukee encompasses 81,000 jobs and 25,000 residents, with more housing planned.

 The Milwaukee Regional Medical Center has more than 16,000 employees and 30,000 daily visitors.

 Milwaukee County Research Park and the nearby University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee add another 4,600 employees to the mix.

Among major employers along the route are Harley-Davidson and MillerCoors. Other regional destinations include Marquette University and Miller Park.

On Monday, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Architecture and Urban Planning is hosting a public forum on the basics of BRT from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at 88Nine Radio Milwaukee, 220 E. Pittsburgh Ave.

Bus rapid transit could be competitive with vehicle drive times on freeways in the same corridor, according to a student-led UW-Milwaukee study.

The students recommended setting aside two center lanes for the buses on a BRT route, rather than curbside lanes. The service could cut transit travel times by 15 minutes or more in that corridor.

The students estimated it would cost $45.9 million to $47.7 million to build a 6.4-mile line in the center median of Wisconsin Ave.

One benefit of the service is the "potential for hundreds of millions of dollars in land redevelopment" along the corridor due to investment near BRT stations, the students said.

Bus rapid transit service created in other communities has spurred new development valued at $100 million to a few billion dollars, according to the county's study update.

MCTS has scheduled two public meetings to share information on the county's feasibility study of bus rapid transit service and explain the preferred routes: 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Miller Room at O'Donnell Park, 910 E. Michigan St.; and 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday in the Zoofari Conference Center, 9715 W. Blue Mound Road, Wauwatosa.

After the three public forums, officials from Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee and Wauwatosa expect to meet in June to select a preferred route to be included in a federal transit grant request. The deadline for the grant is September. Those funds would be used to construct the BRT service.

Though it is called rapid transit, the buses will not exceed posted speed limits on the route, according to Conway.

Route times, however, are more rapid and reliable than traditional bus service. That is achieved by running the buses on exclusive, dedicated lanes and equipping the buses with technology to give them green light priority at traffic signals.

There also would be fewer stops along a route, with stations spaced between one-half mile and a mile apart, to help speed up travel times.

The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission recommended BRT service in the east-west corridor as part of a regional transportation system plan published in 2006.

A draft regional land use and transportation plan, known as Vision 2050, recommends up to eight rapid transit lines starting with the east-west corridor.

The county's consultant has not released an estimate of the cost of establishing BRT in the east-west corridor.

A 7-mile BRT service in Cleveland, Ohio, cost nearly $28 million a mile to build. The HealthLine route connects downtown with University Circle, where several regional health care hospitals, clinics and universities are located, according to a March 2015 report by the Public Policy Forum.

BRT service started operating in 2008, and transit ridership in the corridor increased 60% in the first three years, the report said.
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general audience, in St. Peters Square at the Vatican last Wednesday. Credit: Andrew Medichini

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The 2016 election is transforming the religious landscape of American politics.

It's hard to imagine a Democratic presidential candidate receiving a mid-campaign invitation to speak at the Vatican.

But on Friday, Bernie Sanders put out word that on April 15, he'll attend a gathering of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton, his front-running rival, have regularly praised Pope Francis.

And on the day of Sanders' announcement, Francis released "The Joy of Love." The groundbreaking document signaled what can fairly be called a more liberal attitude toward sexuality and the situation of divorced and remarried Catholics.

The pope didn't change church doctrine on gay marriage but was offering another sign that he's pushing the church away from cultural warfare and toward a focus on poverty, economic injustice, immigration and the plight of refugees.

On the Republican side, the conservative evangelical movement is divided over Donald Trump's candidacy. Many of its leaders have denounced him in uncompromising terms they usually reserve for liberal politicians.

One of his toughest critics has been Russell Moore, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. "Can conservatives really believe that, if elected, Trump would care about protecting the family's place in society when his own life is  unapologetically  what conservatives used to recognize as decadent?" Moore wrote early this year in National Review.

He added: "Trump's willingness to ban Muslims, even temporarily, from entering the country simply because of their religious affiliation would make Jefferson spin in his grave."

Such denunciations are good news for Ted Cruz, who began his campaign at Liberty University, an evangelical intellectual bastion, and had hoped to unify evangelical conservatives.

But in primary after primary, Trump has won a large share of self-described "born again" or evangelical voters, particularly in the South. In the Southern-inflected Super Tuesday contests in March, his showings in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama were exceptionally strong.

Evangelicals made up 77% of Alabama's Republican primary electorate, and Trump carried them 43% to 22% over Cruz. Among non-evangelicals, Trump beat Cruz 41% to 18%, with roughly a third in this group casting ballots for either Marco Rubio, who has since dropped out, or John Kasich.

Even in defeat in Wisconsin last Tuesday, Trump did about as well among evangelicals (he won 34% of their ballots) as among non-evangelicals (36%).

In one sense, it is not surprising that the politics of white evangelicals are evolving. Their social issue frame and the most important institutions in their movement were created in the late 1970s and 1980s. But this year's developments do suggest, as Elizabeth Bruenig (now of The Washington Post) argued in The New Republic, that "the old-fashioned model of reaching evangelicals no longer appears functional."

Robert Jones, who is CEO of the Public Religion Research Institute (and with whom I have collaborated), sees many evangelicals now as "nostalgia voters." Writing in The Atlantic, he said they are animated less by "a checklist of culture war issues or an appeal to shared religious identity" and more by an anger and anxiety arising from a sense that the dominant culture is moving away from their values.

A backlash around race, which led many white Southern evangelicals toward the Republicans in the 1960s even before the rise of the religious right, also appears to be at work. It is conjoined with opposition to immigration. And evangelicals, like other Republicans, are split by class and their degree of religious engagement.

Were Cruz to secure the Republican nomination, traditional patterns of white evangelical voting might well reassert themselves.

But with Pope Francis lifting up what can be called social justice Christianity, cliches that religion lives largely on the right end of American politics might finally be overturned.

This view was already flawed, given, for example, the long-standing activism of African-American Christians in the politics of economic and racial equity. Clinton especially has been engaged with black churches from the outset of the campaign.

Her own deep commitment to her Methodist faith and its social demands is central to her identity. It could be the key to solving her much-discussed "authenticity" problem, since faith is a powerfully authentic part of who she is.

In the meantime, a Jewish socialist presidential candidate will head off to the Vatican to make a case about climate change and social justice quite congenial to Francis' outlook.

In today's American politics, religion is working in mysterious ways.

E.J. Dionne is a columnist for The Washington Post. Email ejdionne@washpost.com. Twitter: @EJDionne
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Closed lunch periods needed

The recent car accident involving students from Waukesha South High School could have been prevented ("5 high school students hurt in crash with tree in Waukesha," April 7).

Of course, the driver was allegedly speeding and this could have led directly to the accident. However, this accident could have been prevented had the school had a closed lunch period.

Lunch periods at most high schools are very short, lasting from 20 to 30 minutes. Many students with driver's licenses leave the campus to eat at their favorite fast food restaurant. In order to make it back to school in time for their next class, they are forced to drive fast not only to the restaurant but also back to school.

I encourage parents of high school students to be aware of their school's lunch policy. If I had a child in high school, I would advocate for a closed lunch campus policy. I would attend a school board meeting and demand the board change the open lunch policy in favor of a closed one.

As long as high schools maintain their open campus lunch policies, future accidents are certain to occur.

Mark Cherner

Glendale



Just a rubber stamp?

With this past primary election, we've seen how the system works. Starting April 11, you can see how the Wisconsin Conservation Congress process fails.

History and actions speak louder than words, and by that gauge one can see how and when the congress silences dissent. Does anyone really believe that the congress, the Department of Natural Resources, the Natural Resources Boardor the Legislature will take public advice over their own agenda or wants?

At the county meeting, your voice is heard then and there only. After that, your suggestion or resolution must be approved by various congress committees; alas, rejection over opinion or fictional reasons seems a historical reality. So committees, a handful of people, can deny you participating on the spring ballot.

A resolution that survives the Congress and is passed by statewide vote still has more hurdles: the DNR, NRB and/or Legislature. They, too, are under no obligation. Passed resolutions can just be ignored.

Instead of wasting time and money, I say bypass the Congress, write the NRB, DNR or your legislator directly. The spring statewide ballot consists of only those resolutions the congress wants and allows. That's not democracy, that's a rubber stamp.

Steven Alt

Glendale



Suppressing the vote

So U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman has a warm and fuzzy feeling about possibly suppressing the vote (I mean preventing fraud, I always get their intentions wrong) ("Jury still out on voter ID," April 6).

If he still believes the voter ID law is not doing enough, how about a DNA sample, blood tests or finger printing?

Or just pass a law to throw out all opposition votes.

Denis Reoh

Green Bay



Mississippi denying service

This letter is one response to the recent Mississippi law allowing churches, religious groups and privately held businesses to refuse services to others based on their lifestyles ("Law allows denial of service to gays," April 6).

The fundamental questions here is how does someone else's lifestyle affect, even influence, another's religious beliefs? How does serving someone in a restaurant or baking them a cake impinge upon the server's or baker's belief system? How does the topic even arise? Here's your coffee and are you gay? Is there a question on the menu or bill of sale about religion or lifestyle?

As for public servants, e.g. county clerks, are they not paid by taxpayers? Are not gays, Muslims, Jews, taxpayers? How can they be denied a legal, entitled service?

Furthermore, is there not a problem identifying such "different than me" individuals? Do they look different? Dress different? Well maybe we could have a sign on our business that prevents those wearing a head scarf, or a turban or sidelocks or some other identifying trait in order to somehow protect our religious beliefs. But that won't identify all of those who are different, will it?

Maybe we should do what the Nazis did and have them wear something like the Star of David.

Jeannine Petit

Pewaukee
US Sen. Ron Johnson: The senator should favor hearings for President Barack Obamas Supreme Court nominee. Credit: Todd Ponath

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Wisconsinites across the state wake up every morning to go to work and do their job. Why then, isn't U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson doing his job in Washington, D. C.?

Unfortunately for Wisconsin citizens, Johnson is blindly adhering to the partisan obstructionist tactics of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. They've joined in opposing a fair public hearing and vote on President Barack Obama's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Merrick Garland.

While Johnson has said he will meet with Garland, opposing any hearing or further consideration is a breach of his constitutional duties and an affront to the voters of Wisconsin. Johnson swore an oath to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States," but now it seems that his constitutional duties only apply when it's politically convenient. Wisconsinites expect more than partisan obstructionism from their U.S. senators. We expect them to display good judgment and independence when the occasion calls for it. Now is such a time.

Blocking a hearing and dragging out the nomination process for over a year is unprecedented when it comes to U.S. Supreme Court appointments. Every member of the current Supreme Court was confirmed within fewer than 100 days of his or her nomination. For each and every nominee since 1975, the Senate has taken an average of 67 days to "advise and consent." If Johnson has his way, the current vacancy likely would go unfilled for at least 14 months.

Johnson's concerns with allowing a hearing for Garland appear to be entirely political as he faces a tough re-election battle this year. But he would be wise to emulate his Republican colleague, Sen. Mark Kirk of Illinois, another first-term GOP senator who is facing a tough re-election battle this year. Kirk has bucked his party and the GOP Senate leadership and has called for a hearing for Garland and a vote on his confirmation before election day.

And if Johnson is concerned with re-election, he ought to realize that Wisconsin voters want him to do his job and fully consider Obama's nominee. A recent Public Policy Polling survey found that 62% of Wisconsin voters, including 67% of independents, said the vacant Supreme Court seat should be filled this year. Another national poll by Monmouth University found that 77% of Americans  including 62% of Republicans  say Senate Republicans are "playing politics" by not allowing nominee Garland to get a hearing.

It is clear voters are rejecting Johnson's argument that filling the Supreme Court vacancy should wait until the next president is elected. Sixty-five million Americans, including a majority of Wisconsin voters, elected Obama to a full four-year term in 2012.

The time is now for Johnson to reject partisan obstruction of the Senate's constitutional duties and to listen to the majority of voters who want a fair hearing and timely vote. It's time for Johnson to do the job Wisconsinites elected him to do. He should support holding a hearing and a confirmation vote. Johnson can vote against Garland. But he should support having the vote. That's the Wisconsin way.

Jay Heck is the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin.
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There is so much potential in our youth  potential that can be unlocked by the power of generosity and education. Today, at 91, I look back and recognize that I am a man blessed beyond measure  and I owe all of it to the people who went out of their way to provide opportunity where I thought there was none and who opened doors through the power of education. It is my responsibility  our responsibility as a community  to do the same for others.

My life was literally spared through the generosity of those around me. Born in Vienna in 1924, I was able to escape to England in 1938 through the Kindertransport, a program designed to help primarily Jewish children escape Nazi persecution. Although a Jewish refugee, I was eventually grouped with other "enemy aliens" and transported to a Canadian prisoner-of-war camp. Both in England and in Canada, I was blessed to connect with people who strengthened my Jewish faith and modeled the value of Tzedakah  "charity"  every day. They provided access to education, even in a prisoner-of-war camp, and opened my eyes to opportunity, even in the midst of great challenge.

After being rejected by two universities  (one had filled its "Jewish quota;" the other was wary of "enemy aliens")  a G-d-sent benefactor went out of his way to connect me with Queen's University, a school willing to give me a chance. I took that chance  that simple gift of opportunity  to heart, and vowed that I would one day return the favor. My opportunity to practice Tzedakah came sooner than I thought; while I was still a student, my benefactor, who had since become a father figure, left a small inheritance that I gave to Queens for scholarship for students.

I learned a powerful lesson from this experience: "Give when you have nothing, and give when you have a lot." Charity can seem obvious when great wealth is involved, but oftentimes the biggest gestures and most important impacts can come from the smallest amounts.

Through this access to education, I was able to secure a position as a research chemist at Pittsburgh Plate Glass in Milwaukee. I then went on to co-found Aldrich, which became Sigma-Aldrich, the world's largest supplier of research and bio-chemicals. The business was more successful than we could have imagined, employing 9,000 globally.

But it was in co-founding Hillel Academy in 1960, when there were no Jewish schools in Milwaukee, that I found my true passion: promoting education among youths of all ages and backgrounds. Just like Queen's welcomed me, I wanted to welcome others.

My sons and, later, one of my grandsons, attended Hillel Academy; it remains open and welcoming to all in the Jewish community. Hillel epitomizes all the things that I most value in my life  it provides a rigorous modern education and it instills spiritual lessons and Jewish values.

Today, the opportunities that Hillel, and the many other schools like it, can provide to students are astounding  and run far ahead of the opportunities I had as a youth. I am amazed to see middle school students developing smartphone apps to help diagnose PTSD, engineering robotics, and pioneering the "next great idea" at an annual "Invention Convention" in partnership with Discovery World.

These are the types of educational opportunities that the youths in our community deserve and need. But it's only possible through the generosity of each and every one of us. We all have something to give  whether it's volunteering in a classroom, mentoring a child or providing financial resources to students and schools in need.

When I go to heaven and I'm asked about my life, the accomplishments I will be most proud of will be Hillel Academy, Hillel High School and what I've been able to do to help support education  both here and around the world. And I know, at every moment, that it was only possible because someone first opened a door for me. Which doors will you help open?

Alfred Bader is a world-renowned chemist, art collector, philanthropist and teacher. Hillel Academy and Hillel High recently announced they are changing their name to Bader Hillel Academy and Bader Hillel High to honor Bader.
These are the best dishes I've eaten in 2022 in and around Milwaukee
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By Joseph Chamie and Barry Mirkin | (Inter Press Service) |  

NEW YORK, Apr 9 2016 (IPS)  Regardless of whether they are called fragile, failed, or failing states, scores of countries around the globe are plagued by overwhelming problems with few solutions in sight. Moreover, the instability and dire straits of these countries are spilling across national borders, destabilizing neighboring countries and regions, while posing enormous challenges for international organizations and donors.

While lists of failing states may differ, they include for the most part, the same set of countries. In brief, failing states are unable to provide fundamental societal requirements and basic services to their citizens such as health, education, housing, welfare, employment, security, justice, governance and human rights.

Among the various key factors that can contribute to state failure are poverty, corruption, ineffective governance, crime, violence, forced displacement and sectarian and ethnic conflict. Destabilizing interventions and aggression from abroad are also a part of this toxic mix.

For purposes of this analysis the top 25 states, or the F25 countries, on the 2015 Fragile States Index (FSI) of the Fund for Peace are considered. The index is based on twelve social, economic and political indicators, including demographic pressures, poverty and economic decline, state legitimacy, security, human rights, rule of law, fractionalized elites and external intervention.

Based on their FSI scores, states are grouped into one of twelve categories ranging from Very High Alert to Very Sustainable. Four of the F25 countries  South Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic and Sudan  are in the Very High Alert category. Twelve of the F25 are in the subsequent High Alert category, including the war-torn countries of Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, and the remaining nine countries are in the Alert category.

Three-fourths of the F25 countries are in Africa, and all except Libya in sub-Saharan Africa. Of the five Asian countries, four of them, namely, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, are racked by protracted violent armed conflict. The remaining country, Haiti, is the sole failing state in the western hemisphere.

The large majority of the F25 countries  60 percent  have remained at the highest levels of the FSI for years. For example, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen have been among the top ten highest countries on the index since its inception in 2005.

Population estimates for the F25 countries show considerable variation (Figure 1). More than half of F25 countries have populations under 20 million and nine have populations between 20 and 99 million. By far, the most populous F25 countries are Nigeria and Pakistan at 182 and 189 million, respectively.





Source: United Nations Population Division and the Fund for Peace.

In the recent past the total population of the F25 countries was considerably smaller than that of developed countries. In 1980, for example, the combined population of the F25 countries was about one-third the size of the population of developed countries (Figure 2). The total population of the F25 is currently about three-quarters the size of developed countries.





Source: United Nations Population Division.

Due to substantially higher demographic growth, by a factor of ten, the combined population of the F25 countries is expected to overtake that of developed countries in little more than a decade. By mid-century, the population of the F25 countries is projected to be 50 percent larger than developed countries, 1.9 and 1.3 billion, respectively.

The stark difference in the pace of demographic change between these two groups of countries is illustrated by comparing the populations of Nigeria and the United States. Currently the U.S. population is nearly twice as large as Nigerias, 322 and 182 million, respectively.

However, as Nigerias current demographic growth is more than triple that of the U.S., Nigeria is projected to overtake the U.S. by mid-century, when Nigeria will have the third largest population in the world, after India and China.

Although the F25 countries have relatively high mortality, with life expectancies at birth below the global average and the majority under 60 years, their rapid population growth is due to high birth rates. Among the F25 countries fertility is usually at least four births per women.

Moreover, some of the worlds highest fertility is observed in F25 countries, such as Niger (7.6 births per woman), Somalia (6.6), Democratic Republic of the Congo (6.2) and Nigeria (5.7).

The populations of the F25 countries are also young. In most instances, half of the population is below the age of 18 years. In some of the countries median ages are even lower, such as Niger (14.8 years), Uganda (15.9) and Somalia (16.5).

The F25 countries are the largest generator of refugees. In mid-2015, the top five sources of refugees under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), representing more than 60 percent of the 15 million refugees, were: Syria (4.2 million), Afghanistan (2.6 million), Somalia (1.1 million), South Sudan (0.7 million) and Sudan (0.6 million).

A similar picture emerges with regard to internally displaced persons (IDPs). Of the 34 million IDPs in mid-2015 protected or assisted by UNHCR 70 percent were resident in the F25 countries, with just four of them accounting for nearly half of all IPDs: Syria (7.6 million), Iraq (4.0 million), Sudan (2.3 million) and South Sudan (1.6 million).

In addition to refugees and asylum seekers, high unemployment induces significant movements of unauthorized migrants to wealthier nations. Many youth, especially males, from countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Haiti, Nigeria and Pakistan are willing to undertake risky and costly trips with smugglers across land and sea to reach their desired destinations.

Desperate to escape war or driven by the hopes of a better life, more than 1 million refugees and economic migrants, an unprecedented number, illegally crossed the borders into Europe last year. Another 3,800, a third of them children, died while crossing the Mediterranean in a vain attempt to reach Europe, making it the deadliest year on record for such deaths.

The international refugee regime or system, which is based on the 1951 Refugee Convention and the 1967 Additional Protocol and implemented by the UNHCR, is being overwhelmed and proving inadequate in dealing with refugees and asylum seekers from failing states. Yet, it is feared that attempts to revise the current refugee regime will undermine rather than improve it.

Such is the case with an agreement struck between the European Union (EU) and Turkey in March 2016. Those migrants who illegally enter Greece from Turkey after March 20 will be deported back to Turkey. In exchange the EU will resettle one Syrian from a camp in Turkey for each Syrian who took an irregular route to Greece, with the maximum number capped at 72,000. Migrants currently in Greece could eventually be moved to other parts of the European Union, if they qualify for asylum.

The migration agreement also calls for Turkey to receive some $6.6 billion from the EU to assist with refugees in Turkey. Also promised is visa-free travel for Turkish citizens in most of Europe by mid-2016, if certain conditions are met, as well as the eventual resumption of negotiations with Turkey on EU membership.

A failing state is not a new phenomenon. In the past, however, the repercussions of a failing state were largely contained within its national borders. With an increasingly interconnected, globalized and mobile world, a failing state has disastrous consequences not only for its own inhabitants, but also for neighboring countries, as well as distant nations as has become disturbingly evident in recent years.

In particular, the surge in the numbers and populations of failing states poses serious dangers to world economic growth, development efforts and international security. The proliferation of failing states creates conditions and breeding grounds under which repressive kleptocracies, transnational crime, external incursions, armed extremists and terrorist groups can thrive and expand, resulting in among other things potential costly and perilous quagmires for foreign powers and regional and international organizations that opt to intervene.

The demographic realities of failing states can no longer be dismissed or postponed by political pronouncements, lofty goals or future promises. In addition to developmental issues such as poverty, employment, health, security, governance and political legitimacy, the international community needs to effectively address the faltering global refugee system and the vexing problem of illegal immigration, including smuggling and human trafficking.

Admittedly, some solutions to the seemingly intractable problems of failing states are being pursued. National, regional and international efforts are underway to improve the lot of failing states.

Those efforts encompass national dialogues, encouraging peace, reconciliation and state building, holding fair and peaceful elections, creating national priorities and accountability, monitoring specific developmental objectives and promoting economic resilience. Such initiatives require commitments of substantial resources and long-term support from development partners to address critical issues including security, governance, food, water, health, education, housing, equality, gender, employment and environment.

That no country has yet graduated from being considered a fragile state to a stable one provides little encouragement or optimism that the efforts currently underway will prove sufficient to solve the overwhelming problems of failing states. Clearly, radically new, innovative and comprehensive initiatives are needed in order for countries to transition from a failing to a stable state.

Joseph Chamie is a former director of the United Nations Population Division and Barry Mirkin is a former chief of the Population Policy Section of the United Nations Population Division.

Licensed from Inter Press Service
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Maan News Agency |  

BETHLEHEM (Maan)  Palestinians on Saturday marked the 68th anniversary of the massacre of more than 100 Palestinians civilians carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups in the village of Deir Yassin in 1948 prior to the establishment of Israel.

Deir Yassin has long been a symbol of Israeli violence for Palestinians because of the particularly gruesome nature of the slaughter, which targeted men, women, children, and the elderly in the small village west of Jerusalem.

The number of victims is generally believed to be around 107, though figures given at the time reached up to 254, out of a village that numbered around 600 at the time.

The Deir Yassin massacre was led by the Irgun group, whose head was future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, with support from other paramilitary groups Haganah and Lehi whose primary aim was to push Palestinians out through force.

Records of the massacre describe Palestinian homes blown up with residents inside, and families shot down as they attempted to flee.

The massacre came in spite of Deir Yassin residents efforts to maintain positive relations with new Jewish neighbors, including the signing of pact that was approved by Haganah, a main Zionist paramilitary organization during the British Mandate of Palestine.

An Israeli psychiatric hospital now lies on the ruins of Deir Yassin, the remainder of which was reportedly bulldozed in the 1980s to make way for Jewish housing and incorporated as a neighborhood of Jerusalem. Streets of the neighborhood hold names of Irgun militiamen who carried out the massacre.

The massacre was one of the first in what would become a long line of attacks on countless Palestinian villages, part of a broader strategy called Plan Dalet by Zionist groups to strike fear into local Palestinians in hopes that the ensuing terror would lead to an Arab exodus, to ensure only Jews were left in the Jewish state.

Thus the attack on Deir Yassin took place a month before the UN Partition Plan was expected to be carried out, and was part of reasons later given by neighboring Arab states for their intervention in Palestine.

The combination of forced expulsion and flight that the massacres  what would later become known among Palestinians as the Nakba, or catastrophe  precipitated left around 750,000 Palestinians as refugees abroad. Today their descendants number more than five million, and their right to return to Palestine is a central political demand.

The anniversary of the deadly razing of the village comes as modern day Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank continue to fight for their livelihood in the face of illegal Israeli settlement expansion, widespread detention campaigns, extrajudicial executions by Israeli forces, and a surge in housing demolitions  most recently leaving 124 Palestinians homeless in a single day.

Via Maan News Agency



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Journeyman Pictures: Deir Yassin: The Agony  Israel/Palestine
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

The cessation of hostilities in Syria never included Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) or al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front or Support Front), but it did include some of the de facto allies of al-Qaeda. The Syrian Arab Army and its Shiite militia allies, with Russian air support, have taken advantage of the relative quiet in much of the country to roll back Daesh from Palmyra and some other towns.

But even as Daesh has been set back, al-Qaeda has recovered some of the territory lost to the SAA earlier this year southwest of Aleppo.

Al-Qaeda is allied with the Freemen of Syria (Ahrar al-Sham) and the Jerusalem Army among other hard line Salafi Jihadis. These groups are in turn allied with remnants of the old Free Syrian Army (mostly Muslim Brotherhood) that are supported by the US, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. That is, the US-backed groups are battlefield allies of the allies of al-Qaeda. US and Gulf-supplied weaponry routinely makes its way to al-Qaeda.

As the Syrian Arab Army and its Iranian and Iraqi militia allies have been busy to the east at Palmyra, al-Qaeda has spearheaded the reconquest from the regime of al-Eis, al-Khalidiya, Birna and Zitan, small towns along the strategic M5 highway linking Aleppo to Idlib Province (a province dominated by al-Qaeda and its allies).

These advances are mainly al-Qaedas, or al-Qaedas in conjunction with allies. A Shiite site observed, The attack on Zitan and Birneh is to be led exclusively by Jabhat al-Nusra fighters. Nevertheless, yesterdays capture of al-Khalidyah was carried about by joint troops of Jund Al-Aqsa, Ahrar ash-Sham, Ajnad Al-Sham, Jabhat Al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Armys 13th division.

The 13th Division of the FSA is a vetted group that receives CIA-supplied weaponry such as anti-tank t.o.W. munitions, which is to say that the United States is in bed with al-Qaeda in taking al-Khalidiya from the al-Assad regime.

Al-Qaeda also fired mortar shells at the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo, a Kurdish stronghold that the YPG militia could use to cut East Aleppo off from arms and ammunition from Turkey. The attack killed 18 and wounded more than 50.

In contrast, in the south of Damascus, in the Yarmouk Camp district, al-Qaeda and Daesh have been battling each other, and Daesh has taken some neighborhoods away from al-Qaeda.

-

Related video:

al-Masdar: Russian airstrike targets ammo depot for al-Nusra in South Aleppo
Lawyers for several public school teachers in California requested [petition, PDF] on Friday that the US Supreme Court [official website] rehear the case of Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association [materials] after a ninth justice is appointed. Last month, an equally divided court affirmed [JURIST report] a 2014 decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] in favor of union fees for non-union public employees. The petitioners believe the issues are too important to leave unsettled with an affirmance by an equally divided Court, and they are guaranteed to recur in the absence of a definitive ruling. In their petition, they urge the justices to reconsider because the union fees are of importance nationwide, affecting thousands of public employees, and the circuits are split on the issue.

Petitioner Rebecca Friedrichs is a California public school teacher who opted out of her union, the California Teachers Association [union website]. The court heard oral arguments [JURIST report] in January, and Friedrichs argued that she should not have had to affirmatively opt-out of dues to that union, as that policy did not uphold her First Amendment rights. The case arose out of a California law that upholds an opt-out policy for a portion of the fees of nonmembers. Unions cannot compel nonmembers to support its political activities, and unions must send annual notices to nonmembers itemizing the union fees. Under California law, a nonmember must affirmatively opt out yearly to avoid giving the portion of the fees they cannot be compelled to pay.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, center, talks with Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., right, and Council Member Laurie Cumbo as she sits at the counter of Junior's restaurant in the Brooklyn borough of New York, Saturday, April 9, 2016. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
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As I get near the completion of an intense 5-year orthopedic surgery residency program, I had an interesting interaction with our hospitals sub-committee specifically tasked to address duty hour and resident fatigue issues.

As they gave examples from other departments about changes made to their programs regarding duty hours, a clear-as-mud connection was continually made. They spoke of improvements made as the result of residents stepping up to serve as whistleblowers in identifying duty hour violations within various programs. I quickly chimed in to get clarification. They were assuming that increasing compliance with duty hour restrictions set forth by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) meant an improvement in the residency program that went beyond improved compliance. It made me reflect on the last five years of my residency training. I asked myself, How many times have duty hour restrictions helped me? The answer is many.

Being in the first year group where PGY-1 residents (also known as interns) were specifically restricted to 16-hour workdays resulted in my not having to cover grueling 24 hour-plus call in the trauma and burn intensive care units, the general surgery department, or any other off-service rotation that was of minimal interest to me. I spent, at least, part of every single day of my intern year home with my wife. I had time to help train our new golden retriever puppy. It was great. A much different intern experience than that documented in the medical training cult classics such as the House of God and Intern Blues.

In later years of my training, our weekend work schedule was changed where unless you were on call, you would just sign out your services inpatients to the call team and they would see your patients over the weekend. Now I also have most of my weekends to myself. Sweet.

Then I asked myself: How many times have duty hour restrictions helped me become a better orthopedic surgeon? That was a much more difficult question to answer. In fact, I could not think of one specific situation where being well-rested from having the mandatory 8 hours between work days or being happy that I didnt have to work the weekend or handing off a patient that I took care of all night so that he was now someone elses responsibility made me a better orthopedic surgeon. I am a happier orthopedic surgery resident, and with all the talk these days about physician burnout maybe thats something. But that is not what the duty hour restriction is all about.

Time for a history lesson.

In 1984, a woman named Libby Zion presented to a New York teaching hospital emergency room. She was taking an antidepressant prescribed by her primary care doctor. She became agitated, was given a medication that was found out later to have a deadly interaction with the medication she was taking, resulting in her tragic demise. Her father, a prominent newspaper editor at the time, launched an investigation that became known as the Bell Commission. The conclusion was that residents who were working long hours and not directly supervised had been the cause of Libby Zions death. The interaction of the medications she was given was not widely known at the time, and the residents had been in contact with her primary care doctor about her treatment plan, which was customary at the time.

However, it was a very high-profile case that resulted in New York being the first state to enact work hour restrictions on residents. Other places followed, and it is now the standard for all American training programs. All under the assumption that restricting residents work hours results in safer patient care. I think the truth is something more like, Residents who are appropriately supervised and not overly fatigued provide the best combination of safe patient care while continuing to gain valuable clinical experience.

We have learned a few things since the ACGME instituted duty hour restrictions in 2003, and further restricted in 2011. Duty hour restrictions result in more patient handoffs and happier residents. Luckily the Flexibility in Duty Hour Restrictions for Surgical Trainees (FIRST) trial recently remonstrated that the frequent patient handoffs have not caused harm to patients, which was something feared by many of the opponents to duty hour restrictions.

So, as a resident who has enjoyed the benefits of the duty hour restrictions with no tangible evidence that a patient has been harmed and the overall feeling at the end of my training that my surgical education was adequate to be a safe, effective orthopedic surgeon, why am I so against the concept? The truth is, Im not. Kind of. Ill elaborate.

Medicine is a profession. Some, including my program director, refer to it as a calling. I think that this is mostly true. Many of us made the great sacrifices necessary to become physicians and surgeons because we feel that we have a responsibility to use the knowledge and skills we have acquired to help people. Therefore, it just doesnt feel right when we are told that we can only help people for 16 hours then we have to go home. Or we can help people for 24 hours then spend the next 4 hours transitioning care to the next team, then we have to go home. Or we can help people, but you have to be out of the hospital for 8 hours before you can come back to continue helping people, but thats if you worked 16 hours. If you worked 24 hours, you have to have 14 hours at home before you can come back to help people.

It actually sounds crazy when you think of it in that way. By forcing residents into working shifts, they may begin to watch the clock, waiting to pass off complex problems to the next person. Ive seen it. Emergency room doctors dont see patients that come in at the end of their shift and just wait to pass it off to the next shift, delaying patient care. An anesthesiologist prevents you from adding a case towards the end of the day because the day shift is leaving and the night shift can only run a fraction of the number of operating rooms, so you wait to do cases in the middle of the night. And even in orthopedics, a resident may be slow to work up a potentially operative case because they know they will be forced to go home and not get to do the case, so they just pass it off to the next guy. Ive seen all these scenarios happen, and they are all the result of the new clockwatching culture being mandated by the ACGME.

So, what do I propose as the solution? Lighten up, ACGME! The FIRST trial made the case that increased patient handoffs dont necessarily hurt surgical patients. Thats a win for you. It also suggested that when giving programs and residents the opportunity to stay late past the prescribed daily hour restrictions, residents were more satisfied with continuity of care and handoffs. And they all still managed to comply with the 80-hour week restriction.

Therefore, if a resident wants to work 35 hours one day so he can be a part of an educationally valuable case, let them. If an intern wants to work 20 hours one day so they can examine a patient one more time to get experience on how a compartment syndrome can evolve, let them. They will benefit from the experience, and their future patients will benefit from having a doctor who knows what will happen, because they were there to see it.

The hospital subcommittee that came to my program acknowledged that violations of the 80-hour rule were not the main problems that were faced. The majority of violations were related to the daily hour restrictions. Restrictions that the FIRST trial has suggested may be unnecessary. I fear that improvements will be sought after that focus more on compliance than the real improvements in patient safety, outcomes, and quality of education that we all seek. It is time to refocus our efforts and remember why we are all here in the first place.

The author is an anonymous orthopedic surgery resident.

Image credit: Shutterstock.com
LARRY STEAGALL/KITSAP SUN Marsha Rova and her son Erik Morgan walk past the home of the late Eva Rova Barnes in Poulsbo. A state Supreme Court decision this year invalidated a will signed by Barnes that gave her stake of the 46-acre homestead to her former mail carrier.

SHARE Contributed photo Eva Rova Barnes, on her 90th birthday, in 2006. Barnes died in 2011, weeks shy of her 95th birthday. LARRY STEAGALL/KITSAP SUN Rova Road, off Bond Road outside Poulsbo, is named after the family of Eva Rova Barnes. LARRY STEAGALL / KITSAP SUN Marsha Rova, niece of Eva Rova Barnes, unlocks the gate at the Rova farm in Poulsbo. The Rova family plans to turn land over to a conservancy or nonprofit after a state Supreme Court decision returned the land to the family.

By Andrew Binion of the Kitsap Sun

POULSBO  The late Eva Rova Barnes was strong-willed and lived life on her own terms. Everyone who knew her agrees on this fact, if nothing else.

Whether she knew what she was doing when she cut her family out of her will, and instead bequeathed her stake in her family's 46-acre Poulsbo homestead to her mail carrier, is a question that ultimately had to be decided in January by the state Supreme Court.

Rova Road, off Bond Road outside Poulsbo, is named after Barnes' family. Near the bend in the road lies her parents' original 21 acres, bought in 1918 when Barnes was 3, along with the 25 acres bought by Barnes and her husband, Ray. It was there that the Barneses raised their daughter, Karolyn.

Both Ray and Karolyn died before Barnes, leaving her with no direct descendants.

When Barnes died in 2011, weeks shy of her 95th birthday, her will gave her sizable stake in the 46 acres, along with other nearby real estate and the rest of Barnes' property, to her friend and caretaker, Michelle Velarde, whom she got to know years before as her mail carrier.

Barnes' closest blood relatives, her nieces and nephews, contested the will, starting a legal battle over whether Barnes was freely making her own decisions at the end of her life. In January the state's high court upheld the trial judge's ruling that Velarde had exercised undue influence over Barnes, voiding the last will that gave the property to Velarde and her ex-husband, and turned the estate to Barnes' family.

The 8-0 ruling reversed an appellate court decision that incorrectly "reweighed" the evidence from the trial in Kitsap County Superior Court, justices found. The trial court had ruled that Barnes' last will coincided with her increasing dependence on Velarde and her widening rift from her family. The court also found that Velarde had "fanned the flames" of the anger and mistrust between Barnes and her family.

A FORCEFUL PERSONALITY

The "undue influence" case drew attention of attorneys inside and outside of the state and highlights what Barnes' family says are the risks facing vulnerable adults. The family nearly lost land that had been in their pioneer family for a century. They plan to turn it over to a nonprofit or land conservancy.

The land holds special memories for the Rovas. Just being back on the property, among the trees he climbed as a boy, is enough to send nephew John Rova, 67, into a reverie.

"I'm 13 while I'm standing here," he said.

"She had everything she ever had," said Vicki Rova Mueller, Barnes' niece, who described her late aunt as "feisty" and a person who had a tendency to hoard. "She just didn't get rid of stuff. For her to give anything away is a big deal, but to then realize somehow she gave everything away, that was another piece, it helped us realize something had gone awry."

Velarde said she didn't ask for the fight and was honoring her friend's final wish.

"They say I exerted undue influence over Eva, Eva exerted undue influence over me," Velarde said. "Eva did exactly what she wanted to do. She was the boss."

Kevin Cure, the attorney for the Rovas, said that because of Barnes' mental and physical difficulties, she was susceptible to being manipulated.

"She had become very paranoid, very concerned that her family  the only family she had, the family she had been close to her whole life  was trying to put her in a nursing home and wanted to develop the homestead," Cure said. "We were able to show that Michelle (Velarde) fanned that fire, and encouraged that line of thinking, or else didn't discourage it, and that was to her benefit."

THE FALL

Barnes lived alone and in 2009 she fell in her kitchen and was on the floor for more than two days. Velarde said she ultimately realized what had happened and called 911. Velarde said she was there when Barnes was taken out on a stretcher, and when Barnes saw Velarde, she said: "I knew you would find me."

Barnes was insistent on returning home and was adamant that she did not want to live in a nursing home. She had been hoarding newspapers and other items, and the fire department said the house was too dangerous as is, and needed to be cleaned up. The Rovas and Velarde cleaned it, and at some point Barnes' address book went missing. It was a treasured memento for Barnes, and she blamed her family for its disappearance. It was during this time that Velarde said her friendship with Barnes became closer, and Velarde began helping Barnes so that she could remain in her home.

"I got the real treasure, they can have the dirt," Velarde said, who noted she resented being painted as a "greedy little mongrel."

The family contends it made efforts to visit and include Barnes but allege Velarde had made changes to Barnes' phone plan that prevented easy contact and interfered in other ways.

"That's the thing that kills me, that she took her away from us," said Marsha Rova, another of Barnes' nieces. "We'll never get those years back with her."

Velarde said her actions were in service to her friend and have been twisted to make her into a villain. She admits to changing Barnes' phone plan, which is cited as one of the ways she allegedly isolated Barnes, but Velarde said it was to help save Barnes money. The court noted a mortgage payment toward Velarde's house cleared Barnes' account on the day she died and was written by Velarde when Barnes was in or close to being in a coma.

Velarde admits that she was in financial straits, but she had been essentially living at Barnes' house as her friend was dying, sleeping next to her, providing round-the-clock care and Barnes knew she needed help with her mortgage and insisted on helping her.

"I was Eva's friend, I walked her all the way home, I couldn't do anything different," she said.

LAST WILL

Jeff Tolman, Barnes' attorney, prepared the will in which Barnes bequeathed her estate to Velarde. Because he was a witness in the case and serves as Poulsbo Municipal Court judge and knows Kitsap's other judges, Clallam County Superior Court Judge Brooke Taylor was brought in to conduct the trial.

Tolman said he took the unusual steps, in what was already an unusual case, of setting up a meeting between Barnes and the family  a meeting Tolman said did not go well  along with having Barnes sign another document specifying why she wanted to change her will. Tolman did this on top of asking Barnes the typical detailed questions attorneys usually ask when changing a will.

Tolman said he wouldn't have proceeded if he thought Barnes didn't have the capacity to understand what she was doing. One analysis of the decision, by a law firm from Arizona, found that although Barnes did have the capacity to change her will, it was procured by undue influence. One fact cited by attorneys was that Velarde drove Barnes to Tolman's office.

Velarde said she had no choice but to drive Barnes, saying that Barnes would have tried to drive herself and that she had her license taken away.

In the analysis by the Arizona firm, the author wrote it is natural for people to want to include their caregivers in their wills, however: "Such gifts are always suspect because of the position of trust and power that the caregiver holds over the senior."

"I don't have a dog in the fight, other than that my clients sign wills that accurately reflect their wishes," Tolman said. In light of the steps he had taken, Tolman said he had hoped the Supreme Court would have given attorneys in his position some guidance. "As a lawyer, what obligation do I have?" Tolman said. "If I believe you know what you are doing, my job is not to argue with you."

Barnes was never formally diagnosed with dementia, but there were findings that she had been suffering from some progressive cognitive impairment. Velarde disputes that, saying that Barnes had good days and bad days but remained sharp.

"She had 90-plus years of memories, and they were all there," Velarde said

INVESTIGATION

The family is split on how hard to allege wrongdoing by Velarde through the Postal Service. Marsha Rova said the public should know about the risks of vulnerable adults, but John Rova said jeopardizing Velarde's livelihood wouldn't help anybody.

"We have to move on," John Rova said.

Velarde remains employed by the Postal Service, according to a statement from Postal Service spokesman Ernie Swanson, who wrote in an email that an investigation has been launched by the Office of the Inspector General "based on the most recent court decision."

For Velarde's part, she said it was an honor to know Barnes but wishes she hadn't been named in the will.

"Look what happened to me," Velarde said.
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By the Kitsap Sun editorial board

The South Kitsap School District's board, having seen a bond measure narrowly defeated in February, is asking the community again to support a $127 million commitment that would primarily construct a new high school.

The measure narrowly failed on Feb. 9, falling a few dozen votes shy of the 60 percent supermajority needed. The district's board and bond supporters don't seem to take that response as a firm "no," due to such a narrow margin, and decided to ask again, hoping to increase the number of participants backing the school project.

Our editorial board endorsed the measure earlier this year, and without any changes to details our position remains the same  it's expensive, but also an investment that this community should make. Population is growing in South Kitsap and a plan to move ninth-graders into the current high school is already in the works. A new building that can accommodate the increase in students over the coming five years, when the building would open, as well as improve curriculum through facilities suited to today's needs is a down payment on the community's future. Moving forward should pair in coming years with a larger investment in education from the state level, provided the Legislature finally comply with the McCleary ruling, to help SK schools make a dramatic leap forward. We can get behind that concept.

But we'll also note that April's election makes for an expensive question, running a single-item ballot. Perhaps that's a pretty good indication of how pressing the district's board sees the need, and worth wagering the election bill (about $90,000) as well as its reputation among those opposed to the bond the first time around.

It's unusual to repeat a vote on the same measure in such a short time frame, and maintaining the language means there's unlikely to be any change in attitude among those who voted the first time. The strong feelings on both sides illustrate that. So any change in result is up to new voters  thus, a campaign to get out the vote by supporters, and an opposition that is now more vocal and coordinated.

Our board's hope, rather than rooting for a "yes" or "no", lies in seeing a higher turnout than the 42 percent seen in February. We encourage more South Kitsap voters on all sides to participate by April 26. The information and arguments are out there, including reprised lobbying from three perspectives on the facing page today, and supporters or opponents have had months to communicate the pro or con stance.

The school district seems to be asking for a more definitive answer  so give it to them.

The Kitsap Sun editorial board is Editor David Nelson; Opinion Editor emeritus Jim Campbell; and community members Martha Burke, Susanne Hughes, Bart Kale, Drayton Jackson and Jim Stark.
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"Bernie is doing well, but he can't possibly win the nomination," a friend wrote to me in an email for what seemed like the thousandth time.

My friend attached an article from one of the nation's leading newspapers showing how far behind Bernie Sanders remains in delegates. But the article failed to distinguish between superdelegates, the vast majority of whom are party insiders supporting Hillary Clinton, and pledged delegates.

As of now, Clinton has about 24 percent more pledged delegates than Bernie Sanders. That's still a sizable gap, but it hardly makes Sanders' candidacy an impossibility.

Clinton's lead in superdelegates could vanish if Bernie gains a majority of pledged delegates. That's what happened in 2008, when many of the superdelegates who initially supported her later flipped to then-Sen. Barack Obama.

Since mid-March, Sanders has been on a roll. He has won six out of the seven Democratic primary contests, and he's won them big, beating Clinton by 40 percentage points or more in Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii and Washington. On Tuesday, he took Wisconsin.

The enthusiasm for Sanders isn't waning. If anything, it's growing. In Idaho and Alaska, he inspired record-breaking primary turnouts, attracting thousands of new voters. He did the same thing in Colorado, Kansas, Maine and Michigan.

In March, Sanders raised $44 million, a new monthly high for his White House bid. The campaign's previous fundraising record was set in February, when it raised $43.5 million, compared to Clinton's $30 million. And most of Sanders' money has been in small donations  so far, more than 6.5 million contributions from 2 million individual donors.

Sanders is still drawing huge crowds. Last week, 18,500 showed up to hear him speak in the South Bronx.

Young people continue to flock to the Sanders campaign.

Yet if you read The Washington Post or The New York Times, or watch CNN or even MSNBC, or listen to the major pollsters and pundits, you'd come to the same conclusion as my friend.

Every success by Sanders is met with a story or column or talking head whose message is "but he can't possibly win."

Or the media simply don't report on his campaign. Early on, the prestigious Columbia Journalism Review noted that Sanders' candidacy had been ignored by the mainstream media "as nearly as they could a sitting U.S. senator who entered the presidential race."

Some Sanders supporters speak in dark tones about a media conspiracy against him.

I doubt one exists. The mainstream media are incapable of conspiring with anyone or anything. They wouldn't dare try. Their reputations are on the line. If the public stops trusting them, their brands are worth nothing.

The real reason the major national media can't see what's happening is they exist inside the bubble of establishment politics, centered in Washington, and the bubble of establishment power, centered in New York. So they're most interested in the personalities of the candidates, and in the people and resources backing them.

Within this frame of reference, it seems nonsensical that Sanders could possibly win the nomination. He's a 74-year-old Jew from Vermont, originally from Brooklyn, who calls himself a Democratic socialist.

He wasn't even a member of the Democratic Party until recently, has never been a fixture in the Washington or Manhattan circles of power and influence, and has no major backers among the political, corporate or Wall Street elites of America.

Because the major media are habituated to personalities and power, they haven't been attending to Sanders' message  or to its resonance among Democratic and independent voters (as well as many Republicans).

The media don't know how to report on political movements. Yet a big part of Sanders' candidacy is less about him than about the "political revolution" his followers want to bring about.

The major media haven't noticed how determined Americans are to reverse the increasing concentration of wealth and political power that have been eroding our economy and democracy.

So it's understandable the media continue to marginalize Bernie Sanders, and all he represents. But it's way too early to count Sanders out.

And even if he loses the nomination, the movement he's spawned isn't going away. It's one of the biggest stories of our time.

Former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich is a professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of "Aftershock: The Next Economy and America's Future." He blogs at www.robertreich.org.
The NZ Initiative was born out of a merger of the NZ Institute and the Business Roundtable. When it was formed, there was interest about whether it would just be the NZ Business Roundtable under a different name.

The NZBR made a great contribution to New Zealand, but in its latter years was seen as too ideological and had a fractious relationship with many political parties.

I think the NZ Initiative has done really well to be a consistent and intelligent policy and ideas shop, while being able to work constructively with politicians across the political spectrum. As they approach many issues from a broadly classical liberal perspective, they of course do not have everyone agree with them. But their contributions are seen as thoughtful and constructive.

Their annual report showcases what they have achieved in the last year, and is a good read. But it is two of the quotes I wish to copy:

I often disagree with the New Zealand Initiatives proposals  but thats the point. We need more challenging ideas, quality research and thought leadership in New Zealand, not less. The New Zealand Initiative makes a valuable contribution to robust debate in this country. I wish there were more institutions like them, across the spectrum, committed to finding solutions to the great challenges of our time. James Shaw, Green Party Co-Leader I appreciate the Initiatives prolific and much needed contribution to policy debate. We dont always agree but the debate is always worth having. Phil Twyford MP, Labour Spokesperson for Housing, Building and Construction, and Auckland Issues

I couldnt imagine the former NZBR having a Labour and Green MP talk about their valuable contribution and useful debates. Its a sign of their success.

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Trans-Tasman reports:

Roaches have infested the press gallery. Some will take this opportunity to make obvious and uncalled for jokes but seriously: the press gallery kitchen is infested with cockroaches, and worse, the press gallery building is the only part of Parliament not made earthquake safe, and there seems no great urgency to make it safe.

Are they sure it wasnt just Patrick Gower? (just kidding Paddy)

The political parties have different stances on the issue. National praises gallery members for their resilience and talks about doing more with less, like the public sector, although most news organisations have been doing more with less for a lot longer than the public sector has had to. Not a lot is going to change though, because it might be a bit unpopular.

Labour has some ideas for getting rid of the cockroaches, but these are not policy. There will be a Commission of Cockroaches. And position papers and lots of think pieces about what policy might be, one day, perhaps around 2025.

Winston Peters says he has been warning about cockroaches since 1984 but these folk in the media never listened, and it serves them right. But he will buy them a drink anyway.

The Green party is wondering if there is some way to get cockroaches onto buses or trains. It is also worried about emissions from this number of cockroaches.

The Maori Party is concerned the cockroaches might make stories which are disrespectful, and suggests they go and work for Radio New Zealand. Peter Dunne and David Seymour are wondering if the cockroaches can be signed up as party members.
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The Technical Society of Knoxville will meet at the Crowne Plaza at 11:30 a.m. on Monday. The speakers will be Earl Bandy and William Winters of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. The topic of their presentation will be coal mine permitting in Tennessee: highlights and issues. Visitors are welcome. For more information go to TechnicalSociety.net.

A disability resources and transition fair will be held at the Blount County Public Library on Monday 3:30-5:30 p.m. For people with disabilities or their families or those who work with them (educators, service providers, etc.), this fair will provide information about community resources and local businesses.

The University of Tennessee Medical Center's Health Information Center will host "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine," an exhibit developed and produced by the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, from Monday through May 21. The traveling exhibition was created to explore the link between Harry Potter and the history of science using materials from the National Library of Medicine.

The Helen Ross McNabb Center will host a free community prevention walk during Child Abuse Prevention Month on Tuesday. The walk will take place at Market Square 2:30-5 p.m.

The Knox County Health Department, in conjunction with the East Tennessee Regional Health Office of the Tennessee Department of Health, will conduct door-to-door interviews as part of a training exercise on Wednesday and Thursday. Staff members from both health departments will interview select residents in Knox, Blount and Sevier counties. Data collected will help officials gain knowledge about residents' preparedness for emergencies.

The Smoky Mountain Paralegal Association will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday at noon in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Knoxville. The speaker will be attorney Wayne A. Ritchie, II of Ritchie, Dillard, Davies & Johnson, P.C. He will present the topic of ethics. The presentation will provide 1.0 hour of CLE. For more information, contact Caroline Sudlow at 865-215-3676 or firstvice@smparalegal.org.

Knoxville-Knox County Metropolitan Planning Commission will meet Thursday at 1:30 p.m. in the Main Assembly Room of the City County Building, 400 West Main Street.
SHARE Bonnie C. Carroll Bryan Petett Dick Bales Tim Duff

Bonnie C. Carroll, founder and CEO of Information International Associates Inc., received an Enterprising Women of the Year Award at the 14th Annual Enterprising Women of the Year Awards & Conference held in Miami. She was among honorees from throughout the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and other countries.

For the 17th year in a row, Coldwell Banker Commercial Wallace and Wallace, Realtors was named the No. 1 Coldwell Banker Commercial office in Tennessee. Bryan Petett was named the top Coldwell Banker Commercial agent for the state and received the Silver Circle of Distinction Award. Dick Bales and Tim Duff received the Bronze Circle of Distinction Award.

Preston Hawkins, Sarah Sheppeard and Paul Whitt have been named shareholders at Lewis Thomason. Shannon van Tol has been named special counsel.

John Hunter has joined Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon Inc. as client service leader. His responsibilities will include client services and business relationship development that promote the firm across all disciplines in the greater Knoxville market, as well as supporting Barge Waggoner's transportation services firm-wide.

The University of Tennessee board of trustees approved a proposal for Oak Ridge National Laboratory Director Thom Mason to receive an honorary doctorate in science. He will be UT's 13th recipient. Mason, an experimental condensed matter physicist, will receive the degree and deliver remarks at the graduate hooding ceremony on May 12 at 5 p.m. at Thompson-Boling Arena.

Nucleus Knoxville announced its 2016 board of directors. The officers are: John Thurman, past president; Hunter Purnell, president; Courtney Read, vice president; Lane McCarty, secretary; Brad Adams, treasurer; board members: Gavin Baker, history chair; Matt Carr, programs chair; Erin Burns Freeman, membership chair; Josh Knight, social co-chair; Chad Martin, education chair; Ryan Moffett, collections chair; Liz Nother, communication chair; Carson Purnell, new member chair; Lisa Rottmann, social co-chair.

Regions has named Sharon Potter as trust adviser. Potter will serve Cumberland County, Roane County, Rhea County, Morgan County, and parts of Knoxville.

Tennova Healthcare has named Steve Simpson as chief executive officer of Lakeway Regional Hospital in Morristown, effective April 18. Simpson has served as interim chief executive officer at the hospital since March 14. He replaces Clyde Wood, who recently was named chief executive officer at North Knoxville Medical Center.

The University of Tennessee board of trustees approved a proposal to rename the Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences as the Shull Wollan Center  A Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, named in honor of physicists Clifford Shull and Ernest Wollan, pioneers in neutron scattering. The board also approved the renaming of the Center for Business and Economic Research as the Boyd Center for Business and Economic Research, named in honor of UT alumni Randy Boyd and his wife, Jenny.
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Our youngest child will be graduating high school in about month and my wife and I will soon be empty nesters. Quite literally, as I think about this season of life we are in, I look out my window and can also see the physical season changing from winter to spring. There is not much better than spring time in East Tennessee. Clear blue skies, green grass and blooming dogwoods are a sure sign we are on our way out of winter. However, you can never get too comfortable because it seems we still get our share of freezing temperatures and even snow into April. We look so forward to spring, while in the cold gray throes of winter, that sometimes we overlook what goes hand-in-hand with the new blooms; allergies. I have lived in East Tennessee for 48 years and it would seem our bodies should somehow adapt to this change and be able to ward off the itchy throat, watery eyes and runny nose that is so prevalent. I have talked with both long time residents and new transplants alike and everyone seems to be fighting the same battle.

The transition into an East Tennessee springtime is a lot like the transitions we see as our clients retire. There are constants that we need to be aware of and prepare for in advance. Then, there are always those aspects of change that are unpredictable and we must be adaptable. How can we be ready?

First, know that change is going to happen. Acknowledge it, be ready for it and have a plan. We know when we see that first Bradford pear blooming that allergies are going to be a possibility so we should have our Zyrtec ready to go in advance. In the same way, we should have a plan in place for what we want our retirement to look like and make sure we have the tools on hand to get there. Those tools might be a budget, a retirement plan and a low cost, diversified investment portfolio.

Next, we must live the plan and remember to keep our long-term focus. Short term distractions and challenges are the norm. Because of the extreme weather swings we may go from the air conditioner to heat in a moment's notice. Similarly, we need to be prepared for career changes, unpredictable investment markets, or frightening world events. Our vision needs to be on staying the course and not letting fear or change distract us on the path we have set.

Lastly, enjoy the moment and stay prepared because the next change is on its way. On those days where expectation meets reality and we have the perfect East Tennessee spring day we need to embrace it and enjoy it while we can because summer humidity may be around the corner. Just like our retirement plan, we enjoy each day and all the messiness that comes with living life to the fullest. We just don't know what the next day brings.

Our expectations are ideal springtime conditions. It's what we look forward to and remember. However, we still need to be prepared for the allergies and cold snaps. The same holds true for life's transitions. Prepare and develop a well thought out financial plan for what we expect, but be prepared for distractions and unpredictable events. If our plan is sound and adaptable we will enjoy and thrive through every season.
SHARE Knoxville firefighters respond to several small fires set around the Knoxville College campus Saturday night. (Kristi Nelson/News Sentinel)

By News Sentinel Staff

Knoxville Fire Department firefighters were kept busy Saturday putting out several small fires on and around Knoxville College campus that appeared to be intentionally set, fire officials said.

As firefighters responded to grass fires near the rear of the college campus around 8 p.m., they also discovered two fires inside McGranahan Hall, a former dormitory, said KPD Assistant Chief Jack Banks.

After extinguishing a small fire on the main floor, firefighters found mattresses and trash on fire in a second-floor room. A small explosion blew the windows out, Banks said. He said the fires were extinguished within a half-hour.

A few buildings on campus still have power, Banks said, but McGrananhan did not.

Meanwhile, a shed in an alley at Beaumont Avenue and Toms Street also was afire, and there was another grass fire near Wesley House on Reynolds Street.

Firefighters had responded to an earlier grass fire in the same courtyard Friday night, but no buildings were involved.

Banks said the fires were intentionally set, "likely by kids," and an arson investigation is ongoing.

Jane Redmond, management team leader for the now-closed college, said since the property isn't actually being used, it's hard to keep the buildings secure. She said some have had "vagrants" living in them.

"It's just so unguarded, the campus," Redmond said. "How do you keep them out?

Redmond said the college's board is "working vigilantly" to offer classes at the college again. The historically black college, founded as a teachers' college in 1875 as part of the missionary effort of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, closed in 2015. It had only 11 students its last semester.

The board is exploring options to commercially develop a portion of the property, Redmond said, while still maintaining some of the historic buildings as part of the reopened Knoxville College.
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By Tom Humphrey of the Knoxville News Sentinel

NASHVILLE  The multimillion-dollar business of influencing Tennessee's Legislature saw increased payments to lobbyists and a jump in expenditures by their clients on wining and dining last year, according to new figures compiled by the Tennessee Ethics Commission.

On the other hand, the amount of money going to so-called "lobbying-related expenditures"  typically advertising or phone bank messages that urge residents to call their legislators to voice support or opposition to a pending bill  declined from 2014 levels.

Combining all types of spending in 2015 disclosed, as much as $74 million was spent on lobbying during the year, compared to maximum reported spending of $69.2 million in 2014. But it also could have been as little as $30 million in 2015, up from about $27 million in 2014.

The figures are not precise because of the way lobbyist-compensation and lobbying-related expenditures are reported. Under a law enacted in 2006, lobbyists and their employers must report such spending only within a ranges  for example, between $50,000 and $100,000  and need not give an exact figure. One category is simply "less than $10,000."

This is in contrast to some states that require precise reporting of all payments to lobbyists  a notion staunchly and successfully opposed by Tennessee lobbyists' lobbying during the special session on reform of state ethics government ethics statutes decade ago that put the present law in place. The special session came a year after five legislators were charged with bribery-related offenses in an FBI investigation. Before then, there was no reporting requirement whatsoever for lobbyist spending.

the numbers

There were 569 lobbyists registered to represent 1,913 clients in Tennessee during 2015, according to Drew Rawlins, executive director of the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance. In 2014, 557 lobbyists registered to represent 1,880 clients.

Lobbyist employers annually file two reports, covering six months each, and the second round of reports for 2015 was filed last month with tabulations completed last week by Ethics Commission staff. The following figures are combined totals from the two six-month reports for 2015:

Lobbyist compensation was somewhere between $25.8 million and $54.4 million. The range for 2014 was between $22.1 million and $48.7 million.

Lobbying-related expenditures were somewhere between $3.5 million and $19.6 million in 2015. The range for 2014 was from a minimum of $4.7 million to a maximum of $19.8 million.

Combining compensation and lobbying-related expenditures, the 2015 range is between a minimum of $29.3 million and a maximum of $73 million. The comparable figures for 2014: Between $26.8 million and $68.5 million.

Rawlins cautioned in an email, responding to an inquiry, that it is difficult to accurately assess whether the 2015 figures indicate a trend toward more money being paid to lobbyists and less on related expenditures, also known as "grassroots lobbying."

"Some of it can have to do with them reporting by ranges so we don't get an exact figure," he said. "It's hard to tell how much it went up or down."

In contrast to the broad ranges in the above categories, lobbyist employers must also report the exact amount spent on each event they host with legislators as invited guests. The 2006 law prohibited lobbyists from paying for out-of-state travel, but permits what are called "in-state events" provided all legislators are invited and that they are disclosed.

In 2015, spending on such events  they range from providing coffee and doughnuts at morning gatherings to hear a lobbying pitch from some prominent person to fairly lavish affairs providing evening meals and alcoholic beverages for general conversations  followed a trend of increasing annually in recent years.

Last year, there were 106 such events with total spending of $1,194,169, according to Rawlins. That was up from the previous record $720,039 spent on in-state events in 2014.

Add the $1.2 million on event spending to the lobbyists' compensation and lobbying-related expenditures and the overall 2015 lobbyist spending total reaches a maximum of more than $74 million. For comparison purposes, the state budget allocated a total of $41 million in taxpayer money to all operations of the Legislature for the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. A minor item in that total is the base salary of $20,884 for each lawmaker or about $2.76 million for all 132 legislators combined.

The interests

The $74 million figure, of course, does not include what some would consider indirect efforts to influence legislators. Many groups that hire lobbyists also operate political action committees that make contributions to legislators' campaigns and many individuals working for corporations that employ lobbyists do so as well.

The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry had the most expensive in-state event last year, spending $77,480.

AT&T, which traditionally hosts a reception to mark the start of each legislative session, spent $43,360 on its event last year, second most expensive after the Chamber. AT&T has already reported its spending on the event that opened the 2016 session in January: $57,297. That could indicate another increase in 2016, though the session is still underway and events are still being held  with most other lobbyist employers not filing reports yet.

AT&T is also a traditional leader in payments of lobbyist compensation, sometimes reporting more than $1 million in a year in payments to lobbyists annually. In 2015, 16 lobbyists registered to represent the telecommunications company and it reported paying them somewhere between $400,000 and $500,000 in compensation and somewhere between $20,000 and $50,000 in lobbyist-related expenditures.

In years past, AT&T's primary objectives in the Legislature have been passage of bills that substantially deregulated the telecommunications industry, a mission that was accomplished. In 2015 and 2016, a primary objective for the company's lobbying has been to block proposals that would allow municipalities to provide broadband Internet service to rural areas. That also has been successful so far.

Americans for Prosperity, a national organization that presents itself as an advocate for free enterprise, has been a leader in lobbyist-related expenditures in Tennessee  spending a state record $1.1 million on direct mail, radio ads and events aimed at rallying voters to contact legislators in 2014 while spending relatively little on lobbyist payments.

AFP has been pushing repeal of the state's Hall tax on investment income, for example, starting in 2014 and continuing today with radio ads and video advertising on the Internet, and some on newspaper websites. It has also launched an ad campaign against any increase in the state's gas tax, which Gov. Bill Haslam has suggested is needed without offering any specific proposal.

Under state law, such groups relying on staff for direct lobbying  as AFP does, registering three people as lobbyists  are called upon to calculate the portion of their overall salary that is devoted to lobbying, then report that as compensation. In 2015, Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee reported spending less than $10,000 on compensation to three registered lobbyists in each of the two six-month reporting periods. But it reported spending somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000 on grassroots lobbying.
COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France  Speckled sky gave way to bright blue and the sun took the edge off the chill wind coming off the English Channel as we stood at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial. Half of the Americans dead  9,387  from D-Day and the Normandy campaign are at rest on the very bluffs they came to conquer in history's greatest amphibious assault.

Our guide was showing us on a map Pointe du Hoc, 8 miles west of the cemetery, and a photo of the dagger of cliffs U.S. Rangers scaled under withering fire from the Germans. My mind went to the 40th anniversary of D-Day when President Ronald Reagan spoke at Normandy and looked at the aged men who climbed those cliffs a lifetime before. They secured the place from which Nazi gunners could strafe Americans landing on Omaha Beach and Utah Beach.

"These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc," Reagan said. "These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

Bells sounded. In a few notes, we recognized the Star Spangled Banner. Our French guide fell silent as our entire group turned unprompted toward the bells, spontaneously honoring the sacrifices made by so many to end the evil of that age.

We were primed for poignant patriotism. In Arromanches, the small town above Gold Beach where the British came ashore, the stars and stripes flew beside the British, Canadian and French flags. Along country lanes, outside farm houses, Old Glory fluttered smartly.

The French have not forgotten. At least in Normandy.

They have not forgotten our sacrifice. Nor have they forgotten the cost of complacency. French President Francois Hollande, after the second horrific terrorist attack by the Islamic State in France last year, did not talk of "containment" or "degrading" the enemy. "We are in a war against terrorism, jihadism, which threatens the whole world," he said. "Terrorism will not destroy France, because France will destroy it."

In a theater at Arromanches, we heard British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from four years before D-Day. "We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans  we shall defend our island whatever the cost may be," Churchill said. "We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender!"

We heard Allied commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower from the fateful day. "The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you," Eisenhower said to the troops. He ended, "We will accept nothing less than full victory."

We heard President Franklin D. Roosevelt unashamedly lead America in prayer. "Almighty God," FDR prayed, "Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity."

In the chapel at Normandy, sober words are cut in stone: "Their graves are the permanent and visible symbol of their heroic devotion and their sacrifice in the common cause of humanity." Hollande, like Roosevelt, Churchill and Eisenhower before, understands humanity is now under incessant, if asymmetrical, assault. Islamic terrorists' goal is to eradicate other religions by inflicting suffering on humanity to destroy Western civilization. Put bluntly, the ultimate aim of Islamic terrorism is Hillary Clinton in a burka and the pope's head on a pike.

As the bells at Normandy wafted east toward Paris, the way our boys went after D-Day, a trumpet sounded, taps mournfully echoing on the hillside. Between white crosses and stars of David, I prayed the haunting melody was for our brave dead and not the death of the West.
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They've never made movies like this.

In most cinematic adventures when the innocents are in peril from villains, it's not other villains who ride to the rescue. It's the good guys. But in winning the Wisconsin primary Tuesday, it was Bernie Sanders galloping in on horseback  excuse me, on socialist nonsense  to try to save the country from Hillary Clinton.

To be sure, in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, Clinton is still the odds-on favorite to win. The polls have her ahead in the coming New York primary, and her pile of delegates is pretty darn high. Her greatest fear has to be honesty, though not her own. That's been missing for a long time.

No, what she has to fear is the non-political, frequently demonstrated honesty of James Comey, the FBI director who is closely involved in investigating whether she illegally endangered national security through use of a private email server as secretary of state. If politics are played in the Justice Department to get her off the hook, this official just might resign in protest, conceivably delivering a fatal blow to Clinton's presidential chances.

Sanders might then march to the White House, but would he be better? Not close. What we have in him is a 1960s hippie who never grew up, who accuses others of all kinds of bigotry even as he himself is bigoted against the rich to the point of hateful screeching and whose leftist ambitions would wreck the country if improbably effectuated.

Even some liberal economists say his math is something like two plus two equals one.

The New York Times interviewed a bunch who argued his proposals could expand the federal government by half. What he's talking about is free college for everyone, virtually free health care, largely free childcare and still other goodies. All of this could amount to a 50 percent yearly increase or more in spending, say some of the these economists, who also point out that the expansion's generally estimated cost of $18 trillion over 10 years could be higher, as much as $30 trillion.

Sanders says his taxes will pay for it and that they're mostly on the rich, even though the middle class will have to pay, too. He says the middle class will still come out ahead because of benefits that flow their way. Economists quoted in the Times say no  they will take a hurtful hit, too.

One of Sanders' own economists makes things turn out OK by estimating, among other happy thoughts, that our economic growth will get up to 5.3 percent. The Times economists say sorry, but nope. That's a reach and a half. What Sanders' buddies are calculating is "puppies and rainbows," one analyst is quoted as saying.

Many of Sanders' young supporters would love free college. What they need is more colleges that teach that goods and services are never free, that someone always pays.

Jay Ambrose is a columnist for Tribune News Service. He may be reached at speaktojay@aol.com.
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"Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more."

 H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Tennessee is known as the Volunteer State for a good reason. In East Tennessee alone, hundreds of organizations serve as conduits for people helping people.

The newly-formed Volunteer Knoxville effort facilitates connections between volunteers and opportunities to serve.

In just over a year Volunteer Knoxville has registered more than 6,000 volunteers seeking their chance to serve others.

One week each year, we turn to those who are focused on the good of others and say, "Thank you." National Volunteer Week was born in 1974 and boosted by President George H.W. Bush's famous "1,000 Points of Light" reference during his inauguration speech in 1989.

April 10-16 is set as the week when U.S. communities stop to thank those who serve others without asking something in return.

Locally, organizations such as the United Way of Greater Knoxville, Volunteer Knoxville and Community Shares are helping connect people with strong hands and warm hearts to those who need a hand out or maybe just a hand up.

According to Ben Landers, president of the United Way of Greater Knoxville, "Ours is truly a caring community. When someone is hungry, we feed them; homeless, we offer shelter; hurting  we reach out a reassuring hand."

The news is full of examples of hate, violence and disrespect. However, if we look around, we see our neighbors helping each other in ways that are often seen only by the giver and the receiver.

How about you? Have you thought, "What can I do?"

In the Old Testament, property owners are admonished to refrain from harvesting the edges of their fields so that "poor people and foreigners" might find something to eat.

Is there an "edge" you've been keeping for yourself that you might share? Is there a talent you can apply, a resource you can invest, a place you can lead others to service?

We see first-hand how people share their time, treasures and talent through our work at the East Tennessee Community Design Center. The Design Center was founded in 1970 through the vision of the late architect Bruce McCarty and others to provide a way for those in the design professions to give back through their work.

Each year, area architects, landscape architects, planners and development professionals donate more than 1,000 hours of pro bono design services to help give a boost to projects where funding isn't available to pay for design.

Projects like the First Tee of Greater Knoxville, the Good Shepherd Center in Monroe County, Knoxville's Urban Wilderness and many more were developed or improved by the Design Center's efforts. Our board, staff and clients are indebted to these volunteers for helping give shape to abstract dreams, and we want to take this chance to say thanks. (See our website at www.communitydc.org for more information.)

The Knoxville area is blessed with many givers, but our continued prosperity depends on you, and you and you to help make our communities better.

If you should begin to think, "What can my small contribution really accomplish?" don't let that lull you into inaction. Each of Bush's "points of light" were small, but collectively they shone brightly.

I will leave you with this challenge, which can help create a place where you want your grandchildren to grow up: It is not possible that we all do everything  it is critical that we each do something.

Wayne Blasius is executive director of the East Tennessee Community Design Center.
Donald Trump backers rightly saw last weekend's party maneuvering on Tennessee delegates to the Republican National Convention as undercutting their candidate's prospects for winning the presidential nomination, but they may have undercut those prospects further with their reaction.

Consider the case of Ken Gross, a member of the GOP's State Executive Committee representing Knox County who was appointed a Trump delegate  one on a slate put together by state Republican Chairman Ryan Haynes and his staff after much negotiating and approved by the executive committee on a 40-25 vote.

If you're not familiar with the arcane rules for delegate selection  and very few people are  most of Tennessee's 58 delegates to the GOP convention were chosen by voting on individual delegate candidates in the March 1 presidential preference primary. But some are appointed by the executive committee and assigned to represent a designated candidate based on the presidential preference primary results. That was the focus of last weekend's meeting.

Trump is entitled to 33 of the 58 delegates; Ted Cruz gets 16; Marco Rubio nine.

Those arcane party rules call for the candidates to be consulted on those who will be designated to represent them as delegates. But the rules do not require the candidates' approval of the appointees. The Trump and Cruz campaigns had a list of the people they wanted to be appointed. Haynes and the party staff, after duly consulting with candidate representatives, honored some of the requests, but ignored others.

The Trump folk, led by Tennessee campaign director Daren Morris, declared themselves outraged at the selection of "anti-Trump" people to serve as Trump delegates, and Gross was one focus of their wrath. To make their point, Morris and others cited a Facebook post Gross made that characterized Trump as a "liberal Democrat."

But Gross says nobody with the Trump campaign bothered to consult with him. If they had done so, Gross says, he would have told them that the Facebook post was just a bit of routine back-and-forth banter that is part of every intra-party political campaign.

Gross said that since Trump won in Knox County, which he represents, he feels obliged to vote at the convention the way Trump wants him to vote  not just for the first two ballots at a contested convention, as required by the state rules, but afterwards as well.

In other words, he was prepared to be an ultra-loyal Trump delegate but found himself denounced as a "Trojan horse," a pawn of the establishment. An anonymously written blog posted his phone number and urged people to call to criticize  just as Trump supporters had posted Haynes' cellphone number and urged that he be badgered.

It's been enough, Gross said, to leave him questioning the idea of being an ultra-loyal Trump delegate after the two first two ballots, should the convention be contested.

The Cruz folk also didn't get their way on all appointed delegates. A standout on that front was the designation of Chris Devaney, former state GOP chairman, as a Cruz delegate. Let's just say that Cruz is not an establishment Republican candidate and Devaney is known as an ultra-establishment fellow, rather like Gov. Bill Haslam, a designated Rubio delegate.

The Cruz campaign, in contrast to the Trump troops, was diplomatically silent about the proceedings last weekend. If the convention is contested, that just might turn out to be a smart move.

Tennessee's Republican establishment is alarmed about the prospect of Trump as the party nominee, the fear being that he could do for Democrats what Barack Obama has done for Republicans in our state. Why, some were privately fretting last week that Trump as the nominee could lead to a loss of seats in the GOP's supermajority in the Legislature.

Haynes meticulously followed the rules in putting together a slate that, to win the required executive committee approval, needed to include people respected by a majority of panel's members, a rather exclusive club with divisions reflecting the extraordinary conflict within the GOP today.

By coincidence or otherwise, the aftermath could make the claims of an anti-Trump bias a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Read more from Tom Humphrey at "Humphrey on the Hill."
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Officials at the Tennessee Department of Human Services seem to be in denial about the agency's deplorable handling of federal funds for its nutrition programs.

In formal responses to recent audits and at a Senate subcommittee hearing last week, officials offered weak explanations of multiple instances of violating federal rules and accounting practices.

A bill passed last Monday is headed for Gov. Bill Haslam's desk that would require the department to submit to greater legislative scrutiny. That might not be enough, considering the agency's failures over the past five years.

At last week's hearing of the Senate Investigations and Oversight subcommittee, Comptroller Justin P. Wilson discussed the recent audits his office has completed and the department's inadequate responses. As reported by the Tennessean, Wilson said the Department of Human Services accounted for 34 of 72 major problems found across all state agencies last year. The most recent audit, released March 29, detailed $11.4 million in questionable spending, mostly involving the agency's food programs.

"You can't really solve a problem until you acknowledge that the problem is really there," Wilson said.

The problem is easily found. The latest audit contains numerous instances of mismanagement in federal food programs administered by DHS, which include the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (commonly referred to as food stamps), Child and Adult Care Food Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and others. Many of the findings have been reported in previous audits.

The comptroller found DHS's slipshod accounting resulted in millions of dollars in questionable costs and exposed the state to interest liability for a portion of the federal funds. Errors resulted in overcharging the federal government for some activities and undercharging for others.

Personnel costs charged to the federal government lacked proper documentation, and in some instances federal dollars were used when state money should have been spent.

Lax oversight of food programs for poor children have made it difficult for the department to detect fraud, waste or abuse by contracted agencies that distribute the food, the comptroller determined. Nearly half the contracted agencies reviewed by the comptroller submitted inaccurate meal reimbursement claims. In one troubling finding, DHS could not verify whether contracted agencies were even qualified to participate in the Child and Adult Care Food Program.

Wilson's chief of staff, Jason Mumpower, said the department's answers to audit findings have been "unresponsive" at best and at worst "misleading or false."

The department's formal response disputed the questioned costs, claiming that all expenditures went toward allowed activities. Officials denied that the department failed to provide proper oversight of contract agencies, while explaining in great detail that feeding children takes priority over program integrity.

Human Services Commissioner Raquel Hatter told the subcommittee last week the department's responses "have been misrepresented or misunderstood." She said the department is improving the weaknesses in its programs.

The bill requiring more frequent reporting of DHS's activities is needed, but it will not solve the agency's widespread deficiencies. The longer the problems persist, the more public confidence in the agency's leadership will erode. Plus, by allowing the problems to fester, DHS officials practically are inviting federal authorities to investigate.

Alleviating hunger among low-income families should be among state government's highest priorities and is one of the hallmarks of a just society. The Haslam administration cannot allow DHS to continue failing the people of Tennessee.
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Tennessee's 109th General Assembly has been following a destructive path that is not in the best interests of Tennesseans.

Several Republicans in the House and Senate are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, founded by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch.

ALEC is made up of billionaires, millionaires, chief executive officers, special-interest groups and politicians on the federal and state levels.

What makes ALEC so unique and dangerous is that all meetings are shrouded in secrecy. CEOs and special-interest groups work in agreement with Tennessee legislators to vote on and draft model legislation that is introduced into the General Assembly as original Tennessee bills.

In April 2015, Sen. Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro reported in the Chattanooga Times Free Press that 22 legislators attended an ALEC conference in Washington, D.C.

Currently, ALEC's special-interest group Americans for Prosperity, our ALEC Republican lawmakers, Tennessee citizens and hospital association have clashed over Insure Tennessee.

Gov. Bill Haslam supports Insure Tennessee, but the Koch brothers do not want Medicaid expansion here, ensuring that 280,000 residents would be denied health insurance.

Petitions have been signed, and billboards have been erected across the state pleading with House Speaker Beth Harwell to bring Insure Tennessee to a vote. Regrettably, she will not change her position.

We Tennesseans hold our elected officials to high standards, and it is no longer a secret that the incentive for our lawmakers to operate in the shadows of ALEC is because they receive sizable campaign donations. We expect better from Harwell. She should be a leader and show us that she can step up and do the right thing by getting her house in order. Otherwise, the voters of Tennessee will help her clean house.

Donna Graham, Afton, Tenn.
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Whatever happened to common sense?

One recent morning I watched on television several high-ranking military officers stating they were convinced that some of the released Guantanamo Bay prisoners were returning to the battlefield and were killing Americans. Common sense should tell us that these prisoners were in Guantanamo Bay because they were considered dangerous, and releasing them is contrary to our mission of defeating the Islamic State. And yet, this administration is now making plans to release even more prisoners in order to fulfill an 8-year-old campaign promise.

We have 535 members of Congress, but there has been very little done congressionally to resist President Barack Obama's pursuit of his legacy at the expense of American lives. I am well into senior citizenship and have never seen, in my lifetime, such wanton disregard for America's future.

Paul J. Mattina, Knoxville
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No student should feel singled out at school for being different. Non-transgendered students don't deserve to be stigmatized by lawyers or judges or legislators who exploit the situation. Lawyers, often paid by the government to root out discrimination, real or imagined, believe non-transgendered students don't deserve the same rights as transgendered students.

Students use restrooms based on their gender. Male students use male restrooms; female students use female restrooms. Since there are no other biological genders, students who are confused about their gender can examine their physical bodies to learn which they are. Just thinking you are someone does not make that true. Ask Larry Dawson, the Tennessee preacher who "perceived" he was God and was shot at the Capitol earlier this year. No one took him seriously. Tennessee schools should be open and welcoming places for all students, including non-transgendered students.

The great concern in this case, which is sadly true of many other issues, is the prospect of the state losing federal funding and/or facing costly litigation. Tennessee legislators should take stock of how much state sovereignty has been surrendered to federal bureaucrats just for the money.

Robert Roark, Knoxville
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I am writing in response to the letter "There's no need to tote guns to parks." I can't help but think that the writer was motivated by politics rather than his true beliefs.

The poor man is creeped out by guns? I feel bad for him. What's difficult to understand is that he has lived here for 18 years. Was he in a shell? For 18 years the writer, assuming he gets out in public, has been surrounded by people who legally carry guns. There are more than a half-million of us. Now suddenly guns are permitted in parks and he says, "Guns creep me out." Where has he been for the past 18 years? He has been in drugstores, supermarkets, theaters and countless public places rubbing elbows with people legally carrying guns, and he probably didn't even know it. I must remind him that the legislation he is concerned about was signed into law by Gov. Bill Haslam, once mayor of Knoxville.

The present mayor objects to the law, has violated it and is being sued, at taxpayer expense. Could that be the real reason the author wrote his letter? It seems OK for the mayor to go to the park with armed security, but the average citizen should go unarmed and just hope nothing bad happens to him.

In closing, I'll just say that letter is full of typical anti-gun liberal rhetoric, and my advice is that he move to a place that is not "a lousy place to live"  perhaps where he came from in 1998.

Charles Thoms, Seymour
By Lee Hyo-sik





An artist's impression of the 38-story Dream Tower Casino Integrated Resort to be built on Jeju Island by 2019. China State Construction Engineering Corp., China's largest builder, won the 700 billion won ($610 million) order, signaling the entry of Chinese builders into Korea.

Chinese builders are looking to establish a presence in Korea, particularly on the nation's southern resort island of Jeju where many Chinese investors and companies plan to build resorts and other leisure facilities.

On Tuesday, China State Construction Engineering Corp. (CSCEC) won a 700 billion won ($610 million) contract to build an integrated resort on Jeju, the first major construction deal won by a Chinese builder.

The news has alarmed Korean construction firms, which have been competing fiercely with their Chinese rivals in the Middle East and elsewhere. Domestic builders are concerned that they could lose a significant portion of the local construction market to Chinese firms which are armed with abundant liquidity and improved engineering and procurement capabilities.

Lotte Tour and China's Greenland Group signed the contract with CSCEC in which the latter builds the 38-story Dream Tower Casino Integrated Resort on a 303,000 square-meter site. Lotte Tour has a 59 percent stake in the project and Greenland Group, China's largest real estate developer, a 41 percent.

In March 2014, Lotte and Greenland had initially selected a consortium of Hanwha E&C and POSCO E&C as a preferred bidder. But the two builders backed out of the deal.

CSCEC, China's largest builder, is expected to begin work in May and complete the project by March 2019. When completed, the Dream Tower, which will have 1,600 hotel rooms, a foreigner-only casino and a shopping mall, will be the tallest building on the island.

"CSCEC's winning of the 700 billion won contract may not be an isolated incident. CSCEC and other Chinese builders could win more construction projects," said Kim Woon-joong, the head of business development division at the International Contractors Association of Korea. "Chinese companies will rush to come to Korea if they can make money here."

Kim said that the latest news has unnerved domestic builders who know how tough it is to compete with Chinese companies that receive full-scale support from the Chinese government.

"Korean builders have been facing increasingly stiffer competition from Chinese rivals in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere. They simply don't want to engage in competition in their home market," he said.

According to the Middle East Economic Digest, a business information provider on the Middle East and North Africa, Chinese builders won contracts worth $13.3 billion in the Middle East from January through February, while Korean firms secured deals valued at only $88 million.

"Korean firms are engaged in fierce competition with Chinese rivals in the global construction market. If they stick to their current business model, they won't be able to survive because Chinese firms have improved their engineering and procurement capabilities significantly over the years," said Kim.

"Chinese builders also easily obtain financing from state-run banks, while Korean firms struggle to find banks willing to extend credits to them. Korean builders should try to avoid competition with Chinese rivals. They need to invest more to enhance their project management technique and develop high value-added businesses," he said.
By Lee Hyo-sik



Korea has launched an aggressive campaign to bolster food exports to China, targeting the growing number of increasingly wealthy Chinese consumers, many of whom view Korean products as safer and more sanitary.



The agriculture ministry has successfully persuaded its Chinese counterpart to allow the sale of "samgyetang," or chicken soup with ginseng. Local makers will be able to ship their products to the world's second-largest economy as early as June.



The ministry has also signed a business agreement with Lotte Mart, which runs 75 stores on the mainland, and Chinese retailers to promote more Korean agricultural and food items.



The Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Lee Dong-Phil, returned home on Sunday after a three-day visit to China. Lee met his Chinese counterpart and other government officials to obtain China's certification for 11 local samgyetang plants.



The agriculture ministry expects Harim, Nonghyup and other samgyetang producers will be able to export their products in June. This year, samgyetang shipments to China are estimated to reach 500 tons, worth $3 million. The volume will likely more than double next year.



"We have long been waiting for the day when we can finally export samgyetang to China," Lee said. "In addition to the chicken soup, Korea must enhance the quality of other food products to bolster outbound shipments. The government will do everything it can to support farmers and food companies."



Korea has been asking China to import samgyetang since 2006. But the neighboring country had refused, citing its quarantine and sanitary rules.



The chicken soup will likely be a huge hit once it becomes available to Chinese consumers, given that it has been well received by Chinese visitors.



In addition to obtaining Chinese consent for samgyetang, the minister attended promotional events for Korean rice, kimchi and other food.



Lee took part in an event to mark the sale of Korean rice at retailer BHG Indigo in Beijing, as well as making kimchi with Chinese consumers at the K-Food Promotion Hall.



In Shanghai, the minister visited a Lotte Mart store, encouraging the retailer to promote Korean rice, kimchi, milk and other food products.



Lee also signed a business cooperation agreement with the head of City Super, a Hong Kong-based premium retailer that runs 13 stores on the mainland, to help boost the premium image of Korean agricultural and food items.



"The government will encourage more food companies to do business in China," the minister said. "We will offer comprehensive consulting services in marketing, customs, quarantine and logistics. We will open more warehouses in China to make it more convenient and less costly for food exporters to sell their products there. We will also organize a series of sales promotion activities in cooperation with private firms."



The ministry has set an ambitious goal of increasing Korea's agricultural and food exports to China by 32 percent, to $1.4 billion, this year from 2015.




Hyundai Motor's all-new Tucson sport utility vehicle



By Lee Hyo-sik

Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors will soon sell more cars in the United States than 17 European brands combined, industry analysts said Sunday.

The two Korean automakers have maintained their market shares on a series of newly launched models this year, while the popularity of European-brand vehicles has waned among U.S. consumers following last year's Volkswagen emission-cheating scandal.

According to industry data, Hyundai and Kia sold a combined 319,651 cars in the world's largest automobile market in the first quarter of this year, accounting for 7.8 percent of the market. Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and 14 other European brands sold a combined 344,117, capturing 8.4 percent of the U.S. market.

The market share gap between Hyundai-Kia and the 17 European brands narrowed to 0.6 of a percentage point in the first three months of the year from a 1.2 percentage point gap last year.

Hyundai sold 173,330 cars, up 0.8 percent from the same quarter last year, while U.S. consumers bought 146,321 Kia vehicles, up 3.7 percent. In particular, Hyundai's all-new Tucson sport utility vehicle (SUV) was the most popular model with 7,830 sold in March, up 85.5 percent from a year earlier.

Both Korean carmakers posted record-high sales in the first quarter.

In contrast, Volkswagen's sales declined 12.5 percent to 69,314 cars during the period. BMW and other European brands also saw their sales either stagnate or decrease. As a result, their combined U.S. market share fell to 8.4 percent from 9.2 percent in 2015.

"Hyundai and Kia have been performing well since the beginning of 2016 as they aggressively introduced a series of new sedans and SUVs," an automobile industry analyst said. "Throughout the year, both automakers plan to launch more new models, including Hyundai's first premium brand sedan, the G90, which will attract keen attention from U.S. motorists."

However, European brands have lost their luster among U.S. consumers after Volkswagen's emission-cheating fiasco, the analyst said.

"Many U.S. motorists lost faith in European brands, making it difficult for Europe-based automakers to pitch for their vehicles," he said. "If the current trend continues, Hyundai and Kia will soon be able to sell more cars than 17 European brands combined."

Meanwhile, Hyundai's Tucson SUV, and i10 and i30 compact cars were among the top 10 best-sellers in Germany.

According to the German Association of the Automotive Industry, Hyundai sold 2,116 all-new Tucson SUVs in Europe's largest automobile market in February, the third highest after Nissan's Qashqai SUV (2,345) and the Fiat 500 compact (2,214).

Hyundai also sold 1,526 i10s in Germany for fifth place, while its i30 came in ninth (1,470). The automaker's overall sales in Germany rose 11 percent to 7,279.

"The German market is mostly dominated by Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other home-grown carmakers," a Hyundai Motor official said. "Given that, it's quite encouraging to see our cars have been well received by German motorists. We believe that Hyundai vehicles will perform better in other European markets."
KT's corporate business division executive vice president Lee Moon-hwan, right, poses with SAS Korea's country manager Sam Cho after signing a memorandum of understanding at the SAS Korea office in Seocho, southern Seoul, Friday.

/ Courtesy of KT



By Yoon Sung-won

KT, the nation's largest fixed-line operator, said Sunday it has signed an agreement with global data analysis provider SAS to cooperate in the cloud sector.

The telecom company said the cooperation will boost its presence in the cloud service market particularly, the public and business-to-business (B2B) sectors.

"We will provide world-class cloud infrastructure and services for our clients here to help them optimize their IT systems and increase business achievements by closely cooperating with SAS," KT's corporate business division executive vice president Lee Moon-hwan said in a statement. "We will also solidify ties with domestic cloud system and service providers to establish an ecosystem for mutual growth in the information and communication technology market here."

Under the memorandum of understanding which KT and SAS Korea has signed, the two companies will combine their cloud infrastructure and data analysis technology to provide the government organizations with an analysis platform to vitalize the use of their integrated cloud system dubbed "G-cloud." They will also collaborate in preparing a cloud-based business analysis platform service for corporate clients in the B2B sector.

"Under the agreement, we will be able to provide the SAS analysis systems to the public and B2B sectors here while lessening our clients burdens on early investment for hardware infrastructure," SAS Korea's country manager Sam Cho said. "Based on our strengthening analysis solutions and experiences, we will support our clients to seek for business insights from data on the cloud network."

KT, one of the leading providers of cloud infrastructure as a service here, has established a cloud data center in Los Angeles  a first for a Korean company  to expand its cloud service capacity.

SAS has provided analysis services designed for diverse use environments including private, public and hybrid cloud systems. In particular, the company has established partnerships with cloud global public cloud venders to provide services to its clients such as Chinese IT company Lenovo and Japanese cosmetics maker FANCL.
A visitor looks at an advertisement for Samsung Electronics Galaxy S7 at the company's promotion hall in Seocho, southern Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap



By Yoon Sung-won

Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics are stepping up competition between their latest flagship smartphones  the Galaxy S7 and G5  through aggressive marketing in the United States.

The G5, LG's first modular smartphone, was launched globally on April 1. It has drawn a favorable market response, solidifying the company's presence in the U.S. market.

Unlike other markets, where LG has yielded the No.3 position to competitors like Huawei, the company has remained the third leading smartphone brand in the U.S.

But Samsung is out to regain customers' attention for its Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge with an aggressive "buy-one-get-one-free" marketing strategy in the U.S.

Verizon, the top U.S. mobile carrier, and Sprint T-Mobile have adopted the marketing strategy to attract customers for the S7 series, offering a S7 free to those who buy one. AT&T, the second-largest U.S. telecom firm, has offered a 48-inch Samsung Electronics television for those who buy an S7, on condition they subscribe to a satellite television service at the same time.

The move comes as the four U.S. mobile carriers push to boost sales of premium smartphones, which have fallen because budget handsets have become popular.

Unlike Korea, where most new handsets are sold through mobile carriers, more than half of handsets in the U.S. are distributed directly from manufacturers to customers through open markets. For this reason, U.S. mobile carriers tend to use tougher marketing to attract subscribers.

Meanwhile, the four U.S. carriers have chosen relatively less aggressive marketing for the G5.

Verizon and AT&T are giving an auxiliary battery pack and a power-charge dock to G5 customers. For those who buy LG's new smartwatch, "Watch Urbane Second Edition," and a G5, they offer a $100 discount for the handset.

Sprint also offers the battery pack and a $150 discount for G5 for subscribers who sign a two-year contract.

The relatively more aggressive promotion for the S7 series can be seen as Samsung's move to check G5's popularity in the U.S. market. This is because the U.S. carriers launched the promotions for the S7 series between late last month and early this month, more than two weeks after Samsung released the handsets.

An industry source said otherwise: "The U.S. mobile carriers are offering more generous benefits for the S7 series because these models draw more customers who will pay for monthly plans over a longer period."
Leaders urged to double efforts to build political links



By Kim Jae-kyoung





South Korean Ambassador to Singapore Suh Chung-ha

SINGAPORE  Korea should establish more political links in Southeast Asia to solidify relationships and seize opportunities generated by the launch of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), according to a senior diplomat.

"Korea's diplomacy has placed too much emphasis on four great powers surrounding the Korean Peninsula  the U.S., Japan, China and Russia," South Korean Ambassador to Singapore Suh Chung-ha said in a recent interview at the Korean Embassy in Singapore.

"It is the result of foreign policy seeking just immediate gains. The government needs to take more strategic, long-term approaches."

Foreign policy focusing on the four powers in his view prevents Korea from gaining a stronger foothold in the region, noting that Japan and China have been increasing their efforts to build relationships.

He said Korea has had significant growth in economic and cultural visibility in the 10-member bloc, on the rise of hallyu, or the Korean Wave, but it is hard to see any activity in political and academic circles.

"It is easy to recognize Korea's presence in business and cultural sectors in Southeast Asia," he said. "You can easily see global products manufactured by Samsung and Hyundai and hear people talking about Korean dramas and music.

"However, despite such improvement, I don't think ASEAN leaders get the feeling that Korea has as solid a relationship with them as Japan and China do. Korea is lacking in political links in the region."

The career diplomat said Korean leaders should pay more attention to the ASEAN market and show sincere commitment.

"President Park Geun-hye and her ministers should play a bigger role in improving Korea's relationships with ASEAN countries by making more frequent visits to those countries and expanding exchanges beyond business and culture," he said.

"Korean leaders should seriously think about why ASEAN people view Korea as not being interested in the region."

Suh stressed that Korea needs to understand the dynamics and complexity of ASEAN member countries.

"ASEAN countries do not want to have too much reliance on either China or Japan," he said. "Korea should understand this and take a strategic step to seize opportunities created by the launch of the AEC."

The leaders of 10 ASEAN member countries launched the AEC at the end of last year to ensure regional economic integration, offering opportunities in the form of a huge market of $2.6 trillion and over 622 million people, the world's third-largest.

"The AEC is quite different from the EU," he said. "Unlike the EU, the AEC is a loose integration of Southeast Asian countries and they take the launch as the process of integration. The move is more like a symbolic meaning of showing their concerted commitment to regional economic integration."

The AEC is a single market, with a free flow of goods, capital and skilled labor across borders in ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.

Win-win relationship

The ambassador made three recommendations for Korean companies to strengthen their foothold in the area.

The first thing he believes Korean players should do is establish a win-win relationship.

"Korean firms should not see ASEAN countries just as a cheap production base anymore, because the AEC will be one of the largest markets in the world in coming decades," he said.

"Not focusing only on maximizing profits, they need to show that they are seeking ways to prosper along with ASEAN countries by strengthening corporate social responsibility activities."

The second thing is to diversify exports.

"The population in the middle class in the region is expected to rise fast, in line with steady income growth," he said. "They should develop strategies and products tailored for ASEAN consumers."

Lastly, the companies should use Singapore as a bridgehead to make inroads into other countries in the region.

"Compared to other markets, Singapore is relatively small," he said. "However, since Singapore's certification system is highly credible among neighbors, entering Singapore will help them make forays into other markets more easily."

To improve transparency and predictability of state policies, Suh suggested the government make more efforts to reform public officials' thinking and regulations.

"Korea's systems and laws are already comparable to those of advanced countries like Singapore," he said. "What's lacking is people's attitude toward respecting the rule of law.

"Korea is also lagging behind in regulatory reform. Policymakers should understand that more regulations give more leeway for officials to abuse their powers and get involved in corruption."

According to Suh, deregulation is a must for Korea to attract more investment from abroad.

"To house multinational companies, Singapore has liberalized foreign investment control in all industrial sectors, except for defense and broadcasting," he said. "It also opened the financial market by removing rules regulating currency transactions and capital flow."

Another important factor that makes Singapore more attractive than other Asian countries is that the government's policies are highly predictable.

"Officials in Singapore have frequent meetings with foreign firms and keep them updated on regulations and laws," he said. "This increases predictability and attracts more investment from abroad."
Korean brokerage house moving to close hedge fund' firm



By Kim Jae-kyoung



SINGAPORE _ Hyundai Securities is facing a major setback in Singapore as speculation mounts that it is moving to close AQG (Able Quant Group) Capital Management, a hedge fund arm of Korea's fourth-largest securities firm, according to analysts.



They say Hyundai may pull out of Singapore due to poor performance amid the sluggish global financial markets, a huge blow to CEO Yoon Kung-eun, who has sought to find new growth prospects in the Southeast Asian country. But Hyundai Securities has rejected the speculation.



"I was told that Hyundai recently decided to close AQG Capital Management as a result of poor earnings and a gloomy market outlook," a Singapore-based investment banker said on condition of anonymity.



According to the banker, Kim Hong-shik, head of AQG, stepped down in January. Kim, a derivatives specialist who headed Asian equity-linked products for ABN AMRO, had served as head of the hedge fund since it debuted in July 2013.



"With his resignation, Hyundai has reduced the number of staff and virtually halted operation of the hedge fund," he said. "They sent back most of the fund to its head office. AQG staffers are now under the control of Hyundai Able Investment (HAI).



In July 2013, Yoon set up two corporate entities _ AQG and HAI _ in Singapore to expand the company's presence in Asia. Hyundai Securities Asia, its Hong Kong subsidiary, invested 100 percent in both firms.



AQG is a hedge fund management firm following an equities long/short market-neutral strategy, while HAI is a proprietary trading house that handles commodities and derivatives.



HAI chief Gene Orr has taken the helm of AQG. He is known as a trading expert who previously worked for the Korea First Bank, Cargill Investment, Citibank and Jefferies.



Hyundai's apparent move to close AQG has raised speculation that Hyundai will leave Singapore. When Yoon opened the Singapore operation in 2013, he had high hopes for it.



"AQG starts trading with $100 million but we aim to raise assets under management to $1 billion and have commission income of $40 million within three years," Yoon said in 2013.



Yoon bet on Singapore while closing other overseas operations _ corporate entities in London and Tokyo, and a representative office in Vietnam.



However, a spokesperson at Hyundai Securities in Seoul denied the claim, saying the company has no intention of closing AQG and leaving Singapore.



"It is a groundless rumor," he said. "It is true that the AQG head resigned in January and the firm has been put under the control of HAI. However, it is not a preliminary move to either close offices in Singapore or reduce operations. It is a process of business realignment.



"All I can say is that we do business as usual and will work harder to improve our performance. Since we are still enthusiastic about overseas business, it is nonsense to say that we will scrap operations in Singapore."



But he refused to share any details, or release financial data, of the two Singapore units.



Hyundai has five overseas operations _ Hyundai Securities America, Hyundai Securities Asia, Hyundai Securities Beijing Representative Office, AQG and HAI.



When contacted, HAI chief Orr refused to talk. Instead, an HAI official said: "AQG staff have been reduced and it is now headed by HAI chief Orr after Kim's resignation. Orr is not allowed to talk to media without authorization from our Seoul office."



Over the past few years, several Korean securities companies, including Mirae Asset Securities, KTB Investment and Securities and NH Investment Securities, have left Singapore because of poor earnings.



"It is very difficult for Korean securities firms to make profits in Singapore because they don't have networks and know-how," another source in Singapore said. "That's why many Korean securities firms gave up.



"AQG has suffered from anemic performance amid sluggish global stock markets and Hyundai has reduced the Singapore operations since late last year."



Hyundai Securities Asia, which has 100 percent of AQG and HAI, posted net losses of 700 million won in 2015 and 355 million won in 2014.



On March 31, KB Financial Group won a bid for a controlling stake in Hyundai Securities, owned by Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM), for more than 1 trillion won. HMM, a cash-strapped shipping affiliate of Hyundai Group, is selling the stake to pay part of its 4.3 trillion debt.




Song Joong-ki(left) and Song Hye-kyo from KBS's "Descendants of the Sun"

/ Courtesy of KBS



By Ko Dong-hwan

KBS TV's mega-hit drama "Descendants of the Sun" is gathering a following in one of the world's most secluded communist states  North Korea.

Local daily newspaper Kyunghyang Shimmun, quoting a North Korean defector, said Friday the defector's family in the North had watched the drama's first eight episodes via the Internet.

The report said "some North Koreans had begun to get love-sick with the drama."

"More smartphones have been distributed to people and better Internet networks have been established compared to the past," the report said, quoting a North Korean expert.

The drama is set in the fictional war-torn country of Uruk. Its male lead, Song Joong-ki, who plays unrealistically perfect special unit chief Yoo Si-jin, falls in love with Kang Mo-yeon (Song Hye-kyo), a doctor from non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders.

The 14-part drama has caused frenzy among fans outside Korea. The drama's title was at one stage the most-searched keyword on China's No.1 SNS provider, Weibo. U.S.-based video-streaming website Viki has made the drama's subtitles available in 32 languages, including English, Chinese, Malaysian and Vietnamese. Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha has urged his citizens to watch the drama because it has "a sense of patriotism and sacrifice for one's country."

The drama's last episode airs on April 14.
By Lee Kyung-min



A coordinated effort by the governments and hospitals in Korea and China has successfully brought home Ha Sang-suk, a Korean victim of sexual slavery by the Japanese military.



The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Sunday that the government, along with a medical team from Chung-Ang University Hospital (CAUH), brought Ha for treatment for broken ribs she sustained after falling down a flight of stairs at her home in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in February. The transfer followed her wish to return to her native country before she dies.



She was moved from a local hospital to Wuhan Tianhe International Airport by ambulance. The Chinese authorities facilitated the transfer by allowing the hospital ambulance to enter the airport's parking ramp.



Korean Air replaced its flight between Wuhan to Incheon from the initial small B737 plane to a bigger A330, to help better accommodate her.



Engineers removed six seats in the plane so that Ha could remain on the stretcher as she was unable to sit up straight due to her injuries. The carrier also partitioned her stretcher from the rest of the seats for privacy, as well as providing seats to Ha's family.



Four staff members from CAUH accompanied her during the journey.



The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided Ha and her family with expedited immigration services at Incheon International Airport, enabling her to be transferred to hospital as soon as possible.



Upon arrival, she underwent a necessary checkup before receiving treatment.



The gender ministry provided 48 million won and private organizations gave 12 million won to cover her medical bills in China. The ministry will pay additional medical bills and nursing home fees here.



Born in 1927, Ha was forced to serve as a sex slave for Japanese soldiers from the age of 17. She could not return to Korea even after the nation was liberated from Japan, and earned a living working at a textile factory in China.




Lee Kyung-min

The government said Sunday that it will preserve records on human rights violations by the North Korean regime based on defectors' testimony.

A record center will be set up at the Ministry of Unification, and an archive will be established by the Ministry of Justice.

The records from the center, collected via interviews with North Korean defectors, will be transferred to the archive every three months.

This is a follow-up measure to the North Korean Human Rights Act, which was passed at the National Assembly in March and will take effect in September.

The measure aims not only to send a warning to the North's ruling class against poor human rights condition there, but also to hold them accountable in the future in the case of unification, a justice ministry official said.

"The fact that we are compiling material on the North Korean authorities' wrongdoings could effectively discourage their organized abuses of their people," he said.

"The collected data will also be used to punish those responsible for violations after unification, or to bring criminal charges to the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the North's leader Kim Jong-un and his Workers' Party officials even before unification."

North Korea sends political dissidents to concentration camps and treats them harshly through torture and even execution, according to a United Nations human rights investigator's report.
Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the minor opposition People's Party, shakes hands with climbers at Mount Surak in Nowon, Seoul, Sunday, to appeal for support ahead of the April 13 general election. / Yonhap



Parties concentrate campaign efforts in and around Seoul

By Jun Ji-hye

Political parties pulled out all the stops while campaigning Sunday to try and win over voters in Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province, where 122 out of 253 electoral seats are up for grabs in the April 13 general election.

Pollsters say that these regions have larger numbers of swing voters and that races in more than 15 constituencies are too close to call. Swing voters account for some 20 percent of the total electorate within the districts.

The leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party, the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) and the minor opposition People's Party visited these regions, appealing for votes for candidates from their respective parties.

The opposition parties emphasized that voters should judge the governing party and the President Park Geun-hye administration for "putting the nation's economy into a crisis." Meanwhile, the ruling party is arguing that the opposition parties dragged the economy down because they always disagreed with whatever the ruling party suggested.





Rep. Kim Moo-sung, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, gives a piggy back ride to the party's candidate Byun Whan-bong, while assisting on the latter's campaign at Sujeong in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.



Ruling party Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung made appearances at the campaigns of 11 candidates in his party that are standing in Gangdong, Songpa, Gangnam, Gwangjin, Dongdaemun and Seongdong.

MPK interim leader Kim Chong-in had an even tighter schedule, joining 18 candidates from his party in a one-day stumping at constituencies across Seoul and Gyeonggi Province.

Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, co-chairman of the People's Party, also visited Gwanak and Guro in Seoul to woo voters there. The other co-chairman of the minor opposition party, Chun Jung-bae, who has mostly carried out campaigning in Gwangju, a traditional home turf for liberal parties, came to the capital to support candidates running in the area.

The April 13 general election will decide who is to fill 253 directly elected and 47 proportional representation seats.





Kim Chong-in, interim chairman of the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea, greets a merchant at a traditional market in Songpa, Seoul.



On Sunday, each party released forecasts of how many seats they expect to win. The ruling and main opposition parties were overly conservative about their predictions, while the minor opposition People's Party was fairly optimistic.

The Saenuri Party expected to win about 145 seats, falling short of securing the majority. The MPK cautioned that it might end up winning fewer than 100 seats, while the People's Party predicted it will grab as many as 35 seats.

According to analysis by four local pollsters, in the mean time, the ruling party is expected to secure 157 to 175 seats, the MPK 83 to 100 seats, and the People's Party 28 to 32 seats.

Compared to a previous analyses conducted on March 13, the number of seats predicted for the MPK dropped, while that for the People's Party increased. At the time, the MPK was expected to win 95 to 110 seats, and the People's Party 10 to 20.

"If the MPK succeeds in putting up single candidates with the People's Party in the capital area, it will be very helpful for the party," an official of the pollsters told reporters on the condition of anonymity. "Eighty percent of voters seem to have already decided on whom they will vote for, while 20 percent still remain as swing voters. The greatest variable will be a turnout of voters in their 20s, 30s and 60 or beyond."

Another official said, "The results in 10 to 15 constituencies in the capital area are changeable until the last minute."

The MPK has been engaged in an uphill battle outside the Seoul metropolitan area as well, according to the pollsters, as it was expected that the main opposition party would win only five to seven seats to the ruling party's 20 to 22 seats in the Chungcheong provinces, in which 27 seats are up for grab.

In the so-called Honam region that encompasses the MPK's traditional stronghold of North and South Jeolla Provinces and Gwangju, the party was forecast to secure 8 to 11 seats, fewer than the People's Party's 17 to 20 seats.

The worst scenario for the governing party would be if it loses some 15 seats in the Yeongnam area to candidates of the MPK or the minor opposition Justice Party, or independent runners, the pollsters added.

Yeongnam refers to South and North Gyeongsang provinces, the bastion of the conservative party.

Meanwhile, some 5.13 million, or 12.19 percent, out of 42.1 million eligible voters cast their ballots during an early voting conducted Friday and Saturday  the highest turnout since the early voting system was introduced in 2013, according to the National Election Commission.

The turnout of early voting for the local elections in June 2014 was 11.49 percent.

Follow Jun Ji-hye on Twitter @TheKopJihye
By Kim Bo-eun



Over the past three years, Kim, 31, has been studying for the state exam to become a civil servant, one of the most coveted jobs sought by young jobseekers for its security.



However, passing the test became so hard as the competition ratio hovers about 40 to one.



"When I take the test and get disappointing results, I feel like giving up on everything," he said.



Hundreds of posts by people like Kim come up daily on the 250,000-member online community "dokgongsa," which stands for "people who doggedly prepare to become civil servants" in Korean.



The job is in demand not only by college students and graduates, who have trouble landing a decent position in the tough job market, but also among older people with work experience who are dissatisfied with their job or have been laid off.



"I am in my late 30s, have been married for five years and have two sons. I worked for over 11 years at a company, but I was laid off. I started up a business but it didn't go very well. I thought about what I could do, as I had technology skill certificate so I decided to study to take the civil service exam for a technical position," a man posted on a different online community.



Reflecting on the popularity, some 160,000 people took the written test for the entry level 9 civil servants across the country, Saturday, hoping to get one of the 4,120 positions available.



Some desperate test-takers even seek unfair means to land the job. Last month, a 26-year-old university student broke into a government building in Seoul several times, first to steal the paper for the civil servant test and later to alter his test score. When he was taken to a detention center after a local court issued an arrest warrant, he told reporters, "I'm sorry, I wanted to become a civil servant."



There are many reasons for the high popularity.



The first is job security. While employees at private companies start to retire in their 40s, civil servants are able to work until the age of 60. The pension for public workers also gives more benefits than private-sector ones.



For starting level civil servants, yearly pay ranges from 26 million to 27 million won, when including extra payments for meals and welfare. This may look small, as a survey by the Korea Employers Federation on 414 companies last year showed the average income for entry level employees who graduated from a four-year university, was around 35 million won.



However, the number of jobs at the companies was very small compared to the huge number of jobseekers. A different survey on small-and medium-sized companies with less than 300 employees, showed a starting level salary for non-regular workers was 22 million won.



For female workers, guaranteed maternity leave and a flexible work system are also attractive factors. The percentage of female applicant for the level 9 civil servant examination this year was the highest at 53.6 percent.



"Considering the pay, pension, early retirement and stress at private companies, a civil service job is much better," Kim said.




By Rachel Lee



A group of 13 North Koreans who defected after working in a Pyongyang-owned restaurant in China arrived in South Korea via a third country, sources here said Sunday.



The North Koreans reportedly traveled to the third country by bus with assistance from South Korean diplomats in China and then caught a flight to Seoul.



If confirmed, it would indicate that China may have allowed the South Korean diplomats to take them to the third country although the authorities knew about the defectors. It is not known whether China discussed the issue with North Korea.



The defections could put China-North Korea relations on the line, analysts here say.



The workers  one manager and 12 waitresses who arrived in Seoul Thursday  worked at a restaurant in Ningbo, northeast Zhejiang province, a source said.



"The North Korean employees escaped the restaurant in China and moved to South Korea through a South Asian country," the source said on condition of anonymity.



The employees were found to have worked at a restaurant in Yanji in eastern Jilin province, but moved to Ningbo last December due to "financial difficulties," sources said.



The North Korean workers left Ningbo en masse on April 5.



Observers say that China appears to be cooperating with South Korea and the international community on North Korea sanctions because the Chinese government allowed the North Koreans to make a detour via a third country to enter the South. The U.N. Security Council adopted the Resolution 2270 last month in response to Pyongyang's fourth nuclear test on Jan. 6 and a subsequent long-range rocket launch using ballistic missile technology, Feb. 7.



China had previously treated North Koreans apprehended in its territory as illegal migrants and deported them back to the North.



"China didn't seem so willing to cooperate, but now they're starting to get involved with the North Korea sanctions," said Song Dae-sung, former Sejong Institute president.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's tyrannical regime could accelerate a rift within the middle-class people in the repressive state in the future, said another government source.



It is not yet known whether China let North Korea about the move.



Since the unprecedented mass defection last week, North Korean restaurants in other nations are being closely monitored.



"It feels tense. The [crackdown] has become much tougher. Guest houses as well as restaurants are surrounded by police," said one North Korean merchant.



There are an estimated 130 Pyongyang-owned restaurants in 12 countries, including former communist nations such as China, Russia, Cambodia and the Netherlands.



The restaurants  key sources of hard currency  are believed to be under heavy pressure to send money to Pyongyang.



The Kim Jong-un regime has been forcing waitresses employed at state-owned restaurants overseas to secretly gather information on South Korea from their customers.



Restaurant employees are chosen partly for their loyalty to the regime. They usually work as waitresses but also sing, play instruments and dance to entertain guests.



About 29,000 people have entered the South including 1,276 last year.



South Korea urged its citizens to refrain from dining at Pyongyang-owned restaurants in line with the U.N. Security Council's latest resolution aimed at cutting the flow of hard currency into the Kim Jong-un regime and prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.




Indian Ambassador to Korea Vikram Doraiswami, sitting second left, holds a press conference for the "Maritime India Summit," which is scheduled for April 14-16 at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre in Mumbai City, at the Millennium Seoul Hilton on Apil 7. Dilip Sundaram, chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICCK), Parth Sharma, ICCK vice chairman and Cho Shin-hee, director general of the overseas fisheries and international policy bureau at Korea's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, attended the press conference. / Courtesy of the Embassy of India



By Rachel Lee

India's huge maritime sector potential will provide new opportunities for Korea, an Indian envoy says.

Indian Ambassador to Korea Vikram Doraiswami said at a press conference before the "Maritime India Summit" that India is looking for a long-term partnership with Korea in the sector to drive economic growth.

The summit is scheduled for April 14-16 at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre in Mumbai City.

"The focus of the event is on India's maritime economy, comprising shipbuilding, port development, inland waterway development, aquaculture and marine leisure," the ambassador said at the Millennium Seoul Hilton on Apil 7.

With Korea as the sole partner country, the meeting aims to "complement India's efforts to develop its maritime sector and attract global investment as part of the Make in India' initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi," according to the Indian embassy in Seoul.

Dilip Sundaram, chairman of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICCK), Parth Sharma, ICCK vice chairman and Cho Shin-hee, director general of the overseas fisheries and international policy bureau at Korea's ministry of oceans and fisheries, attended the press conference.

"Korea is one of the world's leading countries in maritime-related technologies, accounting for more than 30 percent of the global shipbuilding market," Sharma said. "It is also an important logistics hub with the world's fourth-largest container throughput."

A Korean delegation of 200 experts is planning to hold a special session to share the country's technology in the maritime field. There will also be a Korean food festival during the summit.

The vice chairman said the event is essential to India, since the country sees its role in global trade increasing and is poised to take full advantage of lower logistics costs.

"So we aim to create an awareness of the untapped potential of the sector, as well engage all stakeholders in the road map for coastal and waterways development through this summit," the ICCK vice chairman said.

On the first day, thematic sessions  covering topics including India's Sagarmala project and shipbuilding and ship repair  will be held, along with Korea's special session and the CEO's closed-door talks, organizers said.

On the second day, the forum will deal with inland water transportation and coastal shipping, hinterland connectivity and multi-modal logistics. There also will be a seminar on maritime security.

Under Sagarmala, designed to link ports and promote industrialization, over 150 projects are under way, the vice chairman said.

The project aims to achieve "port modernization, stronger connectivity, port-led industrialization and coastal community development," he said.

He said investors, especially from Korea, are expected find opportunities in many projects through the event  including greenfield ports, new berths in major ports, roads, railways, pipelines, multi-modal logistic hubs and pork-linked clusters.

India is one of the world's fastest-growing economies, with gross domestic product growth of 7.5 percent in 2015-16.

According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, the nation was the fourth most attractive destination for foreign direct investment. It has a coastline of 7,517 kilometers and navigable inland waterways of 14,500 kilometers.
Australian Ambassador to Korea Bill Paterson, left, attends the "Australian Craft Beer Masterclass" at the

JW Marriott Seoul Hotel on April 7. / Yonhap



By Rachel Lee

Australia has introduced its unique craft beers to Korea.

At the "Australian Craft Beer Masterclass" at the JW Marriott Seoul Hotel on April 7, representatives from Australian craft beer producers Australian Beer Co. and Moo Brew showcased beers from three major breweries  Australian Beer Co., Moo Brew and Coopers Brewery.

More than 50 local beer importers and media attended the event organized by the Australian Trade Commission.

"Australia is well positioned to introduce our high-quality craft beer to Korean consumers to cater for increasing demand for a diverse range of quality beer" said Australian Ambassador to Korea Bill Paterson.

Paterson highlighted Australia's flourishing craft beer market that has more than 300 breweries and 1,000 beers available.

Products on show were Australian Beer Co.'s Yenda Hell Lager and Yenda India Pale Ale; Moo Brew's Moo Brew Pilsner and Moo Brew Pale Ale; and Coopers Brewery's 2015 Vintage Ale and Best Extra Stout.

"Australia is home to some of the most innovative craft brewers in the world who use high-quality ingredients to deliver a purity of taste that is second to none," Australian Trade Commission Senior Trade Commissioner Brett Cooper said. "I think today's event was an excellent example of what Australia can offer Korean beer consumers."

According to the Australian Trade Commission, Australia accounts for 30 percent of the world's malting-barley trade.

Under the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which came into force on Dec. 12, 2014, the tariff on Australian beers was reduced to 17.1 percent this year and will be eliminated in 2020.
Central American Bank for Economic Integration Executive President Nick Rischbieth, right, meets with

Kim Yoon-kyung, deputy director general at Korea's Ministry of Strategy and Finance, during his visit to

Korea. / Courtesy of the Embassy of Honduras



By Rachel Lee

The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) is eager for Korea to become a member, which would bring extensive economic benefits, the institution's head believes.

CABEI Executive President Nick Rischbieth visited Korea earlier this month with a delegation from the economic ministries of Central American countries as part of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between Korea and that region.

"Incorporation of Korea to the CABEI is not a recent issue," the president told The Korea Times. "Negotiations began in 1996, when former Korean President Kim Young-sam, during a Korea- Central America summit with Central American presidents, expressed Korea's interest in becoming a member of the CABEI."

Rischbieth began his second five-year term as executive president in December 2013. He previously worked as the bank's executive vice president and chief financial officer, and treasurer.

"I believe the FTA is the ideal situation in which we finally achieve the membership of Korea in the CABEI, which can bring about great benefits to both parties," he said.

The CABEI, founded in 1960, is an international body whose objective is to promote the integration and development of its founding-member countries: Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It is headquartered in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and has offices in each country.

Rischbieth said both parties will benefit from Korea becoming a non-regional member. In particular, Korean companies will bring knowledge and training, technological transfers, investment in infrastructure and fresh capital.

"A trade relationship with Korea is expected to benefit Central American producers, with higher exports of coffee, tropical fruits and metals, as well as give access to products in the automotive, cell phone, health-care, construction and food sectors," the president said.

"The CABEI is an ideal platform for Korea to promote its export offering through credit lines with Eximbank and by participating in tender projects financed by CABEI. As a CABEI member country, Korea would have a preferential margin in these projects."

The CABEI and Korea Eximbank signed a $100 million framework agreement last month to develop credit facilities for trade between Korea and Central America.

"The incorporation to CABEI would be an opportunity for Korea to play a leading role in Central America through its global economic status, as opposed to just being another actor in the international context and in other regions," he said.
By Rachel Lee

Korean food experts have visited Myanmar to share their experiences with local businesspeople.

The "Product Development Workshop," organized by the ASEAN-Korea Centre and Myanmar's Ministry of Commerce on April 5, was designed to enhance the nation's food product development capacity, with an eye to gaining access to the Korean market.

ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-Sun said Myanmar is in the heart of the world's fastest-growing region, including China and India, and also has "abundant resources and limitless potential."

"Myanmar's first democratically elected government in 30 years just took off recently, which has opened up even broader possibilities for the country," he said.

The Korean experts gave lectures under the topics "Sourcing Trends and Procedures" and "Trends of Food Packaging Technology in Korea." Local participants made presentations on an "Overview of Myanmar Food Market and Distribution," designed to help the Korean buyers better understand Myanmar's market environment.

The workshop also had one-on-one meetings and the delegation visited local manufacturers to offer some practical help, the organization said.

On April 8, the ASEAN-Korea Centre held a similar event in Manila, in collaboration with the Philippine Export Marketing Bureau (EMB).

Korean experts gave lectures on topics including "Trends of Gourmet Food in Korea," while representatives from the EMB made a presentation on an "Overview of the Philippines Food Market and Distribution."

"Through my visit to Madrid Fusion Manila, I felt that the Philippines stands out as Asia's most vibrant food business destination," Lee Dong-go, ASEAN-Korea Centre deputy director, said. "I wish that this workshop will serve as a stepping stone for Philippine manufacturers who have global competitiveness to further expand their businesses to the Korean market."

Madrid Fusion Manila is the first and only Asian edition of the culinary event Madrid Fusion, where delegates gained up-to-date information on world food industry trends and built a network with international partners.

The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 with an aim to promote exchanges among Korea and the ten ASEAN Member States.
Korea-Netherlands ties: Dutch Ambassador to Korea Lody Embrechts, right, poses with Suncheon Mayor Cho Chung-hoon at the Suncheon Bay National Garden in South Jeolla Province on April 8. / Yonhap









Norway's PM to visit Korea



Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg will visit Korea on April 14-16, the Norwegian Embassy said.

This is her first visit since her inauguration in 2013.

According to the embassy, Solberg plans to meet Korean President Park Geun-hye to discuss "bilateral and global issues to deepen the cooperation between the two countries."

She will also speak at a National Assembly's forum on the importance of achieving sustainable development goals through politics, partnerships and people's participation.

The embassy said the prime minister will visit Gyeongbok Palace to learn about the history of the Joseon Dynasty and the National War Memorial of Korea, where she will lay a wreath at the Norwegian Monument to commemorate Norway's participation in the Korean War.
Around 10 North Korean workers dispatched to Angola have died of yellow fever in the southern African country, a U.S. radio outlet said Friday.

About 450 people have been confirmed to be infected with the viral disease in Angola since the first case was reported in December in the country's capital, the Washington-based Radio Free Asia (RFA) report said.

Among those that caught yellow fever, 178 have died so far, with the disease spreading rapidly in nearby countries, the RFA said, quoting sources.

It said some 1,000 North Korean workers are in Angola, including construction workers and medical staff, the report said, referring to the workforce North Korea dispatches overseas to earn money.

The recent deaths of the North Koreans calls into question the quality of North Korea's yellow fever vaccine and the veracity of North Korea's claims to have inoculated its workers sent to the African country, according to the report.

Those who became sick have asked to be repatriated, but the North Korean government has opted to not comply out of fear that they could cause the disease to spread at home, the media company said.

In a separate story, the RFA also said China's customs authorities have recently tightened their control of cargo at its borders with North Korea.

Customs officials increased the frequency of their random inspections on cargo shipments to see if the claimed items match actual products being transported, the report said.

The tightening is especially aimed at stopping packages labeled as apples but actually containing Chinese rice from being exported to North Korea, the report said.

China's customs office has also required North Korea to win prior approval before shipping Chinese chemicals to the North, which could be used for the production of narcotics, the RFA said. (Yonhap)
By Stephen Costello

The discussion of Chinese interests regarding their North Korean neighbor, conflicted as they are, has often omitted some important considerations. Chinese officials and academics have often disagreed with each other and among themselves, so confusion is not surprising. Interests should also be distinguished from shorter-term tactical statements and actions, which are what most observers follow. Such interests should be a better guide to real policies and actions than the latest public statements or ungrounded assumptions.

Chinese leaders generally supported the negotiated denuclearization of North Korea carried out in the 1990s. That's both logical and unsurprising in the context of the times. In this sense the US-North Korea Agreed Framework of 1994, and South Korea's subsequent North-South engagement initiatives of 1998-2007 had Chinese backing. In contrast, the preference for pressure over diplomacy since 2001 by the US and since 2008 by South Korea were opposed.

Many observers have noted that Premier Xi Jinping is bolder and more ambitious than his predecessors, butfew have described any real change in Chinese interests on the Korean Peninsula. Even assuming expandedChinese cooperation with UNSC Resolution 2270, which expanded sanctions on North Korean trade last month, they still support a negotiated path, and appreciate the DPRK's insistence that the US must be the main guarantor of any strategic/political deals that could lead to access to international financial participation.

Chinese Pivot

Now, in the aftermath of a new nuclear test and a new rocket launch in the DPRK, Chinese leaders are likely to pivot from their unusual level of support for new UN sanctions to a newly intensified demand that the US overcome its objections to dialogue with the North and come to the negotiating table. In this way, they would attempt to return the US position to its earlier, 1990s basis. At that time, the US position was also denuclearization, but in the context of the North's economic development and security, in a credible, public and politically durable way.

And here we get to a key stumbling block. There is and has been no indication that the US administration would or could return to credible talks with the DPRK, particularly during its final eight months. Such talks  credible, rather than political stunts  would require a degree of strategic planning, of staffing and of public diplomacy that is very hard to expect from the Obama team.

History

The US administration's view of American interests changed drastically in 2001. Part of the new approach was a recalibration of US-China diplomacy. China, South Korea and Japan had all resisted the Bush team's withdrawal of support for the Agreed Framework and the KEDO project implementing it, but to no avail. As a gesture to China, and perhaps as a way to shift responsibility and blame, China was offered the chairmanship of the new Six Party Talks (6PT) in 2003.

The prospect of chairing the new group must have been enticing, since it would give Beijing an international role on a matter of both international and regional significance, and presumably more power to force a deal. But as with so many others, the Chinese seem to have greatly misunderestimated the Bush team's intentions, as the former President might say. And the tension between its role as convener of the 6PT and its interest in having North Korea make deals directly with the US seems still unresolved.

Judging by what we know now, the 6PT was not intended to produce an agreement with North Korea. At least not one that the DPRK would sign. In fact, its impact was to create a bottleneck to prevent deals with North Korea that did not involve elements the North would never agree to, and that the US administration insisted on. Among these elements was the famous "CVID" requirement: complete, verifiable, irreversible, dismantlement. Among Washington policy wonks, we used to laugh at the innocence, the impracticality of CVID. Its promoters must have known that "irreversibility" is a political and strategic construct, not a classically legalistic US principle. But as Vice President Cheney was said to have advised, "We don't negotiate with evil. We defeat it."

Let's recall that the 6PT had replaced a working and successful multilateral process, part of which included the Trilateral Coordination and Oversight Group (TCOG) , established in April 1999, which recognized common strategic interests among Japan, South Korea and the US. However, the TCOG was allowed to atrophy, along with the Agreed Framework and KEDO.

This turn away from a process  co-led by South Korea at the time, and supported by Japan, China and Russia  that realistically connected DPRK denuclearization and missile reduction with meaningful development and security, is the diplomatic history that today's officials and planners must come to terms with. It is the history that the US administration  and too many journalists  carefully ignores when imagining the view from China or North Korea. Their officials, of course, remember it clearly.

If China uses its new cooperation with UN sanctions to forcefully require the US to come back to negotiations with North Korea, the Obama administration could face pressures in coming months that it is not prepared for. Both Stephan Haggard of UC San Diego and Daryl Kimball of the Arms Control Association have recently suggested that this linkage should be expected.

If the US administration continues to hope that either the Chinese will help to squeeze the North Korean economy without an American recommitment to negotiations, or that it can continue to blame China while it refuses to use its own considerable leverage to address the North Korea issue, it is likely to be disappointed. In either event, sanctions would be relaxed, China and North Korea would resume blaming the US, and we would be back to square one. Unfortunately, this is the most likely outcome.

Stephen Costello is a producer of AsiaEast, a web and broadcast-based policy roundtable focused on security, development and politicsin Northeast Asia. He writes from Washington, D.C. He can be reached at scost55@gmail.com.
By Justin Fendos

For those of you who have not noticed, Vietnam is suffering the worst drought in its recorded history. Last year, spring rainfall in the Dak Lak province was already 86% less than in 2014, devastating the two main agricultural exports: rice and coffee. This year, the drought is even worse. Where once stood lush, wet paddies now lie the cracked, caked earth, more reminiscent of sub-Saharan Africa than the jungle terrain we are accustomed to seeing.

Meteorologically speaking, Vietnam receives water in two main ways: through direct rainfall and river water carried down from China. The lack of rainfall has been the main culprit thus far but so has the lack of river water. Usually March is when melting snow in the mountains to the north and spring rain fuel swelling rivers like the Mekong. But this year, there has been hardly any change in the river's height.

The lack of river water has a particularly detrimental effect on rice farms grown in the river delta, usually the most prolific place for rice paddies. When the river current is strong, salt water from the ocean tends not to seep into the soil. But when the river is weak, the soil saturates with brine, weakening or killing off rice and other crops. To make matters worse, desperate farmers have been pumping water from the ground, adding even more salt to the mix.

Large rivers like the Mekong originate in China and have a number of dams along their length. At the moment, there are six major dams on the Chinese side of the river and over twenty dams of various sizes on the Vietnamese tributaries feeding into the Mekong. Recognizing the activities of these dams does reduce the amount of water downstream, China has been quick to release more water but so far even this has been insufficient to curtail the issue. Despite the tiresome outcry that China is holding Vietnam hostage with water, it is important to keep a level head and recognize the true culprit at hand: climate change.

Every year, it seems a new disaster is added to the long, running list of problems caused by climate change. My favorite is the time of cherry blossom blooming. Cherry trees are actually excellent thermometers because the blooming of their flowers requires a precise temperature range. The Japanese have compiled a wonderfully meticulous annual account of the blooming for about a thousand years, effectively giving us an extensive record of spring temperature even before the thermometer was invented. When one examines this record for the city of Kyoto, it is obvious the time of blooming remained virtually unchanged until the mid 1800s: during this period, blooming usually occurred in mid April. Starting in the mid-1880s, however, blooming started to occur earlier and earlier, both for cherry trees inside the city (warmed by urban activity) and without (not warmed). Today, cherry trees in the hills outside of Kyoto bloom an average of 13 days earlier than they did in the 1700s.

Another example I like involves something a little less obvious. In the US state of Montana, millions of acres of pine forest are being destroyed every year by a beetle. Sound like it has nothing to do with climate change? You would be wrong. It turns out the beetle is one very sensitive to temperature. During winters, the beetle normally succumbs to the cold and remains dormant. But with warmer winter temperatures every year, the beetle has remained active and multiplied uncontrollably. In 2015, it is estimated the beetle systematically killed 100,000 trees a day.

The bottom line: climate change is a serious issue. It's not just about the average temperature going up a degree or two. It's about massive changes in the environment around us. I hope you think on these things when enjoying the cherry blossoms this week.

The writer is a Ph.D. from Yale and a professor at Dongseo University in Busan. He is also the associate director of the Tan School of Genetics at Fudan University, Shanghai. Write to jfendos@aya.yale.edu.
Foreign, immigration debates sorely missing in campaigning



Even before voters cast their ballots in the April 13 parliamentary general election, two losers have already been decided. Neither includes voters, who, with a sense of cynicism, are bound to lose irrespective of whoever wins or President Park Geun-hye as a lame duck president.



Rather, the two are key issues that can influence the future of the nation: immigration and foreign policy issues. Neither the ruling Saenuri Party or the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK) have paid much attention to these issues, with few candidates focusing their campaign on them.



The Saenuri Party decided not to designate an immigrant candidate for this election. In the outgoing 19th term of the National Assembly, the ruling party designated Jasmine Lee, a Filipina immigrant, as a non-elected lawmaker under the proportional representation system. Lee devoted herself as a representative of the growing immigrant communities to pertinent legislative initiatives.



Although how successful she has been is an open question, the symbolism she carried was one that fit Korea's changing cultural dynamism that is becoming increasingly multiracial. Currently, the population of foreign residents has passed the 1 million mark with interracial marriages becoming such a common affair that the children from such marital unions are hard to miss in classrooms.



Already, Korea is riding on a stiff aging curve on the path toward thinning the ranks of the working-age, young population that can only be replaced by embracing immigrants. The lack of a representative in the National Assembly who can stand for them is a mistake by the ruling party, and won't help in the nation's transition to a diverse society.



The second loser is foreign policy. Debates about this have been hard to find at the party level or among candidates. Even more surprising is that North Korea, which has recently been raising tensions by threatening to turn Cheong Wa Dae into a sea of fire and do physical harm to President Park Geun-hye in the aftermath of ever-tougher U.N. sanctions for the North's nuclear and long-range missile tests in the space of one month this year, is glaringly absent.



On a large scale, Seoul has been caught between China and the United States over whether to deploy the U.S.-made missile interceptor or Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on its soil despite Beijing's strong opposition. Among related issues are the future of the Seoul-Beijing relationship after the North Korea issue is settled; the future ROK-U.S. alliance; and Japan's remilitarization challenge. The failure to make a campaign issue out of these is also a mistake by the parties.



Parties have focused their campaigns on economic issues such as quantitative easing, or an easy money policy, and bread-and-butter issues such as minimum wages; and they have failed to provide discernible policy differences that only increase voter confusion and apathy.



The policy mish-mash is also "personalizing" the election that encourages the voters to cast their ballot for candidates who share hometowns with them or are tied by alma maters.



It is true that the parliamentary elections are not like presidential elections as the first are more focused on domestic issues than the second. By sticking to the past pattern, concern is rising that they won't be any better than their predecessors in the outgoing term of the National Assembly, which has been criticized for doing the worst job in the parliament's history. A total of 253 elected Assemblymen, together with 47 proportionally selected, will represent their constituencies and parties not only to deal with issues that are related to domestic politics but also regarding national issues.



Therefore, it is natural that they should disclose their views on these big issues so voters may pass their judgment on them as well. Now it looks too late for that and the nation will likely pay for the lawmakers' unproven qualities.




France is helping the European Union (EU) adopt new sanctions against North Korea to punish the regime for its defiant nuclear and missile tests as Pyongyang shows no intention of giving up its weapons programs through talks, a senior French diplomat said.



Emmanuel Lenain, director-general of the French foreign ministry's directorate for Asia and Oceania, said in an interview with the Joint Press Corps that although France believes the North Korean nuclear issue should ultimately be resolved through dialogue, now is the time to put further pressure on Pyongyang.



"It's a very difficult time because North Korea is not taking steps conducive to reconciliation," he said at his office in Paris, Wednesday. "As long as Pyongyang doesn't make peace overtures, it's absurd and useless to have talks."



France is one of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council, which last month slapped the toughest sanctions to date on Pyongyang in response to its nuclear test on Jan. 6 and long-range rocket launch on Feb. 7. The sanctions include the mandatory inspection of all cargo going in and out of the North and a ban on the country's exports of iron, coal and other mineral resources that serve as a key source of hard currency for the regime.



The EU has imposed sanctions on North Korea both within and outside the framework of the Security Council resolution. Last week, it blacklisted Korea National Insurance Corporation, North Korea's state-run insurance company, citing its suspected involvement in raising funds for the country's nuclear, missile and other weapons of mass destruction programs.



"The aim of the sanctions is to force Pyongyang to make rational decisions and we hope they'll lead to talks," Lenain said. "In addition to the EU sanctions, France is preparing a set of strong sanctions."



The standalone measures will be in line with the Security Council resolution and could expand the list of people under a travel ban or strengthen economic and financial sanctions.



France is one of two EU countries that have no diplomatic relations with North Korea. The other country is Estonia.



Lenain warned that should Pyongyang carry out another provocation, the international community will respond to it, such as by increasing pressure on the regime to improve its human rights record.



The official also rejected Pyongyang's calls for peace treaty talks, saying the North should first take steps toward denuclearization.



North Korea has recently called for talks on a peace treaty to formally end the 1950-53 Korean War. The conflict ended in an armistice, leaving the Koreas technically still at war. South Korea has dismissed the overture as a ploy to divert attention away from the North's nuclear conundrum.



On this year's celebrations marking the 130th anniversary of South Korea-France diplomatic ties, Lenain said his country is very proud and happy about the dozens of cultural events to take place in Korea throughout the year.



He also expressed hope for greater exchanges between the sides, saying the two countries are well placed to cooperate in creative and innovative areas.



Asked to give advice on ways to overcome the historical rows among South Korea, Japan and China, Lenain stressed that the solution can only be found among the countries concerned.



Europe achieved post-war reconciliation when those responsible acknowledged their wrongdoing and France accepted the apology with a view toward the future, he said.



"It required a lot of courage and the leaders of the two countries had to make significant decisions," he said. (Yonhap)








Ayam-haseyo Min-Ho Oppa! It's all about ayam (chicken) fest in the heart of Kuala Lumpur on the evening of Mar. 25, 2016 as the city welcomed the global ambassador of the famous Korean chicken franchise Kyochon, the Hallyu wave drama heartthrob, Lee Min Ho.

Despite the raining during this mini Meet & Greet session, the enthusiastic fans who have waited all morning continued to passionately wait as they did not want to miss their chances to meet the dashing Lee Min Ho.

As the clock struck sharp at 6 p.m., the actor walked to the stage in the middle of the Pavilion Mall entrance to grace the launching of the new Kyochon franchise. As expected from a Korean hearththrob, his appearance was simultaneously welcomed with a thunderous roar from fans.

When asked about the uniqueness of Kyochon chicken, Lee Min Ho sincerely stated that Kyochon chicken indeed healthy, natural and 'sedap' (tasty). He loved fried chicken and he confessed that he was indeed a fan of Kyochon since he was a boy. He also shared with the crowds his secret to enjoy Kyochon - Lee Min Ho style: to mix his favourite flavour, honey-flavoured series with Kimchi Fried Rice. Even to imagine this scrumptious meal will make us drool over. I would recommended the readers should try too.

He also thanked Kyochon for giving the opportunities to be able to be closer to his fans especially outside South Korea through the mini gathering event like this. Despite this was not his first visit to Kuala Lumpur, he enjoyed coming here as the warm welcomed and friendly gestures from Malaysian fans truly touched his heart. He promised the fans to visit this country again and the fans too promised him to continue to support and love Kyochon.

The highlight of the evening was the photo session and meet-and-greet for the lucky winners of the contest held by Kyochon Malaysia. All winners walked home with autographed calendars single-handedly given by Lee Min Ho himself. It was then succeeded by a table-signing ceremony and the autographed table by Lee Min Ho will be displayed at the newly opened Kyochon outlet in Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

From a fan boy of Kyochon to Kyochon's ambassador, it was a tasteful (fried chicken) journey for Lee Min Ho. As one said 'Part of the secret success in life is to eat what you like' and the Kyochon chicken will taste even better when his fans can be able to enjoy and love it as much as he do.

KpopStarz would like to thank Kyochon Malaysia for the event coverage opportunity.

Article by Amalina A Photo credit: Kyochon Malaysia
The SLFP does not condone the continuation of the Emergency Regulations (The Public Security Ordinance) more than a day necessary

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Airline critics believe that a new policy that raises the fares for passengers who book multi-stop trips is evidence of collusion between the nations biggest carriers.

Whether airlines are conspiring in violation of federal laws or not, the change means airline travelers must pay two to three times as much for a single ticket with several stops than they would for multiple one-way tickets.

The Business Travel Coalition and Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) have asked federal agencies to investigate Delta, United and American airlines over the pricing policies. The American Society of Travel Agents said they detected the changes in the last few weeks.

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The U.S. Justice Department had already confirmed last summer that it is investigating whether some of the nations airlines have conspired to keep fares high while limiting new routes and added seats.

It seems to me that the nations big airlines are working in concert to deceive and cheat the flying public, said Menendez, the ranking member of the Senate Banking subcommittee on housing, transportation and community development.

Menendez said that a flight from Newark to Los Angeles, with a side trip to San Francisco and then back to Newark costs, $592 if a traveler buys three separate one-way tickets. But the three airlines have changed their booking policies to force travelers to buy the flights together, at a price of $1,311 for that three-city example, the senator said.

American Airlines spokesman Josh Freed said the carrier simply closed a loophole that previously let passengers string together several one-way tickets in a way that was not intended by the airlines.

Part of the reason airlines want fliers to book multi-stop flights on the same ticket is so they can help passengers make their connections if there are flight delays caused by bad weather or mechanical problems, he said.

In a statement, United Airlines echoed Freeds explanation. Delta Air Lines declined to comment.

Both American and United denied that the changes were made in concert with rival carriers.

To read more about travel, tourism and the airline industry, follow me on Twitter at @hugomartin.
It should come as no surprise that our species, increasingly cut off from the natural world, has become extraordinarily adept at tuning out the havoc its wreaking on the planet through climate change.

Humans, like most animals, are preoccupied with satisfying immediate needs. This is understandable, though an insufficient excuse for inaction given our culpability and capacity to adapt and change.

Phantom Limb Company, a marvelously inventive New York troupe that has a magicians touch with marionettes, is part of a growing artistic movement to heighten environmental awareness through the arts. The companys latest project, Memory Rings, presented by UCLAs Center for the Art of Performance at Freud Playhouse this weekend, offered a multimedia fantasia on ecological themes.

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A work of movement-theater, lyrically directed and designed by Jessica Grindstaff, the production enlisted a forest of woodland creatures in a collage of fables, fairly tales and epics depicting fraught encounters between humans and nature.

The second installment in a planned trilogy of works addressing the environment (the first, 69S, centered on Ernest Shackletons 1914 Antarctica expedition), Memory Rings was inspired by the Methuselah tree, a nearly 5,000-year-old California bristlecone pine that was once thought to be the oldest living tree.

This breathtaking longevity prompted Phantom Limbs meditation on how our relationship to the natural world has changed over the millennia. The result is a kaleidoscopic review of the deforestation in Gilgamesh, the big bad wolfs fate in Little Red Riding Hood story and the workaday routine of the Seven Dwarfs kited out like miners, with brief comic forays into our Google-crazed contemporary moment.

The astonishing puppetry and hypnotic original musical (both are credited to Erik Sanko, clearly a genius) were entrancingly coordinated. Indeed, the productions flow was largely generated through visual and aural means.

The narrative flirted at points with becoming an illustrated version of The Wind in the Willows, especially when ensemble members in animal masks frolicked joyfully together.

The wilderness was sentimentalized, as though there were no struggle in existence. Deer roved with wolf, as birds fluttered in an innocent paradise. The only predator of note is mankind, which treats the planet as food and fuel for its insatiable quest for domination.

Competition for life is a biological principle, and human greed, which has ushered in what has been called the Anthropocene, an epoch marked by human-induced ecological calamity, is a fact of nature even as it actively destroys whole swaths of it.

Simple dichotomies weaken arguments and undermine consciousness and conscience. But perhaps its not wise to read the allegory of Memory Rings too literally.

Everything on stage was a work of human creativity. We saw the Methuselah tree assembled; we watched the performers don jaunty animal heads and prance around coated in pine needles; we marveled at the entrance of uncannily real miniature human beings, led by company members who seemed less alive by comparison.

Art and nature were so completely interwoven that it became impossible to tell them apart. Their fates, it is presumed, are similarly tied.

It was through the majesty of the design and Ryan Heffingtons dream-like choreography that the production spoke so eloquently and ardently to the current crisis. Darron L. Wests sound, Brian H. Scotts lighting, Henrik Vibskovs costumes and Keith Skretchs video contributed to this magnificently integrated vision.

The web of life is under assault. Companies like Phantom Limb and Canadas Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes (also presented by CAP) have conscripted miraculous puppets in this battle to defend the biosphere, and they have proven to be an impressive fighting force.

charles.mcnulty@latimes.com
Hello! Im Mark Olsen, and welcome to your weekly field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

This week I reviewed the latest vehicle for the comedy dynamo that is Melissa McCarthy, The Boss. Directed by Ben Falcone, with the script credited to McCarthy, Falcone and Steve Mallory, the film is about a financial self-help guru who loses her fortune.

Alas, I found the movie a disappointment. As I wrote, It is hard to think of a movie squandering the opportunity of a perfectly timed cultural moment quite like The Boss  Just imagine the filmmakers good fortune in tapping into issues that appeal to people on both sides of the current political divide. In the right hands, The Boss could skewer the brash ambition and entitled certitude of a Donald Trump type and the desire to see all that dismantled and discarded by Bernie Sanders-style supporters. But these are not the right hands.

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Weve got some pretty exciting screenings and Q&As coming together on the big board back at Indie Focus HQ. Check back at events.latimes.com for more info.

Nonstop movies. Movies nonstop.

The Invitation

A mix of pitch-black L.A. satire and disturbing horror freak-out, The Invitation is also the first feature film from director Karyn Kusama in a number of years.

The less you know about Karyn Kusamas excellent psychological thriller The Invitation the better, wrote Katie Walsh in her review for The Times. She lauds Kusama for parceling out just enough information to understand its logic, while leaving certain dim recesses mysterious.

In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis said, Dinner parties in movies tend to be overdetermined affairs, ideal settings for wit, wisdom and the breakdown of civilization  Still, theres something off about the hostess, whos slinking around barefoot wearing a vacant smile and a long white dress. Its the kind of number that Joan Didion might once have slipped on for another beautiful-people night of anomie and booze.

At MTV, Amy Nicholson notes, With the wickedly sharp The Invitation, Kusama has demanded that Hollywood give her a seat at the table. Id give her one  or else.

At BuzzFeed, Alison Willmore said, its buildup is particularly good, melding Los Angeles hippie-dippieism with therapy-readied sensitivity in a group of characters who think of themselves as too sophisticated and too accepting to blink at growing weirdness.

Jim Hemphill had a fine Q&A with Kusama on the strategies behind the movie in Filmmaker magazine.

I spoke to Kusama along with screenwriters/producers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi for a story that will be running soon. As the film slowly ratchets up the tension, a dinner party goes awry, viewers are drawn further and further in.

I had to be thinking what the calibration was all the time, said Kusama. A single look has meaning in the film, particularly if youre watching it for a second or third time. In another film it might be sort of a throwaway and there are no throwaway moments in this film.

Louder Than Bombs

Its no secret that Joachim Trier is among our favorite contemporary filmmakers. His latest film, Louder Than Bombs, is his English-language feature debut, a story of a family dealing with grief starring Jesse Eisenberg, Gabriel Byrne, Amy Ryan and Isabelle Huppert.

In her review in The Times, Sheri Linden said, beneath the well-worn dysfunctional-family setup are bracing observations of the human coping mechanism  With its unforced incidents and subtle performances, Triers film makes potently clear that emotional truth is a matter of perspective.

In the New York Times, A.O. Scott said the film is disarmingly quiet, not unlike the Smiths album that shares its title. Buried or deflected emotion  conveyed through mordant remarks, pregnant glances, long stretches of silence  can generate more impact than explosive drama  Mr. Triers direction is as restrained and tense as the behavior of his characters, who suffer without making too much noise about it until they seem ready to explode.

Bilge Ebiri at the Village Voice wrote, in finding a narrative and visual style that embodies that obsessiveness, that lost-ness, Trier puts us inside his characters heads. Whats more, he does so without it ever feeling forced, or like some kind of authorial dictum. For all the films seemingly unusual narrative choices, you emerge from it thinking this story couldnt properly be told any other way.

Ill be publishing a story on Trier and the film soon. As he was introducing the movie at its recent Los Angeles premiere, Trier implied how telling a story in America wasnt so different from his movies made in Norway. Im from Norway, he said, the suburbs of Europe.

Demolition

Director Jean-Marc Vallee has brought out acclaimed performances from actresses such as Emily Blunt and Reese Witherspoon and actors Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto. With his new Demolition, he turns his attention to actor Jake Gyllenhaal and a tale of a man dealing with the shock of his wifes sudden death.

As The Times own Kenneth Turan put it, Demolition is a well-meaning misfire, terribly earnest but unconvincing for all of that. A film more pleased with itself than it has reason to be, it does provide a chance to watch the always-involving Jake Gyllenhaal at work.

In the New York Times, Stephen Holden wrote, Mr. Gyllenhaals strong performance still doesnt add enough substance to a film that is hollow at the center.

In one of the movies most positive reviews, Alonso Duralde at the Wrap added, Demolition strikes a tricky balance; its a comedy of manners that never judges its heros bizarre behavior. Had it stuck to its emotional guns, it would stand much taller, but even its ultimate flaws cant erode its sturdy foundation.

Steve Zeitchik visited the set during the making of the film. Gyllenhaal said of working with Vallee, Theres an interesting balance between absolute freedom and absolute control [when] making a movie with Jean-Marc. And whats amazing is to watch him dance back and forth between the two.

The Girlfriend Experience

We are partisans of cinema in these parts, no doubt about it. But in todays media age, that also means digging television. The new series The Girlfriend Experience features any number of people we like from movies. Its a veritable shopping list of our favorite talent, with Steven Soderbergh, Amy Seimetz, Lodge Kerrigan, Riley Keough, Kate Lyn Sheil and Shane Carruth. Were so excited, were figuring out how to get the Starz channel.

The series is loosely based on Soderberghs 2009 movie, which starred Sasha Grey, about a young woman who works as an escort providing not just sex but also companionship and comfort like an actual relationship for a top-dollar price.

In reviewing the show, The Times Mary McNamara said, The Girlfriend Experience so longs to be arty, with its walls of glass and indirect lighting, that watching it is a bit like flipping through a stack of style and shelter magazines at the doctors office  Before you know it, 30 minutes have passed in which nothing much has happened, beyond the reinforcement of 1 million infuriating stereotypes and the thought of how great it would be if the narrative turned to Christine using her legal abilities to improve the lives of prostitutes, high-end and otherwise.

The Times Libby Hill will be publishing a feature piece of her own soon. As Seimetz said to her, The first season is about a woman thats figuring out her boundaries as she goes. Shes not seasoned, shes not always making the best decisions, but shes at least handling herself.

Email me if you have questions, comments or suggestions, and follow me on Twitter @IndieFocus.
Outlander made its triumphant return to television Saturday night in a Season 2 premiere that followed Jamie and Claire as they fled from Scotland to France in an effort to stop the Jacobite rebellion and alter the course of history.

But that was only half of it. The episode actually opened in 1948 Scotland, where in a flash-forward scene, Claire is reunited with her husband, Frank, after a two-year (or is it two-century?) absence and faces the uncomfortable task of explaining how she traveled back in time, fell in love with someone else and is now carrying his child. (Dont you just hate it when that happens?)

We spoke to showrunner Ron Moore about Season 2s big resets, Season 1s brutal finale and the challenges of writing a series thats constantly reinventing itself.

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Youve got a very different story and setting in Season 2. Does that feel exciting or daunting?

Its a little bit of both. With this show and this story, it keeps changing and evolving, so its a fresh creative challenge. Thats really fun and it gets everybodys spirits up.

But its also a huge production challenge for that same reason. We had to create new sets, new costumes, new location. Theres literally not a single set we could use again for this season. Even Game of Thrones has Kings Landing.

In terms of shooting and production, you really rely on standing sets to save you a lot of time and money and energy. With this show, everything is new all the time. It just takes a tremendous amount of thought.

How does it affect you as a storyteller?

It just means that theres no comfortable rhythm that you get into. If youre doing Friends, youre in the apartment again. Then were going to do a couple days down in the coffee shop.

With Outlander, you just dont have a template to start from. Theres really no typical episode. Theres no cliche version of what our show is. Every one is like a little movie.

Again, its a blessing and a curse. Again, youre constantly being challenged, and theres an excitement to that. But its tiring because, man, sometimes you just want to do the same episode.

The show also tonally shifts a lot, from moments of escapism and fantasy to being very intense and brutal and realistic.

The show has a lot of different colors to it. That has to do a lot with the source material.

Diana [Gabaldon]s books are very hard to categorize. She could tell you stories how she struggled for years and years; she was always fighting booksellers not to stock the books in the romance section. Its really more of an adventure series. The show is reflective of that.

There are a lot of different colors to it. There are a lot of different moods and styles of storytelling. The adventures themselves dont easily fit into oh, this is a bodice-ripper. Youre going on a journey thats not just the typical journey.

If you were going to say its a romance story about this woman and the strapping Highlander she falls in love with, that just doesnt really define the story.

Right. A prime example of that would be Black Jack Randall raping Jamie at the end of Season 2. Its sort of the antithesis of what youd expect from a romance.

Its not where you take your male lead character, generally, regardless of the genre. It was just a very shocking, transgressive thing to do.

When I read the book for the first time, I had no idea that thats where it was heading, and I was like, Wow, this is really something.

I realized, boy, if we did this on TV, people just wouldnt know what to say. We decided were going to go there too on the show. We decided lets be unflinching about it. Lets not make it gratuitous, but lets not flinch away from it either.

Theres been a lot of conversation recently about portrayals of rape on TV. Can you talk about how you approached it?

We always knew this is where we were going, so the conversation started early. We knew it would probably be the last two episodes.

We wanted to get inside Jack a little bit more and make sure that he was fully fleshed-out. It was important to me that we understand him as a man and a human being, that he wasnt just a monster, he wasnt just an easily dismissed creature of fantasy. In some ways, it would make it more horrible if he was a real person.

We had a lot of conversations about what the power struggle was about, what would it mean to break Jamie as a person, what complete surrender would mean in those circumstances. It was long conversations with the director and then with the cast. We set aside days for them to rehearse these scenes. Wed watch them in rehearsals and have more conversations.

Everyone just approached it in a very professional way and we said, Lets deal with this as honestly as weve dealt with everything in the show. Its not something were not going to glorify, but we want to face it. We want to not flinch away from it.

Then the final step was in the editing room; that was really the most crucial decision point. In editing, you can stay on an image, and the longer youre on it, the more uncomfortable it gets. There were times where I felt like I didnt want to watch anymore. I wanted to move the audience emotionally. I wanted to shock them. But I didnt want them to turn away from the show. The only guide I had for that was my gut. If I couldnt watch it, that was too far.

So the effect of those scenes didnt wear off after watching them many times in the editing room?

No, it was always very disturbing and very powerful. No matter how many times I watched it, it retained its power.

Were there things you were actively trying not to do? Things you really wanted to avoid in your depiction of the rape?

There are certain tropes I wanted to avoid. I didnt want false heroism on the part of Jamie. I didnt want mustache-twirling or overplaying glee on the part of Jack. You dont want to ennoble the victim and raise him up spiritually where theyre rising above it by saying some clever line like, You may have me, but youll never really have me.

Is it safe to say that Jamie will still be working through the trauma in Season 2?

There are reverberations of [the rape] throughout the second season. We meet Jamie a few days after the events in Wentworth Prison, so its definitely still on his mind. Youll see that it affects the relationship between him and Claire as they move forward to disrupt the Jacobites.

Thats unusual too  the idea that its something that lingers. So often, rape is just used as a plot device.

Thats kind of TV in general. Traumatic, horrible things happen all the time, and people forget about it next week. Its sometimes tough to be true to how people really react. You are trying to tell a story, and you dont want it to always be about that one incident, but at the same time it would affect them psychologically and emotionally.

How did adapating the second novel in the series, Dragonfly in Amber, compare to adapting the first, Outlander?

Season 2 and Book 2 are much more complex. Theres more time travel involved. The whole Parisian storyline is very complicated: Theres lots of political machinations, and the Jacobites and the French court, new characters showing up. Year Two is just a much tougher nut to crack.

You departed from the book by opening in 1948 instead of 1968. Why?

When I was looking at it, I thought it worked well on the page to start in 1968. Its the beginning of a book. Its a surprising opening, but I just thought for the TV audience, it was too big of a step.

I like the idea of starting in the 20th century ... but to also advance the story 20 years ... was just so much. I just thought, lets start a bit more chronologically, see her in 1948, invest in that whole tale of her and Frank and the reconciliation. Then lets flash back and see how it all happened.

I just thought it was a smaller bite for the audience to take, and it would get us to the same point and we will get to the 1968 story eventually.

The series looks different this season, but is the storytelling different too?

Now its much more interior. Now youre in Paris, dealing with the aristocracy, the court of Louis XIV and trying to get inside of the nascent Jacobite rebellion. Its a lot of who do you trust and how can you lie to these people and who is the real enemy and whos out to get Claire?

Theres a lot more politics involved. Its a very different show creatively.

The first season was an outdoor adventure, and youre on horseback a lot and there are a lot of physical threats to people. Thats one style of storytelling.

Season 2 is really like the Paris salons and the courts. Its much more about dialogue and subtlety and conspiracy.

Theres not a lot of continuity, but are there any lessons from Season 1 youre applying to Season 2?

We learned we can really lean on our cast. We just scored big time with [Caitriona Balfe] and Sam [Heughan] and Tobias [Menzies]. As complicated as Season 2 is, there was really nothing we couldnt throw at them.

Gabaldon has published eight books now. Thats a lot of material. Whats your plan moving forward?

The basic plan is to keep doing a book a season. Well keep doing them as long as theres an audience that wants to watch them. Dianas working on a ninth. Were not running out of books like Game of Thrones is.

Follow @MeredithBlake on Twitter.
FESTIVAL OF BOOKS

Travel stage

Pico Iyer in conversation, plus safety tips, budget travel and more.

When, where: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday on the USC campus.

Admission, info: Free admission; parking $12 in USC lots. events.latimes.com/festivalofbooks

SPAIN

Presentation

Tom Harter, president of WalkEurope, will discuss Barcelona, Madrid and Toledo.

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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

Whitney guide Kurt Wedberg will offer tips on gear and trip planning, and show detailed slides of various approaches.

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., Los Angeles

Admission, info: Free. (818) 345-4266 for Tarzana; (310) 473-4574 for Los Angeles

SAN PEDRO

Earth Day and Bird Fest

Celebrate by joining in a beach cleanup followed by Earth Day and bird festivities at the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium.

When, where: 8 a.m. Saturday beach cleanup, then 10 a.m. Earth Day activities. Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, 3720 Stephen M. White Drive, San Pedro.

Admission, info: Free. (310) 548-7562.

JOSHUA TREE

Field class

Learn to identify common and rare birds and understand the role each plays in the desert ecosystem.

When, where: 6 p.m. Friday-noon April 17, Black Rock Visitor Center, Black Rock Campground, Yucca Valley.

Admission, info: $145. (760) 367-5535.

Please email announcements at least three weeks before the event to travel@latimes.com.
With their backpacks strapped on, the first group of hikers set off from Topanga State Park early Sunday and headed two miles up the muddy fire road.

The surrounding hills were a vibrant green  a gift from the weekends rains -- and mustard plants popped bright yellow along the footpath. At the head of the group, a hiking troubadour, Armond Hovanesian, sang California Dreamin and Here Comes the Sun as he strummed a guitar.

When they reached their destination at Eagle Rock, the Valencia Hiking Crew converged with five other organized groups of hikers. More than 150 people were there to honor seven fellow hikers who died in September when they were caught in a flash flood in narrow Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park.

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We used to come here with Don on hikes on Sundays, said George Mahshigian, one of the organizers who helped raised $2,500 to have a wooden bench dedicated in honor of Don Teichner, 55; Gary Favela, 51; Muku Reynolds, 59; Steve Arthur, 58; Linda Arthur, 57; Robin Brum, 53; and Mark MacKenzie, 56.

Its something lasting to remember our friends, said organizer Larry Simmer.

The seven experienced hikers were in Zion last fall to go exploring in Keyhole Canyon. Less than an hour after the group got a canyon permit, the National Weather Service reported a 50% chance of rain. About 20 minutes after authorities believe the hikers drove into the park and lost cellphone service, a flash flood warning was issued for the area.

All seven were swept away in the storm on what turned out to be one of the deadliest days of weather in Utahs history. The bodies of all the victims were later recovered miles apart.

He just did what he did. He loved to hike and he shared it with others -- and then this happened, said Teichners daughter Melanie Vinokur. Thats what happens when you do what you love to do.

Teichner was the leader of the Valencia Hiking Crew.

Renee Brum was in Topanga Canyon to remember her sister, Robin. On the trip last fall, she was really having a blast that day from the texts back and forth, Brum said.

The bench dedication is just a great thing that theyre doing for this group of seven [who] just would have loved it, Brum said.

As the informal ceremony got underway, Brums husband and father flew over the service in a Cessna 182.

Hovanesian sang a Beatles mashup of In My Life and Free as a Bird. Vinokur read a dedication and then christened the bench by smashing a small bag of trail mix on it as the crowd erupted into cheers and applause.

State laws do not allow park benches to memorialize individuals, said Stephen Bylin, park superintendent for Topanga State Park. Instead, the benches and their inscriptions are intended to be inspirational. On a ledge looking out to Eagle Rock, the new bench reads:

Dont walk in front of me/ Dont walk behind me/ Walk beside me and just be my friend/ Keyhole 7.

alice.walton@latimes.com

@TheCityMaven

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In June 1931, a grand fountain was installed in Beverly Hills that, according to news reports, led thousands to stop their cars and gape. Officers were stationed nearby to sort out the ensuing traffic snarls.

Back then the location, at Santa Monica and Wilshire boulevards, hardly was as built up and busy as it is today. The Electric Fountain  with its repeating, rainbow-colored water show  was a crowd-creating spectacular.

Time passes. Technology changes. Pipes get clogged. Tiles crack. Algae turns cast stone that once was tan a mucky, grayish green.

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In recent months, the fountain has been undergoing an overhaul, its water turned off while its innards were updated and its outer parts got a scrub-down and face-lift.

It went back into service in grand style Tuesday, played in by members of the Beverly Hills High School Marching Band, who wore uniforms of orange, white and black, shakos with white plumes on their heads.

The bas relief at the fountains base is a lesson in California history: its first inhabitants, the mission padres, the discovery of gold.

Atop a pedestal at its center, a Gabrielino Tongva Indian kneels in prayer  some say for rain. The figure was designed by Robert Merrell Gage, the fountain by architect Ralph Carlin Flewelling.

At the dedication of the refurbished fountain, Julia Bogany, a Gabrielino Tongva Indian from San Bernardino, was on hand to offer a blessing. Dear Creator, we thank you for this day with this gorgeous sunshine...

The original piece  which cost $22,000  was given to Beverly Hills by the mother of silent-screen star Harold Lloyd; its installation paid for by the Womens Club of Beverly Hills, over which for a time she presided.

Lloyds granddaughter, Suzanne, who attended last weeks dedication, said that although she never met her great-grandmother, she knew her to be a forceful woman  thus her nickname, Bam.

The older woman, she said, always wanted the same things from her son that he gave to his wife. If she gets a bracelet, I get a bracelet. If she gets a fur coat, I get a fur coat. It was tit for tat with everything, Suzanne Lloyd said.

The fountain was probably a form of appeasement from son to mother, she said. It was known in the family as Bams fountain.

But the now-63-year-old Suzanne Lloyd, who was raised by her grandparents, used to call it the fairy fountain because she thought there was a fairy at the top.

On the way home from Trader Vics, her grandparents sometimes would take her past the fountain several times so she could see the colors change from blue to red to pink and muliticolor.

It was a kind of like a water Christmas tree, she said.

The restoration cost $1.5 million, with the city matching private contributions raised by the Friends of Beverly Gardens Park, which also is working to restore the rest of the 1.9-mile linear series of gardens and paths that runs along the northern side of Santa Monica Boulevard and separates the business of the famous city from its homes.

At the dedication ceremony, much mention was made of the spruced-up fountains greater efficiency. Its lights that change color  yellow, red, blue, green  are now LED. Its water, said Mayor John Mirisch, was trucked in from the Cabrillo Reservoir area and recirculates, in keeping with the citys conservation efforts.

Tuesday afternoon was hot, and the fountains spray provided a cool, misty relief.

Maybe the kneeling figure also did his part to bring rain later in the week.

nita.lelyveld@latimes.com

Twitter: @latimescitybeat

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Americas newest aircraft carrier packs 50,278 tons of steel, much of it in glorious Navy gray, but all eyes last week turned toward the 1,200-pound piece of bronze under wraps in Hangar Bay 2.

The aircraft carrier Gerald R. Ford now has a statue of its namesake to accompany its crew to sea. The sculpture was unveiled in an emotional ceremony April 7 that, in some ways, was more than a simple dedication.

It marked the turning of a page.

There was Capt. John F. Meier, the Fords first commander whose tenure ended the next day. Although he will never lead the ship to open water, Meiers legacy is clear: Sailor by sailor, he built a crew to operate a ship that will mark a generational change in naval warfare.

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There was Susan Ford Bales, the presidents daughter and ships sponsor. She spoke after Meier as the statue was still shrouded in dark cloth. At one moment, she turned to a group of hard-hatted shipbuilders who had gathered to watch the ceremony.

My fellow shipbuilders ...

She paused as emotion filled her voice.

Let me say this again, because Im proud to say it. My fellow shipbuilders: Today is a day filled with happiness. But its also a day filled with some sadness, because its the last time Ill speak publicly to you here in the shipyard.

The term fellow shipbuilder was more than phrase of affection. Ford Bales fingerprints will be on the aircraft carrier as it heads to sea trials this summer, followed by delivery to the Navy this year. Over the last 10 years, she worked on the ship during her many visits to the Newport News shipyard.

Navy tradition dictates that a ships sponsor participates in noteworthy events, such as breaking a bottle across the bow during christening. In her case, that was not enough.

Along the way, Ive turned wrenches with you, she said. Ive punched holes. Ive pulled cable. I strung telephone wires. I worked up in the big blue crane. I tested weapons elevators. Calibrated dual band radar. Turned on the pumps to flood the dry dock.

Matt Mulherin, president of Newport News Shipbuilding, said there is no model on how to be a ships sponsor, and she certainly set the far extreme of how involved a ships sponsor can be.

After the speeches came the big unveiling. The cover was pulled away and the statue came into full view amid raucous applause.

There stood Navy Lt. Cmdr. Gerald Ford as he appeared in World War II aboard the light aircraft carrier Monterey. The bronze figure is 7 feet tall  a full foot taller than the real-life president. His right hand holds a navigational sextant. He gazes toward the horizon, one foot resting on the ships scupper rail.

Theres a story behind that scupper.

As Meier described it, Ford was aboard the Monterey in December 1944 when it was hit by Typhoon Cobra. A fire broke out, and the commanding officer directed Ford to lead the firefighting effort. As he headed toward the flames, the ship listed 25 degrees. Blue water crashed over the deck.

Lt. Cmdr. Ford was nearly washed over the side, but he grabbed a scupper at the last second. It saved his life.

hlessig@dailypress.com

Lessig writes for the Daily Press.

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Five years after he was charged in a sealed federal indictment and almost two years after he was captured by U.S. agents in the Indian Ocean nation of the Maldives, accused Russian hacker Roman Seleznev finally seemed ready to face justice in the United States.

He hadnt attempted to escape from a federal detention center near Seattle, for example, though it was something he and his father, a Russian lawmaker, had reportedly discussed last fall on a monitored prison phone.

He has almost completely stopped acting as his own attorney and running afoul of the American legal process.

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And he seemed pleased with what is now the sixth set of attorneys hired to represent him.

But in keeping with the halting legal pace by a defendant the Secret Service says is a multimillionaire and one of the worlds most prolific traffickers of stolen financial information, Seleznevs new defense team is asking that his upcoming criminal trial, set for next month, be delayed again.

Seattle attorney John Henry Browne, whose clients have included serial killer Ted Bundy and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who murdered 16 Afghan civilians, was hired by Seleznev two months ago and says he is still plowing through 10,000 pages of documents, 4.75 terabytes of forensic images and other evidence.

What can we discuss, your escape plan or what?  Valery Seleznev, Russian lawmaker, in what an attorney said was a facetious comment to his son in prison

With related charges of racketeering and conspiracy filed against Seleznev in Las Vegas and Atlanta involving several more terabytes of discovery material, it is simply not possible for counsel to prepare for trial and effectively represent Mr. Seleznev in a trial on May 9, Browne said.

Seleznev, who Russian officials say was kidnapped by the U.S. in anticipation of trading him to Russia for secrets-leaker Edward Snowden (which the U.S. denies), faces up to 30 years in prison on accusations of bank and wire fraud and computer theft of credit card numbers from hundreds of U.S. businesses.

The targets of his suspected Internet hijackings  using malware he is accused of electronically planting from overseas  included the Phoenix Zoo, the Boeing Employees Credit Union of Seattle, City News Stand in Chicago, the Latitude Bar in New York City, and a collection of West Coast restaurants and pizzerias  among them, outlets of the Zpizza chain of Newport Beach.

American Express, MasterCard and Visa have reported a collective $35 million in losses related to the case, and prosecutors say theyre finding indications of more thefts on Seleznevs confiscated computers. As many as 2 million credit card numbers were downloaded and then sold on the black market through Seleznevs operation in recent years, the government claims.

Seleznev, 31, first came to the Secret Services attention seven years ago after he was accused of downloading credit card numbers from a restaurant in Coeur dAlene, Idaho. An electronic trail led to other U.S. businesses, and by 2012 to a sealed indictment initially charging him with 18 criminal counts  since expanded to 40.

Because of the considerable evidence and exhibits, Browne says going to trial next month would be a miscarriage of justice. In a court filing last week, Browne and his associate Emma Scanlan said that they realize that this request  may cause frustration for the government as it faces the prospect of another continuance due to a change in counsel, but that it should be done in the best interests of the public and the defendant. A ruling is yet to come.

Browne has also filed a motion to have some of the evidence thrown out, saying the government intentionally or as a consequence of gross incompetence mishandled Seleznevs laptop computer. A forensic expert for the defense says some of the computer data has been changed and its possible the government has altered the files. Assistant U.S. Atty. Seth Wilkinson denies that, saying, All of the computer activity was the result of routine, automatic operating system activity, not human interaction.

Also at issue is the legality of Seleznevs July 5, 2014, arrest.

Seleznev was passing, with his wife and child, through security at Male International Airport in the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S. Asked to step out of the line, Seleznev was reportedly turned over to U.S. agents in a prearranged handoff and flown to Guam for a hearing. Four flights later, detoured by a hurricane and slowed by two planes with mechanical trouble, he landed in Seattle.

The Russians, including Seleznevs father, Valery, a member of the State Duma, Russias lower house of parliament, likened the arrest to extraordinary rendition flights that have been used by the U.S. to transport suspected terrorists to black sites, or secret prisons overseas.

FBI Director James B. Comey has since made it clear that such apprehensions are legal tactics in the war against computer thieves.

Its too easy for those criminals to think that I can sit in my basement halfway around the world and steal everything that matters to an American, he told the CBS show 60 Minutes. We want them looking over their shoulders when theyre sitting at a keyboard.

They also should be aware of the governments warrantless eavesdropping, done legally in prison. Seleznev and his father found that out during an international phone call in August. Speaking in Russian, Seleznevs father asked, What can we discuss, your escape plan or what? and went on to chat with him about tampering with a witness and delaying a hearing by staging a medical emergency, according to prosecutors and a transcript of the call. His father said he had found some magicians who were ready to create a miracle, leading to a fake illness and his sons hospitalization.

One of Seleznevs then-attorneys called the escape remark clearly a facetious reference that was lost in translation.

Anderson is a special correspondent based in Seattle.

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Hillary Clinton needles New York mayor for slow endorsement

In what passes for campaign humor, Hillary Clinton mocked New York City Mayor Bill de Blasios sluggishness in endorsing her, and her own difficulty using a subway MetroCard, late Saturday night.

She and the mayor both appeared at the Inner Circle, an annual black-tie dinner attended by New York City media and government types.

Clinton walked on stage as Mayor de Blasio was performing his portion of the show, which also featured Leslie Odom Jr., from the cast of the Broadway smash Hamilton.

Thanks for the endorsement, Bill, she said. Took you long enough.

Sorry, Hillary, De Blasio said. I run on C.P. time.

Cautious politician time, she said. OK, there are a lot of things I could ask you of international, national, city and state importance, she said.

Will you just fix those MetroCard slots? It took me like five swipes, she said. Fix the turnstiles.

Well get right on it, de Blasio said. Absolutely.

Neither mentioned that the only reason Clinton was in the subway was because Bernie Sanders, her rival for the Democratic nomination, mistakenly said in a Daily News interview that he used a token to ride a subway last year. Tokens were discontinued in 2003.

Well, you are my second-favorite guy named Bill, Clinton told the mayor.

Thank you very much. I got your back, he said.

Then Odom spoke up: Do not forget to vote in the New York State primary.

Thanks so much, Clinton said. But please can somebody get me tickets to Hamilton?

Sanders already has bested her on the Hamilton front. He took his wife, Jane, to see the musical on Friday night.
The United States holds 2.2 million people in its prisons, and every year, some 650,000 of them are released. If they are to re-enter society as productive, law-abiding citizens, they often need mental health or drug treatment, education, training, health care, jobs  and, of course, they all need housing. Those without a decent roof over their heads are obviously less likely to make a successful transition. Yet affordable housing is often scarce, and a past criminal conviction is often a serious barrier to a skeptical landlord.

Mindful of that, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued new guidelines on Monday, restricting landlords ability to take into account criminal records when considering tenants for housing. No longer may a landlord simply adopt a blanket policy of denying housing to anyone with a record of conviction or arrest. That kind of policy may appear to treat every prospective tenant, regardless of race or gender, the same, but, in practice, HUD said, it has a disparate impact on racial and ethnic minorities, because they have high rates of arrest and incarceration. That violates the Fair Housing Act, the agency says.

That doesnt mean an individuals criminal record cant be taken into account by a landlord, or that a potentially dangerous tenant cant be turned away. But under HUDs new guidance, the landlord must consider the severity of the crime, the length of time since it was committed and must be able to prove through reliable evidence that the criminal history makes housing the person a risk to other tenants or the landlords property. Merely having an arrest record without a conviction wont pass muster at all.

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The agency is absolutely right to be working on the important issue of re-entry. It is reasonable to expect landlords to consider criminal records on a case by case basis.

But HUDs guidance to housing providers is distressingly vague and in some ways arbitrary. What evidence will show whether a person with a record is a risk? Can a repeat arsonist only be turned away after a landlord researches studies on recidivism among convicted arsonists? How long does a person with a conviction for marijuana possession need to be out of prison before a landlord must rent to him or her? Is it the same number of years for a murderer? Isnt it a bit odd that HUD is making landlords consider violent criminals on a case-by-case basis  even though in the Fair Housing Act, Congress specifically allowed landlords to turn away people convicted of manufacturing or distributing a controlled substance?

Its a tricky balance: While it is imperative  for practical as well as moral reasons  that people with criminal pasts be helped to re-enter society, landlords certainly have both a right and an obligation to protect their tenants and their property. HUD officials say theyre not trying to force landlords to make decisions that would jeopardize the security of their tenants. But the guidelines may leave landlords with more questions than answers.

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Once a decade, the United Nations organizes a meeting where every country in the world comes together to figure out what to do about drugs  and up to now, theyve always pledged to wage a relentless war, to fight until the planet is drug-free. Theyve consistently affirmed U.N. treaties written in the 1960s and 1970s, mainly by the United States, which require every country to arrest and imprison their way out of drug-related problems.

But at this years meeting in New York City later this month, several countries are going to declare: This approach has been a disaster. We cant do this anymore. Enough.

The drug war is now the subject of a raucous debate within the U.S.  and if you look at the stories of three influential people who will speak on behalf of their countries for change at the U.N., they might sound strangely familiar. The reasons why U.S. citizens are rejecting the war on drugs are, it turns out, also the reasons why it is being rejected all over the world, from the Caribbean to Europe to South America.

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In August 2014, the justice minister for Jamaica, Mark Golding, had to make a phone call no government official ever wants to make. He had to explain to a mother that her son was dead. Mario Deane was picked up on the street because he was smoking a spliff, put into custody and beaten to death.

It was, for Golding, a moment that made him realize he could no longer support his countrys drug laws. All over the world, the criminalization of cannabis has been used as an excuse to harass unpopular minorities (in Jamaicas case, the poor), and, he told me, it has worsened the relationship between those young men and law enforcement. So he persuaded the Cabinet to decriminalize cannabis for personal possession. We wanted to take ganja out of the picture, he says, as a medium through which the police would use hard or heavy policing against younger men.

Existing U.N. drug treaties allow decriminalization of drugs in small amounts for personal use. But they dont allow countries to create regulated structures for buying and selling drugs, which would drive the drug-dealing gangs out of business. Jamaica is therefore still required to wage a futile war on people who sell cannabis, and farmers who grow it, meaning there is still an armed conflict between police and the young men whom they accuse of dealing.

A country should be in a position to design its own regime, Golding will argue at the U.N. The eradication of drugs hasnt happened, despite decades of war waged on it. It is, he believes, unjust: Why is it that people can buy a bottle of rum or a bottle of wine  but you cant do that for cannabis?

In the Czech Republic, the official responsible for drug policy is Jindrich Voboril. As a teenager on the streets of communist-controlled Czechoslovakia, Voboril was guzzling opiates and amphetamines and was, he told me, a hardcore experimenter with almost any substance he could find.

I was growing up on the streets, so I was a typical street kid, he says. He was trying to escape an abusive home life where his father was an alcoholic, and a public life dominated by communist tyranny. I was on the path of developing a serious drug problem, he says, and before long, he was watching his friends die of overdoses or suicides.

One thing that pulled Voboril away from addiction was his discovery of the democratic resistance. When he became an activist in the Czech underground he felt a new sense of meaning and purpose, and it saved him.

Soon after the dictatorship fell, he set up the first major drug treatment program in the Czech Republic. He wanted to create practical policies that would help addicts find purpose and save people like his friends  only to find compassionate policies were discouraged, or outright banned, by the global drug war, which is built instead on punishment. The drug war, it seemed to him, was based on ideology, not results, just like the communist system he had fought successfully to overthrow. If you put pledges for a drug-free world in a different font, he says, it could be a Stalinist slogan.

He believes that in the real world, addicts are mostly people with mental health problems like depression, or people trapped in terrible environments. Punishing them only makes the problem worse. Accordingly he wants to see a global transfer of resources  from punishing addicts to helping them turn their lives around. Such alternatives work.

In the 15 years since Portugal decided to decriminalize drug use and invest instead in treatment and prevention services, injecting drug use has fallen by 50%.

In the 15 years since Portugal decided to decriminalize drug use and invest instead in treatment and prevention services, use of injected drugs has fallen by 50%. Since Switzerland legalized heroin for addicts more than a decade ago, nobody has died of an overdose on legal

heroin.

A key figure in shaping Colombias strategy at the upcoming U.N. conference is Maricio Rodriguez, an economist and diplomat. The drug war, he told me in Cartagena, is the worst tragedy we have ever lived in, in Colombia and probably all of Latin America. The combined death toll from the Latin American drug war exceeds even the war in Syria. Every day that goes by is a day in which we are losing hundreds of people and we are losing hundreds of millions of dollars, he explains.

Like most Colombians, he has relatives who were murdered when narco-traffickers were taking over the country. Everybody has a story, he says.

To explain why this carnage is happening, Rodriguez cited the late Nobel Prize-winning U.S. economist Milton Friedman, who grew up in Chicago under alcohol prohibition, and learned there what happens if you ban a popular substance. It doesnt matter whether the government targets whiskey or cocaine; a ban forces legal businesses out of the market  and armed criminal gangs take it over. They then go to war to control the trade. But once the prohibition ends, so does the violence. (Ask yourself: Where are the violent alcohol dealers today?)

Ranged against reform-minded countries at the U.N. conference will be governments that want to maintain or even intensify the global war, including Russia, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and China. Although the U.S. has historically been the most hard-line country, this time, its representatives will arrive at the conference in breach of U.N. drug treaties. The drug laws require a war on cannabis, but four U.S. states and the District of Columbia have now fully legalized the drug. Nobody knows what the result of this U.N. meeting will be, but nobody will ever be able to say again that the world is united behind the idea of a drug war.

Voboril, the Czech Republics street user turned government minister, told me he is itching to tell the U.N. a simple truth: This is reality: This is hundreds of thousands of people dying  for one simple reason  some governments just dont want to change. Nothing else.

Johann Hari is author of Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs.

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Bernie Sanders can still win the Democratic presidential nomination  but its going to take a miracle. Actually, several miracles. Hell need to win the primary next week in New York, where polls show him running well behind Hillary Clinton. Then hell need to win most of the mid-Atlantic states, including Pennsylvania. And hell need to win big in California and New Jersey in June; small margins of victory wont give him the number of delegates he needs to overtake Clintons substantial lead. Thats not a conspiracy; its just arithmetic.

And thats OK. This is a case where coming close will still count for something.

From the beginning of his improbable run, Sanders has had two goals in mind. One was to become the Democratic nominee; the other was to build a grass-roots movement that could bring about a political revolution from the left.

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Sanders and his supporters havent given up on the first goal. But theyre also running his

campaign with that second, longer-term goal firmly in mind.

Last week, a voter in New York asked the Vermont senator what he would do if he doesnt win. Most candidates would have batted the query away. Sanders said: That is a wonderful question.

Obviously, our hope and expectation is that we are going to win, he said on NBCs Today show. But thats a fair question. We have brought out and seen so much excitement from young people  who want to make our country a better place.

If the nomination is lost, he said, we will continue that revolution.

The first step  in the event of a loss  is using the convention as an organizing event for progressives.

Some supporters have talked of an inside-outside strategy at the Philadelphia convention, with Sanders delegates pressing their case inside the hall while pro-Sanders demonstrators march outside.

They hope to get some of Sanders positions included in the Democratic Party platform, including planks on banning corporate donations to super PACs, renegotiating existing free trade agreements and breaking up the countrys biggest banks.

Clinton has already responded to the energy on her partys left by tacking in Sanders direction on several issues. She now opposes President Obamas proposed trade agreement with Asian countries, a pact she initially promoted. She also changed course to oppose the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, although she was never firmly in favor. And she has proposed stricter regulations on big banks and other financial institutions, a plan she argues is tougher than Sanders proposal to break up the nations largest banks. (Sanders disagrees.)

If Clinton wins the nomination, Sanders has said he will endorse her and urge his supporters to vote for the Democratic ticket. But he will also try to turn his campaign into a more durable movement to move the Democratic Party to the left.

This campaign is changing peoples lives and changing everyones idea of whats possible, Sanderss top technologist, Zack Exley, told The Nation magazine. No matter what happens, people are going to keep fighting for the political revolution that Bernie helped all of us start. Whats more, these organizing teams, structures, and processes wont have to be reinvented. They will live on.  This revolution is only just getting started.

Weve heard that song before. In 2004, insurgent candidate Howard Dean tried to turn his campaign into a progressive movement, Democracy for America, with negligible results. In 2008, President Obamas campaign staff tried to remake their grass-roots network into something called Organizing for America, but that effort failed completely.

Could this time be different? Progressive organizers, an eternally optimistic cadre, say they think so.

This movement is here to stay, argues Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org.

Sanders could turn out to be, for progressives, what [Barry] Goldwater was for conservatives in 1964. Goldwater lost, but he paved the way for Ronald Reagan 16 years later. We dont want to wait that long.

Harold Meyerson, editor of the American Prospect, thinks they may be right, mainly because the economys failure to increase middle-class incomes has pushed so many voters  especially young voters  to look for new answers.

Sanders could turn out to be, for progressives, what [Barry] Goldwater was for conservatives in 1964.  Ben Wikler of MoveOn.org

He noted that a 2012 Gallup Poll found that 53% of Democrats said they had a positive view of socialism  and that was before Sanders ran for president.

Bernie Sanders campaign didnt create a new America left, Meyerson wrote recently. It revealed it.

Even if their candidate falls short in the next few primaries, Sanders voters shouldnt give up in despair. Their votes will still count, because the final score will matter  not only for this presidential campaign, but the next one.

doyle.mcmanus@latimes.com

Twitter: @doylemcmanus

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook

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David Coonradt came to the Colorado state Republican convention as part of Ted Cruzs persuasion team, a squad of volunteers working to secure more delegates to propel Cruz to the partys presidential nomination.

He came ready to tout the Texas senators gun-rights and antiabortion credentials, but the most crucial information he had to impart appeared on the back of his neon orange T-shirt.

The official Ted Cruz slate, the shirt blared, with the names of 13 prospective delegates below.

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More than 600 people were vying Saturday for 13 delegate slots for the Republican National Convention in July. The Cruz campaign wanted to ensure these loyal 13 secured those spots. Turning their volunteers into walking billboards was just one way to do so.

Donald Trump has won more votes and carried more states than any Republican. Still, he stands a fair chance of losing the GOP nomination because up to now he largely ignored one of the most rudimentary aspects of a presidential run: securing loyal delegates.

In state after state in recent weeks, the Cruz campaign has trounced Trump in those battles, building on work to identify and organize supporters that Cruz began months ago. Those successes are improving Cruzs odds of emerging as the Republican nominee if Trump falls short of winning a majority of delegates.

You have to think of this whole process as having two different tracks to it. Theres the primary process  thats about winning and allocating delegates, said Ben Ginsberg, a veteran Republican election lawyer.

But the story that will really be more important to what happens in Cleveland, he said, is the delegate-selection track. Theyre two connected but separate skill sets.

Belatedly, Trump has scrambled to remedy his campaigns shortcomings. Last week, he designated a longtime Washington insider, Paul J. Manafort, to oversee efforts to ensure that Trump has the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

The nomination process has reached a point that requires someone familiar with the complexities involved in the final stages, Trump said in a statement announcing Manaforts expanded role just over a week after he joined the campaign.

For decades, no one has cared much about the often arcane process by which political parties choose delegates who attend their national conventions. The system has worked like this: Voters cast ballots in primaries and caucuses, one candidate wins a majority, and the convention unfolds as a largely suspense-free television program.

The most vexing choices for many delegates have been which party to attend and whether to wear a silly hat.

Thats all changed this year. As odds have increased that no Republican candidate will win enough delegates before the convention in Cleveland, campaigns have engaged in tense battles over the individuals who will vote in the convention roll call. Many delegates will be free to vote for whichever candidate they choose if no one wins on the first ballot.

In most states, national convention delegates are chosen separately from the primaries or caucuses in which voters say which candidates they prefer. Typically, the selection occurs at state or district conventions.

The results of a state primary generally bind those delegates to support a specific candidate on the conventions first ballot. But if no candidate wins on that first ballot, most states allow their delegates to be unbound. Some states bind their delegates for only one ballot, others for two or more.

In the race to choose delegates, Trumps campaign has been criticized as flat-footed. After he won the Louisiana primary, the New York businessman cried foul when Cruz supporters seized some delegates through subsequent party meetings. Trump bemoaned the maneuvering as unfair. His campaign threatened to challenge the delegate process in that state, where Cruz placed his loyalists in many delegate slots.

In Reno seven days earlier, when the countys Republicans gathered to choose delegates to next months Nevada state convention  which, in turn, will choose the national convention delegates  the Trump campaign had a much more visible presence than Cruzs.

A Trump staffer was assiduously collecting names and phone numbers of supporters headed to the state convention, compiling the list on a yellow legal pad. But Cruzs campaign had aides there as well, diligently tracking which of their ardent backers were seeking Nevada delegate slots.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who lags far behind in the GOP race, with 143 delegates to Trumps 743 and Cruzs 532, is also pursuing friendly delegates. Emmalee Kalmbach, a spokeswoman for Kasichs campaign, said dozens of staffers and many more volunteers were in the delegate hunt.

This usually invisible process is playing out in increasingly public fashion. The Republican National Committee has put out videos and websites breaking down the delegate rules. Cruz, in a victory speech after his win in Wisconsin this month, asserted hed clinch the nomination either before Cleveland, or at the convention in Cleveland.

The machinations will matter if Trump fails to win a majority of delegates by the time Californias votes are counted on June 7, the final day of the GOP primary season.

Identifying and wooing potential delegates and getting supporters elected to delegate slots is no simple task. An intricate patchwork of rules governs the process, and they vary wildly by state.

Delegates can make their favorite candidate known, but theyre not necessarily required to. Campaigns can identify which delegates they prefer and encourage their supporters to vote for a slate of friendly delegates.

Its not an inconsiderable organizational drill to make sure you have loyal delegates, said Mike Schroeder, California political director for the Cruz campaign. The former state GOP chairman conceived the complicated rules for awarding presidential delegates in the states primary, positioning the Cruz operation well in Californias delegate hunt.

The delegate selection process in Colorado is confusing, it is complicated, it is archaic, said Ryan Call, a former Colorado GOP chairman.

The bulk of Colorados 37 delegates were selected at congressional-district-level gatherings in the last week. Early Saturday, Cruz boasted that together, we won all 21 delegates in those meetings. By evening, he scooped up 13 more. Three other delegate positions will go to party officials.

Lobbying for those coveted delegate positions was robust. Barry Rabinovich, 25, a Cruz supporter who was not on the campaigns official slate, made his pitch to convention-goers waiting in line for coffee, promising to vote for Cruz on every round of the ballot and trumpeting the three-digit number where attendees could find him on the ballot.

The Trump camp, meanwhile, suffered from unforced errors, such as distributed leaflets that incorrectly stated where their preferred delegate candidates would appear on the ballot.

The Trump campaign had a presence at the convention, but operatives were bracing for a rout.

This process just doesnt work well for our kind of candidate and our kind of campaign, said Alan Cobb, a Trump senior advisor. Its an insiders game. Sen. Cruz is certainly good at playing the insider game.

Laura Carno, a Republican strategist, said the Texas senators team had built relationships with local activists.

The way the Cruz campaign seems to have picked their ground-game people gives me confidence they actually know Colorado, said Carno, who fielded so many phone calls from campaigns and supporters in the run-up to the conventions that she stopped answering calls from numbers she didnt recognize.

Some Trump supporters, however, see the delegate machinations as proof that the Republican establishment is conspiring against the billionaire real estate developer.

The Cruz people are trying to steal this, Jacquelyn Marcelle, a Reno-based Trump backer, said during the Washoe County party meeting. The maneuvering has only bolstered her support for Trump  and distaste for Cruz, she said.

Why would I vote for a thief? she asked.

But the Cruz campaign dismissed the notion it was doing anything untoward.

Theres a theme throughout the Trump campaign: The minute they lose, they start screaming Liar! Cheater! Schroeder said. These are the rules. Its not very complicated.

Mason reported from Colorado Springs and Barabak from San Francisco.

For more on Campaign 2016, follow @MelMason

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Wading into a campaign controversy, President Obama said Sunday that Hillary Clinton was careless but did not harm national security by using a nonsecure email system when she served as secretary of State.

I continue to believe that she has not jeopardized Americas national security, Obama said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.

What Ive also said is that -- and she has acknowledged -- that theres a carelessness, in terms of managing emails, that she ... recognizes, he added. He added that she did an outstanding job as Americas top diplomat.

The FBI is investigating whether Clinton or her aides mishandled classified information when they used a private email server for some work-related communications during her four years as secretary of State.

The issue has dogged Clintons campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. Obamas comments may serve to reassure Clinton supporters as she heads into a crucial final round of primaries against rival Bernie Sanders.

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The State Department has said 22 emails on a server her aides had set up in the basement of her home in Chappaqua, N.Y., contained top secret information, the highest level of classification.

Obama suggested that any secret information in Clintons emails was not highly sensitive.

Theres classified, and then theres classified, Obama said. Theres stuff that is really top-secret, top-secret, and theres stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of State, that you might not want on the transom, or going out over the wire, but is basically stuff that you could get from unclassified sources.

Clinton has denied using the email account to send or receive materials marked classified.

Though some emails have since been deemed to be too sensitive to release publicly, Clintons campaign has attributed that to overzealous intelligence officials and over-classification run amok.

The FBI has taken the server and is investigating the case with U.S. Justice Department attorneys.

Many legal experts believe that Clinton faces little risk of being prosecuted for using the private email system to conduct official business.

Using a private email system was not banned at the time, and others in government had used personal email to transact official business.

Obama repeatedly guaranteed the White House would not seek to influence a decision by the Justice Department or FBI about whether to prosecute Clinton if they find evidence of wrongdoing.

I do not talk to the attorney general about pending investigations, Obama said. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations. We have a strict line, and always have maintained it.

He added, I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case.

The interview was the Obamas first on Fox News since February 2014.

Obama also said he would not withdraw his nomination of Judge Merrick Garland for a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court before the end of his presidency.

Republican leaders in the Senate have refused to hold a hearing or allow a vote on the nomination, arguing that the seat should be filled after the November election.

Obama noted that several Republican senators have met with Garland, which he portrayed as progress.

Originally, the Republicans said they wouldnt meet with him at all, Obama said. Now a number of them have already had meetings. And the questioning that theyre having privately with Judge Garland, is something that should be done publicly, through a hearings process, so the American people can make their own assessment.
Republican state Sen. John Moorlach of Costa Mesa has emerged as a leading voice in the Legislature against skyrocketing debt piled up by public pension systems.

But some in the pension reform movement say the former Orange County treasurer may be contributing to the problem: Moorlach receives an $83,827 government pension check from the Orange County Employees Retirement System while making $100,113 a year as a senator.

At least 16 other state lawmakers collect two checks each month, including Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove), who retired two years ago at 50 as a captain in the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department. When added to his legislative pay, Cooper's annual pension of $173,820 brings his total income each year to $273,000.

Advocates for a pension system overhaul say legislators are entitled to the benefits they earned. But, they add, the costly pension perk is an example of what is wrong with public retirement benefits: Government workers can retire too soon with lucrative benefits that the pension systems cannot sustain.

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"It's a form of double-dipping, which makes a lot of people angry," said former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who is planning a pension reform initiative for the 2018 state ballot. "Most of us have to work until we are 65 or 67 before we can retire when Social Security kicks in."

It's legal under current rules, said Dan Pellissier, president of the group California Pension Reform.

"But the optics are poor, certainly for an elected official to be taking another public salary after retiring," Pellissier said.

The information was gathered by a search of pension system records by the Los Angeles Times just as public policy makers are debating both legislative pay and excesses in public pensions.

Last month, state Controller Betty Yee reported that the public pension system has a long-term unfunded liability of $63.7 billion.

On April 27, a state panel will meet to consider whether to grant pay raises to California lawmakers who already receive the highest base pay of any legislators in the country, $100,113, far above second-place Pennsylvania's roughly $85,000.

Reed's proposed initiative to rein in pension costs, including a requirement for voters to approve benefits, would be the most serious attempt to address projected pension shortfalls since 2012, when Gov. Jerry Brown pushed through changes affecting future government employees.

The Legislature passed a law that orders current state employees to pay a greater share of the cost of their pension, and requiring new public employees who are not in public safety jobs to work until 67 to get full retirement benefits.

Brown said at the time that the bill was "not perfect" and that more changes may be needed in the state retirement system.

See the most-read stories this hour >>

Assemblyman Tom W. Lackey (R-Palmdale) agrees that additional action is required to make public pensions sustainable, but he defended his benefits. Lackey was 54 when he retired as a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol.

He receives an annual pension of $111,792 from the California Public Employees' Retirement System in addition to his $97,188 legislative salary. He did not accept a pay raise last year.

Lackey said the low retirement age for law enforcement officers and firefighters is justified.

"There is clearly room for improvement on the sustainability issue," Lackey said. "I do believe in my situation, law enforcement pensions deserve unique consideration just because of the danger and all the circumstances that surround that type of career."

Lackey said 56 CHP officers died in the line of duty during his 28 years with the agency. He also noted that current state lawmakers do not accrue credit for a pension.

The rules approved by Brown in 2012 apply to local public pension systems, including the one in Orange County, but the new retirement age does not affect those like Moorlach who were already employed.

He retired at age 59 just before he joined the Senate, and his retirement check is based on 19.7 years of service that included time on the Orange County Board of Supervisors and as the county treasurer.

When asked about several legislators collecting pension checks on top of salaries, Moorlach said, "It's not the people who are bad. It's the system that's bad. We've got to fix the system."

Moorlach said he warned in 2004 that the county was making a "massive mistake" by boosting retirement benefits. It went from a formula with a retirement age of 65 to one providing a share of salary payable beginning at 55.

After being told he could not opt out of the county retirement system, he abided by its rules, but he decided after retiring at 59 that he could still provide public service, he said.

"I could easily have retired at age 60, but I had a lot of my friends who said, 'We still want you involved, we want you to run.' I did it for public service," Moorlach said, adding that he agrees that the current system encourages public officials to retire early.

His acceptance of a county retirement check and a state paycheck also concerned one of his allies, Marcia Fritz, president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility, which has pressed for pension reform.

"That doesn't look good," Fritz said. "I hate to say this publicly about John, but it's double-dipping."

Fritz, who advised Brown's office on his 2012 plan, said one solution to the problem would be to adopt rules similar to Social Security, which reduces retirement pay if the person goes back to work and earns more than a small amount.

"Something like that would be reasonable," she said. "We should do what we can to discourage people from retiring too soon."

State legislators are paid $100,113 annually but many receive government pension checks at the same time, including:

Assemblyman Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove)

Assemblyman Jim Cooper, left, checks out Assemblyman Ian C. Calderons cellphone during a hearing session at the Capitol on July 7, 2015. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $173,820

Government service: Cooper retired two years ago at age 50 as a captain with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department.

Biographical details: He is former chairman of the Assembly Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security Committee.

Sen. Jean Fuller (R-Bakersfield)

State senator Jean Fuller makes a statement during the Senate session at the Statehouse Capitol, in Sacramento, Calif., on July 9, 2015. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $112,980

Government service: Fuller spent 30 years in public education and was superintendent of the Keppel Union School District.

Biographical details: She is the Senate Republican leader and is vice chairwoman of the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee. Fuller is also a member of the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee.

Assemblyman Tom W. Lackey (R-Palmdale)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016: Assembly member Tom Lackey during California State Assembly Committee on Budget in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 20, 2016. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $111,792

Government service: Lackey retired at age 54 as a sergeant with the California Highway Patrol.

Biographical details: He did not accept a pay raise last year, so he receives a Senate salary of $97,188. Lackey is vice chairman of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego)

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, called on lawmakers to approve her resolution calling for a ban on the display of Confederate flags on federal property and state capitols, Monday, Aug. 17, 2015, in Sacramento,Calif. The Assembly unanimously approved the measure, AJR26, with 74 votes. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $103,000

Government service: Weber taught at California State L.A. and Los Angeles City College. She was also a professor at San Diego State.

Biographical details: She spent decades in higher education and has spent her time in the Assembly serving on the Appropriations, Budget, Education and Higher Education committees among others.

Sen. John Moorlach (R-Costa Mesa)

Former Orange County Supervisor John Moorlach declared victory Thursday in the race for a state Senate seat. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $83,827

Government service: Former Orange County treasurer and member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors with a total of about 19 years of county service.

Biographical details: An outspoken critic of unsustainable pension benefits, Moorlach is a member of the Senate Public Employment and Retirement Committee. He is vice chairman of the Judiciary Committee and serves on the Budget and Fiscal Review and Governance and Finance committees.

Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer (D-South Los Angeles)

Lobbyists hand Assemblyman Reginald Jones-Sawyer, D-Los Angeles, center, information about legislation they are concerned about as he enters the Assembly chambers at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2013. Lobbyist and advocates are working the halls to try to sway lawmakers votes about bills before the Legislature. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) ** Usable by LA and DC Only ** (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $83,544

Government service: Jones-Sawyer worked for the city of Los Angeles in roles including director of asset management and assistant deputy mayor.

Biographical details: He is chairman of the Public Safety Committee and serves on the Higher Education, Government Organization and Agriculture committees. He is the former chairman of the Los Angeles County Small Business Commission.

Assemblyman Jose Medina (D-Riverside)

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, Assemblyman Jose Medina, D-Riverside, speaks before the Assembly at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $63,420

Government service: Medina retired in 2012 after many years as a teacher with the Riverside Unified School District.

Biographical details: He was a school board member on the Jurupa Unified School District Board of Education and completed three terms on the Riverside Community College District Board of Trustees. Medina is chairman of the Assembly Committee on Higher Education.

Sen. Marty Block (D-San Diego)

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2015 file photo, state Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, right, talks with Sen. Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. Block announced, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016, that he would not seek re-election amid a high-profile challenge from fellow Democrat Toni Atkins, the Assembly Speaker. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli,file) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $59,481

Government service: Block served as a dean, professor and legal advisor at San Diego State.

Biographical details: He served as a San Diego Superior Court judge pro tem and statewide president of the California County Boards of Education. He chairs the Senate Education Budget Subcommittee, the Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions and the Legislative Jewish Caucus.

Assemblyman Richard Gordon (D-Menlo Park)

Assemblyman Rich Gordon, DnMenlo Park after a pension reform bill was approved by the Assembly at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Friday, Aug. 31, 2012. The measure, AB340, a sweeping pension compromise plan negotiated by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislative leaders, was approved by a 49n8 vote. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $51,293

Government service: He spent 13 years on the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, which was a full-time job with benefits.

Biographical details: Gordon chairs the Assembly's Committee on Rules and serves on the Budget committee.

Sen. Richard Roth (D-Riverside)

In this photo taken Monday, Feb. 11, 2013, state Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, addresses the state Senate at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $45,566

Government service: Roth is a former major general in the U.S. Air Force.

Biographical details: Roth has turned down pay increases in his Senate salary since his election, so he receives $90,540 annually. He is chairman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee on State Administration and General Government, and the Insurance Committee. He is vice-chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Sen. James Beall (D-San Jose)

Sen. Jim Beall, D-San Jose, urged lawmakers to approve his measure, known as Audries Law, that would make it easier to prosecute juveniles, who sexually assault unconscious victims as adults, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, April 29, 2014. The Senate Public Safety Committee approved SB838 that was named after Audrie Pott, a 15-year-old Saratoga High School student who committed suicide days after she was sexually assaulted while unconscious by three male classmates and had photos of her half nude body posted on line. The bill also includes a cyberbullying statute that would make it a felony to share obscene or sexual photos of young people or their body parts on social media or smartphones to harass or bully them.(AP Photo) (AP)

Annual public pension: $40,320

Government service: Beall is a former member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors and former urban planner for the cities of Santa Cruz and Los Gatos.

Biographical details: He is chairman of the Senate Transportation and Housing Committee, and is a member of the Public Employment and Retirement; Appropriations; Budget and Fiscal Review; and Governance and Finance committees. He also sits on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee.

Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2016: California State Senator Fran Pavley, left, during a joint session of the California Legislature for Governor Browns State of the State speech in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 21, 2016. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $19,140

Government service: Pavley taught in public schools for more than two decades, completing her teaching career in Moorpark before she retired in July 2004.

Biographical details: She is the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee chairwoman, and serves on committees including Budget and Fiscal Review and Governance and Finance. She was also mayor of Agoura Hills.

Assemblyman Kansen Chu (D-San Jose)

Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, is congratulated by Kansen Chu, D-San Jose, after her bill to give double-time for working on Thanksgiving, was approved by the Assembly, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2016, in Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $18,276

Government service: He worked as an aide to legislators and served seven years on the San Jose City Council.

Biographical details: He served on the Berryessa Union School Board District and is chairman of the Assembly Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media committee. He also serves on the Committee on Labor and Employment and the Jobs, Economic Development and the Economy and Transportation committees.

Sen. Lois Wolk (D-Davis)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2015: Senator Lois Wolk, left, makes her opening statement as the aid-in-dying legislation is introduced on the Senate floor, in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 11, 2015. (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times) (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $11,827

Government service: Wolk served from 1998 to 2002 as an elected member of the Yolo County Board of Supervisors before retiring from county service.

Biographical details: She is Senate majority whip and is chairwoman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee and No. 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation. Wolk is the former mayor of Davis.

Sen. Carol Liu (D-La Canada-Flintridge)

Assemblywoman Carol Liu, D-South Pasadena, presents to the Assembly her bill that would ban state contractors from offshoring jobs, at the Capitol in Sacramento, Calif., Thursday, May 27, 2004. By a 44-26 vote the Assembly approved the measure and sent it to the Senate. (AP Photo) (Rich Pedroncelli / AP)

Annual public pension: $8,880

Government service: Liu was a teacher in Richmond public schools, teaching history at the junior and senior high levels. She became a school administrator before retiring in 1996.

Biographical details: She is chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee and serves on the Insurance, Public Safety, Human Services and Elections and Constitutional Amendments committees.

Assemblyman Richard Bloom (D-Santa Monica)

SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2016: Assembly member Richard Bloom during California State Assembly Committee on Budget in Sacramento, Calif., on Jan. 20, 2016. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: $5,239

Government service: Bloom served for 13 years on the Santa Monica City Council, where he served as mayor three times.

Biographical details: He also served as a volunteer judge pro tem and mediator for Los Angeles County Superior Courts. He is a member of Assembly committees including Budget, Appropriations and Higher Education.





Assemblyman Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside)

Assemblyman Rocky Chavez of Oceanside, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, at the California Republican Partys semi-annual convention in Anaheim this weekend. Chavez said GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trumps rhetoric on immigration is undercutting the state partys efforts to attract Latino voters. (Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Annual public pension: Requests made by the Times for information about Chavez's annual pension were not answered by Chavez and military representatives.

Government service: Chavez spent more than 28 years as a U.S. Marine, rising to the rank of colonel and serving as chief of staff for the 4th Marine Division.

Biographical details: He is vice chairman of the Assembly Veterans Affairs committee, and sits on the Budget and Joint Legislative Budget committees, among others.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

Follow @mcgreevy99 on Twitter

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Updates from Sacramento
The little black dress. Haute couture. Ballet flats.

Along with these French staples from fashion houses Chanel, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent and Louis Vuitton, comes the work of accomplished designer Anne Fontaine, who is helping to foster a look that can also be interpreted as what it means to be stylish in Paris  or in Orange County.

Fontaine, a Paris-based designer who was born in Brazil, is the woman behind the womenswear collection known for its iconic white shirt. Now she has expanded into outerwear, knits, handbags, jewelry and much more while adding color, albeit nothing flashy.

She took her neutral color palette to Costa Mesa on March 31, presenting models in looks that ranged from subtle floral prints and longline skirts to opulent organza blouses during an exclusive fashion show at South Coast Plaza.

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Fontaines spring/summer 2016 collection  the theme is Beauty in Nature  was inspired by the environment. She fixed her signature designs on elements like sunburst pleats and a mix of linen materials, creating cleanly tailored pieces in shades of blue, other seasonal colors and earthy tones.

Since childhood, Fontaine has made her own clothes, refusing to wear ready-made items since she wanted to tailor her own creative aesthetic. She decided to put forth her collection in 1993, and the next year she opened her first boutique on Paris Rue des Saints-Peres.

But long before the fashion house was born and its products would be sold in 70 boutiques around the world, Fontaine met Ari Zlotkin, her future husband. He showed Fontaine his grandmothers attic, where they found a collection of white shirts.

Fontaine felt inspired by the pieces to create an updated design for the classic white shirt.

Her business began with a concentration of white shirts in organza, silk and Pima cotton poplin from Peru, and she had the fabrics crafted by French and Italian artisans known for their tailoring and sewing expertise.

I wanted this piece, belonging to a masculine wardrobe, to become a womens essential, Fontaine said in an email. A white shirt is timeless elegance. Its an item which every woman can play with to create her own identity and express her own creativity. Nothing is sexier than a woman in a white shirt.

Each season, she conceptualizes a new vision of it in a number of styles.

The Noriana three-quarter sleeve shirt, priced at $350, features an A-line silhouette with a back that is open and accented with a bow and pleat. Theres the Naelys shirt, showcasing elaborate roserrers  poofy rose-like petals  on the sleeve, and the Natalia embroidered chiffon cape layered over a sleeveless Pima jersey-cloth T-shirt.

The environment has always remained a focus in Fontaines designs and charitable pursuits.

In 2011, she created the Anne Fontaine Foundation, an organization aiming to protect the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. Known as the Mata Atlantica forest in Portuguese, it is one of the richest forests in terms of biodiversity, but it is also one of the most threatened. Today in Brazil, over 85% of the original region has been deforested, threatening plants and animals with extinction.

When looking to the future, Fontaine, who lives in Honfleur, Normandy, said that in five years, she hopes to be spending more of her time educating others about reforestation and childrens education programs.

Fashion-wise, she would like to expand the brands Les Precieuses collection, which is a limited collection of evening wear, dresses and tops with fine embroidery and delicate fabrics.

She soon will launch the AF active line, a sport chic collection for women.

Being stylish is a story of having your own look, Fontaine said. My style is timeless elegance and femininity. I translate my style into my designs, which I want to be relatable. I have a style which highlights a womans personality. Women should be able to get dressed and feel beautiful and confident without having to put in much thought.

Anne Fontaine is at South Coast Plaza, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. For more information, call (714) 549-0315 or visit annefontaine.com.
Gabriel Zavala remembers his time in the 1980s ska scene when cliques promoted division and violence was prevalent.

He remembers how hard it was to fit in back then as a good Catholic boy who, up until enrolling in Katella High School in Anaheim in the early 1980s, had only studied at religious schools.

It was during this time that he was beaten up by jocks and tried smoking pot with the metal fans just to fit in. But then Zavala, who said he was studying to become a priest, entered the Cloud 9 dance club at Knotts Berry Farm one night and his life changed forever.

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Songs like Nightboat to Cairo and Concrete Jungle, with their upbeat sounds and big-band-style horns, played overhead as teens, some dressed in sharp suits and trilby hats, danced around in a circle in a running-man motion, alternating bent-elbow fist-punches, left and right.

He learned the music was called ska, the style of dancing was called skanking and the fans were often belovedly called rude boys and rude girls. He longed to be one of them.

Zavala chronicles his adventures in this period loosely through the eyes of fictional character Rudy Gonzalez in the film Rude Boy.

The time, Zavala said, was all about dancing to the music, looking cool and meeting girls.

And while the scene has changed over the last few decades, and some may even argue that ska died with the 1990s, its quaint group of fans knows differently.

**

Tensions were high in the United States in the 1980s. Unemployment was accelerating, and the Cold War was reaching its peak.

While people found different remedies to keep their spirits up, a modest group of young music fans trusted in ska, following United Kingdom-based bands like The Specials, Madness, The English Beat and The Selecter.

The upbeat songs about unity helped revive spirits as fans danced to the music in the skanking style, rode around on vespas and dressed to fit the scene and mimick the genres Jamaican founders, donning narrow-brimmed hats, Dr. Martens boots and suspenders perhaps. A lot of the clothes included black-and-white checkered patterns that are symbolic of the multiracial makeup of the early ska bands, said Heather Augustyn, who has written four books on the genre, including Ska: An Oral History.

They were dressing like the subculture that started in the U.K., and that style of dress came from [Jamaican musician] Desmond Dekker and the way they dressed in Jamaica, said the 43-year-old author from Indiana. And ska and dance always intertwined.

She said ska music, which included big horn sections of eight to 12 pieces in its early days, trailed the jazz big band era and people were looking for signs of hope.

The upbeat music was medicinal, Augustyn said. You just cant be sad while listening to ska.

In Jamaica, where the genre started in the early 1960s in Kingston, the music provided happiness for the country, which had just won its independence from the United Kingdom, Augustyn said.

She said the young people of Jamaica, often referred to as rude boys, were sometimes struggling to find work and make something of themselves. They were essentially early gangsters who favored sharp suits and sunglasses, she said.

In England, where the music arrived in the years following the Western Indian immigration after World War II, the area was experiencing stifling poverty, Augustyn said. Bands like The Specials, which combined Jamaican ska with punk influences, wrote songs like Ghost Town to reflect the period.

And in the United States, when the English ska groups hit the alternative airwaves in the 80s, the music spoke to youngsters there too.

It wasnt such a bad time here in the U.S., but there was still a need for people to feel better, Augustyn said.

Ska bands with faster sounds began sprouting up in the country, especially on the West Coast. Los Angeles groups like Fishbone and the Untouchables in the 80s would later inspire the installations of 90s Orange County-based outfits like No Doubt, Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats and Save Ferris.

The horns, tempo and mood [in Orange County ska] are upbeat and cheerful, as is most ska, Augustyn said. O.C. ska blended these sounds with some punk influences as well. Though we may not hear the sounds of O.C.punk bands like Social Distortion or T.S.O.L or the Vandals, that rebellious anti-establishment sensibility is still there. It manifests in O.C. ska as frivolity rather than anger.

O.C. ska features themes of youth and drinking and relationships and selling out to become successful, but it also could feature more substantial concepts like racial unity and friendship. Even serious subjects like date rape and prostitution are combined with skas upbeat tone and tempo, as was typical of ska from all eras.

She said she thinks Orange County ska fans were attracted to and have remained loyal to the genre because of the original two-tone sound, a late-1970s ska revival in the United Kingdom.

It was fun, she said. It was interactive music. It was upbeat and after the arena rock of the 80s like Bon Jovi and Journey, people were looking for something free of heavy guitar licks and ballads. The horns were different and added a whole other dimension to the punk tempo and mentality. It was pure and simple fun.

The Gwen Stefani-fronted, platinum-selling, Anaheim-based group No Doubt had its beginnings in ska. The band then moved into pop and dancehall, a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s.

According to Eric Stefani, founding member of No doubt and brother of Gwen, the ska scenes in the United States and England differed.

Originally in England, the music and the dress united a lot of people of all races, he said. It didnt translate the same in America but we tried our best.... Our band played with Untouchables, Fishbone, Donkey Show and Skeletones. These bands were more pure ska than us.

**

Rude Boy director Gabriel Zavala and his brother, Oliver Zavala, co-writer, said one of the big messages they hope to portray through the film  which is being screened April 16 at the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana  is that the racism that was once prevalent in Anaheim is still around today.

In February, three people were stabbed and 13 others were arrested when a Ku Klux Klan rally in Anaheim erupted in violence. Klansmen were once the dominant political force in Anaheim, holding four of five City Council seats before a recall effort led to their ouster in 1924, according to the Los Angeles Times.

We were the third Mexican family in Anaheim at the time, said Gabriel Zavala, 48, referring to the 1980s. I kind of got numb to what the racism was when we were growing up. I didnt think it was that way in Anaheim anymore and then bam, in the last couple months, they have the KKK in Anaheim and all of a sudden all these themes and music in the film now are becoming relevant. Things havent changed that much.

Oliver Zavala said while all ska fans would appreciate the film  which cost about $10,000 to make and features ska songs from the 1980s as well as original music  its pretty much tailor-made for those who were around in 1980s Orange County.

During the time, cliques from different music genres would clash, racism was rife and violence could often ensue when people disagreed.

It was a lot different than third wave ska, which was around in the 90s and even today, said the 43-year-old, who performed with the popular 90s ska group Save Ferris, which has since disbanded, and co-wrote original songs for the film with Clinton Calton of the punk band D.I.

A lot of people think the ska scene was a certain way, and we wanted to show how it really was. It was much more serious to be involved in that scene. It was almost like a gang in a sort of way but not so dangerous.

**

Today, the scene isnt nearly as aggressive, and the genre has broken off into sub-groups with pop and punk influences.

Ska fans around the world flock to events like the annual Ska Luau headlined by Starpool, in which Oliver Zavala plays trumpet, and concerts with bands like Reel Big Fish, Suburban Legends, The Aquabats, Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Big D and the Kids Table.

And while the vespas and violence are not really prevalent anymore, skanking is still popular at shows.

In Orange County in particular  which has had its own ska radio show, the Ska Parade, since 1989  the scene is something many fans refer to as their ska family.

The group even held the first Skacademy Awards earlier this year in Anaheim, where fans battled in categories like Biggest Ska Nerd, Best Dressed Skanker and Ska Band We Wish Would Come Back Already.

Thousands of rude boys and rude girls have also flocked to Disneyland for a fan-made group meet-up called Its a Ska World After All, which was last held in 2014.

Its tight-knit because most everyone in it joins in their teenage years, said Evan Wohrman, who sings in Orange County-based ska band Hooray for Our Side. Youre into a style of music and scene that is not as visible or mainstream as what your peers may be listening to. When you find this group of people who share your not-so-mainstream musical tastes, youre going to form a stronger bond with them. Youre going to make lifelong friends at shows. Being part of it for so long has been such a positive force in my life.

The ska communities in the 1980s and 90s were just as dedicated.

Brian Mashburn, guitarist in Starpool and Save Ferris, said ska fans in those days would flock to venues across Southern California because of the lack of places in Orange County.

We used to pile in an old station wagon or someones van and go all over So Cal to catch a good show, he said. Skeletones and Voodoo [Glow Skulls] at UC Redlands? Lets go! Hepcat at Las Palmas Theatre in L.A? Were there! Buck-O-Nine at SOMA in San Diego? OK, here we go! Kids didnt care about driving all over. It was cool because you would meet people and make friends with groups of ska fans from all over.

Gabriel Zavala said ska music still helps him through rough patches in his life.

During the editing of the film, he was hit with a divorce, but the work kept him distracted and the music kept him uplifted.

The thing about ska music, for me, is that when Ive hit those rough patches and Ive been blue, I put on ska music and it makes me feel better, he said. It just does this wonderful thing to me. Thats a feeling that I never want to let go of.

*

IF YOU GO

What: Rude Boy

Where: Frida Cinema, 305 E. 4th St., Santa Ana

When: 9:30 p.m. April 16

Cost: Tickets are $10

Information: thefridacinema.org; (714) 285-9422
A fireworks storeroom at a temple in southern India exploded during a religious ceremony early Sunday, enveloping the temple in flames and white smoke and leaving more than 100 people dead, officials said.

More than 350 people were injured in the explosion and health officials said the death toll could rise.

Several thousand people had gathered inside the complex of the Paravur Puttingal Devi temple in the southern state of Kerala to watch a fireworks show when a nearby building where additional firecrackers were being stored caught fire. Officials said early reports indicated the explosion occurred when sparks from the fireworks on display landed on the storehouse.

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Chunks of concrete were sent flying for several hundred yards, witnesses said. Many victims lost limbs and eyes and were airlifted to hospitals across Kerala. The temple is located in Kollam, about 40 miles from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Many have sustained burns of over 50% [of their bodies] and the condition of some of them are quite serious, D. Mohandas, the superintendent of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital, told The Hindu newspaper.

Officials said temple authorities had not obtained permission for the fireworks display and pledged to press charges against those responsible, according to Indian media reports. Firecrackers, including many crude models set off by hand, are a staple of Indian festivals and routinely cause injuries to eyes and other parts of the body, especially among children.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the fire was shocking beyond words and flew to Kerala to assess the damage.

C.R. Neelakandan, a local political activist, blamed the fire on basic negligence.

Earlier, this festival used to happen in open spaces. They should have taken proper proactive measures, Neelakandan said.

A similar festival is coming up in a weeks time. It seems these rituals have always gone ahead without proper prior assessment.

Pyrotechnics at temples are reportedly banned in Kollam but temples routinely obtain waivers to set off fireworks at religious ceremonies.

Modi said the government would provide cash payments of about $3,000 to the families of those killed.

Parth M.N. is a special correspondent.

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Shizuo Kakutani sees no great mystery in the things that wash ashore in Monzen, his quiet fishing village on the Sea of Japan  the fishing boats ravaged by fierce winter storms, the Chinese garbage carried to land by the strong winds, the occasional body that drifts in from Yaseno, the nearby cliffs notorious for suicides.

The ghost ships, however, are harder to explain.

On an early morning in November, the 71-year-old retired fisherman received a call from his colleagues at the towns civilian coast guard. A black mass bobbling in the water  most likely a boat  had been spotted hooked to a distant buoy.

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When I saw the boat, I immediately knew that it was from North Korea, Kakutani said. He had seen similar vessels before  no more than 30 feet long, made of wood, its flat-bottomed hull covered in black tar.

Then, as we were pulling the boat to this port, we noticed a pair of legs sticking out from underneath, bobbing up and down with the waves, Kakutani said. Later that day, they discovered two more boats and a grisly cargo of 10 bodies, all badly decomposed.

In small towns along Japans sleepy west coast, dozens of North Korean boats drift ashore each year  and while most arrive empty or reduced to kindling, some float eerily out of the haze with a crew of bodies, adding to the mystery of a country that cloaks itself in secrecy.

A flotilla of the ghost boats  at least 14 of them, carrying more than 30 decomposing corpses  has washed ashore since late last year along a 1,000-mile stretch of the west coast, leaving Japanese investigators puzzled. Who were these people? What happened to them?

The boats bore unmistakable signs of North Korean origin. Their hulls were emblazoned with painted numbers and Korean script; one was marked State Security Department, and another Korean Peoples Army. A tattered North Korean flag flew from one of the boats, the newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. A backpack, found on another, had a pin bearing the portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011.

All of those on board appeared to be male, though some were so badly decomposed investigators couldnt be certain. All wore civilian clothing. Autopsies found that they had been dead for about two months, but the cause of death was elusive.

Perhaps they were defectors, analysts surmised  although scores of have attempted to flee the country in recent years, few have dared to cross the freezing, storm-tossed sea. Most travel overland into northeastern China.

Then, a new theory surfaced.

Satoru Miyamoto, a North Korea expert at Japans Seigakuin University near Tokyo, said that the men on board were probably fishermen. By studying photographs of the boats and the vessels numbers, he deduced they probably belonged to the North Korean militarys commercial branch.

The basis for those conclusions might be found in a series of undated photographs released in November of dictator Kim Jong Un touring a military fishery base, grinning and examining blocks of frozen fish.

Workers, Kim said, should realize their lifetime desire by catching more fish for the servicepersons and civilians, according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

So the military has been sending soldiers out onto the sea to fish, Miyamoto said. But the soldiers dont have any training, so they sometimes get lost at sea.

The crews may have run into extreme weather, a typhoon perhaps. Boats may have flipped and righted themselves again. Those aboard probably drowned, starved or succumbed to hypothermia.

A search of the boat Kakutani helped bring to shore in November revealed what must have been a wretched existence for those on board.

There were so few things in there, said Kiyohito Tani, 52, a coast guard group leader who conducted the search.

There was a frying pan and a cabin strewn with fishing hooks and small lights, suggesting the crew intended to catch squid, he said. There were three bodies below deck, all decomposed.

It smelled like them, he said. Its something very difficult to describe.

Six more bodies were found in one of the other two boats that were found that day, one of the vessels with only its hull protruding from the water.

This isnt something new for us, so people are just saying oh no, not again.  Shizuo Kakutani, 71

Kakutani was more mystified than alarmed by the ghost ships; the fishing town has long been awash in macabre discoveries.

This isnt something new for us, so people are just saying oh no, not again, Kakutani said.

Kakutani said that responding to suicides on nearby Yaseno  five or six each year  has hardened him.

We have a rumor of a ghostly figure of a lady appearing at the pier, he said. But thats been a rumor since way before the North Korean ships began arriving. So probably, shes just one of those people who jumped to death from the cliff.

And the arrivals have continued. In January, fishermen in Niigata found a small boat  apparently from North Korea  partially submerged about eight miles from the citys coastline. It remains in the citys port awaiting demolition, with all of its contents: fishing nets, a mans jacket, a rusty old motor.

Kazushi Nishikata, 37, a spokesman at the Niigata coast guard, said investigators found a pack of cigarettes bearing Korean script on board.

I remember it was whitish-colored, he said in an interview at his office. He then left the room to find a picture of the cigarette pack, but returned empty-handed. A body was just found in a river near here, he said, shrugging. Everybodys busy checking it out. So I cant look into this right now.

Coast guard officials said that disposing of the boats has been a bureaucratic hassle. The three boats discovered off Monzen floated unattended for months before they were dismantled, destroyed and incinerated in February. Wajima, the municipality that oversees the town of Monzen, couldnt afford their disposal, leaving the local environmental ministry to cover most of the $13,500 bill.

A Wajima government spokesperson, reached by phone, said those aboard, presumed to be North Koreans, were cremated and their ashes sent to the Soujiji temple, a placid Zen Buddhist compound on the citys outskirts. A monk at the temple confirmed that the ashes were there, but declined to say more  commenting on the situation, he said, could invite reprisals.

Between 1977 and 1983, North Korean agents abducted at least 17 Japanese citizens  including several who lived nearby. Some locals, he said, still seek retribution.

Theyre being held no differently than the other ashes, the monk said. In death, we treat everyone the same.

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The Belgium-based militants who killed 32 people in twin attacks in Brussels last month had originally planned to launch another assault in France, as a follow-up to the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. But they abruptly changed their plans, deciding to instead strike closer to home, as investigators were closing in on the remains of the terror cell, Belgiums federal prosecutors office said on Sunday.

Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again, the Belgian prosecutors office said in a statement. Eventually, surprised by the speed of progress in the investigation, they took the decision to strike in Brussels.

French prosecutors had said they believed the terrorists were planning to attack La Defense, a major business district in the Paris metropolitan area where many thousands of people work in the headquarters of some of Frances leading companies and multinational firms.

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The revelation came days after police in Belgium arrested a chief suspect wanted in both the Paris and Brussels attacks. Mohamed Abrini was arrested in a raid on Friday in Brussels and charged Saturday with terrorist murder and belonging to a terror organization. He admitted to being the third bombing suspect caught on surveillance footage at the Brussels airport, known in the media as the man in the hat, authorities said.

The two other men who appear on the surveillance video next to Abrini, pushing luggage trolleys laden with explosives, died detonating their bombs at the airport.

Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian national of Moroccan origin, fled the airport just before the bombs blew up, authorities said. He was later seen on surveillance videos walking away from the airport into the city.

Police officers take part in an operation in Brussels after a deadly terrorist attack in late March. (Nicolas Maeterlinck / AFP/Getty Images)

Abrinis arrest and the swift confirmation that he was the third suspect in the Brussels airport bombing represented a major breakthrough for Belgiums beleaguered security services, and was hailed as a positive development by Prime Minister Charles Michel.

Three other suspects arrested Friday in Brussels were charged with being part of a terrorist organization. Prosecutors did not release the full names of the other men who were charged, identifying them only as Herve B.M., a Rwandan national; Bilal E.M.; and Osama K. Belgian media reported that Osama K. is a Swedish national, and is believed to have appeared on security footage at the Brussels subway before the explosion there.

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FOR THE RECORD:

April 10, 3:55 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said that Belgian media identified Osama K. as a Swiss national. They identified him as a Swedish national.

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Another prime suspect in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, was arrested in Brussels following a shootout with police on March 18, days before the Brussels bombings. Abdeslam grew up in Belgium, and French prosecutors said he had planned to detonate a suicide bomb at Paris Stade de France on Nov. 13 but backed out at the last minute and fled.

Investigators believe the capture of Abdeslam, dubbed Europes most wanted man at the time, forced the Brussels cell to set its sights on Belgium and accelerate the timing of the attack. The attackers struck four days after Abdeslams arrest.

The dual March 22 bombings at the airport and a busy subway station have shaken Europes confidence in its ability to thwart terrorism. Belgian security services have come under fire for failing to neutralize the Brussels terror cell after the attacks in Paris. Most of the participants of the Paris attacks were later identified as Belgian nationals or French citizens who had lived in Belgium, where the attacks were believed to have been planned.

More than 400 Belgian citizens have gone to fight in Syria, according to official estimates, the highest per-capita number among European nations. Authorities estimate that more than 100 returned to Belgium. Europe has not made widespread changes to how intelligence is shared, and the attacks in Paris and Brussels have renewed calls for greater cooperation and intelligence sharing in fighting terrorist networks.

In Germany, Hans-Georg Maassen, the head of the countrys domestic BfV intelligence agency said Sunday that Islamic State wants to carry out attacks in Germany and called the security situation extremely serious.

Maassen told the Welt am Sonntag newspaper that Islamic State propaganda was aimed at encouraging supporters to launch attacks in Germany, which has so far been fortunate to have not been attacked. About one-third of the 800 German citizens who traveled to Syrian and northern Iraq in recent years have returned, according to the newspaper.

Kirschbaum is a special correspondent.
Initially, an Egyptian police official said Giulio Regenis death was a result of a road accident.

On Feb. 3 the badly bruised body of Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral student from Italy, was found on the side of a highway outside Cairo. Regeni, who had been researching labor unions, had disappeared Jan. 25, on the anniversary of the Tahrir Square protests that convulsed Egypt five years ago.

The road accident story was quickly swept aside. Both Egyptian and Italian forensics found that Regenis body showed signs of torture that included beating and electric shocks to his genitals. His mother would later say at a news conference that she recognized her son only by the tip of his nose when she saw him in a Rome morgue.

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Then in March, Egypts Foreign Ministry announced a breakthrough in the case, saying Regeni was killed by a mob of criminals impersonating police officers to rob foreigners. According to the ministry, some of Regenis belongings were found in the home of one of the gang members, who were all allegedly shot by Egyptian police in an exchange of gunfire.

The ministrys claim was widely ridiculed in Italy and tensions between the two countries grew, with Italy recalling its ambassador from Egypt for consultations over the matter. This followed the Italian Foreign Ministrys threat to adopt immediate and proportional measures if Egyptian investigators failed to unveil solid facts regarding the case.

On Saturday in Cairo, Egypts deputy prosecutor refused to reveal details of the investigations into the death of Regeni.

We wont be discussing any facts because investigations are still ongoing. According to the law, investigations should be kept in secrecy until the probe is officially concluded, deputy prosecutor Mustafa Soliman said.

Soliman was part of an Egyptian delegation that made a two-day trip to Rome on Thursday, during which the Egyptians informed Italian authorities of the latest developments in the case. At the meeting in Rome, the Egyptians stuck by claims that Mr. Regeni was kidnapped and killed by a gang of criminals in Cairo.

A friend of Regeni in Egypt, who asked for anonymity for fear of reprisal, said, What we know for sure is that Giulio was arrested by a number of police officers ... when he was walking from his home to a nearby metro station to meet another friend downtown Cairo.

Autopsy showed that his body was tortured to death in the same way many Egyptian dissidents usually face, he added.

In a statement Friday, Italian investigators said the Egyptians had handed over the cellphone records of two friends of Regeni who were in Cairo in January, and a crime scene report with photos of the roadside where his body was found.

The chief Italian prosecutor reiterated his conviction that there are no elements to directly link the gang to the torture and death of Giulio Regeni, prosecutors said in a statement.

Responding to the scant information handed over, the Italian Foreign Ministry stated, On the basis of these developments, an urgent evaluation is required of the most opportune initiatives to relaunch the commitment needed to find the truth about the barbarous killing of Regeni.

According to Soliman, Italian investigators have called on Egyptians to provide CCTV security footage of the street where Regeni disappeared, as well as records of all cellphone traffic in the area where Regeni is believed to have been taken and the area where his body was found.

For technical reasons, CCTV footage is automatically erased. We even contacted the smart cameras manufacturing company and they informed us that they cannot retrieve the erased footage, but we acquired a special software that might enable us to retain the footage, Soliman told reporters.

The other [Italian] request  which is a point of disagreement  is the full phone call records  such demand contradicts with Egypts Constitution and Egyptian laws, he said.

Italian investigators are reportedly hoping to match phone records with the two locations to find a suspect who may have been involved in both seizing the student and dumping his body.

If I can speak for [Regenis] friends, we are outraged by the nonstop lies and coverups in the last two months in Egypt.  Paz Zarate, attorney

On Saturday, Italian press agency ANSA reported that chief Italian prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone would send a new, formal request to Egypt for the cellphone records of 10 suspects.

The rapidity of the Italian response to the failed meetings points to Italys determination to be firm.

Italy is a major commercial partner of Egypt, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has carefully built a relationship with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi, but outraged Italian public opinion has left him little room for vacillation.

Italians have staged protests demanding justice for Regeni, who had been pursuing his doctorate at Cambridge University in England. The country has also been impressed by the courage of Regenis mother, Paola Regeni, who said during a news conference last month that she will be able to cry for her son only after his killers are caught.

A friend of Regeni said Saturday that Italys recall of its ambassador showed Rome was set to keep up the pressure on Egypt.

Italy does not have a tradition of protecting its citizens abroad, so this is an important step, said Paz Zarate, a Chilean attorney who specializes in international law. For the foreign minister to speak of countermeasures is a departure from tradition.

Zarate acted as a mentor to Regeni when they worked together at the Oxford Analytica think tank in England in 2014. She befriended him and encouraged him to study at Cambridge.

If I can speak for his friends, we are outraged by the nonstop lies and coverups in the last two months in Egypt. It is really important that the West looks at Sisis human rights record very closely.

In a report last week, the UK Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee singled out the Regeni case as an example of the British Foreign Offices scant regard for human rights around the world.

We feel that overall the UK has not been supporting the Italian authorities as forcefully as [Regenis] murder deserved, the report stated.

On March 10, the European Parliament voted for a resolution that called for Regenis killers to be found and denounced alleged human rights violations in Egypt.

The Regeni case has highlighted criticism of Egypts human rights record under Sisis rule. Thousands of political dissidents are jailed while hundreds have reportedly died in police custody or faced forced disappearances since the army-led ouster of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Hassan and Kington are special correspondents. Hassan reported from Cairo and Kington from Rome.

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Fallout from corruption scandals continued to roil Europe on Sunday, as Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk announced that he would resign amid a growing political crisis.

His resignation came at a time when the countrys president, Petro Poroshenko, is under scrutiny after the Panama Papers suggested that he used an undisclosed offshore company to avoid taxes. Meanwhile, in Russia, one of the key figures named in the Panama Papers deflected accusations that he had helped enrich President Vladimir Putins inner circle through offshore deals.

In televised remarks, Yatsenyuk urged Ukraines political establishment to focus on pushing for long-needed reforms instead of chasing him out of office.

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My decision is based on several reasons, Yatsenyuk said in his weekly television address. The political crisis in the government has been artificially created, the desire to change one person has blinded politicians and paralyzed their will to bring about real changes in the country.

Yatsenyuk, whose government came to power in 2014 following a popular uprising that ousted pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, promised to fight endemic corruption and lead reforms, but has been increasingly criticized over cronyism and graft.

He said he would be replaced by parliament speaker Volodymyr Groysman and vowed to concentrate on forming a new ruling coalition that would start the disbursement of a $17.5-billion aid package from the International Monetary Fund.

Ukraines economy has been in freefall after years of political crises, Russias annexation of Crimea and the hostilities in the pro-Moscow eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

The appearance of Poroshenkos name in the leaked Panama Papers documents only added to the political turmoil this month. Ukraines richest man came into office lambasting corruption and the shady deals of Ukraines oligarchs, but the documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca showed that he stashed hundreds of millions in offshore accounts.

In neighboring Russia, the Kremlin tried to whitewash the image of Putins best friend, a low-profile cellist whose name unexpectedly came up in the Panama Papers, and claimed that the U.S. State Department and the National Security Agency orchestrated the leak.

Sergei Roldugin is believed to own three companies that hid some $2 billion in offshore accounts, according to a string of investigative reports based on the leaked files.

In an interview with a state-owned Russian television station broadcast on Sunday, Roldugin said that he owns a business that helps him finance scholarships for young musicians and buy expensive musical instruments to donate to the state.

I am glad I was hit by the Panama Papers allegations, the stern-faced 64-year-old told the Vesti television channel while standing in an opulent hall of a czarist-era palace that his business helped restore. There is nothing to catch. Everything is in the open. I am richer  I own Russias talents, he said.

He said he has known Putin since the late 1970s and was a godfather to his elder daughter, Maria.

The show aired footage of Putin saying Friday that Roldugin was a minority shareholder in one of our companies and earns some money.

This is, of course, not billions of dollars, thats nonsense, nothing of the kind. [But he] earned some, Putin told a news conference. I am proud to have people like Sergei Pavlovich [Roldugin] among my friends.... Almost all of the money he earned he spent to purchase musical instruments that he brought to Russia.

The news show framed the Panama Papers leak as an American-orchestrated conspiracy, in line with how it has been presented in dozens of reports on Russian national television  as an attempt by Putins critics, the liberal opposition, Ukrainian politicians and other foes of the Kremlin to weaken Russia.

Anchor Andrey Kondrashov suggested that the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international consortium of investigative reporters given access to the Panama Papers, was backed by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, the State Department and the NSA.

During a [political] standstill, Americans in search of compromising materials on Putin were desperate to bite, at least, St. Petersburg, the city where Putin was born, where he, apparently, had his children baptized and where, of course, he has so many friends, Kondrashov said. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development spent $65.4 million in 2015 to support the freedom of information and independent media worldwide, and OCCRP was one of the recipients of the money, Kondrashov asserted.

The NSA, the National Security Agency, is supplying materials for the information sewage of this nesting doll, he said.

The broadcast ended with a complicated explanation of how Russian special services purportedly had to use offshore accounts in 2008 to buy a Russian telecom company that U.S. investors had been desperate to purchase in order to gain more clout in Russian media  and counter the Kremlins messages.

After the Americans failed to buy the telecom company, Kondrashov claimed, they concocted the Panama Papers scandal in order to explain their failure. He ended the show with the conclusion that the CIA worked badly and messed with the wrong guys.

Mirovalev is a special correspondent.
There is a cancer within the United Nationsa term employed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon himselfand it must be cut out. I dont repeat this lightly, especially not as one of the organizations chief advocates.

Despite Bans commitment to a zero- tolerance policy against sexual exploitation by the U.N.'s own personnel, a scourge of abuse continues, with recent reports detailing a new wave of nightmarish allegations against U.N. and French peacekeepers.

Its maddening that a few bad cells threaten the system. On the whole, the U.N. is a healthy body, literally sustaining life around the globe through its work providing food, vaccines, shelter, and security to millions. And every day, peacekeepers are accomplishing remarkable feats, stabilizing countries on the brink of collapse, as in the Central African Republic (CAR), or sheltering civilians from rebel attacks in fragile states such as South Sudan.

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Yet, when even one peacekeeper violates a civilian, it also violates the trust of the institution and the international community. If the U.N. is to extricate the bad actorswhether they hail from France or the developing world militaries that are backbone of U.N. peacekeepingit must show that new policies will be implemented with unshakable resolve.

This month, the secretary-general took dramatic steps to name and shame the nations whose troops are accused of abuses. Additionally, he has suspended payments to troop-contributing countries wherever there is a credible allegation against one of its troops. These actions are necessary and the right thing to do.

The Security Council rightly backed up these efforts in adopting its first-ever resolution specifically aimed at sexual exploitation and abuse. The measure, which was championed by the U.S., endorses key parts of the secretary-generals reform agenda, including his important decision to repatriate entire military or police contingents to their home countries when there is evidence of widespread or systemic abuse. Ejecting a country for its troops sexual abuse and exploitation has remarkably only happened once before  earlier this year in Central African Republic with troops from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

These new measures are crucial for the new policies to have lasting effect, but they will mean nothing unless they are actively and continually reinforced -- a posture which will anger some troop-contributing countries. Sending home offending contingents is not only a black eye on the global stage, but a loss in important revenue to that contributing nation. Frankly, that is as it should be.

Further, for those countries where there is evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse, they should also be blocked from joining new missions. That is, the U.N. must say no on deployment until demonstrable progress is made. The secretary-general has the power to do that  he must wield it, and the Security Council must back him.

There are certain to be consequences. One year from now, for example, the Security Council may choose to intervene in a country facing crisis. With lives on the line, the international community will look to the U.N. to act quickly and, potentially, deploy peacekeepers. If similar to recent past crises like those in the Central African Republic and Mali, only a few countries will offer troops, and of those, some will have checkered human rights records. While there will be justifiable demands to deploy a robust force, the U.N. must hold firm and reject any nation with a record of widespread or systemic abuse.

Musenu Tshilayi, standing second from the right, a Congolese major sergeant accused of rape and violation of instructions, stands at the Military Tribunal of Kinshasa during the trial of Congolese MINUSCA (United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic) soldiers on April 4, 2016. The trial against Congolese peacekeepers in the U.N. Mission in the Central African Republic involves 22 Congolese soldiers accused of rape-related violations. (EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP/Getty Images)

At the same time, this does not mean that the international community should accept a weak response to conflict and mass atrocities. Rather, we must demand that more countries shoulder the load.

As it stands, there is not an abundance of well-trained troops for a growing number of increasingly complex, dangerous missions. Over the last 20 years, many Western nations have retreated from providing troops for U.N. combat operations. For example, last year, European Union governments provided some 6,000 troops to peacekeeping missionsabout 6% of the more than 100,000 troops totalcompared to 25,000 troops, or 40%, two decades ago. The U.S. provides even fewer: In 1996, 759 Americans served as uniformed personnel in U.N. missions; today, that number is 71.

The void caused by developed countries retreat from peacekeeping is largely being filled by developing countries, with the great majority serving honorably. That being said, they also often do not have the same level of training as troops and police from developed countries in North America and Europe. If peacekeeping is to ultimately free itself from the scourge of sexual abuse, the responsibility must not sit with the U.N. alone; other member states, especially those that can provide well-trained vetted troops who are prepared for hostile environments need to answer the bell.

To its credit, the U.S. took some decisive steps to improve this dynamic in chairing a U.N. peacekeeping summit last fall. The summit resulted in pledges of 40,000 more peacekeepers from a diverse pool of countries. Ensuring those pledges materialize and that troops deploy to places like the Central African Republic and Mali will be instrumental in backing up the U.N.s denial of certain countries over their records on sexual abuse.

The trust of the world can only be as strong as the accountability we demand. In that pursuit, both the U.N. and its member states can and should do more.

Peter Yeo is president of the Better World Campaign, a group that works to strengthen the relationship between the United States and the United Nations.
It's estimated that at least a quarter of Afghan children work, despite labor laws that forbid it. Some, like Sami, support their entire family.

Sami Rahimi sleeps fitfully on a bread rack above the bakery's cold concrete floor. He rises at 5 a.m., sweeps up, washes in a pan of chilly water, then prays.

Before the sun has risen, Sami is pushing a dented wheelbarrow through the dim streets, at 13 still a tiny figure among the vegetable hawkers and butchers slicing bloody flanks of sheep from carcasses hung on hooks. He gathers water from a public well and takes it back to the bakery.

By 6 a.m., the gas-fired stone kiln is glowing a fiery red, ready to bake the flat loaves known as khasa and the round loaves called kamachi.

Sami sweeps a platform where hot flatbread is stacked for sale. He then sits cross-legged to begin selling loaves for 10 afghanis, about 20 cents each, to customers who thrust bills through a window that he opens and closes with a long metal hook.

Working until dark six days a week, Sami earns about $80 a month, enough to support his entire family: disabled father, mother, three brothers and five sisters.

Sami has been at the bakery since he was 10, when he rode a bus from the countryside to assist his uncle, Yar Mohammed, who himself began at age 8.

I'm happy I can support my family, but I would rather go to school and be an educated person, Sami says. He shrugs as he flips over a steaming loaf with his hook, a weary gesture that makes him seem old and careworn.

Child labor is endemic in Afghanistan, despite vaguely written laws that prohibit children younger than 14 from working full time. The regulations, adopted in 2007 and last revised in 2012, allow those 14 and older to serve as apprentices and those 15 to 18 to perform "light work." They prohibit children younger than 18 from work considered hazardous or dangerous to their health.

But the laws are widely ignored because of resistance from employers and from families who need the income, said Sami Hashemi, a child-protection specialist for UNICEF in Afghanistan.

Children as young as 6 work in brick making, carpet weaving, construction, mining and farming. Others resort to begging, collecting garbage or selling trinkets on the street.

Families scramble for any job to survive. "They must focus on today, not on a future for their children," Hashemi said.

Aid groups that have poured billions of dollars into Afghanistan since 2001 are unsure how many children work. The best estimate is nearly 2 million between the ages of 6 and 17, or at least 25% of Afghan children, Hashemi said. The numbers are rising as growth in mining and construction, fueled by international assistance dollars, has lured more underage workers.

In a U.S. Labor Department report last year, the word "unavailable" is listed in a chart on the numbers of Afghan working children. The report describes sexual abuse of children who herd livestock. And it tells of children maimed or killed in construction jobs and forced to work in extreme cold or heat, carry heavy loads, smuggle narcotics or serve as soldiers.

"Research does not show any laws to prohibit child commercial sexual exploitation, pornography and use of children in illicit activities," the report says. "There do not appear to be any mechanisms to reach children involved in the worst forms of child labor in the informal sector."

Asked whether it was frustrating for a child-protection specialist to see youngsters performing punishing or dangerous jobs, Hashemi replied, "Any human being, when he sees kids with a right to education and recreation working under these conditions, will be frustrated."

On the chaotic streets of Kabul, skinny kids dart among the vehicles in traffic. They tap at windshields and beg for money. They pester drivers to buy chewing gum, candy, maps, matches, scarves, toilet paper. They collect trash to burn for fuel, or pick through garbage heaps for rotting fruit or half-eaten kebabs.

At the downtown taxi ranks, drivers pay small boys about 10 cents for each fare they enlist. They are a manic and aggressive lot, competing and cajoling and jabbering. Sometimes they half-drag, half-shove fares into taxis already jammed with men whose knees are folded to their chests. They are more gentle with the burka-clad women, helping them into open taxi trunks.

Afghanistan's working youth Despite laws banning child labor, an estimated 25% of Afghan children, some as young as 6, work full or part time.

Abdul Rafi's voice emerges from his scrawny body as a croak. He's only 9, but he has the coarse rasp of a lifelong smoker. He says he wore out his voice screaming at fares, an endeavor he began at age 6.

Abdul is the oldest of three brothers, and it has fallen to him to find work in this country whose traditions require that elder sons support their families. He is up every day at 5 a.m. for morning prayers. Then he hustles to the taxi rank amid a cacophony of donkey carts, creaky old Toyotas, Afghan military vehicles brimming with gunmen and black SUVs ferrying warlords. Most days, he barely earns $3.

"I would rather just go to school," Abdul says, his eyes scanning the street for fares. "But my family needs the money, and I'm the oldest."

He wants to be a soldier one day  a literate soldier. He takes off four hours for class on school days, then hustles back to catch the late-afternoon rush hour.

He's still shouting for fares at dusk, until the shrill call from the muezzin signals evening prayers, and Abdul is off, lurching and weaving through traffic like a drunk, just another working stiff on his way home.

Across Kabul, in a warren of muddy dirt pathways at the edge of the teeming Ali Reza Khan metal market, a 12-year-old boy named Hekmat raises his hammer and slams it down on a sheet of metal. There is a sharp clang, clang, clang as the boy pounds the soft metal into shape. He has the sure stroke and effortless timing of a jazz drummer.

The metal will become a decorative cake tray in Hekmat's swift and nimble hands. All around him, boys and men beat a steady ding, ding, ding to pound out tea containers, ladles and cookstoves.

Hekmat is small and slender, with hands stained gray from four years of pounding metal. He began when his father, a garbage picker, arranged the job through the shop owner, a family friend.

Hekmat earns $6 a week for part-time work that helps support his parents and three younger brothers. He takes off from noon to 3 p.m. to attend school. He wears clean school clothes under a wool coat, stained trousers and tattered sneakers.

"I like doing this job," he says, still pounding as he speaks in a light, childish voice. "It's fun to make things."

I don't want this boy to have my life  stuck inside this bakery.  Yar Mohammed

He intends to keep at it until he graduates from high school. He hopes to become an engineer. "That will be a much better job than this one, so then I'll quit," he says.

His boss, Mohammed Zulmai, 25, began pounding metal when he was 10. He bought his own metal shop a few years ago. He says he knows there are laws against child labor but that he hired Hekmat as a favor to the boy's impoverished father.

He doesn't hire men, Zulmai says. Their hands are too clumsy.

"These boys have small hands, quick hands for this delicate work," he says. "I train them, and they become experts."

Zulmai has a dream for Hekmat and the other boys who work for him: "If they save their money, like me, they can one day own their own metal shop."

At the bakery, the kiln is still glowing at dusk, and Sami Rahimi is selling fresh naan for dinner. Some customers buy on credit. Sami cuts a notch into a long stick to track each purchase; at the end of the week, he counts the notches and collects payment.

Yar Mohammed, his face glistening with sweat, laughs. "We live in the 21st century, but we still count on sticks," he says.

Mohammed says he too supported his entire family when he started working in a bakery at age 8. After 20 years, he opened his own place.

"Young boys have always worked in bakeries. That's our tradition," Mohammed says, shrugging, when asked about child labor laws. And Sami isn't working against his will; the boy considers himself fortunate that his uncle hired him as a favor to his father.

Mohammed blames Western aid groups for not doing more to find alternatives for poor families and their children.

"Billions of dollars have come to Afghanistan," he says, shouting to be heard over the din of customers and the kiln. "Where did it go? Wasted. Stolen. The system is corrupt, and the Americans are part of it."

Mohammed has promised Sami's father that the boy will be educated. "I don't want this boy to have my life  stuck inside this bakery," he says.

Sami listens and nods. Every day, even when he's dealing with customers, his mind is focused on the future.

"I think always about my lessons," he says. "I think about my future, which is my education."

Sami hasn't been home in 45 days. About once a week, he speaks with his mother on a borrowed cellphone. He misses his family, he says, but the men in the bakery serve as his family for now.

Customers are thinning out, trudging home in the dark. Soon, Sami will hop down from his perch and help clean up the mess from the long day. By 10 p.m., he will curl up beneath a blanket on the rack and fall asleep beside the embers dying in the kiln.

Contact the reporter

Follow David Zucchino (@davidzucchino) on Twitter

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A group of U.S. diplomats arrived in Libya three years ago to a memorable reception: a throng of cheering men and women who pressed in on the startled group just to touch us and thank us, recalled Susan Rice, President Obamas national security advisor.

The Libyans were emotional because the U.S. and its allies had toppled leader Moammar Kadafi in a military campaign that averted a feared slaughter of Kadafis foes. Obama administration officials called the international effort, accomplished with no Western casualties, a model intervention.

But in three years Libya has turned into the kind of place U.S. officials most fear: a lawless land that attracts terrorists, pumps out illegal arms and drugs and destabilizes its neighbors.

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Now, as Obama considers a limited military intervention in Iraq, the Libya experience is seen by many as a cautionary tale of the unintended damage big powers can inflict when they aim for a limited involvement in an unpredictable conflict.

If Iraq and Afghanistan are examples of overkill and overreach, Libya is the reverse case, where you do too little and get an unacceptable result, said Brian Katulis, a Middle East specialist at the Center for American Progress, a think tank. The lesson is that a low tolerance of risk can have its costs.

Though they succeeded in their military effort, the United States and its North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies fell short in the broader goal of putting Libya on a path toward democracy and stability. Exhausted after a decade of war and mindful of the failures in Iraq, U.S. officials didnt want to embark on another nation-building effort in an oil-rich country that seemed to pose no threat to Western security.

But by limiting efforts to help the new Libyan government gain control over the country, critics say, the U.S. and its allies have inadvertently helped turn Libya into a higher security threat than it was before the military intervention.

Libya has become North Africas most active militant sanctuary, at the center of the resurgent threat that Obama warned about in a May address at West Point. A 2012 terrorist attack against the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi killed four Americans, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

Arms trafficking from Libya is fueling conflict and insecurity  including terrorism  on several continents, an expert panel reported to the United Nations Security Council in February. Weapons smuggled out of Libya have been used by insurgents in Mali, by Boko Haram terrorists in Nigeria and by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

More than 50,000 people, including refugees from Syria and migrants from North Africa, have flooded into Europe through Libyas porous borders, sharpening the continents immigration crisis.

The latest U.S. State Department travel warning portrays Libya as a society in near-collapse, beset by crime, terrorism, factional fighting, government failure and the wide availability of portable antiaircraft weapons that can shoot down commercial airplanes.

U.S. officials, now scrambling to reverse Libyas downward spiral, say blame rests with the Libyans who took control of a country that has proved more dysfunctional than expected.

In Libya, the bottom line is still that a lot of lives were saved, and Kadafi was removed from power, said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security advisor. What its going to take in the long term for Libya to succeed is strategies that build political coalitions and that train forces. Our military action alone wasnt going to be the end of the story. It was the beginning of a new chapter.

Those who argued against the 2011 intervention say problems were foreseeable.

Former Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, who argued against the military campaign while serving as ranking minority member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, There wasnt enough thought given to how we were going to make sure these people had the security and freedom we wanted them to have.

Obama was initially reluctant to order the intervention, as were several top lieutenants, including former Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates. Gates didnt want to thrust overstretched U.S. forces into a potentially long war over a fractured society, and at one point he threatened to quit over it, he recalled in his memoir, Duty.

But the move was supported by Rice and then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who feared a looming humanitarian catastrophe. Clinton was the swing vote, Gates wrote.

Obama insisted that U.S. forces only kick off the air campaign and then give the leading role to Britain and France. The seven-month operation took longer than promised, but when it ended, Obama heralded it as proof that NATO was historys most effective military alliance.

Then the problems began.

The NATO countries, concluding that there were no opposing forces in Libya that needed to be separated, decided for the first time in alliance history not to leave behind an armed stabilization force. Instead, a tiny U.N. mission with no executive authority was left to coordinate international efforts.

The weak Libyan government resisted Western pressure to seal its borders and create a strong army, instead paying a patchwork of militias to do the job. Its leaders brushed aside Western advice on how to restore the economy, sending oil production down 80%.

They also refused to cede control of Kadafis vast arsenal of weapons. Estimated to include 1 million tons of assault rifles, small arms, antitank missiles, rockets and portable antiaircraft weapons, the cache was bigger than Britains arms inventory.

As time passed, the crumbling of institutions and the conflicts among the 125 rival armed groups proved much greater than U.S. officials had expected. Violence surged, including kidnappings and attacks on government officials.

We were all taken by surprise, when Kadafi left, by the sheer lack of government institutions, Anne Patterson, the top U.S. diplomat for the Middle East, told a congressional panel Wednesday.

After the attack in Benghazi in September 2012, the U.S. and other Western countries cut staff in Libya, further hobbling recovery efforts.

The administrations top priority now is an eight-year plan to train a force of up to 8,000 soldiers. But one year after Libya requested the help, the program hasnt begun because it is too dangerous for the trainers to enter Libya and the dysfunctional government has been unable to raise the money.

As the Obama administration struggles with several other international crises, it is clear that the Libya conflict is considered a second-tier issue.

Last month, Clinton was asked at a Council on Foreign Relations event why the United States didnt do more to mend Libya, since the U.S.-led military campaign had broken the old order.

We did try, she said. That is a perfect case where people whove never had that opportunity to run anything, manage anything, even participate in meaningful politics, understandably are not even sure what questions to ask.

Some observers are warning that the administration eventually may be forced to do more. A Rand Corp. report this spring predicted that if Libyas problems continue to worsen, another NATO intervention might be required.

Libya is a lesson about the risks, said Robert Danin, a longtime U.S. diplomat in the Middle East who warned about the risks of ensuing chaos. With nation-building in disrepute, theres a tendency now to want to declare victory and move on. But interventions cant be done neatly.

paul.richter@latimes.com

christi.parsons@latimes.com
A new Public Religion Research Institute national poll finds that Latino voters are virtually split between Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Conducted in tandem with The Atlantic just days before the critical April 19, New York City primary, the poll finds Sanders bagging 48 percent of Latino support versus Clinton at 47 percent.

Both Clinton and Sanders have been busy crisscrossing that region of late, desperately seeking to curry favor with the state's 19 percent Latino population, 14 percent of which are eligible voters.

Clinton has Scored Well With Latinos all Primary Season

To date, Clinton has scored well in states heavy on Latinos, earning victories in Florida, Texas and Arizona. Sanders, meanwhile, has registered victories in Colorado and Illinois, with the outcome in the heavily Hispanic populated state of Nevada still in dispute.

Overall, the PRRI results suggest Sanders could be gaining ground among Hispanic voters. Just two months ago, a NBC/Wall Street Journal/Telemundo poll found Clinton leading him among Latinos 56 percent to 39 percent.

"Latino voters are more likely to be younger than white votes and that's been part of his appeal," PRRI CEO Robert Jones said in accounting for Sanders' apparent upswing. "He's been able to be very strong among younger voters."

Indeed, millennials are estimated to account for roughly 44 percent of the Latino electorate.

Sanders' campaign spokeswoman Erika Andiola added voters have simply come to know the candidate better and that also has paid dividends.

"At the beginning it wasn't necessarily that people or voters didn't support him, they didn't necessarily know him as well as they did Secretary Clinton," she said. "It was about getting the word out."

Meanwhile, Clinton spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa deemed the poll a "complete outlier," making certain to call attention to Clinton's big wins in Texas and Florida.

"More than half of Democratic primary voters have cast their ballots and Hillary Clinton has received the overwhelming support of the Latino community," she said.

Deeper analysis of the poll reveals that nearly six in 10 Latinos have a favorable opinion of Clinton, compared to 54 percent for Sanders.

Overall, Clinton's strongest level of support comes from African Americans, who favor her 63 percent to 30 percent over Sanders.

"Latinos, while they have become over time a stronger, more reliable constituency, they don't have the same kind of ties to Clinton that African Americans do," Jones said. "Those ties go way back to the '90s," he said.

Trump's Negative Image With Latinos Persists

Meanwhile, the poll also revealed that roughly 83 percent of Latino voters have an unfavorable opinion of Republican front-runner Donald Trump. In addition, 51 percent of Hispanic voters also have a negative view of fellow GOP hopeful Ted Cruz.

Recently, a group of GOP Hispanics publicly took both Trump and Cruz to task over their hardline immigration stances, which include pledges to mass deport as many as 11 million immigrants.
On March 22, a sizable crowd from LB's Cambodian community came to the City Council to object to the then-planned presence of Lt. Hun Manet, invited by LB's Cambodian Coordinating Council, to participate in the April Cambodian New Year Parade. Faced with what amounted to a rift in LB's Cambodian community, a number of LB Councilmembers and the Mayor indicated they wouldn't participate in the parade if Hun Manet were part in the parade. Lt. Hun then indicated he wouldn't take part of the parade...and LB Councilmembers and the Mayor indicated they would participate in today's (April 10) parade.

Regarding last night's (April 9) protest demonstration, LBPD Watch Commander Mark Coble says a crowd estimated at roughly 150 people held a quite loud but otherwise peaceful demonstration outside LB's La Lune restaurant (area Anaheim/Atlantic) where Lt Coble said a visitor from Cambodia was apparently speaking or a guest [didn't confirm the person's name which we've done independently.] LBPD's presence was to ensure that the demonstrators' 1st Amendment/free speech rights were peacefully observed and respected, Lt. Coble said.

The protest, which began about 6 p.m. and ended in the 9 p.m. hour, was loud but peaceful, Lt. Coble said, and added that the demonstrators were cooperative with LBPD.

Lt Coble said that at one point, an individual tripped, fell and was injured and LBFD arrived to treat him; at another point, Lt. Coble said some third party (not LBPD) allegedly pepper-sprayed someone (unclear exactly what happened.)

The protest demonstration ultimately ended peacefully

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Pupils attending a proposed charter school at the site of the former Express-Times building will either meet or exceed state and national guidelines academically and will exceed them artistically, according to the school's founder.

Thomas Lubben on Sunday, April 10, 2016 shares his vision for a new charter school proposed at the former Express-Times building in Easton. (Pamela Sroka-Holzmann | For lehighvalleylive.com)

Thomas Lubben shared his vision for the K-5 school among an estimated dozen parents Sunday afternoon at the former Express-Times building in Easton. Lubben also opened similar charter arts schools in Bethlehem, Allentown and Salisbury Township.

September 2017 remains the targeted opening for the Easton Arts Academy Charter School, 30 N. 4th Street, and interviews with parents will take place March and April 2017. The hiring of an executive director and principal is planned for November 2016; teacher contracts will be awarded in April or May 2017; and other administration and support staff by July 2017.

All teachers hired must have an artistic background, Lubben said.

"Art will be the focus of our school," he told the group. "And every child will get what they need."

Lubben plans to submit the charter proposal to the Easton Area School District by June 2016.

Focusing on art

Offered at the school will be 3.5 hours of academics and 2.5 hours of art classes, as well as a full-day Kindergarten. However, the Kindergarten class would be capped at 15 children.

Lubben vowed the school will exceed all state and national standards artistically and meet or exceed all national standards academically. The school would offer dance, figure slating or gymnastics, theater and visual arts.

"No student will be denied entrance due to a report card," Lubben said.

Also accepted into the charter program would be any student who is disabled, academically-challenged and a legal resident of Pennsylvania. Those not accepted would be out-of-state residents, any student expelled from a school or a student with no interest in the arts.

Children must be age 5 before September 1, 2017 to be enrolled in the Kindergarten program. The school will bus all students within a 10 mile radius to and from the school, Lubben said.

Tuition is free, Lubben said. Charter schools are publicly funded and also rely deeply on fundraising efforts.

Superintendent John Reinhart had discussed the possibility of an arts charter school last year with Lubben and has been dismayed by the concept. Reinhart had said charter schools siphon away sorely needed funds from public schools.

Promoting safety

The school would take up space in the basement and four floors of the building.

Lubben envisions some administrative offices and storage space in the basement; conference rooms, the principal's office, Kindergarten classroom and multi-purpose cafeteria on the first floor.

The second floor would have two large music rooms, as well as two theater, two dance and two art classrooms. The third floor would have first grade, second grade and half of the third grade in classrooms while the fourth floor would have the rest of third grade in a classroom, as well as fourth and fifth grade classrooms.

The city already approved plans for a new police station on the northernmost portion of the property. Police are expected to use portions of the building, however, the two entities will be separated by concrete walls, staff said.

Lubben said any perpetrators entering the police department likely will be handcuffs. He told parents the school will have the utmost in safety measures, equipped with cameras at every door, a complete security system and a full-time security guard.

"How much more can we want for security?," he asked.

Upon passage of the plan, Lubben said he would start renovating the building immediately.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Alfredean Jones Jr

Alfredean Jones Jr. is the new Dean of Students at Easton Area High School as of March 15, 2016.

(Courtesy photo)

Easton Area High School's dean of students has a name familiar to many Easton Area alumni.

It's Alfredean Jones Jr., son of the former longtime principal.

Jones started in the newly-created post on March 15. He was formerly a social studies teacher at Easton Area Academy and at the high school.

The job was created to help handle discipline issues at the high school. Brian Mansfield was appointed to the same position at the middle school, also created to help deal with discipline.

The positions were announced around the same time officials said a spate of fights at the schools was spurred by taunting over social media.

Jones "offered a varied background of experiences and because he was a current member of the staff at the high school he had an advantage of being able to step into the position with an understanding of our particular needs and the habits of students within the high school and how they traveled through the school on a daily basis," said Superintendent John Reinhart.

Jones said meeting a troubled student on his or her terms can go a long way toward turning that student around. He's trying to build relationships with them so that they understand they shouldn't act out just because they disagree with a teacher or they perceive they're being belittled on social media.

"If you feel people are out to get you, you automatically take a certain posture," he said.

Reinhart has called on parents to help monitor their children's social media habits and stop Internet-based disputes before they escalate to fights in schools.

He encourages parents to learn more about social media. He was thrilled with a recent presentation by the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office on the impact of social media on children but wishes more parents came out.

"The attendance was very poor, I'm sorry to say," Reinhart said.

The dean of students posts are temporary through June 30 but Reinhart hopes they can become permanent.

"I'm hoping we will take a renewed look at this and see what we can learn by having this position in place and if it has had a positive impact on discipline and referrals," Reinhart said.

Jones earns a pro-rated amount of an $80,036-a-year salary. Mansfield, who formerly taught at Shawnee Elementary School, earns a prorated portion of a $72,004 annual salary.

Jones' father, along with Bill Houston, were two of the first black administrators in the Easton Area School District.

The pair had the street Jones Houston Way named after them in front of the Easton Boys & Girls Club.

"Alfredean Jones is a legend in Easton," Reinhart said. "He is a person that earned the respect of thousands of kids as they traveled through the district."

Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @RudyMillerLV. Find Easton area news on Facebook.
UPDATE: Child was in car that crossed into opposite lane

Weather conditions likely played a role in a two-vehicle crash in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, that claimed the life of a 3-year-old girl, according to the district attorney.

The crash was reported at 4:39 p.m. Saturday in the 1900 block of Weaversville Road, near the intersection with Colonial Road, but authorities have yet to release any information on how it occurred.

Nevaeha Lydia Marie Rivera, of Weatherly, Pennsylvania, was strapped into a car seat and the seat was ejected from one of the vehicles during the collision, with the toddler still strapped inside, said Lehigh County District Attorney Jim Martin.

An autopsy is planned Monday.

Martin said alcohol is not believed to be a factor in the crash, noting, "There is no evidence of that."

However, a wet road following snow that afternoon likely played a role.

"There was a little bit of wet weather," Martin said of the time the crash occurred.

The rear of one car appeared to have been sheared off, and a pickup truck was against a utility pole, just south of a sharp bend on Weaversville Road.

Martin said a reconstruction team from the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Bethlehem is gathering additional evidence and the crash remains under investigation. No charges were filed as of Sunday, Martin said, and officials have not identified other victims or motorists involved.

Troopers remained at the crash scene Saturday night more than four hours after the accident, and they left without releasing any details. A state police dispatcher Sunday said a trooper handling the investigation wasn't available.

Residents who live near the crash scene said that portion of Weaversville Road is prone to accidents.

Pamela Sroka-Holzmann may be reached at pholzmann@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow her on Twitter @pamholzmann. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Some 2,000 secondary school students from across Leinster attended a road safety roadshow in Punchestown this morning.

Some 2,000 secondary school students from across Leinster attended a road safety roadshow in Punchestown this morning.

There was be a major road safety exhibition open to members of the public from 10am to 2pm.

The event, which is being held as part of the Gathering, will be the biggest road safety event of its kind in Ireland to date, according to Declan Keogh, Kildare County Councils Road Safety officer.

Two Irish NYPD Officers attended on the day as part of the gathering festival, with their new law enforcement officer called Tango Bot.

The Road Safety Authoritys interactive Shuttle and roll-over car plus the Garda National Road Safety exhibition were also present plus 18 other related exhibitors.

A number of VIPs and celebrity guest were expected on the day. Assistant Garda Commissioner John Twomey represented the Garda Commissioner at the event on the day.

Students attending the special roadshow will see for the first time the most shocking and hard hitting road safety show to date so far.

According to Mr Keogh, it will be a very powerful, interactive and informative show, with graphic and true information from real people, involved in real life collisions.

Ive spent the last few months planning this event, it will be the biggest and most interactive road safety event of its kind ever held in the country to date.

Given the considerable increase in road fatalities this year alone, Im not even sure if the hard hitting videos and content we have lined up for the show is hard enough for the students, and believe me, they are shockingly real, he added

The feedback so far has been positive and the thoughts are that the students need to see the full insight into the causation and consequences of any type of a collision.
Recognised as one of Irelands leading composers of traditional music, Dr Charlie Lennon has just completed a 60 minute Suite to honour the heroes of the 1916 Rising, with special reference to Kiltyclogher born Sean MacDiarmada.

It will be performed for the first time next April, Thursday 14 in St Patricks Church in Kiltyclogher at 8pm, with doors opening at 7.30pm. The village church is a very appropriate venue for the concert as both Sean MacDiarmada and Charlie were baptised there.

The suite was commissioned by Gael Linn and is now published as an Album entitled Aille na hAilleA Terrible Beauty. The CD features a range of musicians from the RTE Con Tempo String Quartet to top traditional players, including Charlie himself and his daughter Eilis.

The music moves from Planxty to March, Reel, Jig, Slow Air and Song, reaching its climax in the form of a classical three movement Sonata.

The suite begins with a tribute to James Connolly, moves on to MacDiarmada and Clarke who, together with Connolly, worked closely in developing a plan of action leading to the Rising. It moves to Rosmuc where Pearse had his Summer cottage, meets Ceannt in Spiddal where he is regaling the locals with his uilleann pipes. This is followed with a poem by Pearse in which he foretells future events. It has now been put to music and presented as a song.

The suite then pays tribute to all who died in the conflict, puts one of Plunketts poems to music, plays a march for McDonagh and remembers ODonovan-Rossa in a graveside lament.

Tickets for the concert are 20 and are available from Kiltyclogher Heritage Centre, Kiltyclogher Post Office, The Dock and Glens Arts Centres and Heraghty's and Bredins of Manorhamilton. The concert is supported by Leitrim County Council under the 1916 Centenary Programme.
Liam Fox, February 2007 on the allegations against British solider Jorge Medonca over the death of Baha Mousa:

A whiff of political correctness hangs heavy over the case against Col Mendonca.

Liam Fox, September 2011, on reading the report that condemned British solider Jorge Medonca over the death of Baha Mousa:

As I read the report, my predominant feeling was disgust that individuals could have acted in this brutal way and that their appalling behaviour has tarnished the reputation of the British army.

Liam Foxs change of stance should be welcomed. Hes had new evidence presented to him, hes changed his mind and that is how things should work. But it is a striking case of how different things can look when you are an opposition politician getting selective leaks from insiders or the recently retired from when you are a government minister reading a comprehensive investigation.
A few days ago, Edinburgh Westerns SNP candidate took to the Evening News to take a swipe at the Liberal Democrats, accusing us of being negative before lobbing a few insults our way.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, who hopes to regain the seat for the Liberal Democrats, wrote his own article for the News. He writes:

Toni, Im sorry youve been offended. But I dont think that drawing attention to the failings of your government or your local representatives should be viewed as underhand, Id view it as the democratic duty of a healthy opposition.

When the person you asked us to vote for last May turns up for fewer than half of the votes in the House of Commons since September then I think that as your nearest challenger, I should voice the view of the significant majority of those in our constituency who feel thats just not good enough.

When your ministers preside over a year on year decline in the global rankings of our education system, the shambolic and unwanted centralisation of public services or a waiting times crisis in our health service, then someone should point out that we deserve much better.

Now, I understand its hard for you. The constitution of the SNP prohibits you from openly criticising your party or its policies. But Im not in your party so I can provide a counterpoint to the nationalist dogma that is currently choking Scottish Politics.

The SNP seeks to shut down dissent in communities across Scotland with online intimidation and ridicule, your own campaign team engages in this on a regular basis. Yet here I still am.

John F Kennedy said that without debate, without criticism no administration can succeed and no republic can survive. Whilst the SNP may win another landslide (and I think that would be terrible for our democracy if they do), there will always be people like me across the chamber, offering that debate and that criticism. Dont try to shut it down.

My campaign has been about policy from the start, after all the Lib Dems have got a cracking offer to take to the electorate: A transformational year on year investment of 500m in education through nurseries, schools and reversing SNP cuts to 152,000 college places; a reconfigured health budget that staves off the GP recruitment crisis whilst putting mental health on an equal footing in primary care; and a resolute commitment to protecting the environment and defending civil liberties.

My campaign is about offering my local community something better. Better than the policies of a government which puts its obsession with independence before the needs of our public services. Better than the substandard service we have had to put up with from the local nationalist MP over this last year. Its a positive message which is resonating with more and more people across West Edinburgh.
Welcome to the Golden Dozen, and our 454th weekly round-up from the Lib Dem blogosphere  Featuring the seven most popular stories beyond Lib Dem Voice according to click-throughs from the Aggregator (3-9 April, 2016), together with a hand-picked quintet, you might otherwise have missed.

Dont forget: you can sign up to receive the Golden Dozen direct to your email inbox  just click here  ensuring you never miss out on the best of Lib Dem blogging.

As ever, lets start with the most popular post, and work our way down:

1. How happy should Lib Dems be with 16% local election vote share projection? by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.

Mark analyses the prediction by Rallings and Thrasher.

2. TNS poll shows Lib Dem support rising by Dawud Islam on LibDemHame.

A 2% rise for the party is not to be sneezed at.

3. How Conservatives canvassed for the 2015 General Election by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.

Their key message was right there in their script.

4. Fabulous praise for Caroline Pidgeon from the Evening Standard by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.

Interesting that some of it comes from her opponents.

5. The Lib Dem team for the Liverpool local elections by Richard Kemp on But what does Richard Kemp think?

And its more diverse than you would think from the photo.

6. Did the Lib Dems hold back the worst excesses of the Tories? by Tony Robertson on Sefton Focus.

An unqualified yes.

7. How to win a marginal seat  Gavin Barwells story by Mark Pack on Mark Pack.

Particularly interesting section on the importance of face to face contact with the voters.

And now to the five blog-posts that come highly recommended, regardless of the number of Aggregator click-throughs they attracted. To nominate a Lib Dem blog article published in the past seven days  your own, or someone elses, all you have to do is drop a line to [email protected] You can also contact us via Twitter, where were @libdemvoice

8. For any woman who thinks politicians isnt for them by Elaine Bagshaw on Medium.com.

Some compelling reasons why they should make sure their voices are heard.

9. Crass Tories to cut Business department despite steel crisis by Peter Black on Peter Black.

Apparently 40% staffing cuts are planned.

10. Tales from the campaign trail  what matters to the people of Ceredigion by Liz Evans on Tales from the Campaign trail.

A campaign video from Liz  what has disappointed local residents?

11. Selling our enemies the rope to hang us by Cicero on Ciceros Songs.

Two aspects of the Panama Papers scandal that the media hasnt picked up on.

12. Liberal Youth Conference preview  the big motions by various on LY Libertine.

The Young Liberals are coming back!

Your bonus this week comes from Mark Valladares on his sojourn to the Highlands, especially as he was so nice about my dog.

And thats it for another week. Happy blogging n reading n nominating.

Featured? Add this to your blog post!



<a href="https://www.libdemvoice.org/top-of-the-blogs-the-lib-dem-golden-dozen-454-50115.html"><img src="https://www.libdemvoice.org/images/golden-dozen.png" width="200" height="57" alt="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" title="Featured on Liberal Democrat Voice" /></a>

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
THE SIGHT of a new garda on the beat in east Limerick has been welcomed in the locality after the bursts of serious crime that rocks the very heart of what a community is about in 2015.

A deep sense of fear spread across the area during a spate of malicious hay barn fires and the tragic death of John ODonoghue after he returned to his Doon home to find intruders.

Chief Superintendent David Sheahan said he was acutely aware of the need to reallocate guards in east Limerick. Garda John Ryan is the man entrusted with the role and is stationed in Pallasgreen

Chief Supt Sheahan; acting Bruff superintendent, Inspector Luke Conlon and Sergeant Ted Riordan all attended the launch of Doons community text alert scheme in December.

Limericks most senior garda said the appointment followed on from that meeting with the concerned community.

Arising from that I had to have a serious look at my resources within the division. I decided then to allocate a guard to reassure the community in that area; that their needs were being listened to and also the concerns that they have were being addressed .

It was hugely important to me that the right person would be assigned to the area and they would be proactive in dealing with issues pertaining to east Limerick, said Chief Supt Sheahan, who stressed that Garda Ryan wont just be confining himself to Pallasgreen

I would hope that it will breed confidence in the community and I have no doubt if they have any issues they can contact any garda and they will attend to any issues they have out there, said Chief Supt Sheahan.

At the text alert launch, Chief Supt Sheahan praised locals efforts to assist gardai and sympathised with those who had been affected by crime. He said the village of Doon had endured bursts of serious crime that rocks the very heart of what a community is about,

It is easier to solve some crimes than to get over the fear of them. Sometimes the fear is a bigger issue than the crime itself.
THE threat of a British exit from the EU is another strong motivation to push ahead with the Shannon LNG project in order to protect Irelands energy security in the future, according to Fine Gael MEP Sean Kelly.

Mr Kelly made his comments following a meeting between company representatives and a group of MEPs last week. The briefing also included a presentation from Shannon Foynes Port Company.

The members of the group, he added, were positively disposed towards the project. They could see not only the logic but the necessity for it, Mr Kelly said.

He claimed that several members of the group were surprised by the fact that the project had run into so many obstacles since it was granted planning permission by An Bord Pleanala.

He also pointed out that the backers of the plan told him that the support from Europe for the project was keeping it alive and that if they could get clarity on the tariffs issue, it would remove another big stumbling block to the project.

Mr Kelly said that the potential British exit from the Eurozone offered another strong motivation to develop the project.

We have been dependant for years on the interconnector from Britain and if the UK leaves the EU then we become almost an energy island, he warned.

The MEP for Ireland South has been a strong advocate of the project to develop the 600m terminal for liquified natural gas at Ballylongford on the Shannon Estuary. Backers of the project say it could create over 600 jobs during the construction phase and employ about 50 people full time when up and running.

However, the project - first mooted in 2006 - has been delayed by a series of disputes with the energy regulator over a requirement that the company would have to pay tariffs towards the cost of a gas interconnector with Britain.

Mr Kelly believes, however, that Shannon LNG has the potential to significantly boost gas supplies across Europe.

The Shannon LNG project in Kerry was cited by the European Commission as a future strategic hub for Europes gas supply in recent months. That means it is now eligible for low cost financing from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

The Commission is focused on supporting gas hubs such as this one which, when combined with a fully interconnected and well-functioning European market, can increase supply security across the Union and allow Shannon to become a key gas import point for the EU, he said.

My fellow MEPs and I will be reviewing the Commissions forthcoming strategy for the LNG supply in Europe this autumn, so todays meeting is timely and of huge interest to the delegation who will be key decision-makers in shaping future EU policy.

I have often highlighted the potential of the Shannon LNG project which could boost Europe's gas supply at a time when we urgently need to secure our energy supplies, Mr Kelly added.

The MEPs who visited the region last week belong to the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.
LIMERICK Animal Welfare has now transformed the lives of 160 mistreated and abandoned greyhounds and lurchers by rehoming them in Italy.

Since 2012, the animal charity has been working with rescue organisation Pet Leverieri. Up to 20 dogs travel at a time from Kilfinane to the Mediterranean country. While Limerick Animal Welfare (LAW) would prefer to rehome lurchers and greyhounds in Ireland there isnt the same demand as in Italy, where they are much valued pets and life companions.

After a life of misery they are now living la dolce vita. Blue, who travelled to Italy on the March trip was thrown from a moving car said Marie OConnor, of LAW.

He was a skeleton, frozen and scared of humans. Blue made a full recovery and became the most loving and trusting dog. One of our volunteer dog walkers grew very attached to him and said an emotional goodbye when he left, said Marie.

Robert was found with a broken leg and was extremely thin.

He needed to have a plate in his leg and there were many trips to the vet with him. The dedicated staff at LAW gave Robert the best care and nursed him back to health. He recovered fully and went to Italy on the last trip, said Marie.

Kenny will also see his circumstances come full circle in the future.

He strayed into a farmers hay barn and lay down, unable to get up. The farmer was elderly so his nephew rang LAW for help. They lifted the poor creature into their car and took him to a vet where he was given immediate treatment.

Kenny's ear was ruptured and was so full of pus and infection it took two hours to flush the wound and it then had to be stitched back together. Kenny had sores and hair loss all over his body. This poor animal was starved to the point of near death and would not have lasted much more than a couple of days had he not been rescued by the kind hearted farmer and his nephew. Kenny was unable to make this trip to Italy but he will be on the next one, to a new life, said Marie.

The journey to Milan is a long one - 24 hour ferry trip to Cherbourg, then a 1,200km drive across France and into Italy.

There was torrential rain for the whole of the long journey but, when they arrived the atmosphere was charged - full of excitement and eagerness from the Italian adopters waiting to greet the newest member of their family. They have been waiting months for this moment and the joy and love for these dogs is written all over their faces.

This all the reward that is needed for the months of work and dedication to bring them together and to give these rescued greyhounds and lurchers a second chance to have a full and happy life, said Marie.

The adoption process starts months in advance of the big day. Profiles and photographs are sent from Ireland to Italy for prospective owners. Before travelling all dogs must be issued with a pet passport, get a rabies vaccination and have a vet check.

To support LAW you can donate directly to their bank account, via pay pal, text or through their charity shops and Kilfinane sanctuary. Full details are on their website.

They also welcome volunteers to help clean, look after the animals and walk the dogs. Contact 063 91110 for more information.
MORE than 70 blood donors from across Limerick were honoured at the weekend for achieving the milestone of donating either 50 or 100 pints of blood.

The donors  many of whom have been donating blood for more than 30 years  attended the event at the Greenhills Hotel, which was organised by the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).

Donors from Clare, Tipperary and North Kerry were also honoured on the night.

People have been donating for years and its really a lifetime achievement for a lot of donors. If you are only donating two or three times a year, it takes a long time to get to 50, said Aileen Browne, regional manager of the IBTS, who herself recently donated her 50th pint of blood.

It is estimated that just 3% of the population donate blood regularly, with IBTS research showing that three lives are saved by each unit that is donated.

Jim Hickey, who has donated more than 140 pints over the past 55 years, now helps organise the quarterly mobile blood donation clinics in Caherconlish.

My mother had cancer and she had a number of serious operations and she was a recipient so thats what triggered it off. I was 18 (when I started) and I have been going ever since, said Jim who previously received a Limerick Person of the Month Award.

Of those who received awards at the weekend, 10 have donated more than 100 pints.

Joan Magner-Walsh, from Knockaderry, is the second person in her family to reach the golden milestone.

It is a thrill, Im proud of the fact that I have given 100 pints, said Joan, whose older sister, Mary, also donated 100 pints before developing diabetes which prevented her from donating any more.

Our father said to give if we could and that was it, I was delighted to give it and I encouraged the children to donate it as well, said Mary who added she has got back pints since due to her illness.

Kieron Brislane, who is originally from Caherdavin, has also reached the milestone of donating 100 pints.

I kept it going because I was doing something that I felt was worthwhile and it cost me nothing and the payback is somebodys life somewhere and thats the way I always looked at it and Im always up to encourage people to to the same because its painless and it costs you nothing, he said.

Farmer Seamus Aherne and his wife, Una, who have each donated more than 50 pints said the local blood donation clinics are a night out for the couple, who celebrated their 40th annivserary last year,.

The first reason I ever got involved before I met Seamus was because my mother had been given blood.

 I gave back all that she had been given and then my father-in-law had some blood given to him as well and I said I would just continue,  said Una, who lives in Cappamore.

Seamus says giving blood is no big ordeal and is something that everyone should do. They are constantly looking for blood and we dont miss it and its good to give it, he said.
A Ballyleague man is about to fulfil a longtime ambition by kayaking along the Shannon from Lanesboro to Limerick, and he's doing it all for charity.

Patrick 'Junior' Hannon will set off on the adventure late next month and he hopes to complete it in as few as three days.

I've been kayaking for around 15 years and this is something I've always wanted to do. he explained. A few other lads are going to be joining me for the journey, including Roy Glennon who is a manager at Senator Windows in Longford, Niall Madden from Ballykeeran in Westmeath, and Fergal Brazil from Tullamore. We're hoping other people will also get sponsorship and join us long the route.

We're planning on rowing around 30 miles a day but we also want to enjoy the trip. My kayak and gear are being sponsored by the Canoe Centre in Blanchardstown; We'll have VHF radios with us and a support van which will follow us with our tents and cooking equipment.

Junior added that the trip will be a fundraiser for the Irish Cancer Society.

It will be in aid of cancer research, he explained.

Everyone has been touched by cancer at some stage; my own father died from it and my wife Elaine's aunts and uncles died from it.

I have sponsorship cards in all the local shops and people can also donate online by going to www.justgiving.com/Patrick-Junior-Hannon1.
Ballymahon Credit Union has completed a unique merger with two other credit unions in Ireland.

The financial institution has joined forces with the Affinity Credit Union which is based in Cashel, Co Tipperary and includes Monaleen Credit Union in Co Limerick as well as Cashel Credit Union

Manager at Ballymahon Credit Union is Noelle Doherty.

She is also the chief financial officer of the new group.

Noelle has been involved with Ballymahon Credit Union since 2001 when she was appointed treasurer.

In 2009 she took up the position of manager of the credit union which was founded in 1998.

Ballymahon Credit Union celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013 and is due to open its 5000th account any day now.

Over the last few years members have been looking for a different service from the credit union; they wanted on-line access, they wanted an app and they wanted the ability to run their financial affairs from their credit union account, she said before pointing out that after looking at the number of options, managment at Ballymahon Credit Union looked to Affinity Credit Union which had already established on-line services for its members.

We felt it was a good fit - Cashel would also be focused on it its members locally and that is something that we would do here in Ballymahon as well.

Meanwhile, the new merger means that there are charges to the structure of the local credit union.

The board of Affinity Credit Union meets in Cashel and former Ballymahon Credit Union director Ann Lloyd will sit on that board.

A local community committee has now been established in Ballymahon and it will liaise with the board in relation to promotions and competitions that will be run locally.

The aim of the merger, says Noelle is to bring credit unions together to provide better services for their members.

Back in Ballymahon a new computer system has been installed.

Other changes mean that when a member applies for a loan now they will be provided with more options.

A new rate for unsecured loans of 9% has also been introduced and 95% of loan applications will be dealt with locally.

We still want members to come into the office; in fact we will have more time to spend with our members now because the merger means that much of the administration work will be carried out centrally meaning staff in Ballymahon will have more time to spend with members to talk to them and find out exactly what they want, continued Noelle.

We are very excited about the merger and look forward to growing our membership.
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Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Myanmar on Move....: Love-hate Relationship and a Marriage of (...)

by Sonu Trivedi

Having undergone transition from authoritarianism to democracy in 2010, Myanmars disciplined democracy is on move since the first free and fair democratic elections in 2015 held after a gap of six decades. However, in its current phase of transition, on the one hand it is facing the daunting task of re-building its institutions, while on the other, the forces of the past remain powerful demanding a delicate balancing and thoughtful compromises both from the wielders of past regime and the present leadership.

The New government in Myanmar remains deeply entangled amidst the tussle between the hardliners and soft-liners in the authority. This is visible in both the military as well as the democratic camp. The hardliners in the military are more concerned about securing their position and seats in the parliament and the Cabinet whereas reformists are providing space for democracy to blossom though it is still in its nascent stage. However, what is more alarming is that the reform process in Myanmar is scarred by reformists and the hardliners in the democratic camp as well. The National League for Democracy (NLD) suffers from a lack of professionalism and centralised structure. There has been a strong discontentment amongst its members during the pre-election phase on the issue of selection of candidates and distribution of party tickets; this has further deepened in the post-election scenario owing to the distribution and allocation of ministerial portfolios.

The complicated and delicate relationship between the military and Aung San Suu Kyi has been the bedrock of the current reform process in Myanmar. Any strain in this relationship is going to adversely affect the transition process in the country. The changing political dynamics with the entry of Aung San Suu Kyi and her party in parliament is going to shape the future of political transformation in Myanmar. Her entry in parliament has been a means of legitimising the regimes mandate to govern and enhance its own reform credentials. The military needs her in parliament to bolster its authority in the government. However, Aung San Suu Kyi needs the military perhaps more than anyone else if she is to advance politically and amend the Constitution, given that a quarter of seats are reserved for the military in parliament. Therefore, any effort to amend the Constitution cannot disregard the role and support of the military officers present in parliament.

Amidst the current state of affairs, choosing a proxy candidate as the President (reasons for which are obvious); creating the post of State Counsellor and assuming it; and reserving the Cabinet berth of Minister in the Presidents Office for herself, in addition to the Foreign Ministry explains the appeasement of the military to retain its influence as prescribed and specified within the letters of the Constitution. However, at this juncture, Aung San Suu Kyi also cannot afford a confrontationist strategy if she has to assume a pseudo- presidential role outside the framework of the Constitution. This compromise between the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law echoes a unique love-hate relationship and a marriage of convenience by boththe military and the NLD to retain their control over authority in Myanmar respectively.

Demilitarising politics and sending the military back to the barracks is the foremost challenge for the new government which requires consistent effort and perseverance. Notwithstanding the reform initiatives, the Army still wields enor-mous influence over Myanmars institutions. The Ministry of Defence, Home and Border Affairs remain under the armed forces [Article 232 (b) (ii) of the 2008 Constitution]. Furthermore, Article 201 related to the formation of a National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) and its role during the Emer-gency is a sign of the military being sacrosanct. Failure of the democratic forces to bring about constitutional reforms and the amendment of the controversial Article 59(f) of the Constitution has ruled out all the possibilities of Aung San Suu Kyi becoming the President, though she is the leader of the largest ruling party in parliament. On top, Article 60 provides for the procedure of electing the President who is chosen from the candidates put forward by each of the two Houses of Parliament, in addition to a third nominee from the military. The winning candidate becomes the President while the succeeding two serve as first Vice-President and second Vice-President respectively. In the current Parliament U Htin Kyaw who won with 360 of the 652 votes cast in the two Houses of Parliament, emerged as the President. He was followed by Myint Swe, who was nominated by the military and received 213 votes. The third place was taken over by an ethnic Chin candidate, Henry Van Thio, nominated by the Upper House, who got 79 votes. In addition, the most infamous Article 74 laying down the procedure for formation of the Union Parliament according to which one-third of the seats would be reserved for the Defence Forces in both the Houses and Article 161 extending this modus operandi to the Regional Parliaments. In view of that, Myanmars experience reflects its fragile experiment with democracy which still depends upon the relics of the previous regime.

In view of the growing Centre-periphery contestations, the issue of ethnic reconciliation demands high priority of the government, which has signed the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA) as a part of the three-stage process towards peace and ethnic reconciliation. Though the government had signed bilateral ceasefire agreements with 15 armed groups, only eight out of these were party to the NCA. However, some of the volatile groups such as the Kachin Independence Army, the United Wa State Army, and the abrogation of the ceasefire agreement by the Kokang ethnic armed group have challenged the reconciliation process and hope for durable peace in Myanmar. Critics are apprehensive about the peace deal because of the ongoing skirmishes with some of the major armed groups and the deep-seated mistrust that some of these ethnic groups share towards the military. Nevertheless, resolving the ethnic issue will be Myanmars biggest challenge now. Overcoming the sixty-year-old ethnic conflict will not be easy and the government will have to do a great deal to build the trust necessary to move beyond the ceasefires to resolve the underlying political issues and, last but not the least, post-conflict reconstruction and peace building which remain crucial for post-conflict security and stability in Myanmar.

Economic reconstruction and recovery in a country where corruption is endemic is an Achilles heel. Much of the dominance by the military which remains in Myanmar is also because of its economic might and control over resources. Extension of military control over the national economy under Ne Wins Burmese Way of Socialism and antagonism to private capital, liberalisation and xenophobia has led to the stagnation of the economic institutions in Myanmar. Adoption of the nationalistic policies in the modernisation of the country has led to the establishment of a state- led developmental model and absence of strong corporatist elites emerging separate from the military. Pacifying this growing internal urge for economic recovery in recent years, financial stability and security are going to be the single most significant challenge of change for Myanmar.

The newly elected President U Htin Kyaw must focus on safeguarding the interests of the minorities, women, children and other margina-lised communities, release of political prisoners and Child soldiers and cushion the pressures generated by the anchors of the global political economy. The widening majority-minority divide has been an unfortunate development in Myanmar. This historic conflict has flared up communal violence in the recent past, thereby complicating the socio-religious fabric and aggravating tensions. On this particular front, the advocate of democracy, Aung San Suu Kyi, appears to have failed to act, given the possibility of alienating voters during the elections, which otherwise would have been crucial in mainstreaming them. Her critics also appear to be at loggerheads for not having come out openly on this issue of worsening sectarian violence. Thus, consolidating her position amidst the waves of sectarian violence and widening rift between the Buddhist majority and Muslim minority is another formidable challenge faced by the new President and Aung San Suu Kyi. Amidst the limited political role she is expected to play, according to the Constitution (theoreti-cally), and the deep skepticism existing towards the political institutions which are still largely dominated by the military, she needs to take calculated steps in this democratic re-engineering and re-structuring.

Sonu Trivedi teaches at Zakir Husain Delhi College, University of Delhi.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Are Universities Under Ideological Attack?

Is there a concerted effort by the Sangh Parivar to infiltrate into the realm of higher education in the name of nationalism, culture and indigenous knowledge? In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, higher education was used by the powerful forces of nationalism in the USSR, Germany, Italy and even in Europe and the USA to shape national identities and serve narrow national interests. As a result higher education produced ideologues for Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, Communist Russia and China, and capitalist USA. It was a state- controlled education with clear goals and objec-tives without any autonomy in the educational sphere. Individuals were shaped by the ideology of the state and by being subservient to the designs aimed at promoting the legitimacy of the state.

Is Higher Education Controlled?

With the kind of developments taking place in higher education, one gets the impression that the country is moving in a similar direction today. Is the ruling regime making use of higher education in particular and education in general for vested interests to create ideologues and citizens for a nationalist state? A few examples will suffice. The presence of Baba Ramdev with the members of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram at the meeting of the Unnat Bharat Yojana anchored by the IIT- Delhi, an institute of national repute, where recommen-dations were made for research on the genetic code of bulls, cows and cow-based agriculture, was hardly an academic exercise. Why did the IIT allow this? The answer is simple. The Institute wants to be a part of the establishment and those in the administration of the institution are not concerned about its academic reputation. Take the other example of the de-recognition of the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle in IIT-Madras. There was absolutely no logic in the de-recognition of the association. Why should discussions and debates be ever banned in educational institutions in a democratic state? These institutions were created for the purpose of making students aware of the national icons who shared an ideology of social transformation. However, when the powers that be decided in Delhi to ban such an organisation, those in the administration obliged. Similar actions have been repeated in other institutions as well. That groups of the affiliates of the Sangh Parivar like the ABVP and others have begun to control the campuses through their illegitimate actions is something that is worrisome.

Appointments

The other way of exercising control is through appointments. In spite of vehement opposition from students of the Institute and the public, Gajendra Chauhan, not known for his academic credentials, recently took over as the Chairman of the Film and Television Institute of Pune. Pro-RSS individuals, such as Anagha Ghaisas, Narendra Pathak, Pranjal Saikia and Rahul Solapurkar, have been appointed to the FTII Society. The credentials of these persons are that they are loyal to the forces of the Sangh Parivar and are willing to further the latters agenda. There are more and more people of the kind taking on leadership positions in the universities. Chandrakala Padia was appointed as the Chair-person of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies in place of Gopalkrishna Gandhi who resigned once Modi took over as the Prime Minister. Girish Chandra Tripathi, a State-level RSS functionary, was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU). The only criterion that Y. Sudershan Rao, who was appointed as the Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, had was his proximity to the RSS. He was a Professor of History at the Kakatiya University in Telangana and functioned as the head of the Andhra Pradesh chapter of the Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana (ABISY), a subsidiary of the RSS. He had supported the caste system in India and stated his vision of re-writing Indias history to prove the historicity of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. To make his work smooth in the organisation the others who have been accom-modated in the reconstituted team are mostly office-bearers of the RSS-backed ABISY. Lokesh Chandra at 87, who should have lived a retired life, now heads the Indian Council of Cultural Relations and claims that Modi is a greater leader than Gandhi. That makes him eligible to head the institution. Baldev Sharma, the former editor of the RSS mouthpiece, Panchjanya, was appointed as the Chairman of the National Book Trust in March this year. Vishram Ramchandra Jamdar, a professed RSS swayamsevak, has been appointed as the head of the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur even when he was not among the four shortlisted candidates for the post. Pahlaj Nihalani, the newly appointed Censor Board of Film Certificate (CBFC) Chairman, was the brain behind the BJPs Har har Modi, Ghar ghar Modi campaign during the last Lok Sabha elections. Many of the recent appointments at Prasar Bharti have been of people affiliated to the Sangh in direct or indirect ways. Perhaps the most crucial of these appointees is A. Surya Prakash as the bodys Chairman; he was the Consulting Editor of The Pioneer and a distinguished Fellow at the Vivekananda International Foundation, a Delhi-based pro-RSS think-tank, that was earlier headed by the current National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval. These bodies exercise large influence. Now that they are appointed, they will make similar appointments from their fold to these bodies.

Other Means

The other areas of concern are that reputed institutions like the IIMs and similar bodies are inviting Right-wing ideologues to be on the right side of the establishment. These ideologues are influencing trade, business and culture. The proposal to have separate vegetarian canteens in the IIMs, IITs and other major universities was another one of those acts to sharply divide the institutions. Contentious issues like beef and Ram Mandir have begun to create strife in campuses. With the meet in the Delhi University campus on Ram Mandir, the fire of saffronisation has already been lit. With the appointment of more and more party ideologues as Vice-Chancellors and Directors of institutes, aggressive proposals are being made for introducing courses in yoga, Sanskrit and culture. The ICCR is allegedly putting pressure on universities to create chairs in cultural studies to be named after Vivekanandaa figure the RSS has adopted in the pantheon of Hindutva iconsand, even more controversially, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, whose contribution to culture remains unknown

Larger Agenda

There is a larger agenda here. With these ideologues the government in power hopes to bring about more substantive changes in the content of education as envisaged by the RSS. Those uncomfortable to the party in power are either being sacked or made to resign. When the NCERT Director, Parvin Sinclair, refused to toe the line of Smriti Irani, she was ousted over two years before her term could end aborting at the last stage the revision of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 she had initiated to de-saffronise education in the country. Nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar resigned from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombays governing body in March, following reports of differences with the HRD Minister. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the Chairman of Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, decided to resign. Mahesh Rangarajan stepped down as the Director of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) as he understood that the BJP wanted him to go. Sandeep Pandey, the progressive Professor, was sacked for his Left-leaning views from teaching in the Banares Hindu University. These are some of the examples. While on the one hand members of the BJP or those close to the BJP/RSS have been appointed to important positions, those who oppose the agenda of the Sangh Parivar are either kept out or made to resign by allegations that are simply not true.

Interference into Culture

The BJP and its organisations have publicly stated that they are committed to cleanse India of the pollution caused by Western culture by preparing independent roadmaps for the proposed culture cleansing exercise which will involve curricula, art and cinema, science, technology and libraries. The promise made is to totally revamp all these institutions and academic programmes with a detailed roadmap. Learning of Sanskrit has already acquired importance as a part of making the young feel proud in their ancient heritage. The Haryana Government has already introduced Gita in schools. Lessons from Mahabharata, Ramayana and Gita may soon be taught in schools and colleges as part of the plan to rid the country of cultural pollution and inculcate values in accordance with the RSS directives. Yoga tsunami is set to swamp the Indian educational institutions. The climax of it all was the recent Science Congress that embarrassed India internationally by allowing the presentation of two papersone on how Lord Shiva is the greatest environmentalist and another on the physical and spiritual benefits of playing the shankh (conch). And all these policies and programmes have been pushed through the Human Resource Development Ministry headed by a person who does not even have a graduate degree!

At the Osmania University, Hyderabad on December 10, 2015 eight organisers of the controversial beef festival and pork festival were detained. A curfew-like situation prevailed on the campus with heavy police security being deployed to prevent any untoward incident. The BJP MLA, K. Ram Bhupal Rao, had vowed to stop the beef festival and had announced that he would perform a Gau Puja (cow worship) on the day. Food and its choice are fundamental to the rights of citizens. Why should it become an issue in a secular state other than for cultural nationalism of the Sangh Parivar? The objective of all these is to condemn the modern and scientific temperament and replace it with primitive thoughts. The RSS and its affiliates are terribly frightened of free minds, rational thought and critical enquiry. To prevent any positive change in society, the RSS with its affiliates is prepared to take the country back in time where everything with modern or Western influence could be banished. The tragedy of all that would be indoctrination of young impressionable minds who should be made to think objectively and critically.

There is a Pattern

There is a clear pattern in all that the Sangh is engaged in to bring about long-term changes in Indian state and society through education. Look at the way the Modi Government has gone about the celebration of Christmas. At first the Central Government declared the day as Good Governance Day, a day that was celebrated as a national festival by people of all faiths whether one believed in the tenets of Christianity or not. More than the celebration of Christmas, it was a recognition of the presence of a community of 2.3 per cent people who have been active in the countrys educational, service and civil society sectors. The cancellation of the holiday and observance of it as Good Governance Day was to undermine the communitys contri-bution. To make matters worse through an executive order the state decided to celebrate the birth anniversaries of two Parivar icons on that day, Atal Behari Vajpayee and the even-more sectarian former Hindu Mahasabha leader Madan Mohan Malaviya. All this was done in the name of culture, further reinforcing its narrow view of Christians as outsiders and the icons of the Sangh Parivar who have been hostile for Christians and their faith as nationa-lists.

Response

Unfortunately, there has not been a national outcry against the sudden and subtle trans-formation of education to suit the agenda of the party in power. The Opposition is not making any noise. With lack of Opposition in the Lower House and lack of thought in the Rajya Sabha, the BJP has found it easy to impose its core doctrine on the country. The most affected are the colleges and universities. The academia as a whole, with rare exceptions, when asked to bend, is on its knees, trying to curry favour with the existing establishment.

The tragedy of Indian higher education is that a large section of those in the system are there for their livelihoods and employment without any deep commitment to the world of ideas and society. They are ideologically bankrupt and you do not expect them to stand up and resist. That is why instead of an environment of academics, where issues have to be discussed and debated, we have colleges and universities that exist to transmit knowledge for degrees than for life.

Policing in campuses is on the increase. There is the big brother watching with cameras the entire campus life. Not only is the world of ideas controlled, but even human behaviour in campuses remains controlled more and more. There is already unfreedom and insecurity in the system. What is sad, however, is the silence of the political parties and academic activists.

Resist Saffronisation

The RSS agenda or ideology has to be resisted for several reasons. What is basically proposed by the RSS/BJP team is a set of ideas of the Brahmanic religion that does not represent Hinduism at all. Through educational institu-tions the state is attempting to legitimise these ideas by imposing Sanskrit, yoga,Gita and other religious texts. Secular education is now being getting communalised. The whole developmental slogan that was used by Modi to get elected is used to Hinduise society. Instead of helping students to think critically the BJP-led policy provides students with a set of myths, beliefs and superstitions. Educational institutions are not places for indoctrination to internalise myths, beliefs and dogmas but spaces to think, to reason and to analyse.

Any indoctrination or imposition of an ideology from above would hinder the very reason for existence of these institutions: to advance knowledge by original and critical investigation. Transmitting the legacy of the past is important, but that legacy has to be transmitted with more questions than answers so that students and teachers examine that legacy in a spirit of search for truth.

Higher Educational Institutions are for Critical Engagement

In the classical view which is still valid to a large extent, the institution of higher education are communities of scholars and students engaged in a common task. This engagement needs criticality and research to delve into issues and concerns that matter to society. But politics cannot dictate these. Research is a free choice. Individual scholars and scientists should have the freedom to pursue the truth, and to teach and publish their findings. For research to be termed research it needs to be objective by following rigorous intellectual criteria and subject to what is today called peer review to prevent political interference. How can people research on cows and cow dung, provide evidence for the presence of atom and nuclear bombs in ancient India since these are political issues? Similarly as long as Ramayana and Mahabharata are not historical texts but religious epics of particular religious groups, it is wrong to impose them on the country.

Partisan politics would destroy higher education. For years colleges and universities enjoyed a measure of autonomy, even when the state paid professors and dictated curricula. That autonomy was a boon. A section of the academicians for years had come to exercise their right to be active citizens and pronounced on political questions, making universities the home of public intellectuals, and a creative and independent cultural force. Science had become more people-oriented addressing the concerns of the people. Institutes of higher education need this autonomy to govern their own affairs and to make decisions on academic matters.

The examples of countries like Germany and Sweden are worth emulating. In spite of the prevalence of laissez-faire capitalism, institutions of higher education in these countries stand outside the system of market relations without being run as commercial organisations. They are fully funded by the state without direct interference with their own autonomy which has helped these countries to protect their liberty and diversity. Without keeping out party politics and economic power of the markets, higher education wont thrive. A knowledge economy depends on the quality and independence of knowledge without any ideological onslaught. What the country badly needs is a higher education system financed by the state without state interference to promote a knowledge society.

Conclusion

This is possible even at the last juncture if politics is supportive. The Centrist and Leftist parties could begin a campaign backed by members of the academia and the public at large. Allowing education to be communalised has serious consequences. It is an anti-national and anti-constitutional project. The country cannot be allowed to drift. According to the Constitution, India is a secular state. There is no place for the teaching of any religious texts in institutions of learning. The imparting of secular, rational and scientific education is a mandate of the secular state. When the ruling party moves away from that mission, it is the bounden duty of the Opposition to take up the issue and mobilise the nation.

Is the Opposition failing the nation? The Oppositions main role is to question the govern-ment of the day and hold them accountable to the public. Any government has to remain answerable to the public at all times, and a good Opposition can put the spotlight on serious issues and have them resolved quickly. The Opposition has also to mobilise support and take sections of the academia into confidence. There is no doubt that the changes that are introduced and the changes that are visualised need debates and discussions and the Opposition parties must protect higher education in the country from the clutches of the communal and fascist forces.

Dr Ambrose Pinto SJ is the Principal, St. Aloysius Degree College, Bangalore.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Shame on You!

by K. Narayana

I feel ashamed of you now, after all these years of admiration. What is your status and what is Kanhaiyas level? Why did you go to the airport to receive him?complains a well- wisher of mine.

A person who had praised deshadrohi Afzal Guru, is getting your support! Shame on you! another friend of mine expresses his ire.

You had followed Kanhaiya to the Central University. Did you ever realise what impression it will create? one more Leftist friend enquires.

I concede that I am facing criticism from some quarters like these three typical ones I have listed above. I am not talking about the numerous praises and expressions of support I have received. I will take cognisance of the criticism rather than the words of support. Expressions of support might elate you and help you to move forward, but their role is limited to that. It is only the criticism that helps us to introspect.

Anti-National

The episode of Kanhaiya had emerged with the events that took place at JNU, Delhi between February 9 to 11 this year. Along with Kanhaiya, the Students Union President of JNU, two other students were also charged under sedition and arrested.

We are all aware of these events in JNU since February 9 that had led to the arrest of Kanhaiya Kumar. The seven video tapes, in which he had purportedly shouted anti-India slogans, and which were widely publicised by some TV channels, had been sent to a Lab in Hyderabad for analysis. It was established that at least two videos, widely publicised by some channels, had been doctored. It is these morphed videos that were used as evidence against Kanhaiya, and he was charged on the basis of these videos. It was also widely publicised by some other channels explaining technically how these videos were morphed. Official investigations by various agencies had established that Kanhaiya had neither shouted the anti-India slogans, nor had he any role in it. Legal experts the world over, eminent and veteran journalists and many top politicians had supported the fact that Kanhaiya was innocent and that he had done no wrong. Should Kanhaiya walk on fire to once again prove his innocence? I am sure even that will not satisfy the saffron brigade who are after his blood.

I have full confidence in the fact that this young man, whose age is less than half of my political life, is innocent and if proven otherwise, I declare that I will say goodbye to my political life. I am saying this from the depths of my heart.

Before entering Parliament for the first time, Narendra Modi had kissed the earth. I would like to ask him: will he be prepared to rub his nose in the ground, now that he and his party are sure to be proven wrong? Are they prepared to take up this challenge?

Giving me unsolicited advice, that I have a high position in politics and that I should not stoop down to expressing support to Kanhaiya is a blatant attempt to isolate Kanhaiya and play with his life. Their praise of me is in fact subversion.

Irrespective of her/his age, if anyone comes forward to fight against injustice and for a better India, I will extend my support to that person. Why the hell are you people so scared of him? Is it because the fearless young man is challenging Modi one-to-one? Youth are staying away from politics and even honest and hardworking young cadres are not able to climb up the political ladder. It is only children of the rich and powerful, along with top industrialists who are occupying seats in Parliament and other elected Houses. And politics for them is a part of their business, a tool to promote their interests. And Parliaments purpose is narrowed down to serve the interests of the rich and powerful. More than 80 per cent of the acts proposed to help the downtrodden and poor farmers are languishing and not able to see the light of the day. Women, who comprise 50 per cent of the population, could not get the 33 per cent reservation in Parliament and State legislatures. The relevant Bill is pending forever.

In this context, it is persons such as Lalit Modi and Vijay Mallya, who get all the political support to cheat this country and its people, while no one in power comes out honestly to support a forthright young man like Kanhaiya. I feel proud of this young man and I dont hesitate to extend whatever help he needs. This country needs thousands of Kanhaiyas. False pride should not come in the way of supporting the truth.

Kanhaiya, who was under police custody, was attacked in full public view before TV cameras by BJP goons, wearing black lawyers coats. Even the legal experts, deputed by the Supreme Court, were not spared. The police and all the official machinery were mute witnesses to this blatant violation of the law of this land. Students are now afraid of going to their class-rooms and an atmosphere of fear has been created. The Hyderabad Central University is a glaring example of this. It has been converted into a concentration camp, with the students deprived of food, water, electricity and communication facilities. The BJP had threatened that they will block Kanhaiya from entering Hyderabad and Vijayawada. The moment he landed in Hyderabad, every movement of his was fraught with danger. He was prevented from meeting Rohith Vemulas mother. Goons on motor bikes tried to pelt stones on the car in which Kanhaiya was travelling. At the closed gates of the University of Hyderabad, the BJP goons had blocked his path and tried to disrupt the meeting he was supposed to address. While he was addressing a meeting at Sundarayya Vijnana Kendram in Hyderabad, it was again the BJP goons who tried to throw chappals, though unsuccessfully, on Kanhaiya in the full presence of elderly citizens and the media.

Though permission was granted by the authorities to hold a meeting at Siddhartha College grounds, Venkaiah Naidus henchmen had seen to it that the permission was withdrawn. We had to shift the venue to a private function hall. Two hours before Kanhaiya was supposed to arrive, the BJP cadres tried to enter the hall with the intention of creating trouble. They had brought in goons from far-off places to enact this drama. I got a call from Delhi that the BJP was planning to organise an attack on Kanhaiya by some BJP women. By 4.30 pm, these women were already there in the meeting hall and got into an argument with the Red Shirt volunteers. Some BJP goons from other districts, who could not be immediately identified by the Vijayawada local comrades, sat in the front row and they tried to throw chappals at Kanhaiya as he rose to speak. Of course, they did not succeed as the Left cadres were alert. We had put up Kanhaiya at a hotel for the night, and even there, the BJP goons went and threatened the hotel management. This all-powerful government, with stalwarts such as Modi and Venkaiahseem to be scared of this little boy, Kanhaiya. Why was there so much snooping and subversion on him? Are you scared stiff that if he speaks, you will be exposed? Disrupting the meeting of rival parties does not exactly fit into the democratic culture.

The Constitution has guaranteed the right to assembly and expression of dissenting opinions for all citizens. If you try to snatch it away from us by misuse of power, the anger of the people will explode on your face.

Your blatant attempts at creating a frenzy of politically motivated false nationalism and your projection of Bharat Mata to symbolise the interests of the rich is sure to boomerang on you. This whole subversive activity of bringing in Hindutva fascism is being watched with anger by the people and they will teach you a bitter lesson.

With this subversive plan, these saffron gangs want to thwart the rising tide of opposition against them, by silencing Kanhaiya. At this critical juncture, should we remain mute spectators and allow them to carry on with their nefarious plan? When the police and administration had failed to protect Kanhaiya in the hallowed premises of the court, who will trust this government to protect the life of Kanhaiya? Only the committed Leftist move-ment has to take care of him at this critical juncture.

Should Kanhaiya be left alone to fend for himself? Is it a sin to protect and help him? You are saying that we will get painted in the same colour as Kanhaiya. I say that Kanhaiya is always on our sidehe is a committed Leftist cadre. By keeping him away from us, we will be throwing him to the saffrom wolves. Is that what you want, by cautioning me?

When the movement against the BJP misrule is picking up, we should put all our efforts by encouraging the newly emerging united student-youth movement. Any hesitation at this stage will prove suicidal to the Left in this country.

Hyderabad, March 28, 2016

Dr K. Narayana is the National Secretary, Communist Party of India.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > The Kolkata Flyover Collapse: Some Questions

Till the afternoon of Thursday, March 31, the Hyderabad-based construction firm Iragava-puru Venkata Reddy Construction Ltd., better known by its initials IVRCL, was not a very high-profile company. But the sudden collapse of a huge slab of a flyover the company was building in Burra Bazar, the thickly-congested business district of Kolkata, brought it into the limelight. Many vehicles and pedestrians got trapped under its debris. Till the time of writing, 26 deaths have been confirmed and nearly a hundred injured, some of whom are in a critical condition. The debris has still not been fully cleared but the stench emanating from there suggests more decomposed bodies may have been lying under it.

In election-bound West Bengal, the tragedy is a godsend to the Opposition parties, from the BJP at one end to the Congress and the CPI-M at the other. It has brought fresh grist to the propaganda mill of the Opposition. More than sympathy for the dead and the injured, there is a competition to derive the maximum political mileage out of the tragedy and put the ruling TMC and its leader, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, in the dock. In the present circumstances this is perhaps natural.

The criticism against the ruling party became more strident after Sudip Bandyopadhyay, leader of the TMCs parliamentary wing, added to the discomfort of his party by saying that he had found the design of the flyover defective and had informed the State Government accordingly. However, since much of the construction work had been done by the time, there was little that could be done to stop the construction and change the design. His statement was immediately contradicted by his party colleague Firhad Hakim, the State Urban Development Minister. What is rather intriguing is that not being a civil engineer, how could Bandyopadhyay detect the defect in the design?

Before taking a close look at the credibility and financial health of the IVRCL, certain facts need to be put on record. The Left Front Government gave the contract for the Rs 164 crore flyover project to the IVRCL in 2007, a good four years before it was voted out of power. The TMC Government inherited it. After the tragedy, the reaction of Ashok Bhattacharya, Urban Development Minister of the LF Government, was: I have no responsibility. The present UD Minister (Firhad Hakim) has to shoulder the responsibility. PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury went a step ahead and demanded Hakims immediate arrest before any inquiry had been ordered.

The spokesman of the company, K. Pandu-ranga Rao, first blamed the Almighty. It is an act of Godwas his explanation. Faced with severe criticism for his evasive remark, he came out with another preposterous theory. It was a blast that had caused the collapse, he said, without a shred of evidence. The State Police went into action, raiding the companys offices in Kolkata and Hyderabad and arresting some senior executives and slapping the murder charge on them.

Now about the financial health of the company. A look at the Profit and Loss Account of IVRCL brings out some telltale facts. Its sales turnover has fallen from Rs 5651.45 crores in March 2011 to Rs 3117.42 crores in March 2015. During the same period, its total income fell from Rs. 5709.52 crores to Rs 3.217.75 crores; the operating profit declined from Rs 514.59 crores to (minus) Rs 29.27 crores; its reported net profit nosedived from Rs 157.9 crores to (minus) Rs 672.23 crores; and its earning per share (EPS) from Rs 5.91 crores to (minus) Rs 14.64 crores. (Source: www.moneycontrol.com/financials/ivrcl/profit-loss/IVR)

Due to the mounting losses, the company dismissed 23 per cent of its workforce as a cost-cutting measure in 2015. The previous year, it had offered Rs 4000 crores of assets for sale, hoping that if the sale went off, it would be able to liquidate its debt burden.

Meanwhile, after the Kolkata tragedy, more facts have come to light. The IVRCL was blacklisted by the Jharkhand Government in 2015 for doing work haphazardly. The Jharkhand Government served a notice on the company demanding Rs 750 crores for losses and damages caused. Earlier the company faced a CBI probe into the allegation of its paying a bribe of Rs 22 crores to former Chief Minister Madhu Koda for bagging a contract for rural electrification. However, the probe had to be closed for lack of adequate evidence.

Way back in 2011, the CBI filed a case against the company for irregularities in a tsunami housing project in Puducherry that resulted in a loss of Rs 35 crores to the Puducherry Government and the Union Government.

Both the LF Government, which awarded the Kolkata flyover project to the IVRCL, and the successor Trinamul Government are answer-able to the peoplethe first for giving the contract in the first place to a tainted and sick company with such a track record and the TMC Government for not terminating the contract, though the work on the project was getting unconscionably delayed. After the accident, a company spokesman admitted that in the nine years from 2007 to 2016, they could complete only 55 per cent of the work or half the job. Another half remains to completed,

Now the blame-game and mutual recrimi-nations have begun, with each side trying to pass the buck on the other, while the bereaved families mourn their dead. An inquiry will of course be conducted and responsibility fixed. Some may be found guilty. But the far bigger question is: will this disaster put an end to the unending series of such disasters once and for all? Will private greed have the better of public safety in future also?

The author was a correspondent of The Hindu in Assam. He also worked in Patriot, Compass (Bengali), Mainstream. A veteran journalist, he comes from a Gandhian family and was intimately associated with the RCPI leader, Pannalal Das Gupta.
Home > Archives (2006 on) > 2016 > Money Makes the Mare Go

That the Indians have stashed money abroad was known even when I began my journalism career almost 60 years ago. The West German Government once provided us with the list of depositors. But nothing came out of it because the people involved enjoyed political patronage. The much-hidden Swiss accounts were also given to the government when it made an official request. No action followed since it was once again seen that the people who had kept their money were influential.

I recall the Union Home Ministry once making an inquiry into the foreign funding of political parties after a furore in Parliament. The report was never revealed, but it was given out unofficially that all political parties, including the Left, had their accounts in West Germany or Switzerland.

The revelations made now about the offshore investments by Indian businessmen and indus-trialists are in the same category. One must congratulate the intrepid journalists for this. After talking to the journalists, I found that it had taken more than six months for them to collect information and collate it from here and there.

Understandably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set up a panel of officials from the Income Tax Department, RBI and Enforcement Directorate to probe the matter and apportion responsibility. Yet, nothing concrete would come out of it because the persons connected with the dealings have a political clout.

Parliament may take up the matter since the entire nation is horrified over the disclosures. Yet again, the matter would not go beyond accusations and counter-accusations since all political parties are involved in some way or the other. Parties have to oil their set-ups and they have to have some source to do so. The bane of the problem is the money needed during elections. Election to Assembly constituencies is estimated to cost Rs 10,000 crores. Naturally, the Lok Sabha elections would need several more crores of rupees. Even individual voters are being paid in cash or kind by different political parties in a bid to woo them. For example, Tamil Nadu, which is going to the polls next month, has already had the maximum number of arrests connected with pre-poll unaccounted money.

Many parliamentary committees have gone into the funding with the purpose of reducing the expenditure. Instead, the expenses have gone up. The Election Commission has banned publicity of several ills which were spotted during electioneering. But the overall situation has worsened, not improved. In fact, all political parties, particularly the ruling ones, use all kinds of methods to win elections.

Power has come to mean not only authority but also money for the cadres. Therefore, no method is mean enough to win. The manner in which caste is used makes a mockery of free balloting. The Constitution debars all these practices but still the parties use castes and sub-castes because this, apart from money, influences the voters the most.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitelys statement that there are no holy cows for them is all right as it goes. Yet, he knows that those who finance political parties cannot be touched because they are the ones who sustain them. How can a political party cut the hand that feeds it?

The Election Commission in its various reports has complained that a candidate spends more than the limit laid down. According to the limits defined, an Assembly candidate should not spend more than Rs 28 lakhs while the Lok Sabhas limit is Rs 70 lakhs per constituency. However, candidates spend many times more. Since there is no limit placed on the expenditure by political parties, the Election Commission is helpless in taking action when it finds that a candidate for the Assembly or Lok Sabha does not stay within the limit.

The accounts which the legislators submit to the Election Commission are all cooked up because they find it not possible to adhere to the rules if they have to cover the constituencies. Several vehicles and volunteers are required to reach every part of the constituency and yet the candidates find it difficult to cover all of them. The television medium has made things easier. But a candidate does not want his message go out as an advertisement. One, it costs a lot of money and, two, the viewers do not like canvassing through advertisements.

If the Prime Minister can live with statements of bogus election expenses, he can very well accept the offshore investments which are unethical but not illegal. After all, this is their way of avoiding paying high taxes in India. High taxation in the country is again the reason why businessmen and others prefer to keep their money abroad. The government has declared amnesty many a time and made it attractive for businessmen and industrialists to disclose their assets abroad. But how to make them keep money at home and pay taxes is the problem.

I recall that India was facing acute foreign exchange crisis when I was the High Commissi-oner at London in 1990. I made a personal appeal to the people of Indian origin living there that the country which they called Bharat Mata required their contribution urgently. But the request fell on deaf ears. They were looking for good returns. Once they were offered bonds, which would ensure high returns in foreign exchange, they were too willing to invest. For them, the love of the country had to be translated into money.

By all means, the Prime Minister should probe the offshore investments. And he is justified in doing so. But he should realise that the investors that found tax havens abroad will find some other ways to evade. In fact, a probe is needed to find out why the Indians prefer money to the interests of their motherland. For this, mere slogans like Bharat Mata ki Jai will not help. The RSS, which has coined the slogan, should find ways how to evoke that kind of love. But how can it do so when it doesnt believe in a pluralistic society, the ethos of India?

The author is a veteran journalist renowned not only in this country but also in our neighbouring states of Pakistan and Bangladesh where his columns are widely read. His website is www.kuldipnayar.com
Archbishops Father is Not God! What if Jesus had a DNA Test?

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby following a DNA test to put press rumours to rest was instead shocked to discover that his real father turned out to be someone other than the man who had raised him from birth, as apparently his mother had slept with Winston Churchill's last private secretary whilst drunk resulting in the conception of Justin, all of which was just days before her marriage to the man who Justin would think was his father for 60 years.

The truth is that Justin's experience is far from unique, where literally for thousands of years perhaps as many as 1/4 of children were unbeknown brought up by men who in fact where not the child's biological father, a reality that in the vast majority of cases could rarely ever be questioned up until quite recently when paternity DNA testing became widely available.

So what if Jesus Had a DNA Test? Would his DNA reveal Gods finger print or would his Y chromosome point to a particular mortal man?

In answering the fundamental question of why Jesus become Jesus Christ we have to go back to the beginning, to how things were at the time in Judea under Roman military occupation. The truth is as tends to be the case right upto the present day across the worlds many war zones and lands of occupation is the fact that soldiers tend to RAPE, and so was the case in Judea of being common for Roman soldiers to rape native Jewish women and where children born of such incidences rather then be labeled as the offspring of usually unknown Roman solider's, instead the families survived their ordeal by bringing up the children as gifts from God, Gods children, God as the father of the child.

Of course everyone understood the truth, but this is how families, society coped with the Roman occupation, where children would be brought up to believe that they were a gift from God who was their father, only to slowly realise the truth as they encountered hostility from other Jews, as being the bastard offspring of Roman soldiers and thus were deemed not to be real Jews.

This also explains why so many half Jews rebelled against Jewish elite that populated the temple and synagogues, embarking on their own diverging religious paths in an attempt to reinvest the Jewish faith so that not only were they accepted as equals but representative of a truer version of Judaism rather than that offered by the Rabbi's. And so it is clear from the Gospels of Jesus's rebellion against Judaism, as he sought to find a place for his kind (half Jews) that numbered in the many thousands as they straddled the Jewish world and the Roman world.

This also explains why the Jewish elite were so vehemently against Jesus, all the way to the point of demanding his death by crucifixion that the Roman occupation complied with their requests. For Jesus, given his origins was never deemed to be a real Jew by the Jewish elite, who hounded him his whole life, where the greater his following became then the greater became their persecution of him and so increased Jesus's rebellion in his diversion from Jewish doctrine towards what would become a new religion.

So Who was Jesus's Father?

We'll I am not the first to offer a theory of origins of the Roman origins of Jesus's father, far from it as many have investigated the fathers probable identity for decades, investigations coalesced around identifying roman soldiers around at the time of Jesus's conception.

Jesus, son of Pantera

About 177 AD the Greek philosopher Celsus, in his book The True Word, expressed what appears to have been the consensus Jewish opinion about Jesus, that his father was a Roman soldier called Pantera. Pantera means Panther and was a fairly common name among Roman soldiers. The rumor is repeated in the Talmud and in medieval Jewish writings where Jesus is referred to as Yeshu ben Pantera.

In 1859 a gravestone surfaced in Germany for a Roman soldier called Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera, whose unit Cohors I Sagittariorum had served in Judea before Germany  romantic historians have hypothesized this to be Jesus father, especially as Abdes (servant of God) suggests a Jewish background.

It appears this First Cohort of Archers moved from Palestine to Dalmatia in 6 AD, and to the Rhine in 9 AD. Pantera came from Sidon, on the coast of Phoenicia just west of Galilee, presumably enlisted locally. He served in the army for 40 years until some time in the reign of Tiberius. On discharge he would have been granted citizenship by the Emperor (and been granted freedom if he had formerly been a slave), and added the Emperors name to his own. Tiberius ruled from 14 AD to 37 AD. Panteras 40 years of service would therefore have started between 27 BC and 4 BC. As Pantera would probably have been about 18 when he enlisted, it means he was likely born between 45 BC and 22 BC. He could have been as old as 38 or as young as 15 at the time of Jesus conception in the summer of 7 BC. In 6 AD when Jesus was 12, Judas of Galilee led a popular uprising that captured Sepphoris, the capital of Galilee. The uprising was crushed by the Romans some four miles north of Nazareth. It is possible (and appealing to lovers of historical irony) that Pantera and Joseph fought on opposite sides. As Joseph is never heard of again he may well have been killed in the battle, or have been among the 2,000 Jewish rebels crucified afterwards. So Tiberius Iulius Abdes Pantera is indeed a possibility as Jesus father. The only thing we know for certain is that Marys husband Joseph wasnt the father, and that Mary was already pregnant when they married. It could have been rape, or Mary may have been a wild young teen who fell for a handsome man in a uniform, even if he was part of an occupying army. It happens.

Once you understand who Jesus's father probably was then you will read the Jesus story, the Gospels in a whole different light, for it is a story of rejection, of a half Jew standing between being Jewish and Roman, who was pulled and tugged in both directions, but in the end as a consequence of rejection, marginalisation and persecution by Jewish society rebelled against and rejected Judaism ultimately pushing Jesus to lay the ground work for what would come to be known as Christianity, a separate religion. None of which would have happened if Jesus's father had NOT been Jewish!

By N Walayat

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk

Copyright  2005-2016 Marketoracle.co.uk (Market Oracle Ltd). All rights reserved.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Deportations to Begin - Headlines from Trump's America 2017

These are headlines from the Boston Globe, April 9, 2017:

DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN  President Trump calls for tripling of ICE force; riots continue.

The $400 billion deportation program promises to be one of the most disruptive government actions attempted since desegregation. Economists estimated ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] would need more than 900,000 agents to complete the deportations in the next two years.

These are headlines from the Boston Globe, April 9, 2017:

Thousands of protesters remain camped outside the Trump International Hotel and around the fence of the White House ... The scent of tear gas pervades Lafayette Square.

Already in California, armed ICE agents confronted 30 illegal strawberry pickers on a Santa Barbara County farm and bused them to a detention center to await prosecution and a government chartered flight back to Mexico. State officials held a press conference shortly after the raid to express concern about the economic impact if dishes go unwashed in the kitchens of San Francisco restaurants and if our $3 billion strawberry crop is ultimately left to rot.

MARKETS SINK AS TRADE WAR LOOMS.

Worldwide stocks plunged again Friday, completing the worst month on record as trade war with both China and Mexico seem imminent. Markets from the Dow to the FTSE to the Nikkei have sunk on speculation that China is dumping some of its US Treasury holdings after the Trump administration announced tariffs as high as 45 percent for all Chinese imports and 35 percent for some Mexican goods.

US SOLDIERS REFUSE ORDERS TO KILL ISIS FAMILIES.

The military faces a crisis of good order and discipline, Pentagon officials said yesterday, after days of widespread unrest in the ranks over White House orders to kill relatives of ISIS militants  Two militants were killed in a firefight, but three women and two children were left alive, contrary to orders issued directly by President Trump.

When the president promised to take out families of radical Islamic terrorists, he meant it, a senior administration official told reporters traveling on Air Force One. We have a civilian controlled military for a reason.

NEW LIBEL LAW TARGETS ABSOLUTE SCUM IN PRESS  Legislation could supplant state laws.

A Republican controlled Congress last night passed sweeping changes to libel law in the United States, moving the bill to the desk of the new president who has promised to sign it.

So when The New York Times writes a hit piece which is a total disgrace or when The Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, a lawsuit has a better chance of prevailing.

Seventy to 75 percent of reporters are absolutely dishonest. Absolute scum. Remember that. Scum. Scum. Totally dishonest people, Trump said in a ceremony on Capitol Hill with WWE star Hulk Hogan, who won a $140 million lawsuit against Gawker.com for release of a sex tape. And I havent even gotten to privacy yet.

BANK GLITCH HALTS BORDER WALL WORK

Construction on the new border wall with Mexico stopped suddenly on Friday, dealing a major setback to one of President Trumps key campaign promises, after Mexico refused to pay.

TRUMP ON NOBEL PRIZE SHORT LIST

His feat? Healing a 1,385yearold schism between Sunni and Shiite Muslims, which has fueled bloody conflicts across the globe for centuries.

***

These front-page headlines and stories were printed on Saturday, April 9, 2016 by the Boston Globe in a post-dated satirical April 9, 2017 issue. It depicts Donald Trumps America and ... what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action  what America looks like with Trump in the White House.

"It is easy to find historical antecedents, wrote the Globe editorial board in an opinion piece. The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leader's vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion.

"The toxic mix of violent intimidation, hostility to criticism, and explicit scapegoating of minorities shows a political movement is taking hold in America," the editors write. "If Trump were a politician running such a campaign in a foreign country right now, the US State Department would probably be condemning him."

The GOP must stop Trump. "Donald J. Trumps vision for the future of our nation is as deeply disturbing as it is profoundly un-American."

***

Fascism is rising in Europe and it rising in America in the names of Donald Trump.and Ted Cruz. War with the world is probable under Wall Street patron and uber war-hawk Hillary Clinton.

From sleeper cells of militants, sovereign citizens, confederates, gun rights activists, anarcho-capitalists, truthers, 2nd Amen constitutionalists and far-right Rand Paul libertarians are joined Ted Cruz theocratic religionists mounting a historic challenge to American democratic institutions, civil rights, human rights, secularism, press freedom, the environment  indeed to the very Constitution and Bill of Rights they proclaim are abridged by everyone but themselves.

Americans are being duly forewarned. The choice will be theirs in November, but with it comes their responsibility for any and all future outcomes  for better or worse.

Sources:

The GOP must stop Trump. Editorial Board. Boston Globe. April 9, 2016.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2016/04/09/etrump/JPOQJZK9hUBdBx5rdPkWFK/story.html

(c) 2016 Michael T Bucci. All Rights reserved.

Michael T Bucci is a retired public relations executive currently living in New England. He has authored nine books on practical spirituality collectively titled The Cerithous Material.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




The Curious Case of Irans Stock Market

The recent removal of sanctions against Iran will prove to serve as a major economic catalyst for Iran, and investors should begin to start noting the opportunities of Irans stock market and economy. Iran is by no means a small contributor to the global economy, and apart from the countrys ability to thrive amid low oil prices, it is also a key global contributor in the following areas:

Worlds 4th largest cement producer

Worlds 18th largest automaker, and one of the largest automakers in Asia

Worlds 14th largest steel producer

The Institute of International Finance projected that the removal of sanctions would result in 6% GDP growth, and Iran previously delivered 1.4% growth amid the burden of sanctions. On top of this, Irans stock market rallied strongly after the removal of sanctions in January.

Stock Market Overview

Irans stock market is on par with other frontier markets in many ways, and trades at a strong discount to other frontier markets:

Irans stock market has over 600 listed companies, with a total market capitalization of approximately $140 billion. It is the 5th largest stock market in the Middle East, and easily on par with other frontier markets.

The average P/E for its stock market is 5.6, and it offers an average dividend yield of 12.6%.

The stock exchange consists of a large number of companies in diversified industries outside of oil production.

Index futures and options may be launched in a year, which will include the ability for investors to short stocks.

Trading is carried out on Saturday-Wednesday from 9 a.m to 12:30 p.m.

There are also a large number of mutual funds and an index linked ETF, for investors wishing to utilize a fund of fund approach.

Challenges

Despite the removal of sanctions, a large number of barriers still exist for investors, primarily for US investors.

Only Non US investors can invest in Iran directly.

Banks are not connected to SWIFT , presenting difficulties for transferring money out of the country.

Foreigners can not buy shares of all companies. Sanctions remain in place for around 200 businesses and individuals, some of which are connected to listed equity.

Industry Approach

I filtered through certain areas and found strong value investment opportunities in the oil, cement, banking, and pharmaceutical industries.

Industry Average P/E for Observed Companies Pharmaceutical 6.4 Cement 5.3 Oil 4.2 Banks 4.3

Source: Tehran Stock Exchange

Oil Stocks: Irans ability to thrive in a low oil price environment certainly makes this industry worth noting, as the stocks I noted trade at an approximate 25% discount to the index. Accounting for approximately 10% of the countrys GDP, this sector is a key driver of the economy, and Iran has already proven its ability to have a strong global impact on oil prices.

Automotive Stocks: The automotive industry is the countrys 2nd largest sector, and Iran has strong potential to serve as an automotive manufacturing hub in Asia. However, the valuation for stocks that I observed was very high.

Cement Stocks: Iran has an approximate 1.83% global share in cement production, and exports cement to approximately 24 countries. The stocks I observed trade at an approximate 5.4% discount to the index.

Banking Stocks: Valuation for banking stocks is low, trading at a 23.2% discount to the index, yet like many frontier markets, the issue of non performing loans needs to be reconciled. NPLs were 13.4% as of June last year.

Pharmaceutical Stocks: Irans pharmaceutical industry has thrived amid previous sanctions, and this seems to be one of the most unique, high growth opportunities the country offers. Valuation is reasonable, as 46% of the 27 companies I looked at are trading at a discount to the index.

Taking a Closer Look at Irans Pharmaceutical Industry

Irans pharmaceutical industry has ample room for domestic growth, and much to offer the world in terms of exports:

Iran is the largest manufacturer of generic drugs in the Middle East and Africa, and much of this region is reliant of imports.

Large companies such as Novartis, Sanofi, and Novo Nordisk were already active in Iran during sanctions.

Iran is developing its first private industrial pharmaceutical city with over $2 billion in investments, including a large number of research and development centers, a central lab, chemical and biotechnology medicine producers, and distribution facilities. 100 companies will be based in this center.

Iran produces 90% of its medicine, and the Ministry of Health is targeting full self sufficiency in the future.

Peace and Mutual Prosperity

I am pleased that these sanctions have been removed, and have hopes that the opening of Irans market will prove to be prosperous for the country and those who choose to invest in Iran in the future. Iran offers bar none value to frontier market investors, and this new development should certainly be noted for the future as a strong catalyst for Irans economy, and a unique opportunity for funds investing in frontier Asia. For the time being, the most rational solution would be observing locally managed funds in Iran to invest in.

Dylan Waller is a Contributor for Seeking Alpha and Smartkarma, and a Macroeconomic Researcher for the crowdsourced consultancy Wikistrat. His research focuses on frontier and emerging markets, with a primary focus on the strategic advantages of Vietnam, Pakistan, India, The Philippines, and Mongolia.

Email: dylan@nomadicequity.com



Website: www.nomadicequity.com

Copyright  2016 Dylan Waller - All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. Information and analysis above are derived from sources and utilising methods believed to be reliable, but we cannot accept responsibility for any losses you may incur as a result of this analysis. Individuals should consult with their personal financial advisors.

 2005-2019 http://www.MarketOracle.co.uk - The Market Oracle is a FREE Daily Financial Markets Analysis & Forecasting online publication.




Do todays schoolchildren have the same school experiences we did, or in this day of air-conditioned comfort and stark fortress-like enclosures that isolate them from the world, do those experiences belong only in our aging memories?

Think back to when school was a grand building; but of course, we never noticed that as kids. We took for granted the hardwood floors; the grand double-hung windows which the teacher would raise or lower depending on the weather; the three-panel and windowed wooded doors whose hinges creaked when you closed them; the real mirrors over the sinks in the bathrooms.

Do you remember how the caress of the warm spring sunshine, the tease of the gentle breeze and the lullaby of the cicadas would lull you to a stupor right there at your desk?

The teacher would be writing on the blackboard, her voice becoming only barely noticed background sound in this symphony that was a spring day, alive outside the wide-open windows.

In every few classrooms there was a stuck window which wouldnt open. Wed feel slighted that one of several in that room was closed permanently. The windows in modern school dont even have a way to be opened, do they?

Jammed windows were pretty minor in the list of things that wouldnt work quite right anymore in the elegant old building, but that was just life. We accepted it. Once, the floor lifted Joe Perrys desk right up off itself.

The hardwood floor right under Joes desk in the algebra room had a hump in it. As the year ticked along, the several side-by-side boards which formed the long hump rose taller and taller, shifting tectonic plates forming mountain peaks. One Monday as we entered the classroom, he pointed out that his desk was now lifted off the floor by the floor.

It was pretty exciting  the culmination of the evolution wed been following all year.

It was a let-down a few weeks later when that floor area was patched with boring, fresh light-colored, perfectly plane wood.

Somehow, the chalk dust seemed more alive in the hot weather. There always was chalk dust, of course, but it seemed to dance around more in the air when the air was stuffy, lazy and full with heat.

Those memories we can reflect upon with nostalgia. There are some its easier to gloss over.

Through the first two months of sixth grade at middle school, I still remember, the intense, burying, bullying, resistance-is-futile torture of the summer heat kept us down. We got out of school at noon each day those first two months straight, which was mandated when the temperatures reached above 95 degrees.

Then there were snow days that cost us classroom time, too. There were no cell phones or walkie-talkies then on buses (which were driven by high school kids).

Wed be riding along to school and then some kid at a bus stop would come running out of the house and proclaim, No school! Its snowing! The jubilant junior messenger had heard on the AM station that a snowflake was seen somewhere in the county, so school is cancelled.

Everyone on the bus would cheer, and the bus driver simply would turn around and drop us all off in the order in which he had picked us up  no confirmation needed. Plus, since the school buses already had run, as they say, it was counted as a school day and did not have to be made up.

Times, they are a-changing, and if you walked into a modern school now  that is, if you made it past the security check which includes having your photograph taken and applied to a badge made just for you  what would it feel like in there?

Sure, maybe they are learning more, but will todays kids ever have memories of gentle breezes and hypnotizing sunshine?
An upcoming early childhood education conference will highlight issues facing those who are in the business of teaching young children.

The conference will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 16, in Frith Exhibit Hall at Patrick Henry Community College, and is a partnership between the colleges early childhood education department and Smart Beginnings of Martinsville-Henry County.

This conference is tailor made to meet the needs of early childhood educators in our community, said Kristin Dulaney, assistant professor of education and early childhood. Over the last few months, weve talked extensively with area educators to determine which speakers and vendors to invite that would directly address concerns or challenges that educators in our community are facing right now.

Speakers include members of the Blue Ridge Autism and Achievement Center (BRAAC), STEM Sprouts, Virginia Infant and Toddler Specialist Network, Piedmont Arts, the Virginia Museum of Natural History and more. Topics will include: working with children affected by autism; adding science, math, and technology to your lessons; integrating the arts; effective lesson planning; working with families; integrating physical activities; and more.

Smart Beginnings, an early childhood coalition led by the United Way of Henry County-Martinsville, works to build a strong early childhood infrastructure to provide comprehensive service delivery and support to families, child care providers, partners and the community.

The event is free and open to all local childcare providers, but registration is required by Friday. The event will feature presentations from speakers and vendors that impact and benefit early childhood educators. Lunch will be provided by PHCC Culinary department, and those registered will be entered to win door prizes. To register, call Smart Beginnings Early Education Coordinator, Ruth Anne Collins, at (276) 403-5528.
Theres a mysterious marker at Forest Park Country Club that likely has baffled more than a few golfers  or at least those with a bad enough slice to land a ball near it.

If one is facing Lake Lanier while on the Forest Park property, one will spot the marker on the slope to the right of the spillway. It reads, in full, Here lie fifty unidentified dead moved from a point 300 yards northeast Mar. 12, 1957.

Who, exactly, is buried on the hillside?

Henry County Archivist Desmond Kendrick of the Martinsville-Henry County History Museum said that there are three main theories  two that probably are not accurate, and one that likely is.

The remains of the 50 unidentified dead were discovered, Kendrick said, while Lake Lanier was being constructed between 1955 and about 1957. In all likelihood, he said, the construction crew did not know the graves were there until they stumbled across them during the excavation process.

The first theory about the unidentified bodies, Kendrick said, is that they were Native Americans. However, he said, this theory is unlikely, because Native American graves would have been hundreds of years old and the remains would have been almost indiscernible.

Additionally, he said, Lake Lanier is a valley, and Native Americans generally buried their dead in burial mounds on hills. The dead would be buried in a spiral going up the sides of the hill, with the higher-ranking members of their society buried closer to the top of the hill.

The second theory, Kendrick said, is that the unidentified bodies were members of the Moravian Church.

The Moravians are a Protestant religious sect who passed through the Mulberry area around the 1720s, Kendrick said, traveling from Winston-Salem, N.C. to establish their religion in different locations.

They supposedly camped here on Mulberry Creek, which is still about a mile from here, Kendrick said. The theory was that the Moravians had some kind of a disease  they caught when they were here, and a bunch of them could have died, and they were buried up here on this hillside.

While its possible that the Moravians could have lost 50 people at once while passing through the area, Kendrick said he believes it is unlikely.

In all likelihood, he said, the unidentified dead are more recent than either the Native Americans or the Moravians.

That leads into the third theory, and the one Kendrick believes most likely to be true: The 50 dead likely were slaves owned by Martha Patsey Henry Fontaine, daughter of Founding Father Patrick Henry.

Thats what I really think, Kendrick said. Patrick Henry owned this property, and his land, at the time, went up to the top of the hill. It encompassed all of Lake Lanier.  His daughter Patsy owned what he called his little plantation on Leatherwood Creek, and it was almost 3,000 acres. (Patrick Henry) owned 13,879 acres in the timeframe he lived here for four years (1780-1784).

Some of the graves, Kendrick said, also could have belonged to slaves of Samuel Hairston. Even after the Civil War, Kendrick said, many former slaves continued to live along Mulberry Creek.

Unfortunately, Kendrick said, much of the record-keeping from that era  especially pertaining to slaves  is spotty.

While the marker mentions 50 unidentified dead, Kendrick believes that there are likely more graves near the site of the marker. On the hill fairly close to Corn Tassel Trail, there are faint depressions consistent with gravesites, he said.

Old gravesites are not uncommon in Henry County and Martinsville, Kendrick said, but the gravesite near Lake Lanier is unique because of the number of bodies and because of the consideration given to the dead.

I dont know of another stone in Henry County where they actually moved a cemetery and put up a marker for it, Kendrick said.

Kendrick spends a great deal of time documenting historic graves in the area to make sure they are not lost to time. His interest in history began as a child, he said, growing up in an old country store owned by his grandparents. He used to sit around the woodstove with the older folks, listening to them swap tales.

I always say that I had to do the history of the area, because I had to learn what parts of the tales were true and what parts werent true, he said.

Kendrick invites area residents with more information on the Lake Lanier marker to e-mail him at hcarchivist@gmail.com.
WYTHEVILLE  In a high school auditorium plastered with campaign signs, 9th District Republicans picked two Ted Cruz supporters and one Donald Trump backer Saturday to serve as their national convention delegates.

The vote marks a disappointment for Trump, who won big in the district on Super Tuesday, but has been out-organized by Cruz in many of the early contests to line up convention delegates.

Most delegates, including those elected Saturday, will be bound on the first nomination ballot at the Republican National Convention based on their states primary results.

But in the event that vote isnt decisive  a possibility in the current race  delegates will be freed up to vote for the candidate of their choice on subsequent ballots.

The 9th District Republican Committee convention Saturday was a crucial first test in Virginia of the scramble to secure delegate slots.

The congressional district was the first in the state to pick its GOP national delegates and was also home to the deepest wells of Trump support.

I think it sets the tone, said Jordan Labiosa, a New Castle Town Council member and Cruz supporter who was among the three tapped for national delegate.

Cruz was at his greatest disadvantage here in Southwest Virginia, Labiosa noted, but still won two-thirds of the seats.

Hes stronger elsewhere in the state, Labiosa said, adding the district vote suggests pretty strongly that Cruz will end up leading in Virginia delegates.

Trump supporters made a push to lock down all three seats Saturday. But Jack Morgan, chairman of Trumps district campaign team and a former head of the 9th District GOP, said he wasnt surprised by the results.

I think they brought a few more people out than we did, he said. ... Trump supporters arent party people. They dont do these things, take Saturdays and come out to conventions. Thats not what they do.

Trump still remains the favorite candidate of the people, Morgan argued, but party insiders are aligning against him.

The district convention was a nearly all-day affair held at George Wythe High School. In all, 227 party activists whod been pre-certified showed up to vote, braving an early morning snowfall to make it to the event.

In addition to Labiosa, Kyle Kilgore of Scott County and Tucker Davis of Buchanan County were elected national delegates.

Davis, a Trump supporter and western field director for his campaign, said in early remarks at the meeting that delegates should reflect the will of 9th District voters who went nearly 48 percent for Trump during last months primary.

To do otherwise would be a spit in the eye to those voters, he said.

But Cruz supporters, in interviews, countered that long-standing party rules allow for this leeway in the event that no candidate comes into the national convention with enough votes to sew up the nomination on the first ballot.

More than half of the districts voters didnt back Trump in the primary, they noted, and pointed out that presidential election math nationally has continued to shift as the field of candidates has narrowed.

At the end of the day, this is the process, said Kilgore, a Cruz supporter and Saturdays top vote-getter. Its the whole reason we have the convention.

Tamara Neo  a Trump supporter who came in fifth in the delegate vote and will be an alternate at the national convention  said she remains firmly focused on a Trump victory and noted he still has a path to get enough votes in the remaining state primaries to lock down the convention nomination on a first ballot.

That is absolutely still a reasonable, viable outcome, she said. And it will put an end to all this discussion.
State economic officials pilloried the EB-5 immigrant investor green card program when Terry McAuliffe planned to use it to fund an electric car plant in Virginia, but with him occupying the Executive Mansion, their resistance has softened.

Under the program signed into law more than 25 years ago, foreigners who invest $500,000 to $1 million in U.S. projects are eligible for green cards, or permission to emigrate to the United States. But the program hasnt always paid off for investors, three-fourths of them Chinese, and has been vulnerable to fraud, prompting warnings from the Securities and Exchange Commission and debate in Congress over whether EB-5 should be fixed or shelved.

Virginia Economic Development Partnership officials, including the agencys CEO at the time, raised concerns about EB-5 in 2009, when McAuliffe, fresh off a Democratic gubernatorial primary defeat, approached the state about locating a GreenTech Automotive plant in the Old Dominion. The project, which was to be funded through EB-5 investments, never got off the ground in Virginia.

GreenTech and a claim by a partnership official that EB-5 was a visa-for-sale scheme were hot topics during McAuliffes successful 2013 gubernatorial run. Halfway through McAuliffes term, the partnership has discussed EB-5 with a one-time ally of the governors.

Simone Williams, an immigration lawyer who worked on the GreenTech project, met with a partnership official last year about EB-5 just as investigators were finishing a federal inspector generals report citing McAuliffes unprecedented access to the countrys top ranked immigration official in pursuit of investor green cards.

Williams has worked alongside Tony Rodham, the brother of Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and a principal in the firm that solicited EB-5 investors for GreenTech.

Partnership officials said the agency has no written policy on EB-5. Asked to explain the agencys position on the program, officials said they are not involved in its implementation and are not concerned about whether companies use EB-5. During the years of McAuliffes term that have passed, none has, as far as partnership officials know.

Nor has McAuliffe prescribed a policy on EB-5, said Maurice Jones, secretary of commerce and trade.

Citing McAuliffes schedule, a spokesman for the governor said last week that he would be unavailable for an interview about EB-5.

Critics say programhas serious flaws

Signed into law by President George H.W. Bush as part of the Immigration Act of 1990, EB-5 languished until the recession, falling well short of its limit of 10,000 green cards annually. The tide began to turn when lending tightened in the wake of the housing market collapse. Last fiscal year, EB-5 applications reached a record 14,373.

With heavier use of the program came tales of deals gone bad, including the collapse of a $900 million hotel and convention center project outside Chicago. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ordered Anshoo Sethi, the principal in the deal, to repay investors $147 million held in escrow. He has pleaded guilty to wire fraud.

That case, EB-5 critics say, is just one example of the programs flaws.

Investors sometimes are made promises that cant be kept, including guarantees that theyll receive a green card. In fact, green cards can be approved only by federal immigration officials, who review applicants for security concerns, among other things. In other cases, part of the programs intent  to draw investment money into depressed or rural areas  has been subverted.

Projects in so-called target employment areas  rural areas or areas of high unemployment  require only $500,000 investments rather than $1 million. But promoters of EB-5 deals sometimes have engaged in gerrymandering to pull investment money into affluent areas. The hotel project in Chicago was an example.

U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, last month said EB-5 is deeply flawed, without adequate oversight and has veered far away from congressional intent.

His counterpart in the lower chamber agreed.

This program is in desperate need of statutory and regulatory reform, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, said in a prepared statement. At the minimum, the investment amount should be increased, gerrymandering should be curtailed, and national security concerns should be addressed in order to reform this troubled program.

Other critics say the program unfairly favors rich foreigners.

The right to emigrate should not be for sale, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, said last month.

Thats how Liz Povar, a high-ranking partnership official, appeared to view the program in 2009 when her agency began considering GreenTech Automotives plans to use EB-5 investments.

I still cant get my head around this being anything other than a visa-for-sale scheme, she wrote in an email to a colleague.

Others at the agency raised questions about whether GreenTech could deliver on its proposals.

The future governors team has no demonstrated ability to run an automotive company, Mike Lehmkuhler, vice president of business attraction, wrote in an email.

GreenTech won incentives and went forward with a $60 million electric car project in Mississippi.

The partnerships criticisms of EB-5 and GreenTech, meanwhile, remained largely private for roughly three years, until McAuliffe began making another run for governor. By December 2012, with a new CEO, Martin Briley, leading the partnership, the project had become a campaign issue, sparking open records requests from reporters.

Several days after seeking to arrange a meeting with McAuliffe, with the emails about to become public, Briley sent a written apology to GreenTech CEO Charles Wang for the agencys remarks criticizing the carmaker and EB-5.

Some of those same critics, including Povar and Lehmkuhler, still are employed at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, a state agency that operates independently of the governor but regularly works with him and his secretary of commerce and trade on the administration of such incentives as the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund.

McAuliffe, meanwhile, has confronted his own problems with EB-5, and the program came back to cast a shadow over his ultimately successful second run for governor.

Federal investigators examined a series of incidents in which McAuliffe rattled cages to break apart what he saw as bureaucratic EB-5 logjams to achieve faster and favorable processing decisions. In an episode made public in their final report, federal investigators said McAuliffe screamed and cursed at Alejandro Mayorkas, the chief administrator of the EB-5 program who headed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Mayorkas captured some of McAuliffes words on voice mail. He said the pressure began in 2011 and ran for two years.

In 2013, as the two men passed each other in a crowd, McAuliffe took a public shot at Mayorkas.

Your agency is killing the project, McAuliffe said, according to the investigative report.

In that document, made public in late March 2015, the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Homeland Security upheld whistle-blower complaints from agency employees who said Mayorkas succumbed to outside influence and intervened improperly on behalf of politically powerful stakeholders, including McAuliffe, then board chairman of GreenTech. Mayorkas actions created a perception within the EB-5 program that certain individuals had special access and would receive special consideration, the report found.

Backer says programan excellent tool

Whether EB-5 investors are pouring cash into Virginia today isnt clear.

A Shanghai law firm posted a Facebook ad last year soliciting EB-5 money for UniTao Pharmaceuticals a few months after the Chinese-based company said it was idling the Petersburg factory where it planned to open a plant. The company had not yet collected an expected $1 million state grant for the $22.5 million project. Efforts to reach UniTao were unsuccessful.

Partnership officials are mostly mum today on EB-5, although a recent open-government request for agency documents regarding the program resulted in hundreds of pages of records being withheld because they contained proprietary information about funding plans for projects. Two business plans dated in the past three months are in the mix.

It is up to prospective clients and developers to determine if there is value in using EB-5, or other federal resources, to help advance financing for specific projects, partnership spokeswoman Suzanne Clark said.

Asked to address the apparent shift in sentiment since the partnerships criticism of EB-5 six years ago, Clark declined.

Jones said if a company planned to use EB-5 that wouldnt factor into the agencys decision-making on whether to approve incentives.

Jones said that if a company seeking state financial support presents a financial plan involving use of EB-5, officials would review it. None has so far, he said. It really isnt a factor that has, if you will, been relevant in any of the investment decisions that weve made, Jones said.

I dont come to the table with a bias against EB-5 or for it, Jones added.

Officials both at the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and in the governors office might be disinclined to air public criticisms of EB-5 in light of McAuliffe and the agencys history with the program, said David North, a fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies.

Jones is in sort of a spot, North said. It would be awkward for him to diss a program that his boss had used in another life.

That applies to Virginia Economic Development Partnership staffers, who may find a neutral stance the only one thats politically tenable, North said.

A cordial tone runs through February 2015 email exchanges between partnership Vice President of Research Robert McClintock and Williams, the immigration lawyer who worked on the GreenTech team that lobbied federal officials over EB-5 processing.

After an apparent meeting between Williams and McClintock, the latter wrote back, I know that Secretary Jones will be most grateful for the guidance that you can impart as we strive to build the New Virginia Economy.

It is my pleasure to assist! I will be in touch again soon, Williams replied.

Jones said he hasnt read the inspector generals report that mentions GreenTech, Williams and influence peddling. He recalled Williams reaching out. Shes one of several EB-5 consultants who have come to him with what he called bullish presentations about the program.

Williams, who continues EB-5 work, described the program as an excellent tool for project development. I have clients everywhere, she said. D.C., Virginia, Philadelphia, New York, California. EB-5, as you know, is very popular.

While some feed EB-5 information to the partnership, others seek guidance on the program.

Tom Rumora, Spotsylvania Countys director of economic development and tourism, said that if he were contacted by a business prospect interested in EB-5 capital, I would call the VEDP office immediately and say, How do you see this working? 

He then cited a familiar EB-5 refrain.

It is unusual and it will raise some eyebrows, Rumora said. Just the concept that a foreign investor can be doing this to accelerate their citizenship and that they are not directly involved in the company. They just buy their way into citizenship.

Partnership email traffic about EB-5 also contains a note Rumora sent to Matt McLaren, a manager of international trade at the agency. Rumora had spoken to Michael Sears, an Alexandria-based broker of EB-5 deals. Sears tipped federal authorities to the doomed EB-5 hotel project in Chicago.

Florida attorney David Derrico, who represented some investors in that project, also represented Carolina States Regional Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, when it successfully applied to become an authorized EB-5 broker. Derrico said that application was one of more than 100 hes filed.

Carolina States shares a business address with Development Advisors Inc., the site consultant for Lindenburg Industry, the company behind the failed deal in Appomattox that drew a $1.4 million grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund after the partnership failed to vet the project.

Among other things, an investigation by The Roanoke Times found that partnership officials relied on false information posted on a company website that made it appear that plans to open a catalytic converter plant in Appomattox were an expansion of existing operations in North Carolina. No such operations existed. Virginia has yet to recover its $1.4 million investment from Lindenburg.

Both of Carolina States top representatives, Dandan Liu and Jane Wu, appeared in Appomattox on Nov. 5, 2014, when McAuliffe announced the project. A picture taken at the event shows both women with the governor as part of a group clutching cardboard checks.

Agency officials declined to comment on the photo and said they had no information indicating that the Lindenburg project relied on EB-5 money. Neither Carolina States nor Lindenburg has responded to requests for comment.
According to Gov. Terry McAuliffe, he has one job: Creating new jobs in Virginia.

In addition to announcing on Wednesday Drake Extrusions new $6 million investment in Henry County, which will create 30 new jobs at the facility, McAuliffe also spoke at a business roundtable hosted by Patrick Henry Community College.

At the roundtable, the governor spoke extensively about Virginias strong economy. When he took office two years ago, he said, the state had one of the largest deficits in Virginia history; today, the commonwealth has the largest surplus in its history.

McAuliffe said that hes announced 634 economic development projects since taking office, and that the state has shattered every record in Virginia history on capital investment.

This is all great news, but of course, its not always easy to see these positive trends in Martinsville and Henry County. Northern Virginia continues to flourish thanks to its proximity to the nations capitol, and the coastline is booming thanks to Navy jobs and the deepest deepwater ports on the east coast.

For residents of southside and southwest Virginia, its easy to feel a bit left out from this economic boom  excellent announcements like the Drake Extrusion expansion notwithstanding. However, a rising tide lifts all ships, and success in any part of the state bodes well for us all.

And McAuliffe has done something that is a boon for the economy in all parts of the state, southside included  or, more accurately, hes refused to do something.

On Wednesday, McAuliffe did not shy away from discussing North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and House Bill 2, the so-called bathroom bill that blocks cities and local governments from passing antidiscrimination measures that could protect gay and transgender people.

The bill is largely symbolic and all but impossible to actually enforce. It is a solution to a problem that is, at this point, entirely hypothetical.

All that is to say that McCrory did not have a large amount to gain from signing HB2 into law, but he did have a lot to lose, and his loss is the states loss.

Earlier this week, backlash to HB2 inspired PayPal to scuttle plans to open a new global operations center in Charlotte, which would have brought 400 jobs to the city.

North Carolina also has received backlash from dozens of other North Carolina businesses, along with national corporations and organizations such as ESPN, the NBA, the NCAA and Hollywood, to name a few.

Whether someone supports the bill or not, the facts are the facts: HB2 is an unmitigated economic development disaster for our neighbors to the south.

When a similar religious freedom bill was brought before Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal  a conservative Republican  he vetoed it, saying that I do not think we have to discriminate against anyone to protect the faith-based community in Georgia.

Deal may have reached that decision in part due to corporate pressure  Atlanta-based heavyweight Coca-Cola was among the businesses opposed to the bill  but from an economic standpoint, it was the right call.

Its also the call McAuliffe has made. He vetoed a similar bill that crossed his desk, and according to him, it was a shame it even made it that far.

No matter how anyone feels about these bills, North Carolina has shown that they are poison for new jobs, and new jobs are what we desperately need.

With a little luck, North Carolinas loss can be our gain. A PayPal global operations center would look pretty good in Henry County.
TODAYS WORD is batten (bat-n). Example: There have always been unscrupulous individuals who batten on the misfortunes of others.

FRIDAYS WORD was ruthless (rooth-liss). It means having or showing no pity or compassion for others. Example: The country was ruled by a ruthless dictator who could inflict punishment at will or any person who defied his orders.

For those interested in railroads, particularly the Fayerdale Railroad, Kenny Kirkman will present a program on the railroad at 10 a.m. Friday, April 15 at the Bassett Historical Center.

Here is some background, provided by Pat Ross at the Bassett Historical Center, that Kirkman will be speaking on.

The Fayerdale Railroad was a 12-mile long standard gauge line that operated from 1906 until the late 1920s from the Village of Philpott, just north of Bassett. The line went up the Smith River then through the area of Goblintown Creek to serve lumber and mining interests for the Virginia Ore and Lumber Company at a town called Fayerdale. The town was located where the beach and swimming areas of Fairy Stone State Park is located today. The program is free and open to the public.

Prom season is upon us and teenagers everywhere are frantically searching for that perfect dress. Meanwhile, parents are also frantically searching for ways to not go bankrupt on said dress! To save money and ensure that no one else will have the same outfit, many shoppers are now shopping online.

All you have to do is turn on your computer and up pops the most beautiful dresses at steal prices. The Better Business Bureau says before you click on what appears to be the most beautiful dress on perfect models, that you check with them first.

The Better Business Bureau has a promposal for those searching for that perfect prom dress: Check it out first.

The Internet can be a wonderful place to shop. Theres an almost limitless amount of designs to choose from and the savvy shopper can sometimes find designer dresses for a fraction of the normal cost. Unfortunately theres always someone trying to ruin the party by spiking the punch.

For every reputable online garment seller, theres a dozen sites selling knock-off, fake, or damaged goods. Theres nothing worse than buying that dream dress, for that dream date, and have it all turn into a nightmare when either the dress doesnt arrive; doesnt fit; or has rips and seams that attach one side to the other, etc.

To be safe follow these BBB tips:

Contact BBB if you feel a websites prices seem too good to be true, or if the site itself seems a bit off. You can search for the companys BBB Rating by going to www.bbb.org and while there check for any prior complaints or government actions.

Know the website. Before ordering a dress, check the URL link to make sure it starts with https:// (the s means it is secure). Also look for a small padlock icon usually located at the corner of the URL bar. These symbols tell shoppers that a website is secure.

 Check contact information. Make sure the site has listed a physical location and working phone number.

Always pay with a credit card when shopping online. A purchase with a credit card is protected under the Fair Credit Billing Act. This allows customers to briefly hold payment while a problem is reviewed and resolved. This act also protects customers in the event that credit card information is stolen and used without permission. Make sure to print the receipts and product information of any online purchases to prevent incorrect charges. If a company demands payment by money wire or pre-paid gift cards, run away.

Keep personal information safe. Never email any personal information such as credit card and banking numbers, or social security numbers. Be careful to only give financial information through secure websites. Check the privacy policy to see how the business is using the information they have requested.

If there is a problem with a purchase or business, complaints can be filed with the Better Business Bureau to help resolve the issue. The Federal Trade Commission also handles complaints at www.ftc.gov/complaint along with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

To contact BBB serving Western Virginia in Roanoke, go to http://www.bbb.org/western-virginia/news-events/

The Martinsville Police Department would like to warn everyone of a Facebook scam that is using the military to target victims. Here is how it works: Scammers will copy a real military photo and add it to a Facebook page, so that victims will see military personnel in uniform.

Scammers will then pray on a unsuspecting victims good nature by adding a sad story that they are overseas and may need money to help them get home, or that they need money to assist a family member here in the states that is having a medical issue.

Scammers know all the correct words to use to get victims to friend them on Facebook. Once scammers have been friended, they try to gain your trust and then will ask for money for different reasons.

The Martinsville Police Department reminds everyone that if someone contacts you asking for money over the phone, there is a very high likely hood that the caller is attempting to scam you of your money.
This is truly a once-in-a-lifetime event and we could not be more grateful for the opportunity and invitation from Ambassador Baucus and the Asia Pacific Council of American Chambers of Commerce.

One of the most anticipated pieces of this trip, most travelers agree, is our organized trip to the American Embassy in Beijing to visit with former Montana U.S. Senator and now Ambassador to China, Max Baucus.

On April 13 we will lead a group of 95 individuals from the Flathead Valley to visit Ambassador Baucus for a 2-hour session on how the Ambassador manages the complex trade and economic relationship the U.S. has with China and how he works to promote opportunities for business and investment in Montana the United States.

Joe Unterreiner, President/CEO of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce

Full Story: http://kalispelltravels.blogspot.com/2016/04/a-once-in-lifetime-opportunity.html
The 2015 Montana state legislature passed a law that allows $150 scholarship donations for students attending schools  both public and private. The donor is entitled to a matching tax credit against state taxes.

Full Story: http://www.kpax.com/story/31682919/montana-school-tax-credit-debate-continues

***

Montana families who sued over scholarship funds brace for possible appeal

A law passed during the 2015 Legislature created a $150 income tax credit for donations that support nonprofit scholarship organizations that help pay for students to attend private schools.

By HOLLY MICHELS [email protected]

Full Story: http://billingsgazette.com/news/government-and-politics/montana-families-who-sued-over-scholarship-funds-brace-for-possible/article_b085362e-1421-582a-a835-849db5073182.html
The days of the American Express Costco credit card are coming to an end.

American Express said last year its exclusive partnership with Costco would end in 2016.

Costco is now partnering with Citigroup, and shoppers can expect to get their new Visa co-branded cards  called Costco Anywhere cards  in May and early June. The new cards double as membership cards.

June 20 marks the date the warehouse club officially switches over from American Express to the new Visa cards, Citigroup said.

Here are things to know about the upcoming changeover:

By Lauren Zumbach, Chicago Tribune

Full Story: http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29744548/what-costco-shoppers-should-know-before-new-member
Loud music at a concert, nightclub or festival can leave party-goers ears ringing. Now, research published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery suggests wearing earplugs to events in order to reduce or prevent temporary hearing loss and tinnitus.

Share on Pinterest Events with loud music can expose party-goers to dangerous levels of noise.

Cases of acquired hearing loss are on the rise, with rates among adolescents up by 31% since 1988, according to the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The trend may be related to exposure to recreational noise through attending concerts, festivals, nightclubs and other music venues.

Loud music at such events can expose individuals to sound pressure levels of 100-110 decibels (dBA) for several hours, a known cause of hearing loss. Hearing loss due to this type of exposure is normally temporary.

Short-term exposure to extremely loud noise, or levels above 140 dBA, can cause acoustic trauma, with direct damage potentially leading to permanent hearing loss.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the maximum safe exposure time for listening to noise at 85 dBA is 8 hours.

For 100 dBA, guidelines recommend a maximum of 15 minutes, and for 106 dBA, just 3.75 minutes. For every 3 dBAs over 85 dBA, exposure time before possible damage can occur is halved.

For comparison, Dangerous Decibels  a public health campaign designed to reduce hearing loss  puts the sound of a whisper around 20 dBA, busy city traffic at 85 dBA and a rock concert at 115 dBA.
On the margins of the Geneva Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism  The Way Forward, Deputy Foreign Minister Ioannis Amanatidis met on 8 April 2016, at the headquarters of the World Council of Churches (WCC), in Geneva, with the General Secretary of the WCC, Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit.



Mr. Amanatidis expressed the Greek governments warm thanks for the WCCs cooperation and solidarity with Greece, which it has been focusing on for some time now. He requested continued support for Greeces efforts to face an unprecedented refugee crisis.



Moreover, Mr. Amanatidis thanked the WCC for the initiative of sending an open letter, with the Conference of European Churches and the Churches Commission for Migrants in Europe  in cooperation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)  with the basic request for mobilization of forces to assist in the relocation of refugees, in pursuit of substantial support for Greece on the refugee issue, and he underscored that he will convey this important news to the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.



Finally, he invited Rev. Tveit to visit Greece soon.



Rev. Tveit, having welcomed Mr. Amanatidis, stressed that most of the Churches in Europe are on the front line, trying to raise the awareness among citizens and civil society regarding the migration/refugee crisis, which constitutes a humanitarian crisis.



More specifically, he did not hesitate to describe the imposition of restrictions as a kind of collective punishment, underscoring the need to show charity and compassion to the refugees and calling on Europe to provide greater support for and solidarity with Greece.



Churches worldwide appear very active on the migration/refugee issue, taking on  through relevant missions  a role that is not just advisory, but also executive/operational, while they are seeking European management of the problem in terms of burden sharing, Rev. Tveit clarified.



Moreover, he characterized the aforementioned open letter as an initiative for mobilizing forces through which Churches around the world are kept abreast of developments, so that they can raise awareness and rally support in the field in question.



Concluding, Rev. Tveit stated that he was impressed by the activation of the Church of Greece, as well as by the Greek peoples generosity towards and compassion for the refugees.
The Head of Greeces Liaison Office in FYROM, Ambassador Theoharis Lalakos, has made two severe demarches since this morning regarding the unacceptable incidents that took place today in Idomeni.



Ambassador Lalakos made it clear in the most categorical manner that the use of violence in no way whatsoever contributes to the resolution of the refugee problem and is in direct conflict with the relevant provisions of international and humanitarian law. Finally, he called on the FYROM authorities to rise to the occasion and exhibit the proper responsibility, self-restraint and seriousness.
N. XYDAKIS: Good afternoon. It is a difficult day; its a Saturday. Thank you for coming on a Saturday, to listen to a few, albeit substantive, words we have to say. Thank you to my colleagues, Ministers of European Affairs and Foreign and European Affairs from six different countries.



This is a different meeting, a different working session of a great value, as will be proven in the future, I believe. Its about cooperation.



As we hoped, this meeting went better than expected. Its about solidarity, with deeds, in practice. We showed what it means to exert policy in the field where things happen, where the problem is, and where and when we are seeking solutions.



The Foreign Minister of the Netherlands and President of the Council of the European Union, Bert Koenders, had announced  well, he had said actually that the devil hides in the details, as we all know. Well, they all came here, my colleagues came here, to touch upon the problem, find and deal with the devil in the details. They touched history in the making, as we say.



So this is an informal visit, but it is one of the most substantive ones, on a European level, in the Eastern Mediterranean since the beginning of the outbreak of the refugee crisis. It is a political visit, opening ceremony. We have the political coverage by elected politicians, and at the same time we bring together increased know-how and expertise and a very focused political will.



We keep learning how to work together; we keep learning political lessons, in vivo, not in vitro; its about practice, and not in theory. Think-tanks are good, but here we are talking about practice. People meet other people; they have to ask tough questions, they deliver tough answers sometimes.



So since last night until this very moment this is what we have been doing: tough questions, tough answers, openness, frankness, knowledge, awareness and learning. Will, political will, and learning.



I would attempt to draw two conclusions, two main conclusions, from this short but very important meeting.



First, this is about a very ambitious, radical, difficult plan. Its the Joint Action Plan between the European Union and Turkey. History, necessity and practical needs mean that we all have to take ourselves closer to more political unity, the forms of cooperation and unity that we have kept discussing in Brussels in the various meeting rooms, but are not moving forward.



Now, here, in practice, we have to implement a common asylum policy, in practice, without even having introduced the relevant institutions. So we have started working in practice, in accordance with European values, in accordance with the European acquis, in accordance with international law on refugees.



As I said, its about practice and effectiveness. This is the first lesson we learnt. It was my pleasure to realise that we are on the same page with my colleagues and ministers. We will address the problem together.



The other political lesson we have learnt from this very ambitious project is that once again we are faced with a political problem, a new political problem, and we have to think outside the box in order to find a method of constructive coexistence and partnership among member states in the supranational EU.



And how we will also coexist with civil society, NGOs. And this is another, different challenge posed by history.



We are sensitive to the matter; we are aware, and we are ready to deal with the challenge, to think about it and start providing solutions. Theres not just one single solution. There is no panacea, but we are ready, as I said. We are fully informed. There is no excuse.



And now this brings us to the details and the devil hiding in them. History, as I said, faces us with the problem. We have to find solutions.



At this moment we all realise that in the face of this huge geopolitical destabilization issue in the Eastern Mediterranean the Middle East, we Europeans must stand united together, must think together, must change attitudes together, go beyond the stereotypes and form into something different with more mutual understanding.



I think I talked too long. Let me now give the floor to my colleague, Bert Koenders, who, with Harlem Desir, took the initiative to get together, that we all embraced, of course, and Ms. Margarida Marques, from Portugal, European Affairs Minister of Portugal. Some weeks ago they welcomed us very warmly in Lisbon. Miroslav Lajcak is the Foreign Minister of Slovakia, the forthcoming presidency. He started assuming responsibilities from Bert Koenders. Bert Koenders is the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, as I said earlier, and the person who took this initiative. I think he has learnt more than we have all learnt. And Harlem Desir  he is here for the fifth time. We know each other from the remote past. We are working together  another good learner, excellent learner. And Sandro Gozi is someone who has been here several times. He knows Greek affairs very well and is a precious, valuable, steady, solid partner of Greece.



B. KOENDERS: Nikos, I am very glad to be here, and we are actually here with seven ministers of foreign and European affairs, six coming from outside of Greece, one from Greece. But it shows that this is a common challenge that we are faced with, and therefore we are sitting in a working session yesterday and tomorrow to face the common challenges of this migration crisis.



I would like to say first of all that we have been welcomed yesterday very warmly and hospitably by President Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Tsipras, and I would like to thank specifically Minister Xydakis and the other colleagues we saw this morning for very good, very informative sessions on how we can together support each other in this challenge of migration and asylum.



First of all, Id like to say on behalf of also my colleagues: Greece plays a key role in resolving the migration crisis, given that a substantial proportion of the refugees and economic migrants arrive here first. That is, your geographical location.



With large numbers of people who came ashore day by day and the Greek population, showing great hospitality, is facing a daunting challenge. And Id like to express our great appreciation for not only the Greek authorities but also the Greek people, the Greek Police and asylum organisations.



Fortunately, they are not facing this crisis on their own. The European Union stands ready to lend a hand whenever necessary. This is not a problem that the Greeks should deal with on their own. Its a common European issue. We need not only to show solidarity in words, but also in practice, and that is what we discussed today.



We have to address the issue together. Its not just about the borders of Greece, but also about the borders of Europe as a whole.



This is why the European Union has sprung also into action, to lend assistance in as many locations as possible. As the current holder of the European Union presidency, we are helping to facilitate and encourage these efforts, including deployment issues, ensuring acceptance and implementation of international law and standards, and so on and so forth.



I know that many countries are working with Greece to make this happen. Its a very complex arrangement. From my own country a large border security team has been stationed on Lesbos and Chios to help register and identify refugees. We also contribute to EASO with many experts, and we contribute with humanitarian aid. But it is all of us, all European countries that have to show their solidarity, and we do. And we are looking today and yesterday to the details of this, to make sure that the experts and the supporters, all kind of issues related to humanitarian affairs, are complied with, as we have agreed at a European level, obviously within the context of the national Greek sovereignty.



Greece is in need of many experts, interpreters, legal advisors, I think it is very important for us, having listened and having looked and having visited this afternoon also some of the centers, that we know exactly what is needed and how we can accelerate this. We also need to keep a close eye on developments on the Turkish side. We will visit, at least some of us, also Turkey this afternoon.



I am here with my colleagues in Greece to see for ourselves how the country is doing and how refugees are being accommodated, processed and in some cases returned. We have listened very carefully to the Greek concerns and we are all well aware of the enormous task and challenges the Greek authorities are facing. Over the past two months, we have seen many heartrending images of people in desperate straits; people that have risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean, people being exploited by smugglers in the hope for a better life and people trying to break through fences to reach the European Union. I dont think we ever want to see these kinds of images again. This is not acceptable for any European values or conventions. We want a solution that will ensure that people fleeing war and violence are treated with dignity and respect. And that is the reason behind the agreement between the European Union and Turkey, and I believe we found the right formula to tackle human smuggling, stop people from risking their lives to come to Europe, and create a lawful migration route for the Syrians. I think thats important. Its a combination of these three aspects we together are working in.



This week, several hundred irregular migrants were sent back from Greece to Turkey, and for the first time, Syrians have been transferred to European countries from Turkey. This is a credible start in our view, to implementing this agreement. In my own country we received already 34 Syrian refugees from Turkey this week, mainly families, so did Finland and Germany, and I know also relocation from Greece and resettlement from Turkey both are absolutely crucial elements of this deal. The first days have been behind us. I think that it is a positive development. It was and is a difficult deal. Let us hope this trend continues. We owe it to ourselves to treat refugees and migrants with basic human decency. Thats exactly what we are doing. People who file for asylum in Greece will be assessed individually and carefully and in conformity with international standards.



I would like to raise two specific points that called our attention today. First, the situation of unaccompanied minors among refugees. I think it requires the highest attention of us all and our immediate action. Second, and I think Minister Xydakis was referring that, we also spoke with international organizations and with non-governmental organizations, who shared with us also their findings. And I think it is important that all of us, international organizations, the Greek state and civil society, with support also from the international community, jointly work together to overcome the current challenges.



At the same time, I am aware of the fact that this agreement is not a solution for the broader, global migration problem. A lot of people still have a lot of reasons to migrate to Europe, but this deal is an important and crucial component to start managing this. Therefore, it is crucial that we also eliminate the fundamental causes of migration. We need to take away some of the triggers for displacement. This is why we must commit ourselves as Europeans to resolving the biggest and most pressing conflicts, like those in Mali and Syria, and preventing future conflicts, so that people have better prospects for the future, for themselves and for their families.



Failed states, such as Libya, need our help to get back on their feet, so criminal organizations and human traffickers no longer have free reign. We also need to give people economic prospects and defend their basic rights, so they can make something of their lives.



I would like again to thank you very much on behalf of our delegation. Of course, we are all willing to engage in any questions and answers. Thank you very much.



JOURNALIST: A question to the Dutch Foreign Minister, Mr. Koenders. I would like to ask you, are you satisfied, as the rotating presidency, with the implementation of the relocation project? Because you mentioned also resettlement from Turkey to the Netherlands directly, but what about resettlement from Turkey to other European countries? And what is the message that you are going to send to Turkey during your visit to Turkey, starting later today? And one last question concerning the referendum in your country. Do you believe that maybe there are repercussions, I mean in the Netherlands, concerning the future of the European Union at this critical junction, especially in view of the refugee and migrant crisis? Thank you.



B. KOENDERS: Thank you very much. First of all, I would like to say that on the issue of relocation and resettlement, I think some of my colleagues want to also take the floor, because I know that many countries are engaged now in the programs of European solidarity and ensuring that this system is going to work. I see it as the role of this delegation as a whole, including the presidency when we go back, to ensure that there are sufficient commitments from all countries to make resettlement and relocation work. The only way we can kill the business model of the smugglers is to create the legal route, as agreed upon by the European leaders, as to a one-to-one replacement figure, but it means solidarity in many other areas as well.



The second question related to whether we are satisfied with these aspects, I would say yes. The beginning is excellent, in the sense that immediately, as the movement between Greece and Turkey started, there have been flights organized to different countries, including also others like Germany and Finland, to resettle the asylum seekers that were in Turkey on the basis of the one-to-one formula.



As to the referendum in my own country, we are going to assess from our side, as the Dutch government, the outcome of this. This is a new democratic instrument we have in the Netherlands, more than the 30% required in the Dutch electorate voted, also many people who didnt vote, it was a threshold of around 30% to 32% of the people voted. They voted in majority against the association agreement with Ukraine. We have certain concerns, which we are identifying at the moment and we will discuss with our European colleagues obviously and with Ukraine, how we can take the next steps in this. I just want to ensure also from my side that this is in no way a lack of appreciation of solidarity with the Ukrainian people, but we will have to reflect with our European colleagues on how we can come to a sensible solution to this. Thank you.



JOURNALIST: Sir, there was an article last week on the CNN network, because you talked about Libya, that there are thousands of jihadists in the Middle East and North Africa, waiting to pass to Europe, and that already 400 of them have passed through some networks.



Do you think that Europe is doing enough for European security? Everybody agrees that we need to treat refugees with a humanist policy, but is there also a security aspect of this policy, so that we protect Europe, especially after the terrorist attacks in Brussels and Paris?



B. KOENDERS: Let me first of all say that I do not want to dominate this press conference and I am sure my colleagues would like to say something about it as well. But let me just say from my side  yes, but I mean I know that we are all ministers and we all have the right to speak. And hes the next president, so hes



Let me just say very quickly on this: First of all, I think its very important to underline that not only for the Dutch presidency but I think for all ministers, if they are for the interior, for European affairs, or for foreign affairs, having this issue as a priority in all our dealings in Europe. And we have prioritized this also, as a European presidency.



You are completely correct in saying lets not confuse the refugee issue with the terrorism issue. These people are, in large majorities, overwhelming majorities, fleeing exactly the terror we are talking about.



Secondly, it is important to note that  and I think therefore this agreement that we have at the moment between the European Union and Turkey  but more generally to ensure that screening taking place at the external borders of Europe is an absolute priority. In that sense, its also part of this discussion, the support to Greece but also to other countries. The new proposals as a new migration policy in Europe all reflect the need to have free internal borders but combined with external screening of people.



Secondly, I would like to mention that the ministers of the interior and justice prioritise the need for very, very concrete cooperation within Europe of the intelligence services, law enforcement services, and border controls.



Thirdly, most of the countries are also involved in cooperation with third countries, in two elements, as to limiting this issue:



First is on the repressive side. That means sharing of intelligence to ensure that we know who is who. And I am sure my colleagues from France and other countries are very much involved in this and they can speak much better about it. But this is a priority.



And second, also to work on the prevention side. As Foreign Minister, I say that our priority is definitely now, with the Italians and with others, on the situation in Libya, beginning positive signs as to a new government of national unity. But its the very, very beginning, and we have to reinforce that, assist the reinforcement of that. We have to be proactive, as Europeans, to make sure that if a new flow would arise from that area we are not only in the reactive mode, but in terms of the mandates that we are discussing and on possible support for a new Libyan administration  that we are on the ball, so to speak.



So I think you are quite correctly pointing out the issue of security is key. The first role of any government  national but also at the European level  is to protect the states, the citizens against terrorist attacks.



D. MANOLIS (Athens News Agency): A question to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia. This is your second visit here in three days. What does it mean, concerning the level of relations between the two countries? Is there an improvement of bilateral relations? And also in view of your forthcoming presidency, during the second semester of 2016, the migration and refugee issues are on the top of your agenda? Thank you.



MR. M. LAJCAK: Yes, indeed. This is my second visit to Greece in the course of this week. I was here earlier to pay a bilateral visit. This was my very first visit after the appointment of the new government, and after my reappointment as the Foreign Minister of Slovakia, and I wanted to come to Greece for particular symbolic and practical reasons, to stress the importance of our bilateral relations, to assure my Greek partners about the friendship and about the fact that Slovakia cares a lot about the good cooperation that we traditionally have had. And I was very pleased with the reception and with the reaction of my Greek counterparts to this visit.



Now I am here as a part of this important group. This is a visit of solidarity, and at the same time it is a fact-finding mission focusing on the issue of migration. Its particularly important for me representing the future presidency of the European Union. Yes, I can assure you that the migration issue will be at the top of our agenda, at the top of our attention, and we will do our utmost to continue the effort of the European Union to address the migration crisis.



Your country is the most heavily affected by the migration crisis, which does not mean that its your countrys problem. Its our common European problem that can be solved only through a common European effort, and we will spare no time, no energy, to succeed in this effort. And from this perspective, I really found our visit and the meeting we have had up until now extremely useful. We have learned a lot, and it helped us to understand where we stand exactly, as of today, in implementing the deal between the European Union and Turkey.



And its been also very important for me, because it will help us to fine-tune the preparations for our presidency and addressing this particular issue.



M. KOURBELA: First of all, let me stress that this is the first time such solidarity is expressed in practice, in such a great team. Congratulations. I hope this continues.



A question for Mr. Desir. Are you optimistic that France will participate in the resettlement project? It is European Union law, but I see many countries hesitating, being very reluctant to implement resettlement.



H. DESIR: Thank you. First, I am very happy to be here with my colleagues, and I want to underline the fact that its an exceptional initiative, because we are facing an exceptional crisis, which requires an exception mobilization of European Union member states.



This is not just a Greek crisis. Greece is facing an international situation which is linked with the war in Syria and to instability and poverty in other places of the world. And the people who came to Greece came here because they want to go to Europe.



Now we have established an agreement with Turkey. We have established also an agreement on solidarity among member states, to support Greece, to help to face the humanitarian situation, to open a legal way of welcoming refugees, instead of human trafficking, to stop the deaths of people in the sea because of the abuse of human smugglers. And we have to implement this plan.



So what was very clear from the meetings we had with our colleagues, with the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, Mr. Tsipras, but also with Mr. Yannis Mouzalas and the European agencies, the UNHCR, the NGO that we met also this morning, is that we have to increase and to speed up the implementation of this plan from the side of the European member states.



There have also been commitments which have been made to support implementation, and now every EU member state  and we will report to our colleagues when back to Brussels and to our capital  as to fulfil its commitment. It is very clear for the personnel which have to be sent from the European agency FRONTEX to EASO for the asylum seekers. It is clear also that we have to ensure that all the means will be provided to NGOs and to the Greek authorities for the humanitarian part of the plan, for the people who are in need here, and also that we have to fulfill our commitments regarding relocation; because you are right to say that this is an important part of what we have decided.



The people who arrived in Greece before the time of the implementation of the plan with Turkey, before the 20th of March, who are blocked now in the country, those who can apply for asylum right, who are in need of international protection, we have decided that they will be welcome in all EU member states. So we ask and we demand all EU member states to be prepared to welcome those people, we have begun to do it, we have shown that it is possible to do it with the needed security scrutiny. Of course, there is a need to be sure that no criminals, no terrorists will use this welcome program of refugees, but we have put in place the mechanism to ensure that, and now we ask all the member states to welcome the refugees.



On the other side, we have also decided that people in Turkey in cooperation with the UN who are refugees can come to Europe through a resettlement program, and France will take its part to this resettlement program. In the coming days and weeks, you will see that 200 people will be welcomed from Turkey directly. This is very important. Some people have already been welcomed to Germany, because we want to put in place a mechanism where if you want to go to Europe, you have to apply through a legal mechanism and not to try to go at the risk of your life, by going in a boat, which has been put in the sea by the smugglers, who are criminals.



So, in the relocation system I think that France now is one of the leading countries for welcoming people from Greece and from Italy too. In the resettlement mechanism from Turkey we will also fulfill our commitment and we think that this is very important to show that Europe, at the same time that it controls its borders, respects its values, respects the asylum rights and the Geneva Convention and organizes itself to do it in such conditions that the smuggling will stop and that the people will come to Europe in safe conditions. Thank you.



G. ALEXAKIS(reporter.gr): From reporter.gr. A question to the Portuguese Minister. What is the contribution of your country to the resettlement program and to what extent do you work with the Greek government in the context of the relocation program? And one question to the Italian Minister. What is the plan of Italy to handle, to address migrant flows in case there is a problem in Libya? And what about the deployment of security forces in Albania? Was that the result of cooperation with the Greek government or not? And does this tally with the good climate we need in Europe for the purpose of managing the problem?



M. MARQUES: Thank you very much for your question. First of all, I would like to underline that concerning when the questions about my colleague who was here before yesterday and he is now today with us, my Prime Minister will arrive tomorrow in Greece for a bilateral meeting. Dont jump to conclusions as to why Portugal is here again. We are here because we think this is a European mission and because it is a European problem, and we need to have a European answer.



That is why we are here. The presidency deemed that it was important to be together discussing and having the opportunity to see on the ground what is happening and discussing and listening to all organizations, NGOs, who are together with our program. So this is a very important issue and we decided to do both; come to Greece and come to Turkey. And afterwards we will discuss, we will do the assessment of our conclusions to discuss how to go on with this mission.



To answer directly to your question, Portugal is very engaged in this issue and at the beginning of February, the Portuguese Prime Minister sent a letter to Greece, Italy, Austria, Sweden and Germany, to offer, to make an offer to receive more refugees. And our proposal is to receive 5,000 more than the quota in the beginning. So we can receive 10,000 refugees in our country in the relocation programme. So this is our offer and my country is very open to receiving refugees, because of solidarity, but also we have extensive experience with refugees in the 70s or the 80s. We know that the situation is different, but we have this experience and at the end of the day we think that it is a European issue and we need to have a European answer. And also, it is a very important challenge for Europe nowadays.



S. GOZI: Thank you. First of all, let me say that I am very satisfied with and grateful for this initiative that the Dutch Presidency and the Greek government took, because we know the feeling, in Italy. We know the feeling when you are a common border, you are a European border, a maritime border; it is clear that either you go ahead with a strong European action and with a concrete sense of European solidarity, or you cannot manage the issue. So it is very important, I do believe, that we are here, that we met with your government, that we met with the NGOs, that we met with international and European organizations, because this is teamwork for a package deal, which encompasses several aspects, and they must all work. Identification, reception, relocation, resettlement, return; they must all work.



From the Italian perspective we were very clear in the last Summit and in the conclusions we find satisfactory wordings. What we are doing today with Greece. And I should say, what we are doing today with the European Union, in this part of Europe. We are supposed a committee to do for the European Union in another part of Europe, i.e., in the Mediterranean. So we expect the same kind of solidarity and the same kind of commitment from the European Union partners and countries in the Mediterranean, in case there was another apex of the crisis, of a very, very huge increase of flows. We do not have any specific elements of alarm at the moment, for the time being, but this is how we prepare ourselves. We have settled in Greece the reception capacity in Italy, we have sped up the asylum procedure, we have sped up also the implementation of the hotspots, so we are doing our part and we do believe that this is the best way.



We are working on the prevention side also with our Albanian friends. We havent seen any specific increase of the flows through Albania, but we do believe that it is very important to strengthen our cooperation between the Italian government and the Albanian government. We have already provided resources for monitoring the borders to our Albanian partners and we are working very closely. Myself, I went to Tirana a few weeks ago. The two ministers, Albanian and Italian, are closely cooperating, not to find ourselves once again taken by surprise, when we know that there is the possibility of new flows and we are ready to work a lot on the prevention side.



Italy is also sending 20 asylum experts who are about to start to work here in Greece, exactly to strengthen the capacity in the asylum process, because it is clear that the numbers are huge for one singe country, so one of the most important things that we provide is experts, and there are 20 experts of Italy who are starting and Italy has already been present in the sea, on the border between the EU and Turkey. We have, with one helicopter and two vessels, rescued the lives of 1,354 people, and we have rescued 64 naval, if you want to say both, units, and certainly we are ready to do our part for the full implementation of this agreement.



JOURNALIST: I have two questions. One for all the ministers and one to Minister Xydakis.



How do you explain a certain delay of the European officers to come to Greece to help for the treatment of the asylum demands? And to Mr. Xydakis, if we have any new numbers of these arrivals. And the second question, when you think is the next dispatch of migrants to Turkey. Thank you.



N. XYDAKIS: The delay of sending officers, yes, of officials, yes, indeed there is one, but it doesnt change our plans. It was expected, because we were overambitious I think. This is a giant operation, with little or no preparation. We all knew that some delays would be incurred for the purpose of the operation. This operation is still in the making of course and it has no precedent. Well, we have started receiving officials and other staff to the Greek authorities. FRONTEX more or less has what it needs. The European asylum support office has been calling for more participants and I think we have a good, steady flow. The pressure will be felt mainly by EASO in the next few weeks, but of course the Greek government and the other governments will also help.



Now, concerning inflows to Greece, I think the flow has decreased. We are talking about the low hundreds, it is still a three-digit number, but in the range of 100 or 200 persons. You know, this is manageable. The need in terms of identification and accommodation just on the islands after the 20th of March and the needs to deal with asylum seekers. This is exactly what will be the issue in the next weeks. There may be delays there, but we will soon be on top of the problem. All these delays were to be expected, as I said. It is a transition, you know. You understand, the Greek authorities, the European apparatus must adapt to a totally new situation, in order for everyone to be in a position to manage this situation. I believe in two or three weeks, the landscape will be better, much better.



Dont forget, I said earlier, this is a new, ambitious operation without precedent. We are still on a learning curve, no one has done it before. We are testing our intellectual forces and our political will.



Concluding the previous discussions and this Press Conference, let me say that we are still reacting to a historical reality, we are still learning and from a purely political point of view, I would say, that in recent months we have been hearing about skepticism, Euro-skepticism, about the extreme right, the far right, etc., about extremism, but now we are sending quite an opposite message. These are the forces bringing us together, bringing us closer. This is the progressive Europe of more cohesion. These are the forces of the center, the center-left, those who defend the principles of the French Revolution; those who defend the core of European values. So what brings us together is this humanitarian nucleus of values.



As I said before, we are learning from history, from a historical reality that is happening now. Without any obsessions deriving from the historical past. So in a nutshell, if you will, this is an informal appearance of the coalition of the willing. This is what you have been seeing here today. Thank you. Thank you very much for your presence here.
City Corporation Counsel Melvin Hollowell says in a press release that officials are "confident that the city's medical marijuana regulations are lawful, fair and reasonable."

Hollowell says the city will continue to enforce compliance with the new laws which require store operators to get a business license designed for medical marijuana stores. They also prohibit shops from operating within 1,000 feet of places including churches, schools and parks, though stores can apply for a variance.

The Detroit News reports that the lawsuit was filed last week by dispensaries which said the city turned down their applications. The shops are in areas considered to be drug-free zones.
Customers at the store in Butte called police to report a sleeping man behind the wheel of the running car around 2:30 a.m., Butte-Silver Bow County Undersheriff George Skuletich said. The officer who responded woke the man up, identified him as Robert O'Neill and noticed odd behavior.

"He was confused. His actions were consistent with somebody who might be under the influence of something," Skuletich said.

O'Neill denied drinking, gave different stories about where he had been and at one point told the officers he had taken prescription medication to help him sleep, Skuletich said.

O'Neill failed a field sobriety test and would not perform others. The officers brought him to jail, where he refused a test to determine his blood alcohol level. At that point, he was charged with driving under the influence, which is a misdemeanor, Skuletich said.

Jail records show O'Neill was released at 4:26 a.m. after posting a $685 bond. It is his first arrest.

O'Neill denied that he was intoxicated and thanked police for their professionalism and courtesy.

"The facts are that I took a prescribed sleep aid to help with long-standing severe insomnia," he said in a statement released Friday through a public relations firm. "While the timing was bad and I highly regret this decision, I am innocent of the charge and have entered a plea of not guilty.

"I am confident I will soon be cleared of this matter," he said.

O'Neill began publicly discussing his role in the 2011 bin Laden raid two years ago. He told The Associated Press in a 2014 interview that the American public had a right to know more details about the killing of the al-Qaida leader.

Pentagon officials previously said it is not clear whose shots killed bin Laden.

O'Neill has made numerous speeches across the country since 2014.

O'Neill, who joined the Navy in 1995, participated in the 2009 rescue of the captain of a merchant ship taken hostage by Somali pirates, a mission that was the subject of the Tom Hanks movie "Captain Phillips."

He also helped rescue the survivor of a four-man team attacked in 2005 while tracking a Taliban leader in Afghanistan, which was featured in the 2013 film "Lone Survivor."
Alex Perez appeared in a Berrien County court Friday and was sent to jail on a $5 million bond. An attorney will be assigned.

Perez is charged with murder in the deaths of 27-year-old Renee Mitchell and her father, 67-year-old John Mitchell, in Coloma in January. Police caught him and his two young daughters in Georgetown, Colorado, on Jan. 15.

Police believe the 24-year-old Perez was returning home to Los Angeles at the time.

At the courthouse Friday, Perez' sister, Laura, says there are "two sides to the story." She says his family supports him.
Just a fraction of schools and day care centers nationwide are required to check for lead because most receive their water from municipal systems that test at other locations. State and federal lawmakers have called for wider testing.

Among schools and day care centers operating their own water systems, Environmental Protection Agency data analyzed by The Associated Press showed that 278 violated federal lead levels at some point during the past three years. Roughly a third of those had lead levels that were at least double the federal limit.

In almost all cases, the problems can be traced to aging buildings with lead pipes, older drinking fountains and water fixtures that have parts made with lead.

Riverside Elementary in the northern Wisconsin town of Ringle has lead pipes buried in its concrete foundation that used to leach into the tap water before a filtration system was installed. Replacing the pipes, which were installed when the school was built in the 1970s, is not an option.

"For the cost of that, you might as well build a new school," said Jack Stoskopf, an assistant superintendent.

Instead, he said, school officials decided to rip out the drinking fountains more than a decade ago and buy bottled water for students, costing about $1,000 a month.

Buying bottled water for drinking has been the routine at Ava Head Start in West Plains, Missouri, even before lead levels spiked after the preschool moved into a new building in 2010.

But it was not until February, after another round of high test results, that state regulators told the preschool to use bottled water for cooking and cleaning the toothbrushes for the 59 children, ages 3 and 4.

"The cost is not an option," said Sandra Porter, Ava's cook and water operator. "We're just doing what we have to."

Schools required to conduct lead testing represent only about 1 of every 10 schools in the country. Those receiving their water from city-owned systems  an estimated 90,000, according to the EPA  are not required by the federal government to do so.

In recent weeks, state lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania have proposed legislation that would require testing in all schools. Some members of Congress have called for more money and expanded lead sampling.

In March, some samples from the school district in Newark, New Jersey, came back with high amounts of lead. The district shut off sinks and fountains in 30 buildings and offered to test as many as 17,000 children for lead.

The inconsistent testing leaves most schoolchildren in buildings that are unchecked and vulnerable because lead particles can build up in plumbing when water goes unused for long periods.

"In schools, that means almost every weekend," said Virginia Tech professor Marc Edwards, who helped expose the lead problem in Flint's water.

His colleague, Yanna Lambrinidou, also notes that under EPA guidelines, schools and day care centers can report that an entire building is safe even if an individual drinking fountain is above the threshold.

Last year alone, lead levels exceeded the EPA limit of 15 parts per billion at 64 schools or day care centers that are required to test because they have their own water systems.

While no state is immune to the problem, half the high lead readings since the beginning of 2013 were in states along the East Coast. School buildings there are older and more likely to have lead plumbing. Pennsylvania, Maine and New Jersey topped the list.

Nationwide, the average age of school buildings dates to the early 1970s. It was not until 1986 that lead pipes were banned, and it was not until 2014 that brass fixtures were ordered to be virtually lead-free.

School leaders in Idaho Falls, Idaho, decided in February to remove two drinking fountains within a week of finding out about a recent high sample and another one from three years ago that the state failed to notify them about.

Idaho's Department of Environmental Quality acknowledged it should have followed up with more testing three years ago.

Still, regulators told school officials this year they could keep the two drinking fountains if they just flushed the water each day, said John Pymm, safety director with the Bonneville Joint School District in Idaho Falls.

"It made the most sense to get them out of service and make folks feel at ease," he said.

Tyler Baum, whose three daughters attend the elementary school, said he was not too concerned because the school acted quickly on its own.

"It certainly made me more aware of the water," he said. "We just assume we'll have clean drinking water."
The judge, David Goldman, repeatedly said many rules are "overly broad," including restrictions on posting online opinions about the workplace. He also said employees should be told they have the right to join a union. Some rules were upheld.

Quicken says it will appeal Goldman's decision to the National Labor Relations Board. In a statement, Quicken said Friday that the ruling sets a "dangerous precedent" and "exceeds the boundaries of rationality."

The complaint was filed by Hugh MacEachern. He claims he was fired by Quicken in retaliation for exploring whether to start a union.
Morro Bay Fire Chief Steve Knuckles said that 27-year-old Michael Banks was arrested on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine.

Knuckles said Banks climbed to the top of the cliff early Thursday to propose. Banks got stuck on the way down. No one has spoken to the girlfriend. Knuckles said Friday that he didn't know if the proposal was real only that Banks told "several people" during the rescue that he had asked for her hand in marriage. Police were not immediately available for comment.

Banks "took a different trail down, much steeper" and became stranded, said Capt. Todd Gailey. "He couldn't go any direction, on a sheer ledge, with his feet dangling 80 feet off the ground."

Rescuers called in a helicopter, and a crew member descended by cable to hoist Banks from the narrow ledge.

Banks was calm for most of the ordeal, but "a little unnerved" at that part, Gailey said. He was not hurt.

About 4 p.m. Thursday Banks was arrested when witnesses reported he was acting erratically.

Morro Rock is a 600-foot landmark just offshore from the community of Morro Bay. Climbing is banned, but some go anyway, and there have been several fatal falls over the years. Banks will be charged for the chopper ride.

Banks said nothing during the rescue about any second thoughts on his choice of setting for the proposal, Gailey said.

However, the fire captain said others should consider a place "where you're not in danger of falling off a cliff."

Banks has been booked into jail and isn't available for comment.
Cairo (AFP) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman agreed to set up a $16-billion investment fund Saturday and settled a long-standing maritime dispute as the monarch continued his rare visit to the country.

A day after Salman announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, the heads of state met at the historic Abdeen Palace in Cairo to oversee the inking of a string of agreements Egypt hopes will help boost its battered economy.

In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory.

The 80-year-old Saudi monarch's visit to Egypt has been seen as a clear show of support for Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Since touching down on Thursday, Salman and his delegation have announced a slew of investments in Egypt.

A live Egyptian state television broadcast on Saturday showed an official announcing the latest agreements, signed by a representative of each country.

The two nations agreed "to set up a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals ($16 billion)," the announcer said, giving no further details.

More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion.

It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt.

Egyptian officials and media have heaped accolades on Salman, with state television welcoming him to what it called his "second country" -- a country Riyadh views as a cornerstone in its ambitions to be a regional leader against Iran.

- Maritime borders -

But the agreement announced by the cabinet on Saturday to settle the dispute over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, where thousands tweeted a hashtag accusing Sisi of selling the islands.

Tiran had historically been a Saudi island 'leased' to Egypt in 1950.

Earlier on Saturday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.

He is due to address parliament on Sunday and receive an honorary doctorate from Cairo University on Monday.

An Egyptian government official had said the deals agreed with Saudi Arabia, excluding the investment fund, would amount to $1.7 billion.

On Friday, both leaders lavished praise on each other's countries and their relationship.

"This visit comes as a confirmation of the pledges of brotherhood and solidarity before the two brotherly countries," Sisi said in a televised speech.

The visit follows months of reports in Saudi and Egyptian newspapers of strained ties over Cairo's unwillingness to participate fully in Saudi-led military operations against Iran-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen.

Egypt had announced it would back Saudi Arabia with ground troops if needed, but appears to have balked at the prospect of becoming mired in the conflict.

Sisi's close relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who militarily backs Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad against Saudi-supported rebels, has reportedly also caused friction with Riyadh.

However, Saudi Arabia has played a key role in propping up Egypt's economy, whose vital tourism industry has been devastated by years of political turmoil and jihadist attacks.

For Saudi Arabia, which is in competition with regional rival Iran, keeping Egypt under its aegis is crucial.
Moroni (Comoros) (AFP) - Voters were heading to the polls in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros on Sunday in a likely face-off between the current vice president and a former coup leader who ruled the country for seven years.

The second round of the presidential election comes after Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi -- known as Mamadou -- won the first round in February with 17.88 percent of the vote.

The two other contenders are governor of Grande Comore island Mouigni Baraka, who garnered 15.62 percent in the first round, and 1999 coup leader Colonel Azali Assoumani, who took 15.10 percent.

Voting kicked off under calm conditions just after 7:00 am (0400 GMT), with people lining up at poll stations under the eye of a discrete police presence.

Assoumani is seen as Mamadou's main rival after receiving the endorsement from the opposition Juwa party, which has no candidate in the second round.

The Juwa party split over the endorsement, and 15 high-ranking party officials resigned to rally behind Mamadou, who is viewed as the establishment choice.

Assoumani first came to power in 1999 after ousting acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde in a coup.

He then won the presidential election three years later, stepping down when his term ended in 2006.

If the election goes smoothly, results are expected within three days in the race to succeed outgoing President Ikililou Dhoinine.

- Dire poverty -

A Constitutional Court ruling in March upheld the first-round results after 19 of the 25 candidates alleged fraud.

Campaigning for the second round was marked by personal attacks and allegations of corruption, with barbs traded particularly between Mamadou and Assoumani.

The first round took place only on Grand Comore island, in accordance with electoral rules that ensure the president is chosen on a rotating basis from the three main islands.

Comoros' system was established in 2001 after more than 20 coups or attempted coups, four of which were successful, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

The three islands of Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli that make up the Comoros have a total population of just under 800,000 people, nearly all of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Dhoinine's completion of his five-year term in the impoverished archipelago has been seen as a sign of growing stability in the Comoros in recent years.

Though the islands, situated between Madagascar and Mozambique, suffer dire poverty, they export some vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang perfume essence.

Comoros is the world's top producer of ylang-ylang, which is extracted from a flower -- a commodity that makes up one-tenth of the archipelago's total export revenues.

The oil is a key ingredient in Chanel N5 and is also used in many other perfumes.
The Editor in Chief of the New Crusading Guide newspaper has taken Ghana's surviving ex-presidents down memory lane over what has been a never ending controversy over the construction of the Keta Sea Defence wall.

Malik Kweku Baako Jnr says ex-president John Rawlings swindled Ghanaians into thinking his government was going to construct the wall but rather presided over an era of embezzlement of the monies accrued for the construction of the wall.

He also faulted ex-president John Kufuor for a lapse in memory of the year in which the actual embezzlement had occurred.

He made the comments on Joy FM's newsfile programe while contributing to the ongoing controversy and political contest of achievement in the Volta Region- a contest between the governing NDC and the opposition NPP.

President John Mahama triggered the controversy with his claim that the New Patriotic Party did nothing for the people of the Volta Region in its eight year tenure.

That claim did not sit well with Ex-President John Kufuor who hit back in equal measure accusing the sitting president of dishonesty.

Mr Kufuor in chronicling the many achievement of the NPP mentioned the Keta Sea Defence project which he said was successfully completed under his tenure in 2004.

The project was to save the people of Keta from the sea erosion they were suffering at the time but Mr Kufour said a $92 million exim bank loan contracted by the Rawlings regime for the execution of the project was squandered.

He said when the NPP took over government in 2001, it had to start from the scratch and build the defence wall for the people of Keta.

He therefore found it rather disheartening that several years later, president Mahama will say that the NPP did not execute any project in the Volta Region.

But critics have lunged at Mr Kufuor for suggesting that the monies for the project were misappropriated.

Speaking on the matter, Saturday, Malik Kweku Baako Jnr said ex-President John Kufuor was right in suggesting that funds for the project were embezzled but said he got it wrong in respect of the year of the embezzlement and the actual loan facility that was embezzled.

Kufuor's Amnesia



Kweku Baako explained that the $92 million Exim Bank loan procured in 1999 was not embezzled but a previous facility secured for the project was embezzled with impunity.

According to him, in 1996 the vision to construct a sea defence wall for Keta began with some funds allocated for it. However those funds were not used for the purpose for which they were secured.

Quoting a report of a committee set up to investigate the circumstances under which the funds were embezzled, Malik Baako said the contractors had been overpaid $3.9 million.

"The guys chopped the money left right and centre," he said, adding, the minister at the time told Parliament that government had retrieved an amount of $1.5 million and was going to collect the remaining $2 billion in due course.

Rawlings' propaganda



According to Malik Kweku Baako who is one of the fiercest critics of the ex-president, Mr. Rawlings deliberately sat in the bulldozer in 1996 with a promise to execute the sea defence wall.

At best, he said the bulldozer spectacle was only for propaganda value because two years after that charade nothing had been done on the project site.

The New Crusading Guide Editor also quoted the 18th May 1998 Joy FM report which suggested that nothing had been done on the project site two years after Rawlings went to cut sod.

He said the project manager of the Great Lakes Company, the company contracted to execute portions of the project admitted that his company put something on the site to create the impression that the sea defence wall was being constructed..

It was after all these that Exim Bank loan was procured for the project in 2000 but the Rawlings led NDC lost power in the 2000 elections with Mr Kufuor taking over the reins of power.

Kweku Baako said the NPP completed a chunk of the project but was quick to add the Keta sea defence was a comprehensive project, which covered more than the Rawlings and Kufuor administrations.

Environment Science and Technology Minister Mahama Ayariga who was also on the show defended the president's decision to criticize the NPP for doing very little in the Volta Region.

He said the president only responded to queries from the NPP, that his presidency had turned a blind eye to the needs of the people in the region, despite their massive support for the party.
Health professionals from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) and the University of Development Studies (UDS) have performed free corrective surgery for a hermaphrodite in the Upper West Region.

The 16-year-old was quizzed about his preferred sex, to which he agreed to remain a man.

Prior to the surgery he had a protruding stomach and highly inflamed breasts.

It took the medical team some three hours to complete the reconstructive surgery.

Urologist and Senior lecturer at the KNUST Medical School, Dr Kwaku Addai Arhin who led the team said it was good to wait for patients to make a decision about their preferred choice of sex before the surgery was conducted.

One other major case which was attended to was that of a middle aged woman who had a leakage in her intestines.

A Senior Lecturer at the KNUST, Dr Joseph Yorke, who also led a team to perform the reconstruction on the leakage said: "she is carrying a baby so if we lose her we are losing two people and we dont want that.

The initiative is part of a medical outreach programme organised by the health professionals from both universities.

Some 379 people also benefited from various treatments free of charge by the 37 doctors.

They spent five days working in five district hospitals in the region.

The programme formed part of the KNUST Medical School's 40-year anniversary.

The patients were grateful to the team for coming to the region as it would have cost them about a2,000 to travel to Kumasi for the surgery.
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10.04.2016 LISTEN

Your Excellency John Agyekum Kuffour,

I trust you doing well.

This is my second public statement about you.The first was when I co-authored a press stemtement and signed (as the Media & Communication Director for 350Ghana-Reducing Our Carbon) to congratulate you on the occasion of your appointment as a Climate Change Ambassador.Thanks to your Secretary Mr. Frank Agyekum, for the warm reception when I visited your office to officially deliver the statement.

Your Excellency, this time around it's about politics.I marveled to wake up to a very distasteful and wild publication in which you were purported to have lambasted the NDC government for showcasing what you termed "kids movie " as development projects.

Apparently, the NDC for sometime now had decided to treat some of your utterances with kid gloves and rather focus on Nana Akufo-Addo since he's the candidate your party has featured for the 2016 elections despite his rapid dwindling popularity and consistent failure to secure the mandate of the good people of Ghana.

Unlike your party (which is currently in disarray), the NDC party is a very formidable and strategic party and I'm in no doubt whatever, that you would receive a response at the most appropriate time.But, as a #Footsoldier, permit me to remind you of some of your records which accounted for your Party's poor showing in both the 2008 and 2012 general elections.

Your Excellency, do you recall how you #failed miserably to deliver on your promise of linking Ghana to her neighbouring countries via #rail network system? You had a special Minister in charge of the Rail sector but ended up #collapsing the sector in toto.

You disappointed the people of Cape Coast and Kumasi after your failure to deliver on your promise of constructing an ultra-modern market to their respective cities. Under #JM administration, work on these markets are progressing as scheduled and are nearing completion without any hindrance whatsoever.

Sir,you'll forever be remembered as the president who supervised the collapse of the #GhanaAirways, #STC and in fact, your own initiative, the #PSI.

Remember how your level of mismanagement compelled you to sell #GT to #Vodafone and used the proceeds to pay salaries.Your own parliamentarians had to be #bribed to see the deal through.

Oh yes,your government created a very conducive environment for businesses to thrive including #drugtrafficking business to the extent that a sitting MP was encouraged to indulge in such a disgusting venture.We even earned for ourselves #Cocaincoast by dint of your terrible leadership .Another criminal #MP from your party lied his way to the august house of Parliament without denouncing his British Citizenship.Your own party chair accused you of setting up 'The Center for Kickback Collection' (a Looting Think Tank) at the seat of government. Years after leaving government, your name continue to make waves and occupy top position in all manner of suspicious deals.The latest in the series is the Panama Paper expose and for your information, Ghanaians are keenly waiting to see how these undercover deals unfold.Such was the state of affairs during your reign yet Ghana didn't collapse.#Greed and nothing but greed, was the order of the day under your government.

You'll go down in history as the president who spearheaded the unprecedented state of insecurity in the Dagbon community.The conflict in Bawku was at its escalating hight when you left power and has to take the NDC government to restore calm and security.Be grateful to God that Adam Mahama and the Asawase NPP sympathizer (May their Souls rest in peace) cold-blooded killings didn't occur during your tenure of office.

Your Excellency, I was therefore not in the least surprised the good people of Ghana used the #BallotBox to express their anger to your #voodoo government.

This is just a tip of the iceberg drawn from the litanies of your broken promises and abysmal records bequeathed to the NDC administration.

Enjoy your weekend, Sir.

Sincerely,

Farid Shamsu-deen.

(A proud NDC/Zongo Footsoldier)

Email : [email protected]

Contact : 0233275280/0244275280
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-The National President of the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA), Moses D. Sandy is proposing the merger of media institutions in Liberia with similar or identical editorial philosophies. Mr. Sandy said such endeavor would help minimize the extreme poverty, which continues to stall the professional growth and development of the Liberian press. He said the proposed merger would also, create avenues for the strengthening of the financial capacity of media institutions, recruitment and retention of qualified journalists, and improvement in the living conditions of journalists.

Speaking recently when he delivered a paper on ALJAs vision for the Liberian media at the Diaspora Political Consultative Conference held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania under the auspices of the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA). The ALJA National President said press freedom the world-over is not measured by the proliferation of substandard and inefficient media institutions, but the content of news stories reported in the media.

Since the ascendency of the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration to the political leadership of Liberia in January 2006, the country has witnessed an astronomical growth in media institutions and schools of communication. In todays Liberia, there are 69 radio stations. The radio stations comprise the state owned, Liberia Broadcasting System (LBS), commercial, religious, community, and those operated by schools of communication.

According to media reports, Liberia also, has more than 5 television stations and nearly 40 newspapers. Liberia reportedly has six degree granting schools of communication including the University of Liberia and Cuttington University College (CUC). Despite the media pluralism, Mr. Sandy indicated, the local Liberian press persists to be saddled with issues of non-livable wages, lack of fringe benefits for journalists, destitution, and poor logistical support and staffing. The average monthly salary for a reporter in Liberia is reportedly US $50.

He said most media institutions and journalists are barely surviving due to the nations limited media market. He noted most print and broadcast institutions often scramble for advertisements just to remain functional. The problem is further worsened by the lack of readership, especially in the print area. In the wake of the problem, President Sandy observed advertisers and some selfish politicians most of the times determine and impose their own prices at the detriment of media institutions.

He said the Liberian press is also, impacted by issues of brain drain and inaccessibility. He maintained the media is faced with the exodus of trained and experienced journalists, who are abandoning the profession in search of greener pasture in other disciplines. Commenting on the print media, Mr. Sandy said Newspapers in Liberia continue to struggle with challenges of poor circulation and irregular publications.

He noted several Liberian newspapers rarely appear on the news stand due to the lack of funding. Reportedly less than 20 newspapers are published regularly in the country. He said most of the newspapers are published and circulated only in Monrovia and its environs due to the lack of monetary and logistical support for mass production and distribution throughout the country.

Touching on the broadcast media, the ALJA boss said most radio and TV stations in Liberia are plagued by the problem of intermittent broadcast hours and weak signals. He said most stations are unable to sustain uninterrupted broadcast hours. He said the situation is furthered compounded by weak signals and poor broadcast coverage area. He noted the broadcast signals of some radio and TV stations can hardly travel beyond Monrovia and its environs.

Meanwhile, the ALJA National President says the Association is determined to work in unison with the leadership of the Press Union of Liberia (PUL) and heads of media institutions in addressing journalists welfare and the consolidation of forces in the strengthening of Liberian journalism.

Signed:____________________________

Gardea V. Woodson

National Secretary General
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania- Liberia's Ambassador accredited to the United States of America (USA), Jeremiah Sulonteh, says the Liberian Government has taken no decision on Preposition 24 of the national constitution review process, which seeks to make Liberia a Christian country.

Preposition 24 was advanced by some members of the Christian community and it was adopted as one of several constitutional amendment proposals that evolved from the National Constitution Review Conference held last year in Gbarnga, Bong County. Ambassador Sulonteh said, for now the proposal remains a mere "debate."

The Ambassador maintained the Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf administration has taken no political action on whether to make Liberia a Christian country, or not. Speaking recently in the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania at the Union of Liberian Associations in the Americas (ULAA) Diaspora Political Consultative Conference, Ambassador Sulonteh insisted Christianizing Liberia now as suggested by some members of the Christian community, will make no political or economic difference in the lives of the people.

Eighty five percent of Liberia's population accounts for Christians. The nation's declaration of independence was signed in the Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia in the 1800's. Since Liberia's independence in 1847, members of the Christian faith continue to enjoy preferential treatment in the celebration of public holidays and the dispensation of political power in the country.

However, the Ambassador noted declaring Liberia a Christian country is not the way forward politically. He said "Over the years Liberian Christians and other religious groups have co-existed and they must continue to live in peace and harmony." Ambassador Sulonteh thanked and praised the ULAA National Leadership for organizing the Diaspora Political Consultative Conference. He also, thanked the participants for convening to discuss salient issues that affect the wellbeing of the diaspora Liberian community and their country. "It is time that ULAA and the diaspora Liberian community take leadership role in Liberia," the calm and soft spoken Ambassador pontificated.

He then, underscored the cordial tie which subsists between the Liberian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Union. He commended the ULAA leadership for the support it gave the Embassy in the recent renewal of the Ebola Temporary Protective Status (TPS), granted by the US government. The US government through the Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson extended the designations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone for TPS for an additional six months on March 22, 2016. Although there have been significant improvements in the conditions in all three countries since their designations for TPS in November 2014, the US government noted that the lingering effects of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak and continued recovery challenges support the six-month extension.

He said the ULAA leadership and the Liberian Embassy wrote a letter to the US Department of Homeland Security requesting the renewal of the TPS. Also speaking at the gathering, ULAA National President, Wilmot Kunney, commended Ambassador Sulonteh for the cooperation and support the Liberian Embassy continues to give his administration in addressing issues that affect the lives of Liberians in the Americas. Mr. Kunney said the Diaspora Political Consultative Conference was meant to give opportunity to key political and national leaders in Liberia to deliberate the unfolding political situation in the country and the role of the Diaspora Liberian Community in the process as Liberia marches toward the 2017 general and presidential elections.

The conference brought together a consortium of eminent Liberians, politicians, and heads of diaspora Liberian community organizations. Mr. Gayah Fahnbulleh, the US based Special Envoy to Vice President, Joseph Boakai, and the Association of Liberian Journalists in the Americas (ALJA), National President, Moses D. Sandy, were among some key speakers that delivered papers at the gathering. Mr. Sandy spoke on ALJA's vision for the Liberian Press and the role of the Diaspora Liberian community in the political process of Liberia.

Moses D. Sandy

[email protected]/302-494-4688
08 April 2016 - If the world is to prevent the spread of violent extremism, global efforts need to focus on early intervention, supporting women and children and improving our understanding of the phenomenon, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland QC has said.

Addressing a major United Nations conference in Geneva, Secretary-General Scotland pledged the Commonwealths commitment to support the United Nations Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism.

There can be no greater responsibility than ensuring the safety and security of our citizens, said the Secretary-General, as she outlined her vision for the Commonwealths own action plan, involving the development of alternative narratives and dialogue, empowering young people, harnessing the power of education and the media, and building an environment that supports good governance, human rights and the rule of law.

The changing nature of violence in todays world is alarming, and it affects us all. I believe this starts with women and children. That means we need to start in the home and in schools, she said, emphasising the need to gather empirical data and to break down silos.

Education about the other, teaching that difference is something to celebrate and not to fear, this needs to start in primary schools, she stressed. The Commonwealth has a long-track record in supporting young people, she added. But this work needs to start earlier and younger than it traditionally has.

Such interventions enable mothers and young people to address social exclusion, ethnic or religious prejudice, and politically-motivated violence at grassroots where they can be potent catalysts for inclusion and help avert alienation.

The Commonwealths Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism will cover four strands, including the development of alternative narratives and dialogue so all Commonwealth citizens can be part of the solution, and helping member countries with good governance, human rights protection and the rule of law, said the Secretary-General in her speech.

The plan will also embrace the power of education and the media to promote greater respect and understanding among communities, and empower young people to be positive agents and role models in our societies, she said.

By promoting alternative narratives, strengthening justice institutions, and building platforms for dialogue, the Commonwealth way is always to encourage positive engagement. Violence can be defeated, but we need the widest and most inclusive alliances of government, international agencies, civil society organisations, private sector actors, legal bodies, educators, youth workers and healthcare professionals, she said.

The Geneva Conference on Preventing Violent Extremism  The Way Forward, co-hosted by the Government of Switzerland and the United Nations, is taking place between 7 and 8 April 2016. It was organised to help the international community to share experiences and good practices.

Day two of the conference saw interventions by government ministers, heads of international and regional organisations and heads of UN agencies, following a meeting of senior experts yesterday. The United Nations Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism was developed by the UN Secretary-General and endorsed by the UN General Assembly on 12 February 2016.

In November 2015, Commonwealth Heads of Government in Malta agreed to establish a dedicated unit within the Commonwealth Secretariat to strengthen national, regional and global action on preventing violent extremism. This builds on past work including the publication of the report, Civil Paths to Peace.

In her speech, the Secretary-General also outlined the Commonwealth Secretariat collaboration with UN Women on supporting legal decision makers on cases of violence against women. Because if there isn't peace in the home, there cannot be peace in our world, she said.

Notes to Editors:

Watch the Secretary-Generals address to the UN conference on 8 April 2016:

Read the speech in full: http://goo.gl/TlAjRx
The sad story of this two Accra city campus students and Distance Education students as SRC must be known, I am a student and a law abiding student of University of Ghana, a believer of the current Vice Chancellor Professor Ernest Aryeetey Visions of making university of Ghana world class university. I believe in fair system and right of students. According to Constitution of the Republic of Ghana CHAPTER FIVE FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS 12.

(1)The fundamental human rights and freedoms enshrined in this chapter shall be respected and upheld by the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary and all other organs of government and its agencies and, where applicable to them, by all natural and legal persons in Ghana, and shall be enforceable by the Courts as provided for in this Constitution.

(2)Every person in Ghana, whatever his race, place of origin, political opinion, colour, religion, creed or gender shall be entitled to the fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual contained in this Chapter but subject to respect for the rights and freedoms of others and for the public interest.

The above chapter state it clear that the right of every person must be ensured. Student at Accra city campus are non resident who do not have any right to attend lectures at university of Ghana main campus legon, but must be at city campus through out their 4 years academic program and the same thing applies to distance education students. The university made it clear to students admitted to Accra city campus and Distance Education on their admission letters that they are not entitled to halls and must not attend lectures at legon campus but only at Accra city campus and Distance Education centers .

Recently all the various halls of residence issued notices of sacking all Accra city campus students who are in their halls and same thing was applied to Distance education students because they are not allowed to sleep at any university of Ghana halls, the halls were made for residents on legon campus but not for city campus and Distance Education centers since those two campuses are far from the main university and the students have been placed at distance education centers and Accra city campus.

The issue about making Accra city campus SRC a JCR contradict the purpose of this two campuses and the vision of having this two campuses. The main vision of the university for putting up Accra city campus is clearly stated below

University of Accra City Campus

The External Degree Centre of the Accra Workers' College which later become known as Accra City Campus was established as the external degree wing of the University of Ghana, in the 1963-1964 academic session. It has been charged with the responsibility of offering, on a part-time basis, the courses which were available to full-time students of the University of Ghana. It is a non-residential and fee-paying Campus of the University.(http://acc.ug.edu.gh/index.php/about-us/about-city-campus.html)

The main purpose for establishing Distance education programme is stated below

Distance Education (SCDE) is to pursue academic programmes and activities towards the realization of the potential growth that exists for investing in the expansion of adult, continuing and distance education programmes which would extend the reach of the University to student populations in formats which the traditional face-to-face classroom learning cannot provided (http://scde.ug.edu.gh/dean/welcome) also fee paying.

Distance education is run across the ten regions of Ghana by the university and if this students are allowed to vote in this year election then some of them have to travelled from upper East Wa,Temale , Ho etc to come to university of Ghana legon to vote and the same thing applied to Accra city campus students.

The questions we must ask ourselves is that if now this students from Accra city campus and Distance Education students are allowed to vote on main campus then the vision of the Vice Chancellor about decongestion of the halls will not work and soon students from Accra city campus and Distance Education students will start to demand for hall of residence and 10 students will be sleeping in rooms made for only 3 students and congestion will start.

I humbly request that they university authorities discourage this idea of allowing University of Ghana Accra city campus students to vote on main campus elections which has nothing to do with the interest of Accra city campus students and Distance Education students instead of those students voting on their campuses to keep the vision of students participation in their activities alive.

Local SRC of Accra city campus have not received any money which is dues paid by Accra city campus students as part of their fees to run students activities which the university of Ghana encourage just because the right of this students to remain a local src body to seek the warfare of their students are being taking away from them. It is our vision that the university of Ghana will be world class university but if we allow students who have been placed as distance education and Accra city campus students are allowed to travel from different part of Ghana to come and vote to somebody has nothing to do with their campus activities and challenges.

As a student of this great university for the pass three years I have never come in contact with the Dean of students of university of Ghana before just because the local SRC at Accra city campus collect all the challenges facing us as students then go to the Dean of students on our behalf to address issues. The former UG-ACC SRC president Mr Andrews was able to get 6 brand new computers, 200 plastic chairs for students at Accra city campus to use for tutorials and a whole lot. What has Mr. Fobi current SRC president of university of Ghana who is encouraging students from Accra city campus and Distance Education students to come to legon campus to vote done for Accra city campus and Distance Education students. Has he even visited this campus before this semester or last semester.

This academic year 2016 / 2017 most students at Accra city campus and Distance Education students complained about smell of the washrooms was bad and need some basic items and since there is no money from the Dean of students to Accra city campus SRC to provide those basic materials to the washrooms so that student will feel comfortable has keep the place with bad smell.

I really want to find out what happens to the SRC dues paid by Distance education students and Accra city campus students, since we have been told by our elected UG-ACC SRC president Mr Delali that there is no money coming from the Dean of students to accra city campus.

What has The SRC president Mr. Fobi and His executives from main campus done for distance education students this academic year 2016/2017, does Mr. Fobi and his executives even knows the number of challenges distance education students are going through across the centers in the country as distance education students.

From the university of Ghana Junior members hand book.

JUNIOR COMMON ROOM (JCR):

There is a Junior Common Room in each Hall of

Residence to which every student in statu pupillari and attached to the Hall is a member.

The JCR has its own constitution. It elects its governing body of officers who seek to protect the interests of junior members of the Hall and provide cultural, social and sporting activities for the Hall. The JCR of a Hall, through its officers, maintains relations with JCRs of other Halls and is a recognised channel of communication between junior members and the Hall authorities. The revenue of the JCR is derived from students contributions and contributions from the University through the Hall Council.

From they above there is no way UG-ACC SRC and Distance Education SRC can be changed to JCR since we pay SRC dues and we don't have any halls to generate revenue from our members to run affairs of students, both students from Accra city campus and Distance Education students are non resident, how will this students be made to pay JCR dues since non of the students sleep in any hall from City campus.

I humbly pled with the university authorities to ensure that the local SRC of both city campus and Distance Education students are maintained in order to discourage students from coming to lectures at main campus, instead of going to city campus and Distance Education centers to have their lectures.

May God bless university of Ghana.

Emmanuel Ashitey

0540981328
A number of Ghanaian scholars and volunteers have set up a foundation to provide social amenities such as wells schools mosques and bore holes in Ghana.

The organization known as Namaa Foundation of Ghana will have its headquarters in Accra but will operate in all parts of the country.

The organization which has been registered with the registrar generals department has a team of Ghanaian Directors made up of Daud Mohamed Tindanwu, Musah Sumaila, and Ahmed Alhasan Salifu.

According to Mohammed Tindanwu the organization will be supported in its activities by donors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Great Britain. He said the foundation was formed in the country because of its friendly atmosphere and long period of political stability

ALHAJI HAYOUM TOURE CENTRAL MOSQUE

New Ashongman Estates



FINANCIAL REPORT AMOUNT DATE I deposited an amount of Into a suspense Bank Account at the Dome Branch of the GBC Bank pending completion of forms by four signatories of the accounts GHC5, 760 10/09/2015 Amount withdrawn from the Suspense account to pay our Watchman, fix a damaged part of the water tank, Diesel for the generator and Other expenses by Billy and Razak GHC 1,000 25/09/2015 BALANCE GHC4, 760

Mr. Billy and Razak Odoi who disbursed the GHC1, 000 withdrawn from our account will provide justifications for their expenditure

By Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai 

DATE
10.04.2016 LISTEN

With an annual economic growth rate of about 5% over the last decade, driven mainly by the commodities boom, African cities have seen skyrocketing population growth, forcing governments to face a host of development challenges.

Africa is urbanizing at a rate of 4% per year, according to UN-Habitat, the United Nations agency tasked with assisting national programmes relating to human settlements through the provision of capital and technical assistance, particularly in developing countries. Population shifts from rural to urban areas lead to a number of challenges such as overcrowding, pollution and crime, among others.

Urbanization in the Africa of today is an untapped tool for development and economic growth, says Joan Clos, the executive director of UN-Habitat.

Over the next 15 years, cities in Africa will experience higher growth rates than other regions of the world, predicts Oxford Economics, a British firm that specialises in global forecasting and quantitative analysis for business and government, with Cape Town, Dar es Salaam, Johannesburg and Luanda becoming Africas major economic giants.

Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi, the secretary-general of United Cities and Local Governments-Africa (UCLG-A), a body representing over 1,000 African cities, describes sustainable cities as cities of the future today, meaning those that can withstand the intense pressure from rapid development and urban investments but have a low impact on the environment.

Economic growth and a rapidly growing population of about 1 billion mean more urbanization in Africa than in any other continent, with major cities in Africa currently contributing about $700 billion to the continents GDP. This figure is set to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2030, notes Oxford Economics.

UN-Habitat says rapid urbanization, especially in cities in the developing world, is bringing challenges in the distribution of people and resources, as well as in land use, which leads to inefficient land-use patterns. Cities growing horizontally are struggling to deal with increasing urban populations and are not likely to be sustainable over the long term because of challenges with congestion, infrastructure, pollution and social disaggregation.

An increase in migration from rural to urban areas can exacerbate poverty and inequality as people pour into the cities in search of jobs and opportunities, straining available services such as water, transportation and garbage collection.

Urbanization, particularly in the developing world, has been accompanied by increased levels of crime, violence, and lawlessness. Global studies show that 60% of all urban residents in developing countries have been victims of crime at least once over the past five years, 70% of them in Latin America and Africa, says UN-Habitats website.

Women and children are often the most affected, especially when fear hinders their access to basic services in the city. Crime and insecurity in the city restrict urban social and economic development, and often jeopardize opportunities and policies that support the poor in urban areas.

Sustainable cities

The need for sustainable cities is particularly urgent, considering cities generate over 70% of global carbon emissions. The one billion slum dwellers worldwide suffer the impacts of air pollution from indoor cooking, proximity to traffic and industry, contaminated water and inadequate sanitation, among other environmental health risks.

UN-Habitat suggests a three-pronged approach to sustainable cities, based on effective and comprehensive urban legislation, proper urban planning and design, and adequate financing for projects. The three principles can be levers for the transformation of cities and human settlements into centres of environmental, economic and social sustainability.

Climate change is a recent consideration in the planning of sustainable cities. Africas urban environments are particularly susceptible to flooding and outbreaks of diseases such as malaria. However, these can be mitigated through proper planning, effective policy implementation, the protection of ecologically sensitive areas, reforestation and the use of waste in energy generation, among other measures.

Given the economic and social challenges faced by many African cities, can they offer a high quality of life for residents through the provision of efficient basic services while at the same time ensuring that the environment is safe and clean?

Yes, potentially, says Mr. Mbassi, adding that this would require a pace of development in Africa that should not necessarily resemble that of the West.

We should plan cities according to their specific situations and the needs of the local people, to ensure that cities include everyone and the poor are not marginalized in terms of accessing all the services a city has to offer, Mr. Mbassi told Africa Renewal in an interview.

A new agenda

Working with the UN Economic Commission for Africa, UCLG-A developed the Africa Urban Agenda (AUA) to be adopted by African leaders in July 2016. The Agenda consists of actions Africa needs to take to improve its cities and settlements and to promote urbanization as a catalyst for Africas structural transformation. It represents Africas inputs into the Global Urban Agenda to be adopted at Habitat III, a conference on housing and sustainable urban development to be hosted by UN-Habitat in October 2016 in Quito, Ecuador.

Countries attending Habitat III, the first UN world summit after the adoption of the SDGs and the Paris climate change agreement, are expected to adopt the New Urban Agenda for the 21st century.

It is clear that urban planning requires a shift from viewing urbanization mainly as a problem, to seeing it as a tool for development, UN-Habitat says in UN-Habitat Global Activities Report 2015: Increasing Synergy for Greater National Ownership.

At a meeting organized by UN-Habitat and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Ethiopia in March 2014, called The Role of Urbanization in the Structural Transformation of Africa, the director of political affairs at the African Union Commission, Khabele Matlosa, said that African countries need to adopt new development models designed to take advantage of urbanization by facilitating structural transformation, creating jobs and addressing social inequality and poverty while creating habitable settlements with equal opportunities for all.

Starting smart to end slums

Although with good planning urbanization, industrialization, sustained economic growth and human development can be mutually reinforcing, there is urgent need for safe settlements too, according to a report by UN-Habitat, The State of the African Cities 2014: Re-Imagining Sustainable Urbanization.

Sub-Saharan Africa has a slum population of 199.5 million, which, according to UN-Habitat, is a sign of a poorly planned and managed urban sector and, in particular, a malfunctioning housing sector.

Africa is home to big slums such as West Point in Liberias capital, Monrovia, with more than 75,000 people, and Kenyas Kibera slum in Nairobi, which is the largest in Africa, with over 2 million people.

Africa requires around 4 million housing units per year, with over 60% of the demand required to accommodate urban residents. Effective planning regulations and their enforcement will help cities deal with the growth of informal settlements and provide a map for how the cities will grow and develop, while promoting economic growth.

Africa Renewal
10.04.2016 LISTEN

A recent Pew research poll of eleven countries showed that ISIS has its highest support among Nigerian Muslims.

According to the November 2015 poll, 20% of Muslims in Nigeria support the mass murdering savages and rapists known as Islamic State. This is nearly twice that of Malaysia (12%), the Muslim country with the next highest ISIS support.

Given that Muslims comprise roughly half of Nigerias 160 million people, 20% of 80 million Nigerian Muslims comes to about 16 million ISIS supporters. It goes without saying that the overwhelming majority of these 16 million tiny minority of extremists are in our religious violence prone core North.

One would think that with the ongoing horrific nightmare of wanton Boko Haram massacres, which has devastated large swathes of our North east and wrecked the northern economy, our Muslim compatriots up North would have learnt their lesson by now and steer clear off religious extremism.

Instead we are learning there may be up to 16 million supporters of our local ISIS affiliate  Boko Haram a.k.a. Islamic State of West Africa.

Reports also abound of Nigerian Muslims heading off to join Al-Baghdadis Caliphate in Syria and Iraq, while our DSS recently arrested a local ISIS recruiter.

As if our ugly reputation as an underachieving nation of scammers and mind-boggling corruption is not bad enough, millions of Nigerian Muslims are intent on further rubbishing our already battered image.

Not only do we have the highest ISIS support, Boko Haram is adjudged the deadliest Islamist terror groupon the planet, with a death toll surpassing its mother ISIS. On the international scene, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the pantie bomber tried to take down an American airliner, while 2 Yoruba Muslims butchered a British soldier to death in London.

A few years ago, before Americas Seal team 6 took out Osama bin Laden, a Pew poll showed that most Nigerian Muslims (54%) supported the late Al-Qaeda terror leader. That was the second only to Palestinians in the global study. The same study found that close to half of Nigerian Muslims (43%) support suicide bombing.

For those of us living here in our Islamist north, none of this is surprising, given that posters, almanacs and car stickers of the late Al-Qaeda leader were quite popular here.

Some of our northern Muslims even jubilated after the 9/11 attacks on America, reigniting a just concluded ethno-sectarian clash in Jos back then in September 2001. And when U.S. responded by bombarding Taliban Afghanistan, Muslims in Kano rioted attacking churches and killing Christians in October 2001.

What more, in one of his propaganda tapes to Al-Jazeera, Bin Laden infamously mentioned Nigeria as one of the countries ripe for Islamic revolution. So its no surprise the Al-Qaeda spin-off, ISIS is a huge hit among millions of Nigerian Muslims.

With 16 million pro-ISIS Muslims in the country, we are not likely to see the end of its Nigerian affiliate - Boko Haram - anytime soon. Never mind the bogus claim by Buhari administration that the Jihadi insurgents have been technically defeated whatever that means.

Even if Boko Haram is defeated, we still wouldnt be out of the woods when 16 million of our Muslim compatriots believe it is alright to massacre, abduct and rape their fellow Nigerians on account of religious differences.

Thats a ticking time bomb that is bound to disastrously explode in the not so distant future. It would only be a matter of time for another Boko Haram, Maitasine or some other group of Islamist savages to resurface.

At best occasional eruptions of religious violence on the flimsiest of excuses would continue in our Islamist North as in the past. We cannot build a truly united one Nigeria with this kind of deep seated religious hate.

Northern leaders (religious and political) who hypocritically proclaim one Nigeria are largely responsible for this sordid state of affairs that is inimical to our continued existence as one nation.

They dont seem to understand that in a religiously diverse country like Nigeria, where Muslims are not the clear majority, secularism is the only guarantee of peaceful coexistence for a truly unified nation.

Their fervent agitation for the limb-amputating stoning-to-death barbarism glorified as total Sharia in the early part of this political dispensation, whipped up the Islamist extremism that gave rise to the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency.

Back then in Borno, Ali Modu Sherrif allied with the local Islamist group (Boko Haram) to ride the Sharia wave to gubernatorial victory in 2003 enthusiastically voted in by Sharia-mongering Borno Muslims. They are now stewing in the boiling cauldron brewed by their own extremism and intolerance.

Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming, given the prior history of religious violence in our Islamist north. But not the power hungry northern Muslim leaders who exploited religion for shortsighted political gain.

Its the same sad story in much of the Islamist world. For decades Pakistan promoted Jihadist terror against India, and installed Al-Qaeda linked Taliban in Afghanistan, which was responsible for 9/11.

Most of the worlds leading Jihadi terrorists passed through training camps in Pakistan - 9/11 hijackers, 2005 London 7/7 bombers, 2004 Madrid bombers and Richard Reed, the shoe bomber. Pakistan even hid Bin Laden for several years until U.S. Seals took him out without notifying Islamabad.

Today Pakistan itself is ravaged by a destructive Jihadi insurgency with large swathes of the country outside government control.

For decades Saudi Arabia promoted Wahabi hate in mosques and Islamist schools it built and ran around the world. The Saudis along with other Sunni Gulf Arab nations also armed and funded the anti-Assad Jihad that later gave rise to ISIS.

Today, Saudi Arabia itself has been attacked by both Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Even as Palestinians continue to revel in murderous Jew hatred, repeatedly spurning peaceful resolution of the conflict, they suffer grievous human rights abuses under the tyranny of both Fatah and Hamas. Consequently polls show many Palestinians actually prefer Israeli rule although they dare not admit it publicly.

The simple lesson here is that Muslim societies which condone and promote Islamist hate and intolerance, will eventually be consumed by it. Hence Muslims are themselves the number one victims of Islamic terror. In Libya, Syria, Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia and even here in parts of northern Nigeria, it is largely Muslims killing fellow Muslims.

The sad part of it all is that these Muslim savages refuse learn from the adverse consequences of their intolerance, as Christians did in the Middle ages.

Consequently, even with the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency that has wasted thousands of innocent Nigerian lives, millions of Nigerian Muslims have doubled down in their extremism, as evident from their inexplicable support for ISIS.

And despite unconvincing denials that Boko Harams abduction and rape of Chibok girls was Islamic, we still hear disturbing reports of abductions, forced conversion and forced marriage of non-Muslim girls in our Islamist north.

It is long past time for religious and political leaders in our North to unequivocally come out in support of a secular Nigeria, and work assiduously to achieve it.

When northern state governments refuse to issue C of O to churches; run Sharia police (Hisbah) that arrests Muslims for not fasting during Ramadan, or confiscate and destroy alcoholic drink shipments belonging to non-Muslims, they are encouraging the religious extremism and intolerance that occasionally erupts in violence.

Today, largely because of the unwelcome intrusion of religion into politics, we can no longer talk of one North, never mind one Nigeria.

Kaduna, the former capital of the North is now partitioned into Muslim and Christian halves. Schools in our Islamist North are also largely religiously segregated. For several years Plateau has been a recurring flashpoint of ethno-sectarian violence.

In the same vein, when in 2011 Northern Muslims violently protested against GEJs victory, retaliatory violence against Hausa-Fulani Muslims only occurred in the North itself  Zonkwa, Kaduna state.

Not in the Christian SS/SE where GEJ hails from and had his largest support. Significantly, the SS/SE did not respond violently to Buharis 2015 electoral victory.

If the shoe had been on the other foot and GEJ had won the 2015 polls in a free & fair contest, would Buhari and his supporters have been that gracious in defeat? Given that the General had already threatened bloodshed - kare jini, biri jini.'

Thus the politicization of religion has had devastating impact on our North and the nation at large. It has plagued us with a vicious 13 year Jihadist insurgency and further polarized the country along religious lines, thereby undermining "one Nigeria", as well as our fledgling democracy.

Most disturbingly, it has exacerbated Islamic extremism, with 16 million potential Muslim mass murderers threatening the fragile peace of our troubled nation.
10.04.2016 LISTEN

MTN Ghana CEO, Ebenezer Twum Asante has been named the CEO of the Year in the Directors/CEO category of Kwahuman Achievers Awards at Obo in the Eastern region.

This was announced during the third Kwahuman Achievers Awards ceremony organized as part of the Kwahu Easter Festival.

In his acceptance speech, Mr. Asante expressed his gratitude to the organizers and people of Kwahu for the consideration given him. He said, this award is an inspiration and challenge for me to work harder and excel in my role.

The ceremony was organized by the Kwahu Development Association to honour citizens of Kwahu who have excelled in their areas of work and are contributing to the development of Ghana.

The awards ceremony attracted prominent citizens of Kwahu from different sectors including Academia, Medicine, Banking, Insurance, Automobile and Consumer Goods.

The Kwahu Easter Festival has been supported by MTN Ghana for eight years, and this years edition was no exception. MTN donated cash, airtime, assorted drink hampers and MTN souvenirs to the traditional council and interacted with the chiefs of Abetifi,Obo, Obomeng and Mpraeso in separate ceremonies.

During the presentation ceremony to the chiefs, the Commercial Senior Manager for MTN South East Business District, David G. Boadi re-affirmed MTNs commitment to supporting the festivals.

He said, we have taken the responsibility to support traditional festivals each year across the country to keep alive the values and principles that identify us as Africans.

Mr. Boadi continued, beyond these donations to various traditional councils, MTN invests in extensive corporate social interventions through its Foundation across the country.

He stated that since the establishment of the MTN Ghana Foundation in 2007, MTN has invested more than GH 21.5 million in 135 major Corporate Social Investment projects in the areas of Health, Education and Economic Empowerment. These projects have directly impacted an estimated three million people across many communities in Ghana.

The Chiefs and traditional council members expressed their appreciation to MTN for the continuous support to the Kwahu Traditional Council.

Ebenezer Twum Asante assume the position of CEO for MTN Ghana,

effective 1 July 2015 when returned to Ghana after serving for two years as CEO of MTN Rwanda.

He replaces Serame Taukobong, who left MTN to pursue other interests.

Ebenezer Asante is the first Ghanaian to head Ghanas leading telecommunications company, MTN Ghana.
10.04.2016 LISTEN

One of the most beautiful things about our indigenous languages is that they often teach their best lessons through proverbs, not direct assertion.

And some of those proverbs are so profound that they take your breath away. Whether framed in metaphorical terms or presented as rhetorical questions, they demonstrate what one might call truth a priori. That means  truth that can be recognised at face value or immediately; self-evident truth,in other words.

Such a proverb formed the topic of the essay question in the Twi language examination, when I was writing my GCE O Levels. It stuck in my head and has remained there ever since. It was this:

Nnmafo se tete asoe wnnso h bio;

Na dn nti na muka nan abisa no,

Wommu biako nngu mma ennka abien p?

(Moderners say that the resting place of ancient times is no longer theirresting-place. That being so, why don't they remove one of the three legs of the traditional kitchen stove so that only two would remain?)

I guessed that this question was set by the authority on the Twi language at that time  C A Akrofi of Akropong Akuapem. He had authored several books on the Twi language, including Twi Kasa

Mmra (Twi Grammar) and a collection of short stories: Mmodenbo Bu Mmusu Abasa So.

(Endeavour Breaks Down The Power of Misfortune). One wonders why these excellent books have not been republished by the Ministry if Education. Does the neglect illustrate the fact that our local languages are no longer an important part of our education?

People of Akrofi's calibre were such great teachers that even when they were examining you, they were simultaneously teaching you: it wasn't enough for them to find out how much you knew already. I enjoyed writing that paper, because it was such an unexpected invitation to think.

I said the proverb stuck in my mind, and the reason is this: I have been wondering, in recent days, about where we got the new politics we have been practising from. If you read the articles on the Opinion Pages of Ghanaweb, especially Say It Loud, you will be shocked at the number of postings  usually lifted from the rented press in Ghana  that are entirely dedicated to the defamationof politicians. Hardly do you see an article discussing a policy issue that one of the parties has raised! Personal-attacks-personal-attacks-personal-attacks-attacks  nothing more!

The more empty-headed politicians, in their turn, realising that our extremely lazy media personnel prefer to use news items that amount to personal attacks, do not hesitate to turn everything into personal attacks. And so the evil feeds on itself. As Shakespeare would say, As if increase of appetite had grown by what it fed on!

The depths to which our media personnel have sunk were exposed for all to see recently when one radio journalist claimed that a very prominent politician had threatened to kill him! He boasted, among other things, that he had the evidence: the threats were stored on his phone!

At once, one asked: how could such a fellow become a radio presenter? You call yourself a journalist and a very prominent politician 'threatens to kill you, and you wait until his party has formally boycotted your radio station for alleged bias, before you remember that he had threatened to killyou?

As a journalist, who is supposed to educate the public, did you know that threatening to kill someone is a criminal offence? If you did not, then you are abysmally ignorant and the question to e asked is how could you possibly be a journalist? If you did, why did you not go and complain to the police but wait until now?

Secondly, if you are so daft that you could not pick on anyone else but a man who was a prominent lawyer before he entered politics to accuse of such crimes, then what qualifies you to be a journalist? As a journalist, you are supposed to exercise judgement about what to say or not to say.

If you could not analyse your own situation and reach the conclusion that it would sound strange for a very good lawyer to text threats to you which you could use as evidence to incriminate him; if you could not realise that a lawyer could abuse you one million times over, without using words that would break the law, then indeed, what sort of journalist are you?

Then, when you have done your worst and your father has joined you in your enterprise of politicallyinspired character assassination  you meekly retract your false assertions and blithely apologise! And, of course, your professional association looks on and smiles to itself: the antagonists have smoked the peace pipe. All is well and good.

I started this article by invoking the past. Listen: this country experienced very dangerous social tension between 1954 and 1956. Some people lost their lives. But despite the violence, politics was still aboutissues. The National Liberation Movement (NLM) wanted Ghana to be governed under a federal system. The Convention People's Party wanted Ghana to continue to live under a unitary

system of government. There were cogent arguments for and against each view. There were additionalissues: for instance, the NLM also wanted the sale of cocoa to overseas buyers to be taken away from the Cocoa Marketing Board [i.e. the predatory government] and placed in the hands of the farmers themselves. The CPP wanted to retain the arbitrary system inherited from the British.

These were life and death issues and they were debated ad nauseam. But although within the NLM fold, there were people who had worked closely with Dr Kwame Nkrumah in the early years of the CPP, none of them turned the debate into a salacious discussion if personal foibles. For instance, Mr Joe Appiah, was actually the former representative of Dr Kwame Nkrumah in London. Yet he became an NLM kingpin. Imagine what some of our modern political operatives would do if they obtained sensitive, confidential information regarding the personal life of a leader from whom they later parted!

The question is: how come the children of that generation of fairlydecent politicians have descended so low into the gutter today that their own parents would disown them if told of how they conduct politics? Suppose one of these wily old politicians were to ask any of the communications loud-mouths of today, But what at all are the issues that separate you from the other party? what would the answer be? WE want to control the distribution of the national cake?

Well, many of our ancients did not know what a cake was. But they knew what a pot containing fufuoor tuwo was. And they would have told our propagandists this: If you struggle too hard over a pot containing food, the pot may break and spill the food on the ground. And then, no-one can neat it!

But would our propagandists even understand that proverb?

By the way, the reason why you can't break off any part of the old-style stove is that if you did so, it would deposit your food into the fire  pronto! Someone found that out  and left posterity with an excellent means of cooking food, when you have nothing but clay to work with.
Kumasi, Ghana - The Ghana Internet Safety Foundation signed a two-year partnership agreement Wednesday April 6 with a U.S-based cybersecurity awareness organization.

The announcement comes in wake of the Ghana Internet Safety Foundation's effort to create public sensitization of global cyber awareness issues affecting the growing concern in Ghana's booming cyber industry.

We are excited about this partnership to promote public interest in advocacy campaign in Ghana and across the sub-region to the benefit of all citizens and respective stakeholders," said Emmanuel Adinkrah, C.E.O of Ghana Internet Safety Foundation.

Adinkrah added the partnership focuses on a campaign strategy based on three easy actionable steps: STOP. THINK. CONNECT. The campaign will advise all internet users to take security measures, understand the consequences of their behavior and actions over the usage of the internet.

He praised the concerted efforts of Ghana Internet Safety Foundation's Senior Policy Analyst and the Corporate Affairs Manager, Kwasi Mensah Nyarko and Andrews K. Nyantakyi in facilitating this agreement.

"This agreement and partner will foster an opportunity to provide toolkits in support of Ghana Internet Safety Foundation's effort to educate Ghanaians on the importance of staying safe in this our Cyber World," Kara Wright, director of Digital Strategy at National Cyber Security Alliance wrote in an email. "We need one voice when it comes to this fight."

"Nothing goes away once it is posted online." added Andrews Nyantakyi, Corporate Affairs Manager. " You would take you and me to work in creating a safer internet for our generation. We preach about good citizens but no one talks about staying good online. We need to all become good online citizen. This is what G.I.S.F stands for, to educate and provide resources on staying safe online."

STOP. THINK. CONNECT. is the first-ever coordinated message powered by National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and the Anti-Phishing Work Group (APGW) to provide unified online message that could be preached worldwide to promote safety and community development.

By:

Jennifer Nyantakyi

[email protected]

Beaufort, South Carolina.
IN the last few days, I have read lectures, speeches and opinions about leadership and how Ghana can be made better. They contain the same sentiments I have been hearing since I was first assigned my first bed at OKESS.

There is a wilful, collective reluctance to candidly call out those destroying our nation. Despite fine speeches and sermons, our actions don't match our verbal love of country. We claim to be against violence in our country even while we support leaders who support and encourage violence. We claim to be against corruption while supporting the very leaders who practice it. We verbally abhor drugs and yet admire and respect known drug dealers and users. We profess to admire public service but have nothing but contempt for hardworking public spirited men who are poor. It goes on and on.

I first learnt of this gap between our ideals and who we are when I was the NUGS president. I went to visit a friend. His father hugged me and extolled the bravery of the student leaders who were fighting Rawlings. When I left, he warned his son to stay clear of our demonstrations. In return, his son posed a question for the ages, " Dad, if what they are doing is as important as you stated, why should I not join them? If I should not help in that important work, whose children should do it?".

A few years later, I was reminded of this when I saw a recommendation written by the Dean of the Ghana Medical School to support my application for admission to University of Toronto. "Perhaps Mr. Kennedy has learnt the art of living the hard way. I believe that given another chance, he will make better choices and focus on his career". It cut like a knife.

To be fair, our history has witnessed it's fair share of moments or periods of bravery . Here are a few to make every Ghanaian chest erect with pride:

---Yaa Asantewaa marching to war against the British

-- Sargeant Adjetey and Co marching to the castle for their rights and paying with their lives

--- J.B. Danquah delivering his summation in re:Akoto

--- Afrifa, Gbedemah, Paa Willie and others taking on Archeampong through PMFJ

--- Justice Abban refusing to help Archeampong rig the Unigov referendum

--- Ft.Lt. Rawlings giving voice to the suffering of the masses during his trial at Burma Hall after his abortive coup

--- Elizabeth Ohene ' s editorial questioning "Let the blood flow" showing she had more brass in her boobs than a thousand men in their balls

---- Sam Okudzeto inspiring students with his keynote for the ages at the 1983 NUGS congress

--- The students of Ghana opposing the 31st December uprising

---- Adu Boahen denouncing the "culture of silence" and the "men on horseback "

--- The "kume preko demonstrators"

We do not see such acts anymore.We seem to think vigilance is not required during democracy.

That is wrong. Corruption by elected leaders is just as bad as corruption by soldiers.

Violence by civilians is just as bad as violence by soldiers.

We are accountable to God and posterity for the crimes of the leaders we choose with our votes or support with our silence. The ghost of children denied education will ask for the retribution of a just God against us; just like the ghost of those who died because NHIS was killed while we looked on or away!

When we sing, "And help us to resist oppressors rule" we must mean it. When we sing "Aduru me ne wo so so se yebe y3 bi atoa so", we must live it!

The bible says" And ye shall know the truth and it shall make you free" Do you know the truth about Ghana and do you speak and live it?

Let me end with MLK:

" Cowardice asks the question, is it safe?

Expediency asks the question, is it politic?

Vanity asks the question, is it popular?

But conscience asks the question, is it right?

And there comes a a time we must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic nor popular but one must take it because it is right"

What question do you ask yourself about Ghana on issues?

Believe in Ghana and stand for it.
Representatives of the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS), and civil society organizations (CSOs) in West Africa have met in Accra to deliberate on the successful operation of the Community Strategic Framework (CSF).

The meeting which was organised by the West Africa Civil Society Institute (WACSI) and ECOWAS, came off on April 8, with over thirty (30) participants from the various West Africa States.

The meeting, according to the Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Asantewa Afadzinu, was in fulfilment of a directive emanating from the seventy-fifth(75th) Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers that The voice of Civil Society be mainstreamed into the Community Strategic Framework ( CSF ) 2016-2020 document.

The CSF would ensure that the views of CSOs and professional bodies in the ECOWAS Member States are reflected and mainstreamed into the Community Strategic Framework as directed by the Council of Members.

This is imperative owing to the role of CSOs in facilitating the consolidating of the foundation for the creation of a prosperous, integrated and peaceful West Africa through deepening the process of socio-economic development; deepening the process of political cohesion and participation; expanding and improving infrastructure facilities, and others.

Participants, therefore, focused their CSF discussions on: Gaps identified in the CSF; Community Strategy for disseminating the CSF; Financing the CSF and the implementation arrangement for the CSF.

Among the many recommendations made by the participants into the finalisation of the CSF include the developing of a clear communication strategy to disseminate the Communication Strategic Framework throughout the ECOWAS Member States; setting up a technical working group with representation from key (CSOs) in Member States to meet regularly.

At the end of the meeting, a communique was developed, and signed by the Executive Director of WACSI, Nana Asantewa Afadzinu and the Director of Strategic Planning Directorate of the ECOWAS Commission, ESSIEN Abel Essien.
We, representatives of Civil Society and professional bodies in the ECOWAS Member States, who participated in the ECOWAS Strategic Planning Directorate meeting with the West African Civil Society Forum (WACSOF), in fulfilment of a directive emanating from the 75th (seventy-fifth) Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers, that the voice of Civil Society be mainstreamed into the Community Strategic Framework (CSF)2016  2020 document.

Hereby make the following declaration:

Mindful that the Community Strategic Framework (CSF) document that was discussed with the Heads of National Offices in Member States and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) under the umbrella of WACSOF in November 2014, was also presented at the 75th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Council of Ministers;

Determined to ensure that the views of CSOs and professional bodies in the ECOWAS Member States are reflected and mainstreamed into the CSF as directed by Council of Ministers;

Acknowledging the role of the CSOs in facilitating the consolidation of the foundation for the creation of a prosperous, integrated and peaceful West Africa through:

Deepening the process of socio-economic development

Forging and consolidating regional economic and monetary integration

Deepening the process of political cohesion and participation

Mobilizing and sustaining societal and institutional support

Expanding and improving infrastructural facilities

Welcoming the collaboration between WACSOF, WACSI and the ECOWAS Strategic Planning Directorate that has made it possible for this important meeting to take place;

Participants agreedthat CSOs are non-governmental and voluntary which are non-profit and pursuing specific interest (s) towards human development and comprise academic institutions, trade unions, business associations, think tanks, media, NGOs, and private organisation with interest in ensuring that the performance of ECOWAS programmes are improved;

Participants at the meeting deliberatedon the relationship between ECOWAS and CSOs of Member States especially within the context of the CSF;

The deliberations focused on the following key areas; (1) Gaps identified in the CSF, (2) Communication Strategy for disseminating the CSF, (3) Financing the CSF, (4) ImplementationArrangements for the CSF-the role of CSOs.

Participants hereby recommend the following as inputs into the finalisation of the CSF:

Consider all amendments proposed at this meeting to address gaps identified. Theseinclude how civic participation will be deployed and the placement of gender in goal 4;

Develop a clear communication strategy to disseminate the CSFthroughout the ECOWAS Member States, taking note of new social media channels whilst still utilizing existing channels of traditional media and traditional methods of communication.

Develop and strengthen relationships with government departments, associations, faith-based organisations and social movements.

Set up a technical working group with representation from key CSOs in Member States to meet regularly and track progress on all recommendations as outlined in this communique and also in the report for this meeting;

Ensure sustainable financing of the CSF implementation. Recommendations include: dedicating a portion of the Community Levy which may require a clear budget line for CSOs within the ECOWAS annual budget; and donated funds from emerging African foundations, indigenous philanthropists, strategic bank (ECOBANK) and the diaspora.

Reorganise the current national structure of ECOWAS to better align and be more responsive to CSOs across Member States;

Create a linkage between ECOWAS National Offices and WACSOF national platforms for closer collaboration;

Strengthen the relationship between ECOWAS National Offices and the broader CSOs constituency for the implementation of the CSF;

Make availableto CSOs all information on the CSF ahead of its implementation for them to fulfil their roles;

Capitalise on WACSOF as an umbrella organisation for implementation of the CSF at both the regional and national level; and

Request a comprehensive National Implementation Plan with a deadline / time frame from Member States.

Done in Accra-Ghana, on behalf of the Delegates

April, 2016
10.04.2016 LISTEN

So it is coming to pass that the futile attempt by Omane Boamah to start a controversy against His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor with regards to the Panama Papers is nothing but a trivial storm in a tea cup. And the amount suspected is approximately $75,000 (seventy-five thousand US Dollars), not enough to purchase the vehicle that Omane Boamah drives at the expense of the Ghanaian tax payer, of course.

All the same I agree that if the nation's money is involved there should be some answers. But before H.E. President Kufuor is called upon to do that, the nation demands explanations to a few questions that have really cast slurs of thievery, corruption, and treasonable insults to the integrity of the Ghanaian:

1. Omane Boamah, how many fuel stations have you established using the government's resources? After all, how much is your salary? How many trucks do you have and how many buildings have you put up? We know that you have some investments abroad, how much is involved? You cannot say that they are bequests because your family is not super rich.

2. Okudzeto Ablakwa should also be made to reveal how he managed to estabish so many fuel stations and own over 50 fuel tankers and investments in construction as well, especially that when the late Atta Mills brought him into government, he barely had a few tattered pants and one pair of worn out shoes. It is no wonder that Rawlings described your lot as babies with sharp teeth,

3. Kwadwo Twum Boafo has investments in the far east to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. Did he inherit the government of Ghana or the nation? Where does he get the hundreds of thousands of dollars that he sends overseas regularly?

4. Where did the extra 290 million dollars of the Ameri deal go? Whose pockets did that amount find its way into?

5. The President, H.E John Dramani Mahama, must come clean from the accusations leveled against him. He was said to have acquired billions of dollars in cash, investments and properties. For example, word made the rounds that he has a huge luxury hotel in Dubai, a palace which shares wall with Asongtaba's villa in Dubai too, three huge cargo vessels in Tokyo and multitudes of investments elsewhere.

6. If you want Kufuor to answer to some controversial panama papers, then you must also answer to the usage of government vehicles to campaign for the NDC; stealing of the nation's vehicles for NDC campaign; the galamsey mines that are owned by Okudzeto Ablakwa, yourself, Asiedu Nketia, and your thieving bunch of hypocrites.

7. Saada, Gyeeda and other fake initiatives that John Mahama used to allow his cronies the opportunity to steal the nation. Those who were caught were taken away from their positions and relocated as ambassadors etc. Where is the money that you stole from Ghanaians in the form of judgment debts to woyome and so on?

8. Alfred Agbesi Woyome said that he bribed the Attorney General one million Ghana cedis to make a foolish case out of his daring theft of 51 million; and she did. If you are able to retrieve that amount and others paid to Barton Oduro and Betty Mould Iddrisu, then have the audacity to ask H.E. President Kufuor to answer to some panama papers. For now, you are as neck deep in theft and corruption as Ghanaians are in poverty.

9. The 23 million US Dollars that you stole under the pretext of resurfacing the Kumasi airport runway. That runway could not have cost more than $3 million US Dollars.

10. The Kejetia market that you pegged at 290 million US Dollars but will never cost the nation more than 9 million.

Such thieves as your lot are, and you have the audacity to ask President Kufuor to account for some meager amount of money just because someone says so on a paper issued in Panama. When you account for all the billions of stolen moneys, then His Excellency John Agyekum Kufuor will account for the negligible 75000 USD (seventy-five thousand US Dollars), which is not even a fraction of the amount that Felix Ofosu Kwakye took along in hard cash to buy property with his mother and sister as I was informed from reliable sources barely a couple of years into the Atta Mills Presidency.

Shame on you Omane Boamah. You see, you are such a duplicitous character wanting so desperately to score cheap political points that will not serve your NDC any better. Well, sometimes I cannot blame you, afterall it is only people of your calibre that make up the NDC. As for elections 2016 NDC will lose "portor".

So just shut up Omane Boamah!!!
10.04.2016 LISTEN

The UK government has announced that it will stop funding Ghana's democratic activities beginning next year.

Ghana has benefited from donor support for its elections over the last two decades, but according to the UK Minister of International Development, Desmond Swayne, Ghana's democracy has matured over the years and does not need financial support from the UK.

Mr. Desmond Swayne announced that a 4-million programme to strengthen democratic governance would mark the UK's last investment in democratic structures in Ghana.

Under this Programme, personnel of the Electoral Commission (EC), the Ghana Police Service, the Judiciary and civil society organisations (CSOs) will be supported to undergo training to upscale their skills in handling security and judicial issues related to elections and other democratic governance matters.

He said the 4-million package was to strengthen the EC, the police, the Judiciary and CSOs for them to deal promptly with good governance issues and further enhance Ghana's image as a beacon of democracy in the sub-region.

Speaking at a forum in Accra, Mr. Swayne described Ghana as having established a fearsome reputation as being a beacon for development in Africa hence the decision to cease the donor support.

Because of that and because of the fact that Ghana is becoming low middle income country, I anticipate that this will be the last of such investment that we will make in democratic structures of this sort.

Mr. Swayne entreated Ghanaians to view this move as a recognition of Ghana having come of age as far as having a sustainable democracy is concerned.

That is a measure of your success that we expect you as you go forward to be able to fund your democracy from your own resources.

-citifmonline


10.04.2016 LISTEN

The Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), says it is investigating recent cases in which expatriate employers unjustifiably abuse their Ghanaian employees.

An Italian Supervisor, Manlio Maggiorotto, chained a Ghanaian employee to a container for allegedly loitering around during working hours days.

This was shortly after a Korean employer slapped another Ghanaian with a piece of hot pizza at Peter Pan restaurant in Accra.

Reacting to these developments, the Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Joseph Whittal, said the commission is investigating these cases and will soon come out with its findings.

He further asked those employers to desist from such acts.

. While as a country we are interested in getting investments into the country, the investors must take into consideration the fact that they are coming to operate under a regime of law where human rights of every person, not only Ghanaians is guaranteed by the constitution and so if you treat anybody in a manner as if he is an animal, the laws of Ghana will certainly be triggered

Mr. Whittal also refuted claims that most expatriates are often left off the hook because they are often perceived to be working in the interest of Ghanaians.

.

If the evidence exist and people have been maltreated in a certain way they should be able to report this case and we will certainly investigate and come out with strong recommendation not only to the management company in Ghana but external companies.

TUC demands justice

A few days ago the Trades Union Congress (TUC) demanded justice for Ghanaian employees who had been abused by their employers.

The TUC in a statement described the act as dehumanizing and ordered the Managing Director of the company, William Moss, to produce the supervisor who is said to have fled the country for fear of being prosecuted.

The chaining and restriction of the movement of Comrade Sanou is not only a breach of his fundamental right to movement but goes to the core of his basic right to humane and dignified treatment, as guaranteed by the Ghana Constitution

For an employer to have the temerity in today's Ghana to chain a Ghanaian worker for any reason whatsoever is unconscionable and we totally and outrightly condemn it. We cannot countenance such dehumanizing conduct in the world of work, the TUC said.

-citifmonline


10.04.2016 LISTEN

The defeated contestant in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Ablekuma West Constituency parliamentary primary, Robert Kwesi Nicol, has pledged his support for the incumbent, Madam Ursula Owusu-Ekuful who emerged winner in the primary on Saturday.

Madam Ursula Owusu beat Mr. Kwesi Nicol, to emerge victorious polling 554 votes as against her challenger's 317 votes.

The third contender, one Theophilus Tetteh, pulled out of the race at the last hour because according to him, he still had issues with the voter's register. He has since vowed to contest the seat as an independent candidate.

The Ablekuma West NPP primary was delayed for nearly nine months following disagreements over the constituency's voters' register. On the day of voting there were also misunderstandings over the use of two different albums.

13 NPP executives from the constituency resigned following the disagreements and accused the NEC of disrespecting the constituency's executives and running the elections to favour the incumbent MP, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful.

According to them, 400 delegates also boycotted the elections.

.

But the defeated Robert Kwesi Nicol, who campaigned on unification called for calm and urged all those disgruntled to come together and support the campaign to ensure victory for both the parliamentary and the presidential candidate.

Mr. Nicol, unusually accepted the results and conceded defeat even before counting was over.

Addressing the media, he said, The results have shown that Honourable Ursula has been declared the winner and I am the loser so I am going to support her 100 percent.

He urged party members to put the dispute over the albums behind them and work towards securing total victory in the November polls.

Whether one album or two albums we are all NPP members so I think it is important that we should merge and look at the way forward to help the party win power in 2016.

-citifmonline


The National Union of Ghana Students is accusing the District Chief Executive of Navrongo, Stanislav Kadigni of meddling in its elections to choose representatives for the All Africa Students Union.

Leadership of Student Unions across the country as mandated by their constitution, are to meet every four years to elect representatives for the continental students body  the All Africa Students Union.

National President of the Graduate Students Association, Raymond Ayilu told Joy News the DCE is to blame for some confusion that occurred during the election process.

Narrating what happened at a meeting to present nominees at the University of Development Studies campus, Ayilu said the DCE had influenced the vetting committee of the student body to disqualify a candidate who was not his favourite.

Agitations started and this caused a lot of confusion and the police had to come in and disperse all the students including the Dean of Students of UDS.

He said the DCE had no right to be at the meeting insisted that it continued and that he had come to ensure that a directive given to him is implemented to the letter.

So the students questioned his presence at the venue because this was a student programme and so there was no need for the DCE to be at the premises trying to influence the activities of the students, Raymond said.

According to him, the DCE insisted that the elections continue to make sure his preferred candidate was elected.

He said the student body wondered why the DCE and other persons have taken sides during student election and are perpetuating violence and chaos.

Majority of the students have left the UDS campus and are returning to their various schools.

One student was reportedly arrested on Saturday during the disturbances but has since been released.
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business SC dismisses PIL against Reliance Jio's 4G licence The Supreme Court (SC) today dismissed a public interest litigation (PIL) filed against Reliance Jio, the to-be-launched telecom service owned by Reliance Industries.
April 10, 2016

Kerry's "Please Make Assad Go" Begging Rounds Look Utterly Silly

Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had asked "Iran to help so that Bashar Assad leaves. "We should ask them: "What does this have to do with you? Shouldn't the Syrian people decide?'" "From Iran's point of view Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us."

Jerusalem Post

I have wondered for quite a while why Kerry is running from door to door with this childish insistence that Bashar al-Assad has to leave as President of Syria.

Let's assume that Assad leaves tomorrow and is replaced with some other intelligent Syrian nationalist. Someone who, like Bashar al-Assad, has majority support of the Syrian people to continue the current course.

What would change?

Yes, Bashar Assad has some symbolic character for the Syrians fighting for their state. But a good inner-Syrian propaganda campaign could easily project a like picture onto a new face. The strategic interests and the policies involved in Syria would not change at all.

After the U.S. supported "rebels" broke the ceasefire by attacking government position in south of Aleppo and in Latakia the Syrian army is preparing for a big offensive. The aim is to free all of Aleppo governate from the "rebel" al-Qaeda menace. Changing the Syrian head of state would not change these military plans. They have, like national interests, their own logic.

Does Kerry understand how silly he looks when he makes these 'Please make Bashar al Assad go' rounds?

Posted by b on April 10, 2016 at 13:40 UTC | Permalink

Comments
HOUSTON  Pipeline giant the Williams Cos. has sued its potential acquirer Energy Transfer over a private equity offering, the company announced Wednesday.

The suit argues that Dallas Energy Transfer Equity violated the terms of the $33 billion merger the two companies signed last September by giving its shareholders preferential treatment. Williams is asking the company to unwind the offering.

The suit is the latest crack in a marriage that has been strained by low oil prices. When the deal was signed in September, midstream companies had easier access to capital markets. Since then, both credit and equity markets have tightened, and some investors have grown concerned that stitching together the pipeline networks of Williams and Energy Transfer may not be worth the mountain of debt it would require to consummate the deal.

In public statements, both Energy Transfer and Williams have said they support the merger, which would create the largest midstream company in the nation by some measures.

But the deal has been complicated by a $6 billion payment Energy Transfer agreed to pay Williams shareholders, which has grown increasingly burdensome as oil prices remain low. And privately, former Energy Transfer CFO Jamie Welch  who designed the deal to put the two companies together  was said to have later argued against the combination, according to a report by the New York Times. Welch was unexpectedly dismissed last month and later sued Energy Transfer.

On March 23, Energy Transfer issued a regulatory filing that revealed it no longer saw a large benefit from the merger. The company told investors it expected to see about $170 million in additional earnings from the combination, materially less than the $2 billion in anticipated boost it had expected by 2020 when it inked the deal.

Still, in the statement announcing the lawsuit, Williams said it remains committed to the deal, though this time with a rider attached.

Williams remains committed to working with [Energy Transfer] to ensure the financial strength of the combined company, provided that all ETE and Williams investors are treated fairly and equitably, the company wrote.

The merger between the two companies is expected to close in the second quarter of 2016.
Diego I. Carrera, 19, of Midland was charged April 1 with manufacturing/delivering a controlled substance under 200 grams.

Addison D. Harguess, 29, of Midland was charged April 1 with burglary of a habitation with intent to commit another felony.

Roland Howell Jr., 35, of Midland was charged April 1 with forgery of a financial instrument.

Aliqua A. Schoclet, 26, of Midland was charged April 1 with aggravated assault of date/family/house member.

Brennan S. Manes, 23, of Midland was charged April 2 with possession of a controlled substance under 1 gram.

Becky Rios, 22, of Midland was charged April 2 with assault of a public servant.

Sarah F. Williams, 26, of Midland was charged April 2 with assault of a public servant.

Bay T. Wilson, 19, of Midland was charged April 2 with tampering with/fabricating physical evidence and possession of a controlled substance under 1 gram.

Cameron D. Bzdon, 22, of Midland was charged April 3 with evading arrest/detention with a previous conviction.

Anthony D. Masters, 41, of Midland was charged April 3 with assault of family/house member impeding breath.

Magali Villa, 37, of Midland was charged April 3 with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

Matthew Forrest, 24, of Midland was charged April 4 with possession of a controlled substance under one gram.

Marissa Giron, 38, of Midland was charged April 4 with possession of a controlled substance under four grams and possession of a controlled substance under one gram.

Christopher Madrid, 22, of Midland was charged April 4 with sexual assault of a child.

Xavier Marquez, 19, of Midland was charged April 4 with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Justin Rodriguez, 20, of Midland was charged April 4 with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Daniel C. Cobb, 25, of Midland was charged April 5 with stalking.

Ronny A. Parrish, 48, of Midland was charged April 5 with possession of a controlled substance under 1 gram.

Randy D. Ulrich, 40, of McCamey was charged April 5 with unauthorized use of a vehicle.

Bobby L. Valencia, 47, of Midland was charged April 5 with violation of a protective order.

Willie E. Dewitt, 54, of Midland was charged April 6 with possession of a controlled substance under 1 gram.

Brandon M. Ringo, 22, of Midland was charged April 6 with assaulting a public servant.

Robert Thomas Jr., 25, of Midland was charged April 6 with possession of marijuana less than five pounds.

Lim J. Walton, 31, of Midland was charged April 6 with possession of marijuana less than five pounds.

Luis M. Rodriguez, 22, of Midland was charged April 7 with theft under $20,000.

Source: Midland County Sheriffs Office
Years from now we can look back and decide whether the Educate Midland process has been successful.

There will be particular data points we will go through, maybe an examination of ratings or a subjective measuring stick such as student or teacher morale.

How will we know if the community has the necessary culture of support? The expectation is that we will know it when we see it -- just like we know now we have great strides to make.

We know a majority of Midland ISD schools ranked below average, according to Greatschools.org. We realize 10 schools were designated IR, or improvement required, by the Texas Education Agency. We have seen Education Resource Group drop MISD from the 47th percentile in 2007 (of 200 schools) to the zero percentile in 2015 in its District Performance Index.

During Educate Midlands second town-hall meeting on Thursday night, a question was asked about how our community arrived in its current state of academic ineffectiveness.

That is when Superintendent Ryder Warren took the microphone to address those at First Presbyterian Church and then fell on the sword.

Two mistakes

He told the packed FPC meeting hall audience that he had made two mistakes -- two of the biggest mistakes of his career -- after arriving in Midland during the 2010-11 school year. The first was making normal evaluations during that first year and not making changes at the time.

That 2010-11 school year set the stage for us academically for the last five to six years, Warren said.

The second mistake, according to Warren, followed a turbulent session of the Texas Legislature when billions were cut from public education. Those cuts forced Midland ISD to cut $9 million from its operating budget. At the same time, he said, the state introduced new curriculum standards for teachers to learn and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) was introduced.

Warren went into the budget season in the spring and summer of 2011, weighing the need to call a tax-rate election to make up for 200 staff members the district was set to lose going into the 2011-12 school year. The number of kids at Midland ISD was increasing, elementary schools were busting at the seams and a bond referendum to build three new elementary schools was certain for 2012. Warren also knew enough about Midland and its recent history to know a tax-rate election could do a lot of damage to future plans. He opted to not refill positions.

We stretched our teachers to the absolute limits (in terms of class sizes), Warren told those in attendance. I dont think we recovered from that.

Midland once followed a plan

Community impact isnt about pitching school bonds or tax-rate elections, and Warren said after the town-hall that his intention wasnt to link to the two. He referenced a list of school districts that was mentioned during the town-hall presentation and said these schools already had community support bases in place. They already have that culture in their communities that pays attention to the students and schools, he said. Those districts support teachers and staff and dont have bond campaigns but have schedules.

It is a culture of support, he said. The thing that irritates me and the thing that gives me hope is we had that in Midland.

Warren was referencing a time when the district was created and the plan that was followed. Midlanders actions backed Warrens comments as they approved 12 election items from 1947-1959, another seven from 1964-74 and eight more from 1980-91. But he said it wasnt just about improving facilities, but that Midland ISD did want to lose a teacher because someone else paid more .

Midland ISD is coming off a period when its teacher turnover was as much as 24 percent to 25 percent (12 percent to 15 percent is the state average), Warren said. Combine that with many new teachers having alternative certifications -- meaning their degree was in something other than education -- and the average teacher was not only more inexperienced but needed extra attention in his or her new career.

Midland is so community-minded that I have been surprised more people have taken the position that it is an MISD-only problem, not just a community problem that needs to be addressed, said Rick Davis, MISDs board president. One of the aspects of that and one of the benefits, too, is when people study the challenges we have here in Midland -- some of which are statewide and nationwide and some are unique to Midland and challenges we face here -- is that I think they will say I want us to do more.

A district moves forward

The mission of Educate Midland is to strengthen Midlands public education system so that every student is prepared to succeed in school, in the workforce and in life. There is no assumption of bond issues or tax- rate increases.

Davis sees many potential benefits that could come out of the collective impact process, including parental engagement and the appreciation of the importance of education.

Educate Midlands leadership committee includes 35 to 40 members. Some of those members represent organizations, student support groups and churches ready to step in and support the districts students, teachers and schools. Educate Midland eventually will organize the effort and coordinate those groups.

I want us to do more, Davis said. I want us to do more in volunteering. I want us to do more in support. I want us to do more in terms of our business community. I want us to do more in how we can financially support or in terms of private donations or tax dollars.

In the mean time, the school board will deal with MISDs Chapter 4A status. At a school board meeting in March, Warren presented the board with a scenario of a $47 million recapture payment and budget estimates that involve $10 million to $17 million in cuts.

The more you became familiar with the challenges and realities of the student today, you realize you cant use yesterdays solutions to address todays challenges, you have to be innovative and sometimes that costs money, Davis said.

At a time we are facing almost 25 percent of our local tax dollars going to Austin, think of all the good they could be doing here; it is just criminal.

Warrens comment has really been the only time in the town-hall process that looks back at how the community got in this situation. As ERG data and Texas Education Agency data show, the slide started during the time of Warrens predecessor. In 2009, MISD, as a district, and four of its campuses were rated academically unacceptable. And to make matters worse, the communitys relationship with its school district was strained.

Davis said after Thursdays meeting that had a tax-rate election been proposed in 2011, I am not sure the community would have gotten on board with us.

Years later, the community is more engaged. Some would say maybe not where we should be, but certainly better than where this community was when Warren made the second of his alleged two biggest mistakes. Will collective impact and Educate Midland lead the community to a culture of support for its district?

I think, however, there is a real chance by everyones own in-depth study of the issues and challenges that they will come to the conclusion that we need to do more with more time, more money, more everything to make a difference, Davis said.
Based on the recent history of education meetings in the community, Educate Midland officials had a reason to worry that attendance would be sparse at their meetings rolling out an education improvement initiative.

After two town-halls in front of an estimated 550 curious Midlanders, they can put those worries to rest. Educate Midland has the attention of many in the community who wanted to learn more about collective impact and how it might change educational outcomes in Midland ISD.

This week town-halls are scheduled for Tuesday at the Hispanic Cultural Center of Midland (the presentation will be in Spanish) and Thursday at Greater Ideal Family Life Center. These likely will be the truest barometers of how much the entire community is connecting with the Educate Midland initiative, which is still in its early stages.

The town-halls on the east and southeast sides of Midland will target minority residents. Traditionally it has been those areas of Midland that havent played a part in the process -- whether at the ballot box or public meetings. At recent meetings regarding schools on the citys south side, attendance averaged fewer than two people per school, district officials said.

Educate Midland officials were hopeful the buzz created by the first two meetings -- albeit in front of predominantly white crowds -- will carry over to week 2.

Another chance to connect with teachers

If there was one group that made its presence felt during week 1, it was the teachers. While Educate Midland officials expected some participation, question after question came from those interested in how the process would impact teachers and how teachers would play a role in the initiative.

Im not surprised (teachers made the town-halls), said Mark Palmer, an Educate Midland board member and former classroom teacher. It has been far more than I would have expected but that is indicative of their hope to improve academic performance of the students at MISD.

Palmer said during the second meeting that Educate Midland will make teacher involvement an integral part moving forward. Specific plans will be announced after the end of the town-halls and following discussions with Educate Texas and MISD leadership, but Palmer emphasized that the collaboration is needed because he wants to make sure the process is mindful of our partner.

The Reporter-Telegram talked with current and former teachers and PTA leadership. For the most part, they were complimentary of the process. Gretchen Bakke, a teacher with the district for 27 years and product of Midland schools, said having community support is exciting for teachers because residents appear to be behind the districts 1,600 teachers but negative reaction often arises when test scores and ratings are the subject of the conversation.

Jenny Langford with the Midland Council of PTAs, said the initiative will motivate those in education and those supporting educator.

Anytime we can get our community involved in education, you will see a positive impact, Langford said.

Time to walk the walk

Educate Midland officials have said during these town-halls that they realize theres a need to build trust with the entire community.

One such person is Diana Upchurch, a former full-time teacher. Her husband, daughter and son-in-law are all MISD educators. She said the current state of MISD scares her, and the environment for teachers has her concerned.

Teacher morale in Midland is at an all-time low, Upchurch said. I dont blame it on one person or any one thing.

Upchurch expressed frustration with central office that she said has added to the teachers burden and suggested that MISD leaders follow an Outback method -- a reference to the restaurant, where she said a patrons tea glass will be filled by anyone, not just the server responsible for the table.

Central office has to be willing to work in the trenches with us, Upchurch said. They are not doing that.

---

This weeks meetings

Tuesday

(presentation will be in Spanish only)

6-7:30 p.m.

Hispanic Cultural Center of Midland

1311 E. Wadley Ave.

(Inside Hogan Park)

Thursday

6-7:30 p.m.

Greater Ideal Family Life Center

301 S. Tyler St.

What is collective impact?

Collective impact is a framework to tackle deeply entrenched and complex social problems. It is an innovative and structured approach to making collaboration work across government, business, philanthropy, non-profit organizations and citizens to achieve significant and lasting social change.

Source: www.collaborationforimpact.com

Collective impact - five elements

1. All participants have a common agenda for change, including a shared understanding of the problem and a joint approach to solving it through agreed-upon actions.

2. Collecting data and measuring results consistently across all the participants ensures shared measurement for alignment and accountability.

3. Create a plan of action that outlines and coordinates mutually reinforcing activities for each participant.

4. Open and continuous communication is needed across the many players to build trust, assure mutual objectives and create common motivation.

5. A backbone organization(s) with staff and specific set of skills to serve the entire initiative and coordinate participating organizations and agencies.

Source: www.collaborationforimpact.com

What is Educate Texas?

Educate Texas, a public-private initiative of Communities Foundation of Texas, is an innovative alliance of public and private groups that share a common goal: strengthening the public education system so that every Texas student is prepared for success in school, in the workforce, and in life.

Source: www.edtx.org

What is Educate Midland?

A collaboration of Midland ISD and Educate Texas with the goal of strengthening Midlands public education system so that every student is prepared to succeed in school, in the workforce, and in life.

Source: www.educatemidland.org

Educate Midland Board members

Susan Spratlen, Pioneer Natural Resources

Laura Roman, community representative

Mark Palmer, Abell-Hanger Foundation

Ronnie Scott, Henry Foundation

Grant Billingsley, Scharbauer Foundation
It's a bittersweet situation for rapper DMX who was allegedly robbed of his valuable watch from inside his hotel room by a female suspect. Though the woman was later found by police and the stolen watch recovered, the woman has now accused DMX of sexual assault.

Rapper DMX, real name Earl Simmons, is at the center of a developing sexual assault charge after reportedly inviting an unidentified woman and some other friends to his hotel room in Orange, California according to The Boombox. Simmons reportedly met the woman at a Los Angeles bar and ultimately ended up leaving with the woman to return to his hotel at Ayres Hotel and Suites on Bristol Street.

After some time spent in the room with Simmons and friends, the woman reportedly disappeared -- but not alone. A $30,000 watch that belonged to the "Party Up" rapper also went missing at the time when the woman was no where to be found.

As reported by Boombox, the Costa Mesa police were called and a search was conducted for the missing woman. Though the police were successful in their search and found the missing woman and watch, the investigation took a different turn when the woman gave her account of what happened.

The woman who was found with Simmons' watch was later identified as a 25-year-old Hawthorne, California resident by the LA Times. She told police that Simmons had sexually assaulted her before they arrived. According to the report, police are still investigating her claims and have not arrested the 45-year-old rapper over the allegations, although the woman was arrested on grand theft charges. She has since posted bail.

 2015 MusicTimes.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Someone should sue the President for ...
Two high school girls from Miami who went missing during a weekend trip with their school to Kissimmee and were later found have been reunited with their families.



Brocha Katz and Rivka Moshe were reported missing Saturday at approximately 8 p.m. from the Caribe Cove Resort located at 9000 Treasure Trove Lane in Kissimmee.



The two 16-year-old girls were found in a heavily wooded area, next their resort. The Osceola County Sheriffs Office searched for the missing teens on the ground and in the air.



And it wasnt just local law enforcement looking for them.

I saw at least hundreds of volunteers come out, said Moshe Drebin a volunteer from Miami.

People part of the Jewish community in South Florida traveled all the way over here to help in these search efforts-- be it through prayer or by passing out flyers.

When anyone in the Jewish community gets affected in a negative or even a positive way, we all come together, Drebin added.

Brocha Katz and Rivkah Moshe were staying at The Caribe Cove Resort for a retreat. The girls were not carrying their cell phones because it was a religious function, when it is believed that they wandered into the woods and got lost.

The rescue efforts took hours because the two girls were stuck in a wooded area. Search and rescue workers had to cut down on brush and make their way through a forested and swamp-like land.

Rabbi Yosef Konikov the director of Chabad of South Orlando was there when the girls were found.

As soon as they were told that it was them they came out cheering and there were people dancing. It was beautiful to see the unity and the concern from people who never met these people, Rabbi Konikov said.

The girls were checked out by paramedics and taken to the hospital as a precaution. Were told they appear to be in good health and only sustained minor scratches.
A Brevard County woman has taken in four horses, including a mother and her 1-month-old baby, which were rescued from an unlicensed animal facility in North Carolina.

Suzanna Norris drove to North Carolina to rescue the horses, among almost 700 animals rescued from the facility. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it was one of the largest rescues in the agency's history.

I know that they need a place like this. We take care of them, we build them back up, we train them, they find new homes, said Norris, founder of Hidden Acres Rescue for Thoroughbreds in Cocoa, which takes in off-the-track thoroughbreds.

Her passion for animals is what led her to take in the horses from North Carolina.

The facility just got out of hand, and the horses were not getting the care that they need," Norris said. "They were all underweight, they hadnt been cared for, their feet hadnt been done.

Ethel, Lucy Maddie and her 1-month-old baby were once living at a no-kill animal facility in Raeford, North Carolina. The ASPCA said almost 700 animals were rescued at the unlicensed facility. Some of the animals had untreated injuries. The ASPCA took the animals from the shelter in January.

Suzanna hopes with a lot of care, the horses will regain trust in people.

I wake up, and I am just blessed every single day, said Norris.

For more information about Norris' organization, go to www.hartforhorses.org.





Four horses, including a mom with a 1-month-old baby, have been taken in by Suzanna Norris, founder of Hidden Acres Rescue for Thoroughbreds in Cocoa.
Image source: www.401kcalculator.org.

You can collect Social Security benefits as early as age 62, and you're free to work after your benefits start. However, depending on your age and income, working after you file for Social Security can reduce your monthly checks. Here's what you need to know about the Social Security earnings tests, and what it means to you in the long run.

Three categories of Social Security recipients

For the purposes of determining how working affects Social Security benefits, there are three distinct categories of beneficiaries.

Social Security recipients over 62 who will not reach full retirement age during the current calendar year. Social Security recipients who haven't reached full retirement age, but will during the year. Social Security recipients who are over full retirement age.

As you might imagine, these are listed in order from the most restrictive rules to least. In fact, Social Security recipients who are over full retirement age don't have to worry  they can work all they want without any benefit reductions whatsoever. The other two groups are subject to the Social Security earnings test to determine their benefit reduction, if any.

Full retirement age (also referred to as "normal retirement age") is 66 years old for workers born between 1943 and 1954  so this includes people reaching full retirement age now. For those born after 1954, full retirement age increases by two months per year until it reaches 67 for those born in 1960 or later.

The Social Security earnings test

For Social Security recipients who will reach full retirement age after 2016, the first $15,720 in earnings are exempt. Above this amount, benefits will be reduced by $1 for every $2 in excess earnings.

As an example, let's say that you're 63, and you earn $30,000 this year. Under the earnings test, only $14,280 will be considered when determining your benefit reduction, and your annual Social Security benefit will be reduced by half of this amount, or $7,140.

For those who will reach full retirement age during 2016, the exempt amount is much higher-$41,880, and only earnings in the months prior to the month of your birthday will be considered. Above this amount, your benefits are reduced by $1 for every $3 in earnings.

Let's say that you currently collect Social Security, and that you'll reach full retirement age in August. We'll also say that you have a job with a $60,000 annual salary ($5,000 per month). Even though your salary is greater than the exempt amount, the earnings test only considers the first seven months of the year, since you'll attain full retirement age in August. This means that $35,000 are considered for benefit reduction purposes, which puts you below the threshold. Therefore, your Social Security benefit for 2016 will not be reduced.

Keep in mind that these thresholds apply for 2016. The exempt amounts are adjusted annually to keep up with the national average wage index, and will likely rise going forward. Also, there has been some talk among politicians about getting rid of the earnings test in order to encourage seniors to remain in the workforce until full retirement age.

It's not really a reduction

Finally, it's important to mention that this isn't really a "reduction" at all. Rather, your benefits are simply withheld. Once you reach your full retirement age, you'll receive credit for any benefit reduction, and your retirement benefits will be permanently increased from that time on.

The $15,978 Social Security bonus most retirees completely overlook

If you're like most Americans, you're a few years (or more) behind on your retirement savings. But a handful of little-known "Social Security secrets" could help ensure a boost in your retirement income. In fact, one MarketWatch reporter argues that if more Americans knew about this, the government would have to shell out an extra $10 billion annually. For example: one easy, 17-minute trick could pay you as much as $15,978 more... each year! Once you learn how to take advantage of all these loopholes, we think you could retire confidently with the peace of mind we're all after. Simply click here to discover how you can take advantage of these strategies.

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Before the O.J. Simpson trial, viewers all over the country were glued to another real-life TV stunner: detailed allegations by law professor Anita Hill that she had been sexually harassed by Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.

It was all there on live television  lurid, raw and visceral. During the Thomas confirmation hearings, Hill testified that the nominee made unwanted advances toward her  complete with mentions of pubic hair, oral sex and porn  when she worked for him at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Thomas countered with his own impassioned statements, describing the televised proceedings as a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks.

Though these historic telecasts happened nearly 25 years ago, I remember them quite well.

Reading an old column of mine made the memory even clearer, as did watching a screener of HBOs engaging and powerful film, Confirmation, starring Kerry Washington (Scandal) as Hill and Wendell Pierce (Treme) as Thomas.

The movie debuts at 7 p.m. Saturday on HBO.

When the real controversy dominated the news in October 1991, I took a quick trip around the Alamo City  to stores and restaurants, where TVs blared the hearings  to get a feel for local reaction.

Some supported Thomas, calling Hill a phony and worse. Others acted bored, indicating that men made passes at women all the time, so, as one woman put it, why all the fuss?

One young mother became emotional, saying she, too, was a victim of sexual harassment; she applauded Hill for her courage.

The HBO film that revisits the scandal is bound to stir up strong feelings all over again. It couldnt be timelier. Just as FXs The People v. O.J. Simpson shone a light on an issue that remains relevant today  racism within law enforcement  Confirmations Senate battles over the confirmation of Thomas mirror some of the political tug-of-war regarding President Obamas choice for the vacant seat of recently deceased Justice Antonin Scalia.

After much bickering and ugliness, the hearings ended in a narrow victory  52 to 48 votes  for Thomas. But what also emerged was a much more enlightened view and discussion of sexual harassment.

Washington, who not only plays Hill but is an executive producer of the movie, said her hope is that the film will continue the conversation.

We all had to sit through a sexual harassment orientation before we started filming the movie, Washington told TV critics at an HBO session, which was a little bit surreal, because (such an orientation) is based a lot on the story we were about to tell. And yet some of the issues are still rearing their head in terms of gender and in terms of race and how we understand those things.

Pierce, her co-star, agreed that Confirmation goes way beyond just a he said, she said tale. It also encourages all of us to ask, What do we consider important?

So people will come away with the idea of, I cant act without some sort of awareness of how Im treating other people.

Screenwriter Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich) said she also wanted to drive home the fact that the hearings were a very painful and traumatic experience for almost everyone involved.

The actors contributed greatly, delivering nuanced performances that make us feel their characters pain.

Washington, who had met Hill, said she is very private.  I felt that that was something that she and I shared, that idea of the circumstances of your life thrust into the public eye, when its not necessarily your choice.

She said the role terrified her at first: You know, portraying somebody whos real is a different kind of responsibility, especially when theyre alive.

Greg Kinnear also gives us an interesting take on Joe Biden, whom he plays as conflicted throughout. In an effort to appease Thomas Republican backers  and keep them from smearing Hill in increasingly abhorrent ways  Biden refuses to call a witness (played by Jennifer Hudson) who would back up Hills claims. That virtually handed the confirmation to Thomas.

Pierce may have had the biggest challenge: finding Thomas humanity amid the furor.

I had to check my own prejudice about who I thought he was, he said. As I studied his life, I realized how much we had in common, and I realized that the only way that I was going to be able to play the man was to be authentic and true to his humanity and his experience.

I didnt think of him as a political figure. I thought of him as a man about to lose the greatest opportunity he ever had.

Jeanne Jakles column appears Wednesdays and Sundays in mySA, and she writes online at mySA.com/Jakle. Email her at jjakle@express-news.net.
SAN ANTONIO - A woman suffered severe leg injuries after she was struck by a vehicle Sunday morning around 2 a.m. on the near North Side at at the intersection of McCullough Avenue and Cypress Street.

According to San Antonio police at the scene, a fight in a nearby bar escalated when those involved move the fight out into the streets.
SAN ANTONIO-- San Antonio police say a driver lost control of their truck while traveling through the intersection of Roosevelt and Steves avenues about 3:15 a.m. Sunday, and slammed into the storefront of an auto repair business.

Police at the scene say the truck jumped curb when the driver lost control and rammed into Rafas Tire & Muffler Service, 1223 Roosevelt Ave., causing major damage to the business.
The encryption debate has dominated the national discourse in recent months, but there has been near silence from the presidential candidates on the issue. If the voting public is to make an informed decision come November, this must change.

When pressed, various candidates appear to have thrown their support behind the FBI in the recent litigation with Apple over the encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the perpetrators of the San Bernardino terror attack. Republican hopeful John Kasich, for one, called encryption a big problem, and his rival Donald Trump even went so so far as to call for a boycott of Apple products until such time as Apple gives cellphone info to authorities  But none has presented a comprehensive policy position on the use of encryption.

Let us put the Apple-FBI battle in perspective. The government wanted the four-digit code to the phone. Most of us would not give the four-digit code of our phone to our best friends, but the government wanted permission to have the four-digit code to all phones. Would any candidate volunteer his four-digit code to his rivals?

Other candidates have resorted to equivocation. Bloomberg reported in early March that Democratic presidential hopeful Hilary Clinton lamented that the encryption issue, which allegedly pits the privacy of data against prevent(ing) crimes and terrorism, placed her squarely in the middle of the worst dilemma ever. Clinton explained that its a problem weve got to come up with some way to solve, punting the issue for a future day.

Although de rigueur on the campaign trail, such extemporaneous policy comments and hazy nonanswers are unacceptable. Much as we, the voters, would never elect a candidate without knowing his or her views on tax policy or foreign affairs, and all the intricacies they entail, we should hold our politicians to the same standard for an issue so fundamental as privacy. This is particularly true for smartphones  devices that play a tremendously important role in our daily lives. They are with us when we wake up. They join us at the office and in meetings. They go on family holidays then rest on our nightstands when we go to bed. These devices capture the moments of our life. Simply put, the risks of voting without being fully informed are too great to accept.

We stand at a watershed moment in history. As we speak, politicians from both parties are proposing both federal and state legislation designed to restrict the use of  or even ban  certain types of encryption. The failure to stop such rash legislation will have long-term implications from which we as a society cannot come back. Either we go forward secure in the knowledge that our right to privacy will endure in the digital age, or we allow the high, wrapped-in-the-flag rhetoric of terrorism and security to eviscerate our historical prerogatives. And in this critical sense, the encryption debate is not a hard question. It is an easy question with a politically unpalatable answer.

The politicians we elect this November will set the tone for this debate for years to come. For that reason, we deserve considered, well-informed policy positions now. The voting public has the right to know whether those seeking high office recognize that encryption is, at its core, good, and that to weaken encryption in just one instance is to weaken it in all.

We have a right to know whether our next president will defend our rights as a matter of principle, and not kowtow to the political expediency of the moment. And most important, we have a right to have this conversation today  not Nov. 9, the day after Election Day.

Victor Cocchia is CEO and co-founder of Vysk Communications, a manufacturer of mobile security communications headquartered in San Antonio.
On April 16, 2008, my husband, Ray, suffered a massive stroke while at work in the district attorneys office. At the time, I did not recognize the signs of a potential problem, but looking back, the signs were there.

Two weeks prior to his stroke, we were in Washington, D.C,. for my 50th high school class reunion. My mind was focused on the trip, visiting with friends and doing the things one does during a class reunion.

Ray seemed to be having a nice time. He enjoyed our private tour of the White House, particularly the Oval Office and the now famous Lewinski closet! Former Express-News Editor Bob Rivard made it possible for us to have a private tour of the Newseum, which was set to open in late April. That was the highlight of my trip, and Ray enjoyed it thoroughly as well. I love history, but Rays love for history far surpassed anyone else Ive ever known. He relished the trip to the Newseum, too.

But the signs I didnt recognize included Ray being very quiet and not as outgoing as usual. He commented several times that he had a headache several times during the trip  that was a major sign as Ray had never in our 30 years of marriage spoken of having a headache. He appeared to tire more easily, he shuffled his feet occasionally as he was walking, and I recall several times when he seemed unable to find the word he was looking for. He seemed to need more sleep than usual.

And I do not have one picture of him smiling during that entire week. That was totally out of character.

Looking back, I recall his dogged determination to visit Arlington National Cemetery and the National World War II Memorial for, as he put it, one last time.

While there, we used a limousine service for transportation, but for this visit to Arlington, he rented a car because he wanted to do it his way, in his time. He literally spent hours walking through Arlington, quietly, reverently. I recall that as we were leaving, he stopped the car, just gazed over the hillside and quietly said, Thank you. He didnt say another word on the way back to the hotel.

I noticed Ray appeared weak, but otherwise our trip home was uneventful. I recall carrying both our carry-on bags because it appeared difficult for him to manage his. Normally, Ray would have carried both and told me to hurry up as we went to the gate. This time, he was very slow, almost as though he was having to force himself to take each step.

All these things should have screamed out to me that something was wrong. I should have recognized them and gotten him to a hospital immediately. It is quite likely that the hemorrhagic bleed in his brain had already begun. Had we recognized it and gotten him medical treatment when the symptoms first appeared, the damage could have been negated to a higher degree.

I ask each of you to pay close attention to anything unusual and take immediate action. Learn the signs: weakness or tingling on one side, trouble walking, trouble speaking or understanding, severe headache with no known cause, numbness, vision problems and dizziness.

None of these symptoms should be ignored.

Suzanne Hildebrand lives in San Antonio.
Educational Testing Services, the New Jersey-based company that has the multimillion-dollar contract to administer the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness, has some explaining to do.

Students in school districts across the state, including some in San Antonio, who were taking the STAAR electronically encountered serious problems as the high-stakes testing season got underway.

ETS is in its first year of a $280 million contract it was awarded after the state chose not to continue with Pearson Education, the states testing vendor for the past 30 years, but it is not new to the student-assessment arena.

Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath said he will not accept the transition to a new testing vendor as an excuse for the problems school districts encountered. We urge proper steps be taken to ensure that similar problems do not reoccur and ETS give a public accounting of what went wrong.

The computer glitches included inability to log in or submit answers, and uncertainty about whether answers were saved. Those issues should have been resolved long before testing day. TEA is not going to make the students who experienced problems on test day retake their exams, rightly so.

Computer errors are not unusual; we all encounter them from time to time. They become significant, however, when they happen to a public school students on the test they have been preparing for all year.

High-stakes testing already promotes enough anxiety for students, parents, teachers and school administrators without adding the drama of computer problems to the mix.
Posted on 04/10/2016, 10:00 am, by mySteinbach

Keystone Agricultural Producers asked Manitobas political parties today to prioritize investment in agricultural innovation in order to build on what existing ag tech companies have done in the province.

There has been a trend of declining investment in this area  and this needs to be reversed, said KAP president Dan Mazier at an event attended by community leaders, researchers, members of Manitobas technology industry and the media.

KAP further called on politicians to make Manitoba the Canadian centre for ag innovation.

Farmers are adopting technology at a record rate, creating the need for many more agricultural companies that can supply it. Someone can lead the way in creating a home for these companies  and we believe it can be Manitoba.

Statistics show that every dollar invested in agricultural research returns about $10 worth of benefits to the economy. And on average, public agricultural research undertaken today will begin to noticeably influence agricultural productivity in as little as two years  and its impact could be felt for as long as 30 years.

The benefit of investing in agricultural research extends beyond national boundaries, too. When innovative agricultural technology companies get their start in Manitoba, they can move on to grow their customer base around the world  while keeping good jobs here at home.

Drones, satellites, GPS, farm data analysis  these innovations are only the tip of the iceberg, said Mazier. We need companies here in Manitoban that can take new ideas and give us newer and better innovations.

Wade Barnes, co-founder and CEO of Farmers Edge, a global leader in precision agriculture and independent data management solutions based in Winnipeg, also has faith in Manitobas capacity to become an ag technology hub.

Hopefully Farmers Edge is a small part of a much larger technology ecosystem here in Manitoba, he said.

His company recently attracted millions of dollars in investment from the Silicon Valley, but said no when investors wanted the company to move down there.

We need to be here (in Manitoba) with real farmers, Barnes said. The agricultural expertise we have in this province is second to none. Manitoba farmers have the shortest window to harvest, so they are the masters of the trade.

Many customers have sought us out  not just because were from Canada, but because were from Manitoba.

Mazier hopes the incoming government will recognize these advantages when it looks at support and funding for ag technology.

Success will be when we see a substantial increase in the number of researchers and research investment in Manitoba, when we attract sufficient capital investment into the province to support the commercialization and expansion of ag tech firms like Farmers Edge, and when we see technology adapted on Manitoba farms at a higher rate than anywhere else, he said.
Yves here. Below is the section of the Bill Clinton reaction to BlackLivesMatter protestors that Black discusses at length below.

Bizarrely, I came across it via a link claiming how effective Bill was. I have to think this cant have helped with the intended audience, black voters, and probably hurt hurt. But how much depends on whether BlackLivesMatter and/or other influential voices in the African-American community are effective in calling Bill out.

One key fact that Bill Black does not include in his analysis: the drop in the crime rate in the 1990s was due to getting lead out of gasoline.

By Bill Black, the author of The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One and an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Originally published at Huffington Post, with a postscript from New Economic Perspective

Remember several weeks ago when Hillary Clinton was complaining that Democrats did not consider her a progressive? Bernie Sanders big win in Wisconsin ended that tactic and propelled Paul Krugman and Hillary and Bill Clinton to race to the right, inadvertently proving Bernies point that they are not progressives on the key issues.

In the last week, Hillary and her surrogates have pivoted hard right and retreated to their long-held positions on the major issues. Indeed, in several cases they have gone even farther to the right than the policies they pushed over a decade ago  even though those policies proved disastrous. They also inadvertently demonstrated the terrible policies that were produced by the Clintons vaunted pragmatism and compromising with the most extreme Republican demands. That was the story of Clintons infamous welfare reform  a policy both Clintons championed. Tom Frank details in his new book entitled Listen, Liberal how the Clintons pragmatism and zeal to work with the worst elements of the Republican Party led to the welfare reform bill. Zach Carter has just written the article I was planning to write about that travesty. He entitled it Nothing Bill Clinton Said To Defend His Welfare Reform Is True. I encourage you to read it.

As a criminologist (I am also an adviser to Bernie on economics), I will begin my two-part series on Hillarys race to the right with Bill Clintons effort to defend his drug law policies and Hillarys denunciation of black drug users as super predators. The second column explains Krugmans race to the right on banking in his effort to support Hillarys hard pivot to right.

Bills defense of his policies that helped feed the mass incarceration of blacks and Latinos for drug offense came in the same April 7, 2016 campaign speech in Philadelphia that led to Zach Carter skewering his defense of welfare reform. Bills speech was strongly protested by Black Lives Matter members, which led to unscripted, angry attacks by Bill on some of the protesters and prompted his defense of his crime bill and Hillarys attack on superpredators.

Bill made four key points about crime in his attempted defense and attacks on the protesters. First he claimed that his 1993 crime bill led to a huge decrease in crime. The reality is that street crimes were declining before his bill and the trend continued after the bill passed. (Elite financial crimes were surging due to the Clintons championing of the three des  deregulation, desupervision and de facto decriminalization of finance  but the Clintons and the authors creating and spreading the myth of the black and Latino superpredators ignored them.)

Second, Bill claimed that the bad parts of his crime bill were caused by Republican demands. Tom Franks book shows how the Clintons pragmatism and promises to work with the hard right led to him crafting a bill that produced the mass incarceration of Americans. This problem was compounded by his sentencing provision that punished crack cocaine users 100 times more severely (by weight) than powder cocaine users. When the bill was drafted it seems likely that the drafters did not know that crack cocaine was used overwhelmingly by blacks and Latinos and powder cocaine overwhelmingly by whites. A wide range of people eagerly created what social scientists call a moral panic about crack cocaine even though its effects were the same of powder. Bills crime bill achieved bipartisan support, including Bernie.

What Bill did not discuss, but what Tom Franks book emphasizes, is that the immense racial disparity in sentencing  and the lack of any basis for it given the chemical equivalency of crack and powder  became clear within a year after passage of the act. By 1995, the U.S. Sentencing Commission had gathered the data, conducted the analysis, and done all the drafting to repeal the disparity  and Bill and the Republican Congress promptly worked pragmatically and in a bipartisan manner to block the repeal of the racist sentencing disparity. After he left office, Bill repeatedly apologized for his Crime Act, but a few days ago in Philadelphia he reverted to praising his disastrous law. He is moving exceptionally hard right back to his natural instincts when he gets off script.

Third, Bill moved so far right that he resurrected a racist position Hillary had enunciated (and later repudiated). Hillary attacked blacks who used crack as super predators. That phrase was crafted as part of the effort to generate a moral panic in order to produce the mass incarceration of blacks. CNN reported on Hillarys use of the term.

They are often the kinds of kids that are called super predators, Clinton said in a 1996 speech, when crime was a major public concern, according to polls at the time. No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.

Hillary was quoting phrases from three ultra-right authors that were Reagan officials. None of them was a criminologist, yet they claimed that overwhelmingly black super predators were growing at such epic rates that we should be so terrified by them that we would support a full scale war against black and Latino drug users. They did not simply coin the term super predator and stress that they were primarily black  they called them feral. That is the word used for a once tame animal that reverts to a wild animal. Black crack users were demonized as subhuman  wild animals whose ancestors had once been tame (as slaves) and who, as Hillary demanded, must be brought to heel like trained dogs.

None of this was true, but the racist lies succeeded in creating the moral panic that caused enormous damage to our Nation. Michelle Alexanders book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness is an excellent treatment of the shameful result.

Hillary eventually (in 2016) recanted her adoption of the racist super predator phrase and meme. Bill is disinterring it now because he got flustered and angered by the Black Lives Matter protesters and reverted in an unscripted fit to what came reflexively.

Fourth, Bill attacked the Black Lives Matter protesters in a way that was unworthy of him. Indeed, his attack on them came directly from his bizarre effort to support Hillarys use of the term super predator months after she had repudiated that term. Bill invoked the same racist myths, using the same racist language that was employed over a decade ago even though they have been completely discredited by criminologists. CNNs report of his Philadelphia speech notes:

He also defended Hillary Clintons use of the phrase super predators. I dont know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack, and sent them out in the streets to murder other African-American children, the former president said. Maybe you thought they were good citizens  she didnt.

(Bill also seems to be channeling the interrogation scene from the movie LA Confidential Were you hopped up, Ray?)

Plainly, Black Lives Matter protesters never suggested that good citizens murder children. Bills claim that they did so shows how panicked he was by Bernies big win in Wisconsin. Bills story that gang leaders  got 13-year old kids hopped up on crack, and sent them  to murder other African-American children is a racist myth. Even the ultra-hard right authors that invented the term super predator and described black crack users as akin to animals abandoned the term and their claims over five years ago. Bill has gone far to the right of the ultra-right wing by disinterring these racist myths, claiming that they were and are accurate, and making the preposterous claim that Black Lives Matter protesters support those who murder black children.

Postscript

How badly did Bill do on crime in his Philadelphia speech? Ive just found a Wall Street Journal editorial that they have posted entitled In Defense of Bill Clinton. The WSJs editorial team praises the Clintons for telling the truth about the super predators, falsely asserts that the crime bill is what reduced crime, and applauds his claim that Black Lives Matter members seek to defend those who murder black children. Murdochs minions then instruct Democrats and Black Lives Matter agitators (another racist meme buried 30 years ago that the WSJ dug up for this editorial) on why they should be praising Bills disinterring the racist fiction of gang leaders who got 13-year-olds hopped up on crack and sent them out onto the street to murder other African-American children.

Progressives at the time were happy to go along with Mr. Clintons New Democratic policies when center-right positioning seemed essential to winning the White House. But now theyre too intimidated by Black Lives Matter to tell the truth.

***

The Black Lives Matter agitators should thank President Clinton, not excoriate him.

When Murdochs mouthpieces purport to tell the truth to blacks and progressives its a sure sign that they are lying.
Judge Denies Motions by Fossil Fuel Industry and Federal Government in Landmark Climate Change Case EcoWatch (Glenn F). This is a remarkable result. But even if the plaintiffs prevail, I doubt the verdict will survive an appeal.

Judge Tells Wildlife Agency to Protect Wolverines From Climate Change TakePart

This Low-Tech Trap For Killing Mosquito Eggs Is Brilliant Gizmodo (Chuck L)

High Schoolers Use Homemade Nuclear Fusion Reactor To Dominate Science Fairs Slashdot

Driverless bus in Greece has had no accidents in six months Boing Boing (resilc)

Thailand is getting close to becoming a military dictatorship Business Insider (furzy)

US soldiers burned their waste in the Mideast wars  and now its killing them New York Post (furzy)

Mossack Fonseca

China?

Nuit DeBuit map (ballard)

Syraqistan

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Imperial Collapse Watch

Senators Slam NATO Free-Riders in Closed-Door Meeting With Secretary General Foreign Policy

2016

The End of Ordinary Politics Archdruid

We Have a Lot. We Can Get More. We Want It All Gaius Publius

Super PAC Backer Says Big Money Entitles Donors to Campaign Oversight Intercept (Dan K)

Capitalist Deserter Pfizer Just Got a Spanking Bill Greider, Nation

The wolves of Tel Aviv: Israels vast, amoral binary options scam exposed The Times of Israel

Investors, first catch your unicorn then hang on to it Financial Times (David L). Sequoia taking its book. And this is the same Michael Moritz who warned of subprime unicorns a mere six months ago.

Big Board Aims to Keep an Upstart at Bay, but Copy Its Technology Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times

Its the end of globalization as we know it Quartz

Class Warfare

Antidote du jour (martha r):

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
By William Lazonick, President, The Academic-Industry Research Network. Originally published at the Institute for New Economic Thinking website



Now that new Treasury Department rules have effectively thwarted Pfizers attempt to evade its U.S. tax obligations by using its proposed merger with Allergan to do a tax inversion, its time policymakers turned their attention to a far more common  and even more damaging  corporate practice: stock buybacks. This mode of distributing corporate cash to shareholders helps pump up the pay of Pfizers senior executives, while, as President Obama said of the tax inversion, it sticks the rest of us with the tab.

Last October, in justifying the proposed merger that would effect the tax inversion, Pfizer CEO Ian C. Read

complained that the companys U.S. tax burden meant that his management team had to take on global competition with one hand tied behind our back. But, as research by the AIRnet has shown, Pfizer makes debilitating decisions that deplete its finances far more than taxes do. During Reads reign as CEO from 2011 through 2015, Pfizer paid out $44.7 billion in buybacks and $32.9 billion in dividends. Buybacks alone dwarfed the $16.0 billion Pfizer provisioned for U.S. income taxes over the same period.

Buybacks have clearly helped inflate the pay of Ian Read; in his five years as CEO he has raked in $76.8 million in direct compensation, of which 63% came from stock-based pay. Other senior Pfizer executives as well as stock-market traders who have been adept at timing their Pfizer stock sales have also gained from buybacks.



While its obvious that buybacks make executives and some other shareholders rich, how buybacks stick the rest of us with the tab may be far less evident. Pfizer boosts its profits by charging high drug prices. Yet from 2011 through 2015, Pfizer spent an equivalent of 71% of its profits on buybacks while also distributing 52% of its profits as dividends. By charging high drug prices to enrich shareholders, Pfizer increases the healthcare burden on Americas households  who foot huge Medicare/Medicaid pharmaceutical bills as taxpayers, and face higher retail drug prices, insurance premiums, and co-payments as patients. Bringing stock buybacks by pharmaceutical companies under control is an obvious way of making healthcare more affordable.

A pharmaceutical company like Pfizer would not be able to put drugs on the market without the massive taxpayer-funded life-sciences research through the National Institutes of Health  to the tune of $958 billion (in 2015 dollars) between 1938 and 2015. Financial aid from the public has also come to the pharmaceutical industry through such measures as the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, which birthed Pfizer money-makers Lipitor and Enbrel. Quite apart from the tax inversion that the Obama Administration has wisely thwarted, a company like Pfizer regularly wastes billions of dollars on buybacks that should be returned to taxpayers.

Buybacks will continue without any effective limits unless the SECs Reagan-era Rule 10b-18 is struck down. After the scrapping of its inversion plan, Pfizers press release quoted CEO Read as saying: As always, we remain committed to enhancing shareholder value. Unfortunately, enhancing shareholder value and the value a company creates through its actual work often bear little, if any, relation to one another. For example, not one product originated and developed in Pfizers own labs after 2005 has generated significant revenue for the company.

And between 2011 and 2015, as Reads Pfizer was reducing its workforce from almost 104,000 to around 79,000 worldwide (excluding employees from its recent acquisition of Hospira) and seeing its annual revenues shrink from $67.4 billion to $48.9 billion, Pfizer distributed as buybacks and dividends an amount equal to 124% of profits. The $77.6 billion that the company devoted to enhancing shareholder value was twice the amount spent on R&D during the period, raising the question of how many new drugs Pfizers labs will be capable of putting onto the market going forward.

Its clear that Pfizer, like far too many US corporations, has left behind the business of making products for the business of making money. Under the cover of enhancing or maximizing shareholder value  a slogan that allows executives to inflate their stock-based pay while fulfilling a pretend legal obligation  these companies are not only imperiling their own futures, but theyre also transferring money from the pockets of ordinary Americans to those of an elite few. Putting a halt to tax inversions is one of many ways to stem the flow of income to members of the value-extracting class who populate the top 0.1%. Banning buybacks by rescinding SEC Rule 10b-18, which for over three decades has given companies like Pfizer license to manipulate the stock market, should be a top priority of any progressive political agenda.


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By Eric Staats of the Naples Daily News

A plan that could guide federal environmental permitting decisions for the next 50 years in rural Collier County gets a public unveiling this week.

A group of large landowners and their conservation allies are pushing the plan that would create a super-permit under the Endangered Species Act to allow up to 45,000 acres of development  including land where the iconic Florida panther is making its last stand  in return for 107,000 acres of preservation.

Proponents say the incentive-based program, which would help enact the county's Rural Lands Stewardship Area growth plan that applies to farms, ranches and natural lands around Immokalee, is an improvement over existing project-by-project reviews.

But one conservation group leading opposition to the proposal says it would allow too much development and have too great an impact on the county's roads and water supply in return for too little preservation.

Landowners submitted a draft of the plan, dubbed a Habitat Conservation Plan or HCP, in April 2015, and it already has undergone behind-the-scenes discussions with regulators. Now, with much of the plan's details still undetermined, the public is getting a chance to weigh in.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is having a so-called "scoping meeting" Tuesday to gather input on what the agency should include in an environmental review of the proposal. It kicks off a public comment period, one of several that federal law requires before any HCP would ever get approved.

"HCPs by their nature are a consensus building exercise," said FWS biologist Ken McDonald, the agency's point man on the Collier HCP review. "It's a lot of people to get on board with an idea."

McDonald called HCP's the "most democratic regulatory process we have"  he's overseen the development of two HCPs in Tennessee that focused on protection of bats, birds and a fish called a darter.

"It (the Collier HCP) has tremendous potential to do great things for listed species if it's done well," McDonald said.

The Collier HCP would give landowners the permission they would need to impact imperiled species like the panther but also 10 bird species, like the wood stork and red-cockaded woodpeckers; the Florida bonneted bat; diamondback rattlesnake and eastern indigo snake; and the Big Cypress fox squirrel.

The panther, though, is expected to attract most of the debate, in part because of its high-profile but also because preserving panther habitat also preserves habitat for many of the other species covered by the plan.

Landowners proposing the HCP are Alico Inc., Barron Collier Investments Ltd., Collier Enterprises Management Inc., Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership, English Bros. Partnership, Heller Bros. Packing Corp., John E. Price Jr. Trust, Pacific Land Ltd. and the Sunniland Family Partnership.

That includes Immokalee ranch owner Liesa Priddy, a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission member who took a lead role in pushing that agency's controversial panther policy paper some have interpreted as a step toward weakening protections for Florida panthers.

The Florida Wildlife Federation, Audubon of the Western Everglades (formerly Collier County Audubon), Audubon of Florida and Defenders of Wildlife are backing the proposed HCP.

The plan has its roots in a landmark challenge by the Federation and Audubon of Collier County's growth plan in the 1990s. After a state-mandated growth moratorium stemming from the groups' victory in the challenge, Collier County approved the Rural Lands Stewardship Program that forms the basis for the proposed HCP.

Audubon policy advocate Brad Cornell said the HCP would create a network of interconnected preserves that Florida panthers could use to expand their range beyond increasingly cramped quarters in Collier County for the growing panther population.

Cornell said the incentive-based HCP is a better way to preserve panther habitat than top-down regulation that risks creating an inadequate checkerboard of preserves and endless litigation.

"For a panther, checkerboard is death," he said.

But the Conservancy argues the HCP, as proposed, tips too much in favor of landowners at the expense of the public good. The group has suggested that nearly the same amount of development can be accommodated on less valuable panther habitat.

"There's a better way here that needs to be explored," Conservancy natural resources policy director Jennifer Hecker said. "This is really important, to get this plan right."

Collier Enterprises vice president Christian Spilker said it was premature to judge the proposed HCP and took a jab at the Conservancy's anti-HCP campaign.

"To judge it now and issue alerts and get people stirred up against it doesn't make sense to me because nobody has all the facts yet," Spilker said.

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If you go

Who: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

What: Habitat Conservation Plan public input meeting When: Tuesday, April 12, 5 to 7 p.m.

Where: University of Florida/Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences extension office, 14700 Immokalee Road

For more information about the Eastern Collier County Multiple Species Habitat Conservation Plan, or HCP, go to www.easterncollierHCPEIS.com.
SHARE Ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer and her puppet George Henry entertain every Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. at Mel's Diner in Naples, Florida. Stelzer will be speaking at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention in July along with other renowned ventriloquists like Jeff Dunham (center of left photo). (Photo by Gregg Pachkowski/Special to the Daily News) Marilyn Ray and her granddaughter, Delaney Ray, 8, of Sherman, Illinois, have a laugh as they enjoy the entertainment of ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer and her puppet George Henry during their weekly appearance at Mel's Diner in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. Stelzer will be speaking at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention in July. (Photo by Gregg Pachkowski/Special to the Daily News) A guest snaps a photo of ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer and her puppet George Henry during their weekly appearance at Mel's Diner in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. Stelzer will be speaking at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention in July. (Photo by Gregg Pachkowski/Special to the Daily News) Peter Dunbar, of Lake Grove, New York, enjoys the entertainment of ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer and her puppet George Henry during their weekly appearance at Mel's Diner in Naples, Florida, on Tuesday, March 29, 2016. Stelzer will be speaking at the Vent Haven International Ventriloquist Convention in July. (Photo by Gregg Pachkowski/Special to the Daily News) Related Photos Ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer performs

By Kristine Gill of the Naples Daily News

George the puppet doesn't laugh, he yuks. It's a rolling, childlike giggle that follows every single one of his jokes. The doll has been cracking himself up for the 46 years he's been with ventriloquist Brenda Stelzer.

"I look younger and you look older," George pointed out one recent Thursday at the Mel's Diner in Bonita Springs where the two visit patrons weekly.

"That's because you've been refurbished," 55-year-old Stelzer said.

"Don't you think it's your turn?" George retorted.

Stelzer is a full-time ventriloquist living in Naples and performing throughout Southwest Florida. She makes weekly stops at a handful of Mel's Diner locations and nursing homes. She performed at three centennial birthdays last year and once did a funeral for a longtime fan. A few years ago, she was invited to audition for "America's Got Talent," but ended up not making the cut.

This summer though, she'll take part in a panel at the 40th annual Vent Haven ConVENTion near Cincinnati, discussing women in ventriloquism. Stelzer said it's a question-and-answer style discussion that will likely center around the lack of women in the profession and the differing expectations between male and female comics. It's an interesting topic, considering Stelzer is the voice of a male puppet whose favorite hobby is hitting on women of all ages.

"I think they're OK with it because I'm a woman," Stelzer said. "If I were a male ventriloquist, I'd get a black eye saying some of these things."

Annie Roberts, a ventriloquist and media coordinator for the convention, said the panel usually includes four women and a moderator and addresses everything from the preference audiences have for male puppets over female puppets to what is appropriate for woman ventriloquists to wear on stage.

Roberts said about 600 ventriloquists from 14 countries have attended past events. Contrary to what some may think about the profession, interest in ventriloquism remains steady and has even grown as celebrities such as Jeff Dunham become household names and national TV talent shows feature the acts.

"We've always had steady interest," Roberts said. "It's just that from a pop culture standpoint, the only place you'd see a ventriloquist used to be at a live show locally."

During their Thursday visit to Mel's, Stelzer visited a family in a corner booth that has been part of the George fan club for the past 14 years he's been visiting the diner.

"She has a real following of people, believe it or not," said part-time Estero resident Ernie Banks.

Banks and his wife, Sherli Banks, first met George at a Minnesota Twins spring training game. When Banks introduced himself, George thought he was trying to pass as the Chicago Cubs shortstop and first baseman.

"Ernie Banks," George exclaimed. "You've gotta be pulling my strings!"

Now Banks and his wife bring their daughter and grandchildren to visit Mel's whenever they're in town. George has been pining over their granddaughter Kelsy since he met her four years ago.

"The first time he met her, his head spun," Banks said. When George learned Kelsy had a real life human boyfriend, a cross-country feud started.

On Thursday, George recorded a video message for Kelsy's beau, Alex.

"Hit the road, Alex," he said. "May the best man win, and that's me!"

Banks said Stelzer has nailed the persona of a young man for her puppet.

"What's unusual for a woman is to ask questions like a man," he said.

Outside the restaurant, kids and their parents lit up at the sight of George, who sat on Stelzer's leg, craning his neck and wiggling his eyebrows. His face, fixed in a permanent smile, seemed to invite the curious. And George had a joke for each of them, usually pertaining to the fact that he's made out of wood:

"I told Donald Trump I'd be his running mate," George said. "Our bumper stickers will say Trump and Stump."

"Isn't it amazing what a little Lemon Pledge will do for you?" he said, noting his smooth skin.

"I've been coming here so long I'm part of the furniture," Stelzer said.

"I am!" George piped.

Stelzer got the puppet from the owners of a dance studio she used to attend in Naples. George was specially made for her in London by renowned figure maker Len Insull. Stelzer had been using a primitive puppet to hone her skills when she first became interested in the craft. George has always had large brown eyes, long lashes and expressive eyebrows. But his flirtatious nature and quick wit came later as Stelzer developed his personality over time.

"The voice was kind of instant," Stelzer said. .

Stelzer is a pro at her craft. Her lips don't move as she powers her puppet, and their banter never misses a beat. But when George stops talking, and Stelzer starts, that familiar yuk resurfaces.

"I have to be careful around him," Stelzer said, lest her younger fans catch on. "We have the same laugh."
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A federal wildlife agency is taking the next step this coming week on a really big deal for Collier County.

If at all possible, we urge you to get involved. At a minimum, pay close attention.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is conducting a public meeting Tuesday on what's called a Habitat Conservation Plan for areas inland from Golden Gate Estates to the interior regions of Collier County, stretching east of State Road 29.

An examination of where future development could be allowed vs. where habitat and species protection should take precedence for the next 50 years spans more than 152,000 acres of privately owned land in eastern Collier.

Let's put that big number in perspective. The city of Naples is about 16.5 square miles of land and water. At 640 acres per square mile, Naples is about 10,500 acres. So the area in question is like stringing Naples together 15 times. Still hard to visualize? The land area of New York City is about 195,000 acres, not much more than this 152,124 acres under consideration in Collier.

How did we get here?

Last year, a consortium of major land owners interested in the future, including agriculture, got together to talk about what might be allowed. They brought to the table some environmental groups that have an abiding interest in land preservation and protection of endangered species, notably the Florida panther and wood storks.

Among major landowners involved are Collier Enterprises Management Inc., Barron Collier Investments, Consolidated Citrus Limited Partnership and Alico Inc. Among environmental groups are the Florida Wildlife Federation and Audubon of the Western Everglades. Notably absent from current participants, and parting ways with the approach in this collaboration, is the Conservancy of Southwest Florida.

Creation of this habitat plan is authorized under the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Planning documents for the study area show 10 species already listed for federal protection or which could be, along with six under state protection.

What's next?

This isn't a done deal. It's in the early stages of the review process.

A draft has been submitted to Fish and Wildlife (www.easterncollierHCPEIS.com) and the agency is preparing a draft Environmental Impact Statement for public review.

Representatives of the participating landowners and environmental groups, in a meeting Thursday with the Naples Daily News editorial board, emphasized that what they want at this point is for citizens to get informed and involved.

Planning for future growth in Collier County, which is about the size of Delaware, is an issue we identified as urgent for 2016. This initiative is one reason why.

The next two steps come Tuesday. Commissioner Penny Taylor is asking the County Commission to get staff involved in the process. That's a wise move considering county planners are undertaking four long-range growth plan updates, including lands east of the Estates and surrounding Immokalee.

Also Tuesday, the federal agency is holding a public meeting to help scope the work. It's from 5-7 p.m. at the University of Florida IFAS/County Extension Auditorium, 14700 Immokalee Road, next to the Collier County Fairgrounds.

A week later is a 10 a.m. online meeting; information about it is on the website we noted earlier. Comments about the study's scope can be sent through April 24 to the federal agency's South Florida Ecological Services Office, 1339 20th St., Vero Beach, Fla. 32960.

Our thoughts?

Beyond urging your involvement, it's too early to pass judgment on the draft plan.

We fully understand why land owners want to know what the future rules are before they invest multimillions of dollars pursuing projects. We applaud environmental groups and others who want to ensure there are wildlife corridors to sustain species, significantly a route for the Florida panther to migrate into Hendry County and get north of the Caloosahatchee River to expand their survival territory.

It's too early to say if this habitat plan meets the needs. But it's not too early for you to begin to have your say.
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William Zeckhausen, Laconia, New Hampshire, and Naples

Licensed pastoral psychotherapist

Alzheimer's help

The Naples Daily News published poll results of Florida physicians, over 50 percent of whom withhold diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease from patients, concerned about their response.

That decision, justified as concern for patients, certainly exists beyond Florida. My motivation and confidence submitting this is two-fold. I received the diagnosis two years ago and have had a fulfilling experience in a multiple therapeutic career facilitating weekly physician support groups for 30 years.

I'm sure from that experience, with rare exception, no physician feels untroubled about withholding a diagnosis they feel unequipped by experience or training to be helpful for their patient.

All physicians should be concerned for patient response in receiving a horrendous diagnosis. But justifying withholding is a profound mistake. The diagnosis is traumatic, typically triggering panic, rage, depression, and suicidal thoughts, fortunately seldom carried out. But how much more vulnerable is a patient with Alzheimer's not knowing what is going on?

There are better ways to express concern for their patients. And giving it by phone isn't one of them. A physician unable to sensitively share a caring diagnosis should refer it to a trusted colleague able to do so. Hopefully the patient leaves the interview, predictably discouraged or shocked, feeling understood, with hope of eventually taking it in as a doable challenge.

The Alzheimer's Association is online (www.alz.org), reached at 1-(800) 272-3900 for patients, physicians and caregivers. They send a free packet with practical information and phone coverage is 24-7 with competent, compassionate, trained staff. The book, "Alzheimer's from the Inside Out" by Dr. Richard Taylor, a psychologist with Alzheimer's himself, is valuable.

For myself, feeling lost, in reading his book my responses were normalized, a confidence restorer. I learned of his and other books through the Alzheimer's Association.
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Robert Rappaport, Naples

Board critic

One of the more prolific letter writers to the Naples Daily News is Anne Hartley.

Her letters the past couple of years are almost always about Naples public schools and these letters mostly are critical of her perceived enemies, mostly School Board members Erika Donalds and Kelly Lichter, and any others who might agree with these two ladies.

My motives were also criticized in online comments to a September 2015 letter of mine wherein I identified myself as a mathematics teacher at Mason Classical Academy.

Her latest missive is critical of Donalds for sensibly proposing, among other things, that the finances of the Collier County Public Schools, an entity that spends nearly $1 billion annually, be audited. Federal law requires all corporations whose shares are traded publicly be audited.

Why would anyone, without something to hide, be opposed to a government entity spending such an enormous amount of money being audited. Perhaps she is mathematically challenged and doesn't know one billion seconds are 32 years.

The rest of her latest letter tries to warn us citizens against the supposed dangers of electing new members to the School Board that might ("heaven forbid") align themselves with Donalds and Lichter.

I say if you follow her advice you are only supporting special interests (i.e. teachers' union) and not the best interests of the student population.

She should tell us which groups she represents and then let us decide how unbiased and objective her opinions really are.
SHARE Elaine L. Reed President and CEO Naples Historical Society Inc.

By Elaine L. Reed, President & CEO Naples Historical Society

Naples Historical Society's mission is to preserve Naples history. The strategy endorsed by the Society's board of directors is to do this through a series of initiatives.

These initiatives are major efforts to reach all segments of the community: old-timers, children, longtime and new residents, local business and industry, and visitors.

There are 10 strategically crafted programs that flow under these initiatives, and each has metrics, milestones and generates positive impacts for the short- and long-term benefit of the community.

One such initiative is the Naples Historic District Initiative. It is perhaps the Society's most significant and challenging one to date.

The Society is working to find a way to extol the unique virtue and personality of the Naples Historic District, a downtown area that is less than 1/10th of one square mile, by having the moral courage to introduce and rally behind a fresh and recognized approach to historic preservation, one that reflects the extraordinary breadth of historic preservation and still respects the needs of the community at large.

The complexity of this project runs deep, and understanding the decisions made to move it forward require a thorough understanding of the challenges that have existed in Naples, sometimes for decades.

Sharing our assessments, thinking and decision-making rationale about these challenges was the centerpiece of two public information programs the Society hosted in March. Of the many ideas presented, one item we emphasized has played a significant role in the preservation disaster that has affected Naples: that is, misinformation. That includes everything from not understanding the big picture to perpetuating poorly drawn assumptions.

Our proposal includes, but is not limited to the following:

1. Recalibrating the existing processes in our local preservation review process so that unintended impediments to preserving historic structures can be removed. Why create a fuss for someone who wants to use their own financial resources to preserve a house?

2. Educating the community (government, resident, trades, and more) to the vast and broad interpretations that surround historic preservation. The National Register of Historic Places and the Secretary of the Interior have what are referred to as Preservation Approaches  there are four approaches used throughout the nation, and they allow an extraordinary amount of leeway for the owner and his/her house team. Why not tap into that?

3. Introducing the discussion for new construction guidelines in the vernacular. This would include general suggestions for scale, height, roof, roof pitch, rhythm of openings, etc., for houses in the Naples Historic District. An important note is the word "suggest"  we are not proposing to mandate this.

We realize the economic reality that exists in Naples, and that means that unless someone buys every historic house and fixes them up with their own finances, some houses will fall. We also realize that original construction for some old houses was not as strong as others, and as a result, termite damage may be too much to overcome.

For these and more reasons, we believe that if a house is demolished, we want to suggest design guidelines to reflect the broad visual integrity of Naples.

With our proposal, a homeowner can deny our guidelines; there is no infringement on property rights. That's why this will work.

There are 67 counties in Florida and 52 of them have historic districts; 32 have multiple historic districts. Sarasota County has 17 and Palm Beach County has 16 historic districts. Collier County has one historic district, and it has not had any support since being recognized by the federal government in 1987. It's time to do so, because this is the last chance.

One option on the table is to continue to do nothing. We believe this would render the greatest disservice to the preservation of Naples as we know it.

A call to preserve Naples cannot be a directive alone. It cannot be a wish. There must be a plan. The Society has a reasonable vision, many say is intrepid, but it is based on sound judgment and we are making solid headway with the residents of the district and many others in the related industries in Naples.

We rely on the community to learn more about it before believing in propagated misinterpretations of those who have not studied the issues in Naples. We did our homework, and we ask for your support as we move this project forward over the next year.

To view a map of the Naples Historic District and read mountains of support information, please visit the Society's website: www.NaplesHistoricalSociety.org.

Our tagline says it all: "It Takes a Community to Preserve One!"
Six physicians with Physicians Primary Care of Southwest Florida have been named Top Doctors by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. in New York.



Family Medicine physician Charles Curtis, M.D., Pediatrician Georgia Rocha-Rodriguez, M.D., and Obstetrician/Gynecologists Paul Joslyn, M.D., Blaise Kovaz, M.D., Sarah Krauss, M.D., and Mary Yankaskas, M.D. will be featured in the June issue of Gulfshore Life magazine. Its the 11th consecutive year that Dr. Yankaskas has been recognized as a Top Doctor. Dr. Curtis, Dr. Joslyn and Dr. Kovaz are repeat winners from 2013 - 2015.



Selections are made through a national survey of physicians and hospital administrators conducted by Castle Connolly, an independent research and information company that is the nations leading provider of information on top physicians. After the votes are tallied, Castle Connolly ensures that the physicians meet the companys criteria, which include board certification, years of experience in their specialties, and a clean disciplinary record.



Castle Connolly is widely recognized for its extensive research of the medical profession. This demonstrates to our patients that we have been evaluated and meet their highest standards, said Dr. Yankaskas, who also is managing physician of Physicians Primary Care of Southwest Florida.



The physicians will be honored by Gulfshore Life magazine at an awards banquet.



Physicians Primary Care of Southwest Florida, a physician-owned and operated medical practice, was formed in 1996 by many long practicing local physicians and has grown to become the largest independent multi-specialty practice in Southwest Florida.



Medical specialties include family practice, internal medicine, obstetrics, gynecology, and pediatrics. PPCs offices are conveniently located in Fort Myers, Cape Coral and Lehigh Acres.
Univision Southwest Florida once again wins News Spanish TV viewing in the Ft. Myers-Naples DMA according to the February 2016 Nielsen Sweeps and enjoys tremendous ratings growth Sweeps to Sweeps in Prime Time (M-F 8-11P), News (M-F 6-7P & 11P-12A), Early Fringe (M-F 4-6P) Mornings (M-F 7-11A), Saturday Prime (8-11P) and in practically every Day-Part.



In the M-F News Blocks, Univision SW Florida delivers 27% more Households than any other Spanish TV station in the market. In Early Evening News, DLatinos, the first and longest-running Spanish TV Program in the Ft. Myers-Naples DMA, followed by the Univision Network News, delivers 38% the Household audience of its closest Spanish TV competitor (M-F 6-7P).



Univision Southwest Florida also experienced extraordinary ratings growth from the November 2015 Sweeps to February 2016 practically across the board. News audience grew 62% (M-F 6-7P & 11P-12A). Prime Time (M-F 7-11P) surged an astounding 83%. Early Fringe (M-F 4-6P) increased 55%, while Mornings (M-F 7-11A) jumped 75%. Saturday Prime (8-11P) more than doubled, growing 114%.



Our audience unquestionably continues to surge and were gratified by these latest results in the ratings, said Antonio Guernica, General Manager. Univision SW Florida enjoys significant local coverage advantages over its Spanish TV competitors. Univision is by far the top rated Spanish network, often rivaling its English language competition in audience, and the composition of the local Hispanic audience mirrors that of the national population.



We continue to be troubled, however, by the extreme ratings inconsistencies sweeps to sweeps, which lead subscribers to question the validity of Nielsens Local Meter Sample in the Ft. Myers-Naples DMA, particularly in accurately measuring viewing to Spanish TV, Guernica said. Well focus on delivering results for our advertisers not only on Univision SW Florida but also on our Azteca and UniMas Spanish television affiliates as well as in print with our monthly DLatinos Magazine and our growing slate of digital and social media initiatives.



Source: Nielsen Media Research, November 2015 and February 2016 Sweeps, Household Ratings, Fort Myers-Naples DMA.



Media Vista Group is a multi-platform Hispanic-owned media company. Its broadcast holdings include Univision and UniMas in Ft. Myers-Naples as well as Azteca America Ft. Myers-Naples. MVG also owns and operates Univision Minneapolis and Univision Kansas City. Its holdings include the DLatinos program, now in its 13th year of continuous local broadcast; D'Latinos Magazine, a monthly Spanish language lifestyle publication; and www.dlatinos.com, a Spanish interactive portal.
Backseat Drivers: Can Logano go all the way this year? Alex Weaver, Mamba Smith, and Kim Coon discuss whether Joey Logano has an advantage with his early lock-in to the Championship 4.
Even when The Boston Globe pretends to print REAL news, it's still FAKE news

Boston Globe says Trump is a murderer of families... and also the entire stock market will crash, yup yup!

Real news, fake news... who can tell the difference at The Boston Globe?

Make no mistake: This is the vaccine regime hard at work, operating in full desperation mode

(NaturalNews) The Boston Globe, a newspaper that routinely prints fake CDC vaccine propaganda as "news," now openly admits. A Sunday edition of the paper goes "full cuckoo" by literally, then publishing them under The Boston Globe banner as if they were real. Small text on the second page admits it's all fake! View the fake Boston Globe edition here (PDF).The fake Boston Globe front page featuring fabricated scare stories about Donald Trump comes off as amarried with a laughably pathetic act of credibility suicide by the once-respected paper.Donald Trump, of course, is the most outspoken vaccine critic of the 2016 presidential elections race. Back in 2012, he stated in a Fox News interview that he "strongly believes that Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are linked to exposure to vaccines."A little over two years later, his concerns about vaccine safety were confirmed by none other than Dr. William Thompson , a top CDC scientist who publicly admitted to taking part in an actual CDC conspiracy to fraudulently alter scientific evidence linking vaccines to autism in African-American boys.In late 2016, CNN moderators tried to destroy Trump's credibility by questioning his criticism of how too many vaccines are given all at once to children at too young an age. In his answer, Trump laid out the most compassionate and reasonable explanations on vaccines that has yet been offered by any candidate in this race:The Boston Globe, meanwhile, has been obediently attacking the VAXXED documentary film , falsely claiming the film is about Andrew Wakefield when it's really about Dr. William Thompson.Other CDC propaganda published by The Boston Globe includes a hilarious article entitled "Mark Zuckerberg gets his baby vaccinated. Debate ensues."Now, instead of just printing vaccine industry propaganda and CDC lies pretending to be news, The Boston Globe has gone all out and justWhy are none of us surprised to hear this?The fictional front page of The Boston Globe attacking Trump. A sidebar graphic on the right column of the Boston Globe's fake news edition shows the Dow plummeting from over 16,000 to under 10,000 under a Trump presidency, and a loony tunes tin-foil-hat article steeped in desperate paranoia declares "Curfews extended in multiple cities."At the same time The Boston Globe is publishing all this fake HOAX news under its masthead banner, the pathetic paper refuses to publish any real stories that actually matter. Nowhere in recent memory at the paper do you read about: How the EPA is a criminal organization that legalized the spreading of toxic industrial waste on U.S. farms (biosludge). The truth that vaccines injected into children still contain the toxic heavy metal mercury , which is a known neurotoxin that damages the brains of children. How so much of the vaccine science has been faked by companies like Merck , whose managers ordered its own scientists to commit scientific fraud to trick the FDA. How the entire regulatory regime under the Obama administration has crucified real scientists and science whistleblowers who tried to expose the criminality, fraud and corruption of the USDA, FDA, EPA and CDC. How the CDC is private corporation operated under the illusion of Naval law, complete with its top criminals wearing military costumes to spout "official" vaccine propaganda during every false flag outbreak. See the CDC exposed by this AntiCorruption Society story  How as many as 98 million Americans were injected with cancer-causing primate viruses under the CDC's polio vaccination program that has since been memory-holed off the CDC's website.The hilarious upshot of all this is shockingly apparent: It's impossible to tell any difference between real news and fake news at The Boston Globe... becauseIn deciding to print this fictional Trump fantasy edition under its masthead, The Boston Globe has just. Before this, we were merely ignoring The Boston Globe... now we're ROFL at it. This kind of delusional fiction fantasy published under The Boston Globe banner is enough to make any respectable journalist still working at the paper want to bury their head in the sand from sheer shame. When journalism schools gave students lessons on ethics and credibility, they never imagined a mainstream paper like The Boston Globe would abandon all credibility and go all-in with fiction parading as truth-to-be.Hopefully this loony tunes idea will spread up and down the entire East Coast so that both the Washington Post and New York Times will also print their own fictional fantasy editions of their papers, too. (As if they aren't already...) In those editions, they'll have Donald Trump raping baby goats... or maybe even an account of illegal aliens raiding the White House and beating Trump to death with backpack leaf blowers. (Yeah, I just said that. Read it again.) Apparently nothing is out of bounds for these newspapers that have now gone "full retard" in their attempt to stop the one man who might actually expose the truth about vaccines (and loads of other things) if he becomes President.Witnessing how the media went intoto try to silence the VAXXED documentary by engaging in criminal threats against film festival organizers , I have no doubt that much of the effort to destroy Trump comes from his stance on exposing the fraud and criminality of the CDC, EPA and FDA. These criminal regulatory regimes will stop at absolutely nothing to hold on to power, and once-great papers like The Boston Globe are apparently more than happy to committo destroy themselves in all-out attempts to dislodge Donald Trump from his current position of electoral dominance.Now the bigger question in all this is: Where does Donald Trump stand on GMOs? For the record, Ted Cruz is a Monsanto sellout , Hillary Clinton is the Bride of Frankenfood , but Bernie Sanders is pro GMO labeling and makes the most sense so far on the issue of GMOs. (Go Vermont!)If The Boston Globe really wanted to publish a fake news edition, by the way, it didn't have to go through any special trouble to put one together. They publish fake news as real news on a daily basis!EVERY DAY IS A PARODY NEWS DAY AT THE BOSTON GLOBE.
Do you always find your hard drive storage insufficient for all the gigabytes of digital files you own? Well, this might be a strange solution, but scientists recently developed a storage that can hold 700 terabytes of files in--wait for it--a small speck of an artificial DNA.

Scientists from the University of Washington successfully developed a technology which can store data in a small thread of DNA which is so small, it's almost invisible to the naked eye.

"Researchers have developed one of the first complete systems to store digital data in DNA--allowing companies to store data that today would fill a big box store supercenter in a space the size of a sugar cube," as per a Science Daily report.

Based from the same article, the team of scientists and electrical engineers completed a whole round of data storage and retrieval of digital data using DNA molecules. If further developed and made available publicly, it will change the future of data storage in the world.

Science Daily also said the team has found triumphantly "encoded digital data from four image files into the nucleotide sequences of synthetic DNA snippets."

Experts said that the data storage solution is of utmost importance as they projected that in the year 2020, digital files needing storage would grow as much as 44 gigabytes.

Popular Science even said that if proven efficient, it will be safe to say that the "sky is the limit" when it comes to data storage.

Molecular Information Systems Lab in the University of Washington and Microsoft researchers briefly described the storage and retrieval process. They said that the data is "chopped into pieces," and then stored by "synthesizing a massive number of tiny DNA molecules." These are either dehydrated or preserved for lengthy storage.

The files can be accessed through DNA sequencing techniques, where the data can be "read" by converting it back to an image, video or document file with street addresses to reorder the data.

Currently, the major obstacle in further developing this storage technique is the cost of creating an artificial DNA.

Dr. Spike Narayan, director of Science and Technology at IBM said, "Specifically, researchers in the U.K. estimated recently that it would cost more than $12,000 per MB to encode DNA data, but only around $200 per MB to read that data back."

"The hope is that the techniques for writing DNA will catch up with the amazing progress that is happening in technology to sequence or read DNA," he added. "Until there is greater demand, it will be many years until we see greater technological adoption due to cost factors."

But scientists are hopeful that this technology will reach its full potential because it is undeniably useful to mankind.
A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection to the grisly killing of a young San Diego woman whose body was found stuffed in a suitcase.

Joshua M. Palmer was interviewed by homicide detectives with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) and later arrested while he was at McGregor's Grill & Ale House in Mission Valley. He was booked into San Diego Central Jail Friday afternoon on one count of first-degree murder for the slaying of 21-year-old Shauna Haynes.

Images: Woman's Body Found in Suitcase

The gruesome case surfaced Wednesday morning when a passerby spotted a suspicious suitcase near some trash bins in downtown San Diego in the 1300 block of 7th Avenue and A Street. Police said a man who lives in the area saw the suitcase on the ground and walked over to check it out.

That man, a former Navy service member who only wished to be identified as Phil, knew something was terribly wrong when he spotted human hair peeking out of the zipper of the luggage. NBC 7 spoke to Phil Thursday and he recounted the horrific moments when he realized there was a person inside that suitcase.



The young woman found dead and stuffed inside a suitcase discovered in downtown San Diego Wednesday is 21 years old, homicide investigators with the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) confirm. NBC 7s Regina Ruiz reports.

"Thats going to be an image that I  thats going to be on my mind for a while. You dont erase that. Its a person," Phil told NBC 7. "I have a mother, a sister, family friends that I love. No one deserves to be thrown out with the trash like that."

NBC 7 spoke with a local tattoo artist, Tommy Gunz, Friday night who did some tattoo work for Haynes last February at the SD Tattoo shop.

During their three-hour session, he inked the word infantry on the young womans arm, which she told him was a tribute to a friend.

Gunz said he was shocked to learn of the killing of his client.

"In a suitcase? Why, for what? Why even hurt a girl like that?" he told NBC 7.

He described Haynes as a "really nice girl," who was sort of quiet and "really sweet."

"I wish the family all the best; love and wishes," Gunz said.

According to Haynes Facebook page, she said she worked at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtowns Gaslamp Quarter  not far from where she was found dead.

A spokesperson for the restaurant told NBC 7 Haynes death is a "sad and tragic event for our whole community."

NBC 7 was there when police officers brought Palmer to San Diego Central Jail Friday afternoon. He declined to comment on the case and hung his head low as he sat in the backseat of the police car.

Police have not yet released details on the manner of Haynes' death, nor her connection to the suspect. Palmer will be arraigned in court on Tuesday.

Gunz said Palmer resembles a man Haynes was with when she got her tattoo at his shop. If that was him, Gunz said he behaved like the womans boyfriend.

"I just hope he gets what he deserves," he added.

The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information on this case can call the SDPDS Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
A cat saved the day for one California family Tuesday.

When a neighbor's dog attacked a 4-year-old boy in Bakersfield, California, the surprise rescuer was the family cat, the boy's mother says.

Home security camera footage appears to show the neighbor's dog spying on the little boy from the other side of a parked car in the driveway of his house, according to a clip posted to YouTube. The dog crawls around the back of the vehicle, suddenly pouncing on the boy, clamping down on his leg.

But the family cat, Tara, was not having any of it, going after the dog, not once, but twice.

The boys mother, Erica Triantafilo, came running over to help. She told KGET she tried to chase the dog away, and it bit her, too.

I was watering a plant in the front yard, and next thing I knew, the dog just had him, Triantafilo said. Before I could even get there, before anything could happen, my cat was just on [the dog].

Tara the cat is seen in this image captured by KGET-TV, Wednesday, May 14, 2014.

According to Bakersfield police, officers were dispatched to a house on the 10700 block of Eagle Vista Dr. at 3:54 p.m. regarding a dog bite. When officers arrived, they discovered that an approximately 8-month-old male Labrador/Chow mix had attacked the boy who was riding his bike in his family's driveway, police said.

The dog approached the child from behind, grabbed the child's left leg, pulling the child to the ground and then down the driveway, police said. The boy was taken to the hospital where he received 10 stiches.

As a mother, I think every part of your brain shuts down except for 'I need to protect my child,'" Triantafilo said.

Police said that when Triantafilo tried to chase the animal off the property, she was attacked by the dog as well but was not injured.

The dog's owners voluntarily brought it to the Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Bakersfield Animal Care Center where it will be quarantined for 10 days then euthanized.

Anyone with information regarding this case is encouraged to call the Bakersfield Animal Control at (661) 326-3436.
Norwich police are warning residents to be on the lookout for a deadly strain of heroin after a fatal overdose Saturday morning and a second overdose later in the day.

Police say around 7:47 a.m. they responded to reports of an unresponsive 18-year-old man. He was later pronounced dead. Police determined the victim had recently used heroin laced with the compound Fentanyl.

Around 4:20 p.m. officers responded to another overdose call. A 21-year-old female victim was transported to William W. Backus Hospital for treatment and is expected to survive.

Neither victim has been identified at this time.

Police say in both instances the victims used heroin packaged in white glassine bags with a red ladybug marking stamp. The heroin from both incidents tested positive for Fentanyl. Police caution the community to be on the lookout for these marked bags as Fentanyl is a dangerous compound and the drugs marked with the ladybugs are lethal. Police stress that heroin laced with Fentanyl is being distributed in other packaging as well and has contributed to an increase in fatal overdoses in the region.

Police also remind residents that using any illegal drug or controlled substance can result in death.

Anyone with information about these bags, or any illegal drugs or narcotics is encouraged to call the Norwich Police Department anonymous tip line at (860) 886-5561 ext. 500.
Ferry operators interested in carrying cargo and passengers to Cuba have opened discussions with officials at several Florida ports.

Such service has not yet begun because the Cuban government has not approved a U.S. ferry to use one of its ports, but ferries are expected to be a popular way to travel and ship cargo from Florida to the Caribbean island.

Jorge Fernandez, CEO of Havana Ferry Partners of Fort Lauderdale, tells The Tampa Tribune that the company recently met with Cuban government officials and is optimistic it will receive permission to set sail as early as June.

Fernandez is interested in sailing from Miami, Fort Lauderdale and Key West, but he also has been exploring ports in the Tampa Bay area. Port Manatee would be preferred over ports in Tampa and St. Petersburg, he said, while in Cuba a landing in Havana would be preferred over the port in Santiago.

A ferry from Port Manatee would take roughly eight hours to reach Havana. That's 90 minutes closer than St. Petersburg and three hours closer than Tampa.

Ferry service would be cheaper than baggage fees for a flight for passengers bringing bulk goods to family in Cuba, said Phil Richards, president of Havana Ferry Partners. Tickets would cost roughly $290, and the first 40 to 60 pounds of baggage would be free, he said.

Havana Ferry Partners owns one ferry, a 40-meter, high-speed, wind-piercing Catamaran that can transport as many as 400 passengers but no bulk cargo. It likely would leave from Key West, Richards said.

The company is exploring options for vessels that can carry cargo from other ports.

``A ferry operation makes profits on the cargo and not on the passengers,'' said Port Manatee Executive Director Carlos Buqueras. ``It would be a real convenience not just for our area but every county south to Collier.''

The Tampa Bay area is home to the third-largest Cuban-American population in the U.S. but it currently has no regularly scheduled cargo lines serving Cuba. Neither does the Port of Miami, though Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale and the Port of Jacksonville do have regular cargo service to Cuba.

Port Tampa Bay is talking with ferries looking to connect the area to Cuba, said spokesman Andy Fobes.

``We have the terminals and the appropriate on-site regulatory agencies and facilities already in place to handle passengers,'' Fobes said, ``and one day, once the embargo is lifted, cargo.''

Port St. Petersburg, owned by the city and marketed as a luxury yacht center under the name ``Port St. Pete,'' would likely host ferries carrying mainly passengers with limited cargo space, said executive director Walt Miller.

The infrastructure at Cuba's ports will be tested when U.S. cruise ships begin sailing there from Miami next month.

``The port facilities, cargo handling, security, customs, immigration _ all of it will be under duress due to the cruises,'' said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council. ``I don't see Cuba moving forward on ferries until they are comfortable with the cruise ship operations.''
A retired U.S. Marine who was imprisoned in Mexico for almost a year on gun charges has been arrested again, this time on a minor drug charge in Indiana.



Retired Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, 27, was booked into Dearborn County jail on Thursday for carrying under three grams of marijuana.



Tahmooressi will spend one month in jail for the offense, according to records on the Dearborn County Sheriff's Department website.



The retired Marine made international headlines in 2014 when he spent eight months behind bars for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with loaded guns.

U.S. politicians, veterans groups and social media campaigns demanded Mexican officials release the veteran who had been in treatment for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) .

The 26-year-old Florida man said he got lost at a San Diego freeway ramp that sent him across the San Ysidro Port of Entry with no way to turn back on March 31, 2014. Mexican authorities found three loaded guns and ammunition in the back of his truck.

The weapons were bought legally in the U.S., however, it's illegal to possess weapons in Mexico.

Tahmooressi did not admit wrongdoing, and he still maintains his innocence, his attorney said.

Thursday's incident was not the first time Tahmooressi has been arrested following the cross-border offense that made headlines.

On March 12, 2015, he was arrested in Twin City, Georgia on charges of driving under the influence, reckless driving, improper passing and open container violation, according to Twin City Police Chief Johnny Lee.


The murder of a woman by a former boyfriend who then killed himself outside a central Pennsylvania ice cream shop last fall has prompted state lawmakers to take another look at the commonwealth's protection from abuse law.

State House members last week unanimously adopted a resolution directing the Joint State Government Commission, the research organization that serves the General Assembly, to examine whether "blind spots" or "gaps" in the current law place victims at risk.

State Rep. Mauree Gingrich, R-Lebanon, said she sponsored the resolution following the Labor Day murder of Stacey Pennington, 46, of South Lebanon Township, outside The Jigger Shop near the victim's Gretna Emporium. Police said she was killed by Patrick Derr, 47, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Pennsylvania law allows victims of domestic violence to seek a judicial order preventing their abuser from making further contact with the victim. Authorities said Pennington had obtained a protection from abuse order against Derr, a former boyfriend who was scheduled to be sentenced in two days after pleading guilty to assault and harassment.

Although the law has provided helpful and even life-saving aid to domestic violence victims, Gingrich said in a release that "recent events" prompted her to seek another look at possible deficiencies that can be corrected.

The resolution said "the real-world experiences of advocates, attorneys, law enforcement officers, judges, victims and family members demonstrate that further improvement in the law or its application may be possible and desirable." The commission is to examine practices and procedures of implanting the law  with the emphasis on identifying any "blind spots or gaps"  and report any findings or recommendations within nine months.

"Of course, no law is perfect, and no law can guarantee a victim's absolute safety," but lawmakers must constantly evaluate the effectiveness of laws and try to improve them, Gingrich said.
A Philadelphia store owner says a couple used his kindness as an opportunity to steal from him on Saturday.

Andy Cohen, who's owned the Mattress and Furniture Outlet, on Kensington Avenue near Buckius Street on the border of Frankford and Juniata Park for about five years, said a man and a woman came into his shop on Saturday. The woman told Cohen she was a nurse and needed a bed for an older disabled woman for whom she cares.

Cohen said he spent more than a half-hour with the pair, helping them to find a mattress and then tying the mattress to the car for them.

Things went awry when he went back into the warehouse to get the box spring to bring to the car, the store owner said.

Andy Cohen/Mattress and Furniture Outlet

When he returned, the couple was nowhere to be found. He helped another customer, and a short time later, he discovered that his iPad, which had been sitting on a counter in the store, was missing.

At first, Cohen said he figured he'd misplaced the iPad -- but then he looked through surveillance video and was shocked at what he discovered: In the video, a man and a woman can be seen walking up to a counter. The man picks up the iPad, grins to himself, and puts it down his pants before the pair walk away and out of the store.

Cohen said in the half-decade he's owned the furniture store, this is the first time he's ever been the victim of a theft.



"We give personal service for each customer, and even in this case, we tried to give the best service for a disabled woman, and [while] we try to give the best service, the lady steals from my store," Cohen told NBC10.

A Kensington Avenue shopkeeper says a couple used his kindness as an opportunity to steal from him while he helped them on Saturday. His surveillance cameras captured the theft.

"It's insane," he said. "You try to give the best service for the customer, and they steal from you."

Luckily for Cohen -- and unfortunately for the suspected thieves -- his surveillance cameras captured clear shots of both people. He contacted the police, he said, and detectives are working on the case. Cohen said he decided to share the surveillance video with NBC10 on Sunday in hopes not only that the suspects will be caught, but also that nobody else will fall victim.

"I hope that they're not gonna do it again," Cohen said. "When the news is involved and it's on camera, people are gonna think twice. We're trying to leave the message that we're trying to live in a better society."

Anyone with information on the theft should contact the Philadelphia Police tipline at 215-686-8477 or text a tip to PPD TIP (773847).


Joni Mitchell once famously sang, They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. That phrase can be applied here and now quite literally to City Heights rock & roll stalwart, the Til-Two Club. Before assuming the worst -- no, the beloved club isnt going anywhere -- some impending changes are around the corner.

The venue, situated at 4746 El Cajon Blvd., goes back to 1948 and was purchased most recently in 2010 by Mick Rossler and Dannielle Cobb (who also own/operate the Tower Bar down the street). When they took over the club from the then-Beauty Bar, they left most of it intact save a replica of the original Til-Two Club sign that was hoisted out front, new coats of paint, and some inside aesthetics.

The all-important stage, which took up an outdoor area of the club, stayed in place. With noise ordinances in place, how theyve continued to put on the raucous rock/punk shows theyre known for boggles the mind. Turns out, complaints havent been much of an issue, according to Rossler.

[Wed get noise complaints] only very occasionally if we had a show during the week that went late, but the neighbors have been really good about it. It doesnt seem to bother them too much.

One can only hope that continues. In May, Til-Two will undergo a massive structural change to accommodate the construction of new neighborhood projects.

Its been in the process for a long time, Rossler told SoundDiego by phone. Theyre going to build some low-income apartments behind us and also a coffee shop  and a little parking lot [where the stage is now]. We were a little worried at first, but theyve actually been talking to the community and they decided to base the project around us, even -- theyve redesigned the apartments to fit into the Art Deco thing. Were actually happy about it.

So that outdoor stage area? Gone. You might be thinking: What is Til-Two going to do for shows? Well, theyve got some plans in mind.

Were meeting with someone tomorrow that does stage construction, Rossler explained. Im picturing having the stage where the roll-up door is right now. Well also take out the dropped ceiling right there. Which, actually wont be too bad.

The bars co-owner said theyre basically ready to roll when necessary.

They pushed [construction] back to May 16. So the plan is as soon as that happens, well build the new stage pretty quickly. At the most, maybe two or three weeks if we have to do some major stuff. So it wont interfere with shows too much. And then in June, were thinking about maybe taking out a wall or making the actual bar smaller so we can fit more people.

With a four-story apartment complex moving in directly behind them, our conversation circled back around to the noise issue and the influx of new residents about to move in. Surely, having a roof over the stage will help, right? Rossler agreed.

Yea. I think well have some sound people come in and make it so the noise doesnt escape the room too much.

While Til-Two preps for new neighbors and a change to the venue, it was clear that its owners were welcoming the transition and have their minds on the future of the establishment.

Theres many positive things coming from this  for one, well have an actual roof, Rossler said. That was always kind of a worry, with the noise and the weather. And one day, maybe if the insurance place on the corner ever moves, itd be cool to move into that space too.

Dustin Lothspeich plays in Diamond Lakes and Boy King, and runs Gear and Loathing in San Diego. Follow his updates on Twitter or contact him directly.
Women in California can now get birth control directly from a pharmacist without a prescription from their doctor.

A law that allows California pharmacists to directly provide prescription contraceptives went into effect Friday.

The new law gives pharmacists the ability to dispense hormonal contraceptives that women can administer themselves, including transdermal, vaginal and injection prescription birth control methods, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

The CEO of California Pharmacists Association said that

"there are no restrictions for women to get birthcontrol from their pharmacist," said Jon Roth, CEO of California Pharmacists Association. "The only restriction would be if, during the medical screening, the pharmacist determins a contraindication clinically." In that case, he says, patients would be referred back to their doctor for further evaluation.

But it's not a simple over-the counter process. Women requesting birth control will have to complete a health questionnaire, and a pharmacist will also consult with the patient about the most suitable form of birth control.

If the contraceptive requested poses a high blood pressure risk, the woman's blood pressure must be taken before a prescription is issued.

Women still need to see a doctor to get an IUD or a contraceptive implant since they require a medical procedure to be administered.

"Community pharmacies are the face of neighborhood health care -- open beyond normal business hours, and patients do not need an appointment to see their pharmacist," Roth said. "That means pharmacists providing contraception will go a long way to expand women's birth control."

California joined Oregon as the only states that allow pharmacists to prescribe birth control.

Critics say the new law sends the wrong message to teenage girls by allowing them to more easily get contraceptives.

"They say it's for women, but they mean anyone," including teenage girls, California Right to Life spokeswoman Camille Giglio said.

"The ability to get contraceptives from yet another source is not a benefit to young people," she added. "It is a barrier to communication between a mother and a child."



Copyright Associated Press
A panel of Maryland lawmakers reached a hard-fought compromise Saturday night on a measure to make major reforms to the state's correctional system.

The agreement reached by House and Senate negotiators puts the bill on a path for passage by the legislature, which adjourns Monday at midnight. The bill, which is months in the making, aims to save money by incarcerating nonviolent inmates less and investing savings in drug treatment.

``It tackles issues all over the criminal justice system,'' said Sen. Robert Zirkin, D-Baltimore County. ``It tackles everything from when somebody gets arrested, to their sentencing, to what happens when they're in jail, to treatment options, to what happens years later when they're trying to clean their own record and everything in between.''

Sen. Kathleen Dumais, D-Montgomery, said after the tough negotiations: ``It was a major undertaking.''

The bill eliminates mandatory-minimum sentences for nonviolent, mid- to lower-level drug dealers. It also includes provisions resembling a bill supported by Gov. Larry Hogan that would model state law after the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corruption Organization Act to help better prosecute drug traffickers. It also includes provisions for victim restitution.

Lawmakers finished work on a bill to strengthen the state's equal pay law by prohibiting businesses from retaliating against employees for discussing or disclosing salaries, sending it to Hogan's desk. For some, though, lawmakers were cutting it too close on significant legislation.

Rich Leotta, the father of a Montgomery County police officer who died last year after being hit by a drunken driver, came to the capital to once again urge lawmakers to pass the strongest version of a bill to require ignition interlock devices in vehicles of all drunken drivers on first offense. While the House and Senate passed legislation earlier in the session, Leotta said he didn't think he would be ``fighting for this tooth and nail'' with two days left in the session for the strongest version of ``Noah's Law,'' which is named for his son.

``So we're having this roller coaster ride _ this roller coaster ride _ to get to this point today, and we're still struggling to get the strongest bill out, which is the Senate version,'' Leotta said, with his wife and police officers by his side at a news conference in a statehouse hallway.

The stronger measure passed by the Senate would require ignition interlock systems to be installed in vehicles right after someone blows a .08 or higher in a breath test. The House bill that doesn't require ignition interlock until the driver is convicted of drunken driving. Ignition interlock requires drivers to blow into a device that prevents vehicles from starting if drivers have had too much to drink.

Lawmakers also will be negotiating some substantial differences in a modest tax-relief plan. The Senate includes tax cuts to the state's four highest tax brackets as well as tax relief for low-income workers and a small cut for middle-income workers, while the House focuses relief to middle- and low-income workers.

Lawmakers have work to do on a police reform bill. The lengthy measure is the product of months of work by a panel that was convened shortly after the Baltimore riots last year following the death of Freddie Gray, who was injured in a Baltimore Police Department van and later died. The measure not only changes policies on how police are disciplined, but also in how they are trained and hired. A key difference in the bills relates to whether civilians would have voting powers on boards that review complaints against police.

House Speaker Michael Busch, D-Anne Arundel, said he is hopeful lawmakers will reach accord on the major issues before session ends.

``I think, everything considered, I think we're in pretty good shape going into Monday,'' the speaker said.
Air Force officials on Saturday identified the two airmen killed in an apparent murder-suicide at a U.S. air base in San Antonio Texas.

Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Bellino, 41, and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder, 39, were found dead Friday around 8:50 a.m. inside an office of the 342nd Training Squadron Headquarters at the Medina Training Annex of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Brig. Gen. Robert LaBrutta said in a statement.

LaBrutta called the death of the airman and his commanding officer a "workplace violence incident." According to a senior U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Bellino targeted Schroeder before turning the gun on himself.

"The 37th Training Wing mourns the loss of our Airmen and family members," said Brig. Gen. Trent H. Edwards, the Commander of the 37th Training Wing where both members were assigned. "Our primary focus at this time is to take care of the family and the men and women who are grieving our losses. A tragedy of this type is felt by each and every member, but we will pull together to help our own."

The FBI said Saturday Bellino was a Special Agent for the agency and resigned in May 2013 after less than two years. It did not say why Bellino resigned and added that "because this is an ongoing investigation, please direct further inquiries to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI).

Meanwhile, investigators from the Air Force and FBI are tracing two Glock firearms found near the bodies of the two men inside a building that holds classrooms and offices.

Military-issued and personal firearms are heavily restricted on the base and it's not clear whether the gunman was authorized to have a weapon or how he managed to get inside while armed, according to Dan Hawkins, a spokesman for the base.

"Allowing everyone to carry personal firearms would make the job of our security professionals much more difficult," Hawkins said. He also said security officers must be notified if a personal weapon is being brought onto the installation and the firearm must be registered, in addition to other requirements.

The shooting prompted a lockdown of Lackland and surrounding schools for more than an hour.



Friday's shooting is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the last several years.

In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist, then killed himself. About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, who also killed himself.

And in the deadliest attack to occur at a U.S. military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a mass shooting in 2009 at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.


His presidential rivals thousands of miles away, Ted Cruz warned Jewish donors on Saturday that Donald Trump could trigger a general election "bloodbath" for the Republican Party.

"If Donald Trump is the nominee, it is an absolute disaster for Republicans, for conservatives and for the country," the Texas senator declared, charging that Trump would jeopardize control of the House and the Senate and tilt the balance of power at the Supreme Court away from conservatives.

Cruz earned a warm reception, yet his appearance came amid an overall sense of dissatisfaction from many Jewish Republicans, gathered for their annual spring meeting at an upscale hotel along the Las Vegas strip. Many prefer Cruz over Trump, but few were excited about either candidate.

"It's not a natural constituency for Ted Cruz, but over time, he's won the war of attrition for some of these folks," said Kellyanne Conway, a Republican operative leading a pro-Cruz super PAC. "He's seen as the alternative to Donald Trump for many of these people."

Indeed, there were some vocal Trump supporters among the roughly 500 who attended the weekend gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition, but they were in the minority.

Trump irked Jewish leaders earlier in the year by promising to remain neutral on prospective peace negotiations with the Israelis and Palestinians. And while his speech to a pro-Israel group in Washington last month was well-received, Trump's nativist rhetoric alienates some Jewish leaders who "are scared by the concept of Donald Trump and the presidency," said Republican Jewish attorney Charlie Spies.

"No American politician should be compared to Hitler because of the unique, horrific nature of the Nazi genocide," said Spies, a former Jeb Bush supporter. "Having said that, there is an issue of tone and being able to whip up crowds, often directed at segments of society that get scapegoated. Anybody who has studied history would be concerned watching that."

Trump is the least popular Republican presidential candidate among America's registered Jewish voters, according to a poll commissioned by the Republican Jewish Coalition and shared privately with board members over the weekend. The poll found that Ohio Gov. John Kasich was the overwhelming favorite Republican, while Cruz fell in the middle.

Jewish voters represent roughly 3 percent of the American electorate, but have larger populations in swing states like Florida and Ohio.

Both Trump and Kasich declined invitations to attend the annual event, considered a can't-miss for GOP candidates in recent years. Part of the reason: billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a key member who hosts the event at his Venetian hotel resort, was the top political spender in the last presidential race, pouring $90 million of family money into that campaign.

Trump and Kasich spent the day instead in New York ahead of the state's April 19 primary election. There was little sign of Trump or Kasich representatives, but Cruz sent most of his senior team to the Las Vegas hotel. The list included campaign manager Jeff Roe, pollster Chris Wilson and its chief Jewish liaison, Nick Muzin. Pro-Cruz outside groups that can take unlimited contributions hosted simultaneous events in the same hotel to land donations.

At least two former presidential candidates  Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry  were on hand as well, in addition to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Gov. Rick Scott and Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson.

Adelson hasn't been willing to place a bet in this year's unpredictable Republican presidential contest, sending mixed signals about his candidate preference. Yet Cruz's status as the only candidate to make the trip to Las Vegas on Saturday was noticed.

"All three candidates were invited to attend our group today, but Sen. Cruz was the only one to accept our invitation," said RJC board member Michael Epstein as the crowd applauded.
At least one dog killed in a massive house fire on Saturday afternoon in Rehoboth, Massachusetts.

According to affiliate WJAR, fire officials responded to a fire at 164 Summer St. just before 4:45 p.m. Although the residents were not home during the fire, two dogs were inside the home.



Although the remains of only one of the dogs was found, officials believe both perished in the fire.

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified.

Police say the house is a total loss, and the residents are currently displaced.


The longtime executive director of Citizens for Limited Taxation who successfully lobbied for tax cuts in Massachusetts has died. Barbara Anderson was 73.

CLT Communications Director Chip Faulkner told the Boston Globe that Anderson died Friday of leukemia.

Anderson is remembered for backing Proposition 2 , which capped property tax increases to 2.5 percent of fair market value. It overwhelmingly passed in November 1980, less than four months after Anderson took the helm at CLT, in Marblehead.

She joined CLT in 1977 as a volunteer, inspired by her then-husband's opposition to a ballot initiative backing a graduated income tax. She was hired in 1978.

Anderson grew up in St. Mary's, Pennsylvania, and briefly attended Penn State.

She is survived by a son, two grandchildren and her partner, Chip Ford.
Police released dashcam footage of a car whose driver was arrested on drunk driving charges early Saturday morning in Upton, Massachusetts.

It's a scary look at who we are sometimes sharing the roads with, and how police crack down on alleged drunk drivers.

The footage shows a car on the wrong side of the road around 1:30 a.m. The officer begins following the car after it makes an stop at an intersection of Milford Street.

After the officer turns his lights on, at some point, the driver ventures back on to the right side of the road, even remembering to use his blinker.

Upton's Police chief told necn this is the department's third OUI arrest this week, and that less than a year ago, there was a serious drunk driving crash near that intersection that injured a family of four.

Upton Police

The driver, 26-year-old Christian Cugini of Hopedale, was arrested and charged with OUI, speeding and a lane violation. He was released on bail and will be arraigned Monday in Milford District Court.

Later Saturday, another suspect was charged with an OUI in Upton after a car went off the road and into the mud.

Upton Police




A two-alarm house fire that displaced three people broke out in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts.

Tyngsborough Police and Fire Departments arrived at 57 Mascuppic Trail, the scene of the fire, at 1:30 p.m. Firefighters put out the fire by 6 p.m. Dracut, Lowell, Chelmsford, Westford and Nashua, New Hampshire fire departments assisted at the scene and covered the Tyngsborough fire station. The Red Cross also provided assistance.

Although no one was injured, three inhabitants are displaced from the house due to the severity in damages. Cost estimates of the damage are not available at this time.

Chief Richard D. Howe praised the quick response of the Tyngsborough emergency responders, and thanked the assisting fire departments.

Officials are actively investigating the origin and cause of the fire.
A teenage girl was killed and three others were seriously injured in a one-car rollover crash Saturday night in Weymouth, Massachusetts.



A memorial is growing at the scene on Union Street where four teenagers were in a car that rolled and hit a telephone pole, causing it to snap in half.

Two of the passengers were ejected from the vehicle before it continued onto the lawn of a Weymouth resident, hitting two parked cars.

All four occupants were taken to South Shore Hospital in serious condition. One of them,15-year-old Kate McCarthy, later died from her injuries.

Steve Rodriguez, the homeowner whose lawn the accident ended in, is a Boston firefighter, but says he's still in shock.

"It's crazy. On my job I see this all the time, but it's the same all the time, like, what were you thinking?" he said.

All day Sunday, friends were bringing flowers to the scene. They say it feels unreal.

"You never really saw her sad," Cameron Dean, a friend of McCarthy, said. "She was generally an upbeat person. Everyone, you could tell, wanted to be around Kate. No one really had anything bad to say about her."

"Her smile lit up the room and her laugh filled it," said McCarthy's friend, Sarah Green. "We're all going to miss her so much."

McCarthy was a student at Archbishop Williams High School in Braintree. The school issued a statement mourning her death.

"As a Catholic community of faith, we are deeply saddened by the serious automobile accident that occurred last night involving four of our students," the statement read. "One of the students succumbed to her injuries. Our thoughts and prayers go out to her family."

The school was open until 5 p.m. Sunday for students to come for support and speak with on-site counselors, according to Prinicipal Michael Volonnino. A prayer service was also scheduled at the school's auditorium for 1:30 p.m. Monday.

The superintendent of Weymouth Public Schools says that since several of the teens involved in the crash have attended their schools in earlier grades, there will be additional counselors on Monday.

At this point, police believe the other three teens will survive.

No charges were filed Sunday. The accident is still under investigation.
The body of a Maine woman who was previously missing has been found by the Pasco County Sheriff's Office in Florida, according to necn affiliate WSCH.

Judith Therianos, from the Alfred area, had been officially missing since March 14.

Officers found her remains Thursday evening in a wooded area of Florida, near 6633 U.S. Highway 19.

Therianos and a friend were allegedly visiting friends in Florida. It is believed that Therianos visited two other friends in Tampa and then the Port Richey area, before she went missing.

The cause and date of Therianos' death have not been released yet. This is a developing story.
Officials at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire have released a letter addressing sexual misconduct allegations, which has resulted in police opening cases to investigate claims of misconduct by at least two former and current faculty members.

The letter, which was released Saturday, was emailed to the prep school's parents and alumni after it revealed a former teacher admitted to sexual misconduct in the 1970s.

The elite prep school said it's working closesly with Exeter police and are forwarding all allegations to them.

"As those charged with the stewardship of the Academy, the Trustees accept responsibility and are deeply sorry that this has happened," Principal Lisa MacFarlane and Trustee President Eunice Panetta said in the letter.

A law firm has also been retained by the school to investigate allegations; however, the prep school did not reveal the name of the law firm.

Late March, Phillips Exeter Academy announced that Rick Schubart, who taught history for 38 years, admitted to sexual misconduct after being forced to retire in 2011 and banned from campus in 2015 when the school received reports.

Exeter police say their ongoing investigation has resulted in more reports by alumni, and that they've added extra staff to investigate each claim.
Authorities say the suspect in a deadly shooting in Massachusetts has turned himself in.

Essex district attorney's office says 19-year-old Justice Galarza of 28 Beckford St., Beverly, has been charged with murder.

Officers responded to a shooting at a residence on Ropes Street around 10:30 p.m. Saturday, where they found a 21-year-old man who had been shot in the chest.

The victim, whose name has not been released, was taken to Beverly Hospital, where he died.

Galarza later turned himself in to Salem police, according to the DA.

The DA says Galarza and the victim knew each other.

Galarza will be arraignment Monday in Salem District Court.


Bishop of Norwich backs Archbishop Justin Welby Bishop of Norwich backs Archbishop Justin Welby

The Bishop of Norwich has today given his support to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, after a DNA test revealed the true identity of the Archbishops biological father. Keith Morris reports.
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As a pre-vet student studying zoology, Lara Colombo has an interest in parasites. So she was intrigued to collect ticks on Candlers Mountain with an eventual goal of testing them to see if any carry pathogens that cause lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever or ehrlichiosis.

She and fellow student Heather Stanley presented their ongoing work recently at Libertys Research Week, which combined undergraduate and graduate research symposia for the first time.

The event was the symbolic kickoff for efforts tied to Liberty Universitys new five-year Quality Enhancement Plan, a requirement related to the schools accreditation through the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Committee on Colleges (SACSCOC).

The school is calling the plan Illuminate: Cultivating a Community of Research and starting work to spread the word about it to students.

The tagline is develop, design, disseminate. Liberty wants to help undergraduate students develop general skills and knowledge needed for research, design appropriate research projects, and then to share those projects with the larger community.

Several pieces of the plan already are in motion. Last spring saw the establishment of the Scientific Research Society in the biology and chemistry department, a group that encourages students to mentor each other as researchers and helps interested students to get to know faculty who are doing scientific research. Liberty plans to give out grant money to help other departments start similar societies and also has purchased some new Adobe technology to aid presentation of student research work.

The biggest piece of the plan will be revamping curriculum and training faculty on that revamped curriculum. Many of the details of just how that will take place still need to be worked out, and Liberty is in the process of getting feedback on its plan from SACS.

In general, the idea is to expose students to the basics of how to do research early on in their time at Liberty, and then set them up to successfully design and disseminate their own projects in later undergraduate years.

Elisa Rollins, the former associate dean for research and customer service at the Jerry Falwell Library, is now spearheading the Quality Enhancement Plan. She is the director of the universitys new Center for Applied Research & Scholarship, which will guide the curriculum changes.

She might be a familiar face to some people in the Lynchburg area outside of Liberty, due to past positions at the Bedford and Lynchburg public libraries.

A librarian is uniquely gifted to lead this effort, said Carey Roberts, associate dean of the college of arts and sciences and chairman of the history department. She is going to serve as the primary interpreter across a lot of different fields. She is, in effect, going to be our research diplomat.

Rollins said Liberty is looking at rolling out curriculum changes and faculty training one school at a time, starting with the School of Health Sciences. She said she thinks that school has a head start when it comes to laying the basis for research, so Liberty is looking to lay some groundwork there, and then start in earnest to expand and adapt the model to other schools within the university.

Libertys Quality Enhancement Plan corresponds to a trend in higher education related to emphasizing skills that apply across the curriculum. A recent Chronicle of Higher Education highlights that trend via the Quality Enhancement Plan at Emory University in Atlanta, which focuses on helping students understand how to use and judge evidence.

Liberty University Vice President for Academic Affairs & Provost Ronald Hawkins said the plan focuses for now on on-campus undergraduate students. He wants to see students learning, within their various majors, how to select a good question, explore that question in a meaningful way, and share what theyve found. That end product could be a research paper, a professional work product, or even a work of art.

Education really should bring you through that process, he said. That crosses disciplines. If students arent prepared to do that, then golly, they spent a lot of money, for what?

Colombo and Stanley have been having some interesting adventures as they work to design and implement their research project on ticks.

Their first challenge, of course, has been collecting the ticks.

We tested various methods, but what we stuck with was our CO2 chamber, Colombo said.

Basically, thats a trap made with dry ice in a foam box, with holes for the ticks to get in, and sticky material to make them stay. Its one of a variety of ways other researchers have used to get ticks.

The dry ice lets off carbon dioxide, just like a breathing person or animal would, and that attracts ticks, especially the aggressive Lonestar ticks, Colombo said. Stanley led a test of different kinds of tape to see which was the stickiest, and thus best for keeping hold of ticks that head into the trap. Professor Davis McGuirt, the School of Health Sciences faculty member involved with project, has also been helping with trap setting and collecting.

Colombo is now working to get more ticks and removing the ticks salivary glands with the help of a dissecting microscope. A trickier part comes down the road, when the researchers will need to extract and analyze DNA found in the salivary gland to screen for DNA specific to the bacteria.

Her hope is that the project will continue in the future, so year-to-year comparisons can be made about the presence or absence of these pathogens in the local ticks.

Like I said, I want to be a veterinarian, so I love the research aspect of it, Colombo said. I think its really fascinating, just knowing whats out there, because I do look forward to being able to treat animals for these diseases.
'He Had the Chance to Go in

and Save the Children'
(Newser)  A man who took a video of himself after starting a fire that would go on to burn more than 150 square miles of land was sentenced to 20 years in prison and a $60 million fine, the AP reports. According to Reuters, Wayne Huntsman pleaded guilty to three counts of arson Friday for starting the 2014 King Fire in Northern California that took hundreds of firefighters a month to get under control. His sentence was increased because a number of firefighters were injured and 12 homes and dozens of other structures were destroyed. Thousands of residents were displaced by the fire. Huntsman originally pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In September 2014, a retired firefighter picked Huntsman up escaping the area of the blaze, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Huntsman showed the man a video of himself standing between two fires. "Listen, I got fire all around me," Huntsman says in the video. "I'm stuck in the middle, babe." The man made a recording of the video and turned it over to the authorities, who arrested Huntsman within days. The DA says Huntsman was trying to look like a hero in the video, but it appeared the fires were purposefully set because there were two of them and Huntsman seemed to be enjoying himself. Meanwhile, Huntsman's sister is accused of killing two young children, whose bodies were found in a storage locker in Redding, California, according to SFist. (Read more wildfires stories.)
(Newser)  The Brussels attackers initially planned a second assault on France, but were "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation" and "urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels," the Federal Prosecution Office said Sunday, per CNN. Investigators found intimate links between the cell behind the Brussels attacks and the group that killed 130 in Paris, reports the AP. Sunday's statement confirms that the raids and arrests in the week leading up to the Brussels attacksincluding the capture of key Paris fugitive Salah Abdeslampushed the killers to action. Belgian authorities detained four men in Brussels raids Friday who were charged with participating in "terrorist murders" and "activities of a terrorist group" in relation to the Brussels attacks. One, Mohamed Abrini, has also been charged in the Paris attacks.

Abrini has been identified as the "man in the hat" spotted with the two bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport. Surveillance footage has also placed him in the convoy with attackers headed to Paris ahead of the Nov. 13 massacre. Abrini was a childhood friend of Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks, and had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the Paris ringleader who died in a raid shortly after. Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in Paris while Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels on March 18four days before the attacks thereafter a four-month manhunt. Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were not only in a Renault used in the Paris attacks but also in a Brussels apartment used by the airport bombers. Abrini was also believed to have traveled to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014. (Read more Brussels attack stories.)
(Newser)  NASA's Kepler spacecraft is roughly 75 million miles from Houston and has a bit of a problem: The space agency says that its exoplanet-hunting craft is in emergency mode, a status engineers discovered Thursday, reports CNN. "Emergency mode is the lowest operational mode and is fuel intensive," per a NASA statement, and distance only complicates the task of trying to fix Kepler. "Even at the speed of light, it takes 13 minutes for a signal to travel to the spacecraft and back." NASA has declared an emergency, which gets priority access to communications on its Deep Space Network. Kepler was about to point toward the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, notes Tech Times; it was last reported functional on Monday. (Read more Kepler spacecraft stories.)
(Newser)  Ukraine's embattled prime minister announced Sunday that he is resigning, opening the way for the formation of a new government to end a drawn-out political crisis. In his weekly televised address, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said his resignation would be formally submitted to parliament on Tuesday, reports the AP. Yatsenyuk's Cabinet survived a no-confidence vote in February, but two parties left the governing coalition to protest the failure to oust the prime minister, who is under fire over the worsening economy and slow pace of reforms.

The withdrawal deprived the coalition of its majority in the Ukrainian parliament. If lawmakers fail to form a new coalition and unite behind a new prime minister, that may lead to early elections, which President Petro Poroshenko has sought to avoid for fear of further destabilizing the country. "From today I see my goals as broader than the powers of the head of the government," Yatsenyuk said. He said he would focus on passing a new electoral law, enacting constitutional and judicial reform, and ensuring "the coalition's control over the course of a new government." (Read more Arseniy Yatsenyuk stories.)
(Newser)  President Obama is guaranteeing that evidence, not politics, will dictate the outcome of the FBI's investigation into Hillary Clinton's handling of emails as secretary of state. Obama's comments came on Fox News Sunday, his first appearance as president. Obama said he believes Clinton didn't jeopardize America's national security with her private email server, but he added that "there's a carelessness in terms of managing emails" that she has recognized. Obama said no one has suggested that Clinton's handling of government emails detracted in any way "from her excellent ability to carry out her duties." When asked specifically whether he can guarantee that Clinton will "not be in any way protected" during the course of the investigation, Obama said he maintains a strict line about not talking to FBI directors about pending investigations.

"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case," Obama said. Other highlights from the interview, per the AP:

On Merrick Garland's nomination: Obama said he will stick with him through the end of his term. "What I think we can't have, is a situation in which the Republican Senate simply says, 'Because it's a Democratic president, we are not going to do our job, have hearings, and have a vote.' "

Obama said he will stick with him through the end of his term. "What I think we can't have, is a situation in which the Republican Senate simply says, 'Because it's a Democratic president, we are not going to do our job, have hearings, and have a vote.' " On terrorism: Obama doesn't think Americans have made too much of the threat of terrorist attack. He also said he hasn't let acts of terror disrupt some of his regular activities because it's important to communicate a message of resilience and "that we don't panic, that we don't fear."

Obama doesn't think Americans have made too much of the threat of terrorist attack. He also said he hasn't let acts of terror disrupt some of his regular activities because it's important to communicate a message of resilience and "that we don't panic, that we don't fear." On what he most looks forward to when leaving office: "Being able to take a walk outside."

"Being able to take a walk outside." On his best and worst day in office. Obama said the best was the day health insurance reform passed; the worst was the day he traveled to Newtown, Conn., after the massacre at Sandy Hook.

(Read more President Obama stories.)
(Newser)  One thing John Kerry won't do while visiting Hiroshima: say he's sorry. On Monday, the Secretary of State plans to visit a memorial and museum commemorating victims of the atomic bombing that left more than 100,000 dead in 1945but a senior US official says there will be no apology for the attack, the Wall Street Journal reports. "If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to apologize, the answer is 'no,'" the official tells reporters, per Reuters. "If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."

The Japanese haven't asked for an apology, adds the official, who says both sides want visits to the memorial and museum to be "forward looking." Some in Japan have said the US owes them an apology, but many Americans say that's unfair considering the circumstances in World War II. Kerry will be there to meet with fellow foreign ministers from the other Group of Seven nationsJapan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, and Britain. Japan started the meeting on Sunday by calling for the end of all nuclear weapons, the Guardian reports. (Read more Hiroshima stories.)
While Neanderthal DNA resides in humans, researchers recently discovered that Neanderthal Y-chromosome genes somehow disappeared from the human genome.

It's not complete goodbye to the Neanderthals, for their DNA still lives within us. However, it is only now that experts have discovered that Neanderthal Y-chromosome genes vanished from the human genome aeons ago.

Earlier, research showed that the DNA of modern humans ranges from 2.5 to four percent of that belonging to Neanderthals, mainly because modern humans were breeding with them almost 50,000 years ago. Researchers now want to see what DNA was inherited.

The Y chromosome is just one of two human sex chromosomes that was passed on to the offspring. Better understanding of the Neanderthal Y chromosome may enable them to comprehend when they bred with humans.

Scientists find that Neanderthal Y chromosome DNA was not transferred to modern humans when they interbred.

There are various theories as to why that happened. Maybe Neanderthal Y chromosome genes simply "drifted out of the human gene pool by chance" over the vast millennia. Or perhaps Neanderthal Y chromosomes included genes incompatible with other human genes. Scientists found that Y chromosome genes that are different in Neanderthals were part of transplant rejection when males donated organs to women.

"The functional nature of the mutations we found suggests to us that Neanderthal Y chromosome sequences may have played a role in barriers to gene flow, but we need to do experiments to demonstrate this and are working to plan these now," said Carlos Bustamante, one of the researchers of the new study.

A number of Neanderthal Y chromosome genes that are different from those in humans are part of the immune system. Three of these are "minor histocompatibility antigens," or H-Y genes. It is possible that a woman's immune system may assault a male fetus that carries Neanderthal H-Y genes, which would lead to miscarriage. This would explain the absence of Neanderthal Y chromosomes today.

The study helps us to understand human as well as Neanderthal evolution.

The findings were published in the April 2016 issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Social networking giant Facebook is getting Facebook Messenger more aptly designed to cater not just purely messaging concerns for personal convenience but also to make it as an efficient communication and management tool for businesses.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, the Silicon Valley giant is expected to announce a whole lot of enhanced features for commerce in its widely used chat app, the Messenger. Insider reports indicate that chatbot technology will be utilized to streamline business processes and communication such ordering goods and services online.

The event will also marked the second time the Messenger received spotlight at the said conference which suggests that the app is relatively a growing segment within Facebook's increasingly diverse social networking complex.

Why is Facebook keen on adding chatbots and other live chat APIs on Messenger?

Chatbots could be an alternative to 1-800 toll free numbers. According to Tech Crunch, most businesses simply do not have the technological expertise to create chatbots from scratch. What Facebook offers to its business clients is to provide them with chatbots and Live Chat web plug-ins so they can have an automated message response systems to their customers in what is termed as 'Structured Messages' that include a product/service title, picture, description, URL link, and a call to action button like heading to the business' official website, making an e-commerce order, or doing an online restaurant reservation.

There's just a tremendous amount of opportunities for the Messenger as some analysts observe. The mobile messenger app's foray into business has just started last year despite being around for nearly five years now. So far, about two dozen partners including Dutch Airlines and KLM Royal has pretty much integrated Messenger Business to their customer service strategy.

According to latest News Factor roundup, the chat app currently has a 900-million active user base sending more than a billion messages between businesses and individuals.
In what was supposedly hoped as the first successful uterus transplant in the US has now been discarded as failure after the 26-year-old patient developed a yeast infection prompting surgeons to remove the organ off the new host just weeks after the surgery.

Doctors at Cleveland Clinic indicated that the said infection compromised the patient's blood supply which made the organ removal extremely necessary. Despite the failed transplant, patient Lindsey McFarland vowed to try another way to get pregnant preferably through IVF.

"Preliminary results suggest that the complication was because of an infection caused by an organism that is commonly found in a woman's reproductive system. The infection appears to have compromised the blood supply to the uterus, causing the need for its removal," the clinic's official statement reads as quoted by ABC News.

According to a report by New York Times, the infection was blamed on a yeast fungus called Candida Albicans that normally co-exists in balance with other bacteria found in the vagina. However, the balance can be disrupted in the event of an illness or medication leading to possible yeast overgrowth. The doctors explained that the yeast inhabiting the genital tract may have possibly come from the donor as the transplant not only includes the uterus but also vaginal tissues from the donor.

As a result of the failed transplant, Cleveland Clinic is bound to extract important lessons from such experience and pore over the details of the case to prevent similar failed transplants in the future.

"There is an ongoing review of all the data and the team is modifying the protocol to reduce the chances of this complication occurring again in the future. The health of our patient is and has always been our primary concern," the clinic's further statement reads as quoted by Daily Mail.
Sanders recalled that tears flowed down his face when he learnt that most of his father's family had been killed in the Holocaust. At Harlem's Apollo Theater, he was addressing a forum on race and social justice issues as per cbsnews.

Such hatred built on the color of someone's skin or accent is "grotesque and awful" he noted. He knew right from boyhood that he wanted to spend his life fighting hatred and systemic racism.

"Love always trumps hate," Sanders said.

His forum had other members, including entertainer and activist Harry Belafonte, ex-Ohio state senator Nina Turner and Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, a Staten Island man who had succumbed after being put in a chokehold by an NYPD officer.

While addressing the audience, Sanders had begun to take questions from the audience. One of the persons from the audience had asked a number of things about Judaism.

"As you know, Zionist Jews -- and I don't mean to offend anybody, alright?" said the man, later identified by the New York Times as John Prince. "They run the Federal Reserve, they run Wall Street, they run every campaign."

His question set off the crowd into a boo, when Prince asked Sanders, "What is your affiliation to your Jewish community? That's all I'm asking."

"I am proud to be Jewish," said Sanders, even as the crowd applauded. He said that he was a "strong defender of Israel, but I also believe that we have got to pay attention to the needs of the Palestinians."

He has not talked much about his Jewish identity while campaigning. He said he finds it "uncomfortable" to talk about himself.

Sanders and Clinton have been on a campaign in New York over the past few days. They are seeking to win over voters before the Empire State's primary is held on April 19.

"If we can win here in New York State, it will be a huge step forward," Sanders said Saturday.
Mohamed Abrini has been identified as the "man in the hat" who escaped Brussels attacks last month. There were three accomplices who "suicide bombed" the airport as well as a subway, L'Echo reported.

Belgium Saturday accused four suspects who were thought to be part of the March terrorist bombings in Brussels, the Associated Press reported. Those who were taken over by the cops included fugitives from 2015's Paris attacks and another Swedish national, who was also involved in it.

Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office charged the two prime suspects, Mohamed Abrini and Osama Krayem, who were part of a European Islamic State group terror cell slaying 130 in Paris in November and 32 in Brussels. They also accused Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M. They were all part of "terrorist murders". However, two other suspects who had been taken into charge were released by the courts.

Krayem too has been taken under suspicion of having carried out the Paris attacks. He was said to be caught on security cameras in Brussels on the spot, where the airport bombers bought their bags.

Belgium's second-highest terror alert is still reigning. The authorities have been under severe criticism in the national media for not acting on earlier leads, almost forcing the interior and justice ministers to submit their resignations.

A week earlier, Belgian cops halted an anti-racism protest, taking charge of at least two dozen protesters at Brussels' Bourse square.

The government has banned protests as part of a moratorium on group demonstrations. The cops and soldiers have been breaking up protests by Belgians all over the country and the political spectrum.
Brussels:

Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini has confessed to being the man in the hat caught on video with suicide bombers at Brussels airport last month, images that had sparked a massive manhunt.

Abrini made the admission yesterday, on the day he was charged with terrorist murders over the November attacks in Paris which left 130 people dead, prosecutors said.

Terror suspect Osama Krayem, a Swedish national, received the same charges over his role in a suicide bombing at a Brussels metro station on March 22, which occurred an hour after the airport blasts. A total of 32 people died in the coordinated attacks.

The latest arrests strengthened the theory that the same cell carried out both France and Belgiums worst-ever terror outrages, claimed by the Islamic State group.

The pair were among six arrested in raids across Brussels on Friday. Two were later released but the two others were charged with complicity for allegedly helping Abrini and Krayem.

The judge leading the Belgian investigation into the November 13 Paris attacks charged Abrini with participation in the activities of a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the federal prosecutors office said in a statement.

The Belgian of Moroccan origin was the last known Paris suspect still at large. He had been spotted on CCTV cameras at a petrol station north of Paris two days before the attacks there. In the car with him was fellow Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam, who is now awaiting extradition from Belgium to France. Prosecutors also confirmed Abrinis connection to the Brussels airport attack.

The 31-year-old confessed his presence at the crime scene when they confronted him with evidence, including footage of a mystery man in a hat and light-coloured jacket seen next to the two suicide attackers as they walked through the departure hall pushing trolleys loaded with bomb-filled bags.

He is indeed the third man present at the Brussels national airport attacks, they said in a statement. He explained having thrown away his vest (jacket) in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterward.

The airport images had triggered a furious manhunt for the so-called man in the hat, who swiftly became one of Europes most wanted men.

Police stepped up the search on Thursday when they released a video tracing the fugitives escape route after the blasts and appealed for the publics help in identifying him.

The new footage showed the suspect fleeing the airport and making his way on foot back to central Brussels, appearing calm and composed, before surveillance cameras lose track of him.

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New Delhi:

The Supreme Court has expressed concern over the delay in setting up a State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) in the national capital and asked the government why it was taking so long.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur asked Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar to seek instructions from the Centre on a contempt petition filed by Indu Prakash Singh.

The petitioner contended that despite Delhi government completing the formalities and sending recommendation to the Lieutenant Governor, the Centre has not done anything till date.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, said the delay was on the part of Centre as the recommendation to set up the SHRC has already been sent by Delhi government to the LG.

The apex court last year had questioned why the SHRC had not been set up in Delhi and also directed Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland to set up SHRCs. During the hearing, the bench enquired whether the northeastern states have complied with the direction to set up SHRCs.

To this, Gonsalves said he was not aware of the situation there, to which the bench said you must not neglect the northeastern states.

The court in July last year had rejected the state governments plea that setting up SHRCs was not mandatory for them. It had said, The significance of human rights and the need for their protection and enforcement is beyond the pale of any debate.
Jammu:

The Pakistan Army today violated the ceasefire by opening fire in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir, drawing retaliation from Indian troops. The Pakistan Army resorted to unprovoked ceasefire violation in Poonch sector, Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said. He said the Pakistan Army violated the ceasefire in Shahpur area of Poonch sector by firing with automatic weapons at 0430 hours.

Our troops have responded appropriately, no casualty or damage to our troops was reported, he said.

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New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today termed as heart-rending and shocking the fire at a temple in Kollam and said he is rushing to Kerala to take stock of the situation. Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured, he said in a tweet.

I will be reaching Kerala soon to take stock of the situation arising due to the unfortunate fire tragedy in Kollam, he said. The Prime Minister has also asked Health Minister J P Nadda to reach the site of the mishap. At least 83 people lost their lives and 350 others were injured when a fire broke out at a temple in Keralas Kollam district during display of fireworks. The Prime Minister spoke to the Kerala Chief Minister about the mishap.

Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter, he said.

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Cairo:

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi King Salman have agreed to set up a USD 16-billion investment fund and settled a long-standing maritime dispute as the monarch continued his rare visit to the country. A day after Salman announced a plan to build a bridge over the Red Sea to Egypt, the heads of state met at the historic Abdeen Palace in Cairo to oversee the inking of a string of agreements Egypt hopes will help boost its battered economy.

In one of the most high-profile announcements, Cairo yesterday said it had agreed to demarcate its maritime borders with Saudi Arabia, officially placing two islands in the Straits of Tiran in Saudi territory. The 80-year-old Saudi monarchs visit to Egypt has been seen as a clear show of support for Sisi, the former military chief who toppled his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013. Since touching down on Thursday, Salman and his delegation have announced a slew of investments in Egypt.

A live Egyptian state television broadcast yesterday showed an official announcing the latest agreements, signed by a representative of each country. The two nations agreed to set up a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of 60 billion Saudi riyals (USD16 billion), the announcer said, giving no further details. More than a dozen other accords, including a memorandum of understanding to set up an industrial zone in Egypt, were also announced.

Saudi Arabia has been a key backer of Sisi since the overthrow of Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood movement was viewed by Riyadh with suspicion. It has since pumped billions of dollars in aid and investment into Egypt. Egyptian officials and media have heaped accolades on Salman, with state television welcoming him to what it called his second countrya country Riyadh views as a cornerstone in its ambitions to be a regional leader against Iran.

But the agreement announced by the cabinet yesterday to settle the dispute over the islands of Tiran and Sanafir provoked an immediate backlash in Egypt, where thousands tweeted a hashtag accusing Sisi of selling the islands. Tiran had historically been a Saudi island leased to Egypt in 1950. Earlier yesterday, Salman paid a visit to the prestigious Al-Azhar mosque.

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Manila:

The Philippine military suffered its largest single-day combat loss so far this year when 18 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Abu Sayyaf extremists that also left five Islamic militants dead, including a Moroccan fighter, the military said today.

At least 53 other soldiers were wounded in yesterdays daylong clashes with the Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka on Basilan island, regional military spokesman Maj Filemon Tan and other army officials said.

The large combat casualties were reported as the Philippines marked the Day of Valour yesterday to remember Filipino veterans who died in World War II.

Government forces were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, three military officials said yesterday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the military assault.

Washington has offered a reward of up to USD 5 million for information leading to Hapilons capture and prosecution. The Abu Sayyaf militants, many of whom were armed with M203 grenade launchers, apparently managed to reinforce their ranks quickly as the fighting raged and gathered between 100 and 150 fighters, allowing them to inflict heavy casualties on government troops, the officials said.

The fighting lasted for more than nine hours, they said. Among the slain militants was a Moroccan, who was identified as Mohammad Khattab, and a son of Hapilon, Tan said, adding about 20 other gunmen were wounded.

Its the largest single-day government combat loss this year in the south, where the military has been battling Muslim separatist rebels and extremists, and Marxist guerrillas.

Last year, 44 police commandos were killed in clashes with various Muslim insurgent groups in southern Mamasapano town while on a covert mission that was fraught with faulty planning and execution but nevertheless killed a top Malaysian terror suspect in Southeast Asia.

Outrage over the police deaths stalled a peace deal with the largest Muslim insurgent group some of whose fighters got entangled in the fighting.

The Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1991 in Basilan, about 880 kilometres south of Manila. With an unwieldy collective of preachers and outlaws, it vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, but lost its key leaders early in combat, sending it on a violent path of extremism and criminality.

The US and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organisation for carrying out deadly bombings, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and beheadings of locals and foreigners, including Christian missionaries in the south.

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New Delhi:

A crane carrying an Air India passenger plane on Sunday lost its balance and crashed near Begumpet airport in Telangana . No casualties have been reported to far.

The flight was empty and was being brought there for training purposes. It was at around 7 am in the morning when the crane lost its balance and crashed on the compound wall of Hitech club near Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam school at the old airport road in Bowenpally.

Soon after the accident, police blocked the old airport road from Bowenpally to Ferozguda for ordinary traffic.

More updates are awaited

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Raipur:

As many as 122 Naxals, including 11 women, surrendered before the police today in the insurgency-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh. Sukma Additional Superintendent of Police Santosh Singh told PTI the Naxals surrendered at Dornapal police station in the district.

As many as 51 member of Jan Militia, 33 of Dandakarnya Adivasi Kisan Majdoor Sangthan, 12 of Chetna Natya Manch, a cultural outfit of Maoists, and four members of Adivasi Balak Sangathan surrendered, he said.

The Naxals told police they were tired of the exploitation, discrimination and hollow Maoist ideology and impressed by the governments rehabilitation policy, he said.

The ASP said the Naxals were given consolation amount of Rs 10,000 and will be further facilitated as per the governments surrender policy.

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London:

David Cameron today become the first UK prime minister to make public his tax returns and ordered a new taskforce to probe the Panama Papers in a bid to douse the growing anger over his investment in his late fathers offshore business.

Thousands of protesters carrying placards reading Tories Out and Cameron Must Go marched to Downing Street yesterday demanding Camerons resignation over the Panama Papers scandal.

Under pressure, Downing Street published a document detailing Camerons income and tax payments from 2009-10 to 2014-15.

Cameron, who became the first British leader to document his financial affairs due to the unprecedented move, paid almost 76,000 pounds in tax on an income of more than 200,000 pounds in 2014-15, according to figures released by the prime ministers office.

Cameron, 49, earned 46,899 pounds from his 50 per cent share of rent on the London family home in Notting Hill, the three-page summary of the prime ministers earnings since 2009 showed.

The move came after Cameron admitted in an emotional speech to the Conservative partys spring conference yesterday that he should have handled this better and will learn the lessons from the row.

I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them, he had said.

Cameron published the six years worth of accounts in an attempt to end speculation about his tax affairs after one of the most difficult weeks of his Premiership.

However, there are further questions over a 200,000 pound gift from his mother, which is being perceived as a move to avoid inheritance tax.

It emerged that his mother transferred two separate payments of 100,000 pounds to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 pounds worth of inheritance tax.

British newspapers questioned whether the gifts were an effort to avoid paying inheritance tax on his late fathers estate.

He also announced a new taskforce to investigate tax-dodging allegations which is unlikely to spare him despite the confession.

The force will be led by the HMRC (Her Majestys Revenue and Customs) tax authority and the National Crime Agency. The taskforce will investigate the leaked files to identify clients of the Panama firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion and publish its findings later this year.

Cameron had been under increasing pressure as he refused to give details of his familys money held offshore in a Caribbean tax haven.

His late father Ian Camerons name is allegedly named in the over 11 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that were shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) with 107 media organisations around the world.

According to the Consortium, Ian Cameron used Mossack Fonsecas services to shield profits from his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc, with a series of expensive and complicated arrangements.

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Islamabad:

The recent wave of tremors that have shaken the Hindu Kush regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan may have lasting impacts on the topography of areas as far afield as Islamabad, according to a media report.

The region was shaken on Friday by at least four distinct tremors, ranging in intensity from 3.3 to 5.3, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the strongest of which was felt in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa such as Malakand and Swat.

Dawn reported, citing PMD, that two of the quakes originated in the Hindu Kush region, while the other two were located in the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region.

All of them occurred deep under the earths crust, with at least three of the quakes measuring over 100 km in depth.

Experts say collisions between Indian, Eurasian plates may cause areas like Islamabad to rise over time.

Over 100 seismic events have been recorded in the region over the past six months alone and some rocked the earth like a boat, while most of them passed unnoticed.

Like the four quakes yesterday, the vast majority of these events originated in parts of the Hindu Kush range located in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and were felt as far afield as Islamabad and Lahore.

The region is roughly located on top of the meeting point for the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates.

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has termed the Hindu Kush one of the most seismically hazardous regions on earth.

However, nearly all of the recent tremors felt in the region originated deep in the earths crust, nearly 200 km below the surface.

In a report on earthquakes in this region, the USGS noted that the Hindu Kush shares this high-stress configuration with a seismically active area in Colombia, South America.

These two regions have some of the worlds highest rates of deep earthquakes. However, scientists admit that they do not know a great deal about the forces that are in play at such depths.

The USGS has stated that most such earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates rubbing together.

According to a report by the National Geographic Society, the two plates are colliding at a rate of about 1.5 inches a year, pushing up the Himalayan mountain range in the process.

Due to friction along the plate boundaries, the collisions are not smooth or even.

When the rocks finally give way under the strain, the plates jerk rapidly, releasing the energy that causes an earthquake.

With the collision of plates pushing land upwards, nearby regions including Islamabad may gradually end up gaining altitude.

Or conversely, some areas can start sinking too. For example, La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, is sinking lower because mountains around it are rising, Met Office Director General Ghulam Rasul was quoted as saying.

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New Delhi :

The minor boy, who had allegedly run over a 32-year-old man with his fathers Mercedes in north Delhis civil lines area, was today held under charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sent to juvenile justice home, the police said. He will be produced before the Juvenile Justice Board tomorrow.

The police today also arrested the man who claimed to be the actual driver of the Mercedes at the time of incident but did a volte-face after he got to know that victim Siddharth Sharma was dead.

The driver and the boys father, who was arrested on Friday, were today produced before a city court and they were granted bail. The driver was arrested for the offence under section 203 (giving false information respecting an offence committed) of the IPC.

Meanwhile, the police said that the juvenile, who turned 18 years old day before yesterday, along with his lawyers came to the court to surrender and his advocates moved a bail plea.

The police said that the court refused to grant him bail on the ground that it was a matter of the juvenile justice board (JJB).

Later, a juvenile welfare officer of the Delhi Police apprehended the boy and he was sent to juvenile justice home for a day. He will be produced before the JJB tomorrow.

The incident took place on April 4 when 32-year-old marketing executive Siddharth Sharma was trying to cross a road near Ludlow Castle School and the speeding Mercedes hit him.

A case under IPC sections 304 A (causing death by rash or negligent act), 279 (driving on a public way so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life) and 337 (causing hurt by an act which endangers human life) was lodged.

The boy was apprehended the next day and was released on bail as per legal provisions.

During the later stage of the investigation, the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is cognizable and non-bailable in nature, was slapped and today the boy was apprehended under this charge, DCP (North) Madhur Verma said.

Further, during investigation it emerged that it was not the first offence of rash and negligent driving by this accused juvenile. In the past too he was found driving in a rash and negligent way, thereby causing a road accident with another vehicle, it had said.

Last year, the minor was also challaned thricefor over-speeding in April and June and wrong parking in February.

The boys father, an old-Delhi based businessman, was arrested under Sections 109/304 (abatement to culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of IPC.

There has not been a single step taken by the father of the accused in prohibiting him from taking the vehicle. This is an act of criminal omission, thereby abetting the crime of the said juvenile, a senior police official had said.

The car was being driven at a speed of at least 80 km per hour and Sharma was flung several feet into the air by the impact of the crash and landed around 15 metres away from where he stood.

After the incident, a group of youths stepped out of the vehicle and fled the spot, abandoning the car there.

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New Delhi:

Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom arrived here today on a two-day visit during which he will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on ways to expand cooperation between the two countries, particularly in areas of trade, investment and maritime security.

The Maldivian President was received at the airport by Minister of Tourism and Culture Mahesh Sharma.

Gayoom is accompanied by a delegation including Minister of Foreign Affairs Dunya Maumoon, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Mohamed Shainee and three members of the Maldivian Parliament.

He will hold extensive talks with Modi tomorrow during which they are expected to explore ways to step up bilateral engagement in a range of areas including trade, investment and maritime security, sources said. The two sides would also ink a number of agreements to bolster bilateral engagement.

Gayoom will also call on President Pranab Mukherjee. Amid concerns over militant groups like ISIS attempting to radicalise the citizens of the archipelago nation, Maldives is in talks with India for setting up a bilateral counter-terrorism mechanism.

India and Maldives commemorated 50 years of diplomatic relations last year.

President Gayooms first state visit after assuming office was to India in January 2014. He was among the SAARC leaders who had attended the swearing-in of Modi in May, 2014.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had visited Maldives in November 2014 and again in October 2015 for the India-Maldives Joint Commission which was held after 15 years.

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Chennai:

Trouble is brewing in the former Union Minister G K Vaasan-led Tamil Maanila Congress over its decision to join hands with the DMDK-Peoples Welfare Front.

Senior leaders of TMC, including Peter Alphonse and S R Balasubramaniam, have questioned the decision to align with PWF and termed the move by party chief Vasan as against the goals of the party.

The move to align with PWF is against the goals of the Tamil Maanila Congress, Peter Alphonse told reporters. There are indications that they may consider going back to Congress.

The voice of dissent after an open call by TNCC chief EVKS Elangovan to Vasan-led party to come back home, the Congress party, to which the former Minister said it was not possible as his outfit had gone past a long distance away from the parent party.

The development comes a day after Vasan inked a pact with DMDK-PWF combine which challenges both AIADMK and DMK.

Despite the strong dissent, Vasan while addressing a DMDK-PWF rally in Mamandur did not make any references to it or the action he contemplated.

The development came after a similar rebellion in DMDK, which saw the ouster of the dissenters led by party propaganda secretary V C Chandrakumar.

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Washington:

The Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton did not jeopardise national security, but was careless in managing her emails when she was Secretary of State, the US President Barack Obama said today as he promised an independent probe in the controversy.

I continue to believe that she has not jeopardised Americas national security. Now what Ive also said is that -- and she has acknowledgedthat theres a carelessness, in terms of managing e-mails, that she has owned, and she recognises, Obama told Fox News in an interview.

Obama was responding to a question on an ongoing FBI probe into the emails and private email server which Clinton hosted at her home when she served as the Secretary of State in the first term of Obama Administration.

The issue is being used by Clintons opponents and Republican Party as a key tool against her in this election cycle.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, is eyeing to become the first woman president of the US after Obama leaves office in January.

Defending Clinton, the US president said: I also think it is important to keep this in perspective. This is somebody who has served her country for four years as Secretary of State, and did an outstanding job. And no one has suggested that in some ways, as a consequence of how shes handled e-mails, that detracted from her excellent ability to carry out her duties.

Promising an independent probe, Obama said he has not talked with his officials on this as he does not want to interfere in the investigation.

I do not talk to the Attorney General about pending investigations. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations. We have a strict line, and always have maintained it, he said.

I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case. Full stop. Period, he said.

Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department, because nobody is above the law, he said.

In her defence, Clinton has said that none of the emails sent over her private server were classified at the time and she has already handed the State Department 52,000 pages of documents relating to her correspondence as US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

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DANBURY  Theyve been arriving since January in numbers that have exhausted staff at the Hispanic Center of Greater Danbury.

Ecuadorians, Dominicans, Mexicans, Guatemalans and Colombians previously content with permanent legal status suddenly want to become citizens and claim their right to vote.

We are extremely busy. This is no joke, said Andrea Contreras, the executive director of the Hispanic Center, which has been assisting up to 10 new citizenship applications each week for the past three months. It has been overwhelming for us, and we are surprised how many people want to become citizens.

The local surge in interest in citizenship apparently is part of a larger national trend of Latinos registering to voice their objection  one vote at a time  to inflammatory comments about immigrants by GOP front-runner Donald Trump.

A record 27 million Hispanics are expected to be eligible to vote this year, in part because of immigrants going through the naturalization process, as they are in Danbury. The other major trend driver is Latino millennials, such as Stephani Figueroa, who is old enough to vote this year in her first presidential election.

I heard about some of the things that Trump said, and I definitely dont like it because we are all working here and we are all part of the community, said Figueroa, 20, the Danbury-born daughter of a Guatemalan immigrant. What he said about immigrants and other nationalities has made him one of the top candidates, just because he is being a racist.

Trumps spokeswoman did not respond to a request on Friday to share his strategy to win the states 280,000 Latino voters in the April 26 Connecticut primary.

Trump has suggested there is no issue after angering Latinos by calling Mexicans criminals and promising to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants. At a Feb. 26 debate, Trump noted he won the Nevada primary with Hispanic backing, saying Im doing very well with Hispanics.

Two Latina candidates who are courting support for state office  Newtown Democrat Eva Bermudez Zimmerman and Danbury Republican Emanuela Palmares  are not so sure.

For every vote he might gain with that negative campaigning, he is going to lose a vote from someone who knows a family who needs immigration reform, said Zimmerman, who is running against the GOPs Rep. Mitch Bolinsky to represent the 106th District.

Palmares, the first Brazilian to run for state office, said Trumps statements clash with the principles of social justice she believes in. Palmares is running to represent the 110th District held by Democrat Bob Godfrey.

I think that whenever you see two extremes being so loud and pulling people apart, it is really the birth of a very diverse middle ground, said Palmares. Its my hope that, from this whole national conversation, we are having that a lot of new leaders are going to be born that are going to strive to make it their lifes mission to find balance.

Hispanic or Latino?

Its clear to Hispanic Center staff this is no ordinary election-year spike in citizenship applications, and Trump is motivating immigrants to mobilize.

Yes, we have had people say that to us, Contreras said. His comments are not just attacking undocumented immigrants, they are attacking everybody.

But in a year when Hispanics as a voting bloc are expected to equal African-Americans in voting power, the details are complicated.

One obstacle to quantifying the impact of immigrants on voting is that the term Hispanic can be misinterpreted. Portuguese-speaking Brazilians, who may identify with immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries as fellow Latinos, dont identify themselves as Hispanics to census-takers, for example.

The Hispanic label gap makes a big difference in Danbury, a city of 83,000, where Hispanics are conservatively thought to be 25 percent of the population. The Brazilian population estimate of 11,000 is widely thought to live outside the census count for Hispanics.

Another difficulty: The 52 percent of Connecticut Hispanics who are eligible to vote in 2016 is skewed because over half of Hispanics are Puerto Ricans, who are U.S. citizens and can vote in primaries but cant vote for the president, said Orlando Rodriguez, an analyst at the Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission in Hartford.

Rodriguez said since local registrars dont track voter registration by ethnicity, the state relies on a formula to approximate Hispanic voter registration, checking registrations against a list of common Hispanic surnames.

Finally, there is the debatable impact of the undocumented population  ostensibly a group that should not be able to affect an election because everyone is living under the radar.

The rule of thumb in the Latino community, however, is everyone who cant vote knows someone who can, and everyone who can vote knows someone who cant.

Definitely, I have friends and also family members who want to be able to make a difference but dont necessarily have the opportunity to voice their opinion, said Figueroa, who has not made up her mind who will get her vote for president. That is why I feel it is so important to use my voice to make a difference.

Palmares, the editor of a tri-language newspaper, agrees.

If I ignore you for five years, which really says I dont value you because you cant vote, then how can I expect you to be engaged and know whats going on? Palmares said.

2016 and beyond

The growing number of Latino voters across the country, and their objection to Trumps pledge to build a wall on the southern border and make Mexico pay for it, has made headlines.

A poll conducted in late February by the Washington Post and Univision News found among Hispanic voters:

82 percent want the next president to support a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, and 43 percent would not vote for a candidate who opposed it;

74 percent find Trumps immigration views offensive;

64 percent gave Trump an unfavorable rating.

At home, Zimmerman said, views about Trump are similar among Latinos.

Its upsetting that somebody who built his business on the backs of minority workers would say something like that, Zimmerman said. To what end is he so desperate to push people aside and treat people like second-class citizens who are working here?

At stake is not only the contribution Latinos in greater Danbury make toward the nomination of major-party candidates, or the election of a new president in November.

Danbury is working to close the gap between established residents and the newest wave of immigrant Americans.

The more involved residents are in civic life, the more integrated they will become in the culture, Palmares said.

The more you become legitimized in your status journey, the more you care about everything around you because now you have increased access to things you didnt have before, she said.

rryser@newstimes.com; 203-731-3342
[April 10, 2016]

StraitsBridge Advisors Named Among "25 Most Promising Business Intelligence Solution Providers 2016" by APAC-CIO Outlook

SINGAPORE and DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- CFO advisory & business intelligence solutions provider StraitsBridge adds to industry honours in 2016 with recognition within the Business Intelligence Analytics industry -- garnering a new profile in APAC CIO Outlook's special edition, '25 Most Promising Business Intelligence Solution Providers 2016,' published in March 2016.

StraitsBridge has continued to break new ground in Business Intelligence within the past year benefiting its customers through continuing excellence in delivering top-notch solutions. The firm helps financial institutions get the most value from their BI investments, inspiring confidence that they are getting required insights to make informed decisions.

Sanjay Uppal, Founder & CEO of StraitsBridge, said: "Our bespok models and methodologies have continued to deliver superior Business Intelligence solutions. To be recognized among leading BI solution providers by today's industry experts is very rewarding indeed."







Shripad Keni, Head of Business Intelligence & Finance Systems at StraitsBridge, added: "Our top priority is to deliver innovative services that exceed our customers' expectations and help them gain competitive advantage. This recognition is a testament to our team's commitment to maximizing value for client's investments in business intelligence & analytics."

Industry analysts at CIO Outlook praised StraitsBridge for their end-to-end Business Intelligence solutions that help financial institutions formulate effective business strategies. In characterizing StraitsBridge's strengths, they further noted how professionals at StraitsBridge seamlessly bring together their global experience in Financial Services, Business Intelligence, Data Warehousing, and Analytics platforms to deliver effective BI solutions.

About StraitsBridge

StraitsBridge delivers advisory & execution services across CFO domain in financial institutions - helping create value and architect transformation for its clients. StraitsBridge's professionals bring their global experience to work with financial institutions to anticipate, illuminate and overcome complex business challenges. In January 2016, StraitsBridge was recognized among '20 Most Promising Enterprise Performance Management Solution Providers 2016' by CIOReview. StraitsBridge has its headquarters in Singapore with additional offices in Dubai & New Delhi.

For more information, visit: http://straitsbridge.com/ and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Media Contact

Lydia Anuar

+65-6408-0501

[email protected]




[April 10, 2016] BIOS Middle East a CISCO Gold Partner Based in the UAE is Proud to Present the GCC's First CISCO Powered 'Cloud High Performance Technology' Also Known as CloudHPT

DUBAI, UAE, April 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- BIOS Middle East (BIOSME), a leading provider of Cloud and Managed IT services headquartered in UAE announced today that it has achieved an advanced accreditation to provide CISCO Powered Services after completing a rigorous audit of CISCO's Managed Services Program (CMSP). The services include CloudHPT - The GCC's first - Cisco Powered Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) & BIOS Assured - CISCO powered Managed Services. This certification by CISCO recognizes BIOS Middle East and their Cloud Brand CloudhHPT as having achieved an elite level of expertise to sell and deliver cloud and managed services. This audit verifies that services are delivered with enterprise-class reliability, security and support. The advanced designation also recognizes BIOS Middle East's investment and commitment to providing cloud and managed services at Cisco's highest standards to the Middle East. The shared goal is to help businesses and organizations realize faster time to value. "We are delighted to have BIOS Middle East as the first local Master Cloud and Managed services partner in the UAE. With Cloud Services Demand growing at an exponential pace, BIOSME Cisco powered CloudHPT services that are built on local DC offers simple customer interface along with strong 24x7 NOC Services. We are looking forward to develop this partnership and offer new consumption models for our customers, s aid Frida Kleimert, Regional Partner Sales Manager in UAE. "BIOS Middle East has delivered Cloud technologies to many UAE Customers since 2002 and is at the forefront of helping busnesses benefit from cloud services. With the recent launch of the Cisco Powered CloudHPT Services, it can deliver an Enterprise Grade, low latency managed cloud service out of its T4/Tx Data Centers," said Clinton O' Leary, Cloud Lead, CISCO Middle East. "CloudHPT is proving itself to be one of the most innovative and customer-focused Cloud Service Providers in the United Arab Emirates."



"We are delighted that our investment in People, Technology and Process has meant that CISCO recognizes CloudHPT as among its elite partners globally, in addition it is always nice to be first. We will continue to be driven by given our customers the very best platform on which to run and protect their businesses while driving down operational costs and eliminating IT CAPEX requirements," Dominic Docherty CloudHPT CEO. The partnership between BIOS Middle East and CISCO extends into the marketplace as well. CISCO will also actively sell CloudHPT through its own sales channels.

To learn more about CISCO Powered CloudHPT Solutions, visit http://www.cloudhpt.com About CloudHPT: CloudHPT is Cloud provider based out of multiple datacenters in the GCC.

We are the first Certified Cisco Powered Cloud provider in the region for IaaS and DraaS. Our solutions are built on High Performance Technology (hence HPT) and housed in the UAE's best datacenters.

We help our partners give their customers a roadmap to the cloud which generally reduces ongoing IT cost and eliminate future CAPEX expenditure. Typically this approach provides a 50% saving in year one and includes a full migration services and continuing managed service. Typically customers use our in-country cloud for critical workloads to take advantage of the ultra-low latency and in country support and professional services. About the Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Program (CMSP): CMSP helps Cisco partners to envision, build, market, and sell their cloud and managed services. The program offers partners access to an elite level of expertise, business acceleration tools and services, sales training, and presence in the Cisco Cloud Marketplace. Financial benefits include global discounts and incentives to help maximize profitability, build customer loyalty, and differentiate a partner's cloud and/or managed offerings. Three program levels give partners a flexible framework for business growth and the acquisition of new revenue streams. About Cisco Powered: Cisco Powered is the industry standard for cloud and managed services. Based on validated architectures and end-to-end security, Cisco Powered services minimize technology lifecycle complexity to reduce cost and risk. To ensure enterprise-class service, security, and 24/7 support, Cisco partners offering Cisco Powered services must undergo a rigorous certification and third-party audit of their solutions. As the power behind the cloud, Cisco Powered services enable organizations to connect with confidence while achieving faster time-to-value, experiencing assured performance, and leveraging ongoing innovation built on open standards. Nidhi Savla

Group Marketing Manager

CloudHPT

Mobile : +971-504569833

Email : [email protected]



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Some of the worst people we are ever going to meet are Christians. Paul marveled at the Corinthian church: You have such admirable tole...

Some of the worst people we are ever going to meet are Christians. Paul marveled at the Corinthian church: You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down- even slap your face. (2 Corinthians 11:19-20).So tell me, why are you a member of your church? You have been there for thirty-eight years and have still not been healed of your infirmities; yet you remain. You know your pastor is sleeping with a chorister; yet you remain. Every Sunday you are harassed into giving more offering than you would like or can afford; yet you remain.You remain, not for the sake of Christ, but for the sake of men. You remain because of social and soul ties. You remain because your pastor has style. You remain because that was the church your parents went to. You remain because your friends are in the church.You remain because your business associates are in the church. You remain because you have been hoodwinked by another gospel. Why do we receive in our churches the traditions of men? Where does it say in the scriptures that it is a sin to leave your church for another one? Where does it say your tithes cannot be paid to the Motherless Babies Home?Where does it say if a woman wears trousers or earrings she would be disqualified from heaven? Where does it say you have to go to Bible College before you can be baptised? Answer such questions not by reference to your pastors dictates, or by reference to the conventions of your church, but by the word of God.However, the danger is not only from pastors, bishops and televangelists. The danger is also from fellow Christians. David was distressed because his betrayer was a member of his church. In all probability, they were prayer partners, or they might have been members of the same church choir. He said: We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company. (Psalm 55:14). Some of the worst people we are ever going to meet are Christians. They will be the ones who will steal from us and from the church.They will stab us in the back and betray us. Judas was not an unbeliever but a Christian. He was one of the twelve disciples. He preached the gospel. He performed miracles in the name of Jesus. Nevertheless, he was a son of perdition who ended up by betraying the Lord. They are not all Christians who are Christians. There can be unequal yoking even among Christians. Dont get married to that brother simply because he is a Christian. Dont enter into a business partnership with someone simply because he is a prayer warrior in the church. If Jesus can be betrayed so can we. Jesus says: A mans enemies are men of his own household. (Matthew 10:36). This is not just talking about our homes; it is also talking about the church: the household of God. It is not just talking about the church; it is also talking about us.We should beware of ourselves. We should not trust ourselves: we should not trust our hearts because the heart is deceitful. (Jeremiah 17:9). The traitor in mans life can turn out to be his eyes which insist on beholding evil. Pluck it out, says Jesus.It might turn out to be his hands which are employed in doing mischief. Cut it off, says Jesus. It might turn out to be his feet which seem determined to carry him to hell. Amputate them. It might turn out to be his tongue which he uses to curse and abuse. Cut it off. Or it might turn out to be his mind which is lustful. Fill it with the word of God.Beware of Christians who are regular church-goers. It does not mean we are people of integrity. Beware of Christians always quoting scriptures authoritatively.We may not even understand them or believe in what they say. Beware of Christians always asking you for money. We are probably trying to use the gospel to empty your pocket. Beware of Christians who are contemptuous of non-Christians.We are ignorant that Jesus was only critical of Judaism; his own faith. Beware of self-opinionated Christians.We want you to go to hell when you dont share our views. Beware of Christians who insist you must not use your brains in order to walk by faith.We are just trying to put one over on you. Beware of Christians preoccupied with how women should dress.We are controlling and are suffering from lust. Beware of Christians who swear in Gods name. It should tell you immediately we are telling lies. Beware of Christians who say: The devil made me do it. The devil might make us do something to hurt you. Beware of Christians who say after an argument: Ill be praying for you. It means we hate your guts.Beware of Christians passionate about a man-of-God. We are not disciples of Christ. Beware of Christians always with a testimony of yet another blessing. We are only trying to make you insecure. Beware of Christians who call others brother this and sister that. We may be using the brotherhood to pull wool over your eyes.Beware of Christians who always have a word from God for you. We want to be the god of your life.Beware of Christians who often show up when you are having your meal. It means we see you, and not Jesus, as our bread of life.The modern church is full of witches and wizards, all operating as busybodies. They are always looking for negatives, and always pouncing on negativities.If you lose weight they will tell you that you are too thin. If you put on weight they will tell you that you are too fat. Mary, I would not wear big flowing dresses if I were you; you know you are a bit short. Peter, dont you think you should be married by now? Praise the Lord! Religious know-it-alls always know the reason for everything. When they occupy exalted church positions, it makes them very deadly indeed.They reduce the believers relationship with God to formulas. They imply that God can be programmed like a computer. The moment we are sick, or bereaved or jilted, or dismissed from a job, there is a coterie of religious experts who know exactly what is responsible for our adversity and precisely what we must do to get out of it. More often than not, they make copious references to the word of God. But somehow this always makes us feel worse. The scriptures warn that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.A Christian brother committed adultery. After the act, he became very remorseful. In despair, he went to his pastor and confessed the sin to him. The pastor was outraged. How could you do such a thing? Dont you know those who commit adultery cannot inherit the kingdom of God? The poor man became even more guilt-ridden. In confusion, he reached the wrong conclusion. He left the pastor, went home and committed suicide.
The hope of an early signing of the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law dimmed on Saturday with President Muhammadu Buharis decision to tr...

The hope of an early signing of the 2016 Appropriation Bill into law dimmed on Saturday with President Muhammadu Buharis decision to travel out of the country on Sunday.Buhari will be away from the country for one week as he begins a working visit to the Peoples Republic of China.According to a statement on Saturday by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, the President is due back in the country at the weekend.This is an indication that the budget may not be signed this week except in the unlikely event that he signs it outside the country.The Senate and the House had passed a harmonised budget of N6.06tn on March 23.The Appropriation Bill was forwarded to the Presidency within 24 hours of the passage by the National Assembly.However, Buhari declined to sign the bill, insisting on seeing and reviewing the details ministry-by-ministry before appending his signature.The details had since been made available to the President on Thursday.An expanded session of the Federal Executive Council meeting presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was held on Friday to review the details of the budget which the Minister of Information and Culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed, described as work in progress.Meanwhile, no fewer than 10 ministers and some state governors will accompany the President on his visit to China.According to Adesina, the ministers on the Presidents entourage include those of Agriculture; Water Resources; Transportation; Defence; Power, Works and Housing; Industry, Trade and Investment; Federal Capital Territory; Science and Technology and Foreign Affairs.According to the presidential spokesman Buharis trip to China is aimed at securing greater support from Beijing for the development of Nigerias infrastructure.Adesina mentioned specific sectors such as power, roads, railways, aviation, water supply and housing as those that would receive special attention during the visit.
The Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday said it suspended charter flight agreement with VistaJet, a Swiss charter airline in Nigeria and ...

The Central Bank of Nigeria on Saturday said it suspended charter flight agreement with VistaJet, a Swiss charter airline in Nigeria and other countries, in 2015 following President Muhammadu Buharis administration resolve to cut costs.It said since last year, the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had stopped flying VistaJets Bombardier luxury private jets.It was gathered that Emefiele and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, had at various times flown VistaJets upscale private jets and flown in it to the burial of Emefieles mother in Delta State.The immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, had been severely criticised during the past administration for chartering Vistajets private jets for several months, and accumulating huge sums of bills that could almost reach half of the amount a private jet is sold.Kachikwu on Saturday also said he cancelled the about N600m monthly contract which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had with VistaJet.The NNPC stated that Kachikwu terminated the contract with VistaJet when he assumed office.Although Kachikwu through the NNPC admitted to using Vistajets private jets, he said the bill was being paid by the International Oil Companies under their joint venture agreement with the NNPC.The CBN, in a statement by its Acting Director, Corporate Communications, Mr. Isaac Okoroafor, on Saturday said, However in 2015, in response to the economic downturn and the cost-cutting stance of the Federal Government, Mr. Emefiele ordered the stoppage of the use of chartered flights by the central bank. Since then, neither Mr. Emefiele nor any of the deputy governors had used the services of private chartered flights and the CBN has not paid a kobo for private jet services.It added, The CBN has, for several years in the past, used private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote, not-easily- accessible locations or in cases where timing might be critical to matters of urgent national importance.This practice was in place long before the assumption of office of the current Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele. In fact it is on record that the past two CBN Governors actively used chartered private jet services to meet urgent national assignments.Indeed, in recognition of this critical need in its smooth operations, the CBN had in the 1990s acquired a dedicated jet for this purpose and for urgent currency movement. This was, however, taken over by the military administration when there was a more urgent need for it at the State House.Thereafter, the CBN occasionally used the chartered services of private operators and those of the Presidential Fleet when available, both of which were paid for.NNPC on Saturday also said the cancellation was due to the fact that Nigeria spends $3m every month as a result of the contract.It said, Since the grounding of the NNPC-owned private jet which has been handed over to the Presidential fleet as scrap, Kachikwu has resisted every pressure to procure and maintain another private jet for the NNPC.And even though it is a standard practice in the oil and gas industry, the minister has refused to retain the services of any private jet company.What Kachikwu has done in fact was to cancel an existing contract with VistaJet which he found on assumption of office and which was costing the country $3m every month. By this, Kachikwu has saved the country expenditure that would have run into hundreds of millions of United States dollars.The statement added that the minister had insisted that since the Federal Government, through the NNPC, contributed 60 per cent in the Joint Venture agreements it entered into with international oil companies, then the corporation was entitled to all facilities that were available as part of the operations of the JV agreements.
The Department of State Security (DSS) yesterday confirmed its arrest of Mohammed Usman who is also known as Khalid Al-Barnawi, descri...

The Department of State Security (DSS) yesterday confirmed its arrest of Mohammed Usman who is also known as Khalid Al-Barnawi, described as a founding member of the Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid Dawah Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jamaat Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS).He is also said to be the mastermind of the August 26, 2011 bombing of the United Nations building, Abuja.The DSS called his arrest in Lokoja penultimate Friday a major milestone against terrorism.Besides, the agency said it had uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani men in Isuikwuato LGA Abia State.It said four of the five abducted persons were subsequently murdered and buried in shallow graves in Umuanyi forest in the state.The DSS in an online statement by its spokesman, Tony Opuiyo, said Al-Barnawi used to move around under various aliases such as Kafuri, Naziru, Alhaji Yahaya, Mallam Dauda and Alhaji Tanimu.It said further of him: Khalid Al-Barnawi is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.Subject was involved in many terrorist attacks in states of the federation, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja; this resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this country.Al-Barnawi is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26th August, 2011; the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar RAUPACH in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jamaare, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.He would soon be charged to Court to face his charges after investigation is completed. This arrest is a major milestone in the counter-terrorism fight of this Service; this arrest has strengthened the Services resolve that no matter how long and far perpetrators of crime and their sponsors may run, this Service in collaboration with other sister security agencies, will bring them to justice.The DSS named the Hausa/Fulani men allegedly murdered by IPOB members as Mohammed Gainako, Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago.It said: The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action. It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country. Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spill over to other parts of country.Against the foregoing, the Service will not hesitate to act decisively within its statutory mandate to ensure that the sponsors and perpetrators of this action are apprehended and prosecuted for their crime.Accordingly, law-abiding citizens are enjoined to go about their civil duties and businesses freely, as efforts are being intensified by security agencies to maintain law and order in the State and across the Federation.IPOB is in the vanguard of the renewed agitation for the emergence of Biafra.Its leader, Nnamdi Kanu is currently facing trial in Abuja for treason.
The Nigerian Army has commissioned its first mega fuel service station built by the Nigerian Army Properties Limited and located along Dr...

The Nigerian Army has commissioned its first mega fuel service station built by the Nigerian Army Properties Limited and located along Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe Road in Western Bypass, Minna.At the opening ceremony held on Friday, President Muhammadu Buhari commended the Nigerian armed Forces leadership for their commitment and zeal in tackling security issues across Nigeria.He also applauded the successes of the Armed Forces in the counter-Insurgency Operations in the north eastern part of Nigeria while urging them to sustain the tempo.The president was represented by the Chief of Defence Staff, General Gabriel Olonisakin.He assured the military that his administration would continue to provide the much needed support to the Armed Forces for efficient service delivery and effective discharge of their responsibilities.The Chief of Defence Staff stated that the noble relationship behind the establishment of the project was quite commendable and legendary, adding that it was part of the current efforts to reposition the Nigerian Army to meet with the contemporary realities.He said that the establishment of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited projects had made the Service optimum utilisation of its human and material assets into profitable business ventures towards improving the welfare and well beings of the Nigerian Armed Forces at large and their families as well as the general populace.He stressed that the Company could also afford the Nigerian Army the opportunity to effectively engage all the arms and services in their various areas of specialisations to enhance service delivery.General Olonisakin also told the gathering that one of the few priorities of the Buharis administration was the enhancement of the capacity of the Armed Forces to discharge their duties effectively.I am therefore particularly glad that this project which is being commissioned today is a step in the right direction. I therefore congratulate the Nigerian Army for this giant stride which is in line with the policy direction of the present administration, he stated.The Presidents representative further assured the military that the government would not relent in providing the much needed support to the Armed Forces for efficient service delivery and effective discharge of their responsibilities.Also, in his remarks at the occasion, the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, said the newly commissioned mega fuel service station was pacesetter in the current drive to reposition the Nigerian Army for contemporary realities.He explained that the project was in line with his vision of having a professionally responsive Nigerian Army in the discharge of its constitutional roles, emphasising that the Service had also diversified attention into areas that would improve the welfare and well-being of the Nigerian Armed Forces personnel, their families and the civil populace.He also thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for his continuous support and for standing solidly behind the Nigerian Armed Forces in combating the insecurity in the northeast.Lt. Gen. Buratai also told the gathering that the Nigerian Armed Forces had made appreciable progress in the fight against terror and implored Nigerian Army personnel to continue to remain professionally responsive and loyal to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.The fuel service station has four pumps for petrol and one each for Diesel and Kerosene including a Supermarket and a Mechanic Workshop.It will operate a 24-hour service daily and the military plans to replicate the project in Enugu, Ibadan, Kaduna, Lagos, Maiduguri, Port Harcourt and Abuja among others.
A businessman, Uba Emmanuel Abraham is entangled in a legal battle with a popular Lagos-based cleric, Pastor Lazarus Muoka of the Lords ...

A businessman, Uba Emmanuel Abraham is entangled in a legal battle with a popular Lagos-based cleric, Pastor Lazarus Muoka of the Lords Chosen Church Inc., over some properties at Jakande Estate, Lagos State and Independence Layout Enugu, Enugu State.Abraham, who accused the Lagos-based popular pastor of falsifying the documents of his (Abrahams) independence Layout property at Enugu, Enugu State, in favour of his church, also alleged threats to his life.But Muoka, through his lawyer, Mr, Obioma Oti, said Abraham had been paid for both properties.Abraham, who hails from Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State, said he joined Muokas church in 2005 on his late mothers advice after he returned from Japan.He said his travail began when he decided to leave Muokas church, and he asked Muokas Lords Chosen Church congregation to vacate his (Abrahams) No. 2 Lemon Street house at Phase II, Lagos.It was against this background, according to Abraham, that Muoka allegedly connived with one Ikedi Igbokwe, whom the pastor introduced to Abrahams family as a house boy to give his propertys documents to Muoka while he was away in Japan in 2009.According to Abraham, on his return to the country he had demanded for his propertys documents from Muoka.Abraham further alleged that Muoka, through Oti, denied knowledge and receipt of the documents but requested for N1m to search for them. Abraham claimed he refused to give any money but headed for the court where he swore to an affidavit for the lost documents to authenticate the ownership of his property.Abraham also claimed that Mouka falsified and registered his (Abrahams) Independence Layout, Enugu property with the Enugu State Ministry of Lands in favour of his church after the March 2011 tsunami, thinking he (Abraham) had died in the disaster.But when I came back from Japan and tried to survey and register the property, the fraud was discovered. Confident that the property belongs to me and in a bid to get those behind the fraud, I fenced the property and built a bungalow on it and nobody came out to lay claims to the land, Abraham added.He added that after his relocation to Lagos, the property was pulled down by some youths allegedly sent by Muoka.Abraham said, I invited the police, who arrested the suspects. They confessed they were sponsored by Muoka. The matter had since been taken to court.He noted that he had been under threats from Muoka and his agents since 2011. Sometimes, they would call me for negotiation and then send attackers after me. My life is in danger, he said.Abrahams counsel, Mr. Benjamin Nduka, accused the Lords Chosen Church of trying to avoid appearing in court as neither the church nor her counsel had appeared in court for the two cases.Nduka said since the church was duly served the court summons, he would approach the court with a motion to compel it to appear in court, the only institution with the capacity to adjudicate on such matters.The Divisional Crime Officer at the Independent Layout Police Station Enugu, Mr. Igbochi Igbo, in a text message referred newsmen to the DPO.When contacted, one of Muokas pastors in Lagos, Francis Eze, said he did not know anything about the said property in Enugu.Speaking for Muoka, Oti, said Abraham was paid N2m for the half plot in Jakande Estate, Lagos.He also claimed that Abraham was paid N1.7m for the plot at Enugu eight years ago when there was no form of property development around the area.He said, We fenced the two pieces of land in Lagos and Enugu, but to our greatest dismay, Uba (Abraham) went and demolished the fence at the Independence Layout. We reported the matter to the police and that is why the police are looking for him.Oti said Abraham was trying to drag the image of the church in the mud.He said the church never mandated Abraham to sell his landed property to them, but that Abraham disposed the land when his business in Japan crumbled.Oti said the matter was in court and that he would not like to discuss it in depth.
The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ife Central State Constituency Dipo Eluwole, has won the by-election conducted to fil...

The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ife Central State Constituency Dipo Eluwole, has won the by-election conducted to fill the vacant seat at the Osun State House of Assembly.The by election was conducted on Saturday but the Independent National Electoral Commission declared the poll inconclusive because results from two polling units were cancelled and a rerun election was conducted on Sunday.The PDP candidate scored 5,504 votes at the end as the candidate of the Accord Party, Olusegun Fanibe came second with 4,790 votes while the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Tilewa Sijuwade came third with 4,587 votes.The APs candidate, who recently defected from the PDP, put up a strong show in the poll and he also is spoilt the chances of his former party.With the victory, the PDP retains the two seats it earlier won during the general election in. 2015,The seat became vacant following the death of the Minority Leader, Mr. Oladejo Makinde of the PDP on December 27, 2015.
The State Security Service (SSS) in Nigeria announced on Saturday that it has discovered mass graves of Hausa-Fulani residents abducte...

The State Security Service (SSS) in Nigeria announced on Saturday that it has discovered mass graves of Hausa-Fulani residents abducted and murdered by suspected members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, in Abia State.The agency said IPOB carried out the massacre of people of northern Nigerian origin as part of its efforts to destabilise the country.In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, the SSS said the killing has triggered tension among different communities in Abia State.Although Mr. Opuiyo said five men were killed alongside several other unidentified persons, only the names of four individuals were provided.The Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed Gainako, Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State, Mr. Opuiyo said.The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action, he added.Mr. Opuiyo said he was alerting Nigerians to the divisive and gruesome activities of IPOB operatives, allegedly led by fiery broadcaster, Nnamdi Kanu.Mr. Kanu has been standing trial for treasonable felony since he his arrest on October 17, 2015, after entering Nigeria from the UK where he lives.It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country.Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country, Mr. Opuiyo said.In a related development, the SSS has released an update on the recent incarceration of Khalid al-Barnawi, a former Boko Haram leader, in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, describing it as a major breakthrough.This Service wish (sic) to inform the general public that further to its efforts to stem the tide of terrorism in the Country, it has recorded another major breakthrough in the arrest of one Mohammed USMAN, widely known as Khalid al-Barnawi, alias Kafuri/ Naziru/Alhaji Yahaya/Malam Dauda/Alhaji Tanimu.Khalid al-Barnawj was apprehended by this Service on 1st April, 2016, in Lokoja, Kogi State, while hiding under a false cover. Al-Barnawi was a founding member of the Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid Dawah Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jamaat Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS).Khalid al-Barnawi is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.Subject was involved in many terrorist attacks in States of the Federation, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja.This resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this Country. Al-Barnawi is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26th August, 2011; the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar Raupach in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jamaare, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.Meanwhile, subject would soon be charged to Court to face his charges after investigation is completed.This arrest is a major milestone in the counter-terrorism fight of this Service. This arrest has strengthened the Services resolve that no matter how long and far perpetrators of crime and their sponsors may run, this Service in collaboration with other sister security agencies, will bring them to justice.
Because he won't own up to his failings, Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman needs to go
WASHINGTON (AP)  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to Donald Trump. The nine-member panel sent a letter to the former president's lawyers on Friday, demanding his testimony under oath by mid-November and outlining a series of corresponding documents. The decision by lawmakers to exercise their subpoena power comes a week after the committee made its final case against the former president, who they say is the "central cause" of the multi-part effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It remains unclear how Trump and his legal team will respond to the subpoena, if at all.
Starting Tuesday, as more than 20 plaintiffs claim convicted sex abuser Dennis Jones and his former employer invaded their privacy and violated their trust, Jones will wait for the verdict from his Texas prison cell.

The civil trial between the plaintiffs versus Jones and Methodist Physicians Clinic will begin with jury selection at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Jones will not be able to travel from his cell at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fort Worth, Texas, to appear at his civil trial. He will be represented by attorney Michael Winter.

When the trial begins, according to court documents, the plaintiffs attorneys, Randy and Emily Shanks, will argue that their plaintiffs were long-standing patients of Jones and Methodist Physicians Clinic who trusted the defendants with their health care needs and had confidence that the defendants would not betray that trust relationship.

Additionally, the Shanks will argue that Jones, while an employee of Methodist Physicians Clinic, photographed and videotaped the plaintiffs examinations without their knowledge or consent.

Jones turned himself into authorities on May 20, 2013, on suspicion he had inappropriate sexual contact with a 5-year-old girl. As Council Bluffs police and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation investigated the initial charges, a search of Jones residence led them to child pornography.

During forensic analysis of seized computers, external hard drives and other electronic equipment, law enforcement located an estimated 1.2 million images and 9,200 videos of child pornography, including pornography containing minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Soon after, the pornography was found, a civil suit was filed against Jones and Methodist Physicians Clinic. According to court records, Randy Shanks filed his petition on May 8, 2014.

Fifteen days after Shanks filed his petition, Jones pleaded guilty to federal charges that he knowingly possessed child pornography that included images of a prepubescent child or children under 12 years of age.

Jones was sentenced on both federal and state charges relating to sexual abuse and child pornography charges.

On April 19, 2014, Fourth Judicial District Court Judge Richard Davidson accepted Jones guilty plea to the state charge of lascivious acts with a child, a Class C felony. Davidson sentenced Jones to the maximum of 10 years in prison, to be served concurrently with a more than 10-year (121-month) federal sentence on child pornography charges. Concurrently means the two sentences will be served at the same time.

Michael Ellwanger, a Sioux City-based attorney, will defend Methodist Physicians Clinic.
When Melissa and Roland Ron Donoho decided to get married, Melissas family was there to help.

The couple has been together 17 years. In January, they learned Ron has a terminal illness.

We thought we better do it now, or well never do it, Melissa Donoho said.

Melissa Donoho is the housekeeping director at Heritage at Fox Run, a Council Bluffs retirement community. Executive director Ron Perry encouraged his coworker to have the wedding at the facility.

Shes a big part of this family here, Perry said. It just made sense.

On March 26, Heritage hosted its first wedding, with a number of Malones coworkers pitching in to help.

Office director Diann Owens did alterations on Malones wedding dress, adding camouflage pieces for the avid hunter. Amber Jones, senior living counselor, made a sheet cake for the event, and her 3-year-old son Taven was ring bearer. Activities assistant Jane Tedesco did Malones hair and makeup.

Cook Phil Hollands sister, Mary Coufal, took photos, while Hollands aunt Andrea Bollig did the hunting-themed wedding cake, replete with a deer bride and groom cake topper. The Heritage home office in Omaha donated the grooms cake.

Were her family, Tedesco said. It was a privilege to be a part of it.

Jones explained coming together to help their fellow employee wasnt a hard choice.

We all eat together, we got to talking about the wedding, Jones said while the Donohos and Melissas coworkers discussed the wedding at Heritage. I said, Ill make a cake, Phil said, well I know someone.... We all decided to pitch in.

A group of about 100 people attended the wedding, with most packed into the small Heritage chapel and overflow in the common area. The event which featured a low-key reception with cake, ice cream and photos afterward.

The gathered included family, friends and Melissas Heritage coworkers. Among the group were most of the facilitys 71 residents.

It was very special, resident Jim Wathen said while taking a break during a game of ladder ball with his friends. She included everybody.

The Donohos shares a love of hunting, fishing, laughter and life.

Ron Donoho is an Underwood native, graduating from Underwood High School in 1968. Melissa Donoho, nee Malone, is Council Bluffs native and 1997 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School. Theyve known each other for years.

He was a family friend. We went fishing together, Malone said.

During an interview, Ron Donoho was mostly quiet and fatigued, but he said he enjoyed the wedding.

It was nice, really. I like it, he said with a smile. This gave us more than just going to a chapel.

During the interview, Melissa Donoho helped her husband walk from the business office to the chapel, putting an arm on his shoulders for support.

She said shes thankful for the support from her family as she juggles work and caring for her husband.

Awesome, the newlywed said. We loved it.
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Royal Canadian Legion branches in Sudbury honoured the 99th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 10.

Royal Canadian Legion branches in Sudbury honoured the 99th anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge on April 10.



Between April 9 and April 12, 1917, four divisions of the Canadian Expeditionary Force fought a fierce battle against three divisions of the German Sixth Army. The Canucks were tasked with taking control of the high ground to protect a British advance in the Battle of Arras, itself a diversion for a French attack against the Germans called the Nivelle Offensive.



Vimy Ridge was the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together, and ever since has been seen as a moment that helped define the Canadian identity. The Canadian National Vimy Memorial, at the site of the battle, is still visited by countless Canadians.



The sacrifice of those soldiers was at the forefront when Legion members, as well as the Irish Regiment, Greater Sudbury Police Service, Polish Combatants Association, and the Navy, Sea and Army Cadets marched from Tom Davies Square to the Church of the Epiphany for a memorial service.



Kent Hehr, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence, and Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of National Defence, issued the following statement commemorating Vimy Ridge Day:



"Today we remember the Battle of Vimy Ridge, fought over four days beginning April 9, 1917, which many believe marked Canada's coming of age as a nation. Of the 100,000 Canadians who fought in this First World War battle, more than 7,000 were wounded and nearly 3,600 lost their lives. Canadian bravery in the face of difficult circumstance was the hallmark of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, and has become the standard by which our Canadian Armed Forces operate today.



"While we can never fully appreciate what our soldiers experienced at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 99 years ago, we will remember and honour them. We are forever indebted to those who served and those who sacrificed their lives in defence of our country. Many paid the ultimate sacrifice to help ensure the peace and freedom for which Canada is recognized around the world.



"Every year, on this day, communities across Canada pay tribute to the soldiers who fought at Vimy Ridge. The courage of our Canadian heroes will never be forgotten."
The Nebraska 4-H Foundation would like to congratulate the Young Riders 4-H Club for being awarded the Nebraska 4-H Club of the Month for March 2016. This 4-H Club, of Broken Bow in Custer County, has truly made a difference in their community.

The Young Riders 4-H Club has been very active with fundraising efforts to help their local county fairgrounds. The club hosted a bake sale to help raise money for fairgrounds improvements and also donated enough money to purchase a sign for the fairgrounds entrance to help visitors during their stay at the fairgrounds.

The membership for Young Riders has increased significantly in the past year, with a 20 percent increase in active participating members.

Lastly, the club hosts an open 4-H horse show that is open to all participants enrolled in the 4-H horse project in Nebraska. The members solicit sponsors for awards and lunch.

The Nebraska 4-H Foundation provides the 4-H Club of the Month program to all Nebraska 4-H clubs throughout the state.

For more information, contact the Custer County Extension office at 308-872-6831 or e-mail custer-county@unl.edu.
LOWELL  More than 140 people gathered Saturday at the Lake County Highway Department garage to hear how to defeat a proposed privately funded $8 billion, 278-mile long rail line that would cut through southern Lake County and southern Porter County on its way from Wisconsin to LaPorte.

Sponsored by Lake County commissioner Gerry Scheub, D-Crown Point, and state Sen. Rick Niemeyer, R-Lowell, the informational meeting also drew state Rep. Mike Aylesworth, R-Hebron, and Tri-Creek School Corp. Superintendent Debra Howe as well as representatives of Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain, said spokeswoman Kathleen Honl.

All are opposed to Great Lakes Basin Transportation LLCs proposal to build a rail line whose tracks could accommodate the carrying capacity of 110 freight trains a day and would be designed to offer freight trains a route around the congested lines through Chicago.

If the proposal is granted, there would be one train on the tracks every 13 minutes, according to the Great Lakes Basin Transportations plans, said Bob Cauffman, of Residents Against the Invasion of Land by Eminent Domain.

Based in Crete, Ill., the company was formed in 2010 by managing partner Frank Patton. A 1966 graduate of the University of Iowa, Patton holds a business degree and owned a company specializing in software services for 32 years.

However, Patton has no railroad experience, said Cauffman during his PowerPoint presentation.

We didnt hear about this (proposal) until March 22, less than two weeks ago, said Scheub. Weve joined hands with Porter County and are with them 100 percent. Our goals are to defeat this.

He has proposed an alternate route with train traffic diverted to the existing Norfolk Southern tracks, which run through the town of Schneider and the community of Shelby in Lake County and the town of Wheatfield in northern Jasper County.

Although Scheub called the proposed rail line another insult to south county," he said "we have to have the STB (U.S. Surface Transportation Board) on our side. We cant say insult next Tuesday at the STB meeting.'

That meeting with the federal agency begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Lowell VFW Hall, 17401 Morse St. The STB agreed to host an additional public meeting from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Tuesday at Aberdeen Manor Ballroom, 216 Ballantrae St. in Valparaiso.

Howe emphasized the negative impacts on education including noise and vibration. The rail lines route would take it close to Lowell Middle School.

The school system is on record being opposed to this, she said.

The Porter County Board of Commissioners also approved a resolution 3-0 opposing the project out of concern for drainage, decreased property values, safety issues and potential road closures.

The STB could take one of three actions on the rail line proposal, Scheub said.

They can approve whats requested. They could take an alternate route or they could deny it, he said. We want it defeated, period.

In addition to attending Tuesdays STB meetings, residents are encouraged to email their concerns to the STB website, www.stb.dot.gov and contact their elected officials by email. The deadline for submitting those comments has just been extended to June 15.
VALPARAISO  AAUW Valparaiso announces the 2016 Equal Pay Day observance, the Unhappy Hour," to be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Tuesday. Equal Pay Day reflects how far into 2016 women must work to match what men earned in 2015. The Unhappy Hour is a cocktail party at Casa Del Roma featuring a cash bar and snacks, and a presentation by Dr. Amy Atchinson, assistant professor of political science at Valparaiso University. The public is invited to attend.

Dr. Atchison has recently returned from the United Nations where she was a member of an eightmember delegation of the American Association of University Women who participated in the UNs 60th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. Dr. Atchinson was one of only two university women on the delegation which discussed female empowerment as a human rights issue, stressing that promoting womens rights encourages better sustainable development initiatives. As part of her mission to bring the UN conversation to Valparaiso, she will speak to the Unhappy Hour attendees about womens rights issues that lead to the wage gap. In all areas of the economy, studies by AAUW reported in the publication The Simple Truth about the Equal Pay Gap show that women with equal qualifications and educations earn 21 percent less than men, or about two million fewer dollars throughout a comparable career.

Dr. Atchison spent 10 years in corporate America before earning a PhD in political science from the University of Tennessee. She teaches comparative politics and public policy courses at Valparaiso University and is doing research on gender issues as they relate to politics in advanced industrial nations.

AAUW invites interested persons from both genders to join the conversation on womens rights and economics. Donations to the AAUW scholarship fund will be accepted. Those wearing red will win a prize. More information on the Unhappy Hour is available at aauwvalparaiso.org, and on the issue of equal pay at the national website, aauw.org. To RSVP to attend the Unhappy Hour, call (219) 766-2529.
After two journeys across the Atlantic and a six-month adventure in Europe, Julia Jackson came back to Purdue University Northwest with a broad knowledge of seven different cultures.

While studying abroad in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Jackson devoted free time and spare weekends to venture to Belgium, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Jackson, a senior pursuing her bachelors degree in communication with a minor in global studies, was one of three Purdue University Northwest students to choose the study abroad program at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Jackson lived in Rotterdam from January until June of last year.

Although Jackson had never visited Europe, it was not her first excursion abroad. At 18, Jackson lived in the Philippines for two months.

That was the moment that I realized I wanted to absorb as many cultures and as many beautiful sights as I can in my life and thats what really drove me to the Netherlands, Jackson said.

Jackson wanted to do an exchange program that lasted more than a few weeks and Erasmus University was the best choice for her, she said. The university had classes that went along with her major, including classes in media and communication. These courses ranged from film courses to the ethics of communication.

Most of her travels during her exchange were unplanned or last-minute decisions. Jackson said her first adventure was a two-hour train ride to Brussels, which was decided on a Wednesday.

We left in a few days and we were like, 'OK, see ya!'" Jackson said.

She said travel is relatively cheap and easy in Europe because the countries are smaller and closer together.

She was able to visit Prague and Budapest in one week. She saw two completely different countries, one filled with castles and the other with city life and the countryside.

She also visited Paris twice during her exchange.

That was my first 'ah-ha' moment, and I was on the edge of tears the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower up close, she said.

Her mother joined for Jacksons second visit to Paris. They also traveled together to Krakow, Poland, to get a better understanding of their Polish heritage.

Jackson was invited to stay in a friends home in Germany during Easter.

Everyone got together around a bonfire, burning Christmas trees and other wood. It symbolized the coming of spring, Jackson said. She said it was nice to experience Easter in a different way.

Jackson said her foreign journey came with highs and lows, from school to homesickness, but was ultimately life-changing.

I learned how to love myself, and I think thats a hard thing, Jackson said.

She recently traveled to Cancun, Mexcio, with her boyfriend. They visited the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza. She hopes to return to Rotterdam soon and travel to more European countries as she continues to fill the pages of her passport.

Jackson will graduate this December and is looking into graduate school.
Mr. Conrad grew up in Baltimore and Northern Virginia. At Harvard he majored in mathematics and was exposed to the radically unconventional musical ideas of John Cage and Karlheinz Stockhausen, both of whom lectured in Cambridge, Mass.

After his graduation in 1962, Mr. Conrad briefly worked as a computer programmer and immersed himself in New Yorks experimental music scene. As part of Mr. Youngs ensemble, he performed seemingly improvisational pieces that involved holding notes for what might have felt like hours at a time. Some audiences found the music maddening; others were exalted.

It appeared as if Schoenberg had destroyed music, Mr. Conrad said in an interview with The Guardian in March, referring to the revolutionary Austrian composer. Then it appeared as if Cage had destroyed Schoenberg. Our project was to destroy Cage.

Mr. Conrad considered The Flicker, accompanied by a soundtrack of what he called homemade electronic music, to be an extension of ideas that he shared with Mr. Young. In a 1966 interview with the Village Voice critic Jonas Mekas, Mr. Conrad explained that he was working within a form of light that is broken down not into areas or into colors but into frequencies.

As austere as it was, The Flicker had the power to cause viewers to see color patterns, and even to induce hallucinations. Although there were some who did not consider The Flicker to be a film at all, it was included at the 1966 New York Film Festival. A photograph of a festival audience watching the film shows most people shielding their eyes or plugging their ears  and one spectator who seems transfixed.

In 1970, Anthology Film Archives, a center in New York for the preservation, study and exhibition of film and video, included The Flicker on its list of essential works of cinema art.
William Hamilton, a cartoonist whose work for The New Yorker over more than 50 years was known for skewering the wealthy and the powerful, died on Friday in a car crash in Lexington, Ky. He was 76.

His wife, Lucy Young Hamilton, confirmed his death.

She said he was driving about four miles from their horse farm when he either passed out or was distracted and drove through a stop sign. His vehicle was struck on the drivers side by a pickup truck, she said.

Lt. Jackie Newman of the Lexington Police Department said the collision happened on a rural road around 2:45 p.m. Mr. Hamilton was pronounced dead at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington.

Mr. Hamilton, who also wrote novels and plays, began his career with The New Yorker in 1965 and was still working there at his death.
Mariloly Orozco and Michael Edward Casas were married April 9 at Epiphany Catholic Church in Coral Gables, Fla. Msgr. Jude ODoherty, a Roman Catholic priest, performed the ceremony with the Rev. Nicholas Monco, also a Catholic priest and a cousin of the groom, taking part.

The bride, 27, is a law clerk for Judge Martin Glenn of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. She graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Florida and received a law degree from Cornell. She is the daughter of Gabriela Orozco and Jose Orozco of Palm City, Fla. The brides father retired as the owner of a grocery store in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Her mother is an independent nursing assistant in Palm City.

The groom, 28, is an associate specializing in mergers and acquisitions at the New York law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher. He graduated from Northwestern and also received a law degree from Cornell. He is a son of Alicia A. Casas and Ramon F. Casas of Coral Gables, Fla. The grooms father owns a public relations firm in Miami that bears his name.

Ms. Orozco and Mr. Casas met in August 2010 on the side of a road in Ithaca, N.Y. Mr. Casas, then a second-year law student at Cornell, found Ms. Orozco, a first-year law student, dealing with car trouble.
BUENOS AIRES  An Argentine federal prosecutor is seeking to include former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in a widening investigation into money laundering, according to news media reports on Saturday.

The prosecutor, Guillermo Marijuan, made the decision after a financier, who had been jailed in a separate case, gave lengthy testimony on Friday, according to Telam, the state news agency.

The judge overseeing the investigation, Sebastian Casanello, must decide how to proceed with the recommendation to investigate Mrs. Kirchner, the countrys president from 2007 until last December, and Julio de Vido, a prominent former minister in her administration.

It is unclear whether Mr. Marijuan hasactually filed the recommendation yet. Efforts to speak to his office on Saturday evening were unsuccessful.
SYDNEY, Australia  Kim Cobb, a marine scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technology, expected the coral to be damaged when she plunged into the deep blue waters off Kiritimati Island, a remote atoll near the center of the Pacific Ocean. Still, she was stunned by what she saw as she descended some 30 feet to the rim of a coral outcropping.

The entire reef is covered with a red-brown fuzz, Dr. Cobb said when she returned to the surface after her recent dive. It is otherworldly. It is algae that has grown over dead coral. It was devastating.

The damage off Kiritimati is part of a mass bleaching of coral reefs around the world, only the third on record and possibly the worst ever. Scientists believe that heat stress from multiple weather events including the latest, severe El Nino, compounded by climate change, has threatened more than a third of Earths coral reefs. Many may not recover.

Coral reefs are the crucial incubators of the oceans ecosystem, providing food and shelter to a quarter of all marine species, and they support fish stocks that feed more than one billion people. They are made up of millions of tiny animals, called polyps, that form symbiotic relationships with algae, which in turn capture sunlight and carbon dioxide to make sugars that feed the polyps.
Government forces were deployed to kill or capture the Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and has been hunted for years for his involvement in several terrorist attacks, three military officials said.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Mr. Hapilons capture and prosecution.

The Abu Sayyaf militants, many of whom were armed with grenade launchers, reinforced their ranks as the fighting raged and inflicted heavy casualties on government troops, the officials said.

The fighting lasted for more than nine hours, they said.

Among the militants who were killed was a Moroccan who was identified as Mohammad Khattab, and one of Mr. Hapilons sons, Major Tan said, adding that about 20 other gunmen were wounded.

It was the largest single-day loss of government fighters this year in the south, where the military has been battling Muslim separatist rebels and Marxist guerrillas.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, India  More than 80 people were killed early Sunday in a fire that broke out during a fireworks display in a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala, a top official said.

Another 200 were injured as people became trapped by flames in the crowded Paravoor temple in the city of Kollam during a major festival, said Ramesh Chennithala, the state home minister.

The fire started when a spark during a fireworks display ignited a separate batch of fireworks that had been stored in the Puttingal temple complex in Paravoor village, a few hours north of Keralas state capital of Thiruvananthapuram, Mr. Chennithala said. The fireworks were to be used in the Hindu new year festival called Vishu this Thursday, he said.
The idea was simple but novel: Take one picture of as many women in New York Citys varied comedy scenes as possible.

And so on Saturday afternoon, despite the cold and rain, more than 200 female comedians gathered to have their photo taken together at a performance space in Brooklyn. Amid a festive, buzzing energy, some of the comedians were in formal wear and extravagant makeup, while a few were in full costume (an elderly woman with a walker, a Vine star with painted-on eyeglasses and crab claw hands). The motley looks could have come from the Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover.

Balanced on a stepladder in front of the risers of women, the photographer Mindy Tucker paused to reflect on the moment. Ive been in comedy a long time, and this has never happened before, she said as the room cheered.
A. Forbes has been an amazing company, but most of its culture and business had been built around a print business. When I came on board, it was time to shift toward the Internet, while honoring the old, because Forbes still publishes profitably in the United States and we publish in 37 different countries, so the print element of our business is still very strong. But we changed the culture from this old line of traditional print publishing business, and all that goes with that, to a digital, technology-based business, and that was a very big shift. Many people welcomed it because they could see where the business and the industry was going; some people had to learn there were ways to balance the old culture with the new one. Inevitably, there is that kind of youre in or youre out moment with a new culture, and there are some people who arent going to adapt to that.

So you find the right way to let them move on. You cant please everyone as a chief.

Q. But ideally, you want to get as many employees to buy into your new vision. How do you do that?

A. Listening at first is critically important. Long-term employees have a lot of answers for a new C.E.O. They really know what needs to be done to create success. Finding the right time to transition from listening to creating a strategic plan, working closely with your team, and moving toward very directed and sometimes very different actions, I think, is the most interesting and exciting part of the process. But it always starts with listening. Over the last five years, we went from 15 million unique visitors a month to almost 50 million a month, and weve had a lot of success through innovation and a new approach of building the content platform and monetizing it. And one of the most gratifying things for us is what I call boomerang staffers, people who had left sometime along the timeline and came back: Weve had at least two dozen of those.

Q. What do you see a key challenge for a leader?

A. What Ive learned over the years is that everyone needs to have their replacement somewhere in the organization. We should all be thinking about if were not here, who is going to do our job? Ive tried to solve this by having a program in place where people are always training their successor.

Q. That could also create a feeling of unease.

A. Yes. But if you are more threatened by it than empowered by it, then youve got to work on that.

And its not just about training your replacement: If you think youre really good at your job and you feel youre performing at 110 percent, but you want to be a great manager and you need to mobilize action from people, you have to be willing to manage people who are only going to be able to do it at 80 to 90 percent of the effectiveness that you have, and let go of responsibilities that you know you can do better than anyone, to someone who is not as experienced and skilled, but might do it at a very efficient rate. Its a hard thing to do and learn, but its so important in organizations.

Q. How much have you changed as a leader over the years?

A. Im more patient, Im more willing to wait a little longer to pull the trigger on whatever decision one needs to make in order to really inform that decision with all the information that is necessary.
The Treasurys schedule of financing this week includes Mondays regular weekly auction of new three- and six-month bills and an auction of four-week bills on Tuesday.

At the close of the New York cash market on Friday, the rate on the outstanding three-month bill was 0.23 percent. The rate on the six-month issue was 0.34 percent, and the rate on the four-week issue was 0.19 percent.

The following tax-exempt fixed-income issues are scheduled for pricing this week:

MONDAY

Florida Board of Education, $220 million of debt securities. Competitive.

TUESDAY

Alaska Municipal Bond Bank, $70.4 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

California, $74.6 million of revenue bonds. Competitive.

Colorado, $154.6 million of Platte River Power Authority general obligation bonds. Competitive.
ROCHESTER, N.Y.  Gov. John Kasichs first visit to upstate New York last week was moved twice to accommodate a crowd larger than anticipated.

But that positive bit of news for Mr. Kasich, reported in The Post-Standard of Syracuse on Friday, was upstaged by a headline blaring Trump to Visit, announcing an event more than a week away.

For Mr. Kasich, the Ohio governor, and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, that is how every day in the run-up to the New York primary on April 19 seems to be playing out  with excruciating reminders that on Donald J. Trumps home turf, they will forever grasp for an edge that appears to recede.

Mr. Kasich spoke on Friday to about 1,000 people in Syracuse, one of the biggest crowds of his campaign. But, Mr. Trump drew far more to an airport hangar in Rochester on Sunday, where he ripped the rules of the Republican nominating race that might allow an opponent who has fewer delegates than he has to win the nomination at the national convention.
MANILA  At least 18 soldiers were killed and more than 50 wounded in a gun battle in the southern Philippines between government forces and the militant group Abu Sayyaf, military officials said Sunday.

Among the militants, the dead included a Moroccan bomb maker and the son of a rebel leader, the military said. It also said more than 20 rebels were believed to have been wounded, but offered no additional details.

The firefight took place on Saturday on the southwestern island of Basilan and lasted 10 hours, the military said. The day before, Abu Sayyaf had released Rolando del Torchio, a former Italian missionary turned restaurateur who was kidnapped from his pizzeria in the southern Philippine city of Dipolog in October.

At least 20 other foreign citizens are still being held by the group.

The military did not make a connection on Sunday between the release of Mr. del Torchio and the gun battle, other than that both involved factions of Abu Sayyaf.
BRUSSELS  The announcement on Sunday that the plotters of last months Brussels terror attacks had originally intended to hit Paris again only heightened the concern among police and intelligence agencies that shadowy Islamic State networks could unleash new attacks at any time, not only in France and Belgium but in other European capitals.

As intelligence experts and officials took stock of what they have learned since the Nov. 13 assaults in and around Paris, which killed 130 people, several things have come into focus. The scale of the Islamic States operations in Europe are still not known, but they appear to be larger and more layered than investigators at first realized; if the Paris and Brussels attacks are any model, the plotters will rely on local criminal networks in addition to committed extremists.

Even as the United States, its allies and Russia have killed leaders of the Islamic State, and have rolled back some of the extremist organizations gains on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State appears to be posing a largely hidden and lethal threat across much of Europe.

When Belgian prosecutors announced that Mohamed Abrini, one of the men arrested on Friday, had confessed to being the mysterious third man in the Brussels Airport bombing, it seemed to mark a rare victory for Belgian law enforcement, which has struggled to track down extremists. But it also was a reminder of the ease with which the Islamic States operatives move across borders and the shifting roles that suspects play: According to prosecutors, Mr. Abrini was a logistician in the Paris attacks but was meant to be a bomber in the Brussels attack  except that his bomb failed to explode.
LONDON  Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, admitting that he had made a mess of responding to questions about his inheritance from his father, who had an investment company offshore, on Sunday released information from his tax returns for the past six years.

Mr. Cameron has moved belatedly to try to defuse a furor over his finances in the wake of the release last week of leaked information about offshore companies in the so-called Panama Papers, which showed that his father, Ian, was a director of an offshore trust that paid no British taxes.

Mr. Cameron insisted that neither he nor his father had done anything illegal. He said all taxes due had been paid on proceeds from the fund and on an inheritance of 300,000 pounds, or about $424,000 according to current exchange rates, that he received when his father died in 2010.

The tax information Mr. Cameron released also showed that he received 200,000 (about $282,400) from his mother in 2011, on which he will pay no inheritance tax if she lives until 2018, but more questions were raised about whether those funds came from offshore accounts.
KIEV, Ukraine  Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, the prime minister of Ukraine, announced his resignation on Sunday in a surprise move that opened a new period of political uncertainty here.

Mr. Yatsenyuk, an economist backed by Ukraines Western allies, including the United States, came to power two years ago behind the wave of popular anger that culminated with the Maidan street protests, which led to the downfall of President Viktor F. Yanukovych. Mr. Yatsenyuk and Petro O. Poroshenko, who became president, emerged as the nations most prominent political figures.

But the revolutions leaders soon turned on each other. Although authority is supposed to be balanced evenly between the president and the prime minister, Ukraines Western allies eventually sided with Mr. Poroshenko and pushed Mr. Yatsenyuk to step aside.

In recent months, both men had been resisting compromises on appointments and were reportedly thwarting corruption investigations into allies, threatening Western aid.
WASHINGTON  With the Obama administration in its final year, several officials have said that the president has grown so frustrated with trying to revive Middle East peace talks that he may lay down his own outline for an Israeli-Palestinian two-state peace agreement, in the form of a resolution in the United Nations Security Council.

If that happens, count on two reactions: Israels prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, will oppose it, and a chorus of American politicians and commentators will suggest that it would be unprecedented  even unthinkable  for an American president to support a Security Council resolution that Israel opposed, rather than veto it.

Last spring, when similar reports circulated, Senator John McCain of Arizona said that such an action would contradict American policy for the last at least 10 presidents of the United States. The Republican chairman and ranking Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs Committee joined in a letter protesting that for decades the U.S. has used its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Israel from undue pressure at the world body. A bipartisan group of senators agreed, seeking assurances that the policy would not change.

Remarkably, the assumption beneath those protests  that President Obama would be committing an unprecedented betrayal of the American-Israeli relationship if he did not block every Security Council resolution that challenged the actions or positions of Israels government  has gone unchallenged.
PARIS  The Belgian federal prosecutor confirmed Saturday that Mohamed Abrini  who was arrested Friday afternoon  was the man in the hat captured in surveillance footage alongside two suicide bombers at Brussels Airport on March 22.

Abrini had been at large since the Brussels attacks, which killed 32 and injured hundreds more at the airport in Zaventem and a metro station close to the headquarters of the European Union. Footage showed him calmly walking out of the airport and into the city, where he disappeared.

He was arrested Friday in the Schaerbeek section of Brussels, not far from the apartment where he and his collaborators left for the airport on the morning of the attacks.

After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene, the federal prosecutor said in a statement. He explained having thrown away his vest in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards.

Abrini was also a significant actor in the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13, 2015, which killed 130 and injured hundreds more in a coordinated series of shootings and suicide bombings at a stadium, concert hall and restaurants across the French capital.

According to European investigative files obtained by The Washington Post, Abrini ferried fellow terrorists back and forth across the French-Belgian border in the days leading up to the attacks. He was seen on camera with Brahim Abdeslam, who detonated a suicide bomb outside a Paris cafe, and with Salah Abdeslam, who was arrested in Brussels on March 18.

The documents also suggest that Abrini probably traveled from Europe to Syria and back, via Turkey, in the months before the November attacks.

In addition to Abrini, suspects identified as Osama K., Herve B.M. and Bilal E.M. have been charged with terrorist murder and participating in the activities of a terrorist group, the prosecutors office said Saturday.

Despite these arrests, Belgiums Interior Minister Jan Jambon was quick to point out that more terrorists could still be at work in the small nation that has become a hotbed for radical Islamist activity in Europe.

There are perhaps other cells that are still active on our territory, Jambon told Belgiums RTL television network on Saturday.

Belgium remains on high alert.
SACRAMENTO  The last time I was in an animal shelter, I adopted a furry 8-year-old puss named Gus. The shelter was clean but depressing: It was filled with whelping dogs (mostly pit-bull mixes) and terrified cats that, most likely, were not long for this world. It was one of the nicer shelters Ive been to, but it had the charm of a county jail.

That shelter had a novel program. On Fridays, it sold its elderly cats for five bucks. Thats a great deal, since the cats are spayed or neutered, have shots and come with coupons for a free veterinary visit. Thats the first time I recall any shelter offering such a market-based approach. Most people want kittens, and the lovable old fellas often go begging.

This came to mind after reading about the latest travails at the Orange County Animal Services Department. According to news reports, animal activists and a city council member accused department officials of underreporting their kill rate  the percentage of animals put down. Official estimates previously put that number at 6 percent, but the Voice of OC reported that its actually been a far higher rate of around 35 percent, according to data later provided by the county in response to a legal settlement with an animal rescuer.

(In fairness, either kill-rate figure is lower than what it had been a few years ago.)

County animal-care officials had no response to the allegations, according to that report. And  big surprise here  the union that represents the animal-care workers defended the agency and argued it provides a valuable public safety function because of the many times it refers animal-related criminal cases to the prosecutors. A subsequent Board of Supervisors meeting was filled with debate over possible reforms. Lets face it: Nothing will change. The animal shelter has been plagued by problems for many years.

I love the quotation from the late commentator Paul Harvey cited at the beginning of the Orange County grand jurys 2014-15 report on the state of the county animal shelter: Ever occur to you why some of us can be this much concerned with animal suffering? Because government is not. Why not? Because animals do not vote.

Animals dont vote. Government agencies dont have customers. They too often operate for the good of those who work for them. They ultimately are funded through tax dollars. If this were a business, there would be all sorts of promotions to discount less-sought-after merchandise (e.g., old cats and hard-to-place pit-bull-type dogs). They would be open the hours that shoppers prefer. The facilities would be comfortable and cheery.

The grand jury has concluded that the countys lack of leadership, lack of commitment to animal care, and the prioritization of other Orange County Community Resources Department functions ahead of Orange County Animal Care are the primary reasons for failure to address the need of new animal shelter facilities, according to the report. Ouch.

An ABC News investigation from May detailed allegations of problems at the agency. A Los Angeles Times article from 2004 was headlined, Grand Jury Blasts Animal Shelter Again. Shelter officials disputed the report, as have officials during the most recent reports. But, last year, the Registers Teri Sforza detailed the countys long-running animal-control problems. Red rust eats at kennel frames. Partitions have frozen in place. Wet, black noses poke between what look like prison bars, she wrote, noting the countys fusty facility dates to 1941. She quotes a supervisor complaining about it in 1983.

In 2000, the OC Weekly criticized Santa Anas shelter (e.g., paperwork screw-ups lead to dead animals.), which it used to show that private shelters are as bad as government ones. Sure, privatized agencies have many of the same flaws as government (they are funded by public contracts, not by luring customers in a competitive environment), but at least bad contractors can be fired.

Defenders of the current system say the problem lies in the nature of the situation. Its hard to have a true private business model dealing with unwanted animals. Or is it? The grand jury found that the agency is virtually self-supporting through fees generated from the 18 contract cities. Those are fees from local governments, but its hard for me to believe no one can come up with a way to buy and sell and treat unwanted animals for a profit.

In my view, we let the government handle such things because were too lazy  or uncaring  to think more deeply about alternatives. Future boards and grand juries likely will be debating the same problems in the same agency. Those of us who think a cuddly old fellow like Gus should be purring on a loving familys sofa rather than awaiting euthanasia ought to put more effort into finding private ways to solve this endless public problem.

Steven Greenhut is Western region director for the R Street Institute. He was a Register editorial writer from 1998-2009. He is based in Sacramento. Write to him at sgreenhut@rstreet.org.
WARSAW, Poland  Hundreds of thousands of people whose personal fates hinge on whether Britain leaves the European Union or stays dont even have a say in the matter: Polish immigrants, a community so numerous that Polish has become Britains second most-spoken language.

When Poland and many other countries once behind the Iron Curtain joined the EU 12 years ago, Poles gained unprecedented opportunities to live and work in Western Europe  a freedom unthinkable in the communist era.

Britains dynamic economy has attracted more people from Poland than any other single EU country, and they worry that they could be among the big losers if British voters opt for Brexit in the June 23 referendum.

There is a lot of uncertainty and worry now, said Jakub Krupa, the head of Poles in UK, an umbrella organization that works with Polish groups in Britain, and the London correspondent for Polish news agency PAP. Nobody really expects a situation in which all of the old borders are back, but people dont really understand what might happen. There seems to be no clear arrangement for what the future will look like if there is Brexit.

Krupa said there is a lot of anecdotal evidence that many Poles are applying for British citizenship, or plan to, even though the fee of more than 1,100 pounds ($1,560) puts off many others.

Ilona Korzeniowska, editor of Polish Express, a Polish-language newspaper published in Britain, said her website has seen a spike this year in Poles looking for information about citizenship. She said many Poles simply dont have enough information to understand how Brexit would affect them.

There are now about 850,000 Poles working in Britain, while Poland has an overall population of 38 million. So its little surprise that Poles overwhelmingly hope that Britain remains in the EU  80 percent, according to a recent survey by the University of Edinburgh.

Under British law, immigrants who have resided in the U.K. for more than five years can apply for permanent residency. The Polish Institute of International Affairs, a Warsaw-based think tank, estimates that still leaves between 120,000 to 400,000 Poles who arrived after 2012. If Britain leaves the EU, they would have to apply for work visas and, if rejected, leave the country.

I am not worried about myself, but many of my friends are afraid, said Pawel Pruszkowski, a Pole who has worked in the UK since 2012.

Some longtime Polish residents of Britain say they worry mostly about the broader economic implications of Brexit, which some economists predict could lead to an economic slowdown in Britain.

Jacek Mazur, a 35-year-old who has worked in Britain for 10 years, says he is confident he would be allowed to stay after so many years of working and paying taxes in Britain, but he fears the electrical supply company he works for in Hastings could lose its markets in the EU.

If they lose their customers from the EU then that would affect everyone. So I am worried about the bigger situation, he said. But if for some reason I couldnt stay on in the U.K., I would say fair enough. There is only 2 percent unemployment in Warsaw now, so everyone can find a job.

Polands government strongly supports Britain staying in the UK, though some experts say Poland could actually benefit if many of the Polish workers returned home in large numbers with their new skills.

A mass return could help reverse the loss of many young people, some with university education, that the country has seen since it joined the EU in 2004, and offset a dramatic population decline expected to take place in the coming decades due to a low birth rate.

But it isnt clear that Poles forced to leave the U.K. would even want to return home in significant numbers. Some experts believe many would simply move on to another Western European country, with Ireland  already home to many Poles  considered the next most attractive destination.

Even if Britain stays in the EU, there will still be some change for Polish workers because of a deal British Prime Minister David Cameron negotiated with the EU that would cut some of the welfare benefits of foreign workers. It will take effect if Britain stays in the bloc.

Krupa says many Poles in the U.K. actually support such reforms after being accused by pro-Brexit campaigners and tabloids of sponging from the welfare system, an accusation not supported by statistics. The reforms would take away some of the arguments against them in public opinion, he said.

A British departure could create a long-term dilemma for Prime Minister Beata Szydlos government in Warsaw, which itself is skeptical of ceding power to the EU.

If Britain leaves, Poland would move up a place to become the EUs fifth-largest economy, which would seemingly make Poland more important, said Roch Dunin-Wasowicz, a researcher on migrants with the Institute of Public Affairs in Warsaw.

However, he noted that Britains current status on the outer rim of the EU allows Poland not to come closer to the inner circle.

Brexit would probably trigger a closer integration of the core EU countries because they would be afraid of a ripple effect, said Dunin-Wasowicz, who is also a managing editor of a blog on the Brexit vote run by the London School of Economics.

That would put Polands government in a difficult position of deciding if it is in or out of the core countries.
Southern California Gas Co.s plan to fully deploy a network of upgraded gas meters faces hurdles in some parts of Orange County as local officials assert they have the authority to approve where pole-mounted wireless transmitting units should go and how they should look, the Register has learned.

Municipalities including Laguna Beach and Newport Beach have been involved in lengthy talks with SoCalGas over the setup of poles and antennas that collect data from advanced meters at homes and most businesses and send the data to the gas company.

Cities across Southern California are in various stages of shifting to the advanced meter networks, which eventually are expected to eliminate the need for human meter readers.

SoCalGas is still in the process of obtaining permits to install network units in Laguna Beach and Newport Beach. Buena Park has had the technology since late 2012. The network also has been set up in Irvine, but some recent installations were needed to fill gaps in the coverage. The systems in Seal Beach and Huntington Beach are works in progress.

The local permitting challenges are the latest bump to emerge in the gas companys massive effort to upgrade millions of old analog meters and phase out the process of sending workers through neighborhoods to read the units manually. Over the last six years, SoCalGas personnel assigned to meter reading have been reduced from more than 1,000 to about 70, company figures show.

The meter upgrades, which began in late 2012, drew opposition from a major watchdog group and the utility workers union after they were proposed eight years ago. And more recently, customers complained about big hikes in bills in January and February that some suspect may be tied to the meter changes. The company said the large bills were primarily due to cold weather that required more indoor heating.

SoCalGas says that the advanced meters  which, in most cases, are attachments or modules added to existing meters  are highly accurate and cost-effective, and that their roll out has been a success. The company says it is 80 percent complete with the installation of advanced-meter modules in Orange County.

But company officials also have said that recent changes in meter-reading schedules, in part related to the transition to the upgraded meters, resulted in longer billing cycles for some customers and larger bills.

Customer bills are always reconciled and customers are not billed for more gas than theyve used, said Melissa Bailey, a SoCalGas spokeswoman, in an email. If one billing cycle was longer, than another one will be shorter.

In recent weeks, several customers told the Register that theyve received corrected bills after gas company representatives told them their usage had been estimated  some for as long as six consecutive billing cycles. Some customers said they were told the estimates were because of a shortage of meter readers, while others said they were not given any explanation. The company has noted estimates of usage for billing purposes are permitted at times under state regulations.

Jerry Acosta, a spokesman for the Utility Workers Union of America, which represents meter readers, said he is not aware of any personnel shortages. Bailey, of SoCalGas, said there are enough meter readers to handle areas that are without a fully deployed, advanced-meter network, as well as customers who opt out of the program.

However, a Feb. 26 report filed by SoCalGas with the California Public Utilities Commission, which regulates the company, hinted at a link between possible delays in getting local permits for transmitting equipment and the continuing need to maintain meter readers.

The gas company indicated in the report that as many as 245 of its planned 4,600 data collection units havent been installed because some municipalities are requiring the utility to obtain permits.

SoCalGas has claimed it is essentially exempt from obtaining local permission to install its data collection sites because the company is regulated by the state utilities commission, according to the report and what some local city officials say theyve have been told by the gas company.

If these municipalities continue to assert their current positions, they will considerably delay or prevent the network installation timeline, for the roughly 245 network sites, according to the report.

That means SoCalGas will likely have to maintain certain functions including manual meter reading and related billing systems for far longer than was anticipated, the report says, which would negatively impact expected operational benefits.

Among the benefits the system offers are operational cost savings and environmental benefits from removing 1,000 vehicles used by meter readers  traveling nearly 7 million miles a year  from the streets, Bailey said. The upgraded meters also are considered more accurate and eliminate potential for human error in reading the meters, she added.

The SoCalGas report warns of potential problems in completing the state-approved system if local agencies are allowed to determine where data collection units can go and how they look.

This discretionary permitting process, the report says. would effectively give a municipality the unilateral right to significantly modify the planned location or design of the DCUs and even preclude the installation of DCUs by the utility.

Utilities commission spokeswoman Terrie Prosper said in an email that SoCalGas interpretation of the permitting situation is correct but offered no specifics.

Several Orange County cities including Laguna Beach have remained firm in defending their permitting prerogatives.

The states utilities commission approval of SoCalGas advanced-meter project didnt take away local jurisdictions, cities discretion for regulating time, place and manner, referring to the proposed transmission sites, said Scott Drapkin, Laguna Beachs principal planner.

Gas company officials have been working with city officials there for more than a year to place roughly 20 wireless transmitting units around the city. City officials have been concerned the installations will interfere with ocean and canyon views.

Generally, new poles can be 24 feet or higher, with a data-collection unit, antennas and a solar panel up top, according to some permit applications filed by the gas company. In some instances, data collection units and antennas are mounted on existing light poles, without solar panels  an option cities tend to prefer because they arent as bulky.

The number of meters transmitting to a single data collection unit varies, but on average, there are about 1,300 meters for every unit, the gas companys Bailey said.

The proposed units in Laguna Beach would be mounted on new and existing poles, Drapkin said in an email. But city officials are seeking the least intrusive installation, designs and locations, he said.

In Newport Beach, gas company officials felt they didnt have to go through a review process when discussions began two years ago, said Jim Campbell, the citys principal planner.

After some healthy disagreement, both sides agreed that transmitting units can be mounted on streetlights, which helps reduce scale, Campbell said.

SoCalGas has submitted permit applications for about 20 of its 30 proposed wireless sites, the city says. And its possible most permits will be issued within the next month to allow installation to begin.

Bailey, the gas company spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement that since the start of the advanced-meter roll out the gas company has worked collaboratively with all jurisdictions in our service territory to receive the necessary permits for installations of our communications network/Data Collection units.

The city of Irvine has worked with the gas company to locate the best locations for the wireless units, said city spokeswoman Kim Mohr, in an email. After complaints about a couple of sites, SoCalGas worked quickly to relocate the units, she added.

SoCalGas received slightly more than 220 complaints and questions after installing more than 3,400 data-collection sites across its service area, according to the companys Feb. 26 report. Complaints touched on aesthetics, glare or location.

Contact the writer: lleung@ocregister.com
A San Diego man was killed Saturday afternoon in a two-vehicle crash on the southbound 405 Freeway near the 7th Street on-ramp in Seal Beach, according to California Highway Patrol officials.

The 63-year-old victim was driving a 2001 Ford Explorer, which at 2:12 p.m. collided with a 2014 Mercedes C250 driven by a 79-year-old Newport Beach man.

The force of impact caused both vehicles to travel in a westerly direction, CHP Officer Lance Nieves said in a statement.

The Explorer continued out of control onto the dirt shoulder and into the ice plant embankment, Nieves said. The vehicle overturned several times.

The Newport Beach man sustained minor injuries. Neither vehicle carried passengers.

Both cars were traveling in lanes close to the shoulder, Nieves said. An unsafe lane change was made, but it is undetermined which vehicle made the change, he said.

Contact the writer: sgoulding@ocregister.com
Barack Obama has an unseemly habit of lashing out at congressional Republicans who oppose his policies by accusing them of putting party ahead of country. But as much as the presidents rhetorical tic angers GOP officials, Ted Cruz infuriates them even more.

Privately  and often publicly  Republicans on Capitol Hill accuse Texas freshman senator of putting his own ambition ahead of party and country. Until recently, their feelings about him could be summed up by invoking Elizabeth Barrett Browning  provided the 19th century British poet had an evil twin: How do we hate you, Ted Cruz? Let us count the ways.

Now, however, it seems that GOP officialdom is stuck with Ted Cruz. The cliche about politics and strange bedfellows doesnt begin to describe how weird this is. The only logic that explains it is the ancient adage about the enemy of my enemy being my friend. The enemy in this case being not Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders, but instead a certain New York tycoon with a famous hairdo, a penchant for insults and a fetish for a wall along the southern U.S. border.

But for many prominent Republicans, having to choose between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump is an exquisite form of torture. Cruzs colleagues find him officious, selfish and maddening. They doubt his sincerity. They hate how he grandstands. They despise him for impugning the integrity of his own party leaders.

The bill of particulars is well-known in Washington. It starts with how he treats his colleagues and the institutions of government. Deriding the Washington cartel may thrill right-wing talk radio hosts  and may have more than a kernel of truth  but it hardly endears him to colleagues. Love him in Iowa, hate him in D.C. was a pillar of Cruzs campaign messaging.

Republicans understand that kind of thing. What they dont condone is Cruz calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell a liar, which he did last year during the budget fights. In his short Washington career, Cruz helped engineer one government shutdown and tried to engineer another over federal spending and Obamacare. But with no hope of achieving his goal legislatively, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle concluded that he was playing to the mob. And they say these things on the record.

Ted Cruz at his core is an opportunist, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN anchorman Wolf Blitzer. When it came time to say what Ted Cruz has done in the Senate, what hes done is run down other Republicans.

If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, Graham quipped at this years Washington Press Club Foundation dinner, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody could convict you.

I just dont like the guy, George W. Bush said last October.

Nobody likes him, added Bob Dole. He doesnt have any friends in Congress.

Actually, he does have one or two pals, which John McCain underscored by calling Cruz and his tiny posse wacko birds. If youre keeping count, thats three of the last four Republican presidential nominees who dislike him. Cruz has an answer for that  at least a partial answer  and its this: Dole and McCain lost because they werent conservative enough.

Republicans win the White House, he says, when they nominate a Reagan-like conservative, not a compromising creature of the Senate like Dole or McCain. But Cruz doesnt mind undercutting his fellow Senate conservatives either. Arkansas Sen. John Boozman took Cruz to task for being a bully. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte accused him of threatening government shutdowns for personal publicity. Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson called his strategy intellectually dishonest.

Again, these are not liberals saying these things. Boozman, Ayotte and Johnson are conservatives elected  as was Cruz  with Tea Party support back home. And as much as his Senate colleagues despise him, House Republicans have even less regard for Cruz.

Rep. Peter King of New York has compared Cruz to a carnival barker. Former House Speaker John Boehner referred to Cruz as that jackass and a false prophet. Rep. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania calls Cruz a rigid ideologue. Rep. Sean Duffy of Wisconsin, objecting to how Cruz played Senate and House Republicans against one another during the shutdown, said, Thank God he wasnt there fighting at the Alamo!

Hes a nasty guy, Donald Trump added during a presidential debate. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him.

Ah, but theres the rub  the source of that comment. GOP officeholders find Trump just as obnoxious as Cruz. But at least Cruz is a conservative whose policy views are known. Trump is a blank slate, with views that are all over the map. Choosing between them has many Republicans reaching for suicide or homicide metaphors. Asked whom he would pick between them, Peter King said, I hope that day never comes. I will jump off that bridge when we come to it.

Before he joked about Ted Cruz being murdered on the Senate floor, Lindsey Graham once described a choice between Cruz and Trump this way: Its like being shot or poisoned. What does it really matter?

But as the July convention draws closer, with Cruz having the only chance to catch Trump in the delegate count, the Republican establishment is realizing that it does matter. Graham himself endorsed Cruz, one of five former 2016 presidential candidates to do so. He joins Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Rick Perry and Scott Walker. (Ben Carson and Chris Christie endorsed Trump.)

Watching a Senate Republican take the plunge for Cruz is not a pretty sight, though. On Wednesday, Jim Risch of Idaho became only the third senator to endorse Cruz for the GOP nomination  if thats what he actually did.

In an interview with Blitzer, Risch suggested that Cruz was the best remaining alternative. Hearing himself say this aloud, a nonplused Risch blurted out, Did I just endorse, Wolf?

You sort of said you prefer him over the two, Blitzer replied. That sounds like an endorsement, doesnt it?

I guess, Risch said. It depends on your definition.

Not every member of the GOP establishment sees it this way.

If it came down to Trump or Cruz, there is no question Id vote for Trump, said former New York mayor and 2008 presidential candidate Rudolph W. Giuliani.

Sen. Richard Burr reportedly told party donors at a closed-door fundraiser that hed vote for fellow senator Bernie Sanders over Cruz, a statement he later implied was made in jest. All Burr has said publicly is that hell back the GOP nominee.

Does such ambivalence imply a desire for a brokered convention that manages to steer the nomination away from Cruz and Trump? Perhaps. Thats certainly the fantasy of the Republican establishment. Its not something youd want to put on a bumper sticker, but what theyre thinking, increasingly is: Ted Cruz, the devil we know.

Staff opinion columnist Carl M. Cannon also is Washington editor of RealClearPolitics.com.
The articles title caught my attention: Higher education falling behind on diversity [Opinion, April 3]. Its author, Mildred Garcia, president of California State University, Fullerton, is a highly regarded educator with an impressive record of involvement. I was eager to learn how diversity might improve higher education.

The central features of Dr. Garcias views are clearly articulated. The following excerpts describe her concerns: Underrepresented groups continue to be impacted by inequitable access to academic success. Since the majority of our students grew up in different cultures, navigating [the] path can prove difficult, leading to an achievement gap between underrepresented students and their white peers. [It is] our responsibility to have diversity  it is paramount for social progress  for all students hoping to succeed in a rapidly evolving global society.

I admit Im unconvinced. Dr. Garcia refers to inequitable access to academic success, but I interpret academic success as successfully completing a course of study by mastering the subject matter  a detail her article fails to address. As for achievement gap, we must expect some students will perform better than others. This is simply a matter of scholastic aptitude  another subject she ignores. Finally, she stresses the importance of diversity as a measure of progress. It seems, rather, that for an educator, learning should be foremost. But the most glaring discord is her inference that education is a collective process, whereas, in reality its a singular endeavor.

One thing cannot be disputed: Mildred Garcia is the university president  not I. Her attitudes obviously reflect what is now regarded by the educational establishment as fundamental. Im convinced that education, at all levels, is no longer devoted to the subject of learning, as it once was, but rather to involvement in the political process and revenue generation. In short, its big business, exemplified by charter schools owned and operated by hedge funds, school luminaries with six and seven-figure salaries and academic policies formulated under the guidance of union officials.

A final thought: The real problem with the universities is not diversity. Its that there are thousands of inept and unmotivated students who have no reason to be there.

Al Jacobs

Laguna Beach

  

Despite 40 years of experimenting with affirmative action in higher education, no data shows it has been effective. Yet progressive educators like Mildred Garcia continue to promote the same tired solution to the widening achievement gap. She would choose a student application that says my grandfather was born in Mexico over one with better grades and test scores if the applicants grandfather was born in Korea or Ireland.

A better solution would hold accountable the staff and teachers who are paid to operate our dreadful public schools, grades K-12, and the union establishment that speaks for them. Minority students from lower socioeconomic families fare particularly poorly in our public schools, and these students enter higher education, if at all, unprepared. The union establishment uses its wealth and power to protect the status quo with no regard for its adverse effect on underprivileged minorities, and it pays progressive politicians to remain complicit in this strategy. Mildred Garcia, who is appointed by these politicians, enables them by remaining silent about the role of the union establishment in blocking essential public school reforms. Shame on her.

Robert Loewen

Laguna Beach

  

The Supreme Court ruled in 1978 that racial quotas cannot be used as part of the admissions process at our nations universities. Yet, Mildred Garcia promotes the use of racial quotas for her faculty and staff. Placing race ahead of competence when hiring is clearly a racist policy. No one should ever have to question whether a member of the faculty is there primarily because of their race. Diversity created by the use of quotas leads to weakness, not strength.

Tom Yunghans

Fullerton
Southern Californias reliance on natural gas has grown increasingly clear as utilities warn of possible electricity blackouts this summer after the massive Aliso Canyon methane leak took the regions largest gas storage field offline.

Nearly 100,000 tons of methane escaped from the Southern California Gas Co. field in northern Los Angeles County, forcing the evacuation of thousands of families.

The leak, which began in the fall, was stopped after 16 weeks, but the long-term fallout, including possible power shortages, is just starting to reverberate. Legislators are pushing for tighter regulations. Environmentalists are calling for California to quickly shift from fossil fuel energy to nonpolluting renewable sources.

This is really going to be a wake-up call for a lot of folks when they realize how reliant we are on natural gas, said Tim OConnor, the director of the Environmental Defense Funds California oil and gas program.

The latest worry is that electricity demand will spike on especially hot days, and power-generating plants will have too little gas available to meet Southern Californias air conditioning and other needs. Last week, state energy regulators warned the region was at risk of up to 14 days of blackouts in the hottest months.

Also last week, SoCalGas said it planned to partially resume storage in Aliso Canyon by the end of the summer. Friday, a group of energy regulators, energy providers, government officials and others met to discuss how to ensure energy reliability this summer.

We have said all along that we will not reopen Aliso Canyon until we are confident it is safe to operate, said SoCalGas Chief Operating Officer Bret Lane.

The potential blackouts this summer would be different than the outages during the energy crisis in the early 2000s. Then, the problem was too few power plants to meet increased demand. And some power producers also gamed the system to boost electricity prices by leaving power plants offline.

Today, there are generally enough Southern California power plants, but they rely more heavily on natural gas than other regions of the country, which draw on a larger array of fossil fuels, including coal. The closure in 2013 of Southern Californias nuclear power plant, San Onofre, also increased reliance on natural gas.

The amount of electricity generated by natural gas in California has roughly doubled since the 1980s, according to state energy commission data.

Electricity generators here order gas from distributors the day before they burn it, said Colin Cushnie, Southern California Edisons vice president of energy procurement and management. If they incorrectly predict how much gas theyll need, they can rely on the gas stored in fields like Aliso Canyon, which provide flexibility for grid managers.

With Aliso Canyon unavailable because of ongoing environmental and safety tests, SoCalGas, which supplies utilities, independent power generators and commercial and residential customers, has at least temporarily lost about 50 percent of the amount it can store. Theres no comparable option to Aliso Canyons 86 billion cubic feet storage capacity, which as a practical matter could never be replicated with man-made storage tanks.

Another driver of increased natural gas demand has been the need for more peaker generation plants as California has shifted to renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, officials say. Electricity from renewable sources generally must be consumed immediately. By contrast, natural gas can be stored and burned whenever needed, allowing utilities to quickly fill gaps in the power supply when the sun fades and the wind stops.

Our natural gas-fired power plants in California are the shock absorbers of the electric grid, Cushnie said.

Edison, which supplies most of Orange County with electricity, uses natural gas to generate at least 27 percent of the electricity it delivers to customers. Renewable sources make up 24 percent, nuclear 6 percent and large hydropower 3 percent. Forty percent comes from a vast wholesale market and is not traceable in terms of how it is generated, Cushnie said.

San Diego Gas & Electric, which serves some of southern Orange County, doesnt burn gas stored at the Aliso Canyon facility. But any shortage in natural gas supply could reverberate through the grid and affect customers in San Diego and southern Orange County, said SDG&E spokeswoman Allison Torres.

The utility doesnt have major gas storage facilities, even though the fuel is used to generate nearly half of the companys electricity.

For many environmentalists, the Aliso Canyon leak and the threat of blackouts heighten the urgency to wean California off fossil fuels.

Natural gas was seen as the bridge fuel between dirtier sources such as coal and fuel oil and the clean, renewable sources environmentalists hope will eventually supply the vast bulk of the energy needed on the state grid. Last year, the state set a goal of getting 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030.

But there also has been a major investment over the past 15 years in new natural gas power plants, pipelines and storage facilities, driven by a surge of cheap domestic natural gas uncorked by the shale boom. That has built political and business pressure to maintain gas as an important power source, said Sachu Constantine, policy director at the San Diego-based Center for Sustainable Energy.

And that motivation can prolong the use of natural gas beyond when the bridge should end, he said. What we need right now is a steady, gradual, constant whittling away of our dependence on natural gas.

In some ways, the Aliso Canyon experience flipped the traditional axiom that fossil fuel energy is reliable and renewable energy isnt, Constantine said. Hour by hour, natural gas is more dependable and can yield power exactly when its needed, he acknowledged. But over the long term, supply chain disruptions like those now facing Southern California demonstrate that ultimately renewables are a more reliable source of energy.

SoCalGas officials, however, believe that natural gas will continue to be needed to balance the inconsistencies of ever more popular renewable energy sources  and that technological advances will reduce carbon dioxide emissions from natural gas. They also believe that alternative sources of natural gas, such as landfills, farm animals and algae, will be cleaner and play a bigger role in meeting future supply needs, the company says.

Technology will demonstrate that natural gas is a foundational fuel, not just a bridge fuel, for a clean energy future, SoCalGas spokesman Paul Simonds said in an email.

Contact the writer: aorlowski@ocregister.com. Twitter: @aaronorlowski
A Taiwan-born Navy officer who became a naturalized U.S. citizen faces charges of espionage, attempted espionage and prostitution in a highly secretive case in which he is accused of providing classified information to China, U.S. officials said.

The Navy examined the charges against Lt. Cmdr. Edward C. Lin in a preliminary military justice hearing on Friday. The service did not release his identity, but a U.S. official disclosed it Sunday under the condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the case. Lins connection to the case was first reported by USNI News.

The Navy, which has not identified Lin by name, said the officer is assigned to the headquarters for the Patrol and Reconnaissance Group, which oversees maritime patrol aircraft such as the P-8A Poseidon and P-3C Orion spy planes and the MQ-4C Triton surveillance drone.

A heavily redacted charge sheet released by the Navy states that the officer faces two specifications of espionage and three specifications of attempted espionage. He is accused of communicating secret information with intent or reason to believe it would be used to the advantage of a foreign nation, hiring a prostitute for sex, committing adultery by having sex with a woman who was not his wife, not disclosing foreign travel to the U.S. government as required, and lying about it after the fact.

It could not be determined who is serving as Lins legal representation from the charge sheet released by the Navy. The military typically discloses the identity of a service member who faces a preliminary Article 32? hearing like the one involved in this case, but the officers name was redacted from the charge sheet released afterward out of consideration for the service members privacy, said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a Navy spokesman.

Prior to a decision for the referral of charges, we are unable to identify the officer at this time, Hawkins said.

The top flag officer overseeing Lins case as convening authority is Adm. Philip S. Davidson, the commander of U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk. Lin is being held at the Naval Consolidated Brig in Chesapeake, Va. He was arrested about eight months ago, Newsweek reported Saturday.

The case remains under investigation by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI. Spokesmen for senior Navy officials, including Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Adm. John Richardson, chief of naval operations, declined to comment on Sunday.
About 200 residents gathered to hear a developers proposal for the current site of the Orange County Museum of Art during a study session at Thursdays Newport Beach Planning Commission meeting.

At 295 feet, the proposed 25-story condominium tower near Fashion Island  dubbed Museum House  would land in the top five of the tallest buildings in the county if completed.

The building would have 100 units for sale, spanning from 1,750 to 4,950 square feet. There would be 238 parking spaces, the majority subterranean. The developer says two-thirds of the property would be open space.

The museum announced in 2008 it would relocate to a now grassy parcel at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, which was donated to the institution. The museum plans to sell the property back to the developer  Related California. The timeline hasnt been announced.

Related California has done upscale projects of this type on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica and The Century in Century City.

The applicant presented a presentation, where it asserted that it didnt think the project would require a major general plan amendment change, triggering the citys Greenlight Initiative, which requires a vote of the people for certain projects.

Dozens of residents spoke for and against the project, some asserting it was premature for Related California to make such arguments. Staff couldnt say if it would require a major general plan amendment change, but did say the project would have to rezoned as multi-unit residential, changing it from private/institutional  among other approvals.

Sherry Bower, a Newport resident who previously worked in real estate for 35 years, said she thought the project is too big; its too tall. She thought a vote of the people should be considered because the spirit of the law is letting residents have a voice.

Related California representatives showed drone images taken from different areas near Fashion Island, showing how the building would look from a distance. They also showed shadow studies, asserting that there would be minimal effect on nearby buildings for most of the year.

They said although the building seems tall, it doesnt necessarily stand out among the high-rises that surround Fashion Island. They said such scale was in 1960s planning documents for the center. They pointed to other neighboring buildings, such as one at 520 Newport Center Dr., which stands at 315 feet, and another at 630 Newport Center Drive thats 294 feet.

Anita Mishook, who has been a museum volunteer for 11 years, said the project would increase the local property values.

This building would be state of the art  have every bell and whistle, she said. This is a quality project and I dont think we ought to let it go by the wayside.

Therese Loutherback said she can see 650 Newport Center Dr., which houses bond trader Pimco, from her home in Spyglass. She felt the city should approach it cautiously.

Ill tell you that Pimco building is very high, she said. When I look at it everyday I get negative feelings.

A draft environmental impact report expects to be ready in June. Then the item could come back to the planning commission in August or September, and before the city council in October, according to staffers.
Its not exactly an October surprise, but the biggest investigative report of the year has the potential to reshape American politics no less than it already has around the world.

In an unparalleled release of documents and data, the so-called Panama Papers have thrown open for public scrutiny the secretive world of offshore accounting  used in many instances by business interests with legitimate aims and traditional practices, but also by corrupt figures in public and private life trying to hide dirty money, launder cash, mask ill-gotten gains and often to evade various forms of taxation.

Although the revelations amount to little more than an embarrassment for those targeted, others have had to pay. Vladimir Putin has to tell a national television audience that the report, which didnt mention his name directly, was part of a plot to destabilize his country. In Iceland, widespread outrage triggered the resignation of Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who nevertheless denied any personal wrongdoing.

But all eyes are now on Britains David Cameron, who has been forced to admit that he saw gains from an offshore account established by his late father. He denied his fathers fund was set up with the purpose of avoiding tax, the Wall Street Journal noted. Rather, it was set up after foreign-exchange controls were relaxed so people who wanted to invest in dollar-denominated shares and companies could do so.

Opposition figures are not satisfied. Labor Party leaders and others are demanding that Cameron make a full statement to Parliament to restore trust, with some analysts warning Cameron could be in danger of facing a resignation crisis of his own unless he does.

Which brings us to the United States of America, where, so far, the Panama Papers have not made as big of a splash as abroad. But Democrats have seized on the opportunity to mount a relatively more populist case for tightening the screws on taxes. There is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance generally is a huge problem, said president Obama. The problem is that a lot of this stuff is legal, not illegal. He went so far as to say it shouldnt be legal to engage in transactions just to avoid taxes, appealing to the basic principle of making sure everyone pays their fair share.

Hillary Clinton has mounted a similar response, vowing to ensure that nobody would be permitted to make off with the peoples money in her own administration. But this is a difficult development for her.

As Robert Tracinksi noted at The Federalist, the kind of thing thats all over the Panama Papers is what Hillary Clinton has been doing forever. Its how the Clintons suddenly made $100 million in the first few years after leaving the White House, with nothing to offer the business world but their political connections. Its why the Clinton Foundation got massive donations from Russian businessmen with deals that required State Department approval. More than tax evasion and outright wrongdoing is at issue.

And, as Bernie Sanders has noted, while he tried to stop the Panama-United States Trade Promotion Agreement ratified in 2012, Clinton preferred to tout NAFTA.

Panama is a world leader when it comes to allowing wealthy Americans and large corporations to evade U.S. taxes by stashing their cash in offshore tax havens, Sanders said on the Senate floor. The Panama free-trade agreement will make this bad situation much worse. Each and every year, the wealthiest people in this country and the largest corporations evade about $100 billion in taxes through abusive and illegal offshore tax havens in Panama and in other countries.

Now look, he says, giving voters yet another reason to rethink their support for Clinton.

It is therefore natural for Republicans  especially a potential nominee like Ted Cruz  to think about how they can use the Panama Papers to help create a rallying point for todays disorganized and dispirited GOP. There are perils if they dont seize the initiative. Republicans are at risk of being pigeonholed as the kind of wealthy amoralists who wave the flag in public and then rush money out of the country to unsavory destinations. Theyre also at risk of being cast as the party of people whose taxes just ought to go up in general.

In this populist season, it just wont do for the GOP to wait for the issue to go away. Instead, they should use it to direct passions  including within their own party  away from populist rage, nationalist bitterness and economic vengefulness.

The right way to do this is not to pretend that those emotions lack a legitimate source. Rather, it is to show that the real source of the problems laid bare by the Panama Papers is a culture of political corruption, and that the worst kinds of political corruption arise directly from the relationship between government and finance in societies where government is the most powerful employer, and the elite have a vested interest in using banks to consolidate and leverage a degree of success that their national economy is too sclerotic and suppressed to produce. The U.S. itself has become more of a patronage-driven society, wherein the quickest way to get rich is to carve the kind of prominent political position that places one within one of two worlds, and sometimes both: the international perks and privilege circuit, on the one hand, and the national investment banking and lobbying circuit on the other.

The solution to problems like these is not to destroy investment banking or tax so aggressively that nobody tries to move any of their money abroad. Free trade requires money to move across borders  and not just the money of a privileged few. The goal is not for the state to make more money off of corruption, but for the rule of law to curb both concentrated venality and concentrated power.
BRUSSELS  The announcement on Sunday that the plotters of last months Brussels terror attacks had originally intended to hit Paris again only heightened the growing concern among police and intelligence agencies that shadowy Islamic State networks could unleash new attacks at any time, and in other European capitals.

As intelligence experts and officials took stock of what they have learned since the Nov. 13 assaults in and around Paris, which killed 130 people, several things have come into focus. The scale of the Islamic States operations in Europe are still not known, but they appear to be larger and more layered than investigators at first realized; if the Paris and Brussels attacks are any model, the plotters will rely on local criminal networks in addition to committed extremists.

Even as the United States, its allies and Russia have killed leaders of the Islamic State, and have rolled back some of the extremist organizations gains on the battlefields of Iraq and Syria, the Islamic State appears to be posing a largely hidden and lethal threat across much of Europe.

When Belgian prosecutors announced that Mohamed Abrini, one of the men arrested on Friday, had confessed to being the mysterious third man in the Brussels Airport bombing, it seemed to mark a victory. But it also underscored the monumental challenges that extend across borders, for Abrini was also a suspect in the Paris attacks.

There are almost certainly other cells that are active in non-French-speaking countries and that have not yet surfaced. Britain, Germany and Italy are thought to be high on the list of Islamic State targets.

It adds up to a long road ahead in Europe for law enforcement and intelligence agencies but also for citizens who are having to learn to adapt to an array of new security precautions, especially in public places.

We are not finished yet with the job of finding everyone who is in this big network of Paris and Brussels, said Jean-Charles Brisard, the head of the French Center for the Analysis of Terrorism in Paris. Every time progress is made, we add another few people to the list of people we are looking for.

It is sobering to look at the number of people believed to have some connection to the Paris and Brussels attacks: 36 are suspected of being active participants in varying degrees in organizing or carrying them out. Of those, 13 are dead, and most of the rest are in custody. A handful have been released but subject to conditions, like daily check-ins at a police station.

Others are probably lying low or on the run. What worries investigators is that many of the participants in the Paris-Brussels network were recruited by a preacher in the Brussels district of Molenbeek, Khalid Zerkani. He was tried twice in Belgium, accused of recruiting more than 50 young men to join the fight in Syria and helping to finance their journey to the Middle East. Many of those recruits were also named in those trials and tried in absentia.

There are still many people involved who were part of the Zerkani network, who were convicted in absentia  at least five to 10  and we dont where they are or what they might do, Brisard said.

While they could turn out to be more minor players, they could also emerge able organizers of new assaults. Among Zerkanis recruits, prosecutors say, were Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the on-the-ground commander of the Paris attacks, and Reda Kriket, who was arrested on March 24 in a suburb of Paris. Kriket has been accused of being in the final stages of planning an attack in France involving an arsenal of weapons and explosives of an unprecedented size, said Francois Molins, the Paris prosecutor.

From the ammunition and material found it appears that a highly lethal attack was averted. Kriket had Kalashnikov assault rifles, a submachine gun, pistols, ammunition and four boxes containing thousands of small steel balls.

Four men in touch with Kriket, who were arrested in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, had in their possession 45 kilograms of ammunition, according to the Dutch Public Broadcaster, NOS. That is enough ammunition for about 2,500 rounds, which is enough to supply a number of gunmen with multiple magazines.

Krikets connection to the Paris and Brussels cells that carried out the attacks in those cities was not clear, and experts have differing views, but it raises the possibility that there are other, similar cells in France and Belgium as well as farther afield.

Western intelligence and counterterrorism officials say their working assumption is that there are Islamic State networks in two or more European countries in addition to those in France and Belgium.

Other Islamic State cells are highly likely to be in existence across Western Europe, preparing and organizing further operations, and awaiting direction from the groups central leadership to execute, said Matthew Henman, the head of IHS Janes Terrorism and Insurgency Center in London.

Most at risk of an attack are probably Britain and Germany, but Italy is also a potential target. Britain in particular has been mentioned by the Islamic State. The British authorities are on alert, and the threat level in Britain remains at severe, meaning that an attack is highly likely.

The Islamic States threats are in some ways easier to fulfill in France because of the large number of French-speaking foreign fighters, many of whom are European citizens from France and Belgium.

Of the foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 are from Europe. About 1,800 people have left or tried to leave France to fight in Syria and Iraq, according to recent statements by Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister. An additional 450 have gone to those countries from Belgium, according to estimates by analysts in Europe.

The announcement on Sunday that the Islamic State had aimed to strike France again came from the Belgian federal prosecutors office. Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again, the office said in a statement.

Eventually, surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels, the statement said.

In the attacks in the two capitals, a total of 162 people died and 753 were wounded.
If Junes open primary election to fill Barbara Boxers U.S. Senate seat were held today, the winner  in a landslide of indifference  would be Undecided and None of the Above, according to a new Field Poll.

Attorney General Kamala Harris maintains a solid lead among the top candidates, but almost half of California voters still have no preference less than two months before Junes primary.

This is the second time a U.S. Senate race in California has been dictated by the rules of the top two primary system  in which the two top vote-getters square off in Novembers general election, regardless of party  and far from emboldening downtrodden Republican voters, it seems to have left them scratching their heads.

Most Californians arent even aware that a Senate race is going on, said Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. The presidential race is eclipsing everything else. Plus, its not a case where Republicans have a really strong shot at winning in November.

Taken together, combined support for the two Democrats leading in the poll  Harris (27 percent) and Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana (14 percent)  amounts to 41 percent, still 7 points shy of the share of voters who have no preference or are undecided. The numbers have hardly budged since January.

The nonpartisan Field Poll was conducted from March 24 to April 3, among 633 respondents representing a likely cross-section of voters.

Its almost unprecedented for a top-of-the-ticket election, Field Poll Director Mark DiCamillo said, referring to the lack of interest in a race that could help determine whether Democrats regain control of the Senate.

None of the three leading Republican contenders polled higher than the 5percent garnered by businessman Ron Unz, who also ran for governor in 1994 and has pushed for English-only teaching in the states schools. Unz entered the race last month, but he still tops former Republican Party chairs Tom Del Beccaro (4 percent) and Duf Sundheim (2 percent).

There are more than 30 candidates in the race for Boxers seat.
Continuing a string of victories across the West, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, a symbolic triumph if not a race-altering one in the last Democratic contest before the April 19 New York primary.

Sanders beat Hillary Clinton statewide by about 11 percentage points, though the end result was effectively a tie, as each candidate took seven of Wyomings 14 pledged delegates, the fewest any state had to offer. Clintons nationwide lead remained at 219.

But after Sanders recent big victories in Washington state, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Wisconsin, it was more evidence of Clintons weaknesses among white and liberal voters as the race moves to major primaries in New York and elsewhere in the Northeast.

We just won Wyoming, Sanders said, pausing unexpectedly while speaking at a rally at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York.

His supporters leapt to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. He thanked Wyoming voters, but said with a smile, There are probably more people in this room than there are in Wyoming.

It was the only contest of the day for the Democrats. In Colorado, Republicans were finishing the final round of voting at their state convention in Colorado Springs. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas clinched a majority of the states 37 national delegates by Friday night.

Cruz, the only candidate to speak at the convention, received a rousing reception Saturday as he tried to gain as many of the remaining delegates as he could. Its easy to talk about making America great again, he said, taking a dig at his rival, Donald Trump, who had won no delegates in Colorado up to that point. But the real question is, do you understand the principles and values that made America great in the first place?

Like Sanders, Cruz still trails the front-runner in his race, Trump. And the campaign now moves to territory likely to be far more favorable to Trump.

Though Sanders was favored in the Wyoming Democratic race, Clinton had endorsements from more elected officials, as she does in most states, and the states four superdelegates are supporting her. In 2008, she lost to Barack Obama in Wyoming by 24 percentage points.

The contest was exactly the type she struggles in. It is mostly white, and it uses a caucus format. Clinton did not campaign in Wyoming, choosing instead to devote time and resources to delegate-rich New York and Pennsylvania, which holds its primary April 26.

President Bill Clinton did appear on his wifes behalf. On a stop in Cheyenne, he talked about the need for clean energy and a transition away from coal and other fossil fuels, as 500 Wyoming coal workers faced being laid off. A protester outside held a sign that read, God, guns and coal made America great.

Clinton spoke about the layoffs. Just think about the jobs that would be created in Wyoming if we decided to maximize your capacity to export wind as you export coal, he said.

The former president seemed acutely aware of his wifes chances in the state. There are a lot of young college students who have been very enthusiastic about her opponent because he promises free tuition for everyone, he said. (Sanders has proposed free tuition at public colleges.)

If you read the fine print, he said, the free tuition comes two-thirds from the federal government and one-third from the state. He said it was unrealistic to expect the states Republican governor and Legislature to support the program.

Sanders showed up in Wyoming, holding a rally Tuesday in Laramie, where he delivered his victory speech after winning the Wisconsin primary.

I believe we have an excellent chance to win New York and a lot of delegates in that state, Sanders said in Laramie.

Referring to his large deficit among superdelegates, the party leaders and elected officials who have overwhelmingly backed Clinton, but who could still change their minds, he said: I think a lot of these superdelegates are going to be looking around them. And they are going to be saying, Which candidate has the momentum?

James King, a political-science professor at the University of Wyoming, said the state was a good fit for Sanders.

He really has to, I think, at each success build on another success, and he is running out of states, obviously, King said.

Sanders missives about a corporate-driven political system touched a nerve among Wyoming voters like John Hess, a 28-year-old veteran who spoke up for Sanders at Sheridan Countys caucus and sounded not unlike the candidate himself.

How can an average working citizen make an informed decision about health care, he asked, when the for-profit health services industry is blasting ideals on your TV and radio that support their own profits over ideals that would increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the health care industry?

Clinton received a handful more votes than Sanders did in that caucus, held at the Sheridan County Fairgrounds exhibit hall, the site of many local 4-H and rodeo competitions.

We live in a very complex world, internationally and nationally, and we need a representative for our country who has the kind of experience and understanding of that complexity, Michelle Sullivan, a daughter of former Gov. Mike Sullivan, said as she spoke up for Clinton. I think she has that.
Police have arrested a 22-year-old man suspected of stabbing another man to death at a house party in Santa Ana early Saturday morning.

Officers were called to a home at 2837 Edinger Ave. where they were told a stabbing had occurred, according to a statement from the Santa Ana Police Department.

When officers arrived they found 19-year-old Bryan Alverto Torres injured with several stab wounds to the upper torso. He was taken to UCI Medical Center where he later died. A man, identified by police as Nicholas James Tadlock, was detained trying to flee the scene.

Investigators discovered that there were many people at the party when a fight broke out in the driveway and Torres was stabbed.

Tadlock was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder.

Investigators are trying to find anyone at the party who may have witnessed the fight. Anyone with information is asked to call Santa Ana police homicide detectives at 714-245-8390.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7865 or afausto@ocregister.com
Sumo Sato was feeling battered from three days straight of chemotherapy that pulsed through his body, trying to fight the cancer in his colon and stomach.

But when then Tahitian music started playing at a luau held in his honor Saturday, he couldnt help but stand up and shake his body side-to-side with the hula dancers.

I was feeling so down and out. I felt good after that. I needed to get my blood going, said the burly, bald-headed Hawaiian, who has a white beard that stretches down to his chest. It was healing for my soul.

God uses healing in the community, he said. Not only for me, for a lot of people who felt the love, and thats going to heal all of us.

Sato, a surfing pastor from Huntington Beach, was the guest of honor at a Luau of Love held at Don the Beachcombers, where early estimates show 850 people attended and at least $15,000 was raised for medical expenses. One by one, as people entered the party, Sato stood up to give hugs and take photos with supporters.

Sato found out two month ago that he had colon and stomach cancer, his second bout with cancer after beating throat cancer years ago.

It was crazy. I dont even know where to begin, he said after the event. I was just overwhelmed. I think theres so much good in the community.

The event was put on by surfing commentator Rick Rocking Fig Fignetti and girlfriend Andrea Roberson. Fignetti said people donated countless items for an auction, everything from surfboards to paintings of Sato, one sent from a surf artist in Ireland. Pro surfers like Sunny Garcia, Chris Waring and Brett Ettinger mingled in the standing-room only crowd, and people flew in from Hawaii for the party.

It was like a Hawaiian party in California. It was everything from the heart and soul of everyone who was there,  Fignetti said.

Huntington Beach Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis rallied his band Lifeguard Band 906 to perform, playing 80s rock to get the crowd dancing.

Sato serves as the Huntington Beach Marine Safety Chaplin, counseling lifeguards any time theres a serious call or tragedy, Panis said.

He has dropped everything to come down and take care of us, has been there to minister to us, he said. Its our time to step up and take care of him. We love that guy so much.

Satos journey started in Hawaii, where he was raised in a house with more than 20 relatives. He was a trouble-maker, he said, until a missionary approached him and told him to accept Jesus as his Lord and savior. He felt an instant transformation, he has said.

He attended Bible college in West Covina, shuttling back and forth from California to Hawaii, where he helped open several Hope Chapels. He moved back to California in 1990 to get his Master of Divinity degree.

He was living near Wrightwood and had to drive two hours to get to the waves, but then met the Ettinger family, which includes pro surfer Brad Ettinger. In 2011, they formed the church he oversees now, H20.

Satos role in the surf community can be an emotionally difficult one, as hes often called on to officiate at paddle-out ceremonies when a surfer dies. He addressed the crowd of thousands who showed up when three-time world champ Andy Irons  a friend of Satos from Hawaii  died in 2010. When Surfline founder Sean Collins died, Sato was the one who comforted thousands of mourners.

Sato is usually found on his 12-foot surfboard charging waves on the north side of the Huntington Beach pier. He hopes to get back on his surfboard and continue his ministry, which he runs out of his home.

Hes thankful to everyone who stepped up to show their love and support during his hard time.

Words cant express my gratitude to them and Huntington Beach and everyone who worked so hard to put it together, Sato said of the luau. The gathering of the people and the spirit that was in there It gives me even more to fight.

Contact the writer: lconnelly@ocregister.com
TUSTIN  They got connected because of the dogs.

But they stayed connected because of the empathy.

Specifically, because of Tustin Police Officer Melissa Trahans empathy for the plight of Pauahi Nichols, and countless others struggling to stay off the street.

Its why Trahan  who grew up in a family that sometimes relied on welfare  is so good at her job as Tustin PDs Community Impact Officer.

Trahan is a cop who solves problems, not just crimes.

Problems like the ones faced by Nichols.

THE MEETING

Their initial meeting went like this:

About two years ago, Nichols looked out the window of the Tustin motel room that she and her family of seven were calling home and saw a cop looking over her truck.

Nichols had two dogs back then. Both were inside of the truck.

Nichols, 62, raced outside to tell the officer that, no, she wasnt abusing the dogs; theyd had five walks that day.

But the motel had a rule about dogs, Nichols said, and, besides, between the kids and grandkids, the single-bed room was maxed out.

Trahan, 47, noticed that the animals looked well-fed, so she cut Nichols a break.

But she wanted to know more.

Why were so many people in one room? What happened?

Nichols explained how her husband died and, a year earlier, theyd lost their Huntington Beach house. Now she had a daughter and a daughter-in-law with her, along with their four kids.

Trahan left that day, but she was back soon enough. She started checking in on the grandmother and her crew. She brought small things when she came, stuff to help with their lives and their dignity.

Trahan also brought help, connections to community resources available to people struggling to get on their feet. She also eventually helped them get into a better room, one with three beds and a kitchen, so the family can cook and save money and not sleep on the floor.

Over time, Trahan and Nichols became friends.

On a recent day, Trahan went back to the motel to visit Nichols.

As she arrived, a middle school-aged granddaughter jumped up from the truck where she was studying to give Trahan a hug. And as Trahan stepped inside the room, Pauahi Nichols beamed.

Look at this giant kitchen, Pauahi Nichols said. I can cook now. We can save more money.

Nichols takes care of the surviving dog (a 10-year-old named Keala) and the grandkids. Her daughter and daughter-in-law work.

Still, its Trahan that Nichols credits for helping the family get out of a spiral that seemed endless.

Trahan initially connected them with resources to get them back on track. Beyond that, Trahan didnt forget about them; she stuck around and helped.

She cared.

At Easter, for example, Trahan stopped in on the family, bringing baskets for the kids, along with some towels and blankets.

As community impact officer  a job shes held for about four years  Trahan is tasked with helping people who frequently call Tustin police. She encounters crimes, of course, but also runs into many others seeking help for issues ranging from homelessness to hunger.

So Trahan helps people like Nichols because its a routine part of the job.

But shes great at it because she treats that help as anything but routine.

Melissa goes above and beyond by getting to know the people and getting involved in their lives, said Doug Hellman, admission manager for a program at Village of Hope that helps people transition from chronic homelessness to more stable lifestyles.

She knows how to get people out of the homeless rut, Hellman added.

Thats normally something a counselor and therapist does. For her, instead of just enforcing the law, its, How can I help these people change?

Thats gold.

SHE GETS IT

Trahan knows about welfare.

Growing up in Westminster, with a sister and a single mother, the family often needed it to get by.

But she also knows about success and hard work.

Trahan was an athlete growing up, playing volleyball and running track. She held the school discus record (110 feet) when she graduated from Orange High.

She went to Cal State Fullerton, the first in her family to attend college, and later joined the U.S. Air Force.

After serving as a medic for four years, Trahan left the service, worked as an X-ray technician and went back to school at Golden West College.

There, she met a student who had a job with the Los Angeles Police Department, Jim Katapodis. He would go on to be mayor of Huntington Beach  and the man who persuaded Trahan to become a cop.

Trahan was at the LAPD for eight years, starting in South Central. But after having her second daughter, she decided to look for a job in Orange County. She started with Tustin Police as a reserve in 2003, and three years later was hired on as a school resource officer.

I think I recognized from childhood that you need to be compassionate toward people, Trahan said.

Whenever I arrested someone, I would ask them, How did you start getting into (trouble)? I always felt like I wanted to know what the back story was.

I so easily could have gone down the wrong path. It always comes down to choices. Thankfully, I made the right choices.

Nichols says shes happy Trahan chose to help her. It was a chance meeting that day, with the dogs, but it anchored us, Nichols said.

Were blessed in many ways, she added. Melissa is at the top of that list.

Contact the writer: 714-796-2254 or eritchie@ocregister.com or Twitter:@lagunaini
The OECD Observer online archive takes you on a journey through half a century of public policy and world progress.

Since November 1962, the OECDs experts and leading guests offer insights on the questions facing our member countries with concise and authoritative analysis, and provide our audiences with an excellent opportunity to understand policy debates and consider solutions.

Each edition of the OECD Observer reports on a core theme of the OECDs on-going work, from economics and society through governance, finance, and the environment, and articles are bolstered by tables and graphs.
Headed to the nearby supermercado, Josh Strobel and his dog, Gucci, sauntered out of their revamped Park Avenue apartment building  the one that until its makeover a few years ago was shuttered and fraught with social ills.

The Idaho-born university student and bow-tied Yorkie strolled by the storefront mission that doles out daily counsel and discounted items.

They passed the man snoozing in a booth, and the expanded pharmacy that used to share the corner with Sheris strip joint.

Before scooting to class, Strobel walked his furry friend around other neighborly spots, including the family-owned convenience store finally shedding its window security bars, and another batch of apartments set to transform into trendy market-rate housing.

Few would disagree that revitalization efforts of the past few years have boosted this inner-city pocket once considered a home of last resort.

But now InCommon Community Development is sounding an alarm, fearing that the influx of investment and wealthier gentry is starting to raise rents and push out poorer folks who had an established support network in the area of Leavenworth Street and Park Avenue.

Leaders of the nonprofit based along Park Avenue are hoping greater awareness will minimize potential downsides of gentrification  or a changing of the neighborhoods residents from poorer people to wealthier ones, with the attendant increases in rent and fancier services.

It began as pure benefit, said InCommon Director Christian Gray, citing the shabby-to-chic transformation five years ago of the row of apartments where Strobel lives. But as other developers and opportunities have shown themselves, it started to take more of a form of displacement.

Grays concern spreads beyond Park Avenue  and into other aging Omaha neighborhoods joining the growing nationwide number of areas changing with the infusion of more affluent residents and economic development.

Gentrification has come back to public consciousness as cities have benefited from population growth and redevelopment, said Stockton Williams of the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Land Institute. Its happening probably with greater velocity and in more places in recent years.

A national analysis by Governing Magazine identified 12 Omaha census tracts (of about 135 in the city) as gentrified by accelerated shifts in housing values and education levels. That report, which was published last year and looked at years through 2013, didnt capture Omahas more recent flurry of urban redevelopment.

Even without data, area neighborhood leaders point to obviously transformed enclaves in Little Italy just south of downtown, Benson and other midtown areas such as Blackstone.

Marked by architectural and urban charm, those older places tend to be close to the citys core where increasing numbers of millennials, merchants and baby boomers have flocked in recent years.

Fueling the midtown draw is job creation at the University of Nebraska Medical Center campus and commercial activity at the $365 million Midtown Crossing campus built six years ago by Mutual of Omaha.

To be sure, experts say, the changing of the guard that accompanies gentrification isnt on its face negative: Who doesnt want a distressed area re-energized with fresh workers and a higher tax base?

But forcing residents to uproot risks further segregation and resentment that can fester into unproductive behavior, said Omaha Public Schools board member Tony Vargas, who before coming to town taught low-income students in Brooklyn areas dramatically altered by high-rent condos and businesses of that New York City borough.

The original character and fabric of gentrified neighborhoods also can suffer if longtime artists, merchants and tenants are priced out with soaring property values, said David Harris, a New York community development official who moved six years ago to the Omaha area.

InCommon worries about the shuffling around of disadvantaged families like those it is trying to reach through education and social programs based at its facility on Park Avenue near Woolworth Street.

We dont do ourselves any favors by pushing poverty from one neighborhood to the next, InCommons Gray said.

So far in Omaha, any adverse effects of gentrification have been relatively minimal, certainly not to the proportions seen in areas of Brooklyn, Portland or Chicago, says Robert Blair, an urban studies expert at the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

I dont know where the break point is, he said. Its a subtle sort of thing that takes place over a period of time. That is why monitoring is so important.

David Levy, a lawyer who serves on the governing boards of the Omaha Housing Authority and Omaha By Design, worked previously as a land use lawyer in San Francisco, where he saw more severe housing constraints. Displacement locally should be watched, he said, but added that he cant see Omahas urban revival as anything but a good thing.

InCommon leaders have started to talk to groups and city officials about ways to guide gentrification and form partnerships so people of all socioeconomic levels win.

Gray said hes unsure what has happened to midtown residents who over the last few years left homes that were torn down or completely renovated. No one has kept track. Gray said he knows at least one client who landed in a shelter and cant help but wonder the fate of others.

Meanwhile, InCommon has put money where its mouth is, buying the century-old Bristol Apartments on Park Avenue before a private developer could. The goal: to keep the 64 units at about $450 a month, as rents around it often have doubled that amount.

City planners agree with InCommon that a mix of income levels could be ideal for neighborhoods, but dont necessarily agree that city government should intervene.

The dominant tool the city now uses for urban redevelopment is tax-increment financing. Gray suggested, for instance, that developers receiving such a financial break could set aside a certain number of units for lower-income tenants.

Planning Director James Thele said TIF fills the financial gap needed to pull off infill projects. He said adding more mandates likely would torpedo many of those efforts.

Furthermore, Thele said, he doesnt see a problem at this point with gentrifying neighborhoods. Most of the redevelopment of urban areas, he said, has involved decaying or vacant structures and empty lots.

Should these deteriorating properties be kept in that state so rent stays low? asked Thele. That doesnt make any sense to me.

Thele said he has not seen substantial displacement, though he acknowledges that no one has kept a tally.

Rather than messing with a free market, Thele said he believes the best route to maintaining affordable rents in gentrified areas is with initiatives such as InCommons Bristol.

The dwindling pot of money Omaha has available for low-income housing is focused on certain north and South Omaha blocks that arent attracting private investors, said David Thomas, who directs the citys Housing and Community Development division.

The idea is to instill hope in the future of those residential pockets, and ultimately draw more outside dollars.

Thomas noted that, on the other hand, private developers today arent needing much prodding to enter areas such as Park Avenue, Little Italy and Blackstone.

Since 2013, for example, public records show that Harvest Development (also known as HD) paid $1.3 million for eight mostly multifamily properties along a few-block stretch of Park Avenue north of Woolworth Avenue.

We see it as revitalization, said Bret Cain, the companys vice president of operations. Were very happy with how things are going.

Cain declined to disclose how much the company has put into rehabbing. Harvest didnt seek public financing on those Park Avenue structures that would have revealed such detail. The firms midtown rents range from $700 to $1,800. Naturally, you get a few unhappy with the rent increase, Cain said. He said the community trade-off is updated housing with green space.

Harvest is about to open the new Ekard Court at 617 S. 31st St., where 27 beat-up apartments once were. That $3.6 million project, which brings 36 luxury apartments, was assisted by city-approved tax-increment financing.

While Harvest has revived properties elsewhere in the city, its recent purchase of an old Park Avenue laundromat for a headquarters portends continued focus in transforming midtown buildings into market-rate apartments.

It is not alone.

Private developers including Milestone Property, Bluestone Development and Uptown Urban Dwellings have jumped on the multimillion-dollar midtown redevelopment bandwagon. Urban Village Development, a pioneer in the Park Avenue area, continues to grow its inventory.

Farther west, nearer the medical center campus, GreenSlate and Clarity Development companies have led more than $40 million in investment in the once-bleak Blackstone business district.

That momentum started with retail revival and shifted to housing. Their latest venture calls for transformation of the Colonial Hotel at 38th and Farnam Streets, which most recently was a worn boarding house charging $100-a-week rents.

The plan is to return the century-old property to its roots as a fancy Renaissance Revival-style apartment structure. In doing so, monthly rents are to rise to between $850 and $1,400.

Claritys Mike Peter, who also is on the governing board of InCommon, said Omahas urban conversion projects, including the Colonial, have been obsolete properties crying out for change.

A solution that doesnt compromise revitalization, yet secures families, is creation of more affordable housing options in and around the transformation. Omaha, he said, is in a better position to do that than coastal cities that face land shortage and extreme rent-income disparities.

What people want is better housing; they dont want to just live in a certain place.

Helpful tools to create affordable housing include a proposed state low-income housing tax credit program under consideration in the Nebraska Legislature, said Claritys Tom McLeay. He said it makes better sense financially to slip in separate affordable rental housing in reviving neighborhoods than to require private developers to put low-income units in a newly renovated building.

From InCommons view, not all developers have been willing to work with it to ease negative effects of transformation.

Interviews with area residents show plenty of work ahead in blending the two income worlds on Park Avenue.

Strobel, the Creighton University student who has lived on the corridor since last year, likes the proximity to campus. He likes the dog-friendly landlord, the interior of his revamped Art Decos unit. He fully supports the street ministry next door.

But the 23-year-old pre-med student is weirded out enough by what goes on outside after dark that he prefers his wife, Alexsandra, not walk the dog alone. He said the yelling and commotion stems from people he doesnt recognize.

And hes moving after graduation.

It can get scary, he said. I dont see it as somewhere Id like to be long-term.

Kristie Eisenauer, who lives in a lesser-income apartment south of Art Decos, describes her street as two different worlds. She cant believe the rents. I mean, theyre trying to make this Beverly Hills.

Mary Ann Caniglia has outstayed most on Park Avenue. And though she considers many of the old guard her family, she appreciates changes that have pushed out bad elements.

Her family-owned Park Avenue grocery is making its own shifts  adding deli sandwiches and Blue Moon to the lineup of generic beers. Caniglia, her husband and children also are removing security bars from their store windows so we can see the progress.

Said Caniglia: Were excited about another phase to Park Avenue.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1224, cindy.gonzalez@owh.com
Flyover collapse, temple fire: Do tragedies in poll-bound states become political in no time?

Feature

oi-Shubham

By Shubham

When a tragedy occurs in a poll-bound state, does it help the people more or the politicians? Apparently, it seems such occurrences help the people's cause as the political parties, including their national leaderships, do not take the risk of ignoring the people no matter how localised an event is. [Over 100 killed in Kerala temple fire]

But actually, it is the other way round as the tragedy and the media coverage that follows give ample opportunity to the political parties, particularly those looking for an opportunity to cement their place in the states where they have not been traditionally strong. [Over 20 killed in Kolkata flyover collapse]

A tragedy becomes a bonus opportunity for political campaigning.

We have seen it both in Kolkata and Kollam in last 11 days since both cities are located in two poll-bound states where the mercury of electioneering is rising as fast as the heat. [Kerala temple fire: No lessons learnt from Malanada incident]

Modi took stock of situation in Kolkata from US, Rahul rushed to spot

In the wake of the collapse of an under-construction flyover in Kolkata on March 31 which led to the death of over 25 people, almost all parties plunged into the fray to extract the maximum political mileage.

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi took stock of the situation from the United States where he was then, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi even visited the spot and met those injured in the hospital. [Kollam temple fire: PM Modi announces compensation]

The top leaders apart, even local ones didn't spare any opportunity to make full use of the 'scope'. One Congress leader was even seen inspecting the place with a party flag draped around him.

Kerala tragedy, too, gives a scope to BJP, Cong top brass to reach out to state people

In Kerala, too, the Puttingal Temple fire tragedy has created a big opportunity for the right-wing fanatics to encash the temple sentiments. Twitter was already abuzz with thanking the prime minister for visiting the temple soon after the tragedy and blamed the UDF government of the state for 'appeasing the minorities and not taking care of the majority'.

In a state like Kerala which has become highly polarised, this is a perfect opportunity for the saffron camp to make a psychological impact by rushing in with all help and assistance.

PM's visit to the spot will do wonders for Kerala BJP

The PM's visit to the spot, something he perhaps would also have done had he been India when the flyover collapsed in Kolkata, will do wonders for the BJP cadres and take the winds out of the sails of both the UDF and LDF. Till now, the political fight is less open in Kerala compared to what happened in Kolkata but one can certainly feel the competitive mood.

But what about the administrative callousness that leads to these disasters?

But apart from the political strategising, do these tragedies have any aftereffect once the election gets over? Do we really care about the violation of norms and the administrative failures that mostly lead to these disasters? [Fireworks displaye despite restrictions]

Human life is lost cheaply in this country under almost all governments, because of administrative callousness. But every time, a disaster gets reduced to a political blame game with the naked desire to get the maximum political benefit, especially if it is before the elections.
Revenue official flees as ACB tries to nab him taking bribe

ACB searches properties of eight govt officials in Chhattisgarh

India

oi-PTI

Raipur, April 10: The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) on Saturday, April 9 conducted searches at the residences and offices of eight government officials in Chhattisgarh and discovered disproportionate assets worth crores of rupees.

ADG of ACB Mukesh Gupta said that searches were conducted at the premises of Registrar of Ravishankar University K K Chandrakar, Joint Director of Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission Hareram Sharma, Additional Director of Nagrik Apurti Nigam Dayamani Minj, CMO of Ghargoda Municipal Council Arun Sharma, Executive Engineer of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) Shubhnarayan Pathak, Bilaspur Municipality CEO Suresh Barua and Engineer of PMGSY Arvind Rahi and SDO of Irrigation Department Anil Rahi.

During the searches at Shubhnarayan Pathak's house in Bilaspur, the ACB sleuths found Rs 40 lakh cash stuffed inside a pillow cover and dumped hidden under the roof. ACB also found that Pathak owned three houses in Bilaspur, a plot of land in Chatidih and a hotel at Balia in UP.

Chandrakar was found to possess two houses and fixed deposits of Rs 40 lakh and 20 acres land. ACB also seized documents of a restaurant, 17 plots of land and a three-storeyed building from the house of Arvind Rahi.

ACB seized documents of four houses and 20 acre farm house from the woman official Dayamani Minj, in addition to jewellery and FDs of Rs 60 lakh. ACB also seized documents related to two houses and an ash bricks factory and two cars, including a BMW, from the residence of Suresh Barua. Police also raided the house of Manoj, the driver of Abhay Barua, who is Suresh's son and seized a German-made pistol.

Manoj told the ACB that the pistol belonged to Abhay. The anti-graft agency also seized documents of two houses and a complex of 12 shops from the house of Arun Sharma. They also recovered papers of three houses and plots of land from the residence of Hareram Sharma.

The ACB also found that Sharma had invested some money in coal business through his brother.

PTI
CPI(M) has a problem with the Congress Bharat Jodo Yatra: Heres why

Arjun Singh was upset CPI-M didn't make Jyoti Basu PM: Sitaram

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

New Delhi, April 10: CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury says Congress leader Arjun Singh never probably forgave him after his party vetoed the proposal to make Marxist veteran Jyoti Basu the prime minister in 1996.

The deceased Congress veteran was not pleased with the Communist Party of India-Marxist for not allowing Basu to become the prime minister after the 1996 Lok Sabha polls threw up a hung parliament.

This -- and more -- is revealed in a souvenir released on Saturday by the Arjun Singh Sadbhavna Foundation on the occasion of the first Arjun Singh memorial lecture. It was delivered by President Pranab Mukherjee.

The souvenir, released by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, has articles and obituaries to the Congress leader from a galaxy of politicians and his former associates.

"Arjun Singhji was probably the first senior political leader in the country who told me that it is important for me to enter parliament," wrote Yechury, now general secretary of the Communist Party of India- Marxist (CPI-M), recalling his association with Arjun Singh.

The centre-Left United Front coalition had in 1996 proposed that West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu should become the prime minister.

Hardliners in the CPI-M led by Prakash Karat vetoed the idea. The proposal was made a second time, but the CPI-M reiterated its majority decision although it was known that Basu himself was in favour of taking up the post.

Years later, a peeved Basu described the party's veto as a "historic blunder".

"Arjun Singhji probably never forgave me for the decision taken by the CPI-M central committee in not allowing Jyoti Basu to become (the) prime minister of India," Yechury said.

Yechury, in his article, does not deal with the intra-CPI-M controversy but says: "Arjun Singh played an important role then (1996) in the formation of the United Front."

After the CPI-M's 'no' to Basu, H.D. Deve Gowda became the prime minister.

In his piece, NCP leader Sharad Pawar recalled his association with Arjun Singh and talked about their differences vis-a-vis the economic liberalization policy of then finance minister Manmohan Singh.

Pawar, who was defence minister in the Rao government, says: "When Manmohan Singh was bringing in economic liberalization at a faster speed, while I supported Manmohan Singh, Arjun Singh was opposed to this."

Among others, Sheila Dikshit, former Delhi chief minister, another associate of Arjun Singh, wrote: "His (Singh's) split with the governance of P.V. Narasimha Rao was based on principles and not on a desire for self aggrandizement.

"His sincere belief was that the principles of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi were being overlooked. Therefore, he took the bold step of splitting the party."

Arjun Singh walked out of the Rao government in December 1994 and formed the Indira Congress-Tiwari along with another party veteran. N.D. Tiwari.

Among others, Congress leader A.K. Antony wrote about how he worked closely with Arjun Singh to bring about the Mizoram Accord that brought peace to the northeastern state in 1986.

Former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh wrote that Arjun Singh would always be his "unparalleled mentor".

Another Madhya Pradesh Congress leader, Kamal Nath, echoed the view, saying Arjun Singh had played a mentor's role in the lives of many young politicians.

IANS
"Kick us out if we don't do anything": How Modi's emotional appeal resembles that of Mamata

TMC says Shukla's resignation not to affect party; BJP welcomes him to join saffron camp

Congress would have gained had it fought Bengal polls alone: Abhijit Mukherjee

Mamata Banerjee accuses PM Modi of speaking at Matua temple with an eye on West Bengal polls

Bengal's 91-year-old 'Chacha ji' fights another election

India

oi-IANS

By Ians English

Kolkata, April 10: The Congress' Gyan Singh Sohanpal is the oldest candidate in the West Bengal assembly polls, seeking his 11th term as a legislator at the ripe age of 91.

Fondly called "Chacha ji" (uncle) by one and all, Sohanpal is contesting from Kharagpur Sadar constituency in West Midnapore district, which has been sending him to the assembly since 1982.

He served as a West Bengal minister and briefly as the assembly speaker in the past.

Sohanpal's family belonged to Punjab but migrated to Bengal in early 1900s. He joined the Congress party during the Quit India movement for the overthrow of British rule in the country.

He won his first election in 1969 in independent India.

Since then, Sohanpal has kept the Congress flag high in all electoral contests, except in 1977 when the Left Front swept to power in the state.

This time he is pitted against BJP state president Dilip Ghosh and the ruling Trinamool Congress' Ramaprasad Tiwari, but has the backing of the Left Front which has an electoral understanding with the Congress in West Bengal.

The tie-up is a democratic necessity, says Sohanpal, once a fierce opponent of the Marxists.

"Politics is about people and this tie-up is their demand and need. It is a necessity -- to oust the Trinamool," he says.

Sohanpal is proud of his amazing capacity for fighting elections and is hopeful of yet another win, hopefully the 11th.

"I have full faith in the people of Kharagpur; they will never let down Congress," he says.

To those who say he is no match to his rivals' physically exhausting campaigning in hot sun, Sohanpal retorts: "I am proud to be 91 years old and far more active than they are."

But Dilip Ghosh insists, the youth should now take over.

"It's not the age for him to work. The people of Kharagpur have already declared it's time for him to rest. I too want him to rest and bless me and let the youth lead the country," said Ghosh during one of his road shows in the constituency.

A high-decibel address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a massive road show by Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have raised the temperatures in the Kharagpur Sadar constituency, which votes on Monday.

IANS
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News Flash: Govt of India stands with people of Kerala: PM Modi on Kollam

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

New Delhi, April 10: Get the latest national and international updates here:

6.45 pm: Government of India stands with the people of Kerala, we will help them in the best way possible: PM Modi.

I have told CM that Govt of India will help if patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or Delhi: PM Modi #Kollam pic.twitter.com/knS2H1SP9K  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

6.40 pm: Puttingal Temple Fire tragedy: PM Modi reaches Thiruvananthapuram Medical college to meet the injured persons.

#Kollam fire tragedy: PM Modi arrives at Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) Medical college, Kerala Governor also present pic.twitter.com/r0VkkEaaP8  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

6.35 pm: INS Kabra and INS Kalpeni carrying medical supplies and medical teams dock at the Kollam harbour.

6.30 pm: BJP's Sreesanth outside Thiruvananthapuram Medical college, PM Modi to arrive shortly.

Kerala: BJP's Sreesanth outside Thiruvananthapuram Medical college, PM Modi to arrive shortly. pic.twitter.com/evBLiJ9QZT  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

6.00 pm: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi arrives at the accident site Kollam.

5.50 pm: Traditional welcome for Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William & Kate Middleton at Banganga Water Tank.

5.40 pm: Delhi Mercedes hit-and-run case: Father of the juvenile accused gets bail on personal bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.

5.35 pm: Accused Ved Prakash sent to 1 day's judicial custody for hurling shoe at Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.

5.30 pm: PM Modi, Kerala CM Oommen Chandy and Union Health Minister JP Nadda take stock of the situation in Kollam.

5.26 pm: PM Modi visits AA Rahim Memorial Hospital in Kollam, accompanied by CM Oommen Chandy and Health Minister JP Nadda.

PM Modi meets injured persons at AA Rahim Memorial Hospital in #Kollam , accompanied by CM Chandy and JP Nadda. pic.twitter.com/vT6tVUK4qd  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

5.20 pm: Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnels donate blood at Trivandrum Medical Hospital for victims of Kollam Temple Fire.

5.17 pm: Delhi's Civil Lines hit-and-run case: Juvenile's bail plea has been rejected.

5.15 pm: Traditional welcome for Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William & Kate Middleton at Banganga Water Tank, Mumbai.

Mumbai: Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William & Kate Middleton meet representatives of NGO SMILE pic.twitter.com/UYMbsuWvz8  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

5.10 pm: 96 Indian fishermen from Sri Lanka and 9 Sri Lankan fishermen from India were repatriated, on Saturday, consequent to mutual agreement between India & Sri Lanka.

5.05 pm: Drought situation review of Bundelkhand: Meet chaired by HM recommended Rs 1304 Crore for drought relief to UP.

4.55 pm: PM Modi directed a high level review of drought situation in Bundelkhand, Vidharbha and Marathwada. PMO reviewed Bundelkhand situation on Saturday.

4.45 pm: PM Modi at the accident site of Puttingal temple in #Kollam for on-the-spot assessment of fire tragedy.

4.35 pm: USGS reports Earthquake epicenter was 282 km NE of Kabul in Afghanistan. Measured 6.6 on the Richter scale.

4.25 pm: PM Narendra Modi reaches the Puttingal temple accident site in Kollam.

4.18 pm: Delhi Metro services temporarily halted after #earthquake jolts the capital.

Earthquake!!!! It was really scary! I could see plants and furniture shaking at 6th floor office of Delhi secretriate. Wish all is well.  Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) April 10, 2016

4.15 pm: Epicenter of Earthquake in Pakistan, 248 km N of Peshawar, measured at 6.8 on Richter Scale.

FLASH: Epicenter of #Earthquake in Pakistan, 248 km N of Peshawar, measured at 6.8 on Richter Scale  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

4.03 pm: Strong tremors still being felt in New Delhi.

3.50 pm: What a fantastic experience it was to meet the Duke and the Duchess of Cambridge,remarkable couple: Sachin Tendulkar.

3.40 pm: 11 people died, 2 injured in a car accident on NH 16 near Nakkapalle in Visakhapatnam district of Andhra Pradesh.

3.35 pm: Puttingal temple fire tragedy: PM Narendra Modi received upon arrival by Kerala CM Oommen Chandy at Kollam.

3.23 pm: We've put four teams on standby and just sent one team to Kerala for pre-hospital treatment: OP Singh (DG, NDRF).

3.20 pm: We've announced Rs 10 lakh to kin of those killed in accident, free treatment to all injured: Oommen Chandy.

Also announced Rs 2 lakh help for those seriously injured & Rs 50,000 for ones who have sustained minor injuries: Oommen Chandy #KollamFire  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

3.15 pm: Puttingal (Kollam) temple fire tragedy: We have kept teams on alert, will send more if need be: OP Singh (DG, NDRF).

3.05 pm: We're happy that he's coming to Kerala to share our grief: Oommen Chandy, on PM Modi's visit to Kollam.

3.00 pm: According to our info, 100 people dead and 383 are admitted in different hospitals: Oommen Chandy, Kerala CM after cabinet meeting.

2.55 pm: Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala): IAF chopper carrying PM Narendra Modi departs for Kollam.

2.45 pm: Kollam temple tragedy: PM Narendra Modi reaches Thiruvananthapuram.

#Kollam temple tragedy: PM Narendra Modi arrives in Thiruvananthapuram pic.twitter.com/2kH3kZYifr  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

2.42 pm: Sachin Tendulkar meets Prince William, Kate Middleton.

Prince William & Kate Middleton to visit Oval Maidan(Mumbai) to meet chidren from NGOs,Sachin Tendulkar also arrives pic.twitter.com/gwpEhbdQwd  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

2.40 pm: Puttingal temple fire tragedy: ICG Ship C-427 loaded with medical team arrives in Kerala's Kollam.

2.35 pm: Fire was contained to only one room, reason can only be ascertained after investigation: Sanjay Tomar, Fire Officer on Parliament fire.

2.26 pm: Instructed Chief Controller of Explosives (PESO) to rush to Kollam site to check on legal/illegal storage/ use of firecrackers/explosives: Nirmala Sitharaman.

2.15 pm: Kerala HM Ramesh Chennithala & State Mins Adoor Prakash, Shibu B John, Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan present in cabinet meet convened by CM Chandy.

2.10 pm: Puttingal temple fire: Kerala Cabinet meeting begins in Kollam.

2.00 pm: Important for us to look at long term solutions, few IPL matches won't make much difference: MS Dhoni on Maharashtra drought.

1.50 pm: Nitish Kumar elected as JDU President.

1.45 pm: Fire breaks out in Parliament annexe building, fire is now under control.

Fire breaks out in Parliament annexe building, fire is now under control pic.twitter.com/VGDelKFL73  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

1.35 pm: Puttingal temple fire tragedy: Two more IAF helicopters have been dispatched from Yelahanka (Karnataka) for Kerala's Kollam.

Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people: Pakistan MoFA #KollamFire  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

1.30 pm: Pak Govt expresses its deep condolences on loss of precious lives, resulting from fire breakout in temple in South Kerala: Pak MoFA.

1.20 pm: I gave necessary instructions to NDRF DG in the morning, as soon as I received the news: Rajnath Singh, Home Minister.

1.12 pm: Duke & Duchess of Cambridge,Prince William & Kate Middleton pay tribute to victims of 26/11 terrorist attack.

Mumbai: Duke & Duchess of Cambridge,Prince William & Kate Middleton pay tribute to victims of 26/11 terrorist attack pic.twitter.com/XhVZph6Lkq  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

1.05 pm: Union Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi offers 'chaadar' at Ajmer Sharif Dargah on behalf of PM Narendra Modi.

Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti hamaare mulk ki mahan sufi parampara ki anokhi misaal hain: MA Naqvi reads PM Modis message at Ajmer Sharif Dargah  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

12.55 pm: An additional team of Indian Coast Guard is on its way to Kollam to donate blood.

12.50 pm: Sufficient medical facilities available here: Kerala CM Oommen Chandy on Puttingal temple fire tragedy.

12.45 pm: Kerala CM Oommen Chandy arrives at the site of Puttingal temple fire tragedy in Kollam.

12.40 pm: Centre has assured, all requisite help & cooperation will be provided to state administration: Jitendra Singh, MoS.

Centre has assured,all requisite help & cooperation will be provided to state administration- Jitendra Singh #Kollam pic.twitter.com/FFmcOK06T1  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

12.30 pm: Rahul Gandhi leaves from his residence in Delhi, will visit Kollam & meet people who got injured in fire tragedy.

12.17 pm: I visited Trivandrum Medical College, met injured persons & had interaction with doctors too: Amit Shah in Puttingal.

12.15 pm: Indian Coast Guard dispatches 1 ship loaded with medical team to Kollam. Another team on its way via road. 1 chopper positioned at Trivandrum.

12.10 pm: BJP President Amit Shah visits Trivandrum Medical College where injured persons are being given medical assistance.

I visited Trivandrum Medical College, met injured persons & had interaction with doctors too: Amit Shah #Puttingal pic.twitter.com/R0a0DKGjLr  ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

12.05 pm: 4 IAF helicopters have reached Trivandrum and are ready for the task. 2 AN32 aircrafts will take two NDRF teams from Arakkonam.

12.00 pm: Anyone found guilty will be suitably punished: Congress on Puttingal temple fire tragedy.

11.55 am: PM Modi with a team of burn specialist doctors board flight, leaves for Puttingal Temple Kollam.

11.48 am: An old hull stationed at Old Begumpet airport (Hyderabad) was being moved from Air India hanger for training purpose, says Air India statement.

11.25 am: Prime Minister Narendra Modi to leave for Kollam shortly.

11.00 am: A team of burn specialist doctors board flight to Kollam, PM to leave shortly on Kollam Temple Fire.

10.51 am: The election commission of India has granted permission to the Kerala government to release financial assistance for the victims of the temple incident. The permission had to be sought due to the ongoing election process where a code of conduct is in place.

10.31 am: Unexploded dynamite sticks at the site of Puttingal temple fire tragedy.

10.25 am: A team of burn specialist doctors also traveling with PM Modi to Kerala, PM will land directly in Kollam.

10.15 am: Case registered against Puttingal temple authorities over Kollam fire tragedy.

10.00 am: Crane carrying an old AI aircraft lost balance & crashed on compound wall of Hitech club near Begumpet Airport (Hyderabad) in Bowenpally.

9.36 am: 90 people dead & 350 injured in massive fire at Puttingal temple, Kollam (Kerala).

9.15 am: Puttingal temple fire: BJP President Amit Shah cancels all his public programs scheduled in Kerala today, will visit Kollam later in the day.

9.00 am: Rajouri's Mughal road (J&K) being cleared after heavy snowfall in higher reaches of Pir Panjal range yesterday

8.47 am: Body of 1 Pak smuggler recovered by BSF, whereas dead body of the second one has been taken away by his associates, says BSF Sources.

8.22 am: 83 injured people admitted to Trivandrum medical college & 13 dead bodies have been brought here: Kerala Health Minister VS Siva kumar.

8.20 am: We're giving all possible support to the injured people, says Kerala Health Minister VS Sivakumar on Puttingal temple fire.

8.10 am: Pictures of fireworks display that caused massive fire at Puttingal temple in Kerala claiming 75 lives and injuring 200.

8.00 am: Massive fire at Puttingal temple (Kerala): Injured ppl being given medical assistance in Trivandrum Medical College.

OneIndia News
Hindu Kush quakes may have long-term impact: report

International

oi-PTI

Islamabad, Apr 10: The recent wave of tremors that have shaken the Hindu Kush regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan may have lasting impacts on the topography of areas as far afield as Islamabad, according to a media report.

The region was shaken on Friday by at least four distinct tremors, ranging in intensity from 3.3 to 5.3, according to the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD), the strongest of which was felt in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa such as Malakand and Swat.

Dawn reported, citing PMD, that two of the quakes originated in the Hindu Kush region, while the other two were located in the Afghanistan-Tajikistan border region. All of them occurred deep under the earth's crust, with at least three of the quakes measuring over 100 km in depth.

Experts say collisions between Indian, Eurasian plates may cause areas like Islamabad to rise over time.

Over 100 seismic events have been recorded in the region over the past six months alone and some rocked the earth like a boat, while most of them passed unnoticed.

Like the four quakes yesterday, the vast majority of these events originated in parts of the Hindu Kush range located in Afghanistan and Tajikistan and were felt as far afield as Islamabad and Lahore.

The region is roughly located on top of the meeting point for the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has termed the Hindu Kush "one of the most seismically hazardous regions on earth".

However, nearly all of the recent tremors felt in the region originated deep in the earth's crust, nearly 200 km below the surface. In a report on earthquakes in this region, the USGS noted that "the Hindu Kush shares this high-stress configuration with a seismically active area in Colombia, South America".

These two regions have some of the world's highest rates of deep earthquakes. However, scientists admit that they do not know a great deal about the forces that are in play at such depths. The USGS has stated that most such earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates rubbing together.

According to a report by the National Geographic Society, the two plates are colliding at a rate of about 1.5 inches a year, pushing up the Himalayan mountain range in the process. Due to friction along the plate boundaries, the collisions are not smooth or even.

When the rocks finally give way under the strain, the plates jerk rapidly, releasing the energy that causes an earthquake. With the collision of plates pushing land upwards, nearby regions including Islamabad may gradually end up gaining altitude.

Or conversely, "some areas can start sinking too. For example, La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, is sinking lower because mountains around it are rising," Met Office Director General Ghulam Rasul was quoted as saying.

PTI
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BOISE, Idaho  You don't need to recognize the birds by their song, like Terry Rich.

You don't need to wow your friends with a 1-second identification of a fast-moving duck, like Kathy McCoy.

You don't need $2,000 binoculars or a $1,000 camera.

To become a birder, all you need is an appreciation of nature and to pay attention  with your eyes and your ears.

"You just see so much more when you know what they are," McCoy said. "It sparks curiosity."

"And then," Rich said, "you look for more yet."

The Treasure Valley has a bustling bird scene with hundreds of species to find, an abundance of parks and wildlife areas to search (not to mention your backyard) and a devoted group of birding enthusiasts who are sharing their passion with schoolkids through several outreach programs.

Heidi Ware of Boise State's Intermountain Bird Observatory is involved in one of the area's unique birding experiences: banding birds, including hawks and owls, at the top of Lucky Peak and allowing community members to help release them.

"As a kid, I was really into insects. I switched over to birds," said Ware, who includes "birdnerd" in her email address. "The reason I like both is they're everywhere. ... One of my passions is engaging the community in conservation. Birds are the perfect vehicle for that. You can see them in your backyard. It gives you that connection with nature. If you care about birds and protect habitat for them, you kind of protect everything else along with them."

Boise Parks and Recreation and Idaho Fish and Game have launched projects to accentuate the birding opportunities in the area.

Parks and Rec is about to print a field guide to 99 of the most common birds in Boise. The guide is available online now.

"Birding is super popular," said Jerry Pugh, community programs coordinator. "The response from people wanting to give input for this guide has been astounding. It's been kind of a challenge to wade through that stuff."

Idaho Fish and Game is in the process of updating its Idaho Birding Trail, which was established in 2005. It includes more than 170 bird-rich sites, including 40 in Southwest Idaho, with detailed information on each at IdahoBirdingTrail.org.

"It features pretty much the best birds in Idaho," said Deniz Aygen, a watchable wildlife biologist with Idaho Fish and Game.

Those programs  as well as the Intermountain Bird Observatory's hands-on opportunities and the K-12 education program "Bird by Bird"  serve as easy entry points.

And once you've tried birding, your eyes and ears will take more notice of your surroundings. You'll take a closer look at the birds on your daily walk or bike ride and be more mindful of the chorus of bird calls and songs that fills the air right now.

Spring birding season is just beginning in the Treasure Valley with migratory birds arriving. The peak comes in mid-May.

"May through early June is the best," said Rich, who gives a talk about birds once a month at the Foothills Learning Center. "Everything is singing. The males are displaying."

Rich has seen 3,058 bird species. He has traveled to the Amazon for birding and is going to Ethiopia this year.

He became interested in birds as a child, studied wildlife ecology and zoology in college and spent his career with the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before retiring.

"My dad was more into flowers than birds," Rich said. "We'd go out hiking and exploring. I started looking more at the birds than the flowers."

McCoy also began at a young age with a bird book and pair of binoculars readily available at home. Now she leads a Wednesday morning group outing year-round.

"I just enjoy the excuse to go out and enjoy nature and look at what's out there," she said. "And it's so easy."

For the intense birders, motivation could come from competition, the scientific pursuit or the will to get "really, really good at what you do," Rich said.

For him, the appeal hasn't changed much from when he was a kid.

"It's the discovery and exploration," he said. "It's the treasure hunt."

Group excursions

Foothills Learning Center: Terry Rich holds a talk/walk on the first Wednesday of the month at the Foothills Learning Center (north end of 8th Street in Boise). Next event is at 9 a.m. April 6. See schedule at bee.cityofboise.org.

Golden Eagle Audubon Society: Kathy McCoy leads a group on Wednesdays (meet at 8 a.m. at Janjou Patisserie, 1754 W. State St. in Boise, carpool to sites). Check the schedule on the Golden Eagle Aububon website, which includes information on weekend trips, too.

Family Birding Walk: Golden Eagle Audubon educates children with its monthly event. The next walk is at 9 a.m. Sunday at Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve, 5301 N. Maple Grove Road in Boise. Binoculars and field guides are available. Check the schedule on the Golden Eagle Audubon website.

Unique experiences

Snow geese near Parma: The Fort Boise Wildlife Management Area attracts thousands of snow and greater white-fronted geese for about a month every spring. The peak viewing time is mid-March through mid-April. Info: IdahoBirdingTrail.org. A birder field trip is scheduled for March 19. More info in the Golden Eagle Audubon calendar.

Catch and release on Lucky Peak: Boise State's Intermountain Bird Observatory bands hummingbirds in Idaho City during the spring and summer, and songbirds, hawks, eagles and owls on top of Lucky Peak from mid-July through October. "If you come and visit, we'll stick a little bird in your hand and you'll get to hold it before they fly off into the wild," said Heidi Ware, the education and outreach director for the observatory. Info: Facebook.com/IBOBoiseState and ibo.boisestate.edu/visit.

Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area (south of Kuna): The nearest Idaho Birding Trail blue-ribbon site to Boise features a variety of birds but is known for its raptors (eagles, hawks, falcons, others). "It's a phenomenal sight to be down in that area and hear the calls of various raptors and see them nesting," said Deniz Aygen, a watchable wildlife biologist for Idaho Fish and Game. "Courtship is starting now. ... People come from all around the world just to visit the canyon, yet many people in the Treasure Valley don't even know it's there." Info: IdahoBirdingTrail.org.

Places to explore

Places in the Boise area with strong bird-watching possibilities include Hulls Gulch Reserve (north end of 8th Street); Hyatt Hidden Lakes Reserve (near Chinden and Maple Grove); the Boise River parks, particularly Kathryn Albertson, Marianne Williams and Barber; the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Lowell; and Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area.

Birding resources

Field Guide to Boise's Birds: Boise Parks and Rec has assembled a handy guide to 99 of the most common birds in Boise. The guide is available as a PDF online (parks.cityofboise.org, then search "birds") but a 3.5-inch-by-5-inch printed version should be offered for sale in the next month. Nearly all of the photos were taken in Boise and donated for the project. Four birds have been elusive: the hairy woodpecker, bank swallow, cliff swallow and northern rough-winged swallow. If you get a shot of one of them within the city, email jpugh@cityofboise.org.

GoldenEagleAudubon.org: Southwest Idaho's chapter of the National Audubon Society has a website full of info, including a calendar of events and species checklists for Southwest Idaho and the entire state.

Southwest Idaho's chapter of the National Audubon Society has a website full of info, including a calendar of events and species checklists for Southwest Idaho and the entire state. IdahoBirdingTrail.org: Examine the trail by region or species. There are 40 sites in Southwest Idaho. The Idaho Birding Trail Guidebook is $5 at Fish and Game.

Examine the trail by region or species. There are 40 sites in Southwest Idaho. The Idaho Birding Trail Guidebook is $5 at Fish and Game. Facebook.com/SWIdahoBirders: A local group of birding enthusiasts who take field trips.

A local group of birding enthusiasts who take field trips. Idaho Birding on Facebook: Search for "Idaho Birding." The group shares bird photos.

Search for "Idaho Birding." The group shares bird photos. AllAboutBirds.org: The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a searchable database that provides descriptions, photos, videos, audio recordings, identification tips and other info.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology offers a searchable database that provides descriptions, photos, videos, audio recordings, identification tips and other info. eBird.org: The website collects observations of birders worldwide, creating a massive database that serves as a scouting report for excursions.

The website collects observations of birders worldwide, creating a massive database that serves as a scouting report for excursions. ABA.org: The American Birding Association is an international group of birders.

The American Birding Association is an international group of birders. NWF.org: Make your yard welcoming to birds and other wildlife through the National Wildlife Federation.

Birds in Treasure Valley

Nearly 300 species of birds are on the Southwest Idaho checklist produced by the Golden Eagle Audubon Society. Here are some notable ones:

Bald eagle: Pairs have been spotted along the Greenbelt just east of the Ram and at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Lowell.

Pairs have been spotted along the Greenbelt just east of the Ram and at the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge near Lake Lowell. Yellow-breasted chat: "The yellow-breasted chat offers a cascade of song in the spring, when males deliver streams of whistles, cackles, chuckles and gurgles with the fluidity of improvisational jazz," according to AllAboutBirds.org. "It's seldom seen or heard during the rest of the year."

"The yellow-breasted chat offers a cascade of song in the spring, when males deliver streams of whistles, cackles, chuckles and gurgles with the fluidity of improvisational jazz," according to AllAboutBirds.org. "It's seldom seen or heard during the rest of the year." Common merganser: The males have green heads like mallards while the females are redheads. They've been spotted recently in the Boise River near Barber Park. "They generally look like a mallard but they're way cooler than a mallard," birder Terry Rich said. "You'll see 500 mallards for every one of these."

The males have green heads like mallards while the females are redheads. They've been spotted recently in the Boise River near Barber Park. "They generally look like a mallard but they're way cooler than a mallard," birder Terry Rich said. "You'll see 500 mallards for every one of these." Gray catbird: They hide in dense shrubs, which makes them difficult to see. They also mimic the sounds of other birds. "You've got to know what to listen for or you'll never see them," Rich said.

They hide in dense shrubs, which makes them difficult to see. They also mimic the sounds of other birds. "You've got to know what to listen for or you'll never see them," Rich said. Great horned owl: A pair nest in the hillside along the road near the Foothills Learning Center. They have been hanging out during the day in the evergreens outside the Learning Center. The owlets (babies) will start showing themselves in April or May.

A pair nest in the hillside along the road near the Foothills Learning Center. They have been hanging out during the day in the evergreens outside the Learning Center. The owlets (babies) will start showing themselves in April or May. Mourning dove: Don't let the hoots fool you. "Everybody thinks a mourning dove is an owl," Rich said. "The owl is much louder and makes more of a 'hoo, hoo.' It's more abrupt. The mourning dove tapers in and tapers out, and it's softer."
A five-day-old baby allegedly abducted atIjagbe community, Mopa-Muro Local Government Area, Kogi,10 days ago has not been released.

The incident occurred at about 8 p.m. April 11 when the gunmen invaded the home of Mr Tosin Ojuola and at gun point, forced his wife to surrender the child to them.

According to him, he left home for church when the gunmen arrived and invaded his apartment, beat up his wife and asked her to surrender the baby at gun point.

We searched all the nearby bushes to some kilometers away, but because it was night, we could not go very deep into the bush, he told the police.

He stated that he reported the matter immediately at the Divisional Police Station in Mopa, where the police promised to investigate and search for the baby.

Ojuola said that the following morning, more villagers were mobilised to search for the baby far into the bush, including farms and Fulani settlements, but that all efforts were abortive.

He explained that the police came to his house also the following day to arrest his landlord and a Fulani man, who is a tenant.

According to him, the Police said that they were the principal suspects.

But, Ojuola said that the matter took a twist on April 14, when police invited him for questioning and later detained him in connection with the incident.

The police told me that the community leaders demanded for my arrest, claiming that the village oracle (Ifa deity) revealed that I have hand in the stealing of my own baby.

Meanwhile, before my arrest, three of the community leaders came to my house on the third day and said that they were going to make sacrifice to their gods to expose the perpetrators and recover my baby.

They asked me to provide axe, cutlass, hoe, palm kernel oil and fresh yam, which I did, and they asked me to take them to the spot where I buried the placenta of my baby.

I took them there and they did some incantations and poured the oil on the spot, and assured me that my baby would be found.

To my greatest surprise and shock, it was the same people that asked the police to arrest and detain me for allegedly stealing my own baby, he said.

Ojuola stated that the case was later transferred to the State CID at Police Headquarters, Lokoja, on Wednesday.

I have since been in police cell for seven days without food and without any hope of finding my stolen baby. My image has been tarnished.

Why would I do such evil against my own baby? I am a farmer, and a staff of Mopamuro Local Government Council, I have five children.

The stolen baby was my sixth child. I am still owing N4,000 at the clinic where I took the baby to after he was delivered at home.

I have spent over eleven years in the community, my aged parents are in the same community; I have never been involved in any crime in my life.

I am innocent; I am a devoted and committed Christian. How would I steal my own baby, to do what and for what, he explained.

I am appealing to the police to conduct a thorough investigation and fish out the perpetrators, and help me to rescue my baby because I am helpless, Ojuola pleaded.

Shade Ojuola, his wife and mother of the baby, in tears, expressed sadness over the snatching of her baby at gunpoint.

Mrs Ojuola who corroborated her husbands earlier statements, called for immediate release of her husband to enable the family to continue the search for their baby.

I am begging the police to please free my husband from cell in Lokoja because he is innocent; he can never do such a thing; he is a hardworking man, and he fears God.

We have been married for 11 years now with five children, and he loves me and all our children; I dont want to lose him, she said.

The traditional ruler of Ijagbe, Chief Amushin Adeleye, who also spoke to NAN on phone, confirmed the incident.

He, however, denied any involvement in the arrest and detention of Tosin, the father of the baby.

He said that Tosin had never engaged in any form of criminality, violence or social vice in the community.

The monarch further confirmed that the two people the community suspected after findings and consultations were Ojuolas landlord, Samson Johnson and one Fulani man, Umoru Isah.

He said that the community later reported Johnson and Isah as suspects to the police.

The traditional ruler appealed to the police to release the babys father and ensure that justice was done in accordance with the law.

When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Hakeem Busari, said that he was aware of the matter.

When told that the complainant in the case, Mr Tosin Ojuola, had been in detention at the CID section, Busari expressed shock and asked for time to enable him to find out the real situation of things from the Officer in charge of CID.

However, the commissioner did not get back to NAN as promised and attempts to re-establish link with him failed as his mobile phone had been switched off.
KALISPELL  Jeri Anderson was unemployed when she made the decision to enroll her daughter Emma, now 8, at Stillwater Christian School.

Emma was in preschool, attending just three days a week so she could spend some time with children her own age.

She immediately fell in love, Anderson said. It was her home away from home. She would say, If I cant be with you, Mom, at least I can be with my family at school.

Anderson, along with two other mothers of children who attend Stillwater, filed a lawsuit in December to gain access to scholarship funds administered through the state Department of Revenue. A law passed during the 2015 Legislature created a $150 income tax credit for donations that support nonprofit scholarship organizations that help pay for students to attend private schools.

Because the department collects the money, it wrote the administrative rules that dictate who can receive the scholarships. One of the rules excluded any of the money from going to religiously affiliated schools. This was necessary, the department said, because Montana's Constitution prohibits any direct or indirect appropriations or payment from the government to religious institutions or religiously affiliated schools.

On April 1 in Flathead County District Court Judge David Ortley granted the mothers an injunction, saying the department must operate as if the rule didnt exist. That could open the door for parents like Anderson to apply for a scholarship to pay some of Emmas tuition.

Stillwater is a place where Emma, a second-grader who is really into the solar system and cant go anywhere without a book, feels safe, Anderson said.

Theres usually three of them, Anderson said of the books Emma reads, all in various stages of done.

Anderson said she depleted her savings to pay for Emmas first two years at Stillwater before she found a job. Emma also received an ACE Scholarship, which provides up to $2,000 for elementary students. About 800 students applied for those scholarships the first year they were offered, and 300 ended up on a wait list.

Tuition is about $6,600 a year for elementary students at Stillwater. Every year its a step out on faith that we can do this, we can pull this off, Anderson said.

Anderson, Kendra Espinoza and Jaime Schaefer were contacted by Stillwater about working with the Institute for Justice, a Virginia-based law firm that calls itself the nations pre-eminent courtroom defender of school choice, last fall about the possibility of filing a lawsuit.

The Institute had been keeping a close eye on Montana, said one of its attorneys, Erica Smith, who testified at a public hearing last fall on the department's rules.

Smith said after the rules were adopted, she emailed every private school in Montana to start coordinating a lawsuit, and Stillwater was the one that replied first.

Anderson and Espinoza said they werent aware of the rulemaking process or the law before the school contacted them.

So far just one organization has signed up with the department to provide scholarships  Big Sky Scholarships. The organization incorporated Jan. 11. Its registered agent is Sen. Kristin Hansen, R-Havre, who is consulting attorney for the organization and filed their paperwork. Hansen said she couldn't disclose the names of the organization's five-member board of directors, and they aren't listed in filings with the Secretary of State; the three director slots say "none stated."

According to the department, $1,350 has been pledged from donors to the scholarships and $3,000 has been pledged to go toward public school programs out of $3 million available for each. The department's education donations website went live Jan. 1.

Parents approach the school for a scholarship, and the schools make the connection with scholarship organizations like Big Sky Scholarships. Hansen said about 34 schools are going through the affiliation process, and once thats complete parents can start applying for funds.

An estimated 8,119 students attended private school in Montana during the 2014-15 school year, which is up from 7,757 in 2012-13. There were 144,532 students enrolled in public schools in 2014-14, up from 142,908 in 2012-13.

Not everyone agrees with Ortleys assessment of the rule.

Eric Feaver, president of MEA-MFT, the union representing teachers and other public employees, said the rule is exactly what the law requires. He said the ruling has a political flavor and said the Institute, a group he calls hard-edged and determined, could have picked the venue for the judge.

District Court opinions get appealed all the time, he said. If youre talking about a constitutional question, you dont want it to stop there.

Feaver compared the injunction to like winning the first quarter. Theres a whole game yet to be played.

Ortley's ruling said a tax credit is not an appropriation and therefore can go to a religious school, but Feaver said because the credit results in a reduction in the states revenue stream it is an appropriation.

He also questioned the power of a poll of state legislators last fall that set the stage for a lawsuit. After the department published its draft rules, more than 20 legislators objected to the first rule. That triggered a poll, the first since 2015, and the results found 88 lawmakers agreed the departments rule doesnt fit the intent legislators had when they passed the law. Fifty-one said the rules were fine and 11 didnt respond.

The poll couldnt change the rule, but it was published with the rule, and its results could be  and were  used as evidence in a lawsuit.

Feaver said the bill was rushed through ,and it was never clear the Legislature knew what its intent was. State Sen. Llew Jones, R-Conrad, who wrote the bill, said the rule didn't meet what he intended.

How powerful is a post-legislative survey of intent? Feaver asked. It leads to corruption of the legislative process, indicating legislative intent after the fact.

The argument for Feaver boils down to if Montana will support and enhance public schools or support sectarian schools at the expense of public schools.

Theres leavening power in public schools, where you have rich and poor, well-dressed and not, black and white, all religions, he said.

Anderson argued the tax credit doesnt take away from public schools, but just builds the pool for scholarships.

I think people realized we're just asking to be included, Anderson said. They meet the criteria to be eligible, and they just want to have their place.

Espinoza enrolled her daughters when she was employed part-time and had to work several different jobs and hold yard sales to pay tuition.

I remember driving up to the school (to an informational meeting) and thinking Why am I even doing this? I want this so bad, but theres no way I can afford this. And for two kids. I knew what it was going to cost. But I sat through that presentation and I felt God saying, Go for it, just walk on faith. And I said OK, we got this.

This is the first year Naomi, 10, and Sarah, 8, have attended Stillwater. They were in public school before, and Espinoza had done some homeschooling with Naomi.

She said the school has a "family atmosphere" and is more challenging academically.

From a values perspective, what I teach them at home  I wanted that reflected in what they learn at school, too, Espinoza said. "I knew my kids needed to be pushed a little. ... I can see what they are learning now, and it is much more advanced than it would be if they were in public school."

Sarah is in second grade. After school she attends play practice  Rapunzel  and has an analytical mind Espinoza thinks will serve her well in math class. Naomi, her older daughter, is a fourth-grader who loves to read and write stories.

When Naomi attended public school, Espinoza picked up her backpack and found it overly heavy. She had been bringing her Bible to school and doing Bible study with kids on her own.

She wants to be a missionary, thats her big goal in life, and to nurture that here while shes little means so much to us.

Re-enrollment was in February, so the countdown is on for Espinoza and Anderson  who signed up for next year  to get together tuition for next year. Espinoza just started a new job, but paying tuition is still a reach, and she doesn't view public school as an option.

The thought of now going back to public school; its like deflating a balloon, she said.

Feaver said he questions why parents who filed the suit need scholarships if their children are already enrolled in Stillwater. "Obviously they can afford it," he said.

He said he doesn't oppose parents sending their children to private schools, but he doesn't want taxpayers helping foot the bill. He objected to claims that private schools offer a better education.

"A parent who says their kid is not getting what they want in public school, I can believe that. But to say that somehow none of those schools can work for their children  just can't and there's no way it ever possibly could  I don't buy that, not for a second."

Espinoza said scholarships help bridge the gap.

We still have to come up with a pretty sizable chunk of cash even with a scholarship, she said, but this makes it doable.

The Department of Revenue is still reviewing the decision and has 45 days to determine whether it will appeal, but Feaver believes it will.

Espinoza and Anderson are hoping the department will decide it's not worth going to trial, but they're ready for an appeal.

Theres no reason to back down," Espinoza said. "Were ready to take it all the way.

Emma wants to attend Stillwater all 12 years. So do Naomi and Sarah.

Im like, If we can swing it, if we can swing it, Anderson said.
Reprinted from Sputnik

The Panama Papers, stripped to the bone, may reveal themselves, as I have argued, essentially as an infowar operation initiated by the NSA -- which would conveniently target mostly Global South "enemies" (as in the BRICS nations) and selected, disposable, Western pawns.





In its current stage, the Panama Papers have morphed into a weaponized psyops posing as an "activist leak," straight from the Hybrid War playbook.

The relentless, expert mainstream media exposure has been at pains to portray the massive leak as "responsible journalism," yet without addressing eyebrow-raising questions on how the leak really came about; how 2.6 terabytes of data, including 5 million emails, have been selective edited; how it was obtained without encryption; how there was not a single leak while the whole hoard was being sorted out by 400 or so reporters for over a year; and how the information is being selectively released.

"Responsible journalism" gatekeepers are spinning this came from a digital musketeer; a whistleblower. Not necessarily. The leak has already sparked a credibility war between WikiLeaks and the new mainstream leakers, the heavily compromised, Washington-based, US foundations-funded ICIJ.

The NSA thesis is sustained by the fact the NSA specializes in breaking into virtually any database and/or archive anywhere, stealing "secrets" and then selectively destroying/blackmailing/protecting assets and "enemies" according to US government interests. Add to it that Ramon Fonseca, founding partner of Mossack Fonseca, is stressing, "We rule out an inside job. This is not a leak. This is a hack."

Countering "strategic threats"

The Panama Papers function as much as a precision strike as a "message" for an array of players to toe the line -- or else; after all, the leak/hack unveils a web of connections to several dozen companies, individuals and politicians across the Global South who are kind of superstars -- or aspiring superstars -- in US sanctions blacklists.

The obsessive mainstream media focus on the enemies and/or "strategic threats" to Exceptionalistan also raise eyebrows; here's how the Beijing leadership is expertly dissecting it.

The Panama Papers also happen to perfectly fit into a massive US trade deal offensive. You can read it as a reminder of the TPP-TTIP corporate power grab; if you don't join our play for US-controlled One World trade, we've got dirt on you.

It's naturally healthy to be offered at least a glimpse of the nasty undercurrents of turbocharged casino capitalism, a.k.a. "global financial system," where major banks and an army of financial sharks allow "secret" companies to park illicit and/or corrupt funds.

In parallel, it's enlightening to observe how all electronic money transactions are now totally traceable. The Panama Papers happen to come to light only a few months before an obscure global information-sharing treaty will be implemented. Whether global financial sharks will be able to circumvent it is an open question. Crucially; Panama is not part of the signatories.

On the crucial financial shark angle, over half of the companies listed in the massive leak/hack are registered in the UK -- or "Crown dependencies." Savor the sweet smell of revenge by US corporate media denouncing what it practically amounts to the British Tax Evasion Empire.



Everyone knows the City of London largely operates as a world-class money laundering racket. Yet forget about British "responsible journalism" gatekeepers getting into the heart of it. It's much more popular to blame Putin as guilty by association than to examine how David Cameron's father, Ian, chose to keep the family money (and the future Prime Minister's inheritance) away from the tax man.

Or how the President of that NATO-friendly failed entity, Petro Poroshenko, stashes his wealth not in unruly Ukraine but "protected" in the Virgin Islands. And forget about investigating the former bureau chief of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Dov Weisglass, who, like Cameron's father and Poroshenko, is actually named in the Panama Papers.

Moreover, don't except a Cayman Papers or a Virgin Island Papers -- the real deal -- anytime soon. The real elite would never let it happen.

Panama Redacted




When news headlines on the so-called Panama Papers were circulated in Western mainstream media earlier this week, the main focus was on speculation that Putin was somehow implicated in scamming millions from tax avoidance.

For more discerning viewers, the sensationalist speculations had the hallmark features of another wild-eyed smear-job. All hype and no substance, just as in many other previous attempts by the Western media to blacken the Russian leader's reputation -- based on nothing else but prejudice and innuendo. Recall the downing of Malaysian airliner MH17 and Putin's "gunslinger walk" as but two such tawdry episodes.

Despite the convoluted hype, the Russian leader was not even named in the latest files leaked from the Panama-based law firm, Mossack-Fonseca. The firm specializes in setting up shell companies for rich clients in overseas jurisdictions, thus helping these clients evade tax in their home countries.

Western media outlets predictably leapt to racy implications about Putin because, among the thousands of clients named, some apparently had a personal friendship with the Russian president. The Kremlin dismissed the speculation of financial impropriety as "more fibs" that the Western media periodically indulges in in order to smear Putin.

Turns out, however, that the seeming attempt at smear has gone awry, and instead has backfired badly, with gooey egg running off the face of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

Cameron is under fire about allegations that he may have gained personally from tax avoidance schemes that his father set up while head of an investment firm. Cameron senior ran a firm called Blairmore which was a major intermediary of the Panama-based legal outfit, setting up shell companies for other British businesses. Typically, the shell companies would be registered in British-controlled overseas territories where they paid zero tax.



Those territories include British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, Cayman Islands, Guernsey and the Isle of Man. In this way, Britain's rich elite, banks and other corporations could save billions of pounds from paying taxes to the British government.

Amazingly, perhaps, these rich men's financial tricks are not considered illegal by the authorities. Although, most people would at least discern them to be unethical practice.

Premier David Cameron this week denied having any shares or trusts in overseas tax havens, and he claimed that his sole assets included his salary, savings and a family home. However, Cameron has been coy about answering directly the issue of whether he may have benefited from his father's wheeling and dealing.

When Cameron's father, Ian, died in 2010, his personal estate was reportedly valued to be the equivalent of $5 million, of which his son inherited $500,000. It was the same year that David Cameron was elected prime minister as leader of the Conservative Party.

Thus, it would seem self-evident that the British prime minister has indeed gained from the proceeds of tax avoidance through his late father's legacy. While strictly not illegal, nevertheless such a connection has politically foul whiff about it.

This scandal is not only confined to the occupant of 10 Downing Street. Several other senior members of his own party, including former ministers, have been named in the Panama Papers as patrons of tax-dodging shell companies.



Last year, too, the British Chancellor (finance minister) George Osborne was also separately implicated in tax dodging. This stemmed from his father, Sir Peter, selling the premises of the family business in London to a property developer based in the British Virgin Islands. The developer reportedly avoided paying 2 million ($3m) in tax to the British exchequer.

What is amusing in all this is that yet another lame bid to slander the Russian president has ended up boomeranging on the heads of Western governments, and Britain in particular.

Iceland's prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson has been forced out of office by widespread public anger over his involvement in alleged financial misconduct. Some 70 other world leaders and high public officials have also been singled out in the Panama Papers as having holdings in offshore firms.

With over 11 million files having been leaked, the financial dirt is bound to keep on mounting for weeks to come.

The heat is certainly growing under the feet of Britain's David Cameron and others members of his Tory government.
JUBA, South Sudan, Apr 8 2016 (IPS) - Facing an unprecedented economic crisis, South Sudan -- the newest nation of the world -- has urged its 12 million inhabitants to turn to agriculture instead of depending on declining oil revenues. http://www.ipsnews.net/2016/04/need-to-encourage-agriculture/

Ah, the beauty of bottom-up movements. South Sudan is on target. Grow your own food and get independent of the criminal elite existing in the halls of corporations, government, banks, and everything these people control via having loads of money.

On another front, author Michael Pollan reinforces bottom-up and local control when he states, "Yes, it is time to fire the powers that be and we, in turn, begin to govern ourselves." http://michaelpollan.com/books/

The currently operating curse of top-down power structures has led us to the decimation of the planet alongside a dumbing down of our children via "teach to the test" tactics. In essence, we are living under a curse that goes back to Genesis 1:2 when Eve (women in general) is told, "The Man shall rule over thee."

This curse is one we have bought into for the past several thousand years. Its time to say to the world of patriarchs, "No MORE!"



The Man rules over none of us. We have allowed it and, ultimately, created this mess we are in (pollution, constant war, physical and sexual abuse, etc). Top-Down management has been a prime star in this mess. We apparently don't realize we are on a planet that is relational, not top-down. All creatures together create the atmosphere of this planet that sustain plants and animals throughout the world.

We the people can do better than what we are currently doing. In the depths of our being, we don't need "experts" or "authorities." Oh, how I love to flesh out the term author-ity. Who gave whom the right to author your life? You don't believe you're being authored? Then, why do you continue to lose yourself in corporate owned media and government and thus lose yourself in surrender to their power? Why do you allow these top-down authorities to educate your children and determine how you labor? As we age, why do we hand the reins for our lives and money to these same leaches?

We did this to ourselves by allowing ourselves to be ruled over. Nowhere is this idea more pronounced than in Eric Fromm's writing Escape From Freedom. (Fromm has written several brilliant books, my favorite is Anatomy of Human Destructiveness. I believe this may have been his last book, though I see Escape From Freedom his best analysis of western culture). Fromm is exactly right. We do indeed escape from freedom. Thus we allow our children to be dumbed down in "teach to the test methods" which works primarily to keep our children brainwashed and not thinking creatively. This makes them easier to manage.

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Gold mining can be a lot like fishing.

They both involve a lot of time spent next to creeks and rivers, and neither guarantees any tangible payoff. But catching a fish isn't always the point of fishing.

"It's not about having the gold. It's about finding the gold," said prospector Mike Pung while sloshing sediment around in his gold pan at the Portland Gold & Treasure show Saturday.

This may seem funny coming from the co-inventor of the Gold Cube, a device designed to maximize the fine gold dust hobby prospectors can pull from a river. But by all appearances, it's true.

Just about everyone you meet at the Gold & Treasure Show has a different way of saying the same thing: If it's money you're after, there are easier ways to get it. And if it's gold you're after, try a jewelry store.

People put way more money into treasure hunting than they ever get out of it, said Brandon Johnson, president of the Gold Prospectors Association of America, the group behind the traveling Gold & Treasure Show. Even if you don't find gold, you can still feel good about a day well spent, Johnson said. But gold fever remains a very real thing.

Like most, Pung still remembers when he caught it.

The town was Chicken, Alaska, a former Gold Rush locale with a population in the single digits and a small, man-made creek near a campground. Here, his mother taught him to dip and shake a gold pan, and he discovered his first color (prospector speak for tiny gold flakes).

When he recounts the moment, Pung doesn't blink. This is serious business, until it isn't.

"It was about the size of a glitter from a unicorn fart," he said of the find. But it was more than enough to get him hooked.

Since then, one of Pung's favorite parts of mining has been sharing it with peers and newcomers, which he did eagerly at the Gold & Treasure Show's pair of hands-on panning troughs.

It's a far cry from the cutthroat ethos of the Gold Rush, but today's prospectors hold on to the rights that phenomenon brought as though they were an eight-ounce gold nugget. They go so far as to avoid the term "recreational mining" for it's implication that they're anything less than entitled to it.

"Recreation is a privilege," Pung said, but mining is a right, still allowed for by the General Mining Law of 1872. Many conservation groups call mining a detriment to river ecosystems, and some legislation in Western states like Oregon has sought to restrict even hobby mining.

At the thought of it, Pung prickles slightly, asserting that miners actually do rivers a service by removing heavy metals like lead and mercury and creating deep holes that are hospitable to fish.

This resistance comes from a deeply buried affection for the act of mining itself that most hobby prospectors seem to share. Pung said he treasures the experiences that come with plotting a land claim and digging in more than anything that lands in his pan.

"I have never sold a piece of gold because every single vial of it is a time capsule," said Pung. "It tells the story of the day."

Pung said he sees those memories in the varied hues of his gold samples. That first flake of Alaska color. The mother-son trip that brought him to it. The times he's been surrounded by friends at the creek, and the time one fell in.

"That's worth more than gold," Pung said.

The Portland Gold & Treasure Show continues 10 a.m.-4p.m. Sunday, April 10, at the Portland Expo Center, 2060 N. Marine Dr. Tickets are $10 and Expo Center parking is $8, and the MAX yellow line runs right to the Expo Center.

--Dillon Pilorget

503-294-5927
By George Will

PRINCETON, N.J. -- One of history's most important battles happened here on a field you can walk across in less than half the 45 or so minutes the battle lasted. If George Washington's audacity on Jan. 3, 1777, had not reversed the patriots' retreat and routed the advancing British, the American Revolution might have been extinguished.

Yet such is America's neglect of some places that sustain its defining memories, the portion of the field over which Washington's nation-saving charge passed is being bulldozed to make way for houses for faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS). To understand the gravity of this utterly unnecessary desecration, you must understand the astonishingly underestimated Battle of Princeton.

In December 1776, the Revolution was failing. Britain had sent to America 36,000 troops -- at that point, the largest European expeditionary force ever -- to crush the rebellion before a French intervention on America's behalf. Washington had been driven from Brooklyn Heights, then from Manhattan, then out of New York. The nation barely existed as he retreated across New Jersey, into Pennsylvania.

But from there, on Christmas night, he crossed the Delaware River ice floes for a successful 45-minute (at most) attack on Britain's Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. This was Washington's first victory; he had not been at Lexington, Concord or Bunker Hill. Trenton would, however, have been merely an evanescent triumph, were it not for what happened 10 days later.

On Jan. 2, 1777, British Gen. Charles Cornwallis began marching 5,500 troops from Princeton to attack Washington's slightly outnumbered forces at Trenton. Washington, leaving a few hundred soldiers to tend fires that tricked Cornwallis into thinking the patriot army was encamped, made a stealthy 14-mile night march to attack three British regiments remaining at Princeton. They collided on this field.

The most lethal weapons in this war were bayonets. The British had them. Few Americans did, and they beat a panicked retreated from the advancing steel. By his personal bravery, Washington reversed this and led a charge. An unusually tall man sitting on a large white horse, he was a clear target riding as close to British lines as first base is to home plate. Biographer Ron Chernow writes that, at Princeton, Washington was a "warrior in the antique sense. The eighteenth-century battlefield was a compact space, its cramped contours defined by the short range of muskets and bayonet charges, giving generals a chance to inspire by their immediate presence."

When the redcoats ran, the British aura of invincibility and the strategy of "securing territory and handing out pardons" (Chernow) were shattered. And the drift of American opinion toward defeatism halted.

In his four-volume biography of Washington, James Thomas Flexner said: "The British historian George Trevelyan was to write concerning Trenton: 'It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world.' But such would not have been the result if Washington had not gone on to overwhelm Princeton."

This ground, on which patriots' blood puddled on that 20-degree morning, has been scandalously neglected by New Jersey. Now it is being vandalized by the Institute for Advance Study, which has spurned a $4.5 million purchase offer -- more than $1 million above the appraised value -- from the invaluable Civil War Trust, which is expanding its preservation activities to Revolutionary War sites.

In today's academia there are many scholars against scholarship, including historians hostile to history -- postmodernists who think the past is merely a social construct reflecting the present's preoccupations, or power structures, or something. They partake of academia's preference for a multicultural future of diluted, if not extinguished, nationhood, and they dislike commemorating history made by white men with guns. The IAS engaged a historian who wrote a report clotted with today's impenetrable academic patois. He says we should not "fetishize space," and he drapes disparaging quotation marks around the words "hallowed ground."

The nation owes much to the IAS, which supported Albert Einstein, physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the diplomat and historian George F. Kennan. It is especially disheartening that a distinguished institution of scholars is indifferent to preserving a historic site that can nourish national identity.

The battle to save this battlefield, one of the nation's most significant and most neglected sites, is not yet lost. The government in today's Trenton, and in the city named for the man who won the 1777 battle, should assist the Civil War Trust.

George Will's email address is georgewillwashpost.com.

(c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

Hands-on educational needs outweighs fiscal caution in Roosevelt High redesign: Editorial Agenda 2016

The Portland School Board is poised to approve an eleventh-hour redesign of Roosevelt High School to include an expanded space for career and technical education and for science and technology curriculum, the editorial board writes. Despite fiscal concerns, the board is right to make the adjustment.

'Not only are programs offering science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) curriculum or targeted career and technical education (CTE) successful in engaging students and boosting graduation results, but the district has known for years how important such programs are to families in the community,' the editorial states. 'Making the changes now acknowledges the inherent ridiculousness of institutionalizing a flawed design.' Read the editorial here.

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Photo by The Associated Press

Oregon 'right to work' initiative is suddenly very relevant: Editorial Agenda 2016

A proposed ballot measure to exempt nonunion members from required contributions to the union has greater significance now that the U.S. Supreme Court has deadlocked on a case challenging such compelled contributions, the editorial board writes. The proposed initiative would address concerns that nonunions are mooching off the union by specifying that their pay and benefits would not be determined by union contracts.

'Compelling people to support positions with which they disagree is a greater affront than allowing for the possibility of free-ridership,' the editorial states. 'Not only does the former run up against the Constitution's free speech protections, but the latter does nothing more than require unions to make a case for the contributions they now may compel.' Read the editorial here.

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Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

Peter Courtney's bad leadership does not justify a recall: Editorial

Sen. President Peter Courtneys tenure has been less than impressive lately, but thats no reason to recall him as a campaign organized by Woodburn resident Matt Geiger aims to do, the editorial board writes. If voters in his district want to remove him from office, they should do so when he comes up for re-election.

'However unimpressive Courtney's recent record may be, nothing he has done falls outside of the appropriate scope of his position,' the editorial states. 'We, Geiger and others may not like the way Courtney's been doing his job, but that's what he's been doing  his job. Even the role Courtney played this year in cramming huge bills into a short session fails to meet a reasonable threshold for recall, which should require at least misuse of office.' Read the editorial here.

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Photo by Beth Nakamura/Staff

Portland State trustees flunk public-meetings test in tuition vote: Editorial

In response to a disruptive protest, Portland State University trustees moved their meeting to a basement conference room where they voted on a tuition increase with only a few media members to witness the meeting on behalf of the public, the editorial board writes. The trustees audio broadcast of the meeting was insufficient to uphold public-meetings law requirements.

'Trustees understandably wanted a way to get business done,' the editorial states. 'They had provided many opportunities for students to share their objections to the tuition increase and said they want to offer more. But they flunked the test of advancing PSU's educational mission as an institution that fosters debate with their handling of the vote.' Read the editorial here.

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Oregonian/OregonLive file photo

New park, no bark: Oregon City urban forest to welcome bikes, ban dogs: Editorial

A public-access plan for Metros Newell Creek Canyon near Oregon City includes one provision that may take area residents by surprise  a ban on dogs, the editorial board writes. That, despite allowances for mountain biking and other uses.

'The arbitrary decision to draw the line at dogs arises from political considerations rather than scientific ones,' the editorial states. 'There is an important lesson for dog owners here: If they want their pets to have access to Newell Creek Canyon or the bulk of Metro's 17,000-acre portfolio of parkland, they're going to have to organize and demand it.' Read the editorial here.

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City budget flap shows need to preserve auditor's independence: Editorial Agenda 2016

The Portland City Auditor is the only one of the citys six elected officials who was asked to identify a 5 percent cut to her budget, the editorial board writes. That, as well as the authority that the five city commissioners have over which programs are funded, threaten the independence that voters expect the auditor to have.

'There's still plenty of work ahead before the city's budgets are finalized,' the editorial states. 'But city commissioners should consider the value of an auditor and look for ways to increase her independence. Championing good governance requires being accountable to the voters  and voters alone.' Read the editorial here.

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Photo by The Associated Press

Border town pot sales, a new middle school and youth activism: Editorial peaks

This week's peaks include the shift in revenue along the border with the legalization of pot in Oregon, the Portland School Board's decision to convert Ockley Green to a middle school this fall and the attention that students at other Portland districts are drawing to the inequity of city taxpayers underwriting bus passes for Portland Public Schools students.

'Portland should not have agreed to support the so-called Youth Pass program in the first place, the transportation of Portland Public Schools students being the responsibility of ... Portland Public Schools,' the editorial peak states. 'Spending even more city funds inappropriately isn't the solution. Eliminating all city support for the Youth Pass is.' Read the editorial peaks and valleys here.
Metro bans dogs in parks: The editorial board rightly calls for a change in policy to allow dogs in our parks. When a female bicyclist was recently assaulted on the Springwater Corridor Trail, I was reminded of the fact that as a woman there are many places I cannot visit in Portland because they are not safe for me.

I live near two Metro-controlled parks, Mount Talbert Nature Park and Scouters Mountain Nature Park, which are less parks than wooded hiking trails nestled between subdivisions. Because I am not allowed to bring my leashed dog with me on these trails, my two neighborhood parks are useless to me, meaning I am also excluded from these parks.

Nancy Utterback

Happy Valley

*

Metro bans dogs in parks: Metro is to be lauded for its prohibition of dogs, on leash or not, from the thousands of acres of public parkland it manages and maintains. Canines are the scourge of these public properties.

Dogs damage trails and green ways with those knobby-tired mountain bikes they carelessly maneuver. Dogs feed flocks of geese, causing geese to defecate over the carefully manicured grass in parks. Dogs dispose of dirty diapers wherever possible, disregarding the effects on other park users. Dogs toss cigarette butts, sometimes still smoldering, anywhere they please. Dogs drop their used syringes wherever. Dogs deface any surface that holds paint with graffiti. Dogs leave their empty plastic containers anywhere. Dogs leave paper litter everywhere. Dogs assault humans, on and off trails and walkways at any opportunity. Dogs carelessly operate drones of all types in parks, regardless of the hazard to humans using the parks.

Peter L. Williamson

Vancouver, Washington
lonepine.jpg

The Lone Pine tribal fishing site on the Columbia River.

(Thomas Boyd/Staff)

By Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Sen. Jeff Merkley

The Columbia River is the economic heart of the Northwest, a beacon of prosperity and beauty. More than 4 trillion gallons of water are drawn from it and its tributaries annually for agriculture, industry and other uses. It provides electricity for millions of people and powers the region's economy. Nearly 17 million tons of cargo move along its waters every year -- from Lewiston, Idaho, to the Pacific Ocean. The river provides world-class outdoor recreation, bringing millions of visitors annually to its picturesque shores. Native fish and wildlife depend on its waters to sustain diverse habitats.

But the Columbia River of today came at a steep price for the first people living along its shores and fishing salmon from its waters. There is a much deeper story to be told regarding this river and the impact on the tribes, one that is unknown or far too often overlooked.

The Columbia used to look very different. It was narrower and faster-moving, with massive waterfalls and rapids. It was teeming with salmon so abundant that for thousands of years numerous tribes based their entire lives around it, living on its shores and eating and trading the salmon from its waters. The river formed a cultural artery, a network of places where families and nations congregated, sharing stories and history.

Western development, including the construction of the Columbia River dams beginning in the 1930s, severely and negatively impacted the vibrant cultures of tribes and bands now known as the Nez Perce, Umatilla, Warm Springs and Yakama Nation. In just a few decades, as villages and traditional fishing sites were flooded, a huge part of the culture and identity of the tribes was lost forever.

It has been devastating for these communities, which were never fully compensated for their losses. Today, many tribal members live at 31 small sites along their beloved Columbia in makeshift housing without proper electricity, sewers or water. They're living in severe poverty -- ironically next to the massive, expensive and profitable dams that forever changed the lives of their people.

These 31 sites were constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide the tribes treaty-protected river access to fish, compensating in small part for the access lost through the construction of the dams. The Corps designed the sites, now owned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), to be used primarily for daily, in-season fishing access and temporary camping.

Out of both a need for housing that was never replaced and a desire to be closer to the river where they have always lived, many tribal members now use these areas as longer-term, even permanent residences.

We've visited some of these sites. The conditions we've seen firsthand are deeply distressing and unsafe, with entire communities living in makeshift housing, reliant on limited water sources and often without electricity.

No one should live like this.

Due to unacceptable bureaucratic inertia and congressional inaction, tribal members along the Columbia River have been living this way for far too long.

We cannot continue to ignore these shameful conditions. We're dedicated to providing both immediate and long-term relief to address the urgent need for adequate housing and infrastructure. We're working with the tribes, the Corps, the BIA and our colleagues in the Senate and the House to address this problem. The federal government should step up immediately and devote resources to improve the living conditions at these sites by constructing temporary dwellings and addressing current sanitation, safety and infrastructure needs. Longer-term, permanent housing must be built to replace what was flooded, providing compensation the tribes have too long been denied.

We commend reporter Molly Harbarger and The Oregonian/OregonLive for shining a much needed light on this miscarriage of justice. It is past time that we all take ownership of a situation that has festered for too long, symbolizing the failure to meet our treaty obligations.

We have met with tribal leaders and have been profoundly affected, humbled and moved to action. Another year cannot pass without action to improve living conditions and provide more housing for the people whose culture and heritage are at one with the majestic Columbia River.

*

Democrat Earl Blumenauer represents Oregon's 3rd congressional district in the House of Representatives. Democrat Jeff Merkley represents Oregon in the Senate.
Klamath dam deal.JPG

U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is flanked by California Gov. Jerry Brown, left, and Oregon Gov. Kate Brown as all sign the agreement to tear down four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River, at a ceremony in Klamath, Calif., last Wednesday.

(Lacey Jarrell/Klamath Falls Herald & News)

The agreement by Oregon, California and the utility PacifiCorp to remove four dams on the Klamath River is good news in that it shows a clear commitment to address longstanding water shortages suffered by farmers and ranchers in the arid Klamath Basin. But the immediate effect of removing the dams will be to help migrating salmon, not farmers, and the real water brokering ahead must involve constituents in the two-state basin and the U.S. Congress. It could, after years of trying by many, be a heavy lift.

Dam removal had been a stumbling block for Congress. It was part of a much broader set of agreements to avert crises in an agricultural region whose thirst for irrigation exceeds capacity and where some of the available water is sullied. Now, PacifiCorp, which owns the dams -- three are in California, one in Oregon -- will transfer title and license for the hydroelectric structures to a newly created nonprofit that will seek clearance for demolition through the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, bypassing Congress altogether. Significant congressional doubters of the original multifaceted plan, Oregon Rep. Greg Walden among them, had feared that congressionally approved dam removal could set a dangerous precedent.

Removal of the dams, to be completed by 2020, is significant. While the dams account for only an estimated 2 percent of PacifiCorp's capacity, they represent the taming of a once-wild river for settlement of the West and are valued, particularly by northern California conservatives, as assets to be protected. Their removal, however, will open up about 400 miles of habitat for Klamath River salmon, historically a mainstay of the Pacific salmon fishery, and honor longstanding commitments to upriver tribes.

But the newly surging river, which should see bolstered salmon populations, could also require of Klamath farmers expensive screens to keep salmon out of irrigation ditches. Enter Congress, which could, under multiple scenarios yet to take shape, be asked by both states for potentially more than $100 million to underwrite several projects across the basin, including compensation to ranchers who would be asked to trim their operations to repair tributary streams and improve the basin's water quality.

Addressing the water shortage represents a delicate, emotionally charged give-and-take that involves farmers, ranchers, local and state elected leaders, members of Congress. It requires of all a clear-eyed recognition that the basin is oversubscribed, in part by the historical promotion of it by the federal government and in part by the historically errant belief that natural resources are infinite in their capacities.

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Richard Whitman, Gov. Kate Brown's policy adviser on the environment and a longtime coordinator of Klamath Basin constituents, told the editorial board of The Oregonian/OregonLive: "We still need a water deal. Removing the dams doesn't address water certainty to irrigators -- or the creation of reduced irrigation demand." But Whitman, an optimist, said he was most gratified last week by the willingness of several ranchers and farmers to step up and support the announcement of dam removal -- as if it were the beginning of something big, even though they'll not see more water from it.

With the right follow-up, it could become something big. Whitman said he expected that Brown, in partnership with U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, would in the coming months likely issue a call to restart Klamath talks with everyone at the table. That includes Walden and other members of Oregon's congressional delegation.

Must fatigue and crushed hopes among farmers, ranchers and tribes be overcome? Yes. Will opponents of water-brokering agreements as previously constructed again deride efforts at replumbing the basin as the work of environmental extremists and a few government elites? Surely. But: Will much of the Klamath Basin in the next inevitable drought go dry and cause farming and ranching families to lose livelihoods and wildlife to suffer? Absolutely.

Onward with the hard work of establishing a framework for reliable use and enjoyment of the Klamath Basin. Previous complex and finely tuned efforts at addressing water shortages will be honored when a plan serving multiple interests is presented to Congress -- and dams are not even in the discussion.
Study a map of presidential primary results and youll see Donald Trump dominating in the northeast, picking up pledged delegates as competitors stagger and fall. Youll see him defeating more established candidates in Arizona and Nevada and stunning pundits with complete dominance in the southern states.

But where you wont see Trump winning big, or winning much at all, is in Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, three of the nation's reddest states, where the real estate mogul and famed reality star has struggled to connect with voters.

Trump is still the front-runner for the GOP nomination for president, but hes failed in the Northern Rockies to gain the same support hes enjoyed in other states. Hes lost to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, in Idaho and Utah and has claimed only one delegate so far in Wyoming  the same number as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has since dropped out of the race. Cruz, in comparison, earned nine.

Several factors contribute to Trump's lack of success in the Northern Rockies, political observers say. His top opponent, Cruz, has more often discussed issues that resonate with voters here  land issues, energy and gun rights. Cruz has also made deeper inroads in the region  he's already visited Wyoming once and will return Saturday. Trump has yet to visit. Trump's brash style may also be hurting him in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West, especially with Mormon voters who make up a sizable voting bloc.

Ground game

Cruz received nine of the 12 delegates at the GOP county conventions in March and is expected to do well when the state's final 14 delegates are chosen Saturday at the Wyoming GOP Convention in Casper.

The Cruz campaign has been on the ground in Wyoming since October. But the Texas senator's success in the Cowboy State is the result of more than his ground game, explained Ed Buchanan, former Wyoming House speaker and chairman of Cruzs Wyoming efforts.

Organization has some part to play, but I think more than that, the positions that Trump has held over his entire career, if you will, just dont resonate with Wyoming voters, Buchanan said. I dont think he shares the values and lifestyle of Western people. I dont think hes really in touch with what drives the economy out West  with agriculture, with natural resources, with energy production.

Cruz, on the other hand, is from Texas, a state that has much in common with Wyoming, especially concerning agriculture and energy, Buchanan said. Cruz has been steadfast on the Second Amendment, which is important to Wyoming. He argues for states rights and is seen as an independent. In 2013, he helped force a 16-day government shutdown by leading a 21-hour filibuster to oppose Obamacare.

The senator first spoke in the Cowboy State, frequently treated as a flyover state for presidential elections, on Aug. 20 for a Wyoming GOP fundraiser. When he returns for the state GOP convention, he will be the only major GOP candidate to make the trip.

The Trump campaign is sending Sarah Palin in his stead. And Idaho Gov. Butch Otter will speak to Republicans on behalf of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Ted Cruz will have been here twice now, Buchanan said. And, you know, people appreciate that. Normally, they take us for granted.

Libertarian streak

Trump's most intense support comes from white voters with less education and lower incomes. In theory, that might help Trump with blue-collar voters  especially in parts of the state hammered by the energy downturn. But a state like Wyoming possesses more of a libertarian streak, rather than Trump-style nationalism that can give some folks pause, said Matt Dallek, a professor of political management in the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University.

"It is possible that Trump has continued to damage himself," Dallek said. "There's a sense that, look, we want a Republican, but it's not necessarily Trump."

In the Western and more conservative parts of the country, Dallek said Trump may not be playing as well to voters because of questions about his personal morality and whether or not he's truly committed to limited government.

Also playing into Trumps lack of popularity in Wyoming are Mormon voters. Nine percent of Wyomingites are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to a recent Pew Research Center study on Religion and Public Life. Mormon voters have rejected Trump in Idaho and Utah because they are uncomfortable with his Islamophobia, which stirs memories of persecution of the LDS in American history. Many have served church missions in Mexico and do not like his comments about immigrants, analysts have said. Mitt Romney, who is a popular Mormon Republican, has publicly spoken against Trump.

Teton vote

During last month's Republican county conventions, Trump won in only one place  Teton County. And even that might be more of a fluke than a sign of deep-seated support, according to one prominent Republican who was in attendance.

Keith Gingery, a Republican from Jackson and a former lawmaker, said many people at the Teton County Convention were pushing for an undeclared delegate.

We thought it that would give us much more of an advantage, because people would woo them, he said.

But the undeclared candidates couldnt get a majority of the vote. After several rounds of voting, Jon Baker, a delegate supporting Trump, won.

Its a funny deal, Gingery said. Because youre voting for the person standing up there and a lot of times youre voting for that person. And Dr. Baker is a dermatologist in town. It had a lot to do with Jon wanting to go to the convention. I dont know how much it had to do with Trump than Jon wanting to go to convention.

The Star-Tribune left a message with Baker at his office, which was not returned.

Trump support

Although Cruz has so far come out on top in Wyoming, Trump has started a conversation that has energized voters, said Campbell County Republican Party Chairman Chris Smith.

Some of Cruz's support comes from his ability to appeal to the faith-based community, Smith said, while Trump's aggressive views on immigration, nationalism and employment has jumped out to Wyoming voters in an election year where unemployment in the state is rising and the energy industry is in a slump.

"In Wyoming, we're very patriotic people," Smith said. "Red, white and blue. I think people see it. There's stuff that isn't made in America anymore. It's hard to find those products, everything is being made overseas, and we're losing that battle there with trade."

Some Trump supporters say their voice hasn't been heard in the process.

Clarence Vranish is one. The Trump supporter, and former state Legislator, said there was no vote, no discussion on who theyd support in Uinta County. His county went to Cruz, like much of the state.

"The election for president should be the selection of the people by the people," he said. "It shouldn't be determined only because an individual has money that he can go to the convention, that he could be the one that actually picks it. That's not right.

Delegate math

Marco Rubio. Jeb Bush. Chris Christie. Ben Carson. Rand Paul.

The list of politicians Trump has felled to get to this point is already lengthy and could grow to include Kasich and Cruz before primary season is over. But even with a lead, and a seemingly endless cycle of news following his every move, Trump could still fall short of the necessary amount of delegates  1,237  to secure the nomination. If that happens, his poor showing in the Northern Rockies will have played a role.

But for many Wyoming Republicans, it ultimately doesn't matter who is in the White House as long as the next president is a conservative.

Campbell County is still reeling from almost 500 people losing their jobs in the coal industry recently, while oil and natural gas have continued to slip for the cities built on the bedrock of the nations energy industry. Coal miners and their friends largely blamed President Barack Obama and his administration for the layoffs.

"Hopefully we get a Republican in office," said Chad Friedt, a Realtor with Team Properties Group in Gillette. "I don't care who it is, as long as they are not against the natural resources."
Gurney in tow and IV bag dangling, emergency medical technicians rushed down the hallway, not at a hospital, but at Delta College.

Wanda Zenzen, a nursing faculty member, cried out in pain as she played the role of a trauma patient in a large-scale interdisciplinary simulation, but as she was brought into the emergency room, the students responded with the focus and urgency of a real scenario.

More than 50 participants, including students from six Delta College disciplines and three EMTs studying to receive their paramedic license from Mobile Medical Response of Saginaw, were involved in the simulation at Delta College in Frankenlust Township on Tuesday.

Simulations are a way in which health care providers can learn not only skills but perfect the skill in practice without danger to the patient, said Lori Kloc, simulation educator and learning specialist at Delta College. The purpose of this simulation is to not only practice and perfect skills of all of the disciplines involved, but also to work together as a team and coordinate their efforts on behalf of these patients throughout the day as if they were actually working in a hospital.

The trauma simulation began with a mock car crash involving an uninjured driver and trauma to a pregnant woman in her third trimester. MMR paramedic students responded to the scene, assessed the two individuals involved in the crash, extricated the patient, Wanda Zenzen, from the vehicle and transported her to the ER at the colleges Health Professions Building.

Were excited to have MMR working with the six disciplines here at Delta College because weve never really gotten the chance to practice their delivery of a patient to a healthcare provider, Kloc said.

Once there, Zenzens role was replaced by a medical manikin. Simulation specialist Lori Kloc voiced patient comments and questions over a microphone from the control room, where she could watch the students through a two-way mirror. Nursing students continued to assess the patient and administer an IV, respiratory therapists placed an endotracheal tube to help the patient breathe, radiology students took X-rays and sonographers performed an ultrasound. Meanwhile, surgical technologists prepared for an emergency Caesarean section.

For ultrasound, were kind of behind the scenes most of the time, so its pretty interesting to see what happens before we go to our patients, said sonography student Jessica Reif.

Reif explained that ultrasounds are not always obstetrical, but in this simulation their goal was to rule out placental abruption.

If that patient had trauma to her belly and had a placental abruption, that could potentially kill the baby and could lead to the death of her, she said. (Ultrasound) is a really important role. Seeing that play out makes me realize how important it really is.

In the simulation operating room, surgical technologists assisted Health and Wellness Division Chairman Don Traverse as he performed the Caesarean section. Upon delivery, the infant had breathing problems, so respiratory therapists treated the newborn manikin until it cried. Radiography students performed a chest X-ray and nursing students then assessed and cared for the infant. A second team of surgical technologists assisted for a second surgery to care for an open fracture.

While students were not performing their assigned tasks, they were able to watch the procedures on monitors in classrooms, as each simulation lab had video cameras.

Its a great opportunity (to participate) because we are one portion of an integral part of care and its an opportunity for each of us to see and learn a little more about each other, said Ken White, education manager at MMR.

White explained that allowing students to see one patients entire care helps illustrate how different disciplines work together and affect each other.

It really helps to make a much better continuum of care for the patient, he said.

In addition to emergency responses, students were able to practice working with the patient the day after the crash. In the afternoon, nursing, sonography, radiography and respiratory students continued care and the physical therapy assistant students had the opportunity to work with the patient on mobility and range of motion exercises.

A collaboration between nursing and surgical technologist students was the beginning of interdisciplinary simulations.

As soon as the rest of the health disciplines here at Delta College heard about what was happening, they immediately rushed me with emails saying, We want in on the next one! Kloc said.

The health faculty put together a six-hour simulation similar to this years, which was met with very positive feedback and was highlighted in state and national conferences.

I anticipate this will be even more ground breaking since were including MMR, Kloc said. Were anticipating law enforcement being involved next year.

White said he is excited to be a part of the simulation.

One of the things we know about the education process is that realistic simulation brings us to a point of suspending disbelief, so you actually can immerse yourself in the situation, he said.

Nursing student Sarah Mead, who was in the group of trauma nurses, said the simulation felt like her experience working as a nurses assistant in the ER.

You get in there and your adrenaline is running and you are in the moment. It was very exciting and worthwhile, she said of the experience. Everyone has a different role, and if they do their role well, it works out. Even though its chaos, its controlled chaos. Everyone knows where theyre supposed to be. In these situations, I think its good to get an idea from what really is going to happen.

Mead said the simulations help prepare her for what she may encounter as a nurse.

Theres been a couple times when a simulation has come into real life and I was able to remember what we did. Its been a huge benefit, she said. It gives you a foundation to work on.
DETROIT (AP)  A lawsuit by medical marijuana dispensaries challenging Detroit's new ordinances regulating the locations of shops has been dismissed.

City Corporation Counsel Melvin Hollowell says in a press release that officials are "confident that the city's medical marijuana regulations are lawful, fair and reasonable."
LANSING, Mich. (AP)  Michigan's role in picking the next GOP nominee at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer is set with more national delegates pledged to vote for businessman Donald Trump because he won the primary in the state last month.

Hundreds of Republicans gathered Friday and Saturday in Lansing to pick Michigan's national delegates to represent the state's Republicans at the convention.

Twenty-five of Michigan's 59 delegates pledged to vote for Trump, the GOP presidential front-runner, while 17 will vote for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and 17 for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for the first round of voting. But if no candidate receives enough initial support at the national convention, the party will stage a second round of voting in which Michigan's delegates would no longer be bound to vote as they did at first.

Some political experts say that could be dangerous for Republicans if Democrats settle on their nominee before the GOP does and have more time to campaign and raise money.

"Coming out of the convention you've got to raise a tremendous amount of money to campaign and it's pretty tough to raise money if you're not the confirmed candidate," said John Truscott, a former state delegate who now has the public relations firm Truscott Rossman.

Republican political strategist Stu Sandler said he thinks a contested convention could be more likely after Trump's recent loss in Wisconsin, too.

Meanwhile, Gov. Rick Snyder repeated his call for a Republican presidential nominee that has worked as a state governor, and only Kasich fits that description. That's despite Trump's earlier big Michigan win, though Snyder said he won't be a national delegate this year.

Snyder said "having a governor's background is one of the best backgrounds you could have to be a candidate." He added that he thinks the state GOP convention shows that despite differences in candidate support, the party wants "to work together" to get a Republican elected to the White House.

Michigan Speaker of the House Kevin Cotter said he's committed to Cruz. Cotter is as an alternate delegate who would vote in Cleveland if the national delegate he's meant to replace if needed couldn't attend.

Ronna Romney McDaniel, chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, said she's committed to Trump for the first round. She said she wouldn't speculate "on hypotheticals" about whether she'd change her vote if Trump didn't get enough delegate support this summer. She also wouldn't say who her second pick might be if it came down to it.

"I remain committed to voters of Michigan," McDaniel said.

Other supporters of Trump at the convention repeated familiar reasons for liking him: They say they think he's honest, that he "can't be bought" because he's already rich.

One Republican at the convention who runs a popular hot dog stand by the Michigan Capitol building on weekdays said he likes Trump because "he's untraditional."

"He sets out to let people know that, 'Look, I'm not fully a politician, but I know what's going on,'" Clinton Tarver said.

Tarver, who is black, said he wasn't concerned when Trump at first declined to disavow former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke because Trump just didn't "want to get involved." Tarver said he doesn't think Trump is racist.

He said he'd consider voting for Cruz if Trump didn't win the nomination.
Thomas Gennara

When Michigan residents think of Consumers Energy, we always hope that certain words come to mind first. Safe. Affordable. Reliable. For us, its critical that we deliver energy  whether its natural gas or electricity  when people need it, at a fair price and using every necessary precaution.

Just as important is another word  clean. Michigan is a state with wonderful natural resources, and the people who we serve expect us to leave things better than we found them. Were proud that Michigans air is the cleanest it has been in over a generation, and we want to help preserve our Great Lakes and rivers.
James Madison declared way back in 1792 that in America Government is instituted to protect property of every sort ...(and)...to secure to every man whatever is his own. That was then.

Today, according to a new Institute for Justice (IJ) report titled Policing for Profit: The Abuse of Civil Asset Forfeiture, 2nd Edition, Civil forfeiture threatens the constitutional rights of all Americans. Using civil forfeiture, the government can take your home, business, cash, car and other property on the mere suspicion that it is somehow connected to criminal activity  and without ever convicting, or even charging, you with a crime.

The report goes on to say, Property owners in Michigan have much to fear from the states civil forfeiture laws.

Here is how laws in Michigan are stacked against property owners.

Standards of Proof. To forfeit property suspected of involvement in a crime, Michigan law enforcement officials need only show that the property was used in a crime based on a preponderance of evidence  meaning the governments case need only be slightly better than the property owners. This low level of proof favors the government, not the property owner.

Innocent Owner Burden. What if someone other than yourself, a friend perhaps, allegedly uses your property to commit a crime and the police have seized your property. Because property owners are presumed to be somehow connected to a crime involving their property, in all drug-related cases in Michigan it is your legal responsibility  not the governments  to prove that you had nothing to do with the crime and that your property should be returned to you.

Police Profit Incentives. Converting private assets to public use is a big business in Michigan. Teaming up with forfeiture programs run by the federal Departments of Justice and Treasury  in effect loopholes that allow state law enforcement agencies to sidestep strict state laws  Michigan law enforcement agencies raked in more than $146 million from the sale of forfeited property between 2000 and 2013.

Under Michigans statutes, law enforcement agencies are allowed to keep, for their own use, up to 100 percent of the proceeds from the sale of forfeited property. Under state forfeiture laws, between 2001 and 2013, state law enforcement agencies collected an additional $244 million.

This is a powerful incentive for agencies to aggressively seize private property in anticipation of padding their bottom line.

Looking to the future, the IJ report lists a number of steps needed to end property abuse in Michigan and in other states.

1. Close Federal Loopholes. In many states, police agencies rely on these federal loopholes to both sidestep stiffer state forfeiture laws  such as the requirement that forfeiture proceeds must go to the states educational budget  and to increase their cut of the seized properties. One national survey found that 40 percent of state and local police agencies consider civil forfeiture proceeds a necessary part of their budgets.

Good news: Due to federal budget cuts, these federal loopholes have been, perhaps only temporarily, closed. To protect Michigan property owners, the IJ recommends permanently shutting down this law enforcement gravy train.

Not so good news: In response to the shutdown of the federal programs, the International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a statement saying the decision was detrimental to state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies and the communities they serve.

2. Boost Standards of Proof. Raising the level of proof needed before private property can be forfeited is also needed. Under civil forfeiture laws, the property itself, however remotely linked with a criminal act, has committed a crime and can be seized. In most cases, to get seized property back the owner must prove the property was innocent.

3. End Conflicts of Interest. As long as a law enforcement departments prestige and the reputation of its officers is judged by how many assets are seized each year, police chiefs will have a strong incentive to push their officers to be more aggressive during raids, make unnecessary raids and cut legal corners.

Until the law enforcement agencies stop financially gaining from their seizures, Michigan citizens will continue to wonder why their police forces conduct drug raids. Are they to rid the town of drugs or to fatten police department budgets?

Ronald Fraser, Ph.D., writes on public policy issues for the DKT Library Project, a Washington-based civil liberties organization. Write to him at fraserr@erols.com.
Production for "Longmire" Season 5 has already begun in New Mexico and the cast and crew have been sharing several photos on their respective social media accounts. Spoilers reveal that Donna's son will be appearing in the upcoming episodes, which may cause problems between Donna and Walt.

This article contains spoilers. Read on to learn more about this story.

"Longmire" Season 5 spoilers reveal that the Netflix series has recently tapped Sterling Beaumon, who is best known for his roles in "Clue" and "Lost," to play the role of Andrew Price, reports International Business Times. His character is described as a "smart a-prep school kid."

"Longmire" Season 5 spoilers also hint that Walt (Robert Taylor) and Vic (Katee Sackhoff) will meet Andrew for the first time when they catch him breaking into Donna's (Ally Walker) house. The latter, however, will claim to be Donna's son.

Fans began speculating that Donna's son (if she really had one) may pose some serious problems between Walt and Donna's relationship. This may pave the way for the most-awaited romance between Walt and Vic in "Longmire," as this was the storyline indicated in Craig Johnson's books.

Fans have been debating on Walt and Vic's romantic relationship for a while now, as some are rooting for them. Others, however, find that Vic is a bit too young for Walt.

Carter Matt, however, notes on the possibility that Walt may find a new love interest in "Longmire" Season 5. According to the publication, it may be interesting to see Walt fall for someone new and see how he will be handling this new relationship.

The outlet also points out that Walt should be placed in "some more fish-out-of-water situations" in "Longmire" Season 5, which can ultimately test his personality and professional skills.

"Longmire" Season 5 is expected to premiere this September on Netflix.


It wasnt until the next morning, sitting in a glider and watching his 3-year-old daughter play with her toys on the living room floor, that Brad Jerome realized how close he had come to dying.

The night before, July 8, 2011, Jerome and Sgt. Steven Kenner had been called to a mobile home to check on a man, Steven Bannister, who was threatening his girlfriend with a knife.

Kenner found Bannister in a van across the street from the home. Jerome heard Kenner yell, Police officer, show your hands. He ran to the drivers side; Kenner stood on the passengers side.

Bannister stared each of them in the eye through the windows of the van, Jerome recalls, and took aim at Kenner. The flash of the muzzle illuminated the interior of the van, and he saw Bannister turn in his direction.

I remember telling myself subconsciously, you know what you have to do. Youve gotta finish this. You know what youve gotta do, he said.

Jerome fired four rounds into the van and ducked for cover in front of the engine, not knowing whether he had hit Bannister. He could only see what was directly in front of him, he said.

Listen for the doors, he told himself. Listen for the doors.

Soon, he heard shuffling from the east, he said. It sounded like crunching leather, jingling keys, dangling chains. He knew more officers were on the way.

What happened? an officer yelled.

Shots fired, Jerome responded.

It was like a light bulb went back on inside, he said. And when my vision opened back up, I saw a glowing flashlight on the ground.

Sgt. Kenner was lying by the van. Bannisters bullet had hit him in the chest.

Other officers put Bannister, who was alive but badly wounded, in handcuffs. Jerome saw a bullet had struck above the mans eye.

I remember thinking to myself ... I just killed a guy, he said.

Bannister survived his injuries that night. Kenner did not.

The next day, Jerome was home on administrative leave, crying uncontrollably.

Those little things we take for granted, like watching our kids play with our toys, he said. It tore me up knowing that it could have been the other way around.

Double damage

Four Bismarck police officers have fired their guns in the line of duty this year. In the course of three incidents in three months, two men were injured and one was killed.

On March 6, a Bismarck officer fatally shot James Anthony Scott, a 42-year-old Mandan man, who was allegedly threatening to kill someone with a shotgun in east Bismarck. It was the first fatal shooting by a Bismarck police officer since 2003, Sgt. Mark Buschena said.

On Jan. 31, Travis Clark, 26, of Bismarck, was shot by two Bismarck police officers after he allegedly reached for what officers believed was a weapon in his car.

On Jan. 23, Miguel Stubing, 18, of Mandan, was shot by Sgt. Jordan West after he allegedly drove a stolen vehicle at him.

While officer-involved shootings in North Dakota have not resulted in protests, such incidents have angered many in the nation during the past year and a half. Many are asking why officers shoot and how to reduce the number of people injured and killed by police.

A further question, less frequently asked, is what happens to officers who fire. The Tribune spoke with Bismarck police who have shot people in the line of duty as well as individuals who work with officers who have found that such incidents can rattle officers in the short-run and often haunt them for years.

Even though I dont have any physical injuries associated with that incident, the scars are there, Jerome said.

All three shootings remain under investigation and three of the officers have not been identified, so the Tribune did not contact them for interviews.

Inside the mind of an officer

During a life-threatening incident, officers tend to focus on the immediate danger of the situation, Florida-based police psychologist Laurence Miller said in an interview with the Tribune. The intense focus may cause officers to experience a distorted sense of time, muffled sounds and tunnel vision. They often have trouble remembering the details, he said, because the encounter wasnt fully processed.

Right after they shoot, officers often begin breathing quickly, trembling and sweating for the next several hours or few days, Miller said. Their systems are on high alert, and they may have trouble sleeping.

Many start to ruminate over the what ifs  What if someone had moved? What if Id acted a second earlier or a second later?

For most officers, these reactions abate over the next few days, Miller said, especially if the shooting is uncontested. But some become so destabilized they have trouble going back to work.

Bringing officers back

Criminal procedures, along with internal reviews, determine whether officers are legally qualified to go back to work. The police department also must make sure they are emotionally and psychologically ready.

A specialized team is called in to evaluate and prepare officers to return after a shooting.

The first member of that team is chaplain Sam Saylor, who meets with officers shortly after the incident. He tells them he cares about what they are experiencing, and he reminds them that the next days will be hard. He encourages them to eat, sleep and drink water.

Many officers already know Saylor. He helps train recruits in how to reduce stress and accompanies officers on traumatic calls.

Within a few days of the shooting, Saylor convenes the officers involved. They share what they saw and what they felt. They tell each other what the worst part of the incident was for them and one good thing that came out of it.

Saylor said it helps officers realize, Im not crazy, and it gives officers a chance to tell each other, you have my back.

Another member is a psychologist at Sanford Health, who meets with the officer four to five days after the incident. Miller, the police psychologist in Florida, who has done this work for more than 20 years, said he first asks the officer to explain what happened, so that he can demonstrate that the experience is normal and provide reassurance that he or she will get better. He also decides whether the person can go back on the force: If he thinks an officer is going to overreact or underreact, its not time, he said.

The psychologist who works with Bismarck officers declined to be interviewed for this story.

Nolan Canright

Some officers recover quickly after a shooting. Nolan Canright fired his weapon in 2014, while responding to a report of a man, Colton Wooten, brandishing a gun.

Canright chased the suspect and found him crouched behind the corner of a bank, pointing his gun at Canright, who says he called out, Drop the gun, and fired four times, not striking Wooten. He heard the man run but had no idea whether he had hit him. He didnt even know how many shots he fired.

Looking back, Canrights biggest worry was not that he fired. He fears what would have happened had he hesitated.

He stayed home a few days before returning to the desk and then to patrol about a week later. He said he was eager to get back on the street.

But that first night, Canright said he faced a similar situation  someone was sitting in a car and displaying a handgun behind Kirkwood Mall.

I must be jinxed, he thought to himself without worrying. Everything turned out OK, and he didnt have to fire.

Wootens family and attorney could not be reached for comment.

For Jerome, the pain continues

Other officers struggle. A few hours after the shooting that killed Kenner, Jerome met his wife at the police station.

My wife is a small-statured person, tiny little thing, and I just crumbled into her arms, and I just bawled, he said.

They met with the police chief together, because he knew this would affect her, too.

For months, he struggled to fall asleep. When he went back on patrol after about a month, he said, It was like the first day all over again.

Not only was everyone watching over him; they were observing him.

Jerome never thought about Bannister much, he said. The day he was sentenced, Jerome remembers resenting him  though Bannister would spend his life in prison, he would get to live. Bannister is serving life without parole at the state penitentiary.

Bannisters family could not be reached for comment.

Nearly five years later, Jerome still thinks about the incident every day. It is not lost on him that his 3-year-old son wouldnt exist if he had died that night. He misses Kenner, who was one of his mentors, and asks if something could have been done differently.

Id be a liar if I didnt say I had survivors guilt, he said.

He sometimes confides in a chaplain and a counselor and avoids social media around the anniversary. People mean well, he said, but thin blue lines bring me right back into it.

Asked whether he thought about leaving his job, he said, absolutely, but he still patrols Bismarck.

I didnt want to leave my chosen profession on somebody elses terms, he said.

Jerome reaches out to officers who are involved in shootings.

If nothing else, I can offer them some support from someone who shared a similar experience, said Jerome, who also advises officers to seek counseling if they need it, telling them, its not a sign of weakness.

Reflecting on the officers involved in this years shootings, Jerome said, I know that theyre going to have to live with this, too. I dont know how theyre going to handle it. We all handle things differently, but the fact of the matter is that it will never go away.

We all handle things differently, but the fact of the matter is that it will never go away.  Brad Jerome, Bismarck police officer
Parents and students sued some New York City schools for failing to address increasing levels of violence and in keeping the children safe. The federal complaint against the U.S. Department of Education was filed on Wednesday in Brooklyn, New York.

According to the lawsuit documents, the schools have a "staggering" level of violence directed mostly towards minority students, but unfortunately, those numbers are continually growing as well. It was also reported that white and Asian students, in contrast, experience less violence at school.

"The violence knows few boundaries, except that, on average, white and Asian students encounter far fewer incidents of school violence than black and Hispanic students," the lawsuit claimed. Among those commonly abused in the schools are younger students, the disabled and LGBT students.

Increasing Levels of Violence

The complaint said that between the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years, violent incidents inside city schools increased 23 percent. Forcible sex offenses climbed up to 90 percent, while there's a 48 percent rise in assaults resulting in serious physical injury.

Among the plaintiffs is Families for Excellent Schools, a powerful charter-school advocacy group, the Washington Post reported. Children who are plaintiffs in the complaint claimed that they experienced bullying or attacks from their fellow students and even from their teachers.

Students who report assaults usually suffered retaliation from their schools, the lawsuit noted. New York City has the largest public school system in the United States. Around 1,800 schools have 1.1 million students, Reuters wrote.

Mayor Fires Back

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio dismissed the lawsuit's claim of rising violence in city schools. He said that "major crime" in schools has lessened by 14 percent this year as of now, while other crimes are down by almost 7 percent, the Washington Post reported.

"I was a public school parent as recently as last June, and we never want to see a weapon in schools," de Blasio said, as quoted by the news outlet. "I view each incidence as obviously troubling. We absolutely have more work to do, but school safety is showing us consistently that they can and will continue to drive down crime in the schools, and keep all students and staff safe."

The lawsuit "seeks to mandate new anti-bullying and anti-violence regulations and to force the education department to enforce policies already on the books," Reuters reported. The complaint also alleged that violence in New York City's schools "violates children's constitutional rights and deprives them of their right to a safe education, which is guaranteed by state law," as per the Washington Post.

In March, four students have been caught carrying loaded guns inside city schools, NBC noted. The lawsuit also alleged that school officials under-report school violence. A 2015 audit by the state comptroller found that 10 public schools didn't report almost one-third of violent incidents.
Students' behavior depends on how good the policies of their school are. If the teachers want their students to be well-disciplined, all they have to do is fix their schools and start to motivate them.

Misbehavior In Students Expected To Grow

According to StarTribune, a good example is the High School for the Recording Arts in Saint Paul. The school is expected to face misbehavioral problems as it has a number of overaged, under-credited and homeless students.

However, the said school remains to be very organized and doing well for keeping their students, no matter what their issues are, in different activities and under "individual learning plan." There are a lot of reasons why students get distracted and having behavior problems.

Hence, the schools they are in should set and fix their policies to make their students improved. Students that are motivated by their schools have a lower chance of having behavioral issues.

Schools Must Change

The new standard is the schools should teach their students what they want to know. Fayobserver reported, according to a study, a school must be altered completely to be more efficient and obtain the real change.

As per the late John Chubb, a known expert about schools, only reforming schools that are overhauling itself fully can promise a "new day" for the institution and its students. Mike Feinberg, the co-founder of KIPP charter network, on the other hand, said, "The best way we can look a child in the eye and say with confidence what kind of school and environment we will provide is by starting that school and environment from scratch."

Another professor, Jack Frymier, who's knowledgeable of the school situations because of his career in curriculum and instruction, said: "If young people want to learn, they will; if they don't, you probably can't make 'em." He, too, added schools should motivate their students properly to improve their learning and be well-behaved.

Jack Frymier also explained that motivation should be given individually. Teachers should understand their students' differences to give the right instruction to every student.
Prince Harry and Kate Middleton's little sister, Pippa, have reportedly been enjoying secret trysts for some time now. While this news on Prince Harry should easily draw public attention away from Kate Middleton and Prince William, the royal family celebrity is actually outshining the rest with his charity work in Nepal.

Gossip Cop quotes OK! magazine's report that Prince Harry had been seen frequenting the Cross Keys pub in London, close to the home of Pippa Middleton. The report alleges that Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton meet up at the said bar and hang out.

"Pippa Middleton and Prince Harry have long been enraptured in a 'secret romance' behind closed doors, but their public rendezvous spot has been uncovered - and it's conveniently located right near the brunette beauty's home," a source allegedly told OK! magazine.

Gossip Cop suggests that reports on Prince Harry and Pippa Middleton dating in secret are bogus. The media outlet points out that Prince Harry may have spent time in the bar, but not because of Pippa Middleton. The bar owner, Mark Dyer, reportedly had been good friends with Princess Diana. If Prince Harry make his trips to the Cross Keys pub, Pippa Middleton does not figure in any of them.

People reports that maintaining long-standing friendships is not the only preoccupation on which Prince Harry spends time. Along with the Team Rubicon charity, Prince Harry had been lending hands and brawn to rebuild a school in the mountains of Nepal. Prince Harry, whose primary charity Sentebale is focused on helping children in Lesotho in Africa, reportedly also took the time to chat with the local kids in Nepal.

Team Rubicon brings together military veterans to assist in areas that suffered damages from natural disasters. Prince Harry joined Team Rubicon, not just in school rebuilding but also in repairing a hydro-electric turbine, which is the energy source for around 300 homes. Prince Harry and Team Rubicon later on helped with the installation of a solar farm, which is designed to be the source of sustainable electricity to the surrounding area.

Although Kate Middleton and Prince William are not short of engagements in the way of environmental and charitable causes, Prince Harry has the main spotlight for now. Both Prince Harry and Prince William took after Princess Diana and Prince Charles in their voluntary interest and involvement in worthy causes.
A pre-school teacher in Pikeside Learning Center at Martinsburg, West Virginia is using iPad Minis to revolutionize the way she teaches children with special needs. This is after her class received an iPad grant from a non-profit organization.



Your4State.com reports that pre-school teacher Kelly Miller received an iPad grant worth $1,400 from the West Virginia Community Foundation. Miller, who teaches young children with special needs, used the fund to purchase six units of iPad Mini for learning purposes.

Miller said that she is utilizing the iPad Minis to let her students relax in the classroom. She explained that using the iPad Minis will allow children with special needs to learn and have fun at the same time. The pre-school teacher also added that it will exercise the students' motor skills and teach them the value of sharing.

Aside from purchasing six iPad Minis, Miller also used a portion of the iPad grant to buy an $80-iTunes gift card, which will be used for the class activities of children with special needs. All learning devices contained alphabet games, Dr. Seuss stories, and other games and apps that can aid student learning.

Several experts have suggested in the past to use devices like iPad Minis to empower children with special needs. Luis Perez, author of Mobile Learning for All: Supporting Accessibility with the iPad, along with speech language pathologist Betsy Furler and Bridging Apps co-founder Cristen Carson Reat, wrote on Education World that an iPad is very helpful to special needs students because of its apps and accessibility features.

Perez, Furler and Reat said children with special needs, especially those who are non-verbal, could use an iPad to express their needs in a classroom. They also added that the device could aid in developing the writing and reading skills of a special needs child.

According to WonderBaby.org, there are various nonprofit organizations and local charities that offer iPad grant for children with special needs. These include iTaalk, HollyRod Foundation, Autism Care and Treatment, Special Kids Therapy and Small Steps in Speech.
Jeremy Saulniers movies wont be typically identified as horror, but theres few contemporary American directors more attuned to the dread that comes with being placed into a life-threatening situation. Saulnier makes movies about characters forced into morally compromising situations, focusing less on their ethical dilemmas than the moment-to-moment terror of the situation itself, going for audience immersion over philosophical discourse.

Drawing from the masters of the 80s, Saulniers visual sensibility is both unflinchinggory money shots of julienne-sliced limbs are commonand gleefully suppressed, avoiding any opportunity to soothe a jumpy audience. Alongside recent American revisionists like Adam Wingard and Ti West, Saulnier is reinvigorating the pulp canon of the 80s with contemporary moral codes and permeable atmosphere. Rest assured, Green Room, Saulniers new release, knows it needs to appease gorehounds, but blood never flows without purpose. And all bets are off on whos making it home.

Corralling together marquee names like Patrick Stewart and recognizable faces like Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots and Alia Shawkat, Green Room immediately feels more expansive than 2013s Blue Ruin, Saulniers previous film. Not only because of the juiced-up star powerGreen Room is a loving reinvention of the siege story, part of a classic lineage with the likes of Rio Bravo and Seven Samurai, or more thematic bedfellows like Straw Dogs and Assault On Precinct 13. The entirety of Green Room centers on two opposing groups attempting to control a single space.

With its claustrophobic corridors and shuttered corners, its difficult to imagine a more appropriate location to find Saulnier than in the Hard Rock Hotel. Walking into the room, Saulniers worn down, but noticeably excited to talk about his latest moviesoft-spoken, but delightfully foul-mouthed and playful. He did, after all, just make the movie that was exactly the type of movie he wanted to see when he was 18.

(This interview was conducted in-tandem with another interviewer. Their portion of the interview has been re-printed with their permission.)

Paste Magazine: In recent interviews, youve talked quite a bit about how you grew up in the 90s, and had scary experiences with Nazis while going to hardcore shows. In Green Room, Nazis are your villains, and they have a very loaded cinematic history. What were you most conscious about in not making those characters too straightforward, or too cartoonish?

Jeremy Saulnier: I knew Nazi punks would be low-hanging fruit for movie bad guys. But the thing is within the Hardcore scene, I didnt pick them because they were specifically Nazis. I picked them because they wear uniforms. They tend towards militancy. They tend towards having weapons. If you go to a punk show, theyre the guys who actually might do this because of their organizationtheir affiliation with the other nefarious activities, and their gang culture. The Hare Krishna squad arent going to be the ones doing this. Neither are the vegansyou never know though (laughs). And neither are the straight-edge kids. The Nazi skinheads wear boots and braces. They want to be identified, they wear insignias, and have much more structure to them. I certainly alluded to ideology as far as the physical spacetheres some artifacts as far as the spacebut we never really get into why theyre Nazis, or into promoting the scene. It just wasnt really that relevant. It was instead about: How can we humanize them?, not How can we vilify them?

Paste : And you also dont want people to watch this movie and be like, Man, I hope they fuck those guys up.

Saulnier: Right, it has to be much more troubling than that.

Paste: Theres such an intricate sense of movement to the film. Youre juggling more than half a dozen protagonists, and theyre all going into different parts of the club, and spreading out. How did you plan out the way that all the characters movements would coordinate together?

Saulnier: A few weeks into the location scouting process, we realized we had to build the entire interior location to spec because I had written [the script] with every hallway, exit, and doorway in mind. In a lot of my films, we get down into the minutiae, the detail. Its about where people are standing, what people are saying to each other, and how close they have to be to the door, for instance. All of a sudden, it became inevitable. There were no options anymore. I did a Google sketch-up of the rough overhead plan of the entire venue. The funny thing was when writing it, I had a very clear vision of what this film was, yet when I was translating that to an overhead diagram, I actually defied the space-time-continuum. I defied logic spatial reality, andgravity (laughs). And a few times, I was like, Oh wait, thats physically impossible, so my production designer, Ryan Smith, he re-translated my diagram into something we could actually build. That was a huge part of it. When the Aint Rights move through the venue for the first time, we are getting a nice, little backstage tour. I tried to keep that movement fluid and continuous, so we could tie the space together pretty quick. It does come across, I hope relatively seamlessly. It was a huge challenge, but it was pretty visualized going in. The challenge was to actually indulge in world-building.

Paste:With this movie, nearly every person in the cast is white.

Saulnier: We snuck in an Arab and a Jew (laughs). But yes, everyone in the band is white.

Paste: Right, in the band, but it does seem like the entire movie has this white trash quality. Its not just about the neo-Nazis and white power. The entire movie is about the corrosion of white power.

Saulnier: And when theyre playing shows outside, theres a more diverse cast. Thats written into the script. When theyre playing the local Mexican restaurant, the local hardcore kids show up, and theres a bit of diversity. I will say though, in the coastal town in Portland, it was hard to get non-whites to show up. Its part of that world. Of course, within this sort of right wing or ultra-left white power establishment, it had to be primarily white people. But in the band, there is someone of Arab descent, but the key was they had to pass for white. If youre playing a show at a Nazi-friendly establishment, the real conflict has to evolve from that. The Aint Rights are aware of that, and thats why their first song is The Dead Kennedys Nazi Punks Fuck Off. They dont feel part of that world. The fact that theyre welcome is creepy.

Paste: In Blue Ruin and now in Green Room, you have characters who intentionally live off the grid. They exist almost adjacent to society. In Blue Ruin, Dwight (Macon Blair) is right by a bustling town, but hes staying in an abandoned car. And similarly, the band members of Aint Rights dont believe in phones or social media? Is that remoteness a dynamic you normally gravitate to, or is that something you think about in terms of your storytelling?

Saulnier: Well, I dont think about it, but I think youre right. I think I dont like a lot of urban environments. Ive been living in New York for 22 years. And like a lot of filmmakers, I like my hometown. Thats where my cinematic upbringing took place. I like trees and rivers and dirt, and shit like that. I tend to just want to be there. And I dont know why. Im sure that will evolve, but I think its just visually and environmentally more rich for me to be away from the pavement as much as possible.

Paste: Similarly, theres kind of a breaking point in both these moves where these characters want to accept killing, or accept death itself. What interests you about that moment?

Saulnier: Both those films have people who arent surrounded by death until these scenarios unfold. Its more about them acclimating to that cinematic environment which Ive thrust them into. They have to acclimate, and when they have to fight, thats when we see the transition take place. Dwight in Blue Ruin has had this hurt for over a decade, and hes, of course, experienced loss, but hes very inept when it comes to avenging that loss. And in Green Room, theres just no time for that indulgent behavior of going off the grid, and being your own person, and wallowing. They didnt ask for this, and as they start dying, those who survive have to step up. And the only way to do that is to transition into killers, and realize that theyre no real match for the semi-professional soldiers outside the green room. They kind of have to go gonzo to fight.

Paste: Where did that paintball story in the movie come from?

Saulnier: Real life. My buddy, Rick Spears, took out some marines when we were getting trounced. Thats the thing: If you go full stupid, you can actually win. Its awesome. Its not just movie shit. If youre up against a bunch of motherfucking badasses, you can do it. Ive seen it done before (laughs).

Paste: One thing many people talk about with your movies is how the violence isnt very traditionally heroic. You dont often offer conventional catharsis. In your scripting and filmmaking process, do you have a conscious philosophy about building this untraditional thread of heroism?

Saulnier: I dont know if I really have one as far as the violence. I just put them in the stew and cook them. I write very intuitively. Im certainly very aware that this is entertainment, and I know where it has to go eventually, but I like to be surprised. The rule I haveand I break my own rulesis reverence for everybody, for loss of life, and for all characters, and finally to associate any death with a narrative purpose and an emotional impact. Theres always an intention behind how much you see, and how graphic the violence is, and how much you dont see.

When theres a very troubling box cutter moment, that is very intentionally me rubbing your face in it, because the character has to watch this. Its another one of the transitions from victim to killer, and it is not fun. You have to watch a very graphic thing take place thats unsettling. Whereas theres some parts where we need to show that this whole movie got very real, and theres things like an insert close-up of a disgusting machete wound that haunts people. Thats the intention. Its like, Oh, this is not the film I thought it was. Now I cant see whats coming, and Im terrified.

Its very much intended to throw people off guard, and not just to do that, but I let it go all the waysplatter the entire room. Theres always a reason, down to the editing. Its tough when youre with your editor watching these scenes over and over, and having to trim single frames from these shots. It was definitely about crafting the overall experience, and making it insanely intense. I want to pretend Im going to uncharted territory, and it may or may not be, but I definitely wrote the film with a disregard for formula as far as how it would suppress my creative intentions. And once in a while, I would embrace formula because I just felt like this movies getting too dreadful. I need a rock n roll moment. I need something out of these characters. Im my own studio. Jeremy, we need something thats going to make people clap, and you feel its natural, and thats where the whole paintball thing came from. Not to give spoilers away, but there needs to be a turning-of-the-tables moment. There needs to be something where you can sort of feel an elation, and not just dread. When you come out a film, and you feel it was extremely intense, and you survived, there is an exhilaration that comes with that. But if you just feel like its been nothing but a gut punch over and over, then its just dread, and its very unsatisfying. Its definitely a fine line.

Paste: When you were cutting it, were there any movies you were looking to in terms of this type of pacing and sense of dread?

Saulnier: I definitely referred to Straw Dogs, because what I like about it is that its a very thin plot, and its very rich in experiencefilms like that. I didnt watch Assault On Precinct 13 until after I finished the screenplay because I was scared it might be too relevant to what I was doing, but it ended up being a good textual reference. And again, its a very thin plot. Its just the scenario, and itunfolds, but the texture is so gritty and awesome. I was really inspired by that. Once I wrote it, it was just its own thing. Im always influenced by certain aesthetics. I like the Coen Brothers for the way they tell stories. I like early Michael Mann for the grounded realism and research he doesthe authenticity that he creates.

The Coen Brothers have this amazing visual language thats always spoken to me as far as how they tell stories. And John Carpenter was just a big influence in terms of the tone of the movie. People have been saying they want Green Room to come out on VHS because thats what it reminds them of. I miss that type of movie from the 80s. I wasnt trying to pay homage to the point where it would be a throwback, self-aware, retro movie, but I wanted to evoke the very same feelings that I felt when I was a kid and had access to The Thing or Halloween or Dawn of the Dead. Theyre movies with a lot of grit and atmosphere, and they just scared the shit out of me.
***

(12-2-07)

*** A lot of people may not realize that I have done a little (observed, recorded) mini live debate with the renowned Reformed Baptist anti-Catholic champion James White, in his chat room. Since then (perhaps as a result of this experience?) he has turned down two further challenges to do another one, where I gave him a handicap of more time to question than I would have (in the first challenge, I offered him all night long if he wished). The second one was even a double cross-ex format, designed to make him stop running and to put his money where his mouth is (as one who constantly sings the praises of the glories of cross-examination as a vehicle of undiluted truth and exposure of abominable error). All to no avail. * This encounter took place on 29 December 2000, and came about spontaneously as a result of the dissipation of the prearranged format of a debate that I had with another anti-Catholic (it ended prematurely, by his choice). White then jumped in and we went at it for a few moments. The topic (determined by Whites relentless questioning) was Mary in the Church fathers). I didnt have all the information required at my fingertips and so was slightly off-guard at first. * But then I sort of turned the tables and went on the offensive myself, puncturing holes in Whites flawed analysis and making him answer a few of my questions. Just when I thought it was getting really interesting indeed (and fun, too, because I love a challenge and love answering on my feet), Whites computer (far as we can tell) malfunctioned and he was never heard from again. I hung around for quite a while, chatting with others in his own room, awaiting a return that never came. * I thought that it would be worthwhile to take a look at my own live encounter with White and to do a running commentary on how he used sophistry and flawed information (or mis- or disinformation) in my own case. Its most illuminating as to his pathetic methodology in debate, that many many people have observed and objected to. In my original footnotes, I had noted that  Whites rapid-fire questioning and constant switching of topics and subtle changing even of terms within topics hardly allowed me to deal adequately with such a complex subject . * Bishop Whites words will be in red . My responses at the time will be in black. My current commentary on Whites sophistry and illogic will be in blue , with brackets.

*

*****

Mr. Armstrong, care to dialogue a bit? * no, no more than it was for the Fathers who appealed to apostolic Tradition. * Remember that statement Dave? * Yes. * Dave: The earliest reference in all patristic writing to something passed down from the Apostles that is not in Scripture is Irenaeus insistence that those who knew the Apostles confirmed that John 8 teaches that Jesus was more than 50 years of age at his death. Rome has rejected this idea. If tradition can be corrupted in its first instance, upon what basis do you affirm the idea that such doctrines as the Bodily Assumption, without witness for over 500 years, is truly apostolic? * Who claims that this is the first instance of Tradition passed down? Now we are in areas that require research to answer, so I can hardly do that on the spot. * Well, if you can find an explicit statement that is earlier, Id like to see it. To my knowledge, it is the earliest example. * I doubt that..the principle is explicitly biblical in the first place. If indeed the notion [Tradition passed down] is in the Bible, then that is the earliest instance, not Irenaeus. * Im sorry, I must have been unclear: I was referring to a statement by an early Church Father concerning an alleged extra-biblical tradition passed down from the Apostles. And I believe Irenaeus claim is the earliest.but that point aside. * Okay, that may be (I dont know). *

[In fact, St. Clement of Rome described an extra-biblical book as Scripture (I assume he would hold that the Bible was passed down from the Apostles and that Bishop White would grant the point). In his Letter to the Corinthians (aka First Clement), dated 95-96 A.D., he writes (23:3):

*

Let this Scripture be far from us where he says . . . .

*

Then he proceeds to cite a passage which is not in present-day Scripture (it is also cited in 2 Clement 11:2-4  not considered to have been written by St. Clement, but perhaps the oldest Christian sermon extant: c. 100 A.D. -, where it is described as the prophetic word). The famous Protestant scholar J.B. Lightfoot speculated that it was from the lost book of Eldad and Modat mentioned by Hermas (Vis. 2.3.4).

*

Any citation, in fact, of a book as Scripture, whether it was or not, is an extra-biblical tradition since the biblical books (as decided by the Church and tradition) never list the books. White surely should have known this. But he wants to pass off this nonsense that Irenaeus thinking Jesus lived to fifty is the earliest reference in all patristic writing to something passed down from the Apostles that is not in Scripture. Its not so. The tradition of the biblical canon itself disproves it.

*

Furthermore, Clement teaches apostolic succession in 42:1-4 and 44:1-4 (Our apostles . . . gave the offices a permanent character; that is, if they should die, other approved men

should succeed to their ministry . . .), a notion that White rejects and regards as unbiblical.Finally, according to the eminent 19th-century Protestant patristics scholar Brooke Foss Westcott, there is some indication in Justin Martyr (100-165) of acceptance of an apostolic Tradition, including an oral component. After an exhaustive, remarkable 75-page exposition of Justins understanding of the canon of the New Testament. Westcott concludes:



*

There are indeed traces of the recognition of an authoritative Apostolic doctrine in Justin, but it cannot be affirmed from the form of his language that he looked upon this as contained in a written New Testament.

*

(A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1980, from the 1889 sixth edition, 172) ]

*

I assume, then, you are not familiar with this particular issue? Okay, then let us use another example. Basil said that it was an apostolic tradition to baptize three times, facing east, forward. Upon what basis do you reject his testimony, if you do?

*

[again, I could hardly answer on the spot, completely unprepared, not even knowing this exchange was gonna take place. I had prepared myself to debate someone else. But note how White uses the rapid-fire approach. Its the illusion of appearance of strength via mere method: one of the oldest tricks of sophistry in the book. This is the second thing he quickly introduces. Then he introduces a third: whether Mary sinned]

*

Patristic consensus over what period of time? For example, the patristic consensus through the end of the fourth century was that Mary had committed acts of sin. That is no longer the view taken by Rome.

*

[this is sheer nonsense (the second sentence above), as I will proceed to show, even on the spot, because it is so outrageously false]

*

The patristic period is generally considered to go up to John Damascene, no?

*

That all depends. :-)

*

[I dont know what White thinks it depends on. According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (p. 504): the patristic period is generally held to be closed with St. Isidore of Seville in the West and St. John of Damascus in the East. White likes historian Philip Schaff, who described John Damascene as the last of the Greek Fathers (History of the Christian Church, Vol. IV: Chapter 14, section 144, p. 626). So why does he question (and smile about) this assumption of mine?]

*

No; some Fathers thought she sinned, but I dont believe they were the majority, by any means.

*

[I was absolutely correct]

*

Would it follow, then, that you believe the patristic consensus up through John Damascene supports such doctrines as the Immaculate Conception and the Bodily Assumption?

*

[Note the sophistical topic-switching again. This is quite clever, albeit cynically transparent to anyone who understands rhetoric and debate. Having already introduced his third topic in about as many minutes: the actual sin of Mary and what Church fathers held on that, and having introduced a false summary of patristic views on that score, he now shifts to the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption: the first being a greatly advanced development of the sinlessness of Mary and the second being another doctrine altogether. Im now supposed to discuss  without notes and preparation  now, five relatively complex topics at once?]

*

Can you name 5 or 10 who thought that?

*

[I was still referring to the previous sins of Mary question. White would fire out a new question (like having 15 peas in a pea shooter) before I barely answered his last one. Anyone can see the foolishness of such a juvenile method of supposedly seeking truth]

*

Yes. Origen, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, Basil. Big names. :-) Even Anselm held Mary was born with original sin.

*

How about western fathers? Those are all eastern guys. :-)

*

[Now note the manifest sophistry here, as I will keep pointing out in the exchange itself. Whites original (non-factual) claim was: the patristic consensus through the end of the fourth century was that Mary had committed acts of sin. Starting on this false premise, when asked to name names, he cites (correctly) four eastern fathers and no western ones. But patristic consensus includes both east and west. Therefore, if he cant come up with western fathers believing as he claims, his assertion collapses. Its as simple as that. Case closed. And White not only has to just name one or two fathers to prove his point; he has to establish consensus, which is far more difficult to do. But he quotes four men from the east and then a westerner who isnt even in the patristic period.This is when the tide started to decisively turn in the debate, because I knew from the patristic knowledge in my head that White was out to sea and faltering even in his factuality, let alone any arguments he wished to ground upon these alleged facts that are actually falsehoods]

*

Anselm isnt. :-)

*

Anselm was not a father.

*

[Bingo!]

*

Lets hope not. :-) He was under orders. just kidding.

*

[his humor was more successful than his arguments and pseudo-facts. I suggest that White stick to stand-up comic routines rather than attempted serious patristic argument]

*

All youre doing now is helping to support Roman primacy and orthodoxy. The east had a host of errors. They split from Rome five times, and were wrong in every case by [the criteria of] their own later orthodox beliefs.

*

Hmm, so you are switching now to a Western consensus?

*

No, but your citing of only eastern fathers hardly suggests that this is overall patristic consensus, does it?

*

[this is ludicrous sophistry. I made the rather obvious point. White was the one claiming patristic consensus. Anyone knows that this means all fathers: east and west. He cites only eastern ones; I call him on it, and then he makes this dumb remark that I am calling for (or switching to) a western consensus. Unbelievable . . . but then it shows that he was on the ropes and was trying all the more to exercise sophistry to extricate himself from his foot firmly entrenched in his rather big mouth. I dont think he is even conscious that he is doing this. Like Bill Clinton and lying, for Bishop White sophistry has so long been the trick of his trade in debating Catholics that it just comes out like breathing or blinking without having to think about it at all. He always has to oppose the Catholic, no matter how silly and absurd his objection may be. This is an absolutely classic case of poor debating and arguing on his part]

*

I would dispute that, actually,

*

[fine, then make an argument; but he never does. Instead he moves onto something else. The slippery fish / moving target / 101 topics routine, perfected by folks like Jehovahs Witness evangelists and James White . . .]

*

But Id like to stick to the issue Ive raised here.

*

[White talking  with a straight face, apparently, actually serious  about sticking to the issue, after how he has behaved, is about the equivalent of an alcoholic saying we shouldnt drink liquor . . .]

*

Is it your belief that these two dogmas are apostolic in origin?

*

First name me western fathers who thought Mary sinned, since you brought this up.

*

[my attempt to keep White on the subject and forcing him to face and to try to alleviate the difficulties I had raised for his position . . . And remember, I had hardly any experience at all in this sort of debate, whereas White was the big champion with dozens of oral debates in his past (as he never tires of bragging about). But he was faltering and choking and doing rather badly by this point . . . ]

*

Actually, Augustines influence regarding the universality of original sin had to be overcome for the Immaculate Conception to be contemplated and codified, sir. :-)

*

[lacking any good answer for my actual question, White obfuscates and engages in obscurantism (tried and true methods of the sophist) by changing the topic to original sin and Augustines view, rather than actual sin of Mary, which was his own original claim as to patristic consensus. This is very clever. But we can all see through it, especially when analyzed in this fashion. White loves post-mortem debate analysis. Well, now we have given him a bit of his own medicine]

*

But thats a separate issue. Did Augustine think Mary sinned?

*

[note how I brought it right back to my actual question, Ted Koppel-style, refusing to play Whites game]

*

No, not in her personal life. But he did believe she contracted original sin, correct?

*

[the quick answer and then quickly moving on to another separate question, so as to do some quick damage control . . .]

*

There is the distinction between actual sin and original sin in Marys case.

*

Do you consider Tertullian a Western?

*

Yes.

*

Would you include Hilary? J.N.D. Kelly lists them both in that category. I think that makes six, does it not?

*

Im not sure, but you started by discussing acts of sin, now you are switching to original sin.

*

Actually, for both Tertullian and Hilary, it would be acts of sin.

*

Okay, so you have two?

*

[I wrote in my commentary soon after the debate:



*

So Bishop White offers one western father (who held a quite mild opinion on the subject  not exactly a spectacular, bold dissent), and another in his heretical period, plus four eastern fathers (which I was already generally aware of  one always finds exceptions to the rule). This is what he considers a patristic consensus. I consider it a pathetic argument. Ludwig Ott states that the western patristic consensus was unanimous. Thus, Bishop White is trapped by the facts of history, not any rhetorical brilliance on my part. ]

*

Yes, two.

*

[how, then, is this a consensus? I recently wrote a book compiling patristic beliefs, and listed sixty Church fathers who are widely cited as such, up through John Damascene). White has provided us with exactly six names of fathers who held that Mary sinned (and of the two westerners, one later became a Montanist heretic and the other spoke of it just once, and rather mildly), or about 10% of the fathers (or reasonable facsimile thereof). And he wants us to think this is a consensus. How stupid does he think we are, anyway? Part of the method of sophistry (for those aware they are doing it, and I dont think White is), is assuming that hearers are so dumb and ignorant that they can be fooled by the method in the first place]

*

May I ask how many you have that positively testify of the later Roman belief in the same time-period?

*

One second.consulting some papers.

*

[White didnt give me any time to even look. He went right on to the next thing in his fertile mind]

*

Be that as it may, does it not follow from these considerations that there is no positive consensus upon this issue? The only relevant answer to that would be to ask, Who wrote on the specific question of Marys sinlessness? Not many.

*

[in fact, after I consulted my research later, I wrote in the original commentary:

*

As for Church Fathers who refer to the Blessed Virgin Mary as the New Eve (Eve was originally sinless or immaculate), Second Eve, sinless, spotless, pure, without stain, immaculate, the Ark of the Covenant, or (negatively) who never attributed any actual sin to her, we find the following:

*

Hippolytus, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory Nyssa, Cyril of Jerusalem, Epiphanius, Athanasius, Jerome, Eusebius, Ephraim, Ambrose, Augustine, Proclus, Theodotus, Peter Chrysologus, Andrew of Crete, Fulgentius, Leo the Great, Gregory the Great, Germanus, John Damascene.

*

That makes at least 22 fathers in the affirmative, compared to 5 who attributed sin to Mary (not counting the Montanist heretic Tertullian).]

*

Was this in Tertullians Montanist or semi-Montanist period? About how many fathers were there, in your estimation?

*

The Tertullian citation is De carne Chr. 7.



*

[Again, from my original footnotes to the debate:

*

Sure enough, The Flesh of Christ (dated 208-212 A.D.) is from Tertullians semi-Montanist period. Protestants often fail to note the different theological periods with regard to citing Tertullian. Many will conveniently ignore this if a Tertullian quote suits their purpose (or else some are ignorant of the dating and/or of his later heresy altogether). Whichever the case with Bishop White, he failed to answer my question during the dialogue, thus illustrating another reason why these clarifying notes are important and useful. What I suspected turned out to be true. Whether Bishop White knew this beforehand or not, we dont know, as he didnt say.

*

White never answered my question about approximately how many fathers there were]



*

How many say she was without sin? Thats what you are asking? Actual sin?

*

I think you can see my point, can you not, Mr. Armstrong? If these concepts were, in fact, passed down through the episcopate, how could such widely differing church leaders be ignorant of these things?



*

[but here he simply repeats a falsehood; apparently believing it to be true. The sinlessness of Mary is stated by many fathers. It is implicit in the second Eve motif. These things began to be developed so early that good Protestant historian Philip Schaff states that the development of the orthodox Mariology and Mariolatry originated as early as the second century ( History of the Christian Church , Vol. III, 414). If the fathers hadnt been spewing all this abominable Catholic stuff then obviously Schaff wouldnt describe it as Mariolatry. This proves that Schaff thought it was indeed there. And the Mariology includes sinlessness. Its easy to document, contra White: *

Eusebius, the great Church historian . . . calls her panagia, all-holy. (PG, 24, 1033B)

*

Athanasius: . . . pure and unstained Virgin . . . (On the Incarnation of the Word, 8)

*

O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides. (Homily of the Papyrus of Turin, 71, 216)

*

Ephraem: Thou and thy mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every respect; for in thee, O Lord, there is no spot, and in thy Mother no stain. (Nisibene Hymns, 27, v. 8) *

Gregory Nazianzen: He was conceived by the Virgin, who had first been purified by the Spirit in soul and body; for, as it was fitting that childbearing should receive its share of honor, so it was necessary that virginity should receive even greater honor. (Sermon 38, 13)

*

Gregory of Nyssa: It was, to divulge by the manner of His Incarnation this great secret; that purity is the only complete indication of the presence of God and of His coming, and that no one can in reality secure this for himself, unless he has altogether estranged himself from the passions of the flesh. What happened in the stainless Mary when the fulness of the Godhead which was in Christ shone out through her, that happens in every soul that leads by rule the virgin life. (On Virginity, 2; NPNF 2, Vol. V, 344)

*

[T]he power of the Most High, through the Holy Spirit, overshadowed the human nature and was formed therein; that is to say, the portion of flesh was formed in the immaculate Virgin. (Against Apollinaris, 6) *

Ambrose: . . . Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin. (Commentary on Psalm 118, 22, 30)

*

Jerome: There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots. The rod is the mother of the Lordsimple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but fruitful in singleness like God Himself Set before you the blessed Mary, whose surpassing purity made her meet to be the mother of the Lord. (Letter XXII. To Eustochium, 19, 38; NPNF 2, Vol. VI, 29, 39)

*

Augustine: We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin whilst they were in this life, what can we suppose would be their answer? (A Treatise on Nature and Grace, chapter 42 [XXXVI]; NPNF 1, Vol. V)

*

Cyril of Alexandria: Hail, Mary Theotokos, Virgin-Mother, lightbearer, uncorrupt vessel . . . Hail Mary, you are the most precious creature in the whole world; hail, Mary, uncorrupt dove; hail, Mary, inextinguishable lamp; for from you was born the Sun of justice . . . (Homily 11 at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus)

*

Theodotus: Innocent virgin, spotless, without defect, untouched, unstained, holy in body and in soul, like a lily-flower sprung among thorns, unschooled in the wickedness of Eve . . . clothed with divine grace as with a cloak . . . (Homily 6, 11)

*

Leo the Great: For the uncorrupt nature of Him that was born had to guard the primal virginity of the Mother, and the infused power of the Divine Spirit had to preserve in spotlessness and holiness that sanctuary which He had chosen for Himself . . . (Sermon XXII: On the Feast of the Nativity, Part II; NPNF 2, Vol. XII)

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Gregory the Great: The most blessed and ever Virgin Mary, Mother of God . . . has completely surpassed the height of every elect creature. (In I Regum, 1, 5)

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Andrew of Crete: . . . alone wholly without stain . . . (Canon for the Conception of Anne)

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John Damascene: O most blessed loins of Joachim from which came forth a spotless seed! O glorious womb of Anne in which a most holy offspring grew. (Homily I on the Nativity of Mary) ]

*

The same way Luther was ignorant about baptismal regeneration, and Calvin of adult baptism. :-) Neither got it right, according to you.

*

[meant to convey the blatant double standard in Whites previous question. I could disprove his claim about the Mariology of the Fathers, but he couldnt change the fact that both Luther and Calvin got major things wrong, by his own Baptist reckoning, some 700 years after the patristic period. In other words, anti-catholics always want to carp on and on about supposed late inventions while ignoring the host of those introduced by their own founders]

*

Well, it would seem that if you wish to substantiate a dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the task would be rather easy to demonstrate a positive witness to the belief in the patristic period, would it not? *

I think this can be done, but probably not to your satisfaction.

*

[one must understand that the sinlessness of Mary is the developmental kernel of the Immaculate Conception, which extends the divine grace given to her also to removal by God of original sin. No one is claiming that the immaculate conception is in the Fathers. But White, remember, denied even that denial of actual sin was the consensus]

*

Does it follow, then, that you parallel individual Reformational leaders with the early Fathers, the very ones entrusted with apostolic tradition? Or was that rhetorical?

*

I was making a point about noted leaders and teachers differing. We would expect that in the Fathers to an extent, being human; nevertheless, there is still overall consensus.

*

Have you ever listened to my debate with Gerry Matatics on the subject of the Marian dogmas, Mr. Armstrong?

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No. Did you win that one? :-)

*

Its on the web..Gerry said I did, actually. :-) As did Karl Keating. Does that count? :-) *

I can name names as to who believed in sinlessness, but I dont have it at my fingertips

*

Be that as it may, during the course of the debate I repeatedly asked Gerry for a single early Father who believed as he believes, dogmatically, on Mary. I was specifically focused upon the two most recent dogmas, the Immaculate Conception and the Bodily Assumption.

*

Of course, if you are looking for a full-blown doctrine of Immaculate Conception, you wont find it.

* [thus I make the point about doctrinal development. The trouble with this argument of Whites is that he wants to discount Catholic Mariology because it developed relatively late, while at the same time he fully accepts Protestant novelties like sola Scriptura and sola fide which are virtually nonexistent in the fathers. He has no trouble accepting all those truly late doctrines, while objecting that ours develop, just like Christology, trinitarianism and the canon of Scripture also did] *

How would you answer my challenge? Did any early Father believe as you believe on this topic?

*

The consensus, in terms of the kernels of the belief [i.e., its essence], are there overall. I would expect it to be the case that any individual would not completely understand later developments.

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So many generations lived and died without holding to what is now dogmatically defined?

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[White doesnt get it, that all doctrines develop. Since he does not, and tries to make hay out of nothing, for rhetorical and polemical purposes, I provided a parallel by bringing up a late-developing doctrine that he accepts: the NT canon]

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Did any father of the first three centuries accept all 27 books of the NT and no others? *

Three centuries..you would not include Athanasius?

*

I think his correct list was in the 4th century [indeed, it was in 367, and he was born around 296], but at any rate, my point is established.

*

[White couldnt even name one, because there was no correct list before 367, and even White, with his mastery of sophistry, couldnt change that fact or mask it. Thus, many generations lived and died without holding to what is now dogmatically defined  by the Church  about the NT canon. Mariology is unfairly subjected to a standard that White wont apply to his own belief in the NT canon, as received by Catholic tradition. I wrote in my original commentary:

*

[T]he present-day perspicuous NT canon took longer to finalize than trinitarianism and the divinity of the Holy Spirit! But I guess a consensus of one in the year 367 is good enough for Bishop White, provided that it is harmonious with his own largely 16th-century-derived Baptist version of Christianity. This is all doctrinal development, pure and simple. But Protestants  for some odd reason  so often wish to ignore it when it touches upon their own peculiar doctrines. * How is it that Bishop White is so concerned about five fathers attributing fairly minor and very rare sin to the Blessed Virgin Mary, while in the late period from 250-325, the perspicuous biblical books of Hebrews, James, 2 Peter, 2 John, 3 John, Jude, and Revelation were still being widely disputed in the Church Universal? Is that state of affairs not far more fatal to Protestant claims concerning Scripture Alone, than minor dissent on Mary is to the Catholic position? ]

*

How many fathers of the same period denied baptismal regeneration or infant baptism?

*

[White knows he is on shaky ground here, too, when pressed about other Protestant parallels of late-arriving doctrines and so he obfuscates]

*

The issue there would be how many addressed the issue (many did not). But are you paralleling these things with what you just admitted were but kernels?

*

I f even Scripture was unclear that early on, that makes mincemeat of your critique that a lack of explicit Marian dogma somehow disproves Catholic Mariology.

*

[BOOM! This was the clinching remark, as far as I was concerned then, and now. In my opinion, White lost this debate at this point, if not earlier]

*

Ill address that allegation in a moment. :-)

*

[He never did. Alas, technical computer problems soon whisked White away, safe from annoying and revealing cross-examination questioning. Ah, but what could have been. The if onlys of history . . .]

*

By the way, would you like that specific Irenaeus reference to look up? Just in passing?

*

[who cares , by this point? A desperate return to an earlier futile argument . . .]

*

I can look it upI have enough resources. The question of this dialogue is whether we are gonna address topics which require heavy research.. That is more appropriate for a paper. If I were answering all your questions in a paper I would have spent a good three hours already. A guy like Joe Gallegos could instantly address questions about particular Fathers beliefs. but Ill still give you names who taught Marys sinlessness, if you like.

* [I wrote in my footnotes to the debate: * Bishop White seemed to require me to give rapid answers to his lightning-quick and ever-changing technical questions concerning particular patristic beliefs. That was not possible (I wouldnt be able to type fast enough even if I had all the answers in my head), but I believe I managed to de-fang him by the use of analogy, which has been fleshed out to full effect in these notes.]

*

I was thinking of the others looking on. :-) It is chapter 22, section 5, of Irenaeus work, Against Heresies, Book 2, I believe.

*

So where do we go from here?

*

Anyway.You seem to think that if there is disagreement on any issue, this means the Scripture is unclear, correct?

*

[another topic introduced; White deftly avoids the devastating implications of my previous progression of analogical argument. The man knows when he is bested; he proves it by his change-the-subject tactics. On the other hand, when he senses he is prevailing in a line of argument, he keeps honing in for the kill. Anyone can see which tack he took with me. He was on the ropes, faltering, failing, floundering away . . . ]

*

No; rather massive disagreement on many issues seems to me to fly in the face of this alleged perspicuity. I think Scripture is clear, by and large, actually, but human fallibility will lead to hermeneutic relativism, thus requiring authoritative interpreters.

*

[the nuances and complexity of the actual Catholic view of Bible and Tradition were and are lost on White. I should have known. Why even bother? But, of course, others were observing, too]

*

What do you do with Peters words? 2 Pet 3:15-16:

*

and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. (NAS)

*

A good description of many Protestants! How does this bolster perspicuity?

*

If the untaught and unstable distort the Scriptures, then what can the taught and stable do, of necessity?

*

It doesnt follow logically that if the unstable distort the Scripture, that the stable will always get it right, does it?

*

()()() James is Away. Lord willing, he will return. :) ()()()

*

[what a shame that he could neither stick around nor stick to any given subject, to reach any sort of conclusion. I think it is unarguable that he used many techniques of sophistry, obfuscation, and obscurantism in this pathetic exchange. I should have made an analysis like this years ago, along with my footnotes. Im really glad I did so now, so as to give concrete demonstration of the shortcomings in Whites debate method that so many Catholics have observed and become fed up with by now]

*

***

Meta Description: I prove that anti-Catholic apologist & debater James White used indefensible techniques of sophistry in our lone live chat.

*

Meta Keywords: Anti-Catholicism, Anti-Catholic, James White, sophistry, debates, dialogue, illegitimate discourse, lousy arguments, logic, fallacious arguments, fallacies, evasion, topic-switching, intellectual dishonesty
Patna: Marching ahead on his path to avenge his less than graceful ouster from the Chief Minister's post, Jitan Ram Manjhi on Monday maintained his assault on his former idol Nitish Kumar saying the former Janata Dal  U leader made him the Chief Minister so he could be his mask but in the end it was he who succeeded in unmasking Kumar.

Exhorting voters to punish Kumar by voting against him at the ballot box in the upcoming Assembly elections, Manjhi, while speaking at the 'Garib Swabhiman Rally' sponsored by his Hindustan Awam Morcha (HAM) at Patna's Gandhi Maidan, said that Kumar wanted him to be his front-man to do his 'dirty' jobs but in the end, he figured out his game plan and decided to be his own man instead of being pulled by his puppet master.

{gallery}newsimages2015/apr/042015{/gallery}"I am asking you to teach Nitish Kumar a lesson for scrapping several decisions taken by me that were meant for the uplifting the poor, downtrodden, dalits, women, and people with no voice or representation. What he did was reprehensible and must be punished severely for betraying the trust of the people," Manjhi, who was the Chief Minister of Bihar for short nine months, roared.

Continuing to reveal the 'real face' of Nitish Kumar, Manjhi said the government was paying exorbitant price for various schemes that could be completed in less than half of the projected cost. "The entire government machinery and contractors are involved in this scam," he said.

Accusing Kumar of initiating non-essential projects like a new museum in Patna and a new Assembly building instead of spending money in welfare schemes, the former Chief Minister said that he failed to understand what the purpose of a new Legislative building was when the existing one was big enough to accommodate all 243 legislators.

"This same building used to accommodate 324 MLAs in the undivided Bihar but suddenly, according to Nitish Kumar, it's not big enough. He has money to do all these unnecessary things but he is always short of fund for real development for which he continues to blame the Center," Manjhi said.

Demanding a CBI probe in the 'Paddy Procurement Scam', the former JD-U leader said that under Nitish Kumar, Bihar had become a cesspool of corruption and only the voters could rid Bihar from his clutches.

Manjhi also took Nitish administration to task on the dwindling law and order condition in Bihar saying cases of rape, murder, and armed robbery had reached a new height in the state while Kumar continued to keep his eyes closed from the ground realities.

Former ministers in the Nitish and Manjhi government Narendra Singh, Shahid Ali Khan, Samrat Chowdhary, Nitish Mishra, Brishan Patel, Mahachandra Prasad and Vinay Bihari, along with suspended JD-U leaders Gyanendra Singh Gyanu, and Rajiv Ranjan were among many who were present on the occasion.

Interestingly, Lalu Prasad Yadav's estranged brother-in-law Sadhu Yadav was also seen on the stage with Manjhi.
Patna: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday was unanimously elected the President of the Janata Dal  U after incumbent Sharad Yadav opted not to seek the position for a fourth term.

Kumar, who was already the de facto leader of the party with Yadav largely seen as a rubber stamp President, now holds all executive power making him the strongest man within the party with no one above him.

This is the first time a Bihari has become the face of the party as both Yadav and his predecessor George Fernandes were outsiders though both made Bihar their political home contesting Parliamentary and state elections from various constituencies in the state.



Kumar, who is said to nurture dream of becoming the Prime Minister of India  ideally replacing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and current PM Narendra Modi  is hoping to carry out talks with other parties, including the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha, to enhance his political influence outside Bihar and onto a wider national stage to take on his saffron nemesis.

Meanwhile, Yadav, who earlier resigned from his post, made it clear that he was only resigning from the party post and not from politics itself.

"I have always kept my politics above the party line and now I will be able to serve the party even more vigorously to make it even more stronger," an emotional Yadav said.

Yadav was elected the JD-U President first in 2006 and for the third time in 2013.
Pattaya Mail became the first English language newspaper in Pattaya and the Eastern Seaboard of Thailand when the inaugural issue hit the streets on July 23, 1993. The aim of the newspaper was, and still is, to represent the area in a fair and unbiased way by telling the truth. Still in its infancy, Pattaya Mail has enjoyed a steady growth since 1993, and its readership base, which was once restricted to only Pattaya, has expanded to include the entire Eastern Seaboard and even more recently into other regions in the Kingdom. Topics covered in each issue of the weekly newspaper include bold yet fair reporting on crime and the local administration, governmental issues, and the constant expansion of Pattaya and the Eastern Seaboard.

Pattaya Mail also realises its role as a community minded newspaper and each week reserves space for community happenings, social events, local sports, and an adequate amount of features and informative pieces created by some of the area's best writers. Pattaya Mail is also proud of having been able to expand its readership via the World Wide Web. Expansion has additionally occurred into the electronic media via the Pattaya Mail Channel, broadcast on the Pattaya's cable TV network. We look forward to the inevitable evolution the future has in store for us with sincere optimism.
Inside the ancient town hall of Siena, Italy, the walls hold a series of magnificent 14th-century frescoes showing the effects of good government and bad. One side depicts a prosperous city-state, where justice and tolerance prevail in the Tuscan countryside. The other is ruled by a horned, fanged figure, the streets deserted and scary.

We saw our own version of this allegory with the two Americas last week  one going backward, the other stepping into tomorrow. We saw a retreat to bigotry in states dooming themselves to decline. And in other states, we saw a way for people to get around a do-nothing Congress controlled by Know-Nothing throwbacks.

First, the good. On Monday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a bill that will eventually raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, lifting the earnings of 2.3 million New Yorkers, and he authorized one of the strongest paid parental leave laws in the nation. On the same day, Gov. Jerry Brown of California put his signature to a $15 minimum wage plan in the most populous state. Then San Francisco became the first place in the United States to require businesses to provide paid leave for new parents.

Now, the bad. Following North Carolinas lead, another state, Mississippi, passed a law allowing people and institutions to deny services to gay people. With this measure, Mississippi, already one of the poorest states in the nation, ensures that good job providers will stay away.

Indeed, PayPal dropped plans to bring 400 jobs to North Carolina after politicians gave people a green light to discriminate. And a host of corporate leaders signed a letter on Wednesday explaining why Mississippi and North Carolina would be shunned. Such laws are bad for employees, the representatives of companies ranging from Whole Foods to General Electric wrote, and bad for business.

Next door, in Alabama, the embattled Republican governor signed a bill earlier this year preventing cities from raising the minimum wage. This after Birmingham dared to dream of a day when its lowest-paid workers could make $10 an hour.

Nearly all the states with the highest percentage of minimum wage workers  full-time jobholders making $290 a week, before taxes  are in the South. These are also the same states that refuse to expand Medicaid to allow the working poor to get health care. And its in the same cradle of the old Confederacy where discriminatory bills are rising. Dont blame the cities; from Birmingham to Charlotte, people are trying to open doors to higher wages and tolerance of gays, only to be rebuffed at the state level.

Raising the minimum wage is not a panacea, as Gov. Brown noted. But he called it a moral imperative, one that will allow full-time workers at the low end to better provide for their children.

Good companies feel the same way. Costco just announced that it would raise entry-level wages to $13.50 an hour  at a cost to stockholders of a penny a share in the current quarter. One penny. Twitter will soon start giving full-time employees 20 weeks of paid parental leave.

Lifting wages for low-end workers and bringing the United States into the 21st century on family leave should be no-brainers. And yet, Congress refuses to move on President Barack Obamas call for paid parental leave for federal employees, and will not raise the minimum wage beyond the paltry $7.25 an hour.

Still, people are blowing past the obstructionists. Since Obama first called on Congress to move forward on wages, in 2013, 18 states and at least 40 cities have acted on their own. Expect to see family leave laws ripple across the land as well.

Now, maybe paying the working poor a little more will be a job-killer, as Republicans assert. Maybe mandating parental leave will inhibit business start-ups. Sure. If you believe doing nothing, in the wake of 20 years of declining wages and a harder quality of life, is better than doing something, this is your home: the geography of despair.
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David Bowdich, the FBIs highest-ranking agent in Los Angeles and a key figure in the San Bernardino mass shooting investigation, is leaving California to become the third-highest ranking officer in the bureau.

It came up a few months ago, Bowdich said Saturday afternoon, as he was out walking his dog, a day after packing up his office.

FBI Director James B. Comey invited him out to Washington in February, he said, and offered him the associate deputy director position.

He felt we had managed to get where we needed to go at that point with the investigation into the Dec. 2 terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, which left 14 dead and 22 wounded.

He said, Look, you can support it from here, and have greater impact on the organization,  Bowdich said. Ive been very focused on the families and, quite frankly, I told the families that Id be here to the end, because I never dreamed this would happen. I never raised my hand for this and didnt expect it to happen.

Leaving the families of the Dec. 2 victims is the thing that gave him the most pause in taking his new position, he said.

I think its important to me that the families know that there will be no light between the shields as far as we handle this as an organization going forward, Bowdich said. If we were not in a place where I was reasonably comfortable, I would not go. That doesnt mean its over: far from it, far from it.

He expects the prosecution of Enrique Marquez Jr., who is accused of providing the assault rifles that Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik used in the Dec. 2 attack, will likely take a long time.

About 20 agents are still combing through evidence related to the case.

Were trying to make sure we leave nothing undone, Bowdich said. Theres a lot going on behind the scenes to make sure weve examined every piece of evidence, be it digital or physical.

The piece of evidence thats been most in the news of late is the iPhone 5C issued to Farook by the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health, for which he worked as a public health inspector.

Privacy advocates and Apple Inc., the maker of the iPhone, contend the federal government didnt really expect to find any useful evidence on the phone  Farook and Malik destroyed their personal phones before the attack and a hard drive removed from their personal computer has never been found.

Instead, privacy advocates say, the government wanted Apple to get around encryption features on the phone to establish a legal precedent that would let federal agencies compel cellphone makers to do the same going forward.

Not so, said Bowdich.

Right now, we continue to extract the data from this phone, he said. I think its important that the public understands that it was not our goal to draw a line in the sand on encryption. What it was, was a piece of evidence.

Bowdich has been in charge of the Los Angeles office since September 2012. A former New Mexico detective, he has worked for the FBI since 1995. In his new role, he will oversee most of the bureaus so-called non-operational branches and divisions.

Dave is a first-class guy, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Saturday. He did a tremendous job of keeping us together as a team.  At the end of the day, (the Dec. 2 investigation) was going to become a federal investigation, but Dave went out of his way to make sure we were kept in the loop and stayed a unified front.

Bowdich will be replaced by Deirdre Fike, who currently heads up the FBI office in Anchorage.

Shes trading in her snowshoes for her flip-flops, he said. Shes a solid agent and she will be every bit as committed.

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Recent rains and water conservation successes get only partial credit for state water officials announcement Thursday, April 7, lowering some water suppliers savings targets.

Lobbying by Inland water suppliers and others around California to persuade the State Water Resources Control Board to consider climate, growth and past efforts to reduce use and expand potable water supplies also played a role.

Public utilities and water districts have been pressing the state agency to lower the 25 percent statewide conservation mandate that took effect last June during Californias fourth year of severe drought, or to make individualized adjustments after suppliers were ordered to meet savings of up to 36 percent.

Savings mandates were based on what each suppliers demands were during a nine-month period in 2013, Eastern Municipal General Manager Paul Jones said.

Large Inland suppliers including Perris-based Eastern Municipal Water District, Riverside Public Utilities and Rancho California Water District, based in Temecula, gave joint testimony in October and February asking the board to revise the regulation to address climate, housing and landscape differences between coastal and Inland communities, or Northern and Southern California.

We had many agencies throughout the state that felt that those regulations were inequitable, Jones said. We all worked together because we had common interests and felt our efforts werent being recognized.

Eastern Municipal and Western Municipal Water District of Riverside coordinated an effort among multiple agencies in Southern California and other parts of the state to develop recommendations for regulation adjustments to address those issues.

They submitted the proposals in joint letters before the boards reconsideration of the regulation in February, said Jones and Rancho California Water District General Manager Jeff Armstrong.

Armstrong applauded the water resources control board for heeding suppliers concerns in February while extending the emergency conservation regulation for another nine months. The board issued revised conservation standards for some suppliers Thursday.

I think they listened to water agencies across the state to formulate their modifications, Armstrong said.

Rancho California officials traveled to Sacramento and met with water resources control board staff and a board member in December to propose modifications that could be made in February to the emergency regulation to cover the next nine months beginning in March.

At Eastern Municipals invitation, state water board Chairwoman Felicia Marcus and board member Steve Moore toured the facility and its expanded groundwater desalination facilities.

District officials showed off their new facility that removes iron and manganese from brackish groundwater, enabling two or three wells to be reopened. On Thursday, Easterns water savings target was lowered from 28 to 20 percent.

Only one among the regions 21 largest suppliers was able to meet or exceed its nine-month water savings mandate, the state disclosed last Monday.

Riverside Public Utilities, which missed its 28 percent mandate by 7 percentage points, must now save 25 percent compared to 2013.

The utility, whose supply comes entirely from groundwater, has a June hearing in a pending lawsuit seeking a 4 percent savings mandate . Riverside uses no Northern California water imported through the state water project, said Deputy General Manager Kevin Milligan.

State officials believe Riversides water use or savings impact the states groundwater system.

An April 20 public workshop is now set. On May 18, the water control board will consider modifying the extended emergency regulation. Staff members are creating a framework for permanent water conservation regulations that will be unveiled May 3, board spokesman George Kostyrko said.

Contact the writer: 951-368-9444 or shurt@pressenterprise.com
PRINCETON, N.J.  One of historys most important battles happened here on a field you can walk across in less than half the 45 or so minutes the battle lasted. If George Washingtons audacity on Jan. 3, 1777, had not reversed the patriots retreat and routed the advancing British, the American Revolution might have been extinguished.

Yet such is Americas neglect of some places that sustain its defining memories, the portion of the field over which Washingtons nation-saving charge passed is being bulldozed to make way for houses for faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study. To understand the gravity of this utterly unnecessary desecration, you must understand the astonishingly underestimated Battle of Princeton.

In December 1776, the Revolution was failing. Britain had sent to America 36,000 troops  at that point, the largest European expeditionary force ever  to crush the rebellion before a French intervention on Americas behalf. Washington had been driven from Brooklyn Heights, then from Manhattan, then out of New York. The nation barely existed as he retreated across New Jersey, into Pennsylvania.

But from there, on Christmas night, he crossed the Delaware River ice floes for a successful 45-minute (at most) attack on Britains Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. This was Washingtons first victory; he had not been at Lexington, Concord or Bunker Hill. Trenton would, however, have been merely an evanescent triumph, were it not for what happened 10 days later.

On Jan. 2, 1777, British Gen. Charles Cornwallis began marching 5,500 troops from Princeton to attack Washingtons slightly outnumbered forces at Trenton. Washington, leaving a few hundred soldiers to tend fires that tricked Cornwallis into thinking the patriot army was encamped, made a stealthy 14-mile night march to attack three British regiments remaining at Princeton. They collided on this field.

The most lethal weapons in this war were bayonets. The British had them. Few Americans did, and they beat a panicked retreat from the advancing steel. By his personal bravery, Washington reversed this and led a charge. An unusually tall man sitting on a large white horse, he was a clear target riding as close to British lines as first base is to home plate. Biographer Ron Chernow writes that, at Princeton, Washington was a warrior in the antique sense. The eighteenth-century battlefield was a compact space, its cramped contours defined by the short range of muskets and bayonet charges, giving generals a chance to inspire by their immediate presence.

When the redcoats ran, the British aura of invincibility and the strategy of securing territory and handing out pardons (Chernow) were shattered. And the drift of American opinion toward defeatism halted.

In his four-volume biography of Washington, James Thomas Flexner said: The British historian George Trevelyan was to write concerning Trenton: It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world. But such would not have been the result if Washington had not gone on to overwhelm Princeton.

This ground, on which patriots blood puddled on that 20-degree morning, has been scandalously neglected by New Jersey. Now it is being vandalized by the Institute for Advance Study, which has spurned a $4.5 million purchase offer  more than $1 million above the appraised value  from the invaluable Civil War Trust, which is expanding its preservation activities to Revolutionary War sites.

In todays academia there are many scholars against scholarship, including historians hostile to history  postmodernists who think the past is merely a social construct reflecting the presents preoccupations, or power structures, or something. They partake of academias preference for a multicultural future of diluted, if not extinguished, nationhood, and they dislike commemorating history made by white men with guns. The IAS engaged a historian who wrote a report clotted with todays impenetrable academic patois. He says we should not fetishize space, and he drapes disparaging quotation marks around the words hallowed ground.

The nation owes much to the IAS, which supported Albert Einstein, physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the diplomat and historian George F. Kennan. It is especially disheartening that a distinguished institution of scholars is indifferent to preserving a historic site that can nourish national identity.

The battle to save this battlefield, one of the nations most significant and most neglected sites, is not yet lost. The government in todays Trenton, and in the city named for the man who won the 1777 battle, should assist the Civil War Trust.
In this image taken from a video, Haruka Weiser performs at ACMA Performing Arts Center in Beaverton, Ore. A homeless 17-year-old has been arrested Friday in the killing of the University of Texas dance major whose body was recovered in the heart of the bustling campus Ai unnerving one of the country's best-known schools. (AP Photo)
LatAm oil countries soft to world oil producers in prop up prices

Reuters/Guillermo Granja



Delegations from Latin American oil exporters from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela meet at the UNASUR headquarters in Quito, April 8, 2016.

QUITO

Petroleumworld.com 04 11 2016

Latin America's main oil exporters on Friday called on both OPEC and non-OPEC nations to take action to stabilize oil markets, in a timid statement that did not explicitly back an output freeze or offer more aggressive proposals to shore up slumping prices.

Delegations from Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela met in Quito in the run-up to a meeting in Doha on April 17 that oil exporters hope will help reduce a supply glut that has driven global oil prices down by around 60 percent since mid-2014.

The countries in a statement agreed to "call on OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers ... to take necessary actions to stabilize the world petroleum market to improve prices for the benefit of producer and consumer nations."

They also agreed to create a regional dialogue mechanism on oil and gas reserves, production, demand and inventories.

The meeting was the first significant sign that non-OPEC producers Colombia and Mexico may be involved in an effort to bolster prices.

However, Mexico said it was only participating as an "observer" to share information and its energy ministry pointed out that the country's crude output had already declined by more than a million barrels per day in the last 12 years.

Mexican officials have said they cannot freeze or cut output in any kind of coordinated strategy to support prices. Mexico's oil output has been falling for over a decade due to its ageing fields and under-investment.

Venezuela's Oil Minister Eulogio Del Pino said 18 countries had confirmed they would be at the Doha meeting, with two or three others committing verbally.

Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Friday he hoped producers will agree in Doha to freeze output.

Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Qatar agreed in February to freeze production at January levels, but said at the time the deal was contingent on other producers joining in.






Pacific E&P near takeover deal; Shareholders to block deal



Pacific Exploration & Production ( OTCPK:PEGFF +3.4% ) co-chairmen Serafino Iacono and Miguel de la Campa are close to clinching a deal to take over the company after outbidding rivals, Bloomberg reports.

BOGOTA

Petroleumworld.com 04 11 2016

Shareholders of troubled Canadian-Colombian oil firm Pacific Exploration & Production Corp. have asked Colombia's markets regulator to block a possible buyout deal they say favors management over investors, heating up the battle over the struggling company's assets.

Led by O'Hara Administration Co., which owns a 20% stake in Pacific, the shareholder group filed a formal complaint with the regulator, alleging that an offer by private-equity fund Catalyst Capital Group in Toronto benefits Pacific's co-chairmen but could leave shareholders with nothing, according to two people familiar with the talks.

Pacific, saddled with debt and facing a cash crunch amid the fall in oil prices, has seen its market capitalization fall from a peak of $8 billion in 2012 to around $500 million today. Since January, it has twice had to waive bond payments and has seen its share price collapse 40%, to 0.91 Canadian cents (70 U.S. cents) on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Friday.

In addition to Catalyst, Pacific has received offers from Mexican conglomerate Alfa SAB and U.S. energy investment firm EIG.

An advisory committee appointed by Pacific's management to review the offers will present its recommendations Sunday and is expected to back the Catalyst bid, the people familiar with the talks said. If the board votes to accept, the deal must then be approved by holders of two-thirds of the company's debt.

The protesting shareholder group, which combined owns 35% of the company, claims the advisory committee is stacked with people acting in the interests of Pacific's co-chairmen Serafino Iacono and Miguel de la Campa. Shareholders point to conflicts of interest between the committee and management, such as Messrs Iacono's and de la Campa's directorships at several Colombian companies alongside two out of the three committee members, say two people familiar with the discussions.

Spokesmen for Pacific Energy, Alfa and EIG declined to comment. A spokesman for Catalyst didn't immediately respond to a request.

Most of Pacific's assets are in Colombia. Its precarious financial position represents a stark change of fortune for a firm that came to symbolize Colombia's economic transformation of the past decade. It was founded by three Venezuelan and Italian oil and mining executives in 2003, who managed to extract heavy oil from Colombia's eastern Rubiales field, earning hundreds of millions of dollars a year. By the early 2010s, Pacific had become Colombia's second-largest company by revenue. But the company later accumulated massive debt and was hit by the sharp drop in oil prices, which spent all of last year trading below $65 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.






AstraZeneca and Eli Lillys experimental Alzheimers disease drug AZD3293 has been given the green light to progress into late-stage testing, after a safety analysis by an independent data monitoring committee.

The decision means that the closely-watched drug, an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor, can continue seamlessly into the Phase III section of the ongoing Phase II/III AMARANTH trial.

This is an important and meaningful step forward on the path to better understand the Alzheimers puzzle, noted Phyllis Ferrell, vice president and global development leader for Alzheimers disease at Lilly.

BACE is an enzyme associated with the development of beta-amyloid, and its inhibition is expected to eventually slow progression of the disease.

In Phase I trials, AZD3293, also known as LY3314814, reduced levels of amyloid-beta in the cerebro-spinal fluid of Alzheimers patients and healthy volunteers, raising hopes that it might prove to be an effective new treatment target.

AZ and Lilly also announced the planned start of a new Phase III trial for AZD3293, named DAYBREAK, in the third quarter, to study its safety and efficacy in people with mild Alzheimers dementia.

The companies have been collaborating on the drugs development since 2014. Under the terms of their agreement, Lilly leads clinical development, working with AZ researchers, while the Anglo-Swedish drugmaker will be responsible for manufacturing.

Both groups have joint responsibility for commercialisation and will share all future costs equally for development and commercialisation, as well as net global revenues post-launch.
While the Fargo SWAT team didnt use the tactic, the consideration of encouraging Marcus Schumacher to kill himself during a Feb. 10 standoff was wrong. The responsibility of officers is to try to end situations without the loss of life.

The officers, without a doubt, were in a deadly confrontation. One officer, Jason Moszer, already had been killed and Schumacher continued to fire at the police and neighbors homes. Police were worried about the residents safety and their own. Talks with Schumacher werent going well and the suggestion was made to encourage Schumacher to shoot himself. SWAT team commander Lt. Bill Ahlfeldt had told officers to shoot Schumacher if they had a clear shot.

Ahlfeldt gave officers the approval to encourage suicide after conferring with Lt. Chris Helmick and with Deputy Chief Ross Renner. Fortunately, the tactic was never used. We say fortunately because the tactic goes against how police are trained to act. They are taught how to calm situations and how to get people to surrender weapons. Officers are expected to fire only when their lives or other lives are in danger.

Carole Lieberman, a forensic psychiatrist in Beverly Hills, Calif., told the Forum News Service shes never heard of such a tactic. Theres really no excuse for agreeing to encourage him to kill himself, she said. Its extremely unethical.

We agree. At the same time, we realize the officers were in incredibly dangerous circumstances. They were in grief over losing an officer and worried over someone else getting hurt. It doesnt excuse considering such an unorthodox tactic. Another disturbing aspect of the case is that Police Chief David Todd didnt know the tactic was suggested until the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation released documents on the shooting. Ahlfeldt mentioned the discussion to the bureau, but he had never talked to Todd about it.

Fargo needs to include a discussion of the ethics of the suicide tactic in its training. It needs to stress its an inappropriate tactic and shouldnt be used. Other police departments in the state and across the nation should do the same.

Its a shame the otherwise heroic actions by the Fargo officers has been marred by the suicide discussion. Its a learning experience prompted by a terrible confrontation. We shouldnt forget how bravely the officers performed and we shouldnt forget this lesson.
Day One: Lyell to Ghost Lake

Day Two: Ghost Lake to Stern Valley

Day Three: Stern Valley to Seddonville

There is no shortage of riding in the South Island of New Zealand, from the trail riding of the North in Nelson to the Park in the South of Skyline Bike Park in Queenstown, you've got a lot to choose from! However, there is also 'big mountain' riding to be found and wanting to get a taste of some wilderness, myself, German riders, Max and Fabio, along with NZ native and fellow Peak Leaders graduate, Morgan Walker drafted up a plan to sample the 'Old Ghost Road'.Found in the North Coast corner of New Zealand's South Island, the 'Old Ghost Road' is the remnants of an 85km old gold miner's trail that runs from the 'old dray road' at Lyell in the South to the Mokihinui River in the North. From an idea in 2007, this gradually became a reality in 2013, thanks to the hours of work put in by volunteers with support from the New Zealand Cycle Trail project. It now runs as a multi-use trail, traversing the same route through the satellite towns that sprung up to support the developing gold industry, across the same diverse terrain that the miners took back in the 1870s.Tackling this trail does take quite a bit of preparation, as making the 85km trip takes you into New Zealand's wilderness means packing for three days worth of food, clothes, and bike related spares that come with unsupported riding. However, thanks to Morgan at Mot Lodge, we were given the perfect setting to assemble our gear and get the lowdown of what to expect on the trail. After counting calories and making the final checks, we packed our bags and loaded up the truck in preparation for a long day, with an early start and drive to Lyell.Waking up bright an early (but thanks to DST not quite as early) we made the drive via National route 65 from Motueka to the car park at Lyell, after the obligatory coffee/tea stop in Murchison. The first day of any trip can be difficult, but this one was made that bit harder adjusting to riding with 20kg packs and making up 1400m of climbing. But getting our packs on and our heads down, we began the grind up. After a short push through the steep and rocky 'Big Slips' (definitely a no stop zone), we arrived at our first stop on Lyell Saddle.There is evidence on the trailside everywhere of the once rich gold trade that established this route. Rusted wheels, buckets, and tools, along with information boards giving you an insight into satellite towns that sprung up to support those that used it, the road has got a rich history to it. It's difficult to think people used to make this trip without all the lightweight and sophisticated equipment we now take for granted!Levelling out and making good progress, we stopped for lunch at Lyell Saddle hut. Part of what makes this trip feel less like a wilderness trek and more like a luxurious getaway are the 'hut settlements' found at intervals throughout the journey, all of which pack a woodburning stove, running water and mattresses. Reaching our first clearing, we got a taste of what to expect, with great views of the forest under the Lyell range. Smashing a sandwich lunch, we went back into the bush for the grind, with another 600m of vertical to get done.Coming out onto the alpine, we got another reward from all the climbing, an amazing 360-degree vista over Bald Hill and the Lyell Range. Seemingly endless views also came with the first difficult section of trail across to Ghost Lake. Cut into the cliffside, the trail runs between a long drop down to the valley floor one side and a cliff face on the other. At some points only a metre of so wide this definitely justifies the grade four difficulty given to the trail! But in combination with the views and a late afternoon golden hour it just added to the thrill of the day, and we arrived at our stop for the night buzzing.Ghost Lake is one of the highest set of huts on the trail, but no less luxurious. With a bench equipped deck overlooking the valley, there wasn't much else to do than admire the view with a beer whilst the sun set, before heading inside and get a fire going, swapping stories with our fellow campers for the night. It's easy to forget with these home comforts how far removed you are in New Zealand's rugged and wild west coast and really makes you appreciate just how beautiful this part of the world is.Waking to an amazing cloud inversion, there was no time to lay about in bed. Since we didn't have long to make that day, decided to pedal back and admire the trail from Bald Hill to rocky tor under the bluebird sky and cloud inversion in pretty much every direction! Feeling more confident with the trail having ridden it before, we gave ourselves more of a chance to enjoy it. After making a final stop at Ghost Lake for lunch, we headed for our next stop at Stern Valley.The trail drops sharply down from Ghost Lake, with 800m of descent following steep switchbacks, made even more challenging with packs. The long technical climb (admittedly with lots of pushing) takes you up on a ridge, whilst getting distracted again thanks to a near 360-degree view and the diverse terrain you pass through. Here we reached the 'Skyline Steps', which pretty much speak for themselves! No chance of riding down these, taking you down another 60m of elevation, we were then rewarded with a long section of flowy singletrack down to the Stern Valley huts.With just enough time for a quick pedal to 'The Boneyard' and cool off in the river before the sun went in, lots of elevation both up and down meant an early night for all of us. Again still blessed with unreal skies to fall asleep under.Having had a middle day, we were left with a bit more distance to cover for the final pedal to Seddonville. Thankfully we got most of this climbing done in the morning, heading up through an eerily misty boulder strewn Boneyard. What really strikes you throughout this trail is the diversity of the terrain you pass through. Rich beech forest, high rocky alpine, alpine bush, boulder fields and steep rocky traverses next to the Mokihiuni River, this is a trail that keeps on giving. You never are given anything boring to look at or ride through, which is more than enough to keep you distracted on the long climbs up.After making it through the no stop zones of the boneyard, we got another prime singletrack descent to Goat Creek, getting to the flatter section alongside the river where the KM's came quickly passing through thick moss covered trees and streams. Crossing the suspension bridge and getting past Specimen Point huts, it was onto more steep traverses with a long drop down to the river, definitely another place to not lose a front wheel.Getting into the end we were all fully buzzing and equally hungry. The Seddonville Hotel is an obligatory stop for Old Ghost trippers and we were ready to sit down with a cold beer, burger and have a chat about the best bits of the trip. Reading through the visitors book, there was definitely a recurring theme of 'epic' and I can't help but agree that this trail fully deserves this title.For more info on the trail and booking accommodation in the huts, check out the Old Ghost Road website . If you do ride the trail please donate to the Old Ghost road fund to keep the good times rolling!Big thanks to Morgan and Mot Lodge for their hospitality, guidance and use of the killer Yeti SB5c rental bikes throughout the trip! After training and working as a bike park guide in Whistler with Peak Leaders, Morgan Walker now works as part of the Mot Lodge near Nelson, a Bed and Breakfast set in the Motueka Valley within the Tasman region of the South Island. Mot Lodge has established a luxury bed and breakfast with guided mountain bike tours. For more info on staying at the Lodge, check out their website Facebook page and Instagram John Inman,Peak Leaders: Ski, Snowboard & Mountain Bike Instructor Courses & Camps www.peakleaders.com | Tel: +44 (0) 1337 860 079Join us on Facebook | Follow us on Twitter @PeakLeaders | Add us on Instagram @PeakLeadersDirt
I predicted the purchase of M5 by ShoreTel back in 2012 could get Vonage to consider going after the business space and a year later they purchased Vocalocity and a suite of companies to enable them to not only target the small business market but all the way up to the largest of the large companies. In an exclusive interview with Clark Peterson, President of Vonage Business Solutions, I got to learn a great deal about what is happening at the company.

Through three channel-based companies they purchased, they now 600,000 business seats as compared to 1.9 million on the residential side. Clark touted the fact that his company has better financial stability than most of the others in the space. I am sure some might disagree but regardless, the Vonage name has a tremendous legacy associated with it The company not only help launched the consumer VoIP space, its aggressive marketing helped a multibillion dollar IP communications market come to life. Back in 2003 when the fortunes of the communication market werent looking that good, Vonage ads showed there was a company which believed they could sell an OTT service to consumers  bypassing telcos. Immediately, the cable companies and CSPs responded by investing in competitive services and IP communications in general.

Frankly Im surprised it took the company this long but they had the resources to not only enter the market but quickly dominate it.

They have 212 POPs and can deliver service in a proprietary fashion for SMBs and for the enterprise they have Broadsoft as well as the Transera contact center solution I recently described. In addition, they can provide LiveOps or InContact solutions. They can also provide IaaS, virtual desktops, hosted MS Exchange and hosted Skype for Business.

A big differentiator is SmartWAN  real-time packet optimization which is similar to those provided by standalone SD-WAN companies such as CloudGenix. He explained customers are trading in their T1s for a few consumer broadband services and in the process they get better quality as well as auto-failover. Their cloud-level SmartWAN solution includes a customer premise device (CPE) which allows Vonage to track MOS scores as well as jitter.



What may surprise you is the fact they have customers with tens of thousands of seats. If you have strong memories of Vonage of the home phone company, you realize they have really grown up.

Some of their differentiators are QoS everywhere  over SmartWAN as well as MPLS. They also have their proprietary Zeus service delivery solution which allows you to track new installs, commissions, moves/ads/changes and more  from various devices. He likens it to a SFA solution coupled with MS Project. Vonage President Alan Masarek told our very own Erik Linask about this in September of last year.

There is also tight integration with Google For Work, Office 365 and Salesforce allowing single-sign-on support.

In one case, a customers had 21 VARs and 19 phone vendors supporting their disparate solutions and Vonage was able to wrap it all up into a single solution with one throat to choke a term vendors typically dont like but is quite descriptive. The best part may be there was no capital outlay to make all of this happen and there are economies of scale not realized with disparate solutions.

If you follow the company, you know you also get a great app  it has presence, chat and a conference bridge. I got a good demo of how it works. The future? Expect to see them grow in various vertical spaces as well as in Asia and Europe.

Vonage has really grown up. They were late the business space but are now full speed ahead becoming a major global phone company.
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By Chris Kahn

(Reuters)  A third of Republican voters who support Donald Trump could turn their backs on their party in Novembers presidential election if he is denied the nomination in a contested convention, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The results are bad news for Trumps rivals as well as party elites opposed to the real estate billionaire, suggesting that an alternative Republican nominee for the Nov. 8 presidential race would have a tougher road against the Democrats.

If its a close election, this is devastating news for the Republicans, said Donald Green, an expert on election turnout at Columbia University.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted March 30 to April 8 asked Trumps Republican supporters two questions: if Trump wins the most delegates in the primaries but loses the nomination, what would they do on Election Day, and how would it impact their relationship with the Republican Party?

Sixty-six percent said they would vote for the candidate who eventually wins the nomination, while the remaining third were split between a number of alternatives such as not voting, supporting a third-party candidate, and switching parties and voting for the Democratic nominee.

Meanwhile, 58 percent said they would remain with the Republican Party. Another 16 percent said they would leave it, and 26 percent said they did not know what they would do with their registration. The online poll of 468 Republican Trump supporters has a credibility interval of 5.3 percentage points.

(Click here for the poll results: http://tmsnrt.rs/25PRLZe )

Trump has topped the national polls throughout most of the race for the Republican nomination, and has won more delegates than any other Republican so far. A Reuters/Ipsos online poll from April 4-8 showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and 20 percent for Ohio Governor John Kasich. [L2N17B1J0]

Cruz and Kasich have both said their paths to victory rely on winning at least enough votes to block an outright win for Trump and force a decision at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

ILL BE FED UP

But Trump, whose supporters have remained loyal even as he rankled women, Hispanics, Muslims, veterans and others with his fiery rhetoric on the campaign trail, predicted last month there would be riots outside the convention if he was blocked.

If they broker him out, Ill be fed up with the Republicans, said Chuck Thompson, 66, a Trump supporter from Concord, North Carolina, who took the poll.

Thompson, a lifelong Republican, said he admires Trumps independence from big campaign donors and takes that as a sign that the front-runner will be able to think for himself if he were to become president.

If Trump loses the nomination, Thompson said he would quit the party. The people want Donald Trump. If they (Republicans) cant deal with that, I dont need them, he said.

Green said the departure of even a small number of Republicans would make it tough for the party to prevent the Democrats from winning the White House, especially if the election is again decided by razor-thin margins in a handful of battleground states.

In 2012, President Barack Obama won Florida by less than 1 percentage point and Ohio and Virginia by less than 4 percentage points. The Republicans dont really have any margin of error, Green said.

Trump and Cruz both trail Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton among likely general election voters in a hypothetical general election matchup, but not by much, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos polls.

Generally, a convention battle is a bad sign for the health of a political party, said Elaine Kamarck, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and author of the book, Primary Politics: How Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System.

When a party gets to a point when it has a contested convention, it almost always hurts them, Kamarck said. Its a confirmation of some really deep fissures within the party that were unable to be dealt with during the primary season.

Trump supporter Elizabeth Oerther, 40, of Louisville, Kentucky, said she would switch parties and vote for the Democratic nominee if the Republicans denied Trump the nomination.

If you dont give it to him, Im going to vote against them, said Oerther, who took the poll. They want to take away the choice of the people. Thats wrong.

(Reporting by Chris Kahn; Editing by Bill Trott)
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Bernie Sanders won the popular vote in Wyoming, but Hillary Clinton performed better than expected and came out of the caucus tied with Sen. Sanders with the states pledged delegates.

In a statement Clinton campaign manager Robbie Mook said, We congratulate Senator Sanders on a spirited campaign in Wyoming. Outperforming expectations, Hillary Clinton tied in pledged delegates today and now leads Senator Sanders by approximately 220 pledged delegates nationwide. Thanks to the help of thousands of volunteers, Hillary is winning the popular vote by almost 2.4 million and has a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates that will become harder and harder to overcome after each contest. We are grateful to our supporters who know that Hillary Clinton would be the best candidate to break down the barriers that hold Americans back.

Bernie Sanders did continue his dominance of the Western caucus states, but Hillary Clinton performed much better than anyone expected. It was anticipated that Sanders would win by 30 or more points. Instead, Clinton won the largest county in the state outright and lost statewide by 12 points. Twelve points is still a large margin, but it was less than half of what Sen. Sanders has won other caucus states by.

The pledged delegates tie means that the Sanders campaign lost a prime opportunity to make up a few delegates on Clinton. Former Sec. of State Clinton came into the caucus with commitments from four of the states superdelegates, so the split of Wyomings 18 delegates will likely be 11-7 for Hillary Clinton.

Wyoming illustrates why erasing Clintons delegate lead may be a nearly impossible task. Bernie Sanders won another battle on Saturday but continued to lose the war for the Democratic nomination. Unless something unexpected and dramatic happens, Hillary Clinton is favored to do well in both of the upcoming contests in New York and Pennsylvania.

Hillary Clinton is firmly in control and on pace to win the Democratic nomination. Momentum is difficult to measure, and can shift in an instant. After performing better in Wyoming than anyone expected, both Clinton and Sanders can make an argument for momentum being in their corner.
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By James Oliphant and Alana Wise

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states.

Like Pope Francis, Sanders has made economic inequality and the plight of the working class a central tenet of his message. Sanders April 15 visit to Vatican City, where he will give an economic address at a conference, will come just days before Democrats in New York vote in their state primary.

The trip may help the U.S. senator amplify the anti-corporate line of attack he has employed against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he tries to keep his insurgent campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election alive.

Sanders, who would be the first Jewish U.S. president if elected, described himself on MSNBC as a big, big fan of the pope, who leads the worlds 1.2 billion Catholics. Speaking to reporters in New York later, Sanders said he hoped to meet with Francis.

The popes schedule is determined by the Vatican but I would certainly be enthusiastic about that, said Sanders, 74, the Brooklyn-born son of Polish-Jewish immigrants.

A meeting with the Argentine pontiff could provide an electoral boost to Sanders, who has trailed former Secretary of State Clinton in support among Americas Catholic Democrats.

Pope Francis has criticized the make money at all cost capitalist mentality and called for more compassion for the poor, said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. Thats exactly the way, Bernie Sanders wants to define his campaign against Clinton.

Clinton has scored victories over Sanders in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, all of which are more than one-quarter Catholic.

A survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that while almost 70 percent of Catholic Democrats thought Clinton would make a good president, just 46 percent thought Sanders would be one.

This is a great play for Sanders because it ties directly his messaging related to income equality, it puts him on the world stage as a leader, and it does it with an institution and leader important to a key voting bloc in a state where every vote is going to count heading into the primary, said Virginia-based Democratic strategist Bud Jackson.

Sanders was invited to speak at the Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself.

I deny that. It was not that way, Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event.

SANDERS, BILL CLINTON BACK OFF

Late April brings nominating contests in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, all states with large populations of Catholic voters.

Sanders victory earlier this week over Clinton in the Wisconsin primary marked his sixth win in the past seven contests, sparking renewed talk of Clintons political vulnerability despite her substantial delegate lead.

Sanders this week said Clinton, who is also a former first lady and former U.S. senator, was not qualified to be president.

After heavy criticism from Clintons campaign and other Democrats, he backed off Friday morning in an interview on NBCs Today.

On her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates, he said, referring to New York developer Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.

Clinton has been under fire from progressives since her campaign began. On Thursday, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had a testy exchange at a campaign rally in Philadelphia with protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement over the effects of an anti-crime bill passed during his presidency.

At one point, Bill Clinton accused the movement of defending the people who kill the lives you say matter.

On Friday, he seemed regretful.

I rather vigorously defended my wife, as I am wont to do, and I realized, finally, I was talking past her (the protestor) the same way she was talking past me, Clinton said at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania. We have got to stop that in this country. Weve got to listen to each other again.

In the Republican race, Trump extended his lead nationally over Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The national online poll showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for Cruz and 20 percent for Kasich.

(Additional reporting by Megan Cassella and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Philip Pullella in Vatican City; Editing by Bill Trott and Alistair Bell)
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Hillary Clinton expressed confidence that she will have the delegates needed, and that there will not be a contested Democratic convention in Philadelphia.

Video:

Transcript via CNNs State Of The Union:

TAPPER: Weaver also told an ABC podcast that there will  quote  certainly be a contested convention if neither of you gets the magic number with pledged delegates. Do you think it would be a mistake for Senator Sanders to contest the nomination at the convention if youre leading in the popular vote and leading in pledged delegates after the California primary? H. CLINTON: Well, I think that we should look at where we are. Right now, I am leading him with about 2.5 million votes in the popular vote. Im leading him in pledged delegates with a larger margin than then-Senator Obama ever had over me. I feel good about the upcoming contests, and I expect to be the nominee. And I will hope to have a unified Democratic Party, so that we can turn our attention to the Republican nominee. Either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz would be a terrible choice for America. So, we need to run a unified Democratic Party campaign to bring as many people on our side as possible. And I have been putting together a broad, inclusive coalition, and I think I will be able to continue to do that. TAPPER: Are you preparing for the scenario where you  where neither of you enter the convention with the exact number of pledged delegates you need, and there might be something of a floor fight or a contested convention? Are you getting ready for that just in case? H. CLINTON: No, I intend to have the number of delegates that are required to be nominated.

The Sanders campaign is looking for a rationale and a path to victory in the face of a primary calendar and delegate math that is not working in their favor. Unless Bernie Sanders can overtake Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates, the superdelegates are not going to flip to Bernie Sanders. It is likely that former Sec. of State Clinton will reach the number of total delegates needed to clinch the nomination.

If Clinton leads Sanders in both the popular vote and pledged delegates, Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Should Clinton win both New York and Pennsylvania, it will pretty much make it impossible for Bernie Sanders to have any path to the nomination. Hillary Clinton is firmly in control of her own destiny.

It is extremely unlikely that the Democratic Party will have anything close to a contested convention.
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Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders appeared on four of the five Sundays shows, and even though the programs were dominated by talk about the Democratic primary, Sanders was still able to deliver a reality check to the corporate media by talking about a few often ignored issues.

Sanders on Meet The Press:

On NBCs Meet The Press, Sen. Sanders argued that Hillary Clintons support for trade agreements is bad for working families, Well, when you vote for virtually every trade agreement that has cost the workers of this country millions of jobs, when you support and continue to support fracking, despite the crisis that we have in terms of clean water, and essentially, when you have a super PAC that is raising tens of millions of dollars from every special interest out there, including 15 million from Wall Street, the American people do not believe that that is the kind of president that we need to make the changes in America to protect the working families of this country.

Sanders on ABCs This Week:



ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

On ABCs This Week, Sanders discussed the economic struggles of those who are living on Social Security, Let me go back to Social Security. There are millions of disabled veterans and seniors who are trying to make it on 11,000 or 12,000 a year Social Security and they cant. The Republicans in many instances want to cut Social Security, what I want to do is expand it. And what I said yesterday is we have legislation and it has good support that says you lift the cap on taxable income. Right now, somebody makes millions, somebody makes $118,000, they pay the same amount into it. If you lift the cap starting at $250,000 and above  $250,000 and above  we can improve benefits for seniors earning $16,000 a year or less by $1,300 a year. Not insignificant. And extend the life of social security for 58 years. That is my view.

Sanders on CNN State Of The Union:

Sanders took on multinational corporations who avoid paying taxes in the US, It wasnt just that  you know, it was talking about the greed of corporate America, including General Electric. And what I was saying, which is absolutely true, is, you have a large multinational corporation that was in a sense born and raised right here in the United States, I think in Schenectady, in New York, as a matter of fact. And here is a corporation that has shut down plants all over this country, moved to countries where they could find the cheapest possible labor. In fact, the guy who was head of General Electric before Jeff Immelt, he basically said that, you know, hed like to see his manufacturing plants on a barge, so they could move to the cheapest labor. They have, in a given year, paid nothing in federal income taxes. You know, they are part of lobbying efforts in Washington to protect the interests of the wealthy.

To hear any presidential candidate talk about people who are struggling to survive while big corporations avoid paying their fair share of taxes is always welcome, but it is especially refreshing to hear these subjects being discussed on the most corporate-driven public affairs programs on television.

The Sanders interviews were mostly consumed with 2016 election talk, but a few moments of issue discussion snuck into each one. Sen. Sanders does have a very important message to deliver to the country, which is why he and his campaign shouldnt get bogged down in the back and forth that can quickly consume nominating contests.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) is finally getting a national platform for his message about getting the special interests out of American politics. Heres hoping that he can use the media attention that he is getting to keep these vital issues in the national spotlight.
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At a rally in Rochester, NY, Donald Trump compared himself to Bernie Sanders and complained that he and Sen. Sanders are both being robbed of their respective parties presidential nominations.

Video of Trump:

https://youtu.be/ekKD8n9b95Y?t=20m55s

At a rally in Rochester, NY, Trump said:

Think of this. So I watch Bernie, he wins. He wins. He keeps winning, winning. And then I see, hes got no chance. They always say hes got no chance. Why doesnt he have a chance? Because the system is corrupt. And its worse on the Republican side because Im up millions and millions of votes on Cruz. Millions. Now I dont mean like Im up by two votes. Im up by millions and millions of votes. Im up by hundreds and hundreds of delegates. I go to Louisiana. I win Louisiana, and I say isnt that beautiful. I love the people. I send them a note saying thank you very much. I love you, Louisiana. Then I found out that I get less delegates than Cruz because of some nonsense going on. No, Im telling you. And I say this to the RNC. I say it to the Republican Party. Youre going to have a big problem folks because there are people they dont like whats going on. They dont like whats going on. I mean I win the state or Arizona, and Cruz wins Utah, which is far less in terms of the number of delegates. And I see Cruz; I won Utah. He doesnt talk about the fact that he got killing in Arizona by a landslide. Weve got a corrupt system, and its not right. Were supposed to be a democracy. Were supposed to be you vote and vote means something, and weve got to do something about it. . What theyre doing, and whether its me, or whether its Bernie Sanders, when I look at it, and I see all of these victories that I have and all of these victories that hes got, and then you look at the establishment, and I want to tell you, its a corrupt deal going on in this country, and its not good. Its not fair to you people.

Trumps comparison of himself to Bernie Sanders is bogus. The two parties have different primary systems. Bernie Sanders is behind because he lost too many states by too big of a margin. If Sanders had won Texas instead of Alaska, the Democratic primary would be in a completely different place. Due to the proportional allocation of delegates, if Sanders had lost Texas, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina by half as much as he did, he would be in a much better position in the delegate race today. The Sanders campaign is trailing because they have been blown out in some very big delegate states.

Bernie Sanders hasnt been robbed. If Sanders ran better in several states, even in defeat, he would have many more delegates. If Sanders were leading the delegate race, he would be more attractive to superdelegates. The difference between Sanders and Trump is that Bernie Sanders could still win.

Trump is losing because Republicans really are trying to take the nomination away from him. Donald Trump is leading the Republican field, but he made the mistake of assuming that winning the popular vote equals winning the nomination. Donald Trump didnt know the rules and didnt properly staff his campaign.

Donald Trump is throwing fits, making threats, and inaccurately attaching himself to Bernie Sanders. Instead of whining, Trump should be opening his checkbook and hiring a big staff to fight for delegates. Trumps threat was clear. If the Republican Party tries to take the nomination away from him, he is going to burn the party to the ground.

Trump is running of threat cards to play against the RNC, and his fit in Rochester was the strongest indication yet that he has no idea how to right his sinking campaign.
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President Obama left Republicans whimpering in the corner after an interview where he conquered Fox News.

Video of Obama on Fox News Sunday:

Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

Obama romped through the Fox News Sunday interview like a hot knife through butter.

The President tore apart the Republican rationale for obstructing his Supreme Court nominee:

WALLACE: Have you made a commitment to Garland that youre going to stick by him through the end of your term? Or perhaps, lets say Hillary Clinton is the newly elected president, would you pull him and let her make the pick? OBAMA: As more senators meet with him, I think they will recognize the qualities of this individual. What I think we cant have is a situation in which the Republican Senate simply says, Because its a Democratic president, we are not going to do our job, have hearings, and have a vote. WALLACE: But  OBAMA: Because if that happens, Chris, then it is almost impossible to expect that the Democrats  lets say a Republican president won  that the Democrats wouldnt say the exact same thing. Theyll say, Lets wait for four years, and well take our chances on the next president.

Obama shot down and destroyed the GOPs Hillary Clinton email conspiracy theory, and quickly tamed the Fox News paper tiger.

After part one of the interview aired, Fox News Sunday went to Karl Rove, who tried his whimpering best to revive numerous bogus Republican Obama scandals, He should have stepped away from this and not commented on it. But he did. He was offering the first defense of Hillary Clinton. It was unintentional, and it really wasnt important information, because as you know, there is classified and then will is classified. It was really inappropriate I think for the chief executive of the United States to comment on an ongoing FBI investigation. Secondly, I dont feel particularly comforted by his follow-up which was, of courses, its not going to be political because thats not how the Justice Department operates. Well, the American people have a great deal of concern about how this particular administrations Justice Department operates. After all, Lois Lerner is out there free and clear after clearly abusing her powers at the IRS. And this administration started off by dropping the investigation and charges that had been filed against the Black Panther Party which was on videotape harassing voters at the polls in Philadelphia in 2008 and was all political.

Rove tried to tie together the bogus IRS scandal, the more bogus Black Panther Party claim, and the Hillary Clinton email scandal. Obama tore through a Fox News interview like he was talking to himself in the mirror and all Karl Rove could answer with is debunked Republican conspiracies.

The Obama/Fox News Sunday interview revealed the toothless nature of conservative media. Fox News talked a big game about interviewing the President, but when they got the opportunity, the network never stood a chance against Obama.
Yes. I vote for candidates who have lawmaking experience.

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Chad is voting in a presidential election on Sunday at which incumbent Idriss Deby is running for a fifth term in office.

I call on Chadians to vote in calm and serenity. Our country is starting from a long way back but the future looks bright. I ask all politicians to respect the verdict of the ballot box, Mr. Deby told journalists as he voted.

Witnesses said thousands of voters cast their ballots at polling stations in the capital in the first election the Central African country has held using biometric data.

We came to vote for the president to guarantee peace in our country. Around us in the neighbouring countries there are too many problems, said civil servant Fatima Zara as she lined up to vote.

The president, who led a rebellion to power in 1990, is favourite to defeat 13 challengers including opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo who argues that Chad needs change.

Chads constitution allows Deby to run but he has pledged to reintroduce term limits which were abolished by his government in 2004.

Debys political advantages after decades in power include effective control of state media as well as the institutions of state and local administrations.

The economy of the landlocked country relies largely on oil production and a slump in global prices has hit government revenue.

One challenge facing the next government will be to diversify an economy in which many live in poverty.

I got up early to come and vote because we want change, said Mathieu Madjitulngar, an unemployed man queuing at a polling station in a suburb of the capital.

(Reuters/NAN)
The verbal fireworks between civil society groups and the embattled Senate President, Bukola Saraki, continued on Sunday with the Transition Monitoring Group releasing yet another scathing statement urging Nigerians to remain steadfast in their quest to kick the top lawmaker out of office.

The TMG said it has continued to watch with keen interest as the Senate President reacts to its previous calls for him to step down amid corruption scandals.

In a statement sent to PREMIUM TIMES by its chairman, Ibrahim Zikirullahi, on Sunday, TMG said Mr. Sarakis strategy to wait out the public outrage over his alleged false assets declaration trial as well as the new revelations about his ties to offshore businesses in tax havens as contained in the Panama Papers has backfired.

In the last 48 hours, the Transition Monitoring Group (TMG) has observed closely as heavily tainted Senate President, Bukola Saraki struggles to rationalize his decision to sit-tight in the face of damning revelations from his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the leaked Panama Papers.

Like a drowning man, Saraki is advertising his willingness to hold on to any straw. Since TMG released its widely circulated statement calling on him to immediately step down on account of damaging effects of his trial on the Senate as an institution, Saraki has cut a pathetic figure.

His vile calculations that the Nigerian people would soon forget about the revelations, and move on, have boomeranged, Mr. Zikirullahi said.

Following the commencement of his trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal and the PREMIUM TIMES investigations that exposed him as one of the most prominent clients of Mossack Fonseca, the Panamanian law firm at the centre of the Panama Papers leak, calls for Mr. Sarakis resignation have been spearheaded by the Transition Monitoring Group, TMG, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, CACOL, Muslim Rights Council, MURIC, and other Nigerians.

A defiant Mr. Saraki said in a statement on Saturday that all efforts to stampede him out of office are being orchestrated by his political adversaries, vowing to continue the battle until his case is dispensed by the court of law.

They believe that the on-going trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal provides them the opportunity to stampede Dr. Saraki out of office so that their defeated objective of getting their lackey into the office of Senate President will be realized. This is another desperate move by these spineless politicians to achieve through the back door what they failed to realize on the floor of the Senate, his Special Adviser on Media, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said.

But the TMG rejected that position, arguing that Mr. Saraki has resulted to creating imaginary enemies for himself in order to court the sympathy of Nigerians.

Saraki and his spin doctors are now running from pillar to post in a desperate last ditch effort to silence courageous voices. The result of this pathetic approach to clear questions of accountability, is a streak of hallucination that has led Saraki and his fellow legislooters to create imaginary enemies in order to conflate issues and deflect responsibility, Mr. Zikirullahi said.

The TMG, therefore, reiterated its position that Mr. Sarakis time as the President of the Nigerian Senate is up.

Knowing that shame, contrition and conscience are alien to characters like these, it is not surprising that they continue to defy civilised standards in human conduct. Saraki should make no mistake about it; he is the man in the dock, having to face up to the consequences of his actions.

Saraki is the one who has to cope with insomnia in this futile battle to erase the truth. He may bluff and bluster as much as he wants; the Nigerian people have made up their mind that his position is no longer tenable. There is no mistaking the fact that he has completely lost legitimacy.

Like the exposed shell companies he secretly opened in Panama, he is now an empty shell. All his diversionary antics notwithstanding, TMG insists it is time for Saraki to go. That is the verdict of the Nigerian people; in due course, the voices of the people will prevail.
Despite the country being unable to refine enough crude for local consumption of by-products, the Nigerian government destroyed more than 400 illegal refineries in three months, an official said.

The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, in Bayelsa said it destroyed more than 400 illegal mini-refineries, called modular refineries, operated by oil thieves in state.

The NSCDC Commandant, Desmond Agu, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Yenagoa that the illegal refineries were destroyed between January and March.

Some Nigerians, including the Ijaw Youths Council, have asked the federal government to legalise and regulate the modular refineries to ensure production of petrol and other by-products and as a means of job creation.

Licensing modular refineries will reduce the pressure on the naira as the foreign exchange spent on importing the products will be conserved, the chairman of the Ijaw Council, Udengs Eradiri, said in March.

The federal government has not indicated any willingness to legalise or regulate the modular refineries.

Nigeria has been hit with a scarcity of petrol in the past months that has helped in worsening the already troubled economy. The scarcity has forced many Nigerians, who need petrol for their cars and to power their electric generators, to buy the product at the black market sometimes at 500 per cent increase in price.

On Sunday, Mr. Agu said that the command now had a gunboat to fortify its operational capacity and had intensified patrols in the coastal settlements and waterways in the state.

He said that the intensified patrols by the command had led to the arrest of an ex-militant leader and his gang, whom he said, were being prosecuted.

Mr. Agu said that the corps had deployed its personnel to provide security to critical national assets and oil facilities across the state.

We are on ground to ensure safety and protection of vital oil infrastructure and property within the command.

The command is determined to deal with the oil thieves and end their illegal businesses.

We have made some arrests concerning the recent cases of vandalism at Agips oil fields in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The corps recovered the bodies of the three oil workers that died in the explosion in one of the fields on March 26. We have handed over the bodies to Agip.

The case has also been handed over to the Bayelsa State Police Command because it involves death and falls outside our mandate, Mr. Agu said.

Peter Idabor, the Director-General, National Oil Spills Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, had earlier attributed the death of the oil workers to poor safety procedures at the oil field.

Meanwhile, officials of Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) in Bayelsa and its parent company, Eni, have declined comment on the Easter Sundays explosion.

Fillippo Cotalini, Media Relations Manager, Eni, has yet to respond to the request sent to him through e-mail for a reaction on the explosion.

A similar explosion on July 9, 2015 claimed the lives of 14 people in the firms oil field in Azuzuama, in Southern Ijaw Local Government Area.

(NAN)
The Federal Government on Sunday denied media reports that the militant group, Boko Haram, is demanding $50 million from it as ransom before releasing the abducted Chibok school girls.

In an interview with the Voice of America, Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, said ransom reports were not new.

The minister said: It appears we have several versions of this report.

The one that we heard was from a source that (Boko Haram) wants to release 10 of these girls for one million Euros.

But the most important thing is that weve gone through this route before, and until and when we establish the credibility of this source and the truth behind it, the government will not be in a hurry to make a statement.

However, government is using its own channels to authenticate the credibility of this source, he said.

Mr. Mohammed assured that President Muhammadu Buhari would deliver on his promise to do all he could to ensure the release of the school girls.

He stressed that the promise by the president, following his recent meeting with parents of the abducted girls at the presidential villa, is sacrosanct.

Mr. Mohammed noted that the accusations that the Buhari administration appeared not to be doing enough to secure the release of the more than 200 Chibok girls was not fair.

No day passes without the issue of the kidnapped girls not being at the front burner. But these are highly security and intelligence issues which cannot always be discussed openly.

But I can assure you that, for this government, the return of these girls is what is going to bring the final closure on the Boko Haram terrorism and we are working very hard, daily on it, he said.

The minister restated governments position that it had made significant progress in the fight against Boko Haram.

He said that those who thought otherwise were not being very fair to us.

We inherited a very bad situation where the trail had gone cold, despite that every day we send out reports, we receive (information) some of them are phoney, some of them are just there to excoriate government.

But the truth of the matter is that its not a matter that the government is taking lightly.

Those who want a daily report on what we are doing, of course in security issues, that does not happen.

But we have channels of information in which we make available on a need to know basis, he said.

Mr. Mohammed said Nigerias military had been able to wrestle control of territories previously under the control of the Boko Haram militants.

He also said the militants had been dislodged from their fortresses, including their main operation centre in the Sambisa Forest.

What we have today is cowardly attacks on soft targets.  and Nigeria has moved on from that and we are now concentrating very much on the rehabilitation and resettlement of those who were displaced.

And I think the fact that one of the most wanted persons all over the world was captured without even firing a shot last week is evidence so far of Nigerias success in dealing with terrorism, he said.

(NAN)
The Civil Society Network Against Corruption has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate and prosecute the immediate past Director-General of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, Paul Orhii, over allegations of corruption and illegal registration of fake drugs.

In a petition addressed to the office of the acting chairman of the anti-graft agency, the group said it is expecting the EFCC to begin prompt investigation into the allegations and also effect immediate reversal of fraudulent certification.

We are in receipt of an insider petition, detailing several allegations against the immediate past DirectorGeneral of the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr. Paul Orhii, read the petition signed by Olanrewaju Suraju, CSNACs chairman.

He was accused of recertifying blacklisted Asian Companies, reversing ban of some drugs and allowing dangerous drugs into the country for pecuniary gains and subject to financial inducements.

Mr. Orhii was disengaged as head of NAFDAC last February after his appointment in 2009.

According to the petition, during the tenure of Mr. Orhiis predecessor, the late Professor Dora Akunyili, an assessment was conducted on all the pharmaceutical companies importing drugs into the country and based on outcomes of the assessment, some Asian countries were blacklisted for their records and penchant for producing substandard or outright fake products.

On assumption of duty as D.G, Dr. Paul Orhii recertified some of them and reallocated previously withdrawn NAFDAC registration numbers, the group said.

The implication of this is that even if a drug/product carries a NAFDAC number, it is not a guarantee that it is genuine. Registration and recertification of drugs are now done indiscriminately.

Some of the allegedly blacklisted companies that were brought back by Dr. Orhii are:

KAMALA Overseas Bombay 400002 India

MISSION Pharmaceuticals Limited India

PLIVA Pakistan (PVT) Limited

MILAN Laboratories India.

Furthermore, the petition also stated that Dr. Orhii reversed the ban on Monotherapy Artesunate, an anti-malaria treatment which has been banned worldwide by World Health Organization, WHO.

Some of the companies he permitted to bring the drugs to Nigeria are 

CUS Pharmacy which brings CUSNATE

NEROS Pharmacy- Artesunate

GENEITH Pharmacy

EMBASSY Pharma Ltd.

Dr. Orhii had also been alleged to have allowed the entry of dangerous drugs like TRAMADOL into the country, according to the petition.

The said drug is highly regulated and no county in the world allows the use of more than 50mg, as it is like a narcotic in the class of cocaine. In October 2014, about 4 x 40ft and 1 x 40ft containers of unregistered drugs were intercepted at Apapa ports, including Tramadol 200mg and 150mg (far above the approved 50mg).

The said containers were seized by NAFDAC officials and on January 14, 2015, Dr. Orhii called a press conference to announce the seizure but on July 20th, 2015, he ordered the release of the dangerous drugs into the society, after allegedly receiving some millions of dollars as bribe. The said containers were released to one Dr. David West.

The group accused the ex NAFDAC boss of posting loyal members of staff to some posts to receive bribes on his behalf.

Currently, the Nigerian law does not allow importation of drugs through the land borders except through the air and sea, the group stated.

However, some drugs are being brought in through the Seme and Idiroko borders by corrupt means.

The group further alleged that one Hassan Tanko facilitated the passage of fake drugs at Nigerian Aviation Handling Company Plc and remitted $5,000 as returns to Dr. Orhii weekly.

The fake drugs are said to usually come in through Qatar Airways or DHL cargo.

We are by this petition demanding an urgent investigation into these allegations and immediate reversal of fraudulent certification by the Agency, the group said.
The Presidency has dismissed the allegations by former Governor Ibrahim Shekarau of Kano State that the Buhari administration is insensitive to the plight of Nigerians.

Reacting to the allegation in Abuja, the Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, enjoined Mr. Shekarau to stop insulting the intelligence of Nigerians with his false and misleading allegations.

He noted that the audacity of Shekarau to preach about sensitivity is incredibly amazing, considering the large-scale stealing of public funds by the unseated PDP government at the expense of the welfare of the people.

The greatest insensitivity to the welfare of the people is epic corruption for which the PDP had a notorious and unrivalled record in our recent democratic history of bad governance.

The Presidential aide explained that the greed of PDP leaders respects no boundaries of decency and rationality, so much that they could illegally steal any funds within their grip or reach, including monies meant for the security of Nigerians and the welfare of soldiers fighting terrorism in the Northeast.

According to Mr. Shehu, Mr. Shekaraus colleagues in the PDP government that he served have been coughing out monies that they illegally stole while in office.

Bringing misery to your fellow countrymen and women on account of your greed and thievery is the worst example of insensitivity, he said.

He said that the wellbeing of the citizens was at the heart of the President and for this reason, the administration is seeking permanent solutions, not temporary ones to the countys economic woes by first securing it, developing infrastructure and diversifying its economy.

Mr. Shehu reassured that the several measures put in place by the Buhari administration would bear fruition in a matter of time.

On the current fuel scarcity, Mr. Shehu said the Buhari administration had saved one trillion naira on account of removing subsidy which was fraudulently making some cabals richer at the expense of the welfare of the people who were being short-changed.

He explained that the Buhari administration had significantly reduced the rate of corruption and frustrated people with corrupt and fraudulent tendencies.

According to him, those that benefitted from subsidy fraud are using their illegal gains to finance smear campaigns against the Buhari administration on the social media and other forums.

Addressing the issue of insecurity, Mr. Shehu said the Boko Haram terrorist group had been so thoroughly militarily weakened that they no longer have the capabilities and staying power to confront our troops, or occupy any part of Nigerian territory without being decisively expelled.

He recalled that markets and bus stations that were closed three years ago in the Northeast are now being reopened, thanks to the decisive restoration of relative peace in the area by our now motivated and reinvigorated troops.

The Buhari administration is also proud to say that poor Nigerians that were once displaced by terrorist attacks are now returning to their liberated towns and villages, and this government wont relent until it rids the country of the vestiges of terrorism.

According to the presidential aide, the commitment of the Buhari administration to fighting corruption is firm and irrevocable, and that every stolen kobo would be recovered and channelled into improving the welfare of Nigerians.

(NAN)
Nigerias spy agency, SSS, announced on Saturday that it has discovered mass graves of Hausa-Fulani residents abducted and murdered by suspected members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB, in Abia State.

The agency said IPOB carried out the massacre of people of northern Nigerian origin as part of its efforts to destabilise the country.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, Tony Opuiyo, the SSS said the killing has triggered tension among different communities in Abia State.

Although Mr. Opuiyo said five men were killed alongside several other unidentified persons, only the names of four individuals were provided.

The Service has uncovered the heinous role played by members of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), in the abduction/kidnap of five Hausa-Fulani residents, namely Mohammed Gainako, Ibrahim Mohammed, Idris Yakubu and Isa Mohammed Rago at Isuikwuato LGA in Abia State, Mr. Opuiyo said.

The abducted men were later discovered at the Umuanyi forest, Abia State, where they were suspected to have been killed by their abductors and buried in shallow graves, amidst fifty (50) other shallow graves of unidentified persons.

Arrest and investigation conducted so far, revealed that elements within the IPOB, carried out this dastardly action, he added.

Mr. Opuiyo said he was alerting Nigerians to the divisive and gruesome activities of IPOB operatives, allegedly led by fiery broadcaster, Nnamdi Kanu.

Mr. Kanu has been standing trial for treasonable felony since he his arrest on October 17, 2015, after entering Nigeria from the UK where he lives.

It is pertinent therefore to alert the general public that IPOB, is gradually showing its true divisive colour and objectives, while steadily embarking on gruesome actions in a bid to ignite ethnic terrorism and mistrust amongst non-indigenes in the South-East region and other parts of the country.

Following this act, tension is currently rife among communal stakeholders in the State with possibilities of spillover to other parts of country, Mr. Opuiyo said.

In a related development, the SSS has released an update on the recent incarceration of Khalid al-Barnawi, a former Boko Haram leader, in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, describing it as a major breakthrough.

This Service wish (sic) to inform the general public that further to its efforts to stem the tide of terrorism in the Country, it has recorded another major breakthrough in the arrest of one Mohammed USMAN, widely known as Khalid al-Barnawi, alias Kafuri/ Naziru/Alhaji Yahaya/Malam Dauda/Alhaji Tanimu.

Khalid al-Barnawj was apprehended by this Service on 1st April, 2016, in Lokoja, Kogi State, while hiding under a false cover. Al-Barnawi was a founding member of the Jamaat Ahl as-Sunnah lid Dawah Wal-Jihad (Boko Haram) and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jamaat Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS).

Khalid al-Barnawi is a trained terrorist commander, who has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.

Subject was involved in many terrorist attacks in States of the Federation, including Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja. This resulted in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens of this Country. Al-Barnawi is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, on 26th August, 2011; the kidnapping of two European civil engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar Raupach in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jamaare, in Bauchi State in February, 2013, the attack of Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.

Meanwhile, subject would soon be charged to Court to face his charges after investigation is completed.

This arrest is a major milestone in the counter-terrorism fight of this Service. This arrest has strengthened the Services resolve that no matter how long and far perpetrators of crime and their sponsors may run, this Service in collaboration with other sister security agencies, will bring them to justice.
The Ondo State Police Command said on Saturday that they are yet to confirm if those who carried out an attack on Olu Falaes farm along Igbatoro Road in Akure on April 2 were Fulani herdsmen.

The police also confirmed the death of one of the security guards at the farm following the attack by the hoodlums.

Sources said the attackers were Fulani herdsmen numbering about 10, who subdued the guard and took him away.

His lifeless body was found several day later at a pool a few kilometres from the farm.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Femi Joseph, told PREMIUM TIMES on phone that the police were on the trail of the criminals.

Our men are searching for those who perpetrated the act and I am sure they will soon be found, Mr. Joseph said.

We cannot tell now whether they are Fulani herdsmen or not, when we get them we will know what ethnic group they belonged.

He also assured that the command had provided security for the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation.

Mr. Falae was kidnapped in October at the same farm where the recent attack took place and was let go only after N5 million was paid as ransom.
The suspended Kaduna University Lecturer, John Danfulani, has recanted statements he made against supporters of Nigerias ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Mr. Danfulani in December stirred controversy by lashing at supporters of the APC, northern leaders, and President Muhammadu Buhari. He also mocked the large number of out-of-school children in the north.

Part of his Facebook post said, To them, APC is a religious party. Northern leaders under the party are demigods and crusaders of their ways of life. These people living in dusty villages of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa are quick in calling you Arne or Kafiri (Meaning Pagan) once you express your view on anything their God PMB and his brigade of small Angels are doing. Attack the attacker, and lets the skies fall.

Mr. Danfulani confirmed to PREMIUM TIMES that he authored the post, which was widely circulated among Kaduna residents.

He was subsequently suspended by the university for the post, which he later deleted.

However, in an interview on Wednesday with the Voice of America Hausa radio service, he denied confirming the facebook post to PREMIUM TIMES.

Speaking in Hausa he said I never had any discussion with the PREMIUM TIMES, it was a lie, Mr. Danfulani said to VOA.

However, PREMIUM TIMES stands by its report that Mr. Danfulani confirmed authoring the facebook post, saying: Yes. I stand by it 100%.

The lecturer has since been suspended by the Kaduna state University and currently facing litigation by the police for making the post which the police claims almost caused breakdown of law and order in the state.

It is not clear if Mr. Danfulani was pressured into recanting his earlier statements. Several calls made to his mobile phone did not go through and he did not respond to email sent to him.
An activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, has threatened to go to court if the Muhammadu Buhari administration goes ahead to borrow $5.5 billion from international creditors.

Instead of taking loans to increase the nations debt profile, the Lagos lawyer advised the government to recover the $200 billion allegedly withheld by federal agencies and multinational corporations.

Mr. Falanas threat was contained in a letter to the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, dated April 8, with a copy made available to PREMIUM TIMES.

In the letter titled, Request for the Collection of Outstanding Revenue of $200 billion Withheld from the Federation Account or Stolen by Looters, the lawyer also warned the government against collecting a $2 billion loan from the Chinese Government.

Following a report that the administration had concluded plans to borrow $2.5 billion from the World Bank and another $1 billion from the African Development Bank, Mr. Falana said he wrote requesting the government to jettison the plan.

In a previous letter dated February 12, addressed to Mrs. Adeosun, the lawyer said he urged the government to explore alternative revenue sources to fund the 2016 budget instead of increasing the nations external debt which currently stands at $64 billion.

In particular, we requested the federal government to embark on the recovery of the revenue of $42 billion withheld from the Federation Account from 1999-2012 by some transnational oil companies, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other agencies of the federal government, Mr. Falana wrote.

In your reply dated March 17, 2016, you (Mrs. Adeosun) assured us that the issues raised in our letter were receiving the attention of the federal government. We were therefore surprised to learn that the administration had applied to the Chinese Government for another loan of $2 billion.

In urging the Federal Government to desist from taking the loan of $2 billion from China or any other country we are compelled to advise the federal government to intensify efforts to recover the nations wealth which has been criminally diverted by a handful of local and foreign looters.

Mr. Falana urged the government to direct the relevant agencies and the anti-graft bodies to recover the nations stolen funds.

He drew attention to the report by the National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, NEITI, covering 1999-2012, which indicated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, some oil majors and agencies of the government withheld $20.2 billion for the Federation Account.

He listed other funds being withheld from the federal purse by different agencies and companies and advised the government to compel them to remit such funds to the Federation Account.

In the light of the foregoing, we are compelled to call on the Federal Government to muster the political will and courage to recover the aforesaid withheld or stolen wealth of not less than $200 billion belonging to the Nigerian people, Mr. Falana said.

However, if you (Mrs. Adeosun) refuse to accede to our request, we shall have no alternative than to initiate legal proceedings at the Federal High Court with a view to restraining the federal government from further plunging the nation into external indebtedness.

Read the full text of the letter below:

8th April, 2016

The Honourable Minister of Finance,

Federal Ministry of Finance,

Ahmadu Bello Way,

Central Business District,

Abuja, FCT.

Dear Honourable Minister,

REQUEST FOR THE COLLECTION OF OUTSTANDING REVENUE OF $200 BILLION WITHHELD FROM THE FEDERATION ACCOUNT OR STOLEN BY LOOTERS

Following a recent report that the Federal Government had concluded arrangements take a loan of $2.5 billion from the World Bank and $1 billion the African Development Bank we wrote to the Administration requested to jettison the plan. In our letter dated February 12, 2016 addressed to your good self we urged the Federal Government to explore alternative sources of raising revenue to fund the 2016 budget instead of increasing the nations external debt of $64 billion. In particular, we requested the federal government to embark on the recovery of the revenue of $42 billion withheld from the Federation Account from 1999-2012 by some transnational oil companies, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and other agencies of the federal government.

In your reply dated March 17, 2016 you assured us that the issues raised in our letter were receiving the attention of the Federal Government. We were therefore surprised to learn that the Administration had applied to the Chinese Government for another loan of $2 billion. In urging the Federal Government to desist from taking the loan of $2 billion from China or any other country we are compelled to advise the Federal Government to intensify efforts to recover the nations wealth which has been criminally diverted by a handful of local and foreign looters. The Federal Government may wish to direct the relevant agencies and the anti graft bodies to collect the stolen wealth including the following:

(a) The National Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative has confirmed that from five cycles of independent audit reports of NEITI covering 1999-2012 the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), some oil companies and certain agencies of the federal government had withheld $20.2 billion for the Federation Account. The indicted oil companies and agencies should be made to remit the said sum of $20.2 billion into the Federation Account.

(b) In 2006, the Central Bank of Nigeria apportioned $7 billion out of the nations external reserves to 14 Nigerian banks. In 2008, the CBN also gave a bailout of N600 billion ($4 billion) to the banks. The indebted banks should be asked to repay the $11 billion loan.

(c) On September 6, 2016 the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) announced that arrangements had been concluded to recover the sum of $9.6 billion in over-deducted tax benefits from joint venture partners on major capital projects and oil swap contracts. Since the NNPC is said to have recovered the said sum of $9.6 billion it should be remitted into the Federation Account.

(d) Sometime in 2009, Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited applied to the federal government for the renewal of three oil blocks. Upon granting the application the NNPC asked Mobil to pay the sum of $2.5 billion for the renewal of the licences. Curiously, the $600 million paid by the Mobil was accepted by the federal government. One of our clients has requested the EFCC to investigate the circumstances surrounding the fraudulent transaction. The outstanding sum of $1.9 billion ought to be collected from Mobil and paid into the federation account.

(e) From 1998-2014 the Federal Government collected over $4 billion from the over $5 billion stolen from the vaults of the CBN by a former military ruler, the late General Sani Abacha. I have submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Commission to investigate the alleged criminal diversion of the recovered loot by some former public officers. The governments of the United States and Switzerland have promised to repatriate $458 million and $321 million respectively recovered from the loot.

(f) In 1999, the Abdulsalami Abubakar military junta enacted the Deep Offshore Inland Sharing Contract Decree to give effect to certain fiscal incentives for the oil and gas companies operating in the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin under production sharing contracts. Thus, by virtue of section 5 of the Act, the payment of royalty in respect of the Deep Offshore production sharing contracts shall range from 4 to 12 per cent while no royalty shall be paid whatsoever in areas in excess of 1000 metres depth! Since the 15-year period of for non-payment of royalties expired in June 2014 the should collect arrears of royalties running to hundreds of millions of dollars owed by the oil and gas companies operating in the area.

(g) The $470 million contract awarded to ZTE, (a Chinese company) in 2009 by the federal government for the construction of CCTV cameras in Abuja and Lagos has been abandoned. Hence, the cameras which were installed did not capture the criminals who recently launched bomb attacks in Abuja and killed scores of citizens. Since the contract was not executed the federal government should recover the contract sum of $470 million.

(h) In the Appropriation Act, 2011 the sum of N245 billion was earmarked for fuel subsidy. In violation of the budget law the federal government fraudulently paid out N2.5 trillion ($16 billion) to a cabal of fuel importers. The investigation conducted into the large scale fraud by the Police and the anti graft agencies was compromised due to pressure from the Jonathan administration. The EFCC should revisit the matter.

(i) On July 6, 2012 the Supreme Court of Nigeria set aside the fraudulent sale of the federal government owned Aluminium Smelting Company of Nigeria (ASCON) located in Akwa Ibom state to RUSAL for $250 million and directed the company be sold BFIG, the winner of the bid for $410 million. The federal government should direct the National Council of Privatisation to comply with the judgment. The federal government stands to realise an additional sum of $160 million from the sale.

(j) For contravention of the law on compulsory registration of all SIM cards the NCC imposed a fine of $5.2 billion on MTN last year. Based on plea by the MTN management and the intervention of the Government of South Africa the fine was reduced to $3.9 billion out of which MTN has paid the paltry sum of $250 million. Since MTN has withdrawn the suit challenging the payment of the fine the federal government should take steps to ensure the prompt payment of the outstanding balance of $3.65 billion.

(k) Under the Jonathan administration it was estimated that the nation was recording oil theft worth $7 billion to criminals annually. An investigation being carried out by a team of lawyers hired by the federal government has so far confirmed that hundreds of millions of barrels of oil were stolen by oil companies and shipped to many countries. According to the lawyers the total amount recoverable by the Nigeria Government from the Sellers and Buyers who stole Nigerias hydrocarbons and shipped same to the United States from January 2011 to December 2014 stands at US$12.7 billion. Since the verification is programmed to cover 10 years it is estimated that Nigeria can recover not less than $100 billion from the undeclared millions of barrels of oil shipped to the United States and other countries. The EFCC should collaborate with the lawyers to recover the missing fund and prosecute the transnational oil companies involved in the grand oil theft.

(l) On February 20, 2014, President Goodluck Jonathan fired the then Central Bank Governor, Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi for having the temerity to expose the NNPC for not remitting $20 billion to the Federation Account. Following the reconciliation of the accounts of the NNPC by the federal government the missing sum was said to be $10.8 billion. To douse the tension generated by the scandal the Federal Government appointed a firm of auditors to audit the books of the NNPC. But in a bid to cover up the scandal the Federal Government ensured that the auditors were denied access to vital documents. At the end of the investigation the auditors indicted the NNPC for withholding $1.8 billion from the Federation Account.

(m) Rising from its monthly meeting at Abuja on September 17, 2015 the National Economic Council accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of failing to remit N3.8 trillion to the Federation Account under the Jonathan administration. The Council set up a committee of 3 state governors to trace the missing fund. Last month, the Auditor-General of the Federation indicted the NNPC for withholding N3.2 trillion from the Federation Account in 2014. The Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission has said that  the total indebtedness of the NNPC to the Federation Account is N4.9 trillion ($32.6). In its reaction to the allegations the NNPC has challenged the figures but admitted that it has withheld the sum of N326 billion! The federal government should investigate the conflicting figures to determine the actual amount withheld by the NNPC.

(o) The unprecedented looting of the public treasury via the NNPC took place under the rogue regime of President Goodluck Jonathan has continued unabated under the President Buhari who is currently waging a war against corruption. Last week, a firm of auditors revealed that out of the sum of $6.4 billion realised from the sale of crude oil and gas by the Federal Government in the first quarter of 2016 the NNPC remitted only $2 billion to the Federation Account and withheld the colossal sum of $4.2 billion. Up till now the NNPC has not explained how much of the sum of $4.2 billion was spent on its operations in 3 months.

(p) The presidential panel instituted by President Buhari to investigate the criminal diversion of the fund earmarked for procurement of weapons for the armed forces from 2007-2015 has established that over $8 billion was stolen by handful of serving and retired military officers and their civilian collaborators via the Office of the National Security Adviser and the Nigerian Air Force. The Panel is currently probing similar fraudulent arms procurement in the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Navy. The EFCC has commenced the recovery of the said sum of $8 billion and prosecution of individuals and corporate bodies implicated in the criminal diversion.

(q) The United States Government has successfully prosecuted Halliburton and its top officials for bribing Nigerian public officers with $180 million and recovered fines of about $1.3 billion. Although no one was prosecuted in Nigeria the federal government about $200 million was paid by Halliburton and other indicted companies through plea bargain.

(r) The sale of the OPM 245 for $1.3 billion otherwise known as malabu oil deal has continued to generate controversy. Allegations of bribery and money laundering are being investigated by the British Police, the Italian Police and the EFCC. Apart from the $210 million signature bonus paid to the federal government the sum of $190 million has been frozen in the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The Italian Police has also frozen $200 million from the proceed of the transaction. The federal government ought to take a final decision on the matter so as to end the controversy surrounding the sale of the oil block.

In the light of the foregoing, we are compelled to call on the Federal Government to muster the political will and courage to recover the aforesaid withheld or stolen wealth of not less than $200 billion belonging to the Nigerian people. However, if you refuse to accede to our request we shall have no alternative than to initiate legal proceedings at the Federal High Court with a view to restraining the Federal Government from further plunging the nation into external indebtedness.
The acting Managing Director, Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, Ibim Semenitari, said the biggest challenge she had upon assumption of office was the fact that we are owing so many people.

Ms. Semenitari disclosed this on Sunday when she featured on the News Agency of Nigeria Forum in Abuja.

She said the commission owed more than 8,600 contractors between N400 billion and N450 billion when she assumed office, but about 600 of them were paid by her administration.

She said that the paucity of funds coupled with the public perception of the commission became sources of concern for the management of NDDC.

She, however, said that the commission had to deal with both challenges and reinvigorate the workforce to be able to get to its present state.

Thats a lot of money; so the first challenge was you have so many contracts and you have so much debt  so there was a big hole right there.

The second was the perception problem. The commission was perceived rightly or wrongly as a place you just come, take your own share and go; it was also perceived to be a corrupt place.

And we also had to deal with the need to professionalise the workforce basically in terms of how you reposition the people.

And also reinvigorate the workforce so that people will have a sense of freshness and a sense of new challenges because we can get people back on track.

According to Ms. Sementari, better days will come for the commission by the time its funding partners pay up the amount they are owing.

She said that with payment of the outstanding monies, the projects the commission was handling would become visible.

She added that the late passage of the budget of the commission had hampered proper planning and proper management of the commission.

By law, we are funded with three per cent from oil companies; we are funded from the ecological fund and then we are also funded from the amount of money accruable to the state.

We had a situation where we were being owed by all of our funding partners.

The Federal Government, who is our owner, was owing us about N800 billion.

Whereas the law provides for specific kinds of funding for the commission, unfortunately the commission had not been receiving its own funds as at when due; so this was one of the challenges that I had to deal with.

And then of course perhaps the last and the critical one is the fact of late budgets. The NDDC budget is always late and that doesnt help for planning.

It comes so late in the year, indeed I hear sometimes as late as October, by which time the year is ending.

And thats because the NDDC budget by the budget practice doesnt go along with all the other budgets.

For that reason the budget process of the NDDC begins after and so terminates ridiculously late in the year, by which time of course by planning and everything make us almost ridiculous and impossible for the management to function within the appropriation act.

She, however, called for speedy passage of the budget of the commission to ensure smooth operation within a given financial year.

The NDDC boss also said the commission spent N9.2 billion on execution of projects between January and March, 2016.

As at Jan. 1 2016, our balance of account was N9.9 billion. And then within this period under review that is  January to March- for that first quarter, we received N6.8 billion from the Federal Government and N32 billion from oil companies, so that total inflow as at March was about N48. 9billion.

These are the expenses we have made in the course of the period.

The recurrent payment including salary and allowances and other expenditure were stood at N7 billion and payment for projects stood at N9.2 billion.

There was no accusation of any capital fixed asset within the period under review.

So, the total of expenditure within the period under review is N16.3 billion.

She said the cash balance as at March 25, 2016 was N32. 26 billion.

This means that when I make payment this week or next week, that has taken to the second quarter.

The acting managing director said before the commission paid any contractor, it processed the interim payment certificate.

The way we pay, we process the interim payment certificate.

And then the number of interim payment certificates that have processed for payment is 153 but we have worked more (than) these numbers.

Those that are still in the process, action is being taken, some of them have treated 493 interim payment certificates.

Ms. Semenitari said the commission paid 642 out of the 8600 contractors during the period under review.

Basically, what I am saying is that I have addressed over 600 contractors. In other word, 600 projects have treated during the period under review.

We have been able to complete about 28 projects in this period.

(NAN)
The Senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, on Sunday criticised the religious bill by the Kaduna State government, saying it was absolutely wrong.

The bill, according to the state governor, Nasir El-Rufai, is to regulate public preaching in the state and to ensure violent religious sects are not allowed to thrive.

Mr. Sani, who has been at loggerheads with the governor over other programmes, however, said the government had no right to regulate or issue licenses to religious preachers in the state.

The lawmaker spoke shortly after receiving an award of excellence by the youth wing of Ansarul-Deen Society of Nigeria during their 40 years anniversary and fundraising programme.

He said it was painful for him to receive a merit award from the group when majority of Nigerians were suffering.

Its painful to receive this merit award when majority of Nigerians are still expecting good governance. Nigerians are facing lots of challenges and we the elected leaders cannot continue to give them excuses.

They did not elect us to lament, they didnt elect us to give them excuses. We were elected to give them good governance. Im not the kind of person that will see black and say its white. Whether we are in same party or not I will not see wrong and say its right.

I did that during the military era and I will continue to tell the truth even now. Nigerians spent hours under sun to vote for us and so we must not fail them. We must do what the people want and not what we want as leaders because they voted for us.

This is why we say the proposed religious bill in Kaduna State is absolutely wrong and we will not accept anybody to licence any preacher because people have the right to practice their religion as enshrined in the constitution.

Nobody can violate the constitution because freedom of religion is enshrined in the constitution. We are also calling on the state governor not to over tax the people because they have suffered a lot under the 16 years of PDP, he said.

The Senator also urged Nigerians to pray for President Muhammadu Buharis administration to succeed, saying the president has succeeded in tackling the insurgents in North East.

President Muhammadu Buhari is really working for Nigeria and for the masses of this country. Therefore, we must continue to pray for him to succeed, he said.

Mr. Sani later announced the donation of N2 million for the completion for the Ansarul-Deen Youth Centre.

Other people who received the merit award for their contributions to humanity include former Director General Media and Publicity to former Kaduna State Governor, Ahmed Maiyaki; Kaduna NASFAT branch Chairman, Abdulwaheed Adepoju; and NASFAT Kaduna Branch Chief Missionary Officer, Marooph Raji.

NAFSAT like Ansarul-Deen is an Islamic organisation.
Every day, Alexis Udine checks her companys Facebook account, pins her companys pictures on Pinterest and generates leads through Twitter.

Her company, Schaeffer Family Homes, monitors analytics to see what social media sites work best at directing customers to its homepage.

And its become a growing part of how new homebuilders in South Jersey and the country try to attract customers.

How much are homes selling for near you? Transactions are from county property records. Settlement dates are listed; deed filings may

Area professionals say builders gain distinct advantages by using social media.

Its a way to show businesses, Realtors, contractors how you can actually key in real time and real conversations for people discussing the needs to buy and use your services, said Rich Campanaro, director of digital strategy at NJ Advance Media.

The issue was the subject of a seminar at the Atlantic Builders Convention in Atlantic City last month: #Insta-gratification! Identify. Communicate. Convert.

Dont wait, learn the #NEW language, the seminars description read.

According to a report from Search Engine Journal, 70 percent of marketers have used Facebook to gain new customers and 34 percent of marketers have used Twitter to generate leads.

And in a study from Vocus Public Relations, 87 percent of all small businesses said social media helps their businesses.

Everyone is hitting the Web before any option when they research, and consumers are extremely well educated, said Colleen Meloro, vice president of marketing at JM Weichert Group. They are coming from all different parts of the state. Its the first place that every consumer goes for all of their information.

For Gina Russo of Russo Homes LLC in Swedesboro, Gloucester County, learning social media hasnt been easy.

Though her Facebook account is fairly up to date, the companys Twitter page hasnt logged a new tweet in over a year.

New Pleasantville complex finding retail tenants PLEASANTVILLE  Two retail units at City Center on Main Street will soon be occupied, and 7,

Ive been learning as I go along, and Ive been pulling ideas from other businesses, Russo said. Ive been working lately on trying to increase likes to our Facebook page, and Ive done sponsored ads, so that has been helping.

Russo said Facebook traffic has been increasing, and she plans to create an Instagram page to upload company photos.

Its been going well. Ive been seeing a lot more activity in the last few weeks, which is promising, Russo said.

Jennifer Stark, marketing manager at K. Hovnavian Homes in Edison, Middlesex County, said social media marketing is important for small businesses.

If youre on Facebook, youre getting Facebook ads; if youre on Instagram, youre getting ads. Its all about keeping up with the trends, Stark said.

Udine said staying consistent with social media marketing is the key.

She posts real estate articles for her 2,000 readers to view. She tweets best wishes to mothers on Mothers Day on Schaeffer Family Homes Twitter page.

Its all about remaining accountable to your audience, Udine said.

Stay active and consistent in posting and getting your product out there, but you dont always want to push product. You want to provide information and engage, Udine said.

Contact: 609-272-7258
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.




Name : php

Product : Fedora 23

Version : 5.6.20

Release : 1.fc23

URL : http://www.php.net/

Summary : PHP scripting language for creating dynamic web sites

Description :

PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. PHP attempts to make it

easy for developers to write dynamically generated web pages. PHP also

offers built-in database integration for several commercial and

non-commercial database management systems, so writing a

database-enabled webpage with PHP is fairly simple. The most common

use of PHP coding is probably as a replacement for CGI scripts.



The php package contains the module (often referred to as mod_php)

which adds support for the PHP language to Apache HTTP Server.



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Update Information:



31 Mar 2016, **PHP 5.6.20** **CLI Server:** * Fixed bug php#69953 (Support

MKCALENDAR request method). (Christoph) **Core:** * Fixed bug php#71596

(Segmentation fault on ZTS with date function (setlocale)). (Anatol) **Curl:**

* Fixed bug php#71694 (Support constant CURLM_ADDED_ALREADY). (mpyw) **Date:**

* Fixed bug php#71635 (DatePeriod::getEndDate segfault). (Thomas Punt)

**Fileinfo:** * Fixed bug php#71527 (Buffer over-write in finfo_open with

malformed magic file). (Anatol) **Mbstring:** * Fixed bug php#71906

(AddressSanitizer: negative-size-param (-1) in mbfl_strcut). (Stas) **ODBC:**

* Fixed bug php#47803, php#69526 (Executing prepared statements is succesfull

only for the first two statements). (einavitamar, Anatol) * Fixed bug php#71860

(Invalid memory write in phar on filename with \0 in name). (Stas)

**PDO_DBlib:** * Fixed bug php#54648 (PDO::MSSQL forces format of datetime

fields). (steven, Anatol) **Phar:** * Fixed bug php#71625 (Crash in php7.dll

with bad phar filename). (Anatol) * Fixed bug php#71504 (Parsing of tar file

with duplicate filenames causes memory leak). (Jos Elstgeest) **SNMP:** *

Fixed bug php#71704 (php_snmp_error() Format String Vulnerability). (andrew)

**Standard** * Fixed bug php#71798 (Integer Overflow in php_raw_url_encode).

(taoguangchen, Stas)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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References:



[ 1 ] Bug #1323114 - php: Integer overflow in php_raw_url_encode

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1323114

[ 2 ] Bug #1323108 - php: Format string vulnerability in php_snmp_error()

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1323108

[ 3 ] Bug #1323106 - php: Invalid memory write in phar on filename containing

\0 inside name

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1323106

[ 4 ] Bug #1323103 - php: Negative size parameter in memcpy

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1323103

[ 5 ] Bug #1323118 - file: Buffer over-write in finfo_open with malformed

magic file

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1323118

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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This update can be installed with the "yum" update program. Use

su -c 'yum update php' at the command line.

For more information, refer to "Managing Software with yum",

available at https://docs.fedoraproject.org/yum/.



All packages are signed with the Fedora Project GPG key. More details on the

GPG keys used by the Fedora Project can be found at

https://fedoraproject.org/keys

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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package-announce mailing list

package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/mailman/listinfo/package-announce


New Delhi, April 7 : A week after it blocked efforts to ban Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar, China on Thursday supported India against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) ruling that opposes India's domestic manufacturing under its National Solar Mission.

The WTO on February 24 ruled against India's 'Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission' on the plea that New Delhi's efforts towards the indigenous production of solar cells violated WTO rules. The ruling came on a 2013 complaint filed by the US.

"We support India in their appeal against the WTO ruling. We support the domestic industry to manufacture products for the solar industry," said Xie Zhenhua, Special Representative for Climate Change of China.

The Chinese support came at the 22nd BASIC Ministerial meeting on climate change held in New Delhi, where Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar was representing India. Representatives from the other countries Brazil, South Africa and China were also present.

Last week, India's move to get Pathankot terror attacks mastermind, JeM chief Masood Azhar, banned by the UN was rebuffed by China - for the second such time, causing huge disappointment in India. China, a close friend of Pakistan, had said that Azhar did not meet the UN criteria to be banned as a terrorist.

China's burgeoning solar industry too faces political opposition in the US.

A joint statement issued by the four countries here welcomed the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change - 21st Conference of Parties (COP-21) in December last year.

The United States had in 2013 filed a complaint with the WTO against India providing support to domestic solar cell manufacturers under its National Solar Mission, which Washington said was against the international trade agreement. USA claimed that India violated domestic content requirements (DCR) rules. A three-member dispute settlement panel of the WTO was set up in 2013. The panel ruled against India on February 24, 2016.

India in its appeal against the WTO ruling, argued that the DCR measure were justified on the ground that they secure its compliance with laws required to promote sustainable development.

India also argued that its solar programme was helping it to meet its commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

India's solar energy programme is considered one of the world's largest and fastest renewable energy programmes. At present India generates around 5,000 megawatts of solar energy from virtually nil some five years back.

India had also scaled up its target to produce solar energy by pushing ahead the 20,000 megawatts of solar electricity generation to 1,00,000 megawatts by 2022.

In the meeting, India along with China, Brazil and South Africa issued a joint statement to ratify the Paris 'COP 21 Global Climate Agreement' in New York on April 22.
New Delhi, April 7 : In the first visit by an Indian minister to Iran since sanctions against it were lifted earlier this year, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will be in the country for two days, to be followed by a visit to the UAE on April 11-12, an official statement said on Thursday.

"Pradhan will meet the Iranian minister of petroleum, the senior adviser to president of Iran on free trade zones and governor of Central Bank of Iran, in Tehran. He would also be addressing the Tehran Chamber of Commerce," said a petroleum ministry statement.

"He will be visiting Chabahar free trade zone to interact with FTZ authorities. The last visit by an Indian minister of petroleum and natural gas to Iran was in April 2007," it said.

"The trade relations have traditionally been buoyed by Indian import of Iranian crude oil," it added.

The ministry also said Indis-Iran trade during fiscal 2014-15 was worth $13.13 billion. In that fiscal, India imported $8.95 billion worth of goods, mainly crude oil and exported commodities worth $4.17 billion.

India is also seeking rights to develop the Farzad-B gas field in the Persian Gulf that was discovered by India's ONGC Videsh Ltd.

Pradhan's visit to the United Arab Emirates is a follow up of the February India visit of Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Energy Minister Suhail Mohammed Al Mazrouei.

Pradhan will meet Al Mazrouei, besides meeting with the CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, the statement said.

"During his stay in Dubai, Pradhan will meet Emirati businessmen, inaugurate the India Pavilion at the Annual Investment Meet-2016 and visit the Jabel Ali Free Zone Authority," it added.

UAE contributes in a major way to India's energy security, being the sixth largest supplier of crude oil. India is the second largest destination for UAE's oil exports.
Washington, April 8 : US Secretary of State John Kerry has called on Iran to stop its destabilising behaviour and work with its neighbours in the Middle East to end the wars in Yemen and Syria.

Kerry, who is on a visit to Bahrain to meet foreign ministers in the Gulf Cooperation Council, on Thursday said the US was concerned about Iran.

Last week, the US Navy seized hundreds of AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and machine guns from a small ship. Kerry said the weapons were on the move from Iran to arm Houthi rebels in Yemen, the Washington Post reported.

"Rather than send weapons to the Houthis, join in efforts to convince them to make peace," Kerry said.

The US officials were concerned about fragility of the existing cease-fire in Syria and have expressed uncertainty over the prospects for a cease-fire that is due to start this weekend in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition of Gulf countries conducting airstrikes against the Iranian-backed Houthis.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, whose country chairs the GCC, said relations with Iran will be chilly till the country ends its interventionist policies.

"We stressed that if Iran wants to have normal relations with the GCC states, it has to change its policies and abide by the good-neighbourhood principle," he said.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made overtures for warmer relations, efforts that powerful segments of the Iranian government do not support.

"Tehran wants interaction with the world, with its neighbouring countries," Rouhani said on Thursday.

The criticism of Iran emanating from the Gulf came as ships in the US Navy's Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, joined in a three-week, multinational exercise to practice mine clearing and other tactics designed to keep open the sea lanes through which at least a third of the world's oil resources are shipped.

At least four ships thought to be bound from Iran to Yemen have been stopped in the past six months, and large quantities of weapons seized.

"If Iran is going to give meaning to the words in the last few days about wanting to work with people, it is by getting engaged in making peace in Yemen, not adding more weapons and fuelling the conflict," Kerry said.
Kathmandu, April 8 : In a crackdown on circulation of fake Indian currency in Nepal, police here on Friday said they have arrested six people, including a Pakistani national, for possessing fake Indian currency notes with a face value of Rs.10 million.

The six -- one Pakistani and five Nepali nationals -- were arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau of Nepal Police and paraded before media at a press conference here.

According to police, one of them has been identified as Mahammad Nadim (PP number CD 9458742, Karachi) who was arrested from Thamel area of Kathmandu.

Similarly, five Nepali nationals -- Umadevi Pandey, Ishowari Prasad Teli, Parmandna Yadav, Dil Bahadur Thapa and Mahadev Timilsina -- were arrested from various locations of Kathmandu. They were held while travelling to Kathmandu to receive the fake Indian currency notes.

All the Nepali nationals hail from districts close to the Nepal-India border.

After receiving the fake notes from Nadim and Mahadev, they were planning to sneak into India for circulating the counterfeit currency, police said.

Using the open Nepal-India border, counterfeiters smuggle fake notes to India from the Nepali side and in most cases Nepalis, Indians and Pakistanis were found involved.

Circulation of fake Indian notes using Nepal's territory is a top Indian security concern.
Brussels, April 10 : Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini who was arrested on Friday in Brussels has confessed to investigators that he is "the man in the hat" caught in the Brussels airport security cameras on March 22, Belgian federal prosecutor said on Saturday.

"He was confronted with the results of various expert assessments and admitted his presence," Xinhua quoted the federal prosecutor as saying.

"The person told investigators that he had thrown his jacket in a trash can and then sold his hat."

Abrini was placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the federal prosecutor said.

Abrini, wanted for suspected involvement in the November terrorist attacks in Paris, was arrested Friday along with five others in Brussels, by Belgian police.

Among the arrested is Osama Krayem, who as Brussels bombings probe has revealed is the second man who was present during the Maelbeek Metro Station attack.

Krayem was also present in the City 2 shop center of Brussels when buying bags that were used in the attacks, reported the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

He was also placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

Another two suspects, Herve B.M. and Bilal E.M., were charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders complicity.

Two more people, who were arrested along with Abrini were released after thorough hearing.
Los Angeles, April 10 : Actress Charlize Theron feels "incredibly lucky" that her mother looks after her children so much.

The 40-year-old, who is mother to four-year-old son Jackson and eight-month-old daughter August, shared that she feels very fortunate that her own parent Gerda takes on the role of a "full-time grandmother", reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"I'm a single mum. I'm incredibly lucky my mother is a full-time grandmother," Britain's GQ magazine quoted Theron as saying.
Patna, April 10 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Sunday said he was "saddened" by the fire at a Kerala temple in which nearly 100 people were killed.

"Saddened by the Kerala temple fire tragedy. My heartfelt condolences to families of the deceased and prayers with those injured," the chief minister tweeted.

At least 96 people have been killed and over 300 injured in a massive blaze triggered by celebratory fireworks at Paravur town's Puttingal temple, about 60 km from Thiruvananthapuram capital city.
New Delhi, April 10 : The beleaguered liquor baron Vijay Mallya's offer to pay Rs.4,000 crore out of Rs.9,000 crore pending debt conveys his "intention" to repay the loan, and the public sector lenders should consider it carefully, industry organisation Assocham has said.

"The default to be categorised as 'wilful' must be intentional, deliberate and calculated. Once it is established that the borrower intends to repay, the default cannot be deliberate," Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) secretary general D.S. Rawat said in a statement on Saturday night.

With excessive focus on the "wilful defaulters", the India Inc. is being projected in a bad light in the eye of the general public, whereas the fact remains that they contribute a large part to the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment generation, Rawat said.

In business cycles, "difficult times do come about. At times, the entrepreneurs face a crisis-like situation despite best of efforts," he said.

"With so much shrill noise on the 'wilful' defaulters, the banks and the government should take a dispassionate view of the case rather than being influenced by the media reports, which at times get exaggerated in the 'right-or-wrong' debate," the Assocham secretary general added.

In the case of Kingfisher Airlines and Mallya, "let there not be a media and public trial as such a thing is not good for the industry, banks or even the country's financial system," he said.

The main concern for the banks should be recovery of their assets, which have become non-performing assets (NPAs) and all genuine efforts must be made towards that end, the Assocham top official said.

"Whether Mr Mallya has done something right or wrong should be left to the law enforcement agencies and the courts. The banks must evaluate with open mind what offer is on the table," he said.

On the hindsight it does look as though the Indian industry, as was the case with the rest of the world, did over-step in expansions of capacities, stretching their balance sheets with high debts.
New Delhi, April 10 : Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari on Sunday expressed grief over the fire tragedy in a Kerala temple that killed nearly 100 people.

The vice president has conveyed his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families. He wished speedy recovery to the injured, an official statement issued here said.

The tragedy occurred early on Sunday morning when a fireworks display caused a blaze at the temple in the coastal town of Paravur, about 60 km from Thiruvananthapuram.
Chennai, April 10 : Actor Pawan Kalyan has confirmed that he has been approached to star in the Telugu remake of Tamil blockbuster "Vedalam". He said that he has considered the project and it's on the cards.

"It's true that I've been approached with the offer. However, the script has to be tweaked for Telugu audiences and it's going to take some time. Currently, I can't confirm when the project will go on the floors," Kalyan told IANS.

"Vedalam", which featured Tamil superstar Ajith Kumar, was one of the biggest hits of last year.

Kalyan also has a project with filmmaker S.J Suryah in the pipeline.

"The official announcement will be made soon," he said.

The 44-year-old's latest Telugu release "Sardaar Gabbar Singh" is currently running in cinemas.
Kolkata, April 10 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday expressed grief over the Kerala temple blaze in which some 100 people lost their lives early in the morning.

"Very sad news from Kerala. My deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. Prayers for those injured," she tweeted.

Some 100 were killed on Sunday in a massive blaze caused by a fireworks display at the Puttingal temple in the coastal town of Paravur, located about 60 km from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Over 200 people have been injured.
New Delhi, April 10 : After decades of concern, the outlook of foreign entities over India's intellectual property rights regime (IPR) is beginning to turn positive, thanks to a realisation in the country that innovation will be meaningless without legal protection for creativity, say experts.

"One of the most powerful things being done in 50 years is on intellectual property rights. The new policy (under consideration) talks about encouraging innovation. We have seen in the last two years huge changes in our approach in this area," said Pravin Anand of law firm Anand and Anand.

Modernisation efforts at patent offices, amendment of rules to streamline procedures, recruitment of a large number of examiners to handle the volumes of patent applications and efforts to reduce backlog are positive changes in this domain, he said.

"If this kind of a policy continues at the same momentum at which it is proceeding, then it will hugely change the perspective of Western investors. If foreign players are assured that they are safe here, then who wouldn't want such a fantastic market (like India)?" Anand queried to IANS.

Corroborating this, Andrew Bradshaw, director, Asian Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, said Western countries feel there has been a lot of difference in India's intellectual property rights protection after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's drive for a better regime.

"Since Modi took charge there is a lot of difference. I think it is a refreshing change. In the West, we can see that," Bradshaw, who is also global head brand protection, Superdry, told IANS.

He said law enforcement was equally important as India steps up the regime.

India's ranking globally on intellectual property has also not been encouraging.

According to the International Property Rights Index, published by the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation's Property Rights Alliance, India was ranked 62nd globally in 2015. India's score in 2015 was 5.2 -- lower than its score of 5.5 in 2014.

The report analysed the regimes of 129 nations, both on the legal and political environments.

Regarding enforcement, Anand said it was important to ensure that strong laws that the country has on protection of piracy and counterfeiting should be taken to their logical conclusion by way of implementation.

"All bottlenecks must be removed. Conviction rates must go up if people are counterfeiting. Also, statutory damages should be introduced and granted by all courts. Currently it is the Delhi High Court that grants damages. It should be in every district court," Anand said.

"Making laws is not sufficient unless customers are educated by way of policy and advocacy. We must have shelter of law first. Then policy document must be in place. Government support via dedicated enforcement agencies is also needed," Pulin Kumar, legal expert at Adidas group, told IANS.

On the low patent filings in the country, Anand said: "The government must send a message to all business houses that their chief executives should have a budget for filing patents and should make simple targets for patent filing."

He added: "If that happens then the abysmally low filing, which is around 45,000 applications for the whole country in a year, would increase dramatically."

China files around one million patent applications per year.

Echoing the same concern, Bradshaw said: "Education is very important, especially for newcomers in the business. Educate these new brands so that they protect their intellectual property from the beginning through trademarks and copyrights, designs and patents."

(Aparajita Gupta can be reached at aparajita.g@ians.in)
Tehran, April 10 : Iran will never negotiate over its missile programme as it is a matter of national defence, the country's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said here on Sunday.

The minister told a joint press conference with Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand that the US knows the missile issue and defence capabilities of the Islamic republic are not open to negotiations, Xinhua reported.

If the US is serious about the arms, it is better to reconsider the sales of the weapons to some countries which use them against the Yemenis and the Palestinians, he said.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said the US was open to a "new arrangement" with Iran for resolving the issues pertaining to the country's missile programme.

Also, a senior Iranian military official dismissed on Friday the remarks of the top US diplomat on Iran's missile programme as "impudent".

Iran's deputy joint chief of staff of the armed forces, Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri, called on the country's foreign ministry to respond "firmly" to Kerry's calls for missile talks with Tehran.

"The missile power is non-negotiable, and for developing its defence capabilities Iran does not get permission from anybody," Jazayeri said.

The White House is critical of Iran's missile programme and deems it a threat to regional and world peace.

However, the Islamic republic said its missile programme is for peaceful purposes and no measure can strip the Islamic republic of its legitimate and legal rights to boost its defensive capabilities and to safeguard national security.
Kolkata, April 10 : Once unknown beyond their immediate circles of family, friends and colleagues, they became crusaders due to difficulties and sorrow they experienced at a personal level. They all are now busy plotting the downfall of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who in the very first place is "responsible" for their 'celebrity' status.

Among these fighters working against the Trinamool Congress chief and her party in the West Bengal assembly elections is a Jadhavpur University professor, a widow of a green activist, two housewives, and a farmer.

Dubbed as Maoists or arrested for circulating an innocuous spoof, they all faced Banerjee's wrath at one or the other point of time. Now, they say, they are fighting to "reclaim democracy snatched away by the despotic Trinamool regime".

Ambikesh Mahapatra was leading a normal life as a chemistry professor at the Jadavpur University till April 12, 2012, when his arrest for circulating a spoof on the chief minister made him a household name in West Bengal and elsewhere.

Contesting as an Independent, he is taking on city mayor and Trinamool heavyweight Sovan Chatterjee from Behala East.

Mahapatra openly admits he owes his popularity to Banerjee.

"It is a fact that people know me in India and even abroad because of Mamata. But this popularity is as much an advertisement of the despotic and tyrannical regime that has robbed the entire state of democracy," Mahapatra told IANS.

"It's neither a personal fight nor a move to seek revenge, but to give voice to many people like me who suffered or continue to do so at the hands of this government," says Mahapatra.

He has formed 'Aakranta Aamraa' (We the Victims), a forum of alleged victims of human rights violations and atrocities under Banerjee rule.

Undeterred by his strong adversary Chatterjee, who won the seat in 2011 by a wide margin, Mahapatra has been extensively using the social media to circulate spoofs and jokes revolving around a Narada TV sting operation allegedly showing several Trinamool leaders, including the mayor, taking bribes.

"It's a shame that the mayor's post, once occupied by luminaries like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, now has somebody who has no qualms in taking bundles of cash as bribe," says Mahapatra.

Besides Mahapatra, the forum has fielded Pratima Dutta, wife of murdered green activist Tapan Dutta, from Domjur in Howrah district.

Lending them support is Shiladitya Chowdhury, a farmer branded as a Maoist and thrown into jail for daring to question Banerjee in public about the rising fertiliser prices.

Till then a nondescript famer from Binpur in West Midnapore, people saw on their TV sets police dragging away Chowdhury after Mamata ordered "Oke dhorun... ekkhuni dhorun (catch him... catch him at once)" during a public meet in 2012.

With the case still pending against him, Chowdhury has been going around both Behala and Domjur constituencies, telling people about his miseries and urging them not to vote for the Trinamool.

"My life has been ruined; it's been four years and I still have to do the rounds of court. And I'm not alone. There are many others languishing in jails on false charges just because they opposed the Trinamool in some way or the other."

"The entire state should teach her a lesson by not casting even a single vote for Trinamool which is nothing but a symbol of torture and tyranny," Chowdhury told IANS.

Tumpa Koyal and Mousumi Koyal would perhaps have spent their lives as housewives in a little-known village Kamduni in North 24 Parganas, but for the gruesome gang rape and murder of their friend and their branding as Maoist, allegedly by Banerjee.

Joining forces with 'Akaranta Aamraa', the Koyals have been seeking speedy justice and capital punishment for the guilty. They have even knocked the doors of top political and constitutional authorities, including the president, demanding that the trial be expedited.

Due to their untiring efforts, three people were handed out death sentences and three others life imprisonment in the rape-murder case.

Though hesitant to join the electoral din, the Koyals say they fervently hope Mahapatra and Dutta emerge as winners.

"We don't want to get entangled in politics. Our fight was for justice to our friend whose life was brutally snuffed out. But yes, we wish to see a chief minister who is more concerned about women security," Tumpa told IANS.

Nodding in agreement, Mousumi said: "Mahapatra and Dutta will be the real public representatives. Unlike politicians, they are more like us who have gone through pains and difficulties in life."

And Mahapatra is not alone in his fight against Mamata Banerjee. Not only his "fellow victims" but almost the entire opposition - the Left Front, Congress and the BJP as well as civil society members - have unequivocally extended support to him and Dutta.

(Anurag Dey can be reached at anurag.d@ians.in)
Guwahati, April 10 : Over one crore voters will exercise their franchise in the second phase of polling in Assam for the 61 assembly seats on Monday and decide the fate of 525 candidates in the fray.

The polling will be held from 7 a.m. till 5 p.m. at 12,699 polling stations in the 61 constituencies spread across 13 districts.

Of the total 1,04,35,277 voters eligible to cast their ballot in the second phase, 50,44,051 are women. Of the 525 candidates in fray, only 48 are women.

Some prominent candidates include former Assam chief minister and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate Prafulla Kumar Mahanta (Barhampur), Moulana Badaruddin Ajmal (AIUDF, Salmara South), Agriculture Minister Rockybul Hussain (Congress, Samaguri), Himanta Biswa Sarma (BJP, Jalukbari) and former Assam BJP president Siddhartha Bhattacharyya (Guwahati East).

Among the 525 candidates, 57 are from the Congress, 47 from the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), 35 from the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP), 19 from the AGP, five from the Communist Party of India, nine from the Communist Party of India-Marxist, 10 from Bodoland Peoples Front, and 129 candidates from smaller or unregistered parties.

The Congress has fielded six women candidates, AIUDF two, BJP four, the CPI-M one and BPF one. Fifteen women nominees are from smaller and unregistered parties.

A total of 214 candidates, including 19 women, are contesting as Independents in various constituencies, poll officials said.

During the first phase of peaceful polling for 65 assembly constituencies on April 4, 82.20 percent of the eligible voters exercised their franchise.
London, April 10 : Having taken the English Premier League (EPL) by storm with his goal scoring exploits, Jamie Vardy has hit a dry patch of late, but Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri is confident that his team's title charge will not be affected.

Vardy has scored 19 goals this seaon and occupied the top spot in the scoring charts for several weeks. But the striker has not scored in his last six games for the Leicester and he has only netted four times for the EPL leaders since mid-December.

His only strikes last month came for England against Germany and Holland and he has only netted four times for the Barclays Premier League leaders since mid-December.

"Jamie in the last two or three matches he didn't score but made the final pass. I look always at the performance, if everybody links together and if everybody fights together. If everybody helps each other, that is my performance. After the goal, it's okay. If you imagine, Wes Morgan scored the goal (against Southampton)," Ranieri was quoted as saying by the Independent on Sunday.

"It's not important. Every time I talk to the strikers, it's not important if they score. Of course it's their job to score a goal."

Leicester currently sit at the top of the EPL standings with 69 points from 32 matches, seven points ahead of second placed Tottenham Hotspur. Despite Vardy's poor form in front of goal, Leicester have won their last four games 1-0 and Ranieri insisted the points are more important than any player's personal tally.

"It's not important who scores a goal. With (Danny) Simpson, no, last week he was so close? And I said to him 'don't worry, it will arrive next (week)'. It's not important who scores a goal. It's important that Leicester win the match," the 64-year-old Italian asserted.
Tehran, April 10 : Iran on Sunday dismissed as "baseless" US Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks on Iran's alleged support of terrorism.

"These remarks are so baseless that nobody in the world takes heed of them," Xinhua quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif as saying in a joint press conference with visiting Estonian Foreign Minister Marina Kaljurand.

"The danger of terrorism and extremism, as the main risk threatening the region, is the result of the US occupation of and presence in Iraq over the past years," Zarif said.

Unfortunately, some regional states, which only think about their short-term interests, are also spreading the risk of extremism and the Islamic State (IS) in the region, he said, rejecting US allegations that Iran is destabilising the Middle East.

On Thursday, Kerry said in Bahrain that Iran should stop its destabilising behaviour in the Middle East and work with its neighbours to end the crises in Yemen and Syria.
Tehran, April 10 : Iran will not accept the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before the next presidential elections in the country, a senior adviser to Iran's top leader was quoted as saying on Sunday.

"Iran believes that the government of Bashar al-Assad should remain in power until the end of his presidency term and the removal of Assad is a redline for us," Xinhua quoted Ali Akbar Velayati, the advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on international affairs, as saying.

Velayati dismissed the pressures on Assad's removal by the outsiders, saying that only the Syrian people can decide the future of their country.

The US authorities cannot tolerate Iran's influence in countries like Iraq and Syria, he said, adding: "At the request of these governments (Iraq and Syria), we support them against terrorists and it is none of Americans' business to say anything in this regard."

"Whether the Americans accept it or not, the time for their presence in the region is over," he said.

The US is behind the creation of terrorist groups such as the Islamic State in the region, he added.

Tehran has emerged as a staunch regional ally of Damascus in the country's long-running conflict, and has said that its military advisers provide assistance to Syria in its fight against terrorism.

Earlier this month, Iran said it had deployed ground force commandos in Syria for an advisory mission.

Other units of the Iranian army ground forces had also dispatched advisers to Syria, said Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army Ground Force for Coordination Brigadier General Ali Arasteh said.
Pune, April 10 : Charging Western nations with adopting double standards in their approach to climate change, Power Minister Piyush Goyal has said India file 16 cases against the US for giving protection to solar panel producers in violation of World Trade Oragnsiation (WTO) norms.

"The US, which is articulating the inconvenient truth, while India is doing convenient action, uses seven times more coal per capita than India. Even on clean energy finance, the developed world has spoken a lot and done zilch," Goyal said on Saturday evening at a lecture here jointly organized by the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce and Pune International Centre.

"I am going to file 16 cases against the US for their violation of the WTO norms. Our international solar alliance rests on this. If a large country like India is subjected to this, then imagine what happens to the country in the underdeveloped world," he said.

Declaring that American obstruction and pressures would not be acceptable to India, he said: "It amazes me that a country which talks of encouraging renewable energy goes to the WTO against India and says why did you put up 400 MW of domestically produced panels.

"You should have allowed us to compete even in those 400 MW, which India has domestically made and put up. They go to the WTO, win a case and tom tom about it as a contribution to renewable energy in the world," he said.

In the US, there are 16 programmes in different states giving protection to solar panel producers, which are completely in violation of WTO norms, Goyal added.

Calling the recently launched India-inspired International Solar Alliance a demonstration of India's concern for issues of climate change, he said the traditional ethos of conservation makes India a natural country to lead global efforts to tackle climate change.

At an International Finance Corporation event in New Delhi earlier this week, Goyal, who also holds the renewable energy portfolio, had urged the West to "show some magnanimity" and keep renewable energy out of the WTO framework.

"I don't see any reason why the West could not show some magnanimity and keep renewables out of the WTO framework, particularly when Indian manufacturers had such a large heart and had withdrawn the anti-dumping request, which had been ruled in their favour and could have imposed huge anti-dumping duties on the US," he said.

Urging industry here to adopt solar in the local rural and urban areas, Goyal said the cost of solar power is cheaper than that from conventional fossil fuels and the tariff remains same for 25 years.
Kolkata, April 10 : Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Sunday ridiculed the Congress, saying it was only looking for piggyback rides on alliances to stay in existence.

In the city to campaign for the West Bengal assembly polls, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader ruled out as a contender, the party which has tied-up with the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front.

"So far as Congress is concnerned, nothing can be expected from them. Both their politics and policies are opportunistic. Battling for existence, they are looking for piggyback rides. In search of a few seats, they aligned with JD-U and RJD in Bihar, in Tamil Nadu with the DMK and in Bengal with the Left Front," he said.

Jaitley even said the Congress's ambitions have dipped so low that they are content being the "tail-enders".

"In its battle for survival, Congress is content playing the second or the third fiddle. The level of its own aspirations have come down, its level of ambitions is so low that it doesn't mind becoming the tail-ender of an alliance. Be it Bihar, Tamil Nadu or West Bengal, it is the tail-ender of the alliance," he said.

"Without any political or ideological stand, the Congress will never be a serious player," he said.

Charging the Left Front with "destroying Bengal" and accusing the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress of belying the people's expectations, Jaitley batted for his party to usher in development in the state.
Kuala Lumpur, April 10 : Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who beat world No.1 shuttler Chen Long of China to bag his 11th Malaysia Open title here on Sunday, is looking ahead to winning his first ever Olympic gold medal in Rio de Janeiro in August.

The 33-year-old had some tough time recently, after being eliminated from the All England Open and India Open in the first and second rounds, respectively, reports Xinhua.

Back home, the Malaysian fans gave their unwavering support to the two-time Olympic runner-up, who missed the last Malaysia Open due to a doping ban.

"Last two tournaments I was not playing well, somebody said Chong Wei was old and should retire," he said, "That's common, as an athlete I have to accept what people say.

"I would like to thank for the support and the trust from media and fans, this is one of my motivation to prepare for the Olympics in the next five months," he told a press conference.

"No matter how much the difficulties, this is the five months. I will try my best for the Olympics that I have waited for four years."

Chong Wei said he had promised to play until the Southeast Asian Games to be held in Malaysia next year, so this might be his last performance at the Malaysia Open.

He defeated Chen 21-13 and 21-8 in 42 minutes, extending his winning streak against the Chinese two-time reigning world champion to three games.

"I didn't expect a victory against Chen Long in two straight sets, and the second set I was leading by a wide margin," Chong Wei said after the match.

"Winning the first set gave me confidence which help me to forget the tiredness, so I can keep on attacking."

Despite losing the final on Sunday, Chen expressed his admiration toward Lee. "Keeping such a good form at this age would be a dream of every young players," he said.

Chen as well as Lin Dan, who defeated the Malaysian in the past two Olympic men's singles finals, will be the biggest opponents in Chong Wei's pursuit of the Olympic gold metal.

Both 27-year-old Chen and 32-year-old Lin have showed unstable forms recently, but Lee said he believed the Chinese shuttlers must have their own strategies.

"What's important is that I have my own strategy and be the best of myself," he said.
Panaji, April 10 : US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter on Sunday said that Indian and US interests overlap and the two democracies are working jointly to help secure the global environment.

"We have so many activities we are doing together to jointly to help secure this part of the world and other parts of the world," Carter told reporters on day one of his three-day visit to India.

Terming his visit to India "significant", Carter, who will hold talks with his Indian counterpart Manohar Parrikar on Tuesday also said that India and US must work together to make the world safer for the generations to come.

"India, of course, has its own interests that it pursues, but our interests overlap in many important ways and where they do overlap, we must work together to make the world safer and make a safer world for our children," he said.

After his brief stopover in Goa, home state of Parrikar, Carter will head for the Indian naval base in Karwar, where he will be boarding the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier on Monday.
Guwahati, April 10 : The second phase of the Assam assembly elections on Monday will have at least two VVIP voters -- former prime minister Manmohan Singh and his wife Gurcharan Kaur.

The couple are voters in the Dispur constituency, and will cast their ballot at the Dispur Government High School polling station no.207 in Guwahati, a spokesman of the Assam unit of the Congress said on Sunday, Manmohan Singh and his wife will arrive at the Guwahati airport around 12.30 p.m. and will head directly to the polling station.

"They are likely to cast their votes around 1 p.m. After casting their votes, the couple will go to Brahmaputra State Guest House in Guwahati for some time and will return to Delhi around 5.30 p.m.," the spokesman said.

Manmohan Singh is enrolled in the electoral roll as voter no.570, Gurcharan Kaur is enrolled as voter no.571.

Manmohan Singh has been a member of the Rajya Sabha from Assam since 1991.

The then chief minister late Hiteswar Saikia offered him a Rajya Sabha seat from Assam when he became the finance minister in the Narasimha Rao government.

Saikia also made him a tenant in his house and Manmohan Singh's address in the electoral roll is mentioned as house no.3989 in Sarumataria area of Guwahati.

The second phase of polls on Monday involves 61 constituencies.

Polling for 65 constituencies took place on April 4 and recorded 83.20 percent turnout.
New Delhi, April 10 : A centre would soon be established to develop Indian sign language, and the government is "fully committed" to achieving empowerment and inclusion of disabled people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.

"My government is fully committed to the UN Convention of Rights for Persons with Disabilities, for achieving empowerment and inclusion of persons with disabilities," Modi said in his message ahead of the 9th World Assembly of the Disabled People's International (DPI) to be held on April 11-13 in New Delhi.

"The cost of exclusion of people with disability from the workforce is 3-7 percent of the GDP, as per World Bank estimates. Initiatives such as 'Accessibility India' campaign aim to male the built environment inclusive for persons with disabilities.

"We are also making Indian Railways accessible and starting a centre to develop Indian sign language," he said.

Thaawar Chand Gehlot, minister for social justice and empowerment, will address the plenary session of the event that is being supported by the UN and G3ICT.

G3ict or Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication Technologies is an advocacy initiative launched in December 2006 by the UN Global Alliance for ICT and Development, in cooperation with the Secretariat for the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

In March 2016, the government's "Inclusiveness and Accessibility Index" -- that measured actions and attitudes of organisations towards disabled employees -- called for enabling access to them in buildings and workplaces, public transportation etc.

Javed Abidi, the global chair of DPI which has members from over 150 countries, said "rebuilding and retro-fitting to accommodate people with disability must be discouraged".

"Accessibility has to be built into both public and private sector procurement. Otherwise the disabled people cannot even get education, let alone employment," he said.

Over 70 DPI representatives from all over the world would speak at the event -- including Yuri Afanasiev, UN resident coordinator and UNDP resident representative in India, Yes Bank managing director and CEO Rana Kapoor, and American India Foundation country director Nishant Pandey.

The theme of the three-day event is "Building Human Capital: Realizing SDGs for Persons with Disabilities".

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the UN in September 2015. The 17 goals and 169 targets aim to eradicate extreme poverty, among others. There are 11 mentions of disability in the entire document but none in the most crucial goals.

The discussion will focus on a disability inclusive blueprint for Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
New Delhi, April 10 : As China continues to increase its engagement with Maldives, the Indian Ocean archipelago nation's President Abdulla Yameen arrived in India on Sunday on a two-day bilateral visit.

"A maritime neighbour comes calling! President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom of Maldives arrives on an official visit," external affairs ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted.

Yameen is being accompanied by Foreign Minister Dunya Maumoon, Fisheries and Agriculture Minister Mohamed Shainee and three members of the Maldivian parliament.

In Delhi, President Yameen will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi over a working lunch on Monday. A number of significant MoUs are expected to be signed during the meeting.

Yameen, who had come to India on a bilateral visit in January 2014 and was among the South Asian leaders who attending the Modi government's swearing-in in May 2014, would also call on President Pranab Mukherjee on April 11, according to Swarup.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would call on him on the morning of April 11. She had met her Maldivian counterpart in Nepal on the sidelines of a South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation meet last month.

Though India and Maldives completed 50 years of diplomatic ties last year and the two countries historically enjoyed a close relationship, Yameen's visit assumes significance because of New Delhi's discomfiture over China's increasing investments and influence in the Indian Ocean region.

Former Maldivian president Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who was in New Delhi last month to deliver a lecture, said that his country found business and investment proposals from China more attractive.

"We have said so many times, businessmen from India are welcome, as business from other countries like Russia, China," he said.

Sushma Swaraj visited Maldives in November 2014 and again in October 2015 for the India-Maldives joint commission meeting, which was held after 15 years.

This year, ministerial delegations to India, led by the country's foreign minister, defence minister, tourism minister, and foreign secretary "have further strengthened bilateral ties between India and Maldives", said a Maldives high commission statement.

India has sought to deepen its relations with the Yameen dispensation following unease in ties that had crept in after New Delhi was seen backing former president Mohamed Nasheed. India had voiced concern over his prolonged incarceration, and Prime Minister Modi had also cancelled a visit to Male earlier.
Kolkata, April 10 : Dubbing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the head of "syndicate", the Congress on Sunday said that was the prime reason she could not take action against party leaders and MPs accused of indulging in corruption.

The Trinamool Congress hit back, wondering whether the words of Congress leaders carry any weight after they have sold their flags to those (read the CPI-M) who accused then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi of accepting kickbacks in the Bofors gun deal.

Addressing the media, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the multi-crore-rupee Saradha chit fund scam was a reality, and a minister belonging to the Trinamool has landed in jail.

Refering to the purported sting operation by the Narada News portal, Sharma said: "Their MPs have been seen... They have been caught on camera.

"But Mamata has taken no action against that. That's because she is the head of the syndicate. How can she then take action against her corrupt ministers and members of parliament?" he asked.

Sharma also dismissed as a "joke" and an "insult to the people" the Trinamool Congress's announcement that it would hold an internal inquiry on the Narada sting issue.

"The offer of having an internal probe is an insult to the wisdom of the voters of Bengal. It is a joke perpetrated on the people."

He also rejected the Trinamool's assertion that the probe will also look into the role of people like senior Congress leader Ahmad Patel.

"It is an accusation. It is without any substance. And I reject it with contempt that it deserves. They are in the dock. They have been caught on the camera," Sharma said.

Trinamool secretary general Partha Chatterjee said: "The so-called syndicate head Mamata Banerjee lives in a 6-feet by 6-feet room. What is the use of saying all these?"

He ridiculed the Congress for forging an alliance with the CPI-M led Left Front.

"They have sold their (Congress) flag to those who accused Rajiv Gandhi of having accepted kickbacks from Bofors. They have formed an alliance with those who called Indira Gandhi a witch. Do their words carry any weight?" Chatterjee wondered.
Father & Son Analogy for the Human Brain Many mental phenomena will remain a mystery unless science considers the duality suggested by the Dichotomized Operating System, the operating system of the brain.

The approach has led to the development of the Dichotomized Operating System model (or DOS model), a functional model of the mind, which reveals that the left and right hemispheres in a typical human brain work as a team to reach common goals by processing information in direct and contextual manners respectively, as explained by the analogy below:

Father and Son analogy: A son is guided by his father as he drives a car to reach a destination. The son thinks logically and executes actions efficiently, as he is young and physically fit. He avoids other cars, people crossing roads, etc. and follows traffic lights, diversions, dividers, etc. on his ownbut consults his old father, who is not as physically capable or as quick and strong in logical processing as his sonbut possesses wisdom derived from decades of experience of driving on city roads for traffic trends, dangers, shortcuts, etc.which would help him choose the best path to take to reach the destination.

As per the analogy, the way the son avoids other cars, people crossing roads, etc. and follows traffic lights, diversions, etc. on his own, the left hemisphere executes such repetitive, preset and rule based tasks on its ownwhich is the basis of unconscious processing in the brain. In the way the son consults his father for navigation, the left hemisphere consults the right hemisphere when new judgements are to be made on how to interact further, which provides guidance using past data stored in its databasewhich is the basis of conscious processing in the brain.

Using such duality, the model reveals for the first time the reason behind the decades-old belief that the left hemisphere is involved in logical, analytical, factual, detail oriented, etc. processing, and the right hemisphere is involved in holistic, creative, emotional, subjective, artistic, imaginative, etc. processing. There are, however, a growing number of scientists who reject such duality (more on the mini site http://www.BrainDuality.com).

Science will not be able to understand the mechanisms underlying phenomena like emotions, sleep, dreams, creativity, music, humour, love, sex, art, etc. without accepting the duality of brain operations suggested by the model, as it plays a major role in all such phenomena. As a matter of fact, such duality is the reason the brain has two hemispheres, says Jasani, the developer of the DOS model (more on the link http://www.whatismind.com/#DOSModel).

Take the thought process for example, he adds. The process of thinking is one of the most ubiquitous phenomena in all of mankind. All human actions and accomplishments are a direct result of the thought process. In spite of that, modern science has no clue as to how thoughts and language are generated from neural communications in the brain. The reason modern science has no clue is that communication between hemispheres, which is the birthplace of all verbal and non-verbal communication, is not taken into consideration. Using such duality, I have explained the process of thinking in full detail, which is the first and only explanation available today of how the thought process works (more on the mini site http://www.ThinkingExplained.com).

The model also explains the mechanisms underlying sensations, perception, awareness, attention, decision making, pain, hunger, multitasking, heredity, subjective experiences, consciousness (more on the mini site http://www.ConsciousnessExplained.com), etc. and is supported by the observations and findings of experts in the field like Francis Crick, Daniel Kahneman, Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, Simon Baron-Cohen, Christof Koch, Stanislas Dehaene, Malcolm Gladwell, Iain McGilchrist, Uta Frith, etc., including William James, who is often considered the father of American psychology.

According to Jasani, due to its causal approach, incorporating the model with neuroscience can, besides saving time, effort and energy, save billions of dollars currently being spent on projects like the Human Brain Project, BRAIN Initiative, etc. while benefiting mankind to levels not imagined before (more on the link http://www.whatismind.com/CASRC.aspx).

He concludes, Even with exponentially growing technology, many mental phenomena will remain a mystery unless science considers the duality suggested by the Dichotomized Operating System, the operating system of the brain.

DOS model is available on the website http://www.WhatisMind.com.

About DOS Labs: DOS Labs is a Mumbai, India-based company founded by Parag Jasani with the purpose of expanding into research and training based on the Dichotomized Operating System model.
A future-proof POS technology platform designed for businesses to address the challenges and opportunities with multiple brands, multiple retail formats, multiple languages, and multiple currencies.

With TCPOS POS solution, Macro will extend their solutions and services offerings that they have provided for decades to the retail market. TCPOS.net POS solution offering will allow Macro to address businesses that have complex corporate processes, conglomerates with multiple brands and retail format challenges, Omni-channel strategies, as well as extend their software offering into hospitality market segment.

Now, Macro will be able to provide a cloud-based hybrid POS solution with offline capabilities that can be centrally managed. The solution provides a POS framework that allows our customers to build their own functional plugins, says Bart Collins, VP Sales and Marketing, Partner.

It is great to partner with a company that has strong business morals and a long-term commitment to their customers and the market they serve, says David Thomas, Managing Director, TCPOS North America.

About Macro Integration Services Inc.

Macro Integration Services was established to serve the systems and services needs of premier grocers, retailers, hospitality companies, and other customer transaction based businesses with multiple locations and sophisticated systems. Our retail, technical expertise and experience help separate our customers from their competition by providing and implementing state of the art technology on time and on budget.

About TCPOS North America Inc.

TCPOS North America Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TCPOS SA, is a leading global provider of POS software solutions to hospitality and retail businesses. With offices in US and Canada, TCPOS future-proof POS technology platform is designed for businesses to address the challenges and opportunities of multiple brands, multiple retail formats, multiple languages, and multiple currencies. The only true POS solution on the market that addresses these opportunities in a single platform and a POS architecture that enables Omni-channel retail deployments. More than 10,000 customers all over the world trust TCPOS solutions and our extensible architecture and design philosophy.
Following up his debut 'Metropolitan', Whit Stillman's 'Barcelona' is the second in his Doomed-Bourgeois-in-Love trilogy, which would be followed up four years later by 'The Last Days of Disco', all of which are now available from the Criterion Collection with this release, individually or in a set.

Set in Barcelona, Spain, during the '80s as the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union waned, the story focuses on two American cousins, Ted (Taylor Nichols) and Fred Boyton (Chris Eigemen). Ted is a car-company executive who has been living in Barcelona. Fred is a Navy officer working as an advance man for the arrival of the Sixth Fleet. He shows up unannounced on Ted's doorstep looking for a place to stay.

Although living abroad certainly has romantic connotations, the ideal is not the reality. Ted is insecure about keeping his job and about himself after a recent break-up. He has an idealized version of love and romance, assuming profound emotional bonds are required of all women before they enter into sexual relationships. He resolves to go out with plain or rather homely girls because he has had trouble with beautiful women.

Of course, his position doesn't last long as he starts a relationship with the attractive Monsterrat (Tushka Bergen). After sleeping together, he learns she is in an open relationship with a journalist named Ramon (Pep Munne), who can't have sex with a woman once he knows her well. Things seem to be progressing until they come to an abrupt stop.

Fred has his own conflicts as well, which also involve Ramon. Some of the locals are not pleased with NATO or the U.S. yet Fred frequently wears his uniform about the town. After a bombing at the USO building, resulting in the death of a sailor, Ramon says it was a false flag operation by the Americans. He goes further and writes that Fred is a CIA operative.

'Barcelona' begins as a comedy of manners with Ted and Fred engaging in funny banter as they try to make sense of life, love, and relationships. While it's already tough enough for young men to understand young women, their American sensibilities seem to complicate matters as they try and connect with Spanish women.

In the third act, the plot takes a very dark turn, and even though the tone changes abruptly, Stillman is able to guide the characters and the story in a way that seems authentic to what has gone before.

The Blu-ray: Vital Disc Stats

'Barcelona' (#807 in The Criterion Collection) comes on a 50GB Region A Blu-ray disc in a clear keepcase. The discs boot up directly to the menu screen without any promotional advertisements. Included is a folded leaflet containing the essay "Innocence Abroad," an essay by film scholar Haden Guest.
In his short keynote speech at the 2016 International Publishers Congress in London, Hachette CEO Arnaud Nourry opened on an optimistic note.

Books have proven, again, their staying power in the face of the social, economic and technological transformations that have affected the world since books were invented 560 years ago, he said, adding that publishers are the only media industry to have successfully ridden the first digital wave.

But Nourry also acknowledged serious clouds on the horizon, and threats that will have to be dealt with. First and foremost among those threats: what Nourry called the European Commissions senseless attack on copyright.

Vast exceptions to copyright law for libraries, for education, for fair usethink of the devastating consequences they would have on European publishers if they were allowed to pass, Nourry said. It is as if the Commission had made it a priority to weaken the only European cultural industry that has achieved worldwide leadership.

Nourry assailed tech industries that are building audiences or e-retailing capacity by using our catalogs and front lists as loss-making, free products. And he suggested that Google was the player the most likely to pose a clear and present danger to our industry, because of its effort to scan library books.

If the European Commission caves in to the demands of their proxies, whats to stop them from defining themselves as a library and making all those books available for free on a non-profit basis? He asked. They could claim their profit derives from advertising, not from charging browsers an access fee. And whos to stop them if the European Commission, no less, has given them its blessing?

Notably, In 2009, a French court sided with publisher La Martiniere, finding that Google's scanning had violated French copyright law, and in 2012 publishers in France settled with Google. Meanwhile, in the U.S., Google has prevailed, as the courts have found that their scanning is protected by fair use. A suit filed by the Authors Guild in 2005 is now on its last appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Nourry concluded that defeating the European Commissions plans must be the number one priority for the IPA, recalling that the IPA as an institution was founded to enforce international copyright laws. Copyright protection, he stressed, is the IPAs core mission.

Nourry then turned his attention to freedom to publish, and questioned the IPAs decision to admit China as a member last year, noting some disturbing developments in recent months.

Nourry specifically called out IPA president Richard Charkin for his support of Chinas membership.

Richard, I hope you knew what you were doing when you supported the Publishers Association of Chinas application to become members of the IPA in Frankfurt last year. It was a generous and optimistic initiative, he said. I just hope well still be comfortable with it in the months and years to come.

In a short Q&A period, there was a tense moment, as a member of the Chinese delegation chided Nourry for his comments.

Nourry responded that Chinas IPA membership "was great news, because we all within the IPA share the same values, the freedom to publish and the freedom to express opinions, and I take it as a great sign that China wanted to be a member of the IPA."

The 31st International Publishers Congress runs from April 9-12 at the Olympia in London, preceding the London Book Fair, which kicks off on Tuesday, April 12.
Richard W. Motz, 86, of Rock Island, died Jan. 7, 2016, at UnityPoint Health-Trinity Rock Island.

A celebration of Mr. Motz's life will be held on Saturday, April 16, at Two Rivers United Methodist Church, 1820 5th Ave., Rock Island. Visitation will be from 9 to 10 a.m., with the memorial service to follow at 10. Wheelan-Pressly Funeral Home and Crematory is assisting the family. The body has been donated to the Department of Anatomy at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be to the Development Association of Rock Island, United Way of the Quad Cities Area or Two Rivers United Methodist Church.

He was born in Rock Island on Dec. 6, 1929, and was educated in Rock Island public schools. He earned a bachelor's degree from Northwestern University School of Business and also attended Naval Officer's Candidate School.

He was the son of Rock Island dentist Charles W. Motz and Marjorie Walker Motz. In 1952, he married Ruth Marie Sloan, who had grown up in Sioux City, Iowa, and later taught school in Brooklyn and Davenport. She preceded him in death, as did a mentally handicapped son, Steven, who died at the age of 25.

Surviving is their daughter, Nancy (Steve) Horrell, who retired after having taught for more than three decades for the Highland (Illinois) School District. They have two grown children, Daniel and Katie Horrell, and two grandchildren, Bentley and Hensley Horrell. His brother, Robert W. Motz, resides in Rock Island with his wife, Katie Steinke.

The Motzes spent their lives in Rock Island except for several years during the Korean War when they lived on the island of Guam and at Great Lakes Naval Training Center.

Richard Motz spent his entire working career in the real estate and insurance business. He joined the business in 1951 with his uncle, Ray Walker. The firm, founded by Mr. Motz's grandfather Walker in 1902, later changed its name to Oakwood Realty.

Mr. Motz co-developed a subdivision and built several houses that he designed for sale. He later found his niche in office buildings, starting with the Safety Building in 1965 and the Cleveland Building (now the Plaza Office Building) in 1975. Because this was at a time when the downtown area was in decline, citizens credit him with being a key player in the eventual revitalization of downtown Rock Island and the preservation of historic buildings.

His leadership roles included serving as president or chairman of the Rock Island Association of Insurance Agents, Rock Island Board of Realtors, board of trustees and administrative board of First United Methodist Church (now Two Rivers United Methodist Church), Rock Island Downtown Council, Downtown 2000 Steering Committee, Rock Island Community Chest and United Way of Rock Island County. He played a key role in the merging of the United Ways on the Illinois side of the river and then on both sides. He was one of the founders of the Development Association of Rock Island (DARI).

Honors bestowed on him include being the first to receive the Rock Island awards as Realtor of the Year, Citizen of the Year and the traveling trophy for The Most Faithful to his Community. He was a recipient of the Rotary Club's award for Distinguished Community Service.

He was an avid boater on his own boats and in traveling on commercial boats throughout the U.S., Canada and European waterways. His death ensures the inception of a trust created by Mr. and Mrs. Motz to provide annual support to his survivors, his church and his community.

Online condolences may be left at wheelanpressly.com.
The nation sees its giant neighbour -- and largest trading partner -- as its biggest foreign policy preoccupation, with border wars and controversial China-backed mega-projects topping the agenda.

The new civilian administration, sworn in on March 30, faces a host of economic challenges as it inherits the government of the impoverished nation from the military.

It also faces tensions with the military which ruled for almost half a century.

Suu Kyi, for decades the standard-bearer of the democracy movement and now foreign minister, invited China's Wang Yi for talks in the capital Naypyidaw.

At a press conference afterwards she described relations as "very important politically as well as socially and economically".

Wang said his government was eager to "build more confidence" between the nations and vowed that China would support Myanmar's process of national reconciliation.

"China is a good neighbour to Myanmar. We want to improve the relationship between the two countries," he said through an interpreter.

Beijing was once instrumental in shielding Myanmar's former junta from the full force of international opprobrium while Suu Kyi languished for years under house arrest.

Chinese firms enjoyed a host of juicy business deals with Myanmar's generals and their cronies that were often seen as exploiting the nation's rich natural resources.

But the comfortable relationship was thrown into upheaval under the last quasi-civilian government of Thein Sein.

In 2011 he shocked the international community by suspending the multi-billion dollar China-backed Myitsone hydropower project in war-torn Kachin state.

Fighting in the border region of Kokang last year between the Myanmar army and local rebels with links to China also strained relations.

Analysts say both nations want to rebalance the relationship after Myanmar's historic November elections that saw millions of voters take to the polls to end the military's domination.

"The new government recognises China's importance but will also be keen to recalibrate aspects of the two countries' relations," said Nyantha Maw Lin, of advisory firm Vriens and Partners.

- Huge investor -With a cumulative total of $15.4 billion of approved investments in Myanmar, China is by far its largest foreign investor, despite reforms in recent years that have seen Western firms surge back.

Its interests range from a huge oil and gas pipeline and special economic zone, to dams and mining. Chinese firms have continued to win major contracts in recent months.

The two countries share a long border, along parts of which ethnic minority rebel groups are fighting Myanmar's government. The frontier also sees huge flows of illicit timber, drugs and jade flood north from Myanmar.

Yun Sun from the Stimson Center's East Asia Program said discussions were likely to focus on China's role in Myanmar's peace process as well as in its economic development.

Suu Kyi, who met President Xi Jinping during a visit to Beijing last June, has shown a pragmatic streak in dealing with Chinese interests.

But in a rare sign of pushback, a top party economic adviser in March said the incoming government could rethink the Myitsone project despite China's eagerness to see it restarted.

The meeting between Suu Kyi and her Chinese counterpart comes amid growing tension between her party and the military.

Suu Kyi is barred from the presidency by the junta-era constitution. But her National League for Democracy party wants to push a bill through parliament that would give her the vaguely defined new role of state special adviser.

Army MPs, who make up a quarter of the legislature, slammed the bill at a dramatic lower house hearing Tuesday that saw the uniformed soldiers refuse to vote. They stood in protest when their attempts at amendments were swatted away by the NLD, which holds a majority.

"It is difficult for the military representatives to continue participating if (the bill) is voted through without review," military MP Brigadier General Maung Maung told the chamber.

The bill needs only one more vote in the combined parliament to pass.
Symply has come out of stealth mode, to specialise in complex rich-media storage.

An employee-owned storage design company with locations in Los Angeles, New York and London, Symply designs, engineers and supports storage solutions, working closely on development and production with technology partner Promise Technology."Symply is a different kind of startup. We started with a well-defined goal and product direction, and then brought together a team of proven experts to deliver real storage solutions to the most pressing problems that creative teams face today; and we do it in a new, innovative way," explained Alex Grossman, CEO of Symply In addition to Symply products, Symply has assumed all sales and field engineering responsibilities for Promise Technology's current rich-media product line throughout the Americas, the UK, France and Germany. Promise Technology will cover sales and support for rich media product lines in all other world regions."This partnership is the dream team of talent for creating rich media storage," said James Lee, CEO of Promise Technology. "The executives at Symply aren't just experienced in the category; they helped create it. They have great vision about what the rich media market needs and the future technical direction. We're absolutely thrilled to team up. The ultimate winner is anyone working with video."
Property details:

5 ACRES HUGE RANCH PROPERTY IN INYO COUNTY CALIFORNIA This HUGE Property is beside North Haiwee Reservoir it is a reservoir located just 26.6 miles from Lone Pine, in Inyo County, in the state of California, United States, near Grant, CA. Whether youre spinning, bait casting or fly fishing your chances of getting a bite here are good. So grab your favorite fly fishing rod and reel, and head out to North Haiwee Reservoir. The Big Reservoir its been closed. A security assessment conducted by...

Price: $ 4,050 Seller State of Residence: California Location: 928**, Orange, California

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Property details:

Welcome to the of Twentynine Palms FIVE ACRES Short Drive to Palm Springs No Minimum / No Reserve High Bid Owns the Property THE AREA: The lot for sale is located in the City of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County in Southen California just a short one hour drive from Los Angeles and minutes from Palm Springs and the resort area of Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear Lake. Palm Springs, located just 30 miles southwest is a preferred destination of travelers from all over the world. Nestled at the ...

Price: $ 2,525 Seller State of Residence: Florida Property Address: Pole Line Road Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Location: , Twentynine Palms, California

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In late March, the Philippine Commission on Elections website was defaced in an Anonymous op, and a few days later, Lulzsec Pilipinas dumped its voter database. At the time, the Commission claimed that no sensitive information was exposed in the breach, but that is clearly not the case.

The breach contains the records of 1.3m overseas Philippines voters, including their passport details; it also includes 15.8m fingerprints.

The Anonymous defacement op criticized the commission for its lax security and called on it to improve its operations prior to the May 9 elections.

"Our research showed that massive records of PII, including fingerprints data were leaked. Included in the data COMELEC deemed public was a list of COMELEC officials that have admin accounts," the firm said in a blog post. "Based on our investigation, the data dumps include 1.3 million records of overseas Filipino voters, which included passport numbers and expiry dates. What is alarming is that this crucial data is just in plain text and accessible to everyone. Interestingly, we also found a whopping 15.8 million records of fingerprints and a list of people running for office since the 2010 elections."

Data Protection Mishap Leaves 55M Philippine Voters at Risk

[Trend Micro]





Every Voter in Philippines Exposed in Mega Hack

[Phil Muncaster/Infosecurity]

(via Gizmodo)
Property details:

Vacant Land in Mobile, Mobile County, Alabama! Item Id: Richardson01 Case Name: Richardson, John & Rhonda Case Number: 14 02675 Trustee: Description: Estate's interest in 0.17 acres of vacant land in Mobile, Alabama near Ladd-Peebles Stadium. The property is located at 605 Rickarby Street, Mobile, AL 36606. The status of water, power, sewer and utilities is unknown. The APN# is R022910282005027 and the Account # is 926467. The legal description is 'Lot 13 Blk 3 Rickarby Place DBK 116P208 #Sec 28...

Price: $ 999 Seller State of Residence: Alabama Property Address: 605 Rickarby Street City: Mobile Type: Homesite, Lot Zoning: Residential Zip/Postal Code: 36606 Location: 366**, Mobile, Alabama

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NYC real estate had been greatly impacted by the release of the Panama Papers. The leak revealed millions of documents from the illegal offshore law firm Mossack Fonseca. It had already led to the resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland, and had revealed the shady offshore transactions of the likes of Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif and the Russian President Vladmir Putin.

An analysis of another set of files released by the ICJI had revealed at least five companies with NYC connections. They were Stonehenge Partners, the Witkoff Group, Hiro Real Estate, M1 Real Estate, some members of the Nakash Family, and New York Wheel project investor. NYC real estate group Witkoff's most well-known projects included the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, the 91-unit West Village condominium at 150 Charles Street, and the Woolworth Building on Madison Square West. Stonehenge Partners managed over 3,000 units across the city, according to a feature from NY Curbed.

The Panama Papers were released when an anonymous source gave away the data to German publication Suddeutsche Zeitung a few years ago. The paper shared the information with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists which subsequently sent the information to various major publications.

The Panama papers, also popular by the name Offshore Leaks Database, documented at least 30 years of transactions, all related to two offshore fund leaks. These leaks are from Commonwealth Trust Limited, a British Virgin Islands company, and Portcullis TrustNet located in Singapore. Both of these corporations specialize in improving the wealthy's assets through setting up secret accounts and offshore entities, according to a feature from The Real Deal.

Doing business offshore is legal. While the entities involved in the leak are often used to evade international sanctions, evade taxes, and hide assets, there legitimate reasons why maintaining one is beneficial. on top of all legal reasons, investment diversification, personal and private estate planning, and legal tax exemption are the most popular.
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.
The race is on.

Who will it be? Redding or Chico? Which community will get the North State's first Dunkin' Donuts?

Doughnut fans are fired up with last week's news that Dunkin' Donuts wants to open 10 new stores over the next few years in Redding, Chico, Yreka and Eureka  part of the doughnut giant's plans to open nearly 30 new locations in California.

Locally, there hasn't been this much buzz since Krispy Kreme, the once darling of the doughnut world, was going to build a store on Dana Drive in Redding in 2004. Krispy Kreme backed off of those plans and today the location, between Outback Steakhouse and Chase Bank, is a Panda Express.

I got the chance last week to speak over the phone with Patrick Cunningham, senior director of franchising of Dunkin' Brands Inc., and Michael Sessler, who's with Far North Ventures, the franchisee that will develop and operate Dunkin' Donut stores in the North State.

Sessler told me that right now the plan is to open locations in Redding and Chico first before going farther north. And like Krispy Kreme, Far North is thinking Chico first. That location would open in 2017.

"The first two or three would be in Chico and Redding," Sessler said. "We were just up there last Friday (April 1) and looked at a couple of locations in Chico."

Chico also got the first Trader Joe's, the first Panera Bread and the first Buffalo Wild Wings. Redding is still waiting for the latter two chains to arrive.

Sessler's group has some investors in the Chico-Redding area, so they are familiar with the market and like the fact it's along the Interstate 5 corridor and believe the area is ripe for franchise growth.

The group is no stranger to food chains. They also own Zpizza, a Newport Beach-based chain with about 100 locations, including restaurants in the greater Sacramento area.

As for what a Dunkin' Donuts might look like, Cunningham said they would like a drive-through. The store could be a stand-alone building or part of a shopping center.

"But as we enter an area, we want to seek that free-standing store with a drive-through," Cunningham said.

On average, Dunkin' Donuts stores employ 20 people.

Meanwhile, Michael Garrett, who co-owns Heavenly Donuts in Redding and has been in the business for more than 25 years, welcomes the arrival of Dunkin' Donuts.

"Competition always makes you better," Garrett said.

Garrett and his brother, Roger, opened Winchell's Donuts in 1989, and in 2002 they purchased more locations in the Pacific Northwest. Two years later, Winchell's was sold to Yum Yum Donuts. The changed disappointed the Garretts, so they cut ties with the franchise and rebranded their shops as Heavenly Donuts in 2008. It also was a way to keep the franchise fees they were paying local, Michael Garrett said.

They also have two locations in Portland, Oregon; and shops in Gladstone, Oregon; Lacey, Washington; and Longview, Washington.

The Garretts remodeled their Redding store at Shasta and Pine streets about a year ago.

"We remodeled in anticipation of Krispy Kreme coming to town; Dunkin' Donuts coming to town, we knew that was eventually going to happen. So we put more money into our stores," Michael Garrett said.

MINIMUM WAGE

Dunkin' Donuts has had its eye on the California market and planning for its ambitious expansion for years.

So the fact last week's announcement by Dunkin' that it will open nearly 30 new locations in California over the next few years with an ultimate goal of opening more than 1,000 came on the same day Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation raising the state's minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2022 was coincidence.

Still, when I spoke with Patrick Cunningham, of Dunkin' Brands, and Michael Sessler, of Far North Ventures, the franchisee that will open Dunkin' stores in the North State, I asked them if the pay hike will affect their plans.

Cunningham, as the company's director of franchising, said that is not an area he gets involved with, so he did not have an answer.

Sessler, though, said minimum wage, of course, impacts everybody in the service industry, where many minimum-wage jobs are plentiful. But he is still bullish on the Golden State.

"It has impacted us more from an operational perspective," Sessler said. "We have to work on our efficiencies. We have to provide good service and food quality without adding any additional labor. We just have to be very mindful about some of the systems we put in place and some operational decisions."

UNCORKING A LEGACY

Moseley Family Cellars last weekend uncorked its first of what it hopes is many legacy release wines.

The family-owned winery honored Chris and Erin Resner, who own the Dutch Bros. kiosks in Redding, Palo Cedro and Anderson, by naming its first special release after the family. The Resners and their two children were at the winery last Sunday to celebrate the release, a 2008 cabernet sauvignon.

"Dutch Bros. gives so much to the community. Any time anybody asks them for anything, the answer is always yes," Moseley Family Cellars co-owner Mimi Moseley said. "They have been in the past  and they will be in the future  such a great example for hundreds of people. Some of the nicest kids in Redding work for Dutch Bros."

Chris Resner told me his family is humbled.

"It is such an honor because we feel the Moseleys, in of themselves, they are pillars in our community and they really have a heart for our community," he said. "For them to acknowledge us, we thought it was a pretty cool honor.

"It's a privilege to have the first legacy release named after our family."

The wine is made from Napa Valley grapes. The winery produced 300 bottles that sell for $100 apiece.

Moseley Family Cellars is at 4712 Mountain Lakes Blvd. in North Redding. Go to moseleyfamilycellars.com for more information.

THE BUSINESS OF POLITICS

If you follow Matt Doyle, general manager at Lake Shasta Caverns, on Facebook, you saw his recent post. And it sounds like Doyle has political ambitions.

Sure enough, Doyle told me last week that he wants to make a run in 2018 for District 1 State Assembly, a seat currently held by Brian Dahle.

I spoke to Doyle at last week's Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association Tourism Summit. He's frustrated and upset because he thinks politicians are ignoring small businesses.

"I have no say in it," Doyle said. "Where was my voice in the minimum wage?"

The post was a trial balloon and Doyle is encouraged by the feedback.

"I was surprised by the resounding support I received," Doyle said.

Stay tuned.

Reporter David Benda can be reached at 225-8219 or david.benda@redding.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidBenda_RS.
SHARE This photo provided by George Mason & Salli Slaughter shows Jim Harrison at his home in Patgonia, Ariz. Harrison, the fiction writer, poet, outdoorsman and reveler who wrote with gruff affection for the country's landscape and rural life and enjoyed mainstream success in middle age with his historical saga "Legends of the Fall," died Saturday, March 26, 2016. He was 78. (George Mason & Salli Slaughter/Courtesy of The Authors Road via AP)

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP)  Here are some things to know about Jim Harrison, who died Saturday at age 78:

PROLIFIC WRITER

He wrote nearly 40 books, most famously "Legends of the Fall," and was an accomplished fiction writer, poet and essayist. Besides "Legends of the Fall," a collection of three novellas, his books included the novels "Dalva" and "The Big Seven" and the poetry collection "Plain Song."

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FAMOUS FRIENDS

His author friends included Tom McGuane and Phil Caputo, and he was close to Jack Nicholson, whose loan of $15,000 enabled him to finish "Legends of the Fall." He met Nicholson through McGuane, who wrote the screenplay for the 1976 Nicholson-Marlon Brando movie "The Missouri Breaks." Others he met in Hollywood included Warren Beatty, Sean Connery and Orson Welles.

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ENDLESSLY QUOTABLE

He lived hard and was endlessly quotable, beginning his poem "Barking" with the lines: The moon comes up/The moon goes down/This is to inform you/that I didn't die young." A sign outside his farm in Michigan read: "DO NOT ENTER THIS DRIVEWAY UNLESS YOU HAVE CALLED FIRST. THIS MEANS YOU."

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BEARDED AND BURLY

Fans knew him not just for his bulky physique and copious facial hair but for his blind left eye, injured at age 7 when a neighborhood girl jammed a bottle in his face. He joked that some mistook him for Nicholson's bodyguard. A Paris Review story from 1988 noted he also had been likened to a beer salesman and a sumo wrestler.

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HOLLYWOOD CREDITS

His screenplay credits included the film version of "Legends of the Fall," which starred Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins. While working on movies, he reminded himself of his marginal status in Hollywood by inscribing a putdown from an executive, "You're just a writer," on a piece of paper and taping it above his desk.
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By KRYSTA FAURIA, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP)  The coffee obsession has reached a new peak: You can now know the altitude at which the beans used for your morning cup of java were grown.

Spurred by the popularity of boutique coffee purveyors, Starbucks and other chains are taking steps to appeal to the growing ranks of coffee aficionados. They are experimenting with different roasting and brewing techniques, while providing more information about the origins of their customers' favorite brew.

That includes where the coffee is from, as well as how and when it was roasted.

At Augie's coffee shop in Redlands, California, bags of coffee list the elevation at which the coffee was grown. A higher altitude is said to lead to a fruitier and more complex flavor.

While Starbucks Corp. isn't offering that level of detail yet, the Seattle-based chain has been working to burnish its reputation. It opened a high-end retail "Reserve Roastery" near its headquarters in 2014.

The company is also offering more coffee from a single origin, rather than the blends most Americans are familiar with. And it recently began using the "Clover" brewing system that it says helps extract the optimal flavor for every cup.

For iced coffee, it also switched to "cold brew" rather than merely brewing hot coffee and chilling it.

The moves by Starbucks come as smaller chains have touted techniques like "nitro brew," which infuses nitrogen gas to create a creamier coffee, and "pour over" brewing, which essentially entails pouring hot water over grounds.

"I've really been able to pick up on what real, good coffee tastes like," said Bekah Stoneking while drinking a nitro brew at Back Alley Coffee Roasters in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Chris Vigilante, the founder and CEO of Vigilante Coffee, was experimenting with roasting methods in a basement a few years ago and travels the world to hand-select beans. Vigilante Coffee has several locations throughout the Washington, D.C., area and his coffee is distributed nationwide.

The popularity of a new wave of smaller chains was enough that another major chain, Peet's, last year acquired Stumptown, based in Portland, Oregon, and Intelligentsia, based in Chicago. Both helped generate interest in different brewing methods and coffee origins.

"We want to offer different experiences to people through different concepts like Stumptown and Intelligentsia so we capture more than our fair share of all these new consumers, these 18 to 34-year-olds, that are coming very aggressively, very passionately into coffee," said Peet's CEO David Burwick.

Even Dunkin' Donuts, which has an everyman image, introduced a dark roast coffee in late 2014 in nod to changing tastes.

"This is a trend you can't ignore if you're one of those chains," said Duane Stanford, editor of industry tracker Beverage Digest.

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Gillian Flaccus contributed from Long Beach, California. Terry Chea contributed from Alameda, California. Alex Sanz contributed from Atlanta. Allen Breed contributed from Wake Forest, North Carolina.
SHARE Anthony Warren Chambers Date of birth: Jan. 20, 1996 Vitals: 5 feet, 9 inches; 120 pounds; brown hair, blue eyes Charge: Vehicle theft Jamie Lynn Glover Date of birth: April 30, 1989 Vitals: 5 feet, 7 inches; 160 pounds; blond hair, hazel eyes Charge: Receiving known stolen property Kenneth William Griffis Date of birth: July 28, 1970 Vitals: 5 feet, 10 inches; 165 pounds; brown hair, brown eyes Charge: Possessing controlled substance for sale Kathleen Ann McHatton Date of birth: Oct. 23, 1970 Vitals: 5 feet, 3 inches; 125 pounds; blond hair, blue eyes Charge: Grand theft

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.

As of Friday a total of 584 arrests have been made through the Most Wanted program since it began in 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.

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. Tips can be provided anonymously at 530-243-2319 or at www.scsecretwitness.com/home/submit-a-tip.

Anyone with information also can call SHASCOM at 245-6540. The feature appears Sundays in the Record Searchlight's Northern California section and on Redding.com.
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By Damon Arthur of the Redding Record Searchlight

Lake Shasta business owners love a full lake.

But Matt Doyle worries that because Lake Shasta is nearly 90 percent full this year the issues important when the lake was low will now be given a lower priority.

One of the more significant issues facing Lake Shasta business owners in recent years has been the proposal to raise the height of Shasta Dam.

"We are afraid the issue is on the back burner now that we have water," said Doyle, general manager of Lake Shasta Caverns and president of the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association.

But the proposal still hangs over businesses that would be required to move to higher ground if the dam is raised 18 1/2 feet as proposed. Raising the height of the dam would make the lake about 14 percent larger.

The four candidates for Shasta County supervisor District 4, which includes the lake, all said if the dam is raised, looking out for the businesses and residents around the lake would be a priority.

The Record Searchlight recently asked each of the candidates whether they supported raising the dam, what needs to be done to address impacts on businesses, residents and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe and what role the Board of Supervisors should play in the issue.

Doyle said a majority of the members of the Shasta Lake Business Owners Association agreed to support raising the height of the dam because it would increase the amount of water in the lake, and they received assurances that they would be reimbursed for all relocation or buyout costs associated with increasing the lake level.

It's been four years since the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation issued a draft feasibility report on the proposal, and more than six months since the release of a final version of that report and an accompanying environmental impact statement.

Since the feasibility report was finalized last year, the bureau has been putting together the administrative record, preparing a draft biological assessment and meeting with potential cost share partners, said Shane Hunt, a spokesman for the bureau.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said the project was feasible from an engineering standpoint but there were several unresolved issues that prevented the secretary of the interior from recommending the project go forward.

The outstanding issues cited in the final feasibility report included the following:

Finding alternate nonfederal sources of money to pay the $1.3 billion cost of the project. Typically the federal government fronts the cost of the project and water agencies repay the money over 40 or 50 years, but the feasibility report says that is "unrealistic" for the dam-raising project because of federal budget constraints.

The bureau is supposed to consult with California officials on raising the height of the dam, but a California law prohibits the state from participating in any project that would impact the McCloud River, which flows into the lake. The McCloud has special status under state law as a wild trout stream.

There are endangered plants and animals that would be affected by the project. Nonfederal agencies that help pay for the dam raising would also have to cover the cost of complying with state and federal endangered species laws. That could include doing work to offset impacts to endangered plants and animals.

With no resolution on those issues in sight, Doyle said the lack of action on the proposal has weighed on business owners as the process has dragged on for years.

"We want a decision, one way or the other. We have been on hold for a long time," he said.

Bill Schappell

Bill Schappell, seeking re-election to represent District 4, said that in light of the disruption to businesses and other property owners around the lake, he could not support the proposal to raise the height of Shasta Dam.

The 74-year-old former Lake Shasta marina owner said the lake only fills once every four years on average, making the project not worth the expense. While the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation estimates it would cost about $1.3 billion to raise the dam, Schappell said it is likely to cost more than that.

"I think the product they receive once they raise the dam is not going to be that beneficial," Schappell said.

Much of Lakeshore Drive in Lakehead would be inundated, and railroad tracks and bridges in the area would need to be removed and rebuilt above the higher water line, he said.

"It's going to disrupt the whole Lakehead community," he said.

He said building Sites Reservoir in western Glenn County would be a better solution to providing more water storage in the North State.

The Shasta County Board of Supervisors can raise questions about the project and provide support or opposition, but beyond that there is little it can do because the project is proposed by a federal agency.

Wally St. Clair

Wally St. Clair said the only way he could support raising the height of Shasta Dam would be if all the affected parties are "made whole."

"I realize we could use more water storage, but at the same time, as a supervisor for the district I would be more concerned about what the effects would be on businesses overall, tribal concerns and overall tourism for Shasta Lake," said St. Clair, 72, a retired manager of the Redding J.C. Penney store

He said business owners, other property owners, tourism and cultural issues surrounding the Winnemem Wintu Tribe would need to be dealt with before he could support the dam, he said.

Higher lake levels from a higher dam would force many businesses and property owners to close or move to higher ground. Owners of businesses and property would have to be fully compensated for moving or closing, he said.

He said he isn't sure what could be done to offset the loss of ceremonial sites important to the Winnemem.

He said the supervisors could stress to federal officials the importance of addressing the issues affecting residents and businesses around the lake.

If the bureau can't adequately address those issues, he also would be willing to look at Sites Reservoir as an alternate.

Walter Albert

Walter Albert said raising the height of Shasta Dam would be good for the businesses and residents around the lake.

"I really don't think there is a reason at this point not to say yes to it," Albert said.

Walter Albert, 47, is a self-employed business consultant and board member of the Columbia School District.

Raising the dam would be a boon to the local economy by bringing in possibly hundreds of jobs during construction, he said.

"Economically, I think it would be great for Shasta County," he said. "On the whole I think it would be a good project."

He said he would want to see the businesses and residents living near the lake compensated for the cost of closing or moving their businesses, but the benefits would outweigh the expense.

After construction on the dam is complete the lake would potentially be larger and a bigger draw for the tourism industry, he said.

As for inundating sites culturally important to the Winnemem on the McCloud River, he said he hoped the tribe could adjust and perhaps hold ceremonies in new locations.

"Hopefully, they could adjust and move a little bit," he said.

The Board of Supervisors should promote the dam raising and the tourism benefits once it is finished, he said.

"How can we, at a local level, embrace it and use it to our advantage?" Albert said.

Steve Morgan

Steve Morgan said he could not support raising the height of Shasta Dam because there are too many negatives and not enough benefits.

"I just don't see any useful purpose for it," said Morgan, 72, a semiretired electrician. He also said he thought Sites Reservoir in western Glenn County is a better answer to storing more water than raising Shasta Dam.

"I just think Sites Reservoir is a better idea," he said.

If the nonfederal water agencies pay for the cost of the project, as the Bureau of Reclamation has suggested, Morgan said he worries those agencies will have more control over how the water in the lake is used.

He was also concerned about sites culturally important to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe along the McCloud Arm of the lake being inundated by the higher lake level.

"The Indians have a lot of sacred land too. If the dam is raised it could put that all under water," Morgan said.

With environmental and cultural issues left unresolved, Morgan said he predicted the project could spur lawsuits to try to stop it.

As for the Board of Supervisors' role, he said it could become involved in writing letters and circulating petitions that could be submitted to members of Congress and other federal officials.
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When Redding's City Council last week approved deals with two of its employee units, the cost to taxpayers rose.

Although this page remains deeply concerned about the cost of public employee compensation  particularly pension obligations  in the city, the council's decision Tuesday night was the right thing to do in both cases.

The bigger question is the future of such bargaining, and the outsized influence public employee unions still wield. We'll come back to that.

In the case of the 21 Redding Electric Utility positions, the raises add up to 7.5 percent (in three increments of 2.5 percent each). These technical positions at the utility are not where the city should be pinching its pennies on salary.

REU keeps the lights on in Redding, and it hasn't been able to hire for key positions because it isn't competitive with big players like PG&E. This is more of a business question than a labor negotiation question. If the city's going to run an electric company, it needs to pay what it takes to hire and keep technical talent.

Although it's not a big financial difference, we do like the fact that the new deal with the REU employees requires those that remain eligible for a supplemental retirement plan to pay into it for themselves. The Public Agency Retirement System, offered by a private organization and rather deceptively named to sound like the California Public Employees' Retirement System, is a layer on top of an already generous retirement that cities can ill afford to fund.

The other agreement ratified by the council was with a group of about 200 employees who carry on much of the day-to-day work of running the city. The clerical, technical and professional unit of the Redding Independent Employees' Organization was among the first to step up and make concessions during the Great Recession and in the wake of the passage of Measures A and B.

The deal eliminates their furlough Fridays, bringing them back to work regular 40-hour weeks every week, but also restoring 10 percent of their pay as of June 5. And it comes with an additional 2.5 percent raise. At the same time, it phases in their own responsibility for covering the 7 percent contribution to Cal PERS that is known as the "employee contribution"  the objective of Measure A.

The RIEO deal also improves the retirement health benefit for a whole class of employees who were otherwise going to have to pay 100 percent of their post-retirement premiums to stay on the city plan. But that just brings them in line with all the other units, and recognizes the fact that they took the first and deepest cut in that area and don't deserve to be stuck with it. We agree that's only fair.

Still, these two sentences from the staff report recommending the deals to the council are quite striking:

"With the successful completion of the RIEO contract negotiations, the City Council's goals of implementing Measure A (employees' payments to CalPERS) and Measure B will have been attained for this employee group.

"The City will be realizing a net increase in cost of approximately $241,000 on an ongoing basis."

When voters overwhelmingly passed those two measures, just over five years ago, they were fed up with the cost of government and what they perceived as the contrast between their own economic pain and the more comfortable compensation plans funded by their taxes.

Did they really believe they were voting for "a net increase in cost"?

We don't think so. There's a reason that so often, when the city makes decisions that are basically rational and prudent, they end up increasing the cost of government.

That reason is that public employee unions have been able to wield enormous power throughout the state and have created a kind of compensation ratchet  it only goes one direction.

When the Supreme Court, missing Justice Antonin Scalia, deadlocked recently on a case that would have shaken public unions to their core, it ensured that the system that's in place today will stay for the foreseeable future. Especially in California, where those interests are the strongest.
'The government and the court have to interfere and stop both fireworks and elephants at festivals.'

IMAGE: People at the damaged section of the Puttingal temple in Kollam, Kerala after the fire, April 10, 2016, was extinguished. A huge fire swept through the temple, killing over 100 people. Photograph: Sivaram V/Reuters

V S Jayakumar is the Secretary of the Travancore Devaswom Board and a former executive officer at the Sabarimala shrine.

His brother V S Sivakumar is Kerala's health and Dewasom minister. Most temples in Kerala are managed by Dewasoms, and the Travancore Dewasom Board is perhaps the most influential.

In this exclusive interview, Jayakumar tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com about Sunday morning's horrific tragedy at the Puttingal temple near Kollam, Kerala, which claimed over a hundred lives.

What precautions must a temple in Kerala follow if it plans to organise fireworks of large proportions?

It is very rare that temples have fireworks competition as part of a temple festival. What it means is there are more than one or two people in the competition and they burst fireworkers one after another like in any other competition.

Even if it is a competition, it is the duty of the temple authorities to follow all the safety norms strictly.

First and foremost, they should have a large open space to conduct the fireworks. Then, they should have proper godowns that are safe enough to store explosives.

For this, they have to have the permission of the district authorities beforehand. Only after that, can they even store the explosives.

After the temple puts forward an application asking for permission, the district collector would order an inspection. Only after that would s/he issue a license.

If s/he finds the place unsafe, s/he would reject the application.

Did this temple have the permission to organise such huge fireworks?

What I understand is the district collector had rejected the application. That means the temple had organised the fireworks without permission.

Does this temple come under the Travancore Devaswom Board? Many reports say even the Devaswom Board office is fully damaged.

This temple does not come under the Travancore Devaswom Board. We do not have an office in the temple premises, as it is a privately run temple.

If it is a privately run temple, won't the Devswom Board oversee what is happening in such temples?

There are 1,250 temples under the administration of the Devaswom Board. We can only look after the management of these temples.

Other than the 1,250 temples that are under the Board, there are many temples in Kerala run by individuals or trusts.

The Devaswom Board cannot directly get involved in the functioning of privately run temples. But if we see mismanagement, we have the authority to take them over.

Does that mean when something like this happens, the Devaswom Board can take over the temple, citing mismanagement?

We can only take over a temple when there is mismanagement in the functioning. This is different.

What has happened is the temple organised something without getting proper permission from the district administration or the government.

Here, only the government can take legal action against the temple authorities.

Usually in temples, a committee will be formed to oversee temple festivals, especially fireworks.

Who is responsible for this lapse -- the temple authorities or those who conducted the fireworks competition?

I will hold the temple authorities more responsible because they are the people who submit the application for permission.

The district authorities give licenses or permission to the temple and not to the person who is organising the fireworks.

In this case, they have not got a proper license to hold fireworks of such magnitude.

Do you see corruption in this action? Or is it lack of proper knowledge or just negligence?

I will not say they didn't have proper knowledge as they had given an application to the district administration for a license.

If they have gone ahead even after getting a letter that the application had been rejected and that it was illegal to organise fireworks, I would say they didn't care about rules and regulations.

What kind of punishment will they get for this action?

Only the government can take only legal action. The Devaswom Board can only see to it that the next time when they organise something, these people are not included in it.

Other than that, we cannot have any direct involvement in the temple.

Is it safe to have fireworks in a place where many thousands of people assemble? Should Kerala think twice about this tradition?

The time has come to think about such rituals that are followed in the name of tradition.

It is not about one temple, but about many temples that follow this. This has to be stopped in all the temples in Kerala.

You cannot deny permission to one temple and allow it in another, which leads to the feeling that there is a shortcoming in the way that that particular temple is run.

A total ban on fireworks is necessary.

The same rethinking is necessary in the case of having elephants at temple festivals.

The government and the court have to interfere and stop both fireworks and elephants at festivals.

If you ban something that happens only in temples, won't it be looked at as interfering in the affairs of a religious community?

That's why I said it should be banned in the entire Kerala, not just in a few temples.
Amid mounting pressure, United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday released his personal tax returns and ordered a new taskforce to probe tax-dodging allegations in a bid to defuse the Panama Papers row over his investment in his late fathers offshore business.

Cameron, who became the first British leader to document his financial affairs due to the unprecedented move, paid almost 76,000 (Rs 71.4 lakh) in tax on an income of more than 200,000 (Rs 1.88 crore) in 2014-15, figures released by the prime minister have shown.

Cameron, 49, earned 46,899 (Rs 44 lakh) from his 50 per cent share of rent on the London family home in Notting Hill, the three-page summary of the prime ministers earnings since 2009 showed.

The disclosure comes hours after Cameron admitted that he could have handled the tax row arising out of the Panama Papers leak better, saying he will imminently publish details of his personal tax affairs.

I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them, he had said.

He also announced a new taskforce to investigate tax-dodging allegations which is unlikely to spare him despite the confession.

The force will be led by the Her Majestys Revenue and Customs tax authority and the National Crime Agency. The taskforce will investigate the leaked files to identify clients of the Panama firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion and publish its findings later this year.

Camerons office confirmed he had received two gifts of about $160,000 (Rs 1.06 crore) each from his mother in 2011. That was the year after the prime ministers father died and those gifts did not appear on his income tax returns.

British newspapers questioned whether the gifts were an effort to avoid paying inheritance tax on his late fathers estate. Camerons office declined further comment on the gifts.

The Panama Papers revelations have sparked political reaction around the world, including India, where high-profile figures have been implicated for tax avoidance.

Cameron had been under increasing pressure as he refused to give details of his familys money held offshore in a Caribbean tax haven.

His late father Ian Camerons name is allegedly named in the over 11 million leaked documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca that were shared by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists with 107 media organisations around the world.

According to the Consortium, Ian Cameron used Mossack Fonsecas services to shield profits from his investment fund, Blairmore Holdings Inc, with a series of expensive and complicated arrangements.

Image: Demonstrators hold placards during a protest outside Downing Street in Whitehall, central London. British Prime Minister David Cameron said on Saturday he should have handled scrutiny of his familys tax arrangements better and promised to learn the lessons after days of negative media coverage and calls for his resignation Photograph: Neil Hall/Reuters
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was on Sunday elected as the Janata Dal-United president, a move that would put him in complete command of the party as its seeks to expand beyond the state and prepares for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

His unanimous election to the top post at the partys National Executive meeting brought an end to the decade-old tenure of Sharad Yadav, who had ruled himself out for a fourth term.

It is for the first time that Kumar, JD-Us face in Bihar, has been elected president of the state-centric party. Its two previous presidents -- George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav -- were from outside Bihar, the state they virtually made their political home.

Kumars name was proposed by Yadav and seconded by the partys secretary general K C Tyagi, general secretary Javed Raza, among others, party leaders said following the meeting.

The Bihar chief minister, who made a spectacular return to power last year after his party was bruised and battered in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, told the executive about efforts being made to bring parties with similar ideologies together as he accepted the new responsibility, Tyagi said.

Having spearheaded the Janata Dal-United-Rashtriya Janata Dal-Congress alliance to a massive win over the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance in the last years state assembly polls, his party is in talks with Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal and former Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandis Jharkhand Vikas Morcha for a merger.

A similar merger move to bring together six Janata Parivar outfits including the Samajwadi Party had come to nought last year ahead of the Bihar polls after SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav walked out of the talks and his party contested the state assembly elections on its own.

JD-U sees the next years Uttar Pradesh assembly polls as a major battle before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Tyagi said, as he underlined the importance of the merger attempts to take on BJP.

We stopped them (BJP) in Bihar and we are working to stop them in UP, he said, noting that sweeping the Lok Sabha polls in these two states was the key to the emphatic win of the saffron alliance.

Asked if the JD-U would make another attempt at merger with Samajwadi Party, he noted that Mulayam Singh Yadav as well as Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati had made it clear they will go it alone in the elections.

Party sources said the presence of Kumar, the preeminent party leader, at the helm, will help JD-U make swift moves with regard to alliances and also help position himself as a rallying point for opposition parties against Modi in the Lok Sabha polls.

Humbled by partys trust in me. Will try my best to carry Sharad Yadavs legacy forward and I accept the new role as president of JD-U, Kumar tweeted after his election.

The National Council of the party will meet in Patna on April 23 to ratify Kumars election to the top post.

Kumar praised Yadavs contribution to building the JD-U and said he will continue to be a margdarshak (mentor) to the party.

With speculations over the Rajya Sabha MPs future role, Yadav said he would continue to broaden the base of the party which had no longer remained big.

I will remain what I was earlier... I am in national politics not due to the party, he told reporters earlier in the day at his residence where JD-Us office bearers had met.

A resolution passed at the Executive hailed Yadav, saying he maintained an honourable distance from nepotism, self-glorification and factionalism.

Yadav, one of the founder leaders of the party along with Nitish Kumar, had been at the helm since 2006 and was reelected for a third term in 2013 after the JD-U constitution was amended to allow him a third term in office.

Tyagi said an atmosphere of despondency, similar to the one before the Lok Sabha polls, now prevailed in the country with BJPs pursuit of contentious issues. He called the BJPs alliance with Peoples Democratic Party to form government in Jammu and Kashmir opportunism of the highest order.

BJP under Narendra Modi and Amit Shah is not the party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani, he said.

Hitting out at the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh over its nationalism pitch, Tyagi said the Hindutva outfits head in 1947 had disapproved of the tricolour, saying three (the number of colours in the flag) was an inauspicious number.

Image: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and newly elected JD-U national president being greeted by outgoing party president Sharad Yadav. Photograph: Subhav Shukla/PTI
The country was on Sunday left shocked and saddened as it woke up to the massive temple tragedy in Kerala, with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other leaders and prominent personalities joining the people in mourning the loss of lives in the fire incident.

IMAGE: Locals rush the injured to nearby hospitals for treatment after a massive blaze broke out at the Kollam temple. Photograph: Chandu, TVM

Fire at temple in Kollam is heartrending and shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured, Modi, who visited Kollam, said in a tweet.

President Pranab Mukerjee also conveyed heartfelt condolences on loss of lives in Kerala temple fire.

Praying for the departed souls and well being of the injured, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked Kerala government to ensure ample and immediate relief measures while party vice-president Rahul Gandhi decided to visit Kollam.

Modi said he spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs 2 lakh for the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 for those seriously injured.

While ordering a judicial probe, Chandy also announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to kin of each of those killed in fire tragedy and Rs 2 lakh for seriously injured.

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, Bharatiya Janata Party Chief Amit Shah, chief ministers, governors and leaders of various parties expressed grief over the tragedy.

Very sad news from Kerala. My deepest condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. Prayers for those injured, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted.

Saddened by the Kerala temple fire tragedy. My heartfelt condolences to families of the deceased and prayers with those injured, her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar said on Twitter.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah said his thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. God be with them in this hour of darkness and despair, he tweeted.

Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad too expressed grief at the Kollam temple fire incident saying, heart goes out for the victims and families.

Very sad to hear such tragic news. Prayers with all victims, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a tweet.

At least 100 people were killed and nearly 400 injured in a major fire that broke out in PuttingalDeviTemple complex packed with thousands of people near Kollam in Kerala about 3 am on Sunday during a display of fireworks for which there was no permission from the authorities.

Bollywood too was shaken by the tragedy with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur appealing for control over fire works.

People go to pray and celebrate life. Come away in wake of death and tragedy fireworks getting dangerous and must must be controlled Kollam.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan retweeted emergency helpline numbers following the tragedy.

John Abraham said, Devastated knowing about the innocent lives lost at the Kollam fire, my condolences to their families & prayers for all the injured!

Actress Dia Mirza blamed the tragedy on negligence. When tragedies are struck by human apathy and negligence it makes it so much more painful...so many innocent lives lost. Gutted. Kollam.

Heart goes out to all who lost a loved one in #KollamTempleFire.. deepest condolences. Hope lessons will be learned re firework safety (sic), actor-director Farhan Akhtar said.
Halloween events, fall festivals pack October in Abilene, Big Country

From family-friendly to frightful, there are plenty of opportunities to don the costumes and scare up some treats.
The Reporter-News editorial April 1 brought back memories of a political 'carnival atmosphere' 40 years ago when 'Governor' Jimmy Carter came to Abilene as part of his 1976 presidential campaign to defeat incumbent President Gerald Ford.

It was to be billed as 'Georgia peanut farmer' meets 'West Texas cattlemen' at Abilene Livestock Auction. Advance stories ran for weeks  yes, a 'media dream' in those days, too. Indeed, the former governor also was 'on a roll' then to become the 39th president, something he later did handily.

The '76 visit required weeks of preparation at the auction, especially regarding security for the big facility just off northeast Interstate 20. Beyond security, it also meant 'cleaning up the place' back in the days when cigars and spittoons for tobacco chewers were common in the sale auditorium. But auction officials got the place spic and span.

The Reporter-News did its job of advancing the arrival. The visit was arranged to be on a regular cattle sale day at the auction  some special Hereford cattle were placed in the arena in high anticipated arrival of Carter to the auctioneer's podium that afternoon.

On the big day, the auction auditorium was standing room only, and so with every seat taken, folks sat on the stairways awaiting the Carter arrival. Not just the regular cattlemen, of course, but Abilene and Big Country political leaders.

When the jet landed at the airport, Mr. Strain, who owned the auction, went to the auctioneer's podium and announced Carter had landed in Abilene  the crowd cheered wildly  knowing the airport was close and the governor would arrive shortly.

But then something went horribly wrong.

The Carter entourage drove from the airport straight to the Abilene Civic Center, which had been billed as only a possible 'second' stop if time allowed (in Carter's advance materials).

Meanwhile, the heavy detail of security was spinning gravel tearing out of the auction's big parking lot to head for the Civic Center.

More than half the huge crowd also left the auction in enormous disappointment.

There were a couple of television sets, including one in the adjacent veterinary lab, so some ranchers, cattle buyers and others watched from there. Carter said he had to wind up the Civic Center talk to visit ranchers at Abilene Livestock Auction.

Mr. Strain rushed back to the podium microphone, urging any remaining attendees to stay  that apparently the schedule had simply gotten mixed up in reverse.

Some came back in and sat down in the auditorium.

But those in the lobby soon could see the Carter entourage had returned directly to the airport with its motorcade. And they were gone. Didn't even honk or wave goodbye.

The auction folks, after spending time and money to welcome the Plains, Georgia, peanut grower were outraged and crushed, of course. So were attendees.

While Abilene Livestock Auction had The Associated Press, United Press International, the major television networks and Time magazine on hand awaiting this 'media event, Carter's advisers/staff had 'steered' him to the Civic Center to get local TV coverage. The national media was livid.

The Reporter-News headline followed across the entire front page (with great photos) that ranchers lose out on meeting Carter.

What Gov. Carter said at the Civic Center (which he could have said at any civic center on any given day or week) went on an inside page.

Although many in the auction crowd of 40 years ago have passed, Randy Carson, who went from hardworking teenage employee to part owner, and eventually owner and president of the auction, would still remember it vividly.

Some others probably still are miffed.

Former longtime and award-winning Reporter-News farm editor J.T. Smith lives in Tuscola.
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KYIV -- Ukrainian officials said vile Russian missile strikes on civilian energy sites have caused power outages nationwide, leaving more than a million households without electricity, while Russian authorities ordered residents to leave Kherson "immediately" ahead of an expected effort by Kyivs forces to retake the crucial southern city.

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.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Telegram on October 22 that Russia carried out a "massive attack" on Ukraine overnight and that "the aggressor continues to terrorize our country."



"At night, the enemy launched a massive attack: 36 rockets, most of which were shot down...These are vile strikes on critical objects. Typical tactics of terrorists," he wrote. "The world can and must stop this terror."



Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Zelenskiys office, said Ukrainian air defense forces had shot down 18 of the missiles.



Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a number of missiles had been shot down on the approach to the capital.



"Several rockets flying toward Kyiv were shot down in the region by air defense forces. Thanks to our defenders!" Klitschko said.



There was no immediate word on deaths related to the missile attacks, but officials said several people had been injured.



It was not possible to verify the reports on either side.



In the face of continued Russian strikes, Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba again urged Ukraine's Western allies to speed up the delivery of modern air defense systems.



"We intercepted some, others hit the targets. Air defense saves lives. In [Western] capitals, there should not be a single minute of delay in the decision regarding air defense systems for Ukraine," Kuleba said.



Local officials said power stations were hit in the regions of Odesa, Kirovohrad, and Lutsk, while other regions reported problems with electricity.



"Another rocket attack from terrorists who are fighting against civilian infrastructure and people," the Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, wrote on the Telegram app.



Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a government meeting that from October 10 to October 20, Russian strikes damaged more than 400 facilities in 16 regions of Ukraine, including dozens of energy facilities.



"The Russian Army has identified our energy sector as one of the key targets for its attacks," Shmyhal said on October 21.



"Russian propagandists and officials speak openly about the purpose of all these attacks: Ukraine, according to them, should be left without water, without light, without heat," he said.



Meanwhile, Russian-appointed authorities in the occupied and illegally seized southern Kherson region on October 22 ordered the estimated 60,000 residents of the region's eponymous main city to leave "immediately" in the face of Kyiv's advancing counteroffensive.



"Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank of the Dnieper River," the region's Russia-backed authorities said on social media.

Russina-installed officials are moving people out of the strategic city in what they are calling an evacuation but which Ukrainian officials label as deportations.



The order came in spite of a claim by Russia's Defense Ministry on October 22 that its forces had prevented an attempt by Ukraine to break through its line of control in Kherson.



"All attacks were repulsed, the enemy was pushed back to their initial positions," the Defense Ministry said, adding that Ukraine's offensive was launched toward the settlements of Piatykhatky, Suhanove, Sablukivka and Bezvodne, on the west side of the Dnieper River.



The ministry's statement said Russian forces had also repelled attacks in the eastern regions of Luhansk and Donetsk.



Kherson city, which had a prewar population of 280,000, is one of the first urban areas occupied by Russia at the start of the invasion.



Zelenskiys office said 88 settlements in the southern Kherson region and 551 settlements in the northeastern Kharkiv region have been de-occupied, while the Ukrainian forces' counteroffensive in the Kherson region moves ahead.



Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces in Kherson back east across the Dnieper. 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.



Natalya Humenyuk, a spokeswoman for Ukraines southern operational command, said the Ukrainian military struck the Antonivskiy Bridge over the Dnieper in the city of Kherson during an overnight curfew Russia-installed officials put in place to avoid civilian casualties.



We do not attack civilians and settlements," Humenyuk told Ukrainian television.



Ukrainian strikes made the Antonivskiy Bridge inoperable, prompting Russian authorities to set up ferry crossings and pontoon bridges to relocate civilians and transport supplies.



Russia has sent in thousands of recently mobilized troops to reinforce the defense of Kherson, the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said on October 21.



Zelenskiy again on October 21 urged the West to warn Russia not to blow up a dam at the Nova Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant on the Dnieper River as this could flood settlements toward Kherson.



Zelenskiy said Russian forces had planted explosives inside the dam, which holds back an enormous reservoir, and were planning to blow it up.



"Now everyone in the world must act powerfully and quickly to prevent a new Russian terrorist attack. Destroying the dam would mean a large-scale disaster," he said in his nightly address.

With reporting by Reuters, AFP, AP, and the BBC
Toronto-based Iranian filmmaker Mostafa Azizi who was sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran, has been released, his son, Arash Azizi, said.

Azizi wrote on Twitter on April 9 that his father had been freed from prison after being included in an amnesty.

Azizi was reportedly convicted of charges that included spreading propaganda against the Iranian establishment and insulting Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

The filmmaker had returned to Tehran from Canada to visit his ailing father, and was considering staying when he was arrested in February 2015, his son said.

Rights groups had called for his release.

Based on reporting by AFP and Radio Farda


Iranian opposition figure Mehdi Karrubi, under house arrest since February 2011, has called on President Hassan Rohani to ask the autocratic Iranian establishment for a court hearing.



Iranian authorities put Karrubi and his fellow opposition figures Mir Hossein Musavi along with his wife Zahra Rahnavard under house arrest after they repeatedly challenged Iranian leaders over the 2009 disputed reelection of Mahmud Ahmadinejad.



The three also criticized a post-election state crackdown.



Karrubi, a former parliamentary speaker, and Musavi, a former prime minister, ran as presidential candidates in the 2009 vote. Karrubi was also a presidential candidate in the 2005 presidential election.



In a letter to Rohani, published by an opposition website on April 9, Karrubi said that hes ready to show that the 2005 and 2009 elections that Ahmadinejad won were rigged.



He also said that he would shed light on the plight of prisoners held in Irans legal and illegal detention centers.



Karrubi said hes aware that Rohani does not have the authority to end his house arrest.



Rohani promised in his 2013 election campaign that he would work to end the house arrest of opposition figures.



Iranian hard-liners have accused Musavi and Karrubi of harming the Islamic republic.
Iran's foreign minister says Tehran will not negotiate with the United States over its missile program.

The missile program and "defense capabilities of the Islamic Republic of Iran are not negotiable," said Mohammad Javad Zarif on April 10 after meeting with his Estonian counterpart Marina Kaljurand.

Zarif said the nuclear agreement that was reached between Iran and the United States and other major world powers does not include Tehran's missile program, which Tehran says is only for defense purposes.

Under the nuclear accord reached last year, Iran has significantly limited its sensitive nuclear work in exchange for sanctions relief.

Zarif also said that, if Washington was serious about defensive issues in the Middle East, it should stop providing Israel and Saudi Arabia with arms.

Zarif was reacting to last week's comments by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who said the United States is open to a "new arrangement" with Iran for peacefully resolving disputes over its missile tests.

Kerry said on April 7 that the United States and its allies have told Iran that they are "prepared to work on a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues."

But he said Iran first had to "make it clear to everybody that they are prepared to cease these kinds of activities that raise questions about credibility and questions about intentions."

Zarif accused the U.S. of raising "baseless and and threadbare" accusations against Iran while claiming that some of the U.S. allies in the region were supporting the extremist group Islamic State (IS).

"Kerry should ask U.S. allies who provides [IS] with weapons, who buys the oil and looted antiques of Iraq and Syria from this terrorist group,"Zarif was quoted as saying byIran's government news agency IRNA.

Based on reporting by AP and IRNA


Migrants clashed with Macedonian police on April 10 after they were stopped from scaling a border fence between Macedonia and Greece.

Reports said police used tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber bullets to push back the migrants, who responded by throwing rocks at the officers.

Aid organization Doctors Without Borders said its medical volunteers on site treated some 300 people for breathing problems from the gas, cuts, bruises, and impact injuries from plastic bullets. At least six injured were hospitalized.

Macedonian police said 23 members of the security forces were injured, including five seriously.

The violence occurred near the Idomeni crossing, where more than 11,000 migrants are camped out on the Greek side of the border.

Balkan states closed off the migrant route to northern Europe in mid-February.

The unrest reportedly began after a crowd of 500 people reacted to rumors that the border was about to open.

After the rumor was denied by the Macedonian police, more than a hundred migrants, including children, tried to climb the fence twice but were pushed back as the clashes continued into the afternoon.

The wind brought tear gas fumes into the Idomeni camp where people not involved in the clashes suffered from respiratory problems.

Greek policemen stood by without intervening.

George Kyritsis, a spokesman for migration coordinators in the Greek government, said the use of force by Macedonian police was a "dangerous and deplorable act."

Greek authorities estimate that there are around 53,000 migrants stranded in the country.

Under the EU-Turkey deal, all new migrants crossing from Turkey into Greece from March 20 will be returned to Turkey.

For every Syrian being returned to Turkey from Greece, a Syrian refugee will be resettled from Turkey to the EU.

The agreement has been condemned by rights groups.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service, Reuters, AFP, and AP
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- Turkish TV news anchor Banu Guven said watching her president get grilled on press freedom by CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour hours earlier evoked a sense of schadenfreude.

"It was an amazing experience to see President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan so polite this time," Guven said. "In Turkey, journalists who would ask him those kinds of questions wouldn't be able to have the opportunities to interview him at all."

Guven was speaking outside the trial on April 1 of Can Dundar and Erdem Gul, two high-profile Turkish journalists facing possible life sentences for an expose on Turkey's alleged smuggling of arms to Syria. Local media say Dundar and Gul's case is the most extreme example of a widespread crackdown on a free press.

Dundar, the editor in chief of the opposition Cumhuriyet daily, and Gul, its Ankara bureau chief, published a story in May that claimed that Turkish intelligence was disguising arms as humanitarian aid in a truck en route to Syria. The story suggested that Turkey has been backing rebels with links to the radical Islamist group Islamic State (IS).

Erdogan denied the claim and said the truck was transporting humanitarian supplies to Turkomans in Syria. He accused the two journalists of espionage and they were detained for 92 days before their trial began in late March. In an unusual move, the court proceedings have been sealed to all but lawyers for Dundar and Gul.

'War With The Press'

Last week, CNN interviewer Amanpour told Erdogan, "I don't understand...why you have gone to war with your press." He replied, "I'm not at war with the press."

"My country has laws in place," Erdogan added. "If a member of the press or an executive of a newspaper [is] engaging in espionage, disclosing a country's secrets to the rest of the world, and if this conduct becomes a part of a litigation, a litigation will result in a verdict."

Guven was among hundreds of lawyers, journalists, parliamentarians, and sympathizers who milled in the hallway outside the closed courtroom.

She said she felt the ire of Erdogan's government while interviewing the two accused journalists on her TV news program hours after they were released from custody in February. During the interview, Guven's IMC TV channel was abruptly pulled off satellite broadcaster Turksat. She said the state prosecutor had requested that Turksat stop broadcasting her TV news two days before -- but the yank was unannounced.

"The EU must be well aware of the situation of the press here in Turkey," she said.

Istanbul lawyer Serap Demirtas accused the EU of hypocrisy.

"I believe they are the community of renaissance and reforms," she said. "But with the recent events of the refugees, they prove their hypocrisy.... They are bribing us to keep the refugees in our country."

Bulent Kenes, who founded the English-language Today's Zaman in 2007, said he was working as a columnist at the newspaper's office on the night of March 4, when hundreds of police officers raided it, using water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters. He and other staff were dismissed the next day.

Kenes had served a 21-month suspended jail sentence over insulting Erdogan on Twitter.

"I couldn't concentrate on my duty because every day, every week I had a testimony at the police station, a testimony in the prosecutor's office," he said.

As his trial continues, Kenes said the government had confiscated his passport. Colleagues who were ousted from the Turkish-language Zaman Daily have started a new newspaper called Yarina Bakis, or Look to Tomorrow, but Kenes has not visited its offices because he fears he could incriminate his friends.

Twitter Takedowns

Eylem Yanardagoglu, deputy dean of the Department of New Media at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, said that the Turkish government and press have had a tortured relationship since the Gezi Park protests, a wave of civil unrest that erupted in May 2013 over a plan to convert an open space in central Taksim Square into a mall and luxury apartments. Thousands of Turks demonstrated nationwide against increasing government repression, and police reacted with tear gas, water cannons, and pepper spray, injuring thousands.

At the time, Yanardagoglu said, the government ordered cellular data cut off to mobile phones. Mainstream Turkish TV stations did not cover the protests, she said, pushing demonstrators to rely on foreign reports and social media.

A Twitter report showed that Turkey issued 450 court orders to remove content from the site in 2015, accounting for 93 percent of all such requests worldwide.

Dundar and Gul maintain their innocence. Their next hearing will be on April 22. Dundar's son Ege, 21, said at the court that his father was holding up to the pressure well. He said he enjoyed the opportunity to reconnect over films and poetry.

Some Turks say Erdogan's pressure tactics are appropriate.

In the Kasimpasa neighborhood of Istanbul where Erdogan grew up, photographer Soner Avcioglu, 55, stepped away from a dominoes table and said the trial against Dundar and Gul was justified.

"All the big powers in the world, they send weapons to a lot of countries, to a lot of war zones," Avcioglu said. "We can do it as well, and the [Turkish] central intelligence agency does not have to disclose it."

He said reports like Dundar's gave fuel to Turkey's enemies. On April 1, Russian United Nations Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused Turkish foundations of supplying $1.9 billion worth of military assistance to IS members in Syria, via Turkish intelligence.

A Turkish spokesman told the AP news agency that Russia's letter was "an attempt to overshadow the civilian deaths, havoc, and destruction in Syria caused by the military operations of the Russian Federation, the regime's staunchest ally."

Erdogan's hard line on the press has extended to Germany. He demanded that German broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk take offline a satirical film that mocks Erdogan as "The Boss From The Bosphorus."

WATCH: "The Boss From The Bosphorus" (NDR TV)

Editor Andreas Lange said there was no chance he would remove the film.

"Merkel needs Erdogan in the refugee crisis and obviously accepts a [partial] lack of democracy in Turkey," he wrote RFE/RL in an e-mail.

Yanardagoglu said she thought the film was "brilliant."

"I laughed a lot when I watched it," she said. "But also, it's kind of embarrassing."


The European Union has criticized an "unprecedented level of violence" in eastern Ukraine after international monitors came under fire.

"The significant increase of cease-fire violations in the Donetsk region represents an unprecedented level of violence," EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said in a statement on April 10.

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said late on April 9 that a team of its monitors in eastern Ukraine had come under fire 50 kilometers south of Donetsk.

There were no injuries in the incident.

OSCE observers were also shot at on April 7 and, on the same day, another monitoring group was threatened at gunpoint by a rebel, forcing the observers to leave a checkpoint they needed to pass.

The OSCE has said that it had observed a "significantly higher number of cease-fire violations" in the Donetsk region.

Mogherini added that "a sustainable ceasefire is urgently needed."

More than 9,100 people have been killed in the fighting in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region and some 21,000 wounded since the conflict broke out in 2014.

Based on reporting by AFP and dpa


HERNDON  In late October, John Czupak joined the board of directors of ThreatQuotient, a fledgling Northern Virginia cybersecurity company that had received $1.5 million in seed financing less than six months earlier from a group of investors that included the Center for Innovative Technology and the Virginia Tech Investor Network.

In early December, with Czupak as its new CEO, the still-tiny company raised an additional $10.2 million in funding from investors led by New Enterprise Associates and including the CIT, a state-backed nonprofit that helps finance startup technology companies.

Less than six months later, ThreatQuotient has hired 50 people at its Reston headquarters and walked away with the prize for cybersecurity startup company of the year at a power-packed industry conference in San Francisco.

Weve got a real business that is pursuing a real opportunity that would not have happened without CIT and the Virginia Tech Investor Network, said Czupak, 53, a 25-year veteran of the cybersecurity industry in the Washington area.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe also is trying to seize an economic opportunity by making new investments in cybersecurity in the pending two-year state budget and refocusing the 31-year-old CIT on its mission of nurturing new technologies into the industries of the future in Virginia.

It is an industry driven by urgent concerns over the vulnerability of interconnected information networks to criminal behavior and crippling attacks by bad actors that range from common hackers to foreign governments.

I talk about cyber every single day, the governor said at an information security conference in Richmond last week. It is the one area that the federal government will spend billions and billions of dollars in.

The budget includes $17.4 million to improve the states own cybersecurity, primarily for a new shared services center for agencies that arent big enough to require their own cybersecurity staffs; money to hire additional cybercrime investigators for the Virginia State Police and cyberanalysts at the departments fusion center; and almost $5 million to expand cybersecurity training in higher education, one-third of what McAuliffe had asked.

The MACH37 Cyber Accelerator, launched almost three years ago at CIT, would receive an additional $500,000 in operating funds for an intensive 14-week program that currently is training six startup companies on how to turn their technological ideas into commercial realities. The new class brings the total to 35 companies since the program began.

ThreatQuotient was not one of them; it was helped with financing through the CITs Growth Accelerator Program, or GAP, for early-stage companies. It emerged as one of the stars of the annual RSA Conference that drew hundreds of cybersecurity experts to San Francisco. The company won awards for innovation and cybersecurity startup of the year.

That is a huge win for us to go into Silicon Valley and have a Virginia company recognized as the startup of the year, said Secretary of Technology Karen R. Jackson, who accompanied the governor and CIT leaders on the trip.

Jackson, co-chair of the governors Cyber Security Commission, spent 19 years of her career at CIT, created in 1985 as the brainchild of then-Gov. Charles S. Robb to turn new technologies into businesses that create jobs and enrich the public treasury, especially in the Northern Virginia region that long served as the states economic engine.

The engine runs more quietly now after the worst recession since the 1930s and an ongoing congressional budget battle that produced sequestration almost four years ago, forcing deep cuts in federal spending that hit hard in regions that depend on the military and defense contractors.

But Northern Virginia remains part of a hotbed of cybersecurity in large part because of the Pentagon in Arlington County and what Jackson calls three-letter agencies, such as the CIA, FBI and, in Maryland, the NSA, or National Security Agency.

Richard Stiennon, a cyber industry analyst who founded IT-Harvest, last month ranked the Washington region second only to California in the number of cybersecurity vendors in the United States, which has 60 percent of the cyber companies in the world.

Maryland has moved aggressively to develop the cybersecurity industry, using government support and academic research, said Czupak, a native of Upper Marlboro, Md., who has lived in Leesburg for 17 years while working for cyber companies in Northern Virginia.

I think Virginia has just as great an opportunity, he said.

Czupak was a senior executive for 12 years at Sourcefire, a cybersecurity company based in Columbia, Md., that had its second-largest office at Tysons Corner in Fairfax County. A startup company that grew to employ more than 700 people, Sourcefire was purchased for $2.7 billion in 2013 by Cisco, based in the Silicon Valley.

He said McAuliffe is right to bemoan the thousands of vacancies for high-paying jobs in cybersecurity, which has grown faster than the ability to train people to fill them.

Its an absolute fact for our industry that the demand for talent, especially technical talent, and the supply, theres just a disconnect, he said. There is a legitimate opportunity for job creation within this region.

But Jackson believes the opportunities for high-paying jobs in cybersecurity extend far beyond Northern Virginia. There are also cyber jobs in Richmond, cyber jobs in Hampton Roads, cyber jobs in Roanoke, she said.

There isnt any company anywhere that isnt going to have to pay attention to cyber.

***

The two-year budget adopted by the General Assembly and awaiting McAuliffes proposed amendments today presents CIT with both great opportunities and challenges.

The opportunities include $800,000 that is part of the caboose budget for the current fiscal year to fill a shortfall in operating revenues that Ed Albrigo identified soon after becoming the centers president and CEO in November, and $750,000 to develop an information sharing and analysis organization for public agencies and private companies.

The budget also transfers to CIT the full responsibility for $5.6 million it already has been administering for the Commonwealth Research Commercialization Fund, which provides grants to companies and researchers to turn technological research into marketable products.

The biggest opportunity may be its role in vetting collaborative higher education research projects for grants and loans from the Virginia Research Investment Fund, proposed in separate legislation awaiting the governors signature but connected to $22 million in the budget as well as $29 million for laboratories and other capital needs as part of a bond package that also is pending his approval.

The purposes of the new fund mirror those of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Investment Authority created in 1984 to oversee the CIT, notably to foster innovative and collaborative research, development and commercialization efforts in the commonwealth in projects and programs with a high potential for economic development and job creation opportunities. The presidents of three major research institutions  the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech and Virginia Commonwealth University  sit on the CIT board of directors.

The budgets challenges for CIT include much more detailed state reporting requirements for its operations, including the award of bonuses or incentive pay, such as the $883,000 paid out to employees in September, two months before Albrigo arrived and determined that revenues were likely to fall short by a similar amount in the fiscal year that will end June 30.

Ive told CIT they need to tighten things up, McAuliffe said in an interview last week.

Albrigo said the payouts were unrelated to the projected shortfall, but he made clear that he understands the public mission of the center and almost 40 employees with more than $11 million in annual funding from the state.

At the end of the day, I view it as were an asset of the commonwealth, he said. How do we leverage the commonwealths funding with private funding to benefit the commonwealth? To me, that means economic potential.

The budget also would open the way to sell the CIT complex, including a signature tower that has been both lauded as a distinctive architectural landmark and likened to an upside-down wedding cake. The proceeds from a sale would go into the new higher education research investment fund.

The property lies next to what will be the Innovation Center stop on the Metro transit system when it is extended to Washington Dulles International Airport, so state officials consider it too valuable for a complex that is 85 percent rented out to other entities.

That shouldnt be our focus, said Sen. Frank M. Ruff Jr., R-Mecklenburg, a member of the Senate Finance Committee, which has pushed to sell the property. Our focus should be getting money into research.

The governor has not commented on the budget proposal to make the property surplus for eventual sale, but Jackson said: The value of any organization shouldnt be in the building. Its what goes on inside the building.

***

ThreatQuotient popped up as an investment opportunity when Jennifer ODaniel was looking for Virginia startup companies on a list seeking angel investors.

ODaniel is director of investments at CIT and co-founder of the Virginia Tech Investors Network, supported by CIT and consisting of her and about 75 other Tech alumni looking for ways to help their own. So far, the network has invested in five companies.

Were interested in Hokie-led startups, she said.

ThreatQuotient was founded in 2013 by Wayne Chiang, a Tech graduate and the companys chief architect, and Ryan Trost, its chief technology officer. Both had worked in the security operations center at General Dynamics Corp., a Falls Church-based aerospace and defense company that has become the principal private sponsor of the MACH37 Cyber Accelerator at CIT.

The companys signature product is a threat intelligence platform that aggregates and analyzes an enormous amount of data about potential cyberthreats to a companys information network, and quickly arms the system against those threats. What we do is operationalize the intelligence, Czupak said.

ODaniel turned to the CITs GAP funds to provide $100,000 of what became $1.5 million in seed financing for the company a year ago. The other investors included the Virginia Tech Investors Network and Blu Venture Investors. One of the Virginia Tech investors who worked with Czupak at Sourcefire contacted him about joining the company.

Czupak, in turn, used his contacts in the cyber investment community to arrange the next level of financing led by NEA, a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm. CIT made another small investment in the company as part of the $10.2 million financing, which has enabled the company to grow quickly.

Our entire goal is to invest in companies and attract other capital to those companies, ODaniel said.

CIT officials estimate the GAP funds leverage every dollar invested by 18.5 times, using $17.9 million in equity investments to attract $331 million in private investment in companies with a total value of $798 million. They estimate those companies will create up to 9,000 jobs in Virginia over the next five years. The budget allocates $3.1 million a year to the program and requires a return on investment of no less than 11 to 1.

Most of the CITs investments and grants have been in companies or researchers outside Northern Virginia, but the cybersecurity industry is still rooted in the region. So while the state-sponsored enterprise could move, its MACH37 Cyber Accelerator wants to remain in the area  because all of the customers are here, said Rick Gordon, managing partner of the accelerator he founded with CIT in 2013.

Since its founding, MACH37 has invested more than $1.4 million in 29 companies, not including the current class of six, whose participants came from Turkey, Seattle and Boston, as well as Northern Virginia and Charlottesville. Each company receives a $50,000 startup grant. The only stipulation is they must have a significant presence in the state.

We ask the question: Are you willing to move to Virginia? Albrigo said.

State lawmakers put additional money in MACH37 in the pending budget, but they want more detailed reporting on the benefits to the state from an enterprise they expect to sustain itself financially by next year.

We want to keep it going, but we also wanted to see some results, Ruff said.

The critical role of cybersecurity is something upon which Republican legislators and McAuliffe agree. Theres no way you can get any higher on the radar screen, said Del. John M. OBannon III, R-Henrico, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on economic development.

As a physician in one of Virginias largest health systems, OBannon understands the threat to confidential patient and financial information from outside intrusions and attacks. We need our smart guys to be better than their smart guys, he said.

Legislators also see the economic potential in cybersecurity as a business. We dont know, Ruff said, but we think its going to be pretty big.
I was in the Blue Ridge mountains of Virginia when I heard of the passing of Earl Hamner Jr., the great American writer who etched these hills, back roads and rivers into the hearts and minds of readers around the world.

On March 25th, Earls beloved redbud trees were about to bloom as the dogwood blossoms were making their first appearance in the hills surrounding his boyhood home in Schuyler. Earl would have loved this Appalachian spring, as he had described similar ones so beautifully in his novels, Spencers Mountain and Fifty Roads to Town.

His first published work appeared here in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1929, a poem called My Dog, even though Earl didnt have one. He was six years old but had heard the call, one he would answer until the last day of his life: the knowledge that he was a writer.

Earl would travel the world, fish in oceans with names youve never heard of, fight in a war, live in big cities and smaller ones, but when he sat down to write, he wrote what he knew, what filled him up, what brought him joy, confounded and completed him: his family.

His brothers and sisters  Cliff, Marion, Bill, Jim, Audrey, Nancy, and Paul  along with his father and mother were his muses. The colorful extended family that lived near and far to them in Virginia were part of the landscape, including the Giannini clan, with roots in Lucca, Italy, and the Hamners, who emmigrated from Wales. If you look at Earls body of work, he used everything he observed, painting every hue and color from the palette of the Hamner and Giannini families.

***

I was a girl in Big Stone Gap in a family of seven children when The Waltons debuted on television in 1972, and every Thursday thereafter, at 8 oclock on CBS, I was there, enchanted by the world Earl Hamner had created.

Besotted with John Boy, who wanted desperately to be a writer (I had my own secret about that), it was as if Earl knew what I was thinking. But I wasnt alone. Fifty-eight million Americans took to the Walton family, making the show No. 1 in the country. Earl dramatized the Great Depression in all its darkness and want, but the light shone through in the characters who were rich in their relationships, their connection to one another, their mutual longing for home and a reverence for words. Earl knew what the audience was hungry for  and he fed us.

***

Earls adaptation of Charlottes Web still shimmers, Heidi is a delight, and his episodes of The Twilight Zone are wildly original. Youll remember the wonderful series Apples Way and the award-winning television movie Where Lillies Bloom. Earl made a huge splash with the epic, Ferber-esque night time drama Falcons Crest, about a family wine business where jealousy and deceit twisted through the grape arbors like poison ivy as the Giobertis fought for control, land, riches, and the family name.

There are more projects, including plays, childrens books, memoirs, and a documentary film for which he was the subject, a lifetime of work to savor, a lifetime of Earl. I received a letter from him two weeks before he died, where he described a project he was working on. Earl, at 92, was working, creating, and writing.

Earl was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Library of Virginia in 2011. The audience was packed with family, friends, and among the Virginia luminaries, our great former Gov. Linwood Holton, and another Hamner-holic, the brilliant author David Baldacci.

About a year before the big night, I reached out to Earl, terrified that this writer, who I idolized, who had influenced my work and appreciation for the place I was raised, could not possibly live up to the person I imagined him to be. How thrilled I was to discover that Earl was hilariously funny, warm, accessible, and wise in that way that does not make the person who is gleaning the wisdom feel like an idiot.

In person, Earl was so tall, he was mighty, yet there was a gentleness to his power, and an inclusiveness despite the fact that he towered over everyone. If you like movies from the golden age of Hollywood, in person, Earl was a combination of Jimmy Stewart and Joel McRea with the countenance of William Powell. Earl was a Virginia gentleman without the fuss.

***

Earl was in love with Jane, his wife of 62 years. His reverence for marriage and commitment is one of my favorite ribbons in his work. Henry Fonda and Maureen OHara were so sexy in Spencers Mountain, and even with all they had to overcome, Ralph Waite and Michael Learned were crazy for each other on the Waltons, in that way. Will Geer played mad for Ellen Corby, so when she fell ill, and his heart broke, yours did too. Great actors, yes, but it was also in the script. Earl wrote the arc of long-term romantic relationships with respect and wonder, and in his telling, they seem glorious, because to him, they were.

Whenever Earl closed a letter, he gave an update on Scott and Caroline and Pepe, and how he hated to be a burden to his children and son-in-law. He was crazy about them too, and grateful for their love and sacrifice as they cared for Jane and for him in what he called their old age. But there was never anything old about Earl Hamner. He was always jazzed about the potential of a new project and looked forward to writing every day.

He was more than inspiring; he made anything you might want to attempt creatively seem possible because he was still at it, refining his work, making calls, taking meetings, and figuring out what the audience might like. His passion for writing and creating worlds and characters never left him.

They say everyone is replaceable, but I dont believe it. I cant. Its impossible to think that anyone will ever come along that will walk through this world and write about it with the skill, joy, and abandon that Earl Hamner did. I cant imagine anyone but Earl bringing 58 million of us together to watch a family hold on through the worst of times because they had love and each other. Virginia treasure? Absolutely. And then some.
By Eugene Hickok

We are in the middle of the presidential election season. The American people are looking for a leader. It seems a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack.

It is nothing short of ironic that the Framers of our Constitution were not too terribly interested in political leadership when they gathered in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787. Indeed, they were a bit wary about it. Declaring independence and successfully prosecuting a war against Great Britain left the Framers understandably nervous about political leadership. Better to leave the elected members of the several state legislatures in charge of the day-to-day duties of governing. A strong executive is too inclined to become a too powerful executive, and they had had enough of that.

The debates that consumed that Philadelphia summer focused primarily on the character of what would become the national legislature  the House of Representatives and the Senate  with relatively little time spent discussing the makeup and function of a national executive.

In part, this was because there was a general but unspoken sense that George Washington reflected what the delegates were looking for in a chief executive. Added to that was an understanding of the job and purpose of the executive in popular government: to make sure the laws are enforced, be a firm commander-in-chief, and be an able spokesman for the country in the affairs of the world.

The Framers werent looking for leadership in a president. They were looking for competence and character. The word leadership does not even appear in the index to The Federalist, that collection of essays written in support of the proposed constitution.

The role of Chief Magistrate under the Constitution  as the office is described often by the advocates of the Constitution  does not invoke images of strong political leadership. It might more appropriately invoke the idea of a constitutional clerk. Someone making sure the government works.

***

But that was a long time ago, and the American people look to their president for so much more than a magistrate or clerk. They seek a solver of problems, a voice for those who feel they have no voice, a change agent, someone who will look out for them and their country, soothe their anxieties and provide them comfort during trying times. They want a president who will take care of them, make them feel better about themselves, and tell them what they want to hear.

The obvious problem with this, of course, is that isnt leadership and it certainly isnt the sort of leadership our Constitution provides.

Leadership isnt about telling people what they want to hear, its about telling them what they need to hear. Leadership isnt about feeding the anxieties and fears of the people; its about helping them understand how they can overcome those anxieties and fears.

Leadership isnt about playing with the emotions of the people; its about appealing to the intellect and aspirations of people. Most importantly, in this country, leadership is about adhering to the Constitution  leadership under the Constitution, not in spite of it.

***

All of which brings us to the current state of political affairs. The leading candidates of both parties are talented, well-known figures who have demonstrated the ability to organize and mobilize men and women to their respective campaigns.

Secretary Clinton should be a stranger to no one in America, and that is both her greatest strength and greatest weakness. The people know her and are wary of her. She is competent, but is she trustworthy? Is she a hope for the future or a voice from the past?

Donald Trump is something else  a celebrity and reality television star who knows how to work a room and generate ratings. He is someone who says what he thinks, which charms his supporters, even when he hasnt thought much about what he says. Build walls. Ban Muslims. Pull out of NATO. Consider nuclear weapons in Europe. Punish women for exercising dominion over the bodies. His cavalier tongue and self-assured manner are more than a threat to the Republican Party. They are threat to the United States of America.

There is time  there is more than enough time  to consider what leadership under our Constitution might and should look like. It is a sober and thoughtful and humble sort of leadership that understands the importance of helping America and the world see a path forward that might appeal to our aspirations and nourish our desire to look to tomorrow rather than dwell on the frustrations of today and the perceived injustices of the past.

There is time. More than enough time. Let us make the most of it.
I was on a ratty bus in Havana in January, one in a group of Virginians trying to get from the Episcopal diocese to a lunch date in Chinatown.

It was raining hard as we turned onto the Malecon, the oceanside boulevard that fronts the city, and we got to see the waves crashing hard against the seawall.

Water and foam spraying high, the ancient Morro Castle at the far end barely visible through the haze, it was like driving on a postcard.

Until we werent driving at all.

Then it was like being in Cuba, as real and authentic and mind-bogglingly logical as anything Id experienced in six previous trips there in recent years.

The bus broke, and the driver fixed it.

One minute, we were rolling down the street. Then we hit a bump and a part came loose. There was a horrible scraping sound, and we coasted to a stop by the curb.

If wed been in the U.S., the driver would have called for a tow truck and another bus, and we would have waited impatiently for our trip to resume, complaining every minute about missing lunch and being stranded and the general unpleasantness of being stuck together.

Only in Cuba, theres no one to call.

The driver, who knew there was no one to call, pulled a mechanics jumpsuit over his clothes and grabbed a box of spare parts  he had both with him  and went out in the rain and slid under the bus.

You could hear him down there, under the bus, rattling pieces of who knows what. He pushed on something that jolted the back seat, and the woman sitting there jumped a little and we all laughed.

A couple of minutes later, the driver slid back out, took off the jumpsuit and got back in the drivers seat. He said is fixed and pulled away.

Thats Cuba for you.

Step away from the politics and the angry rhetoric and the posturing, here and there, about nearly six decades worth of mutual animosity, and Cuba is a country full of people who have mastered what used to be the most American of traits: self-reliance and ingenuity.

Thats not apocryphal musing.

Thats not always the Cuba we get to see from the U.S., mind you, but its definitely the Cuba Ive been able to see in Cuba.

***

The images that more often come to mind, the ones that inform the questions Im most often asked by people who have never been there, are the ones weve seen for decades: boat people washing up in Florida; Fidel giving yet another angry speech denouncing the imperialists next door; old American cars and crumbling colonial-era buildings; ration cards and bare shelves.

When President Barack Obama went last month, we got to see somber pictures of world leaders negotiating important world leader stuff. Then we got to read stories about how nothing was ever really going to change anyway, because that deadly combination of still-angry exiles and Obama-hating Republicans wouldnt allow it.

When Gov. Terry McAuliffe went in January, a week before I did, the stories that came back were what youd expect from a state leader: meetings with dignitaries about trade and announcements about educational and cultural exchanges.

McAuliffe also found time for touristy stuff, too, because hes Terry McAuliffe, and a more fun governor Virginia has never known. Love him or hate him, you have to applaud his willingness to get a step away from the official side of diplomacy and slip into a funny pose by a statue of a sword-wielding pirate and get behind the wheel of one of those old American cars.

If only hed hit the gas and kept going, he might have seen what Ive been able to see in recent years: a vibrant, if somewhat rundown, country, full of people smart enough to believe what they see, not what they hear.

When the bus breaks, they fix it.

When all they can get is white rice and black beans and thighs and legs, they never ask what happens to all the breasts and wings. They cook what chicken they have, and eat, and get on with the day.

When the president of the United States says he wants to re-establish diplomatic relations, they get excited for a minute, then they go back to believing what they see, which is pretty much what theyve been seeing for a decade: slowly improving conditions that offer a hint, but not an outright promise, of better days to come.

Still, though, its not like Cuba is a desperate place.

Its actually friendly and inviting and not so bad, if you can figure out how to get there and then once you do, if you bother to get away from the tourist trap that is old town Havana.

Its the only country Ive ever visited where someone pegged me as an American, then thanked me for coming to visit. That happened in the fall of 2014, before the big Obama proclamation and that brief moment of hysteria that swept the island.

I was there for a few weeks that October working on a book. One morning, I was walking alone along the Malecon, and I was approached by a man with the same come-on you always get in a foreign country before someone starts asking you for your money.

Where you from? he asked in that friendly way that lets you know youre not getting away anytime soon.

Virginia, the United States, I said wearily. I know the question. Its always the prelude to a sob story of some sort, and thats a prelude to getting hustled.

You come all the way here just to visit? he asked.

Indeed, I mumbled, trying to avoid eye contact.

Thank you, he said. Then he walked away.

Now to be fair, Ive had plenty of Cubans try to hustle me, too. Its the nature of the world: those without hustle, those who look like me get hustled.

Last summer, when I was finishing my book, I took another walk alone along the Malecon  its very meditative, walking so close to the ocean  and a couple of cut-rate hustlers took me on a wonderful two-hour tour of part of old Havana Id never seen. They kept trying to ask me for money, but they couldnt get their story straight, and instead we wound up looking at street art, ducking into a bar for a quick drink  it was 10 in the morning; I had a soda  and looking at black market cigars offered by a shady woman in a small room.

It ended poorly, with them angrily fumbling through a desperate last attempt at a sales pitch that involved diapers and baby food but no sign of an actual baby and me disappearing into a crowd at a bus stop and then into a church, where I hid behind the devout for a few minutes.

But Ill excuse them the effort. It never hurts to ask.

And its not like an inept hustle is the only thing Ive seen in Cuba.

***

Ive traveled the country from one end to the other, top to bottom and side to side.

Ive seen the country by car, bus, and plane, and Ive traveled miles and miles on foot, doing there as I do here: just walking through neighborhoods, seeing whats to be seen.

Under the guise of research, Ive been able to visit people all over the island. Ive made casual acquaintances and good friends alike and listened to them all talk about life there, which sounded a lot like life here: family, jobs, what to do on the weekend.

They know about the U.S., the imperialist neighbor with the embargo.

But they also know about the U.S., the country full of people who love to come visit.

They do a good job of keeping the two separate.

We could learn something from that.

Cuba, the concept, is now and probably long will be a politically charged thing. Obama cant get a Supreme Court nominee nominated; its hard to believe hell pull off his Cuban dream before the years out.

But Cuba the place and Cuba the people, those are things worth another look.

Lunch in Chinatown, though, that you can pass on.

The day we went, we waited nearly two hours, orders to our two tables split mid-meal when a group of Chinese tourists came in and commanded the attention of the entire staff.

Friends of the owner, our waiter finally admitted after half our group had waited more than an hour for their food.

Some things, not even the bus driver can fix.
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Trading on the world diamond market is slowing down after a very successful first quarter. However, this slowdown is not a reason for pessimism. It only means that the diamond market has finally found a point of balance, giving the entire industry a hope for a stable year.

Three months of growth

The results of the first quarter proved to be extremely successful for the entire industry. Demand for diamonds and jewelry, which was markedly low last year, started to recover. Polished goods in the categories of 0.3-1 ct went up in price by 1.4-6% in the first quarter, according to RapNet Diamond Index. Following the increase in demand, diamantaires began to stock up inventories fairly emptied after holiday sales. And mining companies, which earlier expected extremely modest results, reported sales surpassing all expectations.

According to experts, the major producers, De Beers and ALROSA raked in totally about $ 2 billion in rough sales during the first quarter. De Beers posted sales reaching $ 1.15 billion - almost $ 610 million in January and $ 545 million in February. Unlike De Beers, ALROSA holds trading sessions every month, but these are slightly leaner in volume. According to estimates provided by market sources, the Russian company sold $ 1.2-1.4 billion worth of rough goods in the first 3 months of 2016, carrying out approximately equal monthly sales.

The both companies posted sales, which were higher compared with one year ago - despite the fact that they adhered to a conservative pricing policy. ALROSA keeps prices unchanged since September 2015, when it reduced them by 8%. De Beers cut prices by 8-10% in February, bringing them in line with market expectations.

This conservative policy gave results. Data coming from trading platforms suggests that the average world price of diamonds not only stabilized, but also began growing. Since this growth was not underpinned by miners, it means that it is due to business activity in the secondary market and high demand at tenders. Market players say that, for example, rough diamonds sold at the recent tenders held by Petra and Rio Tinto were traded at premiums, sometimes reaching double digits.

The average price of diamonds imported to and exported from Antwerp points to an overall trend towards growth versus the end of 2015. In March, the average price of diamond imports to Antwerp was $ 122 per carat, while that of diamond exports - $ 111 per carat (the difference was due to the fact that some part of expensive rough remains in Antwerp for cutting). This is lower than in March 2015, but significantly higher than in the previous month. Diamond import prices registered in India show a similar trend.

Waiting period

At the same time, trade volumes declined in March both by value and volume compared with February. Both rough imports to and rough exports from Antwerp fell by an average of 20%. GJEPC has not yet published its data for March, but one can expect a comparable movement.

This slowdown, however, is not yet a reason for pessimistic forecasts. The diamond market has found a point of balance, and this assertion may be proved by at least two arguments. The first is about trade volumes. Although March sales were lower than February sales by volume, but they returned to the historical level of previous years, while they were significantly lower during the entire second half of last year.

Rising prices for diamonds may be taken as the second evidence. If the secondary market and tenders are clearing the way for premiums to diamond deals, it means that prices offered by rough producers are now on a fair level, giving the midstream an opportunity to earn more. And it is the low margin in the midstream, which is one of the factors breeding instability in the diamond pipeline.

Market players believe that the slowdown in business activities is due to completed restocking by diamond manufacturers. By the beginning of the year, there was some shortage of polished goods, especially in the fast-moving categories of 0.5-1 carats, so diamantaires were busily buying rough diamonds to replenish their inventories, one of them says. However, starting from the second quarter the market will see coming polished goods made from rough purchased in January. So, the market takes a break - you need to see if polished prices will begin to decline after new batches of polished diamonds will be offered for sale. According to RapNet, polished prices in March remained stable reflecting zero growth. April results will largely determine further developments.

In these circumstances, the best tactic for diamond mining companies would be to maintain sales at the current level for some time. Currently, rough sales are in sync with their historical levels and the market is unlikely to digest more. Further price cuts will devalue the inventories held by diamond manufacturers and accumulated in the first quarter. On the other hand, pushing prices up will once again deprive diamond cutters of their margins and opportunities to increase business activity.

In this regard, the report by Bloomberg that De Beers raised prices by 2% looks very disturbing. So far, there was no confirmation of this, however, and one of the sightholders, Smolensk-based Kristall even denied it, saying there was no changes in prices in the assortment of rough it bought from De Beers.

ALROSA will kick off a regular trading session for its long-term customers starting from April 12, 2016 and until now there is no information if the company plans to change its prices or offered amounts of rough. However, speaking at a conference for investors in late March, the president of ALROSA said that it was expected that the market would be stable and would not be subjected to corrections until the end of the year.

Elena Levina for Rough&Polished




Argentina, on Thursday and Friday of this past week, entered into signed settlement agreements totaling approximately $253 million with numerous defaulted bondholders, involving both institutions and individuals.

On Thursday, Argentina reached agreement with Fore Research and Management of New York City, for the Honero Fund, for $4.485 million plus Euros 67.54 million, aggregating approximately $80 million.

On Friday, Argentina reached agreement with 35 pension fund clients of Stone Harbor Investment Partners for $85 million and 38 million Euros, aggregating approximately $127 million. Additionally, that same day, Argentina reached agreement with 31 individual bond-holders for approximately $46 million.

All of these settlements were within the terms of the "Propuesta" published by Argentina on February 5, involving payment of 150% of principal to the bondholders. These settlements are subject to the lifting of the Injunction, which occurred on March 2 but which has been appealed by several parties.

The appeal will be heard in the Court of Appeals on Wednesday of this week, April 13. If the lifting of the Injunction is affirmed, it is the expressed intention of Argentina to carry out a $12.5 billion capital raise to pay all the settlements it has entered into since the first and seminal settlements with Montreux Partners and Dart Management on February 3 for $1.1 billion.

Settlements now aggregate approximately $8 billion.

"In my capacity as Special Master, with the responsibility for presiding over the conduct of settlement negotiations, I am extremely gratified that holders of approximately 90% of bonds at issue in the cases in the Southern District of New York have now reached settlements with Argentina. The ability of Argentina to consummate those settlements turns on the outcome of the appeal in the Court of Appeals," said Daniel A. Pollack, the Special Master presiding over settlement negotiations between the Republic of Argentina and holders of its defaulted Bonds.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

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About 50 per cent of smartphone users in India plan to buy a new device within the first year as 5G ...
Fisherfolk count gains one year after amended fisheries code

Press Release

March 2, 2016

MANILA  A year after Republic Act (RA) 10654, which amended the Fisheries Code of 1998, was passed, fisherfolk associations, civil society organizations and environmental NGOs are underlining the gains of the amended law in a press conference held today.

Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture & Food and the primary author of RA 10654 or the Amended Fisheries Code, joined the groups and vowed continuous commitment towards enabling mechanisms for the strict implementation of the law.

I am happy to tell the world, together with the more than 1.5 million municipal fisherfolk, that our RA 10654 has ushered the end of rampant, illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUUF). The urgency in addressing poverty and allowing our seas to heal was my mantra in fighting back the lobby of big commercial fishers and illegal fishers, said Senator Villar.

Villar also commended the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) for facilitating the formulation of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the law and the Comprehensive National Fisheries Industry Development Plan, which was crafted by stakeholders in aquaculture, marketing, post-harvest and capture, and which contain targets and action plans for development for the next five years. She also cited the creation of Community Fish Landing Centers for the national development of shellfish, crabs, and broodstock.

It is our common interest to make sure that there will be a continuous and healthy fishing industry in our country, and it can only be achieved if we prevent all forms of activities that jeopardize the sustainability of our resources, Villar said. I encourage all stakeholders to join us in making Philippine fisheries sustainable.

Villar led the Senate in voting unanimously for the ratification of the reconciled version of Senate Bill 2414 and House Bill 4536 that amended the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998. This came after the Philippines almost faced an export ban of fisheries product to the European Union (EU) for failing to address IUUF. According to BFAR, Philippine fish exports to the EU was valued at P9.4 billion (165 million euros) in 2013.

Fisheries and conservation NGOs, together with municipal fishers, used the EU warning as an opportunity to push for reforms to address the problems of the Philippine seas.

Amending the law is a victory. RA 10654 provides the framework on the shift from an open access regime, where everybody and anybody can extract from our fragile coastal and marine ecosystems, to a sustainable fisheries management regime, where strict regulations against destructive fishing practices are in place and strictly implemented, said Dennis Calvan, Executive Director of NGOs for Fisheries Reform (NFR), one of the organizations who pushed for the amendment.

Calvan added that the reason more than 75% of our fishing grounds are overfished, as mentioned by BFAR in the National Stock Assessment Program, is due mainly to the long decades of neglect in implementing the Philippine Fisheries Code of 1998, leading to the destruction of coastal and marine resources.

A year into RA 10654, strengthened fisheries law enforcement is already happening, with almost weekly apprehensions of illegal fishers in our waters. Increased penalties against dynamite fishing, cyanide fishing and encroachment of commercial fishing vessels within the 15-kilometer municipal waters, are now being strongly enforced in the Burias-Ticao Pass in the Bicol Region. Some of the fish are coming back abundantly in our waters, said Miriam Belaos, a fisherfolk leader of Pantao Fisherfolks Association, based in Bicol.

The Amended Fisheries Code has strengthened the protection of the priority rights of municipal fishers by making the penalties deterrents to commercial fishing vessels plotting to conduct fishing activities inside municipal waters.

We won the first stage, but we still need to do more by implementing harvest control rules for fisherfolk to fish within the limits of the sea and implement strong traceability system to make sure that the seafood that we are eating are not illegally caught, said Vince Cinches, Oceans Campaigner for Greenpeace Philippines. The solution is very viable as shown by the recent success of the Sustainable Seafood Week, where major hotels and restaurants pledged to only source and serve traceable and sustainably caught fish.

Cinches also said that while the passing of the Amended Fisheries Law is a good start, he stressed the importance of this years Presidential elections to sustain the gains of the victory.

While the year 2015 has established the basic ingredients for healthy Philippine seas, it is important that the next President of our country puts ocean conservation at the heart of governance in order to address poverty and usher in truly inclusive national development, Cinches added.
Edukasyon.ph reaches out to OFW kids on Senior High

Press Release

March 3, 2016

MAKATI CITY  With the recent educational shift to K-12, The Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) featured Edukasyon.ph to help the 27,500 students and their OFW families in searching for the right Senior High Schools for their children. Edukasyon.ph is a free website platform that gives choice, convenience, and advice on education to career options around the Philippines.

We understand how difficult it is for OFW parents to involve themselves in the education planning of their children especially now that theres Senior High School (SHS). Through Edukasyon.ph #SeniorHighDreams component, they will no longer feel disconnected from their childs education, Edukasyon.ph Executive Officer Linartes Viloria said.

This February, the CFO was able to circulate a memorandum addressed to the 40 PSO school principals based in 10 countries (Bahrain, China, East Timor, Greece, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) with enclosed tutorial kits for teachers on understanding Edukasyon.ph's services and brochure for students on how using the website can aid them in their selection of senior high tracks, career guidance and advising.

Through the Edukasyon.ph website, parents and students can easily search for senior high ready schools and senior high offered tracks that are near their home location. They can also see which tuition fees are within their budget and what scholarship opportunities the educational institutions are offering.

#SeniorHighDreams is one of the newest features of Edukasyon.ph which aims to educate the parents and students about SHS, its tracks and specializations, and the Voucher Program. Not only that, Edukasyon.ph has comprehensive information on careers and scholarships.
Daughter of slain Lumad leader to UN rights expert: Impunity persists in the Philippines

By KARAPATAN

March 4, 2016

GENEVA, Switzerland  Michelle Campos, daughter of slain Lumad leader Dionel Campos, and Karapatan human rights workers Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay and Karapatan-Caraga coordinator Dr. Naty Castro, met United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders Michel Forst in the sidelines of the 31st UN Human Rights Council sessions in Geneva, Switzerland on March 2.

In the said meeting, Campos narrated the September 1, 2015 killings in Lianga, Surigao del Sur, where her father, grandfather Datu Juvello Sinzo, and school director Emerito Samarca were killed before the whole community.

"Six months after the incident, not one of the three named perpetrators has been arrested. This is the kind of impunity that is perpetrated by the Aquino regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines  they do not arrest criminals in their ranks and among paramilitary groups. They even have drinking sprees with them," Campos said, recounting her relatives' experience on December 30, 2015 when they saw Loloy Tejero, one of the suspects at large in the Lianga massacre case, having a drinking spree with members of the 75th Infantry Battalion, Philippine Army.

Castro said that the more than 2,000 evacuees in Tandag, Surigao del Sur continue to suffer the consequences of such impunity. "It is worrisome that the issues of increasing military operations in Mindanao, including indigenous peoples' communities, and plunder of their ancestral lands remain low among the priority electoral issues among national candidates," she stated.

Palabay said Karapatan notes and appreciates Forst's report in the 31st UN Human Rights Council on the cases of attacks against human rights defenders in the Philippines delivered on March 3, 2016.

In the said report, Forst stated that he "considers the killings of Messrs. Emerito Samarca, Dionel Campos, and Bello Sinzo to be systematic of the aggressions suffered by human rights defenders in rural areas and indigenous communities in response to violations committed in the course of environmentally dubious mining operations, wide-spread development of monoculture plantations, land grabs and territorial disputes."

He expressed regrets that there were reports of further killings in Mindanao after the September 1, 2015 massacre in Surigao del Sur. He urged the Philippine Government to "take every possible measure to ensure that these extrajudicial killings do not remain in impunity, for fear of the potential encouragement a lack of justice would provide for any potential perpetrators of such acts in the future."

Forst also lamented the attacks against human rights workers of Karapatan, specifically the surveillance and intimidation of its members, as a result of their legitimate human rights activities and exercise of rights to freedom of expression and association.

Karapatan also submitted complaints on the following violations on human rights defenders to Forst:

a) Killing of Karapatan-Sorsogon spokesperson Teodoro Escanilla and peasant leader Sixto Calcena;

b) Trumped up criminal charges against teachers of the Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV) and indigenous people's leaders of MAPASU, more than fifty human rights defenders including Karapatan human rights workers, church and community leaders in Sarangani and General Santos City;

c) Threats, harassment and surveillance on leaders of Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) and Children's Rehabilitation Center (CRC);

d) Harassment and violation on the right of freedom of movement of former Rep. Liza Maza; and,


(Sitting L-R) Supt Erwin Portillo, Deputy Provincial Director for Operations of Leyte PPO, Colonel Francisco Mendoza Jr, Commander of the 802nd Infantry Brigade, Mayor Elmer Codilla and LtCol. Roberto Sarmiento during the signing of MOA declaring Kananga, Leyte as Stable Internal Peace and Security area.

Kananga declared as free from communist rebel infestation

By DPAO, 8ID PA

March 4, 2016

KANANGA, Leyte  A former NPA stronghold in Northern Leyte declared as Stable Internal Peace and Secured area in a ceremonial signing of Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) in Kananga, Leyte on February 29, 2016.

The joint declaration was pursued upon the recommendation of the Philippine Armys 19th Infantry Battalion upon the legislation of Resolution No. 20R.14-791 by the 20th Sangguniang Bayan of Kananga, Leyte.

Signatories to the MOA were Colonel Francisco Mendoza Jr., Brigade Commander of the 802nd Infantry (Peerless) Brigade, Senior Superintendent Franco Simborio, Director of Leyte Police Provincial Office represented by Superintendent Erwin Portillo, and Mayor Elmer Codilla and witnessed by Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Sarmiento, the Commanding Officer of the 19th Infantry Battalion, Chief Inspector Ricky Reli, the Chief of Police of the Municipality of Kananga and Vice-Mayor Macario Lumangtad Jr.

Previously, the 19th Infantry Battalion declared 15 Leyte towns as Stable Internal Peace and Security areas. These towns are Matag-ob, Merida, Palompon, Tabango, Barugo, Babatngon, San Miguel, Leyte, Pastrana, Tolosa, Dagami, Calubian, Sta. Fe, Alangalang and Tunga.

The aforesaid towns were declared Stable Internal Peace and Security because the actual threat of the Communist Terrorist Movement (CTM) is already downgraded and is no longer significant to influence the residents.

Col. Mendoza is optimistic that the declaration will further attract the influx of investors to establish business in an area that has environment of peace.
There is a lot to be learned from Mondays events at the Matautu wharf now that the immediate danger has passed and the fire and smoke have disappeared.

The very visible black tank however is a reminder of the alarming fire in the heart of Apia, the loss of life of a maintenance worker and the subsequent hospitalization of a number of firemen.

It could have been so much worse.

And while we are grateful the fire was eventually contained and we have heard measured responses from the C.E.O. and senior management of the Petroleum Products Supplies (P.P.S.), now is definitely time to review this organization.

Already the Prime Minister has fired the first salvo by questioning the qualifications and the lack of training by staff.

A statement by the P.P.S. Managing Director, Fanene Samau Etuale Sefo, that the work at the tanks was legal and there was a permit for it does not explain the chain of events on Monday.

In fact it raises even more questions.

Papalii Niko Lee Hang, the Minister of Works, Infrastructure and Transport.

who is responsible for the Matautu wharf, is struggling to make logical sense of what happened.

His comments reflect the astonishment of many of the countrys population.

I mean, at the petrol station you cant use your cell phone and you cant smoke but these things are minor.

But they weld the tank with fuel in it  its just ridiculous and doing it on top of a fuel tank its a time bomb, it can explode anytime, he said.

As a businessman whose family own and operate a petrol station, the Minister is doubly aware of the importance of safety procedures.

He has also taken a shot at the Samoa Ports Authority inferring that the security at the gate of the facility was negligent.

Meanwhile the Fire and Emergency Services Association (F.E.S.A.) staff have already pointed to a lack of equipment for such a huge emergency.

A senior firefighter, Kereta Samia with some 10 years experience has said training and equipment are badly needed by their organisation.

With the Monday incident, I wished that we had had a ladder truck here in Samoa, so that there would be no problem trying to put the foam into the fuel tank because those ladders can go 30 meters high which is higher than the fuel tanks.

And while he is no doubt correct, the fact is that the accident should never have occurred at all.

Which brings us back to some pertinent questions for, and about P.P.S.

Who of senior management has specific training, qualifications and experience in their dangerous products?

Have these people been appointed simply from a management rather than a technical perspective?

How many of their staff have had specific and ongoing training in the handling of fuel?

Do new staff undergo an orientation when they join the company?

Do general maintenance workers understand the properties of the products they are working with?

Is P.P.S. in a partnership with an oil company to acquire the knowledge they need in the handling of fuel?

Are management all their workers aware of occupational health and safety regulations in their industry?

How robust are these regulations and how often are they reviewed?

When were the regulations last updated, tested and audited?

Does P.P.S. get audited by an outside organisation to ensure their safety procedures are viable?

How often does that happen?

Thirty years ago there was a site full of fuel tanks in downtown Auckland known as the Tank Farm.

Now replaced by trendy restaurants and bars, fire fighters predicted that if it ever went up, the C.B.D, and as far out as Onehunga would be obliterated.

The point is, the work on the tanks may have authorise with a permit and been legal but a piece of paper and the law was not enough to ensure the safety of one mans life.
Dear Editor

The article Divine warning? Or is it just a hoax? by Pai Mulitalo Ale 07 April 2016, reported on Professor Morris (Department of Religious studies of Victoria University, Wellington) who queried regarding the recent stigmata phenomena.

Reminds me one of the genius Albert Einstein (A.E.) recorded conversation with one of his professors at his fairly young age. The professor had questioned the existence of God, for there must have been much evil happenings encountered back then, up to the point where he concluded that God does NOT exist!?

Then AE corrected his limited conclusion by asking questions regarding the truth about cold and darkness whether they exist? The professor with less hesitation answered that of course both cold and darkness exist where to his surprise A.E. corrected him that both cold nor darkness were never in existence. But they only appear to exist mainly due to the absence of heat and light respectively.

However Professor Morris does state couple of sound notions though:

First, that it is extremely unusual for Stigmata to occur on someone outside of the Roman Catholic Church and

Second for Stigmata it sure is a breach of nature and it doesnt make any sense? Whereby both Toaipuapuaga and her dad Rev. Opapo rightly state; I know many people dont believe me but that is okay. I feel that my mission is to spread the word of God. We will all one day be judged and if this is how God sends his message and vision to Samoa, who are we to question it? respectively.

It is my sincere hope that both Toaipuapuaga and her dad would carry on with their humble hearted attitudes witnessing Gods will as shared through them. Believing in Him that with their personal admittance that He and him He alone is the rightful judge and He will come in His own good time as promised. Therefore we should not be too worried after fulfilling our part to the best of our ability as He will do the rest, a ea?

On the same incident, Lanuola Tusani Tupufias article Stigmata is a miracle 03 April 2016 reports on our Prime Ministers realistic view of the situation. Knowing him to be a renowned realistic person he can also be referred to as a faithful one but to a lesser extent. However I believe he had done a good job with his stated facts being in line with the TRINITY Gods Church documented occurrence.

Unlike Pastor Unoi as reported by Pai Mulitalo Ale on the same day in her article Pastor cautions against claims, who seems to be a faithful chap, yet he is one hell of a limited Sola Scripture person!

A simple question for the poor soul though, I wonder whether he can point to us which Holy Bible he is referring on for the word of God he is talking about? For I know the Jews and many other sects now days are following the Koran.

Christianity has two sets of the so-called Holy Bible; one has 66 books while the other one has 73 books. Now Im not too sure of which the Mormonism and the Jehovahs Witness comes first, but I know for a fact they both have their own sets of holy books. So which one he is talking about?

Anyhow with all these phenomena occurrences in our days it should call to remind us all of one of Apostle Pauls famous testimonies of his times recoded in the Holy Bible (and I recommend that 73 books one for that was a properly approved one after canonising by Him within his Mystical Body, i.e. His founded Church. To whom He had given His Authority doing so some 300 years after Christ ascend to Heaven) that there is nothing new on this earth accepts Jesus Christ where at the fulfilment of His times, he then gets to be born into our world for our salvation.

And with this Samoan old saying, e leai se laau e falala fua, there and then I urge you Samoa lets not waste our time asking the why question? But rather the what question, as in -what shall I or what shall we do, fulfilling our individual divine calling! Of course we are all weak humans, and who is any better? But HE rather uses our weakness instead of our fia poko seen most of the time, a ea? I myself am forever wishing that He remains with me all time to the day he wishes for me to end my journey in this preliminary life. I get to gutu oso on HIM sometimes and wish for me to come now ua ta le lava lenei olaga faigata, but never mind He has given and He shall be the only one to take it away.

Having said so I wish to remind you all who have doubts about our Mr. Prime Minister friend with your aimless speculation that somehow he had much manipulative authority on our nations recent General Elections, that God is well and alive. I accept our Elected One Party Parliament mirroring on how God calls on Abraham when he needs to form up a nation for HIMself. With our 100% Samoan Matai forum and its feminine representatives  reminds me of how God calls on His Mother Mary at the fulfilment of his time.

I wouldnt worry too much of the Melchizedek divided forum for not only that this Melchizedek figure has; (a) limited information of his heritage line in the Church Archives but (b) they  these Melchizedeks wishful, are still having that Eve and Adams finger pointing attitude now a days.

Now to you our nations parliamentarians I wonder whether you may have an appetite to reconsider that very limited outcome by the 2010 Commission of Enquiry asked to review our countrys constitutionwith regarding its representation of our Almighty God as per its preamble and Article 11 -Freedom of Religion? The notion was recommended by the 2002 National Council of Churches annual meeting and our current Prime Minster accepted it on that same day.

Pastor Unoi does not know anything about it as his sect is not included in the National Council of Churches -for whatever reason only God knows? Hope its nothing to do with personal greed while aimlessly and vaguely using poor Gods name fulfilling his purpose?

I hear Toaipuapuaga mention something along that notion.

And I have NO doubt that that is of the TRINITY GODs wish for our (Sacred Centred) SAMOA Nation which is Founded on HIM nowdays to stand out with confidence and ripple out such TRUTHS of HIS Almighty goodness to the whole wide world, dont you agree?

May you have a blessed Sunday, Samoa.

Atalii fanau le au a le loomatua Taufusi




Construction of three hydro power plants

Cabinet has awarded the contract to Pernix Group/MAP JV company for the construction of three new hydro power plants at Faleaseela, Fausaga-Tafitoala and Faleata.

The tender for the projects was advertised for public interest and seven companies submitted applications of bids.

An assessment of the tenders was conducted by the Sub Committee according to the tender requirement before a recommendation was submitted to Cabinet for approval.

Sweet Potato Weevil Workshop

Cabinet has approved the participation by Samoa at the Sweet Potato Weevil Workshop in Lae, Papua New Guinea on 18  22 April 2016.

The workshop is an opportunity for key technical experts to learn more about weevils so they are able to organise similar surveys in their own home countries.

Samoas participation is an invitation by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community for Pacific countries, especially countries included in the Integrated Pest Management and Integrated Crop Management Project.

Sweet potato is not only a good crop, in terms of healthy eating, it is valued by Samoa in terms of food security as it can be grown/farmed at any time and can survive natural hazards like cyclones.

The workshop will enable Samoa to meet with international partners and organisations to secure funding for this project.

Samoas National IPM/ICM Project Coordinator, Susuga Aleni Uelese is attending the workshop.

World Banks Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice

Cabinet has approved the participation by Samoas representative at the World Banks Macroeconomics and Fiscal Management Global Practice in America from 28 March  28 June 2016. This is a special assignment appointment under the World Bank Group and the Ministry of Finance under the auspices of the Banks Global Secondment Programme.

The programme is conducted every year and provides ample opportunity for participants and World Bank employees to share knowledge and experiences.

The Ministry of Finance Principal Debt Management Officer, Peresitene Kirifi is representing Samoa at the programme.

Human Rights Protection Party Manifesto 2016  2021

Cabinet has reviewed the Human Rights Protection Party manifesto 2016  2021.

The manifesto announces the development agenda the HRPP will implement over the next five years.

The HRPP has consistently won the right to lead Government for 34 years, since 1982, and has again won the recent general election in March.

The overriding goal of this manifesto is to further advance the social and economic wellbeing of the Samoan people and create employment opportunities for our young people.

Successful implementation of the development agenda outlined in this manifesto will lead directly to achieving a higher and sustainable quality of life for our people.

Some challenges encountered by Samoa in the last five years included the global financial crisis and the slowdown in the Chinese economy in 2012 adversely affected the ability to secure markets for our exports which directly impacted on the Yazaki Samoa. Cyclone Evan that struck the country in the same year, and caused significant damage and incurred substantial losses to key economic infrastructure such as roads and bridges, agriculture, tourist facilities and personal properties, was another challenge.

A number of positive outcomes were also achieved such as:

 Samoas graduation to Middle Income Country status;

 Hosting of the Third UN SIDS Conference;

 Hosting of the 2015 Samoa Commonwealth Youth Games;

 All Blacks  Manu Samoa Game;

 RSE Scheme extended to Australia;

 Acquisition of PFL;

 Climate Change agreement;

At the sector level, there were also significant achievements which include macroeconomic performance, education, health, agriculture, community development, senior citizen pension scheme, justice and infrastructure services such as water and sanitation, energy, transport and communication.

HRPP development priorities for 2016  2021 include employment creation, education, health, agriculture, tourism, youth development, community development, climate change, justice and infrastructure services.

Fisheries study tour for Pacific Ministers

Cabinet has approved the attendance by Minister of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries, Afioga Laaulialemalietoa Polataivao Leuatea Schmidt at the Fisheries Study Tour by the New Zealand Government for the Pacifics Ministers for Agriculture and Fishery on 9  21 April 2016.

The study tour will provide participants with the opportunity to view New Zealands seafood sector and fisheries management system. This system is hoping to provide a number of useful lessons for the Pacific.
The Member of Parliament for Salega East Olo Fiti Vaai claims independent members are still waiting for the Prime Minister for a decision about the status of non-H.R.P.P. members.

And while many have lamented the demise of the two party system, Olo has pointed out that it is not all bad news is M.P.s have the courage of their convictions to vote according to the validity of an idea rather than stick with the party line.

According to the law, eight members of parliament are needed to form an Opposition Party.

And so Olo has pointed out that this means there is no more Tautua Party because three members falls far short of the minimum number to form a party.

We are still waiting to see if the prime minister will decide to recognize us in any way or carry on as a one-state party, said Olo.

He said it seems like parliament is going back to the beginning of independence, when matais only, had the right to vote.

You speak for your own constituency, and you speak independently he said.

He claims there will be fewer and less vigorous debates because there are no other political parties in parliament.

This he believes that was a strength that they had in previous parliaments. Debates will be weak because we now have a one-state party government.

The lack of a formal Opposition party will be something new for the country and for members, Olo said.

No one today was there during the time when Samoa had a one-state party.

But he was philosophical about making it work.

If they did it back in those days, why cant we do it now?

But the M.P.s should have the courage to debate what is good for this government, without thinking which party they belong to, said Olo.

Olo said all Members of Parliament should be free to talk; if an idea is wrong then they should oppose it but if its good, then support it.

We still have to debate with the Cabinet Ministers and the Associate Ministers.

As for the new decision by the Prime Minister to have only one associate minister for each portfolio, Olo said he supports the decision.

This is also a challenge for the Associate Ministers. They should do their jobs because there is a big possibility that they can be replaced by the other M.P.s.

Olo also said that with the decision to have only one associate minister per Ministry, they are no longer part of Parliamentary Committees but are simply Members of Parliament.
A brother who has been an unselfish chief caregiver for his sister for six years is now getting help thanks to the Samoa Victims Support Group (S.V.S.G.).

Mr Avia is now under the Caregivers Training offered by the Samoa Victims Support Group.organisation.

Avia thanked the S.V.S.G. for their help. He said he has learnt different things from them, especially how to prevent his sister Stella from getting bed sores and helping to prevent her getting sick.

He has realized that there are lots of different techniques of how to handle people with disabilities.

He also thanked the S.V.S.G. for their help and support in donating a wheelchair to help him move Stella around and also to take her to church.

It is very hard to find people like Sefo Avia who does his work out of love and compassion.

Growing up seeing his mother looking after his baby sister, Avia now finds himself in her role.

Being a single male of 45 years old, Avia said he thanks God for the many years he has had to enable him his life to care for his sick sister.

Avia is the third of eight siblings, four brothers and five sisters.

Stella Avia is the baby of the family, she is 26 years of age she has suffered from epilepsy and cerebral palsy since she was 7 years old.

Mr Avia said that in that year, his sister was confined to her bed.

She couldnt walk, sit, eat or talk.

I saw how my mother cared for her when she was still thats when I learned how to do the same work, said Mr Avia.

And when his mother passed away in 2010, Mr Avia has continued the care for his baby sister.

Avia said the hardest part of his work was the problem that she was unable to talk.

But he said that caring for her for many years, helped him learn how to communicate with her.

I have learned to know when she is hungry and when she wants to go somewhere, he said.

I bathe her two times a day and I also cut her hair short because its hot, he added.

Avia said his normal routine is the same every morning.

He prepares her breakfast and bathes her before her afternoon nap and the same thing when she wakes up later.

I make sure she has three meals a day, said Avia.

The most challenging part of my job is preparing her food.

Avia said he needs to make sure everything is clean, blend her food blender and feed her.

It takes two hours feeding her, he added.

And have there been times when he felt like giving up he was asked?

Avia said no because his mother never gave up on of any of them.

I dont think theres been any day that I would like to have had to myself or when I have been tired of caring for her. I just pity her because of her condition and its my job to make her feel the life that we have is enjoyable.

Avia said he thanked God for giving him the courage every day to do what he loves to do and its because of his loving care of Stella, she hasnt had to receive any medical treatment.

He said he only buys liquid panadol for her if she gets a fever, but he has never had to take her to the hospital for any other treatment.

Avia believes that his sister is much healthier because of his care..

Avias cousin Selepa Esera, praised her cousins work.

She said she admires him because of the kind of man he is and the kind of love that he has.

I cant remember if theres been any time I have seen him doing what he wants and not caring for Stella, said Ms Esera. He is one of the most shy guys that I have ever known and I couldnt be more grateful for the work that he does, she added.

Ms Esera said every day she gets to see her cousin doing his work happily.

I never hear him complain, she said.

Ms Esera said sometimes she helps out her cousin by feeding her but Stella eats slowly and angrily because she knows her brother is not feeding her.

She is very close to her brother because all he does is be with her every day, added Ms Esera.
Senior firefighter, Kereta Samia did not think twice about his own life but he was more concerned about the lives of the public who might have been in danger.

As a senior firefighter, Samia said he believes he can deal with any dangerous situation that comes his way.

I didnt think about the fact that where we were, was very risky that day, because our first job was to try and put out the fire.aid Samia.

Samia said what he was worried about were the underground fuel pipes and the concern that if the fire reached them, the whole town could explode.

And it would cost many lives.

After being in the force for more than 10 years, Samia said this is the most dangerous situation he has ever been in.

We have worked on big fires, especially house fires and forest fires but this is the first incident that involved fuel, he added.

Being around the fuel tank at Matautu, Samia said he was aware he could be facing injury or death but God gave him the courage to work with his boys to put out the fire in time to contain the greater danger to Apia.

He also said firefighters have been taught to be alert at any time for any kind of fire ant to be prepared to deal with it.

The surrounding area of the fuel tank, he said was really hot, but they were partly shielded by the tank cover that had blown off.

We were standing five meters from the fuel tank and that was the closest we could get. 

I couldnt ask for more from God but to praise his name in gratitude that we were spared from the danger and that we managed to contain and eventually put out the fire.

In light of this particular incident, Samia confirmed there is an urgent need for specific training and relevant equipment.

He said that while he was in Japan for three months, they had undertaken training on a ladder truck.

With the Monday incident, I wished that we had had a ladder truck here in Samoa, so that there would be no problem trying to put the foam into the fuel tank because those ladders can go 30 meters high which is higher than the fuel tanks.

Samia is a father of two children. He is 35 years of age and he is from the village of Fagalii Uta.
It was a proud moment for the National University of Samoa (N.U.S) as one of their staff members has completed the highest form of qualification.

Staff member, Edna Temese-Ualesis recent completion of her PhD in Philosophy, is an example of the universitys need to push for higher qualifications for their staff as well as students.

In a press conference, Professor Asofou Soo the Vice Chancellor spoke of the universitys role to pursue higher quality education for their students.

Our university is now 32 years old and just like all other universities around the world, one of our goals is to provide quality education, he said.

Which follows that, One of the important aspects of the teaching part of our role as a university, is to also have well qualified teachers and staff to deliver our courses and programmes.

Here at the university we have three categories of programmes: we have a programme for plumbing, welding and trades; theres a Foundation programme that prepares students for university studies; and finally we have the Higher Education programmes, he said.

Our preparation specifically for the Higher Education programmes means that we have to keep improving the qualifications of our staff.

But staff quality has not always been at the present level.

Back when we started in 1984, none of our staff members held a doctorate qualification; now we have a total of 16 who do, Asofou said.

Aside from the 16 that we have, there are 10 more studying at the doctorate level with a few finishing at the end of this year and the rest finishing the following year.

Thats a continuous improvement effort to keep moving forward in terms of qualifications of our staff.

For Ms. Ualesi the road was not an easy one.

As an N.U.S. student from years ago, I along with a few other students didnt get scholarships to go to Fiji, Australia or New Zealand so we stayed back, she said.

We knew that there was still hope where we could apply overseas; I then made it to Japan where I attained another degree and when I returned I began teaching here at the university.

I knew that I had to pursue higher qualifications, Im thankful that the government of Japan gave me a chance to get a masters degree and from there I stayed on to get a PhD.

Ms. Ualesis road to excellence is a testimony of hope for students and staff to never give up pushing for higher qualifications.
Answers about wharf security, safety procedures and simple common sense are at the heart of information being sought by the new Minister of Works, Infrastructure and Transport.

Any work that involves fire around one of the biggest fuel tanks at the Matautu wharf is a time bomb waiting to explode is the view of Minister Papalii Niko Lee Hang who added his concerns over the storage tank fuel that exploded last week.

The Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi had also pointedly raised questions about the qualifications of those employed by Petroleum Products Supplies (P.P.S.).

A 31 year old employee of P.P.S. died as a result of the tank explosion.

During an interview with the Samoa Observer, the Minister who is also responsible for the Matautu wharf said he does not understand the logic of work involving fire and a fuel tank.

I dont understand why there was welding work at the tanks when there was fuel in them, Papali'i said.

I mean, at the petrol station you cant use your cell phone and you cant smoke but these things are minor.

But they weld the tank with fuel in it  its just ridiculous and doing it on top of a fuel tank its a time bomb, it can explode anytime.

While the Minister is still puzzled about the maintenance work, he said there is negligence the part of the Samoa Ports Authority who are responsible for those who come in and out at the wharf.

I dont think there was any security at the time (to ask) who these people are and what kind of work they would be doing at the wharf, said Papalii.

They should have known that no work should be done when there is fuel in the tank. I was shocked when I heard a loud bang it was like an earthquake. Then I saw something blowing up in the air and the tank was on fire with smoke coming out of it.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi also questioned whether the P.P.S. employees were qualified to do such work at the tanks.

There should be someone who is trained in this kind of work, said Tuilaepa.

That is the unknown mystery. Is the worker who did the welding qualified because that kind of work requires trained people who understand how to do this kind of work and we dont know about the workers who did it.

According to P.P.S. Managing Director, Fanene Samau Etuale Sefo, the work at the tanks was legal and there was a permit for it.

Police and expertise from Australia are conducting an investigation into the oil tanks and the fire on Monday.
Effective 29 April the maximum authorised transit draught will be set at 11.74 m (38.5 ft) tropical fresh water.

Vessels loaded to draughts over 11.74 m (38.5 ft) on or before April 1, 2016, will have this draught restriction waived for transit, subject to safety considerations. Vessels loaded after 1 April 2016 will have to comply with the draught restriction. Draught restrictions will be implemented in 15 cm (six-inch) decrements at a time, with each restriction announced at least four weeks in advance.

The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) will continue to monitor and manage the water levels. The Panama Canal will eliminate these draught restrictions as soon as Gatun Lake level returns to normal.As always, these are temporary and preventive measures to ensure the continuous and safe operations of the canal. The ACP said it remained fully committed to responsible management of its water resources and the protection of the waterway.
Press Release

April 10, 2016 BONGBONG MARCOS TO AFP--BE TRANSPARENT ON ABU SAYYAF ENCOUNTER Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. today called on the Armed Forces of the Philippines to disclose the details of the encounter in Basilan with Abu Sayyaf forces which led to the killing of at least 18 soldiers and wounding of more than 50 others Saturday. Marcos said the entire nation and most especially the families of the slain soldiers deserve full transparency in the military operation against the international terrorist group. "We need a full picture of the encounter. We should not hide these details. The Filipino people and most especially the families of the soldiers killed and wounded deserve to know the whole truth," he said. Marcos expressed concern about the silence of the AFP on the operation. Reports have shown that after the Western Mindanao Command's report of 22 soldiers injured early Saturday, no official statement has been released about the clashes. "Here were go again. We are again in the dark of what happened," he said noting of the country's experience with the ill-fated Mamasapano operation which led to the killing of 44 members of the Special Action Force. It took several weeks before police officials made a public pronouncement on who ordered the operation. Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and AFP Chief of Staff Hernando Iriberri were said to have flown to Zamboanga City and Basilan province early Sunday to meet with ground commanders. Marcos added the AFP has to make public who led the operation and the exact purpose of the operation in an area controlled by the armed group. "Who was in charge of the operation? What was the exact objective of the operation? We need answers because this is something that strikes a chord with every Filipino because of the Mamasapano incident a year ago," he said. According to reports, the 10-hour firefight happened Saturday, a day after Italian hostage, former missionary Rolando del Torchio, was released by Abu Sayyaf. AFP sources were quoted as saying that the government forces were deployed to hunt down Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon who has been involved in several terrorist attacks. Local media reports also indicated that about 100 Abu Sayyaf fighters were involved in the clash with government troops. Four soldiers had reportedly been decapitated.
Press Release

April 10, 2016 LET ALL CANDIDATES TAKE DRUG TEST--BONGBONG MARCOS Vice presidential candidate Senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" R. Marcos Jr. today said he is willing to undergo drug test to show his sincerity to fight illegal drugs. Marcos made the statement after various youth groups had asked presidential and vice presidential candidates in the upcoming May elections to voluntarily submit themselves to a drug test to show they are really serious in fighting illegal drugs. "I have always been always open to it. I am willing to undergo a drug test to show my sincerity in the fight against illegal drugs," he said. He also challenged his fellow candidates to take a drug test to set a strong message to the electorate that they will really fulfill their promise to fight illegal drugs in the country. "Everyone must take a drug test because that's the only way we can show to the voters that we will indeed fight illegal drugs," he pointed out. Earlier, groups such as the National Youth Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Prevention (NYCCDAP) and National Youth Affairs on Drug Abuse Prevention and Education (NYADAPE) said that taking the drug test will send a strong message to the youth that the candidates do really take their vow to fight illegal drugs seriously. "Our next leaders should be in a position to discuss drug use, and there can be no better way than to set an example for everyone," NYADAPE President Leo Archie Andes III said in a statement. Reports made by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency showed that more than 8,600 barangays in the country are affected by the drug menace with Metro Manila Manila having the highest rate of being drug-affected with 92 percent of its barangays affected, followed by Southern Tagalog at 33 percent. Marcos added that if elected vice president, he will push for the revival of the death penalty for drug lords. "I am principally against death penalty but I would take exception on big time drug peddlers and drug lords because of the menace they havoc on society, especially the youth, the future of our country," he said. The senator also said law enforcement agencies must be well-equipped to target not just small time drug peddlers but zero in on big-time drug pushers and their leaders to make the war on illegal drug trade more effective. "We have a serious drug problem because mainly of corruption and poor law enforcement and we need to weed our system out of those involved in illegal drug trade especially in our law enforcement agencies and then those in the service should be well-equipped to go after drug pushers and their principals," he said. But more importantly, he pointed out, the support of the family and community should be strengthened as it is crucial in the fight versus illegal drugs. "The fight against illegal drugs is not only the work of the police or law enforcement agencies, the family and community also play a crucial role. Everyone should work together to give our children the proper guidance to enable them to fight the lure of illegal drugs," he stressed.
AFTER FINAL SC DECISION, POE SAYS NOTHING CAN STOP HER NOW

SORSOGON--After the Supreme Court affirmed its earlier ruling saying Sen. Grace Poe is qualified to run for president, the race frontrunner said nothing can stop her now.

"Parang nawalan na ng kadena ang ating pangangampanya at tuloy-tuloy na po," Poe said during a visit to Sorsogon, home province of her running mate, Sen. Francis Escudero.

Poe was reacting to the High Court ruling released earlier today denying with finality the motions for reconsideration of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and other petitioners. The SC said "no substantial arguments were presented to warrant the reversal of the questioned decision."

"Nagbibigay lang ito ng affirmation na naging malakas at tama ang desisyon ng Korte Suprema. Kami ay nagpapasalamat sa hustisyang ibinigay nila," she said.

In the event that she is elected, the senator said she is confident that with the SC decision she will hurdle questions on her citizenship that could be raised before the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which handles disqualification cases against an incumbent president.

"Matibay ang naging desisyon. Sa tingin ko ay kahit na kuwestiyunin pa nila sa PET, malakas ang laban natin," Poe said.

Poe, the lone independent presidential aspirant, leads all surveys as the voters' top choice for president. In the March 15-20 Pulse Asia report, 28 percent of voters choose Poe as the next president, while the March 30 Bilang Pilipino-SWS survey showed 34 percent of Filipinos choosing the senator.

"Para sa akin kasi ang pinaka-tinitingnan ng ating mga kababayan higit sa lahat ay talagang plataporma naman ng mga tumatakbo at 'yung karakter ng mga lider," she said.

Last March 8, the Supreme Court voted 9-6 to grant Poe's petition to reverse the COMELEC's decision that effectively disqualified Poe from the presidential race. The High Court said the poll body acted with grave abuse of discretion when it cancelled Poe's certificate of candidacy on questions of citizenship and residency.
'Crushing Abu Sayyaf is this president's last job, the next president's first'

Include Abu Sayyaf problem in next pres'l debate - Recto

Finishing off the Abu Sayyaf is this president's last job and the next president's first.

They have bedeviled four presidencies and, if not stopped, is on track to confront the fifth Malacanang occupant in their almost quarter-of-a-century of mayhem and violence.

The next presidential debate should include a question on how to end Abu Sayyaf's terrorism and stop their expansion as an ISIS franchisee.

What is clear is that ending their terror has become an important part of the job description of the next president.

What is also clear is that Abu Sayyaf's predatory attacks have been reduced by the current administration.

Lately, however, they have gone on a kidnapping spree, snatching 10 Indonesian fishermen, bringing the number of their hostages to 14. The other four are Dutch Ewold Hurn, Canadians John Ridsdel and Robert Hall, and Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad.

Before their hostages become a United Nations of kidnap victims, they must be stopped. We know the lessons of the past: Ransom payments fuel more kidnappings and finance more terror activities.

We commend the bravery of our fallen soldiers. We condole with their loved ones, but above all, let us assure them that justice will be served soon.
A 220-pound rock from outer space has got the earthlings fighting.

Its not just any rock but the famous Fukang meteorite, a sparkly slab of greenish crystals that is said to be one of the greatest space rocks ever discovered. Exactly who owns it is the subject of a federal lawsuit filed in San Francisco that reads like an Isaac Asimov sci-fi tale.

A Novato man says its rightfully his. A Massachusetts couple say they paid the Novato man $425,000 for it and that its rightfully theirs.

The Novato man says he canceled the sale when he found out the Massachusetts couple were running a rock museum in Maine. The Massachusetts couple say the Novato man canceled the sale because of sellers remorse, when he figured he let the $425,000 rock go on the cheap.

Meanwhile, a New York rock broker and two Kansas rock polishers say theyre entitled to a piece of the action, too.

The tale begins 4 billion years ago, give or take an eon, when the meteorite plummeted to earth and landed in the Gobi Desert of China. In 2000, it was discovered, and pieces of it began to be sold to well-heeled rock hounds, one of whom was Stephan Settgast of Novato, who said he bought a 220-pound slice of it in 2004.

In 2014, court documents say, Settgast agreed to sell the slice to Lawrence Stifler and Mary McFadden of Brookline, Mass., who paid him $425,000 through a New York meteorite middleman.

But after the rock polishers, Keith and Dana Jenkerson of Osawatomie, Kan., who had been hired to spiff up the meteorite for its new owners, said they thought it was worth perhaps $1 million, Settgast decided he wanted his rock back, the Massachusetts couple say.

Settgast went to the Jenkersons studio and, while they were away at a rock show, entered the premises and took back the meteorite. It was a clear case of meteorite-napping, said the spurned buyers.

Settgast maintained he was reclaiming the rock because the couple planned to put it on public display at their under-construction museum in Maine. Settgast said that violated the terms of the sale. Stifler and McFadden said a no-museum promise was never part of the deal. They say Settgast has their rock and their money, too.

Settgast sued in federal court in February to invalidate the sale and keep the rock. Stifler and McFadden countersued in March to get their hands on the rock.

Nobody knows what a one-of-a-kind meteorite is worth, according to Settgasts lawyer, Curt Edmondson.

Its not like its a Toyota, he said.

Edmondson denied that Settgast stole back the meteorite or planned to keep the money. He said Settgast had never formally turned over the meteorite, despite being paid for it, and was entitled to take it back because it was still his.

Its not like he went to Kansas and jimmied the lock on the back door and put a 220-pound rock under his arm, Edmondson said.

Court documents suggest one reason the rock polishers valued the rock at $1 million is that they believed they were entitled to 5 percent of its value for their services. They were seeking $50,000 for spiffing it up, instead of the $20,000 they had been promised and eventually accepted.

Rock hounds say rare meteorites of the Fukang variety, known as pallasites, are beautiful and valuable but not particularly scientifically significant.

This kind of meteorite has been studied and has little new to tell us, said Paul Doherty, senior scientist at the Exploratorium in San Francisco. It came from the core-mantle boundary of an asteroid. We have studied lots of meteorites of this kind. It doesnt need to be in a museum. If it was a Martian meteorite, that would be different.

Settgast, Stifler and McFadden did not return calls seeking comment. A federal judge has scheduled a hearing on the dispute for June 29.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SteveRubeSF
San Francisco police are looking for a 2-year-old girl whose mother was found slain, officials said late Saturday.

At a news conference just before 10 p.m. outside police headquarters, officials identified the homicide victim as Nicole Fitts. She was found dead Friday, said Officer Grace Gatpandan, after she was last seen April 1 and reported missing to city police on Tuesday.
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WASHINGTON  The Democratic and Republican presidential candidates are coming to terms with the cold mathematical reality of chasing delegates ahead of their nominating conventions, with front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump driving for challenge-proof majorities against rivals who wont go away.

For Trump, who remains well short of the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the GOP nod, that means his campaign focuses on developing a delegate-centered strategy akin to the one that rival Ted Cruz has pursued for months.

A more traditional approach is needed, and Donald Trump recognizes that, Paul Manafort, Trumps new delegate chief, said Sunday on NBCs Meet the Press.

For Clinton, who lost Wyoming on Saturday to Bernie Sanders, it means maintaining her commanding leads among delegates and popular votes no matter how many states Sanders wins  or how much momentum he claims. Key to her drive is a win April 19 in New York, which she represented in the U.S. Senate.

Asked in a CNN interview that aired Sunday whether shes quietly preparing a strategy in the unlikely event of a contested Democratic convention, she replied, No, I intend to have the number of delegates that are required to be nominated.

Maryland, where Clinton is favored, holds its primary on April 26 along with Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Delaware and Connecticut.

Clintons campaign is pushing for big wins across the northeast, in an effort to gain what theyve termed an all but insurmountable lead in the delegate race.

I was honored to serve as your senator for eight years, Clinton told parishioners at Greater Allen Cathedral in Queens on Sunday. Im now running for president to continue the work weve done all those years.

But with neither front-runner strong enough to claim inevitability, their challengers stick to the hope that by winning more races and cozying up to delegates, they stand a chance of eventually grabbing their respective party nominations.

For Ohio Gov. John Kasich, its about winning enough delegates to keep all candidates from locking up the majority. And that means sowing doubts about the effect that a Trump or Cruz nomination would have on the party.

We would lose seats all the way from the statehouse to the courthouse  meaning races all down the ballot, Kasich told CBSs Face the Nation.
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Police in San Francisco continued their hunt Sunday for a slain womans missing 2-year-old daughter, while friends and family anxiously waited for updates on the search and for details on what happened to the mother of two.

Arianna Fitts was last seen in February, weeks before her mother, 32-year-old Nicole Fitts, was found dead Friday, San Francisco police Officer Grace Gatpandan said late Saturday.

The little girl is considered at risk because she is so young and because her mother was a homicide victim, police said. Officials released photos of the girl over the weekend, asking anyone who sees her to call 911. Police have not said if any suspects were identified or arrested in the killing.

Friends and family, meanwhile, are waiting for news about the young girl. But hope of her safe return was shrouded with sorrow over the slaying of Nicole Fitts, whom her sister described as cheerful and pleasant.

Its rough, Nicole Fitts sister, Contessa Fitts, said Sunday morning. The thing that is keeping me going is that were going to find Arianna. I have to keep finding information.

Police officials have been reluctant to provide specifics on the investigation and have said only that Nicole was found deceased as a victim of a homicide. She was last seen on April 1, police said.

Authorities have not said how the woman was killed or where her body was found. Contessa Fitts, who lives in Santa Cruz, said she has not heard anything about possible suspects in the case.

The police havent told me much, she said. They arent saying anything now, but I know the cops are doing everything they can.

Nicole Fitts, who went by Nikki, most recently lived in San Francisco and worked at the Best Buy store on Harrison Street in the citys Mission District, her sister said. She grew up in Southern California before moving to the Bay Area and, 12 years ago, she had her first daughter, her family said. Ten years later, Arianna was born.

Michael Jacobo, 33, a close friend and co-worker at Best Buy, spoke emotionally about Fitts on Sunday. He said their birthdays are close together and they were recently planning a summer trip with her daughters to Disneyland.

None of this makes sense, Jacobo said. She was one of the kindest people you would ever meet. She always had a smile on her face. It always stuck with me how kind and shy she was.

Since Nicole Fitts death, Jacobo said, police have been interviewing the womans friends and family members.

The mother and daughter were known to frequent San Francisco, San Mateo, Oakland, Emeryville, Fresno, Santa Cruz and the Silicon Valley area, police said.

Contessa Fitts said she stayed in touch with her sister, talking on the phone every week. Despite living in different cities, the two would get together about once a month.

She was cheerful and pleasant to be around, always just giving to people, Contessa Fitts said. She always made sure whoever she was around was taken care of. She was bubbly and a really good person.

Nicole Fitts friends had been circulating a missing-person bulletin on social media for the past week, while others started the Facebook group Finding Nicole Nikki Fitts and Arianna Fitts. One friend suggested the woman may have been in Fresno.

But as friends and co-workers on Facebook hold out hope for the 2-year-old, many were anguished to learn of the mothers death.

I cant stop crying, one friend wrote. She doesnt deserve this.

San Francisco police said they are dedicating numerous resources around the clock to the investigation.

Until I hear shes not, I believe shes fine, Contessa Fitts said of her niece.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
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When the fog lifts and San Francisco's mild climate turns hot and balmy, I often take my 2-year-old to Ocean Beach.

We always spread our towels in the same spot that's just below the parking lot at Taraval because it's easy and close to our home. We know this stretch of beach, strewn with broken sand dollars and crab claws, well.

But on Tuesday, my daughter hesitated as she set her foot down on the sand.

"It's dirty, mommy," she said.

She was startled when she looked out at the swath of darkness sparkling and gleaming under the sunlight. The sand that's typically white was as black as coal and flecked with glittery pieces.

Many locals have the same reaction when large swirling patches of black sand cover Ocean Beach as the city often gets calls reporting an oil spill.

But in fact, the sand is anything but dirty and is made up of a really cool iron ore derivative called magnetite. If you hold a magnet over the sand, the tiny bits stick to it. The sand particles themselves become magnetic and they then attract more sand and you can conduct all sorts of fun science experiments.

The Ocean Beach black sand is unlike the variety found on Hawaiian beaches as volcanic sand is not metallic.

Ken Finn, the Exploratorium's science educator, explains that the Ocean Beach sand comes from the Sierra Nevada where igneous rocks are being worn down through erosion.

"Most of the sand at Ocean Beach is from this source," Finn says, "carried here by the tributaries of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers that meet in the delta and flow through San Francisco Bay and out the gate. The prevailing ocean current helps push this exiting sediment flow south and wave action pushes it onto Ocean Beach.

The black sand is always coming and going, depending on storms, currents, the waves, the tides, the movement of the ocean.

"The sand at Ocean Beach is always on the move," Finn explains. "The sand...follows a seasonal movement cycle. The heavy seas in the winter pull a lot of sand off the beach and drop it a little offshore."

He adds: "In the winter large bands of black sand are exposed, making the beach seem more black than the the last time you were out there, or the reverse is also true. Over the summer months more and more sand is deposited on the beach. Sand that was swept out during the winter months and new sand brought down by the spring snowmelt in the Sierras piles up on the beach in the spring and summer months."

Finn says the black sand is more likely to appear at Ocean Beach than at the cities other city beaches such as Crissy Field, Baker Beach and China Beach. "For some reason, most likely linked to the density of these black bits in the sand spectrum," he says, "the current deposits the bulk of our black sand between Rivera St. and Sloat Blvd."

I returned to Ocean Beach with my son yesterday as after I learned the sand responds to magnets I knew he'd want to play around with it.

We took an extra powerful magnet to the beach and he held it over the sand. The particles flew up to it.

The day was unseasonably hot and the beach was a zoo with surfers, dog owners, sand castle builders and sun bathers. And then there we were fiddling around with a magnet.

"Mom, this is so cool," my son said. "Do you think any of these other people know what this sand can do?"
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I'm not going to be politically correct with this post tonight. Instead I'm going to be very blunt.

Here goes.

I don't know what it's going to take for police officers in San Francisco to get Tasers. Yesterday another person holding a knife was shot and killed by police.

It all started after there were reports of a homeless man walking around with a 13 inch knife.

After arriving on the scene, the police told him to drop to the ground.

He didn't.

They told him to drop the knife.

He didn't.

They then shot him several times with high powered bean bags.

But they said he was still coming toward them.

And at that point they shot and killed him. It was all over in about 30 seconds.

I don't understand why San Francisco and Detroit are the only major cities that don't use Tasers.

I know that Tasers aren't perfect. But I'd still rather be shot with a Taser than a gun. It's just not even a question to me.

I also thought that some of the comments we got from people on the scene were interesting. Several told us that they thought the person who was killed didn't speak English. So maybe he didn't know what the officers were saying.

I have to be honest. I think that's ridiculous.

If someone is holding a 13 inch knife and police have their guns pointed at him and are yelling at him, I don't think you need to speak English to understand what they're saying. Just drop the knife.

We also had someone tell us that the victim was holding the knife but not in a "threatening" way.

I would beg to differ. I don't think there is any way to hold a 13 inch knife that is NOT threatening.

Just the idea that someone is walking down the street with a 13 inch knife is, in and of itself, "threatening."

And if you don't believe me just picture yourself on a Bart train standing next to someone holding a 13 inch knife.

Would you feel threatened?

Would you feel scared?

I sure would.

I hope the police commission will reconsider their decision and allow officers to have Tasers.

Someone's life could very well depend on it.

As always I'm totally open for discussion on this. I just ask that everyone keep their comments respectful.

Frank Somerville is the regular 5, 6 and 10 pm anchor on KTVU News. This post originally appeared on His Facebook Page, where you can leave a comment with your reaction.
What youll see: Years of planning and boots-on-the ground work were crowned last week with the opening of the Bay Areas newest trail, a link to Mindego Hill and its sweeping views across the coastal foothills and beyond to the ocean. There are also hooves on the ground. This is the first section of public-accessible trail on the Peninsula with cattle grazing.

Location: Mindego Hill is in Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve on the south Peninsula. A new parking area and trailhead is located off Alpine Road, near the west-facing flank of Skyline west of Palo Alto.

The preserve: Russian Ridge is a big preserve that is always gorgeous. On clear days, you get drop-dead beautiful views toward the coast. On foggy days, youll find that 2,143-foot Mindego Hill and 2,572-foot Borel Hill pop up above the layer of stratus like islands in a sea.

The new hike: From the new Mindego Gateway Parking Area (elevation 2,200 feet), take the Mindego Hill Trail (a gravel road at the start). The trail starts out very steep down (on the way back, a steep up). At 0.5 of a mile youll reach a junction. (mountain bikes are not allowed past this point on Mindego Hill Trail, an endangered species issue; bikes must turn right on Charquin Trail). Continue ahead 1.1 miles to a gate (and the start of area with grazing cattle) and another junction. Turn left (still Mindego Hill Trail) and climb 300 feet over 0.7 of a mile to a small loop that rings the summit of Mindego Hill (the slopes plunge around you, and little Mindego Lake, no access, is below to the north). 4.8-mile round trip.

Trail notes:Wildflower blooms feature lupine and California poppies; sightings of many raptors gliding and hunting are common; unlike the cows at parks in the East Bay hills, the cows here distance themselves from hikers.

Commemorative view site: From the new Mindego Gateway, take the Ancient Oaks Trail a short distance to a junction. Bear left to the lookout with tiered viewing platorms, wheelchair-accessible terrace. This is the Audrey C. Rust Commemorative Site, an honor for the former president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which helped protect more than 50,000 acres of land on the Peninsula.

Cost: Parking, access free.

Map/brochure: Available near trailhead at parking. PDF at website.

How to get there: Take Interstate 280 to the San Francisco Peninsula and continue to Woodside and the exit for Woodside Road/Highway 84 West. Take that exit, turn west onto Woodside Road and drive 6.5 miles (through Woodside, enter redwoods, becomes curvy as you climb) to Sky Londa and Skyline Boulevard/Highway 35. Turn left on Skyline and drive 7.3 miles to junction with Alpine Road on right (Page Mill Road on left). Turn right on Alpine Road and drive 1.3 miles (becomes curvy) to turnoff on right to new parking area.

Option from South Bay: From Palo Alto at I 280, take Page Mill Road west about 10 miles (becomes very narrow and curvy, watch out for bikes) to Skyline/Highway 35. Continue straight on Alpine Road for 1.3 miles to parking on right.

Distances to Mindego Gateway: 10 miles from Sky Londa, 12 miles from Palo Alto, 14 miles from Woodside, 26 miles from Half Moon Bay, 27 miles from San Jose, 35 miles from Hayward, 45 miles from downtown San Francisco, 52 miles from Sausalito, 52 miles from Dublin.

Contacts: Russian Ridge Open Space Preserves, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, (650) 691-1200, www.openspace.org.

 Tom Stienstra

What youll see: Years of planning and boots-on-the ground work were crowned last week with the opening of the Bay Areas newest trail, a link to Mindego Hill and its sweeping views across the coastal foothills and beyond to the ocean. There are also hooves on the ground. This is the first section of public-accessible trail on the Peninsula with cattle grazing.

Location: Mindego Hill is in Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve on the s outh Peninsula. A new parking area and trailhead is located off Alpine Road, near the west-facing flank of Skyline west of Palo Alto.

The preserve: Russian Ridge is a big preserve that is always gorgeous. On clear days, you get drop-dead beautiful views toward the coast. On foggy days, youll find that 2,143-foot Mindego Hill and 2,572-foot Borel Hill pop up above the layer of stratus like islands in a sea.

The new hike: From the new Mindego Gateway Parking Area (elevation 2,200 feet), take the Mindego Hill Trail (a gravel road at the start). The trail starts out very steep down (on the way back, a steep up). At 0.5 of a mile youll reach a junction. (Mountain bikes are not allowed past this point on Mindego Hill Trail, an endangered species issue; bikes must turn right on Charquin Trail.) Continue ahead 1.1 miles to a gate (and the start of area with grazing cattle) and another junction. Turn left (still Mindego Hill Trail) and climb 300 feet over 0.7 of a mile to a small loop that rings the summit of Mindego Hill (the slopes plunge around you, and little Mindego Lake, no access, is below to the north). 4.8-mile round trip.

Trail notes: Wildflower blooms feature lupine and California poppies; sightings of many raptors gliding and hunting are common; unlike the cows at parks in the East Bay hills, the cows here distance themselves from hikers.

Commemorative view site: From the new Mindego Gateway, take the Ancient Oaks Trail a short distance to a junction. Bear left to the lookout with tiered viewing platforms and a wheelchair-accessible terrace. This is the Audrey C. Rust Commemorative Site, an honor for the former president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, which helped protect more than 50,000 acres of land on the P eninsula.

Cost: Parking, access free.

Map/brochure: Available near trailhead at parking. PDF at website.

How to get there: Take Interstate 280 to the San Francisco Peninsula and continue to Woodside and the exit for Woodside Road/Highway 84 West. Take that exit, turn west onto Woodside Road and drive 6.5 miles (through Woodside, enter redwoods, becomes curvy as you climb) to Sky Londa and Skyline Boulevard/Highway 35. Turn left on Skyline and drive 7.3 miles to junction with Alpine Road on right (Page Mill Road on left). Turn right on Alpine Road and drive 1.3 miles (becomes curvy) to turnoff on right to new parking area.

Option from South Bay: From Palo Alto at I-280, take Page Mill Road west about 10 miles (becomes very narrow and curvy, watch out for bikes) to Skyline/Highway 35. Continue straight on Alpine Road for 1.3 miles to parking on right.

Distances to Mindego Gateway: 10 miles from Sky Londa, 12 miles from Palo Alto, 14 miles from Woodside, 26 miles from Half Moon Bay, 27 miles from San Jose, 35 miles from Hayward, 45 miles from downtown San Francisco, 52 miles from Sausalito, 52 miles from Dublin.

Contacts: Russian Ridge Open Space Preserves, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District, (650) 691-1200, www.openspace.org.

 Tom Stienstra
Now is the time when, with one box, you can rock your world.

Your age, background or experience in nature makes no difference. Do this one time and it will not only change the world, it will change how you feel for life. All in the next 40 days.

To start, you need to find a creek, pond or lake. That qualifies every person in Northern California. What you do is strap the box on a tree within walking distance of the water.

The first time you do this, what follows can seem like a miracle.

Wood ducks (the prettiest of all ducks), which nest above ground, will seek out the box to nest. A little more than a month later, about a dozen little fuzzballs will hatch.

The mother will kick them out of the box and they will walk to the water. If you track the progress, youll spot the parents in the water, followed by a line of little ducklings.

If you live near water and can position the box adjacent to a wildlife cam, or actually see the procession of fuzzballs take their first steps, it will rock your world.

Wood ducks are starting to nest and lay their eggs now, according to several nest box surveys last week in the Bay Area and Sacramento Valley. On Saturday night, the California Wood Duck Program held its 25th anniversary banquet in Fairfield to celebrate and raise money. In those 25 years, the program has produced 740,609 ducklings and is expected to top 750,000 this spring.

Anybody can make it work. All you need is the right box and a tree near water.

In the Bay Area, for instance, some of the best successes have been in Walnut Creek. Local conservationists, including longtime Chronicle field scouts Brian Murphy and Rich Fletcher, as well as the California Waterfowl Association, Audubon Society, Boy Scouts and other service groups, have put up dozens of wood duck nesting boxes near small local creeks and ponds. At Heather Farms, a community park with a pond, wood ducks are now nesting in several boxes and are expected to hatch this years crop by mid-May.

As at most sites, before the boxes went up, there were no wood ducks at the park. Now there are.

When you put up a box and then see a new family of ducks puttering around in a pond, to know you are responsible will make you glow as if you have been touched by pure magic.

Paul Bonderson Jr., president of Ducks Unlimited, told me last week that he was affected so deeply by the success of wood duck nesting boxes that he put up 400 on his ranch near Colusa. At another world-class ranch for waterfowl, Rancho Esquon near Durham (Butte County), where I surveyed 1,000 acres last week that have been converted from farmland to wetlands, nest boxes positioned near a pond had their first eggs.

The nesting boxes that work best are 25 inches tall, 11 inches square, have a 3-by-4-inch oval hole for the hen to get in and out and a cap-like top that allows people to monitor the nest without scaring the ducks inside.

Many organizations provide blueprints so you can build them. That includes California Waterfowl, Ducks Unlimited, National Wildlife, Delta Waterfowl, the Wood Duck Society and others. You can also buy the boxes complete for about $60 to $70 from many outlets.

One trick, Murphy said, is to put pepper in the box. That keeps out predators that could eat the eggs.

The duckling hatch is so cute, to see those little guys coming out of their shells, Murphy said. Its like popcorn popping when they come out of the box. Within 24 hours of hatching, they all leave the box to join mom in the creek. Thats how you get hooked on wood ducking.

Turkey attacks

Luther, cont.: A recent column told the story of how a wild turkey attacked me, and here is the continuing saga. My wife gave me a military-style attack squirt gun, and when I tried to light the barbecue on the back porch before a Giants game, the turkey jumped on the porch and went after me. So I let him have it, right in the head, the wings, direct hit. Instead of the stream of water repelling the turkey, he instead rose up and attacked full-on. Weve named him Luther and now have the video camera ready, as well as a hose, for the next assault.

Train him: If you were a real man, you would capture that turkey, domesticate him, have him fetching your morning paper.  Scott Ostler

Sky Oaks gobbler: Near Bon Tempe Lake in Marin, Fred Liebes said, a big male turkey came at him at the Sky Oaks Ranger Station. He dragged his wings along on the pavement, sounding like a cardboard box scraping along. Fortunately he backed down.

Many yarns: Ken Lerch of El Cerrito walked out to his driveway to go to work and, he said, a wild turkey blocked him, so he snapped a few close-up photos. ... Raymond Zanni reports he, too, was attacked by a big gobbler, the turkey actually chasing him down, just like the one thats been after me. ... Vic Ryerson spotted a raft of turkeys, and then asked: Why hasn't someone figured out the equation: Excess wild turkeys plus hungry homeless equals well-fed homeless (and end of turkey problems)?

Tales of the wild

San Luis showdown: After the recent Sunday Drive feature about the elk herd below the dam at San Luis Reservoir, Cheryl Major said she saw coyotes sneaking up on newborn elk calves. Two mamas chased the coyotes away.

S.F. coyote charge: Jeff Rafnson asked that this encounter be publicized to warn residents of San Francisco near Bernal Hill: While he was walking his dog, a coyote charged and attacked twice within 10 feet. My dog is a 130-pound mastiff so this would not have been easy pickings for the coyote, Rafnson wrote. The coyote was incredibly bold and aggressive.

S.F. encounter: Jodell Scott was walking Teagan, a 55-pound golden retriever, in Glen Canyon when they had a 15-foot encounter with a coyote. I have a new consciousness of how this could have been a really bad day, and Teagan will be on leash in those high hills, Scott said.

Backyard lion: You may have seen this story on TV, but this is the first opportunity to report it here: A juvenile mountain lion was darted and moved from the backyard of a home in Santa Cruz, the Department of Fish and Wildlife reported, and in the aftermath, one report said 40 pets have been reported missing in the area.

Urban deer: A study at Ball State University found that deer survival is higher in urban areas than in the wild as twice as many fawns survive because of less predation than occurs in rural areas.

Tom Stienstra is The Chronicles outdoor writer. E-mail: tstienstra@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @StienstraTom
BEIRUT  The Islamic State group has released most of the 300 cement workers it abducted near Damascus after questioning them to find out who were Muslims and killing four who were members of the minority Druze sect, a Syrian opposition monitoring group and a news agency linked to the extremists reported Saturday.

The reports came two days after the militants abducted the cement workers and contractors from al-Badia Cement Company in Dumeir, just northeast of the capital, after a surprise attack on government forces.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said all those abducted have been released except for 30 people who were guards at the cement factory. It said the fate of the 30 is unknown.

The Islamic State-affiliated Aamaq news agency said most of the 300 were released after questioning to determine their religion and whether they support the government. It said four workers who belonged to the minority Druze sect were killed and 20 pro-government gunmen are still being held.

The Druze, a 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, made up about 5 percent of Syrias pre-war population of 23 million people. Lebanon and Israel also have large Druze communities. The Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim group, considers all Shiites to be heretics deserving death.

Government forces and insurgents, meanwhile, clashed near Handarat, just north of the northern city of Aleppo, Syrias largest, activists said. In the western part of Aleppo province, troops backed by Lebanons Hezbollah fighters battled militants in Khan Touman and al-Ais, where insurgents last week killed more than two dozen Lebanese militants and government forces, according to activists and state media.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, a mine left behind by Islamic State fighters near the Kurdish town of Kobani killed at least four children and wounded several others late Friday. The Observatory said four children were killed and six wounded when the mine exploded in the village of Darb Hassan. State news agency SANA said six children were killed.

Kobani-based Kurdish official Idriss Naasan said the children were shepherds who took their sheep and goats to graze in Darb Hassan on Friday. When they opened the door to a house, the mine exploded, killing four children and wounding the rest.
1 Philippines fighting: At least 18 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Abu Sayyaf extremists in the southern Philippines on Saturday in the largest single-day government combat loss this year, officials said. At least 52 other soldiers were wounded in the clashes in the hinterlands bordering Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka towns on Basilan island, three military officials told the Associated Press. Four militants were killed, they said. Troops were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, the officials said.

2 Fugitive captured: A woman who was on the FBIs 10 Most Wanted fugitives list for the killing of her ex-boyfriends new girlfriend in Texas has been detained in Mexico. Brenda Delgado, 33, was taken into custody in the city of Torreon, in northern Coahuila state, the Attorney Generals Office said Friday. She will be held pending extradition proceedings. She faces charges of capital murder and unlawful flight to avoid prosecution in connection with the September death of Kendra Hatcher, a dentist. Dallas County District Attorney Susan Hawk said an extradition agreement between Mexico and the U.S. requires that the death penalty not be allowed. Hawk said Delgado faces life in prison if convicted. Hatcher, 35, was gunned down in the parking garage of her Dallas apartment. Prosecutors allege Delgado hired two accomplices  one of them the gunman  to carry out the hit. Both accomplices are in custody. It was only Wednesday when the FBI announced Delgado had been added to the most-wanted list. A reward of $100,000 was offered for her capture, but it wasnt clear Saturday whether it will be paid based on a tip.
Prime Minister John Key is signalling a change of heart on the government's insistence last week that New Zealand's foreign trust rules are sound, telling RNZ's Morning Report programme the Cabinet will consider a proposal for an inquiry by an independent expert.

Under pressure from revelations in the global leak of tax dodging practices known as the Panama Papers, Key said it was "highly likely that the government will ask an expert in this area to undertake an independent review."

It might also turn out there "may be other learnings" outside such a review "in terms of disclosure," Key said.

In the same interview, he insisted he had not used foreign tax-sheltering vehicles, although he had "no intention" of releasing his personal tax returns, as British Prime Minister David Cameron was forced to do last week following disclosures relating to his late father's use of foreign trusts, contained in the Panama Papers.

"I don't use tax-sheltering vehicles. I have never used those and I don't use those," said Key. He had a superannuation fund domiciled in Singapore, dating back to the time when he worked there. He had two domestic trusts through which he managed his personal affairs. Parliament's rules on disclosures of pecuniary interest were robust and he used "the best people" for his personal tax returns.

However, Labour Party leader Andrew Little said a single expert's review was not enough and, like New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, called for an independent commission of inquiry.

"He must instead launch a full independent inquiry into the details coming out of the Panama Papers," Little said. New Zealands reputation is being sullied around the world. One tax expert isnt going to solve this, especially one appointed by a Prime Minister who doesnt think hiding their finances behind tax-free funds is morally wrong."

New Zealand First's Peters has called for a commission of inquiry, while the Green Party says it would require foreign trusts in New Zealand to register and disclose more complete information on the identity of the settlors, their country of residence, related parties, and require annual financial reporting.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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Nuplex Industries' independent directors are unanimously backing Allnex Belguim SA's $1.05 billion bid for the resins maker after the US-based firm completed its due diligence.

The companies have signed a scheme implementation agreement, which values Nuplex at $5.55 a share, including the 12 cents per share dividend payment in February. That's a 44 percent premium to where the shares were trading before the Feb. 15 announcement and higher than the current price of $5.26, which gained 3.5 percent at today's open. Nuplex's directors all support the bid, which requires 75 percent approval in a special meeting likely to be held in August.

The recommendation is contingent on the $5.43 offer price, which excludes the dividend, falling within or above the independent adviser's valuation range, and that a better offer doesn't emerge. Managing director Emery Severin abstained from making a recommendation because of his executive role.

"The board believes Nuplex is well positioned to deliver growth in earnings, particularly from the platform now established in Asia and our new breakthrough technology, Acure," chairman Peter Springford said in a statement. "However, delivering this growth will take some time and therefore shareholders may find attractive the opportunity to realise some of the future value of their Nuplex shares in cash now."

Allnex is controlled by Boston private equity firm Advent International, whose early advances to buy Nuplex were rejected. Those talks continued and Nuplex relented when the price became attractive, agreeing to a merger which will create one of the worlds largest makers of coating resins.

Nuplex started in Auckland in 1952 as a flooring distributor before branching out into resins and polymers over the next 20 years. As the firm's focus became increasingly international, it shifted its headquarters to Sydney, while maintaining its New Zealand domicile and main listing on the NZX, which it joined in 1967.

The deal, which will remove the high-tech manufacturing firm from the NZX's list of top 50 stocks, has to be completed by Nov. 9 and requires regulatory approvals in New Zealand, Australia and China. Those are expected by the end of July. Once that's completed, the transaction will need High Court sign-off.

Both parties face a break fee of $10.47 million if the deal is terminated outside agreed terms.

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STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- To connect the dots, first you have to collect the dots, so the saying goes.

For Varun Adibhatla those dots are potholes -- not just potholes, any street defect - cave-ins, utility cuts, manhole irregularities, general bumpiness.

He and fellow NYU grad Graham Henke, have devised a way to collect the dots with a gizmo they call SQUID (Street Quality Identification Device) that gathers both data on the condition of roads and photos of its surface.

"In the 21st century, we are going to be using driverless cars, but we are still grappling with the 100-year-old problem of road conditions with 20th century solutions," says Adibhatla, for whom bumps and craters have become "great data points."

SQUID is the first project of ARGO (Advanced Research in Government Operations), the company that Adibhatla and Henke formed. They dubbed it "Toward a Vision Zero for NYC Potholes."

SQUID, a simple and inexpensive system, gets mounted in and on the trunk of a vehicle. Then as the car is driven, SQUID continuously collects information employing a Raspberry Pi, which is a small computer; an accelerometer, a device that measures vibration; GPS, for location, and a camera for photos of road surface.

Next a map is generated, connecting the "dots" of information and providing a picture with color-coded points of the range from smooth to poor ride quality. Click on a dot, and an info box (including a rating of that spot) and a photo break out.

The present system for collecting potholes and other street defects information is through observation -- by residents, City Council members, DOT officials all fed into 311. The response time on potholes is very good within one-and-a-half days, according to the Department of Transportation. However, said Adibhatla, SQUID would enable city managers to make more efficient and objective decisions on all street conditions.

"311 is only as good as the number of people who actually report street defects. It can be very unreliable," Adibhatla said. "So our approach is to collect a complete data set at first and then start processing and measuring so you can capture in a more equitable way. So basically every area is equal."

Each SQUID unit takes about $350 to produce and $500 to implement with the cost of hotspots and data collection. Fifteen devices (on 15 vehicles driving distinct routes) could cover all 6,000 miles of NYC streets in about two to three weeks, says Adibhatla.

He had agreed to meet me and give SQUID a test drive on Staten Island roads. I chose a loop on the North Shore near the ferry and on the South Shore near the Outerbridge Crossing.

We covered 22 miles in about an hour and 15 minutes. SQUID gathered 5,585 images.

Adibhatla used the results to generate two maps. One is a static map of both North and South shore routes color-coded to show bumpiness. Green is smoothest; red is moonscape.

The second is an interactive map of segments of the routes, a sample of what SQUID ultimately provides. You can click on a location to see both the rating for the road surface and a photo that shows defects. (Adibhatla said you may have to click on spots a little before or after a hotspot to see the photo that corresponds to the defect.)

Here is the interactive map.

SQUID AND SCOUT

Who is going to drive all over the city with these devices you might ask?

The city already does that. The Street Conditions Observation Unit (S.C.O.U.T.) is a team of city agency inspectors that drive every city street once per month and report quality of life conditions to 311.

Street defects are reported to 311 and an inspector is sent out. However, if the unit returned with all the data from SQUID, argues Adibhatla, a virtual inspection could be made in much less time.

And the city has already taken notice of SQUID, said Adibhatla, testing it out on a number of cars. On Staten Island, it was driven up Hillside Avenue on Grymes Hill.

The city of Syracuse has contracted with ARGO to employ SQUID there. The project also got a boost from the Knight Foundation with a $35,000 grant to help the project "take root."

VOLUNTEERS WELCOME

A resident of Manhattan, Adibhatla does not own a car, but he is keen to build up data from monitoring a stretch of road over time. He is looking for a driver who can commit to driving the same few miles every few weeks with SQUID. For more information, community board members, City Council members, any borough resident are encouraged to contact him at varun@argolabs.org.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

A native of India, Adibhatla has studied and worked in the field of implementing technology in practical ways for over 10 years. After a stint in supporting high-frequency and algorithmic trading at large banks, he returned to school to pursue his main focus -- applications for local governments to better deliver basic services.

SQUID grew out of a project he undertook during his first week of class at New York University's Center for Urban Science and Progress. During a ride on the New York Century Bike Tour, he measured the course bumpiness and generated a map with ratings from Smooth to Ugh, Woa and Nuts! (as in this could seriously damage your reproductive system).

SQUID is the first project of ARGO (Advanced Research in Government Operations), the company that Adibhatla and Henke formed.

He notes that more efficiently monitoring road hazards has been a goal of municipal government for decades. Explaining an early project in 1998, The Fund for the City of New York says the motivation for developing a reliable system is that "one way people rate the performance of their city government in general is by how well the city's streets are maintained."
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A second man has been arrested after he and a group of others allegedly attacked a Meiers Corners woman outside her home Wednesday night, stabbing her and beating her with a pipe, an NYPD spokesman said.

Anthony Johnson, 29, of Ann Street, Port Richmond, was accused of assaulting the 41-year-old woman at about 7:50 p.m. in front of her Bradley Avenue home, the spokesman said.

Johnson was arrested Friday and charged with gang assault and third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon, he said.

The victim, who had been sitting inside her home prior to the attack, went outside to confront the group of men when she was jumped, a police source said.

The attack left the woman with lacerations to her stomach, hand and leg, the NYPD spokesman said. The victim was taken to an area hospital in stable condition, he said.

Shortly after the attack, police apprehended Tystfyr Butler, 25, of Van Pelt Avenue, Mariners Harbor, charging him with gang assault, third- and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to police.

Officers allegedly found heroin, marijuana and tobacco coated with Phencyclidine (PCP) on Butler.

Butler and Johnson both have lengthy criminal histories, according to police.

Johnson has racked up 24 arrests, and Butler has a history of numerous drug-related arrests, the police department spokesman said.

The details of their arrests were not made available.

Johnson and Butler were both arraigned Saturday in Criminal Court in St. George, court records show.

Butler was ordered held on $7,500 bail and Johnson was was ordered held on $1,500 bail, according to public records.

An NYPD spokesman could not say if any other suspects are currently being sought in connection with the assault.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A local substance abuse support group Sunday offered store managers tips to avoid selling alcohol to underage youth or intoxicated patrons.

Only two people attended the responsible beverage server training event at the National Action Network in Stapleton, but organizers say they plan on implementing a new strategy to reach more businesses.

Organizers blamed Sunday's low turnout on the fact that several stores have lost their liquor licenses.

"A lot of stores lost their license or there are a lot of mom and pop shops so they couldn't really leave their businesses, said Naflan Doole, an organizer with Drug Free Community Grant Coordinator at Tackling Youth Substance Abuse (TYSA).

"So our new strategy is to go into the businesses and do the training on the spot with them during a time that they're free."

In January, the State Liquor Authority charged 10 stores on Staten Island with selling alcohol to minors during a series of citywide undercover sting operations.

Sunday's training session, part of the organization's United We Stand campaign, offered examples of good business practices for store owners to follow in order to safely serve alcohol.

Some tips include checking for IDs and looking for behavioral cues, Doole said.

The United We Stand campaign, established by TYSA in 2014, helps local shop owners ensure that their businesses meet NYPD and New York state Liquor Authority compliance checks. One of the goals is to reduce alcohol-related issues on Staten Island.

"Staten Island leads in all five categories compared to New York State, drinking and binge-drinking are two of them," Doole said.

"Doing these programs with our other programs will hopefully reduce the alcohol consumption rate on Staten Island."
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As part of Minister Lees self-financed visit to Coomeva and medical facilities in Colombia, Minister Lee made a point of visiting as many patients as possible from St Maarten that were in the cities of Cali, Bogota and Medellin at the time. As part of the Ministers hands on approach, the Minister felt that it was important to get direct feedback from patients as to the quality of service and quality of medical treatment being received by our patients. The informal interviews with patients included discussions about the ability of patients to communicate with hospital staff, comfort level, experiences with logistics, quality of the medical services, experience with SZV and the entire referral process. These informal interviews were conducted in private and without the presence of hospital or Coomeva staff present which allowed patients to speak freely about their experiences.











According to Minister Lee, The feedback on the quality of care and level of professionalism from the medical facilities has all been very positive. Most expressed satisfaction with the entire referral process. Other patients expressed some frustration with the referral process much of which seems to be on either a breakdown in chain of communications or issues that originate prior to arrival in Colombia. Based on first impressions and feedback from patients in Colombia, I am comfortable that our patients from St Maarten are being well treated. Naturally, there is always room for improvement and discussions will continue on how to streamline and improve communication and level of service for our residents.





As discussions continue with regards to the development of a new hospital for St Maarten, there will always be a need to refer patients abroad. As the range and quality of services offered locally improve, hopefully we will be able to keep patients close to home and reduce the number of referral. However, it is anticipated that there will always be a need for some level of referral for more complicated cases and therefore, it is important to have a reliable and high quality referral program in place, said Minister Lee.




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What could possibly go wrong in Craik?

The 6,000 square foot building featured straw bale insulation, wood from local elevators, solar power, recycled water and waste composting. When it opened in 2004 just across the highway from the Craik townsite, it was promoted as a sustainable way to revitalize rural Saskatchewan. Scores of tourists, researchers and permanent residents were expected to flock to the region.

By most measures, that hasn't happened.

[...]

The Eco-Centre opened with great fanfare in July 2004. It was the brainchild of several members of Saskatchewan's environmental community.

Following a series of meetings, the town agreed to finance and operate the $600,000 facility. Locals and newcomers together supplied thousands of hours of free labour. The rural municipality donated the land, complete with a stunning view of the Arm River valley. Cheap lots were pledged for the expected wave of new residents moving into the adjacent Eco-Village. Officials said a Vancouver company would soon build a $5-million hemp processing plant there.
The accused murderer of Iranian asylum-seeker Reza Barati on Manus Island has been recaptured after nearly a fortnight on the run following his escape from jail, Papua New Guinean police say.

Police issued a brief statement on Sunday morning saying that the former Salvation Army worker Joshua Kaluvia was back in custody.

The memorial service for murdered asylum-seeker Reza Barati at the Al-Mahdi mosque in Tehran in 2014. Credit:Kate Geraghty

Mr Kaluvia is one of two men accused of the slaying of 23-year-old Mr Barati in early 2014 during a riot at the Manus Island detention centre.

In a major embarrassment for PNG authorities, Mr Kaluvia escaped on March 28 from East Lorengau jail on Manus Island. Adding to concerns, the Manus Island police commander has since expressed anger and frustration that he was not told of the escape for more than a week.
Two men charged with concealing a serious offence after a fatal Sydney shooting at an industrial estate in Sydney's south-west have been given bail.

Mohamad Abul Hamid Elmir and Adam Sam Abboud, both 22, faced Parramatta Local Court a day after the gunfight in Condell Park, which left one man dead and another seriously wounded.

Police say the pair gave vague and "totally contrary" statements after Mr Elmir's brother-in-law, Safwan Charbaji, was fatally wounded on Saturday afternoon.

Outside court, defence lawyer Ben Archbold said his clients were both traumatised by the shooting.
Extra buses to Sydney Airport for people wanting an alternative to the city's most expensive train trip remain a pipe dream, more than two years after the state government unveiled long-term plans to "improve bus access".

The lack of any new buses comes as road traffic in and around Australia's busiest airport continues to worsen.

The gridlock prompted the Baird government to recently introduce immediate new traffic measures and urge people to travel to Kingsford Smith by train instead of car.

Roads Minister Duncan Gay put it bluntly last month when he said the situation on the roads near the airport "could only be described in technical terms as a bloody mess".
"We are very much looking forward to extending what is a great partnership down here in Hobart," Brayshaw said.

The Roos' current deal to play at Blundstone Arena expires at the end of the year, but speaking at the chairman's function prior to Sunday's game against Melbourne at the venue, Brayshaw said the club was close to agreeing to terms with the Tasmanian government.

North Melbourne chairman James Brayshaw says the Kangaroos are in the process of "massaging" an imminent five-year extension of their deal to play games in Hobart.

"We think it's going to be by five years, we think it's going to be about three games. We're just massaging a little bit."

North currently play three games a year in Hobart. They are also due to face Richmond in round 11 and Sydney in round 22 at Blundstone. The match against the Tigers will be the first game at the ground to be played on a Friday night, and is set to be a sellout.

A recent report commissioned by the AFL favoured a one-team model in the Apple Isle, in which one club would play up to eight games in the state. However with Hawthorn having last year extended their deal to play in Launceston until the end of 2021, the one-team idea will need to be shelved - at least in the short-term.

Brayshaw described North's deal with Tasmania as "an unbelievable partnership for our footy club".

"It is liquid gold to our club.
Singapore Airlines has the financial firepower to make a bid for the remainder of Virgin Australia, but it may not do so unless a Chinese rival makes an offer for Air New Zealand's 25.9 per cent stake, according to aviation experts.

Maybank Investment Bank analyst Moshin Aziz said based on his estimates, Singapore Airlines had a net cash balance of $S3 billion ($2.95 billion) at the end of March, giving it one of the strongest airline balance sheets globally.

An acquisition of the remainder of Virgin would cost around $1.5 billion, including an expected recapitalisation of the carrier.

"[Singapore Airlines] clearly have the financial muscle, the money required to buy this airline," said Mr Aziz, who is based in Kuala Lumpur. "But to put so much money in, you want clarity of the management of the airline and the [Australian] government would need to give its blessing."
Judgement day may arrive as early as this week for Peabody, as the US coal giant teeters at the precipice of corporate oblivion, and a month's grace period for a loan repayment falls due.

Peabody is destined to become a test case for who gets left high-and-dry in the aftermath of a foreign-controlled corporate collapse. Should it succumb to Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, the ramifications here for the coal sector; for workers, creditors, local communities and mine rehabilitation are immense, yet impossible to determine with any precision.

The beginning of a 10 hour shift at Metropolitan Colliery Helensburgh, a subsidiary of Peabody. Credit:Michele Mossop

Many others such as rival, Swiss-controlled Glencore, are also sweating it out. Glencore Operations Australia revealed $US21 billion ($27.8 billion) in debt at last balance date  although the net position for the labyrinthine group is hard to work out as it doesn't consolidate its accounts at the top of the corporate tree in Australia  and the coal price has been ravaged since.

Peabody though is in a far more imminent peril. It struck a credit deal last year where it pledged "65 per cent of first tier foreign subs, including Australia, in Peabody Investments (Gibraltar) Ltd to lenders as collateral for a $US1.2 billion credit facility".
Free TV Australia has written to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull requesting an urgent meeting with the lobby group and metropolitan television network bosses amid fears the government is about to ignore their calls for a cut to their $173 million-a-year licence fees.

Fairfax Media understands the letter, sent late last week after a Thursday telephone conference arranged by Free TV Australia, asks the Prime Minister to meet Seven West Media's Tim Worner, Nine Entertainment's Hugh Marks, Ten Network Holdings' Paul Anderson and Free TV chairman Harold Mitchell.

The free-to-air networks have called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to cut their licence fees. Credit:Getty Images

Networks bosses were alarmed last Monday by a Fairfax Media report that the chances of a dramatic cut in licence fees, from 4.5 per cent to 1 per cent of broadcasters' revenues, have weakened as the Turnbull government prepares to hand down its pre-election budget next month.

There was intensive lobbying last week as a profit warning by Nine sent sector share prices plunging, underlining investors' fears about the structural threats facing free-to-air television from unregulated foreign services such as Netflix, which do not pay licence fees or have content obligations.
Given the amount of money the ACT government pockets from its monopoly on the sale of building blocks and home construction fees and charges, it would make sense to ensure the golden geese don't get plucked bare by others.

The sad fact commissioning a new home within the ACT is, in many ways, a lottery suggests the ACT government is yet to embrace this concept.

Credit:

Over the past half decade scores of unfortunate individuals and families have been financially wounded by the insolvency of their building contractors, the incompetence or dishonesty of their certifiers or the tight-fistedness of an insurance company.

They have then often learnt the hard way that while the ACT government is happy to profit from the multimillion dollar domestic property and construction sector, assistance to affected buyers is not always as effective as it could be when things go wrong.
About the year 2000, Ms Tullgen was prescribed the anti-psychotic medication Zyprexa, which is known to cause abnormally high blood-sugar levels and weight gain, among other side effects. Within six months she was diagnosed with diabetes. With asthma too, she needs to take about eight medications daily.

She says there is a lack of communication and co-ordination between health professionals caring for people with mental illness. Her psychiatrist is "a lovely guy, but I don't think he has written to my GP or my GP to him for many many years".

With professional experience in the health system, she is well able to relay information between them, but that is not possible for many people with serious mental illness. "Part of the thing about having serious mental illness is you get quite disorganised, even about taking your medication."

Professor Hopwood says it is important for doctors to "listen very carefully" to patients with major mental problems, "knowing they are more likely than most to have a major physical health problem as well". There should be consideration of specific Medicare items allowing longer consultations for full health assessments of people with major mental illness, he says.

The report says best practice in healthcare could reduce the impact of serious mental illness and concurrent physical illness by a third.
The "teleworking agreement" has a clause forcing workers to pay all the costs of their arrangement including power, phone, internet, water and gas.

The ABS is keen to use the work-from-home arrangements to reduce the amount of costly office space it occupies around Australia, Credit:iStock

Hundreds of Bureau of Statistics public servants are to be sent home with a laptop as the bureau pursues a plan to provide desks for only 80 per cent of its workforce.

The ABS, which is keen to use the work-from-home arrangements to reduce the amount of costly office space it occupies around Australia, says its public servants can simply claim those costs back at tax time.

The bureau also says that no-one will be forced to go home to work and that workers can choose the arrangement that suits them best.

But insiders are unhappy, grumbling that the bureau is outsourcing its costs to its own workers.

The bureau says it is moving to an "activity based working setup" which, it says, will relieve it of the burden of paying for desks sitting empty while workers are away from the office.

Unused office space is a problem across the federal government with taxpayers paying for about 34,000 work stations which are sitting idle in about 500 buildings around Australia.
Two men have been charged after a shooting in Sydney's south-west on Saturday killed one man and left another in a serious condition in hospital.

The men who were charged are both aged 22 and were arrested outside Bankstown Hospital on Saturday. They have been charged with concealing a serious indictable offence.

A crime scene has been established in Ilma Street, Condell Park after two men were shot shortly after 1pm on Saturday. Credit:Google Maps

The shooting happened at an industrial area about 1.10pm on Saturday in Condell Park in Bankstown. One man, aged 32, died in hospital and the other, aged 35, remains in a serious condition at Liverpool Hospital.

Officers said the men who were shot are known to police.
Traumatised, injured and confused, she was moved to Australia's first safe house for victims of trafficking, slavery and slavery-like practices, run by The Salvation Army. "I don't deserve this, I didn't ask for this. I can't believe somebody who knows me, somebody I can rely on, somebody I was looking up to can turn to take advantage of me and make me vulnerable in a way that I wasn't expecting. "I was in denial. No, it can't be happening to me. I'm in a new country, so what will happen? The person who brought me here is no more on my side. I'm in the hands of total strangers. I need to get out of this dream," she says. Since opening in 2008, the community-owned 10-bed shelter has supported 400 people. Fewer than 20 per cent of those report to the police, said Laura Vidal, a caseworker for the Salvation Army. Because of threats to her family and the very limited criminal justice avenues open to her at the time, Susan did not pursue justice through the police. Forced labour was criminalised in 2013 but the offence is yet to be tested in the courts.

Susan's case went to the Refugee Review Tribunal, in which she claimed she was a victim of human trafficking. She was granted a Refugee Protection Visa, and began the long process of bringing her children to Australia. "Susan doesn't necessarily count in statistics as a victim of human trafficking," said Ms Vidal. "People need to be recognised and supported as victims of crime irrespective of their participation with the criminal justice system." A spokesperson for the Australian Federal Police said that fear "can be an issue" in preventing victims from obtaining help. "Human trafficking and slavery prosecutions often rely heavily on the evidence of victims. This reliance can prove an impediment as human trafficking and slavery victims can be reluctant to give evidence, particularly if they (or their families) have been the subject of violence or threats of violence." Between 2004 and 31 December 2015, the AFP took 619 referrals for human trafficking, slavery and slavery like practices, such as forced labour and forced marriage, according to a submission by the Attorney-General's Department to the current parliamentary inquiry into human trafficking.

Since 2004, there have been 17 criminal trials resulting in convictions for human trafficking and slavery offences. Sixteen of those convictions related to sexual exploitation and one related to labour exploitation in a commercial kitchen. There has been an increase in labour trafficking and forced marriage cases over the past year. Now an advocate for the Freedom Partnership, Susan shares her story with others with the hope that victims may come forward. On Wednesday, she shared her story alongside Lucy Turnbull at the launch of the Salvos' annual Red Shield Appeal. "This is happening in Australia, it is happening behind each and everyone's backyard," she says. She claims to have met victims of slavery in her community who will not speak out about their situation. "It's like a stigma. Especially from my background in Africa, it's a label and it's going to be a permanent one."

Jennifer Burn of Anti-Slavery Australia said that attempts to avoid the stigma of slavery are not unusual and form another hindrance to investigating cases of forced labour. "Often people don't want to have the stigma of exploitation attached to them, people don't want to carry around a label, to be known forever as a slave." There is little community awareness within the Australian community, including state and territory government agencies, community service organisations and frontline professionals about forced labour, said Professor Burn. "In the community, there has been growing awareness around forced marriage, but here has not been a growing awareness of labour trafficking and slavery linked to labour." This week, Susan very publicly faced her fraught start in Sydney.
Development plans for the state's heritage listed properties will now be scrutinised over whether there are any "prudent and feasible alternatives" to the proposal before they are approved under changes which will give more teeth to Queensland's Heritage Council.

Acting Premier Jackie Trad said an amendment to the State Development Assessment Provisions would be made to give the heritage council stronger powers in assessing "destructive" development applications.

Entrance to the Cloudland ballroom, Bowen Hills, in 1946. Credit:State Library Queensland

With more developers looking to Brisbane as the Sydney and Melbourne property market becomes overcrowded, Ms Trad said it was time additional checks were put in place.

"During last year's consultation on our new planning legislation, the QHC raised concerns that destructive DAs could be approved without it having any say as to whether there was 'a prudent and feasible alternative' to the development," she said in a statement.
It's designed to enshrine rights many Queenslanders take for granted in law, but the proposal for a Human Rights Act has met with a mixed response.

The parliamentary committee charged with examining a bill of rights for Queensland  whether there is a need for one, and if so, what it would look like and how it would work  is meeting the Palaszczuk Government's commitment to independent MP Peter Wellington's request to investigate the issue.

Investigation of a Bill of Rights for Queensland was part of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk's agreement with Speaker Peter Wellington. Credit:Glenn Hunt

While it has unsurprisingly won support from human rights advocacy groups and sectors of the legal community, not all Queenslanders are convinced it is necessary.

"What in God's name does Australia have that's so bad to need a human rights act Bikies gone!!," Sunshine Coast resident Laura Ferguson submitted to the committee.
Hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent by Victoria over the next four years to boost the annual number of elective surgeries to nearly 200,000.

Health Minister Jill Hennessy on Sunday announced the April 27 state budget would outline "the largest ever one-off investment" to tackle growing elective surgery wait lists.

The Victorian government will spend $335 million to boost the number of elective surgeries to 200,000 every year.

As of December last year there were 43,588 Victorians on the elective surgery wait list, up from 40,869 people 12 months earlier.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has defended doling out almost half a billion dollars to Western Australia, saying the state gets a "raw deal" out of the GST allocation.

The federal government is providing $490 million for Western Australian infrastructure in 2016/17, to ensure the state's share of GST is effectively maintained.

Malcolm Turnbull says WA gets a "raw deal" from the GST carve-up. Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

It comes a day after Mr Turnbull said there would not be a "fistful of dollars" to give away in the May 3 budget.

The state believes it has been short-changed by $4 billion in the latest carve-up of GST revenue.
Police were forced to Taser a Perth man after he allegedly assaulted four police officers during a domestic violence call-out in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The 35-year-old man from Bedford broke a police officer's nose and injured three others as they attempted to restrain him, a police spokeswoman said.

A man has been tasered after assaulting four police officers. Credit:Steven Siewert

"Police were called to the house on Coode Street around 3.50am this morning in response to a domestic incident between the man and a woman," she said.

"As police entered the house, the man allegedly struck a male Constable causing facial injuries and a broken nose.
Thiruvananthapuram, India: A massive fire swept through a temple in India's southern Kerala state on Sunday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring more than 200 who had gathered for a fireworks display to mark the start of the local Hindu new year.

Thousands of devotees had packed into the Puttingal Devi temple in the coastal district of Kollam. The fireworks display began at midnight and went on for hours.

The fire started when one of the crackers fell onto a shed where the fireworks were stored, said residents near the temple site, about 70 kilometres from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with the large number of injured people, moving swiftly to pre-empt criticism over lack of public safety.
Washington: Many nations are pushing for swift ratification of a Paris agreement to slow climate change and lock it in place for four years before a change in the White House next year that might bring a weakening of Washington's long-term commitment.

More than 130 nations with 60 leaders including French President Francois Hollande are due to sign December's pact at a UN ceremony in New York on April 22, the most ever for a UN agreement on an opening day, the United Nations said.

United Nations climate change chief Christiana Figueres, left, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, French Foreign Affairs Minister and UN Climate Change Conference in Paris president Laurent Fabius and French President Franois Hollande celebrate an agreement on climate change on Sunday, December 13. Credit:AP

Both China and the United States, the world's top emitters accounting together for 38 percent of emissions, have promised to sign then. US Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to attend.

But signing is only a step in a tortuous UN process for the deal to enter into force, which requires formal approval by at least 55 nations representing 55 percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
British spy agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) stopped Harry Potter spoilers from leaking to the internet in the lead-up to a book release, its publisher has told ABC Radio.

Nigel Newton, the co-founder of publishing house Bloomsbury, printed Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone  the first book in J.K. Rowling's acclaimed series about a boy wizard  in July 1997.

By Christmas, it had sold 30,000 copies, and soon it was a worldwide phenomena. Speaking to Richard Fidler for ABC interview program Conversations, Newton said he had never seen readers respond to a series like they did to Harry Potter, and security was amped up accordingly.

"It was completely mad and we were at the eye of the storm," Newton said.
An unprecedented family feud between Singapore's prime minister and his sister over the death of their father Lee Kuan Yew has burst into the open in the strictly-controlled city-state.

Lee Hsien Loong said that he is "deeply saddened" that his sister Lee Wei Ling had accused him of abusing his power to commemorate the first anniversary of their father's death in order to establish a dynasty.

"The accusations are untrue," the prime minister said of the comments by Dr Lee, a well known neurosurgeon, on her Facebook page.

The feud is a political bombshell in Singapore where the People's Action Party founded by the elder Mr Lee has remained solidly united since taking power in 1959.
Isaiah Foskey's heroics on defense, special teams lead Notre Dame

No player in program Notre Dame history had ever blocked two punts in a game, much less a quarter, before Isaiah Foskey
Marquette springs upset, Slinger survives in football playoffs

The nine Milwaukee-area top-seeded football teams all won Friday night. The results across Level 1 set up some interesting games for the week ahead.
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Greenwich residents Jeffrey and Cai Pandolfino were sick and tired of feeling sick and tired when they finally decided to launch their local plant-focused chain, Green & Tonic, in March 2012.

Before opening the first brick-and-mortar location, the couple started selling its Clean Reset Plan, a three-day food and juice cleanse delivered all over Fairfield and Westchester counties. They initially tried an at-home delivery service, but quickly came to understand the real needs of their customers.

I think that food delivery business is really interesting, but feel consumers gets bored with that really, really quickly, Jeffrey Pandolfino said. We felt like customers were demanding human interaction a little bit more. Part of what were trying to do is create community  to build a community of mindful eaters  and thats really hard to do when youre dropping a bag off at someones house.

Last month, Green & Tonic closed on its third round of funding of $1 million, bringing its total close to $3 million. Investments have come from several high-net-worth angel investors in Fairfield County, as well as private equity funds. The company will seek additional funds as it tries replicate the model outside of Connecticut.

Were excited to have a new group of investors on board and to learn from their vision and experience with growing companies, Pandolfino said. We want to grow smart and make sure were growing a business for the future, not for today.

More locations

Pandolfino said the recent round of funding has three main objectives: building another high-revenue generating location, investing in technology and preparing the business for growth beyond Fairfield County. Right now, Green & Tonic has locations in Cos Cob, downtown Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan, and will use its latest investment to open a fifth in Westport.

The company will also make major updates to its website and e-commerce content and invest heavily in a mobile ordering and payment app.

The third objective, geographic expansion, should come later this summer. Theres opportunity to build and replicate the model in other markets, Pandolfino explained, with market research showing that places like Boston, Long Island and Washington, D.C., have similar demographics and complementary brands, like SoulCycle and Lululemon.

I think were fully committed to seeing growth beyond five units, and we see a day where we are in multiple markets with multiple units, he said. Were super excited for what is out in front of us nationally, and were focused on making the right partnerships not only with landlords, construction companies, but people working for us and with us, to make it happen.

The husband-wife team has been in the food industry for several years. Jeffrey served as director of operations at Pret A Manger and helped bring the chain to the United States, and Cai was the director of marketing at Cosi. The two also previously ran the catering company, Plum Pure Foods, from 2003 to 2008 in Cos Cob.

A few years ago, the Pandolfinos saw the raw-vegan culinary scene explode in New York City, and they noticed an opportunity to bring that same flavor to their own community. Greenwich, with its highly educated and health-focused consumer base, was a natural market.

People are starting to understand that the food they eat and put in their bodies, and the environment they come from, affects health, he said.

Massive growth

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the organic industry showed remarkable growth domestically and globally, with 19,474 certified organic operations in the United States. Since the count started in 2002, the number of domestic organic operations has increased by 250 percent.

Theres also been a steady increase in the number of adult vegetarians in the country, according to Harris Polls, which estimates about 8 million adults to be vegetarians, with vegans accounting for around 1 million.

The Green & Tonic menu includes local and organic ingredients and a diverse selection of breakfast, salad, wrap, soup and bowl options as well as pick-me-ups and spreads. Depending on the time of day, customers can order anything from raspberry lemon chia or granola bowls to cauliflower Caesar salad and spicy avocado wraps. The Pandolfinos work with their chef directly on research and development of all menu items.

In its first quarter of 2016, the company debuted 15 new menu items and plans to add additional options in the second quarter, including a brown rice wrap with black bean noodles, homemade protein bars and new salads.

The company also partners with local farms in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts when possible. Bill King, owner and founder of the Back 40 Farm Group, said they grow 2,500 kale plants for Green & Tonic on their 100-acre farm in Washington, Conn. King was also an investor in the most recent round of funding and has been involved with the company for many years. Their focus on the community, he said, makes the company unique.

Theyre 100 percent part of this community, and its done so well because they were personally asking themselves a lot of these questions about food, health, wellness and how you feed your kids better, he said. Theyre wrestling with the same thing so many of their clients are wrestling with.

Plenty of competition

Amid demand for healthy food, its become an increasingly competitive sector, Pandolfino said, though he doesnt think thats necessarily a bad thing. In Greenwich alone, theres a mecca of health-focused food and drink establishments, including Elixir, Robeks and Juice Press.

It has only helped our business, he said. Weve seen enormous growth in spite of there being more competition at the store level.

Margaret Beck, a frequent customer, discovered Green & Tonic two years ago and has been going ever since, attributing her loyalty to the companys quality of product and staff. The social worker splits her time between all four current locations.

I continually go back there because the food is packed with flavor, which you dont often find in vegan food, she said. Plus, they also have my favorite coffee in all of the area.

Pandolfino said the people-process-product emphasis drives their business. Over the years, they have built a culture of educated, friendly and knowledgeable employees who help create an environment comfortable and welcoming to all customers.

We have to have really, really good people on the front lines taking care of customers every day, he said. Without them, they are not coming back.

Megan.Dalton@scni.com; 203-625-4411
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GREENWICH  On Sunday afternoon at the Old Greenwich Civic Center, Doug Hartman lingered by a table of clear 19th century decanters, trays and other glass objects, explaining they were products of the Sandwich Glass Co. of Massachuetts, examples of what he described as gothic glass.

As a collector, Hartman specializes in this type of glass, which was made between 1840 and 1880 using wood presses to mold molten globs of glass into shapes with fine traces of ornamentation, he said. He lifted one dining room vessel up and flicked it with a finger, creating a resonant ping, explaining the tone is created by the use of flint in the glass.

Im interested in 19th century American design, and a few museums have worthwhile displays on glassmaking, but not many, Hartman said. For the true collector, you come to the shows to learn.

Over two days on Saturday and Sunday, several hundred people browsed through dozens of tables stacked with displays of antique glassware, stoneware and ceramics at the 40th annual Westchester Collectors Glass and Ceramics Show and Sale. Alongside the odd 16th or 17th century flask and modern-day art glass were many pricey dining table relics of Americas Industrial Revolution and the glassmaking heritage of the central Connecticut and the western corner of the state.

For most collectors and dealers, the beauty of the glass and learning the hard-won science and discoveries that refined the technique of creating it are major draws of the show, said Jim Russell, co-president of the Westchester Glass Club, the event sponsor.

Its a really good show and an excellent opportunity for people to learn about glassmaking, Russell said. It is a field that is packed with history.

At the middle of the auditorium, Noel Tomas, president of the Museum of Connecticut Glass on Route 44 in Coventry, engaged history buffs around a table display stacked with19th century liquor flasks made in that Connecticut town. Some of them marked with pictures of the Marquis de Lafayette, the French aristocrat who fought with American forces in the Revolutionary War.

The Coventry Glassworks, active in the late 19th century, also pumped out thousands of inkwells that were used by schoolchildren, Tomas said.

There are several good books out now about glassmaking in Connecticut as well as documents in the state library that help you learn the history, said Tomas, a Glastonbury resident.

Scott Roland, owner of Schenevus, N.Y.-based Glimmerglass Antiques, pointed to a handful of colored glass decanters held in silver-plated receptacles. They originated in factories in Meriden in central Connecticut in the 19th century.

An electroplating process created in England was adopted by Connecticut firms, contributing to Meriden gaining the name, The Silver City, Roland said.

People at these shows are really glass specialists, and this show does a great job of picking some of the best vendors in the business, Roland said.

Roland lamented what he sees as a decline in the industry driven by the recession that started in 2007, and sustained by a lack of discretionary income among younger buyers.

It isnt like younger people arent interested in collecting things or have different brains, they just dont have the discretionary income, Roland said. My business is a third of what it was in 2007.

One of the younger enthusiasts at the show was Nick Wrobleski, a 16-year-old collector from Killingly who is on the board of the Connecticut Museum of Glass.

One of Wrobleskis prize possessions is a beaker with coat of arms of Duke Fredrick William I of Prussia from sometime in the early 18th century.

I think it is really interesting part of American and world history and an interesting art form, Wrobleski said.
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FAIRFIELD  Christopher Shays turned a fashion statement into a political statement Friday. He wore a Donald Trump tie to rival presidential hopeful John Kasichs first public appearance in Connecticut.

And its made in China, Shays said, pointing out the duplicity in Trumps Make America Great message.

Shays introduced Kasich at a packed town hall at Sacred Heart University, telling the enthusiastic crowd that the Ohio governor was the most electable and substantive Republican in the race.

The 90-minute event marked the public debut of Kasich in a crucial state for the Trump competitor and potential spoiler, who is running a distant third to the real estate mogul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in the GOP nominating race. Connecticut holds its presidential primaries April 26.

By the way, Im the only candidate who consistently beats Hillary Clinton in the fall, Kasich said, delivering one of his biggest applause lines of the forum.

Some 1,300 people registered for the free event, some cramming into overflow rooms at the Catholic universitys Martire Business & Communications Center to watch Kasich on television screens. From her perch in the balcony, sophomore Karlee Picard, 20, took photos of the presidential contender with her iPhone after using Snapchat.

Just seeing him as a person was memorable, she said.

In Connecticut, 28 delegates are up for grabs for Republicans. Three in each of the states five congressional districts are awarded on a winner-take-all basis to the candidate with a plurality of votes. The remaining 13 at-large delegates are awarded proportionately to candidates who muster at least 20 percent of the vote statewide. They become winner-take-all if a candidate surpasses 50 percent of the total vote.

Im not playing for the sizzle, said Kasich, who was joined on a riser by state Sen. Tony Hwang, R-Fairfield, Kasichs Connecticut campaign chairman.

Kasich is indeed the anti-Trump, with just one major TV network reporter trailing him to Connecticut. Trump needs to win 61 percent of the remaining GOP delegates to reach the magic number of 1,237 required to clinch the nomination. His second-place finish to Cruz in Wisconsin this week has bolstered the argument of Kasichs Connecticut supporters that Trump cant get there.

As Republicans, we should be getting around people who can win elections, not just primaries or conventions, said former Lt. Gov. Michael Fedele of Stamford, who sat in one of the first few rows for Kasichs town hall.

So far, Kasich has won just his home state of Ohio  site of this summers highly anticipated Republican National Convention. He potentially must also overcome a rule that requires GOP candidates to win a majority of delegates in at least eight states to be on the ballot at the convention.

The favorite among the establishment wing of the party in the state, which was well represented in the audience, Kasich said the nomination rules are subject to change if the convention is contested. Theres a major historical precedent, he said, of candidates trailing going into the convention and coming away with the nomination.

By the way, Abraham Lincoln went in, in fourth-place. But he printed up phony delegates passes, Kasich said, quipping, Are we working on that?

Not once did Kasich mention Trump or Cruz during the town hall, a format that Kasichs supporters say that the unscripted and conversational public servant thrives in.

Former state Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, who is supporting Kasich, sat in the front row.

I think (Kasich) is still probably lagging behind the Trump vote, McKinney said.

Citing the results in Wisconsin, McKinney said Trump appears to have peaked.

Thats going to have an impact on bringing Trumps numbers down and Kasichs up.

Trumps national campaign spokeswoman declined to comment.

Handing his fleece pullover with the Ohio flag on the arm to Shays, Kasich fielded half a dozen questions from audience members about a myriad of issues such as tax reform, fracking and the national educational initiative known as Common Core.

Kasich also took a jab at Connecticuts Democratic governor, Dannel P. Malloy, though not by name, for losing General Electrics Fairfield headquarters to Boston.

If I read about another company threatening to leave Connecticut, Kasich said. The proofs in the pudding. Connecticut needs to get its income tax down. It needs to stop punishing businesses.

Democrats in the state panned Kasich, saying that hes defunded Planned Parenthood in Ohio.

John Kasich wants Connecticut voters to believe that he is a sensible, moderate Republican, but his record as Ohio's governor is anything but moderate, said Alynn Woischke, executive director of the Connecticut Democrats.

It was Kasichs second visit to the state in 10 days. Last week, Kasich fundraised in Greenwich.

In a holding room, Shays jotted talking points for his introduction on note cards. The Stamford native and former longtime Bridgeport resident has accompanied Kasich to dozens of similar events in New Hampshire and Michigan.

I can do this in my sleep, Shays said.

neil.vigdor@scni.com; 203-625-4436; http://twitter.com/gettinviggy
Connecticut is once again banning the taking of Bluback herring and alewives from state inland and marine waters, continuing a prohibition that began in 2002 due to low populations.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said conservation efforts river runs of herring and alewives has still not returned to acceptable levels. The tiny fish are used by fisherman as bait.

Despite the conservation efforts taken by this agency and others over the past decade, the runs of river herring in Connecticut are still diminished, said DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen. The best available data from this past year indicates that the closure of these fisheries must therefore remain in place.

Historically, millions of river herring returned to Connecticuts rivers and streams each year. More than 630,000 blueback herring were passed over the Holyoke Dam (Massachusetts) on the Connecticut River in 1985.

But by 2006, only 21 passed the Holyoke Dam, the lowest number in the history of the Holyoke Fishlift, DEEP said. The numbers have fluctuated since that time but have never surpassed 1,000.

In 2015 the number of fish passed was only 87. While river herring are not typically consumed by humans, they are important food to many species of freshwater and marine gamefish, as well as osprey, bald eagle, harbor seals, porpoise, egrets, kingfishers and river otter.

DEEP continues efforts to enhance river herring stocks by transplanting adult herring from streams with healthy runs into streams where runs have been eliminated or greatly depleted, removing obsolete dams and building fishways that allow fish to migrate past remaining dams.

In 2015, 20 miles of habitat were reconnected with removals of dams in Stonington, Preston, Lyme, and New Haven.
A quarter-century has passed since the settlement of a landmark federal lawsuit aimed at forcing Connecticut to take better care of its abused and neglected children.

Nearly everyone in the child-welfare system agrees those 25 years have witnessed substantial improvement in the performance of the state Department of Children and Families.

But caseworkers still struggle to keep up with the demands placed on them  demands that have increased with the passing years.

Workers have massive caseloads and are tasked with trying to get children and families connected with resources that are few and far between, said Dennis Bieber, a licensed social worker who runs a private practice in Brookfield.

It really comes down to funding, Bieber added. I think thats where a lot of the struggles exist.

These conclusions are in line with those made in the latest report by Raymond Mancuso, who was appointed by the federal court to monitor state compliance with the settlement agreement.

The states fiscal commitment to improving child welfare case practice, as outlined in the exit plan, is not being properly attended to and it is compromising the safety and well-being of Connecticuts most vulnerable population, wrote Mancuso, himself a former DCF worker.

State spending on DCF has fallen from $852 million in fiscal year 2009 to about $791 million in 2015. During the same period, however, the number of children in DCF placements has declined from well over 5,000 to below 4,000.

DCF Commissioner Joette Katz, who lives in Fairfield, said the department has made important advances in child welfare in the last five years, reducing the share of abused and neglected children placed in institutions and increasing the proportion placed with relatives or foster care.

As a result of many reforms that have improved relationships with families and that build on family strengths to find solutions, we have 670 fewer children in care  a reduction of 14 percent, Katz said. Just as important, we have doubled the percentage of children in care who live with relatives and kin to 41 percent, compared to just 21 percent in January 2011.

She said the department has reduced by 919, or 64 percent, the number of children living in a group setting.

But Katz acknowledged these efforts have increased demands on DCF staff, because working on family-oriented solutions requires more time and effort than group placement.

So while we maintain caseload standards, the actual amount of work has increased as we have improved with time, Katz said. While that makes the significant achievements of our staff even more impressive, we remain committed to making further improvements in the quality of our work because many vulnerable children and families depend upon us.

The federal monitoring of the states child welfare system dates to 1989, when New York City-based Childrens Rights, joined by Connecticut advocates, filed suit on behalf of Juan F against the governor and the DCF commissioner.

The parties settled two years later. DCF agreed to a plan, which has been revised over the years, to exit federal oversight by fully complying with 22 different performance measures.

Robert Francis, who worked for DCF as a regional director when Juan F. was filed, said he was one of many employees who thought change was desperately needed.

We saw it as a positive for the department, as we were frustrated in the inside with the way things were going, too, said Francis, executive director of the Regional Youth Adult Social Action Partnership in Bridgeport.

According to Mancusos January report, the department has complied with 16 of the 22 measures, including increased efforts to help children affected by human trafficking, a reduction in congregate care and increased use of family-based living arrangements.

Yet, these and many other improvements are consistently undermined by insufficient staffing, which translates into an overwhelming workload issue, the report said. There also continues to be insufficient community resources to address the need of children and families.

Most critically, the department has continuously failed to create adequate treatment plans for many of the children and families under its supervision. In addition, too few clients receive medical, mental health and other services specified in their treatment plans, according to the report.

In preparing his report, the federal monitor sampled 108 cases from April to September 2015 across the six DCF regions, which include 14 area offices.

Under the exit plan, DCF must have treatment plans meeting certain standards in 90 percent of its cases. The standards include having plans drafted by a team including the caseworker and approved by a DCF supervisor within 60 days after the case is opened.

In Region I, which serves clients in Bridgeport, Stamford and Greenwich, treatment plans met the required standards 41.7 percent of the time; in Region V, which includes Danbury, 40 percent; and statewide, 45.4 percent.

Attorney Ira Lustbader, litigation director for Childrens Rights, said without treatment plans, which he described as critical road maps, youre greatly lowering the odds for these kids.

Without a good treatment plan, people dont know what to do, agreed Steven Frederick, a Stamford attorney who is co-counsel with Childrens Rights.

One reason DCF struggles to meet this standard is treatment plans have become more complex over the years, said Paul Lavallee, president of AFSCME Local 2663, which represents DCFs social workers.

The exit plan requires that at least 80 percent of all families and children receive medical, dental, mental health and other service needs as specified in their treatment plans.

In Region 1, these needs were met 75 percent of the time, in Region V, 40 percent, and statewide, 50.9 percent.

Despite these deficiencies, many observers believe DCF is making progress.

Frederick said he hopes the state will exit federal monitoring in the next couple of years, although the current budget crisis could endanger that goal.

These are vulnerable and disenfranchised children and they need to be protected, he said. The state needs to understand that they need to be protected and need to allocate resources appropriately.

Lustbader said for many years state officials seemed more interested in breaking up the settlement than in complying with it, but no longer.

While we dont always agree, this administration has been the most serious about DCF reform in the whole history of the reform lawsuit, he said. And I think theyre the most able to achieve full compliance and exit.

mrigg@newstimes.com;

Donec
It is looking more and more like Republicans are heading toward a good old-fashioned brokered convention. And its going to be a bumpy ride for the Grand Old Party.

Lets start with history. In 1952 the Democrats had the last truly brokered convention and ended up drafting and nominating Adlai Stevenson after three ballots. On the Republican side, it is difficult to call it brokered given that Dwight Eisenhower always had the votes, they just didnt count until after the first round vote shifts, but it was technically brokered. However, neither of those two contests were the type of nasty, drag em out bouts we think of when we conjure up images of fighting for delegates on the convention floor.

The convention of 1860 was another story. Abraham Lincoln surprised everyone at our nations most significant brokered convention when he knocked out the heavy favorite, Senator William Seward, in three rounds. It was a bruiser in which Lincolns top attack dog, David Davis, wheeled and dealed to get Honest Abe the win. The list of other contestants in the fight, including Seward, reads like a whos who of Lincolns cabinet (I wonder how that happened?). Doris Kearns Goodwins book Team of Rivals is an excellent read for more on what happened with the main players in this convention fight (hint: they save a nation).

The most brutal of conventions was a nasty one on the Democratic side in 1924 known as the Klanbake. Yes, that Klan. They showed up  white hoods and all  to prevent the Roman Catholic and anti-prohibition candidate, Al Smith, from becoming the nominee. Fights literally broke out and it was the ugliest and longest contested convention in our history lasting 103 ballots. Check out Ken Burnss PROHIBITION for a glimpse inside this insanity (full disclosure, I worked for Mr. Burns from from 2008-2015).

Here is the good news. No matter what we think of Trumps vile rhetoric, the 2016 convention will not be as depraved as 1924. And although we have some incredibly pressing issues at home and abroad that our future president must face, they pale in comparison to abolishing slavery and holding the nation together through the Civil War. We will have a brokered convention on the Republican side, but it wont doom our nation (even if Trump becomes the nominee).

However, it may doom the Republican Party and set them up for yet another presidential loss. It is rare that the nominee from a contested convention, or nearly contested convention, goes on to win the Presidency. Lincoln is an obvious outlier, but that election is one the likes of which we will hopefully never have to see again.

Hubert Humphrey, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale are the last four nominees who had serious threats heading into the convention. All four lost.

With those exceptions, conventions have become highly produced, scripted lovefests for an already determined candidate. Some claim 2008 was close to being brokered. It was not. I was there and witnessed both Clintons singing Obamas praises. Im almost certain we all held hands and sung Kumbaya around a campfire at Mile High Stadium.

The 2016 Republican National Convention will be filled with a very different kind of fire. At this point  with Wisconsin behind us  it is nearly impossible for Trump to hit 1,237 on the first ballot. And the establishment does not want him getting it on the second one.

Countless influential Republicans have publicly stated they will not support Trump even if he becomes the nominee. The list ranges from personalities on the right like Glenn Beck, Tara Setmayer, and Erik Erickson to conservative writers like The Federalists Bethany Mandel and the Weekly Standards Bill Kristol; from radio hosts like Steve Deace in Iowa to well-regarded statesmen like former Governor George Pataki and former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. The establishment will do anything it can to prevent Trump from being the nominee.

Excluding the possibility of a compromise candidate (which historically wouldnt lead to a win, but might at least save the Party from itself), odds are the establishment gets Cruz. I wrote a couple months ago that primaries are a funny thing, but they arent funny enough to select Trump or Sanders. At the time, I thought Rubio would pick up the mantle, but he faltered and fell hard.

In my wildest dreams I never thought Cruz would be the guy the establishment turned to and neither did the establishment. Just ask Sen. Lindsay Graham, who likened the choice between Trump and Cruz as the difference between being shot and being poisoned. Graham chose poison, and the establishment is hoping the delegates will too.

But here is the thing about choosing whether to be shot or poisoned: You lose either way.

Dan Roberti, of Kent, worked for political strategist James Carville from 2005-2006 and was endorsed by President Bill Clinton in his 2012 run for Congress in Connecticuts 5th District.
A BQ, the RV trailer revamped as a cocktail-making lab in the style of the hit Netflix series Breaking Bad, is to become a permanent fixture in the capital.

The bar offers an ultimate Breaking Bad experience, with the chance to cook a range of cocktails from a manual  not menu  while wearing a Walter White meth-making suit.

The regularly sold-out Shoreditch pop-up is to become a permanent bar later this year, says founder Sebastian Lyall, although he is still looking for investors to back the plans.

A new drink is also being cooked in the lab  Fly is a molecular twist on a bramble, using apple-infused gin and cranberry caviar instead of grenadine.

London's most bizarre pop-ups 1 /13 London's most bizarre pop-ups All Men Must Dine

In the land of Kings and Queen's their feasts are mouth-watering and exquisitely presented. The London pop-up 'All Men Must Dine' saw HBO and The Wandering Chef team up to create an intimate experience of a Game of Thrones style feast. The two-day takeover gave the opportunity to dine like Kings, which doesn't happen often.

Read our article HBO Death Cafe

Not many people like to talk about death, or at least you'd think not. According to the success of the global Death Cafe pop-up a lot of people want to talk about mortality. Having travelled across 30 countries, the Death Cafe is certainly thriving with activity.

Read our article Stevie The Fox

The fascination over animals being in restaurants seemed to have become a craze when a London pop-up restaurant wanted to get foxes into their eating establishment. Fortunately, the not-so-tame animals were saved by animal rights activists, and Stevie The Fox didn't get round to popping up.

Check out our article Tincan

This pop-up did exactly what it said on the tin. There was no need for a kitchen when all they sold was tinned fish. The Soho pop-up restaurant stocked all different brands of fish, some costing up to 22.

Check out our article Paul Winch-Furness MicroChippy

Who says you need to leave your animal at home anymore? MicroChippy was a pop-up dog diner that arrived for Valentine's Day 2016, and provided an opportunity for dateless people to venture out with their four-legged friends instead. Sponsored by Dog's Trust, the 1950's style diner treated canines to a dog-friendly hot dog, whilst treating people to a hot dog and champagne.

Check out our article Annie the Owl Cafe

Another trend that arrived in London from Japan was the Owl Cafe. The wide-eyed birds of prey were put in a secret location in East London, and soon became flooded with applicants wanting to experience this Japanese trend. Over 60,000 people applied, and only 500 were given a ticket. What a hoot!

Read our article Trendy Creme Egg Cafe

The weird and wonderful surprise of the Creme Egg Cafe opening in London caused a joyous outburst from the British public. The bizarre menu saw an appearance of the 'Creme Egg Toastie'. It's uncertain whether it was delicious or gross, but a Creme Egg should only ever be eaten as a chocolate egg. No eggsplanation needed.

Check out our article Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium

The animal fascination continues, but Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium had more of a feline feel. Following Japan's cat craze, London became home to the London's first cat cafe, began by Lady Dinah and her love for cats.

ladydinahs.com John Stillwell/ PA Wire London In The Sky

This bizarre pop-up restaurant took customers to new heights, quite literally. While suspended 25 metres above London, customers were treated to a once in a lifetime opportunity to receive great food with a great view.

Read our article ABQ

TV Series inspired pop-ups can work really well. ABQ is all about chemistry, and arrived in London in May 2015 for fans of Breaking Bad to put their chemistry skills to the test. Instead of cooking, well, illegal drugs, customers were instead lured in to cook up their own cocktails.

Read our article

ABQ stands for Albuquerque, in New Mexico, where the popular TV series was set, explains Lyall.

He said: There are a lot of things inside the RV which are inspired by New Mexico.

What I love about Breaking Bad is the way it is shot, the story behind it is a transformation of a very simple, humble man into a monster.

Londoners demand an experience when they go out and the idea behind ABQ was to give them an experience, and Breaking Bad is the icing on the cake.

The trailer is currently located behind the Ace Hotel in Shoreditch until it sets off for a road trip to Paris in May, before returning to the capital as a permanent fixture.

Follow Going Out on Facebook and on Twitter @ESgoingout
P olice in Sweden are hunting an arsonist suspected of torching a Muslim school before nearly running over a police officer during the getaway.

Malmo police spokesman Clas Svensson said the fire late Saturday in the south-western city was under control and no one was hurt.

According to Swedish news agency TT, a police patrol car tried to attempt to halt the suspected getaway vehicle, with officers opening fire when it failed to stop.

Police were still searching for the suspected arsonist on Sunday.

There have been several attacks against schools and refugee centres in the Scandinavian country, which has one of the highest per capita migrant intakes in Europe.



Additional reporting by PA
P ilots today called for laser pens to be labelled offensive weapons as it emerged police in the UK respond to thousands of incidents a year.

Since 2014 there have been almost 6,500 police reports involving laser pens, including shining them into aeroplane cockpits, at oncoming traffic and into people's front rooms.

This includes officers responding to more than 400 cases of aircraft being targeted as well as dozens of emergency service helicopters.

In February a Virgin Atlantic flight to New York JFK was forced to return to Heathrow as a "precautionary measure" after a laser was shone at the cockpit.

And just nine days later a British Airways service from Amsterdam was affected when a beam was aimed at the aircraft as it headed towards the west-London hub.

Dangerous: Police shared an image of how a laser beam appears inside an aircraft's cockpit / @MPSHeathrow/Twitter

The shocking figures have prompted pilots union the British Airline Pilots Association to warn the consequences could soon be disastrous.

UK forces with the most reports Greater Manchester Police - 1039 Northumbria Police - 566 Sussex Police - 561 Kent Police - 438 South Wales Police - 388 South Yorkshire Police - 349 Derbyshire Police - 292 Cheshire Police - 284 Hertfordshire Constabulary - 265 Staffordshire Police - 213

Stephen Landells, flight safety expert at Balpa, said that the power and build quality of lasers was being improved so now users can basically blind someone from nearly a kilometre away.

He added: "Any single-pilot operation, be it helicopter or light aircraft, if you take away the pilots vision at night the consequences could be disastrous.

Mr Landells said the law needed to change so people had to have a good reason to be carrying a laser, which would allow the police to act when they had reasonable suspicion of misuse.

"If the police get a report that aircraft are being lasered going into Heathrow and they find someone standing there with a laser in their pocket, there is nothing they can do at the moment because lasers don't come under the offensive weapon legislation," he said.

"The law says you can't carry a knife without good reason - a carpet fitter going into a building in the afternoon has a reason to carry a knife. But someone walking down the street at 11pm outside a pub doesn't.

The figures have been unearthed from police forces across the country following a Freedom of Information request.

They show Greater Manchester Police dealt with the most incidents since 2014, with officers being called out 1,039 times. In 156 of the occasions, an aircraft was involved.

The Metropolitan Police declined to supply figures for the capital.
A 50-year-old man was seriously injured during an assault in west London in the early hours of this morning.

The victim was found slumped unconscious in the street in Southall shortly after midnight, police said.

He was taken to hospital with severe head injuries, with his attacker or attackers apparently having fled the scene.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said his condition was serious but stable.

Detectives are appealing for information regarding the incident at the junction between Portland Road and Osterley Park Road.

Contact police at Ealing CID via 101, quoting reference 2508523/16 or call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A man from Kent has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for causing the death of a teenage motorist in a motorway smash.

Paul Martin Jeffree, 58, of Marsham Street in Maidstone was sentenced at Guildford Crown Court after pleading guilty to causing death by driving without due care and attention at an earlier hearing.

He admitted the charges following the fatal collision on the M3 near Sunbury-on-Thames, on October 10, 2014.

The incident took place on the northbound carriageway of the motorway, between junctions 2 and 1, at about 11.18pm.

Jeffree's Vauxhall Zafira collided with a Toyota IQ2 which was stopped in traffic, causing the car to burst into flames.

The driver of the Toyota, 18-year-old Charlotte Emily Riches from Basingstoke, suffered serious injuries and was taken to St George's Hospital in Tooting but later died in hospital.

Jeffree will have to serve a minimum of eight months in jail, has been disqualified from driving for three years and will also have to take an extended driving test before being allowed to get back behind the wheel.

Sergeant Eddie Ryan, from the Surrey Police Collision Investigation Unit, said: "This was a tragic incident where a young girl lost her life as a result of Jeffree's irresponsible driving."
S cotland Yard today criticised internet "paedophile hunters" - days after they helped convict a sex predator.

Detectives warned the self-styled vigilantes could jeopardise investigations and put victims in harm's way.

The slap-down comes days after a group dubbed the Internet Interceptors snared 31-year-old predator Daniel Mullarkey, who was hoping to meet a 14-year-old schoolgirl for sex.

The vigilantes confronted the man at the location he had arranged to meet the girl in an intervention that led to his arrest.

They had communicated with Mullarkey, of Croydon, after posting a profile on an adult online dating site.

Mullarkey exchanged a series of messages with someone who he believed to be a 14-year-old girl and eventually arranged to meet up with her in a park in South Norwood on January 20.

But he was confronted by the group who later posted footage of the encounter online.

In the video, Mullarkey tries to lie his way out of trouble as the men tell him to remove his hood so they can identify him.

One says: "You're here to meet a 14-year-old child for sex aren't you?

"What [were] you going to do to her, rape her?"

The amateur investigation was cited by prosecutors during Mullarkeys trial at Croydon Crown Court and earlier this week he was sentenced 16 months imprisonment, suspended for two years.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16 after grooming her online.

But a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said the Met did not support activities by individuals to target suspected paedophiles.

She said: This type of action could jeopardise or interfere with on-going investigations, and our advice to anyone who has information about suspected child sexual abuse - online or otherwise - is to contact police so we can investigate and, where possible, bring people to justice.

Revealing the identity of a potential suspect could give them the opportunity to destroy evidence before police become involved.

Suspended sentence: Daniel Mullarkey, 31

It could also lead to individuals taking action in an attempt to evade police.

This can divert significant policing resources which would be better invested in investigating and, where there is evidence, prosecuting individuals.

Most importantly, those undertaking this type of activity cannot fully assess any risk associated to victims and their families.

Internet Interceptors, who have criticised Mullarkey's sentence as too lenient, said they did not "target" anyone because it was him who made the initial contact with the fake victim.

A spokesman said: "We conduct our online operations much as the police would do but without the red tape and thousands in costs to bring one paedophile to the courts and get a conviction.

Examples of some of the messages Mullarkey sent the invented 14-year-old girl / Internet Interceptors

"As for jeopardising a case, we do not agree because we have all the evidence ready and waiting to hand to police."

He added: "We will not stop bringing these people to the attention of the mums and dads and family members who make up our communities.

"Far too many of these cases never reach the public."

Mullarkey must also complete 200 hours community service work; sign the sex offenders register for 10 years; obey a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was placed on a barring list preventing him working with children and vulnerable adults.
C ampaigners are furious at Southwark Councils plans to dig up graves and destroy woodland due to a shortage of burial plots.

Southwark Council says that it could run out of burial space by 2017 and is planning to create up to 4,845 new plots in Camberwell Old and New Cemeteries.

But the Save Southwark Woods campaigners fear the councils strategy could also see old graves dug up for re-use and the destruction of the areas green space, which has mostly been used as a park by the local community.

A petition to turn the cemeteries green space into a natural reserve has been signed by more than 11,000 supporters.

Campaigners are fighting to save Camberwell cemeteries' green space

Blanche Cameron, from Save Southwark Woods, said: There are hundreds of people with relatives in these cemeteries who are furious, and they will not give up the graves of their ancestors for Southwark Council to dig them up or mound them over to make profit.

A spokesperson from Southwark Council said that there are some mistruths being spread about the councils plans for the cemeteries and added that it is has not committed to re-using graves.

The Law allows the excavation of graves older than 75 years but, according to the council, this would require public consultation, cabinet approval, and legal guidance.

The council also discarded the possibility of using another cemetery for new burials  a solution that has been proposed by campaigners.

There are only three working cemeteries in Southwark, with most taking place in Camberwell New Cemetery, and a consistent demand for places, the spokesperson said.

Not only would it be expensive [to use a cemetery outside the borough], it would also be unfair to expect residents to travel outside the borough to visit the graves of their loved ones.

The campaigners also fear the council will destroy 12 acres of woodland and biodiversity they see as crucial for the communitys well-being.

There is a well-being factor to people being in green spaces, for children growing up with a green space at their door step, where they can walk and feel lost in the wilderness, said Abby Taubin from the campaign.

We are saying that we need respect for the dead, but we need the trees for the living.

Southwark Council stressed that the plan is to fell a maximum of 45 trees and it is waiting on permission from the Diocese of Southwark, who manages the consecrated areas, to proceed. So far, it has felled ten trees with some diseased, dying or poor quality, it said.

Everybody is watching this. This isnt just about Southwark or two small cemeteries in Southwark, this is about the whole country, said Blanche Cameron.

After a year of an on-going battle between campaigners and Southwark Council, a full decision on the plans for Camberwell Old and New cemeteries should be taken later this year, but the council didnt specify when exactly this would happen.
A London hospital has apologised after a porn film was broadcast to a horrified mum-to-be in one of their waiting rooms.

Loredana Sueleru claims she witnessed the x-rated scenes while waiting to be seen for stomach pains at the Northwick Park Hospital maternity unit in Harrow.

Ms Sueleru, who is 23 weeks pregnant and was with her husband Narces at the time, told the Star on Sunday: We had a big surprise and we filmed it. It is disgusting. It is wrong. It is not appropriate.

The 24-year-old, who was waiting for 20 minutes, said she had expected to see a film about breast-feeding or something more appropriate for a maternity unit rather than explicit sex.

She said: We wanted to tell someone what we were seeing, but there were no staff to tell. I didnt see anyone.

A hospital spokesman said: We would like to apologise to the couple concerned for the upset caused.

This was a genuine error with a digital TV channel having been on which, between 2am and 3am, broadcasts material of an adult nature.

If our staff had been made aware then they would have changed the channel immediately.
T he Archbishop of Canterbury has been praised by faith leaders for the way he revealed that his biological father was not the man he first thought.

The Most Rev Justin Welby, who believed his father was Gavin Welby, said on Friday it was "a complete surprise" to find through DNA evidence that his father is the late Sir Anthony Montague Browne - Sir Winston Churchill's last private secretary.

In a statement he said: "I know that I find who I am in Jesus Christ, not in genetics, and my identity in him never changes."

His mother, Lady Williams of Elvel, 86, described the revelation as "an almost unbelievable shock", but added she recalls going to bed with Sir Anthony "fuelled by a large amount of alcohol on both sides".

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and the UK's most senior Catholic cleric, tweeted that he was praying for the Archbishop and his mother and said: "Our life in Christ matters most of all."

The Bishop of Norwich, Graham James, told BBC Radio 5 live that the Archbishop took the DNA test thinking it would be disproved, and commended his "maturity".

He said: "For the Archbishop I think of course it is a surprise but he is dealing with it, I talked to him quite a lot last week, he is dealing with it with his usual maturity.

"His identity is secure, he feels the same person that he was three weeks ago.

"It's intriguing but he finds himself in the position of many other people who discover their father is rather different from the person they thought."

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, from Maidenhead Synagogue, told the Sunday Telegraph that the Archbishop had set a "good example" of how to deal with unexpected news.

He said: "The news does not affect his personal identity in any way - he is who he has become - nor does it lessen his authority as Archbishop."

Bishop Anba Angaelos, the General Bishop of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the United Kingdom, quoted a long passage from the Archbishop's statement on his website saying it was "very moving" and "indicative of the peace, love, forgiveness and resolve that we are not only all called to, but all endowed with if we but allow God's healing, reconciling and comforting presence in our lives".

He added: "These revelations would have been startling and painful enough for any individual and his family to learn and process, but to have them revealed and discussed so publicly will need a very particular grace."

Additional reporting the Press Association.
A rmy badges stolen from an SAS hero hailed for his role in ending the Iranian Embassy siege have been returned to his family.

The SAS and Parachute Regiment cap badges belonged to John McAleese and were stolen during a burglary at his Hereford home.

Mr McAleese was part of the team which helped end the six-day siege after a group of six armed men stormed the embassy in London in 1980 and took 26 people hostage.

The siege unfolded when six armed men stormed the South Kensington building, and a television audience of millions watchedas a dramatic SAS raid - known as Operation Nimrod - brought the situation to an end.

Missing: The cap badges belonging to John McAleese were stolen during a burglary at his home (Fiona Hanson/PA Wire ) / Fiona Hanson/PA Wire

The badges were found in a drug dealer's car in 2010, but 62-year-old Mr McAleese died from a heart attack while on holiday in Greece before they could be returned to him.

However, a former Army colleague, PC Alan Reeves from West Midlands Police, helped to trace his family and return them.

PC Reeves made repeated attempts to contact his next of kin without success  including enquiries through the SAS base in Hereford  until a former army colleague responded to a Facebook message last year and put him in touch with one of Mr McAleeses daughters.

Were delighted to finally have the badges backI know its been a bit of a mission of Alans to return them and were extremely grateful for his time and effort," his widow Joanna said.

The badges were very dear to Johns heart and he was gutted to find theyd been taken. They will be returned pride of place in a glass display cabinet alongside other memorabilia from Johns time in the SAS.
P rince William and Kate touched down in Mumbai today for the start of their whistle-stop tour of India and Bhutan.

They arrived ahead of schedule on a British Airways flight from London for their seven-day trip.

Security was tight around the couple after reports last week of a possible terror threat in India.

There was no official welcoming ceremony at the airport and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge went straight off in a convoy to The Taj Palace Hotel for their first engagement.

The couple will pay tribute to the 31 staff and guests who died in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

William and Kate will also meet some of the employees who were working during the siege who saved hundreds of guests from the terrorists.

The couple left their children, Prince George, two, and 11-month-old Princess Charlotte, back home. Kates parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, and their Spanish nanny, Maria Borrallo, are looking after them.

They are carrying out 22 engagements into just seven days  in order to return home to see their children soon.

Mumbai, known as Bombay until 1995, is their first stop.

It is Indian's second most populated city and - also its richest - a favourite for the country's billionaires.

William and Kate will learn about the work of charities in India's slums before flying to Delhi.

The Duchess of Cambridge chose an Alexander McQueen dress for her arrival in Mumbai.

She is expected to showcase a number of Indian designers with her choice of outfits during the couples tour of India and Bhutan.

But she played it safe with one of her favourite fashion houses for the countrys first sight of her.

Her red, paisley-themed outfit with a shirt split at the front over a black underskirt borrowed heavily from Asian tradition, while the Duke opted for a navy blue suit.

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Mumbai 1 /10 Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive in Mumbai First stop: The royal couple will visit Mumbai before continuing their tour Remembering: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are shown around the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, the scene of the Mumbai terror attacks eight years ago Getty Royal welcome: Prince William waves after arriving at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Visit: The couple will spend seven days touring India and Bhutan Arrival: The Duke and Duchess paid their respects to the 31 hotel staff and guests killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks PA Making an entrance: The Duchess's wore an Alexander McQueen outfit that borrowed heavily from Asian tradition Respects: Prince William and Kate lay a tribute during their visit to the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel Whistle-stop: The world's media have followed the royal couple on their week-long tour

The Duke and Duchess placed a wreath of white lilies between 32 burning candles, with the message: In memory of those who lost their lives and those injured in the senseless atrocities at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel. Willam, Catherine.

The royal couple are staying at the hotel as a show of support for the city in the wake of the attacks, which remain fresh in the memory eight years on.

A total of 31 staff and guests were killed in the assault, as well as the hotels labrador guard dog, Lucy. Next to a waterfall in an atrium of the hotel all 32 names are inscribed on a wall, under the words: For now and forever you will inspire us.

At the memorial they were introduced to hotel chef Raghu Deora, 41, who was shot in the stomach and in the leg as he helped guests to safety.

The Duke asked him about what happened on the day, while the Duchess said: It must have been a surreal time.

Mr Deora said: The Duke asked me what happened to me and I explained how I was shot. He asked me how long I took to recover, and I said six months, with the last operation two years ago.

The Duchess asked him about his cooking, and if he had a speciality, to which he replied that he specialised in local dishes.

Mr Deora also cooked the couples lunch, which included a starter of vegetable kebabs and main courses including lentil curry with rice, ricotta cheese and okra.

He said: It is all vegetarian because I was told that was what they preferred.

Travellers in India often avoid eating meat to minimise the risk of food poisoning.

A Kensington Palace spokesman said: "Upon their arrival this morning The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were informed about the tragic fire in Kollam.

"Their Royal Highnesses are saddened by the news and send their thoughts to all who are assisting the victims."
A tractor driver has suffered serious injuries after a train carrying 135 people hit his vehicle at a Norfolk level crossing.

The train driver was also taken to hospital and three other people on board suffered minor injuries during the crash in Roudham, near Thetford.

British Transport Police said they were called to the railway line at 12.36pm after reports of the crash.

He said: "Two men, the train driver and the driver of the tractor, have been taken to Norfolk and Norwich Hospital for treatment.

The driver of the tractor has sustained serious, although not life-threatening, injuries. The train driver's injuries are not thought to be serious.

Passenger Alex Youngs tweeted photos of a smashed window in the train carriage and emergency services at the scene.

He wrote: Caught up in a train smash on the way to Thetford. Everyone seems ok, driver injured but only panic attacks reported.

Passengers travelling in the Norwich area were warned to expect delays and advised to check with National Rail before setting off.
B elgian prosecutors say the terror cell involved in the Brussels bombings had been planning to stage a new attack in France.

Mohamed Abrini - who yesterday confessed to being the "man in the hat" caught by security footage at Brussels Airport - told investigators they had planned a second strike on Paris.

But after Salah Abdeslam was arrested over suspected links to November's deadly attacks in the French capital, the terrorists focused efforts on alternative targets in Brussels.

Belgian investigators said "the goal of the terrorist group was to strike again in France", adding that the Belgium-based cell was "taken aback by the investigation" and "decided in a hurry to hit Brussels".

Detained: Mohamed Abrini / Belgian Federal Police via AP

Mohamed Abrini was detained by police on Friday, and told investigators he was at the scene of the suicide bombings in the Belgian capital.

Abrini, who was one of six men arrested in Brussels, was also wanted in connection with the attacks in Paris that killed 130 people.

Four of the arrested men have been charged with terror offences.

On Saturday evening federal prosecutors said in a statement: "The federal prosecutor is now able to confirm that Mohamed Abrini is the third man present during the attacks at Brussels National Airport. He was confronted with the results of various expert and admitted his presence at the facts."
From early indications, farmers will have plenty of water for the 2016 irrigation season. That was the message delivered by staff members of the Wyoming U.S. Bureau of Reclamation office Thursday morning during the annual spring water operations report.

According to Carlie Ronca, manager in the Bureaus Mills, Wyoming, office, the water supply is at or above average, with a good carry-over. We dont know whats coming, but right now, we dont anticipate an allocation, she told a sparse audience in the UNL Panhandle Research and Extension Center Auditorium. Without major issues, producers tend to skip the spring meeting in favor of preparing for the growing season.

With still some time left in which to gain snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, reservoir conditions could hardly be better. Seminoe, with 707,599 acre-feet, is 70 percent full, with a supply at 143 percent of average. Pathfinder is 81 percent full, holding 865,691 acre-feet, at 150 percent of average. Glendo stands at 388,575 acre-feet, or 79 percent full, and at 97 percent of average. This is due to water management decisions. Guernsey Reservoir holds 26,355 acre-feet, which is 58 percent full, and 126 percent of average.

Total storage for the system as of April 4, is 2,154,842 acre-feet. This compares to 1,948,251 a-f in 2015, 1,300,765 a-f in 2014, and 1,428,139 a-f in 2013.

Ownership in Pathfinder is 820,343 a-f, or 77 percent of full. Guernsey has 45,564 a-f, and is 100 percent full. Guernsey ownership filled on March 25, 2016. The Inland Lakes are 44 percent full, with 20,316 a-f. Dennis Strauch, general manager of the Pathfinder Irrigation District, expects to begin transferring water to the Inland Lakes the last week in April. Glendos irrigation pool stands at 95,070 a-f, or 95 percent full.

The estimated April to July runoff forecast into Seminoe is 680,000 a-f, or 99 percent of average. A high of 1,079 a-f was in 2014, and the recent low was 268,000 a-f in 2012. Runoff in the Sweetwater basin is expected to be 60,000 a-f, 113 percent of average. In 2014 runoff was 42,000 a-f, but only 10,000 a-f in 2013. The Alcova to Glendo reach is expected to deliver 150,000 a-f, or 115 percent of average. Runoff reached 238,000 a-f in 2014, but only 47,000 a-f in 2012.

Total system storage at the end of September, 2015, was 1,893,100 a-f, or 136 percent of average. The average end of irrigation season storage in the system is 1,392,900 a-f. The minimum storage expected this year is 1,523,000 a-f.

With a forecast supply of 1,670,000 a-f, and an approximate irrigation demand of 1.1 million a-f, Ronca said an allocation is not expected at this time.

One item of interest to all irrigators downstream from Guernsey Reservoir, is the renovation project proposed for the spillway gate at Guernsey Dam. The estimated $4.3 million project will begin after the 2016 irrigation season, and will be completed in time for the 2017 season.

According to Ronca, contracts are expected to be awarded in July, with work to begin October 1.

Area irrigation districts are preparing for 2016 deliveries. Strauch anticipates an early May start on deliveries, depending on demand. Other districts will make those decisions during their April meetings.
It was a day of learning and fun at the Riverside Discovery Center for the annual Teddy Bear Clinic.

Various stuffed animals went through a medical check-up at the Riverside Discovery Center on April 9. Although they were not able to speak for themselves, children were present as representatives for the animals to let medical professionals know what they think might be wrong with them.

The event is a way for children to get accustomed with medical procedures and see what they might go through themselves when they visit a doctors office.

Wendy Wells, population health instructor with University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing, said that the Teddy Bear Clinic is an event that encourages children to come to the RDC with their stuffed animal for a basic assessment performed by UNMC students.

We check their head, their ears, and their eyes, their reflexes, and their tummy, said Wells, its just to show them what an exam they might have will look like so they are comfortable with that and let them know that animals need check-ups too.

Anne James, executive director for RDC, said that the event was started in the 1990s. There was a period it was not apart of RDC, but resurged again in the last four years with the partnership of UNMC.

Its just a great way for kids to come out and interact with their family and enjoy all of the animals at the zoo as well as the fun things we have for kids to do, said James. Its perfect weather, great to bring a teddy bear for.

Last year there was almost 600 people that came and the attendance was expected to go beyond that.

The children that came were able to help as much as they could, using the instruments and performing basic procedures. Altogether there were four assessment stations, a first aid station, a station with stickers and another one where the Area Health Education Center provided coloring pages about health careers. There was also an area for crafts at the Heritage Barn.

Four nursing students, one medical students, and two of Wells own students volunteered for the event.

The medical student was Lindsay Leikam, junior, who is in the area for family medicine clerkship rotation. She said that she was talking to children about the importance of check-ups and the importance of listening to their insides to make sure everything is healthy.

Ive heard lots of healthy teddy bears, bunnies, and unicorn hearts, said Leikam

Wells said its an opportunity for the students to get out in the public to share what nursing is as a career. The students have other opportunities such as Safe Kids Day, YMCA C.H.I.P. Day, and other various events like helping with school screenings.

Wells said that the students were able to talk to the children and explain what they were doing while working on the animals, as a way to strengthen their own skills.

A lot of them want to work with children as a career so its a nice fun activity for them to do, said Wells.

This was the first event that was planned for the spring and summer at RDC. James said there will be many more to come during the spring and summer. Theres a new baby zebra at RDC as well as other interactive areas for children to get involved in. The staff is also expecting new tigers in the zoo later this summer.
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP)  Two Wood River men have pleaded guilty and been fined in the killing of sandhill cranes and dumping of dead snow geese last month in east-central Nebraska.

Marco Zarraga was fined $525 and Adam Wagner $300 on Thursday in Hall County Court, the Grand Island Independent reported (http://bit.ly/1VHy9Su ). With costs, Zarraga, 20, paid a total of $573. Wagner, 24, paid $348.

On March 14, 150 to 200 dead snow geese were found in Merrick County. Days later, 10 dead snow geese and three sandhill cranes were left near Grand Island.

Authorities have said Zarraga killed the three cranes.

The cranes were shot with a rifle, said Nebraska Game and Parks conservation officer Tim Williams. Wagner was an accessory, Williams said.

It's illegal to hunt sandhill cranes in Nebraska. Shooting snow geese is not a crime this time of year, but authorities said dumping the geese amounted to littering and shooting them from a roadway and from a vehicle was illegal.

Williams said another Hall County resident has been cited in Merrick County Court, but Merrick County Attorney Lynelle Homolka had not filed formal charges by Friday.
Western Nebraska Community College is hosting a Health Professions Open House April 13 at 6 p.m. in the John N. Harms Advanced Technology Center on the Scottsbluff Campus.

The open house is free and open to students, parents, and the public to discuss health career opportunities. Attendees will be able to visit with WNCC faculty and staff about a career in healthcare including Basic Nursing Assistant, Emergency Medical Technician, Health Information Technology, Nursing, Phlebotomy, Radiology Technologist, and Surgical Technology.

The open house provides opportunity for anyone who might be interested in pursuing a career in healthcare to come in and see what is available right here in the panhandle, said Surgical Technology Director Rob Frey. It also opens a channel for them to meet the faculty, see classrooms, labs and technologies, speak with current students about the programs, and meet professionals from these careers who are currently employed in this region.

It is our hope that it not only encourages individuals to enroll here at WNCC, but also helps them to make a more informed decision about their future, he added.

Light refreshments will be served. The event will conclude at 8 p.m.

For more information, contact WNCC Admissions Office at 308.635.6010 or admissions@wncc.edu.
The financial advice industry is about to go through its biggest regulatory change in decades, but many retirement savers may not even notice.

When a new Labor Department regulation takes full effect in 2018, Americans with Individual Retirement Accounts and 401(k) plans will finally get the unbiased advice they think theyve had all along.

Under the existing rules, they werent always getting that. As long as an investment was broadly suitable, many investors got the product that was most profitable for the broker instead of the one that was best for them.

That has to end under final rules published Wednesday by the Labor Department. The rules require retirement-account advisers to act as fiduciaries, which means they must always act in the clients best interest.

The final rules make some concessions to the financial industry, which fought the fiduciary standard for years. The Labor Department gave firms longer to comply, and it eased some disclosure and paperwork requirements.

Still, some firms traditional business models face a big challenge. High-commission annuity sales and kickbacks from mutual funds will be allowed, but they must be justified under the best-interests standard.

That may be difficult  or, at any rate, the higher standard may make firms compliance departments nervous. Michael Wong, an analyst at Morningstar, says at least $2.4 billion of revenue is at risk.

That includes commissions and surrender fees on variable annuities and fixed-index annuities, commissions on alternative assets like hedge funds, and revenue-sharing payments that mutual funds make to brokers.

He sees retirement money flowing into low-cost index funds and exchange-traded funds, and out of annuities sold by insurance companies.

Winners and losers are already becoming apparent.

We have already seen tens of billions of dollars of market capitalization shift among different firms in the wealth management sector because of this rule, Wong said.

Jamie Hopkins, who teaches retirement-investing classes for advisers at the American College of Financial Services in Bryn Mawr, Pa., says the Labor Departments final rule addressed some of firms biggest gripes about earlier versions.

People have stopped complaining about being under a fiduciary standard and started looking at this as something we can implement, Hopkins said.

Brokerage firms  and their legislative allies such as Rep. Ann Wagner, R-Ballwin  have claimed that the rule would hurt investors of modest means. They argued that small accounts would become unprofitable, and that advisers who served them would be forced out of business.

You never know if thats a legitimate risk, or if thats just a threat you hear from people who are against change, Hopkins said. Could some business models not be able to support lower-income clients? Thats a possibility. I do believe that there will be companies out there whose business models still serve that market.

One example might be Edward Jones, which is piloting a fee-based account for people with as little as $5,000 to invest. Others would include the online advisory services offered by Charles Schwab, Vanguard Group and others.

So the proverbial little guy can still find retirement advice in this new world order. If he can no longer get advice from some people who were in the business before, its no great loss. Conflicted advice from sellers of high-cost products was almost certainly doing more harm than good.

The evolving U.S. retirement system requires workers to make investment choices that once were handled by company pension managers. At long last, workers can be assured of the honest advice they need to make those decisions.
Evelyn Bowles, who served as a teacher, Coast Guard yeoman, longtime Madison County clerk and member of the Illinois Senate, died Friday (April 8, 2016) in Edwardsville. She was 94.

She was a master politician who had an almost magical bond with the voters. And thats because they were her people and she took care of her people, and there was a connection that made her undefeatable, said her longtime friend, Stephanie Robbins.

Ms. Bowles, who was born in Worden and raised in Livingston, swore in Robbins as the first female assistant states attorney in Madison County in 1976.

Ms. Bowles was one of a handful of Metro East political figures whose first name was enough to identify her. She was an independent Democrat whose popularity with voters came in part because she regularly bucked the party hierarchy.

She was an elementary school teacher and then a World War II Coast Guard Reserve intelligence officer before accepting a summer typing job in Madison County with County Clerk Eulalia Hotz in 1957.

The summer job lasted 23 years.

She became the top deputy in the office, and when Hotz retired in 1974, Hotz backed Ms. Bowles to run as her replacement.

But the old guard, male-dominated members of the Democratic Central Committee had other ideas and their own candidate.

Ms. Bowles ran anyway and organized other women to campaign for her. She led the party in votes, winning the clerks election and holding the job until 1994.

It was the beginning of the end of the old boy machine that existed before, said Mark Von Nida, a successor to Ms. Bowles as Madison County clerk.

Ms. Bowles refused to pay money to the Democrats  a so-called lug  in exchange for the partys endorsement.

In 1982, the county Democratic chairman listed the names of party regulars who had been endorsed, adding: Evelyn Bowles was recommended.

What was the difference between endorsed and recommended? a reporter asked.

The party chairman dodged the question but finally explained with some exasperation: She wont pay the lug but shes going to win anyway.

He was right on both counts.

The clerk manages elections, keeps the countys vital records, and supervises what was then 25 employees.

Ms. Bowles developed a reputation for running a nonpartisan, no-nonsense office.

William R. Haine, then the Madison County states attorney, described Ms. Bowles as scrupulously honest and said her integrity was unquestioned.

Shes an argument against term limits, Haine added, because this lady served the people of the county with distinction.

After her first election, Ms. Bowles never had another primary opponent. She also never had a Republican opponent. She was so popular, nobody ran against her.

After five terms and 20 years as county clerk, Ms. Bowles announced she was retiring with no regrets. At 72, she said, she planned to take a little time for Evelyn.

That didnt last long. In 1993, she announced that she would run for the Illinois Senate with the endorsement of the man she would replace, Sen. Sam M. Vadalabene, who was in failing health.

At first it looked like Ms. Bowles would repeat her primary fight of 1974 and run against another party regular. This time it was a relative unknown who boasted that he was a party man while Ms. Bowles has never given the party a penny ...

Vadalabene died before the election and this time the party leaders united behind Ms. Bowles and appointed her to fill the Senate seat that represented Madison and St. Clair counties.

She was re-elected twice.

She said her greatest pride came in sponsoring legislation that made Illinois the first state to regulate the reuse of surgical devices designed for one-time only use.

Ms. Bowles met with her friend Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who got the federal General Accounting Office to investigate. The GAO found that while there was little evidence of harm, oversight was needed. In 2000, the Food and Drug Administration began enforcing more rigorous guidelines for hospitals and third-party reprocessors.

Ms. Bowles supporters said her popularity could have swept her into Congress. She was frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Rep. Mel Price, D-East St. Louis, who died in 1988. But Ms. Bowles never challenged Jerry Costello, the St. Clair County Board chairman who took over Prices seat.

Ms. Bowles retired in 2002. Under state law, she could have kept her leftover campaign funds.

Instead, she established a scholarship for future public servants at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

I cant think of anything that would mean more to me than encouraging others to take an active role in public service, the electoral process and government, she said.

Visitation is set from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Weber and Rodney Funeral Home in Edwardsville. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at St. Marys Catholic Church in Edwardsville.
The rallying cry of Break up the big banks! has been heard in presidential campaigns, the halls of Congress, and in some Federal Reserve Bank leadership offices. It has a great deal of persuasive power, yet, as public policy, its the wrong approach.

St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard last month said he favors breaking up big banks in order to foster innovation. His fellow Federal Reserve Bank President Neel Kashkari, head of the Minneapolis bank, also supports this concept.

As a federal regulator, I want to share why I believe breaking up the big banks is the wrong solution.

I am no apologist for the nations largest banks  far from it. As the longest-serving voting member of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, I have worked to clean up the mess caused by inappropriate risk-taking in the frenzied run-up to the financial crisis. The councils job is to identify risks and respond to threats to our nations financial system. I have seen how fiercely the big banks resist many reforms designed to prevent economic havoc.

In fact, the National Credit Union Administration, which I chair, was the first financial institutions regulator to sue the firms whose actions contributed to the Great Recession. NCUA has even been called the John Wayne of Washington financial regulators and unusually tough on Wall Street firms that sold faulty mortgage-backed securities to credit unions. To date, weve recovered $2.5 billion, and we have more than a dozen additional lawsuits pending against banks headquartered in the U.S. and overseas.

But breaking up the big banks, especially in our current economic climate, is not the right answer. Doing so risks undoing the valuable progress that the Financial Stability Oversight Council and federal regulators have made and will continue to make.

The Dodd-Frank Act gave regulators new powers to monitor the health of financial institutions, particularly those deemed systemically important. To reduce threats to our financial system and protect taxpayers, the law raised capital requirements for big banks, restricted certain high-risk practices, and created a mechanism to unwind failing institutions in an orderly way.

Bank size didnt cause the financial crisis. Poor underwriting, coupled with mortgage securitization and risky speculation in the shadow banking sector, were the biggest factors. Dodd-Frank requires big banks to operate under more rigorous regulatory and supervisory standards. Systemically important financial institutions also now are subject to greater scrutiny. These reforms have strengthened the financial system.

Its hard to see how arbitrarily capping banks size would further reduce risks. Focusing attention on size alone might even introduce new risks, creating instability within the financial system  the very problem that Congress designed Dodd-Frank to prevent. Instead of many new small institutions, wed be more likely to get a handful of new firms lurking just below the asset cap. As they got closer to the arbitrary cap, these firms would likely develop strategies to circumvent the size limit in substance while adhering to it in form. If that happens, well end up with a system that has more risks and less transparency.

Any credible plan needs to fully address critical and practical questions about how to break up big banks. How would their trillions of dollars in assets, debts, and equity be divided? What effect would disruptions of this magnitude have on the tens of millions of consumers and businesses forced into new financial institutions? After all, some of the big banks became big precisely because consumers and businesses chose to do business with them.

Additionally, in the current environment, enforcing arbitrary size limits would likely decrease the availability of credit. It would slow or even end the ongoing economic expansion.

Today, big banks are preparing living wills. Regulators are working on joint rules to prevent excessive compensation that could lead to material losses. The Fed is considering ways to increase the capital cushions of failing banks. These efforts dont require breaking up big banks. They only require completing what weve already begun.

Finally, as a failsafe, Dodd-Frank already gives regulators the power to force big banks and other systemically important institutions to divest assets if they pose a grave threat to the financial stability of the United States. Used appropriately, this regulatory tool is more effective than imposing an arbitrary cap on bank size.

Lets continue our regulatory progress. Lets ensure that all Americans have access to safe, secure financial services. Lets guarantee that taxpayers never again have to bail out our banking system. Reform, not revolution, is what gets us there safely.

Debbie Matz is board chairman of the National Credit Union Administration and has served on the Financial Stability Oversight Council since its inception.
If the execution is carried out, it too will leave a grieving family, in addition to having lost a little boy who might have survived if he could have gotten to the hospital in time.
Courtesy PaulinaSplechta.com(BOCA RATON, Fla.) -- A Florida woman hired a professional photographer to capture the birth of her third child. What she didn't expect to get on film was when her newborn daughter was born in the hospital parking lot.

Paula D'Amore, who describes herself as "Type A," told ABC News that after having almost no photographic record of her first two childrens births, she decided if she ever got pregnant again, she'd hire a photographer to capture the moments she's likely to forget.

"With my first son I got no pictures whatsoever," she recalled. "And with my second son, I had hired a doula and she just grabbed my camera and took pictures, but it was low lighting and low quality ... that's why I knew I needed someone there documenting the whole thing and I wanted it to be documented professionally."

D'Amore, 30, hired birth photographer, Paulina Splechta. The mother paid $1,000 to receive between 100 and 150 professional pictures. She said the investment was well worth it.

"It's almost like an out of body experience because I'm going through all of this and now I'm able to look back at the photos [and say], 'Wow this just happened,'" she said.

D'Amore has plenty to look at since her baby was born Friday in the parking lot of Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

This being her third child, D'Amore said she didn't want to rush to the hospital.

"With this one I knew my body more," the Green Acres, Florida, woman said. "I didn't want to arrive to the hospital and be there for hours, so I [told my doula Lindsay Ripley,] 'I would love to labor at home for as long as possible.'"

After taking a bath to ease her contractions, which were now three to five minutes apart, and stare at the birth affirmations she had posted around the tub for her birthing photo shoot, D'Amore said she told her husband Joseph it was time to head to the hospital with Ripley. Splechta followed right behind them in her own car, camera in hand.

"Two miles down the road, I was like, 'Guys I have the urge to push,'" she recalled. "It just takes over your body. It's not like you can control it."

The midwife D'Amore had also hired, Christine Hackshaw, met them in the parking lot of the hospital to help deliver her baby girl.

Splechta, who had been driving behind D'Amore in a separate vehicle, arrived just in time to capture the baby's birth. The photographer, who has been capturing births for two years, said it was "definitely not easy."

"You have to be on your toes because there's only one chance to get that particular shot and if you don't get that shot there's no second chance at all," Splechta told ABC News.

D'Amore doesn't regret hiring a photographer to help capture her birth.

"It's incredible how everything went down even down to the second," D'Amore said. "I couldn't have picked a better team. I always said to them, 'You're my dream team.'"

Daniella D'Amore was born, weighing 8 pound and six ounces and more than 20 inches long.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
DUBAI, UAE, April 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

Unisono, one of the leading strategic creative agencies in the Middle East, has been inaugurated into the REBRAND 100 Hall of Fame, making it the first Middle Eastern agency to be recognised and only one of 25 globally.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20160410/353415 )



The inauguration is an immense achievement for any branding agency, underscoring the firm's achievements and awards over the last 5 years. Unisono won REBRAND 100 7 times in this period for household brand names such as GFH, BFC, Cityscape, ADIB and Naseej. In the most recent awards, announced last month, the agency picked up two awards for its strategic rebranding of regional financial group GFH and the utility services firm, Enerji.

The Hall of Fame is comprised of just 25 of the most highly awarded branding agencies worldwide, with many leading firms from the US, UK, Canada and Australia listed alongside Unisono.

Commenting on the win Anaezi Modu. CEO of REBRAND 100 stated that "to get into the Hall of Fame is a remarkable achievement, to do it within 5 years is truly amazing."

Liam Farrell, Unisono's Executive Creative Director commented, "this is a brilliant achievement for the agency and has projected Bahrain as a strong player in the international branding arena," adding "We are delighted that work done by regional teams, for regional clients has been acknowledged and consistently awarded for its excellence by globally-recognized experts."

The inauguration into the REBRAND 100 Hall of Fame is just one of over 16 accolades won by the firm in 2015 alone. In the past year, the agency won the coveted Jury's Selection as the Best Overall Brand Identity at the 2015 Transform Awards for its work rebranding Batelco. The firm also picked up 3 Golds, to add to its collection of awards and its work has been featured in numerous books including Design & Design Annuals and Logo Talk3.

About Unisono

Founded by partners Amy Morgan and Liam Farrell in 2006, Unisono is the only Middle Eastern agency to be initiated into the global REBRAND 100 Hall of Fame - an award that recognises the top 25 branding agencies globally. Widely renowned for strategic creativity, Unisono works with global and Middle Eastern brands. The agency has won over 33 major international awards in the last ten years including 7 REBRAND Awards and 18 Transform Awards for strategy and creativity. Unisono works on branding, advertising, design and digital projects with clients across all business sectors. An independent agency, Unisono is headquartered in Bahrain with offices in Dubai.

Unisono. Believe in Brilliance.

http://www.unisonoagency.com

http://www.facebook.com/unisonoagency

Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/company/unisono_2

SOURCE Unisono, Bahrain
The coffin of Italian student Giulio Regeni is carried during his funeral in Fiumicello, northern Italy, February 12, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer

By Amina Ismail and Haitham Ahmed

CAIRO (Reuters) - Tension between Egypt and Italy stems from Cairo's refusal to hand over extensive phone records as part of an investigation into the killing of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, a senior Egyptian prosecutor said on Saturday.

Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations on Friday, saying Egyptian investigators on a visit to Rome had failed to provide the evidence needed to resolve the case of Regeni, whose body was found dumped in a roadside ditch nine days after he disappeared in the center of Cairo.

A day after returning from Rome, Egypt's assistant public prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Egypt had complied with 98 percent of Italy's requests.

Suleiman said the findings of the Italian and Egyptian autopsies were almost identical but that Egypt would not share the phone records sought by Italian investigators.

He said Italy had requested all records from the area where Regeni lived, where he disappeared and where he was found, which could amount to nearly a million calls.

"This demand goes against the constitution and the law and is a crime for anyone who does it," Suleiman told a news conference in Cairo. "We told them that the public prosecution is doing this itself (looking at phone records) and will give you the results."

Suleiman said the Egyptian investigators had also given the Italians the surveillance camera they had asked for but that the relevant footage had automatically deleted.

Regeni, a 28-year-old PhD student who was researching the Egyptian labor movement, disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of the start of 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. His body was discovered on Feb. 3 and Egyptian investigators found signs of extensive torture.

Human rights groups say the wounds bear the hallmarks of Egypt's security agencies and point to the scores of Egyptians who have disappeared over the past year. Egyptian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in his death but have struggled to offer an explanation to satisfy Italy.

Italian officials have ridiculed different explanations put forward by Egyptian investigators.

Egypt has also asked Italy to explain what happened to Egyptian Adel Moawad, who went missing in the European country last year. Suleiman said Italy handed over a file on Moawad, though his fate remained a mystery.

Italy's decision to escalate the diplomatic dispute could dent Italian efforts to become Egypt's key European partner in fighting terrorism and people-smuggling.

Italy also has significant economic interests in Egypt, including the giant offshore Zohr gas field, which is being developed by Italy's state energy producer Eni.

Suleiman played down the diplomatic tensions, saying his team returned a day early to avoid a strike at Rome airport.

However, in a statement carried by state news agency MENA later spokesman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri had expressed unease "toward the political direction that is beginning to be taken regarding this file".

(Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Alison Williams and Helen Popper)
A woman holds a flag showing a portrait of Che Guevara as she attends a demonstration against the French labour law proposal in Nice, France, April 9, 2016. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

PARIS (Reuters) - Demonstrations around France against a draft labor reform law turned violent on Saturday, with at least seven police officers injured and 17 people arrested in Paris and Rennes, which saw the worst clashes.

Following changes to soften the bill, the broad-based protest movement has waned from its March 31 peak, when turnout estimates ranged between 390,000 and 1.2 million, suggesting President Francois Hollande may be able to ride out the storm.

Nonetheles, some 120,000 took part in Saturday's sixth day of protests around the country, according to the Interior Ministry.

Police clashed with groups of masked militants hurling projectiles in Paris as well as in Rennes and Nantes.

Paris police chief Michel Cadot said his officers had encountered "300-400 extremists" at the head of the union-organized protest in the capital.

The draft labor law seeks to introduce more working time flexibility and rein in labor tribunal challenges and payouts.

After some watering down in a parliamentary committee, Prime Minister Manuel Valls is expected to propose limited further adjustments on Monday following a meeting with student leaders at his Matignon office.

The public protests have posed an additional headache for Hollande, whose popularity ratings were already the lowest of any serving president in modern French history.

Dissent amid his governing Socialists last week forced Hollande to scrap plans to strip French citizenship from those convicted on terrorism charges, a climbdown from his tough stance in the wake of November's attacks.

And in a further challenge to his reelection chances for 2017, the party's national council announced on Saturday that it would back a primary contest to select a single presidential candidate for the broader French left - a prospect that is likely to embolden potential Socialist challengers.

The capital also saw the 10th outing for nocturnal protesters from the "Nuit Debout" movement ("Up all Night"). It began on the margins of the March 31 demonstrations and has since gathered every evening on Place de la Republique, spawning its own online radio station and field kitchens.

(Reporting by Pierre-Henri Allain and Yves Clarisse; Writing by Laurence Frost; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Ireland's Prime Minister Enda Kenny looks on during the commemoration of the 100 year anniversary of the Irish Easter Rising in Dublin, Ireland, March 27, 2016. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's two largest political parties have agreed to meet early next week for talks on how one might support the other to form a minority government and avoid a second general election.

The smaller of the two, Fianna Fail, on Thursday rejected an offer from the Fine Gael party of acting prime minister Enda Kenny for a grand coalition between the historical center-right rivals.

That leaves a minority government, in which one party abstains in key parliamentary votes to allow the other party to govern, as the only realistic way to avoid a repeat of the Feb. 26 general election.

But both sides say the details of any such agreement would be crucial in determining its viability.

The two parties on Saturday published a statement saying the talks would "discuss how a viable minority government would work."

Parliament is due to sit on Thursday to attempt for the third time to elect a new prime minister.

Kenny's Fine Gael would be the heavy favorite to lead a minority government as it has 50 seats to Fianna Fail's 43 in the 158-seat chamber. But both would need the support of independent deputies and Fianna Fail could theoretically edge ahead if it secures enough of them.

(Reporting by Conor Humphries; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Swiss Finance Minister Ueli Maurer speaks to media after the weekly meeting of the Federal Council in Bern, Switzerland February 17, 2016. REUTERS/Ruben Sprich

ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's finance minister has defended the use of offshore companies by the world's wealthy to cut their tax bills, now under scrutiny after publication of the "Panama Papers".

"You have to create these opportunities," Finance Minister Ueli Maurer, from the right-wing Swiss People's Party (SVP), told Swiss newspaper Blick in an interview published on Friday.

"Rich people pay a lot more tax than me," said Maurer. "I am not rich - and without the rich I would have to pay more tax."

Four decades of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specializes in setting up offshore companies and has offices in Zurich and Geneva, showed widespread use of those instruments by global banks and triggered investigations around the world.

Maurer's comments were not echoed by the head of Switzerland's financial watchdog Mark Branson on Thursday. He said the country's banks must clamp down on money laundering in the wake of the Panama Papers.

The Geneva prosecutor has also opened a criminal inquiry in connection with the millions of documents leaked to the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung. They then became part of a broader investigation coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Switzerland is the world's biggest international wealth management center with around $2.5 trillion in assets and has taken on more wealth of late from emerging markets, from which it is harder determine the origin of assets, Branson said.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
Three in every four adults who die by suicide are male. When it comes to people aged 19 or younger, four in every 10 suicides are female.

Life insurers are wary of being used by a person considering suicide to leave a legacy for their loved ones in the form of a life insurance payout.

As a result, most insurers won't pay out for deaths caused by self-harm in the 13 months after the policy is issued.

Similarly, if someone increases their cover and then kills themselves, the insurer may pay out the amount the person was originally covered for, but not the increase.

ADRIAN HILLMAN/123RF There were 12.27 suicides per 100,000 in the 12 months to the end of June 2015.

But there's a second, less commonly recognised side to insurance and suicide: the large number of people who try to kill themselves, but survive the attempt, and later go on to take out insurance.

READ MORE: Let's talk about suicide

Statistically, New Zealand's overall suicide rate is in the middle of the OECD pack, but it is high among younger people, and so is the attempted suicide rate.

Ministry of Health figures show in 2012, 71 people in every 100,000 were hospitalised for self-harm, compared to 12.3 people per 100,000 who killed themselves.

When people take out insurance, failing to reveal past suicide attempts is likely to lead to insurers refusing to pay claims should the policyholder die, or fall sick.

Some cases through the years have found their way before the Insurance and Financial Services Ombudsman.

NON-DISCLOSURE OF SUICIDE ATTEMPTS

2013: In 2011 a woman took out life and mortgage protection insurance. She died of natural causes in 2013. The insurer found she had not disclosed an attempted suicide by overdose of prescription pills in 2010.

The insurer told the Ombudsman it would have charged triple the premium had it known the woman's full medical history.

Despite that, the insurer made a voluntary payment of just over $50,000 to her estate. It would have been in its rights to pay nothing.

2013: In January 2012 a woman took out trauma insurance, but failed to tell the insurer about an attempted suicide. When she made a claim for cancer in 2013, it was declined.

The ombudsman found the insurer had a legal right to do so.

CLAIMS AFTER SUICIDE

2009: It is not always clear if someone has deliberately killed themselves, which is why insurers' policy wordings exclude death caused by self-inflicted injury in the first 13 months of a policy.

That means that if a person dies from something like a drugs overdose, where it is not clear if they intended to kill themselves, the insurer can decline a claim.

In one case a man took out life insurance in March 2009, and died of self-inflicted morphine intoxication in December the same year. The dead man's estate did not believe he intended to kill himself, but the wording of the policy meant the insurer did not have to prove he did, just that he died as a result of self-inflicted injury.

2004: A couple cancelled their life insurance with an insurer, and less than a week later, took out new policies with the same insurer. The insurance adviser knew of this plan, but failed to tell the insurer it was "replacement" business, on which the 13-week suicide exclusion should have been waved.

When one of the couple committed suicide, the insurer declined the claim. The ombudsman ruled it had to pay up.

2003: When a man died after swallowing medication, his insurer refused to pay a life insurance claim relying on policy wording which said no suicide would be covered in the first 13 months of the policy, whether the man was sane or insane.

The coroner was unable to determine whether the man had intended to kill himself, or had even realised that taking the medication would kill him. Without proof of intention, the insurer had to pay the claim.

2004: The husband of a woman who killed herself found her insurer refusing to pay the claim because she had not disclosed she had once taken the antidepressant Prozac.

It was a material non-disclosure, and the insurer was within its rights not to pay, even though the 13-week suicide exclusion period had passed.

CLAIMS AFTER A SUICIDE ATTEMPT

2010: A woman driving her car collided with a power pole. Her insurer believed it to be a suicide attempt, and not an accident, and so declined her claim.

A psychiatrist found the woman was incapable of forming an intent to take her own life as she was suffering from a depressive illness with some psychotic features.

The ombudsman found the woman could not therefore have committed a "reckless" act, as the insurer alleged, which meant it had to pay the claim.

2008: In another case a woman who crashed on a motorway the same day as the bank she worked for discovered she was stealing from customer accounts, had her car insurance claim turned down by an insurer, suspecting she had intended to kill herself. It said her driving was "reckless, grossly careless, or grossly negligent". The ombudsman's investigation found expert evidence did not indicate the woman perceived the risk of her actions, and the insurer had to pay up.

Where to get help:

* Lifeline: 0800 543 354 - Provides 24 hour telephone counselling

* Youthline: 0800 376 633 or free text 234 - Provides 24 hour telephone and text counselling services for young people

* Samaritans: 0800 726 666 - Provides 24 hour telephone counselling.

* Tautoko: 0508 828 865 - provides support, information and resources to people at risk of suicide, and their family, whanau and friends.

* Whatsup: 0800 942 8787 (noon to midnight)

* Kidsline: 0800 543 754 (4pm - 6pm weekdays)

If it is an emergency or you feel you or someone you know is at risk, please call 111

For information about suicide prevention, see http://www.spinz.org.nz.
Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett explains some of his ideas for running Wellington.

The latest bidder for the Wellington mayoral chains says the capital is "stalled at the lights", and he will bring new leadership and energy to the role.

Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett announced his tilt on Sunday and promised to move to the capital if he was elected.

The 36-year-old's candidacy brings the field for the Wellington mayoralty to six, including incumbent Celia Wade-Brown.

MONIQUE FORD/ FAIRFAX NZ Wellington mayoral candidate and current Porirua Mayor Nick Leggett acknowledges his outsider status, but says the city is in need of fresh blood.

Some of his rivals for the mayoral chains have been quick to point out the "unusual" nature of standing for election in a city in which he does not live, and to question his record in Porirua.

READ MORE:

* Garner: On yer bike Celia, the city needs a better mayor

* Porirua mayor considers running in Wellington

* Wellington and Porirua councils in merger talks

* Wellington super-city scrapped

Leggett will stand as an independent after resigning from the Labour Party on Friday, in part because Labour already has a preferred candidate in the Wellington mayoral race, in Justin Lester.

He said in his announcement: "Wellington is a great city that deserves great leadership, but it's been stalled at the lights in recent years."

A supporter of a super-city, he said a possible merger between Wellington and Porirua councils might be discussed if he was elected, although: "politicians should step aside and let the community decide in the end".

He said he had no trinkets to dangle in front of voters, and instead, he planned spending on a city ready to withstand a major disaster, rather than investing in "fluffy" pet projects.

"What we know is if there's a catastrophic earthquake in Wellington, the estimate is that there's 100 days to get water to the southern and eastern suburbs and 90 days to the CBD."

"A catastrophic earthquake leaves us at risk ... we need to know really clearly whether the infrastructure is in place and how long it is going to take for reconnection of basic water supply, and wastewater as well. I don't think those issues are front and centre enough."

He vowed that, under his leadership, he would consider the outsourcing of business investment decisions, following the failure of council-sponsored companies such as CallActive.

"My experience is politicians are not experts in picking winners for business development and economic development, so I'd be looking to ... start handing that over to the Regional Economic Development Agency."

Lester said Leggett's candidacy was "unusual". "I live and work in Wellington. We have chosen to raise our family here. Now there is a vacancy in Porirua, would I go and run in Porirua?

"Of course not. It's not where I live and work, it's not where I have a community of interest."

Wade-Brown said Leggett had not solved all of Porirua's problems, and his comments on Wellington "stalling" were wrong.

She compared them with Prime Minister John Key's remarks about Wellington dying. "We have absolutely proved the city is thriving, not dying. Maybe Nick needs to look at some of the statistics."

Leggett said the council under Wade-Brown's leadership was losing touch, exemplified in the Island Bay cycleway debacle, and its inability to earn Government trust in the airport runway extension project.

Councillor Jo Coughlan, another mayoral candidate, said: "Any candidate who supports my commitment as mayor to double-tunnel the Mt Victoria and Terrace tunnels, along with other infrastructure and ambitious policies to make Wellington better, could be a useful councillor."

WELLINGTON'S MAYORALTY RACE:

April 2015: Lambton ward councillor Nicola Young announces her tilt, with Southern ward councillor Paul Eagle as her deputy.

December 2015: Deputy mayor and Northern ward councillor Justin Lester announces he will be standing.

February 2016: Mayor Celia Wade-Brown confirms she is standing again.

March 2016: Lester and Eagle announce their joint ticket run as mayor and deputy.

April 2016: Jo Coughlan announces she too will contest the mayoralty.

April 2016: Nick Leggett confirms he is running.

April 2016: Local economist, policy adviser and writer Keith Johnson announces he will run too.

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A Nelson woman who was surprised to find insects come out of her hot water tap says she wants others to know about the problem as it could happen to them.

When Olga Reid noticed a collection of bug parts come out with her hot water, her first thought was that there were cluster flies coming out of the tap.

"I noticed heads, legs, bits and pieces, the sink water here came out like a stew and there was bugs all around the place," Reid said.

Olga Reid Part of an insect, identified as a wool carder bee, that came out of the hot water tap in Olga Reid's house.

"I didn't want them in there so I wanted to set out to find out how to get rid of them."



READ MORE:

* Thousands of cockroaches invade Auckland street

* Wellington bee swarm finds new home

* Invading ants out of control, council gives up

The Stoke resident had trouble getting the insects identified, she contacted both the Nelson City Council and the Public Health Service to get to the bottom of where they had come from.

"I wasn't happy to find out that nobody knew about them," she said.

Photos of the insects were send to entomologist Richard Toft, who identified them as wool carder bees.

The bees, which look like a cross between a honey bee and a wasp first arrived in the country 10 years ago and Toft said Nelson was one of the first places they were discovered.

Toft said they liked to nest in crevices which would explain how they ended up getting into plumbing.

"The funny thing was other people were telling me about their showers being blocked and I was trying to find out why," Reid said. "People do need to know about them and what to do."

Reid drained her hot water cylinder with the help of a neighbour and called a plumber who was able to fix the problem by putting a gauze over the vent pipe.

Trade Central plumber Glen Penson who responded to Reid's call, said he had one callout or so a month where bugs were blocking the shower mixer or taps.

"Some people get plagued by it and some don't," he said. "It definitely keeps plumbers busy that is for sure."

It was a problem for those that had low pressure, open-vented hot water systems, which he estimated was about 60 per cent of homes in Nelson, although that number was diminishing as new home builds used un-vented, mains pressure systems.

"It is a header tank problem really, if you have a header tank in your house they will find a way to get in there and die."

The presence of insects was the first thing he looked for when people had a dripping shower head or no hot water coming out of their tap.

He thought the insects entered the overflow from the header tank or got into the hot water cylinder through the release pipe where they then blocked shower heads and hot water taps.

The solution was to put a gauze on the release pipe and a rodent flap on the overflow to prevent anything entering the system.

"It makes it a hell of a lot harder for them to get in there, bugs are pretty persistent, they will find any little gap."

Tim Miller of Tim Miller Plumbing said he first came across the problem around 10 years ago.

He had pulled the black and yellow insects out of shower heads and wondered if they were attracted to the heat in the vent pipes.

"For a while there it was a big problem," he said. "They cause problems in tempering valves and Topliss shower mixers and they get caught up in the internal system."

Miller said it was a strange thing to see.

"It's certainly out there and it didn't use to happen."
Rotorua Airport will see more Air New Zealand planes in the near future as a result of schedule changes by the airline.

An increase in capacity on the Auckland-Rotorua route, and an increase on the Rotorua-Christchurch route, together with improved connectivity between Rotorua and Queenstown, as well as Dunedin and Invercargill are the reason for a seven per cent increase projected for Rotorua.
Social Development Minister Anne Tolley says Cabinet has agreed to major state care reforms and a complete overhaul of Child, Youth and Family to improve the long-term life outcomes for New Zealands most vulnerable population.

She told TVs The Nation recently that "CYFS does not work".
Taurangas second Colour Dash attracted at least 1000 runners and walkers, who had to brave rain, sloppy conditions as well as being peppered with coloured starch and water.

Together they raised $10,750 for Project K and KiwiCan. Event manager Larissa Allen is pleased with the turnout.

Covered in coloured dust for a good cause. Photos: Cameron Avery.



"It was the eighth dash in the country. Weve done it in other cities, such as Rotorua, Hamilton and Auckland. Considering the fact that it rained for the first two to three hours, the turnout was amazing," she says.

She reckons everyone had a great time for a good cause and people of all ages had a go at the 3 or 6 km run/walk around Waipuna Park.

The event will soon be reviewed and during that time those involved will decide where to take it next. It may one day return to Tauranga, the city that hosted it first, at least in New Zealand.
Russ Lemmon

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By Russ Lemmon

When I grow up, I want to do what Marilyn Coughlin did.

Thanks to her, I'm going to put self-publishing a book on my "bucket list."

That's what she did at age 75.

Making money wasn't the motivation for publishing "India: Beyond Dirt, Dust and Dung." I mean, you can count the number of copies she had printed on two hands.

"Not one iota," she said when asked about the money. "Never gave it a thought. I just wanted to document my achievements. Bragging rights, I guess."

Coughlin, who moved to Indian River County in 2000, has traveled extensively. In addition to multiple trips to India, she lived in China and taught English.

Her 88-page book is an easy read, with a mix of travel essays and photos. There's even some poetry.

I must say, I never expected a self-published book to be such high quality from a "looks" standpoint. It could easily pass as a travel book from a major publisher.

Coughlin gives credit to Toni Quigley for guiding her through the process. They both live in Summerplace.

Quigley was effectively Coughlin's editor for the six-month project.

"Without Toni, I would not have gotten through this," Coughlin said.

Quigley says she has self-published close to 10 books. Money isn't her motivation either ? all of her books have been gifts for someone.

Their collaboration was that of a teacher and student. They had quite a few obstacles to overcome, but they made it through.

"I have to give Marilyn a lot of credit," Quigley said. "She did try, and she did learn, a whole lot of new things. I think anything you learn as an older person keeps your brain going."

Coughlin found the process to be immensely satisfying.

"Just of the experience of learning how to do it is mind-expanding," she said.

The cost of self-publishing a book was much less than I expected. Coughlin took advantage of a deal being offered and paid $140 for four books ? or $35 apiece. (The regular price, she said, is about $100 per copy.)

The turnaround time was less than two weeks.

Coughlin dedicated the book to her lifelong friend, Diane Alice Corley, who died in 2011 at age 74.

If not for Corley, Coughlin wrote, she never would have overcome her status as a high-school dropout and graduate with a four-year college degree.

When they were 23, Corley asked her: "What will you do when you no longer fit into a skimpy cocktail waitress costume?"

Coughlin became a teacher, worked as an account executive for a Fortune 500 company and owned a bed-and-breakfast in her native Minnesota.

Traveling has been a lifelong passion.

"You know how you buy something and put it on, and it just feels right? That's the way India was for me," she said.

So, what was her reaction when she opened the FedEx package and saw her book for the first time?

"I was very, very pleased," she recalled. "I said, 'Oh, my gosh. I pulled it off.'

"I can validate 75 years of living. I won't make a dime, but I wanted my family to have a remembrance."

As Coughlin proved, self-publishing a book is within your reach. Some possibilities include travel books, where you can share your best photos, or a book of family history.

Some advice from Quigley:

"The first thing I would tell them is, it's going to be overwhelming, but don't be afraid."

If you have an interest in doing a book on your family history, she suggests being organized.

You can't blame Coughlin for beaming with pride over her accomplishment. (If you want to purchase a copy of her book, search for it on the website mypublisher.com.)She used four words to describe her emotions.

"Elation. Relief. Pride. Thankfulness."

That latter was a nod to Toni Quigley.

Congratulations, Marilyn. A job well done.

Russ Lemmon is a columnist for Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers. This column reflects his opinion. Contact him at 772-978-2205 or russ.lemmon@scripps.com.
By Janet Begley, Special to Treasure Coast Newspapers

MELBOURNE  Even though Indian River County is considered to be solidly Republican, no Indian River representatives from Congressional District 8 were chosen as delegates to the upcoming Republican National Convention set for July 18-21 in Cleveland.

District 8 includes Indian River and Brevard counties and a small part of Orange County.

GOP leaders Saturday chose Barbara Davis and Carlie Rogers, both from Brevard County's Republican Executive Committee, and Lou Oliver, from Orange County's Republican Executive Committee, as their choices to mark their first three ballots for Florida's primary winner, Donald Trump.

In the primary, Trump received 45.7 percent of the vote, followed by Marco Rubio, who received 27 percent. Ted Cruz earned 17.1 percent while John Kasich received 6.8 percent.

All three delegates indicated they would follow state party rules that require them to vote for the March 15 primary winner on the first three ballots. After that, they're free to vote as they choose.

Indian River County residents Carole Jean Jordan, who headed the Florida Republican Party from 2003 to 2007, and Joseph Semprevivo, the national field director for the Ted Cruz campaign, will both serve as alternates to the Republican convention, along with Brevard County Republican vice chairman Rick Lacey. Alternates only cast a ballot if a regular delegate is unable to vote.

"I'm disappointed that the county with the highest percentage of Republican elected officials doesn't have a delegate representing them," said Jordan. "But I am happy to attend as an alternate. Delegate, alternate or guest, we're all going to do what's right for the good of the party."

Though Semprevivo supports Cruz, he said he would vote for Trump on the first three ballots. He said Cruz has told supporters who are selected as delegates they need to stick with the party rules.

"It's fantastic to see we have all come together for the process," said Semprevivo. "But we want to win in November. That's what really matters. "

Statewide, 81 delegates will be chosen by local party officials. An additional 15 at-large delegates will be selected by the Republican Party of Florida's executive board at its upcoming meeting in Tampa.

State party Chairman Blaise Ingoglia and the state's two Republican National Committee members round out the delegate count at 99.
Italy has recalled its ambassador to Egypt after two days of inconclusive talks between Egyptian and Italian investigators on the subject of the murdered Girton student Giulio Regeni.

The Italian Foreign Ministry stated that it had recalled Ambassador Maurizio Massari as an urgent evaluation is needed in order to discover how best to ascertain the truth about the barbaric murder of Giulio Regeni.

The Ministrys statement follows two days of talks in Rome where Senior Egyptian Investigators  who were reportedly accompanied by 2000 pages of evidence  briefed their Italian counterparts on the investigation. At the end of the second day of talks, Italian investigators dismissed the Egyptian evidence as "insufficient".

The news was also publicised on Twitter by Italys prime minister, Matteo Renzi, accompanied by the hashtag #veritapergiulioregeni which translates as truth for Giulio Regeni.

The body of Regeni, a PhD student researching labour union movements in Egypt, was found 10 days after his initial disappearance on the 25 January 2016 exhibiting signs of brutal torture. Reports in March that Egyptian authorities had found and killed a criminal gang responsible for Regenis death were met with scepticism in Italy. The Ministrys latest statement added that the chief Italian prosecutor reiterated his conviction that there are no elements to directly directly link the gang to the torture and death of Giulio Regeni.

The talks in Rome come after strong criticism of the Egyptian investigation into Regenis death so far. On Tuesday the Italian foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni warned Cairo against presenting distorted or convenient truths at this weeks talks and promised to take proportional action if the meetings in Rome did not prompt a change in gear.

Italian officials have since stated that the Egyptian dossier presented in Rome did not include any new information, such as Regeni's mobile phone records or CCTV footage of the area in Cairo where he went missing. Egyptian investigators stood by recent claims that a criminal gang were responsible for Regenis murder.

The high-profile case has sparked outrage internationally, with the Italian branch of Amnesty International calling for the truth about Giulio Regeni, several leading politicians calling for the truth of Regenis death to be told, and wide spread speculation that Egyptian security forces played a part in the death of Regeni due to the nature of his PHD research.

A petition stating that "The UK government has a duty to ensure that a credible investigation of this extrajudicial killing is carried out" has so far reached 9,800 signatures.

These most recent developments appear to mark the height of the increased diplomatic tensions between two nations so far. Sources in the Egyptian ministry are reportedly keen to calm the situation, expressing fears that the Italian decision to recall the ambassador could impact trade between the two nations  who were previously strong allies.
The marketing efforts in retail stores have shifted to the online world as technology offers more immediate and efficient modes of buying products.

Amazon recently expanded its Prime Now services across 11 new metro areas which now increase their footing in 27 major areas that span across 1,000 cities. Their services now deliver to the greater New York City including North and Central New Jersey, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, Chicago, Atlanta, Boston, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Dallas-Fort Worth, the San Francisco Bay area including Oakland and San Jose, the Tampa Bay area, Seattle-Tacoma, Washington, D.C., and now Milwaukee, Charlotte, Richmond, Fresno, Louisville, Nashville, Stockton, Cincinnati, Sacramento, Tucson and Raleigh.

This is part of their annual membership program that costs $99 annually; the other services offered are "Prime Now," for smartphone deals, and "Free Two-Day" delivery service that is offered to the entire continental U.S. To avail of the free delivery charge, premium members have to order above $35 or else pay a $5.99 same-day delivery charge. Non-Prime members, on the other hand, pay $8.99 per order and $0.99 per item.

Other retail stores such as Target and Walmart have yet to follow in Amazon's steps since making same-day delivery offers is ridiculously tricky to accomplish outside of large cities. These so-called "brick and mortar stores" have to contend with the online capabilities that Amazon offers to its customers.

Target offers a "Rush Delivery" system that services select areas of Boston, MA; Miami, FL; and Minneapolis, MN. Consumers can avail free one-day shipping delivery if they shop with Target's Credit, Debit or Master Card or spend more than $25 using other payment methods. Orders placed by 1:30 p.m. from Monday to Saturday will be delivered on the same day while orders placed after 1:30 p.m. will be delivered the following day. "Rush Delivery" orders can be received within 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Walmart allegedly tested its own delivery system called "ShippingPass" that would offer three-day deliveries at no minimum costs which could've rivaled Amazon's Prime. The free shipping offer with no additional costs also includes other items that weren't tagged for three-day deliveries and would instead arrive within four to six days. The membership fee is marked at $50 per year once the feature is released for pilot testing.

Currently, Walmart offers "same-day curbside pickup." Consumers can buy from Walmart's online website and pick it up at a pre-designated time set by the buyer with no added charge. This is the company's solution in addressing time management for consumers that may not be able to shop within store hours to avail their store's "everyday low price."

Photo: Fumiaki Yoshimatsu | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
NASA's asteroid-hunting spacecraft on Tuesday released a treasure trove of survey data, revealing hundreds of Near-Earth objects (NEOs) of which 72 are newly detected and eight are classified as potentially-hazardous.

The space agency said eight of the 72 NEOs detected in recent years were classified as potentially hazardous asteroids (PHA) based on their size and how close their orbits approached our planet.

Since December 2013, the Near-Earth Object Wide-field Survey Explorer (Neowise) mission has identified 439 NEOs  asteroids or comets that at some point orbited the Sun and became close to the Earth.

With the release of this fresh batch of data, Neowise has completed another milestone in its mission to detect, track and classify the comets and asteroids that approach the planet.

Incidentally, an asteroid is considered an NEO when its distance from the Sun during its closest approach is less than 1.3 times the average Sun-Earth distance, experts said.

Scientists also use Neowise data to better understand the origins of these space objects, which are possibly either from the different parts of the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars or the icier comet populations.

History of Neowise

First launched in December 2009, Neowise was originally just called Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). It was placed in hibernation in 2011 after its main mission was done.

In September 2013, WISE was reactivated into Neowise and given a new mission: to distinguish populations of potentially-dangerous NEOs.

Neowise principal investigator Amy Mainzer said the spacecraft discovers large and dark NEOs, helping scientists by complementing the network of ground-based telescopes that operate at visible-light wavelengths.

"On average, these objects are many hundreds of meters across," said Mainzer.

Will NEOs Hit Earth?

NASA scientists said no NEOs are likely to hit the planet anytime soon.

Still, space rocks can remain undetected, such as the Chelyabinsk meteor that streaked across Russian skies on Feb. 15, 2013.

The meteor exploded, shattering glass windows and injuring more than 1,100 residents. Experts say this meteor was the result of a collision between two astronomical bodies.

What's more, fragments of the meteor revealed that the collision did not happen days or months before it hit Earth, but about 290 million years ago.

Meanwhile, NASA unveiled an asteroid detection program in early January which would help defend the planet in case any dangerous asteroids are lurking around Earth.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Researchers have been trying to find a way to mimic the regenerative abilities that fish, lizards, mice and few other creatures have. It came to the point that it even inspired one of Marvel superheroes' villains, Genetic Biologist Curt Connors, who mutated into The Lizard when his attempt to regrow his arm like the reptile went horribly wrong.

In a Duke University School of Medicine study titled "Modulation of tissue repair by regeneration enhancer elements," which was published in Nature on April 6, researchers discovered that the genes that activate regeneration in zebrafish have similar gene counterparts in mammals.

"We want to know how regeneration happens, with the ultimate goal of helping humans realize their full regenerative potential," Dr. Kenneth D. Poss, senior author of the study and professor of cell biology at Duke, said.

Instead of focusing on the actual cell and tissue regeneration, however, the research team focused on discovering "tissue regeneration enhancer elements" or TREEs, or specific genes that act as a switch that would signal when a tissue needs repair, when a tissue is being repaired and when a tissue completes repair.

Of course, the task is hardly ever easy but this is where the zebrafish comes in. The lead study author, Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Junsu Kang, monitored zebrafish with damaged fins or hearts and he observed that a gene called "leptin b" was "turned on," as opposed to the fishes in full health.

Next, Dr. Kang painstakingly examined the 150,000 base pairs of genes around leptin b and identified a TREE some 7,000 base pairs away. He also found that the enhancer element can be further divided into two parts: the first part is focused on repairing amputated or damaged fins, and the other on repairing the damaged heart.

As an extension to the study, Dr. Brian L. Black, the research collaborator from the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California in San Francisco, borrowed the genes from the zebrafish to create transgenic mice and he found that the TREEs triggered regeneration in the injured paws or hearts.

With further study on mammals, the study could potentially lead to a way to help humans regenerate amputated limbs.

"Our study points to a way that we could potentially awaken the genes responsible for regeneration that we all carry within us," Dr. Poss said.

Photo: NICHD/ J. Swan | Flickr

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
The latest Samsung flagship smartphones  the Galaxy S7 and the Galaxy S7 edge  seem to be on everyone's wish list and is turning out to be quite a consumer favorite.

However, those who preordered either of the handsets from Verizon Wireless to take advantage of its promotional offer have some disappointing news headed their way  the free Gear S2 smartwatch's shipment has been delayed.

Earlier in February, we reported that Verizon offered freebies for those who preordered the Galaxy S7 edge or the Galaxy S7 from the carrier. Customers could either opt for the Gear VR headset or the Gear S2 smartwatch as part of the limited period promotion which expired on March 18.

As part of the promotion, customers were assured by Verizon that the free Gear S2 or Gear VR would reach within four to six weeks post the verification of the claim.

"Offer claim form and valid purchase receipt must be submitted online by 3/31/16 at 11:59:59 p.m. EST. Subject to verification, customers will receive offer within approximately 4-6 weeks after verification of offer claim," assured Verizon at the time.

However, Verizon is now sending out letters to customers informing that the shipment of the Gear S2 has been delayed.

Verizon cites "high level of interest" in its promotion as the reason for the delay of the smartwatch's shipment. The delivery time frame has now been extended from the initial promised 4 to 6 weeks to May. A possibility exists  as the carrier disclaims  that the arrival of the Gear S2 could even extend to summer this year.

"Hello [name], Congratulations! Your submission has been approved. We will ship your Samsung Gear S2 to the mailing address you provided when registering for this Offer. Please note that due to the high level of interest in the Verizon Offer promotion, delivery times for Gear S2 are now extending into May and potentially Summer 2016. Once shipped, we will send you an email with your tracking number," reads the letter per reports.

The news will disappoint people who preordered the Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge in hopes of gaining a Gear S2 smartwatch for free. Consumers would be hoping that Verizon will take a cue from Samsung and offer aggrieved customers a $100 store credit in lieu of the freebie, which can be used to purchase anything from the carrier's online or physical stores, if they do not want to wait for their Gear S2 to arrive.

Photo: Maurizio Pesce | Flickr

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In Morro Bay, California, a man was rescued on a cliff after his marriage proposal to his girlfriend. The man is still lucky enough to be alive, and of course, to have the precious "yes" of his girlfriend.

Michael John Paul Banks, 27 years old from Fresno, climbed the 600-foot Morro Rock on Thursday to propose marriage to his girlfriend via Facetime, a video-messaging app.

Banks climbed up the eastern side of the Morro Rock 15 minutes before the sunrise, after the proposal he decided to take the steeper side of the rock to go down. But unlucky for him, he got stuck on his way down.

"He couldn't go any direction, on a sheer ledge, with his feet dangling 80 feet off the ground," said Todd Gailey, captain of Morro Bay Fire.

The rescuers called for help and asked for a helicopter. California Highway Patrol went to the scene shortly after 8:30 a.m.

Capt. Gailey descended with the help of a cable as he grabbed Banks from the sheer ledge. The two were hanging on the cable, with the helicopter's blade near whipping the rock.

Banks was calm the whole time the rescue was ongoing, but a "little unnerved," said Gailey.

The man was rescued and safely returned to the land after 9:30 a.m. with little scrapes and a misdemeanor citation for trespassing  also billed for his unexpected helicopter ride.

"It was a pretty amazing rescue on the part of the Fire Department," said Dale Kinney, ranger from Morro Bay State Park.

The rescue team was composed of Morro Bay Fire, California Highway Patrol and Morro Bay State Park.

On the good side of this near end-betrothal event is that his girlfriend fortunately said "yes".

"There's plenty of safe and beautiful areas that people can choose from where you're not in danger of falling off a cliff," Gailey said pertaining to momentous moments such as Banks' marriage proposal to his girlfriend.

Morro Rock has several records of fatal falls over the past years. The Morro Bay is also dangerous as it sends massive waves that can sweep adventurous people and rescuers.

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Clathrate ices discovered in Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko could answer questions astronomers have about the formation of the solar system.

Comets are made of ice, dust and other materials, but astronomers have long questioned whether this ice is in the form of a highly ordered crystal or a random amorphous structure. One form of crystalline ices, known as clathrates, were the target of a successful search of the coma (or atmosphere) of Comet 67P.

This form of ice contains gas trapped within its structure, leading to a high degree of order within the structure. Molecules of the gases are released at specific temperatures, a phenomenon recorded by astronomers studying the coma of the body, popularly known as Rosetta's comet.

The discovery of clathrate ices in the coma of the comet suggests the frigid body likely formed significantly closer to the sun than previously believed.

"The structure and phase of the ice is important because it tells us a lot about how and where the comet may have formed. If the building blocks of 67P were predominantly crystalline ices and clathrates, then 67P likely agglomerated from chunks of ice closer to the sun. The protosolar nebula closer to the sun experienced higher temperatures and more turbulence where crystalline ices could form as the nebula cooled," said Adrienn Luspay-Kuti of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI).

Comets with irregular amorphous ices likely formed further away from the sun, where temperatures are lower, and turbulence is reduced.

Astronomers believe that the material within comets may, in many ways, be similar to the substances that were present during the formation of the solar system. Without the ability to directly sample ice and dust within the nucleus of comets, studying the coma of the frozen bodies can provide a glimpse inside the frigid structures. By analyzing material found here, astronomers believe they can learn more about the building blocks of our local solar family.

Data from the Rosetta spacecraft, managed by the European Space Agency (ESA), was examined, revealing the clathrate ice structure.

Comet 103P/Hartley, or Hartley 2, was examined by NASA scientists during the Epoki mission in November 2010. This comet, orbiting around the sun once every 6.5 years, is thought to be similar in structure to 67P. Comparison of the two comets could confirm the presence of clathrate ices, and provide further evidence of their formation close to the sun.

Analysis of the coma surrounding Comet 67P was profiled in the journal Science Advances.

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Encryption is now rolling out across every website and blog under the WordPress umbrella, turning HTTP to HTTPS and those blank pages on the left side of the URL to secured green locks.

Basically, what all this means for the users is that they'll be safe from security breaches, intruders, prying eyes, cookie theft and anything else along those lines. That's not all they're getting out of the whole deal, though, as Google loves websites with HTTPS. In other words, their blogs and websites will have greater visibility and better ranking in the search engine.

Now, about how to get in on the security action, all the users have to do is nothing. Yep, everyone gets an SSL certificate without having to activate or sign up for anything.

"For you, the users, that means you'll see secure encryption automatically deployed on every new site within minutes. We are closing the door to un-encrypted web traffic (HTTP) at every opportunity," Barry Abrahamson, CTO of WordPress, says.

For the record, WordPress subdomains - websites with the ".wordpress.com" appendage - already have encryption support since 2014, but it's about time for the others to be included in the mix.

Abrahamson also notes that the publishing platform was able to implement encryption on a massive scale thanks to "an efficient and automated way to provide SSL certificates for a large number of domains" from the Let's Encrypt project.

As mentioned earlier, a green lock icon on the left side of the address bar and an "https://" URL are indicators that the website is secured and has an SSL certificate.

On an interesting note, it has been determined that 25 percent of the websites around the globe is powered by WordPress back in November last year, so this development will provide security to a huge portion of the websites on the Internet.

Photo: Andrew Abogado | Flickr

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The government of Queensland in Australia has granted a mining license to an India-based mining company to dig the country's largest coal mine  a move that draws criticism amid a severe coral bleaching episode of the Great Barrier Reef.

Three licenses issued on April 3 by Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had allowed mining firm Adani to extract coal in the Galilee Basin of the state through a projected Carmichael coal mine.

The plan, estimated to lead to huge coal exports to India, will entail expanding an Abbot Point port adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef to accommodate greater traffic - something feared to release plumes from debris and soil over the reef and exacerbate its current ecosystem damage.

Environmentalists also warned against the consequences of mining and burning coal in the area, which will produce huge carbon dioxide emissions and worsen the current state of the reef.

In a statement, Australian Conservation Foundation CEO Kelly O'Shanassy calls the approval "grossly irresponsible" and warned that it will create millions of tons of pollution in the coming decades.

"By granting a license for this massive coal mine the Palaszczuk government is bowing to the demands of big polluters, not listening to the needs of the people," laments O'Shanassy, who cited the bleaching currently suffered by a thousand-kilometer reef stretch in the Barrier Reef due to extremely warm sea temperatures.

An aerial survey in March revealed that the northern region of the biggest reef system in the world is affected by the worst coral bleaching incident so far, affecting about 500 coral reefs spanning from Papua New Guinea to Cairns. A whopping 95 percent are considered severely bleached, with the bleak situation feared to endanger the Great Barrier Reef's world heritage status.

Dr. Steven Miles, environment minister of Queensland, pinpoints the need to "reduce as many pressures" on the reef system as possible. In this call that came five days after the government issued the mining licenses, Miles dubbed the latest bleaching event a "wake-up call" from climate change.

Miles calls for reducing emissions and ensuring clean water for the corals to minimize stress on the reef, which is a massive economic and tourism draw bringing in $6 billion to the Queensland economy and supporting 70,000 jobs.

Queensland Greens Senator Larissa Waters implies that Miles' statement is contrary to the reality that the Carmichael mine will bring about.

"[It] would generate 4.7 billion tonnes of climate pollution and requires mass dredging on the reef's coastline which will worsen water quality and rip up seagrass beds," she says in a Sydney Morning Herald report.

Photo: Paul Toogood | Flickr

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Alphabet X, the company's experimental technology lab, recently showcased its bipedal robot that has the capability to climb stairs and overcome hurdles.

SCHAFT, which is part of Alphabet's X and popular for winning a DARPA robotics challenge, showed off this robot during the keynote speech of former Android head Andy Rubin at the New Economic Summit (NEST) 2016 in Japan.

In 2013, the company acquired SCHAFT as part of the company's bid to penetrate the field of robotics. Originated from the University of Tokyo's JSK Robotics Laboratory, SCHAFT is among the robot companies owned by Alphabet.

With regard to its capability, this bipedal robot has the capability to climb stairs, balance on a pipe and navigate on challenging terrains, such as rocky areas, snow and more.

In a video uploaded by someone in the audience during the said event, and shared by IEEE Spectrum, the robot is seen balancing a load of food while passing through a stadium. It is even captured walking on a pebbly beach.

Moreover, this robot can likewise clean the stairs with the use of its spinning brush and its vacuum placed on its feet.

What are lacking, though, are the robot's arms to support it once it falls down.

An X spokesperson told IEEE Spectrum that the presentation was only a mere technical demonstration and not an official announcement for the product (yet).

"[It] wasn't a product announcement or indication of a specific product roadmap," said the spokesperson. "The team was simply delighted to have a chance to show them latest progress."

This means that it may still take a while, perhaps a few more years, before this robot officially hits the market.

At the moment, not much is known about SCHAFT's robot. It is apparent, though, that the company is trying to address a variety of real-world problems.

Just last month, we reported that Googles parent company, Alphabet, put Boston Dynamics up for sale, suggesting that it is not happy with this robotic subsidiary. Reportedly, the company believes that it will not be capable of producing considerable revenue.

Until we learn more about that, hit the play button below to get a glimpse of this SCHAFT bipedal robot.





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Owners of the international version of Samsung's Galaxy Note 4 can now upgrade to the latest version of Google's mobile OS, Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

The international Galaxy Note 4, model N910C, is the Exynos-powered version of Samsung's phablet of 2014. The Snapdragon variant, popular in North America, is just starting to receive the update to Marshmallow, as well.

Sprint, for example, recently released the Android 6.0.1 updates to its subscribers' Galaxy Note 4 and Note 5, along with the Galaxy S5 and S5 Sport. As to when other U.S. carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon will follow suit still hangs in the air.

Nonetheless, Samsung unleashing Marshmallow on its past flagship phablet should be good news for other owners whose devices are locked onto other carriers. It may not be too long from now until every variant of the Note 4 gets all the latest features Google has packed into Android 6.0.1.

Note that Samsung's latest update release is not just for Android 6.0, but also for Android 6.0.1, which is the newest Marshmallow build so far. The size of the update is about 1.3 GB. That's reportedly smaller than a previous build for the Note 4 on another network.

Seeing as to how the Galaxy Note 4 is nearly a couple of years old, the device itself can start to feel a little old and laggy especially near the two-year mark of its product life cycle. The upgrade to Marshmallow, however, should give Note 4 owners a fresh experience with a brand-new operating system.

For example, Marshmallow should help to increase the Note 4's battery life with Doze, which basically idles all the apps running in the background if they're not actively in use. Also, Google Now On Tap and advanced app permissions in Marshmallow will give Note 4 owners greater control of their device and more speedy access to relevant information on their screens.

As it is the newest build of Android, Google has also thrown in some extra 200 new emojis along with the latest Android security patches for the month of April.

It's not just Google throwing in some goodies, however. Samsung has also refreshed TouchWiz in this update. One of the new features in TouchWiz, for example, is the Note 5's memo feature, which lets users write on the screen when the screen is off. That's now also being ported over to the Note 4 as well.

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BlackBerry to launch two new cheaper Android smartphones by December 2016

CEO John Chen of Blackberry on Friday confirmed its plans to launch two new Android-powered smartphones this year, even though it just launched the Priv Android smartphone at the end of 2015.

The company is eager to offer more devices because the Priv, which launched with a $700 price tag (now $650), was probably too high-end and expensive for people to consider.

The fact that we came out with a high-end phone [as our first Android device] was probably not as wise as it should have been, Chen told The National, while declining to say how many Privs were sold in the last quarter. A lot of enterprise customers have said to us, I want to buy your phone but $700 is a little too steep for me. Im more interested in a $400 device.

During last weeks quarterly earnings reporting, Chen warned analysts and reporters that the company might exit the smartphone business by fall, 2016, if the division didnt start making money.

In an interview with The National, an Abu Dhabi-based newspaper, the CEO suggested that one of the devices will have a hardware keyboard (which BlackBerry is famous for) while the other will be fully touchscreen. Theres no release date, but they should be significantly cheaper than the Privs original $750 price tag. The company will again be pushing its secure-enough-for-enterprise niche as a marketing point for its handsets with Chen hinting at a price around $400.

These two mid-range Android phones could very well be BlackBerrys last chance to revive the division. Chen still thinks the company has something to offer when it comes to Android because of its commitment to security.

Were the only people who really secure Android, taking the security features of BlackBerry that everyone knows us for and making it more reachable for the market.

Also, the CEO said there are no plans to release handsets using the BB10 operating system, though existing users will still get updates.

Chen confirmed that the companys first Android phone was priced too high at $700 and had been a slow-selling disappointment.

People do like our Priv, but theres a much more limited audience and that segment seems to be saturated at the moment, he said.

BlackBerry sold 600,000 phones in the first three months of 2016 across all its phone models, which was less than expected.
Chinas Great Firewall creator forced to use VPN to dodge his own creation

Fang Binxing, the digital architect of Chinas great firewall was publicly embarrassed this week after he was forced to use a virtual private network (VPN), an external server used by anyone in China seeking to access sites such as Google, Facebook or Twitter when trying to access a blocked web page, Hong Kongs Ming Pao newspaper reported.

The Register reports that, earlier this week, during a public discussion of internet security at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Heilongjiang province, Hong Kong media reported that Fang Binxing, who is credited with filtering mechanism by which the government dictates what Chinese can and cant see online, had run into some trouble trying to access a South Korean site to discuss that countrys online censorship.

Finding his path to the site blocked, Fang turned on a Virtual Private Network (VPN), the digital workaround employed by countless Chinese  29% of the countrys internet users in Q4 2015, according to Statista  to access forbidden URLs (including online gambling sites). A self-conscious Fang reportedly urged his audience not to emulate his example.

Finding his path blocked, Fang proceeded to setup a VPN while the audience looked on. Once created, the VPN allowed the Great Firewall to be bypassed and the website loaded. However, a self-conscious Fang reportedly urged his audience not to imitate his example.

After deploying the VPN, Fang struggled with the inconsistent connection, with the link falling over twice as he tried to access Facebook and Google. Finally, he resorted to using Baidu to grab a screenshot of the Google homepage and continued with his talk. However, a planned Q&A scheduled for after his presentation was abruptly cancelled.

The incident has obviously sparked a lot of conversation online, with Chinese Internet users finding it hilarious that he was blocked by his own system. Sooner or later this clown and his accessory will be nailed up on the column of history in disgrace, posted one user named Li Wanjun on Chinas Twitter-like microblogging site Weibo. One may steal a horse, while another may not look over the hedge, posted Popular Computer Week in reference to the incident, using a traditional Chinese maxim to bemoan the arbitrary application of rules.

Last month, Hong Kong media reported that China had upgraded its anti-VPN technology, a move timed to coincide with the National Peoples Congress political gathering in Beijing. Local activists and other international site visitors claimed their VPNs either worked poorly or not at all.

China is also pushing new draft internet regulations that are supposedly aimed at Chinese domain registration services and China-hosted sites but critics claim the Ministry of Industry and Information Technologys new regulations are so generally written that they could be used to block any website registered outside of China.

The Cyberspace Administration of China has backed continued exploration and improvements to the governance of cyberspace with Chinese socialist characteristics and regulators want measures to ensure global cyberspace governance meshed with Chinese opinions and plans.

After a conference last year, President Xi Jinping said no country should pursue cyber hegemony and defended Chinas right to choose its own model of cyberspace governance.
The golden gong has been hit a hundred of times when a coder lands a job in this bootcamp

Makers Academy, a coding bootcamp whose objective is to turn people into software developers uses the celebration bell installed in their office in a unique way. They ring the giant gong installed in their office whenever one of its students gets a job.

Developers looking to make a career in software pay 8,000 to take the three-month Makers Academy crash course, in which they are taught computer programming languages like Java and Ruby.

While some students at the end of the programme go on to find a job for themselves, the huge majority are put forward for roles by Makers Academy, which has contacts with a number of employers, including Marks & Spencer, The Financial Times, Sky, and Deloitte Digital.

Congratulations to Michael, Tim, Yana and Harriet on getting some awesome jobs! This gong is for you ?? #MakersJobs A post shared by Makers Academy (@makersacademy) on Jan 29, 2016 at 9:26am PST

Other companies like General Assembly and Steer run their own coding bootcamps. For instance, General Assembly provides courses from 30 for a one day taster course to 9,000 for a three month Android Immersive Development course. Like Makers Academy, they look to prepare people with the skills they require to get their first job in tech. On the other hand, Makes Academy asserts it is making more junior software developers than any other coding bootcamp in the UK right now.

Since, it has been founded in 2012, nearly 500 to 600 people have graduated from the Makers Academy. A 20% cut of the students starting salary is paid by the new employer to Makers Academy, every time a job offer is made to its student.

While giving Business Insider a tour of the companys office, Ruben Kostucki, COO and founding member of Makers Academy said, We have a gong. Its the most important feature because it gets gonged every time a student gets a job. Its a really key element of the whole process.

The average starting salary for a Makers Academy graduate is 30,000 to 32,000, according to Kostucki, who claims that university computer science courses arent providing students with the vocational software development skills that UK companies need.

According to Kostucki, several Makers Academy students are just looking for a career change, while others join the course to make their foundation in coding so they can start a technology company of their own.

However, the Silicon Valley tech giants arent amongst some of the big companies that are employing directly from Makers Academy.

The engineers they hire in the UK tend to be very skilled, super-senior engineers, said Kostucki. Makers Academy is basically replenishing the market with junior developers.

Source: Business Insider
FBI Director Discloses Why He Puts Tape Over His Webcam

FBI Director James Comey during a Wednesday speech on privacy at Kenyon College, Ohio said that hes anxious enough about the prospect of secret surveillance which is why he places a piece of tape over his laptop computers webcam, a gesture that is often deemed to be paranoid, according to NPR.

Comey discussed a myriad of issues concerning privacy and encryption, repeating his argument that absolute privacy hampers law enforcement. This impromptu remark during the Q&A session at Kenyon College comes in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justices very public spat with Apple over hacking into a locked iPhone that belonged to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Even though the government used legal action to try and force Apple to help in unlocking the iPhone, when Apple refused, the FBI later announced that it had found a way to successfully break into the iPhone.

Comey admits he puts a piece of tape over the webcam lens on his laptop #KenyonCSAD  The Kenyon Collegian (@KenyonCollegian) April 7, 2016

I saw something in the news, so I copied it. I put a piece of tape  I have obviously a laptop, personal laptop  I put a piece of tape over the camera, Comey said during his talk. Because I saw somebody smarter than I am had a piece of tape over their camera.



Comeys argument is that an obsession with privacy hurts law enforcement efforts, but he also revealed he understands why people are taking measures to protect themselves. In fact, he does exactly the same.

According to NPR, during his speech Comey also argued that tech companies should not look to make devices that are unhackable by law enforcement agencies. By Comeys own admission, he places tape over his laptops webcam for privacy reasons.

I spotted this warrant-proof anti lawful surveillance of webcam tech at Staples today. What if terrorists buy it? pic.twitter.com/ycaGgCoiDP  Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) April 7, 2016

For some privacy advocates, Comeys tape measure is awfully hypocritical. On one hand, the FBI demands that software companies engineer make devices so that federal government can gain access. On the other hand, Comey is placing tape over his webcam, which renders it useless, were law enforcement to remotely deploy malware to turn it on without his knowledge. However, there are some who have come ahead to defend his reasoning.
Global warming is causing North Pole to move eastwards says NASA

According to a new NASA study, global warming is considered to be the reason behind shifting the way the Earth wobbles on its polar axis. In other words, even as the Earth spins on its axis in a west to east direction, completing a full rotation every 24 hours, that axis itself is also moving. This, in turn, means that the physical North and South poles are actually shifting, with the North Pole now drifting towards the United Kingdom.

Melting ice sheets, especially in Greenland, are changing the distribution of weight on Earth. This has caused both the North Pole and the wobble, which is called polar motion. If we lose mass from the Greenland ice sheet, we are essentially putting mass elsewhere. And as we redistribute the mass, the spin axis tends to find a new direction. And thats what we mean by polar motion, said Surendra Adhikari, a researcher with Caltech and NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory who conducted the work with his colleague Erik Ivins. The study was published Friday in the journal Science Advances.

Explorers and scientists have been constantly measuring the true and precise positions of the rotational poles since 1899 and for almost the entire 20th century they migrated a bit towards Canada. However, that has changed with this century and now its moving toward England, said study lead author Adhikari.

That may seem like a tiny variation, but there is very important information embedded in that, says Adhikari. The recent shift from the 20th-century direction is very dramatic, he added.

Even though a desktop globe always spins smoothly around the axis running through its north and south poles, a real planet wobbles.

Earths spin axis drifts slowly around the poles; the farthest away it has wobbled since observations began is 37 feet (12 meters).

While scientists say the shift is harmless, but they must be taken into account to get accurate results from GPS, Earth-observing satellites and observatories on the ground.

Around the year 2000, Earths spin axis took an abrupt turn toward the east and since then the motion has shifted sharply and now the North Pole is moving towards the U.K. and Europe. The motion has also sped up, though it still isnt very large. The movement towards Canada was at around 7 to 8 centimetres per year, Adhikari said, and the movement towards the U.K. is now about 16 to 18 centimetres per year.

Its no longer moving toward Hudson Bay, but instead toward the British Isles, said Adhikari.

The changes in Greenland as per the calculations of Adhikari and Ivins showed that the changes in Greenland alone do not generate the massive amount of energy required to pull the spin axis as far as it has shifted.

In the Southern Hemisphere, ice mass loss from West Antarctica is pulling, and ice mass gain in East Antarctica is pushing, Earths spin axis in the same direction that Greenland is pulling it from the north, but the collective effect is still not enough to clarify the speedup and new direction. Something east of Greenland has to be exercising an additional pull.

The researchers found the answer in Eurasia.

The bulk of the answer is a deficit of water in Eurasia: the Indian subcontinent and the Caspian Sea area, Adhikari said.

The discovery increases the chances that the 115-year record of east-west wobbles in Earths spin axis may, in fact, be a remarkably good record of changes in land water storage.

That could tell us something about past climate  whether the intensity of drought or wetness has amplified over time, and in which locations, said Adhikari.

Jonathan Overpeck, professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona who wasnt part of the study, said this highlights how real and profoundly large an impact humans are having on the planet.

The studys co-author, NASA scientist Eirk Ivins said Greenland has lost on average more than 600 trillion pounds of ice a year since 2003, which in turn has an influence on the way the Earth shakes.

Ivins said he likes to think of it as a billion trucks each year dumping ice out of Greenland. On top of that, West Antarctica loses 275 trillion pounds of ice and East Antarctica gains about 165 trillion pounds of ice yearly, helping tilt the wobble further, Ivins said.

They all together pull polar motion towards the east, Adhikari said.

Jianli Chen, a senior research scientist at the University of Texas Center for Space Research, first endorsed the pole shift to climate change in 2013 and he said this new study takes his work a step further.

There is nothing to worry about, said Chen, who wasnt involved in the NASA study.

It is just another interesting effect of climate change.
A Real Glock gun turned into a clone of the Nintendo Duck Hunt zapper

Based on the fake gun used in Nintendos Duck Hunt game, someone has gone ahead and created very cool looking real gun.

A Cerakote coating business in Texas, Black Sheep Arms, managed to transform a standard Glock into something that resembled Nintendos original, non-lethal version, known as the NES Zapper gun. It has been posted on the Facebook page of Precision Syndicate LLC, a of Texas-based machine prototyping company.

Released in 1984 in Japan and later in the U.S., the gaming accessory let NES gamers to point the fake gun at their television screen and shoot game targets. It may look like a light gun, but the Nintendo Glock fires very real bullets.

Finally We were waiting for someone to let us do this. We werent the first to do it but WOW, this glock turned out good! Posted by Precision Syndicate, LLC on Wednesday, April 6, 2016

To make it work as an accessory for newer games, some game fans since then have modded the gun. However, its rather rare to see anyone use the playful Nintendo theme for real world weapons.

Responses to the post on Facebook have varied from people debating the sensibilities behind creating such a gun, to those enthusiastically attempting to find out how to buy one.

https://youtu.be/EaPs_SLO-88

The fact that this exists is why cops dont have the time to make the decision of its a toy or a gun, said one commenter, while another said, Worthless craps for making this! Not only would a child have a hard enough time telling the diff if its real or fake imagine all the law enforcements that now might second guess it and lose their life and others around!

However, there seem to be far more commenters probing about how to acquire the gun, which is a modified Glock.

Though, the concerns from some on the Facebook post may be well placed. Just a year and a half ago, a police officer in Ohio gravely shot at a 12-year-old Tamir Rice after the officer claimed that he confused the childs toy gun for a real weapon.
Dejabooters teen developer who crashed 200,000 websites with his software says he made it for earning money

The British teenager who made $70,000 (50,000) from his bedroom by selling software that was used to crash more than 200,000 websites around the world has been convicted of hacking offences. Worcestershire native Grant Manser was convicted on 10 counts and sentenced to two years in juvenile detention, suspended for 18 months.

Manser who is now a 20-year old, started developing and selling the software at the age of 16. He was arrested in November 2014 for going on a website crashing spree using his software.

Manser allegedly sold website-crashing software to around 4,000 customers who used it to carry out attacks on 224,548 targets from around the world, which included businesses, schools, colleges and government departments from Poland, France, the United States and the Netherlands, to name a few.

Manser got fame for his website crashing spree as a hacker but his lawyers insisted he isnt a hacker and that he developed the programs purely to earn money.

He is not a hacker. The system doesnt take or hack any information from the websites being attacked, said Jamie Baxter, the defence lawyer in the case. He was only 16 when he started to do this and it was his immaturity and naivety which led him to commit these offences.

Manser developed software that was then sold to his customers. Manser developed four tools called stressers which could launch multi level Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack on the intended target. One of the targeted sites belonged to Harrogate and Hull College, whose system crashed for 14 hours. The buyer of stresser in this particular case was a student at the school who was unhappy to be in detention, it was revealed in court.

The programs, called Dejabooter, Vex-Stresser, netspoof and Refinedstresser, were sold on the dark web for as little as $7 to $30. Manser took payment through PayPal and was thought to have made 50,000 total from his stressers.

Manser was convicted in Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to six charges under the Computer Misuse Act and four under the Serious Crime Act. Hell serve an 18 month suspended sentence, as well 100 hours unpaid work and an 800 fine.

The judge described Manser as young and naive.
The Conagua indicated that the atmospheric phenomenon registered maximum sustained winds of 140 kilometers per hour with gusts of up to 165 kilometers per hour. | Read More
Kishan Reddy slams TRS Govt over drought relief

Hyderabad, April 10 (INN): BJP MLA G. Kishan Reddy has strongly criticised the TRS Government for its alleged failure to deal with the drought situation in Telangana State.



Speaking to media persons after visiting the drought affected areas of Mahabubnagar district on Sunday, Kishan Reddy the drought has been playing havoc across the State. He said even marriages were being postponed due to drought situation. He said thousands of farmers and agricultural labourers were being forced to migrate to cities in search of livelihood. He said that the State Government has failed to arrange drinking water for villagers and cattle in affected villages.



Kishan Reddy claimed that the Central Government has so far released Rs. 800 crore towards drought relief. He said that the TRS Government was yet to spend the amount. He informed that the Telangana unit of BJP has prepared a report on drought situation and wanted to submit the same to Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao. However, he said that the Chief Minister was not giving appointment to the BJP leaders. He said KCR has sufficient time to receive defectors of opposition parties, but he has no time to discuss farmers' issues.









News Posted: 10 April, 2016








Dismiss Sujana Chowdhary, demands APCC Chief

Hyderabad, April 10 (INN): Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr. N. Raghuveera Reddy on Sunday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi immediately dismiss Sujana Chowdhary from his cabinet for his alleged involved in a bank fraud.



Speaking to media persons here, Raghuveera Reddy said Sujana Chowdhary had no moral right to continue as the Union Minister as he has been named in bank fraud. Describing Chowdhary as an economic offender, he said failure of the Prime Minister and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu in taking action against him would prove that they too were involved in the crime.



Raghuveera Reddy also alleged that the BJP Government at the Centre and TDP Government in the State were looting public money. He said there has been an increase in corruption since both the parties came to power in 2014.









News Posted: 10 April, 2016








First time political candidate Andrew Dewson has warned some Gungahlin suburbs "could go the way of Tuggeranong" without proper investment from the ACT government.

Contesting October's ACT election as an independent in the seat of Yerrabi, the Harrison based public servant said there was a need for independent voices in the territory Assembly and the public was dissatisfied with the major parties.

Independent candidate for Yerrabi Andrew Dewson. Credit:Jamila Toderas

"I wanted to get a bit of discussion happening around Gungahlin and the ACT as a whole and to try and get the major parties to talk a bit more," he said. "It is going well so far, I've been getting a bit of attention and there are a lot of people out there open to an independent voice."

Among announcements made during the early months of his campaign, Mr Dewson has called for first home buyers to get preferential treatment in territory land sales, a government focus on housing affordability, the introduction of green waste bins for ACT homes and a nurse walk-in centre for Gungahlin.
The past week has demonstrated one of the most durable and yet under-recognised rules of politics: A person who writes a novel with a sex scene will never be prime minister.

The latest lab-rat to prove the rule is poor Dennis Jensen, the not-for-much-longer Liberal Member for Tangney in Western Australia, who was shown the door by preselectors in his safe seat last weekend. The result was a knife-edge affair. OK, possibly a blunt knife: Seven votes for Jensen, 57 against.

Dennis Jensen, Liberal Member for Tangney.

Jensen is suing The Australian newspaper for publishing, days out from the vote, an excerpt of his unpublished novel Sky Warrior, which he pitched to publishers nine years ago hoping it would become an anonymous smash hit. He slightly undermined the anonymity by using his parliamentary letterhead, a decision he has since conceded may have been a misstep.

"Yasmine didn't believe in wearing bras; in fact, she really didn't need to wear them as her breasts were still as firm as they had been in her late teens," reads one passage of the work, a geopolitical thriller with China and Indonesia in the baddie role.
The voters love Gonski. Astonishingly, every educational sector  public, Catholic and Independent  are also in favour. Labor, the Greens, most cross benchers, all state governments (except WA) are gung ho for Gonski. Teachers, principals, parents, teacher-educators, education researchers and unions are passionate about the scheme.

It seems the only people opposed are the federal LNP and a few right wing think tanks. So adamant is their opposition they are refusing to fund the last two years of the scheme although, as yet, we have not heard what they propose instead. There was a moment when it looked like they might be about to dump public education on the states and keep private schools for themselves, but that idea appears to have evaporated (phew!). The pressure on them to change their minds is intense and Labor cannot contain their glee at the prospect of a looming election fought over Gonski funding.

Which begs the question, why is our federal government so against the idea?

The most frequently used argument against Gonski is that we can't afford it. The Treasurer often expresses this by saying the scheme is "unfunded".
EDINBURGH  Shakespeare's work will feature throughout this year's Edinburgh International Festival, marking the 400th anniversary of the playwright's death.

The program for the three-week event will involve performances from almost 2,450 artists from 36 nations.

A sketch of the Bard, William Shakespeare.

First appearances at the festival include Australian satirist Barry Humphries, Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli and Scottish rock band Mogwai.

Audiences can celebrate Shakespeare's work with international reimaginings of three of his plays. Theatre maker Thomas Ostermeier returns to the festival with a reworking of Richard III in a production from Berlin's Schaubuhne Theatre while Cheek by Jowl offers a production of Measure for Measure which draws parallels with modern Russia.
Praise has flowed thick and fast for West Australian's premier wine region in recent years but Margaret River has now been given an unmatched stamp of approval from the world's most powerful voice in wine.

American Robert Parker has been the world's most powerful wine writer since the 1980s for his ability to influence wine purchases. A recent review of Cullen's top wines on his website has elevated them into the realms of Australia's greatest cabernets and chardonnays, ever.

Virginia Willcock is making cabernet sexy again at Vasse Felix.

It took some time for Australian wine writers to acknowledge that cabernet and chardonnay grown out of Margaret River was the best in the land but these wines have now achieved unparalleled ratings from the world's most influential wine source.

It's enough to make the interstate wine clan spit it.
A former Transport Workers Union official has claimed the tribunal that sets rates of pay for owner-drivers says the link between road safety and remuneration is "marginal" and that the union "doesn't care" about small operators.

Michael Wong, who worked for the union between 2009 and 2012 in the Queensland, NSW and National offices of the union, has also apologised for allowing his "professional skills to be used in a campaign for safe rates that would have a profoundly negative effect on the owner-drivers of Australia".

The extraordinary apology comes as Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced on Sunday that if re-elected, his government would abolish the Road Safety Remuneration Tribunal (RSRT).

Mr Turnbull said that two government-commissioned reviews of the RSRT, by Jaguar Consulting and PwC, had found no link between rates of pay and road safety and recommended it be abolished.
Chanmakara Sun has been a registered nurse in an Adelaide nursing home for about three years and is already planning to leave.

"The amount of stress and work is getting too much and we battle every day and the pay is horrible," he said.

Nursing home worker Chanmakara Sun in Adelaide. Credit:David Mariuz

Mr Sun said the home for 90 patients - most of whom have multiple chronic illnesses including heart and kidney failure and dementia - is constantly understaffed. During the day he has three enrolled nurses to help him medicate, monitor patients and dress wounds. He also manages 11 carers who are not qualified to do more than bathe, feed and change the elderly residents.

At night this drops to four carers. A patient once climbed out of his bedroom window without staff realising: "We found him hanging over the fence after 10 minutes but that could have been prevented if we had enough people to make sure all the residents are where they are supposed to be."
The manager of a NSW prison has been stood down after a young Islamic State supporter allegedly attacked a former Australian soldier in a jail cell.

The teenager allegedly used a sharp object to carve "e4e" into the man's head, an apparent reference to the terror group's "eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth" mantra, inside the Mid North Coast Correctional Centre in Kempsey on Thursday afternoon.

NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin has stood down a prison manager after the attack. Credit:Edwina Pickles

"As a result of that I have decided to suspend the general manager of the correctional centre pending the outcome of this investigation," NSW Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

The 40-year-old victim was reported to be fighting for his life, but is now "close to being released back to a correctional centre", the Department of Corrective Services said on Sunday.
"We are, at the end of the day, a tiny brand trying to survive against global doughnut chains and competitors which have store footprints in the hundreds," Griffiths says. "I think that's the charm of it. It's akin to a market store." Brisbane's Doughnut Time opened in Melbourne's CBD to long queues. The business now employs 120 people, turns over $20 million and Griffiths is looking to grow the business further by heading international with a Japan opening in the pipeline and starting a delivery service. Griffith says social media has been key to Doughnut Time's growth with the business garnering more than 100,000 followers on Instagram. A red velvet doughnut at Shortstop, Melbourne.

"We just hit a time in the market when social media really took to something like doughnuts," he says. "I think timing is everything and I think that is to our advantage." Griffith believes Doughnut Time can survive once the current trend for doughnuts abates. Anthony Ivey and business partner Sinye Ooi from Shortstop. Everyone asks me, 'Are doughnuts the new cupcake?' That was the most common thing people would ask when I opened. I don't think they are. Anthony Ivey "What we are trying to do is create a brand and create something that has longevity," he says. "We don't want to go down a franchise model. To create a lasting brand you have to work with your customer and create more than the product, to create an experience and the overall package of it."

Shortstop Coffee & Donuts Griffiths wasn't the first Australian entrepreneur to spot the potential in doughnuts with Anthony Ivey starting doughnut and coffee business Shortstop Coffee & Donuts in 2014. Ivey says he noticed a gap in the market for North American "artisanal style" doughnuts teamed with quality coffee. "I think everybody enjoys doughnuts," he says. "It's the kind of thing that you don't need a good reason to have a doughnut. Doughnuts make you happy. You are always going to walk out of a doughnut shop with a smile on your face." Ivey says the simplicity of serving just one product with coffee appealed to him.

"We get to do something really, really well," he says. "We get people who come in and are a little surprised that we don't have sandwiches or tea but we'd rather focus on what we do." Last week Shortstop opened a store in Sydney and Ivey says there is potential for another Shortstop store in Melbourne. The current store was designed to make 300 to 400 doughnuts a day but now makes more than 1000 a day. "That's a lot and it gets pretty crazy in there and pretty intense making that many doughnuts a day," he says. Ivey says he is working hard to build a sustainable business.

"Everyone asks me, 'Are doughnuts the new cupcake?'" he says. "That was the most common thing people would ask when I opened. I don't think they are." Ivey says the rapid growth of other doughnut businesses "kind of scares me". "I still can't wrap my head around Doughnut Time," he says. "I feel like they are growing so quickly." He believes people will always want "a really good" doughnut. "I don't think it is a trend," he says. "I think some businesses are treating it as such and are trying to make as much money as they can with no respect for longevity." Ivey says the new doughnut businesses have small start-up costs so they will probably get their money back, but the difference is "we want to be around forever".

"I think all we have to do is make sure people can differentiate between what we are doing and what they are doing," he says. "I do feel like it is going through a bit of a bubble so I want to make sure that we grow very organically and just grow where there is demand." Behind the trend But Ken Burgin, the owner of Profitable Hospitality, a consultancy that advises restaurants and catering groups, says doughnuts are "the cupcakes of 2016". "It's sugar, flour and water, put it together for 50 and then it all comes down to volume," he says. "They put pretty things on top which commands another couple of dollars. The markup would be pretty good." Burgin says social media and particularly Instagram has been key to the popularity of doughnuts.
A cluster of Parkinson's disease has been discovered in a key Victorian barley, chickpea and lentil farming region where researchers say its prevalence is up to 78 per cent higher than the rest of the state.

The discovery by a team of health researchers and scientists has sparked calls for urgent research into links with pesticides and other farming techniques used in the Grampians and Loddon Mallee regions.

The abnormally high rates were found in four neighbouring local government areas in the state's north-west that all produce barley and pulses (chickpeas, beans and lentils), by a joint Monash University and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health study.

They report the rate of Parkinson's is 78 per cent higher than the state average of .5 per cent in the Buloke Shire, 76 per cent higher in Horsham, 57 per cent higher in the Northern Grampians and 34 per cent higher in Yarriambiack.
Wyoming/Colorado: Continuing a string of victories across the West, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont won the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, a symbolic triumph if not a race-altering one in the last Democratic contest before the April 19 New York primary. Sanders beat Hillary Clinton statewide by about 11 percentage points, though the end result was effectively a tie, as each candidate took seven of Wyoming's 14 pledged delegates, the fewest any state had to offer. Clinton's nationwide lead remained at 219. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders won the Wyoming caucuses on Saturday. Credit:AP But after Sanders' recent big victories in Washington state, Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Hawaii and Wisconsin, it was more evidence of Clinton's weaknesses among white and liberal voters as the race moves to major primaries in New York and elsewhere in the Northeast. "We just won Wyoming," Sanders said, pausing unexpectedly while speaking at a rally at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center in New York.

His supporters leapt to their feet and gave him a standing ovation. He thanked Wyoming voters, but said with a smile, "There are probably more people in this room than there are in Wyoming." It was the only contest of the day for the Democrats. In Colorado, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas swept all of the state's delegate elections, which ended Saturday at the state Republican convention when he picked up the remaining 13, bringing his total there to 34. Cruz, the only candidate to speak at the convention, received a rousing reception Saturday as he tried to gain as many of the remaining delegates as he could. "It's easy to talk about making America great again," he said, taking a dig at his rival, Donald Trump, who had won no delegates in Colorado up to that point. "But the real question is, do you understand the principles and values that made America great in the first place?" Like Sanders, Cruz still trails the front-runner in his race, Trump. And the campaign now moves to territory likely to be far more favourable to Trump.
The virtual protest comes as Cameron took the unusual step on Sunday of publishing his tax records to try to end days of questions about his personal wealth caused by the mention of his late father's offshore fund in the Panama Papers. Mr Cameron's initial reluctance to admit that he had benefited from the fund caused a furore, compounding his problems when he faces a huge political fight to persuade Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in a June 23 referendum. Under fire: Prime Minister David Cameron Credit:Getty Images

He would attempt to regain the upper hand when appearing in the House of Commons later on Monday. "This government has done more than any other to take action against corruption in all its forms, but we will go further," Mr Cameron would say, according to advance excerpts of his statement circulated by his Downing Street office. Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused Cameron of misleading the public. Credit:AP "That is why we will legislate this year to hold companies who fail to stop their employees facilitating tax evasion criminally liable." The plan had already been announced by Finance Minister George Osborne in March 2015, but previously the commitment was to introduce the legislation by 2020, Downing Street said.

The EU issue - known as Brexit - has split his Conservative Party, while the government has been going through a tough patch over a senior minister's resignation, a U-turn on welfare cuts and accusations it is failing to protect Britain's steel industry. After saying on Saturday that he could have handled the fallout from the Panama disclosures better, Mr Cameron released a summary of his tax records for the past six years. But any hope that this would draw a line under the row was short-lived, as the main Sunday newspapers zeroed in on a gift of 200,000 ($282,500) Mr Cameron received from his mother in 2011, suggesting it may be a way of avoiding inheritance tax. A source at Mr Cameron's Downing Street office said the suggestion was inaccurate, the gift had been declared and this was about a mother making a gift to her son in the same legal way that hundreds of thousands of Britons do every year. Opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused Mr Cameron of misleading the public by issuing what he described as four "weasel-worded" statements in as many days before finally admitting that he had benefited from his father's fund.

After the tax records were published, Mr Corbyn and other politicians continued to call for further disclosures. Some politicians who are campaigning for Britain to vote to stay in the EU in June's referendum are concerned that the damage to Mr Cameron is bad for their side, as he has previously been considered the best advocate for an "in" vote. "The scandals over David Cameron's finances ... may tip the decision further towards 'leave'," said former Scottish National Party leader Gordon Wilson in a statement on Sunday. Mr Cameron is not accused of having done anything illegal, and the fact that he is a wealthy man is nothing new. But the past week has been damaging because the drip-drip of carefully worded statements before the fuller disclosure created the impression he may have had something to hide.

Bookmakers William Hill said they had cut their odds on Mr Cameron resigning the prime ministership this year to 2/1, compared with 16/1 when he won the last general election last May. Mr Cameron said on Thursday his father's investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares. He said he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth about 30,000 when he sold it in 2010. However, Mr Cameron stands accused of hypocrisy after portraying his government as being in the forefront of global efforts to crack down on offshore tax havens. A comment he made in 2012 about a famous comedian's legal tax avoidance scheme being "morally wrong" has been widely quoted by media. Scores of politicians and business figures have been implicated in the Panama Papers, including the prime minister of Iceland who has since stepped down. The 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens. The documents disclosed by Downing Street on Sunday, from RNS Chartered Accountants, show Mr Cameron paid tax of 75,898 on income of 200,307 in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included.
Chinese fisherman Li Xianchuan poses for a photo on a fishing boat at the port in Tanmen, China. Chinese fishermen working out of the Hainan island port say they now enjoy much greater support from their country's beefed-up coast guard. Credit:AP Last month, about 100 Chinese fishing boats were found by the Malaysians inside their waters in the South China Sea, accompanied by two Chinese coast guard vessels, the Malaysian authorities said. Vietnam said it had recently seized a Chinese vessel, disguised as a fishing boat in the Gulf of Tonkin, that was carrying 100,000 litres of fuel to resupply Chinese fishing boats. Anton Leonard, secretary-general of the Indonesian Fishermen's Association, says the fish-rich waters around Indonesia's Natuna Islands have a long history of being contested. Credit:AP Most of the disputes are inside the so-called nine dashes, an area drawn by China in the 1940s that covers more than 80 per cent of the South China Sea, though it is not recognised by international law.

In response to China's bold stance, Indonesian Defence Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu said he would deploy American F-16s to the Natuna Islands to deter what he called "thieves," in reference to the Chinese. A Chinese Coast Guard boat circles a Filipino fishing boat near Scarborough Shoal in the South China Sea last year. Credit:Renato Etac via AP Indonesian Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said Indonesia felt "sabotaged". The Chinese boat was well inside Indonesia's 320-kilometre exclusive economic zone, which is recognised by international law and overlaps with the nine-dash line. The members of the Chinese fishing crew were detained on the Natuna Islands, and the most senior members, including the captain, are likely to face charges, Pudjiastuti said. A map showing China's "nine-dash line" and Indonesia's Natuna Islands, with the port of Beihai to the north. Credit:New York Times

The Indonesians were justified in their irritation, Martinson said. "China's claim to jurisdiction over waters within Indonesia's exclusive economic zone on the basis of the nine-dash line is preposterous," he said. "When you add the aggressive pursuit to the territorial sea and the ramming, it is very easy to understand the Indonesian anger." In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry defended the fishing trawler, saying it was operating in "traditional Chinese fishing grounds", the phase China often uses in reference to the nine-dash line. Back home, Zhang has been called the "lucky fisherman" who got away. He talked about his ordeal from the docks here in Beihai, where fishing vessels that travel all over the South China Sea bring back their hauls, including stingrays, baby sharks and squid. As the noontime sun was beating down on the fishing boat, and the crew was on deck cleaning the fishing nets of debris from the sea, someone called, "'A gunboat is coming,'" Zhang said.

"It took them about 30 minutes to get near," he said. "I heard two shots - 'pa, pa' - and the sound of their vessel knocking on our ship. Their boat was too small to crash into a large ship like ours. Soon I heard more intensified shooting." Pudjiastuti said the men on the vessel had been lightly armed. Three Indonesians in dark green camouflage and helmets boarded the trawler and told the members of the crew to squat with their hands on their heads, Zhang said. They were ordered onto the Indonesian boat, but soon he and the captain were summoned back to their vessel to turn on the engines. By that time, he said, the captain had alerted the Chinese coast guard of their predicament. With the three Indonesians still on board, Zhang said, he drove the boat at less than maximum speed, hoping the coast guard would rescue them before they reached Indonesia. He was sleeping when the captain yelled that the Chinese coast guard had arrived. "The Chinese Coast Guard vessel was huge," Zhang said. "They were more than twice our size. They announced over a loudspeaker: 'This is the Chinese Coast Guard.'"

When the coast guard cutter rammed the trawler to free it, the Indonesian police officers who had remained aboard with Zhang ramped up the engines to try to get away. In the commotion, one of the engines almost ran out of oil, sending up clouds of white smoke. The Indonesians fled, taking the Chinese captain with them and leaving Zhang all alone to fix the engine. The Chinese coast guard called out to him: "'Can you drive the boat?' I said, 'So-so.'" Zhang said the two boats had then travelled together for about a week back to Beihai. At the dock, the boat owner, Chen Jifa, said he was confident the Chinese government had the power to arrange the return of the detained crew.
TORONTO, April 8, 2016 /CNW/ - 20 Uber drivers have been charged under the Highway Traffic Act by Niagara Regional Police in a sting operation conducted over several weeks. The Toronto Taxi Alliance commends Niagara Police for its dedication to enforcing the law for the protection of passengers and citizens.

The Toronto Police Service has chosen not to enforce the very same law despite repeated requests that it do so.

Frighteningly, in charging only 20 Uber drivers, Niagara police also found:

One of the drivers was not the advertised Uber driver of record

One of the drivers was currently charged with a criminal offence

One of the vehicles used was not currently registered

Three of the drivers were from outside the Niagara Region and did not know the area

You can read the entire Niagara Region Police Service release here:

http://www.niagarapolice.ca/en/News/index.aspx?newsId=3c866322-ac85-499d-8eba-a9721d4b1873
Nutson's Weekly Automotive News Digest

April 4-10, 2016







By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

AUTO CENTRAL Chicago, April 10, 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 1,978,003 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.

The Past Week's Automotive News Highlights In Easy To Digest Chunks

April 4-10, 2016

* Biggest news of the week for many of us was the retirement announcement of GM VP Global Design, Ed Welburn. Only the sixth person to hold that position, the soft-spoken and highly respected Welburn is capping off a 44-year career with GM. He started in 1972 under legendary design VP Bill Mitchell, who was only the second in that job. Taking over on July 1st will be 33-year GM veteran, Mike Simcoe. Commenting on the transition GMs #2 guy Mark Reuss commented on the depth of the bench Welburn has built up insuring the success of GM Design for years to come. More Ed Welburn







* Updating on our report from last week, Tesla say it has now received around 325,000 reservations for its new Model 3 sedan. Teslas new Model 3 was unveiled to great fanfare last week. The all-electric sedan will start at $35,000 before federal and state incentives, but we expect the first production cars to be heavily loaded and cost much more. The EV has a range of 215 miles per charge and can accelerate from stop to 60 in less than six seconds. Customers must put down $1,000 to reserve one of the cars, which are scheduled to go on sale in late 2017. Some may wait a long time for a car based on slow ramp-up of production and full production capacity. MORE

* Our colleagues at The Detroit Bureau pointed out this week that some of the 300,000+ Tesla Model 3 hand raisers who made $1,000 deposits may get a financial surprise when they take delivery of the car. Paul Eisenstein of TDB pointed out the Federal legislation that grants a $7,500 tax credit may not be available. It is only meant to cover the first 200,000 cars from a manufacturer and Tesla has already sold over 50,000 cars. Pundits note that if the company meets its current production expectations all of their credits could be gone before the Model 3 begins delivery.

* Toyota announced a $1 billion investment to create the companys third autonomous vehicle research facility located near the University of Michigan. The two other facilities are located in California near Stanford and in Cambridge at MIT. In a statement the company said they are locating this centre in Ann Arbor because of the strength of the university; the utility of Mcity and the Mobility Transportation Center . . . and the proximity . . . to our two . . . Toyota Technical Centers nearby.

* The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute's latest report from Michael Sivak and Brandon Schoettle says the average fuel economy (window-sticker value) of new vehicles sold in the U.S. in March 2016 was 25.3 mpgunchanged from the revised value for February 2016. Fuel economy is down 0.5 mpg from the peak reached in August 2014, but still up 5.2 mpg since October 2007 (the first month of their monitoring).

* The third in a series of six bellwether cases regarding GMs defective ignition switch problems was settled this week unexpectedly at the behest of the company. GM came out on top in the first two cases for different reasons, but this was the first that involved a fatality. Analysts suggest the company did not want this one argued in open court worrying it could taint future cases. Terms of the settlement are confidential.

* Mercedes-Benz is looking at a second class-action law suit charging the company with cheating on diesel emissions testing and using a defeat device to skirt US regulations. Both charges essentially mimic charges against VW last year. VW immediately admitted to wrong doing and set about finding fixes and making atonement. Mercedes-Benz denies the allegations and calls the suit unfounded. EPA officials have found no problems with the vehicles in question and have not initiated a formal investigation.

* With the death of a Texas teen driver on March 31st the Takata airbag problems got front page mention in the news. This time it was a 2002 Honda Civic that rear ended another car setting off the airbag. A shard of metal went into the teens neck. So far only a small number of the millions of cars recalled have gotten fixed. Automakers are all urging owners to get them repaired. To see if your car is on the list go to the NHTSA: www.safercar.gov/rs/takata/takatalist.html

* Ford is recalling about 38,000 Transit vans in the U.S. and Canada because the side-curtain air bags may not protect people properly in a crash. The recall covers low-roof Transit vans from the 2015 and 2016 model years.

* We reported here in late January that Citroen was considering a return to the US market. Now news reports from Paris say the same. PSA CEO Carlos Tavares announced that a 10-year plan has been started to reintroduce the company to the North American market. The first steps would revolve more around car sharing and mobility plans rather than actually trying to sell cars to dealers. The program may start in 2017 using an EV. MORE Citroen Cactus

* A report from AAA says that car operating total costs are lower than ever. On average, drivers are paying 57 cents per mile, which amounts to $713 a month or $8,558 annually. That covers everything from gas, insurance and other fixed costs that come with car ownership.

* At what rate is manual drift occurring in the American auto industry, and is there a difference between the rate of manual transmission use between men and women? Swapalease.com, the nations largest car lease marketplace, recently analyzed over 50,000 driver records from its marketplace dating back to 2012 to uncover some interesting trends. Manual drift is a phrase coined by Swapalease.com that addresses the slow sunset of interest in manual transmissions found in todays cars. According to analysis conducted recently by the company, the number of manual transmission vehicles driven by Americans has dropped roughly 22% since 2012. In its analysis of over 50,000 vehicle records dating back to 2012, Swapalease.com has found that the rate of use is declining for both genders, but it is happening at a faster pace for men compared to women. In fact, the percentage of men driving manual transmission vehicles has dropped from 85.4% in 2012 to 81.2% in 2015. As a result, the percentage for women has responded by adjusting from 14.6% in 2012 to 18.8% in 2015.

* Ford Mustang beat its rivals to become Germanys No.1 top-selling sports coupe in March, according to data published by German Federal Motor Transport Authority, KBA. Germans have fallen in love with the Mustang. Driving a Mustang GT on the Autobahn is a one of a kind experience for people who love cars, said Wolfgang Kopplin, managing Director Ford Germany.

* Take a good look in you rearview mirror. Lawbreakers will now have a more difficult time recognizing the profile of the best-selling police vehicle in their rearview mirrors. Roof mounted lights may be a thing off the past. Ford announced it will offer a new, factory-installed front interior visor light bar that provides a stealth appearance for police agency patrol vehicles.
2016 Lexus RC 200t Review By Larry Nutson

SEE ALSO: Totally Lexus

2016 Lexus RC 200t - A 2+2 for you

By Larry Nutson

Senior Editor and Bureau Chief

Chicago Bureau

The Auto Channel

p>Prior to last year, most of the luxury coupes on the market have been German brands along with the recent addition of the Cadillacs ATS coupe. Lexus changed that with the introduction of the 2015 RC 350 2-door coupe with the desire to attract the next generation of luxury buyers and to bring new customers to the brand.

Now just one year after its introduction the Lexus RC model range has been broadened to add the new RC 200t and RC 300 AWD joining with the 306HP V6 RC 350.

The new RC 200t, available as RWD only, features a 241 HP 2.0-liter twin-scroll turbocharged inline four-cylinder engine with intercooler. Its paired to an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The new RC 300 AWD is offered for those folks who live in the rainy and snowy parts of the country and features a 255HP 3.5-liter V6 engine paired to a six-speed automatic transmission.

Lexus offers the RC 350 in both rear-wheel drive and with AWD all-weather drive, the latter using a six-speed automatic transmission, and also F SPORT versions.

I drove the 2015 RC 350 about a year ago and this time around I spent a week with the new 200t. With a base price of $39,995 my media-loaner RC 200t was also equipped with the F-SPORT Package for another $4,105.

The F-SPORT package includes a unique front fascia and spindle grille, 19-inch wheels with staggered-size summer performance tires and some other exterior trim items. The interior features unique seats with perforated leather trim and aluminum pedals. On the performance side, the F SPORT has standard Adaptive Variable Suspension system and the available Lexus Dynamic Handling system, which includes rear-wheel steering.

My drive last year in the RC 350 took place in late winter and I was a little concerned about taking the summer-tire equipped RWD rocket on a road trip for the fear of snow. Mother nature was on my side and I was able to enjoy the all-out performance of the RC 350 back then.

We enjoyed a mild winter this year and during my 200t drive we were already seeing touches of springtime. Given the three models to choose from, I would choose the new RC 300 AWD if I were buying. With the Chicago winters this is probably the best choice so as to not jeopardize a planned road trip due to winter snow. I get along just fine with public transportation or taxis in Chicago for everyday in-city business. The RWD models probably provide the most fun to drive. If I was willing to leave the RC coupe in the garage during snow RWD might be the way to go for those dry road excursions.

Another consideration on which model to choose is of course fuel consumption. The 200t has the best EPA test-cycle ratings of 26 combined mpg, with 22 city mpg and 32 highway mpg. The 300, 350 and 350 AWD are pretty much rated the same in the EPA test-cycle each with 19 city mpg and 26 highway mpg for both AWD models. You get 2 more highway mpg, or a test-cycle rating of 28 mph with the 350 RWD. Remember these are laboratory tests and your driving style will have the most impact on what fuel consumption you achieve. The large 17.4 gallon fuel tank should make for a good all-day road trip without needing to stop for refueling.

Lexus has equipped the RC coupes with some of the semi-autonomous driver-assistance features that are offered today. The RC coupes do have Blind Spot Monitor with rear cross traffic alert. Also equipped is a back up camera.

An available Pre-Collision Brake and Pre-Collision Brake Assist systems uses the radar sensors of the Adaptive Cruise Control to detect the potential for a collision with an obstacle or vehicle ahead. Both systems can operate brake control to increase the drivers braking effort and reduce the impact.

Lexus has said that all of its models will have automatic emergency braking (AEB) in a couple years and I expect well see lane keep assist also offered.

I like the Lexus RC coupe. I liked it last year when I drove the RC 350 and I still like it in the RC 200t configuration. From the outside its distinctive and in many ways bold. I like sliding down into the drivers seat and being low to the ground so I can feel the dynamics of the entire car. The interior is well appointed and quite luxurious and comfortable. The rigid structure gives a feeling of quality and certainly improves the handling. The ride is a bit harsh especially with the really low profile summer tires but not uncomfortable.

Acceleration from stop is adequate in the 200t getting you to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds. The V6 models bring you down into the low 6-second range which is plenty. Yes there are quicker accelerating cars on the market but you better be paying close attention and out in the wide open spaces when you drop the hammer on one of those. As for top speed, hows 143 mph in the RC 200t.

More facts and figures on the Lexus RC can be found at www.lexus.com. You can compare this luxo-coupe to others right here at www.theautochannel.com.

Lexus made a good move to add the two new models. The variation in power train choices will attract more buyers. Many folks want a personal luxury car and the 200t will satisfy that buyer who doesnt want or need the higher output of the V6 powered RC 350.

 2016 Larry Nutson, the Chicago Car Guy

The Most In-Depth Lexus Vehicle Shopper's Research - Anywhere!
On the cover of Ken Adachis The Enemy That Never Was, the first book written about the Japanese Canadians and the wartime internment, is a close-up of a little girls face. She is only 5 or 6 years old, I would guess, maybe seven at the most. She is leaning forward and biting her lip, her intent gaze focused not on the camera but on something in the distance that we cannot see. I have always been captured by her expression: an ambiguous mix of anxiety and anticipation, uncertainty and curiosity. Its a childs face, full of innocence and sweetness, but darker shadows seem to hover around the edges of her mouth, as if the worried look of a much older person has begun to etch its traces onto her young face.

Although I dont know who the girl is, I will confess I have been haunted by her image for a very long time. In the years leading up to the redress movement, I bought and read The Enemy That Never Was, and the book has been in my possession ever since. Every time I packed my belongings to move, every time I reorganized the books on my shelves, every time I touched this book, I would inevitably look at the cover and stare at the girl.

The full photograph from which the close-up is taken appears later in the book. It shows the girl surrounded by a crowd of Japanese Canadians who are waiting at a train station. Suitcases and boxes sit on the ground in front of them. The girl is leaning forward as far as she can, straining to look down the tracks, one imagines. Wanting to be the first to catch a glimpse of the train.

Without reading the caption, the contents of this picture seem obvious. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Japanese Canadians were subject to mass uprooting and expulsion just like their Japanese American counterparts. They were forcibly removed from their homes on the Pacific coast and interned in remote detention camps in the rugged mountains of the British Columbia interior. Looking at this photograph you would naturally assume it shows a group of Japanese Canadians on their way to the internment camps in 1942.

But it is not.

For this is a photograph of the second uprooting, which took place after the war in 1946 when nearly 4,000 Japanese Canadiansclose to one-fifth of the total populationwere repatriated or deported to an impoverished and war-devastated Japan.

How did this happen?

In the spring of 1945, at a time when Japanese Americans were being released from the camps and allowed to return to the West Coast, Japanese Canadians were facing a very different fate. Racist politicians, who had long been calling for the deportation of all Japanese Canadians, increased pressure for a solution to the Japanese problem. Especially in British Columbia, where they were determined to purge their own province of the Japanese presence forever, they must have panicked upon hearing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in December 1944 which effectively closed the camps and returned the right of freedom of movement to Japanese Americans. Canada and the United States may be two different countries, but they have always watched each other closely.

And so government officials devised the Canadian version of a loyalty questionnaire, otherwise known as the repatriation survey, which forced people to choose between only two options: move East of the Rockies and disperse, or go to Japan. Those who agreed to move East immediately and cooperate with the government policy of dispersal would be considered loyal and could stay in Canada. Those who signed an application for repatriation were labeled disloyal and would be deported when the war ended.

The option of returning home to the West Coast was not available. In fact, Japanese Canadians would not be allowed within 100 miles of the Pacific coast until April 1949, four years after the end of the war.

The harsh ultimatum was terrifying, and the camps quickly filled with panic, anger, confusion, and rumor. At the time of the survey, the war was still on, and no one knew when it would end. Some diehards fervently believed that Japan would win. Others feared that racism elsewhere in Canada would be even worse than what they had already encountered. All too often Canadian-born children found themselves torn between wanting to stay and being obligated to accompany parents who, for reasons of old age or poor health or sheer bitterness at having lost everything, wanted to repatriate. For many families who had been split up during the relocation, face-to-face discussion was impossible.

The survey was conducted with fierce efficiency and officials swept through the camps in only one month, forcing people to decide without adequate time or information and under enormous duress.

As if the prospect of moving to a distant, unknown locale were not intimidating enough, even worse was the insidious policy of dispersal. Japanese Canadians had to accept being scattered across the country. To refuse whatever jobs were offered, as one official notice bluntly stated, may be regarded at a later date as a lack of co-operation with the Canadian government in carrying out the policy of dispersal. They were warned never to form a community again as they had in pre-war Vancouver. For all the hardship entailed in living in the camps, at least people had always had each other for support. Moving east would change that. On the other hand, the government offered incentives to make repatriation an attractive and logical choice: free tickets for as many family members as necessary and no limits on the amount of baggage or cargo that could be taken.

Between May and December of 1946, five American transport ships set sail from Vancouver harbor carrying the deportees to Occupied Japan. Over half were Canadian citizens born in Canada, and of this group, one-third were dependent children under the age of 16. Could it really be said they were re-patriating if they were going to a country they had never set foot in before? Some spoke good Japanese, others barely a word. Almost all would have endured starvation conditions and painful discrimination as outsiders.

That was 70 years ago, and yet once again in some quarters we hear the ugly, irrational invocation of the word deportation, this time directed at other groups. It was wrong back then to target an entire people on the basis of ethnic identity. It is just as wrong today.

I look at the little girls face. Shes a stranger and yet she could so easily have been somebody one of my relatives might have known in the camps. I look at her face and I realize this: Had I been born earlier, she could have been me.

She could have been me.

She could be anyone of us.

A third-generation Japanese Canadian, Lynne Kutsukake worked for many years as a librarian at the University of Toronto, specializing in Japanese materials. Her short fiction has appeared in The Dalhousie Review, Grain, The Windsor Review, Ricepaper, and Prairie Fire. The Translation of Love, out now from Doubleday, is her first novel.
A new report published April 4 in the premier science magazine Nature is claiming that human sacrifice played an important feature in making us the civilized yet stratified folks that we are today. The study, claim its authors, proves a darker link between religion and the evolution of modern hierarchical societies.

Using phylogenetic analysis (a tool used to trace evolutionary family trees and the relationship between different languages) the researchers plotted the connections between numerous cultural groups across the Pacific. The groups had their ancestral origins in Taiwan but had spread as far south as New Zealand and as far east as Easter Island.

Human sacrifice from among these groups was practiced for a wide variety of reasons and in fairly diverse situations. A sacrifice might be demanded at the outbreak of war, in times of disease or social crisis, when a leader died, or when commencing a building project. And sacrifices were carried out in diverse way: by drowning, strangulation, decapitation, burning, crushing, or burial.

Despite this diversity the researchers detected a central theme. Using historical and ethnographic data the authors of they found that, while the motivations for practicing human sacrifice varied, there was a consistent correlation between sacrifice and social stratification.

Apparently of the egalitarian societies included in the study only 25 percent practiced human sacrifice; among the moderately hierarchical 37 percent engaged in it; and of the most highly stratified groups 65 percent utilized the practice. In these examples those executed tended to come from the lower levels of society. In other words: people kill the weak to prop up the powerful.

The authors conclude that human sacrifice was instrumental in the transforming humans transition from the small egalitarian groups of our ancestors, to the large stratified societies we live in today. Yikes.

The study has been criticized for both stating and overstating the obvious. The idea that human sacrifice (like all forms of sacrifice) reinforced social hierarchy has been recognized in sociology and religious studies for over a century. At the same time it is unclear if a study of Pacific-based cultures is relevant for our understanding of sacrifice in Mesoamerica, Europe, or elsewhere. Or if the study has proved that the relationship between human sacrifice and social stratification is causal.

What does seem to be undeniably true is that human sacrifice is a feature of religious mythology the world over. A number of societies, including the ancient Egyptians, would inter servants or wives alongside deceased men. Mesoamerican groups like the Incas, the Mayans, and the Pijao regularly sacrificed their enemies to the gods. At the beginning of the Trojan War, Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia for favorable sailing conditions to Troy. The Celts are knownvia Julius Caesar and Nicolas Cage moviesto have burned their human offerings in a wicker man. Even the Romans, famed for the opposition to human sacrifice, twice made an exception during times of crisis and buried foreign prisoners of war alive. Judaism and Christianity may have spurned human sacrifice but Abraham came pretty close, and Israelite leader Jephthah actually offered up his daughter in fulfillment of a vow. And, according to early Christian writers, the people of North Africa would sacrifice their infant children to the gods Baal and Taanit.

In some cases these stories support the idea that only the weakest in society should be sacrificed to the gods. In times of trouble, ancient Greeks practiced what was known as a pharmakos ritual. A beggar or prisoner-of-war would be dressed as a king and paraded around the city before being driven out, beaten, andin many caseskilled. The purpose of the ritual was to purify the city, but rather than using an actual king a surrogate was supplied.

In other religious myths and traditions it was important that a high-status individual sacrifice himself or herself for the community. Iphigeneia was a princess, after all. In warfare Roman generals were known to sacrifice themselves in battle in order to secure a victory. Livy describes how the Roman commander would dress in his official toga, cover his head, stand on a spear, and hold his hand against his chin as the priest pronounced a formula of devotio in which the general dedicated himself and the enemy troops to the gods of the underworld and the goddess of the earth for the benefit of Rome and her military forces.

Similarly in Christianity it is critically important (for somewhat different reasons) that the Son of God sacrifice himself for the salvation of humanity. There is, it is true, a distinction between the heroes of religious epic and those unwillingly sacrificed on more commonplace everyday altars, but there are many examples of high-status individuals dying for the group. The truth is, there were and still are different ways of viewing human sacrifice.

In the early 20th century the anthropologist Emile Durkheim wrote that religion was one of the instincts that brought us out of the cave and made us a society. For Durkheim religious rituals in general are one of the civilizing forces in our history. Even though human sacrifice is one of the darkest rituals of our collective history it nevertheless fostered communal bonds. And if Donald Trumps rallies have proven anything it is that the strong will trample the weak to acquire more power. Just be thankful that the Romans did away with it, or this election season would be even bloodier than it already is.
Like many Americans feeling fatigued by this years relentless political news cycle, Ive found myself longing for a presidential candidate who wasnt a brash political caricaturefor someone who seems motivated by something beyond the power grabs and petty squabbles.

Some people think of Theodore Roosevelt in these sorts of larger-than-life terms, but, approaching the Central Park West entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York, I was reminded that he also occupied and molded a sphere nobler than certain Washington circles: that of museum naturalism. Moving quickly past the outsized bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback that guards the museums front doorsthats the bullish leader we popularly associate with the 26th presidency, the one Im less interested in these daysI spent my time with the parapet wall surrounding the terrace instead. Carved into the granite there are inscriptions of the many hats TR wore: Ranchman, Scholar, Explorer, Scientist, Conservationist, Naturalist, Statesman, Author, Historian, Humanitarian, Soldier, Patriot. Roosevelt could rightly claim to have been all these things, and yet (with the sole exception of statesman), none tie a direct line to his political life.

When the American Museum of Natural History was founded, the charter was signed in the front parlor of Roosevelts boyhood home (Roosevelt Sr. was a founding trustee). But even before he witnessed this important milestone in the history of museum naturalism, TR had decided to become a naturalist. It was a conclusion he arrived at when he was only eight years old. His particular interest was in a naturalism that combined rugged outdoor adventure with nature study. This is museum naturalism, the brand of natural history that sent expeditions out into the world to shoot and collect specimens for their exhibit halls and scientific collections alike.

As a boy, Roosevelt studied taxidermy, amassing a natural history museum all his ownthe Roosevelt Museum of Natural History. While today we tend to think of him as a hard-charging big-game hunter, his early interest in guns developed out of the necessity to stock his museum. This drive to collect specimens continued, through family trips abroad and summers in Oyster Bay. Roosevelt was so dead-set on pursuing professional naturalism that he decorated his Harvard dorm room with bird specimens he stuffed himself. But in his classes there, he was disappointed to find that this intrepid kind of naturalism was no longer being taught. Even though the lack of tutelage meant he abandoned a career in museum naturalism, that passion continued to shape him throughout his lifea life that has been largely overshadowed by the fruits of his political career.

We often forget how dedicated TR was to this particular interest of his. He lamented how, as his political career advanced him from the New York State Assembly, to Governor, to the White House, he found it more and more difficult to spend time in the quiet of nature. The press wouldnt leave him alone, chasing him even into the deepest wilderness. It is significant that immediately after leaving the White House, at a time when Roosevelt could have done practically anything, he chose to lead a nearly 10 month long scientific collecting expedition in East Africa under the aegis of the Smithsonian Institution. Indeed, he spent the last weeks of his presidency engrossed in its planning; this was no mere hunting safari, despite how the popular imagination often casts it today. It was serious scientific inquiry. Critics may balk at the number of big game species he shot in all those months, but Roosevelt collected these with a full understanding of their scientific value, insisting that they be deposited in the collections of the museum for the advancement of human knowledge.

We remember Theodore Roosevelt for many things, as the epigraphs at the AMNH parapet illustrate. But the very location of these inscriptions tells us that natural history was at the core of his varied life, a biography that in his own estimation culminated in the Smithsonian African Expedition. To really understand Rooseveltor any president, reallywe need to locate him in the world that so deeply defined him. Much of Roosevelts greatness, in fact, comes from his direct and often adventurous involvement with nature.

As we enter the home stretch of primary season, we might pause to consider the multifaceted life of this one president. Much of what TR was able to accomplish was rooted in the fact that he saw himself as more than just a politicianhe was a guardian of the natural world. Although he often played the role of natures conqueror, he never lost sight of his insignificance compared to the awesome vastness of it. When was the last time we had a presidential candidate who could rightly claim to share this same perspective?

Darrin Lunde is the author of The Naturalist: Theodore Roosevelt, a Lifetime of Exploration, and the Triumph of American Natural History. He is a Supervisory Museum Specialist in the Division of Mammals at the Smithsonians National Museum of Natural History. Previously, he worked at the American Museum of Natural History, and he has led field expeditions throughout the world, collecting specimens in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Lunde has named more than a dozen new species of mammals and shed light on hundreds of others. He lives in Maryland.
Bush Center Notes

Frederick D. McClure

Spring is officially here and we are excited to offer a dynamic line-up of programs and events at the George Bush Presidential Library Center this April.

The George Bush Foundation Lecture Series by Wells Fargo

April 11, John Sununu, Chase Untermeyer and Mary Kate Cary will join us for a panel discussion about their books and film based on the life of President George H.W. Bush.

For more information, visit bush41.org/writers or call 979-862-2251.

Scowcroft Institute International Affairs Seminar on the Syrian Crisis

April 18, the Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, will host a lecture titled, "When a 'Red Line' Wasn't Much of a Red Line: The Syrian Crisis and the Failure of the UK and US to Respond Decisively." Speaking at the lecture will be Dr. Thomas Scotto, professor of government at the University of Essex, UK. The event, cosponsored by the European Union Center, will take place from 12:20 p.m. to 1:20 p.m. at the George Bush Presidential Library.

For more information and to register, go to http://bush.tamu.edu/events/

Scowcroft Legacy Conference

April 26, the Scowcroft Institute will host the Scowcroft Legacy Conference at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center. The all-day event will focus on the legacy and contributions of Brent Scowcroft, one of the most respected National Security Advisors since the position was created. The event will feature a variety of speakers including Ambassador Ryan Crocker, dean of the Bush School; Andrew Natsios, director of the Scowcroft Institute and executive professor; Dr. Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor; and Ambassador Robert Blackwill, retired American Diplomat.

For more information and to register, go to http://bush.tamu.edu/events/

The Adventures of Peter Rabbit

April 27, join us from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center and listen to exciting stories told by "Miss Teresa" Maurer, a talented storyteller affiliated with The Beatrix Potter Society. The stories will be about Peter Rabbit and his adventures with his famous cousin, Benjamin Bunny. An added treat will be a story about Mr. Jeremy Fisher.

Bring your camera for fun photos after the program - Peter Rabbit will be onstage too! This program is primarily for children in grades K-3, but anyone is welcome to attend.

For more information contact Monica at 979-691-4006 or visit Bush41.org.

President Bush 41 grows up to be President: Character Counts

April 27, highlights from President Bush's childhood and youth will aim to inspire students to consider how they can be active American citizens. Joining together in music, movement, and folktales "with a twist" also helps to meet several curriculum standards for grades K-3. The Bryan-College Station Library System sends us Family Literacy Librarian, Bobbee Pennington, a former elementary school teacher. She will be sharing the story: "Character Counts: President Bush Growing Up." She will also share other stories and songs she has written including: "The President's Song" (character is the key), "Millie's Song" (reading motivation), "Billy Goats Gruff" (anti-bullying), "Little Red Hen" (promoting work ethics), and "Toads & Diamonds - Texas Style" (kind words and kind deeds). This programs will be held in the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

For more information contact Monica at 979-691-4006 or visit Bush41.org.
Dallas ophthalmologist Dr. Rob Tenery has written Chasing the Ponytail ($15.95 paperback), a readable story about his coming of age in the 1950s and early '60s in Waxahachie as he pursued the love of his life, Janet Forrest, through high school and college.

Rob was almost 16 when he laid eyes on Janet -- just 14 -- at the country club swimming pool and was instantly smitten. He was about to be a high school junior, she a freshman. Their on-again, off-again courtship would eventually lead them to the altar six years later, but Rob found he had a lot of growing-up to do along the way.

The book is listed as nonfiction, though Tenery admits up front that "some of my recollections may be subject to interpretation and even embellishment." So perhaps Chasing the Ponytail falls into that nebulous category of "creative nonfiction," in which the writer -- while sticking to the larger "truth" -- might take a few liberties with the facts. And one would assume that he may have changed a few names to protect the guilty and keep from being sued.

In any case, Tenery doesn't pull any punches as he relates mischievous episodes about growing up in what was then small-town Waxahachie. Fortunately, the statute of limitations has long since expired on his various juvenile shenanigans, which landed him in jail on at least one occasion and could easily have derailed his plans to become a doctor.

In fact, during his sophomore year in college, his grades and behavior were such that the dean put him on strict academic and social probation. Rob's dad -- the town's beloved Dr. Mayo Tenery -- finally ran out of patience and issued him an ultimatum.

Fortunately, Rob got his priorities in order, earned his degree (barely), was accepted into medical school, won the girl (they've been married 52 years), and has enjoyed a fruitful career in medicine, as his father and grandfather did before him.

Tenery wrote about the three generations of doctors in his family -- and the changes in the medical profession -- in another book, Dr. Mayo's Boy: A Century of American Medicine, published in 2009. That same year the Texas Medical Association honored him with its Distinguished Service Award.

Second in series: Austin architect and author Minerva Koenig has followed up her debut novel Nine Days with a second murder mystery, South of Nowhere (MinotaurBooks, $24.99 hardcover).

Both novels are set in Texas and feature Julia Kalas, a reformed criminal put in witness protection in a small town known as the Middle of Nowhere.

In South of Nowhere, Kalas has been forced to relocate and takes on a missing persons case on the Texas-Mexico border that promises a huge payday, but soon she is tangling with Mexican drug lords and is a suspect in a murder case.

Texas Top 10: Lone Star Literary Life's second annual online ranking of the top 10 "bookish" destinations in Texas puts Austin number one, followed in order by Houston, Dallas, Abilene, Midland-Odessa, San Antonio, Fort Worth, El Paso, Denton and Waco. Read more about it at lonestarliterary.com.

 Glenn Dromgoole writes about Texas books and authors. Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.
DALLAS (AP)  It's springtime in Texas, which means a time-honored tradition for wildflower lovers everywhere.

You know the drill: Carefully wade into a patch of bluebonnets and squat down for a photo, but don't crush or pick them. It's against the law, right?

It's one of those urban legends that sound just Texan enough to be real. Everyone knows the Legislature has protected the state flower by making it a crime to damage it.

But don't go planning a flower-picking party just yet. It may not be illegal to destroy the state flower, but it's almost certainly bad Texas karma.

There's a number of myths about our native plants, and that's just one, said Joe Marcus, a program manager at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, who knows well how we're drawn to capture the springtime sight.

Gina Rokas, tourism director for the city of Ennis, laughs when she hears from The Dallas Morning News (http://bit.ly/1WYy4sf) the anti-picking myth. Ennis is the Official Bluebonnet City of Texas and brings in thousands of tourists for the annual Bluebonnet Trails Festival, which this year is April 15-17.

We do hear that a lot, she said, especially among folks from outside the state. It's really sweet when they ask, Can I just pick one because they're so beautiful.

This is the 65th year for the Ennis festival, Rokas said, but it's really taken off in the last 10 years since the advent of social media. Go to Ellis County during peak-bloom (best estimates say second week of April this year, Rokas said) and you'll find bumper-to-bumper traffic along the trails as people try to get their perfect portrait.

Rokas said she jokes with visitors who ask about picking the flowers, but she hopes people won't actually go through with it.

We just say if everybody's picking them, they won't go back to seed, Rokas said. It gives us an opportunity to tell them not to trespass onto private property.

Sgt. Lonny Haschel, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that while actually picking the wildflowers isn't a crime, it's important to be safe while setting up for photos.

The grassy area near a busy highway might offer a pretty backdrop, but make sure to pull completely off the roadway before getting out for photos.

Obviously in the Metroplex, you wouldn't stop along 635 anywhere, he said. You want to make sure people are safe.

Haschel also said to avoid private property, because picking bluebonnets may not be a crime, but trespassing sure is. Parents should keep an eye out for other dangers in wildflower patches as well.

Be careful with kids, because Texas is known for bluebonnets and fire ants, Haschel said. Once you're there, scout out what's under the flowers.

Marcus suggests finding a (safe) roadside slope, where photographers can arrange the picturesque patchwork of blue and green behind their subjects without wading into the patch.

People are looking for the perfect picture, the perfect angle, and they end up destroying what they try to appreciate, Marcus said.

Our statewide obsession with these little blue wildflowers dates back over a century, Marcus said. The state legislature first considered picking a state flower in the spring of 1901, spurring fierce floor debate.

Some lawmakers considered the cotton boll, harkening back to the state's Southern, cotton plantation roots. A representative from Uvalde suggested the cactus for its hardiness and beautiful flowers, earning him the nickname Cactus Jack.

In the end, the Sandyland Bluebonnet of South Texas  which blooms taller and earlier than its North Texas cousin  won the honor. It wasn't until the 1970s that the legislature named all five or six species of Texas lupines as the state symbol.

Today, Marcus gets messages from all over the country from Tex-pats hoping to grow bluebonnets out-of-state. He's even gotten emails from military service members in Iraq and Afghanistan hoping to bring a little slice of Texas to the Eastern Hemisphere.
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By Erin Schmitt of The Gleaner

Kentucky Community and Technical College System has been pushing to close the achievement gap, particularly for minority students.

Henderson Community College's "Initiative: Achieve and Mentor" is a data driven program that sprang up with that idea in mind, said Bill Dixon, the college's director of diversity services. It pairs minority mentors with minority mentees.

"The key was to find ways in which we can develop a strategy to assist our minority students in closing the academic achievement gap," he said.

HCC does a good job with enrollment, but it's the second phase of retention that's critical to driving successful graduation rates. Retention is also the area most students struggle with, regardless of race or gender.

"That's where we were hoping that we could make a difference with minority students in that one area of classroom success/retention," Dixon said.

While building the IAM program, college officials perused students' records, looking at how many hours they retained, grade-point average and how long they had been enrolled.

"We have many, many successful African-American students who are doing exceptionally well," said Dixon. "There's a small percentage of students for which the mentors are helping that are somewhat below the bar."

The major concern is African-American males, he said. African-American females outnumber African-American males 3 to 1 in college.

IAM began last fall with 10 mentors. Each was assigned either one or two students to mentor.

Brandy Mason, who was recruited by Dixon to become a mentor, lauds the program.

"I feel like it's a great experience because you get to share your experience with the mentees," she said.

Mentors are encouraged to meet in person or online chats if the former isn't feasible.

"We pretty much know that for many of our students, the major impact that affects them in a negative way that may have a difficult time in them completing are those things that are outside the classroom, those personal things," Dixon said.

Mason has shared her personal experiences and study tips with her first mentee, who is working toward an associate in arts with the goal to transfer.

"I try to talk to her and tell her I'm here for her," said Mason. "If she needs to come to me with any problems, or if she needs help studying, I'm here."

When her mentee was having trouble in math, Mason suggested tutors who could help her and even offered her own services, though it's not Mason's strongest subject. Her mentee returned the favor, sharing the name of a tutor so Mason could get help in another area.

"I think this program is amazing because sometimes you do need a person to talk to," Mason said, adding that she wishes she had a mentor when she first arrived at HCC.

Leading up to her graduation from Union County High School in 2014, Masons's family kept asking her if she would be going away to college. She questioned whether she was ready.

Her father, the late Randy Mason, was a big proponent of postsecondary education. He graduated with a degree in engineering from Western Kentucky University and he encouraged his daughters to pursue college.

"My father told me before he passed away, 'No mater what, keep going to school,'" Mason said.

Since her father was ill at the time, she didn't want to move far away from home to attend college. She said she knew she would just end up dropping out to help her mom out.

As a middle schooler, Mason had attended a summer enrichment program at HCC. It left her with a positive impression of the college and was another factor in her enrollment.

She is set to graduate with an associate's in applied science degree next month. Mason is pursuing nursing, but is not sure what her next step will be. Instead, she's taking her time to weigh decisions.

"Last year around this time I lost my father, so it was really hard for me to overcome that and still pursue my career in nursing," Mason said. "I feel like that it held me back a little bit. It really hurts, but I still push myself to get through it. Right now I'm just taking my time with it to pursue the nursing career."

Mason champions HCC whenever she can since she said the college has taught her a lot and "it's leading me to be successful in life." She enjoys the small classes and friendly faculty and students.

She encouraged her mother, Erica Mason, to enroll this spring. The elder Mason is completing her basic courses with an eye toward the medical assistant/medical coding and billing program.

"I'm pushing her to do it because I know she can do it. Me and her have been through a lot with my dad," Mason said. "She's kind of been through a lot and I'm trying to uplift her."

Mason is also advising her sister, Portia Mason, a high school sophomore to enroll at HCC once she graduates from UCHS.

Dixon said the college hopes to expand the IAM program next year, including expanding the mentoring relationships to pair third-semester college students with high school seniors or juniors.

College officials have the support of Henderson County High Principal Chad Thompson, but haven't worked out the logistics of getting everyone together for mentoring sessions. Most HCC mentors are also juggling jobs and taking online classes, which makes it hard to coordinate schedules.

To become a mentor, students can contact either Dixon or his colleague, Keith Sayles, HCC's chief student officer. They can also contact any of the mentors.

Dixon can be reached at 270-831-9650 or bill.dixon@kctcs.edu. Sayles can be reached at 270-831-9789 or keith.sayles@kctcs.edu.
Photos by Mike Lawrence / The Gleaner Above: Smith Mills volunteer firemen Justin Durbin (left) and Mike Holaday attack a barn fire on U.S. 60 West in 2012. In the wake of a severe cut in revenue from the county, its volunteer fire departments are struggling to make ends meet. Below: Volunteer firefighters look over the scene of a fatal mobile home fire in Smith Mills in June 2015.

SHARE Mike Lawrence/The Gleaner Basket volunteer firefighter Tom Samson cools off with water and a wet towel after battling a house fire on Old Henderson-Spottsville Road in July 2014. In the wake of a severe cut in revenue from the county, its volunteer fire departments are struggling to make ends meet. MIKE LAWRENCE / THE GLEANER Volunteer firefighters look over the scene of a fatal mobile home fire in Smith Mills in June 2015. . In the wake of a severe cut in revenue from the county, its volunteer fire departments are struggling to make ends meet. Tom Lovett / The Gleaner Volunteer firefighters from Robards and Smith Mills were among crew that responded to a trailer fire on West Pike's Landing Road on Jan. 18 in Reed, Ky. In the wake of a severe cut in revenue from the county, its volunteer fire departments are struggling to make ends meet.

By Laura Acchiardo, laura.acchiardo@thegleaner.com

When Henderson Fiscal Court slashed spending last year, volunteer fire departments took one of the biggest hits.

"It's going to get tough as the years go along and our money gets smaller and smaller," said Josh Reynolds, assistant chief at Reed Fire Department. "We're going to have to put all of our money toward just keeping the doors open."

Ten volunteer departments and the Henderson City-County Rescue Squad serve the county  all have been cut at least $8,000 by Henderson Fiscal Court.

In fiscal 2014, all departments received $20,000 from the county, but at the beginning of FY 2015, the rescue squad received $12,000, Robards and Corydon received $2,000 apiece and the rest got $6,000 apiece.

City-county rescue was allotted more because it doesn't receive the $8,250 from the state like the fire departments. The money received from the state is through the State Aid program, which is available to any volunteer fire department that meets state qualifications; however, that money can only be spent on equipment maintenance or replacement. That leaves out expenses such as insurance, fire station utilities and fuel for emergency vehicles.

Robards and Corydon were allotted less because the departments receive money from their city governments. The city of Robards donates $5,000 to the volunteer department every year, but that amount is residents' fire dues, while the city of Corydon designates money in its budget to its department.

"We've just been watching what we spend," said Bryan Coghill, volunteer fire chief at Corydon Civil Defense. "We haven't bought any new equipment that's not necessary. $2,000 doesn't even pay our insurance for the year. It's going to be tight."

Insurance for departments can vary between $5,000 to $9,000 depending on the size of each department and their Insurance Service Office rating. An ISO rating reflects the effectiveness of a department from a scale of one to 10, one being the best and 10 being the worst. But insurance is only one of the expenses with which departments have to contend.

Department costs include truck payments and repairs, updating outfitting gear and air packs, building utilities, gas for vehicles and various projects.

"You'd be surprised how much we pull out of our own pocket to pay for stuff on the rescue squad," said Bryant Woodard, chief of city-county rescue. "Instead of trying to get a check or putting in a purchase order, someone might just pay for it out of pocket."

Every year all departments must test their vehicles and hoses to ensure they operate efficiently. These tests can run around $1,200. Gas alone can cost a department $1,500 a year. As pumpers and brush trucks become older, more repairs are needed. The Rescue Squad had repairs on a pumper with an oil leak which cost $2,000. The vehicle has cost the department roughly $3,000 this year alone.

"With the aging fleet that we have, the one thing we're faced with is the unexpected repairs on vehicles," Woodard said.

Reed VFD owes $50,000 on one of its vehicles, but the county has allowed the department to start payments next year rather than this year, according to Reynolds. Corydon currently has a pumper down, waiting for parts. The newest vehicle at its department is from 1995, and a newer used pumper could cost about $150,000, according to Bryan Coghill.

"We're wanting to put more money back to replace the older trucks," he said, "so they're not costing us so much in repairs."

Different stations are in need of updates and projects that have been put on hold since the cut, too. City-county rescue has no kitchen or bathroom at its station. It also needs another overhead door so vehicles can get out quicker in an emergency. Currently, vehicles are parked behind one another. Smith Mills is in need of showers and the station doesn't have a telephone.

According to National Fire Protection Association standards, outfitting gear should be no more than 10 years old. Gear at volunteer stations such as city-county rescue and Reed are pushing that 10-year limit. To outfit each volunteer firefighter, the jacket and pants cost $2,500, not including gloves, boots or radio. According to Reynolds, he has bought boots and gloves for himself when Reed has struggled with money.

If volunteer firefighters see more years like this one, departments will face bigger issues. With fuel costs climbing, departments may reduce their runs to save money.

"We may have to pick and choose what runs we go on," said Mike Coghill, volunteer fire chief for Smith Mills and Bryan Coghill's father. "It may get to that point, whether we're going to choose when we're going to fire up these trucks and get eight miles to the gallon."

If repairs for vehicles are too expensive, departments may start parking trucks, stop insuring some vehicles and sell equipment if the budget doesn't increase. Some departments may have to close their doors permanently if the trend continues, and if one department folds, that puts more of a financial burden on the remaining volunteer stations.

Volunteer fire departments are not only low on funds but low on people. "You have to page the whole county to get enough people to fight a fire," said David Denton, chief at Robards Fire Department.

Spottsville and Reed have between six to eight people who can respond to a run. With so few people, that puts volunteer firefighters in danger when responding to an emergency, Reynolds said, and those who are volunteering are getting older with fewer young people joining.

"If we got a call for Smith Mills or Corydon right now, I would be the youngest one responding and I'm 64 years old," Mike Coghill said.

Though these departments need volunteers, it requires money to outfit new members  money some departments don't have.

"We'd love to have new people come in," Reynolds said. "But we're almost to the point that we can't afford to have any new members come on our department because we can't put them in gear. We need the people, but we can't afford them."

To raise money, departments send out donation letters or knock on doors of those in their districts, but most departments are lucky to see a return rate of more than 35 percent, according to Glenn Powell, president of the volunteer fire chiefs association.

"People need to start responding to these donation letters and start donating to their departments," said Mike Coghill. "Otherwise things are going to get tougher. People don't realize in this county for years they've gotten by without paying for fire protection. Something is going to have to happen to get funding back into the fire departments."

To lower insurance rates, a few fire departments including Niagara and Zion brought their ISO rating down to sixes.

"We're trying to step up for the public," Powell said, "but they are not stepping up by increasing their dues and donations dollar-wise or percentage-wise."

How ever badly the volunteer departments need money, some departments said they wanted to serve the community without putting too much of a financial strain on their districts.

"The Reed community really does come out and support the fire department," Reynolds said. "Our dues are only $25 and we don't like going above. Even though we need the money, we don't want to be a burden on the people."

Departments hold different fundraisers to supplement their budgets as well. Niagara sells pork chop meals in April, while Zion hosts Easter Eggstravaganza every year. Corydon participates in Tri-Fest to help raise money for the department and Reed holds a chili supper in November.

According to Bryan Coghill, residents have asked why the departments don't organize more fundraisers, but everyone who works for the department is a volunteer. Many of them have full-time jobs and families, so it's difficult to find time to organize more fundraisers than they already do.

Departments also apply for grants through the federal government. Grants such as the Assistance to Firefighters grant or Kentucky Division of Forestry grant help cover the expenses of new equipment; however, depending on the grant, departments have to pay a certain percentage.

"Anything that we can get through a grant we're trying to get our hands on," Bryan Coghill said.

To alleviate the strain put on the fire departments and the county, Powell, on behalf of the volunteer fire departments, presented a solution to the county magistrates and the late Judge-executive Hugh McCormick, proposing that fire dues be included on county taxes.

Depending on businesses and the number of residents in their district, each department would collect a certain amount of money from the tax, while a certain percentage from each department would go toward city-county rescue. Departments would have received between $62,589 and $21,458 with the total amount from the tax equaling $457,000. Fiscal court, however, rejected the proposal.

"It's going to be unpopular," Mike Coghill said. "I don't like to pay taxes, but sometimes it's a necessary evil if you want the service."

"It's disheartening to see how well off other volunteer fire departments are doing in other counties," Reynolds said. "Other counties in Kentucky have got everything in place from the dues on the taxes."

Several counties in Kentucky already include fire dues with county taxes such as Christian, Daviess and Marshall counties, but Powell says he won't propose it again until after the November election for judge-executive.

"I had gone as far as I could go without being a bad guy with the judge," Powell said. "You can beg and you can plead, but you can only do so much because he could only do so much."

Volunteer departments hope to see part of the 1 percent occupational tax to help with funding. Magistrates are confident departments are going to receive more money before the year is out.

"I know there are additional funds," said County Magistrate George Warren. "We're waiting for revenues from the payroll tax, and I would hope that in May we could send additional money out. I feel confident additional money is coming their way."
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Doug Schuessler, Henderson

Whoa, there, Dr. Buckmaster, you are putting words in my mouth. In your recent article, you said, "Mr. Doug Schuessler wrote to me as an advocate for more state money for free college. He raise some interesting points." You have a few grammatical errors in the sentence.

1. I didn't write to you. I merely responded to your opinion in the Gleaner.

2. Your words sound as if you might be the advocate instead of me.

3. In my original letter, I merely stated that a free community college tuition proposal should be put on the table.

As far as your stating that excess funds could be wrung from many state budgets, including education, I totally agree. I come from the old school that believes we don't need multimillion-dollar school facilities to educate our children. We need a small administration, a comfortable but not lavish facility, dedicated teachers with the freedom to teach, and willing students. I also believe we need more public trade schools to accommodate those students who are not academically inclined. There actually are a lot of students who do not need to know pie are square. Most everybody already knows pie are round. Cornbread are square.

A community college associate degree offers another step up for students who come from low-medium and impoverished backgrounds. For over 100 years, our free education policy enabled the United States to rise to its prominence. For many jobs, a high school diploma is now not enough.

As far as your stating some college students who were given grants have an attitude, let me remind you attendance to a college class is not mandatory. If a student is disruptive, there are means of removing the student. Professional instructors, however, should know how to handle impertinent questions which could actually lead to an edifying discussion.

I have a final request. When you called Bernie Sanders "Lil Bernie," that didn't become you. Don't fall into the sewer with Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Limbaugh who degrade their opponents by calling them names.

Let's keep the discourse civil. Everyone lighten up. It's only just politics.
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Frank O'Nan, Henderson

After recently listening to Ted Cruz speak, I can see why Donald Trump calls him "Lying Ted Cruz." Even a "con man" and "bully" like Mr. Trump recognizes that his Republican opponent is a "pathological liar."

To quote Sen. Cruz: "Democrats have ruined New York because fracking has been outlawed in New York State." Isn't it well-known that the "Wall Street Crash" caused by banking policies of President and fellow Texan George W. Bush caused America and New York to "go into the ditch." Those policies caused people to lose money, automobiles and homes.

Of course fracking, which has ruined ground water in many areas and has further enriched Republican supporters and leading U.S. frackers the Koch brothers, would be approved by the most radical U.S. Senator, Ted Cruz. Cruz is a man who labored to shut down the U.S. government. It also has been mentioned that "Lying Ted" was one of the Texans who wanted Texas to secede from the Union.

It seems Mr. Trump, much as I disapprove of his fear tactics, is on the money branding Ted as "Lying Ted Cruz."

Those two should be concerned with environmental concerns that threaten the very existence of mankind.
HARTFORD -- Hillary Clinton's campaign says that it began airing television commercials in Hartford and New Haven on Saturday, the latest evidence that Connecticut remains in play in her race with the surging Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sanders, meanwhile, has bought time on at least one Connecticut station, with the commercials to begin airing Monday, according to a filing with the Federal Communications Commission.

Clinton, a frontrunner who has seen the protest candidacy of Sanders grow into a bonafide challenge, already is airing commercials on New York television, which spills into Fairfield County. "New World," the spot going up, presents Clinton as ready to be president. It makes no mention of Sanders.

"The world a president has to grapple with, sometimes you can't even imagine. That's the job, and she's the one who's proven she can get it done," the narrator says over footage of her at the White House, exiting Air Force One and sitting down with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. "The presidency is the toughest job in the world, and she is the one who will make a real difference for you."

Sanders campaign will air 140 commercials on WTIC, the Fox affiliate in Hartford, at a cost of $33,630, according to the station's filing with the FCC. An industry source says the campaign has purchased time at other stations.

The Sanders' campaign has not released a copy of the ad it intends to air in Connecticut. A campaign spokesman declined comment on its media plans.

Stations are required to file details on political ad buys with the FCC. WTIC is the only Connecticut station with a public notice on the FCC web site regarding an ad purchase Friday night. It also lists a preliminary purchase order from the Clinton campaign, though no details. WVIT, the NBC affiliate, reported an inquiry from Clinton on rates.

Sanders is on a winning streak, defeating Clinton in five of six contests since March 22, including the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday.

The New York primary is next week, followed by the five eastern states holding primaries on April 26: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Clinton lost to Barack Obama in the Connecticut primary in 2008. Fifty-five delegates will be apportioned based on the results here. The state also has 16 superdelegates not bound by the primary. All but one is believed to be supporting Clinton.

This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics and public policy in the state.
Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin and the city's labor unions, its council and its legislative delegation took steps Thursday toward defusing a fight that threatened to politically isolate the new mayor as he tries to keep Connecticut's capital city out of bankruptcy.

In a press conference at the State Capitol, union leaders stood with legislators and council leaders to say they could deliver between $8 million and $12 million in concessions, an olive branch to a mayor they decisively stopped from obtaining sweeping new authority to impose taxes and remake labor contracts.

"I want to thank the unions for that firm commitment. Today is a good day, but a tough day," said Rep. Matt Ritter, D-Hartford. "I want to thank the mayor for bringing forth into light some of the difficult decisions he has to make."

Bronin responded with his own upbeat news conference at City Hall, ignoring the awkward optics of state legislators and council leaders standing with union leaders, publicly urging the mayor to take a more conciliatory approach.

"I take that as a good-faith first step," Bronin said. "We're going to have some very tough decisions and some very tough negotiations still ahead, but I take our labor leaders at their word that they are willing and ready to make real, substantial concessions as a part of an overall effort to get the city of Hartford on the path to recovery."

With deficits that are projected to hit $48.5 million in 2017, $69 million in 2018 and $88 million in 2019, Bronin says he will need to obtain more than $12 million in concessions and will still have to shrink the workforce through layoffs.

The city has a budget of $533 million, including $284 million for schools. Its authorized non-education workforce for 2016 is 1,429 full-time positions, including 452 police officers and 356 firefighters.

"Even the deepest cuts, and even very substantial concessions, don't get us over the deficits we face in the years ahead," Bronin said.

None of the union leaders at the press conference said concessions were reliant on a no-layoff pledge. The presidents of the police and fire unions, Rich Holton and Vince Fusco, said no one was challenging the existence of a fiscal crisis.

"We did not create the problems afflicting our great city, but we fully intend to be part of the solution," said Shellye Davis, a school paraprofessional and president of the Greater Hartford Labor Council.

Bronin, 36, a Rhodes Scholar and former legal adviser to Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, took over as mayor of Hartford, an impoverished city that serves as capital of the richest state in the U.S., on New Year's Day. He defeated Pedro Segarra, the incumbent, in a Democratic primary.

In his first weeks in office, Bronin said that previous administrations has obscured a structural financial crisis by refinancing the city's debt and using one-time revenues, such as the sale of a city garage, to balance the budget.

His solution was to ask the General Assembly for unprecedented powers: Under the auspices of a new Hartford Financial Sustainability Commission, he could renegotiate labor deals and impose taxes on tax-exempt institutions.

Hartford Hospital, Trinity College, the University of Hartford and major non-profits objected to the new taxing authority, while labor leaders complained that Bronin was acting precipitously in seeking to free the city of its labor commitments.

"In less than the 90 days in office, Mayor Bronin has decided to use his time pushing this legislation instead of bringing everyone to the table where they could figure this out together," Lori Pelletier, the head of the Connecticut AFL-CIO, said in testimony submitted to the legislature. "Mr. Bronin's strategy provides an interesting insight to his views on workers and their representatives, and that is it's his way or the highway."

The only applause came from the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, which saw the proposal as a wedge that could help other struggling cities narrow the long list of property exempt from the only tax municipalities can impose: the property tax.

But Bronin soon found himself alone, potentially eroding his influence at the outset of what is likely to be a difficult four-year term. The city's delegation to the General Assembly refused to push the mayor's bill, and the City Council voted 8-1 on Monday to reject a resolution supporting it.

On Thursday, the measure died from inaction in the legislature's Finance, Revenue and Bonding Committee when the panel declined to take it up at the last meeting before its deadline for reporting out legislation.

Bronin declined to say the legislation was a mistake.

"Look, I think the legislation helped shine a light on the crisis that we face, and I think it created some conversations that might not otherwise have been had," Bronin said.

He left little doubt he would be back at the General Assembly next year looking to define the state's financial relationship with its cities, particularly its capital city, where half the property is tax exempt. With a high tax rate, a stagnant tax base, the nation's second smallest percentage of home ownership and the state's highest poverty rate, Hartford cannot afford to raise taxes, he said.

"Our mill rate right now is 74. In New Haven and in Bridgeport, it's down in the low 40s. I don't believe we can do an across-the-board mill rate increase without killing the city," Bronin said. "It might happen quickly. It might happen slowly. But if we continue to raise the burden on our small businesses and our mid-sized employers, we're going to see more and more of them shut down, shutter their doors and leave town. And we cannot afford to do that to the city of Hartford."

This story originally appeared at CTMirror.org, the website of The Connecticut Mirror, an independent, nonprofit news organization covering government, politics and public policy in the state.
BEIRUT -- The Islamic State group has released most of the 300 cement workers it abducted near Damascus after questioning them to find out who were Muslims and killing four who were members of the minority Druze sect, a Syrian opposition monitoring group and a news agency linked to the extremists reported Saturday.

The reports came two days after IS abducted the cement workers and contractors from al-Badia Cement Company in Dumeir, just northeast of the capital, after a surprise attack on government forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said all those abducted have been released except for 30 people who were guards at the cement factory. It said the fate of the 30 is unknown.

The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said most of the 300 were released after questioning to determine their religion and whether they support the government. It said four workers who belonged to the minority Druze sect were killed and 20 pro-government gunmen are still being held.

The Druze, a 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, made up about 5 percent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million people. Lebanon and Israel also have large Druze communities.

IS, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, considers all Shiites to be heretics deserving death.

Aamaq also released a video from inside the cement plant, about 28 miles (45 kilometers) northeast of Damascus, showing trucks and bulldozers in the sprawling facility. Some fighters could be seen inside.

Government forces and insurgents meanwhile clashed near Handarat, just north of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest, activists said.

In the western part of Aleppo province, troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters battled militants in Khan Touman and al-Ais, where insurgents last week killed more than two dozen Lebanese militants and government forces, according to activists and state media.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, a mine left behind by IS near the Kurdish town of Kobani killed at least four children and wounded several others late Friday. The Observatory said four children were killed and six wounded when the mine exploded in the village of Darb Hassan. State news agency SANA said six children were killed.

Kobani-based Kurdish official Idriss Naasan told The Associated Press that the children were shepherds who took their sheep and goats to graze in Darb Hassan on Friday. When they opened the door to a house, the mine exploded, killing four children and wounding the rest. He added that one is believed to have died of his wounds later.

Also in Syria's north, a senior official with al-Qaida's local branch appeared in a video during which he denied reports by state media that he was killed in the northwestern province of Idlib. The Observatory also reported that Sheikh Abdullah al-Mheisny was not harmed.

"I will remain a thorn in your throat and my happiest day will be when I get martyred," al-Mheisny said in the video. The militant was wounded by a Russian airstrike in December in Latakia province.

A Saudi citizen, al-Mheisny had been fighting in northern Syria for months, serving both as a senior religious and military commander with the al-Qaida branch, known as the Nusra Front.

Several top Nusra Front commanders have been recently killed in Syria by U.S. airstrikes.
NORWALK -- When David Hay was appointed principal of Brookside Elementary School in 2003, it was the second wind of his career in education.

At the time, he had just retired as an educator in Massachusetts after 34 years, but he wasn't quite ready to stop working.

"I have a skill and I thought, 'Why not take advantage of that skill?' My wife was very willing to move. She wanted to be near the ocean and I started to apply for jobs along the Rhode Island and Connecticut coasts," he said.

He received two offers and accepted a position as principal of Brookside Elementary School. After 47 years in education, including the last 13 at Brookside, Hay will retire in June.

As a youth in the rural town of Ashby, Mass., Hay was destined for a career as an educator.

"Growing up, I was the babysitter. I did the summer camps with kids. I was always someone who was interested in helping young children as a young person and I made the decision to become a history teacher," he said.

After receiving some advice from a college professor, he decided to go into elementary education since there were more jobs available in that field.

"I was a fifth and sixth grade teacher for 17 years and kind of got forced into administration by a wonderful principal, Bob Salvatelli," Hay recalls. "I went kicking. I didn't want to leave the classroom because I love the classroom."

Hay's first administrative position was as an assistant principal in the Leominster, Mass. public school system. He later accepted his first principalship at an elementary school in Baldwinville, Mass. before returning to Leominster to serve as principal of Fall Brook School.

After five years at Fall Brook, he reached retirement age in the Massachusetts school system. Hay and his wife, Linda, relocated to Norwalk as he became principal of Brookside. The couple purchased a home minutes away from the school on Rampart Road.

"Brookside, in 2003, was under construction for the third year. Its reputation wasn't very good. Test scores weren't very high," he said.

"If I have one skill, it's improving schools. I saw it as a great challenge but it was a doable challenge. We succeeded pretty well and we've done a nice job over the last 13 years. I'm proud of the fact that where we are today is much better than where we were in 2003. We have a much better reputation now and I'm proud at what our staff has done. They worked hard at it," said Hay.

Among Hay's proudest accomplishments at Brookside are the additions of preschool classrooms.

"We talk a lot about the achievement gap but the gap doesn't happen in junior high, it happens in two year-olds and three year-olds," he said.

"I thought if we could get the kids young enough, we could change a lot of those things that happened when they came in as five year-olds and didn't know the alphabet or numbers."

"We had to raise the bar," he adds. "You don't teach at the bottom, you teach at the top and all the students rise to that. That also includes behavior. If you set high expectations, the kids rise to those expectations."

Hay and his wife enjoyed their new life in Norwalk, taking advantage of the city's attractions such as Sheffield Island and Maritime Aquarium along with the occasional Broadway show in New York City.

"It was a fabulous time for us," said Hay.

After seven years in Norwalk, tragedy struck back home in Massachusetts when his son Aaron died of a drug overdose. He was 35.

"A lot of families are living this terrible tragedy. Aaron worked extremely hard everyday of his life to not be on drugs and it basically caught him," said Hay. "We all have faults but his fault was deadly. We miss him greatly."

With children and grandchildren in Massachusetts, Hay said his wife felt a need to be closer to the family. The couple moved back to Massachusetts. Hay got an apartment in Norwalk and continued working at Brookside. For the last six years, he spent his weekdays in Norwalk and drives back to Massachusetts on weekends.

As he nears retirement, Hay is looking forward to spending more time with his grandkids. Hay has a blog, where he chronicles his childhood and experiences in education (haydavid.blogspot.com). He plans to spend more time writing and volunteering when he retires.

His current home in Massachusetts is within in walking distance of his alma mater, Fitchburg State University, where he received bachelor's and master's degrees in elementary education.

As he leaves Norwalk, the students are what Hay will miss the most.

"Teaching is a tough profession but it's a profession that you can enjoy every day of your life. I never had a day where I said, 'I don't want to go to work.' In fact, I've never gone to work. I've only gone to school my whole life. It's been 63 years of going to school, in terms of school, college and work," he said.
Recently there has been much discussion about the need for municipal and state workers to face the new reality of current budgetary constraints. As a Hartford taxpayer, I recognize that current labor agreements are not sustainable, and a failure to restructure health and pension benefits could lead to bankruptcy and an even harsher reality. But in fairness, I also feel there is a need for a more honest and holistic discussion of this new economic reality.

The Economist magazine recently highlighted that business profits are at record high levels. Meanwhile, the labor share of income has dropped from 65 percent to 56 percent [2], and would have been even more extreme if not for the increased income of the top 1 percent of workers.

Sadly, political candidates have preferred to play off the economic insecurities faced by the other 99 percent with a focus on the emotional hot buttons of globalization and immigration. While these do contribute to constraining wage income, the real challenge faced today is technology. A study conducted by McKinsey & Company suggested that 45 percent of activities individuals are paid to perform could be automated with currently available technology (including 20 percent of what CEOs do!) This represents an additional $2 trillion of labor income that could be transferred to capital.

The financial challenges faced by state and local governments in Connectict today are further aggravated by a crumbling infrastructure that undermines the competitiveness of businesses and imposes high social costs, particularly on the most needy. The current political climate clouds any meaningful discussion with slogans of intrusive government regulations, burdensome taxes and bureaucratic inefficiency.

The solution is to cut taxes, streamline regulations, and provide subsidies to attract business investment. The new reality is that business spending on lobbying has doubled over the period 1997 to 2013 as many industry sectors -- health care, insurance, credit cards, telecoms, and pharmaceuticals -- consolidated and created a rule book that favored incumbents.

The new reality is that business has not invested in the public infrastructure that underpins their current record profits. Free cash flow is so high that companies were sitting on $800 billion after capital investment. Too often this excess capital is simply used to buy back shares to prop up earnings per share metrics used to justify incentive compensation.

Labor does need to agree to come back to the table to restructure agreements that are simply too expensive in this new reality. But business also needs to come to the table to restructure the social contract for their license to operate. And politicians need to focus less on campaign slogans and more on the hard work and difficult choices of governing.

Further concentration of the wealth, whether in corporate accounts or payouts to shareholders is not in the best interest of business, consumers or politicians. Extreme wealth concentration will depress economic demand and private investment, limiting future growth needed to help balance budgets and threatening social cohesion.

Infrastructure investment has been shown to create local jobs, reduce environment impacts, and contribute to long- term economic vitality. Connecticut needs infrastructure investment. Studies have indicated potential returns on investment for various infrastructure projects of 8 to 14 percent.

Connecticut has an aging population of rather well off retirees looking for places to park their retirement savings. It may be unrealistic to ask politicians tied to two- year election cycles to make decisions having 25- to 50-year impacts, but other countries are partnering with pension funds that specialize in the financing and management of infrastructure projects.

Technology will advance, and capitalism will drive further efficiencies that suggest the new reality will not generate sufficient labor income to fund livable wages. But a more inclusive form of capitalism that promotes capital investment in critical infrastructure systems -- communications, transportation, energy, and education -- can generate sufficient wealth for sustainable livelihoods. The new reality can be ugly and divisive, or it can be an innovative and inclusive approach to building a better Connecticut.

Thomas Swarr lives in Hartford and is a Yale University lecturer.
Like many other hospitals, CHI Health St. Francis is having trouble finding enough nurses. In order to increase the nursing supply, the Grand Island hospital decided to grow their own.

CHI St. Francis was already offering tuition reimbursements to current employees who want to go back to school to get their bachelors degrees.

Beth Bartlett, vice president for patient care services, figured, Why dont we spend our money in a different way?

In creating the new program, the hospital decided to spend the same amount of money and see if we can go find some high school students who might be interested in a health care career, she said.

Grow Our Own is the name of the program, which is a partnership between CHI St. Francis, Central Community College and Career Pathways Institute.

CHI St. Francis hopes the program will benefit the Grand Island hospital and help create an interest in nursing.

Under the program, CHI St. Francis will pay CCC tuition and fees for high school students interested in a health care career. In return, the students agree to work for St. Francis for three years.

As part of the arrangement, CCC will hold five seats each year for future St. Francis nurses, Bartlett said. The deal also calls for CHI St. Francis to help CPI with its HOSA program. HOSA was formerly known as Health Occupations Students of America.

The first five students in the program were selected recently. That group consists of three sophomores and two juniors at Grand Island Senior High.

One of the girls, Crystal Chavez Saquiche, loves the program. Its amazing, she said, adding that it will help with her tuition a great deal.

Saquiche, a sophomore, is planning to become a pediatric nurse because she loves kids. After she gets her associate degree, she plans to work at CHI St. Francis and go on to earn at least her bachelors degree.

Saquiche, who has lived in Grand Island almost six years, plans to stay in the city because I want to be with my family, she said.

Creating a path

In taking part, CCC is trying to create an affordable education path for students who are interested in the colleges associate degree in nursing (ADN) program, said Jamey Peterson-Jones, early college director at CCC.

CCC is helping in the programs promotion and serving in a supportive role, she said. CCC looks at Growing Our Own as a pilot program.

The first five students in the program will start working toward their ADN in their junior and senior years of high school, beginning this fall. Some dual credit classes are taught at GISH by CCC instructors.

CCC will help the students make sure they take the required courses before they actually begin college. With that assistance, they can get into the nursing program without having to wait.

The students will each have a mentor at CHI Health St. Francis. They will also be encouraged to work as nursing assistants while going to school.

CHI Health will pay for the tuition and fees associated with the degree, which requires 72 college credits. A credit hour costs $94.

For each student, CHI Health St. Francis will cover $6,768 in tuition and fees. Bartlett is hopeful that related expenses will also be covered.

Bartlett is pleased that the initial batch of applicants reflected the ethnic diversity of Grand Island. One hope is to bring in more bilingual nurses, she said.

The program began with students at Grand Island Senior High but could expand to other high schools if things go well, Bartlett said.

Dan Phillips, coordinator of CPI, thinks the new program is going to be phenomenal.

At the same time students apply to CPI, they can also be considered for the CHI nursing sponsorship. CPI administrators check to make sure the applicants are in good standing from a grade, behavior and attendance standpoint.

Supply ebbs and flows

The supply of nurses ebbs and flows, Bartlett said. But for many hospitals, the trend is not good.

By 2020, experts predict the country will have a shortage of 1 to 1.1 million nurses, she said.

Hospitals in Omaha and Lincoln initially avoided the problem. For awhile, St. Francis was frustrated when young nurses from the eastern part of the state worked in Grand Island for a year to get their experience and then headed back east.

Factors in the nursing shortage are the Affordable Care Act and the fact that the large population of baby boomers will be needing more medical care.

Its not that people dont want to go into nursing, Bartlett said. A big issue is that nursing instructors are aging, and not enough people are coming on board to replace them, she said.

Another issue is that most nursing programs now graduate one class a year, rather than two.

So a batch of new students interviews and applies for jobs only once a year. Other than that, the only real hope for hiring nurses are those moving from one location to another, Bartlett said.

Many hospitals, including CHI St. Francis, encourage their current employees to go back to school for their bachelors degrees.

St. Francis has a contract with the Methodist Hospital in Omaha that provides a decreased tuition price for employees who want their bachelors degree. St. Francis helps reimburse employees for their tuition.

The Grand Island hospital increased the starting wage for nurses by $2.50 an hour several months ago. If people agree to work at the hospital for several years, St. Francis will help them with their student loans. In addition, current employees are given $1,000 if they help the hospital recruit a registered nurse.

Bartlett is a big believer in bachelors degrees for nurses. If you look at changes in technology and the critical thinking necessary for very, very sick patients, nurses need to be well-prepared, she said.

Critical thinking, ability and leadership are vital in knowing how to lead a group of patients and work with physicians, Bartlett said.

Staffing concerns

Other area hospitals also have staffing concerns.

Memorial Community Health in Aurora has a couple of positions open in long-term care and a couple more in the hospital. And we dont see a lot of applications come in, said Human Resources Director Laura Teichmeier.

Demand goes in waves, Teichmeier said. A month or two ago, the hospital didnt have any openings. But recently, a few people decided to move on or move out of state, she said.

Mary Lanning Healthcare in Hastings is definitely short of nurses. We have over 20 openings right now, said Human Resources Director Sharon Hayek. Those nurses are needed in our in-patient units as well as our clinics, she said.

Mary Lanning employs 300 nurses. The need has been critical for about six months. We have a lot of nurses who are working extra shifts to help cover for that, Hayek said.

Finding enough nurses has been a challenge since Kearney Regional Medical Center opened.

Weve filled some needs in certain areas, but overall were constantly recruiting for nurses, said Human Resources Director Steve Beck.

If the Grow Our Own program is a success, Bartlett said, The real winners are our patients.
Monet rahapelien ystavat ovat viime vuosina loytaneet netticasinot ja olleet ihmeissaan. Verrattuna kotimaisen Veikkauksen kivijalkarahapeleihin puhutaan aivan eri tason palautusprosenteista ja lisaksi pelaaminen on aarimmaisen helppoa ja turvallista. Netticasinoiden maara on tana paivana todella suuri ja niita loytyy jokaiseen lahtoon, suurin ongelma aloittelevalla pelaajalla onkin tehda valinta siita, minka netticasinon valitsee. Kaikkien netticasinoiden mainospuheet naet lupaavat kauniita asioita ja niiden lapinakeminen on tietysti tarkeaa. Nyrkkisaantona voidaan kuitenkin jo kattelyssa todeta, etta jos valitsemasi netticasino on lisensoitu ETA-alueella, sen kanssa ei tule olemaan ongelmia, ellei niita itse jarjesta. Kay tutustumassa parhaisiin netticasinoihin osoitteessa www.ilmaiskierroksia.info!

Ensimmainen nyrkkisaanto on siis varmistaa, etta valitsemallasi netticasinolla on ETA-alueen lisenssi. Suurimmassa osassa tapauksista se on Maltan eli MGA:n lisenssi. Myos Viron, Englannin ja Gibraltarin lisensseja nakyy ja naissa valvonta on jopa Maltaa tiukempaa. Lopputulema on kuitenkin se, etta ETA-alueen lisenssi takaa suomalaisille verovapaat voitot seka sen, etta niita valvotaan kontrolloidusti. Maailmalla on iso nippu Curacaon lisenssilla toimivia netticasinoita ja niistakin suurin osa on laadukkaita. Ne eivat kuitenkaan ole suomalaisille asiakkaille verovapaita, joten emme suosittele niita.

Tana paivana markkinoille on ilmaantunut paljon ETA-alueella toimiva netticasinoita ilman rekisteroitymista. Jos tarkoitus on vain pelata yksittaisia pelikertoja, on varsin helppo suositella naita. Netticasinot ilman rekisteroitymista tarjoavat palvelun tunnistautumisen verkkopankin avainlukulistan avulla ja saman palvelun kautta tapahtuvat talletukset ja mahdolliset voittojen nostot silmanrapayksessa. Normaaleihin netticasinoihin pitaa asiakkaan rekisteroitya, tehda talletukset ja tunnistautua dokumenttien avulla. Tama on lisenssiehtojen mukainen kaytanto, eika kovinkaan monimutkainen, mutta silti monet asiakkaat haluavat yksinkertaista ja nopeaa palvelua. Toki normaalit netticasinot tarjoavat usein asiakkailleen laadukkaita talletusbonuksia ja erilaisia kampanjoita, joten kannattaa tarkkaan punnita, kumman ratkaisun valitsee. Kannattaa myos muistaa, etta tunnistautuminen tehdaan vain kerran, joten mikaan jatkuva riippakivi se ei ole.

Suomalaiset asiakkaat ovat netticasinoille tarkeita, joten kaikilla vahankin laadukkailla netticasinoilla on suomenkieliset sivut seka suomenkielinen asiakaspalvelu  suomenkielisyys kannattaakin ottaa netticasinoa valittaessa nyrkkisaannoksi. Vaikka tana paivana englanninkielisyys on harvoille ongelma, on suomenkielisten netticasinoiden maara niin valtava, etta suosittelemme niiden kayttoa. Rahansiirrot ovat tana paivana niin hyvassa mallissa, etta niiden kanssa tuskin tulee mitaan ongelmia. Kolme tarkeinta segmenttia: Suomalaiset verkkopankit, luottokortit (Visa, Mastercard) seka nettilompakot (Skrill, Neteller) loytyvat jokaisesta laadukkaasta netticasinosta. Viime vuosien trendiksi noussut verkkokauppa on kehittanyt rahansiirrot niin laadukkaiksi ja nopeiksi, etta niiden suhteen ei ole enaa vuosiin ollut ongelmia. Luonnollisesti netticasinot kayttavat naita samoja palveluita ja hyotyvat kehityksesta.

Naiden isojen linjojen jalkeen netticasinon valintaan vaikuttavat luonnollisesti tarjottavat tervetuliaisbonukset  uudet asiakkaat saavat tana paivana kovan kilpailun myota merkittavia etuja netticasinoilta ja niita kannattaa luonnollisesti vertailla. Erilaiset talletusbonukset, ilmaiskierrokset seka ilmaiset pelirahat tuovat suuriakin rahanarvoisia etuja ja niiden vertailu on ehdottomasti kannattavaa. Myoskaan useampien tilien avaaminen ja tervetuliaistarjousten kayttaminen ei missaan nimessa ole huono idea.

Kun edella mainitut asiat ovat mieleisia ja vaihtoehtoja on vielakin jaljella, mennaan jo nyansseihin. Toki pelivalikoima on yksi kriteeri, mutta taman paivan netticasinoissa tamakin asia on paasaantoisesti varsin samanlainen. Toki useamman samantasoisen netticasinon vertailussa kannattaa yleensa valita se, jossa on eniten peleja tarjolla. Vaikka omat suosikit loytyisivatkin useammasta, voi tulevaisuudessa mielenkiinto nousta joihinkin muihin peleihin ja silloin on tietysti mukavampaa, etta ne loytyvat valikoimista. Viimeisena voidaan nostaa esiin kaytettavyys  joidenkin netticasinoiden sivut ovat vilkkuvia, valkkyvia ja epakaytannollisia. Omaan silmaan ja kaytettavyyteen sopiva sivusto on luonnollisesti aina se paras valinta. Tarjonta netticasinoissa on tana paivana valtava ja jokaiselle loytyy varmasti se oma netticasino  onnea matkaan!
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Linkedin Dan Perry (Associated Press) Cairo  Sun, April 10, 2016

A new-old idea is rattling around the Middle East five years after the Arab Spring stirred democratic ambition: that restoring stability, especially if accompanied by some economic and political improvements, should be reform enough for the moment.

This discourse appears to be taking front and center these days, most obviously in Egypt  the region's most populous country and the one that raised the highest hopes for democracy advocates when the military in 2011 removed longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak as millions rallied against him and his Western support collapsed.

The current government is aggrieved to find itself facing possibly harsher international criticism than Mubarak ever did, mostly over questions of human rights. It argues that democracy does not require tolerance of chaos in the streets, and that unfettered freedoms can destabilize a brittle society facing illiteracy, poverty, weak democratic traditions and a jihadi insurgency.

In meetings with U.S. Congressional delegations this week, President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi argued that "democracy is an ongoing process and cannot be realized overnight," elaborating that Egypt is committed to "striking the balance between enhancing security and stability and upholding rights and freedoms," according to a statement from his office.

The idea has a philosophical foundation: just as democracy is about more than elections and cannot allow an unbridled dictatorship of the majority, so must freedom not be allowed to become anarchy.

Critics dismiss such talk as self-serving, a conflating of criticism and sedition typical of elites trying to hang on to privilege. But the go-slow approach does find quiet defenders not only among the wealthy and connected who benefit, but also among educated people who simply don't fully trust the masses at the moment.

How much is hard to accurately gauge in a region where pundits are muzzled in ways both subtle and overt and where polling is rarely conducted. So claims about it tend toward anecdote, experience and logic.

"People value stability more than anything else," said Abdulkhaleq Abdullah, a professor of political science at United Arab Emirates University. He said the instability and rise of political Islam following the Arab Spring slowed the push for greater freedom and democracy, and that most UAE citizens aren't clamoring for sweeping change while they watch turmoil elsewhere in the region.

"Let's just be modest about it," he said. "It is just very difficult to build a modern, stable democracy.

Others find it elitist to suggest that the Arab world is not ready for democracy. Are we really not deserving, they ask, of what the Indians and Brazilians take for granted? Some will mention cases of controversial election outcomes even in the West and ask: In such a complex world, can any society truly be ready? Is it not better to simply treat genuine freedom as a basic human right?

"The idea that some people are not prepared for justice is racist," respected Egyptian author Alaa Aswany told The Associated Press. "It reflects a lack of respect for people. I absolutely disagree with it."

Still, to Egyptians who see their region's turbulence and observe police and soldiers being killed by Islamic State-affiliated jihadis in the Sinai Peninsula, the security argument especially can resonate. And in Jordan, where there's little doubt that the monarchy is in charge and critics know what lines not to cross, King Abdullah gets major points among the middle classes for keeping a place that borders Syria, Iraq and Palestine calm, even showing some modest economic growth.

There is a noticeable decline in the inclination to demonstrate in many countries  although this can mislead: the right to do so is much curtailed and people may have just tired of the trouble and strife.

Certainly many seem terrified by what happened in places that have spun out of control. In Libya, militias hold sway. Yemen is mired in civil war, compounded by a year of Saudi-led airstrikes. Iraq's Sunni regions are overrun by the Islamic State group. In Syria, half the pre-war population of over 20 million has been displaced, and parts of cities have been leveled.

Tunisia has had some success in enacting democratic rule, but it is the exception. Lebanon is paralyzed by confessional politics and has hasn't been able to elect a president in almost two years, and parliament rarely meets. Mahmoud Abbas' term as president of the Palestinian Authority ran out years ago.

Democracy rarely gets mentioned in the United Arab Emirates, although there have been elections for a federal citizens' advisory council. In Saudi Arabia, the monarchy holds absolute control over an opaque, oil-financed government, and municipal councils are the only elected government body. Other Gulf nations have relatively powerless parliaments.

Egypt, compared to most other Arab states, has made impressive strides. El-Sissi overwhelmingly won presidential elections in 2014 with far more votes than had been won two years earlier by Mohammed Morsi, the Islamist president the military overthrew for alleged misrule in 2013. While the election was widely criticized because the previously ruling Muslim Brotherhood was banned, few claim the vote count was falsified  no small matter considering the region's recent history. And the president is constitutionally limited to two terms in office  a stark contrast to most of the region. Egypt also has a new elected parliament more diverse and empowered than has been the norm in the region.

There has been growing clamor by outsiders and activists against what many term a crackdown on dissent: a law against street demonstrations and another essentially criminalizing anyone contradicting official statements on security; lengthy periods of detention without charges; banning some activists from travelling abroad; and dozens of secret detentions.

But the government's defenders cast the criticism on human rights as unfair since other countries in the region are worse. In this way Egypt finds itself in an ironically similar situation to neighbor and former enemy Israel. Israel's Declaration of Independence promises full equality and that the Jewish state will be a "light unto the nations." With expectations so high, its supporters now struggle to defend the Jewish state's half-century occupation over millions of stateless Palestinians on the grounds that other situations around the world are even worse.

___

Dan Perry is AP's Middle East editor leading text coverage in the region. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/perry_dan .

Adam Schreck in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. (**)
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Linkedin Edith M.Lederer (Associated Press) United Nations  Sun, April 10, 2016

For the first time in the 70-year history of the United Nations, all the member states will get a chance to question the candidates for Secretary-General, in a move to make the usually secret selection process for the world's top diplomatic post more transparent.

Last year, the UN General Assembly responded to the strong demand from many countries that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's successor be chosen in a more open process, unanimously adopting a resolution allowing public hearings on how candidates would respond to global crises and run the UN's far-flung bureaucracy.

The secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the 15-member Security Council, according to the UN Charter.

In practice, this has meant that the council's five permanent members  the US, Russia, China, Britain and France  have veto power over the candidates. That will not change in deciding whom to recommend to succeed Ban, whose second five-year term ends on Dec. 31.

But General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft said in a recent interview that the two-hour public discussions with each of the eight current candidates, starting Tuesday, are "potentially game-changing."

If a leading candidate emerges and a critical number of countries rally around him  or, in what would be a first, her  "I think it will be very difficult, and probably not possible, for the Security Council to come up with quite a different candidate," he said.

If the race is unclear, however, then the Security Council "will have a more deciding influence," Lykketoft said.

The resolution adopted last September stresses the need for "gender and geographical balance while meeting the highest possible requirements."

By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and many countries support the idea of the first female UN chief.

The resolution invited all countries "to consider presenting women as candidates," but also stressed that the candidate must be highly competent.

There are currently four women and four men who have thrown their hats in the ring  six from Eastern Europe, one from Western Europe and one from the Asia-Pacific region.

They are: former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim; former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pucic; former Montenegro Prime Minister and current Foreign Minister Igor Luksic; former Slovenian President Danilo Turk; UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova from Bulgaria; former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman; former UN refugee chief and ex-Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres; and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who heads the UN Development Program.

"I'm sure more candidates will be coming, that's for sure," Lykketoft said, "but how many, I don't know."

There is no deadline for jumping into the race, but diplomats said the Security Council is expected to hold its first "straw poll" on the candidates in late July. The 15 council members will vote "encourage" or "discourage" on each candidate and the result will be made public.

Two women mentioned in UN corridors as possible strong late entries are German Chancellor Angela Merkel, though she reportedly isn't very keen on the job, and Kristalina Georgieva, another Bulgarian who is the European Commission's budget chief and a former top official at the World Bank.

The concentration of power in the five permanent members known as the P-5 often has produced UN chiefs with the appearance, some observers have said, of being more secretary than general.

Natalie Samarasinghe, executive director of the United Nations Association-UK and one of the founders of the 1 for 7 Billion campaign for reform in the secretary-general selection process, said that throughout the UN's history "the Security Council concern has always been, 'who's not going to rock the boat, and who's going to cause the least trouble for us.'"

That dynamic has changed somewhat with the new, more open selection process, which "is going to be impossible for the Security Council to completely ignore," she said.

Britain's UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, who encouraged more "credible candidates" to enter the race, said the interviews will be "very important" in the final decision.

"If a candidate does well in the hearings then clearly that is going to increase the prospects of Security Council members encouraging them through the process," he said.

Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin was more cautious, saying the hearings "might" influence the P-5's decision.

"For us it's important that the next secretary-general enjoy the broadest possible support among members of the United Nations," he said.

Ukraine's UN Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, a council member, called it "a very useful exercise, although with many, many unclear questions of what will be the outcome, and what will be the final platform to judge the qualities of each of eight candidates."

The 1 for 7 Billion campaign, which Samarasinghe said is supported by 750 non-governmental organizations worldwide, is also calling for a single longer term to give the next secretary-general more independence from the major powers.

Lykketoft said the Nonaligned Movement, which represents over 100 developing countries, supports the idea but he doesn't know whether they will push for a General Assembly resolution on a single term, possibly seven years.

The interviews will continue through Thursday. Lykketoft said they will be followed by a second round for expected new candidates.

Secretary-General Ban is staying away from the hearings but is "delighted" they are happening, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Friday.

Asked whether the UN chief had any advice for the candidates ahead of the hearings, Dujarric said that Ban always recalls the advice a middle school teacher in South Korea gave him: "Keep your feet firmly on the ground and your head in the clouds." (**)
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Linkedin Words Banyubening Prieta (The Jakarta Post)  Sun, April 10 2016

AFTER MANY SOLD-OUT SHOWS DURING THE MOST RECENT ART STAGE SINGAPORE, organizers are FIXING TO BRING THE EVENT TO JAKARTA.

Lorenzo Rudolf, the founder of Art Stage Singapore, says Indonesia has Asias largest art scene after China, although the nation is plagued by a lack of infrastructure to expose its artwork.



Running one of the biggest art fairs in Singapore for the last six years, Lorenzo says that it's time to put his eggs in another basket: Indonesia.



Hes planning the inaugural Art Stage Jakarta, slated to run from Aug. 5 to 7 at the Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City.



Indonesia has an important position in Southeast Asia, Rudolf said. It has an outstanding, big art scene. However it is mainly a mainland scene.



Boasting a stable market, many interactive collectors and a scene with a long history; Indonesia can be a prominent player in an arena demanding that shows and curators be top notch.

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Linkedin Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 10, 2016

The European Union has expressed its interest in strengthening its political and security partnership with ASEAN.

EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy Federica Mogherini, who is also EU Commission vice president, said stronger cooperation in the field of security and at a political level was key for people in the EU and ASEAN.

So we are increasing the level of partnership in all fields, including politics and security; we are increasing our daily work  the EU has appointed a dedicated ambassador to ASEAN for the first time ever, and we are looking forward to moving to the strategic partnership between the EU and ASEAN, she said after a meeting with ASEAN secretary-general Le Luong Minh in Jakarta on Saturday.

Mogherini said the EU and ASEAN cooperation had seen many achievements, which she believed would help to increase economic development, trade and investment for their member countries.

Mogherini handed over the EU-ASEAN Blue Book 2016  a report on the EU's overall cooperation with ASEAN  to Minh at the meeting.

In recent years, the EU has stepped up its involvement in security and defense related matters, commensurate with its global role and responsibilities.

Cooperation on broader security issues is a growing element in the EUs relationship with ASEAN.

Mogherini said she and her ASEAN counterpart also discussed the South China Sea, saying the EU had a stake in guaranteeing maritime security.

The EU stands ready to work with ASEAN on confidence-building measures, and believes that negotiations on a code of conduct are key, she said.

This is not something which we are entering into. This is not so an issue that affects us directly, but our approach to controversies is always the same. Out of our European experience, controversies need to be resolved on the basis of respect of international rules that are valid for everybody and in a cooperative way, she said. (sha/ebf)
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Sun, April 10, 2016

The Indonesian Hindu Religious Councils (PHDI) Sabha Pandita (high priests) have issued an edict declaring Bali's Benoa Bay a sacred area.

The decision, which was made during a Sabha Pandita meeting in Denpasar on Saturday evening, aimed to respond to controversy surrounding a planned reclamation project in the bay.

The high priests said, however, that they did not make the edict specifically in relation to the reclamation.

"We declare today that Benoa Bay is a sacred area that must be maintained and preserved," said high priest Ida Pedanda Gede Bang Buruan Manuaba, who led the meeting attended by 22 high priests from across Indonesia.

The priests said Benoa Bay had many sacred places because the beach was used for religious rituals such as melasti, a Hindu ceremony to spiritually cleanse the soul and nature. It also had many temples, they added.

Citing an example, the priests explained that the Karang Tengah Temple, which is built in the middle of Benoa Bay, was used for mulang pakelem, a ritual to purify the sea. Many temples can be seen in areas around the bay.

"We hope that our decision can be used as guidance for all people," he said.

For Bali, which is predominantly Hindu, the PHDI's religious edict could help to guide the government in forming policies, including on the controversial Benoa Bay project.

The decision was made based on recommendations from a team of nine high priests who conducted a study related to the reclamation project from October last year.

Putu Wirata Dwikora, the chairman of the PHDI's Sabha Walaka (intellectual group), said the decision made by the highest forum of the PHDI must be used as guidance for the government in decision-making. "This also must be used in making decisions on the planned reclamation project. As the high priests have declared Benoa Bay a sacred area, any project that could damage it should not be allowed, including coastal reclamation," Wirata said.

Wirata added that the high priests did not have a stance on the reclamation project. "They only made a decision based on religious context. However, as a sacred area, it is obvious that reclamation cannot be carried out in Benoa Bay," he said.

The planned reclamation of Benoa Bay was proposed by PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional, a company owned by business tycoon Tommy Winata. The company is currently carrying out an Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) for the project.

Many parties in Bali, including customary villages across the island, tourism stakeholders and environmental activists, have voiced their objections to the plan. (ebf)
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Linkedin Erika Kinetz and Kelvin Chan (Associated Press) Hong Kong  Sun, April 10, 2016

The same year Jasmine Li, whose grandfather was the fourth-ranked politician in China at the time, donned a floral Carolina Herrera gown and debuted at a ball in Paris, a company called Harvest Sun Trading Ltd. was born in an aging building at the edge of Hong Kong's red light district. The next year Li bought the company for $1.

The revelations come from a tremendous cache of documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca and published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.

Hong Kong was Mossack Fonseca's go-to spot for financial intermediaries like P&P Secretarial Management, home to 2,212 accountants, banks and other middlemen Mossack Fonseca used to set up 37,675 offshore companies for its global clients between 1977 and 2015  more than any other place in the world, according to ICIJ's analysis.

Hong Kong has emerged as a major design center for offshore vehicles, a place brimming with people expert at packaging and protecting wealth. The back pages of newspapers here teem with advertisements for corporate formation companies, one-stop shops promising fast bank account opening, corporate compliance, tax and accountancy services. Offshore vehicles are used to minimize tax, mitigate political risk, and circumvent onerous regulations in China. And they are completely legal.

But Hong Kong's offshore financial machinery works so well, and so discreetly, that it can be abused by those seeking to hide illicit assets or evade taxes. As traditional havens, like Switzerland, cave to years of grinding pressure from European and American tax authorities, unsavory money is drawn to Hong Kong, which despite reforms, retains its reputation for secrecy, non-cooperation, and a light regulatory touch, watchdog groups and lawyers say.

"Hong Kong attracts this type of hot money from across the region and globally, partly because of its perceived stability," said Iain Willis, a partner at Latymer Partners, a corporate intelligence advisory firm in London. "'Light-touch' financial regulation, easy rules on company incorporation and limited transparency" add to its appeal, he said.

China's Foreign Ministry dismissed ICIJ's reports as "groundless," and the government has aggressively censored discussion of them.

Hong Kong tax authorities said in an email Friday that they would "take necessary actions" based on the offshore leaks, and work to "enhance the efficiency and effectiveness" of enforcement as required.

Mossack Fonseca tapped P&P Secretarial Management  which is run by an accountant named Wai-hon Chiu, according to corporate filings  to register Harvest Sun Trading in the British Virgin Islands. P&P Secretarial is not listed in the telephone directory, and its contact details are not easy to find on the Internet. Its name is not among the three businesses listed at the entrance to the second-floor office it now occupies in Hong Kong's Wan Chai district. The front door opens onto a lone ivy plant stuck in a corner of two blank white walls. There is no receptionist, and unannounced visitors are not welcome.

"The boss is away. He will be back next week," said a woman in a dark dress, who confirmed that P&P Secretarial did indeed have a presence in the office which did not bear its name. She refused to give her name.

Great fortunes run through small offices like this, and not just from clients of Mossack Fonseca, which derived nearly a third of its business from Hong Kong and China, according to ICIJ.

"It's quite natural that Hong Kong would grow to play a significant role in the plumbing infrastructure of globalization," said Martin Kenney, an asset recovery lawyer in the British Virgin Islands. "They are the architects, designers and engineers of the structures."

In part, the prominence of offshore vehicles in Hong Kong has to do with its special relationship with mainland China. Many investors set up offshore vehicles so they can sell mainland assets without being subjected to layers of government approval. Others have used, and sometimes abused, offshore structures to take advantage of China's tax breaks for foreign companies. More foreign direct investment to China between 1979 and 2014 ostensibly came from the British Virgin Islands than from anywhere else, aside from Hong Kong, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service .

Hong Kong does not tax income that originates abroad, a policy that supports the proliferation of foreign-registered companies. Hong Kong's independent legal system and effective escape route from mainland China's currency controls  it's easier to move money between mainland China and Hong Kong than elsewhere  also add to its appeal, lawyers say.

The kind of political uncertainty that drove investors offshore before Hong Kong's 1997 handover persists today. The Basic Law, a mini-constitution that enshrines China's "one country, two systems" policy toward Hong Kong, expires in 2047.

"We are on borrowed time," said David Webb, a former investment banker and Hong Kong shareholder activist.

Offshore vehicles have become so commonplace that 75 percent of Hong Kong-listed companies are actually domiciled in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands, according to an analysis by Webb.

But there are other, more controversial uses of Hong Kong's offshore machinery.

The Panama Papers, together with past leaks published by ICIJ, show how China's own political and economic elite use Hong Kong intermediaries to get their money out of China. While the leaks contain no allegations of wrongdoing, they are a sore spot for China's top leadership, which has been trumpeting nationalism and moral virtue as it tries to slow capital flight and fight corruption. Much of the wealth that runs through Hong Kong comes from mainland China, which is widely seen as a growth market in the offshore industry. The top source of funds that Mossack Fonseca helped move offshore was China, according to an analysis of ICIJ data by the Guardian newspaper.

In 2009, when president Xi Jinping's brother-in-law Deng Jiagui wanted to register two companies in the British Virgin Islands, his advisers at Mossack Fonseca turned to a Hong Kong firm called Wong Brothers & Co., according to ICIJ's documents.

The firm's lead partner is an accountant named Charles Chan-lum Chow. Chow was a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a government advisory body, in southern Guangdong province from at least 2003 to 2013, according to state media reports and government websites. He spent 12 years on the board of China Aerospace International Holdings, the listed subsidiary of the main contractor for China's space program.

Chow did not respond to requests for comment.

Deng's companies went dormant before Xi took power, according to ICIJ, and no allegations of wrongdoing have been made. It's not clear what happened to whatever Xi family assets those companies once held.

"Everybody in the elite needs Hong Kong," said Ho-fung Hung, an associate professor at Johns Hopkins University. "Everybody. Even Xi Jinping's family needs it. They don't have an incentive to shut this channel to move money out."

It's not just Chinese running money through Hong Kong. When a company linked to France's far-right National Front party wanted to move money out of the country, associates of party leader Marine Le Pen used shell companies in Hong Kong, according to a report in Le Monde newspaper based on the Panama Papers. The French daily has also linked a separate Hong Kong firm with family members of Algeria's governing elite.

The company that helps run two of those firms, P&B Management Services, is housed in a dimly-lit office in Wan Chai district, according to Hong Kong corporate filings. Staff there declined to speak with a reporter.

Large-scale counterfeiters from Germany, Austria and Japan, as well as China, run off-shore structures out of Hong Kong to launder their money, said Douglas Clark, a lawyer at Hong Kong's Gilt Chambers.

"That's part of Hong Kong being a trading city and entrepot," he said. "It welcomes everyone."

Despite a recent crackdown on secrecy, Hong Kong is still ranked as the second most secretive jurisdiction in the world, after Switzerland, by the Tax Justice Network, a U.K. advocacy group.

Rules are only as good as their enforcement, said John Christensen, Tax Justice Network's director, and "Hong Kong has never had a strong supervisory culture."

In 2014, Hong Kong began requiring companies to have at least one real person serving as a director. This effectively barred the practice of creating impenetrable daisy chains of corporate ownership, in which one mysterious company was controlled by another mysterious company.

But clients can easily register companies under other people's names. "They can always find their relative as the nominee," said the director of a small incorporation firm also based in Wan Chai district, who would only give his surname, Lee, for fear of compromising client privacy.

He said most clients don't mind using their real names in filings. The big secrecy business runs out of the gleaming skyscrapers of Hong Kong's Central business district, where elite firms charge ten times his rates, he said.

"Wealthy people, they won't come here," he said. "They'll go to Central. They don't mind paying a few thousand more for more secured, private service."

___

Associated Press reporter Raphael Satter in Paris and researcher Fu Ting in Shanghai contributed to this report.

___

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Linkedin Elly Burhaini Faizal (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 10, 2016

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has called on all conflicting parties in the United Development Party (PPP) to reconcile for the sake of the nation.

Speaking on Sunday, the Vice President claimed to have met with Djan Faridz, chairman of the PPP central executive board elected at a muktamar (national congress) in Jakarta in November 2014. He said he had persuaded Djan to accept the results of the eighth muktamar, which was held at the Pondok Gede Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta over the weekend.

At the congress, Romahurmuziy, chairman of the PPP leadership formed at a Surabaya muktamar in October 2014, was re-elected as party chairman by acclamation.

Yes, I have talked to Pak Djan. Lets reconcile for the sake of the nation, said Kalla as quoted by kompas.com after the meetings closing ceremony on Sunday.

Kalla said he hoped his efforts would soften Djans stance and dissuade him from filing a lawsuit against the organizing of the eighth PPP muktamar.

He is still considering his decision. There have been some problems in the past but Im sure this [reconciliation] can be realized, said Kalla.

In an earlier statement, Djan insisted he would never acknowledge the results of the eighth muktamar, and would press on with a lawsuit against the government for not recognizing his leadership.

In his closing speech, Kalla said the government was tired of internal party spats and was pleased that the PPP was finally to reconcile, a handful of dissenters notwithstanding.

We should be grateful for the current situation. While some differences remain, we hope all problems can be resolved, he said.

The weekend's muktamar saw Romahurmuziy elected as PPP chair until 2021.

Based on approval from all muktamar participants, I hereby proclaim Romahurmuziy party chairman for the 2016-2021 period, said Suharso Monoarfa, who led the chairman selection process on Saturday evening.

New era  Newly elected United Development Party (PPP) chairman Romahurmuziy receives congratulations from party members following his election on Saturday. (Tribunnews.com/Herudin)

Romahurmuziy later said he had never dreamed of being elected PPP chair at the age of just 41.

Its a great honor for me. I never dreamed of leading a party at a young age, Romahurmuziy said in his acceptance speech.

He added that as one of Indonesia's largest parties, the PPP had to adapt to the era's ongoing changes. Every leader has his or her own era and every era has its own leader, he said. (ebf)
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Linkedin (Associated Press) Mexico City  Sun, April 10, 2016

An Austrian laboratory has not found evidence that can confirm that remains found in a trash dump in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero belong to 43 students who disappeared in September 2014, authorities announced.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement late Friday night that the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Innsbruck examined samples including hair and physical remains.

The office said it was not possible to establish genetic profiles through DNA testing so far, though further testing is still being done with those results to be released in the future.

Mexican investigators have theorized that police handed the students over to drug gang members who killed them and incinerated the bodies at the garbage dump.

That finding has been disputed by two outside groups of experts who examined the case and concluded there was no evidence at the dump of a fire large enough to consume all the bodies. Relatives of the students have also publicly doubted the government investigation.

The Attorney General's Office said the Austrian lab determined that some of the hair samples were human, while others were of animal origin.

Those found to be human did not yield a match with DNA sequences of family members of the students.

The case of the missing students has attracted national and international condemnation, and the government's perceived mishandling of it has dogged the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto. (**)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 10, 2016

The Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry has denied responsibility for ending the National Community Empowerment Program (PNPM).

First established in 2007, the PNPM, which was initiated by then president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono with financing from the World Bank, was reportedly wrapped up on Dec.31, 2014.

According to Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar, the PNPM was implemented under the Home Ministry.

There were minutes sent to the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry by the Home Ministry that stated that the PNPM had ended, Marwan told a press conference in Jakarta on Sunday. He was responding to increased speculation over the program's demise.

Commenting on the fate of ex-PNPM facilitators, Marwan said that their contracts had ended along with the closing of the program and that they had been informed as such by the Home Ministry.

The Home Ministrys directorate general of village community empowerment sent a letter to facilitators, informing them that the program had ended. Yet they continue to protest, Marwan explained.

The government had offered a solution to the problem, he said, when the Village Fund, a program initiated by President Joko Jokowi Widodos administration, needed facilitators, inviting PNPM facilitators to join a selection test to participate in the Village Fund program.

We have re-employed them as temporary Village Fund facilitators until May this year. They may then re-apply, he said.

Last year, the minister said, around 30 percent of ex-PNPM facilitators had been officially recruited as facilitators in the Village Fund program. However, certain ex-PNPM facilitators were unwilling to take part in the Village Fund selection process, instead demanding that the Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Ministry extend their contracts for five years without any terms or conditions.

This is unfair. I believe there is a politically-motivated power behind the mobilization of the ex-PNPM facilitators to stage such a protest, the minister said.

Marwan also denied accusations that most Village Fund facilitators recruited were members of the National Awakening Party (PKB), of which he too is a member.

I come from the PKB but the selection of Village Fund facilitators was conducted at the regional level. And as you know, very few governors come from the PKB, he said.

The Home Ministrys director general of village community development and empowerment, Ahmad Erani Yustika, said 22,000 Village Fund facilitators had been recruited last year, around 6,600 of whom were ex-PNPM facilitators.

We will recruit around 17,000 to 18,000 more Village Fund facilitators and this will be announced next year. The ideal proportion is one facilitator for one village, which means we need around 74,000 facilitators. But we don't have enough money for that, so for now, one facilitator handles four villages, Ahmad explained. (ebf)
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Linkedin Jim Gomez (Associated Press) Manila, Philippines  Sun, April 10, 2016

The Philippine military suffered its largest single-day combat loss so far this year when 18 soldiers were killed in fierce fighting with Abu Sayyaf extremists that also left five Islamic militants dead, including a Moroccan fighter, the military said Sunday.

At least 53 other soldiers were wounded in Saturday's daylong clashes with the Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka on Basilan island, regional military spokesman Maj. Filemon Tan and other army officials said.

The large combat casualties were reported as the Philippines marked the Day of Valor Saturday to remember Filipino veterans who died in World War II.

Government forces were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, three military officials told The Associated Press Saturday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the military assault.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Hapilon's capture and prosecution.

The Abu Sayyaf militants, many of whom were armed with M203 grenade launchers, apparently managed to reinforce their ranks quickly as the fighting raged and gathered between 100 and 150 fighters, allowing them to inflict heavy casualties on government troops, the officials said.

The fighting lasted for more than nine hours, they said.

Among the slain militants was a Moroccan, who was identified as Mohammad Khattab, and a son of Hapilon, Tan said, adding about 20 other gunmen were wounded.

It's the largest single-day government combat loss this year in the south, where the military has been battling Muslim separatist rebels and extremists, and Marxist guerrillas.

Last year, 44 police commandos were killed in clashes with various Muslim insurgent groups in southern Mamasapano town while on a covert mission that was fraught with faulty planning and execution but nevertheless killed a top Malaysian terror suspect in Southeast Asia.

Outrage over the police deaths stalled a peace deal with the largest Muslim insurgent group some of whose fighters got entangled in the fighting.

The Abu Sayyaf was founded in 1991 in Basilan, about 880 kilometers (550 miles) south of Manila. With an unwieldy collective of preachers and outlaws, it vowed to wage jihad, or holy war, but lost its key leaders early in combat, sending it on a violent path of extremism and criminality.

The United States and the Philippines have separately blacklisted the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization for carrying out deadly bombings, extortion, kidnappings for ransom, and beheadings of locals and foreigners, including Christian missionaries in the south.

More than a decade of U.S.-backed Philippine offensives have weakened the Abu Sayyaf, but it remains a key security threat.

The brutal group has been blamed for a spike in kidnappings for ransom in recent weeks, including the separate abductions of 10 Indonesian tugboat crewmen near southern Tawi Tawi province and four Malaysian tugboat crewmembers off Malaysia's Sabah state on Borneo Island.

An Abu Sayyaf faction freed a former Italian missionary on Friday after six months of jungle captivity on Jolo island in Sulu province, also in the south. There has been speculation that a huge ransom was paid to secure the freedom of Rolando del Torchio, who was flown to Manila on Saturday, but the military said it was unaware of any such payment.

The militants are believed to be holding three Filipinos and 18 foreigners, including two Canadians and a Norwegian, mostly in their jungle encampments on Jolo Island. (**)
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Linkedin Erika Anindita Dewi (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Sun, April 10, 2016

The United Development Party (PPP) declared Muhammad Romahurmuziy its new chairman during its eighth national congress (Muktamar) at Pondok Gede Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta on Saturday.

In the sixth plenary meeting of the Muktamar, Romahurmuziy, who previously served as secretary-general of the PPP leadership group formed at a 2011 Muktamar in Bandung, was elected by acclamation.

According to the congress rules, the election of the party's chairman or central executive board (DPP) chairman must take place in an agreed forum. During the process, the forum leader will ask for approval from all party members on one chairman candidate.

At the meeting, the PPP's DPP deputy chairman Suharso Monoarfa announced Romahurmuziy as the party chairman candidate, drawing applause from over 1,000 PPP members from 33 regional executive boards.

"Do you trust me, who has been involved in the PPP's conflicts over the last one-and-a-half years, to be the real chairman?" Romahurmuziy asked congress participants in his acceptance speech.

"We do!" they replied in unison, showing their agreement with the result of the quick vote.

Speaking after his win, Romahurmuziy said he aimed to get more votes in the upcoming legislative election. In 2014, the PPP obtained 8,157,488 votes (6.53 percent of the total) and 39 seats (7 percent).

The three-day meeting was hosted by PPP leaders elected at the Bandung Muktamar. In 2011, then religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali was appointed party chairman, alongside Romahurmuziy as secretary-general.

The eighth Muktamar was held following the Law and Human Rights Ministry's decision on Feb. 16 to reactivate a decree that recognized the party's leadership elected at the Bandung Muktamar. The PPP is set to compose new rules and bylaws in the eighth Muktamar, which ends on Sunday. (ebf)
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Corporate tattoo April Fool prank hits the mark

PHUKET: The controversy over Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd providing corporate tattoos as revealed last week was only a 2016 April Fools prank, but featured by national media, on social media platforms including social media personalities videos going viral.

economicsculture

By The Phuket News

Sunday 10 April 2016, 11:00AM

The Paul Poole branded press release.

Followers of Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd woke up on April 1 to the news that the company had started to offer corporate tattoos to brands wishing to maximise their commercial sponsorship and partnership marketing efforts.

The news article was accompanied by photos showing the logos of well-known brands adorning the bodies of attractive models and the message: In a world where traditional media is in rapid decline, marketers are faced with constantly changing and at times obscure non-traditional marketing platforms, which everyone is talking about but few seem to understand. Corporate tattoos offer an impactful, tangible and permanent alternative.

Later the same day, Bangkok Post/Post Today, Thaivisa, The Phuket News and Pattaya Today ran stories highlighting the moral issues of encouraging young people to brand their bodies with company logos. The articles cited concerned parents and university staff saying, How can my child go around for the rest of his life bearing a company logo on his body?

And it didnt stop there. YouTube phenomenon and videography company, My Mate Nate, shot a video of Nate, an American teen living in Thailand who is known for his hidden camera pranks, going around showing off his new corporate tattoo.

Given the attention we have received from this years April Fools prank, Im starting to think we should indeed start offering corporate tattoos, joked Paul Poole, Founder, Managing Director and Chairman of Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd. Lets see if anyone signs up!

Paul Poole (South East Asia) Co Ltd is an independent marketing consultancy based in Bangkok, Thailand specialising in commercial sponsorship and partnership marketing, working with both rights holders and brands  acting as a catalyst by bringing them together and maximising the relationship.

We have packaged, sold and managed sponsorship and partnership opportunities for a wide range of rights holders and worked with many of the worlds leading brands to source and engage the right sponsorships and partnerships for them to maximise, said Mr Poole.
Dead and forgotten: Bodies taking up New Delhis decrepit morgues

INDIA: A rusted carving knife and a mallet lie on a steel table, while inside the cold storage rooms, bodies take up every square inch of the blood-stained floors.

culturedeath

By AFP

Sunday 10 April 2016, 08:00AM

A medic walks through a cold storage unit as he inspects a morgue in New Delhi. Photo:Chandan Khanna/AFP

More than 2,500 autopsies are carried out every year at New Delhis oldest and busiest morgue, but the air purifiers have long been broken and disinfectant supplies for washing floors ran out two months ago.

The mortuary is compromised at every level, Sabzi Mandi mortuarys chief doctor, L.C Gupta, said of the dearth of resources.

The decrepit state of the Indian capitals dozen-odd morgues, mostly state run, recently stunned the High Court which ordered the citys government to take action.

From outdated equipment to poor storage of bodies and sick staff, the results of a court-ordered investigation made disturbing reading and shocked many in this deeply religious country.

Its a clear cut case of negligence, said lawyer Saqid, who uses one name, appointed by the court to conduct the probe.

There are a lot of rights under the constitution and people in India spend a lot of time fighting for them, he said as he poured over photos and documents in his office.

But the dead cannot protest their rights.

The crisis is compounded by the sheer number of unidentified bodies, several thousand a year, that fill Delhis morgues after being discovered outside train stations, bus terminals and other public places.

Many are homeless men who pour into the city of 16 million from villages every year desperately searching for work. They die from disease, malnutrition and the impact of living on the citys harsh streets.

Protocol says they must be kept for up to 72 hours in a morgue to allow families time to collect them.

But many remain for much longer, unclaimed by relatives and shunned by the reluctant police who found them, placing a strain on the morgues themselves.

The crisis reportedly boiled over earlier this year when bodies were left on the street outside Sabzi Mandi, with frustrated staff refusing to take them back in.

Mr Gupta denied the incident, but added that police moved quickly to come and collect unclaimed bodies after the row was reported in a leading Indian daily.

In the storage rooms, there are no shelves or racks to hold the numerous bodies. Encased in white plastic, most are lying on the floor, with many of the wrappings ripped and open.

A single, scuffed boot sits on top of one body and a hand flops over the edge of a rusted trolley holding another.

According to the courts report, a key problem is the large number of autopsies performed at the request of overcautious police, creating a backlog and placing pressure on staff.

Police insist on post mortems as a matter of routine even though their own circular says there is no need if there are no suspicious circumstances, Saqid said.

Delhis health minister Satyendar Jain, who reportedly said he felt ill after touring the morgues in the wake of the report, has promised to improve conditions.

Jain declined requests for comment, but his officials have said that a review of the situation is under way.

The court ordered the probe in 2014 after authorities discovered that the body of a prison inmate whose death was being investigated had been chewed by rats.

The report found that a lack of funds impacts on the living as well as the dead, with staff falling ill from handling bodies infected with tuberculosis and other diseases.

At Sabzi Mandi, staff use only bathroom soap to wash their hands, while a shortage of hospital-grade products means floors are cleaned instead with bleach, a doctor said.

Its an occupational hazard, Dr Komal Singh said of staff falling sick at his mortuary at the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in Delhis west.

The morgue opened in 1995 with four medical officers and with resources for 400 autopsies a year. Now the same number of staff perform up to 1,800 autopsies annually.

With the court finally shining a spotlight on the crisis, Mr Singh said he is hopeful the government will approve his request for more funds to double storage space for bodies and update equipment.

People are interested in the treatment of the living but in our society they dont bother so much about what happens to the dead, he said.

But the court is taking this seriously and we are hopeful.
El Nino bleaching threatens Andaman coral reef sites, may close

PHUKET: After being warned of possible coral bleaching in Thailand as a result of El Nino last year, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources says it is prepared to cope but may be forced to close affected coral reef sites.

marineenvironmentnatural-resourcestourismeconomics

By Bangkok Post

Sunday 10 April 2016, 11:33AM

Coal reefs along the Andaman coast are under threat by higher-than-average temperatures and mass tourism. Photo: Bangkok Post

The increasing temperatures in the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand earlier this month is a sign, said Nalinee Thongtham, the department's senior fishery biologist.

She said that the influence of El Nino has resulted in increasing seawater temperatures in the eastern Pacific which have remained longer than usual. Once the temperature declines, the mass of warm water moves to the western Pacific, accompanied with high seawater temperatures in the summer season.

This becomes a significant factor in stimulating the bleaching, the biologist added.

This is not the first case of bleaching in Thailand. The natural occurrence took place in 1991, 1995, 2003, 2005 and 2007.

However, the worst case was in 2010 where 66.9 per cent of coral reefs in the northern part of the Andaman Sea and 39% in the southern part died from bleaching.

The biologist said the recovery from 2010 is satisfactory in many areas but the department is concerned that these areas may soon be affected by new bleaching.

"If it happens in a very short period, there is a smaller impact to the coral reefs, which are very sensitive. Or the impact could be immense in which case stronger action is required to limit the problem," she said.

Pinsak Suraswadi, director of Marine Research Institute, said officials at five stations are closely monitoring seawater temperatures, four in the Gulf of Thailand and one in the Andaman Sea.

If the temperature rises to 30.5C in the Gulf of Thailand and 28C in the Andaman Sea, bleaching is likely to happen.

The department has prepared to close coral reef sites, using Section 22 of the 2015 marine and coastal management promotion law that gives the department the authority to manage marine resources and prevent areas from being severely affected.

The high number of tourists could worsen the bleaching. About 12 million tourists visit Phuket every year.

Sommai Plookmaidee, vice-president of Phang Nga's Pru Nai Tambon Administration Organisation (OrBorTor), voiced his concern that a huge number of tourists has had a significant impact on coral reefs.

At Koh Kai Nok alone, there are 300 speedboats carrying about 3,000 tourists every day. There are not enough buoys to service them, resulting in boats anchoring to coral reef sites.

Mr Sommai said he wants to see all stakeholders work together to limit the impact on coral reefs and to enact a recovery plan, including limiting the number of tourists and enforcing waste management at beachfront shops and restaurants.

He added that wastewater and garbage management is the OrBorTor's top priority, to limit the impacts to the marine ecological system.





Read original story here.
Watchman at the end of the world

CHILE: Balancing work and family life is a challenge for most of us, but few come up with solutions as extreme as Jose Aguayo's.

marineculturemilitarytransport

By AFP

Sunday 10 April 2016, 03:00PM

Jose Aguayo watches over the treacherous Drake Passage. Photo: AFP

The Chilean sailor, whose job used to keep him away from his family for long stretches, decided recently to move the whole clan to Cape Horn, near the tip of South America, where he watches over a lighthouse above the treacherous Drake Passage and spends more time  a lot more time  with his wife, son and daughter.

It is a harsh environment of numbing cold and bitter wind, and the nearest town is more than five hours away by boat.

But to the 36-year-old and his family, this remote outpost at the end of the world is now home.

The kids motivated me a little bit, he said, explaining why he volunteered for the job.

Im a sailor, so I spend a lot of time at sea. Vicente is 11 and Ive been sailing for 10 years. So they wanted to be with their dad, and what better way than being here.

Manning a lighthouse that sits above the spot where the Atlantic meets the Pacific, Aguayo guides ships through a tempestuous stretch of sea that has killed more than 10,000 sailors and shipwrecked 800 vessels since the 17th century.

Known for its icebergs, large waves and strong currents, the Drake Passage between South America and Antarctica used to be an essential channel of world trade, until the Panama Canal was completed a century ago.

These days, there is much less traffic. But Aguayo, who arrived in November, still starts his day at 3am, taking meteorological measurements.

By six, he is greeting the tourist boats that ferry curious sightseers to this remote outpost during the southern hemisphere summer.

Weve had 4,000 visitors to the island so far. They ask me how I can still be smiling, Aguayo said.

Cape Horn is the scene of more shipwrecks than any other ocean region in the world, according to the Chilean navy.

Its stories of death and survival in extreme circumstances have inspired the likes of French writer Jules Verne  whose book The Lighthouse at the End of the World could well describe Aguayos office  and Chilean writer Francisco Coloane, who set his collection Cape Horn there.

Sailors say that navigating Cape Horn gave commanders, captains and crew the envied rank of a true man of the sea and the indisputable right to be listened to everywhere with admiration and respect, said Chilean naval commander Ivo Brito Sanchez at commemorations in January to mark 400 years since the capes discovery.

The Aguayo family has spent the past two months keeping the Cape Horn lighthouse, which was built by the Chilean navy in 1991.

They live in a treeless landscape swept day and night by winds of up to 100 kilometers an hour.

Aguayos wife, Natalia Rodriguez, home-schools their children, Vicente and Montserrat, five.

Besides the familys house, which is at the base of the lighthouse, the only signs of civilisation are a landing strip and a chapel.

There isnt a lot to do, but the kids are doing great, said Aguayo.

Theyre sharing a lot of experiences... and, since weve had a lot of bad weather, they play Xbox in the house, he said.

The house is a fairly ordinary middle-class home, and has satellite, phone and Internet connections.

They may live at the end of the Earth, but were not cut off from the world, said Aguayo.
How to watch and what to know about South Dakota State at North Dakota
Two horses, 365 days, 8,000 kilometres

On Sunday, armed with two horses and a camera, I begin a journey to the end of the world.

Departing from Barretos, Brazil, I will trek for 365 days and 8,000 kilometres through the humid Iguazu jungles of southern Brazil, across the mighty and desolate Andes in Chile, past the occasional Uruguayan urban sprawl, over the boggy grasslands of the Argentine pampas and finally along ancient Patagonian glaciers to Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of South America. Drought, storms, snakes, spiders and unpredictable terrain stand between me and my goal.

To some, this may seem as scary as riding a wild 2,000-pound bull, but this is not my first trip to the rodeo.

The journey:

In 2012, inspired by writer/adventurer Aime Tschiffelys 1925 long ride from Buenos Aires to Washington, D.C., I set out from the Calgary Stampede and rode 16,000 kilometres to my native Brazil. I crossed 10 countries, encountering grizzly bears, drug lords, prostitutes, crooked politicians and thousands of people who offered a helping hand. Two years later, seeping in horse sweat, I arrived in Barretos to the cheers of 40,000 people at the largest rodeo in Latin America.

Back when I first told people about my plan to cross the Americas, many called me a lunatic; it was impossible; I would die a gruesome death on some forlorn desert plateau.

The fact is there wasnt one day out of the 803 I spent in the saddle that I didnt think about quitting. Waking every day in my stuffy, smelly tent, I had one problem or 10 to deal with: hurt horses, bad food, no food, no water, gunshots, rain, snow, heat  But for a good cowboy  hard-working and stubborn  quitting is never an option. During that journey, I often thought about Terry Fox, whose story of resiliency and determination had a deep impact on me as a teenager growing up in Canada. As Fox once said, dreams are made if people try. I think Fox was a cowboy without a horse.

In the months following my heros welcome in Barretos and stepping down from the saddle, it became evident that I was not the same boy who had departed Calgary. Seeing the world at 4 km/h had opened my eyes to the effects of climate change, to drug wars, loss of habitat, economic strife and the role of the old ways in a modern world. I discovered the Earth is full of curious, hopeful and helpful beings. And most importantly, I realized I had become a 28-year-old nomadic spirit who could no longer stay still.

The trail called out to me and I listened with desire.

I also had new inspiration: during a visit to the Barretos Cancer Hospital, in my role as celebrity adventurer, I met many children with cancer. The hospital does not charge its patients for the extraordinary treatment it offers, so millions of dollars must be raised to keep the facility running. Since I had been helped by so many people on my own journey, I vowed to help the hospital, raising funds and awareness.

So, I decided to go on another long ride.

I cant wait to get to know my mares, Doll Olena and Topaz Life, and see them become my team, my herd. By the time I finished my first ride, my horses Frenchie, Bruiser and Dude knew what I was thinking and feeling. I spent every day for two years and three months with those majestic animals. When I retired them at my familys farm in the interior of Sao Paulo, I felt like a proud father. Im interested to see how my new girls will compare to my farting, snoring, pissing-in-their-hay boys.

After six months of research, planning and fundraising, the time has come to pack my things, saddle my mares and hit the road. Everything I can carry must fit into my pack saddle and weigh less than 170 pounds. From my toothbrush to my underwear, to camera equipment, to horse medication, everything has to have a real value or it stays behind.

For the next year you can watch me eat a lot of ramen noodles, sleep atop my saddle pads and bathe in icy streams. All while trying to stay alive and keep my horses healthy.

Cowboy is another word for freedom, an old Mexican vaquero once told me over a bottle of maguey.

I love being free  thats why I ride.

The Calgary-to Brazil trip: Many called be a lunatic

On the trip, there wasnt one day in 803 that Filipe Masetti Leite didnt think of quitting. Here are some of the highlights

Calgary

Yellowstone

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Mexican border

Guatemala/Honduras border

Costa Rica

Barretos, Brazil

Filipe Masetti Leite is a filmmaker, Ryerson University journalism graduate and cowboy en route to Tierra del Fuego. Over the next year, he will file monthly reports to the Star from the trail. Dispatches from his 2012 journey can be seen at www.outwildtv.com/expeditions/journey-america. A book and TV reality series are set to be released later this year.

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To be a black Muslim woman in Toronto is to feel deep isolation, the result of omnipresent systemic anti-black, patriarchal and Islamophobic discrimination. It is to be under constant attack. To see bodies like mine ignored in the news when they suffer, when they disappear and when they die, unjustly.

Evidently some do not believe this is true. During Black History Month, I was bombarded by tweets from white men asking me to prove that racism, Islamophobia and misogyny exist. Why should I have to prove the existence of the forces that torment me and members of my community to people who dont believe they exist and, worse, who perpetuate them? And so two months ago I tweeted, Plz Allah give me strength not to cuss/kill these men and white folks out here today. I put my rage and trauma into words, not action, not threat. Faced with hate, I sought restraint from god and support from my online community.

Fast forward to now. Black Lives Matter Toronto, a movement I cofounded, camped outside the police headquarters for two weeks through incredibly difficult weather conditions fighting for justice against the attack on black life in Toronto. The protest was prompted by the police shooting of Andrew Loku, a man armed only with a hammer, and the lack of transparency that followed. We have been calling for an end to anti-black racism in all institutions, from the racist practice of carding to the lack of accountability, transparency and oversight of police officers who kill black people in this city. And we got results. In two weeks, we convinced city councillors to pass a motion at city hall to investigate the lack of transparency and anti-black structures of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit. Afro-fest was restored to two days. And Premier Kathleen Wynne committed to having a public meeting with us.

As the movement gained traction, I became increasingly visible and increasingly the target of those who oppose our cause. Jerry Agar, a Toronto Sun columnist with a long, well-documented record of enmity to our anti-racist goals, attempted to use my visibility to discredit me. A day after the conclusion of #BLMTOtentcity, he cited the aforementioned tweet in an attempt to delegitimize an entire movement, and to position my community as undeserving of justice.

I am not a public official. I am not a police officer. The state does not entrust me with violent weaponry. I have never contributed to the mass targeting of a community. All I have done is used a turn of phrase, a rhetorical flourish, to voice my frustration and dared to be a person calling for justice.

To date, I have directly received many disturbing death threats from white supremacists across the country. Somehow a tweet I wrote out of anger months before our protest began has become a bigger media story than our protests many and profound accomplishments. The noise surrounding this tweet has also drowned out the discussion we sought to spark about the black lives of those who have died at the guns of police in this country. Journalists have incessantly harassed me, desperate to get a comment on the tweet. Where were they during the entire two weeks of #BLMTOtentcity? The media is part and parcel of how anti-black racism works. Too often black people are ignored or vilified when we speak the truth about our condition.

To be black in Toronto is to have been or know somebody who has been brutalized, violated or battered by the Toronto police. Our lives are plagued by institutional and individual anti-black racism that compromises our access to safety, economic freedom, proper health care, food, housing, employment, education and culturally restorative support services. To be black in this city is to fight to survive.

Mayor John Tory responded to reports of my tweet less than 24 hours after they emerged. Yet for the more than two weeks black people fought for our humanity in protest outside of police headquarters, he ignored us. That is something everyone in this city should be concerned about. Despite all the violence we endure when we resist, we can never lose sight of the issues; we must continue to seek justice and accountability for our community. We only have more work to do, and this is only the beginning. Black lives matter, here as everywhere, and they always will.

Yusra Khogali, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto, is a community organizer, anti-racism educator and black feminist poet. She is also a graduate student at the University of Toronto pursuing a masters in Social Justice Education.

Correction - April 19, 2016: This article was edited from a previous version that mistakenly referred to the Toronto Police's Special Investigations Unit. In fact, the SIU is an independent arms length agency of the Ontario government.



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Jeffrey Baldwins death horrified Ontarians and led to calls for a wholesale review of the provinces child protection standards. The 5-year-old died in 2002 at the hands of his Toronto grandparents, neglected, abused and starved to death.

That prompted a decade-long round of soul-searching in the child protection community, after it came to light that workers from the Catholic Childrens Aid Society had failed to check the societys old files that documented the grandparents previous convictions for assaulting their own children before Jeffrey was placed with them.

Now, at long last, the Ontario Association of Childrens Aid Societies is responding to an inquest into Jeffreys death with major reforms. It is beefing up training for child protection workers, setting province-wide standards, and looking to eventually have a professional college regulate them.

That matters in a province with no fewer than 47 independent child protection agencies.

As the Stars Sandro Contenta and Jim Rankin report, under the planned system new recruits will have to pass eight standardized courses and a final exam during a four-month training period before they are authorized to fully perform child protection duties. Right now workers are authorized to perform all duties as soon as they are hired.

As well, the association is in talks with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, which regulates more than 17,400 people involved in social work, to bring Ontarios 5,160 child protection workers under its umbrella. All of the colleges members have a bachelors or masters degree in social work. But only just over half of the child protection workers do. So the association and college are looking into setting up training and courses that would equal a degree, and moving in the direction of requiring all eligible staff to be registered with the college.

Says association president Mary Ballantyne: We want to make sure that the people who are doing the work have the very best training and competence to be able to do it.

Ultimately the idea is to have child protection workers become members of the college. The college would regulate their practices, standards and ethical codes. It would also have the power to investigate complaints from parents and to discipline workers for professional misconduct or incompetence.

That opens the door to a tussle with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who represent some of the workers. CUPE argues they already have high levels of oversight that include workplace supervisors, family courts, coroners inquests and annual case audits by the ministry.

Be that as may be, Ontario has an obligation to do whats best for vulnerable children such as Jeffrey Baldwin. That should be the guiding principle, going forward.

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Jim Cramer fills his blog on RealMoney every day with his up-to-the-minute reactions to what's happening in the market and his legendary ahead-of-the-crowd ideas. This week he blogged on:

Why banks should want to be more like the utilities

Why Allergan, Disney and oil were a gift for the bears

Click here for information on RealMoney, where you can see all the blogs, including Jim Cramer's -- and reader comments -- in real time.

If Only the Banks Were More Like Utilities

Posted on April 8 at 7:15 a.m. ET

Jamie Dimon's annual letter sure didn't make you feel great about owning bank stocks, especially that call-to-action moment where he pretty much warned that turning the banks into utilities would be bad for the country.

But would it be bad for the stocks? When I looked at everything that's happened in the market, the most glaring thing, the ugliest portion of the whole tape, came from the banking group -- where stocks just gave up whatever meager hope might have been there before the quarters are reported.

Banks, lest we forget, are immensely profitable. They take your money in, they lend it or invest it, they buy back stock, they pay big dividends and you get income and growth from them.

Oops. That's no longer the case, really, is it? They take your money and they pay all sorts of internal regulators and controllers with it ,while they do nothing with it to generate any sort of outsized return and then they try to return capital to you but the regulators tell them what to do.

Which brings me back to the utility question.

Banks could only wish they were utilities, which, by the way, are consistent, pay a good dividend, and have some growth characteristics that banks should be envious of.

We know that Dimon's stock has done as well as the S&P 500 during his tenure, which is still better than almost all in his group.

But let's compare the biggest deposit bank with one of the biggest -- if not the biggest -- utility: Bank of America (BAC) and American Electric Power (AEP) . Five years ago today, Bank of America was at $13. Today it is at $12.85. American Electric Power was at $36.50. Today it is at $65.60. You got about $10 in dividends from AEP in that period, while you got about 50 cents from Bank of America.

Without even including the power of dividend compounding, one could easily argue that we wish the government would turn banks into utilities - as they offer some genuine performance and income. They are exactly what bank stocks used to be!



Now it wasn't always that we declared banks just creatures of net interest income, which, in some ways, is the equivalent of what the states will let AEP earn. That's just since Dodd-Frank and the Volcker rule: where these banks were stripped of creative ways to make more money. Once you took that away, the street gravitated not toward analyzing any fee streams, no matter how much they were augmented, or any trading fees, given that they have been crimped beyond belief, but just settled on that net interest margin as a gauge.

Again, that's a lot like what has happened with utilities. We don't really care what else they generate, we just look at what relief they get from the regulators.

Again, the regulators in utilities clearly are willing to give investors in their flock better returns than the bank regulators are.

Now you could say that I am ruining the comparison by using Bank of America as the brass standard, here. But Keycorp (KEY) has moved from $8.8 to $10. PNC (PNC) from $66 to $81. BB&T (BBT) has gone from $28 to $32. First Horizon (FHN) moved from $11 to $12. Those are all pretty representative examples of banks you wish were utilities. (To be fair, JPMorgan Chase (JPM) has gone from $43 to $57 and Action Alerts PLUS holdingWells Fargo (WFC) has gone from $29 to $46, but they still can't touch AEP.)

Oh, and let's throw in something that perhaps is far more important: Have you been able to sleep at night, owning Bank of America? Go try the Sominex of AEP, you might like it.

So maybe banks serve vital functions, but as far as I am concerned the function that we want them to do -- give us growth and income -- can be much better found in the utilities that Dimon doesn't want banks to be turned into.

No wonder the group is considered such a pariah, right now. As we head into what will be yet one more crummy bank-earnings season, given the opportunities to make money with them, either capital appreciation or capital preservation, they deserve the opprobrium.

Position: Long BAC, WFC

Allergan Shows Pharma Is Back in the Political Doghouse

Posted on April 5 at 11:24 a.m. ET

Where did all those buyers go? Isn't that how you always feel, when you come in and read some corporate news that's disturbing -- the government's rule change that killed the Allergan (AGN) deal (Allergan is a holding of our Action Alerts PLUS charity portfolio) and the re-shuffling at the top of Disney (DIS) -- plus another down day for oil and, voila, we are down almost 1%?

But oddly, the reason why that triple play is more potent than it should seem is that it serves as a reminder of three of the four more recent roving bear markets, which many had thought were put behind us yet have suddenly surfaced again.



First, Treasury's rebuke of the Pfizer (PFE) -Allergan deal (what to do with Allergan is covered in several critical Action Alerts PLUS bulletins we have been issuing) has all sorts of overtones that were momentarily shelved for brighter climes.

One is that the drug companies are still truly hated in Washington and are easy whipping boys. Last week the drug company stocks seemed washed out as a new quarter began. But then Bernie Sanders surged ahead in the Wisconsin polls and, for many, Sanders stands for lower price-to-earnings multiple these days. It's not like someone in Washington wants to help one so-called rapacious capitalist drug company buy another rapacious drug company while cheating Uncle Sam.

On a larger issue, of course, is the notion that corporations that play by the rules are getting slain by the rules. Allergan and Pfizer had structured this deal to fit with Treasury regs. But then the regs were changed. Wall Street hates that kind of thing, even regards it as a sort of Fifth Amendment taking by the government. "Hey, those are my arb profits, step aside."

With Pfizer out of the picture, suddenly we have to value Allergan after the arbs have booted it and that new valuation on a double-digit grower right now looks to be like those of many single-digit growers like Pfizer or Merck (MRK) , suggesting that there's nothing special going on at Allergan except price increases that will draw the ire of the Sanders crowd, which is motivating the Clinton crowd until she takes the nomination.

Ah, I get it, hedge funds fear they are now in Valeant (VRX) number two, even as Allergan is taking share away from Valeant and doesn't need price increases to make its numbers. But so what!

In other words, pharma's back in the political doghouse, getting it from all sides. At the same time, the hedge funds that had piled into Allergan are now hurting, so their pain has to spread. The bear just might frolic in the pharma group and the investors in hedge funds remain an unhappy bunch. Two themes we thought were behind us, now front and center.

Second, the sudden departure of Tom Staggs from the race to succeed Bob Iger at Disney took so many by surprise that you have to figure something bigger is up. The sub rosa litany? Staggs dealt with ESPN. Perhaps ESPN is even worse than we thought. That whole entertainment group has been up for days. Maybe they have been up for weak reasons. So sell them all. After the run some of these have had, especially Time Warner (TWX) , you get the picture.

Finally, and most overwhelmingly, there's oil. When this market rallies, oil's driving the bus. As we challenged the $40s, here was the narrative: The higher oil goes, the less worry there is about credit weakness. The less worry about credit weakness, the less concern about systemic risk and major defaults.

As oil was repulsed from the $40 redoubt, the whole litany runs reverse. Oil looks scarily bi-polar: when it is at $40 it looks like it is going to $60; when it is in the low $30s, it looks like it is going to $20.

It is probably going somewhere in between, but when oil's going down the market simply reads that as a sign of recession, and until we hear some self-fulfilling "there could be a deal still to be reached" at the April 17 meeting in Doha chatter -- the story that drove oil from the $20s to begin with -- I think oil's just going to keep heading down. The good news? Some country's oil minister does always seem to pop out from behind a well to say it.

So, drugs back in bear mode, entertainment back in bear mode and oil back in bear mode. The only thing missing? The banks! They are at the epicenter of all bear maulings, and they've been drifting down for days now. My bet? They do more than drift, now that the other fault lines have been exposed.

Why not?

The bear knows where to lurk after a run.

Always does. Always will.

Position: Long AGN

At the time of publication, Jim Cramer's charitable trust Action Alerts PLUS held no positions in stocks mentioned.
As if Wall Street weren't already competitive enough, a downtown Manhattan footrace will pit finance giant against finance giant.

Bloomberg will host the Square Mile Relay in New York City's Financial District for the first time on Thursday, April 21. Over 100 teams from leading financial institutions, including Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Deutsche Bank, are slated to compete.

"The Bloomberg Square Mile Relay is a unique sporting event which offers a perfect opportunity for the city's most competitive runners to come together for a night of camaraderie, teamwork, celebration and networking. Our goal is to offer a platform for teams from local corporations to express their sporting enthusiasm while bonding with fellow colleagues," said Nick Keller, managing director of event organizer Square Mile Sport, in a press release. "The event is open to all levels of experience -- whether you are an elite or leisure runner -- we want everyone to enjoy this relay."

Each team will consist of 10 members. Each member will run one mile on a course that winds through lower Manhattan, starting in the Seaport District on Fulton Street.

"The financial industry is a competitive market and these organizations will be similarly battling it out for top position as they jostle each other around every turn to get the edge over their peers before handing the baton to their waiting colleague," Keller said in an email to TheStreet. "However, runners of every level or experience can take part in the relay and after completing their lap, participants can enjoy first class hospitality and a live DJ during the after-race party."

The winning team will win a $10,000 donation to the charity of its choice. The Bloomberg Square Mile Relay has also named the National September 11 Memorial & Museum as the official charity partner of the event and will make a donation to help support its mission.

"We are grateful for the generous support the Bloomberg Square Mile Relay has shown by selecting us as its official charity partner for the inaugural event in New York. Partnerships such as these are critical to help ensure the Memorial and Museum is sustained, and that visitors from around the world, especially current and future generations, will be able to experience this world-class learning institution and living tribute for years to come," said Cathy Blaney, 9/11 Memorial's executive vice president of institutional advancement.

The Square Mile Relay may be new to New York, but the concept has been around for quite some time. First launched in London in 2007, events have been held in various global financial centers -- Dubai, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore and Sydney.

Michael Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, said in a statement that his firm is excited to bring the race to its home city. "The race embodies the importance of speed, team work, and giving back -- three values that we celebrate at Bloomberg," he said.

Keller said he hopes the relay will become "an annual fixture on Wall Street's sporting calendar."

JPMorgan won the most recent Square Mile Relay in Sydney, finishing with a time of 1:02:12 and beating out a team from Macquerie by just eight seconds. The 2015 event in London saw Barclays come out ahead, with a time of 53:59, edging out teams from JPMorgan, Trayport, Nike and Credit Suisse.
Montreal, CA (H4T1V6)

Today

Mainly cloudy. A few peeks of sunshine possible. High 66F. Winds light and variable..

Tonight

Cloudy with occasional showers overnight. Low 49F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.
This solar array is at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin. On Wednesday, the Massachusetts House passed a compromise solar energy bill, but environmentalists say it falls short. (Staff file photo by Mike George)
FILE - This undated handout file photo provided by the FBI shows Brenda Delgado. Mexican prosecutors on Friday, April 8, 2016, said they have detained, Delgado, a woman on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted fugitives list for the killing of a dentist in Texas. Delgado was detained at a house in the city of Torreon, in northern Coahuila state, according to the Attorney General's Office. (FBI via AP, File)
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel Council expressed disapproval and anger over growing and constant High Court of Justice involvement in matters of halacha. All too often, members of the council are compelled to convene and discuss yet another High Court ruling that deals with matters of halacha and the rabbonim feel these matters should be left to them to adjudicate, not the secular High Court.

According to a Kikar Shabbos News report, during a recent meeting of the council, Beersheva Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri Shlita was furious, stating I am shocked that all of us sit here quietly as we see the High Court trend. A fool would think, and I say this mostly about myself, that this will stop with the issue of the mikvaos of the egalitarian prayer area by the Kosel.

Rav Deri warned colleagues of the trend, explaining time and time again we convene to discuss High Court decisions [that have halachic ramifications. We cannot plug holes [made by the High Court] all day. Why dont we release an emotional call as a requirement or request that all matters of religion should be left to us to deal with us autonomously. The High Court cannot begin to intervene in all religious matters.

Deri feels that the words must be said even if they are not heard for clearly the High Court is also affected by public opinion. He feels the court has exceeded all acceptable boundaries and the time has come for the Rabbinate to go to battle for the soul of the nation.

Council member HaGaon HaRav Yaakov Rosa said From the day the Chief Rabbinate of Israel was established and the progress since then, today the Rabbanut is disgraced.

Rav Deri remained adamant, telling his colleagues they must act for if not, the trend will worsen. He questions the value of the establishment of the Chief Rabbinate if the nations Supreme Court can change its decisions at will. We are calling for autonomy regarding matters of religion. Deri believes an impassioned plea to the High Court can indeed have a positive effect.

HaGaon HaRav Avraham Yosef Shlita added The Rishon LTzion responded to the courts decision and the court president, Justice Naor responded its none of your business.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
[PHOTOS IN EXTENDED ARTICLE]

Zaka professionals provided basic extrication and disaster preparedness training to volunteers from the PA (Palestinian Authority)-affiliated Green Land organization.

Prior to beginning to operate in the field as seen in the photos, the volunteers met for months, attending classes during which the basics of search and rescue were explained to the PA volunteers. The classes also addressed dealing with fatalities at disaster scenes and maintaining command of an area during a disaster.

This didactic training was followed by three days of practical training in the field, including a simulated earthquake and natural disaster. Under the watchful eye of extrication instructors volunteers operated at the scenes in groups, seeking to gain a level of expertise in a number of skills.

Zaka feels such cooperation is essential towards true preparedness for saving lives in the event of a true natural disaster in Israel, such as a major earthquake.

Green Lands Dr. Akram Amram said Natural disasters do not discriminate and strike us all. We too, residents of the region, must be united to assist and save one another without differentiating between peoples. We cannot rely on others for this.

Dr. Akram praised the course and the Zaka volunteers, calling this a first step in improved cooperation for combined humanitarian mission that faces them all in the event of an emergency.

Zaka CEO Yehuda Meshi-Zahav added, Zaka views the training and cooperation with the utmost importance. With the vast experience we have amassed over the years by responding to disasters around the world, most citizens are rescued by local residents and not by search & rescue teams that linger in their arrival. Therefore, the more citizens trained to respond to light rescue means more persons will be rescued. Being that Zaka is an international organization recognized by the UN permits us to enter into partnership training with the Palestinians and others in the region.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for the Five Towns Jewish Times

As always, it seems that Kitniyos is in the news again. For this Pesach, the Conservative movements Committee on Jewish Law and Standards issued a non-binding ruling for Conservative Jews that they do not have to keep Kitniyos anymore for Passover. There were 19 votes to repeal, one vote to keep it and two votes abstaining. Of course, the custom of abstaining from Kitniyos is far older than many religions, including both Protestant Christianity and even Islam. Below is a history and overview.

HISTORY

The origins of the minhag to not eat kitniyos (often defined as legumes) on Pesach dates back, according to some, to the times of the Geonim (see SMaK 222). During the time of the Gemara, however, the prohibition did not exist. Indeed, the Gemara tells us that Rabbah ate rice in front of Rav Huna (Pesachim 114b). Rav Ashi also rules that rice may be eaten on Pesach. But, clearly, in the time of the Geonim things changed.

REASONS

The reason why kitniyos were forbidden, of course, was as a protective measure. The Mishnah Berurah (O.C. 453:6, 464:5) provides a few explanations:

 Kitniyos are harvested and processed in the same way that chametz is. The masses would confuse the two and come to permit grains for themselves.

 Kitniyos can also be ground and baked, just like chametz, and people might come to permit chametz grains.

 The Kitniyos themselves may have actual chametz mixed in. All three reasons are therefore protective in nature. The prohibition was strictly limited to consumption; one may own and derive benefit from kitniyos on Pesach.

WHAT IS INCLUDED?

Just what is included in kitniyos? The term legumesis a misnomer, as that word simply means a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the edible fruit or seeds of such plants, such as beans and peas. The prohibition extended beyond just legumes, however. Rice, mustard, and corn (see M.B. 453:4) are also included. So are buckwheat, lentils, and sesame seeds.

What about Quinoa? The Badatz of the Eida Chareidis (Madrich HaKashrus 5772, Ch. 15, pg. 47) views it like corn which came to be included in the prohibition, while Rav Heineman from the Star K rules that it is permissible. The OU initially forbade it, with a printed response by Rav Yisroel Belsky ztl (VeKasher HaDavar (July 2012, pg. 9) explaining that Quinoa fit every criterion for Kitniyos. Rav Hershel Schachter lhavdil bain chaim lchaim had disagreed with Rabbi Belsky from the outset on this issue and in December of 2013, Rabbi Genack announced that Quinoa is not to be considered Kitniyos. They did this, according to the announcement, after investigating issues of cross-contamination in several countries. In addition to quinoa, OU Kosher has concluded that related canihua, kiwicha and maca seeds would also not be considered Kitniyos.

The TaZ writes that it is simply impossible to clearly define and quantify what is included in the category.

What about coffee? Is that a bean? The Shaarei Teshuvah forbids coffee as kitniyos. The prevalent Minhag is not to follow the Shaarei Teshuvah and to permit it. (This was true even before Maxwell House sponsored the English language Haggadahs).

And what about peanuts? Some say yes, some say no. Many of our older readers will remember the peanut oil with a Pesach hechsher that used to dominate our kitchen cabinets. No longer.

WHY THE STRINGENCIES?

And why are we so stringent regarding derivatives of kitniyos? This comes from a halachah found in the Rama: the Rama indicates that oil made from kitniyos is forbidden just like the kitniyos themselves. Cottonseed oil is perplexing, because some say yes and some say no. Canola oil is kitniyos, too.

FROM WHEN IS IT FORBIDDEN?

When are kitniyos forbidden? The Sheivet HaLevi (Vol. III, No. 31) rules that the time we can no longer eat them is the same time as for chametz itself. The Maharsham (Daas Torah 453) permits it, until the evening of Pesach itself. The minhag is to be stringent, but for those direct descendents of the Maharsham (quite a few of whom live in Lawrence), it would be okay to eat kitniyos on erev Pesach.

THE LENIENCIES

There is also a leniency. Kitniyos is battul brov if mixed in accidentally with other (kosher lPesach) food (see Mishnah Berurah 453:9). In other words, even if the taste is distinguishable, as long as the kitniyos constitutes less than half of the final mixture and is not removable, the food remains kosher! The Rav Shulchan Aruch says that this doesnt work if it is the main part of the dish  even when less than half.

Sick people may also eat kitniyos on Pesach, and it is permitted to feed kitniyos to infants or to animals. The Chasam Sofer writes (O.C. 122) not to let it cook a long time in the pot, but rather to heat up the water first and then put in the kitniyos (which is what we do anyway, except when using a rice cooker). Ideally, if one is feeding someone kitniyos, a separate pot should be kept for that use (Pri Chadash 453). There is no need to kasher, though, if an error was made.

OTHER HALACHOS

Are Kitniyos Muktzah on Shabbos? No, rules Rav Asher Weiss. Why not? Because they may be given to a Sephardic Jew on Yom Tov. Indeed Rav Elyashiv ztl ruled that on Isru Chag that falls on a Shabbos, one may have kitniyos because of a combination of factors including that it is permissible to Sefardim and therefore did not become Muktzah the previous bein hashmashos.

When a couple gets married, the wife follows the customs of the husband. So a Sephardic girl who marries an Ashkenazic boy cannot have kitniyos, while an Ashkenazic girl who marries a Sephardic boy may have kitniyos. This is true for a second marriage, as well.

Rav Elyashiv ztl had ruled that the minhag is that one should avoid vessels that had kitniyos cooked in them even if the vessels were used more than 24 hours ago. He did rule, however, that if it could insult someone heaven forbide, there is room to be lenient (page 14 of the Rav Elyashiv Hagaddah).

WILL IT BE CHANGED?

Another question: Is the prohibition of kitniyos here to stay? The Teshuvah MeAhavah (No. 259) seems to indicate that it is. He writes that even if the beis din of Shmuel HaRamasi or Eliyahu HaNavi were to reconvene, they would not have the ability to permit kitniyos. And, at least according to some poskim, it is a pretty serious prohibition; the Maharil (Hilchos Pesach 25) writes that violating the minhag can cause one to be put to death!

A PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH

But why all the stringencies? Why do we forbid so many things and their derivatives, as well? Why on erev Pesach, too? Perhaps a philosophical approach to kitniyos can answer a lot of our questions. One reason, given by the father of Koznitz Hagaddahs publisher (found in the Nuta Gavriel), is that the word alludes to a notion that means small, while Pesach is associated with things that are great.

To elaborate a bit, kitniyos represents something which is the antithesis of Pesach. Of all the holidays on the Jewish calendar, Pesach connotes greatnessa realization of who we are as a nation, and a concomitant recognition that Hashem had great purpose in redeeming us from the hand of Pharaoh. Within the small nation of Israel lies cosmic significance with a national spiritual destiny that can affect the world. Pesach connotes geulah, redemption, with all the overtones implied in the word.

Kitniyos, on the other hand, alludes to smallness. The word conjures up thoughts of a myopic, small-mindedness of sorts, where the cosmic significance and the national destiny of the Jewish people is ignored. Everything that we do has import, even down to the foods we eat or the foods that we do not eat. Perhaps we are so stringent in avoiding kitniyos to help us dispose of the small-mindedness that can get us stuck into just looking at the trees without seeing the forest. For the same reason, the community of the town of Ostreich refrained from eating kitniyos on any day on which Tachanun is not recited (see Beer Heitev O.C. 131, citing the Maharil). What is the reason? Perhaps it is to appeal to the inner voice within us to achieve our destiny, both as a people and as individuals.

The author can be reached at [email protected]


President Obama is no stranger to the Washington Sunday showshes appeared on ABCs This Week, CBSs Face the Nation, and NBCs Meet the Pressbut, until now, and for his entire time in the White House, Obama has cut and shunned Fox News Sunday.

I dont know that there was a formal explanation [from the Obama White House], but basically, they made it clear they werent very happy with Fox News, said Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace, who finally got his presidential exclusive for this weekends broadcast after countless scorned invitations.

Wallace taped his interview with Obama on Thursday for the show, which celebrates its 20th anniversary on April 28, and their conversation, at the White Houses insistence, is embargoed until 9 a.m. Sunday.
This is Money rounds up the Sunday newspaper share tips. Midas looks at crane specialist Lavendon and the Sunday Times assesses the prospects of Burberry.

MAIL ON SUNDAY

The equipment hire industry has gained an unfortunate reputation for disappointment. HSS Hire has lost 65 per cent of its market value since floating in February 2015.

Sadly, Speedy Hire shares have also slumped since they were recommended by Midas that same month. Even Ashtead, their much larger peer, has been affected by concerns about the outlook for the sector.

Lavendon Group has been dragged down in their wake. Trading at more than 200p last June, the stock is now 133p. But the company is different from its listed rivals and the shares deserve to move higher.

Lavendon specialises in powered access equipment  machines that enable workers to operate safely and productively at height.

The companys equipment is generally associated with helping contractors constructing huge buildings such as airports, logistics warehouses and shopping malls.

But its kit is also used to install and maintain mobile phone masts and wind turbines, clean high buildings, film events including the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, and even renovate old structures and buildings such as Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol, Cologne cathedral and the Louvre in Paris.

Lavendons results for 2015 were above expectations and a first-quarter trading update this week should strike a confident note.

Brokers forecast a 4 per cent rise in 2016 pre-tax profits to 40.1 million, with stronger growth in 2017. The group is paying a 5.4p dividend for 2015, expected to rise to about 5.8p this year.

Midas verdict: Lavendon is suffering by association with the wider equipment rental sector, but it is more specialised than its peers and has a six-year record of profit and dividend growth. At 133p, the shares are worth tucking away.

>> Read the full Midas column

SUNDAY TIMES

Burberry set hearts aflutter in the fashion world (not difficult) when it unveiled a television ad this month for its new cologne, Mr Burberry.

It is part of the luxury giants push into beauty, one of many levers being pulled by Christopher Bailey, the 8m-a-year creative boss and chief executive, to get Burberry moving in the right direction again.

Baileys problem, as ever these days, is China. The slowing economy and a crackdown on excess by the communist regime have hit the luxury sector hard. Burberry has not been immune.

At 18.4 times earnings, the stock continues to trade at a premium to its peers. This appears to be a reflection of past glories under [Hannah] Ahrendts rather than of its prospects, which look uninspiring.
Two iconic British industries are suffering dramatically different fates. As British steel stumbles into crisis with thousands of jobs at risk, Britains car factories are booming.

A lack of investment and the heavy burden of environmental and business taxes are holding steel-makers back, insiders says.

But they argue that changes to Government policies and big investment in the technology required to make the quality of steel needed for cars could help British steel-makers ride the British automotive boom.

Under-utilised: British car-makers use just 17 per cent of UK produced steel

Car sales and the number of vehicles leaving British factories are nearing record levels.

The number of cars made in the UK has risen every year since 1999, when the figure stood at just under 1million. Today Britain produces 1.6million vehicles a year and that figure is forecast to leap to 2million by 2020.

But while 1.6million tons of British steel is used by the car industry each year it accounts for just 17 per cent of total UK steel production and industry insiders say steel-makers need to invest in higher quality steel if they want to sell more to the booming motor factories.

There are really advanced types of steel which you can do amazing things with, such as make it as sharp as a knife-point, or curve it a certain way for newer cars, said an insider. You just cant get everything you need from domestic suppliers so you have to go to suppliers from Spain, Germany or Poland.

British steel-makers have suffered not just from cheap Chinese imports dumped in the UK, but from high energy levies and high business rates.

One insider said: If the Government helped with those two latter issues, then British steel could invest in producing the higher grades of steel we need but cant currently source from the UK.

The industry is very energy-intensive and UK business rates are out of kilter with the rest of Europe.

The amount of British steel used by each manufacturer varies. Vauxhall, for example, told The Mail on Sunday that 50 per cent of the steel it uses at its Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire to produce the Astra is from Port Talbot, while 40 per cent of the steel in its Vivaro van is also from the South Wales works.

Coy: Tata-owned Jaguar Land Rover will not reveal its UK steel usage but said it had agreements in place

Were one of the biggest users of British steel, said a Vauxhall source. Weve really focused on sourcing our steel from the UK, and its not just the steel but the expertise from Tata which has been crucial for us. Using steel, particularly in todays ultra-modern cars, is a very complex process and Tata Steels technical know-how has been a vital part.

But Jaguar Land Rover, which is itself owned by Tata, refused to say how much of its steel came from the UK.

It said it had agreements in place with Tata Steel, but a spokesman emphasised that it is separate from other firms owned by the Indian conglomerate and makes decisions for the right commercial reasons.

Japanese car-maker Nissan produces the Qashqai, Leaf, Juke and Infiniti Q30 at its Sunderland plant, and almost half the steel used comes from Port Talbot.

Nissan said: Raw materials and parts are sourced for all Renault-Nissan plants in Europe through our Alliance purchasing organisation. This year about 45 per cent of the steel required for production in Nissan Sunderland Plant is sourced from Port Talbot, and the rest from mainland Europe.

BMW-owned Mini said it used British steel in its UK-made cars but would not specify how much, while Honda, which has a plant in Swindon where it produces 600 cars a day, also declined to say how much steel was domestically-produced.

Big steel: Nissan produces cars at its Sunderland plant, and almost half the steel used comes from Port Talbot

Mike Hawes, head of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said: Cost, quality and logistics are key to the efficient sourcing of materials and components by UK manufacturers.

Though the automotive supply chain in the UK is undergoing a resurgence, more work is needed to support and develop provision of local content. Its a focus of both Government and industry through the Automotive Council.

For steel, the Continent represents a competitor. For cars it offers a chance for even more growth. While the appetite of British car-buyers is at record levels  March saw 518,707 new cars registered with 16 plates, the second-highest monthly figure since 1997  Continental demand is growing even faster.

There sales are rising 10.1 per cent a year compared with the UKs 5.1 per cent. And almost 80 per cent of cars made in the UK are for export, with nearly 60 per cent of them sold on the Continent and 27 per cent in the US.

British demand is levelling off, said a car industry source. But we are seeing green shoots of recovery in Europe.

British-based manufacturers such as Nissan and Toyota export a huge amount across the Channel and British-made cars have huge popularity across the world. What kind of effect would growth in Europe have on British steel?
Bailout plan: Italy's finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan

Italy is facing a 4billion bailout for its troubled banking system.

The country's bank shares have lost nearly half their value since the start of the year.

Concerns for the sector focus on 290.6billion of bad loans  a debt pile that is one-fifth the size of Italy's total economy.

Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Italy's third-largest bank, is considered to be most at risk. Its share price has plummeted 81 per cent in the past 12 months.

The bank was also the EU's worst performer in a risk-testing exercise two years ago and has about 40.4billion in bad loans.

Finance minister Pier Carlo Padoan has called a meeting in Rome today so the fine details of a bailout plan can be agreed.

The proposals, which would be funded by the finance industry, are intended as a last resort to stave off collapse, as Padoan said the banks were strong enough 'to resolve their critical issues themselves'.

But with the Italian government struggling under a public debt burden 132.5 per cent the size of its economy, critics question whether enough can be done.

Berenberg analyst Eoin Mullany told the Financial Times that the Italian banking sector was 'at a pivotal moment in its history'.
Airport development adding to economy, jobs in the region

Pittsburgh may always be known as the Steel City, but a wave of new industries are popping up near its airport to redefine business in the region.
Torin Halsey/Times Record News Dogs of all sizes and breeds will fill the Bridwell Center from April 15-17 for the Obedience Training Club's annual agility trials.

SHARE Katrena Mitchell/Special to the Times Record News Weave poles are a popular park of dog agility trials. The Obedience Training Club's annual agility competition will run April 15-17 at the Bridwell Center. Katrena Mitchell/Special to the Times Record News Agility trail jumps are lowered and raised based on the size class of dogs in the competition. The Obedience Training Club's annual agility competition will run April 15-17 at the Bridwell Center.

By Katrena Mitchell

The J.S. Bridwell Agricultural Center will be running wild with canines April 15-17. That weekend will be the Obedience Training Club of Wichita Falls' annual American Kennel Club-sanctioned agility trials.

Beginning at 9 a.m. April 15, dogs will be running agility courses in two different rings. These dogs and handlers will be competing for the fastest time with the fewest mistakes. Competition will run into late afternoon all three days. Sunday's competition begins at 8 a.m.

This area hosts some of the best agility teams in the country and many will be competing. Entrants will mostly be from the Texas and Oklahoma area but there are usually several from other states represented. There will be the agility person who competes at the national level as well as the weekend warrior who just loves spending time training and competing with their favorite dog or dogs.

A typical agility trial is run where the dogs in the top level classes or ones with the most experience run earlier in the day. Novice dogs run later.

Agility made its way into the hearts of dog enthusiasts back in the 1990s and has quickly gained popularity with all sorts of people. Agility is a great avenue for dog owners to get involved in whether they have a purebred or mixed breed dog. This trial will feature both.

In an agility trial, the dog and handlers team are divided into height divisions based on the stature of the dog. Therefore, small dogs may jump as low as 4 inches and height divisions go on up to 24 inches. An agility course may have over 25 obstacles that the dog and handler team must tackle.

Different types of jumps as well as tunnels, a teeter, chute, a dog walk and an A-frame are all obstacles that will be seen on the courses. And let's not forget the weave poles where a dog has to maneuver in and out of up to 12 upright poles as fast as possible. The dog and handler team in each division that flies through the course the fastest as well as with the fewest faults wins their height and experience level. Speed and accuracy is the key. Novice or beginner dogs are given leeway to make a couple of mistakes while those running the excellent or top level classes can't make any mistakes.

Agility is a great activity for spectators. Except when courses are being built, there is always activity in each ring. There is also a wide variety of dog breeds. From Yorkies and Chihuahuas up to golden retrievers and Great Danes, there will be a dog you can cheer for. You may even catch the agility bug and become interested in classes and training your own dog. The OTCWF hosts those classes for this area.

If you need to do some shopping, there will also be some wonderful vendors selling toys, crate pads, treats, dog food and other miscellaneous dog items for your favorite pet or dog-loving friends.

Admission is free. There will be a concession stand available for refreshments.

Sometimes the excitement and flurry of activity is too much for a dog to handle when they're not used to it. The AKC actually has a rule prohibiting unentered dogs from the venue.

For information on this agility trial or agility classes, contact the OTCWF at 851-0694 or visit their Facebook page.
Here's what to know as the annual dove hunting season approaches
<p>TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS Eighth Street looking west from Indiana.</p>

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By Times Record News

Three Times Record News staff members were recognized at the state level for their work on special projects published in 2015 at the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors' convention Saturday in El Paso.

Business/Metro Editor John Ingle, Chief Photographer Torin Halsey and Digital Content Producer Orlando Flores Jr. received an honorable mention in the AAA Feature Series category for the "Downtown Revitalization" series that ran in print and online in September.

The series focused on the revitalization of four downtown areas in Texas in recent years  Nocona, Granbury, Waco, and Bryan  highlighting the important behind-the-scenes players, businesses and attractions that helped make their downtowns great again. The series wrapped up featuring Downtown Wichita Falls and its ongoing revitalization projects.

Ingle and Halsey worked extensively with the newspaper designers to create eye-catching spreads for each feature's print edition. Exclusive videos, photo galleries and photo stories were hosted online to further enhance the project.

The series was a key component to the "Imagine Wichita Falls" yearlong series that focused on Wichita Falls' future and what it could be thanks to the efforts of numerous outstanding residents, businesses and organizations in the present. The series focused on Wichita Falls' education, downtown, quality of life and Lake Wichita.

"I'm extremely proud of the work our Times Record News staff accomplished in 2015," Editor Deanna Watson said. "From our coverage of the May flooding to our focus on Imagine Wichita Falls. Both efforts were celebrated this weekend at the Texas APME annual conference. I applaud their efforts all year long."

Flores also placed second in the Infographics category for work he produced for timesrecordnews.com.
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They've never made movies like this.

In most cinematic adventures when the innocents are in peril from villains, it's not other villains who ride to the rescue. It's the good guys. But in winning the Wisconsin primary Tuesday, it was Bernie Sanders galloping in on horseback  excuse me, on socialist nonsense  to try to save the country from Hillary Clinton.

To be sure, in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, Clinton is still the odds-on favorite to win. The polls have her ahead in the coming New York primary, and her pile of delegates is pretty darn high. Her greatest fear has to be honesty, though not her own. That's been missing for a long time.

No, what she has to fear is the nonpolitical, frequently demonstrated honesty of James Comey, the FBI director who is closely involved in investigating whether she illegally endangered national security through use of a private email server as secretary of state. If politics are played in the Justice Department to get her off the hook, this official just might resign in protest, conceivably delivering a fatal blow to Clinton's presidential chances.

Sanders might then march to the White House, but would he be better? Not close. What we have in him is a 1960s hippie who never grew up, who accuses others of all kinds of bigotry even as he himself is bigoted against the rich to the point of hateful screeching and whose leftist ambitions would wreck the country if improbably effectuated.

Even some liberal economists say his math is something like two plus two equals one.

The New York Times interviewed a bunch who argued his proposals could expand the federal government by half  the largest increase since World War II. What he's talking about is free college for everyone, virtually free health care, largely free child care, more Social Security and still other goodies. All of this could amount to a 50 percent yearly increase or more in spending, say some of the these economists, who also point out that the expansion's generally estimated cost of $18 trillion over 10 years could be higher, as much as $30 trillion, one says.

Sanders says his taxes will pay for it and that they're mostly on the rich, even though the middle class will have to pay, too. He says the middle class will still come out ahead because of benefits that flow their way. Economists quoted in the Times say no  they will take a hurtful hit, too.

One of Sanders' own economists makes things turn out OK by estimating, among other happy thoughts, that our economic growth will get up to 5.3 percent. The Times economists say, sorry, but nope. That's a reach and a half. What Sanders' buddies are calculating is "puppies and rainbows," one analyst is quoted as saying, and if you want evidence, look at what happened when Sanders' home state of Vermont tried out his single-payer health system proposal.

It didn't work. It cost too much. It is gone.

What you would actually get with Bernie trying to put his plan into effect is chaos, and what you would get if he succeeded is a debt crisis. What we are already getting is hokum of all kinds, such as talk about a middle-class decline over the past 40 years when James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute says living standards have risen by as much as half. Sanders makes out as if the rich don't pay their share of taxes whereas Pethokoukis notes "the top 1 percent earned nearly a fifth of the national income but paid 40 percent of the federal income taxes."

Many of Sanders' young supporters would love free college. What they need is more colleges that teach that goods and services are never free, that someone always pays.

Jay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. Readers may email him at speaktojay@aol.com.
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Despite the fact that they are currently bitter opponents, there are a lot of reasons to believe Donald Trump and Ted Cruz could end up working together in the fall campaign.

The basic reason is simple  it's in each of their best interests to do so. In fact, we already see examples of pragmatism drawing them together. Both Trump and Cruz are calling for Ohio Governor John Kasich to get out of the race.

Additionally, both Trump and Cruz have a shared interest in keeping the Republican Establishment from stealing the nomination. In every primary other than Kasich's home state, outsider candidates have demolished the insiders. It's clear that GOP voters are rejecting the status quo and that reality is driving support for both the front-runners.

A lot of Republican insiders are hoping for a scenario that will allow a divided convention to ignore both Trump and Cruz to select someone like 2012 nominee Mitt Romney or House Speaker Paul Ryan. Neither would be eligible under the current convention rules, but those rules can be changed at the convention itself.

That effort by the establishment to change the rules gives Trump and Cruz another reason to work together. They will work to insure that their delegates block any such change. Such an effort will protect the voter preferences and restrict the choice to the two men who came out on top during the primary season.

There's been a lot of talk about the fact that neither Trump nor Cruz will have enough pledged delegates to win a majority on the first ballot. That's true, but there will also be hundreds of unpledged delegates who get to vote. That's more than the number of delegates awarded by any single state. Given several weeks of deal making time before the convention, it's quite possible to imagine a first ballot victory for either Trump or Cruz.

Because Cruz has a better organization, he would be heavily favored to win if a second ballot is required. But since Trump is a great deal maker, anything is possible.

So, based upon the recently heated rhetoric, you might expect that whoever loses the convention to storm off with their voters and split the party. But that's not the only possibility. It may not even be the most likely scenario. Even after all the votes are tallied at the convention, there would still be reasons for the two men to work together.

That's because it would be in the best interests of the second place finisher to support the winner. That's what happened at the last contested Republican convention in 1976. President Gerald Ford narrowly edged out Ronald Reagan. Reagan's concession speech was gracious and he worked hard on behalf of Ford all the way until election day.

When Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, Reagan was well positioned for another campaign. Just four years later he took office and became the most significant president of the past half-century. If either of them lose at the convention, both Trump and Cruz will have powerful incentives to follow Reagan's example.

I know it's hard to envision at the moment, but it's quite possible that the Republicans will come out of the convention as a united party committed to defeating the presumed Democratic nominee  Hillary Clinton. Despite all the rhetoric, both Trump and Cruz will find it is in their interest to unify rather than divide the party.

Scott Rasmussen is the founder and president of Styrk, co-founder of ESPN and a New York Times best-selling author.
Katie McGrath, right, owner of Tripped Out, help Kayla Hebert shop for her son, Grayson Hebert, 9 months, at the newest business to open in downtown Wichita Falls. The children's clothing store specializes in boys and unisex fashions for infant to 4T.

SHARE Katie McGrath sets up a display at her children's clothing store, Tripped Out, which opened March 19 at 822 Indiana. McGrath says the business will specialize in boys and unisex clothing including graphic T-shirts, European styles, stripes and soft and comfortable items. photos by TORIN HALSEY/TIMES RECORD NEWS A family of entrepreneurs. Katie McGrath, owner of Tripped Out and her son, Trip McGrath, center, join McGrath's mom, Brenda Hollis, owner of B&B Upholstery, left, her aunt, Debbie Schwartz, owner of Red Threads, and her grandmother, Jeannine Oliver, right, former owner of the first antique store in Downtown Wichita Falls, Jeannine's Antiques. The first three businesses named are located at 822 Indiana. Tripped Out is a new children's clothing boutique downtown that opened in March in the same location.

By John Ingle of the Times Record News

Katie McGrath's local search for trendy, modern and unique clothing for her son, Trip, was difficult after he was born in December 2014.

She wanted to find something with flare, something that stood out from what was different than already offered here, but would have to go elsewhere or turn to online shopping to find those items. So the Wichita Falls native turned to her family's roots of entrepreneurship and opened her own children's clothing boutique, Tripped Out, to satisfy her tastes and those of others in the area.

"After having my son, I realized there was a shortage of boys clothes in this town," she said Friday at the business's location at 822 Indiana. "People would always say that my son dressed unique. I would always get asked where he would get his clothes. So, I just thought what better time than to bring it here now."

Tripped Out  named after Trip because he is the third John Thomas in the family  offers an array of graphic T-shirts, capri pants, shoes, headbands and more. McGrath said the items offer a "European style" with varying patterns and stripes.

The store officially opened March 19, and the young mom said it has been a "blast" having the business, even though it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming given her weekday job and being a full-time wife and mother.

McGrath said she has always wanted to open up a boutique, but seriously began mulling over the idea about eight months ago. When she decided to push forward with the new business, there was no other place she wanted to be than Downtown Wichita Falls and in the space that has been occupied by her family for more than 20 years.

First was grandmother Jeannine Oliver, who opened the first antique store in the downtown area more than two decades ago; then mother Brenda Hollis with B&B Upholstery; followed by aunt Debbie Schwartz with Red Threads.

McGrath said her family has been very supportive of her new venture, filling in for the new business owner when she is away from the store. It's also nice, she said, to begin her first business with those who have done it and have been successful.

Oliver closed her antique store a few years back, but still helps out with the other businesses.

"My biggest word to probably describe it is 'honored,'" the third-generation small-business owner said of starting out at 822 Indiana. "They are two very successful businesses here downtown that are both locally owned. I'm just so blessed to be able to work beside them and under them so I can look up to them for all of my entrepreneurship and all of my goals that I have long-term."

Hollis said she is proud of her daughter's decision to open Tripped Out, and it's not surprising for McGrath to do her own thing because it is kind of a family trait or tradition. She said they talked over the idea and after going to market decided this was the perfect type.

"We really didn't know that it would take off like it has," Hollis said. "She has customers a lot during the day, but we enjoy it."

The downtown area for small business was kind of an oasis when Oliver moved in followed by her daughters. Traffic was relatively slow as most of it was from or for those with offices in the city's heart. Nevertheless, the enterprises endured throughout the years and are still in their original location.

McGrath said she couldn't imagine being anywhere else, especially given the resurgence of restaurants, festivals, and business downtown. She said her long-term plans include expanding and, one day, occupying her own building. But, she said, it will remain downtown.
Colonie

They have thousands of hours of volunteer work among them and in doing so have inspired hundreds of people.

They have helped reduce hunger, mentored students, assisted struggling veterans, arranged for burial gowns for babies, advocated for families and children with life-threatening illnesses, helped domestic abuse victims become independent, pushed for social justice, provided humanitarian relief during disasters and built bridges among local faith communities.

Thirteen Capital Region volunteers will be honored for answering the "call to action" at the 2016 Jefferson Awards dinner Tuesday.

Founded in 1972 by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, U.S. Sen. Robert Taft Jr. and Sam Beard, the annual awards are named for Thomas Jefferson and the spirit of excellence in America he embodied. Locally, the annual awards are sponsored by St. Peter's Health Partners, NewsChannel 13 and the Times Union.

The 2016 Capital Region medalists and finalists, who will be honored at a dinner on April 12 at the Century House in Latham, were selected from nominations submitted by area residents since November.

One of the medalists will be named to represent the Capital Region at the national Jefferson Awards event in June in Washington, D.C.

This year's finalists:

Dave Cleveland of Cropseyville. Cleveland has been a volunteer for the Food Pantries for the Capital District for six years. In 2014 alone, he worked with 159 volunteers and gave 6,380 hours of his time to fight hunger. He started a volunteer-based fundraising initiative to put canisters at store registers  an effort that raises $10,000 annually. He also helped start other local food drives to help children in summer and to reduce food waste. He responds with gratitude when people have given of their time.

Humera Khan of Niskayuna. Khan has been an advocate for battered women and worked with refugees and with Catholic Charities. She has helped victims of domestic violence become independent financially and emotionally. Active in interfaith groups, including the Children of the Well, an interfaith story circle for youth, and FOCUS interfaith food pantries, she has worked to build bridges. Khan has collected $90,000 and mobilized 500 volunteers.

Vera Michelson of Albany. Michelson has been an activist all her adult life, participating in local organizations supporting racial, social and economic justice and also working for international peace and justice. She is one of the founders of the Whitney M. Young Community Health Center in Albany and ROOTS (Re-Entry Opportunities and Orientations Toward Success) in Albany and Rensselaer counties.

Maureen O'Brien of Albany. When her 6-month-old son, Gabriel, was diagnosed with neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder, O'Brien set out to find programs for his special needs. She learned that Double H Ranch in Lake Luzerne was remarkable for its support for children with life-threatening illnesses and has become one of its greatest ambassadors, serving on its board of directors and counseling families who will face rounds of chemotherapy and social and financial burdens of raising a child with a life-threatening illness.

Patty Reksc of Amsterdam. Reksc is president of the local chapter of Therapy Dogs International and the "air traffic controller" for the 197 members with 233 therapy dogs that visited 161 facilities last year. She arranges for the therapy dogs to go to nursing homes, to colleges during exam week, to a bakery-cafe that employs developmentally challenged people and to visits with families of National Guard members. Patty also organizes blanket drives for veterans and an emergency shelter for children in crises.

Mary Jane Smith of Watervliet. Smith is a co-founder and former executive director of Unity House, which provides services for poor families and those victimized by domestic violence, for children with developmental delays and people living with HIV/AIDS. Previously, when she was a Sister of St. Joseph, Smith was a teacher for two decades. Following her retirement in 1991, after 20 years with Unity House, she continued to advocate for social justice and serve on boards to benefit the disadvantaged. Now an octogenarian, she serves lunch weekly in the Unity House meals program.

This year's medalists are:

Barry Feinman of Niskayuna. Feinman founded Jezreel International, a charity that has shipped $80 million worth of goods to 41 poverty-stricken countries in the past 19 years. He has shipped containers of supplies to regions affected by disasters nationally and internationally. Locally, he has helped veterans and their families by providing them clothing and household items. He also provides families with food, vitamins, clothing and Christmas gifts through items stored in a warehouse.

Tracie Killar of Albany. Killar has worked to reduce hunger and promote academic success for at-risk children living in the South End of Albany. In November 2015, she opened the South End Children's Cafe, where children kindergarten through grade six, most of whom are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, can go after school to do homework, receive tutoring and participate in enrichment and physical activities. The cafe has served 2,000 meals since it opened.

Grace Roznowski of Albany. A retired nurse, Roznowski, now 95, has been a volunteer in the pediatrics department of the Albany Medical Center Hospital every Sunday since 1971, providing support for children receiving treatment and their families. Upon retiring from the Visiting Nurses Association in 1983, she has been a weekly volunteer there. For more than 30 years she has collected medical supplies and gently used clothing for a health clinic in Mississippi and Native American reservations in South Dakota as well as for local residents.

Lawrence Ruff of Troy. Ruff was among the first volunteer mentors for a local U.S. FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics team. He has worked with teams at Shenendehowa and Albany high schools, guiding them as they brainstorm, design and build robots from the ground up in six weeks. This will be his 25th year as a volunteer mentor. A senior systems engineer at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Lawrence teaches mechanical engineering and runs the Advanced Manufacturing Laboratory there.

Carol Ann Selkis of Loudonville. Selkis helps families grieving the loss of a baby by providing burial gowns. She started Little Angel Gowns  Capital Region by reaching out to the national organization. She seeks donations of wedding gowns and other formal wear, recruits seamstresses, raises funds to buy needed supplies and increases awareness in the community. She has reached out to area churches and schools for help.

Nancy Virkler of Rexford. Virkler leads volunteers at Equinox, Friends of Schenectady County Public Library, Trinity Presbyterian Church and Kingsway Arms Nursing Home. She has volunteered at Equinox's Thanksgiving Community Dinner for 20 years and for the past seven been a coordinator responsible for the 3,500 volunteers who cook and deliver 10,000 meals. She works with nearly 300 community groups and businesses to secure donations of food, products and services.

Also being honored will be one of this year's "13 Kids Who Care," from the program sponsored by WNYT-NewsChannel 13, St. Peter's Health Partners and the Times Union to recognize outstanding young people of the Capital Region for volunteer work and community involvement that touches the lives of people in our region and improves the quality of life in our communities.

Josselyn Roosenberg, a senior at Loudonville Christian School, is being recognized at the April event for her work with Karen refugees  area residents who are members of the ethnic minority that have been fled persecution in their homeland of Myanmar (Burma) and refugee camps along the Thailand border. She tutors Karen children and has helped them hold on to their ethnic traditions while ensuring they are welcome in the Albany area.
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Rotterdam

A Rotterdam police officer fatally shot a 30-year-old man who police said slashed a town police officer with a knife.

Police identified the man Sunday night as William Clark.

New York State Police are investigating the incident.

Rotterdam police said they were called to 1061 Roberta Road at 11:30 a.m. Sunday. Neighbors said they heard scanner chatter of a domestic dispute between a mother and her son, with the mother saying her son was having a psychotic episode.

Police said Clark slashed at officers with a knife, striking an unidentified officer in the head.

Rotterdam police said an officer fired a service weapon, killing Clark. Rotterdam Police Chief James Hamilton said the slashed officer had non-life threatening injuries. Police later said he was treated and released from the hospital.

Steve Marco, who lives several houses down the street, said he saw an officer bleeding from the head outside the home. He also said Clark had just moved in recently.

Police tape was hung around the house and officers closed off the road.
Capital Region commuters will have to make adjustments as three presidential candidates come to the area Monday.

In Albany, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump will be at the Times Union Center at 7 p.m.

Traffic will be affected long before the rally begins.

South Pearl Street from Beaver Street to Hudson Avenue will be closed to all traffic from 9 a.m. to midnight.

No parking will be allowed from 8 a.m. to midnight Monday on South Pearl Street from State to Market Street. The ban applies to both sides of the street, said Albany Police spokesman Steve Smith.

The Capital District Transportation Authority is also making some adjustments.

"We will have a reroute for the Trump rally," said CDTA spokeswoman Jaime Watson.

The two bus stops outside the Times Union Center will not run as usual since the road will be closed. Commuters are recommended to catch the bus at Ten Eyck Plaza at North Pearl and State streets.

Earlier in the day, Bernie Sanders will be at the Armory on Washington Avenue. Doors for that appearance will open at 11 a.m.

That too will affect parking and buses.

There will be no parking on Elk Street from Dove to Lark streets from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The bus stop outside the Armory will not be in service from approximately 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Watson said.

"Folks there are encouraged to use the Dove Street stop," she said.

Despite the impacts, Watson said CDTA is recommending people use its buses to get to the rallies to avoid traffic.

"We're really encouraging people with the Trump rally and the Sanders rally to use CDTA because the city will have so many restrictions in place," she said.

Ohio Governor John Kasich will make two Capital Region appearances.

He will first speak at the La Salle Institute's gym in North Greenbush at 2:30 p.m., with doors opening at 1:30.

At 5:30, he'll be in at the Saratoga Springs City Center on Broadway, with doors opening at 4:30 p.m.

Neither Kasich appearance will affect CDTA routes, Watson said.
Washington

When it comes to nominating presidential candidates, it turns out the world's foremost democracy is not so purely democratic.

For decades, both major parties have used a somewhat convoluted process for picking their nominees, one that involves ordinary voters in only an indirect way. As Americans flock this year to outsider candidates, the kind most hindered by these rules, they are suddenly waking up to this reality. And their confusion and anger are adding another volatile element to an election being waged over questions of fairness and equality.

In Nashville a week ago, supporters of Donald Trump accused Republican leaders of trying to stack Tennessee's delegate slate with people who were anti-Trump. The Trump campaign posted the cellphone number of the state party chairman on Twitter, leading him to be inundated with calls. Several dozen people showed up at the meeting at which delegates were being named, banged on the windows and demanded to be let in.

Backers of Sen. Bernie Sanders, bewildered at why he keeps winning states but cannot seem to cut into Hillary Clinton's delegate count because of her overwhelming lead with "superdelegates," have used Reddit and Twitter to start an aggressive pressure campaign to flip votes.

Javier Morillo, a member of the Democratic National Committee and a superdelegate from Minnesota, said he discovered his email posted on a website called a "Superdelegate Hit List."

The list had an illustration of a donkey with two crossbow arrows behind its head. "I was a little annoyed," he said.

Morillo, who is backing Clinton, said he tried at first to reply to all the emails beseeching him to switch his support to Sanders, the Vermont senator who won 62 percent of the vote in Minnesota's caucuses. But the volume has gotten so high lately, he said, "I haven't been able to keep up."

If supporters of Trump and Sanders feel stymied by the delegate process, that is because it was designed years ago precisely to make it difficult for candidates like them to become their party's nominee  candidates who party leaders believe could never win in November.

Like with any private members-only club  political parties are not official government entities  the party leaders exercise considerable control over which candidate gets their endorsement and the attendant privilege of using their political infrastructure, financial support and loyal voter base, without which winning in November is all but impossible.

In the earliest days of the republic, members of Congress determined the presidential nominees, cutting ordinary Americans out of the process. The national convention system has evolved over more than a century and a half to gradually decentralize the decision-making.

But not completely. The role of Democratic superdelegates was created after the 1980 election to ensure that rank-and-file voters could not easily vote in an activist candidate. Superdelegates include major Democratic elected officials like governors and members of Congress; national and state party leaders; and notable party figures like former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Democrats have added more superdelegates over the years, and this year, they will make up 16 percent of all delegates.

Each of their votes has equal weight to delegates awarded through primaries and caucuses. In New Hampshire, for example, the site of Sanders' first big victory, he won about 150,000 votes and 15 traditional delegates. Hillary Clinton won nine traditional delegates. But because six of New Hampshire's superdelegates are supporting her (the other two are uncommitted), she is effectively tied with Sanders in the state.

Republicans have far fewer superdelegates. But the way the party conducts elections  a layered system of contests in each state that selects local delegates who in turn select state delegates who then vote for national delegates  can be difficult for newcomers without sophisticated operations to penetrate, as Trump is discovering.

Even if he wins a state, the delegates who are supposed to vote for him at the national convention might privately support one of his opponents, and if no candidate clinches the nomination after the convention's first ballot, these delegates are usually freed from the requirement that they represent the preference of the voters back home. The campaign of Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has been working in many states to get his supporters named as delegates, even if they must vote for Trump on the first ballot.

"It's people who are in charge keeping their friends in power," said Tom Carroll, 32, a union plumber who lives in Bethpage, summing up how he viewed the electoral system.

Even if superdelegates did not exist, Sanders would still trail Clinton by more than 200 delegates. And his hopes of catching her in the traditional delegate race are looking thin, with several large states favorable to her yet to vote, including New York and Pennsylvania.

Though Sanders has criticized the "rigged political system," he has been less caustic about the influence of superdelegates, cognizant that he needs to woo them in order to win.

Anxiety over the process is far more acute on the Republican side of the race because Trump, who unlike Sanders is the front-runner in his party's delegate race, stands a chance of not being the nominee. Right now, he is in danger of falling short of the 50 percent-plus-one delegate threshold the Republican National Committee has set in order to clinch the nomination before the convention, a possibility that has started to sink in only recently inside his campaign and among his supporters.

"It's hard to start explaining now," said Curly Haugland, the Republican national committeeman in North Dakota who has tried to draw attention this year to the important role that delegates play. Haugland summed up the collective realization of many voters this way: "These primaries weren't really worth much  except maybe to spend a billion dollars."
Brussels

After nearly three weeks of frantic searching, Belgian authorities announced Saturday they had finally identified the elusive "man in the hat" spotted alongside the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport: It was Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini.

Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office said the recently detained Abrini  the last identified suspect at large from the deadly Nov. 13 Paris attacks  had also confessed to being the vest- and hat-wearing man linked to the Brussels bombers whose image had been widely circulated by authorities.

"After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene," they said in a terse statement.

The revelation that a Paris attacks suspect escorted two of the Brussels bombers to their deaths at the city's airport is the strongest sign yet that the Islamic State attackers who brought mayhem to both European cities  killing a total of 162 people  were intimately linked.

Abrini, 31, was one of four suspects charged Saturday with "participating in terrorist acts" linked to the March 22 Brussels bombings that killed 32 people and wounded 270 others at the airport and in the city's subway.

The prosecutors said Abrini, a Belgian-Moroccan petty criminal who was detained Friday in a Brussels police raid, threw away his vest in a garbage bin and sold his hat after the March 22 bombings.

Prosecutors did not respond to calls seeking further details. A legal representative for Abrini could not be immediately located for comment Saturday night.

Surveillance footage placed Abrini in the convoy with the attackers who headed to Paris ahead of the Nov. 13 massacre that left 130 people dead and hundreds wounded in the French capital.

Abrini was a childhood friend of Brussels brothers Salah and Brahim Abdeslam, both suspects in the Paris attacks, and he had ties to Abdelhamid Abbaoud, the Paris attackers' ringleader who died in a French police raid shortly afterward. Brahim Abdeslam blew himself up in the Paris bombings while Salah Abdeslam was arrested in Brussels on March 18  four days before the attacks there  after a four-month manhunt.

Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were not only in a Renault Clio vehicle used in the Paris attacks but also in an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighborhood of Brussels that was used by the airport bombers.

Abrini was also believed to have traveled to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic State's Francophone brigade.

One European security official told The Associated Press that Abrini made multiple trips to Birmingham, England, last year, meeting with several men suspected of terrorist activity. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to provide details about the investigation.

Abrini and three other men  identified as Osama Krayem, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M.  were all charged by Belgian authorities earlier Saturday with participating in "terrorist murders" and the "activities of a terrorist group" in relation to the attacks. Two other suspects arrested in the last couple of days were released "after a thorough interrogation," the prosecutors said in a statement.

Osama Krayem, identified by prosecutors only as Osama K., is known to have left the Swedish city of Malmo to fight in Syria. The prosecutor's office accuses him of being the second person at the March 22 attack on the Brussels subway station that killed 16 people and of being at a shopping mall where the luggage used in the airport bombings was purchased.
Beihai, China

In the darkness of the tropical waters of the South China Sea, the shabby, blue-hulled Chinese fishing trawler edged closer to what was almost certain arrest for Zhang Deren, the boat's engineer. He was more than 1,000 miles from his home here in southern China.

Earlier that day, the Indonesian maritime police had boarded his boat, accusing the crew of fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. After the rest of the crew was ordered onto their vessel, the Indonesians instructed Zhang, a 53-year-old with a weather-beaten face, to follow in the trawler.

At 2 a.m., after a 12-hour journey to the Indonesian shore, help suddenly arrived. A Chinese coast guard vessel, as big as a naval frigate, pulled alongside Zhang's boat. The coast guard then rammed it, separating it from the Indonesian escort.

"At that moment, I knew I was out of trouble," Zhang said, telling his tale after a weeklong voyage back to his home port here on the Gulf of Tonkin, close to Vietnam.

Indonesia's furious reaction  and the resulting diplomatic spat with Beijing that erupted late last month  is the latest sign of growing frustration with China over territorial rights in the South China Sea.

The United States and countries in the region are increasingly alarmed by the gambits China is using to strengthen its hand: constructing artificial islands suitable for warships and fighter jets, planting oil rigs in disputed waters and using its coast guard to protect China's fishing boats while they operate in waters claimed by others.

China now boasts the largest coast guard fleet in the world, including two 10,000-ton vessels, known in naval circles as the "monsters" because they are far bigger than anything in the U.S. Coast Guard, said Ryan D. Martinson, a researcher at the China Maritime Studies Institute at the Naval War College in Rhode Island.

China also claims to have the biggest fishing fleet in the world, about 1 million boats, the government says. Recently, China embarked on a massive fishing boat building program, accompanied by fuel subsidies for the fishermen, and the installation of free navigational systems that help the coast guard keep track of the vessels.

Southeast Asian nations are also angry that China's fishing armada, supported by its vigilant coast guard, is plying waters that offer diminishing stocks of fish.

Last month, about 100 Chinese fishing boats were found by the Malaysians inside their waters in the South China Sea, accompanied by two Chinese coast guard vessels, the Malaysian authorities said.

Vietnam said it had recently seized a Chinese vessel, disguised as a fishing boat in the Gulf of Tonkin, that was carrying about 25,000 gallons of fuel to resupply Chinese fishing boats.

The coast guard is responsible for rescuing Chinese fishing vessels when they are discovered in other countries' waters, Martinson said.

Most of the disputes are inside the so-called nine dashes, an area drawn by China in the 1940s that covers more than 80 percent of the South China Sea, though it is not recognized by international law.

In response to China's bold stance, the Indonesian defense minister, Ryamizard Ryacudu, said he would deploy American F-16s to the Natuna Islands to deter what he called "thieves," in reference to the Chinese.

Indonesia's fisheries minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, said Indonesia felt "sabotaged." The Chinese boat was well inside Indonesia's 200-mile exclusive economic zone, which is recognized by international law and overlaps with the nine-dash line.

The members of the Chinese fishing crew were detained on the Natuna Islands, and the most senior members, including the captain, are likely to face charges, Pudjiastuti said.

The Indonesians were justified in their irritation, Martinson said. "China's claim to jurisdiction over waters within Indonesia's exclusive economic zone on the basis of the nine-dash line is preposterous," he said. "When you add the aggressive pursuit to the territorial sea and the ramming, it is very easy to understand the Indonesian anger."

In Beijing, the Foreign Ministry defended the fishing trawler, saying it was operating in "traditional Chinese fishing grounds," the phase China often uses in reference to the nine-dash line.
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Albany

Downtown business operators anticipate high foot traffic on Monday, when thousands of people are expected to flock to the city to hear presidential candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders speak at two rallies within hours of each other in advance of the state's primary on April 19.

At 2 p.m. Monday, Sen. Bernie Sanders will host a rally at the Washington Avenue Armory, a venue that can hold up to 4,300 people, and businessman Donald Trump will speak at 7 p.m. at the Times Union Center, which can hold up to 17,500 people. His fellow Republican candidate, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, will also be in the area Monday, but will bypass Albany.

The city used the weekend to prepare for an influx of visitors.

More Information Candidate convergence comes to the Capital Region Monday Sen. Bernie Sanders, Democratic presidential candidate When: 2 p.m. (doors open at 11 a.m.) Where: Washington Avenue Armory, 195 Washington Ave., Albany Info: http://berniesanders.com Donald J. Trump, Republican presidential candidate When: 7 p.m. Monday (doors open at 4 p.m.) Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St. Info: http://donaldjtrump.com Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Republican presidential candidate When: 2:30 p.m. Monday (doors open at 1:30 p.m.) Where: LaSalle Institute, 174 Williams Road, Troy When: 5:30 p.m. Monday (doors open at 4:30 p.m.) Where: Springs City Center, Broadway, Saratoga Springs Info: http://johnkasich.com See More Collapse

The Downtown Business Improvement District alerted businesses to road closures and parking restrictions, and Albany's "clean team" swept sidewalks to tidy up the city in advance of an influx of out-of-town guests, said Georgette Steffens, the group's executive director.

Cider Belly Doughnuts put a political spin on its treats, sold on North Pearl Street near the Times Union Center.

The shop advertised its "Cider Bernie"  topped with maple buttercream and a honey sriracha drizzle  and a "What A Trump"  a plain doughnut with chocolate mousse and sea salt caramel truffles  on a sign outside its shop. (Other candidates have themed doughnuts on the "ballot," too.)

Employees of local restaurants said they prepared for the rallies by adding staff to Monday shifts and, of course, speculating about what it would be like to have a candidate as a customer.

"It'll be chaos, but let's hope it's organized," said Erika Presher, a bartender at the Pearl Street Pub, less than a half-mile away from the Times Union Center.

Several extra employees will work on Monday to accommodate the anticipated frenzy, Presher said. "It's going to be like a St. Patrick's Day, but people won't be outside drinking."

City Beer Hall will bring on its full staff on Monday, as it does for other large events at the Times Union Center.

The crowd coming on Monday may largely be from out of town, restaurant general manager Josh Grant said on Saturday.

"We're ready for it," Grant said. "It's always exciting to be next to the Times Union Center at events like this."

Additional parking regulations likely will not affect business at the Steuben Street Market, an organic and local food store, said part-time employee Barbara Tonne. "Finding parking is tough here anyway," she said.

Tonne said the intense political dialogue has made the primary season exciting in New York.

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"I would like to have a placard out there saying 'Go Home, Trump,'" she said, later crediting the candidate for the "open and rich" conversation regarding the election that stretched over the last several months.

Taylor Cianciotto, a College of Saint Rose student who has worked at Noho Pizza for three years, said she would be working on Monday evening at the small shop just feet from the Washington Avenue Armory. She said Sanders supporters may drop by the store after the rally.

Her boss, she said, joked that Sanders may turn to the shop for a slice of pizza, too.

"I can only hope," she said, laughing.

Doors will open at the Armory at 11 a.m., and at the Times Union Center at around 4 p.m.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich will also be in the region on Monday, with appearances scheduled at 2:30 p.m. at La Salle Institute in North Greenbush and at 5:30 p.m. at the Saratoga Springs City Center in Saratoga Springs.

Democratic front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Albany and Cohoes on Monday, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz appeared in Scotia on Thursday.

lellis@timesunion.com  518-454-5018  @lindsayaellis
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Albany

It has been decades since New York's presidential primary really mattered. The state has grown used to political irrelevance.

Within New York, the Capital Region, like the rest of upstate, has long been politically irrelevant, our population  and voting power  dwarfed by that teeming megalopolis to the south.

So what's coming our way Monday is remarkable. For one day, Albany will be the center of the political universe.

More Information Contact Chris Churchill at 518-454-5442 or email cchurchill@timesunion.com See More Collapse

I'm talking, of course, about the planned visits by Donald J. Trump and Bernard Sanders  two men known for drawing massive crowds  along with the visits to Saratoga Springs and Troy by John "He's Still Running?" Kasich, a candidate not known for drawing large crowds.

The Bernie and Donald events will be within blocks of each other, with Sanders planning to appear early in the afternoon at the Washington Avenue Armory and Trump scheduled to speak in the evening at the Times Union Center.

Heck, the timing allows for committed devotees of the presidential race to attend both rallies  a political doubleheader, of sorts, with very different ideologies on display.

Bernie, as we know, is the quasi-socialist who wants to make America great again by making it more like Sweden and Denmark, comfortable places where the government takes the worry out of life.

Trump just wants to Make America Great Again, no specifics necessary. He's motivated by three core beliefs: Trump, Trump and Trump.

The rallies promise to fill downtown Albany with an interesting clash of cultures, with the supporters of the candidate who hates Wall Street and believes GE is "destroying the moral fabric" of America mingling at bars and restaurants with fans of the candidate who has made capitalistic accumulation the overriding purpose of his life.

It should make for a memorable day. Start looking for parking now.

All of this comes on the heels of visits by Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz  or, as they're also known, Hilarious Hillary and Lovable Ted. They may not win your vote, but they are guaranteed to make you smile!

OK, so maybe not.

I didn't make it to the Clinton rally on Monday in Cohoes, an event designed to stave off the growing possibility of a Sanders win in New York  an upset that would throw the Democratic establishment into a panic.

But I did get to the Cruz rally on Thursday in Scotia, an event designed to keep Trump from getting enough delegates to secure the nomination  a development that would throw the Republican establishment into a panic.

Cruz found a supportive audience at the Mekeel Christian Academy, a red-brick school tucked into a tidy residential neighborhood. But like an iguana at the North Pole, the conservative and deeply religious Republican was away from his natural habitat.

The Capital Region is solidly blue, and the whole limited-government thing doesn't play well in a place with so many state employees. Plus, the region is considered one of the least religious metropolitan areas in the country.

At least some in the Scotia audience were there not because they supported Cruz, but because they wanted to witness the spectacle of a campaign rally or lay eyes on a man they'd seen on television.

Consider the conversation I had with Alexandria Koshgarian, an 18-year-old from Saratoga Springs who was wearing a red Cruz T-shirt and a big pin featuring the candidate's face.

"I'm a Bernie supporter in disguise," Koshgarian said. "I don't agree with much that Cruz says. But I'm here to hear him out and listen to what he has to say."

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In this hyper-partisan age, Koshgarian deserves an award for open-mindedness.

She pointed to her father, who was sitting in the bleachers wearing a Cruz knit hat and waving a Ted Cruz sign. He was really a Trump supporter, she said.

The mind reeled. It was all so confusing.

After the rally, I tracked down Koshgarian's father for his opinion of Cruz's speech.

"It was fantastic," Michael Koshgarian said, noting that he now supported Trump and Cruz about equally and would be thrilled to vote for either in the general election.

Koshgarian seemed to take his daughter's Bernie support in stride.

"My little commie," he said, smiling.

Alexandria Koshgarian has a busy Monday planned. She'll see Bernie during the day and Trump in the evening. She's even hoping to squeeze in a Kasich rally, if she can make the timing work.

It sounds exhausting, but I give her credit. She's making the most of Albany's big day.

cchurchill@timesunion.com  518-454-5442  @chris_churchill
Albany

On paper, New York's second-largest medical malpractice insurance company struggled in 2015: Physicians' Reciprocal Insurers' liabilities surged to $138 million more than its assets, a gap that had been $86 million a year before.

Yet Anthony J. Bonomo, a star federal witness in last fall's corruption trial of ex-Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, has been in talks to sell the company that runs PRI to a firm in California for what could be a significant amount, according to multiple sources. In his testimony, Bonomo pegged the management company's value between $100 million and $125 million.

That's what makes PRI unique in its field, and what some say makes its finances potentially worrisome: PRI's condition can worsen, but the management firm that runs it and rakes in fees doesn't bear the burden.

PRI's underlying finances are not just a matter of concern for Bonomo, however, or the doctors and hospitals that are its customers. Every New Yorker who pays for home, auto or business insurance would foot the bill if the company collapses. Unpaid claims would be paid by the state's insurance company guaranty fund, with the cost ultimately passed on to policyholders.

"Allowing a medical malpractice insurer to operate in the red is terribly risky," said Ellen Melchionni, president of the New York Insurance Association, which represents property and casualty insurers.

In addition, records show that if Bonomo were to hang on to the company and it did collapse, a real estate company he co-owns would still be paid $8 million of PRI's money.

In a detailed series of answers to questions posed by the Times Union, PRI noted it has always been in "good standing" with regulators through its 35-year history and scrupulously followed all of their reporting requests. PRI's surplus often goes up and down "based on runoff from old cases (and) write downs of assets," the statement said. The company said its bottom line is expected to improve in 2016.

"While PRI does operate with a negative surplus due to the low (premium) rates DFS sets for every provider in the state, PRI remains in good standing with (the state Department of Financial Services), able to pay its bills and meet current claims," the company told the Times Union. "PRI has shown positive surplus/balance when rates are set correctly by DFS, and currently has about $1.3 billion in assets."

It's currently impossible for New Yorkers to tell if state government feels similarly bullish about PRI.

As the Times Union reported in March, state insurance regulators have routinely suppressed deep governmental exams they're required to conduct every five years probing PRI's finances  even as the exams of PRI's competitors have been released.

A person with knowledge of the workings of the Department of Financial Services told the Times Union that the release of a negative report might cause doctors who currently use the insurer to flee to other companies. State regulators fear such a disruption of the market, the person said, and actuaries for the regulator and regulated have had difficulty agreeing on financial numbers.

The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a major recipient of Bonomo's generous campaign giving, is staying quiet about whether it will eventually release a currently ongoing audit.

Testifying at the Skelos trial under a non-prosecution agreement, the Brooklyn-born Bonomo, 57, explained PRI's financial structure.

PRI was founded in 1981, a rough time for the industry. The Legislature created a law in 1985 allowing medical malpractice insurers to operate at a loss; it has been renewed every few years. The law's survival is a top priority for the lobbyists employed by PRI, as the company is one of two such firms operating in the red in New York.

Just weeks before his arrest in May 2015, Skelos pushed through the latest renewal of the law (good through 2019) as part of the state budget. Skelos had pressured Bonomo in 2012 to hire his son, Adam, to what amounted to a no-show job. Dean and Adam Skelos were convicted in December on eight federal counts connected to quid pro quo arrangements with PRI and two other companies.

Bonomo started working at PRI in 1985, and eventually rose to run PRI's management company. A copy of Bonomo's 1999 employment agreement, posted online by TechAgreements.com, lays out lucrative benefits: a $400,000 salary, a $500,000 signing bonus, performance bonuses, stock, a personal company automobile (specified as a BMW 740 or equivalent) and membership in Long Island's Cherry Valley country club.

In 2006, Bonomo bought the management company that runs PRI, Administrators for the Professions (plus a controlling interest in another company), for about $40 million, according to a news release.

AFP has about 315 employees, including a number of Bonomo's family members. According to a prosecutor at the Skelos trial, employees hired at Bonomo's behest are known internally as "AB Referrals," and were uniquely allowed to work from home  something Bonomo denied. Adam Skelos was such an employee.

In testimony, Bonomo described the relationship between the management company and PRI.

Under New York law, reciprocal insurers such as PRI have no actual employees and must be run by an outside management firm led by an attorney  in this case, Bonomo.

The reciprocal insurer holds assets and liabilities, while the management company makes its money by selling malpractice insurance, and taking a percentage cut of the resulting premiums. In the case of PRI, a state-approved management agreement means AFP takes a maximum of 13 percent.

AFP "derives its revenue from a percentage of the premium written by PRI," Bonomo testified, pegging that revenue at about $45 million annually.

Terry Cummings, a Manhattan attorney who works extensively on insurance regulation issues, told the Times Union it was "unusual" for a New York insurer to buy management services from an affiliate based on a cut of premiums  instead of simply getting paid for the cost of services.

"The regulatory objective is to use premiums to build capital in the insurer to pay future claims," she said, rather than putting premium "into the administrator, outside the reach of claimants and insurers."

During the trial, Bonomo pinned PRI's financial issues on state insurance regulators, who set the premiums that medical malpractice firms can charge doctors. Many insurers believe those premiums are far too low. (In 2007, State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo approved a 14 percent increase in the rates to "avoid further financial deterioration of the companies.")

Medical malpractice insurers, however, are largely allowed to pick the rates for plans they sell to hospitals. And PRI has gained a reputation for offering cheaper premiums than its competitors.

PRI's main competitor, the largest medical malpractice insurer operating in New York, is Latham-based Medical Liability Mutual Insurance Company. MLMIC is in the black: Its most recent financial filing shows a $1.8 billion surplus. MLMIC and PRI insure most doctors in New York, and many hospitals. If PRI were to go under, MLMIC alone would control much of the market. (While PRI began operating in the 1980s  the industry's nadir  MLMIC has been operating longer, and had more time to build a surplus.)

As a mutual insurance company, MLMIC's corporate structure is different from PRI: There's no outside private management company that makes money based on the amount of premiums written.

"They have an interest in keeping it healthy  unlike PRI, which works to provide for the benefit of its (owners)," said Michael Goldstein, an ophthalmologist and president of the New York County Medical Society, which represents doctors in Manhattan.

In the 2000s, MLMIC lost significant hospital business to PRI.

"They came in and undersold MLMIC at a ton of places," said Goldstein. "Selling at a lower price means you're going to get business  but if you're selling premium at too low a price, it catches up to you."

Of course, the resulting liabilities from those sales lay on the books of employee-less PRI  not on Bonomo's separate management company that gets the commissions.

PRI said in its statement that its business at Long Island's North Shore University Hospital had come "because we had many of its doctors as clients" and added it was a "competitive business and we did offer good rates to get it." PRI recently submitted a notice with DFS seeking to allow the company to raise its rates at hospitals up to 20 percent  although "we have not raised rates to near that level," PRI told the Times Union.

Those are not the only ways in which the financial interests of PRI and Bonomo might diverge.

If PRI were to collapse, a deal involving three Bonomo-run companies means $8 million would go back to a Bonomo-owned real estate company  a sum that would be paid by PRI.

According to annual reports, a Bonomo company called AJB Ventures in 2007 purchased PRI's office building in Roslyn, Long Island. AJB Ventures installed PRI's management company, AFP, as the rent-paying tenant.

AFP issued a $7.95 million letter of credit, with PRI's assets serving as collateral.

That means that if PRI were to collapse and AFP were unable to continue paying rent, there is $8 million sitting in the bank waiting to be paid out to the landlord: Bonomo.

"It is standard business practice for any commercial lease that the leasor would ask the leasee to put up a letter of credit," PRI said in its statement. "Anthony and his partner who jointly purchased the building followed this practice, as would any other building owner  and PRI fully disclosed the terms of the lease arrangement to DFS."

PRI maintains the outstanding mortgage on the property is much larger than $7.95 million.

It remains a mystery what state financial regulators think about these issues.

The state Insurance Department examined PRI's finances for the years 2000, 2004 and 2009  the first two under the tenure of Gov. George Pataki, the third under Gov. David Paterson. (In 2011, the state Department of Financial Services came into being through a merger of the state's banking and insurance agencies.)

In 2000, Greg Serio was a top official at the Insurance Department; from 2001 to around the end of 2004, he was its superintendent.

When Serio left his government post, he began working for Park Strategies, the lobbying firm owned by former U.S. Sen. Alphonse D'Amato, one of the state's most influential lobbyists. Serio set up the firm's "risk and insurance management practice group," according to the firm's website; he is also a principal in Compass Company Consultants, "a risk management and insurance consulting subsidiary of Park."

Park Strategies began working for PRI's management company in 2004, while Serio was still running the agency. Serio did not discuss PRI's 2004 financial exam with the company while he was superintendent, PRI says, and the never-released report was not actually finished until 2007.

Serio eventually became PRI's "day-to-day" lobbyist, D'Amato said on the stand at the Skelos trial.

"He was the former commissioner of insurance and knows all of the regulations," D'Amato testified. "And Greg Serio has, for all of the time that we've represented PRI, dealt with a lot of regulatory matters in front of the Insurance Department."

New York's Public Officers Law bans former government officials from appearing before the state agencies where they worked for two years in a paid capacity, and also says state employees cannot ever practice, appear before or ever even "communicate" with those agencies on matters over which they were "directly concerned" during their state employment, or which were under their "active consideration."

Serio's two-year ban was lifted after the onset of Gov. Eliot Spitzer administration in 2007, when Serio and Park Strategies registered to lobby for PRI.

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Asked why the 2000 exam wasn't publicly released, Serio told the Times Union he could not remember the specifics, but said such decisions are made "in consideration of a lot of other issues" such as "market stability." (Serio lowered premium rates for PRI and its competitors while superintendent  a move that was opposed by those companies.)

In 2014, PRI paid $250,000 to four Albany lobbying firms, including Park Strategies  a typical outlay for the company.

With both his own and PRI's funds, Bonomo has been a major donor to politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Cuomo and Pataki. Bonomo acknowledged in testimony that he gives to politicians in order to build goodwill. A horse racing enthusiast who owns a racing stable called Brooklyn Boyz, he was appointed by Cuomo in March 2015 as chair of the New York Racing Association, but took a leave of absence just weeks later after Adam Skelos' no-show job was brought to light.

The Department of Financial Services recently rejected the Times Union's open records request for PRI's three most recent exam reports. (The agency says the final formal steps to make the exams technically "adopted and filed" were never completed, and therefore the records aren't public.)

The agency did provide one report  from 1996.

PRI and its Bonomo-run management company said jointly that they "don't know" why the state never finalized or released the reports.

The companies "never lobbied DFS not to release its audits, and we won't lobby DFS not to release the current audit it is conducting," they said, adding they have "no issue with DFS releasing any of the financial documents that both parties review."

Some in the industry also question the value of exams that are publicly released, given that they often come out several years after the period of time the reports are examining.

PRI says its finances are transparent, and noted that it voluntarily submits lengthy explanations of its finances to regulators each year, and that its leadership meets quarterly with those regulators.

DFS spokesman Rich Loconte said the agency was unable to track down anyone who had worked at the Insurance Department who knew why the last three exams weren't released to the public  including the one covering 2009.

"We have talked internally," Loconte said. "We cannot determine why in fact the reports were not finalized."

PRI says the company's finances are increasingly strong, the result of an "ongoing effort since 2009 to reform its management, governance, operations, actuarial and claims practices and procedures, and overall financial footing." Its negative surplus was much higher  $180 million  five years ago, the company says.

In a February 2015 letter to DFS, Bonomo argued that PRI had an improved surplus and reserves, and a strengthened investment portfolio.

Bonomo's letter pointed to a potential thundercloud: the "unprecedented danger" from the growth of largely unregulated, lower-priced "risk retention groups" that cover doctors and hospitals. PRI suggested the Legislature should address the issue by only allowing "admitted carriers" such as PRI to operate, in order to ensure the "highest degree of financial security."

Now multiple sources say Bonomo is seeking to make a deal with a California firm, the Doctors Company, to sell off Administrators for the Professions, the firm that runs PRI. A Doctors Company official, David McHale, said that he would decline comment "until there is actually something substantial to comment on."

PRI declined to comment on "rumors or speculation."

The potential sale of its management company could raise the stakes concerning PRI's next financial exam.

Asked if DFS would approve Bonomo's sale of the management company while PRI was $138 million in the red, Loconte said the agency was not currently prepared to approve any deal.

"We are aware of the potential offer, but it is something we're looking at that will be in the totality of the exam process," he said.

Loconte, however, declined to answers questions about whether the new report would ever be publicly released. He also declined to outline the agency's criteria for suppressing or releasing an exam.

It will be a decision for Maria Vullo, who in January was nominated by Cuomo as the next DFS superintendent; she awaits state Senate confirmation.

"I'm not going to comment on the decision-making right now," Loconte said.

cbragg@timesunion.com  518-454-5303  @chrisbragg1
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Washington

In 1916, the votes of white males mattered because they were almost the entire electorate. The blue-collar portion of that population manned upstate New York's factories from Buffalo to Troy, churning out steel, grain silos, carpets and countless other products.

Fast forward 100 years. The mills are mostly gone and the electoral zone is flooded with women and minority voters, all with priorities of their own. In New York, white males are 28 percent of the state's population over age 18  a far less-dominant force in the changed world of politics.

But for better or worse, the candidacy of New York real estate mogul Donald Trump is changing all that. Now, despite a loss last week in Wisconsin, Trump is going full-throttle to win New York's suddenly crucial 95 delegates in the April 19 primary.

The pundits and politicos have long been agog over Trump's gravitational pull on the white male blue-collar population  a wave he could surf all the way to the Republican presidential nomination.

And they're not the only ones wondering why Trump's unguarded rhetoric  laced with what critics have decried as overt racism and misogyny  is winning over blue-collar guys. Democrats and labor leaders who favor Hillary Clinton also are coping with groups of unionized workers attracted to Trump or U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has long called himself a "democratic socialist."

What makes these voters tick?

"In upstate New York we're all familiar with how the economy has been hollowed out and how it's destroyed our families," said Michael Caputo, a Buffalo-based political consultant who is assisting Trump's New York campaign chairman, former GOP gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino. (Caputo ran Paladino's 2010 gubernatorial campaign.) "People in upstate New York know what it's like to have the economy abandon them."

As a fill-in talk radio host, Caputo says he hears from some voters who think they might vote for Sanders if Trump is not the nominee  and vice-versa.

Republicans not supporting Trump have little doubt as to the source of his appeal and the draw of Sanders as well.

"I not only understand (those voters') views but I agree with them," said Rep. Chris Gibson, R-Kinderhook, who is contemplating a gubernatorial bid in 2018. "But I respectfully disagree that Trump is the right guy to address those issues."

Gibson, who is not seeking re-election to Congress, has not endorsed any Republican candidate so far, saying "it's possible I will write in" a name if he can't make up his mind by Election Day.

Many of New York's white males without college or advanced degrees may already have made their minds up, but the impact of that block of votes is open to question.

In New York, with a high percentage of college graduates and those with advanced degrees, the white male blue-collar vote is marginal. High school graduates are 22 percent of the state's total white population ages 25 or over  the same percentage as college grads.

Nationwide, Republicans are scared stiff of what a Trump candidacy might mean for the party. The same holds true in New York, although state GOP committee Chairman Ed Cox describes himself and the party structure itself as "helpfully neutral."

"I want the grass-roots of this party to have the satisfaction of deciding who the next president will be," Cox said. "I have faith they will do a good job."

By now, the litany of complaints voiced by supporters of anti-establishment candidates is familiar: Trade deals that move jobs overseas, Wall Street's role in the recession, wage stagnation, distrust of Washington, illegal immigration, and the influence of big money in politics.

But there are a host of historic intangibles beneath all that. Among them are automation increasingly taking humans out of the production loop, a globalized economy that might have taken shape even without those trade deals, and the bewildering pace of technical and social change.

"You take a combination of things perceived as having a negative impact  trade, immigration, technology  and it's not surprising they're upset and are attracted to the two extremes in the two parties," said Donald Siegel, dean of the business school at the University at Albany.

Gerald Benjamin, a political scientist at SUNY New Paltz, calls it "the expectation phenomenon."

"People don't riot when they're suppressed; they riot when they have unrealized expectations," Benjamin said. "People express discontent not when entirely on their backs, but when they can't seem to get back to where they expect to be."

In New York, the latest Siena Research Institute and Quinnipiac University polls show Trump holds a comfortable double-digit lead over Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, while former U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, who made New York her adopted home, leads Sanders by a still significant margin.

Sanders and Trump are on opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, but their New York-accented tough talk  particularly on trade  is catnip for less-skilled workers buffeted by flat pay, economic uncertainty and a belief that their children face a world of diminished opportunity.

But could New York be an exception?

Unlike workers in the Rust Belt, its blue-collar workforce has found relative stability in advanced manufacturing, some of it through joint SUNY Polytechnic Institute projects in Albany, Utica, Syracuse and Rochester.

The first SUNY nanotech building  then part of UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering  opened in 1993 with seven employees; it has morphed into a sprawling enterprise of 4,000 employees. GlobalFoundries in Malta similarly employs 3,000 in computer chip-making. Workers with less than a four-year college degree make up 60 percent of both workforces.

In addition, SUNY Poly's joint projects in Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo and Utica employ 15,000; about 60 percent do not hold four-year college degrees.

Although manufacturing employment in New York overall has yet to surpass pre-recession levels of a decade ago, it is up 6 percent in the Albany-Schenectady-Troy region over three years ago. Even hard-hit Buffalo, the target of Gov. Andrew Cuomo's most robust upstate economic development efforts, is up slightly.

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Modern technology has rendered the old labor-intensive assembly line obsolete, but manufacturing jobs do exist for workers with the right training.

"We can't meet the demand of area businesses," said David Larkin, who teaches advanced manufacturing technology at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. "I have CEOs come here and the only thing I hear them say is, 'Dave, I can't find enough people with skills to do the job. If I had them, I could double my business.'"

The HVCC program graduates about 100 students a year, all of them qualified to work in high-skill, high-wage manufacturing, Larkin said.

"I don't see jobs as Republican or Democrat," he said. "Manufacturers do not have any problem paying good wages for workers who have the right skills."

Nevertheless, an uptick in high-tech production is hardly enough to compensate for decades of losses in manufacturing across upstate.

A portion of New York's blue-collar population may see itself as too old for retraining but too young to retire.

"People have given up," said Caputo. "They're contracting, working off the books. The cost of living is low and they're not looking anymore."

The attraction of Trump and Sanders shows the blue-collar population is concerned with the issues that affect them, not the ideological standards of either party.

"I'm as conservative as they come, but the fact Donald Trump says positive things about Planned Parenthood, or that he's not a neocon ready to go to war, that doesn't bother me," Caputo said. "None of that matters because he cares about what makes people angry the most."

But at least one GOP leader in New York is hoping that whatever the ideological divisions, the state's blue-collar population will continue to find a home in the Republican Party.

"This is very important constituency of the state Republican Party, and always has been," said Cox, who married President Richard Nixon's daughter Tricia in a 1971 White House wedding.

"My father-in-law called them 'the silent majority,'" Cox said. "And Trump labels them that way too."

dan@hearstdc.com 202-263-6419 @danfreedma
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If you don't trust Google with its massive data collection capabilities, you can use another search engine. If you don't want websites tracking you, you can disable cookies. If you want extra privacy, you can use browsers or programs that wipe your tracks clean.

But there's one entity whose gaze you can't avoid if you're on the Web: your Internet service provider.

ISPs can track most of what you do in cyberspace  websites and pages you view, social media sites on which you interact, game sites you play on, news and opinions you read, shopping sites you use. If, like most people, you don't use encryption, they can read what you send in communications like emails. And they can also track where you access the Internet from  your home, a doctor's office, and so on.

It's doubtful your ISP views such detailed information; what they're mostly interested in is metadata, data that more generally describes that detailed data. They can use it to try to sell you more of their services or products, or sell it to third parties looking to sell you their wares or services.

That may or may not bother you. But it disturbs enough people that the Federal Communications Commission is looking to give customers a greater measure of control over how ISPs use such information. Predictably, telecom companies aren't happy.

Neither are we, not entirely at least, though for different reasons.

Sign up for The Knick  Get the latest news and features with our afternoon newsletter.

The FCC's proposed privacy rules would require ISPs to allow customers to opt in to third-party sharing  in other words, they would have to get your explicit consent to share information about you to other companies. They would not, however, have to do this with their internal use of the data, or to share it with affiliates.

Telecom companies argue the opt-in rules would put more restrictions on them than companies like Google or Facebook are subject to. But that's apples and oranges; customers can drop Google, Facebook, or pretty much any Internet service if they want and find another similar site. In many areas of the country, they don't have that choice when it comes to changing their ISP. Moreover, even when there is a choice of ISPs, switching is usually more than a click of a mouse canceling contracts, paying penalties, changing equipment.

The FCC should side with consumers, not the telecoms, on this. It should require that customers have all the options  those for opting in and those for opting out, on a single Web page  in brief, simple language, and be able to simply click yes or no. And this rule should apply not just to broadband but to wireless companies that provide Internet access for phones and tablets.

In an age when Internet access is increasingly essential, and when privacy seems more and more elusive, the FCC should do all it can to at least give consumers a choice of how much they want to surrender.

You can read the proposed FCC privacy rule at http://tinyurl.com/zofql7e. To submit a comment, go to http://apps.fcc.gov/ecfs.
By Noel Dundon

The Reserve Defence Force is currently recruiting and is looking for men and women aged 18-33 to join their ranks.

The RDF (formerly the FCA), from its base in Templemore is encouraging locals from Thurles, Templemore, Roscrea and the surrounding areas, to consider signing up and enjoy the very fulfilling role of a reserve defence force member, which could lead to a full time career in the military or in An Garda Siochana.

One man with over forty years experience in the field is former Mayor of Thurles, John Kenehan who said that he has absolutely no regrets about his decision to join up when he was still a boy.

Acting Company Sergeant, John encourages anybody who would like to consider the RDF to check out the website www.military.ie

Recruits will be subjected to the same stringent examinations as permanent defence force members and this means that following application, there will be medical examination, fitness test and an interview to test suitability.

After acceptance, recruits will be placed on modular training culminating in a two week camp at a military barracks, John said.

The camp process will help shape and mould members in terms of the discipline of correct dress, presentation, handling of arms, marching and footdrills etc. There will also be the issue of military clothing and uniforms for private recruits.

A number of high profile local men moved to the permanent defence forces from the FCA including the likes of Comdt Joe Gleeson who led Company 3 at the Easter Rising Commemoration in Dublin - he had been trained by John Kenehan as a member of the FCA in Thurles, and John was under his command for the Easter commemoration.

It was an extremly emotional event and I could feel the eyes welling up and the throat tightening when the GPO came into view. I have only two years left in the RDF as I have to retire at 60 and it was a very special event to have been part of, John said.

Elements of the training involves learning to drive a range of vehicles, experiencing the medical corps, map reading, dealing with arms, leadership, management and a whole range of other life skills which would be very necessary in the jobs market.

Indeed, many employers would be very impressed with a CV which comes with RDF membership as it immediately suggests a driven person, who is willing to take orders, and carry out a range of duties.

We train two hours per week in the Templemore barracks on a Tuesday evening and then once a year we engage in a paid two week training programme in camp. It is a magnificent experience, but it is hard work too, with late night and early morning work, John said.

Apart from the many ceremonial duties the RDF participates in, they can be called in at any stage to act as relief to the army. Members were on duty as support to the army most recently with the flooding crisis which hit the country during the winter.

If anyone is interested is applying, have a look at the website or have a chat with any member of the RDF. They can also ring the barracks in Templemore where somebody is on duty at all times, John Kenehan said.

Interested? Why not give it some consideration.
Kansas City Prison Industrial Complex Protest





A message from Kansas City activists on their recent protests . . .



"Got a couple Video's here of a dozen citizens joining withholding signs supporting Texas prisoners who are on lock down for refusing to work any longer for slave wages. At least five Texas prisons were involved in the shut down. Phones are shut down and family is not able to contact their members inside these prisons. The Free Alabama Movement inside Holman Prison has called a national prison strike on Sept 9th."







Developing . . .
Shared by MD: "Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander joined with #MDPAAC's 10th Annual Caucus on 4/7/2016. Thank you Jason Kander for your time with us and our community. Jason Kander is running for United States Senate and MDPAAC (Missouri Democratic Party Asian American Caucus) officially endorsed his candidacy."

Sundays are often for reconciliation and this morning we'd like to feature two political powerhouses connected to Kansas City, smiling for the camera while shaking hands and mending fences.Take a look . . .This photo is a big deal.Why?Not so long ago, during a contentions Missouri SecState race . . . These two squared off,and ultimately Kander won the office handily.Now,and many of the same voters who attended theLike it or not, for better worse and because it's important to understand the part our local Democracy plays in the big picture;. . .You decide . . .
Greece plans to tell thousands of migrants that it loves them to persuade them to willingly evacuate a huge makeshift camp at the port of Piraeus ahead of the busy tourism season

Greece plans to tell thousands of migrants that it loves them to persuade them to willingly evacuate a huge makeshift camp at the port of Piraeus ahead of the busy tourism season, officials said Friday.

But it vowed that the massive port, gateway to the Aegean islands for hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers every summer, will be emptied in a few days.

Do not lose your courage, we stand by you, we love you...! reads a leaflet that will be distributed at the port from Monday, the merchant marine ministry said.

The leaflet in Arabic, Farsi, Greek and English urges migrants not to trust smugglers and to refrain from violence in the wake of several brawls between rival nationalities at the port in past weeks.

Do not despair. Remain calm. Make sure that no violent incidents take place among you, it says.

The port of Piraeus will be emptied in a few days

Although Greek authorities have so far pledged not to use force against the migrants, the document says that in a few days the port of Piraeus will be emptied (evacuated).

The authorities offer few guarantees as to the migrants' future beyond the provision of accommodation and healthcare at organised migrant facilities.

Since other European states have closed their (borders) it is true that nobody can be sure for the exact course of events to come, the leaflet says.

Greece is running out of time to clear the port before the celebration of Orthodox Easter on May 1, a period of busy traffic to the islands through Piraeus.

The port of Piraeus cannot host you anymore and you have nothing to win by remaining here, the flyer says.

The port of Piraeus will have to service significant volumes of traffic

From now on, the port of Piraeus will have to service significant volumes of traffic of vehicles and passengers, it adds.

According to the government, there are still over 4,600 people in the makeshift camp of Piraeus that has taken over a number of passenger terminals.

Overall, there are over 52,000 people trapped in Greece after Balkan states further north closed their borders to migrants.

Efforts to persuade the migrants to relocate from Piraeus to other camps have so far met with only limited success, as only a few hundred people have left, fearing that they will be trapped inside closed camps under police guard.

Source: AFP

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Egypt will reduce spending on fuel subsidies by nearly 43 per cent in the 2016/17 budget due mainly to lower global energy costs, officials said on Saturday.



Finance Minister Amr al-Garhy told a news conference state energy subsidies would fall to 35 billion Egyptian pounds ($3.94 billion) from about 61 billion pounds in the 2015/16 budget.



Consumers reacted angrily when the government cut spending on energy subsidies in mid-2014, a measure that caused domestic prices of natural gas, diesel and other fuels to rise by as much as 78 percent. They were reduced again in the current budget.



However, the deputy finance minister for fiscal policy said a decline in international oil prices would account for the bulk of the reduced subsidy spending in the next fiscal year.



"Most of the savings in petroleum product subsidies will be a result of lower global oil prices," the deputy minister, Ahmed Kojak, told Reuters.



"There is also a saving of about 8-10 billion (Egyptian) pounds that will come as a result of new reforms that the Petroleum Ministry will outline in agreement with us," he added.



Egypt is struggling to revive its economy since a popular uprising in 2011 shook investor confidence and drove tourists and foreign investors away. Its foreign currency reserves stood at $16.56 billion in March, down from about $36 billion in 2011.



The government has been trying to cut subsidies, which eat up a big chunk of the budget.



President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has approved a draft state budget that reduces the budget deficit in the 2016/17 fiscal year to 9.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 11.5 percent.  Reuters
Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement late on Saturday to set up a SR60 billion ($16 billion) investment fund among other investment agreements including an economic free-zone to develop Egypt's Sinai region, Egyptian state television reported.



The signing of the agreements took place in Egypt's Abdeen palace in the presence of Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Saudi's King Salman, during a rare four-day visit to Egypt.



Egypt has struggled to spur economic growth since the 2011 uprising ushered in political instability that scared off tourists and foreign investors, key sources of foreign currency.



Egyptian state TV said the agreement was to establish "a Saudi-Egyptian investment fund with a capital of SR60 billion between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the entities belonging to it and the Egyptian government and the entities that belong to it."



A memorandum of understanding was also signed between the Saudi Public Investment Fund and the Egyptian International Cooperation Ministry to set up an economic free-zone in Sinai. No other details were announced.



The two countries also signed agreements to develop a 2250 Megawatt electricity plant with a cost of $2.2 billion, set up agriculture complexes in Sinai and develop a canal to transfer water, a statement from the Presidency said.



The statement also said that a company was set up to develop 6 sq km of the industrial zone around Egypt's Suez Canal worth $3.3 billion, without giving further details.



The investments are part of a change in strategy from Saudi Arabia to focus more on financial support that will also benefit Saudi Arabia with return on investment.



Saudi Arabia, along with other Gulf oil producers, has pumped billions of dollars, including grants, into Egypt's flagging economy since the army toppled President Mohamed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.



Some of the projects announced on Saturday include private sector investments. Last week the deputy head of the Saudi-Egyptian Business Council told Reuters that Saudi businessmen are investing around $4 billion in projects in Egypt and have already deposited 10 percent of that sum in Egyptian banks.



Egypt is aiming for direct foreign investment of around $8-$10 billion in 2015/16.



On Friday, King Salman announced that a bridge connecting Egypt and Saudi Arabia would be built across the Red Sea. No details were given.



Egypt also signed development agreements with Saudi Arabia worth $590 million, Egyptian International Cooperation Minister Sahar Nasr said on Friday.



She said the agreements, signed with the Saudi finance minister, covered development in the Sinai peninsula, agriculture, housing and a university.



The agreements also include a memorandum of understanding between Saudi Aramco and Egypt's Arab Petroleum Pipelines Company SUMED.  Reuters
Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) has partnered with Qatar Foundation for Social Work Organization for a an upcoming seminar on sustainable development.



The two-day 'Arab conference on the role of civil society's in the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030' is being held on April 20 at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).



QIC Group senior deputy president and CEO Ali Al Fadala signed the agreement with Amal bint Abdullatif Al-Mannai, CEO of Qatar Foundation for Social Work and Head of the Steering Committee.



Commenting on the partnership, Fadala said: "We are pleased to be partnering with Qatar Foundation for Social Work Organization on their noble mission and take pride in supporting all activities and initiatives which serve to enrich the Qatari society. We extend full support to QFSW for accomplishing its mission and set goals."



Amal said QFSW will work hand in hand with the Qatari insurer to help support and develop social action, and promote the sustainability of family and community cohesion as well as human development in Qatar.



"This is in line with QFSW Vision and Mission of empowering and developing civil society organizations," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Bahrain-based Manara Developments Company is set to launch a unique range of its properties at the Gulf Property Show 2016, the boutique showcase for real estate and property developments which opens this month in Bahrain.



The event is being organised by Hilal Conferences and Exhibitions (HCE) under the patronage of HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, the Prime Minister of Bahrain, from April 26 to 28 at the Bahrain International Exhibition and Convention Centre.



On the upcoming show, managing director Dr Hasan Al Bastaki said: "Manara's participation as a strategic partner in this real estate event, portrays its commitment to the real estate sector, as this exhibition, which achieved a growth of up to 70 per cent from 2013, is an annual opportunity for industry players, as well as prospective owners to meet and address the industrys latest developments and trends."



Dr Al Bastaki said Manara will exhibit three major residential projects one of which is a mixed-use development Hasabi project offering breathtaking seafront views.



Also at the expo, Manara aims to introduce a new sales phase of its Investment Gateway  Bahrain project that offers opportunities for ownership for Bahraini as well as non-Bahraini companies and individuals, a feature that makes the project, and the kingdom an ideal base for a wide array of light industry and logistical support on both the local and regional level.



Launched two years back, Investment Gateway  Bahrain is a major initiative by the company to encourage and support investments in the kingdom, with a particular focus on foreign investments.



In addition, amongst the projects that will be showcased at the exhibition, include Kenaz Al Bahrain featuring 64 residential units spread over eight four-floor apartment buildings, in addition to Wahati, a subproject of Wahat Al Muharraq that was initially introduced over three phases since 2011, offering a total of 227 villas of various sizes and designs and targeted at middle-income earners.

According to him, the project offers apartments that were specifically designed to meet the requirements of modern Bahraini families while maintaining the common trend towards vertical expansion to address the scarcity of land and thus serving a greater population within the available space and yet meeting the needs and requirements of young Bahraini families.



Dr Al Bastaki said Manara was amongst the first companies to join the partnership with the Ministry of Housing more than two years ago in line with the leaderships directives towards the national social housing strategy.



Through this partnership, Manara extended its support towards the efforts of the Ministry of Housing in providing appropriately priced housing to suit the modern familys needs and achieve social stability.-TradeArabia News Service
Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday (April 9) laid the foundation stone of the Beouth Islamic City, which includes residential complexes as well as a dormitory for up to 30,000 students, at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo.



The king, who was accompanied by a number of princes and ministers, was received by Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Ahmed Al-Tayeb and a number of officials, reported the Arab News.



He performed the greeting prayer at the 1,000-year-old Al-Azhar Mosque and was briefed on the mosques restoration project.



In 2014, Saudi Arabia had given funds to Egypt for the restoration work at the mosque and university, and for establishing a dormitory for foreign students.



Later in the same year, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi allocated land for the new city in New Cairos fifth settlement district, said the report.
Iran plans to export seafood, including caviar and shrimp, to the US and Canada in the Iranian year to March 2017, a senior official said in a report.



There is no obstacle in the export of seafood products to the US, Hassan Salehi, Iranian Deputy Minister of Agriculture, was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily News report, citing Tasnim News Agency.



He noted that Iran is targeting new consumer markets for caviar and shrimp in Europe, Southeast Asia, the US, Canada and Russia.



In January, Salehi announced that Iran has the capacity to export 100,000 tonnes of seafood to Russia, saying Russian demand is so high that it outstrips Iran's exports.



Russia plans to replace Turkish foodstuffs with Iranian, Azerbaijani and Abkhazian goods to avoid food shortages following Moscow's economic sanctions on Ankara, added the report.
Emirates Modern Poultry Co (Al Rawdah), the first poultry farm in the UAE to receive the Halal certificate from Emirates Authority for Standardization and Metrology (ESMA), has announced that it is investing Dh120 million ($32.6 million) as an initial investment in its new farm in Abu Dhabis Liwa area.



The announcement was made during a press conference held on April 10, at the Fairmont on Dubais Sheikh Zayed Road.



During the event, Al Rawdah signed contracts with LAE-Anlagenbau  for manufacturing production machinery; Amandus Kahl  for designing and building feed mills; and Prompt Contracting  for contractual works, added the statement.



Phase 1 of the Liwa project has already started, and with the completion of the whole project, a major step will be taken in food security concerns as the farm production will reduce Al Rawdahs reliance on imported hatching eggs by 50 per cent thus boosting UAEs food security and creating an ecosystem for sustainable production, it said.



The farm will follow global best practice where animal welfare and environmental considerations take centre stage. The 5 million m2 Liwa farm will house parent stock comprised of six hen houses with 7,000 birds in each. It will also include a feed mill built to cater to the needs of local farmers livestock as well, it stated.



Present at the conference, Al Rawdahs top management team also highlighted the healthy growth that the poultry farm has seen in its overall operations in 2015 compared to 2014. The rise in net profits coincides with increasing turnover and sales growth for the operation. Turnover hit Dh180 million ($49 million) in 2015, with a 10 per cent increase in sales expected for 2016. At the same time, the company is pursuing internal efficiencies and driving excellence in all operations. A reduction in imports will result in a 20 per cent operating cost reduction, further added the statement.



Abdalla Al Owais, chairman of Al Rawdah, said: We are very proud to announce the launch of our new Liwa facility, which will be of tremendous long-term benefit to both our companys operations and the UAEs poultry sector.



The country as a whole will benefit from increased food security and sustainable development through a state of the art facility that can produce its own eggs, hatch its own chicks and guarantee long-term sustainability and excellence. It gives us the capacity to house more poultry in world-class conditions to meet market demand, he said.  TradeArabia News Service
Iraq is planning to import cooking oil from Egypt, the trade ministry said on Sunday, as Baghdad moves to reduce its dependence on Turkish products amid political tension.



An Iraqi government trade delegation is holding talks in Cairo to buy cooking oil for the monthly food ration that the authorities supply for free to the population, the ministry said in a statement on its website.



The Iraqi trade ministry in December said it planned to reduce government imports of cooking oil from Turkey.



Baghdad objects to a deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq that Ankara says is part of efforts to fight Islamic State. - Reuters
Sheraton Amman Al Nabil Hotel has appointed Iva Trifonov as the propertys new general manager and the area manager of Starwood Hotels & Resorts in Jordan.



With this appointment, which coincided the International Womens Day, Trifonov has become the first female general manager in the Jordanian five-star hotel sector.



This appointment confirms Sheraton Amman Al Nabils belief in asserting the role of women working in the hospitality industry. It also emphasizes on the eligibility of women to be in leadership positions and paves the way for other talented women to take lead in the future, said a statement from the hotel.



Trifonov started her career in 1986 as floor supervisor of the Sheraton Sofia Hotel Balkan. She has built her career experience from the bottom up, and her work has taken her around the world from Bulgaria, Uganda, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Poland, it stated.



Prior to moving to Jordan, Trifonov was general manager of the Sheraton Sopot Hotel, a position she has held since 2009. In her new role, she will not only lead the team at the hotel but also drive the expansion of Starwood Hotels and Resorts with the following four new hotels to be opened in 2016 - The St. Regis Amman, W Amman Hotel, Al Manara Aqaba and The Westin Saraya Aqaba.



In her meeting with the staff, Trifonov said: "Im looking forward to work hand in hand with all the associates of the hotel, to share experiences and continue the journey of success the hotel has started 15 years ago."



"Sheraton Amman Al Nabil was the first Sheraton to open in Jordan, and over the years helped raising the bar in the hospitality industry of the country. I am here to drive that success further and be part of the opening of new Starwood hotels in Jordan," she added.-TradeArabia News Service
Our Correspondent

Lalru, April 9

Acting on a tip-off, the Handesra police seized 760 bottles of liquor that were being stacked in a container near Basoli village.

According to Bharat Bhushan, in-charge, Handesra police station, about 400 bottles of liquor were seized. Another 30 boxes of liquor were also seized that were hidden in a container at Basoli village at the same place.

He said: We seized about 760 bottles of liquor that were being stacked in a container.

The police reportedly revealed that the illegal liquor was being smuggled from this place to different areas.

Police sources said a case under various sections under the Punjab Excise Act was registered against unknown persons and the investigations were on.

However, the police are trying to ascertain as to who was trying to smuggle the liquor.
Rifat Mohidin

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, April 10

Outstation students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Srinagar today decided to continue their agitation, saying the authorities had failed to fulfil their demands.

The protesting final-year students met on the campus and decided not to end the agitation till major demands were met and they were given full assurances by the administration.

The meeting continued for two hours and we decided to continue the agitation till our demands are met, said one of the students who did not want to be named. He added that they were not satisfied with the governments approach towards the issue so far.

Section 144 continued to remain in force in and around the campus to prevent the protest. However, the students took out a protest march in the evening to press for their demands.

We were not allowed to gather in the lawns, but after a meeting, we protested. Excessive force was used on us some days ago. The officials should be booked. Nothing has been done so far, said another student.

Officials issued a notice to the students who wanted to go home, saying their exams would be held later. Students representatives said they would submit the application en masse for permission to go home, which had been signed by 1,700 students so far.

Till the time we are here, we will continue to boycott classes. Even if we go home, we will not come back till our demands are met with full assurances, said one of the students leading the agitation.

The college administration had been trying to reach out to students to defuse the tension. They said a student grievance redress system had been notified, which would address issues like their marking and evaluation on priority.

Students expressed the apprehension that their grading would be adversely affected due to the unrest in the college. We are making sure that their problems are addressed, said an official at the institute.

Under pressure to end the crisis, the government had ordered a time-bound inquiry. However, it ruled out any possibility of shifting the campus from Kashmir, which continues to be one of the major demands of the non-local students.

Trouble began at the institute after some students celebrating Indias defeat in the World T20 allegedly threw stones at the NIT hostel. The following day, a group clash ensued and the NIT was closed.
Guwahati, April 10

The BJP raises the issue of infiltration from Bangladesh into Assam just like it flags the Ayodhya issue nationally ahead of every election, according to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.

He says the BJP rakes up the illegal migration issue and the Ram Temple before each election, but does not want to solve them because of vote-bank politics.

Actually, they (BJP) remember the infiltration issue always just before the election. In Assam, the issue is like what Ram Mandir is for them nationally. They will never solve it but will keep alive the issue for doing vote-bank politics, Gogoi told PTI in an interview.

In its bid to woo indigenous Assamese voters, the BJP has given infiltration a major space in its campaign agenda during the ongoing Assembly poll and is attacking the Gogoi-led Congress government of encouraging illegal immigration from Bangladesh for getting votes of Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Questioning the role and motive of the saffron party, Gogoi accused the BJP-led NDA government of not doing anything to solve the problem despite being in the power twice.

You (BJP) were at the Centre twice. Your partner AGP was in power twice in the state when you were at the Centre.

Why did you not take any action? asked the veteran Congressman.

Gogoi said, You have your party units in every district and town. If there are so many infiltrators, then why are you not informing or complaining to the police or to the local authorities?

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah, almost all BJP leaders have been attacking the Congress of being sympathetic to Bangladeshi infiltrators, while the Congress is claiming credit of expanding border fencing and updating the National Register of Citizens under the Supreme Court guidelines.

When pointed to the gradual change in Assams demography, Gogoi said, Yes, demography of Assam is changing.

But is it changing because of influx or population explosion due to illiteracy? We have to go and address the actual cause of this problem.

According to a 2011 Census report, Muslims constituted 34.2 per cent of Assams population compared to 30.9 per cent a decade earlier.

Assams nine out of 27 districts are now Muslim-majority, compared to six districts in 2001.  PTI
Kolkata, April 10

The Congress "will not have many reasons to celebrate" after investigations into suspected wealth stashed in offshore companies are complete, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Sunday.

There is a very impartial probe going on and it is a multi-agency probe. When the details of the probe come out, the Congress will not have many reasons to celebrate," Jaitley said.

He also refused to keep away from the investigations, a demand rival parties Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have made to ensure they was done impartially.

"I have not understood their argument," Jaitley said.

The Congress had demanding investigations monitored by the Supreme Court after an Indian newspaper  The Indian Express  claimed some 500 people held wealth in offshore companies.

We don't believe in the agencies of Arun Jaitley. The government has set up a multi-agency panel to investigate the matter but an independent probe is not possible. We, therefore, demand he recuse himself from any probe involving the 'Panama Papers' leaks," senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh had said recently. "How will the government conduct an independent probe in the Panama Papers leaks when the finance minister himself awarded a contract to Twenty First Century Media Private Limited as DDCA president (to construct VIP boxes at Ferozeshah Kotla here). Hence, we demand an independent probe which is possible only by a Supreme Court-monitored Special Investigation Team.

Dubbed Panama Papers, investigations into vast stash records from Panamanian legal firm Mossack Fonseca by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalist named several world leaders and celebrities as having money stashed abroad in offshore companies, among them several people close to Russian President Vlamidir Putin, relatives of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pakistans Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and British Prime Minister David Camerons father.

Some prominent Indians who found themselves on the list were Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan; his actress daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan; India Bulls Sameer Gehlaut; DLFs KP Singh; Vinod Adani, the older brother of Industrialist Gautam Adani; politician Shishir Bajoria from West Bengal; and Anurag Kejriwal of Loksatta Party.

Internationally, the leak has already claimed one casualty: Iceland's prime minister, former journalist Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, first resisted, then gave in to mounting pressure to step down after the documents purportedly showed that he and his wife bought a company in the British Virgin Islands in 2007.

The reports, a series of findings published by the newspapers, has come at a time when the current Indian establishment claims it has made tax evasion priority.  Agencies
New Delhi, April 10

The Indian Navy and the IAF have deployed six helicopters and one Dornier aircraft to help in rescue operations at the Kerala temple where a fire has left over 90 dead.

The IAF has deployed four choppers, including Mi17 and Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH).

The Indian Navy is deploying one Dornier and two ALH with medical teams from the southern naval command.

It has also deputed three Naval shipsINS Kabra, Kalpeni and INS Sunayna RPT Sunaynawith medical stores to Kollam coast to give medical assistance to the injured.

They will be deployed in consultation with local administrative authorities, a Navy spokesperson said.

Surgical teams have also been put on standby at the Naval Command Hospital in Kochi.  PTI
Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 9

In a subtle message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who won a historic mandate for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, President Pranab Mukherjee today said democracy was not just about numbers but also consensus building.

Delivering the first Arjun Singh Memorial Lecture today in the memory of the late Congress leader, the President reiterated his message of tolerance saying Indian diversity was a fact which couldnt be turned into fiction to suit individual whims.

Top Congress leaders, including former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in presence, Mukherjee said tolerance had worked well for India and was the only thing that would work.

The President was calling for acceptance of contrarian views in these politically surcharged times which are witnessing a debate around nationalism.

Just as the President concluded the lecture, chants of the BJP-promoted Bharat Mata ki Jai slogans were heard in the auditorium of Nehru Memorial and Museum Library, which was principally comprised of Congress leaders.

The slogans left everyone surprised as the guests included Congress stalwarts like Sonias political adviser Ahmad Patel, AK Antony, Digvijay Singh, Kamal Nath and ML Fotedar. The President invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to underline Indias tolerance as its strength.
Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 10

The Pakistan authorities have agreed to open the two historic gurdwaras for devotees soon at Lahore.

This was disclosed by SAD (Delhi) chief Paramjit Singh Sarna upon his return from Pakistan tosday. He said the Pakistan government had also shown positive signs to hand over three other historic places to the public.

Sarna and his brother Harvinder Singh, who is also general secretary of SAD (Delhi), went to Pakistan to pay homage to Pakistan Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committees president Sham Singh, who died recently.

The Pakistan government and the Waqf Boards senior officials held a meeting to throw open the two gurdwaras associated with the fifth and sixth Sikh gurus in Lahore. This was announced by Waqaf Boards chairman Farooq-ul-Sadiqque during the bhog programme held to pay tributes to Sham Singh. These gurdwaras are located in Bazar Manjam in Lahore. They are maintained by the Wakf Board, he said.

Sarna said he had submitted before the officials of the Pakistan government that historic Chandu Di Haveli and Bhai Mani Singhs martyrdom place too should be handed over to Sikh representatives in Pakistan. He claimed that the government had shown a positive response to these demands.

At present, a school is being run from the Chandu Di Haveli where fifth Sikh master Guru Arjan Dev was tortured and the place where Bhai Mani Singh was martyred is being utilised as a factory by a Pathan family, but the domes over the building are still visible. We demanded that these sites should be handed over to Sikhs against adequate compensation to those who vacate it, he said.
SMA Kazmi

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, April 10

Amid the present political crisis following the imposition of Presidents rule in the state on March 27, the eagerness shown by a section of BJP leaders led by former Chief Minister and Nainital MP Bhagat Singh Koshyari to form a BJP-led government has not only exposed the party but also surprised many senior party leaders.

BJP leaders believe that any attempt to form a BJP-led government in the given circumstances will boomerang on the party in the forthcoming Assembly elections in the state.

Koshyari was in the forefront of the rebellion by the nine Congress legislators in the state Assembly during the passage of the Budget on March 18. He led the BJP and Congress rebel legislators on the night of March 18 to Raj Bhavan and demanded the dismissal of the Harish Rawat-led government. He was the point man in sending the BJP and rebel Congress rebels to Gurgaon and later to Jaipur. He is also supposed to be the person advising the Central party leadership on the happenings in the state. But after the Speaker suspended the membership of the nine Congress legislators, the political situation changed drastically for the BJP. The decision of Governor KK Paul to order a floor test on March 28 was negated with the imposition of Presidents rule in the state on March 27.

However, the decision of the single Bench of the Nainital High Court directing a floor test to be held on March 31 on a petition filed by deposed Chief Minister Harish Rawat turned the political fight into a legal battle. A division Bench of the Nainital High Court comprising Chief Justice KM Joseph and Justice VK Bisht stayed the single judge order but the legal battle has been raging in the court room with the next date of hearing fixed for April 18.

Interestingly, a delegation of BJP legislators led by Bhagat Singh Koshyari met Governor KK Paul on April 6 regarding various demands of the party and issues related with the development of the state. However, there was strong rumour that attempts were being made to form a BJP-led government by revoking Presidents rule. Koshyari and state BJP president Ajay Bhatt made their intentions clear in their statements. The Congress was quick to respond and dispatched a letter to the Governor requesting him to invite the deposed Congress government to prove its majority, the Congress being the single largest group in the state Assembly in case Presidents rule is revoked.

In the court hearing on April 7, the Central Government also felt embarrassed when Congress counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that though the matter was sub judice, the BJP was trying to form a government with the help of Central Government.

A powerful section of the state BJP leaders believe that the image of the party has suffered due to such a feeble and embarrassing attempt by Koshyari. They say the formation of the BJP-led government with the help of Congress rebels will boomerang during the Assembly elections. They are of the opinion that instead of meddling in the muddled waters of Congress infighting, the BJP should stay away and concentrate on the next Assembly poll. They argue that the CD sting episode has exposed deposed Chief Minister Harish Rawat but a BJP-led government for a few months will help him gain sympathy from people.
Beirut, April 9

The Islamic State group has released most of the 300 cement workers it abducted near Damascus after questioning them to find out who were Muslims and killing four who were members of the minority Druze sect, a Syrian opposition monitoring group and a news agency linked to the extremists reported on Saturday.

The reports came two days after Islamic State abducted the cement workers and contractors from their workplace in Dumeir, just northeast of the capital, after a surprise attack on government forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said all those abducted have been released except for 30 people who were guards at the cement factory. It added that the fate of the 30 is unknown.

The IS-affiliated Aamaq news agency said most of the 300 were released after questioning to determine their religion and whether they support the government. It said four workers who belonged to the minority Druze sect were killed and 20 pro-government gunmen are still being held.

The Druze, a 10th century offshoot of Shiite Islam, made up about 5 per cent of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million people. Lebanon and Israel also have large Druze communities.

Islamic State, a Sunni Muslim extremist group, considers all Shiites to be heretics deserving death.

Aamaq also released a video from inside al-Badia Cement Company in Dumeir, about 28 miles (45 kilometres) northeast of Damascus, showing trucks and bulldozers in the sprawling facility. Some fighters could be seen inside.

Also on Saturday, a senior official with al-Qaida's branch in Syria appeared in a video during which he denied reports by state media that he was killed in the northwestern province of Idlib. The Observatory also reported that Sheikh Abdullah al-Mheisny was not harmed.

"I will remain a thorn in your throat and my happiest day will be when I get martyred," al-Mheisny said in the video.

The militant was wounded by a Russian airstrike in December in Latakia province.

A Saudi citizen, al-Mheisny had been fighting in northern Syria for months, serving both as a senior religious and military commander with the al-Qaida branch, known as the Nusra Front.

Several top Nusra Front commanders have been recently killed in Syria by US airstrikes.  AP
Beijing, April 10

Sri Lanka sees huge potential in economic cooperation with China, Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe has said, voicing confidence that key ventures like the Colombo Port City project will help transform his country into a financial hub in the Indian Ocean region.

Both Sri Lanka and China are deepening reforms, in the process of which we see huge potential for cooperation, Wickremesinghe said as he concluded a four-day visit here.

Sri Lanka and China share similarities in the way of thinking in various fields such as economic restructuring, he said.

Sri Lanka is ready to seek more economic cooperation opportunities with China, he said.

Infrastructure is just a start. The cooperation between China and Sri Lanka is expected to be intensified and go far beyond that, Wickremesinghe said.

For example, the Colombo Port City will become a financial and business hub in not only Sri Lanka, but also in the whole region of the Indian Ocean, he said.

This is Wickremesinghes seventh visit to China while first time since winning a parliamentary election in August last year.

It has been 37 years since I first visited China in 1979 when the country just initiated reform and opening up. The great achievement China has made proves only reform can make a country stronger, Wickremesinghe said.

Currently, the weak global economic growth requires all the economies to rely more on each other, and there is no exception for Sri Lanka and China.

That is why strengthening cooperation is so important, he told state-run Xinhua news agency.

Sri Lanka has shown its willingness to develop greater synergies between its own strategies and Chinas 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road initiative.

Projects such as the Hambantota Port and the Puttalam Coal Power Plant Project have become icons for the two countries cooperation in infrastructure construction, Wickremesinghe said.

In a joint statement issued on Saturday, Sri Lanka announced the resumption of work of the Colombo Port City Project and expressed the willingness to facilitate and support the implementation of this project and to cooperate with Chinese companies to promote other major projects.

Wickremesinghe also spoke highly of the supply-side structural reform, one of the priorities in Chinas 13th Five-Year Plan, believing it will bring fresh impetus to Chinas economic development and that of Asia and the whole world.

As China has become the second largest source of visitors to Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe expects tourism will not only facilitate people-to-people exchanges, but also attract more Chinese investors to make relevant infrastructure more developed in Sri Lanka, Wickremesinghe said.

Tourists from India constitutes highest number of tourists in Sri Lanka.  PTI
At the Capitol: About 560 bills and resolutions remain active in the Legislature after Thursdays committee deadline. Those will be winnowed further in the coming weeks as they work toward an April 21 deadline for Senate bills to be heard in the House and vice versa.

Also, the time is drawing nigh for lawmakers to make some difficult decisions regarding the projected $1.3 billion hole in the states general fund. Less than two months remain in the session.

Sugar daddies beware: Among the legislation signed by Gov. Mary Fallin last week was House Bill 2615 by Rep. Todd Thomsen, R-Ada, a former Sapulpa High School and University of Oklahoma football player.

The bill imposes a fine of up to $5,000 and opens the way for civil prosecution against anyone who tampers with a college athlete in such a way that the athlete loses eligibility and his or her school is placed on probation.

HB 2615 is similar to a Georgia law adopted in 2015.

Clean power: Senate Bill 1379, which likely would have forced a confrontation with the federal government over the Environmental Protection Agencys Clean Power Plan, died last week when it failed to get a hearing in the House Utilities Committee.

The bill, backed by the Koch brothers Americans for Prosperity, would have forbidden state agencies to develop a state Clean Power implementation plan, unless authorized by the attorney general and governor or ordered by the courts.

All downhill: Monday is Oklahomas Tax Freedom Day, according to the Tax Foundation.

The foundation defines Tax Freedom Day as the day on which the residents of a state have earned enough to pay their total local, state and federal taxes. The national Tax Freedom Day is April 24, one day earlier than a year ago.

Oklahomas Tax Freedom Day is the eighth earliest in the country. Mississippis, on April 5, is the earliest. Connecticut, at May 21, is the latest.

Events and meetings: Incumbent Dewey Bartlett and challenger G.T. Bynum will participate in a mayoral candidate forum during the Republican Womens Club of Tulsa County meeting at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday at Ti Amos, 6024 S. Sheridan Road.

Candidates: Former Mayor Terry Young said he will not be a candidate for Tulsa City Council. Young said he was approached about running for the District 9 post being vacated by mayoral candidate G.T. Bynum.

Oklahoma City businessman Richard Engle is a candidate for Republican National Committeeman. The state party will elect its national committeeman and committeewoman at the Oklahoma GOP convention in mid-May.
Senate

Security and airport workers: The Senate has passed an amendment sponsored by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act (H.R. 636). The amendment would require tighter security reviews and background checks of airport workers and increase penalties for workers who fail to report the loss of the security badges that allow them to bypass security checkpoints. Thune said that given ongoing incidents of airport workers using badges to help transport drugs, and the possibile use of badges in terrorist plots, better security rules were needed to give the TSA and other agencies all the tools they need in order to do their jobs effectively. An amendment opponent, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., said the expanded background checks would create unnecessary barriers to employment for people with criminal records. The vote, on April 7, was 85 yeas to 10 nays.
The best part of leaving Iwo Jima?

For Lloyd Dinsmore, it had to be the shower.

As Dinsmore and his fellow Marines climbed aboard the ship that would take them to Hawaii, they were offered a choice, he said: What did we want first  a hot breakfast or a hot shower.

It was an easy choice, he said. Over the previous four weeks on the island, there had been no bathing or showers.

He made it count, he added, letting the hot water run over his face and body for about 45 minutes.

It would take multiple showers, he said, to fully wash the black sludge from the islands volcanic ash out of his hair.

Dinsmore would be disappointed, though, if he thought he could ever wash Iwo Jima out of his head.

More than 70 years later, at age 93, he still lives with the horrifying images.

Amphibious tanks

Dinsmore, whose birthday was on Friday, welcomed the Tulsa World to his home recently to talk about his experiences serving with a Marine Corps tank crew in the Pacific war.

The youngest of eight children, he grew up in Missouri, where he graduated from Galt High School in 1940. From there, he went to work on a cattle ranch.

But in 1943, at age 20, the draft would call him away.

Kissing his sweetheart, Lois Colter, goodbye at Union Station in Kansas City, Dinsmore caught a train west to begin his service with the Marines.

With his two brothers quite a bit older, he was the only one of the Dinsmore siblings to serve in World War II.

In San Diego, Dinsmore was assigned to the 2nd Armored Amphibian Battalion. It was a recently formed unit, and boasted a new kind of tank that had not yet been used in combat  an amphibious tank, or amtank as it was often called.

Designed to travel on land and water, the tanks could be transported to within several thousand yards of an island and released, making them useful in leading invasions.

Dinsmore was one of two ammunition handlers on his seven-member crew. It was his job to assemble the tanks 75 mm shells, which came in two pieces, and then pass them to the loader to be fired at the target.

By the time Dinsmore arrived on Saipan in September 1944, the tanks had already seen their first action on the island in June, clearing the way for Marine infantry landing behind them.

The battle was pretty well over, he said, but there were still a lot of Japanese soldiers. They had taken to the high hills on the island  and would make night raids.

Saipan represented several firsts for Dinsmore, not only his initial fighting experience but his first loss of a comrade, as well.

The latter happened about 2 oclock one morning, he said. Caught unawares by a Japanese air raid, the base sounded its warning sirens a little late.

Before Dinsmore and his crewmates could make it to their foxholes, one of the Japanese planes found them.

We got caught in this open space  where jungle had been cleared to make a softball field.

The plane had been hit and was going to crash  but it was still able to fire its guns.

We hit the deck, Dinsmore said.

That undoubtedly saved most of them, he added. But one Marine, John Bistline, was not so lucky.

It happened so fast. ... He had been standing right next to me, Dinsmore said of his crewmate.

Hit by gunfire, Bistline died at the scene, Dinsmore said, cradled in the arms of another crew member.

26 days and 27 nights

The invasion of Iwo Jima began in February 1945.

After Saipan, it was the next stop for Dinsmore and the 2nd Battalion.

The job of the amtanks would be to accompany the 4th and 5th Marine Divisions, and lead the way onto the island.

An 8-square-mile hunk of sand and rock whose most distinguishing characteristic was its black beaches  the sand is volcanic ash  Iwo Jima would demand everything of Dinsmore and his crew for the next 26 days and 27 nights.

We fought our way from one end of the island to the other, he said.

It didnt start smoothly.

As they moved in for their initial landing, the advancing amtanks hit a wall of volcanic ash at the waters edge that they could not get past.

For Dinsmores tank, the situation was even worse. The clutch overheated and went out.

The tank wouldnt move, he said, adding that just sitting there made them a prime target for enemy guns  and they had an array of them.

Forced to abandon the tank with enemy fire exploding all around, the crew dug in on the beach.

After 45 minutes, time for the clutch to cool, they got back in the tank and retreated back out to sea with the others.

Thats where Dinsmore spent the night  afloat with his crew in their tank.

They had quite a view, he said, as the Navy ships and the Japanese on the island continuously fired on each other. It went on all night.  It was like a thousand Fourth of Julys, he said.

The next day, a Navy construction battalion cleared away the ash wall, and Dinsmores and the other tanks were able to make a successful landing.

Tank warfare

From their station in the belly of the 26-foot-long tank, it was a pretty scary-type operation, Dinsmore said of being an ammunition handler. You never knew when this thing was going to take a round from an enemy.

A direct hit and everyone inside could be burned alive.

At the same time, being inside a tank gave us some protection that regular foot Marines didnt have.

Fortunately, we never took a direct hit. It was just a blessing that we didnt.

Another blessing, Dinsmore said, was the sight of the American flag when Marines raised it on top of Mt. Suribachi.

The subject of the famous photo by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal  who was there to snap it as it happened  it was an inspiring moment, Dinsmore said.

Unbeknownst to many, there were actually two flags. The photo was of the second flag raised  much larger than the one it replaced. Dinsmore saw both events.

Fighting at the base of the mountain, his tank was approximately 500 feet below where these guys were who raised the flag.

It triggered an ecstatic chorus, he said. Between the ships in the harbor and Marines on shore everyone was shouting  it sounded like OU had just scored a touchdown, Dinsmore said. All of us were like Gee, this fights already over. But it wasnt.

In later years, seeing Rosenthals Pulitzer Prize-winning photo would give Dinsmore a feeling of extreme pride.

At the time, we didnt understand the impact that it (the image) had on the nation as a whole.

After the taking of Suribachi, there was still plenty of fighting left to do. And that meant more dying.

We saw men killed in many different ways, Dinsmore noted grimly.

One incident he didnt witness  but which, strangely, still plays over and over in his mind as if he did  involved another young Marine.

He had been attacked (hand to hand) by two Japanese soldiers. He cried out Mom, mom, theyre killing me! 

Dinsmore pauses as he recounts this. Eyes reddening, he has to change the subject.

Troops in combat could not receive regular mail from home, and so it often piled up.

Once, Dinsmore received 110 letters at one time.

Thats what happens, he said, when you have a girlfriend, parents and seven older siblings writing to you.

I sorted them by author, he said. Took me several weeks to read them all.

He read Lois first, of course, he said with a smile.

Almost four weeks after Dinsmores unit arrived on Iwo Jima, the island was mostly secured and the units work was done.

From there, he and the others sailed back to Maui to rest up for the next mission.

That was supposed to be the invasion of mainland Japan, as Dinsmore later learned. But the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 convinced Japan to surrender.

Suddenly, invasion was no longer necessary.

When the news of the first bomb broke, Dinsmore was still on Maui  mere hours, he said, from shipping out for Japan.

We were elated, he said. The fact that this whole mess was probably going to be drawing to a close.

As bad as those A-bombs were, they actually saved a lot of lives. There wouldve been untold lives lost  Japanese civilians, American military  in an invasion.

Back at home

After the war, Dinsmore went on to a career with the federal government, most of it with the Department of Labor. The family lived in Kansas City and then Houston, before moving to Tulsa in 1982.

Dinsmore and his wife, Lois  who will celebrate their 70th anniversary this June  raised a son and daughter. Of their five grandchildren, two have gone on to distinguished careers in the Navy.

Active with veterans groups in Tulsa, including the Marine Corps League and All Veterans of Tulsa, Dinsmore has spoken publicly many times about his experiences, including for programs about Iwo Jima at the Circle Cinema.

Over the years, Dinsmore kept in touch with his fellow crew members. Until age made travel difficult, the group got together for regular reunions.

As for reuniting with Iwo Jima, Dinsmore probably wont ever get closer than the small vial of sand he has from the island.

A gift from someone a few years ago, the tiny black pellets remind him of the island and all who those who fought there, answering their countrys call.

I am honored to have been a small part of a job that needed to be done, Dinsmore said.
In a presidential election characterized by inconsistency, there remains one indelible constant: anger. Exit polls from Ohio, a state considered by many to be representative of the nation as a whole, found that an astonishing 90 percent of Republican voters described themselves as dissatisfied or angry with the federal government; for Democrats the number was a smaller but still significant 70 percent.

On one hand, the people have a right to be angry. Sluggish economic recovery marked by abysmal wage growth, an ever-threatening world of extremism and strongmen, and unprecedented political polarization are a popular  and not unfounded  explanation for Americans pessimism. Still, this years remarkable anxiety levels demand further examination.

I contend that the anger characterizing this election cycle comes from a fundamental belief that the system is working against us. There is an increasing chance that the Democratic nominee will be decided by super delegates, a gaggle of party elites whose votes, unbound to any vote of the people, comprise 30 percent of the delegates at the Democratic National Convention. Put into perspective, the unelected vice-chairman of Wyomings Democratic Party has just as much clout at the convention as a bound delegate from Oklahoma representing 8,247 voters.

A recent Washington Post editorial sums up the absurdity of the super delegate system with its headline: The (Un)Democratic Party.

Not to be outdone, it is more than likely that for the first time in almost half a century, the Republicans will have a brokered convention. At a basic level, this means that a couple thousand people serving as delegates at the convention, in the event no candidate gets a majority on the first ballot, can usurp the will of millions of primary voters.

Theoretically, one doesnt even have to be a presidential candidate to win, meaning someone could become the Republican nominee without a single popular vote cast in their name. Even more confounding is that nobody knows exactly what could happen at a brokered convention, since convention rules are decided each year by party officials.

On the other hand, our leaders ought to be held to a higher standard, and while anger originates in the people, it is peddled by our politicians. The Grand Old Party has put on a national show of animosity, perpetually focused on who and what people dont like. FiveThirtyEight, a data-based journalism site specializing in politics, did a recent analysis of the most repeated phrases by leading Republican presidential candidates; among the winners were we dont win, the fight and one of the worst.

Less documented, but still noteworthy, is the Democratic side, where any mention of Hillary Clintons name at a Bernie Sanders rally is met with appreciable boos, and Clintons donors are amassing a war chest specifically designed to attack Donald Trump  who shes not yet running against.

This is perhaps the area where we the people are the biggest losers. Our politicians should appeal to our best impulses, not our worst ones. Admittedly, calls for optimism and resilience have so far fallen on deaf ears, but that doesnt justify pandering to negativity. When even our leaders spread gloom, there is little reason for us to be optimistic. Unfortunately, if politicians continue to pander to anger, it will only be reinforced in a self-defeating cycle.

In November, I will cast my ballot for president for the first time. I want to be proud of my vote, and inspired by whoever I vote for. If anger remains the constant in an otherwise volatile election, I fear that this wont be the case  for me, and for too many other Americans.

Micah Cash is a senior at Booker T. Washington High School.
As we confront threats of terrorism all over the word, national security and Middle East stability are more important than ever for Americans. In addition to border security, strong defense and capable intelligence services, any homeland security strategy must address nuclear threats and accountability measures for Iran and its nuclear program.

Many of my colleagues in the Senate and I were exceedingly skeptical last July when the Obama administration signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, more commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal. The deals proponents argued that it would curb Irans bad behavior and prevent, or at least postpone, Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Quite optimistically, they argued that bringing Iran back into the international fold would set the country on a path away from supporting terrorism, toward a cooling of tensions with Israel, and away from further development of conventional weapons, such as ballistic missiles.

In reality, much of the deals language is ambiguous and open to misinterpretation, and the administrations commitment to the so-called snap-back sanctions remain in serious question.

I repeatedly spoke out against the deal last summer, and I voted against it when it was presented to the Senate last September in the form of a resolution of disapproval. Unfortunately, that vote failed to meet the needed 60-vote threshold by two votes.

Looking back at the events of the past seven months, our skepticism clearly was justified. Iran remains the worlds largest state sponsor of terrorism. In March, Iran conducted multiple test flights of ballistic missiles. Several of them were capable of reaching Israel and were emblazoned with a slogan in Hebrew: Israel must be wiped off the Earth, according to an Iranian-government controlled news outlet. On Tuesday, Russia announced it would ship S-300 air-defense missile systems to Iran  an advanced capability that will provide extensive protection for nuclear and military facilities.

In February, I questioned Director of National Intelligence James Clapper during an Intelligence Committee hearing. I asked the Clapper about Irans behavior since the signing of the nuclear deal. He confirmed that Iran was still the worlds largest state-sponsor of terrorism and that it continues to behave provocatively. I asked him if he had seen any change in Irans testing of ballistic missiles, and the directors answer was a firm no. In fact, he confirmed that there had been about 140 missiles launched by Iran in violation of U.N. agreements, half of which were launched during the Obama administrations negotiations with Iran.

My concern is not just Iran in possession of a nuclear bomb; the leadership of Iran continues to threaten the stability of its neighbors, such as Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Bahrain, and Lebanon. Meanwhile, it is propping up the deplorable regime of Bashar al-Asad in Syria. If Tehran builds nuclear weapons, their reign of terror would only increase. A nuclear-armed Iran is an unacceptable scenario.

Renewed focus and leadership on this issue is vital. On Wednesday, I continued to fight the Obama administrations appeasement strategy with Iran by introducing a Senate resolution to hold Iran accountable and ensure President Obama follows through on his commitment to reimpose sanctions if Iran violates the nuclear deal. This resolution is an important step to clarify our expectations and set in stone the Senates view of U.S. actions if specific terms of the deal are breached.

My resolution says that, if Iran violates the nuclear deal, the United States must immediately reapply our nuclear-related sanctions, push for the U.N. Security Council to reinstate Iran sanctions resolutions, work with our European partners to limit their financial ties to Iran, and seek a U.N. Security Council resolution that limits exports of defensive weapons to Iran. Additionally, my resolution makes clear the Senates expectation that Iran make public its uranium enrichment plans, research and development plans, and procurement requests.

It is imperative that we show fortitude in efforts to curb Irans irresponsible behavior, even if those in the administration would prefer to declare victory and pivot to other issues. If Iran violates the nuclear agreement, our response should be swift and severe. Until Iran proves it can act like a peaceful nation, we must remain vigilant and steadfast against its global terror agenda.
It's Divali time so at TV6 over the next few days, we bring you some of the interesting aspe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWvM4aPir00

Nine is expecting to know later tonight if its 60 Minutes crew will be charged in Lebanon, following the detention of 7 people after botched child recovery operation.

Media reports claim the case was referred on Saturday to prosecutors who would most likely charge seven people today.

Theres been some reports out of Lebanon that theyre being charged. Thats not the case, Victoria Buchan, Head of Communications at Nine told Fairfax.

Nothing will happen, as far as weve been advised by the consulate and our legal people, until Monday their time, which is Monday night our time.

Theres no change to the situation. Theyre still being held, and were still working with the consulate and legal representation to get them out and home as soon as possible.

The ABC has reported that Lebanese authorities have a signed statement from one of the recovery team saying Channel Nine paid $115,000 for the operation (some reports indicate $120,000). Nine has denied it made a direct payment to the agency.

The Australian reports the Nine crew arrived 10 minutes late to the incident because of heavy traffic, but that cameras drew the attention of two off-duty policeman.

It also reports Nine News boss Darren Wick left for Lebanon yesterday morning. So far the team are all said to be in good health and good spirits.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said, We are providing as much support as we can, meeting with officials within the Lebanese government and doing what we can to ascertain what is proposed, in relation to the crew and the alleged involvement of the crew in this case.

Malcolm Turnbull has said, Our consular officials are in touch with the journalists and the crew that are in  prison and we are seeking through the usual diplomatic channels to ensure that they are kept safe and will be able to return.

Last night on 60 Minutes, Michael Usher told viewers, Everyone in the Nine News and 60 Minutes family is doing their utmost to support.

Its a stressful time for them and their families, and the last thing our team wanted was to become the subject of their own story.

For those working hard for their safe return, we earnestly thank you and well keep you posted as events unfold.

Media Watch will also look into the case tonight on ABC.

Update: Tom Steinfort told the Today that Nine had hired a well-respected Lebanese criminal lawyer and that crew had now been sent to separate male and female detention centres.

We are likely to find out whether or not they will be facing charges and perhaps what those charges may well be, he said.

It is a tricky legal process here and its one that is likely to take some time.

The 60 Minutes crew say they are thankful for the way that they are being treated by Lebanese authorities at the moment.

Their families are being kept updated on the situation every step of the way.

Unfortunately, they havent been able to talk directly with their loved ones at this stage after five days in custody.

However, our director of News of Current Affairs  will bring photos and messages from loved ones to keep them in touch with their family at home as everyone awaits.

Hopefully they are released not too far down the track.
SBS is screening five shorts made by young filmmakers as part of National Youth Week.

Screening as interstitials across SBS 2, NITV, Food Network and SBS On Demand the films were part of a competition inviting 14-20 year olds to produce a one-minute film themed around identity.

The films explore identity issues facing young Australians ranging from refugee stories, Middle-Eastern and Muslim stereotypes, autism and gender dysphoria.

Helen Kellie, SBS Chief Content Officer, said: We had an overwhelming response to the SBS National Youth Week initiative with so many inspiring stories from across the nation. This is the first time SBS has run such an initiative and I am honoured that we can give young Australians a platform to share their stories of identity.

The five winners are:

Stephanie Kurlow, 14, from Sydney dreams of being the worlds first professional hijab wearing ballerina. She overcomes the negative comments of twitter trolls through her passion and dedication to dance;

Caitlin Gerkin, 18, a young artist on the Autism Spectrum uses an analogy of the Chinese Room thought experiment to explain how she sees the world differently from others;

Atak Ngor, 18, was born in what is now South Sudan during the Second Sudanese Civil War. He left South Sudan when he was six for Kakuma Refugee camp and some years later, Australia. His film is dedicated to those he left behind;

Taz Clay, 17, a young Indigenous brotherboy shares his difficult journey to affirming his gender and the importance of speaking out about gender identity;

Anthony Farah, 20, AKA YouTube Vlogger Captain Fizzman, is having an identity crisis. He turns to the internet to find out what young Lebanese men like him should be doing with their lives. This humorous film examines cultural stereotypes in modern-day Australia.
Udaku Special





About 100 Al-Shabaab militants on Sunday morning attacked Diff Police Station in Wajir County, injuring three officers.The heavily armed attackers are said to have stormed the police post at 3am, where they shot indiscriminately at 18 police officers who were at the station.A heavy gunfire exchange ensued for two hours as the officers engaged the somali-based militants who later escaped taking with them a police land cruiser and mortar."The terrorists took the camp Landcruiser that we believe was used to ferry the many casualties they suffered, As they fled, the terrorists set ablaze shops at Diff market one belonging to the local chief," police noted in a statement.Police affirmed that security personnel drawn from the Kenya Defence Force (KDF) and National Police Service (NPS) were in hot pursuit of the gunmen to interdict them and recover the stolen vehicle.This is the latest attack from the militia group. In January, seven police officers were killed and a few others injured when a vehicle they were traveling in drove over an explosive device planted along the Hindi-Kiunga road in Lamu by Al-Shabaab militants.Five days after that incident, gunmen who were heavily armed raided a village at Kaisari in Pandanguo, Lamu County killing several people.
Udaku Special

Troubled national carrier Kenya Airways is planning to offload some of its pilots to Ethiopian Airlines as part of austerity measures to see the airline return to profitability.It is reported that 21 captains and 18 First Officers have received letters to the effect that they are being redeployed to the Ethiopian national carrier.However, the news has not gone down well with the targeted officers, who have been given upto Tuesday April 12, to acknowledge their redeployment.The Nation reports that Kenya Airline Pilots Association (Kalpa) subsequently set a meeting to deliberate on the next move for its members and is likely to move to court challenging the move.The targeted pilots are among personnel of a fleet of Boeing 777 planes that have remained grounded for close to half a year now.A letter sent to the pilots by Acting Head of Employee Relationship Murage Latiffa Cherono read in part: As you are aware, the company has in the past few years experienced great business challenges that have led to poor financial results. As such, there has been a decline in the expected pace of growth of the network and subsequent reduction in fleet size including the B777 fleet, which you operate. This development led to most of the B777 pilots being underutilized in flying duties over the last several months and has therefore necessitated the company, as part of Operation Pride turnaround programme, to look for alternative deployment opportunities for you.Those who apply for the lateral transfer will work for Ethiopian Airlines for three years. They will however, have an option to rejoin Kenya Airways if the ongoing turnaround strategy is successful.The carrier has been flying in turbulent skies struggling to remain afloat after registering huge losses in two consecutive years.KQ had earlier announced plans to retrench some 600 of its staff to reduce its employee headcount in a bid to improve profitability.Read also: Qatar Airways Poaches 20 Best KQ EngineersThe carrier is also reported to have sold off its morning landing slot at Londons Heathrow airport for an estimated Sh7.5 Billion to Oman Air. Oman Air have also accepted a deal with KQ to lease two of it's Boeing 787-8s . There are also plans to reduce the fleet from the current 52 planes to 36.Read also: Kenya Airways Decides to Sell PlanesGroup Managing Director Mbuvi Ngunze has reassured the public that the financial troubles the carrier is facing will be addressed soon.
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Fiji have won the Cathay Pacific/Hong Kong sevens after beating New Zealand for a second year running at the prestigious tournament.Ben Ryan's side walked away with the Cup following a bruising 20 minute encounter with the All Blacks Sevens in front of packed out stands in Hong Kong. Pita Ahki got Sir Gordon Tietjens side off to a flying start when he turned Jerry Tuwai inside out and ran in under the posts. However just minutes later Tuwai got his revenge as he sniped over the New Zealand line from three metres away. With the rain starting to fall, handling errors were plentiful from both sides and the first half ended 7-7.Kitione Taliga scored early on in the second half for Fiji after Semi Kunatani made a striding break through the stretched New Zealand defence. At 14-7, Fiji then turned up the pressure even more as Pio Tuwai turned over possession on Fiji's 22 and let Amenoni Nasilasila loose, who eventually offloaded to send Semi Kunatani under the posts and secure the victory.Elsewhere in the competition South Africa edged Australia to finish third, England beat USA to take the plate, Argentina beat Scotland to the bowl and Russia overcame Canada to lift the plate.
Colleen Cason

I learned it decades ago, but to this day I can give you the scientific name of that bug buzzing around the rim of your Margarita glass.

Drosophila melanogaster. Most know it as the common fruit fly, an annoying pest of al fresco diners everywhere.

How could I forget those nine syllables? I serially killed those little buggers by the dozens in the process of preparing a high school science fair project. Instead of proving whatever genetics hypothesis I was testing, I invented a way to exterminate them without benefit of pesticide  something the hospitality industry would have welcomed if only I had been creative enough to market it.

As we enter this year's scholastic science fair season, my thoughts turn to the young researchers who dream way bigger than than my exercise in Drosophila die-off. These kids possess that special spark of scientific curiosity to soar with the eagles, instead of swarming with the fruit flies. They test the limits of their textbooks and their teachers' lesson plans. Something hardwired into them draws them back to the drawing board to tinker with their techniques and rethink their theories.

True discovery always comes at a price; it could be time, money, energy and  in the worst case  a life of stellar promise ends too soon.

Last week, 18-year old Bernard Moon died after a rocket-powered skateboard he was testing exploded on a Thousand Oaks schoolyard. Moon's Thousand Oaks High classmate survived the blast, which has been ruled an accident. Ventura County Sheriff's detectives are trying to identify the chemicals used to power the rocket's motor.

Moon took first place in physics at the Ventura County Science Fair last year for a project called "Optimization of an oxidizer and fuel reaction through combustion."

Accepted at elite universities, the honor student placed second in the chemistry category of last year's competition and advanced to the state science fair.

As home to Naval Base Ventura County and part of Southern California's aerospace industry, Ventura County long has been a laboratory for groundbreaking scientists.

When The Star polled readers on their whereabouts when the Challenger exploded 30 years ago in January, many worked on the space shuttle and even for the company that designed the parts that caused the craft to disintegrate moments after liftoff.

When I read of Moon's tragic loss to his family and friends, I was reminded of another Thousand Oaks rocket scientist who died in pursuit of knowledge.

Larry Pugh, then 51, and a fellow researcher Otto Heiney perished on July 26, 1994, when rocket fuel chemicals exploded at Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the hills near Simi Valley. A third colleague, Lee Wells, would survive his second and third degree burns.

The blast was so powerful residents near the rocket test site thought it was an earthquake.

Pugh, of Thousand Oaks, possessed what a Los Angeles Times profile called a "passion for high-end, hands-on science." Coming from a small Ohio town, he went on to study physics and earned a doctorate. He participated in a secret laser project.

Engines tested at the field lab powered astronauts to the moon and the space shuttle into orbit.

No one can know what heights Bernard Moon might have reached, but his family has set up a scholarship in his memory so other young scientists can follow their passion for discovery.

Messages left by mourners on the memorials that have sprung up praise Moon for his curiosity and intelligence. He brightened their lives.

One of the brightest stars our nation has ever known is Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher  in fact, the first civilian  selected by NASA to journey to outer space.

An Oxnard elementary school is named for the social studies teacher who topped 11,000 applicants for a place on what would be the ill-fated Challenger.

When interviewed pre-flight about the dangers of space travel and her reason for taking such a risk, McAuliffe replied: "When you are offered a seat on a rocket ship, don't ask which seat. Just get on."

Let us praise all the future engineers, mathematicians and researchers who enter upcoming science fairs and dream of unlimited horizons. Let us commit ourselves to protect and nurture them and their curiosity.

And let us raise a glass  drosophila melanogaster and all  to the explorers, scientists and pioneers possessed of the passion to give their all to unlock the secrets of the universe.

Email Colleen Cason at casonpoint101@gmail.com
Star file photo

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By Michele Willer-Allred, Special to The Star

The Moorpark Unified School District has about $750,000 in its emergency fund, leaving it out of compliance with state law that requires districts to keep at least 3 percent of their overall budget in reserves.

The district is projected to end the school year with a reserve of about 1.2 percent of its overall budget, according to the district's second interim financial report, which was recently submitted to the Ventura County Office of Education. By law, it should have about $1.8 million.

In the report, the school district received a "qualified" certification, which means the district may or may not be able to meet its financial obligations for the fiscal year that ends June 30.

Despite the reserves shortage, district Superintendent Kelli Hays said fund balances are solvent and all programs and services for students will proceed as planned as the district takes steps to patch the shortfall.

"I am very confident that we will right the course of our great district, but it will not happen immediately," Hays said.

"Although it is disappointing to receive a qualified certification, it is a notification process that alerted the district of the necessity to make improvements to the budgeting processes and procedures."

Hays said the low reserves are a result of two unanticipated budget events: increasing costs to special education services and ongoing declining enrollment projected through 2025.

The district had 140 fewer students this year. It originally budgeted for a decline of 70 students, which is about $500,000 less in revenue.

Hays said that despite declining enrollment, more students are becoming eligible for mandated special education services.

Special education expenditures required $1.2 million from the district's reserves.

Hays said structural budget improvements need to be made during the 2016-17 school year, including implementing staffing adjustments through retirements and resignations, and reconfiguring the organizational structure at the district office.

A one-time revenue payment proposed by Gov. Jerry Brown to public school districts beginning July 1 is expected to contribute about $1.3 million to the district, which will bump reserves to the required 3 percent.

Hays said the district must prepare strategies to adjust expenditures. The district is also joining study groups with neighboring districts to discuss and share ways to maintain special education costs.

"I am confident that these adjustments will restore our reserve fund to the required 3 percent balance as well as strengthen the overall health and sustainability of MUSD's budget," Hays said.

School districts must file interim budget reports with the county on Oct. 31 and Jan. 31. They have three options in filing the reports: positive, which means they will meet their financial obligations this year and next; qualified, which means they might meet their obligations; and negative, meaning they won't meet their obligations.

Moorpark is the only district in Ventura County to file a qualified report this time, but other districts, including Simi Valley, Santa Paula and Ojai, have filed them in the past.

California Education Code requires that the county superintendent review district interim reports. The superintendent then determines whether the budget projections will allow the district to meet its financial obligations.
STAR FILE PHOTO The 2014 Camarillo Fiesta & Street Fair.

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By Mike Harris of the Ventura County Star

Seven past and present board members of the Camarillo Fiesta Association say they stand by the nonprofit's decision not to seek criminal charges against a former president who allegedly embezzled about $24,000 from it in 2014.

They spoke this month, a few weeks after the alleged theft by Robert Capellini surfaced publicly, sparking an investigation by the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

They said they didn't seek charges because they felt that if Capellini were convicted and jailed, he wouldn't be able to repay the money.

"Our main concern was to recoup the money and then give it back to the community," said board member Anna Langer.

The association puts on the annual Camarillo Fiesta & Street Fair every summer. One of the city's premiere events, it draws tens of thousands of people and raises thousands of dollars for local nonprofit youth groups. Now in its 52nd year, this year's fiesta is scheduled for July 7-10 with about 200 vendors expected.

Another board member, Stewart Sher, agreed with Langer, saying, "We felt that if we prosecuted, we wouldn't get the money back."

Capellini has since paid most of it back and has signed a promissory note to reimburse the rest.

Five other past or present board members, Suzanne Kitchens, Armando Lozano, Beverly Lusk, Tom Malone and Marriette Simoni, also said they agreed with not seeking charges against Capellini.

Decision criticized

But critics say that by not bringing the case to the District Attorney's Office, the association gives the appearance that it tried to cover up the embezzlement. The theft didn't come to light publicly for about a year after the board discovered it.

"I don't think they handled it right," said Roy Villa, a former fiesta board member who ran unsuccessfully for City Council in 2014. "They should have reported it to the DA because the association receives some taxpayer money. Just come clean and say, 'This is bad and we want to report it.'

"At least that way they would have gotten it out in the open," said Villa, who lost in 2014 to three council incumbents, including current Mayor Mike Morgan, who sits on the association's board and who is running for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

Even without a formal complaint from the association, prosecutors last month opened an investigation into the alleged theft after it was reported by news media. They noted public funds may be involved.

The association receives some funding from the city of Camarillo. Bruce Feng, who retired Monday after five years as Camarillo's city manager, said none of the allegedly embezzled funds was city money. Critics question that contention.

Michael Schwartz, special assistant district attorney, said Friday the investigation is ongoing.

"I do not have a date in which we anticipate it will be completed," he said.

DENIES CONCEALING THEFT

Morgan said there was no cover-up.

"Not at all," he said.

After the alleged theft was discovered by the board in early 2015, Morgan said, he brought it to the attention of Feng and Ventura County Sheriff's Cmdr. Monica McGrath, who is Camarillo's police chief.

McGrath in turn asked Morgan to provide her with documentation of the alleged embezzlement so a financial crimes detective could determine if a crime had been committed, she said this month. Morgan told her a short time later that the association board had decided not to pursue charges, choosing instead to make repayment arrangements with Capellini, she said.

"And so he (Morgan) never came forward with the documents for me to review," McGrath said. "I had recommended that we look at it as a crime. But the board was real hesitant to go that route. Basically, they wanted to handle it among themselves."

Some board members said the critics are trying to embarrass Morgan politically in his run for the Board of Supervisors.

"It's all politics," said Lozano, noting that he and Morgan are personal friends. "Someone is trying to make him look bad. Mike Morgan is the most ethical, upstanding person I've ever met. He's the face of Camarillo."

Other past and present board members either declined to comment, could not be reached for comment or spoke off the record.

Villa and another Camarillo resident who believes there may have been a cover-up, Jeff McVicker, a former federal fraud investigator, deny they're trying to embarrass Morgan in his supervisors run.

"If it had been any other of the council members, I would have pursued this exactly the same," McVicker said. "My interest is that everything should be transparent. I'm just a concerned citizen."

Morgan is one of seven candidates running to succeed longtime Supervisor Kathy Long, who announced in May that she would not be seeking re-election.

ANONYMOUS LETTER

The alleged embezzlement did not become public knowledge until this year when an anonymous letter was sent to Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Westlake Village, asking her to investigate. The Jan. 30 letter, written by someone who claims to be a longtime Camarillo City Hall employee, was received by others too, including The Star. The letter led to news reports about the alleged theft, which in turn triggered the district attorney's investigation.

"This embezzlement wasn't publicly admitted to for over a year until the anonymous letter," McVicker said.

Brownley said in a statement this month that she was unable to respond to the author of the letter because he or she chose to remain anonymous. "That being said, I think it's reasonable for the DA to take a closer look at the matter to determine if any additional steps should be taken," she said.

McVicker said he has taken a close look at the association's 2014 federal tax return, which was filed in October 2015 after Capellini agreed to pay back the money. McVicker said he found some irregularities.

"They didn't disclose it (the alleged embezzlement) properly," said McVicker, who obtained the return from the website GuideStar, which compiles information on nonprofits. "To me, this is just a continuation of the cover-up or incompetence on someone's part."

Morgan, who signed the return filed by Camarillo accounting firm Mitchell & Associates, said he stands by it.

"My accountant said this is the way to handle it," Morgan said.

Doug Green, who teaches nonprofit management at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks, said that the association's board could have helped quash speculation about a possible cover-up by sending an email to stakeholders as soon as the theft was discovered.

"It could have said, 'Look, this has happened. We're taking it quite seriously. We're looking into it. Right now, we can't say much more,'" Green said. "Just so, as a practical matter, it doesn't look like there was any attempt to not be transparent."

Feng said that because the city has not yet given the fiesta association any funds for the 2014 fair, none of the money Capellini allegedly stole that year was taxpayer money.

"The answer is no," Feng said.

The city only funds the fair in years it has a negative net income, he said. The city is still waiting for financial statements from the 2014 and 2015 fiestas, he said.

For 2011-13, the city's annual average funding to the fiesta was $9,185, he said.

McVicker, however, said he doesn't see how Feng could know if any of the money Capellini allegedly stole was city money from years before 2014.

"So I don't think he can make that statement," McVicker said.

Capellini, meanwhile, declined to comment for this story.

"I'd just as soon put this thing behind me," he said.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

From left: Gary Favela, of Rancho Cucamonga; Don Teichner, of Mesquite, Nev.; Muku Reynolds, of Chino; Steve Arthur, of Camarillo; Linda Arthur, of Camarillo; Robin Brum, of Camarillo; and Mark MacKenzie, of Valencia.

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By Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star

A bench will be installed Sunday at Topanga State Park in honor of three Camarillo residents and four others who died while hiking together last year in Utah.

Craig Sap, district superintendent for California State Parks, said the hikers' loved ones called park officials about the bench a few weeks after the incident.

Three Camarillo residents died in the accident: Steve Arthur, 58, a Ventura County sheriff's sergeant; his wife, Linda, 57; and Robin Brum, 53. They were killed Sept. 14, 2015, when they were overtaken by a flash flood while hiking narrow Keyhole Canyon in Zion National Park. The other hikers were identified as Mark MacKenzie, 56, of Valencia; Gary Favela, 51, of Rancho Cucamonga; Don Teichner, 55, of Mesquite, Nevada; and Muku Reynolds, 59, of Chino.

Sap said the California State Parks Foundation, a nonprofit organization, receives many requests for memorial benches, and this particular one was approved because "there was a law enforcement component to it."

Steve Arthur was a 21-year veteran of the Ventura County Sheriff's Office.

Sap said his agency often works closely with the Sheriff's Office because of standing mutual aid agreements.

Once the request was approved, loved ones took to GoFundMe to raise the $2,750 the foundation needed to build and install the bench. It will bear the inscription "Don't Walk in Front of Me, Don't Walk Behind Me Walk Beside Me and Just Be My Friend. Keyhole 7," according to the GoFundMe page.

Park agency employees will install the bench at 10 a.m. Sunday at Eagle Rock, a place of inspiration for many in the group.
SHARE CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Oxnard Fire Department.

By Megan Diskin of the Ventura County Star

A green liquid that fire crews were investigating Saturday at an Oxnard car wash turned out to be cleaning product, officials said.

The possible hazardous material was reported about 3:40 p.m. in the 100 block of South Oxnard Boulevard, the Oxnard Fire Department said.

The liquid was leaking from a trash enclosure, passing through the parking lot and into an alley, officials said. Crews contained about 5 to 10 gallons of the spilled substance before it could reach a storm drain, authorities said.

After discovering what it was fire crews used absorbent material to soak up the substance, officials said. Although the liquid is not hazardous, city crews were called to the scene to use a vacuum to clean up the rest of the product so it does not end up in the storm drain, authorities said.

The business owner had also been called to assist firefighters, officials said.
FILE PHOTO Automated external defibrillator training will be part of a class offered by the American Heart Association in Camarillo.

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Camarillo

Public can help plant new trees

Pleasant Valley Recreation and Park District will present Arbor Day: Community Tree Planting at the Park at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Camarillo Grove Park Nature Center, 6968 E. Camarillo Springs Road.

Guests can hear a short talk on the benefit of trees, help plant trees and make a tree-themed craft.

Attendance is free. For more information, visit www.pvrpd.org or call 482-1996.

Public can sign up for CPR class

The American Heart Association's CPR, First Aid and AED class will be offered from 5:30-9:30 p.m. April 25 at 3639 E. Las Posas Road, Suite E117.

This class will cover automated external defibrillator instruction, bleeding control, caring for shock, treating burns, applying splints and sudden illness. A certificate of completion will be provided.

The class fee is $65 plus a $15 material fee for Camarillo and Somis residents and $78 plus $15 material fee for all other residents.

Call 388-1952, ext. 100 to register.

Ojai

Film society will screen 'Room'

The Ojai Film Society will host a screening of "Room" at 5 p.m. Sunday at Matilija Auditorium, 703 El Paseo Road.

General admission is $10 and $7 for seniors and students. For more information, visit www.ojaifilmsociety.org or call 646-8946.

Ventura

Group provides help with Parkinson's

The Ventura Parkinson's Support Group will meet from 1-3 p.m. Wednesday at The Lexington Assisted Living, 5440 Ralston St.

Aurora Soriano, assistant state director of the Parkinson's Action Network, will give updates on the California Parkinson's Registry and how people can bring awareness to the disease.

For more information, call Patty at 766-6070.

Class teaches about self-portraits

The Museum Ventura County's art instruction series, Studio Sunday, will continue with "Frida and a Margarita" from 1-4 p.m. Sunday at 100 E. Main St.

Participants will learn to master the self-portrait as Frida Kahlo did, incorporating symbolic elements and bright colors.

The class costs $40 or $35 for MVC members. To reserve a spot, visit www.venturamuseum.org/studiosunday and pay online or call 653-0323, ext. 315.
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One of history's most important battles happened in Princeton, New Jersey, on a field you can walk across in less than half the 45 or so minutes the battle lasted. If George Washington's audacity on Jan. 3, 1777, had not reversed the patriots' retreat and routed the advancing British, the American Revolution might have been extinguished.

Yet such is America's neglect of some places that sustain its defining memories, the portion of the field over which Washington's nation-saving charge passed is being bulldozed to make way for houses for faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study. To understand the gravity of this utterly unnecessary desecration, you must understand the astonishingly underestimated Battle of Princeton.

In December 1776, the Revolution was failing. Britain had sent to America 36,000 troops  at that point, the largest European expeditionary force ever  to crush the rebellion before a French intervention on America's behalf. Washington had been driven from Brooklyn Heights, then from Manhattan, then out of New York. The nation barely existed as he retreated across New Jersey, into Pennsylvania.

But from there, on Christmas night, he crossed the Delaware River ice floes for a successful 45-minute (at most) attack on Britain's Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. This was Washington's first victory; he had not been at Lexington, Concord or Bunker Hill. Trenton would, however, have been merely an evanescent triumph, were it not for what happened 10 days later.

On Jan. 2, 1777, British Gen. Charles Cornwallis began marching 5,500 troops from Princeton to attack Washington's slightly outnumbered forces at Trenton. Washington, leaving a few hundred soldiers to tend fires that tricked Cornwallis into thinking the patriot army was encamped, made a stealthy 14-mile night march to attack three British regiments remaining at Princeton. They collided on this field.

The most lethal weapons in this war were bayonets. The British had them. Few Americans did, and they beat a panicked retreated from the advancing steel. By his personal bravery, Washington reversed this and led a charge. An unusually tall man sitting on a large white horse, he was a clear target riding as close to British lines as first base is to home plate.

Biographer Ron Chernow writes that at Princeton, Washington was a "warrior in the antique sense. The 18th-century battlefield was a compact space, its cramped contours defined by the short range of muskets and bayonet charges, giving generals a chance to inspire by their immediate presence."

When the redcoats ran, the British aura of invincibility and the strategy of "securing territory and handing out pardons" (Chernow) were shattered. And the drift of American opinion toward defeatism halted.

In his four-volume biography of Washington, James Thomas Flexner said: "The British historian George Trevelyan was to write concerning Trenton: 'It may be doubted whether so small a number of men ever employed so short a space of time with greater and more lasting effects upon the history of the world.' But such would not have been the result if Washington had not gone on to overwhelm Princeton."

This ground, on which patriots' blood puddled on that 20-degree morning, has been scandalously neglected by New Jersey. Now it is being vandalized by the Institute for Advance Study, which has spurned a $4.5 million purchase offer  more than $1 million above the appraised value  from the invaluable Civil War Trust, which is expanding its preservation activities to Revolutionary War sites.

In today's academia there are many scholars against scholarship, including historians hostile to history  postmodernists who think the past is merely a social construct reflecting the present's preoccupations, or power structures, or something. They partake of academia's preference for a multicultural future of diluted, if not extinguished, nationhood, and they dislike commemorating history made by white men with guns.

The IAS engaged a historian who wrote a report clotted with today's impenetrable academic patois. He says we should not "fetishize space," and he drapes disparaging quotation marks around the words "hallowed ground."

The nation owes much to the IAS, which supported Albert Einstein, physicist Robert Oppenheimer and the diplomat and historian George F. Kennan. It is especially disheartening that a distinguished institution of scholars is indifferent to preserving a historic site that can nourish national identity.

The battle to save this battlefield, one of the nation's most significant and most neglected sites, is not yet lost. The government in today's Trenton, and in the city named for the man who won the 1777 battle, should assist the Civil War Trust.

George Will is a Washington Post columnist. Contact him at georgewill@washpost.com.
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It is a sad day in our county. Jane Laut isnt the first battered woman to be sent to jail, and I am afraid she will not be the last. A lot of people just cant comprehend the psychology of battered woman syndrome, where a spouse is taught to live in constant fear of abuse upon them and their children.

I fear a poorly trained police department, enamored of a man and blind to his behavior, will see this verdict as vindication of its actions. It is not. Over the course of this trial, its recklessness was exposed, and it must live with that tainted reputation.

I am disgusted by a district attorney who in this and several other cases has shown he is so blinded by ambition that he has forgotten the mission, values and vision of his office and feels the need to step on the weak and vulnerable.

I am sorry for 12 citizens and Dave Lauts family, who must realize every day for the rest of their lives that they have sent a battered woman to jail for protecting herself and her child. This man ruined Janes life while he was alive, and now the courts have continued to do so after his death.

And for Jane, I know you are a religious woman, so I believe your God knows there is no greater love than that of a mother protecting her child. It is a very sad day.



Deborah Goss, Ventura




TREVI Italian Restaurant, located at the heart of The Forum Shops at Caesars, will welcome families for Easter Sunday with food and drink specials available exclusively on Sunday, April 5 (Photo credit: Executive Chef Peter Scaturro).

Executive Chef Peter Scaturro will offer a specialty holiday dish of grilled marinated New Zealand lamb chops served with mint basil pesto risotto and grilled asparagus, priced at $34.95.

TREVI will also feature a limited-time jelly bean gelato for dessert, starting at $4.50 per scoop, along with a festive Peep-tini cocktail for $9 made with marshmallow vodka and garnished with the classic Peeps candy. TREVIs signature happy hour frozen Bellinis will be offered for $4 throughout the day.
Chad's President Idriss Deby is expected to win a fifth term in office as voters cast ballots in Sunday's election.

Deby, who is facing 13 challengers, has led the country since 1990 when he seized power in a coup.

The country has seen its economy boosted during Deby's time thanks to oil production, and its military is a key part in the regional fight against the Nigeria-based militant group Boko Haram.

But not everyone is happy with the president. Protesters rallying against the government in recent weeks have been met by police using tear gas to break up the demonstrations.

In February, Deby pledged that if given another term he would reinstate term limits that were scrapped in 2005.

He said the "life of the nation was in danger" when the decision was made to end the limits and that now there is nothing requiring a system where "changing leaders becomes difficult."
Djibouti opposition leaders are rejecting the results of the country's presidential election, citing fraud.

Djiboutis ruling party declared on Saturday that President Ismail Omar Guelleh won Fridays presidential election, gaining nearly 87 percent of the votes.

Three candidates who ran against the incumbent told VOA Somali the result was false.

The independent candidate Mohamed Muse Tourtour said, "A national vote-stealing occurred, it is false and I will not accept it."

Jama Abdirahman Djama, another independent candidate, said, I warned that the will of people not to be repressed, but the results show what I warned just happened.

Omar Elmi Kheyre, the Union of National Salvation (USN) candidate, said all opposition parties are united "not to accept the results, and the president deceived the public.

Boycots

Some opposition parties boycotted the election after Guelleh, who was always the clear front-runner, went back on his earlier decision not to run.

Opposition leaders say they plan in the next few days to issue a joint communique and demonstrate against the outcome.

But the country's election commission denies the opposition claims, saying the election process was held without a problem and in accordance with Djibouti and international law.

Abdi Ismail Hirsi, who heads the election commission, told VOA the candidates have the right to accept or reject the results, and should refer their claims to the constitutional council.

Guelleh, who has been in power since 1999, starts another five-year presidential term.
About 100 people died and hundreds of others were injured in a massive fire that broke out at a temple in the southern Indian state of Kerala early Sunday where thousands had gathered to witness a fireworks display being held as a part of an annual religious festival.

The tragedy took place around 3 a.m.  a few hours after the fireworks display started near the Puttingal Devi Temple in the coastal town of Paravur in Kollam district, about 70 kilometers from the state capital, Thiruvananthapuram.

Officials said a shed where a huge quantity of fireworks was stored went up in flames after a spark fell on it, setting off a series of massive explosions and a blaze that spread quickly.

The office of the temple authorities was reduced to rubble and part of the temple roof also caved in. Huge plumes of smoke billowed into the night sky.

A stampede ensued as panic spread and many were injured as they tried to flee the flames.

Disaster teams have reached the coastal town. The armed forces are assisting the massive effort to transport the injured and those who have suffered burn injuries to hospitals.

Naval spokesman D.K. Sharma told VOA that helicopters and three naval ships have been dispatched to take the injured to bigger towns in the state.

"The helicopters will be used to establish the air bridge between Kollam and Trivandurum, and once the casualties reach Trivandrum, (colonial name for Thiruvananthapuram), they will be airlifted to Cochin. The ships have already reached with medical equipment, medical assistance, doctors, the specialists," Sharma told VOA.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said permission had not been granted for the fireworks display and temple authorities had flouted rules in conducting it.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi headed to the disaster site with a team of specialist doctors.

In a tweet Modi called the fire at the temple heart-rending and shocking beyond words and said My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured."

Focus on injured

After surveying the scene of the disaster, Chandy said the focus is on treating those who are injured and have suffered burns.

About 300 persons are admitted to different hospitals. Sufficient medical facilities are available here and we are giving the best medical care to all the persons, he told reporters.

WATCH: Related video of fire at Indian temple

Home Minister Rajnath Singh said the central government will assist the state government in rescue operations.

As soon as we came to know about the fire, the teams have been alerted, Singh said.

Investigation

An investigation has been ordered into the tragic blaze. The fireworks display at the temple is a tradition that dates back many decades and is usually a competition between two teams.

Pyrotechnic shows are usually banned at temples in the Kollam district and rules stipulate that fireworks should be stored more than 100 meters away from temples.

The southern Kerala state is dotted with many Hindu temples, and the Puttingal Devi temple was built at a site where locals believe a goddess appeared many centuries ago.
Macedonian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at hundreds of migrants as they tried to break through a border fence on the Greek side of the countries' shared border.

Macedonian officials said a group of migrants left their camp Sunday and stormed toward the fence after rumors had spread through the camp that Macedonia would be opening its border.

When Macedonian police denied this, hundreds of migrants tried to scale the fence, while others threw stones demanding to be allowed to cross.

Police said the incident took place at the Idomeni border crossing in northern Greece where more than 10,000 migrants and refugees have been stranded since mid-February after Balkan nations closed off access to their borders.

The clashes began soon after some 500 migrants gathered close to the fence. Activists on Saturday had distributed fliers, in Arabic, calling for the migrants to gather at the fence Sunday morning.

A delegation of five migrants asked Macedonian police whether the border was about to open. When Macedonian police denied this, more than 100 hundred migrants, including several children, tried to scale the fence.

Doctors from the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said dozens of people were injured, many of them suffering respiratory problems, others with slight injuries from rubber bullets.

Macedonia and other Balkan countries to its north have closed their borders, on what was once the busiest migrant route to central Europe. The European Union has said it will only accept war refugees from Syria and Iraq as well as those from other countries who are eligible for asylum.
Nigerias information minister is denying media reports the Islamist militant group Boko Haram is demanding $50 million from the government as ransom before releasing the abducted Chibok schoolgirls.

President Muhammadu Buhari promised to do all he can to ensure the release of the school girls, following his recent meeting with parents of the abducted girls at the presidential villa in the capital, Abuja.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said ransom reports are not new.

It appears we have several versions of this report. The one that we heard was from a source that [Boko Haram] wants to release 10 of these girls for 1 million euros," Mohammed said.

'Gone through this' before

"But the most important thing is that weve gone through this route before, and until and when we establish the credibility of this source and the truth behind it, the government will not be in a hurry to make a statement. However, government is using its own channels to authenticate the credibility of this source, he said.

Mohammed said accusations the Buhari administration appears not to be doing enough to secure the release of the more than 200 Chibok girls is not fair.

No day passes without the issue of the kidnapped girls not being at the front burner. But these are highly security and intelligence issues, which cannot always be discussed openly," he said. "But I can assure you that for this government, the return of these girls is what is going to bring the final closure on the Boko Haram terrorism and we are working very hard, daily on it.

Mohammeds remarks came after the government announced it has made significant progress in the fight against Boko Haram.

The administration said it has technically defeated Boko Haram. But critics say the militants continued attacks unarmed civilians, including the use of suicide bombers, shows Boko Haram remains potent, despite the governments reports.

Those who say that are being very unfair to us," Mohammed said.

"We inherited a very bad situation where the trail had gone cold, despite that every day we send out reports, we receive [information] some of them are phony some of them are just there to excoriate government.

Daily reports

"But the truth of the matter is that its not a matter that the government is taking lightly. Those who want a daily report on what we are doing, of course in security that does not happen. But we have channels of information in which we make available on a need to know basis, he said.

Mohammed said Nigerias military has been able to wrestle control of territories previously under the control of the Boko Haram militants. He also said the militants have been dislodged from their fortresses, including their main operation center in the Sambisa Forest.

What we have today is cowardly attacks on soft targets. ... And Nigeria has moved on from that and we are now concentrating very much on the rehabilitation, resettlement of those who are displaced. And I think the fact that one of the most wanted persons all over the world was captured without even firing a shot last week. ... I think, is evidence so far of Nigerias success in dealing with terrorism," he said.
A main political rival in Pakistan has demanded that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif step down, after documents leaked from a Panama-based law firm revealed his children own several offshore companies.

The revelations have dominated debates in Pakistani political circles and the media, mostly critical of Sharif for allegedly concealing his familys offshore property.

Sharif has denied any wrongdoing by himself or his sons, and last week he announced the establishment of a judicial commission to be headed by a retired judge to determine the facts.

But his main political rival, Imran Khan, in a televised speech Sunday, rejected the commission as an attempt to cover up corruption of the Sharif family.

I am demanding Mr. Prime Minister, on behalf of the Pakistani nation, that you resign because you have lost moral authority to rule Pakistan or ask the people to pay taxes, Khan asserted.

He vowed to stage a sit-in protest rally outside Sharifs family residence in Raiwind, near the eastern city of Lahore, if the prime minister does not quit. But he gave no date for that ultimatum.

Khan said his party will give the government until April 24 to take appropriate actions like hiring the services of international auditors and the formation of an inquiry commission under the leadership of Pakistans chief justice to investigate charges of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and perjury.

Pakistani Information Minister Pervaiz Rasheed rejected Khans allegations and demands as baseless and childish.

Khans Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party staged a big sit-in protest outside parliament in late 2014. For weeks, his supporters refused to disperse, demanding that Prime Minister Sharif step down over allegations of fraud in the 2013 parliamentary election. The demonstration formally ended after a Taliban attack on a school in the city of Peshawar killed 150 people, mostly children.

I promise my nation that until justice is done and accountability is ensured, I will not back down this time, Khan warned in his Sunday speech.

The so-called Panama Papers leak named Sharif's two sons, Hussain Nawaz and Hassan Nawaz, and daughter Maryam Safdar as owners of several offshore companies.

A family spokesman, in a statement, insisted the documents alleged no wronging because no illegal means were involved in establishing the assets.
The Philippine military said Sunday that 18 of its soldiers were killed and more than 50 others were wounded in a 10-hour firefight with Abu Sayyaf extremists in the southwestern island province of Basilan.

A military spokesman said at least five militants died and 20 others were wounded in Saturday's fighting. He said the dead included a Moroccan national.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer reported that an entire military platoon "was wiped out" and that four of the soldiers were beheaded. The fighting was described as the worst single day of government combat casualties in the region this year.

Authorities said the military force had been hunting the militants in Basilan and nearby Joso island for the past two weeks, in a push to free as many as 18 captive foreigners, including several Canadians and a European kidnapped from a local beach resort last year.

Abu Sayyaf later released videos in which some of the captives pleaded for their governments to secure their freedom. Militants had also threatened to behead their prisoners if their ransom demands were not met by Friday.

Military authorities quoted by The Associated Press said many of the militants engaged Saturday were armed with grenade launchers, and that they were able to reinforce their ranks quickly as the fighting raged near the Basilan towns of Tipo Tipo and Al-Barka.

Abu Sayyaf  a splinter grouping of the now-disbanded Moro Islamic Front  was founded in 1991 with funding from al-Qaida. It has been designated as a terrorist group by the United Nations, Australia, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, United Arab Emirates, Britain and the United States.

Its current leader, Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014.
Belgian prosecutors said Sunday the terror cell linked to the November attacks in Paris was planning a second attack in France, but last month decided to hit Brussels instead.

The Brussels bombings at an airport and metro station killed 32 people and came days after police arrested key Paris suspect Salah Abdeslam in the city's Molenbeek area following a four-month manhunt.

Prosecutors said Sunday the cell was "surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation" and shifted their plan to a quick attack in Brussels instead.

There was widespread speculation following the March 22 bombings that Abdeslam's arrest triggered the cell to act.

The statement from Belgium's Federal Prosecution Office came a day after it said another Paris attack suspect, Mohamed Abrini, told investigators he was the "man in the hat" seen accompanying the two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at the Brussels airport.

Police searched for him for weeks after the blasts before arresting him Friday along with four other people.All five were charged with participating in "terrorist murders" and "activities of a terrorist group."

Authorities also confirmed the arrest of a sixth person in connection with the Brussels attacks, but did not give further details.
South Sudan's opposition faction is calling recent comments by the countrys army chief of staff, anti-peace and anti-democracy."

Last week army chief of staff Paul Malong Awan said as long as he lives, former vice president and rebel leader Riek Machar will never become president of the worlds newest nation.

Speaking during a visit to his home village of Malualkon, General Awan did not say how he would prevent the opposition political leader from becoming president.

Machar spokesman James Gatdet Dak condemned Awan's comments as "an unfortunate reminder that there are senior political and military officials of the government in Juba who are not for peace and democracy."

Machar to travel to Juba

Awans comments came after Machar announced plans to return trip to Juba on April 18 to take up his position as the countrys first vice president to form a transitional unity government under a 2015 peace accord that ended more than two years of civil war.

Elections, including presidential contests, according to the peace agreement, will be conducted at the end of 30 months of transitional period.

Dak said Awan had no right or power to deny a citizen or political leader his or her right to contest for the South Sudan presidency.

The spokesman said Awan's comments bring into question the government's commitment to peace.

He added, "This has raised a serious concern about the way the implementation of the peace agreement is heading. This means there is underlying plan by General Paul Malong Awan to violate the peace agreement, and even to harm Dr. Machar.

Dak said that he wished that President Salva Kiir came out and denounced what his army chief of staff has declared, calling the comments anti-peace and anti-democracy.

'Clear the air'

"This would clear the air and assure the rest that what the army chief of staff has said is not shared by the president, Dak said.

Supporters of the government said Awans pronouncements are his and should not be misconstrued to be a reflection of Kiirs government.

They contend that as a citizen the army chief has a right to express his personal opinion. They also said Awans statement should not affect Machars planned trip to Juba.

Dak said the controversy will not affect Machar's plans to return to Juba.

But still we are worried the comments may be backed by negative actions," he added.
Three people were killed and six were injured early Saturday in an attack staged by suspected leftist Shining Path rebels on the eve of Peru's presidential election, authorities said.

The attack, in a remote coca-growing region of the Andean nation, occurred as military officials transported materials for the election, the head of Peru's armed forces, Jorge Moscoso, told reporters.

Two of the victims were military personnel and the third was a civilian driver, he said.

The Maoist-inspired Shining Path guerrilla group was largely dismantled in the 1990s, but hundreds of insurgents still control swaths of a jungle-covered region of Peru known for its production of coca, the raw material for cocaine.

"This is a sign that more still needs to be done," said outgoing President Ollanta Humala, a former army officer. "Terrorists are no longer a threat to the Peruvian state, but they have shown they can still cause harm."

Peruvians will vote Sunday in the fourth presidential election since the end of a decade-long battle between insurgents and state security forces commanded by former President Alberto Fujimori that claimed an estimated 69,000 lives.

Fujimori is now serving a 25-year sentence for ordering death squads to massacre civilians in his crackdown on rebels.

The legacy of the conflict  one of Latin America's bloodiest  has surfaced in this year's presidential race as Peruvians who credit Fujimori with stamping out the Shining Path rally behind his daughter, front-runner Keiko Fujimori.

Keiko Fujimori is the clear favorite in Sunday's election but is not expected to win outright with a simple majority. She has marketed herself as the candidate who is toughest on crime.
Does expelliarmus work on pirates? Photo: Warner Brothers

British spy agency GCHQ helped keep one of the entries of J.K. Rowlings beloved book series out of the hands of those-who-shall-not-be-named, meaning pirates. I remember the British spy eavesdropping station GCHQ rang me up and said weve detected an early copy of this book on the Internet, Rowlings publisher Nigel Newton told Australias ABC Radio when discussing the publishing history of the series. I got him to read a page to our editor and she said no, thats a fake, said Newton, founder and chief executive of Potter publishing house Bloomsbury, describing the spies as good guys.

A spokesman for GCHQ said: We do not comment on our defense against the dark arts.

It remains to be seen whether Rowling, who has written seven novels worth of tweets in the last couple of years, will employ the spies to protect her latest Harry Potter book.
Everyones favorite bigamist is back! And shes having a very bad day.

As Outlander season two debuts, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp Randall Fraser finds herself in the same Scottish stone circle that initially sent her careening 200 years into the past, scrabbling at the ground and screaming at an indifferent sky. Shes in 1948 again. Within minutes, shes back in a hospital, acting surly and withdrawn, as though she had crossed over to the set of Girl, Interrupted. You would think shed at least be pleased to reacquaint herself with modern conveniences like vaccines and indoor plumbing. She doesnt even seem happy to see her loyal, loving (first) husband, Frank, whose only sin is that he resembles a certain 18th-century English sadist who tortured her equally loyal, loving (other) husband, Jamie.

Well, if it werent soapier than a car wash, it wouldnt be Outlander. At its best, the show  along with the addictive Diana Gabaldon novels on which it is based  is a literate fantasy, in which a strong-willed, intelligent woman gets to have great sex and fantastic adventures in two very different time periods. At its worst, however, its clunky melodrama. Through a Glass, Darkly delivers dollops of both.

The first thing Claire does upon encountering a 20th-century stranger is to demand of him who won the Battle of Culloden. Because shes in Scotland, a place that values its history to the point of fetishization, the man is surprised but nevertheless able to tell her that England was victorious in 1746. (If she were in America, a stranger chosen at random probably wouldnt be able to tell her who won the Civil War.) Claire emotes again. Later on in the episode, when we finally leave the postwar U.K. and join up with a much more cheerful Claire and Jamie in 18th-century Le Havre, we find out why: She had planned to change the course of history by preventing the Jacobite uprising, which doomed the Scottish Highlands clans. Despite Claires best efforts, she apparently failed. More than 1,000 fighters still went to their death on the moors  and Jamie probably joined them.

Still, as Through a Glass, Darkly makes clear, Claires vain efforts will be the focus of Outlanders second season. Were going to watch as she and Jamie try to undermine the rebellion from France, aided by Jamies dour but trustworthy kinsman, Murtagh, as well as his cheerful cousin, Jared. They get an inauspicious start when Claire alienates a local nobleman: She diagnoses his ships crew with smallpox, and a harbormaster forces the nobleman to burn the cargo along with the ship to prevent contagion. Claire thinks she is working on behalf of the greater good, because Claire always thinks she is working on behalf of the greater good, but shes made a powerful enemy at a time when she and her husband are trying to accumulate friends.

Going forward, at least she and Jamie will have the power of booze on their side. Jared puts Jamie in charge of his successful wine business while he sails to the West Indies, and who will want to bite the hand thats filling their cup?

Though we know in advance Claire and Jamie wont succeed in wining, dining, and subverting the political intentions of the 18th-century French elite, its hard not to prefer this story. It has high stakes, intrigue, excitement, royalty, and oh-so-many bodices just waiting to be ripped. The 1940s story line, meanwhile, has  Harvard? Well, Harvard and a heartbroken Claire trying to forget about Jamie while moving to Boston to become a staid academics wife.

Almost the only thing that the 1940s story line has going for it is Tobias Menzies. Last season, he was terrifying as the charismatic villain Jonathan Black Jack Randall, and now hes somehow also compelling as Randalls much more decent descendant, Frank. Very few people could stand up to Sam Heughans Jamie as a potential love interest  from the eyes to the abs, Heughan is a Harlequin cover come to life (and he can actually act)  but Menzies isnt intimidated. Dapper and trim in his three-piece suits, Frank serves as a perfect foil, like a chilled white wine next to Heughans full-bodied red.

Luckily, the shows IMDB page is here to reassure us: Even in France, our heroes have not managed to escape Randall, so we have plenty more Menzies  in both guises  to look forward to this season.

The episode contains one final twist: Claire reveals that she returned to the 1940s in what people would tactfully refer to as a delicate condition. Yes, as was first revealed in last seasons finale, Claire is still pregnant. After smashing up a garage in a fit of rage, Frank returns to Claire and tells her he wants them to be a family anyway. But is white wine really ready to raise red wines baby?
Hillary Clinton doesnt know how many states shes lost recently, but the number of holes in her wall suggests seven. No matter, her home state (besides Arkansas and Illinois) of New York is coming up, and shes armed and ready  if she can figure out how to get through the subway turnstile, of course. Oh, and whats that? Bernie made friends with a bird? Hillary has three-eyed raven from Game of Thrones at her beck and call. Its certainly more intense than the average bird, but that doesnt make it any less qualified to do, um, bird things. Yeah, this metaphor is falling apart.
The skies never opened wide Saturday, but wet clouds and a shower at about 3 p.m. may have been enough to keep some people away from the fifth annual Art on Elm Avenue, expanded this year by two blocks and new features.

About 40 artists displayed works in the Brazos Events Center at 520 Elm Ave., and the front of the building housing Waco Weddings and Events, 715 Elm Ave., hosted a display of paintings, photographs and drawings by youth.

A new event this year, sponsored by the Waco Poets Society, featured poetry recitals by youth and adults in a building at the intersection of Dallas Street and Elm Avenue.

Brandy Clark, coordinator with The Opportunity Center serving autistic adults, pointed to a display of paintings by autistic youth in the childrens exhibit.

Autistic people tend to think in concrete terms, she said. This activity helps them get beyond the concrete into their imaginations. It helps all children open up to the world around them. Many of them couldnt imagine themselves doing art, much less producing anything people would buy, before this festival.

Attendance at the festival had been growing by about 1,000 people a year, topping 5,000 last year. At the end of the day Saturday, estimates ranged from 3,000 to 5,000, but Claire Sexton, arts education coordinator for Cultural Arts of Waco, which organized the festival, said she felt sure 4,000 people attended. Sexton said a head count was more difficult than in past years because exhibits were spread over a larger area, and the crowd appeared more sparse. Scattered showers in the region likely discouraged some who would have attended, she said.

More time, more artists

Organizers blocked off Elm Avenue from the 500 to 900 blocks and stretched the festival by two hours, ending at 5 p.m. this year instead of 3 p.m. They also signed up 44 artists, compared with 33 last year, Sexton said.

This was also the first year Cultural Arts of Waco took over the lead in planning from NeighborWorks Waco because the festival had outgrown NeighborWorks capacity to run the festival and focus on its primary mission, she said. NeighborWorks, which focuses on assisting families with homeownership, still provided some assistance Saturday.

The festival featured 33 outdoor booths and three indoor venues.

Out on the avenue, Jacob Hogins, attending for the second year with his mother, Jan Hogins, said, Im impressed with how much theyve expanded this year, and its nice to see a wider age range represented.

At both ends of the street, volunteers offered chalk to people, especially children, to work on the pavement, and drawings filled areas marked off for the activity.

In the middle of the fairway, people viewed a photograph of the 1916 lynching of black teenager Jesse Washington in downtown Waco and were offered markers to record their impressions of current race relations and hopes for the future on large drawing pads.

I dont know how we come to terms with our dark side, said Community Race Relations Coalition board member Joyce Nobis, who was hosting the exhibit. How can we stop racial prejudice? But this picture shows Waco 100 years ago, and were trying to encourage a wholly different Waco in the present. Now well have these sheets with all their messages.

Steve Veracruz was helping manage exhibits by four artists in different media at two adjoining booths sponsored by the Central Texas Artist Collective, a perennial participant in Art on Elm Avenue that takes every feasible chance to promote its members. The group had a booth at the Texas Food Truck Showdown last weekend and has had presences at Comic Con and the Waco Cultural Arts Festival, among other events.

Staying active with art

Were all about collaboration, Veracruz said. Too often, artists will show their work at an event like this and then store it in the closet again for years. We want to inspire our members to keep bringing their work out and keep active with it.

He said he hopes Art on Elm Avenue will grow to offer more in the performing arts.

We could have hoped for a little better weather today, but were happy that the this event is growing, that its a lot bigger, Veracruz said. We need more exposure for all the arts everywhere in the city.

Sexton said, We were happy with the way things went. Well always be looking for ways to do things better, but overall, it was a good day.
Mothers of Robinson High School seniors are using their fundraising network throughout town to benefit one of their own this year.

Each year, a group of moms throws an all-night party called Project Graduation on graduation night for seniors to keep them safe. They spend the year fundraising to offset the cost of prizes and games given out during the party.

But this year, one of the mothers was diagnosed with lung cancer, and the other moms decided to host a garage sale Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 3301 Robinson Drive to offset some of her medical costs.

Mica Cathey was diagnosed with lung cancer about two months ago and is in Houston for medical treatment as her daughter, Haven, prepares to graduate from high school.

Haven Cathey said the Robinson community is her family and has been since before her mom became sick. She said shes grateful for the support the community has shown.

I just want to make sure all her stuff gets paid for, Haven Cathey said. I can always get a job to help out with my expenses.

Project Graduation President Jackie Salazar said she has been thrilled with the amount of donations and hopes they can raise at least $3,000.

The group also set up a bank account for people to donate at Fidelity Bank of Texas in Robinson.

Moms arent the only ones helping out. Haven Catheys classmates began hearing of her mothers situation and have shown up to help with the effort.

Senior Ricky Gilmore, 18, sorted garage sale donations the week before the sale and said he plans to recruit other students to help work Saturday.

Ive known Haven for quite some time, and shes a really kind person altogether. And if something like this happened to me, I know she would be there for me, Gilmore said.

Haven Cathey said shes extremely grateful for the support she and her mom have received during the treatments.

Were definitely grateful, especially since its just me and my mom, really, she said.

----

If you go

What: Garage sale to benefit Robinson High School mother Mica Cathey, who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer

When, where: 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at 3301 Robinson Drive

More info: Donations can also be made at Fidelity Bank of Texas in Robinson
Assemble all the facts, rumors, conjecture and findings of the McLennan County Elections Commission regarding the March 1 joint primary election debacle that left some voters feeling disenfranchised over a narrowly decided county commissioner race and you get at least two possible scenarios.

Scenario One: Longtime, much-respected McLennan County Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe was undermined by a disloyal employee, Karen Hall, who failed to carry out her assigned tasks and lied about it. Weeks later Van Wolfe fired Hall, her second-in-command, saying the errors in the election continue to haunt this office.

Scenario Two: Van Wolfe was out of her depth in electoral complexities, failed to smartly anticipate necessary changes in Election Day protocol and, after problems erupted, scapegoated Hall as well as an election equipment vendor, election judges, poll workers and even ignorant voters in a frantic, month-long bid to keep her job.

What makes all this ironic is that, if Halls account in Thursdays Trib is credible, Van Wolfe after the March 1 election nonetheless had Hall employ her technological savvy in setting up May 7 city and school elections and the May 24 primary election runoff  and then, after having Hall do last-minute trouble-shooting on March 28, called her to a meeting with the countys personnel director and handed her a detailed termination notice carefully prepared in advance.

She was totally using me so that all the May elections would be done before she kicked me out the door, Hall told the Trib. And if Im a liar and my honesty and integrity are being questioned, why do you have me doing that?

So much for McLennan Countys first joint primary election employing vote centers, allowing voters to cast ballots anywhere in the county. Election Day brought unexpectedly long lines and several hundred incorrectly issued ballots, raising doubts about the Precinct 1 county commissioner race and prompting a legal challenge.

To add intrigue to all this, one wing of the local Republican Party supposedly got crossways with Van Wolfe some time ago, figuring Hall might better serve the public. Hall denies any involvement in such moves but says the talk poisoned relations with her boss.

My impression of the elections office over the years: Van Wolfe had the management smarts and a solid grasp of election law as well as shifting voter patterns throughout our growing county; Hall had the technological chops necessary to put it all to work. In short, Van Wolfe knew where all the light switches were, Hall knew how to take them apart and fix the wiring when necessary. Nothing wrong there.

So long as Van Wolfe managed with the right balance of resolve, energy, diplomacy and know-how, all should have run smoothly. However, her termination notice for Hall  obtained through a public information request by Trib staff writer Cassie L. Smith  suggests office problems that, as Van Wolfe correctly wrote, caused major errors, additional costs, tremendous stress and a voting population that is suspect of the election offices future capability to perform competent, error-free elections.

But where did these problems arise? Did Van Wolfes second-in-command fail to conduct all the electoral tests required of her (as Van Wolfe claims) or was she never assigned all the electoral tests to ensure a smooth election (as Hall claims)? And who trained election judges on relevant election protocol, for how long, in what areas? One might argue the local elections commission is right that such details are not really the province of the commission and should be left to Van Wolfe to properly handle. Yet what if the reluctance of the commission to aggressively scrutinize the situation results in more problems? In any case, the elections commission dismissed Halls request to furnish evidence in this imbroglio.

One might think May elections would vindicate one side or the other in this she said/she said spectacle, but given that Hall apparently worked on these before getting the boot, who can really say? One things sure: Considering that election fraud is such a concern in Texas, its amazing a lot of this is being given a pass. One wonders how county commissioners will react upon receiving the election commissions final report.

Many Americans like to talk about the right to vote being sacred, but in this case plenty of people treated it as something far less  probably more than well ever fully realize or admit.
We now know how big the Republican Partys Donald Trump problem is: so big that some in the GOP have convinced themselves the solution is U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas

Yes, the erstwhile government-shutter-downer trails Hillary Clinton by only 3.1 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average, as opposed to Trumps 10.8-point deficit.

But be skeptical: Those polls probably exaggerate Cruzs electability, which may diminish further if he gets the nomination and the general electorate focuses on his ideology  even if his opponent is the unloved Clinton.

A lackluster economy and irritation at poor government performance dominate voters concerns, just as Cruz says; whether Americans think Cruzs purist brand of conservatism represents the best way to deal with them is another question entirely.

Abolish the IRS, Cruz cried after his recent Wisconsin primary victory  repeating a promise that, whatever its merits, only 34 percent of Americans favor, according to a recent Gallup poll. The same survey showed that only 18 percent support Cruzs plan to eliminate the Departments of Education, Energy, Commerce and Housing and Urban Development.

As Gallups Frank Newport explained: Our research . . . shows that only about a third of Americans favor limiting government to performing only basic functions, a third favor government being empowered to do all it can to fix problems and a third are in the middle between these two extremes. Thus, Cruz is simply fighting an apparent uphill battle  with the public taken as a whole  in his philosophical position that government must be scaled back.

On taxes, only 51 percent of Americans think their federal income taxes are too high, according to Gallup  down 17 points since the start of the new century. Meanwhile, 52 percent of Americans, including 29 percent of Republicans, agree with a proposition Cruz rejects: Government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich. Only 45 percent favor Cruzs 10 percent flat-tax proposal.

Cruz is on firmer ground, potentially, with Obamacare, every word of which he has sworn to repeal, and which has an approval rating that is still 12.6 points under water, according to the RealClearPolitics average. However, a lot will depend on his ability to articulate an alternative.

The health plan he has sketched, based in part on individual accounts, may be difficult to sell given a fresh Pew Research Center finding that Americans, by a 51 percent to 46 percent margin, think universal health coverage is a federal responsibility; thats a reversal of how they viewed the matter two years ago.

The big picture in American politics is partisan polarization, coupled with a discernible leftward shift of the political center on domestic issues, especially the social issues upon which Cruz has relied to fire up conservative evangelical Christians.

Though the Democrats advantage over the GOP in voter identification is not particularly large  eight points, according to Gallup  24 percent of Americans now accept the no-longer execrated label liberal, up seven points since 1992. Conservative, meanwhile, held steady at 37 percent.

Also per Gallup, Americans by a 51 to 43 margin say government should not promote any set of values, rather than promoting traditional values, a reversal of the historical norm.

The backlash against gay marriage has proven astonishingly weak, limited mainly to state laws aimed at preserving religious objections to participation in same-sex nuptials, which Cruz has backed  but which most Americans seem to reject.

Heck, even on Cuba, Cruz, who opposes President Obamas outreach to the Castro regime, is well to the right of most Americans: 54 percent now regard that Communist island favorably, according to Gallup.

In short, Cruz is offering America an updated version of the original 1980 Ronald Reagan package  small government, tax cuts, traditional values, strong defense  at a time when that package is no longer nearly as compelling to most Americans as it was 36 years ago.

Whereas Reagan offered a course correction from the excesses of the 1960s, which voters blamed on Democratic liberalism, todays voters are still reeling from two shocks, the Iraq War and the Great Recession, which they associate with the Republican presidency of George W. Bush.

No doubt Cruz, despite the bombast and disruptiveness that even his Republican colleagues have found off-putting in the Senate, would be, for lack of a better word, a much less embarrassing GOP nominee than Trump. But anyone who thinks todays America longs for a purist Reaganite should reflect on this: In every 2016 poll that pitted the two men against each other head to head, Cruz has lost, by an average margin of 9.8 points, to Bernie Sanders.

Charles Lane is a Post editorial writer, specializing in economic policy, federal fiscal issues and business. He is a contributor to the PostPartisan blog and a regular guest on Fox News.
Do your job!

I am appalled by the McLennan County Elections Commissions attempt to sweep under the rug the fiasco that was the joint primary election in March. County Judge Scott Felton does not appear to realize that, as chair of the elections commission, it is his duty to ensure all relevant facts pertaining to this matter are thoroughly investigated. I remind him that Section 31.037 of the Texas Election Code clearly states: The employment of the county elections administrator may be suspended, with or without pay, or terminated at any time for good and sufficient cause.

According to state code, it is the absolute responsibility of election commissioners to look into all aspects of what caused the problem, leading to the disenfranchisement of 800 or more voters. This means interviewing not just Elections Administrator Kathy Van Wolfe but election employees, election judges, election clerks and anyone else who could assist in uncovering the full truth of what transpired.

At the elections commission meeting last week, Ms. Van Wolfe said election judges received some five hours of training. As a former election judge myself, I received around one hour of training, which was so poorly conducted by Ms. Van Wolfe, combined with a mountain of paperwork to wade through, that it was inevitable that at some point serious mistakes would happen. Election judges time sheets for general elections are verifiable documentary evidence of the actual amount of training given, the lack of which was a key part of last months problem.

Judge Feltons actions thus far resemble a court scenario where a judge asks the accused, Did you steal that car? To which the accused replies, No. So the judge then says, OK, youre free to go.

Do the job to which you were elected, Mr. Felton, and conduct a full and public investigation into this matter. Only then can you restore faith in our county election process in the eyes of the public.

John W. Hall, Waco

EDITORS NOTE: Mr. Hall is the husband of Karen Hall, who was fired from the local elections office on March 28 and whose request to speak before the commission was rejected.

Politically correct

This is a challenge to all local teachers of English regarding the Associated Press article of April 3 titled PepsiCo CEO asks N. Carolina governor to repeal LGBT law. The lead paragraph reads: The CEO of PepsiCo Inc. has joined the growing list of company heads and municipal officials voicing opposing (sic) to North Carolinas new law that prevents specific anti-discrimination rules for LGBT people for public accommodations and restroom use.

Ask your students whether the list is or is not in favor of discrimination against LGBT people. If they get the answer right, begin immediately to groom them for political jobs!

Rick Rickerson, McGregor
The daughter of The Fast and The Furious star Paul Walker reached a $US10.1 million ($A13.4 million) settlement with the estate of the man driving the car her father died in three years ago, court records show.

The estate of Roger Rodas, a longtime friend of Walker's who was driving the Porsche Carrera GT in which the two men died after a wild 2013 crash, agreed to place more than $US7.2 million in a trust for Walker's teenage daughter, Meadow, according to terms of a settlement that was reached in November 2014.

Walker was on a break from filming when his Porsche smashed into several trees and a concrete light pole in Valencia in November 2013. Credit:Jason Merritt

Nearly $US2.9 million was set aside for legal fees, records show.

Walker was on a break from filming the seventh installment in the Furious series when he and Rodas decided to drive away from a charity event in Valencia on November 30, 2013. Investigators said the vehicle was travelling at least 145km/h when it smashed into several trees and a concrete light pole on Hercules Street. Both men died within seconds.
Broken up into six chapters including "Mind, Body, Spirit", "Relationships" and "About Kyly Clarke", the new mum has produced the literary version of saccharine.

Kyly and Michael Clarke at a party at Paddington's The Royal Hotel to celebrate the release of Mrs Clarke's book.

True to You is a miniature coffee table book containing some of Mrs Michael Clarke's favourite uplifting mantras. The glossy tome is page after page of bite-sized "thoughts for an inspiring life" with various photos of Clarke  the model and candle maker  fondling herbs, sitting at a laptop and almost eating a strawberry.

Kyly Clarke may have dedicated her new book to her baby daughter but it's really a homage to Kathy Bates' fragile character from Fried Green Tomatoes.

Together with her husband, Clarke launched her latest project last week over an intimate lunch at Paddington's The Royal Hotel. The perfect setting given Sydney's affluent Eastern suburbs types appear to be her target audience. The $25 book is an extension of her lifestyle blog, Lyfestyled, where readers are encouraged to make "all aspects of your life beautiful. From your fitness routine to your fashion philosophy to your home decoration plan."

Part Gwyneth Paltrow 'Goopness', part therapy session, True to You does not endorse ramming cars in your local shopping centre car park screaming "Towanda", instead Clarke suggests a more serene outlook: "You can either be happy or right: you choose."

Here are three things I learnt from reading True to You:

1. The downward-facing dog is better for you than an actual puppy

"The happiest people are in touch with their spiritual sides. This doesn't necessarily mean they follow an organised religion, just that they value peaceful and harmonious activities like yoga, reading, going for a walk or meditating."
According to London's The Telegraph, since her divorce from Prince Andrew, Fergie has made up to $4 million a year from a variety of roles, including as an ambassador for Weight Watchers. She lost more than $6 million in the collapse of Hartmoor, her US lifestyle and wellness company.

While her fiscal abilities could clearly do with some improvement, there is no denying that her attempts to make a buck have provided us with some rather interesting episodes, from that disastrous tabloid sting when she was caught out trying to sell access to her former husband, which she later described to Oprah Winfrey as her "gutter" moment, to hoisting herself atop a tiny Wedgwood tea cup in front of hundreds of bemused shoppers in downtown Sydney to prove just how strong the fine porcelain was.

Whether she realises it or not, Fergie has actually been responsible for a multimillion-dollar industry which would not exist without her, though she'd probably rather it didn't.

This is the same woman to whom the late Princess Margaret famously wrote in the late 1990s saying: "You have done more to bring shame on the royal family than could ever have been imagined. Not once have you hung your head in embarrassment, even for a minute. Clearly you have never considered the damage you are doing us all. How dare you discredit us?''

For decades she was one of the great cash cows for an entire media industry which documented her various travails, from the Fleet Street tabloids to the pages of Woman's Day and New Idea.
A 40-year-old woman is assisting police with an investigation into the death of man in Maddington in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Police were called to a house on Cedar Way at 1am after reports a man had been stabbed.

A woman is assisting police with their investigation into the stabbing death of a man in Maddington.

The 41-year-old was rushed to Royal Perth Hospital in a critical condition but died a short time later.
New York: Conservative forces working against Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in New York aren't expecting him to lose the state's April 19 primary - they're just working to keep him from getting 50 per cent of the state's vote.

Of the 95 total Republican delegates on offer in the Empire State, 81 are allocated according to voting in each of New York's 27 Congressional districts. A candidate winning 50 per cent of the vote in a single district earns 3 delegates.

The remaining delegates are tied to a "winner takes most" formula in which a candidate receiving more than 50 per cent of the vote gets all 14.

Trump is above that threshold, receiving between 52 per cent and 56 per cent of the vote according to a summary of polls by RealClearPolitics. Texas senator Ted Cruz and Ohio governor John Kasich are jostling for second, each with about 20 per cent of the likely total.
by Adrian Gibson

THE Free National Movement is in a quagmire of web. The so-called Official Opposition has become the laughing stock of Bahamian politics  and the jokes arent even funny.

With the controversies surrounding the Save The Bays (STB) and Peter Nygard court filings, videos and other revelations  including the unpolished, highly questionable response of various government ministers  the showdown in the FNM for the chairmans post, in the wake of Michael Pintards resignation, has become the most entertaining sideshow in local politics.

Is the FNM serious? They have gone through the trifecta  the good, the bad and now the ugly!

With their streak of bad luck, someone in the FNM mussy tief church money. At this rate, the FNM will soon be renting a chairman (going online at www.rentachairman.com).

At the close of nominations on Monday, the candidates in the race for chairman were former Cabinet Minister and Blue Hills MP, Sidney Collie, and former leader of The Workers Party Rodney Moncur, who ran as the Democratic National Alliances candidate for Bain Town in 2012. Mr Collie is purportedly FNM leader Dr Hubert Minnis choice for the post whilst Mr Moncur, who was denied a nomination for his beloved Bain Town constituency, has decided to enter the race to fire-up a languid FNM machinery.

Strangely, whilst Michael Pintard resigned because he had been mired in controversy since he was named in a lawsuit last month filed against Mr Nygard and his lawyer, Keod Smith, by four STB directors and Reverend CB Moss, the FNM now proposes to nominate and possibly elect Mr Collie  a former attorney for Nygard  as the partys next national chairman.

Yes, there are those who are howling at the fact that only two people nominated to challenge for the FNMs chairmanship and that, in the case of both, there are detractors who dismiss them as either weak, crazy, insufferable, flimsy, politically unattractive, etc.

Sidney Collie is a sure fire cure for insomnia. To use the words of Republican Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, Mr Collie is very low energy. Mr Collie is, politically, one of the dampest squibs in the box.

In 2008, tongues were wagging throughout the country following Mr Collies sudden resignation as Lands and Local Government Minister in the face of a possible firing and Prime Minister Hubert Ingrahams reshuffling of his Cabinet.

Though I praised him at the time for accepting responsibility for his mistakes, overall Mr Collie was a flimsy minister who performed dismally. He was the first Cabinet minister out of the door in the last Ingraham administration.

According to The Tribune, then PLP chairman Glenys Hanna Martin claimed that she wrote to the former minister (Collie) on June 1, 2008, to advise him of her concerns and urge him not to act contrary to the law.

The letter was copied to Mr Ingraham and then Parliamentary Commissioner Errol Bethel. She also asserted that she had spoken to Mr Collie on several occasions and had personally alerted the Prime Minister about the brewing fiasco. Yet, Mr Collie and his underlings at the department of Local Government stubbornly charged ahead with a flawed poll. In this instance, the tenacious Mrs Hanna Martin truly performed as Opposition chair, and detected and questioned certain erroneous conduct in some of the elections slated to be conducted throughout the Family Islands.

According to Mr Collie, he made mistakes in the process of that years local government elections which led to a court action and the consequent frustration of many Family Island voters.

If these blatant blunders had occurred during a general election, the perception of the Bahamas having fair electoral and democratic procedures would have been tainted and consigned to the bin, while possibly subjecting our elections to intense United Nations/international observation. As a chairman of the FNM, could Mr Collie now better organise Family Island branches and branch elections or would we see more of the disorientated approach that was on display in 2008?

Sidney Collie is a nice guy. He is a salt-of-the-earth fella. I like him. But, he is unexciting. He reminds me of a tuna casserole - edible and perhaps nutritious but youll never remember eating it. He is the type of person who could easily get lost in a crowd.

In an environment where the leader and the deputy leader of the FNM are clamouring for attention and neither can command heads to turn or draw the undivided attention of a crowd, to now triple-down on that makes no sense for the FNM. The FNM needs someone who will excite and interest a politically hungry public offended by the PLP, a public that wants someone who is able to steam-roll the partys chairman Bradley Roberts. The public wants someone who can challenge Mr Roberts, not with venom, but with information, with evidence and quick thinking. They want somebody who will make Bradley Roberts stammer politically!

Relative to the disputed land, Mr Collie negotiated with the government on behalf of Mr Nygard. In documents filed in court and referring to talks with the fashion moguls then-attorney, Mr Collie, the Government said it was its intention to cause the coastline at Simms Point ... to be reinstated.

Does Mr Collies former professional relationship with Mr Nygard now complicate things for the FNM?

Public disappointment in the FNM is due to the fact that the Bahamian people must now stomach an offensive PLP.

I see Mr Collie as neither fish nor fowl. One cant really see him!

On the other hand, cab-driver and radio talk show host Rodney Moncur is vying for the chairmanship. There are those who would say that Mr Moncurs candidacy is yet another doomed attempt on the citadel of power. I disagree.

Say what you may about Rodney Moncur, he is a man of conviction. Yes, he is unpredictable, sometimes hot-headed and sometimes so outspoken that people become uncomfortable or dismiss him with contempt. However, he is a bare-knuckle fighter and, given the FNMs two choices, he is possibly the partys best bet at having a fighting chance against Bradley Roberts.

Some would argue that Mr Moncur can be likened to Donald Trump. Our nations most outspoken Justice of the Peace, Mr Moncur is a well-known social and political activist who, even whilst he has faced his own financial challenges over the years, never gave up his will and fight to assist so many of the poor, downtrodden and victims of seeming injustice.

Over the years, I have developed a great respect for Mr Moncur, who has demonstrated that he is a man of his word, that he is a man of the people and that - regardless of the criticisms - he would fight tooth and nail for a cause that he believes in, even to his own detriment. I respect that. Mr Moncur is an encapsulation of the saying if one doesnt stand for something, they would fall for anything and so he takes various stands to express his approval or discontent with matters that the average citizen might ordinarily shy away from. He has made his political advocacy and public affairs campaigns an intimidating brand where, when one hears that Rodney Moncur has mobilised and is coming, it engenders a deep fear of public embarrassment/exposure as he takes no prisoners and does not mind if, to attain justice and a meaningful end, one refers to him as crazy or a loose cannon.

Mr Moncur says what he thinks and takes the flak that comes with it. He would risk the ridicule of the masses to stand up for his beliefs.

You probably wont agree with him but you will certainly listen to what he has to say and also find that he can articulate reasons for that which he believes. He is not an idiot. He is controversial but he is always prepared and researched. I have heard Mr Moncur make reasonable arguments on various legal issues, analysing the detail with admirable aplomb. He has even pleaded in the courts for people who could not afford legal representation.

Mr Moncur should not be underestimated. He is not the most refined or politically correct person, but he has political and sociological pedigree in the Bahamas. If anyone that you encounter in your day-to-day discourse is real, Mr Moncur is it.

His shortfalls can be his philosophy of certain matters. He reminds me of that Rudyard Kipling poem If:

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute,

With sixty seconds worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything thats in it,

And - which is more - youll be a Man, my son!

Mr Moncurs view on gender is extraordinarily conservative and, for some, borders on misogynistic. If criticism can be levelled at him, it is that some of his views border on grounds of disqualification. However, he will advise and make public his views and so one does not have to guess, no one can accuse him of deception. With Rodney Moncur, you see what you get and that level of honesty is sorely lacking in Bahamian politics - and indeed within the FNM.

I am told that quite a number of FNMs may vote for him. He will likely outwork Mr Collie, even if he is unsuccessful. He will likely be supported heavily by the anti-Minnis bloc of the FNM.

And so it seems that the FNM is only capable of putting up two candidates for the chairmanship. Perhaps that is because of Dr Minnis purported policy that the chairman will not get a constituency nomination and that he would be appointed to the Senate and brought into the Cabinet if the FNM wins. I am only left to assume that Mr Collie then will not be re-nominated for the MICAL constituency.

Since the FNMs choice is between Collie and Moncur ... the partys best bet will likely be Moncur. The race will no doubt be competitive.

_________________________________________________________

First published in the The Tribune under the byline, Young Man's View, here

View Adrian Gibson's archive here

____________________________________________________

The views expressed are those of the author, and not necessarily those of WeblogBahamas.com (which has no corporate view) or its Authors.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Apr. 10, 2016 | 10:55 AM | PADUCAH, KY

A Paducah man faces DUI and criminal mischief charges, after crashing his vehicle into the side of a local business early Sunday morning.

McCracken County Sheriff's deputies responded at around 2:30 am to a crash at 3709 Clarks River Road. Deputies said 35-year-old Jessie Young, of Paducah was driving west on Clarks River Road when he fell asleep, ran off the road and crashed into Papa John's Pizza.

Young was taken by ambulance to a local hospital for treatment of his injuries.

Young was charged with, DUI, criminal mischief and failure to maintain insurance.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 09/04/2016 (2388 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two women brought the memory of Cooper Nemeth to life and recalled the search that united a city Saturday at the North End Bell Tower in a meeting with the Bear Clan.

Paige Buors and Ramona Waldner presented the Bear Clan, a volunteer safety patrol in the North End, with a cheque for a little more than $2,000, which they raised from the sale of thousands of rubber bracelets in Coopers memory.

Thousands of followers on social media paid $3 apiece for the wristbands with Coopers name and the hashtag #RememberCip.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Paige Buors (right) gives Irene Nemeth, Cooper Nemeths grandmother, a hug Saturday after presenting a cheque to the Bear Clan for $2,337.

Nemeth, last seen alive Feb. 14, was the focus of a search that drew people from across Winnipeg together before its tragic ending.

The body of the 17-year-old was found Feb. 22 after a search that involved hundreds of people, including the Bear Clan, and triggered the bracelet campaign on social media.

Winnipeg resident Nicholas Bell-Wright, 22, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the homicide.

That was the wishes of the Nemeths, Buors said, that a portion of the proceeds go to the Bear Clan because theyre a volunteer group.

Members of the Nemeth family accompanied the two women for the cheque presentation and a group photo with the Bear Clan volunteers, greeting the patrol with warm hugs.

The event Saturday evening was held at the Selkirk Avenue location of the Bell Tower, the focus of Friday evening community meetings led by Meet Me Under the Bell Tower leader Michael Redhead Champagne.

The Bear Clan was a big help and inspiration to our family, said Coopers aunt, Larysa Sayles. We were overwhelmed by the Bear Clan contribution, joining the community together. Cooper had great respect for the indigenous community. He would have loved the smudge ceremony.

After Coopers body was found, the safety patrol sent Coopers spirit on its journey home with a traditional smudge ceremony for the grieving family at the Gateway Recreation Complex. More than 1,000 people attended, and it offered hundreds of Winnipeggers their first glimpse of indigenous ceremonial practices.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Twenty-year-old Paige Buors presents a cheque for $2,337.00 to James Favel, head of the Bear Clan, from money she raised in making 3,100 bracelets for Cooper Nemeth causes at the Bell Tower Saturday afternoon. See Alex Paul story.April 09, 2016

Buors and Waldner offered to raise funds for a charity of the Nemeths choice and were happy the family wanted a portion to go to the safety patrol.

The women said the Bear Clan helped Coopers family cope with the teens disappearance and subsequent death, and they wanted to help them in return.

Coopers grandparents said their loss united a city, an accomplishment that was the result of the kindness and generosity the safety patrol showed to their family.

It was something positive from something negative. Were happy to be together, Coopers grandmother, Irene Nemeth, said.

On the evening of the smudging ceremony in February, the head of the Bear Clan James Favel said it was unique that the time-honoured healing custom was conducted on such a large scale for a non-indigenous person but it was a sign there was a sense of community growing between indigenous and non-indigenous Winnipeg residents.

The Bear Clan offered to help the Nemeth family because any lost child is a concern of ours, James Favel said at the time.

At the Bell Tower with co-founder Larry Morrissette and others Saturday, Favel thanked the Nemeth family and the fundraisers for their generosity and for the opportunity to help.

Favel told the group reports of the clans work has swept across the country from Labrador to British Columbia, with groups contacting the Winnipeg patrol for help in starting their own safety patrols.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Twenty-year-old Paige Buors presents a cheque for $2,337.00 to James Favel, head of the Bear Clan, from money she raised in making 3,100 bracelets for Cooper Nemeth causes at the Bell Tower Saturday afternoon. See Alex Paul story.April 09, 2016

Doors are flying open for us, and youve made all this possible. I want you to share in the joy of whats to come next, Favel said.

Volunteers from Regina and Kenora are coming to Winnipeg next week to meet with Bear Clan volunteers to learn how to get started.

The Bear Clan is an inner city group with indigenous roots whose members volunteer their time to try to make the streets safer.

Since Nemeths death, the Bear Clan has played a prominent role in other searches and ceremonies. Members of the patrol joined hundreds of others on foot, horseback, ATVs and in helicopters in the more recent search for Chase Martens, a two-year-old toddler from the McGregor-Austin area of southwestern Manitoba. He walked away from his familys farm, prompting an outpouring of support from Manitobans. Days later, on March 27, his body was found in a creek behind his family home, devastating his parents. The Bear Clan held a smudging ceremony with candles to light his journey home at the creek side with his family.

alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/04/2016 (2387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man is petitioning the federal government to allow Ukrainian citizens to visit Canada without a visa.

More than 2,100 people have signed the petition started by Nick Krawetz in January, and he says he has support from at least half of Manitobas 14 MPs. He said given the support Canada has shown to Ukraine and the 2015 Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement, it doesnt make sense for Canada to continue to require Ukrainian citizens to obtain a visa to visit Canada.

I firmly believe Canadas visa policy to Ukraine is undermining job creation and serving as a barrier to free trade, said Krawetz.

ADRIAN WYLD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES Manitoba MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake) has sponsored a petition calling for Ukrainians to be allowed to visit Canada without a visa.

He noted Ukraine lifted visa requirements for Canadians 11 years ago.

His petition specifically calls for Canada to allow Ukrainian nationals to visit for up to 90 days without obtaining a visa. However, Krawetz said Canada could follow the European Union in moving to lift visa requirements for Ukrainians who have biometric passports. Those are passports that use smart card technology embedded in a paper passport with biometrical information that can identify the traveller. That can include fingerprints, facial and iris recognition.

Biometric passports are difficult to forge. Ukraine has been issuing such passports since 2015.

Manitoba MP James Bezan (Selkirk-Interlake) has sponsored the petition. He said he agrees if Canada believes in free trade with Ukraine, it should also believe in lifting visa requirements so people can more easily travel between the two countries.

Bezan said Ukraine has not been a problem for Canada when it comes to people arriving as a visitor and then attempting to stay permanently, and he doesnt see any reason to continue requiring tourist visas.

The Conservative MP said he intends to push the issue with the government once the petition closes for signatures next month.

If election promises are upheld, Krawetz may find a friendly ear in the government. Although thus far Krawetz has not received a specific response from Immigration Minister John McCallum, or International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland, the Liberals told the Ukrainian Canadian Congress last fall it supported the idea.

Given Canadas long and special relationship with Ukraine, and recognizing the more than 1.3 million Canadians who trace their roots to the country, a Liberal government will work toward achieving this goal, was the Liberal response to an election survey question about lifting the visa requirement.

mia.rabson@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 10/04/2016 (2387 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With the Panama Papers drawing attention to the financial dealings of politicians around the world, the leaders of the Manitoba NDP and Manitoba Liberals divulged personal financial information Sunday.

The party thats leading in the polls  the Progressive Conservatives  said they werent taking the bait set by NDP Leader Greg Selinger, which they called an election stunt and American-style politics.

Selinger invited reporters to his home Sunday to say he hasnt squirrelled away money in foreign bank accounts to avoid paying tax.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS NDP leader Greg Selinger invited media into his home to make his 2014 tax return public Sunday morning.

I do not have any off-shore accounts  no secret accounts anywhere, Selinger said from his kitchen table at his home in St. Boniface. He invited media to see copies of his 2014 income tax.

What you see is what you get.

His 2014 income was $147,347. A copy of the Canada Revenue Agency statement said his total tax payable for 2014 before deductions was $43,756. Selinger said his income comes from serving as premier and the only property he owns other than his home is a cottage, which belongs to him and his wife, on an island in Lake of the Woods. His wife, Claudette Toupin, owns another cottage her father built. The couple has lived in their old St. Boniface home for 37 years. It was originally a duplex theyve fixed up and added onto.

As we go through these times when people are asking good questions about why you serve in public office, were simply here to serve the people of Manitoba Im just disclosing my tax return to let you know there is nothing complicated about anything that I do. Its pretty straightforward and out front for you to see.

The leak of the so-called Panama Papers  11.5 million documents from four decades of files from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sets up off-shore accounts for clients  has rattled many world leaders, including prime ministers in Iceland and the United Kingdom. Icelanders demanded and got the resignation of their prime minister, whose wife had an off-shore account that was revealed by the Panama Papers.

British Prime Minister David Cameron released his income tax returns from the past seven years Sunday as he sought to quell controversy about his personal investments. Cameron tried to calm political waters regarding an offshore trust account set up by his late father, Ian Cameron, but the disclosure raised more questions. Protesters have been calling for his resignation.

When asked whether Selingers wife, Toupin, had any off-shore accounts or investments, a party spokesman said no and released her 2014 income summary as well. Toupin, whos now retired, was the prairie regional director for the Federal School of Public Service in 2014. Her income was $127,746 and her taxes owed were $31,311, the Canada Revenue Agency summary shows.

Selinger said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other world leaders have released information about their personal finances. He invited the other provincial party leaders to disclose their income tax returns as well.

As a proactive measure, I think were at a time where theres more demands for public transparency  more of a request for people to be clear about what their personal circumstances are and whether it has any impact on their role in public office.

At a hastily called press conference Sunday afternoon, Liberal Leader Bokhari released her Canada Revenue Agency statement showing that in 2013, her earned income was $37,670. Her staff made copies of a portion of her Notice of Assessment available to reporters and said the information was the best they could come up with on short notice. Bokhari, who became Manitoba Liberal leader in 2013, urged Progressive Conservative Leader Brian Pallister to release his personal income information as well.

The premier did it and I have no issue doing it, said Bokhari. I just think all three leaders should do it.

The Progressive Conservatives were having nothing to do with the disclosure of Pallisters personal finances.

Greg Selingers last-minute election stunt is desperate, American-style politics from an old, tired government trying to divert voters attention from the real issues that matter to families, the PC party said in a press release. Mr. Selinger sat at his kitchen table knowing that he has taken over $5,000 in broken promise tax hikes from Manitobans kitchen tables since becoming premier. Tax hikes that hit average Manitobans in their wallets on everything from home insurance to cars to cottages.

Rather than disclosing Pallisters finances or saying whether he has any off-shore accounts, the provincial Tories said Selinger cant be trusted.

He says hes transparent but lied to Manitobans about not raising the PST, the PCs said. He says hes transparent but refuses to provide details of the $670,000 in special severance payments he approved to NDP staffers (and) refused to release documents to the ombudsman related to the Tiger Dam deal and his own ministers conflict of interest. Greg Selinger personifies broken trust, the statement said.

After the Progressive Conservatives declined Selingers challenge to reveal Pallisters 2014 income tax return, the NDP issued a statement asking why not.

This is a very simple question. Its an opportunity for Brian Pallister to live up to everything hes been saying about transparency. We cant guess why Pallister is so desperate to hide from such a simple and straightforward question.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
BAGHDAD (AP)  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry backed Iraqs prime minister on Friday in his efforts to resolve a mounting political crisis, underlining the importance of securing a unified and functioning government in the fight against the Islamic State. Kerry also pledged $155 million in new U.S. aid to Iraq.

Making an unannounced visit to Baghdad, his first in two years, Kerry held discussions with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi as well as with Iraqs foreign minister, the Sunni speaker of parliament and a Kurdish regional leader in what was designed as a show of support for the Iraqi government as it struggles with ongoing security, economic and political challenges. He described al-Abadis effort to reshuffle his cabinet as an internal matter, but said all sides in Iraq must put sectarian or personal interests aside for the sake of the nations future.

It is important to have stability, Kerry told reporters. And it is important to have a unified and functioning government as soon as possible, so that these operations are not affected.

Kerrys trip coincides with military advances. Iraqi forces say they entered the strategically important IS-held town of Hit on Thursday, while the Pentagon is considering establishing more small military outposts to provide artillery support and other aid to Iraqi forces readying an assault on Mosul, Islamic States stronghold in the country. Last month, the U.S. opened the first such base since returning to Iraq in 2014.

But al-Abadi faces challenges of his own. Al-Abadi proposed a new cabinet line-up amid mounting pressure from supporters of a hard-line Shiite cleric who last month staged rallies and a sit-in next to the government headquarters to demand reforms. But the move was quickly met with broad opposition, making it unlikely that al-Abadi will be able to obtain confirmations for the key political posts.

We dont play a role in that, Kerry said, trying to emphasize neutrality. But he also said he had no doubt that al-Abadi was extremely focused on making certain that there is a strong government in place and hailed the prime minister for demonstrating critical leadership in the face of enormous difficulties.

Such instability in Baghdad has already hampered al-Abadis ability to lead the fight against Islamic State. Last month, al-Abadi pulled Iraqi troops back from the front in western Anbar province to help maintain security in Baghdad amid mounting protests.

Iraqs entrenched corruption is at the heart of the internal debates, a problem compounded by the countrys weakened economic state as a result of crumbled oil prices.

Last August, al-Abadi proposed a reform package to combat corruption, cut government spending and merge ministries, but it has been stymied by sectarian tensions, the leaders own missteps and struggles to contain the Islamic State. IS forces swept across much of northern and western Iraq in the summer of 2014. While Iraqi authorities have waged a full-scale war, aided by U.S. airstrikes, the Kurdish peshmerga forces, Shiite militias and pro-government Sunni fighters, the extremist group still holds significant territory.

Kerry said the war is being won, albeit slowly.

IS has lost 40 percent of its territory in Iraq, Kerry said. Oil revenue is down by almost a third. Airstrikes on cash storage sites have cost the extremists millions of dollars, leading rank-and-file fighters to disobey orders, flee positions and hide among civilians as theyve watched their paychecks dwindle and the group lose its aura of invincibility.

The Islamic State territories in Iraq and Syria are still a magnet for foreign fighters, and cells are expanding around the world. And experts say Islamic States staying power may be inspiring others, whove never been in contact with the group, to wage violence in its name. Recent attacks in Brussels, Paris and California underscore Western fears.

Kerry said the Iraqi army is still shaping the operation. He offered no time frame for when the actual assault might begin, and he stressed that no additional American forces are being considered. There are 3,870 U.S. forces in Iraq currently, though the number fluctuates.

There was no request from Prime Minister Abadi for some new infusion of troops at this point in time, and nor did we discuss that, Kerry said.

The new U.S. aid will support Iraqis displaced within the country of forced to flee abroad as refugees. More than 3.4 million Iraqis have been uprooted in the last 2  years. American humanitarian assistance over that time now totals $778 million.
The school partnered with Capuchin Community Services and volunteered around Milwaukee. Students ate with clients at two different soup kitchens, sorted supplies at a shelter, learned about the lives of some homeless people and attended a Catholic Gospel Mass service. The goal was not only for students to learn more about poverty and homelessness within Milwaukee, but also be exposed to the positive and uplifting organizations and services within the city.
New York City, Madrid, San Bernardino, Paris, Brussels: Cities that have tasted the toxic bowl of wrath brewed, not by God, but by twisted souls conflating religion, politics and power.

The current bowls are poured out by those who are attempting to establish a modern caliphate, called the Islamic State in Syria or the Islamic State in the Levant. The Levant is the geographical designation for that area of the Middle East on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea, comprising Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria, and Jordan.

Many are calling this movement radical Islamic terrorism, which uses violence to create fear to subject others to their apocalyptic vision for world history. In conjunction with this, the word jihad is used as the call to arms, as it were, for this holy war. Because of this, Christians and most others have a very bad impression of this word and recoil at its use, feeling like it is literally being used against them as the enemy in the war. It is true that in the history of Islam the word jihad has been a call to arms at times to rally Muslims to either defend themselves, on the one hand, or, on the other hand, take up the sword for the sake of Islamic expansion and empire to convert the world for Allah. (Read Efraim Karshs Islamic Imperialism: A History.)

However, jihad means struggle and the greater jihad is the personal inner struggle of each believer to overcome ones ego and fully submit to the will of Allah for true inner peace. In this sense, the true enemy is ones self, not any other who may not be a believer. In fact, the Quran instructs, Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love transgressors (Surah 2:190); and again, If they seek peace, then seek you peace. And trust in God for he is the One that heareth and knoweth all things (Surah 8:61).

The Old Testament Hebrews had their own form of jihad, though they did not call it that. Given the overall political power vacuum that existed in the area at the time, an immigrant group of Hapiru was able to leave Egypt and enter into their Promised Land with religious zeal and with blood on their hands. The story of the fall of Jericho is the classic case in point (Joshua 6). Even today, this spirit of entitlement exists with deadly fervor among those who could be called messianic terrorists, killing to help bring in the messianic age for Jews. They are small in number, act infrequently, yet are just as deadly in their violence.

Of course, Christians hold no pure shining candle in the darkness of human wrong-headedness and wrong-heartedness. Eight crusades were mounted in the 11-13 centuries, led by popes, cardinals, monks and Christian emperors and kings.

On their way to recapture the Holy Land from the Muslims, they even attacked and pillaged Christian cities, including Constantinople (Istanbul), seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church. All for power and wealth, guided by religious fanaticism.

Returning to Islam once again as a way of addressing any extremism in any religion, Mustafa Akyol makes a compelling case in his book Islam without Extremes for a freedom in society that rests on three pillars: Reason, pluralism and Godliness.

He concludes, Today, the historical experience shows that the politics-focused Islamists were wrong, and the faith-focused Muslims were right. The former only created violence, tension, authoritarianism, and hatred against Islam. The latter created modern schools, charities, soup kitchens, and sympathy for Islam.

One could substitute any religion in this quote for his reference to Islam and gain insight for moderation and acceptance over fundamentalism and intolerance.

Christians, Muslims and Jews today along with those of other faiths, steeped in the realities of modernity (building individuality on the ground of freedom, accepting pluralism within community, practicing democracy for governance, and respecting spirituality beyond the particularities of religious distinctions) can stand and work together to fend off any lasting effect of extremism on global stability and world order.

(Mark J. Molldrem is a writer, community volunteer and daily host of Joy in the Morning on WBEV. He lives in Beaver Dam with his wife, Shirley. WordPowerSolutions@gmail.com)




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Robert ONeill

By: Mahesh Sarin

(Scroll down for video) The Navy SEAL who revealed that he fired the shot that killed Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, police in Montana said.

Butte police said that they have arrested 39-year-old Robert ONeill, after being found sleeping at the wheel of his car.

ONeill was charged with one count of driving under the influence. He was booked into jail, and his bail was set at $685.

According to the police, customers of a convenience store called 911 to report ONeill, who was asleep at the wheel of the car on Friday around 2:30 a.m.

Officers who arrived at the scene, woke ONeill, and noticed that he was acting strange. He was confused, and his actions were consistent with someone who might be under the influence of alcohol.

ONeill denied that he was drinking, and said that he took sleeping pills. ONeill failed a sobriety test. The officers took him to jail, where he refused a test to determine the level of alcohol in his blood.

ONeill and a group of Navy SEALs, raided a compound in Afghanistan, where he shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, who was the mastermind behind the attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001.
Funding Secured For Well Known Accident Hotspot in Brymbo

This article is old - Published: Sunday, Apr 10th, 2016

A campaign to secure road safety investment at a well-known accident hotspot in Wrexham has been successful.

A total of 40,500 of accident reduction funding has been secured for the the B5101  along with a section of the Brymbo Link Road now known has Heritage Way.

The funding comes as a result of a successful bid to the Welsh Government.

It will be spent on improving signage in the area and surface treatments at various locations.

Last year Brymbo Councillor Paul Rogers successfully secured a reduction in the speed limit to 40mph following requests from concerned residents in Tanyfron.

A bid to include the Brymbo Link Road for the additional funding was made following a large number of accidents in late 2015.

The Council has since worked with North Wales Police to monitor speed in the area.

Commenting on the news Councillor Rogers said: I am delighted that following a significant amount of work by Wrexham Council officers they have secured this additional funding.

This funding is on top of recent investment to reduce the speed limit and additional road safety markings.

Road safety on the Link Road has been a priority for residents in Tanyfron and the surrounding areas for some time and I am delighted to have assisted secure this investment.

*Stock image of Brymbo
CAMILLA, Ga. (WTXL) - We're learning more details about the man investigators say shot and killed his wife after a nearly seven hour long standoff in Camilla on Friday.

49 year old Frederick Murray also known as Fre-low surrendered to the Georgia State Patrol SWAT team on Friday after shooting his wife, Willie Mae Wallace to death.

According to the Georgia Department of corrections website, Murray served time for arson and was released in 2012. Wallace's family says though they struggle with the circumstances of her death, she leaves behind a strong legacy.

Family members say Wallace faced domestic violence while married to Murray.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - The Silver Alert issued for 76 year old Kenneth Eugene Haughton, was canceled late Saturday night. Haughton was located at the home of a relative in Hillsborough County.

The relative notified the Hillsborough County Sheriff Office that Mr. Haughton had been found and Hillsborough County notified the Wakulla County Sheriffs Office.

Authorities say Mr. Haughton is in good health, and a relative is in the process of bringing him back to Wakulla County.

The Wakulla County Sheriffs Office appreciates the concern shown by the community after the alert was issued, said Sheriff Charlie Creel. Mr. Haughton has been located safe and in good health.

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WAKULLA CO., Fla. (WTXL) - Officials are asking the public to be on the look out for a missing Crawfordville man.

The Wakulla County Sheriff's Office says 76 year old Eugene Haughton was reported missing Saturday at 8 a-m. He was last seen wearing jeans, a plaid shirt and an FSU ball cap.

He's driving a 2012 Nissan Versa and may be headed to Cross City, Florida.

Haughton suffers from Alzheimer's disease. If you or anyone have seen him you're asked to call the Wakulla County Sheriff's Office at 850-745-7100.
A 19-year-old Yakima man on Sunday became the third person shot to death over the weekend in separate incidents in Yakima and Union Gap.
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The Shin Bet has opened a preliminary investigation into inciting posts made by Likud activists on social media showing Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon in the center of a bullseye and depicting him in Nazi uniforms.

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The investigation will examine all of the remarks made against Ya'alon, as well as the general public mood and incitement that security officials fear could bolster those seeking to harm the defense minister.

Ya'alon has been at the center of much contention in recent days in light of his comments backing IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and many senior officials and officers in the defense establishment who came out against a Kfir Brigade soldier for shooting dead a terrorist who was already lying wounded on the ground.

Over the weekend, Ya'alon said both in private conversations and in a public post made on social media that he remains undeterred. "I will continue on my path, even if it costs me my political career," he said.





Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon (Photo: Shaul Golan)

"The good of the country is more important than my own, even at the cost of being threatened or of attempts to blacken my name and hurt me politically. I've been serving the country for 45 years, and this is a calling. So I'm fighting not just in uniform, but also in politics," he went on to say.

And after being targeted by some among the Likud party's activists, Ya'alon is now receiving backing from prominent party activists and members of the Likud center, who are collecting signatures on a letter of support in defense minister.

"We saw fit to write to you following a series of inciting comments made against you recently by some members in our movement," they wrote. "As members of a democratic movement, we believe in the right of the movement's members to conduct a discussion about remarks made by its elected representatives, and even criticize them. However, we are opposed to any attempt to terrorize a sitting minister, a member of the movement, just because his comments do not curry favor with some."

The letter went on to say that "the choice of some of those members (that it is possible the only targets they ever shot at, if at all, were made of cardboard) to draw a bullseye - while using the word 'assassination' - on the face of someone who dedicated most of his life to Israel's security - is worthy of condemnation."

Inciting photo calling to end Ya'alon's political career.

"We are rest assured that you are acting with integrity and faith to keep the IDF a professional and moral military," the letter's writers added. "Due to our belief that the realization of the Jewish people's right to rule over its homeland necessitates maintaining the purity of arms, we hope that you continue acting to ensure the security of the state and its residents, while defending the rule of law, under the principle of the 'Supremacy of the Law' instituted by the movement's founder Menachem Begin."

Dozens of Likud activists have already signed the letter, and it was distributed through social media and Likud WhatsApp groups where, in some places, other activists continued harshly criticizing Ya'alon.

Some of those activists said they had no intention of apologizing to Ya'alon and that he was the one who should apologize to them. These activists also attacked Ya'alon's statement that "The IDF chief, and not gang leaders, will determine the rules of engagement."

"Why did the defense minister decide that those who support the soldier are part of a gang?" one activist wrote. "I'm not part of a gang, and I came to the soldier's defense because of the immediate and unbridled attacks against him by Bogie (Ya'alon) and the other politicians."
Hamad Al-Sharifi, who previously served as an Iraqi diplomat in Kuwait and Jordan, will arrive in Israel on Sunday, even though the two countries do not have diplomatic relations.

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For much of his career, Al-Sharifi has worked as a diplomat on behalf of Iraq's Baghdad government and will arrive in Israel as a guest of the Foreign Ministry. During his visit, he will break many barriers between Israel and Arab states. Al-Sharifi will meet with Israelis of Iraqi descent, members of Knesset, and religious leaders from the three Abrahamic faiths. He will also tour the Temple Mount, the Western Wall, the Knesset, the Supreme Court, Yad VaShem, and many other places.

"I would like to thank Hassan Kaabiah, deputy spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry, who convinced me to visit to see the true Israel, which we have not seen on anti-Israeli television. One day, I hope that I will be the Iraqi ambassador to Israel and that Hassan will be the Israeli ambassador to Iraq," said Al-Sharifi before his visit. He added, "I consider myself a friend of Israel. At this time, Arabs need to understand that there is no conflict between Israel and Arab states, rather there is an Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I hope that it will end and peace will reign."

Hasan Kaabiah, deputy spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry

Al-Sharifi, 55, is originally from Baghdad and was born to Shitte parents. In the past decade, he served as an Iraqi diplomat in many different posts including a role as the official representative of the Iraqi embassy in Kuwait from 2005-2006.

He also served as a political advisor and deputy chief of mission for the Iraqi embassy in Jordan in 2006. Additionally, Al-Sharifi has served an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense.

Even before the Iraqi tyrant Saddam Hussein assumed power in 1979, Al-Sharifi was in exile. During Hussein's rule, he succeeded in evading the long reach of the Iraqi intelligence and according to reports, survived a few assassination attempts.

Today he works as a researcher in London. Al-Sharifi also chairs an organization called "The Liberal Muslims" and writes modern exegesis of the Quran. His research focuses on developing and reforming Islamic jurisprudence. He also publishes articles on different topics including political and religious reform and other issues related to Israel.

Yonatan Gonen, the head of the Arabic language digital diplomacy at the Foreign Ministry, said in a telephone conversation with Ynet, "The arrival of the former Iraqi diplomat demonstrates that there are no limits in today's world. We receive many messages from Iraqis, expressing their support for Israel and their longing for the Jewish community. We are holding a dialogue with many Iraqis through social media and the general feeling is of affection, understanding, and even rapprochement between the two peoples. (Though) it is clear that that not everything is rosy and many curse Israel and call on Jews to return from the 'Satanic Israel to the land of the Tigris and Euphrates."
The Israeli government approved on Sunday a multi-year plan to improve law enforcement in the Arab sector and in Jerusalem.

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The plan, which seeks to gradually reduce the high crime rates in the Arab sector, is expected to cost several billions of shekels and be implemented starting this year and until 2020.

Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan, who initiated the plan, says it aims to narrow social gaps between Jews and Arabs in Israel, as well as economically integrate the Arab population in the Israeli society. This, the minister says, will also help increase the personal security of residents in Jerusalem and the entire Arab sector.

Erdan said the decision was "no less than a historic one."

Border Police officers at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem (Photo: AFP)

"We want equality in law enforcement," said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"This equality does not exist in Jerusalem and the Arab public is paying dearly. The State of Israel is paying dearly. We want a single nation of law without enclaves in which the law is not upheld. We also want to reduce other gaps in society at large and in Israeli Arab society. We want to integrate them in all walks of life in the country  and this is what we will do. The step that we are taking today will reduce the gaps in law enforcement and increase personal security."

The plan will include the construction of 10 new police stations in Arab or mixed cities, and the renovation of 10 existing police stations in Nazareth, Misgav, Shfar'am, Karmiel, Migdal HaEmek, Umm al-Fahm, Tayibe, Tira (Kedma), Kafr Qasim and Rahat.

Erdan said the construction of new stations and renovation of existing ones will be prioritized according to the level of crime in the community. "So we'll first provide an answer to communities that have the highest level of crime, in order to improve law enforcement there and increase the personal security of the residents," he said.

In addition, 2,600 new police officer positions will be added at the cost of NIS 2 billion to Arab and mixed cities.

The plan will be implemented in several stages. In the first stage, taking place in 2016, 500 new officers will be added to the force at the cost of NIS 100 million, with funding taken from the Interior Ministry. The rest of the necessary financing, up to NIS 100 million, will be allocated as a one-time payment from the Finance Ministry.

For 2017, the government will seek funding for 200 of the 500 officer positions in the new state budget, but if the appropriate funding cannot be secured in the budget these positions, police will cut back on recruitment of new officers in 2017 to allow for these positions.

The second stage of the plan, which includes the building of new police stations and the renovating of existing ones will require approval and the allocation of resources.

The plan also includes a renewed deployment of forces in Jerusalem and "significantly strengthening the enforcement and deterrence in Jerusalem, and the ability to provide enforcement services to all parts of the city, including East Jerusalem," Erdan said.
Herzl Shaul, the father of Oron Shaul, and suffering from cancer, called on the Israeli government to expedite the return of his son's remains in order to bury them in Israel.

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First sergeant Oron Shaul was killed in an armored personnel carrier incident in Shujaiya on July 20, 2014 in which six other Golani soldiers were killed. Hamas announced that it had captured Oron, but the IDF determined that Oron had passed away. The Shaul family eventually accepted the IDF's narrative and sat shiva (Jewish week-long mourning period) for their son.

Herzl Shaul with his son, First Seargent Oron Shaul, killed during Operation Protective Edge (Photo: Family picture)

Approximately six months ago, Herzl said that he was suffering from chest pains and underwent a number of medical examinations, which revealed that he has cancer. His wife also previously had cancer, but now is under medical surveillance.

According to Herzl, the stress and concern for the fate of his son, who has not been able to bury until this day, has contributed to the deterioration of his health. "I wake up every morning and I feel that they are not doing enough to bring back Oron's body," he said.

Herzl also commented on his wife's perspective that they sat shiva in vain and Shaul is still living: "Zahava, my wife, believes that he is still living because a mother is mother. It is very difficult for her to accept the painful fact." He added, "However, from the evidence they (IDF) presented us, I have no doubt he has passed away and we must return his and Hadar Goldin's bodies."

Herzl believes the bodies will be returned, but thinks it will take time. A meeting between Oron's parents and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was supposed to take place Monday but it was put off due to the Shaul's medical problems. Oron's family intend to wage a public fight to have their son's remains returned.
All the stops were pulled out for Saudi King Salman during his visit to Egypt. Egyptian President Sisi met the king at the airport with a red carpet, military orchestra, hugs, smiles, and media all around. "Welcome to the historic visit of your second home" the Egyptian President announced as he escorted the Saudi royal through five days of events.

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King Salman was immediately awarded the Nile Prize, Egypt's highest honor, made of pure gold and embedded with three squares  the first which represents the water which protects Egypt, the second which represents the water which ensures Egypt's wellbeing, and the third which represents the water which brings happiness to the Egyptian people.

Few others have been awarded this medal: Writer and Nobel Prize winner Najib Mahfouz, South African leader Nelson Mandela, Anwar Sadat, Queen Elizabeth of Britian, and Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Busaidi of Oman, the only Arab leader who supported Egypt when it signed the peace treaty with Israel.



Relations between Cairo and Riyadh have been rocky since President Mubarak's overthrow five years ago. The Saudi government offered Mubarak political asylum in order to save him from arrest and trial, but he refused, resulting in a trial which continues even to this day.

After he ousted the Muslim Brotherhood from power, Sisi received a financial lifeline worth billions which enabled him to solidify his powerbase. It was very important for Saudi Arabia to protect its ally. Nevertheless, the differences of opinion between the two sides didn't disappear with Saudi Arabia pressuring Bashar al-Assad to leave his post in Damascus, and with Egypt quarreling with Erdogan in Turkey. When Saudi Arabia announced an Arab coalition against Iran, Sisi announced that he would support it, but that he wouldn't send any military forces.

: Christo & Jean Claude

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The visit comes as Cairo is in a position of weakness. Advisors are advising Obama to reconsider US relations with Egypt due to Egypt's continued violations of human rights and their "lack of determination" in establishing democracy. Russia distanced itself from Egypt following the bombing of the Russian passenger plane in Sinai by ISIS . Italy  Egypt's largest trade partner in the EU and third largest trade partner overall  has recalled its ambassador over the murder of an Italian student.

Salman arrived with a huge entourage of family members in order to try and save Egypt from its difficult situation, signed 17 cooperation agreements with the Egyptians, and pledged three to four million dollars for projects in the Sinai. The ambitious projects include increasing agriculture in the desert, building factories, and establishing the first university on the peninsula. Egypt was made to promise that terror organizations won't interfere with these projects.

But the highlight of the visit came when the Saudi King announced revisiting an initiative to build a bridge between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which will be the first ever man-made connection between Asia and Africa.

It's no wonder that exact location of the bridge was kept a secret; an unknown place close to Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt and somewhere in Tabuk Province in Saudi Arabia. The bridge will be 15 kilometers long, take 20 minutes to cross, and will enable millions of African pilgrims to make the holy Hajj journey to Mecca. It will help enable oil to be transported from Saudi Arabia to Egypt more efficiently, and it will facilitate trade and tariffs for both sides.

Saudi King Salman greeted by Egyptian President Sisi in Cairo (Photo: Reuters)

During the reign of the last Saudi king, Israel worried that a bridge connecting the two countries would enable Egyptian and Gulf forces to transfer weapons and military forces, and was able to stop the construction of the bridge. Israel was able to convince Mubarak that it was a bad idea because it would hurt tourism to Sinai.

However, it was recently exposed that tourism in the Sinai is indeed suffering, with empty hotels and beaches commonplace throughout the peninsula. Egypt and Saudi Arabia will only benefit from the bridge. Meanwhile, Israel has been silent. Was Israel let in on the secret plans for the bridge? Does this point to under the table dealings with the Saudis? Is Israel thinking of the potential danger this bridge could present?

In the end, one can assume that the leadership in Jerusalem is praying that the big plans stay on paper.
TEHRAN- Iran's judiciary spokesman has raised the possibility of a prisoner exchange involving two US-Iranian citizens and an Iranian consultant to the UN arrested in the United States.

The semi-official ISNA news agency quoted Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi as saying Sunday that he has "heard words from here and there though nothing has been officially conveyed to the judiciary."

Ejehi was asked about a possible exchange involving Siamak Namazi, jailed in Iran for "cooperation with the hostile government of the United States." His father, Baquer, is jailed on unannounced charges.
The IDF prosecutor's office decided on Sunday to close the investigation into the actions of the head of the Binyamin division, Colonel Israel Shomer, who shot and killed a Palestinian who threw a boulder at his car.

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On July 3, 2015 a Palestinian from Qalandia threw a boulder at the Colonel's windshield. It went through the windshield and entered the car. In response, Colonel Shomer got out of his car and initiated the proper use of rules of engagement.

However, the investigation revealed that Shomer shot at the Palestinian while he was in motion, and not from a static firing position. Therefore, his shots weren't precise, and he ended up killing the Palestinian.

Col. Israel Shomer and his damaged car (Photo: IDF Spokespersons Unit)

The Chief IDF Prosecutor determined that the Colonel's shooting under the rules of engagement was justified, as their intended use was to arrest the Palestinian. The prosecution also found that although firing while moving and not from a static position was a professional error, the extenuating circumstances behind the event are what caused this transgression.

Therefore, "the shooting incident did not cross the line into criminal activity, and therefore does not necessitate legal action against the officer."

Only part of the incident was captured on security camera footage, and the shots which killed the Palestinian weren't captured on film. According to Judea and Samaria Division Command, live fire may only be used if the soldier's life is in danger.
WASHINGTON- A handful of Bernie Sanders supporters are protesting Hillary Clinton in Baltimore on Sunday.

The small group held up a sign reading: "Clinton: What about mass incarceration" and chanted "super predator." As they were escorted out of the campaign rally by police, the activists chanted "Feel The Bern."

Both Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, have been repeatedly protested for their support for the 1994 crime bill -- a signature achievement of her husband's administration. On Friday, Bill Clinton offered a near apology for a contentious confrontation with some protesters at a Philadelphia campaign rally.

They've both said they regret the bill because it contributed to high incarceration rates of black people for nonviolent crimes, like minor drug offenses. Sanders, then a congressman, also backed the legislation.
Washington: With Zika virus reaching epidemic levels throughout South and Central America, southern Mexico and the Caribbean, a team of innovators has taken some old tires and turned them into a potential weapon against the deadly disease.

With Canadian Government funding, the team from Canada and Mexico successfully tested the low cost, environmentally-friendly way of destroying the eggs of the mosquito genus that spreads dengue and likely spreading the Zika virus.

The study, conducted in a remote, urban area of Guatemala, documents a cheap, easy system to reduce virus-carrying Aedesgenus mosquitoes by capturing and destroying its eggs.

The system includes an innovative Canadian-designed trap called an "ovillanta," created from two 50 cm sections of an old car tire, fashioned into a mouth-like shape, with a fluid release valve at the bottom.

Inside the lower tire cavity, a milk-based, non-toxic solution developed at Sudbury's Laurentian University lures mosquitoes. Inserted to float in the artificial pond is a wooden or paper strip on which the female insect lays her eggs. The strip is removed twice weekly, analyzed for monitoring purposes, and the eggs destroyed using fire or ethanol.

The solution, which now includes mosquito pheromone, the female insect's chemical perfume that helps others identify a safe breeding site, is then drained, filtered and recycled back into the tire. The pheromone concentrates over time, making the ovillanta even more attractive for mosquitoes.

Researchers found the rubber ovillanta significantly more effective at attracting the Aedes mosquito than standard traps made from 1-litre buckets.

During the 10-month study, the team collected and destroyed over 18,100 Aedes eggs per month using 84 ovillantas in seven neighbourhoods of the town of Sayaxche (population 15,000), almost seven times the roughly 2,700 eggs collected monthly using 84 standard traps in the same study areas.

Targeting mosquito eggs using the ovillanta, researcher Gerardo Ulibarri of Laurentian University says, is one third as expensive as trying to destroy larvae in natural ponds and only 20 percent the cost of targeting adult insects with pesticides, which also harm bats, dragonflies and the mosquitoes' other natural predators.

Canada's Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau said, "Innovation is a key driver underlying the Government of Canada's approach to international development. Innovative solutions that deliver improved global health outcomes, such as for the fight against the Zika virus, are needed."

The results appear in the journal F1000Research.
Lakhanpur: In a major development, around 150 youths, who left Delhi for NIT Srinagar with Tricolors, have been detained by police in Lakhanpur of Jammu and Kashmir.

The detention of the youths took place on Saturday night.

Earlier, around 150 students on Saturday had embarked on their journey from Delhi to Srinagar to show solidarity with the non-Kashmiri students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Jammu and Kashmir, following the unrest at the institute.

Holding the national flags, the youths led by Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena's head Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga commenced the protest march in the morning from Rakabganj Gurudwara here to reach NIT Srinagar.

Bagga, in a press statement said, two buses and seven cars have been arranged for the youths participating in "Chalo NIT" rally. They will reach Srinagar on Sunday.

"Seeing the tense situation in Jammu and Kashmir, we will hand over national flag and show that it is not a crime to hoist the Tricolour in the state. We want to show our support to the non-local NIT students who stood up for the nation and were brutally bashed up by the locals and the police," Bagga said in the statement.
Kollam: At least 102 people are feared dead and over 280 injured after firecrackers caused a massive fire at the Puttingal temple in the coastal town of Paravur located about 60 kms from the state capital, early on Sunday. The gruesome incident occurred around 3:30 am on Sunday.

Eyewitnesses said that the fireworks display started close to midnight and when nearing its close, a spark from a cracker landed in a building that had stored some high potency crackers and it caught fire causing a massive explosion. Following this, the building collapsed and that was the prime reason for the number of casualties to increase.

Events as they unfolded:

- PM thanked PM Sharif, and also expressed his deep condolences to him on loss of life and damage due to quake in Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa: MEA.

- Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calls up PM Narendra Modi to offer condolences over the Kerala fire tragedy.

- If and when needed, we're ready to transfer patients to AIIMS or Mumbai,whenever and wherever required: JP Nadda

- 50 cartons of medicines have been supplied, we're in constant coordination with the state govt and are giving whatever help needed: JP Nadda

- PM Modi has asked for a detailed report on how the accident took place. State administration will submit a report: Union Minister JP Nadda

- Russian President Putin conveys condolences over Kollam temple fire tragedy.

- This is a tragedy for Kerala and the whole country: Rahul Gandhi.

- I visited the site and the hospital today, my sympathies are with the kin of the deceased persons. I have told CM that Government of India will help if patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or Delhi. Government of India stands with the people of Kerala, we will help them in the best way possible, says PM Modi.

- Kerala temple tragedy shocking, painful: Mohan Bhagwat.

- INS Kabra and INS Kalpeni carrying medical supplies dock at the Kollam harbour.

- Keral CM orders judicial probe in Kollam fire tragedy.

- PM Modi, Kerala CM Oommen Chandy meet victims at AA Rahim Memorial Hospital.

- Congress VP Rahul Gandhi reaches Kollam.

- Indian Coast Guard (ICG) personnels donate blood at Trivandrum Medical Hospital for victims.

- PM Modi reaches the accident site in Kollam

- PM Modi reaches Kollam to visit the accident site

-We're happy that they are coming to Kerala to share our grief: Oommen Chandy on PM Modi's visit to Kollam

- PM Narendra Modi boards IAF chopper in Thiruvananthapuram, departs for Kollam

- Thiruvananthapuram: PM Modi received upon arrival by Governor of Kerala P Sathasivam

- PM Narendra Modi reaches Thiruvananthapuram

PM has directed that no protocol formalities be observed on his arrival in Kerala & focus remains on relief & rescue operations in Kollam.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2016

A team of doctors including burn specialists will accompany PM @narendramodi to Kerala.  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2016

- ICG Ship C-427 loaded with medical team arrives in Kerala's Kollam

-Fire was contained to only one room, reason can only be ascertained after investigation: Sanjay Tomar, Fire Officer

- Pakistan on Sunday expressed its condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in a massive fire at the Puttingal temple in India's southern Kerala state in the wee hours on Sunday; the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement condoled the incident.

- This is a big tragedy, I talked to Kerala CM as soon as I received the news: Rajnath Singh

- Centre has already offered medical assistance, but at present we are fully equipped: Oommen Chandy

- Meeting state cabinet today, we will discuss and then take a decision:Oommen Chandy on being asked if judicial probe will be ordered

- An additional team of Indian Coast Guard is on its way to Kollam to donate blood

- The issue of ordering a judicial probe into the tragedy will be discussed in the cabinet meeting today, Centre has offered for medical assistance but we are fully equipped: Chandy

- Kerala CM Oommen Chandy visits Puttingal temple.

"Sufficient medical facilities are available here, we are giving best medical care to all injured persons," says Chandy after visiting the site.

- Expressing deep shock and grief at the tragic incident, Congress president Sonia Gandhi asked the government to ensure ample and immediate relief measures. Sonia Gandhi, issuing a statement, also prayed for the departed souls and well being of the injured.

- BJP President Amit Shah visits Trivandrum Medical College where injured persons are being given medical assistance

- Unexploded explosives found at the site of Puttingal temple fire.

- 4 IAF helicopters have reached Trivandrum and are ready for the task. 2 AN32 aircrafts will take two NDRF teams from Arakkonam.

-Kerala government has decided to order a judicial a probe into the incident. Anyone found guilty in the tragedy will not be spared: Congress

- 102 persons confirmed dead in Kollam temple fire mishap; at least 280 injured.

- PM Modi leaves for Kerala with a group of doctors.

- A group of 15 doctors from AIIMS, RML hospital and Safdarjung hospital in Delhi leaves for Kerala with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

- Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to visit Kollam today

- INS Kabra and INS Kalpeni with medical stores being sailed to Kollam (Kerala) shortly, INS Sunayna also being sailed a little while later.

- One additional Dornier and two Chetaks also being pressed in for Kollam by the Navy.

- Death toll rises to 96 says Kerala DGP

- Media reports say that fireworks carried out despite denial of permission by the district authorities.

- Case registered against temple authorities and explosive licensees.

- PM Modi has asks for mobilization of Air Force and Navy assets in the area to assist in rescue and relief. PM has instructed that no official welcome protocols should be followed on his arrival. A team of burn specialist doctors also traveling with PM Modi to Kerala, PM will land directly in Kollam.

- Indian Navy joins in rescue ops,1 dornier and 2 ALHs with medical teams, dispatched from Garuda Naval Air station near Kochi.

- Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala reaches Puttingal temple in Kollam

- Kerala CM Oommen Chandy convenes an urgent cabinet meeting at 3 pm in Kollam.

- PM Modi to leave for Kerala shortly. He will meet CM Oommen Chandy, will also visit people who got injured in the tragedy.

- PM Modi announces Rs 2 lakh ex-gratia to the kin of deceased and Rs 50000 to critically injured.

- BJP President Amit Shah cancels all his public programs scheduled in Kerala today, will visit Kollam later in the day

- Police, disaster management teams and fire brigade are on the spot for rescue and relief work.

- Rescue operations by Air Force underway. Four helicopters including Mi-17 & ALH from Sulur (Coimbatore) being used.

- The number of injured persons crosses 350.

- Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit Kerala to take stock of the situation.

- Death toll mounts to 83

- Fire at temple in Kollam is heart-rending & shocking beyond words. My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured: PM Modi.

"Spoke to CM Oommen Chandy about the fire at a temple in Kollam. Arranging for immediate shifting of those critically injured via helicopter. Have also asked my Cabinet colleague & Health Minister @JPNadda to immediately reach the site of the fire tragedy in Kollam," tweeted PM Modi.

WATCH: Moment when fire broke at Puttingal temple fire in Kollam (Kerala) due to fireworks display, 75 dead.https://t.co/xXtBnZkgWX &; ANI (@ANI_news) April 10, 2016

- We're giving all possible support to the injured people. District Collector, Kollam is convening a meeting of police officers after that we'll decide on post-mortem & other things, says Kerala Health Minister VS Sivakumar.
Patna: Senior BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha is "happy" that his "friend and brother" Nitish Kumar has become the new JD(U) president.

"I am very happy to hear the elevation of Nitish Kumar as president of JD(U)," Sinha told PTI while commenting at the political development in JD(U).

"Nitish Kumar has gained popularity through his progressive policies. I see great hope in him becoming a national here," Sinha, the second consecutive term BJP Lok Sabha member from Patna Sahib, said.

"His elevation is timely and will have a positive impact on national politics," Sinha popularly known as 'Bihari Babu', said in praise of the Bihar Chief Minister.

The senior BJP leader said his appreciation of Kumar was out of him being a son of the soil.

"Elevation of Nitish Kumar as president is an internal matter of the JD(U)," the BJP MP also said.

Upset at being ignored in the Bihar Assembly polls, Sinha had embarrassed the BJP during the polls by warmly meeting Nitish Kumar and RJD president Lalu Prasad, though on several occasions he had said it was personal and not political.

Sinha's biography "Anything but Khamosh" was launched in Patna by Nitish Kumar. Lalu Prasad also graced the function, but no BJP leader was spotted at the venue.

Nitish Kumar has also on numerous times praised Sinha by calling him the "pride of Bihar."
Kolkata: Once unknown beyond their immediate circles of family, friends and colleagues, they became crusaders due to difficulties and sorrow they experienced at a personal level. They all are now busy plotting the downfall of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who in the very first place is "responsible" for their 'celebrity' status.

Among these fighters working against the Trinamool Congress chief and her party in the West Bengal assembly elections is a Jadhavpur University professor, a widow of a green activist, two housewives, and a farmer.

Dubbed as Maoists or arrested for circulating an innocuous spoof, they all faced Banerjee's wrath at one or the other point of time. Now, they say, they are fighting to "reclaim democracy snatched away by the despotic Trinamool regime".

Ambikesh Mahapatra was leading a normal life as a chemistry professor at the Jadavpur University till April 12, 2012, when his arrest for circulating a spoof on the chief minister made him a household name in West Bengal and elsewhere.

Contesting as an Independent, he is taking on city mayor and Trinamool heavyweight Sovan Chatterjee from Behala East.

Mahapatra openly admits he owes his popularity to Banerjee.

"It is a fact that people know me in India and even abroad because of Mamata. But this popularity is as much an advertisement of the despotic and tyrannical regime that has robbed the entire state of democracy," Mahapatra told IANS.

"It's neither a personal fight nor a move to seek revenge, but to give voice to many people like me who suffered or continue to do so at the hands of this government," says Mahapatra.

He has formed 'Aakranta Aamraa' (We the Victims), a forum of alleged victims of human rights violations and atrocities under Banerjee rule.

Undeterred by his strong adversary Chatterjee, who won the seat in 2011 by a wide margin, Mahapatra has been extensively using the social media to circulate spoofs and jokes revolving around a Narada TV sting operation allegedly showing several Trinamool leaders, including the mayor, taking bribes.

"It's a shame that the mayor's post, once occupied by luminaries like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, now has somebody who has no qualms in taking bundles of cash as bribe," says Mahapatra.

Besides Mahapatra, the forum has fielded Pratima Dutta, wife of murdered green activist Tapan Dutta, from Domjur in Howrah district.

Lending them support is Shiladitya Chowdhury, a farmer branded as a Maoist and thrown into jail for daring to question Banerjee in public about the rising fertiliser prices.

Till then a nondescript famer from Binpur in West Midnapore, people saw on their TV sets police dragging away Chowdhury after Mamata ordered "Oke dhorun... ekkhuni dhorun (catch him... catch him at once)" during a public meet in 2012.

With the case still pending against him, Chowdhury has been going around both Behala and Domjur constituencies, telling people about his miseries and urging them not to vote for the Trinamool.

"My life has been ruined; it's been four years and I still have to do the rounds of court. And I'm not alone. There are many others languishing in jails on false charges just because they opposed the Trinamool in some way or the other."

"The entire state should teach her a lesson by not casting even a single vote for Trinamool which is nothing but a symbol of torture and tyranny," Chowdhury told IANS.
Jammu: Around 150 youth who were on their way to Srinagar to express solidarity with the non-local students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) were detained at Lakhanpur and not allowed to enter Jammu and Kashmir.

"Around 150 youth from Delhi, Punjab and Harayana who were on their way to Srinagar to join the NIT protest were not allowed to enter Jammu and Kashmir and were detained at Lakhanpur late last night from where they were sent back," a senior police officer said.

"Fearing the law and order problem, around 150 youth who tried to enter Jammu and Kashmir on a bus and a Tata Sumo were not allowed to enter the state and were sent back," the officer said.

Led by Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga of Bhagat Singh Kranti Dal the youth returned to New Delhi from Lakhanpur after police did not allow them to proceed towards the state. ??? The youth were on their way to Srinagar for unfurling national tri colour at NIT to express their solidarity with non-local students there.

The youth comprising students of IT, engineering, architect and other courses had begun their journey under the banner of newly formed "Group of Citizens" from Delhi's Gurdwara Rakabgunj yesterday.

They were first stopped at Madhopur in Punjab, but were later allowed to proceed to Jammu and Kashmir after questioning by Punjab Police.

As they crossed the bridge over Ravi, they started raising slogans like "Bharat Mata ki Jai" but were, however, stopped by the police.

"We were going to Srinagar to tell non-local students at NIT-Srinagar that they are not alone in their fight against anti-nationals," Bagga said.

Clashes occurred at NIT, Srinagar following team India's defeat against West Indies in the World Cup T20 semi-final.

Two group of students, one from Kashmir and another from other states, fought after some students burst crackers after India's defeat, leading the shut down of the institute.
Kollam: In one of the worst tragedies to hit Kerala, at least 106 people were killed and 383 injured in a devastating fire that engulfed the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi Temple complex near here on Sunday.

A late night statement issued by the Chief Minister's office said 106 people had lost their lives in the incident that left 383 others with injuries.

A judicial probe by a retired High Court Judge was ordered by the state government along with an investigation by Crime Branch into the tragedy, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced after an emergency Cabinet meeting over the tragedy.

The tragedy struck around 3.30 AM during display of fireworks at the temple complex, which is around 70 kms from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

The fireworks, for which no permission had been granted by Revenue and police officials, had started at midnight as part of an annual festival and thousands of people had gathered to witness it.

The mishap occurred as sparks of the fireworks fell on the store room 'Kambapura' and the fire crackers kept there exploded with a deafening noise, police said.

The blaze spread quickly trapping the devotees within the complex. Charred bodies and human remains were strewn around the temple complex after the fire tragedy. "It was complete chaos," eyewitnesses said.

The explosions also ripped chunks of concrete and plaster from the temple and nearby buildings which fell on people killing some on the spot and wounding many others.

PM Modi pledges all help after visiting temple fire site

Meanwhile, describing the fire tragedy as "unimaginable", Prime Minister Narendra Modi today assured Kerala government and its people all help in the hour of crisis as he visited the mishap site near here and a hospital to see the injured people.

"The tragedy is unimaginable and dreadful," a sombre PM Modi said in Thiruvananthapuram just before taking a flight to Delhi.

"This is an hour of crisis and the central government is ready to extend all help to Kerala government and the people of the state," PM Modi added.

He said he had told the Chief Minister that if he wanted any injured people to be taken to Mumbai or Delhi for specialised treatment, the central government will immediately make arrangements for the same.

He announced Rs.2 lakh as compensation to families of each of the dead.

CM Chandy orders judicial probe

On the other hand, CM Chandy announced a compensation of Rs.10 lakh to families of the dead, Rs.2 lakh each to the seriously injured and Rs.50,000 to those with minor injuries.

He also ordered a judicial probe and a simultaneous investigation by the Crime Branch of Kerala Police to determine how the fireworks show ended up raining death.

At the same time, Chandy held an emergency cabinet meeting in Kollam and said that the incident "should open the eyes of all of us" vis-a-vis temple celebrations, as per IANS.

He added that the government would bear the expenses of the injured.

One booked for violating licence norms

One person, who had allegedly stored crackers and fireworks ten times more than the permit, was booked by police in connection with the Puttingal Devi Temple fire tragedy.

Attingal police said they have registered a case against the licensee, Surendran, who had stored about 150 kgs of crackers and fireworks material at the storehouse without valid permission.

Surendran had license to store only about 15 kg, police said.

"It is a clear violation of license. So far no arrests have been made," police said, as per PTI.

Army, Air force, Navy pitch in with aid

As tragedy struck, a massive effort was launched to rescue the people from the inferno and shift the injured people to hospitals, with the Navy and the Air Force pressing into service six helicopters and one Dornier aircraft.

Following a request from the state government, Indian Air Force sent six helicopters, two AN32 transport aircraft and two business jets to Kerala, a spokesperson said.

The Navy dispatched six aircraft - two Dornier fixed- wing aircraft, two ALH helicopters and two Chetak helicopters - to the site of the tragedy, a navy spokesperson said.

And INS Sunayna, Kabra and Kalpeni set sail immediately from Kochi with 200kg of medical supplies and a medical team.

However, the 15-member temple committee, which was in the precincts, when the mishap occurred, went missing soon after the incident, local people said.

(With Agency inputs)
Kollam: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that Centre was fully with Kerala government and its people in the wake a major fire that engulfed the 100-year-old Puttingal Devi Temple complex near here.

"Centre fully stands by Kerala government and its people in this hour of crisis," PM Modi said after visiting Temple fire site and hospital, adding, "I have told CM that Government of India will help if patients need to be shifted to Mumbai or Delhi."

"I visited Kollam and the hospital today, my sympathies are with the kin of the deceased persons. Difficult to express the painful accident in Puttingal, people at a distance of 200 metres got injured," he added.

In one of the worst tragedies to hit Kerala, more than 100 people were killed in the fire during a display of fireworks, for which no permission had been granted by the authorities.

A judicial probe by a retired High Court Judge was ordered by the state government along with an investigation by Crime Branch into the tragedy, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy announced after an emergency Cabinet meeting over the tragedy.

Chandy also announced ex-gratia relief of Rs 10 lakh to kin of each of those killed in fire tragedy, Rs 2 lakh for seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those with minor injuries.

PM Modi announced Rs two lakh each as compensation for the next of the kin of the dead and Rs 50,000 each for the injured.

The PM arrived in Kerala today to take stock of the situation and first went to Thiruvananthapuram from where he came here by a navy helicopter.

At Thiruvananthapuram airport, he was received by Governor Justice (Rtd) P Sathasivam and state BJP leaders, including O Rajagopal who gave him the latest update on the mishap.

PM Modi later flew into Kollam where he was received by Chief Minister Oomen Chandy and several MPs.

Immediately after reaching here, he went to medical college to see the injured people.

PM @narendramodi at the site of the tragedy in Kollam with CM Oommen Chandy & other officials. pic.twitter.com/mXs8DwI2Xx  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2016

PM @narendramodi meeting CM Oommen Chandy & local administration officials. Health Minister @JPNadda is also present pic.twitter.com/wmU3Gzny4L  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2016

The Prime Minister at Trivandrum Medical College. pic.twitter.com/5vDgyEBtpr  PMO India (@PMOIndia) April 10, 2016

(With PTI inputs)
Kollam: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Sunday visited the site of the deadly inferno at the Puttingal temple in Kerala`s Kollam district where at least 105 people were killed in the fire.

Accompanied by Congress leader AK Antony and Kerala Home Minister, Ramesh Chennithala, Rahul proceeded to the AA Rahim Memorial Hospital to meet those who had been injured in the tragedy.

The official Twitter handle of the Indian National Congress posted some pictures of Rahul from the accident site:

Rahul Gandhi at the Puttingal temple fire tragedy site in Kollam pic.twitter.com/ZIKfHKvbDh  INC India (@INCIndia) April 10, 2016

The Congress vice president also met those injured in the Kollam temple fire tragedy at the AA Rahim Memorial Hospital.

Rahul Gandhi meeting the injured at the AA Rahim Memorial Hospital, Kollam pic.twitter.com/LtqaqNqq5y  INC India (@INCIndia) April 10, 2016

"My prayers are with families of those who've lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy," said Gandhi after meeting the victims.

"This is a tragedy for Kerala and the whole country," he added.

Earlier today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also arrived in Kollam and took stock of the entire situation.

He was accompanied by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Union Health Minister JP Nadda, as he visited the site of the incident and met the victims in the hospital.

A team of 15 burn specialist doctors from All India Institute of Medical Science and other hospitals from Delhi accompanied the Prime Minister to Kollam. He also visited the Naval relief facility set up at Kollam and the ships providing support to medical teams and undertaking blood donation.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Government has announced a judicial inquiry to be headed by retired high court justice Krishnan Nair into the incident.Chandy told ANI in an exclusive conversation after emerging out of the Cabinet meeting that the inquiry committee would submit its report within six months.

"We have announced an ex relief of Rs 10 lakhs to next of kin of the people, who have died in the accident and free treatment to all the injured. Apart from that, serious injured will get Rs. two lakhs and Rs 50,000 will be given to minor injured people," said Chandy.

Elaborating on the rescue operations, the Chief Minister said, "The rescue part is almost over and now we are all concentrating to give the best available medical treatment to the injured.

Prime Minister Modi had aslo announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs two lakh to next of the kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those critically injured in the incident.

The Prime Minister had earlier said that the fire at a temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words.

"My thoughts are with families of the deceased & prayers with the injured," he tweeted earlier in the day.

At least 105 people were charred to death in a fire accident at Puttingal temple during a festival at Paravur in Kollam district early this morning. 350 people have been injured and admitted to various hospitals.

The fire broke out due to the explosion of crackers at the temple. The fire has now been brought under control.The district administration has set up a control room number. The number is 0474-251-2344 (Repeat 0474-251-2344).

(With Agency inputs)
Dehradun: Responding to the BJP demand of an investigation into the assets of former Chief Minister Harish Rawat, the Congress party said they are ready for any kind of probe and a "non-political" commission can be set up for the purpose.

Former minister Pritam Singh, and Surendra Kumar, advisor to the former Chief Minister, told mediapersons here, the party is ready for the probe into the assets Rawat earned during his tenure in the office.

They said the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice should be requested to set up a five-member "non-political" probe commission to look into the matter.

State BJP chief Ajay Bhatt had yesterday levelled corruption allegation against the former chief minister and his ministers and demanded a probe into their assets.
Yerevan: A rally to protest recent violence in the disputed region of Nagorny Karabakh drew several thousand people Sunday to the Armenian capital Yerevan.

The flare-up of recent weeks has left at least 92 people dead in the mainly ethnic Armenian enclave inside Azerbaijan and marchers held a silent protest before heading to a monument commemorating the 30,000 victims of a 1990s conflict which assailed the region.

Participants held aloft Armenian and Nagorny Karabakh flags days after world leaders urged both sides to refrain from further violence amid violations on both sides of a Moscow-mediated truce which came into force last week.

"It pains me to see young people die but I am proud of them," one protester, 21-year-old student Goar Papikian, told AFP. "They showed themselves to be true heroes .. our people will always remember them," Papikian added.

Aram Karapetian, 35, urged an amicable solution to the stand-off.

"We have to stop this war and sit down and talk. This four-day war has shown that Azerbaijan`s weapons cannot resolve the issue of Nagorny-Karabakh, Karapetian said.

The bulk of the international community recognises the disputed territory as part of Azerbaijan.

The 1990s conflict ended in a Russian-brokered 1994 ceasefire but thw two sides never signed a peace deal.
London: A terror suspect arrested earlier this week by Belgian authorities in connection with the attack on Brussels airport last month was scouting for possible targets in the UK last year, a media report here said on Sunday.

Mohamed Abrini, who has been described as the "man in the hat" airport bomber after his image was caught on CCTV at Brussels airport, had spent about a week in Britain in July 2015.

According to 'The Sunday Times', 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin came to Britain to look for potential targets for a "vast" jihadist network.

Images including railway stations and shopping centres were allegedly found on his phone.

Abrini was seen on CCTV before and after the attack on Brussels airport on March 22 and captured in Brussels on Friday after an international hunt.

"We confronted him with the video evidence. He had to admit it was him," a police spokesperson said.

Belgian prosecutors have said Abrini had also told police that he threw the white jacket that he was also wearing at the time of the attack into a rubbish bin and had sold the hat.

A statement said, "He [Abrini] is indeed the third man present at the Brussels national airport attacks. He explained having thrown away his vest [jacket] in a garbage bin and having sold his hat afterwards."

Abrini's fingerprints and DNA were found in a Renault Clio used in the attacks in Paris in November as well as inside an apartment in the Schaerbeek neighbourhood of Brussels used by the airport bombers.
Brussels: After nearly three weeks of frantic searching, Belgian authorities announced Saturday they had finally arrested and identified the elusive man in the hat spotted alongside two suicide bombers who blew themselves up at Brussels Airport on March 22.

In a terse evening statement, the Federal Prosecution Office said recently arrested terror suspect Mohamed Abrini had confessed to being the vest- and hat-wearing man whose video image had been widely circulated by authorities.

After being confronted with the results of the different expert examinations, he confessed his presence at the crime scene, the statement said. Abrini was one of four suspects charged Saturday with participating in terrorist acts linked to the deadly Brussels suicide bombings that killed 32 people and wounded 270 others at the airport and at the citys Maelbeek subway station.

The prosecutors office said Abrini threw away his vest in a garbage bin and sold his hat after the bombings. He had been arrested Friday in a Brussels police raid.

Prosecutors did not respond to calls. A legal representative for Abrini could not be immediately located for comment Saturday night.

Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian-Moroccan petty criminal, had been suspected of being involved in the Paris and Brussels attacks but his precise role had, until now, never been made explicit. Abrini was also believed to have travelled to Syria, where his younger brother died in 2014 in the Islamic States Francophone brigade.

Abrini and three others - identified as Osama Krayem, Herve BM and Bilal EM, - were all charged Saturday with participating in terrorist murders and the activities of a terrorist group in relation to the attacks, prosecutors said in an earlier statement. Two other suspects arrested in the last couple of days were released after a thorough interrogation, it said.

The developments follow days of arrests and raids in the Belgian capital and could give investigators new insights into the Islamic State group cell believed to have carried out both the attacks in Brussels and the November 13 attacks in Paris, which left 130 dead in the French capital.

Osama Krayem, identified by prosecutors only as Osama K, is known to have left the Swedish city of Malmo to fight in Syria. The prosecutors office accuses him of being the second person at the attack on the Brussels subway station and of being at a shopping mall where the luggage used in the airport bombings was purchased.

Swedish officials had no immediate comment on Krayem.

The prosecutors statement described Herve BM as a Rwandan citizen arrested at the same time as Krayem who is accused of offering assistance to both Abrini and Krayem. Krayem had earlier been identified posting photos from Syria on social media, according to Magnus Ranstorp, a counterterrorism expert at the Swedish National Defence College.
Washington: The Democratic presidential front runner Hillary Clinton did not "jeopardise" national security, but was "careless" in managing her emails when she was Secretary of State, the US President Barack Obama said today as he promised an independent probe in the controversy.

"I continue to believe that she has not jeopardised America's national security. Now what I've also said is that -- and she has acknowledged -- that there's a carelessness, in terms of managing e-mails, that she has owned, and she recognises," Obama told Fox News in an interview.

Obama was responding to a question on an ongoing FBI probe into the emails and private email server which Clinton hosted at her home when she served as the Secretary of State in the first term of Obama Administration.

The issue is being used by Clinton's opponents and Republican Party as a key tool against her in this election cycle.

Clinton, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, is eyeing to become the first woman president of the US after Obama leaves office in January.

Defending Clinton, the US president said: "I also think it is important to keep this in perspective. This is somebody who has served her country for four years as Secretary of State, and did an outstanding job. And no one has suggested that in some ways, as a consequence of how she's handled e-mails, that detracted from her excellent ability to carry out her duties."

Promising an independent probe, Obama said he has not talked with his officials on this as he does not want to interfere in the investigation.

"I do not talk to the Attorney General about pending investigations. I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations. We have a strict line, and always have maintained it," he said.

"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case. Full stop. Period," he said.

"Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department, because nobody is above the law," he said.

In her defence, Clinton has said that none of the emails sent over her private server were classified at the time and she has already handed the State Department 52,000 pages of documents relating to her correspondence as US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
Beirut: Clashes around Syria's second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda's affiliate and allied rebel groups within a 24-hour period, a monitor said on Sunday.

"Fierce fighting raged past midnight (today) on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside regime troops and other loyalist militia against jihadists and rebels, the monitoring group said.

"Shelling and fighting in the past 24 hours has left 19 Syrian and non-Syrian members of Al-Nusra dead... While 16 pro-regime fighters were also killed," the Observatory said, adding that one of the jihadists had blown himself up.

A truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, does not apply to the fight against jihadists.

Across much of Syria, the February 27 truce has largely held. In areas where Al-Nusra fights alongside allied rebel groups, violence has been frequent in spite of the ceasefire.

Around Aleppo in particular, "the ceasefire has all but collapsed on the main front lines," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"Al-Nusra, (Islamist rebel group) Ahrar al-Sham and their allies are pushing an offensive to take back turf seized around Aleppo by the regime before the truce came into force," he told AFP.

The civilian death toll has dropped as air raids and barrel bomb strikes by the regime on residential areas have all but ceased, Abdel Rahman said.

"The violence around front lines has by no means stopped," he added.

Furthermore, rebels have frequently shelled Sheikh Maqsud, a mainly Kurdish area of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians dead since the truce began, he said.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti- government protests but has since evolved into a multi-front war drawing in regional powers.
Beirut: Clashes around Syria`s second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda`s affiliate and allied rebel groups in 24 hours, a monitor said Sunday.

"Fierce fighting raged past midnight on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside regime troops and other loyalist militia against jihadists and rebels, the monitoring group said.

"Shelling and fighting in the past 24 hours has left 19 Syrian and non-Syrian members of Al-Nusra dead... while 16 pro-regime fighters were also killed," the Observatory said, adding that one jihadist had blown himself up.

A truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria`s war, does not apply to the fight against jihadists.

Across much of Syria, the February 27 truce has largely held. In areas where Al-Nusra fights alongside allied rebel groups, violence has been frequent despite the ceasefire.

Around Aleppo in particular, "the ceasefire has all but collapsed on the main front lines", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"Al-Nusra, (Islamist rebel group) Ahrar al-Sham and their allies are pushing an offensive to take back turf seized around Aleppo by the regime before the truce came into force," he told AFP.

Inside the city, the Observatory said regime barrel bomb strikes on Sunday hit the northeastern district of Al-Haidariyah, injuring a number of people including children.

"This is a new violation of the ceasefire inside the city," Abdel Rahman said. He said neither the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group nor Al-Nusra were present in the area.

AFP video footage shows at least five people injured including three children residents and aid workers carried to ambulances.

"They`re all civilians, there are no militants or Daesh here," one man said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "They`re all children and women."

An aid worker said that a family -- father, mother and five children -- were injured when a barrel bomb hit the neighbourhood.

Rebels have frequently shelled Sheikh Maqsud, a mainly Kurdish area of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians dead since the truce began, Maqsud, a mainly Kurdish area of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians dead since the truce began, Abdel Rahman said.

Syria`s Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said Sunday loyalist Syrian troops were preparing a major operation to retake control of Aleppo city with Russian air cover.

"With our Russian partners we are preparing an operation to free Aleppo and block all illegal armed groups that have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," Russia`s Interfax news agency quoted Halqi as saying after meeting Russian lawmakers in Damascus.ceasefire deal," Russia`s Interfax news agency quoted Halqi as saying after meeting Russian lawmakers in Damascus.

Syria`s conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a multi-front war drawing in regional powers.
Berlin: German Justice Minister Heiko Maas appealed in a newspaper interview to media to hand over the Panama Papers that show how offshore firms are used to stash the wealth of the world`s elite.

Governments around the globe have started investigating possible financial wrongdoing by the world`s rich and powerful since details of hundreds of thousands of clients were leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, which has set up around 250,000 companies in the last four decades.

The scandal broke when an investigation was published last Sunday, with German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung saying it had received a cache of 11.5 million leaked documents from Mossack Fonseca and then shared them with more than 100 other international news outlets and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

Maas told German newspaper Tagesspiegel that tax investigators and lawyers in Germany were carefully looking at all clues related to reports on the Panama Papers and several investigations were already underway.

"It would help bring about justice if important documents were handed over to the authorities," he said, adding that this would also boost revenues for state coffers.

He said he was optimistic that investigating authorities and the media would together find a way to at least exchange "certain valuable information".

On Friday a spokeswoman for the German finance ministry said the government had taken note of comments from media that they did not want to hand over documents, adding that the media had the right not to.

On how to tackle offshore firms, Maas said if international pressure did not suffice to end "criminal manipulation", Germany would need to consider further national measures.

"We should take up an important suggestion from former chancellor Helmut Schmidt to prohibit financial deposits that benefit these firms and people who are legally registered in tax and supervisory havens," he said.

He said Germany had long been working on a proposal to make firms and banks more liable and added that higher and more effective sanctions were needed. Big firms need to feel the effect of such sanctions too, he said, adding that he would make a concrete proposal on that this year.
Brussels: The Brussels-based Islamic State jihadists behind the Paris attacks planned a fresh strike in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in, the federal prosecutor said Sunday.

The prosecutor also announced that the so-called "man in the hat" Mohamed Abrini had been charged with "terrorist murders" over the attacks in Brussels last month.

Suicide bombers claimed 32 lives when they blew themselves up at Brussels airport and at a metro station on March 22 but left a trail for police leading directly to the November Paris attacks which killed 130 people.

"Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again," the Belgian federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels."

The prosecutor gave no further details but the Brussels onslaught followed the March 18 arrest of top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam after four months on the run.

The prosecutor also gave no details of the planned attack in France but late last month, French police arrested Reda Kriket near Paris, finding weapons and explosives in a flat he had used to suggest he was planning an attack of "extreme violence."

Belgium has arrested two suspects, identified as Abderrahmane A. and Rabah M, in connection with the Kriket case and on Thursday both were remanded in custody, along with three other suspects held in connection with the November Paris attacks.

Shortly after Kriket`s arrest, French prosecutor Francois Molins had said that "while no specific target has been identified, nonetheless everything leads us to believe that the discovery of this cache (of weapons) has allowed us to prevent an action of extreme violence by a terrorist network". In Sunday`s statement, the Belgian prosecutor said Abrini, the man seen in CCTV footage with the two suicide bombers at Brussels airport, had been charged with "terrorist murders".

"The investigating judge specialised in terrorism cases has put Mohamed Abrini in detention in connection with the investigation into the Brussels and Zaventem (airport) attacks," the statement said.

"He is charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders."

On Saturday, the judge leading the Belgian investigation into the Paris carnage laid the same charges against Abrini, who was arrested Friday.

The 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin confessed to being "the man in the hat" who calmly walked away from the devastated departure hall, the prosecutor said Saturday.

He then returned on foot to central Brussels, discarding his hat and coat on the way before disappearing into thin air as the police launched a fresh appeal to the public for help.Abrini was a long-time petty criminal who grew up with Abdeslam in Belgium`s troubled Molenbeek area, home to several other suspects who all share a similar story of getting on the wrong side of the law and becoming radicalised.

The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over their handling of the Brussels attacks and the investigation, especially as it has emerged that many of the suspects were known to the police.

Critics say the government has not done enough to prevent extremists targeting Muslim youth in areas such as Molenbeek, with Belgium proportionately the biggest source of foreign fighters going to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris, was seen driving to the French capital with Abrini shortly before the attacks but he apparently balked at the same mission and fled back to Brussels.

Police finally arrested him not far from the family home in Molenbeek after apparently stumbling upon another jihadist safe house in the Forest area of the city.

There has been much recrimination in Belgium about how he and the others were able to remain free for so long, with two ministers offering to resign.

Buoyed by Abdeslam`s arrest, the police launched an increasing series of raids, mainly in Brussels, resulting in more detentions as they closed the net.

Abdeslam is now awaiting extradition to France.

"That is justice... he who does something must pay the price," Abdeslam`s father, who has lived in Belgium for 40 years, told French radio Europe 1 on Tuesday.

"I hope everyone will speak now... we were there, we were happy, we had enough, we went out, had fun but now, we cannot even leave our house," he said.
Analamanga: Madagascar`s President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Sunday appointed a new prime minister, two days after the island nation was plunged into confusion when the previous premier denied having stepped down.

The new head of government was named as current interior minister Olivier Solonandrasana, according to a statement read out by Roger Ralala, secretary general of the presidency.

The development comes after the presidency on Friday announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo following weeks of political conflict, only for Ravelonarivo to swiftly deny the claim.

The President sought to clarify the situation on Sunday, telling reporters he "had received the prime minister`s resignation".

According to local media, Ravelonarivo and Rajaonarimampianina had for weeks been at loggerheads over issues including the poor condition of the island`s main roads and rising crime in the capital Antananarivo.

Solonandrasana, 51, is expected to form a new government in the coming days.

The Indian Ocean island nation has endured several years of turmoil after Marc Ravalomanana was ousted as president in a 2009 coup that led to the withdrawal of foreign investment and donor money.

In 2013, a presidential election that was designed to resolve complex power struggles brought Rajaonarimampianina to power. Ravelonarivo took office as prime minister last year.

Madagascar remains one of the world`s poorest countries, heavily dependent on foreign aid, and any renewed political trouble could threaten development.
London: In an unprecedented decision, David Cameron on Sunday released his tax records to defuse the growing anger over his father's offshore business that threatened his premiership, but the bold move appears set to plunge him into more trouble over 200,000 pounds he received from his mother.

Cameron released a summary of his tax returns from 2009-15, and also revealed that his mother transferred two separate payments of 100,000 pounds (collectively USD 280,000) to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 pounds worth of inheritance tax.

The move came a day after Cameron admitted in an emotional speech to the Conservative party's spring conference that he "should have handled this better" and "will learn the lessons" from the row triggered by the so-called Panama Papers leak.

The accounts disclose that Cameron has declared nearly 1.1 million in earnings over the past six years and paid 400,000 pounds in income tax.

Cameron, 49, published the six years' worth of accounts in a dossier in an bid to end speculation about his tax affairs after one of the most difficult weeks of his premiership.

The release - never before done by a UK prime minister or political leader - shows that his approach to his finances is not dissimilar to many other middle-class families.

However, there are further questions over a 200,000-pound gift from his mother, which is being perceived as a move to avoid inheritance tax. It emerged that his mother transferred two separate payments of 100,000 pounds to his accounts in 2011, allowing the family estate to avoid a potential 80,000 pounds worth of inheritance tax.

The payments by Mary Cameron to her son in May and July 2011 were given tax-free, and will only become liable to inheritance tax of up to 40 per cent if she dies within seven years of handing over the money.

Downing Street said the payments were an attempt to "balance" the sums received by all their children.

The figures show that, on top of his income as Prime Minister, his 50 per cent share of the rental income on the Camerons' family home in London amounted to 46,899 pounds, he received 9,834 pounds in taxable expenses from the Tory party and 3,052 pounds in interest on savings in a high street bank.

The figures show that when he first entered Downing Street in 2010, he benefited from a 20,000 pounds tax-free allowance as part of his 142,500 pounds salary, although in subsequent years he did not take advantage of the long-standing perk available to occupants of Number 10.

Opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said Cameron had more questions to answer.

"We need to know what he's actually returned as a tax return. We need to know why he put this money overseas in the first place, and whether he made anything out of it or not before 2010 when he became prime minister. These are questions that he must answer," Corbyn said.

The issue is set to dominate proceedings when the British Parliament reopens after a 17-day Easter break on Monday.

Yesterday, Cameron said he was to blame for the handling of revelations about his investment in his father's Bahamas-based Blairmore Holdings fund.

The fund was named in the leak of 11 million documents belonging to Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca (MF). They showed Ian Cameron had been an MF client when establishing the fund for investors.

"It has not been a great week. I know that I should have handled this better. I know there are lessons to learn and I will learn them," Cameron said.

As he was speaking, hundreds of angry protesters carrying placards reading "Tories Out" and "Cameron Must Go" marched up to Downing Street calling for Cameron's resignation.

He has announced a new task force - led by Britain's tax authority and the National Crime Agency - to investigate tax-dodging allegations in the Panama Papers. The task force will investigate the leaked documents to identify clients of the Panamanian firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion and publish its findings later this year.

The Panama Papers revelations have sparked a storm around the world, including in India, where high-profile figures have been implicated for tax avoidance.

Cameron has been under increasing pressure as he previously refused to give details of his family's money held offshore in a Caribbean tax haven.
Istanbul: The world's Islamic countries began their annual meeting on in Istanbul, where they are set to focus on the Palestinian cause, conflicts in member states and combating terrorism.

The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes once again at a time of turmoil in many Muslim nations, with conflicts in Syria and Yemen dragging on, and several states including Turkey, bloodied by militant attacks.

The 13th annual OIC conference began with senior officials adopting the agenda and will be followed by a foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Over 30 heads of state and government will attend the summit hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and Friday.

With guests set to include Saudi King Salman, the event is taking place under the highest security, with police stationed all around the venue in central Istanbul.

The OIC said the summit was to issue a resolution on the Palestinian issue and support for international efforts to relaunch a "collective political process".

The gathering comes at a time of rising Islamophobia in many western nations in response to a spate of attacks by the Islamic State group.

Islamic leaders will also "consider the situation of Muslim communities in non-OIC member States and the issue of combating terrorism."

Turkey has also been a victim of several bloody IS attacks, and the Istanbul summit comes a day after the US warned of a "credible threat" of attacks in the city.

Under Erdogan, who has made Islam one of central themes of his politics, Turkey has upped its economic and political influence throughout the Islamic world, particularly in lands in the Middle East once part of the Ottoman Empire.

However this policy has has not always met with success and frosty relations with several Muslim states, including Egypt, have led some analysts to conclude its aim of "zero problems with neighbours" ended up having exactly the opposite effect.

In a speech on Saturday, Erdogan hailed the role Turkey has played by hosting nearly three million refugees from neighbouring Syria.

"In the world, there is no state, no country that is capable of assuming such a burden. The events this year that targeted us will not deflect us from this path," he said.

A big question mark hangs over the level of representation from Egypt, which has had strained ties with Turkey since the ousting of Ankara ally Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Kabul: Former Taliban commander Faridoon Hanafi, who recently joined the peace process, has said the group takes orders from Pakistan, which mobilizes and equips the militant outfit.

"I have seen with my own eyes that Taliban gets its orders from Pakistan and even Punjabis admired me many times for my hard work and gave me money," Tolo news quoted Hanafi as saying.

Hanafi said he regrets fighting against the Afghan Government for six years.

"When I transferred to Nangarhar I saw that all Pakistan's words are lies and they want to destroy my country and my home and I find out that they are wrong, so I decided to support government programs and I stopped fighting and I joined the peace process," he added.

Hanafi revealed that he has two brothers, both of whom were in the Afghan forces. One of his brothers died while battling Taliban.

He later called on other Taliban fighters to lay down their arms and join the peace process and take part in Afghanistan's reconstruction process.
Islamabad: Pakistan on Sunday expressed its condolences to the families of those who lost their lives in a massive fire at the Puttingal temple in India's southern Kerala state in the wee hours on Sunday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement condoled the incident in which at least 98 people have lost their lives and more than 350 were injured in the fire.

"The people and the government of Pakistan express their deep condolences on the loss of precious lives, resulting from fire breakout in the temple in South Kerala, India. Our sympathies are with the bereaved families. We wish early recovery to all injured people," the statement by Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

An explosion in piles of crackers during fireworks display is said to be the reason behind the fire that broke out at around 3.30 a.m. The police had earlier warned the temple authorities to restrict usage of fireworks.

Meanwhile, rescue operations are underway.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has announced an ex-gratia relief of Rs. two lakh to next of the kin of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 to those critically injured in the incident.

He will be visiting the site with a team of burn specialist doctors.
Moscow: Loyalist Syrian troops are preparing a major operation to retake control of the northern city of Aleppo with Russian air cover, Syria's Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said today.

"With our Russian partners we are preparing an operation to free Aleppo and block all illegal armed groups that have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," Interfax news agency quoted Halqi as saying following a meeting with Russian lawmakers in Damascus.

He said that regaining control of Aleppo from rebels hostile to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad would allow government forces to advance east to Deir Ezzor, some 60 percent of which is under the control of the Islamic State group.

Damascus has vowed with the support of its Russian allies to drive IS out of the area after its recent victory over the group two weeks ago in the ancient city of Palmyra.

Aleppo, formerly Syria's economic capital and the country's second city, has since 2012 been divided into zones held between rebel groups and areas still under government control.

A February 27 truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, does not apply to the fight against jihadist groups, which Damascus is now concentrating on dislodging.

Around Aleppo "the ceasefire has all but collapsed along the main front lines" of the conflict, Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said Sunday.

The Observatory said earlier that 24 hours of clashes around Aleppo had left at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda's affiliate and allied rebel groups dead.

More than 270,000 people have been killed since Syria's conflict first broke out in March 2011.
Beirut/Moscow: The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse.

With a UN envoy due in Damascus in a bid to advance struggling diplomatic efforts, the "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by Russia and the United States came under new strain as government and rebel forces fought near Aleppo.

The ceasefire came into effect in February with the aim of paving the way for a resumption of talks to end the five-year-long war. But it has been widely violated, with each side blaming the other for breaches. The fighting south of Aleppo marks the most significant challenge yet to the deal.

Diplomacy has meanwhile made little progress with no compromise over the future of President Bashar al-Assad, his position strengthened by Iranian and Russian military support.

A top Iranian official, in comments to Iran TV, rejected what he described as a U.S. request for Tehran`s help to make Assad leave power, saying he should serve out his term and be allowed to run in a presidential election "as any Syrian".

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers of preparations to "liberate" Aleppo, Syria`s biggest city and commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and opposition.

"We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia`s upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation, told RIA news agency "Russian aviation will help the Syrian army`s ground offensive operation".

The deployment of the Russian air force to Syria last year helped tip the war Assad`s way as it bombed rebels supported by his enemies including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. President Vladimir Putin last month withdrew some of the Russian forces, but maintained an air base in Latakia, and kept up strikes on the Islamic State group.

Neither the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front or Islamic State are included in the partial ceasefire.

Rebels have reported the resumption of Russian air strikes south of Aleppo, an important theatre where Iranian forces and Lebanon`s Hezbollah are fighting in support of the army and the Nusra Front is deployed in close proximity to rebels.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 35 combatants had been killed on both sides in a 24 hour period in the area, where fighting has been raging for some 10 days.

"ABOUT TO COLLAPSE"

A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had "witnessed a serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse". Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche that a US-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was "powerless".

The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world`s worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the rise of Islamic State.

Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said "in Aleppo there is a real collapse of the truce".

The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on government violations.

"The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were," said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. A Syrian military source said: "The battles are raging because ... armed groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack."

The Observatory also reported fighting on Sunday between government and rebel forces near the opposition-held town of Douma outside Damascus, and said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas north of Homs.

Barrel bombs are oil drums filled with explosives. While the government denies dropping them, their use has been widely recorded, including by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria.

IRAN REJECTS US "PRECONDITION"

UN envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday evening, and is expected to meet Syrian officials on Monday. He said last week he would go to Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition before beginning a new round of peace talks on Wednesday.

De Mistura has said the next round of talks needs to "be quite concrete in the direction of a political process leading to a real beginning of a political transition".

Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran`s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei`s top adviser on international affairs, said US Secretary of State John Kerry had asked "Iran to help so that Bashar Assad leaves.

"We should ask them: "What does this have to do with you? Shouldn`t the Syrian people decide?`"

"From Iran`s point of view Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us."

In a sign of Assad`s confidence, the Syrian government plans to hold parliamentary elections on Wednesday. Salim al-Muslat, opposition spokesman, said the vote was illegitimate.

"I don`t know how they can really announce an election in Syria. In Idlib or in Aleppo or in Deir al-Zor or in Homs, can people go there and vote?" he said.
London: British Prime Minister David Cameron published his tax records on Sunday in an attempt to draw a line under questions about his personal finances raised by the mention of his late father in the Panama Papers for setting up an offshore fund.

The revelations have led to demands for Cameron`s resignation and handed ammunition to opposition lawmakers who questioned why he was reluctant to detail his financial connections with his father.

Cameron took the unorthodox step of releasing the normally confidential details after saying he should have handled the scrutiny of his family`s tax affairs better.

The documents from RNS Chartered Accountants - which cover six years - show Cameron paid tax of 75,898 pounds ($107,198) on income of 200,307 pounds in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included.

His income comprised his 140,522 pound salary, taxable expenses of 9,834 pounds, 46,899 pounds from half of the share of rent from his family home in London and 3,052 pounds in interest on savings, according to the record.

Scores of politicians and business figures have been implicated in the Panama Papers, including the prime minister of Iceland who has since stepped down. The 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens.

While Cameron is not accused of doing anything illegal, he made four different statements over four days about his late father`s inclusion in the documents.

He said on Thursday he once had a stake in his father`s offshore trust and had profited from it.

He said the unit investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares and that he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth "something like 30,000 pounds" when he sold out in January 2010, before he became prime minister.

TAX TASKFORCE

Cameron`s admission of fault comes after a torrid period for his Conservative government. It is divided over a June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the European Union, has been forced to backtrack on welfare cuts and has been accused of not protecting Britain`s steel industry.

Seeking to further take back the initiative, Cameron also announced on Sunday a new taskforce, jointly led by Britain`s tax authority and National Crime Agency, to build on the work Britain has done to tackle money laundering and tax evasion.

When Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, Cameron put tackling tax avoidance at the heart of the agenda. Some of Britain`s former colonies increasingly rely on revenues from shell companies and trusts that often hide wealth.

"The UK has been at the forefront of international action to tackle the global scourge of aggressive tax avoidance and evasion, and international corruption more broadly," Cameron said in a statement.

"There is clearly further to go and this taskforce will bring the best of British expertise to deal with any wrongdoing relating to the Panama Papers."

The government said it had tracked down 2 billion pounds ($2.82 billion) from offshore tax dodgers since 2010, and authorities were already investigating 700 current leads with links to Panama.

The taskforce will receive 10 million pounds of funding to start work, the government said.
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By Minami Funakoshi TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's government and auto giants Toyota Motor Corp Nissan Motor Co will join in an effort to develop intelligent maps by 2018, the Nikkei daily said, as competition heats up to improve the technology key for autonomous driving. Japanese automakers, map-making companies, and the government will get together to generate standardised intelligent maps, with plans to incorporate driving data gathered by the automakers, the paper said on Sunday. A Toyota spokesman declined to comment, while officials at Nissan could not be reached immediately for comment. Intelligent mapping systems supply information to control self-driving cars, which are equipped with street-scanning sensors to measure traffic and road conditions. German auto supplier Bosch said on Friday it was in talks with high-definition digital maps company HERE, exploring whether to take a stake. Volkswagen's Audi, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, BMW and car parts supplier Continental are also working on technologies for autonomous or semi-autonomous cars. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Ginger Gibson and Michelle Conlin WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump's Republican rivals, reinvigorated by his loss in Wisconsin's primary, doubled down on Wednesday on their efforts to block the billionaire front-runner from capturing the party's presidential nomination. Ted Cruz's emphatic victory in Wisconsin on Tuesday night dealt momentum to his once long-shot bid to force a contested convention in July by blocking Trump from amassing enough delegates to secure the nomination. The U.S. senator from Texas made the case he is increasingly viewed as the main Trump alternative by Republicans who cannot bring themselves to support Trump as their nominee for the Nov. 8 election. Allies of Ohio Governor John Kasich, who is positioning himself as a mainstream candidate who could emerge from a contested convention, met in Washington to brainstorm about how they could use obscure procedural rules to their advantage when the party convenes in Cleveland. One group trying to defeat Trump, who has alarmed many Republican establishment figures with his comments on immigration, Muslims and trade, were hopeful on Wednesday of a cash infusion to fund their efforts. "Our funders are committed to nominating a principled conservative that can win in November and can help Republicans up and down the ballot," said Katie Packer, who is leading the anti-Trump Our Principals PAC. "They understand that this is a long slog now and they are supportive of our mission and strategy. I expect that we will have the funds necessary to execute." U.S. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, lobbyists and congressional staffers were among those who met with Kasich advisers on Wednesday to discuss what one Republican congressional staffer present admitted was the governor's "long-shot" bid. He has won only his home state in nominating contests so far. Kasich's campaign has "a plan going into the convention ... and if the convention goes to a brokered convention, they have a legitimate chance," the staffer said. SHIFT TO NEW YORK The next big test in stopping Trump will be New York, the state he calls home. A Monmouth University poll of New York Republicans released on Monday showed Trump with 52 percent of the state's support, a huge lead over Kasich at 25 percent, and Cruz at 17 percent ahead of the state's April 19 primary. "It's very important for Trump to bounce back strong. The sense of his inevitability is one of his strengths," said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Center at Southern Illinois University. Trump was uncharacteristically silent on Twitter the day after his Wisconsin loss, and his only statement on Tuesday night was written. Cruz met with black and Hispanic religious leaders on Wednesday in the New York City borough of the Bronx. "The men and women of Wisconsin resoundingly rejected (Trump's) campaign," Cruz told reporters afterward. "Donald has no solutions to the problems that were facing." Republican New York Chairman Ed Cox said he believed the state could decide the nomination. "Given the wide diversity in New York, I think it will be a definitive moment," he said. A Reuters/Ipsos poll on Tuesday showed Cruz statistically even with Trump among Republicans nationally. His recent gains marked the first time since November that a rival had threatened Trump's standing at the head of the Republican pack. Trump has 743 delegates, Cruz 517, and Kasich 143, according to an Associated Press count. Trump would need to win about 55 percent of the remaining delegates to reach the 1,237 threshold. "We fully expect this to go to Cleveland," Packer said of the anti-Trump effort. CLINTON GOES ON ATTACK On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders, a Brooklyn-born U.S. senator representing Vermont, is trying to stage a come-from-behind upset of Hillary Clinton, but will struggle to overcome a large deficit in delegates. Sanders' big win in Wisconsin, which brought his victory tally to six out of the last seven contests, added to Clinton's frustration over her inability to knock out a rival who has attacked her from the left. That frustration was on full display on Wednesday when the former secretary of state gave two live televised interviews in which she criticized Sanders. In contrast to a Republican primary season that has been rife with personal insults, the Democrats have largely avoided personal attacks and stuck to policy arguments. But Clinton attacked Sanders for his position on guns and said he lacked a depth of policy understanding. "You cant really help people if you dont know how to do what you say you want to do," Clinton said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." She criticized him for an interview to New York's Daily News in which he failed to offer specifics on how he would break up large banks - a key part of his campaign message - when he was asked how he would put to use the existing financial regulation Dodd-Frank law. "It's not clear that he knows how Dodd-Frank works," Clinton told CNN in an interview on Wednesday afternoon. The Democratic Party nominating race moves to Wyoming on April 9 before New York on April 19. (Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Susan Cornwell and Amanda Becker; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)
By Tim Hepher and Gernot Heller PARIS/BERLIN (Reuters) - France and Germany have joined Britain in suspending export credit facilities for Airbus jet deliveries, expanding the fallout from a potential corruption probe in Britain, several people familiar with the matter said on Friday. The move follows Britain's decision last week to suspend financing and alert the Serious Fraud Office after Airbus Group said it had found anomalies over the declaration of overseas agents and that it had itself notified the UK authorities. Unusually, it leaves the world's two largest planemakers, Airbus and Boeing , both facing paralysis over government export financing as Congressional delays leave U.S. Export Import bank unable to support Airbus's U.S. rival. In Europe, Airbus draws on financing support for some sales from Britain, France and Germany where its main factories are. The nations typically act in concert, offering guarantees in proportion to the industrial work in each country, but declining to take up the slack whenever one of them refuses to take part. A German economy ministry spokesman confirmed that the financing, provided on its behalf by Allianz unit Euler-Hermes, was no longer available. Berlin is also examining whether the UK episode could have consequences for export credits already awarded, he added. In France, three sources said export guarantees were being withheld for the time being. "Audits are being carried out in the UK and we are waiting for the conclusions for those," a French government official said. Airbus Group declined to add to a previous statement that it was co-operating with export credit agencies and that it expected financing to be resumed in the near future. For now, the market impact is seen as limited as the use of export credits has dwindled to around 6 percent of deliveries from 40 percent at the height of the 2008-10 financial crisis. But the unprecedented halt raises doubt over the financing for some upcoming deliveries, pushing up demand for commercial loans and placing pressure on Airbus to offer bridge financing. "The problem is that deals financed with export credit are usually the tough-to-finance ones, so finding a commercial alternative is not always that simple," a market source said. AGENT FEES AND NAMES The agency which underwrites aircraft exports in Britain has said it will not support Airbus deliveries until it gets assurances about Airbus's current practices on overseas agents. The UK case involves discrepancies over the amount of agents' fees disclosed in applications for export support, or missing names of third parties, in some cases dating back several years, two people familiar with the matter said. A person responsible for overseeing some of the information supplied in export credit applications is no longer with the group, people familiar with the matter said. Airbus Group declined comment. The decision by Airbus to report itself reflects efforts by many aerospace companies to toughen compliance and review their records for past failings after a series of industry scandals. In its just-published annual report, Airbus said a newly centralized compliance team was revising the procedures on hiring consultants and warned investors this may "lead to additional commercial disputes or other consequences". Europe's largest aerospace group says it is co-operating with four existing criminal probes into suspected irregularities in defense or security markets, including a British investigation into a $3.3 billion communications deal with Saudi Arabia and a German probe into the sale of fighter jets to Austria. (Additional reporting by Matthieu Protard, Leigh Thomas,; Editing by Geert De Clercq and David Evans)
A family in Rosemont narrowly avoided tragedy Saturday night when a stray bullet tore through its kitchen window.

The bullet just missed a man who happened to be in the kitchen at the time. He dove to the ground and told his wife to do the same.

"He told me to duck, there is gunfire," said Zora Bendjilani. "I lay on the ground. I didn't know what to do. And he told me to call the police."

Officers were dispatched to the intersection of Bellechasse Street and 19th Avenue after receiving several 911 reports of gunfire around 11:15 p.m.

A large perimeter was put in place as tactical and canine units were deployed to the neighbourhood.

Another stray bullet struck a gazebo in the yard of an apartment not far from Bendjilani's home.

Police have questioned two people in relation to the incident but no charges have yet been laid. They believe that one of those people was the intended target of the shooting.

They also believe the incident is related to street gangs who operate in the area.

Last month a man was shot one block over from Saturday night's shooting. That man, who survived the attack, refused to cooperate with police.

"The neighbourhood has always been like this," Bendjilani told Radio-Canada. "But I never imagined that one day it would happen at my home."

Bendjilani added that she and her husband were badly shaken by the shooting.

"I wouldn't wish for anyone to go through this," she told Radio-Canada. "It's a very painful moment."

The area was reopened to traffic around 4:30 a.m., but police say the investigation continues.
By Jack Kim SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un supervised a successful test of a new engine for an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media said on Saturday, in their latest report of advances in an arms program that has attracted U.N. sanctions. South Korea and the United States have shown scepticism over the North's statements about rapid progress in its nuclear and missile programs ahead of a ruling party congress in May, where analysts expect it to declare itself a major nuclear weapons state. Tension has remained high on the Korean peninsula after the North's nuclear test and a long-range rocket launch earlier in the year and South Korean and U.S. troops conducted large-scale joint drills amid harsh rhetoric from both rival Koreas. The engine was ignited at Kim's command and released a fiery blast, and the test showed the indigenously designed rocket fulfilled all required conditions, the North's official KCNA news agency said. "Dear Comrade Kim Jong Un said now we can mount an ever more powerful nuclear warhead on a new intercontinental ballistic rocket and put the den of evil in the United States, and all over the world, within our strike range," the agency said. The test was conducted at the North's missile station near its west coast, where, in February, the country launched a long-range rocket that put an object into space orbit, KCNA said. South Korea's defense officials did not immediately provide comment on the authenticity of Saturday's report. The North said in March it had miniaturized a nuclear warhead to be mounted on ballistic missiles and conducted a simulated re-entry test of a ballistic missile, which could indicate advances in its ICBM program, if true. But South Korean officials questioned those assertions and said the North was several years away from developing an ICBM. The United States said there was no proof of the North's statements and urged Pyongyang to halt actions that fuel tension. The North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and the rocket launch in February, in defiance of international warnings and past U.N. sanctions, triggering a new Security Council resolution that imposed more punishment. Despite its assertions, the North has yet to conduct a flight-test of a long-range missile or an ICBM and show mastery of the technology needed to bring a missile back into the atmosphere and hit a target with precision. The North said its January nuclear test was a successful hydrogen bomb test, but many experts and officials in the South and the United States said the blast was too small to have been from a successful test of such a weapon. (Additional reporting by Hooyeon Kim; Editing by James Dalgleish and Clarence Fernandez)
Thirteen North Koreans working at a restaurant in a foreign country have defected to South Korea - after TV dramas alerted them to Pyongyang propaganda.

The North Koreans - 12 females and one man - were welcomed by officials in Seoul, where a news conference was held.

South Korean Unification Ministry spokesman Jeong Joon Hee told reporters the workers had decided to defect after watching TV dramas and surfing the web.

People working in North Korean-operated restaurants overseas have previously defected, but this is the first time multiple workers have escaped.

The restaurants, in countries such as China and Cambodia, generate an estimated 7.1m in income annually.

This money is channelled to the North, according to the South's Unification Ministry.

The restaurant workers often perform musical routines in addition to serving food, and are chosen in part for their perceived loyalty to the regime.

North Korean defections are a bitter point of contention between the rival North and South.

Pyongyang usually accuses Seoul of enticing North Korean citizens to defect, something Seoul denies.

Jeong did not reveal the country where the 13 were working, to avoid diplomatic problems and endanger North Koreans still working in the country.

The Unification Ministry's website says more than 29,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea as of March.
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria accused France on Thursday of crossing a "red line" after French newspaper Le Monde published a front-page picture of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika among leaders it said were named in the Panama Papers leaks. The leaked documents from a Panamanian law firm have put the offshore wealth of politicians and public figures under worldwide scrutiny. Just days before a visit by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, Algeria summoned the French ambassador on Wednesday to complain that French media reports on the issue were a "malicious campaign". Valls starts a two-day visit to Algiers on Saturday to discuss trade ties and investment opportunities. Algeria, an OPEC member, is seeking to diversify its economy away from oil and gas. Algeria fought a war of independence through 1962. Paris has declined to apologise for the colonial past. Interior Minister Nouredine Bedoui on Thursday described the summons as an "appropriate reaction" to the media coverage of Bouteflika. "It is our duty as Algerians not to tolerate harming our symbols and constitutional institutions," the official news agency APS quoted him as saying. "This a red line." Documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca have raised public outrage over how the world's rich and powerful are able to stash wealth and avoid taxes. (Reporting by Hamid Ould Ahmed; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is getting a taste of the "New York values" he derided in Iowa as Republicans turn to the next big U.S. presidential contest in the home state of front-runner Donald Trump. The New York billionaire lost the Wisconsin Republican primary on Tuesday to Cruz and is seeking to rebound in New York on April 19. He won the backing on Thursday of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was irked by Cruz's values comments. "It's New York City. We're family. I can make fun of New York but you can't," Giuliani, who led the city through the trauma of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, told the New York Post. "I support Trump. I'm gonna vote for Trump," he said. Ohio Governor John Kasich, running third in the Republican race, chimed in with an ad called "Values," part of a seven-figure ad buy in New York and Pennsylvania, which votes on April 26. "New Yorkers aren't stupid and they certainly won't fall for Ted Cruz's lame soliloquies and flattery after he slammed their values," said Kasich spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp. Trump canceled a Friday trip to California to focus on New York. He turned on Cruz Wednesday night during his first rally in the state since the double-digit loss in Wisconsin. "I've got this guy standing over there, looking at me, talking about New York values with scorn in his face, with hated, with hatred of New York, Trump said, drawing a chorus of boos. Cruz credited his Feb. 1 Iowa caucuses victory in part to his attacks on Trump's "New York values." He told ABC on Thursday the phrase referred to the state's liberal Democrats. Cruz took another hit in the Bronx, where a group of high school students protesting his stance on immigration threatened a walkout if their principal did not cancel his appearance. "Most of us are immigrants or come from immigrant backgrounds. Ted Cruz goes against everything our school stands for," Destiny Domeneck, 16, told the New York Daily News. School authorities complied, the newspaper reported on Thursday. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu and Megan Cassella; Editing by Bill Trott)
A six-month-old issue of Marie Claire has been banned in Thailand because it carries an article that police said had criticised a member of the royal family.

The lifestyle magazine's French edition from November 2015 is subject to a police order which outlaws copies being imported or distributed within the country.

Any copies found will be confiscated or destroyed by the police.

Thailand's police chief has said the negative piece was defamatory and malicious - "affecting national security, peace and order, and the morale of the people."

It is not known why there was such a delay in outlawing the publication, but the magazine would not have been widely on sale in the kingdom.

The monarchy is a delicate subject in Thailand at the moment as King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch, is being treated in hospital.

Now 88, there has been little news about the revered royal's health since he was admitted in May 2015.

There are strict laws which forbid criticism of Thailand's monarchy, and those who appear to insult the royal family face up to 15 years behind bars for each offence.

Other Western publications have also fallen foul of the rules. Last year, several New York Times articles mentioning the Thai monarchy were removed from copies sold in the country, with blank spaces left in their place.

Certain issues of The Economist have been banned for carrying sensitive stories about the palace.

A significant number of people have been arrested on 'lese majeste' charges for social media postings, but this does not necessarily equate to expressing their opinion on the royal family.
Tom Mulcair knows the knives are out and pressure is on.

The federal NDP leader faces a divided party, with some members calling for his departure while others stand behind him, as he heads into a convention this weekend in Edmonton.

"It's probably going to be the most important speech of my political career," the NDP leader told Chris Hall in an interview on CBC Radio's The House.

More than 1,500 delegates will review his performance after the party's disappointing third-place finish in the 2015 federal election.

Mulcair has been quiet about how much support he feels he needs to stay on as leader. According to the party constitution, anything less than 51 per cent of the secret ballots cast would trigger an automatic leadership race within the year.

"There's a reason I've been prudent about not giving a number," he said. "I know that tons of numbers have been put out there. The members are going to be pronouncing on Sunday and I'm going to respect their will."

'I've learned to become a much better listener'

Mulcair outlined three points he's hoping to make in his speech Sunday morning.

"I'm going to tell [members] how energized I feel, and how confident I feel with the depth of the experience and the expertise we have in every single riding," he said.

Mulcair says he will address how the party can continue to hold the governing Liberals to account.

"They mimicked a lot of our promises, but it wasn't there in their budget," Mulcair said.

He'll also examine what comes next for the party, saying that the NDP has "no option" but to come out of the convention united.

"We've always been that party that wants to remove inequality in our society, to create opportunities. What form is that going to take? We've got to chart ourselves a path forward for the next two, three years."

Mulcair was emphatic that he hopes to be the leader charting that path, if Sunday's vote goes his way. He added that the 2015 campaign taught him valuable lessons.

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"I have learned how to become a much better listener," he said. "It wasn't a criticism so much leveled at me, as much as it was a realization for me."

Mulcair open to taking a leap

One of the big topics of debate at the convention continues to be what role the Leap Manifesto may play in NDP policy.

Unveiled in September during the election campaign, the Leap Manifesto has supporters from labour unions and environmental organizations, but Mulcair has yet to endorse the document.

But if directed to do so by party members, Mulcair said he would support the will of the party.

He added it's important to discuss the ideas expressed within the manifesto, which include working towards a carbon-free economy by 2050 and instating a universal guaranteed income, even if the ideas might not work.

"I am thrilled, honoured and pleased that we're having this debate in the NDP," he said.

"Those ideas would never get discussed in the Liberal Party, they would never get discussed in the Conservative Party.

"That's why we talk about these big issues. Would I love to work towards a carbon-free economy by 2050? You bet. Do I think that's a good plan? You bet. But I also know that we live in the real world and we have to give answers for the next 30 years before we can get there."

Support for Alberta

Mulcair reiterated his strong support of the provincial NDP government in Alberta, pointing to Rachel Notley as an example for popular socialist politicians like U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders and U.K. Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn to emulate.

"If I were going to talk to you about a success for socialists, I'd talk to you about the success of the NDP getting elected here in Alberta," he said.

"Because as much as there are exciting ideas from Mr. Sanders and Mr. Corbyn, here in Alberta we've actually got a social democratic government."

Mulcair said Notley has been able to do "two things at the same time that people often found contradictory"  wedding environmental goals with economic ones.

"They're saying we have to protect good jobs here in Alberta, that we have a gift of resources, but we have to do that responsibly.

"It's not a question of 'you can't have a pipe from here to there,' it's a question of 'are you adding value to your natural resources, are you doing everything you can to create those jobs in Canada, and once you've done that, what else can you do to meet those international [climate] obligations?'

"Rachel Notley's NDP government is always going to have my full support in that," he added.
When Ryan Seacrest said goodbye to fans of Fox's "American Idol" this week, he caused much speculation the show wasn't ending after all.

Seacrest, who hosted the singing competition for all of its 15 seasons, finished by uttering his famous phrase Thursday: "And one more time -- this is so tough -- we say to you from Hollywood, goodnight America."

Then he added mysteriously "for now."

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'American Idol' Finale: 5 Little-Known Facts About the Show

Seacrest, 41, took to Twitter Friday to explain.

"I didn't want to say goodbye last night," he wrote. "Thank you for 15 amazing seasons #IdolFinale."

"Idol" creator Simon Fuller has hinted the show may get a second life.

"There will no doubt be another format or refinement or elevation of the format," he told Billboard. "Now I can actually revamp it and come up with a new version and we can look back on 15 seasons and think of some legitimate ways to allow people to enjoy them again, maybe adding another dimension to it."

Fuller, 55, said that includes working with Pulse, a company that can create "a virtual pop star."

"I've spent a whole lot of time thinking about this," he continued. "I've been waiting for the technology to be good enough to make it happen. We have the digital rights for Elvis Presley and we're building a virtual reality show around him."
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The military leadership has intensified its military operations to rescue foreign and local hostages of the Abu Sayyaf Group in Sulu.

Col. Noel Detoyato, Armed Forces of the Philippines-Public Affairs Office chief, said as of yesterday, ground operations are continuing in the island province as well as in Basilan, where the bandits are believed to be keeping the hostages.

On Friday evening, the bandits released Italian former priest Rolando del Torchio, who was kidnapped by unidentified gunmen in Dipolog City last October, following reported ransom payoff amounting to P29 million.

Ground operations are ongoing. We could not just disclose specific areas where these operations are being carried out, Detoyato said, referring to ongoing military and police efforts to rescue Canadians John Ridsdel, Robert Hall, Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Maritess Flor.

Unidentified gunmen snatched the four from the Samal Island resort in Davao del Norte last September.

The four subsequently ended up in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf in Sulu, who have been demanding P1 billion for each of the victims in exchange for their freedom.

The bandits on March 8 warned that something terrible will happen to the four if their demand is not met in a months time.

There were reports that separate efforts were launched to negotiate with the kidnappers.

However, talks failed after negotiators backed out due to unreasonable ransom demands by the bandit group.

We are taking this threat seriously and we are doing everything to resolve the problem, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) spokesman, Maj. Filemon Tan said.

Meanwhile, government troops encountered a group of Abu Sayyaf militants in the hinterlands of Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, leaving 22 soldiers wounded yesterday.

Westmincom spokesman Tan said the joint elements of the 44th Infantry Battalion and 4th Special Forces Battalion encountered about 120 members of the Abu Sayyaf at Sitio Bayoko, Barangay Baguindan.

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He said the firefight started at 7:55 a.m and lasted about an hour, leaving an undetermined number of Abu Sayyaf dead and wounded.  With Roel Pareno
Vice President Jejomar Binay remains committed to fight for democracy and protect human rights especially of the poor Filipinos.

Binays camp made the statement yesterday in response to President Aquinos remarks that the Vice President is no longer the same person that he knew.

We find the Presidents statement in Makati last Friday unfortunate, United Nationalist Alliance (UNA) communications director Joey Salgado said.

Vice President Binays faith in democracy remains as strong as ever. His commitment to human rights and uplifting the lives of the poor emanates from the spirit of EDSA 1986, Salgado added.

Salgado criticized the President for speaking before a small group of opportunists instead of the real people of Makati who could share the real situation of the city.

In the few months that the Presidents allies have run Makati, the people have experienced deterioration in the delivery of services and the return of fixers at city hall, the UNA official said.

Binay: Poe, Duterte unfit for presidency

Binay maintained that Sen. Grace Poe is not qualified to become president as she lacks the experience in leading the country.

During a sortie in Tingloy, Batangas yesterday, Binay said Filipinos would regret voting for Poe, whom he referred to as the American girl.

First of all, one of the characteristics of a good leader is his or her love for the country, said Binay.

After saying in the last presidential debate that both of them are qualified for the presidency, Binay appeared to have changed his mind as he continued his attacks against Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

Binay called Duterte a liar for flip-flopping on his statements in connection with extrajudicial killings.

Make up your mind, berdugong mamamatay tao, Binay told Duterte. The presidency is not for the unprincipled and the inconsistent. It is not for liars, braggarts and merciless killers.

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The Vice President issued the statement after the tough-talking mayor denied that he had committed extrajudicial killings, saying he was referring to those who died in bloody operations against syndicates.

Duterte also denied involvement in the Davao Death Squad and said it was a gimmick by his political rivals.

Binay reminded Duterte that he admitted being part of the death squad in an interview done by a local television program on May 24, 2015.

Killing people accused of violating the law is inhumane. This is not in accordance with the rule of God and the rule of law, Binay said.

We do not need a leader who disregards the sanctity of human life and whose only solution to the problem of poverty is to kill the poor, he added.

Last week, Duterte dislodged Binay in pre-electoral polls, with some pundits noting that the elections will be a two-way race between the Davao mayor and Sen. Grace Poe.

But Binays spokesman Rico Quicho said the issue of extrajudicial killings is a legitimate one that has to be addressed.

The Vice President made it clear that we should never put the decision of taking someones life in our hands, Quicho said.

Binays camp believes that the Vice President will win the elections by a wide margin despite a drop in recent surveys.

Quicho said Binay has a core network of supporters who are continuously growing as election day nears.

During Fridays proclamation rally of the local candidates of the National Unity Party and Lakas-CMD in Quezon, Binay expressed confidence that his organization and field work could win him the presidency with four million votes.

Just like when I ran for vice president (in 2010), at the end of the day, I think I would win by seven to 10 percent margin, maybe around four million votes, Binay said.

He said this is the reason why local candidates should stick with him.

You will not regret campaigning for me. If we liken it to a cockfight, all bets are on us, he said.

Meanwhile, Binay paid tribute to modern-day Filipino heroes as the country commemorated Araw ng Kagitingan (Day of Valor) yesterday.

Binay urged Filipinos to honor those who have shown courage and are continuously serving the country in their own ways.

He cited the overseas Filipino workers, farmers and police officers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for the country.  With Helen Flores
Chadians voted Sunday in an election likely to see President Idriss Deby extend his 26-year rule in a country increasingly on the frontline of the global war on terror. Deby, who took office in a 1990 military coup, faces 12 challengers but is widely expected to win a fifth term after consolidating his grip on power in the central African nation. Polling stations opened shortly after 7:00 am (0600 GMT) and by mid-morning were seeing a large turnout. But there were no reports of trouble, even in an opposition stronghold in N'Djamena. At a polling station in the capital, men and women waited patiently in separate queues to cast their ballots, many with their biometric voting card in hand, an AFP correspondent said. "The big day has arrived. Chad must come out of these elections stronger," said Deby after casting his ballot. "The political class must accept the vote's results, which are the voice of the people." Security forces were out in force for the election, which comes after Chad was hit by a series of suicide attacks. Polls were to close at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT) and results may not be released for two weeks. The voters look set to hand another mandate to Deby, whose election resources far exceed those of his challengers in a nation classified by the UN as one of the five poorest in the world. Under his leadership, once unstable Chad has become both an oil producer and key player on the global anti-jihadist frontline, winning new strategic influence. But despite a wealth of new oil resources since 2003, half of the population of 13 million lives below the poverty line and seven out of 10 people cannot read or write. "We want to fix the country. Everyone is hoping for change," voter Ida Nouba-Asra told AFP. "We are suffering: no drinking water, no homes, no work." The 63-year-old Deby is facing unprecedented dissent at home. Anger at the government has run high in recent months, prompting the authorities to crack down on protests and throw activist leaders in jail. Just three days before the election, police fired live rounds and tear gas to disperse several hundred protesters angered by plans to hand six-month jail terms to five anti-government activist leaders. - Over 100 dialects - Chad is also facing an unprecedented security threat. It was hit by two jihadist attacks in the capital last year, while facing a constant threat of suicide attacks and raids. To address the threats, Deby has tightened security while maintaining a strong presence in a regional force fighting the Nigeria-based Boko Haram Islamist group. The country has scores of ethnic groups that speak more than 100 languages, and some of its conflicts have been blamed on divisions between Muslims, who make up 53 percent of the population, and Christians and animists. Those tensions have also been fuelled by Deby handing top jobs to members of his Zaghawa ethnic group, whose members also largely head the country's feared army. Ethnic resentment may be behind protests that erupted in February over the gang rape of a young woman, allegedly committed by the sons of several leading army commanders and officials. Two youngsters were killed when security forces cracked down on the demonstrations. One of Deby's challengers, Mahamat Yesko Brahim -- the father of the rape victim -- stood down in favour of the president at the last minute. The most prominent of Deby's challengers is Saleh Kebzabo, a Muslim from southwestern Mayo Kebbi province who first stood against him in 1996 and who heads the National Union for Development and Renewal. Another high-profile runner is former premier Joseph Djimrangar Dadnadji, a Christian and one-time Deby ally. "In the face of these accumulating challenges, Chadian authorities must avoid the politics of religious or geographic exclusion," the International Crisis Group said in March. "The greatest threat to stability in Chad in the long-term... (is) a national political crisis."
By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON - Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are facing off in a U.S. presidential nominating contest in Wyoming on Saturday, as the candidates gear up for a crucial match-up in New York. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, is fresh off a string of recent wins and looking to continue chipping away at Clinton's sizeable lead in the number of delegates needed to secure the party's nomination. Just 14 Democratic delegates are up for grabs in Wyoming - fewer than any other state - and even a commanding win by Sanders there would do little to help him close the gap. Clinton currently has more than half of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination. Sanders trails her by 250 pledged delegates, those awarded proportionate to the popular vote in the state nominating contests. Clinton's lead widens when superdelegates, Democratic leaders who can decide whom to support at the party's July convention, are included in the tallies. Clinton and Sanders have spent much of the past week in New York, which holds its contest on April 19 and where a total of 291 delegates are up for grabs. Clinton, a former secretary of state, considers New York her home turf. She represented the state as a U.S. senator and has headquartered her campaign in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. Sanders has reminded voters he was born and raised in Brooklyn. Recent polls have shown Clinton more than 10 points ahead in the state. Tension between the two candidates flared earlier this week in a party race that has typically focused on policies and not personal attacks. After a back-and-forth about who was most qualified to be president, Clinton and Sanders dialed back their criticism of one another on Friday. "I think this has all been pretty silly," Clinton told reporters at a campaign stop in Buffalo, in upstate New York. "He made his comments and there was no basis for them. It was completely a misrepresentation, and he seemed to take them back today." In Wyoming's Republican contest last month, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas beat New York billionaire Donald Trump, the party's front-runner. Cruz is trying to block Trump from receiving enough delegates to win the nomination outright, which would lead to a contested convention in July. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that a third of Trump's Republican supporters could consider abandoning the party's candidate if Trump is denied the nomination at a contested convention. (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Leslie Adler)
Its been a little more than two weeks since North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed House Bill 2 (HB2), which repealed new anti-discrimination ordinances that extended rights and protections to members of the LGBT community. In response, major companies, cities, and entire stateseveryone from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to Marriott's CEO Arne Sorensonhave gone to great lengths to express their disdain for the anti-LGBT act.

On March 29, Cuomo joined West Palm Beach, Seattle, and San Francisco (the latter are known as being two of America's best cities for gay-friendly travel) in banning government travel to North Carolina. We believe that all peopleregardless of their gender identity or sexual orientationdeserve the same rights and protections under the law, said Cuomo in a recent press release.

While vetoing publicly funded, government travel may not have a tremendous economic impact on the spurned southern state, the huge backlash from major businesses can. And leisure tourism, to be sure, will suffer from the discriminatory act.

Its not the first time a city passed an anti-LGBT law and suffered the consequences. In March of last year, Indiana passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA): a law that targeted the LGBT community. Chris Gahl, the vice president of Indianapolis convention and visitors association, spoke with Travel + Leisure about the tremendous impact RFRA had on the state capital.

Indianapolis has lost more than $60 million in future convention business as a result of [the] controversy, based on meeting planner feedback, Gahl said. Even though the bill was repealed in a weekthanks largely to cancelled conventions and the NCAAs threat to move the Mens Final Fourthe city continued to experience tremors from the controversy. On the leisure side, [there were] more than 1,000 cancelled trips that spring and summer, tied directly to RFRA," Gahl said.

North Carolina, which has not responded to the retaliation nearly as swiftly as Indiana, no doubt will experience the same repercussions. Shelly Green, the president and CEO of Durhams Convention and Visitors Bureau, anticipates that the cityand the state at largewill have more than just a tarnished reputation in the aftermath.

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Cancelled meetingseven a drop in attendance as low as 10 percent, Green explainedcould affect associations and local businesses. We [also] have some high visibility festivals coming up in the next few weeks, where individuals have made calls to boycott, she said, referring to events like Moogfest, an art, tech, and music festival running May 19 through 22. There are also the statewide Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and Pride Parade in the summer and fall, respectively.

Durham cited the citys "long history of embracing diversity and inclusivity [as a] welcoming, LGBTQ-friendly community," as well as the injury to local businesses, when it issued an official statement opposing HB2 on March 30. The sentiment is shared by other North Carolina cities.

Major players in the tourism industrynot including tourists themselvesalso are making their politics known. Airbnb, Lyft, Uber, Choice Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Orbitz, American Airlines, and Marriott International all have demanded that North Carolina's General Assembly repeal HB2.

Marriotts CEO, Arne Sorenson, shared his commentary with CNBC. [HB2] does not reflect our values or a basic principle that helps drive new jobs and economic growtheveryone deserves to be welcome. Sorenson added that Marriott is joining other American businesses to endorse the Equality Act, which would set uniform, federal protections that include sexual orientation and gender identity.

Every day that North Carolinas state policy makers stand by HB2 is a guarantee that the Tar Heel state's economy, tourism industry, and character could be irreparably damaged. As Indianapolisand the state of Indianaknow too well, even rescinding the bill may be too little too late, especially for LGBT travelers.

UPDATE: Celebrities including Ringo Starr and Bruce Springsteen have cancelled performances in North Carolina to protest the anti-LGBT legislation. All of the upcoming Cirque du Soleil shows in Greensboro, Charlotte, and Raleigh have been called off in protest. On April 18, Pearl Jam wrote a handwritten note boycotting North Carolina and cancelling their upcoming concert. PayPal and Deutsche Bank have terminated plans to expand in North Carolina, resulting in the loss of at least 650 jobs.

Cyndi Lauper, meanwhile, has decided to stick to the schedule. Her June 4 concert in Raleigh will not be nixed. Instead, Lauper is transforming the performance into an assembly to fight HB2. "I will be donating all of the profits from the show," Lauper wrote on her website, noting that her manager and agent would, too, "to build public support to repeal HB2."

Melanie Lieberman is the Assistant Digital Editor at Travel + Leisure. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @melanietaryn.
AFP News

Pro-Russian authorities on Saturday urged residents in the southern Kherson region, which Moscow claims to have annexed, to leave the main city "immediately" in the face of Kyiv's advancing counter-offensive. It comes as President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had launched 36 rockets overnight in a "massive attack" on Ukraine, following reported strikes on energy infrastructure that resulted in power outages across the country. And Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida became the latest world leader to reproach Moscow for its talk of using nuclear weapons. Kyiv's forces have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnipro river, towards the Kherson region's eponymous main city. Kherson was the first major city to fall to Moscow's troops, and retaking it would be a major prize in Ukraine's counter-offensive. In recent days, Russia has been moving residents in the region -- which Moscow claims to have annexed in September -- east to Russia, in efforts Kyiv has denounced as "deportations". "Due to the tense situation on the front, the increased danger of mass shelling of the city and the threat of terrorist attacks, all civilians must immediately leave the city and cross to the left bank" of the Dnipro river, the region's pro-Russian authorities announced on social media. A Moscow-installed official in Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told Russian news agency Interfax on Saturday that around 25,000 people had made the crossing. Sergiy Khlan, the Ukrainian deputy head of the Kherson region, said Russians were removing property and documents from banks and the passport office as they withdrew. Ukraine's general staff said Moscow's forces had abandoned two more settlements in Kherson and were evacuating medical personnel from a third, accusing them of looting local civilians. - A 'serious threat' - Earlier Saturday, Japan's Kishida denounced Moscow's comments regarding the possible use of nuclear weapons in the Ukraine conflict. "Russia's act of threatening the use of nuclear weapons is a serious threat to the peace and security of the international community and absolutely unacceptable," he said. The 77-year period of no nuclear weapons use "must not be ended", said Kishida, speaking in Australia. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Putin has made several thinly veiled threats about his willingness to deploy tactical nuclear weapons. Earlier this month, the European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell warned that the Russian army would be "annihilated" if Russia launched such an attack. Washington has also warned Moscow of "catastrophic" consequences should they use such weapons. Japan is the only country ever to have been hit with nuclear weapons: the US atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, which killed 140,000 people, and the second US bomb on Nagasaki, three days later, which killed 74,000 people. - 'Afraid for our lives' - At a train station in the town of Dzhankoy in the north of Crimea, a peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014, Kherson residents were boarding a train for southern Russia, an AFP reporter saw Friday. "We are leaving Kherson because heavy shelling started there, we are afraid for our lives," said Valentina Yelkina, a pensioner travelling with her daughter. More than a million households in Ukraine have been left without electricity following Russian strikes on energy facilities across the country, the deputy head of the Ukrainian presidency Kyrylo Tymoshenko said on Saturday. Fresh Russian strikes targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine's west, the national operator said earlier, with officials in several regions of the war-scarred country reporting power outages as winter approaches. Russians "carried out another missile attack on energy facilities of the main networks of Ukraine's western regions", Ukraine's energy operator Ukrenergo said on social media. "These are vile strikes on critical objects," said Zelensky. "The world can and must stop this terror." Power outages were reported in other parts of the country and local officials repeated calls to reduce energy use. Some parts of Ukraine have already cut their electricity use by up to 20 percent, according to Ukrenergo. "Saturday in Ukraine starts with a barrage of Russian missiles aimed at critical civilian infrastructure," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Twitter. He once again urged Kyiv's allies to hasten the delivery of air defence systems. In the Russian Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, at least two civilians were killed in strikes on Saturday, according to the local governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Nearly 15,000 people were left without electricity, he added. Russia last week reported a "considerable increase" in Ukrainian fire into its territory, saying attacks had largely concentrated on Belgorod region and neighbouring regions of Bryansk and Kursk. bur-imm/jj/ah
BEIJING (Reuters) - Companies from China's violence-prone far western region of Xinjiang signed deals worth about $2 billion with Pakistan this week during a visit to Pakistan by Xinjiang's top official, who sought to cement ties with an important security partner. Pakistan last year agreed energy and infrastructure projects worth $46 billion with China to set up a so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, in a boost to Pakistan's crumbling infrastructure and energy sector. In return, China will get a free trade zone in Pakistan's Gwadar port and access to the Arabian Sea. New Pakistani roads will open up routes for Chinese goods into Europe and the Middle East from landlocked Xinjiang, which borders Pakistan. During a four-day visit to Pakistan, Xinjiang's Communist Party chief Zhang Chunxian met Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, visited Islamabad, Karachi and Gwadar, the official Xinjiang Daily said on Friday. "China and Pakistan have a deep friendship, are good neighbors, friends, brothers and partners," the newspaper cited Zhang as saying. "On this trip, I have deeply felt this friendship and the atmosphere surrounding the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor." The $2 billion in agreements covered infrastructure, solar power and logistics, among other projects, signed by companies from Xinjiang with their Pakistan counterparts, the newspaper said, without giving details. China and Pakistan call each other "all-weather friends" and their ties have been underpinned by long-standing wariness of their common neighbor, India, and a desire to hedge against U.S. influence in the region. But China has also long urged Pakistan to weed out what it says are militants from Xinjiang, who are holed up in lawless ethnic Pashtun lands on the Pakistan-Afghan border, home to a mix of groups, including the Taliban and al Qaeda. While meeting Sharif, the two countries agreed to continue working together to fight terrorism, strengthen border controls, maintain regional peace and stability and ensure the economic corridor projects are protected, the newspaper said. Zhang also met Pakistan's military on the trip, it added, without elaborating. Hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang in the last few years. Exiles and rights groups say Chinese controls on the religion and culture of the Muslim Uighur people who call Xinjiang home is largely behind the violence, rather than any well-organized militant groups. China denies any rights abuses in Xinjiang and says its people are free to practice Islam. Zhang visited a mosque in Islamabad, where he "got a deep understanding of Pakistan's religious affairs management", the Xinjiang Daily added. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Robert Birsel)
ATHENS (Reuters) - Cyprus-based lender RCB said on Monday it had never provided unsecured loans, in a reference to a report by Britain's Guardian newspaper of its alleged role in helping people close to Vladimir Putin amass fortunes.

Reuters could not independently confirm the allegations, which RCB said were 'unfounded' and 'duly refuted as untrue'.

In another statement sent to Reuters, the Cyprus Central Bank said it was 'evaluating' the information for possible links to the Cypriot banking system. It would take appropriate action if necessary, it said, without elaborating.

"RCB Bank, as a principal (sic), did not and does not provide unsecured loans," RCB bank, which is affiliated with the Russian state-owned bank VTB and regulated by the Central Bank of Cyprus, said in a statement emailed to Reuters.

"The Bank always acts in a transparent manner and all information about its activities is available to the relevant Cypriot and European authorities."

The Guardian newspaper on Sunday alleged that RCB and other banks had extended "enormous unsecured loans" to entities linked to close Putin acquaintances.

It followed a massive leak of documents from a Panamanian law firm allegedly detailing ways in which hundreds of thousands of clients had evaded tax and laundered money spanning a period of almost 40 years.

The Guardian said the documents showed a network of secret offshore deals and loans worth $2 billion led to close friends of the Russian president.

Cyprus has close business ties with Russia. Russian businesses bore the brunt of a 'bail-in' on deposits that were converted to equity to recapitalise the country's largest lender, Bank of Cyprus <BOC.CY> in 2013.

A second bank, Laiki, was wound down.

RCB and another Cypriot systemic bank, Hellenic, were never considered for a bail-in because they had none of the heavy exposure the other two banks had to Greece's debt crisis.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
By Marco Aquino and Caroline Stauffer LIMA (Reuters) - Keiko Fujimori won the first round of Peru's presidential election on Sunday, though the race to be her opponent in the June run-off was locked in a virtual tie between two contenders, three exit polls showed. Ipsos gave Fujimori 37.8 percent of valid votes, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski 20.9 percent, and Veronika Mendoza 20.3 percent. GfK had similar results, while CPI gave Kuczynski a slightly better advantage, with 19.7 percent to Mendoza's 18.8 percent. Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, would have needed 50 percent for an outright win but was held back by critical voters who have not forgiven the authoritarian rule of her father. Support for the U.S.-educated former congresswoman slipped after tens of thousands protested against her on April 5, 24 years after the elder Fujimori shut Congress with the support of the army. She may struggle to win a runoff vote. Peruvians voted for President Ollanta Humala's successor with their country of 30 million on track to become the world's No. 2 copper producer. However, rising crime is a top concern for voters and many question why poverty persists with such vast mineral wealth. Polls closed at 4p.m. (2100 GMT) Lima time. Partial results, about 20 percent or 30 percent of votes, will be given at 9 p.m. (0200 GMT) and the electoral body says it will finish counting on Monday. A runoff between Kuczynski, a 77-year-old former World Bank economist, and Fujimori would likely ensure Peru's free-market economic model remains intact. Mendoza's late surge in opinion polls in recent weeks has spooked markets. Fujimori has promised to build high-altitude prisons in the Andes to isolate dangerous criminals, and said she would drive economic growth forward at the end of a decade-long mining boom by tapping a rainy day fund and issuing new debt to fund badly needed infrastructure. Kuczynski's supporters danced in the streets with his guinea pig mascot after exit polls were reported. However, in previous elections early results have underrepresented rural areas, where Mendoza and Fujimori have stronger support. SECOND ROUND The most recent Ipsos poll showed Kuczynski would beat Fujimori in a second-round election by seven points, while Mendoza was seen in a statistical tie with her. Fifty-one percent of Peruvians polled told Ipsos they would "definitely not" vote for her. Kuczynski's economic adviser, Alfredo Thorne, said that exit polls showed Kuczynski had stronger support in rural Peru than in 2011, when he struggled to connect with voters outside of Lima during his first presidential bid. Mendoza, who wants to scrap Peru's 1993 constitution and limit mining, thanked her supporters from her home city of Cuzco, once the capital of the Incan empire. "We've shown that we can do politics differently!" she said. Fujimori has vowed to preserve democracy and extend 25 years of free-market policies. Her father, a right-wing populist who is serving a 25-year prison term for human rights abuses and corruption during his 1990-2000 rule, is fondly remembered by some for building rural schools and hospitals and implementing neo-liberal reforms that remain in place. Keiko Fujimori famously became Peru's first lady at 19 when her parents divorced. She says her father is innocent and should be absolved by the courts but has promised not to use her political power to free him from jail or repeat his authoritarian tendencies. "I voted for Keiko because she's not to blame for what her father did," said 41-year-old Carlos Zevallos. "Crimes aren't inherited." The elder Fujimori said his hard-line measures were necessary to defeat the Maoist-inspired Shining Path insurgency. In a reminder of that bloody conflict, rebels presumed to be remnants of the Shining Path on Saturday ambushed soldiers sent to safeguard ballots, leaving at least six dead, authorities said. The head of the Organization of American States mission to Peru, Sergio Abreu, said there had been some isolated delays in voting but that Sunday's election had otherwise been calm. (Additional reporting by Mitra Taj and Teresa Cespedes; Editing by Mary Milliken, Jonathan Oatis and Nick Zieminski)
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez, who stepped down as president of Argentina in December after eight years in office, has been charged by a prosecutor with money laundering, local media reported on Saturday. The decision follows testimony on Friday by businessman Leonardo Farina, who in a plea bargain implicated Fernandez and her late husband and former President Nestor Kirchner in a case related to money laundering and embezzling funds earmarked for public works. Julio De Vido, a longtime Fernandez and Kirchner ally and former minister, was also charged, local newspapers Clarin and La Nacion reported, citing judicial sources. Reuters could not immediately confirm the charges with the prosecutor's office. Last Tuesday, another Fernandez ally, businessman Lazaro Baez, was arrested for questioning as part of the same investigation. Fernandez, 63, is due to answer questions in court on Wednesday over a separate probe into the sale of U.S. dollar futures contracts at below-market rates by the central bank during her administration. Fernandez, a leftist leader from the Peronist party, was barred constitutionally from seeking a third consecutive term. Opposition candidate Mauricio Macri won the November election, ending more than a decade of Peronist rule. (Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien and Jorge Otaola; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Mary Milliken)
BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is considering scrapping tax benefits for companies that do business with tax havens abroad as a reaction to the Panama Papers, Der Spiegel magazine reported on Friday. Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to the massive document leak from Panama that showed how offshore companies are used to stash clients' wealth. Four decades of documents from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, which specialises in setting up offshore companies, showed widespread use of those instruments by global banks and triggered investigations across the world. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has advised his staff to make proposals on how the government could financially punish firms that do business with tax havens via offshore companies, Der Spiegel reported. One idea was to scrap tax incentives for such companies, it said, adding the ministry hoped firms would then raise the pressure on ruling politicians abroad to change tax policy. A spokeswoman for the Finance Ministry declined to comment on the magazine report, but she said Berlin was working on an action plan for more transparency in this context. Schaeuble would present details of this plan at the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington next week, she added. (Reporting by Gernot Heller and Michael Nienaber; Editing by Keith Weir)
By Caroline Stauffer and Mitra Taj LIMA (Reuters) - The race for second place in the first round of Peru's presidential election on Sunday was still wide open on Friday, with polls split over who would earn the chance to face long-time front-runner Keiko Fujimori in an expected run-off. Peru's stock market closed 4 percent higher after Wall Street favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was seen in second place with 20.8 percent of valid votes, ahead of leftist Veronika Mendoza with 16.5 percent, according to a survey by GfK. Polls by Ipsos and Datum showed the two second place contestants within one point of each other, though Mendoza's momentum appears to have slowed. "Veronika hasn't increased voters so much in recent days. She rose a lot since March but less recently," Urpi Torrado, of pollster Datum, told foreign reporters at a news conference. Fujimori, the daughter of jailed former president Alberto Fujimori, was still seen about 10 points short of the 50 percent of votes needed to win outright. Her support has slipped since tens of thousands protested against her on Tuesday. A Fujimori-Kuczynski run-off in June would likely ensure Peru's free-market model of the last quarter century prevails in the top metals producer, no matter the winner. Mendoza's surprise surge in recent weeks has spooked markets as she has swept up scores of undecided voters with promises of radically transforming the country's mining-dependent economy. Kuczynski, a 77-year-old son of European immigrants who had struggled to gain traction with poor rural voters in the last election, has ramped up efforts to portray Mendoza as a threat to Peru's long stretch of economic growth. A video called "24 Hours to Save Peru" launched on YouTube urged voters to rally behind Kuczynski to avoid a "disastrous second round" that would force Peruvians to choose between Fujimori and "a communist model that would destroy Peru." Mendoza's supporters on social media dismissed the attack as desperate fear mongering. Mendoza, dressed in red, chose Lima's historic May 2 Plaza to end her campaign, praising the history of union and human rights protests that had taken place there. "We aren't here to make adjustments, patches, or to apply makeup, we want a real transformation," she told supporters in a possible jab at outgoing President Ollanta Humala, a former leftist who governed more moderately than expected. Mendoza would like Peru to become less reliant on mining and wants to curb exports of oil and natural gas to prioritize domestic demand. (Additional reporting by Teresa Cespedes and Ursula Scollo; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Andrew Hay)
By Francois Murphy and Alexandra Schwarz-Goerlich VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria's financial markets regulator FMA on Sunday cut the nominal value of "bad bank" Heta Asset Resolution's [HAABI.UL] senior bonds by more than half, highlighting the long struggle creditors face for repayment if a settlement is not reached. The FMA, which is overseeing the wind-down of Heta, on Sunday announced measures including the bail-in, or haircut, of 54 percent, the extension of bonds' maturities to 2023 and the cancellation of coupon payments as of March of last year. The announcement is the latest chapter in a standoff between the province of Carinthia and Heta's creditors, many of which insist on repayment in full because their bonds were guaranteed by Carinthia, which could push the province into insolvency. Carinthia guaranteed the bonds of local lender Hypo Alpe Adria before it collapsed and Heta was formed to wind it down. Carinthia says it cannot afford to fully honour the remaining guarantees, which the FMA put at 11.1 billion euros (9 billion). Creditors are likely to sue Carinthia to recover the difference between what is paid out to them under Heta's wind-down and their bonds' full face value. The FMA put that difference at 6.4 billion euros, roughly three times the annual budget of Carinthia, a southern province of about 560,000 people that borders Italy and Slovenia and was long the stronghold of far-right politician Joerg Haider. The haircut's size is based on the amount the FMA expects will be recovered from the sale of Heta's assets by 2020. It had said the estimate would be conservative to ensure that, if it is wide of the mark, there is extra revenue to be shared out. Only by the end of 2023 will it be possible to pay out all funds owed, the FMA said, partly in anticipation of many court cases, meaning creditors face a wait of seven years for their repayment of 46 percent of senior bonds' face value. Carinthia offered to buy back the bonds it guaranteed, with loans from the Austrian government, for 75 percent of senior bonds' face value, plus a last-minute sweetener by the Austrian government that brought the offer to around 82 percent. Too few creditors accepted the offer when it expired last month, and the question is now whether a compromise can be found or whether the dispute will be settled in court. "An out-of-court agreement on dissolving Carinthia's guarantees is still the best solution," Austria's Finance Ministry said in a statement. "For that to happen, the creditors must now act and make a concrete proposal." On Sunday, Germany's insurers said an amicable agreement over debt repayment with Heta was still possible. "However, it must be clear that any new offer (by the Austrians) must look significantly better," said Klaus Wiener, chief economist of German insurance trade body GDV said. Germany's insurers remained of the view that full repayment of debt to creditors was needed, he said in a statement. Austrian newspaper Der Standard reported this weekend that representatives of Carinthia and creditors would meet in London on Tuesday to try to find a solution. A spokeswoman for an alliance of creditor groups that says it controls Heta bonds with a face value of more than 5 billion euros said it would study the FMA's decision. Carinthia said it would do the same and was prepared for any consequences. ($1 = 0.8773 euros) (Additional reporting by Kirsti Knolle in Vienna and Jonathan Gould in Frankfurt; Editing by Ros Russell)
Inside the sleepy resort town of Latakia in Syria, it's very hard to believe that just a few hundred kilometres away the war is raging.

The muezzins are still calling for prayer and people go around their daily shopping.

Local politicians' posters hang around the city, urging Syrians to vote for them in the upcoming parliamentary elections on 13 April.

Latakia, with its beautiful sandy beaches and warm waves of the Mediterranean, used to be the favourite summer resort for the Syrian political elite.

Now it is Bashar al Assad's stronghold, where taxi drivers call him "father".

The main reminders of the conflict here are road checkpoints manned by local security forces - Mukhabarat.

On one of these checkpoints, Sky News met 18-year-old Hamody al Salem and 26-year-old Maher Lai.

They agreed to show us the abandoned school where Hafez al Assad - Bashar al Assad's father - used to study.

The school is situated in the centre of the city. There is a memorial plate inside the school and a monument of Hafez al Assad nearby to commemorate the honourable student.

During the improvised tour of the school, the younger guard, Hamody, told us his story.

He grew up in Raqqa and is the only son in his family.

He was washing the dishes at a cafe there, until he was captured by Islamic State - also known as Daesh - in 2014.

Hamody was kept prisoner for one-and-a-half years, along with four other Syrians.

"I don't know why Daesh captured me," he said.

"They beat me up every day. It was horrible to be their prisoner."

According to Hamody, one night the four prisoners stabbed their guard and escaped through a window.

Two of them were shot in the pursuit, but Hamody managed to run away and make it to Latakia.

According to an unwritten rule, Hamody could have avoided serving in the army as he is the only son in his family.

However, after his imprisonment, he decided to fight against IS and volunteered for Mukhabarat.

"We are not paid much, only 50 dollars per month. It is hardly enough for anything," said another secret services employee, who asked that he not be named.

"However, fighting Daesh gives us stronger motivation than money can ever give."
By Arshad Mohammed and James Mackenzie KABUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry suggested that Afghanistan's national unity government could continue beyond September, a step that could irk the opposition even as he attempts to avert a brewing political crisis. Kerry's unannounced visit to Kabul was intended to demonstrate support for the national unity government headed by President Ashraf Ghani, victor of the disputed election of 2014 and his runner up Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. The visit comes at a difficult moment for Afghanistan, with Ghani's government weakened by infighting between rivals, the economy sinking and the resurgent Taliban stronger than at any time since they were toppled from power in late 2001. Underlining the precarious security situation, at least two explosions, apparently from rockets, hit the diplomatic zone of the capital shortly after Kerry's visit ended and his plane was preparing to take off from Bagram airport outside the city. Kerry repeated an offer of peace talks with the Taliban and called on Afghanistan's fractious politicians to work together. "Democracy requires credible institutions," he said. "Even more than that, it requires a willingness of people  from different political and ethnic and geographic factions to be able to come together and work for a common good." Under the national unity deal, a loya jirga, or special assembly, was expected to be held to amend the constitution within two years of the September 2014 election, potentially allowing Abdullah to take the post of prime minister. The approach of September's end of the two-year period has helped fuel growing political tension, with opposition politicians close to former President Hamid Karzai insisting that the unity agreement must be subject to broad consultation. However Kerry said the agreement was valid for the full term of the government, suggesting that the U.S. believes it can continue even without a new constitutional deal. "Let me make this very, very clear because I brokered the agreement  There is no end to this agreement at the end of two years, or in six months from now," Kerry told a joint news conference with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. "This is an agreement for a unity government the duration of which is five years," he said. TROOP WITHDRAWAL The political difficulties facing Ghani have been racheted up by the deteriorating security situation, with NATO officials estimating that government forces have full control over no more than 70 percent of the country. U.S. forces in Afghanistan are due to be almost halved to 5,500 from the current 9,800 by the start of 2017, and the new commander in Afghanistan, General John Nicholson, is conducting a review of security before making his recommendations to Washington some time in June. Kerry offered no hint on whether the timetable may change, saying only that President Barack Obama would make his decision on the size of the force after listening to what commanders on the ground had to say. With Afghanistan's shattered economy still on its knees and struggling with endemic corruption, Kerry said it was crucial for the country to secure international aid. "It is essential for these next week's and months for Afghanistan to show how that money is well spent and how the purpose of Afghanistan and the unity is going to earn the support and respect of the rest of the world," he said. In Warsaw in July, the NATO Western security alliance is expected to decide how to fund Afghanistan's security forces in the coming years and donor nations will gather in Brussels in October to make civilian aid pledges to Afghanistan. Kerry said U.S. and Afghan officials needed "to make certain that we use the time between now and the meeting in Warsaw and the meeting in Brussels to make sure that we are putting Afghanistan's best foot forward". Noting the dates, Andrew Wilder, an Afghanistan expert at the United States Institute for Peace think tank, said: "The last thing we need is a big political crisis calling into question the legitimacy of the national unity government in September". Ghani received a welcome boost on Saturday, when lawmakers confirmed a new interior minister and attorney general, two posts key to confronting the Taliban's growing insurgency and combating endemic corruption. (Editing by Paul Tait)
North Korea has said it has successfully tested an engine designed for an inter-continental ballistic missile that would "guarantee" an eventual nuclear strike on the US mainland.

It is the latest in a series of claims by Pyongyang of breakthroughs in both its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes.

Experts have treated a number of the claims with scepticism, suggesting the North Korean leadership is attempting to talk up its achievements ahead of a showcase ruling party congress next month.

According to the North's official KCNA news agency, the ground engine test was ordered and personally monitored by leader Kim Jong-Un.

As soon as Kim flagged off the test at the Sohae Space Centre "the engine spewed out huge flames with deafening boom", KCNA said.

"The great success... provided a firm guarantee for mounting another form of nuclear attack upon the US imperialists and other hostile forces," Kim was quoted as saying.

Now North Korea "can tip new type inter-continental ballistic rockets with more powerful nuclear warheads and keep any cesspool of evils in the earth including the US mainland within our striking range", he added.

Military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula have been rising since the North conducted its fourth nuclear test in January, and a long-range rocket a month later that was seen as a disguised ballistic missile test.

The UN Security Council responded with its toughest sanctions to date over the North's nuclear programme, and Pyongyang accused Seoul and Washington of spearheading the sanctions drive in New York.

In recent weeks, state media has carried repeated threats of pre-emptive nuclear strikes against both the South and the US mainland.
By Denis Dyomkin and Nailia Bagirova BAKU (Reuters) - Azerbaijan and Armenian-backed separatists said on Friday they had struck a temporary deal to allow each side to safely search for the bodies of their soldiers killed in clashes over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The warring parties agreed a ceasefire on Tuesday - with Russian help - after four days of shelling and artillery strikes which killed dozens. The truce has largely held, though both sides have reported some violations. The violence prompted fears of an all out war in the strategically-important South Caucasus through which Caspian Sea oil and gas is exported to world markets bypassing Russia. On Friday, the Azeri defence ministry and the Nagorno-Karabakh defence ministry said they had sealed a deal to ensure there were no violations for a five-hour period later in the day to allow both sides to search for their dead. An official at the Armenian defence ministry used social media to post the names and photographs of 44 separatist soldiers who he said were killed in the clashes since April 2. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was on Friday in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, to hold talks with Ilham Aliyev, the Azeri president, aimed at resuming diplomatic efforts to resolve the territorial dispute. "Russia, no less than Azerbaijan and Armenia, has an interest in there being peace in this region, our region," Medvedev said. "The ceasefire agreement is the foundation for unfreezing talks between Baku and Yerevan." Any progress towards a permanent settlement of the dispute is likely to be halting. Nagorno-Karabakh is a mountainous enclave within Azerbaijan's borders, populated mainly by ethnic Armenians who reject Azerbaijan's rule. With support from Armenia they fought a war in the early 1990s to establish de facto control over the territory. The fighting this week was the most intense since a 1994 ceasefire that stopped the conflict but did not resolve the underlying dispute. Azerbaijan says the only outcome of negotiations it will accept is the restoration of its control over Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding districts that are held by the separatists, while the Armenians say they will never agree to Nagorno-Karabakh being under Baku's control. Medvedev's visit to Azerbaijan, a day after he was in the Armenian capital for talks, showed Moscow was staking out a lead role in mediating in the conflict. Russia's active diplomacy overshadowed the United States, which has extensive interests in the South Caucasus region that includes Azerbaijan and Armenia. (Reporting by Nailia Bagirova and Denis Dyomkin in BAKU and Hasmik Mkrtchyan; Writing by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Christian Lowe)
By Samia Nakhoul CAIRO (Reuters)- - As the Syria peace talks resume next week, President Bashar al-Assad, backed militarily by Iran and Russia, shows no willingness to compromise, much less step aside to allow a transition Western powers claim is the solution to the conflict. Threatened by rebel advances last year, Assad is now pumped up with confidence after Russian air strikes reversed the tide and enabled his army to recover lost ground from Sunni insurgents as well as the jihadis of Islamic State. While Syria experts doubt he can recapture the whole country without an unlikely full-scale ground intervention by Russia and Iran, they also doubt President Vladimir Putin will force him out - unless there is a clear path to stability, which could take years. Instead, Russias dramatic military intervention last September -- after five years of inconclusive fighting between Assad and fragmented rebel groups mostly from Syrias Sunni majority -- has tilted the balance of power in his favour and given him the upper hand at the talks in Geneva. The main target of the Russian air force bombardment was mainstream and Islamist forces that launched an offensive last summer. Only recently have Russia and Syrian forces taken the fight to Islamic State, notably by recapturing Palmyra, the Graeco-Roman city the jihadis overran last year. The Russian campaign, backed by Irans Revolutionary Guards and Shiite militia such as Lebanons Hezbollah, has for now outmatched the rebels, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and units supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States. REBELS LOSE MOMENTUM Dealing with those groups rather than Islamic State seemed the main aim of Moscow's intervention, analysts say. "The Russian intervention fundamentally reshaped the Syrian conflict," says Kheder Khaddour from the Carnegie Middle East Center. "The momentum of the rebels does not exist any more." Putin, diplomats say, weakened the opposition to coax it into accepting a settlement on Russian and Syrian terms. That does not mean the "transitional authority" sought by the U.S. and its allies, but a government expanded to include elements of the opposition, with Assad at its head for the immediate future. Russia still wants Assad to lead the transition to the elections, while the opposition and its regional allies, including the United States and Europe, insist he should step down. So far no compromises are in sight. "We need things to advance in the coming weeks. If the political process is just about putting a few opposition people in nominal cabinet posts then this isn't going to go very far," said a European diplomat close to the talks.. "If there isn't a political transition the civil war will continue and Islamic State will benefit from it," he said. Fawaz Gerges, author of ISIS: A History, said: "At this point the Russians have the upper hand in dictating a solution. The Americans are playing on Russias playing field." UNCERTAINTY His judgment is underlined by Sergei Lavrov, Russias foreign minister, who boasted in a recent interview that "the Americans understand they can do nothing without Russia. They can no longer solve serious problems on their own". Yet uncertainty surrounds Moscows intentions, after Putin suddenly withdrew part of his forces from Syria last month. That led to speculation among Assad's enemies that Russia was contemplating whether to ditch Assad  an outcome many Syria watchers find highly improbable. "The key issue remains when and if the Russians will act to facilitate this transition. It's unclear, and we get the feeling that the recent talks didn't change much in the Russian position," the European diplomat said. "I don't think the upcoming round will reach any real decisions on the political process, he added. Gerges says the partial pull-back sent a message to the Americans that Russia is a rational and credible force that is interested in a diplomatic settlement. It was also intended as a jolt to Assad, by then so emboldened at the way Russia and Iran had transformed his weak position that he was announcing plans to recapture all of Syria. "The message to the Assad regime was that Russia doesnt play by Assads playbook, it doesnt want to get down in Syrias quagmire (but) wants to cut its losses," Gerges believes. But it is far from clear that Assad interprets these messages the same way. Last month, he dismissed any notion of a transition from the current structure, as agreed by international powers, calling instead for "national unity" solution with some elements of the opposition joining the present government. "The transition period must be under the current constitution, and we will move on to the new constitution after the Syrian people vote for it," Assad told Russia's Sputnik news agency. ASSAD "WILL NOT GO QUIETLY" Faisal al-Yafai, a leading commentator from the United Arab Emirates, says Russia "played its cards in Syria very cleverly, but miscalculated in one aspect". "They assumed that once the (Assad) regime felt secure, it would be more willing to negotiate. In fact, the opposite has happened. "Theres a limit to the pressure that Russia can exert on Assad. Assad absolutely will not go quietly -- and certainly not when there is no real alternative to him, even within the regime," says al-Yafai. Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria and now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, agrees that Russia may not be able to compel Assad to go. The secret police backbone of Assads rule remains intact, he says, and "Assad seems confident again, after his much more sober tone last summer. The Russians may have helped him too much, such that Assad can maintain control of key cities and roads for a long time". Ford also drew attention to the competition over Syria between Russia and Iran, Assads two main allies. Moscows emphasis is on its traditional relations with the Syrian military establishment, while Tehran focusses on the militia network it built with Hezbollah to shore up the regime. Assad is plenty smart to know how to play one country off against the other. I am not even sure Russia would test its heavy pressure capacity against that of Iran in Damascus. The Russians know they might lose", Ford said. Russias involvement in Syria has given it greater insight into the structure of the Assad rule, constructed to intermesh the Assad family and allies from its minority Alawite community with the security services and military command. ASSAD BUOYANT Khaddour from Carnegie says Russia now realises the circumstances for a transition do not yet exist, because removing Assad might unravel the whole power structure. "There is a problem within the regime. It is not capable of producing an alternative to itself internally," says Khaddour, adding the only concession it has made  simply to turn up in Geneva  was the result of Russian pressure. With limits to Russian and Iranian influence on a newly buoyant Assad, few believe the Geneva talks will bring peace. "If the Russians felt it was time for a solution they would have reached an understanding with the Americans to give up on Assad without giving up on the Alawites. The circumstances are not ripe yet for a solution," says Sarkis Naoum, a leading commentator on Syria. The diplomat added: "The fundamental question is still whether the Russians are serious and want this to happen." "Nobody knows what's in their mind and I'm not sure they even know." (Additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Giles Elgood)
LONDON (Reuters) - India's Tata Steel will launch the formal sale process for its British assets by Monday and give a "reasonable" timeframe to find a buyer, Britain's business minister said after meeting the company's chairman in Mumbai. Prime Minister David Cameron's government has sought to broker a deal with potential buyers after Tata Steel put its British operations up for sale last week, threatening thousands of jobs. Tata had said it wanted to exit the country as soon as possible, raising fears that the government would not have enough time to find a buyer for a business that has been hit by high costs and cheap Chinese imports. But Sajid Javid, Britain's business minister, told broadcasters after the meeting that Tata had not set a time frame and would allow a reasonable period to find a buyer. "Formal sales process will begin by Monday - govt will do all it can to help secure a serious buyer," he said on Twitter. (Reporting by Kate Holton and William James; editing by Stephen Addison)
By Paul Carrel and Andreas Rinke BERLIN (Reuters) - At an hour-long meeting in Moscow on March 23, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov irritated his German counterpart by raising the case of a German-Russian girl who said she was raped by migrants in Berlin earlier this year. After the girl's claims were reported by Russian media in January, Lavrov accused Germany of "sweeping problems under the rug." The Berlin public prosecutor's office, though, said a medical examination had found the girl had not been raped. That was why Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was so upset when Lavrov raised the issue again. "I can only hope that such incidents and difficulties, as we had in that case, aren't repeated," he told reporters afterwards. The rape case is indicative of the mutual suspicion that officials from both countries say extends to the highest levels of government. At the root of those tensions lie opposing visions for Europe and the Middle East. Those rival visions have led to clashes at diplomatic negotiating tables, in cyberspace and in the media. German and other European security officials accuse Russian media of launching what they call an "information war" against Germany. By twisting the truth in reports on Germany's migrant crisis, the officials say, Russia hopes to fuel popular angst, weaken voters' trust in Chancellor Angela Merkel, and feed divisions in the European Union so that it drops sanctions against Moscow. "Russian propaganda is a danger to the cohesion of our society," Ole Schroeder, German deputy interior minister and a member of Merkel's conservatives, told Reuters. Russian officials deny their country is mounting a campaign against Germany. "These accusations are atrocious," said one Russian official, who said Moscow is the victim of an "indiscriminate information war" being waged from Germany. In February, Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, denied the Kremlin had exploited the rape case to stir up tensions around immigration in Germany. "We cannot agree with such accusations," Peskov said. "On the contrary, we were keen that our position be understood, we were talking about a citizen of the Russian Federation. Any country expresses its concerns (in such cases). It would be wrong to look for any hidden agenda." But officials in Berlin say Russia's aim is to muddy what is true and what is not and shake Germans' trust in Merkel. "The idea today is to get disinformation, which means you don't believe anything," Hans-Peter Hinrichsen, a Foreign Ministry official, told a recent meeting on Russia's role in Europe at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). German and European officials say Russia's aim is two-fold: To exaggerate the problems the migrant crisis is causing Germany and to push Germany to relax its backing for European sanctions on Russia over Moscow's interference in Ukraine. While EU governments last month extended asset freezes and travel bans on Russians and Russian companies, there is less consensus on whether to prolong more far-reaching sanctions on Russia's banking, defence and energy sectors from July. Both sides agree on one point: relations between the two countries are at their lowest point since the early days of the Cold War. BIKINI TROLLS? Beginning in the late 1960s, the then West Germany pursued a policy of 'Ostpolitik', which encouraged warmer ties with Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the two countries grew even closer thanks to trade and cultural ties. But those ties began unraveling when Vladimir Putin returned as Russian president in 2012, and worsened further after the Ukraine crisis began in late 2013. "All the networks, all the personal ties  they just don't work anymore," said Stefan Meister, at the DGAP. The accusations of disinformation have spawned a whole new vocabulary. Officials at NATO now talk about the 'weaponization of information' by Russia. Colonel Aivar Jaeski, deputy director at the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, says Russia's campaign against Europe uses "angry trolls" who produce online hate speech, and "bikini trolls" to lure followers and then sow discord and doubt about news events. Jaeski pointed to a NATO StratCom report on trolling, which says the Guardian newspaper's online edition was targeted "in a troll attack that is considered to have been ordered by the Kremlin" over its reporting on the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 over Ukraine. The Kremlin has repeatedly denied funding or backing online trolls, and has specifically denied any connection with a company based in St Petersburg whose ex-employees have said they were paid to spread disinformation, praise Putin and criticize the West. A GERMAN CAMPAIGN? In the rape case, Russian media reported the German-Russian girl  under German law she can only be identified as Lisa F.  had been abducted by 'Arab-looking men' and raped repeatedly over a 30-hour period. Janis Sarts, director of the NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence, said Russian media continued to report that even after the Berlin authorities said the girl had not been raped. Europe's East StratCom Task Force has collected dozens of examples of Russian reporting on the migrant crisis that it says are clear cases of deliberate disinformation. German daily Bild reported in March that Germany's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies were warning of increasing Russian interference in German politics. Moscow rejects the idea of any coordinated campaign. One Russian official said there was a German media campaign to paint Russia in a bad light and "demonize" it. The official said that Russian media had formerly been too positive about Germany and were now more objective. "This ends the discrepancy that saw the German media be very critical of Russia and the Russian media paint a very favorable picture of Germany," he said. BLACK BOX At the March 23 meeting, the two countries reached an "academic cooperation accord." Both sides also continue to emphasize cultural ties. But repairing political ties may be harder. Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD)  junior members in Merkel's ruling coalition and the party behind "Ostpolitik" all those decades ago  seems increasingly ready to compromise with Moscow. Sigmar Gabriel, an SDP member and Germany's Economy Minister, said recently that the EU should try to lift sanctions on Russia by this summer. Merkel, though, has refused to ease the sanctions, insisting that Russia first needs to comply with an agreement to enforce a ceasefire, pull back heavy weapons, exchange prisoners, and hold internationally monitored local elections in eastern Ukraine. German officials say Merkel speaks to Putin more than any other Western leader and recognizes better than most that the Russian leader respects firmness. But the governments still struggle to understand each other. "The Kremlin is like a Black Box: we have a rough idea of who sits in the Black Box but we have no idea what they are thinking, what they are worried about, what they are thinking for 5-10 years' time," a senior German official said. (Additional reporting by Sabine Siebold in Berlin, Robin Emmott in Brussels and Andrew Osborne in Moscow; Edited by Simon Robinson)
A Northern Ireland cattle farmer has been convicted of unnecessary suffering to one of his animals, which was found to be so injured it had to be put down.

Ian Wilson, Ballydermot Road, Castledawson, Magherafelt, pleaded guilty and was fined 300 plus a 15 offenders levy.

See also: Farmer receives lifetime ban for animal neglect

The case arose from an anonymous complaint by a member of the public to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (Dard) in Northern Ireland.

Veterinary service officers visited Mr Wilsons farm and discovered an animal with a fractured leg.

In the opinion of the veterinary officer, the animal had the injury for some time. The animal was euthanised to prevent it from suffering further.

Mr Wilson was convicted at Magherafelt magistrates court of one charge of caused unnecessary suffering to the animal, contrary to Northern Irelands Welfare of Animals Act on Monday (4 April).

A Dard spokesman said the department gave high priority to the welfare of animals and operated a vigorous enforcement policy to ensure full compliance of regulatory requirements.

Any breaches were investigated thoroughly and offenders would be prosecuted as necessary.
Only 300,000+ dollars to attend. Sidewalk: Still Free.

Democracy Please, calling all true San Franciscans!

It will cost more than four times the average income in San Francisco to have dinner next to Hillary Clinton and the Clooneys there next month.For two seats at the head table with Clinton, George Clooney and his wife, attorney Amal Clooney, at an April 15 fundraiser, a couple must contribute or raise a whopping $353,400  a huge ticket price for a hard-dollar fundraiser.Story Continued BelowRead more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/hillary-clinton-george-clooney-fundraiser-221207#ixzz45N3tWwnM Follow us: @politico on Twitter | Politico on Facebook
Drugreporters video advocacy team filmed key speeches and interviewed some of the participants at the UN's drug meeting in Vienna.

[ Audio: 10:43 ]Radio-ready: Drugreporters video advocacy team filmed key speeches and interviewed some of the participants at the UN's drug meeting in Vienna - please watch and share the movie! http://drogriporter.hu/en/cnd2016 Upcoming: April 19 to 21, the U.N. General Assembly and Special Session (UNGASS) will hold a meeting to talk about the problem of the War on Drugs. Human rights groups hope UNGASS will be an important opportunity to push the envelope, amending the United Nations Drug Treaties to safely regulate drugs, and to acknowledge and make visible the social and economic consequences of the War on Drugs. Such hopes were dashed at the annual narcotics meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna in March. Drugreporters video advocacy team filmed key speeches and interviewed some of the participants at the UN's drug meeting in Vienna. In its secretive process, delegates created an outcome document that the General Assembly is expected to endorse at UNGASS this April. Excluded from the document are the words harm reduction and any reference to naloxone. Watch the film, "Governments Disagree Over Global Drug Control" at http://drogriporter.hu/en/cnd2016
SFPD Raid Homeless Camp at the Site of Thursday's Police Killing of Jose Luis Gongora by Frank Sosa

At approxamately 11:45 p.m. on Saturday Night, members of the San Francisco Police department raided and harassed the homeless community on Shotwell betweend 17 and 18th Streets, the site of Thursday's killling of Jose Luis Gongora

San Francisco, CA (April 10, 2016) -- On Saturday night, approximately 6 members of the San Francisco Police Department raided the encampment on Shotwell Street between 17th and 18th Streets, the site of Thursday's police killing of Jose Luis Gongora. Witnesses, including us, gathered in response to a call from The Alex Nieto Coalition spokespeson Adriana Camarena on social media who received a phone call alerting her of the sudden police presence . Witnesses told The Anti Police-Terror Project that police officers knocked over objects with sticks, including several memorial candles that lined the front of Gongora's tent which is still at the scene. The officers were not keen on us filming their actions as they shined their flashlights directly into our camera lens as we tried to capture them dismantling several tents. Witnesses also saw them slashing into shelters with a knife.



"This is retaliation for witnessing a police shooting" stated Camerena at the scene. Her sentiment rang true as the police did not completely destroy or remove the encampment. After several more witnesses arrived, they got in their vehicles and left, leaving several tents and various scattered objects completely intact. Residents of the encampment did not know what to expect next, but nonetheless began to clean up their belongings, while some went back to bed.
Oberlin College Comes Under Hostile Attack from Israeli-Firster Websites

by Will Be Gnome Sun, Apr 10, 2016 3:56PM
An ancient, mutually beneficial relationship between plants and fungi could make agriculture more sustainable by reducing the need for chemical fertilizers, according to professor Heike Bucking of the South Dakota State University Department of Biology and Microbiology.

For more than 500 million years, the majority of land plants have shared their carbohydrates with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi that colonize their root systems, Bucking explained. In exchange, these fungi provide plants with nitrogen and phosphorus, and improve the stress resistance of their host.

These fungi are seen as living fossils and explore the soil with its hyphae in the search for nutrients, and deliver these nutrients to its host. As reward the host plant transfers anywhere from 4 to 20 percent of its photosynthetically fixed carbon to these mycorrhizal symbionts.

"We think these fungi have the potential to increase the biomass production of bioenergy crops and the yield of food crops and do so in a more sustainable and environmentally friendly way," said Bucking. She studies these interactions in food and bioenergy crops including wheat, corn, soybeans, alfalfa, clover and perennial grasses, such as prairie cordgrass.

Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, South Dakota Wheat Commission, Sun Grant Initiative, Soybean Research and Promotion Council and the U.S. Department of Energy -- Joint Genome Initiative.

Defining plant-fungi relationships

Supply and demand determine the amount of nutrients that plant and fungi exchange in this mutualistic relationship, according to Bucking. To unravel these complex interactions, she collaborates with researchers at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and the University of British Columbia as well as other South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station researchers.

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"Though a host plant is colonized by multiple fungi species simultaneously, the plant knows exactly where certain benefits are coming from. The host plant can distinguish between good and bad fungal behavior and allocates resources accordingly," she said, noting that the host plant transfers anywhere from 4 to 20 percent of its photosynthetically fixed carbon to mycorrhizal fungi.

These fungi also form common mycorrhizal networks that give them access to multiple hosts. Her research showed that when host plants were shaded and thus decreased their carbohydrate allocation, fungi responded by reducing their nutrient share.

Optimizing fungi for specific crops

She and her collaborators have also found that some fungi are more beneficial than others. For example, Bucking and her collaborators evaluated the relationship between alfalfa and 31 different isolates of 10 arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species.

They then classified the fungal isolates as high-, medium- or low-performance isolates. The researchers found that high-performance isolates increased the biomass and nutrient uptake of alfalfa by more than 170 percent, while the low-performance ones did not have any effect on growth.

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However, those that benefit one crop may not provide the same nutrients or benefits to another crop species, she cautioned. "Even different isolates of one fungal species can behave differently, and it will be necessary to identify fungi that are optimally adapted to their specific environment and host plant to get the highest plant benefit.

Adapting to stressors

In addition to providing nutrients, these fungi can protect food and bioenergy crops from environmental stresses, such as drought, salinity and heavy metals, and diseases, Bucking explained. "All the stresses that a plant can potentially be exposed to are generally improved by mycorrhizal interactions."

Increasing tolerance through conventional breeding generally targets only one specific stress factor, but crops are often subjected to multiple stresses simultaneously, she pointed out. "These fungi, if used efficiently, can provide the plant with an improved resistance against stresses that are often difficult for us to predict."

However, she added, more research is necessary to better understand how this ancient symbiosis between land plants and fungi can be used to its full potential.
<p><em>Rowdy Girl Sanctuary</em><span></span></p>

It's said that love knows no bounds. For a potbelly pig named Ivy, this proverb couldn't be truer. The object of Ivy's affection is another potbelly pig named Herman. When Ivy arrived at Rowdy Girl Sanctuary in Texas last July, she decided that she didn't only want Herman to be her stall mate, she also wanted to be with him every second of the day. Renee King-Sonnen, founder of Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, tells The Dodo that Herman wasn't too sure at first: "Ivy was a sassy little girl. She was smaller than Herman, and Herman didn't want anything to do with her when she first came in."

Ivy and Herman in their stall | Katie Kennedy

After a bit of time, Ivy managed to find a way to waddle into Herman's heart, and the two of them became inseparable. "She always wanted to be where Herman was," Renee says.

Dodo Shows Foster Diaries Scared Pittie Gets So Happy When He Meets This Guy And His Pack Of Dogs

Rowdy Girl Sanctuary

The pigs - who were both rescued from neglectful situations - ate together, slept next to each other, and even went for adventures around the sanctuary together. The pigs adored each other so much, the volunteers called Herman and Ivy boyfriend and girlfriend.

Can you spot Ivy? That's her directly behind Herman, trying to share his food. | Rowdy Girl Sanctuary

Unfortunately, Herman became seriously ill a couple of weeks ago. The vet who examined him believed it was cancer, but didn't think there was much they could do for him. The ever-devoted girlfriend, Ivy stayed by Herman's side throughout his illness. She slept near Herman to make sure he was never alone, and when Herman passed away on March 31, Ivy was right there with him. "My husband told me that she went to his grave and wouldn't leave," Renee says. "She stayed there for hours and hours."

Love knows no bounds! Ivy won't leave Herman's side, even after he passed away. | Rowdy Girl Sanctuary

Ivy is still in deep mourning for Herman, but she's getting lots of back caresses from her human friends, as well as attention from the other animals at the sanctuary. While no one will ever be able to replace Herman, the love that surrounds Ivy at Rowdy Girl Sanctuary will surely bring her comfort.

Ivy at Herman's grave | Rowdy Girl Sanctuary

Renee started Rowdy Girl Sanctuary after marrying a multi-generational cattle farmer named Tommy. Within months of moving to Tommy's ranch, Renee started to find it heart-wrenching to watch the cows - whom she thought of as her "babies" - being taken away for slaughter. Renee started watching animal rights documentaries and slaughterhouse videos, leading her to become vegan. She eventually convinced her rancher husband to turn his farm into a sanctuary, and even bought her husband's last herd of cows so the animals could live out their days on the land. Tommy is now vegan as well, and supports his wife in everything she does. Rowdy Girl Sanctuary is home to 49 cows, four pigs, 21 chickens, four horses, three ducks, a turkey, nine dogs and four cats. To help Renee and Tommy continue helping animals, please consider donating.
UnitedHealth Group, the largest U.S. health insurer, has decided to call it quits in two state Obamacare markets in the latest challenge to President Obamas health-care overhaul.

The insurer wont sell plans for next year in Georgia and Arkansas, according to state insurance regulators. Tyler Mason, a UnitedHealth spokesman, confirmed the exits and declined to say whether the company would drop out of additional states.

Many insurers have found it difficult to turn a profit in the new markets created by the Affordable Care Act, under which individuals turned out to be more costly to care for than the companies expected.

UnitedHealth and Aetna both posted losses from the policies last year, as did big Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in states such as North Carolina.

UnitedHealth began warning in November that it might exit ACA markets as it racked up losses. In December, the company said it should have stayed out of the individual exchanges longer.

[UnitedHealth Group says it is scaling back efforts in ACA exchanges]

Leaving some state exchanges could help UnitedHealth boost its profits next year, Ana Gupte, an analyst at Leerink Partners, said Friday in a research note.

Exits from unprofitable markets will act as a tailwind to earnings, Gupte wrote. We have more conviction in our view that there is upside to UnitedHealths earnings estimates.

The ACA relies on private health-insurance companies to offer policies that individuals can buy in government-run markets. About 58 percent of consumers had fewer options in 2016 than the year before, while 31 percent had more choices, according to consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

UnitedHealths decision to stop offering ACA plans next year means that people who are currently enrolled with the insurer will have to choose a new health-insurance provider next year. It doesnt affect their current coverage.

As with any new market, we expect changes and adjustments in the early years with issuers both entering and exiting states, Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said in an email. The marketplace is a reliable source of coverage for millions of Americans with a robust number of plan choices.

While UnitedHealth is the biggest carrier in the United States, with about 42 million medical customers, it has a smaller role in the ACAs markets. The company had about 650,000 in individual exchange-compliant policies as of Dec. 31.

About 12.7 million people signed up for ACA coverage for this year, including about 587,800 in Georgia and 73,600 in Arkansas, according to CMS. The agency doesnt disclose what insurers people picked.

In Arkansas, 544 people were enrolled in UnitedHealth ACA plans, according to Kenneth Ryan James, a spokesman for the state insurance department. He said Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans are dominant in the state.

UnitedHealth had an additional 5,923 members enrolled in private Medicaid policies tied to the ACA in Arkansas, James said. UnitedHealth is also exiting that business.

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported earlier about UnitedHealths decision in that state.

Including UnitedHealth, Georgia has nine health insurers that offer ACA polices, according to Glenn Allen, a spokesman for the states insurance commissioner. Others include Aetna, Humana and Cigna. No other company has yet told Georgia that it is exiting its market, and companies have until May 11 to decide, Allen said.

 Bloomberg News


(Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)

White women have been dying prematurely at higher rates since the turn of this century, passing away in their 30s, 40s and 50s in a slow-motion crisis driven by decaying health in small-town America, according to an analysis of national health and mortality statistics by The Washington Post.

Among African Americans, Hispanics and even the oldest white Americans, death rates have continued to fall. But for white women in what should be the prime of their lives, death rates have spiked upward. In one of the hardest-hit groups  rural white women in their late 40s  the death rate has risen by 30 percent.

The Posts analysis, which builds on academic research published last year, shows a clear divide in the health of urban and rural Americans, with the gap widening most dramatically among whites. The statistics reveal two Americas diverging, neither as healthy as it should be but one much sicker than the other.

In modern times, rising death rates are extremely rare and typically involve countries in upheaval, such as Russia immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In affluent countries, people generally enjoy increasingly long lives, thanks to better cancer treatments, drugs that lower cholesterol and the risk of heart attacks, fewer fatal car accidents and a lower rate of violent crime.

But progress for middle-aged white Americans is lagging in many places  and has stopped entirely in smaller cities and towns and the vast open reaches of the country. The things that reduce the risk of death are now being overwhelmed by things that elevate it, including opioid abuse, heavy drinking, smoking and other self-destructive behaviors.

White men are also dying in midlife at unexpectedly high rates. But the most extreme changes in mortality have occurred among white women, who are far more likely than their grandmothers to be smokers, suffer from obesity or drink themselves to death.

White women still outlive white men and African Americans of both sexes. But for the generations of white women who have come of age since the 1960s, that health advantage appears to be evaporating.

This reversal may be fueling anger among white voters: The Post last month found a correlation between places with high white death rates and support for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

Public health experts say the rising white death rate reflects a broader health crisis, one that has made the United States the least healthy affluent nation in the world over the past 20 years. The reason these early deaths are so conspicuous among white women, these experts say, is because in the past the members of this comparatively privileged group have been unlikely to die prematurely.

Laudy Aron, a researcher with the Urban Institute, said rising white death rates show that the United States slide in overall health is not being driven simply by poor health in historically impoverished communities.

You cant explain it away as Its those people over there who are pulling us down,  Aron said. Were all going down.

For this article, The Post examined death records from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, breaking the information down geographically, county by county, by level of urbanization and cause of death.

Big cities and their suburbs  metropolitan areas of more than 1 million people  looked strikingly different from the rest of the country. The Post divided these populations into urban and rural categories, with the rural population encompassing smaller cities as well as small towns and the most remote places.

The statistics show decaying health for all white women since 2000. The trend was most dramatic for women in the more rural areas. There, for every 100,000 women in their late 40s, 228 died at the turn of this century. Today, 296 are dying. And in rural areas, the uptick in mortality was noticeable even earlier, as far back as 1990. Since then, death rates for rural white women in midlife have risen by nearly 50 percent.

In the hardest-hit places  21 counties arrayed across the South and Midwest  the death rate has doubled, or worse, since the turn of the century for white women in midlife.

In Victoria County, Tex., a rural area near the Gulf Coast, deaths among women 45 to 54 have climbed by 169 percent in that time period, the sharpest increase in that age group of any U.S. county. The death rate climbed from 216 per 100,000 people to 583.

Lisa Campbell, medical director for the Victoria County health department, said a third of adults in the county are obese, roughly in line with the national average. Also, 1 in 5 smokes  well above the national average  and people can still light up in restaurants and other public places.

Campbell said she has been struck by how many white women she knows who have some kind of cancer.

Its kind of weird, actually, she said.





White women remain an advantaged demographic, just less so, year by year. Four decades ago, the average white American woman lived eight years longer than the average white American man. Today, that health advantage has narrowed to just five years.

What were seeing is the shrinking protective effect of gender in life expectancy, said former U.S. assistant surgeon general Susan Blumenthal, a womens-health expert.

Multiple factors are converging to produce this corrosion of American health. Foremost is an epidemic of opioid and heroin overdoses that has been particularly devastating in working-class and rural communities.

Another killer is related to heavy drinking. Deaths of rural white women in their early 50s from cirrhosis of the liver have doubled since the end of the 20th century, The Post found.

Suicides are also on the rise. The suicide rate is climbing for white women of all ages and has more than doubled for rural white women ages 50 to 54.

Other trends may be contributing to the die-off, including obesity. Americans are the heaviest people in the world outside a few Pacific island nations; more than a third of adults in the United States are considered obese. The average American woman today weighs as much as an American man did in the early 1960s.

Obesity causes its own kind of liver disease and can be lethal in combination with other conditions, such as diabetes, heart attacks and strokes.

Every death is unique, with its own narrative, often one that is complicated and, in the deepest sense, personal. There are many paths to that final destination. Medical experts refer to morbidity, a catchall term for the rate of serious illnesses.

I try to emphasize: Its not just mortality  its also morbidity, said Princeton University economist Anne Case, lead author of the much-publicized study that late last year drew national attention to rising mortality among middle-aged whites, particularly among those with a high school education or less. There are millions of people underneath these graphs who are in pain.

Researchers circled the dying-whites phenomenon for several years before clearly recognizing what they were seeing. In 2014, the increase in the death rate of relatively young white women was right there in the CDCs massive annual report on American health, but it drew no comment in the introductory highlights. Readers had to scrutinize Table 23 on Page 109 to spot the trend.

Other reports were more explicit. A 2013 study at the University of Wisconsin looked at the geography of death and discovered that mortality for women of all races had risen in 43 percent of U.S. counties between 1992 and 2006. Mens mortality had risen in only 3 percent of counties.

Also in 2013, a sweeping study  Shorter Lives, Poorer Health, from the National Research Council and the National Academies Institute of Medicine  showed a broad health disadvantage among Americans compared with people in other affluent countries.

Aron, the Urban Institute researcher who co-authored that study, wrote in January 2014 that increases in mortality are especially pronounced among white women of reproductive age, not a group we generally think of as being disadvantaged. Last year, she and two co-authors published a separate article highlighting the perplexing number of white women who are dying prematurely.

Then, in November, Case and her husband, Angus Deaton, another Princeton economics professor, published their paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Deaton had recently won the Nobel Prize in economics, an honor that added media gloss to the dying-whites study. Suddenly, it was a national story.

Other researchers weighed in, debating aspects of the Case-Deaton statistical analysis. For example, their study played down differences in gender; Case and Deaton contend that the noticeably higher death rates for women were driven largely by smoking patterns.

Others have questioned the sudden focus on whites, pointing out that African Americans continue to have shorter life spans and face severe health challenges exacerbated by racial segregation and discrimination. Why, they ask, give so much attention to a group that remains statistically advantaged?





The truth is that white death rates are still much, much lower than they are for African Americans, said Bridget Catlin, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin. My concern is that people will think, Oh, its whites that need to be helped. 

Catlin is co-director of a program, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, that has found a growing divide between urban and rural health consistent with The Posts findings  and implicitly consistent with Case and Deatons, since whites are a large majority in most rural areas.

Case said that the whites who are dying are not Americas elites.

They may be privileged by the color of their skin, she said, but that is the only way in their lives theyve ever been privileged.

In at least 30 counties in the South, black women in midlife now have a lower mortality rate than middle-aged white women, The Post found. Thats up from a single such county in 1999.

Among them is Newton County, Ga., southeast of Atlanta, where the death rate for black women ages 35 to 54 dropped from 472 per 100,000 to 234. The rate for white women went the other way, from 255 to 472.



Anne Case and her husband Angus Deaton, both Princeton University economists, published a study late last year that drew national attention to rising mortality among middle-aged whites. (Yana Paskova/For The Washington Post)

Theories abound about what has sparked the die-off. Researchers have noted that a powerful opioid, oxycodone, won regulatory approval and its use became widespread around the time white death rates began to rise.

But overdoses account for only a portion of the extra deaths; something else is going on.

The stressors have increased, said Janine Clayton, director of the Office of Research on Womens Health at the National Institutes of Health. If its affecting women who previously had better health, how might it even more deleteriously affect women who previously had borderline health?

Researchers point out that this generation of white women has experienced a revolutionary change in gender roles over the past half-century, surging into the workforce while typically retaining traditional duties as domestic caregivers  a dual role to which many women of color have long been accustomed. White women often find themselves harried in ways their grandmothers could never have imagined.

I think we are undergoing a change thats comparable to the Industrial Revolution, Aron said. Those of us who are lucky enough to have jobs are sort of clinging to them for dear life.

Amid these social changes, American women collectively became more likely to engage in risky behaviors, health experts say. There is a declining difference, for example, between men and women in the consumption of alcohol, said George Koob, director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Men are still more likely to abuse alcohol, Koob said, but women tend to experience a telescoping of the negative outcomes and more quickly develop alcohol-related diseases. Koob noted that alcohol abuse can be particularly deadly in combination with obesity, which is rampant in rural America.

I think thats what youre picking up, is insults to the liver, Koob said of The Posts findings.

Women in middle age also are more likely to smoke or to have smoked at some point in their lives, and smoking-related diseases are a huge factor in womens mortality. When men began quitting cigarettes in large numbers in the 1960s and 1970s, the smoking gap between men and women nearly vanished.

Lung cancer now kills far more women than breast cancer.





Different racial and ethnic groups have distinct health profiles and particular challenges. Black women with breast cancer are more likely to die from it, for example, even though white women have higher rates of the disease. Blacks also have much higher rates than whites of heart disease, hypertension, diabetes and asthma and are less likely to have health insurance.

Whites stand out for their high rate of opioid use. Americans represent 5 percent of the worlds population but consume at least 80 percent of its prescription opioids. And whites, for complex sociological and economic reasons, are far more likely than blacks or Hispanics to be prescribed opioids.

People hooked on opioids often turn to street heroin, which gives the same effect and is cheaper. A medical study last year reported that 90 percent of the people who tried heroin for the first time in the past decade were white. Meanwhile, overdoses from painkillers, heroin and other opiates have been rising faster among women.

The CDC recently responded to the opioid epidemic with new guidelines for how and when doctors should prescribe these powerful drugs. The CDC did not issue gender-specific recommendations for men and women except for ones related to pregnancy; Blumenthal, the womens-health specialist, said sex differences are often overlooked in research reporting, as well as in clinical treatment.

In Walker County, Ala., less than an hour northwest of Birmingham, the population of 65,000 is 91 percent white, and opiate addiction is rampant. The coal mines have been shutting down for decades. Nearly 1 in 5 working-age people are listed as disabled. Since 1999, the death rate for white women 35 to 44 has jumped 170 percent, The Post found.

The countys sheriff says that 4 out of 5 arrests are for drug-

related crimes.

When we see somebody dead under 50, we automatically think drugs, said Walker County Circuit Clerk Susan Odom, whose sister died of a drug overdose. Died at home? Drugs.



Members of the St. Louis Regional Heroin Initiative prepare to execute a heroin raid on a residential property in St. Peters, Mo. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Some regions are hit especially hard, such as the belt of poverty and pain that runs across the northern tier of the South, incorporating much of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. But significant increases in white mortality also showed up in the small-town and rural Midwest  such as Johnson County, Iowa, home of the University of Iowa  and in parts of the West, such as Nye County, Nev., and Siskiyou County, Calif.

No region is completely free of the trend. The big exceptions are the major cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington and Houston. There, the death rate for whites has continued to fall, but less dramatically than for blacks and Hispanics.

Men feel these forces, too. The Post found a sharp rise in mortality among men 25 to 35  a prime age for overdoses. An older generation has also stumbled: The Posts analysis showed that, since 2008, when the nation descended into the Great Recession, the death rate for white men 55 to 64 has marched upward.

In general, men are significantly more likely to die prematurely than women. And because the male death rate is relatively high to begin with, a small spike, or even a failure to drop as expected, can mean of lot of funerals.

Compared with a scenario in which mortality rates for whites continued to fall steadily after 1998, roughly 650,000 people have died prematurely since 1999  around 450,000 men and nearly 200,000 women.

That number nearly equals the death toll of the Civil War.





The Norman Rockwell vision of America was always heavily idealized, but the country has changed in fundamental ways over the past half-century. We are now an urban society. Left behind are small towns and small cities where the kids leave after high school graduation, the churches struggle to stay open and the biggest business in town is often the local hospital.

In Bakersfield, Calif., a city of about 375,000 in heavily agricultural Kern County, Samantha Burton, 42, was addicted to painkillers for a decade but has been clean for more than two years. She said her problem started with a prescription for Percocet after she got a bad case of food poisoning.

This can be a very stifling place. Its culturally barren, she said of Bakersfield. There is no place where children can go and see what its like to be somewhere else, to be someone else. At first, the drugs are an escape from your problems, from this place, and then youre trapped.

One theory about what is causing rising mortality among whites is the dashed expectations hypothesis. According to Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin, whites today are more pessimistic than their forebears about their opportunities to advance in life. They are also more pessimistic than their black and Hispanic contemporaries.

The idea that todays generations will do better than their parents generation is part of the American Dream. It has always been true until now, Cherlin said. It may still be true for college-educated Americans, but not for the high-school-educated people we used to call the working class.

Cherlin said whites benefited from discriminatory hiring when the working class was built over much of the past century. Union jobs tended to go to whites, he said, and labor contracts protected them until the unions lost power and jobs went overseas.

Whites had a privileged place in the blue-collar economy, he said. And as the middle of the labor market disappeared, so did that historic white privilege.

Predominantly white, working-class areas with high death rates have proved to be fertile ground for Trump. Political observers speculate that the voter anger driving his campaign emerges from the many distresses felt in these economically challenged  and increasingly morbid  places.

The wave of lethal agents rolling across the country is broad in its effects, but it appears to be cresting in places that are particularly vulnerable  such as a town where the trains no longer stop, or a small city that saw its biggest manufacturer move overseas, or in a household broken by divorce or substance abuse or tragedy.

Or in the mind and body of someone who is doing poorly, and just barely hanging on.

Lenny Bernstein, Anne Hull and Kimberly Kindy contributed to this report.


Host Alex Trebek takes the stage during the Jeopardy Power Players event, taped at DAR Constitution Hall on April 9. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

The first of the loyalists took position at 7:30 in the morning. A brutally cold April rain may make daffodils droop, but it cannot daunt these hearty troops.

They are here for Jeopardy, Power Players Edition. But really they are here for America. One rooted in facts and truths, governed by rules, research and historical precedents. One in which the smartest person wins.

And they are here, by the thousands, out of love for that greatest of all Americans, Alex Trebek. Never mind that he was born in Canada  thats a detail we are willing to overlook.

So inside the storied marble walls of DAR Constitution Hall well go, where on Saturday five episodes of Jeopardy were taped in front of some 6,000 superfans. And these are not just any episodes. These are the Power Player shows  like Celebrity Jeopardy, but with Famous-for-D.C. types.

And so here comes conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, bounding onto the specially constructed stage, to stand before a massive American flag and a somewhat-angry-looking replica of Lincoln in his memorial. Its not quite 9:30 a.m., but shes plenty awake, the first to run the traps each of the 15 contestants will encounter before taping begins.

She will answer questions from the media, learn how to use the buzzer  harder than it looks, staffers insist  and, with others, play a practice game with a Trebek stand-in to get the rhythm of the thing.

Her goal for today, it turns out, will be the same as that of every one of her fellow contestants: Dont get embarrassed.



From left, Chuck Todd, S.E. Cupp and Jonathan Franzen take the Jeopardy stage. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

Next out is that famed man of letters, Jonathan Franzen, wearing dark jeans, mussed hair, sport-coat-no-tie. Hes also wearing a vague look of nausea. Asked about the motto he lives by, Franzen mutters something about Don DeLillo and notes how much he admires St. Francis. Then hes gone. Hell be back in three or four minutes, his handler assures a colleague. He just wanted to get off stage. Writing sweeping, 500-page domestic novels is, apparently, poor preparation for the trials of Jeopardy.

But Chuck Todd, moderator of NBCs Meet the Press, is on his way to the spotlight, looking confident, relaxed, ready to play. I did this one other time, he explains. Having won that other time, my wife was very much against me doing this again.

By 10 a.m., its time for the practice game to begin, and most of the crowd has been seated, rain-soaked and red-nosed, blowing warm breath into cold, cupped hands.

Category: A Colorful Category. Answer, as read by the Trebek body-double: Jet and ebony.

Black! Franzen shouts. Correct, but he forgot to use his buzzer and to phrase it as a question. No points awarded. During break, a producer will give the Pulitzer finalist some remedial buzzer tips, which seems to help.

Twenty minutes later, the crowd  mostly white, mostly young(ish), mostly self-professed nerds  hears the words theyve been waiting for. And now, here is the host  Alex Trebek!

He tells the contestants its time to get to work, and categories come flying. We can tell you nothing of the results, lest the Jeopardy Gods place a pox upon our house. (Perhaps there is a clue regarding the winners encrypted into this story. If anyone can decode it, a Jeopardy fan can. But would a true loyalist want to?)



Trebek takes questions from the audience during a commercial break. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

Commercial break. And here Trebek comes alive. He is 75 and somehow ageless. The voice, the stature, the face virtually unchanged after 32 years as host of the longest-running game show on American television. He bounds to the front of the stage to take questions from the audience.

Q: Where do you get your questions?

A: We have a staff of researchers.

Q: When are you going to retire?

A: When am I going to retire? Jeez. I never liked you.

Final Jeopardy and then a few more questions.

Q: Whats your favorite place to travel?

A: I love going to Yorkshire, England. Especially Haworth, home of the Brontes.

Q: How do you prepare for every taping?

A: I drink. And Im going to go do that now.

They laugh after almost every response. It doesnt much matter what he says. Trebek can do no wrong. Especially in Washington, which he swears is his favorite place to tape. D.C. Jeopardy fans are not only loyal, he says. They are very kind. They are very supportive, and theyre bright. And that, of course, elicits one of the biggest rounds of applause for the day.

[From 2012: Alex Trebek, the man with all the answers, is still looking for a few:I will die without having come up with the answers to many things]

Its time for Round 2 and former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, who says he wants Jeopardy fans to know that he used to deejay. And I still do. Thats how I relax. After a long day, I go home. I set up my boards . . .



From left, Anderson Cooper, Lara Logan and Michael Steele clown around on the stage at DAR. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

Anderson Cooper saunters out wearing a teal necktie coordinated to match his eyes. Hes been on Jeopardy three times. Won twice. But thats not what he wants to talk about. He wants to talk about the time he lost  to Cheech Marin. Who not only beat me, he butchered me. Redemption would be sweet.

But first hell have to get through CBS News foreign correspondent Lara Logan, who seems a tad nervous. Its terrifying, she says. Id rather be with the Special Forces covering the Islamic State than be on this show.

Like the other contestants, Logan is asked to play a get-to-know-you word association game.

Hamilton, is the word an interviewer gives Logan. Previous contestants had given responses such as Alexander and musical.

Hamilton Beach, Logan replies, before launching into a story about a faulty small appliance she wanted to return. There were details, but lets just make this a public service reminder not to be on the other end of Logans customer-service calls.

After a lunch break, Round 3 pits CNN anchor Kate Bolduan against Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart and comedian Louis C.K. In this context, the most popular comedian of the moment seems more like a beloved, middle-aged uncle  ill-fitting suit, unbuttoned shirt, obvious self-doubt. I dont know much of anything, he says. I barely graduated high school.

[From 2013: Alex Trebek on the only trick to winning Jeopardy]

The competition gets underway, but soon the real show  the show between Trebek and his fans  continues.

Q: What percent of the questions on the show do you get right?

A: About 60 percent. It used to be higher, but I have no knowledge about the current music scene. Boyz II Men and the Mills Brothers are the same to me.

Q: Who should play you in the biopic of your life?

A: Kevin Kline, Johnny Depp, Kevin Spacey or Betty White.



A buzzer awaits celebrity contestants during the Power Players event. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

Trebeks stand-in during rehearsal, Jimmy McGuire, warms up the audience at DAR Constitution Hall. (Doug Kapustin/For The Washington Post)

Round 4 comes and goes with Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) playing against Republican strategist Ana Navarro and CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin. Trebek makes more cracks about his drinking, his murky retirement plans and the Washington regions faulty Metro system.

By the time taping of the last show begins at 8:30 p.m. Abe Lincolns eyes have begun to look more tired than angry.

But Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner is ready to test his knowledge against CNNs David Gregory and Melissa Harris-Perry, who recently walked off her MSNBC show but hinted at her upcoming plans: Keep an eye on my shoes. Huh. (For the record, they were nude, peep-toe, platform pumps.)

The buzzers start going, and when they stop, Trebek makes his way to the audience for one last set of questions.

Q: Favorite topic of all time?

A: Weve done more than 7,000 shows. And I have trouble remembering what I ate for dinner last night.

Q: How did you get involved with the musk ox? This question comes from a former Jeopardy contestant  there are several in the audience  and it prompts a long explanation from Trebek. He explains that the musk ox is like a buffalo with a long fur coat. He once read that to protect themselves against their biggest predator, wolves, musk oxen form a circle around the herds women and children, with their horns facing out. Trebek was enchanted by the way they get in formation to protect their families and became an ambassador for the Musk Ox Farm in Alaska.

So when you make a donation, he says, You will get a card signed by me as Father of the Herd. 

By 9:15 p.m. the final round of applause has been given. But Trebek is still on stage, shaking hands, posing for pictures, standing in front of a giant American flag, tending to his herd.
I once lived in Scarsdale, N.Y., one of the most education-obsessed villages on the planet. During a big parents meeting at the public middle school, I amused myself by raising my hand and asking how they were going to decide who would be accelerated into algebra in eighth grade.

It was an unkind and immature thing to do. As I expected, my question unleashed a wave of anxiety that forced administrators to abandon the nights agenda and deal with nothing else until we went home. In Scarsdale, as well as many parts of the Washington area, few topics grab more parental attention than middle school accelerated math.

But now, the nations biggest school reform, the Common Core State Standards, suggests those families restrain their ambitions and delay algebra until high school.

Hows that going?

In the Washington area, slowly. Districts here seem reluctant to defy parental expectations. Nor are reform advocates explaining their intentions well.

[Many parents hated Common Core math at first, before figuring it out]

Here is how the Common Core begins its explanation of the eighth-grade math course it offers as an alternative to Algebra I: Formulating and reasoning about expressions and equations, including modeling an association in bivariate data with a linear equation, and solving linear equations and systems of linear equations.

I was a good math student. I took calculus during my senior year of high school, a big goal for parents who want their children to take algebra in eighth grade. But I found the Common Core website to be inscrutable. Parents who need a clear reason for restraining math acceleration in middle school are not getting it.

Instead, they listen, fidgeting, as educational leaders such as San Francisco Schools Superintendent Richard Carranza tell them to trust the educators. This is the Good Housekeeping seal of approval of our teachers, he told 640 parents at a raucous discussion of Common Core math.

Tom Loveless, a Brookings Institution nonresident senior fellow, says the reduction in eighth-grade algebra appears to have made headway nationally. The portion of eighth-graders in advanced math has declined from 48 percent in 2013 to 43 percent in 2015. But that trend is less evident in the Washington area.

[Read Loveless report]

Virginia, not a Common Core state, has no barriers to eighth-grade algebra. Seventy-four percent of Arlington County eighth-graders completed algebra or more in 2015. In Loudoun County, that portion was 80 percent, and in Fauquier County, it was 55 percent.

Suburban Maryland and D.C. schools have adopted the Common Core without, so far, the eighth-grade math change. Mathematically advanced D.C. eighth-graders declined slightly from 41.8 percent in 2013 to 40.3 percent in 2015, but Brian Pick, D.C. schools chief of teaching and learning, said, for students ready to access higher levels of math, for example eighth-graders taking algebra I or geometry, we ensure that happens.

Montgomery County schools spokesman Brian Edwards said that the Common Core eighth-grade math course has not been introduced because we have been rolling up the curriculum over the last few years and this year is the first year that we have implemented the CCSS grade seven math.

Eighth-grade algebra enrollment declined in Montgomery after the district decided some students were not ready for the harder work. But 64 percent of the districts eighth-graders completed algebra or more last year. With better Common Core teaching in earlier grades bolstered by more professional development, Edwards said, the number of students ready for eighth-grade algebra should increase.

Private schools arent reducing eighth-grade algebra. The private BASIS school that is planned for McLean, with the nations most accelerated curriculum, has hired Vern Williams, a legendary algebra teacher, after his long career at Longfellow Middle School in Fairfax County.

Many teachers say they like the Common Cores deeper content and more logical framework. Some of that will probably survive. But ambitious parents such as the ones I knew in Scarsdale are unlikely to tolerate delaying algebra, no matter what the experts say.
A view of American University, in Washington, D.C., where options abound for off-campus educational experiences and internships, a selling point for urban schools. (Evy Mages for The Washington Post)

The iconic image of the American college town as a bucolic New England village is rapidly undergoing a makeover as students are increasingly choosing campuses in cities that are turning their urban cores into centers for eds and meds.

Today, in the 20 largest U.S. cities, a college, university or medical institution is among the top 10 private employers. At least half of those top employers in five cities  Washington, Philadelphia, San Diego, Memphis and San Jose  are educational and medical institutions.

Even in the District, where enrollment caps have restricted the growth of universities despite growing student demand, attitudes about the role higher education can play in economic development are shifting.

For a long time, higher ed was perceived by some in Washington as an annoyance, said John C. Cavanaugh, president of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area. But with federal contracting in decline, people are increasingly seeing higher ed as the ticket to the future.

What has long been said about real estate is also true for colleges: Location matters. Students and their parents have typically scrutinized a schools place on a map with regard to the surrounding amenities: Are there enough restaurants and bars? Is it close to the beach or the mountains?

Cover of 'There Is Life After College' by Jeffrey J. Selingo

But a colleges location is about more than amenities and recreational opportunities for students. Even in a virtual age, it matters more than ever to graduates success in the job market. As off-campus experiences increase in importance to a students career, those who attend schools in out-of-the-way places often struggle to find the kinds of internships and work experiences nearby that are necessary to gain the skills employers want.

Last year, when Sweet Briar College initially announced it would close, the colleges president lamented to a reporter that the campus, outside Lynchburg, Va., was 30 minutes from a Starbucks.

As the creative juices and financial rewards of the economy cluster around two to three dozen communities across the country, nearby colleges are poised to be some of the biggest beneficiaries. The knowledge that flows back and forth between the local economy and higher education fuels the growth of intellectual capital for both sides, providing students with unparalleled opportunities for research projects, internships and good jobs after graduation.

We see the city as our laboratory for our students, said Scott Bass, American Universitys provost. Being in D.C. is an enormous advantage for our students in their interactions with faculty, who are very connected to the broader community and to top thinkers.

In Tenleytown, there are daily reminders of how AU uses its location in the nations capital as a key selling point. The universitys shuttle buses are ubiquitous, each emblazoned with a phrase about its students, faculty or alumni. AUs students log more than 100,000 service hours each year, and faculty appear in the news every 24 minutes.

Compared with similarly ranked schools outside of a major city or suburb, urban institutions such as American University have broad advantages tied to their location through the faculty and students they are able to recruit, as well as the internship opportunities they can offer. (Eighty-four percent of AU students intern at least twice before they graduate.)

Kyle Anderson, an AU senior, has completed four internships, most of them during the academic year. Not only was the competition for those intern spots less intense during the school year, the experiences also helped him better prepare for the demands of the workplace, because he learned to juggle a job and classes at the same time.

Author Jeffrey J. Selingo. (Jay Premack Photography)

If I had gone to school outside a city, I couldnt design a schedule that would allow me to work a few days a week on the days in between, he said. I was applying what I learned as I was learning it.

Moodys Investors Service, which examines the financial health of colleges, is particularly bullish on urban institutions. Dennis Gephardt, a vice president at Moodys, specifically cited AU as a school that has benefited from being located in the nations capital and a few blocks from the more prestigious Georgetown University. Rural institutions are doing less well, Gephardt said, because they are not as popular with students.

An important part of going to college is building the foundation of a social and professional network students can use in starting a career. That network can be constructed at a college anywhere through classmates, professors and alumni, but a school in a large community or metro area can give students opportunities to extend the network well beyond the campus. This wider network of contacts can provide even students at less prestigious colleges an extra boost in the job market that the name on the degree alone cant furnish.

To help students and their families locate the places that offer a mix of off-campus learning experiences and post-graduation jobs, the American Institute for Economic Research publishes two lists annually ranking college towns, though they dont get nearly as much attention as the U.S. News & World Report college rankings.

The institutes College Destinations Index ranks the top 75 metro areas based on the four categories that most affect a students off-campus experience: student life, economic health, culture and employment opportunities. The institutes Employment Destinations Index ranks the top 75 metro areas based on eight economic and quality-of-life factors that motivate job seekers to move.

What may interest students most about these two surveys are the cities that ranked high on both lists because they have a vibrant economy that can provide opportunities outside of the classroom, as well as full-time jobs after graduation. The overlap between the two lists includes some of the usual suspects such as Washington and San Francisco, and smaller cities such as Austin and Raleigh, N.C. It also includes Fort Collins, Colo.; Gainesville, Fla.; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and State College, Pa.

About a million recent college graduates cross state lines each year for work and recently seem more often to be migrating west. According to a LinkedIn analysis of its members online profiles, after earning their bachelors degree from universities on the East Coast, nearly three times as many people moved to take jobs in San Francisco than West Coast graduates moved to New York City.

Some cities are natural talent magnets for college graduates. The LinkedIn analysis found that graduates were willing to move the farthest for jobs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix. Meanwhile, other cities in the LinkedIn study  Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Baltimore  were able to better retain students after graduation because of the nearby industries that attracted them there in the first place. Those cities also have a high concentration of colleges.

An urban college town is the glue that holds smart and creative people together, said Cavanaugh, the president of the metropolitan higher-education consortium, and thats good for students at the colleges in D.C. and for the regional economy.

College towns and employment hubs

These towns and cities were ranked high by the American Institute for Economic Research for their outside-the-classroom opportunities and as top destinations for students to live and work after graduation.

MAJOR METRO AREAS

1. Boston

2. Washington

3. San Francisco

4. New York

5. Baltimore

6. Seattle

7. Minneapolis-St. Paul

8. Denver

9. Chicago

MIDSIZE METRO AREAS

1. San Jose

2. Austin

3. Raleigh, N.C.

4. Pittsburgh

5. Columbus, Ohio

6. Hartford, Conn.

SMALL METRO AREAS

1. Ann Arbor, Mich.

2. Fort Collins, Colo.

3. Gainesville, Fla.

4. Lincoln, Neb.

5. Trenton, N.J.

6. Huntsville, Ala.

7. Albany, N.Y.

8. Anchorage

9. Omaha

10. Syracuse, N.Y.

11. Honolulu

SMALLEST TOWNS

1. Ithaca, N.Y.

2. Iowa City

3. State College, Pa.

4. Champaign-Urbana, Ill.

5. Columbia, Mo.

6. College Station, Tex.

7. Lafayette, Ind.

8. Bloomington, Ind.

9. Morgantown, W.Va.

Source: American Institute for Economic Research 2015 Employment Destinations Index and 2014-15 College Destinations Index

Selingo is a regular contributor to The Washington Posts Grade Point blog. This article is adapted from his new book, There Is Life After College: What Parents and Students Should Know About Navigating School to Prepare for the Jobs of Tomorrow, to be published April 12 by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) endorsed Hillary Clinton on Sunday, after months of staying neutral in the presidential contest because of his post as the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Families in Baltimore who are hurting right now need more than the promise of a political revolution, Cummings wrote in an op-ed submitted to The Washington Post.

He added that Clinton not only understands the challenges facing Baltimore and other cities, shes laid out a clear and detailed agenda that meets those challenges head-on.

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released last week showed Clinton with a clear lead over Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.) in Marylands Democratic primary, but her advantage has narrowed over the past few months. She leads Sanders 55 percent to 40 percent among likely Democratic voters in the state; a Baltimore Sun poll last month showed her pulling ahead by roughly 30 percentage points.

With Cummingss endorsement, every Democratic member of Marylands congressional delegation has backed Clinton before the April 26 primary.

On the Oversight Committee, Cummings was Clintons chief defender against Republicans during their probe into the September 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya. The investigation, he said in the fall after her testimony, was an abusive effort to derail Secretary Clintons presidential campaign. But he held off from endorsing her at the time.

The investigation is ongoing. Cummings said in a statement last week that the effort had shockingly become even more partisan, secretive, and dysfunctional.

Clinton is in Maryland on Sunday for an organizing event in Baltimore with retiring Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski (D).
Rich Leotta, the father of Montgomery County Police Officer Noah Leotta, urges Maryland lawmakers to pass the Senate-approved version of an ignition interlock bill. (Brian Witte/AP)

Marylands long-stalled ignition interlock bill, which was on the verge of final passage in the General Assembly, has hit a roadblock with the legislature set to adjourn Monday at midnight.

After languishing in the House Judiciary Committee for seven years, the bill to expand the use of ignition locks on drunk drivers vehicles advanced in the House and Senate after the widely publicized death of Noah Leotta, a Montgomery County police officer killed by a drunk driver while on DUI patrol.

The two chambers need to reconcile differences in the bills before the session ends.

Advocates, including Leottas parents, are worried that the legislation could be derailed over a plan by Sen. Robert A. Zirkin (D-Baltimore County) to amend the bill to include a separate Senate measure that would allow punitive damages in civil lawsuits involving drunk drivers.

Chuck Hurley, legislative chair for MADD Maryland, said the group does not oppose the punitive damages bill, which was not voted on by the House Judiciary Committee. But he said the measure should not be added to Noahs Law, which was named for Leotta.

Both bills should stand on their own merit, and Noahs Law is the one that would save lives, Hurley said. Were concerned that [the amendment] could hurt, if not kill, Noahs Law, which would be inexcusable.

For the past two days, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Rich Leotta, Noahs father, have held news conferences pushing for the General Assembly to act on the version of the bill that was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee, without the punitive damages bill attached.

I didnt think I would be here with two days left to go, fighting for this tooth and nail all the way, Rich Leotta said Saturday at the State House. It just shouldnt be that way.

Both the House and Senate versions of the bill would require motorists convicted of driving at or above the states legal blood alcohol limit of .08 percent to have an ignition interlock placed on their vehicle.

The Senate bill goes further than the House version by requiring ignition locks for drivers who have failed a breath-alcohol test  even before they have been convicted of a crime.

The sooner you get the drunk driver onto an ignition interlock, the greater the chances that it will ultimately modify their behavior and reduce the recidivism rate, said Del. Benjamin F. Kramer (D-Montgomery), who sponsored the bill that was amended in the House but said that he prefers the Senate version.

Del. Kathleen M. Dumais (D-Montgomery) accused Zirkin of legislative blackmail for attaching the punitive damages bill. The Senate is trying to ram this through because they cant get it through the House judicial committee, she said.

Zirkin said he is a huge supporter of ignition interlocks, is committed to Noahs Law and has no intention to do anything to hurt the legislation.

He said the purpose of the punitive damages amendment, which will be offered Monday in conference committee, is to hold drunk drivers responsible  civilly as well as criminally and administratively. The more we do on all three, the more chance of changing behaviors, Zirkin said. We intend to fight all the way . . . to ensure that drunk drivers are truly held responsible.

josh.hicks@washpost.com
Eighth in a series on the Democrats seeking the primary nomination in Marylands 8th Congressional District.



Del. Kumar Barve, left, and Sen. Jamie Raskin, right, participate in a forum with fellow candidates. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

Back when Maryland lawmakers staged an annual satiric review called the Legislative Follies, Del. Kumar P. Barve did his part by donning a turban to become Kumar the Magnificent  modeled after the soothsaying Johnny Carson character who could divine answers even before he knew the questions.

The follies are long gone, scrapped by politicians leery of skits backfiring into YouTube embarrassments.

But Kumar Prabhakar Barve, the countrys first state legislator of Indian descent, says hed be comfortable reprising the role, even at the risk of offending.

It was definitely not politically correct, said Barve, who is seeking the Democratic congressional nomination in Marylands 8th District. But I think a person is always at liberty to make light of their own ethnicity.

Barve, 57, a seven-term delegate who represents Rockville and Gaithersburg, looks for opportunities to bring a lighter touch to his politics. In a campaign filled with solemn and earnest discussions of jobs, immigration, redistricting and climate change, he stands out as serious about the work  but less so about himself.

Dapper in a dark suit, crisp white shirt and bright, solid-colored tie with matching pocket square, Barve urges on audiences if he hears even a scattering of applause for one of his points.

Its okay. Show the love! Show the love! hell say.

[Barve tells grandfathers story to denounce immigrant bashing]

But he can get serious, as he did early in the campaign, when the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Republican presidential candidates prompted him to produce a video about the struggles of his immigrant grandfather.

Shankar Laxman Gokhale, a scientist for General Electric, lost his U.S. citizenship in 1923, when the Supreme Court ruled that Indian-born immigrants were not considered white. Gokhale won a five-year legal fight to regain citizenship, but only because he had been naturalized before the ban. It would be 1946 before restrictions on South Asians were lifted.



Del. Kumar Barve is running in the April 26 Maryland primary to represent the 8th Congressional District. (Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post)

House majority leader from 2003 to 2014, Barve is the most senior of the three lawmakers in the nine-candidate field, which includes Del. Ana-Sol Gutierrez and State Sen. Jamie Raskin.

He shares nearly all of the social and economic prescriptives favored by other contenders, including a higher minimum wage, protection of abortion rights and aggressive initiatives to roll back planetary warming.

As chairman of the House Environment and Transportation Committee last year, he helped secure a statewide moratorium on fracking. He co-sponsored a bill, signed last week by Gov. Larry Hogan (R), that accelerates the states efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It updates a 2009 version, also co-sponsored by Barve, that required emissions to be 25 percent under 2006 levels by 2020. The new bill mandates a 40 percent cut by 2030.

[Maryland House Speaker Mike Busch endorses Barve for Congress]

An accountant and chief financial officer of a Rockville environmental cleanup company, Barve emphasizes technology and its potential to create jobs. In 1998, he led the establishment of the Maryland Technology Development Corp., intended to foster the transfer of new technology from research labs and universities. A recent study found that the organization led to the creation of 4,300 jobs in 2015, with salaries averaging $74,000 a year.

He grew up in Silver Spring, watching Star Trek and dreaming of joining the space program one day. As a small, skinny kid with a funny name, he was bullied at Rosemary Hills Elementary, which he said went something like this:

Hey Kumar, did you go to church for Easter?

No. Im a Hindu. I dont go to church for Easter.

Bam.

After graduating Paint Branch High School and Georgetown University, he worked for a series of NASA and defense contractors. He entered politics through the Maryland chapter of the abortion rights advocacy group NARAL, which was looking for a treasurer, and made his first run for the House of Delegates in 1990.





His record is not unblemished. He was arrested by Gaithersburg police for driving under the influence in November 2007, pleaded guilty and received probation and a fine.

In 2008, news organizations reported that Barve and his wife, Maryland Workers Compensation Commissioner Maureen Quinn, were receiving homestead property tax credits on two houses they had owned since before they got married: his in Gaithersburg, hers in Annapolis. Barve said that when he declared his Gaithersburg home to be the couples primary residence, he assumed Anne Arundel County would discontinue the credit on the Annapolis property.

State officials cleared the couple of wrongdoing. They live in Annapolis during the annual 90-day legislative session. They sold the Gaithersburg home and rent an apartment in Rockville Town Center.

Far behind the front-runners in campaign cash, Barve is hoping to squeeze out a victory with support from more-moderate Democrats in his central Montgomery base of Gaithersburg and Rockville. In a crowded field, 30 percent of the vote, possibly less, could win. Not even Kumar the Magnificent can say for certain whether that strategy will work.

I happen to think my chances are good if Montgomery County voters get to know who I am, Barve said. I think theyll like me better than anyone else.

Next: David Anderson.
The Prince William County School Board last week reaffirmed its decision to rename Godwin Middle School for a local philanthropist and community leader.

Board members voted unanimously March 2 to rename the Dale City school in honor of George M. Hampton in a compromise that also called for the countys newest elementary school to be named in memory of Kyle R. Wilson, the only Prince William firefighter to die in the line of duty.

Hampton and Wilson had been the two most popular choices for the new elementary schools name, so board member Justin David Wilk (Potomac) introduced the idea of calling the new school Wilson and renaming Godwin. He said it was fitting that the name of Hampton, an African American, would replace the name of the late Mills E. Godwin Jr., a two-term Virginia governor who Wilk said had a segregationist past.

But criticism of the decision came quickly. Godwin School staff members and parents were upset that they had not been notified of the possible name change. Others questioned what the swap would cost, a matter that remained unclear last week.

The controversy prompted school board member Gilbert A. Gil Trenum Jr. (Brentsville) to ask to revisit the issue. He introduced a motion Wednesday that would have retained Godwin and named a future school for Hampton. That move, however, failed on a 5-to-3 vote.

George M. Hampton talks with Stacy Booker, left, after a Prince William County School Board meeting last week. The board reaffirmed its March decision to rename a school after Hampton. (Jonathan Hunley/For The Washington Post)

In their haste to make a decision March 2, Trenum said, board members neglected the Godwin Middle School community, and we didnt give them a voice at the time.

He also said that the board took the naming process, aimed at honoring people, and inserted race into it. Some of his colleagues, however, took issue with Trenums comments.

How dare you say we inserted race, board Vice Chairman Lillie G. Jessie (Occoquan) said. She spent several minutes describing some of the challenges she and others overcame as African Americans. Her husband, Richard, also spoke Wednesday in favor of the March 2 decision.

Board Chairman Ryan Sawyers (At Large) called Trenums move pure political theater. Trenum and board members Alyson A. Satterwhite (Gainesville) and William J. Deutsch (Coles), who voted with him, knew the motion would not pass, yet pursued the plan anyway, Sawyers said.

He said that it is generally expected that individuals for whom schools are named are good people. But Mills Godwin was not a good person, Sawyers said from the dais, his voice rising.

The boards vote followed a lengthy public comment session, in which more than 20 people spoke in favor of maintaining the earlier decision about Godwin. They talked passionately about segregation and the pain and injustice of racism in general.

One of those who came to the lectern was the Rev. Keith A. Savage, pastor of First Baptist Church in Manassas. He noted that Godwin never apologized for his role in Virginias massive resistance to school integration.

He later expressed regret, Savage said, but not an apology.

A few speakers Wednesday criticized the school name change, although they did not specifically praise Godwin, who served twice as governor  as a Democrat (1966-1970) and as a Republican (1974-1978). He also created the states community college system.

Mary Jo Stoy, a secretary at Godwin, reminded the board that her community did not know a name change was being considered, so they did not have the option of speaking on the matter at the March 2 meeting.

Godwin Middle School supporters would have been here in full force, said Stoy, who has worked at the school for 37 years.

After Wednesdays vote was recorded, well-wishers surrounded Hampton outside the chamber at the Edward L. Kelly Leadership Center. He said he was happy with the boards decision, and he confirmed that it means even more to him because it includes a repudiation of Godwin.

Of course it does, Hampton said.

Drex Bradshaw, however, when reached Thursday, said he was not pleased about the decision. The 77-year-old retired naval aviator knew Godwin for most of the former governors life, and he still lives in Chuckatuck, a neighborhood of Suffolk city where Godwin grew up.

Bradshaw, a member of the Greater Chuckatuck Historical Foundation, said that political correctness has run amok and that the reasoning for stripping Godwins name from the Dale City school also would call for removing mention of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson from public places because of their misdeeds.

He said that Godwin was not a racist but simply a politician caught up in that eras Virginia Democratic political machine, run by former Virginia governor and U.S. senator Harry F. Byrd Sr.

Godwin was doing what everybody else was doing back in those days, said Bradshaw, adding that it was wrong to chastise Godwin now that he is dead and cannot defend himself.
Christian Alminana/Getty ImagesA daylong series of free events paying homage to the late Lou Reed will be held on July 30 at a number of locations throughout Lincoln Center in New York City. The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed is being curated and co-produced by Reed's widow, avant-garde artist Laurie Anderson, and Hal Willner, who collaborated with Lou on several of his later albums.

The festivities will begin with a group Tai Chi session with Reed's teacher Master Ren Guangyi, also will include film screenings, a sound installation created using Lou's guitars and amplifiers, a reading of the influential songwriter's lyrics by noted actors and artists, and a number of musical performances. The celebration will culminate with an all-star tribute concert at Damrosch Park dubbed "Lou Reed's Love Songs" featuring musicians from a variety of genres followed by a screening of the 2008 concert film Berlin.

In addition, Reed's music will be played over speakers around Lincoln Center throughout the day.

The Bells: A Daylong Celebration of Lou Reed is part of the 2016 Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival. For more information about the event, visit AboutLincolnCenter.org.

Reed died of liver cancer in October 2013. He was 71.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Bullying prevention talk for parents on Monday

Bullying prevention trainer Bob Garrity will be on hand Monday at 7 p.m. to offer parents tips, strategies and resources to address bullying.

The free session will be at Benton Middle School, 7411 Hoadly Rd., Manassas.

Staff members of the Prince William County school system will also discuss strategies and policy regarding bullying in schools.

Summer STEM Academys sign-up deadline is April 30

April 30 is the deadline for high school juniors and seniors to apply for a week-long summer STEM Academy at Northern Virginia Community College.

The program, funded by a Perkins grant, will be at the Manassas campus the week of June 20, and at the Alexandria, Annandale, Loudoun and Woodbridge campuses the week of June 27.

Registration is $30. Selected students will be notified by May 10.

For information or to apply, email igomez@nvcc.edu.

Dont get sloppy: Police to focus on litter laws in April

Prince William County police will be enforcing litter laws and concentrating on illegal dumping and unsecured truckload laws throughout the month.

The campaign to raise awareness of littering and related crimes is part of Litter Enforcement Month, a regional effort in support of the Alice Ferguson Foundations Trash Free Potomac Watershed Initiative.

Residents and business owners are also asked to participate in Take Control! Take Care of Your Trash! by notifying county police of community cleanup plans. Information should be e-mailed to crimeprevention@pwcgov.org.

To report trucks with unsecured or uncovered loads, illegal dumping or other violations, call 703-792-6500.

Bluebird Tours to include festivals, Nationals games

Bluebird Tours, a Prince William County Area Agency on Aging program, has planned several bus tours for residents 55 and older.

Tours will include:

All the Way at Arena Stage on Wednesday.

Washington Nationals vs. the Braves on Thursday.

In the Mood: A 1940s Musical Revue at the Weinberg Center for the Arts in Frederick, Md., on April 20.

Jersey Boys at the National Theatre on April 23.

The Virginia International Tattoos performance in Norfolk on April 24.

Dial M for Murder at Olney Theatre Center in Olney, Md., on April 27.

Nationals vs. the Phillies on April 28.

The 89th Shenandoah Apple Blossom Parade and Festival in Winchester on April 30.

Jamie Dailey and the Bluegrass Band in Winchester on May 1.

A Springfest trip to Ocean City, Md., May 4-6.

Wizard of Oz at the National Theatre on May 7.

Nationals vs. the Mets on May 25.

Kinky Boots at the Kennedy Center on June 18.

River Dance at Wolf Trap on June 26.

Bridges of Madison County at the Kennedy Center on July 16.

A Fall in Maine tour, Sept. 28-Oct. 3.

For information or reservations, call Quality Tours at 703-339-0333 or visit pwcgov.org/bluebird.
A toddler died Friday at a hospital in Cumberland, Md., and the childs father was arrested Saturday night and charged in the death, the Maryland state police said.

They said Kyle J. Poindexter, 22, of Cresaptown, Md., was charged in the death of Avery Poindexter, a two-month-old girl. The police said medical personnel at the Western Regional Medical Center in Cumberland found bruises on her head and face.

The child had been left in Kyle Poindexters care while the mother went to work Friday morning, the police said. Later, they said, the father contacted neighbors, saying the child had stopped breathing.

An autopsy was conducted and it was determined that the girl died of a head injury, police said.

They said Poindexter was charged with second degree murder.

On the afternoon of April 8, 2016, investigators from the Combined County Criminal Investigation Unit, Child Protective Services, the Maryland State Police Criminal Enforcement Division and the State Police Homicide Unit were contacted about the death of Avery Poindexter. The infant had been transported to the Western Maryland Regional Health Center in Cumberland earlier that day, where she had been pronounced dead. Medical personnel observed bruises on her head and face and notified police.

The preliminary investigation indicated the childs mother went to work yesterday morning and left the child in the care of her boyfriend and father of the child, Kyle Poindexter. She was notified in the early afternoon that the baby was being transported to the hospital. Investigators learned Poindexter had contacted neighbors, saying he needed help because the baby had stopped breathing. The neighbors began CPR while the father called 911.

Maryland State Police homicide investigators arrested an Allegany County man tonight and charged him with the murder of his infant child.

The accused is identified as Kyle J. Poindexter, 22, of the 12000-block of 6th Avenue, Cresaptown, Md. He is charged with second degree murder, first degree assault, second degree assault, and reckless endangerment. Poindexter is currently awaiting a bond hearing before an Allegany County court commissioner.

The victim is identified as Avery Poindexter, two months old, of the same address. Avery was the newborn daughter of Kyle Poindexter.
Personnel from D.C. Fire and EMS and American Medical Response prepare to transport a patient from a Southeast Washington apartment complex to a nearby hospital on March 28. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

The mother from Northeast Washington complained of stomach pain and had been vomiting. Shed recently had foot surgery, and her daughters were concerned enough to call 911.

D.C. Fire and EMS ambulance Medic 17 and Engine 8 pulled up to a housing project along Interstate 295, where Kianna Lofton, a paramedic, and other city emergency responders checked on the 43-year-old woman.

Lofton pricked the patients finger to test the womans blood-sugar level after team members noted that their patient suffered from high blood pressure, arthritis and diabetes. The woman appeared a bit disoriented but was able to describe her symptoms and request a trip to George Washington University Hospital.

We are going to get you a ride in a brand-new ambulance, Lofton said reassuringly. You will be back bothering your kids before you know it.

The city crew didnt take the woman to the hospital themselves; instead, they waited with her until an ambulance pulled up from the private company American Medical Response (AMR).





Late last month, the District began using the commercial service to transport patients with less-serious symptoms. The new system is intended to free up city medics and ambulances for more dire cases and ease the strain on a department that has struggled to handle a growing number of medical calls.

City paramedics or firefighters still respond to each 911 call and assess each patients condition. In the more serious cases, they transport patients as usual. During the first week, 2,135 people were taken to hospitals; 678 were transported by the private service, or about 32 percent of the overall cases. They represent about half of the patients with less-serious conditions.

D.C. Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean proposed the plan, based on his experience as fire chief in Seattle, as the first step to help the District deal with a system that ran out of available ambulances on a daily basis. In the first week of supplementing the agencys fleet, Dean seemed pleased but remained circumspect in his analysis. He said his staffers are still adjusting and chose to transport hundreds of patients in instances in which the private service could have been used.

My initial assessment is, even though our people have been a little bit shy, is that they are embracing this, Dean said. We are not running out of units as quickly, we are achieving our mission and we have a lot of training going on.

[D.C.s fire chief works to put out hot spots in his agency]

The new system faced a tremendous test on its first day, March 28, when authorities were called to four fires, rescued 17 high school boaters from the Potomac River and then rushed to the U.S. Capitol after police shot a man with a gun.

In a rare twist, the head of the citys firefighters union, often critical of top officials, praised the departments plan and leadership.

Personnel from American Medical Response and D.C. Fire and EMS load a patient onto an ambulance after a call at an apartment in Northeast Washington on March 28. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Monday was just a really crazy day. Can you imagine if we didnt have those extra units in place? Somewhere, some way, someone would have been waiting for an ambulance, said Ed Smith, the chairman of the union.

It could have been a national embarrassment. Instead, we were there.

Though the start has been promising, fire officials acknowledge there have been some glitches as the effort launches.

AMR ran out of available ambulances six times in the first 10 days of operations, and each episode lasted between four and six minutes, D.C. fire officials said. The contractor operates between 7 a.m. and 1 a.m. daily.

The city and AMR are trying to pin down the data on response times, as preliminary statistics show that the company failed to reach calls by the contracted 10-minute window during 30 percent to 40 percent of calls during the first week.

Some of those apparent delays could be the result of drivers failing to accurately time-stamp their arrivals with dispatchers, and others could be the result of drivers still learning to navigate the city, officials said.

Under the new protocols, certain groups of patients are still transported by the city, even if their illnesses or injuries are not deemed serious. They include anyone under 18, any woman with issues related to pregnancy, anyone in law enforcement custody and anyone who is in need of a mental-health evaluation.

On the first day of the new system, D.C. Fire and EMS Capt. Alex Capece crisscrossed the Anacostia River responding to calls for people suffering from abdominal cramps and issues related to hyperglycemia, and one to help a man who refused to go to a hospital after vomiting during his dialysis treatment. Capeces job is to ensure that medic and firefighter crews arrive at calls and make proper assessments of patient symptoms.

At 29, he is the youngest captain in service, but in eight years on the job he has experienced plenty of instances in which the system has been overwhelmed at times when patients are having their worst day of their lives.

They have just been shot or had just had a heart attack, Capece said. We have been stretched to the limit. Its not fair to the providers on the street or to the residents.

He thinks the addition of private ambulances can help relieve the strain. If we can buy into this, and the provider can do what they are supposed to, this can work, Capece said as he drove on patrol.

At 1:33 p.m. that Monday, his SUV radio echoed a shrill beep, in contrast to the steady drone of addresses and ailments relayed each minute, and a dispatcher declared that the city was in Alpha Hold mode. The call initiates multiple protocols and procedures, but in simple terms it means one thing: The District just ran critically low on the number of available ambulances, and patients with less-serious afflictions will wait longer for transport.

It showed that the system remains stressed at times, but officials note that it now takes a higher call volume to reach the tipping point and that they have the ability to rebound sooner. Its not just the transports that tie up ambulances, they note, but also the time that crews must spend at hospitals.

Having AMR allowed us to recover quicker, Dean said. AMRs response times are getting better every day.

Dean expects the Alpha Hold code to eventually disappear as they find the recipe for the accurate number of medical units needed each day.

Dressed in his blue uniform with his cap cocked sideways, D.C. paramedic Max Storey stood behind his parked ambulance in the middle of the 400 block of Burbank Street SE that Monday afternoon waiting for an AMR ambulance. He had concluded that a 60-year-old woman who was confused from a hyperglycemic episode faced no serious danger. Storey requested the private dispatch at 1:56 p.m.

At 2:03 p.m., the paramedic saw flashing lights turn the corner. He flashed two thumbs up.

Heres AMR already! he shouted. As the two-man crew emerged from the ambulance, Storey complimented them. Hey guys, great response time.

The group immediately got to business as Storey relayed the diagnosis. The fire department crew and the AMR team together moved the patient from her apartment to the ambulance, where she arrived at 2:10 p.m.

Eight minutes later, Storey and his crew were back in service and ready for the next 911 call.
Last month, officials here held a special meeting for contractors interested in taking on a city job estimated at $170,000. Thats not typical. Neither were the concerns of the unidentified attendees:

Could they work at night or in the early morning, when they were least likely to draw protesters? Did they have to post signage with their company name while they worked? Would the city provide security if necessary?

The job was to haul off three Confederate monuments standing on public land, by order of the City Council. The fate of the massive statues has been a topic of increasing debate  civil and uncivil  in the courts and on streets here for almost a year. The businesses currently considering the job to remove them are understandably wary: In January, the company originally retained to do the work withdrew after the owner, his family and his employees said they had received death threats. Less than a week later, the owners 2014 Lamborghini Huracan, valued at $200,000, was found aflame in a company parking lot in Baton Rouge. Its still unclear whether the events are related. No arrests have been made.

The ugly truth about Confederate memorials

Then in February, the city removed a list of possible replacement contractors from its website after some reported receiving phone calls or emails that promised financial repercussions if they took the job. The city reported the threats to the FBI.

The Jefferson Davis statue stands across the street from First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans, on April 3, 2016. It is one of several confederate statues in the city. (Ben Depp/For The Washington Post)

Should Confederate memorials stay or go? Share your thoughts.

While those who want to preserve the monuments continue to press their legal options in federal courts and a recently introduced bill in the state legislature seeks to block the removal, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu is confident that the prominent statues of Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard and Confederate States of America President Jefferson Davis will soon be removed from public view.

If were going to have monuments on public spaces, they should represent who we are or who we want to be. . . . Thats as important as who weve been, said Landrieu, noting the city will celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2018. As we try to build a 21st century, knowledge-based city that can compete in an international economy, Im clear that the future does not belong to small, sleepy Southern cities that revere the Confederacy.

Preservation is not synonymous with reverence, says Jim Logan, a New Orleans lawyer who is on the board of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, one of four plaintiffs in a federal suit to block the citys plan.

These monuments have been up there for 100 to 150 years. Theyre historic artifacts. I think few people would say they espouse the beliefs of the citizens of New Orleans today, he said. Its trite to say that we need to remember history so we dont repeat it, but its perfectly correct.

He points to Manzanar National Historic Site in California, the site of a former war relocation center that held 110,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. And when people complained that it was wrong to honor U.S. Cavalry General George Custer by putting his name on the Montana battlefield where his troops killed Native Americans and later died themselves, the park was renamed Little Bighorn National Monument.

Nobodys saying today we agree with what happened [at Manzanar]. Were giving people the opportunity to learn about it and to have a better sense of history, he said. You dont bulldoze Custers last stand. You put up interpretive markers and give a broader treatment of what the historic event there had been.

The Jefferson Davis statue stands across the street from First Grace United Methodist Church in New Orleans, on April 3, 2016. It is one of several confederate statues in the city. (Ben Depp/For The Washington Post)

The symbols of American historys darkest chapter have been getting sharper scrutiny since last June, when nine black parishioners were gunned down during Bible study in their Charleston, S.C., church. The white man charged in those slayings, who confessed to police that he wanted to start a race war, arrayed himself with Confederate symbols in photos he posted online. South Carolina took down the Confederate flag from its statehouse grounds several weeks later, and a heated debate has spread across the country about whether emblems and monuments honor a proud past, bear witness to violence and cruelty or glorify institutionalized slavery.

Last summer, an Alabama bill seeking to change the name of the Edmund Pettus Bridge  the Selma site of a bloody confrontation between civil rights protesters and police in 1965  died in the state legislature. The proposal was to replace the former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leaders name with Journey to Freedom signage. One African American congresswoman, Democrat Terri Sewell, argued against the change, saying it would change the course of history and compromise the historical integrity of the voting rights movement.

In Baltimore, a mayoral task force has recommended removing two Confederate monuments from public parks. One depicts Confederate Gens. Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. The other is a massive sculpture of Roger B. Taney, the fifth chief justice of the United States, who wrote the 1857 Dred Scott majority opinion that people of African descent, free or enslaved, could never become citizens.

In Alexandria, Va., the City Council has asked an advisory group for recommendations on what to do about the nearly 50 streets named after Confederate generals and military leaders, as well as a statue of a Confederate soldier smack in the middle of Washington Street, a major thoroughfare through the historic citys downtown.

In Austin, the University of Texas removed a 1933 statue of Jefferson Davis from its prominent spot outside the campus clock tower in August, after withstanding a legal challenge from the Southern Legal Resource Center, which says its mission includes advocating for the Confederate community.

In New Orleans, which has gone the furthest in removing the monuments, the fight is particularly nasty. The first contractor began the project and pulled out on the same day, according to the letter the companys attorney sent to the city after receiving telephone calls, unkindly name-calling and public outrage . . . as well as other area businesses threatening to cancel existing contracts.

Last week, the words Take em down appeared on two other monuments in New Orleans.

[Which statues of historical figures should we remove? Use this test.]

Opponents say taking them down is not what New Orleanians really want. They point to an October 2015 statewide phone poll on the issue sponsored by two New Orleans media outlets, WWL-TV and the Advocate newspaper. Of 800 registered voters, 68 percent said they opposed the renaming or removal of the monuments. Less than 20 percent supported removal. The rest were undecided.

Most people drive by these monuments every day, and theyre clueless about them. They dont care. This was just meant to be political fodder, said Pierre McGraw, founder and president of Monumental Task Force, a nonprofit group that has maintained the citys statues for 26 years and has collected more than 30,000 signatures on a petition to keep the monuments. Maybe a few people had some issues, but during Carnival, I noticed all these people around Lee Circle and they were screaming  but they were screaming for throws from the parade.

Landrieu is the son of former New Orleans mayor Moon Landrieu, known for his role in desegregating local government as the citys leader. Mitch Landrieu said it was also his father who, as a city councilman in the late 1960s, persuaded his fellow elected officials to remove the Confederate flag from the councils chambers.

The mayor said he had begun meeting with small groups of citizens more than a year before the Charleston massacre, prompted by a conversation with childhood friend Wynton Marsalis. The jazz trumpeter asked: Have you ever wondered how these monuments reflect upon the city?

I learned on my fathers knee, he said. Many times, with race, you cant go around it. You cant go over it. You cant go under it. You have walk through it.

The Rev. Shawn Anglim, who helms the diverse First Grace United Methodist Church on the corner of Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway, said he was unaware there was a monument to the Confederate president across the street from his church until 2012, when vandals spray-painted it after Trayvon Martin was shot and killed in Florida. Now, Anglim is a member of Clergy for a United City, a group of more than 175 spiritual leaders who want the monuments to come down.

These symbols are hurtful. They continue to divide people as they were intended to do, and they will keep doing it in subtle and profound ways, he said. In town squares, we gather to unite, not to make some people feel unworthy.

Richard Marksbury, the dean of the School of Continuing Studies at Tulane University, said he doesnt believe that removing the monuments will make a difference.

The swastika is not allowed in Germany. Does that mean theres no anti-Semitism in Germany today? No. The movement goes underground, he said. People will just pick up some new symbol.

If the Confederate monuments are removed, Marksbury asks, which statues and monuments will fall next? One of the citys best known squares is named for President Andrew Jackson, a hero in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812. He was also a slave owner who implemented the Native American removal policy known as the Trail of Tears.

Whats the criteria for whats offensive? Marksbury asked. If we just get a tractor and start pulling everything down, where does it end?
IN THREATENING to cut off billions of dollars in annual money transfers as a means of coercing Mexico to pay for his famous border wall, Donald Trump asserts, We have the moral high ground here, and all the leverage. If only.

If Mr. Trump carried out his threat, the result would be disastrous not just for Mexico but for the United States as well. Millions of Mexicans and Mexican towns and villages, many of them already impoverished, would suddenly be deprived of a critical source of income. Hunger, disease and crime rates would spike; children would be among the most obviously and severely affected.

How does that provide a moral high ground?

As for leverage, its not hard to foresee massive adverse impacts for the United States arising from Mr. Trumps plan, an effort to force his will on a country that has long been a key ally. As every general knows, the other side gets a say in how the battle is conducted.

For starters, seizing money transfers, known as remittances, as Mr. Trump threatens to do, could quickly yield a result contrary to what Mr. Trump seeks: a wave of newly impoverished Mexican immigrants seeking a better life north of the border. That would reverse the downward trend of illegal border crossings in recent years, partly stemming from better economic conditions in Mexico

Contrary to Mr. Trumps rhetoric, Mexico is a friendly neighbor, whose cooperation with Washington on bilateral issues is vital to North American prosperity. Mexicos help in interdiction was key to the Obama administrations efforts to stanch the wave of Central American youths heading toward the United States in summer 2014. Mexican authorities work closely with U.S. counterparts on cross-border trucking and trade, drug and human trafficking, and money laundering, among other issues.

If U.S. officials have not always thought Mexicos efforts were adequate, imagine what level of cooperation they could expect after a Trump administration declared economic war to extort a sum for a wall Mr. Trump prices at $5-10 billion, but other estimates peg as high as $25 billion.

Separately Mr. Trump has vowed to deport every immigrant who is here illegally. It seems problematic to suppose Mr. Trump could block remittances from people who would no longer be in the country to transmit them. Legal experts say it would be difficult for Mr. Trump to use the USA Patriot Act, as he proposes, to block money transfers. And distinguishing transfers by legal immigrants from those by illegal ones would pose massive administrative challenges.

Illegal crossings at the United States southwestern border are near a 40-year low, and since 2009 more Mexican immigrants have been leaving the country than entering it. Whats more, a third of illegal immigrants enter the country as legal ones, then overstay their visas. Mr. Trumps plan to extort Mexico in the vain hope that a white elephant of a wall would solve illegal immigration is fanciful, naive and reckless, aimed more at exciting his base than grappling seriously with problems. But then, so is Mr. Trumps entire campaign.
THERE WAS skepticism last summer when Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced he had agreed in principle to greenlight the Purple Line, the 16-mile light-rail link that would connect Montgomery and Prince Georges counties. Mr. Hogan, a Republican, had made no secret of his doubts about transit generally, or the Purple Lines affordability in particular, and his approval of the project came with a giant asterisk: rather than sticking to an existing plan to contribute $700 million for the projects construction, the governor pared the states commitment to the rail line  a multibillion-dollar venture  by 75 percent, to just $168 million.

That may have been good politics  Mr. Hogan looked frugal to his exurban and rural Republican base, and squeezed more money for the project from mainly Democratic Montgomery and Prince Georges  but it raised questions about the long-term financing. Unfortunately, those questions have not been dispelled now that the state, with Mr. Hogans blessing, has given a final thumbs up to a massive, and massively complex, public-private blueprint to build and operate the line.

Its unfortunate because the Purple Line is worth building, and investing in, on its merits. The project provides a suburb-to-suburb transit option to supplement Metros existing hub-and-spokes model and holds the promise of rejuvenating dowdy inside-the-Beltway suburban communities along the lines 21 stations. Construction, now set to begin later this year, could yield an arc of economic opportunity just north of the District.

Yet in shortchanging the Purple Line at the outset, Mr. Hogan shifted costs, and risks, to Marylanders in decades to come, well after he leaves office. Construction by a consortium of private companies is projected to take six years, after which the same firms will operate the line for 30 years. Specifically, the state is obligated to make annual payments to the consortium, for the projects operations and debt service, that will average $150 million, regardless of whether ridership and fare revenue meet targets.

Thats a big bill, and doubtless a bigger one owing to Mr. Hogans upfront stinginess. Almost every transit system requires public subsidies to supplement fare revenue, but Maryland officials, intent on allaying the concerns of Wall Street bond rating agencies, made an extraordinary commitment: For the Purple Lines first 15 years of operations, it will receive fund transfers from the MARC commuter system to help defray the consortiums private debt.

The deal does establish a matrix of incentives, for both the state and the private firms, to build, operate, maintain and promote the Purple Line well and efficiently. The private consortium will bear the risk for construction cost overruns, and must meet rigorous standards for on-time performance, clean stations, and functioning elevators and escalators, or else face financial penalties.

Still, elements of the plan entail robbing Peter to pay Paul, which may well sap the states transportation funding generally and trigger a search for new revenues. Mr. Hogans tightfistedness today could translate into tax increases a decade from now.
WHAT IS the real meaning of the Panama Papers, millions of documents leaked from a law firm, Mossack Fonseca, showing that leaders around the world have stashed their money in offshore accounts? In many cases, offshoring was not illegal. Rather, the practice betrays a lack of confidence in the tax laws and other conditions in the leaders own countries, even as they were supposed to be enforcing those laws and creating better conditions at home. They were guilty in many cases of hypocrisy.

President Xi Jinping of China has implored members of the Communist Party to eschew the trappings of wealth, and he has carried out a campaign to root out corruption and emphasize socialist core values. He might be embarrassed that relatives of top officials in China opened offshore accounts to hold their riches. According to journalists who examined the papers, eight current and former members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the countrys top decision makers, have relatives with secret offshore companies. One of them was Mr. Xis brother in law, Deng Jiagui. In Russia, too, President Vladimir Putin has made a show of urging businessmen and others to bring their offshore property home. But the Panama Papers show that Putins pals, including a mysteriously wealthy professional cellist, were moving hundreds of millions of dollars through offshore accounts.

For some leaders in the West, too, the Panama Papers proved unsettling. The prime minister of Iceland, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, who had promised to defend the nations currency and stressed the importance of keeping money in Iceland, was found to have an offshore company, held for a while with his wife. British Prime Minister David Cameron has been thrown on the defensive about a disclosure that he earned money from an overseas investment trust established by his late father, which he sold before taking office as prime minister. Although there was nothing illegal in it, the optics are bad; Mr. Cameron has been outspoken about fighting international tax evasion.

Note how reactions differed, based on the type of government. In Iceland, a massive street protest by outraged citizens led the prime minister to resign. In Britain, Mr. Cameron is being openly challenged by other politicians. And in China? Censors went to work not only blacking out any mention of the reports about Mr. Xi but blocking any online search for brother-in-law lest it reveal news of Mr. Dengs holdings. In Russia, Mr. Putin said your humble servant was not named in the documents so there is nothing to talk about. He added that leak of the Panama Papers was an American plot against Russia. In this connection, attempts are made to weaken us from within, make us more acquiescent, Mr. Putin declared, ever the paranoid.

The Panama Papers have made an important contribution to accountability. In democratic societies, this means that leaders answer for their actions. In China and Russia, they try to conceal the truth.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, seen here at a Nov. 17, 2015 event in Richmond, hasnt spoken publicly about the latest Supreme Court nomination. (Mark Gormus/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP)

The worry these days on the eight-member Supreme Court is finding five votes on a controversial issue. But so far the justices have been unanimous in staying out of the political upheaval that has engulfed their court.

And they received a stern warning last week from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) to keep it that way.

It seems beyond question that Judge Merrick Garland is respected by the justices and a friend to many; the next step for the bright young lawyers who clerk for him at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit is often a coveted move down the street to a spot in someones chambers at the marble palace at 1 First St. NE.

[Merrick Garlands instinct for the middle could put hin in influential spot]

And there is little debate that, as Justice Elena Kagan noted last week, theres a reason that courts work better with an odd number of judges. Stalemates and tie votes already have become an issue in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalias death in February.

But so far, at least, no justice has been willing to publicly comment on Garlands qualifications for moving from the second most important court in the land to the first, nor to render an opinion about the Republican Senates refusal to consider President Obamas nominee in this election year.

Before Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke and answered questions at St. Johns College in Santa Fe, N.M., last week, for instance, audience members were told not to ask about either Garland or the nomination process.

Kagan also refused to talk about her old friend at an appearance at New York University Law School. As dean of Harvard Law School, their shared alma mater, Kagan had lauded Garland and ribbed him about making it to the bench before she did.

[Merrick Garlands record of respectful disagreements]

She had the last laugh, of course, but has demonstrated her regard for Garland by hiring eight of his former clerks since she joined the Supreme Court in 2010.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer has shooed away questions about the nomination process in appearances since Scalias death, and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told students at Georgetown Law School that the court has had an even number of justices before and we will deal with it.

It is the justices natural inclination to try to stay out of the political fray, of course. But it is not unheard of for them to venture an opinion about a nominee. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, for instance, came to Sotomayors defense before she was confirmed in 2009.

But University of Chicago law professor David A. Strauss, who interviewed Obama last week as Obama made the case for Garland, said the silence from the justices is not surprising.

I think their inclination would be to avoid doing anything that takes sides in this political fight, Strauss said.

That made the unusual preemptive warning from Grassley even more surprising.

He was reacting to remarks that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. made before Scalias death about the nomination process.

[Political wars damage Supreme Courts reputation, Roberts says]

Roberts lamented the publics growing perception of the court as a political body, and the chief justice said the blame started with the Senate confirmation process.

When you have a sharply political, divisive hearing process, it increases the danger that whoever comes out of it will be viewed in those terms, Roberts said in a speech to law students just before Scalias death.

If the Democrats and Republicans have been fighting so furiously about whether youre going to be confirmed, its natural for some member of the public to think, well, you must be identified in a particular way as a result of that process, he said.

Roberts noted that the last three nominees  Alito, Sotomayor and Kagan, all of whom he called highly qualified  were confirmed on largely party-line votes.

That suggests to me that the process is being used for something other than ensuring the qualifications of the nominees, said the 61-year-old chief justice.

Roberts has been silent since Scalias death and Garlands nomination, and in his speech on the Senate floor last week, Grassley warned the chief justice should keep quiet on the subject.

Grassley, 82, and running for what would be his seventh term in the Senate, noted a New York Times column in which a law professor said it would be an important move for Roberts, nominated by President George W. Bush, to call for the Republican Senate to make the court whole.

Thats a political temptation the chief justice should resist, Grassley said.

In his criticism, Grassley said, Roberts has it exactly backwards.

The confirmation process doesnt make the justices appear political, Grassley said. The confirmation process has gotten political precisely because the court has drifted from the constitutional text and rendered decisions based instead on policy preferences.

Oh and by the way, Grassley said: Many of my constituents believe, with all due respect, that the chief justice is part of the problem.

[Obamacare threatens John Roberts dream of a nonpartisan court]

Grassley didnt mention which of Robertss votes reflected political considerations, not legal ones, but apparently he is among the conservatives who feel let down by the chief justices votes on the Affordable Care Act.

Obama was partly to blame, too, Grassley said. Not surprisingly, [the courts] approval rating has dropped most drastically in recent years following the presidents appointment of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, he said.

The confirmation of Sotomayor and Kagan to replace Republican appointees David Souter and John Paul Stevens, respectively, have not changed the balance of power on the court that would accompany Garlands ascension to Scalias seat.

It would make a court where Democratic presidents have installed five liberals, while Republican presidents have named the four who are most conservative.

But the next president is likely to make a mark on the court as well, and Obama warned Republicans to think of the future if they recapture the White House.

So now the Democrats say, well whats good for the goose is good for the gander," Obama said, adding, If different parties control the White House and the Senate during that period of time, youre not going to get any appointments done  which is a disaster for the courts, generally.

Obama, of course, is an imperfect messenger. As a senator, he voted against Roberts, who he said was qualified for the court but lacked empathy for the little guy. And he was part of an effort to deny a vote on Alito.

He says now that he regrets that decision.
Five years after a U.N.-backed force began to push al-Qaeda-linked militants out of their strongholds, Somalia boasts clear signs of progress. Large swaths of the country have been reclaimed. Streets, beaches and markets have come back to life in once forsaken cities. The United States has promised to rebuild its long-shuttered embassy.

But as Somalia approaches a critical period, with parliamentary and presidential elections due by August, those gains are showing signs of reversal.

The al-Shabab rebels are resurgent, President Hassan Sheik Mohamud said in an interview last week. He and other senior officials acknowledged that Somalias government is still unable to provide security or public services to regions that have been liberated. The government must choose between giving its soldiers wages or weapons, he said.

The Somali government cannot afford to pay the soldiers and at the same time to purchase lethal equipment, Mohamud said. This is the dilemma that we have.

Western officials say they have provided ample aid but that much of it is diverted through corruption and that the Somali government must do a better job of constructing a security force that fits within its budget.

Somalia has been racked by near-constant conflict for the past quarter-century, resulting in chaos that provided fertile ground for the rise of al-Shabab in 2005. The United States has since spent more than $2 billion on Somalia, sending military trainers and killing militants, including two al-Shabab commanders, in drone strikes. The White House sees the group as one of its top concerns in sub-Saharan Africa, in part because its attacks extend beyond Somalia to civilian targets in neighboring Kenya, including the bloody strike on Nairobis upscale Westgate Mall in 2013.

African Union forces led an operation to push al-Shabab from Mogadishu in 2011 and went on to launch a series of offensives that prompted the militants to withdraw unilaterally from much of the territory they occupied.

But those African Union forces, which are supported by the United Nations and known by the acronym AMISOM, have largely remained confined to their bases over the past year, unwilling and unequipped to conduct offensive operations. Al-Shabab militants have encircled numerous population centers, cutting off supply lines and often moving into residential areas at night.

AMISOM and the Somali national army have remained in the barracks, Mohamud said, speaking in English in his office in a hilltop compound. The operations were less. Thats what gave space to al-Shabab.

Signs of the groups resurgence can be seen every day. Hours before a Washington Post reporter interviewed Mohamud on April 5, a member of parliament was gunned down in the capital. The day before, two intelligence agents were killed.

The enemy is more daring and more opportunistic, Foreign Minister Abdusalam Omer said. Were working hard on stabilization, but for the Somali government its like building a plane and flying it at the same time.

The Somali security forces, which are eventually supposed to assume responsibility for the fight, remain weak and disorganized, according to Western and Somali officials. On paper, the army has 22,000 troops, but analysts say there could be as few as 10,000. Last year, the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea wrote in a report that the army hierarchy has systematically inflated their troop numbers in order to secure greater funding for salaries and rations.

A European Union training mission was recently halted for several weeks because trainers worried that Somali troops who hadnt been paid might hold them hostage to bring attention to their plight.

Many of the soldiers are allied with Somalias numerous clans, with varying loyalty to the central government. Outside the military, regional fighting forces also battle al-Shabab in Somalias semi-autonomous regions.

How do we put them together? Mohamud asked about the groups of pro-government fighters. Will Shabab wait while we integrate these men and then send them back to the battlefield?

The problem goes beyond integrating clan-based groups. The military lacks arms, vehicles and bases.

Maj. Gen. Mohamed Sheik Hamud, the countrys police commissioner, described the situation facing the security forces in stark terms. Its like the police are in Guantanamo Bay, he said. We send them to these newly liberated districts, but theyre surrounded. They cant go anywhere.

We dont have the resources

Some foreign donors have grown frustrated with the militarys dysfunction. The United States provides a $100 monthly stipend to 7,000 Somali soldiers  in theory a supplement to their wages, but it is often their only income.

Theres now very serious rethinking in donor capitals about whether support for the army is appropriate, said Matt Bryden, a Somalia expert and the founder of Sahan Research, a Nairobi-based research organization. For the first two to three years of this [Mohamuds] administration, there was almost blind support. Now theres recognition that its not going to work.

As it did years ago, al-Shabab is using children to fight on its behalf. Some of them are forcibly recruited. Others join willingly because the extremists are the only ones offering education or jobs.

We dont have the resources to provide what [young people] need, said Mohamud, a former academic and UNICEF employee who was elected in 2012.

Outside his office were pictures of Somalias former leaders, including Mohamed Siad Barre, a military dictator who ruled from 1969 to 1991, when he was overthrown and Somalia disintegrated. His heavy-handed rule inflamed clan and regional rivalries, leading to fractures still visible today.

When the state collapsed, people got allegiance to their clans, Mohamud said. Now, convincing them to realign themselves with the state, handing over their weapons . . . this is what were working very hard to do.

Somalia experts say that while the country improves its security forces, it must simultaneously work on reaching a political settlement with al-Shabab. That is essential because al-Shababs freedom to operate depends in large measure on its ability to exploit long-standing clan dynamics, mistrust among the Somali people and the lack of economic opportunity, said a U.S. official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The U.S. government has been reluctant to send troops to Somalia since the Black Hawk Down operation that left 18 Americans dead in October 1993. Instead, it has conducted one of its largest drone programs, welcomed by the Somali government.

I heard that in Pakistan and Afghanistan the experience of the drones was not good, Mohamud said. But here they are precise, and we are informed of them before.

A strike last month killed 150 militants, according to the Pentagon. But the drone program hasnt stopped al-Shabab from regenerating.

Hamud, the police commissioner, offers the example of Jalalaqsi, the town in southern Somalia where Mohamud was born. It was liberated by troops from Djibouti in 2014. But the national police could afford to send only 10 officers. They were dropped off by a U.N. helicopter, he said, but have little ammunition or logistical support.

Now theyre totally neglected. They cant move anywhere, he said. You cant rebuild a country like that.

Read more:

How a breakaway region of Somalia hopes to build a new country

U.S. Special Operations forces launch helicopter raid in Somalia

Somalia banned Christmas and New Years  even though it celebrates neither
The terrorists who carried out the March 22 attacks on the Brussels airport and metro initially planned an attack on France instead, the Belgian federal prosecutor announced Sunday.

A cell of terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State largely conceived and executed Novembers attacks on Paris from the Belgian capital, where many of them were reared. According to the prosecutors office, members of this cell were apparently surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation and decided to attack locally instead.

Despite the speed of that investigation, though, the terrorists  some of whom were known to the Belgian government  were able to kill 32 people and injure hundreds more in an impromptu operation four months after attacks that killed 130 in Paris.

The Brussels attack came four days after the arrest of Salah Abdeslam, a principal suspect in the logistics behind the Paris assault. Sundays revelations confirm what many suspected: Arrests in the days before the Brussels attacks prompted a quick and desperate terrorist retaliation.

Exact details of the abandoned French attack remain unclear, and prosecutors declined to give further information.

Sundays announcement came two days after Belgian authorities arrested Mohamed Abrini and three other suspects, all of whom were charged with participating in terrorist murder and the activities of a terrorist group.

Abrini, a 31-year-old Belgian citizen of Moroccan origin, is a link between the Paris and Brussels attacks, one of many that investigators have uncovered in recent weeks.

Surveillance footage has identified him as the driver of a rented vehicle that transported terrorists back and forth across the French-Belgian border in the days before the Paris attacks. On Saturday, he admitted to police that he was the man in the hat at Brussels Airport in Zaventem, walking beside two accomplices who detonated suicide bombs March 22 inside the terminal.

Further footage from the morning of the attack shows Abrini walking out of the airport toward the city, where he remained at large until Friday.

His testimony could provide further insight into the network that planned attacks in Paris and Brussels. The extent to which that network remains active is unknown.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on Sunday announced his resignation, calling for the formation of a new government as Kiev endures its worst political crisis since the Euromaidan revolution of 2014.

The publics patience has grown thin with Yatsenyuk, as well as with President Petro Poroshenko, because of a struggling economy, stalled reforms and entrenched corruption. The ruling coalition has fractured as public support hits new lows.

As Western leaders have openly signaled their exasperation with the political logjam in Kiev, the choice of Yatsenyuks replacement is seen as a bellwether for the fate of Ukraines stalled reform program. Candidates for his successor include Vladimir Groysman, the parliamentary speaker and a close political ally of Poroshenko, and Natalie Jaresko, the technocrat finance minister born to Ukrainian immigrants in Chicago and favored by foreign investors.

Yatsenyuk, who narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in February, said in a weekly televised address that he would tender his resignation on Tuesday to end an artificially created political crisis in Kiev. He said that a new government must be selected immediately to avoid the destabilization of the executive branch during a war, a reference to the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The desire to change one person blinded politicians and paralyzed their political will for real change, Yatsenyuk said. The process of changing the government turned into a mindless running in place.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk in 2014. He announced his resignation Sunday, calling for the formation of a new government . (Efrem Lukatsky/AP)

A veteran pro-European politician who charmed Western officials in fluent, idiomatic English, Yatsenyuk had long predicted his own demise. He called himself a political kamikaze a week after the Maidan revolution that unseated President Viktor Yanukovych in 2014, predicting widespread anger over the austerity measures needed to secure a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

Two years later, Yatsenyuks opponents in parliament were accusing him of bowing to corrupt interests, including oligarchs close to the pre-revolutionary government. Ahead of the abortive no-confidence vote, Poroshenko indicated that Yatsenyuk should resign, saying that to restore public trust, Therapy is no longer sufficient. Surgery is needed.

In his speech Sunday, Yatsenyuk signaled support for Groysman, the parliamentary speaker, noting that the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko party had nominated him to lead the new government. Groysman is widely seen as the front-runner for the position. On Sunday, Poroshenko said that he expects the parliament to announce a new coalition Tuesday.

Poroshenko had suggested that Jaresko, a former investment banker, was also a prospective candidate for the prime ministers post. Her supporters thought she could lead a government that would sidestep the tumult of partisan politics and entrenched interests to pass a widespread reform package.

In my opinion, only a technocratic government can take on the tasks in this political situation  meaning a team . . . not subservient to any oligarchs or friends of politicians, which doesnt have future political ambitions, Jaresko wrote in a Facebook post in March, confirming her readiness to head the new government. I am ready to put together such a team which can be able to right now work for the interests of the entire country  all of its citizens, not separate business groups.

The political crisis began with the resignations of a number of prominent reform officials, who claimed that entrenched interests loyal to Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk were involved in corrupt schemes.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry will focus on the vision of a nuclear-free future while he is here and will not apologize for the atomic bomb that the United States dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War II, killing 140,000 people, a U.S. official said Sunday.

Kerry arrived in Hiroshima on Sunday morning to attend a meeting of foreign ministers of the Group of Seven countries, who discussed the war in Syria and the refugee crisis sweeping Europe. On Monday, the diplomats will go as a group to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and lay a wreath at an altar commemorating the conflagration.

Later in the day, he is expected to comment on the experience of visiting the museum, which vividly depicts the bombings effect on the city and its inhabitants.

A State Department official, speaking with reporters who are accompanying Kerry, said that the secretary of state will not specifically apologize for the bombs that the United States dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but that he will address the human dimensions.

If youre asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologize, the answer is no, said the official, speaking anonymously under rules for briefing reporters. If youre asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes.

Schoolchildren will be on hand to witness the wreath-laying ceremony after the museum tour.

The event is not window dressing, the official said. The strong view of the Japanese and the strong view of the United States is that any visit to Hiroshima should be a forward-looking visit, he said. Our collective focus is on the world were trying to create, not the world we have left behind.

No decision has been made about whether President Obama will visit Hiroshima next month when he comes to Japan for a meeting with leaders of the G-7 countries. White House officials are carefully looking at the reception of Kerrys visit, and it is expected to play a role in their decision. But the official suggested there are no fundamental obstacles.

The issue of whether or not a senior U.S. government official has the fortitude, whatever it takes, to come to Hiroshima has been answered circa 7 oclock this morning when John F. Kerry came to Hiroshima, the official said. This is not a huge, let alone an insurmountable, problem for the United States.

Read more

Non-proliferation crusader Obama ponders a visit to nuclear ground zero: Hiroshima

As their numbers dwindle, Hiroshima survivors have a plan to keep memories alive

What it was like to survive the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
Gunfire broke out in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis early on Nov. 18 as police pursued suspects from the terror attacks on Nov. 13. Witnesses documented the flood of police into the historic suburb as the raid grew. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

Gunfire broke out in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis early on Nov. 18 as police pursued suspects from the terror attacks on Nov. 13. Witnesses documented the flood of police into the historic suburb as the raid grew. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

All of Europe was looking for Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the planner of the Paris attacks, when two women approached his roadside hiding place, guided by the voice of someone secretly watching from a distance and giving directions by phone.

Go forward. Walk. Stop, the voice said. He can see you. Hes coming.

It was 9:30 p.m., two days after the bombings and shootings in November that left 130 people dead. France had closed its borders and launched a massive manhunt. But Abaaoud emerged from behind a bush and strolled toward the women as if there were nothing unusual about this rendezvous.

One of the women, Abaaouds cousin, jumped into his arms, saying, Hamid, youre alive!

But her companion, who had come without knowing who they were to meet, felt a shudder of recognition. Id seen him on TV, she later told police, referring to videos from Syria that showed Abaaoud dragging dead bodies behind a truck.

The meeting, which was described by the woman in an interview and confirmed in French investigative files obtained by The Washington Post, set in motion a three-day sequence that culminated in a raid on an apartment in Saint-Denis, north of Paris. Abaaoud, 28, was killed in that operation by authorities who subsequently learned that he was plotting additional attacks.

[The hunt for Abaaoud: A top suspect, a raid, a deadly siege]

His plans were derailed largely because of his decision to involve two women whose impulses when faced with the choice of trying to help him or stop him were immediately at odds.

His cousin, a troubled 26-year-old woman named Hasna Aitboulahcen, helped Abaaoud elude authorities for days and died with him in the Saint-Denis apartment, where one of the cornered militants detonated a suicide bomb.

The other woman, who had served as a surrogate mother to Aitboulahcen for several years, secretly called and met with police, providing information that probably helped authorities stave off another wave of attacks.

The relationship between the two women in many ways reflects broader tensions in Muslim communities across Europe over interpretations of their religion, degrees of loyalty to their countries and the insidious appeal of the Islamic State.

In a Nov. 18 news conference, Francois Molins, the Paris prosecutor, said that a key witness helped identify Abaaoud on French territory and that investigators were led to this apartment by that crucial source. French police declined to elaborate or comment further on the case.

But until now, the public has been unaware that the critical tip in the hunt for Abaaoud came from a Muslim  one of millions who now face a backlash in Europe fueled by anger over the attacks in Paris and Brussels, as well as fear and resentment of a rising tide of refugees.

Its important the world knows that I am Muslim myself, the woman said, citing that as a reason for being willing to speak to The Post. Its important to me that people know what Abaaoud and the others did is not what Islam is teaching.

The case also provides insights into the Islamic States haphazard approach to exporting terror. Abaaoud taunted Western security agencies about his ability to move between Syria and Europe for two years without getting caught. He led the planning of a multistage attack, using cellphones to coordinate the strikes and to make sure that his subordinates followed through. He is believed to have fired his own weapon into packed Paris restaurants before taking the subway to survey the carnage at the Bataclan theater.

[How officials may have missed their chance to stop Paris terror suspects]

But for all of his preparations, he appears to have had no plan for the aftermath and no misgivings about pulling family members into his violent wake. After hiding among roadside shrubs, he enlisted Aitboulahcen, long enamored of him, to help procure food, clothes and a better place to plot his next move.

This account is drawn from dozens of French investigative documents obtained by The Post. The surviving woman, in her 40s, discussed her involvement in the case but asked not to be identified, citing concern for her safety as security officials across Europe continue searching for Islamic State operatives.

Abaaoud told the women that dozens of Islamic State militants had accompanied him into Europe by hiding among streams of refugees. Another of his suspected accomplices in the Paris attacks, Mohamed Abrini, was arrested by authorities in Belgium on Friday.

The attacks in Brussels last month were carried out by remnants of a network assembled by Abaaoud. A native of Belgium, he is believed to have been a key figure in the Islamic States external operations branch, recruiting and grooming new arrivals in Syria for attacks against the West.

From cocaine to the niqab

Abaaoud and Aitboulahcen came from similarly checkered backgrounds. By his late teens, Abaaoud had been expelled from a prestigious school, become involved in neighborhood gangs and been convicted of a series of small-time crimes.

Aitboulahcen spent much of her childhood in a foster home that provided an escape from an abusive mother and absent father, according to the French files. Her brief adulthood was marked by binges on drugs and alcohol, offset by halting attempts to adhere to strict interpretations of her Muslim faith.

[Inside the surreal world of the Islamic States propaganda machine]

She lived with me from 2011 to 2014, on and off, the woman who sheltered Aitboulahcen said in an interview. She would run away for two weeks, come back a month, over and over again. She took a lot of drugs, mostly cocaine, and drank too much.

But Aitboulahcen could also be endearing. She helped with chores, expressed heartfelt gratitude to her adopted family and entertained them with stories about her Paris nightlife. She would always make us laugh, the friend said.

In 2014, Aitboulahcens turbulent life appeared to take a new turn. She began expressing more strident views about religion and took to wearing a niqab  a garment worn by Muslim women to cover all but their eyes.

She also began chatting with someone in Syria using the smartphone application WhatsApp, according to transcripts of the friends interview with French counterterrorism investigators. Aitboulahcen didnt reveal the identity of her correspondent to her friend, but her affection for her cousin and the timing of his trips to Syria make it likely that the message exchanges were with Abaaoud.

The two  whose mothers are sisters  grew up in separate cities but appear to have shared a romantic attachment. Aitboulahcen told friends at times that she expected one day to marry Abaaoud, who was two years older, although its not clear that the prospect of such a marriage ever moved beyond daydream status.

Abaaoud made his first trip to Syria in 2013 along with six other militants from Belgium, part of a wave of thousands of foreign fighters who left Europe to fight alongside al-Qaeda or the Islamic State.

[9 young men and their paths to terror in Paris]

Abaaoud had no special military skill but was propelled up the Islamic States ranks by a brash personality and a sadistic streak that seemed perfectly suited to the ultra-violent and image-obsessed militant group.

In March 2014, Abaaoud posted a video on Facebook that showed him on the front line of a battle in Syria, saying, It gives me pleasure from time to time to see blood of the disbelievers run because we grew up watching the blood of Muslims being spilled in the whole world on TV.

Weeks later, a more disturbing video surfaced that caught the attention of French authorities. It showed him driving a truck and dragging mutilated corpses across a dusty field.

Before, we towed jet skis, motorcycles and trailers filled with gifts, he said from the trucks cabin, looking into the camera. Now, thank God, we are following His path while towing disbelievers who are fighting us.

Aitboulahcen reacted with apparent pride when the footage aired on French news, and she searched for the full video online to show it to her surrogate family, telling her older friend that her Belgian cousin was in Syria waging war.

Im meant to marry him, she said, according to the files.

Although Aitboulahcen often talked of planning a trip to Syria, she never went. Instead, she spent four months last year in Morocco, where she said she met another marriage prospect, before returning to France in October and abandoning those wedding plans.

By then, Abaaoud was back in Europe and in the final stages of plotting the Nov. 13 attacks on a Paris stadium, concert hall and crowded restaurants. There is no indication in the documents that he had any contact with his cousin.

After Paris

Aitboulahcen seemed unfazed by the bloodshed that Friday evening in the fall. Amid mass public mourning, as medical teams were still treating victims and collecting bodies, Aitboulahcen asked her friend to help straighten her hair so that she could go out.

Theyre all unbelievers, she said of the victims, her friend recalled. Nothing can happen to me.

Her detached manner remained intact until Sunday evening, when Aitboulahcen and members of her surrogate family returned home after a walk through Saint-Denis. About 8:30 p.m., Aitboulahcens cellphone lit up with an unfamiliar number prefaced by the country code 32, which corresponds to Belgium.

She asked who had given the caller her number. When the caller replied that he was calling on behalf of her cousin, Aitboulahcen at first scoffed and hung up, only to watch the phone light up again.

Im not going to explain everything. You saw what happened on TV, the caller said, telling her that her cousin needed help finding a place to hide for no more than a day or two.

Suddenly, Aitboulahcen seemed elated. Tell me what I have to do, she said, according to the account her friend gave to authorities: She was happy. She was saying, I hope its not a joke! 

Although the importance of that call seems obvious in hindsight, the friend told police that in that moment she and Aitboulahcen were not sure which relative was reaching out for help. In early 2014, Abaaoud abducted his 13-year-old brother and took him to Syria. Given how much attention Abaaoud attracted among European security services, both women thought it unlikely that he could have entered France and that perhaps it was the younger cousin who needed to be rescued.

That scenario unraveled when Abaaoud stepped out of the bushes and into the dim streetlight. He told Aitboulahcen that he would give her 5,000 euros to help him find a place to hide and to pay for new suits and shoes for himself and an accomplice who remained hidden and was probably the voice on the phone.

As her initial fear gave way to anger, the friend said, she began pressing Abaaoud to admit his involvement in the attacks and to explain why he had harmed so many innocent people. Abaaoud seemed not to mind the questions, saying that his religion compelled him to tell the truth.

He said we were lost sheep and that he wanted to blow us all up, the friend said in the interview with The Post, which took place last week in France. He said that dozens of others from the Islamic State had returned to Europe with him and that the violence Paris had just witnessed was nothing compared with what would come next.

The three walked toward the car, where Abaaoud appeared to reach for a weapon when he saw a male figure  the friends husband  behind the wheel. After being reassured, Abaaoud then climbed into the rear seat and rode with the group for about 150 yards. Then, abruptly, he changed his mind and asked to be let out.

As the others drove off, Aitboulahcens phone rang again. You can tell the little couple that if they talk, my brothers will take care of them, the voice said. When Aitboulahcen laughed while relaying the threat, the friends husband slapped her across the face.

[He is a barbaric man  the man behind the Paris attacks]

One of Abaaouds suspected conspirators in the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, also seems to have had no escape plan on the night of the attacks and sought help from relatives. A cousin he called refused and asked whether he had heard about the attacks and citywide lockdown.

Abdeslam answered, Oh yeah, attacks, huh? The cousin then turned her phone off.

When they returned from the roadside meeting, the friend poured glasses of wine for Aitboulahcen in an attempt to get her drunk so that she would call the police, the friend said. But the plan didnt work, and the others in the house were too frightened to act on their own.

I was scared because I thought if the terrorist knew Id come forward, theyd kill me, she said.

But the next day, when Aitboulahcen briefly left the house, the friend called an emergency number posted by the French authorities. Although she made the call about 2 p.m., it took more than three hours for her to hear back from Frances counterterrorism squad, the SDAT.

The friend spent much of that Monday evening at the units headquarters providing a detailed account of the encounter with Abaaoud, a conversation detailed in a transcript obtained by The Post. When she returned home, she told Aitboulahcen that she had been out to dinner and a movie.

For the next 24 hours, the pursuit of Europes most-wanted terrorism suspect seemed to enter an eerily suspended state. No arrest or high-profile raid followed the friends visit to police.

But French security services were quietly mobilizing. The documents indicate that they were already monitoring Aitboulahcens phone and caught her actively seeking accommodation for Abaaoud and his accomplice. Vehicles with eavesdropping equipment passed through Saint-Denis, where Aitboulahcen found a landlord willing to rent an apartment on short notice for 150 euros.

Abaaoud was still at large Tuesday night as Aitboulahcen left her surrogate family for the final time. She had bought the shoes and suits her cousin wanted and indicated that she also needed to deliver 750 euros in cash.

As she departed, it seemed like she was saying goodbye, the friend said in the interview. She told me that she loved me, that Id been a great mother to her, that I would go to heaven.

But the friend asked whether she could retrieve Aitboulahcen later that night, and in a measure of the trust that remained between them, Aitboulahcen gave an address in Saint-Denis  coordinates the friend then relayed to the police.

As Aitboulahcen and the two fugitives arrived at the apartment about 10 p.m., they told the landlord they had been tossed out of their home by their mother, asked for water and the direction of Mecca, and said they just wanted to sleep two or three days.

[In a neighborhood under siege, it seemed like real war]

Video of the Tuesday raid captured a female voice pleading, I want to leave and Can I come out? Let me out! before an explosion ripped through the apartment. French authorities initially said that Aitboulahcen detonated a suicide bomb, but they later abandoned that claim.

Her body had been pierced by a bolt, according to a detailed description of the scene in the French files. But that does not explain the death, investigators wrote. Instead, authorities concluded that Aitboulahcens death was due to mechanical asphyxia chest compression, meaning she was crushed after the explosion inside the collapsed apartment.

She left a small collection of belongings at her friends house, including clothes, handbags and photos. The friend said she and her husband have struggled with guilt and feel responsible for Aitboulahcens death.

The woman was placed in protective custody after the Saint-Denis raid, but she said she worries about her safety. I no longer feel safe when I walk around, she said as she made her way toward her car after the interview. Abaaoud said they had many operatives. . . . It could be anybody around here.

Virgile Demoustier in Paris and Steven Rich and Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.

Read more:

The Islamic States strategy to cause death and destruction in Europe

The mystery surrounding the Paris bomber with a fake Syrian passport

Failure to stop Paris attacks reveals fatal flaws at heart of European security
PHILIPPINES

18 soldiers killed in clash with militants

At least 18 soldiers were killed in fierce day-long fighting with Islamist extremists in the southern Philippines on Saturday in the largest single-day government combat loss this year, officials said.

At least 52 other soldiers were wounded in the clashes with Abu Sayyaf militants and allied gunmen in the hinterlands bordering the towns of Tipo Tipo and al-Barka on the island of Basilan, three senior military officials said. They said at least four militants were killed.

Government forces were deployed to kill or capture Abu Sayyaf commander Isnilon Hapilon, who has publicly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been hunted for years for his alleged involvement in several terrorist attacks, the officials said.

Washington has offered a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to Hapilons capture and prosecution.

 Associated Press

British Prime Minister Cameron is facing questions concerning his financial affairs after revelations in the so called Panama Papers. (Str/EPA)

BURMA

100 political prisoners freed, but two jailed

More than 100 political prisoners in Burma, also known as Myanmar, have been freed under an amnesty ordered by the countrys new de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, as her first official act.

The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Saturday cited police as saying that 113 political detainees were freed across the country. Their freedom came along with a general amnesty for ordinary convicts ahead of Burmas traditional New Year festival, often the occasion for prisoner releases.

The move was praised by human rights advocates, but a jarring note was struck when two peace activists were each sentenced the same day, Friday, to two years with hard labor for activities allegedly bringing them into contact with an armed ethnic rebel group that has been battling the central government.

A court in the central city of Mandalay sentenced Zaw Zaw Latt and Pwint Phyu Latt under a law barring associating with an unlawful organization for their contacts with the Kachin Independence Army, a guerrilla group in the countrys far north.

 Associated Press

BRITAIN

Cameron on offshore fund ire: Blame me

British Prime Minister David Cameron said Saturday that he had bungled his admission of his investment in an offshore fund revealed in the mammoth data breach of a Panama law firm.

Cameron drew laughs and applause from a sympathetic Conservative Party audience as he opened his speech with a mea culpa: I could have handled this better. I know there are lessons to learn, and I will learn them. And dont blame No. 10 Downing Street or nameless advisers. Blame me.

The prime minister faces mounting pressure from opposition lawmakers to reveal the full extent of his past investment in offshore funds, particularly those run by his late father, Ian.

Camerons Downing Street office spent four days sidestepping the question. But he acknowledged Thursday that he had owned shares in his fathers Bahama trust from 1997 to 2010.

 Associated Press

Pope to travel to Caucasus region: Pope Francis will make two trips this year to the often-volatile Caucasus region, the Vatican said, visiting Armenia on June 24-26 and traveling to Georgia and Azerbaijan from Sept. 30-Oct. 2. Azerbaijan and Armenia have blamed each other for cease-fire violations in separatist Nagorno-Karabakh. The recent fighting marked the worst violence since a separatist war ended in 1994.

Would-be bombers shot dead in Nigeria: Five suspected suicide bombers were shot dead by armed forces as they attempted to enter the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri early Friday, according to a pro-government militia group. The female bombers were shot dead by militia members, known as youth vigilantes, a spokesman for the group said.

 From news services
Marib (Yemen) (AFP) - A UN-brokered ceasefire was due to take effect in Yemen late on Sunday ahead of a new attempt to reach a lasting peace deal in the war-wracked Arabian Peninsula country.

The Saudi-led coalition that has waged an air and ground campaign against Iran-backed Huthi rebels since March last year said in a statement it would respect the truce, the fourth since it intervened.

During the countdown to the midnight (2100 GMT) ceasefire, there were sporadic clashes around the rebel-held capital Sanaa, although the city itself was quiet.

Chaos has ruled Yemen since the rebels overran Sanaa in September 2014 and later advanced to other regions, prompting the Saudi-led campaign in support of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.

It is hoped the new ceasefire will form the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal that can be hammered out between the country's warring parties from April 18 in Kuwait.

"The Arab coalition is going to respect a ceasefire in Yemen starting from midnight Sunday at the demand of President Hadi but reserves the right to respond" to any rebel attacks, the coalition statement said.

There was no immediate word from the rebels.

Ahead of the planned ceasefire, rebels and their allies exchanged mortar and artillery fire with pro-Hadi forces in the Sarwah region of Marib province east of Sanaa, an AFP correspondent said.

Coalition aircraft also carried out strikes to stop rebels seeking to retake a military base pro-government forces had recaptured in late 2015, military sources said.

- Months of shuttle diplomacy -

A pro-Hadi commander in Sarwah, Lieutenant Colonel Abdullah Hasan, also told AFP that loyalists will "observe the ceasefire".

"But if the Huthis attack us, the situation will return to what it was" before the truce, he warned.

Further north, coalition jets struck Huthi positions in Jawf province, the rebels said.

There were also clashes in Nihm northeast of Sanaa, according to witnesses.

Story continues

But residents of Sanaa spent a quiet night free of the sound of coalition aircraft, an AFP photographer said.

The planned truce was only agreed by the warring sides after months of shuttle diplomacy by UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed.

The rebels and Hadi's government said this week that they have submitted their observations to the UN mediator on the terms of the ceasefire, which will test their willingness to negotiate a peace deal in Kuwait.

"We will go to the consultations (in Kuwait) to achieve peace," Hadi reiterated on Saturday, insisting however that the rebels must commit to UN Security Council Resolution 2216 calling for their withdrawal from seized territory and disarmament.

Previous UN-sponsored negotiations failed to make any headway, and a ceasefire in December was repeatedly violated and eventually abandoned by the Arab coalition on January 2.

Analysts are more optimistic this time after mediation efforts have largely silenced guns along Yemen's border with Saudi Arabia, and a Huthi delegation has also visited Riyadh for talks.

- 'Long road to peace' -

The Huthis and Saudi Arabia exchanged prisoners in March after unprecedented talks mediated by tribes along the frontier, where dozens of people have been killed in cross-border shelling.

"For the first time, the groups that can end major military operations, particularly the Saudis and the Huthis, appear to be more willing to do so," said April Longley Alley at the International Crisis Group.

But "even if major combat ends, the road to peace in Yemen will be long and difficult and internal conflict is likely to continue for some time".

Yemenis themselves appear to have learned not to get their hopes up.

"I do not expect the truce to succeed," said Marib resident Zayed al-Qaisi. "The Huthis have not honoured their commitments during the wars against the state since 2004."

The Huthis fought six wars with the central government between 2004 and 2010 that killed thousands. Their main foe then, veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh who was ousted in 2012, is now their ally.

"Even the government cannot force us to respect a ceasefire as we have not liberated our territories" from the rebels, said Qaisi.

Sanaa resident Ali Mohsen doubted that Riyadh would commit to the truce.

"Saudi Arabia is just procrastinating and being deceptive," said the 50-year-old.

Umm Mohammed, waiting outside a central Sanaa school, agreed that the truce is "a deception. We tried it unsuccessfully before."

"I want a real end to the war."

The UN says more than 6,300 people have been killed in impoverished Yemen since March last year -- around half of them civilians -- and 30,000 have been wounded.
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - Cristina Fernandez, who stepped down as president of Argentina in December after eight years in office, has been officially accused by a prosecutor of money laundering, a court source said on Saturday. The decision follows testimony on Friday by businessman Leonardo Farina, who in a plea bargain implicated Fernandez and her late husband and former President Nestor Kirchner in a case related to money laundering and embezzling funds earmarked for public works, local media reported. Julio De Vido, a longtime Fernandez and Kirchner ally and former minister, was also charged, local newspapers and state news agency Telam said. Under Argentine law, a prosecutor can formally accuse, or charge ("imputar") a person they believe to be involved in wrongdoing. A judge then decides whether to call those named to make an official statement. Last Tuesday, another Fernandez ally, businessman Lazaro Baez, was arrested for questioning as part of the same investigation. Fernandez, 63, is due to answer questions in court on Wednesday over a separate probe into the sale of U.S. dollar futures contracts at below-market rates by the central bank during her administration. Fernandez, a leftist leader from the Peronist party, was barred constitutionally from seeking a third consecutive term. Opposition candidate Mauricio Macri won the November election, ending more than a decade of Peronist rule. A spokesman for the justice ministry said the government would not comment on ongoing cases. (Reporting by Jorge Otaola; Writing by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Mary Milliken and Matthew Lewis)
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austria and its neighbors in central Europe and the Balkans will press the European Union to create a new auxiliary force to help countries deal with any influx of migrants, Austria's defense minister said on Friday. Austria has suggested setting up a "bridging mission" that would help EU border agency Frontex process and deport migrants arriving in Greece from Turkey until Frontex is fully staffed there, which Vienna has said could take months. Meeting defense and other officials from the region in Vienna on Thursday, Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said those present backed a modified version of that concept, which could be sent to Greece or elsewhere. "It is ... a mixed civil-police-military mission that should be deployed where necessary," Doskozil said, adding the aim was to help secure the European Union's external borders and deport migrants not entitled to stay in the bloc. Austria has broken ranks with its neighbor Germany on how to deal with Europe's migration crisis, coordinating a cascade of border restrictions through the Balkans that have left tens of thousands of migrants stuck in Greece. Germany says it prefers common European measures, but Austria said it risked turning into a crowded "waiting room" if migrants had kept streaming across its territory towards Germany and its larger neighbor tightened its border controls further. With the main migrant route through the Balkans and Austria now largely closed, Vienna says there is a risk that new routes will develop through Bulgaria or Albania, as Mediterranean crossings to Italy from Libya resume. Greece, which is furious at the border restrictions coordinated by Austria, was invited to Thursday's meeting but did not attend, Doskozil said. Italy was also not present. Doskozil said those present - including EU members Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia - would send a letter detailing the proposal to EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini ahead of an EU defense ministers' meeting on April 19. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Vienna (AFP) - Austria's new Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said on Sunday he would stick to the hardline stance on migrants pushed by his predecessor, Johanna Mikl-Leitner.

"This course will be continued, there's no doubt about that," Sobotka told a press conference in Vienna.

The 60-year-old, who is a newcomer to national politics, said he did not want "any experiments".

The pair will swap jobs later this month as part of a reshuffle within the conservative OeVP party announced on Sunday evening.

Mikl-Leitner is set to take over Sobotka's current position as acting regional governor in her home state of Lower Austria.

"In a few days I will leave the republic's toughest job behind me and start the most beautiful role in Austria," Mikl-Leitner said.

The 52-year-old, who took office in 2011, has been one of the key architects behind the country's tough asylum-seeker policies, as Europe grapples with its worst migration crisis since World War II.

She has overseen the introduction of border fences, tougher frontier controls and hardline asylum rules -- including an annual cap on migrant numbers -- as part of her push to build "fortress Europe" and shut the main Balkan migrant trail for good.

With that route now closed, Mikl-Leitner recently turned her attention to the Italian border, threatening to clamp down on the strategically important Brenner pass checkpoint if Rome failed to stop illegal migrants.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner, often the face of Austria's increasingly tough line on immigration, is leaving the government and plans to swap jobs with the deputy governor of her home province, Lower Austria, her party said on Sunday. Vice-Chancellor Reinhold Mitterlehner, who heads the center-right People's Party (OVP), confirmed that its leadership had approved the decision, speaking at a joint news conference with Mikl-Leitner and her planned replacement, Wolfgang Sobotka. "Now that we have the decision of the party leadership, we will clear it with the president and of course with the chancellor," Mitterlehner said, adding that the job switch should take place within about two weeks. The announcement confirmed reports on Saturday that the party was planning the move. Mikl-Leitner and Sobotka praised each other, giving little indication of any change in policy. Chancellor Werner Faymann, a Social Democrat, said in a statement: "It is the coalition partner's decision, which I respect, of course." (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Oxygen

A Tampa-area family's long wait for answers about the disappearance of their husband and father has come to an end. The Tallahassee Police Department announced this week that skeletal remains had been found in a wooded area off Apalachee Parkway, a commercial road dotted with strip malls and hotels on the east side of the city. Shortly thereafter, they announced that, with information received from the local medical examiner's office, they had identified the deceased as Jason Winoker, 52, of Lan
By Piya Sinha-Roy LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Leonardo DiCaprio's bear brawl and a steamy smooch from "Fifty Shades of Grey" are among the movie moments battling for popcorn-shaped accolades at the MTV Movie Awards, where cheeky humor and naughty acts often upstage the winners at the youth-orientated event. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the third-highest grossing film of all time, leads the nominees with 11 nods and will compete for movie of the year on Saturday alongside "Jurassic World," "Avengers: Age of Ultron," "Creed," "Deadpool" and "Straight Outta Compton." Viacom Inc's MTV Movie Awards, which will tape late Saturday in Los Angeles and air on the MTV network on Sunday, ushers in the summer blockbuster season, featuring stars from upcoming action movies such as "Captain America: Civil War," "The Huntsman: Winter War" and "Suicide Squad." It's all about the unpredictable at the MTV Movie Awards, hosted by comedian Kevin Hart and action star Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, where fans vote for their favorite films and performances from the year. The show honors the year's biggest action-packed blockbusters that usually tend to be shunned during Hollywood's annual awards season. This year's irreverent categories include best fight - Oscar-winner Leonardo DiCaprio and the Bear from "The Revenant" are among the nominees - and fan favorite award for best kiss. The best kiss nominees includes Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan from erotic movie "Fifty Shades of Grey," Chris Hemsworth and Leslie Mann from comedy "Vacation" and comedian Amy Schumer and Bill Hader from raunchy comedy "Trainwreck." Last year's awards show saw Zac Efron grab co-star Dave Franco's crotch when the two accepted the award for best comedic duo on stage, while Schumer shared a passionate kiss with model Amber Rose. (Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy, Editing by Franklin Paul)
By Steve Gorman (Reuters) - Headlines screaming "Deportations to begin" and "Markets sink as trade war looms" top a parody newspaper front page the Boston Globe posted on Saturday, with a scathing editorial denouncing Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's candidacy. The mock-up, offering the Globe's satirical view of America under a Trump presidency, was set to run as the front page of the newspaper's "Ideas" section, followed on page 2 of that section by the anti-Trump editorial. The novel front-page spoof, says the editorial, is designed to take Trump's rhetoric and his policy positions to their "logical conclusion." "It is an exercise in taking a man at his word," the editorial says. "And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page." There was no immediate comment from Trump or his campaign. The editorial brands the billionaire businessman as a "demagogue" whose own political vision is "profoundly un-American." It casts his closest rival for the 2016 Republican nomination, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, as "equally extreme" and urges Republicans, if possible at the party's nominating convention in July, to draft a "plausible, honorable" alternative, suggesting U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan or former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. The mock Trump page was conceived and executed by the Globe's editorial writers, columnists and commentary editors, who make up the newspaper's editorial board, said Ellen Clegg, the newspaper's editorial page editor. Noting that she reports to John Henry, the Globe's publisher, Clegg stressed to Reuters in a telephone interview that the front-page parody "does not involve our newsroom." Clegg said she knew of no other such expression of political satire ever published by the Globe or any other major metropolitan daily in the United States during her 30 years at the newspaper. But it was reminiscent of the kind of parody regularly featured by the farcical online news outlet, The Onion. The mock front page envisions a host of political, financial and international scenarios ranging from disturbingly surreal to darkly humorous, all playing on Trump's real pronouncements about illegal immigration, Muslims, national security and the First Amendment. A color photograph of Trump making a speech is centered near the top of the page under a banner headline reading: "Deportations to begin," with a subhead reporting that Trump was calling for a tripling of immigration enforcement personnel as "riots continue." A top story on the page opens with the paragraph: "Worldwide stocks plunged again Friday, completing the worst month on record as trade wars with both China and Mexico seem imminent." Other mock entries include a story about unrest in the ranks of the U.S. military as soldiers refuse orders to kill family members of Islamic State militants, and the headline: "New libel law targets 'absolute scum' in press." In a more tongue-in-cheek vein, a brief item reports Trump on the "short list" for the Nobel Peace Prize. "His feat? Healing a 1,385-year-old schism between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims, which has fueled bloody conflicts across the globe for centuries." Clegg said it was not the first time the Globe, which tends to lean Democratic on its opinion pages, has editorialized against Trump, but it marked its most "resolute" opposition to his candidacy. (Reporting by Steve Gorman from Los Angeles; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Courtesy of the Boston Globe



Last night, the Boston Globe had a fever dream starring President Donald J. Trump.

The newspaper published a satirical front page on Sunday imagining what the world would be like a year from now if Trump becomes commander in chief.

DEPORTATIONS TO BEGIN, blares the headline on April 9, 2017, above a photo of the would-be 45th U.S. president and an accompanying story detailing how Trump would carry out one of his campaign promises: the deportation of 11.3 million illegal workers  something he vowed to do so fast your head will spin.

Other headlines covered some troubling developments during Trumps first 100 days in the White House, from the war on terror (U.S. soldiers refuse orders to kill ISIS families) to trade (Markets sink as trade war looms) to journalism (New libel law targets absolute scum in press) to space exploration (NASA engineers halted the launch of an unmanned probe amid fears that its new gold leaf trim would interfere with radio communications) to the U.S. park system (Heavy spring snow closed Trump National Park for the first time since it dropped its loser name, Yellowstone).

Perhaps more troubling: Kid Rock is a U.S. ambassador in a Trump administration. And the education secretary? Former Celebrity Apprentice star Omarosa.

This is Donald Trumps America, the Globe said in an editors note. What you read on this page is what might happen if the GOP frontrunner can put his ideas into practice, his words into action. Many Americans might find this vision appealing, but the Globes editorial board finds it deeply troubling.

The board elaborated on what it described as the dangers of Trumps vision in a separate op-ed:





The rise of demagogic strongmen is an all too common phenomenon on our small planet. And what marks each of those dark episodes is a failure to fathom where a leaders vision leads, to carry rhetoric to its logical conclusion. The satirical front page of this section attempts to do just that, to envision what America looks like with Trump in the White House. It is an exercise in taking a man at his word. And his vision of America promises to be as appalling in real life as it is in black and white on the page.

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At a rally in Rochester, N.Y., on Sunday afternoon, Trump fired back.

How about that stupid Boston Globe  its worthless, he said. They made up an entire front-page story  which is really no different than the whole paper.
Brasilia (AFP) - Workers erected barricades Sunday along Brasilia's Esplanade of Ministries to separate supporters and opponents of President Dilma Rousseff's impeachment, on the eve of a crucial vote on her political fate.

A congressional commission preparing to recommend whether or not to impeach Rousseff resumes deliberations Monday, with a vote scheduled for 5:00 pm (2000 GMT), and authorities are taking no chances in the build-up to a subsequent vote by the lower house of Congress next weekend.

Officials expect as many as 300,000 people to gather on the esplanade later in the week as the showdown unravels.

"We are aware of this historic moment's importance and are working to provide the necessary conditions for people to exercise their right to freedom of expression without endangering citizens' lives or the integrity of our heritage," Globo G1 website quoted Public Security Secretary Marcia de Alencar as saying.

Rousseff is accused of breaking the law by juggling government accounts to disguise the depth of budget shortfalls during her 2014 re-election.

She argues the relatively technical accusation does not constitute an impeachable offense.

Momentum for Rousseff's removal is fueled by a massive recession, political paralysis and a sprawling corruption scandal that have reduced approval ratings for her government to around 10 percent.

A latest poll by the Datafolha Institute found 61 percent of Brazilians in favor of impeachment, down from 68 percent in mid-March, while 60 percent believe Rousseff should resign.
By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists in Brazil have uncovered a new brain disorder associated with Zika infections in adults: an autoimmune syndrome called acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, or ADEM, that attacks the brain and spinal cord. Zika has already been linked with the autoimmune disorder Guillain-Barre syndrome, which attacks peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord, causing temporary paralysis that can in some cases require patients to rely on respirators for breathing. The new discovery now shows Zika may provoke an immune attack on the central nervous system as well. The findings add to the growing list of neurological damage associated with Zika. According to the World Health Organization, there is a strong scientific consensus that, in addition to Guillain-Barre, Zika can cause the birth defect microcephaly, though conclusive proof may take months or years. Microcephaly is defined by unusually small heads that can result in developmental problems. Brazil said it has confirmed more than 940 cases to be related to Zika infections in the mothers. Brazil is investigating nearly 4,300 additional suspected cases of microcephaly. In addition to autoimmune disease, some researchers also have reported patients with Zika infections developing encephalitis and myelitis - nerve disorders typically caused by direct infections in nerve cells. "Though our study is small, it may provide evidence that in this case, the virus has different effects on the brain than those identified in current studies," Dr. Maria Lucia Brito, a neurologist at Restoration Hospital in Recife, Brazil, said in a statement. ADEM typically occurs in the aftermath of an infection, causing intense swelling in the brain and spinal cord that damages myelin, the white protective coating surrounding nerve fibers. It results in weakness, numbness and loss of balance and vision, symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis. Brito presented her findings on Sunday at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Vancouver. The study involved 151 patients who visited her hospital between December 2014 and June 2015. All had been infected with arboviruses, the family of viruses that includes Zika, dengue and chikungunya. Six of these patients developed symptoms consistent with autoimmune disorders. Of these six, four had Guillain-Barre and two had ADEM. In both ADEM cases, brain scans showed damage to white matter. ADEM symptoms typically last about six months. All six patients tested positive for Zika, and all had lingering effects after being discharged from the hospital, with five patients reporting motor dysfunction, one with vision problems, and one with cognitive decline. At least 13 countries have reported cases of Guillain-Barre linked with outbreaks of Zika, according to the World Health Organization, and WHO believes that Zika likely is the cause. Dr. James Sejvar, a neuroepidemiologist for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the ADEM cases linked with Zika do not appear to be occurring at the same accelerated rate as cases of Guillain-Barre, but said doctors should be on the lookout for ADEM and other central nervous system illnesses. "Of course, the remaining question is 'Why?'" Sejvar said. "Why does Zika virus appear to have the strong association with GBS and potential other immune/inflammatory diseases of the nervous system?" Sejvar, who has studied Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) in Brazil and is involved in a major clinical trial of Guillain-Barre in Puerto Rico, said he hopes future studies will shed more light on such questions. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
By Robert-Jan Bartunek BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The militant cell behind bombings in Brussels had been plotting to hit France again after carrying out the Paris attacks in November, but was forced to strike closer to home as police closed in, Belgian prosecutors said on Sunday. Investigations into the Islamic State attacks in Paris, which killed 130 people, showed that many of the perpetrators lived in Belgium, including surviving suspects who managed to evade police for more than four months. Prime suspect Salah Abdeslam was arrested on March 18 in the Belgian capital. Four days later, suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train. "Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again," Belgium's federal prosecutor said in a statement. "Surprised by the speed of progress in the investigation, they took the decision to strike in Brussels." Belgian intelligence and security forces had been criticised abroad for not doing more to dismantle the militant cell, because of its links to the Paris attacks. As of Friday, all publicly identified suspects were either in detention or dead, but Belgium remains on its second highest threat level, and Prime Minister Charles Michel said his government would remain alert. His comments were echoed by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who said France would not be lowering its guard. "This is a further sign of the very serious threat facing Europe as a whole and of course France in particular," Valls told a news conference in Algiers. Abdeslam, born and raised in Belgium to Moroccan-born parents, told a magistrate he had planned to blow himself up at a sports stadium in Paris in November, but backed out at the last minute. His brother Brahim blew himself up at a Paris cafe. Another man linked to the Paris attacks, Mohamed Abrini, was arrested in Brussels on Friday and admitted to being the "man in the hat" captured on video walking into Brussels airport alongside two suicide bombers. Abrini, 31, has been charged with terrorist murders, prosecutors said. Another main suspect who was seen alongside the suicide bomber in the Brussels metro, identified by prosecutors as Osama K, was also arrested on Friday in the Belgian capital. Osama K, 28, widely named by media as Swedish national Osama Krayem, was filmed buying the bags used to carry the Brussels bombs. (additional reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
Brussels (AFP) - The Brussels-based Islamic State jihadists behind the Paris attacks had planned a fresh strike in France but targeted the Belgian capital instead as police closed in, a prosecutor said Sunday.

Belgium's federal prosecutor also announced that the so-called "man in the hat" Mohamed Abrini, seen in CCTV footage at Brussels airport before the bombings last month, had been charged with "terrorist murders."

Suicide bombers killed 32 people at the airport and a metro station on March 22, and left a trail leading directly to the November attacks in Paris which left 130 dead.

"Numerous elements in the investigation have shown that the terrorist group initially had the intention to strike in France again," the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

"Surprised by the speed of the progress in the ongoing investigation, they urgently took the decision to strike in Brussels."

- 'Proof of high threats' -

The prosecutor gave no further details, but the Brussels bombings followed the March 18 arrest of top Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam after four months on the run.

"It's extra proof of the very high threats to the whole of Europe and to France in particular," French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said of the prosecutor's statement.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve added that France would remain on high alert for the indefinite future.

"We are still facing a high level of threat... It (the work of the police and judiciary) is a long process, it will go on for a long time," he said.

Abrini, who grew up with Abdeslam in the troubled Molenbeek area, was charged Sunday with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempts to commit terrorist murders".

On Saturday, the judge leading the Belgian investigation into the Paris carnage had laid the same charges against Abrini, the day after his arrest.

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The 31-year-old Belgian of Moroccan origin confessed to being "the man in the hat" who calmly walked away from the devastated Brussels airport departure hall, the prosecutor said Saturday.

He returned on foot to central Brussels, discarding his hat and coat on the way before disappearing into thin air as police launched a fresh public appeal for help.

- 'Hunted' -

Abrini was a long-time petty criminal who grew up in Molenbeek, home to several other suspects who all share a similar story of getting on the wrong side of the law and becoming radicalised.

One of the Brussels airport bombers, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, left behind what the Belgian authorities described as a "will" on a computer in which he said he felt "hunted" and "I don't know what to do."

The other airport bomber was Najim Laachraoui whose DNA was found on a suicide vest discovered at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris where 90 people were killed.

Laachraoui is widely believed to have been the cell's bombmaker.

About an hour after the airport blasts, Ibrahim's brother Khalid blew himself up at Maalbeek metro station, not far from the European Union headquarters district in Brussels.

The federal prosecutor gave no details of the planned attack in France but late last month, French police arrested Reda Kriket near Paris, finding weapons and explosives in a flat he had used to suggest he was planning an act of "extreme violence."

Belgium has arrested several suspects in connection with the Kriket case and on Thursday remanded two -- named as Abderrahmane A. and Rabah M. -- in custody.

Shortly after Kriket's arrest, French prosecutor Francois Molins said that "while no specific target has been identified, nonetheless everything leads us to believe that the discovery of this cache has allowed us to prevent an action of extreme violence by a terrorist network".

- Belgium criticised -

The Belgian authorities have faced intense criticism over their handling of the Brussels attacks and the investigation, especially when it emerged that many of the suspects were long known to the police.

Critics say the government has not done enough to prevent extremists targeting Muslim youth in areas such as Molenbeek, with Belgium proportionately the biggest source of foreign fighters going to join the Islamic State group in Syria.

Abdeslam, whose brother Brahim blew himself up in Paris, was seen driving to the French capital with Abrini shortly before the attacks but he apparently balked at the same mission and fled back to Brussels.

Police finally arrested him not far from the family home in Molenbeek after apparently stumbling upon another jihadist safe house in the Forest area of the city.

Buoyed by Abdeslam's arrest, the police launched an increasing series of raids, mainly in Brussels, which netted Abrini on Friday.

Abdeslam is now awaiting extradition to France.

"That is justice... he who does something must pay the price," Abdeslam's father, who has lived in Belgium for 40 years, told French radio on Tuesday.
By Estelle Shirbon and Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron took the unusual step on Sunday of publishing his tax records to try to end days of questions about his personal wealth raised by the mention of his late father's offshore fund in the Panama Papers. Cameron's initial reluctance to admit he had benefited from the fund caused a furore, compounding his problems when he faces a huge political fight to persuade Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in a June 23 referendum. The EU issue has split his Conservative Party, while the government has also been going through a tough patch over a senior minister's resignation, a u-turn on welfare cuts and accusations it is failing to protect Britain's steel industry. After saying on Saturday that could have handled the fallout from the Panama disclosures better, Cameron released a summary of his tax records for the past six years. But any hope that would draw a line under the row was short-lived, as the main Sunday newspapers zeroed in on a gift of 200,000 pounds ($282,500) Cameron received from his mother in 2011, suggesting it may be a way of avoiding inheritance tax. A source at Cameron's Downing Street office said the suggestion was inaccurate. Cameron is one of dozens of politicians around the world who have been hit by the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens. Cameron will make a statement about tax policy to parliament on Monday to try to regain the upper hand. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused him of misleading the public by issuing what Corbyn described as four "weasel-worded" statements in as many days before finally admitting that he had benefited from his father's fund. Some politicians campaigning for Britain to vote to stay in the EU in June's referendum are concerned that the damage to Cameron is bad for their side, as he had previously been considered the best advocate for an "In" vote. "The scandals over David Cameron's finances ... may tip the decision further towards 'Leave'," said former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Gordon Wilson on Sunday. Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader and first minister of Scotland's devolved government, published her latest tax return on Sunday, adding to pressure for greater transparency by politicians. 'UNSAVOURY' ATTACKS Cameron is not accused of having done anything illegal, and the fact that he is a wealthy man is nothing new. But the past week has been damaging because the drip-drip of carefully worded statements before the fuller disclosure created the impression he may have had something to hide. "He's not behaved improperly in any way and he's gone further than any prime minister previously in publishing these tax returns," Conservative minister Dominic Raab told Sky News television, accusing Cameron's Labour critics of "unsavoury" personal attacks and comparing them to "hyenas". Cameron announced a new taskforce on tax evasion would be led by the tax authority, HMRC, and the National Crime Agency. The Guardian newspaper reported later that HMRC boss Edward Troup's former employer, London-based law firm Simmons and Simmons, had counted Cameron's father's fund among its clients. The Guardian made no suggestion of wrongdoing by Troup or Simmons and Simmons. HMRC said Troup had never had any dealings with Mossack Fonseca or advised any of its clients named so far. It added that any HMRC officers with a potential conflict of interest would exclude themselves from a relevant investigation. Bookmakers William Hill said they had cut their odds on Cameron resigning as prime minister this year to 2/1, compared with 16/1 when he won the last general election last May. Cameron said on Thursday his father's investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares. He said he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth about 30,000 pounds when he sold it in 2010. But Cameron stands accused of hypocrisy after portraying his government as being in the forefront of global efforts to crack down on offshore tax havens. A comment he made in 2012 about a famous comedian's legal tax avoidance scheme being "morally wrong" has been widely quoted by media. The documents disclosed by Downing Street on Sunday, from RNS Chartered Accountants, show Cameron paid tax of 75,898 pounds on income of 200,307 pounds in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included. (Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary in Edinburgh; Editing by Ros Russell and Peter Cooney)
By Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron published his tax records on Sunday in an attempt to draw a line under questions about his personal finances raised by the mention of his late father in the Panama Papers for setting up an offshore fund. The revelations have led to demands for Cameron's resignation and handed ammunition to opposition lawmakers who questioned why he was reluctant to detail his financial connections with his father. Cameron took the unorthodox step of releasing the normally confidential details after saying he should have handled the scrutiny of his family's tax affairs better. The documents from RNS Chartered Accountants - which cover six years - show Cameron paid tax of 75,898 pounds ($107,198) on income of 200,307 pounds in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included. His income comprised his 140,522 pound salary, taxable expenses of 9,834 pounds, 46,899 pounds from half of the share of rent from his family home in London and 3,052 pounds in interest on savings, according to the record. Scores of politicians and business figures have been implicated in the Panama Papers, including the prime minister of Iceland who has since stepped down. The 11.5 million documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens. While Cameron is not accused of doing anything illegal, he made four different statements over four days about his late father's inclusion in the documents. He said on Thursday he once had a stake in his father's offshore trust and had profited from it. He said the unit investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares and that he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth "something like 30,000 pounds" when he sold out in January 2010, before he became prime minister. TAX TASKFORCE Cameron's admission of fault comes after a torrid period for his Conservative government. It is divided over a June 23 referendum on whether to remain in the European Union, has been forced to backtrack on welfare cuts and has been accused of not protecting Britain's steel industry. Seeking to further take back the initiative, Cameron also announced on Sunday a new taskforce, jointly led by Britain's tax authority and National Crime Agency, to build on the work Britain has done to tackle money laundering and tax evasion. When Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, Cameron put tackling tax avoidance at the heart of the agenda. Some of Britain's former colonies increasingly rely on revenues from shell companies and trusts that often hide wealth. "The UK has been at the forefront of international action to tackle the global scourge of aggressive tax avoidance and evasion, and international corruption more broadly," Cameron said in a statement. "There is clearly further to go and this taskforce will bring the best of British expertise to deal with any wrongdoing relating to the Panama Papers." The government said it had tracked down 2 billion pounds ($2.82 billion) from offshore tax dodgers since 2010, and authorities were already investigating 700 current leads with links to Panama. The taskforce will receive 10 million pounds of funding to start work, the government said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Alison Williams)
BEIJING (Reuters) - A former vice governor of China's populous southwestern province of Sichuan has been put under investigation for suspected corruption, the ruling Communist Party's graft-busting body said late on Saturday. Li Chengyun is suspected of "severe disciplinary violations", the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said in a brief statement, using its normal euphemism for corruption. It gave no other details. It was not possible to reach Li for comment and unclear if he has retained a lawyer. Sichuan, famed for its spicy cuisine, has emerged as a focus of President Xi Jinping's crackdown on deep-seated corruption, since it was a power base for Zhou Yongkang, the country's once powerful domestic security boss. Zhou was jailed for life last year for graft, and dozens of his associates have also been arrested, many in Sichuan, where he was Communist Party boss from 1999 to 2002. Li has spent his entire working life in Sichuan, his official biography says, where he was party chief in the provincial city of Deyang city when Zhou was in charge of Sichuan. He was dismissed as deputy governor in 2011, also accused of discipline breaches, but two months later appointed a vice director of a Sichuan policy planning panel, state-run media said on Sunday. Li was best know for shedding tears at a news conference in Beijing in 2008 after a deadly earthquake which killed almost 70,000 people, media said. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Ben Blanchard and J.R. Wu BEIJING/TAIPEI (Reuters) - China resumed ties with former Taiwan ally Gambia on Thursday, ending an unofficial diplomatic truce between China and Taiwan following January's landslide election of the leader of a pro-independence party as the self-ruled island's president. The small West African state was one of a few African countries, along with Burkina Faso, Swaziland and Sao Tome and Principe, to recognize Taiwan, which China regards as a wayward province to be recovered by force if necessary. China and Taiwan had for years tried to poach each other's allies, often dangling generous aid packages in front of leaders of developing nations. But they began an unofficial diplomatic truce after signing a series of landmark trade and economic agreements in 2008 after the election of the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou as Taiwan's president, as Beijing tried to convince Taiwan of its friendly intentions after decades of hostility and suspicion. While Gambia severed relations with Taiwan in November 2013, causing anger in Taipei, China had held off establishing formal ties with it until now. "From here on, China and Gambia's relations have turned over a new leaf," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Gambian counterpart, Neneh Macdouall-Gaye, China's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "The early resumption of ties accords with the basic interests of both countries and conforms to the trend of the times and general trend of the development of China-Africa friendship and cooperation," Wang added. Macdouall-Gaye, in comments carried on Chinese state television, said the Gambian nation supported "the national reunification, peaceful reunification" of China and Taiwan. Beijing has repeatedly warned against any moves toward independence since Tsai Ing-wen and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won the presidential and parliamentary elections. Tsai assumes office in May. Tsai has said she would maintain peace with China, and Chinese state-run media have noted her pledges to maintain the "status quo" with China. "HIGHLY INAPPROPRIATE" ACTION Taiwan must not let this kind of incident happen again, the DPP said in a statement, referring to China's rapprochement with Gambia, and was committed to consolidating diplomatic relations once it took power. It also said it hoped China and Taiwan would not engage in "target competition," while the Foreign Ministry expressed regret over the Gambia move. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said its counterpart in Beijing, the Taiwan Affairs Office, had warned it earlier in the day the announcement was coming. "We call on the mainland to face the reality that the Republic of China is a sovereign state and not carry out negative actions. Otherwise, it must take full responsibility for the possible consequences," the council said in a statement, referring to Taiwan's official name. It added that the move would have a negative impact on cross-strait relations. The news came while President Ma was on a visit to allies Guatemala and Belize. He told reporters in Belize on Thursday China's action was "highly inappropriate." In a separate statement, China's Foreign Ministry did not directly address whether the decision on relations with Gambia was a warning to Tsai or marked the end of the truce. "We uphold the one-China principle. The direction of promoting the peaceful development of cross-Taiwan Strait has not changed," it said. Gambia had recognized mainland China from 1974 to 1995, before switching over to Taiwan. China says Taiwan has no right to diplomatic recognition as it is part of China. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island in 1949 after the Chinese civil war. Other countries with diplomatic ties with Taiwan include the tiny Pacific island states of Nauru and Palau, as well as Vatican City, Paraguay, Panama, Haiti, and Nicaragua. China has also been quietly courting Sao Tome and Principe, whose president made a low key visit to China in 2014. (Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel and Mike Collett-White)
Moroni (Comoros) (AFP) - Comoros election officials began counting ballots late Sunday after a tense three-way presidential run-off poll featuring the current vice president and a former coup leader who ruled the country for seven years.

The day of voting was marred by a number of incidents notably on Anjouan, one of the three islands which make up the Indian Ocean archipelago.

Results in the race to succeed outgoing President Ikililou Dhoinine are not expected before Wednesday.

The second round of the presidential race comes after Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi -- known as Mamadou -- won the disputed first round in February with 17.88 percent of the vote.

The two other contenders are governor of Grande Comore island Mouigni Baraka, who garnered 15.62 percent in the first round, and 1999 coup leader Colonel Azali Assoumani, who took 15.10 percent.

Nineteen of the 25 candidates who stood in the first round rejected the outcome and demanded a recount, but the Constitutional Court ruled against them, upholding the results.

Second-round voting began just after 7:00 am (0400 GMT) on Sunday and Interior Minister Mohamed Elhad Abbas said "all the conditions for a transparent vote are in place", but conceded that despite security measures "you can feel a definite tension".

Officials began emptying ballot boxes at 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) after polls closed.

The campaign was marked by a barrage of personal attacks and allegations of corruption, particularly between Mamadou and Assoumani -- who is seen as Mamadou's main rival after receiving the endorsement from the opposition Juwa party, which has no candidate in the second round.

- Arrests, ballot boxes broken -

Five people were arrested on Sunday for "electoral propaganda" in local elections being held alongside the presidential poll, and incidents involving activists from the different camps were reported on the island of Anjouan.

Baraka told AFP by telephone that he was "worried by what is happening on Anjouan", where the Juwa party is popular. Voting was interrupted in two polling stations on the island after ballot boxes were broken by troublemakers, according to aides of Baraka.

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Assoumani first came to power in 1999 after ousting acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde in a coup. He then won the presidential election three years later, stepping down when his term ended in 2006.

Salim Soulaimana, head of a Comoros association of civil society groups, warned it was a "high risk vote".

"Voters are in a suspicious frame of mind because of the irregularities in the first round," Soulaimana told AFP.

- 20 coup bids in 26 years -

The first round took place only on Grand Comore island, in accordance with electoral rules that ensure the president is chosen on a rotating basis from the three main islands.

Comoros' system was established in 2001 after more than 20 coups or attempted coups, four of which were successful, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

The three islands that make up the Comoros -- Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli -- have a total population of just under 800,000 people, nearly all of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Dhoinine's completion of his five-year term in the impoverished archipelago has been seen as a sign of growing stability in the Comoros in recent years.

Though the islands, situated between Madagascar and Mozambique, suffer dire poverty, they export some vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang perfume essence.

Comoros is the world's top producer of ylang-ylang, which is extracted from a flower -- a commodity that makes up one-tenth of the archipelago's total export revenues.

The oil is a key ingredient in Chanel Number 5 perfume and is also used in many other fragrances.
Paris (AFP) - The lives of millions of women and children can be saved every year with an investment of under $5 per person on basic healthcare and contraception, a study into pregnancy-related deaths showed Saturday.

Nearly six million children younger than five and 300,000 women died in 2015, according to research in The Lancet medical journal.

Ninety-five percent of maternal and child deaths occur in 74 low- and middle-income countries.

"Many of these deaths could be prevented if high-impact and affordable solutions reached the populations that needed them most," study leader Robert Black of John Hopkins University's Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a statement.

"Our analysis shows that expanding access to care to keep more mothers and children alive and healthy is feasible, and a highly cost-effective investment."

Four million lives could be saved each year by reaching 90 percent of those in need with basic services such as pregnancy and delivery care, childhood nutrition, and treatment for infectious diseases like pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria, said the team.

This was broken down into 1.5 million newborn deaths, 1.5 million child deaths, 149,000 newborn deaths and almost 850,000 stillbirths.

Access to contraception on its own, could reduce 67,000 maternal deaths, 440,000 newborn deaths, 473,000 child deaths and 564,000 stillbirths, they estimated.

The cost would be $6.2 billion (5.4 billion euros) in low-income countries, or $6.7 per person who needs it.

In lower middle-income countries, the required amount is $12.4 billion or $4.70 per person, and in middle-income countries $8 billion or $3.90 per person.

Overall, the cost per head would be $4.70, the team said.
Frankfurt (AFP) - Germany at the start of the year introduced a corporate "women's quota" obliging its 100 biggest companies to fill at least 30 percent of their supervisory board seats with females.

But for many, including several of the women executives themselves, the new legislation has so far proved something of a "paper tiger".

"The law is addressing the tip of the iceberg and we need to make sure that we change more than that," said Belen Garijo, board member at pharmaceuticals specialist Merck KGaA.

The 55-year-old Spaniard is the first woman to hold such a position at the world's oldest pharmaceuticals maker, based in Darmstadt.

But for her, what counts are the competence and skills required for the job rather than quotas like the one Germany introduced on January 1.

"If someone were to tell me, 'you sit on the board because you're a female', that would reduce me to tears," she said.

Claudia Nemat, a board member at Deutsche Telekom, also said that such "legislation makes no real difference".

"Companies must understand that diversity -- both on the executive and supervisory boards -- gives them a competitive advantage," she said.

"We need men and women with international experience, both young and old."

The German drugs and telecoms giants can be viewed as pioneers in a country where the glass ceiling for women is still very much a reality.

Both groups have female executive board members and more women on their supervisory boards than the 30-percent minimum required by the new law, which came at the insistence of the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the Social Democrats.

Under the law, if women cannot be found to fill 30 percent of supervisory board seats, then those seats must remain empty.

- 'Snail's pace' -

By fixing a quota, Germany is following in the footsteps of Norway, a pioneer in gender equality, and European neighbours such as France, Spain and the Netherlands.

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Big companies, and 3,500 small and medium-sized enterprises, must also fix their own voluntary goals for women on their management boards and provide regular updates on the progress they make.

The new legislation "marks some progress, but let's hope things aren't going to proceed at the same snail's pace" as in the past, said Elke Holst, research chief at the economic think tank DIW.

The institute has been monitoring the number of female top executives in Germany's 200 biggest companies for more than 10 years, and the results aren't good.

At the end of 2015, just six percent of the firms had female executive board members, and just under 20 percent had women on their supervisory boards.

"The situation has improved slightly, but not very much with regard to the executive board positions," Holst said.

There were no women at all on the management boards of groups such as Volkswagen, Commerzbank or Beiersdorf, maker of Nivea products.

On Germany's current trends, gender parity won't be attained before 2040 on supervisory boards, and not until next century on executive boards, the expert has calculated.

- 'Change and awareness' -

Holst said that without real sanctions for corporate laggards, the new legislation would remain a "paper tiger."

Yet many women executives fear that penalising companies that don't promote enough females to board positions could be counter-productive.

"I don't believe in sanctions, I don't think sanctions get you the right behaviour," said Bayer's first female board member, Erica Mann.

"My view is that people need to willingly do things, and I think education is more important than sanctions."

Mann said she grew up in South Africa where in the 1980s she saw "quotas to get more black people and more women into jobs".

She said such quotas "force a good change and awareness" but can also be problematic for those who benefit because "you want to feel that you got that job fair and square, not because you're (part of) a quota".

Garijo at Merck said that companies that "would keep saying they don't find women to occupy senior roles, they have a big problem".

"Either the management process they may have is not really efficient or effective, or they are using this probably as an excuse."

Holst at DIW pointed out that German companies accepted voluntary quotas back in 2001, "but that simply didn't work".

She urged government fiscal and family policy measures to make it easier for women to have careers, pointing to a conservative culture still prevalent in parts of western Germany that expects women to stay at home.

"Reality has changed," she said, "but things haven't necessarily changed at the same pace in people's heads".
Dubai (AFP) - Dubai plans to build a tower that will stand higher than its Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest skyscraper, property developer Emaar said Sunday.

The viewing tower will cost around $1 billion (880 million euros) and will be "a notch" taller than Burj Khalifa, Emaar chairman Mohamed Alabbar told reporters as he revealed details of the project.

But he said that the final height will be announced upon completion, adding that his company would like to present the tower as a "gift to the city before 2020," the year Dubai hosts the world Expo trading fair.

Designed by Spanish-Swiss architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, the tower will have observation decks, in addition to 18 to 20 mixed-use floors that will host restaurants and a boutique hotel, Alabbar said.

Burj Khalifa is 828 metres (2,700 feet) high and it cost $1.5 billion to build. It was opened in January 2010.

Alabbar described the new structure as an "elegant monument" which would add value to property being developed by the company along the city's creek.

"Many would like to have a view" when considering buying a property, he said.

The tower will be slender, evoking the image of a minaret, and will be anchored to the ground with sturdy cables, Emaar said.

Dubai has established a reputation for building dozens of futuristic skyscrapers, which have transformed its skyline.

Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding is building a tower in Jeddah that is planned to surpass Burj Khalifa, rising more than a kilometre.
DUBAI (Reuters) - Dubai's Emaar Properties plans to build a new tower in the emirate to surpass the Burj Khalifa, currently the world's tallest building, Chairman Mohamed Alabbar told reporters on Sunday. The new project comes as Dubai developers continue to announce new schemes despite a softening real estate sector, with the Emaar-built Burj Khalifa expected to be usurped by a tower currently under construction in Saudi Arabia. Alabbar would not confirm the height of the proposed new tower, saying only that it would be "a notch" taller than the Burj Khalifa, which stands at more than 828 metres. Supported by a matrix of cables, the futuristic tower will anchor the redevelopment of the Dubai Creek, the heart of old Dubai where traditional dhow boats continue to ferry goods. The tower, designed by Spanish-Swiss neo-futuristic architect Santiago Calatrava Valls, is slated to have a rooftop courtyard, residential units and a link to a retail plaza. The building is expected to be completed for the Dubai Expo trade fair in 2020, the same year that the kilometre-high Kingdom Tower in Jeddah is due to overtake the Burj Khalifa as the world's tallest building. Funding for the $1 billion project will be 50 percent equity and 50 percent debt, Alabbar said, undeterred by a residential property market that consultancy Cluttons says has softened for at at least five quarters. The balance between supply and demand is very encouraging, Alabbar said. He declined to give figures, but said: "I don't see a pullback. We are doing better than 2015." (Reporting by Hadeel Al Sayegh; Editing by David French and David Goodman)
By Amina Ismail and Haitham Ahmed CAIRO (Reuters) - Tension between Egypt and Italy stems from Cairo's refusal to hand over extensive phone records as part of an investigation into the killing of Italian researcher Giulio Regeni, a senior Egyptian prosecutor said on Saturday. Italy recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultations on Friday, saying Egyptian investigators on a visit to Rome had failed to provide the evidence needed to resolve the case of Regeni, whose body was found dumped in a roadside ditch nine days after he disappeared in the centre of Cairo. A day after returning from Rome, Egypt's assistant public prosecutor Mustafa Suleiman said Egypt had complied with 98 percent of Italy's requests. Suleiman said the findings of the Italian and Egyptian autopsies were almost identical but that Egypt would not share the phone records sought by Italian investigators. He said Italy had requested all records from the area where Regeni lived, where he disappeared and where he was found, which could amount to nearly a million calls. "This demand goes against the constitution and the law and is a crime for anyone who does it," Suleiman told a news conference in Cairo. "We told them that the public prosecution is doing this itself (looking at phone records) and will give you the results." Suleiman said the Egyptian investigators had also given the Italians the surveillance camera they had asked for but that the relevant footage had automatically deleted. Regeni, a 28-year-old PhD student who was researching the Egyptian labour movement, disappeared on Jan. 25, the anniversary of the start of 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule. His body was discovered on Feb. 3 and Egyptian investigators found signs of extensive torture. Human rights groups say the wounds bear the hallmarks of Egypt's security agencies and point to the scores of Egyptians who have disappeared over the past year. Egyptian officials have repeatedly denied involvement in his death but have struggled to offer an explanation to satisfy Italy. Italian officials have ridiculed different explanations put forward by Egyptian investigators. Egypt has also asked Italy to explain what happened to Egyptian Adel Moawad, who went missing in the European country last year. Suleiman said Italy handed over a file on Moawad, though his fate remained a mystery. Italy's decision to escalate the diplomatic dispute could dent Italian efforts to become Egypt's key European partner in fighting terrorism and people-smuggling. Italy also has significant economic interests in Egypt, including the giant offshore Zohr gas field, which is being developed by Italy's state energy producer Eni. Suleiman played down the diplomatic tensions, saying his team returned a day early to avoid a strike at Rome airport. However, in a statement carried by state news agency MENA later spokeman Ahmed Abu Zeid said Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri had expressed unease "toward the political direction that is beginning to be taken regarding this file". (Additional reporting by Ali Abdelatti; Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Alison Williams and Helen Popper)
Malabo (Equatorial Guinea) (AFP) - Equatorial Guinea's Democratic Opposition Front (FOD) Wednesday urged a boycott of next month's presidential election, saying it would be rigged.

"The FOD calls on its supporters and the population not to vote as this election is anti-constitutional," the group's Guillermo Nguema Ela told a news conference in the capital Malabo.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his government "do not respect either the constitution or the law," Ela said.

A poll initially slated for November is due to go ahead on April 24 following a presidential decree to that effect. No reason was given for the postponement.

The FOD comprises the main opposition Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), the Popular Union (UP), the Republican Democratic Force (FDR) and a movement seeking autonomy for Bioko, an island with some 300,000 inhabitants off the coast of Cameroon in the Gulf of Guinea.

CPDS secretary general Andres Essono Ondo said numerous "irregularities" surrounded a poll he said would ensure that "President Obiang wins with a big score as a result of fraud."

The CPDS, the only opposition party represented in the former Spanish colony's parliament, said it "will not recognise the president elected in the poll."

Obiang Nguema, 73, has ruled the country with an iron fist for 36 years.

But his regime has regularly come under fire from rights groups for violent suppression of opposition as well as for rampant corruption.

He was re-elected in 2009 with 95.37 of the vote.

The opposition says it abhors the lack of an independent electoral commission as well as the regime's grip on the media.

Interior Minister Clemente Engonga Nguema Onguene, who is also first deputy prime minister, was Monday named head of a government-dominated electoral commission.

Wednesday also saw independent politician Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono of the recently legalised Citizens for the Innovation of Equatorial Guinea say he would stand for the presidency.
Los Angeles (AFP) - Italy's Romano Fenati captured his first Moto3 win of 2016 in dominant style on Sunday at the Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin Texas.

The KTM rider notched his seventh career victory in a time of 41min 14.868sec.

He was 6.612 seconds in front of runner-up Jorge Navarro of Spain n a Honda.

South Africa's series leader Brad Binder powered his KTM past German Philipp Oettl on the final lap to take third, 10.535sec back.

Fenati made a superb start from fifth place on the grid, and on lap eight seizing second place and taking advantage of a mistake by Navarro to take the lead.

"The first part of the race I was thinking that Navarro was in first and too far away," Fenati said.

"But I never gave up. I pushed, I pushed very hard. I'm happy."

As he cruised home the battle for the final podium place unfolded behind him. Oettl, who started from pole for the first time in his career, moved into third when France's Fabio Quartararo was slowed by a late mechanical problem.

But the young German couldn't hold off Binder, who kept his nerve despite a rough ride and was too fast for Oettl on the straight.

"All weekend I've never struggled so much in my life," said Binder, who made it three podiums in three races this season after finishing second in Qatar and third in Argentina.

"When I started to get to the last eight laps I had so much chatter, I didn't know wha to do. I struggled the whole way to the end. When i saw Fabio go off, I saw Philipp wasn't too far so I only tried to keep it clean and I knew I could get him on the last lap."
Beirut (AFP) - Clashes around Syria's second city Aleppo have killed at least 16 pro-regime fighters and 19 members of Al-Qaeda's affiliate and allied rebel groups in 24 hours, a monitor said Sunday.

"Fierce fighting raged past midnight on several fronts in the south of Aleppo province," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside regime troops and other loyalist militia against jihadists and rebels, the monitoring group said.

"Shelling and fighting in the past 24 hours has left 19 Syrian and non-Syrian members of Al-Nusra dead... while 16 pro-regime fighters were also killed," the Observatory said, adding that one jihadist had blown himself up.

A truce brokered by the United States and Russia, which back opposing sides in Syria's war, does not apply to the fight against jihadists.

Across much of Syria, the February 27 truce has largely held. In areas where Al-Nusra fights alongside allied rebel groups, violence has been frequent despite the ceasefire.

Around Aleppo in particular, "the ceasefire has all but collapsed on the main front lines", Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

"Al-Nusra, (Islamist rebel group) Ahrar al-Sham and their allies are pushing an offensive to take back turf seized around Aleppo by the regime before the truce came into force," he told AFP.

Inside the city, the Observatory said regime barrel bomb strikes on Sunday hit the northeastern district of Al-Haidariyah, injuring a number of people including children.

"This is a new violation of the ceasefire inside the city," Abdel Rahman said.

He said neither the jihadist Islamic State (IS) group nor Al-Nusra were present in the area.

AFP video footage shows at least five people injured including three children residents and aid workers carried to ambulances.

"They're all civilians, there are no militants or Daesh here," one man said, using an Arabic acronym for IS. "They're all children and women."

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An aid worker said that a family -- father, mother and five children -- were injured when a barrel bomb hit the neighbourhood.

Rebels have frequently shelled Sheikh Maqsud, a mainly Kurdish area of Aleppo, leaving dozens of civilians dead since the truce began, Abdel Rahman said.

Syria's Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said Sunday loyalist Syrian troops were preparing a major operation to retake control of Aleppo city with Russian air cover.

"With our Russian partners we are preparing an operation to free Aleppo and block all illegal armed groups that have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted Halqi as saying after meeting Russian lawmakers in Damascus.

Syria's conflict erupted in March 2011 with anti-government protests but has since evolved into a multi-front war drawing in regional powers.
By Maher Chmaytelli BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A rallying cry to Iraqi Sunnis from former President Saddam Hussein's top surviving aide aims to bolster the old ruling Baath party's appeal with Sunni Muslims fearing new reprisals by Shi'ite militias, experts said. They said the video released on Thursday could also contain a message to Iraq's Shi'ite-led government that former party members might help it fight Islamic State if the Shi'ite militias are kept out of the battle. The broadcast purportedly featuring Ezzat al-Douri coincided with the anniversary of the fall of Saddam's Sunni-led rule when U.S. troops stormed Baghdad in 2003. Reuters could not authenticate it but analysts said it seemed genuine judging by his appearance and speech. Douri, a wiry man with a ginger moustache, evaded capture during the 2003-11 U.S. occupation and Iraqi and U.S. officials accused him of organising an insurgency by minority Sunnis against U.S. troops and the new Shi'ite led authorities in 2005-7. In a previous audio message, the former top official in Saddam's secular Baath party urged Sunnis to join those who had "liberated" half the country, referring to Islamic State, which declared a caliphate in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014. This time Douri called on the "sons of Iraq ... to rally behind the flag of the Arab coalition led by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia in order to avoid being burnt by the Persian fire." NEW ROLE The latest message follows major gains by the government and its U.S.-led backers against Islamic State and coincides with a push to drive it from Mosul, the largest city in its self-proclaimed caliphate. "Douri and the Baath have no military importance now, but as Daesh (Islamic State) is weakening, the Baath appears to see a role as part of the Saudi-led alliance against Iran," said Hisham al-Hashimi, a Baghdad-based security analyst. The U.S. invasion effectively handed power to Iran's allies in Iraq's Shi'ite majority community, and Tehran's influence became predominant when the American troops pulled out in 2011, leaving the Sunni community feeling marginalised. That marginalisation and revenge attacks by Shi'ite militias were seen as contributing to the rise of Islamic State. A Shi'ite militia has declared it will join the fight to drive Islamic State from Mosul, which has stalled: Iraq's top Sunni official has urged the government not to allow militia to join and Hashimi said Douri appeared to be doing the same. "The Saudi-led alliance is against Iran and also against Daesh (Islamic State) and by aligning the Baath with the Saudis he is adopting the same position; Douri seems to be saying 'My men will be willing to fight Daesh on condition that you keep Irans militias out of Mosul'," Hashimi said. DECLARED DEAD The clip appeared to show Douri, who would now be 73, close up wearing his old green military uniform. Its tribute to Sunni power Saudi Arabia was a new development because the kingdom was a long-time rival of Saddam who had his own regional ambitions. Carried on Saudi-owned al-Hadath TV, it was unclear when it was recorded as the only time indication was a reference to the Saudi-led campaign against Yemen's Iran-backed Houthis which started in March 2015. Iraqi authorities said in April 2015 that Douri had been killed in a military operation and showed pictures of a body that resembled his. An Iraqi government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment this week. Sitting behind a desk and wearing glasses in the video, the man appearing to be Douri read a statement from a pile of papers clutched in both hands that blamed the "U.S. administration for everything that Iran is doing in Iraq with its agents, its militias and its security and military services". The message, said Ihsan al-Shammari, politics professor at Baghdad University, was aimed at stirring sectarian fears to try to bring the Baath party back to the fore. "But democracy is moving forward in Iraq, away from Douri and the Baath," al-Shammari said. (Editing by Philippa Fletcher)
By Arshad Mohammed and Kiyoshi Takenaka HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuters) - John Kerry will not offer an apology for the United States' use of the atomic bomb against Japan when he becomes the first U.S. secretary of state to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum on Monday, a senior U.S. official said. Kerry is visiting the city, which was obliterated by a U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, to attend gathering of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) advanced economies that Japan opened on Sunday with a call to end nuclear weapons. The U.S. diplomat is to join his counterparts from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan on Monday to tour the city's atomic bomb museum and to lay flowers at a cenotaph for its victims, becoming the first in his post to do so. "If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no," a senior U.S. official told reporters late on Sunday. "If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added. Kerry's trip could pave the way for an unprecedented visit to Hiroshima by a sitting U.S. president when Barack Obama attends the annual G7 summit to be held in Japan next month. While saying the White House has yet to make a decision, the senior U.S. official said Obama has shown he is willing to do controversial things such as visiting Havana last month. The official suggested there was no "great or insurmountable angst about the optics or the politics of a visit to Hiroshima." He also said there was no Japanese effort to seek a U.S. apology, "nor is there any interest in reopening the question of blame for the sequence of events that culminated in the use of the atomic bomb." Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, who presides over the two-day meeting, on Sunday said ministers will discuss anti-terrorism steps, maritime security and issues related to North Korea, Ukraine and the Middle East. Some of the topics discussed on Sunday included countering violent extremism, the battle against Islamic State militants and the effort to end the five-year Syrian civil war, a second U.S. official told reporters. Maritime security is on the cards after China rattled nerves in the region with its controversial reclamation work in the South China Sea. Some talk of nuclear nonproliferation is inevitable given North Korea's fourth nuclear test in January. During World War II, a U.S. warplane dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, reducing the city to ashes and killing 140,000 people by the end of that year. Hiroshima's suffering is vividly displayed at the museum the ministers will tour, including their charred and torn clothes, a tricycle ridden by a three-year old boy who died from the blast and statues of the victims, their flesh melting from their arms. Three days after dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, the United States dropped one on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered six days later. (Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Actor Gabrielle Carteris, who has been serving as SAG-AFTRA's acting president since the death last month of Ken Howard, was elected president by the union's board to fill out the remainder of Howard's term, SAG-AFTRA announced Saturday. She will serve until August 2017.

A veteran of Beverly Hills, 90210, Carteris was also the union's executive vp, an office she now vacates. The board elected Rebecca Damon to fill that slot. For the first time, SAG-AFTRA's top three officers are all female, the union noted.

"I am deeply honored to be chosen by the SAG-AFTRA National Board to serve the union and its members as president," said Carteris. "Ken was a great union leader, friend and mentor. He left big shoes to fill, but with the support of the national board of directors and the membership, I am committed to improving the lives of all SAG-AFTRA members."

Carteris' election on Saturday positions her as the incumbent president should she decide to run for re-election by the membership next year. She was elected most recently as executive vp last October, with 79 percent of the vote at the SAG-AFTRA biennial convention. (SAG-AFTRA's membership elects the president, but convention delegates elect the exec vp.) She was first elected to that office in 2013.

Prior to executive vp, Carteris was a SAG-AFTRA national vp for Los Angeles, and she served both predecessor unions before the SAG/AFTRA merger in 2012 in a variety of board, officer and delegate positions, including as a member of the G1 (Group for One Union) committee that developed the detailed merger plan.

Over the last several months, Carteris also served as co-chair for the union's commercials negotiations. SAG-AFTRA and the ad industry reached a tentative deal on that contract last week. The board is expected to endorse the contract today or tomorrow, and send it on to the membership for a vote.

Damon is a New York actor and voiceover artist who also served on the G1 and has served on the union's national and local boards and various committees. She is also a board member of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, the union's affiliated charitable group.

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"It's an honor to serve our members, and I'm grateful for Gabrielle's trust and the support of my colleagues," said Damon. "As executive vice president, I will continue working to expand SAG-AFTRA's reach and to increase opportunities for members across the country. Following the peerless example of our beloved late president, Ken Howard, we will focus on member outreach to maximize the solidarity and bargaining strength of our remarkable union."

National executive director David White, the union's top paid staff member, said, "I congratulate Gabrielle Carteris on her election as president of SAG-AFTRA. Gabrielle and I have worked closely together for many years, including most recently on the successful commercials contracts negotiations. I know she understands the needs and aspirations of our members and I am excited to work with her to continue advancing the goals of this union."

He added, "I also congratulate Rebecca Damon on her election as executive vice president. She is a deeply experienced and effective leader who will work with President Carteris and the national board to engage and empower members throughout the country."

Later this year, the union will begin preparations for negotiating the TV/theatrical contract, which expires mid-2017. The corresponding DGA and WGA contracts also expire next year, and it has not yet been announced whether, as is frequently the case, the DGA will negotiate first. Whoever goes first will likely negotiate this fall, well in advance of the expirations. For SAG-AFTRA, those negotiations, whenever they occur, will be conducted under the shadow of the next race for union president, which will take place roughly June through September of next year.

Also on the agenda is the merger of the SAG and AFTRA health plans. An AFTRA plan trustee recently said he expected that merger to occur by this coming January, and for Carteris and her Unite for Strength slate, achieving that benchmark may well be critical to electoral success next year. The opposing group, MembershipFirst, is likely to run a vigorous campaign.

Email: jh@jhandel.com
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble gave details of a plan on Sunday to combat tax havens including creating an international network of registers that list the actual owners of companies. A huge leak of documents from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca has shown how offshore firms are used to stash the wealth of the rich and powerful, embarrassing several world leaders. Germany made closer international cooperation on tax evasion a priority during its presidency of the G7 economic powers in 2014/15. Schaeuble told the public broadcaster ARD that if company registers listing the owners of firms were networked internationally, it would be possible to find all the people hiding behind offshore companies. In the European Union, such registers have already been agreed as part of a fourth directive on money laundering that must be implemented at the national level by mid-2017. Schaeuble also pointed to an agreement on automatically swapping tax information, which around 100 countries have now joined. It is due to come into effect in 2017. He said the Panama Papers were ratcheting up the pressure on those that had not joined, such as the United States, to sign up. A government paper seen by Reuters showed other elements of Schaeuble's 10-point plan, including urging Panama and all other holdouts to join the tax data exchange agreement. The paper said the Global Forum of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) should act as a supervisor to check that states were exchanging data and come up with effective sanctions for negligent or uncooperative countries. It also showed that Schaeuble wanted the various national and international blacklists of non-compliant tax havens to be standardized, with an international organization such as the OECD taking the lead. Schaeuble said statutes of limitations for tax offences should only start once a taxpayer had fulfilled his or her obligation to provide information. Banking watchdogs across Europe have begun checking whether lenders have ties to the Panama Papers but Schaeuble said German banks had "largely put things in order already", adding: "We have made a lot of progress in recent years." The paper also said it was "not the task of banks to encourage aggressive tax avoidance" and said those that offered tax-saving schemes should be obliged to disclose these to tax authorities. It said tougher administrative measures were needed to hold firms to account because effective prosecution of misconduct often failed as negligence by an individual could not be proved. It also said tougher rules to combat money laundering had been introduced in Germany's financial sector in recent years and such progress was also needed in the commercial sector. (Reporting by Michelle Martin and Matthias Sobolewski; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German politicians have called on British Prime Minister David Cameron to do more in tackling the use of offshore companies set up in British overseas territories to evade taxes. "We'll only be convincing on the international stage if we are, first of all, fully compliant in the EU and for me, that includes Britain exerting influence over its overseas territories - we need to make that clear to the Brits in upcoming talks," senior conservative politician Ralph Brinkhaus told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag. Carsten Schneider, a budget expert for Germany's Social Democrats, the junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's ruling coalition, also said the British prime minister needed to take action in the light of last week's revelations from the "Panama Papers". Media that have seen the files leaked from Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca say more than half of the 200,000 offshore companies set up by the firm were registered in the British Virgin Islands, where details of ownership do not have to be filed with authorities. The law firm denies any wrongdoing. "If David Cameron still wants to be taken seriously personally and politically in the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, Britain needs to close the loopholes in its own country immediately," Schneider told Welt am Sonntag. Earlier on Sunday, Cameron announced he had set up a national task force led by its tax authority and the National Crime Agency to search through the the Panama Papers. Cameron, who has sought to take the lead internationally in tackling tax avoidance and evasion since Britain hosted a G8 summit in 2013, faced calls from political opponents for his resignation last week after revealing he once had a stake in his late father's own offshore investment trust and profited from it. Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour Party, said Britain had a "huge responsibility" as many tax havens are British overseas territories, like the British Virgin Islands and Cayman Islands, or Crown Dependencies, such as Jersey and the Isle of Man. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has called for offshore companies to become transparent after a huge leak of documents from Panama showed how they are used to stash the wealth of the world's rich and powerful. Governments across the globe have launched probes into possible financial wrongdoing by the world's elite after more than 11.5 million documents were leaked from Panama-based Mossack Fonseca, which has set up around 250,000 businesses in the last four decades. "We need complete transparency worldwide," Schaeuble wrote in a guest contribution due to be published in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag on Sunday. He wrote that he would, in the coming week, make concrete suggestions on how to tackle the misuse of offshore firms. Schaeuble urged Panama to finally allow a tax agreement with Germany to be implemented. "A bilateral tax agreement between Germany and Panama was negotiated three years ago but Panama has not signed it. I expect the Panamanian government to switch to the honest camp after these embarrassing revelations," he wrote. (Reporting by Michelle Martin; Editing by Helen Popper)
Jane Birkin, is that you?

Nope, just supermodel Gigi Hadid, rocking a brand new '70s-inspired 'do and killer lady boss pantsuit by Versace.

The 20-year-old traded in her boho waves for a piecey, layered look with blunt bangs as she arrived at the MTV Movie Awards in Burbank, Calif. on Saturday night. To keep the ensemble from looking too Kate Hudson circa 2002, Hadid added a few modern touches, including a metallic gold phone clutch and a beaded choker by Lili Claspe.

The new look is a 180 from her last red carpet appearance at the Daily Front Row Awards, where she donned a see-through white gown and beachy waves, but this is one change we can get behind.

BOSS: Gigi Hadid in pinstripes at the MTV Movie Awards. (Photo: Getty Images)
Lima (AFP) - Three soldiers and a civilian were killed, and seven others wounded, in two attacks by guerrillas in the jungles of central Peru, on the eve of presidential elections.

Authorities blamed remnants of the Shining Path communist guerrilla group, which was largely crushed in the 1990s but still has members hiding in the jungle.

The three soldiers and a driver were killed as they were taking forces to guard voting stations in the central Junin region.

"Special forces and supporting aircraft were sent to take control of the area and remove the military personnel that still remains in place," the Joint Command of the Armed Forces said in a statement.

The guerrillas first struck at Hatun Asha, located in a jungle zone considered a stronghold of the guerrillas and a major coca-producing area.

In a second attack, they targeted a military ship on the Apurimac River in the south, wounding two soldiers, authorities said.

President Ollanta Humala condemned the "insane" violence.

"Terrorism and those who collude with it have no place in our society or in our family," said Humala.

Mariano Cucho, the head of the National Office of Electoral Processes, insisted that "this attack will not tarnish the elections."

Some 23 million Peruvians are called to vote on Sunday for a new president and members of congress.

Leading the polls is conservative candidate Keiko Fujimori, whose father Alberto Fujimori waged a fierce conflict against the Shining Path when he was president from 1990 to 2000.

Around 69,000 people were killed between 1980 and 2000 in the conflict with the Shining Path, according to the country's Truth and Reconciliation commission.

"Peru has lived through these violent periods and we are working to bring peace to the country," Humala told a news conference.

"All these demented acts do is unite the Peruvian people more."

Authorities say remnants of the guerrilla group have joined forces with drug gangs and remain active in the remote mountains and jungles.

Peru is one of the biggest coca leaf and cocaine producers in the world, according to the United Nations and US authorities.
Paris-Roubaix winner Mathew Hayman admitted he had been hoping rival Tom Boonen would win the one-day classic race for a record fifth time.

Australian Hayman, 37, pipped Boonen, 35, in a sprint finish to deny the joint-record four-time winner the chance to move one clear of his Belgian countryman Roger De Vlaeminck.

And despite celebrating the greatest win of his career, Hayman said he would have been happy to finish second to Boonen.

"I would have liked to see him win and get the record, I'll be honest," admitted Hayman, who had twice before finished in the top 10 at the 'Hell of the North'.

"He's the king of the race, I followed his career when he was a young rider, being on the podium at such a young age (at 21 in 2002, his first Paris-Roubaix).

"For me it was surreal riding into the velodrome with Tom, whom I have a lot of respect for.

"I would've been happy with second behind Tom."

But reaching the decisive final lap and a half of the outdoor velodrome in Roubaix at the end of a 257.5km trek from Compiegne, near Paris, in a group of five riders left Hayman ready to gamble.

"I went into the velodrome with Tom but the others came back. I still felt everyone was pretty tired.

"I decided to hit out and go for it but I did get worried when I saw the sign for 200-metres.

"It's a long way out, but in the velodrome 200-metres is a long way when you have to come on the high side with tired legs."

Hayman's previous most prestigious victory was gold in the 2006 Commonwealth Games road race, as well as winning the modest Paris-Bourges race in 2011.

- 'Surreal state' -

"I was in a pretty surreal state being in the final because it's not something I'm used to. But I was strangely relaxed with everything I was doing."

Hayman's very participation had been in doubt after he broke his arm in a crash during the Omloop Het Nieuswblad race in late February, after which his team had ruled him out of the entire Spring Classics season.

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"The only emotion is total disbelief," said Hayman.

"I had a fracture in my radius of the right arm. The doctors were pretty sure that all my classics were done but I really wanted to get back as quickly as possible.

"I spent a lot of time on the home trainer in own virtual world, spending time in the garage training."

Despite missing out on his historic effort, Boonen was gracious in defeat.

"Mathew was the rider nobody was really looking at," he said about the last few kilometres when the challengers had been whittled down to a final five.

"(Edvald) Boasson Hagen is fast, (Ian) Stannard is strong and Sep (Vanmarcke) is good on the cobblestones.

"So everyone was just in those last 4-5km looking a bit (at each other). There were attacks left and right. After four or five attacks I thought maybe this is the right moment.

"I went myself and when Matt passed me he was really going strong.

"A guy like this really deserves a victory like this for helping people out and being in finals but not getting the win."

Boonen said he was undecided about his future but for three-time former winner Fabian Cancellara, who finished down in 40th and 7min 35sec back after a heavy crash on the cobbles, this was the end.

"One fall doesn't change anything, it's like that, it's a unique race," said the 35-year-old Swiss, who is retiring at the year's end.

"The day started well but it didn't finish the way I wanted it to.

"In the end I'm happy -- you need a lot of luck and today I didn't have any. That's the way it is. Paris-Roubaix really is the 'Hell of the North'."
LIMA (Reuters) - Center-right candidate Keiko Fujimori should win the first round of Peru's presidential election on Sunday, but failing to win more than half the votes will likely face either market favorite Pedro Pablo Kuczynski or leftist Veronika Mendoza in a runoff, a new poll by Ipsos showed on Saturday. The Ipsos poll, which surveyed 7,240 people on Saturday, gave Fujimori 35.8 percent of the vote, Kuczynski 21.0 percent and Mendoza 20.1 percent. The expected second-place finishers are statistically tied as the poll has a 1.2 percent margin of error. Support for Fujimori fell from 37.7 percent on April 6, the poll showed. (Reporting by Teresa Cespedes; Writing by Caroline Stauffer; Editing by Bill Rigby)
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet on Sunday unanimously approved a plan for reducing greenhouse gases and increasing energy efficiency to benefit the economy. Government officials expect the cumulative benefit to Israel's economy would reach more than 30 billion shekels ($8 billion), the finance, energy, environment and economy ministries said in a statement. "We intend to continue to invest in resources as needed to further reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions," Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon said. Under the plan, which follows last year's international climate accord in Paris, Israel will grant 500 million shekels in guarantees for loans to boost energy efficiency and 300 million shekels in grants for projects that will lead to efficiency in industry, the business sector and municipalities. Israel has committed to cut per capita greenhouse gas emissions to 7.7 tCO2e (tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent) by 2030. This represents a reduction of 26 percent over emissions in 2005. Cabinet ministers said they would examine ways to lower the use of coal and encourage the transition to natural gas to lead to a substantial drop in air pollution. They also will study measures to help make transportation more efficient and cut travel times, while setting up a team to remove barriers to encourage Israel's clean-tech sector and give tax incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy and promote green building projects. (Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Stephen Powell)
By Dan Williams JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A half-year-long surge in Palestinian street attacks against Israelis is waning, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, while Hamas accused the U.S.-backed Palestinian leadership of treachery for helping Israel stem the violence. Since October, Palestinians have killed 28 Israelis and two U.S. citizens in knife, car-ramming and gun assaults. In recent weeks, these have slowed from near-daily occurrences to more sporadic incidents. The last fatal attack took place on March 9. During this wave of violence, Israeli forces killed at least 190 Palestinians, 129 of whom Israel says were assailants. Many others were shot dead during clashes and protests. Palestinians and foreign critics have accused Israel of excessive force. Drivers behind the bloodshed include Palestinian bitterness over long-stalled statehood negotiations, greater Jewish access to a disputed Jerusalem shrine, and Islamist-led calls for Israel's destruction. In public remarks to his cabinet, Netanyahu said Israeli security forces' "very firm action against incitement" and their foiling of assaults had led to "a significant drop-off in the scale of terror attacks". But he told the forum: "I say this with great caution, because the trend can be reversed." Netanyahu made no mention of Israel's security cooperation with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's U.S.-backed administration in the occupied West Bank, where much of the violence has occurred. Israeli and Palestinian officials on several occasions cited a degree of security cooperation without going into details. Israeli media has reported close monitoring by both sides of social media in a bid to identify would-be assailants. Many Palestinians regard security cooperation with Israel as collaborating with the enemy. Palestinian experts say many of the young and often leaderless assailants have lashed out in solidarity with others who were killed carrying out attacks, with social media and cellphone footage of the incidents amplifying popular outrage. Hamas, the powerful Islamist group that exercises de facto control of the Gaza Strip, on Sunday condemned as "very grave" what it described as the arrest of three West Bank Palestinians by Abbas's forces on suspicion of planning to attack Israel. "Such cooperation aims to abort the Palestinian uprising and targets the resistance," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. But Palestinian authorities in the West Bank played down the case, saying the three were tracked down at the request of their families after their went missing. The last instance of a Palestinian carrying out a fatal attack in Israel occurred on March 9, when an American tourist was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv. The assailant was killed. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Ali Sawafta; Editing by Jeffrey Heller and Raissa Kasolowsky)
JERUSALEM (AP)  Israel's prime minister says there has been a significant drop in the rate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis.

Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he was citing the figures of Israel's Shin Bet security service carefully because "this trend could be reversed." But there have been no casualties over the past two and half weeks, the slowest stretch in a seven-month wave of stabbings, shootings and vehicular attacks that has killed 28 Israelis and two Americans.

During this time, about 187 Palestinians have died by Israeli fire. Israel says most of them were attackers, and the rest died in clashes with Israeli security forces.

Israel blames the attacks on incitement by Palestinian leaders and social media. Palestinians say the violence stems from frustration at nearly five decades of military occupation.
Cairo (AFP) - Italy's ambassador to Egypt left Cairo on Sunday after Rome recalled him over a lack of progress in the probe into the murder of an Italian student, an airport official and a diplomatic source said.

Italy, a key ally of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's regime, recalled Maurizio Massari after last week's inconclusive meetings between Italian investigators and an Egyptian team that visited Rome to present their findings into Giulio Regeni's murder.

Regeni, a 28-year-old Cambridge University PhD student, had been researching labour unions when he disappeared on January 25 from central Cairo.

His badly mutilated body was found more than a week later by the side of a road on the outskirts of the Egyptian capital.

During the meetings in Rome, Italy had demanded thousands of phone records to investigate the murder, which Egypt's assistant state prosecutor Mostafa Suleiman said was a demand that "violates the Egyptian constitution".

Suleiman, who headed the Egyptian team that visited Rome, said the Italian investigators "conditioned further judicial cooperation on this demand" which his team flatly refused.

Suleiman said the Italian investigators also demanded CCTV footage of the area from where Regeni had disappeared. He said the footage had been automatically deleted by then.

On Sunday, Massari left for Rome after Italy recalled him for consultations, an Italian diplomatic source told AFP. An airport official also confirmed he had departed Cairo.

Italian officials have greeted Egypt's explanations concerning Regeni's murder with outright scepticism.

They suspect he was killed by elements in the Egyptian security services, an accusation which Cairo has steadfastly denied.

Regeni's murder has troubled Cairo-Rome diplomatic ties given that Prime Minister Matteo Renzi shares a close relationship with Sisi, helping in turn to generate hugely valuable business contracts for Italian companies in Egypt.

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In terms of action, Italy's options are limited.

Moves under consideration include a warning to its citizens against travel to Egypt, but the Regeni case has already caused a slump in visitor numbers from Italy.

Rome is also considering asking for support from its European Union partners to try to put pressure on the Egyptian government over the case.

Media coverage of the Regeni case has served as a focus for other disappearances and rights abuses in Egypt.

Since ousting his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Sisi has overseen a blistering crackdown targeting all forms of dissent.

Hundreds of Morsi supporters have been killed, tens of thousands jailed and hundreds more including Morsi sentenced to death or lengthy jail terms.
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya and Uganda's presidents and oil company executives will meet on Monday to hold further discussions on a route for a pipeline to transport the two countries' oil, the Kenyan president's spokesman said on Sunday. Resolving the pipeline route is crucial to helping oil companies involved in Uganda and Kenya to make final investment decisions on developing oil fields. "President Uhuru Kenyatta will host Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni tomorrow ... They will discuss the construction of the Uganda-Kenya oil pipeline, a key plank of the Northern Corridor Infrastructure Projects," Manoah Esipisu said in a statement. Last wee, Tanzania's presidency said that Total, which has a stake in Uganda's crude oil discoveries, had set aside $4 billion to build a pipeline from Ugandan fields to the Tanzanian coast and that Tanzania wants the three-year construction schedule shortened. The comments raised the stakes in a competition to secure the pipeline with Kenya, which wants Ugandan oil to be exported across its territory and wants the pipeline to link up with Kenyan oil fields. "Kenya favours the northern route through Lokichar, because as part of the Lamu Port, South Sudan, Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) project, it would transform infrastructure and the way of life of the people in the towns and counties across its path," Esipisu said. He added that officials from Tullow Oil, Total and Chinas CNOOC had been invited to the meeting. Total has previously raised security concerns about the Kenyan route. Sections of the Kenyan pipeline could run near Somalia, from where militants have launched attacks on Kenya. But industry officials have also said that connecting Kenyan fields, which have estimated total recoverable reserves of 600 million barrels, with those in Uganda would make the pipeline project cheaper because costs would be shared. Both Kenya and Uganda, which the government says has a total 6 billion barrels of crude, have yet to begin commercial production. Tullow Oil and partner Africa Oil first struck oil in Lokichar in northwest Kenya in 2012. Africa Oil and Tullow were 50-50 partners in blocks 10 BB and 13T, where the discoveries were made. Africa Oil has since sold a 25 percent stake in those blocks to A.P. Moller-Maersk. (Reporting by George Obulutsa; Editing by David Goodman)
G7 foreign ministers on Sunday began two days of talks in Hiroshima, with John Kerry's visit to the atom-bombed city -- the first-ever by a US secretary of state -- overshadowing the broader agenda.

Kerry's landmark trip is seen as possibly paving the way for Barack Obama to become the first serving US president to visit the thriving metropolis next month, when he comes to Japan for a Group of Seven summit.

The meeting which started Sunday also includes top diplomats from nuclear-armed Britain and France, as well as Canada, Germany, Italy, host Japan and the European Union.

It is part of the run-up to the G7's rotating annual summit, scheduled this year from May 26-27 in another part of Japan.

The ministers were discussing issues including the Middle East, the refugee crisis, the conflict in Ukraine and global terrorism.

Japan also hopes to highlight rising territorial tensions in the South China Sea, where Beijing and some Southeast Asian nations have clashed, and North Korea's nuclear sabre-rattling.

Ministers have so far said little about the content of the meetings, though Kerry tweeted that they had a "big foreign policy agenda to cover" -- mentioning topics such as the Islamic State group as well as "Asia regional issues and global threats".

But it is the location of the talks that has captured the imagination of the Japanese public. Many hope it will promote greater understanding of Japan's staunch anti-nuclear stance as the only country to suffer atomic attack.

Speculation has been building that Kerry's planned visit to a Hiroshima blast memorial on Monday could see the US secretary of state issue an unprecedented apology.

But a State Department official said that was not on the cards.

"If you are asking whether the secretary of state came to Hiroshima to apologise, the answer is no," the official, who asked not to be named, told reporters travelling with Kerry.

"If you are asking whether the secretary and I think all Americans and all Japanese are filled with sorrow at the tragedies that befell so many of our countrymen, the answer is yes."

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Japanese foreign minister Fumio Kishida, who represents Hiroshima in parliament, hopes to issue a "Hiroshima Declaration" at the meeting to promote nuclear disarmament.

Kerry and his counterparts are on Monday scheduled to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, which houses the ruins of the iconic domed building gutted by the blast, and an accompanying museum.

On Sunday they visited one of Japan's most famous sites, the seaside Itsukushima shrine that dates to the late sixth century.

- Shared history -

The first American bomb on August 6, 1945, killed 140,000 people in Hiroshima, including survivors of the explosion who died afterwards from severe radiation exposure. Three days later another blast killed some 74,000 people in Nagasaki.

Japan gave up the fight six days after Nagasaki, forswearing militarism and reinventing itself as an economic dynamo -- protected, ironically, by the nuclear-armed United States.

When asked about its place under Washington's nuclear umbrella, Kishida said ahead of the meeting that Japan was mindful of global security realities, citing North Korea as a key threat.

Washington hopes to use Kerry's visit to highlight Obama's anti-nuclear stance.

"Progress on nuclear disarmament must be made in a way that reduces nuclear and security risks for ourselves, our allies and all humankind," Kerry told a local newspaper.

American tourist James Huddleston, visiting the memorial park with his wife and three children, said the top American diplomat's visit was good for both the US and Japan.

"It's important," said the 36-year-old sales manager from Detroit.

"(This) is a big part of the history of both countries."

Hiroshima resident Tatsumi Yamasaki, 78, said a visit by Obama would speak volumes.

"That act itself would mean a lot for people in Hiroshima," he said.

However, a small group of protesters gathered in front of the atomic dome on Sunday to condemn the G7's attitude and any Obama visit.

"They came all the way to Hiroshima to say they would get rid of nuclear weapons -- it's all lies," said organiser Kyoko Taniguchi.
Kuwait City (AFP) - Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have reached a deal to resume production at the disputed Khafji offshore oilfield, Kuwait's acting oil minister said on Tuesday.

"An agreement has been reached with the Saudi side at Aramco to resume production at Khafji field in small quantities," Anas al-Saleh told parliament during a debate.

Saleh, who is also the finance minister, said the quantities will increase "gradually" after resolving environmental issues over which the field was shut down.

A number of maintenance contracts have been signed in preparation for the resumption of production, the minister said without saying when production will resume or how much oil will be pumped.

Production at Khafji, which pumped over 300,000 barrels per day and was jointly operated by the two countries, was halted in October 2014. Riyadh cited environmental issues for the shutdown.

Khafji is part of the neutral zone which is operated jointly by the two Arab nations and production is divided equally.

The other field is Wafra where production was also halted in May last year. Wafra pumped around 200,000 bpd.

Kuwait had initially said that Saudi Arabia unilaterally stopped production due to pollution concerns even though it was entitled to five years' notice under the joint agreement.

The two Gulf neighbours began talks in June to resolve the dispute.

Khafji is jointly operated by Kuwait Gulf Oil Co. (KGOC) and Saudi Aramco Gulf Operations, while Wafra is operated by KGOC and Saudi Arabian Chevron.

Industry sources say Kuwaiti authorities were unhappy with Saudi Arabia for renewing an operating agreement for the Wafra field with Saudi Arabian Chevron for 30 years in 2009 without consulting them.

In response, it stopped issuing or renewing visas for Chevron foreign employees.

The dispute has been a blow to Kuwait which, unlike its much larger neighbour, has little spare output capacity to compensate for drops in production.

Kuwait is pumping around 3.0 million bpd.
A massive explosion and blaze apparently sparked by a stray firework during an unauthorised display killed over 100 people and injured scores more at a temple in southern India Sunday.

Thousands had packed overnight into the Hindu temple complex in Kerala state where the firework is thought to have landed on a stockpile of others, triggering a huge blast that tore through concrete buildings.

"It came like a storm, throwing everyone to the ground. There were bodies all over the place and the injured were writhing in pain," said Anish Kumar, who had gone with his friends to see the display at the Puttingal Devi temple in Kollam district.

"I was horrified to see hundreds of men and women on the ground lifeless," said Kumar, who lost one of his friends in the disaster.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the accident as "heart-rending and shocking beyond words" and toured the complex and met the injured in a hospital.

"The incident is so grave that it is very difficult to describe in words. People who were 200 metres away were also hurt," Modi said.

"And right now the doctor was telling me that some of the blasts were such that some peoples' bodies were blown apart."

A team of specialist doctors were deployed from New Delhi amid reports of horrific burn injuries. The navy and air force also sent helicopters to evacuate the most critically injured, officials said.

"Total death total is 106 with 75 of those identified and 31 unknown," a spokesman for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told AFP.

Firefighters and police had battled at the temple in the coastal town of Paravur to douse the fire and rescue those trapped at the complex. But residents said some victims were charred beyond recognition.

Video footage showed a series of explosions and fireworks erupting about 3am (2130 GMT Saturday) along with huge plumes of smoke.

Local residents carried the bloodied and injured victims in their arms from the scene. They told of the force of the explosion sending concrete slabs and other building parts slamming into the crowd.

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Chandy and other officials said the temple had gone ahead with the fireworks display despite being refused permission.

"I had denied permission for this fireworks because they had asked permission for conducting it on a competition basis," Kollam district collector A. Shainomal told the NDTV network.

The Kerala government ordered a judicial inquiry into the cause of the disaster and Chandy's spokesman told AFP that police have registered a criminal case against temple authorities.

- Amputations needed -

Local lawmaker N.K. Premachandran said a fireworks competition traditionally held every year between different groups had occurred at the temple, drawing thousands to watch.

One firework landed on a building that was storing the rest of the pyrotechnic material, triggering the explosion, he said.

Fires and stampedes are not uncommon at temples and during religious occasions, often because of poor security arrangements and lax safety standards.

Emergency room doctor Rajesh Kumar said those who poured into his hospital were suffering from head injuries and burn wounds, and several had needed amputations.

"Seven people had partial amputations in the blast and we had to amputate surgically. Most of the injured had head, torso and internal injuries, a few had burn injuries," he told AFP at a hospital in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.

Modi announced 200,000 rupees ($3,005) in compensation for the families of those killed and 50,000 rupees for those injured.

Messages of condolence poured in from around the world, with Pope Francis's office saying the pontiff was "praying for all affected by this tragedy".

Britain's Prince William and wife Kate said through a spokesman that they were "saddened by the news" after arriving in India on Sunday for an official tour.

Navy spokesman D.K Sharma said helicopters would transport the injured to larger hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram and also to Kochi city.

The fire comes as Kerala -- governed by the Congress party, which is in opposition at the national level -- heads to the polls in one of five state elections being held in India this month and next.
By Sivaram V PARAVOOR, Kerala (Reuters) - A fire and explosions during a fireworks display to mark the start of the local Hindu new year killed 100 people and injured more than 380 at a temple in India's southern Kerala state on Sunday. Thousands of devotees had packed into the Puttingal Devi temple, about 70 km from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram in the coastal district of Kollam, to watch the display that started at midnight and went on four hours. The blaze started when a cracker fell onto a shed where the fireworks were stored, sparking a string of powerful explosions that blew the roof of the administrative block of the temple and caused another building to collapse, residents said. "There were body parts on the floor and on the roof there was an arm," Anita Prakash, a resident said. "In the past, there's been fireworks but not on this scale." Kerala is studded with temples managed by rich and powerful trusts that often flout local regulations. Each year temples hold fireworks displays, often competing to stage the most spectacular ones, with judges who decide the winners. Kollam district magistrate A. Shainamol said people living in the area near the temple had complained about the danger of these fireworks in the past. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flew to Kollam with a team of doctors to help state authorities cope with the large number of injured, moving swiftly to head off criticism of a lack of public safety. "The fire at the temple in Kollam is heart-rending and shocking beyond words," he said in a Twitter post. "My thoughts are with families of the deceased and prayers with the injured." Modi has faced public criticism in the past for failing to respond quickly to disasters such as the floods in Chennai late last year. Large parts of the metropolis were under water for days before government help arrived. Earlier this month, a flyover under construction in the eastern city of Kolkata for years collapsed killing 27 people, prompting allegations that shoddy material was used and that the metal parts had corroded during the years of delay. NO PERMISSION Television images from the devastated temple site showed people, some clutching children with burn injuries, being taken to hospitals. Others carried out charred bodies of victims. Kerala's Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala told Reuters that 60 of the 100 dead had been identified while the number of people admitted to hospitals in Kollam and the state capital had risen to 383. With Kerala in the midst of an election for a new state assembly, the fire quickly turned into a political issue as local leaders demanded an investigation. In Kerala, Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) trails its Congress party and communist rivals. The BJP has focused on building up grassroots strength in the state for decades. Kerala's Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the Kollam district administration had denied the temple authorities permission for the display and the government would investigate why they went ahead anyway. "There was no permission to even store the fireworks," he said. Witnesses said they had repeatedly warned the local administration about the danger of firework displays in the crowded neighborhood. Chennithala said a case for illegal possession of explosives had been registered against the temple. The temple trust was not immediately available for comment. The explosion from the fireworks was so strong that some parts of the temple roof caved in. Local media showed bulldozers trying to clear the area of the debris. The Puttingal temple is one of the oldest in the state. It was built on the site of an ant hill where locals believe a goddess appeared centuries ago. (Additional reporting by Jose Devasia in THIRUVANANTHAPURAM and Vipin Das M. in NEW DELHI; Writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Ryan Woo and David Clarke)
Idomeni (Greece) (AFP) - At least 260 people needed medical attention Sunday after police fired tear gas at migrants as they tried to break through the Greek-Macedonia border, where over 11,000 people are stranded, a charity said.

It was the latest violence to erupt at the flashpoint Idomeni crossing, where huge numbers of migrants and refugees -- many fleeing conflict in Syria, Iraq and beyond -- have been camped out since mid-February after Balkan states closed their borders, cutting off access to northern Europe.

Macedonian police accused the crowds of hurling stones and other objects at them in a bid to break down the fence, saying they had used tear gas to protect themselves.

"Two hundred people were treated by our medical unit for breathing problems, 30 for wounds caused by plastic bullets and 30 for other injuries," Achilleas Tzemos of French medical charity Doctors Without Borders told AFP.

The incident, amid the EU's worst migration crisis since World War II, was sparked by fresh rumours that the Idomeni border crossing into Macedonia, largely closed since mid-February, was about to open.

According to a Greek police source, hundreds of migrants had gathered by the fence to demand the border be opened. When they tried to force the barrier, Macedonian police began firing tear gas.

The clashes came as an EU delegation visited Turkey and urged the country to carefully implement a deal under which all migrants arriving at the bloc's borders from Turkey now face being returned there.

At the scene, protestors with their faces covered with scarves or smeared with toothpaste as a makeshift protection against tear gas could be seen hurling rocks at the fence, an AFP correspondent said, adding that some fainted in the suffocating atmosphere.

Part of the fence appeared to have been torn down.

Others ran for cover as tear gas grenades exploded nearby, sending clouds of gas wafting into the air.

Macedonian police, however, denied that anyone had been injured by plastic bullets.

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- 'Not using bullets' -

"We are not using any kind of bullets as they are forbidden by law in Macedonia. We are not using batons as we are on the other side of the fence," spokeswoman Liza Bendevska told AFP.

"We are using all allowed chemical means."

Giorgos Kyritsis, a spokesman for Greece's migration coordination agency, however, condemned what he called the "dangerous" and "reprehensible" tactic of using "plastic bullets, tear gas and stun grenades".

Earlier, another Macedonian police spokesman said the mob had hurled stones and other objects at police, injuring three of them, and that they had used tear gas to try and break up the protest.

"A large group of refugees attempted to destroy the razor fence and enter Macedonia. They threw stones, metal things and other objects towards police," spokesman Toni Angelovski said.

Macedonian police had initially told AFP it was Greek police who were responsible, but Angelovski later confirmed they too had begun "using tear gas and all allowable means to protect (themselves) and the border".

"No single migrant managed to cross on the Macedonian side, but (the situation) is still tense," he added.

An official at a migrant centre on the Macedonian side of the border said three 500-strong groups of people had tried to breach the barrier in three different places.

- Symbol of misery -

The makeshift encampment at Idomeni, where people are living in squalid and overcrowded conditions, has become a symbol of the misery faced by thousands who have fled war and poverty to reach Europe.

Efforts by the Greek authorities to persuade migrants to leave Idomeni and move to nearby reception centres have not been successful, with many people preferring to stay put in the hope the border will be opened.

Sunday's incident came a day after four women and a child drowned off the Greek island of Samos, in the first deaths in the Aegean Sea since the controversial EU-Turkey deal to stem the flow of refugees took effect three weeks ago.

The EU delegation led by Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, whose country currently holds the European Union presidency, on Sunday visited Istanbul nearly a week after Greece began shipping migrants back to Turkey under the terms of the agreement.

Meanwhile, at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, where some 4,500 migrants have set up a huge makeshift camp, several hundred people protested against efforts to move them to dedicated reception centres.
Antananarivo (AFP) - Madagascar's President Hery Rajaonarimampianina on Sunday appointed a new prime minister, two days after the island nation was plunged into confusion when the previous premier denied having stepped down.

The new head of government was named as current interior minister Olivier Solonandrasana, according to a statement read out by Roger Ralala, secretary general of the presidency.

The development comes after the presidency on Friday announced the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Ravelonarivo following weeks of political conflict, only for Ravelonarivo to swiftly deny the claim.

The president sought to clarify the situation on Sunday, telling reporters he "had received the prime minister's resignation".

According to local media, Ravelonarivo and Rajaonarimampianina had for weeks been at loggerheads over issues including the poor condition of the island's main roads and rising crime in the capital Antananarivo.

Solonandrasana, 51, is expected to form a new government in the coming days.

The Indian Ocean island nation has endured several years of turmoil after Marc Ravalomanana was ousted as president in a 2009 coup that led to the withdrawal of foreign investment and donor money.

In 2013, a presidential election that was designed to resolve complex power struggles brought Rajaonarimampianina to power.

Ravelonarivo took office as prime minister last year.

Madagascar remains one of the world's poorest countries, heavily dependent on foreign aid, and any renewed political trouble could threaten development.

The country off Africa's southeastern coast with a population of 23 million is famed for its unique wildlife, the result of evolution through geographical isolation.
MEXICO CITY (AP)  An Austrian laboratory has not found evidence that can confirm that remains found in a trash dump in the southern Mexican state of Guerrero belong to 43 students who disappeared in September 2014, authorities announced.

The Attorney General's Office said in a statement late Friday night that the Institute of Legal Medicine at the University of Innsbruck examined samples including hair and physical remains.

The office said it was not possible to establish genetic profiles through DNA testing so far, though further testing is still being done with those results to be released in the future.

Mexican investigators have theorized that police handed the students over to drug gang members who killed them and incinerated the bodies at the garbage dump.

That finding has been disputed by two outside groups of experts who examined the case and concluded there was no evidence at the dump of a fire large enough to consume all the bodies. Relatives of the students have also publicly doubted the government investigation.

The Attorney General's Office said the Austrian lab determined that some of the hair samples were human, while others were of animal origin.

Those found to be human did not yield a match with DNA sequences of family members of the students.

The case of the missing students has attracted national and international condemnation, and the government's perceived mishandling of it has dogged the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
- Spain's Marc Marquez put his Honda on pole for the MotoGP Grand Prix of the Americas for the fourth straight year, extending his dominance in Austin, Texas. The Honda rider, who won the first three editions of the race in the hills outside the Texas capital from pole position, will try to make it four in a row on Sunday after topping qualifying with a time of 2min 3.188sec. He will start from the front row of the grid alongside his two great Yamaha rivals Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.

AFP
Istanbul (AFP) - The world's Islamic countries began their annual meeting Sunday in Istanbul, where they are set to focus on the Palestinian cause, conflicts in member states and combating terrorism.

The meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) comes once again at a time of turmoil in many Muslim nations, with conflicts in Syria and Yemen dragging on, and several states including Turkey, bloodied by militant attacks.

The 13th annual OIC conference began with senior officials adopting the agenda and will be followed by a foreign ministers meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday. Over 30 heads of state and government will attend the summit hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday and Friday.

With guests set to include Saudi King Salman, the event is taking place under the highest security, with police stationed all around the venue in central Istanbul.

The OIC said the summit was to issue a resolution on the Palestinian issue and support for international efforts to relaunch a "collective political process".

The gathering comes at a time of rising Islamophobia in many western nations in response to a spate of attacks by the Islamic State group.

Islamic leaders will also "consider the situation of Muslim communities in non-OIC member States and the issue of combating terrorism."

Turkey has also been a victim of several bloody IS attacks, and the Istanbul summit comes a day after the US warned of a "credible threat" of attacks in the city.

Under Erdogan, who has made Islam one of central themes of his politics, Turkey has upped its economic and political influence throughout the Islamic world, particularly in lands in the Middle East once part of the Ottoman Empire.

However this policy has has not always met with success and frosty relations with several Muslim states, including Egypt, have led some analysts to conclude its aim of "zero problems with neighbours" ended up having exactly the opposite effect.

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In a speech on Saturday, Erdogan hailed the role Turkey has played by hosting nearly three million refugees from neighbouring Syria.

"In the world, there is no state, no country that is capable of assuming such a burden. The events this year that targeted us will not deflect us from this path," he said.

A big question mark hangs over the level of representation from Egypt, which has had strained ties with Turkey since the ousting of Ankara ally Mohamed Morsi in 2013.
Niamey (AFP) - A Niger court on Tuesday granted bail to failed presidential challenger Hama Amadou, who was detained in November on sensational baby trafficking charges that he claimed were politically motivated.

President Mahamadou Issoufou was re-elected to a second term in office with 92 percent of the vote in a March 20 run-off that the opposition boycotted.

His sole challenger Amadou, who was flown to France for medical treatment four days before the second round of voting, announced his candidacy while in detention.

"The decision is clear, he is free as of today," his lawyer Mossi Boubacar said.

"He should be out today or tomorrow," Amadou's doctor Luc Karsenty told AFP in Paris.

A source close to the case in Niger said Amadou would not have to return to his prison in Filingue, 180 kilometres (110 miles) north of the capital Niamey, upon his return.

Amadou Boubacar Cisse, vice-president of the COPA 2016 opposition alliance, said the government "must definitively sort out Amadou's legal status" and called on the president to "stop the continuous harassment of the opposition."

Cisse called for the release of all political prisoners as a condition for accepting the president's offer of talks to ease political tensions in the arid west African state.

"We are all open to dialogue to prevent chaos in the country but there is a pre-condition," he said, adding: "All opposition members who are currently in jail must be freed."

Amadou's supporters have branded the baby trafficking case against him as an attempt to quash his leadership ambitions.

The 66-year-old was detained on November 14, after returning from exile in France, over allegations that he was involved in smuggling babies from Nigeria to wealthy couples in Niger.

The court was supposed to rule on his conditional release on March 14 but put off the decision until March 28, after the second round of the election which the opposition branded a farce.

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About 20 people were accused of involvement in the trafficking of babies, including bankers, leading businessmen and their spouses. Amadou's wife was also detained but released with the other suspects.

The case added to tensions in the uranium-rich country ahead of the election.

Last week, Issoufou proposed establishing a unity government with the opposition.

Reacting to his offer, COPA 2016's Cisse said: "The issue for us is not to take up folding seats in a national unity government ... but to put back democracy on track."
Niamey (AFP) - Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou secured 92 percent of the vote in a controversial run-off ballot boycotted by the opposition, according to official results released Tuesday.

Sunday's election in the impoverished but uranium-rich country was marred by low turnout and the opposition boycott.

Issoufou's sole challenger Hama Amadou, imprisoned since November on shadowy baby trafficking charges, was flown to France for medical treatment days before the second round.

The electoral commission said Amadou won seven percent of the ballots cast.

President Issoufou responded to the announcement of his victory, saying: "During this mandate, I will devote all of my energy to respond to the aspirations of the Nigerien people."

Speaking from the presidential palace, he said that security, strengthening democracy and guaranteeing food supplies would be priorities, adding that he needed "the support of all Nigeriens".

"Let us come together, not waste our energy on vain quarrels," said the president, following the results of the divisive poll.

The poll pitted 64-year-old Issoufou, a former mining engineer nicknamed "the Lion", against Amadou, 66, a former premier and parliament speaker known as "the Phoenix" for his ability to make political comebacks.

Issoufou won 48.4 percent in the first round on February 21. Amadou scored just 17.7 percent in the initial vote.

Voter participation was a crucial issue following the opposition's boycott call.

The COPA 2016 opposition coalition said voter turnout was a mere 11 percent nationwide, despite an initial official estimate of 56 percent.

- 'Pointless quarrels' -

Amadou was forced to campaign from behind bars after being detained on November 14 on baby-trafficking charges he says were concocted to keep him out of the race.

Issoufou, who took office in 2011, campaigned on pledges to bring prosperity to the country and vowed to prevent further attacks from jihadists in its vast remote north, and from Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamists to the south.

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However, just three days before the second round contest, Niger suffered two jihadist attacks -- one in the west claimed by Al-Qaeda's north African affiliate which killed three gendarmes and another by Boko Haram in which a senior army officer died.

Religious experts have warned that the ultra-conservative Wahhabist strain of Islam is taking hold in urban areas although Niger's government says it is "closely monitoring" the issue.

The run-up to the first-round presidential vote was marred by violence between supporters of the rival camps, the arrest of several leading political personalities and a government announcement that it had foiled a coup bid.

However, aside from the jihadist attacks, the run-up to the second round passed off largely without incident.

Addressing reporters on Sunday, Issoufou said: "We should avoid pointless quarrels. The winner, whoever he is, must think about bringing Nigeriens together beyond his own camp, because we face significant challenges."

The West African state, where three-quarters of the population live on less than $2 a day, has only had a multi-party democracy since 1990.

Uranium is the country's main export, with Niger ranked fourth globally after Kazakhstan, Canada and Australia.

After a tussle over the future of uranium mining, Niger and French nuclear energy group Areva agreed a deal on two uranium mines in May 2014.

In late 2011, Niger officially became an oil-exporting country, following the inauguration of a refinery in Olelewa, central-eastern Niger, that is run by the state with help from a Chinese company.
Washington (AFP) - US President Barack Obama said Sunday that the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state is taking place without political interference.

The controversy over the Democratic presidential frontrunner's management of her official correspondence as US top diplomat from 2009 to 2013 has provided a staple Republican line of attack during the campaign for the White House.

"I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department or the FBI, not just in this case but in any case. Period," Obama told Fox News Sunday.

"I do not talk to the attorney general about pending investigations," he added. "I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations."

Asked by journalist Chris Wallace whether Clinton would be treated differently were she to win the Democratic nomination, Obama said, "How many times do I have to say it, Chris? Guaranteed."

Obama, who leaves office in January, restated his view that although Clinton in her own words had shown a degree of "carelessness" over her official emails at the State Department, "she has not jeopardized America's national security."

Calling on the former first lady's critics to "keep this in perspective," he said she had done "an outstanding job" during her four years as secretary of state.

Clinton, who is leading the Democratic campaign against Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, has said that none of the emails sent over her private server were classified at the time.

She has handed the State Department 52,000 pages of documents relating to her correspondence.

Asked whether the FBI probe has reached its final stages, director James Comey told reporters earlier this week that the agency feels no pressure to wrap up its proceedings before the Democratic convention in July.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton never jeopardized national security in the handling of her emails as his secretary of state. Obama, in an interview broadcast on Fox News Sunday, said Clinton has recognized a carelessness on the email issue in which she used a private server for government business. "But I also think it is important to keep this in perspective," Obama said. "This is somebody who has served her country for four years as secretary of state, and did an outstanding job." Clinton, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013, has said her email arrangement broke no rules and that she will be vindicated in investigations of whether any laws were broken. The government forbids sending or storing classified information outside secure, government-controlled channels. The FBI has taken the server and is investigating the case with U.S. Justice Department attorneys. At least two Republican-led congressional committees are also investigating. The Democratic president was asked if the Justice Department investigation would treat the Clinton case impartially. "I guarantee that there is no political influence in any investigation conducted by the Justice Department, or the FBI, not just in this case, but in any case," said Obama, who leaves office next year. "Guaranteed. Full stop. Nobody gets treated differently when it comes to the Justice Department. Because nobody is above the law," he said. The State Department said this month it has suspended plans for an internal review of whether classified information was properly handled in Clinton's emails at the request of the FBI. The department, complying with a judge's order, has released more than 52,000 emails from Clinton's private server. Republican rivals in the battle for the Nov. 8 presidential election have cited the email controversy in saying Clinton is unfit for the presidency. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Alison Williams)
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Niger's President Mahamadou Issoufou won a second term with 92.5 percent of the vote in a run-off election that the opposition coalition chose to boycott, the electoral commission said on Tuesday. Issoufou, an ally of the West in its fight against Islamist insurgents in West Africa, won the first round comfortably last month with 48 percent of votes but failed to clinch the outright majority required to avoid a second round. The candidate who came second, opposition leader Hama Amadou, has been in jail since November on charges relating to a baby-trafficking scandal, but was flown to France for medical treatment last week. Amadou says he is innocent and claims the charges against him are politically motivated. But the size of Issoufou's victory is unlikely to draw significant international criticism, in part because of the boycott, but also because the incumbent has been in power only since 2011. "The Nigerien people have spoken clearly and unequivocally," said Issoufou in a statement in which he laid out his plans for a second term, including increasing security and improving the country's infrastructure. "I hail their political maturity and strong mobilization." The Coalition for an Alternative (COPA), which unites about 20 political parties including Amadou's MODEN, called for a boycott of the polls claiming the process had been tainted by fraud. It described the election as a "sham" and said in a statement on Tuesday that it would refuse to recognize the results. "President Issoufou's mandate expires on April 1, 2016 at midnight. From April 2, our country will have no legitimate president," it said. The turnout of the election was 60 percent, the commission said. The vote is subject to confirmation from the constitutional court. Southern Niger, which borders Nigeria, has been the target of frequent deadly raids by Islamist Boko Haram militants. It also shares borders with Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, where al Qaeda-linked groups are active. Libya, home to Islamic State affiliates, lies on its northern border. (Reporting by Abdoulaye Massalaki; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg and Edward McAllister; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Lima (AFP) - Peruvians voted Sunday on whether Keiko Fujimori, daughter of an ex-president jailed for massacres, should become their first female leader in an election marred by alleged vote-buying and deadly attacks.

The 40-year-old daughter of former leader Alberto Fujimori survived attempts to ban her from the race and widespread mistrust over her father's legacy to top the opinion polls ahead of the vote.

She was expected to win through to a second-round runoff against one of her nearest rivals: ex-prime minister and Wall Street banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, 77, or left-wing lawmaker Veronika Mendoza, 35.

Keiko Fujimori started the day by cooking sausages in front of the television cameras at her home as her two daughters, husband and mother sat at the breakfast table.

Later she smiled broadly as she cast her vote in the posh Surco district of southern Lima and then struggled with her bodyguards through a mob of television cameras back to her car.

Polling officially started at 8:00 am (1300 GMT) and was due to close at 2100 GMT, though some voting stations in Lima opened their doors about an hour late, AFP reporters saw.

- Election irregularities -

Observers complained that the electoral process was undermined when half the candidates dropped out or were excluded from the running under a tough new electoral law.

Fujimori and other leading candidates were accused of wooing voters with gifts. She and Kuczynski were cleared of the charges.

Three opinion polls published on Friday showed Fujimori was likely to win about a third of the vote, short of the simple majority needed to win outright.

Nine other candidates have either been excluded for irregularities or dropped out for lack of support. One, Gregorio Santos, is running for office from a jail cell where he is detained on corruption charges.

The leader of the Organization of American States, Luis Almagro, said the January electoral reform that allowed the candidates to be excluded risked turning it into a "semi-democratic election."

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- Attacks before election -

Alberto Fujimori's dark decade in power from 1990-2000 lives in the memory of many Peruvians.

Now 77, he is in jail for crimes against humanity. The courts held him responsible for the massacre of 25 people he said were terrorists in 1991 and 1992.

But many voters love him for crushing the Shining Path communist guerrilla group that carried out attacks and kidnappings.

The conflict reared its head on Saturday, when four soldiers transporting electoral material and a civilian were killed in an attack by remnants of Shining Path still hiding in the jungle, officials said. A separate attack injured two more soldiers.

"That is why we want more security," said Wilfredo Pena, a 55-year-old caretaker who voted for Kuczynski under cloudy skies at a school in Lima.

"We want a change -- safety for citizens and job security."

He rejected Keiko Fujimori however "because of the bad experience of the first (Fujimori) government. We do not want more of the same."

Eighteen-year-old student Angela Rios, voting for the first time, backed Fujimori.

"Hers is the best-organized party. She will strengthen the economy and improve education," Rios said.

"You cannot judge a person on what their father did."

Officials vowed the attacks would not disrupt the election. They said 50,000 troops would be deployed to guard polling stations.

Despite his authoritarian rule, Alberto Fujimori liberalized the economy and oversaw an economic boom. Growth has slowed in recent years under outgoing President Ollanta Humala.

Kuczynski has vowed to create jobs by boosting business and growth. Mendoza has promised to strengthen state control over the country's energy reserves.

Luis Benavente, head of the polling firm Vox Populi, said voters are "fed up not so much with the economy as with politics, because of corruption."

"We have come to a debacle, such deep chaos that the country has to react," he told AFP.
MANILA (Reuters) - Philippine soldiers battled a group of about 120 Muslim rebels linked to Islamic State in a ten-hour assault on a southern island that killed 23 people, an army spokesman said on Sunday. Major Filemon Tan said the military attacked a stronghold of Abu Sayyaf rebels on the island of Basilan led by Isnilon Hapilon, an insurgent for whom the U.S. State Department has offered a bounty of up to $5 million. "I can confirm 18 soldiers were killed and 53 were wounded," Tan said, adding that five militants, including a Moroccan, Mohammad Khattab, and Ubaida, a son of Hapilon, were killed in Saturday's incident, which wounded 20 rebels. There was no immediate statement from the small but violent Abu Sayyaf group, which is known for extortion, kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, and is one of the brutal Muslim rebel factions in the south of the largely Christian Philippines. The group has posted videos on social media sites pledging allegiance to Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, which have attracted foreign fighters from Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa to the troubled Philippine south. The army has stepped up its offensive against the rebels since November, Tan said, when President Benigno Aquino ordered it to hunt down Abu Sayyaf over the kidnapping and execution of foreign nationals. On the nearby island of Jolo, the rebels on Friday released an Italian man from six months of captivity. Troops were also on alert as another Abu Sayyaf faction threatened to execute two Canadians and a Norwegian tourists after a ransom deadline expired. In March 2014, the government signed a peace deal with the largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, promising to grant autonomy in the south and ending a 45-year conflict that killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
(Reuters) - Several employees of a Burger King fast-food outlet in Minnesota were persuaded by a prank caller posing as a fire official to smash the restaurant's windows, convinced that rising gas pressure was threatening to cause an explosion, police said Saturday.

Police in the Minneapolis suburb of Coon Rapids were dispatched to the scene Friday night after someone at a gasoline station next door called emergency services to report what appeared to be an act of vandalism in progress, police Captain Tom Hawley said.

The restaurant manager told arriving officers she had just received a phone call from a man identifying himself as a fire department official who seemed to have a working knowledge of commercial fire safety systems, which he asked her to check, according to Hawley.

In the course of their conversation, she recounted, the caller spoke as if he were remotely monitoring the situation inside the restaurant, and said he could tell that "gas pressure inside the building was rising."

As he gave her "updates," the caller insisted the gas buildup was reaching excessive levels, and finally warned that the restaurant was in danger of exploding unless the exterior windows were immediately broken to relieve pressure, Hawley said.

After quickly ushering out the handful of customers who were present at the time, the manager and three other employees ran out to their cars, grabbed tire irons and other objects and began smashing all the glass ringing the building.

By the time authorities arrived, the employees had shattered virtually all the ground-floor windows, causing several thousand dollars in damage, Hawley said. One worker suffered minor cuts and was treated on the scene by medics.

Firefighters called to the restaurant checked the building but found no traces of leaking gas, and the incident was confirmed to have been a hoax, according to Hawley.

He said investigators were trying to trace the origin of the prank, and were comparing notes with police in other cities around the country where similar phony calls have been reported at fast-food chains in recent days, including outlets in California and Oklahoma.

On Saturday, the smashed windows of the Burger King in Coon Rapids were still boarded up, but the restaurant was open for business, according to Hawley.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Bill Rigby)
By Serajul Quadir DHAKA (Reuters) - Protesters opposing the construction of a Chinese-backed, coal-fired power plant in Bangladesh agreed on Sunday to halt their activities for 15 days, defusing tensions after four demonstrators were killed last week. Villagers for and against the $2.4 billion power plant in the coastal district of Chittagong clashed last week before riot police fired their weapons after coming under attack. Four protestors died in the violence. S Alam Group, a Bangladeshi conglomerate which signed a deal on April 4 with China's SEPCOIII Electric Power Construction Corp to build the 1,320 megawatt plant, suspended work because of safety concerns, a company official said last week. Liakot Ali, the leader of the demonstrators, said they had made a number of demands to the authorities. He said a leader of Bangladesh's ruling Awami League had asked for two weeks to settle the issues. "We have demanded the release of all 17 people who have been arrested, the withdrawal of cases against villagers who demonstrated against this plant ... and the treatment of those injured during the demonstration," he said. Abdullah Kabir Liton, a senior Awami League official in Chittagong district said he had met with local people to try to convince them to stop their movement. "We need a few days to breathe," Liton told Reuters. The plant, located 265 km (165 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, is a major source of foreign investment into Bangladesh, and one of a series of plans Beijing is pushing to cultivate closer ties with Dhaka. The protesters say villagers around the plant will lose their homes, it will disturb the graveyards of relatives and cause environmental damage. "They started works without the approval from the ministry of environment," Liakot said. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury, an adviser to the prime minister responsible for power and energy told Reuters the project would use modern technology and would not harmful for environment. (Reporting by Serajul Quadir; additional reporting by Nazimuddin Shyamol from Chittagong; Editing by Ros Russell)
Washington (AFP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders called Sunday for a more balanced US Mideast policy, describing Israel's actions in the 2014 Gaza war as "disproportionate."

Sanders, who if elected would be the first Jewish US president, was asked on CNN to explain his stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- which is far more nuanced than is typical in US politics where support for the Jewish State is historically strong.

"Of course we are going to support Israel," the Vermont senator said. "But you cannot ignore the needs of the Palestinian people in Gaza right now."

"Whether you're Jewish or not Jewish, I would hope that every person in this country wants to see the misery of never-ending war and conflict ended in the Middle East," he said.

Earlier this month, Sanders criticized Israel's role during the 2014 Gaza war in a widely read interview with the New York Daily News, saying he believed more than 10,000 innocent people died in the conflict.

Though he admitted to not being sure about the number during the interview and accepted a correction that the figure was actually just over 2,100 people, his statement came under fire from Jewish groups.

Asked about the reaction by CNN, he stood by his criticism of Israel.

"Was Israel's response disproportion disproportionate? I think it was."

"Israel has 100 percent -- and no one will fight for that principle more strongly than I will -- has the right to live in freedom, independently, and in security, without having to be subjected to terrorist attacks," said Sanders, a secular Jew who spent time on an Israeli kibbutz.

"But I think that we will not succeed to ever bring peace into that region unless we also treat the Palestinians with dignity and respect."

Israel launched the seven-week conflict in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in response to the group's firing of rockets into southern Israel.

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More than 70 percent of the 2,130 Palestinians killed in the conflict -- which destroyed infrastructure and residential buildings -- were civilians, the United Nations estimates. Israel puts the number at around 50 percent.

"Their community has been decimated," Sanders said. "You can't ignore that fact."

"And you can't just be only concerned about Israel's needs." he added. "You have to be concerned about the needs of all other people in the region."
By Amanda Becker WASHINGTON - Bernie Sanders won the U.S. presidential Democratic nominating contest in Wyoming on Saturday, besting rival Hillary Clinton and adding to a string of recent victories as the two candidates gear up for a crucial matchup in New York. Sanders, a U.S. senator from Vermont, has won seven out of the last eight state-level Democratic nominating contests, trying to chip away at Clinton's big lead in the number of delegates needed to secure the party's nomination. Wyoming's 14 Democratic delegates - fewer than any other state - are awarded proportionally based on support from individuals participating in the nominating contest. Early estimates showed that while Sanders won the contest, both he and Clinton would likely receive seven delegates each in the close race, maintaining Clinton's lead overall. Going into Wyoming, Clinton had more than half of the 2,383 delegates needed to win the nomination. Sanders trailed her by 250 pledged delegates, those awarded based on the results of the state nominating contests. Clinton's lead widens when superdelegates, Democratic leaders who can decide whom to support at the party's July convention, are included in the tallies. Clinton and Sanders both spent Saturday campaigning in New York, which holds its contest on April 19 and where a total of 291 delegates are up for grabs, more than 10 percent of the tally needed to win the party's nomination. Sanders' wife, Jane Sanders, went onstage where he was speaking at a community college in Queens, a borough of New York City, to alert him to Saturday's victory. "News bulletin - we just won Wyoming!" Sanders said to cheers. Speaking to reporters after the event, Sanders said he believed he had enough momentum to secure the nomination. "We are closing very fast," Sanders said. Clinton, a former U.S. secretary of state, campaigned in the nearby borough of Brooklyn, where her campaign is based. Clinton represented New York as a U.S. senator and considers the state her home turf. Recent polls have shown Clinton more than 10 points ahead in the state. Tension between the two candidates flared earlier this week in a party race that has typically focused on policies and not personal attacks. The candidates dialed back their criticism of one another on Friday. In Wyoming's Republican contest last month, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas beat New York billionaire Donald Trump, the party's front-runner. Cruz is trying to block Trump from receiving enough delegates to win the nomination outright, which would lead to a contested convention in July. A new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows that a third of Trump's Republican supporters could consider abandoning the party's candidate if Trump is denied the nomination at a contested convention. (Reporting by Amanda Becker; Editing by Leslie Adler, Matthew Lewis and Bill Rigby)
PARIS (Reuters) - French tax police searched Societe Generale's <SOGN.PA> headquarters this week as part of an investigation into offshore accounts revealed by the Panama Papers, the bank said on Sunday.

The searches on April 5 were a "normal development in the context of such an investigation", a spokesman for the bank said, declining to comment further.

According to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, the searches were ordered to try to identify holders of offshore companies set up by the bank via Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

A leak of millions of files from the firm has cast a global spotlight on the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens, implicating scores of politicians and business figures.

Societe Generale was identified by Le Monde earlier this week as the fourth most prolific creators of offshore shell companies via Mossack Fonseca, with 979 to its name.

Following Le Monde's initial report -- part of an international investigation by more than 100 news organizations -- Societe Generale accused the daily of using "inconsistent information which gives rise to outrageous misconceptions".

It added: "As of today, the number of active structures created via the firm Mossack Fonseca for clients amounts to a few dozen."

French Finance Mininster Michel Sapin said on Wednesday he had demanded a full enquiry into the disclosures and questioned the bank's Chief Executive Frederic Oudea.

Sapin also vowed to pay "particular attention" to decisions taken by Societe Generale since 2012, when it had pledged not to open any more offshore structures.

The bank's board reiterated its support for management on Friday and said Societe Generale was "especially vigilant" over the application of rules and safeguards against money laundering and tax evasion.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost; Editing by Keith Weir)
By Stella Mapenzauswa JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa's ruling African National Congress has lost some supporters' confidence and could totally lose them if it does not deal with discontent with President Jacob Zuma, an ANC official said on Sunday. The ANC has been in damage control mode since the country's highest court ruled that Zuma failed to uphold the constitution by ignoring an order to repay some of the $16 million in state funds spent renovating his home. The party, which came to power after toppling white apartheid rule in 1994, crushed an opposition bid to impeach Zuma last week but has faced rising calls, including from some of its veteran members, to remove him. "It is not the Constitutional Court judgment that is the issue. The issue is the trust deficit that has developed, with people beginning to trust us less and less and less and less," ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said on Sunday. Speaking at the anniversary of the 1993 killing of anti-apartheid activist Chris Hani, Mantashe defended the ANC's rejection of the impeachment drive against Zuma, saying to do otherwise would have served the opposition's agenda. "But it doesn't absolve us from looking into our own behavior. There must be change in our behavior as a movement," he added. "If we don't change our behavior, we become arrogant in dealing with our problems. We are going to pay the price." Mantashe spoke as residents in poor townships vowed to boycott August local government elections out of anger that the ANC has done little to improve their lives, dashing the hopes that accompanied Nelson Mandela's inauguration as South Africa's first black president two decades ago. Zuma's own presidency has been riddled with controversy. Most recently, his close ties with the wealthy Gupta family have come under scrutiny after the deputy finance minister said the Indian-born family had influenced the sudden firing of his former boss in December. On Friday, Zuma's son Duduzane said he would sell his investments in a mining firm owned by the Guptas amid speculation the family is wielding undue political influence. The City Press newspaper reported on Sunday that some Gupta family members had left South Africa for Dubai following their resignation from positions at some local companies after major banks dropped the firms as clients. Representatives of the family's business interests declined to comment on the story. "The Gupta family has no further comment at this time, and will not be detailing the individual movements of family members," a short statement said in response to Reuters questions. "The onus is now on the business establishment and the banks to do the right thing." (Editing by Tom Heneghan)
Miami (AFP) - Super Bowl-winning former New Orleans Saints defensive end Will Smith was shot dead in an apparent road rage incident, law enforcement sources in Lousiana said Sunday.

Smith, 34, was gunned down late on Saturday night after the Mercedes he was driving with his wife was rear-ended by a Hummer H2, police said.

The driver of the vehicle which shunted Smith's car opened fire with a handgun after an argument, police said.

Smith's wife, also 34, suffered injuries to her leg after being struck by two shots. Smith was pronounced dead at the scene.

The alleged gunman, 28-year-old Cardell Hayes, has been charged with murder.

"A senseless and tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with Will Smith - his wife Racquel - his children William, Wynter and Lisa," a Saints spokesman said in a statement on Twitter on Sunday.

Smith's family also released a statement, requesting privacy as they "grieve the loss of a devoted husband, father and friend."

Smith, the number 18 overall pick in the 2004 draft, spent nine seasons with the Saints and was selected for the Pro Bowl in 2006.

He accumulated a career-best 13 sacks in 2009 during the Saints memorable march to the Super Bowl.
BRASILIA (Reuters) - A smaller majority of Brazilians favor the impeachment of President Dilma Rousseff compared to last month, while more than half want her immediate successor to be impeached too, according to a survey released on Saturday by polling firm Datafolha. The poll also showed growing support for former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a potential 2018 presidential bid, another boost for the ruling Workers Party as it fights opposition leaders' efforts to impeach Rousseff. The survey was the first to gauge support for a possible impeachment of Vice President Michel Temer, who will become Brazil's president if Rousseff is suspended in coming weeks to face impeachment hearings. Many analysts have questioned his capacity to muster a stable coalition with little popular support and many leaders of his PMDB party under investigation for alleged corruption. According to Datafolha, 61 percent of Brazilians want Rousseff to be impeached by Congress, compared to 68 percent in March. Fifty-eight percent want Temer to have the same fate. If both are impeached and thrown out of office, 79 percent of Brazilians favor early elections, in which Lula would likely be a strong candidate. Voting intentions for Lula rose to between 21 and 22 percent, depending on the election scenarios, Datafolha said. In all cases, he was competitive with environmental activist Marina Silva and outperformed leaders from the main opposition party, the PSDB. Temer has between 1 and 2 percent of voting intentions. The survey suggested a sharp division between Lula's supporters and opponents. Fifty-three percent of respondents said they would not vote on Lula under any circumstances. However, 40 percent rated him as Brazil's best president ever, well above the second in the list, his predecessor Fernando Henrique Cardoso, with 14 percent of mentions in the poll. The lower house of Brazil's Congress is expected to vote April 17 on whether to impeach Rousseff as she faces charges that she manipulated budget accounts in 2014 to boost her reelection prospects. If two-thirds of deputies vote for impeachment, the measure would move to the Senate. If half the Senate votes for impeachment, Rousseff would be temporarily suspended from office pending a full trial in the Senate. Datafolha surveyed 2,779 people on April 7 and 8. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points. (Reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Mary Milliken)
By Tom Perry and Vladimir Soldatkin BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Russian air force and Syrian military are preparing a joint operation to take Aleppo from rebels, the Syrian prime minister was quoted saying on Sunday, and an opposition official said a ceasefire was on the verge of collapse. With a U.N. envoy due in Damascus in a bid to advance struggling diplomatic efforts, the "cessation of hostilities agreement" brokered by Russia and the United States came under new strain as government and rebel forces fought near Aleppo. The ceasefire came into effect in February with the aim of paving the way for a resumption of talks to end the five-year-long war. But it has been widely violated, with each side blaming the other for breaches. The fighting south of Aleppo marks the most significant challenge yet to the deal. Diplomacy has meanwhile made little progress with no compromise over the future of President Bashar al-Assad, his position strengthened by Iranian and Russian military support. A top Iranian official, in comments to Iran TV, rejected what he described as a U.S. request for Tehran's help to make Assad leave power, saying he should serve out his term and be allowed to run in a presidential election "as any Syrian". Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halaki told a delegation of visiting Russian lawmakers of preparations to "liberate" Aleppo, Syria's biggest city and commercial hub before the conflict that erupted in 2011. Aleppo is divided into areas controlled separately by the government and opposition. "We, together with our Russian partners, are preparing for an operation to liberate Aleppo and to block all illegal armed groups which have not joined or have broken the ceasefire deal," he was quoted as saying by TASS news agency. Dmitry Sablin, a member of Russia's upper house of parliament and a member of the delegation, told RIA news agency "Russian aviation will help the Syrian army's ground offensive operation". The deployment of the Russian air force to Syria last year helped tip the war Assad's way as it bombed rebels supported by his enemies including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the United States. President Vladimir Putin last month withdrew some of the Russian forces, but maintained an air base in Latakia, and kept up strikes on the Islamic State group. Neither the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front or Islamic State are included in the partial ceasefire. Rebels have reported the resumption of Russian air strikes south of Aleppo, an important theater where Iranian forces and Lebanon's Hezbollah are fighting in support of the army and the Nusra Front is deployed in close proximity to rebels. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said a total of 35 combatants had been killed on both sides in a 24 hour period in the area, where fighting has been raging for some 10 days. Graphic on areas of control http://tmsnrt.rs/1oNV0hX "ABOUT TO COLLAPSE" A member of the main opposition council said the last 10 days had "witnessed a serious deterioration, to the point where the ceasefire is about to collapse". Bassma Kodmani of the High Negotiations Committee also told Journal du Dimanche that a U.S.-Russian ceasefire monitoring mission was "powerless". The war has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world's worst refugee crisis, and allowed for the rise of Islamic State. Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said "in Aleppo there is a real collapse of the truce". The army says groups that had agreed to the cessation of hostilities had taken part in Nusra Front attacks on government-held positions south of Aleppo. Free Syrian Army groups meanwhile blame the fighting on government violations. "The air strikes are now roughly back to what they were," said Mohamed Rasheed, head of the media office with the Jaysh al-Nasr rebel group. A Syrian military source said: "The battles are raging because ... armed groups that were part of the (truce) joined Nusra in the attack." The Observatory also reported fighting on Sunday between government and rebel forces near the opposition-held town of Douma outside Damascus, and said government helicopters had dropped barrel bombs on rebel-held areas north of Homs. Barrel bombs are oil drums filled with explosives. While the government denies dropping them, their use has been widely recorded, including by a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria. IRAN REJECTS U.S. "PRECONDITION" U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura is due to arrive in Damascus on Sunday evening, and is expected to meet Syrian officials on Monday. He said last week he would go to Damascus and Tehran to sound out their position on a political transition before beginning a new round of peace talks on Wednesday. De Mistura has said the next round of talks needs to "be quite concrete in the direction of a political process leading to a real beginning of a political transition". Ali Akbar Velayati, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs, said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had asked "Iran to help so that Bashar Assad leaves. "We should ask them: "What does this have to do with you? Shouldn't the Syrian people decide?'" "From Iran's point of view Bashar Assad and his government should remain as a legal government and legal president until the end of his term. And Bashar Assad shall be able to take part in a presidential election as any Syrian citizen. And their precondition that Bashar Assad should go is a red line for us." In a sign of Assad's confidence, the Syrian government plans to hold parliamentary elections on Wednesday. Salim al-Muslat, opposition spokesman, said the vote was illegitimate. "I don't know how they can really announce an election in Syria. In Idlib or in Aleppo or in Deir al-Zor or in Homs, can people go there and vote?" he said. (Reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, Laurence Frost in Paris, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, and Dubai newsroom; writing by Tom Perry, editing by Philippa Fletcher)
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's top security agency said on Monday China's establishment of diplomatic ties with one of the island's former African allies was meant to put pressure on President-elect Tsai Ing-wen to "fall in line" before her inauguration on May 20. China resumed ties with the small west African state of Gambia last week, ending an unofficial diplomatic truce between China and Taiwan following landslide wins in presidential and parliamentary elections by Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party. Gambia was one of only a few African countries, along with Burkina Faso, Swaziland and Sao Tome and Principe, to recognize Taiwan, which China regards as a wayward province to be recovered by force if necessary. Taiwan has only 22 allies in the world, including the Vatican City. China and Taiwan have for years tried to poach each other's allies, often dangling generous aid packages in front of leaders of developing nations. On Monday, Taiwan's normally secretive National Security Bureau said in a report presented to parliament the island's ties with its few remaining diplomatic allies were at risk of being undermined by financial aid packages from China. "The warning to our new government was thick with meaning," the bureau said in its report. "It had the intention of pressuring President-elect Tsai Ing-wen to respond in her May 20 inaugural speech in a way that falls in line with China's expectations," the bureau said. Tsai said in an interview carried by one of Taiwan's biggest dailies, the China Times, on Monday that both sides should show goodwill in the period before she is sworn in. "Through the expression of goodwill, the hope is to build a foundation of trust," Tsai said. She said through a spokesman last week she hoped the Gambia case was not a "targeted move" by China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the resumption of diplomatic ties with Gambia was "not aimed at any person". Hua also warned the United States not to "put in a good word" for Taiwan, after U.S. President Barack Obama signed a bill supporting Taiwan's participation in Interpol. Hua said Interpol was a body only sovereign nations could join. China has repeatedly warned Tsai against any moves toward independence, while Tsai has stuck to her stance of maintaining the status quo without offering a clear policy. Gambia broke its ties with Taiwan in 2013, but did not immediately establish ties with China. (Reporting by J.R. Wu; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Paul Tait and Nick Macfie)
Most Tesla owners love their cars but that doesn't mean everything is perfect. In a popular Quora thread, some Tesla Model S owners recently listed the biggest gripes that they had about their cars and they include things such as complaints about the cars' fit, finish and quality. In short, it sounds like Tesla has some work to do still if it wants to be considered a top-notch car manufacturer.

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Here, for example, is an excerpt from a lengthy complaint from Christian Bull, who says that while Tesla owners love their cars now, Tesla could be in real trouble once other car manufacturers start offering real competition in the electric car market:

Sub par fit, finish and quality feel. American cars have a terrible reputation for fit and finish. Tesla lives up to this reputation. I also get the impression that Tesla initially had to source parts from second rate suppliers, and things feel a bit rickety and primitive. Things just don't feel very solid. If Tesla intends to remain competitive in the premium/luxury market, they need to improve. I think they have, though. A 2015 Model S is a lot nicer than an early 2014, but they still have a ways to go. [...] A colleague of mine, who also has a Model S has also experienced many of the same problems. Still we agree, as do most Model S owners, that there's no alternative. Nobody wants to go back to driving an ICE car.

Kirsten Oulton, meanwhile, cites the slow growth of the supercharger network in Canada and service center availability. And like Bull, she says the fit and finish leave a lot to be desired compared to other luxury cars on the market:

The leather, stitching and other materials on the Model S are not as good as a Maybach! Some people expect Tesla's to be luxury vehicles, not understanding that they are actually performance vehicles. In addition, as a young car company, Teslas sometimes demonstrate utterly inexplicable design fails such as poorly-placed cupholders and a lack of lights in the visor mirrors. We expect these things to be corrected over time as the design team spends a bit less time focussing on the mind-blowing core technology and a bit more time listening to customer feedback, but they aren't perfect today.

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Tesla owner Peter Marreck writes that he now feels that he has to stick with Tesla simply because the experience of owning an electric car is so much better than any other car he could buy right now. This is the kind of gripe that Tesla should be happy to see:

I have yet to meet or hear of a Tesla owner that wants to go back to an ICE vehicle (and no OTA software updates, no touchscreen, no self-driving, and no electric motor, much less no instant torque). It would be like an iPhone owner wanting to go back to a Nokia. There is probably some self-selection going on there (in that people who buy Teslas are likely already "green-worldview-friendly"), but I really think that most anyone who drives one of these things for a little while will find it grows on them rather quickly (literally and figuratively).

Some other common complaints in the thread include lack of integration with CarPlay and Android, buggy door handles and poorly placed cup holders. Be sure to check out the full list of complaints at this link.

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This article was originally published on BGR.com
By Catherine Ngai and Ethan Lou

(Reuters) - TransCanada Corp <TRP.TO> on Sunday said it had restarted the 590,000- barrel-per-day Keystone crude pipeline at reduced pressure after it received American authorization to do so.

The Canadian energy company said the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration approved the return to service plan for a controlled start Saturday evening.

The pipeline, which delivers light and heavy crude from Hardisty, Alberta, to Cushing, Oklahoma, and Illinois, was shut on April 2 after a potential leak was discovered in South Dakota.

"As part of the return-to-service plan approved by PHMSA, TransCanada is operating the pipeline at reduced pressure," the company said in a statement.

In an e-mailed statement to media on Friday, the company said it identified the leak near its Freeman pump station in Hutchinson County, South Dakota.

The company also said it will conduct aerial patrols and visual inspections during the restart.

(Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Editing by Nick Zieminski and Alan Crosby)
By Paul Tait KABUL (Reuters) - An earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 struck South Asia on Sunday, shaking buildings in Pakistan, Afghanistan and India, witnesses and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and injuring several people in at least one Pakistani city. The USGS said the quake was centered about 40 km (25 miles) west of Ashkasham in remote northeastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Tajikistan and just across a narrow finger of land from Pakistan's northwestern Chitral province. It was measured at a depth of 210 km (130 miles). Residents left their homes in Kabul and Islamabad when the quake struck, with buildings swaying for more than a minute in both capitals. Similar reports were received from across northern and central Pakistan. In Pakistan's northwestern frontier city of Peshawar, Khalid Khan, emergency director at the city's main Lady Reading Hospital, said three people were treated for "multiple injuries". Media pictures showed two children who appeared to have been injured in the quake. People in Lahore in Pakistan's east, 630 km (390 miles) from the epicenter, also reported they had felt the tremors. A Reuters witness in Chitral said the tremor was strong but there was no major damage visible. A 7.5-magnitude quake struck the area on Oct. 26 last year, killing more than 300 people and destroying thousands of homes. In Kabul, Omar Mohammadi, a spokesman for the Afghanistan National Disaster Management Authority, said officials were collecting information but no reports of casualties or damage had been received so far. Tremors were also felt in the Indian capital and in Kashmir, witnesses said, with some people working in high-rise buildings in the Indian capital rushing into the streets. The Delhi underground system was also halted briefly, commuters told the NDTV channel. The Hindu Kush area bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan is a seismically active area, with quakes often felt across the region. Just over a decade ago, a 7.6-magnitude quake in another part of northern Pakistan killed about 75,000 people. (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in KABUL, Asad Hashim, Kay Johnson and Jibran Ahmed in ISLAMABAD, Gul Hammad Farooqi in CHITRAL, and Sanjeev Miglani in NEW DELHI, Editing by Ros Russell)
Washington (AFP) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has paid his first visit to the September 11 Memorial Museum, using the opportunity to roundly criticize rival conservative Ted Cruz just days before a key New York primary election.

Trump and his wife Melania toured the museum Saturday with president and CEO Joe Daniels, as well as New York Police Department and Port Authority Police Department officials, according to his campaign.

The couple "were incredibly impressed with the museum, a monument representative of all of the wonderful people who tragically lost their lives and the families who have suffered so greatly," a campaign statement read.

Asked why he made a reported $100,000 donation to the museum, Trump later said "I just felt like doing it," adding he was also motivated by Cruz's dismissive talk of "New York values."

Texas Senator Cruz has used the term to suggest the billionaire New York real estate magnate was a liberal.

Trump told the Fox News show "Justice with Judge Jeanine" he was driven to make the large donation "because I heard him disparaging New York. And I just thought it would be the thing to do."

Cruz, who is trailing Trump in polls for the New York primary, "has hatred for New York," Trump said.

"And you could see it the way he expressed, and it was not the fact that he talked about New York values, it was the way he said it. The tone and the expression. And I just don't think that New Yorkers are going to fall for it."
Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish police have smashed a cell of Kurdish militants in a usually tranquil region between Istanbul and Ankara who had hoarded explosives, guns and suicide vests, the Dogan news agency reported Sunday.

Police in the Bolu province east of Istanbul, said they had detained seven members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) as part of an investigation into plans for a suicide attack.

The arrests come three days after Bolu police killed two suspected PKK members in an unusual raid in the province which is about half-way between Turkey's biggest city Istanbul and the capital Ankara, and far from the Kurdish-dominated southeast.

Police uncovered two pistols, four homemade explosive devices, two Kalashnikovs, C4 plastic explosives and two suicide vests, the Dogan news agency reported.

The haul comes with Turkey on a knife's edge after four militant attacks that have killed 79 people this year alone in Istanbul and Ankara.

The two bombings in Ankara were claimed by a group calling itself the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK), a radical splinter group of the PKK which has which has fought a decades-long insurrection against the Turkish state.

Those in Istanbul have been blamed on the Islamic State group.

Since the collapse of a two-year ceasefire with the PKK last year, Turkish government forces have been waging a blistering military campaign against the group in the southeast of the country.

Three weeks after the most recent attack in Istanbul, which left four dead and dozens injured, the United States and Israel have issued emergency travel warnings to their citizens in the past two days.

The US embassy warned of "credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya."

Meanwhile, Israel urged its citizens to avoid Turkey or "leave as soon as possible", citing an imminent risk of an attack.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday lashed out at the west for backing Syrian Kurdish militia group the PYD in the fight against IS, which Turkey says is linked to the PKK -- which the US and EU consider a terrorist group.

"They are appendages of the same body ... If you do not see that the PYD is a terror organisation that means that you do not see the Ankara attack as a terror attack," Erdogan said during a speech in Istanbul.

"Is the fight with terrorism not supposed to be a common struggle?"
Moroni (Comoros) (AFP) - Voters were heading to the polls in the Indian Ocean archipelago of the Comoros on Sunday in a likely face-off between the current vice president and a former coup leader who ruled the country for seven years.

The second round of the presidential election comes after Vice President Mohamed Ali Soilihi -- known as Mamadou -- won the first round in February with 17.88 percent of the vote.

The two other contenders are governor of Grande Comore island Mouigni Baraka, who garnered 15.62 percent in the first round, and 1999 coup leader Colonel Azali Assoumani, who took 15.10 percent.

Voting kicked off under calm conditions just after 7:00 am (0400 GMT), with people lining up at poll stations under the eye of a discrete police presence.

Assoumani is seen as Mamadou's main rival after receiving the endorsement from the opposition Juwa party, which has no candidate in the second round.

The Juwa party split over the endorsement, and 15 high-ranking party officials resigned to rally behind Mamadou, who is viewed as the establishment choice.

Assoumani first came to power in 1999 after ousting acting president Tadjidine Ben Said Massounde in a coup.

He then won the presidential election three years later, stepping down when his term ended in 2006.

If the election goes smoothly, results are expected within three days in the race to succeed outgoing President Ikililou Dhoinine.

- Dire poverty -

A Constitutional Court ruling in March upheld the first-round results after 19 of the 25 candidates alleged fraud.

Campaigning for the second round was marked by personal attacks and allegations of corruption, with barbs traded particularly between Mamadou and Assoumani.

The first round took place only on Grand Comore island, in accordance with electoral rules that ensure the president is chosen on a rotating basis from the three main islands.

Comoros' system was established in 2001 after more than 20 coups or attempted coups, four of which were successful, in the years following independence from France in 1975.

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The three islands of Anjouan, Grand Comore and Moheli that make up the Comoros have a total population of just under 800,000 people, nearly all of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Dhoinine's completion of his five-year term in the impoverished archipelago has been seen as a sign of growing stability in the Comoros in recent years.

Though the islands, situated between Madagascar and Mozambique, suffer dire poverty, they export some vanilla, cloves and ylang-ylang perfume essence.

Comoros is the world's top producer of ylang-ylang, which is extracted from a flower -- a commodity that makes up one-tenth of the archipelago's total export revenues.

The oil is a key ingredient in Chanel N5 and is also used in many other perfumes.
By Estelle Shirbon and Paul Sandle LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron took the unusual step on Sunday of publishing his tax records to try to end days of questions about his personal wealth raised by the mention of his late father's offshore fund in the Panama Papers. Cameron's initial reluctance to admit he had benefited from the fund caused a furor, compounding his problems when he faces a huge political fight to persuade Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in a June 23 referendum. The EU issue has split his Conservative Party, while the government has also been going through a tough patch over a senior minister's resignation, a u-turn on welfare cuts and accusations it is failing to protect Britain's steel industry. After saying on Saturday that could have handled the fallout from the Panama disclosures better, Cameron released a summary of his tax records for the past six years. But any hope that would draw a line under the row was short-lived, as the main Sunday newspapers zeroed in on a gift of 200,000 pounds ($282,500) Cameron received from his mother in 2011, suggesting it may be a way of avoiding inheritance tax. A source at Cameron's Downing Street office said the suggestion was inaccurate. Cameron is one of dozens of politicians around the world who have been hit by the leak of 11.5 million documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca that detail the creation of more than 200,000 companies in offshore tax havens. Cameron will make a statement about tax policy to parliament on Monday to try to regain the upper hand. Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has accused him of misleading the public by issuing what Corbyn described as four "weasel-worded" statements in as many days before finally admitting that he had benefited from his father's fund. Some politicians campaigning for Britain to vote to stay in the EU in June's referendum are concerned that the damage to Cameron is bad for their side, as he had previously been considered the best advocate for an "In" vote. "The scandals over David Cameron's finances ... may tip the decision further towards 'Leave'," said former Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Gordon Wilson on Sunday. Nicola Sturgeon, SNP leader and first minister of Scotland's devolved government, published her latest tax return on Sunday, adding to pressure for greater transparency by politicians. 'UNSAVOURY' ATTACKS Cameron is not accused of having done anything illegal, and the fact that he is a wealthy man is nothing new. But the past week has been damaging because the drip-drip of carefully worded statements before the fuller disclosure created the impression he may have had something to hide. "He's not behaved improperly in any way and he's gone further than any prime minister previously in publishing these tax returns," Conservative minister Dominic Raab told Sky News television, accusing Cameron's Labour critics of "unsavory" personal attacks and comparing them to "hyenas". Cameron announced a new taskforce on tax evasion would be led by the tax authority, HMRC, and the National Crime Agency. The Guardian newspaper reported later that HMRC boss Edward Troup's former employer, London-based law firm Simmons and Simmons, had counted Cameron's father's fund among its clients. The Guardian made no suggestion of wrongdoing by Troup or Simmons and Simmons. HMRC said Troup had never had any dealings with Mossack Fonseca or advised any of its clients named so far. It added that any HMRC officers with a potential conflict of interest would exclude themselves from a relevant investigation. Bookmakers William Hill said they had cut their odds on Cameron resigning as prime minister this year to 2/1, compared with 16/1 when he won the last general election last May. Cameron said on Thursday his father's investment trust was not set up to avoid tax but to invest in dollar-denominated shares. He said he had paid all taxes due on his own investment, which was worth about 30,000 pounds when he sold it in 2010. But Cameron stands accused of hypocrisy after portraying his government as being in the forefront of global efforts to crack down on offshore tax havens. A comment he made in 2012 about a famous comedian's legal tax avoidance scheme being "morally wrong" has been widely quoted by media. The documents disclosed by Downing Street on Sunday, from RNS Chartered Accountants, show Cameron paid tax of 75,898 pounds on income of 200,307 pounds in the 2014-2015 financial year, the most recent one included. ($1 = 0.7080 pounds) (Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary in Edinburgh; Editing by Ros Russell and Peter Cooney)
London (AFP) - British Prime Minister David Cameron was on Sunday to announce a new taskforce to deal with the so-called Panama Papers as pressure mounted over the handling of his own offshore finances.

The force will be led by the HMRC tax authority and the National Crime Agency, but is unlikely to spare Cameron from more scrutiny over his admission Thursday that he bought and then sold shares in his late father's Bahamas-based offshore fund.

Cameron at first refused to comment on his father's fund, details of which emerged in the leak of documents from Panama law firm Mossack Fonseca, and admitted Saturday he had mishandled the controversy.

The prime minister was to insist Sunday that Britain has been at the "forefront of international action to tackle aggressive tax avoidance and evasion," according to a statement from the finance department, but the latest revelations appear to have undermined his claims to be leading the efforts.

A Yougov poll released Thursday showed that Cameron was the second least trusted British politician on tax affairs, coming behind only his finance minister George Osborne.

The taskforce will investigate the leaked files to identify clients of the Panama firm suspected of money laundering and tax evasion, and will have a A10-million ($14-million, 12-million-euro) budget.

"There is clearly further to go and this taskforce will bring together the best of British expertise to deal with any wrongdoing relating to the Panama Papers," said Cameron.

The taskforce will report its findings "later this year", according to the statement.

Cameron said he would publish his tax returns and shouldered the blame for the row.

He earlier admitted he and his wife had held a stake in his father's Blairmore Holdings scheme. They bought the stake for A12,497 in 1997 and sold it for A31,500, four months before he became prime minister in 2010.

He is believed to have paid tax on the dividends paid out by the trust, but not on the profits when sold.

"It has not been a great week. I know that I should have handled this better, I could have handled this better," he told his Conservative Party's spring forum in London on Saturday.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside Downing Street Saturday to call for his resignation.
Madrid (AFP) - Alvaro Negredo netted a stoppage-time winner for Valencia to ease their La Liga relegation fears by snapping a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over Sevilla on Sunday.

Dani Parejo's free-kick had given Pako Ayestaran's men a deserved half-time lead in his first home game in charge since replacing the sacked Gary Neville.

The poor defending that underminded Neville's reign cost the hosts once more five minutes from time, though, when Sevilla substitute Kevin Gameiro swept home Michael Krohn-Dehli's pass to equalise.

However, Negredo pounced on a loose ball inside the area in stoppage time to the relief of 50,000 fans at the Mestalla, to move Valencia up to 13th and nine points clear of the relegation zone with six games remaining.

Sevilla are now 12 points adrift of Villarreal in fourth after the Yellow Submarine strengthened their hold on the final Champions League spot with a comfortable 2-0 win over relegation-threatened Getafe.

Denis Suarez got Villarreal off to a perfect start with the opener on 15 minutes before the on-form Cedric Bakambu sealed the points with his 20th goal of the season.

Earlier, Celta Vigo remained eight points off Villarreal in fifth as Nolito's second-half strike earned a hard-fought 1-0 win at Sporting Gijon.

Athletic Bilbao moved three points clear of Sevilla in sixth thanks to Inaki Williams's solitary goal in a 1-0 win over Rayo Vallecano.
By James Oliphant and Alana Wise WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will speak at an event in the Vatican next week, likely broadening his appeal to Catholic voters ahead of crucial nominating contests in a series of Northeastern states. Like Pope Francis, Sanders has made economic inequality and the plight of the working class a central tenet of his message. Sanders' April 15 visit to Vatican City, where he will give an economic address at a conference, will come just days before Democrats in New York vote in their state primary. The trip may help the U.S. senator amplify the anti-corporate line of attack he has employed against Democratic rival Hillary Clinton as he tries to keep his insurgent campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election alive. Sanders, who would be the first Jewish U.S. president if elected, described himself on MSNBC as a "big, big fan of the pope," who leads the world's 1.2 billion Catholics. Speaking to reporters in New York later, Sanders said he hoped to meet with Francis. "The pope's schedule is determined by the Vatican but I would certainly be enthusiastic about that," said Sanders, 74, the Brooklyn-born son of Polish-Jewish immigrants. A meeting with the Argentine pontiff could provide an electoral boost to Sanders, who has trailed former Secretary of State Clinton in support among America's Catholic Democrats. "Pope Francis has criticized the 'make money at all cost' capitalist mentality and called for more compassion for the poor," said Brad Bannon, a Democratic strategist in Washington. "Thats exactly the way, Bernie Sanders wants to define his campaign against Clinton." Clinton has scored victories over Sanders in Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, and Texas, all of which are more than one-quarter Catholic. A survey by the Pew Research Center earlier this year found that while almost 70 percent of Catholic Democrats thought Clinton would make a good president, just 46 percent thought Sanders would be one. This is a great play for Sanders because it ties directly his messaging related to income equality, it puts him on the world stage as a leader, and it does it with an institution and leader important to a key voting bloc in a state where every vote is going to count heading into the primary, said Virginia-based Democratic strategist Bud Jackson. Sanders was invited to speak at the Vatican event by the Vatican, a senior papal official said, denying a report that Sanders had invited himself. "I deny that. It was not that way," Monsignor Marcelo Sanchez Sorondo told Reuters. Sorondo, a close aide to Pope Francis, is chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is hosting the event. SANDERS, BILL CLINTON BACK OFF Late April brings nominating contests in Connecticut, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island, all states with large populations of Catholic voters. Sanders' victory earlier this week over Clinton in the Wisconsin primary marked his sixth win in the past seven contests, sparking renewed talk of Clinton's political vulnerability despite her substantial delegate lead. Sanders this week said Clinton, who is also a former first lady and former U.S. senator, was not qualified to be president. After heavy criticism from Clinton's campaign and other Democrats, he backed off Friday morning in an interview on NBC's "Today." "On her worst day, she would be an infinitely better president than either of the Republican candidates," he said, referring to New York developer Donald Trump and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Clinton has been under fire from progressives since her campaign began. On Thursday, her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had a testy exchange at a campaign rally in Philadelphia with protestors from the Black Lives Matter movement over the effects of an anti-crime bill passed during his presidency. At one point, Bill Clinton accused the movement of "defending the people who kill the lives you say matter." On Friday, he seemed regretful. I rather vigorously defended my wife, as I am wont to do, and I realized, finally, I was talking past her (the protestor) the same way she was talking past me, Clinton said at an event in Erie, Pennsylvania. We have got to stop that in this country. Weve got to listen to each other again. In the Republican race, Trump extended his lead nationally over Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos poll. The national online poll showed that 42 percent of Republicans support Trump, compared with 32 percent for Cruz and 20 percent for Kasich. (Additional reporting by Megan Cassella and Doina Chiacu in Washington and Philip Pullella in Vatican City; Editing by Bill Trott and Alistair Bell)
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Voting began on Sunday in a presidential election in Chad in which incumbent Idriss Deby is favourite to win a fifth term and extend a tenure that began in 1990. Deby's main electoral argument is that only his government can take the necessary measures to guarantee stability in a region where Islamist militant group Boko Haram and al Qaeda affiliates have staged a series of attacks. Chad has one of the region's most capable militaries and has played a key role in efforts backed by the West to combat Islamist militants in several countries. "We came to vote for the president to guarantee peace in our country. Around us in the neighbouring countries there are too many problems," said civil servant Fatima Zara as she lined up to vote. Deby faces 13 challengers including opposition leader Saleh Kebzabo who argues that Chad needs change, though Deby has an advantage through his effective control of state media as well as the institutions of state and local administrations. "I got up early to come and vote because we want change," said Mathieu Madjitulngar, an unemployed man queuing at a polling station in a suburb of the capital. (Reporting by Madjiasra Nako; writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; editing by David Clarke)
Paris (AFP) - Her parents were hairdressers in a small town in Connecticut -- so it wasn't exactly written in the stars that Lynsey Addario should become one of the world's best known war photographers.

Even after her Italian-American family got her a Nikon camera for her 13th birthday, she thought "photographers were crazy rich kids" with time on their hands.

But fate was about to deal Addario the first of many strange hands that would take her to Afghanistan before September 11 turned the world upside down, and then from one war zone to the next.

"I never set out or wanted to cover war," the 42-year-old, who has continued to cover conflicts since becoming a mother five years ago, told AFP.

In her book, "It's What I Do", Addario tries to make sense of what got her into one of the world's most dangerous professions.

Despite several scrapes with death documenting wars from Iraq to Congo, "I didn't think anyone would read the book," she said. "It felt really uncomfortable... egotistical (even). I thought, who would possibly care about my life?"

Steven Spielberg for starters. He is about to tell her story in a new film in which she will be played by Hollywood's hottest property, "Hunger Games" star Jennifer Lawrence.

- Taken hostage -

It will centre on her kidnapping in Libya in March 2011, when she was held with four other New York Times journalists by soldiers loyal to Colonel Kadhafi as large parts of the country rose up against him.

That nightmare which included beatings, death threats and Addario being molested by her captors, ended with the journalists being released after a few days.

Their driver Mohammed, who had been "frantic" with fear as they lingered amid sniper fire to photograph rebels along the road to the besieged town of Ajdabiya, was not so fortunate.

"I didn't want to be the cowardly photographer or the terrified girl who prevented the men from doing their work," Addario wrote later, questioning their actions.

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As they were taken away, Mohammed was shot by the roadside.

It was his death, and that of her friends and fellow photographers Tim Hetherington and Chris Hondros who were killed in Kadhafi's hometown Misrata the following month, that pushed Addario to put pen to paper.

"After I was released I wanted to do a photo book. I was thinking about the work I had done, and going through my old work, and it was then that I found out that Tim and Chris had been killed," she said.

"I had this sort of moment of reckoning. I wanted to write... to communicate what I went through in Libya after my friends were killed. It just seemed a better way."

As she tells it, Addario -- who won a Pulitzer prize as part of a New York Times team in 2009 -- is an accidental war photographer.

It all began after she was sent to Afghanistan in 2000 to photograph life for women under the Taliban. The following year, a country which most Americans could not have found on the map, became a national obsession as the hunt began for Osama bin Laden.

"I never set out or wanted to cover war. I started it because I'd been working so much in Afghanistan on the Taliban. It was natural that I went back there.

"Then I wanted to be in Iraq so I started to cover wars regularly, but it was because the stories brought me there, not because of war itself."

- Tea with the Al-Zarqawis -

It was in Iraq where she met the sisters of the then leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, out of whose group the Islamic State grew.

"I do think it's always been a great advantage being a woman in this job," she told AFP during a visit to Paris, where her book has just been published in French.

"But because I work in the Muslim world I have access to both women and men. I can go into people's houses and interview the mothers and the sisters," she said.

"I had tea with Al-Zarqawi's sisters because I was a woman, so I was thrown in with the women!"

Despite having a five-year-old son, Lukas, to whom she dedicated her book, Addario has continued to go work in war zones.

"I want people to see how other people live and to be sort of a messenger, I want to connect the dots, to give people perspective."

For her the choice is simple.

"When I'm covering a humanitarian crisis, human rights abuse or war... you have to be out there (for it) to be seen by people from the comfort of their home."
Rome (AFP) - The World Food Programme said on Sunday it had carried out its first ever successful high-altitude airdrop, to deliver 20 tonnes of food aid to the besieged Syrian city of Deir Ezzor.

A previous attempt to drop aid to the city where 200,000 people have been living under siege by the Islamic State (IS) group since March 2014 failed in February, WFP said in a statement.

The successful airdrop was the first time WFP has managed to get aid to the city, around 120 kilometres (70 miles) southeast of the jihadist movement's de facto capital Raqa, since the start of the siege over two years ago.

The supplies -- enough beans, chickpeas and rice to feed 2,500 people for a month -- were collected for distribution in the city by the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.

"More airdrops are planned for the coming days to meet food and other humanitarian needs for the besieged population," WFP said, adding that airdrops would always be a last resort used when land access was impossible.

IS has been battling to capture the airbase in Deir Ezzor, which provides the only supply route other than airdrops to the government-held sector of the city.

The February airdrop failed with some of the pallets missing the drop zone and others being damaged due to their parachutes failing to function properly.
Marib (Yemen) (AFP) - A UN-brokered ceasefire was taking hold in Yemen on Monday despite sporadic clashes, raising hopes that peace talks due next week may finally resolve the country's devastating conflict.

Forces loyal to President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, the Shiite Huthi rebels who drove his government out of the capital, and the Saudi-led coalition that intervened in Yemen last year all pledged to honour the truce that took effect at midnight on Sunday.

The UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, called the ceasefire "a first step in Yemen's return to peace".

"This is critical, urgent and much needed. Yemen cannot afford the loss of more lives," he said.

Previous efforts to stop the fighting in Yemen -- which has killed thousands and forced more than two million people from their homes -- collapsed amid mutual recriminations.

The conflict in the impoverished Arabian Peninsula nation has ruined large parts of the country and raised Middle East tensions, with Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies backing the government and Shiite powerhouse Iran supporting the rebels.

Jihadists including from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), the powerful Yemeni branch of the extremist network, have exploited the conflict to seize territory and gain influence.

But pressure had been building for the ceasefire and there are hopes it can be the cornerstone of a long-lasting peace deal that can be hammered out at talks taking place from April 18 in Kuwait.

- 'Step back from brink' -

General Mohamed Ali al-Makdashi, the chief of staff for Hadi's forces, said early Monday the ceasefire was largely holding despite some violations by rebels.

"The truce has not collapsed and we hope the rebels end their attacks and respect the ceasefire," he said, alleging breaches in several areas including the cities of Taez in the southwest and Marib east of Sanaa.

Loyalists accused Huthis of 25 violations around Taez, where one civilian was killed in rebel bombing.

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The rebels, meanwhile, said in a statement there was at least one coalition air strike in Taez province, and accused loyalists of being behind 33 truce violations north and east of Sanaa, as well as in the south.

Five soldiers were killed in clashes with rebels in Marib province and Taez, military sources said.

A committee of representatives from both sides will try to ensure the ceasefire is respected.

Coalition spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Assiri earlier described the violations as "minor".

"It is the first day and we should be patient," the top Saudi officer told AFP. "Day by day, it will be better."

An AFP photographer in Sanaa said the rebel-held capital has not been targeted by coalition warplanes since Sunday.

Prime Minister Ahmed bin Dagher also played down violations, saying that the truce "seems good", adding after meeting the UN envoy in Riyadh that "we want a durable peace".

A UN spokesman said the cessation of hostilities was "largely holding", while noting "some pockets of violence.

- Rebels commit to truce -

The Huthis, allied with troops loyal to ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, also committed to the ceasefire in a letter sent to the United Nations, according to a statement carried by the rebel-run Saba news agency.

The Huthis, a northern minority that has long complained of marginalisation, descended on the capital Sanaa from their mountainous region in September 2014, seizing the city with little resistance.

As they advanced into other areas, Hadi and other officials fled first to the main southern city of Aden and eventually to Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of mainly Sunni Arab allies launched air strikes in March last year against the Huthis and later sent ground troops to support pro-government forces.

The loyalists have since managed to reclaim large parts of the south, establishing a temporary capital in Aden, but have failed to dislodge the Huthis from Sanaa and other key areas.

The coalition has come under fire from rights groups, which allege its air war has caused heavy civilian casualties.

The United Nations says more than 6,300 people have been killed in Yemen in the past 12 months, around half of them civilians.

Analysts said the ceasefire is part of the most promising attempt yet to end the conflict.

"For the first time, the groups that can end major military operations, particularly the Saudis and the Huthis, appear to be more willing to do so," said April Longley Alley, a Yemen specialist at the International Crisis Group.

"Even if major combat ends, the road to peace in Yemen will be long and difficult and internal conflict is likely to continue for some time."
Rob870

Google recently put up its Boston Dynamics robotics unit up for sale, but that doesn't mean that the company is getting out of the automaton business.

A new bipedal robot from Google's Schaft robotics was shown off on Friday at the New Economic Summit conference in Tokyo, Japan on Friday.

See also: Panasonic gives us our first look at bionic factory workers

The small robot is shown walking in a number of situations that can be challenging even for humans, including a sandy beach, a rocky terrain, snow, and a steep, narrow staircase.

Google Schaft robot

At one point during the demonstration video (top of page), we even see how the robot handles random, rolling obstacles thrown under its "feet." Spoiler: It handles the surprise instability better than many humans might.

The video also shows off how the robot can handle uneven terrain while carrying heavy loads, indicating that this could be the precursor to the human labor replacement robot some have been anticipating in recent years.

Sure, we already have robots that build our cars, manage inventory in factories and even construct our homes. But this is the kind of robot that could, for example, carry a bag of groceries for a person. That kind of humanoid assistant-level worker robot replacement could have huge impacts in the future.

Schaft's robot doesn't have a name yet, but fans of Japanese manga and anime will recognize the name from the fictional Schaft Enterprises in the '80s Patlabor series devoted to a future in which police use humanoid robots to combat crime.

Google hasn't released regarding a commercial debut for the robot, but the demonstration alone is enough to send the most important message: the days of human labor based on muscle are numbered.




Gabrielle Carteris has been elected president of SAG-AFTRA by the unions national board of directors. The former star of Beverly Hills, 90210 had been serving as the unions acting president since Howards death on March 23. A longtime union activist, shed been the unions second-ranking officer  executive vice president  since the merger of SAG and AFTRA in 2012, which she helped orchestrate. Prior to the merger, shed been the president of AFTRAs Los Angeles Local and also served as a member of SAGs national board of directors. Carteris replaces Ken Howard, who passed away March 23 and was the first elected president of the merged SAG-AFTRA, as well as the first president of either SAG or AFTRA to die in office.

As Executive Vice President under Howard, Carteris had assumed his duties until the regularly scheduled national board meeting April 9. She has been elected to serve the balance of Howards unexpired term, which expires in 2017. Rebecca Damon was elected to replace Carteris as Executive Vice President.

I am deeply honored to be chosen by the SAG-AFTRA National Board to serve the union and its members as president, said Carteris in a statement. Ken was a great union leader, friend and mentor. He left big shoes to fill, but with the support of the national board of directors and the membership, I am committed to improving the lives of all SAG-AFTRA members.

After the merger, she was elected executive vice president at the inaugural SAG-AFTRA Convention in 2013, and was reelected last October, both times running as a member of Howards Unite For Strength slate of running mates.

Unlike the unions president and secretary-treasurer, who are elected directly by the members, all eight of the vice presidents  including executive vice president  are elected by delegates to the convention, a holdover from AFTRAs method of governance.

In October, she won reelection with 79% of the delegate votes, defeating challenger Patricia Richardson, who two months earlier had lost the presidential race to Howard.

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Carteris recent acting credits include guest-starring roles on Criminal Minds, Make It or Break It, The Event, Longmire, The Middle, a new Web series called Send Me, and the holiday television movie 12 Christmas Wishes. In 2011, she appeared as herself on Celebrity Ghost Stories, recounting how the spirit of her grandfather had helped her during a difficult time in her life.

Shes also been involved in numerous charitable organizations, including DARE, the Noxzema Extraordinary Teen program, MADD, Read to Grow, Best Buddies and the Skys The Limit Fund.

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Atlantic RecordsFor probably the first time ever, Imagine Dragons, The Scorpions and Limp Bizkit are all featured on the same album. All three bands have contributed songs to the soundtrack for the upcoming The Angry Birds Movie.

The soundtrack, which will be released May 6, includes Imagine Dragons' Night Visions track "On Top of the World," The Scorpions classic hit "Rock You Like a Hurricane" and Limp Bizkit's cover of The Who's "Behind Blue Eyes," which, ironically, might be Fred Durst and company's least angry song.

The Angry Birds Movie, based on the popular mobile game, will arrive in theaters on May 20.

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Entertainment / Music

by Staff Reporter

Sungura musician Alick Macheso is headed for Binga this coming Thursday where he is expected to perform for a charitable cause.He recently launched his long awaited Tsoka DzeRwendo album.The album made history, selling 100 000 copies on its first day of release.Macheso, who is also a humanitarian ambassador for the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society, is set to give his multitude of fans in Binga a feel of his trailblazing album and other memorable songs from his previous albums.The Binga gig is part of three, which the band will perform for charity, with the first being held in Siakobvu business centre, 210 kilometers west of Karoi town on Wednesday and Muzarabani on 21 April, all under the banner of the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society.Macheso's publicist Tich Makahamadze confirmed the gig, noting that while this was for a charitable cause it would also give their fans in the outlying areas an opportunity to meet Macheso."On Thursday Alick and Orchestra Mberikwazvo are indeed headed for Binga for this charity gig, which is being organised by the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society. As you might know Alick is also the humanitarian ambassador so this is just part of his duties."So to our multitudes of fans in Binga and surrounding areas, who have previously felt shortchanged by the band performing in major towns and cities, we are saying they should come to Binga and be rest assured that as always Alick Macheso and Orchestra Mberikwazvo will surely get their money's worth," he said.
News / Education

by Staff reporter

Government has doled out $6,4 million for school fees for war veterans' children.The money will be accessed as from Monday.This follows an undertaking President Mugabe made at his meeting with war veterans in Harare last Thursday where the former freedom fighters tabled their grievances.Permanent Secretary for Welfare Services for War Veterans, War Collaborators, Ex-Political Detainees and Ex-Restrictees Brigadier-General (Retired) Walter Tapfumaneyi said a special purpose vehicle had also been set up to run bankable projects for the veterans."We received the funding from Treasury to pay school fees for the first term of 2016. We will now be making the payments for the arrears and expect Treasury to also give us bills for the second term."We also have arrears dating back to the third term of 2013, so we are hoping that these will also be paid off".
News / Local

by Staff Reporter

Zanu PF minister on Saturday pledged to avail 900 hectares of land to construct more than 20 000 housing units for youths in Bulawayo.Addressing thousands of Zanu-PF youths during a Bulawayo youth empowerment rally held in the city yesterday, Local Government Minister and Zanu PF national political commissar Saviour Kasukuwere announced that his ministry will be rolling out the first 300 hectares this year and construction of housing units expected to commence by year end."One thing which I must assure you is that we are a party of action which is why today I am announcing that I will be giving you 300 hectares of land, which will be enough for about 20 000 residential stands. I promise you that this land will be serviced by end of this year. This will be a first in Zimbabwe as it will be the first ever Youth Township as all these stands will be given to youths, no one else."On Monday (tomorrow) I will instruct my Permanent Secretary to come here, meet Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister (Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo) and the directive will be served to the Bulawayo City Council. When this first phase is completed I will avail a further 900 hectares," said Minister Kasukuwere.He said the youths will not pay for the planning and drawing process as that would be done free of charge by his ministry.Minister of Macro-Economic Planning and Investment Promotion, Dr Obert Mpofu also promised the Bulawayo youths that he will be availing land for them to have homesteads in Umguza."Most of you might think that all this is a gimmick but I must assure you that what Minister Kasukuwere said and what I just said is the truth, we want to show people out there that we are indeed a party of action," said Dr Mpofu.Zanu-PF National Deputy Secretary for Youth Affairs, Kudzai Chipanga challenged the ministers saying youths were now tired of living as lodgers."Come 2018 when we vote we want to be going to the various polling stations from our own homes, we don't want to go there as lodgers, we want our own properties and land," said Chipanga.
News / National

by Makomborero Mutimukulu

CONTROVERSIAL businessman Wicknell Chivayo promised to help Simon Mann hijack a plane that was supposed to extradite the convicted mercenary to Equatorial Guinea by supplying a gun.Mann makes the allegation and several others in the book "Cry Havoc".Mann, who was arrested in Harare in March 2009 while enroute to Equatorial Guinea where he had plans to overthrow President Obiang Nguema's government, claims that Chivayo also boasted of having access to an assortment of weapons.Mann and Chivayo were in the same prison cell at Chikurubi Maximum prison.Chivayo was serving time for fraud involving over two million rands.Mann claims that the fraudster turned businessman told him that his uncle was in charge of security at Harare International Airport."Months ago back in Chik (Chikurubi) Wicknell had promised: if he learns that I am being flown to EG (Equatorial Guinea) he will slip a 9mm onto the aircraft, in among the hand towels in the aft hand."He has the guns. He has the contacts. He knows all the security men airside at Harare International. His uncle is their boss," writes Mann on pages 297 and 298 of the book.Mann also appears to suggest that even during the time he was incarcerated, Chivayo had influence in some local newsrooms.He reveals that Chivayo had pledged to help him with the implementation of Operation Hurricane, a move that would have seen the publication of a tell all piece on the planned Equatorial Guinea coup in an unnamed newspaper."I've written a paper called Hurricane. It's a true account of the coup plot. Wicknell and I plan to place it in a Zim newspaper, by way of a pro-Mann propaganda."I have told Wicknell that Operation Hurricane must not go ahead without the nod from my sister Sarah back in London," reads a passage on page 250 of "Cry Havoc".On page 247, Mann reveals how Chivayo was uncomfortable sharing the prison cell with an inmate who "had gone homosexual.""I still need loads of fodya (cigarettes) to pay the staff  my butler, Agrippa. I share him with Wicknell who insists on calling him our butler."Agrippa is a wonder He has gone homosexual but that bothers Wicknell more than it does me. That is why he is on our section. To keep him away from the boys," writes Mann.Interestingly, Chivayo claims that he is too busy to marry.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

A commentator Allan Wenyika has said the government must never allow the distribution of condoms in prisons unless if that means t homosexuality is now legalised.Wenyika said President Robert Mugabe has a reputation for hating homosexuals, describing them as worse than pigs and dogs."Why then does his government allow the distribution of condoms to horny inmates in our prisons? Does he know where those inmates insert their privates after wearing the condoms, or if its done by mutual consent? Isn't it an acknowledgement by Mugabe that homosexuality is rampant among prisoners?" he said."The government should make prison life bearable for all inmates. The sexual abuse of inmates by fellow inmates, or by gay prison officers, must never be entertained, whether condoms are used or not."He said allowing the distribution, therefore, of condoms in prisons, for use by gay inmates, should only be done when homosexuality is legalized in Zimbabweans, and when prisoners are allowed to engage in sex among themselves."Anything else is hypocrisy by Mugabe and his government," he said.
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

Mthwakazi Republic Party has expressed some worries about the behaviour exhibited by the war vets during their meeting with President Robert Mugabe saying they showed lack of interests of the people among them.The war veterans met Mugabe last week in Harare."As a party we thought these so-called freedom fighters demanded the meeting to speak the issues of people's interests especially from Mthwakazi who contributed largely towards the gains of oppressive rule of Zanu PF. The war vets did expose that, apart from being self centered, they also fear and admire the brutal legacy of the dictator, whom for the past 35 years have brought nothing positive, but shame and loss of lives to the defenseless people of Mthwakazi," said MRP secretary general Hloniphani Ncube."MRP condemns with strongest terms possible, the issue of exhuming the remains of Rhodes which is the Mugabe crafted idea highlighted by him in his previous South African visit to beg for help, which was latter cemented by war vets yesterday."He said as a party they thought the war vets were going to represent the people on the issues of people's interests like demanding the government of Zimbabwe to take responsibility of the bodies of more than 25 000 civilians who were brutally killed by the Mugabe led government."We further expected them to question him on when is he going to improve the economy and the international relations. We expected them to question him about issues of accountability about monies collected on uncountless road blocks, revenue institutions, toll gates, minerals and proper management of the country," he said."The party expected the war vets to talk about the rule of law, human rights violations, democracy and development in broader context, rather than demanding not to pay taxes. We expected them to talk about the compensation of a number of other fellow comrades who were not recognised after dedicating their lives to the struggle. We expected them to tell Mugabe face to face that, his rule is far more brutal than the Smith government envied by many."Ncube said this clearly indicates that, they went to the war clueless thus why our people are struggling from poor political leadership."Exhuming the grave of Rhodes also translates to destroying the White people's legacy. While we acknowledge the negative effects of colonization, at the end of the day we must not mix that with racism in a fast globalising world. If we want to totally destroy the legacies of colonialism, why is there still POSA and AIPA among other atrocious policies," he said."Why didn't we destroy the cities and buildings constructed by our fellow White citizens who are also human beings like us Black people and some of them appreciated people of Mthwakazi, thus why the Matopo community defended the farm wanted by the CIO boss. In essence we cannot correct the past wrong doings by other malicious acts, instead, we must promote issues of national interests rather than retrogressive ideas."He said the acts of war veterans have exposed that, Mthwakazi is currently dominated by selfish leadership who went to war for personal enhancement."Thus why our MRP is a political party for revolutionaries preaching the true freedom that would encompass broader national development which respect issues of self determination and diversity, unlike the directionless policies of Zanu PF always changing."Ncube said it must be noted that, these war veterans are the ones who led to the implementation of the brutal Fast Track Land Reform Program which highly crippled the economy and all sectors of the economy, and the consequences are still felt up to this day."We advised our supporters to disassociate themselves with these directionless views and as a party we are strongly against the continued crippling of our culture and heritage," he said.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Zimbabwe artists have ganged up against Yvonne Chaka Chaka for ordering President Robert Mugabe to step-down, rest and write books.The artists have said Chaka Chaka should direct her energy to tell her president Jacob Zuma to deal with "his" issues about the Nkandla saga.On Thursday last week, Mugabe 92, said he is not dying anytime soon.Posted Bulawayo artiste Nkue Nkala on Facebook: "Yvonne Chaka Chaka wants our president to retire and write books? Hmmm. Can your beautiful President also deal with his issues and write more books #inkandla #Bathing #Concourt "We have our own way of dealing with things sisi #Sometimeswedontdeal #Sometimeswedo #wearezim South Africa-based upcoming actor and model, Oliver Keith Siamloboka also posted a hilarious rant directed at Chaka Chaka and those who support her:"Where does Yvonne Chaka Chaka get off saying President Mugabe should retire? Who is Yvonne Chaka Chaka? We cannot have a woman hailing from a country of Marikana, Gupta gate, Nkandla, Xenophobia, Crime and violence pontificating on Zimbabwe's internal affairs."Perhaps if you found a man Yvonne you would spend time with him. Stop using our President to help build your long ancient forgotten career. If you want to be an instrument for change, then be an instrument for change first in your country before opening your gob about your neighbours."Another posted: ". . . why was Yvonne Chaka Chaka not as vocal against Botha or speak against wars in Congo or poverty if they feel at ease speaking against Mugabe since the white men told them so they need to leave Zimbabweans alone?"
News / National

by Thobekile Zhou

President Robert Mugabe is due to be a grandfather soon after disclosing that her daughter - Bona is in the Far East and about to give birth.Mugabe, 92 revealed this to mourners on Saturday at the late Victoria Chitepo's funeral.Mugabe said her wife Grace is with their daughter Bona."She is about to give birth, it's a matter of days" he said.Bona is who married to Simba Chikore at a lavish wedding on March 1, 2014.Since their wedding, the issue of the pair having a child has been the subject of social media speculation for some time now.Bona's traditional marriage was held at Mugabe's Zvimba rural home in August 2013.
News / Religion

by Staff Reporter

FORMER Roman Catholic Bulawayo Diocese Archbishop Pius Ncube is set to bounce back in the Roman Catholic Bulawayo branch.A delegation from the diocese is pushing for him to be appointed an archbishop emeritus.An emeritus is an individual who after having retired is allowed to retain their title as an honour.Ncube resigned almost a decade ago after being embroiled in an acrimonious sex scandal with the late Rosemary Sibanda.The delegation which has been tasked with lobbying is reportedly led by Bulawayo businessman and educationist, Mr Clemence Kunzekweguta and has already requested a meeting with the Apostolic Nunciature of Zimbabwe, who is the Papal representative in the country, Archbishop Marek Zalewski.Kunzekweguta confirmed the move but did not divulge much information saying it would be premature to comment on the matter as they were yet to meet with the Apostolic Nunciature."As you might not know this is a very sensitive matter, besides we don't want to rush matters, as they say in SiNdebele; inhlwa ungayibamba ngekhanda ayisabambeki, iyabuyela emlindini (issues if rushed one ends up losing control)."What is happening right now is that we want to go to Harare first then we can have a possible way forward because right now if we rush matters the Archbishop or even Rome might not take it in the right spirit."We want to heal families. This year, the Catholic Church chose it to be a year to forgive each other as a family and a nation therefore we felt that this will be a perfect opportunity for us as a church to emulate this and prove to the world out there that we live what we preach," he said.
Opinion / Blogs

QN.



COMMENT

ANSWER



ZIMBABWEAN CONTEXT

Contacts

Relate how Amos condemnations apply in the society of Zimbabwe? (25)The above question requires one to have deep knowledge about the book of Amos specifically what he condemned in Israel.In other words the sins of the Israelites.Amos prophesied in the Northern Region "ISRAEL" in the days of the king Jeroboam (Amos 1:1 and Amos 7 : 10).Amos prophesied when Israel was strong economically, this,is the reason why scholars like Professor Roy suggest that Amos prophesied during the prosperous days of Israel.- During the prosperous days of Israel ,injustices was prevailing among the Israelites, Amos as a prophet fought for social justice and condemning the sins of the Israelites.- Amos in chapter 2 v 6 uses an oracle to deliver the message of doom to the Israelites because of their many sins "for three transgressions and for four".Amos condemned Israelites for selling the righteous for silver,the son and father sharing same wife, to mention but few only.- In Amos 4 v 1 ,Amos condemns the Samarian women for oppressing the poor.- In Amos 5 v 25,Amos condemn the Israelites for not offering the sacrifices in an expected way.- In Amos 6 v 1-14,Amos condemns the Israelites "the rich" for oppressing the poor,(read the above reference).- Amos condemned the Israelites for silencing the prophets ,this supported by Amos 2 v 12.Does Amos condemnations apply in Zimbabwean context, in other words what Amos condemned is it happening in Zimbabwe or it happened ,allow me to use Vernacular language for emphasis reasons (zvinoitika here Ku Zimbabwe, kuyenzakala yini eZimbabwe).- If yes ,prove it- If know ,Why?You will realize that Amos condemnations apply in Zimbabwe to a greater extent .The media will guide us in order to write valid information.Byo24.com has recorded so many people who lost their farmlands between the time of colonisation up to date .Losing the farmlands for so many reasons one of them being the status of an individual.- The point is that the poor are being oppressed by the rich,this is the same thing which Amos condemned.During the Smith Regime, the Zimbabweans were being oppressed ,this is the reason why they revolted ,thus, evidenced by 1st Chimurenga and 2rd Chimurenga .This is the reason why prophets like Samuel Mutendi and Ezekeil Guti criticised the oppression of the blacks by the whites- The point is oppression, thus ,what Amos condemned as well.The media has went on to record the prostitution which was prevailing in Victoria Falls in the year of 2003-2009.In other words this means that men were sharing the same maiden .In other words this means that there are high chances that the son and father ended up sharing the same maiden indirect .And this is what Amos exactly condemned. Therefore, one will be awarded to a certain degree for proving that Amos condemnations apply in Zimbabwean society.Earlier the writer highlighted that Amos condemned Israelites who silenced the prophets. In Zimbabwe silencing prophets was common during the liberation struggle were it is said that the Smith Regime silenced the likes of Ezekiel Guti and Samuel Mutendi for their messages which was anti-colonial ,leading them to be imprisoned. This means that Amos condemnation apply or once applied in Zimbabwean Society.It is not documented that Zimbabweans offer sacrifices ,hence, the reason is unknown but one will suggest that time frame contributes and the church in nowadays believe that offering sacrifices its no longer effective as they speak or communicate with God on daily basis. In other words this means that Amos condemnation in this case doesn't apply in the society of Zimbabwe.There are so many examples you can use ,some of Amos condemnations happens around you on daily basis- Media has helped us to a certain degree- Watch the national TV "Zbc " ,so many cases are being broadcasted on daily basis.In other words this means that there is no excuse for failing to execute the above question.You have been taught how to conclude ,I won't waste much time repeating the same thing ,even though it has been said that one understands better when different voice repeat the same thing.+263777896159 (Whatsapp)Witness Dingani (Facebook)
Opinion / Columnist

Tanaka Karanda a confessed technophile writes in his capacity as a concerned Zimbabwean who loves of all things on Economics/technology.

"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest" Maya Angelou. The resonance of wise words by Maya Angelou allow for application for the situation that is and will continue to visit upon Nation of Zimbabwe until the full potential is realised.The world has changed dramatically over the last 3 years. However it seems that the motherland is still haunted by issues from the past. The question often asked is why we continue to let the status quo remain. Surely our people deserve a whole lot more. The future needs to be uncoupled from our distant past and our dogmatist approach to government. What was desired and imagined by our forefathers and those who died in the liberation of our country and what is prevailing are ghastly to contemplate. Surely the tears and the pain being endured by all deserve some relief.The country has fallen from the grace and pedestal as the emblem of great African countries to an archetype tin pot nation showing what not to do. Having analysed the words of the current Indigenisation Minister, one Patrick Zhuwao (a nephew and acolyte of the President), and the government's rhetoric and plans for the country to prosper through indigenisation of the nation's resources and businesses. I find that the policy is one of the most ludicrous policy ever thought of as it is arbitrary, selective and harebrained.For a country that touts its self to be one of leading academics and intellectuals this policy shows the depth and calibre of the drafters to be nothing short of criminal. There are many within the government who fail to realise the world does not revolve around the country, the world is a global marketplace. Any attempt to usher an arbitrary transfer of business shares to a partner who may or may not have any know how is called theft. Zimbabwe is trying to achieve some objective of being a big player in the world minerals market or tobacco market and then at the same time signal to potential investors that at some point expect to surrender a percentage of your company to unnamed partners.This incoherent and vindictive policy will not work as it is. To expect any serious investors to come and create jobs in such an environment is to live in a parallel delusional world that has no part in this tech driven world. The Indigenisation policy is a "Ponzi" Scheme. By nature such schemes benefit the original scheme members. Notice the proponents of the policy are all failed business people, the erstwhile Minister Kasukuwere and current Patrick Zhuwao are failed business people and this grand ponzi scheme they want to foist on the nation will fail. Any right thinking business person who invest in such an environment is either a conman like those who skimmed our diamonds or just fronts for the ruling elite.The current policies have led to continuing and deepening suffering of the nation characterised by high levels of poverty, untold deprivation and downright impoverishment. The collapse and crash of our national economy borne out by massive de-industrialisation, record unemployment can all be blamed on unplanned policies. There is no national savings to talk about, capital; foreign direct investment is nonexistent. The economic malaise will not be solved by countless trips to foreign lands or tinkering with an indigenisation policy.deprivation, denial and exclusion.b. The failure and collapse of our national economy borne out by extensive de-industrialisation, massive unemployment, general hunger and impoverishment.c. The absence of national savings, capital, foreign direct investment and liquidity all of which underpin the national economic malaise.There needs to be an acceptance that Zimbabwe is no longer a significant player in the world, if at all it as ever. It only features in world newspapers w hen something bad has happened or in the case of Cecil the lion. The whole world is facing declining investment climate and seasoned investors will only put their money where there is stability, coherent policies and political direction. Our glory and esteem is now only held in high regard (debatable) by the Chinese and the appeasers of our president. Breaking from the west poses risks and our development and makes no economic sense when we use their currencies as national tender. We distaste the west yet we are fixated with their music, culture, and dress; Mr Mugabe certainly dresses and behaves like some old English lord of the manor straight out of Downton Abbey. We drive German cars, love UK Rolls Royce's and chaff Dom Perignon in fact everything from the west, yet we sell our family silverware and souls to the Chinese. We blame our woes on the west; yet forget that there is the matter of US$10 billion we have not paid back.We need a lot of self introspection as a look at our crumbling infrastructure, decaying towns, unkempt streets, and pot-holed crater like roads and deteriorating standards. Yet we blame the West, sanctions, real and imagined enemies of the struggle for the general malaise and downturn. In a few weeks time it will be 36 years since Zimbabwe got its independence and this would be a great time to take stock of our lot. I think we need as a first step to acknowledge some truths about ourselves.We have rundown our economyWe have destroyed our educationWe have decimated our agricultureWe have failed to maintain even our roads, buildings and infrastructure.We have failed to run our Airline, Railways and public transport.Granted some needed a lot of foreign currency input, but many above just needed home-grown solutions. I have come across Zimbabweans in all parts of the globe, bankers on Wall Street, engineers with Canada's water companies, aeronautical engineers with Boeing, Airbus and doctors in London's top hospitals. What all these have in common is that they their skills and expertise is valued and not subject to policy made on the hoof and at public rallies. All were educated at in Zimbabwe and followed a western style education. Expecting them to follow an alien "juche" (political ideology of North Korea) style of thinking and working will never work. The devil you know is better, as the old adage says, and a common line when one is reflecting on decisions made, maybe the time is nigh to re-establish those links with the west.Please do not misunderstand me, looking east is not always the worst decision; as we have seen Japanese & Chinese influence on the African continent making positive contributions. It's just that Zimbabwe seems to be getting a raw deal on all fronts. Take the last three trips to the Far East the President met both the Chinese and Japanese leaders. From the latter he only got back $5million in grants, just chump change and even the cost of his entourage of 80 staffers with no finance and industry ministers gobbled nearly all the grant money. One can make judgements on the success of the numerous trips. We could use our new affinity to the east and look at how China has launched itself into a major significant nation. We can also learn from three eastern countries which had a similar GDP and level of development as ours  Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea. All these countries do much business with the west and still keep their ethical values. We could learn a lot from them.Previously in 2014 I wrote an piece titled "Zimbabwe - An enemy within" and therein I alluded to the fact that "We need to join the information revolution that is going on all over the world. Technology is the new frontier that needs to be conquered and harnessed, and is the foremost driver of growth the world over and yet we as a nation cannot and will not embrace it". I am back with that theme 2 years on to encourage those in charge to try and embrace technology again. Let us forget those delusional thoughts to think we will bring industrial growth to Zimbabwe with factories and manufacturing from the current dilapidated, decaying infrastructure that we have failed to maintain and expect to make another $15BN for the government to mismanage.We must once again try and invest in new methods of banking and bringing tech to the masses in the services we offer to the nation from paying fines electronically to having an accountable digital currency/blockchain system so we can account for all finances, where it's going and where is it coming from and we can have trust in what is being done in the country by those in charge. If we had an electronic system form of paying ZRP fines, road taxes, customs duties and reducing them significantly there would be no reason for police/government departments to get bribes as all the fines are all processed digitally and money goes to the state.The decision makers should be held accountable through transparent information and tangible documents in the public domain. With blockchain technology all transactions are transparent and are there to see via mobile or pc anywhere in the world. Blockchain technology could bring in massive benefits for the economy and bring Zimbabweans into the world markets and also allow Zimbabwe to benefit from the world economy through smart contracts, autonomous and cryptographic transactions.The analogue paper work, with its inherent drawbacks of information being lost era is disappearing in the world why are we still stuck in this era. Everything is going digital and at a fraction of the cost of analogue paper, storage costs and loss of evidence that go with it. A digital world is the new world, we must be able to ensure those in all the corners of Zimbabwe can have all access and the modern benefits and not just Whatsapp.Recently the reserve bank has confirmed it wishes to move to the cashless economy which makes sense as currently they are unable to replenish the ATMs with US dollars plus an added advantage of being able to tax those transactions and payments throughout the cashless system. If all is properly managed it could revolutionaries and modernise banking system for the masses and will bring banking and other services to the remote areas in Zimbabwe. The digital world is the next frontier and if we encourage our people to embrace it then we can expect innovation and real indigenization of the country through our own initiatives not resource grabbing. Empowerment of the people will need to come from providing real opportunities through re-educating the masses and giving them hope through simple effective and accountable governance.Digital banking and blockchain technology allows for smart contracts including voting systems which give results within 5 minutes of poll closing, registering of deeds, share transfers, birth and death registration and in act all aspects of e-government can be transferred to the digital protocol. Recent innovative developments can also been used in the land registry. This initiative aims to record land title incorporating GPS marking of land complete with pictures and marking and document these on the block chain. Titled land can be used as bankable asset to borrow against. While the nay sayers may complain about safety and hacking, even paper documents are subject to forgery.But all must not lose hope as again Maya leaves words for reflection and ends the overture by saying "We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty". As a nation we need to fly away and soar BUT before we do so we have to morph through the ugly changes of a worm in the dry hard ground before emerging as a butterfly or Zimbabwe.
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Free WiFi will be available on all city buses and tour buses in Lhasa, capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, this year, a local operator said.

The service will be provided after a new traffic command center is put into use, Cao Zhiming, chairman of the city's public transport company, told Xinhua.

Passengers can also use a mobile app to check nearby bus stations and the arrival time of buses.

Lhasa authorities have pledged to spend 100 billion yuan (15.5 billion U.S. dollars) improving infrastructure, including roads, the airport and tourist destinations, in an attempt to double tourism revenue by 2020.

Tourism revenue in Lhasa has more than tripled in the past five years to an estimated 15.5 billion yuan last year, with tourist numbers rising an average of 23.3 percent each year.
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The upcoming meeting of Group of Seven (G7) foreign ministers should not play up the South China Sea issue, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday. The G7 foreign ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States is scheduled to convene on Sunday in Hiroshima, Japan.

Wang told visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond that China hopes Britain will adopt an objective and fair stand in the issue, and not take sides.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (R) meets with visiting British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond in Beijing on April 9, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wang also reiterated China's stance on Hong Kong. The Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs, he stressed, noting the Chinese central government will adhere to the principles of "one country, two systems" and "Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong" with a high degree of autonomy.

China appreciates the British side's remarks of dismissing calls for "Hong Kong independence," said Wang.

On China-UK relations, the minister called on the two sides to continue close high-level exchanges and enhance mutual understanding and trust so as to ensure a good beginning of the "golden era" of bilateral ties.

Chinese President Xi Jinping made a state visit to Britain in October. The two countries are implementing the results of the visit and expanding cooperation in various fields, according to Wang.

Wang and Hammond also exchanged views on the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue and the political settlement process in Syria.
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Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe concluded his four-day official visit to China on April 9. He shared the achievements of the visit and answered questions from Chinese and foreign journalists at a Beijing press conference on the last day of the trip.

Photo taken on April 9 shows Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at a press conference held in Beijing. [Photo by Yang Jia/China.org.cn]

This is Wickremesinghe's seventh visit to China and first one since taking office in August last year.

"Sri Lanka and China often communicate on counter-piracy work, and China keeps a military presence in the India Ocean to help combat piracy," he said.

Colombo Port City Project resumes

The Sri Lanka government announced in March it will resume work on the Colombo Port City Project. The project was launched in September 2014, with an investment of $14 billion from China. It was suspended in September 2015 by Sri Lanka's new government after concerns about some aspects of the project.

"Sri Lanka has never canceled the Colombo Port City Project. The suspension was just reevaluation work to foreign projects by the new government," Wickremesinghe said. The Port City Project shares a common mission with China's "One Belt and One Road" initiative, he said, and stressed that Sri Lanka's plan for economic development highlights the Port City Project.

Wickremesinghe hopes to promote cooperation with Chinese companies in other major projects as well.

"Sri Lanka and China share similarities in the way of thinking in various fields such as economic restructuring. We are ready to seek more economic cooperation with China," he said.
YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty ImagesThis year, Matchbox Twenty marks the 20th anniversary of their debut album Yourself Or Someone Like You. Unfortunately, their guitarist won't be around to celebrate the milestone.

Over the weekend. Guitarist Kyle Cook wrote on Instagram that he's leaving the group, but the band itself will remain together. Cook said the reasons were due to "deterioration of communication, disagreements on when, where and how we tour and a general break down of democracy within the group."

He added, "I wish the best to Rob [Thomas], Paul [Doucette] and Brian [Yale] in their future endeavors and will always be thankful for the time we had together making music. I learned a tremendous amount from the guys and I know the albums will live on in the hearts of many, including my own." He'll continue as a member of the band Rivers and Rust, he noted, as well as as a songwriter, producer and guitarist.

Rob, Paul and Brian were in the Orlando, Florida band Tabitha's Secret before they recruited Kyle and another member, Adam Gaynor, and got a record contract as Matchbox Twenty.

n a lengthy Facebook post, Rob Thomas addressed Kyle's departure by writing of his bandmates, "It seems too much to ask of any one of them to not follow the path that makes them the happiest even if it doesnt fit with where others may want them to go."

He added, "For the past 20 years, the members of Matchbox Twenty have taken the opportunity every time the stars align to make some great music. We were and I believe continue to be the best pop/rock band in the world. Kyle is literally one of the greatest guitar players in popular music. Period. He is an amazing songwriter, singer, father and person. I want nothing but great things for him and his life and if he can better find that outside of the structure of this band then thats what we all want him to do."

Rob continued, "The specific future of Matchbox is on hold. And yes, its due to me still being out and promoting my solo album. Ive put so much hard work into it (even through some very difficult personal times) and I have to see it through. Please know that in my mind our playing together is delayed not canceled. Paul, [Brian] and I are forever members of Matchbox. And so is Kyle whether he is playing with us or not."

Copyright  2016, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
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Paris attacks suspect Mohamed Abrini who was arrested Friday in Brussels has confessed to investigators that he is "the man in the hat" caught in the Brussels airport security cameras on March 22, Belgian federal prosecutor said Saturday.

Passengers walk to receive security check at Zaventem International Airport in Brussels, Belgium, April 3, 2016. [File Photo / Xinhua]

"He was confronted with the results of various expert assessments and admitted his presence," said the federal prosecutor in a statement. "The person told investigators that he had thrown his jacket in a trash can and then sold his hat."

Abrini was placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders, the federal prosecutor said.

Abrini, wanted for suspected involvement in the November terrorist attacks in Paris, was arrested Friday along with five others in Brussels, by Belgian police.

Among the arrested is Osama Krayem, who as Brussels bombings probe has revealed is the second man who was present during the Maelbeek Metro Station attack.

Krayem was also present in the City 2 shop center of Brussels when buying bags that were used in the attacks, reported the Belgian broadcaster RTBF.

He was also placed under arrest and charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders.

Another two suspects, Herve B. M. and Bilal E. M., were charged with participation in a terrorist group and terrorist murders complicity.

Two more people, who were arrested along with Abrini were released after thorough hearing.
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The U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Saturday issued a security warning to its citizens in Turkey, saying that there are threats to tourist sites in Istanbul and Antalya.

A suspicious bag is found at a tram station in Istanbul's Taksim Square, Turkey, on April 9, 2016. The U.S. Embassy in Ankara on Saturday issued a security warning to its citizens in Turkey, saying that there are threats to tourist sites in Istanbul and Antalya. [Photo / Xinhua]

The U.S. mission in Turkey would like to inform citizens that there are credible threats to tourist areas, in particular to public squares and docks in Istanbul and Antalya, the embassy said on its website.

It urged the citizens to be extremely cautious if they are in the vicinity of such areas and to monitor local media.

The embassy had issued a security warning to its citizens days before a bombing attack struck the Turkish capital city of Ankara in March.

Turkey's cultural capital Istanbul will host the 13th summit of Organization of Islamic Cooperation this month.

The 2016 Horticultural Expo will be held in touristic capital Antalya from April 23 to October 30.

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South Koreans who love watching old or new Chinese films regularly no longer have to find them in regular theaters as the Dongyang Arts Center has been opened to the public Friday. The theater will be featuring oil and new Chinese films daily and can seat up to 220 people. The hall has three screening rooms, with one used as a multipurpose cultural performance hall. It is still under negotiations if they will add an additional 162-seater viewing room.

The opening ceremony was attended by officials from both the Jongno Ward Office and the Chinese Cultural Center, both running the Chinese-films only theaters in Seoul's main theater and the one in Daehangno. For the theater's first screening, they showed 'Red Sorghum' which won Zhang Yimou the Golden Bear at the 1988 Berlin Film Festival and 'Meet Miss Anxiety' done by South Korean director Kwak Jae-yong. The screening was free of charge for all.

In the next coming days, the theater will release two films per month and screening will be free for weekdays and Mondays when the theater is closed for visitors. If viewers wish to watch new movies like 'Mermaid' or 'Monster Hunt', the tickets will range around 5,000 to 6,000 won per movie.

The organizers of the theater hopes that it would help Koreans understand Chinese culture and give them ways on watching these movies. Officials also hope that this would help Koreans quench their thirst for these films.

Aside from screening Chinese movies and translated Chinese films, the theater would also be open for lectures, events and cultural performances showing Chinese culture.
For China, Yang Lan became its

Many know Yang Lan as one of the most popular Chinese journalists and media entrepreneur, hailing her as "the Oprah of China" and she was listed in the 100 World's Most Powerful Women.

Yang Lan is very popular in China as she assisted in the founding of one of the country's largest private media outfits in the country. She also supports the creation of programming that would bolster the support on introducing Chinese culture and cultural exchanges in the country. Yang Lan: One-on-One is currently one of China's longest-running talk shows.

She also has a very huge online following with 50 million people following her accounts. Internet, she says, gives Chinese users a necessary voice that they can use to reach out on issues such as environmental protection, women's rights and public policy.

Yang Lan has also been assigned as one of the country's cross-cultural ambassadors, helping in the Beijing bid for the 2008 Olympic games. When she became the UNICEF's Ambassador, she worked on opening more opportunities for liberal arts education especially for children.
MADISON  Wisconsins right-to-work law, championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker as he was mounting his run for president, was struck down Friday as violating the state constitution.

Attorney General Brad Schimel, also a Republican, promised to appeal the decision and said he was confident it would not stand, noting that no similar law has been struck down in any other state. Schimel has not decided whether to seek an immediate suspension of the ruling while the appeal is pending, spokesman Johnny Koremenos said.

We are confident Wisconsins freedom-to-work law is constitutional and will ultimately be upheld, Walker wrote on Twitter.

Three unions filed the lawsuit last year shortly after Walker signed the bill into law. Right-to-work laws prohibit businesses and unions from reaching agreements that require all workers, not just union members, to pay union dues. Twenty-five other states have such laws.

The unions argued that Wisconsins law was an unconstitutional seizure of union property since unions now must extend benefits to workers who dont pay dues. Dane County Circuit Judge William Foust agreed.

He said the law amounts to the government taking union funds without compensation since under the law unions must represent people who dont pay dues. That presents an existential threat to unions, Foust wrote.

While (union) losses today could be characterized by some as minor, they are not isolated and the impact of (the law) over time is threatening to the unions very economic viability, he wrote.

Foust noted that no other state court had struck down a right-to-work law on those grounds, but said he wasnt obligated to follow other states.

Republicans who backed the law dismissed the ruling, saying it will be reversed.

Once again, a liberal Dane County judge is trying to legislate from the bench, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, said in a statement. No one should be forced to join a union or pay union dues as a condition of employment.

The laws Democratic supporters hailed the decision as a victory for the middle class and working families.

The extreme right-wing Republican agenda has been incredibly harmful to working people and businesses in Wisconsin, said Democratic Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca.

Three unions  Machinists Local Lodge 1061 in Milwaukee, the Wisconsin AFL-CIO chapter and United Steelworkers District 2 in Menasha  brought the lawsuit. Erin Mediros, an attorney representing all three unions, didnt immediately respond to a voicemail Friday.

Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, said the ruling was a needed check on Scott Walkers attacks on working families.

Right to work has always been unjust, now its proven unconstitutional, he said.

Supporters of right-to-work laws say they give workers the freedom to choose whether to join a union. Opponents say the laws weaken unions by depriving them of the dues from workers who choose not to pay them, resulting in lower wages and fewer employee rights. They also say the Republican-backed law is intended to undermine unions political power because unions tend to vote Democrat.

In 2014 the Indiana Supreme Court rejected two nearly identical challenges to that states right-to-work law. Those lawsuits alleged that the law unconstitutionally required unions to provide services to nonunion workers without compensation.

The Wisconsin attorney general argued the law doesnt take anything from the unions since it technically doesnt remove any money currently in their accounts.

Walker launched his run for president just months after signing the law, and frequently mentioned it while campaigning. Months after taking office in 2011, Walker also signed a law that effectively ended collective bargaining for public sector workers.